It was not really a surprise that the new Pew Research Center report in October of this year revealed that Americans have increasingly believed that marriage is optional, and that a family can include a homosexual couple with a child.
The understanding and conviction that marriage is an institution ordained by God for the benefit of man, is less a concern today than at any other period of time in history. As Americans move farther and farther away from a close relationship with God, they feel less inclined to pay attention to what He says.
This is the fault of the pastors in many churches who no longer teach their congregations the Word of God from the pulpit, but instead bring flowery sermons on prosperity, wealth and feeling good about one’s self.
Coincidentally this past wednesday evening, I was teaching through the Book of Revelation in a local church about this very subject. In Chapter 3 of the Book of Revelation, Jesus commends the church at Philadelphia for their correct view of what is most important in Jesus church:
Revelation 3:8 “I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.”
The church that is on the correct course, according to Jesus, is one who is focussed on three primary goals:
1. They have only “A little strength”:
This is not a self sufficient church, pastor or staff. They are totally reliant upon the Lord for everything. This church may have many members or only a few, but their strength comes from The Holy Spirit, who guides those who lead the church.
Their success as a church does not come from their programs, organizational skills, or sermons that inspire the congregation by being socially correct for the present world view. This church finds that when they are the weakest, the Lord of whom is their focus, empowers them to do the impossible.
2. They have “kept His word.”
In Psalm 138, David records the fact that the most important principle to the Lord, is His Word. Above even His name, is the importance of His Word.
Psalms 138:2 … “For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.“
When the church began in the Book of Acts chapter 2, it was the teaching of the entire Word of God that was a primary focus of the church. That mandate from Jesus has not changed since He first birthed His church by His death and Resurrection.
The Book of Revelation chapter 3 is a reminder that what pastors should be occupying their time with is the study of God’s Word to build their own relationship with Jesus. If pastors have His Word in their own heart and mind, then they are equipped to be able to bring the Word of God to the congregation each week. What the people of God need to hear is the Word of God, and not the opinions and philosophies of men.
The reason that each Pew Research Center Report shows an increasing moving towards a more liberal class of American, is that their is a famine of the Word of God in the church today. Pastors do not know what the Bible says, and therefore the people do not know what the Word of God says.
3. They “have not denied Jesus name”.
As we move farther away from the social morals that founded our great nation, their is a parallel movement by Jesus church in their denial that Jesus is who He claims to be in the Bible.
There are thousands of churches across America that claim to be “Christian Churches, yet they deny that Jesus is God, and make him simply a good man or great teacher. Jesus never gave us the option to believe that He is just an ordinary man, or great teacher. He claimed to be the great and eternal God who created the heavens and the earth, and the only way to heaven.
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.“
John 8:58 “Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” ( I AM is the Old Testament Name for the Eternal God)
John 10:32 “Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”
In the denominational churches of America, their has been a decreasing denial of the authority that Jesus has in His church to judge sin and insist on repentance in the church for sin. Today there is more talk about the church members being happy and prospering, instead of the way to that happiness and prosperity being through obedience to the Lord in our behavior.
In many of the denominational churches across America there is greater endorsement of the sin of Homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle. Gay priests, and pastors are embraced by the leadership as well as by the congregation.
Once the church begins down the road to a belief that some sins are acceptable in the church, then the door is open to an acceptance that any other sin is also acceptable. By the slow erosion of the sanctity of marriage, the embracing of the gay lifestyle in the church, the church has lost it’s moral authority.
There is no longer a respect for the sanctity of marriage or the principles detailed in the Bible, because Christians are not living this kind of life themselves.
As we near the day of Jesus return we can expect that reports of the moral decay of America will be increasing each year. Every society that has ceased to exist as a great nation or people, did so by the gradual decline in the moral values of individual citizens. The only hope for America in continuing to be “Blessed by God” as we hear so often invoked by our political leaders, is that Americans would experience a renewed sense of personal repentance for their own sins and a turning back to God with honor being given to His Word.
Rob Robinson
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