Podcasts about Balak

Apostate Church Witchcraft (1)  (audio) David Eells - 11/26/23  Merchants of Babylon  David Eells  In the book of Revelation, only those that have the mark of the beast can buy and sell. (Rev. 13:17) No man should be able to buy or to sell, save he that hath the mark, [even] the name of the beast or the number of his name. But they will not escape God's wrath in the near future. (Isa. 24:1) Behold, Jehovah maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. (2) And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest to him. (3) The earth shall be utterly emptied, and utterly laid waste; for Jehovah hath spoken this word.  For the true meaning in this parable of buying and selling we must look for the hidden manna. (Rev. 2:17) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it. See also (Lk. 10:21). In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: yea, Father; for so it was well-pleasing in thy sight.  The letter kills but the spirit gives life. (2 Cor. 3:6) who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. Jesus spoke spirit during his ministry to the disciples. (Jn. 6:53) Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves; (63) It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, are life.   The Book of Revelation is called the testimony of Jesus. (Rev. 1:2) who bare witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, [even] of all things that he saw; (9) I John, your brother and partaker with you in tribulation and kingdom and patience [which are] in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. (19:10) And I fell down before his feet to worship him. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus: worship God; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy for which the saints are killed by the false prophets who only see the letter.   (20:4) And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and [I saw] the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. "Revelation" means an uncovering or unveiling and it is the spirit, not the letter, that does this! It is a sign (Rev. 1:1) The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show unto his servants, [even] the things which must shortly come to pass: and he sent and signified [it] by his angel unto his servant John; (2) who bare witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, [even] of all things that he saw.  The ones who "bought and sold" were destroyed by the fire in Lot's day. (Lk. 17:28) Likewise even as it came to pass in the days of Lot; they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; (29) but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Paul taught that those who do evil are "sold under sin". (Rom. 7:14) For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. (15) For that which I do I know not: for not what I would, that do I practice; but what I hate, that I do. Ahab, a type of the beast, sold his soul to do evil at the instigation of the Harlot Jezebel. (1 Ki. 21:25) But there was none like unto Ahab, who did sell himself to do that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, Jezebel his wife stirred up. (20) And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee, because thou hast sold thyself to do that which is evil in the sight of Jehovah.  In 2 Kings 17:17 those that worshiped the Image of the beast sold themselves and caused their children to go through fire. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger. (18) Therefore Jehovah was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.   Many in these days are like "Esau, who for one mess of meat (following after flesh) sold his own birthright" (Heb. 12:16) and was rejected. (17) For ye know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected (Greek: reprobate); for he found no place for a change of mind [in his father,] though he sought it diligently with tears.  Jesus rejected those in the temple (Christians in the New Testament) who bought and sold. (Mk. 11:15) And they come to Jerusalem: and he entered into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and them that bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold the doves. The foolish virgins missed the Lord because they went to buy from them that sold. (Mt. 25:10) And while they went away to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage feast: and the door was shut. They obviously were used to dealing with the hirelings, the "merchants of Babylon".  Jesus told his ministers "freely you have received, freely give. Get you no gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses" (Mt. 10:8-9). They had to walk by faith, with no salaries, no corruption. You can't hire God's ministers but then you can't fire them either. Some will say "Buy the truth and sell it not" (Pr. 23:23) but the truth cannot be bought with money. (Isa. 55:1) Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. (2) Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. (3) Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.   If the truth could be bought with money, the rich would have an unfair advantage, which contradicts what Jesus said: (Mt. 19:23) Verily I say unto you, It is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. (24) And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. We can only buy the truth with the cost of our own life and way. (Jn. 7:17) If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or [whether] I speak from myself. Peter said, "Thy silver perish with thee because thou hast thought to obtain the gift of God with money." (Acts 8:20)  To buy a lie, you must sell your soul. In a way, all those who buy and sell the merchandise (teaching, thinking, actions) of Babylon (apostate religion) are the merchants of Babylon. (Rev. 18:11) And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, for no man buyeth their merchandise anymore; (15) The merchants of these things, who were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning. The rich young ruler was bribed (bought) by materialism to not follow Jesus.   Many buy convenient Babylonish doctrines like this and sell their eternal lives. (Lk. 14:18) And they all with one [consent] began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a field, and I must needs go out and see it; I pray thee have me excused. (19) And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them; I pray thee have me excused. (Mt. 13:22) And he that was sown among the thorns, this is he that heareth the word; and the care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. They sell their soul for the pleasures of sin for a season. The treasures of Egypt are worth more than the reproach of Christ to them. (Heb 11:25) choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; (26) accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward.   We must sell our worldly life to buy our heavenly life, which is made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus' life. The body of Christ was sacrificed so that the corporate body of Christ would have power to sacrifice their lives. (Mt. 16:24) Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (25) For whosoever would save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it. (26) For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his life? Riches will soon be worth nothing but wrath.   (Eze. 7:12) The time is come, the day draweth near: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof; (19) They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be as an unclean thing; their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of Jehovah: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels; because it hath been the stumbling block of their iniquity. (20) As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations [and] their detestable things therein: therefore have I made it unto them as an unclean thing. (Rev. 6:6) And I heard as it were a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, A measure of wheat for a shilling, and three measures of barley for a shilling; and the oil and the wine hurt thou not.  One reason there is such an emphasis on buying and selling is because Christians don't obey God's word and walk by faith in the area of giving and receiving. Jesus commanded us to "give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom" (Lk. 6:38). An opportunity to give is an opportunity to receive it back multiplied or it is an opportunity to sit on or eat the seed. God gives to us not to make us rich but to "multiply your seed for sowing" (2 Cor. 9:10). (2 Cor. 9:6) He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. God follows this with this promise: (8) And God is able to make all grace abound with you, that you having always all sufficiency in everything may abound unto every good work).  On the other hand, he that sits on or eats his seed will have to buy and sell because he is disobedient and has no faith. This is where the merchants of Babylon are. They make "the Father's house a house of merchandise" (Jn. 2:16) when they peddle the word for salaries like the world. Peddling books, tapes, trinkets, chicken dinners, tours, etc., is the way of the world and for those who have an impoverished God. They make "merchandise of the word of God" (2 Cor. 2:17 in Greek). Why would anyone who believed the above promises do this? When a person is not sent by God he does not have faith that God shall supply every need (Phl. 4:19). Where God sends, He supplies. Without God's supernatural supply, people have to resort to other tactics to support "their ministry", like buying and selling.  Another tactic these ministers use is to put God's people under the law to support them when the scripture clearly states that our giving is "not of necessity" (2 Cor. 9:7). Let each man do according as he has purposed in his heart (not according to law); not grudgingly, or of necessity (not according to law), for God loveth a cheerful giver. In the New Testament, God wants an offering from the heart from those born of His Spirit. God made the Old Covenant with the Jews, not the church. If a doctrine like tithing is not in the new covenant, then it was never made with you!   Jesus, rebuking those under the Old Covenant, said "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cumin (even their seasoning), and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, Justice and mercy, and faith: but these you ought to have done (past tense in all ancient manuscripts and the Received Text) and not to have left the other undone" (Mt. 23:23). Jesus said tithing was of the law and in the past. Some say tithing was before the law. Yes, circumcision and animal sacrifice were before the law too but they were included in the law, and we are not under law to do them anymore. Paul also said tithing was of the law. (Heb. 7:5) And they indeed of the sons of Levi that receive the priest's office have commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though these have come out of the loins of Abraham: (6) but he whose genealogy is not counted from them hath taken tithes of Abraham, and hath blessed him that hath the promises.   (7) But without any dispute the less is blessed of the better. (8) And here men that die receive tithes; but there one, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. (9) And, so to say, through Abraham even Levi, who receiveth tithes, hath paid tithes; (10) for he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchizedek met him. (11) Now if there was perfection through the Levitical priesthood (for under it hath the people received the law), what further need [was there] that another priest should arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be reckoned after the order of Aaron?   There is no New Testament command or request to tithe because we are no longer stewards of ten percent. Jesus taught that we have to renounce ownership of the other ninety percent or we cannot be his disciple. (Lk. 14:33) So therefore whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. "All" here means all possessions, rights, and will.   We even must renounce "our" doctrine! It must be the Lord's doctrine. Since we have the Spirit we don't need a law; we are under the law of the Spirit. (Rom. 8:2) For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. The Spirit will tell where to give and how much and to whom. If everyone gave according to the Spirit the kingdoms of men would crumble and true ministers would be supported.   A person who is under the tithing law robs God because he will disobey the Spirit's command to meet the needs of the brethren around him in order to bring his "tithes into the storehouse", which to them is usually an apostate religious system that won't meet the brethren's needs. The storehouse in the Old Covenant was in the temple. (1 Kings 7:51) Thus all the work that king Solomon wrought in the house of Jehovah was finished. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated, [even] the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of the house of Jehovah...   In the New Testament the storehouse is in the people, who are His temple. (Mt. 25:34) Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: (35) for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; (36) naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. (37) Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? or athirst, and gave thee drink? (38) And when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? (39) And when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? (40) And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, [even] these least, ye did it unto me.   (41) Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels: (42) for I was hungry, and ye did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink;(43) I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. (44) Then shall they also answer, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?  (45) Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, In as much as ye did it not unto one of these least, ye did it not unto me. (46) And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life. You see we are called to meet the needs of the brethren. (1Jn. 3:16) Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (17) But whoso hath the world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him?   Giving according to the Spirit causes one to fulfill the law without being under the law. (Mt. 5:17) Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. (18) For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished. For instance, a person who gives bountifully will fulfill the ten percent and more, but they do it from the heart and are not seeking to earn God's approval as those under the law. We are not righteous before God when we attempt to please Him by the law, whether tithes, observing the Sabbath, circumcision, abstaining from meats, etc.   (Gal. 2:16) yet knowing that a man is not justified (Greek: accounted righteous) by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law: because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified and (3:11) Now that no man is justified by the law before God, is evident: for, The righteous shall live by faith. If we rest every day from our own works we certainly fulfill the Sabbath, without being under the letter of the law.  The righteousness of the law is self-righteousness because it is powered by self but "The righteous shall live from faith" (Gal. 3:11). When ministers of Babylon put you under the law they separate you from God's righteousness and bring you under a curse. Except your righteousness shall exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (law of tithe included), you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven (Mt. 5:20). The law is "a yoke of bondage". (Gal. 5:1-3) For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that, if ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. Yea, I testify again to every man that receiveth circumcision (or tithing, Sabbath, meats, etc.) that he is a debtor to do the whole law.  If you are under any part of the law you are under the curse of having to keep the whole law and since that is impossible you are separated from Christ. (Gal. 3:10) For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse: for it is written, Cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them. (5:4) Ye are severed from Christ ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace. Notice: those who put you under the law cut you off from Christ and grace. You cannot hear the voice of Christ and the voice of the law at the same time. "You are not under the law" (5:18).   The merchants of Babylon say, "you are not under the law", when they are talking about obedience to the word, but "bring your tithes into the storehouse," when they talk of money? "In covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you" (2 Pet. 2:3). In verse one of this text we are told this is the false prophets and teachers who bring in destructive heresies (law) and deny Jesus. They deny Jesus by separating Him from His body. "Forsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam... who loved the hire of wrong doing" (15).  Friends, if you know a minister, one of the few, who walks by faith and freely gives the true doctrine of God, support him as the scriptures teach. (1 Cor. 9:6) Or I only and Barnabas, have we not a right to forbear working? (7) What soldier ever serveth at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? (8) Do I speak these things after the manner of men? or saith not the law also the same? (9) For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. Is it for the oxen that God careth,   (10) or saith he it assuredly for our sake? Yea, for our sake it was written: because he that ploweth ought to plow in hope, and he that thresheth, [to thresh] in hope of partaking. (11) If we sowed unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we shall reap your carnal things? (12) If others partake of [this] right over you, do not we yet more? Nevertheless we did not use this right; but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. (13) Know ye not that they that minister about sacred things eat [of] the things of the temple, [and] they that wait upon the altar have their portion with the altar? The Word will be our judge as to whether we are buying and selling with the world.   Witchcraft In Apostate Churches  Tianna Fire 12/8/22 (David's notes in red)    I dreamt that we were driving through a town, but we stopped to get paper and pens from a shop. Samuel waited in the car. There was only one shop in this town that sold items, like a general store. It looked like it used to be white, but it was now a dark and dirty white and it was very old and didn't look like it was well taken care of. The building was an 1800s style house that had been converted into a shop. (The old dirty store represents the apostate church where the true Gospel that was once given is now sold. It has been polluted by religion and false leadership.) Mat 23:27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.   Luk 11:39 And the Lord said unto him, Now YE the Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter; but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness.)  When I got into the shop it was packed with people all standing around and there was also a very long queue. (There are many people looking for the Truth but they are not getting it from the false apostate leaders.)  They had a few items for sale in the part where everyone was waiting but most of the items were kept out in the back of the shop and also in the basement, which was blocked off to the customers. (Like Mormons and JW's they hide a lot of teachings that they know are unacceptable to other Christians. They only reveal these things after they feel they have you on the hook. The false leadership in the apostate churches merchandise very little truth which they sell to the sheep because they don't have the real Gospel to give them. Mat 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye enter not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in to enter.)  (Col 1:26-27 even the mystery which hath been hid for ages and generations: but now hath it been manifested to his saints, 27 to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 1Co 2:6-7 We speak wisdom, however, among them that are fullgrown: yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nought: 7 but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that hath been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds unto our glory:)   So, to get what you wanted you had to wait in line to ask the cashier lady if they stocked it and if they did, you had to wait around until she went and got it. (Waiting around for supplies represents the Nicolaitan error.) Rev 2:14-17 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there some that hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication. 15 So hast thou also some that hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans in like manner. 16 Repent therefore; or else I come to thee quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it.)  There were also people in the queue who hadn't even found out if the shop stocked or even sold their item yet. (People go to the same church for years, looking for Jesus, waiting and never find what they came for and become lukewarm there just accepting what they hear.)   Everyone seemed very distressed, because it was taking such a long time and there were so many people. While I was there, I didn't see anyone receive the item they were waiting for. (Many in apostasy are in distress, continuously praying for healing and provisions and for God to answer prayer, never learning how to receive their needs by faith in prayer. No one learns how to minister to others. They expect the pastor to do everything, because “he is the one in charge” in their churches. This is a part of the Nicolaitan error.)   As I waited in line, I overheard someone talking about Jesus which made me very excited. I joined in their conversation, and they professed to love Jesus, however they seemed to be religious and not understanding spiritual things. But I was still so happy to be able to speak about Jesus and God's Word! Then many other people in there heard us talking about God and they confessed to love Jesus too. I was so happy that there were so many people who loved our Lord.  I started speaking with this married couple who had young children and I blessed and prayed for the children. I then stood closer to them on their right. As I did, I accidentally came too close to a man with his son. This man got very angry and upset with me and I apologized, and I told him that I loved him and his son and I desired God's blessings and love and joy to be upon them both. He became offended at that, and he said he was a Christian and he thought I was rude. (NENT Php 1:9-10 And this I pray, that your love abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; 10 so that ye may approve the things excellent; that ye be sincere and void of offence unto Christ's day.)  (Some people are easily offended, unable to come closer to those who are full of the love of Christ. Pro 18:19 A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city; And such contentions are like the bars of a castle.)  (Pro 19:11 The discretion of a man maketh him slow to anger; And it is his glory to pass over a transgression.)  So I spoke blessings on him and moved on, speaking with other Christians and sharing The Real Good News. It turned out that every person in this shop was a professing Christian. The lady who worked there said that because everyone there were Christians that we should all discuss a topic. Someone shouted to discuss God's Glory! She then brought up a slideshow on a big giant screen that was behind her which had Bible verses related to Glory.  People started sharing their man-made doctrine that used only partial scripture, and not the sum of thy Word. (1Ti 6:3-5 If any man teacheth a different doctrine, and consenteth not to sound words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; 4 he is puffed up, knowing nothing, but doting about questionings and disputes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, 5 wranglings of men corrupted in mind and bereft of the truth, supposing that godliness is a way of gain.) (Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.) Someone said that as soon as we start believing in Jesus that we then have God's Glory and nothing else needs to be done. Someone else said that God loves everyone, and everyone will be saved. I felt love for all the people, but I knew what they were saying wasn't true and I desired for them to know the Truth.  (Mat 15:9 But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men. 2Ti 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts; 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables.)  I was sharing testimonies about what God has done for me and what He has shown me, and as much Truth I could without getting into teaching. They brought up scriptures and used them out of context to say that we are saved automatically when we start believing in Jesus and that nothing else is required. They also spoke about how we are already purified and it doesn't need to manifest on earth. That we will all be the same in Heaven. (The apostate church has very little truth and see only the letter, but error after the teachings of their leadership who are not filled with the Holy Spirit and many times aren't even saved. The “once saved always saved” is just one of their false doctrines. 1Ti 4:1 But the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.)   I was then reminded of these verses: NENT 1Co 15:39-44 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fishes. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.)   I knew that these verses revealed what they believe wasn't correct, I wanted to quote these verses to them but then I realized it might be teaching so I didn't say anything. I stood there confused about why all these Christians who profess they love Jesus are twisting the Word and are unaware of the real meaning. I asked God why He didn't want them to know about the star, moon, sun glory and about spirit, soul, body manifesting Jesus on earth. I then heard Him clearly say, "It's not for everyone to know." (Jesus spoke in parables to keep the truth hidden from the religious leaders and those who want to be self-justified in His day and He still does it today. Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. But those who have ears to hear, will hear and understand.)  So, I walked out of the shop and spoke to Samuel about what happened and we both agreed that we desired for all of them to come into the Kingdom of God, so we interceded on their behalf. (Our Lord interceded for us and we are to pray for others.) 