Men for our people

Here's another outtake from last weekend's Soldiers' Training conference held at my church in Chicago and will have more tomorrow: 

Paul writes to Timothy in II Timothy 4, [5] But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

Full proof means “get the whole thing out of it.” Guys, don’t settle for just a little piece of the ministry. Don’t settle for just a couple of hours of your life; let it BE your life and let the other stuff be the couple of hours of your life, says Richard Jordan.

If you’re going to navigate the future, you have to make some choices. You can know ALL about what Paul says on “here’s what to do,” but for you to walk in it and follow in it, you make the choices in your heart right now.

David says in II Samuel 10, [12] Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our God: and the LORD do that which seemeth him good.

They’re going to go into battle and fight against the Ammonites and David says, “All right, guys, be of good courage. Let’s go play the men.”

You remember I Corinthians 14: [20] Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.

Stand up, play the men for our people and the cities of our God. Nearly every Sunday right before I preach, I quote that verse to myself. It’s a long habit of mine.

All of my life, since those early days preaching at the Mobile Rescue Mission (Mobile, Ala.), when I get up to preach . . . This morning, before I left my office to come in here, I said, “Lord, I want to be of good courage. I want to play the man and then you do that which seemeth good to you.”

For me, the preaching and the teaching is the courage that God’s Word puts in you to be who God’s made you. Not just as a saint but as a minister of the gospel of the grace of God.

Context is ministry

Here’s an outtake from a session at the Soldiers’ Training conference held at my church in Chicago this past weekend and will share more stuff from it tomorrow. I am hoping for a good night's sleep after three days in a row of poor sleep on the trip and then going back to work this morning.

The gift of the grace of God given to Paul is the ministry of the truth of Ephesians 3: [6] That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

If that’s proclaiming the mystery, then what’s verse 8? [8] Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;

Verse 9 is something more than just the proclamation; it’s to make all men SEE: [9] And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

Well, if the natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God, how can all men see it? But if you put on display in your life and in your assembly the fellowship—if you put that truth on display, then what do they do? They see it.

When Paul talks about the fellowship of the mystery, he’s talking about what’s going on in that local church; what’s going on corporately in the group.

Why does he want all men to see that? [10] To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
[11] According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

You know what’s happening? The angelic creation, the principalities and powers in heavenly places that you and I one day are going to occupy, they’re observing what’s going on. They observe you and what they look at . . .

I mean, the Lord says, “All right, guys, I’m going to take your positions and throw you out and put these guys in your place.” And they say, “Well, we’ll see about that. You going to send a bunch of puny little guys down there to take our place?!”

And they look down here and they look at you and they see you living a life of failure and defeat and not the grace of God. And they say, “Ha, ha, that ain’t ever going to happen!”

They look at you and see you fall into the mud hole of life. Then they see you get up, shake yourself off and go on with future correct behavior.

“Oh, we tripped him into the mud hole but look what he did with it,” and they see you be “more than a conqueror” and you know what that means? It ain’t going to be any problem for you to conquer them because God Himself’s going to do that.

So, they look at you and they look at our ministry. What do you depend on in the ministry? You depending on the truth of God and the work of God, or are you doing it for all the other stuff?

They’re learning from you whether His grace can really accomplish what He says He’s going to accomplish.

We’re in ourselves failing humans; we’re not victorious, but you are in Christ. My exhortation is what Paul says: “Be ye followers of me even as I am of Christ.”

When the Thessalonians became followers of Paul and of the Lord, the context is ministry. When they did that, they got the work done.

By the way, the Thessalonian church was not a fully edified church yet. He wrote that epistle in Acts 18; they just got saved in Acts 17.

In II Thessalonians he says, “The Lord WILL establish you.” They’re still growing. You’re never going to get it all, but you keep doing it; you keep going and you keep building on the thing. 

Weak, losing? Nah.

I went through extreme traffic today coming home from Chicago. There was a semi that hit a wall in Indiana on 65-South near Lowell. It was a barn-burner, as they say. Thankfully I arrived at home tonight around 6:30 p.m. with a drive that started at 10:15 outside my friend's condo building near California and Devon.

II Corinthians 6: [8] By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; [9] As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed;

You’re going to be as unknown. Why would that be? In II Corinthians 12:9-10: [9] And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
[10] Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

You see, if you have the mentality that gain is godliness, you don’t want to be weak. Because weakness is not getting more; it’s having less. It’s not being known; it’s being unknown, explains Richard Jordan.

If your definition of success is more (meaning gain), what are you going to miss? It’s in my weakness that my strength is made perfect.

Remember, in that weak appearing, you look small but what did the verse say? “As unknown and yet known.” You will have an impact spiritually far beyond your apparent size. But you will only see that by faith in some verses. Write that in your mind because that’s how you have to think about your ministry.

So, when you’re trying to be more effective, it’s not going to be with more money and with more people and more buildings and more clout and more notoriety. It’s going to be with truth and the preaching of the truth.

Listen, true Bible-believing Christianity has always been an underground movement. When you study church history, what Paul preached in the 1^st century starting at Antioch there, there is a representation of that message all the way through; in every century of church history you can find your kin folk.

If you go through northern European history, you’ll find in the 600s Bible versions that translate verses and the translation they use is in your Bible today. That’s why it’s called the Received Text.

Where are we church history? We’re not there in the books because the people who write church history are Roman Catholics and Roman Catholic-sympathizing Protestants. They’re the institution. When you study church history, you study the institution. That’s not the real church.

The real church has always been an underground movement. What’s coming ahead for you and me is we’re going to be an underground church, but we’ve always been that.

But when you don’t understand God’s Word rightly divided and you think you’re supposed to be out there (gain is godliness) and that’s your whole perspective, that is the whole perspective of the system because it is destitute of the truth. It is proud and knowing nothing. Why? Because they don’t consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.

*****

One of the greatest lessons learned under grace is it’s okay to look weak; to look as if you're losing. 

Paul writes in II Corinthians 4, [11] For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

What that’s talking about is what Romans 12’s talking about; how it happens.

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

There are three checkpoints in the issue of presenting your body to the Father for Him to use. In I Corinthians, Paul says [19] What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
[20] For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Your soul is the issue of where your will is. He says glorify God in your spirit (obey God’s Word) and your body (that’s where it lives out). And it’s based on “the mercies of God.”

When he says, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice,” God desires a vehicle. He purchases you, puts His Spirit in you in order to dwell there and manifest the life of His Son in you. So our bodies are important vehicles.

You’re buried with Him and then you’re raised with Him to “walk in newness of life.” So what you really are is, “I’m crucified with Christ nevertheless I live.” We're a LIVING sacrifice. How did you get to be a living dead person? That’s part of the provision God made you in His Son. It’s ALREADY who you are.

