— Deliverance or Delusion...? —Which Do We Want...? Parts I and II

Deliverance or Delusion...?

—which do we want...? 

Part I

What will it take for God's people to truly repent?  What are we willing to sacrifice?  What are we actively doing to initiate true revival and usher in true repentance, without which, God will not hear our prayers and not deliver us...?  What are God's people willing to invest and when will we invest it?

[Note: by revival, I am not referring to the phoney annual "revival" meetings that most churches have (often even scheduling them a year in advance, which sort of implies that they plan on backsliding the rest of the year).  True revival takes place in a heart, a house, a church, a community, a nation, when God's people, not being content to continue on in sin, just getting by, ignoring their own sin, shame, irresponsibility, and sad state—and that of their family, their community, their people, their nation—rend their hearts, not merely their garments, fast and pray, confess their sins and the sins of their people, and cry unto God to pour out His Holy Spirit as water upon a dry and dusty, cracked and hardened ground upon ALL His people to grant us the SPIRIT OF CONVICTION AND THE SPIRIT OF REPENTANCE—and lay hold on the horns of the altar of the Throne of Grace until God answers and pours out His Holy Spirit without measure, filling us to the full, to overflowing.  D.L. Moody once eloquently expressed, “A great many think because they have been filled once, they are going to be full for all time after; but O, my friends, we are leaky vessels, and have to be kept right under the fountain all the time in order to keep full.” (The Life & Work of Dwight Lyman Moody (1900) Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D.; Chapter 26, “His Creed: Three Cardinal Truths”).]

We see evil closing in around us more, day by day.  We simply close our eyes to it, ignore it, allow ourselves to be absorbed by it.  God commanded, "Come out from among them and be ye separate... be holy for I the Lord your God am Holy."  This was not a suggestion or an option—but a command!

Yet the majority of Christians, side with the world and with God's veritable enemies, rather than with God.  You can hear, all over again, the mournful, incomprehensible, lamenting, broken-hearted confession of God in Isaiah chapter 5 (which crescendoes in verse 4):

1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching His vineyard.  My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

2 And He fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild [lawless] grapes.

3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and My vineyard.

4 What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild [lawless] grapes?

5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away the hedge [My protection] thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall [My protection] thereof, and it shall be trodden down:

6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and He looked for judgment [justice], but behold [instead there was] oppression [injustice]; for righteousness [godly people standing up to deliver others from oppression], but behold a cry [shriek from oppression]."

God's people have been deluded into ignoring what is right and into ignoring discipline.  My father raised us (my 2 brothers and I), as Captain van Trapp raised his children in the Sound of Music (I think he idolized him).  There was no talking back, no saying "no," no rebellion, no disrespect.  If we did what was wrong, we were punished.  While it was no fun at the time it builds character.  [I love my father.  I didn't appreciate it at the time.  I miss him.  He is a near vegetable in a nursing home, having never recovered from a stroke 7 years ago.]  I remember when about 5 years old or so, if we would be visiting my grandparents in Philadelphia, if I would touch a nick-nack on my grandmother's coffee table that she did not want me touching, she would lovingly smack the back of my hand, and say, "no."  [I love my grandmother; I miss her.  She passed on to her reward about 15 years ago, at the age of 94.]  I learned rather quickly: I would then touch the forbidden nick-nack, smack the back of my hand myself, and say, "no" and giggle.  That is just a humorous story and the touching of that nick-nack was not any grave sin.  However, most people today are taught that discipline and spanking is wrong, cruel, etc.  But that is a lie.  God commands discipline and punishment.  God says he that spareth the rod hateth his son.  And that is why our prisons today have over 2 million, and why most families are dysfunctional and why the schools and society and the government (and even the churches) are filled with immorality, irresponsibility, corruption, sin, and vice.  I have written in numerous writings of mine that the purpose of a spanking—and this is a mind-blowing concept—is to prevent all future spankings; so it has to be a good one (not just pretend, for "lip service," which only reinforces evil, teaching: "Spankings don't hurt, so don't be afraid to do what you want even if it is wrong").  Decades ago I bought a shock rod/cattle prod to discipline my dog (pit bull).  I shocked her once, she yelped and jumped about 8 feet off my grandmother's stoop across the 8 steps or so into the yard.  I could have taken it back for a refund.  After that, I never had to shock her again; I would merely point my finger at her and make a sound like the electric shock, 'bzzzzz' and she would straighten right up.  Discipline is not cruel; it does the job if done right.  Not disciplining is what is cruel (God says not disciplining is hatred), because if not trained right from infancy, the child is ruined for life.  As the twig is bent so grows the tree... if allowed to grow without discipline, untrimmed and untrained, certain bushes or trees will be a brambly, wild, uncontrollable mess and can even take over and cause damage.

God's people are in denial.  They don't truly admit the problem even exists; like someone with cancer, being eaten alive, being in denial thinking he is perfectly healthy; like coating over the termite-riddled house with another coat of paint; as Christ declared of the Pharisees, "white washed sepulchures full of dead men's bones."  Christians don't admit or recognize the depths of the depravity and immorality in our nation (and in all the nations of Christendom), or they somehow irrationally and irresponsibly think that they are in no way even partially responsible for it.  WE ALL are responsible for it.  We all are guilty of our own sins (and if unconfessed, God cannot hear our prayers for deliverance from evil or the greater sins of others around us).  WE ALL are responsible for it, for not speaking out vehemently against evil, but allowing it to relocate in our community and be given government funding (which we without protest or refusal, willingly provide) and protection--even promotion (which we sanction by not opposing it).

God's people, like the Prodigal son before his repentance, are content to lie down face first in the pig feces all-the-while thinking, "This ain't so bad."  [Sounds like Obama's mantra [lie].]  We are fooled into living in feces and filth and disease, ignominy and poverty, in the face of foulness and abominations, when we are children of the King and have Paradise and blessings beyond imagination awaiting us, while instead we choose judgment, sin, and shame.  It is not rational.  Sin is not rational.  God's people need to cry out to God.  But sadly, most are content to simply go on with their lives, ignoring their own sin before God, ignoring the abominations and sins of our nation, ignoring the life-or-death plight of our nation—our people, our family, our very race, our once-beloved country for which our ancestors bled and died, which was built upon the sacrifice of the Reformers—ignoring our nation as it crumbles around us and hostile, godless aliens swarm in around us like the alien creatures in some sci-fi movie swarm in to devour the few remaining humans left.  Yet, even as the Titanic sank in the icy, deep, black waters and people were facing imminent death, "the band played on."  While there was not much people on the Titanic could do, other than embrace death, there is something we can do, so why aren't we doing it...? 

No revival has ever taken place in history without dedicated people praying--and even fasting--often for years, for God's Holy Spirit to be poured out upon His people to convict them of their sins and give them the desire to seek God. 

[See the excellent book, In the Day of Thy Power: Scriptural Principles of Revival, by Arthur Wallis (1956), 297pp., pb., 15.00 + P&H (which gives an overview of many incredible revivals of God's Holy Spirit on God's people, where sometimes 1/5 of everyone in a major US city were converted within a few weeks, or 50,000 in a few weeks somewhere in Sweden or some place).  See also (reprinted by Sacred Truth Publishing): Stories of Great Revivals with Contributions on Revival Work (1906) Henry Johnson, Canon Aitken, F. B. Meyer, Stuart Holden, and Gipsy Smith; c.420pp., pb., 35.00 + P&H; Includes: Evangelical Revival of 18th Century England; Evangelical Revival of 18th Century Scotland; Evangelical Revival of 18th Century Wales; Evangelical Revival of 18th Century Ireland; Awakenings of 1858-1862 England, of 1858-1862 Scotland, of 1858-1862 Wales, of 1858-1862 North of Ireland; Work of Moody and Sankey 1873 - 1875; 1881-1884; Revival in Wales, 1904-1905; Torry-Alexander Mission, 1903-1905.  P&H = 10% (4.00 minimum)]

Why do God's people do nothing when we are facing extinction and a full-blown communist takeover of the U.S. from within...?  We are outnumbered in our own land by hostile foreigners; our nation's governments, schools, professions, media, and even churches have been subverted by godless, immoral antichrist traitors, we are taxed, poisoned, brainwashed, suffer injustice, assaulted by crime, have perverts flaunt their immorality in our faces, are ordered to keep our Christianity to ourselves, face our national sovereignty being surrendered to a one-world government, our right to travel is violated by being harrassed and groped and ticketed and fined, we are having DEATH-care forced on us, and are continually threatened with having our very means of self-defense stripped from us completely—and yet Christians are content to merely carry on and "eat, drink, and be merry," go to ball games, movies, watch t.v.—while we face imminent extinction!  It is not rational.  WHY...? 

Christians have been drugged with the narcotic-like false psychology and philosophy (and even false, emasculated, effeminate Christianity) of "learned helplessness."  They think, "there is nothing we can do, so we might as well just enjoy life."  That is not only wrong, and immoral, it is suicide!  God sent the prophet Jonah to Ninevah to tell the Babylonians that God was going to destroy them.  Scripture informs us that the people of Ninevah—together, FASTED and prayed, saying, "Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not?" (Jonah 3:9)  Ninevah repented and GOD SPARED THEM.  If God would spare the immoral pagan Babylonians (many of whom were Chaldaeans, Assyrians, and Aramaeans, descended from Shem) when they repented, WHY THE HELL are God's people not repenting...! —instead of thinking, "there is nothing we can do, so we might as well enjoy our sin, or at least our own pleasure and amusement, even if in itself it is not sin."  Instead of turning to themselves in hedonism, materialism, and humanistic self-gratification so we can self-destruct "in style," why are we not turning to God to be delivered?  God's people are drunk with the wine of Babylon and are committing fornication with the Great Harlot.  WHY?  Because most Christians are in delusion, God having given them over to delusion to believe a lie, their having rejected Him—but God has not utterly forsaken them; the purpose of the Judgment is to bring repentance so that ALL of the Judgment does not have to be administered; even as the purpose of a spanking is to prevent all future spankings.  God often draws His Judgment short of what He intends—when God's people truly cry out in repentance under the weight of Judgment; but like some stubborn, evil-hearted, rebellious children, the majority of God's people refuse to cry out for mercy in the midst of the spanking; choosing instead to harden their hearts, hate the Father more, and plan to merely go on doing what they want, rather than what the Father commands.  God has set before us life and death and implored us to "Choose life that you may live."  If some have been fooled into taking the wrong door... it is never too late; make an "about face" (turn around 180 degrees) retrace your steps, exit from the door of death and judgment, turn and go through the door to life and blessing that you should have gone through from the start.  God never told His people in the Old Testament that He was going to destroy them, so that they could simply resign themselves to fate and die—no! He told them so that they could repent and be spared and live!  Death is a choice!  Judgment is a choice.  Christ, the personification of wisdom declared, "All those who hate Me love death."  Similarly, Joel 2 informs us,

"13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil [i.e. the Judgment He is about to administer, the evil we ourselves have chosen knowing "you reap what you sow"].

14 Who knoweth if He will return and repent [of the Judgment He is about to administer on us], and leave a blessing [instead of Judgment, blessing] behind Him; [therefore, why not offer] even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?"

Many times in the Scriptures (and even in the early days of Britain and the U.S.) God's people fasted and prayed and God delivered from imminent Judgment.  The pagan city of Ninevah in Babylon fasted and prayed (probably for the first time ever, to the true God) and God spared them Judgment.  WHY will God's peoples of Christendom not do the one very thing that will save us?  Because they don't love righteousness, they don't truly believe that God actually exists (if they did, they would not live as they do, they would fear judgment), they are lovers of themselves and pleasure more than lovers of God (whom they do not truly believe in, He is merely a nice idea; a quaint folkway that has not yet been extinguished entirely from our culture), and they love death.  However, all that can change upon repentance.  It all starts with somone—ANYONE—willing to stand up and stand in the gap:

"30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
31 Therefore have I poured out Mine Indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of My Wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads,* saith the Lord GOD." (Ezekiel 22)

[* Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.]

I am standing in the gap.  Will anyone stand up with me?  The more who stand up, and fast, and pray, and lay hold of the horns of the altar before the Throne of Grace and refuse to let go, like Jacob, declaring, "I cannot let Thee go except Thou bless me" [grant my request]—the more who stand up and fast and pray, the more others will be raised up by God to stand and fast and pray with us...!  But it is a choice to stand up and do what is right, or simply choose the path of least resistance and "go with the flow" and follow the foolish, asinine philosophy of "don't worry, be happy"—the mantra of traitors or fools who cry, "peace and safety" when there is none.

When deliverance could be as simple as fasting and praying—when those people who would fast and pray would save money and lose a few pounds* at the same time as a by-product, side-effect of fasting and praying for God to save our people and our nation—WHY do God's people not do it?  It's free!  It saves money!  You will even lose weight and regain your health! 

[* Most all people could probably stand to lose a few pounds (if not many pounds; which is symbollic of our having grown fat off the blessings of God while being irresponsible and worshiping the blessing rather than the Giver of the blessings).  Those who fast for a significant period of time will not only lose weight, but they will also be healthier.  Fasting has its physical benefits too, not only weight loss, but lowering of blood pressure, cholesterol, detoxification, and even cannibalizing of disease tissues like cancer; the body uses up the basest tissue first, before it will begin to metabolize good tissue as fuel; even as someone trapped in the middle of winter in a blizard in a shack in Alaska will burn all the junk in the house first, old newspapers, magazines, then old, broken furniture and such, before burning any good furniture for heat to stay alive.]

If we don't take the matter seriously, then God won't either.  If we don't think it a matter of life and death, worthy of our attention and efforts, why should God be alarmed?  If we are willing to tolerate sin and evil, why should God deliver us from it?  We reap what we sow.  Anytime we want to stop reaping the poisoned, "frankenfood" Monsanto crop of death, the remedy is right within our heart, a breath away via a prayer from our lips.  But God knows our hearts.  He will not be fooled by a fake, half-hearted, almost indifferent prayer.  FASTING shows God we mean business.  While fasting, each time you feel a hunger pain, that is a reminder to cry out to God even as all creation groans and travails now under the weight of sin and moral indigestion and indignation.  If while fasting you feel weak or fuzzy headed, you are not actually hungry, you are dehydrated and your body is detoxing and going through chemical withdrawl (most probably, initially from caffeine) and you need to drink more water.  As you drink each sip of water, pray that God pours His Holy Spirit out upon all His people, as a blessed shower of rain from heaven on the crops of a dried out garden—HIS garden, His people, His inheritance, His choice vine—that has nearly died from the drought.  The Holy Spirit is symbolized by water and we are to hunger and thirst after righteousness.  When will God's people actually stop and do it...?  If we know we could die at any time, there IS NO REASON to put off repentance or "schedule" our repentance and fasting a month from now (and continually "re-schedule it" month after month as things continually come up that we deem more important, the true gods in our lives).  TODAY is the day of salvation; NOW is the accepted time; for those who will not harden their hearts and will truly repent NOW, turn from sin NOW, seek God's Face NOW, do what is right NOW.

Muslims fast for 30 days (though only during the daylight hours) for their "holy" month of Ramadan.  HOW PATHETIC are God's people, that a horde of unwashed, demon-inspiried, lawless, immoral, hypocritical, antichrists care more about trying to seek their false god (who has given them no promises as God has given us) than God's true people care about seeking the One True God...!  As the old adage queries: "If it was a sin to be a Christian, would there be any evidence found to convict you?"  Are God's peoples of Christendom less concerned about seeking God than a bunch of Muslims...?  How many Christians are willing to stand up and prove they are not...?  If Christians do not, then I guess we deserve to lose our country and be anihilated and have our very memory purged from the annals of history and civilization; to have our grandparents and great-grandparents lives to have been in vain, and for our own children and grandchildren to be thrown to the lions to be devoured.  Fasting shows we mean business with God.  When David saw that his newborn infant was going to die, he fasted.  When Job was devastated with the loss of everything, he fasted.  Such times show that NOTHING is more important than what was lost or what is threatened to be lost.  Mere food could not mean more than life itself to anyone except those whose "god is their belly" who are little better than mindless parasites who feed off the host until it dies, not knowing that if the host dies they will die too.  Giving up a few days or weeks of food now will assure years and a lifetime of being able to eat countless meals in safety, peace, joy, happiness, love, forgiveness, restoration, and prosperity; rather than being like the poor widow woman who was about to make her last piece of flatbread for her child and her to eat and then die of starvation. 

I am reminded of a sermon illustration in which out in the middle of some desert, hundreds of miles from civilization and life, there was a well-pump with a canteen filled with water chained to the well pump and a note, sealed in a glass frame, fixed under a small awning to shade it from the fading effects of the sun's powerful rays.  The note read something to the effect:

"Do not drink this canteen of water—not even a sip.  This entire canteen of water (every single drop) must be poured down the well-pump to prime it, or it will not pump any water up.  It may seem irrational to waste all of this water by pouring it down the pump, but you must have faith and believe and do what is right, not just for you, but for everyone who will come after you.  If you drink this canteen of water, it will satiate your thirst for a few minutes in this burning heat, but you will not be able to fill your canteens and there is no other water in this desert and you will not make it out alive.  Obey in faith and pour all of this water down the well to prime it.  Then pump and continue pumping.  The well is deep.  Don't lose faith or become discouraged or give up when water does not pump up immediately.  It will take a little time and effort but it will appear; but don't stop pumping for there is no more water to re-prime it if you give up.  Then, after the life-giving water gushes forth as you pump, drink to your soul's content, fill your canteens—and remember to fill this canteen again with water and secure the lid tightly for the next traveller who comes along."

I don't know if this is a true story or not.  I sort of doubt it; but anything is possible.  However, the lesson it gives, the picture it paints in the mind, is not only true, but powerful.

If we are not as dedicated as the enemy, we do not deserve to be delivered, we do not deserve to live.  However, the important thing to realize is that even if in the past we have been guilty of apathy, indifference, sin, immorality, even if in the past we have lived unworthily—it is never too late to repent and it is never to late to be delivered.  God does not call those who are worthy, but He makes worthy those whom He has called—and our only proper response is to live in worthiness.  Wisdom (Christ) crieth out, "All those who hate Me love death."  We may have been fooled into being on the wrong side, or riding the fence (but Christ said, "he who is not for Me is against Me and he who does not gather with Me [do the work that I am doing] scattereth abroad [acts as My enemy and seeks to frustrate and undo My very work]")—but it is never too late to change sides to the winning side!  God gave the Israelites at the Golden Calf and later during Korah's rebellion the chance to change sides and ally themselves with God, "He who is on the Lord's side, come to me!" - God gave the children of Israel the chance to change sides and ally themselves with the winning side, when Joshua declared,

"14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.

15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24)

It is never too late to repent and choose the winning side.  But God knows our heart.  The longer we delay, the more life we lose (and the greater the chance of losing life altogether); the more scars, the more pain, the more suffering.  What are we waiting for?  God said if we honor Him He will honor us; that if we confess Christ before men Christ will confess us before the Father.  Are God's people less spiritual, less motivated, less concerned, less moral, less godly than the heathen Muslims...?  We reap what we sow.  Whether we want to or not.  That is a fact of life.  The only decision is what we are going to choose to sow.

"For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." (Galatians 6:8)

"For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind" (Hosea 8:7)

The below is from my book, What's Keeping God From Delivering America, Britain, and Europe From Destruction...?

