Sermon: It IS All About Government
#1662
Mark Schindler
Given 16-Jul-22; 70 minutes
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transcript:
We are going to begin this sermon today right at the beginning of the book with God’s specific purpose statement for the entire Book.
What God has given to us from Genesis to Revelation may only be an incremental piece of the vast work that our Great God intends to accomplish. However, at this time, within our purposely myopic vision of the eternity God inhabits, we have been given eyes to see that this is the primary focus of His attention now.
Please turn to Genesis 1:26-27. These verses occupied much of the focus Herbert Armstrong’s attention in his final years!
Genesis 1:26-31 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food"; and it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
“God saw everything He had made, and it was very good.” Hold that thought, brethren—everything He had made was very good! So now let us continue with a bit of the details of this very good creation in Genesis 2.
Genesis 2:7-9 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Here is another point to keep in mind: In verse 9 it is obvious that the Tree of Life, as well as the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, were part of this very good creation. This, of course, is something we all know, but perhaps in the back of our minds we may consider this particular tree a bad tree, because it seems to be at the root of our problems to this day—and it is, but not because the tree itself was bad. As we all know, the real source is not the tree itself but what men did with it, which we will be getting to in a few minutes.
Just short of two weeks ago the United States celebrated the anniversary of its self-proclaimed birth as a nation. It was the 246th anniversary of a nation that most of us consider, when at its best, a very real blessing, not only those who live here, but to the entire world.
The United States is generally considered the oldest continuing constitutional government on the planet, even though the constitution of the tiny landlocked nation of San Marino predates the U.S. constitution by almost 200 years, having been ratified in 1600. However, not all of San Marino’s constitution is codified, and the U.S. constitution was the first permanent constitution of its kind, and has been the driving influence to many constitutions that came after it.
Although the U.S. Constitution that followed the “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union” that preceded it, it was not ratified until June 21st, 1788. July 4th, 1776, is generally considered by all the birth of the nation.
Just as an aside before going any further, I would like to return to San Marino for a second. Its current constitution was originally written in Latin, and contained five books all under the heading of “Statuta Decreta ac Ordinamenta illustris Republicae ac Perpetuae Libertatis Terrae Sancti Marini,” and as rusted as my Latin pronunciation skills have become, my translation skills are worse. So I had to use Google Translate, “Statutes, Decrees, and Ordinances of this illustrious Republic and the Perpetual Liberty of the Land of San Marino.” It is also important to note that San Marino claims to be the oldest actively continuing republic in the world. It was founded on September 3, 301 AD by Marinus of Rab, who was a Christian stonemason, fleeing the persecution of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. But it is also important to note that San Marino’s government, from their beginning way back in 301, was founded on the principles of “Roma Corpus Juris Civilis,” the judicial and governmental system of the Roman Empire.
This may be a point you want to tuck away in your minds as we continue in this sermon today. I think it will help us draw a clearer picture of the world in which we live, and the privileged responsibility we have been given to live within it, but not be part of it!
So now, I hope you have kept your place in Genesis, because we will now pick it up in Genesis 2:15:
Genesis 2:15-25 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
And the LORD God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Just as an aside—this is the basis for Paul’s remarks about the husband loving his wife, and wife submitting to her husband, just as Christ loves the church.
Brethren, we need to be clear. This is not only God’s SPS, but it is the anchor for this whole book, from Genesis through Revelation. Some mockingly diminished the teachings of the closing years of Herbert Armstrong’s life, and, I believe, foolishly labeled it as an obsessive focus on the Two Trees!
But brethren, I firmly believe his focus in the last years of his life was a vital message that God was sending to His elect during this most critical juncture in His work to bring all men into His image and likeness. Only those whom God has carefully placed within the body of Christ at this time have been given what is needed to see the true reality of the circumstances of this end time world. And, only those with God’s Holy Spirit have the privileged responsibility to truly develop the mind of God now and deal with it. This is all about government and faithful submission of those who have been called to be separate from this world as a new creation in Christ.
