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"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of
God..."
Part 254
THE EPILOGUE
(continued)
“I am Alpha and
I
am certain that most of the readers of these lines are aware that Alpha is the first letter of the Greek
alphabet and
It
is my conviction that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the firstborn among many
brethren, when He walked on earth, was the Alpha — the first expression of the
Word of God in man. I also know and am
sure that the Christ perfectly and fully formed in a many-membered body, the
manifest sons of God, is the
“Called the sons of God!” The truth is, my friend, that very few of the
Lord’s people are routinely called “the
sons of God.” They are called
Christians, believers, saints, church members, Baptists, Methodists, Catholics,
and many other things, but not “the sons of God.” This is due to the fact that very few of God’s
people have any knowledge or revelation of sonship. The unique thing about this manifestation
of sonship is that we will still
appear as men. But men will confess of
us as they did of the firstborn Son, “Truly these are the sons of God!” “Thou
art the Christ, the sons of the
living God!” A great number of people
confessed Jesus’ sonship and we today proclaim Him as the Son of God. But we wouldn’t dare say it of anybody else
we know — we might confess that they are in some “reckoned” or “honorary” sense
considered sons of God but we would not call them sons of God on the basis of
the almighty power, the divine
THE BEGINNING AND THE END
“I
am Alpha and
Not
only is Christ the beginning, He is
the end of all things! Mankind is yet groping about in the dense
darkness of the carnal m
Everything
in history is moving inexorably toward a day when Jesus shall have conquered
everything and everyone. Like a mountain of dirt before a gigantic bulldozer
steadily moving forward, all that can be conquered is being collected into the
loving arms of Jesus, whose right it is to rule. When Christ ascended on high after His resurrection, He led many
captives out of the prison house and also set forth His great purpose: “Now He
that ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts
of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens THAT
HE MIGHT FILL A-L-L T-H-I-N-G-S” (Eph. 4:9-10).
The message is clear — redemption includes the complete transformation
of the entire universe and all that is within it so that God in Christ shall
truly FILL ALL THINGS. There shall not
be left one corner of this vast universe, nor one creature in it, where He
shall not be Lord and King. Everything
everywhere shall be restored to the beautiful harmony and order of the love of
God.
All
that God has ever done or ever will do, all that He has said or ever will say,
will ultimately redound to His glory, that
He may be “All in all” — and why
not? “In the beginning GOD…” Everything else is because of God — God’s love, God’s
In
these days many people are seeking to know what and when the end will be. At this
time of frustration and confusion, men want to know what God will bring
to pass in the end. Many years ago heaven
shed its light in my spirit and I saw clearly that if we could know something
of God’s beginning of things, we could then understand something of the
end. A clearer conception of the beginning would give us a clearer
knowledge of the ending. In connection with this, I would like to
quote from a book called The Gospel of Thomas. While it has not been accepted
as being inspired, along with many other apocryphal writings, there is still
truth to be gleaned if we can separate the meat from the bones. The Gospel of Thomas consists of a series of
sayings attributed to Jesus. On one
occasion Jesus is reported to have said, “I will give you what eye has not
seen, what ear has not heard, what hand has not touched, and what has not
arisen in the heart of man.” The disciples
said to Jesus, “Tell us what our end will be.”
Jesus said, “Have you then discovered the beginning, so that you enquire
about the end? FOR WHERE THE BEGINNING
IS, THERE SHALL BE THE END. Blessed is
he who shall stand at the beginning and he shall know the end and he shall not taste death.” Here is blessed confirmation of what we
have known from the scriptures and by the spirit of revelation from God! Jesus says that if we know the beginning and stand at the beginning, we
shall know the end, and we shall not taste death! What a word!
Is
it not true that in the beginning there was no sin, no sorrow, no pain, no
tears, no limitation, and no death?
Behold Jesus Christ! HE is the
beginning and HE is the end! Are they
not both the same? HE abolishes
death! HE wipes the tears from off all
faces! HE swallows up all sorrow and
crying! HE brings life and immortality
to light through the gospel! It is in Him that we have life, and have it more abundantly! All that is happening now came out of the Beginning and will bring us to the
Ending. If Jesus Christ is the End, then this does away with all
this teaching in the church systems about everlasting hell and damnation being
man’s final end, for HE IS THE END. Sin
is not the end, death is not the end, judgment is not the end, hell is not the
end, fire and brimstone are not the end, damnation is not the end, for CHRIST
IS THE END! Though men be processed by
judgment “unto the ages of the ages,” neither that judgment nor those ages are
the end — they are merely a means to
the end, there is an end that lies at the
conclusion of the ages — and that end IS CHRIST! Aren’t you glad!
