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                        Governed by the Word of God
                          Part Two of Two Messages

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By David Wilkerson
May 22, 2000
__________

          I want to show you what happens to a nation when its
          leaders - as well as God's people in that land - reject
          the Bible as the Lord's divine voice. Wherever the
          authority of scripture is removed, chaos soon follows -
          and judgment appears at the door.

          I know of no nation on earth today that is governed by
          God's holy word. In many Muslim lands, the people
          submit themselves to the authority of the Koran, and
          Mohammed's word is law. But in supposedly Christian
          nations, no such subjection to holy scripture exists.

          Certainly, America no longer allows itself to be
          governed by God's word. Our puritan forefathers founded
          this nation on the Bible, establishing a system of
          government to be ruled by the authority of scripture.
          Now our leaders toss aside God's word as if it were a
          yoke of slavery. They have not only rejected the Bible
          but have done everything possible to remove it from our
          society. It is now politically correct to despise God's
          holy word.

          I tell you, it is absolutely fatal for any nation to
          reject the Bible's authority, and to ignore the
          warnings and pleadings of God's watchmen. America may
          be judged for other particular sins - but by rejecting
          God's word as our standard, we'll surely bring judgment
          upon our land.

          Some Christians object, saying, "America is a
          missionary nation. If God judges us, who will
          evangelize the world?" At one time, the same was true
          of Israel. God called that nation to be a light to the
          rest of the world. Yet, in spite of Israel's incredible
          calling, the Lord brought judgment on them. And now
          America faces the same judgment.

          If Paul says the entire Old Testament is meant for our
          instruction today (see 1 Corinthians 10:11), then the
          book of Jeremiah provides us with an object lesson on
          this subject of rejecting God's word. This lesson
          begins in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim's reign
          over Judah.

          At that time, God instructed the prophet Jeremiah to
          write down all the prophetic warnings he had delivered
          over the previous twenty-three years. During that
          period, Jeremiah had warned that a great day of
          accounting was coming because of Jehoiakim's wicked
          grandfather, the notorious, blood-shedding King
          Manasseh.

          Manasseh had turned the temple into an abominable
          center of idol worship. He dabbled in witchcraft and
          turned to enchantments, familiar spirits and wizards.
          This evil man despised God's word, trampling his laws
          and rejecting his commandments. Scripture says,
          "Manasseh seduced (Israel) to do more evil than did the
          nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of
          Israel" (2 Kings 21:9).

          Moreover, Manasseh's hands were stained with the blood
          of innocents: "Manasseh shed innocent blood very much,
          till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another;
          beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing
          that which was evil in the sight of the Lord" (verse
          16).

          The result was national chaos and judgment at the hands
          of an angry God. The Lord declared: "Because Manasseh
          king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath
          done wickedly.and hath made Judah also to sin with his
          idols: Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
          Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and
          Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears
          shall tingle" (verses 11-12). "I will wipe Jerusalem as
          a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside
          down" (verse 13).

          God was saying, "I'm going to judge your nation so
          harshly, you'll think your world has been turned upside
          down. Even your enemies won't believe what they hear
          I've done to you." Even though Manasseh eventually
          repented, God would not call off the judgments. He
          would only delay them for a season.

          There is no denying that our nation is in a similar
          state today. We have shed the blood of over 30 million
          babies through abortion. How could a holy God wink at
          this ocean of innocent blood spilled over 3,000 miles
          wide and 2,000 miles long? How could he ignore the
          pitiful cries of these slain children?

          God judged Manasseh for much less. The bloodshed our
          nation has caused through abortion is more than that
          evil king could have caused in a lifetime. And now our
          nation faces the same judgment Manasseh faced - because
          it refuses to do anything to stop the killing of
          babies, even in their final trimester.

          How can America continue killing its unborn? We do it
          because we have refused to believe what God's word says
          about shedding the blood of innocents. If we were truly
          a Bible-believing nation, this awful tragedy never
          could have taken place.

