"And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke Me? And how long will it be ere they believe Me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?
…Your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know My breach of promise." Numbers 13:30-33,14:11,32-34

"Or let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me." Isaiah 27:5

Greetings, friends! Today I bring you wonderfully happy news, even good tidings of marvelous things, and they will come to pass in less time than you dare to believe.

If you have your Bible convenient, you might hunt up the 27th chapter of the Prophet Isaiah, from which I expect to quote very shortly. Outside of the four Gospels – which record the words of the very Christ – I consider the Prophet Isaiah the richest in the entire Scripture. There is so little that he does not speak of; while the power and beauty of his words indicate his close contact with the very Throne-room in the heavenlies.

Now for Isaiah 27:1-3:
"In that day the LORD with His sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent; and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine. I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day."

You will observe the opening words, "In that day." To understand this, we must read the few preceding verses, which show us very clearly that God is speaking of the end of this age, when there is to be the resurrection of the dead (which are accounted worthy of that resurrection), and with that He also links up that which we commonly refer to as the "rapture of His Church," following which event there is to be great war, as shown by verse 21. Those are the events which pinpoint the time that the Lord refers to in the 1st verse of chapter 27, by the words, "In that day." And it is in that day, according to the 2nd verse, that we are to "sing ...unto her, A vineyard of red wine." We are going to sing – that by itself ordinarily bespeaks joy – and it is to be about a vineyard of red wine. Biblically, wine is linked with great joy and mirth. We are asked to rejoice, or sing about this vineyard of red wine, for the simple reason that the Lord Himself is going to keep it, and He is going to water it every moment lest any hurt come upon it, and He is going to guard it jealously night and day. I repeat: what wonderfully happy news of marvelously good things! And I can assure you, all of that is to take place in our day. That concerns the whole world who will accept Him. And what is more, yes, even still better, is the astounding fact that, in substance, this vineyard of red wine has already been prepared for you and me, that we may individually partake thereof NOW!

Remember the words of our Lord on the eve of His betrayal, while He was still in the flesh with His beloved disciples. He took the chalice of red wine; He lifted it up as He looked at them and said, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matt. 26:28 NKJ).

Try to imagine yourself as just a youngster, and that you had committed some great and horrible wrong against your parents, and immediately you knew that it would mean double vengeance, as it were; or, in the language of the street, "hell to pay" for you. Perhaps that picture will help you to understand by contrast the great joy that would overtake you, even to the extent of tears of joy bursting forth, if suddenly the arms of your parents were to embrace you, and you were to hear the words, "We understand, you are forgiven."

A parallel to this is what the Lord Jesus was saying to His disciples on that eve of the betrayal in those words, "...My blood...which is shed for many, for the remission of sins" (Matt. 26:28). Through His shed blood there was and is absolute forgiveness. That is the vineyard of red wine. And this the Lord has sworn to keep; to water it every moment and watch over it, lest anyone hurt it, even personally to guard it night and day.

Not a mere chalice of wine; not a single bunch of grapes; not one vine with its many clusters, but an entire orchard, or vineyard, of this wonderfully sparkling red wine! The chalice our Lord lifted symbolized His Own body containing the blood in which God has said "the life resides" (Lev. 17:10-14). Those who believe in Him, and the work of atonement He wrought on Calvary, have been commanded to drink that chalice of wine. But here, by prophetic vision, the Prophet spoke of a whole orchard of vines, which would go to make that sparkling red wine. That vineyard symbolized the entire Christian era, from Calvary until the very consummation of the Christian dispensation. No doubt most of you have partaken in what is commonly known as the Communion, which rite is usually a solemn event. I have no fault to find with that. I consider it far too sacred to be anything but quite solemn. Yet here we are told to sing – why should we sing? In part I have already answered that question, but here we find the Prophet going much further, in that he speaks of a vineyard of red wine, which Biblically is also associated with mirth. That is the great joy which incessantly I strive to show you as being the birthright of the sons and daughters of Jesus Christ, who live in His Kingdom here and now!

In the story of Israel's deliverance from Egypt, and their wanderings in the wilderness, we are told about the twelve spies sent into Canaan to look over the lay of the land and to map the strategy for its subjugation. But instead of it being a help, it turned out to be Israel's downfall, with the resultant sentence of God that they should wander forty years in the wilderness. They reported that they had seen giants in the land, in contrast to which the spies thought of themselves as but grasshoppers. Fear seized upon them, and this fear they relayed to their people when they returned into the wilderness. The land was there and all of its goodness stood before them. God Almighty had delivered them from Pharaoh with a stretched-out arm, which never ceased to perform miracles, at the bidding of His servant Moses. Yet now, because they had seen a handful of giants across the river, they feared and trembled, refusing to go in to make any attempt to conquer the land.

