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HOLD FAST TO YOUR CROWN Revelation 3:11 December 24, 2003 ~ The Night Before . . . Let us now turn to our Lord's disciple to the Gentiles, the disciple to you and me, Paul, that great lion of God. After all, Paul's unexplained "we" in 1 Corinthians 15:51 and 52 lead us into this dilemma. 1 Corinthians 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, (KJB) 1 Corinthians 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (KJB) This time look at Romans 11:13-27 , and let's try and extricate ourselves. Romans 11:13-27 or I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. (KJB) Paul's olive tree is akin to our Lord's vine in John 15. I am led to believe that both represent both Christ and His Church. The root of Paul's olive tree is Christ and the tree is the Church in its mission to evangelize the world, grafted in, the Gentiles, even you and me as disciples of Christ. Now notice verses 21 and 22 of Romans 11: "For if God did not spare the natural branches," neither will he spare you (Christian). Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity towards those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, PROVIDED YOU CONTINUE IN HIS KINDNESS; otherwise you too will be cut off (as a branch). "Continue": Greek, to remain in, TO ABIDE. "Kindness": King James, goodness; Greek, usefulness, goodness, benign (favorable, beneficial, not corrupt, not diseased). Now the theme repeats itself from Revelation 3, to Matthew 24, to Luke 12:31-40 , to John 15, to Galatians 6:7-10 , and Romans 11! If you endure, bear fruit and love Christ and your fellow man, you will remain as a part of the tree and vine and be kept "from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world." The other side of the coin is that if you don't abide, continue, and endure (by keeping our Lord's commandments to bear fruit and love God and your fellow man), as Paul warned in Romans 11:21 and 22 and Christ promised in John 15:2 and 6, you will be pruned out of the tree and the vine and wither and your works judged by fire (burned). I am led to believe that the vinedresser, God our Father, will prune out of His Son's Church, all branches ("true believers") that are not then producing fruit by abiding in the love of Christ ("If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love", John 15:10a), just before the rapture as warned in Revelation 3:11. Your "crown" as a part of the Bride of Christ, His Church the Queen, will be seized from you by your failure to "hold fast what you have," and His Church will be translated, intact, having only those branches that patiently endure, abiding to that time. Those of us branches that are broken off and pruned out by God will continue in our salvation as children of God into tribulation, with the Holy Spirit remaining in us, to join the slain Saints of Revelation 6 or those that survive into the fire of our Lord's judgment, His test of fire as described in 1 Corinthians 3:13-15, where in most instances being mere wooden branches, those works are burned up (consumed) as described in verse 15 and 1 Corinthians 3:13-15 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. (KJB) John 15:6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. (KJB) We who are alive at rapture, "true believers", who Christ MUST leave after His Father prunes us out of His Church for our failure to endure and abide, actually may be better off than those of us who die in such a state before rapture. The dead in Christ, whose lives and works are but wood, hay, or stubble, who God would have pruned out of the Church, the Bride of Christ, if physical death had not interceded, may always remain but a naked soul in the Church of our Lord, a mere twig in the eternal tree of life, as judged by the fire of our Lord in the air during the tribulation period. Those of us who are left on Earth, while not a part of the marriage of the Church in heaven, may possibly be grafted back in as a part of the tribulation Saints, and our rewards confirmed by a faithful endurance during the tribulation period. Just as God has the power to graft back in the natural branches, His elect, as Paul explained in Romans 11:23 , so could God graft His Son's own branches back in whenever they deserve to be grafted again. In any event, such one remains a joint heir with Christ, "awaiting adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies". Romans 8:12-25 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. (KJB) Whether the pruned out branches of Christ are ever grafted back into His Church, His Queen, or not, we do know that these Saints will be in the temple of God, sheltered by His presence. Revelation 7:16-17 "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; .... For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." At last the pruned out "true believers" will receive their spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15:51 ), and they will dwell with Christ forever. Revelation ~ Index OTHER SCRIPTURES COMMANDING ENDURANCE The call to endure, to abide, to continue in Christ's love, by keeping His commandments and bearing fruits, thereby to be ready for the call of the Son of Man at His coming for His Church is clearly shown in many other scriptures. Paul again explains this in the following passages: Titus 2:11-14 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. (KJB) 2 Timothy 2:3-6 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits. (KJB) 2 Timothy 2:12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: (KJB) Christ warned His chosen by every conceivable way possible. "But he who endures to the end will be saved" (preserved, kept safe): Matthew 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (KJB) Therefore you must be ready; for "the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect." Matthew 24:44 Therefore be ye also ready; for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh. (ASV) Matthew 24:50-51 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (KJB) Matthew 25:10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. (KJB) Christ also again warned in Luke 21:34-36 , talking to and about His disciples: Luke 21:34-36 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass (the tribulation described by Christ in verses immediately before), and to stand before the Son of man. (At rapture, in the heavens.) Again and again Christ said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments," (as in John 14:15). "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him ...." (John 14:23 a.) What, as Christians, if we don't keep His commandments? If we are not ready for His call? If we are not watching for His return? If we fail to endure and abide? Christ says that He must shut the door on