I have posted this before and felt the urgency from the Holy Spirit to post again. I dont believe you necessarily have to preach a different message each Sunday. If God tells you to preach the same subject for weeks; it is better to obey God than self. I apply the same principle here. What is an Apostate Church? It is a church that appears Godly, but is not truly of God. It believes not the true Gospel of the Lord, or it pretends to believe, but will not obey. It is a church that produces no real good fruit. It may look good on the outside and sound good on the inside, but its members produce no good fruit on an individual basis. The members are not taught to proclaim the Gospel and are not trained on how to do it. It is a fine religion that does little but serve itself. It is a cult. This church has a form of Godliness but denies the power of God. It tickles the ears of its members with good tidings and refrains from inflicting hell-fire sermons for it would offend these sheep. Repentance, holiness and good works are frowned upon. And much more! Just because all the churches are doing the same things does not negate Gods Word or His commands. The apostate churches creating the great falling away will certainly disobey Gods commands and yet appear as angels of light. And that is why you dont see pastors preaching sermons on how to reach the lost for Christ. They dont care! Action speaks louder than words. The pulpit today in America has not only lost its authority, its lost its dignity through many of the immature men who occupy it. The church in America has become a “Cappuccino Church”, all froth and no substance and instead of being a place of spiritual good, it often has a damning influence. Many churches in America today are indistinguishable from the local country club. They offer all the comforts of a country club including yoga classes and Zumba dancing and coffee bars whose focus is on making man happy and gratifying his flesh. The Gospel of the apostate church speaks of a comfortable Christianity which has no restrictions and it speaks of a Jesus who has no requirements. But the Jesus of the Bible did not speak of a comfortable Christianity, rather he said, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. The members of the apostate church are quite happy there and content. They are entertained weekly, empty, like they belong to a special social club and they meet on a regular basis. They even pay their monthly dues to this country club church by tithing and this helps to ease their conscience. But the sad fact is that this apostate church is a church that damns. The Cappuccino Church is a worldly church with a worldly program for its worldly members. It is of the world and of the devil. The Cappuccino Church has a pastor who is more like Jay Leno than a true shepherd. This comedian pastor tells jokes to make his people laugh. The jokes may even be off-color to embarrass them to laugh. He tells funny stories to arouse emotions and his ministry is based on his professionalism and personality rather than the power of God through a surrendered life under the discipline of the Holy Spirit. But we have more jokesters in the pulpits today who make you laugh rather than prophets who cry with authority, Thus sayeth the Lord. Sadly, few want to have an encounter with God in the church today. They just want to be entertained. The church was never intended to be a place of laughter and entertainment but a house of prayer and worship. The church in America today has become a party church with fun and laughter rather than a weeping church broken over the sins of the land and burdened for the lost and perishing around them. The church has become self-focused, self-sufficient and self-absorbed. God is a million miles away from the Cappuccino Church in America today. The Cappuccino Church is a feel-good church like the coffee drink, it makes you feel good. Today in churches, they have a party and laugh and sing because of Christ’s absence. The church in America back 30 years ago was a place where true believers gathered to pray and lay hold of God and weep over the lost and you heard a message about the blood and the cross and the need for repentance because you were a sinner who needed to be reconciled back to an offended God. You heard about a terrible place called hell and you were warned not to go there. But today, in the churches in the land, youll hear a funny story and feel-good messages to make you feel better about yourself before its time for you to go leave and enjoy your lunch. Listen, the apostate church fails to warn the sinner to flee from the wrath to come and its run on man-power and methodologies rather than God and Holy Ghost power. The Cappuccino Church presents a God that has no claims or rights upon a person’s life. It omits the need of repentance, the plan of redemption, the blood of Christ and the bloody cross on which he died. Rather, it preaches a feel-good message which doesnt upset anybody or confront them with their sins. The underground church in China suffers persecution as they follow a crucified Savior. The aboveground church in China is the Three Self Church and its a tool for the communist government. The apostate church in America will be the vehicle used by the Antichrist when he appears. You will be able to distinguish a true Christian then. They’ll be the ones being persecuted for their faith and testimony in Christ Jesus. Martin Luther cried out against the corrupt church in his day and he was persecuted for it. The apostate church will persecute true believers as the Antichrist appears. Ezekiel, chapter 11 and verse 12 Listen to how God describes his rebellious people: And ye shall know that I am the LORD: for ye have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you. Notice several outstanding remarks from this passage from the Word of God: 1. God says something to his people which is quite extraordinary, he declares, And ye shall know that I am the LORD. You see, many that claim to know him did not know him. They had a perverted