Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #14 in Genesis 35, and I will just read Genesis 35:8: 

But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.

We have used this Bible verse as a springboard to go to several Scriptures that identify with God’s overall program for the New Testament era.  We saw that Deborah, who typifies the Word of God as that which gave “suck,” was buried beneath Bethel, which means “house of God.”  So the house of God was “above,” and the Word, as typified by the meaning of Deborah’s name, is “beneath.”

And that led us to look at a particular Greek word, “pat-eh'-o,” which is used five times in the New Testament, and we saw in Luke 10 that Christ gave “authority” to the churches at the time when He sent out the seventy two-by-two.  It says in Luke 10:19:

Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

The word “power” in the first part of the verse is “ex-oo-see'-ah,” and the word “power” in the second part of the verse is a different Greek word, “doo'-nam-is.”  So it fits in perfectly with the timing for the church age when the church received legitimate authority from Christ to carry out its mission to bring the Gospel to the world, evangelizing the nations so that the firstfruits could become saved and brought unto God.  And they possessed that authority throughout that time.  For example, let us use the year 1,900 A. D., and the church age would not  end until 1988, so if someone said, “I want nothing to do with a church,” they would have been going against the will of God at that time.  It was God’s will that people go to the churches and be under the power and authority of the pastors and those in authority.  In giving authority to the seventy that went out two-by-two, Christ was giving the churches authentic authority to baptize, oversee the Lord’s table, and to admonish and discipline their congregation.  All that the church leaders typically did over the course of the church age was done with proper authority.  Christ had given them “ex-oo-see'-ah,” or authority, to handle His Word and be the caretakers of the Word as it went forth, and they would possess the authority to tread underfoot the serpents and scorpions, and all the power of the enemy that would interfere with God’s program.  Of course Satan constantly sought to interfere and hinder, but the people of God through the power of Christ carried out that mission and task, and it was accomplished.

And in the context of  the end of the church age, we saw this same Greek word, “pat-eh'-o,” used twice.  Once it was used in Revelation 11:2 regarding the holy city being given to the Gentiles to tread under foot, and in Luke 21:24, it refers to Jerusalem being trodden under foot of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.  At that time, God gave the authority to Satan.  We saw that in Revelation 13 where the beast rose up, and power (authority) was given him for forty and two months, the exact time period that the holy city was said to be trodden under foot.  So Satan received the authority, which means that authority was taken away from the churches and transferred to Satan to carry out the task of destruction (of the churches). 

And by the way, that is a very biblical reason why the people of God who came out of the churches and into the world did not water baptize anyone; we did not conduct services such as the Lord’s Table; we had no oversight over anyone – we did not admonish or discipline anyone.  The authority was not given us to do those things, and God was just dealing with people one-on-one to save.  He would bring the Gospel to save His people, and He would bring His elect into His eternal kingdom and make them part of His eternal church.  Today, if anyone who would think, “Well, I can still baptize someone,”  they cannot do so because they lack the ““ex-oo-see'-ah,” or authority, to do so. 

It sort of clarifies things for me.  I have always understood that to be true, but I did not exactly know why, so this is helpful in proving that the people of God who came out of the churches have no “authority.”  And of course that is also a criticism that is laid against God’s people that might gather together once a month in a fellowship group, and some will say, “You are being a church.”  No – because to be an official church, you have to have that “authority,” and you have to follow the structure of the things that God initiated, like the rite of baptism, or the Lord’s Table.  Obviously, we are doing none of that, and we are outright rejecting the idea of being a church and  trappings of a church regarding oversight of individuals.  It is none of our business what people are doing.  It is God’s business to deal with each individual.  We do not oversee anybody.  We can only tell people these things so many times, and EBible Fellowship tells people often that we are not a church.  It says on our Facebook page that we are not a church, and it says on our YouTube page that we are not a church.  We teach constantly that the church age has ended, and that there is no more “official” corporate church as far as God is concerned.  He has ended His relationship with the churches.  But there are people that just want to come against us in some way to strike a blow, so they will make that accusation, but they cannot prove it from the Bible.