1Ti 2:1 I exhort therefore first of all to make supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, for all men. 4 who would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth.)  Then Samuel called David Eells to ask for advice. David Eells then physically appeared in front of us. David was a little shorter than I have seen him in videos, and his eyes were a bright blue. (Psa 8:5 For thou hast made him but little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honor; Blue eyes represent heavenly discernment of the light of truth. Mat 6:22 The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.)  I was surprised that he appeared instantly, but I was so happy to see him and I gave him a big, long hug and I felt so much spiritual love for him and I didn't want to let go of hugging him. I felt love, peace and gentleness radiating from him. (Php 1:8 For God is my witness, how I long after you all in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus.)  He then said, "You need to go back in there and testify of the Truth." (Sharing a testimony of what a truth did for you is permissible for women. Especially when you are speaking to lost religious people. Teaching the younger women is also permissible. Tit 2:4-5 ASV  that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,  5  to be sober-minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed:  Teaching men the Word should be left to the men. 1Ti 2:12 ASV  But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness.) So, I walked to go back into the shop, and I heard David and Samuel interceding and speaking the Word as I walked away. (As an example to us Jesus sent out the 12 and then the 70 men to teach the Word of the Kingdom.  They were commissioned to go to all and be bold and stand with God and His Word. Act 22:15 For thou shalt be a witness for him unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard.)   (Deu 31:6 Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be affrighted at them: for Jehovah thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Psa 118:6 Jehovah is on my side; I will not fear: What can man do unto me?)  I walked past a building that was right next to the Christian store. I looked through the door and I saw a lady lying on her back on a couch. I instantly saw in spirit that she was a witch. But in the natural she looked like an attractive woman. She wasn't selling anything in this building, but it looked like she lived there. She had dark hair and light, white-blue eyes (Dark hair represents submitted to darkness. Her eyes represent a false light, which is similar to what I have seen in people in real life who are involved in the occult.) (This woman could represent church denominations and we know that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. 1Sa 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim….)  She was dressed very seductively with red lipstick, heavy eye makeup and she was wearing a crop top, a short purple skirt and long black boots. I saw into her soul and saw she was intending to do evil. (Job 15:35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, And their heart prepareth deceit. Pro 12:20 Deceit is in the heart of them that devise evil; Mar 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries…)  I saw that she would physically be resting in her shop but through witchcraft in the spiritual realm, she would seduce random people who walked past this building and would come into her. She wouldn't always sleep with the people, but she would give them even more demons and lead them into deeper sin. (Demons are transferred through sex and by accepting the thoughts of lies, slander, gossip, etc., and by words of agreement with the sensual desires. (Temptations of the lust of the flesh.) We have protection from all this when we obey God and keep His commandments.)  (Pro 7:5-13 That they [My commandments and wisdom] may keep thee from the strange woman, [Harlot] From the foreigner that flattereth with her words. 6 For at the window of my house I looked forth through my lattice; 7 And I beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, A young man void of understanding, 8 Passing through the street near her corner; And he went the way to her house, 9 In the twilight, in the evening of the day, In the middle of the night and in the darkness. 10 And, behold, there met him a woman With the attire of a harlot, and wily of heart. 11 She is clamorous and wilful; Her feet abide not in her house: 12 Now she is in the streets, now in the broad places, And lieth in wait at every corner. 13 So she caught him, and kissed him, … (The kiss represents her words.)   Pro 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; But the end thereof are the ways of death.)  She then tried to project witchcraft onto me and I saw the witchcraft, which kind of looked like frequencies or rays of electricity come out of her to touch me. It was blocked a few feet in front of me because there was a bubble of protection all around me in the spiritual, and nothing could get through the bubble. She was surprised at this and couldn't comprehend what happened. (Those who love the Truth will be protected from their deceptions. Eph 6:10-13 ASV  Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might.  11  Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  12  For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13  Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.)  I blessed her and kept walking to the Christian shop. I was wondering why they set up a shop right next to a witch. (The apostate church is compared to a harlot because they receive not the seed of her husband. This is witchcraft.)  I went back into the store and I stood at a specific corner where I could see everyone in the room. I spoke to everyone who would listen, giving my testimony of the Truth of the Word. I could see in the spirit, and through walls. I saw witchcraft projecting from the witch directly into this shop; it came out like tentacles and would wrap around a person and quickly pull them into where she was. It seemed that if the person's will and desire was to go where the woman was, they'd be taken. People were left in the shop if it wasn't their will to follow her. (1Sa 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because thou hast rejected the word of Jehovah,... Hos 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge…)   (2 Cor 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ.)   I saw the long tentacle grab onto one Christian man, and he became aroused, and he ran out of the shop and into the other women's shop. I then saw it happen again, but differently. This next person was not taken by physical arousal, but they had a weak spot of coveting, and they were convinced that by going to the witch, they would get all the money they wanted. It was as if this witch knew every person's weak spot and she would attract each person using their weak spot. (The demons see and know in the spirit realm how to work in spirit groupings of seduction using the lusts of the flesh and the sin nature. But if they would submit to God's Word and resist the devil he would flee. I have seen people drawn into faction through selfish ambition, jealousy and rejection.)  I watched this lady in spirit attract each Christian out of the store one by one, like an octopus using its tentacles to draw its prey. When the witchcraft would come upon each person, they would quickly change and would run over to where the witch was, not thinking about anything else. Every time the witchcraft would come into the store, I would be supernaturally lifted up high to the roof where I could see everything. I was up so high that it couldn't touch me, nor could any human touch me. (Dwelling in heavenly places in Christ, we are protected from evil.)  I watched every person in the store get taken in the spirit into where the witch was until I was left alone in the store. (The Christians in this shop were part of the apostate church and not equipped with the Spirit and Word. Having no ability to fight against the temptations of the flesh. They were seduced by the harlot and her witchcraft, so they gave into their lusts. God sovereignly protects His elect and He will deliver them from the works of darkness at an appointed time. The enemy works to tempt people away from the Kingdom of God and cause them to fall away.)      Apostate Church Vanity   Tianna Fire 1/26/23 (David's notes in red)     I dreamt that Samuel and I were driving, and we saw this giant building to our left, sitting on a very large area of land, and it had a big cross on it. There were no cars parked outside, so it looked like no one was there. Because we saw the cross, we thought that we should leave them a Sovereign God book. So, we parked out front and went up to a window and looked inside the building. A few women were there and when they saw us, they came out quickly. We did not want to talk to them, only to just leave the book and go.   One of the women that came out, was a woman that worked at the grocery store, and she was always there when Samuel went to get groceries, so Samuel knew her. Another woman was the wife of a man that kept inviting us to his church, but we didn't want to visit his church. We now realized that this building was his church.    They urged us to come inside and we didn't want to hurt their feelings, so we said we would come in quickly just to see the place. When we went inside, it appeared 20 times bigger than what the outside looked like. (Like the megachurches.) One of the ladies told me to go to the children's section because I was carrying David. I honestly didn't want to, but I didn't want to upset her so I just did what she said. (Pro 29:25 The fear of man bringeth a snare; But whoso putteth his trust in Jehovah shall be safe.) I walked to the back of the building and entered this large colorful room that had an indoor children's playground, and many children running around and there were a couple of people watching them play.  I felt this was vanity and a distraction from Jesus. I then saw a poster listing different activities during the week for children and one of them was like child daycare. All the activities were vanity and had nothing to do with Jesus. Samuel and I prefer having David always with us, so I said, “Well there's no reason for me to be here because we aren't doing the daycare thing, and we only want to do things involving Jesus.”  So, I turned to leave and go find Samuel, but I got lost in the large building. There were so many different rooms and hallways and everything was set up weird. (The apostate church system causes confusion to ensnare people.)  Then a man came running out of a room and said something with much excitement for me to go look where he just came from. I didn't want to be rude to him, so I just followed him and he led me into a massive library, and all the walls and shelves were all sorts of bright colors. I commented on how I love all the bright colors, especially the bright yellow. (The attraction of bright colors arouse the senses and emotions to please the flesh. Pro 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; But the end thereof are the ways of death.)   There were people sitting around a table discussing a book that wasn't the Bible and there were many large shelves with thousands of books. I asked him about the books and about Jesus, and he said most books here are not really about Jesus and if they were, they contained incorrect doctrine. Which confused me because this was a church, so I expected everything to be about Jesus. (The apostate church leaders write many books about another Jesus, another Gospel and merchandise the people. It's all their works of the flesh. 2Co 11:4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if ye receive a different spirit, which ye did not receive, or a different gospel, which ye did not accept, ye do well to bear with him. 1Ti 6:3 If any man teacheth a different doctrine, and consenteth not to sound words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; 4 he is puffed up, knowing nothing…)   I wondered what type of Bibles they had, and I couldn't find Bibles anywhere. I thought maybe I should leave a Sovereign God book here so God can lead the right person to find it. (Hos 4:1 Hear the word of Jehovah, ye children of Israel; for Jehovah hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.)   The man that led me into this room started hitting on me, and I thought this was crazy, this is a church and supposed to be brethren in Christ, and I am married. I ignored the man and ran out of there to go find Samuel, but I couldn't find him anywhere. I walked around the entire place searching for Samuel, and I saw all different types of people, supposedly Christians, although no one was talking about Jesus. I was wondering, ‘Jesus where are you? I can't find you anywhere in this place, although they say that you are here.' (Like the Shulamite in Song of Solomon: Son 5:6…I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer. 7 The watchmen that go about the city found me, They smote me, they wounded me…)  I felt this whole place which claimed to be a house of God, had all the world mixed in it and the place felt corrupted and defiled and I couldn't see or feel the presence of God anywhere or in anyone. (The apostate church is a mixed multitude; the world is Babylon, from Babel, which means confusion and includes the harlot churches.) (Mat 23:28 Thus ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but inwardly are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.)  The whole building layout was completely confusing and so easy to get lost but I finally found the way to get out. Once outside I noticed heaps of people all gathered around at a café, and others standing around. And there were about 20 different small shops set up with many people everywhere. (This is how the megachurches are set up to draw the multitudes to network, socialize and merchandising.)   I was confused as to why no one is talking about Jesus; I felt no Spirit of God there, and I wondered why Samuel is missing? At this point I was disappointed that no one here really loves Jesus. I no longer cared what anyone thought of me anymore. I didn't want to do what they all wanted me to do, or think I had to be kind to them and agree to their requests.  So, I looked up at the sky and screamed out, "Jesus!” “Jesus where are you, Jesus?!” I think everyone around me thought I was crazy but I wanted Jesus and all these people claimed to be following Jesus but clearly were not. (Some in the apostate harlot churches are looking for Jesus, but don't always find the real Jesus...  Son 3:1-4 By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. 2 I said, I will rise now, and go about the city; In the streets and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. 3 The watchmen that go about the city found me; To whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? 4 It was but a little that I passed from them, When I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, Until I had brought him into my mother's house, And into the chamber of her that conceived me.)  I started walking past the shops, when this toddler ran up to me and told me that his father needed a new wife and asked me to be his new mum. I kindly told him that I already have a husband and he ran back to his father. I thought this place was so strange.     I looked into the shops as I continued to walk by. In one of the stores people were fighting and I thought this isn't how children of God are to behave. In another store they were selling cigarettes and things like that, and I was shocked as we knew those things were wrong. Another store had people looking at me strangely as if I wasn't from this world. (We are not of this world, as Jesus said in Joh 17:16 They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. To the average Christian, we appear out of place.) Then in another store, a man catcalled. At every store everything was completely overpriced and had nothing to do with Jesus, and no one was manifesting the fruit of Christ. I kept saying, “vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” (Ecc 1:2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; vanity of vanities, all is vanity.)  Everything in this ‘supposed church' was corrupt and had nothing to do with Jesus and I couldn't understand why. I just wanted to leave but I couldn't find Samuel anywhere. I finally got through these shops and into an area where there were no people. I asked God what He wanted me to do. He told me to go back there, and I said, “Lord nothing there has anything to do with You, and it's all corrupt and I don't want to go back.” He told me to go back and tell them all about His real Son Jesus and the Truth. So, I turned around and walked back the exact same way I came.  I opened the door to the first store and shared the real gospel, and they rejected it so I went to the next store and told them, and they wanted nothing to do with it either. (Mat 10:40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. Luk 10:16 He that heareth you heareth me; and he that rejecteth you rejecteth me; and he that rejecteth me rejecteth him that sent me.)  I turned around and saw two police officers going around into the exact same stores I had just left. It was as if they were following my steps, however I felt they were going to the places where I shared the Truth and we're exposing the corruption and arresting the evil. (The police may be the angels. Eph 5:11 and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them;)  I went into each shop sharing the Truth, but they all rejected it. So, I went into the café area and shared the Truth there, but everyone just wanted to go on with what they were doing and justifying their sin and corruption. I walked back into the children's area and library and testified of Jesus. (Like Jesus taught His disciples and the apostle Paul says in Act 20:21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 … that I may accomplish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Ministering the Gospel of Christ.)  I went to every person I saw and told them the Truth which finally led me to finding Samuel who was speaking to the leaders of this church. As soon as I got next to Samuel we walked straight out to the car and left.       UBM House Sanctified And Protected  Tianna Fire 4/25/23 (David's notes in red)  I dreamed that Michael, David and other brethren and I were living in my gramps Alan's old house. (Alan means harmony, little rock, and precious. This house represents the house of God's chosen or the elect, who are built on the Rock, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 10:4 and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ. 1Pe 2:6-8 Because it is contained in scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: And he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame. 7 For you therefore that believe is the preciousness: but for such as disbelieve, The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner; 8 and, A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence; for they stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.)  On one side of the house was a very large lounge room where all the brethren would gather for prayer, Bible studies and fellowship. There was a long hallway that led to the other side of the house where all the bedrooms were located. David's and Michael's rooms were located upstairs on the next level. (In an upper room, as overseers, overlooking the others.) Upstairs, David and Michael had their own small living room area to seek the Lord and write up their teachings received from Jesus. I remember they spent very much time there seeking God together, and individually, praying and studying the Word; but they would share the Word with everyone in the lounge room in God's perfect timing.   The brethren who cooked meals, would sometimes bring food up to Michael and David because they were at times so focused and absorbed in the Word and Spirit of God. All the brethren had specific chores around the property, such as cleaning, cooking and gardening and other important tasks, relieving Michael and David and others, so they could spend more time with the Lord in prayer, worship and the Word. (All the members of the Body of Christ have their gifts and individual roles to serve and edify each other. (1Co Ch. 12 and 14) Act 6:2-4 And the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not fit that we should forsake the word of God, and serve tables. 3 Look ye out therefore, brethren, from among you seven men of good report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. 4 But we will continue stedfastly in prayer, and in the ministry of the word.)  The kitchen area was in the center of the house. (Where the unleavened bread is prepared. 2Ch 7:7 Moreover Solomon hallowed the middle of the court that was before the house of Jehovah;) The house was set up on a hill (Mt Zion) on a large amount of land, approximately five acres. (grace) Outside the house was a large, covered area for gathering, and there was a lake located at the bottom of the hill. The whole property was fenced. (Protected by sanctification.) On the adjoining neighbors' side were many trees and much bush so there was decent privacy. The neighbors were not able to come over the property line even if they wanted to; it was as if there was an invisible shield or wall. (The wall is sanctification from the worldly.)   They could only come in contact with us if we were off our private property or if we gave them permission to come onto our property. (If we are “off the private property” or “giving permission” this represents giving place to the enemy by any sin of unbelief, rejection, criticism, unforgiveness, willful sin, etc. When we walk in holiness (sanctification, abiding in Christ, in heavenly places) the enemy is bound and cannot legally be on our “property” (promised land.) 1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, 9 whom withstand stedfast in your faith…)   (Isa 35:8 And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for the redeemed: the wayfaring men, yea fools, shall not err therein.)  One time I went into the large lounge room and towards the right of the room. Michael, David and some other brethren were there deep in prayer. On a table sat a laptop computer which was turned on. I looked at the screen and saw they were watching a live conference of satanists gathered from around the world. All the brethren in the lounge room were in intense spiritual warfare and prayer against it. (I felt the conference being live online represents all evil being brought into the light and nothing is hidden before God. Also, the Man-Child and Bride body are in spiritual warfare, praying down satan's faction, witchcraft and D-S attempts.)   As I watched, HRC (Hillary Clinton) appeared on the laptop screen and I saw the pure evil and high level fallen angels inside of her and the presence of evil was so intense, that I had to turn away from looking at it. Sometimes the evil spiritual realm is too intense for me, so I couldn't bring myself to look at the conference anymore, but I instead just sat further away, and prayed in tongues and I was in complete agreement with what the brethren prayed, and I knew that our prayers would be answered.   (We also send the angels to bring down satan and his angels dominion. We have been gaining great victories this way with much less effort as in Rev 12:7-11 ASV  And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels going forth to war with the dragon; and the dragon warred and his angels;  8  and they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9  And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world; he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him.  10  And I heard a great voice in heaven, saying, Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accuseth them before our God day and night.  11  And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death. All the brethren were in intense prayer all day until it was just David, Michael and myself and my son David, still praying at around 3am. Then I took my son David into our room at the other end of the house.   Later, some brethren had to drive somewhere, and two men that I felt were like our bodyguards (angels) came to us and said the enemy was waiting for us. From the house there was a long driveway down the hill to the main road, where we could only go right to leave, we couldn't go left, there was only one way. (The Word of God, Who is Jesus, the one way path of righteousness.) Suddenly, our eyes were opened, (anointing) and we could see through walls, bushes and everything and we were able to see on the main road where some people who were against us were hiding behind a bush waiting for us (an ambush). But because we were able to see the enemy's plans, we were able to avoid the danger, pray it down and knew what to do and what not to do. (The Lord reveals the enemy and their traps, and the hidden dangers by the spiritual gifts, in words of wisdom, words of knowledge, visions and gift of discernment and the angels also tell us of them.) When it was clear they were able to continue.  The neighbors in the house next door did not like us, and they were always devising plans of attack against us in some way, but by God's grace, their plans were exposed and always failed. (God reveals the curses and witchcraft of the factious and apostate leaders to us through dreams and visions, so we can pray it down.) I remember in the dream how one of these men repented to follow Jesus and he joined us. The wife of one these men also decided to follow Jesus and she was on fire for God. She was pregnant and would regularly fellowship with us bringing her five children with her. She didn't want to leave her unbelieving husband because she believed God would soon reveal Himself to him too so he would be saved. (1Co 7:13-14 And the woman that hath an unbelieving husband, and he is content to dwell with her, let her not leave her husband. 14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the brother: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.  1Pe 3:1-2 In like manner, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, even if any obey not the word, they may without the word be gained by the behavior of their wives; 2 beholding your chaste behavior coupled with fear.)  There was another UBM camp a little further away in a wooded area (The wooded area represents the wilderness.) and the house was a large wooden cabin. We would regularly meet together for fellowship with the few brethren who lived there. I don't remember what their area of ministering was, but it was different from the one we were in. I remember they had a slide that went off the cabin deck and it went further down onto the property. (This cabin in the woods represents the many other places of refuge that God has provided that are scattered all over the world. Some of these may be part of the UBM ministry.) 

