Jeremiah 1:13-16 ESV
“The word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, ‘What do you see?’ And I said, ‘I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north.’ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Out of the north disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land. For behold, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, declares the Lord, and they shall come, and every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Judah. And I will declare my judgments against them, for all their evil in forsaking me. They have made offerings to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands.’”
In what ways is the American church at large today making
offerings to other gods and worshipping the works of her own hands? How is she
forsaking the Lord? What evils is she involved in? (You can apply this to
wherever you live but America is all I know.)
For one, she partnered with the world, with big business,
and with the government (the state) in unholy unions. And she turned the
gatherings of the church into a marketplace to be marketed to the world, using
worldly means and methods, marketing schemes, and business plans in order to
model “the church” after what the world is craving so that the world would be
attracted to the institutional church and want to be part of her.
So now, instead of the true church, the body of Christ,
comprised of true followers of Jesus, gathering together for the teaching of the
true word, for prayer, for genuine spiritual fellowship in the Lord, for
communion, and to encourage (exhort) one another in our walks of faith, for our
spiritual growth, as each part does its work (Eph 4), the gatherings of what is
now called church are a blend of true followers of Jesus, though that is becoming
much less, and those who make surface professions of faith in Jesus, and those
who make no profession of faith in Jesus and even some agnostics.
And instead of Jesus Christ being her only head, now she is
under the authority of the state and big business and the world, and she is
not, for the most part, being led by the Spirit but by marketing schemes,
goals, and business plans. And thus she has also altered the gospel of Jesus Christ
to make it more palatable to the world so that large crowds from the world will
be drawn to her gatherings, and so they will not be offended by the gospel or
made to feel uncomfortable or judged, and because their goal now is to please
the people and not Jesus Christ, for the most part.
In altering the gospel message, to make it more acceptable
to the people of the world and to the flesh of man (humans), she removed God’s
foundational requirements of repentance, obedience, and submission to him as
Lord, which are all necessary requirements of believing faith for salvation
from sin and for eternal life with God. And she is now teaching a surface level
faith which promises forgiveness of sins and eternal life with God, but which
discourages the forsaking of our sinful practices and the following of our Lord
in obedience to his ways without which is no faith at all.
The result of this are these large gatherings of what are falsely
being referred to as “churches,” which are entertaining the world and the
flesh, where pastors are now clowns, actors, and talk show hosts who give talks
and motivational speeches and who preach feel good messages which tickle people’s
itching ears and which coddle the people in their sins. They teach them that
they can believe in Jesus and still live in their sin, and if they begin to
feel guilty, that they can just claim who they are in Christ. But who we are is
what we do, not what we profess with our lips.
Okay, so the other main result from all of this is not only
that we have a worldly church which is more centered on the flesh than on the
Spirit, but we have a worldly church which is riddled with sin. And the church
is largely not doing anything about it, because they are literally leading
people on that path of unrighteousness with their cheap grace gospel. They may
or may not initiate support groups for addicts, but those support groups
largely do not lead people to true deliverance of their addictions but convince
them they will always be addicts dependent on other humans to survive day to
day.
So, the church has lost her saltiness, and her light has
been buried, and she is doing more to blend in with the world to be accepted by
the world than she is doing what she is called to do to be holy, unlike the
world, and to shine as lights for the true gospel to the world, and to win the
world to faithful obedience to the Lord and to forsake their lives of sin. Thus,
not only the church at large, but society as a whole has largely gone down the
toilet, and sin is rampant everywhere, and our nation (the USA) is on a massive
moral and spiritual decline, and we, as a nation, are at death’s door.
But it isn’t just in the gatherings of the institutional
church that all this is taking place, but the church, and what is falsely
called church, is on the internet on social media, on blogs, on Christian
discussion sites, and on other internet sites where they have an opportunity to
express their beliefs and their thoughts on various subjects, with some
censorship taking place. And they are largely spreading this cheap grace gospel
which is leading people to their deaths while it is promising them heaven when
they die. So many professed believers in Jesus will NOT inherit eternal life
with God.
So, what is falsely being referred to as “the church” is not
the true church, although parts of the true church may still be gathering with
these institutional churches. The Bible refers to this mixture of the world and
the church as “Babylon, the harlot.” Yes, Babylon is the world’s system, but
which has also infiltrated the church, and so she includes the worldly church
which has largely forsaken her first love and has become neither hot nor cold
but lukewarm. Thus, the warnings we have in Revelation to this lukewarm church
and to those partaking in Babylon apply to today.
Jeremiah 1:17-19 ESV
“But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.”
I don’t have any idea how many of us there are, but God has
called some (or many) of us to be like Jeremiah’s in our day and time to say to
the people who profess the name of Jesus whatever the Lord commands that we
should tell them (supported fully by Scripture). And we are not to fear them,
though some (or many) of them will indeed fight against us, and they will
persecute us. And we will be rejected, ostracized, pushed aside, kicked out,
invited to leave, ignored, and falsely accused because we are standing on truth
and righteousness and because we are exposing what is pure evil.
But we are to confront the people in their sins, and to call
out the wickedness that is going on in the name of “the church.” And we are to
call those who profess the name of Jesus to humble themselves before God, and
to call on God in truth, and to repent of (turn away from) their sinful
practices, and to follow Jesus in obedience. And we are to expose this cheap
grace gospel that is permeating the church and which is sending people to hell
on the promise of heaven, and we are to proclaim the truth that can deliver
people from their slavery to sin so they can walk in freedom.
And we are to warn them of divine judgment both now in the
form of physical enemies coming against us to conquer us and our nations, and
we are to warn of God’s judgments to come in the end when those who would not
obey him and who chose to continue in their sins will find out the truth that
they believed a lie and that heaven is not their eternal destiny. And many will
hear the Lord say on that day, “Depart from me you workers of iniquity. I never
knew you.” And they will be cast into hell to burn for eternity. So, please
take this to heart, for your eternity depends on it.
[Lu
9:23-26;
Jn 6:35-58; Jn 8:31-32; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; 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 Pet 1:17-21; 1
Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rev. 2-3; Rev 18:1-6; Rev 21:8, 27; Rev 22:14-15]
We Will Glorify
By Twila Paris
We will glorify the King of kings
We will glorify the Lamb
We will glorify the Lord of lords
Who is the great I am
Lord Jehovah reigns in majesty
We will bow before His throne
We will worship Him in righteousness
We will worship Him alone
He is Lord of Heaven, Lord of Earth
He is Lord of all who live
He is Lord above the universe
All praise to Him we give
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4skT9ndv6ng
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