By Pastor Malcolm Harrison

In Exodus 32 we read that while Moses was up on Mt Sanai talking with the Lord the descendants of Jacob (children of Israel) decided that ‘who knows what’ had happened to Moses and so they demanded that Aaron “make us gods” so they’d have something to worship [Exodus 32:1]. *Note: Ironically it seems we have the same perverted thinkers among us today. Ever crafting some politically correct morally defiling golden calf before which they demand the rest of the country kneel. As the account goes on Aaron is unwilling to refuse the absurd demand and fabricates a golden calf which the children of Israel promptly set to worshipping. Sound ridiculous? Well consider that a chicken breast shaped like pope John Paul the II sold on line for $232; a ‘pretzel shaped like the virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus sold for $10,600 and a potato chip shaped like the pope’s hat sold $1,200 and a piece of toast with burn marks resembling the Virgin Mary sold for $28,000. When they finished talking God said to Moses vs 7 “Go, get thee down, for thy people, which thou brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves” {Note that the word of God says that they “corrupted themselves”}. Vs 10 God tells Moses “Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them”. That says everything it needs to say about God’s view on golden calf religion doesn’t it?!  Anyway, now we come to our text and I want you to pay close attention to what Moses does in vs 11 – “And Moses besought the Lord his God…”! Have the children of Israel shown how shallow and foolish they are? YES! Have they not proven how quickly they will bow down and worship a knot on a log? YES. It is so totally ridiculous that God himself said ‘hey Moses, sit down over there and let me just wipe these idiots off the planet and then we’ll start over and I’ll use you to make a new, better nation’. But Moses said “Lord…please don’t”. In other words Moses INTERVENED for them. He besought God on their behalf! That’s what Jesus did for you and me! So let me bring this home for you. You have some friends, some acquaintances, some family members who for all intents and purposes are just as much corrupting themselves today. They daily worship themselves, their bank, their material wealth, their body. If anyone deserved to be ‘consumed’ vs 10 by God, it is them. If anyone could be labeled as a ‘REJECT’ it is them, just like it was you. But nonetheless Moses intervened for them. So let me ask the question – are not those in your circle of influence worth you intervening for them? Are not your relatives and loved ones worth you trying again to give them the gospel? Are they worth it? God will one day consume the wicked in His justifiable wrath. Someone must intervene and plead with them to turn from their golden calf before it is too late.

By Pastor Malcolm Harrison

This past Sunday morning at Calvary we were in Luke chapter 8 for our time with God’s word. You may remember Luke 8 is loaded down with the account of the devil possessed man of Gadara. I’d love to write about the whole chapter but this week, let me just call something to your attention. In that account [See Mark chapter 5 also] Jesus stepped out of a boat and was immediately met by a naked, bleeding devil possessed man who spent his days cutting himself with rocks, wailing and screaming and running crazy in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, the devil’s in him knew who Jesus was. They’d seen him long before he took on a body of flesh and came to earth. The devil’s in him said loudly to Jesus “Jesus thou Son of God most high” vs 28. Many cults popped up after 1800 teaching that Jesus Christ is not God. So we find it very interesting that Jesus is named in Hebrew El Gibor “The Mighty God’ [Isaiah 9:6] [Hebrew for “Eternal God” / “Everlasting Father and Mighty God”] 600 years before Jesus was born. Micah, speaking of Jesus, said out of Bethlehem would “he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from old, from (watch this) everlasting” [Micah 5:2]. Those cults and false churches will not accept that Jesus is God and from ‘everlasting’ so you will find that word “everlasting” omitted, changed and re-written in their Bible. But, anyway, take note of the fact that even these devils have got enough sense to recognize Jesus Christ IS God’s son, IS God himself. As the story continues, Jesus casts the devils out of the man {again, you can “come as you are” but you cannot stay as you came if you really meet Jesus}. That man is forever done with rocks, cutting himself, graveyards, nakedness and devils. You won’t find him in another graveyard until he gets carried to one! Jesus changes lives! Did they all rejoice for this sweet miracle of God? No. Did they all fall on his neck and kiss him for helping one of their own? No. No they got offended and scared. How pathetic! They’d rather have a devil possessed naked man running bleeding in the graveyard than to have that man get dressed, sit down and be different. So, did they bring their troubles trials and questions to him? No they demanded Jesus, Son of the Most High God, Mighty God, Everlasting Father God, El Gibor, and Daniel’s stone cut without hands to go get on his boat and go away. In so doing they condemned themselves and their children and their children’s children to the horrible place cults pretend isn’t really all that bad…that place of horror called hell. I hate to do so, but let me tell you something you’d better remember for the sake of your unbelieving loved ones and friends. An unsaved man or woman {whom the bible calls ‘lost’} can reject God and deny His Son. They can tell God to leave them alone and stay out of their life and, in some cases, He will do just exactly that. He’ll save you and change your life if you believe the Gospel!

