He Comes to Bring Justice — Robert B. Thompson

The Coming of the Lord to Establish Justice

I'm going to turn in our Bibles to Revelation 19. I'm going to read verses 7 -21. This may not be familiar to some of you when we preach the Kingdom, but it was the original Gospel. It was the original Gospel preached by John the Baptist and the Lord.

And God is restoring it in our day. And this is one of the pertinent passages about the Lord coming. And His purpose in coming is to bring justice to the nations according to Isaiah 42. Now, the nations don't need justice, do they?

Injustice in Nations and Political Systems

In the United States, we have our political-industrial-military complex and there's so much fraud and lying goes on. It seems to me that the politicians are more intent on proving that their party is the best than they are on helping people like you and me.

I think there's an old saying, if you're up to your neck in alligators, it's hard to remember that your purpose is to drain the pool. And I think that happens as nations become more sophisticated. And then we think of countries like Mexico where the people are so poor in many instances, the Indians and so on, and some of the presidents of the country have left with millions and millions of dollars salted away.

Then we think of the Communists. We remember how poor the people were in East Germany and yet the leader of the Communists was salting money away. And you could bring it right down probably to your own home, your own experience on the job.

So much injustice in the world. The problem is not a lack of resources. From the time I spent in India, I see that you fly over India and it looks like New England. It's rich in resources. And there are so many people and there are some citizens of India who are very wealthy.

And yet, in the area where we were around Wijiwada for a while, there were people working in the fields, in the tobacco fields for five rupees a day. And they were so poor that they could not afford any curry to go with their rice.

That means there would be no protein. No money for firewood. They had to gather sticks on their way home. I'm talking about poverty. And it isn't because the earth lacks resources. It's because of injustice.

The Kingdom of God and the Lord's Coming

And the Lord, the coming of the Lord, His purpose in coming is to establish justice, to set up His kingdom. I know we're going to read in Revelation. I've forgotten what I'm doing. But I don't want you to look at this as some strange thing.

You know, some strange passage of the Bible. This is the vision of the coming of the Lord. This is it. This is the vision of the coming of Jesus. This is the kingdom of God. In Daniel 2, verse 44, I just want you to see this.

And of course, you all know that John the Baptist and Jesus preached the kingdom. In fact, Jesus, as to my knowledge, the only parables that Jesus uttered were parables of the kingdom. And yet, it seems sometimes we're not that aware of the kingdom of God.

We use the term, but it doesn't really suck home like it should. The kingdom of God is coming to the earth as we know in the Lord's Prayer. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.

Familiar prayer, but sometimes I'm not sure we think about that. The Lord is coming in His kingdom. He's coming as King of Kings in Lord of Lords to rule. Why? Because none of the governments... Our government is probably the best all told with all of the fraud and deception and spin operations that go on.

Probably the best all told, but there's no government on the face of the earth that I can think of that when the Lord appears, is willingly going to turn over the reins to Him. Can you picture that? Can you picture the Lord appearing and the members of the UN rushing out into the street there around the Hudson River and saying, oh, welcome.

We don't want to rule anymore. You're the rightful ruler. And yet, at one time in the coronation of a Queen of England, as she was crowned, she said, I'll wear this until He comes whose right it is to wear it.

That always touches me. Until He comes whose right it is to wear it. And so the issue facing us as we think about the energy crisis, and the energy crisis is only a jockeying for money. It isn't like we suddenly ran out of energy.

We've got as much energy as we had two years ago. But it's all money. And I'm not here to down or damn anything. I'm telling you the solution so you won't be discouraged. Don't fret yourself. The world has been like this since the first man born on the earth murdered the second.

The world is that way. And it doesn't help to fret about it. If there's something you can do about it, then do it. If God leads you to do something constructive, then do it. But don't lose your peace by fretting about injustice because injustice has been the name of the game.

I remember one time there was a, it happened to be a black family, though that's not significant, but it stuck in my mind because they had a lawyer. This family had been treated unjustly in a hospital situation and their lawyer sued and won and they didn't even get their hospital bills out of it.

This appeared in the paper about three, four years ago. The lawyer kept it all. It was over a million dollars and they questioned him why. He said, well, it's mine. I work for it. And here's this family.

That isn't the first time that happened. And it isn't the last time it will happen. And so we who are Christians and serve the Lord, we have to realize that that's the way the world is. That's just the way it is.