Although you will only read of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in Genesis 2 and 3, and never see it referenced again, it is, in fact, a primary focus of the whole book. As a matter of fact, let me put it to you this way using our national birthday celebration two weeks ago on July 4th (otherwise known as Independence Day): Adam and Eve’s interaction with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil driven by Satan, who had already done the same, was an egregiously blatant declaration of independence of the creation from the Creator. Rather than continuing to walk with God with dependence upon the only One who could truly determine the right course at all times, Adam and Eve followed Satan’s presumptuous lead, and began the journey that has preoccupied most all of mankind for 6,000 years.
Their declaration of independence from the only One who could truly discern every ramification of good versus evil continues to this day, as God’s most intense and perfect lesson within what is perhaps the most mysterious concept for men to grasp: The sovereign control over everything by our Great God! Because of mankind’s declared independence there is no peace for a creation that continues to presumptuously struggle to determine for ourselves what was never ours to determine.
Brethren, I most sincerely doubt that I am telling you anything you do not already know. Please forgive me if this sounds like an oversimplification of things, but this is vital to us, now, as we live in this vindictively divided world, under the continued rule of men, who are incapable of truly determining good and evil.
Before going any farther in this sermon, I must tell you of my own struggle with this sermon, and hopefully it was because God is trying to remind us we are still falling far short of the high bar He has set for those who He has blessed as His new creation right now in Christ Jesus. Although the subject of this sermon was in my thoughts, prayers, and studies over much of the last month, trying to put it together over the last few weeks has been a daunting task to say the least. It was only last Tuesday, after begging God to show me what He wanted, that things began to line up, because I realized this sermon was an extension of the last two. I sincerely hope this can add some more food for thought for all of us.
So please bear with me as we do a short recap of, “Stewards of the Mystery of God” and “The Mystery of the Church” that hopefully will help us move forward in this sermon. But we are going to lead into it with God’s instructions to His elect through the apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Ephesus.
Ephesians 3:8-19 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.
Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Brethren, what the rest of the world we live in finds unsearchable and beyond their understanding at this time, we have been called to understand through Jesus Christ. We are strengthened from the inside out by His Holy Spirit to walk together in love comprehending the width, length, depth, and height of God’s sovereign rule over His creation, as He perfectly determines what will bring us to fullness with Him—what will bring all men back into a peaceful and productive relationship with Him.
Let me emphasize the word “unsearchable,” because this has a lot to do with what the sermon is heading towards today: How God is using His perfect wisdom to determine what men have been struggling to determine for ourselves in presumptuous independence rather than absolute dependence on Him—the only One who can provide a peaceful and productive relationship with Him and each other.
Now let us continue in Ephesians:
Ephesians 4:1-7 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.
Ephesians 4:12-14 For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.
Brethren, are we really walking worthy of the incredible calling we have been given with lowliness, gentleness, and patience within the unity of the Body of Christ if are wasting our time, gifts, and God-given energy getting caught up in all the trickery, deceit, and cunning of a world apart from God that is still independently trying to determine who is right and who is wrong, who is good and who is evil. Or, are we loyally continuing in what we have been called to do?
Ephesians 4:15-16 But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
This is something that is a full-time job in absolute dependence on Jesus Christ to walk with Him, so that we are prepared for service to all who are now unable to search out the pure things of God. To the world even God’s sovereignty in everything is such a mystery. They are unwilling and unable to live by His every Word. But we must!
Ephesians 5:1-2 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
Ephesians 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.
Ephesians 5:10-12 Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.
We are now on a different path than a world that is divided in independently determining for themselves what is good and evil, who is right and who is wrong; a world, under God’s sovereign authority that is stuck in this rut.
We are a new creation, dependent imitators of God doing what this world cannot; finding what is acceptable to the Lord within His Word, under the direction of His Holy Spirit; living it as a sacrificial, sweet-smelling aroma to God within a world that is still caustic towards God.
