Watch and Be Not Decieved

"For Christ did not send me (Paul) to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void."
--1 Cor 1:17

I read this and could not help to see an indictment on many preachers, teachers, and spiritual evangelical leaders in todays pulpits. I want to exhort everyone watch out who you let speak into your life, by means of teachers. "Many false prophets will come in those days and tell the people exactly what their itching ears want to hear". There are many out there who through their humanistic worldview can draw a crowd, through a egocentric message gain hearers, and claim God's voice to the masses and yet they have totally voided the power of the cross of Christ for them and their hearers.

"Likewise urge the young men to be sensible; in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us." -- Titus 2:6-8

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." -- 1 John 4:1

Examine what you hear in the light of the Truth of God's Word. At it's core, is what a leader saying man centered, where the chief goal is the happiness of man; or is it God centered where the chief goal is exaltation of the majestic glory of God?

Matt

Humanism in "Christianity"

A little while ago I posted a few thoughts regarding how egocentric we are as people and the fact that most of us live with a Humanistic worldview. Basically, the chief end of man is the happiness of man. Without rehashing everything I said previously, I came across a paragraph in a book I am reading, "The Knowledge of the Holy" by A.W. Tozer, that fleshes out some of what I have been wrestling with. It is crazy, once you take a minute and really grasp this fact, you begin to realize just how much we really do have humanistic worldviews and view much of Christianity through this lens. Anyway, here is the quote:

"Too many missionary appeals are based upon the fancied frustration of Almighty God. An effective speaker can easily excite the pity in his hearers, not only for the heathen but for the God who has tried so hard and so long to save them and has failed for want of support (sarcasm). I fear that thousands of younger persons enter Christian service from no higher motive than to help deliver God from the embarrassing situation His love has gotten Him into and His limited abilities seem unable to get Him out of. Add to this a certain degree of commendable idealism and a fair amount of compassion for the underprivileged and you have the true drive behind much Christian activity today."

Jesus did not die on the cross hoping that some people would see what He did and choose to give Him permission to justify them. He died on the cross and effectually purchased and justified His church (Romans 8:28-30 ; Ephesians 5:25-33). He doesn't need our help to rescue the power of His blood from going to waste in the sinners life. No, His blood and resurrection accomplished the task it set out to do for His bride and He demands that His bride follow His commands, savor His Grace, pursue His Holiness and say to others - 'Behold the Lamb of God!' - and then beg God, in His sovereignty and by His Word, to break and transform the sinner.

The point of this is that evangelism and service to others is not about giving someone else hope for happiness either here in this life or in the life to come. If our compassion for others lies in simply seeing the "underprivileged" served and have their chance at a life of joy in Christ....than that is humanism. That says that the chief end of man is for mans joy/happiness -- either here or in the life to come. We should seek to serve and evangelize in a way that points to the Glory and Majesty of God through His Word so that it breaks the sinner and allow God to sovereignly transform a life that seeks His joy and Glory, not ours.

It is not about us!

I want to share something with you that has been on my heart and mind recently. It has to do with the apathetic nature of christianity, as a whole, that seems to be prevalent throughout our country. Do not get me wrong, I believe God is doing amazing things in this country through people that are fully committed to Him. But as I look around and I see the kind of "christianity" that is being pumped out of much of the popular evangelical circles, I just see a lifeless, narcissistic, religion that is extremely humanistic in nature. What do I mean by this? Basically, narcissism is birthed out of a humanisitic worldview. Humanism centers around man. It says that the chief end of man is the happiness of man. Therefore narcissism means that you are egotistic and self-infatuated with YOURSELF. What I see is a "christianity" that focuses on the qualities or characteristics of a life given to Jesus as they appeal to man in an unregenerate state. What I mean is that we focus on (which aren't all bad) love, happiness, peace, success, monetary blessings, joy, blessedness either in this life OR the life to come. We so focus on the joy of heaven as it appeals to man. (I know I am probably confusing you but bear with me) Basically, I believe most people do not believe they are going to hell. Much less deserve to go to hell. So we have unregenerate man walking around, not believing he's going to hell, pursuing the things, mentioned above, on this earth in a narcissistic way through his Humanist worldview to satisfy his insatiable thirst for self satisfaction. Then we tell him hey, you may not get that stuff now, but let me tell you a way that you can get it in heaven. All these things you are pursuing are in heaven. Through Jesus! We use Jesus and His gift of Grace as a way to appeal to mans fleshly desires. Then we have this view and anticipation of heaven as a place awaiting us where there is happiness, peace, and eternal joy (and there is!!). But do you see how a humanistic worldview has crept into the way we think about Christ? Therefore we live our lives in the "security" of a decision or prayer we prayed one time and look forward to an eternal life that is full of all the things we want and desire here. Maybe I am not making sense to you, but I have really been challenged as to what I believe and live for. Let me explain: As I write this, as you read this, we deserve to burst into flames and burn in hell where the worm does not die!! We deserve this every breathing moment of our life. From the moment we were born until this moment we deserve damnation forever and now more than ever before. This is why salvation can only come from the Father through faith in Jesus. My eternal destiny is not contingent on a decision I made. It is not contingent on "Jesus living in my heart as my personal saviour". My brothers, our salvation is based on the ETERNAL GRACE of GOD!!!!!! His Grace draws you, His Grace saves you, His Grace keeps you!!! While I live in this flesh, ever deserving of eternal wrath and judgment, I am kept by the loving and saving and sovereign grace of the Father through Jesus Christ. This is why we talk about living for holiness. Because if we see the Grace of God in our lives as Paul did....we too would beat our bodies and make them our slaves! Not sure if this makes sense, hopefully we can get into this some at Bible Study!! See you all there!!

