November 29
Daniel 6:1-28 | PS 119:129-152 | Prov 28:21-22 | 2 Peter 3:1-18
How have we gotten to this point? We live in a nation, in a world filled with self-exalted skeptics, cynics who have no true concept of right and wrong whatsoever, with no respect for God or His word, the Bible. Sadly, we have placed generation after generation in this training ground of apostasy. Many move to a "good" neighborhood so that they can send their children to a "good" school. Then they seek out a "good" college so that they can one day get a "good" job. Yet what is considered "good" has nothing to do with God and everything to do with what those in the world deem "good". So, one concession at a time, willing to overlook one thing after another for the sake of achieving the greater "good" we see multitudes brazenly screaming for godlessness. Morals are nowhere to be found, because they have not been taught in their training ground. Honestly, why are any of us surprised at the events which we find ourselves immersed in. Immerse your children in a sea of godlessness, perhaps a little church here and there thinking this will offset the other one hundred hours in the week. Sadly, many children and grandchildren have been worshiped as idols, and for success and a "good" future have developed into that which is now unthinkable.
But this should not surprise us, as it has been foretold. Sadly, we just did not realize just how complicit we have been, as we read in 2 Peter 3:3-7, "knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Yet this world that we find ourselves in would indeed scoff at every aspect of this argument. They have been trained to ridicule the concept of God creating the world in favor of evolution, to deny the concept of a worldwide flood, or that God would actually exist, let alone judge this world. So, if it is so bad, why doesn't God act now? We read in 2 Peter 3:8-9, "But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."
The only hope is revival. We read in psalm 119:131, "I opened my mouth and panted, For I longed for Your commandments." This needs to be a strong desire, literally panting for His word, if we are to change hearts and minds, one at a time. So many, even within the church have clamored for that which the world offers: success, riches, notoriety, etc. Yet we read in Proverbs 28:22, "A man with an evil eye hastens after riches, And does not consider that poverty will come upon him." We are looking at a world with impoverished souls. Seeking after what the world has to offer, they have lost God. It is never too late. May we, who are in Christ, bring His light into this very dark world.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: