Stinking Thinking #1

Feast of Tabernacles 1999 – Day 6

Stinkin' Thinkin' #1

Fred Coulter  - September 30, 1999

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Greetings brethren! It's been a wonderful Feast, I'm sure, for every one of you, and I hope that it's something that will be lasting and will help you to grow in grace and knowledge, and serve God and serve the brethren in a way that will glorify Him.

I want to give a special sermon, which I'm going to entitle Stinkin' Thinkin'! You'll realize what stinkin' thinkin' is when we're done here, but let me mention first of all that Roger Kendall sent me a video done by Dean Gotcher who heads up the Institute For Authority Research, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Much of the material that I have here is taken from that, although he presents it in such a way that it is somewhat difficult for a lot of people to understand because he talks about praxis and dialectic process, and thesis, synthesis, and so forth. All of the professorial, philosophical words that describe the process.

Gotcher was a professor in Tulsa at Oral Roberts University. What happened was that God showed him how the wrong thinking in the world has deceived the world, and it's everywhere! It's not just a few people who have stinkin' thinkin', it's the whole world.

• in the schools
• in politics
• in religion
• in everything
• especially in the media and that's how it runs

Satan is the one who's the author of this stinkin' thinkin', plus he has a very, very willing human mind, the carnal mind, to go along with it. We're living in a world now that is far different than any other generation because we have:

• more knowledge
• more understanding
• more technical things

We also have the Word of God, and we have a world that has been deceived!

How do you deceive people so that they think they're not deceived? That's the whole key to stinkin' thinkin'!

Revelation 12:9: "And the great dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, who is deceiving the whole world; he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him."

There's quite an army out there working, accomplishing and doing Satan's will. There are a lot of people who are involved in it.

• some of them very actively
• some of them passively
• some of them are just so deceived that they don't know

Let's understand that this stinking thinking happened, especially in America, but now it's in the whole world. When you come to understand it, it is the way of human thinking to glorify man and Satan the devil, and to reject God. It's very clever how it is done.

If you can change a person's thought process, then you can change their beliefs! Also, if you can change their way of doing things, you can change their beliefs. That's what Satan has done. That's why God is nowhere to be found in this world, because Satan has succeeded in eliminating Him from this world; that is as far as this world is concerned.

God has revealed Himself to those that He calls. But even those whom God calls, they bring with them the baggage of this stinking thinking. Concerning how the one-world religion is coming—an ecumenical thing—into the whole world. This is how Satan is going to do it with stinking thinking!

First of all, we need to understand that there are three elements in this thinking:

• God
• Satan
• man

GOD

Let's look at the character of God:

• what God wants from us
• what God is
• how God functions

Therefore, this will tell us how we need to think!

One man made a comment that I think is very important: Too many churches want you to think like the Church thinks, or the minister wants you to think like he thinks. But the truth is that anyone who will teach the Truth of God will want you to think as God thinks! The whole purpose of our calling is to develop the nature and character of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

• God is Truth
• God is spirit
• God is eternal
• God is love
• God is Holy
• God is light
• God is righteous
• God is the Supreme Sovereign Ruler of the universe
• God is Lawgiver
• God is Almighty
• God is Creator
• God changes not
• Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever
• God is faithful
• God is salvation
• God is Judge
• God is true
• God's Word is Truth
• God is merciful
• God is longsuffering
• God is gracious
• God is no respecter of persons
• God is not the author of confusion

Satan:

Now let's look at Satan the devil: Satan is anti-truth. Now the reason why I put anti-Truth is because a lot of anti-truth looks like truth, whereas God's Word is Truth. Satan is the one who is:

• evil
• wicked
• a liar
• a deceiver
• a destroyer
• rebellious
• a usurper
• the author of confusion
• the god of this world

MAN:

• man is changeable
• man can be transformed into the image of God

or

• man can be transformed into the image of Satan
• man is always growing
• man is always learning
• man is carnal
• fleshly
• emotional
• subject to death

But the thing that depicts man more than anything else is:

• man is vanity

So, you can take these things and you can categorize it this way:

• The Kingdom of God; God and Truth
• The kingdom of Satan; anti-Truth
• The kingdom of the world, man's society now controlled by Satan

Psa. 39 is so important because this strikes at the heart and core of Satan's way of deceiving man. Satan's way of deceiving man is to get him to trust in himself, reject God of course, but to trust in himself and to trust in the demons around, and to trust in Satan.

Satan starts it with self-esteem, which means that regardless of what God says, regardless of what other people say, you are worth something of and by yourself. When we really understand it, what we are worth is what God creates in us! That's the work of God!

Psalm 39:4: "O LORD, make me to know my end… [because we're all going to come to an end] …and the measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how short lived I am."

This is quite the opposite of stinking thinking, which is: 'I'm good, I'm better, I can improve myself and pull myself up by my bootstraps and I have confidence in me in whatever I can do, and the whole rest of the world can take a hike!"

Verse 5: "Behold, You have made my days as a handbreadth, and the span of my days is as nothing before You. Surely every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah"—that's the nature of man!

What is the nature of man's society? Ecc. 3 shows the cycle of human life, and the cycle of human life is that it's ever changing and the technical term for that is dialectic, always changing. God made us so that we would change, could change, and need to change. Here's the whole cycle, which you might say is the whole life cycle and experience of a human being.

Ecclesiastes 3:1: "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heavens: A time to be born…" (vs 1-2).

That's how you start out, by conception and you're just a pinprick of life; then you grow to full term and you're born. You grow to maturity, you come of age, you marry, have children, and you live your life. Then you come to the end of your life and you die, expire.
But all the way through that there is a purpose that needs to be fulfilled, which is either going to be God's purpose, or human and satanic purposes. That's the only direction that it's going to be and anything else in between people are just kidding themselves. When people think that they can be in between they're in a gray and vulnerable zone, which Satan will take advantage of!

Verse 2: "A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to gain, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace" (vs 2-8).

Then Solomon asks the question, after seeing the whole life cycle here; v 9: "What profit does he have who works in that in which he labors? I have seen the task, which God has given to the sons of men to be exercised by it" (vs 9-10).

Just looking at life, just trying to understand life without God. Finally he comes to the conclusion at the end of the book of Ecclesiastes that the whole duty of man is to keep God's commandments. We're going to see that's very important.

Now let's see that all of history runs in this same cycle. And all of history has been subject to the same stinkin' thinkin'!

Ecclesiastes 1:1: "The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 'Vanity of vanities,' says the Preacher, 'vanity of vanities! All is vanity.' What profit does a man have in all his labor, which he labors under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; but the earth remains forever. The sun also arises, and the sun goes down, and hurries to its place where it arose. The wind goes toward the south, and it turns around to the north; it whirls around continually; and the wind returns on its circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet, the sea is not full; to the place from where the rivers come, there they return again" (vs 1-7).
It's also showing a lot of scientific knowledge, that they understood some of the things that we call modern scientific meteorological knowledge that we have today. I mean the weatherman goes by all of this.

Verse 8: "All things are full of labor; man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing."

This is why human beings are changing; they're always changing. Every minute of your life is different than it was before. Your body is different, your whole body is changing from the point of view that there are cells that are dying, cells that are being replaced; it's a continuous change. There's a continuous change in the thought process going on in the mind. If this change is not anchored to God then you're going to be in trouble, because God is the One Who gives Truth. What generally happens with man is: man wants to know about how he feels. This is the stinkin' thinkin': emotion is placed before facts!

You've heard me mention about the Michelin tire ad. They have a birthday party for a woman who just had a baby. a lot of women are around there and it's all emotional; nothing about how good Michelin is. Finally, one of them gives a wrapped Michelin tire, and she's just taken with it. Then three other women bring the other three tires all wrapped up, and she is just stricken. She has to dry her eyes because of the tears.

