Regaining Lost Ground

-Pastor Shane Idleman-: I will tell you that our administration needs our prayers. The media outlets do not care anymore if they lie, as long as it hurts the churches. So, at some point, I think we need to speak against that. Be loving, yes, but also be bold. Be as gentle as a dove, yes, but also wise as a serpent.

And so we see this from Psalm 94. Shall the throne of iniquity, which devises evil by law, by legislation, shall you have fellowship with them? So we see here there has to be a line drawn in the sand.

-Guest (Male)-: Thank you for joining us here at Westside Christian Fellowship, located in Leona Valley, California, one hour north of Los Angeles. Today's message on regaining lost ground is titled "The Fool Says There Is No God." In this message, Pastor Shane reveals the timeless truth of God's word through a sobering look at man's propensity to rebel against the authority of God, an incredible encouragement of Christ's enduring love and grace displayed at the cross and for all those who would heed the Shepherd's call.

You can hear the whole message at Pastor Shane's YouTube and Rumble channels. Make sure to subscribe today. For more information, visit us online at westsidechristianfellowship.org. We also encourage you to hear more truth from Pastor Shane with the Idleman Unplugged weekly podcast. And now, from Westside Christian Fellowship in Leona Valley, California, here is Pastor Shane Idleman.

-Pastor Shane Idleman-: The fool says there is no God, and I'll be in Psalm 14 and, God willing, Psalm 15. Psalm 14 says, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good." Now, this word fool is interesting because it doesn't mean what a lot of us think it means. What it is, is ignorant or naive.

A person who is ignorant would say there is no God. You can even look at how the body was made, look at the universe, just look around us. Clearly, something did this. So the fool, the ignorant person, says there is no God. The majority of the time when they say that, it's because they don't want there to be a God. They don't want to give up their habits or their lifestyle. They're in rebellion against God or they're mad at God, and so they say there is no God.

What happens is removing God leads to godlessness in all areas. I'm shocked when I read about America, for example, 100 years ago and how far we have drifted from what was once accepted. They had their problems back then, don't get me wrong, but what they would not allow, now entertains us. What would make people blush is now on the evening news or in the movies. Without God, there's a godlessness that comes in and the enemy desensitizes us to what God is doing around us.

God's doing tremendous things around us, but the enemy will desensitize us through what we watch, what we view, and our lifestyle. Before we know it, we've drifted very far off course. I'll give you an example of this. We took my one-year-old into the swimming pool and it was cold. But as I held her, every few minutes I would drop her down just a little bit.

Before you know it, something she initially didn't even want to put her feet in, she was taking her feet out and was almost swimming around in what was initially shocking to her. We're bombarded with images. We're bombarded with perversion and we begin to enjoy it and we become desensitized to what is really happening in our lives. So this is a call, maybe, to wake up, take a look in the mirror and say, "Lord, am I on the right path? Am I doing the right things? Do I need to come back to you and remove these things out of my life?"

Desensitization begins often in our mind. So look at what you're watching, look at what you're viewing. It's really shaping your mind. Many people who are fearful and don't want to leave the house, it's because they're shaping their mind and they're becoming desensitized by the media and the fear frenzy that is being created.

Then verse 2. But it's interesting, though. There is no God. Well, if there's no God, why are most atheists mad at God? If there's no God, why do they hate Christianity so much? If there's no God, how can they explain life? How can they explain all these things? They can't explain those things. So really, "There is no God" comes out of a rebellious, angry heart that wants to have nothing to do with God.

They say, "There is no God. I am the captain of my own ship. I am the master of my own destiny. I'll do what I want to do, when I want to do it. There's no God lording over me." They say that in their heart and then they live it out. The result is, if you get too many of these people in positions of authority in government office, in the universities, in academia, and in all these areas, then you start to produce a godless society.

It's a plan, I believe, by the enemy to get all kinds of these people on our school boards. Do you know you couldn't even run for office when America was first born unless you professed a faith in God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit? There was a God-fearing nation. Yes, we've got so many mistakes that have happened and transpired, but overall, America used to fear God a lot more than it does now.

