Reflections From the Psalms
Help, Lord; for the godly man ceases; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak vanity every one with his neighbor: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. (Ps. 12:1-2)
In these last days, we are seeing the infiltration of the spirit of the enemy as never before. Among those who are not in Christ there is increasing violence, hatred, and lying. There is little restraint of evil. Indeed, more and more we are seeing the celebration of it.
We might expect such things of the world. But in this day we are seeing exactly the same thing in the church. In fact – and the Bible bears this out – the reason that the world is more and more coming under the direct government of the enemy is that much of the church has also come under it.
Paul the apostle wrote, “Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron…” (I Tim. 4:1-2) You will note the phrase, “depart from the faith.” Paul is not here talking about the world. He is talking about those who profess Christ. Likewise in II Timothy Paul spoke of those who profess Christ. He said, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (II Tim. 4:3-4)
Paul’s prophecies are coming to pass. Today, many are saying, “God doing a NEW thing.” They celebrate this supposed, “new thing” – but it is nothing more than a disguised falling away from the SAME THING that God has always been doing: Revealing Christ in His people, and building people in His Son. Has God exhausted that? Must God, in our time, do a new thing? Many today teach what amounts to fables – fabricated stories intended to make people feel good. They have tossed aside scripture and opted for a fable – opted for a christ of their religious imagination. Their message celebrates the value of man and diminishes the pricelessness of Jesus Christ. These are flattering lips. They are enemies of the personal Cross. They make people feel good about themselves at the expense of the Truth. They act as if Jesus is our cheerleader, and as if we are of more value to Him than He is to us.
The Bible clearly states that the Cross will be an offense to people. That is not because Jesus died for us on the Cross. Rather, the Cross will offend people because it brings us face to face with the fact that we died IN HIM. People are offended by the Truth, “Yet not I, but Christ.” (Gal. 2:20) The Cross shuts out natural man and shows us all to be but recipients of His life by grace. But rather than see that this is true freedom, people opt for the new gospel wherein we don’t talk about sin and come to terms with our emptiness. Read your Bible. Does God avoid that subject? No. It is front and center.
Believers must be brought face to face with Gal. 2:20: Yet not I, but Christ. Jesus Christ is in us, and God wants to reveal Him in us. That is ALWAYS going to be the path that God takes us by the Holy Spirit. But in these last days of, “the new thing,” and the desire to make Jesus, “user friendly, “ many will not accept the Truth. And we are seeing the consequences: Fables passed off as Truth.