That is a planned emotional ad for a planned emotional response to sell Michelin tires to those who think in emotions instead of facts, and that constitutes the way of thinking by women more than men. Men end up doing the same thing when they have been in this society ruled over by women; they end up putting emotions first. That's important for us to understand.

That is not to say that emotion is wrong. Emotion wrongly expressed, or wrongly applied is what the problem is. First, you have to get the facts, and those facts have to reside, first of all, in God. Even God works this way. God makes it very clear; He starts out with the facts first. And that's where stinking thinking goes wrong; they start out with feelings first.

• How do I feel?

Instead of asking:

• What does God say?

You say:

• What is your opinion?
• What is your point of view?
• I think
• I believe
• I feel

All of those things are into a situation where you have emotion first. Then in relating to other people, it becomes something that you join together in, in a group. We'll see how that relates a little later on.
God starts out the Ten Commandments with facts. The Ten Commandments are facts. What does God say? It doesn't matter what a human being's opinion is! Today stinking thinking has gotten people down into the realm that if you believe in God and in the Word of God then that's you're point of view. But it's not really your point of view, it's God's point of view!God is the Author of it; He's the One Who's done it!

Exodus 20:1: "And God spoke all these words, saying, 'I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me'" (vs 1-32). Fact!

• He didn't ask how you felt
• He didn't ask for a vote

Fact: I am God! That's what God says.

Verse 4: "You shall not make for yourselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments" (vs 4-6).

Fact: You must have God first! Then you can have feeling and emotion, and it will be right. God always puts the facts first!

In Deut. 5 We have the giving of the Ten Commandments again! That's what Deuteronomy means: the second giving of the Law! The people were well intended. Human beings are all well intended—aren't they? We all aim to do good! We all have self-esteem about ourselves!

Deuteronomy 5:27: "…we will hear it, and do it…. [God said, v 29]: 'Oh, that there were such a heart in them that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always so that it might be well with them and with their children forever!'"

Deuteronomy 6:1—God starts out with facts: "Now, these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which the LORD our God commanded to teach you so that you might do them in the land where you go to possess it, that you might fear the LORD your God…" (vs 1-2). That's very important because too many people fear men instead of God!

"…to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you, and your son, and your son's son, all the days of your life, and so that your days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be diligent to observe it, so that it may be well with you…" (vs 2-3).

Satan has the world convinced in vanity! The reasoning of human beings have themselves convinced that God doesn't want it to go well for you, because that impinges upon lust, and lust is what makes the human mind work. That's why stinking thinking and emotion all go together. Lust is an emotion!

"…and that you may greatly multiply, as the LORD God of our fathers has promised you, in the land that flows with milk and honey…. [so they had everything they needed] …Hear, O Israel. Our one God is the LORD, the LORD. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" (vs 3-5).

First you have facts then you have emotion! Satan doesn't like that at all. He comes along with counter-truth, false facts. He comes along with misapplied facts, and he appeals to the feelings and the emotions. That is very easy to do with human beings.

Let's look at how human beings look at themselves, and how the human mind works and functions. Satan is able to tune right into that with no problem whatsoever! He's 'the prince of the power of the air' and he's got his message going out on all forms of media, and in every printed word, everything that goes out. That's why Truth is so scarce. Because of this stinking thinking that's why Jesus said, 'When the Son of man returns to the earth, will He find faith in the earth?' NO! He won't find faith in the earth! Why? Because people are not willing to come to God! When you come to God there is something profound that has to happen.

• when you come to God, you are coming to God; you are not coming to another human being
• when you come to God it's going to be on God's terms and God's terms alone, because God is Truth
• when you come to God you must believe

That means that you must not have your thoughts, which you exalt against God, because that's what Satan wants to do: exalt his thoughts and human thoughts against the Word of God and the Truth of God!

Hebrews 11:6: "Now, without faith it is impossible to please God…." You need to understand that!

That's why the religions of this world are doing away with God. Even though they are all coming together, they're coming together on human emotionalism, and they have utterly no faith in God! So, they cannot please God.

Verse 6: "Now, without faith it is impossible to please God. For it is mandatory for the one who comes to God to believe that He exists, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

That's the important thing! That is profound! You cannot please God without faith because you must believe! That belief is based upon fact, not just emotion. All emotional based beliefs lead to trouble. Why do they lead to trouble? Here's the way that man thinks. Here's the way that it is with man.

Proverbs 14:12: "There is a way, which seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death."

He's all wrapped up in his emotional thinking and the way that he's doing things, and then Satan is right there leading him into it!

Jeremiah 17:9: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?"

The human mind with all of it's imagining, and your mind is always going all the time. You can either put in the words of God and do it God's way, OR you can exalt your thoughts and your ideas, and your ways. Where the real trouble comes in, in the Church, is when human thought and the dialectic method are welded together with some of the Word of God.

As Dean Gotcher says, they use those Scriptures that are user friendly. They don't use the ones that say the Word of God is sharp and quick and powerful! They don't use the Word of God that says that all unrepentant sinners are going to go into the Lake of Fire! No, those are not user-friendly. And then we know the Scripture which says 'The carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.' That is carnal nature run on emotion, choosing their own way and rejecting the fact that God exists, and refusing to come to Him.

In spite of all of this, every man thinks he's right. That's amazing! It all leads to death!

Proverbs 16:2: "All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes…" In other words, justified in his own eyes! What happens with stinking thinking, in order to get that kind of stinking thinking with all the emotion involved and rejecting the facts, it has to be a thought process that justifies it. So, every way of a man is "…clean in his own eyes…" and he justifies himself! On the other hand:

Verse 3: "Commit your works unto the LORD, and your thoughts shall be established." That tells us how to do. You have to go to God first.

Now let's see how Satan works. This brings out some very important things because this is how the emotional thinking begins and how Satan comes along with contra-truths, comes along with other facts and deceives. This means that Satan comes along and he is a facilitator. Satan doesn't come along and say, 'I'm evil, stay away from me.' He comes along and says, 'Well now, you know God's a little harsh on this, don't you think? How do you feel about it?'

Genesis 3:1—Satan says: "…'Is it true that God has said, "You shall not eat of any tree of the garden"?'" Of course, Satan in facilitating wanted to create a conflict, because that means that Eve would have to correct him.

We will see what Satan does then. This is called a dialogue. I want you to remember the term dialogue to consensus because that's what's used in the world. That is Satan's way. All schools, all governments and all businesses use it today: dialogue to consensus:

• How do you feel about it?
• Did God really say this?"

Verse 2: "And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may freely eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has indeed said, "You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die"'" (vs 2-3).

Either that is further instruction from God, or that is what Eve added to it. Now she's dialoguing with him, she's got her emotions involved and she's fallen for the trap!

Verse 4: "And the serpent said to the woman, 'In dying, you shall not surely die!'"

• Now we've got a crisis!
• Now we've got a conflict!
• Who are you going to believe?
• Are you going to believe God, your Creator?

or

• Are you going to believe Satan the devil, the one coming with contra-truth?
• Why do I say contra-truth? Because there is some truth in what he says, but the truth is not defined as God calls Truth!

One of the favorite things that Satan does is he redefines the Truth. You think it is true, and then truth becomes relative; truth becomes whatever you think is right. That's how all the stinking thinking gets along. Satan says:

Verse 5: "For God knows… [He's holding back something from you] …that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like God, deciding good and evil.'

Instead of doing like Christ did, saying, 'Get you hence from Me, Satan,' she looked at the tree! Now Eve's emotionally involved; she has made a commitment to go against God, because her emotions are leading her!

Verse 6: "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eyes… [that's nice, I like it] …and a tree to be desired to make one wise…"

• After all, don't we want to be wise?
• After all aren't we growing personalities?
• Can't we have more self-esteem by being wise?

"…she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. And the eyes of both of them were opened…" (vs 6-7)—they understood evil!

