I spent yesterday with a good friend who recently graduated from a major US seminary. Our conversation revealed major inadequacies in their training in soteriology which was greatly troubling since I was able to debunk them quite easily. Oh for more seminaries that would make the main thing the MAIN THING. John Wesley said "set yourself on fire and people will come to watch you burn". Also, the message/scandal of the cross never gets tired when we set ourselves on fire by preaching it . . .
My good friend Josh Williamson is a thundering open air preacher in Australia. One of his more prominent sermons concerned the recent statistical fact that everyone has a stalker. Now Paul Washer has revealed who he is . . .
Paul Washer tells us that he is very acquainted with death. The fact of the matter is that we will all become more and more familiar with it as every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every month of every year rolls on - and you might not even have that long.
It is helpful to understand the major benefit of funerals. They can't do much for the guy in the box but they do remind us that our day is coming. Oh the futility of worldly carnal pursuits - they flee like dust through our fingers. Let us flee instead to the Lord Jesus Christ Who can never lie and is on record saying:
I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. (John 11:25b-26a)
Everyone is a slave! The only differentiation is who or what our master is. Don't fall for the great humanistic lie that freedom consists of the ability to do what you want, when you want, with whoever you want. Ultimately, that is a road of slavery to depraved human lust.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:18-32)
Solomon concluded his philosophical pondering in the book of Ecclesiastes with these sobering words:
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)
But there is a slavery worth pursuing . . .
So what is your slavery? The Lord Jesus Christ is so worthy to be our Master! If you still find this a bitter and difficult pill to swallow then allow Paris Reidhead to illuminate your mind:
As you read this I will be on a plane from Down Under back to the Arctic Tundra. Ok, so Denmark is not quite an Arctic region geographically, but it certainly qualifies as a polar ice cap of Christian endeavor. Even though Ray Comfort continually refers to New Zealand as down under, my down under reference is for Australia. I remember pointing this out to Kirk Cameron when I was speaking with him and Ray, and Kirk then asked "if Australia is down under then what is New Zealand?" Well, looking at both countries from a northern hemisphere perspective I would have to say that if Australia is "down under" then New Zealand must be "left over". Please don't take offense at that my Kiwi friends because I do mean it in the nicest possible way.
My body has now been defrosted and my fellowship appetite has been filled with great quality time with great quality friends. I have no idea when I will return to my homeland so it is difficult to say farewell to so many people who I love so much. In spite of my feelings it is of great comfort to know and trust in the Sovereignty of God in all things.
I had been planning to blog about Chuck Norris today, who just returned from a brief vacation to Pakistan. But in the light of major breaking news, I thought it important to put all else on hold and discuss the recent death of Osama Bin Laden.
It is interesting to note how the word justice has been so readily thrown around (even by bleeding heart liberals) in the aftermath of the successful raid and execution of Osama Bin Laden in his hideout. It is a ready acknowledgement that time does not erase crimes and, also, that even the pagan world recognizes that there is a righteous aspect to the punishment of wrongdoers. I too draw some sense of satisfaction from Bin Laden finally receiving retribution for the atrocities he has instigated. But I also feel the danger of gazing too long in the direction of a world full of wickedness lest it obscures my own horrendous crimes against a Holy God.
I recently heard a sermon by CJ Mahaney where he said:
You will never see the cross as something done for you until you see it as something done by you.
It can be a dangerous and damning practice to spend more time gazing in the direction of a world full of sinners who far exceed your own "small and petty sins". Pause and consider the outrage you felt when Bin Laden's responsibility for the September 11 atrocities was revealed. Now go and multiply that outrage by infinity and load it into the cannon of God's wrath that is aimed straight at you (John 3:36) . . . unless you are clothed with the imputed righteousness of Christ. It is not just the magnitude and volume of our rebellion against a Holy God, but Who we have sinned against. If I lie to my daughter she can do nothing to me. If I lie to my wife I'll be sleeping on the sofa. If I lie to my boss he can fire me. And if I lie to the government they can throw me in jail. The higher the authority we sin against - the greater the consequences. What if God is an infinite authority??? Then His righteousness would deem our crimes against Him as infinite. A healthy grasp of this truth for the unbeliever will drive him to the Savior in desperate need of forgiveness for sin and the righteousness of Christ. For the believer it should grow and deepen our gratitude for Christ's wondrous redemptive work. The knowledge of our own wretchedness should also aid us in our willingness to love the pagans we witness to and instill a gracious humility into our tone of conversation. We can actually learn a lot about the Gospel in the death of a global terrorist . . .
But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world? But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come?-as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips." "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:5-26)
A preacher we will be hearing a lot more about in the future is a man by the name of Art Azurdia. This guy absolutely blows me away every time I hear him preach. His glorious Christ centered preaching is also a stunning contrast to the moralistic therapy that Rick Warren continues to serve up in the current series I am doing on him. Listen up as Azurdia takes the construction requirements for the Tabernacle in the book of Leviticus and launches into a stunning exposition of the glories of Christ . . .
