Speaking of Smooth Things

Isaiah 30:1-3 ESV

 

“’Ah, stubborn children,’ declares the Lord,

‘who carry out a plan, but not mine,

and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit,

    that they may add sin to sin;

who set out to go down to Egypt,

    without asking for my direction,

to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh

    and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!

Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,

    and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.’”

 

Much of today’s church here in America has made an alliance with the state (the government), with the world and with big business (marketing adventures) without consulting the Lord, for he would not approve of such a thing. So they are carrying out business and marketing plans which are not the Lord’s, and they are marketing the gatherings of the church to the world via patterning their gatherings according to the preferences of the world.

 

Since the people of the world are their target audience, they are looking to meet the felt needs of the people of the world, and so they have altered how they do church in order to attract the people of the world to their gatherings and in order to draw in large crowds of people from the world into their meetings. And so they are offering much of what the world is offering, only a Christianized version of it.

 

And since the people of the world are their target audience, they also altered the gospel message to make it more palatable to the people of the world and to the flesh of humans. So they removed from the gospel the teachings that offend people, that make them feel uncomfortable, and that judge them for their sins. And they make believing in Jesus easy and without requirements for changed lives so that they can keep on in their sins without guilt.

 

Isaiah 30:8-11 ESV

 

“And now, go, write it before them on a tablet

    and inscribe it in a book,

that it may be for the time to come

    as a witness forever.

For they are a rebellious people,

    lying children,

children unwilling to hear

    the instruction of the Lord;

who say to the seers, ‘Do not see,’

    and to the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us what is right;

speak to us smooth things,

    prophesy illusions,

leave the way, turn aside from the path,

    let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.’”

 

And so they have become stubborn and rebellious and lying people who are unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord. For, what they are being taught, and what they are telling others is that a (non-descript) belief in Jesus is enough to secure them forgiveness of all sin and heaven as their eternal destiny, regardless of how they live their lives from this moment forward, for they believe repentance and obedience are not required.

 

And so they are indeed telling the Lord’s true messengers, who are bringing forth the truth of the gospel, to stop telling them that they must forsake their sins and follow Jesus in obedience. They want them to tell them pleasant things that make them feel good about themselves while they are deliberately and habitually living in sin. And they want them to get off this path of teaching repentance, obedience, and submission to Christ.

 

And so they like to gather around themselves charlatans who will tell them what their itching ears want to hear. They will listen to the Joel Osteens of the world who will tickle their itching ears with feel-good messages which make no demands on them at all for walks of surrender and obedience to Jesus Christ but which promise them heaven when they die regardless of their sinful lifestyles and their refusal to obey the Lord.

 

Isaiah 30:18 ESV

 

“Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,

    and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.

For the Lord is a God of justice;

    blessed are all those who wait for him.”

 

First the Lord tells them that they must repent of their sins and that they must walk in obedience to him or they will face his wrath. They will not inherit eternal life with God. And he chastises them for their rebellion and for their unwillingness to listen to him and to his truth, and he confronts them with their specific sins of rebellion against him so that they know exactly what it is that they are doing wrong in his sight.

 

But our Lord is slow in coming to this place where he will return to judge because he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Pet 3:9). And so the Lord is patient, for now, but not for forever, and he is waiting for you to surrender your lives to him so that he can be gracious to you in delivering you from your slavery to sin and in empowering you to live righteously for his praise and for his glory.

 

So, if this is where you are today, knowingly and deliberately continuing in your sinful practices, unwilling to surrender your lives to Jesus Christ and to walk in obedience to his commands, while holding on to lies which tell you that you don’t have to submit, repent, and obey, but that you can keep on living in sin, only now guilt free, I pray that today you will surrender your all to Jesus Christ and follow him where he leads you the rest of your days.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10]

 

I Love You Lord  

 

by Laurie Adams-Klein

 

I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice

To worship you, Oh my soul rejoice!

Take joy, my King, in what you hear

May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aQsBvpHQyE

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