“God
sitteth upon the circle of the
earth,” said the prophet Isaiah. While
the word for “circle” in the Hebrew
This
great principle has been called “The Law of Circularity.” Some would have us believe that this is a
“New Age” concept, but I do not hesitate to tell you that such a notion is far from the truth. If it is a New Age concept then they borrowed it from somewhere, for this
great Law originated with GOD! It is found written by inspiration of the
Holy Spirit all through the scriptures and is inscribed as well upon every law
of nature within the cosmos. “For from Him and through Him and to Him are
all things — for all things originate with Him and come from Him; all things
live through Him, and all things center in and tend to consummate and to end in Him. To
Him be glory forever! Amen” (
The
Law of Circularity requires that just as all things began in Christ, all shall
end in Christ. “I am Alpha and
THE FIRST AND THE LAST
“I
am the first and the last…” (Rev. 22:13).
The
word “last” is the Greek word eschatos meaning
“the farthest or final” of place or time.
The theologians have added the suffix ology to this word, creating the term eschatology which is a fancy word
THEY THAT WASH THEIR ROBES
“Blessed
are they that wash their robes, that
they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates
into the city” (Rev. 22:14).
Oh,
have your eyes truly seen the city of
There’s
a story in Greek mythology about a king named Augeas, who owned a stable with
3,000 cattle in it. The stable had not been cleaned for decades, and the king
was seeking for someone to thoroughly clean the stable, a monumental task for
any man. Hercules accepted the challenge to clean the stables. But he did not use a shovel. Instead, he changed the course of two rivers
and made them flow through the stables to wash all the filth away. The Greek word for “pure” in the phrase “the
pure in heart” is the same word from which we get the word “catharsis.” When you go through a catharsis, you go
through a cleansing that flushes out impurities. Jesus says that if you want to see God, you
must have a pure heart, a heart that has been purified, washed clean by the
blood of the Lamb. “
How
may we enter the city and see God? How may we get there now, now, now, this
very day? Listen! I can tell you because I know! I know!
There are many things I do not know.
The things that I do not know — well, there are no books that would
contain them. But I know how to get to
that river, how to enter that city, how to get to that tree of life, and I know
how to eat of the fruit of that tree.
That is something worth knowing!
Now, I know! I do not say that I think. I am not
guessing. How do I know? I point you to the words of our text. “Blessed
are they that wash their robes…” I call your attention to that
reading. It is not the old reading, as
in the King James Bible. The old reading
of that passage is, “Blessed are they that do
His commandments.” That is not according
to the Greek text at all. I do not know
why these old translators put that in; but the fact is this, that it is
absolutely different from the original, which is properly translated in many
other versions just as I have quoted, “Blessed
are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to come to the
tree of life, and may enter in through
the gates into the city.” The way,
then, to enter in through the gates into the city, and to have the right to get
to the tree of life, is to WASH YOUR ROBES!
The
spirit of every man has two robes — the soul
and the body. The soul is the personality with its components of mind,
will, emotion, and desire. The body is
the outer vehicle through which either spirit or soul expresses itself. You must be clean vessels. You must get your blood cleansed, and your
body cleansed. You will never get into
that city, and you will never be able to take of the tree of life, until your
robes are cleansed, and you can do it now. How may I get to the tree of l
When
a man’s heart is cleansed; when his soul, dark and foul as night by nature, is
made whiter than snow; when his mind is renewed, his will is exchanged, his
emotions are quickened, his desires are transformed; when his blood is cleansed
from the impurity of generations; when his body is yielded and made a temple
that God can be at home in and use and flow through, then that man’s robes have
been washed in the river of life, which is
the blood of the Lamb! Then he
can enter in through the gates into the city, then he can eat of the
incorruptible life and the incorruptible word in the fruit of the tree, and
then he can bring to this sin-cursed and disease-smitten world leaves of the
tree which are for the healing of the nations.
Thank God the tree grows still, and thank God the leaves have not lost
their power to bring healing for every malady to every nation under heaven!
There
is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And
sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stain!
OUTSIDE THE CITY
“For
without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers,
and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie” (Rev.
22:15).
Note
that there are six things mentioned. Six, in the numerology of scripture, is the
number of man, that is, the natural
man, in the totality thereof. These
bespeak of the fullness of the flesh nature
and the works of the flesh. Those
outside the city do not signify some
future condition into which God shall thrust men. Oh, no!
