1Sa 2:12 Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD.
Another way of saying this was that the sons of Eli were corrupt, wicked and worthless. They represented God but by their actions they misrepresented God. According to the Scriptures (Lev 7:34) they were entitled to the “wave breast and the heave shoulder.” Yet, they sent their servants along to the sacrifice with flesh hooks that would be plunged in and whatever it hooked would be taken. This was entirely un-biblical, yet they had made a ritual out of it and enforced this ritual with violence if need be. In other words “they had their hooks into the people.” Can I suggest that people have not changed very much. How many so called ministers or priests have their hooks into people, taking what does not belong to them. Enriching themselves by the fat of the land, the very fat that belonged to God. It has to be noted that the Scriptures tell us that these priests, the sons of Eli “did not know the Lord.”
Just because one calls himself a priest, a minister, a pastor, this has no bearing on whether they actually know God or not. How do we identify those who pass themselves off as pastors but do not know the Lord? Let us look at the sins of Eli’s sons . We are told the sins were covetousness, sensuality, arrogance, authoritarian and gluttonous. They desired to have what was not theirs. They slept with women who had come to seek God. They made rituals out of their sins. They enforced their sin with violence if need be and they were very fat because of their lazy ravenous appetites. This might well describe religion down through the last 2000 years and many denominations. What are the opposing attributes of the men of God? Contentment, faithfulness to their spouses and to their God, humlity, meekness and moderate in all their ways. They give to God what is His and they serve God first. Their God is not their belly nor their lusts but rather their God is the one who enables them to put to death the lusts of the flesh.
There is no doubt we live in an age of a fallen priesthood with all the same excesses on display as we see in the family of Eli. Yet God did not permit that state to go on forever. The corrupted house of so called priests would fall and would fall at the hand of God. There are Hannah’s among us. There are faithful men like her husband and their household among us. God always has a Samuel. He always has a people who have not bowed the knee to the Baals or Belial or to the gods of this world. He is faithful to raise them up and also faithful to tear down men and women who bring dishonor and disgrace to His name. There are those who use God to enrich themselves and fatten themselves by the sacrifices of others and there are those who faithfully serve Him and Him alone and desire to see Him glorified. Those who rejoice in His salvation. Let us rejoice in His salvation today and rejoice in the fact that He has raised up a Royal priesthood, priests who know Him and are known by Him.
Over many many years Absalom stole the hearts of the people of Israel. You see, Absalom wanted what his father had. He wanted the exalted place among the people. He would rise up early and stand beside the gate and those who came looking for the king, he intercepted them and spoke to them. They were not his people, they were his fathers people but Absalom, falling foul to that most ancient of sins that caused Lucifer to fall down from the heavens, desired to have what was not his to have. And so he wooed the hearts of the people away from their King.
Is that not the very essence of religion? There is one mediator between man and God and His name is Jesus. How many men and religious institutions have sought to replace Jesus over all the centuries? One pretender after another, rising early in the morning, slowly and deceptively seeking to displace God and stealing the hearts of the people away from their rightful King. And all the worse is the fact that so many of these men and institutions knew something of the mercy of God, had been blessed in many ways by His goodness and His forgiveness. They had been touched by His love and by His word which only serves to make their deception and their desire to have what He alone has all the more treacherous.
And so finally David hears of this rebellion against him. Oh what a dagger must have penetrated his heart, to know that his very own had turned on him. One that he loved and had forgiven and had showed mercy too, and he repaid all of that with hatred and animosity and a heart bent on taking what was not his. It is hard to imagine the anguish of David, now no longer a young man, having suffered so much in his life and so much of it undeserved, now as an older man, having to flee from everything that had been his. The city of David, the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant would all be left behind and he and a remnant few would flee the jealous forces that were arraigned against him. They would flee into the wilderness.
