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Learn from the examples of the past to avoid penalties in the future!
Fred R. Coulter—September 10, 2022
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Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services!
This past week Queen Elizabeth died, and a lot of people say that she's one of the last great dignified leaders left in the world. She truly served Britain and the Commonwealth and the people.
Today with the Parliamentary Government that they have, the king or queen can only set goals; he or she has no power of legislation. The question remains in the future—and I think it's interesting the parallel between America and Britain—which is this: If Prince Charles is coronated as king—which he probably will be—that means we will have in charge of end-time Israel two of the worst leaders the countries could produce!
We will see today that that's happened in the past. We will see what happens with that.
*****
Bloopers Big and Small: Will You Recover? We will see what that means!
Let's just have a little history of our Church situation going back to the 1970s, 80s and all of the things that happened in the 80s and 90s!
The brethren who were faithful and who are still faithful today are hypersensitive to anything that goes wrong. They all experienced sitting there in the congregation hearing things that they wondered: 'How did they come up with this?'
Then when they shifted over to Sunday, now you had a big split in the Church, as we have discussed recently, and about 40% of them to Sunday-keeping!
Of course, this shocked everybody and all the brethren. It separated friends, families and everything like this. Everything with the demise of Worldwide Church of God and subsequent other fellowship groups, is listed in Prov. 6; this is what we experienced.
One of the worst things to happen, as we covered last week, is for ministers and different ones to not speak the Truth truthfully! Everybody is alert to that, and some are not; some are still half asleep or totally asleep.
Proverbs 6:16: "These six things the LORD hates… [keep these in mind] …yea, seven are an abomination unto Him."
When it says abomination that puts it in the same category as homosexually and bestiality.
Verse 17: [#1]a proud look, [#2]a lying tongue, and [#3]hands that shed innocent blood."
That doesn't mean that you just go out and just murder alone. Of course, that covers that. But you can shed innocent blood if you pass on lies and things that are not true and causes great harm!
Verse 18: [#4]A heart that plots wicked imaginations…"
- Don't you think that those who were planning the demise of WCG had evil imaginations?
- Don't you think that those who plotted against the 2020 election electronically from many places in the world were devised by evil imaginations?
- Don't you think that a lot of the things going on in Congress and legislative halls in the some states are evil imaginations?
- Don't you think that it's an evil imagination when the prosecuting attorneys let criminals go and try and arrest innocent citizens?
God knows and sees all of these things!
"…[#5]feet that are swift in running to evil…[let's tie this together with: …[#6]a false witness who speaks lies…" (vs 18-19).
Tie those two together and we have the perfect setup today called the phone! How fast can something spread far and wide! What happens when someone calls and says: 'Have you heard…' They don't know whether it's all true or not! This happens all too often!
What is the end result of all of these combined together?
"…and [#7]he who sows discord among brethren" (v 19).
Let's talk about how we keep from doing that! God expects us to love Him, serve Him and trust Him!
As we covered last week, God expects every teacher, elder—whatever—to faithfully speak the Word of God! If you look at the Protestants, they never faithfully preach the Word of God, so there is very little they understand!
One of the greatest misunderstandings—lies from the pulpit when there shouldn't be—is Sunday-keeping and a false grace that says:
It doesn't matter what you do, God loves you anyway!
Read Rev. 20 and what's going to happen to the wicked! They're going into the Lake of Fire! Isn't that what God says? Yes, indeed!
Proverbs 3:5: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart…"
That's what we're to do! Tie in Matt. 6 and the prayer: Our Father Who is in heaven, Your will be done on the earth as it is in heaven!
If we're trusting in God, we're looking to His will! Since God has given us free moral agency, He wants to know:
- How are you going to handle that trust?
- Especially when you are by yourself and alone and there's no one else around?
Next time that happens—I've done this before—look in the mirror and ask yourself:
- Who are you?
- What are you?
- What are you doing?
Then you begin understanding God's calling! How great it is!
The world is anxious to have its sins forgiven. That's why false Christianity has so many followers. They think their sins are going to be forgiven.
God wants to give us eternal life! How is it going to be that He's going to give us eternal life IF we, in turn, toward God are not trustworthy? Think about that! God holds each one of us to be trustworthy, especially when we have and know the Word of God.
It's not that we come to Church and we're all goody-goody and nicey-nicey, shake hands and all of this. If we, during the rest of the week, are not trustworthy with the Word of God to grow in grace and knowledge. God is giving us eternal life! That's hard for us to really understand!
Verse 5: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding."
