App
The Postmodernists vs God's Truth
Fred R. Coulter—March 13, 2004
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Why is the world going crazy? We have a society of lawlessness that is expressing itself in many different ways, and especially manifested by the same-sex marriages, which have been sweeping the country. They are demanding equal rights.
- But what I want to ask today is how did we get to that point of that kind of stinkin thinkin?
- How did it come about?
Well, it actually began a long time ago! For the end-time it began with the book The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. Immediately the intelligencia of the universities and colleges—the teachers—began to teach evolution in place of special creation!
Since the Scopes Trial in America in 1925, when they said that you cannot teach special creation in schools anymore, you must teach evolution. Then in 1960 or 62 they said that you could no longer pray in school. Now they have it that you can't even have a Bible in school. You can teach them Muslimism, you can teach them American Indian religion, you can teach them Buddhism and Hinduism, but don't mention the name of Christ.
- How did we get to that point?
- How have we come full circle to literally and totally undo the Constitution and freedom of speech?
I read books, I read all the time, and the reason that I do is because we have to know what the world is thinking; for two reasons:
- so we can avoid being like the world, because it says that we're to come out of the world
- so that we can understand people in the world and how they think
If we are going to make any 'rapprochement,' we have to know how they think. But we also have to understand how they got that way, where we are now and who started it.
Matthew 24:8: "Now, all these things are the beginning of sorrows." Which also tells us that we don't know the degree to which these things are going to happen.
Verse 9: "Then shall they deliver you up to affliction…" Hasn't happened, yet, but the things are being set in place that it can happen. It's happening in Canada. If you preach the Bible full-bore you may get a six-month jail sentence for preaching hate literature. That's how far the feminist and homosexual agenda in Canada has gotten.
"…and shall kill you…" (v 9). That will happened. It's happened back then and it's going to happen again.
"…and you shall be hated by all nations for My name's sake" (v 9). Isn't that profound? I've often wondered how that's going to happen in a world that is mostly Christian? Because by the time it gets to this point it will be mostly non-Christian! The name of Jesus Christ will be hated!
Verse 10: "And then shall many be led into sin…" How are people going to be led into sin, and be deceived and not having a standard to know what is right and what is wrong, and to know what sin is, and what sin is not. Hence, the death of Truth!
It says, 'Empty-headed women carried away with different lust.' I tell you what, that's the way it with a lot of women in the world; they're just empty-headed, seeking after pleasure, sex and sin. How did they get to that place? Any women here don't take offense; I don't mean you. You have brains between your eyes and ears and are using them.
"…and shall betray one another…" (v 10). Isn't it interesting that you can call an 'anonymous tip' on anybody today and say a crime is being committed.
- What's going to happen when the crime is having the Word of God?
- What's going to happen when the crime is that you keep the Sabbath?
Because, lo, it will come!
"…and shall hate one another" (v 10). Isn't that happening right now? More hatred? Yes!
Verse 11: "And many false prophets shall arise…" There are many false prophets everywhere; even in the Church of God. All you have to do is read the listing in the Association of Sabbath-Keeping groups. You will see that there are as many denominations of the Church of God as there are Protestant denominations in the world. Amazing!
"…and shall deceive many; and because lawlessness shall be multiplied…" (vs 11-12). How do you multiply lawlessness? We can see the end result in Massachusetts, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and he different cities in America where they are doing this.
Then, "…the love of many shall grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, that one shall be saved" (vs 12-13). You've got to endure through it all. How bad is it going to get?
Jesus said in Luke 17 that not only during the days Noah, but in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. How bad was in Gen. 19 when the angels came to Sodom to rescue Lot? They saw what they figured was 'new meat' walking down the street, and they wanted the angels! They came and surrounded his house, and a riot ensued and poor old Lot didn't know what to do, and said, 'Have my daughters.' You can't let angels be violated, and I'm sure that he knew that they wouldn't take his daughters. So, the angels blind them and drove away the riot.
- How bad is it going to get at the end-time where we live?
- Will it get that bad? Very possibly!
- How did we get to that point that people think this way?
- How did we get to the point where good is evil, and evil is good?
- How did we get to the point that they cast away the Laws of God and say that those who do evil are good?
Well, The Death of Truth! This is a book by Dennis McCallum, and he is a minister. I don't remember the church off hand, but at least there are some people out there still holding to the Truth. Here's what he writes:
The Death of Truth by Dennis McCallum—from the back book jacket:
Whatever Happened to Truth?
