"I love my church" – Oh, really?

John F. McArthur concludes his book “Faith Works – the Gospel according to the Apostles” (a) with the following quote:

“Today’s ‘Christianity’ is in a state of disarray and decay, and the condition is deteriorating year by year. The truth of God’s Word has been watered down and compromised to reach a common denominator that will appeal to and accommodate the largest number of participants. The result is a hybrid Christianity which is essentially man-centered, materialistic and worldly, and shamefully dishonouring to the Lord Jesus Christ. This shameful degeneracy is due in large part to the erroneous gospel that is presented by many today around the world”

The slogan “I love my church” fits exactly into this context with its emphasis on “my church”. The focus of love and dedication is no longer Christ the Lord, but “my” ‘Christian’ club that allows me to live out my lifestyle without offending me. My club offers me professional music, theatre, entertaining speakers, positive thinking messages and a community where I belong and can receive recognition and praise. My club offers me all this and the promise that since I have accepted Christ as Saviour, God loves me, makes no moral demands on me, He is looking out for my best interests, will prosper me  and gives me the assurance of heaven awaiting me when I die. Is it no wonder that “I love my church”?

And that part where Christ is Lord? Well maybe that will happen to some members over time, first and foremost we are seeker friendly – measuring the success of our leadership by the number of members in our club and the number of participants and new visitors on a Sunday.

To be successful at this we do not want to offend anyone by taking about sin, the need to repent, the Judgement that is to come. We just separate sanctification out of the equation – and we meet our obligations in this regard by offering courses for those who are more interested in that type of stuff.

If the Gospel has been watered down in this way, then we are viewing a system where the Grace of God is pedalled for profit. (2 Corinthians 2:17)

Where are the days that the Holy Spirit was present in Meetings to “convict the world of its sin, and of God's righteousness, and of the coming judgment.” (John 16:8) If He is allowed in our meetings today, His role is been mainly reduced to giving us goose bumps. In some special situations He may even come and heal someone of some body pain.

“I love my church” tends to ignore the scripture that warns us against such thinking: “For whenever each of you says, “I am of Paulus”, and another says, “I am of Apollo”, behold, are you not carnal?” (1 Corinthians 3:4) – but then maybe the shoe fits?

Jesus Christ is head of the Church – He said “I will build my Church” (Matthew 16:18)

Jesus Christ is Lord! Today and now and for all eternity. His Church are those that listen to His Voice and obey Him!

 We are called to love Him 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' (Matthew 22:37)

I conclude with a quote from Tozer (b):

“Now what is to accept Christ? Well, let me define it for you a little more closely. Acceptance of Christ is to form an attachment to the person of Christ; to the person of Jesus Christ. It's not to fall in love with a tender-faced Jesus. It is to realize that this tender-faced Jesus is also Lord and God! That God has made Him Lord over all things and Head of the Church and that He has the keys of death and hell and that He will sit upon the throne judging all mankind and that God has given all power into His hand - this mighty Lord Jesus! It's to form an attachment to Him that is revolutionary, reversing and transforming the life. If your Christian conversion did not reverse the direction of your life; if it did not transform it then you're not converted at all, you are simply a victim of the 'accept Jesus' heresy!

For me to accept Christ means that I am to accept Him in every part of my being and that I am to form an attachment to Him, an emotional, an intellectual, a volitional attachment which is complete, leaving no part of the life unaffected. If He cannot control you, He cannot save you. And if He cannot control all of you, He cannot control any of you!”

Let us depart from lukewarmness as we heed the Words of our Lord:

“Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near.  Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.”
(Revelation 22:10 - 11)

Sources:

(a)     http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Works-Gospel-According-Apostles/dp/0849908418
(b)     http://www.neve-family.com/books/tozer/AcceptChrist-1.html

Is homosexuality a sin?

Much has been written about homosexuality in recent months, and in response to a post of mine on Facebook an old school friend wrote the following comment “Homosexuality is not a sin!” I promised that I would take the time to write a reply, and here it is …

Sin, why should we be concerned about sin? and why should a non-Christian, someone who does not believe in God, care? Well, we all have a conscience and we do care about what is right and wrong. So I assume that my friend is expressing that he does not think that homosexuality is wrong. By using the word “sin”, I assume, that he adopts my Christian terminology to communicate his position more effectively to me.

The decision of what is right and what is wrong is so often temporal, influenced by a mired of factors from culture, media, language, education and generation. An example relevant to homosexuality is how, due to cultural pressure, the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the main professional organization of psychiatrists in America, in the early 1970's revised their DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), to remove the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder. THE DSM, which codifies psychiatric conditions and is used worldwide as a guide for diagnosing disorders, made this change at the time through a majority vote of 58%.

The message is clear, with enough activist activity and “authoritative influence”, we can secure a majority and change our definition of what behaviour is wrong and what is right. This is of course a hugely positive aspect of western societies that has led to positive changes in attitudes to slavery, child labour, racism and other forms of discrimination. But it at the same time shows how temporal and malleable our understanding of right and wrong can be.

The Jewish Bible describes how mankind was tempted and deceived with the sentence “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5)

How desirable is it to us to be able to determine what is wrong and what is right? Does it give us the feeling of power and of control over our lives and situations? The feeling that we are like God?

When we use the word sin though, we should be meaning that which is not right in God’s eyes, i.e. from His perspective. The Apostle Paul makes it clear in Romans 3: 23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.

This understanding somehow stunts our “godlike” activity to want to define certain actions as sin and others not. We have all sinned and in this state we deserve the eternal condemnation of separation from God, as the path we have chosen for ourselves.

Looking at the context of Romans 3:23 though, we make an amazing discovery:

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. (Romans 3:21-25a)

God so loved the people in the world that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to take sins of all people upon Himself and pay the penalty for this sin himself. In return we have to be able to acknowledge our sinful state and be willing to accept this sacrifice. Through our faith in Him, God clothes us with His Righteousness, which allows us to once again enter into an eternal relationship with Him.

God once again responds by cleansing us from our sins, putting His Spirit in us and through this, the transformation begins where we start to get and submit to His perspective on what is right and what is wrong.

So, my dear friend, the real issue is not about what you or I may believe to be right or wrong, but what the state of our relationship before our God is! We will all one day appear before the Judgement Seat and will be judged according to His standard of perfect righteousness. Either we will, through our faith in His sacrifice, be able to stand in His Gift of Righteousness to us, or we will stand in our own unrighteousness. Having failed to attain His standard we will have to accept the penalty for our decisions made on this earth, that were so often motivated by our desires to be in control of our own lives and by our rebellious refusal to submit to His Lordship in our lives!

The deeper issues of the heart darkened by sin are therefore the real issues. From them we see the manifestations of lust, adultery, divorce, immorality, selfishness, hate and greed to name but a few.

I know that I stand guilty of all these charges and I know why, but I also know that I have been given Grace to accept the Gift of Righteousness and through that entry into an eternal Kingdom, characterised by love, peace and joy. I pray that you too, may be given the divine Grace to make this decision!

We have enjoyed some good times in the past, but I look more forward to spending time with you in that kind of Eternity!

Your friend,

Mark