August 24th, 2008, Musical Selections

MORNING WORSHIP

Prelude The Water is Wide

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Offertory

Hymn of Commitment

Doxology

Ye who confess Christ’s holy name, to God give praise and glory!
Ye who the Father’s pow’r proclaim, to God give praise and glory!
All idols underfoot be trod, the Lord is God! The Lord is God!
To God all praise and glory! Amen! (TUNE: MIT FREUDEN ZART)

Postlude Allegro

VESPER WORSHIP

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Hymn of Commitment

Doxology
Lord, crown our faith’s endeavor with beauty and with grace,
till, clothed in light forever, we see Thee face to face;
a joy no language measures; a fountain brimming o’er;
an endless flow of pleasures; an ocean without shore. Amen. (TUNE: ANGEL’S STORY)

Postlude O God Beyond All Praising

Please refer to our website for the Sermon texts, Synopsis, and Order of Worship

Judges 6:33-40

“So the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; and he blew a trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called together to follow him” - Judges 6:34.
Audio Sermon: Judges 6:33-40

The verb “came upon” is often translated “clothed.” The design of this verse and many others (Judg. 3:10; I Chron. 12:18; II Chron. 24:20) is to reveal God’s endowment when He clothes Himself with the flesh of His chosen ones. The Holy Spirit was incarnated in the life of Gideon so that Gideon’s actions were a virtual reality of God’s actions for that season.

God has the authority and the ability to possess His vessels. When He exercises this faculty, the one claimed by God has this treasure of God “in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves” (II Cor. 4:7). God’s employment of His earthen vessel is legitimate and advantageous for the building of His kingdom. He clothes Himself with His beloved in order for them (us!) to perform fully in their arenas of inadequacy (II Cor. 3:5).

Jesus said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain” (Jn. 15:16). The Holy Spirit is the One coming upon you so that your fruit-bearing is birthed and remains. As an anonymous hymnist penned, “I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew, He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me; it was not I that found, o Savior true; no, I was found of Thee.”

Samson broke faith with God. He was arrogant, impatient, jealous, provoking, selfish and unrighteous (a living contradiction of I Cor. 13:4-7!). Nonetheless, after his eyes were gouged out and he was cast into a Gaza prison bound in bronze chains to serve out the balance of his life as a prison-grinder, he sought the Lord’s counsel: “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God…” (Judg. 16:28).

When the Holy Spirit makes you His clothing, you have received the pearl of great price. As Paul says, “How shall the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?” (II Cor. 3:8). God gifts His clothed ones with a superlative orbit of godliness, an awareness of the vigor of Christ’s grace and the fearlessness to embrace the “good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). Your speech, your decisions, your thoughts and your movements become His - you resemble Jesus!

The pity is that you continue to refuse to believe that the Holy Spirit does do in your day even as He did during the time of the Judges. He still clothes Himself with the flesh of His beloved. Jesus says, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (Jn. 14:26). Jesus promises, but you just refuse to trust His promises.

Embrace Christ’s promises. Pray for your Holy Spirit to clothe Himself with you. Commit to prepare yourself to be His clothing to a people without His witness.

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO!

Judges 6:25-32

“Will you contend for Baal, or will you deliver him?” - Judges 6:31.
Audio Sermon: Judges 6:25-32

The worldly gods of the Hebrews included Ashtoreth, Asherah, Asherim, Baal, Chemosh, Milcom and Molech. They were visible, popular with those around them and serving them brought the Hebrews into fellowship with those God commanded them to avoid.

Just as Gideon’s family and people exampled, today’s churchmen constantly sacrifice the greater for the lesser, the spiritual for the material. They sacrifice all to avoid the disfavor of those around them and to secure the favor of a society having little regard for them. He conforms his life to societal prejudices, weaknesses and vices. He glosses over the truth to avoid any point of offence and does not hesitate to barter his professed relationship with Christ for a few moments of popularity.

