They All Speak For Jesus … But Which Jesus?

I remember twenty-five years ago as a naive, young Christian, being very impressed with the pastor’s question, “What would you do if Jesus came to your home? Would you have to hide any books, magazines, videos, recorded music?” He asked the wrong question. Based on events and happenings that took place in his personal life just a few short years later, which in turn brought great devastation to that church, the question he should have asked was, “If Jesus came to your home, how would you know it was Jesus?” If that was the question to be asked then, how much more so today as we see the institutional church sliding into hell alongside the world?

I recall also, lots of tut-tut and criticism for the Jews of Jesus’ time for their failure to recognize Who He was. Words like ‘religious traditionalists’ ‘religious legalists’ ‘spiritually asleep’ ‘spiritually blind’ ‘they were not ready’ – all of them expressed in plentiful doses from the pulpit, with equal plentiful doses of ‘hmmm’ and ‘amen’ from the pews. If only those Jews could see and respond to their accusers today! “Look at you, you shallow people,” they might say, “living your shallow lives, hiding behind your veneer of religiosity. You’re no better than we were. Yet you have the benefit of hindsight! We were never so fortunate.” Sad it was for the Lord then and equally sad it is for the Lord today.

“Look at you, you shallow people,” they might say, “you who pay lip-service to your Scriptures, just as we did ours. Yet you have the benefit of the indwelling Holy Spirit to personally teach & guide you. We were never so fortunate.” Again. “Look at you, you shallow people,” they might say, “you’re no more willing to deal with the root causes of your sinful thoughts, attitudes, behaviors and practices than we were. Yet you have the benefit of the Lord Jesus’ blood ever availing for you. We were never so fortunate.” Again. “Look at you, you shallow people, they might say, “you accuse us of being enslaved by Old Covenant religious rules and obligations. Yet you have a New Covenant saturated with promises of spiritual liberty and freedom. We were never so fortunate.”

I was greatly blessed to hear a holy man of God on You Tube tell us that the true church is a company of redeemed believers. He said that although he is all for evangelism and evangelistic meetings, we should not confuse this with the true church. In other words, when we are gathered together in praise and worship to God, participating in the Lord’s Supper etc, this is for redeemed believers and we should not give any unredeemed amongst us any impression that he/she is part of the redeemed community. I liked what he said and thought it sad that I’ve never heard a pastor ever say that in any church I’ve been associated with. No wonder unredeemed people sat amongst us for years without any sign of divine change within.

Yes, I’m well aware of the Christian’s obligation to provide welfare to strangers and sojourners coming in, but what happens when they’re no longer strangers and sojourners? The unredeemed are sinners under the rulership of their god, Satan, and that’s as true for them in a church gathering as it is for them in any heathen gathering. I’ve never heard a preacher say it like that in the hearing of an unredeemed person, yet under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, that’s what he should say. The onus then is on the unredeemed to get redeemed or consider his/her alternatives. Somebody says, “How harsh! How intolerant! How unloving!” In response I say, “How ignorant! How compromising! How disobedient!”

Any serious study of and obedience to 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 should leave us, a company of redeemed believers, with no alternative other than such a response. If there’s one reason why the culture of the world is so deeply entrenched in the church today, it’s because the focus in most services is on appealing to the unredeemed among us, rather than appealing to the redeemed to embrace separateness from the world and holiness to God. Too much emphasis is placed on meeting the needs of the unredeemed week in, week out, month after month, year after year, and guess what? With such a perverted, distorted emphasis, the church too often gets dragged down to an unredeemed level, rarely raised to a redeemed level.

Instead of humbly bowing to the command, Therefore Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean….. 2 Corinthians 6:17 most churches are not separated from the culture around them, they’re up to their necks in the unclean. Instead of standing up and proclaiming pure words of the Lord, like silver tried in a furnace of the earth, purified seven times….Psalm 12:6, pastors are “preaching” from some new millennium, watered-down, paraphrased version of the Bible. And in reality, it does nothing for anyone except tickle itching ears, raise goose bumps and leave them with, “lovely thoughts, how nice.”

I’m convinced that the man who waters down the holy word of God so as to make it more palatable to the unholy, unredeemed man, (unless he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing), has not stopped to give much thought to the Lord’s question, what accord has Christ with Belial? 2 Corinthians 6:15. ‘Belial’  means: ‘worthless’ ‘wicked’ ‘evil’ ‘naughty’ ‘ungodly’. Scripturally those meanings apply to Satan, seducers, the profligate, rebels, fools, the wicked and liars. Apart from Satan, who else but the unredeemed fit these descriptions? If such were found in the camp of the Lord in Old Testament days, it was not long before they were found out for what they were and if they chose, “No change for me,” God said, “No hope for you!”