such Christians, who, when He comes unexpected, like a thief in the night, are not watching, that is prepared, with their loins girded and their lamps burning, enduring to the end! Revelation ~ Index 1 CORINTHIANS 15 REVISITED During my initial studies for these lessons, I was puzzled concerning the distinction (comparison) of the "non-abiding" Christian that dies in such state, yet is resurrected in a spiritual body to meet the Lord in the air, being included as a part of the Bride of Christ, as related to the "non-abiding" Saint alive at the hour of rapture who is pruned out of the Church and left on Earth during the tribulation period. Further, in the initial drafts of this document, I persisted in adhering to the traditional linkage of 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 with 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and 17, as I was taught years ago. After much further prayer and anguish, the Holy Spirit finally permitted me to understand the scriptural truths concerning these vital points. Like anything else, once I understood, it became so clear and simple that I stood amazed at my own past ignorance. The answer to my question concerning the distinction between the "non-abiding" Saints at death and the "non-abiding" Christian alive at rapture (which at first, appears to be inequitable) is found in 1 Corinthians 15:35-43 . But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: (KJB) Simply stated, physical death purifies the soul of a "non-abiding" Saint. "It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body." (1 Cor. 15:43-44a.) As Paul further wrote, there must be death of the corrupt to gain the imperishable. Again, this explains why Christ continuously warned that those of us alive at His call, not having been "sown in dishonor" through physical death, must be in the center of His will – abiding, enduring, fully prepared – to be permitted to be taken by God to the immediate presence of His Son. Otherwise, we will be "purified" by our "endurance" during the tribulation period. Next, for a correct understanding of 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 , you must understand a correct interpretation of Revelation 10 and 11, previously discussed above. Suffice it to say here that "we shall ALL be changed", whether dead or alive, at one time or another. However, do not equate the "we all" of verse 51 exclusively with Paul's "we" of 1 Thessalonians 4:17, and fall into the snare that first entrapped me. Please consider that the phrase "at the last trumpet" (1 Corinthians 15:42), being the seventh trumpet of Revelation 10 and 11, does not mean that it sounds only once, but rather "that in the DAYS of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God ...should be fulfilled." (Revelation 10:7.) Note carefully that Paul first wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 that "we shall not all sleep, but we shall ALL be changed ... at the last trumpet." (Verses 51-52.) Then Paul states, "For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and WE shall be changed." This second "we", (not "we ALL",) [NOTE! THINGS DIFFERENT ARE NOT THE SAME] is Paul's "we" of 1 Thessalonians 4:17! THE CONSTRUCTION OF SCRIPTURE It is a settled matter of law, that in the construction of any statute or case law that the "specific" governs the "general". So it should be in construing a correct interpretation of scripture. With this principle of legal construction in mind, let us again consider 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 : For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (KJB) In verse 16, Paul specifically writes that "... the dead in Christ will rise first". Paul does not limit or qualify this fact in any respect. THE DEAD IN CHRIST obviously should be construed to mean ALL DEAD in Christ shall rise. Now notice what Paul next does NOT say. Paul does not say "all alive in Christ" shall be caught up with them, but rather he uses the editorial pronoun "we", we who are alive shall be caught up. The "we" then is general, as compared to John 15:2, which says that "EVERY BRANCH OF MINE that bears no fruit, he takes away". "EVERY branch" is specific, more specific even than "the dead in Christ", and obviously totally specific as related to a general, undefined "we". Proper construction of "we", being general, must be determined by applying all specific scriptures that have any relationship or bearing on the definition of "we". It can be determined by analyzing 1 Thessalonians 4 that "we" include "true believers" like the writer, Paul. By then analyzing other scriptures that are specific in a definition pertaining to "true believers" that remain or endure to the end (since Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4 is discussing the end times), being such scriptures as we have been reviewing herein above, the correct definition of "we" can reasonably be determined to be all Saints who are enduring and abiding in obedience until and at the hour of rapture. "WATCH THEREFORE" GOD DOES NOT BLUFF Note what Christ Himself taught about the rapture of the Church. Matthew 24:39-42 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. (KJB) This parable has always been applied or interpreted to indicate one saved and one lost sinner are in the field or at the mill (or sleeping in bed as added by Luke). How wrong to limit the application! Notice first the "equal status" of the pairs. – Two men in the field – Two women at the mill – Two men in bed NOTE: IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU PAY VERY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THIS! Christ is stating that they are both identical in each instance. Further, they both should have been watching – abiding, enduring. It would do little good for an unsaved man or woman to be watching for the Lord to come, because a dead spirit, not born again, cannot receive a spiritual body as will happen at translation. It is too late for salvation for the one that could be raptured when our Lord calls, when He comes to translate His Church. This teaching primarily concerns the eligibility of rapture for those alike, both redeemed in an equal status, but one watching and ready for his or her Lord to come, and the other having failed to abide and endure, not watching, not ready. It goes back to Revelation 3:10 . "BECAUSE YOU HAVE KEPT MY WORD of patient ENDURANCE, I WILL KEEP YOU FROM THE HOUR OF TRIAL which is coming on the whole world ...." The opposite of that promise is equally present: "IF YOU HAVE NOT KEPT MY WORD and endured, I WILL NOT KEEP YOU FROM THE HOUR OF TRIAL (tribulation) to come." To preach anything else is dangerous. We should not place God in the position of making idle threats or of bluffing. God does not bluff! TOP> CONTINUE>