Today people tell lies when the truth would be easier to say. They just can't help themselves. They're so used to lying, that lying is the way they talk. You couple that with all the things in education, in music, and they blast their minds out with rock music and rap music, and all kinds of stupidity.
Let me just say that anyone who has to have music going all the time cannot be using their mind. They are having their mind being used by other people, by the music and so forth. That's why after you watch so much television or listen to the radio so long, you've just got to turn it off!
Believe me, Bill O'Rielly's no spin zone is a spin zone! If you want a true no spin zone, you bring the truth, not just part of it that suits your agenda.
So, he answers the question this way:
America is in the midst of a revolution in thinking that impacts every conceivable aspect of life. Postmodernism…
That's what they call today's thinking! Before that up to this time it was modernism. So, you know where we're going with this.
…the guiding spirit of our times…
- Isn't that interesting, the guiding spirit?
- Where does that come from?
- Who is deceiving the whole world? Satan the devil!
- Does he have his ministers? Yes!
- Does he have his teachers? Yes!
- Does he have his government leaders? Yes!
- Does he have his bankers? Yes!
It's interesting that he doesn't say a guiding spirit!
…teaches that things like reason and rationality are cultural biases, and that truth—especially God's truth—doesn't exist. A society that forsakes truth believes that
- All lifestyles, religions, and worldviews are equally valid
There was a book that came out, and the first time I saw it was about 1972: I'm OK, You're OK by Thomas Anthony Harris. 'I'm okay if what I am is what I am, and you accept me. And if you accept me, you're okay.'
- The only real sin is criticizing someone else's views or moral choices
That's what happens is some people are criticized, they just come unglued! They don't know what to do! They can't handle being corrected. Well, correction is for good.
Today, little kids are never spanked. They never teach them right from wrong, because you don't want to hurt their little psyche. 'After all, these are little created genius' running around.' No they're not! They're little hellion brats!
I remember one time I was in a store and here's this little kid whining. I couldn't resist, I walked up to this little brat and give him the hardest look I could give—and I can give a hard look. I mean, even when I'm just relaxed some people take me the wrong way. When I was at Ambassador College, David Jon Hill said, 'Fred Coulter's face is like a blanket with two burnt holes in it.' So, I went up to this little kid and looked at him just like that, and I said, 'You be still and quit crying and giving your mother a hard time.' He shut right up! All he needed was a little correction.
- Opinions matter as much as evidence
You see this in the news, 'Balanced news.' There's no such thing as balanced news! It's either true or false. You see it especially in these talk shows. They have them on CNN in the afternoon, Fox in the afternoon. All that does is to teach people to delude their thinking, and to accept all points of view as equally valid.
Most of television is brainwashing people to think that way. Remember when Archie Bunker first came out? All in the Family, that was the start of it. Now we have the Simpson's, and where is that going? Same way! Look at the movies, all the satanism and everything that it's showing. How did we get that way?
- Reality is in the mind of the beholder.
It's not what you see, reality is created in your mind by what you think.
Where does that come from? Hinduism! That's why the Hindus can live in such wretched squalor, never love any of their neighbors who are in distress, because they have demonically gotten their minds to say 'the only reality is what I think in my mind and what I see out here is not real.'
If you have objectivity in religion you're committing a cardinal sin against the religions of this world. There's no such thing as objective truth.
- Your Word is the Truth
- God is God
- God is true
- God has preserved His Word
- God has inspired His Word
- the Bible is His Word
If you hold absolute truths, you're an enemy.
We have historically believed the "A" is not a non-A. For example: the Creator God cannot be personal and impersonal at the same time.
True Christianity believes in a personal God, in a personal relationship. The religions of the world do not!
- God is a force
- God is the power
- God is a thought in the head
I want to point out something that is important in the Greek called the middle voice verb, which does this: the subject of the action is also the object and recipient of that action, expressed by the translation: I myself, you yourselves, etc.
Where it is used where there is personal involvement, and it's awkward to say by myself, I translated it personally, to show the personal involvement of the middle voice verb. You'll see this in various places as you study.
John 15:16: "You yourselves… [in other words, you of your own initiative] …did not choose Me… [caused the action to be] …but I have personally chosen you…" That's profound! Always remember that!
If you get discouraged and down, and you get in a place where you feel so low that you wonder where God is, claim the promise that He has personally chosen you! That's what God wants us to understand.
