the Fear of God: The Church has Lost it

But to this one I will look to him who is humble and contrite and who trembles at my word. Isaiah 66:2

Jerimiah 2:13 For my people have commited two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns--broken cisterns that can hold no water.

How appropriate that in the very next verse Jeremiah asks, "Are God's people slaves now? WHy are they spoiled?" Can such a thing be possible, that God's chosen could actually turn away, forsake the refreshing fountain of living water to sip muddy water from a polluted, diseased well? The water Jesus offered the woman at the well, water that forever satisfies thirst--REJECTED for a drink from the germ-laden, shallow well. 

Would you call a man a fool who walks past a pure artesian well to stoop down and drink from a muddy puddle? Yet, what are Christians doing but that, when they drink the filth of what is on television, or the music of the world, or the entertainment of the world, or speak like the world and look like the world and love everything that is of the world. And they say "I am a Christian!" Yet you cannot win the world by being like the world and in the end the Devil will win you!

Is the pure water flowing in your secret closet not good enough? Must you shot of the flow of that loving well springing up in you, so you can drink from the filthy cisterns you have dug for yourself? How much time do we spend watching television compared to the time praying for our families and for a lost world? In such an hour of impending judgement, can we spare any time in such foolishness. Or, as Leonard Ravinhill passionatly says "YOU CAN JUST SIT THERE UNTIL YOUR FAMILY DIES AND GOES TO HELL!!!"

Christ looks upon the nation on a Sunday night with millions of Christians comfortably seated in front of their television sets, drinking filthy water, and He certainly must grieve. What can Christ, our Intercessor, say to the Father but, "My people have forsaken me, the fountain of living water. They prefer broken cisterns." 

The commonly loved music of the world is now flooding the church like a landslide and no one is stopping it. Yet instead, our churches our welcoming it. It is as if the baptist preacher holds the door open for the world, shakes his hand, says "have a seat in the front pew, and welcome." We are developing an appitite for dirty water. There is no fear of God in the church anymore. Have we lost it? 

A great man once said "You can tell how much the church loves the church by how many people are in the sunday morning service, and you can tell how much the church loves pastor by how many people are in the sunday evening service, and you can tell how much the church loves God by how many show up to the prayer meeting." And I spoke with a preachers son today and he said "had I known we would be having a prayer service tonight I wouldn't have come." Shocking. And what are we doing at home other than feeding our eternal souls on the filth incubated in hell. Where is the congregation? Home--drinking in that which makes heaven weep. And incredibaly they can't seem to get enough of that water; they go back for more and drink it to the full. 

Will God permit taht, or will we be judged for it. 

Think of what God is saying to us. "I am not enough for my people anymore! I no longer meet their thirst, nor do I satisfy them now. They ahve rejected Me as their source; they thirst for another water! They have turned to the lusts of the flesh and the eye and no longer  yearn after me!" 

And at the last day of Feast, Jesus stood and cried, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." He told his disciples, "My blood is drink indeed." Then we hear Paul's ominous warning "Ye cannot drink the cup of the LORD, and the cup of the devils: ye cannot be partakers of the LORD's table, and of the table of the devils." 

Paul asks, "Do we provoke the LORD to jealousy?" Paul was referring to the fellowship with idols and the drinking from the cup of the devil. Where is a true lover of Jesus who would not lay down, nay, smash any cup that provoked his Beloved to jealousy? 

And I know you will say "Nothing sinful about it--no harm--God isn't angry--just relaxation--a change of pace." Spending hours watching sports, another idol for many, and robbing God of that precious time leads to loss of vision and glory. No wonder so many churches are twice dead and plucked up by the roots.

And our music, and our alcohol, and the secret pornography and homosexuality in the churches, and our television is the very stumbling block Jeremiah cries out about in 6:21. 

We are just like the children of Israel--stubborn and self-willed and determined to indule in the sins of the heathen. And we are laughing so hard out our soap operas, and our comedy program, that we are laughing people right to the gates of hell. We laugh so hard when we ought to be laying down before God with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. We are laughing ourselves right out of an awareness of soon-coming judgement. 

We a sedated with a big "ho-hum". Sedated by all the visions of terror, and violence, and turmoil on tv and wonder why our generation is so violent and rebelous. And we are blinded. Nothing seems real anymore becuase all this life is now is just one great fantasy celluloid reel.