In part one of this series we learned that it is God’s will for man to be happy, successful, at peace, etc. in this life. Deuteronomy 28:1-14 and Leviticus 16:1-3 tell us that this is His will for all of mankind. This has been His plan for mankind from the creation of Adam (Heb.–man) until this day. God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). What He wants for one He wants for all. The re-creation of earth (Gen. 1-3) reveals that the Lord wants only good for all of mankind. Note that He created a paradise for Adam and gave him the entire planet to rule. Adam and Eve’s descendants were to live as their parents lived. God’s only rule was to obey Him.

With God, nothing has changed. He wants the best for His most precious creation–man. Jesus made this plain in Matthew 7:7 where He says that we will receive when we ask, find when we search and the door to what we want will open when we knock on it. His provisions and instructions to Adam made it clear that he, Eve and their descendants would want for nothing “IF” they obeyed His commandments. If not, they would die, first spiritually, then physically. God’s desire for man has not changed. Nor have His conditions for receiving what God has promised. Nor have His curses for ignoring those conditions.

The problem is that man has changed, thereby nullifying the Lord’s promises of Matthew 7:7. Once Eve hurried home with Satan’s new and improved version of God’s will, man has been on a downward slide leading to the Serpent’s spiritual sewer today called “the church.” Things became so bad at one point that God had to kill every human being on earth except Noah and his family. Of the eight people left alive following the global flood, only Noah–“a preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet. 2:5)–“walked with God” and did everything God told him to do (Gen. 6:9; 7:5). Noah believed God and his faith was counted unto him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6). God declared him righteous not merely because he believed what God said, but BECAUSE HE OBEYED WHAT GOD SAID. The same was true of Abraham who did not simply believe God, but did what he was told to do (Gen. 26:5).. Noah’s family was spared so that the earth could be repopulated. Fast forward to today. It is obvious that man, including churchman, has embraced Satan’s way and rejected God’s way.

As was the case in the Garden of Eden, modern man has a choice. Anciently, Moses and Joshua, when addressing two different generations of Israelites, said to them: “Choose you this day whom you will serve; if God, then serve Him, if Satan, then serve him.” Obviously, there was to be no mixing of service among the ancient Israelites. Jesus issues the same commands to the New Testament Church in Revelation 3:14-18. In His eyes we serve either Him and His Father or Satan–totally. Billions of so-called “sinners saved by grace” have turned God’s grace into a license to sin (Jude 1:4) with which they justify their obedience to both God and Satan. God equates them with vomit. God’s options relative to service and obedience is either Himself or Satan–not both. The church claims that she has no choice but to sin because of Adam’s miraculous sin gene transferal by which he supposedly infected the whole of mankind.

Churchman has rejected God’s two-choice rule and has created a third option which consists of dual service to both gods in which he serves the Biblical God by attending church as well as the “god of this world”–2 Cor. 4:4) by refusing to obey God’s Law. In this universally popular system, Satan’s rules of getting and giving have replaced God’s rules. Through his false prophets, Satan proclaims from pulpit and podium, from radio and television, from street corners, desk and hand-held monitors that in order to get (salvation, etc.) from God one needs only to believe in Him. God, they are told every sun god day, expects only the bare minimum from them in order to receive the blessings promised in Deuteronomy 28.

However, the Biblical Godhead (Father and Son) presents a totally different set of get and give rules. Because God and Christ gave Their all, They command that man do the same in order to receive the benefits of Their sacrifices. As did their original parents, church people embrace Satan’s plan and reject God’s plan, all the while “knowing” that they are pleasing God and Christ, which brings us to Their divinely designed program of getting and giving. One will notice that Their “IF YOU OBEY OUR WORD” plan differs significantly from Satan’s “ONLY BELIEVE” plan.

I relate many things in life to working in the cotton fields. In the cotton field scenario the rules of getting and giving shape up as follows: As I approach the field God tells me that if I pick 500 pounds of cotton today I will receive $15:00. Then Satan tells me that if I look at the cotton field and believe, I will receive $15.00. I have picked 500 pounds of cotton in a day and received $15.00 for doing so. However, I have never received one cent for looking at a cotton field and believing that I would receive $15.00 for doing so. The “looking and believing method” never worked out for me but the “getting it done” method always did. Let us now examine God’s perfect plan for getting and giving that works every time.

God has a four-step method of getting and giving that is perfect in every way. In step one He tells us what He will do for us because He wants to bless us. In step two He tells us what we must do in order to receive what He has promised. Step three consists of our following His orders. In step four He provides what He has promised. Church people normally do not receive (step four) what He promised in step one because they reject steps two and three, thereby disqualifying themselves from receiving (step four) that which is promised in step one. The problem is found in their choice of whom they would believe and serve as did their original parents.

The modern day Laodicean Era church refuses to do what God commands her to do in order to receive the blessings God wants to bestow upon her now and in the future–eternal life/rebirth. God’s will is being denied Him because people neither believe Him nor love Him. They prove their rejection of both Father and Son by refusing to believe and obey Their commands (Lk. 10:16). The Godhead commands proof of love from those who claim to love them. We find Their proof-of-love commands recorded in John 14:15 and 23 and 15:10, as well as in First John 2:3-5 and 3:1-10. If you have not yet done so, read the series on the “IF” requirement found throughout the Holy Scriptures. Key word–If. God and Christ are the same yesterday, today and forever. They do not change. Neither do Their rules of engagement. It is Their way or the highway. The choice is ours. L.J.