     God will not deliver us from evil until we truly hate it. The average Christian has no concept of Holiness. Most modern Christians do not really hate evil. They tolerate it. They ignore it. They call it by softer-sounding names and they even allow it to become a legislatively protected life-style. Modern Christians only really “hate” sin when they become victims of it themselves. Then, they feel “violated” as if they—more than any other person on earth—has been terribly wronged; when in reality, it happens to our very neighbors-kinsmen day in and day out and hardly anyone even bats an eye. (Shame!) Once they are victimized themselves, modern Christians are “outraged.” The rest of the time sin, iniquity, and immorality are merely embarrassing or tedious inconveniences. God will not deliver us from that which we acquiescently tolerate and willingly endure. Only when we truly hate evil—without apology!—as He commanded, will He deliver us from it. To be even more blunt, if we do not hate evil—we do not even love God. What support do I have for that statement...? The Word of God itself:

“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil...” (Proverbs 8:13)

“Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of His saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.” (Psalm 97:10)

[To love the Lord is to hate evil, ergo, to not hate evil is to not love the Lord. Further, God Himself (contrary to false doctrine of modern preachers) does not merely “hate the sin” yet “love the sinner.”* Scripture tells us that God actually hates the soul of the wicked, unrepentant sinner (Psalm 11:5; Deuteronomy 7:10). We are told King David was “a man after the Lord’s own heart” (I Samuel 13:14)—what did David have to say?:

{* It was Ghandi—not God in His Word—who coined this phrase in his 1929 autobiography. Yet Christian preachers preach it as if it was “Gospel Truth” when it is Satan’s lie.}

“20 For they speak against Thee wickedly, and Thine enemies take Thy Name in vain. 21 Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against Thee? 22I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies. 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139)

     Until we hate God’s enemies—and all their evil—the way King David did, we do not truly love God. We are lovers of our own selves and pleasure not lovers of God (II Timothy 3:2-4); we seek to be friends and pleasers of the world (Ephesians 6:6; Acts 5:29); not of God. And when we seek approval and acceptance of the world (or even seek to appease it) we actually render ourselves the enemies of God—in fact, God even calls those who would seek to please the world, instead of Him, “adulterers” (James 4:4). Rather strong words. Christ Himself declared that if we are not for Him, actively pursuing His agenda, we are actually against Him and we attempt to undo His very work (Matthew 12:30). As we saw earlier, Christ, the embodiment of Wisdom declared that those who hate Him (His truth/wisdom/Law), love death. Joshua famously declared his allegiance,

“...choose you this day whom ye will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)

Similarly, the prophet Elijah threw down the spiritual gauntlet:

“How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.” (I Kings 18:21)

Likewise, the Apostle James declared:

“Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” (James 4:8)]

In his excellent book, Abandoned to Christ*¹ (1955), L. E. Maxwell*² recorded some very shocking, yet illuminating confessions by 3 different individuals: 2 communists (one who was a die-hard, ardent supporter of communism and one who afterwards became a Christian and forsook communism) and 1 former Nazi:

[*¹ Inquire for all 3 of his excellent books.

*² (1895-1984) professor, principal, and then president (for 58 years) of Prairie Bible Institute (Canada’s premier missionary training center), and author.]

“In the face of such insipid and shameful consecration, the Communists boast, ‘We do not play with words. We are realists.... Of our salaries and wages we keep only what is strictly necessary and give up the rest for propaganda purposes. To this propaganda we also ‘consecrate’ all our free time and a part of our holidays. You (Christians), however, give only a little time and hardly any money for the spreading of the gospel of Christ.... Believe me, it is we who will win, for we believe in our Communist message; we are ready to sacrifice everything, even our life... but you people are afraid to soil your hands....’

“A young German doctor, now an earnest Christian, but once a member of Hitler Youth and a soldier in Hitler’s armies, after speaking of the kindness of the young people in British churches, added,

‘I am concerned with the casual quality of their faith. They do not give to Christ anything like the devotion which we once gave to Hitler’ (Sunday School Times, Nov. 1950)....

‘The Communists’ power,’ said Whittaker Chambers,* ‘is the power to hold convictions and to act upon them. Communists are that part of mankind which have recovered the power to live or die—to bear witness—for their faith.’ ” (pp. 15, 24)

[* (1901-1961), born Jay Vivian Chambers; a.k.a. David Whittaker.

This was written 60 years ago. How much more apathetic and indifferent have Christians become over the past 6 decades...? This is a sad indictment upon modern Christianity. What has Christianity truly accomplished over the past 70 years (that is, with real and measurable benefit and lasting effect); and what has communism accomplished?* Chambers (who eventually forsook communism and embraced Christ) was right; the Communists have resurrected the self-sacrificing faith that Christianity once had. Though their motives are wrong and their morals nonexistent—they at least fight for what they believe in. How many Christians can say that? How many patriotic Christians surrender to evil—without a whimper?

* People are easily fooled. Communism did not die with the dismantling of the Soviet Union—communism resurfaced in the West under the name “Democracy”!]

[End of quoting from my book, What's Keeping God...?.]

Robert Alan Balaicius

May 2013

Part II

Scripture informs us “For the time is come that Judgment must begin at the house of God...” (I Peter 4:17).  We, God's people, are most responsible.  We are His sons, His ambassadors, His heirs.  He has given us His Law—and we have turned away from it, listening to the voice of the Serpent through either blind shepherds or wicked shepherds.  God's people are so carnal and sinful, they eagerly jumped at the chance to throw off God's restraining light, moral yoke of love, to exchange it for a heavy, unbearable, immoral yoke of oppression (the moment some apostate minister suggested that God's Law had been abolished—rather than having "searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so" Acts 17:11).  God's people are so selfish and apostate in heart, that they listen to the voice of the Serpent (through ignorant or evil shepherds) and jump at the notion that God's Law was abolished—His very Standard of Morality for His people (to keep us healthy, pure, free of debt, holy, prosperous, etc.).  Sinful Christians (who are deluded into thinking that they are not sinful) eagerly see how close they can come to the line between sin and obedience (even thinking that the line itself has been erased), rather than seeing how far they can stay away from it.  Hypocritically, apostate ministers (99% in Christendom) declare that God's Law was abolished—yet they institute (like the Pharisees of old) a myriad of their own rules and regulations and laws which they impose upon their flock—and even more abominable, they also instruct their parishoners to obey an evil, subverted, immoral government, commanding them to bow before every immoral, unconstitutional, unbiblical edict that the renegade politicians (our servants) falsely delcare to be "law."  This clearly shows the allegiance of such ministers (to themselves, and to antichrist).  This clearly shows they do not understand even the most rudimentary principles of God's Word and that they are either "the blind leading the blind" or the evil shepherds, who, instead of feeding the flock, feed off the flock themselves (slaughtering the sheep in their care and devouring them).  Such "ministers" of unrighteousness (and all those who foolisly follow them in their sin) are committing fornication with the Harlot of Babylon (Babylon means, "confusion by mixing": mixing God's holy seed with every abominable people on earth, mixing God's Pure and Holy Word with every pagan notion these foreign peoples have brought with them).  If the pastors of Christendom do not repent—THEY will be the first whom God Judges—and all those of their congregation or readership who have followed their vile, antichrist teaching shall be Judged along with them.  They have led God's people astray.  God's prophet recorded:

"6 My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.  7 All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers." (Isaiah 50) 

The mountains and hills in this passage (as in most all passages of prophecy) refer to people.  Esau's sin in marrying Canaanite wives, is referred to in the New Testament as fornication.  Idolatry and whoredom/adultery (crossing racial barriers) always were one and the same thing; they went hand in hand and God outlawed them both.  James in the New Testament declares, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (4:4)  "Turned them away on the mountains," and having "gone from mountain to hill" refers to the abominations of multiculturalism and committing whoredom with the peoples of the earth; even as the Great Harlot has seduced our modern generation: "she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication" (Revelation 4:18). 

