01 Judgement Begins At God’s ...

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A Derek Prince
Teaching Letter
No. 1: Judgement Begins at God’s House
Dear Friend
British Christians are confronted by a grim, undeniable fact: our nation has come under
the judgement of God. For this there are many reasons, but they can be summed up in
one simple statement: We have committed the sin for which Esau was rejected – we
have despised our birthright (Heb. 12:15-17).
God judges us according to the measure of light we have received. Jesus told the Jews of
His day that their judgement would be much more severe than that of Sodom and
Gomorrah, because they had received a much greater revelation of truth.
(Matt. 11:20-24).
The same applies to Great Britain over the last three centuries. Few other nations have
had the same access to the Word of God that has been granted to the British people.
Through culture and tradition, through churches and evangelists, and through the printed
word, Britain has been blessed above all other nations with the knowledge of God’s
truth. Our judgement for rejecting it will be correspondingly severe.
Many Christians fail to realise that God’s judgement does not begin with the people of
the world, but with the people of God. Peter told the Christians of his day,
“For the time
has come for judgement to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will
be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?”
(1 Peter 4:17). These words
apply equally to the church in Britain today.
Of all the sins that could be charged against the contemporary church, it is sufficient to
focus on two:
materialism
and
compromise
.
In Luke 17:26-30 Jesus predicted that the period before His return would be like the
days of Noah and Lot. He mentioned specifically eight activities characteristic of those
days: eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage, buying, selling, building, planting.
Yet there is nothing specifically sinful in any of these activities. What, then, was the
problem?
The problem was
materialism
. The people of those days had become so engrossed in
these materialistic activities that they were unaware of the impending judgement of
God on their carnal lifestyle. When judgement came, they were totally unprepared.
The same is true today of most professing Christians in Britain. If the final judgement of
God should suddenly usher in the return of Christ, they would be totally unprepared.
Like materialism, the sin of compromise often goes unrecognised. About two years ago,
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while praying, I had a mental picture of the interior of a typical church building with
rows of pews, a platform, a pulpit, a piano and so on. But the whole building was
permeated with some kind of fog. The outlines of objects could be discerned, but nothing
was sharply defined. While I was wondering what the fog represented, God gave me
one clear word:
compromise
.
In the contemporary church, most of the main moral and doctrinal truths, so clearly
enunciated in the New Testament, have become blurred and ineffective. In 1 Corinthians
6:9-10 Paul wrote:
“Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Yet the church today is full of people who
commit these sins, but remain totally unconcerned. In fact, they often boast of such sins.
A church member lay in hospital, dying of AIDS, which he had contracted through
homosexuality. Then he received Christ and was given a New Testament. After reading
some way in the New Testament, he sent an urgent message to the person who had led
him to Christ: “Come and pray for me. I need deliverance. I never knew there was
anything wrong with my lifestyle.”
Sadly, the chief responsibility for the erosion and rejection of many of the cornerstones
of the Christian faith in this country lies not with the world but with the very leaders of
the church itself. It has become a regular occurrence to hear of bishops denying the
Virgin birth, ministers questioning the deity of Jesus and priests scorning the need for
salvation.
Perhaps the most tragic outworking of this self-destructive process has been in the spate
of “Inter-Faith” services held in Britain’s Cathedrals and Abbeys. Here we have seen an
Archbishop of Canterbury participating in the worship of foreign gods alongside leaders
of the Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and Sikh faiths. Similar services have been attended on
at least one occasion by the Queen, who committed herself by her coronation oath to
the “Defence of the Faith”. God makes his feelings clear about such practices in Hosea
5:10 where he says:
“Judah’s leaders are like those who move boundary stones. I will pour
out my wrath on them like a flood of water.”
Yet within the church there is still a remnant of sincere, devoted followers of Jesus. If we
are among that number, how does God require us to respond to the present crises?
One clear answer is given in 2 Chronicles 7:14:
“If My people who are called by My name
will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then
I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
The phrase,
“My
people who are called by My name,”
applies to all Christians who take the name of Christ
upon themselves.
For at least 30 years I have been teaching on this Scripture, but recently I was confronted
by a shocking realisation! God’s people in our day have never fulfilled the first condition.
We have never truly humbled ourselves
. Our pride – both religious and racial –
remains as a barrier that holds back the answer to our prayers for ourselves and for our
nation.
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Through the severe dealings of God in my own life, I have learned the most effective
way for us to humble ourselves. Very simply,
it is by confessing our sins
. If we regularly
and specifically confess our personal sins to God, it is impossible to approach Him with
an attitude of pride.
Furthermore, I have seen that God has only committed Himself to forgive us of the sins
we confess.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness”
(1 John 1:9).
Unconfessed sins are unforgiven
sins
. Thus the barrier of pride builds up a second barrier of unforgiven sin.
The Bible exhorts us to confess our sins not merely to God, but also to one another.
“Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed”
(James 5:16). Confessing our sins to God deals with vertical pride; confessing to one
another deals with horizontal pride. We can hardly maintain an attitude of pride towards
someone to whom we have just confessed our personal sins.
This applies especially to the relationship between husbands and wives. Those who
regularly confess their sins to one another are not kept apart by a barrier of pride.
Furthermore, confession of sin is an essential prerequisite to effective intercession. Daniel
was one of the most righteous characters in the Bible, but when he set out to intercede
for his people Israel, he began by acknowledging his own share in their sin.
(Dan. 9:3-13).
I believe that God is waiting for us as British Christians to humble ourselves before Him
and one another by confessing our sins. Only after we have done that, can we move on
to claim the healing of our land.
But I must add a word of warning. Do not begin to indulge in morbid introspection! The
Holy Spirit is
“the finger of God”
(Matt. 12:28; Luke 11:20). Ask God to place His finger
on the sins you need to confess. He will do it with unerring accuracy, probably bringing
to light sins which you never recognised!
I have confined this analysis to the situation in Great Britain. Much of what I have said,
however, applies to other nations who are heirs to the Judeo-Christian inheritance and
to the church worldwide. May God help each of us to accept our personal responsibility!
Yours in the Master’s service
Derek Prince
You may reproduce this article on the following conditions:
• The article is not altered or edited in any way
• The article is credited to Derek Prince
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