Religion is not some ethereal thing out here, or some ethereal thing that you create within your mind, it is the Holy Spirit of God within you, because God has personally called you and has given you the Holy Spirit, with the begettal of God the Father so that you can become a son or daughter of God and live in the Kingdom of God forever!
That's why God has called us! Not to play 'religion.' See what happens to the Church of God when they 'play religion'? 'play hierarchy'? The ultimate of the hierarchy is the Roman Catholic Church.
Let's be clear, postmodernists…
That is those of today's intelligencia and the world
…aren't against religion….
You may have heard this on the former program Hannity and Colmes. Colmes said of those who wanted to worship publicly, 'Why can't you go home and worship?' No one had the sense to say, 'Don't you go to synagogue?
…They are only against religious teachings that hold an objective truth. You will hear them say that no one has all the Truth.
For human beings that is correct. However, God has all the Truth and His Word is Truth, so if you go by His Word, which is absolutely true, you do have objective Truth that other people don't have, and you don't have to be ashamed of it.
But that's what they are against. You tell someone that the Sabbath is the seventh day, which is Saturday today, and nowhere can you find Sunday. 'Oh well, that's your opinion.' NO! That's what the Bible teaches! 'Well, that's your interpretation.' They can't handle objective Truth, because they've been taught that no one has all the answers, which means nobody has any answers.
So, they are against religion that holds objective truth and the usefulness of reason.
In other words, you can sit down and you can put the Scriptures together one after the other just like it says, 'line upon line, line upon line; precept upon precept, precept upon precept; here a little, there a little.' You put it together, and they can't handle that.
However, religion based only on personal experience, and 'what is true for me' is perfectly compatible with the postmodern world view.
But once reason is rejected…
Because if you have an emotion inside of you, that's not objective fact. It may be something you have experienced, but that is not objective fact.
…What is the use of truth if the opposite or the antithical position is also true?
This is what they have. Your opinion is true, and another's opinion is true, etc., and they're all equally valued. Well, try that with poison.
In place of truth, it makes sense that truths will be backed up in some way—that is positive, rational, true thinking….
That's why I've said many times, you have to think with the Word of God; that's the way to think!
Postmodernism, again, leads its adherences with two things: experience and power….
'I experience it, and it's my power.'
So, he says, "My experience is the basis for my beliefs. I believe it and if I believe it. it must be true, because I believe it….
There's no proof of anything!
…Those beliefs exist to empower me. I believe that same-sex people ought to have the right marry just like everybody else. Since I believe it, it ought to be so. Look at all these thousands of other people who believe it."
See how we get to that point?
Anti-rationalism in Religion
Anomos…
Those who worship animals!
…and eastern mystics aren't the only ones holding to an anti-rational world view….
Here is good incite as to what's wrong with the Catholic Church, and why they have so many pedophiles, and why the priests are so corrupt. Besides, you stop and think about this for just a minute: How can you possibly ever have a rational normal Catholic priest ever:
- who grows up in a Catholic Church
- who is separated from the opposite sex
- who goes to seminary where there are no girls
- who goes to a university for further study where there are no girls
And then he's ordained a priest and sent out into a parish where he is to counsel men and women. How can they do it? There is no rational way that they can! That's why the Roman Catholic Church cannot be repaired. Individuals may repent, but Christ is going to make sure that the beast power literally destroys it before He sets foot on the earth. He says, 'The beast is going to turn against her and devour her with fire.'
According to a recent study only 26% of progressive Catholic priests affirm this statement: "We are utterly dependent on God and should completely submit ourselves to His will for us."
Only 26% believe that!
At the same time, 65% of the same priests affirm that God is the Divine presence in this world, "Whom I discover through people, things and events." Thus the established church is awash with postmodern religious attitudes.
Postmodernism leads to intellectual respectability to views that used to be considered superstitious or weird.
So, they're interviewed by Larry King, and they come on all of these weirdo things. There's a show on television called Fear Factor, where they put them through such terrible experiences where one of the contestants—this was related to me—had to prove that they had courage and not fear by getting under this little thing and let them squeeze a whole quart of spiders together and you drink the juice. That's just one! That's why you don't watch those! But that's normal and accepted.
Spirituality in the postmodern religion puts the individual at the center, as we have seen.
