2Co 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
In this chapter Paul lays out the marks of the ministry, how we shall be known. As ministers of God, meaning the Body of Christ and all of its many members, who seek to live Godly in Christ Jesus, we shall be patient in the many tribulations that we will surely face. And here are just some of the many situations that we are commended to be patient in, as opposed to living your best life now. In needs, in distresses, when we are beaten for Christ and imprisoned for His sake. In working with our hands, in revolts and rebellions, in sleeplessness and in fastings. We shall be known for our kindness and our sincere love as we walk though all of these situations, showing Godly wisdom and sharing the knowledge of God in all places and to all people. We shall walk in the power of God and by the armor of His righteousness. We shall be honored but we shall also be dishonored but we shall be gracious in both states. Men will say good things about us, but equally many men will dishonor us with lies and false accusations. They will say that we are deceivers and agents of the devil himself, but no matter, let us continue to be patient. The remnant people of God will know of us but for the most part we shall be unknown.
To the world it will seem that we are cursed and are dying but we are blessed and we are walking in the true abundance of eternal life. It will be seen that we are men and women of great sorrow, and indeed we shall suffer the sorrows of this world but we rejoice in the glory of Jesus and in the sure knowledge of the eternal Kingdom of God. It will seem to many that we are poor and wretched and blind but we are truly rich in the treasures of heaven which were purchased in the midst of the fire by the hand of Christ Jesus. We are clothed in the white garments of righteousness and holiness and our blind eyes have been opened to see the glory of God and to gaze up into an open heaven. It seems to the world that we have nothing, but in the reality of the Kingdom of God we possess all things through our Lord and Savior Jesus. We who suffer with our Lord shall rule and reign with Him in the heavenlies and this our heart knows well. We have a peace that surpasses all understanding. We have a contentment that the world knows nothing of because it is not based on any worldly things. Now brothers and sisters, what has just been here described is the common walk of the genuine saint.
We must walk in Christ alone and find our fellowship with others of like mind. We must not be unequally yoked. For what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? Can we fellowship with those who are willful transgressors? Not according to the Word. What communion can light have with darkness? For those who are in the light walk in the light and they have fellowship one one with another. Does Jesus and the devil have fellowship? Is it possible for believers and unbelievers to walk together under the banner of Christ? Brothers and sisters, it is incumbent upon us to understand this, the weight of these directives fall upon us in this matter of fellowship. In this day and age of watered down Christianity, a Christless and crossless Christianity, it is up to us to find the saints who walk as Paul admonished us to walk in this very chapter of 2 Cor 6. God Himself says, no rather He commands, in the very context of this chapter, that we are to “come out from among them and be separate and do not touch what is unclean.” In following these commands He promises to receive us and that He would be our Father and that we would be His sons and daughters. He promised to dwell in us and walk among us where two or three are gathered together in the mighty name of Jesus, and He will be our God and we shall be His people. Glory to God!!!
There is somewhat of an inevitable loneliness of the walk of the saint who has stepped behind the veil so to speak. Certainly it has always been this way. Yet in these days this loneliness the saint feels, this isolation that plagues him can only get worse. For part of this loneliness has always been associated with separation down through the corridors of time. In every age every group of saints has faced the challenge of their time and they faced it, for the most part alone or in smaller groups.
Now why do I say that it can only get worse? I believe that it will only get worse because this world is growing darker, darker than it ever has been before. Before it is all over, right will have become wrong, day will have become night and every saint who has walked in the garden of the Lord’s heart will be more isolated that any group of saints have ever have been in the past. Every saints yearns for deep genuine fellowship. It abides within the depths of who we are. Yet there is something that is deeper still, its an unyielding powerful force that grips us. It lies at the very center of who we are. If we could see with spiritual eyes into the deepest parts of who we are we would see this. What is it? Its a gift that we received upon which everything stands. It is the Truth and our love for it.
And with all unrighteous deception among those that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2Th 2:10-12)
It is such a serious thing is it not, the truth? By it we stand or fall. Those who receive the love of the truth are saved, those who do not, perish. Now, if you have received the love of the truth, nothing will compel you to give it up. You have received it as a gift from God Himself and it burns in your bones. This is why there is more loneliness ahead in this world for the saint. For the world and indeed much of Christendom has turned its back on the truth. They are willing to trade the truth for the love of man and the acceptance of the world. We know that perfect love casts out all fear. This love, which we saints have received will do its perfect work. It will keep us in power and give us a mind that is not shaken by circumstances, a heart and a mind that stands upon the unshakable Word of God. Yet not just the Word of God but the dynamic reality of the presence of God.
And that is the separation. Only in like-minded saints can we ever find fellowship. Only that kind of fellowship moving forward will be acceptable. The reality is that there is an ever-widening gap between those who call themselves followers of Jesus and those who have seen as opposed to heard. On the road to Emmaeus two saints said ““Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” The Holy Spirit opens up the Word to His saints as they encounter the living God in their hearts. He leads them and He guides them and at the bottom of it all is Truth and the saints love for it. What is Truth? Jesus is Truth and in that Truth He give us life and that more abundantly and He shows us the way. If that way leads us down the dark and narrow road of circumstances and loneliness, then that will not stop us from going down that road.And so the gap indeed widens for the genuine saint who has received the love of the truth.
