“For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17)
“Why come out from among them, and be you separate, said the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,” (2 Corinthians 6:17)
I sit here today in awe of what I continue to see happening in rapid progression, right in-our-faces in the name of “America.” To see things we hold in high regard be treated with such disdain. The Constitution is being subverted on every level. The Second Amendment is being “targeted” for dissolution, yet our government is buying rounds of ammo at an alarming rate and sending ammunitions to terrorist that seek our demise. The American Flag is burned and desecrated. Traditional marriages are ridiculed, same sex exalted. We are subject to speech after speech filled with lie after lie. It makes the patriotic side of your blood boil, does it not?
But there is a greater evil taking place “in church.”
Churches today are desiring unity at ALL cost, even at the expense of truth. They want allegiance to “their” self-titled “church” while they themselves have sold out the gospel in order to sell messages of their own making. You can NOT call a message you share from Google (or whatever is trending): “The Word of the Lord” when it’s just NOT!
Jeremiah 23:30 should merit a very sober look at the practice of not using God’s Word all future “sermon series” yet this practice is a very common mode of operation thanks to the “church growth” techniques being espoused today. “Church growth?” The church can’t truly grow in number apart from gospel conversion. Now, a man made assembly can grow by carnal means and that is happening all over America, YET these places that are “growing” are doing so void of biblical means. Apostate!
Oh sure, they use “Jesus’ Name” and they might quote a Scripture or two, but they are preaching another gospel. “Sin in your heart, sin in your life without biblical repentance?” Then repeat after me, is NOT the gospel. The apostle Paul warned IF anyone comes preaching “another gospel” than the one “we brought to you, let them be accursed.” That is the same apostle Paul who proclaimed, “I have decided to know nothing amongst you but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. For I am NOT ashamed of the gospel for IT is the power of God unto salvation.”
Paul in writing to Timothy warned of those who would hold to a form of godliness but be absent of power, to stay away from such. That would be a strong admonition to hold any assembly called “church” under a strong examination. To make sure that there is a frequent and biblical presentation of the gospel. Why? So we can be Pharisees or critical? NO, because we are told to be good Bereans, to “take heed and let no man deceive you.” Asking for biblical accountability is not spreading poison or spewing. It’s a loving request that begs for God’s Word to be true and every man induced doctrine or milquetoast “feel good” sermon to be a liar.
A desire to be disciplined in following hard after God’s Word and not the dictates and traditions of men (making the Word of God of no effect) is very necessary. Sadly, today, there truly is a “famine in the land” because pulpits have decided they need “numbers” more than they need GOD! That is just the truth. The golden calf was erected out the very same mindset! I don’t share what I share to be critical. I share what I share to sound an alarm to “stop and think” and look from where WE have fallen in this generation.
We have entire movements in the land, selling out for deeds and titles, very much like the Royals in the movie Brave Heart. Many are using their pulpits to build a “better life” on a planet that is headed for tremendous travail. They come to us Sunday after Sunday with a sermon series that sounds much more like Oprah or Dr. Phil, because we’ve had “itching ears.” But the messages are deceptively deadly. You see it would be very much like calling everyone to have a picnic, while knowing there is a deadly storm brewing. That would be criminal.
Imagine this: Tomorrow your town is going to get hit by an F-5 Super Storm of some kind. Some people who have the resources to know this ahead of time, and they see what’s coming BUT because they don’t want to tell you bad news, they choose to share a forecast from a whole other day and time, promising clear and sunny skies. You LOVE their weather report! You cheer and plan…YEAH! You go about your business thinking all is well, until you hear: “URGENT WEATHER ALERT. A F-5 storm is imminently close to your life and you have no time to prepare!”
Today, pulpits have the resources to prepare the way, but will tell you this is your “best life now,” or things are going to be GR8R, but that’s not a true forecast. I pray they repent of this and hurry up and take their place in sharing the truth. (GR8R is a current “in thing” trending on the seeker-friendly circuit by Steven Furtick.)
Planet Earth! A huge storm coming, please take shelter!
John the Baptist came preaching, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Today, sadly, many modern ministers come preaching whatever “sells.” If you can
“google” churches and their “must hear sermon series” you’ll find it isn’t hot off the altar but rather hot off the seeker-friendly Top 100. This isn’t “going to church.” It is seeking a modern day golden calf. (“Faithful are the wounds of a friend.”) If what we’re buying into, we would no way want to share in Syria or Egypt with the persecuted church, then we shouldn’t be consuming it here. The world is in GRAVE danger and it isn’t getting GR8R, and if you’re hearing that it is, I’m sorry but read your Bible.
“But know now this, in the last days perilous times WILL come (2 Timothy 3:1a).
