Chapter
Seven
Idolatry
&
Witchcraft
Open
Doors
to
Satan’s
World
Idolatry & Witchcraft
Open Doors to Satan’s World
Exodus 20 : 3 - 6
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness
of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that
is in the water under the earth: Thou
shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the
third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep
my commandments.
1> generational responsibility : “visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that
hate me; And shewing mercy unto
thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” This list of the Big Ten is given by God to
Israel after they have escaped the bondage of Egypt. In order to keep the family freedom God places a generational
responsibility on the present family clan whom Moses addresses (1462 BC).
Moses died outside the promised land and Joshua takes over the second
generation that possesses the promised land.
And, as things go, Joshua dies and all the elders of that generation die
(1372 BC: 110 years). And this is the forth generation and things
fall apart:(Judges 2:7):
“And the people served the LORD all the days of
Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all
the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel.”
“Who saw God Work”? Moses and all those over
twenty died in the wilderness. This
first generation saw God’s deliverance from Egypt and throughout their forty
years in the wilderness of SIN. The second
generation of those under twenty are now grown-up and enter the promised land,
see the work of God in victory in battle.
Their children continue under the leadership of Joshua seeing the works
of God--mostly in memory.
But then, vs.10:
“And also all that generation were gathered unto
their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not
the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.”
Another GENERATION! Knew not
God? We are now into the forth
generation of the family tree and the sap is beginning to fall and the leaves
are dropping off at an alarming rate: 1st: Out of Egypt; 2nd: Possessed the Land; 3rd : Settled-In - no vision; 4th: Witchcraft & Idolatry!
In the forming,
and in the two-hundred years of the history of the United States the hand of
God has been seen, and been invoked for our blessing, but in the past fifty
years of my generation (43-97) we have left our first love. In grade schools I attended the day began
with Bible reading, a prayer, and the pledge to the U.S. Flag. Now God, the Bible, and prayers are
outlawed. It did not happen
suddenly. We let it come to pass by not
fighting for the right in generations past.
2> II Timothy 2 : 1 -
4: “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the
grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the
things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to
faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness,
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No
man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may
please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”
What we need is an old-fashion COMMITMENT to the Biblical
principles of generational responsibility.
My parents and grand-parents generations fell off the wagon of
instructing the children. My generation
has done the same. And the generations
of this present evil world know nothing of the righteousness of the Holy Child
Jesus. Paul’s instructions to his
spiritual son Timothy is to take that which Paul taught by word and example and
to pass it on to others who would be faithful to pass it on to others, who
would be faithful to pass it on to others, etc, etc. If you will take note that sinario covers four generations. And if each successive generation is
faithful then we get the blessing of the thousand generations instead of the
curses of witchcraft and idolatry which we see in this present generation. In verse three Paul says the faithful are
like military men who are trained to endure, and, verse four, are required not
to get entangled in the world so as to be prepared to fight at the will of the
presiding king.
Judges 2:11: ”And the children of Israel did evil in the
sight of the LORD, and served BAALIM “ .12. “And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought
them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the
people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked
the LORD to anger.” At that time Israel
did not have Proverbs 22 : 6: “Train up a child in the way he should go:
and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”, but they did have Deuteronomy
6:4-9: “4: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5: And thou shalt love
the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
might. 6: And these words, which I
command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and
shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by
the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8: And thou shalt
bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between
thine eyes. 9: And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on
thy gates.”
As part of my doctoral studies I wrote the following paper on. . .
The
Awesome Responsibility of Being a Father
In 1889 there was
a man born to a 52 year old father and
a 29 year old mother. This was
the father's third wife. This child was
born after his mother had already lost three children. His mother was, therefore,
overprotective. This caused delay in
the normal process of emotional maturity creating an over attachment to the
mother. His father was an overbearing drunk.
You can call it alcoholism if you want, the Bible calls it
drunkenness. All through their life
together there was intense struggle between this brutal drunken father and
mother/attached son. Because the father
asserted his dominance over the boy the boy became completely hostile to the
idea of submission.
His Saturday
night drunken father and his protective mother would constantly fight over
everything, especially money. This was
all compounded by the home life with seven children and a two room
apartment. A boy growing up age 3
to 6 under these circumstances will be
strongly impressed in a hostile direction.
