We Are Sanctified in the Gospel

One thing that has become increasingly clear over the years is that one of the most important things to remember in the Christian walk is the need to remember that I am just a sinner saved by grace.  I don't mean that every day we need to hear it and believe it to be saved but that we constantly need to keep reminding ourselves of what has happened to us.

The way I usually relate this to my congregation is that we must preach the gospel to ourselves everyday.  At the very least we must train ourselves to keep it before us and make it part of the way we think about things.  Not only does this cause us to keep a humble and thankful heart before our Lord but it also helps us maintain the proper attitude in which we can interact with others in Christian love.

Matthew 18 is a chapter in which this is taught to us by the Lord.  He begins with the reminder of how only through childlike humility and dependence can we enter and live effectively in the Kingdom of God.  Then he teaches us of the necessity of humility and a forgiving spirit when it comes to living with those in the church and exercising church discipline.  Finally he ends with a parable that shows us how to be patient and forgiving with others or to do all the things he has just taught us.

It is the story of the unjust servant who was forgiven a debt that could never be paid yet was impatient and unloving towards those who had but a relatively small debt to him.  We see it in the Lord's word to him as he calls him to account for the way he treated his fellow servant.  Mat 18:32  Then his master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Mat 18:33  And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?'  

What he is telling the wicked servant is that he should live his life in light of the mercy and love shown to him by his Lord.  A lot of our problems with relationships arise because we think we deserve something we don't.  By reminding ourselves that it is only by the grace of God that we are not in Hell at this moment and so every breath we take is undeserved, we are reminded of the greatness of our God and seek to please him by showing the same love to others.  When we make ourselves the center of our lives we immediately come into conflict with everyone else who lives the same way.

The New Litmus Test

With the events last week concerning the owner of Chick-fil-A we see some of the results of the spiritual climate in our country.  For merely taking the biblical stance that marriage is only between a man and woman he is being ridiculed and told by some cities that his business is no longer welcomed.  Christians need to understand that the homosexual agenda has every intention of making this the new litmus test in society as to whether you can “buy and sell”; much like the Romans did when they required all citizens to utter the words “Caesar is Lord” to expose who was a Christian or not. 

Right after this came out in the news I heard some in the national media refer to him as a bigot and a hater thus demonstrating their inability for rational thought.  But remember, he merely stated a biblical position.  It is obvious that the left doesn’t want any position but their own stated in the public forum and are even trying to enforce it through legislature.  As someone rightly stated, “They have two tenets, free speech and shut up”.  Everyone is allowed to speak freely except those who disagree with them.

The ramifications are chilling when one will think back to Nazi Germany when all opposition was silenced and we are seeing America and western culture take the same road.  Already in Canada they are passing laws that makes saying anything negative about the homosexual lifestyle a hate crime.  Mind you, not doing physical harm but merely disagreeing with them.

I fear that many Christians are too used to having it easy in America and will be unwilling to take a stand in these areas.  Perhaps we might try to justify it by thinking that this isn’t about Christ and the gospel so why make a big deal over it.  But my point is that it is being forced on us and deliberately so and to compromise by accepting homosexuality as not a sin is to deny the clear teaching of Scripture.

Just because someone comes along after thousands of years and says that they believe the sky is all of the sudden red doesn’t mean that it is no longer blue.  Jesus stated very clearly that marriage is between a man and a woman and it was pronounced so at creation.  Those that say he didn’t address homosexuality then are just showing their refusal to think rationally let alone respect other opinions.  Remember, the Bible also teaches that any sexual intercourse outside of marriage is sinful so same sex intercourse can never take place in an acceptable way before God.

But isn’t this what happens to generations that are told that the Genesis account isn’t to be taken literally; that there was no Adam and Eve because there is no God and therefore no Law?  Any way you slice it all this is an attack on the authority of God’s Word and therefore God himself and Christianity.

I know there are those who through the years have disagreed with pastors who try to show how important it is to study the Bible, to be faithful to all the church services when possible thinking that we make too much over all this.  But we see the result of not taking God and his Word seriously and therefore not being careful to teach your children the Bible and to make the preaching of God’s Word a big part of their life.  Just as bad, they then send their children to the public schools to be taught the exact opposite from what God’s Word teaches and make little to no effort to combat this. 

The Bible alone gives man the proper worldview and to remove yourself from its influence is to condemn yourself and the culture to secular humanism which always implodes on itself.  It is like the law of physics that states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  You can’t deny what the Bible says and you can’t live like it isn’t important without serious consequences.  It is a Christian’s calling to state clearly what the Bible teaches about any subject come what may.  I fear many times Christians are silent because they don’t know what the Bible even says about many subjects.  To be silent dishonors God’s Word and eventually will bring down a society.  I offer America as a prime example.

