This star is coming apart and only God Almighty can put it back together again, and bring new life to its former star essence. This Hubble sighting of Menzel 3 also known as the ant nebula, reminds me of a double-barreled shotgun with both barrels going off at the same time. and also suggests the two hemispheres of the brain, where the stresses of this life seemingly pull us apart. The boxed insert speaks about an unseen companion star that maintains or influences the symmetry of the outflow from the dying star.

Be Not Deceived: God has not Changed.

A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. ^{James 1 verse 8.}
 

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts He any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.   Then when lust hath conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death. ^{(James 1 verse 13 thru 15.)}

You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.  Do you think that the scripture says in vain: The spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy? But He gives more grace. Wherefore He says, God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble.  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded.  Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.  ^{(James 4 verse 4 thru 5.)} 

The spoken and written Word of God, is declared to be sharper than a double edged sword, cutting right to the heart of where we live. ^{(See Hebrews 4 verse 12.)}  For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing  even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.  We also witness this declared power and authority of the Word of God, as it is recorded in the Song of Moses: "See now that I, even I AM He, and there is no god with Me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand.  For I lift up My hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. If I whet (sharpen) My glittering sword and My hand takes hold on judgment, then I will render vengeance to My enemies, and I will reward them that hate Me.^{" (Deuteronomy 32 verse 39 thru 40.)} If the Truth is speaking through the prophet, then I'm sure that you would agree that the spiritual power of the inspired written Word of God, is not to be trifled with, but the Word is to be handled in a balanced accord with the leading of the Spirit of God.  If we are left with our own cloudy deceptive minds, then we can each interpret written scripture to be what we want it to say for our own opinionated purpose, rather than to have scripture say what we need to hear in the depths of our heart. It is good to be comforted, and to be reassured of God's Love, and His salvation in Jesus Christ.  But it is also good to be disquieted in our beings, when the Sword of the Spirit cuts sharply into our mental turf, and exposes our own tightly held possessions, with their judgmental opinions of the Word, ourselves, and the world about us.  It is good to lay hold on the promises of God, to settle ourselves in times of testing.  But it is also good to be humbled, when we hear God's rebuke and correction to our soul, when we have mistakenly gone a rye from the foundational ROCK of the Spirit of the Word of God.  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.  Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.

Man does not make doctrine for the Eternal God of creation, nor can the corrupted flesh of mankind justify themselves with their ignorant or false interpretation of His Eternal Word.  It is Holy God Who first created Adam to be in His image and the likeness of His Spirit, and not we who have created God in accordance with our ignorance of the holy.  All the corrupt little gods of humanity, are not in a position to hold the Creator God accountable to our own faulty judgments, and attempt to override His Word of correction, without recompense.

In all spiritual matters, the purchased Church is not a voting democracy, where the majority, within an individual Christian sect, makes rules, adjusting for society's pressures, and humanity's biased understanding of correctness, thereby undermining the Spirit's call to holiness unto God.  For, those who live according to the sinful nature, have their minds set on what that nature desires; [Corrupted flesh calls to corrupted flesh, and corrupted flesh answers the call] but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature, cannot please God.  ^{(Romans 8 verse 5 thru 8, NIV.)} And what is sin, and why is the mind of flesh, hostile to God?  Sin is the antithesis to Perfect Love, and Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty is that Perfect Love, whereas the autonomous mind of man is corrupt within its self, and that mind will not be in submission to God and His perfect Will.

With our prejudicial blinders removed, we should see that the Ecclesia of God, are saved into a Theocracy, where the Almighty rules with the Spirit of His WORD that holds all things together in this universe.  The Almighty is the supreme Sovereign, clothed in eternal holiness, Whose judgment is founded on His unsearchable understanding and wisdom, but even His righteous judgment is tempered with His gracious mercy, and a heart to save those who are lost in their way of sin and death.   God's Holy Spirit seeks to reveal to the captive, God's way of Salvation through the Perfect Sacrificial Love of His Son, Christ Jesus.  God offers His Gift of Amnesty in Christ Jesus, to anyone who will receive His gift, and then follow after Christ, in Love's pathway of righteousness.  For the Love/Agapao of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead: And that He died for all, that they, which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again. ^{(2nd Corinthians 5 verse 14 thru 15.)}

It is God's message of sacrificial love through His Holy Spirit, Who enables us to understand from the new heart, and to live the new life which seeks to follow God's Doctrine and WORD of Truth in Christ Jesus.  From the beginning of Man/Adam's fall from God's Grace, until now, man's malignant tendency has been to interpret God's Word on one's own biased opinion, of what he thinks God meant in His Word, or to develop a dogma based on selective scriptures.  Theologians and academic scholars have read the Torah, the prophets and Gospel scriptures for centuries, and still have divisive opinions, which they seemingly, can never intellectually settle among themselves.  Perhaps, many of them, even with the brightness of their minds were never completely settled in their hearts, where scripture is spiritually designed to minister.  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.  And so, Wisdom calls for our needful attention to the writer in the Book of Wisdom, for he writes.  Love righteousness, you that be judges of the earth: think of the Lord with a good heart, and in simplicity of heart seek Him. For He will be found of them that tempt Him not; and shows Himself unto such as do not distrust Him. For froward thoughts separate from God: And His power, when it is tried, reproves the unwise. For into a malicious soul, Wisdom shall not enter nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin. For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and remove from thoughts that are without understanding, and will not abide when unrighteousness comes in. For Wisdom is a loving Spirit; and will not acquit a blasphemer of his words: for God is witness of his reins, and a true beholder of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue. ^{(See Book of Wisdom 1 verse 1 thru 8.)} The mind or the spirit of the man, needs to understand from the very heart and soul of his being, that God the Father's doctrine, is in both the Torah and the Gospel, and was predicated on two decisive Commandments to Love/Agape; for He declares through Moses and echoes His Word through His Word Jesus Christ:

Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is One Lord:

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength:  And these words which I command thee shall be in thy heart.  This is the first commandment. ^{(See Deuteronomy 6 verse 3 thru 7.)} And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. ^{(See Deuteronomy 10 verse 18 thru 19.)
(See Mark 12 verse 30 thru 31.)}

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
^{(See Matthew 22 verse 36 thru 40.)}

But, how do you love/agape that, which you do not know?  Or, how do you love this God, Who commands perfect obedience, putting Him above all things that are personal to you?  Then again, how do you love mankind with the same devotion you have for yourself?  How will you know the Truth, except that a preacher preaches the Holy Righteousness of the Almighty God the Creator of the universe, Who in His Perfect Love gave His only begotten Son, to be sacrificed for the sin of the world?  So then, that which is impossible for the unrighteous person, who is accustomed to serving themselves, even unto death, is made possible through faith in the God of the living, Who Alone provides the only remedy for the insurrection of self serving sin that brings forth death and separation from God. The promises of God, in the Torah, the prophets and the Gospels, are all conditioned upon the transgressors' changed thoughts, which brings them to repentance from their waywardness, and then answering God's call to return to Him with all their hearts and mind.  When speaking about faith, Paul uses the Torah when he writes: But what says it? ^{(referring to the Scriptures in Deuteronomy 30, and more specifically Deuteronomy 30 verse 14.)} The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: That is the word of faith, which we preach:  That if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, having believed in thy heart that God has raised Him from the dead,  then thou shall be saved. ^{(Romans 10 verse 6 thru 10.)} 

God's Word of restoration faith, begins when God's Spirit starts the stirring of thoughts, within the heart of a person to come to the Lord in humble repentance.  The message of faith was originally preached to Abram/Abraham, and he believed God, and God justified Abraham in his faith in God's Promise of Salvation.  Now through Abraham's Hebraic genetic seed of the first Man/Adam, would come God's Word of Salvation Promise made in the Garden, that the seed of Woman/Ishshah would conquer the evil one, and save man from their sin and death.  Circumcision was the sign of God's Covenant with Abraham, so that the seed of Abraham would pass through the loins of the circumcised males, within the generational family of Abraham.  Moses gave God's Covenant of Law's to the Israelites, to protect them from themselves and their self corrupting sin, thereby isolating them from the surrounding nations, who were corrupted within their bodies, and were enslaved to their master of sin and death. 

In the course of time, Israel forgot that they had entered into a covenant relationship with God, to bring forth God's Covenant seed of redemption for the world, so that the Covenant Seed of Woman/Ishshah, would be continued from the seed of Abraham.  But unfortunately, self serving man, began to interpret the Torah, to be a means of justifying oneself before God Almighty, and that their presumed justification, was predicated on one's interpreted performance, prescribed by the Torah.  Confusion yet reigns, because the subtle prince of confusion, yet remains in this world.

Elijah destroys the prophets of Baal, but runs in fear for his life, when Jezebel threatens him with the same destruction.  Then when God searches out the mind set of Elijah's heart, Elijah said to his Lord God a second time: I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken Thy Covenant, thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.  But God said to Elijah: Yet, I have left for Me, seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him. ^{(See 1st Kings 19 verse 9 thru 19.)} In God's preservation of the seven thousand Israelites, God would bring forth His Holy One of Salvation, through the seed of Woman that was perpetuated in faithful Abraham's genetic seed.  Now with Abraham's faith in God's Word, the Almighty God would fulfill His Promised Word He originally gave in the Garden.  And so the Seed of Faith, was born in Bethlehem to a virgin woman of the faith of Abraham, and God called His Incarnate Son Immanuel, that is God is with us.

