So they don’t receive my written messages? They didn’t receive Him in the inn at Bethlehem. So they reject what I say, doubting it is really from God? His own family rejected Him. So they do not invite me to speak in their pulpits? They had no place for Him in the temple. So they think me to be in error. They said He had a devil.
Read the prophets. Those who speak boldly the Word of God were never popular. “They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword…being destitute, afflicted, tormented…” (See Hebrews 11:37).
The truth of God never has been and never will be popular as long as Satan remains free to spread his deceptions. Those who speak forth the Word of God in plainness and clarity never will pastor mega-churches with thousands of members laughing and clapping their hands and shouting “Hallelujah!” But they will be blessed and highly favored by the Most High.
After a miracle ministry of three-and-a-half years the Son of God Himself had but one hundred and twenty staunch followers – 120!!!! Those who do not read their Bibles closely think the early church of God had thousands and thousands of members and grew exponentially with each passing year and decade. They get this idea from statements in the Book of Acts, wherein it is written that “the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly (hence, showing God’s holy sabbath was still being honored), and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith (again proving that God’s hallowed sabbath was still intact)” (See Acts 6:7). They also read that “they that gladly received his (Peter’s) word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls” (See Acts 2:41). And again, “Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed, and the number of the men was about five thousand” (See Acts 4:4).
But don’t stop your reading there. Within just a few short decades, or less, we read these words from the apostle Paul: “This you know, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me…” (See 2 Timothy 1:15). And later the apostle John would write: “I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, receives us not…prating against us with malicious words, and not content therewith, neither does he himself receive the brethren, and forbids them that would and casts them out of the church” (See 3 John 9-10).
A great false church springs up, producing many offshoot churches. The true people of God are cast out of those ever-growing assemblies. The church of God, for the most part, goes underground. False Christianity blossoms, grows and spreads around the earth.
Christ’s Aged Servant (Galatians 1:1012),
Donald Wiley