“Line Upon Line”

“Whom shall He teach knowledge?
And whom shall he make to understand doctrine?
Them who are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast.
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, and there a little.”
Isa. 28:9-10

The apostle Paul told Timothy that sound doctrine is something to which Timothy had attained (1Tim. 4:6). This tells us that full knowledge of the truth does not come with conversion, but must be diligently sought after as treasure hunters seek for their treasures. Hebrews 5:14 tells us that true knowledge of good and evil belongs only to the saints of God who are “of full age, to those who by reason of use have exercised their senses to discern good and evil.” This is how Timothy attained to sound doctrine. This is how he escaped the many pitfalls of false teaching that were lying in wait for his soul.

We learn from the book of Acts and from Paul’s two letters to Timothy that Timothy started in the Lord as a young man, and continued to follow the Lord as he traveled with Paul. There is no question but that Timothy faced the same challenges any young man faces in this world, the same temptations, the same persecutions for loving the truth and choosing to do good instead of evil. There is no question but that Timothy paid a price in scorn for loving Paul and sticking close to him. So close to Paul did Timothy grow that Paul called Timothy “my own son in the faith”.

In his travels with Paul, through the labors and trials, the joys and sorrows of the work of God, the tragedies of seeing some make “shipwreck of their faith” and the triumphs of seeing souls won to Christ, Timothy learned, a little here and a little there. In his evening walks with Paul, or in their private conversations as they traveled, Timothy asked questions about this or that line of Scripture, and listened as they were patiently explained. Over time, bit by bit, a little here and a little there, Timothy attained to sound doctrine. His patient pursuit of the truth bore fruit, and he was at last grounded in the faith. In Paul’s old age, Paul judged Timothy worthy of the great responsibility of attempting to salvage the souls of Paul’s converts in Ephesus, souls who were in danger of being led astray by smooth-talking zealots teaching false doctrines. Paul sent Timothy into a fierce battle, unconcerned that false teachers would confuse Timothy because Paul had watched Timothy attain to sound doctrine, line upon line.

If you want a place in the kingdom of God, if you want the honor of being entrusted with responsibility among the saints, do as Timothy did and pursue the truth relentlessly. The knowledge of God will not be attained to in a day, nor even a year, or two. But the reward awaits those who long for it enough to pursue it and to embrace it, regardless of the cost.

Destroyed From

But there were false prophets also among the people,
even as there shall be false teachers among you,
. . . .and they will bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2Peter 2:1

As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things,
in which are some things hard to be understood,
which they that are unlearned and unstable twist,
as they do also the other scriptures,
unto their own destruction.
2Peter 3:16

There is more than one kind of destruction found in the Bible. Of course, physical destruction is mentioned often in regard to cities and nations that were conquered, as well as in regard to this heaven and earth, which will be destroyed and replaced with “a new heaven and a new earth”. That is a physical destruction, by which things cease to exist. But the other kind of destruction is spiritual, and it is a fearful and sobering reality. It is a state of being destroyed, and yet continuing to live.

We all know that to be chosen and given a place in God’s kingdom is a precious blessing. Such a gift is not to be taken lightly, but to be nurtured by giving diligent attention to the word of God. But if a child of God, especially an anointed servant of God, becomes so unruly that the Lord removes him from his place in God’s kingdom, that person has, in a very real and fearsome way, been destroyed. This happened to the creature called Satan. He was “destroyed from” his place in God’s kingdom, which means, of course, he has no hope of recovering his place, his gifts and his anointing. The young prophet Ezekiel told us about that awful event (28:13-16).

First, Ezekiel spoke of the blessings God had freely given to Satan:

“You have been in Eden the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and of your pipes was prepared in you in the day you were created.
"You are the anointed cherub who covers, and I have set you so. You were upon the holy mountain of God. You have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.”

So, Satan was created with a gift for music (timbrels and pipes), and as Ezekiel would later say, “perfect in beauty and full of wisdom”. He was also anointed to “cover” something in heaven of great importance. He had access to some of the most holy places of God. What precious gifts! But Ezekiel continues:

"You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until iniquity was found in you. By the multitude of your merchandise, they have filled the midst of you with violence, and you have sinned. Therefore, I will cast you, as profane, out of the mountain of God, and I will destroy you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.”

We are never told what those “stones of fire” are. In his Revelation, John was caught up into heaven and described much of what he saw, but he never mentioned the stones of fire. But whatever the “stones of fire” refers to, it was a special place where Satan often walked, and it was a blessing for Satan to be allowed there. Ezekiel described Satan as “walking up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.” Not everybody in heaven would have been anointed to do that. It was one of Lucifer’s gifts from God. But Satan became proud and lost it all:

"Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom by reason of thy brightness. . . . You have defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your traffic. . . . All they that know you among the people shall be astonished at you. You will be a terror, and never shall you be any more.”

Ezekiel was right. Every one of God’s people who see what God has done to Satan, see it as “a terror”. They are instructed in the fear of God, for they know that once someone has been destroyed from his place, he can never regain it. What a tragedy, to be created to stand in holy places, to be created with understanding, beauty, and an anointing from God, and then to lightly esteem those things and lose it all! That is Satan’s story. He was a fool. But it is not only Satan’s story. Jude warned the saints to remember the example of others who were destroyed from their places in God’s kingdom:

“Now, I want to remind you (though you know this), that the Lord, having once delivered a people out of the land Egypt, later destroyed those who did not believe. And angels who did not keep to their place but forsook their dwelling place, He has kept in eternal chains under darkness until the Judgment of the great day” (vv. 5-6).

Much of the Bible is a record of those who lightly esteemed their calling and their gifts from God, as well as of those who cherished their gifts from God. Jesus referred to the first group as “foolish” and to the second as “wise”. Peter said that the first group were to be destroyed from their place in God’s kingdom (2Pet. 2:12), but Paul described the second group as being “appointed to salvation” (1Thess. 5:9).

