But we do not wish to be refined. We
want our ears tickled and we want to dance like David danced! And listen; there
is nothing wrong with dancing for God with all we have. There is nothing wrong
with passionate praise for our Lord and King. But there needs to be a balance. There
needs to be times of deep reflection where we bow low before our holy God. It
all fits in with the modern deviations from Scripture that seek to turn God
into our buddy instead of our King. It seeks to change God into our friend
instead of our Lord. Reverence is sacrificed on the altar of relevance. What we
have now is growing generations of Christians who hang out with God instead of
serve Him. We have generations of Christians who can rap about God but have no
reverent fear before Him. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
than the lack of the fear of the Lord must be the beginning of foolishness.
The key verses conclude with one final
note. The stubborn like to say to those who remain uncompromised -- "get off the
narrow path." Come down here where everyone else is. So many of us on this
broad path cannot be wrong! We too can become enamored with the numbers game.
But just because a church has 10,000 people doesn't mean that it is doing the
will of God. Realize that this is not
the only place these analogies are found in the Bible:
"You can enter God's Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway
to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very
narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. -- Matthew 7:
13-14 (NLT)
These are no small matters we are discussing
here. The narrow road is what leads to heaven. The broad path is what leads to
hell. This is the end result of the falling away of the church in these last
days. You have two large problems to deal with. The first is that you will have
a marked increase in false salvations. Remember those people who come to Christ
on the last day and He denies ever knowing them at all. These are people who
spent their whole life thinking they were serving God only to find out at the
end they were not even saved. That should be frightening. Saying a magic prayer
does not save anyone beloved. Only a heart truly regenerated by the power of
the Holy Ghost is saved. I know this from personal testimony. I said the
sinner's prayer in 1998 but did not understand what the deal was that I was
making. God called me to a church in 2002 and the weight of my sin drew me to
the altar and my heart was regenerated. I started desiring the things of God
over the things of this world. I know that if my life was required of me
between 1998 and 2002, I was not saved. Between 1998 and 2002 I remained on the
broad path despite having said all the right things.
The second large problem we will have to deal
with is the effect on the truly saved. By focusing us away from the truth and
into lies, the enemy makes us impotent for the
Reverend Anthony Wade - June 11, 2012