But, now that the Christ of God has come through the Hebrew seed of Abraham, Paul preaches God's Word of Faith, under a new and better Covenant, predicated upon God the Father's Love and sure mercies He gave with the sacrifice of His obedient Son, Jesus Christ.  God justifies the believer through their living the faith of His Word, and that WORD in the very beginning, is His Son by Whom He created the universe.  In the finality, the only thing that really pleases God is a Godly faith, which brings repentance in the mind of a sinner, and then a complete relational return of the repentant heart towards God the Father.  From the beginning, the righteousness of faith has always been predicated upon a heart, like onto Jesus the Son that Perfectly Loves His Father God, first over all things, and then that person of Living Faith seeks to hear the voice of God and to move in God's good will.  ^{(Listen with the heart to Psalm 40 verse 6 thru 10.)}  Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; Mine ears hast Thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: In the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God: Yes, thy law is within My heart. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: Lo, I have not refrained My lips. O LORD, You know, that I have not hid Thy righteousness within My heart; I have declared Thy faithfulness and Thy Salvation: I have not concealed Thy loving-kindness and Thy Truth from the great congregation. ^{(See also Hebrews 10 verse 5 thru 10.)} This is a perfection of Love that is impossible for humanity's selfish flesh to achieve, but this special kind of Love is a Gift of God from His Spirit, Who is the enabler of contrite souls.

Because of God's Love and mercy to mankind, Jesus Christ, the Word of God was conceived in the seed of Woman, as the perfect Son of Man, to be made a  sacrificial surrogate offering, for all of sinful mankind.  Jesus' offering of Himself satisfied the justice of God and His accusing Law against man's self idolatrous sin.  Jesus Christ is the perfect Gift of sacrificial Love, which when one receives, passes all of human understanding, and renews a person in the Love of God.  But how can it be, that the Eternal God of creation, would freely offer His only begotten Son, to be nailed on the cross as the Son of Man, with His Life Blood being completely poured out upon the earth? 

It is because Holy Lord God Almighty is the God of the living, and not the god of the dead.  Within God's Spirit is the Person of Perfect Love (in Greek Agapao), and in His mercy, God is not willing that anyone should perish into utter darkness, as a result of sin, but God sent His Perfect Word, and  beloved Son into the World as the Son of Man, and, as a Man, Jesus Christ would do battle with the evil root of the author of sin, and overcome sin and death, with the Perfection of His Eternal Love for His Father.  They that would enter into Holy God's Eternal Presence, must enter in through the Eternal Life that is within His Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.  For the Scripture says, whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed. ^{(See Isaiah 28 verse 16.)} For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him;  for whoever will call on the Name of the Lord will be saved.' ^{(Romans 10 verse 8 thru 13.)} From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

The possibility of this New Covenant rebirth, or new beginnings, for the children of Adam, is through God's gracious call to His gift of Salvation that is centered on two conditions. First a person must turn back toward God, repenting from the works of sin, which separates us from Holy God and condemns us to death: For the Lord of creation commands us: Repent all of you, and believe the gospel. ^{(Mark 1 verse 15.)} Return unto Me and I will return unto you, says the Lord of Host.  So then, we see repentance is primary to the second condition, which is then to believe the gospel. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked. ^{(See Deuteronomy 10 verse 12 thru 16.)}  If we hear the Truth of the promise of God, then we must accept in the heart of our minds, the offering Gift of God that brings to us, a new Life within His Son, Jesus Christ.  Faith and Repentance go hand in hand.  They are inseparable, for if one has repentance and not faith, then without the sovereign grace of God that one will remain in their sin and will perish.  If one has faith but has no repentance, then that faith is dead, and without the sovereign grace of God that one will also perish.   But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. ^{(Romans 2:29.)}

Quoting Charles Spurgeon: "I say that such who think sin a trifle, and have never sorrowed on account of it, may know that their faith is not genuine. Such men as have a faith, which allows them to live carelessly in the present, who say, "Well, I am saved by a simple faith"; and then sit on the ale bench with the drunkard, or stand at the bar with the spirit drinker, or go into worldly company and enjoy the carnal pleasures and the lusts of the flesh, such men are liars; they have not the faith, which will save the soul. They have a deceitful hypocrisy; they have not the faith which will bring them to heaven."  For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be repented of: But the sorrow of the world works death. ^{(2nd Corinthians 7 verse 8.)}

The conditions for amnesty are published throughout the world, and the complete pardon for the past sins of sinners, is already signed in the Blood of Jesus Christ poured out upon the earth. But again, the pardon must be received through faith, which lives beyond a moment of time, being maintained with a vigil upon our unruly flesh, bringing us always to repentance from its selfish desires and failures.

Ultimately that saving faith in God's sacrifice of His Son, is wrought in deep sorrow towards God, and believes that our sin and death, can not contend with the sacrificial Love and Holiness of Jesus Christ that has overcome this world.  Christ Jesus in the Perfection of His Love, was victorious over mankind's sin and death, and the Spirit of the Living God raised Jesus the Lord our Righteousness, with supreme power in His resurrection, and we in Him.  This new birth, of the soul, is not in just knowing in the grey matter, but it is through God's gift of faith being conceived in the heart, the very core of the spirit of the person, who begins to sanctify their love of God above all things. The God of the living has given to man the open opportunity, to enter into His New Covenant and Will, through the Sacrificial Blood of Jesus Christ, so that, whosoever comes to God through His Covenant WORD, and remains in fellowship with His good Will, would inherit Eternal Life.

Being fully justified, by pure faith in Jesus Christ, the new born person, having willingly entered into the New Blood Covenant through the Lord Jesus, will now begin to see the Father's Word of Salvation, work like a two-edged Sword,  which begins to cut away, little by little the former dictates of the mind of idolatrous self. ^{(See Hebrews 4 verse 12 thru 13.)} For the LORD thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to Love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, that thou may live. ^{(Deuteronomy 30 verse 6.)} God sanctifies the willing hearts of the faithful and thankful believers, who were dead in their sins, to hearts being perfected in the Love of God, and to son-ship in His Kingdom of the living. And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.  If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. ^{(1st John 2 verse 28 thru 29  (NKJV.)} For God has made Jesus to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. ^{(2nd Corinthians 5 verse 20 thru 21.)}   As sons and daughters of God, we are birthed into God's Love through faith, and with the receiving of His flowing Grace, are made in Christ to be victorious over the shackles of sin.   In God's amnesty for past sins, we are now to be responsible and accountable for our present actions.  If the justified, will live by their faith in God's Salvation, then our allegiance to God, through His Holy Spirit, will enable us to turn away from all things that are in opposition to Him, and certainly to all things that are in competition to the heart, of His saving good will.  Nevertheless I tell you the truth:  It is expedient for you that I go away:  For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you:  But if I depart, then I will send Him unto you.  And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.  ^{(John 16 verse 7 thru 8.)}

So now, with some biblical understanding, melded with enabling faith, we say we are children born of God's Spirit, nevertheless in this present reality, we still walk in earthly vessels, a duality of natures of the old and the new, wrestling with the intense motions or pathemas (in Greek the pathology) of sin that can so easily corrupt us. For, when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. ^{(Romans 7 verse 5.)}  For a certainty, even as the best of  Christians, we all struggle with our own self centered motives of self justification. We all have varying degrees of disorderly reasoning that opposes God, and His desires for us, and without acknowledging our own depravity, we oppose even ourselves. This present day battle, that each of us has warring in the carnal flesh of our minds, can seem overwhelming at times, especially to those who have been held in the roots of strong bondages. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; ^{(1st Peter 2 verse 11.)}

If we are openly honest with ourselves, before God and our brothers and sisters, we will all recognize this wretched schizophrenic nature, which Paul describes as opposing him within his flesh, is also working within ourselves.  ^{(See Romans 7 verse 14 thru 25.)} Even if the soul from a good heart may be redeemed, we still walk in these clay vessels that are susceptible to the virulent nature of willful and latent sin, yet present within our own mortal minds of flesh.  The compelling nature of sin in us and about us, at times causes I-dolatrous flesh to cry out to flesh, "It is I that will be in control, and I will decide what is right or what is wrong".  But, God is not mocked in our clever self-centered deceptions. Do not be deceived and deluded and miss led; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions or by His precepts being set aside.) [He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God.] For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap. For he who sows to his own flesh (lower nature, sensuality) will from the flesh reap decay, and ruin, and destruction, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. ^{(See Galatians 6 verse 7 thru 8 Amplified.)}

But thankfully for us, our God is the God of Covenant, and His Word does not fail Him; and if His Word does not fail Him, neither will His WORD fail those who receive Him in humility.  Our Righteous God has not left us defenseless to the wants of sin in our flesh, but has given to us in Communion, His administering and sanctifying Spirit of Holiness, Who is united in the water of the Word and the Holy Blood of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness and cleansing of repented sins of today.  For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. ^{(Romans 8 verse 15 thru 16 and verse 14.)} So then those who are living the life of the flesh cannot please God. But you are not living the life of the flesh, you are living the Life of the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells within you. But if anyone does not possess the Holy Spirit, he is none of His [he does not belong to Christ]. But if Christ lives in you, your [natural] body is dead by reason of sin and condemnation, but the Spirit is Life  within the core of your being, because of righteousness. ^{(Romans 8 verse 8 thru 10.)} The Righteousness of God, is a supernatural Gift of Love that is in the Blood of Jesus Christ, and God's gift of His Holy Spirit, resides in the redeemed of the earth, because of the Righteousness of the Blood of Christ, for they are One in Holiness within the flowing Water of the Word of God. ^{(See 1st John 5 verse 8.)}

The Righteous Blood of Jesus Christ, was poured out upon the dust of the earth at Calvary, to bring redemption to the man of the earth, freeing them from their sin that consigned them to death.  The Signature of God, the Aleph Tav, the First and the Last, the Alpha and Omega, is seeded within the earth, because the Blood of Jesus Christ, is the Righteous Signature of the Word of God that rest on God's Tabernacle of Love.  The earth is the Lords', and the fullness thereof.  God, now gives to repentant believers, His Holy Spirit of power and life, and dwells with all persons who are born into the New Covenant, through their faith in the righteous sacrificial Blood of Jesus Christ. They are each new members, one of another, born into the One Body of the Lord of Creation, Jesus Christ.  In the strength of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, there is mighty power in His Body of believers, but for the most part is not tapped, because of the fleshly nature of the Church, which is ruled by men and their doctrines, and not by the Holy Spirit of God. 

