Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Is It Authorized?

    How often have we heard questions about what the New Testament authorizes?  Does the Lord intend the new covenant to be a law of authorization?  I grew up hearing arguments about the lack of Scriptural authorization for a kitchen in the building.  We were also told that there was no authorization from God’s Word to support an orphan’s home from the church treasury.  Is the new covenant a law based on the foundation of what is and what is not authorized? 

    The Law of Moses was a law detailing what God did and did not authorize.  How the Israelites were to worship was outlined in great detail.  What was considered “clean” or “unclean” was clearly marked.  This law was a law written in stone.  This law was “black and white”; there were few “gray areas”. It was a law to be obeyed to the letter.  As a result, it either authorized or forbade certain things.

    The covenant put into practice on the first Pentecost following the death of Jesus was new.  According to Scripture this covenant was written on the heart. Did the new covenant change or was it a continuation of Moses Law?  Was it a continued system of legalism or is it a covenant sharing with us the way to re-establish fellowship with God?  Is it a rigid document about what is authorized or is it about building a relationship with our Messiah? 

    I fear we sometimes misinterpret the purpose and intent of the new covenant.  It certainly isn’t a new and improved version of Moses Law.  Could it be that we ask the wrong questions?  Instead of asking about authorization perhaps we should be considering intent.  Rather than building a foundation anchored in the idea of keeping rules maybe we should establish a foundation built on the concept of determining and applying God’s purpose in our lives.

    Does this mean we ignore obeying God?  Absolutely not!  The Lord Himself said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” Because we are motivated by love for the Lord and what He has done we make a concentrated effort to do His will.   That having been said, rather than worrying about whether God authorized something, maybe we ought to be asking, “What is God’s intention?”  What we perceive as authorization isn’t really what it seems to be if it overrides the Lord’s intent in New Testament Scripture.

Posted by onedaysoon at 05:28:58 | Permalink | Comments (5)

Monday, February 25, 2008

Repentance or Restitution?

    I am convinced one of the most misunderstood concepts we deal with is the concept of Godly repentance. There is a belief among some in our fellowship that repentance requires restitution.
    A few years ago I was teaching an adult Bible class. This class was dealing with the question of repentance. I had carefully described the difference in repentance and restitution. One of the young deacons who had been sitting in the class came up to me afterwards. He told me what we had talked about in class couldn’t be accurate. I asked him why not. I was expecting some Biblical objection to the things I had taught. Instead this was his reply. He said, “What you are saying can’t be true, if what you have taught is correct I will have to change what I believe about marriage divorce and remarriage.” Wow! That ought to be the determining factor in all our doctrinal positions.
    For many of us repentance always requires restitution. We have the view that in order to repent we must set every past sin right. Many believe that repentance requires undoing all the wrong we have done.
    We know that the Biblical definition of repentance is a change of direction. What we misunderstand is this, changing direction doesn’t require undoing sin. If our salvation required our undoing past sins we would never be saved. Certainly if our hearts are right we will want to right as many of the wrongs we have committed as possible. However, repentance doesn’t require restitution on our part.
    If I could provide restitution for my sins why would I need the blood of Christ? The Lord’s blood was shed to take away the sin in our lives. Forgiveness is in His hands. When God forgives sin that sin is  forgotten, it no longer exists.
    Our forgiveness is based on repentance and baptism not on restitution. Our salvation is dependant on being in the blood of Christ not our ability to perform restitution. Place your heart with God. Submit to baptism and trust Him to take care of the sins you have committed. Don’t let anyone place restitution as a pre-requisite of salvation, God never did.

Posted by onedaysoon at 05:55:21 | Permalink | Comments (14)

Friday, February 22, 2008

Commitment?

    

