The Spirit, the Water and the Blood
The Spirit, the Water and the Blood
By Richard St.James
Bible 1611.Com / Old Paths Baptist Mission © 2024
5.
The Uncleanness in All of Us
Uncleanness, uncleanness, is everywhere.
“For God hath not called us unto uncleanness,
but unto holiness.” [1 Thessalonians 4:7]
The United States of
America began well as a nation.
Observation: However,
what begins well, often does not end well.
Let us summarize our
beginnings as a nation.
The very first book to be
printed in the United States was The New England
Primer, 1688, and it was used in our public
schools for nearly 200 years thereafter.
John Quincy Adams was our
sixth President, who as a boy studied in the New
England Primer, referred to the "insoluble
bond" between Christianity and our form of
government. The Supreme Court said we must
“select and prefer” Christians for our
elected rulers [or officials].
President James Madison
once said that we should “govern ourselves
according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
Our forefathers believed
that religion and morality could not be divorced
from politics.
The House Judiciary
Committee Report (March 27, 1854) said of the
adoption of the Constitution and its amendments that
“the universal sentiment [of our
founding fathers] was that Christianity should
be encouraged.”
Two months later, the
House Judiciary Committee Report said: “The
great and conservative element in our system ... the
thing that holds our system together is the belief
of our people in the pure doctrines and the divine
truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Our forefathers wanted
to keep Christian principles in our government.
Blackstone's
Commentaries on Law are Bible based
and were used by our Supreme Court for guidance for
over 150 years of our nation's history.
The branches of our
government: The legislative, the executive and the
judicial branches, have their roots in the
Scripture. [Isaiah 33:22].
In 1844, The Supreme
Court, in Vidal vs. Girard, affirmed that our
public schools will teach that Christianity is our
nation's foundation.
In 1892, the Supreme
Court decision in Church Of The Holy Trinity Vs.
United States stated that “We are
emphatically a Christian nation.”
From our nation’s birth
right up to 1947, our Supreme Court had steadfastly
maintained that the intent of our “founding
fathers” was for our nation to preserve its
Christian principles in order to perpetuate
its existence as a nation.
However, in 1947, the
Supreme Court, in Everson v. Board of Education,
totally pulled out of context Thomas Jefferson's
reference to a “wall of separation between church
and state” in his letter to the Danbury Baptist
Association of January 1, 1802. The
letter was to express to the Danbury Baptist
Association that there was nothing to fear with
respect to the federal government establishing a
national church (or a national denomination).
The 1947 decision, in essence, declared that we
were no longer a Christian nation.
Ever since then, the
Supreme Court has over and over used this phrase
“separation of church and state” for the purpose
to remove Jesus Christ out of our government and out
of our public schools.
Note: Uncleanness
was set to come into our nation through the
public schools.
The Supreme Court, in
Engel v. Vitale, decided to strike out against
school prayer [June 25, 1962].
The goal simply was to get God out of our public
schools. This formed the great
step in a progressive movement to uncleanness.
On June 17, 1963, in
Abington v. Schempp and Murray v. Curlett, the
Supreme Court outlawed Bible reading
in the public schools [without regard to any
historical or legal precedent]. In
this decision, “Bible reading” was considered
psychologically damaging. This was
another great step in a progressive movement
to uncleanness.
With Dekalb v. DeSpain
[1967] the decision was to not allow the “Ten
Commandments” to be posted in the public schools
of our land. Children would not get to see
“The Ten Commandments” posted on the wall of the
school telling them not to lie, cheat or steal!
This achieved further uncleanness.
And if that was not
enough, in 1980, with "Stone v. Graham",
the Supreme Court decided that the word of God
could not even be mentioned in a public school.
Note: This end point
was a long, long way from our clean
beginnings as a nation.
The United States has now
arrived to the bottom of the pit in its
moral decay to uncleanness. As with all
the other nations of the world, their end is
upon them. We will now peer into the future
things that will soon to come to pass to all the
nations of the earth in the book of the Revelation
of Jesus Christ.