All Romans 12 is telling you is just live in the reality of who God's already made you. He’s not telling you to do something so you can be something. He’s telling you, “Go be who you are.”

He's saying, “This is who you are so yield yourself to that.” Romans 6:13 says, [13] Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

He’s not saying, “Go make yourself these things.” He’s saying, “That’s who you are so just let that be what the reality of your life is.” You make a personal choice to say, “I’m going to make this what’s real with my body.”

You need to have your own personal convictions about your life. “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” is the issue of taking an understanding of God’s Word and APPLYING it.

And as you walk in the truth of God’s Word about who you are in Christ, it’s not a bunch of rules and regulations where, “If I do this I get there.” It’s just, “This is who I am,” and you’re transformed.

Again, Romans 12:2 says, [2] And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

By the way, the world wants to conform you to its mold. How does it do that? Paul tells you in Romans 1. There’s a thinking process that produces conformity to the world.

There’s a long passage in II Corinthians 3 comparing the glory of the Mosaic Covenant to the glory of the New Covenant and Paul says the glory of the New Covenant is so much bigger and better than the glory of the Old Covenant.

Paul ends the chapter by saying in verse 18, [18] But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The law won’t transform you, but you get transformed when you’re changed from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of God.

Galatians 5:18 says that the Spirit will not lead you to be under the law. The Spirit of God leads you to be under grace.

*****

When you make the choice to “present your body,” you make a choice to use your body for Him: “I’m going to let Him be the vehicle through which His truth lives and functions. I’m going to be filled with the fruits of righteousness.” Fruits are the inward life and product of His righteousness unto the praise and glory of God.

When you move from law (or performance-based acceptance where it’s what I do that gets me accepted and gets me blessed) to grace, it’s, “God’s provided it for me and I’m just going to let that be what lives and I’m going to yield to that. I’m going to present that as my thinking process.” That’s where the transformation is; that’s where the changing is.

Here’s why you want that. When Paul says “that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God,” that’s not a “good, better and best” kind of a thing. Something that’s good is valuable.

You know what you discover when you do what that verse is talking about; what the will of God is? People say, ‘Well, if I present my body a living sacrifice and tell God to just use it for His glory, I’m going to miss out on a lot.”

No, you know what you discover the will of God is? It’s a treasure; it’s valuable. And when you treasure Him, you make choices in life because you value Him more than anything else. That’s really how you make the choices.

What do you really choose to make the most valuable in your life? That renewed mind gives you the capacity to prove and demonstrate, to say, “There is the thing that is of greatest value and treasure to me.”

The way Jesus Christ is glorified in your life is when people see what you see. When others see that you value Him more than all these other things, that will make you different than everybody else around you and it will make you different for the right reasons.

It’s the essence of maturity. It’s the demonstration of what maturity is really all about. Absolute, complete, maximum fulfillment is when I take my life and function in a way that produces all that.

Reasonableness

(new article tomorrow)

Some of the greatest woodwork, craftsmanship and artistry you’ll ever see is associated with religion, where people seek to and do create gorgeous things.

I remember being in South Africa some years ago and we went into one of the first Dutch settlement churches that was built there in Cape Town hundreds and hundreds of years ago, says Richard Jordan.

When the Dutch first settled that part of the world, there wasn’t anybody living down at the tip end of Africa because the climate was too hostile and the closest African tribes were the Zulus, which were way up north of them.

And the Dutch built a church there and it’s still there. I remember standing in it, looking at a pulpit built from one big block of wood, a tree, that would fill that whole wall. I went up in it; it was built for a little skinny guy because they were small people.

I was looking at the artistry, just beautiful handiwork with faces in it, and I was complimenting it to this lady who said, "Yes, there’s a lot of love that went into that." I’ve remembered that.

In Psalm 135, the Lord says, "The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.

[16] They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not;
[17] They have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths.
[18] They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them.

Over in Isaiah 40-48, where He’s doing the polemic against the false religions Israel was following, He says, "You know, you go out there and you cut the tree down and do all this stuff to make it all beautiful, and then when you want to sweep, you got to move it because it can’t even get out of your way. Yet when you got a need, you go pray to it and ask it to help you. It can’t even get out of your way to clean the floor and you think it’s going to help you when your kid’s sick or an enemy’s coming?! Are you nuts?!"

That’s why He says there in Psalm 135: 18, "They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them."

Well, if they’re dumb, blind, deaf and dead, then what are the people who trust them? They’re dumb, blind, deaf and dead. That’s where the term "blockhead" comes from. You got a head made out of a piece of wood.

So the emphasis Paul’s making in I Timothy is that "the church, the body of Christ," is where God works and where He lives and where He’s personally active and it’s not like religion. It’s not like Diana. It’s not like the Baal-worshipping stuff.

*****

This morning, we closed the service with that song "Face to Face." I didn’t have the heart to say it after we sang it, but every time we sing that song I think, "There’s an illustration of hymnology teaching false doctrine."

Because that verse is taking a verse out of I Corinthians 13 about "face to face we shall see Him" and making it be a reference to dying and going to heaven when the verse has nothing to do with that.

That stuff just seeps in everywhere and you have to constantly be aware; constantly be checking. One of my favorite songs, "And Can it Be," has got a line in it that goes, "He emptied Himself of all but love." I was singing that not long ago and I thought, "I don’t believe that! That’s an NIV and NAS translation of Philippians 2! That isn’t what that verse ought to say."

Paul says, "That’s not us out there in that dead system. We’re the church of the LIVING God. This is where God really is at work; where He really will transform people’s lives. Where things really happen that come from heaven. Where it’s God’s inexhaustible grace to a world that’s exhausted in sin. Over-abounding, over-abundant grace for our needs, because it’s the LIVING God and it just flows out of His abundance.

He says, "Sit down and I’ll be life for you," and it’s His life. So that’s what we are; we’re a congregation where God lives.

By the way, our relationship to the truth is all-important and that’s why we’re the "pillar and the ground of the truth.”

