Romans 2:1-16, John 15:22, Proverbs 12:15, Proverbs 20:6, Proverbs 21:2, 2 Corinthians 10:12, Revelation 3:17

Summary: The Apostle Paul has shown in the opening words of Romans that apart from Almighty God, humanity will sink into deep perversion and rebellion. He will also nail down the hard truth that none of us are exempt from God’s judgment, even if we think that we are “good.”

In the first chapter of Romans, Paul writes that the creation clearly shows the work of God Almighty (1:18-20). Even with this obvious evidence, people chose to turn their backs on Him and refused to acknowledge Him as Creator and Provider. They foolishly decided instead to worship everything but Him and go down the road of depravity, perverseness, and abnormal actions. Instead of stopping to see where this would lead them, they instead encouraged others to join them in their sins, resulting in certain judgment from God in the form of abandonment (1:28-32).

As Paul continues to present his case, he also puts the brakes on the readers of this letter who are thinking, “Good grief! These folks are atrocious! I see why God would judge them! Man, I’m glad (here come the expected response) I’M NOT AS BAD AS THEY ARE!!” We love to play that game, now, don’t we? We look at criminal acts, political intrigue, the overall rotten behavior of others, and then look at ourselves, feeling content that we certainly would not stoop to such levels of evil. We see ourselves as “too good” to go down the route of depravity and reprobation, yet apart from the grace and mercy of the LORD, we are heading to the same hell as they are, perhaps not for open crimes and actions, but for the hypocrisy in our souls and the self-righteous excuses we tend to flaunt when confronted with our sins.

We have no excuse for our sins and will be judged by the LORD for pronouncing our self-exalting, hypocritical verdict upon others (Romans 2:1-5). No one, except for the LORD God Almighty, who knows the thoughts of every person, has the complete story on why we do wrongful deeds and speak callous words (Matthew 7:1-5; Luke 12:2; Romans 14:13; 1 Corinthians 3:11-5, 4:5; 2 Corinthians 5:10; James 4:12; 1 Peter 4:4-5; Revelation 20:11-15).

Paul knew what he was talking about in penning this letter. At one time, he was the model of a self-righteous Pharisee who saw Jesus Christ as a threat to Judaism. Jesus’ death on the cross was viewed as a certain sign of being cursed by God for His claims of divinity (Deuteronomy 21:23; Galatians 3:13). Paul deeply detested anything and everything to do with Jesus and His followers. He would do anything to stop the spread of the early church, even killing Jesus’ followers or at least seeing to it that they were thrown in jail and later sentenced to death, not sparing man, woman, or child (Acts 8:1, 9:1-6, 26:8-18; Galatians 1:13-14; Philippians 3:3-6).

Many of the Pharisees who had encountered Jesus also displayed self-righteous acts that amounted to nothing more than a show of both personal and spiritual hypocrisy. Their teachings and public demonstrations of “piety” smothered the truth of Scripture, instead implementing stern adherence to the traditions and teachings of the past elders upon the people of Judea. Jesus rightly called them out and publicly condemned them for these atrocities (Matthew 23:2-36).

Saul, the self-righteous fanatical Pharisee who thought he was doing God a favor by viciously persecuting the followers of Jesus, was instead humbled and radically transformed into the apostle Paul, the living embodiment of a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) when the glorified Christ encountered him on the Damascus Road. He had judged Christians as sinners when he himself was sinning by his blasphemous acts against them (Romans 7:18-22; 1 Timothy 1:12-17).

Let us note something here in reading Paul’s letters, or any other portion of God’s Holy Word, for that matter. Every writer of Scripture lived in the real world and dealt with real people with real problems. None of them lived aloof from the conditions around them nor wrote from an ideal concept formed in their minds of how things should be. All of them, including the Lord Jesus, underwent periods of emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical turmoil that toughened their spiritual hides and also provided them the assurance that everything would come to its proper and great conclusion for God’s glory.

Paul knew what he was talking about in warning his fellow Jews and others not to look down with any kind of disdain or spiritual “snobbishness” towards anyone, for they were going to be held accountable before God on the Day of Judgment in the same manner as the garden variety pagan or “good” religious, moral person. There is no partiality with God (Romans 2:11). Although the Gentiles did not possess the Law, they were without excuse, as God placed within them a conscience that bore witness to their hearts as to know the difference between right and wrong (2:12-16).

Ignorance of God’s expectations of us, whether Jew or Gentile, is without excuse. No one at the end of their life can stand before Almighty God and pretend that they didn’t know Him, or about Him, or what He demanded from them. He also warned that no one can approach Him with the belief that their “religion” or “good works” or anything else they do or say is going to get them into God’s heaven (Isaiah 64:6; Ephesians 2:8-9).