One of my favorite books is Christless Christianity by Michael Horton because it is such an outstanding expose of the seductive scam of moralistic preaching. Of pushing Christ crucified to the periphery (or out of the picture altogether) in order to teach a moralistic story from a biblical text on what to do and what not to do in order to enhance our lives. Many of us have been so dazed by years of this that we cannot even notice the continual absence of the Gospel from much modern preaching. Moralism is what has been a driving force behind many of the political thrusts that American Christians have made in an attempt to "restore Christian values" back to their rightful place as the moral framework for the American way of life. They have fought many legitimate battles, but the weak underbelly of this agenda has always been a neglect of the heart of the human problem - which is the problem of the human heart. By all means fight for the lives of the unborn (I am also very passionate about that) and the biblical definition of marriage. But it must only be done so with the Gospel at its epicenter. Otherwise, you end up using copious amounts of money, time, and energy, trying to persuade goats to act like sheep!
Macarthur goes on to list 16 dangers of cultural morality. This is a really worthwhile exercise and checklist to go through:
1. Cultural morality, first of all -- and I'm going to give you some of these dangers, so just kind of write them down as we go -- is not our commission. It's not our commission. We just read 2nd Corinthians 5:17 to 20, which is our commission. We could add Matthew 28:19 and 20 or any of the other passages on the great commission: Go into all the world and preach the gospel. It's not our commission. So right at the outset, we are doing something that we have not been mandated by God to do. This then becomes a diversionary activity. And who is it that wants to get us off track?
2. Secondly: It wastes immense amounts of precious resources, time, money, human energy. It wastes it. It doesn't matter whether you go to hell as a prostitute or a policeman. It only matters that you go to hell. All this effort to clean up America. Can the "leopard change his spots"? Can the "Ethiopian change his skin"? So says the prophet. Are you able to become something other than you are? It's just a waste of resources. Ephesians 5:16 says: "Make the most of your time, because the days are evil. And understand what the will of the Lord is" and don't be foolish. And I'll tell you: I know what the will of the Lord is, 'cause it's laid out. It's to preach the message of reconciliation. It's to preach the gospel. That's the will of the Lord. And to do something else is to be "foolish," to waste time. I'm not interested in making this country moral. I'm interested in bringing people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, so that He can recreate them so they will become moral.
3. Thirdly: This effort at cultural morality sets up inevitable failure. It sets up inevitable failure, because you can't do it. No one can be truly righteous and moral before God, apart from the transformation of his soul by the Holy Spirit through the gospel. The heart of man is "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." And if you don't change the heart, all you do is redirect the sin. If some sins become illegal, then people will do other sins, or they'll do the ones they want to do in secret. Efforts at cultural morality are programmed for failure.
4. Fourthly: Cultural morality fails to understand the nature of the kingdom of God. It fails to understand the nature of the kingdom of God. Listen to what Jesus said, John 18:36: "My kingdom is not of this world." There's no connection. "If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting." That's interesting to me. If My kingdom was a part of this world, we'd be engaged in a battle here to prevent you from taking Me captive. Jesus says, "My servants would be fighting," and I might not be delivered up to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm. To spend all your time and energy and effort fighting for some element of human society -- this is the point -- fails to understand the nature of the kingdom. The kingdom is the realm of salvation where God rules over and blesses those who are in Christ. Do you want to bring blessing to this nation? Then preach the gospel. Because there is no connection between a national entity and the kingdom of God. Jesus said it as clearly as He could: "My kingdom is not of this world." They're two completely separate realities. Why is it that somehow we've gotten this idea that we have to posture America politically for the advancement of the kingdom of God? They have absolutely no connection. I've heard people say if America keeps going the way it's going -- if sin is more and more acceptable in our society, if it gets more and more corrupt -- it's going to cripple the impact of the gospel; it's going to cause evangelism to be hard to do, if not illegal. We have to fight for all these freedoms in order to have them to preach the gospel. There is nothing that can be done, has been done, would be done on the face of the earth by men, politically or socially, that has any impact whatsoever on the purposes of God in redemption.
5. Fifthly: This effort puts the responsibility on man rather than God; well-intentioned people trying to do the impossible. I'm a pretty realistic person, and I don't mind tackling a hard task if I can do it. But I really don't want to spend my life trying to do what I know I can't do, and what I know I can't do by my own ingenuity. I do not, in myself, folks, with my persuasive powers of speech, with my intensity, with my self-discipline or my work ethic, I do not have the ability or the capability to make people moral. I can't make this country moral. It's just a battle I can't win. Because those who are "accustomed to doing evil," Jeremiah 13:23 says, can't do good.
6. Number six: This effort at cultural morality creates morality without theology. I don't like anything without theology. I want theology in everything. I don't like anything without theology, because I cannot understand anything apart from God's revelation of it. My understanding of the world is completely subject to what scripture says. But in this cultural morality, this sort of growing religious right effort, there is a severe ignorance of theology, some ignorance of God, ignorance of His word, of His holy law. So that they're trying to accomplish something that doesn't have the theological underpinnings. It's just a matter of money, persuasive speech, media events, pressure groups, forcing people to do things. That is -- that is not how you get it done. There is such a severe ignorance of God's truth, such a severe ignorance of God's word.