The world and all of its ways have forced itself into Christendom and demands allegiance. Not total allegiance to begin with for that old serpent is far too wise for that. Just a foothold, juts a little foothold that’s all for today, but tomorrow comes the stronghold and then the stronghold becomes the base from which total dominance of all the land becomes a reality. The genuine saint flees away from all of that and will find less and less places of refuge until at last he has no where else to run. Yet the man or the woman of God has found a hiding place that can never be conquered or taken. It is the high tower of the Living God. It is the shadow underneath the wing of the most high. It is the secret garden of the heart of promise given to us. There we walk saints. It is a place where we know. It is common to us. I have met saints from all over the world who ” know,” this place. And my spirit witnesses with theirs and theirs with mine.
There are but two worlds, two realities. This world and the Kingdom of God. When the Lord returns, which world will He find us in? Each world is exclusive and demands total loyalty. We are witnessing the stripping away of all of the pretense of this world. There is more stripping to come as the master of this world exposes himself for who and what he is. And antidote to this world and the father of lies is the Truth and our love for it. Let us stand fast in the coming days and follow the passion of our hearts no matter where it leads us. In the end, it is better to have fellowship with God than to be friends with the world. In the world people gather round a flag pole. In the Kingdom, saints gather round the truth. It is the fire that will keep us warm as the bitter cold winter of the worlds discontent fast approaches its inevitable end.
1Co 14:24 But if all prophesy, and if an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all:
Note the word “all”. Over and over we see the word all. And again in verse 31 we are told “for you can all prophesy that all may learn and all may be encouraged. Six times in two verses the Scriptures hammer home the truth “all.” Genuine saints are all priests in a royal priesthood. We are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people;that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light! (1 Pet 2:9) All the saints have been called forth to cry out the praises of the One who called us out of darkness to show the world His marvelous light. We are His excellent ones. Specifically anointed to move under the manifestation of the Spirit and speak as He leads us to speak. And when we do as we are instructed to do , then, according to the Scriptures the unlearned or the unbeliever will fall down on his face and worship God because the secrets of his heart was revealed and he shall then reports to all that “God is truly among you.”
This is the plain reading of the scripture saints. To do it any other way is to be in direct conflict with God. To sit under the clergy/laity system is to directly violate the principles and the instructions here laid down by God Himself. What audacity to think we know better. The greatest injury perpetrated against the Church was robbing the Body of its fellowship, of its actual breaking of bread, its communion together. How it fellowshiped together, how it gathered together, how it worshiped together under the auspices of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, who oversaw, who hovered over all things, all of this was rejected by the professional clergy. To wait upon the Lord so that only He speaks, is the simple gathering of the brethren. Let us wait upon the Lord. Who shall He speak through? What shall He say? How will He encourage us? How will He discipline us? What song shall He have us to sing? The Holy Spirit knows all this and empowers all of this by being manifested among us through “all.” Not one man.
The devil himself has worked feverishly over the centuries through religious hands to tear down what is real and erect empty meaningless rituals that are then idolized. The modern day church is like a ship at sea that has lost its power and is now driven by the winds and the tides and the currents of the world. Lost and drifting, waiting to be swamped by the next big wave, the next modern thing, the next hellish doctrine of the world. And yet the true Body of believers are still operating under power, the power of the Holy Spirit manifesting Himself in our lives. The day is coming soon saints, when the pressures from a very hostile world will draw us back together. The weak will fall away, the feeble will fall away. Lovers of the world more than lovers of the Lord will fall away. Little by little the saints are being purged from the world and this is good, the hand of the Lord Himself is doing this. We shall come back together, and we shall worship as we have read in 1 Cor 14. The great persecution will soon be upon us but the gathering of the saints takes place at the same time. We shall truly be united in our sufferings and in the persecution. And there we shall find the same power that stopped the mouths of lions, that overcome the fiery furnace, that shook the prison and turned the whole world upside down.
Signs and wonders and miracles follow those who believe. It follows the dramatic transformation of souls, which is of course the greatest miracle of all. A large majority of Christendom seem only transfixed on miracles. We see in Acts 8-9 a man called Simon magician or sorcerer. Upon seeing the power of the Apostles, he wanted the same power and desired to “purchase,” it. Of course he is sternly rebuked. He is never mentioned in Scripture again. In extra biblical writings it seems he continued in his sorcery while still being around the Christian community. He gave rise to the word “Simony,” which means “using religion for profit.” Men like Simon would never move in the power of God. May I suggest we live in an age of Simony. There is so little evidence of the miraculous power of God in Christendom because Christendom in large part is run by men who “use religion for profit.” God is still a miracle working God, therefore if there is a fundamental lack of the true supernatural power among that which names itself the church, then that is a reflection on them and not upon our Lord who never changes.
