Why do the
larger political groups ridicule those who are holding on to the truth once
delivered to the saints? The Apostle Paul sometimes had to defend his
apostleship against false apostles, deceitful workers. There were those who
denied that he was truly an apostle.
2 Corinthians 11:
5 For I suppose I was not one whit behind the very chief apostles.
6 But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been thoroughly made manifest among you in all things.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me... [especially these who are]
13 For such are false apostles and deceitful workers.
Today, we
also find it appropriate to defend the fact that we are a part of God’s True
Church. We were attacked for not going along with the excesses of the bigger
churches about four years ago and now the attacks are being renewed.
They are
claiming that the small scattered brethren who meet for Sabbath services in
private homes are not a part of God’s Church.
We will look
into the Word of God and follow the examples we find there.
The first big
attack that I’m aware of came out in the form of an article on the Sabbath
titled, “Should I Attend the Living Room Church of God?” It was intended
to be a derogatory comment and the article starts off sarcastically:
"Tired of
wasting time driving to church? Or talking to people who really aren’t any
better than you are? Shouldn’t you be relaxing on the Sabbath like God says?
That kind of
language is close to blasphemy—by twisting God’s truth
“Welcome to
the LR-COG (Living Room Church of God), where all you need is a laptop, a
talking head, four walls, and a bag of chips."
In other
words, those who aren’t attending with the bigger groups are flippant, casual
and disrespectful to God’s Sabbath. Then the author characterizes us as not
really wanting to keep the Sabbath.
“Oh, I don’t
really feel like going to that today. I think I’ll just stay home.”
Notice
brethren, the accusatory nature of this attack on us:
"There have
always been people whotry to wrangle their way out of assembling every
Sabbath, like God commands—it’s nothing new. When there are people—then, there
are excuses."
Notice
brethren that those who ridicule us like this — claim that we are not a part of
God’s Church:
"But what
about those people who willingly choose to go it alone? Can they really isolate
themselves from the church and survive?"
Their
premise is that they are the church—and we are not.
This next
quote from the article that puts-down the Church-in-home brethren is true:
"God built
His church (His spiritual family) for a reason: to build each other up, and
ultimately get everyone into His kingdom."
The
implication of the article however, is that the big corporate church
organizations are edifying the brethren—while the Church-in-home brethren are
keeping people out of God’s Kingdom. …Also true in this article is this
statement:
"Why does God
even want us to assemble in the first place? One of the main reasons is to
“build each other up”. Being with our spiritual family stirs up good works and
helps us grow spiritually (Hebrews 10:24-25)."
However, I
would like to ask the question again—I’ve asked it before:
When was the
last time you encountered the members of the big organizations assembling
together for the very purpose of exhorting one another, and provoking one
another unto love and to good works?
I submit to
you that that is not how the Sabbath is primarily kept by the bigger
groups.
In fact—more
and more of the true brethren are awakening to the fact that there is a
distinct lack of Godly love exhibited at those Sabbath meetings:
Here is
another excerpt from the article ridiculing the Church-in-home brethren.
I want you to
notice, Brethren, how easily this article allows the big corporate organizations
the liberty of having a “few things wrong.”
"Jesus
attended church despite corruption. You think your church has a few things
wrong with it? Things were ridiculously corrupted in Christ’s
time—doctrines, practices, religious leaders, everything. The whole synagogue
was run by hypocrites! But He still went to the place of public worship."
Now they are
impugning Jesus for going along with the corruption –and saying nothing. They
are accusing Jesus Christ of going along with the sins of the Pharisees –and
doing nothing about it.
That is not
the case!
What is left
out of this diatribe against the Church-in-home brethren — is Jesus’ response to
the "Few things wrong." (Like they should be overlooked and just go with
the flow.)
No, Jesus'
life's work was to point out what was wrong with that Pharisaical political
religious movement - and supply God's righteous way of life -
Christianity - an entirely opposite approach from the religiosity of His day and
ours.
Brethren you
cannot knowingly go along with something wrong with impunity.
Leviticus
5:
1 And
if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath
seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity.
Today, I’d
like to answer the question: “Is it safer to attend with the big
political church groups – or not?” Is it wrong to meet with
Church-in-home brethren?
Acts 5:
42 Daily
in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach
Jesus Christ.
Romans 16:
3 Greet
Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus...
5 Likewise
greet the Church that is in their house.
Philemon 1
2 To
our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the Church in
thy house:
Acts 20:
20 I
kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have
taught you publicly, and from house to house.
Acts 16:
13 On
the Sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside, where prayer was wont
to be made; and we sat down, and spoke unto the women which resorted there.
After the
baptism and conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch—he did not return to a large
congregation in Ethiopia—because there were none.
We have
brethren in the Church today who were called by God before there was a single
congregation in their entire state—and yet they were a part of God’s true
Church. True Church people came from everywhere to attend the Feast in those
early days of the Radio Church of God— and they did not have congregations back
in their areas to return to—and yet—they too were true Church of God brethren.
