Sermon: God Expects a Return on His Investment (Part Four)
Beware the Forked Tongue
#1670A
David F. Maas
Given 10-Sep-22; 38 minutes
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transcript:
Genesis 1:26-27 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 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.
We learn from these verses that our Creator fashioned a clay model, a physical prototype of the God Being, giving him incredible abilities and talents far exceeding any other creature in the entire physical realm. These natural abilities and talents also served as prototypes of the spiritual gifts God Almighty would eventually implant in His called-out ones, given at the time of their baptism and the laying on of hands, an ordination providing the will and power to keep His holy law, developing godly character, to ultimately mirror the spiritual stature of Jesus Christ (the second Adam), made possible by the earnest payment or down payment on their future glorified spirit body at the time of the resurrection (II Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14).
This earnest payment contains the genotype (DNA & RNA) of the Tree of Life—or the fruits of God’s Holy Spirit, which will mature to a fully developed phenotype, entity, or organism emerging at the conclusion of our lengthy sanctification process, producing mouthwatering succulent fruit, that is, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—which the apostle Paul reminds us “against such is no law.” That is because the bearing of this fruit is the purest form of keeping God’s precious holy and spiritual law, emanating from our inner core—God’s law permanently and forever inscribed upon our hearts (Hebrews 8:10; 10:16; and Jeremiah 31:31-33).
Returning to Genesis 1:27, we learn that both male and female (roles assigned by Almighty God from birth—not chosen by whim or preference) constitute incomplete, partial aspects of the composite God Being. We need to understand that God Almighty has never been nor is certainly not, as many strident militant feminists declare, a despotic, heavy-handed male chauvinist, but He has lovingly and compassionately designed the marriage covenant (when correctly understood and faithfully followed) to teach the husband and wife (identified as one flesh) (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:5; Mark 10:8; Ephesians 5:31) to learn about the godly traits each partner lacks, an extremely important powerful insight that has completely eluded an increasing number of politicians of both major American parties, as well as an increasing number of mainstream Christian denominations who have blatantly and willfully discarded God’s instructions on marriage and family, preferring to embrace infanticide, sodomy, genital mutilation, and other perversions as the norm, allegedly protected by Christian tolerance and compassion.
Sadly, exactly 13 days ago, Senate Bill 107 overwhelmingly passed the California Assembly (60-19) and the Senate (30-19) proposing to make California a sanctuary refuge for all American teens and preteens seeking to acquire transexual operations without consent of their parents. If signed, the bill would make California a refuge for minors seeking gender-affirming care, similar to how Assembly Bill 1666, which the governor eagerly signed into law in June of this year, made California a sanctuary or refuge for those seeking abortions.
Last October 1st (the same day Julie and I tested positive for the Covid virus), the current California governor signed a bill allowing California children aged 12-18 access without parental consent, to receive gender altering hormones. Sadly, this hopelessly misguided California governor seems to be champing at the bit to sign this current abominable Senate Bill 107 bill.
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.
Genesis 2:16-17 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.”
Sometime after the creation of Mother Eve, after Father Adam perhaps had sufficient time to instruct her about God’s requirements, Eve had a tragic encounter with the father of all liars, the very first rebel who had successfully rallied a third of the angels to declare war on his, as well as our Creator—just as he now manipulates the mendacious media and the criminal censorship of Big Tech social media to ruthlessly dispirit and intimidate humankind today into accepting the ‘progressive’ party line—the predominant narrative of the mainstream media worldwide.
Genesis 3:1-5 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Interestingly, the image of the forked tongue of the serpent has served perennially in virtually all of the world’s cultures as a metaphor or analogy of duplicity or doublemindedness—that is, saying one thing but meaning another—the classic definition of a politician. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, it is an insult to tell someone that he is speaking with a forked tongue, as it is the same as calling someone a liar. Almost all authorities believe that the metaphor of a forked tongue refers to the forked tongue of a snake. Sadly, when our original parents partook of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they took on a duplicitous nature displaying or exuding both good and evil. The talents and abilities with which they were originally endowed were certainly good, as was the rest of creation, but the purposes for which these gifts were given were turned to evil and destruction.
