Posted by Gary on September 1, 2010
The evidence is becoming mountainous, the goal of the great majority of American Christians is America not the Kingdom of God. It appears that there is no boundary American Christians will not cross as long as it would seem to achieve the goal of “saving America”.
Take for instance the willingness of many American Christians to embrace Glenn Beck and his call for us to turn back to God. Apparently it does not matter what god Beck means when he speaks for no Christian that I have seen thus far has asked him what God he is talking about.
It is a marvel that Glenn Beck questions the Christianity of Barack Obama when he himself belongs to the cult of Mormonism which is not Christianity. Yet many Christian leaders talk with Glenn Beck on his program and never question his claim to be a Christian while he holds to the tenants of Mormonism.
WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Gary on May 13, 2010
What do you expect to hear when you go to church? Just below is a quote from a sermon entitled “Forgiveness” by Charles Spurgeon. You can know you are in the right church if it preaches the Bible which will always humble us first and show us the truth before it offers us hope.
Some of you may say, “You seem to think us a bad lot”—and so I do. Others exclaim, “How can you talk to us in this way? We are a honest, moral, and upright people.” If so, then I have no gospel to preach to you. You may go elsewhere if you will, for you may get moral sermons in scores of chapels if you want them; but I am come in my Master’s name to preach to sinners, and so I will not say a word to you Pharisees except this—By so much as you think yourself righteous and holy, by so much shall you be cast out of God’s presence at last. Your sentence will be eternal banishment from the presence of Him who hath said to every repenting sinner, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions, and will not remember thy sins.”
WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Gary on December 19, 2009
Take a moment and read these truthful, helpful thoughts from Charles Spurgeon on the Incarnation of Christ and what it can mean for you:
This joy began with the shepherds, for the angel said to them, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” Reader, shall the joy begin with you to-day? It avails you little that Christ is born, or that Christ died, unless unto you a Child is born, and for you Jesus bled. A personal interest in the birth, life, and death of Christ is the main point for each one of us…
…Jesus is the Friend of the poor, the sinful, and the unworthy. You, poor ones, need not fear to come unto Him; for He was born in a stable, and cradled in a manger. You have not worse accommodation than He had; you are not poorer than He was. Come and welcome to the poor man’s Prince, to the peasant’s Savior. Stay not back through fear of your unfitness; the shepherds came to Him in all their dishabille (casual dress). I read not that they tarried to put on their best garments; but, in the clothes in which they wrapped themselves that cold midnight, they hastened, just as they were, to the young Child’s presence. God looks not at garments, but at hearts; and accepts men when they come to Him with willing spirits, whether they be rich or poor…
…No aristocratic Christ have I to commend to you, but the Savior of the people, the Friend of publicans and sinners. Jesus is the true “poor man’s Friend;” He is “a Witness to the people, a Leader and Commander to the people.” Oh, that each one of us might truly say, “Unto me is Jesus born”! If I truly believe in Him, Christ is born unto me, and I may be as sure of it as if an angel announced it personally to me, since the Scripture assures me that, if I believe in Jesus, He is mine, and I am His, and through union with Him I become a partaker in His everlasting life, and in all that He has.
Charles Spurgeon from “The Incarnation: The Foundation of the Christian Faith”
It is one thing to declare that we believe that Christ is the Son of God and that He was born of a virgin. But do you believe that He died and rose again as the payment for sins? Even this is not enough…do you believe that He was born for you? That He died for you? That He rose again for the forgiveness of your sins? Christ is not yours until He becomes yours by an act of personal faith and reception of Him into your life. Is Christ yours?
Posted by Gary on December 16, 2009
Colossians 2:23 “These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”
It has been reported recently that Pope John Paul II engaged in the practice of self-flagellation, that is, whipping himself as a response to sin.
The report comes as the Roman Catholic Church continues its consideration of John Paul’s sainthood. It would appear that the revelation of the pope beating himself is an argument on behalf of his sainthood. (See this article on becoming a saint in Roman Catholicism).
How tragic this all is. Perhaps if John Paul had understood that sainthood is not achieved but received by the suffering and merits of Christ he would not have made himself suffer and misled the many who looked to him for truth.
