Reject the Lies

REJECT THE LIES

 

Rom.3: ⁹ What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;

¹⁰ As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
¹¹ There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
¹² They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

The Roman Catholic Church is a religion that is fraught with falsehoods and even bizarre practices. But this present pope has already shown his damnable lies. In his recent sermon he said that even if atheists do good they are redeemed and will go to heaven. HERE is the link.

Most religious people believe that being a good person can secure you a place in heaven with God. They envision a kind of weighing your good against your bad and then hoping you are more good than bad. This is very common in the religious psyche. But that is religious thinking and not according to Scripture. In fact that is self righteous thinking as well. It minimizes the effect of sin and minimizes the holiness of God. If indeed it were true than why would Jesus have to die?

The entire mental construct of good outweighing the bad is a deception of the evil one. You see the devil loves religion. He rejoices in all the useless activity and moral crusades and denominations. While the church is consumed with prosperity and how to save your marriage and building large debt ridden buildings the devil is busy leading souls to hell. And of course he is also busy deceiving people into believing there is no eternal justice.

There is only one way to gain eternal life and that way is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That has nothing to do with how good or bad you have been. Nothing. The Scriptures declare us all unworthy and completely incapable of even presenting one righteous work of our own. Every good work we have done has been tainted by mixed motives and self righteousness. Before God we stand without a shred of holiness, and without holiness no man shall see God. We are in desperate need of something we can never have on our own. We need holiness and righteousness as well as forgiveness. Only Christ can give us what we need.

We are completely reliant on God’s Word for any truth pertaining to all things spiritual. It is true we can see the existence and power of the Creator just by observing His creation, but to understand His nature and our nature and the redemption of Christ must be ascertained through Scripture. Only God can reveal Himself to His creation. And He has chosen the miracle of Scripture through which to teach and instruct us about Him. It must have been an exceedingly difficult task just because the gulf between us and God is unfathomable. How does Einstein teach an ant the Theory of Relativity? You see?

And in addition to that great chasm of intellectual and spiritual capability there was still the matter of sin. But in the continuing display of God’s amazing grace, He gave us the Holy Spirit to teach us those Scriptural truths. But the miracle and even the mystery of it all is that God used the pens of sinful men with which to scribe His eternal Word. Please understand that the truths of God’s Word did not originate when men penned them in Scripture. God’s Word is eternal and is inherent in His very being. But God took His spirit Word and poured it into ink and paper and gave it to mankind. This, my friends, escapes the realm of human understanding and is fully and only comprehended in the realm of faith, which is another gift of God.

I do not believe that men cannot seek God. It is evident they do. I did. But that verse clearly reveals to us the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Many people have sought God in their own strength and with selfish motives. They hope to gain something here on earth, or they desire to appear spiritual to others. But without the Spirit using the gospel, God’s Word, sinners are bound to find a god of their own creation and not the God of Creation.

Matt.13: ⁴⁵ Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:

⁴⁶ Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

What do men seek? That is a long, long list. Even within the church people seek for all sorts of things. They seek promotion within their firm. They seek good grades from their children. They seek a championship from the kids team. They seek to lose weight. They seek a new house. They seek all sorts of things. Well, how do we know they seek these things? Listen to them speak, and watch how much time and effort they put into these pursuits. What a man hungers after is what a man spends time and effort pursuing. What he truly desires is what he expends his time for.

So if a man was truly seeking the face of Christ and His glory he would be spending uncommon time in God’s Word and in deep prayer and maybe even fasting in order to crucify the flesh and allocate that eating time to this spiritual pursuit. There would be a passion about his schedule that would be overtly different than what the mainstream of church members were doing. But who do you know that you could point to and say that man is almost obsessed with spiritual things and he seeks the face of God with passion?

You see, the reason the man sought and bought the pearl of great price was because he believed it to be of great value. He was seeking goodly pearls but this pearl captured his life and he sold everything and bought it. The application is very obvious. What we truly value is what will consume us, and if it is money and comfort and success then our lives will be spent pursuing those things. And if so, then we will be found in the mainstream of evangelical life. But if we ever see Christ for who He is and much deeper than just within a systematic theology or a statement of faith, then perhaps we may be so capture by His glory and goodness and power and mystery that something deep within us changes. And if that change takes place through the ministry of the Spirit, then nothing can satisfy us but Christ.

And when I say “satisfy” I do not just mean for salvation. Yes, Jesus is the only way to redemption and eternal life. There is no other way. But once the Spirit has drawn us to Christ and we have been born again, is that where we resume our mundane lives? Is there something deeper and richer for the believer who will forsake all and follow Christ? Are there treasures beyond human understanding that will be showered upon that believer who will diligently seek Christ? And if that is so we must now ask the question, “Just what are we doing?” Let us not be satisfied with rebuking false teachers like Rob Bell, Rick Warren, and Pope Francis, but let us press hard after the knowledge of Christ Jesus.

 

But in these last days do not even entertain the deceptions that come forth from lying lips even though they claim to be Christian. Anyone who says that sinners can be saved without a personal faith in Jesus Christ is a liar and a heretic. Let God be true and every man a liar.

