Last Call to the Churches *

Watchman-Examiner.  Used by permission.

IT WOULD be a high day for our churches if somehow they could be persuaded to stop whatever they are doing long enough to hear our Lord's last message to them. Again and again He repeats His exhorta­tion: "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." But we are so busy with our own enter­prises that we do not hear His voice. We are trying to operate on a "business as usual" basis, when neither business nor any­thing else is as usual nor will anything ever be as usual again. It is an hour of sheer desperation for America, for the world, for the cause of the gospel. The hour is too late for much of what we are trying to do in the religious world. We are trying to meet a short-term emergency with a long-range program. We advertise "Service as Usual"—which may be what is the matter with us) There ought to be an urgency be­fitting the emergency, and the saints ought to be as desperate as the situation.

The Peril We Face

Would you not think that in this hour of mortal peril the churches would be filled with penitent worshipers, praying even all night while yet there is time? Why are the saints so anxious to get their sleep while sinners revel all night, and church mem­bers stay up feasting their eyes on Sodom and Gomorrah brought into the living room? Have we been numbed and stupefied by summit conferences and peaceful coex­istence and religious optimists saying, "Peace and safety," while our destruction draws nigh? The average New Year's Eve observance in most churches is a pitiful commentary on how lightly we regard the frightening times. A movie, games, a snack, anything to pass away the time, and then at a quarter to twelve a little devotional. God forgive us!

God has said, "If my people . . . then will I." But who wants to humble himself, pray, seek God's face, and turn from his wicked ways? We are in no mood for that. We cannot have that kind of prayer meet­ings with congregations that would rather play than pray. All-night prayer meetings can be staged like marathons, but what kind of Christians are we that we do not voluntarily gather in intercession that con­tinues until we break through to God? What would happen if our great church conventions would just once throw their printed programs aside and go to their knees in desperate prayer? If it be argued that such convocations are gathered for business, we ask, What greater business do we have than to seek a visitation of God?

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." Mind you, "unto the churches." The church is the body, the building, the bride, but here local churches are in mind. A lot of preach­ing about the church as an abstraction never gets around to the church on the corner. The ideal becomes the enemy of the actual. There is no such thing as re­vival in general apart from the local church. The man best qualified to judge whether or not we are having revival today is the pastor, for any revival worth talking about will show up in the local church. It is the thermometer of the spiritual climate anywhere.

There are some who think God is by­passing the churches, in too big a hurry to plod along with local assemblies, and that He is using other movements to get the job done more quickly. God does sometimes use the irregular, but only to feed back into the regular. The local fellowship is the unit our Lord left to carry on His work, and at the very last chapter of the church age He is still speaking to visible congrega­tions in definite places. God's program will never by-pass the local church.

Grieving the Spirit

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." We are listening to everything and everyone except the Spirit. We decide what kind of service we want, what kind of revival we want, and then we are disappointed if we do not have it. We need to let God give us His pattern from the holy mount. We write the score and expect the Holy Spirit to play it. We plot the course and expect Him to follow it. We expect the Almighty to sign on our little dotted line.

God is not signing on anybody's little dotted line. Are we so in love with our plans that we are unwilling to bow to His? Are we willing to throw them into the wastebasket if He offers a better one? Have we ever bowed to the absolute sover­eignty of the Holy Spirit? Do we lie to Him, quench and grieve Him? Do we regard our bodies as His temple? Have we ever been Spirit-filled, or would we rather miss a blessing than give up a prejudice?

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." Eight times in the Gospels our Lord says, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." Eight times in Revelation He says, "He that hath an ear, let him hear." To the Laodiceans He said, "If any man hear my voice, and open the door . . ." Observe the breadth of it: "if any man . . ." Observe the narrowness of it: "If any man hear my voice, and open the door." It is broad enough to include everybody in the church, but it is limited in its fulfilment to those who hear His voice and open the door. Anyone can start a revival, but few ever do! Our Lord is waiting for someone, anyone inside the church, with an ear for God. Alas, we have ears but hearing, we hear not. We spend a lot of time these days studying how to talk, when we need most to learn how to listen. After all, the Lord gave us two ears to hear with and only one mouth to talk with, for which, let us be thankful!

What is the Spirit saying to the churches? "Repent!" But some churches are too big to repent. Others are too busy. And others are too good. They have need of nothing. "Let sin be undisturbed. Do not roll away the stone from Lazarus' grave lest an un­pleasant situation arise. Do not disturb the status quo. Let well enough alone. Let Achan keep his wedge of gold. Let the im­moral brother in Corinth alone. Let Jezebel set up her altar to Baal in Thyatira!" Oth­ers grow discouraged and say that it is no use trying to bring churches to repentance. Our Lord did not feel that way. Five of the Asian churches were in a lamentable condition, but the Christ of the candle­sticks patiently endeavored to arouse them.

There are encouraging signs. For more than twenty years I have been going up and down the land from church to church call­ing the saints to repentance. I do not be­lieve in standing outside the local churches and knocking them. I believe in standing within the churches exhorting them. There are more open doors now than ever, and I think it indicates that ministers and mem­bers of our churches are becoming aware that for all of our increasing membership and activity, something is seriously wrong within our fellowships. We are doing every­thing but the first thing: "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." We have the churches. The Spirit is among us. Who will listen, hear His voice, and open the door?