There was one gentleman who's involved in this being interviewed, and asked some very penetrating questions. He replied well, I'm not a theologian, so I don't know about that. Well, he ought to be enough of a theologian to know about it. I'm very concerned about efforts at morality that are not undergirded with theology, because they don't have the right motive. You hear people say all the time well, we've got to protect our children. Well, that's a reasonable thing. That is not the highest motive for what we do. My goal in proclaiming the truth is not to protect my children. That's my responsibility before God. I'll do that. I'm not trying to create a national environment that's going to somehow incubate my kids. It sounds good. But my motive is the glory of God and the honor of God. And sometimes, I am so consumed with the honor of God that I feel very comfortable praying like David did: Kill all the bad people. God, kill them all because they're dishonoring Your name, and they're wicked and they're our enemies, and for Your own glory. It's like the people in the 6th chapter of Revelation under the altar: "How long, O Lord," how long are you going to let this go on before you bring a stop to it and be glorified? If you don't know theology, you really run amok. This is a movement that could use some pretty serious injections of sound theology.
7. Number seven: It fails to understand, this movement in cultural morality, fails to understand that salt and light as indicated in Matthew 5: We are the "salt of the earth, the light of the world."
That salt and light are not moral influence, but gospel witness and the power of holy living. They always say well, we have to be salt and light, we have to be salt and light, have to be salt and light. Well, the imagery of Jesus in the sermon on the mount with regard to salt and light is the image of the shining forth of truth. That's the light. And the preservative of godly living. We are light when we proclaim the light, and manifest our good works. That's what He says. And glorify our Father who is in heaven. And we are salt when we are a preservative, because of the virtue and the godliness of our lives.
Well, number eight, and I'm just kind of giving you just a quick look at these.
8. Number eight: Cultural morality is dangerous because it has no New Testament model to follow except the Pharisees. So if you're going to try to find a New Testament pattern for this effort, you're going to end up with the Pharisees. They were the moral ones. And you know what Jesus said about them? Matthew 23:15: He said when you are through making somebody a convert to your morality, you have made him "twice as much a son of hell as yourselves." Wow. Wow. So if you're looking for a New Testament model for cultural morality, you're going to end up with Pharisees. They were legalistic. I don't know about you; I don't think I would be rejoicing to live in a Pharisaic-dominated society; dominated by the mandates of self-righteous, cruel, merciless legalists, who laid heavy burdens on people, right, and gave them no help to bear them, Jesus said. Jesus said to them one day as they picked up stones to stone an adulterous woman: Whoever is "without sin... throw the first stone." And stones started dropping. I don't know that I'd want to live in that kind of environment. There is no New Testament model for political action. Jesus didn't try to overthrow slavery; neither did Paul; neither did any of the Old Testament. Both Jesus and Paul, however, did say if you're a slave, be a good one, be a faithful one, be an honest one. Serve your master well; make wise investments; do it under the Lord, and God will reward you. And if you're in a harsh, difficult situation, you'll know His grace.
9. Number nine: This cultural morality -- and this is a very important one -- creates unholy unions in which the unbelieving and enemies of the gospel are welcomed.
You can find a lot of non-Christians to agree that we ought to have a more moral country, right? You could get the Muslims in on that one. You could certainly get the Mormons in; there's a lot of that. Get the Roman Catholics involved; you can get Jewish people involved, those who are Orthodox, committed to the Old Testament. So now what you've got, you've got an alliance like ECT, Evangelicals and Catholics Together, for the purpose of creating cultural morality. You create these unholy unions. You do exactly what 2nd Corinthians 6 says not to do: "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship" has light with darkness; what agreement has Christ with Satan? "Come out from among them and be separated." But what happens? You're trying to achieve something through the legal system or through the court system or through lobbying or through media intimidation. And in order to get your power up to a level where you can make a dent in the society, you embrace people who agree on the issue. You get with other people who are anti-abortion, anti-homosexual, anti-euthanasia, who are against pornography. And you get all together and you're going to accomplish this with these co-belligerents. And something immediately happens, and that is this: The gospel is eclipsed. Because if you proclaim the gospel in that environment, you'd blow up your organization you spent so much time and money to bring together. The gospel then would become destructive.
