THE ANSWER TO THE COMING JUDGMENT

THE ANSWER TO THE COMING JUDGMENT

Is there still time? Is there still hope? Is God able to withhold His hand of wrath and judgment on us as a nation, on His church?
Just as revival is an act of soveriegn design by God, so is judgment. We see when Israel was removed for their wickedness that Judah was given a warning of pending doom. They had a choice, return and serve with full obedience or follow suit of what happened to Israel. and after the reign of Manasseh, judgment was set. For Josiah learned of the great provoacation of Judah against the Lord when they foudn the book of the law. He humbled himself, and prayed. Yet, God spoke that judgment was set for Judah and that after Josiah was dead, judgment was coming. Yet, even before this, Hezekiah learned that all the things would be carried away to Babylon. Judgment is certain.

Our continual provoking of the Lord is the question and issue at hand. LEt us look at the instruction of Joel, I feel it to be our guide for where we are currently.

Joel 2: 12 - 17, "Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: v. 13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord you rGod: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil. v. 14 Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God? v. 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: v. 16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. v. 17 Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine inheritance to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?"

God's Response - Joel 2: 18 - 32

So what shall we say for the people and ourselves should do? Sit down, hunker down and wait for the coming judgment? Oh, I don't think so at all. I think the instructions are very clear for us in what we are do. We are to seek the Lord, we are to humble ourselves, we are to weep, we are to call the people for immediate response. Note that these are not actions and activity of our own devices, programs, means and methods. These are instruction from the Lord for a sinful people, on the verge of the wrath of God. Let us look at our response.

(I am seeking to answer the question put before me as to what am I actually asking leadership and those that are moved by what I wrote concerning 'Judgment'. What kind of plan or implementation am I seeking? The following is in answer to those questions:)

Now my desire was that in sharing what the Lord had revealed and spoking to me about our current judgment and past judgment, that there would be a ground swell of response to 'call upon the Lord'. And thus far, there has not been such a desire. The response of leadership, churches, denominations, pastors or individuals does not match the need at hand of God's wrath. Great is the wrath of the Lord against us.

The labor that I am working on presently is to document all the judgments in the Bible. And under each judgment to label the following: Who was judged? What was the sin that provoked God's judgment? What was the judgment of God? What was their response? and What was God's response? And in so marking these judgments we might see the parallel between their plight and ours. When I say 'ours', I am referring to the two bodies that I belong. I belong the Lord's New Testament church; and the United States. The failure of the church is directly proportioned to the nation. Simialarly, the children of Israle was judged because of the failure of the priests (documented from Shiloh to Jerusaleum) and the kings (leadership). Leadership of the nation, coupled, I believe, with pastors are the rise and fall of judgment. Evil leadership in government and wayward, weak pastors allow for SAtan to sift the people and lead them into wickedness which provokes the Lord.

I don't desire to have to answer historically or with reasoning that our nation since WW II has contiued on a spiral downward into wickedness. OUr laws, judges, and rulings have been anit-God for 60 years. If you don't agree with this, I will have to answer that on another time. Secondly, our pastors and church leadership has not risen to meet the need of a wicked nation. The foundational truths that God declares in Joel 2 has not been met. We see a weak kneed, yellow-bellied, cowardly approach, spineless pulpit that refuses to declare the whole counsel of God. Now again, I know in making such a statement that many are offended and upset. God always has His remnant. There are godly pastors and preachers in the midst. But surely we must see that out of the masses of pastors and leadership there is a fundamental weakness compared to generations gone by. I know that my statement is 'across the board'; and I am included in this just the same. But I must recognize and own up to the issue at hand, not sugar coat it nor refuse to recognize it. PErhpas this will lose some of your interest as well, for not agreeing to the whole of these two points.

But the facts are, numerically speaking, that pastors and leadership are void of some of these foundational truths that I beleive are necessary. I continually hear the testimonies and know of personal accounts of many pastors in pulpits that they have little or no prayer life. I ask how much they read and study the Bible daily. Their answer is sinful, '2 or 3 times a week maybe' is their reply. Those two truths alone reveal our disjointed and separate place from God's Presence, Voice and Knowledge of.