Perhaps you think this all unkind but let me remind us that John Paul was the proclaimed bishop, teacher and shepherd of a billion souls and what message do we find in his actions? Punishment for his sins? This according to bishop Emory Kabongo:
“He would punish himself and in particular just before he ordained bishops and priests,”
Is this the message of the gospel, that my sins need to be punished further since Christ died for them? Was it not really finished when Jesus said, “It is finished?” (John 19:30). This practice is a tremendous revealer of the doctrine of Catholicism which at its root is human striving in addition to Christ’s work on the cross for salvation.
WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Gary on October 16, 2009
Romans 8:9-11 “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
Are you reading J.C. Ryle yet? If not, get to it. Here is a site full of his sermons. A reading group within our church recently read Ryle’s sermon entitled, “Having the Spirit”. In it he lists ten marks that can be seen in the life of the person who has the Spirit, which of course is the determiner of whether or not we have been forgiven and will spend eternity with God. I will share the ten with you in separate posts, read them and answer honestly if you have the Spirit or not.
What then are these general effects which the Spirit always produces on those who really have Him? What are the marks of His presence in the soul?
All who have the Spirit are quickened by Him, and made spiritually ALIVE.
He is called in Scripture, “The Spirit of life.” (Rom. 8:3.) “It is the Spirit,” says our Lord Jesus Christ, “who quickens.” (John 6:63.) We are all by nature dead in trespasses and sins. We have neither feeling nor interest about true religion. We have neither faith, nor hope, nor fear, nor love. Our hearts are in a state of torpor; they are compared in Scripture to a stone. We may be alive about money, learning, politics, or pleasure—but we are dead towards God.
All this is changed when the Spirit comes into the heart. He raises us from this state of death, and makes us new creatures. He awakens the conscience, and inclines the will towards God. He causes old things to pass away, and all things to become new. He gives us a new heart; He makes us put off the old man, and put on the new. He blows the trumpet in the ear of our slumbering faculties, and sends us forth to walk the world as if we were new beings.
How unlike was Lazarus shut up in the silent tomb, to Lazarus coming forth at our Lord’s command! How unlike was Jairus’ daughter lying cold on her bed amidst weeping friends, to Jairus’ daughter rising and speaking to her mother as she was accustomed to do! Just as unlike is the man in whom the Spirit dwells to what he was before the Spirit came into him.
I appeal to every thinking reader. Can he whose heart is manifestly full of everything but God–hard, cold, and insensible—can he be said to “have the Spirit”? Judge for yourself.
Posted by Gary on August 6, 2009
Galatians 6:14 “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,”
Our summer reading group is reading “Old Paths” by Bishop J.C. Ryle. What a collection of sermons! What preaching, what power. Ryle is not hard to understand and holds forth truth with love and power. This week’s sermon is entitled, “The Cross of Christ” and from it I share this excerpt as Ryle speaks about churches that do not hold forth Jesus and His death on the cross:
No Church will ever be honoured in which Christ crucified is not continually lifted up : nothing whatever can make up for the want of the cross. Without it all things may be done decently and in order; without it there may he splendid ceremonies, beautiful music, gorgeous churches, learned ministers, crowded communion tables, huge collections for the poor but without the cross no good will be done; dark hearts will not be enlightened, proud hearts will not be humbled, mourning hearts will not be comforted, fainting hearts will not be cheered.
Sermons about the Catholic Church and an apostolic ministry,—sermons about baptism and the Lord’s supper,—sermons about unity and schism,—sermons about fasts and communion,—sermons about fathers and saints,—such sermons will never make up for the absence of sermons about the cross of Christ.
They may amuse some: they will feed none. A gorgeous banqueting room, and splendid gold plate on the table, will never make up to a hungry man for the want of food. Christ crucified is God’s grand ordinance for good to men. Whenever a Church keeps back Christ crucified, or puts anything whatever in that foremost place which Christ crucified should always have, from that moment a Church ceases to be useful.
Without Christ crucified in her pulpits, a Church is little better than a cumberer of the ground, a dead carcass, a well without water, a barren fig tree, a sleeping watchman, a silent trumpet, a dumb witness, an ambassador without terms of peace, a messenger without tidings, a lighthouse without fire, a stumbling-block to weak believers, a comfort to infidels, a hot-bed for formalism, a joy to the devil, and an offence to God.
What a word for today and for all time. What is the message your church and mine holds forth to those who attend? Are we preaching Christ and Him crucified for our sins?