Balaam and Balak try to curse Israel ... will God allow it?

A new MP3 sermon from Free Reformed Church of St Thomas is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Lord's blessing dominates Balak's first attempt to curse Isreal Speaker: Pastor Eric Moerdyk Broadcaster: Free Reformed Church of St Thomas Event: Sunday Service Date: 11/19/2023 Bible: Numbers 22:35-23:12 Length: 40 min.

Pastor Michael continues our fall sermon series by preaching on the story of Balaam and Balak and what it means to receive prophetic movements of God from unlikely people and sources. How might this story challenge us to receive the prophets and priests among us today?

Micah 6:3-53  ‘My people, what have I done to you?    How have I burdened you? Answer me.4 I brought you up out of Egypt    and redeemed you from the land of slavery.I sent Moses to lead you,    also Aaron and Miriam.5 My people, remember    what Balak king of Moab plotted    and what Balaam son of Beor answered.Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal,    that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.'As we saw yesterday, the people are in the dock accused of unfaithfulness to their God. Yet it seems as if they feel that God is the one who should be on trial. They consider knowing and serving him to be a burden. Perhaps they feel that being followers of Yahweh is more trouble than it's worth. He's such a demanding master that he's only got himself to blame if they turn their backs on him.So God shows them just how ridiculous that is. He gives them a quick history lesson, pointing to examples of his faithful care of his people in the past. And it quickly becomes obvious that God is not the one at fault. Far from being demanding, he is the most merciful and generous of Lords. He rescued them from slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt. He gave them Moses and Aaron to lead them throughout that unsettled time, journeying through the wilderness. He rescued them from many hostile kings, including Balak king of Moab, and he provided Joshua to lead them to victory over their enemies, when they were camped in Gilgal.  Through these events, and many, many more, God has shown his commitment to his people. Yet his people have been quick to forget his goodness towards them.We can be the same. We have so much more than the people of Micah's day that we can look at to see God's commitment to us. Not only the whole Old Testament, but also the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Not to mention the way in which God has established, grown and preserved his church since then. So let's pray today that God would keep reminding us of his faithfulness, whenever we might be tempted to think that he isn't worth following. 

Old Testament: Jeremiah 45–47 Jeremiah 45–47 (Listen) Message to Baruch 45 The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a book at the dictation of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: 2 “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch: 3 You said, ‘Woe is me! For the LORD has added sorrow to my pain. I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.' 4 Thus shall you say to him, Thus says the LORD: Behold, what I have built I am breaking down, and what I have planted I am plucking up—that is, the whole land. 5 And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, for behold, I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the LORD. But I will give you your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go.” Judgment on Egypt 46 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations. 2 About Egypt. Concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates at Carchemish and which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: 3   “Prepare buckler and shield,    and advance for battle!4   Harness the horses;    mount, O horsemen!  Take your stations with your helmets,    polish your spears,    put on your armor!5   Why have I seen it?  They are dismayed    and have turned backward.  Their warriors are beaten down    and have fled in haste;  they look not back—    terror on every side!      declares the LORD. 6   “The swift cannot flee away,    nor the warrior escape;  in the north by the river Euphrates    they have stumbled and fallen. 7   “Who is this, rising like the Nile,    like rivers whose waters surge?8   Egypt rises like the Nile,    like rivers whose waters surge.  He said, ‘I will rise, I will cover the earth,    I will destroy cities and their inhabitants.'9   Advance, O horses,    and rage, O chariots!  Let the warriors go out:    men of Cush and Put who handle the shield,    men of Lud, skilled in handling the bow.10   That day is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts,    a day of vengeance,    to avenge himself on his foes.  The sword shall devour and be sated    and drink its fill of their blood.  For the Lord GOD of hosts holds a sacrifice    in the north country by the river Euphrates.11   Go up to Gilead, and take balm,    O virgin daughter of Egypt!  In vain you have used many medicines;    there is no healing for you.12   The nations have heard of your shame,    and the earth is full of your cry;  for warrior has stumbled against warrior;    they have both fallen together.” 13 The word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt: 14   “Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol;    proclaim in Memphis and Tahpanhes;  say, ‘Stand ready and be prepared,    for the sword shall devour around you.'15   Why are your mighty ones face down?    They do not stand1    because the LORD thrust them down.16   He made many stumble, and they fell,    and they said one to another,  ‘Arise, and let us go back to our own people    and to the land of our birth,    because of the sword of the oppressor.'17   Call the name of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,    ‘Noisy one who lets the hour go by.' 18   “As I live, declares the King,    whose name is the LORD of hosts,  like Tabor among the mountains    and like Carmel by the sea, shall one come.19   Prepare yourselves baggage for exile,    O inhabitants of Egypt!  For Memphis shall become a waste,    a ruin, without inhabitant. 20   “A beautiful heifer is Egypt,    but a biting fly from the north has come upon her.21   Even her hired soldiers in her midst    are like fattened calves;  yes, they have turned and fled together;    they did not stand,  for the day of their calamity has come upon them,    the time of their punishment. 22   “She makes a sound like a serpent gliding away;    for her enemies march in force  and come against her with axes    like those who fell trees.23   They shall cut down her forest,      declares the LORD,    though it is impenetrable,  because they are more numerous than locusts;    they are without number.24   The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame;    she shall be delivered into the hand of a people from the north.” 25 The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, said: “Behold, I am bringing punishment upon Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh and Egypt and her gods and her kings, upon Pharaoh and those who trust in him. 26 I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their life, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his officers. Afterward Egypt shall be inhabited as in the days of old, declares the LORD. 27   “But fear not, O Jacob my servant,    nor be dismayed, O Israel,  for behold, I will save you from far away,    and your offspring from the land of their captivity.  Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease,    and none shall make him afraid.28   Fear not, O Jacob my servant,      declares the LORD,    for I am with you.  I will make a full end of all the nations    to which I have driven you,    but of you I will not make a full end.  I will discipline you in just measure,    and I will by no means leave you unpunished.” Judgment on the Philistines 47 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh struck down Gaza. 2   “Thus says the LORD:  Behold, waters are rising out of the north,    and shall become an overflowing torrent;  they shall overflow the land and all that fills it,    the city and those who dwell in it.  Men shall cry out,    and every inhabitant of the land shall wail.3   At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions,    at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of their wheels,  the fathers look not back to their children,    so feeble are their hands,4   because of the day that is coming to destroy    all the Philistines,  to cut off from Tyre and Sidon    every helper that remains.  For the LORD is destroying the Philistines,    the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.5   Baldness has come upon Gaza;    Ashkelon has perished.  O remnant of their valley,    how long will you gash yourselves?6   Ah, sword of the LORD!    How long till you are quiet?  Put yourself into your scabbard;    rest and be still!7   How can it2 be quiet    when the LORD has given it a charge?  Against Ashkelon and against the seashore    he has appointed it.” Footnotes [1] 46:15 Hebrew He does not stand [2] 47:7 Septuagint, Vulgate; Hebrew you (ESV) New Testament: Revelation 2:12–29 Revelation 2:12–29 (Listen) To the Church in Pergamum 12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. 13 “‘I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith1 even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.' To the Church in Thyatira 18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. 20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. 24 But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. 25 Only hold fast what you have until I come. 26 The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 27 and he will rule2 them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. 28 And I will give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.' Footnotes [1] 2:13 Or your faith in me [2] 2:27 Greek shepherd (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 119:9–16 Psalm 119:9–16 (Listen) Beth 9   How can a young man keep his way pure?    By guarding it according to your word.10   With my whole heart I seek you;    let me not wander from your commandments!11   I have stored up your word in my heart,    that I might not sin against you.12   Blessed are you, O LORD;    teach me your statutes!13   With my lips I declare    all the rules1 of your mouth.14   In the way of your testimonies I delight    as much as in all riches.15   I will meditate on your precepts    and fix my eyes on your ways.16   I will delight in your statutes;    I will not forget your word. Footnotes [1] 119:13 Or all the just decrees (ESV) Proverb: Proverbs 27:13 Proverbs 27:13 (Listen) 13   Take a man's garment when he has put up security for a stranger,    and hold it in pledge when he puts up security for an adulteress.1 Footnotes [1] 27:13 Hebrew a foreign woman; a slight emendation yields (compare Vulgate; see also 20:16) foreigners (ESV)

TRUTH FROM REVELATION #3 Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand. (To do my best, to be the best at each moment)   You say One day I will change…and be better. One day things will be different… One day I will fully commit - “Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today.”    Important truths from the last two sermons: The book of Revelation can be seen as God's final word to the church and the world. It gives us a clear indication of what will “shortly” come to pass; and The condition of the church as a warning and an encouragement to the obedient and faithful. It is very clear that Jesus wants for us to especially read this book – Revelation 1:3 -“Keep themselves true to the things written in it” These are guidelines as to how we must live. We cannot serve God any old way that suites us - and think we will get away with it. Without fail God says to the church “I know what's going on”. Proverbs 20:27 – The Lord's searchlight penetrates the human spirit, exposing every hidden motive. The success or failure of God's Kingdom being established in the hearts and lives of a lost world, depends on the church – “You and I”. It is our God given responsibility. Why do you think God saw fit to tell us of the pitfalls to watch out for? These 7 churches are a guideline for us today. As we read it, we must ask: What do you need to change in your life? We have dealt with the Laodicean church –(cold), of no use (lukewarm)useless, (hot). useful Lukewarm church – with no enthusiasm or zeal (“fueled and aflame”) or commitment  The second church we dealt with – the Church of Ephesus. The church was so busy with doing the “things right” they missed out on doing the “right thing”. Jesus said “you have left your first love”. John 20:15 – Peter, do you love me more than these? The next church Jesus reveals to us is Smyrna – Revelation 2:8-11. - 8) And to the angel (messenger) of the assembly (church) in Smyrna write: These are the words of the First and the Last, Who died and came to life again: 9 I know your affliction and distress and pressing trouble and your poverty—but you are rich! and how you are abused and reviled and slandered by those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Fear nothing that you are about to suffer. [Dismiss your dread and your fears!] Behold, the devil is indeed about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested and proved and  critically appraised, and for ten days you will have affliction. Be loyally faithful unto death [even if you must die for it], and I will give you the crown of life. 11 He who is able to hear, let him listen to and heed what the Spirit says to the assemblies (churches). He who overcomes (is victorious) shall in no way be injured by the second death. They were a persecuted church. 2 Timothy 3:12 – In fact, everyone who WANTS to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus (it's your choice) will suffer persecution. 1 Peter 3:17 – For (it is) better to suffer (unjustly) for doing right if that should be God's will, than suffer (justly) for doing wrong. Don't be offended and get on your “high horse” when the world out there insults you and mocks your Christianity - because you are living like a moegoe. This church also never received a reprimand or a rebuke, they only received a command to be faithful in verse 10: Faithful: Loyal Trustworthy Constant Showing faith Opposite of faithful – is faithless: False Unreliable Disloyal Without faith (faith without works is dead) Galatians 5:22 – One of the fruit, the Holy Spirit produces in our lives is faithfulness. Luke 16:10 – He who is faithful in a very little (thing) is faithful also in much, and he who is dishonest and unjust in a very little (thing) is dishonest and unjust also in much. 2 Timothy 2:2 – And the instruction which you have heard from me along with many witnesses, transmit and entrust (as a deposit) to reliable and faithful men who will be competent and qualified to teach others also.  1 Corinthians 4:2 – Moreover, it is essentially required of a steward that a man should be found faithful (proving himself worthy of trust). NB! Without faithfulness it's not possible. The next of the 7 churches is Pergamum, which means fortress, stronghold, tower. Revelation 2:12-17 - 12)“To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13 I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives. 14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. 15 Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. v12 – “When I look at you” Jesus says, “I hold up my word and compare your life”. v13 – It's very clear that our enemy is well and active – working in the hearts of the disobedient.   Revelation 12:12 – Therefore, be glad (exult), O heavens and you that dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in fierce anger (fury), because he knows that he has [only] a short time [left]! 1 John 5:19 – We know (positively) that we are of God, and the whole world (around us) is under the power of the evil one. Ephesians 6:12(Amp) – For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere. Listen Ephesians 4:27 – Leave no (such) room (or) foothold for the devil (give no opportunity to him). Revelation 2:14 – Here's a two-fold warning to the church: Teaching of Balaam: - Numbers 22 to25 (here are only some of the characteristics of this spirit) Knowing God's standard and willingly going against it to satisfy your own fleshly desires. Being unfaithful to God and setting a bad example to those around you even when you know the truth and what is required of you. Self-willed – not teachable. Double-minded person. James 1:8 – A double-minded man is unstable and unreliable about everything (he thinks, feels, decides). 2nd WARNING Revelation 2:15 – Some are also clinging to the teaching of Nicolatians* – which I hate. Same as the church of Ephesus. People who allow compromise to creep into their lives. Compromise:  Is accepting less than what the standard calls for. The standard you accept for your life has very little of Jesus in it. Revelation 2:16 – The warning goes out again and again and again. Repent – change, check your life. And be faithful, don't compromise.  Make me your first love – be hot. Close : Revelation 1:3 -“Keep themselves true to the things written in it”

On this week's Out In The Garage podcast we will continue to look at the book of Numbers. Today we look at Numbers 23 and the interaction between God and Balaam and Balak's response to them both. To secure your spot in Tribe XIII: https://www.thepursuitofmanliness.com/tribeTo get more PoM Podcast content and join a global community of men who help support PoM join The Herd: https://www.thepursuitofmanliness.com/join-the-herdCheck out our Outdoor Ministry Pursue Wilderness: https://www.facebook.com/pursuewilderness/https://www.instagram.com/pursuewildernessFollow Pursue Marriage: https://www.instagram.com/pursuemarriage/The OITG podcast is sponsored by Dark Water Woodwork. Right now, Dark Water Woodwork is offering a discount code exclusively for the OITG listeners. Make sure to  this weeks Out In The Garage code to save 15% off your OITG beard bundle. With Dark Water Wood you will get well made products, a great smelling beard oil and save some money while doing so. Visit DarkwaterKC.com today. https://www.darkwaterkc.com/Support the show

Everything God said about you will come to pass. Don't be discouraged by what you see, friend!Support the showGet more powerful encouragement from Dianna at YourDailyCupOfInspiration.com! Thanks for listening.

