Beware of the False Cross # 3

Beware of the Concision

So with all this in mind, let us continue to search the Word of God in order that we can comprehend more fully the gravity and the danger of the warning in Philippians 3:2. Beware of the dogs, look out for the dogs, be alert, be diligent and watch for the dogs. Now when the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write this warning, He also inspired him to write what we believe is the key to our being able to discern 'the dogs." Paul writes, "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness ..." Paul counted all the abilities, the achievements and the accomplishments of his human nature, of his adamic man, of his self-life, whether in the religious or earthly realm, to be but dung: to be the worthless waste of his self-life.

So, we were led to search into the Word of God for the connection between the dug of the self-life, and 'the dogs." So by interpreting scripture with scripture, we were led to the times of Nehemiah and Ezra ... Haggai and Zechariah ... and the remnant who returned to rebuild the wall and the temple of God. These and many others stood before, during and after God sent His people into captivity because of their idolatry. They stood for that which God had purposed that each of them should accomplish in the time which they lived: - whether it was to be a prophet such as Elijah or Jeremiah or Isaiah, or a queen such as Esther, or whether it was one such as Malchiah, who was one of the remnant who returned with Nehemiah to rebuild and repair the wall in Jerusalem (Neh. 3:14).

Now when Nehemiah and the remnant returned to Jerusalem to repair and rebuild the wall, Daniel, along with most of the people of God, had been in captivity in Babylon for almost seventy years. Then, through the prophecies of Jeremiah (Jer. 25:11; 29:10), Daniel understood that after seventy years of captivity, Israel would return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Chapter one of Daniel tells us that Daniel was among the earliest of those taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel was very young when he went into captivity; and , from the beginning of his captivity to the end of his life, we know that Daniel was a man of prayer. The Bible makes it clear that Daniel and those who consistently stood with him through the worst of times - before and during and after the captivity - were all part of the war that was taking place in the heavenlies.

Now Malchiah was one of those who returned with Nehemiah to rebuild the wall, and he had the lowly but important task of repairing the 'dung gate' (Neh. 3 and 4). Now remember that Paul in explaining what the true circumcision in heart meant to him, said that he counted everything that was a gain to himself, as loss for Christ. Paul counted them but dung, worthless waste (Phil. 3)

The word "dung" means, "heaps of rubbish, garbage, refuse, manure, human waste, etc." Since Jerusalem was a large city, we can see that the dung gate was an absolute necessity in order to get rid of the heaps rubbish and human waste that was collected in the city. This worthless waste, the sewage, etc., was removed through the dung-gate, and then it was piled into heaps outside the city, and the wild dogs would feed upon it. Also, "dung" speaks of the worthless waste that was cast to the wild dogs, who would feed on anything, even their own vomit (2 Peter 2:22). In the earthly city of Jerusalem, and in most other cities and towns, in both the Old and New Testament times, "the dogs" slyly, and sometimes freely, entered the cities to feed upon the dung of man.

In 1 and 2 Kings, the Lord pronounced Jezebel's doom through His servant Elijah: "In the portion of Jezreel shall the dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel (1 Kings 21:23; 2 King 9:36). These scriptures make it clear that what woman Jezebel, and her message of satan, was the  worthless waste, "the dung" that fed "the dogs." She counted for nothing in the eternal plan of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, the message of the false cross that satan brought forth through that woman Jezebel in the days of Elijah, and in the times of the church at Thyatira, and in the churches right up to the present day, was and is, but dung in the sight of God. The message, and the messengers of the false cross are but dung in the Lord's sight: "They are the enemies of the Cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly" - their innermost being (Phil. 3:18-19).

So Malchiah returned to Jerusalem with Nehemiah, and he was chosen to repair "the dung gate." Malchiah's name means king, or appointed by Jah - which means Jehovah, the Eternal Lord has become our salvation; and it was the Eternal Lord Who appointed Malchiah to repair the dung-gate. Now there were many differences between the gates in the earthly city of Jerusalem and the gates in the holy city, the new Jerusalem, that John saw coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. In the holy city, the new Jerusalem, there is no dung-gate.

When Nehemiah first arrived at Jerusalem, he went out to survey the wall and the gates in order to make plans for that which God had put in his heart. "And I went out by night by the gates of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire" (Neh. 2:13). Now this makes it very clear that there had been a great warfare fought in the city of Jerusalem, and the enemies of God had defeated God's people and taken them into captivity in Babylon. But in the holy city, the new Jerusalem that cometh down from above, which is the bride, the Lamb's wife, there is and never shall be an enemy within the holy city. In fact, nothing that can defile or destroy or profane the city, or that loveth and maketh a lie can enter the gates of the holy city, the new Jerusalem.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 4)