Void of instruction on how to be normal

Proverbs 7:7 says, [7] And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding.

"They’ve literally been stripped of any ability to understand all the important issues that make up the foundation of a normal life," explains Preacher Richard Jordan. "God, marriage, honesty, integrity, respect for your father and mother and family--those four foundations that God laid (volition being personal responsibility and choices).

"Ephesians 6 says, [1] Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.

[2] Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)

[3] That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

"The simple have no understanding of that. They’re void of knowing, ‘Why do I obey my mom and dad?’ Because it’s right! It’s what the normal human being does. Why? Because they’re put there in your life by God to guide and protect you.

"God put mom and dad in place to train you; to impart some truth into you that will give you the capacity to live successfully as a person.

"For the simple, all that generational memory is gone and that inner strength necessary that needs to be passed on to each new generation, hasn’t been put in them.

"Go back to Psalm 78 and see what Asaph, one of the prophets in Israel, says: [1] Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

[2] I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
[3] Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
[4] We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
[5] For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:
[6] That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
[7] That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

"Notice where he gets this information--his father. There’s some generational memory that’s been passed down to them. Parents are put in your life to do that and you know what the simple do? They’re void of any understanding of the purpose; any understanding of the history, the working of what’s there.

"Proverbs 14 says, [15] The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going.

[16] A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.
[17] He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly: and a man of wicked devices is hated.

[18] The simple inherit folly: but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.

"They 'believeth every word'; that’s their problem. They don’t test anything! They don’t evaluate anything; they’ve got no framework to do that.

" 'But the prudent man looketh well to his going.' He’s somebody who has some wisdom to examine life with. Proverbs 22:3 says, [3] A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.

"The simple guy says, ‘I just want to have what I want!’ and doesn’t consider the danger. He just wants his own interests, and when you’re simple and you believe anything that comes down the pike, and you don’t investigate anything, and you don’t have any frame of reference, you become careless because of your ignorance.

"Somebody comes along and tries to show you proof otherwise but you become so set in your ignorance; you’re your own interest. That’s what sin does: ‘I want to have my gratification, my interests and I don’t have the 'check' of a conscience fortified by God’s Word.'

"Proverbs 9:8 says, [8] Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. Proverbs 13:1 says, [1] A wise son heareth his father's instruction: but a scorner heareth not rebuke.

"That’s the next guy; the scorner. The simple, ignorant become the ones who despise instruction because now they've got their way and can’t listen to any counsel. He will not hear rebuke or counsel from his father--the very person God put in his life to protect him from evil and to teach him about the evil of this world."

Perverse generation = simple fools

Paul admonishes in Romans 6:16: [16] Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Jordan explains, “Notice the terminology there. That word servant means a slave. A slave is someone who gives himself up to the will of another. When you see that word servant in your Bible, it’s the term slavery. They’ve become the servant, but notice to whom. ‘His servants ye are.’ Who is the 'whom' and the 'his'?

“If you yield yourself to sin, who is the author of sin? Satan. You’re not just going after some activity. Yielding yourself to sin is really yielding yourself to a person. When you participate and yield ‘your members as instruments of unrighteousness,’ you’re really giving place in your life for Satan to run your life because you’re yielding yourself to the author of sin.

“That’s why we’re to 'be angry and sin not.' We’re not to allow Satan to have that kind of access, power in our life. We’re not to be in that servile condition where we’ve given ourselves over to the will of another.

“Ephesians 4:19 says they’re ‘past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.’

“You’re literally surrendering yourself to slavery. Paul’s talking about, 'Don’t become a slave to Satan’s power by becoming tolerant of sin; becoming passive, becoming accepting.'

*****

“Proverbs 8:13 says, [13] The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

“By the way, the Book of Proverbs is a book of prophecy. It’s not just a book in the prophetic program; it is a book of prophecy; a book that speaks to Israel about some things coming in her future.