My exhortation: "Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their distress and to keep oneself undefiled (unspotted) by the world" James 1:27

Listen to this sermon: http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=10180222445

May the Lord paste Eternity on your eyeballs!!

DO NOT CONFORM

"We who call ourselves Christians are supposed to be a people apart. We claim to have repudiated the wisdom of this world and adopted the wisdom of the cross as the guide of our lives. We have thrown in our lot with that One who while He lived on earth was the most unadjusted of the sons of men. He would not be integrated into society. He stood above it and condemned it by withdrawing from it even while dying for it. Die for it He would, but surrender to it He would not....A new moral power will flow back into the church when we stop preaching social adjustment and begin to preach social repudiation and cross carrying. Modern Christians hope to save the world by being like it, but it will never work. The Church's power over the world springs out of her unlikeness to it, never from her integration into it."
- A.W. Tozer

The world could not get along with the most Holy man to ever walk on this earth. They killed Jesus. Why on earth can they get along with us!!?

The Cross

"The Cross does not give us a minor shift or two with regard to a few of our ethical and moral and religious values....The Cross radically disrupts the very center and citadel of your life from self to Christ. If the Cross has not done this, then we are not Christians!"

Glory of God

Wanted to share with you something that I have been thinking about: I am reading through the Gospel of John and I came across a verse that really challenged me and I want to pass it along. As I stated the other day, everything on this earth, in hell and in heaven displays the Glory of God. EVERYTHING displays and is given for His Glory. Your marriage and your children are given to you to show you His Glory. His Glory and Majesty are displayed for us to see in the pages of the Holy Scriptures. His creation displays His Glory. Our eternal salvation or damnation displays His complete Grace, His complete Mercy, and His complete Justice. All Glory is to be given to Him. Anyway, you get the point. So why bring it up again? Because this is what we are to Preach, Teach, and impress on our wives and children! The Glory of His Majesty! We are to take the Word of God present and place it continually before our family (both the Word and in our lives) and then point to Jesus and say as John the Baptist did, "BEHOLD, THE LAMB OF GOD!!". (This is the verse that has challenged me.) Whether we are preaching, teaching, or serving our families, our church, or our communities, if we do not point to Jesus and cry, "Behold, the Lamb of God!!" than we are doing them no service. Men, we must die twice every single day in our lives, Die to ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Him, then we die to ourselves and wash our wives and children in the Word of God....then point to Jesus and say "Behold, the Lamb of God" and beg the Lord to open the eyes of our wives and children to see Him as He is and follow Him. Men, salvation is of the Lord, but you MUST point to Him!

Men, everything, our lives, our desires, our jobs, our little hobbies, our time, our energy, our emotions...everything must not be put at the feet of the cross. It must be put ON the cross. You cannot die at the foot of the cross, you must hang on it to die.

"Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples; and he looked upon Jesus as He walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!". And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus" --- John 1:35-37

Men, my prayer is that when it is all said and done, my wife and children would hear me preach the Word and see me point to Him and then follow Jesus!