Now the reason why God is slow to anger, but He does anger. He’s slow to wrath, but He does execute wrath. He forebears in judgment in hopes that there will be repentance.

Now verse 5. Now if you don’t repent when the opportunity comes, which we have as a nation to do - and I think that I’m going to go back, I’ve got a book at home that has the messages of Abraham Lincoln about the day of prayer that he called for the whole nation, that we need to repent to God. And that was back in the 1862’s and 3’s. Think of what it is in the year 2001.

But if you don’t, “But after thy hardness and impenitent [or unrepentant] heart…” what to do is this: you “…treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath…” In other words, it just builds up. When there’s repentance God is willing to remove and forgive. But if not, it builds up against the day of wrath, “…and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render unto every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance and well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life:” (vs. 5-7). That’s what we need to be doing.

“…But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness…” Now, how dare Paul put the words “obey” in his epistle of grace! [Laughs] “…But obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; but glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: for there is no respect of persons with God” (vs. 8-11).

Now then, God is on nobody’s side. So the question, whose side is God on? That’s not the correct question. The real question becomes this: are you on God’s side? That’s what needs to be answered, see, because if you’re not on God’s side then you’re in trouble.

Now let’s come back here to the book of Exodus. The Book of Exodus gives us a really good example of this. Exodus 32. Now this shows you how people think, how short their memory really is. Now you go back and read about all the plagues and all the tremendous miracles that God did to get the people of Israel released so that they could come out of the land of Egypt. They traveled in the desert and they were gone more than about seven weeks. God gave them the 10 Commandments, gave them other instructions, and then God said to Moses, “Now you come up here, because I’m going to give you some more instructions.” So Moses went up to see God.

Exodus 32:1, “And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount…” Now, you can just hear the troublemakers: “Well, Moses left us. He probably died. You saw all that smoke, and all that volcano, and all that noise? Maybe God killed him. We’re down here all alone.”

“…The people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods which shall go before us;…” Rather than having faith in God and saying, “Look, we know God is true. We know God is eternal. We know He’s talking to Moses. We know he must have something very important to bring us. Therefore we will patiently wait till he comes, regardless of how long it is.” No. So what did they do? They did their own devices. Aaron said, “Okay, bring your gold, your earrings.” So they made the golden calf and all of this sort of thing. People then had a feast.

And I think it’s interesting, I think it’s interesting that whenever the whole society goes into mischief it’s got to be sanctioned by a religious leader. And then Aaron’s excuse - what a week-kneed excuse, you know. Moses came down and he said, “What happened?” He says, “O lord,” to Moses, “Don’t get mad at me. The people wanted gods and they brought their gold and I put it in the fire and out leaped these two calves!” I didn’t do it! No, he did it.

“And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief.” This sounds a little like the Garden of Eden doesn’t it? [Laughs] “For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not [don’t know] what is become of him. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.” Whoa! You know, there it is! See. Which is a sign of Nimrod. “And when Moses saw that the people were naked;…” It sounds like rock concert today, doesn’t it? That’s what they were doing. “…(For Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, who is on the LORD’S side?” (vs. 22-26). There it is - who is on the Lord’s side?

It’s not is God on our side? God is not on the side of the Muslims. He is not on the side of the Jews. He is not on the side of Catholics. He is not on the side of Protestants. He is not on the side of Buddhists, or Hindus. The only side God is on, is on His side. So you have to come to God’s side. God is not going to come to your side; otherwise God will sanction what you are doing. You see the difference? If you say, “I am a good Protestant and God is on my side,” well, then, why do you keep Sunday, and Christmas, and Easter, and believe in heaven and hell, and all those things? If the Catholic say, “Well God is on our side,” well then why do you have a Pope and all those idols, and believe in heaven and hell and purgatory [and] all those things? And if the Muslims say, “Allah is on our side,” why don’t you keep the Sabbath, and why do you keep Friday, and why don’t you believe and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob instead of Ishmael? No, God is on His side and you need to get on His side. So the correct question is, “Are you on God’s side?”

Like it says here, “…who is on the LORD’S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.” (vs. 26). This was a chance to repent. Now notice - this repentance required action, didn’t it? They had to move from where they were to wear Moses was.

“And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.” That is if they weren’t on God’s side. “And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand [23,000] men” (vs. 27-28). Now you can read that back in I Corinthians 10, where there fell 23,000 in one day, where Paul told the Corinthians “Don’t do as they did.”