Ephesians 5:15-21 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.
Brethren, we have read a big chunk of Paul’s letter because I think it really emphasizes how we need to be conducting ourselves now, apart from this world, with the gifts God has given, and not waste our God-given lives. We are a new creation no longer involved in unfruitful works of darkness in a world that is enmity against God, no longer involved in the satanic work of independently determining good and evil. But now, as citizens of the Kingdom of God, we dependently find what is acceptable to Him and walk accordingly.
This includes considerable submission and respect for those whom God has placed in positions of authority over us.
When we began the sermon on “Stewards of the Mysteries of God,” we began with a reference to, what I believe, is a very important, though much overlooked and even ignored, direction from God to His people as recorded in I Corinthians 5, which we will read in a minute. But within the lead up to chapter 5, Paul declared,
I Corinthians 4:1-2 Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required of stewards that one be found faithful.
I tried to establish that in the sermon, that through our calling into the body of Christ and the giving of God’s Holy Spirit we, too, have become stewards of the mysteries of God, while the world outside the body of Christ is completely in the dark!
So please turn with me to I Corinthians 5.
I Corinthians 5:9-13 I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore put away from yourselves the evil person.
There is a subtle direction from Paul: we have to live in this world; we cannot avoid it. But, we cannot be part of it.
We often spend more time in the first part of chapter 5 and the sin going on within the congregation, and do not consider these instructions that are just as vital to keeping us on track.
We tried to draw a tie between these verses and how we are to deal with the world around us with Jesus Christ’s prayer to His Father for us on the night before He paid the ultimate sacrifice for our sins (John 17). He asked our Father that we remain in the world but not be part of it; that we be working toward fulfilling our part in the work God is doing to make us absolutely united with Them and one another.
We spent a good deal of time in that sermon “Stewards of the Mysteries of God,” in Psalm 90 and Moses’ prayer where God teaches us to number our days and use our time wisely.
So, turn back with me again to Psalm 90. I think it is a good prayer for us as we try to determine the best way to use our God-given time during these latest “days of rage!”
Psalm 90:1-7 Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. You turn man to destruction, and say, "Return, O children of men." For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night. You carry them away like a flood; they are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up: In the morning it flourishes and grows up; in the evening it is cut down and withers. For we have been consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath we are terrified.
Brethren, this is an awesome start to something Moses understood, while most of the rest of Israel and most of mankind to this day still do not comprehend—God's exercise of complete sovereignty over His creation in everything all the time.
Just as Ted [Bowling] said in the sermonette, it is not just a single sparrow falling to the ground, He is watching it hop around! How much more does He watch us?
This is perhaps the greatest of all mysteries that has been revealed to His elect in order to add to the production of godly fruit while in a world that is yet living within the blindness that resulted from their initial declaration of independence at Satan’s urging, from God’s perfect discernment that will produce peace, unity, and cooperation for eternity. Only He can determine that.
Please hold your finger in Psalm 90, while we take a minute to verify this in God’s Word. I know that most of you have been spending a great deal of time this year in the book of Deuteronomy, because of what God told His chosen nation of Israel. So please turn with me to Deuteronomy 31.
Deuteronomy 31:7-13 Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, "Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it. And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed."
So Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, saying: "At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess."
Now please turn back with me a few chapters to Deuteronomy 29.
Deuteronomy 29:2-4 Now Moses called all Israel and said to them: "You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land—the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. Yet the LORD has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day.”
Brethren, I find this very interesting in two ways. The first is that this declaration is right on the heels of Deuteronomy 28, the blessings and cursings chapter that did not have much of an impact on them without a heart to truly understand with deep and abiding fear of God’s Word.
The second is, if this was the case, who does God expect should be the real recipients of the book of the law to learn to live by it from the heart, and use it as a cautionary note for coping with people yet in the throes of independence from the perfect rule of God?