Isn't that when you get yourself in trouble when you do? Even if you don't know God, IF you lean to your own understanding and your own understanding is not right, the result isn't going to be good!
Mechanics like Jack know that very well. If you don't have the right part, the right tool, the right gasket you're in trouble. Jack has repaired many motorcycles! He knows what I'm talking about, and so do you!
The next verse—When you're in trouble, call on God. It doesn't say that! A lot of people think that way! A lot of people only come to God when they are in trouble! Here it is:
Verse 6: "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."
How does He do that? With His Spirit in you He gives you the thoughts that you need to do what is right!
Every single one of us—you've heard many times—need to study everyday, have a study plan:
- What are you going to read?
- What are you going to study?
Not just reading a booklet! That's one of the things that I found with WCG. You can't teach the people enough of the Word of God with just booklets. Then brethren would think that if they read the booklet, they studied the Bible. NO! You have to open the Bible and study it.
There are a lot of things that you can learn, which we will cover. Since the Bible has understand layered one upon another—precepts here and there and other places—you need to really study and ask God for guidance because, as it says here:
Verse 6: "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."
Then a key important thing for every one of us, and this is what became a great sin within WCG, because the elders and ministers exalted themselves above the brethren! They thought that they would do extra-special pleasures or indulgences, and they weren't! This applies to anyone:
Verse 7: "Do not be wise in your own eyes…" I think about that every time I hear someone say:
I've gone to this college or that college
I've been here
I have this degree
All of those things are worthless compared to what God has for us! That's why it's important! That's why you never hear me say, 'When we were at Ambassador College we learned this, that or the other thing.' AC, as good as it was in the level that it was, was basic! We learned more out of the Word of God since those days clear back in the 1960s.
Likewise, anyone who goes to a college or university—I don't care where you go to—however many years you were away from them, the more that you learned is old. So:
Verse 7: "Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the LORD and depart from evil."
That's why you need to learn the Word of God! That's the choice we have every day!
- What is it we're going to do?
- How is it that we're going to do it?
- What is going to happen?
The last thing that anyone who has the Holy Spirit of God should do is look down on other people who don't! Because God is the One Who called us! It's not because we're anything good or great of ourselves!
Verse 8[transcriber's correction]: "It shall be health to your navel and marrow to your bones."
That means you're whole insides! What happens when people get all emotionally distressed and all worked up? Everything in the heart gets messed up, as well as in the mind! There is a connection between the heart and mind, and the internal organs!
Look at how many people are sick today. Think about it! Not just with things that we have suffered within the Church, but I'm saying to look in the world and what is happening in the world, because they violate every one of these Scriptures.
Let's see about bloopers big and small: They can be things against God and let's see about recovering!
MOSES:
Two main things in Moses' life. Remember after he killed the Egyptian for killing one of the Israelites, Moses fled to Midian and was there 40 years before God began dealing with him. That's a long time! Then he lived another 40 years after that.
On his way to go back to Egypt to begin with Aaron to bring the children of Israel out of captivity, his wife came along to a certain place with them. God was angry at Moses because he didn't circumcise his sons. Instead of circumcising his son, his wife did! And she said to him, 'You are a bloody husband!'
The last one way into the wandering in the wilderness in Sinai. There was one time God said early on when the children of Israel needed water, 'strike the stone.' And Moses did and it brought forth water.
On the last occurrence, way toward the end, just before they went into the 'promised land' the children of Israel needed water again. They came complaining, whining and so forth. You know what that's like if you've had a lot of hot weather this summer. If you run out of water, that's a bad thing!
How long can you live without water? In hot weather, who gives you any length of time at all? So, God said to Moses, this time, 'Speak to the rock and it will bring forth water.' But Moses was so angry that he took his rod and he beat the rock!
Well, God still sent the water, but what was the penalty for Moses going against God? That was a great blooper on his part! If God said to speak to it, speak! If He said to strike it, strike it!
Moses' penalty was, 'Moses, because you didn't believe Me and you struck the stone, you're not going into the 'promised land.' So, the most that God did for Moses was, just before he died God took him up on Mt. Nebo and he look across and see where the 'promised land' was. God buried him there at age 120. He still had everything youthful!
That was a big blooper that Moses didn't recover from!
The closer you are to God, the swifter the penalty! Would you not say that the tabernacle and the Holy of Holies was the closest to God that the priests could come to? Yes, indeed!
