In Whom Do You Trust

The true hope of a nation

The next few moments are devoted to silent prayer. You have the privacy of your priesthood, the option of rebound if necessary to insure the filling of the Spirit for the perception and metabolism of Bible doctrine. You also have the opportunity of blotting everything else out except concentration on the teaching of the Word of God. In preparation for our study, let us pray.

Most gracious Heavenly Father,

We thank Thee for the privilege of being sustained logistically in this, the devils, world; and that we have the privilege and the opportunity of fulfilling the most exciting and the most unusual plan of all human history. We are grateful that we live in the Church Age and in no other dispensation, where we have been given so much, and where the significance of the ordinary believer is beyond measure. We pray that God the Holy Spirit will challenge us regarding the things that we note, for we ask it in Christ’s name, Amen.

From time to time, we pause for what I call inculcation to emphasize how values are formed. One source of values is eschatology, the study of future events from biblical prophecy. From this knowledge we can appreciate and understand that the source of our hope and happiness is our guaranteed future with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Rarely do I watch television, or the news, but I did this evening. I wanted to see the crowd at the inauguration festivities. I knew the media interviews with people in the crowd would be excellent. There was quite a cross-section of people from this country attending the inauguration. Almost without exception, everyone interviewed expressed similar ideas. Some were eloquent, some spoke with hesitation, some with a measure of confusion, but they all centered eventually on one word — hope. Their hope was not the biblical hope of confidence in the Lord and in the Word of God— the function of the faith-rest drill as one of the problem-solving devices. In effect, their hope was based on unrealistic expectations — a new face in the White House, a new administration, a political change. To the people who were interviewed, political change meant something better for them. Hope was the word they used. They were depending upon government — a government that has failed to fulfill its functions and obligations and has the greatest indebtedness in human history. They were depending on Congress, on a president, on people, on a government that has shown tremendous Fiscal irresponsibility, to say the least. They thought the government either owed them a living or that change would bring something they wanted — happiness. A better environment was just around the corner.

These people came from long distances (some people who were obviously not well-to-do, others who obviously were); all kinds of people; they were like sheep. They were looking for something they obviously had not found.

Then I began to think of Jeremiah, chapter 17, beginning at verse 5, because this passage describes exactly what the people in this country expressed. Never have I seen on television so many people from all walks of life who had such tremendous needs. Because they cannot define their needs in terms of values, like you can, they are looking for a man to solve their problems. They are looking for government to do something for them. They are looking at people to wave a magic wand, as it were, and to give them what they want to make them happy.

From Jeremiah 17:5 I want you to understand, as a believer in Jesus Christ, what occurred on this special inauguration day. We live in the Church Age, the dispensation of the ordinary believer, when God has provided more for you than for the greatest heroes of the Old Testament. You have something that is beyond any value man can measure.

I am sure many of those people at the inauguration have heard the Gospel; I am sure many of them are believers. But they have been exposed to so much which is false doctrine that they have no concept of where their values lie.

THUS SAYS THE LORD, BEING CURSED IS THE PERSON WHO PUTS HIS CONFIDENCE IN MAN AND MAKES THE SIN NATURE HIS STRENGTH, SO

THAT HIS HEART TURNS AWAY FROM THE LORD. FOR HE SHALL BE LIKE A TUMBLEWEED IN THE DESERT. (Jeremiah 17:5-6a)

Many born-again believers are described this way, as are many unbelievers. Those thousands milling about tonight in Washington, D.C., looking for happiness, going to the various parties, the balls, all celebrations of a change because change has been the key word subjecting themselves to a false hope, how are they described? The Scripture says they are “tumbleweeds”.

In high desert country, at an altitude of at least 2,500 feet, you can look in at least three directions and see mountains. What a magnificent view; the mornings are cold, the days warm, and the winds blow almost constantly. When I was a young officer in the horse cavalry at Fort Bliss, we would ride out, mounted, troop after troop, going on a Field training exercise. The wind would come up. Our horses would shy and rear as hundreds and hundreds of tumbleweeds, like a wave of advancing troops, would blow across our path. Tumbleweeds have no roots; they are vulnerable to any wind that blows. I suppose if tumbleweeds had souls, they would be looking for a place to light and take root.

