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KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES
"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of
God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part 178
THE SEVEN ANGELS WITH THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES
(continued)
“And
I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled
up the wrath of God…and the seven angels
came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white
linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden
vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever” (Rev.
15:1,6-7).
When
our spiritual mind comprehends that God has entered into a living covenant with
all His people, then we are able to understand clearly why God would send His seven-angels-ministry to pour out the vials
of plagues upon His people. We are
living in the hour when God has a controversy with His people because they are not keeping the covenant! He is leading, but they are not following! He
is speaking, but they are not
listening! He is calling, but they are not responding! He has redeemed them for a high and holy
purpose, but they have other plans. They
expect to be blessed, but they are not obedient. They are living far beneath their privileges as
the people of God, they have polluted the sanctuary, they have walked after the
flesh instead of the spirit, they have mistaken the soulical for the spiritual,
and have preferred religion over reality.
Therefore
the Lord will come to His people as a refiner’s fire and as fuller’s soap; He
shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purge the sons of
Levi, and purify them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an
offering in righteousness (Mal. 3:1-3).
THIS IS ALSO
THE MINISTRY OF THE SEVEN ANGELS AND THE SEVEN PLAGUES! The Lord comes out of His holy place in a
ministry to purge and purify His people! This is the Lord’s ministry coming out of the
midst of God’s called and chosen elect!
The “seven messengers” bespeak a mighty move of the Lord as a people goes
forth under the seven-fold anointing of the Spirit! For this ministry they are anointed to bring
God’s righteous judgments upon the Lord’s carnal people, to bring chastening
and purification, to correct what is wrong in the congregation of the Lord!
In
this wonderful process of purging the miner mines the ore out of the darkest
depth. The miner has it in his mind that
he will go after the ore. Now, it’s not
easy to obtain the ore. The ore is in
inaccessible places, and it requires great effort and endeavor for the miner to
obtain the precious ore. The refiner
then goes after the ore. The ore doesn’t
go after the refiner. I have never heard of an ore
searching for a refiner! You never will. I’m sure if the ore had feelings it would
have absolutely no desire to be
refined! It’s the refiner who goes after
the ore. Somebody says, “I sought the
Lord.” Well, that’s how it appeared to
you, my friend, but the truth of the matter is the Lord sought you. He sought you in the darkest depths of the
flesh and the bestial system of this world, and He brought you forth and made
you His. You are ore brought up from the
depths of sin and death, yet polluted with impurities and distracting,
incompatible substances. While we praise
God for His mercy and grace so lavishly bestowed, the fact remains that the
heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked — who can know it? But now, praise His name! the ore belongs to
Him. That is what happened in
redemption, we became His property, purchased by His blood. But my, what a mixture, even of religion and
carnal, fleshly, self-efforts to serve God, we have had! So little of the gold of His nature and power has been seen embedded there among all the earthly
impurities.
The
ore is now the property of the miner who mined it, but the mixture is
there. Both gold and silver are found in
nature, but not in their pure form. They
come mixed with, or imbedded in, various other kinds of rocks, minerals, and
metals. No jeweler would want to work
with natural gold with bits of rock or sand in it. Nor could such impure stuff be beaten into
thin sheets, nor fashioned into fine rings, bracelets, or necklaces. And no one likes a ring that turns their
finger green! No, gold and silver as
they are found in nature do not have, in themselves, much usefulness. In that state they can serve no high purpose. They must first be separated from all the
impurities that naturally accompany them.
And the process for doing this is called refining.
Our lives as sons and daughters of God are like
that! There is so much that is
worthwhile in us, such a precious treasure of God’s own life within our spirit,
but so much also that is worthless.
There is so much that is of God, and so much that is of self. So much that is of the spirit, and much that
is of the flesh, the carnal mind, and the soulical religious nature. So what does the great and eternal Miner have
on His hands? He has a mixture! And that is why there has to be the furnace
of fire. That is why there must come
from the fiery presence of the divine
glory the seven angels having the seven last plagues filled with the
passion of God! The ore which God’s own
people are, in that mixed, raw, unrefined state, brings no pleasure at all to
the Refiner, nor does it fulfill any useful or high and holy purpose in His
plans. Of these He says, as He said to
the seven churches of Asia, “With you I am not
well pleased…I have somewhat against you!”
