Militant Evangelism! (19 page)

The Day of Vengeance is in God's
heart,
He will "tread them in His anger," and "trample them in fury." You and I only see the tiny tip of the tip of the bitterly cold iceberg of sin with the workings of the Mafia, prostitution, strip clubs, filthy movies, child pornography, drug pushing, corruption, greed, lust, torture, hatred, cursing, blasphemy and crime. In fact, by the time you take to finish this chapter, in the U.S. alone, more than seven people will have been
either strangled
, stabbed or shot to death. If the given statistics hold true there will also have been more than 50 robberies, 110 cars stolen and 360 burglaries! Each year in the U.S. over 4 million women are victims of domestic violence, and in the same time period 550,000 women are raped.

We see only the tip, but the Bible says, "The eye of the Lord is in every place, beholding the evil and the good." Proverbs 15:26 tells us that even the
thoughts
of the ungodly are an abomination to the Lord. Jeremiah says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." If we don't embark upon desperate evangelism, using every means God has given us to convince, induce, persuade and compel them to come in, God will
convince them on that Day when He comes "with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, and to convince all that are ungodly
..."-but then it will be too late!

David said in Psalms, "Their inward part is
very
wickedness," while Paul speaks of sin being
"exceedingly
sinful." He then gives God's view of humanity saying that "their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes" (Romans 3:13-18).

Passion
For
Vengeance

In Arizona in 1981, two men offered to help a lady in distress. She had locked herself out of her car and they very kindly helped her open the car window. Now there's a point in
favor
of the goodness of man. How could this woman repay the men? They suggested a six pack of beer. She went into the store, bought the beer, but when she came back they abducted her in her own car. Both the men raped the young woman, then tied her hands and feet and went to her apartment. They ransacked it, stole her valuables and found to their delight, that she had a credit card with $8,000 in savings. Unfortunately for them, they were only able to withdraw $250 per
day using the card, so it would take some time to get the whole $8,000. They both concluded that they couldn't let her live. They waited until dark, then took her, still bound hand and foot, up a mountain. They raped her again,
then
threw her off a cliff. She landed half way down, and they could hear by her groans that she wasn't dead, so they threw her off twice more. Despite this, she was still alive so they hit her head with rocks until she was unconscious, then buried her alive.

If you are anything like me, you will grapple with tears, anger, shame, and a cry for justice for those men. This passion for
just vengeance
upon those wicked men is there despite our sinful nature. If the deeds of those men seem abominable even to us, the sinful offspring of Adam, how evil must they seem to a holy, perfect and just Creator.

Then humanity adds to its sins by saying within its wicked heart, "God has forgotten: He hides His face; He will never see it" (Psalm 10:11). But as surely as God is faithful to all His promises of blessing upon the obedient, so is
He
faithful to His promise of cursing upon the disobedient. He will
fulfill
His Word which He has magnified above His name. The Scriptures warn sinners that in accordance with their hardness and impenitent hearts they are treasuring up for themselves wrath "in the Day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds . . . to those who are
selfseeking
and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil ..." (Romans 2:5-9).

In the Second Book of Peter, we see that God made an example of the angels that sinned, casting them into Hell, delivering them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment. The same is the case with the
Noahic
flood and Sodom and Gomorrah—they were condemned, "making them an example for those that should live ungodly." Amidst the filth of Sodom, where dwelt men who were "wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly," was righteous Lot. This man "vexed" (anguished, pained) his "righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds." Are we anguished by what we see in the world? Are we jealous for the
honor
of our God? Are we grieved beyond words to see His mercy despised and His holy Name blasphemed? At the same time do we cringe in fear
for
the ungodly
who
walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, full of presumption and self-will, with no fear of God before their eyes?

Jeremiah had this same conflict when he cried,

"Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for ... my people. Oh that... I might leave my people and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men" (Jeremiah 9:1-2).

Many Christians aren't vexed, because they don't "know" the terror of the
Lord,
therefore they don't seek to "persuade men." Or they are living in a monastery without walls, having lost contact with the world. Life consists of Sunday services, Wednesday Bible study and a few other social activities. They are living in a Christian comfort zone, where little contact is made with the ungodly world.