FOR HE SHALL BE LIKE A TUMBLEWEED IN THE DESERT AND HE WILL NOT SEE PROSPERITY. (Jeremiah 17:6a,6)

Prosperity is the Hebrew word tov, equivalent to the Greek agathos, meaning “good of intrinsic value.” It can be translated

“values,”

HE WILL NOT SEE VALUES WHEN THEY COME; FOR HE SHALL LIVE IN PARCHED PLACES. (Jeremiah 17:6b,c)

There are many, many reasons the people of this client nation are living in parched places. It has nothing to do with what they possess in life. It has nothing to do with their financial condition, or their job, or lack of one. It has nothing to do with any form of human security. People with human security, people without human security live in parched places. And the reason is given in the previous verse, the “heart turns away from the Lord.” Everyone is looking for assurance. There is a tremendous restlessness in the land today. Everyone wants change! But change of human environment will not help. Only that which is stable and rooted in Bible doctrine can offer comfort and happiness. Doctrine keeps people from becoming tumbleweeds in the desert.

FOR HE SHALL BE LIKE A TUMBLEWEED IN THE DESERT, FOR HE WILL NOT SEE THE ABSOLUTE GOOD [values] WHEN IT COMES; HE SHALL LIVE

IN PARCHED PLACES IN THE DESERT. (Jeremiah 17:6)

Except for the parched places, the desert can be a place of wonder and beauty. The tragedy is that parched places describe not only the unbelieving populace, but also the majority of born-again believers in the time in which we live. When I saw on the television tonight people who had been sleeping out on lawns since dawn so they could be in the right place to see the inauguration and the parade, and all the revelry — people who have placed their hope in the promises of a man — I thought, How heartbreaking to realize these people are so close and yet so far from the truth of the Word of God which is so readily available in our land. They live only in parched places in the desert.

They do not know the divine problem-solving devices are the God-given means of applying metabolized doctrine to experience, and provide the only perfect environment in the world today. That environment is in the soul.

Now you who have Bible doctrine in your soul are prepared to understand the significance of this inauguration day of the forty-second President of the United States. You have the opportunity to see what is really happening because you have that perfect environment of the soul metabolized doctrine circulating in the seven compartments of the stream of consciousness. All of the earnest emotion in the world, all of the yearning for a better life cannot solve the problems of this nation. There is no substitute for the perfect environment of tranquillity and contentment, which can exist only in the soul of the born-again believer. That perfect environment is Bible doctrine, metabolized doctrine from which originates the problem-solving devices. The problem-solving devices not only apply doctrine to experience, but provide the only perfect environment available until the Second Advent and the-millennial reign -of Jesus Christ.

BLESSED [being made happy] IS THE MAN WHO TRUSTS IN THE LORD AND WHOSE TRUST IS THE

LORD. (Jeremiah 17:7)

“Being made happy” is the passive voice in the Hebrew. Happiness is not an instant condition. Happiness is a process that develops and continues when maximum metabolized doctrine circulates in your soul. The problem-solving devices not only apply to your experience on a continual basis, but at the same time create the environment, the motivation, and the values God intends for us to possess.

As I watched the inauguration, I thought of you who have consistently learned Bible doctrine. What a contrast between you and those people who are so hungry for change, seeking hope, depending upon man when God says cursing is the result of trusting in man. Some of you have found that curse to be true as you depended on a husband, a wife, a friend. You depended on someone you thought was going to change everything for you, but they did not. You did not apply doctrine.

I occasionally see on some of your faces the same thing I saw in the faces of that crowd. You come to church for a “fix’ as it were. You want a one-shot inspiration, a religious experience, and then you are gone to do your own thing. It will not work.