This boy observed his father assaulting his mother on many occasions.
At age 8 the boy
was placed in a school ran by a monastery.
He observed with interest the immense authority of the monks which added
to his already defiant attitude toward his father. He would not be dominated.
By age 11 he had developed many
social and political maladjustments.
At age 12 one observed that he was gifted but lacked self control and
was incapable of school
discipline. At age 13 his drunken father
died. This did not end his
rebellion. His difficulty in school almost led to expulsion. When he did finally get a school diploma at
age 15 he went out to celebrate -- by
getting drunk! When he awoke he
didn't know what went on and he couldn't
find his diploma. He went back to the
principle and asked for another copy.
The principle showed him his
original which he had apparently used for toilet paper.
This boys early childhood development, which created such strong rebellion, also led to a feeling
of superiority, particularly of other groups and races. He had developed a belief that they were
inferior -- he would not be dominated by any.
He hated any feeling of submission within himself which led to his
masochism and sadism. He was committed to his own rage, his own destructive
fury -- it seems unbelievable a single man could cause such havoc. His name*
"ADOLPH HITLER ! "
---------------------
*
Leon J. Saul, The
Childhood Emotional Pattern and Human Hostility (N.Y.:Von Nostrand Reinhold
Company,l980), 167-173.
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HEBREWS 12:5-11
The
Awesome Responsibility of Being a
Father
There is a song titled
something like "I Have Returned."
In the second or third verse the song refers to the verse Proverbs 22:6
which states: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is
old, he will not depart from it." The chorus then follows with "I
have returned to the God of my
fathers." But the verse doesn't
teach that, in fact, Proverbs 22:6 doesn't even imply that you can or will
return after you grow up. What it says
is "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will
not depart from it." If you do it
right then they will turn out right! If
they don't turn out right then you did something wrong. It is as simple as that -- it is your fault.
FIRST, it is your
fault because between you and your wife you are the one's who created the life
and made him or her a sinner. In that
moment of conception and fertilization lay the basis and ground work for what
your children have become today. It's
your fault! In that conception between
you and your wife lay the genes that gave your children their human nature and
at once rebellious sinners (Psalm 51:5).
Only in this realm are all men created equal. For the next nine months how the mother tended her natural
body had a great influence on the
correct growth of your children's bodies within her womb (Eccl.
11:5). Inherited from this growth is
your children's mentality, psychological personality, and inherited
temperament, not to mention any type of physical disorder equally incurred.
If you as parents
are dedicated Christians who include health in your personal sanctification
then this becomes a positive edge when your children arrive in "this
present evil world"
(Gal.l:4). One such edge would be the
intake of God's word during the time of pregnancy. This is important as babes in the womb can perceive the power of
verbal communication and the internal peace or anxiety of the mother relative
to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." (Luke 1:44).
Upon arrival into
this "life that we now live in the flesh" (Gal. 2:20) your children
will need to spend much time in close bodily contact with their mother. Intimate physical contact will for you
insure your children's security of being loved and ability to love. It will also increase or at least pre- serve
that mentality and personality with which they were born .&
---------------------
& Saul I. Harrison and John F. McDermoth,Jr., ed., New
Directions in Childhood Psycho pathology
·Vol.I: Developmental Considerations. (N.Y.:International
Universities Press Inc.), 10.
As they begin to
grow and develop the next six years of life will be the most important in a
broad basis of personality growth and underlying character and emotions:
i.e.,what they get from mom and dad will dominate them for the rest of their
lives!
It is your fault,
therefore, it is your responsibility to see to their salvation. My wife and I started Kimberly into Sunday
School as soon as she was able. We also
read the Bible at home and prayed together.
When she reached the age of 4 we were helping with the Know-So
Servicemen's Center in Columbia, South Carolina. Sometimes on Sunday afternoon my wife would go home instead of
coming to the Center. She would then
come by and pick me up in time for the evening service. One of these Sunday's
while on the way to pick me up Kimberly asked Janice, "We're going to
Heaven because we're Christians, aren’t we?", or words to that
effect. In short, my wife was then able
to lead our daughter into salvation in Christ Jesus. It was our fault she was
born, it was our fault she was a sinner, therefore, it was our responsibility
to see to it that she got saved. She
did, at age 4. At age 5 she was
baptized. We trained her into the right was of salvation and when she got old
enough she went into the way, she did not have to return to it.