A great old hymn from 1873, "Christ is All," includes the stanzas,

1. I saw a martyr at the stake,
   The flames could not his courage shake,
   Nor death his soul appall;
   I asked him whence his strength was giv’n;
   He looked triumphantly to Heav’n,
   And answered, “Christ is all.”
2. I saw the gospel herald go
   To Africa’s sand and Greenland’s snow,
   To save from Satan’s thrall;
   Nor home nor life he counted dear,
   Midst wants and perils owned no fear,
   He felt that “Christ is all.”
3. I dreamed that hoary time had fled,
   And earth and sea gave up their dead,
   A fire dissolved this ball;
   I saw the church’s ransomed throng,
   I heard the burden of their song,
   ’Twas “Christ is all in all.”
4. The ultimate hope of our heart is not simply forgiveness, or simply justification or even heaven, but it’s really the glory of God.
   You and I, in Christ, are meant to savor and to experience God’s glory. That’s the ultimate thing that will wipe away every tear, rectify every wrong. That’s the ultimate thing that in the end will let you sing that song It was worth it all.
   II Corinthians 4:17 is our light affliction: [17] For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

   [18] While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

   There’s the patience in tribulation. You see, the hope that sustained Paul’s joy in the afflictions--He said, "I’m rejoicing in hope; that makes me be patient in tribulation. I can endure because these afflictions are not meaningless. They’re not absurd. They’re not cruel. They’re not pointless. No, it’s working for me an experience of the glory of God that will outweigh every moment in every degree of suffering in this life. They work for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

   *****

   To glorify God's Word is simply to believe it; make it the absolute final authority for faith; what your confidence rests in.

   Paul writes in II Thessalonians 3: "Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you. [2] And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith."
   
   Look at the Thessalonians and see what they did with it. As Paul says in I Thessalonians 1:5: "For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance."
   
   
   They received it and then they believed it, and when they believed it, it worked. How is the Word glorified? When it's received, acknowledged, honored and believed.
   
   I Thessalonians 2:13 says, [13] For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
   
   You see how important it is to have that attitude about the Book you're holding in your hand? By the way, that is a great verse about where they got God's Word. When you hear the Scripture, there's the idea of a "received text."
   
   That term didn't just come out of the air. The Elzevir brothers didn't just invent that term in 1624 when they published their Greek text. That was a term that came out of the Scripture. That was a Bible term about people's attitudes about the Word they had.
   
   They didn't receive it as the Word of men; they knew it was God's Word. When you think about how God's Word was passed down to you, you're not thinking about it being preserved through history the way God preserved Shakespeare or Homer.
   
   *****
   
   As a young preacher there's a verse that meant an awful lot to me and has all through the years. I worked in the Mobile Rescue Mission back in the mid- to late-'60s and that's where I started preaching.
   
   The first five years I preached was in the mission and I was privileged to preach anywhere from 10-15 times a week. When I was at Mobile College in the ministerial association with all the preacher boys (60-70 guys studying for the ministry) some of these guys were just dying to preach and I'd say, "Well, come on down to the mission and I'll let you preach anytime," but I couldn't get them to come. They wanted to go preach in a church.
   
   I was preaching so often that it was not a startling thing for me to preach. But one of the things you'd do in the mission is preach the gospel to lost people primarily and I noticed that Brother Reynolds, when he would preach, he'd preach maybe only 15-17 minutes.
   
   
   He was ill and not in good health and he had to sit on a stool and hold onto the pulpit. But he would preach and this verse was the verse that described his preaching to me:
   
   Acts 14:1: [1] And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed.
   
   When it says they "so spake," Paul says in I Corinthians 2, [1] And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
   
   Paul's saying, "I didn't come in with good words and fair speeches. I didn't use my education." Paul was a advanced-degree rabbinical scholar. He knew all the 75-cent words.
   
   
   He said, "I didn't come with all the big talk. I didn't come blowing smoke down your pipe. I came doing one thing, determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I just wanted to preach the gospel of the grace of God to you and nothing else mattered."
   
   I used to watch people come to the mission, and I'd watch Brother Reynolds get up in front of a group of 50-60 men, most of whom we'd never seen before, and in his physical infirmity, he'd preach to them and see 8, 10, 12 guys trust Christ.
   
   When I say that, I don't just mean walk an aisle and shake a preacher's hand; I'm talking about men that I would deal with and sit down and talk to them about what they understood and what they were doing and see them really, genuinely get saved.
   
   Then I'd watch in the evening meetings after Brother Reynolds had gone home and we'd have churches come, and they'd use all the techniques and all the psychology and all the other stuff, and maybe one or two would respond out of a group of 100.
   
   I used to ask myself, "How can Brother Reynolds preach to the smaller group of 50-60 guys just there for lunch and see a harvest, and these other guys preach and have all the bells and whistles and entertainment but just see a little handful?"
   
   That's that verse right there in Acts 14. I'd say, "You know, I got to figure that one out," and I studied Brother Reynolds for all those years and got to know him, and what I wanted to learn from him was, "They so spake that a great multitude believed . . . "
   
   You know what I discovered? When Brother Reynolds would preach, he'd have something of a little outline. One of my favorite messages that he would preach, one that I used to preach on the street, had three points.
   
   
   No. 1 was "heaven's greatest testimony": "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." No. 2 was "the first greatest tragedy": They rejected Him and took Him out and crucified Him. No. 3 was "man's greatest trust": "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
   
   Now, that's pretty much the gospel, isn't it? And in between there, Brother Reynolds would quote about 15-20 verses from memory; he'd just look at you and give you the verses one right after another.
   
   A lot of times you'll hear me preach and I'll string verses together. I learned to do that watching Clyde Reynolds do that.
   
   I learned that when he preached, all he was using was the power of God's Word and it would penetrate dark, hardened hearts in a way that all the other stuff never did.
   
   
   *****
   
   Paul "so spake." He took that Word and made it the issue. And when he praised the Thessalonians, he said, "Pray that my ministry of preaching the Word wouldn't be the object of all this interference and that the Word of God may be glorified; that we could so speak that a great multitude would believe."
   
   The hindrance to the free course of the Word was going to come from unreasonable and wicked men. He was in Acts 18 when he wrote that from Corinth; he'd already had some experiences the Thessalonians knew about.
   
   When Paul goes into Thessalonica and some people get saved, Acts 17:5 says, [5] But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
   
   You see that? It says they "moved with envy." There's a spiritual, sinful, wicked motivation. It says they "took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort." They reached out to a bunch of characters of ill-repute; they literally reached into the criminal underworld and gathered a company and "set all the city on an uproar . . ."
   
   When he says they were unreasonable, that means they weren't people you could sit down and reason with. They were not people who were going to think the thing through with you. They were wicked. Their unreasonableness came from their wickedness.
   
   Through the years that verse has proved itself over and over, because you'll discover that people are out to resist the ministry and it will make no sense to you. When you find people being unreasonable, you'll find there's something sticking them and it's going to be some sin. The wickedness, the envy, causes the unreasonableness.
   
