Careful Scrutiny

Good evening, Welcome to Voice in the Wilderness. I'm Don

Noble of Pure Heart Ministries, and I welcome you today

with exceedingly abundantly and overflowing joy. Before I gets started tonight,

I just want to clear the air one more time

and make sure you understand clearly understand where I'm coming from.

When I spoke over the last several months up to

the November fifth election, and of course I criticized the

current administration that we've been living under the Democratic Party,

which is an anti God agenda, and of course Kamala Harris.

And so if you're thinking you're a Christian, why would

you say such things, Well, because I am against as

a Christian anything that is anti Christ, anti God God.

You know, policies, agendas, principles, if they are anti Christ

and anti God, i am against them, and I will

voice my opposition to that, which I did. But I

want to make clear that I'm not against people. I'm

against the policies, agendas, and principles because God loves them.

And last week I mentioned to please pray for President

Biden and Kamala Harris and all of those that are

part of that administration because they don't know Christ, and

without Christ, if they die, they will spend eternity in hell,

separated from God. That's not God's heart, That's not his will.

It certainly isn't my heart. So I just wanted to

make it clear that as a Christian we pray for them.

As I mentioned last week, pray for them. I'm asking

you to pray for them because they need to know Christ. Amen.

So just wanted to clear the air, make sure you

understood exactly where I was coming from. Tonight's message is

titled careful Scrutiny. God uses peculiar people, the just and

the unjust, to accomplish his purposes. A man of great

influence was born during the Russian Revolution, and I believe

he was born for such a time as this. He

became a leading dissident voice against Soviet oppression and atheism,

and later stridently spoke against the materialism and moral decline

of the Western world, which included the United States. Alekxander

Sultsenitzen was born in nineteen eighteen. His father was a

philosophy student who enlisted in the Russian Army in nineteen fourteen.

He died in an unfortunate hunting accident six months before

Alexander was born. Alexander was raised in modest circumstances, and

their family property was confiscated and made into a collective farm.

His mother, and I'm going to stop there for a second.

You know how I've talked about the influence of parents

on their children. His mother quietly raised him in the

Russian Orthodox Church and pushed him to further his education.

You're going to see in just a bit how important

what his mother did in helping to get him raised

in the church affected his future. The young thinker became

an artillery captain during World War II and was decorated

for his service, but soon he grew disgusted by the

brutal violence he witnessed his fellow soldiers take as revenge

against innocent women and children who were considered Russia's enemies

Sultsanitzen reacted by privately criticizing the Soviet Union's dictatorial premier

Joseph Stalin, a crime for which he was sentenced to

eight years in a forced labor camp. His internment in

the Gulag was followed by internal exile for life in Kazakhstan.

He was free from exile and exonerated, However, after a

nineteen fifty six speech by Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev, who

criticized the brutal purges of his predecessors, so see how

God can use the unjust to help position the just

for their destiny. A decade of imprisonment and exile had

destroyed Sultsanitsyn's trust in the Soviet system, and he emerged

a philosophically minded Christian who saw himself as culpable as

his tormentors in the Gulog. Sultsanitsin's spiritual awakening had occurred

as a result of a conversation with a physician who

worked in the Gulag's infirmary, Doctor Boris Nikolaievitch. Kornfeld recited

the story wory of his conversion from Judaism to Christianity

and described his belief that no punishment is undeserved, for

no one is without sin. He said, if you go

over your life with a fine tooth comb and ponder

it deeply, Cornfield remarked, you will always be able to

hunt down that transgression of yours for which you have

now received this blow. The next morning, Sultsanitzen awoke to

the news that his new friend had been brutally murdered,

and so it happened that Kornfeld's prophetic words were his

last words on earth, wrote the prisoner, and those words

lay upon me as an inheritance. You cannot brush off

that kind of inheritance by shrug your shoulders. After much deliberation,

Sultsanitsen came to the conclusion that the meaning of life

lies not in prosperity or lack of punishment, but in

the development of the soul. After his release, Sultsanitzen taught

taught school by day and wrote in secret by night,

building on writings he had begun during his imprisonment. He

feared discovery and assumed his work would never reach print.

But Sultsanitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denesevitch

was freely published in nineteen sixty two, defended by Khrushchev

as an aid to rooting out lingering Stalinism. Again, do

you see how God is using this communist dictator, this

unjust man, to help position this just man? It just

gets better. The book sold out in the Soviet Union

and gained attention in the West as the first honest

Soviet publication since the nineteen twenties. I mean, this book

was the hottest thing off the press, and everybody was

wanting to read one day in the life of Ivan Denesovitch.

Just as quickly as he was officially acclaimed, however, Sultanitsen

was discarded, he continued to covertly write his most subversive work,

The Gulag Archipelago, a lengthy and explosive history of Soviet

prison camps, later hailed as one of the most important

books of the twentieth century. Now, personally, I have not

read this book. It's a big book, it's a thick book.

And after actually after reading about Alexander, it made me think,

maybe I should look at this book anyway. Sultanitzen was

awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in nineteen seventy for

his great masterpiece, The Gulag Archipelago. He was expelled from

the Soviet Union in nineteen seventy four and lived for

almost twenty years in the United States, where he lashed

out at the spiritual emptiness of modern culture and the

personal autonomy assumed by Westerners. That was from nineteen seventy

into nineteen ninety. Imagine he thought he thought the United

States had spiritual emptiness, and he thought that we just

you know, we just thought about ourselves. Imagine if he

were alive today, what he would think and what he

would write. I would love I'd love to hear it.

And let me say this. When he was expelled from

the Soviet Union in nineteen seventy four. See, God has

a way when you think it's when you think it's

like the worst thing that could ever happen to you,

you see it was the best thing that ever happened

to him. He just got more popular being in the

United States. So God is you know, it's just like

a chess board. He's just moving the pieces and we

just have to go along with it. He returned to

Russia in nineteen ninety four after the collapse of the

Soviet system, and if you remember, at that time, Mikhail

Gorbachev was the head of Russia, the Premier or whatever

they called him, and he instituted Perestroika and Glassnos. So

this was huge because Glassnos was Soviet policy of open

discussion of political and social issues. They were now allowed

to talk about these things. And he actually instituted that

in the late nineteen eighties and it actually began the

democratization of the Soviet Union. There were fundamental changes to

the political structure of the Soviet Union. The power of

the Communist Party was reduced. Multi candidate elections took place,

and it actually permitted criticism of government officials and allowed

the media freer dissemination of news and information. That was

a big deal. After living under the Lenin Stalem Khrushchev regime,

looking back with grief on his homeland's history, Sultsanjitsen said quote,

if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as

possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed

up some sixty million of our people, I could not

put it more accurately than to repeat the explanation he

had heard as a child. Men have forgotten God. That's

why all this has happened. This man, Alexander Sultsanitzen, had

a deep rooted faith that gave him a voice that

echoed across the oceans. The careful scrutiny of his life

while in the Gulag prepared his heart for the conversion

that ensued. The Jewish doctor watered the seed and God

gave the increase as he took careful scrutiny of not

only his life but his homeland of Russia, and all

the outrageous destruction of human life under Lenin and Stalin

came to the ultimate conclusion, men have forgotten God, and

that's why all this has happened. We can safely say

that our nation, America, in the last seventy years or so,

has been under assault from the ungodly forces of Marxism.

Little by little, our institutions have been crumbling, and yet

because it was so slow, we were unable to see

the inevitable. But I am hopeful. I am hopeful that

the Church of Jesus Christ will go stronger and more

resolute in its stance against sin and the ungodly influences

that have permeated every institution of our society. We will,

we will be the glorious Church. Why because the Bible

says so. In conclusion, I wanted to share scriptures from

a really awesome book in the Bible, and of course

they're all awesome, but this is the Book of Ephesians.

And I wanted to start in chapter one with verse three,

and there's a lot I want to read, and I

just kind of want you to sit back listen and

just let the word get in you. Just let it

just permeate your spirit and your soul. Verse three, Chapter one, Ephesians.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ,

who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the

heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in

him before the foundation of the world, that we should

be holy and without blame before him, before him in love,

having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ,

to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

to the praise of the glory of his grace, by

which he made us accepted in the beloved in Him,

we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,

according to the riches of his grace, which he made

to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having

made known to us the mystery of his will, according

to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, that

in the dispanceation of the fullness of the times, he

might gather together in one all things in Christ, both

which are in heaven and which are on earth. In Him.

Let me stop there and just comment, because Paul is

writing that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times,

we are in the dispensation of the fullness of times.

