The Dreadful Condition of the Church in This Twenty-First Century

 

A Call to Return to the God Who Heals and Delivers

There is a sickness in the house of God that no physician of this world can diagnose, for it is a sickness of the soul — a twisting of truth so subtle and so pervasive that the very people who suffer under it cannot see it. We have arrived at a moment in church history where the miraculous works of God are attributed to the devil, where freedom from sin is called arrogance, and where the man who wallows in his iniquity is celebrated as a humble and honest soul. This is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is a grotesque inversion of everything the Word of God declares, and it must be named, rebuked, and corrected by those who fear the Lord.

When the Works of God Are Called the Works of Satan

Let us begin with the most alarming perversion of all. When a child of God testifies that the Lord has healed their body — that they stood upon His covenant promise, believed His Word, and received a miracle — there are voices in the modern church that rise up not with rejoicing, but with suspicion. "That must be a false healing," they whisper. "That must be the enemy deceiving you." They will say this even as the man walks who could not walk before, even as the woman breathes freely who could not draw a breath. They will dismiss it, spiritualise it away, or attribute it to demonic deception.

This is not discernment. This is blasphemy.

Our Lord Jesus Christ faced this very accusation. When He cast out devils and healed the sick, the Pharisees declared, *"This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils"* (Matthew 12:24). And what was the Lord's reply? *"Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?"* (Matthew 12:25–26). He then spoke words that ought to make every tongue tremble before it accuses the Spirit of God: *"But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you"* (Matthew 12:28). And harder still — *"Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come"* (Matthew 12:32).

What is the church doing when it calls the healings of God the work of the devil? It treads on the very ground the Pharisees trod. It does not walk in the spirit of the early church, which went forth preaching and healing, with signs following (Mark 16:17–18). It walks in the spirit of unbelief — the same unbelief that *"limited the Holy One of Israel"* (Psalm 78:41).

God is a covenant-keeping God. He established His covenant of healing with His people at Marah when He said, *"I am the LORD that healeth thee"* — Jehovah Rapha (Exodus 15:26). The psalmist declares, *"Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases"* (Psalm 103:3). The prophet Isaiah, writing seven hundred years before Calvary, declared that healing was secured in the atonement: *"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed"* (Isaiah 53:5). The apostle Peter, looking back at the cross in the full light of the resurrection, confirms this: *"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed"* (1 Peter 2:24). James commanded the elders of the church to anoint the sick with oil and pray the prayer of faith, with the promise: *"And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up"* (James 5:15).

God has not merely offered healing as a possibility He may or may not grant on a whim. He has covenanted healing to His people. He has written it into the blood of His own Son. When a believer stands upon these scriptures and receives what God promised and Christ purchased, the only fitting response from the church is praise. To respond instead with accusation — to say that the testimony of healing is either a lie or a demon — is to dishonour the blood of Jesus Christ and to call God a liar in His own house.

When Victory Over Sin Is Called Pride

The second perversion is equally grievous, and in some ways more insidious because it has been dressed in the language of grace.

We are told today that if a believer declares that God has delivered him from a particular sin — that by the power of the blood of Jesus and the sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost he has been set free — he is being *prideful*. He is *arrogant*. He is *thinking himself better than everyone else*. And the man who says he still struggles, who says he sins every day in thought, word, and deed, who says that any claim to victory is self-righteous — that man is praised for his honesty and his humility.

Do you see what has happened? The church has turned the testimony of the cross into an embarrassment. It has redefined humility as perpetual defeat and called victory a sin.

But what saith the Scripture?

"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14). The apostle Paul does not say sin might lose its dominion, or that we hope it will one day. He declares it as a present reality for every blood-bought believer. And he commands: *"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof"* (Romans 6:12). If sin cannot be dethroned, why does God command us to dethrone it?

Our Lord Himself declared the purpose of His coming: *"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil"* (1 John 3:8). Sin is the devil's work. Christ came to destroy it — not manage it, not contain it, not teach us to be at peace with it, but **destroy it**. John writes further: *"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God"* (1 John 3:9). The man born of God, walking in that birth, abiding in the life of God — sin has no necessary hold upon him.

Paul writes to Titus that the grace of God teaches us: *"denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world"* (Titus 2:12). Grace is not a blanket thrown over ongoing sin. Grace is a teacher, a sanctifier, a power unto holy living **in this present world** — not in the next age when we have been glorified, but now, in the flesh, in time.

