The Law of God

Broadcaster

The Law, Part Three

The Will of God

by John David Clark, Sr. - May, 1990

God has always had a way for men to live. There has never been a time when He was uncertain as to how men should conduct themselves while living on this earth. God's will for man has always existed. But it has not always existed in the form of a document, written out for all to see. This is what the Law of Moses was: God's will, written down on paper for men to see.

There were some men who did not need to have God's will written on paper. Long before the Law was given, Abraham was living according to the will of God. The Law commanded God's people to be hospitable to strangers (Lev.19:33-34), and Abraham was hospitable to strangers without having the Law to tell him to do so (Gen.18). Joseph, for one other example, refused the seduction of Potiphar's adulterous wife (Gen.39:7-20), because he loved the morally pure ways of God, even before there was a Law that commanded men to be morally pure (Lev.19). Those who truly loved God, lived righteous lives before the Law was given. They needed no law to tell them to do what was right. There was something in their hearts which compelled them to obey and to love God, without having God's will "spelled out" in black and white. Paul explained to Timothy (1 Tim.1:9-10):

. . . the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.

For these unrighteous, the Law served at least two profound purposes. First, it served as a guide to righteousness. If an unrighteous man wanted to escape his evil ways and do good, the Law was a shining light, a beacon on the hill for those who longed to know the truth and to do it. David wrote, in praise of the Law, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word" (Ps.119:9). Second, the Law served as testimony. It was a witness against every person who was doing evil and would not repent from the evil. Sinful men may have claimed ignorance before the Law was given, but not afterwards. The Law was a standard by which those who did evil in Israel could be judged. And when Israel had leaders who were righteous enough to enforce the Law, the innocent, the helpless, and the righteous were protected from the wicked designs of the ungodly. The Law was a fortress for the righteous, a hiding place from evil, a well of water in the desert of sin. How blessed was the nation, when Israel's leaders knew the value of the law and enforced it.

After the Law was given, those who loved God were made manifest by their love for the Law. And the wicked were revealed by the fact that they lived contrary to the will of God, as the Law declared it to be. The focal point of all the spiritual warfare of Old Testament Israel, then, was the Law. The false prophets of Israel downplayed its significance. The true prophets of God pleaded with their fellows to realize their need for it before it was too late. God had given the Law as a refuge for the godly, but when the leaders of Israel became so corrupt that they refused to enforce the Law, everybody suffered. Jeremiah lamented the disrespect toward the Law in his time (Jer.50:6)

My people hath been lost sheep. Their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill. They have forgotten their restingplace.

The Law was intended for a refuge, a sanctuary from the burdens of life, but it became an embarrassment (Jer.6:10). God's own people grew ashamed of Him and His ways. They threw away the only real hope they had, when they cast off the mantle of the Law (Hos.8:3) and demanded the "right" to be like the heathen nations (1Sam.8). Incredible as it seems, the very ones honored to be the chosen of God, came to despise the very instrument of their choosing. And when one among them dared speak out against this insanity, and to plead with God's precious people to return to the Law of the Lord, he himself became "a prey" to the religious leaders of Israel (Isa.59:15).

The false prophets taught the Old Covenant saints that the blessings of Abraham were theirs, regardless of their adherence to the Law. They persuaded the people to believe that the standard by which God would judge their souls was not the Law, but their position as children of God. God was outraged:

Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, "We are delivered to do all these abominations?" Jeremiah 7:8-10

At every turn, God's messengers were frustrated in their efforts to turn the attention of the people back to the Law. Whether it was noble Isaiah (5:24), praying Daniel (9), persecuted Amos (2:4), or the indignant Malachi (2:7-9), every prophet sent by God pointed the people to the same object: the Law. And the bane of them all, the vinegar poured onto their wounded hearts was always the same: the doctrines of the prophets who persuaded God's people to lower the banner of the Law and to live by another standard. It crushed the spirits of these holy men to watch as God's people slowly died the spiritual death of faith in empty promises. Jeremiah, the "weeping prophet", reflected the grief of the Lord:

My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart....For my people is foolish, they have not known me. They are sottish children, and they have none understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.... My heart within me is broken because of the prophets.

So bold did the spiritual leaders of Israel become that they declared that anyone who did not support them financially was an enemy of the nation of Israel (Mic.3:5). Financial gain and recognition by men became the measure of success among these prophets, and as always happens in such cases, prosperity doctrines flourished. God's people were promised earthly riches as well as eternal life, if they would only believed the "truth" - not as the Law revealed it to be - but as Israel's covetous prophets taught it. God's disgust was not hidden:

[Israel's spiritual] watchmen are blind. They are all dumb dogs. They cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand. They all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter. "Come ye", say they, "I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink, and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant."

In the Old Covenant, the ones God chose, chose not to follow God. But if you think the situation in the body of Christ is any different, let me offer some prophetic information from the first epistle of Peter which may change your mind:

But as there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies....And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you.

