13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done in love. 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 (LSB)
The growing apostasy in the visible Church seems to be accelerating. The spiritual blindness of so many professing believers and their leaders is truly astounding. My brethren, the sad state of the visible Church is both the product of the famine of the Word of God and the cause of it. When the Word of God is seldom heard or read or taught then its purifying power is muted….
The world and its ways now coexist with the visible Church. Genuine believers are new creations, God’s workmanship, and they now crave the pure milk of the Word of God. It is necessary for their Spiritual Growth and their new character craves it. This is not an attribute of the natural person though. The unregenerate have no desire to know the Word of God and really don’t like to hear it preached to them. Therefore, the genuine believers in those churches which are apostatizing by neglecting the Word are leaving to find church homes that still preach it, teach it, and hold it as the revealed Word of God.
I hear quite a bit from dear brothers and sisters in Christ who are unable to find a local church in their area that has not been compromised. It is quite sad and can be quite depressing. We find ourselves cut off and seemingly alone. We miss the fellowship we once had at our old churches, but God has opened the door and shoved us out thereby separating us from those who are now compromised. We hunger for the fellowship and the Word. God is good though. At least for now, we can still teach and preach the Word online. There are wonderful sermons at sermonaudio that are free.
In any case, the visible Church is becoming more and more compromised seemingly every day. The famine of hearing God’s Word preached will only get worse I fear. It is not news anymore that US military chaplains are no longer allowed to pray to God or Jesus as they minister to their soldiers or sailors. Religious freedom is already a precious commodity in much of the world, why would we believe we would be exempt? There are also some very dangerous precedents taking place as I type this where certain so-called Christian leaders are attempting to use legal action to silence those who reveal their apostasy and expose their bad fruit.
Repost from September 2016