Faithfulness in Times of Apostasy

“But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer to Me the fat and the blood,” says the Lord God. “They shall enter My sanctuary, and they shall come near My table to minister to Me, and they shall keep My charge.”(Ezekiel 44:9-16)

You know that the scourge of the contemporary world is Internet. It devours prayer, it steals our time. It has become a means of earning, but it as also become a means of devouring prayer, devouring your time with God. Internet is becoming our friend. You come home switch on your device, and – you meet your friends, your favorite channels or simply news line, and you aren’t alone anymore. So this is the time when the “speaking head” shall communicate things. Zoom meetings replace live ones – you don’t have to drive to a meeting, can simply stay on the Zoom. Phone calls replace live fellowship, you can speak to a person on the phone and not look into his eyes. Information and knowledge that you can Google within a couple seconds. All this has led to a global apostasy. The world has narrowed, and we have knowledge, but we haven’t become happier. We hear the statistics on depression, which has become the disease of modern man. What does all that give us while it takes away the true things.

Soon the time will come, and you will see it, the AI will do something, which will replace our prayer. It sounds horrible now, but believe me, soon you will hear that someone else will pray instead of you. Something will switch on while you sleep, some wires get attached, and it will look as if your spirit was praying, but your were sleeping. You’ll be busy with your own thing, and “God” will work for you. We are heading there. Imagine when you don’t have to listen to the Word, don’t have to pray, don’t have to tell God you love Him and don’t have to go to church. The time shall come when people don’t go to church anymore.

Today we behave like mastodons here – we come to our meeting on our own foot. This is so outdated today. While you can switch on the internet and earn at the same time on one computer, and on the other you are present at a church meeting. And else you can cook for your family or engage with your kids.

Think about this. We are losing something, we are not gaining.

And today we must keep ourselves old-fashioned, forgive me for the word.

It is so urgent that the church should keep gathering today in time of summer relaxation, as never before the church must come together. We have the first church example, when on the opposite they prayed in times of hardships.

I remember I was in Brazil, where they have those carnivals, festivals of the flesh. Right after the festivals are over the teams start preparing for the next year. They have about a week off, and right after they start practicing for the next year’s carnival – such a strong cult of the flesh they have in Brazil. But the church abides in gatherings, prayers and fasting during those festivals. They don’t even mention the name of it, and they gather every day. The church of about 1200mln members lives as if there were no those things at all! People are completely sanctified, not secular.

Today this secularization of the church is happening, when the church becomes worldly and relaxed. You may live in places where it is your area culture of beaches and things connected – do not be sold to that! In times of these sunny evenings we gather for meetings, we go to church, to services and listen to this uninteresting Word! We pray our prayed, because we stand in this time, do you understand? In time of overall falling we keep the fire burning here! And thank the Lord that you hear this Word today.

So this Word in Ezekiel says:

“Thus says the Lord God: “No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter My sanctuary, including any foreigner who is among the children of Israel.

“And the Levites who went far from Me, when Israel went astray, who strayed away from Me after their idols, they shall bear their iniquity. Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, as gatekeepers of the house and ministers of the house; they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them. Because they ministered to them before their idols and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore I have raised My hand in an oath against them,” says the Lord God, “that they shall bear their iniquity. And they shall not come near Me to minister to Me as priest, nor come near any of My holy things, nor into the Most Holy Place; but they shall bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. Nevertheless I will make them keep charge of the temple, for all its work, and for all that has to be done in it.

“But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary  – and that means coming to the meetings! – when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer to Me the fat and the blood,” says the Lord God.

“They shall enter My sanctuary, and they shall come near My table to minister to Me, and they shall keep My charge.” (Ezekiel 44:9-16)

Therefore, be those pillars, install the pillars in your gatherings! So that in times of the apostasy – and today a great apostasy is happening, you see it as soon as you open up the internet, you have to make a great effort today to find a sober living pure sermon on the internet. You can see with a plain eye there are heresies today, and you watch what you listen to! Does it make you holier? Does it take you closer to God? There are four signs of the true revival: does it make you closer with the Word? There has to be hunger for the Word! Second – longing for prayer, third – longing for holiness, and fourth – longing for evangelism! Do you have these for signs? What you eat – does it take you there? What you feed on – does it take you into prayer? What you feed on – does it take you to the Word? What you feed on – does it take you to holiness? What you feed on – does it take you to Evangelism? Or is it taking you away from these things?  Therefore, stay on watch!