In one of his previous sermons, “Pentecost and the Holy Spirit,” John Ritenbaugh said regarding these three verses in Deuteronomy:
Deuteronomy 29:2-4 reflect on the New Covenant, under which God leads and guides us by His Holy Spirit, enabling us to perceive, to see, and to hear His word. The Israelite people were 38 or 40 years in the wilderness in the presence of God, yet they did not get it! It never sank in because God did not perform what would have given them the ability to perceive what was happening in their lives spiritually.
This is confirmed in Deuteronomy 5:29, near the end of the chapter that contains the second recording of the Ten Commandments. Moses writes: ‘Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!’
Except for a precious few of those Israelites, nobody received God's Holy Spirit under the Old Covenant.
The same holds true for the vast majority of all who have ever lived. Jesus Christ made this explicitly clear to His disciples, as recorded in Matthew 13, so please turn with me if you will to Matthew 13.
Matthew 13:10-11 And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, . . .
As an aside—the kingdom of heaven is only referred to mainly in the book of Matthew, because to the Jews, it was a euphemism for God—the Kingdom of God.
Matthew 13:11-17 . . . but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: 'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.' But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
Brethren, I wanted you to see it in the words from our Savior’s own mouth. Men still do not have the heart to see and believe in the absolute sovereignty of God over His creation! But we do.
What are we doing with this precious gift and the time He has given us? Are we getting involved in the affairs of men who are still committed to independence from God and His sovereign rule, or are we behaving like wise stewards of the unsearchable mysteries of God in believing His every Word and learning to live by them? Not just the ones we like, but all of them, including our responsibilities to be pillars of respect and deference to those who are in positions of authority over us; that authority that only comes from God and His absolute knowledge of how to patiently build His family through 6,000 years of dealing with all those who have declared independence from Him to see just how well that works?
While we are considering the results of the man’s declaration of independence from God, and reflecting back on how important God’s instructions through Moses in Deuteronomy 31:7-13 should be to us, I would like us to turn now to Luke 4:16 and Jesus Christ’s declaration at the beginning of His ministry following His 40-day fast and confrontation with Satan:
Luke 4:16-22 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."
Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, "Is this not Joseph's son?"
Over the last few months some fellow has been sending us letters insisting that we publicly admit we are in error and that this occasion was not just a weekly Sabbath, but rather Pentecost. Even though I wrote back to him acknowledging that what we have written there may be a possibility that took place on Pentecost, he wanted nothing less than absolute agreement with his premise.
But the point is, the more I thought about it over the last few weeks, considering God’s perfect timeline and Christ’s 3½ year ministry until His death on Passover, I believe this bold proclamation of liberty and sight by Jesus Christ to begin His ministry was more likely at the beginning of the acceptable year of rest, when the book of the law should be in the minds of all who have been given hearts to learn and live God’s way—His elect firstfruits.
Jesus Christ’s ministry was cut off in mid-week. It is interesting that in Luke 4:19 He only reads part of Isaiah 61 and stops part way into verse 2. In His work as the sacrificial Lamb of God at that time, He proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom of God and the liberty and sight that could only come through His sacrifice and restoration.
So let us read this prophecy as it appears in Isaiah 61 and continuing a bit into what He chose to leave out at that time in verse 2.
Isaiah 61:1-2 "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.”
The days which lie ahead, leading up to His return as King of kings, is the day of vengeance of our God. We certainly do not want to be on the wrong side of history in those days because we were not producing the fruit He expects from His elect, who have been given the heart to absolutely learn and live His Word now, totally dependent on His perfect discernment of good and evil within a world that is still deciding things for themselves.
Jesus Christ came as a lamb to the slaughter, while acknowledging to Pilate that He was born to be King. He submitted Himself to the most horrible death as the only sacrificial offering for all our sins so that the liberty and sight could be restored with hearts to understand what is still so mysterious to most of mankind.
He has granted us eyes to see our absolute dependence on God and learning to live His every Word. But we are still putting ourselves at odds with Him and claiming our independence every time we let ourselves get caught up in a world that clings to their own ways to determine what is good and what is evil; what is right and wrong; what is the best government to have.
