Exhortations For The Church: Volume 4

Preface


The apostle Paul says when the restraints are removed, the lawless ones will be able to flaunt their sins openly.

II Thess. 2 (NASB) ... Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 

3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so- called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. 

The "apostasy" (KJV "the falling away) has already come to our church groups.  This is the changing of scripture or omitting of scripture in the church gatherings which allows sin to come into the congregation.

For example:  When was the last time you heard the following scripture preached at a church group?

Mt. 5:32 ... Jesus said ...  whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Churches today even set up "singles classes" to allow people to meet and marry ... many in these singles classes are divorced women seeking "Christian" mates, hoping to remarry.

Paul said the following is the commandment of the Lord for the New Testament church ...

I Cor. 7 ...   10 And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord

Let not the wife depart from her husband:11 But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband:and let not the husband put away his wife.

The apostasy/falling away in the church groups is the omitting of scripture such as the above to permit sin to enter the congregation.

I once attended a dinner at a university.  Seated next to me was a man who was wearing the largest cross I have ever seen around his neck.  He identified himself as former pastor at Indiana Street Baptist Church.

He began talking:  He said, "We have such a problem at the church.  We have so many people attending that we can't seat everyone.  We have enlarged the main room several times and still more come and it is filled again." 

I replied.  "If you began preaching what Jesus said in Mt. 5:32, ' whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery'   about 1/2 of the congregation would leave and you wouldn't have a problem seating the people."

The congregation will grow in size when scripture is omitted or when scripture is explained away to permit violators of scripture to come into the congregation and feel approved in the various sins they continue to commit.

Consider this:  the apostle Paul says ...  

I Cor. 5 ...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.    


Jn. 8 ... Jesus said to the woman taken in adultery ... "Go and sin no more."

This woman who had been forgiven would no longer be able to commit adultery.  Now she would have to live another way, a way according to the Bible.

Jesus once healed a blind man, and after the man was healed Jesus said:  Jn. 5:14 ... Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.  


Jesus removed sin from us ... Jesus did not approve sin ... We were freed from sin so that we could serve God.  You cannot be a servant to sins and serve God.  Romans 6

The apostasy in the churches today makes sinners feel approved in their sin so there is no repentance from that sin.  They can come to church and feel good about themselves.

Restraint has been removed from the church by changing or eliminating scripture.  This allows lawlessness into the congregation.  This is the apostasy/the falling away (churches falling away from Bible).

Antichrist reigns in the heart of man when this happens.


II Thess. 2 (NASB) ... Paul says ...

5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? 6 And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. 

7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.  

8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; 9 that is, the one (antichrist) whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. 11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

Antichrist comes into "the temple of God."  

Paul says ... I Cor. 6 ... 15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. 16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
 

18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 

19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price:therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Antichrist moves "into the temple" showing himself that he is god... doing what suits him rather than obeying the instructions given us by God through HIS Spirit in the Bible.

Therefore "antichrist" is a spirit that operates in the heart of men and women in the churches.

Antichrist operates through leaders of the church, pastors and such, when they speak as they will and will not correct themselves by the Holy Scriptures.  (I've encountered this many times in church groups.)  

Antichrist is also in the members of the congregation when they go along with sins. 

The apostasy in the churches is happening right now.  This had to happen before Jesus could return for HIS people.

And what should we do?  

We leave those churches where sins are approved and accepted without repentance.  We get with those persons who have the Holy Spirit.  We speak with them by phone, assembling with them, often by phone or emails.  Jesus said: For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Mt. 18:20

More than once, I have heard Christians say:  "I can't find a church to attend.  It is so watered down.  There is nothing there." 

I can't find a church to attend either.  There is so much error spoken by the pastor.  Each time I have attended, (Baptist, Assembly of God, Church of Christ, and various non-denominational churches) I have gone to pastor after I have heard the error and have talked with pastor.  I've never yet seen any of these pastors repent nor show any shame over misquoting of Bible.   

This is simply "antichrist" in the churches, in the pastors ... anti (opposite) to Christ, to the Word.

What we must do is the following:

Heb. 10 ...  23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) 24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another:and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. 

We assemble ourselves with other individuals who desire to build their lives on the world of God.

And we must read even more Bible daily and we read "godly exhortations" daily, filling our minds with the pure Word of God.

That is the purpose of these books, to exhort the church today in the ways of God, to re-establish doctrine from Bible in our hearts and in our minds.

Joan Boney



Divorce/Remarriage: Reestablishing the doctrine of Christ from Bible


Jesus says:  Mt. 5:32 ... That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery:and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

3 forms of sin:

- The husband who divorces the "faithful wife" will be the cause of the faithful wife's adultery when she remarries after divorce.

- The faithful wife will commit adultery if she remarries after divorce.

- The man who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.

Paul explains the following as "the commandment of the Lord" for the New Testament Church.

I Cor. 7 ...  10 And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband:11 But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband:and let not the husband put away his wife.

Paul is speaking to the New Testament Church by the commandment of God when he speaks the above scripture telling the woman not to leave her husband but if she does leave she must remain unmarried or return to her husband.

The divorced woman is not to remarry.

Some churches teach she can remarry if her husband has committed fornication.  This is not what the Bible teaches us.  I Cor. 7:10-11 makes that very clear.

It will sound wrong to the natural mind to think there are different rules for men and for women in Bible... but there are.  (Consider hair length for example.  I Cor. 11)


If the wife is unfaithful, husband can put her away (divorce her) and if so, husband can remarry.

But there is no place in NT where we see a scripture saying the wife can remarry after divorce.  Scriptures tell us if the wife remarries after divorce, she commits adultery. 

Romans 7 ...   1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress:but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Some churches say, "We're not under the law in the NT church."

Didn't the apostle Paul know that when he wrote these scriptures?


Consider again:   I Cor. 7:10-11... 10 And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband:11 But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband:and let not the husband put away his wife.

The wife is free from "this law" if her husband is dead. (Romans 7:1-3)  Then the wife can remarry, "but only in the Lord." 

I Cor. 7 ...  39 The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord. 


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Exhortations For The Church:  Volume 4
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