Our text says,
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not
depart form it."
SECOND, it's your
fault because it is from the parents they get their personality and
character. There are four types of
personality: Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholy, and Phlegmatic. They are defined as follows:#
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SANGUINE: a warm, buoyant, lively and enjoying person; outgoing; good story
teller; full of warm emotions
CHOLERIC: a hot, quick, active, practical, strong-willed person:
self-sufficient and very independent; decisive and opinionated; he is doggedly
determined in the face of adversity
MELANCHOLY: an analytical, self-sacrificing, gifted perfectionist; emotionally
sensitive; enjoys the fine arts; introvert;
moody from ecstasy to depression to the point of being antagonistic
PHLEGMATIC: a calm, easygoing, never-get-upset, most likable person; internally
emotional; enjoys people, has a dry sense of humor; is a spectator in life.
---------------------
#Tim LaHaye, Your Tem erament: Discover its-Potential (Wheaton: Tyndale
House Publishers,Inc.),45-60.
What your children are is a combination of what you and your wife are.
It is your responsibility to see that this personality is developed
under the "nurture and admonition of the Lord."
At age 5 to 6 in the United
States children embark on a twelve year struggle between the outside world and
home. The predominate influence becomes
education, as it takes up the bulk of their time. The amount of struggle will depend on how close the philosophy of education matches that of the
parents: the closer aligned the less the struggle. Other things, such as peer pressure, will take their toll only
relative to the security installed within the child by the parents between
conception and age six.
When it came time
for formal education for our daughter the public school system of the
evolutionary humanist was never a consideration. We knew beforehand, we had predetermined that we would make the
sacrifices necessary and give our daughter a Christian philosophy in her
education. We, as Daniel, purposed that
our daughter would not be defiled by such worldly degradation as that
propagated by our public school system.
"Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the
Lord." In 1987 our daughter
Kimberly graduated from Greenbriar Christian Academy. She has never taken drugs, never drank alcohol, smoked, committed
adultery been openly defiant or rebellious or in any serious vain given us any
trouble or given us any cause for shame.
In her Sunday
School class she can Scripturally out-shoot any class member. Again our text says, "Train up a child
in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from
it." So far so good! In the fall of 87 our daughter enrolled at
Bob Jones University. She both called
and wrote that it was boring. She said
the English course was far below that she already had in high school. The Gospels class was for her just a
repeat. From personal evangelism class
she received much of the same instruction she received from me at home. She spent the summer of 88 at the Bill Rice
Ranch as a worker and dorm counselor.
She sent me the following poem:
THANKS FOR ALL THE LOVE AND CARE!
GIVEN TO ME IN EVERY YEAR!
HAVE A BRIGHT AND SUNNY DAY
CUZ
JESUS IS IN YOUR HEART TO STAY!
CHIN-UP!
I
LOVE YOU
Well, you say, her
life isn't over yet and she's still very young. You're right, and right now we are working together (she, her
mother & I) as to what her future will be. Bible college was our choice for
education after high school. Kimberly has her own ideas and dreams. Currently we are trying to help her look for
God's plan for her within her own personality, dreams, desires, and
abilities. When she has determined what
she believes God wants for her then we will help her look at the best way
possible to achieve that goal for the cause of Christ.
She has demonstrated that she has the inbred quality and training to
make Christian responses. After her summer at the Bill Rice Ranch she faced a
given situation, here is her initial response to that situation:
"To survive you must fight
to fight you must be strong
to be strong you must be armed
armed with cleverness, coolness,
hardness, and never trusting.
To win is tough
to be tough is hard,
callused, unmovable, stubborrn,
to be the best takes time, ability, willingness
and never to be run over!
To never trust means never to be hurt
Never to be hurt means to become tough
Tough is strong,
Strength is to fight
Fight is to win
TO SURVIVE.
After spending some time in meditation on the advice of her mother she
followed up with these words of wisdom:
To survive this way is to trust no one
Care for no one
No one cared for is no one to care
no one to care is no one to love
no one to love is to be alone.