And then in verse 2, the Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand. So God looks down. Is there any who understand? Is there any who seek after me? They have all turned aside together. They have all become corrupt. There is none who does good, no, not even one.

Now, some have said this passage refers, obviously, to the context of verse 1, that the fool has said in his heart. And so foolish people have turned aside together. But the problem with that is Paul quotes it later on, proving again that wonderful Martin Luther phrase: justification by faith alone through Christ alone, and that we're justified by having faith in God, that there are none that are good on their own. We've all been corrupted. We need to look to God to save us.

Left to ourselves, we would decay. And that's what happens. You see this with young adults in their 20s and by the time they're in their 50s and they've rejected God, it's just a mess. Their life is a mess. God gives them warnings, God gives them opportunity, God convicts them. As they get older, you start to see this hardness, you start to see mental issues and physical issues and addiction and alcoholism. All these things begin to take over because, left to ourselves without God, we will decay spiritually. We will get worse, we will get more depraved, not better. People usually, when they reject God as they live and they get older, they get more depraved and more perverted in many areas.

And then verse 4. Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat up bread and do not call upon the Lord? So God is saying all these people that are coming against my children, they have no knowledge. There they are in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous. It begs the question: is God really on your side? Is God going to bat for you? Is God going to see you through? You have to get your heart right to make sure that you know the God of the Bible.

And then verse 6. You would shame the plans of the poor, talking to the wicked men, but the Lord is his refuge. So the poor, those who are oppressed, those who are ridiculed and even what we're going to see now, more Christians being marginalized here in America, but the Lord is our refuge. We run to him. The Bible talks about God being a refuge, which is a place of safety. They talk about God being a strong tower that we run into for help and support. We have this refuge and safety in God.

Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people. Let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad. This really jumped out at me this week. It's almost like God's saying even in the midst of this, let God's people rejoice, let God's people shout and be glad. That's how you get through a pandemic is you look at God and what God has been doing and you focus your thoughts back on thankfulness and gratitude and thanking God for what he has done for us.

Right into chapter 15 and the heading is: who shall dwell on your holy hill? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? It reminds me of the other verse that talks about he who has clean hands and a pure heart and has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor has he sworn deceitfully. He will stand in the presence of Almighty God.

But we have to remember this going into this passage: good is never good enough. Good is never good enough. So when God says, "Who's going to dwell on my holy hill?" there's an invitation for fellowship. There's an invitation for coming together and having that relationship with God and there is a criteria. God looks at clean vessels, God looks at broken vessels, God wants humble vessels.

So he says here, "Oh Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?" You have to think of the Middle East back then. The tents were out in the desert and he's asking the question, "Lord, who's going to come into your tent? Who's going to be close to you? Who's going to have intimacy with you? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?" In other words, not everyone is given permission to go and have this relationship with God, but it talks about his powerful presence and it asks the question, "O Lord, who can stand before you? Who can dwell with you? Who can have intimacy with you? Who can know you?"

He says, "Here's who: he who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart." So again, these things don't save a person. These things are a reflection of a heart that wants to honor and obey God. When we start to do these things, repent of sin, repent of bitterness, repent of a critical heart, repent of arrogance, repent of compromise, and we get our hearts right, he says if you walk blameless and you do what is right and you speak the truth in your heart, God loves truth tellers.

God loves people to speak the truth. Paul said, "Speak the truth in love." So we are called as a pastor, we're supposed to be watchmen. We're supposed to share the truth in all areas of life that helps people in all areas of life. Speak the truth in love.

God says that person, I'm looking at that heart. You know those people. They tell you what you want to hear or they'll just outright lie or they'll just joke about things and they don't want to be confrontational. God says, "I want a person who will speak the truth to others because he loves them, because he speaks the truth, he wants to help them."

There are so many people even right now I can think of a half dozen people I would love to talk with or talk to and speak the truth to them. Speak the truth to them about what they're doing to their families, about their hard hearts, but the sad fact is many people are not open for constructive criticism.

But God loves the person who speaks the truth in his heart and who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend. In other words, he's not a backbiter, he's not a slanderer, he's not a gossip. He builds people up. That will really tell you, this is a true indication of where your heart is. How do you talk about others when they're not around?

