Complacency or Lukewarmness

You know, Satan has found a new way, as we sit here today. We've come in freedom, we're clothed, we're blessed, we're comfortable and we came and we'll leave in comfortable cars and we'll go home to comfortable homes. Now there's nothing wrong with that. All that we have the Lord has blessed us with. But let's keep one thing in mind: those very things can be so much the tools of Satan.

Because those very things back in the old days when the physical body was persecuted and tortured, and, even as we read in these Scriptures here ... how the church flourished and thrived, even when they were put in prisons and the Lord let them out again, and they were beheaded and it didn't matter much what happened to them, the faith continued and it marched on.

Now we find today, much to the burden of our heart, the faith that struggles, the faith that fumbles and tries to hold, Satan gnaws at its ranks. Because Satan thought, "Well, through persecution, all they did was gain the more. They are well blessed; now we'll see if they can stand the blessings and the bounty that are upon them."

It's our human nature to become complacent. That is one thing no faith can stand, beloved, is complacency ... lukewarmness. And why not? Because the Lord says, "I will spue thee out of my mouth." (Rev. 3:16)

It's so simple. Let's keep it that way.
--Sermon Excerpt: Bro. W.G.

The Return of the Lord is Close

It says, "But as the days of Noe were, so shall ... the coming of the Son of man be." (Matt. 24:37) If we go back into Genesis, we find that in the days of Noah, it says "... that every imagination of the thoughts of his (man's) heart was only evil continually ... and the earth was filled with violence." (Gen. 6:5, 11) That's the condition we live in today.

It says, "...As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matt. 24:37) So I believe there is no doubt that the return of the Lord is close.

When? I don't know. Even Christ Himself doesn't know, the Word tells us in this chapter. (Matt. 24:36)

How then should we be? What should be our attitude?

We read in the final verses in this chapter, "Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming." (Matt. 24:46-48). Again ... the element of time. If the servant says, "I've got more time." "And shall begin to smite his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunken, the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matt. 24:49-51)

I believe, dear ones, that is a warning to the believer -- to the servant -- to be ready and not to become slothful.

Finally, it can be concluded in the 44th verse of this chapter, "Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh." (Matt. 24:44)

--Sermon Excerpt: Elder Bro. S.R.

The Old Cross and the New

The Old Cross and the New

All unannounced and mostly undetected there has come in modern times a new cross into popular evangelical circles. It is like the old cross, but different: the likenesses are superficial; the differences, fundamental.

From this new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian life, and from that new philosophy has come a new evangelical technique-a new type of meeting and a new kind of preaching. This new evangelism employs the same language as the old, but its content is not the same and its emphasis not as before.

The old cross would have no truck with the world. For Adam's proud flesh it meant the end of the journey. It carried into effect the sentence imposed by the law of Sinai. The new cross is not opposed to the human race; rather, it is a friendly pal and, if understood aright, it is the source of oceans of good clean fun and innocent enjoyment. It lets Adam live without interference. His life motivation is unchanged; he still lives for his own pleasure, only now he takes delight in singing choruses and watching religious movies instead of singing bawdy songs and drinking hard liquor. The accent is still on enjoyment, though the fun is now on a higher plane morally if not intellectually.

The new cross encourages a new and entirely different evangelistic approach. The evangelist does not demand abnegation of the old life before a new life can be received. He preaches not contrasts but similarities. He seeks to key into public interest by showing that Christianity makes no unpleasant demands; rather, it offers the same thing the world does, only on a higher level. Whatever the sin-mad world happens to be clamoring after at the moment is cleverly shown to be the very thing the gospel offers, only the religious product is better.

The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. To the self-assertive it says, "Come and assert yourself for Christ." To the egotist it says, "Come and do your boasting in the Lord." To the thrill seeker it says, "Come and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship." The Christian message is slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public.

The philosophy back of this kind of thing may be sincere but its sincerity does not save it from being false. It is false because it is blind. It misses completely the whole meaning of the cross.