If God has not changed, and of course He has not, then why it is that there is next to no supernatural power on display in what we call the church today? Can I suggest that one of the major causes is “Simony” those who “use religion for profit.” And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? (Judges 6:13) Where are all the miracles Gideon asks? The very first thing Gideon had to do was tear down the idols of his fathers. What Gideon did, we will not do. The traditions of our fathers still stand and they are more important to us than the commandments of God. The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same things over and over again and expect different results. If there is a crisis and a lack of genuine power within the ranks of Christendom, then the answer is not to dim the lights, bring on the smoke machines and turn Sunday services into secular looking concerts. The answer, as always, lies within the Word of God and His commandments. 1 Cor 14. This is the model, and if we refuse to return to the Word of God in order to maintain our own traditions and the salaries of “senior pastors and so called worship leaders” then, of course, not only will nothing change, it will only get worse.
I want to share a personal testimony. Many of you, my brothers and sisters in the Lord, over the years, have prayed for my family. I praise the Lord for that. Prayers for youngest son Daniel who has Down Syndrome, and prayers for my oldest son Christopher, who had, to say the least, a very challenging life due to sin and breaking the law. He is 38 now, but all of his troubles really began back in high school. The police were at our door a lot. After he left high school he just kept on going. Alcohol and drugs and crimes related to that. Violence and lies. It broke me as a father and I threw myself at the feet of Jesus. If I tried to get up on my own two feet, I would quickly be knocked back down. I was in over my head and I had no idea how to handle that. The old Frank was constantly screaming for control. It was really an exhausting battle. I was being thoroughly broken. I cried out to God from the depths of my heart, on my knees, more times than I can remember. In the quiet of the night, walking the floor, many many tears. In the morning getting up, and being strong again for the family.
It all came to a head when he was arrested for a very serious crime. The police had been watching him for many months and they had turned one of the guys who bought from him and sent him in to make a purchase and that is when they swooped in and arrested him. They wanted him to turn on the guy above him, but he refused to. And so he was under house arrest awaiting trial. He had to blow into a machine which also takes your picture. Unbeknownst to me, he had a bottle of Whiskey in the basement. A surprise call on the machine at 2am in the morning caught him of guard. He was to turn himself in immediately to be incarcerated. Rather than doing that, he cut the GPS unit of his ankle ( a felony in and of itself) and went on the run for well over a year. We had the US Marshals at out door. He ended up in Scotland and then finally he was caught by the Federales in Mexico. Extradited to Florida and then extradited to Kansas. He was finally home. I agreed to get him a “good,” lawyer, but only if he pleaded guilty to his charges. He reluctantly agreed.
He was remanded in jail and was eventually sentenced to three years in Lansing state prison in Kansas. For the first time in our whole lives, we really began to establish a relationship. I would visit him most Saturdays. In the middle of all of this we faced two horrible court battles in order just to see our grandson. Through every moment in this story there was miracle after miracle, not least the miracle of our sanity. My wife and I grew much closer together and a few times we would just look at pictures of Christoper and Mason and cry together. It was “our pain.” It is hard to explain God’s favor sometimes but every step of the way, He was one step ahead of us. When I was down and thought I could not get back up, He picked me up. When my mind was like a violent sea with mountainous waves, He came to me and whispered that He was jealous for my thoughts and suddenly the waters were still.
It has been around eight years now since Christopher has been released. He committed his life to Jesus and has been out of trouble. A few months ago he came to me and told me he was going to apply to have his three felonies expunged. I was delighted with that idea. Myself and a dear brother prayed about this, as did Christopher’s Godly grandma. Two of the three records were expunged but the most serious of the crimes, the drug dealing was not. When he was sentenced he was put on a drug dealing registry. Very few States have them but Kansas did. For 15 years he has to register with the local Sheriff every three months and pay a fee. If he traveled anywhere in the county, the local Sheriff of where he was going had to be notified. The Judges hands were tied, by law, he could not expunge it. We thanked and praised the Lord for the two that were expunged and committed the other one to His will. About three weeks ago Christopher got a letter from the prosecutors office. The law had just been changed. If you had stayed out of trouble for five years after your probation was over, then the judge now has the discretion to expunge. Yesterday Christopher was in front of the judge and this final part of his history was erased.
I thought about the world expungement. In practical terms it means that if you look up Christopher’s record now, he does not have one. It is like he never had this past. How many of us have been Spiritually expunged? No matter our past, the forgiveness and mercy and grace of the Lord wipes it all away, born again. Renewed. I want to take a minute today to publicly thank my Heavenly Father! And my Lord Jesus Christ who sticks closer to us than a brother. And the power of the Holy Spirit to move over and over again. No matter how many waves threaten to drown us, His hand kept our heads above water. We stand, because of His great love. An incredibly broken situation that seemed to be irreparable, has been put back together by the magnificent Hand of God. Maybe you think your own situation or your family situation is broken beyond repair? Its a lie. There is nothing that God cannot put back together. Take your pieces and bring them before the throne. It is there alone that an all powerful, loving God can take the ashes of your situation and make something beautiful out of it. There is a history of rebellion in my family, but there is a greater history of redemption.
