Isa 50:4 The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.
In Daniel 7:25 it says “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” We are living in a time when the laws are being changed. The natural laws handed down to us by God Himself are being changed by folks who speak great swelling words. Their rebellion is almost complete. The foundations are being destroyed, what shall the righteous do? The battle lines are being drawn by the prince of the power of the air, of this I have no doubt. The saints are wearied and are being worn out by an deluge of wickedness, and still the flood comes. Daniel says that we shall be given into his hand “until a time and times and the dividing of times.” Rev 13:7 says “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.”
And so, a word to the weary and the worn out saints. Yes a mighty flood of evil has engulfed the world, but our Lord says in His Word that when the enemy comes in like a flood, He shall raise up a standard. He has prepared a highway of Holiness that leads through fire and flood. He has given us a tongue. A word of knowledge, a word of wisdom, a heavenly word that only the Spirit can discern. A word of encouragement. God Himself has given a learned tongue, touched by the Blood of the Lamb and coals of refining fire. Those who oppose you will increase as you continue to stand unmoved by the cultural winds that are beginning to blow with hurricane force. But you will not fall because trial and tribulation and temptations have been your lot for many years now, and your roots have went down deep into the waters of life. You have seen how God has been faithful to you through every situation and because of that your own faith has increased; to God be the glory.
Truth has consumed you and transformed you and you are a lover of it and no power that exists will wrestle it away from you. And of course the Word of God is your delight. It is the foundation upon which you stand. It allows you to stand, unmovable. It is a lamp unto your feet in the ever-increasing darkness of this world and it lights up the narrow path ahead. Stand fast brothers and sisters, the gates of hell shall not prevail against those who stand. He shall awaken you morning by morning. He is the stillness of your soul and He touches every part of your longing heart. He is in every tear that falls and in the billowing waves He hears you call. He shall be your quiet peace as the sun rises in the morning and your calm assurance in the night. He will be your laughter in the rain and your endurance through the pain. In the silence and in the noise you shall hear His still small voice and in this my brothers and sisters you shall rejoice. He rises up like the sun above the mountains, and He will refresh you from His inexhaustible fountains.
Today we are being driven by the form and not the substance. Jesus is the substance. Jesus is the primary object. Jesus is the preeminent one. Without Him high and lifted up, front and center, without His presence in our midst we only have a form. A religious structure built by human hands to house our own desires. We have abandoned the real Jesus and constructed another Jesus. This other Jesus serves us. He serves our needs and desires, he entertains us through his creators. This other Jesus has never carried a cross nor does he require his followers to carry one either.
This cultural Jesus is a mere reflection of his adherents. He never judges, he never corrects. He has no particular requirements. He is a genie in a bottle even although they vigorously rub and he never appears. He does not walk with them, they walk alone. He does not talk to them, they merely engage their own imaginations. He lies to them through the prism of their souls. They hear him say peace and prosperity. He is a reflection of the better part of their natures and they do not realize that the better part of their natures is like filthy rags to the true and living God.
If these people ever actually encountered the true and the living Christ He would devastate them and upturn their lives. Everything they know or thought they knew would come crashing down. A God who judges? Hear the screams. A God who calls them to enter into His sufferings? Hear the wails. A God who requires their whole lives, their whole hearts, their whole allegiances? They writhe in agony. The flesh that refuses to die is enmity to God. He bids that flesh to voluntarily pick up its cross, the means of its own death. It shall surrender or it will rage against the author of the cross.
The narrow path never deviates as it winds its way home. It is fraught with danger. It slowly strips away all of the baggage that we took with us for our journey. It tears away at the flesh and passes through refining fires and floods. It often winds it way through hot and arid deserts. The narrow path has many exits and every exist is a path of least resistance. As soon as one steps onto it one can hear the haunting intoxicating sound of the siren call as it draws that one away from the narrow path.
For those who stay the course and stay on the narrow path, every so often, always suddenly, the Lord comes to us. He reminds us that we are His, He encourages us. He bids us look down and see that the path itself is the Word of God and that the path lights up and directs us in the way that we should go. We are instructed to turn neither to the left nor to the right. The Lord embraces us in His love and His kindness.
He heals our wounds, He tenderly touches our weary hearts. He feeds the deepest parts of us and sustains us for the journey. He restores the brokenhearted and gives strength to the weary. He gives us hope when there seems to be no hope. He gives us joy when there is nothing at all to be joyful about. He gives us a garment of praise and takes away a heavy spirit. He bids us to lift up our eyes and see the celestial city, from where our help comes from. Stay the course brothers and sisters. Stand fast in the time of our vexation. Our Lord is coming soon and our journey will be at an end.