BEING MADE HAPPY IS THE PERSON [the believer] WHO TRUSTS [batach] IN THE LORD. (Jeremiah 17:7a)

Trust is the qal imperfect of the verb batach in the Hebrew. This word is used for the faith-rest drill. Another word, amen, is used for salvation by faith. Even the Greek transliterates amen the same.

NOW ABRAHAM BELIEVED [amen] IN THE LORD; AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIS ACCOUNT FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Genesis 15:6)

Faith is not just the pattern for Old Testament salvation, but the pattern for salvation always. The hiphil stem of amen is the word used for faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. How much faith does it take to be saved? Just a little bit more than none at all. In the privacy of your own soul, you can speak inaudibly to God the Father and say, Father, I believe in Jesus Christ. That is all. How much faith is that? Just a little bit more than none at all.

By contrast, batach, is the faith of a believer applying the promises of God to problems. I call this the faith-rest drill. Abraham applied faith-rest. All the great heroes of the Old Testament lived the faith-rest life. We, too, can have faith-rest.

BEING MADE HAPPY IS THE PERSON WHO TRUSTS IN THE LORD. (Jeremiah 17:7a)

The faith-rest drill, one of the problem-solving devices, establishes values. The faith-rest drill uses metabolized Bible doctrine, makes application of promises to experience, and applies the doctrinal rationales.

Where do you place your hope? Hope in the Bible means confidence. Where is your confidence? In man? We have just seen in Jeremiah 17:5 that confidence in man is “being cursed.” “Being cursed” is in the passive voice indicating it is a process just as attaining permanent happiness is a process. Happiness is a process because you cannot have the problem-solving devices in place in an instant. Learning and applying Bible doctrine takes time; it is a process — a little today, a little tomorrow, a little the next day. Bible doctrine every day is our life, our blessing, our capacity for life, our

confidence, our love, and our happiness.

BEING MADE HAPPY IS THE PERSON WHO TRUSTS IN THE LORD; THEREFORE, THE LORD IS HIS [note the translation] CONFIDENCE. (Jeremiah 17:7)

The biblical word for hope means confidence, absolute confidence in a fantastic plan, in being a part of that plan, having temporal impact, but far more important, eternal repercussions. You stop running around and looking for hope, looking for some person to satisfy whatever your hopes, your desires, your lusts; you may be looking for some job, looking for some short-cut to wealth — seeking but not knowing what you are seeking. I wanted to shout to those people at the inauguration, You are putting your confidence in the wrong thing! You are depending on a man! You are depending on a government! You are depending on an organization that has demonstrated a remarkable amount of incompetence! Political change will not alter anything. Change just means a different group of imperfect people come in with the same old incompetence, the same old power lust. If you are depending upon people, you are in the process of being cursed. And if you are depending upon God,

you are in the process of being blessed.

Being blessed through Bible doctrine applied to your life makes you an invisible hero, the positive impact of the Church Age believer through personal execution of the plan of God That concept is the only way there will ever be change that fulfills the principle,

BEING MADE HAPPY IS THE PERSON WHO TRUSTS IN THE LORD; THEREFORE, THE LORD IS HIS CONFIDENCE. HE SHALL BE LIKE A TREE BEING PLANTED BY THE WATER. (Jeremiah 17:7-8a)

Water refers to Bible doctrine. Water makes the tree grow.

GROW IN GRACE AND IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. (2 Peter 3:18a)

HE SHALL BE LIKE A TREE BEING PLANTED BY THE WATER AND BY A STREAM; HE WILL SEND OUT ROOTS. (Jeremiah 17:8a,b)

What is the difference between the water and the stream? “Water” is the entire canon of Scripture. The “stream ‘ is Bible doctrine you are taught on a consistent basis. The stream is where your roots go. And the roots are the problem-solving devices that make the tree strong. You will not become a “tumbleweed” .Now note the last half of verse 8.