When Christians pursue their worldly idols with more vigor than they do their God, they may discover that they have been given over by God to their worldly pursuits. Scores of church-goers honor the Lord and yet serve the world. You can know if you are serving your idols rather than the God of Scripture by examining the evidences you give to the world of your love for Christ. Perhaps these diagnostic questions will assist:

* What offends you most: Christ’s name not being lifted up or people not recognizing your name
* What concerns you most: Perishing souls or your financial portfolio
* What is your greatest joy: Your children making “A”s, you receiving a promotion at work or a person you barely know mortifying one sin

Be mindful; God is as pleased with worldly-minded Christians as He is with devils in heaven. While man spares no cost in serving his earthly gods, God spares no cost in tearing those He loves from their earthly gods.

God’s gospel is designed for idolaters, servants of the world and earthly-minded churchmen. In this eternal curriculum known as the Bible, a person is called to attend to the ways of God. Idols of every stripe are identified, punishments are explained and the benefits of fleeing from idol worship are exampled. Just read with fullness this account concerning Gideon’s nation.

You cannot afford to be given over to worldly idols. Though there may come a time when God will draw you to Himself, you cannot imagine the pain and scarring accompanying your service to the idols of this present darkness. The ripples flowing from pursuing worldliness at the expense of growing in holiness devastate families, churches, communities and nations. You petition God to not lead you into temptation, but to deliver you from evil because you have an awareness of your susceptibility to idol worship and the effect of leaving the God you love (Mt. 6:13).

“Just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper” (Ro. 1:28).

SOLI DEO GLORIA!

August 17th, 2008, Musical Selections

MORNING WORSHIP

Prelude There is a Fountain

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Offertory Hymn of Commitment

Doxology

Lord, the words Thy lips are telling
are the perfect verity;
of Thine high eternal dwelling
holiness shall inmate be.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Pure is all that lives with Thee. Amen. (TUNE: REGENT SQUARE)

Postlude Ode to Joy

VESPER WORSHIP

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

As in its thirst a fainting hart
To water brooks doth flee,
So pants my longing soul, O God,
That I may come to Thee

My soul for God, the living God,
Is thirsting; shall I near
Before the face of God approach
And in His sight appear?

My tears have unto me been food
Both in the night and day,
While unto me continu’lly,
“Where is your God?” they say.

Poured out within me is my soul
When this I think upon;
How often with the eager throng
I rev’rently had gone.

How to the house of God I went
With voice of joy and praiase,
Yea, with the multitude that kept
The solemn holy days

O why, my soul, art thou bowed down?
Why so discouraged be?
Hope now in God!
I’ll praise Him still!
My help, my God is He! (TUNE: ST. ANNE)

Hymn of Commitment

Doxology
Now blessed be the Lord our God,
the God of Israel,
for He alone does wondrous works
in glory that excel.
And bless-ed be His glorious name
to all eternity.
The whole earth let His glory fill;
amen, so let it be. Amen. (TUNE: FOREST GREEN)

Postlude Let All the World in Every Corner Sin

Please refer to our website for the Sermon texts, Synopsis, and Order of Worship

Judges 6:22-24

“Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and named it The Lord is Peace” - Judges 6:24.
Audio Sermon: Judges 6:22-24

The peace of God was not natural to Gideon and is not even to the Christian in this day. He captures the fullness of Christ’s peace by aborting his natural appetite for self-absorption and by resting in Christ’s strength. He is so thoroughly influenced by the promises of Scripture that he commits his emotional intellect to trusting his God.

Mature saints experience a holy calm even in the midst of life’s lightning and thunder. They are anxious for nothing because their strength is unaffected by moth, rust or thieves (Mt. 6:19ff). Their religion is not merely social and they insulate themselves from spiritual stranglers by being thankfully aware of the nearness of God’s Spirit.

The characteristic mantra of heavenly Christianity is “not of the world.” (Jn. 15:19). God’s martyrs never look to the creature for what can only be found in the Creator. Though their souls attempt to cleave to this world’s dust, they refuse to exchange the land flowing with milk and honey for the parched desert. They know both biblically and experientially that the ark of God’s covenant goes before and divides the turbulent waters so that they pass over on safe ground.

Have you ceased living situationally? Have you surrendered the satanic yoke of circumstantial living? A story is told of a conversation between a martyr and his executioner as the executioner was leading him to the stake so that he might be burned for practicing his Christianity. The martyr said, “Put your hand on my heart and now place your other hand on your own heart. Which one beats the hardest and which is the most troubled?”

