All human beings are born in sin and are by nature children of wrath. All human beings must be born from above (again) and have Christ as their all if they are to enter eternity in anything but a nature that will suffer the wrath of God for all eternity. But it seems as if the professing churches have forgotten those basic truths in our day. It seems as if preaching is aimed at happiness in this life and in a carnal way for the most part. In the modern day it seems so hard to find a place that has conservative views about the Bible, but to find the clear and clarion call of the Gospel of God (Gospel of the glory of God, Gospel of the glory of Christ, Gospel of the kingdom of God) seems nigh impossible. It is easier to preach morality than it is to explore the depths of the sin of the human heart. It is easier to preach a nice message about God than to explore the depths (to the degree that our finite beings can) of the glory of God and His sovereignty.
With the state of the nation (United States of America) headed downward at an alarming rate, when one cast an eye at the state of the professing Church there is no need to wonder why the nations is plunging to ruin. The professing Church is caught up with numbers and with trying to be approved by men. The true Gospel is rarely heard and men go out the doors of the church buildings as lost as when they came in, though they may be hardened by what they have heard. Where is God in all of this? Is God truly in control of this nation and the professing Church? It sure seems as if God is not in control and that the world and the professing church are in the full power of the devil as both plunge to temporal and eternal ruin. It is easy to understand why people don’t give much thought to God in our day as they are consumed with the things of this world, though indeed those are things of the bondage of sin.
As the world (and the professing Church with it as it is part of it) is rushing on its way to eternal damnation, the weak and effeminate voices of preachers tell us that we are to make decisions for Christ and to be good little boys and girls. We hear those voices telling us to give them money and to believe the right creeds and take the right sacraments from them. We hear those smooth and soothing voices telling us that we just need more and more conservative or liberal instruction from their expositions of Scripture. We are told that we need to be more submissive to pastors or elders. We are told that we need to give more to building programs. We are told that we are doing the work of the kingdom as long as numbers are larger and buildings are bigger.
Where is God in all of that? Where are the ministers that will tell us that we need Christ with longing in their own hearts? Where are the ministers who have been to the cross of Christ and are so broken that they don’t dare give us dry information in a long exposition of Scripture that is devoid of a living Christ? Where are the ministers who have been in the presence of God during the week and want the people to come and be in the presence of the living God with them on Sunday? Where are the ministers who have been in the presence of God and have received a little fire from the Holy Spirit during the week and want others to have a little of that flame? Where are the ministers who love the glory of God and the people enough where they want the people to admire God and not themselves? Where are the ministers who have had enough of information alone and want God Himself? Where are the ministers who are tired of giving sermons that sound like the minister has spent all of His time with commentaries rather than praying over the text and seeking God Himself? Where are the ministers who are like Paul in wanting to preach Christ and Him crucified and in doing so are afraid of preaching with words of the wisdom of men?
Could it be that God is judging the professing Church by the ministers He is giving it? Could it be that God is judging the professing Church in many ways, but one of them is to give it up to conservative ministers who are more concerned with tithing herbs and jots and tittles rather than the glory of God and the good of people? Could it be that ministers no longer love the people enough to point them to Christ Himself but instead settle for dry portions of bread (dry expositions of Scripture without the resurrected Christ)? Where are the men who are broken of heart in our day? Where are those who don’t trust in their being conservative and their commentaries in their preaching? Where are those who will seek God for a heart while they study and for fire in their bones while they study so that they might preach from the heart and with fire? But the people appear to be satisfied with the externals of religion with the life. The people appear to be satisfied with the true and living God being hidden from their sight. The people appear to be quite satisfied to only hear of Christ as if nothing more than a proposition. The people appear as if they are satisfied with conservative teaching that might tickle their ears and leave their hearts untouched. Oh woe to the ministers who are like what was said above and the people who are satisfied with that! Let us be more like Moses who cried out with a broken heart to see the glory of God! Give us Yourself oh Lord!
God Loves... Himself 
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