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I love this.\u00a0 God keeps his children protected – we need only obey the Spirit and stay pure.\u00a0 The rest is God takes care of.<\/span><\/p>\n John, I do have a question about this part of what you said:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “If any group of saints will keep themselves pure, God will not allow an ungodly person to stand for long among them.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n In Jesus parable of the wheat and the tares, he says to leave the tares till the end, and then, they will be separated… so are there also cases where the ungodly ARE allowed to stand among the righteous (until the end, in that time of separation)?<\/span><\/p>\n Gary<\/span><\/p>\n =========<\/span><\/p>\n Excellent question, Gary!\u00a0 As with so many other spiritual matters, such as free-will vs. predestination, and in this case, there is a time to emphasize one way and a time to emphasize the other.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Once a backslidden soul is committed to his sin and will no longer receive correction, God may keep him among His saints, but only to try the hearts of those who still have hope.\u00a0 That spiritual condition, that of continuing among the saints in a permanently backslidden state, is called being “tartarized” (2Pet. 2:4), and it is the very worst spiritual condition of all.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n So, you are correct to point out that sometimes, God does keep a stubborn, backslidden believer among His saints.\u00a0 But whenever He does so, it is never for that person’s good.\u00a0 It would be better for that poor soul never to have known the way of righteousness (2Pet. 2:20-21).\u00a0 Even being dead and in Hell would be a better place for him.\u00a0 At least, in Hell he would not be continuing to sin.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Thank you for bringing up that side of the issue.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Pastor John<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Who Will Be Able to Stand?<\/p>\n The wicked shall not stand in the Judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.<\/p>\n Psalm 1:5<\/p>\n Moved by the Spirit of God, David declared that in the Final Judgment, not one ungodly person will escape the wrath of God; not one ungodly soul will be able to stand before God.\u00a0 It will not be possible.\u00a0 David said again, \u201cYou alone are to be feared, for who can stand before you, once you are angered?\u201d (Ps. 76:7).\u00a0 Other prophets asked the same rhetorical question.\u00a0 Nahum: \u201cWho can stand before His indignation?\u00a0 Who can withstand the fury of His anger?\u201d (Nah. 1:6).\u00a0 And Malachi: \u201cWho can endure the day of his coming, and who will stand when he appears?\u201d (Mal. 3:2).\u00a0 The obvious answer is, only the righteous.\u00a0 To be judged worthy to stand in God\u2019s presence will be a very great blessing, and Jesus exhorted his disciples to pray for it: \u201cStay alert and always pray, so that\u00a0y<\/em>ou might be counted worthy to escape all the things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of man\u201d (Lk. 21:36). \u00a0<\/p>\n But David did not limit his declaration to the Final Judgment; he said also that the ungodly will not stand in a righteous congregation.\u00a0 God\u2019s children who drift away from righteousness can no more stand in a congregation of godly people now than they will be able to stand in the Final Judgment.\u00a0 For just as God will be the Judge in the end, so \u201cGod presides in the Assembly of God, and He judges among the gods [His people]\u201d (Ps. 82:1).<\/p>\n If any group of saints will keep themselves pure, God will not allow an ungodly person to stand for long among them.\u00a0 And if any member of that congregation becomes ungodly, and sets his mind to it, he will not be able to stand among them, either.\u00a0 God will give him a \u201cgood\u201d reason to leave.\u00a0 That judgment of God has always been, is now, and will always be the same.\u00a0 That is why \u201cthe wicked shall not stand in the Judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.\u201d<\/p>\n In Psalm 15, David asked God to reveal to him who would be allowed to stand in His presence.\u00a0 Take good heed to God\u2019s response:<\/p>\n Psalm 15<\/p>\n I love this.\u00a0 God keeps his children protected – we need only obey the Spirit and stay pure.\u00a0 The rest is God takes care of. John, I do have a question about this part of what you said:\u00a0 “If any group of saints will keep themselves pure, God will not allow an ungodly person to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13390"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n