What they really did here was they rejected the true God for the contra-god—Satan the devil—the god of this world! They rejected the fact of what God really said, went by their emotions and did what God told them not to do. If you go just by the facts alone, without getting emotions involved, you're not going to go along with the emotional response of doing it. So they did, and Satan is the facilitator, they dialogued to consensus; they agreed!

Adam went along with his wife—go along to get along—and he was cursed for obeying the voice of his wife. They were justified in what they were doing, and then here's a term that is used today in modern psychology: they were transformed. The end of it was that they were transformed into an image made after Satan the devil instead of being transformed into an image made after God! That is the mental image!

Now, this created all kinds of problems! Death came; God gave the sentence. What did they do? What happens when you are led by emotions because you've rejected the facts? The first thing you do is say, 'How can you hold me accountable for it? It was the serpent.'

Adam said, Verse 12: "And the man said, 'The woman whom You gave to be with me…'" And the woman said, 'Well, it's the serpent. I was just, you know…' That's the way that human nature does!

So, now we have evil stinking thinking. The imagination of man's heart is only evil continually from his youth up (Gen. 6, 8, 11). What happens in Gen. 11? Anything they imagined to do they're able to do!

Not only is this stinkin' thinkin', but it adds another element to it which is group-think. You're either going to have God-think, individual-think, group-think or Satan-think; how ever you're going to think.

• that's why you need to be thinking in the way that God thinks
• that's why you need to have the Word of God in your heart and mind; inscribed there
• that's what the New Covenant is

The New Covenant is designed, as it says, 'To write My laws in their hearts and in their minds, I will inscribe them and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more' so that you can be changed in the right direction that God wants you to be changed, and be transformed in the right way that God wants you to be transformed!

Exo. 14—after all the miracles that God showed them, delivering them out of the house of bondage, out of Egypt, leading them out, brought them over to the Red Sea, now it looked like they were trapped, and you know the story. Pharaoh came down there, and the children of Israel they got emotionally involved. They forgot the fact that God was right up there in the cloud and in the pillar of fire, and here comes the enemy.

Exodus 14:10: "And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes. And, behold, the Egyptians marched after them. And they were very afraid. And the children of Israel cried out to the LORD"—to complain; they didn't cry out to the Lord to save them.

Verse 11: "And they said to Moses, 'Have you taken us away to die in the wilderness because there were no graves in Egypt?…." Pure emotionalism! Not one fact in there at all. Emotion will cause you to blind your eyes to the facts!

"…Why have you dealt this way with us to carry us forth out of Egypt? Did we not tell you this word in Egypt, saying, 'Let us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians?' for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness'" (vs 11-12).

Now in addition to stinking thinking you've got another element involved: group thinking, group emotion! Once you have that dynamic involved then you are determined to please the group rather than pleasing God! Then you end up fearing man instead of fearing God. So, God told them what they needed to do.

Exodus 32—you know the story, God said, 'Moses, come up here and I'll give you a Law, and I'll have it all written out for you.' What happened was that the people previously said, 'All that God has said we will do.' It was sealed with a covenant sacrifice of animals, and the blood sprinkled on the Book of the Covenant, and the blood sprinkled on the people. They already said they would. Moses goes up there and God begins giving him the instructions.

Exodus 32:1: "And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, then the people gathered themselves to Aaron, and they said to him, 'Up! Make us gods which shall go before us, for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him'" (vs 1-2).

Group thinking again, all emotional and not based upon the fact that:

• God is
• God is love
• God is gracious
• God is merciful
• God is kind
• God brought them out of this
• God brought them here
• God has fed them
• God has taken care of them
• God was with them in everything that they did

That's fact!

Emotion is: 'Well, I wonder what happened to him? What are we going to do without Moses now? Maybe he's dead up there on the mountain. Who knows? We need to have gods to lead us.' In this case, he had a facilitator: Aaron, who should have known better but he got caught up in this!

Verse 2: "And Aaron said to them, 'Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me.' And all the people broke off the golden earrings, which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he took them from their hand, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molten calf. And they said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt'" (vs 3-4)—which was a lie!

When you placate emotions you must invent a lie to justify what you're doing because the emotions are not based on fact in the first place. That's what happened here.

Verse 5: "And when Aaron saw the calf, he built an altar before it.…" Probably said, 'Well, it looks pretty good. Hey there, ole Aaron baby, you did a nice job in making that. Well that gold really glitters and shines, doesn't it?'

"…And Aaron made a proclamation and said, 'Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD'" (v 5).

Here's something that is true: People want to claim the name of God, but do their own thing: live in sin!

Verse 6: "And they rose up early on the next morning, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. And the LORD said to Moses, 'Go! Get you down…'" (vs 6-7).

Moses came down and what happened? With all of this was going on, he broke the tablets that God wrote the Ten Commandments on!

Moses said, 'All of those who are for the LORD get over here, and all of those who are not for the LORD you stay over there,' and the earth opened up and swallowed them and crushed them up!

Fact: God is all powerful! What we think, what we devise and what we do as human beings to make us feel good on an emotional level has nothing to do with truth and reality. Because you're rejecting God, you're not following the Truth, you're not doing the things the way that God wants!

There was stinking thinking when they sent the spies to spy out the land. Ten of them came back and said, 'Those guys are so big we'll never do it.' Joshua and Caleb said, 'Look, fact: God is God; He'll destroy the enemy. They'll be like grasshoppers before us.'

They got emotional and had a great emotional thing all night. Finally, Moses got the message from God and was told, 'What you need to do is tell them, because they accuse Me of all this and they won't do what I asked them to do, they're going to have one year for every day of searching out the land and they are going to wander 40 years.'

They said, 'Oh no, we don't want to do that. We'll go, we'll be good, we'll go up, we'll fight.' Moses said, 'Don't go! God isn't with you!' We'll go! "God isn't with you." We'll go! All emotion! What happened? They got up there and they got their fannies kicked! Stinkin' thinkin'!

1-Sam. 8—let's see some things here concerning how stinking thinking always happens. This is also group thinking. There may be some grain of truth in what it is, but you see the solution is wrong. God never wanted them to have a king like the nations around them. Here's what happened. Because Samuel's son's weren't doing what they should do:

1-Samuel 8:4: "And all the elders of Israel gathered themselves… [group counsel, group decision, group thinking] …and came to Samuel to Ramah. And they said to him, 'Behold, you are old… [that is true] …and your sons do not walk in your ways.…" (vs 4-5)—that is true!

Instead of saying, 'Why don't you fire your sons? Why don't you raise up some righteous men who will serve God?' NO! Emotion: taking true facts and twisting it for a purpose or an agenda to have something that God doesn't want you to have.

"…Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations" (v 5). We want to be like everybody else. That's exactly the way that Satan has led the world into thinking, to all become one. That's what's going to happen with all this stinkin' thinkin'!

Verse 6: "But the thing was evil in the eyes of Samuel when they said, 'Give us a king to judge us.' And Samuel prayed to the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, 'Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them (vs. 6-7).

That is a classic example of stinking thinking! Taking some of the true facts, mixing it with emotion and hurt feelings, and coming up with an absolutely wrong decision, and then rejecting God. That is the whole dialectic process of going from truth to contra-truth to wrong decision and rejection of God!

(go to the next track)

Self-justification: based upon the lust of the heart, the lust of the eyes and wanting to go against God, and yet, justify it!

1-Samuel 15:1: "And Samuel said to Saul, 'The LORD sent me to anoint you to be king over His people, over Israel. And now listen to the voice of the words of the LORD. Thus says the LORD of hosts, "I will punish Amalek for that which he did to Israel, how he set against him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now, go and strike Amalek, and completely destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey"'" (vs 1-3).

Verse 4: "And Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen and ten thousand men of Judah. And Saul came to a city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. And Saul said to the Kenites, 'Go! Depart! Get down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them, for you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.' So, the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul struck the Amalekites from Havilah, as you come to Shur, which is over across from Egypt…. [it was quite a extensive battle] …And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive.…" (vs 4-8).

