The Priests are Propagating Error

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We have, of course, all been following with disbelief the horror of the shootout near Waco with the Branch Davidian cult, a split-off from the Seventh Day Adventist Church. This incident is something that we can take a lesson from because it is a classic example of how Satan uses religious leaders to bring ridicule to the Bible and to biblical Christians – the people that our society calls fundamentalists, and who are treated as ignorant non-intellectuals. What is going on down at Waco only reinforces that misconception.

The prophetic Scriptures in the process are being discredited in the eyes of the general public by a blind fanatic leading his blind followers as he talks about opening, as the Christ character, the seven seals of the book of the Revelation, showing that he knows nothing fundamentally about this important portion of the Word of God, which Scripture gives us, which Peter refers to as giving us greater enlightenment and insight on the Word of God, and on what is taking place in our world.

One seminary professor aided Satan's effort in this discrediting by stating that the book of the Revelation had nothing to do with prophecy. Certainly, when it comes to the general press speaking on spiritual matters, they demonstrate indeed how little they know. Yesterday, one reporter said that Saturday is considered the Sabbath day by the Branch Davidian cult, and that they hoped that they might make some good decisions on that day. His implication was that Sunday is the Sabbath day. Well, this is one thing that the Davidians at least have right – that Saturday is their Sabbath day.

So, we have this enormous ignorance out there, and I couldn't help thinking (as I listened to these people and to the seminary professors) of Hosea 4:6-10 – the same problem that existed with Israel, and which brought them down nationally. That's the problem. It isn't just that we are wrong in incidentals, or that it is something that we don't have straight. The United States has now entered a period of enormous darkness spiritually, and our republic is a hazard for its very existence as never before.

However, if you are going to fulfill the Scriptures and bring about the antichrist's world, I think it is obvious that the United States, as a world power, must be removed from the scene. We now have in place, in the highest echelons of our government, all the forces to propel us to that destruction.

God tried to warn the people of Israel through Hosea in Hosea 4:6. "God said, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Knowledge of what? Of doctrine: of Scripture – of the true truth of the Word of God. Whose fault was that? "Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you for being My priests. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children." It was the failure of the priests to teach the people the Word of God. They were at fault, and the people were at fault for not doing something about those priests.

It has been an education for me to watch the great and powerful church bodies in this Metroplex area over the past few weeks on Sunday morning, and to see what people are getting – to see those thousands of people sitting out there with the vast resources that that represents, and being fed on straw and corncobs without any kernels of food upon them, and people tolerating it. People are sitting there because they don't know better, and they are being destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Verse 7: "The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against Me. I will change their glory into shame. They fed on the sin of My people." Here are the priests encouraging people to bring sacrifices, though they did not believe in the significance of those sacrifices, but because they got a part of the sacrifice. It was a monetary return to them.

Well, we all know about TV evangelists, and here's one of the earliest examples of that in Israel. "They feed on the sins of my people and direct their desire toward their iniquity." And it will be like people like priests. Oh, how true! This is a fundamental principle for Christians to learn. All these churches sit there shelling out all this nonsense and social gospel. If only the people knew that they are like the people who are teaching them. And they are going to pay for that perhaps with their souls if they're unsaved, and with enormous loss of rewards if they are believers, because they're going to reflect their teachers: "And it will be like people like priests, so I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds. And they will eat but not have enough. They'll play the harlot, but not increase, because they have stopped giving heed to the Lord." That's the problem: paying attention to God. That's the problem in our society.

I was taken to task before the last presidential election because we put out on our table the handout (the folders – the printout) that was put by the Operation Rescue people in which the statement was made that a vote for Bill Clinton is a sin. They proceeded in that little pamphlet to support their argument by the fact that he is committed to the murdering of unborn children, and that a nation of people is responsible for not putting people in public office who are going to violate such a serious moral principle of God – to ignore God. The suggestion was that I should be silent on the subject, and that we should simply pray, and let the government take care of this – the people in congress.

