“When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death: Mat 27:1” There’s the church leaders that were once God’s chosen people. We know it was the True Church of All True Churches if there ever was a Church that could be called such, and yet here they are having a board meeting to kill God.
The words of God to ancient Israel have a solemn warning to the church and its leaders today. Of Israel the Lord said, “I have written to him the great things of My law; but they were counted as a strange thing.” Hosea 8:12. And to the priests and teachers He declared, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee; . . . seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” Hosea 4:6
What type of counsel meeting is this church really having? Well sorry to say, but I have attended meetings as such. Christ is today persecuted, and crucified afresh in the person of His Saints; when they suffer on account of their loyalty to the Gospel He is there in their midst suffering with them. I have seen those who stand loyal to God’s principles be maligned, abused, stripped of their positions for taking a stand for right while the church following the broad road lessened the gap between them and the world. I have witnessed those who choose to follow Christ be cast out, disfellowshipped, laughed at while members in good standing dropped one more standard in the dust never to pick it up again.
Is it possible to be a church once favored with the Holy Spirit and now removed from Christ never to come into his presence again and evento be actually lead by another Spirit, as Rev. 18:2 says, lead by a devil, because the church has become a “habituation of devils.”? Jesus explicitly warns the chruch of Ephesus that he will remove them unless they repent! “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. Rev. 2:1-5“
God gives men the light, but many are filled with a self-sufficient, masterly spirit; and they strive by carrying out their own ideas to reach a height where they will be as God. They place their mind first, as if God must serve with them. Herein lies the danger in this: Unless God shall in some way make these men understand that He is God, and that they are to serve Him, human inventions will be brought in that will lead away from Bible truth, notwithstanding all the cautions that have been given.
The Lord Jesus will always have a chosen people to serve Him. When the Jewish people rejected Christ, the Prince of life, He took from them the kingdom of God and gave it unto the Gentiles. God will continue to work on this principle with every branch of His work. When a church proves unfaithful to the word of the Lord, whatever their position may be, however high and sacred their calling, the Lord can no longer work with them. Others are then chosen to bear important responsibilities. But, if these in turn do not purify their lives from every wrong action, if they do not establish pure and holy principles in all their borders, then the Lord will grievously afflict and humble them and, unless they repent, will remove them from their place and make them a reproach. . .
Part 3 Coming out of Fallen Churches (coming soon)