The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Destruction of Righteousness, continued

Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. (I Corinthians 15:34)

Recent Evangelical teaching in many instances does not place righteous behavior, holiness of personality, and stern obedience to God through Christ as its first priority.

Modern preaching often does not even resemble God's Person, His will, or His ways among men. It is not the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. It is a collection of fables, and these fables have resulted in the extinguishing of the light of the righteous conduct that should be proceeding from the believers in Christ.

Let us turn again to the Lord. Let us cease teaching and preaching lies. God is to be feared as well as loved. Christ is to be feared as well as loved. The righteous shall walk with God; they can stand in the Fire of His Presence. The unrighteous cannot stand in the Presence of God, in the Presence of Christ, in the Kingdom of God (Isaiah 33:14; Luke 13:27; 21:36; Galatians 5:19-21).

It is useless to call Christ "Lord" and then not do what He says. It is unprofitable.

True salvation exists in people who were sinners but who now, by God's grace, are serving God. They are not yet perfect but they are becoming perfect as the Holy Spirit guides and empowers them. Their goal is not to flee from this world, although they rejoice at the thought of going home to be with the Lord. Rather, their goal is to do God's will in the earth as it is done in Heaven.

The nations of the earth, beholding the true Christian, are guided, uplifted, enlarged—pointed toward the Day when they will be released into the liberty that accompanies the glory of the children of God. The true saint is the light of the world because Christ can be seen in him, and God in Christ.

All men want to behold God. Only the Christian people are the manifestation of God in the earth. If the righteous Person of Christ cannot be seen in the saints, the Person and blessing of God are not available to the nations (II Corinthians 4:6).

The Christian saint is called out of the world in order to be the light of the world, not to flee to Heaven while the wicked inherit the earth.

It is our conviction that God is displeased because we have perverted His truth until it no longer is recognizable. We are not warning the sinner of the consequences of his behavior. We have substituted our traditions for God's unchanging Word.

The Christians no longer fear the Judgment Seat of Christ, and yet each of us will appear there and give a precise account to Christ for our behavior in the earth.

Let us who handle the Word of God now turn to God. Let us ask Him to purge from our minds the spirit and the letter of the structure of error men have constructed on the atoning death and bodily resurrection of Christ.

Let us remove from ourselves the deceiving darkness, such as the doctrines that the Christian Gentiles constitute one church and the Jews constitute another church, another bride of Christ; that the "Gentile Church" is a special parenthesis in God's dealing with mankind and God does not require righteous behavior on the part of the Gentile Christians as He does of every other class of people on the earth.

We have been deceived. We now must ask God to give to His churches the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the fear and knowledge of God.

We shall know that the churches have returned to the preaching of God's Word when we behold righteousness and praise springing up in the sight of the nations of the earth. (from It Is Time for a Reformation of Christian Thinking)