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.
This month is “pastors appreciation month.” While most people will celebrate a birth “day,” or the day we were married or some other special day, here in the west we have pastors appreciation month, where they will be plied with gifts and monies and admiration. Obviously since senior pastors run their “own churches,” they factor this month into the calendar. In other words they organize this for themselves. This is a month where their salaries are boosted. It is a money getting month. I am aware that not all “pastors,” do this and that specifically, the American non denominational pastor have taken this to dizzying new heights, or rather, depths. It is so far from the Gospel, so far from the Word of God, so far from how Jesus lived, so far from the humble early beginnings of the church. A sign of the times and a marker to measure the maturity and the heart of one who claims to be a leader. To indulge in this is akin to indulging in Halloween. Entirely secular and worldly and shameful to the witness of Jesus. There is but one Body.
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. What was important was the message. The one sending it and the ones receiving it. It is so in the Kingdom. The one delivering the message can be easily replaced. We brothers and sisters should remember that lest we think too highly of ourselves. We are simply one. The message is all important. 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.
Psalm 78:8 A generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
This is a clear warning as to what happens when you do not “set your heart,” properly, you spirit will not trust in God. Consider this saying “they set not their hearts aright.” This is a clear indication that it is incumbent upon us to make sure the conditions of our heart is good. This can only come in cooperation with God, He will not do this for you. And the beginning of a right heart is fear of God and thankfulness for what He has provided.
In this psalm it is recorded that they were delivered from Egypt. The sea was parted, they had a cloud over their heads by day and a fire by night. Water gushed forth from the rocks and bread fell from the heavens. Yet, they were not thankful, they still did not trust God. And they “tested God in their heart,’ their un-thankful hearts and asked for “the food of their fancy.” (v 19) They wanted more, they wanted better and they wanted it now. Does this not remind you of the prosperity gospel? And so we are told that God rained down meat on them “like the dust.” Feathered fowl more than the sands of the seas. How they must have thought, for a in time, that they were blessed of the Lord forgetting all the lessons of Job.
And so they ate and were filled, they gorged themselves and He gave them over to their own desires. “They were not deprived of their cravings.” (v30) Their desire and their obsessions were not for God but for the things that filled their stomachs. In our day it is houses and cars and status and that same “fancy,’ food. Yet even while it was in their mouth the wrath of God was stirred. And in verse 33 we see that “their days were consumed in futility and their years in fear.” To seek after the things of the world is to spend your life in futility. If your heart is not right with God you will spend your life in fear.
Yet the Lord has for Himself a people that He has taken possession of and they have found their Zion. A thankful people, a people who have set their hearts to trust in their God. Who, no matter what, are a thankful people. An obedient people. A people whose cravings and grand obsessions are not for the fancy foods and material possessions of this world but for God Himself. And He has set a King over us and His name is Jesus, the only begotten Son of God and the glory of God. And we are shepherded by Christ Himself, glory to God. Watch the condition of your hearts saints, keep it right, keep it watered by the living waters of God.
There is a wall spoken of in Ezekiel 13:10-16. The wall is constructed upon false-hood and lies. Lying prophets who tell the people what they want to hear. They cry peace and prosperity where there is no peace and their prosperity is the gold and silver of this world. Their gold and silver and jewels are truly wood, hay and stubble and it shall surely come to nothing when the Lord comes against this wall.
There are many who plaster this wall and they do so with ” untempered mortar.” Now, I laid bricks for over 25 years. In the beginning, when I was an apprentice, we went to a trade school. In that trade school, which was indoors, we built many beautiful structures. We built egg-shaped sewers and Gothic arches and so on and we perfected all the finer points of constructing beautiful structures. If you were to walk into the large room where we were hard at work, you would see some of the finest examples of brickwork to be found. The untrained eye would not notice and really could not notice that the mortar between the bricks was only sand and lime, it was untempered, it had no cement. When the project was finished it was simply and easily taken down and the material would be scraped off and used again. If it were outside, it would last to a certain degree but if a storm or rain were to hit it, the structures would simply collapse on themselves as the mortar that held everything together never set and had no actual strength to withstand the weather or shaking.
