The Seven Levels of Judgment - Improper Response Part 3 — Dan Biser

Anger at Revival Among Other Believers

And the king of Nineveh was repentant, and he was very angry. Doest thou well to be angry? God asked Jonah that later on in this chapter. Improper response. Very angry. Because men were repentant. It might be that through a Baptist church, if the Methodist church would catch revival, is that there would be some Baptist who would say, if that's happening in the Methodist church, I'm not going.

Or a Baptist church saying to an assembly of God, those Charismatics over there, those Pentecostals over there, I'm angry that God came to them and he didn't come to us. Good Baptist. Improper response.

Hating Good and Loving Evil

The work of God is by the hand of God, and we are to glorify it no matter what. Do we have eyes to see it, or do we have an improper response? Jump into the book of Micah. Two verses in this that we'll have.

Chapter 3, verse 2. Improper response. Who hate the good and love the evil. How much more worse can you get than that? God says that which is good, he looked at what he created, he said it's good. He looked at man, he said it's very good.

Men look at good things and they say it's evil. They look at evil things, which God says, I hate that, I'm going to destroy that if men call it good. Who hate the good and love the evil. Is there any more of an improper response than to preach the word of God and talk about the word of God and get on our knees and faces before the presence of God and men say, I hate that.

They go home and they bet on ball games and they watch all the crazy junk that's on television today which is evil and perverse in the sight of the Lord and they say, I love this. Isaiah chapter 1. Do well that you love God.

Hate the evil. Do good, which is well-pleasing in his sight. Proper response is that. This, an improper response. Another verse, chapter 4, verse 12. Improper response. But, there it is again, but they know not the thoughts of the Lord.

Now this goes almost to what we were talking about with Jeremiah 8 -7 and then the beginning of Hosea chapter 4. They do not know the thoughts of the Lord. You say, well how can finite creatures know infinite thoughts?

God imparts. Just as he imparted the word of God to men of God, he imparts his thoughts. And in prayer, that's one of the best ways that God says, I found me a man, I found me a woman, and I can share my thoughts with them.

But it is this improper response that we don't know the thoughts of God. Not even one. You pass out a piece of paper and a pencil to the church of God today and across North America and you say, write down the thoughts of God.

What's God's thoughts? Most men, women, and children have been in church for decades, don't have a clue. Back to Jeremiah, what does he say? These are the thoughts that I have towards you. What's his thoughts?

What does he think about you? He loves. He's had mercy, he has grace, he has all of his attributes ready to bestow it upon the soul that properly responds to him. But the soul that improperly responds to God does not spend time worrying or understanding the thoughts of God.

Running Away Instead of Standing Firm

Check yourself on that. Now over to the book of Habakkuk. Over in Nahum, into Habakkuk, when I go to chapter 2, verse 2,. And the Lord answered me and said, Write this vision and make it plain upon tables that he may run that reads it.

Now I come across that verse and stop because it's easy to read all these things of judgments. Gone through the seven levels, seen some horrible things, read some horrible things, and it doesn't get much better in these improper responses.

And we're in that crucial hour of urgency to respond to this. But it's not time to run. An improper response is a coward that runs away from the heat of the battle. It's not time for me to go and to build a bomb shelter for myself and to put my wife and my kids down in it and to say you guys are on your own.

It's not a time for me to run away from these things after I hear and see and mind to understand it and a heart to contemplate it and to be afflicted by it. It's not time for me to stop praying. I use the same verse that Samuel said when the children of Israel came after they had asked for a king.

And they said, Samuel, don't stop praying for us. Samuel said, God forbid that I should stop praying for you. And it's the same thing today. It's not time to run. It's not time to hide. It's not time to be a coward.

It's not time to be spineless. It's not time to be yellow-bellied. It's not time to be a jellyfish. It's time to be bold for the cause of Christ. It's time for a proper response and not an improper response.

And that's why I add that verse in there. Chapter 2, verse 20. But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him. Keep silence before Him. An improper response is learned in this lesson.

And you can do this with countless other hundreds of verses, of thousands of verses in the Bible. But here's a lesson for us. In the book of Psalms it tells us, Be still and know that I am God. Keep silence before Him.

