II Timothy 2:19 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
Yesterday we looked at the question posed by God through the Psalmist in Psalm 11:3. We noted that the foundations of this world are crumbling. We have seen this current picture drawn before in history.
God gave king Nebuchadnezzar a dream that terrified him to the place where he could not remember the dream and he had no understanding of what it meant. He called in his “wise men” and they had no idea how to answer the king because he could not recall the dream. The king was furious with them and wanted to kill them all. Interestingly the newest of the king’s counsellors were not a part of this bunch of empty suits. God was in charge then as He always is and He granted Daniel favour with the king and Daniel called his three godly friends in with him and they had a prayer meeting before the God of heaven and earth.
God graciously gave Daniel the dream that He had given to Nebuchadnezzar and He also gave him the interpretation of that dream. Daniel boldly and humbly went before the king and declared that there was not a man on earth that could reveal the king’s dream to him. He also stated that there is a God in heaven that revealed secrets. Daniel was standing before a pagan king who had a short fuse and he could have demanded that his soldiers take the head off this man right there. How dare he stand before the king and suggest there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets.
God was in charge and He gave Daniel favour in the sight of this wicked man and Daniel proved himself to be worthy of that favour. He did not try to exalt himself. He exalted the true God. Daniel proceeded in revealing the dream to the king and then giving the interpretation of that dream. God, in His wisdom gave Nebuchadnezzar a panoramic view of the major empires of the world right up to the end. Nebuchadnezzar was the head of the first empire and his was depicted by the head of gold. His was the greatest empire that there would be. The rest would be inferior and thus also weaker and less stable. The fourth empire would be the Roman empire. It is important to note that none of the previous three empires were destroyed. They were each swallowed up by the next empire. Thus the philosophy of the Babylonian empire has influenced all the succeeding empires. That philosophy is still at work today.
The Roman empire was never destroyed either. It fell due to the moral corruption within. No empire can stand when it is in defiance of the true God. God makes that abundantly clear. The Roman empire is in the midst of being revived at this very time. It will be revived during the time of the Tribulation. As we see in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, that ugly Babylonian philosophy will be there as well.
Daniel also revealed that there would be a fifth kingdom that would be unique from the others. This fifth kingdom was revealed as a stone cut out of the mountain without hands. This kingdom is God’s eternal kingdom and His kingdom will crush the wicked and ungodly philosophies of this world. The masses are intent on building and refining the four kingdoms. That is what is happening with the convoy at this time. There are people who are fed up with what is happening and they are doing what they know how to do as ungodly, earthly focussed people. They cannot see beyond human power. That has always been a failure.
As our opening verse today states that “the foundation of God standeth sure.” All the attacks against God’s truth over the centuries have not weakened God’s truth in the slightest way. No one can touch God’s truth because it is settled in heaven. It is secure and It will always be secure.
We mentioned yesterday that a man named Ken Ham crumbled under the weight of the earthly philosophies. He is still alive and he is still functioning. He fell because he rejected God’s sure foundation. He had a goal and that goal was to build that massive Ark. He took ungodly counsel that said a massive structure like that would be more effective in reaching the lost than the faithful preaching of God’s Word. He needed massive amounts of money to build that thing and in order to get that money he needed to compromise the truth. There is another fairly well known “Creation ministry” in the U.S. that has also fallen. It was founded by a man who used to defend the King James Version. He died and his sons were not convinced that he was right. They went away from the Word of God. I wrote to them and asked them why they did that. They told me their supporters demanded that they get up to speed with where modern “Christianity” is at or they would lose funding. So they dropped the Word of God and went to perversions. You cannot purchase any books from them today that are built upon the sure Word of God. I told them they had lost my support, but that will not matter to them. More importantly, I also told them they have lost the blessing of the Lord on their work. It does not matter if they continue to grow and expand. They are out of the fight for truth.
God promises that His foundation standeth sure. He also tells us that He knows those that are His.
There is nothing more important in life than to be assured that the God of Creation knows you. It is easy for us as people to convince ourselves that we know God. That really is of no significance. What matters is: does God know you.
Matthew 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
God went further in our opening text by telling us that every one that names the name of Christ needs to depart from iniquity. As I mentioned in the examples I gave, those groups chose to run to iniquity, rather than depart from it. I am not the judge and I do not know if Mr. Ham is a saved man. He acted like he was at one point, but he acts like he is not now. The Bible is clear that a saved person cannot lose their salvation. God will take care of him in His time. My duty as a child of God is to depart from iniquity. Thus I have no further dealings with him or his organization. I also will not recommend any books from the other organization that has gone off the rails. God does not tell us to take a humanistic sieve and strain out the good from the bad. He tells us to depart from iniquity.
What is needed at this time in our country is righteous individuals who can speak the truth and God can bless their words. What is lacking today is good Bible conferences where people who love the Lord come together to hear the clear and bold preaching of God’s Word. We had that for a few years. I am not talking of the ecumenical, New Evangelical meetings that were held. It has been sad to observe how many professing Christians are willing to sacrifice the good and the right for that which is not. My wife and I have been blessed in being able to attend a few good strong Bible conferences. My soul was blessed by men who did not apologize for the Word of God. They stood up and boldly preached “thus saith the Lord.” They were not trying to raise money for some cause. They were not beholden to man. They were servants of the true and living God and they proclaimed His Word so that we who were listening could hear the voice of God as the Holy Spirit impressed God’s truth upon our hearts. We need more conferences like that today. Personally, I am not seeing the hunger for that today. I am seeing a growing contentment for Zoom meetings and other washed out little house meetings. As I mentioned yesterday, we are in trouble as a nation.
The problem is not with God’s foundation. The problem is with the carelessness that permeates those who claim to know the Lord. My prayer is to be known by Him. My prayer is that each one receiving these devotionals would be known by Him. We will not cause Him to comply with our wishes. We must humbly submit to His Will and if and when we do that, we will depart from iniquity. We will cherish that which He tells us to cherish and we will scrap the iniquity that abounds all around us. May God be pleased with our choice in these last days.
Pastor Bartel