In this Bible Story, Balaam is unable to curse Israel but instead blesses them three times. He prophesied from God and spoke blessings and truth over them. Finally, telling of an All-Powerful One that would come from Israel. This story is inspired by Numbers 22:36-25:18 & 31:7-16. Go to BibleinaYear.com and learn the Bible in a Year.Today's Bible verse is Numbers 23:19 from the King James Version.Episode 49: Balaam finally arrives on the cliff where Balak is, and as he looks over at the mass of people below, he begins to understand Balak's fear. Nevertheless, he has Balak and his men build seven altars and offer sacrifices to the God Most High. Balaam does this three times, but each time God causes Balaam to bless the people of Israel instead of curse them. Balak's anger and consternation became great, but he could do nothing to thwart the plans of God.Hear the Bible come to life as Pastor Jack Graham leads you through the official BibleinaYear.com podcast. This Biblical Audio Experience will help you master wisdom from the world's greatest book. In each episode, you will learn to apply Biblical principles to everyday life. Now understanding the Bible is easier than ever before; enjoy a cinematic audio experience full of inspirational storytelling, orchestral music, and profound commentary from world-renowned Pastor Jack Graham.Also, you can download the Pray.com app for more Christian content, including, Daily Prayers, Inspirational Testimonies, and Bedtime Bible Stories.Visit JackGraham.org for more resources on how to tap into God's power for successful Christian living.This episode is sponsored by Medi-Share, an innovative health care solution for Christians to save money without sacrificing quality.Pray.com is the digital destination of faith. With over 5,000 daily prayers, meditations, bedtime stories, and cinematic stories inspired by the Bible, the Pray.com app has everything you need to keep your focus on the Lord. Make Prayer a priority and download the #1 App for Prayer and Sleep today in the Apple app store or Google Play store.Executive Producers: Steve Gatena & Max BardProducer: Ben GammonHosted by: Pastor Jack GrahamMusic by: Andrew Morgan SmithBible Story narration by: Todd HaberkornSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this Bible Story, Balak, king of Moab, is threatened by the vast number of Israel and sends for Balaam to curse Israel. As Balaam is on the road to meet Balak, God causes Balaam's donkey to speak. This story is inspired by Numbers 22:1-35. Go to BibleinaYear.com and learn the Bible in a Year.Today's Bible verse is Numbers 22:28 from the King James Version.Episode 48: Israel finally finds some sense of rest in the plains of Moab. But Balak, the king of Moab, feels threatened when he looks out and sees his plains covered by Israel. So he sends for a diviner by the name of Balaam to curse these people. But God also visits Balaam, and makes it clear that he is not to curse Israel, but bless them.Hear the Bible come to life as Pastor Jack Graham leads you through the official BibleinaYear.com podcast. This Biblical Audio Experience will help you master wisdom from the world's greatest book. In each episode, you will learn to apply Biblical principles to everyday life. Now understanding the Bible is easier than ever before; enjoy a cinematic audio experience full of inspirational storytelling, orchestral music, and profound commentary from world-renowned Pastor Jack Graham.Also, you can download the Pray.com app for more Christian content, including, Daily Prayers, Inspirational Testimonies, and Bedtime Bible Stories.Visit JackGraham.org for more resources on how to tap into God's power for successful Christian living.This episode is sponsored by Medi-Share, an innovative health care solution for Christians to save money without sacrificing quality.Pray.com is the digital destination of faith. With over 5,000 daily prayers, meditations, bedtime stories, and cinematic stories inspired by the Bible, the Pray.com app has everything you need to keep your focus on the Lord. Make Prayer a priority and download the #1 App for Prayer and Sleep today in the Apple app store or Google Play store.Executive Producers: Steve Gatena & Max BardProducer: Ben GammonHosted by: Pastor Jack GrahamMusic by: Andrew Morgan SmithBible Story narration by: Todd HaberkornSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Parshat Chukat-Balak Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

Micah 1–7 Micah 1–7 (Listen) 1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. The Coming Destruction 2   Hear, you peoples, all of you;1    pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,  and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you,    the Lord from his holy temple.3   For behold, the LORD is coming out of his place,    and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.4   And the mountains will melt under him,    and the valleys will split open,  like wax before the fire,    like waters poured down a steep place.5   All this is for the transgression of Jacob    and for the sins of the house of Israel.  What is the transgression of Jacob?    Is it not Samaria?  And what is the high place of Judah?    Is it not Jerusalem?6   Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country,    a place for planting vineyards,  and I will pour down her stones into the valley    and uncover her foundations.7   All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,    all her wages shall be burned with fire,    and all her idols I will lay waste,  for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them,    and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return. 8   For this I will lament and wail;    I will go stripped and naked;  I will make lamentation like the jackals,    and mourning like the ostriches.9   For her wound is incurable,    and it has come to Judah;  it has reached to the gate of my people,    to Jerusalem. 10   Tell it not in Gath;    weep not at all;  in Beth-le-aphrah    roll yourselves in the dust.11   Pass on your way,    inhabitants of Shaphir,    in nakedness and shame;  the inhabitants of Zaanan    do not come out;  the lamentation of Beth-ezel    shall take away from you its standing place.12   For the inhabitants of Maroth    wait anxiously for good,  because disaster has come down from the LORD    to the gate of Jerusalem.13   Harness the steeds to the chariots,    inhabitants of Lachish;  it was the beginning of sin    to the daughter of Zion,  for in you were found    the transgressions of Israel.14   Therefore you shall give parting gifts2    to Moresheth-gath;  the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing    to the kings of Israel.15   I will again bring a conqueror to you,    inhabitants of Mareshah;  the glory of Israel    shall come to Adullam.16   Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair,    for the children of your delight;  make yourselves as bald as the eagle,    for they shall go from you into exile. Woe to the Oppressors 2   Woe to those who devise wickedness    and work evil on their beds!  When the morning dawns, they perform it,    because it is in the power of their hand.2   They covet fields and seize them,    and houses, and take them away;  they oppress a man and his house,    a man and his inheritance.3   Therefore thus says the LORD:  behold, against this family I am devising disaster,3    from which you cannot remove your necks,  and you shall not walk haughtily,    for it will be a time of disaster.4   In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you    and moan bitterly,  and say, “We are utterly ruined;    he changes the portion of my people;  how he removes it from me!    To an apostate he allots our fields.”5   Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot    in the assembly of the LORD. 6   “Do not preach”—thus they preach—    “one should not preach of such things;    disgrace will not overtake us.”7   Should this be said, O house of Jacob?    Has the LORD grown impatient?4    Are these his deeds?  Do not my words do good    to him who walks uprightly?8   But lately my people have risen up as an enemy;  you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly    with no thought of war.59   The women of my people you drive out    from their delightful houses;  from their young children you take away    my splendor forever.10   Arise and go,    for this is no place to rest,  because of uncleanness that destroys    with a grievous destruction.11   If a man should go about and utter wind and lies,    saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”    he would be the preacher for this people!12   I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;    I will gather the remnant of Israel;  I will set them together    like sheep in a fold,  like a flock in its pasture,    a noisy multitude of men.13   He who opens the breach goes up before them;    they break through and pass the gate,    going out by it.  Their king passes on before them,    the LORD at their head. Rulers and Prophets Denounced 3   And I said:  Hear, you heads of Jacob    and rulers of the house of Israel!  Is it not for you to know justice?—2     you who hate the good and love the evil,  who tear the skin from off my people6    and their flesh from off their bones,3   who eat the flesh of my people,    and flay their skin from off them,  and break their bones in pieces    and chop them up like meat in a pot,    like flesh in a cauldron. 4   Then they will cry to the LORD,    but he will not answer them;  he will hide his face from them at that time,    because they have made their deeds evil. 5   Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets    who lead my people astray,  who cry “Peace”    when they have something to eat,  but declare war against him    who puts nothing into their mouths.6   Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,    and darkness to you, without divination.  The sun shall go down on the prophets,    and the day shall be black over them;7   the seers shall be disgraced,    and the diviners put to shame;  they shall all cover their lips,    for there is no answer from God.8   But as for me, I am filled with power,    with the Spirit of the LORD,    and with justice and might,  to declare to Jacob his transgression    and to Israel his sin. 9   Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob    and rulers of the house of Israel,  who detest justice    and make crooked all that is straight,10   who build Zion with blood    and Jerusalem with iniquity.11   Its heads give judgment for a bribe;    its priests teach for a price;    its prophets practice divination for money;  yet they lean on the LORD and say,    “Is not the LORD in the midst of us?    No disaster shall come upon us.”12   Therefore because of you    Zion shall be plowed as a field;  Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,    and the mountain of the house a wooded height. The Mountain of the Lord 4   It shall come to pass in the latter days    that the mountain of the house of the LORD  shall be established as the highest of the mountains,    and it shall be lifted up above the hills;  and peoples shall flow to it,2     and many nations shall come, and say:  “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,    to the house of the God of Jacob,  that he may teach us his ways    and that we may walk in his paths.”  For out of Zion shall go forth the law,7    and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.3   He shall judge between many peoples,    and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away;  and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,    and their spears into pruning hooks;  nation shall not lift up sword against nation,    neither shall they learn war anymore;4   but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,    and no one shall make them afraid,    for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken.5   For all the peoples walk    each in the name of its god,  but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God    forever and ever. The Lord Shall Rescue Zion 6   In that day, declares the LORD,    I will assemble the lame  and gather those who have been driven away    and those whom I have afflicted;7   and the lame I will make the remnant,    and those who were cast off, a strong nation;  and the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion    from this time forth and forevermore. 8   And you, O tower of the flock,    hill of the daughter of Zion,  to you shall it come,    the former dominion shall come,    kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem. 9   Now why do you cry aloud?    Is there no king in you?  Has your counselor perished,    that pain seized you like a woman in labor?10   Writhe and groan,8 O daughter of Zion,    like a woman in labor,  for now you shall go out from the city    and dwell in the open country;    you shall go to Babylon.  There you shall be rescued;    there the LORD will redeem you    from the hand of your enemies. 11   Now many nations    are assembled against you,  saying, “Let her be defiled,    and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”12   But they do not know    the thoughts of the LORD;  they do not understand his plan,    that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.13   Arise and thresh,    O daughter of Zion,  for I will make your horn iron,    and I will make your hoofs bronze;  you shall beat in pieces many peoples;    and shall devote9 their gain to the LORD,    their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth. The Ruler to Be Born in Bethlehem 5   10 Now muster your troops, O daughter11 of troops;    siege is laid against us;  with a rod they strike the judge of Israel    on the cheek.2   12 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,    who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,  from you shall come forth for me    one who is to be ruler in Israel,  whose coming forth is from of old,    from ancient days.3   Therefore he shall give them up until the time    when she who is in labor has given birth;  then the rest of his brothers shall return    to the people of Israel.4   And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD,    in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.  And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great    to the ends of the earth.5   And he shall be their peace.   When the Assyrian comes into our land    and treads in our palaces,  then we will raise against him seven shepherds    and eight princes of men;6   they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,    and the land of Nimrod at its entrances;  and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian    when he comes into our land    and treads within our border. A Remnant Shall Be Delivered 7   Then the remnant of Jacob shall be    in the midst of many peoples  like dew from the LORD,    like showers on the grass,  which delay not for a man    nor wait for the children of man.8   And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations,    in the midst of many peoples,

In this Bible Story, Eve is convinced to eat from the forbidden tree and then both Adam and Eve are banished from the garden. This story is inspired by Genesis 2:25 - 3:24. Go to BibleinaYear.com and learn the Bible in a year. Today's Bible verse is from Genesis 3:5 the King James Version. Episode 3: When God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, He told Adam that he could eat from any tree of the Garden…that is any tree except the Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil. For God knows what's best, and He wanted to give Adam and Eve a chance to choose freely either to trust in Him, and what He says - coming to Him for knowledge and wisdom - or to trust in their own power, and try to seize wisdom on their own terms. Listen as we see Adam face the consequences of his choice and reflect on how each one of us still face this choice today. Hear the Bible come to life as Pastor Jack Graham leads you through the official BibleinaYear.com podcast. This Biblical Audio Experience will help you master wisdom from the world's greatest book. In each episode, you will learn to apply Biblical principles to everyday life. Now understanding the Bible is easier than ever before; enjoy a cinematic audio experience full of inspirational storytelling, orchestral music, and profound commentary from world-renowned Pastor Jack Graham. You can download the Pray.com app for more Christian content, including, Daily Prayers, Inspirational Testimonies, and Bedtime Bible Stories. Pray.com is the digital destination of faith. With over 5,000 daily prayers, meditations, bedtime stories, and cinematic stories inspired by the Bible, the Pray.com app has everything you need to keep your focus on the Lord. Make Prayer a priority and download the #1 App for Prayer and Sleep today in the Apple app store or Google Play store. Visit JackGraham.org for more resources on how to tap into God's power for successful Christian living. This episode is sponsored by Medi-Share, an innovative health care solution for Christians to save money without sacrificing quality. Executive Producers: Steve Gatena & Max Bard Producer: Ben Gammon Hosted by: Pastor Jack Graham Music by: Andrew Morgan Smith Bible Story narration by: Todd HaberkornSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this Bible Story, God creates Adam and Eve and gives them instructions on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This story is inspired by Genesis 2:5-24. Go to BibleinaYear.com and learn the Bible in a year. Today's Bible verse is Genesis 2:7 from the King James Version. Episode 2 - In the midst of God's wonder-filled creation, God made Adam from the dust of the ground. He placed Adam in the garden named Eden where he was free to eat and enjoy life under God's presence. God even made a suitable helper for him, and she was called woman. However, there was also a choice given to the man and women. A choice to obey God, trust Him, or to eat from the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Hear the Bible come to life as Pastor Jack Graham leads you through the official BibleinaYear.com podcast. This Biblical Audio Experience will help you master wisdom from the world's greatest book. In each episode, you will learn to apply Biblical principles to everyday life. Now understanding the Bible is easier than ever before; enjoy a cinematic audio experience full of inspirational storytelling, orchestral music, and profound commentary from world-renowned Pastor Jack Graham. Also, you can download the Pray.com app for more Christian content, including, Daily Prayers, Inspirational Testimonies, and Bedtime Bible Stories. Visit JackGraham.org for more resources on how to tap into God's power for successful Christian living. This episode is sponsored by Medi-Share, an innovative health care solution for Christians to save money without sacrificing quality. Pray.com is the digital destination of faith. With over 5,000 daily prayers, meditations, bedtime stories, and cinematic stories inspired by the Bible, the Pray.com app has everything you need to keep your focus on the Lord. Make Prayer a priority and download the #1 App for Prayer and Sleep today in the Apple app store or Google Play store. Executive Producers: Steve Gatena & Max Bard Producer: Ben Gammon Hosted by: Pastor Jack Graham Music by: Andrew Morgan Smith Bible Story narration by: Todd HaberkornSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My best days are many times sleepless nights. God has often made the most resounding impact on His hard-headed slave -me- through sleepless nights wrestling with Him. This delayed episode is just one occasion of God's work on a dull hearer.  We will see how dangerous it is to believe we pray primarily to get what we want.  We follow Balak and Balaam as they persist in prayer, which is clearly against God's will.  Ploy 1: Everyone thinks it's a good idea. Ploy 2: Really distinguished men think it is a good idea. Ploy 3: God's servant will get lots of money if you say yes. Ploy 4: Worship, I will give lots of worship if you only give me this. Ploy 5: Threatening the servant of God.  (I get my ploys a little out of number. Lol out loud) Balaam finally comes to his senses, but what time I have wasted praying for stones and snakes dull in learning, the joy of my soul resting in my converse with my gracious Savior.  "What a man is on his knees before God, that he is and nothing more." Robert Murray M'Cheyne Assistant Editor: Seven Jefferson Gossard www.frponprayer.com freerangeprayer@gmail.com Facebook - Free Range Preacher Ministries Instagram: freerangeministries All our Scripture quotes are drawn from the NASB 1977 edition. For access to the Voice Over services of Richard Durrington, please visit RichardDurrington.com or email him at Durringtonr@gmail.com Our podcast art was designed by @sammmmmmmmm23 Instagram Season 005 Episode 090