A flummoxing scene:
In the book of the
Revelation of Jesus Christ, in chapter nine, we will
see a vast supernatural army of two hundred million
horsemen ascending out from a deep, deep pit
in the earth. As we consider this sight, we will
begin to more completely visualize the import of
this eerie scene.
Now here is the question:
What are we seeing? We are seeing all the
people of this earth that are living in that
great day of judgment being hurt [or
plagued] with the fire, and with the smoke, and
with the brimstone, which fire, smoke and brimstone
is being issued out from of the mouths of a horrid
supernatural army of horsemen.
Further, this
supernatural army of horsemen is revealed here as
being like locusts.
Now note: These locusts
are not the natural locusts we see today.
Rather, these are transfigured locusts and
are said to have faces as like the faces of men.
And one more thing to note; all these horsemen
in this nightmarish scene have stingers which
sting with horrible excruciating pain the men
of this earth.
Yet the people would not repent.
Revelation 9:20:
“And the rest of the men which were not killed by
these plagues yet repented not of the works
of their hands, that they should not worship devils,
and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone,
and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor
walk:”
According to the book of
the Revelation of Jesus Christ [in chapter eleven,
verse three through six], the LORD will give
power to two witnesses, which are clothed in
sackcloth, to smite the earth with all plagues:
Revelation 11:6:
“These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not
in the days of their prophecy: and have power over
waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth
with all plagues, as often as they will.”
And then again, in
chapter fifteen, we have the wrath of God
being dispensed by seven angels, which we see
in verse one, and six, and eight:
“And I saw another
sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels
having the seven last plagues; for in them is
filled up the wrath of God.”
[Revelation 15:1]
“And the seven angels
came out of the temple, having the seven plagues,
clothed in pure and white linen, and having their
breasts girded with golden girdles.”
[Revelation 15:6]
“And the temple was
filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from
his power; and no man was able to enter into the
temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels
were fulfilled.” [Revelation 15:8]
There is coming to this
earth in the near-future seven plagues:
Revelation, chapter sixteen. These plagues
are:
1.
Verse two, sores upon men,
2.
Verse three, the sea became blood,
3.
Verse four, the rivers and fountains
became blood,
4.
Verse eight, men are scorched with
fire,
5.
Verse ten, the seat of the beast and
his kingdom was filled with darkness,
6.
Verse twelve, the Euphrates River
dries up,
7.
Verse seventeen, a great voice cries
out: It is done!
Revelation 16:9: “And
men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed
the name of God, which hath power over these
plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.”
God, then dispenses
these plagues.
Revelation 16:21: “And
there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven,
every stone about the weight of a talent: and
men blasphemed God because of the plague of the
hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.”
Also, note: There is a
plague of hail.
However, there is a
way to escape these plagues.
Revelation 18:4:
“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying,
Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers
of her sins, and that ye receive not of her
plagues.”
The target for
these plagues is “Babylon the great”
and not the people of God. “My people”
is a reference to Israel as a nation.
Revelation 18:8:
“Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death,
and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly
burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God
who judgeth her.”
Revelation 21:9:
“And there came unto me one of the seven angels
which had the seven vials full of the seven last
plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I
will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.”
The vials contain
the plagues.
Revelation 22:18:
“For I testify unto every man that heareth the
words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall
add unto these things, God shall add unto him the
plagues that are written in this book:”
The plagues of
this BOOK will be upon you if you mess with this
BOOK!
Plagues
are from God. [See for this in Genesis 12:17, Exodus
9:14, 11:1].
Exodus 12:13: “And the
blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses
where ye are: and when I see the blood, I
will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon
you to destroy you, when I smite the land of
Egypt.”
A plague is a
judgment of God. [Exodus 32:35].
Leprosy and scall are the
result of the plague. [See Leviticus 14:3,
32, 34-37, 39-40, 43-44, 48. This is the law
for all manner of plague of leprosy, and
scall, verse fifty-four.
The visitation of
plagues is according to their sins and our sins.
[Leviticus 26:21, Numbers 11:33,
14:37, 16:46-50, 25:8, 9, 18]
The Levites were to do
the service [or minister] to the people.