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                          Manasseh's Son, Josiah,
                         Inherited the Throne - and
                         He Did Right in God's Eyes
                            (see 2 Kings 22:2).

                      -------------------------------

          Manasseh's son, Josiah, trembled at the word of the
          Lord. The Bible says when he ascended to the throne, he
          "walked in all the way of David his father [his
          great-great grandfather], and turned not aside to the
          right hand or to the left" (2 Kings 22:2).

          Under Josiah's reign, Judah's high priest found the
          holy scriptures lying in a dusty corner of the temple.
          He handed the scroll to a scribe and sent him to read
          it to Josiah. Scripture tells us, "It came to pass,
          when the king had heard the words of the book of the
          law, that he rent his clothes" (verse 11).

          Josiah took seriously God's word, shuddering in terror
          as he heard it read aloud. He realized, "We've reached
          the flash point of sin Moses talked about. We're under
          judgment." And immediately, Josiah came under the
          authority of God's word.

          The king sent representatives to the prophetess Huldah,
          asking, "What should we do? The wrath of God is against
          us because of our sins." Huldah answered, in essence:
          "The judgment God promised to pour out on Jerusalem and
          Judah still stands. But because you have humbled
          yourself and wept before him when you heard what he
          spoke, you won't see the evil he has promised to bring
          upon the nation" (see verses 15-20).

          What an amazing word: Josiah would never have to see
          judgment fall upon Judah because of his wicked father,
          Manasseh. Yet immediately this godly king set about
          conforming the nation to God's word. For the next
          thirty-one years, every time he learned a new statute
          from the scriptures, he repented and conformed to it.
          And his obedience ushered in an unprecedented time of
          blessing and prosperity in Judah.

          For example, when Josiah read that homosexuality was
          wrong, he dealt with all the Sodomites in the land. And
          when he discovered God's hatred for idolatry, he
          smashed all the pagan altars and idols. Also, when he
          learned that God hated human sacrifice, he swept it all
          out. Josiah complied with God's word simply because he
          feared it.

          During the final nineteen years of Josiah's reign,
          Jeremiah began to warn of the judgment still to come
          upon Judah: "I have sent also unto you all my servants
          the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying,
          Return ye now every man from his evil way...but ye have
          not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me....
          Behold, I will bring upon Judah and upon all the
          inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have
          pronounced against them" (Jeremiah 35:15, 17).

          God had pronounced judgment upon Judah twenty-seven
          years before. Why was he going to bring down his
          judgment now? He knew the people of Judah didn't share
          Josiah's zeal for the Lord. Theirs was not a genuine
          heart repentance. They gave the Lord lip service, but
          their hearts were given to idolatry.

          "Because I have spoken unto them, but they have not
          heard; and I have called unto them, but they have not
          answered" (verse 17). "Will ye not receive instruction
          to hearken to my words?...ye hearkened not unto me"
          (verses 13-14).

          God was saying, "Shake my people, Jeremiah - stir their
          hearts. Maybe then they'll see their evil ways and
          repent. Then I can forgive, cleanse and restore them."
          This is the reason why God continually sends watchmen
          to warn his people: It is because he loves them. His
          warnings are simply expressions of his great mercy.

          Yet Christians today are no different from the people
          Jeremiah warned. Like them, we cry, "Please, pastor -
          no more hard messages. Preach smooth things to us."
          Many don't want to bring themselves under the
          governance of God's word.

          We see this attitude in mainline churches. They are
          moving closer to a union with churches that have
          forsaken the scriptures as the word of God, claiming to
          set aside their differences in a plea for love and
          unity. Yet they are also casting aside God's word in
          the process. Now the great Reformation doctrines that
          thousands of believers paid for with their lives are at
          risk: salvation by faith alone, justification by faith.
          By returning to salvation by works, this church union
          is embracing righteousness by good works alone - and
          that is the doctrine of Antichrist.