Who is the center of true Christianity? Jesus Christ! God the Father! So, this is self, that's sounds like Gen. 3, 'If you eat of this tree you will become gods':
- you will decide right and wrong
- you don't have to listen to God
- you can gain the knowledge
Isn't it something that the more knowledge that people have, the more evil they become, because knowledge cannot save! True knowledge can lead to salvation through repentance and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But pure knowledge of itself cannot save.
Authentic worship ends up being self-worship and self-empowerment….
I, me, my, I believe, I think, I experience, I know!
…When you have opinions that are equally true, they worship their own opinions.
What does that become? An idol in your mind (Ezek. 14)! You are worshipping and idolizing yourself. That's the way it is in the world. No wonder they won't be able to stand us!
The self also becomes the integration point for spiritual truth. "It's true for me because I believe it."
Organized religion with its creeds and statements of faith are out of vogue. Individualistic spirituality is in.
Which is lawlessness!
We can characterize postmodern spirituality as a flight from pursuit of historical and propositional truth.
They change the history! Have you heard of that in the school books today? They change the history! Yes, indeed! It's kind of like in bookkeeping. The way the most corrupt bookkeeper can keep perfect books is this: You have a special account called ESP—that doesn't mean extrasensory perception—which means that you balance the book by putting in there what does not balance into the error-someplace account. So, ESP means error someplace! So, you fake the balancing of the books.
Just like the way people think today, since they don't want truth, they fake it, and they claim what they think in the experience is true.
Sure enough there may be many true experiences. I tell you what, a demonic experience is true, but that is not Truth from God!
From a flight to a preoccupation with mystical experience. For example: The claim that Christ rose from the dead is an assertion of historical fact. It either happened or it didn't, and reason and evidence can shed light on whether or not the claim is true.
That's why God gave the witnesses, to make sure it was true. And the God of Truth, using the Spirit of Truth, inspired the Word of Truth called the Bible, and it has His revealed Truth and knowledge. In the original Hebrew of the Masoretic Text of the Old Testament, and in the Byzantine Text of the Greek for the New Testament, contains the true inspired Word of God!
The thing that's important from that is, is it faithfully translated?
The claim, however, on the other hand is "Jesus arose in my heart."….
- How did they start getting around Sabbath-keeping?
- Remember the first argument that came down the pike?
- Jesus is our Sabbath!
- Jesus kept the Sabbath for me!
- Therefore, I don't have to keep it!
- Since Jesus kept it for me, I don't have to do it'; I'm under no obligation!
Then you develop a lawless attitude and outlook.
Reason and evidence are useless in assessing such a claim.
You look at someone who says that 'Jesus rose in my heart.' How do you know? Open your heart and let me see, is He there?
{note appendices from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version}:
- Appendix P: What does it Mean to be "Born Again"?
- Appendix Q: What does it Mean to be "Born of God"?
- Appendix R: What is Meant by "Works of Law"?
There is a rational, logical, Biblical way to prove whether you have been born again or not. You can either walk through matter or you can't! If you can, you are born again and a spirit being and you beat the first resurrection!If you can't, you're going be bruised and sore if you try, and know that you're not born again! It's the same way for 'Christ arose in my heart.'
To postmodernists, mystics, reason and evidence are unnecessary when viewed with suspicion.
The more we study and understand the postmodern culture, the more we will see how desperately people still need absolute objective truth.
Because that's the only thing that satisfies! It has to be that when you assemble together on the Sabbath that you are fed the Word of God.
I've had people come to me and say, 'I've been going hungry in Sabbath services.' You're fed the Word of God, because that is spiritual meat for you to grow. When you do, how do you feel? Inspired! Satisfied! Knowing the Truth is right! You can have confidence and faith!
- that's what Sabbath services is all about
- that's what the Word of God is all about
Not this 'feel good' thing, shouting, yelling, whooping, hollering, jumping up and down and speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues is another ones of those, 'What did you say?' I don't know but it must have been important because I said it.
The result is a lonely vacuum waiting for answers that matter to fill the loneliness and despair of the postmodern world, to open new opportunities for evangelicals who take the time to understand the new consensus.
As you can hear in the background we were invaded by the Pentecostal trumpet-blowing confusion in the room next door, and we've just changed rooms. What we experienced with the emotional Pentecostal meeting going on is the epitome of what we've been talking about.
Religion becomes an emotional experience rather than a learning of the way of God; there's a vast difference! They had outside before their meeting hall; I'll just read part of it by Charles Swindoll:
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts.
