by. R. L.
The Lord God restores His children into The Kingdom.
“For the Will of God is that all men should be saved.” {1Tim. 2:4}
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“THE SEED OF GOD” Gen.3:15
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, That whosoever believeth in Him, Should not perish, But have everlasting life. Amen.
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Prayer thought.
Of special value to God’s church on earth today—the keepers of His vineyard—are the messages of counsel and admonition given through the prophets who have made plain His eternal purpose in behalf of mankind. In the teachings of the prophets, His love for the lost race and His plan for their salvation are clearly revealed. The story of Israel’s call, of their successes and failures, of their restoration to divine favor, of their rejection of the Master of the vineyard, and of the carrying out of the plan of the ages by a goodly remnant to whom are to be fulfilled all the covenant promises; this has been the theme of God’s messengers to His church throughout the centuries that have passed. And today God’s message to His church—to those who are occupying His vineyard as faithful husbandmen—is none other than that spoken through the prophet of old: PK 22.1
“Sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.” Isaiah 27:2, 3
For God, Who is Love, the creator of the heavens and the earth, planted a garden in Eden. Saying; “Let US make men in OUR IMAGE, after OUR LIKENESS, and let them have dominion over the sea, the air, the land, and all that is in them. And God created man in HIS OWN IMAGE, IN THE IMAGE OF GOD CREATED him, male and female created them. {Gen. 1:26, 27}
And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was good. {ie.31}
In the garden, the Lord God Sanctified two Sacraments. The Sabbath & the Marriage.{Gen.2:2,3, 22-25}
(Sacrament: A Spiritual Covenant, to be kept Sacred, between God and man.) Creation, the Sabbath, and marriage instituted a relationship between God and man. Now this
relationship will be tested; for Love has the freedom and power to choose between good and evil, life and death.
So the Tree of Life and the Tree of death were planted in the midst of them. There free-will was set to be tested. As Lucifer was blinded by pride after seeing his beauty, {Eze.28:17} and desired to exalt himself
above the stars of God, making himself like the most high, {Isa.14:13,14} so did Eve, when she claimed her knowledge and faithfulness before Satan’s lies & deceptions, praising herself secure and wise. {Gen. 3:2}
1When Adam realized what had happened, he could not bear the thought of loosing his wife, his own flesh, his companion. And so he was willing to sacrifice his life for her, hoping that she could be saved. Is this not the same Love Sacrifice, which was demonstrated at the Cross for each one of us, through the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, that we might be restored unto the Father?
“The broken Law of God demanded the life of the sinner.” Since the divine Law is as sacred as God Himself, only one equal with God could make the atonement for its transgression. {PP.63}
And the Lord God sent Adam forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he came. {Ge.3:23}
It was then that the Kingdom fell into the kingship of Satan. {Math. 4:8, 9} And the devil took Jesus up to an exceedingly high mountain, and there showed Him
all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; saying, “ All these will I give Thee, if Thou will fall down and worship me!” see (Job 1:6,7}
Sin, ( the expression of self and pride ) had defrauded the innocence of God’s children!
THE PLAN OF SALVATION FOR THE RESTORATION OF MAN BACK INTO THE GARDEN OF EDEN, THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
I will put enmity between you and the woman; and between your seed and her Seed.
Her Seed shall bruise your head, and your seed shall bruise His heel. {Gen. 3:15}
Enmity: A state of being naturally opposed to someone or something, creating a hatred and ill will toward people, culture, religion, and ideas, ending in fear and division. ( Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary)
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{PP 68.2} –The plan of redemption has a broader and deeper purpose than just the salvation of man. It was not for this alone that Christ came to the earth; it was not merely that the inhabitants of this world might regard the law of God as it should be regarded; but it was to vindicate the character of God before the universe … The act of Christ would not only make heaven accessible to men, but would justify God and His Son in their dealing with the rebellion of Satan before all the universe. It would establish the perpetuity of the law of God and would reveal the nature and the results of sin. PP 68.2
From the first, Satan had sought to prove that the Law of God was unjust and faulty, and that it required to be changed for the good of the universe. In attacking the law, he aimed to overthrow the authority of its Author. The great controversy is whether the divine statutes are defective and in need of change, or perfect and immutable. PP 69.1
When Satan was thrust out of heaven, he determined to make the earth his kingdom.