Witnesses

After we are converted, if we continue in the Word of God and grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, it is unavoidable that we witness some who esteem their gifts lightly and who will be destroyed from their place. It is gut-wrenching to see precious children of God honored with a special place in His kingdom, and then to watch them destroyed from it. On the other hand, what a rich blessing it is to see others value the wonderful grace bestowed on them and who guard their gifts as one would guard “a pearl of great price”. Those who are “destroyed” from their place in God’s kingdom may continue to live in this world, and be content, just as the elders as Israel continued living among men after they unjustly condemned and crucified the Lord Jesus. In spite of their continued earthly successes, however, Paul said of them, “wrath has come on them to the uttermost” (1Thess. 2:16). They are destroyed, even though they may be blind to it. They may not come to realize what God has done to them until the moment they die, when their spirits leave their bodies and go down into hell instead of up to be with Christ.

Paul exhorted young Timothy to “lay hold on eternal life”, even though Timothy already had eternal life dwelling in him. But the wise apostle told his beloved Timothy to “lay hold” on the life that he already had because Paul understood that if Timothy lightly esteemed his place in God’s kingdom, he could be destroyed from it. Paul remembered that Lucifer, the fallen angels, Balaam, Esau, Ahithophel, Joash, Judas, and a multitude of other unwise children of God had been destroyed from their places. All of God’s wise children remember this, and tremble. In Psalm 65:4, David said to God, “Blessed is the man whom you choose and cause to approach you, that he may dwell in your courts!” David esteemed God’s call on his life as the most precious thing on earth, and the reward for David loving God’s blessings on his life is that his blessings increased, and he was allowed to keep his blessings and his joys forever.

Have you been called? Have you been chosen to draw near to God through the blood of Jesus Christ? Have you been given wisdom from God? Have you been given a gift, or do you occupy a special place in God’s family? Cherish your blessings. The very worst thing that could happen to you in this life is for you to be destroyed from the place you have been given.

“What Have I Done?”

“I hearkened and heard, but they did not speak rightly.
No man repented him of his wickedness, saying,
‘What have I done?’”
Jeremiah 8:6

What God found among His people in Jeremiah’s time, He found in the times of other prophets. God would send His prophets to the people, telling each one something like what He commanded Isaiah: “Cry aloud! Spare not! Lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins” (Isa. 58:1). Isaiah did this, but a thoroughly backslidden people cannot see what God sees, especially what He sees about them. As Jeremiah would say in the verse following the one above, “My people do not know the judgment of the Lord” (Jer. 8:7).

At least seven times, God sent Malachi to His people to point out specific sins they were committing, but every time Malachi spoke to them about their sin, they responded to by saying to Malachi, in effect, “Why are you saying such things to us?” Malachi told the people that they were despising the name of the Lord (1:6), that they had polluted God’s altar (1:7, 12), that they had corrupted the priestly covenant (2:8), that they had profaned the holiness of the Lord (2:11), that they had made the Lord “weary” with their false doctrines (2:17), that they needed to repent (3:7), that they had robbed God (3:8), and that their words had been “stout” against the Lord (3:13). Yet, in spite of this very plain talk from God, the response from the people and their priests was that they did not understand how Malachi could say such things about them.

It is amazing that people who were so wrong were not able to see that they were wrong at all. It is almost impossible to believe that people who had fallen so far away from the righteousness of the Law could not understand that they had, indeed, fallen. But such is a real spiritual condition of some who wander out of the right way. David warned his son Solomon that such a blindness to oneself exists. He said to Solomon, “The way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not at what they stumble” (Prov. 4:19). But they “know not” because God refuses to let them know. Remember, all understanding is from God.

One of the reasons that it is a “fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” is that if a man provokes God by stubbornly continuing in wickedness, God has the power to blind him to his sinfulness, so that he cannot repent. This “hardness of heart” is what the Bible calls “God’s curse” (Lam. 3:65). Paul referred to it as “the uttermost wrath” of God (1Thess. 2:16). It is the most dreadful of all spiritual conditions among living men.

If you can see your own fault, you are being loved and called by Jesus. You are being shown grace from God that will lead to forgiveness and salvation if you take advantage of that light given to you by turning from the error of your ways.

“It was not he that hated me”

“It was not an enemy that reproached me;
then, I could have borne it.
Neither was it he that hated me that
did magnify himself against me;
then, I would have hid myself from him.
But it was you, a man my own equal,
my guide, and my acquaintance.
We took sweet counsel together,
and walked unto the house of God in company.”
Psalm 55:12-14

Judas did not hate Jesus.

The Earth

“Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things?
Shall the earth be brought forth in one day?
Or shall a nation be born in one step?”
Isaiah 66:8

Psalm 19 tells us that the heavens already declare the glory of God. But, in Revelation 12, we are told that before the end of this age, God will use the heavens to proclaim the story of His Son as never before. The Father’s use of the heavens to proclaim the gospel of His Son to all mankind was foretold by Jesus. In Matthew 24:30, he said that shortly before he would return to earth, all people would see “the sign of the Son of man” in heaven. He said in Luke 21:25 that there will be “signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars” just before his return. This is what John saw in Revelation 12.

God will arrange the starry host in such a way that men around the world will see a woman “clothed with the sun” (Israel) give birth to a child “who is to rule all nations with an iron rod” (Jesus). Then men will see in the sky a fierce beast (Satan) attempt to destroy the child, but the child ascends into heaven (Jesus’ ascension to the Father in Acts 1). The story that the Father will tell in the sky will continue to show that the devil grew so angry and full of hatred against the Son that he determined to kill the woman (destroy Israel) because through her, the Messiah came. John described the devil’s attempt to destroy the woman with these words:

15. Then the serpent spewed out of his mouth water like a river after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood,
16. but the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river that the dragon spewed out of his mouth.

Now, in Revelation, the “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and languages” are represented by the sea (Rev. 17:15). On the other hand, God’s people are referred to as “the earth”. This is “the earth” that “opened its mouth and swallowed up the river that the dragon spewed out”. In other words, what has prevented the “peoples, and multitudes, and nations” of this world from destroying Israel is the influence of God’s New Testament saints on the world, with their prayers and their love for Israel, through whom the Savior came. As this world continues in its downward moral and spiritual spiral, it will become increasingly hostile against the nation of Israel, in spite of the presence of the saints, but to date, that little, besieged nation has survived because the people who love Jesus are still here, praying for her.