Alone with no one to share, help or be helped.
Survival is death in this way
All survival with no one is death in loneliness.
Give, care, help, trust, love, means
Given too, cared for, helped out,
trusted, loved.
This is true survival.
true survival not alone is true happiness.
Maybe your
children were not conceived in the bonds of Christianity and therefore you got
off to a wrong start. Maybe they're
already past due in their personality development and all you can do is trust
God for the return of the prodigal. However, our text says, "Train up a
child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart form
it." As we have already stated, if
you do it right they will turn out right.
If things for you are not going so well then the best thing for you to
do is confess your transgression to both God and your children, repent of your
unscriptural practices, and begin anew applying the God given mandates of the
Bible. Next you can take them away from the Devil's public humanistic
educational system and give them a Christian education. There is
no reason any Church member should have to have his children in public
school. There is enough money in the
Church to see to it that all our
children are so educated.
'
Proverbs 22:6: "Train
up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from
it." Do you plan to conceive your
children in the bonds of Christianity?
Are you making every effort to see that your kids get the gospel in such
a way that when they are of such an age they will be able to respond to its
message and receive Christ? Are you
educating your children with a Christian philosophy both at home and in their
education? In short, are you training
your children in the way they should go?
Are you doing all you can so that there will be no need to pray and keep
watch for the prodigal?
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A Follow-Up Letter
This letter was written at a time when my daughter was living in
South Carolina with my wife's parents.
She was going with a man who had no profession as a Christian. Her dress was less than desirable and her
church attendance was far out of line.
In all, she herself said that she was not being able to handle life's
difficulties on her own and needed someone to help her out. After receiving this letter her response was
in essence "Thanks Dad, I needed that!"
--------------------------------
17 JUNE 1989
Kim,
This is a long heavy
letter. Before you open it be sure you
have time to read it thoughtfully. Take
a walk in the woods and sit on a log and read it with an open heart.
From
your Daddy,
--------------------------------
17 JUNE
1989
From a worried father
to a lovely daughter,
Dearest Kimberly
Long before your mother and
I met I believed the Proverb "Train up a child in the way he (she) should
go: and when he (she) is old, he (she) will not depart from it." (Proverbs
22:6). Another Proverb to go along with
that is "Correct thy son (daughter), and he (she) shall give thee rest;
yea, he (she) shall give delight unto thy soul." (Proverbs 29:17). To do this we followed all the precepts of
Deuteronomy 6:4-9. We talked the Word
of God in the house and out of the house, we included church -Christian work -
and - Christian school from K-5 to BJU.
The walls of our house are adorned with spiritual and Scriptural quotes
or pictures pointing in the right WAY.
I even have a large board over the front door!
"My (daughter), forget
not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: for length of days, and
long life, and peace, shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: to
deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward
things:" (Proverbs 2:11-12). This
wisdom will only come to the prudent (Proverbs 8:12) and to sin against this
wisdom is to sin against your own soul and will lead to a path of self
destruction (Proverbs 8:36). If you
despise my words of exhortation and go
your own way you will end in destruction but if you will follow my law it will
give you the escape from the "snares of death."(Proverbs 13:13-14).
Over the years of your life
I have given you "excellent things in counsels and knowledge" from
the truth of God's word. These truths
are for you to live by and pass on to others. (Proverbs 22:20-21). With no counsel people fall so I have given
you all the biblical counsel I could both through home and school and church to
give you the maximum safety possible. (Proverbs 11:14). This is one more such effort in counseling
for your benefit. I shall not make
another attempt unless you ask me for it.
You are a legal adult now and are supposed to be capable of making sound
decisions. I have already made apology
for the failures and mistakes we made in your education and training. These mistakes do not give you an excuse or
loophole for disobedience. It takes a
big fool to despise a father's instruction,
on the other hand, a prudent person will pay close attention to "reproof!"
(Proverbs 15:5). Which will you
be? Now here is the eternal hot
question: "Can a man - or a 19 year old young lady - take fire in his
(her) bosom, and his (her) clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?" (Proverbs
6:27-28).