Who indeed? We humans love to deify men. We love to lift them up and glorify them. Christians in particular love to do this. It is really an abomination to God and shall not be overlooked. Diotrephes is the logical conclusion of the lifting up of men which is why the apostle Paul tackles this issue head on. If we elevate men, men will love it. If we desire to follow men, and we so often do, the very same men will love it. They will, of course, for decorum’s sake, deny any of this. Even as men lift them aloft above their heads, they will feign giving Jesus the glory, but their actions and the actions they allow in others denies this. Paul smashes into this head on in his typical style and no holds barred words. “Neither he who plants is anything, not he who waters, but God who gives the increase,” is everything. We are nothing without God, even that which we have was given to us. What then can we glory in, other than Christ? How could we ever let stand for one minute anyone who would try and raise us up? God forbid.
He who plants and he who waters are one. One Body. One work here on earth. Nothing rises above the spiritual parapet save Jesus Christ. If you look up and see a man, God help that men. If you look up and try to raise up that man to anything other than what He is in Christ, part of the Body, one in nature, then God help you. All of it robs from God who gives the increase. All of it robs from Christ who is preeminent. Its all robbery, its all theft, its all religion. Diotrephes loved the preeminence and allowed himself to be raised up and encouraged others to raise him up. Men like this make themselves indispensable . This means they steer the sheep towards reliance upon them and not the great Shepherd. Do you know anyone like this? Unless we are forever pointing men towards the Word of God and the risen Christ then we are of the priesthood of Diotrephes. Carnal in nature, carnal in spirit and if it remains so, then lost forever. Jesus Christ first, Jesus last and Jesus forever. The old enemy has caught more men in this trap then any other. More seductive than women, more seductive than money, the greatest seducer of all, power and the desire for it and the lust of it, in all its many manifestations.
My uncle was a dispatch rider in the WW2. He was a private. It was a dangerous mission so the High Command were never going to waste men of higher rank in delivering messages. In the scale of things, in the order of importance, the rider was the least important. You could always replace the rider, but motorbikes were hard to come by. What was important was the message. The one giving it and the one receiving it. It is so in the Kingdom. The one delivering it is can be readily replaced. We brothers and sisters should remember that lest we think too much of ourselves. We are simply one. The message is all important. And whether we ride the bike or maintain the bike then that is all well and good, but the message Giver and the recipient of the message is of vital importance. The message is preeminent and Jesus is the message. Jesus is the author, and by His Blood He came to deliver this message Himself. What general or high ranking officials would ever lower themselves by delivering the message themselves? Yet, the greatest communication ever delivered to men had to be delivered by the greatest one that existed, the One who ever existed, God’s only Begotten Son. Remember this with all of your hearts brothers and sisters, some of us plant, some of us water, but God……but God….but God always has and always will, give the increase by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Isa 63:9 In all their affliction he was afflicted.
In all of your afflictions the Lord God stands with you in the midst of them. He is not some high and remote God that cares not for His children, quite the opposite. The Lord our God knows every single hair upon your head. We know that the Lord is aware of every sparrow that falls, wherever it falls around the world, He knows. He knows your sorrows brothers and sisters , He knows. He sees it all and He was a man of sorrows Himself, so well acquainted with them. He has suffered more than we ever shall. He was despised and afflicted and He was rejected by His own. He suffered indignities and He was crushed and broken. And now His presence stands with us in the depths of our heart. The Holy Spirit is a flaming sword that is not wielded in vain. He stands by our side.
If you are caught up in the depths of afflictions today, remember brothers and sisters, who walked this road before you. He is the perfect High Priest because He walked the darkest valley and scaled the highest peaks. He can keep you in the depths and He can hold you when it seems that you may fall. His hand holds back the waters that would engulf you and He stands with you in the fire that you may not be consumed. If you are broken, know that He was broken. If you are suffering greatly remember how He suffered more than any man. He humbles Himself to come to us where we are. He whispers and it is heard above the storm. He holds you and you are held in the great shakings of your life. He does all that and more because He is “afflicted in our afflictions.” He sees the afflictions of His people. It was love that brought forth the Lord from eternity for our sake’s, an it is love that stands with you now, and it is love that will lead you home.
Does the Lord dwell within a building or does He dwell within our hearts? A heart beats, it has chambers, it has blood that pumps through veins and travels to every part of the body bringing life sustaining oxygen. The Body, while complex and made up of many parts, is totally dependent upon the heart. To meet in the name of Jesus is to meet with saints who are identified by the character and the nature of Jesus. Every genuine saint has his or her place already set within the heart, within the body. The Lord Jesus Himself is building this body. Only that which belongs can enter into the system that the Lord is building. Our own natural bodies have an immune system that deals with anything that should not be there. To have a cohesive body, each part must belong there, must be placed there. There is an architect of this Body, this Temple, and His name is Jesus. Only He builds.