Are you comfortable with that? Who is the government? We, the people. And if we do not sound forth, how are the people going to be filled with knowledge of the relationship of Scripture to what is happening? That's exactly what the priests did to Israel of old, and it destroyed them. The priests played ball with the evil of their leaders.

This administration spent its first two weeks doing everything it could to interject homosexuality into the military forces of the United States. Those of you who have ever been in the service know the problems with that. Those of you who have never been in the service know the lifestyle of the homosexual that simply leaves a trail of disease behind them, whether they want to or not.

I think it was last week that we put out the hand-out, and my secretaries who try to keep me on track came to me and said, "Do you want to put this one out?" It was on what homosexuals do. It was rough, and it was gross. If you read it, now you know what we're talking about. The words "homosexual" and the word "lesbianism" do not connote what horrendous things are behind the act of sodomy. And I hope you read that very carefully. But it doesn't matter what we think. It matters with what God has said: "Here is the rule."

So, I read to you once more Romans 1:21. This is a passage that summarizes what is repeated in various ways from the Old Testament Scriptures onward: "For even though they knew God (Scripture was available) they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish minds were darkened." Oh, how intellectual we are. That's where the Bible gets the back of the hand. That's where God gets the back of the hand of the intellectuals: "This is crazy. Nobody would believe this who has any sense?"

So, verse 22 says, "Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man, and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures." This was what was so humiliating of the plagues in Egypt – that benighted religious system which was worshiping animals.

Verse 24: "Therefore, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever." You turned your back on God, and you turned your back on His moral code in Scripture, and here's what happened.

Verse 26: "For this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions, for the women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural. And in the same way also, the men abandoned the natural function of the woman, and burned in their desire one toward another. Men with men were committing indecent acts, and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error." And AIDS is what the Scripture is, in part, referring to: receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error, along with all the other diseases that are carried on by this natural act of engaging as if one were walking through a sewer:

"And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper." That ought to send a chill in every heart of every rational person on the face of the earth who thinks that there is a God out there, and who thinks He has spoken. Do you realize what it is to find yourself turned over by God to a depraved mind? A depraved mind is a mind that comes out backwards. It's a mind in which everything that is right and true is distorted into being evil and wrong. It's a mind that is completely in opposition to God. It's human viewpoint against divine viewpoint, and it's to have a mind that always comes out with human viewpoint.

Somebody recently asked me, "Why do people believe some of these things? Why do they do these things? Why can't they see the evil?" Because God the Holy Spirit has to enlighten the mind. If you are an opponent of the Word of God, and if you are indifferent to the principles and the moral code of Scripture, I don't care if you're president of United States – you have a depraved mind, and you are in opposition to the Creator God.

It's so nice, when you're in a time of crisis and enormous need, to be in the hands of that Creator God, who can put everything back together, and who hears, (and I guarantee you) who answers bit-by-bit.

Verse 29: "Being filled with all unrighteousness; wickedness; greed; evil; full of envy; murder; strike; deceit; and, malice, they are gossips." All of these intellectuals who oppose God, and who give Him the back of the hand, don't think that these things apply to them. But I have found that the most sophisticated of them are aptly described here: "Slanderers; haters of God; insolent; arrogant; boastful; inventors of evil; disobedient to parents; without understanding; untrustworthy; unloving; and, unmerciful. And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such thing are things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."

So, the Word of God says, "Homosexuality is a grievous sin." It is a great sin to know that that is an evil, and to pursue it in spite of the fact that it's destined for death. There are other things. Isn't it crazy what people will do even when they know, "This can lead to my death? This is an unhealthy thing to do." Yet they do it because it's an evil thing that is attractive to the sin nature. They not only do these things, but they take great delight in getting other people to do them, and they are pleased to see other people doing the same thing.

Our republic has entered a night of darkness spiritually, such as we have never had before, and it is going to get worse rapidly, because the hands that are described here are on the levers of power. This is certainly true when it comes to the people being left in ignorance, as Hosea described for us – being without knowledge.