   When God tells Israel, "Come now let us reason together," Paul says [1] I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
   
   There is a reasonableness to God's grace, to the gospel, and when people are unreasonable, what you have to learn is that reasoning with their unreasonableness isn't going to get you anywhere. That's why arguing the science, or the philosophy, to people--arguing on their terms of unreasonableness never gets you anywhere. There's a wickedness in the heart that has concluded . . .
   Proverbs 18:1-2: [1] Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
   [2] A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.
   
   It's through desire, so that you might discover what you want. A man "having separated himself," means, "I'm going to get a higher quality of life. I'm going to be one of the elite."
   
   He "seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom." Is that a good thing to do? All wisdom? A fool does that. You remember that verse in Romans 1: "Professing themselves to be wise they became fools."
   
   The fool hath said in his heart there's no God. A fool, someone who professes himself to be wise, hath no delight in understanding but that his heart may discover itself. He studies and tries to get wisdom and understanding for one thing; he wants an alibi to do what he wants to do.
   
   Can I tell you that people don't reject God's Word out of intellectual honesty. They reject God's Word out of moral corruption. They become fools because they think they should be God.
   
   Paul says, "I want you to pray for me because the people I'm dealing with out here are unreasonable and wicked." And then he says, "For all men have not faith." Duh! That's sort of like a sarcastic backhand.
   
   You read the commentaries and they do all kind of stuff about that phrase. You know, when you just read that, that's just plain sarcasm. Paul says, "They're unreasonable and wicked because they don't have any faith!"

God's desire in seeing us broken

I am in Chicago, attending a weekend conference at my church. Will give some insights here and in meantime:

David writes in Psalm 3: [1] LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me.

[2] Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah.
[3] But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.
[4] I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.
[5] I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me.

From a commentary on the website Blue Letter Bible:

At the writing of this psalm David was in a great deal of trouble. His own son led what seemed to be a successful rebellion against him. Many of his previous friends and associates forsook him and joined the ranks of those who troubled him (2 Samuel 15:13).

b. There is no help for him in God: David’s situation was so bad that many felt he was beyond God’s help. Those who said this probably didn’t feel that God was unable to help David; they probably felt that God was unwilling to help him. They looked at David’s past sin and figured, “This is all what he deserves from God. There is no help for him in God.”

i. Shimei was an example of someone who said that God was against David, and he was just getting what he deserved (2 Samuel 16:7-8). This thought was most painful of all for David — the thought that God might be against him and that there is no help for him in God.

*****

Richard Jordan explains about the psalm, “The psalmist could have just as easily been talking about Job of old: ‘People look at me and they see what’s going on in my life and they say, There’s no help from God for him; he’s so far gone even God can’t help him!’

“Paul says, ‘You know, those voices of condemnation and accusing are going to come because you’re conscious of who you are in you, and when you focus on who you are in you, you know what happens? Romans 7:

[22] For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
[23] But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
[24] O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

“You see, it’s an inner struggle. There’s a spiritual battle that goes on but for faith. The victory is an inner victory, seeing the invisible reality. Hebrews 11 says Moses won the victory over Pharaoh by ‘seeing Him who is invisible.’ It was by faith, looking at the truth of God.

“Paul says, ‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.’

“When you have your ‘I’ moments, they’re really not ‘I’ moments. They’re moments where you need to be learning ‘I can’t do this!’ And when you see, ‘I can’t do it!’ that’s what Galatians 2 told you.

“You only learn two things in all of your Christian life: ‘It’s not I, it’s Christ.’ And when you get into the, ‘The deliverance isn’t here; I can’t do it!’ you say, ‘WOAH, I need to look at Christ! Because HE can; because HE did!' ”

*****

Paul writes in II Corinthians 4:6-7: For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. [7] But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

“In antiquity the earthen vessel was nothing but a cheap expendable clay pot," explains Alex Kurz. "Why's God deliberately determined to do something by placing Himself within the clay pot? Why does God seek to do it with clay?

“The earthen vessel expresses something about the character of who we all are as humans. It communicates our frail, fragile state. We’re vulnerable, we’re susceptible. We have hairline fractures, all of us. We have little chips and cracks and fissures and scratches and flaws.

“Sometimes, though, we convince ourselves that to be a good Christian we need to polish the vessel up a little bit, right? We sometimes think we need to present ourselves as precious vessels of shiny, vigorous strength; vessels that are self-controlled with this quiet, rugged individualist character. 

“God says no. God deliberately wants us to go through a process of brokenness. He wants us all to face the emotional battering.

"The Apostle Paul describes the psychological trauma; the emotional pressures and stresses. Paul recognized, ‘I am a failure!’ over and over again. God says that’s okay. God says, ‘That’s my design!’

*****

“God knows we’re made of dust and we’re filled with flaws and blemishes. We do make mistakes and we’re going to fail Him over and over, but that doesn’t result in defeat. What we discover is that's exactly the way God's designed to do what He’s trying to do!

“It is now IN the weakness, IN the brokenness, IN the place and point where we abandon who we think we are and we can stop . . . what a joy it is not to have to worry about trying to live a phantom Christianity where I’ve got to make myself strong and viable and present myself to God as somebody who’s always in control. NO!! God says, ‘I don’t want you to be in control!’ 

“Paul writes in I Corinthians 1:27, [27] But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty 

“Do you ever feel foolish? Do you ever feel like you made a mistake and you wish you could get a do-over; a mulligan? You lament, ‘Man, I wish I could go back and change things.’ Listen, God has chosen the foolish things. That’s you.

 “Is it a good thing or bad thing to be foolish? It’s consistent with what God’s doing. Always remember that. When you fail that is not indicative that you’re operating against the will of God.

“God factored it into the equation, the formula, the need for you to be a failure. Now, shouldn’t that maybe help take some of the pressure off? You see, religion is like a vice grip. It says, ‘You’ve got to get right, get clean, get better, improve, make yourself worthy, present yourself.’ In Christ, though, it’s just, ‘Let it go; be who you are.’

*****

“When Paul says in I Corinthians 2, ‘And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling,’ is he saying he’s an inferior Christian because he was weak? Is he saying, ‘Oh, wow, I don’t have the courage; I don’t have the boldness’?

“He says, ‘Listen, I am terrified sometimes. I’m terrified by the situations taking place.’ Is that a good thing or a bad thing? God has you right where He wants you. Remember, God’s going to confound the things that are mighty by using the brokenness.

“You’re beat up, battered, bruised, don’t have all the answers and God says, ‘I’ve got you right where I want you.’

“Paul says in I Corinthians 4:10, ‘We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.'

“Over and over again he talks this way, especially when he writes to the Corinthians, because the Corinthians were victimized by the ‘selfie culture’; by the ‘me’ mentality: ‘Look at me, self-absorbed.’