God set the fire when He sanctified the tabernacle and all the altar and everything like that. He told Aaron and his sons to keep the fire burning! God wanted them to have the fire that came from Him always burning at the tabernacle. Let's see where the fire came from:
Leviticus 9:23: "And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out and blessed the people. And the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people."
Everyone knew that this was a God. Can you imagine what that would be like to see that?
Verse 24: "And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and burned up the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. And all the people saw and shouted and fell on their faces." Quite a moving thing!
Leviticus 10:1: "And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, and put incense on it, and offered strange firebefore the LORD… [in other words they let the fire go out] …which He had commanded them not to do."
Here's swift retribution; this is an unrecoverable blooper or sin!
Verse 2: "And there went out fire from the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD." Swift! Straight from God!
A PROPHET/MAN OF GOD:
This is after King Solomon had sinned and God divided the kingdom. He gave the ten northern tribes to Jeroboam who was one of Solomon's great generals. God told Jeroboam that if he would be faithful and keep the commandments of God, that He would establish his kingdom as he did with David.
Think about what God was saying to him. But Jeroboam didn't want to do it, and he took counsel with the elders and they setup the golden calf in Dan in the north and Bethel in the South, which is in the area of Ephraim.
Then he changed the Feast days from the seventh month to the eighth month and said:
All you children of Israel, it's too much for you to go clear down there to Judah and the tabernacle. Look, we've got the golden calf and we've got the altar, so you can keep the Feast right here.
1-Kings 13:4: "Then it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God who had cried against the altar in Bethel, he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, 'Lay hold on him!' And his hand, which he put forth against him withered up so that he could not pull it in again to himself. The altar also was split asunder…" (vs 4-5).
That's quite a sign! Here this prophet of God was sent by God to pronounce this very thing against Jeroboam.
Verse 6: "And the king answered and said to the man of God, 'Seek now the face of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me again.' And the man of God prayed to the LORD, and the king's hand was restored to him again and became as at the beginning. And the king said to the man of God, 'Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.' And the man of God said to the king, 'If you will give me half your house, I will not go in with you, nor will I eat bread nor drink water in this place, for so was it commanded me by the Word of the Lord, saying… [listen, this is important] … "Eat no bread nor drink water, nor return again by the same way that you came"'" (vs 6-9).
So, he went another way. He went down the road and there was another prophet, but actually a prophet of Baal, but he called himself 'a prophet of the Lord.' He met the man of God going back to Judah and he said,
Verse 15: "And he said to him, 'Come home with me and eat bread.'" But the man of God said he couldn't do it!
Verse 18: "And he said to him, 'I am a prophet also as you are. And an angel spoke to me by the Word of the Lord...'"
Think about it for a minute. Even if that were true, Who gave the Prophet of God the instructions? God did!
Lesson #1—No man can go against the Word of God or anything He commands—period!
This prophet lied! And the Prophet of God believed it! What happened? He went in and ate with him and afterward the word came to him:
You didn't do what I said,' so as he was on his way back to Judah, a lion came and killed him, and the lion stood there and watched donkey and the body of the prophet of God.
It was a blooper unrecoverable!That was quite a thing!
KING DAVID:
This is important because in 2-Sam. 11 God blessed David with a promise that his throne would last forever and that it would never lack anyone sitting on it.
One thing about the promises of God, He doesn't change! So, what happened here was that King David saw Bathsheba bathing on a rooftop. David got lifted up in pride, and his lust got a hold of him. He sent a messenger over for the woman to come be with him.
Bathsheba could have said, 'No, I cannot leave the house because of my husband.' But she went. King David took her brought her in, laid with here and committed adultery with her. She conceived and then he became more arrogant.
He misused the power of the King; what did he do? Uriah—her husband—was in the army of David and under Joab the general who was directing the war! David sent a message that Uriah himself carried because David wanted to first cover his sin by having Uriah come and spend some time with his wife. But Uriah wouldn't lay with her. He went back out to the war and carried the message himself that told Joab, when you come up against the enemy, pull back and leave Uriah alone so that he may die.
Sidebar: Who knew all dirt in the royal household? Joab!
Someone always knows! Never forget that!
After the days of mourning she came and David took her as his wife.
Then Nathan the prophet came. Let's understand that God always had faithful prophets! Nathan was one of them. He always had them above everybody in the land: the high priest, the priesthood, and the king! Why? Especially the priests! Look at how bad it became because they didn't uphold the Word of God! Time and time and time again! They were untrustworthy!
