Week #7

07/27/2023

THE TWO CAMPS - Part 2

Their grasp is of the present because the future has little value to them. It is the life of satisfying the present appetites, and so the power of the spiritual birthright is secondary. They are reprints and replicas of Esau, where a pot of beans is the preference to the spiritual birthright. The satisfaction of present appetites is more important than God’s plan. Their grasp for the present has eliminated their reach for the future. They are quite content to be absorbed by the cares of life and to have spiritual priorities eroded. The physical takes precedence over the spiritual, the present over the future, the grasp over the reach, and the cares of life over the things of God. Here they live in a spiritual dead sea—in the doldrums of apathy—with waning of strength and compromised commitment. They possess a profession of God but not a commitment to Him. There is a rhetorical talk but no purposeful walk. There is a boast of information but no evidence of transformation. There is a form of godliness but no force of His power against sin. We must answer this question. How many in church life does this describe? You may ask, “Why spend the time identifying these elements?” I must tell you that it is a powerful thing—as a child of God and a servant of God—to see these elements and attitudes in church life. We all deal with this wrestling, with the struggles, with the challenges of spiritual life. But, we must not be lost in a maze of activity without the development of spiritual life. We must not be lost in a maze of activity without seeing and knowing who we are—without the development of spiritual character.

There is a vivid illustration of this in 2 Samuel 12:1-12: “¹And the Lord sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. ²The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: ³But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. ⁴And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him. ⁵And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: ⁶And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. ⁷And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; ⁸And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. ⁹Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. ¹⁰Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. ¹¹Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. ¹²For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.”

Nathan the Prophet comes to David with a prophetic word from the Almighty God that was specifically for King David. There were two men in one city. One was very rich, the other was very poor. The rich man had many flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, and the poor man had one lamb. The poor man reared this lamb with his children, and this animal grew up within this poor family. A traveler came to the rich man and instead of the rich man taking one of his many animals to kill and feed the traveler, he took the one lamb of the poor man and killed it.

When King David heard this word, he was incensed and angered. He then asked Nathan to tell him who had done such a thing because he would surely die. He continued that there would be four-fold restoration to the poor man because of what was taken from him. Then Nathan brought the stunning news to King David…the man is you. David had been anointed king and he was delivered out of the hands of Saul, He was given his master’s house, his master’s wives, and the houses of Israel and Judah. But he despised the commandment of God and did evil in God’s sight and killed Uriah. He then took Uriah’s wife, even though David had many of his own wives. Now there would be evil in his house, and God would take his wives before his eyes and give them unto his neighbor.

There are some astonishing issues in this prophetic word. King David—with all the promise, with all of the victories, with all the extensions of the Kingdom that he was used to taking—fell into this trap. His career was magnificent, but there came a point when his character suffered grievously. You must not get to the place where your accomplishments, your success, your possessions bring you to the place where the extent of your spiritual commitment is unimportant. You cannot get to the place where spiritual character is unimportant because of the things you hold in your hand.

Week #6

07/20/2023

THE TWO CAMPS - Part 1

Yes, there are two camps in the church today. One is defecting from the faith, departing from the power, and living a surface, superficial life. But there is another camp that is expecting the move of God, that will do all it takes to see this happen. They have a heart to see the world impacted for the glory of God. There is a camp of apostasy, but there is also the camp of revival. This is dramatically seen in the book of Revelation Chapter 3, where two camps with different beliefs, different doctrines, and different destinies emerge.

Let me approach this firstly from the perspective of Revelation 3:14-22 which states: “¹⁴And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;¹⁵I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. ¹⁶So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. ¹⁷Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: ¹⁸I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. ¹⁹As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. ²⁰Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. ²¹To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. ²²He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

To the church of Laodicea, Jesus is known as the Amen, the faithful and true witness. This indicates that this church needed the true doctrine, the true word. They needed to see Jesus as King and the final word. This also indicates conversely that this church would be dealing with false doctrine. Therefore, they needed the authority of His Word. He is also called in this scripture, “the beginning of the creation of God.” As the firstborn of God, He must be heeded and obeyed, because all that was to come was because of Him. He must have preeminence in His church. Almighty God declares that because this church is neither hot nor cold but they are lukewarm, He will spew them out of His mouth.

They held the position of apathy, indifference, and lethargy. They were neither hot (on fire for God) nor cold (rejecting God). They occupied that faded, jaded territory where their hypocrisy thrived. This caused God to vomit them out and—I would say—straight into the tribulation period. A life that is lived in the twilight where there is neither light nor darkness is a life that is irrelevant and anemic. These are the ones who are present but have little or no impact. These lives are woven in the web of convenience and personal preference. The drive is to survive, and they posses little or no passion to pursue the things of God.