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A WARNING

To the Church called by the Name of Jesus Christ

By Larry Hendrickson February 8, 1997

I believe I have a word from God, to the institution we call the church. Those who loudly proclaim “Lord, Lord” but who are unknown by Him - this is a warning to this institution. There is also a word of comfort to those few who desperately long for His coming. I don’t believe I am the only one, by any means, who hears this message. What is a surprise to me is that there are so few prophets proclaiming it. This discourse will make some statements that are categoric in nature. I do so without apology. I believe the problem is so acute as to warrant such statements. Also, I will be very blunt and for that also I do not apologize. I have as my model in rhetoric, Jesus, who never pulled a punch. My admiration for the apostle Paul is limitless. He also was not one to beat around the bush. I realize that my Bible college professors, by in large, will wonder where they failed in their efforts to teach me. They were victims of the problem herein stated as well.

I also freely, but not proudly, admit that I fall very short of the ideal proclaimed in this warning, for this I do apologize. But we must remember that truth is not made true by the reliability of it’s proponent. Truth remains truth in spite of my failure to live up to it. It is not my gospel that I preach but His, and He is responsible for it.

This word is for three types of people. It is for the great and opulent church filled with the latest hype, decorated with all the finery that money can buy. To these folks this essay will be an ordeal.

I write this, expressly, for those individuals found in every congregation who have this unshakable notion that something is wrong but have never been given enough truth to discern just what it might be.

These true brethren will be relieved that their dismay is well-founded. What is written here will be met with joyful repentance and efforts do what is necessary to remedy the problem. They will diligently search the scriptures to see if these things be so. If this effort will cause even one to dig into Scripture then it will have been worth it.

These words come from God, I am convinced, and there was a great deal of pain and effort put into it. Let it not be forgotten that my heart had to be broken first and many were the tears spent realizing just how short I fall from the center of God’s Will.

Finally, I write to those who have spent their life avoiding and rejecting the gracious offer of eternal life in Christ Jesus. Some of these people will scoff and turn away. These folks are satisfied with nothing less than being allowed to remain on the throne of their lives, with a little participation from God, of course.

I am under no illusions, however, most folks will reject this warning - some even violently. I recall in God’s word that when Jesus said that unless they were to eat His flesh and drink His blood they would have no part in Him. John 6:51-66. When Jesus spoke hard truth, most deserted Him. So it will be with this. A few, however, will realize the truth and know the wonderful joy of coming humbly to Jesus Christ and be born again in His truth. Having said all this, let us begin.

The church, in the mainstream, today is desperately ill, possibly even deceased. We fit the Laoadicean picture perfectly. We say we are alive, but we are in truth very near death. The proof of this statement is in the fruit that we bear. We have not allowed ourselves the real food of Scripture and have, as a result, become starved for the truth.

A spoiled child loudly demands more ice-cream and rejects the nutritious food of a healthy dinner. So we have rejected the meat of the whole counsel of God’s word in favor of watered down baby food. We have demanded of God that he bless us with all the material things we can imagine, and have even built a religious movement around this thought.

We have revolted at the first sign of testing, saying “trouble? That can’t be God’s will. “ We have covered our mouths and tore our clothes at the sound of “personal, practical holiness,” loudly howling “works.” Never mind the fact that God says in 1 Pet 1:15-16 “but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; Because it is written,’You shall be holy, for I am holy’.”

We have rallied around teachers who can give us something flashy and high tech with lots of signs and wonders, and ignored the ones who preach the simple truth.

So much are they ignored and maligned that they are demoralized and poverty stricken. As the Terry Talbot song so truthfully states, “We flock to the miracles we see televised while we watch east Africa die.” These words are so very true today.

We seem to have a bottomless pit ready to receive every bit of hype we can thrust into. We gloss over very nicely the two commandments given by our Lord. Matt 22:37-40 “And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “ This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it,’You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ “ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

“Love God with all your heart . . . “ and Love your neighbor as yourselves? We are learned enough to have discovered that love is a verb, something you must do - not something you can have. We “love” God by giving Him a couple of hours a week if there isn’t something better on television.

We will give a small portion of our wealth into the plate but only after we have fully indulged ourselves with all we “NEED.” We make life decisions based on the way we see things rather than have the facts clouded with faith.

We own more possessions then we could ever use. More clothes that we can wear. Just look at what we consider garbage. Most of the rest of the world would consider a garbage truck a treasure chest.

We have gorged ourselves in a veritable orgy of opulence and we call it a blessing from God. The very statement makes a mockery of the bed of poverty the rest of the world must sleep in. We believe our wealth is proof of God’s favor on us, and the lack of wealth as proof to the contrary.

I have a simple question: Who looks more like Jesus, we who are wallowing in our wealth, or the poor of the world? For a hint to the answer look to Matt. 8:18-20.

