Post by Benjamin on May 16, 2014 1:32:32 GMT
Over the past few days, I’ve been reading through the book of Malachi, and I’ve been struck by the parallels to our own day. The book of Malachi is pervaded by a sense that God is no longer listening. God Himself still speaks from heaven, but His voice overflows not with comfort, but disgust. “I am not pleased with you”, says The Lord (1:10), “and I will accept no offering from your hands.” “You have violated [my] covenant… so I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people.”
These verses have an unnerving parallel to our own time.
Jeremiah speaks in similar terms about the state of Israel, and explains what led her to this unenviable position:
A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land:
The prophets prophesy lies,
The priests rule by their own authority,
And my people love to have it so. (Jeremiah 5:30-31)
I’d like to take a look today at this scenario. I believe that there is a great deal for the church of Jesus Christ to learn from what His Holy Spirit has spoken to Israel, and I believe that time is running out for that lesson to be learned.
To begin, however, we need to determine what ‘prophecy’ is. There are many perspectives on this, but I’d like to reduce our definition to the simplest expression possible. In the Old Testament, the prophets prefaced their teachings with the phrase “Thus saith The Lord!”; emphatically declaring that they were relaying the very Word of God Himself. Peter described the prophets like this:
Prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21).
This encapsulates perfectly the spirit of prophecy. Prophecy is the Spirit of God ‘carrying along’ the people of God in order to relay the voice of God. Hebrews conveys the same point, stating that “God… spoke to our fathers by the prophets, at many times, and in various ways” (1:1). Combining these two verses, then, we can see that prophecy is God speaking to us, and through us, that His own voice might be heard in this world.
By the time of Jeremiah, however, the prophets had ceased to speak on behalf of The Lord. Jeremiah says that “The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love to have it so.” What caused such a disconnect?
In 1994, a man named Harold Camping opened his mouth to speak on behalf of The Lord. He informed the world that He had been told by God Himself that the world would end on September the 6th, 1994. That prediction, of course, would prove false, but reveals a truth to us that we as a Church cannot continue to ignore. Jesus said “my sheep hear me, and they know my voice” (John 10:27). When a prophet opens his mouth to convey the words of the Lord, and falsehood comes out, we must ask the question, ‘whose voice is this prophet listening to?” Jeremiah concluded in his own day that the prophets were speaking according to their own authority, rather than the authority of the Father, and while this is undoubtedly true, I would suggest that in these Last Days, the source is ever more supernatural, powerful and literally hell-bent on the destruction of the Church. The accuser of the brethren knows that his hour is at hand, and is working overtime to destroy. We can see this same series of events at hand in Scripture. By Malachi’s day, the situation had worsened. “You flood the Lord’s altar with tears”, he says (2:13). “You weep and you wail… [but God] no longer pays attention to your offerings, or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, “why?” It is because you have… broken faith… with the wife of your youth.” God's people had literally abandoned the voice of their God, taking heed instead to false prophets and pleasing doctrines, to the point where God Himself was no longer interested in the words that spilled from their lips.
If this doesn’t sound familiar to you, it should. We live in an age obsessed with worship. Quiet worship. Loud worship. Soaking worship. It seems that our entire system in relation to God has become all about worship. Yet, despite all of our tears, despite our pleading, our offerings, our tithes, the Church has never been more ineffectual. “You ask, “why?” Our answer is as clear as Israel’s. She broke faith with the wife of her youth; we have fallen asleep and no longer hear the bridegroom when he calls. In a previous article I discussed the church at Laodicea. She was broken, poor, wretched, and on the verge of expulsion from the body of Christ. Our church, however, bears the fatal hallmarks of all the churches that preceded it, and I believe that The Lord speaks to us from each of the letters to the churches in Revelation. “Yet this, I hold against you.", Jesus says. "You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent, and do the things you did at first.” (Revelation 2:4-5)
This is the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and a painful truth. Any casual observer can see that the church, for all its perceived fervour, for all its worship services and evangelistic outreach, is failing. We are ineffectual, we are broken, and all too often, we are painfully unaware of just how little an impact we are having on this world. We say “I am rich! I have acquired wealth, and do not need a thing”, and yet we “do not realize that we are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” (Revelation 3:17). We have “lost our first love”, and with it, lost the ability both to hear the Lord speak, and to speak on His behalf. As a result,
[Our] prophets prophesy lies,
[Our] priests rule by their own authority,
And [we] love to have it so.