Paul's answer to
the question is that "It is good for a man not to touch a
woman." He goes on to say that to
AVOID fornication God invented marriage (I Corinthians 7:1-2). He further declares that it is better to get
married then to burn (I Corinthians 7:9).
It sounds to me like you got a hot thing going with a lot more than just
a simple touch and I warn you from personal experience and observation that you
are playing with a fire that will burn for a long time and which can leave ashes
that will discolor your life forever.
From our own experience prior to getting married and from what I have
read I can tell you that any and all pre-marital relationships, however great
or small, little or far, have an effect on the sexual relationship in a persons
marriage. God honors all marital sex
relationships but He surely will judge the whoremongers (Hebrews 13:4). There is "a time to embrace, and a
time to refrain from embracing " and
"a time to love." (Eccl. 3:5,8). I think this is a time for refraining! As a member of the body of Christ your body is His temple out of
which His glory should shine. What you
are doing with this fellow is the first stages toward harlotry and to commit
such sin is to sin against your own body - the temple of God. (I Corinthians
6:15-20). By courting this non-believer
you are outright violating the principle of the unequal yoke instead of either
confronting him with the Saviour and seeing him saved and in church, or separating
from him as an unrepentant sinner (II Corinthians 6:14-20).
From all that we have
taught you at home and through church and school you know very well that we are
to have no fellowship with the side of darkness. (Ephesians 5:11). As your Christian father how could you
contemplate me giving you away to be unequally yoked to an unbeliever? If I became a licensed minister to marry
people could you expect me to perform such an inappropriate union? God strictly forbids both. (Deut.7:3). You are walking on coals of fire - get off
before you get burnt!
What we have in general
terms today is " a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is
not washed from their filthiness.” My
experience with the Navy for the past 5 years is full proof of this
Proverb. This is a generation that as
far as adultery is concerned is without understanding. (Proverbs 6:32). If you want to see where your young man
falls in this generation let him read this letter and then discuss it with
him.... ! King Solomon observed in his
day among the simple young people a person, "void of understanding,"
he also noted a woman "with the attire of an harlot." (Proverbs
7:7,10). From mother's description of
what you were wearing in my house I would say your dress matched the attire of
many a harlot that I've seen in my travels around the world. Is that how you wish to be labeled? Where was your respect for "me and my
house we will serve the Lord?"
Where is your "honor thy father and thy mother," and
"children obey your parents?"
If you so dressed in my house in front of my wife then there was no
respect! Where is the desire for that
virtuous woman you wanted to be? (Proverbs 31:10). Your "favour and beauty" are nothing but vain
deceit. If you want true praise then
"fear the Lord." (Proverbs 31:30).
Your feminine adorning is not supposed to be on an outward attraction
but an inward adorning of meekness and quiet trust in the God of creation (I
Peter 3:3-5).
If you do not remove your
foot from this man's door - unless you bring him to Christ - you are setting
yourself up to give your honor to another (Proverbs 5:8-9). This happens when the trainee hates the
instruction being given and dishonors the teacher (Proverbs 5:12-13). Such dishonor and reproach cannot be lifted
(Proverbs 6:33). It can be washed in
the blood but it will stain the rest of your life.
Rather then allow such
dishonor to cross your path you should choose to have a "good
name." A good name will long
surpass all the riches you could earn (Proverbs 22:1), the pleasures you could
entertain (movies, etc.) or the non-spiritual music you could hear (Colossians
3:15), and exceeds the healing power of any "precious ointment" you
might have to purchase as a remedy for the results of your sins (Eccl.7:l). As Christians in the body of Christ we are
to abstain and control ourselves in total sanctification (separation) and honor
(I Thessalonians 4:3-4). We are to even abstain from the "appearance"
of evil (I Thessalonians5:2): staying out late or over night with a man. Your appearance is exactly opposite!
Paul in writing to Timothy
list the various qualifications for a Bishop or Deacon. (I Timothy 3). These qualifications are to be
"proofs" (vs. 10) of the character and testimony of the persons home
life. Two such "proofs" are
(1) a well ordered home with (2) children under subjection (vs. 4,5,12). You are my only such proof test. You are my one and only chance to test the
Proverb 22:6. If with all we have done
for you - despite our mistakes - you fall by the wayside then the proof is
"it doesn't work." in which case I cannot be telling others that it
does. In other words if you fail - I fail! I realize this is a heavy guilt trip and I was not going to put
it on you, but your mother said she told you already. So you go ahead and "rejoice in thy youth" and let your
young heart cheer you on to follow your own eyes but don't forget the judgment
of God (Eccl.ll:9) even though it is far better to remember the creator in your
youth and not wait till your an old
lady (Eccl.l2:l). One reason I look so
much younger than my fellows is my clean living.