Bear One Another's Burdens

BEAR ONE ANOTHER'S BURDENS

 

 

Repentance

REPENTANCE

 

"I caught him reading Rob Bell, but He has repented."

The Tongue

THE TONGUE

 

The tongue is a world of iniquity!

Redemption and Grace or the Demands of the Law

REDEMPTION AND GRACE

or

THE DEMANDS OF THE LAW

A baby is born with what is commonly called “Down’s Syndrome”. There are some obvious visual aspects as well as intellectual and emotional aspects as well. Another baby is born a girl but she has abnormal levels of testosterone and it alters her physique as well as changes her normal sexual attractions. Another baby is born with an adrenaline seepage which makes him frustrated and his temper is way out the normal range. Another baby is born with autism and refuses to respond to normal commands.

There are perhaps thousands of other biological abnormalities which result in irregular and sometimes bizarre behaviors. And the ones to which I refer have a direct relationship between behavior patterns and some physiological malfunction. Babies are born every day with these kinds of issues from slight to moderate and all the way to extreme. And as these children grow up they must deal with inward emotions and desires and pressures that normal children cannot imagine. That does not mean that most misbehaving children can blame it on some biological issue, but what it should do is make us aware that the effects of the curse reveal themselves in an array of areas. It is very easy and self serving to dismiss these kinds of facts and blanket everyone with a pristine and willful disobedience to the law and thereby relieve any struggle with the depth and scope of God’s redemption. All men are born sinners and all stand in need of redemption before a holy God. And Christ is the only path to that redemption.

But the church has isolated certain sins and ignored others. And along with that we have dismissed a range of disorders caused by physiological issues and labeled them as sin via an overt choice of that particular sinner. We have erroneously thought that any syndrome of disorders is an excuse for sin, or disrupts the doctrinal syntax as it pertains to sin. But that is not the case at all. In fact, the disorders and maladies to which I refer are all sin related and can be traced back to the very first sin. And since all men are born as sinners then that eliminates this emphasis on either the qualitative or quantitative assessment of sin, especially as it pertains to divine judgment.

If all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, and if by one man’s sin we all are born fallen and in need of redemption, then how can works be recognized as part of the redemptive process? And if there are no works of righteousness that we can do to affect positively God’s offer of complete redemption through faith in Christ alone, then what implications does that upon the very essence of redemption and how it is made effective in a sinner’s heart and life? This is where the church has so often ventured into the vault of God’s eternal truth concerning redemption and taken certain unwise liberties. And when liberties are taken with the gospel then those liberties become stumbling blocks, falsehoods, and even heresies.

Each sinner stands before God as fallen and completely and utterly undeserving of eternal life. In fact, he is deserving of eternal death. His sin both inherited and practiced is empirical evidence that demands justice before a Holy God. That scenario is a constant among all men. No one is more or less deserving of God’s mercy and grace, and no one is more or less deserving of God’s justice and punishment. All men stand shoulder to shoulder with no plea or explanation. Eternal death awaits us all as we stand before God dressed in nothing but our sin and false righteousness. That situation is as dire as it gets.

Take the Christless humanitarian who dedicates his life to helping others, and place him beside the Christless practicing homosexual who is also a drug dealer to children, and you have two sinners equally condemned before God. Does that shock you? Do you have a difficult time coming to grips with that comparison? I mean doesn’t the humanitarian deserve some kind of consideration even though he still needs Christ? In our fallen minds we have created some self serving caste system which takes the consequences and weight of sins that are clearly evident here on earth, and we have translated them into the realm of eternal salvation. And even if we admit that Christ alone is the door, we subliminally, and sometimes openly, suggest that certain sinners must be viewed differently even without Christ. But I ask you this: If all sinners are dead in trespasses and sins, how can someone be more dead than totally dead? That reminds me of Miracle Max in the Princess Bride as he looked upon the dead Prince and he says, “I’ve seen worse.” Miracle Max goes on to offer the prognosis that the Prince is “mostly dead”.

Most of us find that humorous, however that is sometimes how we see things as it pertains to the eternal state of sinners. The sin of the gay drug dealer is far worse than the sin of the humanitarian when assessed through earthly prisms. But when we weigh their sins if front of the Holy and Eternal God of All Creation their sins have equally destroyed their souls and equally present an horrific affront to that same God. I hope, I pray that you can see the difference. This is not a condoning of sin, but this is the essence of the gospel. The offer of redemption goes out to whosever will regardless of their sin. It is an eternal miracle of grace without preconditions except that it applies only to those who are still dead in their sins. And that includes us all.

So now if we recognize the essence and purity of the offer of God’s redemption, and if we also recognize the equality of all sinners before God, then we can allow the Spirit to illuminate our eyes to the scope and the depth and the unsettling grace that is inherent within the gospel. Condoning sin? Absolutely not! Easy believism? Never! Lip service means being born again? God forbid! But let us now embrace the uncomfortable elements of that gospel. The word “uncomfortable” is used to show our own self righteousness because when we see lost sinners in a caste system it emanates and is fed by self righteousness and an unspoken perspective that we ourselves were only “mostly dead” and somehow became a believer with less sinful baggage than others.