We have so much money and the things it can buy as to make a sultan blush, while the terrible stench of poverty pollutes most of the rest of the world.

We see flashed across our T.V. screens and tabloids gruesome photos of starving and mistreated people all over the world and say, “tsk tsk how terrible, pass the potatoes please.” The little doe eyed girl on the page of some Christian magazine pleads for just a crumb off our table. We respond, perhaps, with a tear but not much more. We may give some spare change amounting to not much more than pocket lint. Whoever said that tears were the end of the journey to repentance? They are, indeed, not the end but merely the beginning.

We say we have the gift of giving but what we give saves a trip to the dump, and we come away feeling so goooood inside. We have indulged ourselves with glib talkers who soothingly tell us that we “only need a heart to do this, and that is all God requires of us.” Whew! I don’t really have to die to myself. I really don’t have to sell all I possess, give to the poor, and follow Him. (Mark 10:19-22 and Luke 18:18-23). I must simply have a heart to do so. Oh how nicely this explains away the example of selfless giving that Jesus set for us, to say nothing about the rest the Scriptures we so proudly proclaim as truth.

The problem with the church today is that we have looked so closely at the scriptures that we have parsed away the Spirit of the Holy Word. We can describe, in great detail, every nuance of Greek and Hebrew text, but the light of life they contain is nearly gone.

The Word of God is now mostly an academic endeavor. We have forgotten, to a large extent, that the Bible tells us about a way of living not simply a way of believing. To regulate the Scriptures to a doctrinal thesis is to invite religious thinking, spiritual bigotry and misinterpretation.

If anything is true then Jesus is true and He did not speak in vain or to be “dissected” into oblivion. Consider passages such as Luke 9:24-25 “For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?” How does this relate to today’s church???? In this day of “me first,” this is a death blow to us.

It is completely upside-down to anything we have been taught. “If you seek to save your life you’ll lose it and if you seek to lose your life for My sake you will find it. “ Is this Divine Double talk or did He have a serious word here for His bride? He undoubtedly meant that He must be the total of our life’s endeavor and the center of our very existence.

Let me remind whoever has endured with me to this point that in the great and terrible day of the Lord there will be a reckoning. He will gather the nations, separating them, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. The standard for acceptance into the Joys of the Lord will not be correct doctrine or the amount of demons’ scalps you have hanging from your belt, but the way we took care of the needy in the world. Read again - really read Matt.25:31ff.

As I look around the church today I have noticed (as one notices a toothache) that we have left the pure simple word of God far behind. We have left it in favor of our vast knowledge of the social sciences and our mastery over religious thought.

I must issue a stern warning for we who have assumed the position of “teacher.” This is a warning found in James 3:1 “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment.” Be careful when you step up to the podium to teach, for in doing so you have stepped into a much brighter light of scrutiny.

Just how do we justify our “feel good teaching,” while avoiding the “harsher” Word? Is it, perhaps, to avoid stepping on toes? Maybe we are deluded into thinking that large numbers on Sunday morning constitutes a successful ministry. Perhaps the offering plate is overly important to a body that has over-stretched their budget to buy more stained glass.

Remember again what God says about preferential treatment, James 2:3-4, “and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ and you say to the poor man, ‘You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,’ have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?” It is certainly unwise and perhaps even dangerous to filter what you do and say in the light of who may be listening.

We are responsible for the whole counsel of God, and it is to Him we shall give an accounting. We have a much bigger problem than saying what will please people. We need to strive to please Him, for our own sakes, if not for a more noble motivation.

The candor of Jesus got Him killed, but He could do nothing less than tell it like it really was? He knew the danger of truth and He lovingly took the risk - greater love has no man than this.

Is it not true that the word of God is - to those who reject it’s authority - a stern warning of certain and final judgment? Is it not just as true - to those who are being saved - the sweetest song that can be heard?

To the Pharisees Jesus proclaimed a “woe” and to the harlot he said “go and sin no more?” I think that to the Pharisee’s he was a harsh judge filled with negative preaching, but to the Harlot He was the sweet sound of forgiveness. He spoke to the woman, words, which didn’t lighten the guilt of her sin, but offered her a way to be free of it. Jesus did not want her to return to her sin as a dog to his vomit, but a chance to try her life again - a new chance, God’s way.

Why is it that we are afraid to hold each other accountable for the witness we have in the world? Why do we neglect the righteous demand of God on His children? Perhaps if we were to preach fully our commission, the offering plate would be hurt a little?

Our God is not an over-indulgent father! Who gave us the authority to interpret and intellectualize out the demands of practical holiness in favor of the milk-toast of, what I call the genie Jesus religious system? You know “rub the magic Bible” and out pops Jesus asking what He can do for us today. We make our request, He grants it and dutifully recedes into the academic until we have another indulgence we wish Him to act upon. He was not created for our good pleasure BUT WE FOR HIS.