Abortion

Psalm 106:37, therefore, in reviewing the history of Israel in this psalm says, "Then they even sacrificed their sons and daughters to the demons, and shed innocent blood; the blood of their sons and their daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of freedom, and the land was polluted with blood." God, in His Word says, "When the land is polluted, and cries out to Him with the innocent blood of the murdered victims, He destroys that land."

This land is being soaked to the tune of 4,000 slaughtered babies every day now in this country, and it is murder: plain; pure; and, simple. There is a segment of the feminist movement which is fanatical for woman's choice, by which they mean that they want to see unborn children slaughtered with the abortion technique. Rush Limbaugh, radio commentator, calls them the feminazis – those devoted to abortion promotion because this was exactly what the Nazis did. They killed the innocent without cause.

So, you don't want me to talk about these things. You don't want me to put out brochures that say that a vote for certain political people is a sin. Would you rather I be silent, or would you rather say, "He's off track? He's a fanatic. He's just a conservative. He's a fundamentalist. He doesn't have this straight. He doesn't speak for God. Well, let's see how you feel when shortly the Freedom of Choice Act is signed into law by this administration, which means that the day before a baby is born, he can be slaughtered in the mother's womb, and ripped apart, and sucked out piece-by-piece.

Just wait until the homosexuals are actually in the military service, and you see what happens to the most powerful force on the face of the earth as this evil is interjected, and as the men who are living in these close conformities are exposed to these diseases. I think you had better let me speak. And I think you better let all the priests (who want to) sound forth the Word of Truth, and then you dismiss what you don't want. That's the way it works. That's the privacy of the priesthood of the believer.

So, Satan knows that sound Bible doctrine and a knowledge from Bible prophecy of where history is going will expose his evil ideas, and his imminent doom, along with his followers at the hand of God. That's why he's delighting in what's taking place at the Mount Carmel complex near Waco, as the Word of God is being discredited, and Bible-believing Christians are once more being ridiculed. The moral laws of God, however, as found in the Bible – Satan will do everything he can to discredit them, and to have them discarded as non-binding on people, so Satan can control people by turning loose their sin nature. That's what this is all about – to get rid of the Bible so that you don't have to say that you can't do certain things. This is inherent, moral structure built into the universe.

The dream of a new world order of world government and of economic socialism must not be shown to have God's judgment upon it. The only way you can do that is by discrediting the Bible, because the Bible condemns world government. The Bible condemns socialism. Anybody who has any knowledge of the Word of God at all knows that that's the case. Satan doesn't want you to know that, because then you're going to wonder whether what we're doing is right. The belief that every person is a potential God is very popular with millions of Americans who absorb the New Age movement expression of Hinduism. Satan doesn't want this to be revealed to be a great lie. The first great lie enunciated to Eve in Eden was that man is a potential God.

The truth is that the Bible is the Word of God, and it is absolute truth, whether we choose to believe and obey it or not. Make no mistake about it. It is the Word of God, and it's true whether you accept it or not. Satan is in an enormous frenzy to convince people to reject the divine authority of the Bible. He does this by trying to establish that it is filled with errors. Once you have that, you have no authority that speaks for God. Satan knows the promised Second Coming of Jesus Christ to this earth is so near that he has little time left to get the worship of mankind that he craves. And He is near. Maranatha! The Lord is coming. He's at hand.

The prophetic Scriptures are God's word of warning to unbelievers of the terrible judgments that He will unleash on them because of His holiness. The clown and the false prophet at the Mount Carmel cult near Waco is a tool of Satan being used here now in a public forum to discredit belief in the Bible. The Bible is inerrant, and for that reason, it is true in all that it reveals. Bible prophecy will be fulfilled literally, just as we have been studying it, as it always has been. God's timetable is on track, and His revealed plans are being fulfilled before our very eyes.