Oh but the endless riches of His eternal grace! Open your hearts my brethren and see just who you were and what He has done! Were you any less of an enemy of God than others? Is the man who loads the bombs on the planes less culpable than the pilot who drops them? You see, when we look at the majesty of God’s redemption through the dirty lens of earthly perspectives we do a heartbreaking disservice to His love and grace. In fact, we also diminish the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. How much blood did He shed for your sin? Was it less than He shed for David Berkowitz or Jeffrey Dahmer or Susan Atkins?

No, again we love to weigh things out like we were ordering lunch meat at the deli. You and I needed ALL of His shed blood as did all those who I listed. No sinner comes to Christ needing any less of His sacrifice than the whole! And please think on this…He gave it all to each and every one of us. You and I did not need some or even most of His sacrifice upon that cross. We needed it all! And so it was given to any sinner who repents and believes the gospel. You may not have understood the depth of it all when you first believed, but now you do. How could God do such a thing for me? Or you? This is beyond us and yet we cleave to Him in love and worship.

Take a brief look behind you. What is that we see? I see a grave now empty with dirt scattered everywhere. I see this grave filled with rotting works of the flesh and all sorts of diabolical transgressions committed against a Holy God. But I see no corpse. I see an empty grave of sin from which I was made alive. And sometimes I bring a corpse over to my former grave and I point it out to him and I invite him to look at me now. And I make it abundantly clear that I did not arise from that grave of sin by any power of my own, but that I believed on the Author of Life named Jesus and in an instant I was made a new and alive creation in Him! And as he gazes at my former grave, that sinner realizes he is still dead in his. And only through the miraculous ministry of the Spirit that sinner can be drawn to Jesus and like me look at an empty grave of sin where he once reposed.

And not one element of the law did I keep in order to be made whole. And look around at all the graves still left untouched by the Spirit. Can you not see something very similar? Yes, they have all been dug to the same depth. They may be different in the specifics of their repulsiveness, but they are equal in that repulsiveness. And the quality of their death is equal and complete. But when any sinner believes on the Lord Jesus Christ and is resurrected from his place of spiritual death, he stands equal among the saints and is in fact alive in Christ. Completely, profoundly, and eternally.

Halleluiah! What a Savior!

Man's Foolishness - God's Glory

MAN’S FOOLISHNESS

GOD’S GLORY

I Cor.1: ¹⁸ For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

I Cor.1: ²¹ For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

I Cor.1: ²³ But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

I Cor.2: ¹³ Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

¹⁴ But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Man has invented his own definitions about wisdom and morality and scholarship. It is completely based upon what we see and experience and think. Through a systematic progression of making and inventing things, as well as the accumulation of information and knowledge, man has become both a master and a slave to himself. And now armed with thoughts and beliefs that have been guided and molded by himself and his environment, religion has become an appendage to our lives designed to aid in our quest to climb an earthly ladder.

Transcendental meditation, eastern mysticism, new age philosophies, and many other mind manipulations have either replaced the Christian faith or have so influenced it so as to make Christianity secretly succumb to the various religious mores of our day. Taking what seems sophisticated and modern has become the foundation upon which some religious powder is sprinkled. And just to provide some Christian cloak the church has kept certain words and phrases on display. But after all this is mixed around and presented as a relevant piece of religious advice, the hearers walk away feeling refreshed and then quickly dissolve once again into the culture which in most respects is their god.

The pure and unvarnished preaching of the cross is now just a part of ecclesiastical nostalgia. It isn’t that people do not know about the cross, but it is no longer the main course of a western spiritual diet. Earthly success and promises of financial blessings or even a positive outlook have replaced the gospel. In fact the gospel is only for the lost and only relevant to a believer as part of his orthodox portfolio. Many will admit to the power of the cross in salvation while rejecting it overtly and subliminally as the power of their Christian walk.

But there now exists almost no common ground. In the evangelical atmosphere of today there seems to be a great gulf that separates a massive community of all kinds of compromise and cultural churches, and a comparatively small group scattered across the nation who are holding on for dear life to Christ, His cross, and His entire gospel. Walking with Christ is more than just nodding yes at certain doctrines. It is much more than just being pro-life and pro-traditional marriage. Walking with Christ in these days is sometimes a very lonely walk which requires denying self and a sacrificing of what most believe and are doing.

How can we claim to be carrying our cross and living a crucified life when are lives are so similar to those who have no profession? Does it not seem strange that in towns and cities that have thousands upon thousands of evangelical church members that there is so little light and salt? What has happened? Has God’s power shriveled up? Has the cross lost its luster? Is there no more resurrection power? Or has the church lost its thirst for Christ and settled instead for membership and buildings and activities? And in the midst of all the glitz and glitter and patriotism and moralism there is a vacuum. And that vacuum is shaped like an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame. And the shame of which I speak is not about the glorious shame of that cross. I speak of the shame wherein the church had shunned that cross and brought shame upon itself.

It is quite astonishing that the answer to every single question about God and man can be found in the cross. I mean in modern imagery it would be like saying that the electric chair is the answer and source of life. But it was this barbarous instrument that was chosen by God to show who he was and what his love and grace could provide. Looking back through the eyes of education and being culturally sophisticated it seems as the Scriptures declare. It seems like foolishness.

