Strong Man Of God Blog

          It should go without saying that if the living God is calling professed Christians as followers of His Son to repentance, then, non-Christians ought to be on notice too!  Indeed, it is written: “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?  Now ‘“If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear,”’” (1 Peter 4:17-18, NKJV)?  Because God in holy character operates in perfect justice (Deuteronomy 31:30-32:4), nobody gets away with anything; sin must be judged and punished (Genesis 2:16-17, 3:17-19; Psalm 62:9-12; Ezekiel 18:4; Matthew 12:33-37).

          Unless therefore, God had sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to take on man’s judgment and punishment for sin, none would be saved (John 3:16-21, 36).  Again, without God having taken the initiative out of His great love, grace, mercy and righteousness to make a way of salvation from sin for mankind through repentance and faith in the Gospel of Christ--that He died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose again on the third day, this fallen world and mankind as sinners after giving an account for every sin committed would have long ago endured His wrath and been eternally destroyed (Genesis 6:5-8; John 8:21-24; Romans 1:16-17, 3:9-31, 5:6-9, 10:4-13)! 

          Instead, those of us who have repented of our sins and believed the Gospel of Christ have been forgiven, indwelt and brought to eternal spiritual life by the Spirit of God as well as reconciled to Him after being enemy combatants (Acts 2:36-39; Romans 5:10-11; Colossians 1:19-23).  The foregoing is supposed to be the result in every case.  But keeping it real, in addition to many who are weak in the faith, there have been numerous rebels, impostors and apostates who have dwelt among the Church the Lord has been building from the first century A.D. and misrepresented it to the on looking world (Acts 2:40-47, 5:1-11; Romans 16:17-20; Galatians 2:1-5; 1 John 2:18-23; Jude 3-19). 

          For this cause, God is righteously at work in His house through judgment calling His weak in the faith, backslidden and rebel professed people to repentance; testing and disciplining even the faithful to conform us fully to the glorious divine character resident in Christ (Hebrews 12:1-17).  He is also exposing and separating out of His house the false, unrepentant disobedient and fallen away since Christ in all sobriety returns for a bride He sacrificed Himself to “sanctify and cleanse,” that does not have “spot or wrinkle or any such thing,” but is “holy and without blemish,” (Ephesians 5:25-27; 2 Peter 3:14, NKJV).  Professed Christians thinking otherwise are deceived (Galatians 5:19-21, 6:7-8)!

          Thus, if it is all like that for professed Christians as the apostle Peter serves up in his warning I quoted in the first paragraph of this post, then, the non-Christian is truly in grave peril.  For God’s command to ‘“all men everywhere to repent’” is so ‘“because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man (Jesus Christ) whom He has ordained;” giving “assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead,’” (Acts 17:30-31, NKJV).  The Lord led me to end my last post confirming He has not turned from His day of wrath upon all of those who have disobeyed His Gospel command to repent!  It is coming more certainly than tomorrow’s sunrise!¹

          As I also recently briefly wrote about discussing these days of increasing post-Christianity unbelief in God,² like ground with its overgrown weeds removed as preparation for planting, but after a delay grows back, so, the world has had a brief moment when the bright promise of Christianity filled it with the knowledge of God enough for many at least to believe in His existence.  Now, helped in part by the willful neglect of guilty professed Christians and their churches in sin, compromise and corruption, all of the weeds of wickedness seen historically in secular atheism, false religions and the deeds of the flesh are growing back exceedingly worse than before (Luke 11:14-26).³

          Refusing to believe in God does not dismiss Him from existence as He led me to state another way in a 2022 post!⁴  His steadily intensifying judgments in these latter days besides being remedial are warnings intended primarily to cause all to recognize His reality and repent before it is too late.  However, because of proudly refusing to believe in the Judeo-Christian God of the Bible who warned millennia ago through His prophets about the escalating severity of the calamities we now, see coming upon the world, non-Christians (and many biblically ignorant professed Christians) are foolishly attributing them all to manmade climate change in the false hope they can fix things.  Not!  Surely, climate change is occurring, but it is not exclusively due to human cause (Amos 3:6-7, 5:8-9).

1 Read the April 23, 2023 post, A Word To God’s Faithful, under the category, Encouragement.

2 See the September 25, 2022 post, The Epidemic Of Unbelief In God, under the category, Encouragement.

3 The faithful and devoted heart of the aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Christ is required to stand firm against this never before seen spiritual tide
   as  I  write about them in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics!  You can pick up a Hard or Soft Cover Edition of the book as well as companion Strong Man Of
   God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, among internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.

4 Read the October 2, 2022, Unbelief In God Has Consequences, under the category, Instruction.

          After the many weeks of posts calling His wayward sheep to repentance and warning of their peril in His continuing judgment without it, the Lord would have me deliver a word of encouragement to all of us His imperfect, but faithful remnant.  Just because we may not in the Holy Spirit’s convicting work have a felt need for repentance from some egregious transgression, sin or iniquity, the faithful know our stuff is not perfect before the Lord.  This is as the apostle Paul also honestly assesses about himself while asserting and exemplifying the determined heart of the Lord’s faithful in Philippians 3:12-16; even every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in His image!¹

          Indeed, our Ministry’s latest Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord, is a help to all Christians not just those who have strayed from Him purposely in disobedience and rebellion.²  By way of reminder, according to Webster’s Dictionary faithful is defined as “Supportive: loyal; worthy of trust or belief; consistent with fact.”  This suggests faithful persons are devoted, steadfast, trustworthy and reliable.  God is perfectly faithful as is His Son, Jesus Christ (Deuteronomy 7:9a; Hosea 11:12; Matthew 17:1-5; Revelation 1:4-5, 3:14, 19:11-16)!  God commends fallen men like Daniel and Moses who were faithful to Him, but only His Son was perfectly so (Daniel 6:1-23, 9:20-23; Hebrews 3:1-6).³