If McDonalds took down the golden arches, stopped serving the Big Mac, the Quarter Pounder, Happy Meals and French fries, it wouldn’t be McDonalds anymore. They might still call it that but it would have lost the essentials of what everyone came to know about what made McDonalds the place it is.
Today, “churches” have taken down the cross, stopped preaching the gospel, have diluted messages, taking out the essentials of repentance, the blood, holiness, substitutionary atonement, the wrath of God, the fear of God, and hell. They might still call themselves a “church” but they have taken out every biblical thing that would make them a church.
If we want self-help (self-delusion) we can turn on Oprah or Dr. Phil. We don’t need that! What we need is a move of God that restores prayer and the Gospel of Jesus Christ into their proper place, which in a nutshell means we NEED God!
“This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11).
Islam is hell bent on a mission to take their world for Allah. I would highly recommend the book of Habakkuk as something eerily similar to the time we find ourselves. God is no respecter of persons and if we see fellow believers being killed left and right all over the planet, then we URGENTLY need to “stop playing church” and fast. We need to be disciplined in preparing our hearts and minds to “count the cost” and realize that “to live is Christ” and “to die is gain.”
I’ve written this before and I will write it again. If Paul Revere were alive, he’d be riding through the streets of America shouting, “Islam is coming, Islam is coming,” but he would be too late. If the prophet Jeremiah were alive, he’d be weeping. If John the Baptist were alive, he’d be preparing the way, and IF Noah were alive he’d be entering the ark.
If you can’t see how late it is on planet Earth, I’d submit it’s only because you aren’t paying attention. If you are reading this and your heart is scoffing, if you are making like the evil servant in Luke 12 who says in his heart “My master delays His coming,” I would beg and plead with you to stop and think.
Israel is being incredibly pressured, by America no less, to divide its land for peace. Because of how we are treating Israel we are reaping much harm. It will ONLY get worse. I have read and studied my Bible and all the commentaries on America and its place in the end times. One thing is for certain: We are NOT mentioned in any form of grandeur, which tells me that we WILL decrease so that the New World Order can increase.
In the easiest comparison, America and planet Earth as a whole is the Titanic and it HAS struck an iceberg. Some will hear this and not hear, some will read and not believe. But by faith, this is what the Scripture says:
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:10).
GREAT NEWS!
Jesus said in John 14.1-3:
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
If we who have eyes to see, can see and if we who have ears to hear can hear, we need to see and hear that this life is but a vapor and its reaching a real day and time that the Bible graciously warned us about: The Day of the Lord, a time period of chaos and destruction such as the world has never seen. It’s brought upon the earth due to God’s sovereign allowance to yield man up to a reprobate mind.
It’s a time of tremendous rebellion in the face of God. It would be very much like someone coming to YOUR house and walking in and doing every vile thing they could in front of your face, despite your convictions. God’s Word is like gravity. His wrath assured, when we decide we are free to go another way, God will NOT be mocked,
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7-8).
Same Sex Marriage
Child Porn
Porn
Incest
Rape
Divorce
Adultery
Divide Israel
Perverse Entertainment
Debt
Gluttony
Addictions
Apostasy
Deception
Blasphemy
Violence
I’m telling you, it’s time to “get out now!” Get out of what? Get out of living a self-adulating life that is bringing forth the wrath of God upon a godless world. The godless don’t know better, but you who are worshipping time after time at a golden calf, you should know better. You once heard the gospel and it pierced your heart and soul, bringing “new life.” You have heard how you had crucified Jesus, how you had nailed Him there by your sins, and how you were guilty as charged. You have heard how Jesus, knowing the joy set before Him, endured the cross reconciling lost mankind back to God, and that Great News brought you out of darkness and into the Light.
Sadly, somewhere along the way you were “bewitched” and now find yourself going through the religious motions of “church.” You trust that THAT is enough to appease the God to whom you pledged your allegiance and that singing some songs and listening to a trendy “sermon series” is equal to the “Christian life.” THAT is NOT the “Christian life!” We were not reconciled to “church.” We were reconciled to God. If you “go to church” but aren’t going to “meet with God,” why are you going?
The golden calf was erected at a time that God had instructed ALL of Israel to come directly to Him and yet the people said to Moses, “NO, please go and hear for us and come and tell.” The danger of that mentality is what I have seen first hand. When the man you entrust to go “hear” and come tell, stops going to God Himself and starts mimicking and regurgitating what is trending, then we too end up worshipping at a golden calf.
It’s very important that we do not depend upon man but go directly to God and why would we not? I mean that is what the cross was all about, reconciling lost mankind back to one on one relationship with Abba Father (atonement equals AT ONE WITH).
“My sheep know My voice.”
“Help us Lord, to hide your Word in our hearts that we might not sin against You.”
Jesus said, “Repent or you will all like wise perish.”
GET OUT NOW! HOW?
