Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 36 – The essence of God – Justice. Hos 4:6; Isa 5:13; Psa 97:1-3; 146:5; Heb 10:30-31.

Title: Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 36 - The essence of God - Justice. HOS 4:6; ISA 5:13; PSA 97:1-3; 146:5; HEB 10:30-31.

 

G. Justice: The execution of what +R demands.

 

And it’s not just individuals that become miserable and fall under the ignorance of God’s integrity, but also entire nations.

 

The justice of God causes the rise and fall of nations.

 

During the Church-age any gentile nation can serve as a client nation by practicing the following principles:

 

Gentile client nation:

1. Protect human life, freedom, privacy, and property according to the laws of divine establishment.

 

2. Allow evangelism and Bible teaching.

3. Sever as a base for missionary activity to non-client nations.

4. Afford a haven of toleration for the dispersed Jews.

 

The first principle, protect human life, freedom, privacy, and property according to the laws of divine establishment, creates the environment in which the remaining principles can fully operate.

The first principle is the chief concern of a nation’s government, while the remaining three principles express the spiritual life of the nation’s people.

 

It is fascinating to see that each of these highly successful client nations were prosperous because of thought as the primary cause. It wasn’t military might or large deposits of cash that made them great, but in each case the principle of freedom was followed by a tolerance that allowed Bible doctrine to thrive and then the rest fell into place. Strong militaries, economies, missionary work, and a population that loved divine establishment all followed the flourishing churches teaching Bible doctrine.

 

In this way we can see that the way of the client nation can be a picture of the way of a believer’s soul.

 

The English philosopher John Locke was an amazing influence on our own experience with freedom.

 

To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions and dispose of their possessions, and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature; without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man. [John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 1690]

 

Locke stated, in the same work, that man has by nature a power to preserve his property, that is, his life, liberty, and estate and to punish those who violate those laws. Thomas Jefferson who drafted the Declaration of Independence borrowed this phrase with a change from property to pursuit of happiness.

 

Declaration of Independence:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

 

Separation is synonymous with sanctification. The way they looked at the tyranny of the British government is the way we look at the OSN, cosmos, and the KOD. The Laws of Nature’s God is God’s justice in the face of human free will.

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. [end quote]

 

Yet freedom is not only preserved in a Republic but can be preserved in a monarchy or oligarchy, provided that the leader or leaders follow the laws of DE without being corrupted. The advantage to a republic is the separation of powers, which our founding fathers saw as the solution to the inevitable corruption of men by power and money. In a republic with three branches of government that are separate but equal in power, changes are supposed to be slow. This avoids hasty mistakes. Satan has found a way to circumvent the separation of powers with its checks and balances through executive order of the executive branch, which started with Wilson and put on steroids with Teddy Roosevelt.

 

We can use the current client nation as an example of how a believer’s soul can prosper under the same principles.

 

When we signed the Declaration of Independence we had to fight for it. England wasn’t just going to go away quietly. We easily win at Boston with hardly a casualty and then lose terribly at New York. After NY things looked grim, but certain people wouldn’t quit.

 

The believer experiences a wonderful independence of spirit directly after salvation, but the attack of the enemy is soon approaching. He must not quit.

 

After victory in the war of independence we established the Articles of Confederation in 1781. In essence this was our first constitution and it gave hardly any power to the Federal government, the states wouldn’t get along and so it had to be scrapped and the Constitution was adopted in 1787.

 

False conceptions of doctrine in early Christianity must be replaced with sound doctrine through humility of teachability.

 

The English were not going away. The English continued to harass the US, especially on the Atlantic, they supported Indians to harass us from expanding west, and their war with France hindered our trade, so we declared war on Britain in 1812. What kept us strong was our adherence to our principles, our desire to expand and rule our continent, and our desire to prosper economically.  

 

The KOD does not quit. They will continually work to deteriorate your prosperity of soul and expansion of wisdom. Adherence to the colors of doctrine will bring ultimate victory.

 

The civil war resulted from several factors, not just the question of slavery, but that war shows the struggle that continues within, even though America had greatly prospered and established a great nation from sea to shining sea.