The old cross is a symbol of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being. The man in Roman times who took up his cross and started down the road had already said good-by to his friends. He was not coming back. He was going out to have it ended. The cross made no compromise, modified nothing, spared nothing; it slew all of the man, completely and for good. It did not try to keep on good terms with its victim. It struck cruel and hard, and when it had finished its work, the man was no more.

The race of Adam is under death sentence. There is no commutation and no escape. God cannot approve any of the fruits of sin, however innocent they may appear or beautiful to the eyes of men. God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him again to newness of life.

That evangelism which draws friendly parallels between the ways of God and the ways of men is false to the Bible and cruel to the souls of its hearers. The faith of Christ does not parallel the world, it intersects it. In coming to Christ we do not bring our old life up onto a higher plane; we leave it at the cross. The corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die.

We who preach the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world. We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of sports or modern education. We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.

God offers life, but not an improved old life. The life He offers is life out of death. It stands always on the far side of the cross. Whoever would possess it must pass under the rod. He must repudiate himself and concur in God's just sentence against him.

What does this mean to the individual, the condemned man who would find life in Christ Jesus? How can this theology be translated into life? Simply, he must repent and believe. He must forsake his sins and then go on to forsake himself. Let him cover nothing, defend nothing, excuse nothing. Let him not seek to make terms with God, but let him bow his head before the stroke of God's stern displeasure and acknowledge himself worthy to die.

Having done this let him gaze with simple trust upon the risen Saviour, and from Him will come life and rebirth and cleansing and power. The cross that ended the earthly life of Jesus now puts an end to the sinner; and the power that raised Christ from the dead now raises him to a new life along with Christ.

To any who may object to this or count it merely a narrow and private view of truth, let me say God has set His hallmark of approval upon this message from Paul's day to the present. Whether stated in these exact words or not, this has been the content of all preaching that has brought life and power to the world through the centuries. The mystics, the reformers, the revivalists have put their emphasis here, and signs and wonders and mighty operations of the Holy Ghost gave witness to God's approval.

Dare we, the heirs of such a legacy of power, tamper with the truth? Dare we with our stubby pencils erase the lines of the blueprint or alter the pattern shown us in the Mount? May God forbid. Let us preach the old cross and we will know the old power.

--A. W. Tozer in Man, the Dwelling Place of God, 1966

Which Faith Is Thine?

Passive faith accepts the word as true

But never moves.

Active faith begins the work to do,

And thereby proves.

---------

Passive faith says, "I believe it! every word of God is true.

Well I know He hath not spoken what He cannot, will not, do.

He hath bidden me, 'Go forward!' but a closed-up way I see,

When the waters are divided, soon in Canaan's land I'll be.

Lo! I hear His voice commanding, 'Rise and walk: take up thy bed';

And, 'Stretch forth thy withered member!' which for so long has been dead.

When I am a little stronger, then, I know I'll surely stand:

When there comes a thrill of heating, I will use with ease My other hand.

Yes, I know that 'God is able' and full willing all to do

I believe that every promise, sometime, will to me come true."

------

Active faith says, "I believe it! and the promise now I take,

Knowing well, as I receive it, God, each promise, real will make.

So I step into the waters, finding there an open way;

Onward press, the land possessing; nothing can my progress stay.

Yea, I rise at His commanding, walk straightway, and joyfully:

This, my hand, so sadly shriveled, as I reach, restored shall be.

What beyond His faithful promise, would I wish or do I need?

Looking not for 'signs or wonders,' I'll no contradiction heed.

Well I know that 'God is able,' and full willing all to do

I believe that every promise, at this moment can come true."

---------

Passive faith but praises in the light, When sun doth shine.

Active faith will praise in darkest night-- Which faith is thine?

--Selected

The Servant of the Lord Must Not Strive

Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.

And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
--II Timothy 2:22-26