It is descriptive of where men are right now in their relation to
God and His city. “Seal not the
sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the
time is at hand.” The time is now! The
place is here! Outer darkness represents that realm
which is farthest from the light. Some
men, though not entering the city, do walk in the light of the city. But those men who walk far from God and His
city are groping about in the gross outer darkness even now. It is not a future state, but a present
reality! Billions wander there. But, thank God! men are not eternally
confined to that condition, for only two verses later the Lord Jesus, the
blessed Saviour of all men, cries out: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.
And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come.
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:17). And for how long will they be able to
come? “And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there
shall be no night there” (Rev. 21:25).
Isn’t it wonderful!
“For
without are dogs…” Dogs come off rather badly in
scripture. This does not mean there will
be no literal dogs in heaven! But
because dogs were scavengers in the ancient world, they were considered unclean
and impure, and were used by the people of Israel as the designation for
Be
kind to that dog, but do not give that which is holy to him. If it is baring its teeth and snarling and
snapping, be kind. All you can do is to
be kind, loving, and gentle. The dogs
are part of God’s creation! Even the
little, nasty, mangy dog that gets kicks from everybody will look up when you
say a kind word, and wag its ugly little tail.
It will say, “I have found a friend at last.” You do not need to give a great deal of pious
talk to a dog. There are looks and acts
which come from loving hearts which are far more eloquent. If you can only give a small pat, perhaps you
might win even that poor little dog; it has need to be both pitied and
respected. Truly, if we pity the poor
little dog, can we not pity these people who think and act and live like
dogs? Can we not take into consideration
the fact that oft times they
Our
Lord Jesus Christ in the course of His preaching came into the coasts of
Now
a remarkable thing about Jesus going into such quarters as these is this, that
He
In
that wonderful instant this woman begins to pray to Him. She has a daughter that has a devil, and she
is emboldened to ask for healing for her daughter. Oh, I see Him standing there, and He looks at
her with great compassion, and yet He utters words that are just the bitterest that
can come from His divine lips. He looks
at her, and she is pleading, “Oh Lord, you will not send me away. You have healed so many; you have saved so
many; please don’t send me away.” He
looks at her and He says these words: “I am not sent but to the lost sheep of
the house of
This
woman did not know how to stop praying.
She had been to Christ, and also to the apostles, and she goes after
Christ the second time, and always finds a repulse. Yet she goes after Him again! I like to see that woman. Now, you watch what she says this time. This time she
goes right off, and sees where her error has been. She
goes after Him, and she seeks Him until she finds Him, and then she
falls at His feet; and for the first time she does that which gets her an
answer to her prayer — she worships Him.
Notice her prayer. The first
prayer was a long one, a very long one, and this prayer is a totally different one.
It is a very short one. “Then she
came and she worshipped Him, saying, LORD, HELP ME!” When she worships Him her prayer comes right
down to three words. What are they? When she worships Him she says, “Lord, help
me!” And how does He answer her? Oh, how mysterious it is; the most cruel
answer that could come from human lips seems to come from His lips that
day.
There
she is; she is worshipping Him. She
says, “Lord, help me.” And now
the great Lord raises Himself, and points down at her, and says, “It is
not right or proper to take the children’s
Now,
did she stop praying? Not a bit of it. That woman went right after Him quickly. She went to His feet, and she made her last
appeal, and I think it one of the most touching things in all the story of
prevailing prayer in the scripture. All
her heathen pride has gone. She cannot
give up the hope that is bound up in her.
She hears Him call her, even in the words that repel her, and she goes
to His feet, and she says, “Lord, that is true; I am only a dog; but the little
dogs” (for that is the word in Greek — the little dogs, the wee little dogs) “eat from the crumbs that fall
from their master’s table, and I will take the place of a dog, but I want this
crumb. Help me; help my devil-possessed
daughter. Give me that crumb.” Now, the Lord looks up, and now He speaks the
words that ring through the ages, “O woman” — His own heart is touched to the
deepest depths by her humility — “O woman, great
is thy faith! It has stood all these
testings; it has stood all my hard answers, all my silence, all the apostles’
reproaching, all of my driving you down and back; and now you are willing to
take the place of a dog. YOU SHALL TAKE
THE PLACE OF MY OWN DAUGHTER. O woman,
great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.” She willed
her daughter’s
It
seems to me that the scene above is one of the most outstanding and shining
examples of the infinite mercy and unconditional, unrestricted, unbounded, and unending
love of o
How
I admire our wonderful Lord and Christ for walking rough shod over the
worthless traditions and hypocritic bigotry of prideful and self-righteous men,
pausing to minister with compassion and mercy even to the dogs that crossed His
pathway. Jesus moved for the dogs! Let everyone who has ears to hear stop and
take earnest heed, for these examples reveal powerfully to us the heart of our Lord toward the dogs, which
also must be the heart of all who become the sons of God. And now, in our
present
THE MORNING STAR
“I
Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the
churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star” (Rev. 22:16).
