To Please God, We Must Take Sides

By David J. Stewart

Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other;
or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

       I don't care who you are, everyone must choose sides in life if you are to please God. Most professed Christians in the world are fence-straddlers, that is, they are trying to live for God and mammon at the same time. The Bible warns that it cannot be done. The word “mammon” simply means wealth (money). Every Christian must take sides!

Taking sides often means offending someone. It's inevitable! Anytime you take sides—Biblically, morally, philosophically, doctrinally, religiously or in a debated matter, someone is going to dislike you. Thus, taking sides means losing some fans. Taking sides means losing some money. Taking sides means losing some business. Taking sides means losing some followers. Taking sides means losing some members. Taking sides means losing some popularity. Taking sides means offending those who hold the opposing view. Taking sides means choosing sides! God tells us in Revelation 3:15-16, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” God dislikes fence-straddlers. A lot of people have splinters of wood in their posterior from straddling-the-fence for so many years. It's time to get off the fence!

Today's Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) singers are fence-straddlers. These are people who prefer to drive in the center-lane of the road rather than staying in their proper lane; thus, forcing people into wrong spiritual directions. CCM fills the sinful desire for worldly music in the hearts of backslidden believers and unsaved religious people. The lyrics are secondary to the sensual beat of the music. CCM is worldly music repackaged, to infiltrate the churches.

CCM's lyrics are worldly, lacking any Biblical doctrine. Their music is sensual, worldly and devilish. None of the singers expose the demonic Roman Catholic religion; but rather, cater to them (and many of the singers are Catholic). Today's churches are filled with spiritual pride and self-righteousness, which is just as wicked and disgusting as gambling, dancing and drunkenness. As Christians we ought to take a stand against worldly music creeping into the Church. You cannot please God by remaining silent while Rock music enters the church. The Devil's music has no place in our churches. Music follows doctrine. When a church changes its doctrinal position, then changes are inevitable.

“If we're the far right, they're the far wrong! Amen! They call us pro-life, they're pro-death! ... If they're politically correct, we're Biblically correct! ... You can't be both!”

SOURCE: Pastor Danny Castle, from the life-changing sermon, NOT FOR SALE!

Ecumenical ministers are fence-straddlers, avoiding sectarian bias to increase sales of books and church attendance. Joel Osteen avoids anything unpleasant, controversial or dogmatic in his sermonettes. Osteen is teaching psychology and religious humanism instead of the truths of God's Word. Max Lucado removed the name “Church of Christ” from his denomination, hiding his true affiliation to increase the marketability of his scores of religious books. Billy Graham has been personal friends with all the Popes of Rome over the past half-century, an adulterous spiritual love-affair with unbelievers. Apostasy is everywhere.

Preachers ought to preach on hellfire, brimstone and judgment as much as love, unity and faith. Some people ask, “Well what's wrong with preaching on unity? Aren't believers supposed to unite and live in harmony?” Yes, but the problem is that God doesn't mean for believers to unite with unbelievers in harmony, because there can be no fellowship between light and darkness, nor between God and Satan (2nd Corinthians 6:14-17).

Christians ought to unite in brotherly and sisterly love; but never are we to unite in cooperation with unsaved heathens who pervert the Gospel and teach another Jesus, another Gospel or another spirit (2nd Corinthians 11:3-4).
 

Without FAITH It Is Impossible To Please Him

The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6 that it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God without faith. God cannot be pleased with partial faith, or temporary faith; but with genuine faith. Luke 18:1-8 teaches a startling truth, that is, that God routinely ignores us when we pray. But God, unlike the evil judge who doesn't care, ignores us to test our faith to see if we'll keep asking or quit (and put God on trial like so many ungrateful people today these days). Jesus asks in Luke 18:8 if He'll find any faith upon the earth when He returns. Within context, Jesus is speaking about believers who consistently pray to God, despite feeling like God doesn't answer. It's all a big test of our faith my friend.

If God answered men's prayers quickly, obviously and consistently, then everyone would want to pray for the wrong reasons. Ah, so God answers our prayers in ways that no one can detect (not even us). I have learned that God works in decades! Hindsight plainly reveals the workings of God (after-the-fact). The Old Testament book of Esther so beautifully illustrates this truth. God is not mentioned even once, but we see his hand at work. When you can't see the hand of God, trust the heart of God my friend. We take sides by faith! Every choice that we make in life ought to be by faith.

