Renewal of Ezekiel’s Call as Watchman
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’
“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But, if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.
“Son of man, say to the Israelites, ‘This is what you are saying: “Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?”’ Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’
“Therefore, son of man, say to your people, ‘If someone who is righteous disobeys, that person’s former righteousness will count for nothing. And if someone who is wicked repents, that person’s former wickedness will not bring condemnation. The righteous person who sins will not be allowed to live even though they were formerly righteous.’
If I tell a righteous person that they will surely live, but then they trust in their righteousness and do evil, none of the righteous things that person has done will be remembered; they will die for the evil they have done. And if I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but they then turn away from their sin and do what is just and right— if they give back what they took in pledge for a loan, return what they have stolen, follow the decrees that give life, and do no evil—that person will surely live; they will not die. None of the sins that person has committed will be remembered against them. They have done what is just and right; they will surely live. Ezekiel 33:1-16 (NIV)
FOUNDER’S MESSAGE:
The election this year has become all consuming and regular citizens can lose perspective on what is of greatest importance within our nation at such a time as this. There is much to wade through in the way of media narratives, political campaigns, and perpetual pleas for donations to the best candidate money can buy, And while this nation goes through all of this, we may miss a word or two from God. Often, it seems, He is the last one we are listening to. Of course, He is used to it – people ignoring Him, or His guidance whether directly or indirectly through angels, prophets and saints. Yes, they still exist… They get ignored too.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” Luke 13:34
Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem when he spoke these words. They did not know the time of their deliverance, though they had been prepared since the days of Moses. They knew the Law, but had forgotten, or never learned how to put into practice what the law required. Those Ten Commandments were a spiritual standard expected by God, and touting how well one knew the Law, but failing to put it into practice, did not protect the Judaic society built upon that Law from failing to recognize God’s Son when he came, and when they could not see God working right in their midst.
Do Americans who profess they have faith? The question I wonder about is the same question Jesus asked “...when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” Jesus was not asking about faith in a filled collection plate, nor was he asking about people’s faith in their self-identification as Chrstians disconnected from God’s Will, and he was certainly not asking about faith (or compliance) with Caesar. So, how would America be different from those faithless nations that turned away from God in the past? God is searching for a faithful nation. If America, as a whole, is dis-connected from God’s Word, Will, or Ways it generates implications or serious consequences for the entire population. It is not as simple as: “That’s not my problem.” It gets to the heart of the matter of why Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
In light of such a perspective, we offer a powerful message today. It is from the Rev. Charles Finney from 1845. His message is entitled: “The Folly of Refusing to be Saved.” He delivered this sermon at another dark time in America’s history – 20 years before the horribly divisive and deadly American Civil War broke out. Finney’s message is appropriate in light of the numerous Americans who lack faith in such a time as this. With respect to such an incredibly divisive time, and one in which our faith is tested daily, do we as a culture, as a people, still have faith that God still cares for His wayward children? Does it matter at this point, or have we stopped our meaningful interactions with God? If the latter is so, it is likely we are about to reap the seeds we have sown, and the loss of the Republic, like the fall of Jerusalem, is a tragedy.
Finney’s message can be extrapolated from the individual to the societal or national level. Such foolishness shows up in the annals of history. Finney’s message elevated to the national level, can also be compared to the words of Ronald Reagan in one of his famous speeches:
We're at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it's been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening. Well I think it's time we ask ourselves if we still know the freedoms that were intended for us by the Founding Fathers.
America’s current predicament has a lot to do with “We the People” and our relationship with God. Concerned citizens need to ask: Does our Does the zeal to pursue EVIL surpass in people the zeal to do GOOD?
The concept of salvation has a very limiting connotation. America is an organic whole; an individual’s outright disobedience to God’s principles and natural laws, especially if the individual is considered a leader, will have serious, if not severe, consequences upon a larger population.
And, since 2024 is a most pivotal election year, Americans should be spending a great deal of time in prayer until the election is certified. Concerned citizens need to ask: Does the zeal to pursue EVIL surpass in people the zeal to do GOOD? American citizens need to seek not only God’s vision to guide us to exercise, with great wisdom, the most precious of our God-given rights – the right to determine our leaders through honest elections. However, that may be one of the last items in our busy schedules. That fact alone – that God may be last on many people’s ‘To Do” list, expresses a lot of why we are in this state of affairs.
Join us for the MeetN call on Monday (9/9/24)!