Again, we are looking at the word “pat-eh'-o,” and we went to Revelation 14 where we saw that the context is Judgment Day (Babylon’s fall), and the time when God is pouring out the cup of His wrath, and the unsaved drink of it in the presence of the “holy angels,” or “saintly messengers,” and that is why it says, “Here is the patience of the saints.”  We are the saints, or “holy ones,” that have been left on the earth to go through this prolonged judgment period.  Christ has come (in judgment), as we know from the Bible from numerous Scriptures.  Christ has come to judge, and He has come spiritually through His Word as He carries out His judgment with “ten thousands of his saints,” the completeness of saints, or “holy ones.”  So the execution of the judgment plan of God is currently being carried out in our presence as we remain alive on the earth.

And this time period also has to do with “patience,” because tribulation worketh patience.  We will not go there, but look at Revelation 13 where a very similar statement is made in the context of the Great Tribulation, in Revelation 13:10: “

…Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”  Then in the next chapter, Revelation 14, it is said in the context of the “second tribulation,” the final judgment when God’s judgment transitions from the corporate church to the world, in Revelation 14:12: “Here is the patience of the saints…”  Again, tribulation worketh patience, and it is basically telling us that there is another tribulation.  There are two tribulations at the time of the end, and that will bring us to the very end of the world.

Further on in Revelation 14, we read in Revelation 14:18-20:

And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.

Judgment is typified by the “great winepress of the wrath of God,” and the winepress was “trodden without the city.”  And who are those trodden under foot?  They are all the wicked, or all that were never saved.  No one paid for their sins, as Christ did not choose them, and He did not bear their sins upon Himself.  So He did not die for their sins to atone for them.  Therefore, they have their own sins upon them, and they must suffer and die the wrath of God for the payment.  In other words, they have to atone for themselves, and that will provide satisfaction to the Law of God, but, unfortunately and tragically, once they make that payment, they will be dead forever.  They are not God, but they are finite, fallen creatures who are weak and unable to overcome death, unlike the Lord Jesus Christ, who as eternal God was able to overcome death after paying for the sins of all the elect company of God.  That shows the mighty power of God, but it is not so with man, who is a weakling.  So man has no power in the time of his death, and he cannot overcome.   He will be dead forever.  But again, satisfaction of the Law will have been accomplished and the atonement will have been made.  That is the Gospel available for the (unsaved) world today.  That is the “sweet wine” that God refers to in a couple of places.  It is the “new wine” that is in the world at this time because it is not the wine that identified with the blood of Christ that has now been finished, or perfected, in the salvation of the elect.  So “atonement” for sin is still available, but, unfortunately, in the payment made by the sinner for his own sins, he will be dead for evermore.  And the “second death” means that he is destroyed, annihilated out of existence, and he ceases to be.  And that is what finishes that man for all eternity.  He will be dead for all future eternity, while all of God’s elect will live on.

Again, it says, “And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress,” and the life is in the blood.  So God is trampling underfoot the lives of all those who have rebelled against Him.  Once this process is complete, there will be no more life for them. 

So we know that to “trod under foot” in the other places we saw, like Luke 10:19, and Revelation 11:2, was tied to “authority.”  Where is the authority here?  I will show you the verse, but before we do that, let us also look at Revelation 19 where it is telling us of the Lord Jesus, and this passage especially wants us to know that His name is called “The Word of God.”   Then we read in Revelation 19:14:

And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

These are the saints, as Christ comes with “ten thousands of his saints.”  So The Word comes with the saints, the twoedged sword in the hand of the saints that will execute the judgment and take vengeance upon the wicked, according to Psalm 149.  We know the “armies in heaven” are the saints because of their clothing, which is “fine linen, white and clean,” and Revelation 19:8 tells us: “

