Sermon: Strategies for Escaping Babylon (Part One)
Avoiding Party Spirit
#1705B
David F. Maas
Given 22-Apr-23; 35 minutes
description: (hide)
transcript:
I Samuel 8:1-9 Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of the firstborn was Joel, and the name of the second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. But his sons [full of garden variety carnal nature just like we all are] did not walk in his ways [let alone the ways of God]; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice [just like any other career politician, having a bold sense of entitlement which characterizes the behavior of members of all current political parties in the governments of Ephraim and Manasseh today]. Then all the elders of Israel [with mob mentality and raw revolutionary party spirit, demanding that Samuel throw the corrupt bums out] gathered together came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us just like all the other nations.”
But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king [that is, a government ruled by carnal men instead of Almighty God] to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them out of Egypt, even to this day [and we could add right up to the present, April 22, 2023]—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. Now, therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.”
Sadly, after Samuel explained the grim realities of military conscription, confiscatory taxes, and the bondage to ruthless tyrannical power, the people still wanted to be like all the other nations on the earth who were free from God’s influence and especially His pesky holy and spiritual law. The entirety of physical Israel (including the governments occupied by the offspring of Ephraim and Manasseh: Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, the United States of America, as well as the state of Israel) are all reaping the horrible curses of that tragic decision to reject God’s rule in favor of a human government, subject to the same rebellious nature that scuttled our Mom and Dad in the Garden of Eden.
Every form of government fashioned by carnal human beings, whether monarchies, autocracies, dictatorships, oligarchies, or as Robert Kennedy, Jr. last week suggested, a plutokleptocracy, socialist, communist, and yes, democracies (or constitutional republics) are all riddled with fatal flaws. Winston Churchill once said that “Democracy is the worst form of government—except for all of the others that have been tried,” adding that, “Many forms of government have been tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise.”
One of America’s founding fathers, John Adams, the second president, asserted that “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Some think that democracies (or constitutional republics) are more humane than the rest, but when carnal human nature with rabid toxic party spirit takes over, it can be the most tyrannical, immoral, and God-hating, surpassing the worst despotic rulers on earth as is currently demonstrated by the reprobate government of the United States, whose corrupted, compromised politicians, driven by greed and lust for power, have succeeded in normalizing homosexuality, making it equivalent to discriminating against a skin pigment.
Murder infanticide (sometimes referred to abortion) has been cleverly disguised by the dominant political party as a women’s rights issue, and shockingly, sex change operations of minors as an act of compassion, enthusiastically endorsed by the current figure occupying the Oval Office, emphatically claiming that efforts to restrict transgender rights is “close to sinful.” According to the Washington Free Beacon, ten days ago on April 14th, Washington State Democrats voted to hide transgender runaways from parents. The Washington House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 5999, which would eliminate a law requiring youth shelters to alert parents, concealing youths seeking sex change operations or abortions. The bill already passed in the Senate now goes to the governor who is eagerly awaiting to sign it into law. Sadly, lawmakers in Oregon, Minnesota, and Colorado have passed legislation designed to make their states “safe havens” for youths seeking sex changes or abortions. Recently, California officials advanced a bill that would allow children to check into a group home without parental consent. If the bill is passed, the governor of California, motivated by blind party spirit, promises he will enthusiastically sign it.
Today, I plan to begin a new series titled “Strategies for Escaping Babylon.” Part One will focus on avoiding party spirit.” By now, all of you probably realize that when I use the term “party spirit,” I am not referring to enjoying a party or having fun, consuming delectable snacks and alcoholic beverages, but I am instead referring to the stern admonition of the apostle Paul in Galatians 5:20 when he condemns cliques, schisms, and factions which plagued God’s people in the first century and continue right down into the present day. As disciples and followers of Jesus Christ, we are admonished to extricate ourselves from any kind of mob mentality, groupthink, or gang warfare which characterizes the rash behavior of political parties in every nation, a deadly destructive spirit which is rapidly depleting the largesse of physical blessings promised to the seed of Abraham (referring to Genesis 12:1-3; 15:4-5; 17:4-8, and Deuteronomy 29:1-14).