Nathan brought a parable to David and said that there was a rich man who took one of the poor man's ewes and killed it. Here is David's answer:
2-Samuel 12:5: "And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, 'As the LORD lives, the man who has done this shall surely die. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing, and because he had no pity'" (vs 5-6).
Think about how dramatic this was; right there in the throne room; right there where Bathsheba was, and all of the lieutenants were.
Verse 7: "And Nathan said to David, 'You are the man!' …." Think about that; talk about a huge blooper!
"…Thus says the LORD God of Israel, 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. Israel and of Judah. And if that was too little, I would have given to you such and such things besides. Why have you despised the Word of the LORD…'" (vs 7-9).
What happens? IF we go our own way, IF we choose our own solutions we are despising the Word of God! The first thing God said, 'Do not commit adultery!
We had to suffer through that in Worldwide for about seven years before it was finally corrected! Unbelievable adultery by the #2 man in WCG—you all know who that was. He couldn't keep his pants on! Unfortunately, there is always some woman somewhere who is willing to compromise and lay with him. So, the women who did that are to blame, and I knew two of them personally. So, I know that it happened!
Verse 9: "Why have you despised the Word of the LORD to do evil in His sight? You have stricken Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now, therefore…" (vs 9-10).
Here is comes! Can you imagine the last ten or twelve years of the kingship there in Judah?
"…the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised Me…" (v 10)—directly to God!
Some sins are so great that you're doing it right in the face of God!
"'…and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.' Thus says the LORD, 'Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house… [started that very day with Absalom and Tamar] …and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor…. [every one of his wives went out and committed adultery] …And he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun, for you did it secretly…" (vs 10-12).
What did Jesus say about secrets? That which is spoken in secret shall be shouted from the housetops! So, this went out to all Israel!
"'…but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.' And David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the LORD.' And Nathan said to David, 'The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Only, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, this child born to you shall surely die'" (vs 12-14).
We will examine David's prayer of repentance and see that he recovered somewhat out of this blooper. But remember that that very day started the rebellion by the other son—Adonijah—to try and take the kingship, and Absalom was in on it.
(break@42:16)
It's a shame that the Protestants say that everything in the Old Testament has been fulfilled. Yet, they believe in Paul, but they don't believe everything that he wrote. It's an amazing thing!
Here's what Paul said about everything written in the Old Testament, which is why we have to study the O.T. as well, as we're doing today, so that we can understand what we need to do in every situation that comes along! Paul makes it clear, and this is why God has sent His whole Word! If we just needed four little verses like the evangelicals always use, that's all God would have sent to the earth. But He caused the whole Bible to be written for all of us.
1-Corinthians 10:11: "Now all…[everything] …these things happened to them as examples… [or types] …and were written for our admonition…"
- How are you going to learn anything from it unless you study it?
- How are you going to know what the lesson is that God wants us to learn?
"…on whom the ends of the ages are coming" (v 11).
We're about 2,000 years after Paul, and we can see them coming!
Verse 12: "Therefore, let the one who thinks he stands take heed…"—to what?
- to himself
- to the doctrines
- to the Word of God
- to the warnings that God tells us
"…lest he fall. No temptation has come upon you except what is common to mankind. For God, Who is faithful, will not permit you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear; but with the temptation, He will make a way of escape, so that you may be able to bear it" (vs 12-13).
So, there are some bloopers that you can recover from, and God shows that there's a way of escape.
Psa. 51—we will see David's recovery. But he didn't recover from the punishment against the kingdom with his whole family in rebellion against him. Remember the man when they were running away from Absalom and Joab was with him and the man came along and was cursing David for bringing all of this upon them.
Joab said,' Shall I kill him.' David said, 'No, leave him alone, he's speaking the truth.' We're going to learn some things here that are very important.
Psalm 51:1: "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving kindness; according to the greatness of Your compassion, blot out my transgressions. … [remove them] …Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity…" (vs 1-2).
How are you going to be washed thoroughly? The New Testament tells us: by the washing of the water… [God's Spirit] …by the Word! So, correction from God, His Word and His Spirit is going to wash us thoroughly.
"…and cleanse me from my sin" (v 2).
Here's what David did not do. He could have recognized this right from the start. He could have said:
Oh, there's a woman down there bathing on the top of the rooftop. I better get away from here and not fantasize about her beauty.
He could have said that; that was his choice. But he didn't, he said:
I'm king! Send a messenger and bring her here!
Everybody had to obey the king, so she came. She had a choice to stay or to go.
Verse 2: "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity…"
It took a lot of cleansing of the heart and mind, and think about this: I don't know how David could do it. He took her as his wife and continued to have sexual relations with her. She was the mother of Solomon, which shows some of God's grace and mercy in the situation.