And it's been that way and shall be that way. Well, what do we do? Give up? Become nihilists? You know, go live as a hermit somewhere? Give ourselves to the lust of the flesh and say nothing has any purpose?

No. The Lord came preaching a gospel. The word gospel means good news. And the gospel that Jesus preached is the gospel of the kingdom. And as He came, He and John both said, repent for the kingdom, Matthew says, the kingdom of heaven.

The rest of the gospels say the kingdom of God. It's one kingdom. There are not two kingdoms. There's only one kingdom. It's the kingdom spoken of in Daniel. In the time of those kings, the God of heaven, He's interpreting now Nebuchadnezzar's dream to Nebuchadnezzar.

And Daniel's saying in the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end.

But it itself, it will itself endure forever. And so when John and Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom, the Jews recognized that. They recognized that. And in fact, you read in the first chapter of Acts that they said to Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, the disciples said to Him, will You at this time restore the kingdom?

Responding to Injustice Without Violence

Now somewhere over the centuries, we have maybe emphasized other things, but we're close now to the coming of the Lord. And things are going to get worse. The weak is going to come to maturity. So are the terrors.

Righteousness will come to maturity. Wickedness will come to maturity. And one of the biggest problems we will have will be to refrain from fretting or acting with violence. You know, it does no good to shoot an abortion doctor.

Someone for whom Christ died. He needs to be saved. God loves him just as well as He loves all the homosexuals and lesbians. God loves all these people. You don't get anywhere by abusing them. We're not called to abuse anybody.

We're not called to compromise what the Bible says. But we're not called to curse people. Not the politicians, not the wickedness that goes on as congressmen fight for the pork so they'll have more money whether or not the military needs the aircraft.

And all these other things that some of us that are older are aware of and some that are younger will have their own arena of injustice that they see. Maybe the teacher playing favorites. Who knows what?

But we're not to fret about it. The Bible says do not fret yourself. And we're not to act out in violence. Jesus did not act out in violence. The servant of the Lord must be gentle, apt to teach, patient.

There was a lot of iniquity, a lot of iniquity in the Roman Empire. And Jesus never spoke out against it. He dealt with the hearts of men. He said, give Caesar what belongs to Caesar. He dealt with the inner kingdom, the parable of the sower, and then the outer kingdom as we see in the passage we're going to read.

Now, usually we read our passage first, but I wanted you to know that this is the message of the Bible. That injustice will reign in the earth until God's purpose in the earth has been finished. And His purpose in the earth is to create a kingdom of people and especially rulers, people who will be able to rule in the world to come with Him.

We say will reign with Christ over the nations. That's what the Bible says. And it's not talking foolishness. It's talking about where the action is. Because the action with us today is what we read in the paper about the energy, about the Middle East crisis, and we see the Jews being accused of aggression.

Constantly the Jews are aggressing everybody, but some of us it looks like it's coming from the other side. And we look at that and we say, that ain't right. And then we look at some of the things that happen in China where the poor Chinese have to get a little money, have donated their blood, and then it was given back to them.

And so there's whole colonies of Chinese with AIDS and the government is refusing to let it be known because it's embarrassing to China because they feel that they have moral superiority or whatever. I'm not condemning those people.

I'm not talking about some far-fetched thing. I'm talking about the things that gripe you and me every time we open the paper. We say, that ain't right. Have you ever done that? That, brother and sister, is what the Gospel is about.

That's why it's good news. When we hear it, and it says you must deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Jesus, we say, if that's the good news, who needs the bad news? But the good news is that when it has been accomplished, and it can only be accomplished in us as we are willing at this time to deny ourselves.

We won't be denying ourselves forever. Paul isn't dying daily now. Jesus isn't being crucified now. So temporarily, in order to get at the sin and rebellion that is in us, we have to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow the Lord, which is not good news immediately, certainly not to the sinful nature.

But the end is people who can appear with the Lord, who do not seek their own. See, that's the whole basis of the problem with mankind. It's a problem of relationships. It's a problem of relationships is the reason the things that are wrong that I mentioned, the inequities, are problems of relationship.

And that problem, as can be said very simply, we love ourselves more than we love God and other people. And that, brother, sister, is the root of it. It's self-seeking is the root of the problem in the world.