Numbers 8:19: “And I
have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and
to his sons from among the children of Israel, to do
the service of the children of Israel in the
tabernacle of the congregation, and to make an
atonement for the children of Israel: that there be
no plague among the children of Israel, when the
children of Israel come nigh unto the sanctuary.”
To minister one
must be sanctified. To be sanctified
is to be clean. Clean, clean all
over!
Here is a concluding
statement concerning the Levitical priest
from a sanctified tribe:
A sanctified tribe
is the tribe that inoculates the rest of the
tribes of Israel from the plague.
We will now consider some
of the instances in the Bible where the word
plague appears. We will begin in the
fourth book of Moses called Numbers, chapter
twenty-six.
|
Numbers 26:1
|
“And it came
to pass after the plague,
that the LORD spake unto Moses and unto
Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest,
saying,” Comment: This is
a reference to the plague, which had
occurred in the previous chapter [chapter
twenty-five]. This plague came
upon the people from God in his anger
because they had
joined themselves unto Baalpeor.
Verse nine: “And
those that died in the plague were twenty
and four thousand.” The visitation
of plague shows the
presence of the judgment of God. |
|
Numbers 31:16
|
“Behold, these
caused the children of Israel, through the
counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass
against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and
there was a plague among
the congregation of the LORD.” Comment: This is
a reference to the same plague, which
had occurred in the book of Numbers, chapter
twenty-five. |
|
Deuteronomy 24:8
|
“Take heed in
the plague of leprosy, that
thou observe diligently, and do according to
all that the priests the Levites shall teach
you: as I commanded them, so ye shall
observe to do.” Comment: Israel
is being instructed here to be diligent
in observing for any presence of the
plague of leprosy, which plague
is a sure sign of the presence of God’s
judgment for sin in the congregation. Verse nine:
“Remember what the LORD thy God did unto
Miriam by the way, after that ye were come
forth out of Egypt.” Note:
Miriam had the touch of the plague of
leprosy. SIN
was present! The
presence of
sin brings judgment. |
|
Deuteronomy 28:59
|
“Then the LORD
will make thy plagues
wonderful, and the plagues
of thy seed, even great plagues,
and of long continuance, and sore
sicknesses, and of long continuance.”
Comment: This is the pattern:
The visitation of plague shows the
presence of the judgment of God. |
|
Deuteronomy
28:61
|
“Also every
sickness, and every plague,
which is not written in the book of this
law, them will the LORD bring upon thee,
until thou be destroyed.” Comment: Again:
The visitation of plague shows the
presence of the judgment of God. It seems that
only through repetition we can learn this.
We are so slow to learn, and so very quick
to forget. |
|
Deuteronomy 29:22
|
“So that the
generation to come of your children that
shall rise up after you, and the stranger
that shall come from a far land, shall say,
when they see the plagues
of that land, and the sicknesses which the
LORD hath laid upon it;” Comment: It is
the LORD that brings the plague, and
the sicknesses. Have you
figured this all out yet? Rule: The
visitation of plague shows the
presence of the judgment of God. |
|
Joshua 22:17
|
“Is the
iniquity of Peor too little for us, from
which we are not cleansed until this day,
although there was a plague
in the congregation of the LORD,” Comment:
Again, this matter
of Baalpeor,
which caused the visitation of the plague,
was very heavily on their minds and was
remembered by the whole congregation of the
LORD in Joshua’s day. Rule: The
visitation of plague shows the
presence of the judgment of God. |
|
Joshua 24:5
|
“I sent Moses
also and Aaron, and I plagued
Egypt, according to that which I did among
them: and afterward I brought you out.” Comment: it is
God that
plagued Egypt! Rule: The
visitation of plague shows the
presence of the judgment of God. Here we go again!
How many times does this rule need to
be repeated? |
|
1
Samuel 4:8
|
“Woe unto us!
who shall deliver us out of the hand of
these mighty Gods? these are the Gods that
smote the Egyptians with all the
plagues in the wilderness.” Comment: The
Philistines [the heathen] have reasoned it
correctly here concerning the plague
that they were experiencing. This was
their conclusion: The God of the Ark of
the Covenant was the same God, which they
had heard about [in history] that resulted
in the death of the entire Egyptian army. Rule: The
visitation of plague shows the
presence of the judgment of God.