If our evangelism has become shallow, then it is only because our Christianity has become shallow. If our evangelicalism has become mechanical and predictable, then more than likely so have our lives as believers. If our proclamation of the good news is merely verbal and formalized, then that it is a sure sign that truth has become mere words and formulas in our daily walk. I cannot draw someone to a place I am not in myself. We can always speak the proclamation, to do so requires only that we remember the correct words. However in order to move men, we need also to be the proclamation, and that requires a life immersed in the Spirit of Truth (Art Katz, The Spirit of Truth)
Can you see what our dear brother Art is saying here? It is not good enough to make a proclamation, one must be the proclamation. Another pastor said that “I am not waiting on a move of God, I am a move of God.” Can you see the difference between mere intellectual assent to abstract truths and those whose lives are the truth? One knows about it, the other walks it. Jesus is the word made flesh. If we are to draw men to Jesus we must be in the place that we seek to draw them too. We cannot speak of coming to Jesus if we do not dwell in the glory. Our lives must be a manifestation of Jesus. It is not good enough to just talk to someone about Jesus ( I wish we really had that problem) they must see Jesus when they see us. After all, are we not living epistles read by men?
In the last several generations of Christendom, one shallow generation has followed after another. Each generation shallower than the one that went before them. What a tragedy that the church has been slowly and surely all but swallowed up by the world. In politics either the Liberals or the conservatives say something like ” I did not leave the party, the party left me.” This too could be applied to much of Christianity. Denomination after denomination has fallen and left its true believers behind. No longer could they be a part of the most shallow generation of Christianity that has ever walked the earth. And if shallowness was its only problem, that would be bad enough, but it is outright wickedness that walks the halls and assemblies of men today.
There must be a manifestation of Jesus on the earth today. He has to manifest Himself in us and He only does that in willing obedient servants. He has His people still, He is never without a witness. They are people who not only know the Word but who are themselves living epistles easily read by men. They are not “just a sinner saved by grace,” God forbid. No, they are sons and daughters. The Word of God is in them and by the power of the Holy Spirit the Word becomes life. It does not become life in the hands or mouths of those who are spiritually dead, that is the realms of religious men and pharisees. Life begets life. Glory leads to glory. Love and mercy and grace leads to the manifestation of love and mercy and grace. The talents given to each saint are multiplied by their willingness to share what they have as they are empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, we stand like well fed men and woman in a land that is dying from famine. The fat on our bones, so to speak, speaks to the life that is in us. Can men see that you are well fed? Do you stand out among the dead and the dying? Are they drawn to you because of the depths of Christ in you? Are those who dwell in the shallow places drawn to the deep? We must ask ourselves these questions for our calling is but salt and light. If we are not salt to the world, then what is our purpose? If we are not light to the world, then why are we alive? Tragically, over the generations, the people in the shallow end, the world, have drawn many to them instead of the other way around. We must fulfill our purpose here on earth. and we can only do that by dwelling where the the glory is for all the world to see.
Isa 13:3 I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.
There is a burden and it lies heavily upon the sanctified saints of the Lord. They see what is coming, as clearly as they see the sun setting, they know that the end is at hand. This burden of course causes the saint to finds rest in the Word. It may lay heavily upon them, but for those who ignore the burden of the Lord for what is to come it will crush them like a heavy load. The weapons God chooses to use are indignation. Much like David was indignant when he heard the giant mock the people of God, he chose a few smooth stones and ran towards the enemy. The saints of God are the smooth stones that bring down giants. Sanctified by the river, shaped only by the hand of God, they shall bring down all that exalts itself above God. The hearts of men shall fail them as they see the signs in the heavens of the Son of man approaching. The heavens shall be shaken and the earth will move out of her place as that terrible day approaches.
A banner is set up high on the mountain for all the world to see, it is the Lord’s standard. In the Old Testament God used the wicked as His “anointed ones.” This was a type. Now, when the Lord returns with His saints at His side and the dead in Christ shall rise and those who are still alive will join the heavenly hosts, the hearts of the whole world shall melt like wax in the presence of the Lord. God’s enemies shall be subdued and His peace shall break forth as the dawning of a brand new day. The lion shall lay down with the lamb. A child shall lead the lion and the leopard and the calf and the bear shall graze together. The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And the saints shall dwell high on the mountain and exalt and praise the Lord and the whole earth will be filled with the praises of God.