“Proverbs 31:1 says, [1] The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him.

If you go back to the very first verse in Proverbs, the first thing you come in contact with is the last days of Israel, what we call the tribulation, the 70^th week of Daniel. It’s in the very first chapter.

“There are three kinds of people in the book who are designed to rebel against the idea of, ‘The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.’ If you want to get the big picture of how Satan gets a place to work in your life or the life of a nation, Proverbs lays it out in these three people: the simple, the scorner and the fool.

“By the way, those three people match Job’s three friends. They match the leaven of the Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians that Jesus fought against.

“Here’s what Proverbs prophesies for the future of Israel. Proverbs 30 says, [11] There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.
[12] There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.
[13] There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.
[14] There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.

“He writes, ‘There is a generation.’ Think about that. He’s not talking about an individual. You hear people talk about the Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomer generation, Generation X, the Millennials. Historians William Strauss and Neil Howe are the people who wrote the books that popularized that terminology.

“I read their book, The Fourth Turning, in the ’90s and thought, ‘Wow, these guys don’t know anything about the Bible but, boy, they’re sure teaching about what the Bible tells is going to happen to the nation.’

“They’re not Believers; they’re just historians, but they knew history and how to interpret it based on what they were seeing, and when you interpret history based upon what’s really there, you wind up interpreting the way the Bible says it’s going to happen because that’s how it’s happened.

“But that idea goes way back; they didn’t invent it, they just, in modern times, discovered it. Isaac Newton discovered the Law of Gravity but he didn’t invent it and he’s not the only person who ever knew about it.

“There’s a generation coming in Israel’s future. Look at who they are that curseth their father and do not bless their mother.

“The father and mother are people God places in life to guide and guard their children and teach them about the evil in the world. They are to teach them the path of righteousness so they can grow up and be normal human beings.

*****

“There’s a standard for normality among human beings and God set the standard. He established four institutions: volition, marriage, family and nationalism (government). They were placed in your life by God.

“This generation is going to curse the very people God put in their life to do them good. ‘There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.’

"They think that what they’re doing is right and all the strictures that mom and dad gave them from the past are to be done away with.

"They’ll look at immorality and say it’s okay; it’s the right way to go. ‘There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.’

“They say, ‘Why, we’re the greatest that ever lived!’ ‘There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.’

“They’re hateful, stubborn, self-willed, totally deceived, self-promoting, narcissistic, brain-washed, they’re always right.

“You say, ‘Well, where did they come from?! How did Israel get that way?!’ By the way, that’s the crowd that’s going to welcome the Antichrist. How do you get a nation that had the truth of God to embrace the Antichrist? The antithesis of everything God’s Word says? You create this generation.

“When Jesus said, ‘This generation shall not pass until all be fulfilled,’ He’s talking about this generation. That wicked, perverse generation that nailed Him to the Cross who will be that ‘perverse generation’ that accepts the Antichrist.

“That generation got that way by these three people. First, they start out with the simple. How did the devil get room to work in Israel’s life, where he took them from being God’s nation with God’s truth to the place where they are that generation that accepts the Antichrist? He convinced them not to be prudent but simple.

“Proverbs 7:7 says, [7] And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding.

“The simple are people who don’t have any understanding. They never investigate anything, they believe anything that comes along, they’re careless, ignorant, they have no understanding. Now you notice he talks about them being youths?”

(to be continued tomorrow) 

Catching a gleam of glory bright

One of the most frequently sung hymns at my church, “Higher Ground,” goes:

“My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay;
Though some may dwell where these abound,
My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.

"I want to live above the world,
Though Satan’s darts at me are hurled;
For faith has caught the joyful sound,
The song of saints on higher ground.”

The hymn’s creator, Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (1856-1932), is the author of another great old hymn, “O That Will Be Glory,” with the refrain, “Oh, that will be glory for me,
Glory for me, glory for me,
When by His grace I shall look on His face,
That will be glory, be glory for me.”