Jesus Himself declared to the woman taken in adultery: *"Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more"* (John 8:11). He did not say, "Go and try your best, knowing you will certainly fail." He commanded her to sin no more, because He came to give the power to do precisely that. The Lord said to the healed man at Bethesda, *"Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee"* (John 5:14). These are not the words of a Saviour who expects perpetual defeat from His people.

And what does the Scripture say about the testimony of the overcoming believer? It is not something to be ashamed of. It is the very ground of our victory: *"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony"* (Revelation 12:11). The word of testimony — the declaration of what God has done — is a weapon against the enemy. When the church silences that testimony with accusations of pride, it does not produce humility. It dismantles the armour of God from the hands of those who need it most.

True humility does not say, "I cannot be free." True humility says, "I cannot be free in myself — but through the blood of Jesus Christ and the power of His Spirit, God has made me free, and all glory belongs to Him." That is not arrogance. That is the gospel. *"If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed"* (John 8:36).

The Root of the Problem: A Low View of God

How did we arrive here? The root of both errors is the same: a **low view of God**. A God who cannot truly heal. A God whose atonement cannot truly deliver from sin. A God whose promises are to be held loosely, always qualified, always hedged with uncertainty.

This is not the God of the Bible.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob declared: *"I am the LORD, I change not"* (Malachi 3:6). The writer of Hebrews confirms: *"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever"* (Hebrews 13:8). The God who healed Naaman, who raised Lazarus, who cleansed the leper, who opened blind eyes — He is the same God today. He has not retired from the healing ministry. He has not revised the terms of the covenant. He has not discovered that sin is too powerful for His blood to wash away.

"Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear" (Isaiah 59:1). The problem has never been with God. The problem is always with our unbelief. It was unbelief that caused the generation in the wilderness to perish short of the promise. It was unbelief in Nazareth that prevented miracles even from the hands of the Son of God Himself: *"And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief"* (Matthew 13:58).

When the church today systematically teaches people to disbelieve in healing and to distrust testimonies of victory over sin, it is manufacturing unbelief and calling it doctrine. It is building the same walls the people of Nazareth built. And it will produce the same result: a people who know of God but do not know God, who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof — and from such, Paul says, we are to turn away (2 Timothy 3:5).

 The Church Must Return

There is one prescription for this condition, and it is not a new program, a new theology, or a new conference. It is repentance and a return to the plain meaning of the Word of God.

We must return to believing that **God is good** — not good in a theological abstraction, but good in the lived experience of His people. *"O taste and see that the LORD is good"* (Psalm 34:8). His goodness is something to be tasted, experienced, testified of, and celebrated.

We must return to preaching a **full gospel** — one that includes the healing of the body, the cleansing of the soul, and the sanctification of the whole man. The Lord who saves is the same Lord who heals, and the same Lord who sanctifies. These are not separate departments of salvation with different operating hours. They flow from the same Calvary, purchased by the same blood, applied by the same Spirit.

We must return to **honouring the testimony of the saints**. When a brother or sister stands and declares what the Lord has done — whether healing of disease or deliverance from besetting sin — the response of the church ought to be *"Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name"* (Psalm 103:1). Not suspicion. Not accusations of pride. Not theological corrections designed to protect a low view of God. Praise.

And we must return to **expecting holiness** — not as a burden, but as the natural fruit of a life genuinely transformed by grace. *"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you"* (2 Corinthians 6:17). Holiness is not elitism. Holiness is the evidence that the new birth is real, that the blood has truly been applied, that the Spirit of God truly inhabits the temple.

"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14).

Conclusion: The God of All Power Still Lives

To every believer who has been told their healing is demonic — hold fast to your testimony. Stand on the covenant. God does not lie, and the blood of His Son does not fail.

To every believer who has been told their victory over sin is arrogance — do not surrender the ground. *"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage"* (Galatians 5:1). Your freedom is not your boast — it is His glory.

And to the church at large — the dreadful condition we are in did not come upon us suddenly. It came through a long drift away from the God of the Bible toward a god of our own reduced expectations. The way back begins the same way every recovery in Scripture began: on our knees, with open Bibles, crying out like the disciples of old, *"Lord, increase our faith"* (Luke 17:5).

God is still the healer. God is still the deliverer. God is still the sanctifier. Let the church believe it, preach it, and live it — to the glory of His great name.

"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." (Ephesians 3:20–21)

Written for the glory of God and the edification of His people.