Just As I Am?

Sometimes it is good to keep not only a biblical perspective on things but also a historical one as well.  In the early church under the Roman Empire all Christians understood that one of their primary missions was evangelization.  This meant they were to go to their neighbor and the entire world and tell them that unless they repent of their sin and trust wholly on Christ they would parish in their sins, period; no other options were available.

The first half of this has been forgotten by many professing to be the church today in America.  We love to tell people to “add” Christ to their life so that they can be everything God wants them to be; kind of like the U. S. Army adds, “Be all you can be”.  But we are failing to make it clear to them that Christ doesn’t just “accept them as they are”.  Perhaps we sang “Just As I Am” too many times growing up so that we have come to think that Christ is offering to save us regardless of how we are living.  He just wants us to include him in our life so we can find fulfillment.  But I doubt the writer of that song meant it that way.  I would suppose she meant that we can offer nothing of our own works when we come to Christ.  It is his work alone that saves; like another song says, “Nothing in my hand I bring; simply to thy cross I cling”. 

The fact of the matter is that it is precisely because we are filthy sinners that God will not accept us but, instead, will cast us from his presence forever unless our sins are forgiven in Christ.  The early Christians understood this and so they called on the ancient pagans to turn from their wickedness, to repent, to turn away from it and follow after Christ.  In case we have forgotten, this didn’t go over too well.  For their willingness to point out that people were ruined sinners who were offensive to God and must turn from those sins they were slaughtered by the millions.  But the flip side was that people were saved by the millions.  This came by repentance and faith, not just faith.  Their converts likewise turned from lives given over to doing their will and started to live for their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

My point is then that we need to understand that nothing has changed for us today.  But Satan has learned a thing or two over the years and so he has gotten our culture to start redefining our sin as sickness, disorders, phobias and the such.  But just as evil he is getting some to say that certain activities the Bible defines as sin are not really sinful at all but to be celebrated.  And so one of the agendas of the homosexuals is to say that there is nothing wrong with being a homosexual and they would like it to be unlawful to even suggest it is sinful. 

What bothers me the most though is that many in the church are falling prey to this mindset and are welcoming those who are living in open sin into the churches as if God loves them and will accept them for who they are (read: how he has made them).  But we need to be very careful here.  If we start redefining sin we lose any reason to call on people to repent which in turn relinquishes any need for a cross to trust in. 

I think we have too many running around today trying to cuddle up to the world instead of standing apart from them calling them to leave one kingdom and enter another kingdom.  What the homosexual and all sinners need to hear is that unless they repent of all they are and trust in Christ as both their Lord and Savior God will not accept them as they are but, in fact, his wrath rests on them at this very moment.  This is how each one of us was converted if, in fact, we are converted.  We are all equally born ruined sinners who must be saved the same way.

This will bring their wrath and persecution but God never said to expect anything else.  But let us be encouraged it will also bring about converts and I don’t read of any other way to make this happen.

There Is More Than One Way To Get Drunk

Eph 5:18  “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit”.  As I was considering this verse the thought came to me that it is generally easier for Christians to make the easy and obvious applications from the Bible without meditating long enough to make the more difficult applications. 

Even on the surface this verse is doing more than just telling us not to get drunk.  It is also telling us why drunkenness is sinful.  We are to be under the control of the Holy Spirit by growing in the Word of God so that we might lead God-honoring lives.  Being controlled by the flesh defeats the whole purpose God saved us for and this is made even worse when we are under the influence of alcohol or drugs.  Paul says elsewhere that it is our duty to bring our bodies under control lest we waste our lives for the wrong reasons, 1Co 9:27  But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. 

But like I said, that is the easy and obvious application and there have been plenty of Christians who have taken this verse so seriously that they won’t drink at all.  And that is all well and good as long as we don’t stop there and think that this is all Paul is getting at.  If we move from this example to a more general application I think we find out that even the teetotalers can easily miss the overall point of how to apply this principle. 

The overall principle to follow here is to be under the influence of the Holy Spirit through God’s Word all the time and not to let anything else influence the way we think and live.  For example, I might not have ever even tasted alcohol or taken any illegal drugs but if I am so weak in the Word and have so little discernment that I lap up every book I read or movie I see or I let the culture around me influence my thinking as much or more than the Bible, I am guilty of walking “under the influence” of this world rather than my Lord. 