Normally => Mondays at 5pm PDT (6pm MDT; 7pm CDT; 8pm EDT)
To join these meetings click this url: https://meetn.com/vroom (The room name is vroom)
For questions about the discussion group, please connect here: d.jamzon@gmail.com
We hope our readers will enjoy this edition and take in as many of the features that may interest you. But, don’t get greedy - only absorb what you can easily digest! Then be sure and share the articles and links to aggregates with those whom you believe would benefit from intelligent perspectives throughout this 2024 election year.
These words are being freely offered to you – intended to shine light unto our paths, as written: “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Proverbs 29:18 - KJV
Read, absorb and share, and practice what is within you. Become a force for goodness! Become the light!
May God bless our readers & all of their loved ones. May God bless All His Children!
May we humble yourselves and seek His face in genuine sincerity, repent for our wicked ways, and turn away from wickedness - and may we truly seek an honest and genuine relationship with our Father in Heaven. He has always sought a relationship with His children. May we seek to emulate Christ in his relationship with our Heavenly Father, and obey him to seek first His Kingdom and righteousness.
"Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?" --Proverbs 17:16.
THE FOLLY OF REFUSING TO BE SAVED
Sermon by Prof. CHARLES G. FINNEY August 14, 1845
Reported by The Editor.
Editor’s note: The following only represents a portion of the full message from Charles G. Finney, the legendary evangelist and one of the leaders of the Second Great Awakening that took place in America from 1790 – 1840. There are additional notes and footnotes to this lecture and they are available as a compilation of his remarks in the form of an explication of his message. A full transcript can be found by using this link: THE FOLLY OF REFUSING TO BE SAVED by Charles G. Finney
In ordinary discourse the term 'fool' is used in various senses; but generally in only one sense in the Bible. We sometimes speak of a natural fool, meaning one that is born so, or that becomes so by some injury of the brain. Sometimes persons are called fools who are deranged; and sometimes the term is applied to those who in common matters act unwisely.
Moral fools are those whose intelligence remains unimpaired, but who refuse to use it, and who give themselves up to be controlled by their sensibility and their passions as if they had no intelligence at all. This is the sense in which the Bible uses the term, fool.
It deserves special notice that this is the worst and most disgraceful sense of the term. Fools in most of the other senses of this word are not much if at all accountable; perhaps they are not moral agents at all; and hence the term as applied to them is not reproachful. We may pity them; but it were unreasonable and cruel to blame or even despise them.
But a moral fool, who has reason and will not use it, who gives himself up to his own gratification as if he had no intelligence and meant to stultify all the sense God has given him--he is a mean man, and the term fool which the Bible applies to him is intrinsically and most justly reproachful.
The term wisdom in scripture, denotes true religion, virtue, or holiness. It implies a knowledge of things as they are, and especially some right knowledge of God, and a corresponding conformity of heart to this knowledge. It always involves these two elements; enlightened intelligence, and a systematic yielding of the heart to the control of known truth.
The meaning of our text is obvious. It asks why sinners should possess all the means of salvation, and have the opportunity of laying hold of infinite good, and yet have no heart to use it. Wherefore is it that they have so great a price lodged in their hands? Why does God give them the means to buy, when they don't want the commodity?
The text assumes that sinners really have all the requisite means of salvation--that they have no heart to lay hold of it though it be an infinite good; and that, acting thus, they are really fools. It is taken for granted that having price enough in their hands to buy infinite good and yet refusing to buy, they are fools indeed. Then the inquiry is pressed;--Why is this so? Why are so many facilities afforded, and no use made of them?
This naturally leads us to inquire in the first place what constitutes the price which sinners have in their hands?
To this we answer,
1. God has removed the obstacles to their salvation by giving Christ to die for them. Now if they will only give themselves up to Christ and accept his atonement for their sins, there remains no need of their suffering the penalty of the law. They are indeed condemned to hell already, and most justly; but through the death of Christ, the redemption-money is put into their hands, and they may redeem themselves if they will.
2. God tenders to them the advocacy and mediation of Christ. It only remains that they accept it, and it is theirs--freely, faithfully, unceasingly. God has given his own Son to mediate between sinners on the one hand, and the infinite government and throne of Jehovah on the other. Now he only asks the sinner, will you have my own Son for your prevailing advocate? I "hear him always."
3. Christ himself in all his official relations is offered to sinners. Every thing that he is appointed to do, he offers to do for them. The true Christian can say in truth, Jesus is mine, my Teacher, my Mediator, my atoning Sacrifice, my everlasting Friend, my All. Now everything that Christ can do for the soul, he offers to do for every sinner. The price is put into the sinner's hands to obtain this immeasurable good.