THEREFORE, HE DOES NOT FEAR WHEN HEAT COMES. (Jeremiah 17:8c)

Why is the believer being made happy without fear? Fear, along with guilt, is an emotional complex of sins. The two sins together are destructive to your spiritual life. You cannot deal with the adversities of life in fear, nor can you be motivated by guilt. The problem-solving devices remove fear and guilt as false motivation.

THEREFORE, HE DOES NOT FEAR WHEN HEAT COMES. (Jeremiah 17:8c)

“Heat” is the outside pressures of adversity. For the problem-solving devices on the defense line of the soul prevent the outside pressures of adversity from becoming the inside pressures of stress in the soul. How disturbing to see people suddenly becoming enthusiastic with unrealistic expectations. The greater the unrealistic expectation, the greater the disappointment. From great disappointment follows disillusionment and reaction. Disappointment always exists in human

history, with one exception. When your expectation is from the Lord, you are never disappointed.

THEREFORE, HE DOES NOT FEAR WHEN HEAT COMES FOR HIS LEAVES ARE ALWAYS GREEN. (Jeremiah 17:8c,d))

“Leaves” are a metaphor for problem-solving devices in your soul and “always green” is applying problem-solving devices to life.

HE DOES NOT WORRY IN THE YEAR OF DEPRESSION AND HE NEVER FAILS TO BEAR FRUIT. (Jeremiah 17:8e)

To “bear fruit” is the invisible impact of the believer growing in grace, functioning under his very own spiritual life, and executing the protocol plan of God for the Church Age. Bearing fruit for us today is the invisible impact of the invisible hero.

WHERE THERE IS NO VISION, THE PEOPLE PERISH. BUT HE THAT KEEPETH THE LAW, HAPPY IS HE. (Proverbs 29:18)

What does it mean for people to have a vision? The Hebrew word referred originally to the writings or the messages of the prophets of Israel, specifically to the messages that were recorded and became a part of the Word of God. This does not exclude the fact that the prophets of Israel also had other messages to the people that were not recorded, because they were not pertinent to future generations. But vision refers to the content of the message of the prophets and that content was Bible doctrine.

WHERE THERE IS NO DIVINE COMMUNICATION, [where there is no Bible doctrine] THE PEOPLE PERISH, (Proverbs 29:18a)

The niphal imperfect of para, “perish,” means to “let loose, to run wild,” not to physically die, but to be “unrestrained, to be out of hand, to let loose in the sense of letting something slip through your fingers.” Where there is no doctrine, you let that happiness and blessing slip through your fingers. Perish means to be “unruIy and ignorant” .Unruly people are often ignorant. Their ignorance of Bible doctrine motivates their unruliness, their lack of restraint.

SO HE WHO GUARDS [observes, keeps, keeps on keeping] THE LAW (Proverbs 29:18b) The adversative vowel plus the qal active participle of shamar means “to guard, to keep, to keep on keeping, to keep on observing,” therefore to persist in the perception and metabolism of doctrine. This is not just a one-shot deal, when you need a spiritual ‘fix’ when things are going wrong, but consistent perception of doctrine.

The word “Law” was used for all of the Mosaic Law. The first five books of the Old Testament, written by Moses, called the Pentateuch, include the spiritual, social, and divine establishment laws for Israel, not just the Ten Commandments. “Law” eventually came to refer to the teaching of the doctrines of the Word of God as it then existed.

So Proverbs 29:18b could be translated,

HAPPY IS HE WHO KEEPS [or guards] THE LAW [the teaching of doctrine].

In the book of Proverbs “doctrine,” when used in poetry, means the teaching of wisdom. And in Proverbs, every verse is poetry.

The noun esher is translated “happy or sharing the happiness of God.” Happiness and contentment come only through applying divine wisdom to adversity and prosperity.

