Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #39 of Genesis, chapter 24, and we are continuing to read Genesis 24:48:

And I bowed down my head, and worshipped JEHOVAH, and blessed JEHOVAH God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the right way to take my master's brother's daughter unto his son.

I will stop reading there.  We have been looking at God leading in the right way as He led this servant of Abraham in the right way to find a bride for Isaac.  Of course, Isaac is a type of Christ, and the bride, Rebekah, is a type of the body of Christ, the whole company of the elect.  God led him so that it would be fulfilled in a good way to find a proper and suitable bride.  So, too, God has led His people throughout the history of the world in the right way, and in the day of salvation, He led His people in the right way to direct them as to where to go with the Gospel in order to find those precious elect souls that were scattered among the nations.

So we have been looking at what the Bible has to say about “the right way,” and we know that Jesus is that way.  He is the essence of the right way, and He is the Word, so the Word of God, the Bible, is the right way.  A lot of people have Bibles in their homes and in their churches, and they have the Old Testament in Judaism and the Muslims refer to the Bible.  So it is not just a matter of having a Bible, but following what the Bible says, because if the Bible is the right way, but you do not follow it, what good does it do you?  It does not do you any good because you are going your own way.  You are going a way that would identify with the broad way that leads to destruction, if you are not following the right way of the Bible and the things it says. 

For God’s elect who have been given understanding through the indwelling Holy Spirit, we have “oil” to light our lamps, as the Bible is likened to a lamp.  The oil causes the lamp to light; that is, the Bible illuminates the pathway.  And we saw in Psalm 119:105 about that Word, as it says in Psalm 119:105:

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

The oil, which typifies the Holy Spirit, is indwelling the one that is saved, and as we turn to the Bible it “lights up.”  It is like that energy source that is necessary for light, so the light goes on and we begin to see the darkness surrounding us, but it also enlightens a pathway.  God is saying, “This is the way you must go,” as He opens up the eyes of His people through this process.  “Follow this road, and stay on it.  Stay on it.  Do not go to the left.  Do not go to the right.  Keep your eyes fixed on Christ.”  Christ is the Word, and we must keep looking to Him, and take one step after another, day by day: “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” 

And as we study the Bible, information comes forth and truth begins to unfold before our eyes.  We are able to hear the voice of Christ and to see the truth and to understand that these things are of God, because God has given us the proper methodology of comparing Scripture with Scripture, and harmonizing conclusions with the Scriptures as a whole; and as we are praying for wisdom and the Holy Spirit is guiding us, then we can begin to “step.”  Here is what the Bible tells us to do on Sunday on God’s Holy day.  Here is what we do concerning the end of the church age.  Here is what we do if we are a woman, and we read that God suffers a woman not to teach and usurp authority over the man: “Very well,” the elect woman that is a child of God responds, “I will be quiet and not teach men,” and yet she can study and communicate with men and ask very pointed questions that can help to direct the course of understanding, and so forth.  Then we read that it is God’s role in the day of salvation to go forth with the Gospel, so we were directed to carry that message.  When information about Judgment Day on May 21, 2011 and the starting date of the final of judgment on mankind came forth from the Bible, we also saw supporting Scriptures that when the watchman sees the sword coming, he must blow the trumpet and warn the people, and so we were directed by God to sound the alarm and tell people about it.  And God used that for good to save the last of all those to be saved, the great multitude, and He accomplished His purpose.