4. God offers him also the Holy Spirit. Yea, this Spirit is given, is sent to strive with even the wayward, unwilling sinner. Fain would the Spirit lead him to forsake his sins and live. The heavenly voice calls, entreats, implores; the Divine Agent throws light before his mind; awakens solemn thought; bears long with his stubbornness and folly; so that no sinner can say--There is none to plead with me that I would turn and live, for the Spirit of God is doing this very thing.
5. All the promises are given the sinner. God has given you all these exceeding great and precious promises that he may encourage and incite you to lay hold of everlasting life. They cover every want you have or can have, they come down to meet you just where you are, like a golden chain let down from the eternal throne to lift you out of the horrible pit, and raise you up to heaven. O, what promises! Surely such words could come from none but God! What a price are they! They are written pledges--the express bonds of the government of God--government bonds, sinner, enough to insure you the infinite riches of the treasury of Jehovah,--yet they are laid at your feet--a price put into your hands to get wisdom.
6. God gives you all things requisite to life and godliness. All needed grace is provided and proffered you to make sure to you eternal life. Provision enough is here to meet all your need for time and for eternity. You may have the prayers of this people, their sympathies, their counsels; all the aid they can afford you in your way to heaven. You cannot imagine a thing essential to your salvation which God has not furnished you--not one thing. On his part all is done. Nothing remains except what necessarily devolves on you to do.
There are some things essential to the salvation of the sinners which God cannot do. They must be done by the sinner himself. God cannot repent in your stead, you must repent for yourself. Neither can God believe on Christ for you; this also you must of necessity do yourself. The Deity cannot be born again for you, so that it shall answer instead of your "making yourself a new heart and a right spirit." It is no part of the provisions of salvation to relieve you of the responsibility of these duties. Indeed it is in the nature of the case impossible that you should be saved unless your own mind consents to obey God and acceeds to the whole plan of salvation. No other being in the universe can give this consent of the mind in your stead, so as to exonerate you from the responsibility of doing it yourself.
But everything that God could do, he has done. He knew the whole ground beforehand. His eye ran through the whole subject; he knew your guilt and condemnation, and consequent need of an atonement; he knew your ignorance and need of instruction; your waywardness and consequent need of guidance and quickening; your reluctance and aversion, and consequent need of mighty influences to constrain you to turn and live. Hence it is with the utmost truth that the Deity, looking over the whole case, says of you as of his ancient people, "what could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?"
And now in view of all that God has done to bless the sinner by putting in his hand a price of infinite value, how can we say less than this, that every sinner who has this price given him to get wisdom and will not use it, is a fool, really a fool in the worst sense of that term?
Sinner, your conduct is infinitely unreasonable. It would be wicked to call you anything else than a fool. If any one should call you anything else than a fool, he would be a liar like yourself. You can rightly bear no other name than this, No other word so perfectly expresses your real character, and so well distinguishes you from all other beings in the universe. By pre-eminence, and in distinction from all other beings, you are a fool. Yes, a fool and a liar in the worst sense of the term are you--in the same sense in which Satan is a fool and a liar. --Did I say, in the same sense in which Satan is a fool? I take that back. The devil has no price put into his hands to get wisdom. Who knows that if he had, he would play the fool with it as you do? Go bear this price to hell, and then put it in the hands of Satan and his angels, and see if they will scorn it as you do. Let them have Bible societies there, and the glorious effusions of the Holy Spirit, and let the tidings ring through all the deep caverns of hell--"Behold now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."--Who knows that they would hear with cold indifference, and spurn with proud contempt as some of you do? We are too fast then, in saying that Satan and his legions are as wicked fools as those ungodly sinners who will not have salvation. We should not condemn them before they are proved guilty. Put on trial, they might show vastly more wisdom than you do. It is by no means improbable that you are greater fools than they. We do not know that they would not reject the offer of eternal life. True they once played the fool when they broke away from their rightful allegiance to God. They did then just what you did when you began to sin; but no offers of mercy ever fell upon their ears. Who knows that they would have been so great fools as to have trampled Mercy underneath their feet? Surely they have never evinced that superlative folly which characterizes the sinner who will not have a redemption which costs him nothing but which cost the Son of God a cruel death.
But let us enter into some particulars which show the infinite folly and unreasonableness of the sinner's course.