And that's the reason for taking up your cross. Because when you deny yourself and take up your cross, God begins to open your eyes to the needs of other people. And the cross kills that me, me, me, me.

I'll get mine. Forget you. I'll get mine. That's what the cross does. And the Lord's not coming with people with the power of the kingdom who still have in them, I'm getting mine. Forget you. Who have learned to love God above all else.

It's people who have learned in this world to love God above all else and their neighbor as themselves. And some of us in here may be born that way. I see all the sweet young people and I'm sure they don't have a selfish thought in their head.

But I have had a terrific battle with that. With putting other people first and being more concerned about them. Maybe that's why God made me a pastor. I can't get out of it. But it's been difficult for me and it probably is for some of you.

But let me tell you, brother, sister, until that thing is crucified in there, that me firster, we're no use to God and other people. So, the problem can be described simply. And the solution is simple.

Fix your eyes on Jesus. Take up your cross. Forget about yourself. Put God first. Put other people first. Think about them. Never take anything at anyone else's expense. Never take joy at someone else's expense.

Because God does not approve of that. That's the kingdom. First, it's internal. But the day is coming when it will be external. And this that we're reading about in Revelation is not the internal kingdom.

The internal kingdom has been settled. This is the external manifestation of something that has been created first in Christ. Of something that has been created first. See, the Bible says He learned obedience by the things He suffered.

Even the Lord had to learn obedience by the things He suffered. Perfect as He is. How much more than we. But He will come, as we read here, as we see in our banner that we enjoy so much. He's coming. He who is faithful and true.

Faithfulness, the Antichrist Spirit, and Rule With Christ

And see, that's the problem. People aren't faithful and true. Because being faithful and true, that's what integrity is. And that's what we're losing in our nation is integrity. Faithfulness and truth.

That's why His name is faithful and true. He's the opposite of the Antichrist spirit. And the Antichrist spirit has nothing to do with a computer in Brussels. Antichrist is the worship of yourself. Oh, sure, it'll be personified in a person.

But according to the epistle of John, it's been with us since the first century. You want to see Antichrist, you don't have to fly to Brussels. Look in the mirror. As long as you're first on the hit parade, you're looking at old Antichrist because that's what he is.

I'm my own God. Forget everybody else. But he's no big mystery. It's simple. We see it in our lives, in our families, in the world. And the solution is in Christ. First in the internal kingdom as He destroys self-will out of us.

And then as we appear with Him to rule with Him, to govern the nations with justice. And God loves the nations. And He will not have anyone rule over them who does not love them as He does. The person with the greater love always rules the other.

Remember that. The person with the greater love always rules the other. Dictators rule us, but they don't rule us. They just control our bodies, but they don't have our heart. When you don't have a person's heart, you're not ruling them.

You got to have their heart. And so you get an argument with somebody of the two, the one with the greater love will prevail because they'll give way rather than hurt you. So, you know all those things.

I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but I felt before we read this, which is not exactly a Mother's Day passage for sure, that you'd have to be oriented to what? Say, what is this? I didn't know this was in the Bible.

Oh, that must be one of them things. No, this is the coming of the Lord. Oh yes, sinners need to tremble in the righteous rejoice because He will establish justice on the earth. Thank God. All right, so here we go.

Revelation 19 and the Wedding Supper of the Lamb

And I may interrupt it a little bit because it's a long passage here. All right, let's read together starting with verse 7. Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory. For the wedding of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.

Fine linen, bright and clean was given her to wear. Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. Now, let me stop there. We would expect it to say, for the wedding of the Lamb has come. His bride has made herself ready.

Get the banquet tables ready. Put up the balloons. Put up the placemats. Get out the orchestra. This is the time of rejoicing. Capice? That's what we would expect to come after a wedding. But what do we find?

The descent of an army to crush evil. Do you ever connect those? Because the key is in verse 8. Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. The bride has to be made ready so that her union with Christ can be revealed when He appears so that the nations will believe that God has sent Jesus.

What will the wicked do? They're going to resist Him. With, I think, both physical and metaphysical forces. They're not going to welcome the Lord, but the meek of the earth will. Oh, yes, the meek of the earth will.

Alright, we'll read on. Verse 9. Then the angel said to me, Write, blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. And he added, these are the true words of God. Now, how many know it's not the bride who is invited to the wedding supper?