Our
Father in His sovereign purpose sees each of His children, but He cannot use
all that He sees. The ore is wonderful
relative to its pure precious metal content, but it is ugly and disgusting
relative to the impurities that are mingled therein. He is unable to use His people in that
condition of mixture, so He comes to them as a refiner’s fire. And immediately they wonder what is
happening! What is happening is that HE
is appearing, and I might add, He is showing up in a form that they did not
expect. Yes, it’s the same Jesus, the
lovely Saviour who so graciously saved us by His grace, but He comes now, not
to forgive, and bless, and thrill, and coddle, and wink at all our childish
ignorance and carnality, but He comes as a refining fire to purify the sons of
Levi! He comes now to lay the axe to the
root of every tree that bears no good fruit!
It is necessary that testings come.
It is necessary that God’s people be tried in the fire. It is the fierce heat of this oven of God’s dealings that
separates the gold from the dross. It is
the seven-fold heat that purifies the gold, and we must not be amazed or
troubled by it. The fire of God brings
the separation and purity without destroying.
Isn’t it wonderful!
“He
shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver…” He sits — this is a process that requires
time, this is something that is important to Him, something He must patiently
sit and preoccupy Himself with, not a work to be rushed nor accomplished with
one grand sweep of His hand. To the one
being refined it becomes very monotonous, for it seems the process will never end. He SITS!
From the moment the Lord’s people were redeemed by the precious blood of
Christ, the Lord has been planning and preparing to move in sovereign power to
accomplish His great work of purifying and refining what each and every one is
as His instrument in the earth. He
examines the ore, ugly, shapeless, not representative at all of that beautiful
vessel He has in mind; but there it is, just a hunk of jagged, dirty ore, with too much
alloy. He moves to change that, and
under the crucible they go!
“The
words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth,
PURIFIED SEVEN TIMES” (Ps. 12:6). There
are the seven angels, the seven messengers — the seven-fold word of the Lord! This word of the Lord is not only purified by
the refining fire of God, it is also a burning word which purifies all unto whom it
is sent! Seven is the number of
perfection. It reveals the great truth
that God’s own nature will be produced in the fire. He will heat up the furnace until His people
have been perfectly cleansed, refined, and purified, nothing remaining but
HIMSELF. That which the Lord is
receiving unto Himself cannot be of an inferior quality to Himself. The gold — ah, it is HIM. The silver — it is of HIM. How marvelous is the grace by which He has
birthed us out of His own Spirit — making us “partakers of the divine nature”
(II Pet. 1:4). Yet we must be “purified
seven times.” It is like the grades in
school, the farther along you go the harder the lessons become!
How
long, think you, would it take a workman with a hammer and chisel to crush the ore and
extract the gold from the rocks in which it lies so closely embedded? But if they are flung into the great furnace,
and fires fanned to torrid heat and the draught roars through the burning mass,
eventually a great glowing stream of pure and fluid metal, from which all dross
and rubbish are parted, flows into the waiting mold. This is a parable of what God will do for His
people whom He has purchased with His own blood! At first the surface of the melting metal may
be dark and lurid — deep orange red, over which a flickering flame shall pass;
but, as the process is pursued, the color will become lighter, the dark fumes
will pass off, and the metal shall bear the appearance of a highly polished
mirror, reflecting the beholder’s face.
The process may be long and hot; BUT THE RESULT IS SURE! Ah, no one looks forward to this refining
process, but come it must! No one will enjoy the ministry of the seven
messengers out of the temple having the seven last plagues, but meet them they
must! “Christ also loved the church, and
gave Himself for it; that He might
sanctify and cleanse it with the
washing of water by the word, that He might present
it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such
thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:25-27).
I
would like to tell you that the fire will get cooler, I would like to assure
you that God is going to reduce the temperature,
I would like to promise you that God will not add to the fire another reagent,
I would like to give you my word that the “plagues” poured out upon you by the
seven messengers will not really be that difficult and painful, but as God’s
minister I cannot tell you that.