When he tempted and overcame Adam and Eve, he thought that he had gained possession of this world; “because,” said he, “they have chosen me as their ruler.” He claimed that it was impossible that forgiveness should be granted to the sinner, and therefore the fallen race were his rightful subjects, and that the world was his. But God gave His own dear Son … provided a way by which they might be restored to His favor, and brought back to their Eden home. PP 69.2
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And Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and said, “ I have gotten a man with the aid of the Lord.” {Gen. 4:1} Here we see how Eve believed in the hope that Cain was to be the promise ‘seed’ that was to redeem and restore them back to their Kingdom home. It is this promise and this hope that has filled the hearts of men throughout history, even to the cross, and even to now, looking forward to the ushering in of God’s Kingdom, the land of milk and honey, our promised home. {John 14:2,3} “In my Father’s house are many mansions, and I go to prepare you a place. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, you may be also.”
“THE COVENANT OF THE PROMISE LAND”
Gen. 12:1- 3, 5, 7 – Get thee our of thy country and thy father’s home, and I will make of thee a great nation, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. And they went forth into the land of Canaan. And the lord said, “unto thy ‘seed’ will I give this land.”
{13:14, 15} And the Lord said unto Abram, “lift up thy eyes, and look Northward, and Southward and Eastward, and Westward. For all the land that though seeth, to thee and to thy “ seed“ will I give it for ever.”
Gen.15:18 – And the Lord made a Covenant with Abram, saying;” unto thy ‘seed’ have I given
this land. From the river of Egypt, unto the great river Euphrates.” {Gen.17:7,8} I will establish My Covenant between Me and you, and your ‘seed’ after you in their generations for an everlasting Covenant, to be a God unto you and to your ‘seed’ forever. And I will give unto you and to thy ‘seed’ after you, the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. {17: 19, 21} And thy wife Sarah shall bear you a son; and you shall call his name, Isaac: And I will establish My Covenant with him for an everlasting Covenant, and with his ‘seed’ after him.
{ Gen.25:33} And Essau sold his birthright to Jacob.
{ Gen. 28:3,4 } And Isaac said to Jacob; “ Let God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou may be a multitude of people; and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy ‘seed’, that thou may inherit the land which God gave unto Abraham. {Gen. 28:12-14} And Jacob dreamed, and behold a ladder set-up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord God stood above it and said, “ I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and thy ‘seed’ shall be as the dust of the earth … And in thee and in thy ‘seed’ shall all the families of the earth be blessed. For behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whether you go, and …… I WILL BRING YOU AGAIN UNTO THIS LAND, and I WILL not leave you until I have done that which I have spoken.
{16,17} Jacob recognizes that the Lord is in this place, and he knew it not! And he was afraid and said, “How *dreadful is this place!” Surely, this place is none other but the
34 House of God, and this is The Gate of Heaven.” … (*Reverential fear & awe. Woe is me, for I am unclean}
{Gen. 32: 28} And the Lord said, “ thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince have you power with God and with men, for you have prevailed.
{Gen. 35: 12} And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, to thee {Israel}will I give it, and to thy ‘seed’ after thee will I give the land.
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“THE DEED OF THE COVENANT” { Psalm 105 }
8)- He has remembered his Covenant forever, the Word which He commanded to a thousand generations.
9) Which Covenant he made with Abraham, and his Oath to Isaac;
10) And confirmed the same to Jacob for a Law, And to Israel for an everlasting Covenant:
11) Saying, “To you will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance”
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“THE PROMISE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY”
When the Lord brought His people out of Egypt, {Exo.32:11} where they were a wild bunch of slaves, “ready for the slaughter”. They had lost sight of their God, and the way of their father Abraham was long forgotten, along with the memory of the Sabbath.
Abraham had been called the father of a people who were to be the guardians and preservers of the Truth of God to the world. Yet God, in His Mercy, did not forget His people.