Like the martyrs afterwards, at the stake and amid the flames, who it is testified that so deep was their inward joy that they were unconscious of the external agony. so He was transported above His anguish by the very joy of His Father’s presence and love. It was this that enabled Him to endure “For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, despising the shame.” He saw not the deep dark valley of humiliation, but the heights of resurrection-life and ascension glory just beyond. And He was lifted above the consciousness of the present by the vision and hope and the joy of the Lord. This is the joy He gives to us. It is nothing less than the fullness of His own heart throbbing in our breast and sharing with us His own immutable blessedness (A.B.Simpson)
Do you see what the brother is saying saints? He did not see the dark valley of humiliation rather He saw the heights of resurrection life and the glory “just beyond.” This is the power of the Holy Spirit working in us. The same Holy Spirit that was in the Lord Jesus Christ is in you and He gives you the same vision that the Lord had in this sense. Can you see what is just beyond? Just beyond your circumstances. Just beyond your trial. Just beyond your sickness. Just beyond your enemies. We have the power in us to see just beyond the horizon of this world and glimpse the ascension glory of eternity. The world to come, the world beyond this, the world that already exists in us, the world we actually walk in. The Kingdom. And we see the Kingdoms King and His name is Jesus.
And so as the days grow darker look up and see the light. As the enemy grows bolder know that you have the power to stand and fight. There are no mortal flames that can burn the glory down. It only intensifies the light above and gives us greater sight to see the one who wears the crown. What flood can overwhelm us when He raises us to higher ground? Shall we not count it all rather as rubbish so that in Him we shall be found? There is an eternal fountain of gladness and joy that we have access too. As we stand upon His holy Hill and be drenched by the morning dew that falls from heavens heights. And so we stay close to the one who leads us on and speaks to us in the still small voice. And to that voice we must respond. If we are to see the light of Christ and see what is just beyond. The glory of the risen King, the one to whom we all shall sing…….Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Crown Him with many crowns.
Cutting the Gordian knot is an ancient story related Gordius to the king of Phyrgia. He is said to have tied his cart to a beam with the most incredibly intricate knot. An oracle proclaimed that the man who could untie this knot would rule all of Asia. Along comes Alexander the great and he is presented with the knot and the story. He studies the knot for a moment, takes out his sword, and with one blow, cuts the knot and releases the cart. And so the phrase has come down through the ages to represent incredibly intricate unsolvable situations. In the end, only drastic and swift action can cut through the maze of intricacies and unsolvable problems.
I would like to suggest that Christendom presents such a situation. It has become a monstrous maze of religion and denominations and hatred and bigotry. Much of the Body of Christ wanders in and has been swallowed up by such a maze. What man, or group of men, could ever solve the problem, could ever extricate the Body of Christ from the maze of Christendom? There is no such solution, only the sword can cut through the Gordian knot of impossibility. Only this time, it will not be an Alexander or an earthly sword, but Christ Himself that shall cut the knot. The knot, in this case, is a man made abomination and only the sword can solve the problem. The knot cannot be undone, it can only be cut asunder. Jesus tells us that He did not come to bring peace, but a sword. Its the sword that frees.
When the sword is applied then the knot is destroyed. The knot is Christendom and it has enveloped the Body of Christ. Cut the knot and the Body is released from its entanglement. There is violence in the cutting no doubt. A mans enemies shall be those of his own household. Jesus did not come to send peace into the world, but rather a sword. The truth divides. A man shall find himself the enemy of his own household, denomination, community, nation and world. He will discover that if he loves any of these things more than he loves Jesus, he is not worthy to know Jesus. He will lose his life. Yet, if he is determined to know Jesus above all these things, he shall find eternal life. When the sword of the Lord is wielded, the simplicity of the truth of God is unleashed. The Body of Christ is free as it wields the sword, it is forever entangled if it attempts to undo the knot.
We are people of the Word, of the Spirit and who have a singular passion and His name is Jesus. We are the way and the faith and we are to be found everywhere, from every culture and from every color and from every background. A carved out people, called out of darkness into His marvelous light. Living a simple life of purity and total dedication to Jesus that cuts across cultural traits and transcends centuries of behaviors, it is the calling of the Spirit. We are sons of daughters brought to glory by the Kings of Kings.
This is what the enemy hates above all. Our calling from God. We, who were not a people, now sons and daughters of God in a mysterious royal priesthood. There are many pretenders. Many are called, few are chosen. Only something original and valuable is ever counterfeited. Satan has done some of his best work in counterfeiting the saints. Yet upon close inspection, his imposters (who do not know they are imposters, the best deception is when the deceived have no idea they are deceived) are lacking in two primary and absolutely vital aspects of genuine Christianity. Passion for Jesus, a grand obsession that eclipses everything else in life, and primarily , the Holy Spirit who gives such a passion.