We're going to see stinking thinking justified it, because he got emotionally involved; 'It's not fair to kill all these people, after all, the king would be a real trophy.'

"…And he completely destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep…" (vs 8-9)—which God said to kill!

Fact: What did God say? People go by what they feel? That's a nice sheep, I don't think we should kill them! I don't think that God would mindif we took the oxen, and the fatlings, and all that was good and not destroy those! 'But everything that was vile and refuse we'll destroy. Yeah, we'll get rid of that; God doesn't want that.'

That's how people think. When God gives a command, He means it. That is fact. When emotion comes along and says, 'God, I don't like that fact or command', then you have stinkin' thinkin'! And you are using:

• your emotions
• your vanity
• your carnal nature

to go against God! That's what happened here.

Verse 10: "And the Word of the LORD came to Samuel saying, 'It repents Me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not performed My commandments.' And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the LORD all night" (vs 10-11).
Samuel got all emotional in this thing, because Saul turned away backward! So, he went up to meet him.

Verse 13: "And Samuel came to Saul. And Saul said to him, 'You are blessed of the LORD.… [by all means we must be user-friendly here] …I have performed the commandment of the LORD.' And Samuel said, 'What then is this bleating of the flock in my ears? And what is the sound of the herd which I hear?' And Saul said, 'They have…' [just like Adam and Eve did: the serpent, the wife] …brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the LORD your God.…" (vs 13-15).

• Isn't that wonderful?
• Think how good-hearted we are in this.
• We're just all emotionally involved in this wonderful project to serve the Lord with the best.

"'…And the rest we have completely destroyed.' And Samuel said to Saul, 'Stay and I will tell you what the LORD has said to me tonight.' And he said to him, 'Speak on.' And Samuel said, 'When you were little in your own sight, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? And the LORD anointed you king over Israel. And the LORD sent you on the way and said, "Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until you destroy them." Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD?.… [now think on that] …Why did you fly upon the spoil and do evil in the sight of the LORD?'" (vs 15-19).

Whereas, they thought it was evil in carrying out what God said. So, the ultimate end in all of this process is that you get rid of God and you end up doing what you think is best, and you end up turning everything around.

Verse 20: "And Saul said to Samuel, 'Yes, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me… [technically, he went down the vale] …and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have completely destroyed the Amalekites. But… [it's not my fault, Samuel] …the people took from the spoil, of the flock and herd, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal" (vs 20-21)—I'm justified!

Here is what God thinks of stinkin' thinkin', v 22: "And Samuel said, 'Does the LORD have as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice! To hearken is better than the fat of rams, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the Word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king!'" (vs 22-23).

Does God mean what He says? What is one of the first things that the facilitator says concerning doctrine of God? God didn't mean this; God didn't mean that! One of the goals of Satan is to destroy the Word of God with New Age Bibles.

Verse 24: "And Saul said to Samuel, 'I have sinned…' [Was he worried that he really sinned? No!] …for I have disobeyed the commandment of the LORD and your word because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.'"

• you're either going to fear God or you're going to fear people
• you're either going to do God's way or you're going to do it human way

If you do it a human way, then you are getting into the agreement by consensus through dialogue! You can even do it in your mind. You can even dialogue with yourself to consensus that you ought to sin. Consensus means a justification for it, in that sense. Consensus, the way it's used in the world can mean if everyone in this room agrees on one point of this printed out agenda, then you agree by consensus. God doesn't operate that way. What Saul did, he obeyed their voice instead of God.

• Who will you fear?
• Man?

or

• God?

Verse 25: "'And now please pardon my sin and turn again with me so that I may worship the LORD.'…. [he wanted to look good in the people's eyes] …And Samuel said to Saul, 'I will not return with you, for you have rejected the Word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.' And as Samuel turned around to go, Saul laid hold upon the skirt of his robe, and it tore. And Samuel said to him, 'The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. And also the Glory of Israel will not lie nor repent, for He is not a man that He should repent.' Then he said, 'I have sinned. Please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and turn again with me. And I shall worship the LORD your God'" (vs 25-30). So he did!

Samuel even dialogued with Saul and got talked into doing the worship. The way that Samuel worshipped God was he took the sword and hacked Agag in two, cut him to pieces and finished the work that should have been done.

When you take this kind of stinking thinking, which God calls rebellion and witchcraft, let's see what happens. Here's how it's happened in the world because it seems so good and so right. You turn everything upside down, and that which God says is good is now called evil, and that which is called evil by God, now becomes good.

So therefore, when you have this kind of thinking take place to where then you emotionally accept each other and your relationship with other people in the group is more important than what God thinks, then you have deviancy coming down just like it is in the society, and there is:

• no truth
• no goodness
• no righteousness
• nothing

Isaiah 5:20 shows you the end result of this: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; who put darkness for light and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!" (vs 20-21).

• all by emotion
• all rejecting God
• all stinkin' thinkin'

That's what happens in all of this! When you're dealing with something that requires the facts, first set aside your emotions until you get the facts.

I'll tell you one way to know whether you really want to do that or not, and that is if you say in your mind concerning someone else: I know what they are thinking or I know their thoughts, you have just sinned against God, because you have put your emotion, your perception and your feelings ahead of facts!

If you want to know how a person thinks, go ask them. Then you'll be able to make a judgment. If you don't ask them, you're making a judgment based upon emotion. Emotion won't fly. Emotion is not going to get you into the Kingdom of God. First, you must have the facts, because in this society today it's all emotion. They're sliding in their definitions, and they're sliding in their terms, and that's why President Clinton said, 'I've got to define what is is.' God IS!

Verse 22: "Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!" (vs 22-23).

What happens to righteous people when they are called? If you stand for the Truth:

• you're negative
• you're divisive
• you're hateful
• you're intolerant
• you're without understanding
• you have no feeling

Now you know why God has to virtually destroy this whole world!

They have been taught the dialectic process with stinkin' thinkin' to where you don't even have to tell them to reject God; they do it automatically because God is removed from the scene. They're given over to their own devices!

Verse 24: "Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame burns up the chaff; their root shall be like rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up like dust because they have cast away the Law of the LORD of hosts… [fact, truth, law, God] …and despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel." Emotion:

• I don't feel…
• I don't think…
• I don't believe…
• I believe this…
• I have truth which is relevant to me
• You have truth which is relevant to you

That's all feeling! You're despising the Word of the Holy One of Israel! That's all feeling and emotion! Your beliefs are a way of thinking. We have:

• Truth, which is God
• His Word
• His righteousness

Then you have the contra-truth, or the anti-truth, which is:

• What do you think?
• How do you feel?

That's put off as being tolerant!

Today we now have a perverted society that God calls Sodom and Egypt, to where now homosexuality is okay. 'How do you feel about it? How do you think about it?' They've even got the Boy Scouts to drop the homosexual requirements that they be booted out of the Boy Scouts, because they dialogue unto consensus. How do you feel?

What happens with that? Then here is something you have heard: a paradigm shift, which equals the way that you think, the way of thinking.

That happened in the Worldwide Church of God. One of the very first things they did was change the definition of when the day begins from sunset to dark, and that justified them to begin to tinker with one doctrine after another. They even had the ministers come in and brainwashed them so much that they came back and said, 'Brethren, we're going to have a paradigm shift.'

What's a paradigm? A paradigm is the way you think! In other words, they came back and said, 'Brethren, we're going to change your thinking. We're going to give you stinking thinking. We're going to give you emotional thinking instead of the Word of God thinking.' That's what has happened!
Now, the way they were able to do it was this: You have Truth on one hand: God is, everything you are accountable to God. Then you take a step. Little by little these things are done. That's called a transition. You begin to de-emphasize the Word of God. You shorten the length of the sermons. You go ahead and have stories and human emotion in it. You have a lot of songs and a lot of praise, and a lot of these things going on so that you get your thinking changed so you can change the belief. But you do it a step at a time. Then it becomes a human viewpoint, human relationships, feelings. 'Well, you know, they're doing this for our good.' BINGO! Gotcha!