The Second Beast

Another prophetic significant mention of “the earth”in reference to the saints of God has to do with the figure in Revelation called “the second beast”, or, the “false prophet”, the man who will work with “the Beast”, that great world ruler who will gather all the nations of the world against Israel (Rev. 16:13-14, 16). We are told that this Beast is a man who arises out of the sea (Rev. 13:1). That means that the Beast will be a man who does not belong to God’s family. He will simply be a man of the world. However, the False Prophet does not come from the sea; he does not come from the “peoples, and multitudes, and nations” of this world. Rather, he comes from “the earth” (Rev. 13:11). In other words, he is a child of God, and obviously one who had been, at some point in his life, chosen and anointed with power by Christ. In other words, the character called “the False Prophet” will be a backslidden, Spirit baptized servant of Jesus Christ.

Brought Forth

The “earth” which rescues Israel with its prayers and influence, and out of which will come that second beast called the “False Prophet”, is the earth which Isaiah prophesied would be “brought forth in one day”. And that “one day” in which “the earth” of believers was brought forth was the day of Pentecost, in Acts 2. The Hebrew word for “brought forth” in that verse from Isaiah refers to the suffering of birth pangs by an expectant mother. Here is the whole verse again:

Isaiah 66
8. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be brought forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born in one step?

We are imagining nothing in saying that this verse refers to the new birth which the followers of Jesus experienced on the day of Pentecost. Isaiah 66 is filled with clear references to the New Testament people of God, including the holy Ghost being given to men.

The Parables

Many of God’s parables in both the Old and New Testaments refer to God’s people being expected to “produce fruit” or some such thing. In Isaiah 5, God’s saints are His vineyard; in Matthew 13, God’s saints are His wheatfield. Hosea pleads with God’s people to “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy. Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, until He come and rain righteousness upon you” (Hos. 10:12). In Hebrews 6:7-8, the man of God warns all the saints that although God’s rain falls on all His people, not all of His people are the same kind of soil and that, while some produce fruit to His glory, others bear thorns, “whose end is to be burned”:

Hebrews 6
7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that comes often upon it, and produces usable herbs for them by whom it is dressed, receives blessing from God:
8 But that which bears thorns and briers is rejected, and is close to being cursed; whose end is to be burned.

Finally, in the parable which Jesus said must be understood before any other parable can be understood, Jesus said that, concerning the kingdom of God, there are four kinds of soil. Each one of us, spiritually speaking, is one of those four kinds of soil into which the Word of God has been sown. What kind of fruit are we bearing?

The False Prophet, the servant of Satan and the Beast, was the kind of soil that, at first, bore great fruit, but then, near the harvest, it all turned bitter. May God help us to be the kind of earth that, with patience and understanding, bears good fruit until the end.

Going Nowhere

“Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines.

For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace.”

Hebrews 13:9

“But the God of all grace, who hath called us

unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus,

after that ye have suffered a while,

make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.”

1Peter 5:10

The Lord showed us through Sister Sandy a few years ago that man’s thinking is backwards, and the Lord reminded me recently of just how backwards man’s thinking is. Not long ago, the saints who gather here had the opportunity to interact with a large number of other saints, and non-believers as well. Among those whom we met was a pastor named James. After he had gotten to know the people here, he made the comment to someone that he wished he could get his congregation to the place where we are. Brother James meant this sincerely, and we all pray for him as he continues to try to do good for the souls over whom God has appointed him. But as I thought on his comment, the Lord showed me how backward from the mind of Christ that kind of thinking really is.

The truth is that we, as a body of believers, have not “gotten anywhere” since we got into Christ. That is what makes God’s obedient children seem to be so different. The truth is that when we were brought into the family of God by the Spirit, we just didn’t go anywhere else. People in this world are always trying “to get somewhere”. But Paul said, “As you have received the Lord Jesus, so walk ye in him.” In other words, just live in the Spirit once you have received it. Don’t go anywhere.

People who backslide from Christ are always those who “go somewhere” after they have entered into the kingdom of God. Mentally, they go somewhere without Christ leading; spiritually, they get carried off with some “wind of doctrine”, either “doctrines of demons” or some “good idea” of men. Jesus said, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you” (Jn. 15:7). In other words, don’t worry about “getting somewhere” once you are in Christ. Just abide in him. Once you get there, just abide in him. Don’t go anywhere. Let him travel. If you’re abiding in him, you’ll go with him. He’ll take you wherever he wants you to go. But don’t you go anywhere.

As your pastor, I’m not trying to get you anywhere. I’m trying to teach you to “be still and know that He is God”; I’m trying to teach you to be “content with godliness” and rest in Christ. Abide in Him! That’s where the joy is; that’s where the peace is; that’s where the truth is; that’s where the light is; that’s where salvation is and will be. Let’s don’t go anywhere.

Now, if you get to where you really are satisfied with God and don’t want to go anywhere, and will not go anywhere, regardless of the attitude of those around you, then you are what the Bible calls “established” and “rooted”. If you are rooted, you’re not going anywhere. Winds can blow, rains can come, and you will stay right there and abide in him. That’s what the truth about Christ does for the soul. It gets you to where you don’t go anywhere. As a matter of fact, you get so full of truth, there is nowhere to go.

So, what our dear Brother James was really wanting for the sheep of God was to get them content with the life that God first gave them when He brought them into His kingdom, and to help them abandon the false doctrines and the Christian ceremonies which moved them from the “simplicity which is in Christ.” It is my obligation to exhort you not to be beguiled by and attracted to vain imaginations and vain dreams of “getting somewhere”, and to help you get rooted in Christ so that you are not moved by any earthly thing away from the will of God.

Near the end of his life, Paul said that in every city through which he passed on his way to Jerusalem, the Spirit prophesied through various believers of great persecution that was awaiting him when he reached the holy city. “But,” he said, “none of these things move me.” Paul wasn’t going anywhere. He was being carried by Jesus wherever he went, and that’s where we want to be. That’s being “rooted and grounded” when we, of ourselves, don’t go anywhere, and Jesus does all the traveling. That’s being “led by the Spirit”. You are not being led by the Spirit unless you are carried by the Spirit in every situation you face. That’s the only way the Spirit leads. It moves and you are carried to wherever you go. You don’t go anywhere.

We here are not trying to get anywhere. We’ve already been taken by Christ to where we want to be. Paul said we are “complete in him”, and spiritual growth is nothing more than growing in the knowledge of how complete we are, once we are in him. Christ has taught us simply to live, and to resist the winds that blow through the vineyard of God, the fads and fashions that come and go, the styles and spiritual traditions that have started and that move people away from Christ.