What is God doing in this dispensation. He's gathering together

in one, in one. He's gathering his church in one,

all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and

which are in the earth in Him. In other words,

he is gathering us to him, to himself, because we

are in Him, and He's gathering us to him verse eleven.

In Him, also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined

according to the purpose of Him who works all things

according to the counsel of his will, that we who

first trusted in Christ, should be to the praise of

His glory. And you see that's the glorious Church. That's

who we are becoming verse thirteen. In Him. In Him,

you also trusted after you heard the Word of truth,

the Gospel of your salvation, in whom, also having believed,

you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who

is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of

the purchased possession to these of His glory. Therefore, I also,

after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus

and your love for all the saints. Do not cease

to give thanks for you, making mention of you in

my prayers, that the God of of our Lord, Jesus Christ,

the Father of Glory, may give to you the spirit

of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the

eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know

what is the hope of his calling, What are the

riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward

us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from

the dead and seated him at his right hand in

the heavenly places, far above all principality, all power, and

might and dominion, and every name that is named, not

only in this age, but also in that which is

to come. And he put all things under his feet

and gave him to be head over all things, to

the Church, which is his body, the fullness of Him

who fills all in all. Let me jump over to

chapter two, verse fourteen. For he himself is our peace,

who has made both one and has broken down the

middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the enmity,

that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so

as so as to create in himself one new man

from the two, thus making peace, and that he might

reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross,

thereby putting to death the enmity. And what Paul's talking

about is that the Jew and the Gentile will become one.

Those Jews who recognize Yashiah as Mashiak, those Jews who

believe in Christ will be become one with the Gentiles

who believe in Christ. There'll be one new man, That's

what Paul was saying, will become one new man. He's

going to reconcile them both to God in one body.

We will all be one body through the cross, therefore

putting to death the enmity that division Verse seventeen. And

he came and preached peace to you who were far

afar off and to those who were near, For through

him we both have access by one spirit to the Father.

This to me is exciting because I see where we're headed.

The scriptures tell us where we're headed. And I think

in light of the recent election, many people have been

given hope. Now I don't put my faith and hope

in President Donald Trump. He's not my savior, but he

is a man doing I believe the will of God,

and he is opening up avenues for freedom for the

Christian and there there We're still going to still going

to be persecuted by those who hate us. I mean

those who are anti Christ, anti God hate us. I

mean Jesus said they would. But this is an open window.

This is a time of all times for us to

really shine as the body of Christ and use our

voice to talk to people, to reach out to people.

I just prayed for a lady today, the owner of

a store who had a terrible, terrible fall, was bedfast

for three months in a nursing home. She's just come

back to work and still hurting. Still she can't even

bend down. So I prayed for her. I don't know her,

but you see, this is how we advance the gospel.

We reach out to people who are hurting. And so

I think we're in a very exciting time. I think

we are in a time just like Esther was, for

such a time as this to really show people who

Christ is by showing them Christ in us the hope

of glory, and we are going to have to take

careful scrutiny. That was the title of tonight's message, careful scrutiny.

Just like Alexander Sultzanesen took careful scrutiny of his life

while he was in the Gulag that led to his conversion.

And then he took careful scrutiny of his nation, Russia

and what all the things that had gone on, and

came to this conclusion that man have forgotten God, and

that's why all this has happened. And I can say, Amen, Amen,

Amen to that, because that's what has happened to the

United States. Men have forgotten God, and that's why all

this has happened. But God is a redeemer. He's redeeming

his church, He's strengthening his church. We're living in a

glorious time and we are going to become I firmly

believe it because the Bible says so, We're firmly going

to become the glorious Church. So let's become that glorious church. Amen.

This is Don Noble. You can go to www. Pure

Heart dot today to listen to this podcast again. You

can download the iHeartRadio app and go to Pure Heart

Ministries podcast and listen twenty four to seven. And I

would love, love, love if you would please email me

Dawn An. This is all lowercase letters, all no spaces,

Dawn at pureheart dot today. You know, positive, negative, whatever,

give me feedback please, and of course I would love

for you to help support this ministry. You can send

a check to Pure Heart Ministries p O Box eighty five,

PO Box eighty five, Valley Grove, West Virginia, two six

zero six zero. And please don't stop praying. Prayer is important.

I appreciate your prayers. Well, this is Don Noble. I

look forward to being with you again next week. And

so I sign off by saying to you shalloam shilloam,

Peace be unto you