Where are such men? you may ask. They are in every place, proclaiming a gospel which does not carry with it the ordination of God, the holy Ghost from heaven. They are in the "great congregations", promising eternal life to men who have not received the promise (Acts 1:4; Gal.3:14). They are everywhere, "teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake" (Tit.1:11). It ought not to be taught that a man will be admitted into eternal life without the baptism of the holy Ghost. It isn't true. It ought not to be taught that a man can be born again before he receives the holy Ghost baptism. It isn't true. It ought not to be taught that one "gets saved" by repeating a few scriptures. But it is being taught, and it is being taught for "filthy lucre." Men have discovered that men will pay a handsome price to be told that they are right with God, especially if some scriptures are used to make it seem to be true. But all such works are empty, and supremely vain. Eternal life is found only in the Spirit, my friends (Jn.6:63; Rom.8:9-10). God's truth is in the Spirit (1Jn.5:6). Jesus suffered and died for us to receive the Spirit. That was the whole point of his sacrifice, to bring the Law of God, by the Spirit, into our innermost being! The truth of God, and the only acceptable way to worship God, which the Law revealed to men, is now revealed to men by the holy Ghost, "for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts" (Jer.31:31; Heb.8:10) "When he, the Spirit of truth is come," Jesus said, "he will guide you into all truth" (Jn.16:13). It is the holy Ghost alone which brings into our hearts the way, the truth, and the life of God, and separates us from those whose only claim to righteousness is their claim of it.

Just as the Law served as the dividing line, the divinely ordained standard of righteousness, the Holy Ghost does that now. Who knows who is serving God acceptably? Look to the Spirit! Just as the Law came, showing who was righteous and who was not, so the holy Ghost comes now. It is God's witness (1Jn.5:6), which He pours out to every obedient soul. Men can be bought and bribed. Men can be hired to bear witness to your faith, to preach a gospel that is foreign to every godly thing. But God cannot be bought, bribed, or hired. The baptism of the holy Ghost is not for sale. God can't be tricked into giving it. We meet His condition, or we die without it. We obey God's Word, or lose our soul. Those satisfied with appearances of righteousness will have exactly that. Those who hungred for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven welcomed the Law as the means to that end. And every one now who from the heart desires the will of God to be done as it is in heaven rejoices that the holy Ghost has been given to man for that purpose. Wherever the holy Ghost is not welcome, Jesus is not truly welcome, regardless of how "meaningful" the worship rituals seem to be. Just as it was impossible for anyone in the ancient world to hold the Law in contempt without holding God in contempt, so it is impossible to reject the holy Ghost without rejecting Jesus. Yes, some in Israel thought they were speaking for God, even as they spoke contrary to His law. And there are multitudes today claiming to be speaking for Jesus, even as they resist the holy Ghost. But they are tragically mistaken.

The holy Ghost serves the same purposes as the Law. It shows the unrighteous, if he desires to turn from evil, which way to go. When an ungodly man is touched by the kindness of Christ, or witnesses the of God among the saints, his conscience tells him it is right, even if he will not admit it aloud. Paul said, concerning this, that tongues are a sign for unbelievers (1Cor.14:21). A sign of what? A sign that they may be delivered from sin, of course. And every person who is really seeking deliverance from sin follows that sign until that sign begins to follow him. In other words, he seeks the holy Ghost until he receives it and begins to speak in tongues himself. There are no exceptions. Just as there were no exceptions when it came to receiving the Law, there are none with the holy Ghost. If you love God, you love the holy Ghost.

Also, as with the Law, the congregation whose pastor holds the standard high is proteced from many a heartache and disappointment. It is, in our dispensation, the standard of the holy Ghost and the holiness it demands of us which is the only protection the saints of God have. When those pastors with the holy Ghost refuse to hold up that standard which God has given, it is like the Israelites refusing to obey the Law, so that they could have the fellowship of the heathen. They won the friendship of the world, and became the enemies of God. And when I see holiness ministers rubbing elbows with ministers whose doctrines exclude the power of the holy Ghost, seeking the favor of those whose faith has not been approve by God, I see Israel, ashamed of the Law, compromising the holy truth of God. And everybody suffers. Yes, criticism and persecution will come to every saint who refuses to compromise the truth of God. And honor and praise from the religious community will come to every spirit-baptized believer who will quench the Spirit and not testify to the work of God in their life. Which do you want? You may have either. Both are available, and both are being offered to you right now.

The focal point of all spirtual warfare in this New Testament has always been the holy Ghost baptism. False teachers ignore or downplay its importance. Teachers sent from God plead with the saints to realize its importance, and to lift up the fallen banner. God gave the holy Ghost as a refuge for the godly, a covert from the "wind of every doctrine", but when God's servants become ashamed of the holy Ghost and do not hold up the standard it brings, everybody suffers. Sinners are not given the sign that points to their deliverance. Saints are not protected from deceivers, and become confused and divided among themselves. And the world, as it is doing now, stands back, shakes its warty head, and laughs at the whole thing. It will not laugh when the saints wake up and raise again the sacred banner of power and holiness which is in the holy Ghost.

The reason false teachers deny the standard of the holy Ghost is that God's standard, once raised, exposes false teachers to be false. Of course, some men teach that the days of miracles are over. If they confessed the truth, they would be exposed as not having the anointing from God which they claim to have. Of couse some teachers say that speaking in tongues is not for today. If they confessed the truth, their congregations would see them for what they really are: blind guides, "having not the Spirit" (Jude 19). The Old Covenant deceivers necessarily had to teach that the Law was not God's standard. Otherwise the people would have judged them by the Law, and found them out. New Covenant deceivers must also, necessarily, condemn anyone who says that the holy Ghost is given to every person whose faith pleases God. If that truth goes unchallenged, "false apostles" are too clearly seen. The light makes them uncomfortable. Therefore, they cast those out who shine, as being fanatic, or deluded. But the delusion belongs to them. For any man who supposes that the wrath of God can be escaped by a doctrine rather than by obedience is a victim of his own vain imagination.