342. The Truth Has Stumbled in the Courts of Justice

In the place where truth should be upheld and exalted, it is suppressed. Where God’s Word should be preached, the truth is opposed. Why is this? “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”

“No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.”

“By this you shall know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.” 1 John 4:2.

There are very good reasons why people consistently and energetically warn and strive against the truth that Christ has come in the flesh. Their iniquities have separated them from God. The way of peace they have not known because they have lost the fear of God. They have made crooked paths for themselves; whoever follows that way will not know peace.

Therefore justice is far from us, nor does righteousness overtake us; we look for light but there is darkness! For brightness, but we walk in blackness! We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noonday as at twilight.

People want to have joy and glory without sufferings, the promises without fulfilling the conditions. They want the power of the resurrection without being conformed to Him in His death. They want to rejoice in the Holy Spirit without being led by Him. They will not give up their carnal pleasures and their partiality when they deal with others. The reproach of Christ is too much for them. Yet they still believe they will be justified in the courts of justice.

They set their threshold by God’s threshold and their doorpost by His doorpost, so there is only a wall between them and Him. Ezek. 43:8.

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory.” 1 Tim. 3:16.

The mysteries of God cannot be revealed to a person who commits evil deeds. When people worship idols in high places, show respect of persons, pursue sectarianism, beg for money, work against people who are more godly than themselves, throw such people out of their synagogues, and seat themselves in the courts of justice, then we should not be surprised that the truth stumbles there.

That is why they have lost their power, if they ever had any. Their vision is darkened and their judgment wavers in uncertainty. They cry out for love, but they hate God’s commandments. They cry out for brotherly love, but they do not walk in the light.

The lusts of the flesh sit in the seat of honor; therefore they are like dumb dogs that cannot bark. They have abandoned their ministry as watchmen. The sheep wander around in the mountains, cold and hungry, without a shepherd. They themselves sit in the court of justice as unjust judges.

The harlot has done her work well; she has deceived all of Christendom. Truly all the nations of the world have been led astray by her sorcery. Rev. 18:23-24. She has turned the gospel of Christ into a lawless gospel and robbed it of its power. She uses sorcery to make ungodly people believe they will have the bliss of heaven—without righteous deeds.

“But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” James 2:20.

“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.” Rev. 2:5.

Each sect and denomination has its court of justice, as did the scribes and Pharisees who lived in the days of Jesus. They sat on the seat of Moses. In their court of justice they conceived the plan that hung the Lord of Glory on the cross—Jesus, the Living Stone, rejected indeed of men, but chosen by God and precious. 1 Pet. 2:4.

There is only one court of justice where the truth does not stumble; it is outside the camp where He is, for He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Heb. 13:13.

We can only become free indeed outside the camp with Him, because it is the truth that sets us free. Let us go out from the sectarian system to Him because it is the body of Christ that is the church. Read Ephesians 1:22-23. Outside the camp you find Mount Moriah where the sacrificial spirit of Abraham works in the body. Calvary is there where we are reconciled in the body of His flesh through death so we can be presented holy, blameless, and above reproach in His sight. Col. 1:22. There we find the rock of stumbling for all flesh and all religious exaltation. That court of justice is the place where God, the Judge of all, dwells. There you find the Mediator for the new covenant. This is Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem.

In this court of justice the truth has never stumbled.