It’s been that way from the beginning. In the 1960's and 70's, the “charismatic movement” came and went. Some of us were young in the Lord, but we watched the whole thing and were not carried off by it because we were instructed by those who were established and had no desire “to get somewhere”. They were simply happy in Jesus. And, if you are really happy in Jesus, where is there that you want to go? What is there that you want to become, other than what he has made you? Walking in the light with Jesus is like one of the poets said: “Trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home.” If you come from God, you’re in God. And when you come from God, you haven’t gone anywhere. You’re still in Him.

“There was a man sent from God whose name was John.” This John the Baptist was from God and in God. When he came preaching to Israel, he had gone nowhere from God because God sent him and God was with him. If you’re sent from Him, you’re in Him. And He’s right there. He’s carried you to wherever you are. And, He has carried us to where we are. And, until He moves again, we’re going to sit right here. I don’t have any ambition. No ambitions. No dreams of the future. Right now is pleasant enough. Jesus is good enough. What he really does is better than anything I’ve ever dreamed, anyway.

I had an incredible dream several years ago. I was in a battle, on the main line, and the enemy had come against us. Somehow, we ended up in hand- to- hand combat, and an enemy soldier had me on the ground and was choking me to death. I was struggling against him with all my strength, and then, I opened my eyes – and it was Jesus! I realized immediately that my real struggle was not against him but against my own fleshly will. I knew that if I wanted to live forever, I would have to force my body not to resist Jesus in his attempt to kill me; that is, to kill my old sinful nature. Jesus wasn’t really my enemy. He was trying to put my real enemy to death, the evil nature that is in my flesh. He was trying to get me out of the way, so that he could give me his kind of life!

The men in the New Testament who began to teach that the Spirit did not confess when Christ came into the flesh were described by John. And do you know what John said about them? He said that they went somewhere. He said, “They went out from us.” Those men “got somewhere” in this world, and in time, they persuaded almost all of God’s children in the world to go somewhere with them. But when they did, they left Christ behind and invented a religion of their own, the abomination called “Christianity”.

One of the biggest criticisms my father ever got concerning me was that he was keeping me from “getting somewhere.” People would tell him all the time, “You’re ruining John. He could have a great career as a pastor somewhere. He could get somewhere.” But they did not understand that I already was somewhere because I was in Christ. They did not esteem where Christ had put them enough to realize that they were somewhere too, somewhere good, and holy, and eternal. My father taught me and the rest of his flock to be content with godliness, to live in the Spirit, and to wait on God. Why would I want to go somewhere else? What was wrong with what God had done? What was incomplete about the work of Christ in me? There was already so much spiritual food being given to me that I could not eat it all. All I had to do was to eat, and grow in Christ, and be satisfied. What Christ was giving me would satisfy my soul completely if only I ate enough of it. When you stop eating is when you get hungry. Then, you begin to feel discontent and you start wanting to “get somewhere”.

When John described the men who began to teach false doctrine among the saints, he not only said, “They went out from us”; he also said, “They were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have stayed with us.” In other words, those men would have stayed where John stayed spiritually. They would have stayed where he was in Christ. They would have continued to walk in peace with John and the other apostles in the Spirit. This whole world is pushing you to “get somewhere”, to “be somebody”, because the whole world is miserable. And it is miserable because it refuses to eat the spiritual food Jesus is offering. Many of God’s saints are swept up in that ungodly attitude. The whole world lies in wickedness and is dissatisfied, but Jesus will satisfy you. He will satisfy your soul if you will only open your mouth and eat the spiritual food he is offering you.

Let’s stay where Christ has put us. Let’s blossom in the place where he has planted us. Let’s be content and thankful and grow in the knowledge of who and where we are. If we do that, we will not succumb to the pressure of the flesh to strive to “get somewhere” and “be somebody” because we will realize that who and where we already are in Christ is all we will ever need.

Sowing While You Reap

“Why should I fear in the days of evil,

when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about.”

Psalm 49:5

Paul was speaking from experience when he told the Galatians (6:7), “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” Paul had sown some bad seed in his youth by persecuting the saints of God. In Acts 26, when he stood before King Agrippa, he confessed that he did many things “contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth” (vs. 9). He said that he locked up many of the saints in prison and that “when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them” (vs. 10). He confessed the he “punished them often in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and, being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto foreign cities” (vs. 11).

Paul reaped all the pain and suffering he inflicted on God’s people, but because of the love and the wisdom of God, his reaping of those sins was at the same time his sowing of seed for a better resurrection. Comparing himself to others who labor for the Lord, Paul said he was (2Cor. 11):

23 In labors more abundant, in prisons more frequently, in stripes more numerous, in deaths often.

24 Five times, I received forty lashes minus one at the hands of Jews;

25 three times was I beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a day and a night I have spent in the deep;

26 on frequent journeys, in dangers on rivers, in dangers of bandits, in dangers from the Jews, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers within cities, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers on the sea, in dangers among false brothers,

27 through toil and hardship, through frequent sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in the cold and nakedness;

28 besides the things I leave unmentioned, the daily responsibility upon me, taking care of all the congregations.

Paul reaped every ounce of pain he had inflicted on the innocent children of God before he was converted, and yet, all his reaping was transformed by the love of God into a sowing of good seed that would yield eternal life.

Job had similar thoughts. In the time of his deepest agony he cried out to God, “You are making me possess the iniquities of my youth” (Job 13:26b). In the beginning of the book of Job, we are told that Job was “perfect and upright”; a man who “feared God and eschewed evil” (Job 1:1). But Job had sown some evil seed in his youth, and he reaped it in a multiplied form. At the same time, however, he was being used in a great way to bring glory and honor to God by reaping what he had sown in his younger years.

You are going to reap the sins of your youth. Don’t be fooled. Nobody “gets by”. But if you will commit your life to Jesus, your reaping of those sins will be transformed by your heavenly father into a sowing of good seed for a better resurrection. And that is why David did not fear “the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels compass me about.” How good God is, to use even our reaping of past sins for our blessing!

If you have sown bad seed in years passed, look to Jesus. If you trust him, he will make you thankful for every time that you reap what you have sown, even if that reaping brings tears. Those kinds of tears, God keeps in a bottle (Ps. 56:8). And He will turn them all to joy “in the morning”. David explained it this way: “His anger endures but a moment; in His favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Ps. 30:5).