There are plenty of Christians who would never think to get drunk on alcohol but believe everything they read or hear as long as it claims to be Christian and many times it can be clearly unbiblical.  They spend countless hours in front of the television or getting most of their info off the internet or lapping up the latest pop psychology from their therapist but haven’t been careful to grow strong in the Faith and so cannot discern many times truth from error.  The point I am making is that this is just as dishonoring to the Lord as someone staggering home from the bar at 2:00 in the morning.  Consider what the Bible has to say about being in darkness and living in this world stumbling around because we will not live by the Light: Rom. 13:12  The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Eph 5:8  for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

1Th_5:5  For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.

1Jn_1:6  If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

There is more than one way to stagger around like someone who isn’t thinking clearly.  Yes, it might be because you have drunk too much but it might also be because you have drunk too much of this world’s vain philosophies that cause us to live apart from the light God has already given us to guide us on our way.  The lost do not need Christians who think like they do and live for the same things and for the same reasons they do but they do need to see Christians who are walking in the Light and not stumbling around in the same darkness they are.  Christians should live and think as differently from the lost as light is from darkness.

Lord help us not to be drunk on false teachings but to think clearly by the Word of God and judge all things in its light.  

When is it Better to Be Dead?

Mat 18:6  “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Mat 18:7  Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!”

As I was preparing a message from Matthew 18 I was struck by the words of Jesus here.  He is pronouncing woe on any and all who cause others to sin.  While vs. 7 seems to speak specifically to the lost world, vs. 6 has no such distinction and seems to include anyone, Christian or not.  He certainly is saying that it is a very serious sin to not just sin yourself but to cause his saints to sin will bring even greater judgment. 

But what was impressed on me was Christ’s view of life itself.  It is clear that as far as he was concerned life was about doing the will of the Father which is the opposite of sin.  In fact, this is why God made this earth and gives mankind life; to serve him in all things to his ultimate glory.  By saying that those who tempt others to live in the rebellion of putting their own will first are better off dead, Christ seems to take a radically different approach to life than many do today. 

Historically I believe that Christians understood that life was a gift from God in which we were to be good stewards of everything we have for his glory; much like a slave’s primary purpose was to serve his master.  Thus to live for yourself defeats the purpose you were created for.  For many today life is seen as something that we are to pursue for our own happiness and well-being and God’s primary purpose is to help us be happy and fulfilled.  Some have labeled this, “Your Best Life Now”. 

But notice that Jesus is saying not only that we are here for the Lord first and foremost but if we aren’t fulfilling that purpose but are instead being an influence the other way, we don’t deserve to be alive at all!  Far from human life being the most important thing--God’s honor is.  And if we don’t live for that purpose we are better off dead.  And not only that, it is better to die a violent death than to continue to live! 

He isn’t telling Christians to kill people of course but he is saying that if life isn’t lived for God we don’t deserve it and don’t be surprised if he takes it away from you as he was doing in 1 Cor. 11. 

One final question might be how is it better to be dead rather than alive in this situation?  Perhaps one answer might be that for a Christian it is better to have life cut short lest we do more harm than good in the Kingdom of God and for the lost person it is better to have life cut short lest their judgment be worse by being allowed to commit more and more sin against the Lord.

Not Everything is an Issue

We read in Matthew 17:27 "However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself."  Many commentators use this passage to address paying civil taxes but actually this tax has nothing to do with paying taxes to the state but that isn't to say there aren't some applications to make.  Actually the tax here began back in Moses' day.  All adult men paid a tax to help support the Tabernacle construction.  There is no biblical mandate for this to continue after the first tax but by Jesus' day it was the custom to pay it for the Temple upkeep.

What is important to understand is that this tax was even then voluntary but socially assumed.  It was as much a cultural custom as it was religious, but for sure it was not commanded in the Bible.  The point I want to make here is that Jesus pays it not because God's Word expressly commands him to but because he didn't wish to offend those around him who he was trying to minister to.

I suppose that the majority of people and even Christians tend to live more by the customs of the culture around them than they do the Bible many times.  Our greater danger is usually to compromise with the world more than standing firm in the Word of God regardless of what people think of us.  This is a problem for sure.  But some tend to the other extreme.  Many of us stand against any and everything that isn't expressly commanded in Scripture and see it as compromising if we participate in some custom or activity that perhaps an unsaved person or culture came up with, not because the Bible forbids it but because it isn't found in the Bible.  And so they find a fight on every hill and a reason to condemn just about any and everything simply because it can't be found in the Bible.  Many times they spend a lot of time telling other Christians that they ought not be doing this or that and are mysteriously absent when such things are being done by other saints; I suppose in "protest".