The first stanza goes, "When all my labors and trials are o’er, And I am safe on that beautiful shore,Just to be near the dear Lord I adore,Will through the ages be glory for me."

Gabriel, regarded as "one of America’s most influential and prolific hymn writers in the early 20^th Century," was born in a prairie shanty in Wilton, Iowa, and raised on a farm. His father led singing schools in their home and young Charles taught himself to play the family's reed organ.

The settlers in the area often gathered at the Gabriel home for singing sessions and fellowship and “at an early age Charles gave evidence of a gift for composing,” says the book 101 Hymn Stories. “One day he told his mother that it was his supreme desire to write a song that would become famous. She replied, ‘My boy, I would rather have you write a song that will help somebody than see you president of the United States.'

“Two years later (at 15 years old), Charles began teaching (shape-note) singing schools in the surrounding area without ever having the benefit of a single formal music lesson. He began writing and selling many of his songs but never received more than $2.50 for any of his works.”

According to Wikipedia, “His musical talent was well recognized in his boyhood home of Wilton. There is one folklore story that the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Wilton (Pastor Pollock or McAulay) once saw Gabriel walking in town early in the week. He asked Gabriel if he knew a good song to go along with his sermon. The pastor shared the sermon topic and by the end of the week the boy had written a song for that Sunday, words and music.

“The Rev. N. A. McAulay was a pastor at the Wilton church for many years, and it is also said that young Gabriel wrote the music for one of McAulay's songs. The song, 'How Could it Be,' was later published in Songs for Service, edited by Gabriel, with the music being credited to 'Charles H. Marsh,' possibly one of Gabriel's pseudonyms.

"Eventually he served as music director at Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, San Francisco, California (1890-2). While working at Grace Church, he was asked to write a song for a mission celebration. He wrote 'Send the Light,' which became his first commercial song. He moved to Chicago, Illinois, and in 1912 he began working with Homer Rodeheaver's publishing company.”

Until his death, Gabriel was associated with Rodeheaver and "his fame as a successful composer became widely known, especially with the use of his songs by Rodeheaver in the large Billy Graham evangelical campaigns,” says 101 Hymn Stories. Gabriel wrote both the texts and music for his songs, some shown with his pseudonym, Charlotte G. Homer.

A testimonial posted to the website Hymnology Archive was written while Charles was still alive. The author reveals, “Mr. Gabriel has been recognized as a leading writer of music for Sunday Schools, having issued 24 books for Sunday Schools and evangelistic meetings, his songs being found in almost every book that is issued.

"His first sacred song success, ‘Send the Light,’ is recognized as one of the best missionary songs extant, while scores of others, among which are: ‘Let the Sunshine In,’ ‘Calling the Prodigal,’ ‘The Way of the Cross Leads Home,’ etc., have large popularity. His ‘O That Will Be Glory’ song is no doubt the most popular song he ever wrote.

"The song may now be heard in many tongues and dialects. It has been translated into at least 17 languages. It has appeared in print in leaflets, newspapers, magazines and books no less than 17,000,000 times. It is enjoyed by all classes and conditions from the street urchin to the nobility . . .

“Mr. Gabriel's music is nothing if not melodious. Even a comparatively commonplace theme under his pen receives some touch that gives it a perennial freshness, and while he rarely writes difficult or severe music, there is unbounded variety in it all.

“Having received little or no instruction, and being a self-made man, he has a style peculiarly his own. Copying no teacher or instructor, but following the natural bent of his genius, he is little hampered by purely scholastic rules of form, and hence is free to produce many effects and contrasts which other composers are apt to lose; yet his freedom deserves no censure, as it amply justifies itself in every case.

“He gives himself wholly to composition and his work is in constant demand by the various publishers of sacred music. Personally, Mr. Gabriel is a very genial and kindly-spirited man. His large success has not spoiled him, but seems rather to have added kindliness and helpfulness to his naturally generous disposition.

