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Special Message

THIS SPIRITUAL DISEASE IS NOT HOPELESS – Part 28 (No. 10)

SPECIAL MESSAGE TO WGM TEAM MEMBERS:
April 9, 2024

THIS SPIRITUAL DISEASE IS NOT HOPELESS – Part 28 (No. 10)

“Knowest not that thou art wretched.” Rev. 3:17.

The prophesied, not foreordained nor predestined, decline of the initially ardent and zealous believers in the advent movement, into the dangerous comfort zone of self-confidence, mostly unintentional, has betrayed them into already feeling “safe and sound” in the excellence of the Biblical soundness of their doctrinal beliefs as being consistent and true “to the faith once delivered to the saints”(Jude 3), is, in fact, happening at the worst possible time period—during the pre-advent, Investigative Judgment, and when a “woe,” not a blessing, has been pronounced “upon the inhabitants of the earth and sea, for Satan has come down with GREAT WRATH upon us “knowing he has but A SHORT TIME” (Rev. 12: 12).

This particular Satanic wrath finds its deadliest, most fiendish and soul-destroying form in the temptation of DECEPTION, the same one he deployed in heaven and the same one he employed in Eden, causing the corresponding fall in each occasion.

While it is true that “there is safety in numbers,” that is, in true spiritual unity and harmony, the exact opposite is starkly true on its flip-side, as attested to by both sacred and secular history, which is, there is even “greater danger in numerical superiority” because the “truth as it is in Jesus and the tested true and faithful followers of God on earth, have, since the beginning, always been found in the minority.

This continues up until the final, living “church triumphant” emerges, as revealed in the parallel passages of Revelation 7:1-8 and 14:1-5, the latter a natural continuum of Rev. chapter 13 preceding it, whence “the beast, its image, mark, name, and number” are revealed.

Described as the second of the six manifestations of end-time lukewarmness, this “wretchedness”, like all the rest, is spiritual in nature, a moral character issue; hence, individual eternal destinies are at stake. To ignore or belittle this diagnosis is self-deception that ends in self-condemnation—a wretched state indeed!

Quite interestingly, in the KJV or Authorized Version, “wretched” appears only twice, and “wretchedness” only once in Num. 11:15. In the former, Paul confessed in his yet-unconverted condition, “O WRETCHED man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24).

“Wretched” here is the untranslated Greek talaiporos, “enduring trial, i.e., miserable,” the same word used to describe the Laodicean condition. The word “miserable” is also used very sparingly, three times only in the Bible, Rev. 3:17 and 1 Cor. 15:19 both the Greek eleeinos, meaning “pitiable.” In Num. 11:15 we read Moses plaintively pleading with God as he singularly deals with a burden the size of a murmuring, stubborn Israel: “I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. And if Thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray Thee, out of hand, if I have found favor in Thy sight; and let me not see my WRETCHEDNESS.” Num. 11: 15, 16. (Read the whole chapter as a parallel to Exo.16 and see for yourself what Moses had to put up with for 40 years. No wonder the Bible anoints him as “the meekest of all men.”

“Wretchedness” here is the untranslated Hebrew “rah,” meaning “bad or evil; adversity, affliction, distress, calamity, harm.”

For Jesus to describe the Laodicean to be both “miserable” and “pitiable”’even without yet considering the rest of the manifestations should be be more than enough cause one to quickly “examine ourselves and prove ourselves whether we are really in the faith of Jesus, and can stand before Him in our individual judgment!

To be continued, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

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Special Message

THIS SPIRITUAL DISEASE IS NOT HOPELESS – Part 27 (No. 9)

SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR WGM TEAM MEMBERS:
April 7, 2024

THIS SPIRITUAL DISEASE IS NOT HOPELESS – Part 27 (No. 9)

It will turn malignant and terminal if the pointed messages from Christ coursed through His chosen instruments are persistently ignored and even ridiculed and rejected. If this, it is a clear evidence that that disease has made deadly inroads already. Hereunder are more of such warning messages (all emphasis mine):

The message to the church of the Laodiceans is a STARTLING DENUNCIATION, and is applicable to people of God AT THE PRESENT TIME.