10. So, that leads to number ten. This effort at cultural morality leads to acceptance of inclusivism. And what I mean by that is it starts to stretch the boundaries of the kingdom of God to embrace these people who are not in Christ. And we've been through that, haven't we, over the last couple of years? You have people saying oh, you know, I -- certainly there's going to be well-intentioned Jews in heaven, and there are going to be people in the Catholic church in heaven, and there are going to be Mormons in heaven. There are going to be some -- there's some people -- and I've read you quotes from everybody, Billy Graham down through the ranks who, you know, are saying sure, there are people who are going to experience the wider mercy. This is part of -- this is part of why I wrote the little book "Why One Way?" It is so important. But if you've spent all your time working on this cultural morality, and you've dumped all your money in, and you've pulled all these people together to get the money and the power to pull off your enterprise, you can't introduce the gospel, because the gospel will undo everything you've done. As soon as you say to those people by the way, you're on your way to hell -- by the way, we really need your money and we want your energy and we want your power and your political clout and we want this and we want that -- but we also want you to know that you're not in the kingdom of God. As soon as you say that, you've just blown your organization up. So, you don't say that. And eventually, what you do is you just get this inclusive idea. And that fits wonderfully well with post modernism, which says there's no such thing as absolute truth anyway. And if there is absolute truth, we can't know it. So your truth is your truth; my truth is my truth; create these moral alliances in which you embrace people who don't believe the gospel. And Paul says if you meet anybody who gives you any other gospel than the gospel that I gave you, "let him be cursed." And he said it twice in Galatians 1. You can't do that in that environment. You've got to walk a fine line or you'll blow up your whole organization. You can't preach the gospel. The gospel gets eclipsed.
Well, there's a few more things to think about. I have time for a couple more.
11. Number 11: This effort at cultural morality becomes selective as to the sins it attacks. It becomes very selective as to the sins it attacks. I don't notice that they're really hard against pride, do you? I haven't seen a great effort in the religious right against materialism. I haven't seen a great effort even against divorce. In fact, they rarely say anything about adultery. They're really against homosexuality; that's so bizarre and abnormal. They're really against pedophilia; that's sick and abnormal. They're against killing babies; that's safe. Who can imagine doing that? They're against filth and pornography. And there's a certain satisfaction in their morality about that. But there are a lot of other things they don't talk about. At one point in America, the greatest advocate for the religious right, the national spokesman, well-known politician was, while he was developing the contract on America, involved with a woman who wasn't his wife. It's a selective thing. And let me put it down where it really needs to be. It doesn't deal with the worst sin in the world, the worst sin in the world. You say do you know what the worst sin in the world is? Of course, so do you. You know what the worst sin in the world is. You don't think you do? Yes, you do. What's the greatest commandment? What is the greatest commandment? "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind" and strength. Therefore, what's the greatest sin? Break that commandment. How're you doing? You've committed the greatest sin. You want to talk about morality? Let's talk about that. You want to talk about sin? Let's not pick out five that we can easily assault because, you know, we don't do those five. Let's talk about the fact that you have broken the greatest commandment; therefore, you've committed the greatest sin that any human being can commit, and it is the sin that sends you to eternal hell. You have failed to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind" and strength.
And as R. C. Sproul one time said, and you know you haven't kept that commandment at any time in your life for five seconds. You can't keep that commandment. It's impossible. So let's talk about that. If you want to go after America's immorality, then let's indict the whole nation for not loving God. That is not only the first and great commandment, that is the sum of the commandments. And the second commandment is to: "Love your neighbor as yourself." And you can't keep that one for five seconds. So if we're going to get moral, then let's go where we need to go, because that, wrote the apostle Paul, is "the sum," and Jesus as well, "The sum of all the law." Why do we have to pick these selective ones? If we're going to call America to morality, then let's indict them where they need to be indicted, and let's indict our own hearts where we need to be indicted, and say we've broken the first and great commandment, and we've broken the second one, and we do it all the time. And therefore, we are all condemned to hell, in desperate need of grace and forgiveness and salvation. That's the message.
12. Well, number 12: This -- cultural morality fails to understand the true nature of spiritual warfare. It fails to understand the true nature of spiritual warfare. They talk about this as spiritual warfare; this is spiritual warfare. It's not spiritual warfare. It's not spiritual warfare to get engaged in human efforts politically to change laws. What is spiritual warfare? 2nd Corinthians 10: Spiritual warfare is smashing down all human ideologies with "the truth" of God. That's spiritual warfare. And bringing captives out and bringing them into obedience to Christ, submission to the truth of God, to the word of God. The real spiritual war is simply this: You have a whole world of people who think wrong. Their thinking is damning. They think wrong about themselves; they think wrong about God; they think wrong about Christ, if they think about Him at all. They need to think differently. They need to know the truth. They need to know the gospel. They need to know the truth about themselves, the truth about God, the truth about Christ, the truth about His work, the truth about salvation, grace, forgiveness. They need to know that truth. And it's when you bring that truth to the person and you engage in the war with their mind so that you can bring the truth to bear upon wrong thinking, that's the real spiritual war. It's an ideological battle. But the real war is bringing the truth of Christ to those in error.
So what is the church to be doing? To be preaching the glorious, extensive, complete and full message of redemption in Jesus Christ, and to take that great message to these people who are fortified in these ideological fortresses, in which literally they're going to die, unless somebody smashes the walls of those lying fortifications with the truth. That's the real spiritual war. It's not a political one. It's for the minds and eternal souls of people, and it's about the truth; delivering them from error to truth.
