Whose Side Is God On?

Fred R. Coulter - September 22, 2001 | [Up]

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What we might do is this. We might just go ahead and I'll ask for your comments on this week that we had, which Netanyahu said it was a "wake-up call from hell." So just some of your impressions of some of your feelings for it.

Did you all sit there glued to the TV? Yes. I know Rachelle called me and said, "Dad! Get up and go turn on the TV!" And it was about 6:30, and I said, "What for?" And she said, "A plane just crashed into one of the tall buildings in New York City." So I didn't pay much attention because I was real sleepy, so I went back to sleep. And so then Dolores called and said, "Fred! Are you watching the TV?" [Mumbles] "Go watch it - there's a second plane crash!" And I said, "Oh man!" She was down in Tulsa to visit her brother. So I went and watched it. And I tell you what, I think they played that second plane crashing in with the fireball over so much you can see it in your mind's eye without even closing your eyes now. And I tell you what, that was something.

You know, and there was actually a false - I don't know who put out - a false report that someone in the United Church of God was on one of the planes and died. And they tried to make it a real tragic story, and they said that the woman was coming back to pick up her children that her husband had had from, you know, they had been divorced. And he died in an auto wreck, so she was going back to get them. And so they tried to make a real sad story and it was just completely false. So what happened, someone called Dennis Luker up there in Seattle, because that's apparently were the woman was from, and he said no, no such woman by that name, and no one in the church by that name, and no, there's no man who was left with two children by that name. So it's a false report. So the things that come out on the Internet, you have to be careful of. You have to be careful.

And all the talk shows, that's all they've been talking about, so - you know - you can hear everything under the sun. There was one report, a munitions expert said that it had to be mined, you know, they had to have other explosives for the building to go down, but I don't think so. I don't think so. They also - someone also said, which I mentioned on the tape, that it's possible that that helicopter flying around may have been using a microwave weapon, and that's why it turn to dust so much. But I tend to doubt that because there was so much concrete in that building, and when it came down it just turned to dust. And if you watch it again very carefully, you see, where the planes hit, then, that caused the top to weaken. And when the top started coming down then everything went down. Whereas when you blow up a building, you know, like you've seen demolition to take it down. What they do, they have it so it blows up at the bottom and it falls down like that, see, so the explosives go up. But this one here, it was at the top and it came down and then the buildings came down. So even though I mentioned it on the tape I mention it from the point of view, well, I don't know about it, but at least I'll mention this. So we need to be careful of the things that we get on the Internet. Some of the things we get are really not good, some of the things we get are very good. So you have to be able to weed it out to understand what's going on.

But I think that the whole thing that is important in it is that if we're going to learn a lesson from God as a nation, I think that what we need to do, I think, is very clear that... well, I remember one... who was it? I forget. Anyway, I was listening to talk shows as I was driving. And he said, 'Well," he said, "If God did it...", no, it was Rush Limbaugh. That's who it was, Rush Limbaugh. And he said, "Well, if God did it, I would have to know that these people had directly sin against God, because too many innocent people were killed." Well, I don't think they understand how many innocent people are killed, beginning with the unborn that we have killed by the millions and millions and millions, you see. So when we get a wake-up call like that it's intended for everybody. And we can be thankful that we have the knowledge of the second resurrection, correct? Because no one but those who know the truth of the second resurrection understand the fate of those people and what's going to happen to them. So that's really something for us to know and understand.

But I think the whole lesson here is very important. There was another question that came up on the Michael Savage - I listen to that when I come home from my water therapy - and he asked the question, "Whose side is God on?" See? Whose side is God on? Well, that's quite a perplexing question, isn't it? See? The Muslims think that Allah is on his side. All the Christians think that Christ is on their side. The Jews think that God is on their side. But whose side is God on? See? And in every case what they want to do, they want to claim God for themselves. Well, you can't do that. Whose side is God on? We might ask that question today.

Well, let's come here to Romans 1, and let's see something that's very important which ties right in with this event that happened this week. Now, I'm not going to repeat anything I said on the tape that you're going to get. But let's first of all understand how God looks at society OK? Very important, how God looks society. So let's look first of all at the world civilization, right here Romans 1, before we get to Romans 2. Let's pick it up here in verse 16: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." Greek then means also the Gentiles.