Today there is a remnant few who have fled into the wilderness. They have left the city behind with all of its religious trappings. No walls, no tabernacle, no ark of the covenant. Stripped of all the religious trappings, they have something that David had. He had the presence of God with Him. Not that which represents the presence, but the actual presence of God. While religious men hung onto the trappings and rituals and icons, for that is all they have, David goes into the wilderness, the remnant go into the wilderness with God Himself. And as he ascended Gods holy hill he wept, he and the people with him wept. With tears the seed is sown brothers and sisters, tears of sorrow for what has become of something that should have been so beautiful and brought glory to God, but has been so thoroughly corrupted by men who desire to steal the glory of God and steal the hearts of the people.
Do not despair in the wilderness brothers and sisters. In God we have peace no matter what men think about us. In God we can rejoice despite the fact that the forces of Absalom are arrayed against the remnant few. Listen to some of the things that David says in this time and be comforted…… Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice…… because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee……….I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches……….From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I……………………. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.
There is an inevitable end to the forces of Absalom, those who would attempt steal the glory of God and from His King. David speaks to this very thing and to those very forces in psalm 63……But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes. But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped. Glory to God saints! Is the end we shall come out of the wilderness by the power of God. The soul that weeps, the soul that thirsts after God in the wilderness shall find joy and inexhaustible waters of life even in the driest deserts and when He comes again into His rightful place then all of God saints will rise up and cry Holy.
1Ti 1:5 Now the purpose of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of sincere faith.
Love is the fulfilling of the law (Rom 13:8-10) The whole purpose and fulfillment of the law was found in Christ! So why then was there so much trouble at Ephesus? Why would young Timothy be under pressure and from whom? The same old suspects, the Judaizers and those who desired to be teachers. Teaching their own ideas of what the Law was and what it meant and what its purpose was. A myriad of teachings that were from their own vain imaginations, causing disputes rather than causing unity in Christ. Desiring to be a class of teachers, priests, rabbis. A clergy class. Desiring to be supported because of their “knowledge.” And yet this desire to be teachers of the law, when they had no real understanding of the fulfillment of the law (if they did they would desire to be servants, as Paul was, working with his own hands)
We know from Scripture that those who knew Jesus, the fulfillment of the law, walked in love from a pure heart, from a good conscience and from a sincere faith. And those who did not know Jesus in this way, turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers and lacking understanding. In America today, there are roughly 30,000 salaried “pastors.” That is 15,000 “pastors for every state. My brothers, let there not be many teachers, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation (Jas 3:1) The clergy/laity divide has only served to increase the desire to be teachers. There is not the same desire to be servants of all. Jesus washed the feet of servants, do clergy, for the main part wash feet? Ever notice in the sacramental systems of denominations, there is no feet washing? You will not find it in non-denominations either.
Timothy is exhorted by Paul to fight the good fight. Paul knew, from sore experience, just how difficult it was to deal with those who considered themselves teachers. This is why he prayed so fervently for Timothy. He likened it to waging warfare. The same warfare has been waged by the remnant saints down through the ages. The Hymenaeus’s and Alexanders have always been entrenched in religious activities much like Diotrephes. Men who love the preeminence. Men who know nothing of the fulfillment of the Law but rather became laws unto themselves, passing themselves of as teachers of the law and becoming the deadliest enemies of the twice born man. Brothers and sisters let us walk in love with a pure heart from a good conscience and from a sincere faith. Trusting in God and His Word and having discernment to identify those who simply desire to be teachers, who desire to be kept, who will not work with their own hands. We shall know men by their fruit. Do men serve or do men desire to be served?
(Php 2:20-21) For I have no man likeminded, who will sincerely care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.
This is such a powerful and bold statement! Imagine this brothers and sisters, as early as Paul’s day there was no one like-minded, who would sincerely care for the flock, apart from a few, like Timothy and Epaphroditus, whom we are told almost died for the cause of Christ. Most, and we are talking about Christian ministers here, looked out for themselves and cared rather for the things of this world and not the things of Christ. Was Paul too harsh? How would that kind of statement be met today? Can you not hear the howls of protest even now if one were to level the same criticism against that majority of today’s ministers. In the end it was all about mindset. We are told at the beginning of chapter two that we were to have the mind of Christ. To be sacrificial. Paul said that he was being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of their faith and was glad in it and rejoiced.