Directly after the command to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12), we are told:

"It is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Do all things (including God's will—to seek the lost) without murmurings and
disputings
, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, (then we are told what
on earth
are we supposed to be doing) holding forth the Word of life, that I may rejoice in the Day of Christ ..." (verses 13-16).

We have been commissioned to, "Go
into
all the
world
..." (Mark 16:15). "I do not pray
that you should take them out of the world
..." (John 17:15). With these Scriptures in mind, I wonder how many publicans and harlots are our friends (that we might reach them for Christ), or is our "world made up of Christians? Are we light among light, salt among salt? Do we seek God for men in fervent prayer,
then
seek men for God in zealous evangelism? Paul
charged
Timothy, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, to "preach the Word in season and out of season," and the previous verse tells us why:

"...
the
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His Kingdom."

The awe of that Day should cause
an urgency
to burn in our hearts.

CHAPTER ELEVEN: STRIPPED TO HIS ARMOR

"Yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation" (Habakkuk 3:18).

A
s I flew over the city of Des Moines in Iowa, I could see snow on the ground, something fascinating for someone coming directly from the Southern Californian climate. As soon as I arrived at Teen Challenge in the city of Colfax, I sent a cold fax to Sue, saying it was a cool 31 degrees. Freezing though it was, I was ushered into a warm guest room. In fact, my room was so warm I woke in the night with an intense thirst. Fortunately, I had opened the first of the double windows and placed a bottle of sparkling, mineral water in the cooler air for such a time as this.

I reached out in the blackness of the night, and
unscrewed the lid.
Suddenly, I found myself beneath a fountain of cool mineral water, as it burst from the bottle.
The cold weather plus the movement of my hand picking up the
bottle,
had been enough to stir the contents to a frenzy. It was quite an outburst.

God sometimes puts His children out in the cold for a reason. Moses had great desire to be a deliverer, but God put him on the shelf for forty years. He knows that the pressure of desire is building within the vessel of those that love Him. All it will take is for Him to shake the Christian, just a little,
then
release the cap of that which is hindering the living waters from flowing out into this dark world.

Never be discouraged by the thought that God has put you on the shelf for no reason. If you love God and are called according to His purposes, then whatever is happening to you, is happening for your good (Romans 8:28). He is working in you to will and do of His good pleasure.

I once spoke at a church where the pastor was very zealous for the lost. A year later, I returned to the area to find out that the man's wife had run off with a lesbian who had been fellowshipping at a local church. She had also taken most of the house contents as well as his charge cards, running them to the limit and leaving him $15,000 in debt. As if that wasn't enough, a few members of his church didn't like the fact that this had happened, and began murmuring to a point where he was forced to resign from his office. He found himself out in the cold.

It seemed God had put him on the shelf, but within one year, God had taken him in His hand and released him back into ministry. He was part of a new work in another state. The time will come when God will fully release the restraint, when many will be showered in times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, because of the result of the pressure that dear brother went through. God only shakes the Christian for the furtherance of His purposes. The world suffers in vain, but we suffer for our own profit and for the profit of the world—if we are "exercised" by whatever experience God takes us through. When the devil seeks to sour our hearts by putting bitterness in our minds, faith will not let that happen. The man who trusts in God says, "Though He slay me, yet will I praise Him."

I once finished ministering, and longing for a place to rest, could see only one chair at the back of the church. It was blocking the entrance of the recording booth and had a sign draped over it saying, "Do not enter." Of course no one in his right mind would sit on a chair with a sign on it.

As I stood up after about five minutes of resting my weary body in the chair, a young man (very apologetically) said, "You have the words 'Do not enter' written on your back." The sign had been written in eye-liner and was now legibly embedded in black on my white shirt.

One fiery dart that
satan
loves to discharge at the soldier of Christ, is the dart of bitterness. The
pastor
who found himself stripped of everything, still has on the
armor
of God. No one could take away his shield of faith—he could stand, and having done all, stand. However, it has been pointed out that there is no provision for the back of the Christian, so the enemy needs to know that he will find the shield of faith in the way of a direct frontal attack, and a 'Do not enter' notice if he tries to enter subtly through some back door. God left Joseph simmering in a prison for thirteen years. He was bound in chains, and it seemed he would have had every right to become bitter towards Potiphar and his sex-starved wife, his brothers, as well as towards God,
but faith wouldn't let that happen.
Bitterness didn't find an entry into his heart, even
through
the rear door.