Tuesday, March 3,
2015, 1:44 p.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “The Heart of Man.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Luke 19:45-48 (ESV).
A Den of Robbers
And
he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them,
“It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a
den of robbers.”
A den is a home for animals, a room in someone’s house, or
it is a hideout (secret place), in this case for robbers. A robber is a thief, i.e.
“one that steals especially stealthily or secretly” (Merriam-Webster). A secret
is something that is hidden from sight, with the purpose and intent to prevent
others from discovering the secret. And, to steal is “to take the property of
another wrongfully and especially as a habitual or regular practice” (M-W).
Rather than go into detail as to the historical significance
of what actually took place at the time period in which Jesus cleared the
temple of these robbers, I believe the Lord would have me look at how his
temple today - his church - has become “a den of robbers.” It has become a home
(a hideout) for false teachers (wolves in sheep’s clothing) who have invaded
the church stealthily through the use of lies, manipulations, deception and
trickery. They steal the word of truth from the people, their money, and their
dedication and loyalty via false pretenses and manipulations of truth. They
masquerade as angels of light but underneath they are vicious wolves full of
wicked schemes and deceit.
The people that Jesus Christ drove out of the temple were
those who sold, i.e. they were merchants, but they were also those who took
advantage of people. A merchant is a business person who is in the business of
buying and selling. We have people in our churches today who also fit this
description. Many of them are called “pastors” or “elders” or “deacons.” They
run the church just like it was any other man-made business. In order for them
to sell their man-made services and products, they must market them to their
targeted audience, which is usually the people of this world, i.e. the
unchurched.
A few years ago I went back to work after having been a
stay-at-home mom for many years. I was thrust immediately into the field of
marketing and sales, though I had no previous experience in that field. My
expertise was in the area of secretarial work (administrative assistant), and so
I ended up in a job working for a company which sells computers, as a temporary
employee, followed by working for a real estate agent, as her personal
assistant. I did much work for both of these employers in the area of
advertising and marketing of their products, but it was a learn-as-I-go job experience.
A few years after that I returned to college and finished
the necessary course requirements to get an Entrepreneur Certificate, just a
couple of classes shy of an associate degree in business, so I do know a little
bit about what I am talking about. Plus I have been in church ministry most all
my life, and I have witnessed the change in direction a large percentage of
today’s church has taken, which is away from the foundations of scripture to
following after humanistic philosophy for how to grow their churches. My
husband and I were also church planters twice, so we went through the training
and learned a lot of the tricks of the trade, so I know of which I speak from
personal experience and training, as well.
In order to sell the church to the people of the world, the “merchants,”
i.e. the church leadership has resorted to following the direction and
leadership of master marketers who teach them what they need to do in order to
attract large audiences (customers) to their churches. I have personally
witnessed much in the way of lies, deception, manipulations of people’s emotions
and manipulations of truth; and using people and then tossing them to the curb,
targeting only certain people groups, and purposefully avoiding and casting
aside those they don’t want, including those who follow the unadulterated word
of God. Since the world is their targeted audience, they do what will attract
the world to their meetings, which means they must dilute the gospel message to
make it more appealing to the world and less offensive, and they must focus
much time, money and attention on entertainment.
They teach a cheapened version of God’s grace which is much
like teaching free license to continue in willful sin against God, free from
guilt or remorse. Many of them teach that we don’t have to repent of our sins
to be saved and that God requires nothing of us – no obedience, no surrender of
our wills, no submission to his plans and purposes for our lives. All we have
to do is “believe,” yet that is not really ever explained but rather gives the
impression it is some emotional experience or an intellectual assent to the
fact that we are sinners in need of a Savior and that Jesus died for our sins
and that he wants to forgive us our sins and to give us eternal life with him.
But, they don’t teach that to “believe” means we have to die with Christ to our
old lives of living for sin and self, that we must allow the Spirit of God to
transform us in mind and heart away from sin and to following Christ in
obedience, and that we are to now walk in Christ’s righteousness and holiness
in the power of the Spirit within us. They don’t teach this because it would
offend people.
They give the impression that they walk in freedom because
they have pulled away from legalism, and because they market themselves as “authentic.”
But, they have just traded one form of human-based religion for another. They
are still following rules made up by humans. Many are still bound to traditions
that have been passed down from generation to generation. They put the
teachings of humans above the Word of Truth when the Word of God conflicts with
their human goals and objectives. Movies have replaced scripture as have books
written by mere human beings, in many cases. The Big Show has replaced true
worship, and instead of the church meetings being about the Body of Christ
encouraging and strengthening one another in the faith so they can go out into
the world with the gospel, the world has been brought into the church and the
meetings are largely targeted towards making the world feel “at home” so they
will want to come back.
One day Jesus is going to cleanse his temple again, and he
is going to drive out these business people, i.e. these marketers (merchants)
so that his house can once again be a house of prayer (See Rev. 2-3).
Seeking To Destroy
And
he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the
principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find
anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.
Satan is the author of all this human-based religion which
seeks to win the approval of humans over the approval of God, and that seeks to
please humans over seeking to please God, and that honors human beings above
giving honor, respect and reverence to God. Satan is thus the one truly seeking
to destroy the Body of Christ, his church, and he uses human instruments to do
his dirty work. His goal is to destroy the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ
and to disenfranchise all “those who keep the commandments of God and hold to
the testimony of Jesus” (See Rev. 12:17; 20:4). He has been somewhat
successful, too, in discrediting both the gospel, as taught by the apostles,
and those who still teach it, so that many who call themselves Christians are
really following after a lie and not the truth.
So, Jesus is calling his church to wake up, to repent of her
sins of idolatry and spiritual adultery, and to return to her “first love,” and
to follow him in obedience and surrender to his will and to his purposes for
his church, his bride, and to stop following after humans.
The Heart of Man / An Original Work /
April 4, 2012
Based
off Matt. 15:1-20; Mk. 7:1-23
Listen
to me ev’ryone and
Understand
this teaching of Christ:
Why
do you break the commands
Of
God for the sake of tradition?
When
you follow the ways of man,
And
don’t obey the words of Christ,
You
nullify the words of God,
And
you hold to the ways of man.
What
comes out of a man’s mouth is
What
makes him unclean and dirty.
The
things that come out of the mouth
Come
from the heart, from within him.
The
heart of man is so sinful;
From
his nature, out comes evil:
Lying,
cursing, greed and malice,
Lust
and lewdness, deceit, slander.
Jesus
calls us to obey him;
Turn
from our sins; follow His ways.
Yet,
his people honor him with their lips,
but
their hearts not with Him.
Their
worship of God is in vain.
Their
teachings are rules taught by man.
Jesus
calls us; gently leads us
To
return and follow His truth.
No comments:
Post a Comment