What does it mean for the Church or a church to be under judgment? Most think that would entail financial trouble or that numbers would go down or that programs would lose attention and that the church building would be struck with a “natural” disaster. Perhaps we might be afraid of a frontal attack by the devil in some way. However, the greatest thing that a professing church has to fear is God Himself. Last week we noted that one way that God sends judgment is by sending a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. This is not opposed to a lot of books and tapes being written as those could continue to pour off of the presses and still the words of the Lord not be heard by the writers or the hearers. This would not be opposed to works on theology and church growth. Numerical growth and many programs would not be opposite to the Lord sending a famine upon a church. That church might go around with lots of activity, but it would not hear the words of the Lord.
Another form of judgment is that the Lord withdraws Himself from a people and leaves them to their own devices in opposing the evil one. The scary thing about this is that after a few years true religion would no longer be known and the descent into darkness would hardly be noticed amongst the activities of the religious followers of the day. That appears to be one thing that is going on in modern America today. We have not seen a true revival beyond something that was short and localized in the United States since the time of the Civil War. We have virtually forgotten what true religion looks like and so we are caught up with what is catchy and new and what “works.” We are so Americanized that we think that a church that is busy and growing in numbers must be a true success and blessed of God. But when those activities are being carried out in the wisdom, power, and strength of men rather than the grace of God, the judgment of God is on that church rather than His blessing.
The Church must learn that it should fear the evil one, but that it should fear God far more. The evil one indeed fights against the people of the Lord, but the Lord uses the evil one to carry out His judgment and at times He uses him to train His people. The Israelites had huge problems over the years with idolatry. Who was it that they were to fear? The Lord God Almighty is the One they should have feared more and more. Hebrews 3:17 tells us one instance out of the many that the Lord judged His people: “And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?” The bodies fell in judgment for forty years. The Church needs to learn that it must fear God more than anything else. Isaiah 63:10 gives us another instance where the people’s disobedience led to a surprising result. God became their enemy. “But they rebelled And grieved His Holy Spirit; Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy, He fought against them.” The nation of Israel was chosen and called out of Egypt by God. Yet He dealt with them severely and was the enemy of His people at times. That may indeed be an unknown God in the modern theology of fluff, but God never changes. He still judges His people and those who bear His name. When a church has God as its enemy, it may still have outward success but it is hollow at best. It will have no spiritual foundation at all.
The Scripture gives us reasons why God is angry at times. Hebrews 3:10 gives one: “THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS.'” The text tells us that God was angry with that generation. It then gives us two reasons for why He was angry. One, they always go astray in their heart. It was not that they were outwardly immoral and disobedient, but that their hearts went astray. Their hearts went after the finer things of life and after other gods. But we must be very careful at this point and not just think that God was angry because of their sin. If we look very carefully at Romans 1:18-32 we will see that sin is the result of judgment too. God turns people over to a hardened heart. God judges sin with a hardened heart which leads to more sin and more of His anger.
The Church in modern America is certainly guilty of going astray in its heart. There are idols of money, success, influence in many places and spiritual pride. Men and women are flaunting themselves and their teachings on screens and in buildings across the country and in ways that demonstrate hearts that have gone astray. It may sound impossible to many people, but the Gospel is virtually lost in our day. Indeed there are many truncated messages thrown around with loose language, but that is hardly the Gospel. We have preaching with intellectual treatises and much on morality. We have people screaming about the King James Version. We have people screaming about all sorts of fundamentalist causes. We have preaching with all sorts of social justice causes. We have impassioned “sermons” about the need to help the poor and the need for political power. We have sermons on obtaining money for building programs. But where are the preachers who preach the Gospel itself with power in our day? Where are those who hear preaching and are truly broken in heart? Where are those who hear the glory of the Gospel and for joy will sell all? Instead of that we have people coming forward to have Jesus help them with a problem and make them rich. We are truly living in a spiritually impoverished day in the midst of a lot of spiritual activity.
