Get Ready, The King Is Coming!
Matthew 25:10 tells us while the foolish virgins were off making the purchase they were now forced to go make, “the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut.” Those who were prepared entered into the joyful feast with their Lord. Those who were not were kept from entering in. We must get ready, preparing our hearts in this midnight hour for the return of our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. Our decision to move out in Christ or to remain in the murky waters of indecisiveness and unbelief will soon determine our fate.
In regards to the care of nursing babies, they cannot survive on their own. If left unattended to in their present, helpless state, they will most certainly die. They are not mature enough to survive alone. Many within the church in America are presently in this perilous state. At the first sign of danger their hireling shepherds will run, leaving them to fend for themselves. These misguided ewes continue to live on milk (i.e. elementary teachings), codependent on their spiritual leaders who are more than happy to continue spoon feeding them. It keeps them in control, above them.
The present religious system encourages this type of behavior. Our Sunday morning services are, in most instances, nothing more than a nursery filled with milk-moustache tadpoles. The prevailing systems of religion do not allow for people to grow up as they should. The lifeless, religious rituals that have become well entrenched within the majority of churches in this nation keep God’s children in a state of spiritual infancy. They rarely confront sin in their midst, exercising the love of Christ through church discipline. Due to a lack of real intimacy with the sheep they are for the most part unaware of what is really going on in their lives. Most of the sheep like it this way, enjoying their so called “privacy.”
Satan keeps his kingdom going by keeping us from becoming mature in Christ. His goal is to keep us from what Paul defined in Ephesians 4:13 as “the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” The church has become an unclean cesspool filled with helpless tadpoles that will be unable to escape the refiners purifying fire about to be poured out on the entire world.
Concerning the coming of the Lord, Malachi 3:2-3 says, “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. And He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness.” Submission to this purification process of sanctification by the Spirit at this midnight hour is what will give you the legs you need to get out of the pool before the cleansing judgment of the Lord is poured out.
Remember, judgment begins in the house of God for the sake of those in the church who need to repent. This occurs so that we do not partake of the judgment that comes to the rest of the world. God mercifully reaches out to His rebellious children, giving them time to turn away from their sin first.
This is what Paul referred to in 1 Corinthians 11:31-32 when he said, “But if we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord in order that we may not be condemned along with the world.” God wisely scourges every son whom He receives (Hebrews 12:6) so as to drive foolishness out of our hearts. Proverbs 22:15 says, “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of discipline will remove it far from him.”
Those in the church who will not submit to the Holy Spirit’s maturing process of inner cleansing and purifying will, like the foolish virgins find themselves on the outside in a horrific place of judgment. Speaking about the harvest of the earth at the end of this age, Jesus said in Matthew 13:41-42, “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Don’t miss that He said out of “His” kingdom. Those who continue to commit lawlessness (walk in sin), after having ignored the conviction of the Holy Spirit to turn away in repentance, will find themselves in a fiery judgment in the day of God’s great wrath at the end of this age. (Also see Matthew 22:1-14; 24:44-51; 25:14-30; and Luke 13:22-30.)
In Isaiah 47:8-9 the Lord says to Babylon, “Now, then, hear this, you sensual one, who dwells securely [KJV- “that dwellest carelessly”], who says in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me. I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know loss of children.’ But these two things shall come on you suddenly in one day: loss of children and widowhood. They shall come on you in full measure in spite of your many sorceries, in spite of the great power of your spells.” Babylon, the great harlot, will find herself without a “Husband,” who is the Lord, as well as the loss of their nursing babes (the tadpoles).
Physical Babylon in the Old Testament is a picture of spiritual Babylon in the New Testament. The word Babylon means “confusion,” or “confusion by mixing.” In the book of Revelation, she represents the portion of the Body of Christ that mixes error with truth for her own glorification, making herself out to be God. This is why she says “I am,” which is God’s name. I have written much about this subject in my book “The Plague Of Abortion; Babylon’s Guilt Of Bloodshed.”
They are guilty of spiritual prostitution with the world while being betrothed to Christ. The Lord calls her the “sensual one.” The Hebrew for sensual is defined as “voluptuous” which according to Webster’s Dictionary means “full of, producing, or characterized by sensual delights and pleasures; sensual.” It also means “fond of or directed toward luxury, elegance, and the pleasures of the senses.” Through the seduction of idolatry, they lull their spiritual children into a false sense of security. Their doctrines will not conform you to godliness, but will instead allow you to walk in the stubbornness of your heart saying you have “peace and safety.” Like the tadpoles, you will suddenly be destroyed in the final cleansing of the earth if you do not come out from her midst, quickly!
In regards to the fall of Babylon, John says in Revelation 18:4-5, “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues [remember the plagues in Revelation 15-16]; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her. To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and will never see mourning [the very words spoken over Babylon in Isaiah 47:8].’ For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong.”
The tribulation that is coming, the great pressure of the Lord known in Scripture as “Jacob’s trouble” (see the Bible study Jacob’s Trouble), will be used to purify through force those who would not turn beforehand. The Lord knows we will need some coercion because of our stubborn hearts and attachment to this world. Even then, as we discussed earlier in Revelation 16, some will still not repent. As in John 6 when Jesus confronted His disciples with an all-or-nothing choice, they will simply quit following Him because “it’s too hard.” To their demise, they will not seek the Lord with all of their heart, striving to enter by the narrow gate, but will instead curse God and die.
May we be joined together by the Spirit with those who have denied themselves, picked up their cross, and are now following the Lord in obedient submission to a place of safety in the coming judgment. His true shepherds are going to gently lead His nursing ewes out into the safe place in Himself He has been preparing for them, a place where they will be spared in a great end time deliverance. Thank-you Lord for your mercy that always precedes Your judgment!
Commentaires