It is not children that God is looking for, it is sons and daughters. We come as children, we grow into sons and daughters. He is looking for those who go on to maturity. He has no pleasure in those who turn back. No pleasure in those who start out with gladness but have no root and when the sun comes up, when the trials of life come, what little root they have withers in the shallow ground. No pleasure in those who get choked and caught up in the cares of this life and the desire for riches and they are without fruit. Yet there is good ground and God loves it. A ground that was no longer fallow, a ground that had the rocks and the stones and the clods removed. A ground that was tilled. Good servants, good soil, sons and daughters, much fruit.
The days are growing darker brothers and sisters. The great whore church is rising, stocked by the great falling away. The flesh wars against the spirit. The flesh has risen up to dizzying new heights and it is nearing its zenith. The time for all out war against the saints is at hand. We are people of the truth and the truth shall be the primary weapon. First to identify us and then to destroy us. Truth shall be banished and the lie shall be crowned in its place. All shall be made to worship the lie. Only the sons and daughters shall not. They shall never bow down to the gods of this world and the gods of this world are rising. They are corrupting our children and an army shall rise. A generation that shall be without natural affection. They shall be false accusers and fierce with it, totally sold out to their corruptions and they shall despise what is good. They will be proud and boastful and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God and all the time having a warped form of Godliness.
Yet, for the sons and daughters of God, it will be their finest hour. The same Spirit that burned in the hearts of the three Hebrew children burn in ours. We shall never bow down to the gods of this world and we shall experience the presence of God as we have never done before nor any generation that has proceeded us. Jesus shall be with us in the midst of the fire. He shall raise us up to higher ground as the enemy comes in like a flood. His banner shall fly and flutter in the wind of the Spirit over every bloody battle-field around the world and thus His glory shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. All the world shall witness this, the Kingdom of God in operation, so that they are without doubt and without excuse, and then comes the Son of Man in all His glory.
There is a tectonic shift taking place in the realms of spiritual darkness and the prophetic calendar. The plates and the under-girdings of the world as we know it are moving. I wrote last week about the word the Lord gave me about a singular disaster that is about to change everything. https://acalltotheremnant.com/2022/02/26/a-word-from-the-lord-a-singular-disaster/ There is a new world order incubating, and following its birth it will come forth and be the deadliest enemy of the saints. All of the religions of the world will fall in line and form the great whore church.
In the run up to the WW1 we see rising and declining empires. When this happens huge wars typically follow. The 19th and 20th Century saw it all. There was the Napoleonic wars, where Napoleon sweeps across Europe, ultimately destroyed by the Russian winter. The American civil war where 600,000 were killed and slavery abolished. There was the Austrian Hungarian Empire (the old so called Holy Roman Empire) The Prussian and the Russian Empires. The British Empire of course and the Ottoman Turks. Towards the end of the 19th century we see many of these empires compete against each other while some were in decline and others were rising. At the same time the Industrial revolution was in full swing and science and technology were exploding. Automatic weapons of all kinds, and mechanized weapons were invented, and of course chemical warfare. All would be used in the coming war of the empires.
We face such a time once again. The empires are different yet in many ways still the same. We have what is left of the old Soviet Union. The Americans, The West and of course, China. Some are on the rise, well at least one. Most of the rest are in some stage of decline whether militarily, economically and certainly morally. A moral collapse has left them weak and vulnerable. We too in our age have seen a revolution, computers and technology has far outstripped anything that we saw in the last two centuries combined. Weapons of mass destruction and chemical weapons and biological weapons. Information has risen to dizzying heights as one of the greatest of all weapons of all. Yet, just like our ghosts from the past, we will use all the weapons at our disposal as well. It is what we do, we are fallen.
When the smoke clears and the plates stop shifting, this world will have given itself over to a reprobate mind. War shall be openly declared on the saints, not the religious, the saints. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations (Rev 13:7) Only those who walk in the Spirit will survive spiritually intact. They may be martyred, but they will pass through the fire with Jesus. In order to find gold in the earth a massive amount of earth has to be moved. It is referred to as overburden. Heaven and earth shall be moved and the saints will be brought forth. The great sifting and separating. Fires and floods, we shall walk through them all with Christ in us the hope of glory. Stand strong saints, in the power of His might. He is coming soon.
The reason that we do not have more repentance is that we repent for what we do instead of what we are. Remember, repentance for what you do goes down deep, but repentance for what you are goes deeper ( Tozer) The presence of God, the manifest presence of God is a two-edged sword. In the incalculable light of God our Father, that reflects from the face of Christ our Lord, we see first ourselves and then we see God. We understand just how far removed from the perfection of our creator we are in the light of His glory and grace. We understand all the more the nature of our humanity and it stays with us. David’s eyes were opened by the prophet of God and he is horrified. He understands the depths and the nature of his crimes, yet his heart cry before God is the realization of where those crimes originated from. He knows well, in the light of God, that God requires truth in the inward parts, where the sin originates.