Who Is On The Lord’s Side?

And when Moses saw that the people were naked
(for Aaron had made them naked to their shame among their enemies)
then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said,
“Who is on the Lord’s side?”
Exodus 32:25-26

When Israel made the golden calf at Mount Sinai, they carried out their worship of the beast with rituals of drunken nakedness. The disgrace brought on the name of the Lord was so great that God demanded immediate death for the participants. Moses, furious, stood at the gate of the camp and cried, “Who is on the Lord’s side!” Men from the tribe of Levi responded to Moses and came with their swords to offer themselves to the Lord. Moses then commanded them to go into the camp and to slay whomever they met, man, woman, boy, or girl, without regarding age or relation. Over three thousand were mercilessly slaughtered before God told Moses to call off his Levite avengers.

Moses’ love for God was demonstrated in his zeal against those who had perverted the faith and turned to idols after experiencing God’s power and revelation. He was indignant. He was as insulted and angry as he would have been if the offense had been against himself instead of against God. That’s how close his heart was intertwined with the heart of God. No one could despise God without Moses feeling despised. And that is how close to God every truly godly person has felt since the beginning of the world.

Jesus said that if our brother sins and then repents, we must forgive, even if he sins and repents 500 times a day. He did not, however, command us to forgive anyone who sins and does not repent. Quite the contrary, Paul commanded us to WITHDRAW OURSELVES from every brother who lives contrary to the will of God and brings a reproach on the name of the Lord Jesus:

2Thessalonians 3
6. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walks disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.

But Paul did not have to give that commandment to anyone who truly loved God because they were already withdrawn from brothers and sisters in Christ who forsook God’s commandments. No one who truly loves God can bear to keep company with those who have turned away from righteousness because it is too painful to “hang out” with people who have brought disgrace on the Lord and the family of God.

David loved God. And it was his deep love of God that made him cry out, “Do I not hate those who hate you? And am I not grieved with those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hatred! I count them as my enemies” (Ps. 139:21-22).

When Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, became a companion to Israel’s weak-willed king Ahab and his wife Jezebel, God sent him a message by one of His prophets:

2Chronicles 19
2. Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the ungodly and love those who hate the Lord? Therefore, wrath is upon you from before the Lord.”

Jehoshaphat was a good man, but terribly naive. And because of his friendship with fellow Israelites who had forsaken the right ways of God, who were unequally yoked in marriage to foreigners, who were worldly and proud, the little kingdom of Judah suffered horribly as soon as Jehoshaphat died. Because of Jehoshaphat’s friendship with those who had turned back from following after God, the holy line of kings who came from David was almost eradicated from the earth. Because Jehoshaphat embraced wicked, backslidden souls as his friends, those same wicked people seized power in little Judah and murdered all Jehoshaphat’s family, and all of David’s descendants, except for one infant, Joash, who was rescued from the slaughter but his nurse and hidden in the temple by the high priest, Jehoiada.

David hated the company of the wicked because he loved the presence of God. “Depart from me, you evildoers,” he cried out, “for I will keep the commandments of my God (Ps. 119:118). He could not bear the company of the wicked because he was so thankful for the mercy God had shown to him: “Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping” (Ps. 6:8). David did not feel as he did because he was an Old Testament figure, and everything has changed now. He felt that way because he truly loved God. God described David as a man after His own heart (1Sam. 13:14). Has God’s heart changed? I don’t think so. He said, “I am the Lord; I change not!”(Mal. 3:6).

Don’t even try to excuse your friendship with the wicked by calling it love. It won’t hold up in God’s court. To love and to help those who have been loved by Jesus and then brought his name into disgrace is no virtue. Jesus will cast into eternal fire those whom he washes from sin but then who despise him. The word of the Lord to you today is this: If you love God, you will forgive and embrace every fallen brother who repents and turns from his sin, every time. But if you forgive and embrace those who have sinned and not repented, you encourage them in their disgracing of the Savior, and you make yourselves, as their companion, an enemy of Christ.

Just recently, I was shown pictures of saints who think they are acceptable to God. They were publicly feasting with other saints who have fallen from all purity, into open fornication and other wickedness. It was impossible to tell by those pictures who was happier to be there in that celebration, the rebels against God or the ones who are maintaining an appearance of righteousness in the assembly of the saints. The disrespect to Jesus that they all were showing was heart-breaking, some of them were disgracing Christ because it is their normal way of life now to disgrace him, but others by frolicking with those foolish, fallen people.

It made me ashamed to know any of them, and I cried out in my spirit, “Who is on the Lord’s side?”

Do You Want Jesus To Want You?

“. . . so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty.”
Ps. 45:11

According to the author of Hebrews (1:8-9), the prophet was speaking to the Son in Psalm 45 when he said, “Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of righteousness. You have loved righteousness; you have hated lawlessness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

The Son being the subject of that Psalm, the prophet David is shown to have revealed a precious secret to us in verses 10-11, for he told us what we can do to win favor with the Son of God, our king. And inasmuch as Solomon said, “In the king’s favor is life”, to find favor with the eternal King of kings must mean to find life eternal!

David told us that if we would have the king’s favor, if we would have Christ Jesus desire us and choose us to be “the bride of Christ” at his return, then we need only make a choice. That choice we must make is simply to choose his Father and his family over our own: “Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear. Forget your own people, and your father’s house. So shall the king greatly desire your beauty, for he is your Lord; and worship him.”

When Jesus asked the question, “Who is my mother, my brothers, and my sisters?”, people did not know what to say. They all knew Mary, his mother, and they knew his earthly brothers and sisters. Or did they? I don’t think so, for his brothers did not believe in him (Jn. 7:1-5), and Jesus explained that his real mother and brothers and sisters were those who heard and obeyed the will of God, his heavenly Father. So, if we want favor with Christ Jesus, if we want him to choose us for his bride, then we will feel in our hearts the same thing Jesus felt about who our real family is.

If God’s children follow Jesus’s example in nothing but in making this one choice, they will be hated and persecuted by all men. But if they do as Christ did, and choose the Father and the Father’s family over their own, they will win great favor with the king, and he will greatly desire the beauty of holiness that will adorn their lives.

