THE RESULTS OF DISOBEDIENCE

The Church, even the true Church of believers in Christ, is doubtless larger today than it has ever been. Yet it is weak and sick, confused and divided.

Many feel that the causes of the Church’s low spiritual state are: failure to live separated lives, lack of prayer, indifference toward the lost, etc. These, however, are the effects, not the causes. The cause is the Church’s departure from God’s message and program for our day, as revealed through the writings of the Apostle Paul. There lies the root of the trouble, though few as yet recognize or acknowledge it.

With Israel it was the departure from Moses’ law that constantly got her into trouble; with us it has been the departure from Pauline truth. For, remember, as surely as the dispensation of the Law was committed to Moses, so surely was the dispensation of Grace committed to Paul (Eph. 3:1-3), and those who have lapsed or backslidden from his day to ours, have done so, not so much by departing from the Word of God in general as by departing from the Word of God through Paul in particular.

Toward the close of his life Moses urged the people of Israel not to take the riches of Canaan for granted. Indeed, he warned them that if they did this they would soon “utterly perish from off the land” which they had gone to possess, and would be scattered among the heathen.

Likewise Paul, also, warned believers that they would lose the blessings intended for them if they departed from the truth and the program made known to them. Some, indeed, had already begun to depart, and the loss of blessing had become evident. The Galatians are a striking example of this and a lesson to us.

How they had rejoiced when Paul first came to them with “the preaching of the cross” and “the gospel of the grace of God”! As they heard him preach, and noted the difficulty, and perhaps pain, he experienced with his eyes, one said to another: “I wish I could give him my eyes! I would gladly do without them. He needs his sight so badly, and think of the joy and blessing he has brought to us!”

Soon after his departure, however, they were taken in by the Judaizers who “zealously affected [courted]” them to draw them away from Paul and his message (Gal. 4:17). And now Paul had to write them:

“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel” (1:6).

“O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched [charmed] you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently [plainly] set forth, crucified among you?” (3:1).

“WHERE IS THEN THE BLESSEDNESS YE SPAKE OF? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me” (Gal. 4:15).

Gone was the blessedness! Those who had rejoiced so greatly in the riches of God’s grace proclaimed by Paul, had now turned back to Moses and the Law.

In Paul’s epistles we find both the tendency on the part of believers to depart from the path of blessing and God’s diagnosis of the particular cause of the trouble. In every case the cause is rebellion against Paul’s God-given authority and departure from his God-given message and program.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

While it is nice to have friends in high places, God’s people have foes in high places!

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12).

The Greek word for “high” here is epouranios, elsewhere translated “heavenly,” “celestial,” and “in heaven.” Only here is it translated “high places,” a phrase that is elsewhere always found in the Old Testament, where it was associated with the worship of the false god Baal (Num. 22:41; Jer. 19:5; 32:35) and idolatry (II Chron. 14:3). That’s why it angered God when Israel allowed these high places to exist in their midst (Psa. 78:58), and why He was pleased when they were removed (II Kings 18:1-4) and displeased when they were not (II Kings 12:3;14:4; 15:4,35).

But here’s the kicker. As strange as it may sound, Jehovah was often worshipped in these high places in the worship of idols (II Kings 17:32; II Chron. 33:17)! If that sounds familiar, it is because fusing the worship of God with idolatry is a device Satan used for centuries during the Dark Ages in the church of Rome in our own dispensation.

This pollution of worship was still going strong when our Authorized Version was translated, and it might be why the translators rendered epouranios as “high places” in our text. They may have perceived that while the “spiritual wickedness” they wrestled was the host of fallen angels in heavenly places, the sphere of operation of these wicked spirits on earth was in the Roman church whose towering cathedrals reminded them of the “high places” where God was worshipped with idols in Israel.

In Daniel’s day, a wicked spirit wrestled with an angel sent from God to try to keep a message from God from getting through to a man of God (Dan. 10:10-14). Similarly, during the Reformation, the Reformers wrestled with wicked spirits who tried to keep the message of God’s Word from the people of God by using the brute strength of the Roman church that restricted His Word to the Latin language that few could read. The Reformers wrestled and overcame them by translating the Bible into the languages of the people.

