T-Shirt Theology

Here is another one of those ridiculous t-shirts created by "Christians" emulating the culture. The implication here is that Jesus, or the way to Jesus, is simply EASY. What does the Bible say about this?

Compare this culturally relevant t-shirt to Scripture: "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

Yes, salvation is free but sanctification is not! Jesus is not easy. The road to life is rough and rugged and only the righteous reach it.

Evil, Evil, Holiness Retrieval

EVIL?

What is evil? Is there evil? Does evil exist in our postmodern world? Do we need to worry about evil? Do we need to be ready to fight against evil? Is evil a problem? Is evil an allusion? What is the real source of evil? Is evil really evil? How do we relate to evil? When is the last time you called evil evil? How should we respond to evil?

Many of us are deluded into thinking that life as a Christian is all hunky dory. Evil only happens to those who are evil, right? Should we, Christians, be concerned about evil? Is the word "evil" even relevant to those who have been saved by grace through faith? Do evil things happen to "good" people? First, we need to realize and acknowledge that God is completely sovereign. "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things." (Isa 45:7) So how do we respond to evil?

Expect

“Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12). Evil should never surprise us and catch us off guard. God is going to test you. He loves you and He will cut and carve your character so as to make look more like Him. The cutting and the carving isn't fun but it is fulfilling to those who are faithful. Evil things are going to happen. Buckle up and be ready. Remember God is sovereign through it all.

Pray

Jesus taught us how to pray when He said, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Matthew 6:13). The problem with many of us (not evil) is that we deliver ourselves into evil and then pray to be delivered from it. You can't drive yourself into a strip club (evil) and then pray to be delivered from evil. You can't pray "lead me not into temptation" when you really want and long to to be led there.

Hate

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” (Romans 12:9). We are told to love and then to hate. If you don't hate than you don't really love. Love is not tolerance. If I love my own children then I wouldn’t tolerate those things that are destroying my children. As the Psalmist said, "Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? (Ps 139) Is prayer and hatred contradictory? Of course not. When it comes to evil we are told to pray and to hate.

Expose

“Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Ephesians 5:11). We have a tendency to enjoy and be entertained by evil rather than exposing it for what it is. We are children of light in a dark, evil world. We are here to expose and to shine. We are supposed to be a city on a hill. Christians who do not shine are "thrown out and trampled under people's feet" (Mt.5:13) Exposing is never popular to those who love the darkness. We should, though, be seeking after righteousness not popularity. Shine on!

Overcome

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). Don't given in or give up when evil entices or attacks. Evil is there for us to conquer. We are "more than conquerors through him who loved us." (Rom 8:37) The narrow road less traveled is difficult and sometimes lonely but it is the only path that leads to life. We must overcome by doing good "so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Mt. 5:16) Is there evil around us? Then there is work ahead of us. It's time for us to overcome, have dominion and advance His Kingdom.

John Piper wrote: "Never doubt that God is totally for you in Christ. If you trust him with your life, you are in Christ. Never doubt that all the evil that befalls you—even if it takes your life—is God’s loving, purifying, saving, fatherly discipline. It is not an expression of his punishment in wrath. That fell on Jesus Christ our substitute. “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12:6)."

Looking Back - Stephen Charnock

"In our prosperity we are apt [quick] to have secret thoughts that our enjoyments were debts God owed us, rather than gifts freely bestowed upon us. Hence it is that men are more unwilling to part with their righteousness than with their sins, and are apt to challenge salvation as a due, rather than beg it as an act of grace."

~ Stephen Charnock

Looking Back - Made Righteous

"We are not made righteous by doing righteous deeds; but when we have been made righteous we do righteous deeds."

~ Martin Luther

Things Pride Gives Birth To

Its been said that pride is the only disease that makes everyone sick except the person who has it. C.J. Mahaney explains that, “Pride is when sinful human beings aspire to the status and position of God and refuse to acknowledge their dependence on him.”

Joe Thorn summarizes Puritan Richard Mayo in his sermon on The Prevention and Cure of Spiritual Pride where he warns us that pride can lead to all kinds of other sins. He says, “It is a big-bellied sin; most of the sins that are in the world are the offspring and issue of pride.” He gives a number of example. Here is a summary of most of them.

