This message is based on Jude, verses 20-25. The focus of these verses is on being a Faithful Church.

Jude
How to Be a Faithful Church

20  But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit;  21  keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.  22  And have mercy on those who doubt;  23  save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.  24  Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,  25  to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

The letter to Jude is a warning to the church to remain faithful in the midst of apostasy.  Many had turned away from the truth and embraced false teaching.  Just as in our day, in the early days of the New Testament there were many false teachers.  So most of the book is a warning about these teachers.  But the end of the book gives three instructions to us about how to remain faithful to God.  If we hold to these teachings, we will be a faithful church.

If you want to be a member of a faithful church you must . . .
I.    Guard Your Own HEART    (vv. 20-21).
20  But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit;  21  keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

If each of us would guard our own heart, first and foremost, we would have the foundation of faithfulness we need to then bear  each others burdens.  We are a body of believers, but we are made up of individual parts.  Ephesians 4:15  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,  16  from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. This passage in Ephesians shows us that everything is grounded in Christ.  He is the head of the body, and he holds it all together.  But we also find here that the body is only at its best when every part is working properly.  We all know the reality of that truth in our own physical bodies.  If you have a pulled muscle in your lower back, it effects your ability and comfort in every way.  I remember as a child I used to often get sores inside my mouth.  Fever blisters is what the doctor called them.  I remember how bad they hurt and how even though it was such a small part of the body, it affected everything.  I don’t think this means that we must all be perfect people in order to function as a holy church.  The context of Jude is false teaching and cold-heartedness toward God.  Our goal then is not perfect actions but a life of love for God.  The best way to guard your heart from the schemes of the devil is to give him no room in your heart.  The best way to avoid sin is not to think about not sinning, it is to get on with living in righteousness by the power of Christ.   If we focus on what we should not do, we are sure to do it.  What God calls us to instead is to focus on doing what we know is right.  Build yourselves up in your most holy faith.  There is a race and a rest in the Christian life.  It is both.  It is not just a rest.  We are going to see at the end of the passage today that there is grace available to us for the doing of what God calls us to but there is also something for us to do, namely to lay hold of the things God has given us for life and godliness.  I believe the Bible is opposed to any view of faith that says faith is passive, a kind of mystical submission that causes me to stand still.  There is a place for being still and knowing God.  But there is also an active aspect to guarding our hearts.  This passage tells us three ways to guard our hearts.  We are to build ourselves up in faith.  There are several practical ways to do this.  Live in the Bible.  Start by turning of the TV for 10 minutes a night and substituting it with the Bible.  The go to 15 minutes, then to 20, then to 30.  It will not be as entertaining at first as that episode of your favorite show, but in time it will become a delight to your soul.  You may say, I am too old to change,  I am too set in my ways.  Well, I say if your old you’re the best candidate for change, because statistically speaking you are in line to meet the Lord soon.  Now’s the time to get ready.  We also guard our hearts through prayer.  Prayer in the Holy Spirit.  I think that means praying with an eye toward what pleases God and what will build up His kingdom.  There is a wonderful peace that comes from submitting our spirits to God.  We also build ourselves up in faith by keeping ourselves in the love of God.  We need to keep the cross central in our lives.  We need to think often of the great love God has shown to us in shedding His blood for our forgiveness.  We need to keep ourselves in the love of God by realizing that God is not out to get us but is profoundly on our side.  So we are called to avoid apostasy by guarding our hearts.

The second way to be a faithful church is to . . .
II.    Be Your Brother’s KEEPER    (vv. 22-23).
22  And have mercy on those who doubt;  23  save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