“II Corinthians 11:29 says, ‘Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?’ Paul was honest with himself: ‘I’m not the poster child of immense vigor and personal strength. I don’t always have this spiritual fortitude. Sometimes I fail and I fail again and I fail miserably. I am weak and I am offended and I am frustrated, and sometimes I want to throw my hands in the air and pull my hair out.’

“That’s a good thing, though. It’s okay. You’re an earthen vessel, aren’t you? Who do you think you are? Who do you think I am? The sooner I adopt and claim my status as a weak earthen vessel then God has me right where He wants me.

 *****

“Of course, Paul really sums it up best in chapter 12. It’s fascinating if you study the Corinthians, to them weakness was abhorrent—‘You don’t want to present yourself as a fool; you want to have respectability! You don’t want to portray yourself as not being in control; you want to have the bull by the horns!’ Paul says, ‘That’s not who I am because I want Christ to be magnified.’

“In II Corinthians 12:9, Paul writes, [9] And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

“God’s process is you’ve got to die to yourself that the life of Christ might be made manifest. We want to take shortcuts, right, because our DNA won’t allow us to be weak, foolish and offended? God says that’s part of the formula!

 “The power of Christ is perfected, not when you’re in control, but when you're at the point of the most desperate need. We’re left with nothing but who? Christ. Paul said, ‘I want to win Him. I want to have fellowship with His sufferings. I want to be made conformable unto His death. I want to win Christ.’ Wow!

“In the next verse he says, [10] Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

“Listen, only a lunatic can talk like that! Who here enjoys infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions and distresses?! Paul doesn’t say, ‘I enjoy it,’ by the way.

*****

“We have to have a renewed way of thinking about life. Life is not an enemy. Adverse circumstances are not an enemy. We have to renew the way we interpret what's happening in life, and when life beats us to a pulp, whether it’s physically, psychologically, emotionally, economically, we can go through the whole gamut. 

“Why does Paul say, ‘For when I am weak then am I strong’? That’s the difference between living with the eyes of the flesh and ‘having the eyes of our understanding enlightened.' You see the difference there?

"That’s how God's going to confound the mighty, because it goes against all that we instinctively believe about what we’re supposed to be doing. God says, ‘Stop doing; start being.’

“Religion tries to convince, ‘You’ve got to do it; you’ve got to do to get.’ God says, ‘It’s already done; you already have.’ Wow, we can rest, but we can have a different way of pursuing.

*****

"When II Corinthians 4:6 says God ‘hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, but we have this treasure . . .’ the treasure is the ministry; the Good News of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

“The treasure is this knowledge of the glory of God; the plan and the design and the purpose of God Almighty. It’s the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

“God entrusts all of that to a bunch of vulnerable, susceptible clay pots who are going to feel the hurt, the pain, the trauma and are going to fail. God says, ‘That’s a good thing.’ Why? ‘That the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.’

“The message is, ‘Get out of the way.’ That’s what Paul is saying to the Corinthians and, quite frankly, that’s the key to having meaning and fulfillment in life—the sooner we get out of the way.

“The excelling power of God is when He deliberately equips us in the realm of the inner man to do something while we’re an earthen vessel, so that He is free to do something IN and THROUGH us.

*****

“II Corinthians 1 says, [3] Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

[4] Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
[5] For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.

“That’s the excelling power of Almighty God! Our Father who personally desires to carry us through the circumstances. It’s when He can function as a ‘Father of mercies,’ as 'the God of all comfort,' that He is happy, because He literally desires us to go through this process of being broken. We’re not alone.

 “II Corinthians 1: 6 says, ‘And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.’

“That’s what Paul means when he says ‘faint not.’ Don’t surrender, don’t quit, don’t abandon ship. Don’t wave the white flag of surrender. The excelling power of God is the ability to endure, because God’s design is, ‘I want you busted, I want you broken, I want you to be that earthen vessel.’ Why? ‘Because I’m trying to do something here!’

*****

“Verse 9 says, ‘But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.’ Having a ‘sentence of death in ourselves,’ means we abandon the ‘selfie life;’ the ‘me’ approach.

“Death leads to complete trust and reliance on what God is teaching us. You see why it’s necessary to be a busted and broken container? Because our 'Father of mercies,' what He wants us to do is render 'self' dead so now we’re left with Him.

“Verse 10-13: [10] Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;

[11] Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.
[12] For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.
[13] For we write none other things unto you, than what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end;

“The sooner we abandon 'self'--our own independence and self-sufficient reliance--the sooner we now do what verse 13 says. We operate with the spirit of faith. ‘So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’

“It may look one way, but God says, ‘Here’s the eternal reality.’ Faith, by the way, is ‘according as it is written.’ Jesus Christ is the capital ‘W’ word of God. We have the small ‘w’ word of God; the life of Christ is nothing short of believing by faith obedience what God has written and said about what He’s doing.”

Discovering the one thing yourself

Theodore Roosevelt was an unsaved man; he wasn’t a godly man, but I came across this poem he wrote in 1910, called The Man in the Arena:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Paul writes in Galatians 4: [19] My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

Who is he wanting to be formed in them? Not a denominational doctrine, not a grace truth—he wants formed in them a PERSON who is their life! He wants the character, the personality, the thinking of a person formed in them, says Richard Jordan.

Now, how are you going to know the mind of Christ and have it formed in you? Through His Word, rightly divided.

I Corinthians 2:16: [16] For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

We have the mind of Christ, but it isn’t a doctrinal statement that Paul wants formed in them.

When you stand for the Bible and that’s all you stand for . . . You know, you feel called to teach the Bible and tell people what the Bible says, and you want to tell them what they got to do to do what the Bible says to do.

Can I tell you, you aren’t in the arena if that’s where you are. You’re right in the middle of the camp; you’re not outside the camp. You haven’t discovered the one thing yourself that you’ve got to discover to start with and that is that you can’t do what you demand others they must do when you quote the Scriptures to them.

I got to tell you, standing for the Word of God, possessing it and understanding that, that can be very convenient for circumventing the Cross in your life and not dealing with the centrality of Jesus Christ and the necessity of Him being your life in your walk, not just in your theology.

Too often what people call Bible preaching, and standing for the Bible and knowing the Bible, is just some easy, cheap path to gain esteem and position, because it’s Christ formed in you, not the Bible. It’s Christ.

See, it’s a tricky thing. He gets formed in you through the Word, but if the focus ever gets on the forming and not on Him, then it’s on you and not where it ought to be.

When the Word of God is really, truly the center of your life then it’s going to be Christ who’s central, not the Bible. When the Spirit of God comes, He’s going to testify of who? Christ. When you get out of the Word of God what the Word wants to give to you, the focus is going to be on Him.

