Preface
As the sin in the
churches and in the world increases around us, we draw nearer to the day of the
Lord, the return of Jesus for the church.
Twice in the New Testament we read these times would be very difficult for the godly person. It will be so difficult to endure in the midst of the increasing approval of sin.
Jesus even said: And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Mt. 24:12
(The love of many for the word of God will grow cold because there is so much iniquity around them.)
The apostle Peter said it would get so bad that the "righteous" would scarcely be saved. I Peter 4:18
And Jesus said: And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Mt. 24:22
What must we do to endure?
Hebrews 10 gives us a clue ... "exhorting one another and even more as we see the day approaching." verse 25
This is what we are doing with these volumes of "Exhortations for the Church."
Joan Boney
Twice in the New Testament we read these times would be very difficult for the godly person. It will be so difficult to endure in the midst of the increasing approval of sin.
Jesus even said: And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Mt. 24:12
(The love of many for the word of God will grow cold because there is so much iniquity around them.)
The apostle Peter said it would get so bad that the "righteous" would scarcely be saved. I Peter 4:18
And Jesus said: And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Mt. 24:22
What must we do to endure?
Hebrews 10 gives us a clue ... "exhorting one another and even more as we see the day approaching." verse 25
This is what we are doing with these volumes of "Exhortations for the Church."
Joan Boney
1
The apostasy must happen in the churches before the
return of Jesus, says Paul
II Thess. 2
The sin in the
churches today is rampant as scripture is removed and discarded and other
doctrine is set up to allow sinners to be approved inside the church itself.
This would be very
depressing except for one thing.
The apostle Paul said
this had to happen in the churches before Jesus could return.
II Thess. 2
... 1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
by our gathering together unto him, 2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be
troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the
day of Christ is at hand. 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away
first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who
opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is
worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself
that he is God.
We, who are of God,
cannot sit in apostate churches.
These apostate churches
deny the power of the scripture to rule over them.
Paul says: Having
a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from
such turn away. II Tim. 3:5
They will not take
correction. They may try to lead us on and try to make us think they can
be corrected in order to hold onto our flesh. We simply have to walk
away, from churches and from individuals when we see this.
I once told my mother, "You can go
down but I won't go down with you." She straightened up.
Years ago, God gave
me the following dream. I checked into a hotel and was taken to my
room. The room was a mess, not cleaned up from previous guests. I
went to desk and told him the problem. I thought they would clean up the
room immediately. But they did nothing.
For many years, in
trying to find a church to attend, I saw scripture eliminated and
misused. Over and over I went to pastor and others who misused
scripture. Never did anyone repent nor show any sorrow at all for the misuse
of scripture. This is the antichrist in the churches.
There is nothing to
do but walk away and leave them alone.
Your flesh may tell
you that you can remain in such a group and work within the group to change the
group, but if you do this you will not succeed and you will go dead with them
and will perish with them.
II Thess. 2
... 7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth
will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8 And then shall that Wicked be
revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall
destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9 Even him, whose coming is after
the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 And with
all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that
they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not
the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
There is such a
pleasure in going to church that many try to ignore the wrong doing inside the
church. Being with others who call Jesus "Lord" is such a
delight to us. But Jesus is not their Lord unless they allow the
scripture to rule over them. They will be a constant thorn in our
flesh as long as we continue with them.
There was
a woman who was like a daughter to me. She was a devout Catholic.
She was also very scornful of others, considering them to be foolish in the
decisions they were making.
God said
to me this woman is "self-righteous" ... her righteousness was
of herself, of her own works which she thought were godly works.
At one
point, I delivered to her the following scripture:
Jesus
said ... And call no
man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Mt. 23:9
The woman
thanked me for the message ... but she continued in the Catholic church,
calling these men "Father".
I finally
removed myself from her.
In 1979,
God gave me the following very shocking dream.
In this
dream, a meeting was going on. I went into the room and began listening
to a man who was speaking to the group of people in the room. Another man
rushed in and said, "Stop ... wait ... can't you see? It's too late
... It's already begun".
The first
man in the dream resumed speaking.
I looked
out the windows to see what was happening.
I was
shocked, horrified in what I saw.
There was
a tall pole with a yellow civil defense warning speaker on top of the
pole. A gas was coming out of the speaker. It was coming toward us
and I knew it was poison gas and it would kill us.
It was so
horrible to see. The speaker which
was set there to warn us was being used to distribute to us the gas that would
kill us.
I looked
at the man sitting next to me. He had a big smile on his face and he was
looking, in a very attentive way, directly at the man who was speaking. But this man was dead ... He was already a corpse.
I looked
around the room and the rest of the people were dead also, though they all had
big smiles on their faces and seemed to be attentive to the speaker.
And as I
sat back in my chair, I felt myself beginning to fall asleep. The gas
coming from the speaker was killing me also.
II
Tim. 3:5 ... Having a form of
godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
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.
We must follow God with
them who call on God out of a pure heart.
*****
Exhortations For The Church: Volume 6
Available from amazon.com in paperback and eBook
*****