How he could come to her as husband and wife and not have flashbacks to that first encounter. There are some things that stay with you forever for the purpose of correction so that you will learn not to do it!
Verse 3: "For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only…" (vs 3-4).
It was sin against Bathsheba and her husband Uriah the Hittite, but all sin is against God, because we are transgressing HIS Laws!
Verse 4: "Against You, You only have I sinned, and done evil in Your sight, that You might be justified when You speak and be in the right when You judge"
God spoke through His prophets and it was written down for our benefit, as Paul said, so that we learn not to do that!
Think on this: What would it have been like if the great sins of WCG had not been committed? We probably could have had our own radio and television station, broadcasting the Truth to the whole world, paid for lock, stock and barrel!
But no, we're scattered in little groups because God wants to know of every single one of us in every one of these little groups:
- Do you love Me?
- Are you going to keep My Word?
or
- Are you going to take advantage of whatever situation comes along and you do as you please and then claim that it's God's will?
So, it gets back to this:
- Are we going to learn the lessons of the Old Testament?
- Are we going to learn the lessons of history?
- Are we going to learn the lessons of the Church? Far and near?
Verse 5: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity…"
David is talking about being born with the law of sin and death, as Paul brings out in Rom. 7 and the first part of Rom. 8.
"…and in sin did my mother conceive me" (v 5). Because the law of sin and death is genetically translated to every human being!
Here's what God wants and here's what is possible. This only comes by studying the Word of God and using God's Spirit, which is the Spirit of Truth from the God of Truth, with His Word of Truth to put it together the way that it should be!
I'll tell you brethren right now, that after going through all the experiences that I did in WCG:
- everything that went on in Pasadena, which was unbelievable
- the sins that were at the highest level
- the hatred between the evangelists one for another
I am sensitive to the things that take place in the Church and God expects me—with all the history of all of these things going on, with what we have experienced and happened in our lives—in order for the things to take place that you see now. It took a lot of suffering, heartache and work! The whole family—my wife and children—all combined!
I want you to know that I will not ever sit back and let anyone go contrary to the Word of God within the Church as something that is official!
From 1983-1992—ten years—I didn't write a thing, because I didn't know what God wanted! God gave us a small group of seven; seven brethren to feed. So, my prayer to God was:
If this is what You want me to do with these brethren, to see them all safely in the grave, and that's the extent of what my ministry will be, so be it!
It wasn't until ten years later that I started writing again, and I started with:
- study translations for the General Epistles
- the Passover; that's how The Christian Passover book came
- then the other things came
God gave us more understanding of His Word! God will give the understanding if we are faithful to the Word of God! If we are not faithful to the Word of God and we become lackadaisical Laodiceans thinking we're all right with God and we're 'Kool'! Look out! Disaster is around the corner!
When these things come up we have learned they must be met immediately with truth and solved, however what is necessary!
Verse 6: "Behold, You desire Truth in the inward parts… [in every cell of your being it needs to be stamped with the Word of God] …and in the hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop…" (vs 6-7).
Yes, there's sin, there's wretchedness, there's everything still in our nature that has to be gotten rid of. That's why Paul wrote Rom. 7. Even after conversion he was finding out that evil was there. What do we do? We will see a little later!
Verse 7: "Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones, which You have broken, may rejoice" (vs 7-8).
There wasn't a bone broken in David's body. But it was so deeply sinful that it was like breaking his bones!
Verse 9: "Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities."
Now, here's the key, and this is what God wants in all of us. This is the whole sum of the proposition of conversion:
Verse 10: "Create…" In other words, it's not really there naturally. God has to create it. How does He create it?
- with His Spirit
- with His Word
- with practice
- with rehearsal
That's why we have the Sabbath every week! Because human nature can only take six days of carnality, it needs one day of the week to come to God!
Verse 10: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."
That means unwavering, uncompromising with anything that goes against the Word of God!
SOLOMON:
How does God punish? God did punish Solomon for what he did! The kings was to make a hand-written copy of the Law and all the Word of God; make His own hand-written copy so that he could study it all the time (Deut. 17). Why? So that his heart would not be lifted up above his people!
- Was not David's heart lifted up against the people? Yes!
- Was not Solomon's heart lifted up against the people? Yes!
Solomon was blessed with building the Temple of God and all of that. Think of that! And he couldn't remain faithful!