Verse 17: "For therein...", that is, in the gospel, contained in the gospel, which includes Old Testament and New Testament, "...is the righteousness of God revealed..." Now that's something that has to be revealed to each one. And God is not going come along with a magic can opener and put a funnel into your head and put it there. The way it's revealed is this: #1, you have to seek God. OK? You have to seek God. God will respond if you seek Him. Jesus said, "...seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened." (Matthew 7:7). Now the revelation of the righteousness of Christ in God is contained in the scriptures. And the righteousness of God is not necessarily all what we would think as goodness. Because there is the righteousness of goodness and obedience in love, and there is the righteousness of judgment and destruction because of sin. And most people, what do they want? They want the first kind of righteousness, and yet continue in their sins, see?

Now hold your place here and come to Revelation 16, and let's read a very interesting scripture. Because this false doctrine, and of course, I'm going to have a’ whole lot more to say about "Protest-tent-ism", and make it very clear that they are no more than reformed Catholics. And they don't follow the Bible anymore than the Catholics, but they don't go to the priest and that's just about the only difference.

Revelation 16, here are the seven last plagues. Let's begin in verse 1. "And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out of the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had [received] the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man; and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the water say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because Thou hast judged thus." (Rev. 16:1-5).

So there is the righteousness of God, which is also His wrath. People want His love. They don't want His wrath, but they're not willing to do the things to receive His love. Because, see, the way you receive the love of God is that you love Him. Because He first loved you, you love Him. You respond back to Him. And so when these events took place, no one was - I only heard the word "repentance" once when this came. And then Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell made a proper pronouncement the day it occurred. And then because there was so much wrath from the liberal media, that they backpedaled. You know what he should of said? He should've said, "It's right in the Bible, and if you unless you read it, twice as worse is going to happen you. Now you go get your life squared around." That's what he should have said.

Now here's the reason. Revelation 16:6, "For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgments." So there is the righteousness of God that way.

So then, people in their self-righteous horror say, “Well, why did God kill innocent people?” Well we’ll see about that little later. They aren’t innocent. And you’ll hear on the tape where the con men were out there on the phone soliciting for false charities the next day in New York City. I mean, that’s just the pits, really.

Now let’s come back to Romans 1:17 please. “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith:...” Now you’re not going to understand the Bible unless you believe God. Unless you believe that the very words contained in this Bible are based on the fact that Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away but My words will not pass away,” (Matthew 24:35, paraphrased). Therefore what we read in the Bible is not an option to believe or disbelieve, we must believe it or suffer the consequences, period. And if you have faith in the word of God and faith toward God, and if you want to love God, then you want God to love you, then you love Him.

Now let’s just stop right here. There are two kinds of the love of God. The Protestants like to have “Love God”, and it’s a warm feeling in your heart, so therefore if you love God, whatever you do is OK. That’s not even the correct love of God. There are two kinds of the love of God. Let’s look at the first one. Let’s come to 1 John 5. The love of God, the first kind, requires obedience - a nasty, nasty word, see? [Laughs] You tell that to a Protestant, they’ll say, “You’re harsh! You’re under the law!” No, we’re not. If you keep the law you’re not under the law, you’re within law. If you don’t keep the law you’re under the law, subject to its penalty. See? They’ve got all backwards.

Now let’s read it here. 1 John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments:...” That’s the first kind. If you keep the commandments you love God. Now that’s as clear as can be, isn’t it? And for all of those who down here in Bible belt land, that is in the New Testament, folks. “And His commandments are harsh and grievous and we shouldn’t keep them.” [Laughs]. No. “...And His commandments are not grievous [or burdensome]. “That’s the first kind. Jesus said, John 14:15 - you don’t have to turn there, but just put it in your notes or in your margin. He said, “If…”, and the condition is always on us, because God is eternal and never changes. So all the conditions of “if” come upon us. He said, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.”

Now let’s look at the second kind of love. And actually this will come into the third kind of love, so we can say that within the New Testament there are three kinds of love. 1 John 5:2, “By this we know...” Or that is, hereby we know. Now you see, that’s something that God wants us to come to - to know. He doesn’t want us to be in doubt. He doesn’t want us to kind of believe when it’s convenient. He wants us to know because we’ve proved it and we understand it, and we know. That’s very profound, very important. “By this hereby we know that we love the children of God...” There’s the third kind of love, to love each other. I give a sermon on that recently. “...When we love God...” That’s the first kind of love, will see that just a minute. “...And keep His commandments.” So those are the aspects of love that are important.

