Cleaning Up Our House

It has been awhile since my last post.  It may be a while yet before my next.  I am going through a valley right now and covet the prayers of those who know Christ.  Here is a word that was upon my heart today.  May it be food for thought…

For those of us who still long to see a real movement of God, there is a major problem which exists in many churches and amongst Christians in general that is holding back the healing rain of the Spirit we so desire. Sin in the camp. In our present age, we hear people beat the drum within Christian and secular society saying, “We shouldn’t judge!” The problem is that it is almost always taken out of context and is the very thing that has allowed sin to be in our midst amongst churches. In the Old Testament, we are all familiar with how God brought down the walls of Jericho. And some of us may even remember how a man named Achan hid a wedge of gold and a Babylonianish garment under his tent. No one knew except God and Achan. However, when Israel went to defeat the next town, Ai, they lost and many of their men were killed. Joshua began to pray, wondering why God had not been in their midst fighting their battles. “And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.” (Josua 7:10-12) Notice the Lord says “Neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.”

Now fast forward to the New Testament, and Paul is writing to the Corinthian church who had a church member who was a fornicator, committing sexual related sin, but who still was considered a member in good standing. Here is what Paul had to say…

1Corinthians 5:1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. 2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. 12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? 13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

Now, as you can see, Paul says God judges sinners in the world, but the church body is supposed to judge them within. Why? Because a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Sin is like cancer and it spreads. Plus the Lord will not bless or help us fight our battles, or bring Revival as long as sin is coddled or winked at in our churches. “The Holy Spirit is a dove that will not light upon a dirty nest.” (Spurgeon)

Not long ago churches practiced what is called ‘Church Discipline’. It is not a new concept but has existed as long as the church has. In Revelation, Ephesus is told that they were good about testing those who said they were apostles but weren’t. And Paul told Timothy, “Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.” (I Timothy 5:20) When I was growing up, if someone called themselves your brother in Christ and was living in sin, refusing to repent after having been admonished by other brethren and elders, then they were called up before the assembly and their sin was pointed out to the whole church. If at this point they did not repent they would be put out of the fellowship. You say, “That seems too harsh.” It is not politically correct to be sure. But it is exactly what the author and finisher of our faith instructed… “Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.  And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. (Matthew 18:15-17)

We want Revival? We want the Lord to fight our battles? We want the world to be like the people of Jericho, who feared Israel having heard how that God had delivered them from Egypt? Then we need to first, clean up our homes and then clean up our houses. “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God…” (1Peter 4:17)

 

THINK ON THESE THINGS…

A Fellow Servant

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