The Institutional Church is Not Coming back

THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH

IS NOT COMING BACK

Sometimes an individual believer strays so far and goes so deep into sin that only a miracle could bring him back. Perhaps we all have seen such miracles so they are not out of the question. But in those cases the individual knows he is in sin and either likes it or cannot seem to extricate himself. But when a church collectively systematically slides into sin via doctrine and practice, it takes on a completely different kind of deception. The individual is deceived by the deceitfulness of sin, while the church’s deception is multilayered.

The major difference in the prodigal son and the prodigal church is that the church is unaware of its sin, and in fact embraces its condition. The visible and institutional church in America has been blinded by prosperity, church growth, and a general atmosphere of narcissism. Heaven is now here on earth and hell is little more than an archaic doctrine expressed seldom with lips and that in reality has long since vacated hearts. The church continues to slide, but since it is tethered to and measures itself by the culture, it is blind to the slide.

The extent to which the western church has fallen away from Christ and the gospel is climactic and so deep, that it is almost beyond belief that the church at large could or would ever come back to following Christ. And Scripture itself predicts such a falling away.

II Tim.4: I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
3 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;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Instead of preaching the Word, the western church has created humanistic doctrines which scratch the ears and soothe the conscience. Millions of unregenerate sinners march into evangelical sanctuaries every Sunday and leave still lost but joyful and content. They have been lulled by “how to” messages, hopes of divine prosperity, patriotic lullabies, and all kinds of earthly advice camouflaged as God’s Word. Jesus and His gospel are asides and sometimes find a shallow cameo at the end of these self help sermons.

How can you describe the color red to a blind man? How can you share Mozart with a deaf man? So how can you reason with people caught in deception and the demonic powers of the enemy?

Matt.13: 19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.
20 But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;
21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
22 He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

There are three ways in principle that snatch away the Word of God and they are the direct influence of the enemy, the allurement of riches, and the superfluous way in which it is received.

THE ENEMY

How does Satan steal the Word of God from the hearts of people? Sometimes the church does not even spread good seed. Sometimes people allow it to fall all around them without even a mild consideration. Many times in this culture that is saturated with a mixture of good and bad seed people get confused and remain careless and uninterested. And because of the unremarkable lives of professing believers, even the good seed has no value in the eyes of those who have been insulated by the poor testimony of those who profess Christ.

THE RICHES

The allurement of the hedonistic culture has shipwrecked the church. In fact the American evangelical church has incorporated that same culture within their practice. Millions of professing believers file into evangelical pews after having lived a life saturated in the culture and without so much as a shred of spiritual evidence. Millions have spoken words of hatred, millions have unforgiveness in their hearts, millions have lusted after the things of this world, millions have not prayed, millions have been self righteous, and yet in they come and out they go with a weekly redundancy that is religiously robotic. And millions dream of personal prosperity and financial gain because they have been told that is God’s will. The riches of this world have choked out God’s Word.

SHALLOWNESS

Perhaps no generation has so diluted God’s Word as to make it work for you instead of work in you. God has been made a servant to man and not the Lord over His people. Much of what is preached is situational ethics, good advice, and a Judeo-Christian morality that is lifted up higher than following Jesus. If you do not commit adultery you are the noblest of creatures and if you do you can quickly change marriage partners then all is right once again. And with that new partner you can be a church leader and even a pastor. The Word no longer cuts away the flesh, it soothes the flesh.

So the power of the Word has been systematically removed and what is left is only some bits and pieces of Scripture carefully sown together as a path to earthly happiness, contentment, and success. And that is why people can go and come to church with nary a change much less any deep and penetrating conviction that results in repentance and a sacrificial journey to seek and follow Jesus. The western institutional church has become a religious system of outward structure but with an inward void. In fact, it is no longer Christian in practice and only very little Christian in Word. The church no longer believes or practices the Word.

So how can a system so entrenched and so blind and so wrapped within the cares of this culture ever return to Christ and His teachings? And when the shepherds and teachers are leading the flock further and further away from Christ and His righteousness, how is it that the flock is able to see? The church has so lifted up man that the flock treats them as celebrities and receives their words as coming from God. And with a multiplicity of Bibles in almost every home, the Word of God is still rare. The evangelical church in the west has become a cultural leviathan with tentacles which reach almost every area of the modern culture but without having roots which live and grow within Christ. Its appetite is insatiable, its upkeep is costly, and its power is of this world.

So I exhort you, my friends, do not expect the institutional church to come back. And those of you who still attend a local church, please be light to that fellowship but be keenly aware that even that fellowship has strayed. Be humble, be loving, and be gracious. But also be vigilant and always growing in the Person and power of the Lord Jesus.