Everybody wants to hear about the good, the gifts, the blessings, and
glory all around. And while we praise
God for His goodness and blessings day by day, I can assure you that none
of that will bring you to perfection and full stature in Christ! Only the consuming Holy Ghost fire of
God can bring the scum to the surface of our lives, where He scoops it
off. More fire and more heat and more
and more impurities rise to the surface to be removed by His dealing hand. The process continues hour after hour, day
after day, week after week, month after month, year after year
until He can look into the molten silver and see His own image, His own
reflection, His own face perfectly and clearly, and nothing else! So long as He
can look into that furnace and not
behold His own face clearly and purely and precisely and perfectly — the heat
stays on. In the same way, as soon as
one of the angels’ plagues has finished its purifying work, another plague is
poured out. There is an intensifying
scale until the word of the Lord in us has been purified seven
times! “TAKE AWAY the dross from
the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the silversmith” (Prov.
25:4).
This
is not a moment for fine words or eloquent speech. This is an hour for very plain speaking. The prophet Malachi asked the burning
question, “Who may abide the day of
His coming? and who shall stand when
He appeareth? for HE IS LIKE A REFINER’S FIRE, AND LIKE FULLER’S SOAP: AND HE
SHALL SIT AS A REFINER AND PURIFIER OF SILVER…”
Indeed,
who may abide — endure — wait for — the day of His coming? The vast
majority of the Lord’s precious people are content in that spiritual place
where they are. So many are satisfied
with the forgiveness realm, the blessing realm, the gift realm where all is
received by free grace through faith.
Everything in these elementary realms is free! There are no conditions, no qualifications,
no price — neither is there any great attainment in God. It is the realm of children, of babes in
Christ. “Ask, and you shall
receive.” To the spiritual children
Jesus promised, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them
that ask Him?” (Mat. 7:11). The world of
little children receiving gifts from their parents is a blessed world indeed! But spiritually it is just that — the world
of little spiritual children. It pains me to say it, but the truth is
that even most of the ministers in that realm are themselves just babes in Christ.
The
question follows — Who will wait for the day of HIS COMING, for His coming as a
REFINER’S FIRE? Ah, beloved, this is not
the blessing realm! It is something
beyond the gifts, blessings, and benefits obtained by grace through faith. In that realm you truly have been purchased
by the Lord and are His possession — but you are but ore, mixed with many
impurities, unworked, undealt with, and of small value in the courts of His
kingdom. So now God will bring His
people to the REFINING, PURGING, CLEANSING, AND PURIFYING REALM! It is the realm of the making ready of the
bride, of qualifying for sonship, of preparation for the kingdom, of readiness
to rule and reign with Christ as kings and priests unto God. And who shall stand — or who can withstand —
who can stand against it, who can escape it, who can stop or prevent His
appearing as the refining fire? No one,
may I answer, shall be able to withstand or stand against His coming when He
appeareth! The seven angels with the
seven plagues are coming! And yet, there
is blessed consolation even in that, for the plagues are the last
plagues — finishing, completing, and perfecting the work of God in His
people! The last! Aren’t you glad!
THE SEVEN VIALS GIVEN TO THE SEVEN ANGELS
“And
one of the four beasts gave unto the
seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for
ever and ever” (Rev. 15:7).
There
is nothing in prophetic imagery more striking than this picture of the seven
angels issuing in solemn procession, from the sanctuary of God’s manifest
presence and glory. One of the four
living creatures, in the midst of the throne, signifying the spirit of sonship
authority from the throne, delivers
to the seven messengers the vials from which the passionate correction of God is to be poured out upon the
inhabitants of the earth-realm, the world of the carnal Christians.