Although, Paul is speaking initially in his defense from his accusers, the following scripture, is also for the members of the whole Body of Jesus Christ that we might understand the Power of Life that indwells us, through God's Spirit of Creation.  Paul says: Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: Therefore the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity, every thought to the obedience of Christ.  ^{(2nd Corinthians 10 verse 3 thru 5.)}

The Holy Spirit of God does not exalt the dead flesh of man that is corrupted by sin, but exalts the living Christ Jesus to the glory and the power of God.  Nevertheless confusion reigns in Christendom, for the flesh of man negates the Spirit and Power of Holy Communion, through their ignorance of the workings of the Holy Spirit, within the Body of Christ.  See the thoughts within this message, "The Holy Spirit of Truth", that attempts to bring a better comprehension of the Covenant Blood of Jesus Christ, that flows from the Holy Spirit, for the cleansing of the sins of the redeemed in the Body of Jesus Christ. But this Man, after he had offered one (perfect) sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified (or being set apart to God)".  Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that He had said before, This is the Covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put My Laws into their hearts [the two Great Commandments], and in their minds will I write them; [consider the Ten Commandments] ^{(Hebrews 10 verse 12 thru 18.)} If we reason together, it would seem that the two Great Commandments of Love would be seated in the soul and heart of a man, and the Decalogue would reveal the failings of the flesh within the mind of man. ^{(See Romans 7 verse 25.)}

It is absolutely true that the perfect sacrifice of the loving and obedient Son of God and Man is finished, never to be repeated again, for God's Covenant Word, Jesus Christ, is set down in eternal power, at the right hand of His Father, to intercede for His people, and to judge the dead.  For, there are three that bear witness, the Holy Spirit, and the Water and the Blood, and these three are One. ^{(1st John 5 verse 8.)} Dying earthly mankind needed a New Covenant of Life with a Mediator of their own kind, for in His perfection, He would champion their plight with Holy, Holy, Holy God Almighty. There is no one, but Christ Jesus, the Man, as the Word of God, made flesh, and having been born the Son of Man, He gave Himself as a sacrificial offering to God in Perfect Love of God His Father.  The revelation of Truth is revealed that Jesus, as a man, conquered our sin and death with His sinless obedient Life, evidenced when He rose from the grave in the power of the Living God. So then, How much more shall the Blood of Christ, Who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause Christ is the Mediator of the New Testament.  ^{(See Hebrews 9 verse 11 thru 16.)} For, Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; For being found perfect, He became the Author of eternal Salvation unto all them that obey Him: Called of God a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. Of Whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing.  ^{(Hebrews 5 verse 8 thru 11.)} Those that are being sanctified by the Sanctifier, are those who follow the Lord in the obedience of His Spirit, to Love God with their whole strength of being, and to love their fellow man, just as they love and would honor themselves.

And the Sanctifier is the Holy Spirit of God, Who is One with the New Covenant Blood and the Serum Water of the Word of God that flowed from the side and wounds of the Lord's Christ, into the earth quake fissures of Calvary.  Now the Spirit bears witness within our hearts of the Love of God that sanctifies the redeemed members of His Body, through the Blood of our Fellowship.  The Body of the Ecclesia is to be enriched and empowered by the Spirit of the Blood of Jesus Christ, and without that Blood, the church is impotent because of its lack of faith in the provisions of God's Holy Spirit.  The corruption of sin, in the flesh, is in direct opposition through disobedience to the Spirit of Power, and of Love, and of a sound mind. ^{(2nd Timothy 1 verse 6 thru 7.)}

When lifting the 3^rd cup and blessing it with thanks to God, God's WORD Jesus Christ commands the members of His Body, to partake of His Communion Blood in remembrance of God's Covenanting Love for us, saying: Drink you all of it; for this is My Blood of the New Covenant that is shed for many for the remission of sin? Do this in remembrance of Me. ^{(Matthew 26 verse 27 thru 28.)} In God's Covenant WORD through His Holy Spirit, He has provided Life giving provisions, for our confessed failures of our flesh, with the shed Blood of His Son Jesus Christ, and then the washing and renewing of our minds with the Serum Water of the Spirit of the WORD of GOD. 

We may also conclude that the sanctification, of which the writer of Hebrews speaks about, is for the growth of God's Seed, instilled into the pliable hearts and souls of obedient believers, where by the Spirit of the WORD of our Salvation, Jesus Christ, returns the hearts of the wayward children of men, to hearts of Love and faithfulness, now crying, ABBA, FATHER. ^{(See Galatians 4 verse 5 thru 7.)} 

To proceed to the next chapter of the Beginnings of the Mystery of Iniquity alone, please click on  A Litany of Admonishments to the Soul.

Having gained an understanding of the law of sin and death, compared to the perfect law of liberty in God's love, Paul writes with the Sword of the Spirit: "I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.  For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that you cannot do the things that you would.  But if you be led of the Spirit, you are not under the law (of condemnation)." ^{(Galatians 5 verse 16 thru 18.)} For God did not send His Son into the world, to condemn the World, but through Him that the World might be saved, with His Perfect Love offering of His only beloved Son.  So with the Lord's authority, let me say this: Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their closed minds are full of darkness.  They are far away from the Life of God, because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against Him.  They don't care anymore about right and wrong, and they have given themselves over to immoral ways.  Their lives are filled with all kinds of impurity and greed.  But that isn't what you were taught when you learned about Christ. Since you have heard all about Him, and have learned the Truth that is in Jesus, then throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, being full of lust and deception.  Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes.  You must display a new nature, because you are a new person, created in God's likeness, righteous, holy, and true. ^{(See Ephesians 4 verse 17 thru 24. New Living Translation.)}

But, willful Sin (this body of death as Paul calls it, and a stench in the nostrils of God), if left unattended, will corrupt, will divide, and will keep us as separate individuals and institutional churches, far apart from the present promises of our Lord's Covenant in the power of love, and unity within His sinless Body. So put away all falsehood and "tell your neighbor the truth" because we belong to each other. And don't sin by letting anger gain control over you.  Don't let the sun go down, while you are still angry, for anger gives a mighty foothold to the Devil.  ^{(Ephesians 4 verse 25 thru 27.)} 

Metaphorically, as the Lord taught at the last supper, with the foot washing of His disciples; we walk in the earth, and our feet get dirty, and sometimes filthy.  Even at our supposed very best state, everyone of the saved, have an absolute dependency upon the Lord Jesus, to cleanse us from the wrong steps we take in this earthly life.  Jesus, answering Peter, says: If I wash you not, you have no part with Me. ^{(John 13 verse 8.)} The Lord makes provisions in His Communion Table, with His Sanctifying Blood of the New Covenant, in conjunction with the washing and the renewing of the mind, through God's Holy Spirit, flowing in the Water of His Word. 

Many prodigals, after having been initially made clean, that is, given amnesty or pardon for past sins, are not only tempted through their lustful desires, but also are led away with them, to return again to wallow  in the mud and mire and filth of this life. ^{(See 2nd Peter 2 verse 21 thru 22.)} Having been promised liberty, without responsibility to their agreement to God's Blood Covenant, they are again taken captive by the rule of sin, that removes them from the Body of Jesus Christ.  The greater condemnation will be with the pastors and teachers, who should know the Word of God, but preach their own unbelief, denying the very power of the Holy Life of Jesus Christ, and the Life of the Holy Spirit that is in His Blood.  

Outside of the will of God, a person's self centered choices will only lead to more slavery to self idolatrous Sin.  When we come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then God in His righteousness, gives us amnesty or pardons us from all of our past sins, and a new beginning of His creation.  The first Man/Adam's treason against God shackles us to sin, but God's second Man with His efficacious sacrifice on the cross, secured our release from the shackles of sin and we became new born creations in the order of God's Son Jesus Christ.  Being justified freely by His Grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation, a mercy seat, through Faith in His Blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are 'past', through the forbearance of God. ^{(See Romans 3 verse 25.)}  Only in Jesus Christ, through the righteousness of His Sacrificial Blood, can a person be set free from the tyranny of Sin.  We are given a new beginning of Life in Christ, for all sins of the past are obliterate in the propitiating Blood of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  But be careful!  Even though we have been giving a new beginning of Life in Christ Jesus, we are called in the new life to be responsible to God for our transgressions from that point on.  The Apostle Peter encourages us in the pursuit of the virtues of faith, but then warns of our forgetfulness to the purging of our past sins. For he that lacks these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. ^{(See 2nd Pete 1 verse 4 thru 10.)}

^{(Hear Jeremiah 17 verse 5 thru 11.)} This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.  He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives". 

"But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him.  He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure; Who can understand it? "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve."  Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay, is the man who gains riches by unjust means. When his life is half gone, they will desert him, and in the end he will prove to be a fool". ^{(Jeremiah 17 verse 5 thru 11.)}

No flesh is immune to the deceit of innate sin.  Throughout the centuries, sin in all its filthiness and violence, certainly has not disappeared in any of the churches. Even today, we have all witnessed the gross moral failings of Catholic and Protestant spiritual leaders, with the news of their spiritual demise having been painted on television and printed in the newspaper's front page obituaries.  Apparently, there is gross ignorance in the churches, concerning the destructive virulent nature of sin.  On television, one Catholic commentator speaking out against the Catholic pedophile priests, vehemently exclaimed; “This is not a sin, but a crime!”  A crime he says, and not a sin?  Sin is not a three letter social enigma with forgettable consequences for humanity, but all manner of sin’s manifestations is a crime against God, and His creation of man, and in God’s righteous justice, it also spells, “D. E. A. T. H.”. 