[Rev. 3:14-17 quoted]:
“The Lord here shows us that the message to be borne to His people BY MINISTERS whom He has called to WARN the people IS NOT A PEACE-AND-SAFETY MESSAGE. It is not merely theoretical [or doctrinal], but PRACTICAL in every particular.

“The people of God [not the heathen, unbeliever, or worldling] are represented in the message to the Laodiceans as in position of CARNAL SECURITY. They are AT EASE, believing themselves to be in an exalted condition of SPIRITUAL ATTAINMENTS. [Rev. 3: 17 quoted]. 

“What GREATER DECEPTION can come upon human MINDS than a confidence that they are right when they are all wrong! The message of the True Witness finds the people of God in SAD DECEPTION; YET HONEST IN THAT DECEPTION. They know not that their condition is DEPLORABLE in the sight of God. 

“While those addressed are FLATTERING THEMSELVES that they are in an exalted spiritual condition, the message of the True Witness BREAKS THEIR SECURITY by the starling denunciation of their TRUE condition of SPIRITUAL blindness, poverty, and wretchedness. The testimony, SO CUTTING AND SEVERE, cannot be a mistake, for it is the True Witness who speaks [as in ‘Thus saith the Lord;’ ‘It is written’], and HIS testimony must be correct.

“It is DIFFICULT for those who feel secure in their attainments, and imagine themselves to be rich in spiritual knowledge, to receive the message that declares that they are DECEIVED AND IN NEED OF EVERY SPIRITUAL GRACE. [Here’s why]:

The UNSANCTIFIED HEART ‘is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.

“I was shown that MANY are flattering themselves that they are GOOD CHRISTIANS, who have NOT a ray of light from Jesus. They HAVE NOT a living experience FOR THEMSELVES IN THE DIVINE LIFE. They need a deep and thorough work of SELF ABASEMENT before God [not before man, the public, or the church community] BEFORE they will feel their TRUE NEED of earnest, persevering effort to SECURE the precious graces of the [Holy] Spirit.” - E. G. White, Vol. 3 Testimonies for the Church, pp. 252-3.

I want you to know that, as a personal testimony, such “two-edged sword” messages are what awakened me to my true spiritual condition, not mere church attendance—and drove me to really “ask, seek, and knock” for the Holy Spirit to convict, convince, enlighten, and guide me as I sought to “rightly divide the Word of God.”

I can only hope and pray that you will be similarly, not identically, inspired to do the same individually. Bless all, NMF.

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Mid-week Manna

The Law of God and the Cross of Christ Series – No. 5: THE FIRST AND SECOND ‘WAYS OF ESCAPE’ SUMMARY

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
April 3, 2024

The Law of God and the Cross of Christ Series – No. 5

THE FIRST AND SECOND ‘WAYS OF ESCAPE’ SUMMARY

The first “way of escape” God provided for our first parents and all their children, mankind itself, was the divine “enmity” He immediately “put” between Satan disguised as a serpent, the first of all spiritualistic mediums thereafter, between the woman Eve, the mother of mankind and their respective “seed.”

This enmity had no existence prior and neither were Adam and Eve originally designed and made from the dust of the ground (never from “spirit”) physically or especially spiritually, programmed or wired so to speak with this one-off function and power, or even a special gift” as “a way of escape.”

The word itself “escape,” meaning “to break free or flee from,” “unshackle,” gives the transformed yet finite and mortal (no longer carnal) SPIRITUAL MIND of the true follower of Christ and diligent student of the Word some idea of this great “mystery of iniquity” in stark contrast to the “great mystery of godliness” as was and is manifest in the incarnated Creator Christ Jesus.

Hence the absolute indispensability of a genuine and full conversion of the sinner previously possessing a “carnal mind,” being “transformed by the renewing of that mind” into “the mind of Christ” (Rom. 12:2, 1; Phil. 2:5-2). Only such a mind can “discern spiritual things,” and “set their affections on things above” that are eternal, not temporal in value. (Col. 3:2; 2 Cor. 4:18). Paul reminds all: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be.” (Rom. 8: 6-8).