Do you ever know of a wedding in which the bride was invited to the supper? What are we going to do now? We're going to invite the bride so she can come to the reception. Did you ever hear of that? Well, then, who is it talking about?

It's talking about the peoples of the earth. See, the benefit of Christ's coming is to destroy those who are oppressing mankind. Because they won't stop otherwise. They have to be destroyed. That's why we read about destruction.

They have to be destroyed. They're not going to surrender their power, their wickedness, their love of money, and the rape of the world. They're not going to give that up just because Jesus appears. They didn't when He came the first time, did they?

Here's God in the flesh. They immediately begin to plot, how can we kill Him? And there's Lazarus who He raised from the dead. Well, let's kill Him too. That's how wonderfully sane and benevolent people are.

They're worse today than they were then. Mother, I can have half of the kingdom. What should I ask for? The head of John the Baptist. Isn't that cool? Here comes this 17-year-old salami with the head of John the Baptist, blood running over the...

Oh, Lord. Because her mother was mad at John because he criticized her. Things are worse today than they were in the days of salami. She must have been quite a dancer. The old fool got so excited because this teenager danced, I'll give you half of my kingdom!

Alright, now, who's invited? All of mankind. What are they invited to? Drink! Drink of the Spirit without cost! Drink! Come and drink, says the bride and the Spirit. They're called to the wedding supper.

Isn't that neat? If you're a member of the Christian church, God is calling you to be a source of eternal life. Eternal life appears in the Holy Spirit who is eternal life, appears in the Bible as water.

In the New Jerusalem, He appears as God. We're baptized into His name. But He appears as a river of water. He always comes from the throne of God. So God wants to build His throne like we dramatized this morning, in us.

He wants to build His throne in us so that out from us will come rivers of living water. For whom? For mankind. God so loved the world. But the building of God's throne in us means not my will but yours be done because the throne is a place of rulership.

There can't be two kings on the throne. So you've got to get off. Huh? Oh boy, we could spend a lifetime fighting that one. But if you're going to win, you've got to get off the throne because there's One there who has the right to wear the crown.

And His name is Jesus. Hallelujah. Let Him be Lord of your life. You'll never regret it. You maintain your self-will and you're going to be miserable until the day you die. Anyone who's wrapped up in himself is a small package.

You want to be something? Turn your life over to Jesus and quit fighting. Like Jesus said to Paul, why do you resist the gold? Like an ox gold. Evidently, Paul was being pricked in his conscience. And Jesus said, why are you fighting against it?

Anybody in here this morning fighting against the gold? The Lord is telling you? Slip up your hand. We'll pray for you right now. You don't have to wait until the end and have a song and say, you know, Jesus is passing this way.

Put up your hand now if you're fighting against the gold and we'll pray for you. Say, Lord, I surrender. Because the hound of heaven's going to follow You once he gets on Your scent. You're a goner. Alright, these are the true words of God.

Worship, Revelation, and the Faithful Witness

You know, this book of Revelation is definitive. I mean, if there's any conflict in the Scripture, which there's none, this is the definitive book. This is the only one that purports to be a direct revelation of God through Christ.

And everything is subsumed under Revelation. That's why you'll see this repeated. I am the Amen. These are the true words. These words are faithful and true because it will fight the great lie that Antichrist is.

He's a liar. At this, I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, this is interesting. Do not do it. I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Worship God. Now, this man could have been... There's two kinds of angels. The word angel means messenger. It doesn't mean angel. It just means messenger. Angelos in Greek means messenger. It can be a spirit messenger.

It can be a human messenger. It can be a spirit angel. It can be a human angel. It looks like this one was, at one time, a flesh and blood person on the earth. He said, I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Could it be a spirit angel? But it looks like a human angel. You know, it's interesting. If you get yourself full of eternal life, when you die, you'll keep on working. Like Moses and Elijah. You remember, they were up on the mount asking Jesus about the atonement.

They weren't just resting in the spirit realm. They're busy. I'd like to be busy. You know, when I die, I'd like to keep on doing something. I saw heaven standing open. There's coming an open heaven. And in that time, the physical and the spiritual realms will converge as they were in the beginning of the creation so that the little hills can skip.

