The Sleeping Church.

The Sleeping Church.

As I observe what is happening around us socially and politically, I see a culture that has abandoned God and has drifted into the high seas of moral relativism. My take on our culture is that we have lost our moorings, and our moral foundation has crumbled. It is a scary thing to be adrift without a sail. We as a society are drifting along the dark seas without a sail or compass.

How did we get here? And what are the consequences? As I read the first chapter of the book of Romans, three times the Apostle Paul uses the term "God gave them up." For any society or kingdom the road to destruction is always the same; ruin comes slowly and gradually. When society moves away from the rule of law, when society moves away from God as the sovereign King, that society starts a downward spiral and drift into the black hole of corruption.

From a theological perspective when God gives an individual or society over to their own ways it is an indictment of God's ultimate wrath...it is the surest sign that God has turned His back and removed His restraining grace which allows for evil and depravity to run rampant.

How did we get to where we are at? That question can't be answered with one answer, but I’ll provide at least one answer that I believe is undeniable. The Church of Jesus Christ went to sleep, and as she was sleeping the Prince of the power of the air was busy doing his work.




While the Church was asleep, the ungodly, the secularist, the depraved mind of man was busy implementing his poisonous world view that has permeated all of our society. Whenever the Church of Jesus Christ pulls out of society and ceases to be light and salt there is left a moral vacuum which will always be filled with secular,  humanistic, and Godless thought.

It would be an interesting study to look at all of the reasons why the Church withdrew and became non-reactive to societal issues and ideologies. It would be an interesting study to look at how and why the church became in some respects relativistic and accommodating to the culture...to the point that there was not much difference between the church and the secular culture.

But I think that we can all agree to some extant that the church did withdraw from society in the early part of the twentieth-century, and the results have been devastating.

Whenever the Church starts to be  a voice again, and  starts to proclaim absolute truth again, she can then expect to be derided and told to go back inside the walls of her buildings...the culture says, "you can be a church just keep your religious stuff private...don't bring it out in the public square.

The answer must be that the  church wakes out of her slumber. The church must start to become what she was called to be: light, salt, ambassadors for Christ, healers, ministers of grace, and boldly proclaim the gospel to a dark and sinful culture.

Wherefore `he' saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee Ephesians 5:14.

Performance based Christianity.

Do you think Christians avoid Jesus? What I'm getting at is that rule keeping and legalism is not only practiced before salvation, but also after salvation. We know that our salvation is a work of God and most of us know Ephesians 2:8-9 by heart. We grew up hearing that text of Scripture from our Sunday School days and of course our Awana days.

But when it comes to our daily Christian living, we suddenly become rule keepers or legalistic. In the matter of our personal spiritual growth and maturing into Christlikeness ---we suppose that it is all up to us. We fall into the rut of performance based Christianity. We develop the mind set that says, "I can be right with God if I keep all the rules and do all the right things." Now, you tell me how that is different than how any other religion works? Is not this truly avoiding Jesus? We take our attention off the cross and we place our performance at the center of our lives--- the Christian life then becomes all about us and less about Jesus.

We get the Christian life all messed up. We start out coming humbly to the cross. Our sin is ever before us--- our cry is the same as the Publican in the Temple when he cried out, "God be merciful to me a sinner." And somewhere along the way, the Christian life becomes all about us, our performance, how much we are doing, and how well we are doing it-----and sad to say the Evangelical Church Culture feeds this insatiable appetite of the flesh---to be self focused, instead of Christ focused.

Michael Horton tells us that, "the pinpoint setting of the human heart is the religion of self-salvation. It really is an alluring religion for it feeds the pride of the human heart. It elevates man to a place of the devils and demons. It sets man on the throne, as he can now sit in judgement upon those who have not made the grade.

But God hates pride and legalism. The law keeper maintains that his/her ongoing relationship with God is based on his/her ability to do good. The law keeper can't be free. The bondage of the performance based Christian life leads to despair and darkness.

The good news is that the believer can live in grace, move in grace, and breath grace every day of his life. Grace sets us free, and Jesus came to set His people free. The famous line from William Temple is apropos, he says, " I like to remind myself and others that the only thing you contribute to your salvation and to your sanctification is the sin that makes them necessary."|

The follower of Christ loves His Lord. Sin to the follower of Christ is detestable, for he knows for sin his Savior died. Grace is never abused by the child of God who has tasted and experienced God's loving, merciful, and great salvation.