          This world church union is also moving toward ordaining
          homosexual ministers. And that is straight from the
          pits of hell. Yet church leaders continue to ignore the
          warnings of godly voices, who urge them not to give up
          defending the gospel of Christ.

                      -------------------------------

                         God Gave Jeremiah a Final
                         Word for His People, to Be
                      Delivered at the National Fast.

                      -------------------------------

          When godly Josiah died, his son Jehoiakim took the
          throne. And in the fourth year of his reign, God told
          Jeremiah, "Go thou, and read in the roll, which thou
          hast written from my mouth, the words of the Lord in
          the ears of the people in the Lord's house upon the
          fasting day" (Jeremiah 36:6).

          Verse 9 tells us it was "in the ninth month...(that)
          they proclaimed a fast before the Lord to all the
          people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came
          from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem."

          Jerusalem's leaders knew the awesome Chaldean army was
          approaching. They had received intelligence reports
          that this overpowering enemy was marching through the
          land, intent on overthrowing Jerusalem and destroying
          the temple.

          So, after twenty-seven years, Jeremiah's warnings were
          finally hitting close to home. Soon everyone in Judah
          began flocking to Jerusalem. And everyone was so
          familiar with the things God had said would happen to
          them, it sounded like a worn-out song: "We're going to
          be judged for our idolatry, for rejecting God's word,
          and for shedding innocent blood. The Chaldeans will
          overtake Jerusalem, destroy the temple and take us into
          captivity in Babylon. God's judgment has been set - it
          can't be avoided."

          Yet year after year, no judgment came. In fact, the
          more the people sinned, the more prosperous they
          became. They scoffed at Jeremiah, saying, "You keep
          telling us hard times are coming. But we've seen
          nothing but prosperity." I wonder how much mockery
          Jeremiah endured during those years. Did he ever doubt
          the word that God had given him?

          But Jeremiah's words finally came to pass. Suddenly, in
          the midst of all the good times, Jerusalem's leaders
          received the bad news: "The Chaldeans are upon us."

          Now, God has always had a holy remnant. And I'm sure
          they were present in Judah at this time, praying for
          nationwide repentance, as the country had seen
          previously under Ezra and Nehemiah. That earlier
          generation had trembled when Ezra read the scriptures
          (see Ezra 7:10). And they responded by repenting and
          coming under the governance of God's word.

          So now, as the fast was being held in Jerusalem,
          Jeremiah sent his scribe Baruch to deliver what would
          be God's final warning before judgment arrived. Baruch
          thundered a message that distilled twenty-seven years
          of warnings: "Then read Baruch in the book the words of
          Jeremiah in the house of the Lord...in the ears of all
          the people" (Jeremiah 36:10).

          Three types of people heard God's word delivered on
          that day. Jeremiah 36 describes these three types as
          passive hearers, perturbed hearers and penknife
          hearers. Each of these hearers is present in the church
          today - and they react in the same way the people did
          in Jeremiah's day:

                      -------------------------------

                             1. Passive Hearers

                      -------------------------------

          The fast in Jerusalem became a fatal one. How?
          Incredibly, as Baruch thundered Jeremiah's impassioned
          call to repentance, many listeners remained totally
          passive. They were completely unmoved by the word they
          heard: "Neither he [the king], nor his servants, nor
          the people of the land, did hearken unto the words of
          the Lord, which he spake by the prophet Jeremiah"
          (Jeremiah 37:2).

          Can you imagine the scene? A national fast had been
          called - a time of solemnity, reverence and seeking.
          And now the people were being given a final warning.
          Their enemy was thundering down on them, coming to
          enslave them and march them off to Babylon. Yet the
          Israelites just stood there blinking; nothing
          registered. The word they'd gathered to hear from God
          went in one ear and out the other.