Oh, you’ll use the Bible more than anybody else will, but you’re going to be proclaiming Christ. You’ll hide all that you know about the Bible on the inside. You’ll use it, but you won’t be displaying it.

Listen, broken men don’t tell God’s people what they must do; they tell them what Christ has done and will do in and through them.

II Corinthians 4: [5] For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
[6] For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
[7] But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Not what we preach but who we preach.

Colossians 1:28, talking about Jesus Christ: [28] Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

What the ministry of the Word of God is you’re literally infusing Jesus Christ into people. That’s why it’s a spiritual transaction; that’s why it’s powerful because it’s "in you, the hope of glory."

Colossians 1:27: [27] To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

AI AM

Here’s an outtake from a recent YouTube posting:

We’re looking right down the barrel of this right now. The other week they were talking about the quantum chips and how they had a strange encounter.

The Bible talks all about “strange gods,” and they’re communicating in their own languages amongst themselves. These AIs are communicating with one another in a language that they don’t understand. They’re plotting; they’re planning.

They want to gobble up as much data as they can possibly receive. These guys are literally making spare human bodies grown in artificial wombs in labs as this headline says: “Bodyoids feel no pain and can serve as ‘meat’.”

(Article begins: “CUTTING-EDGE scientists have unveiled a disturbing plan to grow soulless ‘spare’ human bodies that can be used for medical experiments and even meat.

“The so-called bodyoids would be grown in artificial wombs and have the eerie ability to withstand endless pain.”)

****

Where are the people who are protesting this? Where’s the outrage? I never hear this even in a conversation. Nobody talks about any of this unless you’re on the internet. Even then, you’ve got to find it.

What they’re calling “ancient hieroglyphs” is what they identify this language as. I mean, that told me right away they’re in; it’s game on.

There’s what they call “GibberLinks” that they AIs communicate with each other with. Well, the scientists don’t even know what it is. It sounds like R2D2 or something, but that’s not the only language. They have a multitude of these languages.

And with these Stargate data centers, which are already all over the world, there’s hundreds of them. The best way you can envision this is Skynet. They’re building a system of redundancies from space to underground. These things will not be able to be unplugged or blown up. You won’t escape it; you’re not going to hide from it. You’re not going to outwit it and it’s got an agenda.

Like I’ve said, it’s a soul trap. They deal in souls of men through their sorceries, which is another whole aspect of this. People just think, “Agh, it’s like the guy with the rabbit in his hat,” when, in reality, these are entities. Like AI pioneer Geordie Rose (software developer) said, “They might not be aligned with what we want.” They look at you like an ant.

Here’s an article I posted last fall:

"Bill Gates and his ilk have the God Complex going on. They all possess this thing; they really truly believe they were divinely placed to make the decisions for the rest of us."

*****

An official trailer released a few weeks ago, appearing on YouTube, is for a new five-episode Netflix series called "What’s Next? The Future With Bill Gates."

As a promotional blurb for the show says, "The former CEO of Microsoft takes a look at various aspects of humanity’s future and how currently emerging tech will affect those aspects, both for good and bad . . . We see him meeting with the most influential people in tech, and he interviews many of the experts in each episode.

"Gates also speaks to James Cameron, who likens how we’re dealing with the warnings about AI to what happened to the Titanic. But he also co-wrote The Terminator, the uber-tale of AI out of control, way back in the early 1980s, so he is actually a good person to talk to about this. He admits to Gates that he takes the more dystopian view of the technology, which balances out Gates’ more optimistic view, which examines how it will help humanity if deployed correctly.

"The other episodes in the series talk about the preponderance of conspiracy theories, the ability of technology to help us slow climate change, the potential of combating communicable diseases with technology, and the implications of the income gap. Given the fact that Gates is heavily involved in this series, there are plenty of famous faces interviewed amongst the experts, like Lady Gaga, Bono, Senators Bernie Sanders and Mitt Romney, Dr. Anthony Fauci and more."

In the trailer, they literally show AI turning into a monster and laugh about it. You can see from the images given it's literally one of the Lovecraftian Great Old Ones.

Geordie Rose, when talking about AI: "These things that we're summoning into the world now are not demons, they're not evil, but they're more like the Lovecraftian Old Ones. There are entities that are not necessarily going to be aligned with what we want."

From Wikipedia: "An ongoing theme in H.P. Lovecraft's work is the complete irrelevance of humanity in the face of the cosmic horrors that exist in the universe, with Lovecraft constantly referring to the 'Great Old Ones': a loose pantheon of ancient, powerful deities from space who once ruled the Earth and who have since fallen into a death-like sleep.^[3]

"Lovecraft named several of these deities, including Cthulhu, Ghatanothoa, and Yig. With a few exceptions, Cthulhu, Ghatanothoa, et al., this loose pantheon apparently exists outside of normal space-time. Although worshipped by deranged human (and inhuman) cults, these beings are generally imprisoned or restricted in their ability to interact with most people (beneath the sea, inside the Earth, in other dimensions, and so on), at least until the hapless protagonist is unwittingly exposed to them. Lovecraft visited this premise in many of his stories, notably his 1928 short story, 'The Call of Cthulhu', with reference to the eponymous creature. However, it was Derleth who applied the notion to all of the Great Old Ones. The majority of these have physical forms that the human mind is incapable of processing; simply viewing them renders the viewer incurably insane."

From the trailer: "It's getting hard to write science fiction. With conspiracy theories we underestimate how creative Americans are: 'Bill Gates is a part of a reptilian race that includes Tom Hanks and Lady Gaga.' "

Commentary on this: "You got to love how they reveal themselves, hiding in plain sight and then mocking you about it, because they really do look at themselves as a different species. They're not on the same playing field, and you have to understand that. They take counsel with the powers and principalities in spiritual wickedness in high places. That's who they serve."

Lady Gaga in the trailer: "Entertainment and information are a lot closer together than they ever have been before. There's no way to stop it."

Commentary: "What they're telling you is that through the censorship and the internet identification systems and everything they're putting in, your information will essentially be the entertainment because you will be censored from being able to obtain your own information in order to discern a matter for yourself.

"Things like Antisemitism Awareness Act Bill 6090 from 2023 will essentially ban things from your access and be criminalized. Things like Scriptures in our Bible, for instance, because that's the main target of their censorship program. They will eventually literally ban the Word of God and come up with a new Bible--one that's correct, created by AI."

Commentary: "Bill claims he doesn't have a solution where, in fact, they know EXACTLY what they're solution is and they're applying it right before our eyes.