The Bowls of Wrath

God's Wrath

Furthermore, the Bible reveals that the response toward God's truth as found in Scripture is to suppress it by doing what God says is sinful and evil. They are thumbing their noses at God by doing the very things that the Word of God condemns. The bowl judgments stress the consequences to people now more than to nature – their direct consequences to people of their worship of the antichrist, and this rejection of Jesus Christ.

The First Bowl

Now these are words, and you can hear them, and you can hear about things that happen to people. But it is different when it happens to yourself. You get a whole new perspective, and it's very hard for us to imagine everybody in the world with a single destructive disease eating away at them. And that's what this is. God uses deadly diseases as a matter of policy to punish those who are in rebellion against His moral laws and His anarchy. So, you have the whole world of all those who bear the mark of the antichrist upon them, and who worship him, with these deadly sores on their bodies.

It may be that the very contents of the first bowl has something in it that reacts with the chemistry of what was used to put the mark on people – the mark of the beast. It may be that God has caused that mark (through chemistry) to turn into a malignancy wore. We know that AIDS has been around for a long time, but it was non-lethal, and suddenly, an act of God made it lethal and turned it into a deadly disease. Wouldn't it be ironic if the very mark that the antichrist was permitted to put on these people is used by God to trigger the deadly sores upon them?

The blasphemy of worshiping the antichrist is just dealt a deadly and humiliating blow. These people ignored the warnings of God. I cannot stress to you how serious it is to ignore the warnings of God; to ignore the leadings of God; and, to ignore those gentle, intuitive times that He speaks to you. You should get sensitive to that – the intuitive indications that He gives you. You don't know why. You can't put your finger on it. There is a sense of relief when you go into the direction of your intuitiveness, and there is a sense of burden and concern when you don't.

These people ignored the warning of God explicitly as declared in Revelation 14:6-7: "And I saw another angel flying in the mid-heaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth. This is the final preaching of the gospel to the tribulation world, to every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people. And he said with a loud voice, 'Fear God. Give Him glory, because the power of His judgment is come. And worship Him who made the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and springs of water.'"

This a very simple message. God is about to turn loose the final judgments in the form of the bowls: "Get serious about God. Become frightful (fearful) of Him. Become awed by His power, because He's going to turn loose some deadly judgments if you don't turn to him." Why turn to Him. Well, He's the Creator. When you have a physical problem, it's awfully nice, I can tell you, to know that God is the Creator, and the Creator can make it all right. But he can also bring deadly destruction to His own Creation.

The suffering at this time (at this first bowl) is going to be compounded by the fact that everyone is affected. So, there are few people to be concerned with helping the infected. When you have a physical problem – one that is so desperate, and you need help, it's terrible not to have anybody around you who can give you a hand. No doubt, in spite of all this, there is going to be an enormous spirit of anger toward anyone who is not infected. Who? Those stupid fundamentalists, and those conservatives who believe the Word of God, and who have trusted themselves to God. They'll look, and they'll see: "You don't have these sores?" And instead of saying, "That means that you were right, and we were wrong," they're going to hate them for not suffering with them. It's going to be a clear distinction then between who are the believers and who are the unbelievers. It's hard to tell that sometimes today.

So, what's the response to the first bowl judgment? We should learn some lessons from the response when God brings perhaps some discipline and judgment and instruction upon us. It was hardening of their minds against God. This bowl is not going to bring the antichrist and his worshipers to repentance, but to further hatred toward God. As the bowls are poured out, we're going to be told how their hatred toward God intensifies, because they know who's doing these things. The antichrist himself is going to be suffering these malignant sores on his own body.

This is, of course, reminiscent of Pharaoh in Egypt, who refused to give in to release the Jews as God had commanded him to do, and continued to suffer the plagues. The servants of the Pharaoh warned him that Egypt would be destroyed if the plagues continued. In Exodus 10:7, they said, "You better back off. This is going to have national consequences." So, those of you who want to button up your sources of information from God's spiritual spokesman should take a lesson from this. You better get all the information you can. You can reject it if you wish, but you want to be informed. Pharaoh would have served himself and his nation had he listened to his servants here. But Pharaoh did not yield, and Egypt suffered great destruction. And the antichrist is going to do the same under Satan's control, and the national entity will be destroyed.

