We sometimes say that all believers are called to evangelize. This is not scriptural no matter how venerable an idea it may be. The truth is, the Spirit of God has assigned gifts and ministries in infinite variety to the members of the Body of Christ. The point is not to encourage everyone to evangelize, it is to encourage everyone to present his body a living sacrifice that he may prove the will of God for his life.

The Christians of today must come to realize that being saved and filled with the Spirit is just the beginning. The coming of the Lord is at hand and we are not ready. The teaching of the any-moment catching up of the saints is totally unscriptural and has not motivated the believers to prepare themselves to stand in the evil day. No passage of Scripture teaches that the Lord is coming to catch up His saints to Heaven. Rather, when the Lord appears His saints will appear with Him in order to overthrow the forces of Antichrist and establish the Kingdom of God on the earth.

We are not ready. We have churches filled with spiritual babies. It is time now for the ministries in the Body to begin to move these babies past basic salvation into the deeper work of reconciliation to God that the Spirit of God is calling for today.

The Lord will have a Church without spot or wrinkle, an unblemished Bride, a counterpart who will be a helper for Him as Eve was for Adam.

The churches of today are a far cry from an unblemished Bride. Rather they are like the churches of the Book of Revelation—in need of correction.

The Lord is standing at the door of our hearts today. He wants to enter and correct that which concerns us. He already is doing this with individuals. But the work must be done on a much larger basis, and this will require the support of the pastors and teachers. They need to realize the work of evangelism must include not only bringing the unsaved to basic salvation but also bringing the believers into closer contact with the Lord. This is the desperate need of the hour.

The tares of wickedness are coming to maturity in our day. The wheat of righteousness must also come to maturity so God can remove the tares without harming the wheat.

But the main righteousness of today is imputed righteousness. When the Bible speaks of the wheat of righteousness coming to maturity it is not referring to imputed righteousness. This is ridiculous! How can imputed righteousness come to maturity?

Rather, the emphasis is on the forming of Christ in us. It is time now for Christ to come to maturity in us. This is salvation. This is eternal life. This is the Kingdom of God.

God is ready to judge and remove unrighteousness from the earth. But He cannot do this until the unrighteousness is driven from His people. Otherwise they would be removed when God judges the wicked.

To be continued.