The Only Hope
I Cor.15:33-34 - Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
I read the wonderful, Christ exalting sermons by Spurgeon and Moody and Wesley and Edwards and many of the preachers of years gone by. And rarely do they address the political mood of their generation, and rarer still do they castigate lost sinners regardless of who they may be. Their themes seem two fold. They offer Christ to the lost and the saved, and they speak correction to the church.
And the Apostle Paul says, in effect, “Shame on you!” Why? Because those sinners out there, the ones that get so much criticism and scorn from the church, are lost. They do not know Christ, and Paul admonishes us believers to walk in holiness so that the world can see Christ through us. For when we sin without regard to our testimony, we place another stumbling block in front of a lost and dying world. We have a mission that comes from our Elder Brother through the power of His cross and His glorious resurrection!
Oh how the Spirit is grieved when He listens to all the vitriol leveled against all kinds of sinners. Politicians, gays, liberals, Muslims, protesters, and even some offensive language used against the President. It is most unfortunate, and it diminishes the glory of the gospel. Jesus opened up His arms and drew you and I into His mighty redemption, and while we were yet sinners He died for us. How easy would it have been for the Sinless One to illuminate our sins and speak against us since He alone would be justified in doing so.
But even after Christ gave His life for us, He refused to retreat from dealing with us. On the contrary, He sent the Comforter in order to reveal Himself and draw us to Him. And when He saves a lost soul He doesn’t take them out of the world, but He sends them into the uttermost parts of this sin laden world with the message of His glorious gospel. And today Christ is still seeking and searching for His bride with an unfettered invitation to “whosoever will”.
Jesus! what a Friend for sinners!
Jesus! Lover of my soul;
Friends may fail me, foes assail me,
He, my Savior, makes me whole.
Hallelujah! what a Savior!
Hallelujah! what a Friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end.
The church has forgotten how Jesus sought and bought us. Christ did not sit upon some moral throne from which He could pick us apart. Would that have been an attraction for lost sinners? And even though human slavery was not of God, the Spirit directs slaves who have come to know Christ to behave in such a way that people will see Christ.
Ti.2:9-11 - Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them,
10 and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.
11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.
He doesn’t exhort them to petition for their earthly freedom, but in an astounding exhortation he tells them to make the teachings of Christ attractive. Or as the King James says, “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things“. The bellicose venom that often spews from western believers who have been deceived by the culture is offensive to the teachings of the Lord Jesus.
Are you a friend to sinners? Would you give your very life for the vilest of sinners and the most militant transgressors? Would you suffer the loss of your so called “earthly rights” in order to pluck some from the second death? The Christian life should be radical when compared to how others live, but in a stunning display of compromise we have redefined what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Instead of a boldness wrapped in humility and meekness, we now exhibit caustic rhetoric and incendiary verbiage toward lost sinners while placing Christ on some doctrinal back burner.
And just where is this grace we speak so glibly about? Have we been granted this grace so that we might use it as a platform for moral artillery aimed at those from whose loins we sprung? Or is this grace something that should permeate every area of our lives, and in fact continually imprison our hearts?
II Tim.2:1- Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
I Pet.4:9-11 - Use hospitality one to another without grudging.
10 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Allow me to combine these two passages and say, “Be strong in the manifold grace of God which is in Christ Jesus.” We seem to stand on grace doctrinally but present law to others. What are we ashamed of? The Lord Jesus Himself is what sinners need, and when the cross is preached, explained, and presented in all its glory and love, the Spirit can open a lost sinner’s heart. But when we are reduced to screaming and writing about all kinds of earthly issues in response to the screaming and writing of the unregenerate, we have devalued the gospel and are reduced to nothing more than players in the ongoing game of moral badminton. And where is Christ in all of this?
Col.1:13-18 - Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
We have left Christ and gone fishing in pools of the flesh using carnal weapons to battle carnal people. We love His cross but refuse our own. He is a friend to sinners but we are their condemners. We go on television to discuss issues and then think ourselves persecuted when we are attacked. But the only authentic persecution comes through Christ. There are unbelievers who are pro-life; there are unbelievers who are pro traditional marriage; there are unbelievers who align themselves with all sorts of issues embraced by believers. But unbelievers will not, can not, preach Christ.
And therein lies our greatest need - a rebirth and a new awakening to the Person and preaching and living of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without that we are just a religious group who allows Christ some scattered cameo appearances while we arm ourselves to win earthly battles. It may seem awfully outdated and archaic, and it may seem utterly simplistic and unsophisticated, and it may make us look like fools, but Christ, His death, and His resurrection, is not just a great hope for mankind.
Ti.2:9-11 - Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them,
10 and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.
11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.
He doesn’t exhort them to petition for their earthly freedom, but in an astounding exhortation he tells them to make the teachings of Christ attractive. Or as the King James says, “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things“. The bellicose venom that often spews from western believers who have been deceived by the culture is offensive to the teachings of the Lord Jesus.
Are you a friend to sinners? Would you give your very life for the vilest of sinners and the most militant transgressors? Would you suffer the loss of your so called “earthly rights” in order to pluck some from the second death? The Christian life should be radical when compared to how others live, but in a stunning display of compromise we have redefined what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Instead of a boldness wrapped in humility and meekness, we now exhibit caustic rhetoric and incendiary verbiage toward lost sinners while placing Christ on some doctrinal back burner.
And just where is this grace we speak so glibly about? Have we been granted this grace so that we might use it as a platform for moral artillery aimed at those from whose loins we sprung? Or is this grace something that should permeate every area of our lives, and in fact continually imprison our hearts?
II Tim.2:1- Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
I Pet.4:9-11 - Use hospitality one to another without grudging.
10 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Allow me to combine these two passages and say, “Be strong in the manifold grace of God which is in Christ Jesus.” We seem to stand on grace doctrinally but present law to others. What are we ashamed of? The Lord Jesus Himself is what sinners need, and when the cross is preached, explained, and presented in all its glory and love, the Spirit can open a lost sinner’s heart. But when we are reduced to screaming and writing about all kinds of earthly issues in response to the screaming and writing of the unregenerate, we have devalued the gospel and are reduced to nothing more than players in the ongoing game of moral badminton. And where is Christ in all of this?
Col.1:13-18 - Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
We have left Christ and gone fishing in pools of the flesh using carnal weapons to battle carnal people. We love His cross but refuse our own. He is a friend to sinners but we are their condemners. We go on television to discuss issues and then think ourselves persecuted when we are attacked. But the only authentic persecution comes through Christ. There are unbelievers who are pro-life; there are unbelievers who are pro traditional marriage; there are unbelievers who align themselves with all sorts of issues embraced by believers. But unbelievers will not, can not, preach Christ.
And therein lies our greatest need - a rebirth and a new awakening to the Person and preaching and living of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without that we are just a religious group who allows Christ some scattered cameo appearances while we arm ourselves to win earthly battles. It may seem awfully outdated and archaic, and it may seem utterly simplistic and unsophisticated, and it may make us look like fools, but Christ, His death, and His resurrection, is not just a great hope for mankind.
He is the only hope they have.
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1 comment:
Rick, So much good stuff in what you
wrote. It seems that many of us
think we can do the work of the
Holy Spirit, "When He has come, He will convict the world of sin..." —John 16:8 Thank you again, Ken
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