• How do you think?
• How do you feel?
• When do you think would be a good time to have the Feast of Tabernacles?
• We think it would be a good time to have the Feast of Tabernacles, but not when God says so!

Of course, they don't say that.

• 'But so that it will be more convenient for the children and summer vacation, let's have it in the middle of August.'
• Doesn't that sound fine?

All of that is stinking thinking! You're trapped and you've gone into transition. Now you are going to go to transformation. Transformation is when you now become solidified and justified in your new rebellion against God that it is good and right, fine and wonderful and hunky-dory, and everything is perfect. That's the way the world thinks!

They get you on emotion and get you to thinking that way, a step at a time, and get you away from God. So, was there a paradigm shift? The paradigm shift was so radical that they threw away:

• their belief
• the Sabbath
• the Holy Days

have now gone to:

• Sunday
• Christmas
• Easter

And it was a planned, determined take-down by Satan the devil and his agents to do it! You need to understand that:

• Satan is busy
• Satan is active
• Satan is deceiving this world
• Satan is the one who is behind all of this
• Satan is the one who is causing it
• Satan is the one who is turning everything upside down

What I want to ask you to do is stop and think about how you can get rid of any stinking thinking that you have.

Now let's see how Christ handled it. Let's come to where He had His confrontation with Satan the devil directly. He had to be tempted, actually greater than we, though He was tempted in every point like we are. Let's notice how He handled it. Jesus always went back to the facts. He never yielded to feelings! Understand that! You have to have the right feelings and the right emotion, but you must have the facts first.

Matthew 4:1: "Then Jesus was led up into the wilderness by the Spirit in order to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted for forty days and forty nights, afterwards He was famished" (vs 1-2).

He didn't want to rely one bit upon any human strength that He had. This was a spiritual battle of such proportions that all eternity hinged upon this temptation that He went through.

Verse 3: "And when the tempter came to Him, he said, 'If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.' But He answered and said, 'It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God"'" (vs 3-4).

He did not allow Satan to get Him emotionally involved to say, 'Yes, I am the Son of God.' He didn't even answer that question! Christ did not dialogue with Satan like Eve dialogued with Satan. What did He do? He answered with Scripture, with fact, with Truth, with the stance from God!

Verse 5: "Then the devil took Him to the Holy city and set Him upon the edge of the temple, and said to Him, 'If You are the Son of God, cast Yourself down; for it is written, "He shall give His angels charge concerning You, and they shall bear You up in their hands, lest You strike Your foot against a stone"'" (vs 5-6).

That is a true quote, but misapplied, because you can't take the promises of God and use them by your command, by your actions. God has that in case something may happen to you in the way of an accident. But not in deliberately tempting God.

That's why, v 7: "Jesus said to him, 'Again, it is written, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God."'" Jesus was saying that if He did that He would tempt the Lord God in doing so. Satan is not concerned in tempting God; he's already done that! That doesn't apply to Satan.

Verse 8: "After that, the devil took Him to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and said to Him, 'All these things will I give You, if You will fall down and worship me'" (vs 8-9).

Going to be a reward for doing it. Here it is, 'You don't have to go through all this crucifixion and stuff, Jesus; you can get it now.' That's the way that Satan always has it. Get it now! You don't have to wait for marriage for sex, do it now! We have clinics, we have drugs, we have abortion. Do it now! If it feels good do it. You don't have to worry about obeying your parents; they're old, they're stuffy, they're no good. They're following God! Who are they to tell you what to do? You have rights! Yes, you have the court, you've got agents, you've got teachers, all subverted by Satan the devil, who are going to liberate you into spiritual slavery!

Verse 10: "Then Jesus said to him, 'Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him alone shall you serve."'"

That is not telling Satan he will worship God because he won't. Satan wants to be worshipped asGod. But this is saying to Jesus Himself, quoting the Word of God:

• for His behavior
• for His internalization
• for what He was doing

"…You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him alone shall you serve."

Jesus didn't even serve Himself. So, He wasn't there, as Dean Gotcher said, to self-actualize, to become transformed by this, or use God for Himself, or to 'I think, I feel.' That's why Jesus fasted the forty days and nights so it would be just that way that He couldn't rely on a single solitary thing of His own!

Now let's see how we need to conform ourselves in the same way that Jesus conformed Himself.

John 5:19: "Therefore, Jesus answered and said to them, 'Truly, truly I say to you, the Son has no power to do anything of Himself…'"—and this means out from Himself. Jesus could do anything He wanted to do, but:

• that would become sin
• that would be rebellion
• that would be motivated on self instead of God

"…but only what He sees the Father do. For whatever He does, these things the Son also does in the same manner" (v 19).

Verse 30: "I have no power to do anything of Myself; but as I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father Who sent Me." There is the crossroad!

• What is your will?
• Is your will to go your way?

or

• God's way?

or

• Is your will to sort of come in between and take what you think is the best of God's way and mixing it with your own will?

If Christ did not do that and would not do that, what makes us think that we can do that? I said some years ago that psychology is of Satan the devil, and it sure is, because the dialectic thinking process—stinkin' thinkin'—comes from Satan the devil!

• What do you think of God's will?
• Do you really want God's will in your life?
• Whether for good or whether for bad?
• Whether for happiness or sadness?
• What is it that you want?

We have to determine that every day as we go along. If we're going to be in the Kingdom of God, and if we're going to begin teaching people in the Millennium how to do God's way, the first thing we better do is do God's way and do His will now!

We all need to come to the place that David wrote of in Psalm 119:128: "Therefore, I esteem all Your precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way."

• Have you come to that thought process?

or

• Are you still inner mingling the Word of God with stinkin' thinkin'?
• Are you running on emotions?

or

• Are you running on fact?
• Do you have your emotions rightly expressed in loving God the way that you should?
  • loving your husband
  • loving your wife
  • loving your neighbor
  • loving the brethren

in a correct way because you have the facts as to who God is, what the Truth is, and how that is being done!

2-Cor. 10—here's what Jesus did, and this is what we need to do. We need to also have this, and this is how you can do it, by having that determination to do not your will but the will of God.

We'll see that Christ didn't let one evil thought into His mind. We're different because we're called out of a world that is filled with evil. We have our human nature, we have this continuous justification of self, and evil, and self-deception, and all of that going on all the time. When we're called and we repent and we're baptized, and we receive God's Spirit here's what we are to do.

Let's understand this: too many people do not understand the way of growing and overcoming, and do not understand the Truth of God the way that they should. So, Paul wrote:

2-Corinthians 10:1: "Now, I Paul am personally exhorting you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. On the one hand, when present with you I am base; but on the other hand, when absent I am bold toward you. But I am beseeching you so that, when I am present, I may not have to be bold with the confidence with which I intend to show boldness toward some, who think that we are walking according to the flesh" (vs 1-2).

If there's any one thing that has to be with a minister or teacher, he cannot walk according to the flesh! Yet, through this whole dialectic process, even ministers have justified themselves for years and years of lying and committing adultery, and doing things against God which are not right. That's walking according to the flesh!Paul said, 'Don't think of us as if we're walking according to the flesh.' We're not! We don't use the dialogue to consensus to come to understanding.

Verse 3: "For although we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal…" (vs 3-4). You cannot use:

• human reasoning
• human emotion
• human thoughts

to overcome

• human thoughts
• human emotions
• human reasoning

"…but mighty through God to the overthrowing of strongholds… [and the biggest stronghold is our mind] …casting down vain imaginations… [getting rid of it] …and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ…" (vs 3-5). That's the way that you overcome it! That is God-think!

