Another Urgent Message — B.H. Clendennen

Returning to the Altar and Becoming God's Vessel

I have been driven by the Holy Spirit to stir the hearts of the elect of God, to call us back to the altar, and to allow God to search us deeply as our every desire, every motive. If God is to move, he must have a vessel through which he can manifest himself.

You and I have come to the kingdom for such a time as this. If we fail, deliverance will come, but our houses will be destroyed. Thus saith the Lord, stand you in the way, seek and ask for the old paths, where is in the good way, and walk therein, and you'll find rest for your soul.

The Old Paths and the Church's Need for Repentance

But they said, we'll not walk therein. Jeremiah 6, 16. Now Jeremiah is admonishing Israel to ask for the old paths, where's the good way. Walk in, you'll find rest. That is a perfect picture of today's gatewayward church.

God is calling, but they're saying we'll not walk therein. The saying out there today is, this is not your grandfather's Pentecost. God is once more talking to his church, calling her back to the old paths, wherein dwelleth the righteousness.

His word is, repent your way back to where you left him. We must not leave any high places, or we'll find ourselves like Israel, falling away again. We must pray our way back to God's altar, and ourselves on that altar as a living sacrifice.

The fire never falls on an empty altar. Christ must become our life again. For a moment, I want to take you to Joshua, for there is a revelation. Gilgal, as you know, is the new ground gained in occupied people, by the people brought over Jordan, and is a type of resurrection ground upon which Christ has brought us.

Gilgal, Resurrection Ground, and Victory in Christ

That we are risen with Christ, seated with him in heavenly places, must be constantly remembered. But before they could advance, a number of things had to happen. First we read, a fear that took hold of the kings of Canaan.

Now they were the instruments of Satan. Their fear denotes Satan fear. He knew the power of Jehovah, which had brought him into the land. Satan's only antagonism is the Holy Ghost filled church, walking, living in union with Christ.

The enemy is defeated by the death and resurrection of our Lord, being in Christ risen, seated in him, the heavenly places. We can look upon him as conquered. Yet we must know it's only in the Lord, in the power of his might, we're strong.

Apart from him, we become the easy prey of the enemy. But we're translated from that darkness into the kingdom of God's wonderful son. Circumcision is next commanded by Jehovah. At that time, the Lord said to Joshua, make these sharp knives, circumcise again the children the second time.

The command was carried out at once and the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. Therefore the place was called Gilgal, which means rolling. Now the circumcision was carried out on all males who were born in the wilderness.

Circumcision, Death to the Flesh, and Self-Judgment

Circumcision stands for the carrying out of the sentence of death to the flesh, the death of Christ and for the people, a circumcision in him, in whom you are circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands.

But this fact that we're dead to sin by the circumcision, the death of Christ must be carried out practically. The sharp knife must be laid to this flesh and the things of the flesh. Gilgal therefore stands for the judgment of self.

This is a place of our strength, our power. Israel had always returned to Gilgal. When they did not, they were defeated. It's a parable. Ai, the city, means ruins. Ai is another type of the world, but the source of defeat was aching sin.

Achan's Sin and the Corporate Consequences of Disobedience

We're always tempted to look outside of ourselves. The problem is within. The shackles of silver, gold, Babylonian garments blinded his eyes. These things were to be accursed. Joshua said so. Amen. This obedience would bring trouble upon Israel.

So, aching sin was responsible for the defeat of the people. He confesses, I saw, I coveted, I took. The evil in the midst of the people of God, unjudged, becomes the most powerful agent against the people of God and withholds God's power and blessing.

And so it is still. As soon as we cling to the things of the world, then the enemy gets an advantage over us, and we have little power and cannot advance in the things of Christ. But aching sin discovered, forced confession, lifts judgment from Israel, and falls upon him and his house, the heap of stones.

The valley of Achor, where it was stolen, was a place of hope. Not only a place of national repentance and national repudiation, but it was also the place of a great, tragic national expiation. Israel had sinned, so Israel had suffered.

But it's the sin of one man, my God, don't let it be me, that had brought judgment on the camp. Now observe the sin of a single man, imputed to Israel, became Israel's sin. And because of that imputation, the wrath of God was on the nation.

That's what's happened to the church. But when the sin of that one man was discovered, when it was confessed, then it was imputed to him and lifted from Israel. Thus the penalty due to national sin was actually carried upon those whose guilt had involved the nation in such a thing.

Amen. That man in death was not only reaping the reward of disobedience, but the sin of the nation being expiated in his death of this individual. Thus was opened the door of hope, the valley of Achor, the valley of trouble.

If we'll purge ourselves, then God will come. A study of the life of Paul reveals the power of the Christian faith to excite the worst passions of men. But we become so familiar with it externally that by our own spirit and demeanor, we cast a doubt upon this veritable proposition, set it down as the saddest fact that has become possible.

The Gospel Must Remain Positive and Uncompromised

For nominal Christians to believers to care nothing about their faith, they degraded it so that it now converses with infidels, doubters, even mockers. The faith that used to hold no parley with unbelievers is now walking on the common road, begging, asking, leave, holding discussion, apologizing for suggestion of its own faith.

This age is seized with a horror of dogmatism. The gospel has been reduced to a point that the message is not you must be born again, but rather through inoffensive preaching, house group fellowship, we assimilate the lost into the church.

Christianity is nothing if it's not dogmatic, has no reason for existence if it's not positive. It's not one of many. If it's one of many, it's not what it possesses. The gospel of Christ is complete, final, positive, unanswerable.

Paul writes to the Romans, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. That word ashamed means to disfigure. He said, I will not disfigure this gospel to make it acceptable to a world that hates him. We must ever keep in mind that at this very moment, Christ represents us at the throne of God, and we represent him on this earth, and we must not represent him.

Amen. We must not represent him to make him acceptable to a world. In proportion, as any religion is true, it cannot stoop to the holding of conversation with anybody. Christianity reveals, proclaims, announces, thunders, not a suggestion, it's a revelation, not a puzzle to which has a dozen answers, but it is a oracle.

Truth, Holiness, and the Cost of Faithful Witness

Please understand what is meant. The dogmatism is truth is one thing, and the dogmatism of the imperfect preacher is another. Truth must be dogmatic, that is positive, absolute, without ambiguity. Truth must be clear in its own conception, clear in positive demands, clear in its rewards and punishments.

It's not lawful to have your brother's wife was God's message to the king. It cost John his life, but to say it differently would have been a high treason. Can you wonder then that a religion, namely the Christian faith, which claimed to be the voice of God, should encounter such awful hate?

If it could have come apologetically and said, I think, I suggest, like the 21st century Pentecostal, it might have been heard at the World's Convention, but it came otherwise. It came with a voice saying, this is my beloved son, hear him.

God help us, church. Look at yourself, look at myself. Let's repent, let's get ourselves on God's altar, and we will see God's power.