May God keep us from the temptation and error of preaching a gospel that is not the gospel. The gospel is not help with finances, marriage counseling, or sermon series on sex. No doubt, such messages will find listeners but where is the cross? No mention of sin, no forgiveness of sin. No cross, no salvation.
We are building churches, are we saving souls?
Posted by Gary on July 14, 2009
My brother recently purchased me a copy of Charles Spurgeon’s “The Soul Winner” which is available online here. I’m just into it but already I see it is a gem and so helpful. Spurgeon below challenges us to preach the whole counsel of God to the unsaved. How right he is and apparently faced in his day the thinking that prevails in ours which is, hold back certain truths from the unconverted because hearing them will drive them away.
Listen to Spurgeon’s advice keeping in mind that God used him to reach untold thousands of souls for Christ. Are we wiser than God?
And, do not believe, dear friends, that when you go into revival meetings, or special evangelistic services, you are to leave out the doctrines of the gospel; for you ought then to proclaim the doctrines of grace rather more than less. Teach gospel doctrines clearly, affectionately, simply, and plainly, and especially those truths which have a present and practical bearing upon man’s condition and God’s grace. Some enthusiasts would seem to have imbibed the notion that, as soon as a minister addresses the unconverted, he should deliberately contradict his usual doctrinal discourses, because it is supposed that there will be no conversions if he preaches the whole counsel of God.
It just comes to this, brethren, it is supposed that we are to conceal truth, and utter a half-falsehood, in order to save souls. We are to speak the truth to God’s people because they will not hear anything else; but we are to wheedle sinners into faith by exaggerating one part of truth, and hiding the rest until a more convenient season. This is a strange theory, and yet many endorse it. According to them, we may preach the redemption of a chosen number to God’s people, but universal redemption must be our doctrine when we speak with the outside world; we are to tell believers that salvation is all of grace, but sinners are to be spoken with as if they were to save themselves; we are to inform Christians that God the Holy Spirit alone can convert, but when we talk with the unsaved, the Holy Spirit is scarcely to be named. We have not so learned Christ. Thus others have done; let them be our beacons, and not our examples. He who sent us to win souls neither permits us to invent false-hoods, nor to suppress truth. His work can be done without such suspicious methods.
Perhaps some of you will reply, "But, still, God has blessed half-statements and wild assertions." Be not quite so sure. I venture to assert that God does not bless falsehood; He may bless the truth which is mixed up with error; but much more of blessing would have come if the preaching had been more in accordance with His own Word. I cannot admit that the Lord blesses evangelistic Jesuitism, and the suppression of truth is not too harshly named when I so describe it.
The withholding of the doctrine of the total depravity of man has wrought serious mischief to many who have listened to a certain kind of preaching. These people do not get a true healing because they do not know the disease under which they are suffering; they are never truly clothed because nothing is done towards stripping them. In many ministries, there is not enough of probing the heart and arousing the conscience by the revelation of man’s alienation from God, and by the declaration of the selfishness and the wickedness of such a state.
Men need to be told that, except divine grace shall bring them out of their enmity to God, they must eternally perish; and they must be reminded of the sovereignty of God, that He is not obliged to bring them out of this state, that He would be right and just if He left them in such a condition, that they have no merit to plead before Him, and no claims upon Him, but that if they are to be saved, it must be by grace, and by grace alone.
The preacher’s work is to throw sinners down in utter helplessness, that they may be compelled to look up to Him who alone can help them.
Posted by Gary on April 21, 2009
Acts 5:38-39 “I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or action is of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God."
Just over a week ago we disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ celebrated His victory over sin and death on Resurrection Sunday (Easter). This past Easter was near the 2000 Easter since Christ’s resurrection.
Through these 2000 years billions of people have professed faith in Jesus Christ. Of those billions, many have been willing to suffer for and even die for their faith in Him. No faith has been or is more vehemently attacked than the Christian faith. No book is more consistently assailed than the Bible and no event has more doubt cast upon it by scholarship and the media than the resurrection.
Through these 2000 years the voice of a man has been speaking, his name is Gamaliel. Gamaliel was a father in Israel and teacher of God’s law. From what the Bible says of Gamaliel, he was highly respected:
Acts 5:34 “But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law, respected by all the people…”
Saul of Tarsus who would later become the Apostle Paul was trained by this same Gamaliel:
Acts 22:3 "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today.