…for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.”    Then it says in Revelation 19:15:

And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword…

This would be a further emphasis on the Word of God, as the sharp sword is likened to the Word in Hebrews 4:12.  Again, it says in Revelation 19:15:

And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron…

In order to rule, what do you need?  You need “authority” to rule, and that is what God has done; He has given authority to Christ.  We find here the Greek word “ex-oo-see'-ah,” which we have seen translated as “power,” but it was actually translated as “authority” back in John 5:25-29:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

The Father gave the Son authority to execute judgment, just as the Lord Jesus has given that authority to the saints, and we have that twoedged sword in our hand, according to Psalm 149:5-9:

Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand; To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye JEHOVAH.

This is the authority that Christ bestows upon His people.  It is a hierarchy, is it not?  It is the order of authority and power.  Those above give authority to those beneath, and then the soldiers go forth and carry it out, and we are the ones carrying the Word in the Day of Judgment.  And in the Day of Judgment, the Word. the thing that Christ has spoken, will judge, as it declares in John 12:48:

…he word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

So we are carrying that Word, and that is how we, the saints, are judging the world in this time period.

Let us go back to Revelation 19:15:

And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

And there is that word , “pat-eh'-o,” again, as He treads underfoot the winepress.  And in the winepress are all the sinners, and He is crushing the life out of them.  In a winepress, when you crush the grapes, it produces wine.  When the Lord Jesus crushes the life out of the unsaved, their blood comes out, and that is the “new wine” of the Gospel for Judgment Day, which I explained earlier.  The only remaining Gospel of “bread and drink” is described in Isaiah 49, which vividly reveals the “sweet wine,” as it says in Isaiah 49:26:

And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I JEHOVAH am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

It is not the “flesh” of Christ or the “blood” of Christ.  That is how we are used to hearing that kind of reference, as Christ said, “For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.”  But that was the Gospel of salvation because Christ’s atonement was potentially available to all, and that was the hope of mankind.  But that is no longer the case because all His blood has been applied, and all to be saved have been saved.  But there is still a Gospel of “flesh and blood,” but it is the flesh of the sinner themselves, and it is the blood of the sinners themselves, which they shall be drunken with, and this is all that remains in order to atone for sin.  When we get down to the “nitty gritty,” the Gospel basically means “atonement accomplished.”  It is either Christ atoning for His elect, or each unsaved person atoning for himself.

Let us look at one last Scripture, and then we will move on in our Genesis study.  Let us look at Revelation 18, where the context is Babylon’s fall, just as we saw in Revelation 14:8 where it declared, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen,” and then it immediately spoke of Judgment Day.  It is the same here, as it says in Revelation 18:1:

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

He had great “ex-oo-see'-ah,” or authority.  Of course this “angel,” or messenger, is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, and He lightened the earth with His glory because it is the “revelation of the righteous judgment of God,” and the final judgment of mankind.  Then it says in Revelation 18:2:

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen…

It is the declaration that the kingdom of Satan has collapsed.  It is fallen.  And the evidence for this is the division in the world, as a house divided cannot stand.  Christ has taken the kingdom of this world, and He is ruling with a rod of iron, possessing great “authority” to do so.  There was authority given to Satan over the 23-year Great Tribulation, as he carried out the task of destroying the churches.  But that authority has been revoked.  It is expired.  And as of May 21, 2011, the day of transition of judgment to the entire world, the authority was returned to the Lord Jesus.  He is “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”  He possesses the greatest authority to finalize things for this world, and to finish everything concerning the rebellion of this earthly outpost in the vast kingdom of God.  And that is what He is accomplishing over the course of these years (since May 21, 2011) during this prolonged Judgment Day, which will continue until the year 2033, and much biblical evidence points to that year as the conclusion of all things and the end of the world.

Again, when we see the term “tread under foot,” the one doing the treading possesses the authority, and the one under foot has no authority.  It has been taken from them, and they are under the wrath of God.