Our
translation “vials” is completely misleading to the English reader. The word is better rendered “bowls.” The present day use of the word vial usually
relates to a small, slender bottle. The
word in the Greek text is phialas and refers to a flattish and rather shallow bowl or basin,
to which a handle was attached, able to contain liquids, and designed to either
drink them from it or pour them out. It
was in these also that the incense in the tabernacle of Moses and the temple in
Jerusalem was carried, which was the
type of the scene John beheld in spirit when he wrote, “And when He had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty
elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden
vials (bowls) full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints” (Rev.
5:8). It seems very evident to me that this very
fact is teaching us the great truth that when the work of God’s wrath or
passion is complete, all the people of the Lord will be sending
up their prayers, thanksgiving, and praises as a sweet savour, as the
fragrance of incense, into the presence of the Lord. Oh, yes!
The
“plagues” poured out of the bowls bring the spirit of purification and
transformation into the lives of men.
This is not an act of judgment, that is, of punishment, as we think of it, but rather an activity of
purification! It recalls the action of
the angel in Isaiah’s inaugural vision, taking a burning coal from off the
altar and touching Isaiah’s lips (Isa. 6:6-7).
Beholding the manifest glory of the Lord Isaiah had cried, “Woe is
me! For I am undone, because I am a man
of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” But the coal placed on Isaiah’s lips does not
mean Isaiah’s judgment, punishment, or destruction; instead it is good news,
for the angel says, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.”
Purification does not come easy!
Hot coal burns, as does the
cauterization of an infected wound.
Surgery might take away a part of us in order to make us well; we may
not want to lose anything, but pain and loss may be necessary in order for us
to experience actual healing.
Most
commentators, when viewing the plagues poured out into the earth, interpret
them as divine judgment or punishment.
They tell us that “plagues” bespeak wrath, torment, and destruction
of the wicked. Those who tell us this say
that the seven last plagues are the common figure of divine terribleness toward
the guilty, the final retribution upon rebellious mankind on earth. But if this be so, why, I ask, yea, why are there such crescendos of
celestial music, such scenes of heavenly rejoicing, such positive declarations
affirming that because God’s judgments are now made manifest ALL NATIONS SHALL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE
THE LORD! And why is the sign of the
seven angels with the seven last plagues declared to be GREAT and MARVELOUS —
WONDERFUL and AWE-INSPIRING! Why not say
that the sign of the seven angels with the seven last plagues is terrible
and frightening, or grim, dreadful, grievous, appalling, distressing,
fearsome, horrendous, monstrous, and terrifying? But no — the sign is great
and marvelous — mighty and wonderful! Furthermore,
if their work is that of vengeance and destruction why do they step forth from before the ark of the covenant — from the
very presence of God upon the mercy-seat?
And why do they come forth in
the garb of priests? And why do they come bearing the very
bowls which carry the incense which is
the prayers of the saints? My, what
a shallow, confused, misguided mind-set the teachers have who teach the book of
Revelation!
With
these truths fresh upon our minds let us remember that the seven angels are
commissioned to “pour out the bowls of the passion of God upon the earth” (Rev. 16:1); and they are also the seven spirits of
God “sent forth into all the earth.” Is it not clear that the seven spirits of
God sent forth into “all the earth” is but another picture of the seven angels
pouring out their vials “upon the earth”?
It is the same seven-fold administration of God affecting the
earth-realm! It is the mighty word and working of God by His
Spirit! Oh, yes, there is vengeance,
wrath, passion — but it is directed at the carnality and error in men, not to
destroy them, but to consume the carnal mind-sets, manifestations, and works
that grow out of the fleshly and soulical nature. It destroys the religious sham of Mystery
Babylon, not consuming the people, but bringing down the apostate system that
enslaves them!
Do
you long to truly affect and impact the earth-realm, my friend? Do you want to see a mighty shaking and
change in the earth? Does your heart
yearn for God to move in mighty spirit-power to bring forth the word of God in
such authority and with such illumination that it will overwhelm all the
kingdoms of the flesh and all the soulical powers of man, bringing a glorious
change and transformation? How our heart
cries out for this!
Our Lord Jesus has taught us to pray that
great sonship prayer in which are
included these magnificent words, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” Is it possible — faintly, vaguely
possible for God’s will to be done in earth in the same totality and
completeness as it is done in the heavens
of God’s Spirit? In heaven the will
of God is done absolutely, totally, completely!
