Post by tlsitd on Jun 10, 2018 14:01:50 GMT -5
FEEDING SHEEP OR AMUSING GOATS? by Charles H. Spurgeon
(If the link does not work, copy and paste it into your browser.)
The church is clueless. She's fallen so far and has been fallen for so long that she doesn't even realize her own wretchedness and failure, even though she has the Scriptures as a mirror---FAILURE to do and to be what she is intended to be, to produce what she is supposed to produce. Failure. Failure. Failure. She's long accepted her apostasy, impotence and shortcoming as being normal and acceptable, but Jesus Christ has not. He still expects of His church and of His people what He ALWAYS has, much to the shame and woe of those who don't realize this.
Read what the Lord had to say to the church at Ephesus in the 2nd chapter of the Revelation. (And most of us aren't even as good as they were!) Did Jesus tell them that it was no big deal, and not to worry about their fallen state because He was merciful and loving? No, He did not. It was because He is merciful and because He loved them that He rebuked them and warned them!
God's standard is not the church's standard. His goals are not her goals. His methods are not her methods. And when you compare what the church WAS and did in the New Testament, and consider that that is what she is still supposed to be---what God expects and intends for her to be and to do---and then you look at what she IS and what she is doing, how can any honest Christian not be outraged, disgusted and grieved---or tremble and shudder at the thought of what her Master is going to do to her? His indictments against her are piled up to heaven---spelled out in His word! Yet there's no fear. No fear at all among the majority. Only foolish celebrating and scoffing.
There's no hope for the church in general, only for individuals. It's every saint for him or herself. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling and separate yourselves from the foolish celebrating of people without good sense and who have no fear of God---celebrating cluelessly and shamelessly under the eyes of an angry God, whose grace they're squandering and whose law they have spurned and break with presumed impunity, while they live as the world does, inside and out, and chase after its offerings like the worldlings do.
It is no time to celebrate or rejoice. It is a time to mourn.
Your words were found, and I ate them,
and Your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart,
for I am called by Your name, O LORD, God of hosts.
I did not sit in the company of revelers, nor did I rejoice;
I sat alone, because Your hand was upon me,
for You had filled me with indignation.
(JEREMIAH 15:16,17)
(If the link does not work, copy and paste it into your browser.)
The church is clueless. She's fallen so far and has been fallen for so long that she doesn't even realize her own wretchedness and failure, even though she has the Scriptures as a mirror---FAILURE to do and to be what she is intended to be, to produce what she is supposed to produce. Failure. Failure. Failure. She's long accepted her apostasy, impotence and shortcoming as being normal and acceptable, but Jesus Christ has not. He still expects of His church and of His people what He ALWAYS has, much to the shame and woe of those who don't realize this.
Read what the Lord had to say to the church at Ephesus in the 2nd chapter of the Revelation. (And most of us aren't even as good as they were!) Did Jesus tell them that it was no big deal, and not to worry about their fallen state because He was merciful and loving? No, He did not. It was because He is merciful and because He loved them that He rebuked them and warned them!
God's standard is not the church's standard. His goals are not her goals. His methods are not her methods. And when you compare what the church WAS and did in the New Testament, and consider that that is what she is still supposed to be---what God expects and intends for her to be and to do---and then you look at what she IS and what she is doing, how can any honest Christian not be outraged, disgusted and grieved---or tremble and shudder at the thought of what her Master is going to do to her? His indictments against her are piled up to heaven---spelled out in His word! Yet there's no fear. No fear at all among the majority. Only foolish celebrating and scoffing.
There's no hope for the church in general, only for individuals. It's every saint for him or herself. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling and separate yourselves from the foolish celebrating of people without good sense and who have no fear of God---celebrating cluelessly and shamelessly under the eyes of an angry God, whose grace they're squandering and whose law they have spurned and break with presumed impunity, while they live as the world does, inside and out, and chase after its offerings like the worldlings do.
It is no time to celebrate or rejoice. It is a time to mourn.
Your words were found, and I ate them,
and Your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart,
for I am called by Your name, O LORD, God of hosts.
I did not sit in the company of revelers, nor did I rejoice;
I sat alone, because Your hand was upon me,
for You had filled me with indignation.
(JEREMIAH 15:16,17)