Napoleon once promoted a young soldier from the ranks to Captain. The old war horse had lost control of his steed and the young man had risked his own life to stop it. Napoleon was so impressed that he immediately promoted young soldier to Captain of the guard on the spot. When the young soldier went to head of the ranks the unknowing leader ordered him back to his duties, but the new Captain refused and told him he’d been promoted to Captain. When asked by whose authority he replied “by order of the emperor” and that was that. Nothing more could be nor needed to be said. So powerful was the word of the famous emperor that upon hearing it all questions ceased. Solomon, penman and secondary author of the great book of Ecclesiastes wrote in Chapter 8 vs 4 “Where the word of the King is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou? Old king Nebuchadnezzar back in Daniel Chapter 4 wrote two particularly interesting things that God permitted to be recorded in His bible – verse 34 “…I blessed the most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. 35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?  Job, oldest book in the bible, permits to hear these ominous words God said to Job in Chapter 38:2 “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge”? And in verse 4 there “Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding?”  I am sure that I am not alone in being thankful that the “great and terrible God” [Neh 1:5] gave me enough sense to regard the words of the “Living God” for what they are! Absolutely inerrant, completely and unquestionably powerful far beyond my ability to comprehend and totally worthy of my devout belief, obedience, submission and fear. I trust in them, have my confidence in them, live by them and count it quite an honor that my precious King of King and Lord of Lords even allowed them to be given to me in my own language over 400 years ago. I don’t know about you friend, but I am one of those old fashioned bible believers who thinks God said what He meant and meant what He said in John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. What does that mean? It means exactly that ‘if any one really is a Christian and really does love the Lord Jesus Christ, he or she WILL keep God’s words’. How can someone who doesn’t even believe they exist perfectly in the bible do so?

One of the common misconceptions promoted by the ‘all inclusive’ religion of today is the notion that ALL people are the “Children of God”. From internet forums to the erosive ‘community church’ movement self-styled ‘pastors’ are promoting this unbiblical precept in an effort to change who God is and thereby to change the definition of “Christian”.

Nonetheless let’s ask the question: Is this true? Is this really Biblical? Not hardly. In this brief article let me encourage you to “Trust the Bible”! Turn with me to the “Gospel of John” Chapter 8 verse 24-59 (In the REAL Bible…by which of course I mean of course the Authorized Bible…The King James Bible). Read those verses carefully and pay close attention to verses 36-47. There we find the Jewish Pharisees (the religious cream of the crop) getting more and more disgusted with Jesus’ narrow view of who is and who is not a follower of God nor the children of God. In verse 39 this religious crowd said “we are the children of Abraham” (by which they were referring to their genealogical descent from Abraham and which to them meant they were physically “holy” and beloved of God).

Jesus answered saying “If ye were Abraham’s Children ye would do the works of Abraham”. [The reference is allegorical – a son who loves his father obeys his father and follows his father’s leading in life – Proverbs is filled with references to good vs bad sons. Jesus is in effect saying if you really were good sons of your father you’d do as your father did. Abraham followed God and it is a forgone conclusion that if these Pharisees were going to claim to be Abrahams children then it follows that they’d do what their father did…but since they were not doing that, it is concluded that they are NOT his true children]. To drive his point home he adds “Ye do the deeds of your father” Vs 41 and they said ‘God is our Father’. What follows is an outrage to liberals, atheist, agnostics, evolutionist, and particularly to the ‘religious liberal’. vs 42-44 IF GOD WERE YOUR FATHER YE WOULD LOVE ME…YE ARE OF YOUR FATHER THE DEVIL, and the lusts of your father ye will do”.

THERE IT IS! If you want to know WHY America and the rest of the world is at the point it is at…there is your answer. There are two peoples of the earth. They who love and follow God and they who do not. All divisions of people pale in comparison to this. “He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God”. It is not complicated – it is in fact very simple. Either you love God and follow God (by the way it is of course a matter of fact that there is just ONE GOD) or you don’t.

Is everyone on the planet, regardless of doctrinal view or religious label, a child of God? Jesus answered that question point blank in our text: NO! Only they who “love and obey God” (all who deny Christ Jesus do so in denial of God’s word and of God himself – herein is the damning danger of denying the Trinity 1^st John 5:7 and all of John 17). The Pharisees believed sincerely and completely that their “physical birth and blood line” was their ticket to heaven. The Jews practicing the keeping of the law of Moses believed like the Pharisees that salvation was to be had only in obeying the law and being a Jew (either by birth or by becoming a proselyte). {Paul wrote Galatians by inspiration of the Holy Ghost to explain that it is NOT the physical birth but the spiritual birth that counts when it comes to the matter of salvation}. Still today many believe that physical birth makes us all the children of God and as such that all people are simply traveling various ‘roads to heaven’ and that all religious roads lead to God. The Biblical reality is that some are the children of God and some are not. Those that are became the children of God by the New Birth{John 1:12, 3:3-5, 16-18, 36, Ephesians 2:8} without which one is a child of the devil {John 3:36}. Over the years many have asked me “how could a good and loving God throw his own children into hell”? Excellent question! The answer is that God will not throw his own children into hell but He certainly WILL throw all the children of the Devil into Hell [Rev 20]. The King James Bible says * You either come to God by Christ Jesus or you don’t come at all. All ‘religions’ not revolving around the Lord Jesus Christ and the new birth by Grace through Faith are hopeless roads to Hell. All people regardless of standing or state, Nationality or religious view, race or creed are either the children of God by the New Birth or they are the children of the Devil, PERIOD. The Pharisees hated Jesus for this saying. The Jews hated Jesus for this saying and crucified him for it. The Muslims hated this truth so they propped up their own Dagon [1^st Samuel Ch 5] whom they named Allah and assigned him a false prophet named Muhammad. All over the world Christ Jesus is hated for the truth [John 8:45]. No wonder then that He said “He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are NOT of God” [John 8:47]. To deny the Holy Bible is to deny God AND reveal that one is OF THE DEVIL. We hope you’ll bring your family to visit with us soon at Calvary Baptist Church across from Pizza Hut on the Loop in Palestine, Texas this week! Church – 903-729-5924