Pride gives birth to:

1. Covetousness - because you believe you deserve something more than others.
2. Ungodly ambition - because you believe that you are most qualified, and the idea of someone else being preferred over you is an insult to your perceived worth.
3. Boasting - because everyone should know who you are and what you have accomplished.
4. Contention - because in picking fights you feel a sense of superiority over those who may (or may not) be in error.
5. Unthankfulness - because you deserve everything you get!
6. Selfishness - because others do not!
7. Self-deceit - because it’s easier to believe you are something, when in fact you are nothing.
8. A judgmental attitude - because you believe the errors of others are much more serious than your own.
9. Gossip - because you look so much better when telling others how awful someone else is. Mayo said that the proud “endeavor to build their own praise upon the ruins of others’ reputation.”
10. Complaining - because God should have consulted you before orchestrating the events of your day/life.
11. Hypocrisy - because you must hide the truth, your own failures, in order to avoid shame and accumulate praise.

One more thing... You cannot spell sin or pride without "I" being in the middle. As someone else said, "When the "I" becomes dominant, the "spiritual eye" sees the entire world in a distortion."

How do you know you are saved?

5 Reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire

More than 200 years ago, 1787, Edward Gibbon wrote a book called Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. For 20 years he studied the Roman empire trying to find out how a nation or an empire could be so great and then suddenly collapse. How could that happen? It's hard not to think of our country when you read the five reasons he came up with.

Five reasons for the fall of the great dynasty.

• First: Rapid increase of divorce, with the undermining of the sanctity of the home, which is the basis of society.
  
• Second: Higher and higher taxes; the spending of money for bread and celebrations.
  
• Third: The mad craze for pleasure, sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal.
  
• Fourth: The building of gigantic armaments, when the real enemy was within; the decadence of the people.
  
• Fifth: The decay of religion; faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life, and becoming impotent to guide it.

"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." (Pro 14:34)

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord..." (Psa 33:12)

"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap." (Gal 6:7)

Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy

Orthodoxy (correct teaching) must not be separated from Orthopraxy (correct practice). Our theology must be right but our path must also be straight. Confession without conviction is chicanery (trickery). Doctrine without duty is deception. Belief without behavior is baloney. Faith without works is dead.

Spurgeon wrote this, "If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the Lord's will but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumption, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved. Do not suppose that the Gospel is magnified or God glorified by going to the worldlings and telling them that they may be saved at this moment by simply accepting Christ as their Savior, while they are wedded to their idols, and their hearts are still in love with sin. If I do so I tell them a lie, pervert the Gospel , insult Christ, and turn the grace of God into lasciviousness."

There is a saying that is engraved at the cathedral at Lubeck, Germany. The inscription reads,

• "Thus speaketh Christ our Lord to us,
  You call Me master and obey Me not,
  you call Me light and see Me not,
  you call Me the way and walk in Me not,
  you call Me life and live Me not,
  you call Me wise and follow Me not,
  you call Me fair and love Me not,
  you call Me rich and ask Me not,
  you call Me eternal and seek Me not,
  if I condemn thee, blame Me not."
  

This reminds me of the words of Christ, "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Matt 7:21) Praise without practice is vanity and we must not take God's name in vain. Orthodoxy must not be separated from Orthopraxy.

Feelings, nothing more than feelings.

We describe so many things as “feelings” when they have nothing to do with how we feel. Take, for instance, love, joy and peace. Love (the Greek word in the Bible is “agape”) describes unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional, and thoughtful love. Many people just wait and wait to “feel” that “loving feeling” when it is their duty to love unconditionally. You don’t “fall” in (agape) love, you do it. You don’t wait until you feel it, you do it whether you feel it or not. Joy is not just a “feeling” either. You can have joy in the good times and in the bad. It is not a feeling you have but an attitude you keep. As someone once said, “Joy is not in things it is in us.” If joy was just a feeling that we experienced we could never be “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Cor 6:10). True joy is the only kind of happiness that you give without having. Peace is also something we mistakenly think of as a feeling. Biblical peace is not a peaceful “feeling”, it is a peaceful standing. Apart from the grace of God we are at war with God. As Romans 5 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…” Jesus is our peace in the sense that He reconciles us to the Father. Biblical peace is not like the hippy kind of peace that you just feel inside. It is an external declaration not an internal emotion.