As ministers of the gospel we are called to have a certain state of mind. The seat of all our affections must be found in Christ. We are called to have a shepherd’s heart, willing to lay down our lives for the sheep. This was Paul, this was Timothy, this was Epaphroditus. How about you? How about me? Paul warned us, in very strong language to beware of those who only live to serve themselves. They call themselves ministers yet Paul called them dogs. He called them evil workers, those who continued to preach the law and elevate themselves. Their God is their belly and the glory they believe themselves to have is in fact their shame. Paul did not measure himself by his earthly status, nor his place in the traditions of men. In fact it was quite the opposite. His standing was measured by what he had lost to this world. His only desire was to gain Christ and be found in Him. Let this be our mindset brothers and sisters. Let us desire to gain Christ and be found in Him. And if we are to be poured out as a drink offering, then let us rejoice in the Lord, and again I say rejoice.
Gal 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
We are living in a day where the Gospel is under more threat than it ever has been in the last 2000 years. Quite an incredible statement when you consider the history of martyrs and persecution that took place century after century. We seem to believe that we must not condemn anyone who preaches “the gospel,’ and that the motivation must not be questioned, rather as long as the message is preached then we simply leave the motivation of the preacher to God. I agree with this. Let the Word go forth and let the Lord be the judge. Yet in the scripture we see something entirely different in regard to “another gospel.” If “another,” gospel is preached other than that which was delivered, then the one who engages in this is cursed. And unless we did not get it, Paul repeats himself ” I say again, if anyone preaches any gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.” We should let that sink in for a moment. Paul pronounces a curse over those who preach a false gospel.
In the immediate context Paul is talking about legalizers or Judiazers. People who professed faith in Jesus but still were under the law and desired to see others under the law. Yet this curse is more than appropriate to ascribe to the “cheap grace” or the “prosperity gospel,” and the myriad of other so called gospels that exists today. We hear so many say “well as long as Jesus is being preached.” Jesus was being preached by those whom Paul was speaking of. In the end brothers and sisters, the Gospel is something that we receive through the Holy Spirit. And those who receive it recognize it in others. Paul did not receive it from anyone. In fact, after his salvation he was gone for three years into Arabia. And when he finally came to Jerusalem he only stayed for fifteen days where he conferred with Peter and James only, and then he was gone again for fourteen years. No one knew him personally in Judea, they had only heard of him. This “training,” that Paul received from God himself would mean that Paul would show no personal favoritism to any man, no matter what that man was perceived to be by others.
For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.(Rom 1:16) The Gospel is simply the good news about Christ and His Kingdom. It is personified in the fact that He has set you free from the bondage of sin and death. He came to set the captive free.He came to restore the broken. He has redeemed our fallen souls. He has made a way for us to the Father and it comes only through Him. He loved you while you were yet in your sin. He who the Son sets free is free indeed, he is completely liberated from the curse of the law. And that last point is why he was so hated by many of the legalizers and why he would confront Peter to his face. Brothers and sisters, if we want to be friends with the world then never confront anyone about anything. Stay hiding in your silence. Peep out from behind your twitching curtains and watch as false gospels are taught everywhere and do and say nothing. Doing that will make you the exact opposite of Paul. There is nothing loving about fearful silence wrapped up in virtuous overtones. Its the truth that sets men free, not your love. Your love only makes a difference when it is aligned with truth. Jesus alone and His gospel is the way the truth and the life.
1Co 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love , I am become as sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.
