Edition 212. June 18^th 2014

The big differences between the true Church and the false:

The big differences between the true Church and the false:

Introduction:

In some ways this is a continuation of the previous edition.

In this edition I want to outline the very important issues surrounding the church in the end times. There are essentially two churches, one is hell bound and one is heaven bound. This is not from a critical point of view, but to identify the two paths ahead of us, so that we can see them clearly.

God has a Church and the world has a church. Which one do you belong to?

As we head into dramatic prophetic times, be sure that the spiritual pressures will increase dramatically in this very subject as well. You must know the condition of your spiritual roots now!

This is not about proving me or anyone right and others wrong. It is not even about the present growing dangers of false doctrine and error. It is about the end of the journey. It’s about the end of the “course of this world” and its church, and about the end of God’s Church. It’s about your eternal destiny and your “abundant entry into the kingdom of God.” Or your smooth ride to hell.

There are ever-growing big differences between the true Church of prophecy and the counterfeit church of prophecy. There are great identifying marks, which we need to know and be aware of especially now. Now is the time for separation from one and identity with the other.

The messages to the seven churches in the Revelation have a strong prophetic element to them. They plot the course of church history as well as speak to us today. They show the shocking end of a large portion of the church and the glorious end of the “safe” Church.

Other sections of scripture are consistent in that they show the demise of the end-time church and the strength of the true Church.

 If you are not aware of God’s word of direction and of warning for the church in these days you are on thin ice.

People say don’t criticise the church. I quite agree when its done from a position of pride, but when it’s done from a genuine position of truth-searching, that’s a different story.

If you say “don’t judge”, you are ignoring an entire aspect of our Lord and His word. You have a Lamb but no Lion!

Be very careful of people who say, “Don’t judge”, they have the door open for all manner of error to come in. Please see Edition on judging – Here.

The big, shocking issues of the world’s church today:

The self-deluded are the largest group of people on earth and most certainly the largest group within the church.

Most are looking for me-centred experiences. Self- indulgence is the order of the day.

“We are here to help you reach your dreams”, says the modern mega- church minister of hogwash. The aim is not to reach your dreams. The aim is to deny yourself, take up your cross, and die to self, the world and the demonic. Then your dreams will be righteous, pure and of the living God.

Christians ruled and dominated by feel-good experience, and all the deceptions of the soul are ruling the modern church of the world.

But how has all this happened? It’s all because truth has been cast down, sidelined and sound doctrine rejected. There are no more absolutes and everything becomes grey.

Isaiah 59:14 “...Truth is fallen in the street.”

Isaiah 1:21 “How the faithful city has become a harlot! It was full of justice; righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers.”

This amazing verse above is not talking of cities, but the heart of man!

2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”

Today’s comfortable and complacent Christian is in a dangerous, carnal, beautiful but evil world and he can’t see it! Evil masquerades in many beautiful forms, but be careful, it will not forgive you. It will draw you deeper in.

Once a ministry begins to modify the truth to suit the present world, it is on a slippery slope. The removal of truth bit by bit occurs and “It seems right to me” becomes the judge. Once truth has been modified, don’t think for one moment that things stay static. The devil comes in like a flood.

 “It seems and sounds right to me,” is the cursed utterance of the modern cross-less, self-centred Christian! Me, myself and I, is the supreme judge, but unbeknown to most it is the judgment of the devil himself.

The modern self-indulgent, feelings -based church has Satan as their judge and mediator between right and wrong, sin and holiness, truth and error!

Today the curse of Collective thinking aided by the media has produced a new world in which the voices, values and virtues are all similar. Tolerance and relevance are the big ticket items of today. This is the domain of the energy of the flesh and not the energy of the Spirit!

►Today the world’s church has re-invented truth. It comes from selected Bible verses at the exclusion of others. In fact it is a denial of the full truth. It is based on human, subjective, personal experience!

This is the chant of the modern church: If it feels good it must be right and of God. “Me, myself and I” is supreme. What I deem to be right is right and what feels good to me is right. They go looking for God to sanction all of this!

“Look within you and you will find the truth”! What rubbish. That is only true once you have been saved and broken by our Lord and been cleansed of all that originates in the satanic. If the cross of Messiah has not killed self and you look inside of you for the truth you will find the truth of the god of self and the world – Satan himself.

