Continuing today with a look at the latter days, specifically from the perspective of our living in them, and all but a small remnant not realizing we are in the midst of what even the deceived church has defined as the tribulation. They, the deceived church, therefore those sleeping in Christ, know this as a time that would inevitably come, while just a certainly knowing it would be a time after a great falling away from the LORD had come. What they fail to realize is their just as unavoidably falling into a sleep like stupor produced as men in power and control over what is taught becoming as if uncontrollably drunk with their positions. They becoming intoxicated, thinking themselves infallible, endlessly adding their own inventions to the truth delivered to them, have now become hopelessly blinded by their own ignorance. This has now reached the point of their demanding God change His position of Holiness, accept their false creation, and make His plan conform to their fiction.
This is what the LORD has to say: Choose now between your idols and the LORD God Almighty. How long will you rebel and refuse correction? Today is the day; it isn’t some time out in the future when your fictions come to pass. You believe in lies, and in them you trust, but have they come to save you?
Isaiah 56
10 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
11 Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.
12 Come you, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.
Isaiah 57
1 The righteous perishes [leaves the company (leaves the house and city) of the afore mentioned drunkards,] and no man lays it to heart [reasons why:] and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come [that has now come.]
2 He [the one leaving their confusion] shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness [purity apart from the idols he left behind.]
3 But draw near hither [to here,] you sons of the sorceress [you who with your lies lead men toward your will being done,] the seed of the adulterer and the whore.
4 Against whom do you sport yourselves? against whom make you a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are you not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood.
5 Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks?
6 Among the smooth stones of the stream is your portion [worn down by the torrent;] they, they are your lot: even to them have you poured a drink offering, you have offered a meat offering. Should I receive comfort in these?
7 Upon a lofty and high mountain have you set your bed: even thither [there] went you up to offer sacrifice.
8 Behind the doors also and the posts have you set up your remembrance [creations that mark you:] for you have discovered yourself to another than me, and are gone up; you have enlarged your bed, and made you a covenant with them; you loved their bed where you saw it.
9 And you went to the king with ointment, and didst increase your perfumes, and didst send your messengers far off, and didst debase yourself even unto hell.
10 You are wearied in the greatness of your way; yet said you not, There is no hope: you have found the life of your hand; therefore you were not grieved.
11 And of whom have you been afraid or feared, that you have lied, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? have not I held my peace even of old, and you fear me not?
12 I will declare your [self-] righteousness [Strong’s #6666,] and your works; for they shall not profit you.
13 When you cry, let your companies deliver you; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that puts his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain;
14 And shall say, Cast you up, cast you up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.
15 For thus says the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
16 For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.
17 For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly [in his perversions of My Truth, says the LORD] in the way of his heart [his own reasoning.]
18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.
19 I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, says the LORD; and I will heal him.
20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
21 There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked.
Their perverted doctrine tells them they can keep their error, the lies they tell (teach) in the Name of the LORD, and the LORD will accept them into His house while still covered in filth. Thus says the LORD, it is My house, and the only way in is to be washed from your filth at the door. My house, My rule, your choice, says the LORD. No one will force you to come in.
Revelation 22
14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loves and makes a lie.
16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
Isaiah 58
1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins [My People while still wanting to wrestle with My ways.]
2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice [equity;] they take delight in approaching to God.
3 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and you see not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and you take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your labors.
4 Behold, you fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: you shall not fast as you do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry [this bread of life to a world in need,] and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house? when you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your health shall spring forth speedily: and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your reward.
9 Then shall you call, and the LORD shall answer; you shall cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10 And if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall your light rise in obscurity, and your darkness be as the noon day:
11 And the LORD shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and make fat your bones: and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12 And they that shall be of you shall build the old waste places: you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
13 If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath [when I interrupt you with My correction, to bring you back to the right way,] from doing your pleasure on My Holy day; and call the Sabbath [My interruptions] a delight, the Holy of the LORD, honorable; and shall honor him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words:
14 Then shall you delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
Isaiah 59
1 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness.
4 None calls for justice, nor any pleads for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eats of their eggs dies, and that which is crushed break out into a viper.
6 Their webs shall not become garments [the LORD’s righteousness is the required garment,] neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence [force and coercion] is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goes therein shall not know peace.
9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon-day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
15 Yea, truth fails; and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
16 And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense.
19 So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, says the LORD.
21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the LORD; My spirit that is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed’s seed, says the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.
2 Timothy 3
1 This know also, that in the [these] last days perilous times shall [have] come.
2 For men shall be [are now] lovers of their own selves, covetous [lovers of money,] boasters, proud [arrogant,] blasphemers [vilifying righteousness,] disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers [striking those at peace,] false accusers, incontinent [without self-control,] fierce [savage,] despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof [the power to reproduce after His own kind – making us holy as He is Holy:] from such [deniers] turn away.
6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth [restrain us from our exodus and freedom found in the truth:] men of corrupt minds, reprobate [without any proof] concerning the faith.
9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was [as this serpent negates theirs.]
10 But you have fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,
11 Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the LORD delivered me.
12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
14 But continue you in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them;
15 And that from a child you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God [delivered by the breath of His Holy Spirit,] and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
2 Timothy 4
1 I charge you therefore before God, and the LORD Jesus Christ, who shall judge [is now judging] the quick [those made alive] and the dead at his appearing [epiphany] and his kingdom;
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
5 But watch you in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of your ministry.
6 For I am now ready to be offered [I have now been poured out unto you,] and the time of my [our] departure is [now] at hand.
7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the LORD, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day [has given me this day:] and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing [epiphany.]
Psalm 84
1 How amiable are your tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!
2 My soul longs, yea, even faints for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh cries out for the living God.
3 Yea, the sparrow has found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.
4 Blessed are they that dwell in your house: they will be still praising you. Selah.
5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in you; in whose heart [all his reasoning] are the ways of them.
6 Who passing through the valley of Baca [of weeping] make it a well [a time to draw waters from your deep places;] the rain [waters from heaven] also fills the pools.
7 They go from strength to strength, appearing [seen by the light the LORD shines on them (epiphany)] before God in Zion
8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
9 Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of your anointed.
10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11 For the LORD God is a sun [shining His light on the earth] and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
12 O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusts in you.