Pharaoh turned his wise men (his magicians) to counter God's plagues. And the antichrist is going to turn to science, but it's not going to work. The antichrist and his followers will become increasingly enraged against the truth bearers. They'll vent their anger against the preachers and the biblical Christians, and there will be a lot more martyrdom. In time, however, as always with spiritual things, we will find out who's right and who's wrong. We're going to find out in all the social debate that goes on now in our country who's right and who's wrong. We're going to find out what was truth; what was morality; what was sin; and, what was really salvation.

Remember that now in our world, God the Holy Spirit resides. He's in this room in every one of you who are believers. And one of His works is to hold back evil. Once He has been removed at the rapture, when the church has gone, God the Holy Spirit will no longer be present on this earth, and evil will have free reign. The result will be that society will be able to do everything that it now wants to do, but is held back because you have these biblical Christian sounding off, and holding back.

There are 40 million people that we would put in the camp of evangelical believers in this country. If they could all be taught the Word of God so that, as Hosea told us in the previous session, they're not being destroyed for lack of knowledge – think what would happen if all those people voted together. What if every time there was a political candidate who was in favor of abortion, he was voted out? What if there was a candidate who was in favor of homosexuality being tolerated, and he was voted out? This country would have a new birth of freedom. That group alone could make the difference. It's sad, isn't it, that Christians can't get it together?

However, once the Holy Spirit is God and we are gone, the world is going to go insane with evil as it was before the flood. It will be a repeat of the French Revolution, which came to the point where it expressed its contempt for the Creator God by bringing in a prostitute into the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, and putting her on the high altar as the goddess whom they worshiped, and who represented their humanism.

The tribulation believers do not seek anything from the antichrist (from the political authorities). They seek no honors. Since they seek no favors from the world, they alone will be able to remain true to Jesus Christ, but they will pay a terrible price.

So, what is our role as believers in the world? The Bible is under major assault by segments of American society, and I cannot stress that enough to you. The people that you talk to about spiritual things are going to talk about things on every basis, and from every point of view, and from every justification imaginable, but they won't talk from the point of view of the Bible. They don't understand the Scripture. They're being destroyed for lack of knowledge. No one has taught them. They pick up all the caricatures and the ignorance of Christianity that are out there.

What's the result? Promoting evil as a good thing; as a tolerant thing; and, as an acceptable thing. We have homosexuality; feminism; liberals; socialism; adulterers; fornicators; cults; women as spiritual leaders; and, environmentalists worshiping the spirit of Mother Nature. All of those things that are evil are now being presented as good. Why? Because you have no frame of reference of the Word of God.

This began as far back as the 19th century (the 1800s) with the attack of what theologians call higher criticism. It began in Germany, and the attack was first against the supernatural origin of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses; and, then the principles were extended to the whole Bible. It was called the JEDP hypothesis, and we've given the instruction before on that. But I'll just refresh your memory. The argument was that they discovered that some portions of the Pentateuch used the name "Jehovah" for God ("Yahweh"). Some used the name "Elohim." Some have priestly declarations, and some have the Deuteronomy laws. So, they said, "These were all different writers, and the rabbis pasted this together, and came up with the Pentateuch. God had nothing to do with this." And guess the gender of the main writer of the main Scripture of this series with the "Yahweh" section. The main writer was a woman. That should have been a clue to them how wrong they were.

This is where it began. And from that time on, there has been this gradual undermining of the Bible as a supernatural, inerrant book that man could not have written on his own under the conditions of some 40 different writers over 1,500 years, scattered apart, some of whom hadn't even read each other's writings. Yet, the Word of God comes out consistent without confusion and without contradiction.