This is important, 13: I don't think I have too many sermons with this many points.
13. This cultural morality thing is dangerous because it makes those we are commanded to lovingly reach with the gospel into the enemy, rather than the mission field. Have you noticed that? The unbelievers, the immoral people -- the pornographers and the homosexuals and the abortionists and whoever else -- become vilified and hated. They become the enemies. They aren't the enemy, folks. They're the mission field. They're the mission field. I think again about Jonah. The Ninevites were wretched people; I mean they were really wretched. They were pagans. They slaughtered their enemies, and they piled their skulls in pyramids. They damned up rivers with dead bodies. They would cover pillars in buildings with the flayed skin of a conquered ruler. That's ugly stuff; wicked, haters of God, enemies of Israel. God tells Jonah: Jonah, go preach to them. Says, ha, no chance. And he heads 2,000 miles in the opposite direction. That is a repulsive thought. Preach forgiveness to a Ninevite? Eventually, after being swallowed and vomited -- frankly, any fish would have vomited up a bitter prophet like Jonah -- he went to Nineveh and he preached; 600,000 people probably, and the whole place repented. And then he was really mad. He was. He was miserable. He was so mad he wanted to die. That's the severe danger in moralism. He was -- he was sort of a racist, Jonah was. He was a legalist. He didn't want any of these wretched, wicked Gentiles that he had grown to hate horning in on forgiveness. I always want to make sure that the sinners in my world know that I love them enough to offer them forgiveness. I don't ever want them to think that I hate them. There is a holy hatred of sin and the sinner. But Jesus could even weep over them. And so must we.
Well, a couple more.
14. Number 14: Cultural morality brings persecution and hatred of Christians for the wrong reasons. Boy, could I talk about that a long time. Of course, I could talk about almost anything a long time. But in particular, this. You know, Christians are getting vilified today in the media. They are getting persecuted for the wrong reasons; not because we're preaching the gospel. I remember one time when Georgi Vins was in this pulpit. This was in the days when Russia was still closed to Christianity, and Georgi Vins was one of the leaders in the underground church in Russia, and he was out. And he came here to our church, and he came here and he spoke, and his daughter was his interpreter. And I asked him the question. And I said, Georgi, I said, are you persecuted in Russia? Are you persecuted by the Communist regime? And he was saying how they were persecuted and imprisoned, killed, and telling the whole story. And I said, you know, do you ever -- do you ever protest this kind of treatment? Do you do anything to bring this to the attention of the people? Do you use any means that typically in America we use to raise the consciousness of people of these injustices, et cetera? And I'll never forget what he said to me. He said, you know, he said, we have determined as a church that if we are ever to suffer, it will be always and only because we have proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's right. 1st Peter 4:14 says: "If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed." People who call themselves Christians today are getting vilified by the world for their political positions, and for their animosity and hostility toward the people who are the people we're supposed to reach.
Well, two more.
15. This cultural morality reverses the divine order. It reverses the divine order. That is, it makes morality the power for salvation. The idea is if we can get a more moral America, then more people are going to believe the gospel. If we can clean up the country, that will give greater opportunity for the gospel. That's really a reverse of the divine order. Morality is not the power for salvation. Salvation is the power for morality, right? So if we want to change the nation, what do we need to be working on? The gospel.
And lastly, and I'm not going to develop this at all because I've done it in the past.
16. This effort at cultural morality fails to understand the wrath of God. It fails to understand the wrath of God. In Romans 1 it tells us that when God is angry with a nation that has turned against Him: "When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God." Remember that? When God is angry at a nation that has had the truth and spurned the truth, it says three times: "He gave them up. He gave them up. He gave them up." That's a form of God's judgment. He gave them up to sexual immorality first. He gave them up to homosexuality second. Romans 1: "Then He gave them up to a" twisted, "reprobate," useless "mind." We look at our nation. We see sexual immorality rampant. We see homosexuality rampant. And we see the reprobate mind everywhere. This is evidence of the wrath of God. Can I, by my political effort, overturn the wrath of God? I don't know what God is doing in the world. But I know what my mandate is. My mandate has to do with the gospel and the gospel alone.
I thought it approriate today to follow my recent series on Recovering Abused Bible Verses with a sermon snippet of John Macarthur where he responds to "cleverness" and "salesman" evangelism. Drink deeply . . .
My Rob Bell Exposed video on youtube has garnered a lot of criticism from those in the emergent camp. This has already been discussed extensively on this blog so I won't retread old ground. But I will zero in on one common complaint. There are many who have asked for me to bring an alternative to the table. If I don't like Nooma videos then why don't I come up with an alternative.
Well, my 5 "Trooma" videos are now ready to go. They are five short youtube videos between two and three minutes long that are meant to combine into a simple, clear, and thorough Gospel presentation. In my recent series "The Anatomy Of The Gospel" I identified five core elements of a Gospel proclamation.
