The Whole Head Is Sick
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: "I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me; The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master’s crib; [But] Israel does not know, My people do not consider." Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward. Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, And the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, [There is] no soundness in it, [But] wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; They have not been closed or bound up, Or soothed with ointment. Your country [is] desolate, Your cities [are] burned with fire; Strangers devour your land in your presence; And [it is] desolate, as overthrown by strangers. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, As a hut in a garden of cucumbers, As a besieged city. Unless the LORD of hosts Had left to us a very small remnant, We would have become like Sodom, We would have been made like Gomorrah. (Isaiah 1:2-9 NKJV)
This indictment against Israel could be levied against many of our churches today. More and more leaders give into worldly marketing strategies to fill their pews with people. They deceive themselves into believing that the end justifies the means. The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; but the modern church does not know its place.
Oh dear pastor do not forsake the Lord! Do not be deceived by the number of people attending your church. If your message appeals to the flesh, then you will reap from the flesh. The Gospel is a cutting message as evidenced by the words of Isaiah above. Do not be guilty of corrupting it by attempting to make it palatable for the unrepentant. You will only succeed in making your converts citizens of hell.
"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in [yourselves], nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged [to perform it].’ "Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? "And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged [to perform it].’ "Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? "Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. "He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. "And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier [matters] of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. "Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. "Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead [men’s] bones and all uncleanness. "Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, "and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ "Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. "Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ [guilt]. "Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:13-33 NKJV)
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