"He has no sense of rivalry with other composers and no inclination to emphasize their limitations or shortcomings. There is probably no composer in the land who has more friends among music writers, both famous and obscure, than Mr. Gabriel. He resides in Chicago and is one of her honored citizens. May he live long and continue to give vent to his musical genius.”

(New article tomorrow)

Why the heathen rage:

David is the king of Israel and his nation, his people are failing to be who they were designed to be. He writes in Psalm 2, [1] Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
[2] The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
[3] Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

"He’s asking not so much that he doesn’t know what causes the heathen to rage because he tells you in verse 2 and 3 what it is," explains Jordan. "He’s really saying, ‘Lord, why are you allowing this kind of thing to continue?’

"One answer is the longsuffering of God, which you can see in the inner part of the psalm. Another has to do with the fact sin has to run its course; it has to become full before the judgment of God comes on it. You’ll see that in verses 4-6. The other thing is, verses 6-8, God knows what He’s doing.

"In I Peter 4, when Peter’s instructing the future believing remnant in Israel and they’re looking toward the last days in the tribulation period, you’ll notice: [17] For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

[18] And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

[19] Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

"They see all this turmoil going on, the fighting and raging, opposing, and he says, ‘Commit yourself, trust your souls to Him as a faithful Creator.’ He’s talking about how He’s the God that created everything. He knew what He was doing when He did it. He will execute His cosmic plan for the universe and you can trust Him to faithfully accomplish it. That’s what the end of the Book of Job is about.

*****

"David asks, ‘Lord, why do you let it go?’ When it says the heathen rage, that’s the fierce anger in it, the rebellion associated with it. The heathen are the Gentiles and the people, well, that’s Israel.

"As Psalm 2: 2 says, Israel has joined them. They get together and join up in the conflict, the conspiracy, the counsel, to conspire together. You think about it, what should the nation Israel be doing for the nations?

"God said to Israel, ‘I’ll bless you, make you a great nation, and I’ll bless all the nations of the earth through you.’ The reason that nation was created by God as His special nation in the earth was so that through them all the nations of the earth could have the salvation, the forgiveness, the tranquility that comes from trusting a faithful Creator.

"But instead of being that channel of blessing to the nations, teaching them the wisdom of God, Israel has joined the nations in rebellion against the God of Israel. She failed completely to be who she was designed to be for the world and because she failed, the world’s in this uncontrollable rebellion and unreasonable thrashing out.

"Proverbs 14:16 says, '[16] A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident. Wisdom teaches to fear God and depart from evil. Romans 3 says there’s no fear of God before their eyes. They trust themselves, not God.

"In fact, as you see in Psalms, they hate God. They’re mad at Him. He’s the object of their ire and that’s where the rage comes from. It’s a raging against His Word, His Son and all the rest of it.

"What’s the goal? Verse 2 says 'the kings of the earth set themselves.' When you set yourself you get ready. In a professional baseball game, there’s one moment when the whole team becomes set, total concentration, and that moment is when the pitcher steps on the rubber, on the mound, because he can’t pitch the ball until he stands there and nothing can happen until he pitches the ball.

"The kings put determined, concentrated attention to it. This is the thing that had their mindset; the thing they’re determined to do. The rulers take counsel together. Notice the togetherness, unity: ‘Let’s do this together.’

"Today, you hear the preachers and politicians say about the strife going on, ‘We just need to learn how to love each other.’ Okay, but you don’t. 'We need to be united.' But we aren’t.

"If people were doing it, you wouldn’t have riots, injustice. The problem is we’re sinners, we’re broken, we have a broken world in which our brokenness manifests itself and all the platitudes don’t do any good.

"You need solutions that don’t ignore the fact you aren’t given answers and they make it worse. These guys are, ‘Let’s just all get together,’ and when they try to do that, what they’re trying to do is get the nations together so they can control and that’s what’s going on in Psalm 2.