This is a very sad generation and what makes me the saddest is how “bewitched” this generation is. We are a people who DON’T realize how much we have been forgiven, so therefore we don’t love that much. When Jesus came proclaiming repentance it was for the pure recognition that self-striving was coming to an end, because the day of rest was present! Every year SINNERS were working to provide their own lamb without spot or wrinkle to atone for their sins, but their sacrifices fell short and because of this, every year they would have to repeat the process of “working” to present a sacrifice for sin.
Many use the message of repentance to exalt or magnify selfish behavior over regeneration, instead of joyfully receiving the free gift of “stop and think” being “changed” (born again). Salvation is a divine revealing of who Christ is! It’s not merely a “change” of behavior like a recovery program produces for an alcoholic, although regeneration does produce fruit worthy of repentance. So many struggle on a performance treadmill trying to prove to themselves that they have “changed” or “turned” enough to merit recognition in their own minds to “feel assured” because they have been bewitched that salvation is by any human effort.
Eyes on Christ and off of self is the gospel, eyes on self to fix self so we can earn the right to be called “Christian” is the worst kind of place to live! True lasting freedom is ONLY found in the finished work of the cross of Christ. He did ALL the work and only by our faith in Him can we JOYFULLY enter into the Kingdom. It’s like this: You are getting a monthly bill that says you owe 100 TRILLION dollars, you get one in June, in July, in August in September, in October, so on and so on. But then out of nowhere you get a notice that that says your bill has been PAID IN FULL.
Nowhere is there ANY requirement to add your touch to what had already taken place but to believe it (repent) and live accordingly. You do not have to go pay the man back, in fact it’s an insult that you would think you could. You do not need to live as if the weight of that bill is still upon your life; you’re neglecting the JOY of being FREE! Why do people live as if they are still under the weight of their sin, when they are not? Its because they’ve been “bewitched.” Because the pulpits they are under are not telling the whole truth.
YES, Our sin has a wage and it comes with a terrible penalty and yes we are ALL guilty, and YES we deserved what we had coming but Jesus said, “Not so fast” and went and PAID IN FULL what we had coming. That is GREAT NEWS! You might be like I was at one time. I could believe that Jesus paid for my sins up until I heard the gospel, but I felt like I had to be perfect to earn back what was already paid in full.
THAT IS A LIE!
All of our sins were future tense before we were even formed in the womb. Christ died for us for ALL our sins. I can NOT believe how many anxiety-filled unbelieving believers there are out there today. I would never want my son to run into my bedroom at 7 a.m. in the morning with an anxiety attack of, “Dad, I messed up, are you still my dad, do you still love me?” And considering that I am a sinner, how much less does a Holy God who adopted us and redeemed, paying such a tremendous price NOT want us to be living in guilt and condemnation when “there is now NO Condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus!” Come to your senses, get out of the pigs pit and get back to living FREE in Christ! I write this as if I was writing to my own brother.
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in you heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved [no disclaimer added]. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).
I’m not saying you had lost your salvation, what I’m saying is somewhere along your walk and journey you stopped believing and trusting and had lost the joy of your salvation. That’s a BIG, BIG deal, because the joy of the Lord is our strength and with what it seems is coming, we are going to need all the strength we can get. We might even need to prepare to NOT love our lives even unto death (and that will take tremendous joy).
Okay, so now what? Devote yourself to staying in the Word, getting together with like- minded believers, breaking bread and living life as if God is right there, because He is. Prepare your hearts and minds for the coming storms and realize that God’s Word is true and every man outside of Christ’s Word is a liar. Planet Earth is not going to get better. So, in the meantime, we need to be about our “Fathers business” growing in grace and knowledge, sharing the Great News of the cross and what that means to all who will hear and believe.
And as we witness things that will cause our carnal man to be tempted to fear, “Look up, for our redemption draws near.” Soon, the Lord Himself will descend with a shout and call us unto Himself. He is our blessed hope! I don’t know about you, but I am so thankful this is not our best life now, that I can with great joy, look for a city whose Builder and Maker is the Lord!
“When we’ve been there ten thousands of years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days, to sing God’s praise than when we first begun.”
Throughout my life I have been told by many coaches in sports, “Tim, get your head back in the game!” Dear Reader, Prodigal, Sleeper, Seeker Friendly Pastor…. Wake UP, count the cost and get your head back in the game!
“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2).
It doesn’t get any simpler than that! The enemies of God can take our houses, our cars, and even our lives, but they can’t take away our eternal salvation! And a hundred years from right now, that will be all that truly matters. That is all that should matter now. (IF we were living in Syria and Egypt we’d get that.)
“And they knew not until the flood came and took them all away.”
“Sudden destruction.”
If we can see the writing on the wall for the Day of the Lord, we can know the end of the Church Age is even at the door. I can almost hear the trumpet. What an amazing time to be watching and praying.
Preach the gospel!