Jeremiah 17:9-10 ”The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I test the mind...”

Me, myself and I, sitting on the throne deems this or that experience to be right and they think that because God loves them, He also loves their choices and sanctions it all. Little do they know that God wants to shoot you down off your throne, destroy it and annihilate the self-dominated life.

You see, it is actually the devil himself sitting on the throne of “self” and the truth is that God loves you so much, He wants to tear down and destroy Satan’s throne and every high and exalted thing and hiding place in your life, so He can fill it with Himself and His truth.

Today, multitudes are looking for the by-products and fruits of Christianity, but they don’t want the full truth.

The world’s church has a label saying “heaven bound” but it is in fact hell bound.

This is the modern church. It is experiences-based. It is superficial, self-orientated and in many respects a counterfeit.

►Because the modern church is feeling-based, relevant to the world and self-orientated, it hates, or at best ignores Bible prophecy. This is one of the most powerful means of judging a church, whether it is on the right track or not. And of course the reason for this is that prophecy reveals and spells out the destruction of the modern church’s playground - the world!

The verse below is a tragedy indeed for the lost. This is the worst fate of the compromiser and counterfeit; it is to be given up by God:

Revelation 22:11 “He who is unjust let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy let him be holy still.”

The church has removed the preaching of the law of God and instead replaced it with coming under our church laws. The result is a church full of sin and evil, from God’s point of view, but just fine from the world’s point of view.

“Don’t worry about doctrine, it divides” is the chant of the world’s church.

Here are some powerful verses of scripture that we would all do well to take note of:

Romans 16:17 “Now I urge you brethren, note those who cause division and offences contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them.”

2 Thessalonians 3:14 “If anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed.”

2 John 1:10-11 “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine do not receive him into your home nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.”

Galatians 1:8 Even if we or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”

Colossians 2:8 (Amp) “See to it that no one carries you off or captivates you by so-called philosophy and intellectualism  and vain deceit, following human traditions, men’s ideas of the material word, following the elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding the teachings of the Messiah.”

The big issues of God’s Church today:

The central ingredients for any true Church are:

●The true Church will be known by the preaching and teaching of the exclusiveness of salvation through the cross of Messiah. Adult water baptism and the baptism in the Spirit will be foundational.

The doctrine of Messiah is spelt out in Hebrews chapter 1. It encompasses all the doctrines of the Bible.

●The true Church will have a central emphasis on the work of the cross for salvation and the application of cross-bearing as an ongoing realty. The Church will apply the brokenness created by the cross to all aspects of self, the soul, and fleshly experience.

●It will be a Church where the fear of God is present and evident.

Matthew 21:44 “Whomever falls on this stone (Yeshua) will be broken; but on whom it falls will be ground to powder.”

●The true Church of the living God will have spiritual eyes to see. It will know Bible prophecy well and be subject to it.

●It will be a “Berean” Church, “searching the scriptures to see if these things be so.”

Jeremiah 20:9 “...His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones...”

●The true Church will see its members overcoming the world system and its ways and influences, through the application of the cross.

1 John 5:4 “Everyone who is born of God overcomes the world.”

●It will be evangelical with a missions heart and will have associations with God’s great work now and into the future, with Israel and the Jewish people.

●It will have a Hebraic expression and flavour and will preach the law as a means of identifying sin and holiness and the new law of the Spirit in our hearts, as the fulfilment of the old law.

●It will identify with the Feasts of the Lord (not in a legalistic manner) and reject the satanic convocations of the Catholic church in the forms of Christmas, Easter and all the others.

●It will be a Church in which true discipleship is in operation.

John 8:31 “If you continue (Lit=Hold fast to, endure, remain.) in My word, then are you My disciples indeed.”

Luke 14:27 “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow Me, cannot be My disciple.”

John 6:66 “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” (The reason was the “hard sayings” mentioned in verse 60.)

Fruits in their right place:

The fruits of the Spirit are found in Galatians 5:22-23 “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

Today the fruits are misplaced.

The fruits grow from the tree of truth. No fruit is greater than its tree of truth.

Love is and isn’t the answer! Peace is of the devil and of God!

►Peace is a fruit of the tree of truth. You can’t exalt the fruit above the tree!