"Verse 2 says it's 'against his anointed.' You see the object of their ire? This is an open rebellion against Jehovah the Creator and His anointed (that’s a word for the Messiah). That’s talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. They’re mad at God, God’s Word and the people of God. They’re angry with what God’s doing.

"Verse 3 is the goal of it all. This is quoted in Acts 4. In relationship to the persecution of the followers of the Messiah, verses 23-26 say, [23] And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them.
[24] And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:
[25] Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
[26] The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.

"Now Luke, the writer of Acts, is going to quote Psalm 2. They take that passage in Psalm 2 and say, ‘That’s exactly where we are right now.’ The first three verses of the psalm are quoted here as being fulfilled in Acts 1-7.

"The Messiah is going to come and take over the government of the earth, establishing righteousness in it, and the lost heathen don’t want it. They fight against it.

"Psalm 2:3. The band is what you bind yourself with. The bands are rules and regulations that control their activities and they don’t want that. The very things that get Israel cast into the cauldrons of the Gentile world and the captivity is God.

"Jeremiah 27 picks up on the terminology of the illustration. The bands, the yoke that he put on them, the whole point of the thing is, ‘You’re going into captivity.’ The nations say, ‘We don’t want God telling us what to do; we want to do what we want to do.’

"Israel imagines a vain thing. If you want to know how the heathen became heathen, here it is. Romans 1:18: [18] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

"That’s where the rage comes from; when you hold the truth in unrighteousness all you can do is rebel against reality. It doesn’t work and the sinful heart is angered by it not getting its way."

Even Christ racist by theologian thinking

Somebody wrote a gospel tract once entitled, “What to do if you miss the Rapture.” Point #1, according to the tract, "Don’t get excited, you were going to hell anyway. If the fact you’re going to hell doesn’t bother you today, why would you worry about the Rapture?"

Jordan says, "Rejection of God's Word results in chaos that leads to hurt, anger, frustration and ultimately violence. It will not only do that personally, but it does that culturally, and when you don’t have any sound doctrine . . .

"If righteousness exalts a nation and sin is a reproach to any people, then the amount of righteous thinking in a population is going to exalt the nation and the amount of evil, erroneous thinking is going to destroy the nation. That’s how Satan 'weakens the nations.'

II Thessalonians 2, talking about the Antichrist in the future, says, [6] And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

"Thank God you and I aren’t going to go through the 70^th Week of Daniel and you don’t have to worry about taking 'the mark of the beast.'

"The program that’s going to produce the Antichrist is already working. It’s being held back; the Antichrist’s program can’t come to fruition because God’s forming the Body of Christ, but when that’s over, it will go. The thing that’s going to be there is already working. The culture and the world we live in is already being dominated by the Adversary to produce his will, his goal.

*****

"Galatians 3 says, [26] For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
[27] For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
[28] There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

"So how did you become a child of God? Well, you weren’t just born. One hundred years ago the stuff going around was called the 'social gospel.' Then it was the 'fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man.' Today, it’s called 'being woke.' Woke to being a 'social warrior.'

"The term today is all men are 'image-bearers.' What they mean by that is we’re all equal; we’re all the children of God. But you know that ain’t so. We’re all the children of the wrong god until verse 26 of Galatians 3.

"Until you make a personal choice to trust the God of the Bible, the creator of heaven and earth, to be your Savior, and you personally rely upon Jesus Christ to be the Savior He died and rose again for you to be, you’re in the wrong family. You get in His family by Galatians 3:26.

"That’s not water baptism. It’s not religion. Forget that stuff designed to hoodwink you into something else.

"In Christ is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, male nor female. You’re put into a body of Believers where there’s a complete total abandonment of social status and a complete equality in Christ.  God is as rich to you in Jesus Christ as He is to the person sitting next to you. More than that, there’s no circumcision, uncircumcision, bond or free.