We are enamored with our minds. A man like Albert Einstein scribbles some theories and he is lauded as a colossal genius. Stephen Hawing throws out his unproveable hypothesis as well and his name becomes synonymous with intelligence. Man worships his own intellectual prowess and he praises those who can articulate great thoughts. But in the scheme of things thoughts are worthless if they are not true and if they do not promote God’s kingdom.

But when it comes to religion men will embrace a structure which combines intellect with philosophy. And philosophy itself is a love of human knowledge. So if someone claims to be spiritual and presents some real thought provoking philosophical ideas he is considered deep and profound. But if a man opens the Scriptures and preaches Christ and Him crucified he is considered a throwback to a time where we were less enlightened. And when the cross is preached as the last and complete sacrifice for man’s sins and the only way to eternal life, well, that is now openly and subtly considered a residual product of an ancient religion which has now evolved and moved on.

But if you reject the cross as the core of the faith then you must reject the apostles and the early church and the New Testament Scriptures. You also must reject Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Huss, Whitefield, Edwards, Moody, Wesley, and on and on the list goes. It all comes down to this: If you reject the literal event of Christ’s crucifixion as the foundation upon which the entire Christian faith is built, then you must reject and disregard everything that has come before today as it pertains to the Christian faith. You must make some new Scriptures you call “interpretations”. You must create a new Jesus. You must create a new plan of redemption. You must create a new gospel. You must create a new eternal scenario. You must create a new philosophy for the cross. In essence, you must create a new religion and still call it Christianity. And, sadly, that is what has happened.

But this philosophical and intellectual morass makes the cross nothing but superstitious foolishness. Is the modern church known for Jesus and His cross, or is it known for its slick presentations and its well honed family atmosphere or its political activism? But here is the stunning aspect of it all: What man has treated as foolishness is in reality the glory of the Creator. Think on that. That which is rejected by fallen man and even by the church is actually the pinnacle of God’s love and grace, and it is the unobstructed revelation of who God is. Yes, man’s foolishness is God’s glory.

We are encouraged and guided by the Spirit to look to and to preach the cross of Christ. But after over two thousand years we must still gaze in wonder at that glorious event. Its depth cannot be fathomed; Its love cannot be understood; Its grace cannot be comprehended; Its sacrifice remains a mystery; Its power cannot be exhausted; It’s humility is unthinkable. Many of us have studied the cross and done research papers on it in college. We have preached on the cross many, many times. We have gazed at paintings of it. We have quoted Scriptures that refer to that cross. We have watched pageants that portrayed the cross. We have watched films.

We have wept when we think about His cross. We have sung about it. And sometimes during those times we have been granted a greater revelation of that cross. And even sometimes that greater revelation is so personal and so full of glory and mystery that we have no words with which to adequately communicate that aspect of the pearl of great price. But this thing we do know. Jesus brought those wounds into eternity with Him, and the glory of that sacrifice we call the cross will redound to the glory of God throughout eternity with the same power and majesty every single eternal moment.

Yes, man’s foolishness will always be God’s glory.

The Love of Money

THE LOVE OF MONEY

 

 

 

I Tim.6: ³ If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;

⁴ He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,

⁵ Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.

⁶ But godliness with contentment is great gain.

⁷ For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

⁸ And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

⁹ But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

¹⁰ For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Money is earthly power and brings forth self righteousness especially when it is sought and honored. It used to be that the kingdom of darkness was known for how it sought and held in high esteem money and wealth. And the church used to reject that allurement choosing rather to trust God for her needs.

Pr.30: ⁸ Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:

⁹ Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.

 

I Tim.6:¹⁰ For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

 

Even though the love and pursuit of money has always been lurking within the hearts of men, after the Industrial Revolution it exploded by leaps and bounds. During the last several centuries, and the last being the most pronounced, the church has rapidly succumbed to the mores and pursuits of the fallen culture in which it lives. To say this is sad is a colossal understatement. To leave the cross and its Lord and run after money and material things is the worst of all sins. In the end, after many decades of giving your heart over to such things, the gospel eventually becomes a doctrine and ceases to be a living power within the church.

But how can we turn our back on the Lord Jesus and all His sufferings and go a-whoring after that which will perish? What kind of faith is that? What kind of love do we have for Him who gave us Himself when we turn our hearts over to the cares of this temporal world? Do we even love the blood anymore or has even that become stale and powerless and void of the sacred redemption of God’s holiness? Oh how the cross and everything about it is now less exciting then a new television set. Take the cross off the shelf on Easter week, genuflect a few times, and on the Monday after Easter go about our business. Oh the shame of it all!

Money. Green paper or numbers on a printed bank statement. Are those the shrines where we now bow? But the mighty and august cross of Christ and the glory of His empty tomb must compete for some cameos in church sermons or the Christian bookstores? This is an outrage and rightfully deserves our public scorn and our personal repentance. And when we see videos like the one I provided we as believers should know that this is apostasy. This is not just a compromise or a dilution of the faith. This is not just heresy or false teaching. This is apostasy, and upon leaving the faith what has been set up in its place is modern day idolatry. Grown men, supposedly preachers of the gospel, dancing on money in front of the congregation. And people loving it. It is blasphemous and open apostasy and these men are representatives of the demonic.