Christian, our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness---yes, we strive to put sin out of our lives, yes we pursue holiness, but we live in the truth that our acceptance by God is in Christ and not our performance.

Deviations we all got' Em!

      

A deviation you say, what does that have to do with the price of eggs? Well, really nothing, but the other day my wife was telling me that at her place of employment which is in the pharmaceutical field a deviation in your work is a real big deal. Merriam Websters gives this definition for deviation: "an action, behavior, or condition that is different from what is usual or expected;" The Free Dictionary gives us this definition: "The act of deviating or turning aside, an abnormality; a departure."

OK, where are you going with this? It got me thinking about the Christian life, about my life, about how we humans live. Now you might be saying, man, this guy thinks too much! Hold on, let me make my point, and I promise it won't be long or philosophical.

In a very real sense before we came to Christ and before we were reconciled to God; when we were dead in our trespasses and sins our whole existence was a deviation. We were as sheep going astray (Isa. 53:6). We were constantly sinning which is the Greek word hamartia, and is rooted in the notion of missing the mark  (Rom.3:23).

God is a God of justice, perfection, and holiness. God will accept nothing other than perfection and a complete adherence to his laws and His statutes without one deviation.

I asked my wife what happens when you get a deviation and she told me that you need to do a corrective action. A corrective action is  laying out the steps as to how the deviation occurred and the steps taken so that the deviation will not be repeated again in the future.

As we look at our lives and see that we're really one big deviation, we are filled with praise that God the Father of all mercy and grace laid out a corrective action in order to deal with our messed-up lives. Now keep in mind our disobedience to God can't be remedied  by our drawing up our own corrective action: no penance, no church attendance, no sacraments will do, no, only God's provision will cover the enormity of our missing the mark.

God's corrective action is found in Isaiah 53:6

All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.


Notice the last clause of this verse, The LORD laid on Him the deviations (sins) of us all.


Oh what a savior, oh what a God who takes our sins, our missing the mark, our deviations and places them on His Son. The forgiven person is cleared of all offenses against a holy God, by what God has done in providing His corrective action plan…. The death, burial, and resurrection of  His Son Jesus Christ, the real corrective action plan for man's sin.

Buckets of cold water.

                

         

                                              
The other day a friend said something that gave me a moment of pause, he said, "what people need to be saved from is God." My first reaction was emotional; saved from God, what are you talking about! God is the one who saves us and gives us eternal life!

As I thought about the statement my theological training and discipline kicked in and poured a bucket of cold water on my initial emotional response. Now, before I go any further, let me note by way of observation how many people would continue to argue, debate, or reason from their original emotional response? How many have been conditioned to believe that their "gut feelings" are some how inerrant or are sanctioned by God as truth because they have a spark of divinity within them? How many believe that truth is subjective and arises from within?

Those with a Christian worldview know that truth is not subjective; they know that truth is outside of themselves. Those who view the bible as that truth will always allow the bible to inform and shape their natural logic and reasoning, now notice, I said that those who believe the bible will allow the bible to shape and mold their thinking, they do not suspend their logic and thinking, no, they have their logic and thinking sanctified and informed by the truth of God's word.

How then did God's truth inform my logic and reasoning when my friend said "we need to be saved from God? The first splash of cold water came from Psalm 7:11 "God is an honest judge. He is angry with the wicked every day.

Another bucket of cold water came from Psalm 82:8. "Rise up, O God, and judge the earth, for all the nations belong to you." And then a monsoon came from Hebrews 10:31, "It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Then finally, the mother of all tsunamis came from the lips of Jesus himself, And anyone who believes in God's Son has eternal life,  and anyone who doesn't obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God's angry judgment" (John 3:36).

So, what my friend said about man's need to be saved from God was theologically spot-on. Those who are in unbelief are already under the righteous wrath of the judge of the entire world. Man is separated from God due to his sin; God's righteous judgment sits upon the head of all who are in unbelief.

Now the bible presents us with a wonderful theological word, it called reconciliation---Jesus is the bridge that reunites man with God, Jesus is the one who bore His Father's righteous judgment for those who believe unto salvation.