This is why Tozer is saying that repentance for what you are goes deeper than repentance for what you did. Both are required, one is seldom sought. The Catholic goes to confession ever week and confesses the same sin over and over again yet the heart remains the same. Many evangelicals do the same, just in a different format and typically alone. The real work in the heart of a man and a woman lies in the depths of their hearts. Only by coming into the presence of God, before the throne, a way made for us by Jesus Himself, can we ever truly be changed to the depths of our hearts. David acknowledges his transgressions and then says that his sin (singular, meaning the sin nature) is ever before him. If we would diminish the power of the sin nature, we would use the gift of reconciliation, given to us by Jesus and come before the throne in true and deep repentance. We can never leave that place unchanged. He waits for you.
A number of years ago I came across the story of the Decian persecution of Christians while I was doing research for a book I was writing. I did not include this in the book but it is interesting to consider the facts. Decian was the Roman Emperor in 250 ad. He issued an edict that required everyone in the Roman empire to perform a sacrifice. The sacrifice was to be made to the Roman gods, and also included a loyalty oath towards his rule as Emperor. (See above image) The sacrifice had to be carried out before a Roman magistrate who would then sign a certificate which would allow them to carry on with whatever business they were involved with. This certificate would enable them to buy or sell.
The particular region I was studying was Carthage. It was expected that there would be great resistance to this from the Christian community and indeed this was part of the motivation for the decree in the first place. Imprisonment and death were the penalties for those who refused to participate in the sacrifice. The Carthaginian authorities settled on the days that the city was to participate. They were totally taken by surprise by the large numbers of “Christians,’ who rushed to “get their certificate.” They had to extend the time they had allotted for the sacrifices and certificate signing.
Out of the group that refused to be involved in sacrificing to gods, many were martyred, others were imprisoned and still others went into hiding. Interestingly, at the same time as this “empire wide,” persecution, a plague had broken out and was killing up to five thousand Romans per day. This only added to the hatred of Christians as they were deemed to be in some way responsible for this. And so, when this particular persecution ended, there was a great deal of tension between those who had stood their ground for Jesus and those who had capitulated in order to save themselves.
This was not the first time this had happened, nor would it be the last. The Diocletian persecution would be the most intense staring at around 300ad and last for around a decade. Again the spit would happen. A large majority would capitulate and deny the faith, the smaller minority would be killed, imprisoned or flee. When the smoke cleared from this latest persecution, the larger group that had capitulated to the state would be the group favored by Constantine. No surprise that the Emperor would choose the group who he could count on to bow the knee to him and the State. That group were the Catholics. The minority group, the group that had refused to hand over their scriptures to the State and to bow the knee, were known as “Donatists.’ They refused to acknowledge anyone who had capitulated to Rome as a Christian. For this they were hunted down and killed.
I would just like to say that some things never change. There is and always has been a large group, a majority group, within the world that identifies itself as Christian, that will not “stand in the evil day.” It is such an evil day that separates the sheep from the goats. It is the storm that tests the foundations of the house. It is not what a man or woman calls themselves that counts for anything, it is who they actually are. Those who have received the love of the truth, who are genuinely born again, will stand in that day. They will be martyred, they will be imprisoned or they will flee. What they will not do, what they could never do, what they have never done, is to deny their Lord. As it was, so it always shall be until that glorious day when Christ returns.
2Co 6:1 We then, as workers together with him, plead with you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.
Paul cries out to the Corinthians here in this portion of the letter. He starts the chapter by pleading with them not to receive the grace of God in vain. That is a very stern warning. You get the feeling Paul is about to really share with the Corinthians some very hard truths. He then describes the life of those who minister for the cause of Christ. Here is the list from verses 4-6. Tribulations, needs, distresses, stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labors, sleeplessness and fastings. Here is how we arm ourselves against such things according to Paul…..purity, knowledge, longsuffering, kindness, the Holy Spirit, sincere love, the word of truth, the power of God and by the armor of righteousness.
What a list brothers and sisters. What a description of what it means to follow the Lord and to suffer for His sake. And even although you will have honor in the Kingdom, you will be dis-honored here on earth. You will have a good report in the heavenlies, but in the world, an evil report. You will walk in truth but be known as deceivers. You will be unknown in this world yet well known in the Kingdom of God. It will appear as though you are dying due to your many tribulations, but you will be alive in Christ. Your situation may cause some to feel sorrow for you but you yourself will be rejoicing. It may appear that you are poor and have nothing but you enrich the saints in the Kingdom. It looks like you have nothing but you have gained eternal riches.