In the previous sentence Paul tells us that we have to earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet, even above and beyond the best gifts, which we have indeed to earnestly desire, we must pursue love. It is not one or the other, God forbid. That’s a lie. Not only must the man or woman display the manifestation of the Spirit, above and beyond even that, He must walk in the greatest gift of all, love. Not human love, supernatural love. The kind of love that can only belong to the born again man or woman. The kind of love that shatters the gates of hell. The kind of love that inspired God to create us in the first place. The love that sent His only Son to die for the whole world. The kind of love that pursues us even when we are yet in our sin. The love that confounds hell itself. Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do. What kind of love motivated Jesus to cry this out in the midst of the greatest agony ever suffered? What kind of love would motivate Stephen to cry out the same thing even as those cruel merciless stones rained down upon his mortal body? Supernatural love. If one is truly endued with power from on high, that power will be first and foremost manifested in love in his or her life, the greatest manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
Paul begins with what love does not do or what it isn’t. It does not envy. It is not boastful. It is not full of pride. It does not behave in a deliberately offensive manner. It is not selfish. It is not easily provoked. It does not think the worse of people. It does not rejoice when others fall. Love, instead, revels in the truth, it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. Love, indeed, never fails. It never fails. For this love is the manifestation of God Himself, in His own and through His own. It can never fail because God never fails. It is eternal for God is eternal. When the end comes, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back and the Kingdom of God rules and reigns for all eternity then of course we wont have to hope any more, for all hope is fulfilled. We will no longer have to trust in the God that we cannot see, for now we shall see Him face to face.
Knowledge will vanish because we shall know as we are known. When all things are fulfilled in this manner, then love still stands forever. We are yet in this world, but the world to come is coming soon. Now we are like children, then we shall be complete in Him. Now we see in a mirror dimly, then face to face. Imagine it saints!!! There is now and there is then, we still exist in the now. And now we have the manifestation of the Spirit, then, all things are complete, perfect. And when that perfect has come, then all these other things, besides love, shall fall away. Do not let anyone fool you, do not be ignorant about these things brothers and sisters. For certain men have a form of Godliness, nevertheless they deny the power of God and say that it has ceased. From such men turn away.
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.
Isa 30:10……………………..Do not prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things and prophesy delusions.
In verse eight of Isaiah 30 it was written than the next words are so important that it should be “written on a tablet.” Write it down on a scroll for all to see for all times to come. Not only is the generation here spoken of wicked, and trust in oppression and perversity, but so also shall all proceeding generations fall into their perverse ways. The pattern would, and has, repeated itself over and over again and will do so until the Lord Himself comes back again the second time. In Jesus’ day, He spoke to a wicked and perverse generation. We live today in such a generation. Not any old generation mind you, but the generation that proceeds the coming of the Lord so therefore our generation is akin to the times of Noah.
This generation perhaps more than any other demand “smooth words,” to be spoken to them from the pulpit or anywhere else. They do not desire to hear what is right, they would rather have their ears tickled. God spoke to this situation. ” Because you despise this word (the word of God) and trust in oppression (where the true prophets are muzzled) and perversity, and rely upon them, therefore this iniquity shall be for you.” What iniquity is God speaking of here? He says that this generation is like a bulge in a high wall and the fall will come in an instant. He likens them to lying children who will not be led by the Word of God. They prefer the traditions of their fathers that demand nothing more than an outward show, but have no inner reality. Anyone who dares to point out the glaring discrepancies in the lives of these people are hated and despised and ridiculed and banished. In older days they would be burned at the stake.
The solution the Lord tells us in verse 15 is “In returning and rest you shall be saved and in quietness and confidence you would find your strength.” Come to me says the Lord Jesus all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. There is rest and strength to be found in coming to Jesus. Yet, we see that they would not come to God and be saved. They would have no rest. They would have no strength. They would run from God, they would ride on swift horses to get as far away from God as they could, but you cannot run from God. Their hearts fainted and even at the threat of one, a thousand shall flee we read in Isaiah 30. Contrast that to the saints spoken of in Psalm 91 ” A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but none of it shall come near you.” What a privileged people we are who dwell in the secret place of the Most High God, who abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He is indeed our refuge and our fortress, our God in whom we shall trust.