The second “way of escape” God provided for man after the fall in Eden was intentionally both visceral and instructional, divinely-designed by its shock value to emphasize the exceeding sinfulness of sin and thereby cherish hatred towards it—-the killing and shedding of its blood of the very first yearling male lamb as a burnt offering on the first stone altar, set up just outside the gates of the garden of Eden.

If revealed to the fallen father and mother of mankind that indeed “sin is the transgression of the law” and that its “wages is death.” That the only hope the transgressor has is not “to do away with the law” but for someone pure and innocent of any sin to volunteer to take the place of the guilty and condemned one as his substitute and surety.

This is the only living-sacrifice, ransom and redemption price demanded by God’s immutable law of righteousness that had been transgressed: the life of the transgressor. Nothing else or less could suffice or could take its place as the only acceptable atoning sacrifice. It was only then that indeed “the law was to be magnified and made honorable” by the Law giver himself. (Isa. 32:21).

It was this first of all typical animal sacrifices, especially and specifically the lamb, in contrast to the other specified clean animals such as goats, bullocks, and doves. All were types or “shadows” of the great Antitypical Lamb of God who would offer Himself four thousand years later at Calvary’s Cross!

At this pivotal point in the plan of redemption type would meet antitype, shadow its substance when all the system of sacrifices and the system of the priesthood, instituted by Christ himself under the ceremonial law governing them, would be “nailed to the cross” with Christ.

The GOSPEL IN SYMBOLS—-with the law of Ten Commandments originally written with God’s finger on two tables of stone secreted within the ark of the covenant/testament/testimony that stood alone in the most holy apartment of the earthly tabernacle/ sanctuary on earth, that was always set in the midst of the encampment of Israel and preceded them in all their travels—-as taught in the Old Testament of the Mosaic-Levitical dispensation to and through ancient Israel as a nation—-would then transition to the GOSPEL IN CHRIST through the Holy Spirit in the New Testament Church of the Christian Era till Christ returns in His second advent.

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

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Special Message

THIS SPIRITUAL DISEASE IS NOT HOPELESS – Part 26 (No. 8)

SPECIAL TEXT MESSAGE FOR WGM TEAM MEMBERS:
April 1, 2024

THIS SPIRITUAL DISEASE IS NOT HOPELESS – Part 26 (No. 8)

Before His accurate, comprehensive, and fail-proof diagnosis, here first is a more complete identification of the credentials and corresponding title of the attending divine Physician:

He is none other than Jesus Christ, the “brightness of the Father’s glory and express image of His Person” (Heb. 1: 3), currently in the heavenly sanctuary performing His closing work as our merciful High Priest and righteous Judge whose personal Presence is in and through the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Godhead, His only vicegerent on earth.

In this instance and stage of the church, He is specifically identified by the divine title. “the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning [more properly, the Beginner] of the creation of God” (Rev. 3: 14, KJV).

The divine Diagnosis, Tracing from Cause to Effect:

  1. Spiritual Ignorance caused by spiritual pride. “Knowest not that thou art.” The details of the spiritual cause: “Because I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.”
  2. The General Symptomatic Manifestation: Spiritual lukewarmness; “neither cold nor hot.”
  3. The Specific Spiritual Ravages and Damages Caused upon the Heart, Mind, and Moral Character of the Afflicted Christian:
    • Wretched
    • Miserable
    • Poor
    • Blind
    • Naked

Of the seven church stages/conditions recorded in detail in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, this seventh and last stage/condition is quite obviously the worst. Be a Berean. Acts 17:11. Read and verify all from your own Bibles.

Following this, I will share what “the law and testimony” (Isa. 8:20) reveals of each specific spiritual “ravage-damage” caused by the Laodicean disease and the specific cure for each one. Only if God permits and enables me. Bless all, NMF.

