When I say unto the wicked, O wicked |
Fellow Believers,Though Clinton deposed that he did lie and did commit adultery with Gennifer Flowers, most of the people polled at home and abroad reaffirmed their high approval of him as President. This is a phenomenon described by the concluding verse of Romans 1. The time has come when people not only condone lying and adultery, they actually approve of those who commit them.
To be sure, it is not becoming of us Christians to point our fingers at the world. God did not save us because we are any better than the unsaved. Had it not been for His grace, we might very well be behaving the same way, since by nature our hearts are desperately wicked.
But I'm calling attention to the widespread decay in morals because it is a telling evidence that God has substantially removed His restraining hand from the human race. You see, in the second half of Romans 1, God tells us in advance how He would give man over step by step to their total depravity, preparing thereby the world for judgment when Christ returns. (The section was written in the past tense because it was decreed before the foundation of the world.)
Also conspicuous today is the apostasy that God had ordained for the end-time corporate church. A Christian whose work requires his visiting churches all around the country recently wrote: "I am extremely grieved and alarmed at what is transpiring in Christ's visible church, especially in the formerly faithful reformed churches."
Yes, even in the traditionally evangelical congregations, more and more preachers are promoting sugar-coated and free-will gospels to avoid "the offence of the cross" that Paul speaks of in Galatians 5:11. And hardly is there any denomination nowadays that is not infiltrated by people coming with signs and lying wonders, notably the phenomenon of tongues.
While scoffers will scoff, Christ nevertheless tells us, "when ye shall see all these things, know that it (His return, that is) is near, even at the doors." It behooves us, therefore, to be ever so watchful. First of all, make sure that we have not been deceived into trusting another gospel that is really no gospel at all. Examine ourselves honestly to see if we truly have an ongoing desire to do the will of God.
Next, as the watchmen of God, make haste to blow the trumpet, warning people that Judgment Day is very near. Today is still the day of salvation, but soon there'll be no tomorrow.
Second Quarter, 1998