“For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the LORD, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day. And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said and to the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin” (vs. 29-30). So the Lord [Moses] went up, and he even told God, “Look, take me out of the Book of Life.” God said, “No, I’m not going to. You go down and deal with this people.” And of course, it’s always interesting when you come through the account there in Exodus, whenever the people did good, God said they were His. Whenever they didn’t do good, God said they were Moses’ people. [Laughs]

Now of all the warnings over and over and over and over again that God gave, I won’t repeat anything I did on the tape, “Why the terrorists” [“Why Terrorists Attack”]. I’ll just repeat just one thing here that’s important for us to know. Let’s come here to Jeremiah 18:6, “O house of Israel…” You just put your name there, OK, because are we all not made of clay? “…Cannot I do with you as this potter?” Now you’ve seen the potter, how he works. You’ve seen them. They have this fly-wheel that they work with their feet, and their feet are going like this, they’re working with their hands, and they get the clay, and they get it really whirling around, and then they can mold a little vase and bring it around and make any form that they want to. And if it doesn’t work out they just go [smack], smashes it down and say, “I’m going to rebuild it.” OK?

That’s like unto God dealing with you in repentance. He smashes you down and says, “I’m going to rebuild you according to how I want to, so that you can be created in righteousness and true holiness.” Verse 6, “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potters’ hand, so are ye in Mine hand, O house of Israel.” Now God is talking about nations, so even though we can apply this personally, now let’s look it at by nations.

“At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them” (vs. 7). So God is willing to change based upon whether the people repent. So the answer is, if there is real repentance here in the United States, God will change His mind. Now then, if there’s not repentance, but if there’s arrogance and boasting - now granted, there’s a lot more patriotism than before, but whether that constitutes repentance or not, only time will tell.

“And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if it do evil in My sight, that it obey not My voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them. Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, thus saith the LORD; behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now everyone from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. And they said, there is no hope:” That means they won’t turn to God. You can put it this way: “Well, we need to rely on ourselves and not God. That’s ethereal. That’s out there.” See. “…But we will walk after our own devices, and we will everyone do the imagination of his evil heart” (vs. 9-12).

Now let’s go come back to 1 Samuel. God is even willing to deal with His people even though they handicapped themselves. Isn’t that amazing? Let’s come back here to 1 Samuel 8. Now here is where Israel gave themselves a handicap. Nevertheless, God said He would still deal with them, as we will see.

Because the sons of Samuel didn’t do good, then in verse 4, “Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make this a king to judge us like all the nations.” Now you see, Israel was not to be like all the nations. They were to be different. “But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. And the LORD said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee:…” (1 Sam. 8:4-7).

Now here is something that God will do. If you want your own way, He’ll let you have it. So you need to be careful. Because a lot of people think that if they go their own way, and God somehow doesn’t strike them down immediately, therefore God isn’t going to do anything. No, that’s not true. It may come later.

Now notice verse 7, “…for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me…” So now they’re not on God’s side, are they? If you reject God, your at odds with Him, aren’t you? You’re not on His side. “…That I should not reign over them.”

Now then, He says, “You’re going to tell them…” verse 11, “…this is the kind of king.” “And He said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you:…” Now He’s not going to forsake His people, because He promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And that’s the only thing that keeps Israel going. Did you know that? The physical descendants of Israel, the 10 tribes who are the United States, Britain and the northwestern countries of Europe, they are the children of Israel. And the only thing that has kept God from rejecting them, because of their sins and foolishness, is that God gave the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And whenever they come out of these things God says, like He said there in Leviticus 26, “When you’re in captivity, if you humble yourselves and you learn from this captivity and the punishment that I’ve brought upon you, and admit that you walk contrary to Me and I walk contrary to you, then I will remember My covenant with Abraham with Isaac and with Jacob” (Leviticus 26:40-42, paraphrased).

So He said right here, “You can have a king. You want it your way? You got it.” So then He told them what kind of king would reign over them. He would take everything take an additional 10th from them and so forth. Even after that God gave them a warning, He said, “You want this? You want a king that’s going to take your sons and your daughters, and take another 10 percent of your income, plus more?” They said, “Yea, we want a king.” So verse 19-20, “Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; that we also may be like all the nations.”

Now what was Israel to be? A witness to all the nations, not become one of them. Now what we doing today? With the United Nations, World Trade Organization, NAFTA, etc, etc, we’re becoming one of the nation’s rather than the nation to show them God’s way.