Brethren, we have been the ones set at liberty with hearts of understanding, to prepare for the next acceptable year of the Lord, and the days of vengeance before the return of the King of kings! How well are we managing that?
Please turn back with me to Psalm 90 again and we will be picking it up in verse 11, while considering what we have just talked about.
Psalm 90:11-17 Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Return, O LORD! How long? And have compassion on Your servants. Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days!
Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, the years in which we have seen evil. Let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your glory to their children. And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands.
We need to make our time count so that God establishes us in the days when we find ourselves afflicted and sighing and crying at all the evil we see around us. Who should know His power and His absolute sovereignty in all things better than us, and respond accordingly to let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us?
Are we still living lives that are showing the fruit of independence by staying emotionally swept up in the divisions of men? Even though we have been given hearts to understand what has not been understood for 6,000 years, because God has been in absolute control of every government and every facet of world government to do exactly what He knows to do to bring all men back into a perfect and productive relationship with Him.
I believe Mr. Armstrong’s focus on the Two Trees for those last few years of His life was a vital message and lesson for us today. This whole thing is about government under the absolutely perfect sovereign authority of God, to teach what a mistake it was following Satan’s lead, and, for all intents and purposes, declare with him, “I shall become like God” (Isaiah 14:14) to know good and evil!
Brethren, as we saw, even when God separated Israel from other nations as His people, without His Holy Spirit and a heart of understanding, they failed! But we cannot! Because He is using the weakest of the world to show His power to restore all men to walking with Him! We must learn to live by every Word of God that includes His instructions to treat those in positions of leadership with respect, even though they may not seem to deserve it, because this is respect for our Great God who is the only One to raise and lower kings!
This may be one of the hardest lessons we need to learn, during these days, to submit to those in authority even when they are committing or permitting what God says is abominable. This does not mean that we should agree with these things nor hold back from crying out against the abominations. We should be sighing while learning, living, and teaching the truth of God’s Word. But if we allow ourselves to be swept up into the battle of good versus evil, as men see it (within their independence from God), we are going to find ourselves on the wrong side, no matter whose side!
So what does God expect from us now, patiently waiting in faith on God, while standing as a light of righteousness to a dark world? Part of the mystery of the church is that this is the only place where you find the truth in action, because this is the only place where God has placed those who have hearts of understanding.
Please do not take this wrong, brethren. The Body of Christ at this time is not made up of perfected members of God’s Family, except for Jesus Christ. But it is the only place where those who have truly vowed dependence on God alone, and rejected independently knowing good and evil to dwell subject to Jesus Christ within the law and order of the Kingdom of God.
This very vow should cause us to tremble. We are not perfected, but God expects by the time the rest of Isaiah 61 becomes proclaimed in the acceptable year of the Lord we better have firmly rejected the independent ways of this world’s emotional roller coaster and be faithfully abiding within God’s sovereign authority, humbly trembling at His every word of truth.
I do not want us to be discouraged by this. We should be encouraged that God knows us well enough to put us in His Family now. If we continue to hold on to Him and the understanding that our citizenship is not here among any part of this world, but in the Kingdom of God, we will succeed through Jesus Christ. As we have so often been told we are ambassadors who do not get involved in foreign affairs!
Brethren, at this point I would like to try to drive this point of not being part of anything else but the Kingdom of God by quickly looking at a very well know section of the book of Daniel. But I want to start not at the beginning of the book, but with the preface introduction that is written in my Bible, that reads as follows:
Daniel’s life and ministry bridged the entire seventy-year period of the Babylonian captivity. Deported to Babylon at the age of 16, and hand-picked for government service, Daniel becomes God's prophetic mouthpiece to the Gentile and Jewish world, declaring God's present and eternal purpose. Nine of the twelve chapters of this book revolve around dreams, including God-given visions, involving trees, animals, beasts, and images. In both his personal adventures, and prophetic visions, Daniel shows God's guidance, intervention, and power in all the affairs of men.