We'll look at human think in just a minute, and then there's Satan-think. So there's:

• God-think
• human-think
• Satan-think

We're looking at God-think right now! Let's see the ultimate in it what we need to have:

• what God wants us to have
• what He wants us to do
• how we are to think
• how do you get rid of stinkin' thinkin'

Philippians 2:5: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus…" That's how you get rid of stinking thinking.

• let the mind of Christ be in you
• let Him lead you
• let the Holy Spirit guide you
• let the Word of God be in your heart and mind
  • so that you live by it
  • so that you think with it

How many times have I said through the years that you need to come to the knowledge of the Scriptures so that you can think with the Scriptures? Not just think about them, but think with the Word of God.

• that becomes your thought process
• that is Truth
• that is righteousness
• that is goodness

That's what God wants!

We're going to see how God wants it done. I think when you really understand, and you see this video that Dean Gotcher put out, you're never going to view television, the newspaper, the news, anything else the same way again, because it is all dialogue to consensus. When you watch the Sunday news it's dialogue to consensus. They have a group of people sitting around talking about topics, and this one thinks this, and that one thinks that, and that one thinks the other. What do they have? It's dialogue!

If someone comes on and gives a dogmatic opinion, they're narrow-minded; they're intolerant. That's just the way it is. This world has intimidated Christianity, taken it over, and it's taken over the Church of God, and has almost destroyed it. We need to wake up!

Romans 12:1: "I exhort you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, Holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service. Do not conform yourselves to this world… [with it's satanic stinkin' thinkin', justification, led by emotions] …but be transformed by the renewing of your mind in order that you may prove what is well-pleasing and good, and the perfect will of God " (vs 1-2)—because God has called us to perfection!

• that's what we need to do
• that's how we can God-think

Human-Think/Group-Think

We've covered some of that but I want to add just a little bit here to it showing how humans think in relationship to God. Too many people say, 'God, I'll call You when I need You, but I don't need You right now.' When you need God, maybe He's not at the other end of the receiver. Maybe He won't hear you.

There came a time when Jeremiah was told, 'Don't even pray for this people, I'm not even going to listen.' God has to be first and foremost. Let's look at some more self-justification, part of this human stinkin' thinkin'! Christ never gave into it. Not even when there was a deep emotional need, because the Word of God, the Truth of God, and God's way is greater than any personal emotional need that anyone has, and you need to understand that.

Matthew 8:18: "But when Jesus saw great multitudes around Him, He commanded His disciples to depart to the other side. And a certain scribe came to Him and said, 'Master, I will follow You wherever You may go.'" (vs 18-19).

• Do you think that Jesus was after followers?
• Wasn't this a commendable thing to do?
• No, because the motive wasn't right!

The motive was for self!

Verse 20: "Then Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of heaven have nests; but the Son of man has no place to lay His head.'"

There you go, He just answered him right back with the facts. The man didn't say, 'Oh, that's good. I'm willing to do it.' No!

Verse 21: "And another of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.'"

Well, that's an emotional need. His father just died. Surely, if Christ had any heart, any compassion, any love, He would say, 'Now, now, now there sonny, that's. You just go bury your father and then when you're ready, you come.' No! What did He say?

Verse 22: "But Jesus said to him, 'Follow Me… [now] …and leave the dead to bury their own dead.'"

Matthew 16:21: "From that time Jesus began to explain to His disciples that it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem, and to suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised the third day. But after taking Him aside, Peter personally began to rebuke Him… [stinkin' thinkin'] …saying, 'God will be favorable to you, Lord. In no way shall this happen to You'" (vs 21-22). Again, human emotional reasoning!

Verse 23: "Then He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, because your thoughts are not in accord with the things of God, but the things of men.'" Stinkin' thinkin'!

Matthew 15:9: "'For they worship Me in vain, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.' And after calling the multitude to Him, He said to them, 'Hear, and understand. That which goes into the mouth… [physically speaking, physical food] …does not defile the man; but that which comes out of his mouth, this defiles the man.' Then His disciples came to Him and said, 'Do You realize that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?'" (vs 9-12).

Jesus answered them, 'Oh My, what am I going to do? This is a tough political situation now. All My friends, the Pharisees, have been offended. Oh, this is a terrible thing. Why don't you go back and tell them I'm sorry, and we'll have another meeting. We'll work this all out.' NO!

Verse 13: "But He answered and said, 'Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up. Leave them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the pit'" (vs 13-14).

That's how He dealt with human feeling. All of these things have to do with emotion, politics, offence or pleasing someone! Listen, you get into the group-think thing with that.

The scribes and Pharisees all had group-think all the time, didn't they. They plotted, they schemed on how they could get them, and when they could do it. They had a council for this, they had a council for that, a council for another thing, and all of that is group-thinking, and group-thinking always comes to the lowest common denominator of watering down the Word of God!
God wants independent free choice to worship and love God first. Then the emotion of loving Him, and then other people and the brethren. Then when you come together in a group you're all thinking with God-think rather than human-think, if I could put it that way, and then you will be one because of the Spirit of God, not because you devise things on how to get along by a group or committee consensus. That's important for you to understand.

Let's see what happens when there is a hidden agenda, when people mix emotions and human thinking with the Word of God to attain a different way of thinking, or a paradigm shift, even though they use the Word of God. Even though it may sound convincing to the untrained ear. That's why you have to know the Word of God.

2-Corinthians 4:1—Paul says: "Therefore, having this ministry, according as we have received mercy, we are not fainthearted. For we have personally renounced the hidden things of dishonest gain… [that's the way of thinking carnally; renounced it] …not walking in cunning craftiness… [not having an agenda] …nor handling the Word of God deceitfully…" (vs 1-2).

That's what happens when you get this group-thinking. Didn't the scribes and Pharisees and chief priests handle the Word of God deceitfully? No question about it! Yes, they did! They even replaced the Word of God with their own traditions.

When the Worldwide Church of God was taken down, did they not do the same thing? Yes, they did! They handled the Word of God deceitfully and brought in the philosophies of this world, and brought all of these things in together and mixed it in with Satanic thinking and we'll show what happens with that.

Satan-Think

John 8 is important; here is how Satan thinks; here is how he does it, the way that he is able to deceive.

John 8:38—Jesus said: "'I speak the things that I have seen from My Father, and you do the things that you have seen from your father.' They answered and said to Him, 'Our father is Abraham.' Jesus said to them, 'If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has spoken the Truth to you, which I have heard from God; Abraham did not do this'" (vs 38-40).

Whenever someone comes in with the truth and is confronted directly with Satan-thinking, they think you are:

• intolerant
• unkind
• cruel
• without understanding

That's just what they accused Jesus of doing. But Jesus gave the Truth:

Verse 41: "'You are doing the works of your father.' Then they said to Him, 'We have not been born of fornication… [they can't face the truth, they have to hurl back an accusation] …We have one Father, and that is God.' Therefore, Jesus said to them, 'If God were your Father, you would love Me, because I proceeded forth and came from God. For I have not come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why don't you understand My speech? Because you cannot bear to hear My words'" (vs 41-43).

• Why could they not hear the Word of God?
• Why is it so hard for the world to hear the Word of God?
• By the same thing!

Verse 44: "You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you desire to practice. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the Truth because there is no Truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he is speaking from his own self; for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I speak the Truth, you do not believe Me" (vs 44-45).

That is Satan-think! What is the ultimate result? What happens with the end of Satan-think when it comes along this way and people are fully engulfed in that?

(go to the next track)

Track 3 or Download

Read: The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop. I hadn't read it in 40 years, and I'm amazed at how much is in there. It is absolutely something! So, I recommend you get it, because there was a time when God revealed Himself to all mankind after the Flood. They knew about the Flood, they knew about God's way, and when the rebellion with Cush, Nimrod and Semiramis all took over along with Tammuz, or Horus, they did exactly what Rom. 1 is talking about.

Romans 1:18: "Indeed, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the Truth in unrighteousness."