But on earth — you know about Osama bin Laden, you know about Fidel
Castro, the Islamic Fundamentalists, the Chinese Communists, the gangs,
pedophiles, drug lords, and godless humanists.
If you take the terrorists into account, and all the vulgar movies, the
divorce rate, the crime rate, the sexual immorality, the crooked politicians,
and the apostate religious systems — do you still think the will of God can be
done in earth as it is in heaven? I’m
going to tell you something. You’re
dreaming, it’s wishful
thinking, it’s a pipe-dream; you’re whistling in the dark; you’ve got your
fingers crossed hoping for the best — unless you know which earth the Father’s
will has to be done in first, completely!
It is significant to note that neither Luke nor Matthew records Jesus as
asking for the Father’s will to be done ON earth, but rather, IN earth. “In earth” does not mean the outer world of
mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, and oceans; nor yet the outer world of
governments, organizations, institutions, churches, agencies, cities, farms,
and buildings. Man himself is the earth! “The first man is of the earth, earthy…as
is the earthy, such are they also that are
earthy…and as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the
image of the heavenly” (I Cor. 15:47-49).
“But we have this treasure in earthen
vessels…” (II Cor. 4:7). “Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt
return.”
My
interest is not “Thy will be done in earth…” and earth is that which is outside
of me, farthest away from me, over which I have no control. The cry of my heart is, “Thy will be done in this earth that I am” with the same
totality and completeness and absoluteness as it is done in heaven. And when God’s will is done in this earth
that I
am, and that earth which you are, and the other earth that your family, friends, and
neighbors are, soon it will take care of the whole earth, within and without!
THE TEMPLE FILLED
WITH SMOKE
“And
the temple was
filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power; and no man was
able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were
fulfilled” (Rev. 15:8).
From
the glory and power of God came a smoke, filling the inner temple. Smoke is frequently a symbol of the presence
of the Lord in His burning holiness.
Smoke is from fire, and our God is a consuming fire! When He came down to give the law, “Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the
smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked
greatly” (Ex. 19:18). Before Isaiah was
cleansed from his sin, he saw the vision of the Lord, high and lifted up, His
train filling the temple, with the attendant seraphim veiling their faces and
their feet, crying to one another of the holiness of the Lord of hosts (Isa.
6:1-4). Then “the posts of the door
moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.” When Aaron and his successors offered the sacrifice on the
great day of atonement, the Lord ordered that “he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar
before the Lord…that the cloud of the
incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die
not.” (Lev. 16:12-13). When the
tabernacle of Moses was raised up and dedicated, a smoky cloud of glory filled
it, and Moses was not able to enter into it because of the cloud of the glory
of the Lord (Ex. 40:34-35). When Solomon
built his wonderful temple it was large, everything was built to order, and
when they had finished it the whole nation assembled, lifted their hands, and
dedicated it to the Lord. God honored
their work by filling it with the glory
cloud and it was so filled with the smoke of His presence that no man could
enter in and the priests could not stand to minister because of it (I Kings
8:11-12).
Let
us further consider the import of the cloud of
God’s glory which filled the temple that Solomon
built in Jerusalem. That temple was
without doubt one of the most magnificent structures ever designed and raised
up by the hands of men from the dawn of history even unto this day. You will remember that when the building was
finished they brought the ark of the covenant and all the holy vessels from the
tabernacle of David upon mount
Zion and the priests
deposited them in their proper places in the temple. Solomon then assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, and all
the people of Israel
gathered themselves unto king Solomon at the
feast of tabernacles. When every priest
was in his place, and all Israel
assembled before the temple, the great
choir of Levites, arrayed in fine linen, having cymbals, harps, and lyres —
stood in the outer court at the east end of the brazen altar, and with them 120
priests blowing trumpets; and when the trumpeters and singers were joined in
unison, making one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and
when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and other
instruments for song and praised the Lord — then the house of the Lord was
filled with the glory cloud so that the priests could not stand to minister
because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God!