And now in the Day of Judgment, the Bible continues to bring forth revelation about that righteous judgment.  No additional words have been added to the Bible, but there is additional understanding of things that had never previously been understood.  We see that now is the time to “feed the sheep” as we also appear before the judgment seat of Christ to be made manifest or to make demonstration there.  It is a prolonged judgment, and it is a spiritual judgment, and so forth.  All kinds of very important truths have come out of the Bible that have helped us, and now we are being directed to “feed the sheep.”  This is the task.  This is our main purpose, and that is why Christ said to Peter, a representative of the elect children of God, three times: “Lovest thou me?”  He responded, “Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.”  Christ said, “Feed my sheep.”  Three times.  Three stanzas.  This directs us.  It is why EBible Fellowship is currently planning tract trips this year, with one coming up soon to Spain, and another trip to Peru.  And we are doing this because the Word of God has shown us that this is the task that we must be busy doing.  We must feed the sheep.  This is our path.  This is the way we must go.  So anything in support of that goal is good, so we use our time, resources and efforts to develop tracts.  This is how God leads His people.

Of course, the Bible has also come forth with strong Biblical evidence pointing to a concluding year for this prolonged Day of Judgment, the year 2033.  And that is helping us to see that judgment will not last forever.  It will end, but it is following a very definite pattern that the Lord Jesus set forth in His first coming.  We will not go over that again now, but it is a very definite time path.

So we learn from the Bible and it is a light that directs us in the course of our lives – in our families, at our work and in our service to God.  And this is the right way.  It involves finding sound doctrine, adhering and holding onto it, by the grace of God, as He moves in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. 

And, again, we would think this “right way” would be looked upon favorably by others that call themselves “Christians,” but it is not.  It is not, and that might be troubling to some people, but that is part of the narrow way, which is a way of troubles.  But we might wonder why it is not looked upon favorably, as we are not getting these things from a dream, a tongue or a vision or anything supernatural like that.  And, yet, those who criticize us might call those that receive tongues, dreams and visions their brethren, or, at least they may not be as critical toward them as they are towards us, the hated “date setters.”  Of course, accompanying that, they understand that those that hold to the fact that God has the ability to open up His Word to reveal time and judgment to allow us to actually see where we are in the history of the world and to see how close we are to the time of the end…and, yes, that God may reveal the very time of the end of the world.  We believe He has revealed the end of the church age and the timeline for it, and He has revealed the beginning Day of Judgment, May 21, 2011, but we also believe that the church age is over, so many professed Christians still in the churches feel “judged” by God’s elect that hold to these doctrines, and that is the undercurrent of much of their animosity and hostility toward us “date setters.” 

You know, they do not mind if someone in the churches would come up with some crazy end-of-the-world date based on “blood moons,” and you do not hear all kinds of hatred directed toward someone like that, but it is only directed toward those that once followed the teaching of God through the ministry of Family Radio under Mr. Camping, and toward those that continue to follow the teaching of God through the ministry of EBible Fellowship.  We are targets of all kinds of revilings and mockery as hated “date setters” because these people in the churches know we are very serious about the Bible.  They know we are not “out there” like people looking at “blood moons,” but that we get our information from careful study of the Scriptures, comparing spiritual with spiritual and making sure our conclusions harmonize with the whole Bible.  And that why they feel “judged.”  If we were some “far out” group or cult, as they like to charge, then they would not have so much of a problem with it.  They would not be provoked to attack.  They would feel comfortable.  But it is only because there is a serious nature about the way that EBible Fellowship studies the Bible and presents these things that they feel threatened, because we also do no fail to include the fact that God has brought judgment upon the churches and congregations.  That is where judgment began at the “house of God.”  So, again, it is almost a reflexive, defensive action on their parts, and they must call us heretics and accuse us of the worst sort of heresy possible in order to justify their continued existence as a church when God has ended the church age.

So, on one hand we are saddened because the way of God is not looked upon favorably.  And we know this is the way of God because we take great care to ensure that it is the way of God and not our own way, or something out of our own minds, or something based on private interpretation.  However, their reaction is not only typical, but it should comfort us because it is evidence that we are going the right way, or else we would not have the criticisms, assaults, and charges that are leveled at us to the degree that they are leveled against us.