"If you look at Colossians 3:11, Paul puts it like this: [11] Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

"That’s all the social distinctions, racial distinctions. All those things are abandoned in Jesus Christ and literally what he’s done is he says to the Corinthians, 'There’s Jew, there’s Gentile, and then there’s the church. We’re literally a new species of humanity. We have a new identity. We’re a new creature.'

"He calls us 'the one new man' and that concept of that classless world in Christ--that blew the minds, the circuitry of the people of the 1^st Century. It literally shook the Roman Empire to its very foundation, because here’s a group of people who call each other brother and sister and treat each other like they’re the same, and yet in every other way—socially, politically, economically—they weren’t the same. Different races, Jew and Gentile.

"Listen, in Ephesians 2:11, Paul says, [11] Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;

"That’s a racial distinction God made when He set Israel aside. The Jews and Gentiles called each other names. The contempt, the enmity, it’s always been there because of the old sin nature. The animosity, the hatred, the violence between the groups . . .  all of a sudden you got a group of people who aren’t that way. All that racial hostility goes away. All the economic hostility, social-class hostility.

"You talk about a class-driven world, the 1^st Century was that. Now you have a group of people who are a family: Jews, Gentiles, slaves, free, rich, poor. They’re working and eating together, greeting one another with a holy kiss, raising their children together, taking care of one another, marrying each other. And that literally shook the Roman Empire to its foundations.

*****

"One of the reasons you hear so much about the church growing exponentially in the first three centuries had nothing to do with going back to Pentecost. It had to do with being who they were and this new culture, this new identity that was being created in a world that had never heard the name of Jesus Christ until that century. In a world that had never heard about the gospel of grace until then.

"Think about this, when Paul went out there, he was the only dude who knew this stuff. People say, 'Well, there’s nobody in our town who believes any of this.' Well, there was a time when Paul said, ‘Nobody in the WORLD knew this!’

"Two things happened in the first three centuries. No. 1, they produced a culture among the Believers of unity and oneness that did away with all the class distinctions. No. 2, in the second and third centuries, there was a great pandemic. About 20 years of pandemic centered in Rome. Thousands of people dying everyday and it was the Christians giving themselves to love and good works that produced a witness. It had nothing to do with, ‘Let’s go back to Pentecost!’ No, not hardly.

"It’s important you get the idea going on here. I Corinthians 12 says, [12] For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
[13] For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
[14] For the body is not one member, but many.

"Your physical body has all kind of members and yet it’s one body, and that’s how the Body of Christ is. Why? ‘For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.'

*****

"Bad doctrine from people who don’t rightly divide the Word is no help in understanding or overcoming the racial bigotry, the social distress, the hurt.

"These people are of no help because they don’t have the answer, which is in God’s Word rightly divided. It’s in who God’s made us and 'the one new man.'

"Only Jesus Christ can live His life. He gave His FOR us at Calvary so He could give His life TO us when we trusted Him so then He could live His life THROUGH us as we walk by faith in an understanding of who we are. Everything else would be an outward, forced shell.

"The answer to racism that’s being promoted today among evangelicals ('Big Eva' they call it; I call it the Evangelical Industrial Complex); the answer to the social problems is what’s called being a 'woke social warrior.' That’s the big term today. If you haven’t heard it, God bless you. Be wise unto that which is good and simple concerning evil.

"Here’s the way they do it. Tim Keller, best-selling Christian author and founder of Redeemer Church in Manhattan, is one of the titular heads of the social warrior movement; Russell Moore is their southern Baptist guy.

"Using Galatians 2:14, where Paul rebukes Peter for leaving the Gentiles, Keller writes in an article, ‘Paul deals with Peter’s racial pride and cowardice by declaring that he was not living in line with the truth of the gospel.’