Many burning embers together create the potential for a great fire. Throw a log on one ember and it may catch fire after a while, throw a log onto many burning embers and it will catch fire right away. One fire, many embers greater light, greater heat. Now, gather a bunch of branches together with no fire and you will just have a bunch of branches. It could not call itself a fire for it clearly is without fire. Just because you call yourself a Christian and gather in the name of Jesus means nothing if you are not actually Christians. A bunch of dead wood is a bunch of dead wood. And for those who have built fires, they know that a fire can be smothered by piling a lot of material on top of it. The oxygen is choked out. If one hundred people gather and only ten are genuinely saved then the other 90 will not catch on fire, but the fire itself shall be smothered by the green wood.
This scripture where two or three are gathered in my name, is far more important than we know. To gather in the name of Jesus is a deeply spiritual thing for those who have been born again according to His Spirit, His character and His nature. The enemy has done his level best to dilute that to the point where any fire that existed would be smothered.Being a Christ follower means to bear the life of Christ in us. So, when two or three genuine Christ followers come together for the sole purpose of spirit being drawn unto spirit then there is a magnification that takes place. Like a magnifying glass that captures the light of the sun and turns it into something very potent, then the Holy Spirit takes the light that is within us, the two or the three or the however many and turns it into something very powerful. Darkness is the mere absence of light. It cannot be magnified. Take a thousand dark souls and gather them together and what do you have? Darkness. Take the light from two or three or one hundred or a thousand genuine saints , undiluted by the darkness of unbelievers and down comes the power of God in a unique way.
In these last days there is a purging going on. The genuine saints are being purged out of the gatherings by the Lord where the majority are not saved or are lukewarm. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. What fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion has light with darkness? Are you not the temple of the Living God? Therefore come out from among them says God. Be separate and touch not the unclean thing. In Revelations chapter two we see that the church in Ephesus hated the deeds of the Nicolations as did God. Not much is known about this group but it estimated that they were a group that took on the customs of the Romans in order to avoid persecution. The genuine saint resists the ways of the world, they do not embrace them. Yes it is costly and yes there is great loss involved. Yet what is any amount of loss amount to if we are found in Him?
We must gather together in ways that are ordered of God. We must walk according to the rhythm of Gods heart. We cannot walk to the beat of this world. Ember must find ember. There is fire in the heart of the saints. As the world closes in, we cannot yield simply because the congregation that we have always belonged to has yielded. This is everything being tested by God. In the end, where does your loyalties lie? Jesus is the Word is He not.? If you were invited to a get together somewhere but they said to you, do not bring your son, he is not welcome. Would you go? Would your heart not break for the rejection of your son? You certainly would not go where your child was not welcome. Should we go where Christ is not welcome? He is the Word. He is the way and the truth and the life. He must be the honored guest and the preeminent one at all of our gatherings. Whether two or two hundred. God is opening up a chasm. As the chasm widens, one must choose what side of the chasm we are committed to. Soon it becomes too wide. If you try and straddle both sides you will plummet into the chasm. Choose wisely who you gather with.
The name Diotrephes means “nourished by Jupiter.” Jupiter was the Roman God, the most important of all their gods and was worshiped across the Roman empire. He symbolizes everything Rome was. And the Diotrephes that we meet in 3rd John is a man who loved to have the preeminence. Many believe that the dagger that was struck at the heart of the Church was Constantine, but in reality it was this man as early as the 80s ad. I discovered over my 20 years participation in the system, that fellowship with mere professors was harmful to my own walk and was met, for the most part, by indifference from those who at best, were perpetual babes as opposed to sons and daughters. This perpetual state of infancy( and I’m being generous) is perpetuated by the very system itself. Clergy/laity divide is the main symptom of the Diotrophes syndrome. Diotrophes replaced Jesus by putting himself in His place. This is why he was such an enemy to John. He would be upstaged by John and for men who love the preeminence, there is nothing worse than being upstaged.
There can be no spiritual progress in a system where Jesus has been usurped. We are called to be sons and daughters, not perpetual babes being taught the same rudimentary things week in and week out by a system that is, for the most part, devoid of the Holy Spirit. Who can grow unless they are led and guided by the Holy Spirit? Could Diotrephes replace Jesus? What would become of the people who sat under him? Would they not slowly die on the vine if they stayed there? I believe this situation is what kept Paul up at night. This was the reason for his prayers, tears and warnings, night and day for three years. Jesus addresses it through John in 3rd John and then again the first chapters of Revelations. So serious was the charge from Jesus that it came with a dire warning, the removal of the Lampstand. Jesus does not make idle threats. There is nothing to suggest that repentance came. So, a religion began to form without a Lampstand, and culminated in throwing in its lot in with Rome and Constantine.
Thankfully God always has a remnant and throughout all of those times they stood fast. Millions were killed as they were hunted down by the hordes of Diotrephes. Men, so loving and desirous of power and influence and authority and most of all the preeminence, that they were willing to hunt down every challenger to their position and kill them. And yet, of course, this only made the genuine Church all the more stronger as they stood against hell itself. In the end, the devil settled for clergy/laity divide. He knows this guts any gathering of its power because by its very system, Jesus is usurped. And when Jesus is usurped, nothing grows. And so we have fig tress that have no figs. From a distance it promises much but on closer inspection it has no fruit. How can it have fruit when it is overtaken by the Diotrephes syndrome?
