Lip Service Only

Isa 29:13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

God had trouble with Israel departing from the word but they still went to public gatherings, feasts and were faithful to their ordinances.

Eze 33:30 Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the LORD.
Eze 33:31 And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.
Eze 33:32 And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.

In this passage Ezekiel the prophet is instructed to warn the children of Israel of their sin. They came to hear like we come to church and hear. They most probably showed love by worshipping in song and prayers but they did not obey or live by the words they heard. Their worship was outward, their religion was outward. There was not real conversion, their lives were not changed.

In Ezekiel chapter 34 there is a warning to the shepherds because they fed themselves but neglected the flock of God. So the blame for a people who did not fear God and did not heed the warnings of the Prophet Ezekiel is laid upon the pastors of the people. They were not teaching the word.
When priests, pastors and teachers fail to warn again sin, people will return to it. It happened in the days of Israel, the middle ages and it is happening today. We have lost the fear of God. We return to sin when the fear of God is missing. The fear of God disappears when the teaching of the word is missing. Some people will choose then to have nothing to do with God and others choose to keep their religion but it is Christianity in name only. They say but do not.

God will allow people to get away with them so far but then he brings judgment. If we look at verse 28 in chapter 33 we see the prophet warning: “For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.
Judgment came upon Israel many times for idolatry. What leads to idolatry is starting to covet things and desire to be rich. We then seek a religion that allows us to keep our sin, our coveting spirit and yet be saved and be assured of eternal life.

David Wilkerson has been warning the church since 1973 that bad times are coming to the United States and upon the church that has allowed the world to creep into it and defile believers who once loved the Lord with all their heart, soul and mind. Since that judgment did not fall right away and the economy did not collapse as he said it would, it wasn’t long until many forgot his warnings but now some of us are getting out the old books he wrote and reviewing them as we see the troubles coming upon our own country.

First we saw one hurricane after another , fires, droughts and now we are seeing flooding all over this country. I don’t know if God ordains and sends all these things but if we cast God out of our lives and no longer desire His presence; His hand of protection will be withdrawn. If that happens Satan is let loose to do his worst.

I believe 9/11 was the beginning of God’s hand of protection being removed from our country. Yet in that we saw His mercy as the enemy had plans to destroy much more people than they were able to destroy. We might ask, why did God allow 9/11?

I could ask, why should he stop it? Since 1963 prayer and bible reading were removed from our schools. Just a few years later abortion was legalized and not we have gone out of control. We have school shootings, women disappearing, kids disappearing, lust, pornography, militant homosexuality, drugs, alcoholism and no end in sight. We are reaping what we sowed in the 1960s.

When the church stopped preaching against sin and stopped preaching holiness, some of the above evils came into the church. Real revival comes when holiness is preached along with the message of salvation. True salvation comes when we repent of sin which means to turn away from sin and turn to Jesus Christ.
 
There is no real salvation if we just ask Jesus into our hearts but never intend to give up our sin. There is no salvation if we confess to a priest and then go right back out and sin again. That is not true repentance. True repentance means to change by the power of the Holy Spirit. I say that because I don’t want anyone to think that all they have to do is change their ways and they can be saved without Jesus Christ. True salvation is when the Holy Spirit draws us to Jesus Christ by convicting us of sin. When we exercise faith in the name of Jesus and believe that He died for our sins and are willing to forsake our old ways to be made new in Jesus Christ, we are then “born again” by the spirit and that is true salvation.

This will produce a life of holiness that comes by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are not filled with the spirit if we are a slave to sin. The two do not mix. But how do we learn all these things and keep all these things? By being faithful to the word of God. We must hide this word deep within our innermost beings. If we do not, deception is at the door to our hearts.

Because many preachers forsook the teaching of the word and true repentance, the world crept into the church and the fear of God began to disappear.
We can claim Christ on the surface, we can sing, give lip service and do all the religious stuff we desire but if the fruits of the spirit are missing, we are not spirit filled and we may not even be saved.

I’ve heard stories of supposed men of God who divorce their wives and marry their secretaries and still remain in the ministry preaching the word with no fear of God’s judgment whatsoever. They say they are covered by God’s grace and God forgives. True holiness and true repentance does not bring forth that kind of fruit. If a man truly repents after he has strayed from his wife, he will move heaven and earth to be reconciled to that wife he has wronged. True repentance brings a change and a strong desire to please God in all we do. True repentance will cause us to desire to make right those we have wronged if it is possible.

I repeat a verse I read before:
Isa 29:13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

If we fail to study the word and only listen to Christian television, trusting them to speak the truth and not deceive, we open ourselves up to believing in a god that they represent instead of the God the bible speaks of. It may not just be those on television. It could be some local churches or denominations. In today’s world it could be also those on the Internet. For years the gospel became, “God loves you” God wants you to have good things, You’re a king’s kid and now we hear, God wants you to be rich. I’ve said this before many times, tell that to those in countries where thousands are being persecuted for profession Jesus Christ as Lord. Whatever gospel is preached in America where we are rich and increased with goods, has to work in third world countries where everyone is poor.

We need to be very careful what gospel we are hearing and compare it to the whole word of God and not just a few verses taken out of context.
When we start to worship God half-heartedly or out of habit without allowing the word to enter into our innermost being, we open ourselves up to deception because we are getting spiritually lazy.

When reading the Old Testament we read where Israel gets in trouble the most with covetousness. They lust after things, possessions and followed any religion or idol that will promise them the good life and prosperity.

