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He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:8) |
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God's goal for every person has never changed and never shall change. The Divine goal can never be expressed more accurately than in Micah 6:8. |
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The problem with today's preaching is that we have changed the goal. The goal no longer is to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. It is to get to Heaven the cheapest, easiest way possible. |
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We have not been commanded to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God in order to go to Heaven. We are to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God in order to be pleasing to the Father and to have fellowship with Him. No creature ever will be pleasing to the Father and have fellowship with Him by mercy, grace, or any other device, only by doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God. |
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"Ah, Brother, these ideas are nice but I am saved by grace." Nonsense. You are not saved by grace, you have been deceived by a false teaching of grace. Did you think God has changed His mind? |
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The present teaching of Divine grace is a muddle of historic proportions. |
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Let's look at the Divine goals in another way. They are that people behave righteously, that they be holy in thought, speech, and action, and that they be sternly obedient to God. |
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Righteousness is probably the main subject of both Testaments and means fair, upright dealing with other people. The righteous individual is honest, honorable, faithful in his commitments, truthful in his statements. |
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Holiness has to do with our relationship to God. All people are to be fully righteous but the level of holiness has to do with our calling. The closer to God we are being drawn the holier are the demands on us. Aaron was more holy than the rest of the priests who were more holy than the Levites who were more holy than the rest of Israel. |
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Kohath didn't like this but it was true. No man takes the honor of the royal priesthood to himself. Holiness has to do with the calling of God. |
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Holiness has to do with freedom from unclean spirits. |
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Righteousness, holiness, and then the third aspect of the Divine goal, which is stern obedience to the Father. It is fashionable in Evangelical circles to declare that no one can obey God or keep the commandments of Christ. If there ever was a lie from the Pit this is it. We are able to keep God's written or personal Word if we will come boldly to the Throne of grace and obtain help in our time of need. But when we continue in disobedience we are regarded as rebellious children. |
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Today Divine grace is presented as the alternative to obeying God. Can you imagine the moral and spiritual havoc this doctrine has caused? |
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Righteous behavior. Freedom from uncleanness of thought, speech, and action. Strict obedience to God. These goal are unchanging from eternity to eternity. They never have changed, they are not changed in the present hour, they never shall be changed! |
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The changes from covenant to covenant are never in God's goals but in the Divine grace (enablement) provided by the Lord and also in the degree of attainment of the goal that is being required. |
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Under the old covenant the Jews learned righteousness from the Law. They learned about holiness from the Law. They learned what God wanted them to do from the Law and from their prophets. Then they had to do this in their own strength. |
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To be continued. |
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Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16) |
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God dealt with Israel both as a Bridegroom and as a Father. As a Father, God exhorted the Israelites to be obedient to Him, just as any Father would His children. |
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God asked of the Jews that they not carry loads through the gates on the Sabbath, that they deal generously with the poor and not charge interest, that they refrain from eating pork. The teaching of grace has become so perverted in our day you would think that God always was asking some impossible thing that no one could ever do. This is not true. |
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This whole modern concept that God gives us commandments He does not expect us to obey so we may be saved by His forgiveness and not by any effort on our own part is straight from Satan. It is weird, perverse, unfruitful—destructive of any possibility of our coming to know God. |
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When God commanded Abraham to walk before God and be perfect He expected Abraham to do just that. |
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"Oh, Brother Thompson, nobody is perfect. We have to be saved by grace." |
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Nonsense! God's commandments are straightforward and He expects them to be obeyed. When we need help He always provides it. But He requires that we obey Him as our Father. |
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How we ever got into this weird, stylized, caricature of grace that prevails in our day is beyond me. But it has nothing to do with God or the Bible. |
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Of course we cannot save ourselves. Of course we cannot earn salvation. Nobody is talking about saving ourselves or earning salvation. |
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We have to come to Christ through the blood of the cross. God forgives us and gives us His Spirit. If we will then live as a Christian, doing all good Christian works such as praying and reading our Bible, we will grow in our ability to keep all of God's commandments. |
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Most of what you hear today is weird! I hate to keep using the same adjective but the most descriptive term is weird! The idea that grace is some kind of magic so we don't have to obey our Father in Heaven is a terrible viewpoint. Away with it! Away with the whole concept of "Jesus did it all," "we have no law but love," "if I try to keep God's commandments I'm a legalist," and all of the other crazy, warped, messed-up, fantasies that pass for the Christian salvation in our time. |
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If you don't begin to keep God's commandments in the New Testament you will not inherit the Kingdom of God. |
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"Oh, but Christ is the overcomer and when I believe in Him I am an overcomer by identifying with Him." |
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Isn't that cute! |