Oh,
yes, there is a dense and dreadful darkness outside the city, a darkness
inhabited by dogs, sorcerers, whoremongers, murderers, idolaters, and
liars. But in the very next
Then
there are mists that rise like wraiths above the streams. Shadows and shapes come and go. Voices are calling to each other. Things are in motion and undefined. The star has come and gone and the interval
between the star and the sun is on. The
sun comes after the star is gone, or the star disappears because of the
surpassing glory of the sun. The sun
comes like one who has a bow, and he goes forth conquering and to conquer. He shoots his gleaming arrows upward and they
fall slanting into the eyes of men to awaken them. All the land is flooded and drowned in light,
and every mountain, every valley is disclosed.
These symbols have been applied by divine authority to the coming of
Christ. Do you enquire what is the
Morning Star? It is the Lord Jesus
Christ! And what is the sun of
righteousness that rises with healing in its rays? It is the Lord Jesus Christ, but the Lord
Jesus seen, experienced, and known in a totally different dimension. The symbols proclaim it. The coming of Christ is compared to the
Morning Star. He comes to us, He comes
to all, like that bright and morning star!
He is the herald, the
So what do we see — when does the morning star
appear in the natural world? Just before
the dawning of the day! Who sees
it? The one who has been moving in the
dark and dreary hours of the night.
Anyone acquainted with natural things, or who has traveled by night,
knows that the appearance of the morning star is hailed as the intimation that
day is at hand. In the morning darkness
it shines with a most wondrous, clear, silver light, dazzling as a gem of
rarest hue. Someone once wrote: “At 4:00
A.M. I awakened and looked out my window which was half covered by frost, and
half was clear, and there I saw the bright morning star. As I lay there for a while beholding the
brilliance and beauty of that star, I slipped away into sleep. When I awoke again the brilliance of the sun
flooded my room.” Is it not thus with
God’s Christ, with God’s Day? Now we see
Christ, the bright and morning star, the firstfruit, the forerunner, the
prototype, the sample and first specimen of what God has purposed and planned for
each and every man and woman of
How
plain, how practical the application!
There is a remnant of God’s people over the whole earth that has taken
heed to the word of this prophecy as to a light that shines in a dark
place. We have Jesus’ own word for it —
HE HIMSELF is the Morning Star — and that Morning Star has shined in our
hearts, foretelling the approach of Eternal Day at the arising of the Sun of
Righteousness. This remnant has fixed
their eyes on Jesus, they are looking away from all the darkness of this world,
from the chaos of sin, sickness, pain, rebellion, crime, drugs, tyranny, war,
hatred, injustice, fear, and death stalking the earth; and they are looking
away from the seeming hopeless carnality of their own lives, away from people,
away from politicians, away from limitation, from everything to the Everlasting
Hills of God.
There
is to be a restoration! Today we see a
terrible lack of things being right, or in divine order. There is a divine order for creation, an
order of life and harmony. There is a
proper order for animal life, vegetable life, and human life. There is a proper order for every planet, for
every world, for every life form throughout the infinite stretches of
space. But all things are out of order,
in frightful chaos. The curse must be
lifted, every enemy put under our feet.
All creation is groaning and crying for release from the bondage of sin,
decay, and death. And everything hinges
on that body of sons that is to be manifested in that perfect state of divine
order. Jesus is the Morning Star
proclaiming the soon arising of the Sun.
Christ glorified in His many-membered body, the increase, expansion, and
intensification of that Light of Life
which He is, is the ARISING OF THE
SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WITH HEALING IN HIS RAYS BRINGING THE GLORY OF THE
DAWN! Those who receive of His fullness
of life, nature, victory, and glory, who put on His wonderful mind, who are conformed
to His glorious image, with a full and complete triumph over sin, carnality,
and death — these make up that blessed company of the Sun of Righteousness that
shall shine His penetrating Light of Life upon all men and all things.
Praise
God that we are living in the times of this restoration. It is the greatest day in the long history of
man. It is at hand. I know it’s at hand because heaven has spoken
and I see a people being pressed and processed into the very life of God. Not only you and me, but all creation as well
will thrill to what God brings about in this grand and glorious restoration! “The creation itself also shall be
To be continued… J. PRESTON EBY
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