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.
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.
2Pe 2:17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
We live in a day and age of false prophets and false teachers. They speak great swelling words from high and lofty pulpits. The Word of God represents the waters of life, yet these men are described as wells without water. Can you imagine something as useless as wells without water? They promise much but can deliver nothing. They are clouds carried on the wind. They are driven by their own passions and not the wind of the Spirit. Not only are they in error, but they spread error for their own dishonest gain. They are followed by people of like minded passions. Imagine a man who stands up and rebukes a virus and then has no shame when the virus continued on unabated? Great swelling words, devoid of all truth and life. Imagine a man who would tell “his people,” that a certain President would win and then has no shame when it does not come to pass?
The man or woman of God are wells with water. They are humble because they have been humbled. They reach the broken because they themselves were broken. They are tenderhearted because they have been the recipient of a great Love that they did not deserve. They are carried by the wind of the Holy Spirit. He drives them, He leads them, He guides them into all truth. He fills these broken vessels with living water and if flows through them. He fills them with the glory of God and it shines through every broken part of their humbled hearts. They comfort one another with the very comfort that they themselves were comforted with. Their words are not empty but rather they are full of life, the life of God. For the false teacher there is prepared the eternal blackness of darkness forever. For the child of God there is the eternal light and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. Keep sharing the truth brothers and sister.
The ultimate judgement of God and the ruin of man is when God gives a person or nations up to their own uncleanness that flows from the lusts of their own hearts. They are consumed by their vile affections, so we are told in Romans chapter one. The morning has come for the nations and the day shall have its end. The rising sun of the morning casts a light upon their corruption. It is clearly seen. No longer is it hidden in the shadows. It does not skulk in the dark recesses of the alleyways. Rather, it marches boldly down Main St. It celebrates its sin openly and brazenly and not content with that, compels others to bow before it and acknowledge it as their own.
A disaster, a singular disaster is at the door (Ezek 7:5) and it will effect all of the nations. It is the beginning of the end when this disaster strikes. God will not spare, the nations shall know that He is the God who strikes. Pride budded on the rod and now it has come into full bloom. There is no longer any pretense. God is wholly and fully rejected by the nations. Once they had for a pretense an honor of God but now the halls of their power, their institutions and all their ways have become corrupted. It is one thing to conspire in the shadows, it is quite another to break into open rebellion and raise an angry mocking fist at God. And therefore God will strike, He will rob the rebels of hope and they will be overtaken with fear. Their legs will not work under them for fear and they will not be able to run or stand and fight.
Men have always sought solace in the usual hiding places. They hide within the confines of their own bravery. In their pride they hide. In rebellion and hope for tomorrow they find their last stand,but they cannot stand from the God that can and will strip them of all of these things. They have put much stock in their wealth and their prosperity. They have built castle after castle with them. Yet one by one these castles will fall as the sanctuary of their wealth is taken from them. Up to this point it has been the solid ground upon which they stood, now the very ground beneath them shall give way. In that day it will be better to have “fields of corn rather than mines of gold.” Their gold will be useless to them.
Men seek no messenger to rebuke them of their sin rather they seek council from lying prophets who will tell them what they want to hear, for a price. And these prophets promise them peace but peace shall not come. Men have despised God with rebellion and mixture, mixture being a thing that God despises. Therefore in the coming days of their calamity there shall be no help from God for He is the author of that very calamity and those who speak against it speak against God. The kings of the world shall mourn and its princes shall be dismayed but they will not repent. Rather they shall turn on God’s remnant saints. This singular disaster shall usher in the days of the great tribulation. There shall be no pre-tribulation rapture. They shall make war on the saints and the saints shall be overcome as they fall into their hands (Rev 13:7)
Yet take comfort in this brothers and sisters, the Lord Himself shall be with us in the midst of the fire. Our tormentors shall look and see and know that Christ is in us and with us. The whole world shall look and see that Christ is in us. As we are martyred then we shall be a witness to the whole world. Those who endure to the end shall be saved. The world will witness Christ in us and their guilt shall be sealed. The Kingdom shall be demonstrated to all the world as a witness and then the end shall come (Matt 24:14)
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.
