In our study of Mark we are in Mark 13:31; where Jesus backs up his promises that are contained in the prophesy to the Jews during the Tribulation with the oath that "Heaven and earth will pass away but My words will not pass away.

Based on this we have taken up a study of the doctrine of immutability that is based in His righteousness and justice that comprise God's Holiness.

As we were closing last time we noted that we must remember the principle that there are no real advantages to external temporal success and prosperity without the advantage of possessing the imputation of God's perfect righteousness that establishes and maintains a relationship with God.

Possessing God's perfect righteousness results in the advantage that you are directly related to the immutable integrity of God for logistical support no matter how bad circumstances may get.

The advantage of imputed perfect righteousness is that God's irrevocable blessings are imputed to you directly from God's justice without regard to historical circumstances.

Capacity for greater grace blessings is developed from the believer's advance to spiritual maturity when it is parlayed from the advantage of the doctrinal understanding of the irrevocable link that is established between God's perfect imputed righteousness in the believer and God's integrity.

God's justice can only bless perfection so imputed perfect righteousness is the basis for every believer to receive God's logistical grace blessings and God's Word resident in your soul develops additional capacity for the conveyance of God's greater grace blessings.

Possessing the advantage demands the conveyance of the advantages.

In this case the advantage is the positive volition to persist in residence and function inside God's spiritual power system that parlays imputed righteousness into experiential capacity righteousness.

Potential from imputed righteousness plus capacity the capacity righteousness that is developed from the application of God's Word results in the conveyance of advantages.

As always the principle is that without the advantage, no advantages accrue. Position always precedes production.

The advantage of the use of free will to choose to stay inside God's power system and to use God's grace procedure of rebound to recover from cosmic involvement when it occurs creates the advantage of consistently making good decisions from a position of strength.

Applying this on the national level we have the principle is that no nation can acquire or maintain the advantages without the advantage of a pivot of mature believers.

A nation without the advantage of the pivot loses the advantages of historical prosperity because the loss of the pivot of mature believers results in loss of national blessings. The loss of national blessings results in the loss of the middle class.

No nation can recover its advantages without the advantage of a pivot. Only a change of mind and spiritual revival can bring national recovery. If the middle class is going to be recovered and strengthened this is the only way it will happen.

2Chron 7:14; If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

The loss of both the advantage of the pivot and the advantages that accrue from God's blessing to the pivot inevitably results in national decline and national discipline.

If no change of thinking occurs in response to God's national discipline then God will remove the nation from history under the cycles of discipline.

Our nation is about to be placed under intensive discipline because the loss of the pivot has resulted in a loss of doctrinal thought has caused our nation to reject our responsibilities as God's gentile client nation.

The general characteristics and responsibilities of a gentile client nation to God during the Church Age include the following:

A client nation has a civil government that supports policies that are based on the laws of divine establishment including freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, free enterprise and capitalism.

The principle of freedom within the client nation provides for freedom of worship that becomes the basis for the function of evangelism.

We who evangelize must recognize the freedom of others. Freedom means privacy. Our job is to clearly present the gospel but we do not force people to accept Christ.

We provide people with the information; they must use their volition to accept it, and it is wrong on the part of Christians to pressure people in any manner.

The client nation supports the establishment of autonomous local churches.

Client nations are destroyed when local churches form denominations because denominations form interest groups that restrict freedom and thereby become the enemy of the client nation.

Autonomous local churches must not connect with other churches to form denominations or spheres of influence or be involved in any movement that seeks to unite church and state into a so called "Christian" nation.

Autonomous churches provide vigorous and dynamic Bible teaching that emphasizes the protocol system in God's plan for the church for believers with positive volition.

Believers support missionary activity to other nations under the indigenous principle of not interfering with foreign governments but providing both the Gospel and Bible teaching for people in the nation.

No missionary has the right to interfere with the government and become involved in the politics of the nation.

The client nation supports and provides a haven for the Jews in their dispersion during the Church Age.

Our national failure has created a leadership vacuum in Europe that the King of the West could fill and at the same time our refusal to combat ISIS and compromise with Iran is creating the potential for the establishment of an Islamic caliphate that could unite most of the Islamic world under the King of the South.

God's Word tells us that the King of the West cannot be identified until after the exit resurrection of the church but I believe if there is no spiritual revival in our nation and our nation continues in it's failure to fulfill its responsibilities as client nation our nation will likely be destroyed before the exit resurrection occurs because of our culpability in setting stage for the Tribulation.