Remember that children are
to obey their parents in all things (Eph sians 6:l; Colossians 3:20), and are
to honor their father and mother (Exodus 20:12). So as your earthly Christian father I give you this command:
"Get involved in a local church and serve the Lord, and either break off
with this fellow or lead him to
Christ." So honor the gray hair of
your old man (Leviticus 19:32) and obey his command. To disobey me is to disobey the Lord.
Jesus told two stories of
fathers and sons. One is commonly
called the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32).
I exhort you to come back home to the church before you find yourself in
a pigs' sty! The other story is of two
sons (Matthew 21:28-31). One said he
would not, but repented and did obey; the other said he would obey, but did
not. Which type daughter will you
choose to be?
This has been a heavy letter
to write and I'm sure a heavy one to read.
It's words were hard to come by.
The rough composition took a good 5 hours and it has been carefully
reread and prayed over before it was sent your way. As I have already stated it will be my last such exhortive letter
unless you ask me for some advise. You
are now on your own and have to make your own
judgments. I want you to be
assured that I love you and my house door is your house door 24 hours a day and
my phone always rings for you!
Your dad forever,
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Judges 2:13. “And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal
and Ashtaroth.” Spiritual
idolatry and witchcraft always leads to physical adultery: Numbers 25 : 1 - 2 , 9 - Baal-Peor : 24,000
people died. “1: And Israel abode in
Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. 2:
And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people
did eat, and bowed down to their gods.”
Interracial fornication with a family born of incest (Gen. 19:36), and
despised of the Lord to ten generations (Deut. 23:2). We are not much better today with the divorce rate of the Church
equaling that of the world. It is time
for judgment to begin with us: (I Pet. 4:17-18):
“For the time is come that judgment must begin at
the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them
that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where
shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
We are to remember Lot’s wife and Lot himself: (2 Pet. 2:7-8): “ And delivered just Lot, vexed with the
filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them,
in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their
unlawful deeds;)”
Judges 2:14. “And the anger of the LORD was hot against
Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and
he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not
any longer stand before their enemies. And those that died in the plague were
twenty and four thousand.” vs.15. “
Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as
the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly
distressed.” For their evil deeds
Israel in this fourth generation is given over to the adversary and is now
greatly DISTRESSED. May be the current
distress that you as a person, or we as
a nation, are in is because we in our generation have followed the teachings of
the fathers’ and done wickedly?
Judges 2:16. “Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges,
which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.” God sent deliverers, but as soon as freedom
was provided and the deliverer dead, the children corrupted themselves again:
they would not listen. (vs.17.) “And yet they would not hearken unto
their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves
unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in,
obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so.” “Went a whoring”; “Turned out of the Way”?!
They left the path of the fathers’ walking in their own way because
they did not see an example of faith in the life of the fathers. (vs.19).
“ And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and
corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve
them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor
from their stubborn way.” Corrupted Self in their STUBBORN way! This successive generation was more corrupt
than the fathers of the preceeding generation, and so on, and so on....!
3> Jeremiah 7
1: The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2: Stand in the gate of the LORD's house,
and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of
Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD. 3: Thus saith the LORD
of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause
you to dwell in this place 4: Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The
temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are
these. 5: For if ye throughly amend
your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and
his neighbor; 6: If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow,
and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods
to your hurt: 7: Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that
I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever. 8: Behold, ye trust in lying
words, that cannot profit. 9: Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery,
and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other
gods whom ye know not; 10: And come and stand before me in this house,
which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these
abominations? 11: Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of
robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I
have seen it, saith the LORD. 12: But go ye now unto my place which was in
Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the
wickedness of my people Israel. 13: And now, because ye have done all these
works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but
ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; 14: Therefore will I do
unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the
place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. 15:
And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even
the whole seed of Ephraim. 16: Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither
lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will
not hear thee. 17: Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in
the streets of Jerusalem? 18: The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle
the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of
heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that
they may provoke me to anger 19: Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke
themselves to the confusion of their own faces? 20: Therefore
thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out
upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and
upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched. 21:
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto
your sacrifices, and eat flesh. 22: For I spake not unto your fathers, nor
commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt,
concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: 23: But this thing commanded I them,
saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and
walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto
you. 24: But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the
counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not
forward . 25: Since the day that your
fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto
you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: 26:
Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck:
they did worse than their fathers.