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Sometime when you are fornicating, or gossiping, or slandering (there is enough of that around!), or dividing the church and demolishing the saints with your tongue, or swearing, or lying, or stealing, or flirting with the girls in the office, or getting even with Sister Jones, or trying to steal the sheep from your brother's church, go to Jesus and ask Him if you are overcoming by identifying with Him. |
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To be continued. |
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Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. (Titus 2:14) |
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"Oh, but I'm busy for the Lord." |
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You're busy "for the Lord" all right but if you are behaving unrighteously He doesn't know you and your religious works do not compensate for your bad manners. |
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You may be facing the fire. Better check in at the front desk and get a report card. |
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God is calling for repentance today, not for excuses about how we are saved by grace or identification. |
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God is our Father. Let's obey Him as a father should be obeyed. |
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The Jews learned righteousness—to be generous with the poor and to deal faithfully in their business dealings. |
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They learned holiness—specific things to eat; specifics regarding their hair, their dress, the way to deal with leprosy. They were a people set apart to God for His purposes and were not to live in moral and physical filth like Gentiles. |
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They learned obedience—to bring their sacrifices to the Altar of Burnt Offering; to follow the cloud by day and the fire by night. |
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Under the new covenant we learn upright dealing with people from the commandments of Christ and His Apostles. |
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We learn we are to be morally clean, from the commandments of Christ and His Apostles, and that our bodies are to be presented to God as a living sacrifice. |
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We learn from Christ and His Apostles that we are to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus every day. We are to be led of the Spirit, obeying God strictly in all matters. |
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Thus the goal remains the same under both covenants, with two major exceptions. The level of righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God to which we are called under the new covenant is infinitely greater than that of the old. |
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Also the Divine grace (enablement) provided under the new is infinitely greater than that of the old. |
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The tremendous error in current thinking is that we are in a "dispensation of grace" such that the Divine goals have changed. (There is no such thing as a "dispensation of grace" as presently conceived!) The Divine goals never change. Grace is not an alternative to righteousness, holiness, and obedience, but the means of achieving these. |
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It is true that the blood of Jesus compensates for our weaknesses in these areas while we are starting out in God. But—and this is of awesome importance to understand—this compensation prevails only as long as we are walking in the Spirit of God and making progress in achieving the goals. The moment we get off the bus and cease following the Spirit in sanctification we come under condemnation. Then we are chastened of the Lord. If we do not repent we are in big trouble. |
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New-covenant grace is God in Christ giving us the power and wisdom to behave righteously, to set ourselves aside as holy, and to obey the Father in every detail. Grace is nothing more nor less than this. Our sins are forgiven for eternity. Guilt is never an issue provided we are following Christ. Forgiveness under the new covenant is not an amnesty but a Divine provision that makes it possible for us to come before the Mercy Seat and get the power and wisdom we need to overcome the enemies that would cause us to behave unrighteously, dwell in moral filthiness, and disobey God. |
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To be continued. |
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And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. (Matthew 24:12) |
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The Internet committee met last night. We discussed the problem of seeming to encourage people to go on the Internet. We are not going to encourage Christian people to use the Internet even though we ourselves are using the Internet to convey ideas. We are not going to encourage families to bring something into their home, whether on computer or television, that could cause someone to become addicted to pornography. |
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We have set up an E-mail system so you can get our essays as part of your E-mail without having to search the Internet. |
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We are entering an era in America, the era of the personal computer. The technological advances are breathtaking. The improved screen resolution, the advent of the large screen, improved sound, acceleration of computer speed, the compression of data, are just the beginning. Virtual reality is on the way. We soon shall have a nation of zombies—animated corpses. |
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But we are not going to take your time to play the "ain't it awful" game if we can help it. We are here to change things. |
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One of our engineers (a senior programmer) said last night there is no practical way to screen pornography from the Internet. So what we are reading in the newspaper is a spin like all the other lies that blanket America. |
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The possibility for access to pornography due to the technological advances goes far beyond anything that could have been imagined ten years ago. |
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A recent novel describes a Christian girl being seduced into immorality because of a virtual reality experience in her high school health- education class. |
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If you could see the horrible demonic creatures behind pornography you would never even glance at it. |
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Take my word for it. Or, wait until you see your new spiritual companions for yourself when it is too late to do anything about it. |
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The spirit realm is more real than the physical. For one thing it is eternal. For another it is not mostly space, like the world of molecules, but is totally dense. It is real! |
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One addict who is dead now told how, after getting "saved" several times and attempting to kick drugs, he felt himself descending into some kind of box. As he sat there he asked the Lord how long he would be confined in the box. The Lord said, "Forever." |