view of God and their god was not the God of the Bible. Today in the land, I fear many church members have a perverted view of God and they have fashioned a god of their own making and they worship that idol rather than know the true and living God of the Bible. God was telling his rebellious people that through coming judgments, they will know the true God and know that I am the LORD. This will be true when judgment falls upon America from the hand of God. Times will become so desperate, people so despondent, they will turn to the government for help and the government will be bankrupt and entirely helpless themselves. This situation will be so drastic and so bad that people will realize that God is the author of their calamity and God will be able to say, And ye shall know that I am the LORD. 2. Notice the next indictment God has against his straying people. He says, For ye have not walked in my statutes. Today’s apostate church has members who live in sin and have no remorse for it. They feel that because they are once saved, always saved, they can sin all they want to without any repercussions since they won their ticket to heaven through a false, easy believeism. God reprimands his people for their disobedience to his commands. Today’s church that damns, preaches an easy belief Gospel that allows you to take Christ as Savior and remain in your sins, whereas the Bible declares that Jesus came to save his people from their sins. Jesus never preached a sinning religion, but a self-crucifying one. He said, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. But the church that damns declares you can have Jesus and the world, too. You can have Jesus and hold on to your rotten sins and its okay with him. But, God says No. God says, Be ye holy for I am holy. And in Hebrews it declares, Without holiness no one will see the Lord. 3. Notice the next urgent matter that God brings before his rebellious people: he says to them, neither fdeclare to the heathen the purposes of God, they kept all their knowledge to themselves selfishly. Today’s church that damns has no real Gospel witness to the world. Theres no message of Gods true Gospel which speaks of ruin, redemption, repentance, and regeneration. You will not hear of the blood, nor the cross, nor sin, nor hell, nor of a future judgment for all mankind. Rather, its a selfish Gospel which creates selfish followers who think only of themselves and their own amusements. Their number one aim in life is to gratify their flesh. They know nothing of the cross in the life of the believer nor have they ever surrendered to the Lordship of Christ with all his claims and demands upon their lives. The church that damns speaks nothing about the strict and severe law of God which every man will be judged against and that all will fail that test. I am a sinner and I need a sin substitute in the person of Jesus Christ. rebellious Jews did not execute Gods judgments and defend a holy God and fear him. Rather, they put their own needs and desires first in their lives to the neglect of the things of God. The Jews put themselves first and God second in their lives and God said, No. Finally, notice the last thing in this verse from Ezekiel, notice the last indictment from God to his straying people. He tells them, but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you. In other words, they worshipped God like the heathen. They brought false fire into the house of God. They let the world in and pushed God out. I fear many churches in America today have walked God to the back of the church and pushed him out the back door and then theyve gone and opened their front door and invited the world in. The Cappuccino Church looks just like the world, there’s no telling them apart. I have a hard time finding anybody today preaching up the blood and the cross and calling sin black and hell hot, and warning sinners to flee from the wrath to come. No, they just want to make you laugh and want to entertain you. They dont want to upset anybody by mentioning sin or the need for repentance. Theyre afraid to offend man so they offend God. God help us. When Jesus preached, he always upset his hearers. They wanted to take him to the top of a hill after he preached and throw him off of it. After one preaching session, the people picked up stones to stone him but he escaped them by walking through their midst. And one time, after Jesus preached a hard message, the crowd left him and many said, Who can understand it? And Jesus turned to his men and asked, Will you leave me too? When Christ preached, he divided the crowd into sheep and goats but many of the pygmies that stand in our pulpits today want to be accepted by their hearers because of their pride so they speak, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. The true Gospel declares we are enemies of God because of sin and we need to be reconciled to him through the blood of Jesus Christ. We need to repent of our rotten sins and fall on our faces and turn back to God in true contrition and brokenness over our sins. We need to humble ourselves before an offended Creator and beg him for mercy. Listen, judgment is not coming to America because of the White House.Judgment is not coming to America because of the Court House. Judgment is coming to America because of the Church House. God is sending judgments upon America because the professed church of God does not walk in his statutes nor execute his judgments but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about them. The only hope for America and Canada is revival. But there is good news. God is calling out his remnant to stand strong for him. God called out a remnant in the days of Ezekiel. Listen to verses 19 and 20 from chapter 11. Listen to Gods mercy, And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I believe that God is calling his remnant today in the land to go to their knees and humble themselves before Him!
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 03:16:49 +0000
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