This principle applies to us today. None of us are “good” apart from God’s standards, which is holiness, without which we cannot see the LORD (Leviticus 11:45; Hebrews 12:14; 1 Peter 1:16). We possess nothing in our flesh that will appease God or cleanse us of our iniquities (Romans 3:23, 6:23). That has already been accomplished for us by the sinless life and perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, who willfully took our sins upon Himself and died on the cross in our place, paying a debt that we can never repay.

His resurrection was the sign that He is LORD and that His work satisfied the demands of God the Father. The work of our redemption was complete, and we cannot add anything to it (John 19:30; Ephesians 2:1-10). You do not have to do anything except to admit that you are a sinner and that you cannot save yourself, to believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is LORD, and that God has raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9-10), and to call upon Him to save you (Romans10:13). That works regardless of whether you are Jew or Gentile.

donaldwhitchard@gmail.com

www.realitycityreverend.com

My new book, The Scope of Biblical Prophecy, is now available from Parsons Porch Publishers.

Their website is: www.parsonsporch.com.

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Donald was born and reared in the authentic “Cajun Country” of southern Louisiana. He is a graduate of Louisiana College (B.A. in History Education/ Biblical Studies, 1984), New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div. In Christian Education, 1994), and Andersonville Baptist Seminary (Doctor of Ministry, Biblical Exposition, 2000). He has been in the Gospel ministry since 1986, serving as an evangelist, interim and supply pastor, hospital and rescue mission chaplain, high school and college teacher, and pastor in churches in Louisiana and Oklahoma.

In 2018, he began to devote his time to the rich field of internet and social media evangelism and outreach. In 2021 he became a member of the Oklahoma Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists, using his skills as a writer to contribute articles and sermons to websites such as Rapture Ready, Sermon Central, and Inspirational Christian Blogs. He also writes Bible studies and curricula for churches in southeast and central Asia and Africa, the locations of which are anonymous. He can be contacted at: donaldwhitchard@gmail.com for inquiries, information, and speaking/preaching engagements. A copy of his resume is also available upon request.

 

One of the pieces of advice given by the church over the years is to not focus too much on Satan so as not to give him glory. That’s good up to a point. However, what I think that counsel has done is cause us to miss the works of Satan right in front of us.

The last two and a half years of COVID hijinks have revealed significant portions of the depth of the globalist agenda to harm mankind in order to achieve their stated goals. These were obvious for all to see in the recently destroyed Georgia Guidestones, with their #1 objective being:

Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.

Given that our current world population hovers around 8 billion people, reaching this drastic reduction means about 93% of humanity must disappear.

Just because the Guidestones have been demolished doesn’t mean that our betters who wish to rule over the rest of us are dissuaded from achieving their aim. As of this moment, no one knows who bombed the monument and why. One interesting factoid is that the city of Elberton, GA, is actually considering rebuilding them. Also of interest is that the time capsule allegedly buried under the “American Stonehenge” has seemingly been forgotten or ignored.

Mysteries… yet other mysteries have come to light since COVID hit.

It used to be that the American people looked upon our government, its institutions, and even most large corporate entities in this great land – if not loving them, per se – at least respecting them for what they stood for and accomplished. We’ve been a very trusting people.

When our leaders assembled commissions to investigate significant and/or tragic events, we accepted what they concluded because… well, surely they wanted to discover the truth as much as the common people – right? When those entrusted with bringing evil doers to justice declared certain parties guilty or innocent, we tended to believe them because… well, that was a sacred responsibility that all of us believed in – right? When we sent our children to school, we assumed the intent of the educators was to teach and not indoctrinate them because… well, we all had the same values and desires for our kids in how they were to be raised – right?

Somehow, these expectations we all had have been turned upside down. This may sound like conspiracy theory on steroids, but I assure you, it’s not. Trustworthy evidence has been uncovered that our government at the highest levels knew in advance of the coming attack on Pearl Harbor but did nothing to prevent it.

Remember the Oklahoma City bombing or even the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center towers? There’s more to them than what we were told.

How about the January 6, 2021, Trump insurrection narrative? Why are these political prisoners languishing in prison for a year and a half without charges even filed against them? Whose FBI is it anyhow? Why do they infiltrate patriotic events filled with America-loving people but seem to miss the riots instigated by Antifa and BLM?

How is it that the medical profession worldwide has been in lockstep as to treating COVID and uniformly denouncing any doctors or researchers who offer contrary opinions and evidence?

Why do school boards and teachers nationwide march to the same drummer?

When did homosexuality, transgenderism, and drag queen events become de rigueur in the classroom rather than reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic?

Since when has the American ideal of small business and individual entrepreneurship become toxic?

Apparently, only giant corporations can fight “climate change” – all the little guys and guilty must be eliminated or they’ll be the death of the planet.

