Dime a dozen and a measure of wheat for a penny

“And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” (Matt. 3:9).

We are a dime a dozen? Not worth a plug nickel? Was John saying that? Why would John compare the children of God to the worthless rocks that were strewn all over the surrounding wilderness?

 

Keep in mind that it was the Spirit of God who spoke through John. To whom was John speaking? “When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matt. 3:7). Why did John call them the snakes that he found all over the desert? Why was he so hostile to them?

Because he was being serious with everyone about preparing for the Messiah. His message was 100% serious, and the people were responding with heart-felt repentance, until the religious leaders showed up hardened in sin, unfeeling, and chilling. They didn’t come to make confession with penitent tears. They came only to look faithful, in order to steal back from John their power over the people. That made John angry not because he considered it sheep-stealing, as if he owned the people, but because they were stealing from the Lord’s flock. They were disrupting the work of God for their own aggrandizement. The strait, unvarnished truth that John was giving the people was tough love, but it was strong fatherly love, and the people were flocking to hear it. It was refreshing compared to the stale, lifeless humanism of the Romanized religious leaders.

 

Because the leaders were coming to John in rebellion, the Spirit of God would reflect back the same on them. “With the pure Thou wilt shew Thyself pure; and with the froward Thou wilt shew Thyself froward.” (Ps. 18:26). No, the repentant people weren’t a dime a dozen; rather, the dime a dozen were the fake, heartless “robbers of thy people.” (Dan. 11:14). “Is this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.” (Jer. 7:11). The Lord through Jeremiah was speaking to the Jewish priests who worshiped and preached Baal religion. “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised; Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.” (Jer. 9:25,26).

 

John’s statement spoke to the heart. If the religious leaders remained proud and self-exalted, then God had no place for them in the coming kingdom. The Father would find His gems for the kingdom from the rough, apparently worthless limestone littering the desert. The people, burning under the wrath of God because they were unwillingly made ignorant of the way to faith in God, would be chosen by Him to receive the wonderful “refreshing from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19) when His Son would begin His ministry. Only those who came to hear John received the rich spiritual blessings from the Anointed One (see Luke 7:29,30).

 

The Pharisees’ and Sadducees’ expensive, flowing fashionable vestments, which they wore, would work against them in the new kingdom. The kingdom that Satan had used them to build was soon to be replaced by a spiritual kingdom flowing with righteousness, over which love ruled, and where everyone was equal; and willful, tyrannical power lords could not enter. “There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Rev. 21:27). To God their religion wasn’t worth a twelfth of a dime, less than a farthing, and hardly a mite. Their wealth and overlording would not buy them a single star for a crown in the new kingdom. They that make such idol religions are like them.

 

Jesus’ warning was very clear, “Woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.” (Luke 6:24).

 

Spiritually speaking, the Pharisees were supposed to be descendants of the pre-captivity rulers over Judah’s tribes and cities, and they clung to their high status and wealth because their hearts were uncircumcised; they had never known faith and love. “And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided Him.” (Luke 16:14). They believed in a prosperity gospel, and that they must be blessed because they had wealth. But, we can see by their being the focus of God’s displeasure and rebukes from Christ, His forerunner, and His later apostles,  that they weren’t blessed of God but blessed of the devil. As the Lord foretold, “And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Mal. 3:5). When Rome required tribute from the nation, the wealthy elite, which were also the religious elite, wouldn’t share in the burden of taxation, but took the tribute debt out of the people, and impoverished them. The leaders wouldn’t lift a finger to satisfy the tribute requirement of their hated dictators. The Pharisees’ “blessings” really came from oppressing the enslaved, weakened classes under them. However, they knew not what they did because what they did was all that they had ever seen from their fathers. That didn’t make it right for the subordinate classes to lose their meager daily allowance to carry the high taxation, but, God was willing to be merciful to these rulers of the people. But, not forever. After repeatedly hearing their sin from the loving Son of God, through many merciful parables, and mocking Him for it, their probation ran out.

 

Not the power hungry and wealthy, would the Messiah claim. On the contrary, all who they had oppressed would be the Lord’s portion. The poor had been humbled and would be exalted in the new kingdom of humility. All the humbled children would receive from Jesus crowns that would endure unto eternal life.

 

“And He took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when He had taken him in His arms, He said unto them,” “whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Mark 9:36;Matt. 18:4).

 

“Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength because of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.” (Ps. 8:2).

 

“And Samuel said [to King Saul], When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel? ...Thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.” (1Sam. 15:17,26). If we will humble ourselves and be like little children, we will receive from God a worthy portion. Otherwise, if we will not bow our pride, after many opportunities to do so, our probation will end, He will become our enemy (see Isa. 63:10), and He will judge us not worth a dime. The humanity and compassion we have for the least of the human race, we have for the Lord of hosts.

 

“All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.” (John 10:8). “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Matt. 11:12). The great reward received by everyone in the end would be equal to the humiliation and suffering received in the name of Christ. “Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt walk in My ways, and if thou wilt keep My charge, then thou shalt also judge My house, and shalt also keep My courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.” (Zech. 3:7).
 