Party spirit emerged well before the foundation of the world, when one of the covering cherubim, driven by pride, self-exaltation, and ambition, drew one-third of the angels into battle with Almighty God (Ezekiel 28:12-15; Revelation 12: 3-4). God, of course, effortlessly cast those demonic entities to the earth, where they now apparently influence adversarial identity politics throughout every human government (that is, exalting self and putting down all others).
Party spirit has tormented the children of Israel continually. Think about these:
-
Party spirit fueled the dispute between Abraham and Lot (Genesis 13:7) as Bill Onisick mentioned in the previous message.
-
Party spirit led to the animosity between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael (Genesis 16:12), which has plagued the Middle East and the entire world in perpetuity.
-
Party spirit similarly fueled the animosity between the descendants of Esau and Jacob (Genesis 25:27-28).
-
Party spirit, group think, and mob mentality influenced the decision on the part of Joseph’s brothers to sell him into slavery (Genesis 37:12-36).
-
Party spirit, mob mentality, and groupthink led to the defiant rebellion of Korah and Dathan against the leadership of Moses (Numbers 16:1-3).
-
Vicious party spirit, spurred by identity politics and mob mentality, led to the persistent and merciless harassment of the apostle Paul (Acts 9:29; 13:50; 14:5; 14:19; 16:22—and the list goes on and on).
-
And yes, party spirit, mob mentality, and groupthink led to the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, because of the political party of the Pharisees’ jealousy of losing their influence over the people (Matthew 27:18; John 11:48).
-
Party spirit was a major contributory factor in the destruction of our previous fellowship, fueled by the same corrupt politics and compromising with evil that characterizes the insane partisan rancor currently existing in Washington, Ottawa, London, Canberra, Wellington, Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein, and Jerusalem, all gleefully attempting to squander, dismantle, and destroy the legacy of Father Abraham.
I would like all of you to reflectively read Charles Whitaker’s Feast sermon: “Been There, Done That” for more intricate details.
Today, in the greater church of God, party spirit, group think, and partisan bluster and braggadocio spurs on the incessant sheep wars, prompting one splinter to exalt itself over all of the others (counter to Philippians 2:3-5) claiming, “We are the true Philadelphians and you are the pitiable Laodiceans, heretics, or tares on the way to persecution and martyrdom for abandoning our leadership, while we will be ushered to a place of safety, comfortably awaiting our glorification,” failing to realize that all of us collectively are, as John Ritenbaugh in his July 14, 2007 sermon, “Faith and the Christian Fight (Part Six),” quoted the late Richard Plache, we are at our very best, a little more than “the cream of the crud” (I Corinthians 1:26-31). After our diaspora near the turn of the last century, God has apparently placed each and every one of us within the particular splinter group in which we could achieve maximum growth, inserting us metaphorically into grinding pestles to remove our spiritual blind spots, which every splinter group in the greater church of God has plenty to discover and to repent of.
Please turn over to Galatians 5:20 where the apostle Paul identifies party spirit as one of the deadly toxic works of the flesh.
Galatians 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, and heresies. . .
The Amplified Classic version adds these insightful clarifying details: “Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger (ill temper), selfishness, divisions (dissensions), party spirit (factions, sects with peculiar opinions, heresies),” Similarly, Paul castigates the rebellious Corinthian congregation for their factions, schisms, and cliques in I Corinthians 3:3-5, which I will read to you from the Amplified translation:
I Corinthians 3:3-5 For you are still [unspiritual, having the nature] of the flesh [under the control of ordinary impulses]. For as long as [there are] envying and jealousy and wrangling and factions among you, are you not unspiritual and of the flesh, behaving yourselves after a human standard and like mere (unchanged) men? For when one says, I belong to Paul, and another, I belong to Apollos, are you not [proving yourselves] ordinary (unchanged) men? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Ministering servants [not heads of parties] through whom you believed, even as the Lord appointed to each his task.