So then they chose Saul. Let’s come over here to chapter 10 and verse 17. “And Samuel called the people together unto the LORD at Mizpeh; and said unto the children of Israel, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all kingdoms, and of them that oppressed you: and ye have this day rejected your God, Who Himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations; and ye have said unto Him, Nay, but set a king over us. Now therefore present yourselves before the LORD by your tribes, and by your thousands” (1 Sam. 10:17-19). So then Saul was coronated. And he said in the last part of verse 24, and all the people shouted, and said, “God save the king.” Still done today, right? Yes. “Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before the Lord. And Samuel sent all the people way, every man to his house” (vs. 25).

Then we come over here to chapter 12. Chapter 12 is quite a chapter. “And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice and all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you. And now, behold the king walketh before you: and I am old and grayheaded; and, behold my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day. Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before His anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you. And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, and neither hast thou taken ought of any man’s hand” (1 Sam. 12:1-4). And isn’t that the kind of government that God wants the people to have? Yes. But they still didn’t want to have it. Now you talk about a quirk of human nature, see?

Verses 5 -7, “And he said unto them, the LORD is witness against you, and His anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found ought in my hand. And they answered, He is witness. And Samuel said unto the people, It is the LORD that advanced Moses and Aaron, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the LORD of all the righteous acts of the LORD, which He did to you and to your fathers” (vs. 5-7). And then he goes through and the talks beginning with Jacob in Egypt and coming through and so forth.

Now let’s come down here to verse 12, “And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when the LORD your God was your king.” See they rejected God. So now even though they put God an arm’s length or more away from themselves, God, for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is going to continue to fulfill His will to the children of Israel based upon new conditions. Verse 13, here are the new conditions: “Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen…” And isn’t it the same way? They chose Saul and he failed. Think about our elections. Think about our presidents. OK? “…And whom ye have desired! and, behold, the LORD hath set a king over you.”

Now verse 14, notice the conditions. They’re a little different. They’re the same, but a little different: “If ye will fear the LORD, and serve Him, and obey His voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the LORD your God:” So he said, “Okay, I will let you have your way, if you continue to obey Me.” But He knew it would fail.

Let’s go on, verse 15: “But if ye will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be against you…” So if you’re not on the Lord’s side, then God is going to be against you sooner or later. “…As it was against your fathers. Now therefore stand and see this great thing, which the LORD will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest to day? I will call unto the LORD…” Now that possibly could be Pentecost. Possibly. “…I will call unto the LORD, and He shall send thunder and rain; that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking you a king. So Samuel called unto the LORD; and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel. And all the people said unto Samuel, pray for thy servants unto the LORD thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king” (vs. 15-19).

Now, this is kind of lip service repentance, isn’t it? And it kind of reminds you when they were at Mount Sinai and God spoke the 10 Commandments, “Oh, don’t let God speak to us lest we die!” Verse 20, “And Samuel said unto the people, fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart..”

Therefore if you do that, you’re on his side. If you love the Lord with all your heart, and soul, and mind, and being, you’re on the Lord’s side. If you keep the commandments of God, you’re on the Lord’s side. If you live within the grace of God, which we all do, you’re on the Lord’s side. And if you’re on the Lord’s side then you don’t have asked whether God is on your side or not, because if you’re on His side, then your own way makes no difference of all. See? Because God made it clear He won’t be on anybody’s side. You must be on His side, under His terms, under His conditions.

“And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain. For the LORD will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake: because [He promised, you see?] it hath pleased the LORD to make you His people. Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way: only fear the LORD, and serve Him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things He hath done for you. But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king” (vs. 21-25).

And that’s what’s happened. Now will just look at a couple of other scriptures here. Let’s come to 1 Kings 11. Now if there’s any one man in all the earth, Solomon, that started out on God’s side, there was never a king that started like Solomon. He started out, he asked God for wisdom. He said he did know how to judge the people, and God said, when He asked him, “…ask anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” He says, “I need wisdom, LORD, to judge Your people.” And He said, “Because you asked for wisdom, you will have wisdom. But you will also have riches and wealth and everything.” So He made him the wisest man in the world, and gave him all the wealth in the world, and had a great and marvelous empire. Built the temple of God, and then he degenerated.

What was the saying in the five steps of apostasy? Good men don’t always stay good. You see, that’s why the Scriptures say you have to endure to the end. So here is a good king to start out. But he did not end up good. Because not all good men stay good. And you know what happened. Chapter 11, boy, what a thing this is. We’ll just summarize a little bit. He had 700 wives, 300 concubines; verse 3, and his wives turned away his heart. See? Now he left a being on God’s side.