Now, keep your marker there, Romans 1, and let’s come to Matthew 22. And let’s see that our relationship with God can never be a part-time matter, see? You know, like some days “Yes Lord, I love you”, and some days, “Lord, no, I don’t love you.” And whenever a trial comes you get all mad and upset, and you say, “Well, why did God do this?” And you forget the scripture which says, “…that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28, paraphrased), you see. Now trials, we don’t like. But trials, in the long run, work good. Because we’re made in such a way that many things we don’t learn unless we go through a trial. You know? We live our lives too much like Columbo [smacks forehead]. You slap your forehead when you come to the knowledge of what you should’ve done, you know? If you watch Colombo he comes to an idea and he goes [smack], “I should’ve thought of that!” [Laughs]

Now here’s the second kind of love. And this ties in directly with the first commandment. Now, can anyone tell me the first commandment? The whole first commandment is this: “I am the Lord your God that brought you out of the land of the Egypt; you shall have no other gods before Me” (Ex. 20:2-3, paraphrased). Now, that means none. So God wants this kind of devotion here. Matthew 22, and let’s begin in verse 36. There was a lawyer coming and tempting Him. Now verse 36, and he says, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him…”, which he probably didn't get. “…Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind [strength]. This is the first and great commandment.”

So you see, everything that you are and have is completely God’s. Because if you love God with all your heart, there’s no room for any other gods, correct? There’s no room for any idols. There’s no room for taking God’s name in vain. There’s no room for not keeping the Sabbath. There’s no room for not honoring your father and mother. There’s no room for murdering. There’s no room for adultery, and on down the rest of the commandments – stealing, bearing false witness and coveting, you see. With all your heart.

And if you do that to with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind, then you will be overcoming the carnal mind. Which is what? The mind is deceitful above all things. And the only way you ever overcome a deceitful mind - and you’ll never totally overcome it in this life - but the way you overcome it so that the whole direction of your life is going in the right way is by loving God with all your heart and mind and soul, see? Then the grace of God covers you for any weaknesses that you have, which does not give you license to go out and sin, by the way. But nevertheless, because we have our carnal minds and carnal nature we will sin. And that’s why we have the grace of God. And the grace of God gives us this relationship with Him. We can fellowship with Him every day and also on the Sabbath.

Now then, Matthew 22:39, “And the second is like unto it…” So now we find the fourth kind of love, you see. “…Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Now notice, verse 40, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” See? In other words, everything in the law is dependent on the love of God; everything in the prophets is dependent upon the love of God. So why would people want to do away with them? Especially those who claim they love God. That’s a contradictory statement isn’t it? “Oh, we love God, but we don’t believe the Old Testament.” You just said you don’t believe God. They don’t stop and think it through that far do they?

Now, let’s come back here to Romans 1. We haven’t even gotten to the civilization yet. Now as were turning back to Romans 1, let’s see the other part of the righteousness of God beginning in verse 18, and why it comes. Because we need to understand there is no such thing as a personal sin which does not affect either you and/or someone else. You need to understand that. Now will begin here in verse 18, “For the wrath of God is revealed…” God made it known. I mean, if you want a book that’s going to take your breath away, read Jeremiah and Ezekiel. “…Is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; [or that is, to them] for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:” (Rom. 1:18-20).

There’s no excuse for evolution. There’s no excuse for other gods. God has allowed it. You know, a foolish question always comes up: “Why did God allow this?” Well, He’s given free moral agency, and free moral agency is very powerful. And He said, “I’ve set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose life, that you may live,” (Deuteronomy 30:19, paraphrased), but you must choose, see? So the whole society has chosen the way in which it’s going to go.

Verse 21, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, and neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,” and gave Ph.D.’s to everybody under the sun. [Laughs] See? A little humor there. “…And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up over to uncleanness through the lust; of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:” (vs. 22-24).

When a person reaches a certain point of sin in their lives, God turns them over. See, now, if He turns them over its for the destruction of the flesh so they may repent. Because they have reached a certain point that nothing else will reach them. Nothing else will get to them. So that’s why He does it, you see. Romans 1:25, “Who changed the truth of God into a lie,” And boy, they have sure done that, haven’t they? Yes they have. They preach out of the Bible and preach lies. And people think that it’s the word of God. While they mouth the word of God, use the word of God, they’re not teaching the truth of the word of God, as strange as that may seem. Isn’t that amazing? And the reason is, they won’t obey it. If you don’t obey it you won’t understand it. It’s that simple.

