Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Remaining in the Institutional Church

Many people remain in the institutional church today thinking they are pleasing God, but in reality they are not only, not pleasing Him, they are violating much Scripture, they claim to obey.
We are living in a time when strong rebuke is necessary more than any other time.

I have to wonder exactly what Noah preached for 120 years before the flood came and destroyed all the people with the exception of his family.

Did Noah say in a calm and pleasing voice, "you really should consider God, He can help you." NO, I believe he shouted with deliberate and distinct urgency for the people to repent, they were about to be wiped out forever.

Psychology has managed to dumb down the gospel to such a degree that the people hearing see no urgency, they think God is One they turn to when things get a little rough, for their own sake.

Those who are stubborn and narcissistic hate strong rebuke, even bludgeoning those who are telling the truth to help the people realize the importance of their choice to reject Christ.

Genesis 6:12-13 "12 God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. 13 Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. "

2Pet. 2:5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;

The time is short, we need to make that clear to those who think they can mince their way through life feeling happy and good all the time, that they will be destroyed if they do not heed the warnings.

The prophets of God would have laughed at the foolishness in our day, in the softening of the message, the squishy way we speak to people, that shows them how unimportant the message is.

Matt. 24:37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.
Matt. 24:38 “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
Matt. 24:39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Genesis 5:5-8
"5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
7 The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”
8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord."

Genesis 5:13 "13 Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. "

I can just hear the voices of the preachers of our time, if they had been back in the days of Noah. They would have said things like, "just love them", "just show love and enjoy them." "Don't speak harshly because they won't like us or Jesus if we are too harsh with them."

DOES THIS DISGUST ANYONE ELSE!

People are desperately wicked, very violent, without compassion, empathy and remorse for anything they do, but we are suppose to speak softly as though they are just poor injured souls?

God takes sin and wickedness so much more seriously than people do in our day. The people of our day are acting the same way they did in the days of Noah. They are going along feeling haughty, in control and special as they move through life using people, mocking and accusing the prophets of things that are not true, while determined to come against God at every turn, while claiming to be on His side.

"Love" has been the favored mantra of those who love to be loved by others. They use the "love' mantra to field false guilt against those who believe the message is urgent, that being to repent. Those that expose sin and desire confession and repentance on the part of those who have offended God are diminished while the soft and squishy people pleasers continue to make people comfortable in their sin and rebellion.

The people pleasers say the same things that they were saying in the time of Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 6:10-11 "10 To whom shall I speak and give warning That they may hear? Behold, their ears are closed And they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the LORD has become a reproach to them; They have no delight in it. 11 But I am full of the wrath of the LORD; I am weary with holding it in. "Pour it out on the children in the street And on the gathering of young men together; For both husband and wife shall be taken, The aged and the very old.…"

Jeremiah 5:21
'Now hear this, O foolish and senseless people, Who have eyes but do not see; Who have ears but do not hear.

Jeremiah 7:26
"Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did more evil than their fathers."

Jeremiah 20:8
"For each time I speak, I cry aloud; I proclaim violence and destruction, Because for me the word of the LORD has resulted In reproach and derision all day long."

We are living in the days much like those of Noah and Jeremiah, in which the people only want soft words and praise, thinking this will bring them to the Lord, but it does not, it merely makes them comfortable in their sin.

Those who speak boldly with resolve to warn them are diminished by others who claim to be Christians, those who have been indoctrinated into psychology, steeped in modern church traditions, unwilling to look at things in a new way, the way of the Scriptures. It is new to them, because we have been astray in the churches for two generations now, seeking for personal comfort rather than to be broken and cleansed. They cherry pick Scriptures, explaining away what they don't like and negating anyone who does not speak the things they like to hear that elevate themselves.

If you have ever wondered what it looked like in the days of the prophets and the days of Noah specifically, you are watching it right now.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 "…22 Speak, "Thus says the LORD, 'The corpses of men will fall like dung on the open field, And like the sheaf after the reaper, But no one will gather them.'"
23 Thus says the LORD, "Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches;
24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things," declares the LORD.…"

There you go, if you act as the prophets acted, say the things the prophets said you will be spoken to by most, disrespectfully as though you did something wrong. They will say, "you are mean spirited", "you didn't say it in love", "it was the way you said it", "we need to say it in a way that people will receive it", sadly we who are bold hear these things all the time. Interesting though, if we were to instruct them to be bolder, less squishy and more direct, they would be enraged that we instructed them at all.
Perhaps they don't like correction themselves so they become angry that we would instruct or correct someone, this is my guess based on my personal experience. Often narcissist cannot stand to be told they are wrong, they rage when this happens, but feel free to instruct or correct others, the height of hypocrisy.

Will live in a world of hypocrisy in which all those who speak truth openly and honestly will be targeted for criticism and abuse.

Matthew 23:25-27 "…25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside may become clean as well. 27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every impurity.…"

Imagine if we spoke to the Pharisees of our time the way the Christ and the prophets spoke to them in His day, there would be outrage that would ensue for our rebuke! And yet, Christ described the evil of His time that is exactly the same as our time.

Christ lives in us, He is the One Who should be speaking through us, He dictates what is to be said and when, if we are depending upon Him every day.

Do not be intimidated by those who attempt to guilt us into silence so they can live in sin without guilt. Those who are in sin without Christ are condemned, not by us, but by God, we are merely the messenger that brings the bad news about their lost state, but then again, we are also the ones who bring with it the good news, the cure, the remedy for eternity.

I don't know about you, but I am more likely to be harsh with a rebellious one who claims to be a Christian than with someone who has not been born again.

Titus 1:12-14 "…12 As one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sternly, so that they will be sound in the faith, 14 and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of men who have rejected the truth.…"

Pharisees often accuse others of what they are, but the others are not, it is a tactic to divert attention away from their rebelliousness.

Rebuke and correction ought to be a normal course in these last days of apostasy, however it seems that those who are given rebukes are those who are rebuking for their harsh delivery. Go figure!

Proverbs 27:4-6 "…4 Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood, But who can stand before jealousy? 5 Better is open rebuke Than love that is concealed. 6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.…"

When we walk with Christ, hearing Him daily, we need not be intimidated by those who are sent by the devil to come against us. In fact, these attacks make us stronger than we were before.

James 1:2-8
"2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

LOL, they do not accuse us of "what" we say, that's not important to them, they accuse us of "how we said it" or that we were the wrong gender to say it. Think about that tactic.

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