The point of
that article is: If you have gone to a big church and sang a few songs – been
preached to, and visited your friends – you have properly kept the Sabbath Holy…
And if you
did what the Church in home groups are doing – it is not pleasing to God!
We are
counting up to Pentecost.
We have
always recognized the New Testament Pentecost as the birthday of the Church of
God—the beginning of the newly called out ones.
Title:
Maturing Spiritually
Pentecost
also portrays the spiritual maturation process that the brethren experience as
they go on to perfection — let us press on to spiritual maturity (Hebrews
6:1).
Counting up
to Pentecost is an indication that we are to go on to perfection.
The counting
of seven weeks of days up to Pentecost is analogous to the called out one’s—the
ekklesia’s—Christian maturation process in preparation for the
resurrection. 7X7 = perfection.
God’s purpose
in the calling of saints into His Church is that they grow up and succeed
spiritually where ancient Israel failed before.
The New
Testament Church of God came into being on the day of Pentecost following the
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Some first
century brethren were called by the Father and became Children of God on that
very day. We would say that they became, “Church members.”
God’s Spirit
was poured out on them for a very special purpose—that purpose was the
establishment of the Church of God.
There were
no buildings, and no organizations, only people
who had received the gift of God's Holy Spirit. Today, the bigger church
organizations declare that the smaller church-at-home groups are not
really Churches of God at all.
That is
because one of the things they learned in WCG was that on Sabbath you went to a
“real church hall” that had 600 – 800 chairs set up where a preacher would tell
you all you needed to know.
Unfortunately, that is what some people are still looking for.
I want you to
turn to a scripture in the New Testament that shows that weekly Sabbath services
consist of large congregations in every town with a pulpit at the front and a
headquarters dictating what is to be played in all the congregations so that
some particular leader or leaders are held in the lime-light.
There are
not any Scriptures like that!
And yet –
that is exactly what so many people are still looking for nearly 30 years since
HWA died.
The clear
biblical example is that individual congregations were taught to be
spiritually dependent from any remote leadership’s headquarters.
They were taught to take the responsibility in hand — in their local
congregations — and to work at independently administering God’s perfect
way — autonomously in their local congregations.
Consider the
example of Paul in instructing the local congregation at Corinth to put sin out
of their midst — in order to keep the congregation Holy unto the Lord.
Paul desired
to see the congregation become spiritually mature enough to handle their
own affairs in a biblical way.
That kind of
spiritual maturity is considered rebellious by today’s
corporate organizations.
There is a
third world leadership mentality that insists on keeping people subservient,
dependent and reliant on its heavy-handed rule of law.
It is not a
Godly concept to never take the gumption to deal with a local problem according
to God’s biblical examples.
One of the
great failings of the Worldwide Church of God is that the brethren in the many,
many congregations were not adequately trained and instructed in how to love one
another according to biblical principles.
Godly love
does not just come to pass out of the blue! Godly love is spiritual and eternal
– it originates with God. It is God who first makes it possible for us to love
Him. John points this out for the Church, and he is quick to add that in the
process of coming to love God – brotherly love cannot be omitted.
1 John 4:
19 We
love [God], because He first loved us.
20 If
a man says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves
not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
The Love of
God must mature — it must grow to Perfection.
To find the
Church that Jesus Christ built, do not look for a group with great numbers.
Jesus said,
Luke 12:
32 Fear
not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom.
Why aren’t
our brethren being taught the biblical laws with regard to:
Genetic
Foods:
We are set for manmade disaster.
Abortion:
It is murder — plain and simple — an abomination in God’s sight.
Lesbianism:
Why so much suicide and emotional anguish?
Why aren’t
the big political groups “Crying aloud with their resources – and not
sparing – not reservedly holding back — as they are doing? Why aren’t they
using their resources and big voices?
Muslims:
Name Muhammad plan of extinction—“Push at North.” This political correctness of
denying their nationalistic aggressiveness is soon to end in pervasive
bloodshed.
Daniel 11:
40 And
at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of
the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with
horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall
overflow and pass over.
Education:
It is going down the tubes.
Blatant
Homosexuality:
Why so much deadly disease and lack of a stable life.
Bisexual:
The acceptance of every conceivable act of Animalistic behavior and bestiality.
Where are the
voices telling God’s people that tattooing their bodies — so that they
look like a Persian rug — is something that God does not permit.
Transgender:
Perverted transvestites — ruining their brains and searing their consciences so
that they will never be usable to society.
Gangs:
LA, Chicago, Detroit, NY
Global
Warming:
It is the removal of God’s hedge of protection—and outpouring of His blessings
of which we have become accustomed.
Climate
Change:
It is about the curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 — the blessings are
being removed because of our overt rejection of God.
Amos 4:
7 Also
I have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the
harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon
another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not
withered.
Marriage:
The sanctity of Godly marriages and the family: The basis of a nation’s
foundation.
God’s
financial
laws: When will the bubble pop? When that last puff goes into an
overinflated balloon.
DNA
Manipulation:
We are on the verge of unleashing uncontrollable deadly viruses.