You know it’s just like when you buy something at the store, you know? And you buy this nice thing and you get it and you bring it home, and lo and behold you have to assemble it. So you look at it and you say to yourself, “Aha! I can put this together!” Hmm. You don’t even read the instructions. Now I did that with a nice big green wagon that Delores got that she wanted for the backyard. So it said you can put it together in 20 minutes. So I looked at that and I said, “Well, I know how to do this.” I looked at the instructions. Parts of them I couldn’t understand.

But anyway, I had to redo the front axle and housing because, you know, for a wagon that has a turning front wheel and the pivoting front wheels you have, kind of, like the front wheel assembly of your car. So the first time I put it together it didn’t work. I didn’t figure out how the handles would turn. So I had to take it apart and redo it. And I bet Dolores is wondering, “Well I wonder what Fred’s doing down in the garage all this time.” So I’m down there doing this, see? So then I finally got that to work and then it has these sides that you can - they’re little latches, you can let loose the latch and you can put the sides down so you can have a flatbed.

So that was all that was left to do, was to put on the four sides. And they had these little 4-inch pins with the little cotter key that goes in the end. So I went click, click, click, and it didn’t go together. So Delores came down about that time, and here I am trying to puzzle this thing and how to do it. So then all of a sudden I had my Colombo moment. It dawned on me, take the sides and turn them the other way, because the hinge is supposed to be this way, the hinge is supposed to be in and not out - or out and not in, I forget which, and I had the opposite way. And the little latches which were to lock in and hold it, I couldn’t get it to do it. And I had this about a three quarter of an inch space between the bottom of the side where the hinge was and the bottom of the bed for the wagon. So Delores looked at it she said, “What you going to do?” I said, “Well, I got to take it apart.” So it took apart and said, “Here, you hold this,” and have her hold the little cotter key, see. So I took it off and I turned it around finally get it together. You know how long it took me to do that? Three hours. [Laughs]

So that’s the way that the world lives their lives, see? Especially those who are religious and especially those who are Christian. They look at the book but they don’t read it. They get a cute little verse and a song in their head and they don’t understand the meaning of the Bible, so then when a disaster comes along they don’t understand why God did it. Now in the case of the wagon, God didn’t do it, stupid Fred did. You know when all else fails read the instructions.

Now then, concerning the world. Now let’s notice again, here, see. Come to Romans 1:26. Then they reach another stage when that doesn’t work. When that doesn’t work then God does something else again. Then they become more depraved, and this is what we call today, “defining perversion and deviance downward.” Meaning, making perversion and deviance accepted as a common practice in the world. A-la, [Congressman Gary] Condit; everybody does it.

Verse 26, “For this cause God gave them up to vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature…” And unfortunately, the sex education for your young kids better begin before they go to school. Because when they get there, they’re going to public school and you can home school them. Then beginning in the first, second, or third grade, whichever state or school district you are in, they’re going to have the homosexual agenda to teach the kids. And by the time they get up to high school and they’ve gone through all of the things in junior high, then when they get to high school and their minds have been bombarded with all of this wrong education, and wrong thoughts, and wrong morality, and filled with music, and stupidity, and peer pressure, and peer group, and group thinking, then they rebel against you and they’re worthless and you can’t get anything out of them except hate. And that’s what this society is producing.

Verse 27, “And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.” A correct judgment. AIDS. Fear. That’s not to say anything of the other 59 venereal diseases that are around. But today, now they’ve got the churches under this new government - money going through charities. Now they’ve got them. Because if you accept one dime of that money, then you are under the Federal Fair Employment practices and you cannot discriminate against homosexuals, you cannot discriminate against lesbians, you cannot discriminate against anyone, regardless of how outrageous they dress. So this is further government intrusion into the churches. So you will have to accept people like this, burned and their lust one toward another.

Now verse 28, and here’s where we are. Here is where we are. This is where this society is and that’s why we have the wake up call on September 11^th, in addition to all the other things that you’ve heard about. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge…” No, they don’t want God mentioned on the radio, they don’t want prayer, they don’t want anything. And even Dr. Laura - how many here have listened to Dr. Laura? Just about all of you. OK. Someone said, “Dr. Laura, you know your program is so good on the radio, you ought to go on television.” So she said, “Okay, I’ll go on television.” So she went on television and she runs the television the same way she did before, and called homosexuality a perversion, a deviancy, and a degeneracy, and a corrupt behavior, and she had a riot in the streets in LA right outside the studios where she was doing the television station. And after several TV programs she withdrew. She said it’s not worth the hassle.