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.”
Isa 22:13 Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!
In the beginning of this chapter we see these first words “The burden against the Valley of vision.” What is this valley of vision? It is Jerusalem, surrounded by mountains and filled with prophets. A once bustling prosperous city, now quieted by the march of the Assyrians. The streets are no longer bustling with commerce, everyone has taken to their rooftops to contemplate their fate as the Assyrians devastate the surrounding regions and other nations. The valley of vision would soon become the valley of decision. What would they decide? Would they weep and mourn for the coming judgement or would they throw all caution to the wind and “eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” This is the cry of mockers down through the ages and when a nation or nations take up that mantle then the end is surely in sight.
Paul says in 1 Cor 15:32 “If the dead do not rise let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” If there is no resurrection, if there be no eternal life, if Christ was but a man who died, then this life and this life alone is all that matters. And if that were true then why would the inhabitants of the earth not make every attempt to live their best lives now? Can I argue dear saint that this is exactly the state of the world? And what a great tragedy that in a nation of vision, meaning a nation that knows the truth, that has been taught the truth, that has indeed been blessed by the truth, that this very nation would be the foremost nation in eating and drinking and being merry for they see no eternal tomorrow.
Isa 22:2 “Your slain men are not slain by the sword.” Imagine the horror of being dead but not being dead. It is said that the brave man dies one but the coward dies a thousand times. Our nation is a nation of slain men. Fear stalks the streets. A virus has shut down our commerce andour industry but its not really the virus at all that has shut the wheels of commerce down, it is the fear that stalks men’s hearts, they die every day. Cowards led by cowards. Men without faith, men given over to the world, men who should know better. The Assyrians drew ever closer to Jerusalem and commerce began to dry up and food became scarce in the cities. Can you see it saints? Can you see the hearts of men today?
Now after all of this men should contemplate their fate. They should call out to God. They should fall on their faces in mourning and weeping and repentance. The should decide. They have the Word, they have the Truth among them, now, shall they weep? God calls for weeping and for mourning but strangely He hears joy and gladness. Not the joy and gladness of a people at rest and at peace with God, but the kind of joy that comes when men have thrown of God and made a decision about their fate. They shall eat, they shall drink and the drink will cause the fool to be merry even as that same fool stands under the shadow of the gathering clouds.
Joel 2:1 Blow a rams horn in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble. For the day of Jehovah comes, for it is near at hand.
So brothers and sisters, do likewise. Blow the trumpet. In Joels day they lost everything to a devastating plague of locusts. Not an ordinary plague, a devastating supernatural plague designed to call the people to repentance. In the last 20 years we have seen 9/11, a tsunami that was unknown in our times or our history books, Hurricane Katrina and then a financial meltdown that took the world to the brink. We have had wars in the middle east and now a pandemic. In Joels day they had just over 30 years before they were invaded and destroyed. They did not heed this warning from the prophet or even the judgment. They managed to get back on their feet again, just in time to be destroyed. We are laboring under the same illusion, just trying to get back to “normal.’ The decision is this. Weep and mourn and cry out to the Living God, or eat and drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. You shall surely die for all men die, but the fool dies eternally.
Could the Chinese be the Assyrians? Could America be swept up in civil war? I hear the howls of protest. “We have fortified our walls, we are too strong.” “We are far too sophisticated to ever again be destroyed by civil war.” Wrong on both accounts. There is no “fortifications,’ that cannot be brought down. Isa 19:14 The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. Even now the hearts of Americans are turned on each other. How much more would it take for them to tear themselves apart? It is mere pride that says these things can never be. Think of how it staggered the minds of the Apostles to learn that not one stone would be left un-turned in the destruction of Jerusalem. And Jesus wept. It is better for men to weep over their own fate for in the weeping they may find a way back to God. But when God weeps for man……woe is man. Decide today whom you will serve.