What is it that this highly respected Gamaliel has been saying these 2000 years? He has been telling us that Christ is who He claimed to be, the Son of God and Savior of the world.
On one particular occasion the apostles were brought before the Jewish council because they persisted to preach that Christ is Lord. The council had intention to kill the apostles (Acts 5:33) but Gamaliel stepped in and gave a word of caution. Why did Gamaliel do this? Was he convinced the apostles were telling the truth? Likely not. Yet, as one who knew God to be real and great he was not willing to dismiss the teaching of the apostles either.Gamaliel’s advice to the council prevailed and it speaks to this day:
Acts 5:38-39 “I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or action is of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God."
Gamaliel told us that if what the apostles were teaching was their own teaching or the work of the gospel a mere idea of man it would be overthrown. Well, 2000 years later has Christ and His gospel been overthrown? No, though all hell has been at war with Christ and the gospel. Gamaliel gave us wise advice, if these things were of man they would be overthrown as other works of men have been (Acts 5:36-37).
Gamaliel must be listened to twice. First, in his declaration that Christ is Lord for Christ and His gospel have not been overthrown. Secondly, Gamaliel has warned us, if the gospel is not overthrown and one opposes it they have ultimately waged an attack on God, they are fighting against God, for Christ is of God.
You and I are in one of two places today, we are sided with God through faith in His Son Jesus, or we are His enemies by rejecting Him. Christ and His gospel endure and prosper 2000 years since the resurrection what do you say to this? Gamaliel declared truth, will you heed him?
Posted by Gary on April 13, 2009
“For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.”
1 Corinthians 15:16-17
“The divinity of Christ finds it surest proof in His resurrection (Romans 1:4). Christ’s sovereignty also depends on His resurrection (Romans 14:9). Again, our justification hangs on Christ’s resurrection (Romans 4:25). Our very regeneration depends on His resurrection (1 Peter 1:3). And most certainly our ultimate resurrection rests here (Romans 8:11). The silver thread of resurrection runs through all the blessings, from regeneration onward to our eternal glory, and binds them together.”
Charles Spurgeon
“Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.”
Martin Luther
“The resurrection of our divine Lord from the dead is the cornerstone of Christian doctrine. Perhaps I might more accurately call it the keystone of the arch of Christianity, for if the fact could be disproved, the whole fabric of the gospel would fall to the ground.”
Charles Spurgeon
"Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."
Acts 17:30-31
Posted by Gary on March 17, 2009
In a recent Christian Science Monitor article entitled, “The Coming Evangelical Collapse” Michael Spencer holds forth the prediction that Evangelicalism as we know it will collapse within the next 10 years. While I am not certain about the time frame, I am in agreement with much of Spencer’s assessment and prediction. I would also say that a collapse of much of what is called Evangelicalism would be the best thing that could happen for the Christian faith in the west. Here is an excerpt from the beginning of the article:
“We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.
Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the “Protestant” 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.
This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.
Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I’m convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close.”
I will leave you to read the article for yourself but I want to pick up on something Spencer points out which is one of the reasons he believes Evangelicalism will collapse. Spencer mentions that Evangelicals have identified themselves with “the cultural war and with political conservatism.” I cannot agree more and have shared my thoughts in this post. Here is the quote from Spencer’s article:
“Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.
The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can’t articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.”
It is that last line…“We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith” that stood out. I recently started reading again the book “The Screwtape Letters” by C.S. Lewis. If you are familiar with this book you know it is comprised of a series of imagined letters between two demons, one more experienced and of higher rank who corresponds with his nephew, an underling named Wormwood.
In letter number VII Screwtape gives his nephew advice on how to bring harm to his assignment, a man who has recently become a Christian. The issue has to do with whether the underling should encourage his patient to be a pacifist or patriot in response to the recent war (I assume WW II). The demonic advice seems to be strongly at work in our day. I will leave it with you to ponder:
“Whichever he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of a partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the “Cause,” in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of the war-effort or of Pacifism.
The attitude you want to guard against is that in which temporal affairs are treated primarily as material for obedience. Once you have made the World an end, and Faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours—and the more “religious” (on those terms) the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here.”