This is the path of the saints, few there are that find it. Paul urges us to have fellowship with like-minded people and not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? What communion could light possibly have with darkness? The saints are the temple of the Living God and there can be no quarter given to idols. God has promised to “dwell in them and walk among them, I will be their God and they shall be my people.” In a world where the vast majority of those who attend assemblies are mere professors and identify themselves by their unrighteousness, we are told to “come out from among them and be separate and do not touch what is unclean says the Lord.” And to those who follow this command the promise of the Lord is that “I will be a Father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters.” Stand strong saints, for His grace in you is not in vain.
The present position of Christ in the gospel churches may be likened to that of king in a limited constitutional monarchy (think of Great Britain) The king, sometimes depersonalized by the term “the Crown,” is in such a country no more than a traditional rallying point, a pleasant symbol of unity and loyalty much like a flag or a national anthem. He is lauded, feted and supported, but his real authority is small. Nominally he is head over all, but in every crisis someone else makes the decisions. On formal occasions he appears in his royal attire to deliver the tame, colorless speech put into his mouth by the real rulers of the country. The whole thing may be no more than good-natured make believe, but is rooted in antiquity, it is a lot of fun and no one wants to give it up (Tozer)
This is a quote from the last piece Tozer ever wrote. It is a confession to being part of a system that had relegated Christ to being no more than a figurehead and that same system had robbed Jesus of His authority within their gatherings. In Great Britain there is a Queen. She and her family survive within what is known as a constitutional monarchy. She has no real power. The power all resides within Parliament and the Prime Minister. These of course are elected positions, the people choose. The Queen’s main role is cutting ribbons, launching ships and drawing tourists. She also is a symbol of stability, but in the end, she could be rejected from even this limited role if the people so chose.
This is Tozer’s argument. The average church in America has relegated Jesus to a limited role. Rather than a Prime Minister, we have a senior pastor or minister. Jesus is acknowledged as Lord, of course, but it practice He has been relegated and man has taken the position. The Holy Spirit, for the most part, has no role within the average American church. The Word of God is readily dismissed in favor of tradition and customs. The Protestant world readily criticizes the Catholic mass (as well they should) as nothing more than the same thing repeated every week. (laying aside the obvious erroneous centerpiece of the Eucharist) And yet, for the most part, you also know exactly what to expect every week at your local church.
Tozer blames the following two reasons for this disaster…..1. The power of custom, precedent and tradition within older religious groups. These, like gravitation, affect every particle of religious practice withing the group, exerting a steady and constant pressure in one direction. Of course direction is toward conformity to the status quo. Not Christ but custom is Lord. And the same thing has passed over into the other groups such as the full gospel tabernacles, the holiness churches, the pentecostal and fundamental churches and the non-denominational churches found everywhere throughout the North American continent.
The second cause is the revival of intellectualism among the evangelicals. This, if I sense the situation correctly, is not so much a thirst for learning, rather a desire for a reputation of being learned. Our Evangelical faith ( which I believe to be the true faith of Christ and His Apostles) is being attacked these days from many different directions. IN the Western world the enemy has forsworn violence. He no longer comes against us with sword and fire, he now comes smiling, bearing gifts. He raises his eyes to heaven and swears that he too believes in the faith of our fathers , but his real purpose is to destroy that faith, or at least modify it to such an extent that it is no longer a supernatural thing it once was. (Tozer-The Waning Authority of Christ in the churches-pages 14-16)
Tozer lays this out almost 70 years ago, on his death bed so to speak. The old prophet saw in one last sweep of history, what had become of the professing churches. Can I say brothers and sisters, it has degraded so much more so in the last 70 years. If the authority of Jesus was waning 70 years ago in the churches, it is all but gone now. So the question becomes “what must we do.” Tozer asks that very question in the last paragraph and I will leave you with his suggestions……….
What, then, are we to do? Each one of us must decide and there are at least three possible choices. One is to rise up in shocked indignation and accuse me of irresponsible reporting. Another is to nod in general agreement with what is written here but take comfort in the fact that there are exceptions and we are among the exceptions. The other is to go down in meek humility and confess that we have grieved the Holy Spirit and dishonored our Lord in failing to give Him the place His Father has given Him as Head and Lord of the Church. Either the first or the second will but confirm the wrong. The third, if carried out to its conclusion, will remove the curse. The decision lies with us.
1Co 13:10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
Oh saints, what damage has been done by men over this scripture. In eighteen short words, religious men the world over have stripped the gifts of God out of the hands of men based on a lie. The perfect is not the canon of Scripture. Jesus is perfect and when He comes again then all the gifts that edify the still imperfect Church shall cease. In that eternal state there shall be no more need for words of wisdom. In that eternal state there shall be but one heavenly language. In that eternal state we shall no longer need prophets or those who exhort the Body because the fulfillment of all things will have occurred. Love, the eternal state, shall go on for all eternity.