Now, of course, sometimes we need to bring up difficult things, but I'm talking about a person who really wants to help others and build them up when they're not around. But the person who begins to pull people down and begin to talk about people behind their back, the Lord is not pleased with that. That's why he says, "Do not slander with your tongue."

And then verse 4: "And in whose eyes a vile person is despised." In other words, somebody who loves God is going to hate sin. They're going to hate sin. They're going to hate what sin does to our children. They're going to hate what sin does to our marriages. They're going to hate what sin does to our families. They hate sin.

But this person honors those who fear the Lord and who swears to his own hurt and does not change. Boy, I wish we had more of these people. What does that mean, "Blessed is the man who swears to his own hurt and does not change"? It's the person who says something and they will do it. They don't need a contract, they don't need an attorney, they say it and they do it.

They don't say, "Hey, I'm going to get you this vehicle" and then they back out, or "I'm going to give you this" and then they back out. They say what they mean because they meant what they said. He wants that person to have that deeper relationship with him and dwell with him and be filled with the Holy Spirit. See, when we don't do these things that I'm talking about, that's when you quench and grieve the Holy Spirit. When you do these things, you are filled with the Holy Spirit. That person can dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life.

Who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. Now, this is interesting because back then they would loan money. Well, not much has changed with credit cards, but they would loan money and there was nothing wrong with loaning money and you made maybe a little bit back and what was fair. But they would put this enormous amount of interest so the person could barely pay it back, if at all. They were paying a lot of interest and they kept paying the interest and this person, the person that God is rebuking, was taking the advantage of other people.

He said this person should not take a bribe against the innocent. Now, this happened in the courts all the time that a judge would be given money and they would do something illegal. I believe that's what's happening here with this pandemic. There's a lot of stuff that's fishy going on and God says, "I see those who are honest and upright and I also see those who are bribing those against the innocent and hurting."

I believe that that's why God is awakening the church. He's awakening our national spotlight again. He's putting people in positions of the highest office, whether they have the godly character or not, they will see his will through.

He says, "He who does these things shall never be moved. He who does these things shall never be moved." Now, this word moved is interesting because it can mean proceed or to advance. So if you follow these things, if you get your heart right before God, you will stand on a sturdy foundation. You will proceed ahead to God, you will advance ahead to God, you will not be moved from the foundation of integrity that you're building in your life.

So the Psalmist says, "Who will ascend into the hill of the Lord? He who has clean hands, a pure heart, his heart is right, he's broken, he's repentant." That person will know the intimacy of God. That person will have a deep and abiding relationship with God because they have been broken before God and their hearts are right. Look at the area it focuses on. It says his heart is right, he speaks the truth, he doesn't slander others, he's got character, he's got character towards God because he fears God, he hates evil, and he's got good godly character toward money.

Money. That's why the Bible says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Nothing wrong with money in itself, we everyone needs it, we know that. But when money begins to control your life and you begin to make decisions because of the almighty dollar and you begin to make decisions that are not glorifying God and you try to jockey for position and put other people down and manipulate and conspire and all because of money, God says that is going to lead to all kinds of evil.

If you've been saying there is no God or if you've been making God out to whoever you want him to be, I want to encourage you tonight to really look at your heart and pray, "God, I want to know who you are. I don't know who you are. If you're really out there, God, would you show me?" If you are sincere, I believe that God will honor that prayer. God is looking for sincere hearts that want to follow hard after him. Once a person makes that decision, they can be filled with the Holy Spirit and not quench or grieve the Holy Spirit by doing the things we just talked about.

Overcoming the throne of iniquity, and it's all going to make sense in a minute when I read Psalm 94. The first way to overcome the throne of iniquity is with the truth. The truth of what's really happening. I was reminded just this week, I was actually reading an interesting book from 1877, it is lectures on preaching from Yale University back when Yale was more conservative. I was reminded that the prophets of God's time of the Old Testament and what I mean by prophet is the spokesperson that God would use and God would raise up people to proclaim his truth.