1-Kings 11:11: "And the LORD said to Solomon, 'Since this has been done by you, and since you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant.… [General Jeroboam] …But I will not do it in your days, for David your father's sake, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son'" (vs 11-12).
Now, I want you to think about this in relationship to modern Israel, America and Britain today.
Verse 14: "And it came to pass the LORD stirred up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite. He was of the king's seed in Edom."
What do we find also in v 25? Terrorists! Enemies coming and sniping, coming after the people of God. We have that today. We hope that Solomon did repent. We don't know for sure. There's not a recording of his repentance like David's.
KING HEZEKIAH:
Hezekiah was a righteous king. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He restored the temple, recalled even the tribes of Israel down for the Days of Unleavened Bread and so forth.
After the Assyrian armies came and were ready to invade into Judea and Jerusalem and a letter from the king of the Assyrians came telling him to surrender or he will kill them all.
2-Kings 19:15: "And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, 'O LORD God of Israel Who dwells between the cherubim, You are God Himself, You alone of all the kingdoms of the earth; You have made the heavens and the earth. LORD, bow down Your ear and hear. O LORD, open Your eyes and see, and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands, and have thrown their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone, and they have destroyed them. And now, O, LORD our God, I beseech You, save us out of his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD God, and You only" (vs 15-19).
- What happened? God heard that prayer!
- What occurred? God destroyed the whole army of 180,000; all dead out there!
After that he got sick and he turned and prayed to God and said, 'O God, help me, I'm sick and ready to die.' He cried bitter tears before God (1-Kings 20). What did God do? God said, 'All right I'm going to give you 15 years more!' He did!
Then what happened, Ambassadors from Babylon came over and heard that he had been sick and they came to visit him. I'm sure they came to find out more than just that he had been sick.
So, Hezekiah made a great big blooper! He showed the Ambassador's all the booty, gold and silver that they got from the Assyrian armies.
God sent Isaiah to Hezekiah and said, 'What did they see; what did you tell them.' Oh, I showed them all that we have! All of the treasure that we got! God's message was:
It's all going to Babylon! But it's not going to happen your day!
Then Hezekiah said this:
Oh, that's a good thing, it won't happen in my day!
Arrogant as can be at the end! You don't do that to God!
What happened after that? His son Manasseh came and took over! Manasseh was the son of Hezekiah, what did he do? Because of the sin of his father, who showed the ambassadors all the wealth and everything that they got from the Assyrians!
MANASSEH:
Manasseh was the worst king in the history of Judah! Kind of like today: We've got the worst president ever in the history of America! Why? Because of the sins of the people of America, in particularly the sins of the so-called Christian establishment!
- in spite of all of this
- in spite of having the Bible in their hands
- in spite of the things that are taking place
- they will not repent and keep the Sabbath
- they will not repent and get rid of the pagan holidays
Even Jonathan Cahn who wrote a book and said 'the ancient gods are coming back.' He correct, but then he endorses all the holidays and teaches the Jews on Friday night and then the Gentiles on Sunday! He agrees with Sunday!
So anyone who tells me that Jonathan Cahn is a prophet of God, you better rethink it because he's not handling the Word of God properly!
2-Chronicles 33:1: "Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem."
Verse 2: "But he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, like the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel, for he built again the high places, which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them" (vs 2-3).
Talk about freedom of religion! With Queen Elizabeth dying, what is King Charles going to do? Part of the pledge of being King of Britain was to uphold the faith of Protestantism! We will see! Maybe he's going to end up being like Manasseh.
Verse 4: "And he built altars in the house of the LORD…"—right where God put His name!
Verse 5: "And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. And he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom. He also observed times, and used enchantments…" (vs 5-6).
What does it mean observed times? Today that's keeping Christmas and Easter instead of the Passover and the Holy Days of God.
"…and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards…." (v 6).
- that's what's happening in America today
- that's why the evil is as bad as it is
I don't know how much people can recover if they go out and elect different representatives to come in and do a better job. I don't know how much of that represents repentance. I have no idea! Let's not get our hopes up that there's going to be a great revival or reprieve, but let me tell you this: if there is a reprieve for a short period of time then all the Churches of God better get better and start preaching repentance to the nation and the people! Preaching the Gospel of the coming Kingdom of God and the return of Christ in all great power!
"…He also observed times, and used enchantments and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards He did much evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger. And he set a carved image, the idol, which he had made… [commissioned to be made] …in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, 'In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever'" (vs 6-7),
What happened? God sent the Assyrians who at that time controlled Babylon! They took Manasseh captive as punishment for his sins.
