And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20, NASB)

But They Said, “Let’s Give ‘Em What They Want!”

So many in the Body of Christ today are agreed that we are near the end of an age, if not at the very end of this Age of Grace. If this is so, then the sands of the hourglass are fast running out, and we just don’t have much time left to preach the Good News to all creation (Mark 16:15). Nor do we have the luxury of growing up slowly in our faith, and especially not for those in our churches who have just come to Christ.

One of the things I have been doing here through Apprising Ministries is to lay a solid foundation revisiting on occasion what we believe and why we believe it because the Lord is bringing more and more people to work together through these articles. This is all just to make sure that each of us is on the same page as these writings find their way to these new people in Christ. And there is just no other way to encourage the Lord’s languishing Church here in cynical so-called postmodern America than for all of us to keep going back to what the Bible actually says. So you see men and women my ministry isn’t so radical after-all is it?

Often lately the tone has been quite direct. Do you not see the quiet arrogance of emerging church leaders and new breed new evangelicals following their sordid steps in openly denying the clarity of what God has said? In conjunction with others who employ a more gentle style I have simply been trying to show you bluntly how much false doctrine has crept into the evangelical community while we weren’t looking. I’m not attempting to be judgmental and to say why false prophets and counterfeit teachers like Brian McLaren or Rob Bell or Rick Warren teach what they do; rather, I am only pointing out from the Scriptures themselves what is warped and toxic about a given teaching.

And this is the mandate that all pastor-teachers are given; for it is written: In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, Who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His Kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season – [when Christianity is in a rare time of acceptance] – and out of season – [like now when people don’t want to hear the real truth and that unfortunately includes many in the Church itself] – correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction – 2 Timothy 4:1-2. Dr. Walter Martin (1928-1989) would often state—“I have done my homework; I stand by what I say.”

Now here is the next verse in 2 Timothy 4—verse 3 — For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. And this explains the popularity of the contemplative spirituality which has slithered into the mainstream evangelical camp through the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church and its neo-orthodox new evangelical sister. People aren’t coming to church for the Truth, so leaders steeped in humanism decided: “Let’s give ‘em what they want.”

But A.W. Tozer brings up the critical point:

There is a great decision that every [church] has to make sometime in the development of its history. Every [congregation] also has to make it either at its beginning or a little later-usually a little later. Eventually every board is faced with the decision… Every pastor has to face it and keep renewing his decision on his knees before God. Finally, every church member, every evangelist, every Christian has to make this decision… The question is this: Shall we modify the truth in doctrine or practice to gain more [members]? Or shall we preserve the truth in doctrine and practice and take the consequences? A commitment to preserving the truth and practice of the church is what separates me from a great many people who are perhaps far greater than I am in ability.

This is my conviction, long held and deeply confirmed by a knowledge of the fact that modern gospel churches, almost without exception, have decided to modify the truth and practice a little in order to have more adherents and get along better. [Churches are] under constant pressure to have more [members], more numbers. [And in the Lord we pray that we will] never…modify or compromise to achieve that, but to tenaciously hold fast to [our] core beliefs and priorities”
(Tozer On Christian Leadership, July 19).

And the only way that our local fellowships, those still standing for the absolute Truth of God’s Word, are going to grow is to leave the comfort zone to which many of us have become accustomed and to be willing to move in whatever direction our Lord will lead us in. I’ve said it many times, there is nothing in Reformed theology which prevents us from doing many of the things this new evangelicalism is doing with its repainted and false social gospel. But let me show you something. Turn with me in your Bibles 1 Kings, chapter 17 and verse 2. I’m not really going to exegete this; I just want to show you a secondary application.

Then the Word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here and turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.” So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the Word of the Lord came to him: “Go at once…”

In this historical account of the great prophet Elijah, maybe we can also see a spiritual picture of our own local fellowships. Many of our churches have been by “the brook” for quite a while now and the Lord has tenderly and mercifully taken care of us. Jesus has sent us people to feed us, just as He once sent the ravens, and our Master has sent some outreaches which, have allowed us to drink His spiritual water as we rested and we healed. But now the time has come for us to leave the brook and to enter the fray—His fierce battle with Satan—the mortal enemy of the souls of men. And I pray that you can understand what I have been—and am now—saying to you as I have shared my heart with you here. Men and women today I tell you in the Lord that we must move forward together, and we must leave our brook of rest because it’s time to go…

A Call To Man Your Weapons

Obviously, what I have been teaching here at AM and its outreach Christian Research Net is really nothing new; it has been in actuality little more than going back to what has always been preached since the birth of the Church, as well as at the foundation of this very nation. And this would simply be proclaiming the absolute majesty and sovereignty of the LORD God Almighty. You may say: “But I can’t go; I cannot fight, I don’t know how.”

Can you pray; for the Bible says— For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:3-4). Right now the Lord is looking for those in His Church we have the intestinal fortitude and desire to handle the mightiest weapon He has given to us—the prayers of the saints. Today I encourage you to be willing to leave the brook, and go at once to join the battle as Christ sends forth His Army in this Truth War to love dead people back to life.

But Robert Murray M’Cheyne warns:

“The end of all things is at hand”—“The fashion of this world passeth away.” A believer stands on a watch-tower—things present are below his feet—things eternal are before his eyes. A little while, brethren, and the day of grace will be over—preaching, praying will be done. Soon we shall give over wrestling with an unbelieving world—soon the number of believers shall be complete, and the sky open over our heads, and Christ shall come. His parting cry was: “Surely I come quickly.” Then we shall see Him “whom, having not seen, we loved.”

A little while, and we shall stand before the great white throne: a little while, and the wicked shall not be—we shall see them going away into everlasting punishment; a little while, and the work of eternity shall be begun. We shall be like Him—we shall see Him day and night in His temple—we shall sing the new song, without sin and without weariness for ever and ever. In a little moment, brethren, all this shall be: “For a small moment have I hid My face from thee; but with everlasting mercies will I gather thee” (Online source)

Yes beloved of God…“time is short”…and it’s time to go…