But that video shows absolute nonsense, but there is idolatry within other evangelical churches who would believe that the men in that video are heretics. Almost ten years ago I taught a Sunday School class in a Baptist church in out town. At that time we had around 100 attendees each week. The church had just brought in a new pastor because the previous one resigned because of a moral failure. The pastor that was called came under one condition that the church would increase the salary package because he had been making around the same money in his present church. That pastor was a millionaire who had made his money before being called into the ministry.

Well just before that church was beginning a faith pledge drive for a 25 million dollar new auditorium, they hired a full time associate to oversee that fund raising effort. And several months before the big kick off the new pastor passed around free copies of a book entitled “The Blessed Life” by Robert Morris. The main thrust of the book was that God wants to financially bless all His children and the key was to give. Just before a faith pledge drive…how transparent.

But one story in the book was when Pastor Morris went to play golf with some friends. And that morning was chilly and Morris had forgotten his sweater. He looked for a sweater in the pro shop and found two for sale. One was under 100 dollars while the other was way over 100 dollars. Desiring to be frugal he bought the cheaper one. Well he had an awful game of golf, and afterward Morris said the Spirit spoke to him that his awful golf was because he had the spirit of poverty on him as evidenced by his refusal to purchase the more expensive sweater.

Now I ask you this. If you have even an elementary understanding of God and His Word do you not find something like that both silly and tragic? This is what passes for Christianity? Several weeks after we were given that book I resigned my position. You cannot serve God and money. And when we reduce God to golf sweaters we have left the faith and are now teaching a religion called capitalism. Although these evangelical gurus would not dance on top of money outwardly, inside that is exactly what they are doing. What may have begun many, many decades ago as a slight and almost imperceptible compromise, has now blossomed into full blown apostasy. Yes, it is that serious.

How much more serious can it get when the Master says that all evil can be traced back to the love of money. Many compromised preachers love to point out that it isn’t money that is the root of all evil. It is the love of money. They are correct in that detail, however they are blind to what is overwhelmingly obvious to anyone who wishes their eyes to see it. The church is filled with the love of money in all its ways. Sacrifice and self denial and moderation are now lies from the devil. And anyone who strives to remain untouched by this world is considered eccentric. Someday all true believers will stand before Christ and experience the pain of what they have done to the Redeemer.

Let me address something else here. Many of these prosperity hucksters preach a false gospel and a false Jesus. However there are many sio called orthodox preachers who have the love of money but who have genuinely been saved by God’s grace. They will suffer loss in that day.

I Cor.3: ¹¹ For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

¹² Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

¹³ Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

¹⁴ If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

¹⁵ If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

We so easily dismiss the loss that shall be suffered by believers. As long as we get to heaven who really cares? But we are ignorant of the depth of that loss. There was a small town in middle Pennsylvania where houses were set apart with almost a quarter mile in between. A couple had given birth to twin boys with glowing red hair and the entire town rejoiced with them. It was a phenomenon within such a small town. One afternoon the mother had put down these two toddlers for their nap and she walked next door to borrow something. While she was speaking with her neighbor both women look across the meadow and saw a horrific sight. The woman’s house was smoking profusely and was ablaze.

The mother ran toward the house but as she came upon it two of the volunteer firemen arrived and restrained her. The house was engulfed in flames and the two red headed toddlers had died within the blaze. The mother was inconsolable. The entire town grieved as if those two boys were their own. In fact the loss of those two boys lasted for decades for those who knew them. For many years there was a kind of unspoken sadness among the townspeople.

How much more will we feel and experience when we suffer loss before Him because we had given our hearts over to what did not honor Him? What kind of spiritual grief will believers experience when they suffer that kind of loss before He who has saved their eternal souls? You see, dear believer, this no game of doctrinal gotcha. Let us awake to our sin and arise to our duty! Let us see what has happened, at least in part, and pursue Him with our whole hearts while rejecting the lusts of the flesh.

There is a monster called money. If we treat it as a necessity and keep it a sacred distance from our hearts we can still follow hard after our Savior. But if we allow it even the first small footprint into a territory that should be His alone, then it will slowly consume us.

Prayer

PRAYER

 

A little boy lifted his bow toward heaven and shot his arrow skyward. It went twenty feet and fell to the ground. He loaded it up again and shot it once more with the same result. He repeated it a third time. A man who had been watching walked over to the boy and asked him what he was doing. The boy said that he was trying to hit the moon. The man laughed and told the boy he would never do that. Well the boy thought for a moment and said,

“Maybe not, sir, but I’m getting closer than you are!”

Prayerless believers sometimes wonder why some pray so much. To them some of our prayers obviously do not seem to get answered. Well, maybe so, but we get more answered than they do.

The Technology That Changed the Family, the World, and the Church

THE TECHNOLOGY THAT CHANGED

the

FAMILY, THE CHURCH, AND THE WORLD

Dan.12: ⁴ But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

There are some of us whose life has seen many significant changes in this world. This is no nostalgic sentimentality, nor is it a “life used to be better in the 50’s” opining. But so many things have changed over the last 50 years including attitudes, morals, the family, wealth, and yes, the church. Like lightning things have been ushered in that altered our perception of reality, and certainly our perception of truth.

