All These Things...Pt 1 of 2

the seed

In the closing days, God simply recognizes the free and final decision that

His created beings have made. Few are understood to be as Jesus' spiritual

contemporaries, implying that Jesus anticipated the experience all these

would have in their own lifetime based upon all that he himself endured.

These are the spiritual generation akin to Genesis 3:15. Jesus would

envision his likeness contemporary generation to witness his second coming

and would be confined to a group of people being time-bound on a spiritual

level, not being defined by racial or ethnic affiliation, as those who do the will

of his Father who are Jesus' real brother, sister. Humanity is now divided into

two communities: the elect, who love God, and the reprobate, who love self.

The characters of Genesis will be either of the seed of the woman that

reproduces her spiritual propensity, or of the seed of the serpent that

reproduces his unbelief. Here is the grace of God made great and extensive

to the first pair. Born through this woman, a living mother of living children,

was Jesus Christ, the Seed.

In this review may we consider the world as divided, according to its usual

division, into four parts, Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and take notice

of the extent of the several countries, their population, civilization, and creed.

These may be divided into Christian, Jewish, Mahometan, and Pagan. There

are other considerations that prevail in these designations that oppose the

will of God which presents a dreadful scene of ignorance, hypocrisy, and

profligacy. Various baneful, and pernicious errors appear to gain ground, in

almost every part of what is deemed Christendom. The truths of the gospel,

and even the gospel itself, are attacked, and every method that the enemy

can invent is employed to undermine the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

All these things are loud calls to God’s faithful to exert themselves to the

utmost in their several spheres of action, and to try to enlarge them as much

as possible. If the prophecies concerning the gathering of Christ’s kingdom

be true, and if what has been advanced, concerning the commission given

by him to his elect being obligatory on us, be just, it must be inferred that all

true believers ought heartily to concur with God in promoting His glorious

designs and purposes, for he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit in the

same. The first, and most important of those duties which are incumbent

upon us, is fervent and united prayer. There is to be a great mourning in the

land. Fervent prayer shall esteem abundant influences of the Spirit upon

God’s chosen. The most glorious works of grace that have ever taken place,

are in answer to prayer; and it is in this way, we have the greatest reason to

purpose, that the glorious out-pouring of the the Spirit, which we expect at

last, will be bestowed. We must not be contented however with only praying,

without exerting ourselves in the use of means for the obtaining of those

things we pray for. Were we, the children of light, but as wise in our

generation as the children of this world, we would stretch every nerve to gain

so glorious a prize, nor ever imagine that it was to be obtained in any other

way. If there is any reason for us to hope that we shall have any influence

upon any of our brethren, and fellow others, probably it may be more

especially among them of our own family. Let us desire with all our heart, that

everyone who loves our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, would in some way or

other engage in this. But in the present divided state of truth, it would be

more likely for good to be done by each individual engaging separately in the

purpose. We are to be in the cause of God. When all these things are done,

what a harvest there will be.

pray the harvest

God has an elect who will bring letters from heaven in the character of Christ.

These speak the words of God, and nothing they say suggests of human

infirmity. The words spoken will be both substance and language of divine

origin. They speak according to the proportion of faith, and are to be received

as sent of God. Given diversities of gifts, these now are blessed as was

Jesus to receive that spirit of God given without measure. These are to be

those who are the seed that brings forth the final and right harvest. We are

the sum total of those born in the same time, expanded to include all those

living at the given time and defined in terms of specific

characteristics, generation, and contemporaries. These are the ones who

are continually pressing the word to seize every true concept. The bible says,

“the law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of

God is preached, and every man presseth into it”. Their zeal and

earnestness, energy, determination, and self discipline are wonderful traits

that match a violence against the ploys of the enemy. Few there be that will

overcome the difficult obstacles that lead to life. Men and women who are

desperate for salvation violently want to come in to full salvation in Christ.