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Special Message

Straight Testimony to the Laodiceans – Part 25: THIS SPIRITUAL DISEASE IS NOT HOPELESS (No. 7)

SPECIAL MESSAGE TO WGM TEAM PARTNERS:
March 29, 2024

Straight Testimony to the Laodiceans – Part 25

THIS SPIRITUAL DISEASE IS NOT HOPELESS (No. 7)

Jesus sadly said to the self-confident and hypocritical spiritual leaders of His time, “They that be whole need not a Physician.”

All who profess to be Christ’s followers and “water-baptized members” of the remnant church in the these last days need to “stay awake and slumber not” by earnestly desiring and diligently seeking the daily “baptism of the Holy Spirit with fire” that cleanses and purifies the heart and mind, not the physical body.

Because Biblical salvation is individual, all who would be at last eternally saved need to individually—not corporately, never vicariously, but as in partaking of physical food and water for nutrition and health—daily “eat Christ’s flesh and drink His blood,” meaning, “study His Word to show ourselves approved unto God,” and then correspondingly live out the self-denying, self-sacrificing life of Christ as the Example and Pattern, daily, one day at a time.

Thus, by working and overcoming by the empowering grace imparted by the Holy Spirit and ministry of the angels that excel in heaven-borne strength, the character-shaping imaging principle silently works in transformative power so that the individual daily grows into the image-likeness of the character of the yet-invisible Jesus Christ.

By these spiritually-alive, dynamic process and work the true believer and commandment-keeping saint steadily gains by growth in intellectual and spiritual knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and sanctification “unto the measure of the stature of the perfection in Christ Jesus.” He “keeps his conscience void of offense towards God” and thereby obtains “the peace that passeth understanding” and Christ’s “rest” afforded to all “who takes His yoke and learns of His meekness and lowliness of heart.” Indeed, “He will beautify the meek with salvation.”

The spiritually “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” lukewarm, Laodicean believer in this seventh and last church stage has only one hope left in Christ: humbly and without delay, fully accept the divine Physician’s diagnosis, submit and yield to Him, and comply with His prescribed life-saving cure and full regimen to maintain and enhance the spiritual health thereafter until one receives “the seal of God in their foreheads.”

To be continued, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

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Mid-week Manna

The Law of God and the Cross of Christ Series – No. 4: THE SECOND ‘WAY OF ESCAPE” AFTER THE FALL

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
March 27, 2024

The Law of God and the Cross of Christ Series – No. 4

THE SECOND ‘WAY OF ESCAPE” AFTER THE FALL

The first way of escape envisioned by the omniscient Mind of the omnipotent Godhead (“let US make man in OUR image and in OUR likeness”) in and through Christ the Creator, for the only creature created or “made in the image and likeness of God—-should he fail the first test of free moral agency by disobedience to the word of law of his Maker—was not to ignore, set aside, amend, negate, “make of none effect, or worse, do away with that law, but to put divine ENMITY between him and Satan the serpent, the tempter, “the father of lies and murderer from the beginning, the author of sin, the transgression of God’s law.

This most fundamental of all Bible truths we have already established. Though created sinlessly perfect, the creature called man, was divinely endowed, intrinsically “wired” if you will, with a will, the power of choice, verily the governing power in man to choose intelligently, freely, willingly, and voluntarily to adore and worship his Creator by and through loving obedience to His word,

His law which is an expression of His will and thought, standard of His character-image, and the rule of His everlasting in heaven and the universe. This was and is the true foundation of the first, fullest, and most comprehensive meaning of “relationship.” There was none before it, and everything after it—the relationship of the only creature created in the image and likeness of the Creator of heaven and earth. Every other form of relationships are but branches of this main trunk as it were, downstream end products, or worse but yet prophesied as part of the great controversy between Christ and Satan, abominable corruptions and perversions.

In these lasts days of earth’s history of mankind’s second and last probation, it is one of Satan’s
most cunning counterfeits and truth-destroying means of deception—relationships with a cornucopia of its variables with everyone and everything else but with the first of all that could possibly be in the beginning: between creature and his Creator.

