Are You a Deceiver or Are You Being Deceived?
2Ti 3:12 “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”
2Ti 3:13 “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.”
As long as I can remember, I have heard about how the Church is in need of revival. Yes, it is true that many Christians have lost their way and need to be reminded of their holy calling and vocation. The church is ill. It has been filled with unbelievers for the sake of cash, forgetting the Apostle Paul’s words in 1 Ti 6:5 “Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.”
Yes the church should be a hospital for the soul of the ungodly, but the message of the church can never change “Ye must be born again”. Joh 3:7 “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” Revivals can stir the Christian soul and get us moving in the right direction. But revival, as we call it, can never stand alone.
What is the desired result of revival? Vowing to live with more love? Vowing to give more to the poor? Vowing to reconcile with an estranged Christian friend? Vowing to take more to the Food Bank? Vowing to give more money to the church? All of these things are noble and just, but there is one thing that will result outwardly if there is true revival in the Church, and by that I mean, the true Church that every saved believer in Christ belongs:
2Ti 3:12 “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”
Paul tells us here that it is inevitable; inescapable. It will happen as sure as the sun will rise in the morning. Today’s church has been so frightened by Satan and persecution that they will not step out for fear of suffering; they will not utter even one word of the great commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. They are satisfied that the word “world” means the Earth, and they leave that to the missionaries. Sorry, I’m here to tell you that it means the “world system”: the unbeliever; anywhere and everywhere they can be found, including your very community, including your very church.
This is what true revival will bring: persecution. Revival is not a verb, something that the church does to bring in more people or provide more money to the speaker. It is not for an attempt to introduce to the community your particular denomination or new building with 750 classrooms teaching 750 different doctrines. It is not to hear something new in hopes of making a better “Id”. And it surely is not to bring people in to the new church coffee shop for idle chit chat before the service. Revival is a noun, not a new production of an old play (which happens in many lives), but an “instance of something becoming important again” (Google of course). Remembering Rev. 2:5 “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”
Therefore, if true revival occurs in the true Church, it will bring with it persecution from within the church, and from without. And let me remind you that if you research church history, you will see what bouts of persecution brought to the Church: purging and cleansing. So, if we do not truly repent and seek the first works, purging and cleansing will no doubt come from God Himself so that the diamonds will shine amongst the common stones. “Remove thy candlestick out of his place” does not mean it will be removed and thrown away. It means to displace it. To move it away from its comfortable spot and cause it to shake and settle. Is this what we want from God? We are forcing His hand to perform it in the American Church today. But beware; just because you are not being shaken does not mean you are doing His will: it may mean that your not a church at all ,but a den of robbers and thieves, preying upon each other.
Oh Lord Jesus, the Church today is in need of persecution, cleansing, purging. I have no doubt that this is soon coming to our own church communities but for the wrong reasons. How do I know? Because the Word promises such: Rev 2:5 “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”
AMEN.
© 2019 Michael Mitchell