Being Transformed Christians (as opposed to those who are Christian in name only!) enjoy an uncommon measure of the presence of their Christ. Worldliness and non-eternal matters do not have the strength to rob those growing in the grace and knowledge of their Lord Jesus Christ (II Pe. 3:18).

During the season of Pharaoh’s chariots pressing down upon the Israelites standing on the edge of the Red Sea, Moses cried out to his kinsmen saying, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent” (Ex. 14:13f.).

A Christian’s life is devoted to contrasting the offerings of your Lord and the offerings of your anxious peaceless world. The world’s peace is nothing more than stylish fig leaves. It is a disquieting veneer having the facade of calm waters but a tidal wave underlies its misleading calmness. You know that anything you receive from the world costs the world little yet may demand of you everything.

“Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Ps. 46:10; Phil. 4:6f., respectively).

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO!

Judges 6:11-21

“O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian” - Judges 6:13.
Audio Sermon: Judges 6:11-21

Christians are prone to blame their God for abandoning them when the truth of the matter is that they have abandoned their God. They have spent the flowers of their days grooming and saddling the warhorses of darkness that are presently pirating their peace. Their armistice with sin robs them of the Lord’s presence and invites worldly Midianites to steal the liberty one can only enjoy in Christ Jesus.

God encourages your warfare against the schemes of the evil one and his guerrilla terrorists (Eph. 6:10-18). The Spirit of Christ gifts you with a mind capable of expansive vistas of righteousness so that you cannot bear the slightest vacancy of godliness. He wants you to synthesize all you read in His Bible with the totality of your experiences and circumstances so you will discover His love for you and His unrivaled presence in your life.

Those living in the Spirit rather than the flesh are colonizers of righteousness refusing to live in fear of Midianite invasions (Gal. 5:16f.). They are reformational revolutionaries taking an active part in God’s Councils of Holy War so that His beloved might be shielded against the arrows of the sons of malevolence. Spirit-led saints ride upon holy horses whose thundering hooves leap into godless breaches setting hearts aflame for the one true God who alone “is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (Eph. 3:20).

Scores of Christians forfeit dependence upon the Christ of Scripture preferring instead their own charm and genius. The studied efforts of biblical saints display dependence upon the One from whom they drew their first breath and they are heavenly-powered to face the Lord’s enemies with scriptural sword in hand. They water the tree of holy liberty with their own life-blood so that the commonwealth of Christ’s Church might capture sustained victories.

The guillotine of vice can only be dulled by those saints serving as godly Samsons in their marketplaces and wise Solomons in their counsel chambers. Their prayer is to die as God’s bond-servants, Jesus’ heirs, the Holy Spirit’s temples and the church’s martyrs. They live every day as though life is at its sunset, for they have taken to heart the resolution of Robert Murray M’Cheyne: “I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I have come to die.”

Jesus must come to have an even more exalted position in your life than the position Thomas Jefferson opined President Washington had in the lives of his nation: “One man outweighs them all in influence over the people who have supported his judgment against their own and that of their representatives. Republicanism must lie on its oars, resign the vessel to its pilot, and themselves to the course he thinks best for them.”

If you ever begin to accuse God of abandoning you, look most closely at your own apostasy. Have you left the vineyard of righteousness, the fig tree of godliness or the encampment of holiness? Are you solacing in the tranquility of experiencing the constraining love of Christ? (II Cor. 5:14). Is your watchfulness invested in promoting the well-being of Christ’s Church? Are you taking the position of the Redeemer’s courtier who gazes upon the countenance of his Prince desiring only the graciousness of His smile? Are you pleased with the cadence of Christ in your attitude toward the difficulties you have brought upon yourself by your own rebellion?

“God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices” (Ecc. 7:29).

SOLI DEO GLORIA!

August 10th, 2008, Musical Selections

MORNING WORSHIP

Prelude Adagio

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Offertory Hymn of Commitment

Doxology

LORD, hear my prayers;
heed Thou my cry and tears;
A stranger here I pass as all before.
O spare me that I may recover strength
Before I go away and be no more. (TUNE: EVENTIDE)

Postlude Diademata

VESPER WORSHIP

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

God is our refuge and our strength,
In straits a present aid;
And, therefore, tho’ the earth remove
We will not be afraid;
Tho’ hills amidst the seas be cast,
Tho’ troubled waters roar,
Yea, tho’ the swelling billows shake
The mountains on the shore.