1. The Holiness of God. 2. The sinfulness of man. 3. The necessity of judgment. 4. The Atoning work of Christ. 5. The human response it demands.
The five videos will each be devoted to one of those subjects in the above mentioned order. I am not deluded enough to think that they can match the production quality of the Nooma videos. But I hope you will agree that their content is thought provoking, biblically sound, and a compelling presentation of the Christian Gospel. My Danish friends Filip Ray and Jonas Bock looked after the entire technical side allowing me to devote my time to preparing the script and presenting it. Jonas has also done an outstanding job with production, editing, and Danish subtitles on a shoestring budget. Coming Monday, I look forward to presenting part 1 of this series.
As a prelude, I have included this video of Paul Washer and his diagnosis of the "modern gospel" . . .
I just saw this video sermon jam by Paul Washer called "Jesus Died". Wow - this is powerful conviction on a very intense level. Please watch this stunning video and meditate on these things! It's unlikely you'll hear anything like this anywhere else!
Jesus death for sins was an act of salvation. To receive God's gracious gift Scripture explicitly teaches that:
Truly, then, God overlooking the times of ignorance, now He strictly commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day in which He is going to judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He appointed, having given proof to all by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:30-31).
Repentance is necessary in order to receive salvation - therefore it is a necessary component of the Gospel we proclaim. This repentance from sin and turning away from it is also a turning to Christ in saving faith in order to receive salvation:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:47).
And how I kept back nothing that was profitable, but have shown you and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:20-21).
Some people claim that "faith alone" in Ephesians 2:8 negates the need to repent. But we must remember this hermeneutical rule: Scripture cannot contradict itself - therefore in understanding it rightly, it must harmonize with the rest of Scripture. As we harmonize all of Scripture we can clearly see that sometimes only faith or belief is mentioned, sometimes only repentance is mentioned, and sometimes both are mentioned (see the verses quoted in this post).
By harmonizing all of these (rather than focussing on a single verse) we can see that the salvation call is a call to turn away from sin in repentance and a turning to Christ in faith – trusting Him alone to save us. The turning to Christ (faith) necessitates a turning away from our carnal affections (repentance). Man cannot serve two masters. As Todd Friel says; "Repentance and faith are two wings of the same bird that fly us to the Savior".
This salvation is ultimately a work of God. Both repentance (Acts 11:18) and faith (Ephesians 2:8) are works of God. We cannot come to God unless the Spirit draws us (John 6:44). We are not saved by praying a prayer or walking down to the front of a church. It is God who saves. It is God who gives us a love for His law and a desire to live in holiness. It does not mean we stop sinning but it does mean we have a new relationship with sin manifest in a love for God's law and a desire to obey it:
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
Scripture is clear! Baptism won’t save you, Confirmation won’t save you, praying a prayer won’t save you. We must be born again – and it is a transforming work of God. Does a tree become an apple tree because it has apples on its branches? Or do the apples on the branches reveal what the tree always was. Does the fruit of the Holy Spirit make us a Christian. Or does the fruit of the Holy Spirit reveal that our new birth is real.
Last year the Star Trek Movie was watched by millions of people. Seeker sensitive churches worked hard and fast to develop their “Star Trek” sermon series’ and stay on the cutting edge of relevance. Relevance? Less than 10% of people went to see that movie! My brother-in-law recently told me that his home church has become so relevant that it is now totally irrelevant. Brothers and sisters, we are not relevant because we are like this sinful world. We are relevant because we are different.
Do you know the ultimate statistic? That one out of one people die!
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27).
It is a stunning irony to see trendy seeker friendly churches priding themselves on how relevant they are and never preaching the most relevant message of all. Less than ten percent of people went to see Star Trek but 100% of people will die and be judged. And that is what I mentioned in my previous posts. Here is a quick revision:
PILLAR 1 – THE HOLINESS OF GOD We learnt that God is Holy and demands perfection. We see God’s standards of perfection in His law.
PILLAR 2 – THE DEPRAVITY OF MAN We learnt that man is very sinful and God’s law serves as a mirror to show us our total wickedness.
Isaiah 64:6 tells us that even our righteous works are as filthy rags – wow! Imagine what our sin must look like!
This leads us to todays post in which we examine the third pillar:
PILLAR 3 – THE NECESSITY OF JUDGMENT The problem with sin is not only how evil it is. But Who it is done against. The bible teaches that God is good and righteous and loving and because of this He must punish us for our sin otherwise He would be violating His goodness, righteousness, and loving kindness. Do you think a judge is loving if he lets murderers, rapists, and paedophiles go free? Certainly not! How much more so that God cannot be good and let the guilty go free.
The Bible teaches us that God loves us. That he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). This leads us to Luther’s great question. How can God be both just and the justifier of sinners (Romans 3:26)? Luther, as crazy as he seemed to all the other monks, actually was the one who was asking the right question.
These are the wrong questions: 1. How can a loving God send people to hell? 2. What about people who never hear the Gospel or grow up in other religions? 3. Why does God allow suffering and evil?