Psa 33:10 The LORD bringeth the counsel of the nations to nought: he maketh the plans of the people of no effect.
In all the affairs of men, they merely bleat with the noise of a thousand sheep upon the hill. It makes no difference to the fate of sheep how much they bleat, man will do what man will do with them. God will do what God will do with men. Even now as we watch the actions of the wisest men in the world, at least in their own estimations, we see their plans coming to nothing. Savage men of the baser sort hold the strings of power over the strong and sophisticated. The wisdom of the wise is utter foolishness to God. He raises up the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. No king is saved by the multitude of his army for it is God who fashions the hearts of those who are ripe for judgement. They may run to and from but if they escape from the lion they shall run headlong into the bear. If somehow they escape from the bear and make it home, they enter in and give a sigh of relief, just as the viper strikes.
Shall God’s people be afraid when the Lord comes down? Why should they be afraid even though the mountains crumble and the great seas mount up and recede? The wind may gasp and hold its breath but the Lord’s anointed dwell safely within His pavilion. The earth will surely shake when He rends the heavens and comes down. The beasts of the fields will stop and raise their heads and the trees shall clap their hands. The thunder will thunder and the lightning shall strike. The princes of the earth shall be brought low and wicked men shall cry out in despair. Yet the children of God shall be be safe within His pavilion and they shall not be afraid. They sought the Lord and He heard them, and delivered them from all of their fears. They looked to Him and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed. Stand fast saints and let your faces shine out into the darkness to the praise and glory of our God.
Luther did not invent a new doctrine when he announced that we are saved by grace through faith and not of works. He rediscovered it and presented it to a church that had long ago forgotten this most fundamental and vital aspect of what it means to be saved. This most basic fundamental truth was lost in religiosity and liturgy many centuries before. The clergy had robbed the laity. Century after century Christendom slowly drifted away, each generation losing something from the previous generation until they were totally adrift from the Truth. Once they were totally adrift from the truth then with every passing century the errors solidified and grew in strength. Walls like Jericho rose up and stood, formidable.
Then comes Luther and as he hammered that nail into the door, the whole of Christendom shook. A bloody revolution then ensued as the clergy, keepers of the error and the status quo, fought with all of their might against this upstart priest of no account who was challenging their religion and their liturgy. I believe a similar revolution would have to take place today in order to rediscover the truths of 1 Cor 14 and how we interact in gatherings. The sign gifts and their purpose of edifying the saints and the unsaved and the unlearned have fallen into disuse and have been forgotten. God help this starving and dying generation. If we do not have eyes to see then we cannot be fed. The walls of Jericho were rebuilt after the reformation. Brick upon brick, stone upon stone, error upon error.
We need to rediscover, once again, the fundamental truths of our faith as it is plainly written in the Scriptures. Who has dared to bypass or take away from the Holy Word of God? Do they not know that they shall be removed from the book of life? The walls of religion and the devastating clergy/laity divide need to come down. And if they will not then the saints need to abandon those strongholds. We need a mass exodus from behind those walls. We need to allow God Himself to be a wall of fire around us. Dear saint, you must follow the fire by night and the cloud by day and not the doctrines of the Nicolations. You cannot be immersed in the culture of religion, which is a mere reflection of the prevailing culture around us, and serve God at the same time.