Your affectionate uncle,
SCREWTAPE
Posted by Gary on November 17, 2008
Dear reader, you would do well to read the words I have posted below which are not my own but were preached by Charles Spurgeon in 1858 in his sermon entitled, “Particular Redemption”:
I do not believe there are more important words that could be spoken to us for they are words that will drive us to Christ the Savior. The great majority of people alive today are telling themselves (with the help of whispering lies from the devil) that God will not really follow through on His promise to punish our sins. In the end most people believe that God is going to make an exception in their case on the Day of Judgment and allow their sins to go unpunished.
“God is love” is the cry of our day (as it apparently was also in Spurgeon’s day) and without question He is. The issue is that God is not only love, He is also holy and just. God’s love led Him to provide a substitute, the Savior Jesus who received from God what sin deserved. Those who receive Christ are spared divine justice for Christ received the justice in their place. Those who reject Christ will appear before the holy God with all their sin and will receive divine justice.
Do not deceive yourself or allow yourself to be deceived by the evil one, a payment must be made for your sin. Believe today that Christ made it for you and come to Him or surely you will pay it yourself:
“The God of the Bible is not the God of some men’s imagination, Who thinks so little of sin that He passes it by without demanding any punishment for it. He is not the God of the men who imagine that our transgressions are such little things, such mere peccadilloes that the God of Heaven winks at them, and suffers them to die forgotten. No; Jehovah, Israel’s God, hath declared concerning Himself, "The Lord thy God is a jealous God." It is His own declaration, "I will by no means clear the guilty." "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."
Learn ye, my friends, to look upon God as being as severe in His justice as if He were not loving, and yet as loving as if He were not severe. His love does not diminish His justice, nor does His justice, in the least degree, make warfare upon His love. The two things are sweetly linked together in the atonement of Christ. But, mark, we can never understand the fullness of the atonement till we have first grasped the Scriptural truth of God’s immense justice.
There was never an ill word spoken, nor an ill thought conceived, nor an evil deed done, for which God will not have punishment from some one or another. He will either have satisfaction from you, or else from Christ. If you have no atonement to bring through Christ, you must for ever lie paying the debt which you never can pay, in eternal misery; for as surely as God is God, He will sooner lose His Godhead than suffer one sin to go unpunished, or one particle of rebellion unrevenged.
You may say that this character of God is cold, and stern, and severe. I cannot help what you say of it; it is nevertheless true. Such is the God of the Bible; and though we repeat it is true that He is love, it is no more true that He is love than that He is full of justice, for every good thing meets in God, and is carried to perfection, whilst love reaches to consummate loveliness, justice reaches to the sternness of inflexibility in Him. He has no bend, no warp in His character; no attribute so predominates as to cast a shadow upon the other. Love hath its full sway, and justice hath no narrower limit than His love.
Oh! then, beloved, think how great must have been the substitution of Christ, when it satisfied God for all the sins of His people.”
Posted by Gary on November 7, 2008
I must confess that I am getting a little tired of hearing Christians throw out the phrase “What would Jesus do?” (WWJD). Now of course what concern could I have with doing what Jesus would do? Well this is the problem, most Christians when they use this phrase really have only half of the real Jesus. After the recent election I heard an email read addressed to Christians that made sure we knew that we should do what Jesus would do in light of the fact that we recently elected a president who is unmatched in his commitment to infant murder.
What most of these Christians mean is that we are to walk around with a glow, speak only of the love of God and do good things for other people. Yes, Jesus brings joy, God is love and I heartily concur that we should do good deeds:
Matthew 5:16 "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
Here is the essential problem I have with most chanters of “What would Jesus do?” They are not willing to consider all that Jesus would do and did do. Most fundamentally I wonder if we are blind to the fact that what Jesus did do lead to Him being hated and put to death. Most people who hold forth WWJD mean by the phrase that we are to above all cause people to think well of Christians so that they will think well of our Savior and want to receive Him. In measure nothing wrong here but where is the rest?
What Jesus said and did led more people to hate Him than love Him. Jesus not only spoke of the love of God, He warned of the danger of hell and warned people that they should also fear God:
Matthew 10:28 "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
I do marvel that we never hear about doing and saying the things He did that led people to hate Him enough to put Him to death which by the way He said would also happen to those who would do what He did:
Matthew 10:22 "You will be hated by all because of My name…”
John 15:20 "Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you…”
Let us also not forget that John the Baptist was doing what Jesus would do and the Spirit of Jesus led Paul to write everything he did in his epistles. Yes, even the things about God having roles for men and women and condemning homosexuality. Are we not to factor these realities into our application of WWJD? Would those who speak often of WWJD acknowledge that Jesus was willing to call a political leader a fox?
