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The History of the De-Emphasis Of The New Birth

Compiled By Robert Wurtz II (used with permission)

Section XIV - THE VOICE OF WICKEDNESS

In this entry, I wish to glean some wisdom on the subject from the Psalmist. It is nothing new for those who seek the Lord to look around and try to diagnose why folk seem to live so slapdash, haphazard, and approximate in their obedience. (para. A. Katz) Even with death itself at the door, many seem to keep on in their carelessness.

The psalmist gives an inspired prognosis in Psalm 36:1;

The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.

From their contempt of God and their want of a due regard to Him: “The transgression of the wicked speaks within my heart (makes me to conclude within myself) that there is no fear of God before his eyes; for, if there were, he would not talk and act as restraintless as he does; he would not, he would dare not, break the laws of God, and violate his covenants with him, if he had any awe of his majesty or dread of his wrath.” (para comp. M. Henry)
It used to be said (pre 20th century) when indictments by our law were brought against a criminal, that “such a person, not having the fear of God before his eyes, did so and so.” The wicked do not always openly and verbally renounce the fear of God (“this day I renounce my fear of the Lord!”); but their transgression is evidence, that when observed, appears in the hearts of all those that know anything of the true nature of God Almighty.
It is an axiom of scripture that transgressors transgress because they do not fear the Lord. This missing element in a human being is evidence that they are unsaved and in need of the Born Again experience (Romans 3:18).

GOD’S BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE

Scripture tells us that Lot was vexed from day to day because of the unlawful actions of the people of Sodom. There are many ‘Lot’s’ in our times as well. They look around at the condition of people and groan within themselves and grieve at the blatant wickedness. One of the Greek words for vexed means ‘tormented.’
It happened also in Israel’s time also. There is always a remnant who sigh and cry for the sins of the people. You will recall in Ezekiel the angel that came forth with the inkhorn and set a sign upon the forehead of all those who were weeping or groaning- vexed by the filthy behavior of the wicked. This ‘torment’ can be either a sense of tremendous loss or tremendous jealousy. I have to think in this case, it was both. When the destroyer went through the city with his battle axe- it was those who had been ‘vexed’ that were spared.
When we reach the book of Malachi we are watching God’s dealings with Israel wind down. II Chronicles 38 tells us that God had sent prophet after prophet and the people despised them and their words, so God sent His wrath upon them until there was no remedy. The reader ought to tremble at those solemn words. If God hath affliced, who can remedy? What could be a worse judgment than God simply pulling out and leaving the people to themselves? One could endure anything if God be with them; but who shall stand in the day of His departure?
Malachi is winding up the Old Testament revelation. As the hands on the clock near allign themselves for the stroke of midnight. When I was a child I used to tremble around 2:00 AM, when having fallen asleep while watching some late night program, was awakened by the almost deafening tone of a station signed off, or the black and white ’snow’ that revealed the total absense of any human being. I’ll never forget how alone I felt at that moment. How worthless and even fearful was that wooden box when there was no signal.
Most bibles have a single white page that seperates the Old and the New Testament. Did you know that that page represents 400 years of no prophetic voice in the land? No word from God worthy of being recorded in God’s Holy Word. Just a chapter and a half before GOD ’signed off’ He left the people and for our admonishion (I Cor. 10) these words:

Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not
Malachi 3:16-18

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the root of all religion; they reverenced God as “his Majesty” (King). They submitted to His authority. They had a dread of His wrath in all they thought and said. They humbly complied with God and never spoke any strong words against Him. In every age there has been a remnant that feared the Lord, though sometimes but a little remnant. (M.H) God remembered those who feared Him and He wrote down the conversations they had one to another as a memorial. Like the tears in the bottle we read of in the psalms, God kept a record. I sometimes wonder if my name is in that book? I sometimes wonder what, if anything, God may have written about me. Have I groaned for our times? Am I vexed from day to day? Am I jealous for His name?

NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS!