Today those same wicked spirits strive to keep the message of God’s Word to us from God’s people, the message of Paul’s distinctive apostleship. This is the battle we fight here at Berean Bible Society, and it is the wrestling in which you too must be engaged if you want to “fight the good fight” (I Tim. 6:12). It is the “good fight” that Paul fought to his dying breath (II Tim. 4:7). Is it your fight too?

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

“What do you attribute the lawlessness to that currently plagues the nations?”

It is a product of the mystery of iniquity, which is Satan’s plan to undermine all God-given authority. He has been effectively working behind the scenes since the days of the Apostle Paul to bring the world to a state of chaos, with a specific purpose in mind (II Thes. 2:1-12).

The false religions that Satan introduced throughout the centuries all stand in direct opposition to the true Church, where righteousness is extolled as a virtue. Contrariwise, in the name of religion, which Karl Marx called “the opiate of the people,” terrorists shed the blood of innocent victims to promote their ungodly ideology. Sadly, we are only witnessing the tip of the iceberg. Make no mistake, the primary target of these extreme jihadists is Christians. Simply watch their training clips, and you will find that most of the images they are shooting at have the Cross of Christ embossed on them.

Satan also loves to sing the praises of theological liberalism! The Word of God that once influenced the lives of both the believer and unbeliever is no longer held up as the final authority. The new normal is there are no absolutes any more. The mantra of our day is, “Let every man do what’s right in his own eyes” (cf. Judges 21:25). As a result, our streets have become like the wild west with shootings and murders commonplace.

With no spiritual mooring to the Word of God, marriage has become optional with more and more couples living together. This is the seed plot for immorality and pornography which have become rampant, leaving the souls of men and women burdened with guilt and a sense of worthlessness. Satan has successfully undermined the authority of the home, which is foundational to any society. Every time he destroys a home it weakens the moral fabric of a nation.

Clearly Satan is behind these evil influences and every other evil known to mankind. He merely sets things in motion, and the flesh is more than willing to accommodate whatever sinful pursuit that is put before it. The goal of the evil one is to bring the world to the precipice of utter confusion. When he accomplishes this objective, he will introduce the Antichrist after the Rapture of the Church. The man of sin will step onto the stage of the world as a man of peace, with all the answers to the world’s ills that have eluded men. He will be an overnight sensation being the Devil’s “Answer Man.”

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Being in the pastorate can be discouraging. After all, you are an obvious target for criticism. The messages are always too long or too short, you use too many illustrations
or not enough, the content is too deep or too shallow, you stand too strongly on biblical truth or not strongly enough, and so it goes. On one occasion, I had a Christian leader harshly dress me down in public for 45 minutes and accused me of a variety of things I simply had not done. He only thought I had done them. I left that meeting so discouraged; I just wanted to give up the ministry, and maybe even give up walking with the Lord. Thankfully, He sent me encouragement when I needed it most.

Being discouraged spiritually isn’t exclusive to pastors either. All believers encounter this at one time or another. You can almost feel the sorrow of heart when you read the testimonies of God’s men of the past. David wrote: “I had fainted…” (Psa. 27:13), Jeremiah said: “When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me” (Jer. 8:18), and Jonah said: “…my soul fainted within me” (Jonah 2:7). They were so discouraged and spiritually weakened that they simply felt like giving up. Thankfully, these servants of God did not give up, and there is much to learn from what carried them through.

Jonah relates to us how he found the strength to carry on: “I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto Thee, into Thine holy temple” (Jonah 2:7). Coupled with obedience to God’s will, his discouragement turned when he stayed his mind on the Lord in prayer. Similarly, Isaiah proclaims: “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength…they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31). As you can see, Isaiah also found it helpful to focus his thoughts on the Lord through prayer.

The Apostle Paul had opposition from without and from within the company of believers, and had much to be discouraged about, but he didn’t quit. His testimony was: “seeing we have this ministry…we faint not” (II Cor. 4:1). He kept his heart focused on serving the Savior, with Galatians 6:9 in mind: “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Simply put, heaven and reward from the Savior strengthened the resolve of this servant. It can for us too.

Are you discouraged spiritually? Don’t quit! Pray, focus on the importance of serving Christ, and rejoice in future reward!

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.