Paul wrote: “Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies so as to obey its desires".  ^{(Romans 6 verse 12 thru 13.)} And again: “For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the Spirit do mortify [that is put to death] the deeds of the body of death, you shall live". ^{(Romans 8 verse 12 thru 13.)}

Make no mistake: The spiritual virus of sin and death, did not come from the God of the living, but we have inherited from Adam’s insurrection, the nature of self idolatrous sin, which engenders all manner of corrupt manifestations, within the flesh of every one of Adam’s seed.  Individually, we cannot play with our virus of death.  We cannot justify ourselves in our sin, nor dismiss it, as if sin's self idolatry does not continue to exist in the fleshly mind of man.  For a certainty, this is a continuing symptom of idolatry, ruling in the flesh, and the flesh is contemptuous of God’s rule and His living Word in Christ Jesus.  Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. ^{(See Isaiah 59 verse 1 thru 18).}  Active sin remains extremely contagious, and its defilements to yourself, and others are exceedingly devastating, and are diametrically opposed to God's Law of sacrificial Love. Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.  Let no man deceive himself.  If any man among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. ^{(1st Corinthians 3 verse 16 thru 18.)} Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification, without which, no one will see the Lord.  See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness spring up and causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;  that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.  For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance though he sought for it with tears. ^{(Hebrews 12 verse 14 thru 17.)} The natural man, such as Esau, is horribly bent in his immoral foolishness, and can deceive himself with his tears, but God, who knows the heart of all men, is not moved.

God’s love and forgiving grace towards us sinners is phenomenal.  For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting Life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. ^{(John 3 verse 16 thru 17.)} The Father of Lights, has called us out of our darkness of sin and death, into His glorious light, so that we would be His lights, shining in the darkness of this world, bearing witness to the Gospel of God Almighty's love and grace to all lost men and women.  In the building of His House, God has consecrated His people, by His Word, to be His holy habitation, where by His Spirit would indwell each and every one of us. We are called to be His ambassadors of peace, so that who ever sees us, begins to see and know Him because of our love and devotion to our Savior and Lord, and also to His one Body of believers.  In so doing, we also show our love for the lost, who have not seen Him at all.  Contrary wise, let us consider this a little further. If we the saved, are the representatives of Jesus Christ in this world, and in our daily lives the people who come in contact with us, see only the hypocrisy of our own sin, and our own vain judgment, then Jesus Christ is seen only through the dark veil of our hypocrisy.  Hence, we are no better than the world, and the Love of the Father is not in us, and our faith is at best dormant, if not dead. ^{(See 1st John 2 verse 15 thru 16.)}

God's Covenant grace within the shed Blood of Jesus Christ, is not a license to sin, but is a death sentence for the body of sin, that  exist within the flesh of every repentant believer.  Jesus Christ, condemned sin in His own flesh, so that we, who are saved by God's grace, should not continue to willfully follow the dictates of our self centered flesh.  It is impossible for God in His holiness to justify sin, but He offers to us remission and liberty, from our acknowledged sins, through the Communion shed Blood of His Son.  God's grace, in His new Covenant provisions, is sufficient to all, who have faith, and seek to live holy lives, within the sufficiency of God's Covenant WORD.  However, it is definitely very foolish, turning away from the free gift of righteousness, and squandering the new birthright that we have been given in Jesus Christ, and thereby testing the Almighty’s forbearance and Sovereignty:  For it is written; Everyone that confesses the Name of the Lord, must depart from wickedness (iniquity). ^{(2nd Timothy 2 verse 19.)} Or do you presume upon the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not know that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the Truth, but obey unrighteousness: Let indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, be upon every soul of man that does evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile. ^{(Romans 2 verse 4 thru 5, and verse 8 thru 9.)}

Let him that is taught in the Word, communicate unto him that teaches in all good things.  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.  For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. ^{(Galatians 6 verse 6 thru 8.)}

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ^{(1st Corinthians 6 verse 9 thru 10 .)}

Jesus Christ preaches:  When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walks through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none.  Then he says, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he finds it empty, swept, and garnished.  Then goes he, and takes with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in, and dwell there.  The last state of that man is worse than the first.  Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. ^{(Matthew 12 verse 43 thru 45.)} 

Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, that take counsel, but not of Me; and that cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin: ^{(Isaiah 30 verse 1.)} Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight! ^{(Isaiah 5 verse 20 thru 21.)} Whoever rewards evil for good, Evil will not depart from his house. He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just; both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD. ^{(Proverbs 17 verse 13 thru 15  (NKJV.)}

For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire. ^{(2nd Peter 2 verse 18 thru 22.)} 

For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.  I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. ^{(Jude verse 4.)}

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. ^{(Hebrews 6 verse 4 thru 6.)}

Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven, will enter.  Many will say to Me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name, and in Your Name cast out demons, and in Your Name perform many miracles?  And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; (or you were never intimately mine) depart from Me, you who PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.' ^{(Matthew 7 verse 21 thru 23 (N.A.S.B.)}

"Behold, I AM coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to everyone, according to what he has done. I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the Tree of Life, and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. ^{(Revelations 22 verse 12 thru 15 (N.A.S.B.)}

To be sure, these scripture verses are very strong in their admonishment to any soul: “For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: But all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do".  All of these biblical verses, in this portion of the text, are a strong contradiction to all antinomian teachers, who more or less proclaim that you can have your cake and eat it too.  That is to say, because of a baptism for sins committed in the past, and or a few incantations to the Lord in times past, we’ve all been saved, and we’re all going to heaven, no matter what we do.  After all they say, "God's love is unconditional". But has scripture borne out this humanistic rational of God’s Supreme Love?  Looking again to Jude verse 5: "I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not".  Let me ask you now: What did the Lord do to them that believed not, and turned the love and grace of God into lasciviousness?  Now hear verse 6 of Jude: and the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, until the judgment of the great day.  Paul in his letter of admonishment, to the Church at Corinth, concerning Communion at the Lord's Covenant Table, uses the same historic imagery as Jude in verse 5, as he warns the church.  Moreover brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud, and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual food; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.  But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. ^{(1st Corinthian 10 verse 1 thru 5.)} The spiritual food that all did eat of, was the Manna that came down from heaven, and the spiritual drink that all drank of, was the water of Life that flowed from the Rock Himself.  When looking at the previous scripture, did you notice that many of those who were baptized into the covenant, and participated in God's sustenance, suffered extreme sanctions for their unbelief.  Wherefore, those who think they stand, take heed lest they fall.  ^{(1st Corinthians 10 verse 12.)}

God is Love, and that Love of God is encompassed, with His other supreme attributes as One, within the infinite essence of His unchangeable Holiness.  Therefore, even as God is Love within His Holiness, there is no possibility of any shadow, or form of darkness, being cast from the Spirit of His being, so then also, in Yahweh God's infinite holiness, He is Just, and remains constant and true in His Justice against evil.  Perhaps we need to understand that the absolute Holiness of God, precludes a human understanding of what is erroneously called God’s unconditional love.  Witness the testimony of the Spirit of Scripture, where Satan and the third of the angelic beings were forcibly compelled, by the glorious brightness of God's holiness, to exit from the presence of God.  That being the case, then the infinite holiness of the God of Love, preempted the rebellion of the angelic beings, and expelled them into their own darkness of chaos.  And so it is with mankind’s rebellion against the God of the living.  Jesus did not say in vain, I AM the Way, and the Truth and the Life of man.  No one comes to the Father but by Me.  The Truth of the Perfect Love of the Father, is in His incarnate Son.  God, in the perfection of His Love, is not willing that any man should perish, but come to a new beginning of Covenant Life within His Son.  Those souls, who live and walk in the faith of Jesus Christ, will not perish like the worm of the soul of a dead man, but they are alive, even now, in the resurrection of the Beloved, and will behold the face of Life Himself.

Let us reiterate the Truth of Christ Jesus.  In following the Lord and the cross, Holy God Almighty, calls for continued repentance, with the denial of our own self idolatrous nature, and then in obedience to the Lord, to also choose to follow His Way of Righteousness that is perfected in the Love of God.  The Lord is our Righteousness.  However, given our fleshly failures within our self centered lives, God provides the remedy in the New Covenant Blood of Jesus Christ.  If we humble ourselves, and confess our sinful failures to the only Mediator, between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus, then our confessed sin is consumed away in the fiery presence of the Spirit of Holiness.  But be aware, the cleansing heat may be painfully experienced in the sanctification process. The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, is One with the Blood of the Son of man, and the sanctifying Blood of the Spirit is Holy, even as the Spirit of God is Holy. 

It is not wise, to go on merrily in our scoffing ignorance, and unbelief in the Communion Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.  The One Spirit God is One with the poured out Water and Blood of our Savior, and continued unbelief, will thoroughly quench God's Spirit of Holy Truth.  And the Lord Jesus, in the Spirit of Truth said: Take and Drink all of you:  This is My Blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.  ^{(Matthew 26 verse 26 thru 28.)} And they overcame accuser of our brethren by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. ^{(See Revelation 12 verse 9 thru 11.)} In our repentance, the Righteous Life Blood of Jesus Christ puts to death the unrighteousness of our self serving ways that are ingrained within the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Refer to the vision "Seeing the Sword of the Spirit.)

To proceed to the next chapter of the Beginnings of the Mystery of Iniquity alone, please click on  Let Us Reason Together.

Let Us Reason Together.

Research shows that both Adolph Hitler and Al Capone were formally water baptized in their infancy as Roman Catholics.  Joseph Stalin was baptized in the Russian Orthodox faith, and as a young man studied for the priesthood.  If the baptism of these three murderous men is true, then how do you judge the true relational Promises of Yahweh God, without genuine repentance of the adult one who was baptized as a babe?  Benito Mussolini was baptized a Roman Catholic later in his life, and what was the fruit of his water baptism? Correction is grievous unto him that forsakes the way: and he that hates reproof shall die. ^{(Proverbs 15 verse 10.)}

⁹ Know therefore that the Lord Yahweh thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keeps covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations;

¹⁰ And He repays them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hates Him, He will repay him to his face.