 

No matter how much doctrine you have the old nature and the new nature will war with one another. It is important to feed the new nature with doctrine to make it stronger.

 

GAL 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

 

GAL 5:17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

 

There is always opposition. In the Spirit I will be opposed by the flesh, and in the flesh I will be opposed by the Spirit. It’s not going to end until you die. If we strengthen the new nature then the struggles will not exasperate us.

 

We could go on to make analogies of the world wars, but that is not what I’m after at this time. What inevitably destroys a client nation is the decline of the pivot of mature believers which is evidenced by the loss of principle #1 - freedom.

 

GAL 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

 

The believer must always see himself as free from the penalty of sin, free from the OSN despite all his struggles, tribulations, adversities, and growth, and free from death.

 

This is all the benefit from being in union with Christ. We have been saved by grace and so we should live by grace and die by grace.

 

We have here first the noun and then the verb. Being together they emphasize a wonderful truth concerning freedom or liberty. “It was” is not in the original. We have a Greek article emphasizing the noun freedom or liberty referring back to the freedom that Paul deconstructed in chapter 4.

 

GAL 4:1 Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything,

 

GAL 4:2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father.

 

GAL 4:3 So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.

 

GAL 4:4 But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,

 

GAL 4:5 in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

 

GAL 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"

 

GAL 4:7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

 

 

GAL 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

 “for this aforementioned freedom Christ set us free;”

 

We have to understand, however, what is meant by freedom. Freedom does not mean the kind of life that we live. That isn’t freedom at all. It means the method by which we live it. If you live your life by grace then you are in the sphere of liberty and freedom. If you live your life by legalism and the energy of the flesh then you are far from freedom, you are in bondage, and you are in slavery while you live.

 

The verb is an aorist active indicative, meaning that at one point in time Christ made us free and that freedom is done once and for all and forever. We’re not free for a few days and then sold back into slavery again. The principle is clear; we are free through Christ forever. The indicative mood declares it a fact and the active voice means that Christ did all the work and we do not add one iota to our ransom. A client nation would last forever if it believed in the principles of freedom forever, but client nations always decline. This does not have to be true of the believer. Living and dying in grace the believer can always be free, no matter what his circumstances are.

 

It’s not the adversity, tribulation, or attacks from the world that defeats any believer; inevitably it is his loss of his love of doctrine resulting in his loss of grace orientation and freedom.

 

The fallen creature will not on his own gravitate towards divine integrity, but rather away from it, therefore he needs a consistent diet of Bible doctrine.

 

HOS 4:1 Listen to the word of the Lord, O sons of Israel,

For the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land,

Because there is no faithfulness or kindness

Or knowledge of God in the land.

 

HOS 4:2 There is swearing, deception, murder, stealing, and adultery. They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed.

 

HOS 4:3 Therefore the land mourns,

And everyone who lives in it languishes

Along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky;

And also the fish of the sea disappear.

 

HOS 4:4 Yet let no one find fault, and let none offer reproof;

For your people are like those who contend with the priest.

 

HOS 4:5 So you will stumble by day,

And the prophet also will stumble with you by night;

And I will destroy your mother.

 

HOS 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Because you have rejected knowledge,

I also will reject you from being My priest.

Since you have forgotten the law of your God,

I also will forget your children.

 

ISA 5:13 Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge; And their honorable men are famished,

And their multitude is parched with thirst.

 

ISA 5:14 Therefore, Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure;

And Jerusalem's splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry, and the jubilant within her, descend into it.

 

ISA 5:15 So the common man will be humbled, and the man of importance abased,

The eyes of the proud also will be abased.

 

ISA 5:16 But the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment,

And the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.

 

When the Gentile nation fails to preserve freedom, the justice of God administers the five cycles of discipline as He did to Israel in the past.

 

No nation ever falls historically apart from the function of the justice of God. Every client nation to God in the past has risen to astounding greatness and then taken a terrible fall.

 

Every fall has resulted from a shrinking pivot of mature believers, whose influence over the nation declines to a point when the general population are willing to forsake freedom for promised security from evil, unprincipled, and at best thoroughly deceived men.