Verse 10: "And the LORD spoke to Manasseh and to His people, but they would not listen." Will they listen today? We don't know!
Verse 11: "Wherefore, the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction, he sought the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. And he prayed to Him, and He was entreated of him and heard his prayer, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom…. [as a vassal king] …Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God" (vs 11-13).
What did he do? Hw started cleaning everything out that was pagan in everything in the area of the temple! That was quite a thing!
UZZAH:
Talk about a blooper that cost your life instantly. How about when David was bringing the Ark of the Covenant from Kirjath Jearim from the house of Abinadab bringing it up to the tent that he made for the Ark of the Covenant in his house?
They went down and put it on a cart and was taking it by a cart. One of the attendants there named Uzzah and the Ark of the Covenant tipped a little bit because of a bump in the road and he put his hand on the Ark and he instantly died! Some bloopers cause instantaneous correction and in this case death!
You cannot come that close to it and no one but the Levites should cover it. When they went down to bring it some of the Levites went down with David to do it. But the question I always have in my mind is: Why didn't the Levites tell David that they had to carry it; 'why are you bringing this cart for?'
So, David came back and thought about it for a few months and consulted, and they finally told him that only the Levites can carry it. They went down and brought it back.
Let's come to the New Testament, Matt. 16. I mentioned this recently, but worth mentioning again.
PETER:
We will see that Peter committed some real bloopers! He was able to recover! God the Father inspired to answer the question: Who was the Son of man? Peter said, 'The Christ!'
Sidebar: Someone wrote me a letter and said that in the Greek it is 'Christos.' That is true, but not in the English. That doesn't mean that we're not pronouncing the name of Christ correctly, because in the Greek the name of Christ could be pronounced: Christos, Christoo, Christo and Christon!
So you can't make any thoughts that we are wrong in saying 'Christ'; the os, oo, o, on at the end of the word Christ is part of the Greek grammar.
If you don't know any Greek, don't make any decisions and don't have anyone come along and tell you that you're pronouncing the name incorrectly.
Peter answered correctly and what did Jesus say? The Father Himself has given it to you! Then Jesus said that He was going to build His Church.
After that, Jesus began to tell Peter what he was going to suffer in Jerusalem.
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."
After having this revelation given by God the Father directly to Peter, look what he did afterward. Look at what Jesus said of this blooper!
Verse 22: "But after taking Him aside, Peter personally began to rebuke Him, saying, 'God will be favorable to You, Lord. In no way shall this happen to You.'"
I'll save You, Lord! It's not going to happen because I'm here, Lord!
That was a good thought carnally speaking. But what did Jesus say:
Verse 23: "Then He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind Me, Satan!….'"
A good example: Not all thoughts are good in the way that we may think they are good, because they may come from Satan the devil!
So, Satan was after Peter.
"…You are an offense to Me, because your thoughts are not in accord with the things of God, but the things of men'" (v 23). We can't mix the two; always remember that!
Let's see another astounding thing concerning Peter and what Jesus said and did. This is amazing and was after they just took the Passover.
Mark 14:27: "Then Jesus said to them, 'All of you shall be offended in Me in this night; for it is written… [this tells us that we can never do anything contrary to the Word of God] …"I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." But after I have risen, I will go before you into Galilee.' Then Peter said to Him…" (vs 27-29).
Notice the good thought: 'I will always be faithful and loyal.' Isn't that what we're supposed to do and think and say? Yes! But notice what happened:
Verse 29: "Then Peter said to Him, 'Even if all shall be offended, yet, I shall not.' And Jesus said to him, 'Truly I say to you, today, in this very night, before the cock crows twice, you shall deny Me three times'" (vs 29-30).
Did that happen? Yes! Notice what else happened in denying Jesus three times; again, after the Passover:
Luke 22:31: "Then the Lord said, 'Simon, Simon, listen well. Satan has demanded to have all of you, to sift as wheat. … [that's something; we don't know how this conversation took place between Christ and Satan] …But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and when you are converted, strengthen your brethren.' And he [Peter] said to Him, 'Lord, I am ready to go with You both to prison and to death.' But He said, 'I tell you, Peter, the cock shall in no wise crow today before you have denied knowing Me three times'" (vs 31-34).
He recovered from that, but let's look at another one that came years later, when Paul had to correct Peter. This tells us in the Church that there are to be no politics, which means among the brethren or the between the elders and some brethren. Did we not all see that? The political clicks? The insiders? Not to be! Peter was highly political here!
