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Jeremiah 1:13-16 ESV
In what ways is the American church at large today making offerings to other gods and worshipping the works of her own hands? How is she forsaking the Lord? What evils is she involved in? (You can apply this to wherever you live but America is all I know.)
For one, she partnered with the world, with big business, and with the government (the state) in unholy unions. And she turned the gatherings of the church into a marketplace to be marketed to the world, using worldly means and methods, marketing schemes, and business plans in order to model “the church” after what the world is craving so that the world would be attracted to the institutional church and want to be part of her.
So now, instead of the true church, the body of Christ, comprised of true followers of Jesus, gathering together for the teaching of the true word, for prayer, for genuine spiritual fellowship in the Lord, for communion, and to encourage (exhort) one another in our walks of faith, for our spiritual growth, as each part does its work (Eph 4), the gatherings of what is now called church are a blend of true followers of Jesus, though that is becoming much less, and those who make surface professions of faith in Jesus, and those who make no profession of faith in Jesus and even some agnostics.
And instead of Jesus Christ being her only head, now she is under the authority of the state and big business and the world, and she is not, for the most part, being led by the Spirit but by marketing schemes, goals, and business plans. And thus she has also altered the gospel of Jesus Christ to make it more palatable to the world so that large crowds from the world will be drawn to her gatherings, and so they will not be offended by the gospel or made to feel uncomfortable or judged, and because their goal now is to please the people and not Jesus Christ, for the most part.
In altering the gospel message, to make it more acceptable to the people of the world and to the flesh of man (humans), she removed God’s foundational requirements of repentance, obedience, and submission to him as Lord, which are all necessary requirements of believing faith for salvation from sin and for eternal life with God. And she is now teaching a surface level faith which promises forgiveness of sins and eternal life with God, but which discourages the forsaking of our sinful practices and the following of our Lord in obedience to his ways without which is no faith at all.
The result of this are these large gatherings of what are falsely being referred to as “churches,” which are entertaining the world and the flesh, where pastors are now clowns, actors, and talk show hosts who give talks and motivational speeches and who preach feel good messages which tickle people’s itching ears and which coddle the people in their sins. They teach them that they can believe in Jesus and still live in their sin, and if they begin to feel guilty, that they can just claim who they are in Christ. But who we are is what we do, not what we profess with our lips.
Okay, so the other main result from all of this is not only that we have a worldly church which is more centered on the flesh than on the Spirit, but we have a worldly church which is riddled with sin. And the church is largely not doing anything about it, because they are literally leading people on that path of unrighteousness with their cheap grace gospel. They may or may not initiate support groups for addicts, but those support groups largely do not lead people to true deliverance of their addictions but convince them they will always be addicts dependent on other humans to survive day to day.
So, the church has lost her saltiness, and her light has been buried, and she is doing more to blend in with the world to be accepted by the world than she is doing what she is called to do to be holy, unlike the world, and to shine as lights for the true gospel to the world, and to win the world to faithful obedience to the Lord and to forsake their lives of sin. Thus, not only the church at large, but society as a whole has largely gone down the toilet, and sin is rampant everywhere, and our nation (the USA) is on a massive moral and spiritual decline, and we, as a nation, are at death’s door.
But it isn’t just in the gatherings of the institutional church that all this is taking place, but the church, and what is falsely called church, is on the internet on social media, on blogs, on Christian discussion sites, and on other internet sites where they have an opportunity to express their beliefs and their thoughts on various subjects, with some censorship taking place. And they are largely spreading this cheap grace gospel which is leading people to their deaths while it is promising them heaven when they die. So many professed believers in Jesus will NOT inherit eternal life with God.
So, what is falsely being referred to as “the church” is not the true church, although parts of the true church may still be gathering with these institutional churches. The Bible refers to this mixture of the world and the church as “Babylon, the harlot.” Yes, Babylon is the world’s system, but which has also infiltrated the church, and so she includes the worldly church which has largely forsaken her first love and has become neither hot nor cold but lukewarm. Thus, the warnings we have in Revelation to this lukewarm church and to those partaking in Babylon apply to today.