Wine produces wrath when after your drunken stupor you realize the mess that you got yourself into: Judgment.  Sadly, most Christians are content to continue on in judgment and death, rather than to repent, retrace their steps, and leave the door of judgment and death and enter the door of blessing and life; but it is a choice ever before us that God gave us—

"19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: 20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey His Voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD swear unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." (Deuteronomy 30) 

The New Testament echoes this call:

"13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.  15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." (Matthew 7) 

If you realize you have gone through the wrong door, if you realize you are on the wrong path—STOP and return.  I John 1 reiterates:

"6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another [we with God], and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.  8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make [call] Him a liar, and His Word is not in us." 

God loves His people and longs for us to repent so He does not have to judge us, but so He can bless us... —why, then, do we not repent?  The clear answer is that the majority are not His sheep: For He declared,

"My sheep hear My Voice [commands], and I know them, and they follow [obey] Me" (John 10:27) 

"And why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46) 

"If ye love Me, keep My Commandments." (John 14:15) 

Matthew 7 continues:

"16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?  17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.  18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.  19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.  20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.  21 Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the Will of My Father which is in heaven.  22 Many will say to Me in that day [of Judgment], Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name? and in Thy Name have cast out devils? and in Thy Name done many wonderful works?  23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity." 

The majority of "christians" follow their own will; not God's.  In their minds, they delude themselves into thinking that they are spiritual and serving God.  But God's Word is clear what God requires; yet the majority of "christians" follow a bastardized, paganized "christianity" and not God's Word, and therefore, they are guilty of idoltary and do not worship or follow / obey the one true God.  Christ's words clearly reveal this.  This is why we are soberly commanded:

"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.  Know ye not your own selves, how that Christ Jesus is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (II Corinthians 13:5)

and

"...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.  13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." (Philippians 2) 

This is not suggesting works-oriented salvation.  It is an exortation to examine ourselves and see if our fruit evidences Christ actually being in us.  We are His vineyard.  We should be producing grapes.  If we produce coconuts or bananas instead, He will not be amused.  We are to conduct ourselves according to God's unchanging standard; not the world's (and the harlot church's) ever-changing, unjust sets of weights and measures, continually erasing and redrawing (in pencil) all moral boundaries that God established.  How are we to so examine ourselves...?—

"9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to Thy Word.  10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from Thy Commandments.  11 Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee." (Psalm 119) 

"2 But his [the godly person, the true Christian] delight is in the Law of the LORD; and in His Law doth he meditate day and night.  3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." (Psalm 1) 

"13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His Commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.  14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." (Ecclesiastes 12) 

"1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  :2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Romans 12) 

"18 For verily I say unto you, Till Heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law, till all be fulfilled.  19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven." (Matthew 5) 

Keeping the Law does not save; but it brings reward or judgment (in this life, and in the next for all eternity).  However, if a person sins blatantly, acting as if God's Law does not exist and that Judgment is a myth, it is not that he loses his salvation, but clearly, he was never saved to begin with:

"26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.  28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?  30 For we know Him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I will recompense, saith the Lord.  And again, The Lord shall judge His people.  31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God." (Hebrews 10)  What is sin...? 

What is proof that God's Law was never abolished...?  The New Testament (and one of the last books to be penned in the New Testament) informs us:

"Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the Law: for sin is the transgression of the Law." (I John 3:4) 

If the Law was "abolished" it would no longer be possible to sin; hence, there could be nothing to repent of; therefore, everyone would be sinless and perfect and this itself is the Kingdom.  But only the seriously deluded could ever think such a thing; the locks and bolts on our houses and cars, the corrupt government and society filled with evil and filth and perversion should quickly snap anyone out of that Satanic delusion.  If Christ is in us, we will truly live as Christians: followers of Christ.  The Apostle John had also told us:

"1 ...these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.  And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Christ Jesus the Righteous: 2 And He is the propitiation for our sins... 3 And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His Commandments.  4 He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His Commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  5 But whoso keepeth His Word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him.  6 He that saith he abideth in Him [Christ] ought himself also so to walk, even as He [Christ] walked.  7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old Commandment which ye had from the beginning.  The old Commandment is the Word which ye have heard from the beginning." (I John 2) 

Love = obedience.  Christ said (as we saw) if you love Me, keep My Commandments.  Scripture also tells us,

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment.  He that feareth is not made perfect in love" (I John 4:18) 

True love demonstrates itself in action.  Love equals obedience.  The Love of God is perfected in His children when they walk in obedience.  If God is truly in us, it will show in our fruit.  This is why we are to examine ourselves—comparing our lives to the Standard of God's Word.  The true measure of an individual's health is to compare himself to a perfectly healthy body, not to a corpse rotting in the grave.  I have written in numerous books of mine: "Where no fruit is evident the Holy Spirit is not resident."  If you are have been travelling for a certain destination and you realize, after hundreds and hundreds of miles, that you have been going in the wrong direction, the only sane thing to do is stop and turn around and go in the right direction—regardless of the time, money, effort, and consequences.  Only fools would continue on in the wrong direction when God has commanded them to go to a specific location.  This is where we are as a civilization.  Will we repent (which means turn around) and do what is right, casting aside everything we know to be sin, emptying out from our "bag of theology" everything that is proven by God's Word to be falsehood, lies, and heresy...?  If we don't there is only one reason: Christ is not in us. 

"1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.  2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters,
proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.  6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (II Timothy 3) 

"3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled." (II Corinthians 10)

Joel chapter 2 informs us:

"12 Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.  14 Who knoweth if He will return [to you] and repent [of the Judgment He has planned], and leave a blessing [instead of Judment] behind Him; [therefore, why do you not repent and give] even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?  15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: 16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.  17 Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Thy people, O LORD, and give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?  18 Then will the LORD be jealous for His land, and pity His people."

In Revelation 2:14 God also indicted the church of Pergamos for having followed the wicked counsel that evil prophet Balaam had given the Moabite King Balak in "interfaith and multiculturalism" in order to destroy Israel by leading them into sin because then God would not hear their prayers or deliver them.  Balaam had counselled: "to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication" (and likewise the church of Thyatira in v.20).  Revelation 17 also informs us:

"...the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: 2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.  3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.  4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: 5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.  6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus..." 

Verse 15 then explains for us:

"And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." 