“We can attach our name to a city, a tower, a temple, a religious movement, a ministry— to beautiful things we do in the name of the Lord and set upon a pedestal for all to admire. But we can attach no name to ashes on the altar.” (Kalli Womack Cook) When Jesus is preeminent there are no names. There is no posterity, there is no position. There is only Him and Him lifted up. This is the source of all spiritual power, it starts and ends with Jesus being elevated. When man elevates himself then God vanishes. “It’s not just the pastors on the stages of modern churches. It’s everyone involved: the worship leaders, the band members… all that goes into a “worship service” – everyone who has a title/position in these church systems. I would say even the congregation because they approve, affirm and encourage it. Actors on a stage. It’s all a show. They love the “preeminence “. I’ve been a part of that scene in the past. The feeling of preeminence is a real thing, a feeling of superiority. Our traditions are more comforting than a real relationship with the Living God. We continue to build our own kingdoms in this world. (Jennifer Dietrich Warren)
Actors on a stage. The Greek word for actor is “hypokrites,” where we get the English word hypocrite. Someone who pretends to have something they do not actually possess. The actual Greek word is a compound noun, its made up of two Greek words that literally translate “an interpreter from underneath.” Underneath what? Underneath the mask, as ancient Greek actors wore masks. In the case of clergy, what they are pretending to have, which they do not, is the preeminence. Unless Jesus has the preeminence, everything is just acting on a stage with a mask on. Diotrephes was deadly afraid of being exposed by John, so he banned him from coming to their gathering and expelled anyone who agreed with John. He knew he would be “upstaged,’ and this of course, lies at the very heart of the Diotrephes syndrome. Its about power and ego and prestige and authority and under no circumstances will the Diotrphes man ever allow himself to be usurped. He has already usurped Jesus in his desire to be preeminent. In effect he has sold his soul in a desire to be recognized and to be worshiped.
Brothers and sisters, this system is heading towards its zenith. The coming climax is the great whore church. This is where those who have sold their souls for preeminence will get everything their hearts have ever desired. They will take this new found authority as a sign from God of His pleasure and of course, will be merciless towards all who stand in their way. They will be given the authority to hunt down all those “who oppose God,” meaning those who oppose them. Authority. It is always what the devil has desired. He demanded that Jesus fall down and worship him. He would give Him all the kingdoms of the world if He would only bow down to him. The clergy system will be given all the power they ever desired by bowing down to the evil one. And every true and genuine saint will represent the Apostle John, rejected by the ones who seek the preeminence. And the Diotrephes syndrome will have its glorious moment, and then, of course, Christ the Lord, the preeminent one shall return in all His glory.
Isa 1:9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
In verse five we see Isaiah’s description. The whole head is sick. The whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot to the head, there is no soundness. Wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, they are open wounds for all to see. This is our world today, there is no soundness in it. There is no nation that has distinguished itself, they are all alike. The only thing that has averted all out disaster and ruin raining down on us like fire from heaven is the very small remnant of God’s people around the world. They are a gift to the world. The only light that presently exists is the light of remnant saints.
Christendom is a forsaken people, such has been their fall. Their house has been left to them desolate. Shall they be forgiven? Shall they humble themselves in the sight of the Lord? Is their coffers not full of silver and gold? Do they not worship the works of their own hands, in fact is not the work of their own hand all that they have? Isaiah says to such a people “Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty.” (Isa 2:4) Proud men shall cry out in terror and flee from the Glory of His majesty. The “very small remnant,” shall not flee from the Glory of His majesty, but rather they shall run into it and they shall be safe. His glory is their high tower. His majesty is their very life blood. His presence is their very existence.
He has stretched out the heavens like a curtain. His ministers are a flaming fire. The clouds are His chariots and He walks upon the wings of the wind. He looks upon the earth and it trembles, He hides His face and the whole world is troubled. His glory shall endure forever. His hand, for a moment, is stretched out to a undeserving people. Shall the haughty humble themselves? Shall they give up the works of their own hands? Shall they abandon the many centuries of tradition that has caused them to wander so far from the source of all life? They only life that exists is in Him. When He arises to shake the earthy mightily, and He will do so very soon, will He be a terror to you and will you flee from the glory of His majesty? Fall down now and live, or, enter into the rock and see if you can hide from the terror of the Lord to come.
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.
Act 20:29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
For almost four years, Paul warned, night and day, with tears, of the wolves that will come from outside of the Body of Christ, and those false prophets who would rise up within its ranks. From without and from within. The powers of hell and all of its fury would rise up in opposition to the children of God. If any saint thinks that this was just for that time, they would obviously be mistaken. In the last one hundred years, I would argue , the activity of the wolves and the false prophets have never been more active. Tearing away at the fabric of the truth, despising those who hold to it and warring against the Word of God. An all out assault on every front that has indeed led to the great falling away. Charismatic craziness. Word of faith, prosperity gospel, cheap grace. Adoption of the standards of the world. Dead denominationalism. And so the barrage rains down. In war, prior to an attack, there will be a bombardment from artillery. This is a sure sign to the soldiers that a full frontal attack is imminent. The bombardment was to soften them up.