Don't bother me with the facts. Well, if I have a bad attitude because your facts are wrong, then the facts are more important than attitude. You can straighten out a bad attitude with facts. Jesus said:
John 17:17: "Sanctify them in Your Truth; Your Word is the Truth."
We're not sanctified by shouting, yelling, screaming, and by accepting everybody's ideas and things like that. All of that is part of the world. All of that is part of self. It's an amazing thing!
Let's just review a few Proverbs:
- There is a way that seems right to a man, and the ends thereof are the ways of death.
- Every man's way is just in his own eyes.
Meaning that he interiorly, where he creates this false reality, believes that everything he does is correct.
Jeremiah 17:9: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?"
So, when you have an emotional religious experience that ignores the Word of God and the Truth of God, and you come to the point that everything is true, what is going to happen? What comes out of the heart naturally since you don't have the Spirit of God?
Mark 7:21: "For from within, out of the hearts of men go forth evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickednesses, guile, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness… [what we heard was foolishness in the name of religion] …all these evils go forth from within, and these defile a man" (vs 21-23).
Let's couple this with the instigator of lies and see how it works. What I just read in Mark 7 results in what happens here:
Ephesians 2:1: "Now, you were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you walked in times past according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working within the children of disobedience" (vs 1-2). It stirs up the lust of the heart, the mind and the flesh!
But when you come to a whole situation where everything is equally true, then we've reached the point
Deuteronomy 18:9: "When you come to the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations."
When you come to the point that this way is true, and that way is true, and the other way is true, and all paths lead to God through whatever means that a person tries to find God, then every other way is as correct as the Word of God. You no longer accept objective truth. That's why one of the first lies from the pulpit comes from Satan the devil, that the Word of God was written by men, and it's their opinions. Have you heard that before? Yes, indeed! But it's not so!
When it's their opinions, v 10: "There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses divination, or an observer of times, or a fortuneteller, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or one who seeks oracles from the dead. For all that do these things are an abomination to the LORD…." (vs 10-12).
Today they are accepted! Witchcraft is protected! They must now allow covens within the military on the federal government's military bases. Has the age of Harry Potter come true? Yes, indeed! People believe Harry Potter before they'll believe the Bible. It says, "…all that do these things are an abomination to the LORD."
An abomination is now acceptable. That's why we have all the terrible things going on the way that they're going on.
"…And because of these abominations, the LORD your God drives them out from before you. You shall be blameless… [perfect] …before the LORD your God" (vs 12-13). How can you be perfect before God?
- keeping His commandments
- loving Him
- following everything that He says
- believing in Jesus Christ the way that He says
- you don't have to have all knowledge
- you don't have to have all understanding
You have to truly believe in Christ and keep His commandments, and let God's Spirit lead you! Then God can add knowledge to your understanding as you study and grow. Those things take time, step-by-step; it's not done overnight. And today we have an opportunity as never before, where we can sit down with the Bible and study it, go over. We have concordances, commentaries, and all of the things available to really know the Truth. But what has Satan done to this society? He has made it so busy that no one can take time to do it!
Verse 14: "For these nations whom you shall possess hearkened to observers of times and to diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do so." Which tells us that the warning is this: As these nations committed these abominations and were cast out of their land, so God is going to take the people of God—physical Israel—for doing these things and cast them out of their land and send them into captivity so they may repent!
We have a perfect example and warning for us in the form of the Worldwide Church of God, where they allowed all of these false teachings into the Church, and corruption, adultery, fornication and homosexuality right within the Church. God's patience wore thin and sent people into the Church, to infiltrate it and take it down and destroy it! It just took a few years as far as the Sabbath-keeping and Holy Day-keeping it did not exist even before the destruction.
We all ought to hear and fear! Some people get down right made and cantankerous at me when I say that, because they think somehow God is going to bring all the churches back together. No! He didn't scatter them to bring them together. He scattered them to weed out the wheat from the chaff.
Let's look at some of the things that we need to do, some of the things that we need to follow, because we need to look at the objective truth. That's why we are to prove all things in the Bible. Like Bereans, they searched the Scriptures whether these things are so or not.
Psa. 119 tells you perfectly how David thought of the laws and commandments of God, which I believe are a prophecy of how Jesus viewed them. The first few verses sets the stage for the whole Psalm. If you look above each 8-verse section of Psa. 119, what you have is a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, beginning with aleph, beth, gimal, etc. In the Hebrew each one of these verses begins with the letter of the alphabet. This was called a hymn of steps and what they were to do was to memorize it and sing it. My memory is not good enough to memorize, let alone even sing it.