John Shelby Spong

Let me give you just a little example of what he has to say about this in his most recent book, Born of a Woman, a Bishop Rethinks the Birth of Jesus. And let me tell you something about anytime you hear in public religious discussions around the word "rethink." People may say, "We're going to rethink the resurrection." Or they may say, "We're going to rethink vicarious salvation." "Rethink" always means: "We don't like it. We're going to see if we can undermine it, and get rid of it, and change it." So, that's a clue about what he's after in that very title:

"Is there any possibility that the narratives of the Lord's birth are historical? Of course, not. Even to raise the question is to portray an ignorance about birth narratives. There was no biologically literal virgin birth; no miraculous overcoming of bareness in the birth of John the Baptist; no angel Gabriel who appeared to Zechariah or to Mary; no angelic chorus that peopled the heavens to announce Jesus' birth to hillside shepherds; and, no journey to Bethlehem. In all probability, Jesus was born in Nazareth in a very normal way, either as a child of Mary and Joseph, or else he was an illegitimate child that Joseph validated by acknowledging him as Joseph's son."

Now does the Hosea passage that we read in the previous session have new meaning to you? It was the priests who were propagating error and opposing the Word of God. And do you wonder where the people are going? This is a religious leader. He's not just a priest. He's a bishop in the Episcopalian Church – one high up in the hierarchy. This is what he thinks of Jesus Christ. And all of that he can only think by discrediting and dismissing the Bible as the Word of God, and this is exactly what he does.

He is very much in error when he dismisses: "The central Christian belief in a Savior, the literal Son of God, who suffered for mankind's sins, and vanquished death through resurrection." The "christ" (with a small "c') that survives in Spong's assault, is simply a New Age facilitator. He is some mortal who somehow achieves some mystical transcendence, and in similar fashion, he maintains: "The Christian is one called so deeply into life; into love; and, into being that he or she can always say with a christ-like integrity, 'I am.'" And he uses a small "c" for "christ-like." Do you understand what he's saying?

Moses said, "Who shall I tell the people has sent me?" God used His eternity as the identifying quality. He said, "I am send you." That's connected with the name of God "Jehovah." That's the verb "to be." That is the basis of that: God's eternity – the eternal one: "I am."

What is Spong saying with this reference? He's saying, "You're all gods, people. Find your deity. Look within yourself. Follow Shirley MacLaine out on the limb while God is there sawing off the branch behind her. And you may expect the consequences.

Some years ago, there was a very liberal senator in Congress from the state of Idaho. His name was Frank Church. He was put out of office with the great sweep-out of the Reagan election. He has a son who is a Unitarian pastor. He's a pastor of All Souls Church in New York City. He wrote a book called God and Other Famous Liberals, and he wrote it, he said, "To rescue religion, patriotism, and family from the conservatives." He argues that liberals are the real expression of Christianity because they are tolerant, generous, and open-minded. Yes, they are so open-minded that their brains have fallen out, and they've lost all contact with rationality and the real world. But be that as it may, Church ignores the fact, however, that liberals endorse the use of government power to compel citizens to give the fruits of their labors to the state, so that it can be generous, tolerant, and open-minded. Church does not think, interestingly enough, in this book, that personal character is as important as political correctness in our public leaders.

In the "New American" magazine, March 8th, 1993, page 27, there's an interesting paragraph that I'd like to read to you concerning this book of this Unitarian minister: "In his book, Church specifies that personal rectitude is irrelevant. It is political righteousness or correctness that matters. Church is quite different regarding most sins and transgressions, with one notable exception. Though personal sins such as adultery may cause individuals to fall, Church maintains, these are mere peccadilloes compared to the blasphemy that some of them commit against the Holy Spirit. Of what does such blasphemy consist? Church declares: 'Anyone who invokes the Scriptures to enforce divisiveness, bigotry, and neighborly hate is guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit – the only sin that Jesus said could not be forgiven.' Deprived of the protective coloration of scriptural imagery, Church's message is that righteousness is an index of one's political opinions rather than his obedience to divine commandments. Church apparently believes that political correctness can cover a multitude of personal sins, but that but those who sinned against political correctness will not receive forgiveness in this life or in the life to come."

