A Message to a Lukewarm Church

The town I live in is not all that different from many others. We work, we play, we enjoy life. We go to church.

We have many churches in our town. At one time we were known for the number of churches here. And it is still a very religious town. We are Baptists, Methodists, Wesleyans, Independents as well as Nazarenes and others.

But in all my investigation I've yet to find a church here that does two vital things: Teach God's Word clearly and obey it. It's come to a point where I drive down a given street and when I see a church, it no longer represents to me what it should: a a place where people who know God meet together to worship God and, from there, go out to proclaim the Gospel. They are seeker sensitive, purpose driven messes that are more concerned with the pain of a splinter (felt need) than the bleeding jugular of a sinner.

We are enamored with ourselves, believing God is at work because we have increased our numbers by implementing human marketing devices and pop psychology to attain our goals rather than depend on God's Truth.

We have become social clubs that meet in buildings that look like church buildings and used to be inhabited by regenerate people. And it has been getting worse for a very long time.

In the past two years, in a search for a church home, this is what I've found:

*We have pastors who support "ministries" that support the use of porn in the name of "freeing from porn". To them, the Word of God is not sufficient and they make God to be a liar.

*We have pastors who lead "conservative" churches who have a problem confronting homosexuality in their own church. They fear man, and thus avoid exercising church discipline which was commanded by our Lord in Matthew 18.

*We have pastors who like to talk about evangelism but when push comes to shove, it's much ado about nothing. Call their bluff? They go silent behind the pulpit about evangelism, knowing that you are serious about it. And the Bible is nothing but a source text for topical messages in which you can rip a verse from its context to make it support your point. Thus, we mock our Lord's great commission and seek to make the Scriptures which were breathed to us by God subservient to our purposes.

Our churches here are full of people who look and act much like the world because, for the most part, they are among the unconverted of the world. Pastors and other church leaders cater to them in the name of keeping them there in order to have them hear, at some point, a gospel that has been truncated and toothless, devoid of any mention of sin and the need of repentance.

And what is the line offered by those who hear of these things? "No church is perfect."

True. And most churches are dead. And they are dead because they are led by men who fear man rather than God and refuse to represent God's Word unapologetically to dying people.

In summary, we pay lip service to Jesus Christ as Lord, but we refuse any claim He has to rule our lives.

I heard the following long ago. I ran across it again recently. I post it here as a warning to those who profess Christ yet see no urgent need to flee to God and seek holiness, "without which, no man shall see the Lord".

YOU CALL ME MASTER AND OBEY ME NOT
YOU CALL ME LIGHT AND SEE ME NOT
YOU CALL ME THE WAY AND WALK ME NOT
YOU CALL ME LIFE AND LIVE ME NOT
YOU CALL ME WISE AND FOLLOW ME NOT
YOU CALL ME FAIR AND LOVE ME NOT
YOU CALL ME RICH AND ASK ME NOT
YOU CALL ME ETERNAL AND SEEK ME NOT
If I CONDEMN YOU—BLAME ME NOT

cf: Matthew 7:21ff
http://www.examineyourself.com/