 How deep is your commitment?  How many times have we asked a similar question?  Almost all preachers have a sermon on this subject in their files.  One of our responsibilities as a preacher is to continue to build commitment in the lives of fellow Christians.  I feel confident we agree on this point.  Great churches need hearts filled with deep-seated determination. 
    The questions that continue to trouble this preacher are simple.  What or to whom should we dedicate our lives?  What are the standards?  How do we measure this dedication?  
    Which standards will we use to measure commitment?  Some measure the depth of intentions by the number of times we attend worship in a given week.  Others measure the depth of our commitment by our ability to defend the accepted doctrine.  At other times we consider true dedication to be tied with our ability to give.  Almost always we bind our dedication to being part of the right church.  I am convinced  we are using incorrect standards.  If we begin with the wrong foundation we will never develop into the mature Christian God wants us to be.  
     Our dedication must be to Christ.  If we miss this point nothing else matters.  If our relationship with Jesus is lacking, everything else pales in comparison.  None of the above  standards matter. Without Christ it isn’t important what we do in formal worship, which church we choose, or the doctrine we believe.  
    When we make a decision to become a disciple we dedicate ourselves to following in the footsteps of the master.  With many in our fellowship this is misunderstood.  We have been taught either directly or indirectly that our commitment is to the church.  When we are discussing someone’s lack of faithfulness we make statements similar to these.  We say, “He has become unfaithful to the church.” Or we might say, “She needs to come back to the church.” Can the church save?  Since when does the church cover our sins?  Our commitment is to Christ rather than the church.  Could it be that we have placed so much interest in restoring the first century church we have missed the deeper matters?  Our commitment must be to Christ.
Posted by onedaysoon at 02:36:36 | Permalink | Comments (10)

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Anti-ism, Legalism, Liberalism, and Pharasaism

  We look at these terms and ask the question, “What do these words have in common?”  These ideas have several things in common.  Probably the most common connection these words share is the damage they do to the body of Christ.  If they shared no other similarities this would be enough to avoid the trouble these ideas bring.
   As I thought about these ideas it occurred to me that all these words are “isms”.  I thought it might be interesting to examine these doctrines by examining the “isms” they share.  Maybe we can learn some things while viewing these dangerous doctrines.
   Those who hold these views are Intolerant of others.  If you don’t see things as those who adhere to these views see things you are believed to be something less than faithful, less than pleasing to God, perhaps even lost.  Each of these groups are unwilling to include you in their circles.  Each group would view the other groups as unGodly or at best uninformed in their doctrinal positions.  
   Those who hold these views are Self-righteous.  The participants in each of these groups believe that they own  truth.  Any teaching that doesn’t agree with their thoughts can’t be from God.  The sins and mistakes of everyone else are always ”bigger” than their own.  Whether stated or not it is the belief of these groups that God has put them in charge of judgment in the church.
   Those who hold these views also Miss the mark.  One definition of sin is missing the mark.  Any doctrine that damages the body of Christ as drastically as these man-made doctrines damage the church certainly qualifies as sin.  One might reach the conclusion that some are more concerned with getting their way than with reaching the lost.
   Rather than holding to any of these circles of fellowship, wouldn’t it be better to simply be Biblical?  Why not preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  When we teach one must obey and understand doctrine perfectly we leave no room for God or for His grace.  Aren’t you glad our group always gets every doctrine right?   Sure we do and the world is flat isn’t it?  Why not leave the “isms” behind and walk in the footsteps of the master! 
Posted by onedaysoon at 04:04:36 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Friday, February 15, 2008

Are You Sure You Are Saved?

  

  Many years ago my father-in-law was one of two ministers who were conducting a funeral. The other minister made a startling statement to my Father-in-law. As they were making small talk before the funeral began, he said, “You know we just never know if we have done enough until we face God in judgment.” My father-in-law was a member of a church that believed in once saved always saved. He was amazed that someone could preach the good news of Jesus and fail to grasp the assurance that goes with the Christian life.
  1st John teaches many great truths. Among them is the concept of the assurance of one’s salvation. In 1st John 5:13 Scripture says, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” This passage is one of many that allows us to know without a doubt the condition of our souls at any given moment in time. I may not know what the future holds for my salvation but I can be assured where I stand at this present time. 1st John 1:7-10 is also a remarkable section of truth. In this section John by inspiration is telling us that so long as we continue to walk in Christ the blood of Christ cleanses us from our sin. The implication is overwhelming! He is telling us that even though we sin Christ takes care of that sin as long as we walk in Him. Perhaps part of the problem with many of us is found in the latter part of this chapter. In verse nine He says if we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins. Some have taken this to mean that before any sin can be forgiven it must be confessed before God. The implication of this misunderstanding is that without a confession the blood of Christ can’t cover the sin. The context isn’t telling us that we must confess each sin. The context is teaching that we must confess that we are sinners in the need of Christ’s blood. Both verse 8 and verse 10 tell us that if we claim we have not sinned we deceive ourselves and make Him a liar. It is implied by the context that He wants us to admit our sin and our need for His cleansing blood.
  We will address one additional text for this thought. In Romans 4:8 Scripture says, “Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” What a tremendous promise! According to Paul in this passage there is a man who commits sin yet the Lord never counts that sin against him! Never even lists the sin! Who is the man? He is the man who is walking in the light of the Lord.
What makes this great promise possible? If you are in Christ your salvation is made possible by your relationship with the Lord. This restoration of fellowship came about by the blood Jesus shed on the cross bound together with our acceptance and obedience of His commands.  So long as you continue to walk in Christ, God will declare you righteous. If salvation was in our hands we would never know if we had done enough. We would always wonder, is there some sin I need to make right? Forgiveness of sin is not in our hands. Our sins are covered by the blood of our Saviour. As a result the Lord declares us righteous. This makes it possible for me to know I am saved! Praise God for that assurance!
Posted by onedaysoon at 23:57:02 | Permalink | Comments (5)