“Woe unto us!” |
|
1
Samuel 6:4 |
“Then said
they, What shall be the trespass offering
which we shall return to him? They answered,
Five golden emerods, and five golden mice,
according to the number of the lords of the
Philistines: for one plague
was on you all, and on your lords.” Comment: Here
again is stated an inviolate rule:
The visitation of plague shows the
presence of the judgment of God.
Now, are you tired of hearing this?
Then, just let it sink in! |
|
2
Samuel 24:21
|
“And Araunah
said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to
his servant? And David said, To buy the
threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar
unto the LORD, that the plague
may be stayed from the people.” Comment:
This plague was of God! All plague
is from God. David knew this. |
|
2
Samuel 24:25
|
“And David
built there an altar unto the LORD, and
offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
So the LORD was intreated for the land, and
the plague was stayed from
Israel.” Comment: God
stayed the plague. There
is a way to entreat the LORD God. REPENT! We need to
remember: “The LORD
is gracious, and full of
compassion; slow to anger, and of great
mercy.” [Psalm 145:8] Run
to HIM! Do not delay! |
|
1
Kings 8:37
|
“If there be
in the land famine, if there be pestilence,
blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be
caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in
the land of their cities; whatsoever
plague, whatsoever sickness there
be;” Comment: Solomon
knew WHO the Author of the plague
is. In the Scripture is the
answer: GOD! |
|
1
Kings 8:38
|
“What prayer
and supplication soever be made by any man,
or by all thy people Israel, which shall
know every man the plague
of his own heart, and spread forth his hands
toward this house:” Comment: Ditto!
Prayer is the
ANSWER! |
|
1
Chronicles 21:17
|
“And David
said unto God, Is it not I that commanded
the people to be numbered? even I it is that
have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for
these sheep, what have they done? let thine
hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me,
and on my father's house; but not on thy
people, that they should be plagued.” Comment:
David knew where to turn to in time
of trouble. It was
the God of Israel! |
|
1
Chronicles 21:22
|
“Then David
said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this
threshingfloor, that I may build an altar
therein unto the LORD: thou shalt grant it
me for the full price: that the
plague may be stayed from the
people.” Comment: Again,
the rule:
The visitation of plague shows the
presence of the judgment of God.
Have we learned this yet? |
|
2
Chronicles 21:14
|
“Behold, with
a great plague will the
LORD smite thy people, and thy children, and
thy wives, and all thy goods:” Comment: The LORD
uses the plague to smite the people
when they do wickedly. |
|
Psalm 89:23 |
“And I will
beat down his foes before his face, and
plague them that hate him.” Comment: God
will plague them. It will behoove
us to remember what the Scripture saith
in the epistle to the Romans, in chapter
twelve, verse nineteen: “Dearly beloved,
avenge not yourselves, but rather
give place unto wrath: for it is written,
Vengeance is mine; I will
repay, saith the Lord.” God will
plague them! |
|
Psalm 91:10
|
“There shall
no evil befall thee, neither shall any
plague come nigh thy
dwelling.” Comment: God can
in HIS mercy withhold the plague. |
|
Psalm 106:29
|
“Thus they
provoked him to anger with their inventions:
and the plague brake in
upon them.” Comment: Israel
provoked the LORD, and thus, they got
the plague. Sin when it is done
with you drags you down to the Pit
– to Hell. |
|
Psalm 106:30
|
“Then stood up
Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the
plague was stayed.” Comment: This is
the story concerning Phinehas, a priest of
the LORD. God stayed the
plague because Phinehas was zealous for
the LORD. One man can make
a difference! “Phinehas,
the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the
priest, hath turned my wrath away from the
children of Israel, while he was zealous for
my sake among them, that I consumed not the
children of Israel in my jealousy. Wherefore
say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of
peace: And he shall have it, and his seed
after him, even the covenant of an
everlasting priesthood; because he was
zealous for his God, and made an atonement
for the children of Israel.” [Numbers
25:11-13] Just one man’s
zealousness for the Lord can cause an
outbreak of plague to be stayed.