Jeremiah 1:17-19 ESV
I don’t have any idea how many of us there are, but God has called some (or many) of us to be like Jeremiah’s in our day and time to say to the people who profess the name of Jesus whatever the Lord commands that we should tell them (supported fully by Scripture). And we are not to fear them, though some (or many) of them will indeed fight against us, and they will persecute us. And we will be rejected, ostracized, pushed aside, kicked out, invited to leave, ignored, and falsely accused because we are standing on truth and righteousness and because we are exposing what is pure evil.
But we are to confront the people in their sins, and to call out the wickedness that is going on in the name of “the church.” And we are to call those who profess the name of Jesus to humble themselves before God, and to call on God in truth, and to repent of (turn away from) their sinful practices, and to follow Jesus in obedience. And we are to expose this cheap grace gospel that is permeating the church and which is sending people to hell on the promise of heaven, and we are to proclaim the truth that can deliver people from their slavery to sin so they can walk in freedom.
And we are to warn them of divine judgment both now in the form of physical enemies coming against us to conquer us and our nations, and we are to warn of God’s judgments to come in the end when those who would not obey him and who chose to continue in their sins will find out the truth that they believed a lie and that heaven is not their eternal destiny. And many will hear the Lord say on that day, “Depart from me you workers of iniquity. I never knew you.” And they will be cast into hell to burn for eternity. So, please take this to heart, for your eternity depends on it.
[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 8:31-32; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Pet 1:17-21; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rev. 2-3; Rev 18:1-6; Rev 21:8, 27; Rev 22:14-15]
We Will Glorify
By Twila Paris
We will glorify the King of kings
We will glorify the Lamb
We will glorify the Lord of lords
Who is the great I am
Lord Jehovah reigns in majesty
We will bow before His throne
We will worship Him in righteousness
We will worship Him alone
He is Lord of Heaven, Lord of Earth
He is Lord of all who live
He is Lord above the universe
All praise to Him we give
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“The word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, ‘What do you see?’ And I said, ‘I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north.’ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Out of the north disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land. For behold, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, declares the Lord, and they shall come, and every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Judah. And I will declare my judgments against them, for all their evil in forsaking me. They have made offerings to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands.’”
In what ways is the American church at large today making offerings to other gods and worshipping the works of her own hands? How is she forsaking the Lord? What evils is she involved in? (You can apply this to wherever you live but America is all I know.)
For one, she partnered with the world, with big business, and with the government (the state) in unholy unions. And she turned the gatherings of the church into a marketplace to be marketed to the world, using worldly means and methods, marketing schemes, and business plans in order to model “the church” after what the world is craving so that the world would be attracted to the institutional church and want to be part of her.
So now, instead of the true church, the body of Christ, comprised of true followers of Jesus, gathering together for the teaching of the true word, for prayer, for genuine spiritual fellowship in the Lord, for communion, and to encourage (exhort) one another in our walks of faith, for our spiritual growth, as each part does its work (Eph 4), the gatherings of what is now called church are a blend of true followers of Jesus, though that is becoming much less, and those who make surface professions of faith in Jesus, and those who make no profession of faith in Jesus and even some agnostics.
And instead of Jesus Christ being her only head, now she is under the authority of the state and big business and the world, and she is not, for the most part, being led by the Spirit but by marketing schemes, goals, and business plans. And thus she has also altered the gospel of Jesus Christ to make it more palatable to the world so that large crowds from the world will be drawn to her gatherings, and so they will not be offended by the gospel or made to feel uncomfortable or judged, and because their goal now is to please the people and not Jesus Christ, for the most part.
In altering the gospel message, to make it more acceptable to the people of the world and to the flesh of man (humans), she removed God’s foundational requirements of repentance, obedience, and submission to him as Lord, which are all necessary requirements of believing faith for salvation from sin and for eternal life with God. And she is now teaching a surface level faith which promises forgiveness of sins and eternal life with God, but which discourages the forsaking of our sinful practices and the following of our Lord in obedience to his ways without which is no faith at all.