That's what happens when you get into this dialectic thinking. The way that men think they hold God's Word in unrighteousness by saying, 'Well, that's your opinion.' You have your opinion while:

• the Hindu has his
• the Muslim has his
• the Shinto has theirs
• the Catholics have theirs
• the Orthodox have theirs
• the Pentecostals have theirs
• the Protestants have theirs

and these are all equal truths. Even the Dalai Lama said, 'I'm a Christian.' Nonsense!

Verse 19: "Because that which may be known of God is manifest among them, for God has manifested it to them; for the invisible things of Him are perceived from the creation of the world, being understood by the things that were made—both His eternal power and Godhead—so that they are without excuse (vs 19-20).

When you get into this Satan-thinking, you're without excuse. You are completely perverted. That's what's happening to this world. It's happening to the whole society in every layer of it. That's why we have evil at such young ages today. Without excuse!

Verse 21: "Because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but they became vain in their own reasonings, and their foolish hearts were darkened…. [because they dialoged to consensus and rejected God] …While professing themselves to be the wise ones… [just like Adam and Eve, 'We know'] …they became fools" (vs 21-22).

Every time anyone dialogues to consensus to get rid of God or the Word of God, they are fools! When that happens in the Church, to subvert a church, God is going to hold them accountable and it's going to be the judgment is on their heads, just like it was on their heads here. What they did when they became fools, they:

Verse 23: "And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man… [Jesus is just a man; God is just a man] …and of birds, and four-footed creatures, and creeping things. For this cause, God also abandoned them to uncleanness through the lusts of their hearts, to disgrace their own bodies between themselves…" (vs 23-24).

That is how you have a homosexual matriarchal society. I think that Dean Gotcher's analysis of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Lot and his wife and his two daughters was excellent.

Here's what they did, v 25: "Who exchanged the Truth of God for the lie; and they worshiped and served the created thing more than the One Who is Creator, Who is blessed into the ages. Amen. For this cause, God abandoned them to disgraceful passions…" (vs 25-26). Now we're into a debauched society!

Read the rest of Rom. 1 because this is what happens when you become a child of the devil. There are children of the devil, as we have covered, and they serve the devil.

Changing Thoughts

You're either going to fear God, Who says you cannot do this, or you're going to fear man who says, 'Well, it doesn't make any difference. Just do whatever feels good. If you think it's right, if you and your opinion think it's a good thing, you do it.

What Satan likes to do is get you in the gray zone, and to change your behavior. When he changes your behavior you change your belief. I guarantee you, those who left the Sabbath and are now embracing Sunday have changed their belief. They no longer believe in the Sabbath.

Satan does this a little bit at a time, a half step at a time. He doesn't take a full step, because he knows it's too much pain to go through. So then, it's all feeling driven! Remember when they broke the church down into small groups, and you would sit around and you would dialogue with each other and you would talk, and you would roll-play? All of this is to change your thinking. That is to justify the new behavior, and how to do it for the group, the society, and self. All that was necessary.

So, in justifying themselves to come to this man-think, group-think, Satan-think, you justify yourself and become adaptable. Then your behavior changes! Then you look to potentials and possibilities and what can be. Instead of marriage as the way that God wants it, it now becomes a partnership the way that the world wants it. Instead of the Church being run by Christ, Who is the Head, it's now

• What do you think?
• What do you feel?
• How do you look at this Scripture?

So you become disillusioned and you end up with a new belief!

Now then, when you come to the way the world is and you leave the Word of God out, Satan is right there to facilitate man!

• he's going to take away Truth
• he's going to take away knowledge
• he's going to replace it with feelings
• he's going to replace it with counter-truth, anti-truth, other facts

Then you come to the point you can't hear the Truth!

• What's the end result? Confusion!
• Are schools in confusion? Yes!
• Are churches in confusion, generally speaking in the world? Yes!
• Are the Churches of God in confusion today? Yes!
• Is there confusion in government? Yes!
• Is there confusion in almost anything in the world? Yes, there is!
• Why? Because they're following after their feelings!
• Then what happens? They come to the point that:
• they have no morals
• they have no Truth
• they become completely maladjusted

That's why there are so many teenagers who are candidates for suicide, because they've had their minds absolutely destroyed with:

• stinking thinking
• stinking music
• stinking education
• stinking parents

They fill their minds with all of that and then add into it all the drugs! I mean, you're into quite a thing!

Now the think that is important is that you cannot serve God and stinking thinking! This tells it all right here:

Matthew 6:22: "The light of the body is the eye. Therefore, if your eye be sound… [single minded toward God, toward His Word, toward the Truth] …your whole body shall be full of light…. [because it's not clouded over with stinkin' thinkin'] …But if your eye be evil… [clouded over with stinkin' thinkin'] …your whole body shall be full of darkness. Therefore, if the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness!" (vs 22-23).

Who is the lord of darkness? Satan the devil! This shows a completely captive individual into Satan-thinking.

Verse 24: "No one is able to serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."

• you can't serve God with human-thinking
• you can't serve God with emotions first

You have to have the facts and then the proper emotion! So, that stinkin' thinkin' never works!

I remember when this came into the Church, this kind of stinking thinking. It even hit the very top leader, because he was talked into it. They were going to put out a magazine called The Incredible Human Potential, and that is the whole process of dialectic thinking brought to the fore, to where you leave out God and you focus on human potential.

I'm sure that Herbert Armstrong wanted to bring in about how men will become the sons of God, but you see, that was all blocked out and he was controlled away from doing that. And the final project that came out was Quest Magazine. Stinkin' thinkin'! That's one of the reasons why I resigned in 1979.

Now let's understand something about stinking thinking and serving two masters. No such thing! Let's see how, with the Word of God, we have got to have a singularity in our thinking:

• a singularity of Christ in us
• a singularity of doing the things the way that God wants

• yes, have proper emotion
• yes, have love

On the love of God hangs all the Law and commandments, and everything that God does! No doubt about it.

2 Corinthians 6:14: "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.… [another way of saying don't bring in the stinkin' thinkin' of the world] …For what do righteousness and lawlessness have in common?…."

Yet, this is the process that they used to take down the Worldwide Church of God, take down the Seventh-Day Adventists Church, and to take down the Protestant churches that stood for some truth and some morality, to take them down with stinking thinking by bringing in unrighteousness!

"…And what fellowship does light have with darkness? And what union does Christ have with Belial? Or what part does a believer have with an unbeliever? And what agreement is there between a temple of God and idols?…." (vs 14-16).

That's why St. Peter's Basilica is filled with them. So that he who has eyes to see and ears to hear will understand, that's Satan's headquarters, right there. Full of idols!

"…For you are a temple of the living God, exactly as God said: 'I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people'" (v 16).

It's just like the children of Israel back there during the days of Elijah. Elijah came and said, 'How long halt you between two opinions?' God's way became an opinion! 'If Baal be God serve him. If the LORD be God, serve Him.' And they didn't even have an answer. They were so absolutely Laodicean and drunken in their ways of wanting to have God, to claim God, but to live in sin! And you know what happened there. So likewise today, the Church of God has got to make a choice. And it begins with each one.

What agreement does God or any of us have in agreement with Satan the devil? None! with the thinking of the world? None!

• God has called us out to change
• God has called us out to be converted
• God has called us out to repent

Verse 17: "'Therefore, come out from the midst of them and be separate,' says the Lord, 'and touch not the unclean… [and don't think the uncleanthing] …and I will receive you; and I shall be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters,' says the Lord Almighty" (vs 17-18).

That's what Paul thought of it. That's what we have to do. We have to get rid of this pure satanic thinking of self-esteem, and building the self up, which ignores God and rules and laws, and we have to quit going around thinking how we are feeling. You've got to get to the facts. Put feelings in the right place, with the right emotion. You have to be in conformity with what God says.

Let's see what Paul wrote Timothy. What are we to have? How are we to get rid of this stinkin' thinkin'? It's by the Spirit of God! We come to God, God says, 'Come now, let us reason together' (Isa. 1).