Until God's people repent of their fornication with foreign peoples against Him, and until God's people repent of their idolatry and paganism and lawlessness against Him God will not deliver us but we will continue to suffer Judgment.  Repentance is not merely passively mouthing the words "I'm sorry."  True repentance (in addition to true, detailed, heart-broken confession) entails 2 active measures: 1. turning from what was wrong (including putting all sin away in whatever means necessary and making restitution) and then 2. doing what is right, which should never have been departed from in the first place.  Ezra denounced God's people—who, having been delivered from bondage in Babylon/Persia, still had not repented—

"For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands..." (9:2) 

God only had one remedy then and He only has one remedy now.  He changes not.  Those who choose allegiance with the world (including the little abominable world they have created in their own families) will find themselves on the "business end" of Christ's sword when He returns,

"But those Mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before Me." (Luke 19:27) 

Who are Christ's enemies...? Those who reject His Law and those who are a friend of the world (embracing the world's ways over God's ways).  Before God led the small remnant of the Israelites of the house of Judah out of captivity in Babylon/Persia He had commanded through the prophet Isaiah: 

"Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD" (52:11). 

God commanded His people to separate themselves from the peoples of the land and leave them behind in Babylon... yet, a small contingent of foreign peoples they brought with (the ones Ezra and later even Nehemiah commanded to be separated and sent away, regardless of relation).  God commands the same separate and purity of His people today—and today we are His chosen vessels, the vessels of the Lord that are to remain holy and pure and clean.  This very command is reiterated in the New Testament: 

"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." (II Corinthians 6:17) 

God will not receive His people as long as they are integrated and flaunting their sin in the face of God, even as the prince of Simeon, Zimri did, with the Midianite princess Cozbi; which situation Phinehas remedied (which God referred to as Phinehas having made an atonement for the children of Israel) and thus stayed God's Judgment upon the people as a whole for having allowed flagrant sin in their midst after He had commanded them to put all sin out from amongst them (Numbers 25).

 

It has, in great part, been the pastors who have led God's people astray and it must be the pastors who get their hearts right with God in order to lead the people back to God—or God will denounce those pastors and repudiate them and judge them along with the wicked who know not God

"6 Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; 1:7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Christ Jesus: 9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the Glory of His Power; 10 When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day." (II Thessalonians 1)

"9 Then He sheweth them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded.  10 He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity.  11 If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.  12 But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge." (Job 36)

"10 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.  11 Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter." (Isaiah 56)

"34 Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your
dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel.  35 And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of
the flock to escape." (Jeremiah 25)

"34:1 And the Word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?  3 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.  4 The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.  5 And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.  6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, My flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.  7 Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the Word of the LORD; 8 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not My flock; 9 Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the Word of the LORD; 10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require My flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will." (Ezekiel 34)

The heart's of God's people not right before Him; their shepherds have caused them to go astray, yes (and for that the shepherds will be judged with without mercy even as watchmen on the wall who fall asleep are judged without mercy if while on their watch innocent blood is shed).  However, if the people were obedient as God commanded, in searching the Scriptures, they would recognized false doctrine when they heard it; but God's people have sloughed their responsibility and therefore, their ignorance and being misled is willful on their part (and for that, God's people themselves will be judged).  The King and the Priest are not above the Law of God (much less in the U.S., our politicians, who, according to our Constitution are our servants, not our "masters").  If the priests or the king or the nobles sinned, it was the responsibility of the people to confront them and rebuke them.  But more often than not, God's people are weak when they should be strong and strong when they should be weak (this is the sin nature in operation); and thus we have proven ourselves cowardly in confronting kings or nobles or princes or priests—and even elected public servants—and that again is part of the Judgment for having rejected God as King in favor of a sinful, human king.  Ironic how God's people could be strong to get in God's Face (Who blessed them with every imaginable blessing) and have the gall and insolence to tell God—their Creator and Redeemer—that He was no longer desired as their Ruler* (even after being delivered from Egypt in Mighty miracles culminating in the parting of the Red Sea and then having seen His Power again in the Conquest of the Promised Land after having the Jordan River parted and again walking over on dry ground); yet we are cowardly when it comes to confronting our own public servants who are committing abominations and incurring debt we can never pay and accruing Judgment we can never bear.

[* —and the majority of Christians do this today when they live as they please, rejecting what God has commanded, yet while hypocritically bowing down to in utter subservience and fear and licking the boots of evil, corrupt, abusive public servants who (according to prophecy, as Judgment for our sin) have made themselves the head and we the tail.  God's people suffer from "Spiritual Stockholm Syndrome" (being loyal to our captors and rejecting our deliverer and liberator; by continuing on under the Law of Sin and Death, doing that which we know that we should not and not doing that which we know that we should, because we have made a Covenant with Death and an Agreement with Hell)—and it can only be broken by crying out, "Lord Save Me!"]

God's Law is one thing that sets His people apart as His own (NOT for salvation, but for the same reasons a father establishes rules in his own house for his children; see my book, What's Keeping God From Delivering America, Britain, and Europe From Destruction...?).  God's Law is the conditional part of the Covenant.  The unconditional part was that He would never forsake us and choose another people.  However, the conditional part of the Covenant was hingent on our obedience or disobedience.  If we obeyed Him, God would bless and defend us.  If we violated His Law and sinned against Him, He would allow us to reap the sinful harvest of the evil seed we had sown, and He would use our enemies to chasten and judge us back to repentance.  This is where we are now; yet how many simply harden their hearts and stiffen their necks under the Judgment, rather than repent so the Judgment can be lifted...?

Even as the children of Israel rejected God and declared, "Give us a king" (imagine a child, in utter contempt and hatred, informing his father and mother that he wanted new parents!).  Not only did the children of Israel reject God (after He warned them that what they were desiring would be something they would groan and be oppressed under)—but the Israelites, with utter contempt and defiance, declared, "give us a king like all the nations" (I Samuel 8:1)  What other nations were they talking about?  The nations around them were the evil Canaanite peoples—who were (and still are) so evil by their very nature, that God never instructed Israel to attempt to reform or convert them, but utterly drive them out and exterminate them.  They were so evil and vile their very existence on earth was a reproach against Heaven, and the Israelites rejected God as their King and declared, in essence, "we want to be like the Canaanites!"  Even today, our kids (because we have surrendered their education to a subverted government and a subverted harlot church) want to be like all the pagans around them, rather than preserve their heritage and be separate and holy unto God.  Clearly, this was one of the major rejections that Caused God to declare (as we saw earlier) in mournful despair, "what more could I have done to My vineyard... and yet wild [lawless] grapes came forth..."

This reminds me of a time, one summer, when I worked with American missionaries in Argentina.  There were a brood of baby pigs born, and one day I took them a few saucer's full of freshly drawn cow's milk.  I set it down for the piglets, and was horrified when they turned their noses up to milk, rejecting it, choosing instead to go muzzle through the freshly steaming cow pies in the field, to eat the pieces of undigested corn.  Right then and there, not knowing anything about God's dietary laws not having been abolished (see my book: So, You Call Yourself A Christian...), I was turned off to eating pork (though it would not be for another 5 years that I realized God's Law had never been abolished and that it was not merely a culinary choice, but a moral issue).  But that powerful object lesson clearly shows how God's people have rejected God... and for what...? —like the Prodigal Son, having squandered his inheritance in riotous living, being reduced to shame and fighting the swine themselves for scraps of food still distinguishable in their swill of slop.