Let us not forget who Jesus is. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Who told us that He was simply an ever present help in time of trouble? While he safeguards his children, he also disciplines them to the end that they are a fitting witness for His glory (Hebrews 12:4-11). We have not succumbed to His loving discipline, and as a result, I am ashamed to say, we have lost our saltiness to a world that desperately needs a see the REAL Jesus.

As a pastor and a Spirit-filled individual, I must strive to realize what God wants from me. We must not avoid the mission we have been given by no less an authority than God Himself. Read 2 Timothy where Paul admonishes Timothy to Preach the word - don’t worry about building a huge church. Paul pulls no punches when he said that our desire for having our ears tickled would overtake our desire for the pure food of God’s word. Do not have itchy ears, and certainly, do not be an ear tickler. In 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, how can we find any other interpretation to this passage that gives us our orders as ambassadors and ministers of the gospel of Grace?

Let me bring to your mind the passage in Ezekiel chapter 33 that tells us of an equal commission. This is a commission in the Lord’s army as sentinel standing on the parapet, keeping watch for the enemies of the family of God. Our obligation, when we see danger, (false teaching, wolves coming into the fold with a soothing message but with blood in their teeth), is to cry out a warning loud and clear to the people in your care. If anyone ignores the warning you have issued and is snared, his blood will be on his own head. If we shrink back from sounding the alarm because we are afraid of being “negative” or offending someone, that person will perish, but God will require of us payment for his blood.

Let me now simply quote a sobering passage of Scripture:

EZE 34:1 Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Woe shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? “You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. “Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost; but with force and with severity you have dominated them. “And they were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered. “My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill, and My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth; and there was no one to search or seek for them.

“Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: “As I live,” declares the Lord God, “surely because My flock has become a prey, My flock has even become food for all the beasts of the field for lack of a shepherd, and My shepherds did not search for My flock, but rather the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock; therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: ‘ Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I shall demand My sheep from them and make them cease from feeding sheep. So the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore, but I shall deliver My flock from their mouth, that they may not be food for them.”’

If we dare to look at the church we have built through the pure lens of God’s word, we would find that what we think is so pleasing to Him falls very short of His ideal. We are not giving the flock true food but mashed and strained baby food, and it will not nourish the flock to holiness, nor prepare His children the days to come. God has a righteous demand on every child of His and He has not changed His mind. His children must live to the highest biblical standard so they may walk in the strength of His Spirit.

As Pastors and church leaders we protect our jobs by not making waves. We are not upsetting fragile egos with the whole counsel of God’s word, and, by the way, not rippling the offering box either. In our cowardice we have muffled the cry of warning and people who think they are right with God, are perishing in terrible numbers.

Let us pray and diligently seek the forgiveness of our God, and repent of our sin. Perhaps God will give us the opportunity to right the wrong we have done.

To the flock, I must warn: if you demand your ears be tickled and give your pastor trouble for preaching and teaching the truth in it’s entirety, then you will perish in your sin. There will be no excuse for you in that great and awesome day. You must expect and indeed demand the full truth. You must cherish it as the good news that it is. The full truth is good news to those who are saved, for they have no need to fear God, they are at peace with Him.

If the message sounds “negative” to you, perhaps you need to reexamine your faith. You may have missed the boat somehow. Perhaps God is calling you yet one more time. Do not waste time trying to figure out how to punch holes in this prophecy. Search the scriptures to test these words and respond accordingly.

Now to those who somehow avoided the grace offered you: reject no more, for how will you escape if you neglect so great a salvation?” Our God is very patient with us but He will not strive with us forever. Be warned, if you do not want God in this fleeting life you will be shocked to learn that you have made an eternal decision.

If you are counting on one more day of life (read the papers and watch the news It CAN happen to you!), you may have forever sealed your fate to a Godless eternity. You will have chosen a place where God is not, we call that place Hell. Not a popular word today. I hear the shrieks of “negative preaching” already, but you are now advised that it is the full Biblical truth.

Again, I must say reject “Jesus no more, “ you have now been warned to flee from the wrath to come. Come to Jesus in simple faith in His blood to take away your guilt, Heb 9:22 “And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

Do not come to the “Genie Jesus” for this is a false view. Come to the real Jesus Christ; the one who loved you enough to assume the full guilt of your sin. The One who died to reclaim you to Himself for His good pleasure and save you from the fire of hell.

Join the true family of God and be born again. And be welcomed with loving arms spread wide to embrace you, His new Child. Pray and ask God to forgive you and receive you to Himself.

God Bless you.

We are available to you for evangelistic and revival services. We can provide music of all styles. Financial arrangements as the Lord provides, we work very hard to to leave no one out.

If you wish to correspond, contact

Larry Hendrickson

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