A river is whose streams make glad
The city of our God,
The holy place wherein the LORD
Most High has His abode
Yea, God is in the midst of her;
Unmoved she stands for aye;
And God will surely grant her help
Before the break of day.

O come, behold what wondrous works
Have by the LORD been wrought;
Come, see what desolations great
He on the earth has brought.
To utmost ends of all the earth
Wars into peace He turns;
The bow He breaks, the spear He cuts,
In fire the chariot burns.

Be still and know that I am God;
Among the nations I
Will be exalted; I on earth
Will be exalted high.
The LORD of hosts is on our side.
Our safety to secure;
The God of Jacob is for us
A refuge strong and sure. (TUNE: ELLACOMBE)

Hymn of Commitment

Doxology
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever! Amen!

Postlude All Glory Be to Thee, Most High

Please refer to our website for the Sermon texts, Synopsis, and Order of Worship

Judges 6:1-10

“Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord: and the Lord gave them into the hands of Midian seven years” - Judges 6:1.
Audio Sermon: Judges 6:1-10

God expects Christians to live as only Christians can live. He expects every Christian to imitate Christ in the choices he makes, the people with whom he associates and the places he frequents. God knows that you can fulfill His expectations because He has gifted you the Holy Spirit who abides in you and is always with you (Jn. 14:17).

When you acknowledge the foulness of a life lived out of biblical bounds, you begin the adventure of bringing “forth fruit in keeping with repentance” (Mt. 3:8). Your “being transformed” life is the most moving evidence of your commitment to Christ.

Your challenge is to remove evil. In order to attack an enemy, you must first identify the enemy and the enemy in the lives of all men is evil. Evil is the absence of good - the absence of God. It makes a man cold and dark.

Augustine defined evil as disordered love or a disordered will. For that very reason, all saved sinners pray, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Mt. 6:13). Sinful desires are the forge of evil (I Jn. 2:15ff.). Jesus said to the lame man, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse may befall you” (Jn. 5:14).

Perhaps a man is never more evil than when he denies his evilness. Christians know from experience that the children of the devil serve him more fully and consistently than the best of saints serve Christ. Unsaved sinners appear more consistent in their wicked walks than saved sinners in their saintly walks.

Man freely chooses to sin - God chooses the consequences of man’s choices. God multiplied Eve’s pain in childbirth, and the ground was cursed because of Adam’s selfish choice (Gen. 3:16-19). You must wrestle with sin, not Scripture. Challenge sinful desires, not God’s holy word.

The devil’s martyrs are those selling “so great a salvation” for thirty pieces of silver (Heb. 2:3). They purchase their damnation for a cheap price and make expensive sacrifices so that they might rush to hell. These evildoers are cultural terrorists devastating your land. Their societal engineering is forcing entire communities to careen toward the abyss of God’s displeasure.

Every evil requires a host and the more accommodating the host, the greater the evil. You cannot afford to host even the slightest evil.

God wants you to remove the evil of your deeds from His sight immediately. God’s eyes are too pure to look upon evil (Hab. 1:13). Perhaps on this day you will take an aerial view of your heart, mind and deeds from the perspective of God’s holy eyes. When your holy God looks upon you, what is His reaction?

“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight” (Isaiah 1:16).

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO!

Deuteronomy 32:48-52; 34:1-12

“Although Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated” - Deuteronomy 34:7.
Audio Sermon: Deuteronomy 32:48-52; 34:1-12

Christians in every age are commanded to “be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might” (Eph. 6:10). God’s truth is that your “God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus,” and that you “can do all things through Him who strengthens [you]” (Phil. 4:19, 13 respectively). You shall win the war; nevertheless, you must persevere.

God told Habakkuk that He was going to discipline His people with the rod of the Chaldeans. Upon receipt of God’s pronouncement, Habakkuk described himself as trembling and quivering. He knew that all he could do was watch God’s plan unfold. Though he did not understand God’s doings, he confessed, “Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places” (Hab. 3:18f.).

When you were young, your annoyances appeared grand, but they were infantile. As you become more seasoned, your troubles increase and intensify. Nonetheless, God has not moved away. “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary” (Isa. 40:28-31).

The sons of God need never look at the size of their enemy. It matters not that the Nephilim are tall, the Ninevehites are many or the Chaldeans are cruel. God is God regardless of the battle.