Let us stress, that a person's initial baptism into the cleansing waters of new life, should have been through their repentance toward Yahweh God, as a person of age and not as an infant child.  The Almighty God of Eternity, seeing a person's beginning faith in His Salvation Gift In Christ Jesus, that washes them through the Water of His Holy Spirit Who is one with the Water and Blood of Jesus Christ.  This is the necessary first step of Yahweh God's Gift of Salvation faith, into God's New Covenant that is sealed in the Blood of Jesus Christ. 

But, if the darkness of sin continues to be cultivated in one's life, then the perfunctory Water Baptism into Yahweh God's New Covenant, with the initial washing of past sins through the cleansing Water of the Word of Yahweh God's Only Begotten Son, then the darkness of present sin muddies the Water that is to reveal the Light of God.  Understand, that without true repentance  and the Cleansing LIFE Giving Blood of Jesus Christ, then destruction is in the waiting wings.  ^{(See 1st Corinthians 3 verse 16 thru 18 and 1st Corinthians 6 verse 19 thru 20.)} 

Yahweh God's beginning Covenant Word began before the creation of the world when His Perfect Lamb was promised to  provide His people His Mercy to repentant believers.  His Covenant was confirmed in the Garden of Eden to Adam and Ishshah, when God established His Word of the Covenant with His shedding of the life blood of an innocent lamb, and then clothing the nakedness of Adam and Ishshah/Eve with the hide of the slain lamb.  The law of sin and death, which came later, requires that nearly everything is to be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission of the unclean. ^{(Hebrews 9 verse 22: (See also Leviticus 17 verse 11.)} 

The Mosaic Covenant, for that matter, was established by Yahweh God to reveal that an innocent lamb was needed for the remission of mankind's sin.   The required works of the Levitical priesthood with their continuous shedding of the blood of sacrificial lambs and other specified animal, could never assuage the sins of Yahweh's people. ^{(See Hebrews 10 verse 11.)} Yahweh God's  desired purpose in the original blood Covenant with the children of Abraham, failed to produce chased people in the Holy Likeness of their Yahweh God.  Surely they would understand His merciful Sacrifice when He sent His Only Begotten Son, His Perfect Lamb prepared before the foundation of the world.  Yahweh's Perfect Lamb would be conceived by Yahweh God's Spirit in the Seed of Woman/Ishshah/Eve, to be born the Son of Man/Adam. Now as Man, the last Adam would IN Yahweh God's mercy atone for the sins of the world, and all of the repentant mankind that would come to Him in the fullness of His New Covenant WORD, would find new birth in the LIFE giving Blood of Yeshua/Jesus the Messiah.  Behold the LAMB of GOD, Who takes away the sin of the world. ^{(John 1 verse 29.)}

The whole of the Torah was to safe guard the Israelites and keep them in Yahweh God's Covenant Promise to Abraham.  God's Salvation seed of Woman/Ishshah/Eve, would come through the loins of the circumcised Israelites, who from a true heart were to reverence Yahweh God and honor His Covenant Word.  But the lust of the flesh of Israel caused them to fail in faithfully keeping God's Covenant of Promise: But the Infinite God in His Faithfulness and Foreknowledge of all things in time, kept His Covenant Word of Promise.   At the right moments, in His creation of the fabric of time, the only Lord God Almighty would bring His Covenant WORD to pass, for the pure genetic seed of Ishshah/Woman, would exist within an ovary of a Hebrew virgin woman.  Mary's ovary would contain an ovum with an X chromosome of Elohim's Promised seed of Woman, which would be conceived by Father God's Holy Spirit of TRUTH, and in the birth of Holy God's only Begotten Son, Yeshua/Jesus the Promised Messiah became the last Adam, and as the Son of Man, Jesus/ Yeshua haMashiach died for the sin of the world.  Jesus/Yeshua is Father Yahweh God's only Begotten Son, and as the conceived WORD of Yahweh God, is the unchangeable TRUTH and Yahweh God with us IN the Body of Christ. 

Isaiah speaking to Israel declares:  Except the Lord of Hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Hear the Word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the Law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. ^{(See Isaiah 1 verse 1 thru 11.)} The people of Judah and Jerusalem did not follow after the WORD of  God, and because of their licentiousness wickedness, the Lord sold them to Babylon.  Nevertheless, after the seventy years of the Jewish diasporas, Yahweh God would take a people from the remnant seed of Judah, and with His own Word of Power, He would bring forth the Messiah of His Salvation Promise that He gave bfore the foundation of the world.

Now that the Christ of God has come in the flesh of Man/Adam, and with His Love and Obedience to His Holy Father, the Lord Jesus defeated sin and death for all people.  Now with the call of God, the converted Paul contends with of the Jews’ and their rite of circumcision: For the Name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. ^{(See 2 Samuel 12verse 14, Isaiah 52 verse 5, Ezekiel 36 verse 23.)} For circumcision truly profits, if thou keep the Law (Ten Commandments): but if thou be a breaker of the Law (Decalogue), thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.  Therefore if the uncircumcision keeps the righteousness of the Law (Ten Commandments), shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfill the Law, judge thee, who by the (written) letter and circumcision dost transgress the Law? For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart by the Spirit, and not in the (written Law) letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. ^{(Romans 2 verse 23 thru 29.)}   Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.  Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.  For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a Great God, a mighty, and a terrible God, which regards not persons, nor takes reward: ^{(Deuteronomy 10 verse 15 thru 17).  (See Deuteronomy 30 verse 10 thru 18, as it relates to faith in Romans 10 verse 4 thru 12.)}

So then, with the same spiritual logic of Paul, let us reason together.  If a person is initially baptized into repentance and remission for past sins with the outward sign of water, and then they stiffen their necks and through out their life they repeatedly transgress the Decalogue, and remain in their sin without repentance (the return to God), does not their original baptism in water, now become un-baptism?  Are their harden souls yet clean from the filth of their continuing sin, because of a long ago infant sprinkling with water; or even as an adult, who was once totally immersed in a water baptism? ^{(See again the reproof Romans 3 verse 24 thru 25, and 2nd Peter 1 verse 4 through 10,)} No, not before the Eyes of the all-knowing Holy Yahweh God!  For in the Eyes of the immutable God, just as circumcision of the genitals of the Jewish males was not only a covenant sign of the outer flesh, but was to signify a change in the heart (the inward part) of man towards God; so then likewise, water baptism of the outer flesh, is a token of the initial repentance, and the cleansing (sanctification of the heart) that in the humility of faith would continue to take place within the inner man/core/heart of that person.  If it is not in the command of circumcision that one is a Jew, then neither can it be that through the rite of water baptism only, that one is a bona fide Christian and a follower of the TRUTH and Christ's WAY of the cross of denial.  In both cases, the Covenant distinctions are clarified in the heart and spirit of the person of  faith, who is yielded to the Spirit of God, and whose praise is of the Eternal Holy God Almighty. ^{(See Deuteronomy 10 verse 16.)} Not by power nor by mighty but by My Spirit says the Lord of Host. ^{(Zechariah 4 verse 6.)} For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.  ^{(Review Romans 8 verse 1 thru 14.)}

Then again, what if the water baptized sinner remembering the Covenant Graces of God the Father, repents from their sin with its life in the pig sty, and returns hopefully to the Lord seeking forgiveness?  Now then, what is the Covenant agent that cleanses, and absolves the repentant person of their confessed transgressions?  Is it another baptism into water, or the remembrance of a baptism from long ago, such as a baby sprinkled with water who would have no remembrance of the moment?  Of course not: Even the early church fathers agree on this matter, and have their own works of clarification, which appear to be good, but do not necessarily agree with the following work of God.  Scripture declares that God’s righteous Covenant is in the Blood of His Son Yeshua, shed for the remission of sin!  The Lord Jesus Commands that all of His disciples are to partake of His Life Provisions at His New Passover Table in His Blood: Do this in remembrance of Me.  For I AM the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE of Man: No one comes to the Father but by Me.

At this time, let us remember the lesson of the father and his two sons.  ^{(See Luke 15 verse 11 thru 32.)} The younger son, demanded his portion of his father's estate. His portion was less than his older brother, but having received his inheritance before its time, he leaves his father's home to spend the father's gratuitous gift on the pleasures of the world.  The son's lascivious choices in living, leaves him completely bankrupt at a time when a famine devours the land.  Without a penny to buy a morsel of food to satisfy his hunger, he forces himself upon a citizen of the country, who sends the wayward lad into the landowners fields to care for the pigs.  Then the hungry man upon seeing the pigs eating of the cobs that he would eat, remembered the graces in his father's house, for even the servants had more than enough to eat.  The young man repents of his folly and leaves his own pig sty to begin his journey home.  Repentance is the first step in the necessary beginning of the journey home to the Father's house. 

The father upon seeing at a distance his returning son, runs to his repentant son, and embraces him, and upon hearing of his son's repentance, the father says to his servants:   Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:  And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill, (that is sacrifice it); and let us eat, and rejoice: For this my son, was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.  And they began to rejoice. ^{(Luke 15 verse 18 thru 24.)}

We see in the parable that the father, who loves his willful son, was waiting patiently, to see if his son would return home.  Now with his son's complete change of mind and his full return to his father's household, then the father orders that the life of the fatted calf be sacrificed, to commemorate the return of the father's beloved child.  The love of the father for his absent son never changed, but it was incumbent upon his son to make his own decision to return to the order of his father's house.  For the son to experience the love of his father, it is conditional upon his repentance from his willful independent, and to begin his journey home to his true place of living.  With the son's return to the goodness of his father's household, then the father rejoiced in his love for his son that was dead and in his return home was found to be alive. 

