Joshua 3:5, "And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for
to morrow the Lord will do wonders among you." I am worried! Years ago
Satan tried to get fundamentalists and liberals together. These Sanballats
and Tobiahs exhausted themselves in an effort to unite Bible-believing
Christians with those who were infidels. Thank God, they failed. Soon Satan
sent a mediator to pull us together. This mediator was simply a hypocritical
liberalism hiding behind fundamentalist terminology. He said he believed
in the Bible, but not word for word. He believed in a hell without fire
and in sin without enumeration. He spoke against liquor but not for total
abstinence. He had a Heaven without golden streets and a salvation without
regeneration. He was called a neo-orthodox. Soon the fundamentalist stripped
him of his facade and showed him for what he really was.
Wounded but not defeated, Satan inserted another intercessor to woo
the fundamentalist in an effort to get him to betroth liberalism. This
subtle cupid shot his arrows of love toward us until we became ashamed
of our hatred for wrong. This evangelist for compromise told us to believe
right but to seek acceptability. He sent us to study Barth and prodded
us to read Brunner and Niebuhr. He taught us that righteousness and justice
meant little and that love meant everything. He sent us to questionable
colleges and compromising seminaries and told us that in order to be prepared
we needed to know both sides. He made us ashamed of proven terms like "fundamentalism,"
"mourner's bench," "Hell-fire and brimstone preaching," "altar calls,"
"revivals," "get right with God," etc. He put liberal eye shadow on our
fundamentalist eyes and liberal earrings on our fundamentalist ears. He
put liberal rouge on our fundamentalist cheeks and liberal lipstick on
our fundamentalist lips. He put liberal powder on our fundamentalist noses
and liberal shoes on our fundamentalist feet. He put liberal dye on our
fundamentalist hair and liberal terminology on our fundamentalist doctrine.
He appealed to our second-generation city slickers in an attempt to make
us ashamed of our founding fathers. He reminded us of their lack of education
and refinement and assured us that we could be suave AND fundamental. He
made us ashamed of our heritage and clouded what our forefathers said by
ridiculing how they said it. This was new evangelicalism. We courted him
for awhile but soon saw through his man-made love and found it actually
to be hatred.
Finally we rejected his proposal only to find that there is another
girl in the block. It is hard to tell whether she is loving us to right
or seducing us to wrong. She is very attractive, but I worry about the
look in her eye. In as much as I want to like her, I feel very suspicious
about her.
Now who is this temptress? It is fundamental preachers becoming involved
with outsiders in secular endeavors, and I am afraid that this contact
with the liberal crowd will make us like them, for believe me, they ARE
likable, and this new girl in the block just may accomplish what liberalism,
neo-orthodoxy and new evangelicalism could not accomplish.
All of us have one thing in common. We long to see our nation and its
freedom preserved for our children and grandchildren. Because of this we
find occasion to rejoice. We can rejoice at the growth of our fundamental
churches. We can rejoice at the inevitable results of this growth such
as Christian schools for our children and Christian colleges for our youth
and rejoice because of the men whom God has given us to appear at courts
of justice on our behalf, and we can even rejoice at the political clout
that has followed our new miraculous growth. It may be, however, that we
have become so excited that we can mistakenly feel that we are ushering
in the kingdom. We may be tempted to rush out and buy a lion and lamb to
lie down together. We may bore a hole in the cockatrice den. It may be
possible that we have forgotten the real reason that God spares societies;
that is, in a miraculous response to the sanctification of His people.
We seem to have forgotten that God was not looking for ten saved people
in Sodom; He was looking for ten righteous people in Sodom. We face a peculiar
kind of Christianity where a professed, born-again quarterback gives an
interview to Playboy Magazine and implies that Jesus would do the same
thing if He were here.
A famous singer who is a professing Christian appears at nightclubs,
and at giant rallies he testifies concerning his love for Jesus. A publisher
of a pornographic magazine says he has been born again yet continues to
publish his illicit material. A famous evangelist says that he is not sure
if Hell has fire. All of a sudden we old-timers cannot believe it!
The children of Israel were in the wilderness. They had no house of
God, they had no law, they had just left Egypt. God's command is for them
to sanctify themselves. Exodus 19:10, "And the Lord said unto Moses, Go
unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash
their clothes."
These same Israelites came to a place where they had no flesh to eat
and pleaded with God to provide flesh for them, but first they must sanctify
themselves. Numbers 11:18, "And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves
against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears
of the Lord, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with
us in Egypt: therefore the Lord will give you flesh, and ye shall eat."
Now they stand before the Jordan River. It is time to cross the Jordan
and enter into the land of promise. God will give them the victory, but
first they must sanctify themselves. Joshua 3:5, "And Joshua said unto
the people, Sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders
among you."
After they entered the Promised Land, the Israelites lost the battle
at Ai. Now they come to Ai for the second time. Before God will give them
the victory, they must first sanctify themselves. Joshua 7:13, "Up, sanctify
the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith
the Lord God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee,
O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away
the accursed thing from among you."
The ark of the covenant is gone from Israel. God wants them to have
it returned, but first they must sanctify themselves. I
Chronicles 15:12, "And said unto them, Ye are the chief of the fathers
of the Levites: sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren, that ye
may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel unto the place that I have
prepared for it."
Under King Ahaz there has been terrible apostasy! God raises up the
good king, Hezekiah, and revival is about to come, but before revival comes,
the people must be sanctified. II Chronicles 29:5, "And said unto them,
Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of
the Lord God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the
holy place."
Then there comes even a worse apostasy under Manasseh and Amon. God
raises up a young king named Josiah through whom comes a great revival,
but first there must come the sanctifying of the people of God. II Chronicles
35:6, "So kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare your
brethren, that they may do according to the word of the Lord by the hand
of Moses."
When the temple was dedicated God wanted the people sanctified before
the dedication. II Chronicles 7:14, "If My people, which are called by
My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn
from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive
their sin, and will heal their land."
America needs a miracle ! Though voting is important, this country will
not be spared the judgment of God at the ballot box. We need a Red Sea
to part or some walls around Jericho to fall or the sun to stand still
or a pillar of cloud to lead us or the fire to fall. If America is saved,
she will be saved because of direct intervention from God Almighty in response
to a sanctified people. The troubles in our nation are not caused mainly
by the homosexuals, though it is a godless crowd. The troubles in America
are not mainly caused by the liquor traffic, though it is a disgrace to
our nation. The troubles in America are not caused basically by the dope
traffic, though it is a horrible Satanic menace. Nations are spared when
the remnant is sanctified. God looks for ten righteous people in Sodom.
He looks for a covenant of salt. He looks for Gideon's three hundred who
are set apart wholly to God. God will intervene and spare this nation when
His people are sanctified; when Christian ladies turn off the soap operas;
when Christian young people forsake their rock music; when Christian ladies
learn to dress modestly; when a liberal is a liberal again and a fundamentalist
is a fundamentalist again; when right is right, wrong is wrong, black is
black and white is white again; when God's men are prophets again; when
we again hear sermons on judgment, Hell, drinking, dancing and gambling;
when fundamentalists sing like fundamentalists, talk like fundamentalists
and dress like fundamentalists again; and when we get back to our sawdust-trail,
mourner's-bench Christianity which preaches holy living from the pulpit
and practices it in the pulpit and the pew! Let us fight abortion. Let
us fight the liquor traffic. Let us fight communism. Let us fight the dirty
television shows.
Let us fight indecent dress. Let us fight homosexuality. Yet, we must
face the issue squarely-the salvation of any nation is caused by God's
intervention in response to the sanctification of His people in that nation.