1. Sinners prefer their own gratification to the happiness of God and of the universe. They had rather please themselves than please God, though they know that God's pleasure is perfectly right and perfectly vital to the happiness of the universe. O, what infinite folly to be willing to see the well-being of the universe put in jeopardy, or even sacrificed, to secure their own selfish gratification!
What should you think of a man who should see a city taking fire and know that by an effort he might extinguish the fire and save the city;--but prefers some slight gratification, and sees it burn down. He had rather read a novel, or finish his dinner, or play with a whistle,--any such paltry gratification he places before the saving of a city from devouring fire! O, you would cry out, What a contemptible fool! What a wicked fool, and a wretch! O, you would cry--What! would he stop to read his novel, or finish his dinner, or jingle a rattle-box, and give this mean gratification the preference over the salvation of a city from fire!--What a fool!
We do not call the fowls of the air or the beasts of the field fools, for they know no better;--but the beings whom God has given intelligence and who then make themselves like brutes, should be called fools in the worst sense of that term.
2. Sinners are fools because they give time the preference over eternity. These little interests that can endure but for a moment, they value more than those momentous interests that must endure through ceaseless ages. Just think of this! They not only hazard, but cast away eternal interests for those which are transient as a dream. If this is not folly, what can be?
3. Sinners prefer their own present gratification to eternal happiness with God. God promises them his own infinite smiles of love and favor; they of their own accord forfeit this blessedness every day they live for the sake of the pitiful pleasures of sin. What infinite folly is this!
4. Sinners are fools because they really care more for men than for God; care more for the good opinion of men than of God; are more afraid of offending men than God; care more to be loved by men than to be loved by God, and would sooner please man than God. All this you know is the fact. Some of you are conscious that it is your state of mind this very moment. You can all look back to the time when you practically acted and really felt as I have just described. You thought a thousand fold more of men than of God. Was there ever greater folly than this in hell?
How do you suppose that angels must regard this? What can be more wonderful to them than such folly in beings whom God has made capable of wisdom? What can astonish and amaze them more than to see how men treat God? How they must feel to see men treat their Infinite Father with absolutely no respect whatever--with not a thousandth part so much respect as they show to most of their fellow mortals! O, they never saw God so abused and insulted in their worlds of light and love! O, they cry out--why does God bear with such outrageous insult? Why does he let any sinner breathe his air or see his sun light another moment?
And if they wonder that God should bear with the sinner's folly, surely they cannot any the less wonder that sinners should be such fools. O, they say, why will those sinners lose heaven and go down to hell for absolutely no good reason whatever--nay, when every imaginable reason urges them to win eternal bliss and shun eternal woe?
5. Sinners show their folly inasmuch as they care more for their bodies than they do for their souls. What hosts there are over all the land who really care more for dress than they do for heaven; or more for the low forms of sensual gratification than for the noble enjoyments of benevolent affections. O what folly to put the body before the soul! And what is that body, sinner, for which you care so much? Pray what is it made of, and what is it? Made of the same matter which last year was gathered in from your wheat field--the same which a little farther back was carted out from the dung-hill;--now you are strutting about with a portion of this same substance in your body; and you are proud of it, and value it more than your immortal soul! And where may this choice body of yours be when another summer shall have come and gone? Where? There is a place for it on yonder hill, and there are worms there to consume it. Ah, sinner, is this worth more to you than the soul that never dies?
Your soul--what is it? A spark of God--a living, thinking agent, made like it's Author to exist onward, and still onward through everlasting ages. In its essential nature as intelligent, and moral, it is made like God. Like God, your soul must exist eternally, reaping forever the fruits of seed sown in these passing years of your existence.
And yet this soul you value less than that earthly body! You would think a man mad if he should pay more attention to his shoes than to his feet--if he should value the cloth he wears more than the body that wears it! Yet your folly is greater far than this.
6. The sinner's folly is apparent also in this; he prizes other books more than the Bible. He reads other authors much; the Bible little, or perhaps none at all.
What strange conduct is this. Consider, of what does the Bible treat? Is it merely of history, or of philosophy, or is it to be valued merely for its poetry? No, no; it is far more than this;--it is a guide from earth to heaven--rather a guide from the way of hell to the way of heaven; it leads away from the doom of the lost to the joys of the blest. It puts into your hands a pearl of great price. O how precious! But in its place you put Byron and Shakespeare--and what next? Perhaps Tom Thumb or Don Quixote--nothing can be so mean or so frivolous that you will not prefer it before the glorious word of God.
