Monday, August 10,
2015, 5:34 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “The Doxology.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Revelation 2:1-7 (NASB).
“To
the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
The
One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the
seven golden lampstands, says this:
‘I
know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate
evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they
are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have
endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against
you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have
fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to
you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. Yet this
you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He
who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes,
I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’
In the church I grew up in, which was a solid evangelical
denomination of the time, we used to sing The
Doxology at the end of each church service, usually just on Sunday
mornings, I think. I had never really ever given any thought to what “doxology”
meant, though, until today. It means: “a hymn or form of words containing an
ascription of praise to God” (Dictionary.com); “a usually liturgical expression
of praise to God” (M-W Dictionary). Liturgy – “a form of public worship; ritual”
(Dictionary.com). Ritual - a system or collection of religious or other rites; observance
of set forms in public worship” (Dictionary.com); habitual or routine. Forms –
methods, procedures, customs, formality or appearance.
What the Lord Jesus is showing me here today, in relation to
this passage of scripture, as applied to the church today, is that a large
portion of the church of today, which has left her first love, has run off with
“another lover,” i.e. she has run off with a false church, a false gospel, and
a false Christ, which has the feeling and look of being the “real deal,” and
which gives off the image of being sincere and genuine, and of demonstrating
true Christ-like love, but which is really just going through the motions (routine,
customs, formality or appearance) of worship of God, and which is just mouthing
the words “I love you.”
Yet, it is not just what we consider to be the formal or
liturgical church institutions which are guilty of formality and appearance
only of true worship of God, though. Many of these modern church organizations
and corporations prominently present the image that they are “real,” “sincere,”
“genuine,” and “authentic,” as opposed to what they consider more traditional
forms of worship, but much of what they do is also following formulas established
by human beings for how to conduct “worship” services and our relationships
with Almighty God. They promise the “real deal,” but what they offer is a fake
copy of the real thing. So much of what is falsely called “worship” of God is
performance oriented, and is based in a lie, and is shallow and lacks any real
substance of what God calls true worship of him.
Why?
So, why has the church run off with “another lover”? Why has
she run off with a fake copy of the real deal? Largely, I believe, it is
because the church of today has become so worldly, so she doesn’t like Christ’s
commandments for the church, or the teachings of his apostles on holy living –
death to sin and living to righteousness. She doesn’t want to be confronted
with her sin. So, she has gone after what is fake, because what is fake
promises to love and accept her just as she is, in all her sin, worldliness,
hypocrisy, idolatry and spiritual adultery, without condemnation, correction, or
instructions on how she ought to live holy lives, pleasing to God. Those who
have run after this “other lover,” like the feel-good, non-judgmental,
no-conviction messages they hear, which teaches them that they can be saved and
still walk in darkness, and yet still have the hope of heaven when they die.
They teach them that God is pleased with them no matter what
they do, and that when they are in the depths of sin, they should just claim
who they are in Christ, some of which is based in truth and much of which is
based in lies. They tell them that God can’t see their sin, and that when he
looks at them all he sees is Jesus and his righteousness, and so he just smiles
on them all the time. And, they tell them that God requires nothing of them
whatsoever in the way of surrender, submission, obedience, humility, repentance
(turning from sin) or holiness and godliness, because, they say, “Jesus does it
all.”
Truly Jesus is the one who paid the price for our sins, and
it is only by God’s grace and through faith in Jesus Christ that we are saved.
We can do nothing in ourselves to earn or to deserve our own salvation. It is a
gift from God, as is the faith to believe, and yet it is faith which we must
appropriate to our lives through dying with Christ to sin and living with
Christ in his righteousness. We must put off our old sinful lives, and put on
our new lives in Christ Jesus, much as we would discard filthy clothing, take a
bath (be cleansed of sin), and would then dress ourselves in clean garments,
which are given to us to wear. Jesus did not die so we could escape hell, live
how we want, and then go to heaven when we die. He died that we might die to
sin and live to righteousness; that we might live for him who gave himself up
for us, and no longer for ourselves; and that we might conduct our lives
according to his Spirit living within us, and no longer according to our sinful
flesh.