"What these people say is the reason in Acts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 that the Pentecostal church only focused on Israel . . .  As far as Acts 11:19, they go out preaching to none but the Jews only and their answer for that is because Peter and the apostles were 'racist.' Now, you’ll hear that everywhere you go in this stuff and they argue, ‘We can’t be racist.’

"They want to go back to Pentecost to get the Pentecostal power, but the guys they say had the Pentecostal power were racist because they only went to the Jews. You say, ‘Hello, anybody awake?’ Not many.

"When I tell you that you laugh because you know the reason the apostles didn’t go to anybody but the Jews is not because they were racist; it’s because they understood what God was doing at the time. It’s Israel’s program.

"By the way, if they were racist, Jesus Christ told them, ‘Repentance and remission of sins should be preached among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.' Was He a racist? According to Keller He is because He made the distinction.

"In Acts 2, Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit, speaks as the Spirit gave him utterance and three times says, ‘I’m only talking to Israel.' 'Ye men of Judea; I’m not talking to you Gentiles.’ Keller and these guys say he’s a racist. They say the reason they had to raise up the Apostle Paul and send him to the Gentiles was because these 'racist apostles' wouldn’t go! That is as close to blasphemous, nonsense malarkey . . .

"The point is this is dangerous nonsense. These people have political and religious power and position, but they don’t have an answer, and the reason they don’t is not because they don’t see the problem; they do. They’re trying to ‘bring in the kingdom.’

"They quote, 'Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven,' and they think that means political, economic and social and religious force and external things. They don’t understand what God’s doing today. When you don’t understand how to study your Bible rightly divided, you’re going to wind up in that kind of thing.

"We’re not bringing in the kingdom today and all the foolish talk about doing it only demonstrates that you’re impotent when it comes to facing real problems. The reason our culture today in America and in the West is the way it is is because, when the opportunity to understand that and grow in it was there, the church turned its back on it and 'light rejected becomes lightning.' "

Deceitfulness of deceit

The great American Bible preacher, pastor, teacher, radio pioneer and writer, Donald Grey Barnhouse (1895-1960), was paralyzed and very near death when, as his wife, Margaret, recalled in her memoir, That Man Barnhouse:

The Thursday before the last cobalt treatment was due I had a strange conversation with Donald. His eyes had been moving back and forth as if he were planning something, thinking deeply about it. I sat beside him and asked, 'What are you thinking about?'

'I'm writing a show.'
'Oh?'
'Yes.'
'Is this TV, or movies, or a play, or what?'
'Oh, any of them,' he said.

His voice was not at all his normal voice. It sounded strange and sly. I asked, 'What's it about?'
'Deceit.'
'Deceit?' 
'Yes--the deceitfulness of deceit.'
'Tell me about it.'
'It's to teach deceivers how to deceive.'

All the while he had been looking directly at me, as if by holding my eyes he could keep me from seeing him working his fingers under the bandage holding the nose-tube in place, a thing forbidden.

With a start I recognized the strange, sly voice, because at one time that same voice had spoken through me. When I was in my teens I used to read palms, a parlor game. I became so good at it I was quite in demand at parties. For some reason I could see in a person's palm true things I had no way of knowing.

At times like that I was aware that the voice saying these things through me was not my voice--and the voice coming from Donald sounded just like it. After I knew Jesus as my Savior, the Holy Spirit convicted me that I had been dabbling in the occult, and that the voice speaking through mine could well have been a demon. I had renounced the whole thing, in Jesus' name.

I took both of Donald's hands and began to pray. I claimed Jesus' own request from the Father, in His high priestly prayer of John 17:15, 'I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.' (The Greek says, 'From the evil one.')

Immediately I was aware of invisible warfare. Satan had spoken through the Apostle Paul's vocal chords, and Jesus had rebuked him. I prayed to Jesus that this thing should likewise be rebuked and leave Donald. Satan works through subtle suggestion, and Donald's mind was so vulnerable at this point.

I was relieved to see the sly look vanish and the expression in his eyes return to normal. 