The second “way of escape” is described as follows. We quote again from The Cross and Its Shadow by Stephen Haskell, pp. 20, 21, for additional emphasis (all emphasis and bracketed words mine):

 “Before man was placed on trial [man’s first probationary testing time] the LOVE of the Father and that the Son for him was SO GREAT that CHRIST [the Creator] PLEDGED HIS OWN LIFE AS A RANSOM if man should be overcome by the temptations of Satan. Christ was ‘the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world’ (Rev. 13:8) [Calvary prophesied before Creation].

This wonderful truth was made known to our first words spoken by the Lord to SATAN, ‘It (the Seed of the woman) shall BRUISE THY HEAD, and thou shalt bruise His heel.’ [Christ’s ‘heel’ would be bruised by Satan at Calvary, but Satan’s head will be finally eternally ‘bruised’ by Christ the King of kings and Lord of lords at the end of the millenium when he and all the fallen angels and wicked are finally destroyed by the ‘cleansing fires of the last days.

 “In order that man might realize the ENORMITY OF SIN THAT WOULD TAKE AWAY THE LIFE OF THE SINLESS SON OF GOD, he was required to bring an INNOCENT lamb, confess his sins over its head [not feet or heels], then with his OWN HANDS TAKE ITS LIFE, a type of Christ’s life. This sin-offering was burned [nothing was left it it but ashes], typifying that through the DEATH of Christ ALL SIN would be FINALLY DESTROYED by the FIRES at the last day. [Malachi 4: 1-3). The Cross and Its Shadow.

Note this: It was not the cruel “nails of Rome” driven through Christ’s sinlessly undefiled hands and feet into the wooden tree instigated through the hatred and false accusation of His chosen people that killed Jesus: it was the SINS of mankind, for “the wages of sin is death,” and Christ “was made sin for us, who knew no sin.”

Death by crucifixion was the “manner” by which He would be “condemned to die, not by beheading, hanging, strangulation, public burning, quartering, firing squad, or by any other form or method of public execution for enhanced dramatic effect for whatever reason.

Crucifixion was the means by which “all men would be drawn to Him,” that is, attention would be drawn towards Him like no other more intellectual, historical, or even miraculous means. That He, “the holy One of Israel,” the spotless Son of God, would be literally “lifted up,” suspended between heaven and earth,” crucified between two legitimately-determined-and condemned criminals was “truth greater than fiction,” more virally compelling the most finely-spun conspiracy.

It is from this platform that the true meaning of the Cross of Christ has and should be taught in the Third Angel’s Message, earth’s final, merciful warnings!

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

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Straight Testimony to the Laodiceans – Part 24: THIS SPIRITUAL DISEASE IS NOT HOPELESS (No. 6)

SPECIAL MESSAGE TO WGM TEAM PARTNERS:
March 24, 2024

Straight Testimony to the Laodiceans – Part 24

THIS SPIRITUAL DISEASE IS NOT HOPELESS (No. 6)

From the beginning it is in His mysterious long-suffering love that God sends humble, faithful and courageous messengers to give unflattering rebukes to save from certain ruin those afflicted with and guilty of specific spiritual maladies. Such are the messages addressing the conditions specific to each of the seven stages of the church, revealed in Revelation chapters 2 and 3.

It is the reaction to these messengers bearing their messages that reveal whether they truly love, honor, and worship God or merely “have the form of godliness and deny its power. Such are “fair weather” disciples who will choose convenience over conviction in the time of test.

To such this truism especially applies in the coming “hour of temptation that will try all that dwell on the earth” (Rev. 3:10). It states: “He who is willing to give up essential liberty for temporary safety deserves neither.”

Note carefully the following:
“Those who are reproved by the Spirit of God should not rise up against the humble instrument. It is God, and not an erring mortal, who has spoken to save them from ruin.” E. G. White, 3T 257 (1873).