The Proposition
Those who are in the business of marketing this modern
church and different “other” gospel, present an image different from the
reality of what is truly going on. They try to convince us that what this
offers is real love, in that it is not in your face about your sin, it works at
making you feel good about you, even if you are steeped in sin, it tells you
God does not require that you die to sin and live to righteousness, and it says
that you can be saved and have the hope of heaven guaranteed and still live a
sinful lifestyle. Since they say that God requires nothing of you other than to
“believe,” which is based more in intellect, mouthed words or emotion, rather than
in truth, then the adherents of this “other lover” gospel believe that all they
have to do is mouth words which say “I love you,” but they can live however
they want. Since they believe God is pleased with them no matter what they do,
they believe they can worship God, and he is pleased with their worship of him.
And, so, if anyone does teach repentance, obedience,
faithfulness, and fidelity in our relationship with God Almighty, then they are
targeted as “extremists” who must be silenced or removed entirely. They are
presented as unloving, unkind, judgmental, bigoted, hatemongers, crazy, and the
radicalized, who must be gotten rid of and encouraged to leave the institution
of church. And, yet these who present these false images of both the fake
gospel and the true gospel, in that they have the whole thing backwards, i.e.
crisscrossed, are the ones who truly are just mouthing the words “I love you.”
True love does not give out false hope. It does not lie to us. It does not
encourage us to remain in sin, but it delivers us out of slavery to sin. True
love tells the truth. It doesn’t try to make us feel good about ourselves in
our sin, but it confronts sin lovingly, desiring to see us set free.
Yet, these presenters of this fake gospel, fake church and
false Christ, take it several steps further. Now they are trying to convince
the church that the gospel, according to Jesus Christ and his apostles, though
they don’t name it as such, is what divides us as the people of the earth, so
it must be silenced. The old way of doing church, i.e. of worshiping God and
sharing his gospel so people can be saved, must die, so that out of the ashes of
the old order of the church - the old order which is God’s design for his
church - should rise this new order (New World “Beast” Order), which bears some
resemblance to the old order, but which is a fake copy of the original. This
new order turns the church more into a social club or a civic organization for
doing “good deeds,” and for bringing the people of the world and their
religions under one umbrella, and they call this “love.”
The purpose of this “new way” is to find “common ground” we
can all agree upon, and for us all to come together in “unity” under this new
order. There would be no more divisions, i.e. there would be unity of religion,
and acceptance and tolerance of all walks of life, with no one pointing out our
sin or calling for repentance. And, to help facilitate this, has come within
the church the false teaching of mysticism and myths as something which unites
us together and gives purpose and meaning to our lives. And, they are busily
trying to get us to buy into this new way of doing church and government, too,
which they call cooperating with the “international community.”
If we buy into this, and we come under their authority, and
we join in with them in this removing of the true gospel, in the name of “love,”
and in uniting all religions together as one, in tolerance and acceptance of
other beliefs, then we enter into a state of spiritual apathy, and we are of no
use (worthless) to God, much like the church of Laodicea, whom the Lord was
about to spit out of his mouth, for we have united ourselves with a prostitute,
when we were promised to one husband, Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches us that
we need to come out from the world and be separate and not to unite ourselves
in close fellowship with those who do not believe in the true gospel of our
salvation, for light has no fellowship with darkness.
The Call
Jesus is saying to his adulterous church today, “Therefore
remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at
first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its
place—unless you repent.” The lampstands were the churches themselves, so to
remove a lampstand would be to remove the church from its place (position,
standing), which could be taken literally as terminating its claim to the
kingdom, cutting off its union with Christ (See: Ro. 11:17-22; 1 Co. 15:2; I
John 2:24-25).
Most certainly this is not a false threat, nor is it something
to be taken lightly or casually. There are many scriptures which teach that we
must continue with Christ to the end if we want to have the hope of eternal
life. As well, in John 3:16 it says that whoever believes (present tense) in
Jesus Christ is guaranteed eternal life. So, if a believer switches loyalties
and consummates the relationship with the “other lover,” i.e. if he comes into
spiritual union with this “other lover,” and denies and rejects his
relationship with Jesus Christ, then he no longer believes, and thus eternal
life is not guaranteed. Yet, to him who overcomes, eternal life will be granted
him in the kingdom of heaven.
So, if you claim to know Jesus Christ, but you are having an
adulterous relationship with this “other lover,” and you think it is “true
love,” then you need to repent of (turn from) your sin, and turn to follow
Jesus Christ in obedience and in surrender to his will for your life. You can’t
claim the promise of eternal life with God if you are walking (conducting your
life) according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit. Don’t play with
fire. Return to your first love and do the things you did at first, or that you
should have done at first.
Oh, to Be Like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer
Thomas O. Chisholm / W. J. Kirkpatrick
Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.
O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.
O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
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