Showing Respect

Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust
and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
Psalm 40:4

The world does not know who to trust. It never has known who to trust. And it never has known who to trust because it does not know who to respect. The world respected the mob when it cried out for Jesus’ crucifixion rather than to respect the Son of God, and so, the world took him and crucified the meek king of glory. The world did not know what they were doing; they would have said they were doing the right thing. But respecting the wrong people led the world to commit a crime that was unjust beyond description.

From what I have seen over the years, those who turn from the truth to follow after lies think that they would never do any great evil, but that is only because they do not understand how great an evil they have already done in turning from the truth to embrace a lie. And when the sins that follow apostasy come, as they always do, those sins don’t seem so bad to them, either.

According to the Scripture above from Psalm 40, if we want God’s favor, then we must not respect those who turn away from the truth. Feeling no respect for them pleases God, according to David, and He will bless us for reserving our respect for those who are faithful to Christ.

What all of this presupposes, however, is that we ourselves know the truth so that we can discern who has gone astray and who has not. Without knowing the truth, we will no doubt respect ungodly people as well as the godly because, without knowing the truth, we can be fooled. It has always been the case that the ungodly know how to appear to be righteous.

It is the truth of God, and that alone, which enables us to judge between the godly and the ungodly. And if we will not be afraid to make judgments, Jesus will show us which judgment to make.

Understanding Each Other

Understanding Each Other

From a sermon by Preacher Clark,
in a home prayer meeting at Grandma’s farmhouse in 1973.

Reel 37, CD-99

James said that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights” (Jas. 1:17). God is so good and blesses us so much that sometimes we can overlook some of the gifts that surround us. In a sermon long ago, Preacher Clark referred to one blessing that God gives to all men constantly: understanding each other. He said, “As you speak to me, the Lord speaks. I don’t understand what you say unless the Lord talks (to me), and you don’t get my message unless the Lord talks.”

Preacher Clark often maintained that (1) God was so jealous over His children that He wanted to sleep between a man and his wife and that (2) if He didn’t sleep between them, there was trouble. God is the God of peace, and there is no peace without Him, whether between husband and wife or between nations. And God creates peace many times by allowing one person or one nation to understand the other.

The lesson is simple: Every instance of common understanding that exists on earth is the result of God standing between us and helping us to understand one another. In short, if we understand each other, God has spoken to us both.

Love Is Not Fellowship

From a conversation with Brother Stuart

Hi Pastor John,

While I was staying at your home this weekend, I dreamed that I was visiting some saints at their home, along with a group of other saints. There was about 8 to 10 people gathered there, and we were sitting around talking about God and other things in general. Everyone there loved one another, and we had a good time. But when I left there, I felt like something was missing. Something did not feel right. I felt a little ashamed.

Then the scene changed, and I was at another saint’s home. There was about the same number of people there, but different people, and you could feel the Spirit flowing from breast to breast, one to another. It was wonderful. We were doing the same thing as was the group in the first home, and we all loved one another as in the first home, but the feelings were so strong here! Even when we did not say anything, it was there.

Then the scene changed again, and I was sitting in your office talking to you, and I was saying “The Father loved the Son, and the Son loved the Father, and the love was going back and forth from the Son to the Father, and from the Father to the Son.” And then you said, “It takes more than just love; it takes fellowship.”

And instantly, like a light bulb going off in my mind, I knew what God was showing me in the dream. I love a lot of people and would do whatever I can for any one of them, but love does not make fellowship. That is something that is only given by God, and I can’t tell anyone how to have fellowship any more than I can tell anyone who God is and make them understand it.

Bro. Stuart
===========

Hi Brother Stuart.

I like the way you said it to me here in my office. “ Trying to explain fellowship is like trying to explain God.” That is true.

Fellowship is when we have the same mind and share the same feelings and judgments about matters in this life. There have been people in my life whom I knew and loved for twenty or thirty years, or more; they were in prayer meetings many years; we went places and did things together; and yet, I never had fellowship with them. They never knew it, because they never knew God. Or me. Or even themselves, really.

Fellowship includes loving people, but fellowship is not love. It is more than that. It is the unity that Jesus and the Father had and that Jesus prayed we would have, in John 17. And where there is that kind of harmony among the children of God, there is peace, healing, and sound judgment for the good of the body of Christ.

Two Spirits

A comment by Brother James Hammonds

A few years ago, the Lord helped me to understand that he was not nearly so concerned with making us right, that is, theologically correct, as he was in making us good. After that, I had some cards printed and mailed out thousands of them, which said:

The Goal of the Gospel Is Not To Make People Right,
But To Make People Good.

Recently, after a couple of classes on the New Testament in which we discussed things that had to do with Satan, Brother James brought me a piece of paper on which he had written something the Lord spoke to him. I think it is true, and I want to pass it on.

Jesus Has the Spirit of Righteousness . . .
Satan Has a Spirit of Rightness - and That’s What Men Love.

Communion Includes Conversation

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life,
yet those Scriptures are they which testify of me,
and you won’t come to me that you might have life.”
Jesus, in John 5:39

Communion with Christ is not a ceremony; it is a way of life. It is a sharing of your thoughts and feelings with Jesus, and he sharing his thoughts and feelings with you. One sister in the Lord testified not long ago that Jesus told her, “You can tell me anything you feel.” He said that to her because he wanted to share real communion with her; he wanted her to really express herself to him, and then allow him to really express himself to her. True communion with the Son of God is a partnership in God’s kind of life. It is what the Bible calls “fellowship”, and it always – and I do mean always – entails conversations with him, such as the following one that Sister Sandy forwarded to me today:

Bro. John:
Jesus woke me this morning with this sobering conversation in my spirit. It was as if he was looking down upon the earth and the condition of man. It again reminded me of how backward are all of our thoughts:

Jesus: You would never know that the two go hand-in-hand.

Me: What two?

Jesus: Life and Death.

Me: Why would you think that, Lord?

Jesus: Because too many people are living and preparing for death. They should be dying and preparing for Life.

Sandy

“And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”

Following a Man

“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.”
Paul, in 1Corinthians 11:1

We should have no qualms about following a man who is following Christ. God’s first act in eternity was to create someone for us all to follow, His Son. Since then, from the foundation of the world, the Son has raised up men on earth for people to follow. To follow men as they follow Christ is the way God has chosen to work out our salvation, and His way works well (as long as those whom He chooses are faithful).

