Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
Matthew 5:14-16
Now in the dispensation of the church age, God offers similar consequences as He did for Israel; blessings or cursings; except the Bible does not say God has chosen a particular nation to represent him now as he did in the Old Testament with Israel.
One thing I want to say about God’s character with regard to the different dispensations, whether it was the dispensation of innocence, or conscience, or human government, or promise, or Law, or the church age or the future millennial reign of Christ, is that, though God may lay down different or additional righteous standards and requirements as standards of accountability, his absolute righteousness does not change. He is immutable, that is God’s character and essence is without change.
God calls on all of his people of all generations and dispensations to be holy and obedient. Any time his people are rebellious whether they are an individual or they represent a larger group, say in a blessed nation, God disciplines them. God never looks the other way regardless of which dispensation you live. If God’s people will not judge sin in their own lives as per I Cor.11:31 then God will judge them for their rebellion, just like my parents judged and disciplined me for my transgressions. An example is found in Ps.51 where it is recorded King David recognized his sins with Bathsheba. David repented and was restored and his sins as a believer were all paid for, past present and future in Jesus Christ. In the mind of God when David became a believer as a young man David was fully and eternally in God’s royal family, but this did not exempt him from the grief of his mistakes and sins. His grief came from displeasing the Lord, and his relief from his grief came only after he confessed to the Lord his transgressions. Dispensations do not transcend God’s intimate relationship with his children. He loves us, but he will discipline us if we do not confess our sins, ex. [personal, I Sam.12:13; I Cor.2:15; 11:31] [national I Chron.7:14].
God shuts down a client nation by withdrawing his blessings if there are not enoughof Hispeople living a godly life. He does not shut down a client nation necessarily if the lost are immoral, no more than he sustains a client nation simply because his children are moral. God calls on his people to be the salt of their nation, and if his people loose their testimony, then they are trampled under foot of the lost. God does not call on the lost to be the salt of the earth. He will judge a client nation if believers are indifferent toward him.
Churches today sponsor indifference to God’s word by substituting programs and social action and entertainment for sound lengthy expositions and teachings from God’s word.
I Sam.15:22-23a; Isa.1:11-16. God’s people are being starved by their own pastors as pastors scramble to draw in as many as they can. Preaching used to be at least an hour years ago, but now the pastor is fortunate to get twenty five or thirty minutes of the peoples’ time, and attention. Pastors are not called to pacify their people, but to edify their people. We are called to make God’s word clear, not easy; that is always up to the individual’s relationship with God.
Sustainability as a Nation Under God
Any nation may qualify for God’s blessings if it has enough positive believers, and enough generations to come who will hold the standard of God’s righteousness.
One generation of positive believers is not going to do it. To guarantee client nation sustainability the parents must pass on the word of God to the next generation; to their children and their grandchildren and so on.
These generations must be willing to sacrifice and perhaps die to obtain, and sustain a free nation under God. The population and especially the believers in these generations who desire God’s richest blessings must be vigilant against...
1. the destructive forces from within their own souls, i.e. selfishness, materialism and pride and this requires adherence to the teachings of the word of God.
2. the destructive forces within their own national boarders, i.e. believers must be aware of the influences of doctrines of demons and seducing spirits when cultural shifts take place, and when ways of thinking run contrary to God’s word. We will talk about the tell tale signs of generational degeneration in a future lesson.
3. they must be vigilant in watching what other nations are doing, while maintaining a strong military preparedness.
Some nations in the past were client nations to God, but due to the believer’s falling away from doctrine those nations have become a byword when it comes to biblical Christianity. Israel had become a byword among the nations. During the early years of Israel’s struggles and expansion they were a humble loyal people unto God, a grand and respected people, a feared nation, but even King David said in Ps.44:14 they had become a byword, and the people of the nations around them just shook their heads in unbelief. In the Hebrew text the act of the shaking of the heads among the neighboring people is given to show their malicious astonishment. The neighboring nations did not feel sorry for Israel, they were happy to see them disgraced.
If we as Americans think other nations will come to our aid if God cuts us off as he did Israel, then we are sadly mistaken. They will dance in the streets when we fall on our faces.
How God Sustains A Client Nation
In our dispensation God’s kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom wherein God rules through the heart of the believer. From Jn.18:36 the Lord Jesus Christ told Pilate his kingdom was not of this world. Now our Lord was not saying there would be no Millennial Kingdom where Israel would be restored. This has already been documented as a future reality. Our Lord told Pilate his kingdom was a heavenly kingdom, and one day it will exist on earth, but since he had been rejected by the Jews he would conduct his kingdom wishes in the hearts of believers.
God’s presence is made known through his written word, and the evidence of his power and presence in the earth is made known by compliant believers who submit to his word, particularly regarding the believer’s conformity to the character of Jesus Christ, Rom.8:29; 12:2. Eph.4:12-16. For now this is God’s kingdom on earth, as he sits on his throne in our hearts and regulates our lives through his word and his indwelling Holy Spirit.
James tells us what happens when the believer is conforming to Christ’s character. He says in James 2:14-26 that because you are born again your good works will give evidence of your faith in Christ. You will treat people properly and lovingly out of your faith in Christ, not for salvation, but because you are already saved.
This means believers need to be in their right local church under the teaching of their right pastor-teacher to receive the doctrine necessary to bring the believer’s conformity into the likeness of Jesus Christ. The authority to get the work of God done in the New Testament is through the local church. When enough positive believers are willing to learn and comply with divine mandates, regardless of the obstacles presented that challenge their faith, God will bless those believers in equal, but perhaps somewhat different ways as he did the faithful children of Israel. Our blessings may not come about by identical means as did Israel’s as noted in Deut.28:1-14, but they will come anyway. A nation where believers honor God’s word and keep it; that nation of people whether most are born again or not, will be blessed by its association to those honorable born again believers.