We are now in
the Laodicean era—the last era of the Church— where a number of the larger
political corporate organizations are focusing their efforts on growing their
association numbers.
In their
effort to — not rock the boat — to be politically correct — the big political
church organizations are propagating and disseminating a false Gospel that is
designed to appeal to the masses. Be like the Protestants and get the
numbers up — that is the only thing that is important to them.
…Not Godly
justice, mercy, faithfulness, equity, Godly love and forgiveness… — those are
not considered in the administration of their severe controlling rule.
Godliness in
those political church organizations is set aside for expediency. It is
no different in the large political church organizations than in the pagan
jungle world of, “Might makes right.”
1 John 4:
18 There
is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear hath torment.
He that fears is not made perfect in love.
And there are
new Hapless and helpless young ministers who are caught up in that
quagmire of perversity and do not know how to escape. Hapless—because they are
miserably caught up in something bigger than themselves—they are
unfortunately unable to handle the circumstance in which they find
themselves.
Too often
they become little Napoleons who think that because of WHO they are working
for—they are empowered to run rough-shod over the brethren.
They do not
know the admonition of Galatians 6:1—to consider himself, lest he also be
tempted – and carried away with their dissimulation by willingly perverting
the facts (Galatians 2:13).
These
young ministers cannot escape because they have been taught since their
conception in the church to defer to the headquarters leadership’s tactics —
rather than to look to the God of the bible and His perfect way and law.
These young
newly ordained ministers cannot see how they are being manipulated and misused.
Matthew
10:
28 And
fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but
rather fear [God] which is able to destroy both soul and body in the grave.
Their leaders
— whom they have been taught to trust implicitly — have created an unbiblical
church environment with arbitrary rules in order to justify and conceal their
own abuse of power.
And so they
are in a “catch-22” — a dilemma or difficult circumstance from which there is no
escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions — a paradoxical
situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules.
These young
ministers want to do what headquarters—and they want to do what God says—but
they are two different things!
It is job,
security, headquarters says, defer to headquarters — and they are never able to
step out in Faith and do what God says.
That is why
Jesus said Godly Faith on earth was disappearing day by day - and what
little faith there is on earth will be sequestered off to the Place of
Safety just before Christ returns - leaving a Faithless earth.
We should
not expect to find abundant faith just prior to the return of Jesus Christ,
nor should we anticipate finding faith among many of God's people
caught up within the same dilemma in which the young ministers have been
shanghaied through.
Over the last
decade we have seen a terrible erosion of faith. It seems clear from the
following Scripture that there will be a scarcity of faith - even among the
Brethren.
Luke 18:
8 Nevertheless
when the Son of man comes, shall He find faith on the earth?
One of the
brethren responded to this week’s Countdown to the Return of Jesus Christ.
“I can only
hope and pray that others hear the message and wake up before it is too late. I
fear that God's people as a group have let down and are trusting the men in
charge to make their decisions for them. They may think they have it made by
just showing up each week to see their friends in the church hall. Those people
have come to believe that meeting and assembling in a church hall is the
absolute only way to keep the Sabbath correctly. But again the question they
should be asking themselves is: Why am I here and what should I be doing?
I received
another response from an elder in God’s Church to this week’s Countdown to the
Return of Jesus Christ.
“Thanks for
this message. We have known for many years that the New Testament example was
house-churches, not controlling corporations with class systems.
“We have also
felt that since the downfall of WCG, God has been calling brethren out of the
corporate control mentality back into smaller groups or house churches.
“We are
praying that many more brethren — who are currently attending corporate groups
will wake up and come to know that the WCG model simply does not work.”
Another elder
in God’s Church responded:
“Warren, Once
again you have hit the nail squarely on the head! Too bad there are so many
who do not understand that simple message. Thanks for all your work and
inspiration, Your Brother in Christ…”
Here is the
dilemma we face, brethren:
Those are our
brothers and sisters in Christ that have been caught up in that tsunami
of deception and Godless control.
Our brethren in those big “safe” corporations can no longer see the Truth of God—because of all the distractions.
Brethren, let me be perfectly clear: There is no safety found by sitting in a big congregation.
Their leading ministers are trying to defend the indefensible proposition — that those in power have the rule.
In fact, we must be doubly cautious when sitting in a big congregation not to enable those who are asleep there...
We certainly do not wish to give the appearance of promoting, endorsing, or supporting the political leadership that has lost its way.
If it looks like we are joyfully going along with all the programs of the political church authorities—we encourage the weak brethren to accept their destructive agenda.
Susie Q would be saying I’m still in the big church because I’m watching Buddy, and Buddy could say the same thing… and a whole bunch are staying because “everyone can’t be wrong.”
It would be like resisting getting into one of Titanic’s life boats as the ship sank because you didn’t want to bring bad publicity to the Cunard Line shipping company.
We are responsible to give a right example to others.
God warns us not to offend the weak brethren.
We cannot sit idly by while our brethren are swept away to their destruction.
***
Sermon: |
"Maturing Spiritually" |
|
|