We are sustained by the mercy of Christ and so Jude calls us to extend mercy to others.  I am always concerned for the salvation of people whose character and demeanor is unmerciful.  I am not the judge and our differences in personality and background can make for huge differences in our actions, but it always raises a red flag with me if I see someone in the church who demonstrates little mercy toward others.  The reason this raises a red flag for me is simple . . . If they can not show mercy to others, how could they have understood God’s mercy toward them?  The overriding way we act as our brother’s keeper in the body of Christ is to mercifully move our fellow believers toward fullness in Christ.  The most loving thing we can do for our fellow believers is to spur them on toward love and good deeds.  We need to encourage each other in several ways.  This passage tells us three ways.  One way we can encourage each other is to be gentle with people who doubt.  This ought to be a place where questions about God are not discounted or dismissed.  If our faith is not one which can withstand penetrating questions we have to wonder whether it is a faith worth having.  If we can not answer tough questions adequately, we are little better than those who claim spiritual power from crystals or claim to have been visited by UFO’s.  Now there are some tough questions we can’t answer and that’s OK.  We have to live with some sense of mystery, but it is not an either-or proposition.  Life is not all mystery and it is not all certainty.  To live by faith means to unwaveringly trust God about those things which are clearly revealed and humbly depend on God for wisdom in those things which are not as clear to our finite and sin-scarred minds.  So when people have doubts, let’s allow them to express them and then let’s work together toward biblical solutions.  If we push people into believing a certain way about something, then there is always doubt about the reality of a person’s faith.

The second way we can build others up in faith is to warn them.  This is the idea of snatching them from the flames.  We may need to warn unbelievers that they are destined for separation from God unless they trust him.  To those who are walking in false doctrine we may need to stand against false doctrine and for the truth.  Warning people is not often fun, but it is necessary.   We not only need to stand against false belief, but we also need to stand against false behavior.  But again we are told to mix fear with mercy.  And we are told to hate sin.  Even the garment stained by sin.  We should build up fellow believers by living a lifestyle of purity and holiness.

The final way we can be a faithful church is to . . .
III.    Entrust All to the GRACE and POWER of God        (vv.24-25).
24  Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,  25  to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

The bottom line is that it is only the grace and power of God that can keep us from falling and present us blameless before God with great joy.  So as we work as hard as we can to know God, to make God known and to build up His church, we do all with the power of God that works so graciously within us. The Bible  points to this idea in several places . . .

Ephesians 2:8  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  9  not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We have been saved by grace apart from works in order that we may have power to live a life of good works, which was God’s plan all along.  Why should we care about good works?  Not as a way to be saved, but because good works in the power of Christ glorify God.  Because good works are good for others as we are an example and encouragement before them.  Because good works are good for us, as walking according to God’s design is better than walking away from God’s design.

Philippians 2:12  Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,  13  for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

This verse sums up the truth about what walking with God is really like . . .  We work out our salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in us to accomplish His will.  This verse brings to mind my favorite verse which captures the interplay between the power of God and my laying hold of the power of God by faith.

Colossians 1:29  For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

I work with the power that works within me.  I work.  But it is the grace and power of God that gives me strength to work.  No one can come to Christ apart from the grace and power of God and no one can remain in Christ and grow in Christ apart from the grace and power of God.  Grace is always first and foremost and my only work in a human sense is to lay hold of what God has given me.

In reality, Christianity is not a race or a rest, it is a restful race.  It is rooted in what Jesus said in Matthew 11, “Come to me and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me and you will find rest for your souls.” The yoke is an instrument of labor.  Life is work.  The Christian life is work.  But the Christian life lived properly is the work of a soul at rest.   The greatest athletes make what is strenuous look graceful.  Joe Dimaggio was a great outfielder but was said to almost never dive for a ball.  He was such a good athlete and such a student of the game that he was almost always in position to make the catch.  Have you ever noticed great pro golfers on TV?  It looks like they are taking a practice swing and they just belt it 300 yards.  So as we seek to be a faithful church, let us run the restful race, carefree in the care of God.

Acts 8:1-8
How God Advances and Builds His Kingdom

February 5, 2012

We live in the age of Wal-Mart. Buy up huge inventory, sell it cheap, get into as many places as you can, crush the competition and rise to the top. It works well in a capitalistic country like ours. Unfortunately, many people in our day are applying Wal-Mart principles to the church. We are seeing in our day all sorts of talk of church growth and this strategy and that strategy and much of what the church does in our day has more to do with imitating Wal-Mart than with following Jesus. It’s a hard trap to avoid. Great numbers call out to us. The outward appearance of the ministries we see on TV tempt us to think that because it is big, it must be right. But when we look at the 8th chapter of Acts, we see a very different reality. Yes God advances and builds His kingdom, but He does it in two deeply counter-cultural ways.

