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“Thou hast despised Mine holy things.”

Ezekiel 22:8

It is impossible for me to understand how men and women who claim to love Christ and the Gospel of his grace can willingly absent themselves from the ministry of the Word. It is one thing to despise the labors of a pastor who faithfully seeks a message from God and diligently preaches the Gospel, (That itself is horrible!), but a willing neglect of the Gospel is much, much more than despising the labors of a man. It is despising God’s holy things: his Word, his ordinances, his praise, and his people. The Lord Jesus promised that wherever and whenever two or three gather together in his name, he will be with them, in the midst of them. To neglect that assembly is to despise Christ’s company! That is the charge God laid against Israel of old; and that is the charge that must be laid against all who despise the worship of God today.

If that charge stings you, I am very thankful. I am thankful to know that you are not without sensitivity to these things. “It is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness...and make not provision for the flesh” Romans 13:11-14). If you are too busy to attend the worship of God, you are too busy! If you are too tired, you need to give something up, but not the worship of God! If you despise God’s holy things, he will take them away from you and give them to someone else (Romans 11:21).

Don Fortner

Pastor Fortner’s