For example, the Bible calls the Apostle Paul a pattern of believers, and Paul wrote of his experience in Israel after God had visited him and converted him.  Remember that Paul was on his way to Damascus at that time to hail men and women and cast them into prison or force them to blaspheme.  In other words, he was using force to cause these people to denounce their faith in Christ.  He would probably have done horrible things to bring about that result.  He was a Pharisee.  He was well-accepted, and he was looked upon as a respected theologian of his time, having learned at the feet of Gamaliel, so the people of Israel (who we can understand to typify the churches and congregations) would have held him in very high regard until God intervened and changed him.  God blinded him for a few days, and then the Lord told Ananias to lay his hands on him and He restored his sight and, immediately, Paul began to teach that Jesus was the Christ in the synagogues.  And once he began to teach the truth of the “right way” of God, then he began to suffer.  Remember what God said at the point when He sent Ananias to Saul, in Acts 9:14-16:

Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.

Paul is the pattern of believers.  He was a chosen vessel, one of God’s elect.  He had it “comfortable” with the synagogues of Israel.  He had the friendship of the Jews around him and the respect of the congregation of Israel.  Again, he was a man highly esteemed, but now God was going to show him the truth.  And then was he even more respected?  Did his friends in Israel love him after this?  No – not at all.  We read in Acts 9:20-21:

And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. But all that heard him were amazed, and said; Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?

So, at first, they were confused.  They did not know what was going on, but after a while they figured out that he had changed.  He had turned into one of “them,” and they began to afflict him.  And we see in 2Corinthians 11 some of the things that the Apostle Paul experienced after his conversion, which we know was of God.  There is no doubt – God changed him.  And once God changed him, instead of “smooth sailing,” this is what Paul experienced, as it says in 2Corinthians 11:21-30:

I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also. Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.  Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.

What a list!  What a list!  What is he describing in that list of afflictions and tribulations and ailments?  It is only by the grace of God that he was able to live through the stoning, beatings, and so forth.  God had a purpose for him.  God had a way he must go.  God led him in that way.  Remember in Acts 9, at the point of his transformation as God drew him and opened his eyes in salvation, God had said before he suffered, in Acts 9:16:

For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.

And so he did.  So he did, and he suffered in horrible ways, physically and in many other ways.  Again, according to the book of Timothy, Paul is a pattern of them that should believe, the true believers or elect children of God.  Paul is our example, as Christ was the example for him.  He followed the Lord Jesus Christ and His example of suffering, and he suffered all these things. 

Did he suffer all these things because he was a heretic?  No – we know he knew the true God.  But what was the charge laid against him?  We read in Acts 19:8-9:

And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.

He was teaching the Gospel.  He was teaching the truth.  Then when many individuals were hardened and believed not, they began to speak evil of “that way,” and Christ is the way.  They began to speak evil of Christ.  They began to speak evil of the Word of God, the Bible, as it was being rightly proclaimed.  They were not speaking evil of error, falsehood or false gospels.  It is just like today where the churches would have plenty of evil to speak about within their own body, if they were really concerned for the Bible.  They put up a front like they must speak against the error of EBible Fellowship and the “date setters.”  They should take care of their own house.  But, of course, the corporate church is a desolate house now.  It is a house that has been leveled, with not one stone left upon another.  But from their point of view, they think their church still “stands,” so we could say, “Go take care of your own house.  Take care of the innumerable heresies and false gospels and false doctrines that abound everywhere.”  But they do not because they are not really interested in that.  They are only interested in speaking evil of the right way and the good way of God.  In Acts 24, we will see what the Jews were saying of the true Gospel of the Bible – and, without question, the Jews were picturing the corporate churches – as Paul described in Acts 24:14:

But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:

They spoke evil of “the way,” the way they called “heresy.”  They called the truth “heresy.”  When the Lord Jesus was speaking to the Jews, telling them the truth, He said in John 8:45:

And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.

They were not hostile because He spoke lies.  They would have embraced Him, but the very reason they hated Him and believed Him not was due to the fact that it was the truth.