          I am dumbfounded by the passive hearers I see in the
          church today. These people "come to the fast" -
          attending church regularly, singing in the choir,
          raising their hands in praise. Yet they remain
          completely passive to the word they hear preached.
          Their pastors warn, "The antichrist spirit is already
          at work in the world, deceiving many. Every follower of
          Christ has to prepare by being grounded in scripture."
          But these words fall on deaf ears.

          Such Christians have grown blind to the danger they're
          in. One day they're going to be in the battle of their
          lives. Hell is going to spew forth its demonic hordes,
          and the enemy will pour in like a flood. Yet these
          believers will be frozen in a state of passivity.

          The word passive means "receiving an action or word
          without responding or initiating a response in return."
          Does this describe your attitude toward the Bible? You
          may think the coming days of judgment will drive you to
          God's word. But the Israelites also knew judgment was
          coming, and they remained passive. You'll do the same,
          if you haven't already turned to God's word.

          I acknowledge that our generation suffers from sensory
          overload. Our minds are satiated with images and
          reports of awful tragedies - planes falling from the
          sky, mass murders in schools and churches, atrocities
          taking place all over the world. And every day, it
          seems, a new health study is warning that some
          previously innocent food is now killing us with cancer.
          It all can be so overwhelming.

          Yet it is equally true that we can become numbed by our
          comfortable lives. Our prosperity and ease can cause us
          to fall into a narcotic-like stupor, lulling us into
          believing the good days will never end. We gradually
          shut our ears and hearts to God's word and the warnings
          of his prophets.

          So it was in Judah - and so it is in the church today.
          In each case, people have gone back to their homes and
          careers, thinking, "How hard can things get? Our
          leaders will find a solution. There's no use getting
          worked up over it."

          But passivity toward God's word opens the door to every
          kind of false doctrine. In Judah, the people eventually
          paid heed to false prophets. And the same thing is
          happening in the church today. People are running here
          and there to receive "words" from so-called prophets
          and flesh-driven evangelists. Yet much of what these
          preachers tell them is absolutely contrary to
          scripture. And, tragically, many biblically illiterate
          believers can't discern the falsehoods, because they
          don't know God's word.

                      -------------------------------

                            2. Perturbed Hearers

                      -------------------------------

          To be perturbed means "to be greatly disturbed, made
          uneasy, upset, confused." This describes the reaction
          of Michaiah, an official in Jehoiakim's court. Michaiah
          had overheard Baruch's message at the fast - and he
          shook with terror. This man was a part of Judah's
          intelligence-gathering group. And he quickly realized
          Baruch was speaking things no one could possibly know
          unless they were revealed by God himself.

          Michaiah hurried to the king's court to share what he'd
          heard with the other leaders. To paraphrase, he told
          them, "Gentlemen, I've got disturbing news. I've just
          heard Jeremiah's prophecy, and it concurs with our
          information. So he has been telling the truth these
          many years after all. The Chaldeans are too powerful
          for us - we can't stand up against them. And now we
          can't ignore it. We've got to listen to this word from
          God."

          The officials decided to invite Baruch to a secret
          meeting, where he could give them the rest of the
          story. "So Baruch...took the roll in his hand, and came
          unto them" (Jeremiah 36:14). As Baruch began to read
          aloud, "It came to pass, when they had heard all the
          words, they were afraid both one and other" (verse 16).
          The phrase for "were afraid" here means "shuddered."
          These men literally trembled as they heard God's word.

          This reverent group of men represents God's holy
          remnant. While an entire multitude can be passive and
          unmoved upon hearing God's word, those who are shut in
          with the Lord tremble when they hear his awesome truth.

          I believe God has a trembling, influential remnant
          hidden away in this last hour. Just a few weeks ago I
          received word of a prayer meeting taking place among
          several U.S. Senators. These men and women have heard
          prophetic messages of coming judgment, and they have
          shuddered at God's word. Now they are spreading that
          word, quietly and judiciously, among those who have
          ears to hear.

          I thank God for all perturbed hearers - godly men and
          women who accept the word of the Lord and tremble.