God is not please with anyone who lives for mammon (wealth), choosing a career over motherhood and marriage (1st Timothy 5:14-15). The criminals who have taken over America are forcing women to work or end up on welfare, forcing wives to work or the family end up on section-8 or homeless. Economic oppression is a powerful WEAPON. This single weapon has empowered the Globalists to utterly destroy our nation.
 

America Has Sided With The Devil

The Bible warns us about entering into the path of the wicked...

Proverbs 4:14 and 18, “Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. ...But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”

GO NOT IN THE WAY OF EVIL MEN!!! Homosexuality is way of evil people, the path of the wicked! Abortion is the way of evil people, the path of the wicked! Pornography is the way of the evil, the path of evil people! Divorce is the way of evil people, the path of the wicked! Booze is the way of evil people, the path of the wicked! Oh America, read these Scriptures and weep, for we are worse sinners than the Israelites in the Old Testament ever were...

Deuteronomy 32:5, “They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.”

Deuteronomy 32:15-18, “But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.  Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.”

Deuteronomy 32:22, “For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.”

Deuteronomy 32:29, “O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!”

Deuteronomy 32:35, “To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.”

America today is much worse than the Old Testament Jews or the inhabitants of Sodom ever were. The reason why is because we have been given so much more TRUTH and chances to repent and obey God. We have been given a clear understanding of the Gospel, since we live post New Testament. We have been given the completed Bible. Old Testament saints only had the writings given to Moses (the first five books of the Bible).

Yet we have enslaved ourselves because of sin in America. I was reading some of today's headlines from July 31, 2012. Just today I read that a 31-year old man died while having a sexual threesome with his friend and another woman to whom he was not married (the man is married with 2-children). The man died from heart failure while having sex. His family sued the man's cardiologist for failing to tell him that he couldn't have sex because of his defective heart. The judge awarded the family $3,000,000 instead of the $5,000,000 they sought. The judge said that the sex-threesome was 40% the man's fault. Isn't that insane!

In another news story, a 30-year old Hispanic man drove over his 20-year old Hispanic wife and 2-year old son in anger, killing the son instantly. When the police arrived, the father's SUV was still parked on top of the child. The father stabbed the mother in the throat numerous times with a knife, but she lived. So sad! This is America today. This is all in today's news. My friend, by not taking sides with the Bible, you are automatically open prey for the Devil.

I read about another man today from Georgia, only 51-years old, who commit suicide. He was a decorated Navy military veteran, separated from his wife. He had sex with his daughter's college friend in Indiana, claiming it was consensual, but the woman said she was raped and the man has been charged, facing 20-years in prison. He taped a plastic bag over his head and used helium gas to asphyxiate himself to death. So sad. Sin always takes you further than you planned to go, costs you more than you wanted to pay, and keeps you longer than you intended to stay. The Devil is a liar, showing people the neon lights of Broadway and Las Vegas; but Satan never shows anyone the morgues, hospitals and prisons.

What bothered me the most was that in the story of the man running over his wife and child, the website posted the story in a blog, asking people to comment. It became a racial thing—dozens of members spewing racial hatred against each other, calling each other disparaging names, and hating one another. The issue was that Mexican men are far more likely to cause violence than Caucasian men. Sadly, it is true, because Mexican men love their booze. The evil beer cartel pushes off their liquid devil to anyone who will buy it, destroying numerous cultures. It's not uncommon to find 10 empty cases of Corona beer in the alley where Mexicans live after a weekend party.

The beer companies target Hispanics and minority cultures with their subtle advertising. Child molesting is epidemic in the Mexican culture. Spousal abuse is commonplace. Oh, the evils of alcohol in society! The Eskimo community in Anchorage, Alaska has been utterly destroyed because of booze! Island cultures around the world hide the truth about the evils of booze in their culture. Hawaii has a serious problem with alcoholics. The Hawaiian culture is a booze culture!

