May 11, 2010
— It is past time the church retrenches itself and stands against the creeping menace the world represents.
“When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, ‘Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.’
“But Zerubbabel, Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, ‘You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.’
“Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building. They hired counselors to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.” — Ezra 4:1-5
On the face of things it seems the Jews who returned from captivity were a little harsh in dealing with the people who wanted to worship with them and help them build a temple on Zion in Jerusalem.
That is just a surface shot, and doesn’t explain the whole story. It was a group of Samaritans who were opposing the rebuilding of the Temple. Sure, they would have gone in a completed Temple and made sacrifices to God, but they also would have made sacrifices to Molech, Asherah and any of the other litany of gods they were worshipping at the time.
In other words, the people offering to help the returned captives rebuild the Temple were enemies of God, and as such, they should have no part in rebuilding his house.
We see parallels in our modern church and world today as we try and make compromises with the world. As time progresses there are some who believe less and less people respond to the true word of God — another illusion.
God’s word is as powerful today as it was when Christ walked out of the tomb and hearts are still vulnerable to the pure unadulterated Word of God. The Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, if only it would be preached in many of our churches.
Yet, there are people who make it their life’s work to fight against the Word and bring down the church. There are many on the inside working against it. Many, in the name of peace allow duplicitous teachings to seep in around the edges as we have failed to stand fast for the word of God and people are suffering for it.
I am reminded of Ananias and Sapphira, how they sold a piece of property, as many were doing in the early church, and gave the money of the sale to the church. The thing is, Ananias only gave part of the money but pretended to give all in order to gain the favor of men.
“Then Peter said, ‘Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal?
"What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men, but to God.’” — Acts 5:3-4
There is a lot of lying to God the goes on in the world, unfortunately, I am afraid I have been less than forthcoming to the One who knows and searches my heart.
As mere mortals, we love it when praises are heaped upon us. We like to have our backs patted and to be told, “Good job, you’re a great person.”
Who doesn’t like to hear these things? The thing is, God knows why we do such things and we must search our own hearts and ask ourselves “Are we seeking to build on and work for the Church Christ established, or are we seeking to undermine it by looking for our own glory — lying to God and fatally deceiving others in the process?”
Satan, being ever crafty, is quite good at using our inconstancy and vanity to subvert the truth as best he can.
We want the world to look at us and tell us how good we are, yet Christ, who searches the depth of our soul knows how black our heart is. There is no hiding it from him. If only we strove to serve the one who truly loves us as much as we desire fleeting praise from fallen man.
May we stand firm against those who would choose to do the church harm and set up other gods that would come between us and the cross.
Tell the enemy to leave. Tell them we know we can’t build this Temple on our own, but with Christ it will be accomplished, we must only act on and have an abiding faith in our Lord Jesus.
The other alternative is to let the sin-filled world into our churches with its yoga classes, spiritual mysticism, contemplative prayer and all sorts of other New Age heresies invading our holy houses of worship.
When Christ returns in judgment will we be listed as those who compromised and opened the gates of the church to a world of sin, or will we be counted among those who endured to the end?
I pray we are the latter, come quickly Lord Jesus.
“Blessed Father, in the power of your grace, look upon us poor sinners struggling through life to no end but death, but you have mercy on us. Your cross has freed us from death and brought us life. Now, blessed Lord, give us the strength of your Spirit to stand in the breech in defense of your bride, the church. Though the world rails against us, we know you have overcome the world and have earned the victory, soften the hearts of those around us so they too may share in your victory over death and sin.”
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