The result of this are these large gatherings of what are falsely being referred to as “churches,” which are entertaining the world and the flesh, where pastors are now clowns, actors, and talk show hosts who give talks and motivational speeches and who preach feel good messages which tickle people’s itching ears and which coddle the people in their sins. They teach them that they can believe in Jesus and still live in their sin, and if they begin to feel guilty, that they can just claim who they are in Christ. But who we are is what we do, not what we profess with our lips.
Okay, so the other main result from all of this is not only that we have a worldly church which is more centered on the flesh than on the Spirit, but we have a worldly church which is riddled with sin. And the church is largely not doing anything about it, because they are literally leading people on that path of unrighteousness with their cheap grace gospel. They may or may not initiate support groups for addicts, but those support groups largely do not lead people to true deliverance of their addictions but convince them they will always be addicts dependent on other humans to survive day to day.
So, the church has lost her saltiness, and her light has been buried, and she is doing more to blend in with the world to be accepted by the world than she is doing what she is called to do to be holy, unlike the world, and to shine as lights for the true gospel to the world, and to win the world to faithful obedience to the Lord and to forsake their lives of sin. Thus, not only the church at large, but society as a whole has largely gone down the toilet, and sin is rampant everywhere, and our nation (the USA) is on a massive moral and spiritual decline, and we, as a nation, are at death’s door.
But it isn’t just in the gatherings of the institutional church that all this is taking place, but the church, and what is falsely called church, is on the internet on social media, on blogs, on Christian discussion sites, and on other internet sites where they have an opportunity to express their beliefs and their thoughts on various subjects, with some censorship taking place. And they are largely spreading this cheap grace gospel which is leading people to their deaths while it is promising them heaven when they die. So many professed believers in Jesus will NOT inherit eternal life with God.
So, what is falsely being referred to as “the church” is not the true church, although parts of the true church may still be gathering with these institutional churches. The Bible refers to this mixture of the world and the church as “Babylon, the harlot.” Yes, Babylon is the world’s system, but which has also infiltrated the church, and so she includes the worldly church which has largely forsaken her first love and has become neither hot nor cold but lukewarm. Thus, the warnings we have in Revelation to this lukewarm church and to those partaking in Babylon apply to today.
Jeremiah 1:17-19 ESV
“But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.”
I don’t have any idea how many of us there are, but God has called some (or many) of us to be like Jeremiah’s in our day and time to say to the people who profess the name of Jesus whatever the Lord commands that we should tell them (supported fully by Scripture). And we are not to fear them, though some (or many) of them will indeed fight against us, and they will persecute us. And we will be rejected, ostracized, pushed aside, kicked out, invited to leave, ignored, and falsely accused because we are standing on truth and righteousness and because we are exposing what is pure evil.
But we are to confront the people in their sins, and to call out the wickedness that is going on in the name of “the church.” And we are to call those who profess the name of Jesus to humble themselves before God, and to call on God in truth, and to repent of (turn away from) their sinful practices, and to follow Jesus in obedience. And we are to expose this cheap grace gospel that is permeating the church and which is sending people to hell on the promise of heaven, and we are to proclaim the truth that can deliver people from their slavery to sin so they can walk in freedom.
And we are to warn them of divine judgment both now in the form of physical enemies coming against us to conquer us and our nations, and we are to warn of God’s judgments to come in the end when those who would not obey him and who chose to continue in their sins will find out the truth that they believed a lie and that heaven is not their eternal destiny. And many will hear the Lord say on that day, “Depart from me you workers of iniquity. I never knew you.” And they will be cast into hell to burn for eternity. So, please take this to heart, for your eternity depends on it.
[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 8:31-32; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Pet 1:17-21; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rev. 2-3; Rev 18:1-6; Rev 21:8, 27; Rev 22:14-15]
We Will Glorify
By Twila Paris
We will glorify the King of kings
We will glorify the Lamb
We will glorify the Lord of lords
Who is the great I am
Lord Jehovah reigns in majesty
We will bow before His throne
We will worship Him in righteousness
We will worship Him alone
He is Lord of Heaven, Lord of Earth
He is Lord of all who live
He is Lord above the universe
All praise to Him we give