Except for the one judgmental older son, all of the servants and family members, were in one accord with the father, and equally participated in the meal of rejoicing that was provided by the rejoicing father. The angry son stood without the home, and when the father came out to see him, his son then vented his frustrations upon his father's forgiveness of the younger son.  However the father of the two sons, told the angry son that he was ever with him and all that the father had to give was there for his son to receive.  The father provided a festive meal of rejoicing for a dead son's return to life, and the same meal was there for the elder son to also rejoice in his father's house of Life over death. 

Please consider that Jesus Christ, after His resurrection from the dead, He tells His disciples to preach in His Name repentance and remission of sins. ^{(See Luke 24 verse 47.)} How much more rejoicing is there with God, when one sinner repents in their heart, and returns to live in one accord with the Father? ^{(See Luke 15 verse 10.)}

For Father God, in His Love for mankind, has already provided the Perfect Sacrifice of His only begotten Son Jesus/Yeshua, and His constant Love remains open, for the return of all of the prodigals and for all of God's family members too rejoice in the Household of His Love.  That Sacrifice of Love is in God's New Covenant, that is already established in the Shed LIFE giving Blood of Jesus Christ alone.  The only requirement for our return, is a person's repentance in true humility, in conjunction with God's Provisions of the Feast of Life being made manifest by the Word of God, Jesus Christ: For the TRUTH of our Salvation says:   Take and eat; This is My Body given for you; And then Jesus took the wine after dinner and giving thanks to His Father God said to His disciples:  Drink of this all of you: For this is My Blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. 

The One Holy Spirit that is One with the Father and the Son, is present in Holy Communion, and administers the TRUTH to those gathered in one accord to receive Father God's renewing Covenant of Life in the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Communion should be received within the inner heart of the spirit of the person of faith, thereby clearing their conscience of confessed sin, and the promise to repair in the willing heart any breach in the relationship with Father God and with each other. 

It is written by John:  If we walk in the Light, as He is in the Light, then we have Fellowship (Communion, Koinonia) one with another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses us from all sin.  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the TRUTH is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He (the TRUTH) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  ^{(1st John 6 thru 10.)}

And how does God cleanse us from all unrighteousness?  John, in the beginning of the same passage, makes the Word of God clearly active, as he declares: "and the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His WORD (the TRUTH) is not in us".  Just like our natural blood is in accord with the genetics of our body, and fights everything that is foreign to the welfare of the natural body; so then likewise, the Righteous Holy Blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, fights and destroys everything that is foreign to the Love of God, and God's Righteousness.  Sin does not come into Holy God's Presence, and neither does the flesh of man, for our flesh is laden with self idolatrous sin.  Faith in the only Lord God Almighty and His Eternal Word, begins with our humble acknowledgment and repentance from our own slavery to sin.  We can not love our sin more than we love the Almighty God.  Nay!  Even more than that, we cannot both love God and our sin too.  You will either love the one and hate the other. 

God's new Covenant in the Blood of Jesus Christ, allows the fallen nature of selfish flesh, to come together in a meeting place, to worship God in His Spirit of TRUTH.   God's Spirit of Grace attends to all believers who partake from Father God's Communion Table of  His Word of sanctified Provisions in the Body and Blood of His only Begotten Son.  In our Faith, in the Word of God, those set apart Provisions have become for us through His Holy Spirit of unmitigated Grace the unseen, and the unknowable dimensions of the real Flesh and sanctifying Blood of Jesus Christ.  In so doing, we maintain our place of unity in the Body of the risen Christ Jesus.  The fullness of faith, in the Spirit of TRUTH in Holy Communion, is absolutely necessary for the Church to remain as One in the Spirit of fellowship with God and each other.  That fellowship, in the love of God, is made possible through the fullness of God's Covenant in the Blood of His Son, which cleanses His Body members from all of our confessed lovelessness for God and man. 

We are accepted in the Beloved, not because we are good, but only because of God's Spirit of Grace that He gives to us in the wholeness of our faith in God’s New Covenant of Love in Christ Jesus that He gave on the Cross for our sin.  True worship of God is predicated upon the cleansing Life Blood of God’s Loving and obedient Son, Jesus Christ.  It is at God's Altar Table of Thanksgiving, where worship of God takes place in God's Spirit of TRUTH  that is One with the Blood of Jesus Christ that covers our idolatrous flesh.  In our fellowship, we are to come into remembrance that Jesus Christ died for us selfish sinners with His selfless Love and obedience to His Father God.  This is a Love that is not natural to mankind, and may be yet missing in our hearts.  We say then with Paul: Walk in the Spirit and the power of His Love, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.  But then again, if we should fail, as we will, then know that we have an advocate before the Father, Jesus the Righteous One, Whose Blood, through the His Holy Spirit of Grace, cleanses us from all confessed unrighteousness of the known and unknown sins. ^{( 1st John 2 verse 1 thru 3.)}

Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction.  For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.  Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  They will turn their ears away from the TRUTH and turn aside to myths.  But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. ^{(2nd Timothy 4 verse 2 thru 5 NIV.)}

However, from the time of Peter's epistle until the present, people have sought out teachers, who have introduced damnable heresies to satisfy the lust of the flesh, verily denying the Lord Jesus Christ, Who has set forth for the world the purchase price for sin and death with His Holy Life Blood.  These teachers and followers of the way of perdition, have forsaken the sound doctrine in the WAY of the Cross, and believed the lie from the prince of death.  In the end, the ramifications of the heresies that give license to the flesh, are catastrophic to all who agree with the false teachers.  He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just; both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD. ^{(Proverbs 17 verse 13 thru 15  (NKJV.)}

It is not just the teachers that have come under God's condemnation, but anyone who justifies the false doctrines of the wicked with their affirming complicity.  It is guilt by association and affirmation; for the Scripture says: Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? And what Communion has Light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has he that believes with an infidel? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God.  After this admonition, it is thought that Paul continues with His use of Scripture from the latter part of Exodus 29:  Come out from among them and be you separate; and touch not the unclean thing, then I will receive you and be a Father unto you, and you shall be My sons and daughters. ^{(2nd Corinthians 6 verse 14 thru 18.)} If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is Holy, which temple you are.  Let no man deceive himself.  If any man among you seems to be wise in (the ways of) this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. ^{(1st Corinthians 3 verse 16 thru 18.)} If you are the temple of the Holy Spirit of God's Grace, then the truly wise would adhere to the Commands of the living God Almighty.

St. Peter writes, “Among the Epistles of Paul, some things are hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable, pervert as they do all other Scriptures unto their own destruction.” ^{(2nd Peter 3 verse 16.)} Because of the antinomian thought derived from loose interpretations of Paul’s scripture writings, then the apostate teachers, not knowing of God’s Holy Love within His Holy Righteousness, give license to the unschooled, to continue their practice of gross sin, thereby adding sin to further confusion and condemnation.  And this is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does the TRUTH comes to the Light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." ^{(John 3 verse  19 thru 21.)} 

Make no mistake, this Perfect Love in Christ is the antithesis of sin, for Perfect Love does not think or work or rejoice in evil. ^{(1st Corinthians 13 verse 4 thru 10.)}  John speaks with a clear heart as he says: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.  If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." ^{(1st John 2 verse 15 thru 16.)}  When the disruption of willful sin was conceived in the heart of Adam, sin displaced the love for God the Father, and so it is with the corrupted heart of all of man kind.  That corruption of the mind says; If we are to have a god, we will have a god on our own terms of understanding.

Again we witness Peter in his second epistle, giving encouragement to the reader, and at the end giving a warning against the antinomianism of his day,  Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,  According as His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue:  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.  And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;  And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;  And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness Sacrificial Love.  For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But he that lacks these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. ^{(2nd Peter 1 verse 2 thru 9.)}

It would appear that the false teachers have justified this lawlessness with this Scripture; “Christ is the end of the Law”.  Let us expand in TRUTH upon the end point of this Scripture: For Christ is the end (point or goal) of the law for righteousness, to every one that believeth. ^{(Romans 10 verse 4.)} The point of this passage in Scripture is focused on the subject matter, Jesus Christ and His Righteousness.  Paul acknowledges that the Jews have a zeal for God in their trying to achieve righteousness through their keeping the Law by its works.  The Jew or Gentile who try to justify themselves through self effort will always fall short of the Glory of God, for they do not understanding the absolute Righteousness of Holy Yahweh God Almighty.  The Law is not done away in the death of Christ, but the we of Faith IN Christ's death and resurrection establish the good, holy, and just Law in Commandments to reveal the corrupting nature of sin. ^{(See Romans 3 verse 29-31.)} It is the condemnation of the Law In Commandments that is done away by Faith in the Supreme Righteousness of Christ.  And this is the Name where by He shall be called "The Lord our Righteousness". ^{(Jeremiah 23 verse 6.)} False teachers are implying with their reasoning flesh that the moral law is done away with in Christ's death, and they can continue unabated with their sin, and non-compliance with the true Law of Love.  Let them alone, Says the Lord, they be blind leaders of the blind.  And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. ^{(Matthew 15 verse 14.)} These teachers of the way of perdition, fail to respond properly to the end of the verse, which says “for righteousness, to every one that believes" in Jesus Christ's death for our sins, and in His resurrection, because of His Supreme Righteousness:  For it is also written to the believer: Be you holy; for I AM holy. ^{(1st Peter 1 verse 13 thru 19, Leviticus 19 verse 2.)} For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. ^{(Matthew 5 verse 17 thru 22.)} Christ's Righteousness brings to an end of the Law to promote righteousness before Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty

The Law of God in Commandments has not passed away, but even so, the absolute righteousness through the Law, never existed in the eyes of God.  The Decalogue reveled sin. Unfortunately the Jews, may have thought to justify themselves through a wrong understanding of God's Covenant with them.  The Torah was given by God to Israel through Moses, as a quarantining measure, to prevent the devastating results of sin that is terminal in the nature of mankind.  The faith of Abraham, understood that through his genetic seed, and that of his family, there would come forth the Savoir of mankind, through the genetic seed of the first woman of God's creation of Man, male and female.  Faith in God preceded the Law, but in the end, the stop signs of the Decalogue are all broken in self idolatry, for thou shall not have any god's before ME. Therefore the law of Commandments concludes that all of mankind, in their self idolatry, are guilty of sin, for all have fallen short of the glory and excellence of God.  We have all failed, lacking in our flesh a perfect love and trusting obedience to our Holy Creator.  Sin loves its self unconditionally, therefore by inheritance from the flesh of Adam, we all have cultivated within us the damming nature of sin and death.