These changes have not just chipped away at our understanding of life itself, but these changes have set in motion a colossal metamorphosis of the mind, the soul, and the spirit. And even though it was a day by day process, still the transformation was remarkable in its velocity and revolutionary it its cultural alteration. In essence, in a little over fifty years technology has been leveraged to completely capture the masses and lead us away from what we knew and practiced and into a dramatic realm which increasingly rejects that which seems old and demands that which is new.

And so the culture became fluid and exciting. But in the midst of all this revelry certain things began to be seen as too intransigent and thereby must give way to the rising tide of the new way. And as the culture changed and moved on, so did the world. And as the world changed, so did the church. Sometimes the change was gradual, but sometimes it was overnight. But no one could deny that change had not only come, it was now a continuing way of life.

And as the title of this post indicates, certain technologies were instrumental in leveraging this change. Yes it was electricity, and yes it was radio, and yes it was the automobile, but perhaps the greatest and most profound instrument of change has been the invention and the proliferation of the television. It is this invention which many thought would soon die out that has taken hold of the minds and hearts of men and guided and formed their thoughts and opinions with subtlety and creative genius until everything had been impacted by its alluring and persuasive communication.

And it wasn’t just the communication itself, but it was the communication along with the consumption of time which made television the life changing force it is today. It is the supreme taskmaster which cries out like a multitude of Geek sirens and imprisons all who turn to listen. There is nothing that has changed the culture like television, and nothing like television has dictated what people think and believe. How clever to concentrate on the eye gate and add the ear gate and add the element of time. We now could do almost anything while watching television. And advances in color and clarity and sound only made it that much more alluring. And at the beginning it was at least a time where the family gathered together, but soon with more and more channels more television were scattered around the house which separated the family and even allowed teenagers to watch things they should not. Yes, what was probably an innocuous piece of technology had now become a full blown source that divided families, mesmerized minds, and produced the perceptions and truth which the producers themselves hold. And it all made sense. In fact it was so persuasive that many times you were affected most by what you watched last.

Well this phenomenon continued for decades, and at first the church resisted, but eventually the church crumbled under the weight of this technology. And late in the 1940s some evangelists used television to preach the gospel. It was expensive but souls were saved. But somewhere in the 1950s there arose a phenomenon called “Christian television” when evangelism was no longer the motivation, but now speaking to believers was the focus. And that phenomenon continued to grow until some professing Christians actually purchased entire stations and by suggesting to onlookers that God wanted them to help “spread the gospel” they raised incredible funds to purchase these stations. Today there are scores of Christian stations and hundreds of Christian programs. And millions upon millions of dollars are raised whereby thousands of men and women have become unbelievably wealthy. It has become a lucrative business where a small portion goes to helping people and the portion that does is recorded and shown in order to raise more. Sadly, the unsaved world’s assessment of Christian television is painfully accurate.

But through this portal we call television the church has been deceived and led astray from truth and the Person of Jesus Christ. And the secular part of television has stolen time from believers until prayer is a lesson in history and Bible meditation is embarrassing. The spiritual lives of believers have dwindled down to a convenience if in fact most even have a spiritual life. The time and dedication to television has drained the life and power from the church, and the preachers are complicit in the plan. Truth lies in the streets and the demands of a hedonistic lifestyle have allowed any spiritual practices to wither on the vine.

And not only do believers watch television asif they were worshiping an idol, but millions upon millions of evangelical church members watch what obviously must displease the Lord and offend the Spirit. Professing believers open their eyes and hearts to almost unbelievable violence, cursing, and sex on television or the movie theatres. There are all kinds of excuses and rationales that are presented, but none can hold up to Biblical scrutiny. And all this has come through the technology of television. Yes now pornography has come alive through the internet, but the church has been readied through the systematic brainwashing of television and the demands of time through the same.

And if we can see these changes with an overall view of the past fifty years we must see how devastating and prolific they are. And words like these seem so outdated and archaic. But yet the church and its hirelings continue to drum up new ideas and new activities and new and innovative sermons that at least engender a Sunday morning’s hour long interest. And with the creation of the half hour sitcom and the hour long reality programs along with the age of the remote, the attention span of the average believer has been reduced to minutes. And now with being trained to multi-task believers can sit and listen to the preacher while doing mental assessments of an assortment of other things.

Slowly but ever so surely the depth of the Christian faith once delivered to the saints dripped away until the shallowness we now see is embraced as orthodox. And the compromise has been so dramatic that many caricatures of Jesus are taught and embraced throughout the evangelical community. And in almost every congregation people have their preacher/teacher heroes they have seen on television or have been pulled in by their attractive books and teaching guides. But how many believers pray more than they watch television? How many read God’s Word more than they watch television? How many witness more? In fact how many of us do anything more than we watch television? Quite an indictment on us all.