This is the kind of wall that Ezekiel is talking about in Chapter 13. Christendom itself is just like this wall. It has been constructed by false prophets and the mortar used to hold it all together is religiosity. It gives a beautiful appearance and it encompasses a stronghold, but the time is coming soon when the Lord Himself will come against this structure. The Lord Himself will cause a storm designed specifically to bring the structure down. This is just like Matthew 7:26 where the Lord talks about two houses. One is built upon a foundation of Truth, that is Jesus, and the other has no foundation at all, it is merely built on sand. Now, in the normal course of events no one would ever know what house had a foundation or which did not, until a storm comes and beats against the house and it falls and great is the fall of that house, yet the house that stands upon Jesus alone, weathers the storm.
This storm is coming brothers and sisters. In fact the fore-winds have already begun to blow. There will be a flooding rain, great hailstones shall fall and a “stormy wind shall tear it down.” Tear what down and expose what? The great wall of religion and denominationalism shall soon be exposed as the birth pangs begin to intensify. God always has a remnant of people who dwell outside the walls, outside the systems of men who are witnesses and who testify of the truth. Indeed, as Stephen says , God does not dwell in temples built by human hands. God’s kingdom dwells within the hearts of His children. His structures consist of living stones. These living stones together, is the temple of God.
This great storm of darkness that is descending upon the world is designed to leave only the true children of God standing, and by standing I mean never faltering, standing fast to the end , prevailing, enduring and overcoming. That which is without the foundation of Jesus, which is constructed by untempered mortar will not stand and by not standing I mean shall falter, shall not stand fast unto the end, shall not prevail, shall not endure and shall not overcome rather shall be overcome by the great fall of the world and will be destroyed in the midst of this great fall when God moves. Finally that untempered wall shall be no more when the climax of the storm comes, when Jesus Himself shall descend in all His glory with the saints with a shout of glory and triumph. Those saints still alive after the final martyrs have been slaughtered shall arise and join Christ and His army in the air, that glorious army of saints who come with Christ and then every knee shall bow, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.
You have gathered here today in defiance of darkness and tyranny. You have come here to fight as free men and free men you are, for it is I that gave you that very freedom. So you see with your eyes that you are few and they are many, you see that you are vastly outnumbered. Will you fight today?Read the rest of this entry »
There is a time for shouting and praising God, but if we are ignoring the knocking, then we must stop shouting. If our lives are not reflecting the Glory of God, if we are not becoming like His Son, daily, then all of our shouting and praising God will just be so much noise. How tragic for the church of the living God if, when He looks down, He does not see praise but just a group of people making a noise.”Read the rest of this entry »
“Jesus has many who love His kingdom in heaven, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share His feast, but few His fasting.All desire to rejoice with Him, but few are willing to suffer for His sake. Many follow Jesus to the breaking of the bread, but few to the drinking of the cup of His passion. Many admire the miracles, but few follow Him to the humiliation of the cross. Many love Jesus as long as no hardship touches them.”
This is a vision that I had as I stood on a terrace in Croatia. My wife and I went there last year on our 25th anniversary. Before I went the Lord had shown me that I would meet someone there and that it would be significant, just did not know that He was talking about Himself. The whole piece was my vision, He gave me a new way of writing my testimony and of writing about coming into His presence, then the Word that He gave me for the church, I wrote in red at the end. I pray that this will challenge and convict you………….
They will gather together and throw in their gold and rise up and play, or in this case, fall down and play. You see the people are without leadership, and the Lord has with-held His rain. So the people have demanded gods to go before them, listen to what they said to Aaron…”make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him. “
She put her head back against the wall and looking upwards told me that she was in no position to even try and refuse this. She was blown away that God had answered her and her husbands prayer so immediately (she did not know that I had messed around for several week) She could not wait to get home and share this with her husband. Higher critics could explain this in the natural, but the supernatural is God talking to His people, directing them and of course, His perfect timing.
A Call To The Remnant 