In another horrible news story, a 70-year-old New York woman was robbed of her purse by a 21-year old and a 20-year-old thug while putting groceries in her car. The two punks were caught by police. What do you expect when you take the Bible out of children's lives? I recently heard Chicago's new crime syndicate mayor, Rahm Emanuel say that gang members should have personal values and take their fights to the alley, so little children won't be shot. An alarming number of children have been shot to death in Chicago this year, an unnecessary tragedy which has plagued Chicago for decades due to government sponsored drug-trafficking.

“The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” Plato

Rahm Emanuel came straight from the criminal Obama administration in Washington D.C.! The globalists (offshore banking cartel) have taken over America. It wasn't hard for them to do, since they control all the money through the Federal Reserve Banks and have purchased all mainstream newsmedia outlets. They also own Hollywood and have taken control over the highest positions of the FBI, CIA, FEMA, Homeland Security, TSA, BATF, NSA, the Justice Department and the Pentagon. Their cronies are in charge of all these agencies. Congress has all the power, but the 535 members have been bought and paid for, many blackmailed and others are just frightened to end up like James Traficant Jr.

Only 40 members of Congress voted against the treasonous NDAA law signed by President Obama on December 31, 2011, giving Homeland Security and the government the power to make any American disappear forever without a trace (with no right to attorney nor trial). While the family of a man who died from an immoral sex-threesome will collect over a million dollars from a court-awarded judgment, your government can make you vanish without a trace and there's absolutely nothing anyone can do about it. The Bill of Rights no longer exists in our corrupt court system. It's all about money and greedy, corrupt, evil judges and lawyers.

In another story a man robbed a McDonalds of hundreds of dollars and fled on foot, running across a 6-lane-highway. Someone thought that was strange and reported him to police who caught him. This is just the very tip of the iceberg of just one day's news in America. I rarely read the news because it is all so depressing, but the media makes the titles catchy, so I read them when I run across them here and there.

To the same degree that Americans embrace wickedness, to that same degree a totalitarian Police State is rising up around us. God sets up and takes down rulers. Daniel 2:21, “And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding.” God has given to us the leaders that we deserve... criminals, cons and crooks! This is what a culture of Rock 'N' Roll, pornography, fornication, drunkenness, abortion, divorce and lesbianism deserve!
 

Who Is On The Lord's Side?

You must take sides my friend. When Moses died and was buried by the Lord, Joshua took Moses place to lead the people in the ways of the Lord. No prophet was ever as great as Moses according to Deuteronomy 34:10...

Deuteronomy 34:10-12, “And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, In all the signs and the wonders, which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel.”

Joshua learned as Moses did that the Jews were a stiffnecked people, complainers and lacking faith oftentimes. Joshua gives the people an ultimatum in Joshua 24:15...

Joshua 24:15, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

America will descend into the lowest parts of Hell as Deuteronomy 32:22 warns for any wicked nation. Isaiah 5:14 says that Hell hath enlarged her mouth, opening wide without measure for the wicked. 

Isaiah 5:14, “Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.”

The world today is saturated with ungodly counsel, the way of the wicked and gossiping slanderers...

Psalms 1:1, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”

The desire for riches is a dangerous desire, because in this sinful world the fastest path to wealth nearly always involves some type of immorality. Gambling casinos are 100% profitable. Some of the people who gamble win, others lose, but the house always wins! Night clubs are a fast path to wealth, because booze is sold by the truckload. Some Las Vegas nightclubs have over a dozen mini-bars inside, where people can get drunk.

Sexual immorality, nudity, drugs and booze are commonplace in all nightclubs. That's why Sin City went from less than a population of 1,000 people in 1900 to one of America's biggest cities today. People love evil! John 3:20 says those who love evil run from the Light of Jesus Christ and His Word.

Everyone wants to straddle-the-fence (you'll get splinters in your rump) to avoid offending anyone. Christian singings want as many fans as possible, so they try to avoid tell you what they believe. It's all about the love of money (1st Timothy 6:7-10).

Mature Christians DO RIGHT just because it's right. It's not always easy, nor fun to do the right thing. In fact, a lot of times it's difficult and costs you something. The Christian life is likened to shoveling sand, that is, it's not complicated, it's just hard work. If you take a stand for God you'll likely lose popularity. You'll likely lose money. You'll likely lose favor. Once upon a time in America it was right to be a heterosexual, but now it's wrong to oppose homosexual lifestyle. As man's standards change, Christians are in the battle for our lives in America. Thankfully, God is still on His throne and that means we ought to pray like never before for God's will to be done in our lives.