Peace, love and any of the fruits must be subject to and subordinate to truth. An example: Dividing the land of Israel seems loving and the right thing to do to bring peace. God says it brings His wrath and war! So do you exalt the fruits above the tree of truth? Never!

When you exalt the fruits above the tree of truth, the fruits take the pre-eminent position and truth becomes variable. You are now free to find verses that suit you and avoid others because the fruit is more important than the truth. This is heresy neatly dressed in Bible verses.

If you do not know your Bible well, you will get these things all messed up!

Most people talk of love but they hate the Prince of love! “O no we don’t,” they might protest, but wait until the Prince of love asks them to deny self, hate their lives in the world and expel all demons from their lives!

The great fence of separation:

●Relativism is the curse of the day! When you encounter it beware! What follows is a rejection of absolutes.

●Those who centre on experience and self-motivation are to be avoided.

●Know one thing and know it well: There is no middle ground on the Israeli / Palestinian issue. If you, like many churches come against Israel, boycott Israeli products and claim that Israel does not have the God - given right to all of the land of Israel, you are saying this: The Palestinians have equal rights to the land, and a state. You are saying that Islam has the legitimate right to the whole land.

If you come against Israel in favour of a two - state solution you are favouring a one-state Islamic, Palestinian state, because that is their stated, published goal!

If you come against God’s word on Israel you are supporting Goliath and coming against David. You stupid fool! The two-state solution is nothing but a two-state delusion. The blindness and stupidity of all of Europe in this regard right now is a case in point! We’ve seen it all before haven’t we!

 I know an individual well (I led him to our Lord). He ran well for a long time and grew in the Lord for many years, although I did have a sense that his heart was not all the way for our Lord. He moved to Germany and came under the influence of its modern thinking on the Palestinians. He visited me some time ago. I was shocked to see his fall from grace. He is no longer serving the Lord and is a vociferous campaigner for the Palestinian cause!

Beware – there are strong spiritual forces in these issues!

The standard:

Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The standard is the word of God enlightened by the Holy Spirit in your heart, but are there many standards which act as confirming factors of whether we are on the right road or not. The standard is not the church, nor the world.

In the verse above we see that true discipleship involves “teaching to observe all things I have taught.”Beware the church that doesn’t preach, teach and practice a fully orbed gospel.

The world is full of gullible people. Some are born that way, some become that way and some are under generational curses. Gullible people are easy to influence because they are largely blind. They are easy to manipulate. They are easy puppets.

But the ones who mislead and misuse the gullible are in trouble – pastors included. Have a look at this tragic verse:

Deuteronomy 27:18 “Cursed be he who makes the blind to wander out of the way of God. Bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of our Messiah.”

Many church leaders are beyond help. They are blind! Do you think that’s not so? Well God blinded Israel for the pride of their unbelief, after calling them and giving them so much more than others! Today we have the same situation in many churches. God has sent them “strong delusion”, because of their pride and arrogance, which has blinded them. They are un-teachable and beyond help!

2 Thessalonians 2:9-11 “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power signs and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie.”

What you must do:

●Do not be a compromiser. Do not go with the flow of the modern church. Do not listen to the hogwash coming from many churches. Do not be conceited and wise in your own eyes.

●Do be radical. Do “fall on this rock and be broken.” Do accept and protect the full gospel in your heart.

If you can’t find a Church in your neighbourhood that really is of God, know that all is not lost. You can go forward from strength to strength with our Lord, either on your own or in small groups.

1 John 4:6 “He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

Finally:

The world’s church will fit in with world. It will fit in with the Multi-Faith movement; it will be full of doctrinal diversity.

The true Church will be in the world but not of it in any form, shape or size!

Revelation 5:5 “...Weep no more; behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David has conquered.”

Hosea 11:10 “They (Jews) shall go after the Lord; He will roar like a lion; when he roars, His children shall come trembling from the west.”

I took this picture from a chopper recently looking down on an area called The Dragon’s Back in the Drakensberg Mountains. One of the reasons I really love the mountains is that they’re always there. They have a sense of eternity about them. They speak to me of great beauty, but the love of God’s creation must still be sanctified through the cross in our lives, otherwise pure beauty is pure danger!

Romans1:20 “For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, in all things that have been made, so that they (unbelievers) are without excuse.”

Shalom and grow in grace!