WHERE THERE IS NO COMMUNICATION OF DIVINE REVELATION, THE PEOPLE LACK RESTRAINT [they are searching for something]. BUT HE WHO KEEPS THE TEACHING OF DOCTRINE, HAPPY IS HE. (Proverbs 29:18)

No nation survives long without having a national crisis and that is especially true of a client nation to God. You know there is no such thing as a Christian nation, and never will be. Nations cannot be Christian; only individuals can become Christian. Based on a Judeo-Christian heritage the founding fathers provided for religious freedom in the Constitution of the United States. Although many of the inhabitants of this country profess Christianity, the laws of divine establishment, upon which the Constitution was based, were set up to insure the protection, survival, and blessing of Christians and non-Christians alike. Religious freedom depends upon the separation of church and state (Matt. 22:21; cf., Rom. 13:1-7). Christianity cannot be forced on people. Christianity must be optional. The first half of the option is to hear the Gospel and respond:

HE WHO BELIEVES ON THE SON JESUS CHRIST HAS ETERNAL LIFE [and that is an option; it cannot be forced]. (John 3:36a)

And to hear the other half of the option:

HE WHO DOES NOT BELIEVE SHALL NOT SEE LIFE BUT THE WRATH OF GOD ABIDES ON HIM. (John 3:36b)

In a client nation to God there is the desire to communicate the Gospel, to give people a chance to hear, to accept or reject Jesus Christ. God the Holy Spirit is the sovereign executive of personal evangelism. That means all the begging, all the weeping, all the wailing, all the pressure of any kind — coming forward, raising your hand, jumping through a psychological hoop — are futile. Our responsibility is to make the Gospel clear. The function of God the Holy Spirit is to make our faith effective for salvation. With the Holy Spirit as the sovereign executive of evangelism we can only make the issue clear and no more. For people to say, We’re going to produce a Christian nation, we’re going to pass Christian laws, is tyranny.

One of the horrors during the time in which we live is when born-again believers do not have Bible doctrine, do not have the problem-solving devices, and do not understand God’s plan for their lives.

They inevitably will enter into the legalism of tyranny. They will actually become involved in Christian activism.

WHERE THERE IS NO COMMUNICATION OF DIVINE REVELATION, THE PEOPLE ARE UNRESTRAINED AND IGNORANT. (Proverbs 29:18a)

Christians who are ignorant of what the Word of God teaches are unrestrained. In activism they can destroy property and even the lives of those who disagree with them.

God has given us the greatest plan in the world, yet there is no

restraint on these believers who are involved in activism. By activism, I do not mean voting, I do not mean entering into the political activities that are related to the governing process of this country. But I do mean crowds in the street, yelling and screaming and destroying property, being viciously intolerant in their attitude toward others. There is no place for activism.

The power of Christianity is not political or visible, but is spiritual and invisible. The Christian way of life is operating within the protocol plan of God for the Church Age. The influence of the invisible hero is the only way this nation will ever bring blessing to its citizens. You must execute the protocol plan of God and become a member of the pivot, the spiritually mature believers of a client nation. This is the dispensation of the pivot of invisible heroes whose production, called in the Bible “fruit” (Gal. 5:22-23), is the true hope for this nation.

One of the most extraordinary periods of history occurred between A.D. 96 and 192 in the Roman Empire during the period of the Antonine caesars. For nearly a century few troops were ever seen within the Empire. And the distant clash of arms on the Tigris and the Euphrates, which runs through Baghdad today, and on the Rhine and on the Danube scarcely disturbed the Mediterranean lands of the Roman Empire. The Mediterranean was a Roman sea. Rome controlled North Africa and every land surrounding the Mediterranean. Six emperors or caesars ruled SPQR, Senatus Populusque Romanus, “the Senate and the People of Rome,” as the Romans called themselves. Today, we know them as the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. They even had a flag, a banner emblazoned with SPQR. The six caesars who ruled SPQR were Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Commodus. The last two emperors even persecuted Christians. None of them

were born-again believers.