Brothers and sisters, the church has become willingly blind to its plight, wilfully heeding whichever voice speaks “what our itching ears long to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3), while our Saviour “stands at the door and knocks” (Revelation 3:20).
There remains, however, a remedy.
“Return to me, and I will return to you”, says The Lord Almighty.
“Test me in this”, says the Lord, “and see if I do not throw open the floodgates of heaven, and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” (Malachi 3:10)
The Church Age will soon be past. Her time has come, and will soon be at an end. Her prophets prophesy falsely, our preachers cannot hear the voice of the One they claim to serve, and her churches are gravely ineffectual. Her worship is shallow, her tears are wasted, and her God will no longer honour her prayers. …but we are not without hope.
Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened… and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honoured His name.
“They will be mine”, says the Lord almighty, “in the day when I make up my treasured possession.
I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.” (Malachi 3:16-18)
We need to recognise the times we are in. The hour is late.
Soon, we shall hear the voice of the Archangel, the trumpet call of God, and see His face.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)
It may very well be too late for Laodicea… but it is never too late for you to come to Jesus Christ, honestly, earnestly, and to reclaim your first love. Our God is literally waiting to pour out blessing upon blessing upon you, to throw open the floodgates, and to bless you with “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms” in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:3). All we must do, brothers and sisters, the only thing we must do, is seek Him. “My sheep hear me, and they know my voice.” When He calls, will you follow? Will you lay everything aside, casting of all that hinders, and run to the God of your salvation?
Jesus calls us to "do the things [we] did at first".
It is time to restore our hearts and minds to simple Christianity. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind - and love your neighbour as yourself. This sums up the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-39, my paraphrase). This is what the Lord requires of us, even in this late hour. This our chief purpose, and our very great reward - to desire God, and enjoy Him forever. All else is secondary. From this flows all love, all joy, all peace, all patience, all kindness, all goodness, all faithfulness, all gentleness, all self-control. From here flows evangelism, zeal, and true worship. Love Him. Seek Him. Know Him. Find yourself in a living, breathing, vital relationship with the Creator of All Things.
“He who testifies to these things says “Yes, I am coming soon”.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
These verses have an unnerving parallel to our own time.
Jeremiah speaks in similar terms about the state of Israel, and explains what led her to this unenviable position:
A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land:
The prophets prophesy lies,
The priests rule by their own authority,
And my people love to have it so. (Jeremiah 5:30-31)
I’d like to take a look today at this scenario. I believe that there is a great deal for the church of Jesus Christ to learn from what His Holy Spirit has spoken to Israel, and I believe that time is running out for that lesson to be learned.
To begin, however, we need to determine what ‘prophecy’ is. There are many perspectives on this, but I’d like to reduce our definition to the simplest expression possible. In the Old Testament, the prophets prefaced their teachings with the phrase “Thus saith The Lord!”; emphatically declaring that they were relaying the very Word of God Himself. Peter described the prophets like this:
Prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21).
This encapsulates perfectly the spirit of prophecy. Prophecy is the Spirit of God ‘carrying along’ the people of God in order to relay the voice of God. Hebrews conveys the same point, stating that “God… spoke to our fathers by the prophets, at many times, and in various ways” (1:1). Combining these two verses, then, we can see that prophecy is God speaking to us, and through us, that His own voice might be heard in this world.
By the time of Jeremiah, however, the prophets had ceased to speak on behalf of The Lord. Jeremiah says that “The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love to have it so.” What caused such a disconnect?