Hopefully, you get the idea. I could cite many more examples. The point is that historically right up to the present time, those bodies, organizations, and persons we thought were part of “we the people” have, in reality, been something else. As we examine the past and today, it’s evident that much of what we thought was light has been, in fact, part of the darkness. Don’t you see it as well? The trust we invested in literally every aspect of the world structure around us has been compromised.

We’ve always been suspicious of politicians. That’s a given. One who actually does what he says is a rarity. Fine, but when law enforcement and our courts, when our hospitals and their employees, when the education system – when all these are rigged against truth and justice, the question must be asked: What in the world is going on?

My answer, as noted in the title of this article, is that Satan has been hard at work and done a magnificent job (in the evil sense) of corrupting… well, everything. And he’s done it in plain sight with very few people taking notice or trying to do anything about it. Obviously, the church should have been the societal and cultural watchman, but that hasn’t gone well. Families should have stood together for good moral values, but they’ve been fractured for a variety of reasons – not least of which is the lack of Biblical training that should have been the bedrock of their unity.

How has all this happened?

I have a theory.

One of the astounding aspects of the ministry of Jesus that we see in Scripture is how many demons He cast out of people, old and young:

Mark 1:34

“Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him.”

Mark 7:26

“The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.”

Mark 16:9

“Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.”

Luke 4:35

“But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be quiet, and come out of him!’ And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him.”

Luke 9:42

“And as he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him. Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child, and gave him back to his father.”

Day after day, Jesus cast out demons from among those who came to Him.

Have you ever wondered why they had so many demons back then, but we seemingly don’t today?

Of course, a major reason is that we’ve relegated demon possession to the realm of psychiatry and treated individuals with drugs rather than exploring the probable deeper cause of a person’s affliction and/or involving the church to deal with the spiritual root. This isn’t to say that because of sin in the world that there aren’t actual mental or physical conditions in people that are best treated with medication.

However, my bet is that there are a whole lot more people walking around who are demon-possessed than we can possibly imagine. If there were so many in Jesus’ day, do you really think there are fewer now?

Consider how since the 1960s, drug use has skyrocketed. I’m here to tell you that whether marijuana, psychedelics, or antidepressants such as Prozac – these pharmakeia open up demonic doors within a person. And now, marijuana is both legal and much more potent than in previous years. Add to this the downward spiral of morality into depravity. How many children are abused and trafficked in any number of ways? How many people approve of such deprivations?

Don’t we always say that there are two types of people in the world? Saved and not saved. Children of God and children of the devil.

If someone is not filled with the Holy Spirit, he’s an empty vessel. If he further opens a door and invites Satan in, how common might that be? I think that all we have to do is look around us. How many people fly off the handle in road rage? Worse, how many individuals are actually manifesting demons in their frenzy to kill babies in the womb? We see them on Libs of TikTok and on other social media every day.

Even Congressional representatives like Elizabeth Warren display their inner demons in their fury against the pro-life cause.

We know that Jesus said that true faith is rare in Matthew 7:13-14:

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

This means that the vast majority of people in this world belong to Satan.

Do you think the percentages in the heights of government service or at the headship of large corporations is any different? In fact, I’ve speculated in the past that probably most successful people – whether in government, Hollywood, sports, the corporate world, you name it – have gotten there and reached their exalted positions through compromise deals with the devil. Yes, there is the rare person of Christian integrity who rises to the top, but I’d bet most are in Satan’s hip pocket.

That being the case, it becomes clear that all the insidious events noted above, and more, are the result of a concerted demonic agenda that has been at work in the world and which has been concealed in plain sight. Most of us haven’t had a clue because we’ve been told not to give Satan glory.

Certainly, I’m not at all trying to do that. It’s just that in our naiveté, we’ve missed both the agenda and the opportunity. It’s the agenda that God has allowed which has brought us to this point at the very end of the Church Age. Since we in the church haven’t had eyes to see, many occasions we might have had to stand boldly for Jesus with His Gospel and halt this progression have passed us by.

All that’s transpired through the ages, bringing us to this desperate point where everything is self-destructing, is also that which has delivered us to the cusp of God’s wrath and judgment upon this unbelieving, demon-infested world.

The Bible tells us it will get worse before it gets better. In fact, the coming 7-year Tribulation will be filled with supernatural signs, wonders, and horrors. Satan with his minions had to be allowed to reach this point of infiltration of humanity so that when God acts, He will do so in justice.

Because God in His mercy wants none to perish, He has given to everyone alive past and present the opportunity to follow Him. Their choice not to has consequences. Our decision to trust and follow Him also has a consequence: The Lord will keep us from this awful hour of trial to come upon the entire earth.

Be alert. Be aware.

The time of Christ’s return for His children is very near.

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Gary Ritter website: books & blog

http://garyritter.com/

Kindle Vella story: Tribulation Rising

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099Z462WD