Now let’s read about what happens when you don’t want God in your knowledge. People think, “Well, you know, that’s only for religious people.” Gotcha. God’s way is for everybody. And those who follow the way of God are not religious. They are walking in the paths of godliness. Those who have a religion are religious. They use the name of God, they use the Bible, but they don’t believe Him and won’t follow Him, see. If you don’t believe that, read “Rome’s Challenge” which you got here little while ago.

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind [that means, minds void of judgment], to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers…” (vs. 28-29). All these things and you could read about all these things as you go through the checkout stand right at your grocery store. Can’t you? And the Star Magazine, and Oprah Magazine, and Rosie Magazine. And notice, 90 percent of these magazines are pointed toward what? Toward women. To subvert the women - for what? Because if you subvert the women then they will subvert the men. And you’ve got the whole society upside down. You know, we need to get our thoughts right here.

“Backbiters, haters of God…” oh, they hate God. It’s like this: when they hate God they can’t stand the truth. And you can get a little bit of that feeling this way: when you do something that’s not right, and you haven’t come to the point of admitting it, and someone points out you that it’s not right, then what you do? You resist and you don’t like it. Isn’t that right? That’s exactly what happens to these people that hate God. Now they don’t say, “I hate God!” [Laughs]. They just say, “My lifestyle is good enough. I don’t need God.” But if you bring up God (pfft), they’re gone.

“…Despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of the evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection…” (vs. 30-31). Boy isn’t that true? And that is added to more so, because of all the gadgets that we have. And I remember one thing Wiletta always used to say, “We’re gadgetized.” And we have more gadgets - let me tell you one thing about gadgets, you better read the book! [Laughs]. But what happens with gadgets? Then the more gadgets you have, the less personal you become because you do not interface with people, you interface with gadgets.

And this is most notable when you call on the phone someplace. You get on the phone, like, you want to call the phone company. Or you want to call the electric company, and what happens? “Hello. This is the phone company. If you have this problem, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, press # 1. Or if you want this, then blah, blah, blah, press # 2. And if you want this, blah, blah, blah, press # 3…” And if they’re real friendly, they say, “If not, press 0 and get an operator.” So then you press 0 and it comes on, “Hello. All of our operators are busy. We’ll be with you in 20 minutes.” [Laughs] Which is a perfect example of that you are not dealt with as a person, by person to person, you become a gadget, manipulated by the technology of gadgets. See? And it’s awfully hard to love a microphone. It’s hard to love a telephone, you know. A video. It’s just there. There's nothing there unless you put in something to play it, or whatever, you see.

“…Without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death…” Isn’t that amazing? Didn’t the Catholics say in the challenge to the Protestants - Rome’s challenge to the Protestants - didn’t they say that, “You Protestants, if you don’t keep the Sabbath you’re going to be subject to the death of God,” correct? Yes. “But we have declared Sunday the day, so we’re going to keep it.” And they don’t even understand that they signed their own death warrant by doing so. I tell you, some of these things are absolutely mind blowing, aren’t they? “…Not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (vs. 31-32). Well now, obviously we can see that these people are not on God’s side, correct? And God is not on their side, is He? Whose side is God on? Let’s come over to chapter 2. We’ve finally made it to chapter 2.

Now let’s pick it up here in verse 1, “Therefore thou art in excusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another…” Now, you see, if you don’t judge righteous judgment by the word of God, but you judge by your own opinion, then you’re going to gets yourself in trouble. And in that you may be partially right and you may be partially wrong, you may be totally wrong. So that’s why you need to have the judgment of God in these matters.

“…Thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. But we are sure [that is, we who know Christ and God] that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.” As listed here in chapter one. “And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou of the riches of his goodness and forbearance…” Now, you see, God is forbearing, isn’t He? He says He’s good to the just and the unjust and He sends rain on the wicked and on the evil. “…Despisest thou of the riches of His goodness and forbearance and [His] longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” (Rom 2:1-4). That’s why God doesn’t reach down and destroy the wicked people all at once. Because He hopes that they will repent.

Part 2

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?

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