Isaiah 53:3 ESV He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

I would like to ask you to think carefully about the Lord Jesus when he was here on this earth, and about the Apostle Paul as he went about preaching the gospel of Christ. Think about how they were treated, and even by those who claimed to be God’s people. Or think of this:

Hebrews 11:36-38 ESV Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. (37) They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— (38) of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

And now I would like you to think about the kind of “christian” most churches and church leaders try to produce.

Do you see where I am going with this? I suggest to you that the majority of churches teach their congregants that they can and need to be popular and well-liked by the world. You need to be the kind of person who the whole town will say, “now there is a real Christian!” Popular. You need to do all you can to be popular. Get out there and mix it up with the citizens of the community. Join the chamber of commerce or the Kiwanis club. Then they will like you. Then they will get saved…..

Now switch your minds back to the Bible again. Is that what Jesus did? Is that what Paul did? Or Jeremiah? Or Isaiah? Or…and of God’s true people? Of course not.

So let me just end this post with this: We have been falsely taught. We have been unjustly guilted if we spoke the truth and someone got mad at us. We have been pressured in churches, seminaries, Bible colleges, online “ministries,” – to embrace a false religion that is not of Christ and that is not to be found anywhere in the Bible.

And that is how far the mass of visible Christianity has drifted from the Lord. How far you say? Let me put it like this – if Jesus applied for a pastor position in the typical local church, He would be rejected. So would Paul and Timothy and all the prophets and other Apostles. Too divisive. Too troublesome. Too….unpopular with the town.