When your god's not worth a dead horse

Jordan relayed in his Sunday evening study that he’s been getting mail asking about what’s going on in Israel and how Christians should relate to the nation Israel.

He informed, “Did you know that people like Bill Hybels out in Willow Creek, and John Piper up in Minneapolis, people of great fame in our day, believe the nation Israel should be left to be destroyed and supplanted by a Palestinian state, and that we should not have a nation Israel in the earth?

“You go on the other side of the spectrum, and (popular preachers and theologians) say, ‘Well, they’re God’s people and if you bless Abraham you’ll be blessed; if you curse Abraham you’ll be cursed. So, in order to keep America safe, we need to bless Israel.’

“Both of those things are totally unscriptural. They’ve nothing to do with the Bible.

“One is a whacked out view that thinks God is through with Israel, and all the promises He ever made to Israel about giving them the land, and giving it to them forever, have been spiritualized and somehow have already been fulfilled, and that all the curses belong to the nation Israel and all the blessings belong to us.

“Both of them just completely abandon a Bible base even though one of them believes there is a future for Israel, as Scripture teaches there is.

“I read that stuff, and I think, ‘What kind of confusion you get in that! No wonder the world out there thinks it’s time to take a couple of Alka-Seltzers and go to bed when people start talking about the Bible.'

“But the day in which we live is a day in which that’s going to change. No matter what the world thinks, you and I are the church of the living God. The false system out there isn’t the criteria; the measure of our ministry isn’t what’s against us but who’s for us.

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“Habakkuk 2: 18-19 says, ‘What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?
[19] Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.

“They say, ‘Here, talk to me!’ They think that stone that’s got no life in it is talking to them. They think it’s God and you get into the spiritual deception.

 

"That’s why Paul in Acts 17, when he’s at Mars Hill, says, ‘Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. [23] For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.’

“Now, if I stood up and called you guys a bunch of superstitious ignoramuses, you’d get a little mad at me. But that’s what Paul’s saying, and Paul is talking to the intellectual center of the Western world at Athens--the Greeks, the great philosophers and scholars of the ages. He’s saying, ‘You’re a bunch of superstitious ignoramuses who happen to be religious.’

“You see, truth, when it gets into the marketplace, will take care of itself. But what it comes up against is that lie program.

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“If you start in Isaiah 40 and go through chapter 48, you have a whole series of challenges God makes to the false religions that have captured the nation Israel. It’s fascinating to read through these eight chapters and read what he says to them and how God literally just mocks the religious crowd and challenges them and dares them.

“God says in Isaiah 41, ‘Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.
[22] Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.

“He’s saying, ‘Look, you got all these gods you claim to be doing something—DO SOMETHING! Tell us the future!’ I mean, if your god can’t tell you where you’re going to go when you die, he’s not worth a dead horse; you need to get off of it.

“You remember Elijah on Mt. Carmel with the prophets of Baal. I Kings 18. God said, ‘I’ll tell you what. We’ll find out whether Baal’s God or Jehovah’s God. What we’ll do is offer a sacrifice. Put it out there and the one that answers from heaven by fire, that’s God.

“The prophets of Baal, 450 of them, put there’s out and (chanted) ‘Hamaheemajeema’ all  morning. Elijah sits there a little while and then says, ‘Having a little trouble there, guys?’ Maybe you ought to talk a little louder. Maybe he’s asleep and you need to wake him up.’

“A little while later, Elijah comes back and says, ‘You know, I don’t know, maybe you caught him on a bad day. Maybe he’s traveling. You got his cell phone number? Call him up?’ He mocks them and finally they give up.

“He comes out again and says, ‘Now, I want to make this thing fair. Here’s my sacrifice. Here’s my altar. But I tell you what, we want God to answer by fire, so I want you to take this (sacrifice) and just hose it down with water so nobody can question that you can’t start a fire on it.'

“Elijah then says, ‘Okay, Lord, show them who’s God,’ and BOOM, the fire came down. You know why that is? One is a living God and one’s a false god. One could act and the other one couldn’t.

“Now, look at God’s conclusion in Isaiah 41:23-24. Here’s the verdict: [23] Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.
[24] Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.’

 “He said, ‘I’m going to bring this guy down here and clean you all out, and when it happens you’ll know that I won. I’m the winner.’ He brought the Assyrian down and brought the Persian in, wiping them out just like He said he was going to do.

“When Paul said we are the church of the living God, he’s recognizing that there’s a counterfeit church out there. The fundamental thing that being the church of the living God declares is, ‘One, there’s truth and two, there’s the lie program. There is another god system and we’re not it. You represent the creator of heaven and earth. That’s who the God of the Bible is.’ ”