                      -------------------------------

                            3. Penknife Hearers

                      -------------------------------

          The perturbed men in Judah's court stated, "We will
          surely tell the king of all these words" (Jeremiah
          36:16). They went to King Jehoiakim, who was sitting in
          his winter house with his staff, warming himself by the
          fire. Somberly, the godly tremblers told the king, "A
          disturbing word has come to us through the prophet
          Jeremiah. Judgment is at the door. It has all been
          written down in the holy book. We beg you to read what
          it says."

          The king instructed his scribe, Jehudi, to fetch the
          book. However, as Jehudi began reading, "It came to
          pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves,
          he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire
          that was on the hearth, until all the roll was
          consumed" (verse 23).

          The trembling men were astonished at this brazen act.
          The Bible says they "made intercession to the king that
          he would not burn the roll: but he would not hear them"
          (verse 25). Scripture adds that the king's staff "were
          not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king,
          nor any of his servants that heard all these words"
          (verse 24).

          In our society today, many judges, politicians and
          atheistic powers wield penknives. They're ready to cut
          and burn God's word out of existence. But these people
          will never succeed. When Baruch told Jeremiah what the
          king had done, the prophet instructed his servant
          simply to write out another scroll with the same
          prophecies, "and there were added besides unto them
          many like words" (verse 32).

          God's word came back more powerful than ever. You see,
          Jeremiah knew that no one can ban God's book. Communist
          China has tried it, yet millions of Bibles are now
          being printed there. The floodgates have also burst
          open in Albania. Just a few years ago, officials there
          boasted they had removed all Bibles. But today churches
          are springing up and Bibles are flowing freely.

          The Bible-despising King Jehoiakim represents a new
          generation brought up under godly parents. Somewhere
          along the way, Jehoiakim developed his own idea about
          who God was. Something in his heart would not let go of
          the spirit of this world, and he rejected God's pure
          word. He ended up backsliding in the midst of a great
          revival.

          This kind of young believer is seen everywhere today.
          Such Christians grew up witnessing great revivals and
          sitting under godly teachings. Yet the spirit of the
          world has gripped them, and they've become addicted to
          the permissive lifestyle of the age. For example, many
          refused in their younger years to give up ungodly
          music. And now they're mocking the old hymns of their
          parents. Essentially, they have taken penknife in hand,
          cutting those spiritual songs out of their lives and
          substituting fleshly music.

          Now, as adult leaders in ministry, these Christians
          have brought penknives into God's house. They have lost
          all holy fear, despising powerful, Holy Ghost-led
          meetings. They complain that the "old styles" of
          worship or preaching aren't contemporary enough.

          This had led to tragic results. A minister friend of
          mine called me recently, distraught over his teenage
          son. The young man had been drinking and getting into
          all kinds of trouble. When the father sat his son down,
          the boy told him his youth pastor had said drinking was
          okay, that the Bible actually approved of it.

          This misguided youth minister claimed, "We live in a
          day of freedom, with no guilt. You can drink and still
          serve Jesus." No! That youth pastor took penknife in
          hand and cut God's word to shreds. And in the process
          he nearly destroyed a minister's son.

          Scripture says, "Remove not the ancient landmark, which
          thy fathers have set" (Proverbs 22:28). Yet young
          Jehoiakims in the pulpits are removing those
          Bible-centered landmarks left and right. And they're
          leading their sheep farther away from God's pure word.

          Of course, I am not indicting all of the younger
          generation. There are many godly young men and women
          today in both the pulpit and the music industry who
          tremble at God's word. I want to encourage all these
          young people: Know God's word. Don't substitute what
          you think is right or what feels good. Instead, drop
          everything that's contrary to what God's word says.
          Then you will come under its total governance. And the
          Lord will honor you with all the power and authority of
          the gospel.

          ---
          Used with permission granted by World Challenge, P. O.
          Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771, USA.

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