It seems Jesus offers us some moderation here.  He was not under any obligation to participate in the unbiblical customs but he does so and he tells his disciples to do so as to not needlessly offend the world for a reason that had nothing to do with him or the gospel.  Paying the tax simply was neither here nor there; it didn't make a difference one way or the other so why make a big deal over it.

Yes, we are to live by the commands of Scripture and if it means living differently from those around us then our love for the Lord causes us to gladly be considered odd by the world.  But when the Bible doesn't deal with something or considers it a non issue then I believe it is best for us to not make an issue over it as well.  There are plenty of hills to take a stand on without offending people for no good reason.  May God give us wisdom to be able to tell the difference.

Mutton or Pets

Rom 8:35-37 says,  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?   As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."   No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  At the risk of jumping into the middle of Paul's thought in this chapter, let me make a few comments.


One thing verse 35 is teaching us is that trials and tribulation won't cause God's elect to become nonelect or to fall from grace.  God's grace is too powerful for difficulty to cause sheep to become goats again.  Verse 36 not only explains one reason why but by inference it teaches us that these trials are purposely sent by the Lord to fulfill his purposes in us.  There are a lot of Churches that seem to miss one or both of these truths.  Many believe you can move in and out of salvation primarily because they see salvation as something we have a part in securing.  And then even more believe that good things come from God and all unpleasant things come from Satan.


But what is vs. 36 saying?  For the purposes of God we endure all sorts of tribulation and he regards us as sheep to be sacrificed, not pets to be pampered.  The early saints knew when they became Christians that it was a call to suffering, not a call to an easier life, nor was it the end of their life.  They weren't going to get caught up to glory but were going to go through some fires before that happened.  Much of our discontentment, complaining and bitterness today is a result of the fact that we don't regard ourselves as sheep to be slaughtered.  Vs. 36 is telling us that we have been marked out for these things; this is what being a Christian is all about!  

To make matters worse for many of us Jesus says in Luk 6:22  "Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Luk 6:23  Rejoice in that day, and leap (lambs) for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.  Is he being unreasonable or not?  

Notice it says we are being killed all the day long.  If one is martyred it can happen only once.  And while in a sense it can speak of the church in general I think it goes beyond that.  We have two things spoken of here, the suffering of this life (the groanings of earlier in the chapter) and suffering for being a Christian.  In all these things we are to triumph.  Every day, all day we must endure hardships for Christ because that is what we are called to do.  Verse 37 answers the question of whether these things will do us harm with a resounded NO because these things are actually part of how we serve him; they certainly aren’t going to destroy us.  They are not signs he is against us and they will not cause a sheep to become a goat.

We tend to say that we would gladly suffer for Christ if asked to and even think that that would be easier than suffering the normal trials of life.  But why then do we live in such a way so as not to bring suffering upon ourselves?  If you think that you would gladly suffer for Christ, live in such a way that your friends and family tire of being around you because you must speak of Christ and must live for him and not let them dishonor him without a challenge.  You don’t have to be a jerk, just live for Christ.  But we don’t because suffering for Jesus is a hard thing.  What makes it hard in one sense is because it is completely up to us as to whether we will or not.  We must decide whether we will openly confess to be a Christian or whether we will say something or challenge something or give an answer that will not go over well.  But we have no choice when God sends affliction and so we are forced to deal with submission in that instance.  But when it comes to suffering as a Christian one must consciously decide to take up that cross and we choose to do it less rather than more. 

But I think this explains what is going on here.  We don’t wake up on the morning considering ourselves as sheep for the slaughter but princes and princesses to be pampered; we see ourselves as show ponies, not beef cows!  And that attitude causes us to be conquered not to conquer these things.  Sheep that conquer is just one more paradox of scripture.   Naturally it just doesn’t happen. 

 Vs. 37 tells us that we aren't to muddle our way through the difficulties of life just barely coping and somehow ending up in Heaven.  The Lord sends these things to us that we might demonstrate to this world his glorious person and power.  We are to be more than conquerors or super conquerors which is what the word means in the original. We are to by his might openly be victorious over suffering.  They cause us to trust him more and to enjoy him more.  When he takes away a prized possession and you learn that Christ is better than the lost thing, your love is enhanced where before it might have been overshadowed by your devotion to the other object.  We are super conquerors also because we are lifelong victors who daily must die to self.

But this only happens if we consider ourselves to be sheep marked out for slaughter and not household pets to be coddled and petted.