Believers allow your logic and reasoning to be molded and shaped by the inerrant word of God---and may many cold buckets of water be poured upon your faulty emotional reactions.

Christian, will you defend the meaning of the cross?

The teachings of the Bible have always come under attack, and they will continue to come under attack as long as there is breath in man. Why has the Bible been the target of attack throughout its long history? Because what it says so goes against the depraved nature of man.

To be told that you are a sinner and that you can't help yourself causes the pride in man to shout out, "no not I, I'm basically a good person, I'm not perfect, but I'm basically a good guy." To be told that your religion and your good works are like filthy rags will do nothing less than cause the sinner to rise up in righteous indignation and exclaim, "away with your message of condemnation and judgement, I live the best I can, no, not perfect, but I'm a pretty good person."

Which brings me to what I would like to speak on today--- The bible's teaching on penal substitionary atonement. This core teaching of the gospel has suffered attack throughout the long history of the bible and it is being attacked today by many modern humanistic men who have an aversion to the meaning of the cross of Christ. Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology does a fine job in explaining penal substitution when he notes, "Christ’s death was “penal” in that he bore a penalty when he died. His death was also a “substitution” in that he was a substitute for us when he died.

There have been several theories put forth that sees humanity's main problem differently, and each theory explains how Christ's death solves that problem. Pay attention how two of these theories completely by-pass the thought or idea of Christ dying to appease God the Father for our/your sin,

Mark Dever in a cover story for (Christianity Today, 2006), outlines three theories in a very succinct way:

1.) The first set of theories argues that humanity's main problem is that we are trapped and oppressed by spiritual forces beyond our control. Christ's death, then, is seen as a ransom that frees us from captivity. His death and resurrection defeats the evil spiritual forces. These theories are generally summarized under the heading of ransom theory or Christus Victor (Christ the Victor).

2.)  The second set of theories deals with the subjective need of all people to know God's love for us. These theories emphasize that Christ's death on the Cross demonstrates God's love so dramatically that we are convinced of his love and are now able to share it with others. This set includes the moral-influence theory of Abelard, among others.

Dever then gives us the biblical description of penal substitutionary atonement in a little more detail than the above description by Grudem.

3.) A third set of theories assumes that our main problem is God's righteous wrath against us for our sinfulness, which puts us in danger of eternal punishment. These theories argue that Christ's perfect sacrifice for our sins is necessary to satisfy God's righteousness. Christ's death bore a divine penalty that we deserved. By taking our penalty upon himself, God satisfied his own correct and good wrath against us. Theories in this set, such as the satisfaction theory and the penal-substitution theory, emphasize how Christ represents us.

Dever goes on to note that the attack has been mounted against the last set of theories, namely the substitutionary atonement theory, he notes:

The new wave of criticism has targeted this last set of theories, especially the view of Christ as a penal substitute—a theory long central for most Protestant groups, especially evangelicals. The criticism follows a path laid by others throughout history, from Abelard to Socinus to Schleiermacher to C. H. Dodd.

My purpose of today's article was to make believer's aware of the attack and always be ready to give an answer to every man that asks the reason of the hope that you have within you. The cross will always come under attack, my charge to the body of Christ is, stand strong and proclaim with the loudest voice that your religion is the cross of Christ, your faith and hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

I love this quote by Martin Luther:

“If I profess, with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity. Where the battle rages the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle-field besides is mere flight and disgrace to him if he flinches at that one point.”

Should Christians be speaking out against the evil in their culture?

How should a Christian respond to the evil and wickedness in his culture? What should the body of Christ be doing about the corruption that surrounds her? Should pastors, bible teachers, Christian authors, and those on the vanguard of Christian thought and  Christian worldview be speaking out?

I'm of the firm conviction that the body of Christ should "speak out" against evil and the trends of our culture. But how do we "speak out?" Can we run the risk of just becoming moral crusaders? Can we get side-tracked with being a moral voice and totally miss the gospel? Is the gospel simply raising our voices against the evil that surrounds us?

That's a lot of questions and they are there to get you to think. Questions are good, they probe and cause us to stop and evaluate our motives and our course of action. Are we following the biblical blue print? Are we missing the mark of what the true calling of the Church is? So, take the time and ask yourself these question and form a solid Christian worldview concerning your mission and your response to the cultural madness that surrounds you every day.