Nature's dead now. But it will be converged again. That's why you can see physical bodies being thrown into a spiritual lake of fire because the two will converge. Heaven will be open. And there before me was a white horse whose rider is called Faithful and True.

That is, the man of integrity. You can count what he says he does. His eyes are like blazing fire because fire tries all things. You cannot con Jesus. When you look at him, he's got your number. You can talk religious talk all you want to, but the Lord doesn't even hear you.

You can pray all the King James prayers you want, and He doesn't hear you. I'll tell you what He does hear. Help! You can pray it in Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, or Puerto Rican. Help! The Lord hears that.

And you try to flatter Him. Oh, our wonderful Father, Oh, God, He'll go on and on. Help! That's the best prayer there is. It isn't very long and it's not difficult to remember. And with justice. See that word?

Remember our hymn? We'll dance upon injustice because the Spirit of God is beginning to speak through the composers of music. You wouldn't have seen that before. Dance upon injustice. That's one of our modern songs that have come.

Justice for the Poor and the Judgment of the Nations

Dance upon injustice. You remember that? That's what God the Spirit is saying today. The Lord is coming to dance on injustice. Man, we think of the way Margaret and the others described those poor children out there working in Mexico where the oil refineries are.

No shoes and everything. Dance on injustice! Living in corrugated metal sheds, some of them no running water, no toilet facilities, nothing. You don't have to go past Tijuana to find that. Dance on injustice!

Some are rolling in wealth with $100 million in a Swiss bank account and others, they're sending their children out to the city dump to compete with the vultures. You don't have to go very far down into Mexico to see that.

At least, that's the way it used to be. Trying to make a living out of the dump. And others drinking their cocktails in their fancy houses. That's wrong. And Jesus knows it's wrong. And He's coming to do something about it.

Hallelujah! That's the Gospel. That's why it's to the poor. To the rich, it's bad news. I mean, He's coming. I might have to share some of my money. It's the Gospel. Jesus said, go tell John I'm going to preach the Gospel to the poor.

It's good news to them. They don't have anything to lose. God loves the poor. That's why He made so many of them. Alright, with justice, He judges and makes war. God today, I was in a place recently and I was testing in my heart and mind was a Christian gathering the sense of the Spirit of God.

What He was saying. I feel the Lord was saying He wants judgment to begin in His churches. He wants people to realize that He's dealing with the sin in our lives. See, what happens is this. As Christians, God begins to deal with the sin, the worldliness, the self-will, the lust in our lives.

And we don't know how to handle it. He brings us into a situation that comes up. We fly into a rage. Or we gossip or slander about somebody. Or we're selfish when we shouldn't be. Or we do something abusive.

And we recognize it. We say, this isn't Christ-like, but we don't know what to do about it. We figure, oh, well, I'm saved by grace. Or everybody's doing it. Or nobody's perfect. Or whatever you want.

I don't know how you handle these things. The Holy Spirit very patiently brings you into a situation that causes you unrest. Has that happened to anybody this last week? You were brought into a situation that caused you unrest?

Yes, one honest soul. Thank you, sister. Yes. See? And it begins to ride in your cage. And you don't know how to handle it. You get mad at your wife or whatever. You don't know how to handle it. You get mad at your boss.

You get mad at the Democrats. Whatever. You don't know how to handle it. What you do is you go to prayer. And you say, Lord, if I've lost my peace here, there's something wrong with me. I'm not going to blame circumstances or people.

The problem is mine, O Lord. I'm the one standing in the need of prayer. What's causing me this fear, this unrest, this anger, this temptation? Why am I yielding to temptation? Where's the door? Whenever you sin, there's always a door there.

There's somewhere Satan's getting in. I'm talking to Christians now. I'm not talking to unsaved people. I'm talking to God's sheep. And when something like that happens, you don't ignore it. Say you're saved by grace.

Everybody's doing it. You go to prayer. And you say, now, Lord, I did not handle that right. What's going on here? And if you stay in prayer, if you have a faithful friend and there's no one in this kind of business as faithful as your husband or wife, if you're not too proud.

But otherwise, get someone of the same sex as yourself and someone that does not gossip. You may have to look. If you need to confess to somebody else and talk it over, it does help. Like I said, confess your sins one to another.

And James, but if that's too rich for your blood, confess it to God and do the best you can. And or come up before the elders of the church. What is going on here? Why am I doing this? It isn't God's will for you to keep healing the sin.