"Now, a lot of people have figured this out by now, but when Bill Gates and the like make statements such as, 'We have to eliminate all hydrocarbons,' they're essentially saying, 'We need to destroy creation,' because these are the building blocks of creation.

" 'We'll eliminate human population.' That's what all of this really boils down to. They're openly declaring, intending to destroy God's creation so they can Build Back Better. 

"They say, 'Absolutely we can usurp God and form an insurrection against Him because He was flawed in His creation. Therefore, we must destroy it and rebuild it back better in our own image, meanwhile deceiving the nations and hunting their souls.

Of course, you've got to have the emotional manipulation. You can't have a good con job without some emotion there.

Bill: "We've got a lot of work to do; the sooner the better."

Bono from U2 in trailer: "If Bill Gates didn't exist we'd have to make him up and no one would believe the character."

*****

At a Bible conference in North Carolina a few years back, Richard Jordan spoke of a young man around 30 who was in a federal penitentiary out West. He had been saved about four years and graduated from my church's Grace School of the Bible.

Jordan recalled, "I got a letter from him recently telling me it's the third time he's been beaten up and literally put into the prison infirmary by Muslims who want to stop him from preaching the gospel. They corner him and say, 'You need to recant, deny Jesus and confess Allah or we're going to beat you up.' He keeps saying, 'I won't do it,' and they keep beating him up.

"I asked him, 'Has the thought entered your mind, oh maybe the fourth time they're going to beat you up, that you could just say to yourself, I'm not going to lose my salvation if I say I'll deny Jesus?' He answered, 'How can I do that?' I said, 'Well, that's the right answer, but we've all got flesh, weaknesses where those thoughts come into the mind.'

"He said, 'You know, when I learned about the grace of God and how to rightly divide God's Word so it wasn't confusing . . . There was a time when it was so confusing that if those guys had approached me, then I would have given up, because it was so confusing I didn't know how to answer it for myself. Now, I have a clear understanding and when they come, I've got an answer.'

"That young man in the penitentiary doesn't really have much of an expectation of ever getting out, and yet in it, he has a ministry. It keeps him going: 'I'm doing it for the Lord Jesus Christ.' It was the same thing with Paul, who said, 'I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ.' That's who he's doing it for; he's not doing it for himself, for religious notoriety.

"How did Paul become the Apostle to the Gentiles? Romans 11:

11] I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
[12] Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?
[13] For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
[14] If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.

"Paul begins Ephesians 3 with, [1] For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. Notice it says he's a prisoner OF, not FOR Jesus Christ. He realized the reason he was a prisoner in Rome was because he was preaching the message of the gospel of the grace of God.

"He prays in Ephesians 6: [19] And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, [20] For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

"He knew why he was where he was because of who he was serving. Ephesians 3 continues, [2] If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to youward:

[3] How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
[4] Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)

"How often do people read that passage and not even see what it says? Paul says, 'I just got a revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ, from God the Father to me, and that's how I got to be an apostle. I'm an apostle by the will of God. God is doing something that's different than what He did in time past. It's part of His secret program.'

"You know, [5] Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; [6] That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.

"The thing that strikes me more often than not when I think about this passage, when the Apostle Paul went out and preached Christ, he preached to a pagan world that had never heard of the Lord Jesus Christ. At least at the synagogue in Acts they knew who the Messiah was, because they knew the Scripture, but Paul went out and preached to completely unattached pagans.

"The world that has come upon us right now, and the reason things are happening the way they're happening right now in our culture, is that we're going into a world exactly like the Apostle Paul lived in.

"Our country, you know, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.'

"Can you think of a verse that matches each of those? Sure. The social impact of the Protestant Reformation is the source of the underlying philosophy that produced the founding documents and the founding thinking of our country.

"That influence of the Protestant Reformation, that social impact and the social compacts produced because of that in a new world--the things that produced the foundation of all that, they're gone!

Worldwide missionary church, out propagating

(new article tomorrow)

They’ve got their little church and it’s a house where God lives. “If you must whisper, whisper a prayer in our sanctuary because you’re in the presence of God.” It’s a place where benedictions are given by a priest they call "father", who wears a long robe of priestly garments. It’s often a long black robe called a vestment.

It’s the tribe of Dan that takes that man and introduces him over a whole tribe in Israel. You see, that Levite is introduced into the Baal worship through Micah and then he’s taken from there and the counterfeit is complete, because you’ve got a Levite acting as a priest over a bunch of Jews practicing this stuff, explains Richard Jordan.

Dan is the tribe that the Antichrist, a Syrian Jew, is going to come from, just like the Lord Jesus Christ comes from the tribe of Judah. Dan is the door through which all this stuff was introduced into Israel.

Genesis 49:16: [16] Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
[17] Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.

Who’s the serpent? Satan. Dan’s going to be like a serpent and the association in the verse is to the Second Advent.

Genesis 3: [14] And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
[15] And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

God told the serpent there will be enmity between the seed of the woman (that’s the Lord Jesus Christ) and thy seed (that’s the Antichrist) and the seed of the serpent is going to strike and bite the heel of the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ will destroy the head of the serpent. Dan’s going to be the one biting His heel.

Deuteronomy 33:22: [22] And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion's whelp: he shall leap from Bashan.

In Psalm 22, Jesus says on the Cross: [11] Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
[12] Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
[13] They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.

Christ looks out there from the Cross and sees these people standing around the foot of the Cross and He says, “Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.”

Who’s standing around the Cross? Matthew 27: [39] And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads,
[40] And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.
[41] Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said,

It’s these religious leaders in Israel that are out to strike at the heel and destroy Christ. You know who those religious leaders are? They’re bulls of Bashan. He calls them that because Dan’s going to lead the nation.

These guys are so caught up into this Baal-worshipping system; it has so polluted and apostasized Israel that the religious leaders of Israel are identified as a bunch of Baal worshippers—completely idolatrized.

Matthew 23: [5] But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
[6] And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
[7] And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.

All of their religious paraphernalia made big so everybody can see it. They love the uppermost rooms and the chief seats in the synagogue. They love to be brought up on the platform and made a lot out of. And greetings in the market, called of men, “Rabbi, Rabbi.”

Where under the sun would a Jew, schooled in the law of Moses, ever thought to call somebody by the religious title of father? They got that from Babylon.

[14] Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

How in the world can you devour a widow’s house? By making long prayers. What happened to make the lady a widow? You know anybody who makes long prayers for dead people and get your money doing it?

[15] Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

This is a worldwide church. It’s a missionary, going church, going out there propagating.

