Battle on the homefront

We just took a 4 day vacation to Gettysburg. The first impression I got was a lot of senseless death, fighting and dying, death, disease, famine.
Gettysburg was pivotal in the Civil war, it was the South's first incursion to the North. Lee was trying to take the war to the North and move the battles to their lands. The South was being ravaged by the war. 2 years in and he was trying to win by invasion.
The North won the battle, the South retreated and in 2 yrs the war was over.
after the first impression of the gloom and the death, I then started thinking differently.

The war for the church has gone the same way, for the longest time the church was being attacked from the outside. The attacks were full on frontal, from the flanks and from the rear. The church withstood those attacks, stood firm and strong.

But then......
Jud_1:4  For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are losing the battle from the inside. We have "christians" who refuse to call sin out, who refuse to accept abortion as wrong, who refuse to accept the Word of God as fact.
Who refuse to preach the blood, who refuse to stand up for right, who refuse to keep sin squarely in their sights and look the other way to enrich their pockets.
We are losing the battle because we have watered down the Doctrine, we have allowed the church to become entertainment feel good instead a search for God.
Some "churches" are merely a free self empowerment seminar every week. Sin, evil, satan do not reside in their lexicon.
1Co_1:17  For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
2Co_4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

I know I have said this before but the biggest danger to the church IS the church. Slowly over the decades we have relaxed our moral codes, our dress codes,  our overall sense of awe in the House of God.
We have allowed the world to soften us in an attempt for the world to accept us, yet all we have achieved by softening our standards is to make it easier to laugh at us.
There is no reverence for the church in this world of today. We have allowed the name of God to be muddied, cheapened, and ridiculed.

How do we fix this?
We don't.
John the Baptist preached sin and the judgement of God. He preached against immorality, he stood against sin even in the face of certain death.
Christ did not tell the people that John was wrong, He didn't correct him. He said:
Luk 7:24  And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
Luk 7:25  But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings' courts.
Luk 7:26  But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet.
Luk 7:27  This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
Luk 7:28  For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

Christ did not have to suffer and die if salvation was in the power of positive thinking, He did not have to give up His life and shed His blood if love was all you need.
If love, self-empowerment and goodness can get you to heaven then you don't need Christ, or the church. Christ's sacrifice was meaningless.
If a church does not preach the Gospel and Christ crucified then they are no church of God.
They are a social club.
If a man or woman stands in the pulpit and says anything contrary to God's Word they are no messenger of God.

Preach the Gospel. Christ crucified.
The shed blood of Christ is the only way to God.
Anything added to or taken from that message is false.