I thought this was a concise look into what we have been discussing in this sermon: God’s sovereignty over everything He wants to accomplish exactly as He wants it. Also, it is good to keep in mind here that even some living righteously will find themselves like Daniel, in dire conditions and caught up in the punishment on the nations. All is being done to fulfill God’s perfect plan for His glory.
Daniel 1:1-2 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his god.
God directed the punishment, even the removal of His holy things from His holy place for a purpose down the road!
Please turn Jeremiah 27, where we will see this in God’s own words to Jeremiah that adds a bit of insight into God’s vast perspective.
Jeremiah 27:1-15 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, "Thus says the LORD to me: 'Make for yourselves bonds and yokes, and put them on your neck, and send them to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.
And command them to say to their masters, "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel—thus you shall say to your masters: 'I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are on the ground, by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and have given it to whom it seemed proper to Me. And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant; and the beasts of the field I have also given him to serve him.
So all nations shall serve him and his son and his son's son, until the time of his land comes; and then many nations and great kings shall make him serve them. And it shall be, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will punish,' says the LORD, 'with the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
Therefore do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers, or your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, "You shall not serve the king of Babylon." For they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land; and I will drive you out, and you will perish. But the nations that bring their necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will let them remain in their own land,' says the LORD, 'and they shall till it and dwell in it.'"'"
I also spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, "Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live! Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD has spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
Therefore do not listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, 'You shall not serve the king of Babylon,' for they prophesy a lie to you; for I have not sent them," says the LORD, "yet they prophesy a lie in My name, that I may drive you out, and that you may perish, you and the prophets who prophesy to you."
Jeremiah 27:19-22 "For thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, concerning the Sea, concerning the carts, and concerning the remainder of the vessels that remain in this city, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem—yes, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem: 'They shall be carried to Babylon, and there they shall be until the day that I visit them,' says the LORD. 'Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.'"
I wanted to make sure you see that God’s planning is always looking forward beyond what we can even begin to imagine. Also, please note a very important principle from these words—God’s prophets never endorse rebellion!
Back to Daniel and we will pick it up just a few verses from where we left off.
Daniel 1:6-21 Now from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. To them the chief of the eunuchs gave names: He gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abed-Nego. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
Now God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs. And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, "I fear my lord the king, who has appointed your food and drink. For why should he see your faces looking worse than the young men who are your age? Then you would endanger my head before the king." So Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, "Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be examined before you, and the appearance of the young men who eat the portion of the king's delicacies; and as you see fit, so deal with your servants."
So he consented with them in this matter, and tested them ten days. And at the end of ten days their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king's delicacies. Thus the steward took away their portion of delicacies and the wine that they were to drink, and gave them vegetables. As for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.
Now at the end of the days, when the king had said that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. Then the king interviewed them, and among them all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore they served before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm. Thus Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus.
Even within the worst of conditions Daniel was a tool in God’s hands, because he submitted to God’s sovereign authority in faith without letting himself get caught up in the world in which he lived.
We are all very familiar with Daniel 2 and King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, along with Daniel’s interpretation of the dream, but I would like us to read Daniel’s interpretation of the dream and the reality of God’s work:
Daniel 2:36-45 "This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all—you are this head of gold.
But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others.
Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.
And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure."
After reading this (along with the other prophecies within this book of Daniel), God makes it obvious that the whole world will be under successive governments of men as world-ruling governments up to the return of Christ and His destruction of men’s governments. These governments were all built on their own thinking according to the knowledge of good and evil, but subject to God’s sovereign authority to ultimately show the disastrous ends of what began with the taking of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden.
Also, we see that even men without the hearts to understand still see the power of God, as God, but then will only continue in their own ways. But the main thing I wanted to point out is that these world-ruling governments are only the fruit of what happened when men determined to declare independence from God and take from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They will never produce the peace and productivity that can only come from God, and they will ultimately be smashed in the day of vengeance by Jesus Christ!