Next time someone asks you those questions hold up the mirror of God’s law and show them they are asking the wrong questions. When they understand Who God is and who we are they will ask these right questions: 1. How can a good God forgive anybody? 2. How does God put up with me? 3. Why aren’t there more disasters and suffering?
Heaven and hell are real places where real people go. When we understand the Holiness of God and the depravity of man, we can start to fathom why hell is a reasonable consequence of our rebellion against God - and be mystefied as to how God can save anybody. The judgment of God should provoke us to serious self examination and motivate us to fervent evangelism.
When you are humbled and broken by God’s law. When you see the impossibility of being right with God. When you abandon all hope in your own flesh and cry out to God for mercy. Then you are ready to hear the good news, the Gospel, of Jesus Christ. Pillar 4 is all about Christ's redemptive work and that is the subject of Friday's post - so stay tuned!
All people are sinners. This is one of the strongest and most obvious evidences for the truth of the Bible. We don't teach our children to lie, covet, or be selfish. They are all born with a PHD . . . just like their parents.
As it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips." "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes." (Romans 3:10-18)
But could Jesus say something like that? Yes He did just after John 3:16:
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. (John 3:17-20)
It is very easy to detect a false gospel by how humanity is presented. False gospels tell us we are victims. The true Gospel tells us we are the criminals. It is true that there are people who are victims and we must be sensitive to that, but they still need to see that their crimes against God are far greater than the hurt they have experienced.
Now I’m going to say something that is going to shock a lot of you. There is a part of the Bible that is not inspired by the Holy Spirit! Please don’t stone me just yet – please hear me out. Do you know which part? The Ten Commandments! They weren’t inspired – they were actually engraved in stone with God’s finger! Of course I am being facetious here and I do hold to the inerrancy and divine inspiration of Scripture. But I really want to bring home the importance of God’s Law to New Testament Christians in seeing that dark night sky of our sin against God.
Some preachers in the past have tried to preach God’s law as a stick to make us behave, and others in more modern times have tried to use it as a carrot to a better life. But it was Martin Luther who realized that God’s law is not meant to be used as a stick or as a carrot – it is meant to be used as a mirror. Now mirrors can hurt, but they also help. Every day my mirror reminds me that the effects of the curse are taking their toll on me – I’m getting older and my body is wearing out. But it also sets off the alarm to do something about it. I’m not talking about plastic surgery but I am talking about our need to be saved.
A failure to understand God’s law is the reason behind the three most common objections against Christianity by the man on the street: 1. How can a loving God send people to hell? 2. What about people who never hear the Gospel or grow up in other religions? 3. Why does God allow suffering and evil?
Do you ever get asked those questions? Who here asks those questions? Do you struggle to find the answer? Would you like to be able to answer them? The answer is quite simple really – they’re all asking the wrong question! They have a wrong view of God and a wrong view of man and it causes them to ask the wrong questions.
So what’s the right question? Let me see if I can lead you to it by holding up the mirror of God’s law. The ninth commandment says you shall not lie. Who here has told a lie? The Bible says that all liars will end up in hell which usually causes us to default back to the wrong question “how can a loving God send someone to hell?” But what if we considered why lying is so offensive to God? What if we contrasted the evil of lying with the goodness of God? Can good judges ignore crime? How much more can God never ignore every time we break one of His laws? If I lie to my daughter she can do nothing to me. But if I lie to my wife I’m going to be sleeping on the sofa. If I lie to my boss he can fire me and if I lie to the government they can throw me in jail. Did you notice that it was the same crime in every scenario but when I did it against a higher authority the consequence became more and more severe. How serious is it to lie against an infinite authority? It is an infinite crime and that is why there is a hell.
The right questions to ask are: 1. How can a good God forgive anybody? 2. How does God put up with me? 3. Why aren’t there more disasters and suffering?
People who read the sermon on the mount as a list of moral guidelines miss the point completely. When Jesus tells us that lust is adultery and hatred is murder. That our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees. That we must be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. Jesus isn’t giving us pointers on how to live our best life now. He’s holding up the mirror of God’s Law to destroy all our confidence in our own righteousness leaving us destitute before God and longing for a perfect substitute.
If the Holiness of God and the depravity of man are preached rightly and understood rightly then we should be left hungering and thirsting after the perfect righteousness we need for right standing with God. We should also see that it is impossible because of our guilt. It is impossible and our guilt demands that God must judge and punish all evil.
People say that God is good and loving and this is true and it is also exactly what our problem is. If God is good and loving then he must judge us and punish us, otherwise He is violating His own character and nature.
Everyone thought Luther was crazy in his monastery but he was actually the only sane one there. His great question should be our great question – “How can God be both just and the justifier of men?