So what should we now do? What should be our course of action? Perhaps more penetrating is what would the Spirit have us to do? That which could have been used for good has become an idol and has been brought right into the church. And most of what is on “Christian” television is comical, worthless, carnal, and many times bizarre. But even if there were no Christian television at all, and even if believers did not subject their eyes to inappropriate programs, the television still shapes people’s minds and instigates hatred and hubris in people’s hearts. So many believers walk with disdain and even hatred in their hearts for liberals because they have lent their ears to unwholesome words coming from the television or sometimes the radio.

And I do not believe the church has the spiritual tenacity to seek God with all our hearts and to allow the Spirit to break up the fallow ground. In fact, I do not believe the church even desires to change at all. The road we now walk is way too comfortable and self affirming to elicit any desire to seek a change. Let all things remain as they are and continue to go down the path called apostasy. And at the end the fallen angels will sing our requiem complete with upbeat music and colorful overheads and large debt ridden buildings. Perhaps they will make a CD of that event and give it to professing believers for a seed faith gift.

Grace

GRACE

 

A certain man had a wife and a young daughter. This man was a drunk and rarely held down a job for too long. His family suffered terribly because he hardly provided for his family. They ended up living in a rat infested cellar in Chicago. One day his little girl became seriously ill, and a kind doctor came to that cellar to examine that little girl. Seeing that this child was in grave condition, the doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out some money and told that man to run, not walk, to the drug store and purchase this prescription.

The man left the cellar and as he approached the drug store he saw a saloon. And instead of buying the drugs his daughter needed he went into that saloon like he had so many other times and got drunk. It wasn’t long until his daughter was dead. And some people helped to lay her out for a viewing in the cellar. Some loving person bought her some new clothes and shoes in which to be buried.

The man returned home after being away as he had in the past, and no one saw him come in. But he noticed his daughter’s corpse and saw she was wearing new clothes and shoes. He quietly slipped off those shoes from his dead daughter’s feet and went and sold them in order to buy more alcohol. That man ended up living on the street, a hopeless drunk.

But one day that same man was passing the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago and went in to find some warmth. There he heard a gospel preacher tell of God’s grace through Jesus Christ and that man was gloriously saved. And he eventually was trained and became an evangelist and was used of God to lead many to Jesus Christ.

How could God save such a man, you ask? Oh my dear brother and sister, we ought to be questioning how God could save someone like you and me. Do not attempt to measure the grace of God by the weight of sin. The vilest among us is a candidate for God’s redemption. One simple but genuine act of faith can save the Charles Manson’s among us. God’s redemption reached Jeffrey Dahmer and Susan Atkins and David Berkowitz and even me. Oh how we measure that which is without measure.

Do you not think God would offer His salvation to the monster who held those three girls captive? Would God withhold His offer from Timothy McVeigh? Would Christ die for the young man who murdered all those children? Did Jesus die for Osama Bin Laden? Does that repulse you? Does it surprise you? Please understand how vile you were and what God’s grace meant to your own soul.

And what was the man’s name whose story I told?

His name was Mel Trotter and you can read his own words HERE.

The word grace has been bandied about and defined in cold theological terms, but God’s grace goes beyond anything we can imagine here on earth. In order to fully understand the grace of God we must fully understand the holiness of God. But we as men have some idea of love and some idea of justice and some idea of mercy, but we have absolutely no idea about holiness. Since we have no holiness of our own we are clueless. Religion has said that holiness is what we do not do. Or religion calls some pompous man “Your Holiness”. But in reality we do not know nor can we know what holiness is. Holiness is the essence of God who is a spirit. And we do not even know what a spirit is.

So here we are partakers of God’s grace struggling to find some acceptable definition that can be shown on some overhead projector or in sermon notes. But find the most repulsive and vile sin, and watch as a sinner practices and even relishes in that sin, and then watch God receive that sinner and make him His child. Perhaps then we can understand what we do not understand...God’s grace.

Where sin abounds, grace does much moiré abound.

The Romance of Preaching and Performance

THE ROMANCE

of

PREACHING AND PERFORMANCE

The word performance indicates playing a part or imitating a character. It carries with it a sort of thespian quality or the display of a certain talent, both of which makes it part of the family of entertainment. You go to a concert to hear a musician demonstrate his proficiency; you attend a play to be impressed by the acting abilities of the players; you go to a sporting event to see athletes use their talents in competition; and even political debates are judged on performance and not substance. In this world performance is far more cherished than is substance. Performance is the mainstay of western culture which thrives on titillation, exhilaration, and amusement.

I Cor.1: ¹⁸ For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

¹⁹ For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
²⁰ Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
²¹ For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

Preaching is not just speaking as in presenting a research paper. It isn’t just reading a theory. It isn’t just a generic communication of facts. There is a mystery, a divine authority and power and a divine commission associated with true preaching. The preaching that is ordained of God is a process of communicating divine truth in a way that allows the Spirit to touch base in the ears and go all the way to the heart. It is a great mystery but true preaching does not rely on the personality of the man, nor his intellect, nor does it depend upon his level of academic training. Yes, there is a connection between the spiritual commitment of the preacher and the spiritual power generally afforded his preaching, however sometimes the grace of God even accomplishes His will in spite of human disobedience.