Adam and Eve’s offspring, namely all of us, have followed suit. Consequently, the harnessing of the atom to create a perpetual source of energy was maliciously turned to military purposes, threatening mutually assured destruction, that is, the elimination of all human life off the planet. Likewise, we witness the gain of function bio-weapon research carried on at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (and later transferred to the Wuhan laboratory) by the nefarious director of the National Institutes of Health and advisor to the President, along with the largest non-government contributor to the World Health Organization and Planned Parenthood, as well as the multi-billionaire founder of CNN, all in lockstep agreement that the population of the world should be reduced by over 90% to combat climate change through infanticide, sterilization, and vaccines. (Please check my commentaries on Unmasking Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing for further details.)
In the words of our Lord and Savior, “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened (Matthew 24:22-24). Tragically, as the offspring of Adam and Eve, we all have the same potential for evil and corruption as these misguided leaders in government, media, education, and public health, many who have dangerously seared or cauterized their consciences (Romans 1:28).
As Richard Ritenbaugh forewarned us in his August 6, 2022 sermon “The Pure in Heart,” even though God’s Spirit has been implanted into us at the time of our baptism and laying on of hands, giving us the potential ability to think Christ’s thoughts (I Corinthians 2:16)—even so, because we still have both a hostile carnal mind which is enmity against God, not subject to His holy and spiritual law (Romans 8:7), coexisting with a tiny little dab of His precious Holy Spirit impregnated into our nervous systems at our baptism, throughout our entire lives, from our John 6:44 calling through our rigorous, grueling sanctification, we are double minded (almost like the Siamese twins connected at the brain, which Dr. Ben Carson successfully and miraculously separated back in 1987). Consequently, we must also likewise dissect and mortify the flesh, putting to death the old man (Romans 6:6, 8:13; Colossians 3:5-11), ultimately putting on the new man (Ephesians 4:24), striving mightily to be single-minded with God’s purpose for us.
Richard has assured us that this process is not easy or magical but requires an intense appraisal of our deceptive carnal heart (Jeremiah 17:9) which we inherited from our original parents, laden down with corruption we have picked up living in this world. However, in partnership with Almighty God, we spend our entire lives as junior apprentices or sharecroppers, scouring the sin and lawlessness, rooting out evil behaviors, systematically building godly character, realizing that the core of our hearts must be cleansed before we have a pure heart (Mark 7:20), enabling us to see God as He is (I John 3:2-3).
When Almighty God called out His chosen saints (John 6: 44) He, in effect, as He had with Job, permitted the powers of evil (that is, Satan, the world, and our own carnal human nature) to place a target squarely and conspicuously on our backs (John 15:18-21). On August 27, 2022, Mark Schindler gave a message on “Lying Spirits,” in which he warned that God’s people are continuously subject to relentless, continuous harassment and persecution because of Satan’s double-barreled, or perhaps we could say forked tongue propaganda (a deadly mixture of poisonous lies and half-truths) spewing from his mainstream news and media (Revelation 12:9-14) deceiving, dispiriting, and discouraging the world’s inhabitants. The Devil, or adversary, knows his time is short and has an intense hatred for God’s elect, whom this fallen archangel considers interlopers, deserving of extermination.