Sad it is that most church fellowships around the world no longer give witness to the truth that they are to be temples of the most holy God, dedicated to and employed in the services of God and separated from all uncleanness and defilement. Unredeemed people sitting in churches must come to a deep level of understanding on just how lost they truly are. If not, they’ll never discover the levels of trespass and sin that they’re walking in. Like the redeemed once were, they need to know that they are children of the devil, doing his bidding every moment of their waking hours. Unredeemed people need to know that without the power of God in their lives they will continue to harm and hurt in the future just as they have done so in the past.

Unredeemed people sitting in churches need to know that the lust of the (their) flesh, the lust of the (their) eyes and the pride of (their) life is not of (God) the Father, but it is of the world (culture) 1 John 2:16 … and God has nothing good to say about such a person nor the world! James 4:4. I’ve heard an unredeemed person say, “I like this church; no fire and brimstone preaching.” Today I would say, “Such a pity; fire and brimstone preaching is designed to keep you from the fire and brimstone of hell!” Unredeemed people sitting in churches need to not only hear that the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord, but they need to hear what comes before that – the wages of sin is death Romans 6:23.

Unredeemed people sitting in churches need to know they’re not doing God any favors by being amongst a company of redeemed believers every week. Yet so many of them do think that, even though they don’t verbally express it as such. It shows up in other ways. The mercy and compassion of God to reveal Himself in His Son Jesus -the power and authority of Jesus to forgive sins – the power of Jesus’ blood to cleanse sin, heal and continually wash us from sin – the power of God the indwelling Holy Spirit to chop sin off at its very roots … unredeemed people sitting in churches need to experience these miracles, not just hear about them. Too, the company of redeemed believers need constant reminders of these miraculous works within them. Why?

There’s no other way for us to give on-going, personal testimonies to the Lord Jesus. It’s one thing for the odd redeemed believer to give personal testimony, but it’s quite something else altogether when a company of redeemed believers does so. No Jew of Jesus’ time could ever look at that group and say, “Look at you, you shallow people.” No, such comments are reserved for “believers” such as: wolves in sheep’s clothing standing in pulpits, lazy Christians, pretenders of the faith, the emerging church crowd, Bible compromisers , Bible rejecters, spiritual cowards, the inter-faith movement, the social gospel movement, the politically correct, same-sex marriage proponents. They all speak for Jesus … but which Jesus? Certainly not the One mentioned above.

Unlike the apostle Paul, too many Christians are ashamed of the gospel of Christ. There can be no other explanation for the state that the institutional church finds itself in today. The fact that it is the power of God to salvation (rescue or safety physically or morally, deliverance, health, help, welfare, save, safety) to everyone who believes….. Romans 1:16, should make us proud of the gospel – proud of our Lord Jesus Christ – proud that we are His children, friends, servants, messengers – proud that we are His voice on the earth – proud that He is our voice in heaven – proud that we are called to be spiritual light shinning in spiritual darkness – above all … proud that we are the sole partakers of His divine nature & character here.

It is never religion that a company of redeemed believers seek. Neither is it goodness, niceness or morality; unredeemed sinners seek those things. That’s why many join churches, and many more join social clubs, service clubs and so-called Secret Societies. We seek  righteousness. We hunger and thirst for righteousness…… Matthew 5:6. This means we seek for holiness of heart and purity of life. That’s what God requires of those who profess to be redeemed believers. And the good news is we don’t have to work up some spiritual sweat to achieve it. It’s God’s righteousness, not ours and it comes to us by grace. Anything less is simply self-righteousness and God can’t look at that let alone condone it!

Unless a church truly is a company of redeemed believers who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness it is in no position to tut-tut and criticize the Jews of Jesus time.  If it were possible for them, they would have every right to say, “Look at you, you shallow people…….” They would merely be echoing the Lord Jesus who, from His throne in heaven, is saying similar things to, ‘the loveless church’ ‘the compromising church’ ‘the corrupt church’ ‘the dead church’ and ‘the lukewarm church’ – all of them, not only to be found in Chapters 2 & 3 of New Testament Revelation, but found in all countries throughout the western world today.

If Jesus came to my home, how would I know it was Jesus? I think His presence would be so overwhelming it would cause me to immediately fall at His feet as dead just like righteous John. But I also know that because I’m part of His company of redeemed believers, I would feel His right hand on me too, telling me not to be afraid. “And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forever more. Amen. And I have the keys of hell and death.” Revelation 1:17-18.