Deuteronomy 6:18-19, “And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, To cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the LORD hath spoken.”

DO RIGHT! Though the stars fall, DO RIGHT!!!
 

We Must Take Sides Doctrinally To Please God

One of the quickest ways to know that a church or a person is apostate is if they don't place emphasis on the importance of Biblical doctrine. My friend, doctrine is one of the most important things to a Christian! 2nd Timothy 4:3: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” Most people will not tolerate hard preaching from the Bible. Roman Catholics are so used to hearing dead religious mumbo-jumbo that they can't handle when they hear a hell, fire and damnation preacher. The truth offends people. The Bible is truth (John 17:17). In 2012, most people will not tolerate a Bible-preacher who hoops and hollers from the pulpit. Everyone likes Joel Osteen because he doesn't preach the doctrine of Christ.

There's no way that any believer can please God by disregarding Bible doctrine. Most professed Christians today are very familiar with all the Contemporary Christians Music (CCM), but they are woefully ignorant of the doctrine of Christ. They can instantly mention a dozen Christian rock bands, but they couldn't find a Scripture teaching Christ's virgin birth if their life depended on it. Most professed Christians (and I say professed because I have my doubts about their salvation) couldn't show you Scriptures on how to be saved, the deity of Jesus, the Godhead, et cetera; but they can quote the songs of Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith word-for-word. It's apostasy!

The Bible exhorts every believer to study the Scriptures in order to explain our beliefs. There's nothing worse than a person who doesn't know why they believe what they believe, because people will disrespect you for not thinking and you'll lose the opportunity to win them to Christ. 1st Peter 3:15, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” I'm not saying that you have to become a theologian, but you should at least know why you believe what you believe to answer others when they inquire.

For example: A man once asked me, “What is the basis of your beliefs and what what makes you think that your beliefs are correct over anyone else's.” Those are fair questions. I explained to him that everything I believe is based upon my faith that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. I then explained why I believe the Bible is God's Word. I explained the miraculous manner in which the Bible came to humanity. Forty different men, who spanned a 2,000 year period of history (2,000 BC to 96 AD), who spoke different languages, and lived in different countries, some old and some young—all penned the Bible; yet incredibly all the books of the Bible harmonize and compliment each other, piecing together an amazing prophetic puzzle that would not be even astronomically probably or possible without divine intervention. There's absolutely no way that men wrote the Bible Oftentimes the Old Testament prophets didn't even know what they were penning for God. .

Furthermore, over 5,000 manuscripts of the Bible (some partial, others complete) have been unearthed throughout the Middle East by archeologists. If men wrote the Bible, why would thousands of manuscripts exist—some in Hebrew and Chaldean (Daniel) and others in Greek? How would this even be possible? Any honest student of history and archaeology must acknowledge the supernatural manner in which the Bible has been given to humanity.

There are hundreds of proofs of the Bible's divine origin. God did this for a reason, that is, so that the honest person could clearly see that God authored the Bible. Secular history supports the Bible. Science supports the Bible. The Bible said in Isaiah 40:22 that the earth is a “circle.” Back in the 17th century when men were arguing and killing each other in debates over whether the earth was flat or round, the Bible already contained the answer. We are so blessed today to have the written Words of God, in view of the fact that no one had a printed Bible for over 5,000 years of history. Can you imagine that? The Egyptian wrote on stone (known as hieroglyphics). You'd think that paper would have been invented long ago, but the first Paper was invented by the Chinese by 105 AD during the Han Dynasty and spread slowly to the west via Samarkand and Baghdad.[1]

We are living in wicked times when people love entertainment more than truth. People love pleasures more than pleasing God. People love themselves instead of the Lord Jesus Christ. America has gone to hell in a hand-basket. Kids today are under demonic attack. Satan removed the Bible and prayer from America's classrooms in 1963. Those wicked members of the U.S. Supreme Court are Satan's servants. The same reprobates legalized child murder in 1973. Same-sex marriage is next. The Devil has taken control of America because people have forsaken the Bible.