In this present life, in comparison to the glories of heaven, I speak as a child. I understand as a child, I think as a child. Yet in the fulfillment of all things, when the perfect has come, I will throw of this mortal childish state. I will know as I am known. For now I only see in part, but glory to God then I will see the eternal God face to face. Imagine knowing as you are known. Ponder that for a while. If the things that I know in part are glorious, what will it be like when I know the whole? The mere glimpses that I have seen of His glory has transformed my whole life, now what will be my state as I move and have my being in an eternal gaze upon Him.
Yet even now there are countless of millions of professors of the faith who would deny the reality of the glimpse. Of the supernatural experience of God. Can those who have never glimpsed and refuse to acknowledge the supernatural gifts of God ever move on to maturity? If one is not even a child then can that one become a man in God’s Kingdom? Only children of the Kingdom of God here on earth can become men and woman of God in our heavenly Father’s eternal. The children of this world will become men and women of their father in a very different eternal state. Whose child are you of? The children of light walk in the power and experience of their eternal God now, in part. Only by being a part can one become whole.
I grieve when I come into the average fundamental evangelical gospel church. There’s so little of the sense of God in it. You never bow your head with reverence unless you have deliberately disciplined yourself to do it because there is not a sense of sacredness. …We have secularized worship, the Gospel and even Christ. I say that it is a great tragic loss and no great man can can come out of that kind of thing. God may have to sweep it away from us and start somewhere else. (Tozer)
I wonder saints. Do we grieve as Tozer grieved? Perhaps his very grieving over this issue is why God used him so mightily and still uses him? Perhaps we do not grieve the loss of His presence, His glory, His sacredness because we have never experienced any of it? We have never had a burning bush moment like Moses. Or we have never been awestruck by the glory and the majesty described by Isaiah. Or we have never had the hand of God touch our lips like Jeremiah? Ezekial saw the heavens open and had visions of God. All of these men suffered in direct correlation to the glory that they themselves had experienced. The list of these kinds of encounters is endless in the OT and the NT.
Tozer’s recommendation for the Christian church today is to “call a moratorium on all activity and focus on coming into worship until the fire descends and engulfs us in the sacredness of His presence.” Tomorrow is the first Sunday of the New Year. How many churches will be preaching this kind of message? Or rather will we hear the endless so called prophecies of how this coming year is going to be the best year ever? I am afraid that in almost one hundred percent of the gatherings that it shall be the latter. There will be no crying out to God in great grief over the lack of His presence. No mourning over the glory never experienced.
What Moses was before the fire experience was nothing compared to what he was afterward. The great man used of God was created in front of that burning bush experience. And that fire never went out for the rest of Moses life. The experience was absolutely a crisis for Moses (Tozer) Moses had to leave Egypt behind. Forty years of laboring under the stars and among the sheep. The glory’s of Pharaoh’s court just a distant memory. The world he knew long gone. Perhaps we have way too much of the world in us? For most of us it’s not a distant memory but a present reality. I wonder is we care more for our traditions and our institutions than we do for the majesty and the glory of God experienced. If we have to choose one or the other (and I say that we do) I wonder how you will choose? It seems sure that God must, as Tozer spoke “sweep it all away.”
The Body of Christ, has not changed down through the centuries, always at her core she has been called to be a witness, an eye-witness to God’s glory. This is the essential heartbeat of Gods Remnant bride and always will be. In this role she has been used as a sanctuary, the sanctuary, the Holy of Holy’s. She is a tabernacle in the wilderness, she is Gods temple here on earth. At the same time she has always been despised by the religious spirit because she speaks truth to power. In these last days God says in His word through His prophet Zechariah that ” In that last day a fountain shall be opened up for the house of David,” and God Himself says again through the prophet that ( speaking of Christendom) “Two thirds in it shall be cut off and die. But one-third shall be left in it. I will bring the one-third through the fire, I will refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name and I will answer them. I will say ” This is my people.” (Zec 13:8-9)
And so we see that a fountain shall be opened in that day for the house of David. Can you imagine how welcome a fountain would be in the midst of a dry and thirsty land, a land racked with drought and famine? I want us, as we consider the role of the remnant, the Body of Christ, in the last days, to look at two men of God and see what parallels we can draw. Let’s look at Noah and as we look let’s think about the context of the time in which he lived. It’s a time and a place of great wickedness and as we know, there would only be a tiny fraction saved. Noah is commissioned to build an ark over a long period of time. Now, we know that Noah faced ridicule and scorn. First of all what he was building have never been built before. Secondly, rain had never fallen from the sky and the notion that the whole earth would be covered by a flood was preposterous to all who lived then.