The alternative to God’s way of following a man is for us to follow a religious institution. But where has God ever anointed an institution with power to do His holy work, or ever empowered an institution to preach the gospel, or ever instructed an institution in righteousness so that people might be saved by following it? And from what I have seen, those who follow an institution often become proud and sarcastic toward those who do things God’s way and follow a man.

If you really are searching for the truth about God, listen to this: Don’t look for a righteous institution; there is no such thing. Instead, look for a righteous man. In their search for God, most people ask the wrong question. They ask, “What is right?” instead of asking, “Who is right?” Look for a man, not an organization!

You may have heard at some point the often repeated criticism leveled at certain people: “You’re just following a man.” I tell you that the only people on earth who can possibly be doing things God’s way are those who are following a man, for God has chosen to work that way.
God raised up Moses, and Israel followed that man out of slavery into the land of promise. If they had waited for an institution to lead them out of Egypt, they would have died there. God raised up Abraham, who appointed Eleazar his servant to go to the city of Haran, to see if Rebekah would follow that man back to Canaan, where Isaac waited to marry her. Why did God raise up the prophets and judges of ancient Israel, except for the Israelites to follow them out of idolatry and immorality and into godliness? Dozens of times, Jesus told people to follow him, and Paul was not bashful about saying the same (e.g., 2Thess. 3:7-9). But beyond this, Paul exhorted the saints to do things God’s way and follow the men of faith chosen by God to lead them (Heb. 13:7).

Some may not want to admit this, but everybody on earth is following somebody. The very reason you wear the clothes you wear is that you are following the style set for you by other people. Those who want to be different and invent their own styles always look odd and never please God. The Lord called them foolish who followed their own spirits (Ezek. 13:3).
So, I say to those who are pursuing the right ways of God, “Be courageous!” And the next time someone accuses you of following a man, take it as a compliment, and then pity the poor soul who is not following you.

The Only Logical Conclusion

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Psalm 23:6

With this last verse from the most famous of all Psalms, David was not giving us an example of the“name it and claim it” doctrine. He was merely stating what logically had to be the case, based on personal experiences with God.

To begin, as the first verse indicates, David was born an Israelite. So, he learned as a child that God had a special and close relationship with Israel, and it had begun long before David was born. David had nothing to do with it. This meant that just because David was born in Israel, the Lord was his Shepherd. He even sang about it: “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who leads Joseph like a flock! You, who dwells between the cherubim, shine forth!”

Secondly, David had experienced sin, but then also experienced God’s redemption from it. He knew what it was like to feel condemnation and shame and what it was like to receive mercy from God. In fact, David at one point committed two sins for which there was no forgiveness under the Law, adultery and murder, and yet God had gone beyond the Law and forgiven the miserable king. When David said, “He restores my soul,” he was testifying to the great, unexpected, and unprecedented mercy he had received. David knew he had nothing to do with his being forgiven. God had simply reached down and rescued him from the shadow of certain death. If there had been a sacrifice David could have made that would have atoned for his sins, he would have gladly made it, but for the sins of adultery and murder, there were no sacrifices to make.

When David said, “You anoint my head with oil,” he was remembering the day he was out in the field keeping his father’s sheep when a thoroughly winded servant brought a message from his father in Bethlehem. It would have been something like this: “Your father says come to the feast immediately. The prophet Samuel has come to town, and he says we cannot eat until you come.” David went to the feast, and Samuel poured the anointing oil of God on his head, signifying that God had chosen him to be Israel’s next king. David had nothing to do with it. God had simply chosen him to be Israel’s next king. Nobody had advised or even asked God to anoint David.

When David said, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies,” he was remembering the courage and faith God had fed him when David faced the giant Philistine, and he was remembering the untouchable, sacred bread in the tabernacle which God allowed David and his friends to eat when he was running for his life from mad king Saul.

When David said that God “makes me to lie down in green pastures,” and, “leads me beside the still waters,” he was remembering the great peace that always came to him when he took time to draw near to God.

David was able to write, “Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life” because God had convinced David that He loved him. God had convinced David that He was going to deliver him regardless of the circumstances in which David found himself. He had convinced David that He was David’s friend.

In saying, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever,” David was not claiming, as many do now, “I’m saved and you can’t make me doubt it.” Instead, he was simply confessing that God’s love had won his heart and that, based on the loving kindness God had repeatedly shown him throughout his life, the only logical conclusion was that God wanted him to live forever and was determined to see to it that David did.

Sifted

“For, lo, I will command,
and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations,
the way corn is sifted in a sieve;
and yet, not the least grain shall fall upon the earth.
All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
which say, ‘The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.’”
Amos 9:9-10

Just how great do we believe our God is? How wise? How much control over His Creation does He exercise? David said God chastens the heathen as well as His own people. The wise prophet Daniel and the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar both understood that God alone determines who rules over the nations on this earth. Jesus said that God has numbered to you the very hairs of your head! And throughout the Bible, God is said to be in complete charge of every element of nature, not just the sunshine and rain, but the stormy winds and ice as well.

Just how much in command of the events and circumstances of this life do we believe God really is? The answer to that determines how much peace and understanding we possess. The prophecy from Amos 9, above, presents to us an astonishing view of God’s complete command of events in this world, and it calls us to faith in Him as master of His universe.

First, Amos’ prophecy is that God promised to scatter the Israelites among all nations, which He most certainly did. The Jews wandered among the nations for two thousand years before God brought them back to the land He promised Abraham and restored them as a nation in May of 1948. Hosea had prophesied (9:17) that the Jews would be “wanderers among the nations”, and they were.

But what God said He would be doing while the Jews were “wanderers” is the most amazing element of Amos’ prophecy, for He said that He would use that wandering process to sift out of Israel every soul that was joined to sin and rebellion. He is stating plainly that every soul would, over time, be destroyed out of Israel who would not confess that God is just and that the sufferings of the Jewish people were God’s punishment for their rebellion against Him. Over the centuries, those souls would be sifted out by the mighty hand of God, using evil men to accomplish His holy, though dreadful purpose.

