Will you negotiate away the foundation of your building like Mr Falling Sand, the foolish man? Or will you refuse to compromise the foundation of your house like Mr Standing Rock, the wise man? Don’t say you don’t know them. Alright, granted that in our day, it is still possible to live in a cave and not know what is happening even with the book of the faith you profess in your hand.
So here is the story: two men wanted to build their houses. One builds upon a rock and when the terrible weather came with vehemence, the house stood its ground: this is Mr Standing Rock, the wise man. The other man built his house upon the sand, and when the terrible weather came with vehemence, the house had a great fall: this is Mr Falling Sand, the foolish man. Notice that the houses were the same, at least externally, the weather was equally terrible and fierce but the difference was in the foundation. Put another way, both men heard the Lord’s sayings but only the wise man heeded (did) them. This is the foundation. Yes, hearing and doing not just hearing is the foundation (Mat 7:24-27).
The Word of God is the foundation and source of true relationship with God and His Christ, and true righteous living that pleases God. Any other body of information, no matter who by or who from is shaky, untrustworthy and very deceptive quicksand that will not carry the weight of anything nor hold up in the face of the absolute truth of God that stands forever. Simply put, any other word outside of God is falsehood, a very big lie.
The church is in the world but it is not part of the world. The word of God states clearly that the church has nothing in common with the world. Yes, the church members are taken from the world, but immediately a sinner from the world is saved and comes into the church, all previous association and connection with the world are severed as this person now becomes a new creature with the Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ.
However, the true Christian soon finds that the world and the devil will not let him be alone especially now that he has openly declared his allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. Many things and circumstances clamour for his attention, mostly wanting him not to be faithful to his God. You must by now have discovered that people may not be interested in your faith. Those who may show interest you will discover have their own agenda. They want to speak with you, not really to find out more about your faith but to tell you how to practice your faith, how to live your life of faith: tolerate and compromise so you live in peace they tell you.
You see, we live in an age where there are lots of meetings and conferences. Within such gatherings of government delegates, institution representatives and the like there is much talk: a lot of negotiations and bargaining, give and take and compromising taking place. There are now all sorts of pressure groups with various and sometimes contradictory agendas.
Indeed, they are just about talk. It is as if there is the conviction that “all differences between men are due to a failure of understanding each other and as long as we can talk then understanding will come so there is hope.” So the more there is disagreement the more there should be talks.
Remember that the secular world lives in its own world with its own view, and end constantly in sight. It has been and will continue to be at variance with God and His Word. Hence, it has thrown out the Holy Bible and its God from its affairs. They have set up their own morality with themselves as the standards. Their major problem is that no two sections of them agree on anything for to them, nothing is absolute, everything is relative. Nobody is really right or wrong, they are just different. Thus the confusion you see all over the place.
This confusion is due to disorientation which has resulted from a reprobate mind. Since people reject the knowledge of God, they are given up to a reprobate mind. The disorientation has been only in the direction of God: they said there is no God and there is no devil and no absolute truth. It is now beginning to bite them as they have now become so disorientated that they are confused about their gender: male claiming to or wanting to be female and female claiming to or wanting to be male! In various ways they are trying to blur the God-defined distinctions within His creation.
Nevertheless, God is not mocked and cannot be deceived. People can try as much as they want to live in rebellion and falsehood, the truth of God remains. They may think God is slack concerning their rebellion not realising that he has, and is still giving them room for repentance.
From the foregoing, do you still wonder then that there is so much wickedness and evil in the world? Do you still wonder then that the economy of the world is the way it is?
Little wonder then that the attitude and manner of the world towards the church is “become like us or perish!” They don’t believe and continue to refuse to believe in the existence of God and anything associated with Him. Hence, they will want to ensure forced conformity to their own ways by means of discussion, coercion, power of legislation and if need be, the power of arms. It is said that where there is no law there is no crime. So the way they are going is to criminalise good things as commanded by God, then find the believers foul of such legislations as will serve their purpose.
This is not new but is just the echoing of the cry of the ages from the time man fell. Whenever he hears the sound of God, the natural thing to him is to run and hide all the while making out that he has neither seen nor heard God. When confronted with the truth he then rejects it and viciously attacks the one trying to show him the way of the Lord. So they did to the Lord, to His apostles and so to His church down to our day.
Little wonder then that such are described as dogs and swine for we are thus warned: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rent you.” (Mat 7:6).
King Herod: a good example of a real top dog in his time.
Yes, King Herod rejected the gospel of the kingdom as presented by Jesus Christ and the Lord referred to him as a fox (Luke 13:32). Fox is another species within the dog family but much more vicious than the domestic dog!
When John the Baptist repeated the same message to Herod, he turned on John: using the power of state, he arrested him, imprisoned him and had him beheaded as if to demonstrate total depravity and rebellion against God. Little wonder that he was eaten by worms (Acts 12:23).
So those who are beginning to use the power of state to try to silence the church will fail and at the right time will be eaten by worms but their worms will not die (Mark 9:44, 46).
Talks could be one method of disarming the church. You see, this attitude about talks has its foundation in this widespread philosophy of one-world, one religion, and one universal-brotherhood-of-all-men. This all-men-are-brothers, nobody-is bad, nothing-is-bad, all-are-good, we are just different philosophy has taken residence in the hearts of men in positions of authority: government leaders, leaders of institutions and communities, educators and politicians, and has now crept into the church almost unnoticed. They say we are all the same, we just have some misunderstanding that can be resolved by talks.
