Judges 2:10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14 In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. 15 Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.
Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Today I want to address a subject that is not very popular in this day and age. It is the issue of judgment. Not our judgment. God's Judgment. I often write about the Grace of God. Grace is a marvelous thing. It holds us in the Palm of God's hand even when we turn from Him. There is another element though that cannot be ignored. Even though Jesus died for our sins, our sins still have consequences in our lives and the lives of others. I mentioned previously that it is not my business to be concerned with the specifics of anyone else's sin but to be concerned about my own and to live for Christ and love other people by being willing to share the whole truth in Love and let God deal with the sin.
There is a reason that God tells us that certain behaviors are sinful and the omission of certain behaviors are also sinful. All of us sin individually and corporately as a people. Sin is sin not because God made some arbitrary list of things that he does and does not want us to do. Sin is sin because ultimately it causes pain and separation from God. It also causes pain and separation from the God who lives within those of us who have trusted Jesus as our Savior. The consequences flow out from our lives and affect not only ourselves but those around us. Sometimes that pain and separation causes confusion, sometimes it causes sickness, sometimes it causes heartache and depression. If you name something that is bad, Sin in one form or another caused it. It is a true statement to say that there are many people who are suffering due to the sins of others. We suffer for our own sins. Ultimately, we were all separated from God by the Sin of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. Sin is a corporate condition that we are born into. We also commit and omit things that result in personal sin in our lives. When we do, we create pain and distance between our loving God and ourselves. As a nation, when we distance ourselves from our God, we are creating pain that has and will result in consequences.
Remember, the nation of Israel is a microcosm (if you will) of the conflict in every man. When the nation (corporately) turned to God, they experienced blessing, when they turned from God, they experienced the fruits of the curse that was instituted by Satan in the Garden of Eden.
In the New Testament, when Paul is talking about the Christian life after the coming of the Holy Spirit, he talks about it being a battle and even discusses the implements of battle in the book of Ephesians (see "whole Armor of God"). Once the nation of Israel came out of the land of Egypt by the "deliverance" of God from bondage and death (Egyptian captivity), Moses led them to the promised land (to salvation) BUT it was still their responsibility to CLAIM, INHABIT, AND POSSESS the land (territory that had already been conquered). Don't forget, if you know Christ, you already have ultimate victory over sin. The land has already been conquered. But....we still have to possess it and HOLD ON TO IT. That doesn't mean that if we do not possess the land, that ULTIMATE victory is lost. ULTIMATE Victory is not lost. Jesus Christ gained the ULTIMATE VICTORY FOREVER BUT....It is difficult to live in a land that someone else possesses.
Friends, we are currently living in a land that someone else possesses. We have NEVER run all of the foreign invaders out but in times past have possessed more of the land than we do now. We have allowed our families, our cities, and ultimately our country to be overrun by foreign invaders. I'm not talking about nationalities. I'm talking about spiritual invaders. They haven't invaded all at once but have trickled in so as to be unnoticed and their presence is becoming more and more apparent.
If you are reading this blog, before you start thinking I am a "conspiracy theorist", take a look around you. You can see it if you compare certain things. Listen to the speeches of politicians (even the bad ones) from three decades ago. The bad politicians even sound good by today's standards. Listen to the sermons of some of the old preachers on YouTube. Listen to some of the old news cast from several decades ago and compare. We like to look at ourselves as "advancing" as a people but look at our condition. Of course we know more now than any generation before us. I would remind you that the Israelites knew much more by having various peoples living among them but it did not help their spiritual condition. I do want to make it clear that this has nothing to do with race or nationality. What I am speaking about is spiritual. Access to information has only succeeded in confusing us more. Our moral compass is broken. Having no common "compass" has now become our compass and we are no better for it. In many ways, there seems to be more violence now and more division now than there ever has been in our country. Knocking down the walls of racism has only seemed to build new stronger "strongholds" in their places. There are new walls, constructed by the invaders in places that there were no walls before. Becoming more tolerant of everything and everyone has made us less tolerant of each other. We have lost territory that once we held (spiritually). When God "sells us into the hands of our enemies" we look to each other in desperation to solve the problems. When we can't, we look to our government (which by the way is made up of the people) to solve the problems, when that doesn't work, we blame each other. When that doesn't work and collapse begins, when those things begin to collapse that we have always known, then and only then are we distressed enough to turn to God, if then. When things are like this, there is ONLY ONE OPTION:
"IF.....my people, which are called by MY NAME (the name of JESUS), will humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways (repent of sins both corporate and individual), then will I hear from heaven, will forgive their sin (corporately and individually) and heal (restore to victory and their possession) their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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