We are in a series on the judgment of God on the professing Church which is a statement on the state of the Church. As has been said several times, we must not judge the state of the professing Church by our feelings or the level of numerical growth. What should determine the state of the professing Church in our estimation is the character of God and the Church as set out by Scripture. It is absolutely imperative that we abandon all hope in our own methods and strength or we will continue to spiral downward while trusting in our methodologies. God will not be mocked. As set out in previous newsletters, God has turned His face from the professing Church in this nation and has delivered us into the power of our iniquities. One sign of God turning His face from the professing Church is the state of the ministry in the professing Church. When God turns His face from the professing Church, He turns them over to their own ways. Part of this is when He does not give understanding and power to the ministers who then turn to methods gleaned from the world rather than Scripture. When the power and truth of God are not present, many turn to other things in an effort to mimic what God alone can do.
Jeremiah 3:12 “Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, ‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD; ‘I will not look upon you in anger. For I am gracious,’ declares the LORD; ‘I will not be angry forever. 13 ‘Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the LORD your God And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the LORD. 14 ‘Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the LORD; ‘For I am a master to you, And I will take you one from a city and two from a family, And I will bring you to Zion.’ 15 “Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding.
This text gives us a principle that we must take to heart. When a people turn from their sin and are seeking the Lord in truth, He gives them shepherds after His heart and from the heart of God they feed the people on knowledge and understanding. We know that part of the famine that God has sent on America is a famine of hearing or understanding the Word (Amos 8:11). The famine is not that of having people stop their business or religious things, but of not hearing the Word. Over and over we read in Scripture where God hardens hearts and blinds people to His Word. John 12:39-40 has a powerful word to us on this: “39 For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, 40 “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.” This text tells us why people could not (the text does not say “may”) believe. The word “can” is a word of ability or power. When a person can lift 500 pounds, a person has the ability and power to do so. Here the text tells us that the reason that the people did not have the power or ability to believe. It is because God had blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts. They had not stopped being religious, but they were blinded and hardened and so had no true knowledge and understanding. That is a hard judgment.
We must hear this and pray for God to open our eyes to these things as well. John 17:3 defines eternal life as knowing God. I John 5:20 says that Jesus came to give us understanding so that we may know Him who is true. II Corinthians 4:6 speaks of the Gospel as being the light that God shines in the hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. In the context of spiritual judgment, this is devastating. Blinding and hardening the heart from the knowledge of God means that people are not converted. No matter how many people are coming in the doors of the church buildings and filling the pews, when God does not give shepherds after His heart who will feed the people on knowledge and understanding, those people will not be converted. The few that are converted will not grow beyond infancy. If God is not giving shepherds who are seeking the Lord, then He is not giving people those who will feed them with the knowledge and understanding that is necessary to know Him and so be saved. Salvation is not a matter of uttering a prayer or responding to an altar call, it is coming to know God and He alone can give us understanding and knowledge of Himself. When He does not grant those things, the Church is in dire straights. Instead of responding with organizations set up to fill the pews, we must seek the Lord from the heart as that is the only real answer.
Jeremiah 10:21 For the shepherds have become stupid And have not sought the LORD; Therefore they have not prospered, And all their flock is scattered.
The text above gives us some insight. Regardless of the ministers education and qualifications, he has become stupid if he is not seeking the Lord. It is in that state of stupidity and not seeking the Lord that they have not prospered. The idea of the word “stupid” is that one has become senseless and brutish. Again, there are many highly educated men in the ministry that are senseless and not seeking the Lord. Regardless of the numbers they are reporting, the true flock has been scattered because the true sheep will not hear a man that is not really preaching the Word of God. Yet, in the name of religion many men have gathered quite a crowd.
The opposite of Jeremiah 10:21 is that a man can not be seeking the Lord in reality and prosper in worldly methods without any true spiritual fruit. A religious man that is not seeking the Lord might still gather a great number of people who want to be religious and yet not seek the Lord in truth but seek in their own way. After all, in order to have true worship it must be in spirit and truth (John 4:24). There are many in the world seeking to gain prestige and money that are doing so in the name of the Lord. But false shepherds will have to answer to God for all the damage they are doing even though the judgment is from God Himself. If true ministers will face a harder judgment, then what are we to say about those who are false and go around deceiving?
There are texts of Scripture that should make us tremble when we think of the judgment of God who draws back and does not send shepherds who will feed His sheep with knowledge and understanding. What happens is that the vacuum is filled with those who have their own motives and ways. The problem that went on in the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel is with us today. There are many false teachers going around crying out that people have peace with God when there is no peace at all. This leads to large numbers in the pews with increased offerings, but God has never given us a standard of those things in the Bible. It seems in our day that the larger the numbers in the pews the greater the deception that is going on. Listen closely to these texts:
Jer 6:14 “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace
Jeremiah 8:11 “They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.
Ezekiel 13:10 “It is definitely because they have misled My people by saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace. And when anyone builds a wall, behold, they plaster it over with whitewash;
Ezekiel 13:16 along with the prophets of Israel who prophesy to Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her when there is no peace,’ declares the Lord GOD.
We have seen in this newsletter that the judgment of God comes on a people when he does not give them shepherds to feed them. Without food for the soul people lose discernment and are given over to hardened and cold hearts. At some point a lack of understanding and knowledge will lead to people being given over to becoming like the Pharisees which comes from and leads to spiritual hardness which comes from not following God. They will be given over to selfish things in religion and seek God for selfish purposes. They will use the name of God and His Word in order to build large congregations but instead of feeding the people they will be feeding on them and deceiving them to the truth. This is a sign that the judgment of God is upon us.
Ephesians 4:10-13 is a scary set of verses when read a certain way: “He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) 11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” It is Christ that gifts men as shepherds for the purpose of feeding and equipping. When the saints are hungry and people are not being equipped spiritually, that is a sign of judgment because Christ is not giving His people what is needed for spiritual maturity. Much of the modern church growth movement is simply worldly ways in a church dress. There will be no true growth of the true Church apart from the true Gospel. True growth of the true Church will not happen apart from knowing God. Regardless of the methodologies that men use to fill the pews, the Church cannot be built on anything but the knowledge of God gleaned by sound preaching. The professing Church is seeking numbers thinking that pleases God. That is a sign of judgment.
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