The country of Israel have what is known as the iron dome. It is like a shield, a force field, that intercepts incoming missiles and stops them from reaching their target. We too, brothers and sisters, have such a defense. It is the truth. The Word of God. And when it is in place in our lives we are safe from the attacks of the enemy. Though lies and perversions rain down upon humanity and they are slowly destroyed by it, we who stand under the banner of faith and upon the solid ground of the truth, shall not be moved nor destroyed. When God struck the Egyptians with a darkness, a gross darkness that was so “thick,” that it could be felt, the Israelites had light in their dwellings. We too have light in our dwellings. The light of Christ that dwells in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. God has commanded light to shine forth from darkness. You are that light brothers and sisters. Through these earthen vessels light shall shine forth and rivers of living waters shall flow.
What are we intended to be? We are intended to be in our experience, in our spiritual life, in our presence here, a living proof that Jesus is the Son of God, not just declare this as a tenet of our faith and creed, but to be here as children of God growing up into Sonship (T.A.Sparks)
Is there a difference between those who declare the tenets of our faith and who agree upon the creeds, and those who are sons and daughters of God ? A living reality as opposed to a set of truths. The Galatians are a great example. Paul says to them “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another…………..but even if we or an angel from heaven preach any gospel to you than which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” This is intense. Paul is leaving no room for doubt. Anything other than Spirit led experiential transformation, is a gospel of works and is perverse and no gospel at all and those who teach it are accursed by God Himself.
The works of the law were being presented to the Galatians by those from Jerusalem. They had begun in the Spirit but now they were resting on the flesh, the works of the law. Paul calls them fools who have been bewitched. In most of modern day Christendom it is not the works of the Jewish law that bewitches men, although there are whole sects of folks who will tell you that you must keep the law and the feasts and so on. No, it is our own mental assent to orthodoxy that has replaced the living reality of sons and daughters of Christ. No experience necessary. A mental assent to a series of abstract truths is all that matters. This represents to the genuine believer today, what the Judaizers were to Paul and the saints. It is in conflict with the saints. It is amazing that the same truth can be what divides us. One is a living example of it, the other is a mere professor of it. And the one who professes it almost always resents and comes against the one who has been changed by it from the inside out.
How many times has it been said to you, in a resentful fashion, when you give your testimony of being born again “well, I never had any such experience, I just grew up in the church.” Or, if you relate any kind of supernatural experience and transformation there are any number of people who will resent you. Sparks says this ” our testimony must not be …I was brought up in a Christian home, and sent to Sunday school and taken to church and instructed in these things and given a sound Bible teaching. There has to be something more than that.” Of course, the something more is Christ Himself burning at the center of who are by the power of the Holy Spirit. We do not share abstract truth, we share a living experiential Jesus. Anyone can agree that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. The devil himself knows that to be true. What the world needs to hear is a first hand account of the living Christ living in us, speaking to us, leading us and guiding us and changing us.
Brothers and sisters, we are a living proof of the risen Christ. We share with people who we know, not what we know. Now, can a man or a woman come to Christ by the Spirit of God and then fall away into mere orthodoxy, relying on the arm of the flesh to come to maturity? Yes indeed. Of course they never shall come to maturity. Teachers of every stripe will woo you away, they will want you to be zealous for them. Your church shall replace Jesus. Your pastor shall replace Jesus. Your favorite teacher will replace Jesus. Only by continuing on in the Spirit can you grow from mere babes in Christ into maturity and sons and daughters. Why is so much of Christendom stuck on the rudimentary elements, sharing milk week after week? It is because they have replaced the living reality of the Spirit of God with the mere orthodoxy of men. The orthodoxy and the truth of it is not the matter here, for genuine Spirit filled and Spirit led saints will be among the most orthodox people you will ever meet. The matter is being Spirit led.
The path of least resistance is to tick the boxes of orthodoxy without being a living reality of what that very orthodoxy teaches. It is one thing to believe that we have been called to be salt and light, it is quite another thing to actually be salt and light. You see the difference? Now apply that to every other aspect of what we believe. In order to live out what we believe we have to be led forward by a very real Holy Spirit. In almost every church up and down the land the folks are led, not by the Holy Spirit, but rather by men, who, for the most part will be teaching orthodox teaching of the basic kind. The systems of men has become another Gospel. It is like the sacraments in the Catholic church. Vacuous rituals devoid of any power. The words and the teachings and the sermons of much of Christendom, devoid of the actual power of the Holy Spirit, have become nothing more than sacramental activity, promising something without the power to deliver.
Sons and daughters of the Lord will always be in conflict with the merely religious. A mental assent is no match for a living reality. One has power and the other has a mere appearance. One is playing a character, the other is the real person. We used to say, back in the day, that there were no grandchildren in the Kingdom of God, only sons and daughters. Christendom has been swallowed up by the grandchildren. By osmosis and an accident of birth, there are millions of false professors all over the world and yet we know the words of Jesus from Matt 22 “many are called but few are chosen.” The many that are called prove themselves to be unworthy of the calling by the fact that they consider the calling a mere religious adornment. They busy themselves with the things of the world and disqualify themselves. Therefore, God finds for himself the few. He clothes them in righteousness and this clothing is worn to the marriage feast.