The church in the west is starving to death and they are dying of thirst. The tragedy is, that for the most part, the majority that are called after His name do not even know that they are in the midst of a famine and a drought. I thank God for His remnant people who do know, who agonize over the state of the church. Who cry out to God and who want nothing less than for the multitude of people to experience the majesty and the glory and the anguish and the joy of falling down before the throne. Who desire all men to be ruined for this life and to walk with the grand obsession of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is coming a time, and we may be there already, when God is calling His people, His remnant people who have experienced the presence of God, to rise up and testify to it. To testify of what they know of Him. Of how they come into the presence of a Holy and majestic God. Of how it ruins them and changes them. Of how they tremble before the throne of the almighty God. This is what the people are starved of, this is what they are dying from. There is a famine of the Word of God in the land, not the Word preached, but the Word preached with the power and the presence of God. The crisis of the age is a lack of God’s empowering presence in our assemblies. May the glory of the Lord fill His house.
Listen to what Art Katz says “This emerging true Church will finally grow sick of the hype and the banal predictability of a merely phraseological Christianity. It will seek the deeper reality of faith and relationship, counting the cost and increasingly taking on the visage of pilgrim, stranger and sojourner in the earth. Those that remain in conventional church situations, either impervious to the need or unwilling to pay the price, will settle under a deception of religious unreality, condemning as heretics and agitators those who cannot abide the same. Centrifugal forces will polarize Christendom ultimately toward two camps – persecuted or persecutors – reminiscent of the opposition of the Reformation churches to the Anabaptists of the 16th century! Finally, impending unity will drive the religio-political kind to fury against that minority of the Spirit which will not subscribe to their ecumenical designs.
So once again, and finally, a man will find his enemies to be those of his own household; yet, one’s love for his enemies in response to opposition and persecution will be the distinguishing mark of this consummating, remnant-martyr Church. Such a response will be the possibility of those whose conscious, determined preparation and sanctification begins now.
The light of His countenance in such a separated people will be the very factor that brings upon them, as it did Stephen, the retribution and assault of those who hate the light and prefer darkness – from without but more so from within the church. Radical apostolicity or apostasy will prove the only options during this polarization in the end-times. Neutrality or middle-of-the-road alternatives will be waste and void. We will be, finally and at last, compelled to be saints, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, in an age when the only other option is to wear the mark of the Beast.” (Art Katz)
Can you see what he is saying brothers and sisters. He is saying, prophetically I believe, that “impending unity will drive the religio-political kind to fury against that minority of the Spirit which will not subscribe to their ecumenical designs.” There is a minority, a remnant who will not bow the knee to the ecumenical ways of the religious world. We see unfolding before us the merging of the great religions and those who adhere to it. Listen to what the man who calls himself pope said last week when he signed a historic document between himself and the person who is considered to be the most important Imam in Sunni Islam “The pluralism and the diversity of religions, color, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings.”
So he is saying that it is God’s will that there would be diversity of religion. Of course this flies in the face of what Jesus teaches us that there is only one way to heaven, through Him, and that all other paths lead to hell. Brothers and sisters, mark my words well, the next great push of those who design to destroy the pillars of truth, is to teach this very lie that there are many ways to God and that He loves diversity, in fact it is by God’s design.Can you see it? “Those that remain in conventional church situations, either impervious to the need or unwilling to pay the price, will settle under a deception of religious unreality, condemning as heretics and agitators those who cannot abide the same. Centrifugal forces will polarize Christendom ultimately toward two camps – persecuted or persecutors”
It is rising saints. There will come a time soon that you will be run out of the conventional churches if you do not accept the “truth,” that God has created a beautiful diverse world in which He reveals Himself to different people groups in many different guises. Could be Mohammad, could be Buddha could be Jesus, no matter, it’s all the same. If you think that is alarmist, consider where we were just ten years ago in relation to homosexuality and same-sex marriages, now there are denominations that will re-baptise you when you “change.” your gender. As Art says so prophetically, you will either be on the side or persecutor or persecuted. You will condemn people who cannot abide the church system as agitators of heretics or you will be condemned. He sums it all up as only he could “Neutrality or middle-of-the-road alternatives will be waste and void. We will be, finally and at last, compelled to be saints, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, in an age when the only other option is to wear the mark of the Beast.” Will you bow down to the gods of this world or will you stand with the minority for Christ and Him alone?
A Call To The Remnant 