The LORD sees who is for God. |
|
Jeremiah 19:8
|
“And I will
make this city desolate, and an hissing;
every one that passeth thereby shall be
astonished and hiss because of all the
plagues thereof.” Comment: Do you
now know after all this repetition where
plague comes from? |
|
Jeremiah 49:17
|
“Also Edom
shall be a desolation: every one that goeth
by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at
all the plagues thereof.” Comment: The
judgment of God brings plague to
any nation. The nations that have
rejected Jesus Christ will surely get
their just dessert. Rule: The
visitation of plague shows the
presence of the judgment of God.
The judgment of God is for the sin
of the people; for my sin, and for
your sin. We need to cry out:
Unclean, unclean! We all need to
repent and turn to the God of mercy,
even to Jesus Christ to be healed by the
blood of the Lamb of God. |
|
Jeremiah 50:13
|
“Because of
the wrath of the LORD it shall not be
inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate:
every one that goeth by Babylon shall be
astonished, and hiss at all her
plagues.” Comment: These
plagues will come upon Babylon that
great city in the Great Tribulation
soon coming to this earth. Revelation 17:18:
“And the woman which thou sawest is that
great city, which reigneth over the kings of
the earth.” Rule: The
visitation of plague always shows the
presence of the judgment of God. |
|
Zechariah 14:12
|
“And this
shall be the plague
wherewith the LORD will smite all the people
that have fought against Jerusalem; Their
flesh shall consume away while they stand
upon their feet, and their eyes shall
consume away in their holes, and their
tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” Comment: Now,
imagine it, this is a horrible scene: A
plague worse than the Black Plague of
the Middle Ages consuming the very flesh,
and even the eyes of men while they are
still yet on their feet in an instant of
time in the battle at Armageddon. This
prophecy is soon to be fulfilled. |
|
Zechariah 14:15
|
“And so shall
be the plague of the horse,
of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass,
and of all the beasts that shall be in these
tents, as this plague.” Comment: This
plague [verse twelve] even includes all
these animals in that day of the wrath of
God. |
|
Zechariah 14:18
|
“And
if the family of Egypt go not up, and come
not, that have no rain; there shall be the
plague, wherewith the LORD
will smite the heathen that come not up to
keep the feast of tabernacles.” Comment: So, even
during the millennial Kingdom of
Heaven, the LORD will plague any
nation if they will not keep the feast of
Tabernacles. |
|
Mark 5:29
|
“And
straightway the fountain of her blood was
dried up; and she felt in her body that she
was healed of that plague.” Comment: A
plague can include all manner of
maladies, diseases, sickness, or lingering
disorders or indispositions to the human
body. |
|
Mark 5:34
|
“And
he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath
made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole
of thy plague.” Comment: A
plague can be stayed. A
person can be healed! |
|
Luke 7:21
|
“And in that
same hour he cured many of their infirmities
and plagues, and of evil
spirits; and unto many that were blind he
gave sight.” Comment: There is
a cure for any plague that men
will suffer with in this old sin-cursed
world. Coming to Jesus Christ is the
solution in preventing the plague to one’s
sliding into Hell. |
Warning: The plague
is for all who are the unclean.
What is the lesson that we can learn here?
It is this!
We should all desire to be clean.
But for this, we need a
priest if we are to get clean!
Next - 6. The Priest and the Scripture
Friend
If you
know the Bible Is True,
And you
never received
Jesus
Christ as your personal Lord and Savior...
And you
want to come to Him for Salvation now ... Then:
1. Admit
... To God that you are a Sinner...
Deserving Hell Fire...
2. Believe ... that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God...
Who died on the Cross for
You! ...
3. Repent! ... Ask
Him to Forgive You of Your Sin...
4. Receive Him... By
Asking Him to come into Your Heart...
And You
Will Receive the Gift of Eternal Life!
Born of God! You
Are in The Narrow Way ... To HEAVEN!