Every day Noah’s hammer could be heard, every day the ark took shape and was rising up. The continuous hammering would have been a great source of irritation to all around him. Noah would have to keep building despite the ridicule and the scorn and the anger because the rain was surely coming and he was being obedient to his calling. We too as Gods remnant people have to keep true to what the Lord has called us to. We are also in the ark business. There was one place of salvation when the rains of judgment began to fall, it was the ark. Can I put it to you brothers and sisters that the remnant church of God is God’s ark built by the hands of Jesus.
With the judgments beginning to fall, with the beginning of the birth pangs, it will become apparent that God has a people who have not bowed the knee to Baal. God is getting ready to reveal His ark by bringing judgment and allowing the rise of the anti-christ. This ark will be a witness to the glory of God and His way of escape. This ark will be used as a last chance for the un-redeemed of the world to be saved before final judgment. This ark will be revealed to the world by isolation and persecution, all of the world will see this ark and they will be without excuse when that day comes, for this ark is the glory of Christ here on the earth and He reveals Himself through what He has built.
Now lets consider Joseph and consider the context and the back-drop of his day. Here we have Joseph who has been called to save a remnant. “And God sent me before you to save a Remnant in the earth and to save your life by a great deliverance.” ( Gen 45:7) Before Joseph could do this he had to be scorned and ridiculed by his own. Because of dreams and visions that scorn turned to anger and hatred. He was then rejected and sold into slavery. He becomes a slave and then is wrongfully accused and ends up in prison, seeming forgotten and forsaken. Yet, God of course had never left him. This is part of the remnant path. Many will relate even as they read this. Yet God had not forsaken Joseph and even in prison Joseph moved in the supernatural and he found God’s favor. He was able to interpret dreams and visions and this would lead him to see that a great famine was coming upon the land. He was able to make provisions that would save “A Remnant in the earth.”
Can you see the pattern behind this brothers and sisters? Can you relate to the suffering and the rejection and the seeming forsakeness that Joseph surely felt as he languished in the prison, far from home and separated from everything he knew? The pattern is that when there is great judgment coming upon the land, God has a people or a person whom He will send ahead to enable whoever will, to escape that judgment. God has created such a vehicle in His remnant. And they too, just like Joseph, must be despised and rejected by the very one’s they have been sent to save. Of course, this is the divine pattern. We see our Lord Jesus walk down this path. He came from the glories of heaven and the right hand of the Father, emptying Himself and humbling Himself in order to walk amongst those who He had come to save, yet He became despised and reject, tortured and killed.
And now with the final judgment fast approaching, the ark which Jesus has been building for 2000 years is almost ready. God’s remnant church from every possible background and across all denominational lines ( artificial walls built by men and not by God) down through the last 2000 years have been scorned, ridiculed hated and despised and hunted down and killed and almost all of this was done by ” their own.” Their own being people who would profess God with their lips but their hearts are far from Him. Yet God in His mercy will reach out and continue to reach out through His Body while there is yet life in them. A witness until the very end. A faithful Body and a people without excuse.
The Body of Christ is everywhere. It is in every village, every town , every city and every nation on the earth. There are countless millions of Gods own children around the world. For the most part they are swallowed up in Christendom with its multiplicity of divisions and man made walls. Yet, the closer to Christ’s return the more and more difficulty the Body of Christ will find within the dwelling places and kingdoms of men. Could a saint really stay within the confines of any organisation that has corrupted itself with the world? This will be the ever increasing pressure that will be brought to bear on the saints in the coming days. Only the individual saint can answer this question for his her self. The Word of God and the Holy Spirit must be a lamp unto our feet. Too many men’s discernment comes from what other men have spoken. As the darkness increases our need for the light that shines forth from the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit who gives us not only revelation but inspiration only becomes greater and greater.
We have a God who will never leave us nor forsake us. We must trust Him with our whole hearts. No matter how scary things become, in fact because of what is to come, we must trust Him with our whole hearts and follow His lead even if we cannot see the bigger picture. The Word of God and His doctrines were written to be understood by even the simplest among us, in fact God delights in confounding the wise by the simple. The doctrines of men are generally complicated and confusing. Stay with the Word, lean upon the Holy Spirit for understanding and insight and revelation of Christ’s glory and do all of this with your whole heart and you will not go far wrong. He did not leave us as orphans, praise God, we have a Father in heaven whom we can call Abba and He will lead and guide His children through not only good times but through the darkest valleys and the narrowest portions of the path that leads back home.
A Call To The Remnant 