"If My people, which are called by My Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My Face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (II Chronicles 7:14)

How do we humble ourselves...?  How do we seek God's Face...?  —by "afflicting our souls" through fasting prayer and repentance and turning from what was wrong, divorcing sin from our very presence, paying any restitution required by God, and turning again to do what is right.  The road back is not always an easy road—but it is the only road for those who are truly of God.

Arthur Pink, in his, The Attributes of God, wrote:

"God is true.  His Word of Promise is sure.  In all His relations with His people God is faithful.  He may be safely relied upon. No one ever yet really trusted Him in vain.  We find this precious truth expressed almost everywhere in the Scriptures, for His people need to know that faithfulness is an essential part of the Divine character.  This is the basis of our confidence in Him.  But it is one thing to accept the faithfulness of God as a Divine truth, it is quite another to act upon it.  God has given us many ‘exceeding great and precious promises,’ but are we really counting on His fulfillment of them?  Are we actually expecting Him to do for us all that He has said?  Are we resting with implicit assurance on these words, ‘He is faithful that promised’ (Heb. 10:23)?

"There are seasons in the lives of all when it is not easy, no not even for Christians, to believe that God is faithful.  Our faith is sorely tried, our eyes bedimmed with tears, and we can no longer trace the outworkings of His love.  Our ears are distracted with the noises of the world, harassed by the atheistic whisperings of Satan, and we can no longer hear the sweet accents of His still small voice.  Cherished plans have been thwarted, friends on whom we relied have failed us, a profest brother or sister in Christ has betrayed us.  We are staggered.  We sought to be faithful to God, and now a dark cloud hides Him from us.  We find it difficult, yea, impossible, for carnal reason to harmonize His frowning providence with His gracious promises.  Ah, faltering soul, severely-tried fellow-pilgrim, seek grace to heed Isaiah 50:10, ‘Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.’

"When you are tempted to doubt the faithfulness of God, cry out, ‘Get thee hence, Satan.’*¹ Though you cannot now harmonize God’s mysterious dealings with the avowals of His love, wait on Him for more light. In His own good time He will make it plain to you. ‘What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter’ (John 13:7).  The sequel will yet demonstrate that God has neither forsaken nor deceived His child. ‘And therefore will the Lord wait that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment:*² blessed are all they that wait for Him’ (Isa. 30:18). ....

[*¹ When Christ spoke to Satan, He spoke in His Own Authority and in the Father’s.  When we rebuke Satan, we must rebuke and expel Him by the Authority and Name of Yahweh and Yehoshua, in whose Authority we are invested and established.

 *² i.e., "Justice": judgment on the wicked; reward for the righteous in Christ.  Notes mine. R.A.B.]

Read again the passage, noting the highlighted portion:

 

"If My people, which are called by My Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My Face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and [then] will forgive their sin, and [then] will heal their land." (II Chronicles 7:14) 

God requires repentance and obedience first, before He will hear, forgive, heal, deliver, restore, or bless.  King David informed us:

"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." (Psalm 66:18)

So it is with us.  God told us through the prophet:

"1 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His Face from you, that He will not hear.  3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.  4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. .... 9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.  10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. .... 11... we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us. ....  14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.  15 Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment [Justice].  16 And He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore His arm brought salvation unto him; and His Righteousness, it sustained him.  17 For He put on Righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of
salvation upon His head; and He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.  18 According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, fury to His adversaries, recompence to His enemies; to the islands He will repay recompence.  19 So shall they fear the Name of the LORD from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun.  When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.  20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.  21 As for Me, this is My Covenant with them, saith the LORD; My Spirit that is upon thee, and My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever." (Isaiah 59)

As we saw in Joel chapter 2: 

"12 Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God ... 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: 16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation... 17 Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?  18 Then will the LORD be jealous for His land, and [then will the Lord] pity His people.  19 Yea [and then], the LORD will answer and say unto His people, Behold [I will deliver and bless you] .... 21 Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great  things.  .... 26 And ye shall ... praise the Name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and My people shall never be ashamed.  27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and My people shall never be ashamed.  28 And it shall come to pass afterward [after the repentance, fasting, and prayers and seeking God's Face], that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh [of My people]; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: 29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit.  30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.  31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come.  32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the Name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call."

God reproved His rebellious, sinful people, who gave Him lip-service and who put on the facade of being spiritual, when in reality, they were carnal and full of wickedness: 

"58:1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.  2 Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.  3 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and Thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul [through fasting], and thou takest no knowledge?  Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors.  4 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.  5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?

6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?  7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?  8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and [then] thine health shall spring forth speedily: and [then] thy righteousness shall go before thee; [then] the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.  9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; [then] thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am.  If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; 10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the
afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day: 11 And [then] the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and [then] thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.  12 And [then] they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: [then] thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and [then] thou shalt be called, The Repairer of the breach, The Restorer of paths to dwell in.  13 If thou turn away thy foot from The Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My Holy Day [not just any day you pick for "your" Sabbath: the Sabbath is the Seventh Day of the week, from sundown Friday to Sundown Saturday; this was never changed in the New Testament; the Sabbath is a sign that we are His people]; and call The Sabbath a delight, the Holy of the LORD, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: 14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and [then] I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it." (Isaiah 58)

In vv. 1-5 God is speaking sarcastically against His hypocritical people who merely went through the motions of repentance, but whom, He indicted earlier (which Christ re-iterated in the New Testament):

"7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, 8 This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoreth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.   9 But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines [instead of My Law] the commandments of men." 

Interestingly, after this scathing rebuke, the disciples came to Christ and said that the Pharisees were offended at Christ's words—and Christ answered His disciples concerning the Edomite Pharisees [the tares that had been sown in among the wheat, as far back as Eden]:

"13 ...Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.  14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind.  And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." (Matthew 15)

God had denounced the lip-service of His sinful, unrepentant people, going through the legislated motions of repentance, but not actually repenting—

[even as Christ had denounced the Pharisees: 

"25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.  26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.  27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.  28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." (Matthew 23)]

"22 ...Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.  23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." (I Samuel 15)

It is not that God did not delight in sacrifices, but He desired that we not sin in the first place, to require the sacrifices; but if we did sin, that we actually be convicted in our hearts, filled with remorse and shame, and truly repent; not merely going through the motions required by Law.  We reap what we sow.  God knows our heart and will reward us accordingly. 