This is on a blog I felt led to create called: Books of the Bible in Smaller Chunks. You can find that at https://BibleInSmallerChunks.blogspot.com In addition to this podcast, you might check out some blogs I felt led to create: Daily Chapters of the Bible [in Smaller Chunks] at: https://dailychaptersofbible.blogspot.com Types of Christians found at https://TypesOfChristians.blogspot.com , Biblical Proof! found at https://BiblicalProof.blogspot.com/ , Do Biblical Inconsistencies Really Matter? at https://Biblicalinconsistencies.blogspot.com/ End of World Bible Prophecy at https://EndOfWorldBibleProphecy.blogspot.com/ Please share this podcast and blog links with those who might benefit. Thanks! Debbie

Welcome to CREATIVE BLOCK! This week's guest is Yves Bigerel AKA BALAK! Balak is a director, animator, comic artist, and art director. He co-creator of Lastman, Peepoodoo, Vermin, and Les Kassos, and most recently animated the title sequence for My Adventures with Superman. Along the way, we chat with Balak about HOW HE GOT INTERESTED IN STORYBOARDING, LEARNING FROM HIS EXPERIENCE FROM LAST MAN, FAILING QUIETLY, and so much more! While we talk, we doodle on a Google Jamboard, where we draw from prompts we got on TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, YOUTUBE, THREADS, and PATREON. Subscribe to our channel to hear more stories of other animation professionals! ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ Thank you to our Patreon Blockheads for supporting the show! Want to become a Patron? ► https://www.patreon.com/crtvblock Hit subscribe and follow our socials for updates! ► https://twitter.com/crtvblock ► https://www.instagram.com/crtv.block/ ► https://www.threads.net/@crtv.block ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ Follow the hosts! VEE! ► https://twitter.com/violainebriat ► https://www.instagram.com/violainebriat ► https://www.threads.net/@violainebriat SEAN! ► https://twitter.com/lordspew ► https://www.instagram.com/lordspew/ ► https://www.threads.net/@lordspew Follow the guest! BALAK! ► https://twitter.com/YvesBalak ► https://www.instagram.com/balakbalek/ ► https://twitter.com/Bobbypills_ ► https://www.bobbypills.com/ ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ Editing by Clemence Briat ► https://twitter.com/clem_n_m Produced by Marco Beltran ► https://twitter.com/orcsocks Theme song by Louie Zong ► https://twitter.com/everydaylouie ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ 0:00 Intro 6:37 Thesis films and school 20:03 First job 1:15:47 Creative block 1:18:27 Social media 1:30:00 Networking 1:51:31 Caricatures 1:53:53 Influences 2:06:23 Working for US vs France 2:10:36 Cross-media fulfillment --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crtvblock/support

This is on a blog I felt led to create called: Books of the Bible in Smaller Chunks. You can find that at ⁠https://BibleInSmallerChunks.blogspot.com⁠ In addition to this podcast, you might check out some blogs I felt led to create: Daily Chapters of the Bible [in Smaller Chunks] at: ⁠https://dailychaptersofbible.blogspot.com⁠ ⁠Types of Christians⁠ found at ⁠https://TypesOfChristians.blogspot.com⁠ , Biblical Proof! found at ⁠https://BiblicalProof.blogspot.com/⁠ , Do Biblical Inconsistencies Really Matter? at ⁠https://Biblicalinconsistencies.blogspot.com/⁠ End of World Bible Prophecy at ⁠https://EndOfWorldBibleProphecy.blogspot.com/⁠ Please share this podcast and blog links with those who might benefit. Thanks! Debbie

One of the most interesting characters in the first section of the Bible know as the Law is Balaam. He is a prophet of God who on his way to try and curse the children of Israel enroute to Canaan had an actual conversation with his donkey- This was God's supernatural intervention to press upon Balaam his absolute need to speak over the Hebrews only the words he would put in his mouth. -Numbers 22-24- Even after Balaams blessing not cursing the people he found a way to get the money from Balak by advising him how to lure the men of Israel into idolatry by using the women of Moab. Numbers 25-1-3.-Numbers 31-16 --Behold, these, on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord.--2 Peter 2-15-16 --Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression- a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.--Revelation 2-14 --But I have a few things against you- you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.--Matt. 16-26 Jesus words--For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul-- Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul--

One of the most interesting characters in the first section of the Bible know as the Law is Balaam. He is a prophet of God who on his way to try and curse the children of Israel enroute to Canaan had an actual conversation with his donkey! This was God's supernatural intervention to press upon Balaam his absolute need to speak over the Hebrews only the words he would put in his mouth. (Numbers 22-24) Even after Balaams blessing not cursing the people he found a way to get the money from Balak by advising him how to lure the men of Israel into idolatry by using the women of Moab. Numbers 25:1-3.Numbers 31:16 Behold, these, on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord.2 Peter 2:15-16 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.Revelation 2:14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.Matt. 16:26 Jesus wordsFor what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?Bible Insights with Wayne ConradContact: 8441 Hunnicut Rd Dallas, Texas 75228email: Att. Bible Insights Wayne Conradgsccdallas@gmail.com (Good Shepherd Church) Donationhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJTZX6qasIrPmC1wQpben9ghttps://www.facebook.com/waconrad or gscchttps://www.sermonaudio.com/gsccSpirit, Truth and Grace MinistriesPhone # 214-324-9915 leave message with number for call backPsalms 119:105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

1. Tim shared this quote from Rick Mullins:“God spoke to Balaam through his ass, and He had been speaking through asses ever since. So, if God should choose to speak through you, you need not think too highly of yourself. And, if on meeting someone, right away you recognize what they are, listen to them anyway.”Reflect on and share about a time when you heard God speak to you through someone you once sized up to be roughly on par with Balaam's donkey.2. Tim taught about the practical reality that at the point at which they were viewed from Balaak & Balaam as the two men stood high on a hill looking down at the twelve tribes, Israel was probably pretty bedraggled, rough, and worn. Yet, Balaam speaks words of God's blessing and bounty as he gazes upon them and sees a miracle flourishing in the dessert wilderness.Consider the idea that, in your past or present wildernesses, you might you see yourself as bedraggled and ratty while someone looking from a far, reflecting God's own vision and with an eye toward the future, might see you as a miracle flourishing in the wilderness.What does that idea bring up for you? Does it shift anything for you in regards to your current struggles? How easy or difficult is it to look at your struggling self through that lens? How easy or difficult is it to see the people close to you through that lens? And what about the people you encounter to more distantly?3. Tim taught that “we have a tendency to feel threatened by the success & flourishing of those with whom we share significant social space.” He highlighted three themes often wrapped up in this dynamic: comparison, scarcity, & fear.In closing the service, Tim invited us all to share on the wall what our triggers for comparison / scarcity mentality and/or fear are. How do you answer that question? (Don't forget to jot it on the wall next time you're at church!)