At that time those who had been given liberty from the bondage of this world, the new creation in Jesus Christ, who had been given hearts to understand and faithfully stay the course living in this world but not getting swept up in it, will have been prepared to fulfill our purpose with Jesus Christ at His return.
Brethren, we are human beings who often find ourselves conflicted over our loyalty to Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God with our desire to jump into the fray because we think we know who is right and who is wrong. But the bottom line is we very well may end up in opposition to our Great God if we do.
I would like to read you a quote from something I read recently about that last world ruling government.
You have to understand The Roman Empire to understand the world. Everything in Europe today, and every way in which Europe has affected the rest of the world depends on the history of Rome and Rome’s idea of government.
Rome began as a little town in Italy, one of hundreds. No one would have thought it was anything worth mentioning. If you had looked at Italy from the outside in about 700 BC you would have said that the Etruscans were the ones to watch or perhaps the thriving Greek colonies in the South.
The Etruscans were the big power in northern Italy at the time. But Rome overthrew her last Etruscan king, Tarquin the Proud, in 509 BC.
Now the Roman Senate would govern Rome with two elected councils every year. The Romans called their new government “Res Publica,” which means “The Public Thing.” This was later shortened to “Republica.” They invented the Republic.
Remember early in the sermon that I referred to San Marino as the oldest republic? Brethren, the Roman form of government is alive and kicking everywhere to this day, exactly according to God’s plan and purpose. This is just the final government from the minds of men that will be smashed at Christ’s return.
As admirable as these different governments may have been at times, they were nowhere near the perfect government of the Kingdom of God, where our citizenship lies! But the more we get drawn into their divisions the more likely we are to be moving away from the perfection of God’s government and back toward taking of the knowledge of the Tree of Good and Evil that will destroy us!
Just as a point you may want to consider: As you are tempted to pick sides, did you know that there are a lot of Roman architecture all over Washington DC? There is a Roman god and goddess fresco by Constatino Brumidi that was commissioned after the Civil War, suspended 180 feet above the U.S. Capitol Rotunda (the people’s house) that covers an area of 4,664 feet.
On the curved surface of the Rotunda the figures are up to15 feet tall and visible from the floor. It is entitled “The Apotheosis of Washington” and depicts George Washington sitting amongst the heavens in an exalted manner; in literary terms ascending and becoming a god. Washington, the first U.S. president and commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, is allegorically represented, surrounded by figures from classical mythology.
Washington is draped in purple, as worn by generals of the ancient Roman Republic during their triumphs, with a rainbow at his feet, flanked by the goddess Victoria (draped in green, using a horn) to his left and the goddess of Liberty to his right. Liberty wears a red liberty cap, symbolizing emancipation, which comes from a Roman tradition where freed slaves would be given a felt cap. She holds an ancient Roman symbol of power and jurisdiction in her right hand and an open book in the other, to which Washington gestures with his right hand.
Surrounding Washington, the two goddesses and thirteen maidens are six scenes lining the perimeter, each representing a national concept allegorically; from directly below Washington in the center and moving clockwise, "War," "Science," "Marine," "Commerce," "Mechanics," and "Agriculture." The perimeter scenes are not fully visible from the floor of the Capitol.
War: Freedom, also known as Columbia, is directly below Washington in the personification of war. The scene depicts a woman fighting for liberty with a raised bow, a cape, a helmet, and shield in the colors of the U.S. flag trampling figures representing tyranny and kingly power. To freedom's left assisting her is a fierce bald eagle (the national bird of the United States) also symbol of the Roman Empire.
Science: Minerva, the Roman goddess of crafts and wisdom, is portrayed with helmet and spear, pointing to an electrical generator creating power stored in batteries next to a printing press, representing great U.S. inventions., U.S. scientists, and inventors.
Marine: This scene shows Neptune, the Roman sea-god with trident and a crown of seaweed riding in a shell chariot drawn by sea horses. Venus, goddess of love born from the sea, is depicted helping to lay the transatlantic telegraph cable which ran from North America to the Telegraph Field in Ireland.