Yet born-again believers had more to do with the prosperity of that period than any time in history. Born-again believers launched the pivot from Ephesus, the Roman province of Asia as western Turkey was called in those days. The men who ruled Rome were mostly unbelievers. Yet the individual flourished during the most impressive period of prosperity in history. Everything changed: Women were respected, there was a vigorous economy, a stimulating social life, and a dynamic spiritual life among believers, with fantastic prosperity the most phenomenal period in history. Why? Because a certain number of ordinary believers executed the protocol plan of God and became the beginning of a pivot. The pivot did not exist in Rome: the pivot existed in Asia Minor, long before the Ottoman Turks conquered the area. Asia Minor was a wonderful place with wonderful believers.

Edward Gibbon, the famous English historian of the last century, wrote a history in five volumes on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon believed that a person, if allowed his choice, would prefer to have lived in the time of the Antonine caesars than in any other period of history. The German historian, Theodor Mommsen, a famous professor of Roman law, also describes this period as the Golden Age of history. Paraphrasing him from the German: This empire fostered the peace and prosperity of the many nations, united under its sway, longer and more completely, than any other leading power has ever succeeded in doing.

How marvelous that a pivot should rise first in Ephesus and then spread throughout the empire. It is interesting that the canon of Scripture was completed in A.D. 96, the very year that Nerva became the emperor. And the dynamics of the spiritual life of the pivot was so phenomenal that the greatest period of blessing ever known in history lasted for almost a hundred years. Perhaps now you can begin to see the dynamics of a pivot with values established through

learning the plan of God for your life.

What is important to you? Would you be standing in that spectacular scene that extends from the very high needle of the Washington Monument all the way to the White House? Would you be able to stand there with divine values or would you, if interviewed, simply express the hunger, the desire, the hope of so many people thinking, Now that there is a change, life is going to be wonderful?

BEING CURSED [it is a process] IS THE MAN WHO PUTS HIS TRUST IN MAN. (Jeremiah 17:5a)

“Clarence Manion, the dean of the Notre Dame law school from 1941-1952, boarded a plane sometime during the early 1950’s .One of the passengers recognized him and went over and sat down next to him. Dean Manion was doing some work but he had to put it all away as this man began asking questions. He told Professor Manion that he was one of the greatest thinkers in our country at that time. He wanted to talk with the professor about the unfortunate condition of our country. So Dean Manion listened patiently, conversed with him, and began making notes while the man was speaking.

As the plane landed he got up, shook hands with the man, who again told Dean Manion what a wonderful privilege it was to talk with a man of his caliber of mentality. Dean Manion smiled, thanked him, and handed him a slip of paper on which he had written these words:

Man begins his existence in bondage,

and rises from bondage through spiritual faith,

from spiritual faith to courage,

from courage to liberty,

from liberty to abundance,

from abundance to selfishness,

from selfishness to complacency,

from complacency to apathy,

from apathy to dependency,

from dependency back into bondage.

This is the cycle of civilization. The only hope of breaking this cycle is the believer who gives his attention to the Word of God.

HE WHO GIVES ATTENTION TO THE WORD SHALL FIND GOOD, AND BLESSED IS HE WHO TRUSTS IN THE LORD. (Proverbs 16:20)

We are grateful, heavenly Father, for the privilege and the opportunity of fellowshipping in the Word; for the challenges that come to us through the Scripture; for the values that we learn; for the fantastic provision for each one of us as Church Age believers, the dispensation of the ordinary person. We are grateful for the fantastic portfolio of invisible assets provided for each one of us to have, not only spiritual impact on history, but to be recorded forever in the eternal state as the names and the deeds of believers who become invisible heroes; to provide hope for America not through revolutions, or violence, or self-righteous arrogance, not through crusader arrogance, or attempting to change things by any form of tyranny, not through Christian activism, or civil disobedience, but through our invisible impact. Therefore, Father, in view of what has occurred today and what has been occurring in this country, challenge us under the principle of separation of church and state to fulfill our spiritual destiny as provided for us, that we might have a legitimate impact on this nation that we love so dearly. May we become the true hope for our nation. We ask this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.