Galatians 2:11: "But when Peter came to Antioch, I withstood him to his face because he was to be condemned… [this is recorded in the Scriptures for us to learn] …for, before certain ones came from James…" (vs 11-12).
James at the temple was allowing all of the sacrifices and all of those things to continue. If anyone brought up that they're not necessary, those in Jerusalem thought that that was wrong. One of the rules among the Jews with Judaism was that you shouldn't eat with Gentiles. You can't keep company with them!
- Who went to Cornelius? God sent Peter to Cornelius!
- What did Peter say to Cornelius? I perceive that God has said that He is no respecter of persons!
- What did Peter do when they came from Jerusalem? He didn't want to be thought of as following those teachings of Paul!
Verse 12: "For, before certain ones came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. However, when they came, he drew back and separated himself from the Gentiles, being afraid of those of the circumcision party." Politics!
Verse 13: "And the rest of the Jews joined him in this hypocritical act, insomuch that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they did not walk uprightly according to the Truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter in the presence of them all, 'If you, being a Jew, are living like the Gentiles, and not according to Judaism, why do you compel the Gentiles to Judaize? We who are Jews by nature—and not sinners of the Gentiles—knowing that a man is not justified by works of law…'" (vs 13-16)—works of the law of Judaism!
A great sin! Even some people do it today! I hear that there is somewhere—I don't know where it is in the CBCG—that the elder in charge is letting brethren attend who where the leather tassel thing that they Jews have. That's a work of law, that will do nothing, that will not increase your answers for your prayers from God, or make you righteous before God through the sacrifice of Christ! That's what Paul said!
Remember this: Can those little tassel things replace the sacrifice of Christ? Or whatever little thing it may be?
Peter should have remembered this encounter with Jesus. This is the way that all of us can avoid problems and difficulties and the things that we have covered here, and the only way we can recover from our bloopers! We're all going to make them big and small! Some public, some private! Some we never know about because the individual's involved repent to God.
Here the disciples were all out fishing and Jesus started a fire and was cooking some fish. He hadn't gotten the fish from men because they were out fishing. How did He get the fish? It doesn't tell us, but He was cooking them! They all came and were there:
John 21:15: "Therefore, when they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter… [remember what we've read up till now]: …'Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me more than these?'…."—the other apostles!
This gets to the first great commandments of loving God with all your heart, mind, soul and being! And for anyone who is an elder or minister, you need to take this very seriously:
- Do you love God more and anything else?
- Are you going to serve the brethren in Truth, righteousness and love?
"…And he said to Him, 'Yes, Lord. You know that I love You.' He said to him, 'Feed My lambs'" (v 15).
That's what we are to do! Church is for no other purpose than all of us being educated so that when we're resurrected we will be kings and priests and rule the world!
Verse 16: "He said to him again a second time, 'Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?' And he said to Him, 'Yes, Lord. You know that I love You.' He said to him, 'Shepherd My sheep.'"
When you shepherd, you teach them what to do. You help them in how they need to lead their lives.
Verse 17: "He said to him the third time, 'Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?' Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, 'Do you love Me?' And he said to Him, 'Lord, You know all things. You know that I love You.' Jesus said to him, 'Feed My sheep.'"
That's the solution to bloopers that transpire within the eldership or the ministry! Same thing for all the brethren.
All of us who are elders and ministers, we need to preach the Word of God faithfully in love to the brethren! The brethren need to study and pray so that they can grow and we can come to the level as Jesus said, 'It's sufficient that the disciple become like the teacher.' That is in knowledge!
- that's why we're here
- that's why we do what we do
This is how we're going to approach in bringing a solution to the problem that I brought up last week. We're going to work with those involved and help bring them and restore them to God the way that it should be!
Scriptural References:
- Proverbs 6:16-19
- Proverbs 3:5-8
- Leviticus 9:23-24
- Leviticus 10:1-2
- 1 Kings 13:4-9, 15, 18
- 2 Samuel 12:5-14
- 1 Corinthians 10:11-13
- Psalm 51:1-10
- 1 Kings 11:11-12, 14
- 2 Kings 19:15-19
- 2 Chronicles 33:1-7, 10-13
- Matthew 16:21-23
- Mark 14:27-30
- Luke 22:31-34
- Galatians 2:11-16
- John 21:15-17
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- Matthew 6
- 2 Samuel 11
- Romans 7; 8
- Deuteronomy 17
- 1 Kings 11:25
- 2 Kings 20
FRC:bo
Transcribed: 9/14/22
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