In 1994, a man named Harold Camping opened his mouth to speak on behalf of The Lord. He informed the world that He had been told by God Himself that the world would end on September the 6th, 1994. That prediction, of course, would prove false, but reveals a truth to us that we as a Church cannot continue to ignore. Jesus said “my sheep hear me, and they know my voice” (John 10:27). When a prophet opens his mouth to convey the words of the Lord, and falsehood comes out, we must ask the question, ‘whose voice is this prophet listening to?” Jeremiah concluded in his own day that the prophets were speaking according to their own authority, rather than the authority of the Father, and while this is undoubtedly true, I would suggest that in these Last Days, the source is ever more supernatural, powerful and literally hell-bent on the destruction of the Church. The accuser of the brethren knows that his hour is at hand, and is working overtime to destroy. We can see this same series of events at hand in Scripture. By Malachi’s day, the situation had worsened. “You flood the Lord’s altar with tears”, he says (2:13). “You weep and you wail… [but God] no longer pays attention to your offerings, or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, “why?” It is because you have… broken faith… with the wife of your youth.” God's people had literally abandoned the voice of their God, taking heed instead to false prophets and pleasing doctrines, to the point where God Himself was no longer interested in the words that spilled from their lips.
If this doesn’t sound familiar to you, it should. We live in an age obsessed with worship. Quiet worship. Loud worship. Soaking worship. It seems that our entire system in relation to God has become all about worship. Yet, despite all of our tears, despite our pleading, our offerings, our tithes, the Church has never been more ineffectual. “You ask, “why?” Our answer is as clear as Israel’s. She broke faith with the wife of her youth; we have fallen asleep and no longer hear the bridegroom when he calls. In a previous article I discussed the church at Laodicea. She was broken, poor, wretched, and on the verge of expulsion from the body of Christ. Our church, however, bears the fatal hallmarks of all the churches that preceded it, and I believe that The Lord speaks to us from each of the letters to the churches in Revelation. “Yet this, I hold against you.", Jesus says. "You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent, and do the things you did at first.” (Revelation 2:4-5)
This is the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and a painful truth. Any casual observer can see that the church, for all its perceived fervour, for all its worship services and evangelistic outreach, is failing. We are ineffectual, we are broken, and all too often, we are painfully unaware of just how little an impact we are having on this world. We say “I am rich! I have acquired wealth, and do not need a thing”, and yet we “do not realize that we are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” (Revelation 3:17). We have “lost our first love”, and with it, lost the ability both to hear the Lord speak, and to speak on His behalf. As a result,
[Our] prophets prophesy lies,
[Our] priests rule by their own authority,
And [we] love to have it so.
Brothers and sisters, the church has become willingly blind to its plight, wilfully heeding whichever voice speaks “what our itching ears long to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3), while our Saviour “stands at the door and knocks” (Revelation 3:20).
There remains, however, a remedy.
“Return to me, and I will return to you”, says The Lord Almighty.
“Test me in this”, says the Lord, “and see if I do not throw open the floodgates of heaven, and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” (Malachi 3:10)
The Church Age will soon be past. Her time has come, and will soon be at an end. Her prophets prophesy falsely, our preachers cannot hear the voice of the One they claim to serve, and her churches are gravely ineffectual. Her worship is shallow, her tears are wasted, and her God will no longer honour her prayers. …but we are not without hope.
Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened… and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honoured His name.
“They will be mine”, says the Lord almighty, “in the day when I make up my treasured possession.
I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.” (Malachi 3:16-18)
We need to recognise the times we are in. The hour is late.
Soon, we shall hear the voice of the Archangel, the trumpet call of God, and see His face.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)
It may very well be too late for Laodicea… but it is never too late for you to come to Jesus Christ, honestly, earnestly, and to reclaim your first love. Our God is literally waiting to pour out blessing upon blessing upon you, to throw open the floodgates, and to bless you with “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms” in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:3). All we must do, brothers and sisters, the only thing we must do, is seek Him. “My sheep hear me, and they know my voice.” When He calls, will you follow? Will you lay everything aside, casting of all that hinders, and run to the God of your salvation?
Jesus calls us to "do the things [we] did at first".
It is time to restore our hearts and minds to simple Christianity. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind - and love your neighbour as yourself. This sums up the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-39, my paraphrase). This is what the Lord requires of us, even in this late hour. This our chief purpose, and our very great reward - to desire God, and enjoy Him forever. All else is secondary. From this flows all love, all joy, all peace, all patience, all kindness, all goodness, all faithfulness, all gentleness, all self-control. From here flows evangelism, zeal, and true worship. Love Him. Seek Him. Know Him. Find yourself in a living, breathing, vital relationship with the Creator of All Things.
“He who testifies to these things says “Yes, I am coming soon”.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