Over the past two Sabbaths, one persistent theme from three compatible messages provided a major contributory factor leading to my choice of selecting a topic I had been thinking about for some time, avoiding party spirit.
One was Ryan McClure’s April 8, 2023, message “Our Creator and Savior,’ in which he establishes that Darwinian evolutionists proclaim that mankind evolved from microbes (or we could say love-sick amoeba) over billions of years, evolving into apes, and then into hominids all following the ‘survival of the fittest’ paradigm. In Levi Graham’s message on “Self-Made Man” delivered last week, he warned us that when success is defined by business moguls rather than the Bible, the emphasis upon servant leadership and serving is replaced by the Darwinian survival of the fittest (promoting rabid party spirit). The world amasses men to show how to be successful by elevating themselves over others, placing their opinions and discoveries above Almighty God.
And in Richard Ritenbaugh’s sermon, “Pressing Toward the Goal,” also delivered last Sabbath, he pointed out that the fruits of the Spirit are considered undesirable ‘soft’ virtues, as contrasted with the attributes of strength, power, ambition, and pride (we could add lording it over others in toxic party spirit) more in line with the Darwinian ‘survival of the fittest,’ nature red in fang and claws, a metaphor used in Tennyson’s poem, “In Memoriam A.H.H.” which characterized the disturbing Darwinian theory of survival of the fittest, describing savage violence or merciless competition, providing an earnest payment or genotype of the party spirit which is currently tearing the governments of Jacob’s offspring to shreds.
Some of the most poignant messages about party spirit have come from farewell addresses from former presidents and prime ministers, such as President Eisenhower’s stern warning about the out of control military industrial complex, aided and abetted by the equally sinister media-industrial complex, responsible for dispiriting Jacob’s offspring just as the ten spies Moses had sent out to explore the land—the ones who had incited rebellion against the Lord with their evil report—the same way the agenda driven corporate media have successfully done today.
In President George Washington’s farewell address, he warned us:
…in the most solemn manner [following in the footsteps of the apostle Paul], against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, the spirit exists under different shapes in all governments…. But in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness and is truly their worst enemy. The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetuated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism… the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to restrain it. The party spirit distracts from public counsels, enfeebles public administration, agitates with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, and even foments riot and insurrection, rendering a people more vulnerable to foreign enemies.
Within very prescribed limits, George Washington believed parties could perhaps serve as useful checks on government and conduce to liberty, but in popular elective governments:
….it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose [I am not certain of that anymore]. BUT………, there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by the force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume [as it is ready to do today on April 22, 2023, Earth Day, as progressive climate change activists from all over the globe, exalt mother earth or the Greek goddess Gaya over the rule of Almighty God].
America’s second president, following in Washington’s footsteps, proclaimed, “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.” According to David Baggett in his April 2019 article, “The Spirit of Party and a Few Simple Rules of Political Discourse,” states: “Some interpret Adams here to be lamenting the existence of only two parties, that same “spirit of party” can operate in a system of three or more parties just as well as two.”
Like gang warfare in Los Angeles County, where youthful gangs mark their territory with graffiti, much the same as dogs marking their territory on fire hydrants, the major political parties attempt to mark their territory, claiming to be proponents of clean air and water while the opposition wants to pollute the air and water. Satan the Devil has succeeded, by party spirit and groupthink, in dividing all of us from each other—Gentile against Jew, rich against poor, Anglo against Hispanic, black against white, labor against management, young against old, vegetarians against meat eaters, city dweller against country dweller, liberal against conservative, Republican against Democrat, Tea Party against Move-on, NRA against Green Peace, Bloods against the Crips, greater church of God A against greater church of God B, etc., turning them all into hostile adversarial entities.