He purposed to give them opportunity of becoming acquainted with Him through HIS CHURCH. He designed that the principles revealed through His people should be the means
OF RESTORING THE MORAL IMAGE OF GOD in man. {PK.15, 16}
“With great power, and with a mighty hand,” God brought His chosen people out of the land of Egypt. Exodus 32:11. “He sent Moses His servant; and Aaron whom He had chosen. They showed His signs and wonders among them. He rescued them from their servile state, that He might bring them to a good land, a land which, in His providence He had prepared for them as a refuge from their enemies. There, He would bring them to Himself and encircle them in His everlasting arms; and in return for His goodness and mercy, they were to exalt His name and make it glorious in the earth. {PK 16.2}Thus He brought the Israelites unto Himself, that they might dwell as under the shadow of the Most High. Miraculously preserved from the perils of the wilderness wandering, they were finally established in the Land of Promise as a favored nation. {PK 17.1}
It was God’s purpose that by the revelation of His character through Israel, men should be drawn unto Him. To all the world the gospel invitation was to be given; “and through the uplifting of Christ before all the nations, that all who would look unto Him should live.” All who, like Rahab the Canaanite and Ruth the Moabitess, turned from idolatry to the worship of the true God, and were to unite themselves with His chosen people. As the numbers of Israel increased, they were to enlarge their borders until the kingdom should embrace the world. But ancient Israel did not fulfill God’s purpose. {PK 19.1}
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Under the leadership of David, the Kingdom was found united and secured, having built an economy bound to the Sanctuary, and giving glory to God as a witness to all the nations surrounding the Kingdom..
Yet prophecy was being fulfilled in the words of Moses in warning Israel to; “Take heed unto yourselves less ye forget the Covenant of the Lord your God, which He made with you.” {Deut.4:23}
Moses goes on to describe how they will corrupt themselves, by doing evil in the sight of the Lord; to provoke Him to anger so much so, that the heavens will be a witness against them, and that they shall perish from off the land which shall be destroyed. And that the Lord shall scatter them among the nations, and they shall be few in numbers among the heathens, whither the Lord shall lead them. {Deut. 4:24-27}
After David’s death, the Kingdom passed on to his son Solomon. Being the wisest and richest man in the world, he too let pride and self deceive him into sin, in burning incense to the gods of his strange wives. And the Lord became angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God
of Israel. And the Lord rend the Kingdom from Solomon, and would give it to his servant Jeroboam, who became king over the 10 tribes of the north. (1Kings 11:8,9,11,31}
In 1Kings 11:13,32, The Lord tells Solomon that He will pass-on the Kingdom to his son, Rehoboam, for His servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city chosen for all of Israel. This ended-up splitting the Kingdom into two nations, Israel, the 10 tribes to the north, and Judah, the 2 tribes to the south. {1Kings 12}
Israel’s pride and selfishness led them into idolatry, and even to making war against their brothers in the south. And they too lost the favor of God’s blessings, broke the Covenant of God, and were lost to the world. “And the Lord smote Israel, and rooted them out of the good land which He gave to their fathers, and removed them out of His sight, and scattered them throughout the world unto this day.” {1Kings 14:15, 2 Kings 17:21}
Then Judah fell from the favor and blessings of the Lord, having themselves done evil in the eyes of the Lord. And the Lord said, “I will remove Judah also out of My sight, as I have removed Israel, even Jerusalem, which I have chosen, the House of which I said My Name shall be there.{2Kings 23:27} 2 Kings chapter 24 and 25, describes the destruction of both Jerusalem and the Temple of the Lord by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, who carried away all the treasures of the House of the Lord, and all of Jerusalem, and all the princes, all the mighty men of valor, all the craftsmen and smiths, until none remained save the poorest of the people of the land.
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According to the prophecy of Jeremiah 25:11, those who were carried away would spend 70 years serving the King of Babylon. So that the Word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, to make a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, that the Lord God of heaven hath given him all the kingdoms of the earth, and that the Lord God hath charged him to build Him a House at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.’ And who is there among you, of all His people, who will go with God to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the House of Lord God of Israel, which is in Jerusalem? {Ezra 1:1-3}
And they builded and finished the House of the Lord according to the Commandment of the God of Israel. {Ezra 6:14} And after these things, Ezra, a descendant of Aaron, who had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel the Statutes and the Judgments, wentup from Babylon as a ready scribe of the Law of Moses, unto the House of the Lord in Jerusalem.
With him came some of the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites, the singers and the porters, and the * Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerses. {Ezra 7} * (servants assisting the Levites)
Here we see that while the Lord’s people were in exiled in Babylon, the Lord God had His prophets, priests, and scribes active to preserve His Church and His Seed, until the time was fulfilled. The 10 Tribes had been dispersed throughout the world and were no more a nation, and the 2 tribes were now re-introduced as a nation, recognized as God’s people, who believed and served One God, full of grace and mercy, and who, through the Sanctuary, waited for the Messiah to come, not only to deliver them, but to set up His Kingdom. The Temple had been rebuilt, and the Lord His priests to serve Him.