Now,
we are prone to think that when the temple
was finally completed and
dedicated to God, the Lord sent His glory down from heaven. We conceive that the Lord rained down His
Spirit upon that temple, or that the cloud of His presence descended from
heaven and funneled its way into the house and filled it with glory. The simple truth of the matter is this: The
glory of Solomon’s temple
was not a descending glory! It
was not a glory that came down, not a glory that was somehow injected into the
house, but rather, the glory that filled the house was simply the breaking
forth of all the glory of God that had been built into the house! There were the wonderful cedars of Lebanon
transported from the mountains of that land.
There were the beautiful marble stones mined from King Solomon’s own
mines, hewn with exactitude and fitted together before ever they were brought
to mount Moriah. All the beams for the roof and the pillars of
cedar were carved to precision and polished, made to join each other; so that
as the walls arose, no sound of hammer or chisel was heard. The gold was the finest pure gold, all of the
ornate work was of the greatest and grandest craftsmanship. Every board characterized within itself
something of God’s own glory. Each stone embodied within itself the beauty
of the glory of the Lord. All the fine
linen, the brightly colored tapestries, the coverings of gold, the furnishings
of silver, and all that went into the building portrayed God’s attributes,
bespeaking the majesty of the God of Israel.
As each item was fitted into the structure something of God’s own glory
was set into the very fabric of the building.
The greatness of God, His nature, character, wisdom, righteousness, goodness, might, and
power — all was represented in what the
building was!
Thus
it was that when the priests, the elders, the king, the musicians and singers,
and all the congregation of Israel
lifted up their voice in praise, magnifying the Lord, God didn’t have to bring
any glory down. Oh, no! The glory that was builded into the house — ERUPTED
OUT FROM THE MIDST OF THE HOUSE! The
breaking forth
of the glory out of the house was the natural and unavoidable result of the glory
that had been set into the house. It
simply broke out and burst forth! I
think it is time for God’s people to wake up to the real and true purpose of
God within us as His temple in the earth!
I find in these days that many of the Lord’s elect are just flowing
along with the move of God, filling their heads with knowledge, gaining a lot
of revelation, learning the terminology, singing the songs, mouthing all the
right things, but without that deep and vital working of God within which
transforms the life and nature. We
cherish the hope set before us, while continuing on in our natural pursuits,
struggling with our daily issues, awaiting God’s appointed hour when all of a
sudden, boom, bang, the Lord will descend from heaven, pour out His glory,
infuse us with divine life, wisdom, and power, and in an instant we will be
transformed and step forth as the manifest sons of God, walking the earth
glowing in the dark with lightning bolts flashing from our finger tips.
You
can’t deny it — some of us have been waiting for that! God’s got an hour, God has ordained a day,
and when that time comes glory is going to fall down out of the heavens, great
things are going to transpire, and we will be changed and filled with His
glory. Let me assure you, my beloved,
that’s not how it’s going to
happen! You see, God is not pouring out His glory in this day. Oh, no!
God poured out His Spirit, He shed forth His glory two thousand years
ago and the mighty working of that poured out Spirit has been in the earth
since that blessed day. So God’s work
today, or tomorrow, is not pouring out His glory — His work today is in-working
that glory! Is not this what Paul had in mind when he
wrote, “And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus
Christ Himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: IN WHOM YE ALSO ARE
BUILDED TOGETHER FOR AN HABITATION OF GOD THROUGH THE SPIRIT” (Eph.
2:20-22). Ah, God is building His
holiness into that temple which
we are. He is building the glory
in! He is inworking within each stone,
each board, each tapestry, each son
in this glorious house the very life, nature, wisdom, and power that HE IS. All this marvelous work of God in our lives
is triumphantly carried out by the Holy Spirit within the temple of our
body. The glory that shall be revealed
in us will not be a descending glory, it will be an ERUPTING GLORY! It will be the “built in” glory BREAKING
OUT! The simple truth is just this: If
there is no divine glory worked into the inner fabric of our lives, there will
be no glory to break
forth in the great day of His unveiling. If the power of God, the nature of God, the
love of God, the wisdom
of God, the incorruptible life of God has not been established and raised up
within us in our daily experience and walk on this earth, then we might as well
forget about any such thing breaking out of us to deliver creation and set men
free, for such a thing will not happen.
It
is the will of God that the eyes of our understanding should be enlightened,
and that we might know what hope God had when He called us. Let us consider the Headstone of this
wonderful temple of living stones. Jesus,
when He trod the pathways of earth, was the temple of God
in that day. Standing in the court of
Herod’s magnificent temple
He declared, “Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again” This angered the Jews, and they retorted, “It
took forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three
days!” But they did not understand that
He spoke spiritually of the temple which was
His body. Therefore, when He had
risen from the dead His disciples remembered that He had said this and they
believed upon the word Jesus had spoken.
Oh, yes, Jesus was the temple — the indwelling and incarnation of God on
earth!
It
is of great importance that we see how Jesus became the temple of God. Do you know, my beloved, what made Him the temple of God? Was it just because the Holy Spirit without
measure dwelt in Him? Was it because it
was not Him, but the Father in Him, doing the works? How wonderful are the words of the firstborn
Son of God, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Can we say that? How many of us, sweating by the side of the
freeway in the scorching afternoon sun, our car broke down, no phone to call
for help, no water to drink, and the kids are screaming, would truthfully be
able to say to the first person who stopped, “If you have seen me, you have
seen the Father!” Let us consider with
care the words the Father spoke from heaven at the river Jordan when He declared the sonship
of Jesus. He said, “This is my beloved
Son.” But He didn’t stop there! There is another significant phrase connected
to that wonderful sonship declaration: “…in whom I am well pleased!”
THIS IS MY SON!
What words are these! But what
made Him a Son? It wasn’t His preaching,
surely, for Jesus had not yet preached His first sermon in the synagogue of Nazareth. It wasn’t His miracles, certainly, for Jesus
had not yet turned the water into wine at the wedding in Cana
of Galilee. It wasn’t His prophetic
office, for He had never
yet revealed the secrets of any man’s heart.
It wasn’t his casting out of devils, for not one demon spirit had fled at
His authoritative word. It wasn’t the signs, wonders, miracles, or the
raising of the dead to life again, for Jesus had not done even one of His
mighty works when He came to the Jordan. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased” was spoken of Jesus at the end of thirty years in the carpenter shop
of his father, Joseph. This was not “my
beloved Son in whom I am going to be well pleased just as soon as His miracle
ministry gets under way and He has died and risen and ascended.” Oh, no!
The Father was pleased with the Jesus of the carpenter
shop, the Jesus who had heard and learned to know His voice, the Jesus who had
learned His ways, the Jesus who submitted to His dealings, the Jesus who obeyed
all that the Father commanded Him. He
was pleased with the Jesus who learned mercy, truth, discernment, love,
forgiveness, purity, holiness, wisdom, righteous judgment, faith, and obedience
in the nitty-gritty of everyday life in the dusty streets of the far-flung Roman
outpost of Nazareth. The nature of God, the character of God, the
word of God, the ways of God, and the will of God has been meticulously inworked
into His very state of being —
and that is what made Him a Son in
whom the Father was well pleased! Surely now we can plainly see that the glory
that was manifested through the next three and a half years of Jesus’ sonship
ministry was simply the breaking
out, the bursting forth of that glory which had been inwrought and
established as the inward law of His life!
It was not really a descending
glory — it was an ERUPTING GLORY!
Many
of us have been anticipating the Father’s voice announcing our sonship. The day will surely come when again
the Father will speak out of the heavens of the Spirit, proclaiming, “These are
my beloved sons, in whom I am well pleased!”
Today it is my deep conviction that we have not yet heard that voice —
the reason we haven’t heard it is because God will never make the first declaration until He
can also make the second. God will never say, “These are my
sons,” until He can say, “in whom I am
well pleased!” He is still working
on us, the temple is still growing unto an
holy temple in the Lord! Can you not
feel the blow of His hammer upon you?
Can you not discern the working of His chisel, the fine instruments of
His divine craftsmanship? Can you not
feel the blast of His furnace as He watches over you in the fire to see His
image come forth?