Who's doing this? Religious leaders – people who write books to undermine the Bible. So, the religious world and its leaders are preparing mankind for the global religion of the antichrist. That is what is happening, and the Bible is the focal point of attack. Every one of these groups that we mentioned in the previous session, you will note, when they speak, sooner or later, come to attack the Scriptures. You have to remove the Bible: you cannot read it and try to say that these evils that are gushing out of their sin natures are not just exactly that. The Word of God has spoken.

So, the Bible and the God of Scripture are rejected. The innate deity is propagated. Worship is to be directed to the antichrist by coercion. Opponents of the current trends to world religions are to be silenced by any means. How then, I ask you, shall we believers conduct ourselves in Satan's world? We are torn. We have commitments and affinities: social; family; political; and, educational. How then shall we Christians conduct ourselves in view of the fact that we know where history is going and what is about to happen?

That same question eventually, of course, confronted the Jewish people. I'd like to close by reading a passage from Ezekiel 33 which needs very little explanation, and is apropos to our day. How should you act as a Christian? Are you going to be silenced? Do you want to silence your preachers? Or do you understand to stand to the end and to sound forth that this is what God has said, and this is what God thinks? We know what we're talking about. The world does not.

So, Ezekiel's responsibility was that of a watchman. And Ezekiel finally stood up from the people, and they hated his innards, and they treated him like a dog. And Ezekiel said, "I am your watchman, and before God, I have a solemn duty to warn you." Then he proceeded in the first 20 verses to do that:

"The word of the Lord came to me saying, 'Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them, 'If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming upon the land ,and he blows on the trumpet and warns the people, then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head.''"

When the United States goes down and destruction, it should never be said that anybody here at Berean Church was not up there on the wall sounding alarm and calling attention to the horrors that were thundering down upon us.

Verse 5: "He heard the sound of the trumpet. He did not take warning. His blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming, and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes a person from them, he has taken away his iniquity, but his blood I will require from the watchman's hand.

"Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel. So, you will hear a message from My mouth, and give them warning from Me." We have no prophecies directly today. We have them all in Scripture, and that's what comes out of the mouth of the watchman preacher.

Verse 8: "When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. But if you, on your part, warn a wicked man to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life.

"Now, as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, 'Thus you have spoken, saying surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we are rotting away in them. How then can we survive? Say to them, 'As I live,' declares the Lord God, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back. Turn back from your evil ways. Why, then will you die, O House of Israel." And you, son of man, say to your fellow citizens, the righteousness of a righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression. And as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will not stumble because of it in the day when he turns from his wickedness. Whereas a righteous man will not be able to live by his righteousness on the day when he commits sin.'" Even the righteous are going to go down when national destruction comes.

Verse 13: "When I say to the righteous, 'He will surely live,' and he so trusts in his righteousness that he commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered, but in that same righteousness of his which he has committed, He will die." So, you're a Christian; you're born-again; and you live in unrighteousness, you will suffer the consequences, just like the unbeliever.

Verse 14: "But when I say to the wicked, 'You will surely die,' And he turns from his sin, and practices justice and righteousness; if a wicked man restores a pledge; pays back what he has taken by robbery; and walks by the statutes which ensure life, without committing iniquity, he will surely live. He shall not die." That's why, in ancient times, pagan civilizations such as both Greece and Rome, when they operated on what in fact were biblical principles, they became great nations, though they knew not, and did not worship, the true God. When you do right, you get right.

Verse 16: "None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has practiced justice and righteousness. He will surely live." We're speaking about nationally: "Yet, your fellow citizens say, 'The way of the Lord is not right,' when it is their own way that is not right. When the righteous turn from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, then he shall die. But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and practices justice and righteousness, he will live by them." What is justice and righteousness? They are not things you imagine from your humanism, but they are what come out of the principles of the Word of God.

Finally, verse 20: "Yet you say, 'The way the Lord is not right?' O, house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways."

Dr. John E. Danish, 1992

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