There's no doubt in my mind that if I lived during the same time as the Apostle Paul or Timothy or Silas or any of these early apostles that were in the church, if I lived during that same time and was an acquaintance or a friend of Paul or Timothy or Barnabas, if I also had written letters, people would be reading those today. And although they actually don't have my same spirit—that is, the Spirit of God in me working—they would agree with those letters. They would try to align them with their theology.
But guess what, guys? I didn’t live 2,000 years ago. I’m still alive today, and I am preaching the gospel of Jesus today. And this is what I can say: the majority of people that think that they are for Paul and for his letters and for all the Old Testament prophets, they’re actually in stark contradiction to them. The only reason they uphold them is because they would be called a heretic by their church. If they were actually fighting against Paul or Timothy or any of these books of the Bible, they’d be called a heretic. They wouldn’t have a job.
So the best these people can do—when I say these people, I mean Christians, theologians, pastors in the church today—the very best they can do is pretend that they agree with Paul and with Timothy and with the books of the New Testament and with the prophets of the Old Testament. And when they come across those pages that they don’t agree with, they leave those pages out or they interpret them in such a way that they totally twist it to mean something it never meant.
Now, here is the great thing: because I am alive today, I can stand up for the true gospel of Jesus. I can say that the church of today is not preaching the same gospel as the Apostle Paul. They are not in the same truth or in the same Spirit as the holy prophets. They are not in the same Spirit of Jesus. They are in rebellion. They are the Laodicean church. They’re the lukewarm church.
If the prophets were alive today, they would hate them. They would slander them. They likely would have them thrown in prison. They would beat them the same way that their fathers beat them in the times of old. These people that have already passed away in faith can no longer stand up for themselves because they are dead. They’re gone, and their soul is in heaven with Jesus—thank goodness.
But for those of us who are still alive and remain, it is our duty to preach righteousness—not in the twisted way pretending that we are friends with the apostles and with the holy prophets, but it is our duty to stand with Jesus even in opposition. And so today I am telling you that the American church and the churches at large are against the prophets. They would kill them today if they walked into their church, or at least have them thrown out. They are against the New Testament. They are against the words of Jesus.
And all of the apostles, all of the brothers and sisters who really love Jesus—the church of today flat out rejects for their doctrines, for their doctrines of demons. The old church, that is, those that really were Christ's body, those who were doing His work—work such as the Apostle Paul and Barnabas and Titus—these guys really loved the Lord with all of their heart. They weren’t telling people that it’s “once saved, always saved” or “believe in John MacArthur” or “just believe in John Calvin.” They weren’t teaching this Calvinistic theology. They weren’t teaching that.
Now, you could twist Paul’s theology to try to come up with some kind of Calvinistic theology or some kind of predestination theology, but that is not the true gospel, guys. Jesus called us to really repent of our sins, and that unless we endured with Him, taking up our cross and following Him to the end of our life, we would not inherit everlasting life. We wouldn’t be worthy of Him and His calling.
So many Christians today are promoting the Bible. They worship the Bible. They worship the old church fathers as if they agree with them. But they are in stark contradiction to everyone who really loved Jesus and who was dedicated to the Way. These people persecute the Way in the same way that the Pharisees and the Sadducees did, in the same way that every wicked person who hated God did. And the Christians today are no different. They are Pharisees. They are lukewarm. They are Laodicean, and they have blood on their hands because they say that they believe and accept the testimony of Jesus. They say that they’re friends with the prophets, but in reality they hate them every bit as much as the Pharisees and the religious Jews hated Jesus and all of the original disciples. They have blood on their hands.
How about you? Do you really love Jesus? Are you dedicated to Jesus Christ in the true gospel? Or have you sold out to the marketable gospel—the gospel that makes money for Americans? The gospel that makes people look good, that sounds good, that’s socially acceptable. The gospel that says, “Once saved, always saved, brother, God just pinned it all up on the cross when Jesus died. Now you don’t have to do anything but lust. Now you don’t have to do anything but look at porn and you’ll go to heaven.” Brother, have you bought into that gospel?
Too many Christians are completely deceived. They’re listening to every spirit. They have convinced themselves that they’re like Bereans, that they’re more noble, seeking the truth because they read the Bible. I want to read to you what Jesus said about those who read the Bible thinking that they’re more biblical. This is what Jesus said in John chapter 5 to the Pharisees who also read the Bible:
“And ye have not His word abiding in you; for whom He hath sent Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and they are they that testify of Me. And you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”
So are we coming to Jesus, or are we acting like the pursuit of finding God is actually righteous? Are we pretending that this pursuit of becoming a good Christian is righteous in and of itself? Even New Age people believe that. They act like they are these pilgrims looking for truth and that we should deify the pursuit of truth. That’s not the truth. The pursuit of truth is not the truth. Jesus is the Truth. We know who the Truth is. Jesus Himself is the Truth. He’s the Life and He’s the Way. And unless you follow Him—unless you actually follow Him—you don’t have life in you. Unless you bear your cross daily, deny yourself, and go after Him, you do not have life.
Stop believing the apostate Babylon church. Come out of her. Be separate. Touch not what is unclean. Allow Jesus to come into your life and purge you from sin. Purge you from all the evil that you put into your mind through music and movies and sermons, Bible study that wasn’t of God, men’s ideas. Be purged of all of that junk. Be purged of the dung and come to follow Jesus and obey Him. Store His words up in your heart. Meditate on Jesus’s words. Read the gospel and then live like you mean it—that you will obey Jesus with every last breath you have, with all your energy, all your passion, all your devotion. Give it to Jesus.
But if you don’t have life in Him, if you’re not practicing obedience, how do you think that you as a lukewarm Laodicean Christian will be able to stand before God and say, “Let me in, Jesus. I preach sermons. I listen to sermons”? How do you feel entitled to go to heaven if you are not fully dedicated to the Way such as the Apostle Paul was, and Peter, and Timothy, and all of these people that were dedicated to the gospel and gave their life for it? How do you feel so entitled that you’re safe and secure and going to heaven and your name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life when you have never even heard that your name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life? How are you so sure that you’re safe and secure going to heaven? It’s probably because you believed your pastor’s lies, your church doctrine, maybe your parents who tried to assure you of their religion. But did you really hear it from Jesus? Do you know that your name is in the registry of heaven? Is your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life? Do you know Jesus? And more importantly, do you know that Jesus knows you and approves of the life that you are living today?