Audio Transcript:This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your holy scriptures. We thank you for the Book of Genesis, the book of beginnings, we come to the end of it today. A book that begins with a garden and perfect peace, with Adam and Eve walking with you in the cool of the day. It ends with two deaths. It ends with two coffins. And we pray that today you remind us that because of our sin, because of our rebellion, we are sinners by nature and by choice. Death is in the world and death will come to each one of us if the Lord should tarry. And Lord, I pray you make us the people that meditate upon death. As hard as it is, it is an important spiritual discipline to think about. How do we want to be remembered? What kind of legacy do we want to leave? And Lord, we thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We thank you that your son lived the perfect life, walked with you perfectly, never sinned, fulfilled the law of God from the heart. You loved God, and you love neighbor, Jesus, so much so that you offered yourself up on the cross in order to redeem us. And we thank you Jesus that you did not stay dead and we thank you that through your resurrection, you have conquered Satan, sin, and death. And in your death, we see the death of death itself. And make us a people who trust in your word and recognizing that when we believe in you, repent of sin, we are granted eternal life. It's eternal life that begins now and continues through all of eternity. And Lord, we thank you for the lessons that we have learned from the life of Joseph, from the life of Jacob, as we remember their faith and their faithfulness, we also recognize that there were times when they were faithless. And still because they were yours, because they were your elect, you remain faithful to them. And Lord remain faithful to us. We trust in that promise and give us grace. Grace to have our sins forgiven and grace to then extend forgiveness to others when they sin against us. We thank you for the reminder of how important unity is in the church of God and I pray that you unite us, recognizing that the blood of Jesus Christ and the unity that he gives us triumphs over anything that could potentially divide us. We pray that you bless our time, the Holy Scriptures, Holy Spirit, we love you, we welcome you, and we pray that you deepen our love for you as we meditate upon your word. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series called Graduate Level Grace, actually ending it today. A study in the life of Joseph. Today we're in Genesis 50. Next Sunday is our annual vision sermon. So if you are looking for a church, if you are church shopping, definitely come back next week and we, by the power of God, hopefully will show you of the importance of a gospel proclaiming church, a faithful church in a place like Boston. And then after that, we will start a brand new sermon series through the Gospel of Mark. We're calling it Kingdom Come: The Gospel of Mark and the secret of God's kingdom in which we'll meditate. And what it means is that Jesus is king and what it means that we are part of his kingdom, that we have been transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved son, and what it means to be kingdom minded. Today the title of the sermon is Forgive from the Heart. The Book of Genesis, the book of beginnings, begins with life. God creates life and he creates humanity and everything is perfect and shalom. And then the Book of Genesis ends with death, two deaths actually, the death of Jacob and the death of Joseph. And you say, what happened? It started in such a promising way and such a promising note and it ends with death. And the answer is sin. The answer is, rebellion and rejection of God's reign and rule ushered in death. And Jacob here we're told is buried in the Promised Land as a testimony to the promises God has made in the past. And Joseph's body is put in a coffin in Egypt as a testimony to the fact that he believed that God would bring his promises to pass in the future via the Exodus. And both these godly men die in the Lord, which is a great blessing. Revelation 14:13 says, "And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Blessed indeed," says the spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them." Blessed is to die in the Lord. To die as a believer. Blessed is to die well and to have your funeral be a celebration of your life. Blessed it is to live in such a way where people do want to come to your funeral, and people do have many a good thing, a blessed thing to say about your life. My wife and I, we took a vacation, a trip last summer to Vail, Colorado. And my goodness, it was incredible. Vail is so beautiful. And we're sitting on the porch outside of the hotel room and we have this incredible mountain view and everything's perfect, the food was perfect, the views were perfect, everything's perfect. And when everything's perfect, the Slavic in us, we come from a Slavic background, the Slavic in us wants to be reminded that there is pain in the world. And we decided it would be wise to partake in one of the most painful exercises you could possibly partake. And my wife asked me, she said, "And when I die, what will you say at my funeral?" And then I was like, hold on, I got to think about it. And then as I'm thinking about it, I'm like, okay, what would I say? Many a good thing. I'm going to save it till her funeral. And then I said, "What are you going to say about me at my funeral?" And it was so beautiful and so heart-wrenching, heartwarming, we're just weeping. We're just sitting here and beautiful, weeping. But it was a wonderful reminder of the fact that we will die. And then if you reverse engineer how you want to live in order to be remembered in a positive way, well, how should you live? And I've done many a funeral and I will tell you it's a world of difference when the person that dies dies in the Lord, than a person that had nothing to do with God or there was no evidence of faith in God. People kind of say the same stuff, but you know it comes from a different place when the person was truly a believer secure in the hands of God. What do people say at funerals? Well, the person is now in a better place. If you're a believer or not, everyone says the same thing, even at an unbeliever's funeral. No one wants to say, "Yeah, this person was a pagan and wicked had nothing to do with God." No, they say, "They're in better place." Well, we are to prepare in life for death in order for those words to be true. In the Book of Numbers, Balaam was hired by Balak to curse Israel, but he ends up blessing them, and this is what he says in Numbers 23:10, "Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his." Let me die the death of the upright. In chapter 48, we saw Jacob's greatest act of faith, as singled out in the Hall of Faith Hebrews 11, when he blessed the sons of Joseph, when he crossed his hands, which is an incredible example and actually prophecy of the cross of Jesus Christ. But in Hebrews 11:22 in the Hall of Faith, it says that what Joseph does in this chapter was Joseph's greatest act of faith. Hebrews 11:22 says, "By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones." Joseph, on his deathbed, spoke of the exodus, of the promises of God concerning the exodus, and he demanded to be buried back in the land of Canaan, although he realized it's going to be centuries before the people of God are led out of Egypt. From all appearances, Joseph had at this time by the end of his life, already been an Egyptian through and through. He was an Egyptian from the day of his captivity when he was 17 to when he was elevated to prominence in the Egyptian court at age 30 and he married an Egyptian woman, followed Egyptian laws, carried an Egyptian name. But his dying words show that he had been a stranger in the midst of it all. His citizenship was not in Egypt, it was in heaven. Though he ruled in Egypt, Egypt did not rule in him. He was in the world, but he was not of the world. No worldly influence or power or authority or success distracted him from his faith in God. And as truly as his fathers who would dwell in tents, he too felt like he had no continuing city here. He continued to believe in God and his promises, and he continued to look by faith into the future. Before we look at Genesis 50, just one verse right before to set the context. Jacob on his deathbed blessed his sons, and then Genesis 48:33, it says, "When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and he was gathered to his people." Jacob's body was still in the room, but his soul was gathered to the people of God and he was reunited with his fathers. As Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I am." And then the Pharisees were like, what are you talking about? That's blasphemy. And he said, "Have you not read? God says I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is not the God of the dead but of the living." Three points to frame up our time as we walk through the text, a father celebrated, a family reconciled, and a promise believed. So first of Father celebrated. Genesis 50 verse one. "Then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him for seventy days" Before Jacob took the trek to Egypt with all of his family, he asked God, "God, are you going with me?" And God met him and said, "Fear not. I will go with you and I will bless you. And your son Joseph is going to close your eyes in death." The other brothers were certainly present at the deathbed of Jacob and they too grieved the death of his father. But Joseph's grief is highlighted here. His love for his father is highlighted here. His affection for his father. He's weeping over him. Why? Because first of all, he stood closer to his father than the other brothers. And also he is experiencing a pain accentuated by the fact that he had lost years of relationship with his father. There's grief, but then there's restrained, godly grief. Joseph is weeping, and after he is done weeping, he then goes into action. Why? Because his grief is like that of a believer. We grieve but not like those without hope. Joseph knows that he too will go to be with his father in the presence of God, just like Jacob did. Joseph here is 56 years of age when his father Jacob died. If you remember, he was 17 when he was sold into captivity by his brothers. And then he was 30 when he rose to prominence in power and in Pharaoh's Court. And then there were seven years of plenty and then two years of famine. And at age 39, his family moved to Goshen. And then Jacob spent 17 years, the last 17 years of his life, with Joseph, just like Joseph had spent the first 17 years of his life with his father. It says that the Egyptians wept for Jacob for 70 days. And this is really important because the Egyptians wept for Pharaoh. When a pharaoh would die, the king of Israel, the Egyptians would weep 72 days. So here we have a feeble shepherd who was revered almost as highly as royalty. Why? Because of his son. Because his son saved the people. And the people recognize that apart from Joseph and his wisdom that God gave him, they would've ended up dead. And sometimes fathers provide for their children early on and sometimes children ended up providing for their parents. I tell my girls this, I have four daughters. I remember when my oldest for the very first time, she was like nine, she washed my car. And I was so pumped and I was like finally, a little ROI. A little return on investment. But we do. We pour into our kids and as we raise the children and recognize the children by God's grace will care for us in our old age. There is no burial recorded in scripture quite as honorable as this with such a wealth of detail. And Joseph commands the physicians, it says, to embalm his father. Not the mortuary priests. His wife was part of the priest cast in Egypt, but it's not the priest that come in and do the embalming. No, it's the doctors, the physicians. Why does Joseph do this? First of all, he wants everyone to know we're not doing this for religious purposes. There's a practical purpose here. The practical purpose in embalming Jacob is to transport his body into Canaan, the Promised Land, just like Jacob had commanded Joseph and the son. So the pagan embalming procedure is used by the Lord God here. So Jacob and Joseph are the only two Israelites of whom the scriptures tell that they were embalmed, not for religious value, but strictly for feasible transportation. Genesis 50 verse 4, "And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, "My father made me swear, saying, "I'm about to die: in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me." Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return. And Pharaoh answered, Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear." Joseph being the wise administrator that he is, he understands how the political court works. Although he's second in command to Pharaoh, he understands authority. He understands he's in authority, and he understands he's under authority. So he doesn't want to pull rank. And he understands that Pharaoh would be apprehensive about letting such a trusted official go with his whole tribe, his whole family back to the land of Canaan. Especially given that Joseph knew sensitive information about Egypt and the inner workings, and such clandestine information would be very valuable to the enemies of Egypt. So Joseph understands he needs Pharaoh's clearance, so he asks. Joseph is given his request to go back, and on top of that, he's given a large entourage to escort Jacob for the internment. It's a massive funeral entourage. Hundreds of people made up the retinue. In verse 7 it says, "So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. The text emphasizes that the children, the livestock, were left in Goshen, to emphasize the fact that they felt so secure in leaving the children, the little ones in Goshen. That's how much God had blessed the people of Israel. He'd given them security, he'd given them land. And we see the entourage led by Joseph, and it's almost a mini rehearsal for the ultimate homecoming of the children of Israel out of Egypt via the exodus. And actually the route they took was the same exact one as Israel would take centuries later after the Exodus. In verse 10, "When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a great and grievous lamentation, and he made a mourning for his father seven days." The Egyptian custom of those days were where when you get to the place of burial, the point of burial, you take another seven days of lamentation. So we're up to 77 days that people lamented the death of Jacob. And this is important. I think this is important for us because we live in a society that idolizes youth and we don't respect people in their older age and we don't think about honoring them and their death. We don't think about honoring them after their death. And this morning my dad, he sent me a text message, iMessage from Estonia, he's in Estonia right now, my country of origin, and he's there with my mom. And he takes a pilgrimage almost every single year. And every time he goes to Estonia, he goes to the cemetery where his mom is buried and where his grandparents are buried. And they take care of their little plot of land, put flowers there. And I remember when I was younger, I was like, that's kind of silly because they're in heaven, right? We believe that they're in heaven, their souls are in heaven. But he's doing it as a way to honor them. Honor their remembrance, and honor their sacrifice for him and for us. And this is important, I think it's important for us to really celebrate those who came before us and to honor them and their death and honor them after their death and the memory of them. And this is what the Lord Jesus told us in the celebration of the last supper. He said, "Do this for what purpose? Do this in remembrance of me." Every time we take the cup and the bread, we're remembering the death of our Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice and resurrection. Verse 11 of chapter 50, when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians," and therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim. Abel-mizraim means mourning of Egypt. Verse 12, "Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them, for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Efron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father." So Jacob's sons take over here in the very final and most intimate part of the service. They are the ones that bury their father. They are the ones that lay him in his final resting place for his body. And the emphasis in the text is his sons, all his sons are unified in that. They obey the commandment of their father. Perhaps for the first time, all 12 of them are unified in obedience of their father. We see them as submissive, dutiful, faithful. They're truly changed men. And then that whole family goes back to Egypt, goes back to Goshen. And now the question is, well, how then will they live? Now that Jacob's influence as the patriarch, as the loving father on all 12 sons. Are they going to live in unity and reconciliation? And the text says yes. Point two is the family reconciled. Verse 15, "When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him." So they sent a message to Joseph saying, "Your father gave this command before he died: Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you." And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him. So the brother is realizing their father is dead, understandably they're worried. And they're wondering, was he nice to us just because of dad? He's been benevolent to us, but is the benevolence just a mask for malevolent intent? Was he really just harboring resentment and biding his time? So they sent a message to Joseph. They don't go personally just yet. First they want to test the waters. Who do they send? Most likely they sent the youngest son Benjamin because he was loved by both sides of the family. And when Joseph hears this message, he weeps. Why does he weep? Because if these words are true, that Jacob said this, then he's weeping over the fact that his father Jacob did not trust him, did not trust his intentions, did not trust his words. If it's not true, if Jacob did not say this, then Joseph is weeping over the fact that his brothers still don't trust him. And there was no ground for mistrust. Joseph's forgiveness had been without condition. To have his sincere motives questioned was painful, especially after 17 years of care and provision. And you got to stop and you got to wonder, why would they question Joseph after 17 years of his love toward them and word indeed? Well, most likely they're projecting their own guilt on him. Most likely they haven't dealt completely with their guilt and their sin. And most likely they're thinking, okay, if we were sold into captivity by Joseph, and if we were in power over him, and now that dad's not here to protect him, what would we do? And in their sinfulness, they think, you know what? We would probably make him pay for his sins. And that's why it's so important in this message. They say, "Please forgive the transgression." They use the word transgression. They use the word sin, and they use the word evil. They recognize that they've transgressed, not just against God, but against his brother. They've sinned, not just against God, but against their brother. They've committed evil, not against just God, but his and their brother. And what do they call themselves? Forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father. For the first time the text tells us that they confess allegiance to the God of the universe. He's our God, not just the God of our Father. They repent and Joseph is weeping. So they got the message that Joseph is weeping. In verse 18 it says, "His brothers also came and they fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants." But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear for am I in the place of God. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them and he spoke kindly to them. Their sorrow and their repentance is genuine. It's sincere. That's why they come on the heels of the messenger and they offer themselves to Joseph as slaves. And we got to pause and just say it's incredible how God worked in this family, how he's been growing this family. We see spiritual growth and maturity. We see the brothers humble themselves before their younger brother, a sibling they once hated. And they confess their sin and wrongdoing and they prostrate themselves before their brother just as Joseph once dreamed. Why is this emphasized in the last chapter of the book? Well, because finally this family is healed. Finally, this family is united. Finally, this family understands the grace of God. I don't know about your family situation, your family of origin, your current family. But I will tell you this, that apart from grace, you cannot have a true united loving relationship that's going to last the test of time. We need grace. Why? Because we're all sinners and we sin against one another. The forgiveness of Joseph gives is a full forgiveness, and it reminds us of the forgiveness of Joseph's antitype, the greater Joseph, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can be assured of this, that when we repent of our sins and trust in Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven completely. The forgiveness is permanent. And we are forgiven for the penalty of our sins forever. For those who are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation. And when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross and he bore the sins of sinners, he satisfied the divine justice for those for whom he died. Consequently, heaven can bring no new charges against those for whom the Lord has paid a full debt. God does not require the debt to be paid twice. The saved are safe and secure thanks to the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there are seasons when we doubt this, are there not? Are there seasons in your life, dear believer, when you wonder, did Jesus completely forgive me? Am I truly secure in the hands of God? Or have I lost my relationship with God? And those seasons, for the true believer, those seasons are helpful, because those seasons cause us to wonder, why? Why do I have these doubts? The scriptures are clear that those who believe in Jesus Christ have eternal life immediately. It begins now and continues through return. Most likely we have those doubts because there's current sin in our lives. And then we've got to pause and say, what do I do? Well, you've got to repent of that sin and turn from it and turn back to the Lord. Go back to the cross of Jesus Christ. And we through our life of obedience of faith are to confirm that our election is true. And Joseph says, "Do not fear for am I in the place of God." Do I have the right to judge you? I'm not God over you. I have the power to judge you, but I don't have the right to judge you. And he reminds them that God is the ultimate judge and all wrongs are to be righted by him. Friend, when you are wronged by someone, what is the first inclination of your heart? Most likely it's to seek vengeance. And the Lord says, "No, no, no. When you're sinned against, remember vengeance is mine. I will repay," said the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 5:15," See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. "Joseph continues says, "As for you, you meant evil against me. But God meant it for good." And here we have a classic statement on the doctrine of providence and specifically God's concurrence. And that doctrine means that God can override, he chooses to override the evil consequences of the wicked to bring about a blessing. And the holy God overrides our sin while simultaneously remaining unsullied by it. One commentator says that God handles sin sinlessly. What could I do to interfere with God's plan even if I desire to do so is Joseph's sentiment. God is the ultimate governor of the universe. And it was the similar sentiment of Joseph back in chapter 45 when the brothers started the process of reconciliation in Genesis 45:5. "And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and the ruler over all the land of Egypt." You sold me, but it was God who sent me. God is a holy God, he's not the author of evil. He's holy, and therefore no holiness proceeds from him. But God does determine that evil exists in the universe in order to accomplish a greater good that would exist if he had not determined that evil should exist. Why? To manifest His glory through justice and grace, god determines that sin exists in the universe. And to really grasp this, it's important to meditate on the question, who crucified Jesus Christ? Who crucified our Lord and Savior? If you look at John 18 where Jesus is in the garden in Gethsemane, he told his disciples to pray, stay awake, be watchful. The flesh is weak but the spirit is strong. And the disciples fall asleep and then the soldiers are there. And then Judas points out who Jesus is. And Peter out of nowhere is awakened. And then Peter takes out a sword and he attempts to cut off the head of one of the servants that came. And he was still asleep, a little groggy. He missed the head and only nipped the ear. And then Jesus healed the guy. And then Jesus said in John 18:11, "Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup that the father has given me?" Well, who crucified Jesus Christ? Oh, it was the father's plan. The Father gave him the cup to drink. What was the cup? Is the cup of suffering and the wrath of God. But then in Acts 2 after the day on the day of Pentecost when Peter gets up and he preaches the first evangelistic sermon, 3000 people got saved. But this is what Peter preached. He said, "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it." And then later in the text it says that the people heard this and they recognized their responsibility. They were cut to the heart and they say, "What do we do?" And Peter said, "Repent and believe in Jesus Christ. There's no question about the responsibility of wicked men who put our Lord to death." They're responsible for their actions, but it's simultaneously true that God predetermined that this wickedness should take place. So God's providence is over everything, even over evil, and he has the power to turn the greatest evil into the greatest good. How do we know this? Well, because what was the greatest evil in the history of the universe? The greatest evil was wicked men putting the son of God to death. And then that greatest evil God transformed into the greatest good through the resurrection of our Lord so that anyone who trusts in the Lord will be saved and preserved and given life, just like the good that came out of the evil of Joseph's brothers selling him was the preservation of God's people. Third is a promise believed. This is Genesis 50 verse 22. "So Joseph remained in the Egypt, he and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years." Now, this is important because between verses 21 and 22, 54 years intervene of the brothers living together. They all remained in the Egypt, he and his father's house.And again, the emphasis is on the whole family. They've been healed, they've been united, they're living in shalom. They're living in complete reconciliation. Why is this important? Because of so many brothers and family members that couldn't get along in the Book of Genesis. Adam and Eve's children, Cain and Abel, couldn't get along, couldn't get reconciled, and Cain kills his brother Abel. Abraham has two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, who did not dwell together. Isaac has two sons, Esau and Jacob, and they parted forever. So the book of beginnings ends with Jacob's 12 sons, who are mired in conflict, in a personal relational conflict, and now they're living together in unity. There's no disunity, there's no division, there's no dissension. They've forgiven one another. They saw healing and now they're loving one another and loving neighbor as self. Psalm 1:33 says, "Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes. It is like the do of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore." We know what it means to not get along with others, to be at odds with others, even with Christians. Especially Christians, dare I say. We've sinned against others and others have sinned against us. And that's why it was so important, at the Last Supper, Jesus Christ, this is his final charge to his disciples before the crucifixion. What does he do? He gets on his knees, he takes a basin on water, he takes a towel, and he starts washing the feet of his disciples. What is he doing? He's saying, this is love. Love is getting on your knees and washing the filth of your brothers. Recognize there is filth and recognizing that it needs to be cleansed and recognizing there needs to be humility for this to happen. For true love and true community and true spiritual family to be established. And then he says the following in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Jesus is saying, this is how important love in the Christian community is. The watching world wants to know, do you believe? Do you truly believe what you say you believe? Do you truly believe in grace? Do you truly believe that your sins are forgiven? Is your heart transformed, so now you forgive one another? This is the greatest apologetic. The world sees this. The world is moved by this. Because there's nothing outside of the Christian Church that comes even close to this kind of community. And that's why this is the greatest point of attack of Satan. If Jesus is saying that unity is the greatest apologetic to the watching world, when brothers and sisters love each other in the church, what's Satan want to do? He wants to kill that apologetic, he wants to kill that testimony, by causing disunity in the church. And we are to be reminded that the blood of Jesus Christ, which unites us, has a unifying power that is stronger than anything that will pull us away from God or pull us away from another. And I say that because there are seasons in life where our love for one another is put to the test. I don't like watching the news. It's all terrible. I've unplugged from the matrix. I'm not on social media. And I'm hearing rumors of another lockdown coming. I don't know, rumors. When I heard that recently, it just took me a flashback back to 2020 and 2021 and the strife within the church. And I just want to say to you, dear church, just recognize that the unifying power of the blood of Christ, which washes us from all sins, which recognizes that we are all degenerate and we're all disgusting before God, we're all depraved in our sin. We are all wrong somewhere. And just putting down our own ambition, our selfish ambition and saying, you know what? My love for my brothers and sisters is a bond that is greater than anything else that could divide us. And the watching world, I'm telling, the watching world finds that incredibly meaningful and powerful. In Genesis 50 verse 23, "And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph's own. " The age to which Joseph attain shows us how the span of human life was slowly shortening. Isaac lived 180 years, Jacob, 147, and Joseph here 110. Perhaps it's the hardness of life. Perhaps something was already changing because of sin in the world, changing in the environment. But during these years, he was blessed with seeing his grandchildren. In verse 24, "Joseph said to his brothers, "I'm about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of the land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." And then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here. So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin In Egypt." I die, but God will visit. Joseph doesn't expect his brothers to bring him, as soon as he dies, to bring his coffin or his sarcophagus back to the land of Canaan, most likely because he realized that the political circumstances have changed. When Jacob died, Joseph was in a position of influence to bring him out. And by the end of Joseph's life, Israel doesn't have the same influence in the court of Egypt. He was put in a coffin in Egypt. This is how the Book of Genesis ends. The book opens with life and it ends with death. It opens with a garden and ends with a coffin. Why? Because of sin. Sin entered the world. And as the decades and centuries wore on, the became heavier and the mummy case must have begun to symbolize the futility of the hope. Joseph promised us that we will leave. Abraham was told that we will leave the captivity and land of Egypt, and there he lay for over 300 years until the last day finally when his hope and confidence long deferred was vindicated. The God who makes promises, fulfills his promises. And scripture says that Moses, as he's leading the people of Israel out of Egypt, he remembered the words of Joseph and they carried out his coffin. And then actually for 40 years, the coffin accompanied the people of Israel wherever they went until finally in the days of Joshua, the bones of Joseph were buried in Shechem. Each of the testaments, the Old Testament and the New Testament, ends in hope, with reference to the future. The Old Testament ends with the hope of the Messiah coming, the king of kings, the one that will save, the one that will redeem. The New Testament begins with the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the king of kings, and the New Testament ends with the second coming of the Messiah.  Scripture speaks of the death of a believer as sleep. When a person sleeps, they are alive, they're resting, and they expect to wake up. But scripture doesn't teach soul sleep, it teaches body sleep. The body is in place, wherever it's buried or cremated, and the spirit goes to be with the Lord. So the person is alive, resting from his labors, awaiting and awakening. Body left here, soul in the presence of God. And then those who sleep will be awakened, that's their bodies being resurrected with Christ in a glorified sense. Perfect bodies that will not die. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 comments on this, "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this, we declare to you by the word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not proceed those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words." So the body shall be raised from the dead. It shall be made like the Lord Jesus Christ's own glorious body, and shall rejoin the spirit in the resurrection. How can we be sure of this? How can we be sure that there is a resurrection? How can we be sure that our bodies will be resurrected and we will spend eternity with God? Well, we can be sure of this because we have no idea where Jesus Christ's body is now. Actually we do. It's not buried here. If Jesus Christ's glorified body is in heaven, now see it the right hand of God. And this is profound. If you study any other world religion, you realize that the followers of that world, they know where the founders are buried. They know where the body is. Just like Abraham and Jacob, they wanted their descendants to know where the bodies are so that they will be remembered. Jesus didn't leave his body. And this is the beauty of Christianity. And this is one of the great proofs for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Jesus truly remained dead, then his followers would do everything possible to know where his body was buried to revere him. No, thankfully we don't have Jesus' bones. We have an empty tomb. The tomb is empty. And I love the fact that the tomb of Jesus Christ was where? What was the location of the tomb? It was in a garden. I love how God does that. Genesis begins with a garden and it ends with a tomb. And then when Jesus Christ comes, he fights Satan in the garden Gethsemane, where he's tempted to not take the cup of God's wrath. And then he finally says to the Lord, "Father, not my will but yours be done." And then he goes in the arduous journey of the cross and the Via Dolorosa and he takes the cross upon himself and on the cross he takes our sins upon himself. He suffered. He was crucified. And he was buried in a tomb, in a garden. And God is saying that there's a place of death, but it's a place of resurrection and it's in a garden.And I love when Mary goes to see Jesus on the resurrection Sunday. She sees him, but she mistakens him for what? She mistakens him for whom? She mistakens him for a gardener. I love that. I love that. A resurrected Jesus, he's mistaken for a gardener. Why? What's he doing? I don't know. He's probably weeding the garden around the tomb and he's like, oh, no one's taking care of this place. But it's a sign to us that God, through his resurrection of his son, that's the validation. That's the proof that we too by faith in Christ will be resurrected. Jesus Christ says to the disciples, "I go and I prepare a place for you, a truly Promised Land for you," in John 14. And he says, "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I'm going. Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes through the Father except through me." This is an implacable truth of the universe, that the only way we can go to God, be reconciled with God, is through Jesus Christ. He is the way, he is the truth, and he is life itself. Joseph looked to the exodus. He looked forward to the exodus. And why was that important? Because the people of God were redeemed out of captivity and they were saved from the angel of death because of the blood of the Passover lamb. On the night before they were redeemed and brought out of the exodus, they took a lamb and they slew the lamb, and then by faith they painted the blood of the slain lamb over their door and were delivered from death and then from Egypt. And all of this was to point to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. Jesus Christ is the one that leads us out in the new Exodus. 1 Corinthians 5:7 says, "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed." So the people of Israel, they had to act upon their faith. Do we believe the words of God when he says that you have to kill a lamb and you have to paint your doorway with the blood? Do we believe it? Then you have to act on it. We have to do it. And then they were saved. In the same way, how can we be redeemed from our sin through the blood of the lamb of God? You have to believe it, and then you have to act upon it. How do we act upon it? We repent of our sin. Lord, we have transgressed. We have committed evil. We have committed sins. Lord, that sin, that evil, the penalty for all of that was laid upon you. That's why you were slain. So we believe and then we reorder our life around that belief. Bible trivia question, did Moses ever see the Promised Land? Oh, look at you good Bible scholars. God prevented him from seeing the Promised Land because of his stubbornness and sin. But then on the Mount of Transfiguration in Luke 9, it says, "Moses met with Jesus." Where? In the Promised Land. And what do they talk about? Luke 9:28, "Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem." And the word for departure in the original is Exodus. What did Moses want to talk about with Jesus? He wanted to talk about the Exodus. Moses, the great Moses who led the people of God in the exodus through the Red Sea that was parted, wanted to talk with Jesus Christ about the new exodus that was going to be accomplished in Jerusalem where on the cross, that we are led from the captivity to our sin. From condemnation for our sin, we're led through the Red Sea of the blood of Jesus Christ that was poured down on the cross and by grace through faith. When we repent of sin, the Lord forgives us and he frees us. Praise be to God. And as we await in faith and hope of our exodus to the Promised Land, we too, by God's grace, are reminded from this text that we are to seek to live in harmony and peace with one another, forgiving and being forgiven. Matthew 6:14, Jesus says some incredible things. He says, "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." It's incredible because he's saying, this is how fundamental forgiveness is in the Christian life. If you truly believe that you have been forgiven by God, a holy God, an eternal weight of penalty, well, how will you not then forgive those who sin against you? Matthew 18, it says that Peter came to Jesus and he said to him, and I'll close with this because these are some weighty words. He said, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times? And Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times." Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master awarded him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, "Have patience with me and, I will pay you everything." And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him saying, "Pay what you owe." So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, "Have patience with me, and I will pay you. He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. And when his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, "You wicked servant. I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you? And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." If you truly understand how much you have been forgiven by God at the cross, how could you withhold forgiveness from another? So meditate on the words of Christ from the cross. Father, forgive them, for they do not what they do. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for a blessed time in the Holy Scriptures and the Book of Genesis, the book of beginnings. Lord, we thank you that because of your son Jesus Christ, we have access to grace. And Lord, I pray that we never take your grace for granted. And as we receive your grace, I pray it transforms us to be a people who are quick to forgive when others sin against us. And Lord, continue to bless this church, continue to unify our hearts, to bring us into cohesion around your will for us. And we do pray that as we love one another, because you have first loved us, the watching world will be mesmerized. How is it that these people truly love one another? And I pray that you give us grace to then deflect all the glory and honor to you and say, it's only because of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and whose name we pray. Amen.