“For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods:…” Now not only did it turn his heart from the Lord, but then he went after other gods. And because of that, “…his heart was not perfect with LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians…” That’s the Queen of Heaven. That would be the same thing as someone in the Church of God leaving the Church of God, walking into a Catholic cathedral, and bowing down before the image of the supposed Virgin Mary. “…And after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, [he gave Him lip service] as did David his father” (1 Kings 11:4-6). Now see, when David repented with the sin of Bathsheba - and by the way, Solomon was the son of Bathsheba, so you show the mercy and grace of God, correct? Yes. David repented with his whole heart. There’s no account that Solomon repented. Instead he went on a building program.

Verse 7, he built churches and idols and statues and incense altars. And who else could do them better, because he built the temple of God, correct? A perfect one to subvert, right? Yes. “Then did Solomon built an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.” And that hill became known as the Hill of Abomination because it was filled with all kinds of pagan temples.

Verse 8, “And likewise did he for all…” Now you might want to circle “all”, “…his strange wives…”, which were what? 700. OK? Meaning, that he built seven hundred religious shrines and altars. So they could “…which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.” Now when you have that, what do you have at a temple, or an altar? You always have those who minister there, correct? And they’re called – what? Priests.

So now you have the pagan priests, you have the pagan gods. And Solomon approved of all of this and help build it, whether he went out there and put his hands on the building directly, or he furnished the workers and the money to do it. You know he furnished the money, because it was his wives. And after all, he was the richest man in the world and had all this gold and silver. Silver was so cheap it was counted as gravel in the streets. So why not use the surplus? Hello? Have you heard that before? [Laughs] “I’m tired of all this bickering with my wives. I’ll please them.” [Laughs] So you get on your wife’s side who takes you away from God, and you’re no longer on God’s side.

Now, what did God do? “And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice. And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods:…” (vs. 9-10). So he had warnings along the way, didn’t he? Yes. And it was in the law that he had in his hand to read. Because one of the things that Samuel wrote was that the king will have a copy of this law, his personal law, and he shall write it out and he shall read it all the days of his life, that He depart not from the LORD (Deuteronomy 17:18-20, paraphrased). So he had his warnings.

“Wherefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant.” That was Jeroboam. Have we not seen a repeat of that in this Church today? Yes. “Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father’s sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son. Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom; but will give one tribe to thy son for David My servant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake which I have chosen” (vs. 11-12).

Now notice what God did. So if you think we’re going to get Sadam bin Ladem, or Aw-Sadam, Osomo bin Ladem, or whatever his name is, you’ve got another thought coming. And I think it’s rather silly to say, “We’ve got all our ships down here in the Persian Gulf were coming!” Well he’s already moved to another cave! I mean, come on.

Here’s what God does. Why is there Osama bin Laden? Same reason right here is in I Kings 11:14, “And the LORD stirred up an adversary unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite:…” So now the world is divided between Edom: Esau, Ishmael, Amalek, Libya, Iraq, Iran against the children of Israel. “…He was of the king’s seed in Edom.” So then, since I’m running at of tape, I’ll summarize it. He fled down into Egypt and he built himself a force, he gathered men around him. Harboring terrorists, right? Yes. See, history is not new. When Israel sins against God, which we have, and we’ve killed millions of unborn, how dare they say, “Why does God take judgment against the innocent in the Trade Towers, or at the Pentagon?” Because God judges the whole nation. If He takes a few thousand innocent and you repent, fine. But you better stop all abortion. You better stop all your mealy-mouthed judgments against murderers and so forth.

Now let’s come down to verse 23. So whenever you think you have the one enemy, watch out. There is always more than one. “And God stirred him up another adversary, Rezon the son of the Eliadah, which fled from his lord Hadadezer king of Zobah: and he gathered men unto him, and became a captain over a band…” Here we have a band of terrorists, right? Yes. Verse 25, “And he was and adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, beside the mischief that Hadad did: and he abhorred Israel, and reigned over Syria.” And Syria is also implicated.

Have the ancient enemies risen back again? Are they reasonable people? No. Has God stirred them up? Without a doubt. Without doubt. So there’s an awful lot we can learn. So the bottom line is this: God is on His side. Is that where you stand? In other words, are you on God’s side?