Yet we know even one of the ten commandments warn us against covetousness. It is a temptation to join a church or religion that speaks soft words, promises prosperity and a good, happy life with no troubles and allows you to be saved, yet live in worldly lusts and even sin.

But again I repeat, What does being saved mean? We say “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” What does that mean? To be saved means to be saved from sin. How can we be saved from sin and still be living in sin? Every time we hear the words, believe in Jesus and you will be saved, we must consider that the word saved, means to be saved from the consequences and judgment that comes as a result of sin. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. He didn’t cleanse us from all sin so that we can just believe in Jesus and then remain in sin with no change.

Any church or teacher that preaches an easy believism doctrine that requires no changed life is not preaching all the word of God. If we really believe in something we will act on what we believe.

Act 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
Act 3:20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
Act 3:21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

We see that to repent here means to be converted or changed. What happens then? Our sins are blotted out.

When we come together in church, we come together to remember what the Lord did for us when He removed our sins that was sending us to a burning hell and in turn granting us eternal life. Not only that but giving us the promise of a comforter to abide with us until the time He returns again. The presence of the Holy Spirit was given after Jesus was resurrected and returned to the right hand of the Father in Heaven. His presence is needed in every church service. His presence will keep church from being dead, dry and boring. The Holy Spirit abiding within us will help us to worship God in spirit and in truth.

The same written word that brings us the gospel of Jesus Christ also teaches us that we need to be filled with the spirit. So many people are afraid of hearing someone speak in other tongues. Do we not know that when a person speaks in tongues, he or she is speaking by the Holy Spirit and is worshipping God in the spirit and in truth? If we do not understand something, we need to seek God for understanding but do not criticize or think badly about any gift of the Holy Spirit. We do not want the Holy Spirit to set us aside and leave our midst. Without the Holy Spirit our worship and praise will be only lip service. Without the Holy Spirit a church will die. Without the Holy Spirit no one can be saved or born again for it is the Holy Spirit that saves the soul from sin. Without the Holy Spirit there is no power present to witness, or power to give understanding of the word.

So many for years some warned us to stay centered on Jesus Christ and not on the Holy Spirit. That is true but we must remember that Jesus Christ is the one who gives us the Holy Spirit. This is a gift of God, not something for us to take lightly or shy away from. The Holy Spirit is given to make us alive in Christ. He brings us joy and restores to us the joy of salvation. If we have lost the joy of salvation, we can get it back.

After the church in the Middle ages lost the Holy Spirit, they began to substitute doctrines and precepts of man then after that the bible was laid on the shelf. More doctrines and commandments of men were substituted for the written word of God. The church was ruined. Some of this was revived during the Protestant reformation but they were still limited and did not have all that God wanted for them to have. It wasn’t until the time of John Wesley and the holiness movement started that Christians persecuting other Christians began to die out. I believe that during the revivals that accompanied the holiness movement, the Holy Spirit was returning to the church. The Church of God actually started out from the holiness movement. Later came a latter day outpouring of the Holy Spirit to seekers in North Carolina, Azusa Street California, Armenia and a few other places in the world about the same time period give or take a few years.

In these latter days, we see holiness dying out and doctrines of men returning to the church. If we do not have revival and a new refreshing from the Lord, we may see a time come when the Holy Spirit is not present in the church once again. We do not have to let that happen.

Rev 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
Rev 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Rev 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

This Laodicea church was a church full of covetousness. They were still going to church and worshipping God with lip service. They were rich, had great entertaining worship and praise. It we move them up to today’s world we may see large power point screens, great sound, pianos, organs, guitars, talented singers, praise dancers. I’m not speaking against some of those things but if our worship is only to the beat of the music or when we can be stirred up by great worship leaders and our lives is not changing, it is all in vain. True repentance, true conversion and true worship will produce a changed life, the joy of salvation and holiness. This comes to us when we refuse to depart from the teaching of the word. Without the word of God we will open ourselves up to religious deception, whether it is a dead dry form of religion or a gospel of entertainment instead of true worship or a gospel of prosperity. We need a balance of the word and the spirit always present with us so that no substitute gospel or worship service can ever enter our midst.

All through the bible we see the remedy to false doctrine, idolatry, fornication, covetousness and any sin was to repent. To turn around and change. Repentance will bring us back into the joy of our salvation. When we are saved by grace and then later turn back into sin. We lost that joy. We may still come to church and go through the motions but our joy is gone. Our first love is gone. We lose our concern for the lost even our own lost loved ones. We forget that Christ saved us from sin. We forget that people around us are going to hell. We lose our motivation and our joy is gone.
We do not have to live like that. We do not have to live without the joy of our salvation. We do not have to be bored when we come to church. We do not have to be half-hearted, lukewarm and without our first love for the Lord. We can be restored and renewed in the spirit. God offers all this to us if we just repent. Some of us need to repent of sin for the first time and be saved from sin and born again by the spirit. Some of us need to repent of dead works, unfruitfulness or just being lukewarm or spiritually lazy.

Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Psa 51:11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Psa 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Psa 51:13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

We can have that joy restored to us. The joy of salvation is present even if we are in the middle of trouble and heartache. Once we are renewed to this joy in the Lord, the first thing we will start to do is desire to teach others the ways of God and see sinners converted to God but in order to teach others the word, we need to know that word.
Before we can see the sinners brought to Jesus Christ, we must be revived, renewed in the word and in the spirit and restored to the joy of salvation.
 

-Dorna Chambers