Silence and Reverence in God's Presence

But what do you see in the midst of God's people today? A bunch of jabber-jobs. They've all got something to say. They've all got their editorial comments to make, their editorial opinions to throw in there.

Be still. Be silent. Keep your mouth shut. God is going to speak. Don't you speak. You can't hear anything when you're talking all the time. Wait upon the Lord. Be still in His presence. Be silent in His presence.

And an improper response is as we have taught in the church today. Run into the presence of God. Not come reverently. Run into His presence irreverently. Improper. And pour out all of your needs and all of your requests and all of your desires.

Seeking and Inquiring of the Lord

And then shoot back out of God's presence. And never give Him the conversation or the time to speak back. Or to answer. Improper response. Chapter 4, chapter 1, verse 6. They are turned back from the Lord, and that have not sought the Lord, nor inquired.

There are two things here that we've seen in other passages of Scripture that reminds us that they are turned back from the Lord. They've not come to the Lord. They've not returned to Him. But they've gone away from Him.

They have not sought the Lord, nor they inquired of Him. Now you would ask that question tonight. Even in the midst of a body like this. Have you inquired of the Lord today? Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane crying out, Father, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not my will be done, but Thine be done. John the Baptist coming along inquiring of the Lord. He must increase. I must decrease. Have you inquired of the Lord? Our problem today of improper response by the church is we have not sought the Lord.

And we have not inquired of Him for what He would have of us to do. Leadership. Prayer leaders in leadership and some pastors will ask me in these seven levels of judgment have said, what do you want us to do?

What are you asking of us? What should be the next step that we take? And so I come up with that proper response. But the improper response is when God's church says, we're going to go on like we have been.

And we've got this plan, and we've got this idea, and we've got this method, and we're going to go ahead with it and hope God blesses us. Improper response. We have not inquired of God. Can anything be done in the church?

Can anything be done in the denomination that is truly desiring to seek God and serve God without inquiring of Him and without seeking Him? Isn't it the most base foolishness of an improper response where God's people come into the presence of God and they tell God what they're going to do?

That'd be like, and I know that this is acceptable in society, but it's not accepted in my household, and it's not accepted in the word of God that one of my children would come into my house and tell me what they're going to do.

They can ask what they want to do, but they are not going to come in and tell me what they're going to do. I'm the parent. They're the child. Parents tell children, not children tell parents. But it is in the same mindset today that children tell their parents today what they're going to do, and that's part of the chaos that we live in.

Improper response. God's children tell God what they're going to do without seeking Him and inquiring of Him. Lord, what would you have us do? It was the last time that that question was asked in sincerity and honesty and waiting for God to answer.

Zephaniah's Warning Against Complacency

Zephaniah 1, verse 12. And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with candles, punishing the men that are settled on their leaves, that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, and neither will He do evil.

Bad scenario here. It goes back to the very beginning of what we were talking about, what we tried to understand. Lack of knowledge of who God is. The Lord will not do good. The Lord will not do evil.

He's doing evil to those that have an improper response. He's doing good to those that have a proper response. It's wonderful to hear the accounts around the world and other countries where God is doing good.

I love being able to take my prayer notebook and share it with the church. Look what the Lord did in answer to prayer. That's good. He knows that He's doing evil unto the nations and to the people because they have continued to provoke Him with an error, without a proper response.

Response to sin, God answers. But this is a lie, a deception. Where do lies and deceptions come from? Satan is the father of lies. Why is it that men believe lies rather than they believe truth? Men love darkness rather than light.

But the truth has come. I am the way, the truth, and the light. The truth has come, so that the truth shall set you free. Why do people remain chained? Why do people remain bound? Why do people remain undelivered and still in the holds of sin and Satan?

Because they believe a lie like that. The Lord will not do good or evil. Oh, it's okay. Everybody else is doing it. Oh, it's all right. God will wink at that. Oh, it's okay. It's a lie. And an improper response.

Four Improper Responses: Disobedience, Correction, Trust, and Nearness

Believes because they don't know God or the things of God or the word of God, they believe such a lie like this. Improper response. Chapter 3, verse 2. She obeyed not the voice. She received not correction.

She trusted not in the Lord. She drew not near to her God. You see a whole list. Four things here. She obeyed not disobedience. She received not correction. She trusted not. And she drew not near to her God.

Four things of improper response that God says this is a must. You must obey me. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Receive correction. By these stripes, you are healed.

And if I suffered in my flesh, so arm yourselves likewise with the same mind that you will suffer in your flesh. For without the suffering in the flesh, there is no forgiveness of sins. There is no removing of the sin.

That suffering brings us into a right relationship. Some of the greatest tragedies in our life brings and produces grace and mercy at God's hand. Trust not in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Lean not into thy own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge Him.

On and on we go with the verses. Trust in the Lord. But here we see improper response. We trust in something else. Then the last one. And they drew not near to God. Draw not to me, I will draw not to you.

Haggai's Judgment and the Call to Return

Draw not to the world, and hell is near. Draw not to self, hell is ever so close. But they drew not nigh to God. Improper response. Well, Zephaniah and then the Haggai. And we end it as we began. Chapter 2, verse 17.

I smote you with blasting, with mildew, with hail, judgments, third level, and all the labors of your hands. Yet you turned not unto me. Repeat of that same phrase. You did not return to me. You would not turn to me.

They turned to the things of this world, and they forgot God. Well, improper response is found in those small, minor problems. From Daniel on to Malachi. And I pulled out several of those verses to you with a repeat of some of those verses, a repeat of some of those messages.

But again, it is the same thing that we're seeing today across the church. Improper responses to God's call for us to be the people of God. To be holy. To be righteous. And we're not responding right.

And therefore the judgments continue. And so we begin with this understanding of that contrast. This is the good way. This is the wrong way. This is the straight and narrow. This is the broad and the wide path.

Why is there so many souls that are going to hear those words? I never knew you. Depart from me, you worker of iniquity. I don't know who you are. You're not a part of my children. You're not a part of my people.

My Lord, we preached in your name. We talked in your name. Why are they going to hear that when they preached his word and taught his word? Because of improper response. They believed a lie rather than the truth.

Repentance, Abandoning Self, and Proper Response

Now the idea is that next time when we come together we're going to see in the scriptures those that practiced a proper response and God met them. You and I cannot afford to wait too much longer. Our improper responses have covered us almost all my lifetime.

Humanism. It is so steeped in the church today. It is so steeped in our theology today. We don't know anything about abandoning self. We don't know anything about dying to self. It's all about living for self.

And it is a proper response to God. It must be that we recognize our improper responses that we have done for generations. That we have taught in our churches. That we have practiced in a form of a religion.

That we have continued to be hypocrites. That we have continued to deny the word of God when we said we believe the word of God. We lie when we ought to be speakers of truth. We're unholy when we ought to be holy.

We're unrighteous when we ought to be righteous. We're unfaithful to him who is faithful. The idea of all this is that we must understand that our improper responses are an offense unto him and he will not tolerate it and he has not tolerated it.

And that's why judgment has come. And unless we begin to understand this and to make application, this must stop. We will seek you. We will find you. We will inquire of you. We will obey you. We will trust you.

Proper response. And we recognize and confess and repent of our improper responses. We have not returned unto you. We have not known you. We lack a knowledge of you. We've turned away from you. We're lovers of this world more than we're lovers of you.

Improper responses to be confessed and repented of. And when that is laid down and humiliated, forsaken, rid of, then God comes. But we are creating ruins faster than any other generation has ever done it because of this improper response about knowing the word of God and knowing the God of the word.

May you understand what your responsibility is, what my responsibility is. Children of Israel did not learn it and they was destroyed. And if we don't understand this and apply our doom, you go out to the graveyard, deathbeds.

A Final Appeal for Revival and Repentance

It's not too late. Revival. Revival can come tonight. Revival can come tomorrow with the people that properly respond to God. But improper responses. Would you cry out in your heart? Would you shed tears for wasted years and wasted moments and opportunities where God was beckoning unto you, return unto me and I will return unto you and you said no?

Study thy word and you said no? Would you search your heart and see what an offense it is to God? Speak for yourself. Let the priest stand in the threshold of the church and weep and wail for the iniquities that are upon us.

God forgive us for lack of compassion, lack of love, lack of tears. God forgive us. We have time now. We begin to let God's spirit continue to speak to us. Stillness. Let's be still in the presence of God as he speaks to us now for the things that we need to search and to try our ways and to be in his presence as he desires of us without this improper response.

Oh God, make us right.