Another mistake many make is feeling “spiritual” when they are actually acting carnal. Many people think that being spiritual is nothing more than just a good, subjective, “spiritual” feeling. We would rather FEEL spiritual than BE spiritual. We must realize that Jesus came “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Rom 8:4) Walking in the spirit, according to Paul, has nothing to do with feeling spiritual and everything to do with the righteous requirement of the law being fulfilled in us. Walking in the spirit (being spiritual) is not freedom from the law but obedience to it. Feeling spiritual does not mean being free from self-control. Many have a false view that being “in the spirit” means being free from control. The Spirit is blamed for many “out-of-control” experiences. The fruit of the spirit IS “self-control” (Gal 5:23).

We must do the right thing in spite of how we feel. Many say, “I don’t FEEL like it’s the right thing to do” instead of saying “I do the right thing in spite of how I feel.” In our humanistic and sensual society, feelings have become the basis for morality. When asked to make a moral judgment we say things like, “I feel like __________” or “here’s how I feel…” “But why should I have to do _________ when I don’t feel like it?” That is the most popular response to excuse oneself from fulfilling obligations to others. Feelings have been elevated, somehow, to positions of absolute truth and power. But we must do the right thing in spite of how we feel. We cannot expect to only do right when we feel right. For instance, we must resist temptation. That means we must resist a feeling. Temptations wouldn’t be tempting if they didn’t feel good. All worldly pleasures feel pleasurable at least temporarily. Following a so-called “good”, yet forbidden, feeling won’t feel good forever. That is why Moses, by faith, chose to be “mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.” (Heb 11:25)

Many times the expectation of “hurt feelings” prevents us from either speaking the truth, in love, or hearing the truth. How many times do we not say what needs to be said because we don’t want to FEEL embarrassed or we don’t want to hurt someone’s FEELINGS? The problem with many churches today is that the leaders care more about making everyone feel welcome than they do about making them hear the truth. Sometimes truth hurts, but in the long run it will set you free. Arguments and fights are usually caused by following your feelings instead of your conscience. As James says, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” (James 4:1) If we spent more time fighting off our feelings we would spend less time fighting each other. Doing the right thing doesn’t always feel good but it always IS good. Don’t wait for the right feeling before you obey. Many times feelings come after obedience. If a husband doesn’t feel loving towards his wife all he has to do is love her anyways and then the feelings will follow. The more loving you are the more love you will feel. In spite of how you feel, do the right thing.

Become what you already are

One great passage of Scripture that is either loved or hated is Eph 2:8-10 - "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

In this passage we see a beautiful picture of monergism (Greek mono meaning "one" and erg meaning "work"). Salvation as the work of God alone, from first to last. We've been saved by grace through faith but even that faith is a gift (not something we earn) that no one may boast. But it also says we are created FOR good works. Works follow regeneration they don't earn it.

A similar passage is in Phil 2:12 - "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling..." We are not told to work for our salvation but to work out what God has already worked in us. Paul Jehle put it this way, "The whole Christian life, when you live it, is learning to become what you already are."

The Righteousness of God

The Psalmist reveals a great truth about God when he says, "righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne." (Ps. 97:2) In other words, He is Himself right and true... He is morally and ethically right, and He acts according to what is right. It is necessary to His very being and always distinguishes everything that He does.

But what is that standard of morality to which God conforms? What law is He obligated to? Be careful though... we shouldn't imply that God is bound to some abstract rule outside of Himself. To place Him under any rule outside of Himself is to make Him something less than God. The Sovereign God of the universe does not conform to anything or to anyone. He only conforms to Himself.

That "rightness" to which He is must adhere to is nothing other than His own nature and His own will. It is His nature and will that determine right from wrong. And when the Bible says that God does what is right, it just means that He is faithfully obligated to His own perfections. He always acts and only acts according to the very highest principle of justice… Himself

Righteousness is based on Lordship

• Rom. 11:34-36 says… “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him? [In other words… “And who could ever give him so much that he would have to pay it back?] For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.”

• John Owen said it like this… "The right, therefore, which God hath to act his righteousness or to act righteously towards others, is supreme and sovereign, arising naturally and necessarily from the relation of all things unto himself."
  
  
• Thomas Manton put it this way… "In this respect God is wholly arbitrary, and hath no other rule but his own will; he doth not will things because they are just, but therefore they are just because God wills them."