 “It is NOT PLEASING to human nature to receive reproof; nor is it possible for the heart of man, UNENLIGHTENED by the Spirit of God, to realize the NECESSITY of reproof or the BLESSING it is designed to bring. As man yields to temptation, and indulges in sin, his MIND becomes darkened. The moral sense is PERVERTED. The warnings of CONSCIENCE is disregarded, and its voice is LESS CLEARLY heard. He gradually LOSES to a power to DISTINGUISH between right and wrong, until he has NO TRUE SENSE of his standing before God. He may observe the FORMS of religion and ZEALOUSLY maintain its doctrines, while DESTITUTE of its spirit. His condition is described by the True Witness: ‘Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. . . . “ 

 “When the Spirit of God, by message of REPROOF, declares this to his condition, he CANNOT SEE that the message is true. Is he therefore to reject the warning? NO. God has given sufficient evidence, so that all who DESIRE to do so may satisfy themselves as to the CHARACTER of the Testimonies; and, having acknowledged them to be FROM GOD, if is their DUTY to accept reproof, even though they themselves DO NOT SEE the sinfulness of their course. If they fully realized their condition, what would be the need of reproof? Because THEY KNEW IT NOT, God mercifully sets it before them, so that they may REPENT AND REFORM before it shall be too late. 

“Those who despise the warning will be left in BLINDNESS to become SELF-DECEIVED: but those who heed it, and zealously go about the work of SEPARATING THEIR SINS FROM THEM in order to have the needed graces, will be OPENING the door of their hearts that the dear Savior may come in and dwell with them.” Ibid, 3T 257 (1873).”

To be continued, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

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Mid-week Manna

The Law of God and the Cross of Christ Series – No. 3 : THE VERY FIRST ‘WAY OF ESCAPE’

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
March 20, 2024

The Law of God and the Cross of Christ Series – No. 3

THE VERY FIRST ‘WAY OF ESCAPE’

This brings us right back to a subject we just covered as a series yet now with added insight and enlightenment, as can only be expected from God’s inexhaustible mine of truth! Quoting from Haskell’s The Cross and its Shadow, pp. 19-21 (emphasis mine):

“To every voyager on the storm-tossed sea of life, the Lord has given a COMPASS which, if rightly used, will safely guide him into the eternal haven of rest [the ‘place’ Christ went ‘prepare’]. It was given to our first parents at the GATE of Eden. The compass CONSISTS of the following words, which were spoken by the Lord to Satan: “I will put ENMITY between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.’ [Gen. 3:15]. 

 “In EVERY HEART God has planted [even as He ‘planted’ the garden of Eden for Adam and Eve] an enmity to sin [the transgression of the law’], which, IF HEEDED, will lead to righteousness and eternal life. Any man, whatever his station or rank in life, who will ABSOLUTELY FOLLOW the divine compass placed in his heart, will 1) accept Christ as his Savior [from sin and sinning] and 2) be led into the sunlight of God’s love and approval (John 1:9). 

“As the result of our first parents’ eating of the forbidden fruit, over all the earth hung the gloom of the divine decree [the ‘curse of sin’], ‘In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die’ (Gen. 2:17, margin). The marks of death and decay were soon seen in the falling leaves and withered flowers. There was NO ESCAPING the decree, ‘the wages of sin is death’ (Rom. 6:23). 

“But a ray of light penetrated the darkness when God spoke the following words, ‘It (the Seed of the woman) shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel’(Gen. 3:15). These words revealed the fact that for those who would CHERISH THE ENMITY AGAINST SIN which God had placed in the heart, there was a WAY OF ESCAPE FROM DEATH. They would live, and Satan would die; but BEFORE his death he would ‘bruise the heel’ of the Seed of the woman. This was necessary in order that the DEATH OF SATAN might be made sure, and that MANKIND MIGHT ESCAPE ETERNAL DEATH.

“In order that man might realize the ENORMITY of sin, which would TAKE THE LIFE of the sinlesss Son of God, he was required to bring an INNOCENT LAMB, confess his sins over its head, then with HIS OWN HANDS take its life, A TYPE of Christ’s LIFE. 

 “This SIN-OFFERING was BURNED, typifying that through the DEATH of Christ all sin would FINALLY be destroyed at the FIRES OF THE LAST DAY (Mal. 4: 1-3).” End quote.

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.