Psalm 119:1: Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the Law of the LORD."
Psalm 1:1: "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the Law of the LORD; and in His Law does he meditate day and night" (vs 1-2).
The New Covenant is to do what with the laws and commandments of God? Write them in our heart and mind! Notice the result:
Verse 3: "And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, and its leaf shall not wither, and all that he does shall prosper. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff, which the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish" (vs 3-6).
Those are objective Truths! These are things to give us knowledge and understanding of how we are to live, how we are to think, so that our lives are in conformity with the will of God. The will of God comes in many forms, but two major ways:
- if you love God and keep His commandments, He's going to bless you
- if you don't love God and you don't keep His commandments, you're going receive curses
That is the will of God; He has said so! The promises of God also come in two ways:
- blessings
- cursings
So, when people say the will of God, which one are you talking about? It's never the will of God that adultery be committed. It's never the will of God that sodomy be committed. But if you do it and say that it's the will of God—you're going to reap the will of God for doing so—are you not? Yes, indeed! You can't take coals to your bosom and not be burned.
Paul wrote, 'Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, which is sexual immorality, let every man have his own wife and every woman her own husband.' He did not say to let every man choose another man that he desires, or a woman choose another woman that she desires. That's an abomination! But in today's world and thinking, everything is equally true because 'I believe it' we have the society the way that it is.
- How do we fight against that?
- How do we keep our sanity?
- with God's Spirit
- with God's Truth, the Spirit of Truth
- by understanding the value of God's Word
Psalm 119:1: "Blessed… [Is that the will of God? Yes!] …are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the Law of the LORD." Note James 4:12, that there is one Lawgiver, meaning all other opinions do not count!
If you judge the Law—and most of them judge the Law so they don't keep it—you're not a doer of the Law but a judge. If you are judge then you're judging God. God told Job, who was judging Him and claiming his righteousness was as good as God's. God came to him and said, 'Stand up like a man and I want you to answer Me.' Job said, 'Whoops!'
God said, 'Where were you, Job, when I created the world? I'll tell you one thing, that if you can cast your rage abroad against the wicked, and do the things like God, and if you can clothe yourself with majesty, the I'll tell you that you can save yourself. But since you can't do that, who are you to disannul My judgment?'
That's what people do when they judge the Law. People, because of their carnal nature, don't want to keep the laws of God and say, 'Yeah, that's right.' But it isn't so!
Verse 1: "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the Law of the LORD. Blessed are they who keep His testimonies and who seek Him with the whole heart" (vs 1-2). And that's what God wants from us!
Verse 3: "They also do no iniquity; they walk in His ways. You have commanded us to keep Your precepts diligently" (vs 3-4).
Here's the catch: because we have human nature that we're working with, v 5: "O that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes!"
How many times have you prayed, 'O God, help me to obey You more; help me to overcome this sin'? That's just showing human nature there.
Verse 6: "Then I shall not be ashamed when I have respect unto all Your commandments. I will praise You with uprightness of heart when I have learned Your righteous judgments" (vs 6-7).
You've got learn, it's an education. The way of God is continuing education for your whole life. He made us to learn our lifelong. Isn't that something? To perfect us for the Kingdom of God! That's a tremendous thing!
When I was a real estate and loan broker we had to have 45 hours of continuing education every four years. God says, 'I want you to have every seventh day, plus my Holy Days as continuing education to learn of My ways.' That's why the Holy Days, Passover and Sabbaths are so important.
- How many Sabbaths have we squandered by 'story telling'?
- How many Sabbaths have been wasted by standing up and correcting the brethren trying to beat sin out of them?
When they should inspire them to overcome and let God help them to get the sin out of their lives!
- How many Sabbaths have been wasted on vanity and stupidity of the minister trying to show off?
All you are to do is turn on your Sunday morning channel and see what goes on. Every once in a while you find a minister with a little Truth, with a little sincerity.
But we have to learn! That's what it's all about! When you learn, what happens? It takes time to learn, which means that there's going to be some missing understanding! There are even going to be some mistakes! God knows about that, but can you overcome that? Yes! Through repentance, learning, growing and overcoming.
Verse 73: "Your hands have made me and formed me; give me understanding so that I may learn Your commandments." Profound!