A man was recently 3000 feet into the air flying his small plane when a 4 foot black snake peeked its head through the instrument panel. When asked what he did the 62 year old pilot referred back to something his instructor told him some 25 years before; “No matter what happens, FLY the plane!”
And such as it is in our lives. No matter what happens, “Fear the Lord!” Not as Israel who watched the Egyptian Army (their arch enemy) drowned in the Red Sea behind them and then murmured against God because they had no water and food (Exodus 16). They wandered 40 years on an 11 day journey.
Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting and waiting on the Father. Not only did he not murmur, but He faced off with the Devil who was desperate to get our Lord’s mind onto the same types of things he succeeded in getting Israel’s on. It’s that same old proposition, “PITY THYSELF.”

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

This is astonishing! It was as if our Lord told all of us, “Never mind that I have not eaten for 40 days, you worry about being totally and swiftly obedient to God!” As He told Peter in the closing hours of His sojourne on the earth, “If I would that he should tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me.” Our front and center concern, is obedience to the Lord. This obedience will not long be present in the absence of the fear of the Lord.
This is the lesson Israel did not learn in the wilderness. They were used to the ebb and flow of Egypt. They longed for the predictability they once knew. They were not quite willing to trust God at the level He was asking them. In Egypt they could use their skills to make buildings and earn a slaves wages; but in the desert its just them and God.
When things don’t go as planned what will we do? When God takes us a different route than we imagined, what then? What did Israel do? What… did Job do? And such as it is in our lives. No matter what happens, “Fear the Lord!” When a line forms a city block long with folk bearing bad news, “Fear the Lord!” When God asks of you much more than you first bargained for, “Fear the Lord.” When you don’t feel you can take another step, “Fear the Lord.” No circumstance of life ever provides us with a just cause to murmer, complain, transgress or depart from the Living God.

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire
Hebrews 12:28, 29

THE SHEPHERD OF THE LAMBS

Sometimes it is good to ‘re-focus’ our attention on the things that God has revealed as important to Him. Not that all things are not important, but sometimes some of the most precious things or ‘people’ are allowed to slip through the cracks for one reason or another. The enemy understands what these things are or in the case of this entry, who these people are.
James is an interesting epistle. So much does it deal with ‘works’ that Luther felt the book to be non-canonical. Perhaps he felt the book in opposition to faith. Yet, some scholars believe that James is one of the earliest epistles and written by the half brother of our Lord. This book is written from a unique perspective.
Before we look at our text in James, I want to point something out. Pharoah, who is symbolic of Satan himself, ordered that male children, when born, were to be killed by the midwives. The closing verse of Exodus chapter 1 contains these words, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.” We know this process as infanticide. Why would the enemy of the Hebrews want the males killed, and why the children? It has long been the strategy of the enemy that if he cannot KILL them he will CORRUPT them. Hence, abortion and the modern day secular education system.
What is it about children that Satan has devised so many means with which to destroy them? What has allowed God’s people to not fully appreciate the little ones? You will recall that even in the time of Christ the disciples would ’shew away’ the kids that tried to come to Jesus. What was our Lord’s reaction?

And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.
Luke 18

This was the attitude of our Lord and it seems reasonable for James to write from a unique perspective of having lived with our Lord, perhaps, more than any of the others disciples, maybe even ALL of the others combined. And from that perspective he gives, what is to me, one of the most radical statements ever inspired by the Spirit to the heart of a ready writer:

Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
James 1:27

There is an echo from the Gospels, I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’ It is interesting that in the passage in James that the Greek word for ‘religion’ is threskeia and it means “religious discipline.” This opens us up to some interesting considerations, because the root word is threskos which means the FEAR OF THE LORD.
What are the implications of this? If we draw a strait line through the facts we come up with a New Testament definition of the FEAR OF GOD and it is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Notice the order of things in this passage. How could that be possible? Is the order even significant? I believe it is. Why? Because Jesus also told us that offending one of the little ones that believe in Him would be worthy of a millstone being placed around the neck and thrust into the sea. But, does this jibe with the Old Testament?

Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry; And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
Exodus 22:22-24

You may be wondering how this could be? “How is it possible that ‘pure’ fear of the Lord could be comprised of visiting the fatherless and widows?” I can understand how “keeping unspotted of the world” would fit. Why can’t pure fear of the Lord be comprised of fasting and prayer? Maybe its because folk do as the Priest who passed by the battered and bruised robbery victim on the way to the Temple for what he believed was more inportant religious exercise? Maybe its because fasting and prayer are measures to build our relationship with God, that when that relationship begins to have its effect, and the heart of God and the heart of the seeker begin to beat in sync (as it were), the seeker will walk out of the prayer closet and into the FEAR OF THE LORD.
Where are they? Where are the fatherless and widows? How is the Church doing in terms of fearing the Lord? It is interesting to note the extreme number of children born out of wedlocke, whose fathers have little or nothing to do with the children. The inner cities of America are literal Mission Fields of children who have never heard the name of Jesus. The voice of our Lord beacons, “Suffer them to come… suffer them to come unto me…” visit them… Visit them… VISIT them! The nursing homes and centers are filled with widows. Many of them are former Sunday School teachers, Pastor’s wives, song leaders, having served God for 50-70+years, and now…
Yet, there is almost a silent rebuke as folk often view kids as too much trouble. There are tremendous ministries to kids in cities. Sidewalk Sunday School, Church bus programs, etc. But who has not passed through a neighborhood and saw a little child playing in the yard on a Sunday. What about that Grandmother that is in a Nursing Home with one foot in the grave wondering if the Lord has forsaken her?
No, theres not a lot of glory in pure religion. Perhaps that’s why its pure? Not many people write books about ministering on inner city streets to children. Not a lot of books on the subject of going into homes and getting little kids dressed for Sunday School while mom and dad are passed out in bed from a night of partying. But these folk don’t need publicity, they are SHEPHERDS OF THE LAMBS.

NONE OF SELF- ALL OF THEE

C.T. Studd, the African missionary, believed that Christians ought to live as such a threat to the Devil that in Hell he will throw a thanksgiving celebration for the Church having been called from the field of battle. What could the Devil fear more in the Church than believers so full of the Holy Ghost that they lived by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God? No sooner the command reach our ears and we are swift and unhesitant in obeying Him.
Yes, C.T. Studd was a radical Christian. In many ways he gave a new meaning to the idea of desiring God’s perfect will above all else. He is said to have “prayed in” everything he received and lived on while in ministry, without making his needs known to men. He totally relied on God to supply His need and God never failed him.
Ron B. in the devotional “Abraham My Friend” The Making of a Praying man, relayed the story of how one of C.T. Studd’s young dentist comrades, agitated that Stud so relied on God stated, “It is ridiculous to be like this…” he said, “…living from hand to mouth, surely we’ve got to survive!” C.T. Studd replied, “Not necessarily.” 
This is the heart of a person willing to compromise what they want to do for God’s perfect will that we must guard ourselves against. Those words, “surely we’ve got to survive” must have rang in his ears as the Devil telling the Lord, “If thou be the Son of God turn these stones into bread.” What was being said? PITY THYSELF! Think about yourself Mr. Studd! Don’t you at least deserve to live? Yet, C.T. Studd did not have a death wish, he utterly refused to veer off from God’s perfect will.
For our Lord it was the temptation in the wilderness and later with Peter that gives us a pattern of the enemies strategy. Was it a sin to eat? No. But our Lord had witnessed Israel for 40 years wondering in the Wilderness unable to come to the understanding that, “Men shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” The thief on the cross must have been Satan’s last line of defense; his last ‘Pity Thyself’ messenger.

“And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?”
Luke 23

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 23rd, 2008 at 7:55 pm and is filed under Evangelism, The Betrayal of the Ages, Theocracy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.