"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15)
"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James 4:4)
With all the activities and traditions of the IC (Institutionalized Church) these days it should become clear to us how much like the world it has become and why it can only produce dead works. It has joined hand in hand with the "things of the world" to a point that there is no difference in the "morally good" but "unsaved" people of the world. Just like the world, they are only able to sometimes clean up the outside of the cup while the inside remains filthy, and then "humbly" say, "We all sin sometimes and no one is perfect". It is a dead and powerless "Church"; it is apostate and unable to produce the Life of Christ in its members.
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. (26 ) blind Pharisee, cleanse first that [which is] within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also." (Matthew 23:25-26)
There is an antichrist spirit spoken of in 1 John the 2nd chapter. It is the spirit of the world, and he opposes all that is Christ's and His rule in us. This spirit sits in the hearts of those that find their life in the world and its things. Exposing this antichrist spirit that is so prevalent in "Christendom" today is what is needed, so perhaps some that have a love of the truth, (no matter the cost to themselves) will hear the words of the Spirit say "come out from among them and be separate."
"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you," (2 Corinthians 6:17)
The purpose in exposing things like the truth about Halloween as
this video does or exposing any of the other ungodly acts the worldly Church condones and participates in, isn't to get some to stop it and to clean up their act (which would only be cleaning up the outside of the cup again). But, it is to expose the heart and the whole way of life that the end time apostate church has produced in those that would follow it. And most important, to cause any that would hear the truth to turn to the
real Christ who is able to give them
His life that will produce true Holiness in them, bringing sweet fellowship with Him in true righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. This is what the true life of Christ in us is all about...it doesn't need the things of the world to be fulfilled, Christ is all and in all for them. The world's pleasures become a "let down" to those whose life is in Christ; there is no longer any real desire for worldly pleasures in them and the spirit of world hates them for it.
"My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you," (Galatians 4:19)
"For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:" - (Colossians 2:9-10)
Being complete in Christ is a process that the Lord works in us as we mature in Him, but the apostate church does not allow for this growth in us; rather, they encourage our dependence on them and the world for our substance. We must be willing to separate ourselves out from the world and live for His use alone and be willing for Him to begin this work in us. If we keep looking to the things of the world...even the "good" and "clean" kind of activities these churches have for our entertainment, happiness and fulfillment, we need to ask ourselves, "Is Christ being formed in me through these activities? Is He becoming my all in all? Are the desires or need for these things becoming less and less?" Or do we "need" church life or the "good" things that the world has to offer for us to be spiritually fulfilled?
The answers to these questions can show us if Christ is becoming our life and if we are becoming complete in Him...or not. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:11 "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." If we are not growing up in Him, we are falling away. The outside of the cup may be very clean, but on the inside there is filth and no life. Jesus said, "So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth". Revelation 3:16
"And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward [is] with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." (Revelation 22:12)
These are the last days, and there is no time to be playing games, if we don't "get it right" now it will soon be too late. There is a saying, "it is hard to see the forest for the trees"; and likewise, it is hard to see clearly the false gospel being preached in the world today while you are still in the world. Please consider the possibility that what I say is true, that most "Christian Churches in America" are apostate. Where does that leave those that are in it? What would they have to lose if they listened to what is being said here and seek God with everything in them? Many have been in the "church" their whole lives and have been "good" Christians, but have been so blinded...little by little over the years, they don't even realize how much of the world they are in because they still go to church, pray and are good moral people. They are doing all the church has told them to do, but they are so full of the world and don't even realize it. They do not realize they are in need of anything. It will take the Holy Spirit to open their eyes.
"Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day." (Deuteronomy 29:4)
I pray the Lord will quicken their hearts and give them eyes to see and ears to hear before it is too late!
"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. ... Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." - (Revelation 3:6, 17-18)
I imagine that many who are deeply involved in the IC will read this, but will only get angry or assume that they or their church or denomination isn't like that, or I am just being legalistic and unloving to say such things. But if the Spirit of the Lord truly dwells in any...I believe the Lord is able to prick their hearts and give them eyes to see the fact that they are not yet living the same kind of life that our Lord Jesus Christ lived. Nor have they lived the kind of life that the apostles lived that followed Christ; it was a life that caused horrible persecutions to come upon them, but why? They didn't die because of the miracles they did or for their good works...what was it that made the world hate them so and kill them? Jesus called his own religious people "the world", they are the ones that hated Him and killed Him. We like to think the "world" is only those that are living in obvious sins...those who do not claim to know or follow God. But these were not Christ's enemies that put Him to death. Followers of Christ were hated and killed because they were not part of the world, and the world hated them for it. Their very existence was like a light shining on those that called themselves godly, and exposed their hypocrisy.
"He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked." (1 John 2:6)
With all the mega-churches out there today with thousands attending them, why is there no real change in the world if what they have is so real? Where is the holiness that is required to see God produced in their followers? Where is the cross of dying daily to their own wants and desires, to live only for Him who purchased them with His blood? Why are they not living their lives in the same manner that Christ's followers lived their lives in the first century? I am not talking about outward signs of good moral "acts", which are only our "reasonable" service, which even the "heathens" can produce. But the Lord requires holiness (separated for God's use only) in all that would be His. The best that can be produced in the apostate church is the world's antichrist attitude that says, "We all sin sometimes and no one is perfect".
"Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. ... And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight." - (1 John 3:6, 22 KJV)
Our daily cross, which is living for God's will and pleasure and not our own, is not what is taught today; in fact the opposite is implied with an attitude that God is living for our pleasure instead. To demonstrate this truth, just listen to the way we pray. Do we pray as the world would pray, for what "seems" right in our own eyes? Do we receive all that we ask for in prayer as 1 John 5:14 says? "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: (15) And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him."
Do we wonder why prayers aren't answered every time we pray, and we are not moving in more of the power of the Holy Spirit? Do we pray in the Holy Spirit by waiting on Him to give us what to pray for, or are we so filled with our own wants and desires that we cannot "hear" the moving of the Holy Spirit on how to pray? This is how the world lives; by its own wants and desires, this should not be so with us.
"Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God," - (Hebrews 6:1 KJV)
It is time to leave the ways of the world, to grow up and move on into perfection. Our goal is to no longer be moved by our earthly desires and emotions, but allowing Christ to live His life through us. This is received by faith in Him, for what is impossible with man is possible with God. If we are willing, through many trials and tribulations, the Lord will bring us there. There may be many ups and down, but He will complete the work He began in us. This was His plan before the foundation of the world, to perform this work in us, but it cannot be done with one foot in the world and one foot in the Kingdom. Let us forget the past and how we might have failed yesterday, and continue to press on toward the mark of this high calling in Christ Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith.
B. Hayes
10/29/2011