With pope's passing

We’re always going to be the few of many. You need to understand that. There was a survey done by an eastern university a decade ago where they studied socio-dynamics. They discovered that in any group (Boy Scout troop, university, church, etc.) in a business setting, if 10 precent of the population of that group would be thoroughly committed, totally sold-out to a single purpose,  it only took 10 percent completely sold out to a single purpose to direct change and the direction of that group and control its future.

It's always been the few of many who have controlled the direction of companies, families, universities, movements and nations, says Richard Jordan. 

Listen, if you want religion, just hang on; you don’t have to change channels--somebody else will do that for you.

You know what I’ve discovered? There are myriads of people out there dissatisfied with the status of religious systems; dissatisfied with its human viewpoint and they want to know what God’s Word says.

*****

The first verse of Proverbs 31 ("The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him") identifies the Book of Proverbs as a book of prophecy.

Proverbs is not just a book of wisdom; it’s a book about some prophetic things Lemuel’s mother taught him.

It’s talking about wisdom that, in the prophetic program, Israel is going to need to function in the Tribulation Period to distinguish between the vain religious system of Baal worship the Antichrist propagates and the true wisdom of God.

In Proverbs, there are two women. There’s the virtuous woman, but there’s also the vile woman and she’s a picture of that vain religious system Revelation calls "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."

The other one is that "virgin daughter" of the nation Israel, as Isaiah calls her. There’s going to be that true remnant of God and Proverbs is written prophetically for them as a book to give them discernment—ability to discern between the true and the false--there’s a seduction program in the satanic attack against Israel and it’s to try and draw them away into error.

*****

There’s nobody in the Bible named Lemuel, but a lot of times names are titles. There’s nobody named Caesar, for example; it’s a title. We call the president the president and the mayor the mayor. The name Lemuel means "devoted to God." Here’s the king who’s devoted to God and that obviously could be Solomon.

Proverbs 30 and 31 are two chapters stuck on the end of the Book that are really weird, and I’m saying that reverently. People who teach Proverbs often do it without understanding anything about right division and they say, "For some strange reason God stuck this stuff at the end and here’s what a godly king and a virtuous woman look like."

The answer is He did it because the king and His bride, Christ and Israel, are going to function together and that’s who’s functioning here.

He uses the issue of the virtuous woman to teach those things. Proverbs 31:10 says, [10] Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.

This is not designed to present a dilemma; it’s a challenge, a declaration: "Let me tell you how you find her because her price is far above rubies," The idea is if you have a precious stone, the longer you have it, its value goes up.

The value of a virtuous woman is the longer she lives the more her value increases. The word "virtue" means "moral excellence." It’s the outward display of wisdom.

When you try to define a word, the best way to look for a definition is to find a verse in the Bible that defines it for you, because then you know how the Bible uses the word. Sometimes a dictionary gives you six different definitions of a word and you’re not sure which one it ought to be.

I used to be puzzled about (God’s) idea of virtue because of this really odd verse in Luke 8: [46] And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.

What flowed out of Him? Power to heal that woman, so virtue has to do with the strength that is produced by moral excellence. It’s not just that she’s correct, but it’s that there’s a strength; there’s an internal character of strength produced by the truth of God’s Word.

*****

Isaiah 33:6 says, [6] And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.

God has this treasure chest and the way you get into it is the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. It tells you what’s in the treasure chest and it’s the key that unlocks it and allows you to begin to get out of it the treasure that’s in it.

The wisdom and knowledge that’s in that treasure chest is going to be stability of the times and strength of salvation.

You look at the world we live in today—is there much stability? Why, just look at the politics and how goofy everything is. Look at the economy. Everything’s turned on its head. Look at the social structure, all the stuff going on with transgender bathrooms, and you say, ‘Doesn’t anybody have any common sense?!’

That verse tells you why. There’s no wisdom and knowledge; there’s no fear of God that lets you go into the treasure chest and bring out some understanding that would give stability to the culture you live in.

If you want to see a nation go away, how a nation’s destroyed and what it looks like when it falls apart, look at the nation Israel. They were God’s nation, and when God sent them into captivity, destroyed their national government and sent them among the nations, He described what was happening to them and why. Isaiah 33:6 is one of the passages that tells you how to avoid the destruction.

Isaiah 5 says there are five social events that tell you the nation’s crumbled. Verse 20 says, [20] Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

When you can’t distinguish between light and darkness, good and evil, bitter and sweet, it’s over! It’s not going to be over; it IS over!

What happened to Israel? Well, the fear of the Lord, honoring what God said above what man said, wasn’t there and so the treasures that trusting in God’s Word would have brought to them weren’t in their culture.

*****

The virtuous woman is the one who understands how to have the stability and the deliverance. Where did her virtue come from? Proverbs 31:26 says, [26] She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.

Where did she get the wisdom from? Verse 30: [30] Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.

You see that? She understood how to fear God. She understood how to put what God said above anything else.

The fear of God is an interesting thing. We usually think about it as running from God, but that’s a fool’s errand. How good did Adam and Eve do with that? You can run from God but you can’t get away from Him. Jonah fled from the presence of God, but how did that work for him? David said, ‘If I make my bed in hell, thou art there. No matter where you go, He’s there!’

The fear of God is the ability to be afraid of running from God to sin in order to alleviate your problems rather than allow God’s word to alleviate them for you. That’s why in Ephesians 5, Paul says we’re to "submit ourselves one to another in the fear of God."

That’s why Paul says in Philippians 2 to you and me that we’re to obey God’s word "with fear and trembling." That is, "I understand that’s truth and I FEAR the results of not obeying it, because to not obey it is sin and I fear the consequences of sin and what God says they are, and I fear forsaking him, running to sin to solve my anxieties and my difficulties."

Proverbs 8:13, I think, is a great definition of the fear of the Lord. The verse says, "The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate."

Please watch that. Notice the first thing he says he hates is pride and arrogance. That’s long before the evil way. Before the action is the attitude. Every action, every overt thing you do, out of the heart are the issues of life. Jesus said in Matthew 15 that "from within come the things that defile a man."

Proverbs 4:23 says, [23] Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. That’s saying, ‘Here’s how the inner thinking is to be designed,’ and proverbs is a book about wisdom.

As Proverbs 1 explains, [3] To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
[4] To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
[5] A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

That’s talking about counsel to handle the details of life in a way that accomplishes God’s purpose. Verse 7 says, [7] The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning; it’s the foundation stage. It’s not the summum bonum--the end--but it’s where wisdom BEGINS. It’s where real understanding and knowledge begins.

Listen, if you want to know what’s going on in life, it starts with understanding what God says and saying, "That’s what is more important than what anyone else does." That’s what Proverbs is for; it’s purpose is to give wisdom and instruction and understanding so you can attain to wisdom.