In the days to come, the divisions will become much deeper, much more apparent. The lifeless orthodox church will become more and more powerful as they ally themselves to the world and its system. It will reach its zenith in the one world system to come. The great whore church and the one world order will unite in an unholy alliance against the saints who shall refuse to acknowledge their authority and the authority if the evil one to come. The delusion shall be so great that only those sons and daughters, led by the Holy Spirit, will be able to see what the rest of the world cannot see or refuses to see. The marriage feast is coming brothers and sisters and only those clothed in the righteousness of God that is attained by the power of the Holy Spirit shall enter, the few. The many, in an attempt to save their lives here in this world, will lose their eternal lives in the world to come. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Act 18:6 And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.
God will not always strive with men. I think we forget that in the days in which we live. Paul testified to the Jewish people in Corinth and they “opposed him and blasphemed.’ At this point he confronted them and told them clearly “your blood be upon your own heads, I am clean.” Let us observe two things from Acts 18. First Paul was “compelled,’ by the Spirit to share the Gospel with the Jewish population in Corinth. And after he was obedient to that calling, and the message was not only rejected but was rejected with blasphemy, the sharing was over. We are not called to promote blasphemy in men. Men have free will and have a perfect right to reject God. Then, Jesus Himself appears to Paul and tells him not to be silent. He was to preach the Gospel to those who would have ears to hear, the gentiles, and not to worry what the Jewish people would do to him. And what was the antidote to the obvious fear Paul must have had? “For I am with you.’ The presence of God gives us the courage to share the gospel where we are led to share.
The key thing, brothers and sisters is this. In the sharing of the Gospel we must walk in the presence of God and be led by His Spirit. We must know when to speak and who to speak to. We are certainly not called to continue to cast our pearls before swine and have God blasphemed. This may be the greatest challenge to the saints of our generation. We live in a day an age of unabashed wickedness. I would argue that we are living in a Romans chapter one age. What do I mean by that? There is a time when God can give a man up to his own “vile affections.” These two words in the Greek mean “infamous disgraceful passions.” I would further argue that we are living in such a time when a whole generation around the world have been given over to a reprobate mind. This word reprobate in verse 28 of Romans means ” worthless, castaway, rejected.’ As with Paul, we must be led by the Spirit of God in everything we do and say, and not say, if this indeed is the direction of the Holy Spirit.
The marvelous thing about being led by the Spirit is the direction, oftentimes precise direction. God may well have you share with someone who appears to be the vilest of all, yet God alone knows the hearts of men which is why we must be able to say “He is with me.” We must be able to hear His still small voice. We must believe that the steps of a righteous man are ordered of God. Speak to one man, “shake you garments,” over another man, God knows. Mat 10:14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. That dust shall be as a witness to those who despise the Gospel and blaspheme it. The time is short brothers and sisters, with His presence and His direction, use the time that we have left wisely. The good news is for those who know they are sick, “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Mark 2:17) Those who are righteous in their own eyes and have no need for a Saviour, shall not find the Lord.
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.
Psa 149:4 For the LORD takes pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.
I was around the age of twenty the first time I ever flew on a plane.. As a boy growing up in Scotland, overcast skies were normal. In Scotland you can often go a month without seeing a blue sky. Imagine my surprise when we broke through the clouds and I discovered that there was an eternal and perpetual blue sky. Growing up with almost endless cloud cover had conditioned me. I reveled in this blue sky. I would never look at the clouds the same way again, for I now knew what lay just beyond them. Imagine the tragedy for saints who labor under a perpetual cloud cover. To never know the intimacy of God. To never, in a sense, see His smiling face.
The barrier between God and us is more often than nought self made. We often forget the pleasure that God has in us. We forget that the whole purpose of our existence is for His will and for His good pleasure. Tozer suggests a few titles for the man made barriers that keep us from seeing the smiling face of God. He calls it a wall of obscurity. 1. Self will. 2. Ambition. 3. Fear. 4. Self love.. 5. Money. 6. Fear of people and what they think. There are more to be sure and each one mentioned would take a long time to expound, but you get the idea. Just one of them, or some combination of them, form a barrier between us and the smiling face of God. Almost all of our activity in our walk revolve around them and they are a major distraction to who we are and the God that loves us.
I want you to ponder on this for a moment and do not confuse this with cheap grace. God loves His children, God loves you. His face towards you is smiling. He loves you. He saved you. He took the ashes of your life and He is making something beautiful out of it. His thoughts towards you are more numerous than the sands of the sea shore. He knows you by name and your name has been on His lips. The walls that you have erected that obscure the light of His glory shining down on you must come down. The wind of the Spirit must blow again in your life and that wind shall blow away the clouds. If you reach out your hand to Him He will take it. If you seek Him with all of your heart then you will stand under a beautiful blue sky with your hands raised toward heaven as you bask in the warmth of His love. Today saints, today is the day and now is the time.
A Call To The Remnant 