Commerce: Mercury, the Roman god of commerce with his winged broad brimmed hat as worn by ancient Greeks while holding a winged staff with coiled snakes and depicted giving a bag of gold to American Revolutionary War financier Robert Morris.
Mechanics: Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and forge, is depicted standing at an anvil with his foot on a cannon, next to a pile of cannonballs; a steam engine is in the background. The man at the forge is thought to represent Charles Thomas, the supervisor of ironwork during the construction of the Capitol dome.
Agriculture: Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, is shown with a wreath of wheat; a cornucopia, a symbol of plenty, while sitting on a McCormick mechanical reaper. The personification of Young America in a liberty cap holds the reins of the horses, while the goddess Flora gathers flowers in the foreground.
Brethren, I just want you to consider how embedded in the governments for all men is the taking of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
I had a difficult time preparing this sermon because this is a difficult issue to address. But our citizenship is in the Kingdom of God and that is where our loyalty lies. We, by the grace of God have been given hearts to understand in order to be spending our time learning and living all of God’s Word, and we cannot run the risk of coming down on the side of the opposition to God.
Yesterday morning, there were two things I noted that I think God gave me courage to give this sermon. The one was a bumper sticker of all things and the other on a much more serious note was yesterday’s Berean by John Ritenbaugh, which we will use to end this sermon.
First the bumper sticker: It simply read, “God is not a Republican or a Democrat,” which brought to my mind, “nor is He a conservative, liberal, American, Canadian, South African, etc.” God is God, and there is no one like Him!
And finally, yesterday’s Berean with which we will close this sermon:
II Corinthians 6:14-17 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people." Therefore, "Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you."
II Corinthians 7:1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
And now, John’s comments:
This series of verses is not an appeal for us to break all of our worldly associations. Recall that Paul urges the Christian partner in a divided marriage to strive to maintain the relationship as long as possible. This, instead, is an appeal to avoid too close associations. He says not to go into the world, but come out of it (see Revelation 18:4). We should not deliberately make close associations with the peoples of the world. It is all right to do business with them and to work with them, but avoid becoming harnessed together with them.
The statement, "I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters," seems to hinge on whether or not we are allowing ourselves to become yoked into these associations. God does not want us in these close associations with the world because it almost inevitably leads to compromise with His standards. It jeopardizes the consistency of the Christian's witness for God because there is a spiritual force in the world that undermines the Christian because the unbeliever does not share the Christian's standards, sympathies, or goals in life.
Is it unfair that God should ask this of us? Remember, He has bought us with a price (I Corinthians 6:20). The price was the life of His Son, which obligates us to a life of purity and holiness. Once we accept that sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin, we belong to Him. He is our Master, and He says, "Come out of the world and be separate." That is a demand that He puts on us.
Does God ever ask us for something that is not for our good? Of course not! And how is this for our good? Because He knows that it is likely that His people, though they have the Spirit of God, will have an extremely difficult time resisting the spiritual force that wants to lead them to compromise on the standards of His Kingdom. He thus obligates us to purity of life, to holiness, to separation from evil. We owe our allegiance to Him alone, and we cannot allow ourselves not to be a fit vessel for Him to live in.
There is no surer way to go backward in our spirituality, to blunt our feelings about sin, to dull our spiritual discernment until we can scarcely tell evil from good, and to dry up the source of our spiritual strength, than by needless mingling with the world. We should stress the word "needless" because Paul writes in I Corinthians 5:9-10 that to avoid all contact with the immoral, one would have to go out of the world. There is nothing in the New Testament to indicate separating oneself by moving into a commune of believers or living alone like a hermit.
God's government is coming. God assures us in II Peter 3:9 that it is His intention to patiently bring all men to repentance from the original sin of rebellion against Him and taking to ourselves the knowledge of the tree of good and evil. Brethren, it is all about government—the government of God. We need to abide within it apart from this world.
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