One book that had the greatest impact on my Christian life was Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, by Eric Metaxas. Bonhoeffer, lived in Hitler's Nazi Germany where he was forced to take a stand and speak out against the evils of Nazism. Bonhoeffer like many of his peers in the ministry could have stayed safely tucked away in his Church or academic studies. Bonhoeffer could have rationalized and compromised like many of his contemporaries did, and say that his job was to be a pastor and not to get entangled with the things of this life.

The majority by far in the state run Lutheran Church accepted the Nazization of the Church. One of Bonhoeffer's close friends and fellow Lutheran Pastors, Martin Niemoller, who at first decided to stay silent and accept the Nazization of the Church; and rationalize away the evil that was perpetrated upon his fellow countrymen by the Nazi machine wrote this poem about his error of staying silent:

In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."


The question for me is how big is the gospel? Is the gospel just mans eternal salvation? Or as citizens of God's Kingdom are we under compulsion to speak for the oppressed, denounce evil and sin, and be true lights in this dark sin-sick world.

I'm sure most of my readers are familiar with the old maxim, " The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing;" by our very nature as being: salt, light, sons of righteousness, children of the Kingdom, and representatives of our Father's holiness, how can we as good men keep silent in the face of evil? How can we not speak out against the evil trends in our society that are ripping the very fabric or our culture apart?

Our Savior and master teacher taught us to be wise as serpents, but harmless as doves---this is the advice that I would give to any believer who is bold enough to stand on the rooftop and denounce sin, evil and oppression. How one speaks out, how one accomplishes the mission may be different, but my plea to the body of Christ is not to go to sleep and say it's not my job.

1 Corinthians 16:13-14
 Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.

The believer must guard his thought life at all costs.

I was thinking how important it is for the follower of Jesus Christ to guard and protect his thought life. We should all be aware that our actions are preceded with a thought, an idea, a whisper in the ear. Our thought life is secret, it is veiled to those around us, which leaves open for us to be one thing on the outside all the while being someone else on the inside.

The Bible is filled with admonishments, instruction, and charges for the believer to be aware of his thought life. That old sage Solomon gave us great advice when he told us "Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life" (N.L.T. Proverbs 4:23). Keep in mind that the Hebrew thought of heart included the whole of the inner life: mind, emotions, and the will. It is not wise to separate the inner workings of our life, for they are intertwined and the parts make up the whole.

The follower of Jesus while being given a new nature (2 Cor. 5:17), still carries with him the old man with all of his dirt and baggage. David in Psalm 139:23-24 asks God to look deep into his inner life and shine the light of his holiness, listen to what David asks God to do, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way."

When the Christian understands just how deeply sin has affected him---his emotions, will, and thought life he is better equipped then to put up the proper guards to deal with sins devastating consequences. Keep in mind that the role of sanctification has a duel role; the believer is to work out his own salvation (our part) while God is working in us to do his good pleasure (God's part) Philippians 2:13.

One of the old saints made the theological mistake of seeing the fall as only affecting the will of man while not touching the mind of man. St. Augustine did not see the fall as having a total affect on man---he maintained that the nature of man remained untouched by the fall, and is all that man needs is God's grace to help him along. In other words man is not totally depraved, just semi depraved---our theological understanding of the fall has deep and far reaching consequences into all of our theology.

 When the Reformation came to Europe initiated by John Wycliffe, John Huss, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Huldrych Swingli they brought with them the theological idea that the fall affected every part of the whole. They called this teaching the total depravity of man; that is man's will, emotions, and thinking (logic) have all been touched by the fall.

What this means for the follower of Christ is a due diligence in paying attention to his thought life---as God  tells us in  1 Peter1:13 "gird up the lions of you mind, " the free online dictionary tells us that this phrase "gird up"comes from the Bible, where girding up your loins meant to tie up long, loose clothes so that they were more practical when you were working or travailing.

There is truly a "battle for the mind" of the believer. The believer must strive will all diligence to live a life where his inner life is congruent with his actions or the way he lives on a daily basis. We must strive to have our inner thought life sanctified by the washing of water by the word of truth see John 17:17. "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."