As discussed in the earlier chapter, the Law never could impute righteousness, for the Law was given by God to increase the knowing of sin, and sin kills unconditionally.  The accusing goodness of the Law in Commandments brings curses of wrath because of disobedience, and sin will find us out.  The free gift of righteousness and son-ship, which we have received by continuing faith in the Lord’s death and resurrection power over sin causing death, is infinitely greater than the keeping of any law could possibly impute.  Self idolatry with its self justification stands in the way of God's righteousness.  Just as the Word of God is living and active, so is the faith that is delivered or birthed into the soul of the new believer.  God's faith is not inert, but this faith is to be active and alive in the mind of the believer, because of the active Word of Righteousness that is Jesus Christ.  Therefore, because God is Love and One with His WORD of TRUTH, then God's Gift of His Spirit of Grace by faith gives rise to a more perfect love within the believer. ^{(See Ephesians 2 verse 7 thru 9.)} Even so, James has it right in his epistle!  Yes, a man may say: You have faith, and I have works; show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith, by my works.  You believe that there is one God; [in this] you do well: The devils also believe, and tremble.  But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? ^{(James 2 verse 14 thru 29.)}

The justified, through God's Grace, shall live by a faith that is actively alive, exercising a loving trust in God because of Christ Jesus, God's only Begotten Son.  The Perfect Love for His God, which existed within Christ Jesus as the Son of Man, far surpasses the Law that reveals failure, or any other form of human righteousness or justification before Holy God.  The Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord our Righteousness, and in His Righteousness, is the perfect Love of God that works only for God's creation for the good. For a greater understanding of Godly faith that works through the Way of Jesus Christ, we have a parsed verse from Galatians 5 verse 6: “For in Jesus Christ faith works (or is manifested in labor) by love.” God, seeing the faith of the believer within His Son Jesus Christ, sees each member of the Lord's Body in the same Love and Righteousness of His Beloved Son.   Those who turn away from their free gift of Righteousness in Jesus Christ, will perish in their unrighteousness.  God and His Word have not changed; so hear and ponder His Word from Ezekiel: 

When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and dies in them; for his iniquity that he has done shall he die.
^{( In context: Ezekiel 18 verse 25 thru 27. See the Whole Chapter: Ezekiel 18.)}

When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousness's shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he has committed, he shall die for it.
^{(In context: Ezekiel 33 verse 12 thru 14. See the Whole Chapter: Ezekiel 33. )}

Brethren, if any of you do err from the TRUTH, and one convert him; let him know, that he which converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. ^{(James 5 verse 19 thru 20.)}  Hatred stirs up strife; but love covers all sins. ^{(Proverbs 10 verse 12.)}

Both, a person's repentance from sin with the cleansing in Communion with the shed Blood of Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary for the members of the Body of Jesus Christ, to come into the Holy of Holies and into the presence of Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty.  Without the sanctifying Holy Covenant Blood of Christ Jesus being manifested within our lives then God's Holy Spirit may not administer His Grace to the unbelieving.  If we are not set apart from the world, then we are a part of the world that is perishing.

False Security.

Antinomianism, with it's permissive grace to brake moral law, has its foundation built on sifting sand, and is far removed from the New Covenant foundation IN the Righteous Life Blood of Jesus Christ.  The Grace that God, has extended to mankind, is not a license to continue in sin, but is meant to bring sinners to repentance, and to live in God's Spirit of Grace. But think thou this, O man, that judges them which do such things, and does the same, that thou shall escape the judgment of God? Or despise thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads thee to repentance?  But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasure up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds.  ^{(In full context Romans 2 verse 1 thru 6.)}

A self serving interpretation of God's Grace, without Holy God's balancing Sword of TRUTH, will breed heresy. Such is the self serving conception of a supposed unconditional love of God. This contrived fallacy of man, gives license to the hearer to continue in their own self indulgences of their flesh that makes them forget that they were once purged from their old sins. ^{(See 2nd Peter 1 verse 4 thru 10.)} This heresy is an affront to the Righteous Love of the Almighty God that is conditioned IN Christ Jesus.  Abide IN Me and I will abide in you; says the True Vine as the Word of His Holy Father Yahweh God. ^{(See John 15 verse 1 thru 6.)} If you keep My Commandments, [then] you will abide IN My Love; just as I have kept My Father’s Commandments and abide IN His Love. ^{(John 15 verse 10.)}

The Master, our Lord Jesus Christ says: Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. And what do wolves feed on? Their mouths are open wide, while they make their living on vulnerable flesh.

Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.  Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.  Not every one that says unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the Will of My Father which is IN heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name? And in Thy Name have cast out devils? And in Thy Name done many wonderful works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: Depart from Me, you that work iniquity. ^{(See in fuller context Matthew 7 verse 15 thru 27.)}

But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb: The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. ^{(Check the false prophets in 2nd Peter 2.)}

If we are disciples (followers) of Jesus Christ, and abiding IN the Tree of Life, then we are to live by the faith of Christ Jesus that is active IN His Love, His Truth and His Life of Righteousness.  We are called to honor our Savior by following His Father God's Will so that we would live IN Christ, with the denial of the unfruitful power of our own willful flesh.  But he that lacks these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. ^{(2nd Peter1 verse 8 thru 10.) (See past sins in Romans 3 verse 25.)} For thus says our Lord: “I AM the Vine you are the branches: If a man does not abide IN Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned".  ^{(John 15 verse 5 thru 6.)}  If Christ's Fruit of Sacrificial Love is not flowing in our lives, then within ourselves, we will wither and die away as a dead branch of rotting decay. Please take heed and reconsider the issues of death's final possibilities because of unbelief and the lack of continued repentance from the idolatrous nature of sin.  When our flesh fails us, and when we mentally avail ourselves to true repentance and God's Holy Provisions IN His New Covenant IN the LIFE Blood of His Son Jesus Christ, then in His Faithfulness, God will absolve us of the uncleanness of our idolatrous sins of the present. 

So to all who are under its spell, this social teaching of unconditional tolerance to sin, breed’s complacency and a false sense of security: So then says the Lord, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of My mouth. ^{(Revelation 3 verse 14 thru 19.)} For today is like all the yesterdays from the beginnings of iniquity, and it has come to pass, when they heard the Word of God; "that they bless themselves in their heart, saying, we shall have peace, though we walk in the imagination of our heart, to add drunkenness to thirst," to a dry and fruitless ground. ^{(Deuteronomy 29 verse 19 thru 29.)} Therefore, speaking to the Jew first and then the Gentile: TAKE HEED, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the Living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. ^{(Hebrews 3 verse 12 thru 13.)}

He that overcomes, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life. ^{(In context: Revelation 3 verse 1 thru 6.) (See also book of life in Psalm 69 verse 28.)}

John Calvin writes: "We have elsewhere observed, that forgiveness of sins never can be obtained without repentance, because none but the afflicted, and those wounded by a consciousness of sins, can sincerely implore the mercy of God;" ^{(Book 3 chapter 4 section 3.)}

It is far better to repent and work out our own salvation, daily before God in fear and trembling, than to be found a fool at the last. ^{(See Philippians 2 verse 12.)} Also, when Paul in Galatians says 'there is no law', He spoke concerning the fruit of God’s Spirit in His Children and clarifies it with: “ And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.  If we live IN the Spirit, let us also walk IN the Spirit.” God’s Spirit is Holy, and those who live and walk IN Him, will endeavor to live holy lives consecrated to Him. Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone would come (in the Greek erchomai)  after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me: ^{(Matthew 16 verse 24.)}  And anyone who does not take his cross and follow Me, is not worthy of Me. ^{(Matthew 10 verse 38.)}  For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world works death. ^{(2nd Corinthians 7 verse 10 .)}

Indeed, all who call upon the Holy Name of the Lord, have been brought into the knowledge of His Love, and those who continue to believe in their heart in His Word of Salvation shall be saved: For Jesus Christ, the Lord our Righteousness, has with His crucifixion death, fully paid the penalty for our death, and for all the sins of humanity! ^{(See 1st John 3 verse 4 thru 5.)} But first, God has a call for all sinners to come to Him fully in repentance, being clothed in humility with Godly sorrow.  And then the believer in Jesus, with the aid of their cross, is to continue in repentance from the selfish desires of the flesh, which are contrary to the Word of God, and begin practicing the love of God and with their love of their neighbor.  Then it follows; if we have been baptized into Jesus Christ death and resurrection, then we will put on Christ, in the renewed spirit of our mind, after the order of the new man, which looking to God is created IN Christ Jesus righteousness and true holiness. ^{(See Galatians 3 verse 27.)(See Ephesians 4 verse 24.)}

Therefore know, that your hearts priority must be much higher than the call of the flesh.  You can not let sin own you, for there in death lies. For whosoever continually sins after receiving the TRUTH has lost his way of Salvation, and is on the wide path of death and destruction.  However, even as believers following the WAY of Chris, we undoubtedly may be caught in sin, but we cannot remain there in the machinations of sin and death, once the old symptoms start to re-manifest themselves.  David, in Psalm 116, knows of the consequences of his illicit actions, and the importance of repentance from his sin that leads to death.  He knows that his salvation is in the redemptive work of God, and his vow is to call on the Lord not just once, but for all of his days on earth.