          To be faithful in God’s eyes is first and foremost to love Him with obedience to His Word which like Him, is faithful (Deuteronomy 7:9b-11; Psalm 119:86a, 138)!  Consistent with the forgoing, the Lord Jesus Christ charges all of His followers to display our “love” for Him by keeping His “commandments,” (John 14:15, 21-24, NKJV).  There is no exception for any disciple on this; all professed disciples of Christ are to be faithful to Him in love through obedience even to the death following His example (Matthew 10:16-39, John 15:9-11; Philippians 2:5-8; Revelation 2:10, 12:11).  Also, we are expected to be faithful in all of our service to the Lord (Matthew 24:45-51, 25:14-30).

          As clear as the definition and biblical instruction are, many unfaithful professed Christian Americans still dishonestly insist they are faithful.  Some of these, of course, are self-deluded “talkers” following their own way and calling it Christian as religionist impostors and de facto apostates (Titus 1:10-16, NKJV).  The largest number of unfaithful professed Christians and most dangerous to the faithful now, and going forward because of deceit are those who obey the Lord and His Word only in some things while claiming an equal standing and reward with them He exposes, condemns and warns of His rejection in advance (Matthew 7:13-29; Luke 6:43-49; Revelation 22:12-17).⁴ 

          Unfaithful professed Christians are so in an unfaithful time with wickedness of every kind and “evil men and impostors” growing “worse and worse” as foretold (2 Timothy 3:1-13, NKJV).  Even so, the Lord would have His faithful be encouraged since this is not the first time in human history this state of affairs has existed.  King David in Psalm 12:1-7 called on the Lord concerning the shrinkage of His faithful and was assured of His action as the unfaithful rebels in their wickedness dramatically increased.⁵  Truly, he closed his Psalm giving a precise report of our times when he wrote: “The wicked prowl on every side, when vileness is exalted among the sons of men,” (Psalm 12:8, NKJV).

          The priests and people of the returned from Babylon Jewish exiles were giving up on serving God to join the unfaithful because it seemed to them His actions to check the wicked were non-existent since they were calling “the proud blessed,” watching the evildoers do their thing and “even tempt God” without consequence (Malachi 3:13-15, NKJV).  Many professed Christians feel the same way today and are walking away from the faith.  However, the faithful, “those who fear the LORD and who mediate on His name,” encourage one another in the knowledge of their God whose ear is attuned to and has a “book of remembrance” written of them (Malachi 3:16, NKJV). 

          They knew as should every faithful Christian that God was testing all through judgment to reveal the content of their hearts and separate out the righteous for Himself (Malachi 3:17; 1 Peter 4:12-19).⁶  They also knew and appreciated as should every professed Christian that God’s apparent present inaction toward the wicked is His longsuffering grace and forbearance at work to save among the willing for His day of salvation, reversal and reward as He has done with us (Malachi 3:18; 2 Peter 3:1-9).⁷  Finally, knowing God’s perfect character the faithful remnant among the returned exiles of Israel as should faithful Christians knew God does not idly threaten, but will fulfill the day of His fiery wrath in vengeance and destroy the wicked (Psalm 58:9-11; Malachi 4:1-3; 2 Peter 3:10-18).

1 As the Lord leads, I teach aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics about His requirement of
   humility  He  constructs  in us which means we are always keeping it real about our current imperfection.  You can pick up a Hard or Soft Cover Edition of my book as well as
   companion  Strong  Man  Of  God  Men’s  Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, among internet booksellers and brick and
   mortar bookstores.

2 View the 30 minute video on our Strong Man Of God Online Rally YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/uxU9KD4_kuY.

3 As  great as Daniel and Moses were in their faithfulness to God, neither man was without sin before Him (Romans 3:23).  The glory of God is perfection which not even faith-
   fulness  by  a sinner can attain as a saving work.  Only Christ came into and left the world perfect!  Daniel, Moses, all other Old Testament saints and now, us under the New
   Covenant  are  saved by grace through faith alone (Romans 3:21-31).  His faithfulness is displayed and constructed in us by the Lord after being saved (Romans 8:29; Gala-
   tians 5:22-23)!

4 This  latter  group  includes  a great  many  pastors, elders and other leaders among the churches as well as in Christian media.  A grave example of their rebellion upheld by
   deceit  is  support  for  and putting women into leadership over men as pastors, teachers, worship and ministry leaders in open defiance of the Lord’s written commandments
   and  instructions  (1 Corinthians  11:2-16, 14:34-40; 1 Timothy 2:8-3:16).  Read my two-part post beginning September 14, 2014, Partial Obedience, under the category, Call 
   To Repent.  Without repentance now, they will not escape God’s severe punishment!

5 See especially the opening paragraph of the June 5, 2016 post, The Day Of Vengeance, under the category, Bible Prophecy.

6 Read the two-part post beginning June 7, 2020, Days Of Separation, under the category, Bible Prophecy.  Faithfulness is and will continue to be painful as some of the faith-
   ful God  in  sovereignty  will  allow the wicked to martyr as in the recent mass shooting at the Nashville Christian school and some He removes from the earth through death
   in various other ways before the even greater foretold evil times arrive (Psalm 116:15; Isaiah 57:1-2; Matthew 24:9-22).

7 God  knows  how  hard  it  can be in an unfaithful time to discern between the righteous who are faithful to Him and the wicked professors of faith who are not from whatever
   cause.  This difficulty will end forever in the day of His salvation!