We have a bunch of Pharisees today. Like the Pharisees of old they have seized on a passage of Scripture and are using it in place of a daily relationship with Jesus. They think they have eternal life but they do not. They have a set of beliefs they believe guarantees them entrance to Heaven. They do not want to go to Heaven because they love Jesus but to enjoy themselves with the material wealth they believe to be there.

The above statement is too harsh. Many of these men and women began with a sincere love of the Lord but have become caught up in denominational politics and doctrinal wrangling. The Lord Jesus loves them as much as He ever did. He will bring many of them down to the Valley of Achor, the valley of judgment, so they may learn He is their Husband. They will sing there as in the days of their youth and come up out of the wilderness leaning on their beloved. These are the fortunate ones.

The Lord is judging His people today. He is measuring the city, its gates, its walls. You and I shall be baptized with the fire of the spirit of burning, the spirit of judgment.

How wonderful Divine judgment is! It is through judgment that we are redeemed, that we are brought to the knowledge of the Holy.

In the sequence of the seven major feasts of the Lord, Pentecost, the fourth feast, is followed by the blowing of Trumpets and then the Day of Atonement.

We have been at the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Pentecost since the turn of the century. It is time to move on.

The trumpets of God are sounding. Christ, the Lord of Armies, the King of Glory, is standing before His Church. The plumb line has been dropped. Each of us is being measured against the Divine standard.

You have been a Christian for many years. Now it seems all the evil of your personality is coming forth. Are you backsliding? Has the Lord forgotten you? Was your experience in Christ phony from the beginning?

Not at all.

You are being brought through the Day of Atonement, the Judgment Seat of Christ. Your worldliness, your lusts, your self-will, stubbornness, arrogance, meanness, willfulness, pride, personal ambitionùall are coming up for review. They had been locked up in the Cave of Makkedah. Now they are being brought forth. The heavenly Joshua is ready to kill them.

You now have a choice. You can run away from judgment and cling to the familiar, to salvation by "grace," to your mansion in Heaven, to the pretribulation "rapture." Or you can come before the Lord of Armies, confess and repent of your worldliness, lusts, proud self-will, and personal ambition. He will remove the spiritual death from you and prepare you to march in His army.

The Kingdom of God is at hand, ready to invade the earth. The armies are passing in review before the Lord. The saints are an army of judges, having been judged themselves. The army of angels led by Michael are poised, waiting for the word from the Father.

Lift up the eternal doors of your personality, the everlasting gates. The King of Glory will enter you. The Lord strong and mighty in battle. He is the King of Glory.

His name is Jesus. You may have known Him as the Good Shepherd of the twenty-third Psalm. Would you like to know Him as the Lord strong and mighty in battle of the twenty-fourth Psalm?