In the end, God will judge His people. The fires of oppression will purify Him a worthy people, and will simultaneously create the oppressing wicked. “What if God, willing to shew His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory.” (Rom. 9:22,23). “I will make Mine arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people: for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His adversaries, and will be merciful unto His land, and to His people.” (Deut. 32:42,43).

 

In other words, as the oppressors heaped up their own judgment, over time as their oppression mounted. And simultaneously their oppression would boil away the natural-born pride of the oppressed and enslaved people under them, and in due time would heap up for the humbled a rich reward. Beautiful system of judgment! “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me; because the LORD hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God.” (Isa. 61:1,2). No one is born meek. We must suffer under a yoke before we can be the meek that are overjoyed to hear good tidings from the Saviour. (See Ex. 4:31).

 

From their oppression He will create a holy people where there was none. “As He saith also in Osee, I will call them My people, which were not My people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.” (Rom. 9:25,26).

 

Every detail of this post speaks of another subjugation this time for Protestant America and the Advent movement. If you have an ear to hear, you will see that every detail from the word of God translates to the coming collapse of the world economy, which Rome again already dominates. And Satan dominates through the Vatican. Another enslavement of the world, of America, and of the Advent movement will devour the whole country, the churches, and the whole world. “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.” (Rev. 13:11). “For true and righteous are His judgments: for He hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand.” (Rev. 19:2).
 

The coming enslavement will be punishment from the Lord because Protestantism has turned back to the lawless doctrines of her paganized Mother, and because Adventism has followed the Protestant churches in their Spiritual Formation and celebration worship, as the Jews followed the apostatized northern nation of Israel. “And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto Me. But she turned not. and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a billof divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.” (Jer. 3:7,8).

Yet, the Lord doesn’t curse for pleasure. He didn’t curse Adam and Eve out of revenge. He punished them with the perfect things that would lead them to surrender to His will, to need a Saviour, and to repent at each death of a lamb, which represented the Lord. He punished Abraham with the result of following local customs instead of obeying what he knew of the original Eden marriage. He punished David for fornication and murder, even to almost losing the kingdom that he had assisted the Lord in setting up, and which he began to destroy.

 

Our Lord punishes to save. He desires to redeem with as much discipline as will lead His people to submit to the only method that can save them. The coming enslavement upon the world, the heavy tribute for repayment of all the debts owed to Rome from this world’s nations, will be designed to lead God’s people everywhere to surrender to the Lord’s long called for “special work of purification” Great Controversy, p. 425. That work of special purification has called to the Protestant denominations since 1888. How are we doing at it?

 

But few of the Protestants—and that includes their Remnant—have been obedient to the call from the Lord in the Bible that they professed to love, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” (1Jn. 3:2,3). Our nonchalant profession of waiting for the Lord’s return does not measure up to His expectation, any more than did the Jews in Christ’s day. We are living this life as if it will continue as it is forever. Like nothing supernatural will come down from the heavens. We’ve abandoned our Reformation and Advent movements’ purposes for existence, God’s purpose in us for preparing the world for the eternal kingdom. Now we need this last enslavement from God in order for us to take part in finishing the great controversy and this world of sin.

 

But, there is a bright future. The refreshing from the presence of the Lord will return. Our living under the wrath of God will be washed away by a magnification of both His Law and His grace. That is, His strait testimony from another John the Baptist movement, and afterwards, another obvious presence of the Anointed One walking among all who received the strait testimony movement. Salvation will return, big salvation, and Jesus will be very, very close “unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob” (Isa. 59:20). His Spirit will fill His people again as in the days of the apostles, and signs and wonders will follow His people. Their minds will be sealed in the knowledge of God, and they will love righteousness and the abundance of peace. Their hearts and mouths will be sanctified. Like Levi “The Law of truth was in his mouth” (Mal. 2:6), out of the abundance of their sanctified hearts will their mouths speak truth and “gracious words” (Luke 4:22). Again it will be said of His Protestants and Adventists:

 

“The meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” (Ps. 37:11).

 

“A Psalm for Solomon. Give the king Thy judgments, O God, and Thy righteousness unto the king’s son.

He shall judge Thy people with righteousness, and Thy poor with judgment.

The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness.

He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.

They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.

He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.

In His days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.

He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” (Ps. 72:1-8).

 

“Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against Me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against Me. And it shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.” (Jer. 33:6-9).

 

The difficult, harsh, terrible troubles ahead are actually really, really good in the long run. Before the glory must come the cross. Nothing less than a time of trouble can give the necessary humiliation to us Protestants and Adventists and to our have-need-of-nothing, blasé, self-sufficiency. Nothing else will seal our hearts in godly perfection so that we can become the 144,000 and make us qualified to bring the gospel to the world “for a witness to all nations” (Matt. 24:14). And beyond the traumatic troubles there is even a greater promise. An Earth made new without sin and sorrow, spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

 

“And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.” (Rev. 21:22-24).

 

Let’s not be counterfeit, worthless, “good for nothing” (Matt. 5:13), saltless, professed Christians. Let’s be the real McCoy, genuine gems, priceless stars in His crown, children of the living God. “Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon His name. And they shall be Mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.” (Mal. 3:16-18).

Let’s not make the dreadful mistake that the Jews made, and not be ready when Jesus comes again, this time in power and great glory. And miss all the life from Jesus eternally.