That was a preview of Christendom: by the mighty outstretched hand of the ever-living God, together with signs that no one could match, the very God-Spirit in human flesh went all the way to Calvary, there to complete the most marvelous work which has ever been wrought since the creation of this world, with one sole object in view: namely, to set us free – absolutely free. But Christendom, like Israel of old, has looked out upon the world and seen its sick people; they have seen the disappointments, failures and heartaches; they have seen the disillusionment, sorrow, suffering and eventual death, often together with its tragic consequences; and all of these have loomed up on the horizon as the "giants" of the Land of Promise. Because of that, the congregation of Christendom immediately forgot the numerous miracles wrought for them, which set them free from bondage to the Lucifer-Pharaoh who is in control of this world. And Christendom, like Israel of old, rebelled in their hearts and said, "We will not go in to possess the land." Therefore have we wandered this symbolic forty years in the wilderness, where tens of millions of Christendom have fallen, even as did their Hebrew forefathers of long ago.

I said, I have wonderfully happy news for you of marvelously good things. Hear the Word of God: "...the LORD with His sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent; and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea." We are now in those very days. The glorious light of the returning Daystar has commenced to shoot high over the spiritual horizon of Christendom; darkness fast is fleeing as the rosy hue of the dawn increases. As this light increases, God has promised to slay Leviathan – the piercing, crooked serpent, even the dragon which is in the sea. This, like the balance of His Word, has more than one application. It will see fulfillment on a worldwide scale, nationally and internationally. And right now it is commencing to see fulfillment for the individual who will receive the joyous news of marvelously good things.

The Leviathan, the piercing and crooked serpent, spiritually symbolizes Lucifer, or it would be more correct to say, the teachings of Lucifer which have taken such deep root within the human soul. Water is a symbol of the human soul. Therefore, the sea becomes representative of the human masses, or the mass-soul of humanity. These pernicious, death-dealing falsehoods which Lucifer sowed into the heart of Christendom, have taken such deep root that it appears almost impossible for the average Christian to shake loose from their thralldom and bewitchment unto sorrow, suffering and death. Yet God has promised to slay this piercing serpent; and although that is later to take place (in drama far beyond my capacity to describe), I still state in the clearest of words I can command, that God, with His great and mighty sword, is both able and willing to slay that piercing serpent for you and me individually, at any split moment we make up our mind that we have had enough and too much of Lucifer's kingdom. As and when we conclude that these "giants" in the Land of Promise are but little grasshoppers in the sight of God, then you and I can start singing from sheer joy of heart!

For Israel of old, there was a forty-year period of testing in the wilderness, that, in the words of God, He "might come to know them" (Deut. 8:2). Similarly for Christendom at large: there has been a period of testing decreed by God; but for you and me individually, that period of testing is completed as and when we have come into an understanding of absolute truth, and have decided to live it. When we know the truth, and fully realize that the great sword is in the right hand of God Almighty, then immediately do we realize that any so-called giant in the Land of Promise is as absolutely nothing before the power of the ever-living God; and that not for a split second can such giants stand up before the two-edged sword which proceeds from the mouth of Christ! As and when that realization has settled deep into the heart of the Christian, then has his symbolic period of testing been completed, and he stands on the brink of Jordan, ready to cross over to take possession of the Land of Promise. Its Jericho, which is the stronghold of Lucifer, will go down in absolute ruin so soon as we start circling around it in possession of the Kingdom Keys, trumpeting the truth of God. Our Lord will slay that serpent, even the piercing serpent who has shot us through with many hurts and sorrows, with disappointments and disillusionments, with grief, tragedies and death.

We could jump down to verse 5, where He bids us to take hold of His strength that we may make peace with Him. Those were also the words of the inspired Apostle, when He boldly declared that upon the cursed tree peace was established between God and man (Col. 1:20; Eph. 2:15-17). Those of you who have even a smattering of knowledge of the Bible, should realize immediately that so soon as peace is established between the individual and God, then that person is eligible immediately for God's unbounded grace and unstinted blessings. But true to the words of our Lord in the long ago: "According to your faith be it [done] unto you" (Matt. 9:29). Because ancient Israel did not believe they could conquer the land, they reaped in faith the rebellion in their hearts. And similarly with Christendom: we have reaped sickness and suffering, sorrow, failure and despair because of our rebellion-in-faith down through this "night" of spiritual darkness.

Who led Israel across the Jordan and into the Land of Promise, where they circled Jericho to its utter downfall, and became the happy possessors of the land? According to book #6 in our Bible, his name was Joshua. Did you ever know that the name of that leader was the very same as that which the parents gave to the Babe of the manger? I repeat: the two names were absolutely identical. The passage of time and the treatment in Gentile lands have presented them to us as slightly different from, and also considerably off their original fullness, yet the wonderful fact remains and has been well established, that the man who led Israel across the Jordan, had precisely the same name as was given to our Lord and Savior at the time of His birth into this world.

IF you doubt that Jesus was the Son of God, send for my booklet on the raising of Lazarus – it will open your eyes: it gives PROOF you have never seen before.