Party spirit leads to compromise with evil to retain viability. Back in the fall of 1962, my Political Science instructor, Milton Ochsner, assured the class that the first rule of politics is to get re-elected, even if getting re-elected means compromising with principle, engaging in contentious competition (which we understand is party spirit) destroying the character of the opponent, covering up of the truth, and yielding to the corruption of the good old boys or good old girls in the establishment. Consequently, one major political party through their extremism on behalf of evil and compromising good for evil, has attempted to put the wrecking ball to God’s laws, breaking the seventh commandment by redefining marriage, promoting infanticide as a reproductive health or women’s rights issue, and promoting bodily mutilation on our youth as an act of Christian compassion.
At the same time, extremism has caused one major party to break the sixth commandment, promoting the massive enhancement of the military industrial complex (as the senior senator representing those of you in Fort Mill has been doing, itching for boots on the ground and weapons of mass destruction). No matter what party ascends to power, the net result is always a loss of personal freedoms and a further attempt to scuttle God’s laws. It becomes very tempting to God’s chosen saints when they see the horrible woke leadership take ascendency in the world, to reach for weapons, like perhaps Simon the Zealot was tempted to do, perhaps even aligning ourselves politically (adopting the party spirit) with the enemy of our enemy. But as Jesus instructed Peter, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). The late Rabbi Kahane used to warn timid, compromising Jews, “We do not have allies; we have common interests.” And the late commentator Harry Reasoner used to say, “I dislike labels, because they sometimes place me in a category with which we have only one thing in common,” like perhaps the Church of the Great God and the Branch Davidians of Waco, Texas as fellow Sabbatarians. As ambassadors of Christ, we need to handle the world’s political issues like radioactive isotopes or pathogenic viruses, or as the Victorian philosopher Matthew Arnold said, “disinterestedly.”
Proverbs 26:17 teaches us that “He who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a dog by the ears.” Remember, Satan does not care which side (in the world’s conflicts) we choose, just as long as we can hate as intently as we can, storing up the flames of the Lake of Fire as our destiny. Mike Ford once mentioned regarding the world’s politics, “We really don’t have a dog in this fight.” When Senator Barry Goldwater accepted his party’s nomination for the presidency at the Cow Palace in San Francisco in 1964, he declared “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue,” to which the NBC newscaster John Chancellor in typical knee-jerk reaction said, “I expected the crowd to say, ‘Heil Hitler.’”
The two trigger words that upset not only John Chancellor, but also Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, and Walter Cronkite, all dutiful stewards of the progressive agenda driven corporate news, were “extremism” and “moderation,” touching off some angry reactions, igniting their flammable party spirit. But for God’s chosen saints, called out of the world, this phrase could be suitably redacted: Extremism in the pursuit of the Spirit of God (or liberty in law, Galatians 5:1, James 1:25) is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of perfection (Matthew 5:38; John 14:2) as we learned from Richard’s sermon last week, is no virtue. If we uttered this phrase to those not yet called, we would receive the same scorn and rage as Goldwater received from the angry agenda driven corporate media in 1964.
We have been assured by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that He has already overcome the world, conquering the things of the world that try to upend us every day, including vicious party spirit (John 16:33). To wrap up this message, let us all turn to some encouraging scriptures in Proverbs which show the ultimate destruction of party spirit.
Proverbs 11:21 Though they join forces, the wicked will not go unpunished; but the posterity of the righteous will be delivered.
Proverbs 16:5 Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; though they join forces [in whatever political alliance they choose], none will go unpunished.
Any alliance or union not based upon God’s laws and principles has no possible chance of succeeding. As God’s people, we are warned to stay away from any such bond laced with toxic party spirit. As Martin Collins implied in his sermon on the First Day of Unleavened Bread, “If we, as living stones, are closely aligned with our cornerstone Jesus Christ, we have no further need to seek alliances elsewhere.”
DFM/jjm/drm