I noticed that they were watchmen. They were reformers. They were authors, they were preachers, and they were statesmen. That's what God called these people to do. This is a very crucial time in our nation's history where we need more of these voices being watchmen, being reformers, reforming the church back to God's word, being authors, getting the word out there, being preachers filled with the spirit of God and being a statesman. Many of the prophets would go and speak to the king about political issues.

The enemy has done a great job of deceiving us, telling us that the church needs to stay out of politics. I think it's become crystal clear, if one thing has become crystal clear during this COVID-19 crisis, is that the pulpits need to get involved with political things and sound the alarm and speak the truth because if not, you have this fear-driven culture looking to the media and there's no voice of truth balancing that out.

What we see right now is greed is leading this throne. I don't know how many of you are aware of this, but greed is behind this. This throne of iniquity. Maybe I should just read it for you from Psalm 94:20-21. God says, "Shall the throne of iniquity," that's God's title, not mine. Shall the throne of iniquity, in other words, these people who sit on the throne of power and judgment, and God calls this this throne of iniquity, they devise evil by law.

And they have fellowship, should they have fellowship with you God? He says shall this throne of iniquity, this evil group of people who devise evil law, are they having fellowship with you? They gather together against the life of the righteous and they condemn innocent blood. If that's not what we see today, I don't know what is. So that's what I mean by the throne of iniquity and often this throne of iniquity would be laced with greed. That greed would be permeated all areas of that throne of iniquity that he's talking about in the Old Testament, but it also happens now today.

What are we seeing? You see this big talk about vaccines. That's a billion-dollar business. You see this talk about bailouts and this greed and bailouts and stimulus and surplus money and "give me, give me, give me." Isn't it interesting how all the major outlets, Lowe's and Home Depot and Amazon, they are doing great, their numbers are wonderful. It's the mom-and-pop businesses, it's the small business owners that are being hurt big time by this pandemic.

That's why they call it a plandemic, that they are using it to hurt a lot of different areas of our economy. Greed is also leading the throne of iniquity. What about all the hospitals? I mean you've heard how hospitals get paid more for COVID and what's happening is hospitals now are going bankrupt and they're going to have to start laying off healthcare workers, believe it or not. Hospitals that were once full are now not full because they're caring for COVID and they're wanting all this extra money.

What about the housing crisis? Recently, I don't know how many of you know this, and again, I think the truth should come from the pulpit, this is all verifiable. I think now they're at 4.1 or 4.2 million people have not made their house payment. That's 8 percent of all homeowners have not made their house payment. If you don't make a house payment, guess what the bank doesn't say? They don't say, "Hey, no problem, we'll tack it on the end of the loan."

Guess what they tell you? In about three months, those house payments you're missing are going to be due. Or you're going to have to refinance. What about if there's not enough equity? What about if the interest rate is high? They don't just forgive this. So we have millions and millions of people not paying their house payment. Does this remind you of anything?

And so we just need to be careful. I think greed is part of that. Why didn't the bank say let's help you, truly help you, and tack it onto the end of the loan? It's not truly helping people if you say, "Hey, don't worry about your house payment, but in a couple months, we're going to ask for it." If you can't pay $2,000 now, how are you going to pay $6,000 in three months? It makes no sense. So we see the greed, we see this throne of iniquity, we see political jockeying for position and taking advantage of this crisis.

I will tell you that our administration needs our prayers. The media outlets do not care anymore if they lie as long as it hurts the churches. So at some point, I think we need to speak against that. Be loving, yes, but also be bold. Be as gentle as a dove, yes, but also wise as a serpent.

And so we see this from Psalm 94. Shall the throne of iniquity, which devises evil by law, by legislation, shall you have fellowship with them? So we see here there has to be a line drawn in the sand. What he means by fellowship is influence. Shall this throne of iniquity continue to influence you?

-Guest (Male)-: You've been listening to Regaining Lost Ground with Pastor Shane Idleman. You can find more information at westsidechristianfellowship.org. That's westsidechristianfellowship.org. And for all the latest on what God is doing with his ministry here, please be sure to follow us on most social media platforms. Westside Christian Fellowship is located 60 miles north of Los Angeles in Leona Valley, California. Thank you again for listening to today's message of regaining lost ground, where we are reminded daily times change, truth does not.