Thinking again about the earlier post on the absence of revelation amongst the people, and the result being that they cast off restraint, I feel that I must add something further. The people in any country suffer more than we can say when there is no word from the Lord. Despite there being churches galore in Northern Ireland, that does not imply in the least that there is a prophetic ministry in them.
Where the word of God is not expounded by the ministers, and where no one teaches the true knowledge of God, the people are left without true bearings, they have no sense of the right direction. They are deprived of the "bread of life;" and where there is nothing to sustain life, people die. If there is no spiritual food and nourishment for the people, they will go out and do that which is right in their own eyes - they cast off all restraint. They start behaving like the drunken fools they are. Right and wrong do not enter their minds. They engage in all kinds of perversions.
Where ministers work to please the crowd (Gal.1:10), they no longer please the God who called them to His work. And no one whose life displeases God can ever hope to bring pleasure to Him. If a man does not please God, he is in danger of being lost forever and ever, eternal loss and misery.
Further, where they have cast off restraint, there is nothing they will not stop at. They will act in the most unintelligent manner; they will not listen to reason or sense, but will continue in their prejudiced way. These people either do not have the revelation of God preached to them, or else they have made up their minds to oppose it all the way. So far will some of them go that they will put themselves to shame, or be put to shame by their own works. "Be sure your sin will find you out," (Nu.32:23).
Again, without God's instruction, these people rebel against everything that is good and godly. They rebel against God, and against their leaders and against each other. They simply "cast off restraint." They take the law into their own hands, and do that which is not right.
Part of the reason why people do this - we have seen this in Northern Ireland during four decades of terrorism, and in GB during the past days with the riots that have left several people dead, many homeless and many businesses and properties destroyed irreparably - is that they have not been sitting under good Spirit-anointed preaching. They have been listening to "old wives' fables." Stories. Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology. But not the word of the living God. And without this, they become idle, not knowing what to get up to. The devil always finds things for idle hands to do. And these idlers dream up all kinds of wickedness, and then proceed to carry them out. This is because they have no Word from the Lord to guide them.
Oh what an indescribable eternity awaits those who do not preach the everlasting Gospel of God. What an endless misery awaits such time-servers. When they stand before the eternal Judge, and give an account of their ministries, they will hear those spine-chilling words from the loving Saviour, "Depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity." Oh, the hell that awaits all those who conceal the pure Gospel. Not only do they damn themselves, they damn also their hearers.
But those who have such a good Gospel preaching minister, how blest they are! How privileged they are who listen to and submit to the gospel of Christ! To be fed with the 'bread of life' each week is a rare blessing. Oh, "open your mouths and I will fill them," says the Lord; they will be fed like little hungry birds that look up expectantly to their mother to feed them. Their souls will be richly blessed and they will be good witnesses to Christ. These are the people who make a country 'great.' They have a great future ahead of them, unlike the others. They will be with Christ forevermore. Their eternal blessedness will know no limitation.
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