27: Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will
not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer
thee. 28: But thou shalt say unto them,
This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor
receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their
mouth. 29: Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a
lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the
generation of his wrath. 30: For the children of Judah have done evil in my
sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is
called by my name, to pollute it. 31: And they have built the high places of
Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and
their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into
my heart. 32: Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall
no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the
valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no
place. 33: And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the
heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away. 34:
Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of
Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the
bride: for the land shall be desolate.
4> I Samuel 15 : 22 -
23: “ And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great
delight in burnt offerings and
sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the
fat of rams. For rebellion is as the
sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the
LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.”
REBELLION =
WITCHCRAFT: rejecting the Word of God is just as evil in God’s eyes as if
you were a witch in the occult.
STUBBORNNESS =
INIQUITY & IDOLATRY: stubborness to obey is no better than joining the pagans and bowing
before an idol and burning your kids in sacrifice to the idol. Today we either abort them or call them
“latch-key kids”.
“Rejected
the WORD” - Lord reject you: When
you rejected the Word of God you reject God and He in turn will reject you.
5> What does this
have to do with you today?
IDOLATRY & WITCHCRAFT Galatians 5 : 19 - 21:”19: Now the works of
the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20: Idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies, 21: Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the
which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which
do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Notice in this list that Idolatry & Witchcraft are
listed between the sexual sins (adultery) and emotional sins (hatred). In the past fifty years interracial
fornication has increased along with bastard children. Both are unacceptable before a Holy
God. Along side adultery, rioting and
killing has also overpowered society.
We need to recognize that what God did to Saul and Israel can happen to
us as well. Check yourself against this
list of sins and definitions:
WORKS
OF THE FLESH Emulations -
dzaylos
hot
jealousy
Adultery - moicheia - moi = I,
me, malice
mine, my envy
Adult indignation
Adulterant - making inferior .......................
or impure Wrath
- thumos
adulterate - impure, not genuine, passion
improper substance kill
....................... fierceness
Fornication - Porneia from
the soul:
harlotry psyche
Adultery .......................
Incest Strife - ertheia
Latin:
fornix, fornicis - brothel
intrigue
Greek: porne - a prostitute faction
and the trade contention
....................... .......................
Uncleanness - akatharseeah Seditions
- dichostasia
impure disunion
lewd division
foul .......................
Greek: katharsis Heresies
- haheeresis - from:
purification - haheerehomahee
(or mai)
the prefix 'A' meaning
see
Adultery for
NO MAI
= self
..........................
choose
to take
Lasciviousness- aselgia for
oneself as
selges: continent [self restrained) in
II Peter 1:20
in vices & filthiness II
Peter 3:16
again the 'A' meaning NO choice - disunion
....................... -
sect
Idolatry - image worship Jesus:
tradition
....................... -
Mark 7:6-8
Witchcraft - pharmakeia .......................
medication Envyinqs
- phthoneo
magic pine-away
sorcery jealous
drugs .....................
........... .
...... Murders
- phonos
slay
Hatred - ekhthrah
hostility .......................
opposition Drunkenness - methe
enmity intoxication
....................... methane
- a gas
Variance - eris methyl
alcohol
quarrel or methanol
wrangling ethyl - alcohol
contention .......................
debate Revellings
- komos
....................... carousal
rioting
- as at LA
IDOLATRY Colossians 3 : 5 - 6: “ Mortify therefore your members which
are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil
concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry For which
things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:” Covetousness, which is idolatry: all these sins are the result of coveting
that which is not yours. Mortify the
idolatry and you will concour the rest.
You will also avoid the inevitable judgment of God on your lifestyle.