So we find talks begin, talks continues, talks get postponed, talks are rescheduled, talks resumes: if only we talk some more and I get to understand you and you get to understand me, then we will discover that we are in full agreement, the problem will just disappear and we are friends ever after. Hence the big thing in our day is to “keep in touch.” Talks must continue, no decision is final, everything is negotiable and subject to change. You see where there is life there is talks and where there is talks there is hope for more talks.
There be many today within the church that have apparently been infected by the fallout from these perennial talks.
Hence today the true Christian will feel pained when he comes to church only to hear so-called man of God, the prophet and voice of God for the present standing straight and tall in the pulpit, speaking in favour of or declaring boldly the ideas previously fed into his mind by eastern religion and metaphysics, the evolutionists, the film directors, the musicians, the novelists, psychiatrists, the scientists, the secular educationists and the sociologists.
I cannot put it better than how an old saint of a gone-by era once put it:
“A new Decalogue has been adopted by the neo-Christians of our day, the first word of which reads ‘Thou shalt not disagree’; and a new set of Beatitudes too, which begins ‘Blessed are they that tolerate everything for they shall not be made accountable for anything’”
It was true in his day and even more so now in our day.
It is now the accepted thing to talk over and above religious differences (but not really about the core issues), in public with the understanding that no one will try to convert another or point out errors in his belief. The purpose of such talks is not to confront error and present truth but to discover how the followers of other religions think and thus benefit from their views as we hope they will from ours. Anything other than that will be considered being intolerant, confrontational and judgmental. You may even be branded a bigot and before you blink thrice, be charged with a public order offence! And so many believers are silenced by the possibility of prosecution under trumped-up laws and Kangaroo courts.
But what else can you expect when the conveners of such talks have already concluded that every religion is worshiping the same God and that only the understanding and the mode of worship are different? Is that true? No, it is a lie of the devil and only fosters the agenda of the one-world order brigade.
But the truth and the experience of people is that people agree to disagree only about things and matters they considered unimportant to themselves. No one is tolerant when it concerns his life or the life of his child or a loved one.
Hence, no one will agree to negotiate over and away any religious matter he considers critical and vital to his eternal destiny.
Put practically:
- Can you imagine Moses agreeing to take part in a panel discussion with those who made the golden calf in Israel over the golden calf?
- Or could Elijah have entertained engaging in a cordial dialogue with the prophets of Baal?
- Or Samuel gently patting Saul on the back telling him not to worry because God is love and will not punish him for his disobedience?
- Can you imagine our Lord Jesus Christ seeking a meeting of minds with the high priest and Pharisees to talk about and iron out their differences saying they all were serving the same God but in different ways?
- Could you imagine the Apostle Peter and the others agreeing to a meeting of minds with the high priest and his kindred, and agreeing to stop preaching the gospel of the kingdom for the sake of peace? But what was his response? Care for samples?
- And further:
- “But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20).
- “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).
- Or could you imagine Athanasius trying to rise above his differences with Arius in order to achieve union on a higher level?
- Or Luther crawling into the presence of the pope in the name of unity and a broader Christian fellowship?
I hear you say “Impossible!!!”
Yes, it is IIIIMMMMPPPPPOOOOOSSSSSiiiiibbbbbbllllllllleeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Apostle Paul said: “woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” (1Cor 9:16).
For many so-called pastors and bishops and other prelates today the opposite is mostly true: it is woe is me if I preach the gospel of the kingdom.
Why? Because they fear men and their God is their belly! (Pro 29:25; Phil 3:19).
But what is the gospel you may ask?
The gospel is that Jesus the Son of came in the flesh and died for our sins, He died, was buried and He rose again and has ascended into heaven and is now at the right hand of God the Father (1Cor 15:1-4). He is coming back again for His own.
And His invitation to all to be saved is genuine too:
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Mat 11:28-30).
And the assurance:
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom 10:13).
Further we are told:
“that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Rom 10:9-10).
Those who have put their faith in Him as their Saviour and Lord are saved, born-again and will not partake in the wrath of God that is to come upon the ungodly as they are no more under condemnation.
Believers are also referred to as the elects of God. It means that God had chosen them as His people. While we may not know how or why God elects people, we do know that His election is neither partial nor arbitrary for He does not desire that any one should perish (1Tim 2:4; 2Pet 3:9).
God has chosen us (believers) in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). The grounds of the choice lie in Christ and His merits and not in any merit in us. All Christians are the “elect” of God (1Pet 2:9).
Are you genuinely saved?
Genuine believers have faith that is alive and active not dead faith.
The genuine believer’s active faith shows itself in:
- A full persuasion of the truth of the gospel
- Steadfast adherence to that gospel even in the midst of persecution
- The great change which it had already wrought in their character and life
- The efforts which they make to witness and spread the gospel.
If you are convinced you have been saved, I encourage you to follow in the footsteps of true saints of yester years and refuse to compromise your faith. Engage in talks so you can share your faith with others not so you can compromise it.
Please don’t excuse your compromise by saying that you can’t help it because you live in a very hostile environment. For Christians and Christianity have always existed in a very hostile environment.
And this may surprise you: true Christians have always been in the minority, have almost always lived in very hostile environment, with persecution organised or supported by the state, and the true Christian faith has always out-lived the enemy though many of her children did and still do die as martyrs when they refused to bow down to the enemy.
Rather, ask God for courage, wisdom and His word for your environment. As you obey God, then your light can shine in the midst of the darkness around you. Then the people will see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
May God’s ever-present presence be real in your life in Jesus’ Name, Amen.