Audio Transcript:This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your holy scriptures. We thank you for the Book of Genesis, the book of beginnings, we come to the end of it today. A book that begins with a garden and perfect peace, with Adam and Eve walking with you in the cool of the day. It ends with two deaths. It ends with two coffins. And we pray that today you remind us that because of our sin, because of our rebellion, we are sinners by nature and by choice. Death is in the world and death will come to each one of us if the Lord should tarry. And Lord, I pray you make us the people that meditate upon death. As hard as it is, it is an important spiritual discipline to think about. How do we want to be remembered? What kind of legacy do we want to leave? And Lord, we thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We thank you that your son lived the perfect life, walked with you perfectly, never sinned, fulfilled the law of God from the heart. You loved God, and you love neighbor, Jesus, so much so that you offered yourself up on the cross in order to redeem us. And we thank you Jesus that you did not stay dead and we thank you that through your resurrection, you have conquered Satan, sin, and death. And in your death, we see the death of death itself. And make us a people who trust in your word and recognizing that when we believe in you, repent of sin, we are granted eternal life. It's eternal life that begins now and continues through all of eternity. And Lord, we thank you for the lessons that we have learned from the life of Joseph, from the life of Jacob, as we remember their faith and their faithfulness, we also recognize that there were times when they were faithless. And still because they were yours, because they were your elect, you remain faithful to them. And Lord remain faithful to us. We trust in that promise and give us grace. Grace to have our sins forgiven and grace to then extend forgiveness to others when they sin against us. We thank you for the reminder of how important unity is in the church of God and I pray that you unite us, recognizing that the blood of Jesus Christ and the unity that he gives us triumphs over anything that could potentially divide us. We pray that you bless our time, the Holy Scriptures, Holy Spirit, we love you, we welcome you, and we pray that you deepen our love for you as we meditate upon your word. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series called Graduate Level Grace, actually ending it today. A study in the life of Joseph. Today we're in Genesis 50. Next Sunday is our annual vision sermon. So if you are looking for a church, if you are church shopping, definitely come back next week and we, by the power of God, hopefully will show you of the importance of a gospel proclaiming church, a faithful church in a place like Boston. And then after that, we will start a brand new sermon series through the Gospel of Mark. We're calling it Kingdom Come: The Gospel of Mark and the secret of God's kingdom in which we'll meditate. And what it means is that Jesus is king and what it means that we are part of his kingdom, that we have been transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved son, and what it means to be kingdom minded. Today the title of the sermon is Forgive from the Heart. The Book of Genesis, the book of beginnings, begins with life. God creates life and he creates humanity and everything is perfect and shalom. And then the Book of Genesis ends with death, two deaths actually, the death of Jacob and the death of Joseph. And you say, what happened? It started in such a promising way and such a promising note and it ends with death. And the answer is sin. The answer is, rebellion and rejection of God's reign and rule ushered in death. And Jacob here we're told is buried in the Promised Land as a testimony to the promises God has made in the past. And Joseph's body is put in a coffin in Egypt as a testimony to the fact that he believed that God would bring his promises to pass in the future via the Exodus. And both these godly men die in the Lord, which is a great blessing. Revelation 14:13 says, "And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Blessed indeed," says the spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them." Blessed is to die in the Lord. To die as a believer. Blessed is to die well and to have your funeral be a celebration of your life. Blessed it is to live in such a way where people do want to come to your funeral, and people do have many a good thing, a blessed thing to say about your life. My wife and I, we took a vacation, a trip last summer to Vail, Colorado. And my goodness, it was incredible. Vail is so beautiful. And we're sitting on the porch outside of the hotel room and we have this incredible mountain view and everything's perfect, the food was perfect, the views were perfect, everything's perfect. And when everything's perfect, the Slavic in us, we come from a Slavic background, the Slavic in us wants to be reminded that there is pain in the world. And we decided it would be wise to partake in one of the most painful exercises you could possibly partake. And my wife asked me, she said, "And when I die, what will you say at my funeral?" And then I was like, hold on, I got to think about it. And then as I'm thinking about it, I'm like, okay, what would I say? Many a good thing. I'm going to save it till her funeral. And then I said, "What are you going to say about me at my funeral?" And it was so beautiful and so heart-wrenching, heartwarming, we're just weeping. We're just sitting here and beautiful, weeping. But it was a wonderful reminder of the fact that we will die. And then if you reverse engineer how you want to live in order to be remembered in a positive way, well, how should you live? And I've done many a funeral and I will tell you it's a world of difference when the person that dies dies in the Lord, than a person that had nothing to do with God or there was no evidence of faith in God. People kind of say the same stuff, but you know it comes from a different place when the person was truly a believer secure in the hands of God. What do people say at funerals? Well, the person is now in a better place. If you're a believer or not, everyone says the same thing, even at an unbeliever's funeral. No one wants to say, "Yeah, this person was a pagan and wicked had nothing to do with God." No, they say, "They're in better place." Well, we are to prepare in life for death in order for those words to be true. In the Book of Numbers, Balaam was hired by Balak to curse Israel, but he ends up blessing them, and this is what he says in Numbers 23:10, "Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his." Let me die the death of the upright. In chapter 48, we saw Jacob's greatest act of faith, as singled out in the Hall of Faith Hebrews 11, when he blessed the sons of Joseph, when he crossed his hands, which is an incredible example and actually prophecy of the cross of Jesus Christ. But in Hebrews 11:22 in the Hall of Faith, it says that what Joseph does in this chapter was Joseph's greatest act of faith. Hebrews 11:22 says, "By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones." Joseph, on his deathbed, spoke of the exodus, of the promises of God concerning the exodus, and he demanded to be buried back in the land of Canaan, although he realized it's going to be centuries before the people of God are led out of Egypt. From all appearances, Joseph had at this time by the end of his life, already been an Egyptian through and through. He was an Egyptian from the day of his captivity when he was 17 to when he was elevated to prominence in the Egyptian court at age 30 and he married an Egyptian woman, followed Egyptian laws, carried an Egyptian name. But his dying words show that he had been a stranger in the midst of it all. His citizenship was not in Egypt, it was in heaven. Though he ruled in Egypt, Egypt did not rule in him. He was in the world, but he was not of the world. No worldly influence or power or authority or success distracted him from his faith in God. And as truly as his fathers who would dwell in tents, he too felt like he had no continuing city here. He continued to believe in God and his promises, and he continued to look by faith into the future. Before we look at Genesis 50, just one verse right before to set the context. Jacob on his deathbed blessed his sons, and then Genesis 48:33, it says, "When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and he was gathered to his people." Jacob's body was still in the room, but his soul was gathered to the people of God and he was reunited with his fathers. As Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I am." And then the Pharisees were like, what are you talking about? That's blasphemy. And he said, "Have you not read? God says I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is not the God of the dead but of the living." Three points to frame up our time as we walk through the text, a father celebrated, a family reconciled, and a promise believed. So first of Father celebrated. Genesis 50 verse one. "Then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him for seventy days" Before Jacob took the trek to Egypt with all of his family, he asked God, "God, are you going with me?" And God met him and said, "Fear not. I will go with you and I will bless you. And your son Joseph is going to close your eyes in death." The other brothers were certainly present at the deathbed of Jacob and they too grieved the death of his father. But Joseph's grief is highlighted here. His love for his father is highlighted here. His affection for his father. He's weeping over him. Why? Because first of all, he stood closer to his father than the other brothers. And also he is experiencing a pain accentuated by the fact that he had lost years of relationship with his father. There's grief, but then there's restrained, godly grief. Joseph is weeping, and after he is done weeping, he then goes into action. Why? Because his grief is like that of a believer. We grieve but not like those without hope. Joseph knows that he too will go to be with his father in the presence of God, just like Jacob did. Joseph here is 56 years of age when his father Jacob died. If you remember, he was 17 when he was sold into captivity by his brothers. And then he was 30 when he rose to prominence in power and in Pharaoh's Court. And then there were seven years of plenty and then two years of famine. And at age 39, his family moved to Goshen. And then Jacob spent 17 years, the last 17 years of his life, with Joseph, just like Joseph had spent the first 17 years of his life with his father. It says that the Egyptians wept for Jacob for 70 days. And this is really important because the Egyptians wept for Pharaoh. When a pharaoh would die, the king of Israel, the Egyptians would weep 72 days. So here we have a feeble shepherd who was revered almost as highly as royalty. Why? Because of his son. Because his son saved the people. And the people recognize that apart from Joseph and his wisdom that God gave him, they would've ended up dead. And sometimes fathers provide for their children early on and sometimes children ended up providing for their parents. I tell my girls this, I have four daughters. I remember when my oldest for the very first time, she was like nine, she washed my car. And I was so pumped and I was like finally, a little ROI. A little return on investment. But we do. We pour into our kids and as we raise the children and recognize the children by God's grace will care for us in our old age. There is no burial recorded in scripture quite as honorable as this with such a wealth of detail. And Joseph commands the physicians, it says, to embalm his father. Not the mortuary priests. His wife was part of the priest cast in Egypt, but it's not the priest that come in and do the embalming. No, it's the doctors, the physicians. Why does Joseph do this? First of all, he wants everyone to know we're not doing this for religious purposes. There's a practical purpose here. The practical purpose in embalming Jacob is to transport his body into Canaan, the Promised Land, just like Jacob had commanded Joseph and the son. So the pagan embalming procedure is used by the Lord God here. So Jacob and Joseph are the only two Israelites of whom the scriptures tell that they were embalmed, not for religious value, but strictly for feasible transportation. Genesis 50 verse 4, "And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, "My father made me swear, saying, "I'm about to die: in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me." Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return. And Pharaoh answered, Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear." Joseph being the wise administrator that he is, he understands how the political court works. Although he's second in command to Pharaoh, he understands authority. He understands he's in authority, and he understands he's under authority. So he doesn't want to pull rank. And he understands that Pharaoh would be apprehensive about letting such a trusted official go with his whole tribe, his whole family back to the land of Canaan. Especially given that Joseph knew sensitive information about Egypt and the inner workings, and such clandestine information would be very valuable to the enemies of Egypt. So Joseph understands he needs Pharaoh's clearance, so he asks. Joseph is given his request to go back, and on top of that, he's given a large entourage to escort Jacob for the internment. It's a massive funeral entourage. Hundreds of people made up the retinue. In verse 7 it says, "So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. The text emphasizes that the children, the livestock, were left in Goshen, to emphasize the fact that they felt so secure in leaving the children, the little ones in Goshen. That's how much God had blessed the people of Israel. He'd given them security, he'd given them land. And we see the entourage led by Joseph, and it's almost a mini rehearsal for the ultimate homecoming of the children of Israel out of Egypt via the exodus. And actually the route they took was the same exact one as Israel would take centuries later after the Exodus. In verse 10, "When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a great and grievous lamentation, and he made a mourning for his father seven days." The Egyptian custom of those days were where when you get to the place of burial, the point of burial, you take another seven days of lamentation. So we're up to 77 days that people lamented the death of Jacob. And this is important. I think this is important for us because we live in a society that idolizes youth and we don't respect people in their older age and we don't think about honoring them and their death. We don't think about honoring them after their death. And this morning my dad, he sent me a text message, iMessage from Estonia, he's in Estonia right now, my country of origin, and he's there with my mom. And he takes a pilgrimage almost every single year. And every time he goes to Estonia, he goes to the cemetery where his mom is buried and where his grandparents are buried. And they take care of their little plot of land, put flowers there. And I remember when I was younger, I was like, that's kind of silly because they're in heaven, right? We believe that they're in heaven, their souls are in heaven. But he's doing it as a way to honor them. Honor their remembrance, and honor their sacrifice for him and for us. And this is important, I think it's important for us to really celebrate those who came before us and to honor them and their death and honor them after their death and the memory of them. And this is what the Lord Jesus told us in the celebration of the last supper. He said, "Do this for what purpose? Do this in remembrance of me." Every time we take the cup and the bread, we're remembering the death of our Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice and resurrection. Verse 11 of chapter 50, when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians," and therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim. Abel-mizraim means mourning of Egypt. Verse 12, "Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them, for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Efron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father." So Jacob's sons take over here in the very final and most intimate part of the service. They are the ones that bury their father. They are the ones that lay him in his final resting place for his body. And the emphasis in the text is his sons, all his sons are unified in that. They obey the commandment of their father. Perhaps for the first time, all 12 of them are unified in obedience of their father. We see them as submissive, dutiful, faithful. They're truly changed men. And then that whole family goes back to Egypt, goes back to Goshen. And now the question is, well, how then will they live? Now that Jacob's influence as the patriarch, as the loving father on all 12 sons. Are they going to live in unity and reconciliation? And the text says yes. Point two is the family reconciled. Verse 15, "When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him." So they sent a message to Joseph saying, "Your father gave this command before he died: Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you." And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him. So the brother is realizing their father is dead, understandably they're worried. And they're wondering, was he nice to us just because of dad? He's been benevolent to us, but is the benevolence just a mask for malevolent intent? Was he really just harboring resentment and biding his time? So they sent a message to Joseph. They don't go personally just yet. First they want to test the waters. Who do they send? Most likely they sent the youngest son Benjamin because he was loved by both sides of the family. And when Joseph hears this message, he weeps. Why does he weep? Because if these words are true, that Jacob said this, then he's weeping over the fact that his father Jacob did not trust him, did not trust his intentions, did not trust his words. If it's not true, if Jacob did not say this, then Joseph is weeping over the fact that his brothers still don't trust him. And there was no ground for mistrust. Joseph's forgiveness had been without condition. To have his sincere motives questioned was painful, especially after 17 years of care and provision. And you got to stop and you got to wonder, why would they question Joseph after 17 years of his love toward them and word indeed? Well, most likely they're projecting their own guilt on him. Most likely they haven't dealt completely with their guilt and their sin. And most likely they're thinking, okay, if we were sold into captivity by Joseph, and if we were in power over him, and now that dad's not here to protect him, what would we do? And in their sinfulness, they think, you know what? We would probably make him pay for his sins. And that's why it's so important in this message. They say, "Please forgive the transgression." They use the word transgression. They use the word sin, and they use the word evil. They recognize that they've transgressed, not just against God, but against his brother. They've sinned, not just against God, but against their brother. They've committed evil, not against just God, but his and their brother. And what do they call themselves? Forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father. For the first time the text tells us that they confess allegiance to the God of the universe. He's our God, not just the God of our Father. They repent and Joseph is weeping. So they got the message that Joseph is weeping. In verse 18 it says, "His brothers also came and they fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants." But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear for am I in the place of God. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them and he spoke kindly to them. Their sorrow and their repentance is genuine. It's sincere. That's why they come on the heels of the messenger and they offer themselves to Joseph as slaves. And we got to pause and just say it's incredible how God worked in this family, how he's been growing this family. We see spiritual growth and maturity. We see the brothers humble themselves before their younger brother, a sibling they once hated. And they confess their sin and wrongdoing and they prostrate themselves before their brother just as Joseph once dreamed. Why is this emphasized in the last chapter of the book? Well, because finally this family is healed. Finally, this family is united. Finally, this family understands the grace of God. I don't know about your family situation, your family of origin, your current family. But I will tell you this, that apart from grace, you cannot have a true united loving relationship that's going to last the test of time. We need grace. Why? Because we're all sinners and we sin against one another. The forgiveness of Joseph gives is a full forgiveness, and it reminds us of the forgiveness of Joseph's antitype, the greater Joseph, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can be assured of this, that when we repent of our sins and trust in Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven completely. The forgiveness is permanent. And we are forgiven for the penalty of our sins forever. For those who are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation. And when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross and he bore the sins of sinners, he satisfied the divine justice for those for whom he died. Consequently, heaven can bring no new charges against those for whom the Lord has paid a full debt. God does not require the debt to be paid twice. The saved are safe and secure thanks to the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there are seasons when we doubt this, are there not? Are there seasons in your life, dear believer, when you wonder, did Jesus completely forgive me? Am I truly secure in the hands of God? Or have I lost my relationship with God? And those seasons, for the true believer, those seasons are helpful, because those seasons cause us to wonder, why? Why do I have these doubts? The scriptures are clear that those who believe in Jesus Christ have eternal life immediately. It begins now and continues through return. Most likely we have those doubts because there's current sin in our lives. And then we've got to pause and say, what do I do? Well, you've got to repent of that sin and turn from it and turn back to the Lord. Go back to the cross of Jesus Christ. And we through our life of obedience of faith are to confirm that our election is true. And Joseph says, "Do not fear for am I in the place of God." Do I have the right to judge you? I'm not God over you. I have the power to judge you, but I don't have the right to judge you. And he reminds them that God is the ultimate judge and all wrongs are to be righted by him. Friend, when you are wronged by someone, what is the first inclination of your heart? Most likely it's to seek vengeance. And the Lord says, "No, no, no. When you're sinned against, remember vengeance is mine. I will repay," said the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 5:15," See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. "Joseph continues says, "As for you, you meant evil against me. But God meant it for good." And here we have a classic statement on the doctrine of providence and specifically God's concurrence. And that doctrine means that God can override, he chooses to override the evil consequences of the wicked to bring about a blessing. And the holy God overrides our sin while simultaneously remaining unsullied by it. One commentator says that God handles sin sinlessly. What could I do to interfere with God's plan even if I desire to do so is Joseph's sentiment. God is the ultimate governor of the universe. And it was the similar sentiment of Joseph back in chapter 45 when the brothers started the process of reconciliation in Genesis 45:5. "And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and the ruler over all the land of Egypt." You sold me, but it was God who sent me. God is a holy God, he's not the author of evil. He's holy, and therefore no holiness proceeds from him. But God does determine that evil exists in the universe in order to accomplish a greater good that would exist if he had not determined that evil should exist. Why? To manifest His glory through justice and grace, god determines that sin exists in the universe. And to really grasp this, it's important to meditate on the question, who crucified Jesus Christ? Who crucified our Lord and Savior? If you look at John 18 where Jesus is in the garden in Gethsemane, he told his disciples to pray, stay awake, be watchful. The flesh is weak but the spirit is strong. And the disciples fall asleep and then the soldiers are there. And then Judas points out who Jesus is. And Peter out of nowhere is awakened. And then Peter takes out a sword and he attempts to cut off the head of one of the servants that came. And he was still asleep, a little groggy. He missed the head and only nipped the ear. And then Jesus healed the guy. And then Jesus said in John 18:11, "Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup that the father has given me?" Well, who crucified Jesus Christ? Oh, it was the father's plan. The Father gave him the cup to drink. What was the cup? Is the cup of suffering and the wrath of God. But then in Acts 2 after the day on the day of Pentecost when Peter gets up and he preaches the first evangelistic sermon, 3000 people got saved. But this is what Peter preached. He said, "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it." And then later in the text it says that the people heard this and they recognized their responsibility. They were cut to the heart and they say, "What do we do?" And Peter said, "Repent and believe in Jesus Christ. There's no question about the responsibility of wicked men who put our Lord to death." They're responsible for their actions, but it's simultaneously true that God predetermined that this wickedness should take place. So God's providence is over everything, even over evil, and he has the power to turn the greatest evil into the greatest good. How do we know this? Well, because what was the greatest evil in the history of the universe? The greatest evil was wicked men putting the son of God to death. And then that greatest evil God transformed into the greatest good through the resurrection of our Lord so that anyone who trusts in the Lord will be saved and preserved and given life, just like the good that came out of the evil of Joseph's brothers selling him was the preservation of God's people. Third is a promise believed. This is Genesis 50 verse 22. "So Joseph remained in the Egypt, he and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years." Now, this is important because between verses 21 and 22, 54 years intervene of the brothers living together. They all remained in the Egypt, he and his father's house.And again, the emphasis is on the whole family. They've been healed, they've been united, they're living in shalom. They're living in complete reconciliation. Why is this important? Because of so many brothers and family members that couldn't get along in the Book of Genesis. Adam and Eve's children, Cain and Abel, couldn't get along, couldn't get reconciled, and Cain kills his brother Abel. Abraham has two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, who did not dwell together. Isaac has two sons, Esau and Jacob, and they parted forever. So the book of beginnings ends with Jacob's 12 sons, who are mired in conflict, in a personal relational conflict, and now they're living together in unity. There's no disunity, there's no division, there's no dissension. They've forgiven one another. They saw healing and now they're loving one another and loving neighbor as self. Psalm 1:33 says, "Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes. It is like the do of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore." We know what it means to not get along with others, to be at odds with others, even with Christians. Especially Christians, dare I say. We've sinned against others and others have sinned against us. And that's why it was so important, at the Last Supper, Jesus Christ, this is his final charge to his disciples before the crucifixion. What does he do? He gets on his knees, he takes a basin on water, he takes a towel, and he starts washing the feet of his disciples. What is he doing? He's saying, this is love. Love is getting on your knees and washing the filth of your brothers. Recognize there is filth and recognizing that it needs to be cleansed and recognizing there needs to be humility for this to happen. For true love and true community and true spiritual family to be established. And then he says the following in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Jesus is saying, this is how important love in the Christian community is. The watching world wants to know, do you believe? Do you truly believe what you say you believe? Do you truly believe in grace? Do you truly believe that your sins are forgiven? Is your heart transformed, so now you forgive one another? This is the greatest apologetic. The world sees this. The world is moved by this. Because there's nothing outside of the Christian Church that comes even close to this kind of community. And that's why this is the greatest point of attack of Satan. If Jesus is saying that unity is the greatest apologetic to the watching world, when brothers and sisters love each other in the church, what's Satan want to do? He wants to kill that apologetic, he wants to kill that testimony, by causing disunity in the church. And we are to be reminded that the blood of Jesus Christ, which unites us, has a unifying power that is stronger than anything that will pull us away from God or pull us away from another. And I say that because there are seasons in life where our love for one another is put to the test. I don't like watching the news. It's all terrible. I've unplugged from the matrix. I'm not on social media. And I'm hearing rumors of another lockdown coming. I don't know, rumors. When I heard that recently, it just took me a flashback back to 2020 and 2021 and the strife within the church. And I just want to say to you, dear church, just recognize that the unifying power of the blood of Christ, which washes us from all sins, which recognizes that we are all degenerate and we're all disgusting before God, we're all depraved in our sin. We are all wrong somewhere. And just putting down our own ambition, our selfish ambition and saying, you know what? My love for my brothers and sisters is a bond that is greater than anything else that could divide us. And the watching world, I'm telling, the watching world finds that incredibly meaningful and powerful. In Genesis 50 verse 23, "And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph's own. " The age to which Joseph attain shows us how the span of human life was slowly shortening. Isaac lived 180 years, Jacob, 147, and Joseph here 110. Perhaps it's the hardness of life. Perhaps something was already changing because of sin in the world, changing in the environment. But during these years, he was blessed with seeing his grandchildren. In verse 24, "Joseph said to his brothers, "I'm about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of the land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." And then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here. So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin In Egypt." I die, but God will visit. Joseph doesn't expect his brothers to bring him, as soon as he dies, to bring his coffin or his sarcophagus back to the land of Canaan, most likely because he realized that the political circumstances have changed. When Jacob died, Joseph was in a position of influence to bring him out. And by the end of Joseph's life, Israel doesn't have the same influence in the court of Egypt. He was put in a coffin in Egypt. This is how the Book of Genesis ends. The book opens with life and it ends with death. It opens with a garden and ends with a coffin. Why? Because of sin. Sin entered the world. And as the decades and centuries wore on, the became heavier and the mummy case must have begun to symbolize the futility of the hope. Joseph promised us that we will leave. Abraham was told that we will leave the captivity and land of Egypt, and there he lay for over 300 years until the last day finally when his hope and confidence long deferred was vindicated. The God who makes promises, fulfills his promises. And scripture says that Moses, as he's leading the people of Israel out of Egypt, he remembered the words of Joseph and they carried out his coffin. And then actually for 40 years, the coffin accompanied the people of Israel wherever they went until finally in the days of Joshua, the bones of Joseph were buried in Shechem. Each of the testaments, the Old Testament and the New Testament, ends in hope, with reference to the future. The Old Testament ends with the hope of the Messiah coming, the king of kings, the one that will save, the one that will redeem. The New Testament begins with the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the king of kings, and the New Testament ends with the second coming of the Messiah.  Scripture speaks of the death of a believer as sleep. When a person sleeps, they are alive, they're resting, and they expect to wake up. But scripture doesn't teach soul sleep, it teaches body sleep. The body is in place, wherever it's buried or cremated, and the spirit goes to be with the Lord. So the person is alive, resting from his labors, awaiting and awakening. Body left here, soul in the presence of God. And then those who sleep will be awakened, that's their bodies being resurrected with Christ in a glorified sense. Perfect bodies that will not die. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 comments on this, "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this, we declare to you by the word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not proceed those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words." So the body shall be raised from the dead. It shall be made like the Lord Jesus Christ's own glorious body, and shall rejoin the spirit in the resurrection. How can we be sure of this? How can we be sure that there is a resurrection? How can we be sure that our bodies will be resurrected and we will spend eternity with God? Well, we can be sure of this because we have no idea where Jesus Christ's body is now. Actually we do. It's not buried here. If Jesus Christ's glorified body is in heaven, now see it the right hand of God. And this is profound. If you study any other world religion, you realize that the followers of that world, they know where the founders are buried. They know where the body is. Just like Abraham and Jacob, they wanted their descendants to know where the bodies are so that they will be remembered. Jesus didn't leave his body. And this is the beauty of Christianity. And this is one of the great proofs for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Jesus truly remained dead, then his followers would do everything possible to know where his body was buried to revere him. No, thankfully we don't have Jesus' bones. We have an empty tomb. The tomb is empty. And I love the fact that the tomb of Jesus Christ was where? What was the location of the tomb? It was in a garden. I love how God does that. Genesis begins with a garden and it ends with a tomb. And then when Jesus Christ comes, he fights Satan in the garden Gethsemane, where he's tempted to not take the cup of God's wrath. And then he finally says to the Lord, "Father, not my will but yours be done." And then he goes in the arduous journey of the cross and the Via Dolorosa and he takes the cross upon himself and on the cross he takes our sins upon himself. He suffered. He was crucified. And he was buried in a tomb, in a garden. And God is saying that there's a place of death, but it's a place of resurrection and it's in a garden.And I love when Mary goes to see Jesus on the resurrection Sunday. She sees him, but she mistakens him for what? She mistakens him for whom? She mistakens him for a gardener. I love that. I love that. A resurrected Jesus, he's mistaken for a gardener. Why? What's he doing? I don't know. He's probably weeding the garden around the tomb and he's like, oh, no one's taking care of this place. But it's a sign to us that God, through his resurrection of his son, that's the validation. That's the proof that we too by faith in Christ will be resurrected. Jesus Christ says to the disciples, "I go and I prepare a place for you, a truly Promised Land for you," in John 14. And he says, "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I'm going. Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes through the Father except through me." This is an implacable truth of the universe, that the only way we can go to God, be reconciled with God, is through Jesus Christ. He is the way, he is the truth, and he is life itself. Joseph looked to the exodus. He looked forward to the exodus. And why was that important? Because the people of God were redeemed out of captivity and they were saved from the angel of death because of the blood of the Passover lamb. On the night before they were redeemed and brought out of the exodus, they took a lamb and they slew the lamb, and then by faith they painted the blood of the slain lamb over their door and were delivered from death and then from Egypt. And all of this was to point to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. Jesus Christ is the one that leads us out in the new Exodus. 1 Corinthians 5:7 says, "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed." So the people of Israel, they had to act upon their faith. Do we believe the words of God when he says that you have to kill a lamb and you have to paint your doorway with the blood? Do we believe it? Then you have to act on it. We have to do it. And then they were saved. In the same way, how can we be redeemed from our sin through the blood of the lamb of God? You have to believe it, and then you have to act upon it. How do we act upon it? We repent of our sin. Lord, we have transgressed. We have committed evil. We have committed sins. Lord, that sin, that evil, the penalty for all of that was laid upon you. That's why you were slain. So we believe and then we reorder our life around that belief. Bible trivia question, did Moses ever see the Promised Land? Oh, look at you good Bible scholars. God prevented him from seeing the Promised Land because of his stubbornness and sin. But then on the Mount of Transfiguration in Luke 9, it says, "Moses met with Jesus." Where? In the Promised Land. And what do they talk about? Luke 9:28, "Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem." And the word for departure in the original is Exodus. What did Moses want to talk about with Jesus? He wanted to talk about the Exodus. Moses, the great Moses who led the people of God in the exodus through the Red Sea that was parted, wanted to talk with Jesus Christ about the new exodus that was going to be accomplished in Jerusalem where on the cross, that we are led from the captivity to our sin. From condemnation for our sin, we're led through the Red Sea of the blood of Jesus Christ that was poured down on the cross and by grace through faith. When we repent of sin, the Lord forgives us and he frees us. Praise be to God. And as we await in faith and hope of our exodus to the Promised Land, we too, by God's grace, are reminded from this text that we are to seek to live in harmony and peace with one another, forgiving and being forgiven. Matthew 6:14, Jesus says some incredible things. He says, "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." It's incredible because he's saying, this is how fundamental forgiveness is in the Christian life. If you truly believe that you have been forgiven by God, a holy God, an eternal weight of penalty, well, how will you not then forgive those who sin against you? Matthew 18, it says that Peter came to Jesus and he said to him, and I'll close with this because these are some weighty words. He said, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times? And Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times." Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master awarded him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, "Have patience with me and, I will pay you everything." And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him saying, "Pay what you owe." So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, "Have patience with me, and I will pay you. He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. And when his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, "You wicked servant. I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you? And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." If you truly understand how much you have been forgiven by God at the cross, how could you withhold forgiveness from another? So meditate on the words of Christ from the cross. Father, forgive them, for they do not what they do. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for a blessed time in the Holy Scriptures and the Book of Genesis, the book of beginnings. Lord, we thank you that because of your son Jesus Christ, we have access to grace. And Lord, I pray that we never take your grace for granted. And as we receive your grace, I pray it transforms us to be a people who are quick to forgive when others sin against us. And Lord, continue to bless this church, continue to unify our hearts, to bring us into cohesion around your will for us. And we do pray that as we love one another, because you have first loved us, the watching world will be mesmerized. How is it that these people truly love one another? And I pray that you give us grace to then deflect all the glory and honor to you and say, it's only because of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and whose name we pray. Amen.