Ah,
sometimes we suppose that the work is almost accomplished, we imagine that the
silver in us is approaching its absolute purity. But then the great Refiner adds a chemical
reagent (as it were) which reacts with the impurities that remain in the silver
and those impurities rise to the top.
The beauty is obscured. He then
rakes all those impurities out the door of the furnace. The silver returns to it former beauty, reflecting mirror-like the flames. Without doubt, now the process is
complete! But no, the great Refiner adds
another reagent and the same thing happens all over again. This process goes on day after day after day
— the work of God in us! We look at one
another and think we all reflect the beauty of Christ from within. Then God casts some circumstance into our
life and suddenly the beauty of the Lord in us becomes clouded over as things
come to the surface that we were not even aware were in our hearts. Yet — the process is sure, and the refining will end. In that blessed day Father will stand us up
in our own Jordan
and we and all creation will witness the voice that comes from heaven — “THESE
ARE MY BELOVED SONS, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED!” And then shall we go forth in the power of
the emerging,
erupting, exploding glory of the Lord!
NO MAN COULD ENTER THE TEMPLE
“And
the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of
God, and from His power; and no man was
able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were
fulfilled” (Rev. 15:8).
Let
us return to Solomon’s temple
for a moment. It is stated that when the temple was
complete, at the time of its dedication, the glory of the Lord so filled the temple that not one of the
priests could enter into it to minister.
There was not a man who could approach that dazzling glory or stand
within the precincts of its awesome power.
What a marvelous thing that is!
Here in our text it says that no “man”
could enter into the temple
because
of the glory of God and His power. That
is, no man, no flesh, can minister. God
is about to move in a new and transcendental way, bringing forth His sons in
the power of His kingdom. Nothing of the flesh will enter in to
this new realm in God! It means that
only a refined, pure, perfected people will be able to stand in the fullness of
His glory! God is calling upon us to lay
down our lives, that His life might be raised up in us.
It’s
not just about ministering — it’s
about entering in. “No man was
able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven
angels were fulfilled.” Men would be
able to enter the temple, the naos, the
most holy place — but only after the
final plagues have accomplished their work!
The temple, the naos, the most
holy place was opened, there was no veil, no covering of skins, nothing to keep
one out — except the intensity of the glory of God and His power! How utterly awesome! The most holy place is the symbol of the
fullness of God, the fullness of His glory and power, incorruptible life,
divine nature, throneship, kingship, priesthood, and manifest sonship. Will others be able to enter into this glorious place in God? Absolutely, for we are but the firstfruits of His redemption! God will bring many more sons to glory and
more besides that — until HE IS ALL IN ALL!
But no man can enter this realm until the seven angels with the seven
last plagues, the seven last stripes, the seven last chastenings and
corrections have finished their work in the earth-realm, burning out all the
flesh, the carnality, the sin, and corruption, and the smoke of the burning has
cleared away. Consider this! The crystal sea mingled with fire
accomplishes this work in the firstfruits, the seven angels with the seven last
plagues accomplish the same work in rest of the Lord’s people. That is the mystery!
No
man (of those upon whom the plagues were falling) could enter into the Holy of
holies, into the fullness of His presence and majesty, until the perfecting and
transforming work of the Spirit is finished in them! When the purification is finished they will be the
bride made ready, the holy city, New Jerusalem, having the
glory of God, whose light is like unto a stone most precious, even like a
jasper stone, clear as crystal. At the
time God performs this upon His people at large, no one will be moving into a
higher place in God until the plagues have fully done their work! Ah, yes, God is opening the door for
all His people to come on up and come on in!
But it is impossible to enter into the heights of God short of
perfection! Our Father in His great mercy
and wonderful purpose is preparing just the ministry to change all His people
who today ignorantly sit in the pews of the religious systems of man — the
ministry out of the most holy place, the ministry of the sons of the most High,
the seven messengers having the seven last plagues. What a work that will be! That is the mystery.
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Updated
by Sharon Eby 02/27/2015 04:06:08 PM