Some of you probably know so little about the Bible that you would not know whether the preacher had quoted from the Bible or the Koran! Shame on such ignorance of such a book as the Bible! Let me ask these young men and young women; how much have you read in your Bible the past year? Is it so much that you are advancing in that knowledge of God which it reveals? Are you sure that you have made some fresh accessions to your knowledge of the Bible during the past week? Suppose your Bible could speak and were called on to testify how much you had read in it;--what sort of testimony would it bear? If that Bible could also testify how much you have neglected its pages and how much you have read other books of far less importance; if it could testify also to the small interest you have felt when you seemed to be reading its sacred lines and to your great interest, when you have read other pages inspired with far other spirits;--what a testimony would be borne! How full of condemnation to your soul! Let this come home to every heart.
7. The sinner's madness appears also in this; --they postpone the one thing needful for almost any trifling matter. Religion is put off and made to give way to everything else. One man pleads that he must pay his debts first; another must get his lessons first, or perhaps get through college first; and then, after all the more important things are done, he will attend to religion. Thus in practice religion is made the last of all things, and in time of being attended to it comes last of all. In theory, however, these same men will admit and even maintain that it should be first of all.
Now there can be no greater or surer mark of folly than to pursue a course directly the opposite of what we know to be right. This every sinner is doing.
You cannot conceive a more desperate folly in the universe than that of the sinner who has such a price put into his hands to get wisdom but who has no heart to improve it. Do you suppose there was ever heard of in the whole universe anything so shocking, so monstrous, so absurd, so foolish, so hateful, so devilish--devilish did I say?--so much worse than devilish, as this folly of the sinner who might buy heaven, but chooses to throw away his price and go to hell! O, this is the perfection of folly! Surely nothing in the line of folly can outdo this!
Charles G. Finney was a legendary evangelist and one of the leaders of the Second Great Awakening that took place in America from 1790 – 1840. In 1835, Charles Finney agreed to become a professor at Oberlin Collegiate Institute (known as Oberlin College after 1850), with the agreement that he could continue to preach in New York, where he was from. In 1851, the professor became the second president of the college. To refresh reader’s memories, Oberlin College became the first college in the United States to admit women and blacks as students in addition to white men. In fact, Oberlin is the oldest co-educational college in the United States.
Finney was a firm believer that Christians needed to work to build the Kingdom of God on earth. He believed the truly faithful would be able to usher in the Millennium by eliminating the “great and sore evils” of the world, which he identified in fiery fashion. If one reads the sermons Finney preached in his time, perceptive individuals can see his words also apply in such a time as this. The words he shared then could be shared across America today, which again is in a time of tense divisiveness, and void of true moral leadership for the most part. (Description from Tim Taylor - Kingdom League international)
Additional Faith & Spirit-filled links…
From Audrey Assad: Be Thou My Vision by Audrey Assad — Official Music Video - 6/7/2016
From Kirk Cameron on TBN: Franklin Graham: The ONLY WAY To WIN BACK America in 2024 – 9/6/24
From Angela Primm Battle Hymn Of The Republic sung by Angel Primm" - 12/6/2007
Eric Metaxas on TBN: "The Time Is Coming," Erwin Lutzer WARNS of Christianity's PERILOUS Future – 9/6/24
From CeCe Winans: Goodness of God by CeCe Winans (Live) – 6/20/2021
From Pastor Dr. Voddie Baucham:Living Faithfully in Babylon | Voddie Baucham | CovCon'24 – 6/5/2024
From Thomas Mac: Fighting For America - Official Music Video - Thomas Mac – 5/27/24
From World Outreach Church with Allen Jackson: The Manipulation of Academia and the Media | Allen Jackson Ministries – 8/31/24
From Enni Francis: No Longer Slaves | Jonathan David and Melissa Helsa | Cover by Enni Francis and Kanaan Francis - 10/5/20
From Rabbi Jonathan Cahn: The Strongest Power In The Universe | Jonathan Cahn Sermon – 8/29/24
From The American Minute with Bill Federer: Reagan on Secularism, Socialism, Abortion, Middle East , the Bible – 9/2/2024
Podcast - From Dutch Sheets Ministries: No Longer On The Defense | Give Him 15 Daily Prayer with Dutch | September 5, 2024
Podcast – From Kingdom League International: If God is in Control then What is He Waiting For? – 8/25/2024
From Think Biblically Course via My Faith Votes: Think Biblically | Stand Firm in Your Faith – Lessons 1 -4 (w/ Dr. Albert Mohler)