In part 3 of this sermon series, “God Expects a Return on His Investment,” I made the case that Evangelicals and Charismatics create an unnecessary dichotomy between natural abilities and talents (which God has given to all humanity) and spiritual gifts, awarded only to His called-out ones, which in reality are actually amplified natural abilities or talents, infused with God’s Holy Spirit, redirected them away from selfish purposes to pleasing God, serving our spiritual siblings and ultimately developing the godly skill of sacrificially serving our fellow man, including our enemies, and fulfilling the Great Commandment, ardently loving God and our fellow man as ourselves (referencing Matthew 22:36-40) which our Lord and Savior assured us that all the law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
On the night of His betrayal, as our Lord and Savior promised the gift of the Holy Spirit (recorded in John 14-17), He repeatedly equated it with the spirit of truth, emphasizing that it would free His disciples (then and now) from the forked tongue of Satan’s lies. We remember that in chapter 8, describing His skirmish with the Pharisees, Jesus equated knowing the truth with freedom or liberation from the slavery of sin (John 8:32-36). In John 14:15, Jesus tells His disciples:
John 14:15-17 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper [Greek noun parakletos, which is in the masculine gender so the pronoun he was assigned], that He may abide with you forever. [ Notice]—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it [having not received the John 6:44 calling] neither sees nor knows Him, for He [referring to the spirit of truth] dwells with you and will be in you.”
Truth is an elusive gift—denied to the majority of the world (its political, educational systems, the vast majority of its religious institutions)—but it has been promised to God’s saints if they remain loyal to His covenant, embracing His holy and spiritual laws. In John 15:26, Jesus again equates the parakletos with the Spirit of truth. In John 16, beginning in verse 7, when Jesus assures His disciples ( then and now) that it is to their and our advantage that He send the parakletos—the helper—the Spirit of truth, whose function, in addition to convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, also will guide them into all truth (John 16:8, 13). And in the High Priestly prayer of our Lord and Savior in John 17:17 asks our heavenly Father to sanctify us in His truth, adding that His Word (we could compare the Bible as the spigot of His Holy Spirit) is truth.
After our initial calling, baptism, and entering the rigorous sanctification process, we are at perpetual war with our two natures, perhaps analogous or symbolic to the forked tongue of the serpent, alternately trying to accommodate the pulls of the world, Satan’s broadcasts, and our own flesh warring against God’s will, we experience an unpleasant roller coaster ride of cognitive dissonance, described in my article on “The Perils of Double-Mindedness” currently appearing in the CGG weekly.
Richard Ritenbaugh, in his sermon last Sabbath on the peacemakers, described the horrible discomfort on the part of the doubleminded when they give into their carnal lusts and the siren pulls of the world. Richard reminds us that when people are not in a right relationship with God, peace is impossible. Sin (the breaking of the law or covenant, I John 3:4) automatically breaks the peace (Isaiah 59:1-9).
When we sin (yield to our human nature), we declare war on Almighty God. When we follow our human nature, we show much we hate God, separating ourselves from God and others and ultimately and tragically separating ourselves—in the manner of Satan’s forked tongue, dithering confusedly between carnality and spirituality. Richard, in this message, alluded to the pitiful spectacle of the satanically inspired gender dysphoria when people are indecisive as to what sex they are, fighting against their own bodies because their minds are hopelessly conflicted.
Rejecting everybody who is not like them, they are perpetually at war with themselves while they also reject God’s moral laws and every wholesome moral standard which humanity still shares. As commentator Mark Dice points out, the LGBT community has never been nor ever will be satisfied with achieving acceptance or tolerance but wants society to put them on a golden pedestal, admiring their exceptionality, allowing them to preen their aberrant behavior as the new norm, expressive, inclusive tolerance, and morality.
Psalm 119:165 teaches us that “Great peace have they which love Your law: and nothing shall offend them.” The converse is also true: “Unbearable stress have they who hate Your law—everything shall offend them.” We need to exercise utmost caution that we do not pick up a similar spiritual dysphoria or doublemindedness-describing the continuous tug of war between our carnal nature and our emerging spiritual nature, which is nourished by the gift of God’s Holy Spirit, graphically described by the apostle Paul in Romans 7:14-25, an event incidentally recorded rather late in his conversion or sanctification process.
In the first two verses of Romans 8, Paul describes the solution to this double-minded cognitive dissonance, declaring “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” because through Christ Jesus “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” has set you “free from the law of sin and death.” Sadly, the forked tongue of Satan has inspired some false dichotomies or bifurcations, which antinomian mainstream churches have promulgated upon their membership:
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Law and grace are allegedly polar opposites.