Most people don't even have salvation, let alone having the correct doctrines Biblically. Until a person believes the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to get saved, they will never understand spiritual matters (1st Corinthians 2:14-17). The Holy Spirit of God indwells (lives within) every believer (Romans 8:9; 1st Corinthians 3:16-17). Thus, as Christians we have the Holy Spirit to “guide you into all truth” as John 16:13 promises. 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.” There's a lot of unsaved religious people in our churches who are doctrinally corrupt, teaching things which they ought not. It is our duty as born-again believers to warn others who are weaker in the faith.

The internet and most Christian bookstores are a religious minefield of false doctrines and damnable heresies. We are embattled in a spiritual war today. Pastors, preachers and evangelists are the spiritual lieutenants and captains on the battlefield. Not every believer is called to be an enlisted soldier as was Paul and Timothy. 2nd Timothy 2:3, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” However, every Christian believer is a part of the war. During World Wars I and II Americans who weren't enlisted as soldiers supported the war back home by working in munitions factories, and by preparing food, clothing and airplane parts.

Literally, Americans supported the war effort in thousands of ways without actually being in the military. Likewise, every Christian's enemy is not the flesh; but rather, against principalities, against powers, against spiritual wickedness in high places, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world (Ephesians 6:12-17). Every born-again Christian is at spiritual war with the flesh, the Devil and the world. If you've not been called to be a soldier for Christ, then please know that you are still involved in a spiritual war. If you're not a soldier, then uplift holy hands and support God's man with prayer and resources. Get involved in a local New Testament Church that preaches only from the King James Bible.

Sadly and tragically, most believers who are called by God AWOL (absent without leave) from their duty to stand for the Lord.
 

Taking Sides For Eternity

I watched a 2-hour PBS documentary yesterday about the building of the Panama Canal (a canal connecting the western and eastern oceans, allowing ships to pass through Central America, rather than traveling all the way south around the southern tip of South America). The French attempted to build it first, but after 20,000 men died gave up. Then the United States took the task, under orders from President Theodore Roosevelt, and the canal was finished in 1914. Another 5,000 men died while the U.S. built the canal. Can you imagine... 25,000 men gave their lives to build the Panama Canal (most men died from flash flooding and yellow fever, carried by mosquitoes). What a loss of life! All I could think of is where are those men today, Heaven or Hell?

Did you ever stop to ponder the largeness of our world? Today there are nearly 7,000,000,000 people alive on earth!!! Every single one of them has to take sides either with Jesus Christ or against Him. Less than 0.5% of the 120,000,000 people in Japan profess to be Christian. A whopping 60% say they don't believe in God. Titus 2:11 teaches us that the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men and women. Romans 1:20 says that no man has an excuse not to acknowledge God in their life.

Oh, how men need the Lord Jesus Christ!!! Salvation is not an option; it's every person's only way to escape the fires of eternal damnation in Hell. The Japanese are such sweet and ethical people; yet they know not the God of the Bible. Acts 4:10-2 teaches that salvation is found ONLY in the name of Jesus Christ. No other name is given to men by which they can be saved. Jesus warned that no one can enter into the kingdom of God unless they are born-again, for the second time (spiritually into God's family). There's a lot of false and lame ideas floating around in music, books and churches today about what it means to be born-again. Most of them are wrong and haven't the foggiest idea what the Bible means, because they have religion without salvation.

Being “born-again” means having He Who is the beginning (Revelation 1:8) born in you. Amen! Being born again means believing the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then His Spirit comes to live within your body; thus, you now have the new man (new creature, 2nd Corinthians 5:17) living in you. The unsaved man has only the flesh; but the Christian has the old man (flesh) and the new man (Spirit of Christ, Romans 8:9).

Where will you spend eternity friend... Heaven or Hell? There is no purgatory, no soul sleep, no annihilation, nor floating in lack of consciousness through space for eternity as some people falsely think. There are thousands of crazy ideas concerning the afterlife, but we have the written PROMISES of God to help us make the proper decision. The correct choice is Jesus Christ Who died, was buried and raised up three days later for our justification. The afterlife need not be frightening nor uncertain if you claim the promises of God's Word. Acts 10:43, “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.”

Matthew 16:18, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

(Peter is the Greek word, petros, and means a stone; but Jesus is the rock (Petra) which means a mountain)

END OF ARTICLE


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