Luke 13:31-32 “Just at that time some Pharisees approached, saying to Him, ‘Go away, leave here, for Herod wants to kill You.’ And He said to them, "Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach My goal.’”
How is it then that some people sense the love of Christ in His people and other people become angry at Christians and persecute them? It is a matter of God’s work in a person’s life. Those that God has chosen and called will see the beauty and love of Christ and embrace the warnings while those that God leaves to themselves will do what their sinful nature dictates, they will hate the presence of Christ in His people and rebel and persecute. When a Christian is willing to embrace doing and saying everything Jesus did, He leaves an aroma:
2 Corinthians 2:15-16 “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.”
Brethren, thank you for the reminder that we should do what Jesus would do. Let me also remind you that we are commanded to do and say all that Jesus did and at the end of the day what Jesus did and said led to Him being put to death. Is that what you mean by WWJD?
Posted by Gary on October 31, 2008
John 18:4-6;12-13 “So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, "Whom do you seek?" They answered Him, "Jesus the Nazarene." He said to them, "I am He." And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them. So when He said to them, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the ground…So the Roman cohort and the commander and the officers of the Jews, arrested Jesus and bound Him, and led Him to Annas…”
In recent weeks at our church we have been studying the doctrine of total depravity. By total depravity we mean that at the Fall of Adam, man became depraved in every facet of his being: mind, heart and soul. It is only when this doctrine is understood that Bible verses like these make sense:
Romans 3:10-12 “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."
1 Corinthians 2:14 “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”
I try to be understanding with people who grapple with the Reformed faith for I struggled with it for quite awhile myself. If we understand total depravity then we must believe that man left to himself would never turn to God, he would only react toward God according to his sinful nature and would always and only reject God. The only reason that anyone seeks God or desires Him is because God frees us from the bondage of sin and draws us to Him:
John 8:34-36 “Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
John 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
Still I find that people grapple with what we mean when we speak of total depravity and so perhaps it is just best to point to it at work. In the first verses listed above from John 18 we see the scene of the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus is with His disciples on the night He will be betrayed. We are told that a large crowd led by Judas comes to arrest Jesus. But before the arrest Jesus asks the crowd whom they are seeking. When they respond, “Jesus of Nazareth” Jesus replies, “I am” (the “he” included in English translations is not found in the original Greek).
Upon hearing Jesus say “I am” the crowd falls backward to the ground. No what is this? Well first when we consider the extreme importance of “I am” (Exodus 3:14) we know that Jesus is declaring that He is God. As God, Jesus is making it clear to the mob that they are not going to take Him but that He is deciding He will go with them. This event is a tremendous show of power in which Jesus makes it clear that He is in control and that His life will not be taken from Him but that He will lay it down of His own initiative (John 10:17-18).
Now here is an amazing thing, Jesus levels a Roman cohort (estimated between 500-1000 soldiers) and an untold number of religious leaders and others. At His word they fall down to the ground. What would one think would be the response to such a show of power? Wouldn’t it seem that perhaps they would rethink what they were doing? Wouldn’t one imagine fear in response to this power? But what do we find? When Jesus allows them to get up they arrest him, lead him to judgment and we must assume that many found their way to the cross to watch and support the crucifixion of Jesus.
Do you have trouble understanding total depravity? You shouldn’t, just look at it in action. What the Fall brought about for us is a spiritual condition that will reject God even when He is standing in front of you, indentifies Himself as God and knocks you to the ground by His power. The response of fallen man is still to get up and rebel against our holy Creator and God. The Bible tells us that mankind will still refuse to repent even as God sends His judgment on the earth at the end of all things:
Revelation 16:9-11 “Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory. Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened; and they gnawed their tongues because of pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds.”
Apart from God’s grace, left to yourself, you would have done the same thing the mob did in the garden of Gethsemane and I would have also. Immediately the ranks begin to thin, not many will embrace the doctrine of total depravity for very few want to acknowledge that this is how evil they are. You and I are not able to come to God unless He enables us to do so because we are totally depraved.
John 6:65 “He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."