I remember one time about 1985-6, I was driving and doing loans. I had my Isuzu diesel—the one that I rolled and I came out covered with white dust—and I remember praying, 'God, help me to think. I don't know how to think.' I did not know how to think, so I thank God that He heard and answered that prayer. But how did I learn how to think? By learning the Word of God even more! That's how you learn how to think!
Then being able to think about the things that are right and good vs the things that are wrong and evil. You cannot discern what is evil and wrong unless you what is good, right and righteous. You cannot! That's why Satan is so deceptive in what he does. That's why he can come along and fill this society with all of these things and weird and strange ideas and practices, and 'it's normal.'
You walk up to a clerk in a store and you they've got this thing stuck in their lip, and another one stuck in their tongue and have many earrings pierced in their ears. They have many rings on their fingers and they look like freaks with their hair standing straight up! They look at you, 'How dare you, this is normal.' About that time a little python comes around the top of their neck. You couldn't dare fire that person, because you're discriminating against a 'good' citizen. That's how weird this world has become.
You've got to learn the commandments of God. That's why we study. What if it doesn't stick the first time, second time or the third time?
- Keep at it! It will! God will bless you!
- Pray about it! God will answer your prayer!
- God will help you!
- God has given you His Spirit!
Can He not help you? Absolutely!
Verse 142: "Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your Law is the Truth." If you want to know the truth about anything, what do you do? You compare it with the Law of God!
Verse 143: "Trouble and anguish have taken hold upon me… [we go through that] …yet, Your commandments are my delight." That's the way out of your trouble! God's deliverance!
Verse 150: "They draw near, those who follow after wickedness; they are far from Your Law…. [What a good description of today's society] …You are near, O LORD, and all Your commandments are Truth" (vs 150-151).
It's the Truth, as Jesus said, that sets us free from a society that has no standards whatsoever. That's why we will eventually be in great conflict with them.
For people who say, 'Well, that's for those people way back then, now we are postmodernists. We have no laws; who are you to tell me what's right and wrong?'
Verse 160: "Your Word is true from the beginning…"—which says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
This is where we need to come. This is the epitome on how you can be perfected. Right here it tells you how to be perfected:
Verse 126: "It is time for the LORD to work…" When does God work? Maybe God has opened up a vast door for all the Churches of God to really preach the Truth, if they would do it!
"…for they have made void Your Law" (v 126). So, when it comes to the time that God's Law is void, it says that it is time for God to work! Who is He going to use to do it?
Verse 127: "Therefore, I love Your commandments above gold—yea, above fine gold. Therefore, I esteem all Your precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way" (vs 127-128). That's how you keep your sanity, and keep spiritually true to God in this society called postmodernism, where lawlessness is normal.
Let's see the standards that tell us this. Commandment-keeping cannot bring you salvation. But you cannot receive salvation without commandment-keeping. Salvation comes through the Spirit of God and the begettal of God the Father, so at the first resurrection you are resurrected from the dead to be a spirit being and share the glory of Jesus Christ.
But commandment-keeping from the heart shows how you love God. That's what it does.
1-John 5:2: "By this standard… [Greek: 'en toutoo'—by this standard or measure] …we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments…. [see how that goes together] …For this is the love of God: that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome" (vs 2-3). But they bother the postmodernists—don't they?
Here are some basic, concrete Scriptures that you can know. This is how you fight that kind 'stinkin thinkin' because all of this that is related here in The Death of Truth, and he goes and shows through law, media, healthcare, education, history, psychotherapy, science, religion, etc. Here's how you keep yourself straight:
1-John 2:3: "And by this standard we know that we know Him…" the way that you have faith is that you know that you know God. If you know that you know Him, you have no doubts!
If you have some doubts, what do you do? The worst way to handle a doubt is just say that you'll get that out of your mind. It's going to come right back! How do you get it out of your mind? Grab hold of it and put it right down in the center of the table and get the Word of God and prove Truth from error, right from wrong from the Word of God and remove the doubt!
Then it's gone forever! But if you just try to block it out of your mind, it's going to come back and haunt you. You do that, pray about it, and ask God to help you; it will be gone. God wants you to know that you know Him. The verification of that is:
"…if we keep His commandments. The one who says, 'I know Him' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the Truth is not in him" (v s 3-4). Hence we have lies from the pulpit:
- Jesus came to abolish the Law
- the Old Testament is not for us, it was for the Jews
they even claim
- the ministry of Jesus and the Gospels was an inferior teaching compared to the Apostle Paul
You find that in the book Primitive Christianity in Crisis by Alan Knight—Gnostic religions.