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Faith and works are allegedly polar opposites-leading Martin Luther to declare the book of James an epistle of straw.
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Law and love are allegedly polar opposites.
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Law and faith are allegedly polar opposites.
Now what exactly are the fruits of Luther’s alleged faith only/no works doctrine? According to the episcopalnewsservice.org:
On May 8, 2021, the Sierra Pacific Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America made it official, electing Megan Rohrer as the fifth bishop of its 200 congregations in California and Nevada. That makes Rohrer the first openly transgender bishop in the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States—or any major denomination in the country, for that matter.
One of their congregations, Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Simi Valley, California, a little over 3.5 miles from my residence, proudly flies the LGBT flag. On their website, they proclaim: “All are Welcome! As a community of faith following Jesus’ commandment to love one another [I do not see any reference to loving God Almighty by keeping His commandments] in the members of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran seeking a relationship with Christ, regardless of age, economic status, ethnic background, physical or mental ability, sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status,” badly twisting and distorting the intent of the apostle Paul’s declaration in Galatians 3:26-28: “In Christ Jesus we are all children of God through faith [again, in the manner of Satan’s forked tongue, bifurcating or creating a false dichotomy or polar opposite between faith and works and between faith and law] for all who were baptized into Christ have clothed themselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for we are all one in Christ.” In my humble opinion, even Martin Luther would roll over in his grave if he could see how the antinomian heresy of cheap grace has destroyed the morality and plain common sense of his wayward flock.
In John Ritenbaugh’s Bible study on “Abraham, Part 9,” he stated that one explanation for Lot being described as righteous was that he was deeply vexed about the sins of Sodom, adding that “the same sins that vexed righteous Lot are still plaguing us today.” Even as civilizations have “evolved,” with advances in every area of life and pushing the limits of science and technology, the world has not figured out how not to repeat the societal, moral mistakes of its predecessors. The same sin that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah has already eroded our culture and will eventually lead to its destruction.
Living a mere 30 miles from modern Sodom (namely Hollywood, California) I go to my weekly cowboy breakfast every Wednesday at Old Susana Café here in Simi Valley, where I listen and sometimes join in with the conversations of grumpy old men and women, who like righteous Lot are sorely vexed about the disappearance of morality in the Golden State, expressing anxiety and terror that the ‘progressive’ woke evil will not end any time soon. They despair about finding solutions to the unsolvable problems. God’s people must have to resist looking for physical solutions to solve spiritual problems, especially since they stem from demonic sources. As Paul warns the Ephesians, “for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms.”
That is why God’s chosen saints have been warned to extricate themselves from Babylon lest they share in her sins and receive of her plagues (Revelation 18:3). Isaiah 59:8 describes the aftermath of eating the fruit of the deadly mixture of good and evil, which all of the offspring of Jacob and the rest of the world have liberally consumed:
Isaiah 59:8 The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their ways; they have made themselves crooked paths; whoever takes that way shall not know peace.
All of the leaders of Jacob’s offspring, America, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and brother Judah in the postage stamp state of Israel, have hopelessly lost their way. Unless we stop dithering between seeking God and the siren pulls of the world’s system, we could end up just as lost as the rest of our fellow humans. On the night of our Lord and Savior’s betrayal, when He promised His disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit, He promised that one collateral benefit of this spirit was peace, exclaiming, “My peace I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). The apostle Paul later comforts the Philippians with this same promise:
Philippians 4:6-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Jesus’ half-brother James provides a powerful formula to get rid of the satanic forked tongue, double-minded, cognitive dissonance every chosen saint of God has felt and experienced more than once. James 4: 8 reads, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded.”
To conclude, please turn to what has become my third favorite verse in Scripture.
Psalm 37:4-5 Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.
DFM/jjm/jjm