***** 

“Let me show you a verse in Ezekiel that curdles my blood," says Preacher Richard Jordan in a study. "I can’t fully grasp the heinous depths to which this thing goes and I’m glad I can’t. Paul said, ‘Be simple concerning evil and wise concerning that which is good.’

“I don’t want to know what this stuff is; I’m not interested. But I’ve had people sit with me, and I’ve had to deal with people who’ve been there, or somewhere close to it, and I’ve seen the hooks and the chains of sin holding onto a person’s soul in a way that I don’t want to be any part of.

“I’ve seen a little bit of what the verses say and I don’t want any more first-hand experience than what I’ve had, but I can tell you it’s a very sobering thing.

“In Ezekiel 29, Ezekiel goes from talking about ‘the king of Tyrus,’ the king of the north, to Pharaoh king of Egypt. And once again, just like in chapters 27 and 28, where he was talking about the king of Tyrus, but was really talking about Satan (who the king of Tyrus represented), he does the same thing in Ezekiel 29-32.

“Ezekiel 29:2-3 says, [2] Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt:
[3] Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.

“Who is the great dragon? Satan. The prophecy goes on down and you come over to chapter 31:2-3. [2] Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?
[3] Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.

“What are we talking about there? Who was in the Garden of God? Who was in Eden? Same thing you’ve got in chapter 28. When Ezekiel talks about the ‘cedar in Lebanon,’ the trees, he’s talking about the angelic creatures; their different functions and things they carry on.

*****

“Prophetically, you’re out at the end time in the 70^th week of Daniel. You’re looking forward to destruction of the satanic policy of evil with the Second Advent of Christ. What culminates out there under the personage of the Antichrist, that ultimate form of the lie, began and was propagated among mankind in the Garden of Eden.

“Pharaoh was a part of that and along through history God puts in little things about it, about what’s ultimately going to happen, and he talks to Pharaoh here as though he was Satan out there, because it’s all the same program.

“Watch what happens out there. Verse 16 says, ‘I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.’

“That’s like Isaiah 14:9: [9] Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

“So he goes down to hell and they say, ‘This is the Antichrist; here he is,’ and you notice there’s some people who are going to be COMFORTED when that happens!

*****

“In chapter 32 you have a picture of the battle associated with the Second Advent of Christ as He goes and destroys His enemies. Verse 31, speaking of Satan under the cover of Pharaoh, says, [31] Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord GOD.

“He’s going to see all these host who He’s gathered together; who have been DESTROYED by God’s judgment. He shall see them. He shall see all these people who have been damned and destroyed as they followed his program.

“Watch Verse 32: [32] For I have caused my terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain with the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.

“Pharaoh’s going to look out there in hell and look at all those people who’ve been damned by following him and the verse says he’s going to be comforted in the damnation of all those multitudes.

“Remember Hosea 7:3? ‘They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.’ I remember all those verses like that where it says, ‘Who knowing the judgment of God, not only do them but rejoice in them that do them.’

“Not only does he go to hell under the wrath and judgment of God, but he looks out at the multitudes who’ve been damned by following him and says, ‘Wow, ain’t that wonderful.’

“There isn’t anybody down there that I know of that’s happy to see you come, but that verse says there’s going to be somebody one day. You know what that tells me? That tells me that hell and ‘the lake of fire’ is going to be the mad house of the universe; ‘the depths of Satan.’

“There’s that sadistic glee over the eternal damnation of others to the place that Satan himself would look out over the hordes of people that were damned for following him and rub his hands together and go, ‘Hee, hee, hee, hee,’ and have a good time over it.

“Folks, you don’t want to be a comfort to the devil. You don’t want to comfort him by seeing his plan work out in your life. You want to discomfort him, and the way you do that is you live under the wonderful administration of the wonderful grace of God. As Paul says, ‘O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!’ That’s this wonderful wisdom and understanding that God afore prepared unto our glory."