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“THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND”
In those days, John the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness, saying, “Repent; for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” For he is the one that the prophet Isaiah spoke of saying; “ The voice of one crying in the wilderness; Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight His paths.” {Math. 3:2; Isa. 40:3}
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He that cometh shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire; whose fan is in His hand; and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. {Math. 3:11,12; 3T. 267 }
And the Lord Jesus, after the 40 days of temptations, preached His first sermon saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven in at hand.” {Math. 4:17} Here was ‘The Seed’ standing among men, as promised in Gen. 3:15. The ONE that was to DELIVER MAN FROM THE CURSE OF SIN and to RESTORE HIM INTO THE KINGDOM.
By His sacrifice and resurrection, Christ exemplified God’s Love, instilled the Law into our hearts, and promised the Kingdom is at hand. He became the Corner Stone of the Church, which offered the keys to salvation and the deliverance of man from the curse of sin. Christ sustained the ‘ Seed’ through His faithful servants of history, and planted the ‘Seed’ into the hearts of men and women at the Cross of the Resurrection. Watered and sanctified by the Word of Truth,{John 17,19; Eph.5:26} the ‘Seed’ sprouted in the grace, mercies, and faith of a risen Savior, Who comforts us with these words:
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, and believe also in Me. I go to prepare a place for you in My Father’s House. And I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, you will be with Me. {John 14:1-3}
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“FULFILLING THE PROMISE IN THE SEED”
Revelations 2 and 3 describes the 7 Christian churches, the last being Laodicea. For the past 2000 years, the Lord continued to preserve the ‘Seed’ in the midst of Satan’s declarations of war; through the time of the martyrs, the Dark Ages, the Reformation, and now, in the time of the three-Angels’ cry, in the judgment of the living, in the sealing time of the 144,000, the closing work for the church.
Today, we join our Fathers along with our many brethren who faithfully planted God’s Word and Promise into their very hearts; and sealed by faith, they walked through the perils of life, even unto death, as they held before them the Promise of the Kingdom of God being restored, to be with their Lord in His garden.
By God’s Word and His Testimony, which we received by the message given trough the Seventh Day Adventist church, ‘we’ have been given the privilege like no other in church history! ‘We’ are to see the Kingdom of God sprout right before our very eyes. And ‘we’ are to be at the wedding reception!
Chosen from among millions, we have the opportunity to be partakers with Christ, as He refines and purifies the sons of Levy, purging them as fine gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in Righteousness. { Mal. 3:2,3 } To be as saviours who shall come up from Mount Zion… and then the Kingdom shall be the Lord’s. { Obadiah 21}
Clad in the armor of Christ’s Righteousness, the church is to enter upon her final conflict. “Fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners” {Song of Solomon 6:10} The church is to go forth into all the world, conquering and to conquer. {PK. 725}
That which God purposed to do for the world through Israel, the chosen nation, He will finally accomplish through His church on earth today. He has “let out His vineyard unto other husbandmen,” even to His covenant-keeping people, who faithfully “render Him the fruits in their seasons.” Never has the Lord been without true representatives on this earth who have made His interests their own. These witnesses for God are numbered among the spiritual Israel, and to them will be fulfilled all the covenant promises made by Jehovah to His ancient people. {PK 713.1}
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Let Israel hope in God. The Master of the vineyard is even now gathering from among men of all nations and peoples the precious fruits for which He has long been waiting. Soon He will come unto His own; and in that glad day His eternal purpose for the house of Israel will finally be fulfilled. “He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” Verse 6. {PK 22.3}
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A great people and a strong; there has not been ever the like, neither shall be anymore after. A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth, and the land before them is as the Garden of Eden. {Joel 2:2,3}
Restored to the Tree of Life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will “grow up” to the full stature of the race in its primeval glory. The last lingering traces of the curse of sin will be removed, and Christ’s faithful ones will appear in “the beauty of the Lord our God,” in mind and soul and body, reflecting the perfect image of their Lord. Oh, wonderful redemption! long talked of, long hoped for, contemplated with eager anticipation, {GC 644}
* “ Is now revealed unto His saints.” *