I mean, read 1 John 3. He that continues to sin hasn't seen who doesn't know him. It's not God's will that you keep on. We're not under the old covenant that we have to keep sinning. This is a new covenant.

We have the body and blood of Christ, the Holy Spirit, the born again experience, the record of the apostles, the body of Christ. We have everything so that we can get the victory through Jesus over every single thing in our life that is not right.

Romans 8, 12 says, we're debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. You don't have to. If you sin and keep on sinning, it's because you're choosing to do so. You don't have to. As a Christian, you don't have to.

Once you're saved and belong to Christ and you have the Holy Spirit and you're born again, you don't have to keep sinning. I'm not going to say you're going to be perfect overnight. You're not, obviously.

I'm talking about the issue of the day. Right now. Now is the day of salvation. Now. What has troubled you this past week? What did you do you shouldn't have done? You don't throw it off. That's the Holy Spirit leading you toward this white garment.

That's why He's doing it. He didn't lose track of you or have to go somewhere or rest or something. He's right on your case. And He's bringing these things up so that you'll see what's in your heart. And don't dodge it.

I know I've been in this way for 50 years confessing my sins. Nobody can be that bad. Don't kid yourself. There's a labyrinth in there. There's a labyrinth in there. Very tricky. And if you're just beginning in the way of, like it says in 1 Corinthians 11, if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judging.

If the Holy Spirit is... We're going to take communion this morning. I want to read something in the communion. I plan on it, God willing, that I've never read before because it tends to be negative. But you'll see what I mean when I get to it.

So you better be prepared. And if you're dealing with something, get up here at the altar. Help! So, when the Lord shows you something, don't back off and say, no, if I tell that to God, He'll be embarrassed.

Listen, God is not going to be embarrassed. He's heard it all. God has heard it all. All the way from the drunk sleeping under His trunk to the most sophisticated, weird, romantic delusions, God has heard it all.

And so what you do, God isn't embarrassed, it's you who are embarrassed. So you tell the Lord. And you don't give Him a lot of fancy stuff, like, oh, if there's anything wrong with me, Lord, deliver me.

Save your breath. Go out and eat a cheeseburger. Because that is going nowhere. You have to say, Lord, I slandered someone. Lord, I lied on a sales contract. Lord, I flew off the handle at my wife and now we don't speak to each other.

Lord, I disobeyed my parents. I'm hiding this thing from my parents. And all kinds of stuff. You've got to tell the Lord what you did. And say, Lord, I need help. I confess to you that this is not like Jesus.

It's not right, Lord. I know it. You know it. Bible says, confess your sins. He is faithful and just to forgive your sins and to cleanse you. He'll do that this morning when we take communion. But don't come up here with sin in your heart or there or anyplace else and take communion when you know in your heart there's sin.

Don't do that, because there's a penalty for that. Boy, we're going to save a lot of grape juice this morning. All right. I've never gone on that, because my attitude about communion is come one, come all.

If you're unsaved, come and take it and get saved while you're taking it. Now, we don't have closed communion here. But the Bible is very serious about taking the communion when your heart isn't right.

And we'll get into that later. All right, now, it's no big deal. Let's say you did something wrong this last week. OK? So what do you do? Figure it's all over. You slid down. You bought a 12-pack, so you slid all the way down Mount Zion.

You're back down to the bottom again. No, that is not the way it works. I say that because it happened with a young man. I had to counsel him about that. He was so discouraged. He'd go all the way down, bang, after all this climbing.

No, you take it where you are. Every time you do something like that and you repent of it, I mean, you really may get deceived and knocked off face. And you come to yourself, you repent of it, get it cleared up with God.

And if the Spirit leads, you make restitution. But only as the Spirit leads. You know what? It makes you a stronger, wiser person. God isn't looking for innocent people. He had two innocent people in the garden that didn't work out so hot.

He's not looking for innocence. He's looking for skill in war, learning the difference between good and evil, and embracing the good and repulsing the evil. That's what it means to grow in Christ. That's the last verse in Hebrews, the fifth chapter.

That's what it is to grow in Christ, is to grow in the recognition of good and evil and in the willingness to embrace the good and reject the evil. That's what it means to grow in Christ. You don't do that all at once.