Clearing the Fog with the Light of the Son
For the past several weeks (or maybe months), I have been struggling with this mindset of getting back to basics. But the biggest struggle wasn’t getting back to the basics of the Gospel but defining what I meant. I could put into words what the Lord was showing me in His Word.
I have to thank the small group that I am in because they have helped in this process. I have brought these things to them, and we have discussed them at length. The first was the heart of God.
The First Steps
I went through all of this in stages. The first was the love of God and then the view that the unsaved had of Jesus. I looked around, and I saw this complacency. So many of us that claimed to believe seemed to take God for granted. We have shifted from trusting God to trusting in our government or our 401k.
Much of this came from getting caught up in the news myself. So I quit watching the news. It was simply a stress generator.
I had not forgotten about the compassion of God and his love for us. But I had forgotten to seek out his promises in passages like Matthew 6.
Matthew 6:25-33 (ESV)
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
It has become easier to trust in the tangible than the intangible. Today, there are so many distractions that it is easier to watch Fox News or CNN, where their goal is to scare you into watching them tomorrow than taking time to study the promises of God.
What Came Next?
I next focused on 1Corinthians. This first letter to the Corinthians was in part to address the church’s division where the congregation was being split around different teachers. Paul also reminded them that the power and wisdom did not rest in men but the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 1:10-17 (ESV)
I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the Cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
In fact, there was no room for prideful men that could overshadow the power of the Cross. It required a humble preacher.
He next discussed how the world saw the Gospel.
1 Corinthians 1:18-19 (ESV)
For the word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
And how could it be anything else? After all, there is only one way to the Father. That is through the Son, and no one comes to the Son unless the Father calls him. Jesus spells it out in two verses in John
John 14:6 (ESV)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 6:44 (ESV)
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
What it comes down to is that no man can change another, but we can “preach” Christ Jesus crucified as Paul did, and we do not need fancy words, simply the Word of God.
Reflections
I mulled all this over, but it still was not clear to me. I could not put my finger on what was troubling me. My Brothers and Sisters had been great in our Friday night Bible Study. Together we knocked down a lot of fences that were bugging me. I even met with my Preacher, which was helpful, but it did not fully open my eyes. I prayed and floundered. This answer seemed so elusive. But then this last week, God used a preacher on YouTube to remove the log from my eye.
2Timothy, (March 15th)
I cannot remember who the Preacher was, but it was likely Paul Washer, John MacArthur, or Voddie Baucham. I have been listening to these three a lot lately.
But anyway, whoever it was, they referenced 2Timothy 3:1-9, and as I heard it, my heart opened up.
I had been half-listening to the video when I got this “hey what did he say?” moment, and I backed it up and relistened to the passage. Then I got up and, because it was late, I looked it up on my digital bible on my iMac and copied it so I would not forget and went to bed. This text gave me a kind of peace. It is a sad passage, but it gave me some clarity.
2 Timothy 3:1-9 (ESV)
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.
I read this passage over and over. It is desperately sad, but this one sentence was and is so clear to me-“having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” It opened my eyes to this truth.
This thing that I had been chasing was not so much going back to the basics of the Gospel but more so understanding what I saw in the world, including the church in some cases. It was a loss of passion and POWER for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It seemed everywhere I looked in the world, there was complacency. Truth did not matter anymore. Instead, “WISE” men and women were telling us how we should feel and think. I even heard one say that Jesus was racist. It is difficult to grasp all that is going on in the world today, but this morning I received a bit more insight.
When I opened this tool that I use to write my blog, I accidentally opened a previous post because the column was “not sorted properly.” This “accident” landed me on a quote from AW Tozer. I had copied and pasted this quote to my Notebook over a year ago when I read my “Kindle” version of AW Tozer’s book, “The Pursuit of God”.
AW Tozer “The Pursuit of God”
The passage completely knocked me off my feet. It further helped me put things I was feeling into perspective, and it gave me that added confirmation. This passage was sobering, and I do not profess that ALL Christians are like this, nor are all conversions, but Tozer indeed gave me something to consider… for all of us to consider.
“The doctrine of justification by faith—a Biblical truth, and a blessed relief from sterile legalism and unavailing self-effort—has in our time fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such manner as actually to bar men from the knowledge of God.
The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without a jar to the moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be “received” without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is “saved,” but he is not hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact he is specifically taught to be satisfied and encouraged to be content with little.”
Tozer, A. W. (Aiden Wilson). “The Pursuit of God”
Tozer points out that many times the “religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless.” That causes me to shudder. I know that I am not responsible for anyone’s salvation, but I am liable to be sure that I share the truth of God’s Word as accurately as possible without injecting my pride.
Closing Thoughts
My responsibility as a believer is unequivocal. Jesus spells it out in Matthew.
Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV)
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
To do that, I need to be sure that the Gospel that I share is from God’s Word and shared with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Paul explained it so clearly in 1Corinthins 1 and 2. Tozer has also pointed out the dangers of not sharing the Gospel accurately. It can fall into evil company. We have a responsibility to share God’s Word humbly and free from prideful words for fear “that the Cross may be emptied of its power.” That those who hear it may turn to our fancy terms like the Corinthians did toward Paul, Cephas, and Apollos instead of Jesus alone. That removes the power from the Cross. It turns the conversion into a transaction, eliminates God’s power from the event, and replaces it with the power of man’s words, which are like a vapor on the wind. I like the way James says it.
James 4:13-16 (ESV)
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance.
There is no power in man’s words. They are fleeting. We cannot be sure of the next moment, little alone the next day. How can we pretend to profess God’s Will other than to rely solely on His Holy Word and the guidance of the Holy Spirit? Without either one, we, too, would be lost.
Prayer
Father, I pray that I might not get caught up in my own words that I may become prideful when I share your Gospel. Father, I pray that I might always be mindful of you and your message. Your Glory Father, not mine. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.
Final Thoughts
As I reviewed this document to its close, but the books of Jude and Titus kept nagging at me for lack of a better way to say it. Titus was less direct. It is a short book, and I would encourage you to take a moment to read it when you can. When Paul outlines the requirements of an Elder, he discusses the need for sound doctrine. It is an extraordinary direction. But Jude is even more specific.
Jude wanted to speak of positive things but felt compelled to remind us to contend for the faith. We need to defend it. Assure that it is the same that was delivered by the Saints (1:3) and contend with those who would distort it for selfish gain(1:17-23).
Jude 1:3 (ESV)
Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
Jude 1:17-23 (ESV)
But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
Little more can be said. God Bless.