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With this the man let out a scream so loud the neighbors called the police. He went and flushed his drugs down the toilet and got back to the Lord. |
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For a few months after this he went around saying, "He said, ‘forever!' " |
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Then he died. |
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Listen, there are demonic creatures that get their kicks from rock and roll, drugs, and pornography. They have the fun and you pick up the tab. |
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Pornography is highly addictive. Glance at it on the Internet and you get hooked. Then you become a victim of your own demon-inspired glands. There you sit, stupidly wasting your time, destroying your nervous system, perhaps building up to commit a crime. |
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If you think these spiritual creatures are not real, wait until you seem them. I heard (on the television) a man speak who draws pictures of the gods used by Buddhists in Nepal, I think it was. He said, "I wait until I can see them and then I paint them. |
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Did you ever see the squat, grinning idols along the river banks in India? Is this the company you want for eternity? |
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Go ahead, laugh. You'll experience the reality of it soon enough and this time it won't be virtual reality. |
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I have a glorious future ahead of me. I plan to spend part of my time in a recently vacated temple, looking out over the roof of the world, breathing the clear Himalayan air, teaching my students how to become the dwelling place of God, how to enter His rest. |
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But where will you be? |
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For God's sake you have better things to do than to sit like a fool in a virtual reality suit, amazed by the chemicals in your body, ruining your personality, a silly grin on your face, your character disintegrating, destroying yourself and doing nothing to help the needy around you, living as a totally selfish, mindless, slobbering slave of the demons of lust. |
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You are giving your money and soul to the porn merchants. They are getting rich and you are losing your soul. They are going to the bank and you will be going to the hospital, prison, or destruction. Such a deal! |
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It isn't religion that is the opiate of the people, it's the personal computer and the television if we can't learn how to handle them! |
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Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. (Hebrews 6:1,2) |
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"And of eternal judgment." |
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Let us think for a moment about the process of salvation. Salvation is deliverance from the guilt, power, and presence of sin. Man comes into the world with tendencies toward loving and trusting the world and the things of the world, with various lusts and passions dwelling in his flesh, and with self-will, self-centeredness, and self-love strongly entrenched in his personality. All of this is his inheritance from Satan, a rebellious cherub. |
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It is easy for man to sin, very difficult for him to behave righteously, to think, speak, and act in a holy manner, and to obey God faithfully. It is easy for man to serve and worship Satan (or so it seems!), very difficult to serve and worship God (or so it seems!). Actually the Lord is a loving and kind Master whose commandments are not grievous while Satan is a harsh, cruel master who never can be satisfied. But Satan has convinced the churches we are not able to keep God's commandments and we must keep on sinning. This is a lie. |
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The purpose of the program of salvation is to move man from the power of Satan to the power of God. |
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Following are some of the major steps of the program of salvation: |
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God draws us to Christ Jesus. |
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God sprinkles the Passover blood of protection on us so we are not condemned with the world. |
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God assigns our adamic nature, our first personality, to the cross with Christ. |
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God puts His Holy Spirit in our personality and Christ is born in us. |
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God raises our new born-again nature to His right hand in Christ. |
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God judges and removes from our personality all that is unrighteous, all that is unholy, and all that is disobedient and self-seeking. This is an eternal judgment. |
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God forms Christ in us. |
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The Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit take up Their eternal residence in our transformed personality. |
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Our physical body is raised from the dead and then clothed with our house from Heaven, the white robe of righteousness that has been formed as we have obeyed the Holy Spirit throughout our discipleship. |
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God assigns us to the various roles and tasks we now are eligible and competent to perform. |
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In our day we are placing an unscriptural emphasis on the beginning aspect of salvation to the neglect of the process and the goal. The product of this overemphasis is people who "make a decision for Christ" and then fall away; make another decision for Christ and then fall away; make another decision for Christ and then fall away. There are many such individuals in jail at the present time who go to a Bible study and make another "decision for Christ." They make a decision for Christ because they want to please God, they want to be righteous. But what they are being taught is a philosophy, a system of belief, not the Divine salvation. (from Eternal Judgment) |
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Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; (II Thessalonians 2:3) |
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Antichrist, we believe, will begin his (or her) career as a Christian disciple (just as Judas did). He will arise at the time that most of the earth has been converted in the latter-rain revival, the unprecedented manifestation of the Glory of God portrayed in the Book of Revelation by the two witnesses. |
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Antichrist will perceive the possibility of uniting all the religious people of the earth in a miracle-working Christianity, and of the suitability of libertarian democracy, and perhaps capitalism, as a form of one-world government and economics seemingly compatible with Christianity. |