The second reason that Hebrews 3:10 gives as something which makes God angry is because people do not know His ways. Why do people not know His ways? One reason is because they assume that the things they do in their own wisdom must be His way of doing things. A second reason is because people do not know the Word. A third reason is because people do not know God. What happens when the Spirit is grieved and God withdraws Himself from His people? They are given over to humanistic ways of doing things. They are also blind to what they are doing. Arminian theology and practices can be given to a lot of activity without God. Reformed theology can become barren intellectualism and yet its practice can also be given over to a lot of activity. No one is exempt from this sort of thing. People can study the Bible and receive terminal degrees in the Bible and theology and still not have the understanding from the Lord. This leads to people following their own wisdom while thinking it is the Lord’s. This leads to people not really knowing the Word and of course not truly knowing God. Any religious activity that flows from that will certainly not be acceptable to the Lord.
Another sign of the absence of the Lord’s presence and activity among His people is when people thirst for unity apart from truth. In the modern day it is thought that unity is of the utmost importance and so theology is watered down for the sake of agreement. There is no true unity apart from Christ who is the Truth (John 17:20-23) and there is no true worship apart from worship in spirit and truth. It is simply amazing to see people water down the truth for the sake of unity when in fact there can be no unity apart from the truth. Jesus never told us to seek unity at all costs and never said that there was anything special in unity apart from truth and Himself. Jesus Christ is Truth incarnate and how do we think that His body (the Church) can have unity apart from Him?
A lot of the problems that happen in the church are effects of the Lord Himself withdrawing. One is that people are given over to selfishness and pride. When the Lord gives people over to pride, it is a terrible judgment. God stands in battle alignment against the proud. It is a terrible judgment to be turned over to pride because a person is then in the hands of a proud person (self) that is blinded by pride, but even more that person is now fighting God. The Almighty has told us that He only gives grace to the humble, so when a person is turned over to pride that person is cut off of the grace of God. When a church is turned over to pride or leaders that are full of pride, that church is then given over to a terrible judgment. Pride comes before a fall. Contention comes because of pride. Why are the churches having so much trouble? It many cases it is because of pride.
It takes little insight to see that men are following their own wisdom in the church growth methods and in church planting methods. It is also obvious that the biblical practice of church discipline has given way to the wisdom of man as well. After all, if we practice church discipline it might run people off and offend others. Perhaps we should be more concerned with the Lord being offended and departing than human beings. Perhaps the Lord truly knows how to deal with sin in the church and that is church discipline. When will man learn from Scripture that his own wisdom is foolishness? When will man learn to bow before the Lord and plead for Christ to be his wisdom and strength? It will only be when man is humbled from following his own ways and the Lord returns in power. No one has the power to make God return and there is no way we can bring God under obligation to do so. He will only return by grace alone. We must begin to seek Him earnestly and asking for Him to show us our hearts.
The American Church is under the judgment of God and that is without question if one takes Scripture seriously. It is not when judgment will come, but it has been here for a long time. We cannot seek the blessing of God with human wisdom in humanistic methodologies and unity apart from truth. The only way to truly seek God is to seek Him for humility and brokenness of heart first. There is no true prayer or seeking the Lord apart from brokenness and humility. We are just kidding ourselves if we think that our religious activities are blessed of God if we are not truly broken of our pride and dependence on self and its strength. God only dwells with the humble and contrite of spirit. We live in a time when God has withdrawn and our perceived successes are actually His judgments. We can try any form of church government; get back to expositional preaching, church discipline and all sorts of biblical things. While those are good, there is only one place to start and that is on our faces in utter helplessness crying out for mercy. Orthodox teaching and means are of no avail apart from the presence of God. Without that, all is lost.
The Pharisees had a lot of orthodoxy, but they did not have the presence of God. Neither will all the orthodoxy in the world bring Him and His presence back in our day. We may slam the liberals all we want, but the real issue is pride of the heart. Some are liberal from pride and others are orthodox from pride. Many use modern and worldly means to get people into church buildings, and those who stand for the historical means sneer at that. But both have the same problem and that is pride. Whether the means are historical and biblical or modern and worldly is not the major issue. When either way is used in a proud and self-centered way, both are wicked and the presence of God will not return. Orthodox preaching from pride and self-centered motives is perhaps more wicked to God than liberalism. The god of liberalism is not the true God and so the true God is perhaps not as abused as the orthodox who use more truth about God than the liberals for their own proud and selfish goals. When the heart is proud, nothing that is done is acceptable before God. Without humility and brokenness, all is lost.
God Loves... Himself 
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