Well, God's way of reasoning is 'I'm God, and you repent!' That's the way you reason with God. He will forgive; He will be merciful. Cease doing evil. Learn to do well. That's how you reason with God! When you dialogue with God it's 'O God, forgive me.' It's not how can I justify this? NO! We need to do this with the Spirit of God.

2-Timothy 1:6: "For this reason, I admonish you to stir up the gift of God that is in you…" We need to do that!

We don't know what the future holds. We don't know how it's going to be. But I tell you what, we are just going to be run over like little paper dolls in a windstorm if we don't have the Spirit of God and stand for Truth.

"…stir up the gift of God that is in you by the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear… [toward men, to fear what they will do. He said, 'Don't fear what man can do to you.'] …but of power, and of love, and of sound-mindedness" (vs 6-7).

Not this stinkin' thinkin'. We've got to learn to think right with the Word of God. We've got to have the right kind of love.

Now, we need to also understand this, and this is from Dean Gotcher, too: Whoever defines the terms for you, controls your life! Is God defining the terms for you by you living by every Word of God? or Do you say: I think… I feel… It seems to me… I believe… rather than what God says?

There's something else that's very important that you need to understand, you need to realize. We need to repent of this, all of us. I know I've examined myself and I certainly now more fully than ever understand why when we first left Worldwide and we started Biblical Church of God, it failed! Do you want to know why? Because we had committees, and we had agreement by consensus, and I didn't know a stinking thing about whether that was right or wrong.

God had to deal very severely with it to destroy that whole thing because it was wrong. It was headed right for a fall real quickly, and it did. God removed me from that, and I'm happy for it. When it first happened I really didn't know what was going on. But I've had to repent of that. I've had to see that you just don't go ahead and do things your way and attach God's name to it and say you're doing the will of God! It won't work!

Luke 13:1: "Now, at the same time, there were present some who were telling Him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices."

And people saying, 'Well, they deserved it because God wouldn't allow anything like that to happen because they must have been sinners.' No!

Verse 2: "And Jesus answered and said to them, 'Do you suppose that these Galileans were sinners above all Galileans, because they suffered such things? No, I tell you; but if you do not repent, you shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell, and killed them, do you suppose that these were debtors above all men who dwelt in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but if you do not repent, you shall all likewise perish.'" (vs 2-5).

There needs to be a complete separation of stinkin' thinkin' from our way of doing things. And that has to begin in our lives individually. You need to ask yourself:

• How much stinkin' thinkin' do I have?
• How much have I operated on emotion?
• How much have I gone along with the crowd?
• How much have I dialogued to consensus to justify even my own sins in my own mind?

Here's what we need to do; this is what Jesus tells us to do:

Luke 14:25: "And great multitudes were going with Him; and He turned and said to them…" Jesus told them the exact opposite of what they wanted to hear!

Verse 26: "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers and sisters, and, in addition, his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." That means the impossibility of it!

This is the same thing we've been talking about before, that if you follow God and His ways you're going to be thought of as:

• hateful
• hard-nosed
• uncooperative
• uncaring

When you have to choose between God and those others!

It can have the meaning of love God more in comparison, but it also has the meaning that they take it as you hating them. That's a tough row to hoe because see, if you put emotions first you're not going to want to do that. But if you put God first, you will do that!

Verse 27: "And whoever does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." So, there it is clear!

Let's see the same thing. This is so important because I tell you unless we have this kind of thinking:

• Do you believe that we're going to be in the Kingdom of God?
• Do you believe that we're going to rule as kings and priests under Christ?

if we don't get rid of our stinkin' thinkin'!

Matthew 10:34: "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." The Word of God is a sharp two-edged sword and cuts asunder, cuts away all the emotion!

Verse 35: "For I have come to set a man at variance against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's enemies shall be those of his own household. The one who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and the one who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And the one who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. The one who has found his life shall lose it; and the one who has lost his life for My sake shall find it" (vs 35-39).

So yes, you can find a comfortable existence in the world, can't you? By going along with the world? Yes, you can! But that's not what God said! That's not the way that it's going to be!

Prov. 3—here's what we need to do. This is very important, because we need to have the kind of thinking and understanding that comes from God's Spirit and God's way.

Proverbs 3:1: "My son, forget not my law…" This is David writing to Solomon. But Solomon did forget it!

"…but let your heart keep my commandments; for they shall add length of days, and long life, and peace, to you" (vs 1-2).

Think of this also as God the Father talking to you, and He's telling you this. It's not just long life that will be added to us, but eternal life.

Verse 3: "Do not let mercy and Truth forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them upon the tablet of your heart; and so you shall find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all your heart… [that's where your emotions need to be directed] …and lean not to your own understanding" (vs 3-5)—which is your own carnal way of human thinking!

Verse 6: "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes…" (vs 6-7).

You don't have any self-esteem, but the self-esteem comes from the power of God and the love of God, and it's the right self-esteem and you don't trust in your own abilities.

"…fear the LORD and depart from evil" (v 7). That's what God says!

Now we're not going to beat up on the Laodiceans anymore except to say this: the Laodiceans are guilty of dialectic thinking and dialogue to consensus, and they have put God too much in the realm of human emotions instead of Who God is.

• that's why they're blind
• that's why they can't see
• that's why they are naked
• that's why God is correcting them

He doesn't want them to continue that way!

Here is what God promises us; Revelation 3:10: "Because you have kept the Word of My patience, I also will keep you from the time of temptation, which is about to come upon the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly; hold fast that which you have… [which is the Word of God that you have been faithfully and patiently keeping] …so that no one may take away your crown" (vs 10-11).

How can a man take your crown? By coming in and getting you to dialogue to consensus away from the Truth of God through emotion and human needs, and to take you away from God, and he will steal your crown!

Verse 12: "The one who overcomes…" We need to overcome this. We need to overcome:

• the wisdom of the world
• the wisdom of our thinking
• the ways that we do
• our own emotions

all of those things that we have that have been:

• plaguing us
• bothering us
• causing us to turn from God

We have to overcome! 'Without vision the people perish!'

• here's the goal
• here's the vision
• here is what you need to look to
• here is what God is offering out to you:
• to do
• to see
• to know
• to understand
• to realize
• to have that in the forefront of your mind

"…will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall not go out anymore; and I will write upon him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which will come down out of heaven from My God; and I will write upon him My new name. The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (vs 12-13).

Brethren, let's get rid of stinkin' thinkin'!

All Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version

Scriptural References

• Revelation 12:9
• Psalm 39:4-5
• Ecclesiastes 3:1-10
• Ecclesiastes 1:1-8
• Exodus 20:1-6
• Deuteronomy 5:27, 29
• Deuteronomy 6:1-5
• Hebrews 11:6
• Proverbs 14:12
• Jeremiah 17:9
• 12) Proverbs 16:2-3
• Genesis 3:1-7, 12
• Exodus 14:10-12
• Exodus 32:1-7
• 1 Samuel 8:4-7
• 1 Samuel 15:1-11, 13-30
• Isaiah 5:20-24
• Matthew 4:1-10
• John 5:19, 30
• Psalm 119:128
• 2 Corinthians 10:1-5
• Philippians 2:5
• Romans 12:1-2
• Matthew 8:18-22
• Matthew 16:21-23
• Matthew 15:9-14
• 2 Corinthians 4:1-2
• John 8:38-45
• Romans 1:18-26
• Matthew 6:22-24
• 2 Corinthians 6:14-18
• 2 Timothy 1:6-7
• Luke 13:1-5
• Luke 14:25-27
• Matthew 10:34-39
• Proverbs 3:1-7
• Revelation 3:10-13

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Genesis 6, 8, 11
• Isaiah 1

Also referenced: Book:
The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop

FRC: cis
Transcribed: 12/02/2003
Reformatted/Corrected: bo—8/29/18