On the other hand, not one “grain” of wheat, that is, not one Jewish heart that possessed some willingness to confess the truth will be lost to the sifting process. Which Jew died and which Jew survived Hitler’s awful Holocaust seems random to us because we have neither the power nor the wisdom to kill that many people without unintentionally harming some that we would want to save. But God is not a big one of us. His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways. Amos’ prophecy tells us that each Jew slain during the past two thousand years was slain only because God chose that specific life to be taken from the earth. God has never randomly done anything; why should we think He would randomly deal with His own chosen people?

When the Beast leads the armies of the earth against Israel in the final battle before the return of the Lord, God will determine which Jews are killed by the Beast’s armies (and there will be many) and which Jews will still be living to see Jesus come down from heaven to rescue them. The Beast’s attack on Israel will not be random . It will be the final shake of God’s dread sifter, and in that event, as in the events of the past two thousand years, not one grain of wheat will fall to the ground.

Opening and Shutting The Door

“I have set before you an open door that no one can shut.”
Jesus, in Revelation 3:8

During a 1972 sermon in an afternoon prayer meeting at Grandma’s farmhouse, my father pointed out that Noah did not lock anyone out of the ark. God is the one who shut that door, to save Noah and his family and to condemn the wicked world outside. Then my father went on to quote a prophecy of Christ from Isaiah 22:22: “He shall open [the door] and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.”

Later in that same sermon, and dealing with another subject, he quoted a famous portion of Scripture from John 10:7-9: “Then again, Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you that I’m the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t hear them. I’m the door; if anyone enters through me, he’ll be saved, and he’ll come in, and go out, and find pasture.”

When I heard that Scripture, the Lord reminded me of the previous one from Isaiah, and putting the two together, I understood what Jesus opens and closes – himself! He either opens his heart to a person, or he does not. If he does open his heart to a person and convicts him of sin, no man can make that conviction go away. And if Jesus closes himself to a person, no one can make that individual feel the call of the Spirit of God.

That thought reminds me of what Paul said in Romans 9: “For He said to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’ So then, it is not of him who wants it, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. . . . Therefore, He has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom He will, He hardens.”

If you have any interest in, or feel any sincere curiosity about the things of God, it is only because Jesus is opening his heart to you now, and is inviting you to come in. Take advantage of the golden opportunity of that open door. There is not another one like it.

"Not In This Place!"

“Prophesy not again any more at Bethel,
for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.”
Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, in Amos 7:13

What was Amaziah thinking? That high ranking priest forbade Amos to speak, a man whom God anointed and called away from his herds in Tekoah, and then sent him to Bethel to prophesy to the fallen tribes of the north. Obviously, Amaziah did not believe Amos was sent from God to say anything to the worshipers at Bethel. But why?

Amaziah was a part of Israel, the chosen nation. He was a descendant of Abraham, and a partaker of the promised land with all the other Israelites. Amos’ message could only have blessed Amaziah if he had received it and done things God’s way.

Let’s consider Amaziah’s reasons for running Amos out of Bethel. First, he said, “This is the king’s chapel.” In other words, “Amos, you can’t give prophecies like that in a place like this. Here at Bethel, we prophesy pleasant things to the king. We promise him the favor of the gods, not their displeasure. He doesn’t pay us to forecast doom and accuse him of sinfulness, as you do.”

Secondly, said Amaziah, “This is the king’s court.” In other words, “It isn’t a smart career move to say bad things about the nation and the king here. In fact, it is downright unpatriotic. In this place, we flatter the king and proclaim messages that support his policies.”

Men have always had their “high places” where the word of God seemed out of place, such as their great public buildings and their fine cathedrals. When Paul spoke to the saints of “spiritual wickedness in high places,” he was not speaking of heaven; he was speaking of earth. God dwells with the lowly, and you will not find many of them in the high places which men have built.

Do you know of any place where men would think a message from God about righteousness and sin would be unwelcome? If so, stay out of it and pray to hear the voice of God.

“Prophesy Not!”

“‘Prophesy not!’ they say to them who prophesy.”
Micah 2:6

“They hate the one who rebukes [the wicked] in the gate;
they abhor him who speaks uprightly.”
Amos 5:10

Strange as it may seem, God’s people have a long history of rejecting the truth when their heavenly Father sends it to them, and of abusing the messengers He sends to them. The biblical record shows that only a small percentage of believers – people who truly do belong to God – welcome what He has to say to them or treat His messengers with respect.

In Micah 2:6, God quotes some of the exact words that His people used to demand that His prophets keep their mouths shut: “They say to those who prophesy, ‘Prophesy not!’” Then, He went on to tell Micah that since His people wanted Him to be silent, He would be silent. His prophets, He said, “shall not prophesy to them, so that they will not be ashamed.” In other words, God decided to cease from reproving them for their sins and causing them to be ashamed. He decided to give up and leave them to their own lusts. In short, He decided to let the darkness of sin have them (Mic. 3:6-7):

“Therefore night shall be unto you, and you shall not have a vision, and it shall be dark unto you, that you shall not divine. And the sun will go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded. Yea, they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.”

It is an honor for God to think on us and to speak to us, whatever it is that He says. As both David and Job said, “What is man that thou art mindful of him?” Jesus said that he chastens and rebukes everyone whom he loves (Rev. 3:19), and we need him to do that for us. But if we stubbornly refuse His counsel when He offers it, and if we maltreat His messengers and demand that they stop speaking His word to us, we may provoke the Lord to do just as we demand.

Not Just the Old

This kind of rebelliousness against the word of our God is not just an Old Testament phenomenon. Paul lived to see every congregation that he established in the Roman province of Asia turn against him. With a heavy heart, the aged apostle told young Timothy, “All they of Asia have forsaken me.” Included among these fallen saints were Paul’s beloved converts in Ephesus, whom he had forewarned with tears, that “after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also, from among yourselves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30). But even though he could see it coming, there was nothing Paul could do to prevent that awful prophecy from being fulfilled.

Paul also prophesied of the apostasy of a large part of the world-wide body of Christ. He spoke to the Thessalonians of “a great falling away” among God’s people, and he told Timothy that the time would come when God’s children on earth would “not put up with sound doctrine, but after their own lusts, they will heap to themselves teachers [that is, they will hire ministers], having itching ears. And they shall turn away from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2Tim. 4:3-4).

Everything Paul said would happen to the body of Christ came to pass. But can we see it? Or are we among the ones whose eyes have been blinded by that strong delusion that has carried away the saints of God and made them unwilling, or unable, to hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s people?