Psalm 116: ^{verse 1.} I love the LORD, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications. ^{verse 2.} Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live. ^{verse 3.} The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. ^{verse 4.} Then called I upon the Name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul. ^{verse 5.} Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.

^{verse 8.} For Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

^{verse 12.} What shall I render unto the LORD for all His benefits toward me?
^{verse 13.} I will take the Cup of Salvation, and call upon the Name of the LORD.

^{verse 17.} I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the Name of the LORD.

The Cup of Salvation that we bless in Holy Communion is the Third cup in the Pascal supper. ^{(Please see The Blood of the Lamb.)} So let us now consider the cost of Discipleship: For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul; or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? ^{(Matthew 16 verse 24 thru 26.)}  Therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has, cannot be My disciple! ^{(In full context Luke 14 verse 25 thru 33.)} For whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it. In following the Lord into regeneration, Jesus says: Every one that has forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My Name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting Life.  But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first. ^{(Matthew 19 verse 29 thru 30.)}  Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in there at: But strait is the gate, and narrow is the WAY, Lwhich leads unto Life, and few there be that find it. ^{(Matthew 7 verse 13 thru 14.)} This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. ^{(John 15 verse 12 thru 14.)} You are My friends if you do what I have told you.

There are many who have entered God's amnesty program, who do not recognize that all of the righteousness that a person seeks after, is consummated in the Perfect Love of God within our Savior Christ Jesus.  The willing sacrifice of Jesus' for our sins, expresses the Perfect Love that Jesus, the Son of Man has for His Father, ands is exemplified in the Son's absolute obedience to the Father's Will to save mankind from their sins.  The saved believers, living IN the Word of God,  are called to follow in the WAY of the Lord and His cross with the denial of the old ways of the world, and all the while exemplifying His self sacrificing Love for those who are lost.  It is in this same Faith of Christ Jesus, where in, we are baptized into his death to sin, and resurrected in to His Life of Sacrificial Love.  The justified shall live by Faith, and that faith is the Faith of the Son and Word of God: For, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives within me: And the LIFE of Jesus, which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.  ^{(Galatians 2 verse:20.)} Thankfully, that in God's New Covenant of Faith IN the Life giving Blood of His Son, that when self is lifted up, rather than the cross, then if in repentance we confess our sin of idolatry, then the God's Covenant in the Blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us of all of our unrighteousness of that specific time.

All of the prior scripture warnings in this chapter are true and necessary, to prevent a premature and foolish death of the soul or for what price do you value your own soul?  It is absolutely essential to diligently adhere to the Words of TRUTH from the Chief Physician, Jesus Christ, and not follow another that is going the opposite way.  And He said to them all: If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it.  For what is a man advantaged, if he gains the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My Words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when He shall come IN His Own Glory, and IN His Father's, and of the holy angels. ^{(Luke 9 verse 23 thru 25.)}

And so to all those that hold fast to their faith IN the Lord our Righteousness, that is secured in the healing Graces of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, we concur with the writer of Hebrews saying; “beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak”. ^{(Hebrews 6 verse 8 thru 10.)} But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a Faithful Creator. ^{(1st Peter 4 verse 15 thru 19.)}

For the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father IN Spirit and IN Truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him. ^{(John 4:23)}  All that the Father gives Me, will come (heko) to Me, and the one who comes (erchomai) to Me I will certainly not cast out. ^{(John 6 verse 37 (N.A.S.B.)}

In John 6 verse 37, there are two English words of "come" in the verse: The first English word 'come', in the Greek language is the word that is pronounced ('hay'-ko'), which implies, to come forward and to seek intimacy with one, so as to be a follower.  The second word 'come', is the Greek word, pronounced (er'-khom-ahee), and can have a meaning such as; to be established in following. For the Father seeks such to worship Him.  The humble ones who come to the Lord and remain IN Him, even though they be the least, the Lord will keep all IN His Ffaithfulness.  Those who depart from the TRUTH of God, even though they were seemingly disciples at one time, shall not inherit the Life of Christ and a place within God's kingdom.

For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own Will, but the Will of Him that sent Me. And this is the Father's Will which has sent Me, that of all which He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the Will of Him that sent Me, that every one which sees the Son, and believes IN Him, may have everlasting Life: and I will raise him up at the last day.  ^{(John 6 verse 38 thru 40.)}

It is the Spirit that quickens, the flesh profits nothing: The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are Life.  But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray Him. And He said: Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him of My Father. From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him. ^{(John 6 verse 63 thru 67.)}

Then said Jesus unto the twelve,

Will you also go away?

To proceed to the next chapter of the Beginnings of the Mystery of Iniquity alone, please click on  The Sowers Word.

The Sower's Word.

The following scriptures are from the Lord's teaching on the Sower of the Word as found in Mark's gospel.  For a better flow of thought, each beginning parable is tied together with the Lord's explanation of its meaning.  At the end of the full parable, the Word of God speaks to willing hearts that have ears to hear what Holy God's Spirit is saying; and in response, receive the Seed of His Word to be planted within the soil of their hearts, so as to be cultivated into a son of God ^{(See Isaiah 53 verse 10.)}

The Sower sows the Word.   And it came to pass, as he sowed, some seed fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. Explanation: And these are they by the way side, where the Word is sown; and when they have heard, straightway comes Satan, and takes away the Word which has been sown in them. 

And some seed fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately the seed sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:  But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. Explanation: And these in like manner are they that are sown upon the rocky places, who, when they have heard the Word, straightway receive it with joy;  and they have no root in themselves, but are temporary, enduring for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises because of the Word, immediately they stumble (and fall away). 

And some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked the seed, and it yielded no fruit. Explanation: And others are seed that are sown among the thorns:  These are they that have heard the Word,  but the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful. ^{(Mark 4 verse 3 thru 20.)}

According to the Sowers Words, there are many passer-byes, who on hearing the Word are unaffected.  The self righteous are already satisfied within them selves, and the Word can find no place within them.  Unbelief quickly settles back within the mind that is destitute within its self, and doesn't know it. ^{(See Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary.)} For it is not the hearer of the Word that is justified before God, but the one who actively responds to God's call to a living faith in Him.  Be you doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. ^{(James 1 verse 22. See also James 1 verse 21 thru 26.)}  

Then there are those, who upon receiving the Word, initially sprout up in the darkness of their night with the dew of the morning, but when the intensity of the Light of the Word of God shines upon them, they have no roots that will seek for the deeper Water of the Word of God, and they wilt away in the trying of their faith through the trials of life. 

Apparently for others, the call of sinful self idolatrous flesh cries out louder than the Call of God for their repentance, and with their thankful return to Him.  Because of their willful hearts, they never fully submit to the tether of the Lord’s disciplined love and care.  In not returning fully to the care of their Creator, they remain in their original setting of comfort with their perverse friends, and do what is acceptable and expedient in their own worldly eyes. The man that wanders out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead. ^{(Proverbs 21 verse 16.)}

For in Jesus Christ, faith labors in love. ^{(Galatians 5 verse 6.)}

And other seed fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.  Explanation: And those are they that were sown upon the good ground; such as hear the Word, and accept it, and bear fruit, thirty-fold, and sixty-fold, and a hundred-fold. 

James, the half brother of Jesus, speaks to the persons, who say they are of the faith, and he challenges all, saying: Even so, faith, if it has not works, is dead being alone.  Yes, a man may say:  You have faith and I have works:  Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my labors [in love]. ^{(See James 2 verse 17 thru 26.)} In today's pointed vernacular, James would be saying; "Show me the money".  That is, "Put your money where your mouth is". The very heart of man, beats incessantly to sustain the natural life of the body.  When the heart ceases to beat, then the life of the flesh in the blood ceases to flow, and the soul departs from the dead body.  For as the body without the spirit is dead, so then faith without labors is dead also. ^{(James 2 verse 26.)}  Therefore, those with new born faith, have been given a new beginning in the Life of God, by the same Spirit of God that raised up our Savior, Jesus Christ, and have been given a new pliable heart of unselfish love.  That new heart, being enhanced with the renewing of the mind, is the same Spiritual Heart of the Spirit of Christ Jesus that will also labor thankfully in the Love of God.  O taste and see that the Lord is good!  ^{(See Psalm 34.) (See also 1st Corinthians 3 verse 16 thru 18 and 1st Corinthians 6 verse 19 thru 20.)}

And Jesus said to them, “A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it? Or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lamp stand?  For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.  If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” And Jesus said to them, “Take care what you listen to.  By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he (thinks he) has shall be taken away from him.” ^{(rMak 4 verse 21 thru 25.)}

Paul write in his letter to the Romans: For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is 'in' Christ Jesus our Lord.  ^{(See all of  Romans 8 verse 35 thru 39.)} I am also persuaded of God's faithfulness to all those that are alive in God's love that is within Christ Jesus.  But did the reader ever notice that the wanton will or lust of the man or the woman is never mentioned as a disqualifier to God's attentive Love.  You can not both love God and the ways of the world, for you will either love the one and hate the other. ^{(See Matthew 6 verse 24.)}  Paul, in another form, will bring a warning in Romans chapter 11 as he makes a comparison of the unbelief of the Jew to that of the faith of the believer.  Now if the faith of the unbeliever is mingled in the mire of unbelief, then they need to be careful, and repent, so that they are not also cut off from God's goodness that is rooted in the Tree of Life, Christ Jesus.  ^{(See Romans 11 verse 13 thru 22.)}

Peter also has a stern warning to the false teachers and their followers: These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb: The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire. ^{(See 2nd Peter 2 verse 17 thru 22.)}

Mystery Menu

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Robert Glenn Pratten