Saturday's post looked at the issue of why the prevalence of postmodernism on the "church landscape" demands that preachers be explicit and clear in what they are saying, expose evil as well as proclaiming the truth, and speak sharply about darkness so as to leave the hearer in no confusion as to what to stay away from. This "eat the fish and spit out the bones" approach is causing damage because undiscerning church goers are vulnerable to subtle heresies that lurk around in many books on the bookshelf of your "modern Christian bookstore". We don't teach children how to handle snakes, we tell them to stay right away from them. Likewise shepherds should be telling their sheep to run away at first sight of a false teaching wolf. Carter Conlon doesn't seem to have this problem . . .
There is little room for confusion with preaching like this. Don't get too comfortable in that warm and fuzzy pew. Well may we love the people where we fellowship, and so we should, but woe unto us if that impinges on our love for the precious Savior Whose Name should never be allowed to be dragged through the mud by another gospel or false teaching that's so coated in truth that we're able to swallow it . . . even a broken clock gets it right twice a day!
The great dilemna of hearing from Paul Washer. I'm left shattered, devastated, convicted, and panting for more! I just had to post some more after my previous post. We just had the wonderful priveledge of hosting brother Paul in Denmark and we all love him dearly. No doubt he is a thunderous preacher, but he is also a man who is deeply gracious and compassionate, one who weeps for the lost and thirsts for God's glory. He is just a man, a broken man, and it is wonderful to see the glory God can gain through crushed human flesh.
Some preachers think that salvation is the launch pad that allows Christians to leave it behind as they soar off into far greater things. This is a preacher who understands that it's not about going further but it is about going deeper. What subject could possibly transcend the the glorious unsearchable riches purchased on the hill of Calvary . . .
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" (Romans 10:14-15)
I've been hearing a lot of lamentation of late from my American brothers and sisters over the moral decline, political direction, holocaust of the unborn, and diluted gospel preaching that is happening there. Many of these people fear that God will bring His judgment because of these things. But what if these trends are the judgment?
I am currently reading through my John Macarthur Study Bible and just loving his commentaries on the passages. To be sure, it doesn't guarantee that Macarthur will expound every passage correctly, but you do get the precious insights of a true laborer in the Word of God who has applied consistent historical grammatical hermeneutical (whew!!) principles in Scripture interpretation. One of the things that recently struck me in the book of Exodus was Macarthur's commentaries concerning the passages that say that God hardened Pharoah's heart. Many people wrestle with the idea of personal accountability for actions living alongside a Sovereign God Who controls EVERYTHING. Macarthur suggests that the hardening of Pharoah's heart is actually the lifting of God's common grace that would otherwise restrain Pharoah's heart from manifesting the wickedness it is capable of.
Common grace is what restrains society from acting out all the lust and corruption that dwells in the human heart. It maintains a certain level of order so that the Gospel can be preached and wicked hearts regenerated (yes, Scripture overwhelmingly concludes all men to be utterly depraved and unable to do anything pleasing to God outside of the regenerating work of His Holy Spirit, see Romans 3). There are many other aspects of common grace that I'll discuss in the coming days because I believe it will help us appreciate the unbelievable goodness of God so easily taken for granted. But, back to my initial question raised regarding whether the downward cultural spiral occuring in the USA will bring God's wrath or actually is God's wrath.
The first chapter of Romans seems to indicate that the lifting of common grace is part of the judgment of God on a society that opens the floodgates of perversion.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:18-32)
Do the words "God gave them up" send a chill down your spine? Does this sound like what we're seeing today. Marshall Foster once said that the difference between an American pagan and a European pagan is that the American will go to a porn cinema in a hat and dark glasses whereas the European will wave to his friends across the street as he enters the doors of that house of perversion. Unfortunately I am no longer shocked by sin, but the lack of shame about it really does shock me as a European resident. America, America, is this where you're heading?
With Easter fast approaching it is always good to examine ourselves. And then to carry the message outside the four walls of our homes and church buildings. Here is something to chew on from Joshua Harris - another fine young reformed preacher.
Don't avoid the hard truths and realities in an effort to avoid offending somebody - you'll probably end up offending God. There are only two times we should preach the glorious Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ - in season and out of season. As you watch the deluded masses buying chocolate eggs and celebrating time off work - don't offend God with your silence this Easter!
CJ Mahaney is definitely a preacher I can listen to for hours. The man simply bleeds passion. Listen to this powerful sermon jam as CJ zeroes in on Jesus anguish in the garden and the "cup" that horrified our Lord. What was this cup? Listen close and listen good and meditate on it for a good while . . . . .
Coming Wednesday - Way of the Master Profiles - EZ
Oh LORD - please raise up preachers like Paul Washer in Denmark and Australia. Listen and hang on every word this preacher says.
There are so many "modern churches" exploring every imaginable innovation to continually capture the attention of a generation with so much ADHD you might as well call it AD. John Wesley said set yourself on fire and people will come and watch you burn.
Young preacher, old preacher - set yourself on fire. Preach as a dead man to people on death row . . . after all - Jesus Christ is Everything! What else is there????
God please give me the strength to spend and be spent in labor that bares eternal fruit . . .