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The truth is, there are elements in libertarian democracy and capitalism that could not be more violently opposed to the Kingdom of God. |
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Antichrist will involve the churches in the government and the government in the churches. |
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He may present "Christian" supernatural power as a means of relieving the problems of the world: hunger, disease, crime, poverty, violence, addiction. He may support the notion that all of mankind's ills can be healed by a positive-thinking, miracle-working Christianity." |
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Antichrist will not fight the churches, he will support them. |
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Antichrist will not seek to change fundamental doctrines or the traditional hymns. He will impress on the Christians those parts of the Scriptures that emphasize doing good to the peoples of the earth. |
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His message will be one of hope, of compassion, of attempting to bring the blessing of God on mankind. |
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He will invite prominent "Christian" ministers to fill posts of importance in his government. |
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The fundamental Christians will do just as they have done with the contemporary errors in Christian thinking, particularly the notion that we can have faith in Jesus Christ without living a righteous, holy life. They will embrace Antichrist because they have neglected prayer; because they have not guarded the word of Christ's patience; because they have not taken up the cross of death to self and followed the Master into crucifixion. |
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They have found a better way—the way of positive thinking, of using self- centered faith to better their condition on earth, of getting what they want now. |
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But there will be a few, a handful of saints whom God will warn. God will come to them in judgment, testing every aspect of their personality. They will become accustomed to the suffering and patience of the Kingdom of God. |
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They will seek to warn the remainder of the believers that God is not accepting the marriage of the church to the world. |
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Antichrist and the leaders of the church will scorn the saints as being gloomy heralds of doom and gloom—a deviation from what is normal, wholesome, healthy. |
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At first, the saints merely will be snubbed by the government and the main body of believers. As Antichrist gains power he will bring economic pressure, and physical terror in some instances, on the Lord's little flock. The babylonish (man-directed) church at first may object to the persecution of the fervent believers; but the government soon will cause the religious leaders to understand that the remnant of saints are a threat and are not to be tolerated. |
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The organized Christians will not have the moral strength to stand in the way of the government as it attempts to destroy the remnant. Some of the members of Babylon will repent and run to the true saints for spiritual deliverance. Others will join themselves to the remnant but with flattery, having hypocrisy in their hearts. |
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The love of the majority will grow cold as every form of sin becomes commonplace and readily available. |
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You can be a part of the godly remnant of saints that is being drawn to the Lord. But you will have to quit fooling around and begin to get serious with God! (from Dying in the Lord) |
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And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. (Revelation 13:11) |
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Today the Pentecostal believers are at a crossroad. Some have decided to take the gifts and spiritual understanding that have come to us during the twentieth century and by these bring the Kingdom of God into the world. This is the False Prophet of which the Book of Revelation speaks. The False Prophet comes out of the "earth," that is to say, out of the soul of self-centered people. |
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A much smaller group of believers is hearing from the Lord Jesus, from Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire. These are the believers whom God has chosen to be as Esther, in the last days; to be as the "lad" who guided the hands of Samson (the Church) to the "pillars" that support the kingdom of Satan. |
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The Lord is not exhorting this holy remnant to "go forth and bring the Kingdom into the earth." Rather He is facing them with the personal cross of self-denial, with the fires of judgment on the works of the flesh. He is teaching them humility, not arrogance. He is leading them back to the old paths of cross- carrying obedience to the Lord. |
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This is the remnant God has chosen. Meanwhile, the Christian churches are as Vashti. They are making a banquet of their own, although doing so "in the royal house that belonged to king Ahasuerus" (Esther 1:9). They are so full of their own ways that when the Lord calls to them they refuse to come. |
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The remnant is as Esther, coming before the Presence of Jesus with fear and trembling. Truly, Esther has been called to the Kingdom in the present hour because of the destruction facing God's people, both Jews and Christians. |
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The church leaders are as Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, seeking to rule the congregation of the Lord. They "leap" as the mountains of Bashan. The holy remnant are as Aaron. They do not vaunt themselves, scheming and plotting in order to gain power and prestige. Rather, they wait on the Lord until they bud, blossom, and bring forth fruit. |
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The memorial jar of manna speaks of the Substance of Christ, the body and blood that nourish the born-again inner man. Each day of our life we come to realize to a greater degree that in our natural man dwells no good thing, no wisdom, no strength, no righteousness. |
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The Divine Virtue in us sustains us as we are being brought daily into conformity with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The Virtue is from God Himself. It is the daily portion of Christ, the "hidden manna," given us in order to provide strength during our wilderness sojourn. As our days so is our strength from the Lord. |
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Day after day the Lord knocks down our old nature by circumstances beyond our control. Day after day the Lord feeds us with His body and blood. We learn to live by Him as He lives by the Father. We drink His blood and eat His flesh. This is the true Bread from Heaven. Christ is our manna, and by His strength we are able to overcome the evil that comes against us each day. (from Three Deaths and Three Resurrections, Volume 3) |
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