I believe with these two issues at the core of our problem, they must be addressed first by the Scripture in Joel. Let us now look at the response of what I am proposing:

1. Turn to Me with all your heart - Recognizing the problem at hand, the certain judgment hovering over us requires for to examine ourselves completely. 'All' is the key to this. almost 5000 times in Scripture is this word of 'all' used. 'All my heart, all my soul, all my mind and all my strength' given and used for the Lord. We see the first sin among us, we have not given our all unto Him. How can we say we give all ? How can we say that 'we are spend and being spent' for Him? When we exercise so much time to entertainment, selfish wants, sloth, and other times consuming nonsense.

The evaluation here is simple to know where we are, here's the test. Sit down and document your time. We are all given 168 hours per week. How much time do you pray daily? How much time do you read your Bible? other spiritaul books? How much time are you in church? How mcuh time do you use for His service in witnessing, visitin and so on? REsults: when I have run this, for those honest, what we find is this:
First we dispel with living functions per week: for example, I will give everyone 7 hours of sleep per night (again, I know there are some who sleep less and some who sleep more) averaged - 49 hours a week in sleep; that leaves 119 hours a week;
Next, eating; we will give everyone 3 meals a day at 20 minutes per meal; that's an hour per day, 7 hours a week in eating; leaves 112 hours a week;
Bathroom, bathing, other functions of life of getting dressed what not - an hour to two per day, so we will say 10 hours per week; leaves 102 hours a week;
Let's say they go to school or work, 40 hours a week; leaves 62 hours a week;
What do you do with your personal 60 hours a week?
--15 mintues of prayer a day,(this is serious, focused prayer, not mouthing words and phrases on the run) so we round it up to 2 hours a week;
--15 minutes in Bible reading; 2 more hours a week;
--average church services 4 hours a week;
--visit, witness, I'll give you 4 more hours on this;
Do you see the time spent? In living life of eating, sleeping, working and daily activity out of 168 hours a week, the total is 106 hours.
spiritual activity for most, and this is very generous is 12 hours a week;
this leaves an individual 50 hours a week for whatever their heart desires;

And for most it is occupied with tv, computer, games, entertainments, self-induglent desires. So that whatever the 12 hours of spiritual labor has been done is a poor reflection to worldly, carnal appetites filling 50 hours a week. As the 7 years of famine ate up the 7 years of plenty, so 50 hours of self will eat up 12 hours of spiritual stregnth.

Remedy: More of those 50 hours must be used for spiritual activity.
For example, it is said that A W Tozer, would pray every morning from 5 - 8 Am on his face before the Lord. Of course, staying long if the Lord so desired. Many of his 40 hours of work for pastoring was used in digesting books, Bible and meditation which woudl increase his spiritual time with God and for God. The time spent with God coorelates to the power of God demonstrated in one's own life. So Tozer instead of spending 12 hours a week doing spiritual time; would spend 21 hours a week in prayer; another (estimating) 5 hours of church services, plus 20 more hours of study and meditation plus visits and witnessing of 5 hours; Total = 51 hours in God's presence and work; thus 4 x as much than the 'average' pastor today.

2.'with fasting, with weeping and with mourning'; the response to the current sitaution should match what we see and know in these verses. A brokeness, a weeping, a mourning among the people, among the leaders for the sins of the people and their own sinfulness. Where are the tears? Where is the brokeness?

Remedy: Only the Lord can give true tears with real compassion. surely we have all seen fake crying. Actors and actresses are paid to do it; but how much sorer to see preachers, leaders or others share with false tears. When we behold the tears wept in the Bible out of compassion, it is a most moving number of Scriptures.
--Jesus wept at the sight of Mary's tears over Lazarus;
--Jesus wept over the city that had rejected Him and was heading for judgment of destruction;
--Jeremiah wept and lamented over the destruction of Jerusalem and the removal of the people of Israel;
--Hannah wept over the 'sore provoking' of Pennaniah;
--Peter wept over his denial of Christ with 'great repentance and tears';
Accounts beyond the Scriptures during the days of revival always reveal tears of conviction and godly sorrow over their sins. Sometimes days and hours of crying and weeping over the knowledge of how gross their iniquity is against a holy God.
We must see a return to geniune tears and sorrow over sin, over neglect, over the wicked and their eternal plight. What does it take to break the hearts of people today to a godly sorrow? Let us pray for God to give what only He can do - a legitmate brokenness of His people for the condition we are in.