01.55. Excerpt17 - The Church - The Lukewarm Church

Excerpt17 - The Church - The Lukewarm Church

Instead of the Church penetrating the provinces
of materialism,
materialism has punctured the power of the
Church. Beware of an unholy attitude towards holy
things. Criticism is one thing at least which we feel it
is more blessed to give than to receive. We talk Apostolic doctrine
but lack Apostolic deeds.
We claim Apostolic faith
but lack Apostolic fruit.
Some trumpet Apostolic power
but lack Apostolic poverty.
Some claim Apostolic enduement
but lack Apostolic accomplishment.
We may have Apostolic vocabularies.
Do we have Apostolic victories?
Many claim Apostolic succession.
Few, if any, dare claim Apostolic success! In the past the Church has had too little of the
mighty stuff,
and therefore too much of the wrong stuff,
to move the world for God. Many present-day "Christians" are
hazy in their convictions,
lazy in their commitments,
and crazy if they think God will endure
this torpor much longer. I am constantly amazed that so many "well-
rounded" persons who are so edgy. The Church used to be a lifeboat
rescuing the perishing.
Now she is a cruise ship
recruiting the promising. If we have not too many men studying church
history,
we have too few making it. Our present "Christianity" sputters along on
the two cylinders of tithing and token commitment
instead of speeding along on the eight
cylinders of total commitment. This is a day of healthy unbelief
and of sick faith. A high steeple is useless if the pew-
dwellers beneath it are walking low. In this age of arrogant science, the church
does not need to bow its head in shame, but
rather to bow its knees in repentance for its
apathy. I am embarrassed to be part of a church that
is an embarrassment to God. If you dope the dog, why complain when it does
not bark? One can ride the current charismatic circuit
today without any Biblical integrity or theo-
logical allegiance. There is more truth muttered than uttered. Jealousy is love gone sour.
I am distressed at the zeal of the heretics
and the amnesia of the believers. If God had a "School of Failure," most of us
would have graduated with honors -
but He is merciful. How little it takes to make us laugh.
How much it takes to make us weep. Folk are more concerned about the hardening
of their arteries
than about the hardening of their hearts. I am more afraid of sorcerers
than of flying saucers. "Property" sells best today on Easy Street. There is a lot of foot-dragging in the area of
obedience. There is a roar of opposition to pollution in
ecology,
but only a squeak of opposition to pollution in
theology. The world has lost the power to blush over its
vice;
the Church has lost the power to weep over it. The Church has many organizers,
but few agonizers;
many players and payers, but few pray-ers;
many singers, but few clingers;
lots of pastors, but few wrestlers;
many fears, but few tears;
much fashion, but little passion;
many interferers, but few intercessors;
many writers, but few fighters. The trouble, as I see it, with the present
interpretation of the promise in Acts 1:8, "Ye
shall receive power," is that
It is all sugar and no salt,
all daylight and no darkness,
all pleasure and no prisons,
all privileges and no privations,
all feastings and no fastings. When we have raked over the whole muck-
heap of this decaying civilization, my greatest
grief is to see a sick Church in a dying world. We have never had a period when Bible knowledge
was more extensive than today. We drown in a
sea of interpretations. We are surfeited with
millions of cassettes, books, seminars, Bible
schools, seminaries, radio and TV sermons and
lectures, but where, oh, where is Apostolic
power, Apostolic purity, and Apostolic piety? The One with eyes as a flame of fire saw
through all the show of the Laodiceans. He
sees through all our showmanship also. Joel
says we are to sound an alarm in all God’s holy
mountain. Now is the time to do it. Christ was
nauseated and disgusted with a church that
bore His name but not His nature. The church
which flattered itself because of its commer-
cial and political prowess was rejected in His
sight. On the law Of averages, God’s house
today is neither a house of prayer nor a house
of power. As with Laodicea, so with us, He
stands outside.