Verse 5: "On the other hand, if anyone is keeping… [now it's more than just His commandments, it's]: His Word, truly in this one the love of God is being perfected…." That's a process! That's why we should love God far more now than we did when we first started. It's a process, being perfected.
I'll tell you this: now that we have the Word of God, we have the time, we have the peace, we need to be on a very diligent and zealous campaign to do so, because the time is going to come—we don't know when, and it is going to come—when we will not be able to do so. Then we will wish that we had done it.
Remember the parable of the Ten Virgins. They waited until the last minute to do it, and it didn't work.
"…By this means we know that we are in Him. Anyone who claims to dwell in Him is obligating himself also to walk even as He Himself walked. Brethren, I am not writing a new commandment to you but an old commandment, which you had from the beginning; the old commandment is the message that you have heard from the beginning" (vs 5-7). Showing that this is the teaching of Jesus Christ from the beginning of His ministry.
He saying, in effect, that there's no such thing as a new or old commandment, that whatever Jesus taught is what we ought to do.
John 14—this was spoken on the last Passover night by Jesus. He was telling the disciples that He was going to go away, and He says that after He's resurrected and they see Him:
John 14:20: "In that day, you shall know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. The one who has My commandments and is keeping them…" (vs 20-21).
Possession of the Bible does not equal righteousness. If you have possession of the Bible, you have His commandments, but you may leave it on the shelf. So, it's two-fold:
- you have His commandments
- you are keeping them
"…that is the one who loves Me… [so this is love from the heart and mind with action] …and the one who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him" (v 21). So, it's a direct thing from God to each one, from Christ to you!
Verse 22: "Judas (not Iscariot)… [wanted to know how it was going to happen] …said to him, 'Lord, what has happened that You are about to manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?'" Jesus made it clear:
Verse 23: "Jesus answered and said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word…'" Just what John wrote of in 1-John 2.
"…and My Father will love him…" (v 23). God the Father loves you. {Note sermon: When all Else Fails, Remember, God Loves You} If your world comes unglued, and everybody hates you, don't worry about. If God loves you, that's what's important.
"…and We will come to him and make Our abode with him" (v 23). Christ is in you through the Holy Spirit to give you the mind of Christ. God the Father has begotten you with the same Spirit—another function of the Spirit of God—so that you are a begotten child of God. It is the Father and it is Christ Who are dwelling in you by the power of God's Holy Spirit.
The first time I understood that, it took me a while to really grasp it. But you can grasp it. Here's the dividing line. There's an absolute standard and absolute dividing line, and in a world that hates absolutes there are the absolutes of God, and that's how we keep our sanity and spirituality and our love for God!
Verse 24: "The one who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the Word that you hear is not Mine, but the Father's, Who sent Me." That's pretty powerful stuff!
People don't realize it that when they're rejecting the Word of God, they're rejecting the Sovereign Ruler of the universe God the Father!
How deceived is this world? It's incredible! What a fantastic blessing that we have!
If you can help convey this to other people that you know who are in the Church of God that are out there lukewarm and languishing and not knowing where they're going or what they're doing, or they don't know which end is up, maybe you can help them a little bit.
All Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version
Scriptural References:
- Matthew 24:8-13
- John 15:16
- John 17:17
- Jeremiah 17:9
- Mark 7:21-23
- Ephesians 2:1-2
- Deuteronomy 18:9-14
- Psalm 119:1
- Psalm 1:1-6
- Psalm 119:1-7, 73, 142-143, 150-151, 160, 126-128
- 1 John 5:2-3
- 1 John 2:3-7
- John 14:20-24
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- Luke 17
- Genesis 19
- Ezekiel 14
- James 4:12
Also referenced:
Books:
- The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
- The Death of Truth by Dennis McCallum
- I'm OK, You're OK by Thomas Anthony Harris
- Primitive Christianity in Crisis by Alan Knight
from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version:
- Appendix P: What does it Mean to be "Born Again"?
- Appendix Q: What does it Mean to be "Born of God"?
- Appendix R: What is Meant by "Works of Law"?
Sermon: When all Else Fails, Remember, God Loves You (#1 Love of God sermon series)
FRC: bo
Transcribed: 6/5/17