Your Holy Spirit enables in proportion to your trust in Him and the challenge you face. David affirms God’s power, saying to King Saul, “Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them…. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (I Sam. 17:36f.).

Moses was not called to run the universe - he was called to be faithful - so are you. The faithful place their confidence in the strength of the God of the universe. Continue to wrestle with the issues of the day in the knowledge that God is sovereign. Remember that He never changes and He loves His people. Display the confidence toward God that you see modeled in Moses.

The time will come in your life when you shall be called upon to more fully exchange your temporaries for His eternality, your humanity for His Lordship, your created being for His Creator-being, your weariness for His omnipotence, your lack for His surplus, your fatigue for His vitality, your impatience for His graceful longsuffering, your stumbling for His inerrant perfection, your legs for His wings and your weakness for His strength.

Moses was faithful to this charge and faced many lions, but God delivered him from them all. God superintended Moses’ circumstances, geography and associations to bring about the societal transformations He deemed appropriate. Moses was never separated from his Savior even in his sin and death. He has arrived at the place where the worldly lion roars no more. He has entered into a perfect peace wherein he pillows his head upon the bosom of His Redeemer. Will you?

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold” (Ps. 46:1f.,7).

SOLI DEO GLORIA!

August 3rd, 2008, Musical Selections

MORNING WORSHIP

Prelude Great Is Thy Faithfulness

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Offertory Hymn of Commitment

Doxology Isaiah 40:28-31

Mere human pow’r shall fast decay,
And youthful vigor cease;
But they who wait upon the Lord,
In strength shall still increase.

On eagles’ wings they mount, they soar -
Their wings are faith and love -
Till, past the cloudy regions here,
They rise to heav’n above. Amen. (TUNE: ELLACOMBE)

Postlude Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken

VESPER WORSHIP

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

My heart doth overflow;
A noble theme I sing.
My tongue’s a skillful writer’s pen
To speak about the King.
More fair than sons of men
Thy lips with grace o’erflow,
Because His blessing overmore
Did God on Thee bestow.

Thy sword gird on Thy thigh,
O Thou supreme in might,
And gird Thyself with majesty
And with Thy splendor bright.
To victory ride forth
For meekness, truth, and right;
And may Thy right hand teach to Thee
The deeds of dreadful might.

Thine arrows sharpened are,
Men under Thee to bring,
To pierce the heart of enemies
Who fight against the King.
Thy royal throne, O God,
From everlasting is;
A righteous scepter evermore
Thy kingdom’s scepter is.

Thou righteousness hast loved
And wickedness abhorred;
On Thee, ‘bove all, has God, Thy God,
The oil of gladness poured.
Through every coming age
I’ll make They name to live;
The peoples therefore evermore
Their praise to Thee shall give. (TUNE: DIADEMATA SMD)

Hymn of Commitment

Doxology

Postlude Sine Nomine

Please refer to our website for the Sermon texts, Synopsis, and Order of Worship

Deuteronomy 32:28-47

“It is not an idle word for you; indeed it is your life” - Deuteronomy 32:47.
Audio Sermon: Deuteronomy 32:28-47

That God has spoken and you have the absolute record of His speaking in your Bible is foundational to Christianity. Nonetheless, those apparently friendly to Christianity can be more dangerous to its expanse than its declared opponents. Scores of professing Christians within the church deny with their words or their lifestyles the validity of God’s word.

Not one jot or tittle of humanity and its fallenness has modified since the writing of the Old Testament. Mankind is still as prideful, jealous, hurtful, greedy, empty and searching as those of Old Testament days. You know that every time a nation leaves the Lord, the apostatizers repeat the failures of the ancient nations described in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is the voice of fallen humanity crying out to all mankind, “Clear the way for the Lord” (Isa. 40:3). Your Bible is one book allowing sixty-six chapters of revelation.

God wants you to pledge your sword of the whole counsel of God’s Jerusalem metal that cannot break in the heat of battle. He expects the commitment of your armaments, your purse, your breath, your life and the lives of your children and your children’s children until Jesus returns.