"presseth into it"

That is the striving with might to gain the truth. We have an enemy within us,

enemies without, enemies beneath, enemies of the world, those who would

be saved must be violent, because of the opposition encountered. The

weapon of this violence is the sword. And the force of it is but the truth and

love and sacrifice and the power of God. We are fighting for the kingdom not

of this world. Too many are calmly idle when it comes to studying the word

of God. We must have a desperation in our prayer, in our pursuit of truth, in

our pleading to God for His will to be done. Faith is a spiritual force that grows

and develops in the heart, in the spirit of man. When we are dealing with

faith in God, faith from God, and the faith of God, we must realize that God

is a Spirit. Therefore, faith in Him is a spiritual issue to be discerned and

operated spiritually. Bible faith is of a man's born again spirit, not of his mind

sealed

or flesh. It is a spiritual force of the mind of Christ! Faith does not insulate us

from the trials of our day. But it does ensure that we come out of every

situation on the Lord’s side. The close of human probation has been delayed

by human sin and unbelief, but the return of Christ will be accelerated

through their consistent living of holy lives consistently obedient to the

commandments and progressively sanctified and then sealed as "holy" and

"righteous" by the enabling power of God, through the power of the Holy

Spirit so Christ can come.

Christ is the sum of all these things…he is the way, the truth, and the life.

The primary work of Jesus on the earth during his first coming was to suffer

and die for the forgiveness of sins and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Dying was not his only mission. But it was central. In shedding his blood, he

purchased and secured the new-covenant promises. God’s promise that all

who enter the coming kingdom will have their sins forgiven, will have the law

written on their hearts, and will know God personally. The blessings of this

covenant are crucial in enabling us to obey God’s commandments. Which

makes Jesus’s death of supreme importance in bringing about the faithful

obedience that God commands. Let us understand that Christ is all, in all the

counsels of God concerning man. In every part of the testaments Christ is to

be found. Indistinctly at the beginning as to the eye, the ear, but clearly

distinguishable by faith. More evident and apparent in the middle, by divinely

inspired instruction, and fully and completely the Word of God at the end.

Being really and substantially everywhere God. In all the eternal counsels of

God the Father, in creation, redemption, restitution, and judgment, in all

these, Christ is “all.”

The abounding wickedness before the flood is but a shadow compared to

what is coming upon this earth. And that shadow was but a dark shape that

appeared when sin blocked out the Light. The last day will be shade! We are

talking about a total extent of darkness, and shade has no shape. And the

object blocking the Light is indistinguishable from the world…it is the church

racked with rank disbelief, disobedience, and deception found all over the

place. The church today is just using god-talk. It is such a wonder as to how

every purposes of God is reasoned for the good of His people. What purpose

has sin because all…all have sinned. It is because we have sinned that we

are equipped with a mercy for each other we can’t otherwise reach. Now we

understand why Christ is so merciful. He was tempted in every possible point

that every human being was. He is able to cry for us to the Father, to succour.

shadow

The byproduct of sin is humility, but its true purpose, I believe, is an exquisite

irony: to make us just a little more divine. A sincere faculty. A little bit of

shadowy help when we can’t quite get there with empathy contained in our

human form. The power of empathy is so divine. Empathy, from its source,

is practically indistinguishable from love. But while empathy is divine, we’re

only human. We can only forgive each other to the extent that our

humanness allows us to forgive. We don’t forgive the way the Divine forgives.

I charge every reader of this paper to ask yourself what the bible is to you. Is

it a book in which you have found nothing more than good moral precepts

and sound advice? Or is it the bible in which you have found Christ?

Please allow me to guard myself against being misunderstood. I hold the

absolute necessity of the election of God the Father, and the sanctification

of God the Spirit, in order to affect the salvation of every one that is

determinately saved. I hold that there is a perfect harmony and unison in the

action of the three Persons of the Triune, in bringing any man to glory, and

that all three co-operate and work a joint work in our deliverance from sin.

Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. But, at

the same time, I see clear proof in scripture, that it is the mind of the blessed

Godhead that a change must be determined with the Son, who is to be

prominently and distinctly exalted, in the matter of saving souls. Christ is set

forth as the “Word,” through whom God’s love to us is made known. Christ’s

incarnation and atoning death on the cross, are the great cornerstone on

which the whole plan of salvation rests. Christ is the way and door, by which

alone approaches to God are to be made. Christ is the root into which all

elected chosen must be grafted. Christ is the only meeting-place between

God and man, between heaven and earth. And Christ is the reason for our

purposed election. Christ is the One to whom we are given by God. Given

for pardon and peace. Now this I really mean…meaning throughly and

undoubtedly concerning real truth that some just say they believe, but it is in

Christ that we are made fellow heirs of all that is God’s. We have right to be

in the presence of the Most High.