Six years ago we would not have even imagined the situation that exists in this nation or in the world today. It just demonstrates how fast things can deteriorate once locked in negative volition to God's Word takes over.

Without a spiritual revival and a return to the establishment principles of our founders God's immutable righteousness will demand His justice destroy our nation and remove it from history.

If these events occur it will be because of our collective negative volition that appears to be nearly as bad as that of the Jewish nation in Judea that rejected Jesus as Messiah in His first advent resulting in their destruction.

Just like the Jewish client nation's negative volition set up the Church Age the gentile client nation's negative volition will set up the Tribulation.

God is Holy and immutable and that demands that He judge negative volition.

If this happens Heb 10:29-31; will apply to the USA as the last gentile client nation just as it did to the last Jewish client nation.

There is still time for spiritual recovery because as goes the pivot so goes the client nation and grace always comes before judgment but time is running out because if we continue on this path negative volition will be locked in.

The advantages of God's blessings are still available believers in our nation if they change their minds and recover residence and function of the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

If we were to take advantage of God's grace and express positive volition to God's Word on a national level we would reestablish and maintain the advantages of God's blessings, capacity from God's word, virtue toward people and circumstances that results in historical impact, and glorification of Christ.

If this is to happen believers must use their free will to recover from Satan's cosmic system so they can make good decisions from a position of strength that open more and better options are made available by God's grace.

If this does not occur and a maximum number of believers choose to live in Satan's cosmic system the grace advantages that God gives to nation will be terminated and we will be destroyed.

This means that if historical recovery and up-trend are to occur believers in the nation must make daily decisions for God's Word instead of against it. The time for this to happen in our nation is running out because our nation's negative volition to God's Word is becoming locked in.

Mark 13:32; The Father has always known when these things will occur, the Father hasn't lost track of time He is in complete control of all things all of the time.

In this verse Jesus reveals one of the limitations of his unglorified humanity as He lived under the kenosis protocol where He voluntarily limited himself and submitted to the Father's will.

The specific event that Jesus is referencing is Jesus' second advent but the second advent the final event of a series of events that start off with the next event in prophesy, the termination of the Church Age with the exit resurrection or rapture of the church. Until that occurs everything is on hold.

The words "day or hour" comprise an Old Testament phrase that is used for the "day of the Lord." The "day of the Lord" includes the Tribulation, the Second Advent, and the Millennium Isa 2:20; Jer 30:7-9; Joel 2:30; Amos 9:11; Zeph. 3:11-20;

The "day of the Lord" will begin suddenly and unexpectedly. (1Thes 5:2;) Only God knows the exact moment it will occur

In our pretribulational view, Jesus coming for the Church aka the exit resurrection or the rapture will occur before the Tribulation that occurs during the last 7 years promised to Israel that is known as the 70th week of Daniel.

There are no prophetical events that must precede the exit resurrection so it is imminent in every generation of the Church Age.

Mark 13:33; In this verse Jesus commands His disciples and by extension every Church Age believer to know the Word and be watchful for what God reveals will occur but we are never commanded to figure out exactly when the exit resurrection or the second advent is going to occur, the day and the hour are in the hands of God and only He knows.

We are presently at a point time when it appears that these events could occur so it is possible to discern the proximity of these events but there could be an unseen spiritual revival coming in our nation that would delay them.

The Church Age is an age of no prophecy so It is impossible to try to work out some chronological system from prophecy in order to determine the time of Jesus' coming but God's Word does reveal the historical trends that will lead up to it so Jesus gives us the mandate to be alert and watchful.

Mark 13:34-37; In this parable that is only recorded in the book of Mark Jesus uses the example of a traveling homeowner to emphasize his mandate for believers to be continuously on the alert, expectant and watching for His to return for the church and the exit resurrection to occur.

v34 Before leaving he his servants in charge of carrying on the work of his house. He gave each one their own task and ordered the doorkeeper who controlled all access to the house to keep watching and to keep on being alert.

The word translated "watching" is the present linear tense of the Greek word "gregoreuo" that means to be keep on being vigilant and watchful so that he would be prepared for the owner to return.

Jesus applies this parable to all of His disciples. They all are all responsible to keep watch, to be alert because no one knows when the owner of the house, who represents Jesus will return.

The night represents the time of Jesus' absence (Rom. 13:11-14;).

He can return at any time, so they should be constantly watching in view of the danger that He would find them sleeping or distracted and not watching when He comes unexpectedly.

This vigilance is not only the responsibility of Jesus disciples but by extension every believer in every generation of the Church Age. Believers are commanded be watching and expecting His return even though only God knows exactly when it will occur.