Jesus Christ is a witness against spiritual corruption and living for the flesh. 

Malachi 3:5

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

“And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, and against those who turn away an alien—because they do not fear Me,” says the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 3:5

God’s judgment comes near to us against those who oppress the Holy Spirit and reject the remission of sin through Jesus Christ. God does not see Jesus Christ in sorcerers, adulterers, perjurers, exploiters of employees, exploiters of widows and orphans, and those who turn away an alien/foreigner. These do not give reverence to God, they scorn the forgiveness that comes through our Lord Jesus, and they see the Holy Spirit as something for them to take advantage of.

While human beings can form laws and policies against the abuses mentioned in the above paragraph, human efforts cannot change the mind, soul, and spirit of those abusers. Human laws and mandates have the tendency of suppressing bad behavior that creates a human bomb waiting to explode. In a sense, this explains what happened when the law of the Old Testament came in, before the grace received through Jesus Christ, “The Law came, so that the full power of sin could be seen. Yet where sin was powerful, God’s gift of undeserved grace was even more powerful.” Galatians 5:20 “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!” Romans 6:15

The Holy Spirit is He who restrains lawlessness, and without Him lawlessness abounds, “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.” 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8 Click here for a post on the “lawless one”.

Many of us have been born-again through Jesus Christ, washed, sanctified, and justified, but before having lived an unrighteous life filled with terrible behaviors. Some of those behaviors are listed in the verse above and some listed here, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our Salvation, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14 We are the “purchased possession”, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ that He shed on the Altar of the Cross to atone for our sin. Our inheritance is the eternal New Jerusalem in the new heaven and earth.

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11