The preaching of God’s Word is the highest calling in vocation and in the Spirit. It transcends human speech which is usually an attempt to present some case of earthly design. This kind of communication called preaching is a magnificent ministry of the Spirit. Unseen and many times unnoticed, the Spirit takes His own words through fragile lips and gives them the wings of life which often find a soil with which to plant a seed which will later bring forth fruit. It is an amazing act of eternal grace. In fact only the Spirit can move in the temporal and accomplish the eternal especially within the carnal and fallen hearts of God’s worst enemies.

And after a sinner has heard the gospel and believed, he grows by feeding himself through the same Word and by the same Spirit that were used to transform him into a new creature. And he also grows and is edified through the preaching of God’s Word by someone called and anointed to proclaim and teach that Word. The spiritual gift of teaching is when someone to whom God has given that gift faithfully surrenders his own will and teaches God’s Word under the power of the same Spirit who gave him that gift. And if that vessel uses his gift in brokenness and humility then God’s Spirit can anoint His words with power far beyond his ability or oratorical prowess or even his oratorical liabilities.

Throughout church history there were always men who relied upon the strength of their personalities and would draw great crowds. Being self absorbed and desiring the adulation of people is not new to our generation. In fact it is a liability which lays dormant in all of us and sometimes quietly comes to life and tempts us. All preachers must do battle within themselves so that we are not at the mercy of whether people like or dislike us, or like our preaching or do not. We must always preach God’s Word and for God and not for people. It sounds easy, but the forces of wickedness and our own flesh are sometimes very cunning.

But seemingly in these modern times the allurement of entertainment and emotional thrills have demanded a more performance dominated method of preaching. There is nothing wrong and sinister about preaching with passion and emotion, but there is something extremely sinister when preaching becomes an art form accentuated with much humor and storytelling and a thespian-like delivery. And in this generation many so called preachers strut their stuff on television screens and in large churches and rented stadiums to the excitement of great crowds. And make no mistake, entertainment and great performances are rewarded with colossal offerings and big business among the trinket tables.

Many of these ecclesiastical thespians act out their stories with great and swelling words and with great deference to their personalities and performance abilities while paying precious little attention to the authority and purity of God’s Word. Many people will applaud intermittently during the performance, and some will even rise to their feet to show appreciation for what has become a stirring performance. Men like Joel Osteen tell a joke before he even “preaches” his redundant message. That alone should give you an indication about what he preaches and what he does not preach.

Men like T. D. Jakes is a fantastic story teller who walks all over the stage making pantomimes and using body language and facial gestures to tell his elongated stories. And all of this to an appreciative crowd who responds to his alluring and uplifting message as well as his performance itself. Many times preachers will elicit the desired response by saying things like “Oh, you aren’t hearing me” or “Don’t get quiet on my now” and other phrases which draw more audience participation. A performer desires to be acknowledged and appreciated for his performance. I have heard many a performer say, “Man, this is good preaching!” about his own preaching.

The message is Biblically unsound but the performance is overwhelming. Jesse Duplantis is little more than a stand up comedian who preaches nonsense and has made a literal fortune telling people they can be rich as well. In reality all his listeners need is a mailing list. But imagery is now carefully crafted and earthly allurements have muscled out eternal promises. And in order to deliver these fables men and women have refined wonderful performances that fill stadiums and titillate crowds. And with the atmosphere of a multi-level marketing meeting these puppet masters present their greatest performances which only serve to bring more into their deceptions.

Another way these pretenders perform is through a supposed channeling of God’s voice. “Thus sayeth the Lord” is the preamble that allows them to speak things they suggest is being spoken directly by the Spirit. And people listen in awe as if they are hearing from God verbally. Miracles are also leveraged in order to provide an atmosphere of the divine. Words of knowledge concerning many maladies are thrown out and caught by whichever unsuspecting follower thinks it applies to him. And the miracle is often activated either by some seed faith gift of money or by the performer’s own hands laid upon the person. Yes, it is your show of shows.

But true and faithful preaching must never be weighted toward anyone’s personality or their delivery. The Word of God must be the power. That does not mean we cannot raise our voices and show emotion of even tell some story which can be used to illuminate a Biblical principle. But most of us know what is a performance and what is of the Spirit. These modern preachers do not even walk a fine line, and when their messages are so unbiblical and carnal, it reveals the necessity of an entertainment laden performance.

But there are so many itching ears out there that the demand motivates the supply. And spiritual success is measured by crowds and money and personal jets and book sales. And instead of humble men of God you now have celebrities who own more than one home and attend their own book signings. And instead of feeding the sheep they fleece them. And instead of being instruments of the Spirit they are court jesters. And instead of spreading the kingdom of God they spread their own kingdom. It has become a pitiful cast of characters who have become wealthy in their own religious theatre. The romance between preaching and performance is now a marriage.

Preaching God’s Word is a sacred calling of the Spirit. It requires personal brokenness. It requires a deep searching of the heart. It requires a constant vigilance concerning motives and manipulation. To be used as a human conduit to convey God’s truth and God’s gospel is a great honor which includes grave consequences. None of us can claim perfection or even complete surrender at all times. But hopefully and prayerfully we are not performers on some stage whose desire is to stimulate the fleshly juices and thereby elicit the praises of men. God forbid.