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Our “God Projects”

   As I read Romans 9:32 from the Message translation a number of things occurred to me.  This verse says,

“How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their “God projects” that they didn’t notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling.”

  As a young teenager I attended a congregation that did not have elders.  It was a regular practice to have a monthly men’s meeting.  In this monthly meeting the men of the church would meet to make decisions for the church.  We had so many questions.  Do we have authority to spend “the Lord’s money in this way?  Can we help that family,  after all they aren’t members of the church?  Who will clean the building this month? Who will cut the grass?  Can we let members who have facial hair and no tie wait on the table? So many projects, so many decisions, so much to do!
   As a young preacher I have sat in on  many elder and deacon meetings.  Who will take care of the upkeep of the building?  Who will count the attendance?  Who will oversee the classes?  Who will take care of the order of worship?  So many projects, so many decisions, so much to do!
   While serving as an elder in the church I have participated in many important meetings.  Who shall we delegate to count contribution?  Which projects are worthy of our financial support?  Who can we get to hold our meeting this year?  Not to forget the effort that must be put forth to make sure that brethren get along with one another.  So many projects, so many decisions, so much to do!
   As a mature preacher I hear so much in the brotherhood.  Can we fellowship congregation A?  After all they are progressive. Can we use brother B? I heard that he spoke to the liberal church across town.  Be careful about the preachers who come out of the “Southern School of Preaching”.  They bind things God’s Word doesn’t bind you know.  Have you heard about ole brother “so and so”?  He has gone off the deep end.  So many projects, so many decisions, so much to do.
   The Pharisees in Jesus day were full of “God projects”.  Our Messiah had to deal with these people on a regular basis.  Yet we never see Jesus losing focus concerning the things His Father had sent Him to do.  Is it possible that we have so many “God projects” we lose sight of the Lord? So many projects, so many decisions, so much to do. 

Posted by onedaysoon at 20:55:53 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Friday, February 1, 2008

A Statement of Purpose

  

My work as a minister of the gospel is to help bring individuals into a loving relationship with the Lord through obediance of the Gospel.  My intent is to help those individuals continue to build that relationship as they live their lives on earth.

   It is my constant desire to build up the body of Christ.  A primary direction  will be preaching a positive message that allows the local church to be excited about who they are and the mission they hold.  I stress the need for our reliance on the Spirit who dwells in the heart of each and every Christian.
 
   We continue to be Christians under construction as the Spirit molds us.  Romans 8:29 allows us insight into the direction God holds for those who are His followers.  God has predestined Christians to be conformed to the likeness of His son.  As a minister part of my responsibility is to nurture this transformation through timely and appropriate preaching.
 
   In order that the local church function properly each Christian must find his or her place in the body.  Each must use the talents God has given them.  As a church matures the Christians who make up that body also grow.  A mature congregation finds room for all those who worship and work with her.  As a preacher I encourage the participation of all members in that body.

   The life blood of any church is her ability to reproduce.  Unless a church is evangelizing that church is dying.  Before any church will evangelize its members must be excited about who they are.  Without this excitement we will be nothing more than a loose knit group whose main purpose is self seeking.  Through positive motivational preaching bound together with the right example and direction churches can be vibrant and growing.  My intent is to build just such a congregation filled with  Christians who are willing ambassadors for our Lord and Master.

Posted by onedaysoon at 05:21:56 | Permalink | Comments (5)