Solomon says that a good reputation is better than fine perfume.1 You would do better to relinquish financial gain than your good reputation. Switzerland would do better to overturn the secrecy of their banking system to reveal the gold stolen during the Second World War by the Nazis from Jews and from other countries rather than lose its good reputation for the sake of temporary monetary gain. It takes much longer to get your good reputation back. However, if you have a good reputation yet there is nothing behind it, it is just a façade which is easily seen through. When the Lord Jesus says, “I have found your deeds unfinished [not complete, ESV, not perfect, KJV] in the sight of My God,”2 it does not matter what others say about you. I have not found…What is important is what the Lord says about you and your deeds. For He is the One who says: I judge you—you and your works as individuals and as a church. And when He starts to reveal the true state of affairs, then things probably will show to be completely different from how they looked from the outside with all the nice cover-ups!
Five clear commands follow:
1: Wake up! 2. Strengthen what remains! 3. Remember! 4. Hold fast! 5. Repent!
The first one is the watchman’s call: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”3 The stars, the church’s ministers, should proclaim the watchman’s call in particular. I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel, said the Lord to Ezekiel.4 “When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood.”5 The second is about what is said of Jesus in Matthew 12:20: “A battered reed He will not break off, and a smoldering wick He will not put out, until He leads justice to victory.” Remember! 1 Samuel 7:12 “Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” Hold fast! Jesus says in Revelation 3:11 “I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown.” Repent! John the Baptist says: ‘Repent!’ ‘And bring forth fruit worthy of repentance!’ Luke 3:8 (KJV)
It is not only the ministers who have this responsibility however. Christ has shown the things that are to take place soon, swiftly, to His servants, to the Church6—to us, to you and I. He calls us to call to sinners: Repent! He calls us. The sinners include dead church members, the false church. Be awake! Wake up! Revival! Fire! Just shuffling along in tradition is not sufficient. Nor is being baptized and having been confirmed some time ago. Nor is attending a midnight service at Christmas from time to time, because of its cosy, nostalgic feeling enough to consider yourself a true Christian!
Are you sure that you are really spiritually alive? Are you truly born again with the Holy Spirit living in you? Do you truly belong to Jesus? Have you turned from your old life to new life in Jesus?
Rebirth and conversion is all about being renewed every day. God does not want you to die (eternally); He wants you to live.
• None of their works have been found to be complete. They were doing all kinds of things, but the Holy Spirit was absent and so their works were empty and dead. They had excellent Christian Creeds and Statements of Faith. Yet it was all in their head, in their mind, but not in their heart.
• A Christian culture does not mean the manifestation of true Christianity. Although within those nominally Christian Churches and nations there can and will be ‘pockets of light’, of people that practice true Christianity.
Bible References:
1.Ecclesiastes 7:1NIV 2. Revelation 3:2 NIV 3. Ephesians 5:14 NIV 4.Ezekiel 3:17 5.Ezekiel 33:7–9 NIV 6.Revelation 1:1
