The Wedding Feast (~19.49) - Moriel Ministries

…they paid no attention and went
their own way… (Mt. 22:5)
When people deviate from the Word of
God they will go their own way. Instead of
preaching a biblical Gospel they will get a
“seeker sensitive” one. Instead of getting a
biblical philosophy of mission they will get
one based on psychology and marketing.
Now understand what this would have
meant to a Jew. “Kulanu katson tainu.”
All we like sheep have gone astray,
Each has turned to his own way;
This would be Isaiah 53:6 jumping
right off the page. They go their own way.
People will begin to innovate and develop
their own concepts of religion which is
purely “subjectivist” – “It works for me.”
There are so-called Bible study groups
where instead of the Word of God being
expounded people read a passage and discuss
it. “This is what it means to me. This
is how it speaks to MY heart.” Well it may
speak to the heart, but first it is necessary
to establish the objective meaning. “It must
be God; I feel blessed!”
I saw people on the floor in Toronto,
Canada, imitating animals and then saying,
“I couldn’t control it! It must be God,
I couldn’t control it!” Well the fruit of the
Spirit is self-control (1 Co. 9:25; Gal. 5:22-
23) – “egkrateia” in Greek – (we are told
that twice). By virtue of the fact they could
not control it proves it could not possibly
be God. If God is not in control of somebody,
they are not in control of themselves.
The fruit of the Holy Spirit is self-control,
not the lack of it. These people are crazy!
But they go their own way. They have their
own definition of what is spiritual, of what
is acceptable to God. They make their
own religion.
The money preachers are great at this.
The New Testament says very little about
money and most of what it says is a warning.
These guys talk about money more
than they do about anything else. They go
their own way.
The Have a Temporal Focus
Third…
… one goes to his own farm… (Mt.
22:5)
Agriculture was the first livelihood that
God ordained. What could be more natural
than farming? Man was not to work by the
sweat of his brow but he was to work. He
put Adam in the garden to tend it. Think
about it. The two preeminent professions
in the modern world that are generally the
best paid, that are the most difficult postgraduate
faculties to get into are law and
medicine. They are the two best paid, the
two most prestigious, the two most difficult
to get into. Both of those professions only
exist as a direct result of the fall of man.
Had man not sinned, we would not need
any lawyers and we would not need any
doctors. Neither would we need dentists,
undertakers, prison guards, policemen, and
a lot of other things. But we would still
need farmers.
There is nothing wrong with farming.
However, while Peter uses the days
of Noah to explain what unsaved people
will be like, in the Olivet Discourse Jesus
warns what Christians will be like. They
will be “eating and drinking, marrying and
giving in marriage” (Mt. 24:37-39).
There is nothing wrong with drinking
and eating or getting married in and of
themselves. The problem is people become
consumed by a temporal focus.
There was a Purpose-Driven church in
California not long ago – I am telling the
honest truth – and the sermon was, “How
to Clean Out Your Garage.” That was
the sermon.
I was at a big “seeker sensitive” church
a number of times in Florida visiting my
mother. who was in a Jewish retirement
community, but I do not go to that church
any longer. As I was visiting my mother
at Christmas time I tuned in to a Christian
radio station. I was listening to J. Vernon
McGee and Adrian Rodgers, the old stuff,
some Christmas carols, and that was all
pretty good, but then this pastor of a megachurch
came on. This was his Christmas
sermon: “How Not To Get Stressed Out
When You’re Decorating the Christmas
Tree.” This is an evangelical church! One
year when Christmas fell on a Sunday,
guess what they did? They cancelled the
Sunday service because it fell on a holiday.
There is a big danger in the Last Days –
people become temporally focused. Things
that are not wrong in themselves, things
which could even be RIGHT in themselves
– certainly things that are natural – become
what people are focused on. Biblically, everything
we do – marriage, career, profession,
business – all of those things should
be evaluated and defined in relation to our
eternal relationship with God in Christ.
Everything we do should be viewed in
terms of how it is going to affect eternity. If
we have an eternal perspective of the temporal,
things like marriage, career, business,
family, it could be good. But when
our focus becomes temporal, good things
– natural things – become distractions.
“One to his own farm,” but then it says…
…another to his business…
We are told in 2 Timothy 2 that treacherous
times will come when men will be
lovers of self – that is psychology again
– and lovers of money (2 Ti. 2:1-2). And it
Feature Article – Continued
is not just the world; it is these mammonworshiping
prosperity preachers corrupting
God’s people. They are actually calling
the sin of covetousness “faith.” They are
practicing mammon-worship and calling
it “Christianity.” They are teaching faith
in “faith,” pretending it is faith in Jesus
Christ. If that is what the church is like,
what do we expect from the world?
Apathy Becomes Persecution
But then, in verse 6…
…the rest seized his slaves and mistreated
them and killed them.
It may begin with apathy, but it turns
into persecution.
Yes, schools in California are teaching
Islam, calling it “cultural awareness,”
outlawing the teaching of Christianity. A
U.S. Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day
O’Connor, wrote the decision to take the
Ten Commandments out of the judicial
building in Alabama. Despite the fact that
more than 70% of the people wanted it in
there, this Reagan Republican judge said,
“Take it out.” Despite the fact that most
people in this country believe in an intelligent
design to the creation, another Republican
judge appointed by George Bush
in Pennsylvania recently said no one can
teach intelligent design.
I am not a Democrat or Republican. I
will pray for whichever one gets elected,
but for me they are like the heirs to the
throne of Solomon, Jeroboam and Rehoboam.
Which “’Boam” do you want? I
do not care who wins the election but they
are a bum. If it’s the Republican, he is a
bum; if she is a Democrat, she is a bum. I
will pray for them. I will pray for the bum,
but do not tell me they are not a bum. Nations
get the leaders they deserve. Because
we have turned our backs on God as a society,
we get leaders who are godless.
But those who stand against this will be
persecuted for it, They are going to make
it “hate speech” if we warn against homosexuality;
if we speak against divorce it is
going to be “hate speech.” They will begin
criminal prosecutions. They are already
doing it in Sweden, Canada, Britain – they
are going to do it here.
Pray for politicians, but do not trust
them. Forget about what the Founding Fathers
supposedly believed, that is history.
The god of today’s politicians is money.
Persecution, Jesus said, means we “will be
hated by all nations because of My name”
(Mt. 24:9).
Rosie O’Donnell said fundamentalist
Christians are just as dangerous as fundamentalist
Muslims. I would like to bring
her with me to the Middle East and show
her around. I saw 17 people blown to bits
December 2009 • Moriel Quarterly