 

God frequently commanded His people to sanctify themselves.  How was this done?  —by searching their hearts with fasting and prayer, turning from their own pleasure (even intimacy with their wives), repenting of confessing their sins and that of their household, and offering appropriate sacrifices and then all washing and purifying themselves.  It is no different today, except that Christ is our sacrifice—if we have truly come under Covenant through His Blood and are not guilty of the indictment of Hebrews 10:

"26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.  28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?  30 For we know Him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I will recompense, saith the Lord.  And again, The Lord shall judge His people.  31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God." (Hebrews 10)

In Joshua 3:5, just before the Israelites came to the Jordan River (which God miraculously parted for them, as He had the Red Sea), after which they would enter the Promised Land and conquer the enemy,  Joshua commanded and exhorted:

"Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you"

 

A dozen or so plates of food and a few days of pleasure [t.v., seeking our own pleasure, pretending our civilization is not on the brink of destruction, partying as the Titanic inches ever closer to the edge of Niagra Falls] are possibly all that stands in our way of deliverance.  Are not a few days of fasting and prayer worth sacrificing to save our family...?  to save our community...?  to save our nation...?  to save all of Christendom...?  to save all of civilization...?  Or will the reader prove himself to be the natural (carnal, unregenerate) man, who after looking into the mirror of God's Word, immediately goes away and forgets all that he read... choosing instead to eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we will (surely) die...? and "Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things)" (Philippians 3:19).

Me, I'd rather see God's Power and Mighty Wonders.  How about you...?  How much are they worth to you...?  When do you want to see them...?  Do you mind waiting... knowing that each minute we tarry, our brethren are being robbed, raped, tortured, and murdered all around the globe...?  When Israel had sinned and God sent a plague among the people, the people were dying in a wave of death that passed through the camp that was visible to the eye...  God told Moses to told Aaron to take the censor, put incense in it, and RUN to make atonement for God's people.  Aaron did not take a casual stroll while stopping to smell the roses, while whistling a popular tune of the day—Scripture told us that Aaron RAN, and when he got to the center of the camp just slightly ahead of the death wave, and made an atonement, Scripture tell us that Aaron "stood between the living and the dead."  Christ is our High Priest who has stood between the living and the dead, however, the only question is: which side of the cross are you on...?  If you are truly on the Life side, then you will not be a friend of the world, your own sins should cause you to fall on your face before a Holy God and cry out for mercy, and also cry out for mercy for ALL of God's people, that He would pour His Holy Spirit out upon ALL His people, to convict us ALL of our sins so that we ALL will repent, so that we ALL will cry out to God in fastings and prayer so that God will hear our collective prayers of repentance (for it was our collective sins that brought national judgment upon us).  If you are on the Dead side of the cross, then you will forget you read this, go make yourself a nice meal and watch your favorite t.v. show, movie, or ball game and put out of your mind the fact that our people are suffering and dying all over the globe and it will never stop—it will only get worse—as long as God's people reject His admonition,

"...now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (II Corinthians 6:2) 

Those who think that they can "repent later" after they have continued on in their own sinful pleasure (which lasts for but a season—and then the Judgment) are under Satan's delusion: for it shows Christ is not in their heart at all.  The question is this: How long will you allow Christ to just hang on the cross while you run around in sin having fun...? 

"4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame.  7 For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: 8 But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned." (Hebrews 6)

"7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear His Voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted Me, proved [provoked] Me, and saw My works forty years.  10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known My Ways.  11 So I swear in My Wrath, They shall not enter into My Rest.)  12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the Living God.  13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." (Hebrews 3)

Arthur Wallis in his, In The Day Of Thy Power, asututely pointed out that the Greek word translated agree in “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything they shall ask, it shall be done of My Father which is in Heaven” (Matthew 18:19) actually means, “symphonize.”  Further, he also pointed out that in v.18 of Matthew 18 Christ said, “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”—and v.19 continues, “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven.”  Wallis then also keenly pointed out that Christ sent the disciples out by two’s, in keeping with passages like Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 which indicates if two walk together and one fall, the other can help him up, or if one person fights against an enemy the enemy may prevail, but two can withstand him. 

This symphonizing is concerted effort in order to “by the mouth of two or three witnesses” allow the matter to be established and together invoke God’s authority, speaking it into reality by faith in the authority God has given us.  I should point out that in vv.18,19 the older English “ye” and “you” are plural pronouns (“thee” and “thou” are singular).

Wallis then added:
“Earth is characterized by discord and division, heaven by harmony and unity.  When spiritual unity comes to those praying on earth, it has come from heaven through the operation of the Spirit, and such praying must return to heaven and be ratified there.  To all such praying on earth, God will respond in heaven with His divine ‘Amen—it shall be done.’  What power He has put into the hands of his people!  And yet, how little used, how seldom proved!” (pp.172,173)]

As I said in Part I:

God gave the Israelites at the Golden Calf and later during Korah's rebellion the chance to change sides and ally themselves with God, "He who is on the Lord's side, come to me!" - God gave the children of Israel the chance to change sides and ally themselves with the winning side, when Joshua declared,

"14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.

15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24)

It is never too late to repent and choose the winning side.  But God knows our heart.  The longer we delay, the more life we lose (and the greater the chance of losing life altogether); the more scars, the more pain, the more suffering.  What are we waiting for?

"5 But He [Christ] was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.  6 All we like  sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.  7 He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.  8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation? for He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of My people was He stricken.  9 And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.  10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.  11 He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My Righteous Servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities." (Isaiah 53)

 

The Book of Common Prayer was first written in 1549; many of the words were penned by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury (1533-1556).  In the General Confession, the collective prayer that opens the service of Morning Prayer reads ever so eloquently:

"Almighty and most merciful Father, We have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, We have offended against thy holy laws, We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, And we have done those things which we ought not to have done, And there is no health in us: But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders."

David wrote

"7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice.  9 Hide Thy Face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.  10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.  11 Cast me not away from Thy Presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.  12 Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and uphold me with Thy free Spirit.  13 Then will I teach transgressors Thy Ways; and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.  14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of Thy Righteousness.  51:15 O Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise.  16 For Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou delightest not in burnt offering.  17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.  18 Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion: build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.  19 Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness...." (Psalm 51)

When will we actually repent and truly pray, pray with fasting and contriteness of heart and a burdened soul feeling the unbearable weight of our innumerable sins... and cry out to God for mercy at the desperateness of the situation...?  

“When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, the battle is your calling, and peace has become sin.  You must at the price of dearest peace lay your conviction bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your faith.”

—Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920)

[Dutch theologian, statesman, journalist, and

Prime Minister of the Netherlands (1901-1905).] 

"If God be for us, who can be against us...?"  That much we know.  The real question is whether we be for God...? 

"Even a child is known by his doings [i.e. not merely by what he "says"], whether his work be pure, and whether it be right." (Proverbs 20:11) 

"Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance." (Matthew 3:8)

"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." (James 4:17)

[see also Part III: read it here.]

 

Robert Alan Balaicius

June 2013