The general citizenry desires much of what is most uncommon, singular and expensive in the material world. Nonetheless, they pursue the comonness of man and the less costly involvements in spiritual matters. The most common address to the Bible is to take the position that it contains helpful stories, moral heroes and encouraging accounts, but it is not truly God-breathed. The preponderance of professing Christians speak and live as though they feel that the Bible may contain the word of God, but they are granted the liberty of selecting the passages genuinely coming from God and rejecting the others.

The most Christian approach to the Bible is to trust that “no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (II Pe. 1:20f.). If Christians mirrored their earthly activities with their heavenly approach to God’s Bible, they would believe the most uncommon address to Scripture which is that “all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” ( II Ti. 3:16f.).

Why do people pay the dearest price for the rarest items of this passing world but refuse to accept the rarest address to the word of God that shall never pass away? Could it be because the spiritual trumpets are producing such indistinct sounds that the people are not preparing themselves for living in this world as it truly exists?

One of the primary professing Christian gatherings in your land is of the persuasion that the church is the determiner of biblical truth. The mainline churches place the Bible in the position that it must prove itself. The truly Christian churches accept the Bible as inerrant and infallible as it grants to biblical believers everything pertaining to life and godliness.

Goliath intimidated opponents and was powerful in his unbiblical defiance of the living God. An apparently foolish and weak lad with a sling and a stone defeated the giant because the lad believed that all God allowed in His holy word would stand him well in the most fierce of all battles. Goliath fell before the living God due to the courage of one boy unwilling to remain with the status quo in his family, church and nation.

The primary theme of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is the contrast between what the people were being taught in the church and by the cultural leaders as compared with God’s true word. Trumpeting and living the rigorousness of God’s truth meets with worldly criticism and heavenly blessing. On what side of the divide does the Spirit of Christ find you?

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO!

Joshua 23:1-16

“Be very firm, then, to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you may not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, in order that you may not associate with these nations, these which remain among you… But you are to cling to the Lord your God… So take diligent heed to yourselves to love the Lord your God” - Joshua 23:6f., 8, 11.
Audio Sermon: Joshua 23:1-16

Though Scripture is written for all people in all epochs and in every season of life, certain biblical writings are directed to a particular segment of people. In this passage, Joshua is addressing the entire nation, but principally “their elders and their heads and their judges and their officers” (v. 2). Why are these cultural leaders particularly denoted? God wants the societal influencers to influence toward virtue, not vice; toward serving, not being served; toward others, not self.

The family, church and nation are being hobbled by the absence of Christianity in the conduct and speech of men. The societal disintegration and degeneration is being driven by a narcissistic greed and selfishness at war with the humanity of man. A Christian manifesto, a clarion call for Christians to awake, is in order so that families, churches and nations shall be provided the rationale for “Why Christianity?” and a biblical manifesto for living transformed lives (Ro. 12:1f.).

Even churchmen must be taught that they cannot express true Christianity without diligent study, uncommon effort and purer associations (all forged upon the anvil of self-denial!). The constitutions of the churched are weakening under the assaults of a marauding selfishness. Church leaders are reducing their standard for what life really should be to their practice of a less than full life - they are no longer expecting the Spirit of Christ to fulfill the promises of God in their lives. Benjamin Morgan Palmer opined, “I have reached the conclusion that the best way to reach the unregenerate is to show him what Christianity is able to do for the believer.” The battering by underwhelming Christian examples and dismissal of Scriptural truth has dismantled the peculiarity of biblical Christianity.

It is impossible to discern from the messages of many preachers a telling word allowing the listener to know whether the preacher is a disciple of Christ, Confucius, Feminist theology, Liberation theology, Marxism or Islam. The reason is that many churches and denominations have rejected preachers who are pure in their doctrine, non-conforming to the world in their practices and committed to presenting Christ as Christ presented Himself.

The church nor the culture will experience the fullness of transformation without influencers and cultural decision-makers being converted. They must come to terms with a biblical Christianity rather than the religion taught by their parents. The once notable churchmen and statesmen have so pandered to those they should be leading that their congregations and constituencies have become lesser men rather than greater.

God says, “Be strong and courageous” (Josh. 1:6). Contrast the difference between someone leaving a legacy and someone leaving a memory. All the dead leave memories, both good and bad. Only those committed to the eternal cause of Christ leave legacies. Would God want you to be the societal leader leaving to future generations the legacy of living out God’s image in this present world?

SOLI DEO GLORIA!