I.    God Advances His Kingdom Through PERSECUTION  (8:1-3).
1 And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
2  Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3  But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

The early Church Father Tertullian said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,” and in Acts chapter 8, his words prove true. The blood of Stephen, whose death had been approved by Saul, had scarce dried up on the ground before the crowd which had put him to death turned upon the church in Jerusalem at large, to persecute them. Up until now in the book of Acts all the ministry has taken place in Jerusalem. The church was a mix of Greek-speaking and Hebrew-speaking Jews who had put their trust in Jesus as Messiah. But in Acts 1:8, Jesus had told His disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” The early church had certainly experienced the power of the Holy Spirit and they were witnessing in Jerusalem, but they had not yet ventured outside the city to make Jesus known.
So it is no accident that Luke tells us that the church in Jerusalem was scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. God used this persecution to move forward His plan for the Church.
I wonder if the greatest thing that holds us back as Christians is not the schemes of the devil or outright sin, but simply a desire for comfort?
Wilbur Reese wrote a poem many years ago that always convicts me when I hear it.

“I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don’t want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want the warmth of the womb not a new birth.
I want about a pound of the eternal in a paper sack.
I’d like to buy $3 worth of God, please.”

Jesus warned us in the parable of the four soils, that some fall away during persecution because they have no root. But in our country, I think our danger is to be like the third soil, of which Jesus said in Mark 4:19, “the cares of the world, and the delight in riches, and the desire for other things enter in and choke the word and it proves unfruitful.” Is it possible that you have come to church for decades and not grown an inch spiritually, not because all your pastors were dolts, or the other members were so bad, but because you’ve had an idolatrous heart set on comfort rather than conformity to the image of Christ?
In America, I think prosperity has been far more devastating to the church than persecution. When we face persecution, we tend to get up in arms, like something unusual is happening to us. But Jesus told us to expect persecution, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.” “Don’t be surprised when the world hates you.” But when we enjoy prosperity, what do we say? “Oh, the Lord is really blessing me!” And we don’t realize that for some of us, the very last thing our souls need is more money or a nicer car or a vacation home. The Lord Jesus tells us to be very wary of wealth. He tells us its hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom. But He tells us to rejoice when we are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. So we’ve got it exactly backwards.  God advances His kingdom through persecution and hardship and suffering and He doesn’t need your money to do it. The greatest works of God in the world this morning are probably not happening in the shiny multimillion dollar churches. Most of the great work of God in this world is probably taking place in simple places among simple people who are sold out in their devotion to God. Somewhere, a house church huddles together in China, and God is there. Somewhere in the desert of a Muslim land, a little pocket of Christians meet, and God meets with them. We’ve got it exactly wrong. We’ve got to stop seeing with worldly eyes and begin to see things from a God-centered view.
Living faithfully when we are being blessed makes very little difference to others. Our testimony does not shine when everything is going great. Anybody can be loving toward others when everything is going well for them. But when the diagnosis comes, when the loss happens, when I am dismissed for believing God, when I hold to biblical truth even when it hurts, when I don’t walk in step with the world because I walk with God, then my life begins to make a difference. When the church faces persecution it is then that God often really works. Have you ever tried to stamp out a fire? The harder you jump on it, the more you stir it up, the fire gets scattered and the fire spreads. That’s what happened when the church was persecuted in Acts and that’s what will happen with us when we face persecution.

But while God advances His kingdom through persecution,
II.    God Builds His Kingdom Through PREACHING and POWERFUL Works    (8:4-8).
4  Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.  5  Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.
6  And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. 7  For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8  So there was much joy in that city.
Now I love verse 4. Those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Who were those who were scattered? Not the apostles, they were back in Jerusalem. No, these were the everyday church members, the believers who had been in Jerusalem. When they were scattered, they went out preaching the word. Now this is exciting for a couple of reasons. First, they didn’t let persecution get them down. And you’ve got to remember, this persecution was not a little slap on the wrist. Livelihoods were being lost, homes were being left, in some cases families were probably being separated. So they were enduring all that, yet they weren’t turning bitter. So many people in our culture ignore God for twenty years and then when one little bad thing happens to them they shake their fist at God and scream “why?” But these people, they’re losing everything, and their response: to preach the Word.
The second thing that excites me is that this preaching was coming from everyday Christians and not from the apostles. It’s good to have elders in the church who labor in teaching and preaching. This is exactly what the New Testament teaches. But it is also good to have members of the church who are going out and making Jesus known. There is no special degree that is needed to go tell people about Jesus. No special wisdom. Just a love for God and a love for people and an understanding of what God has done for us in Christ. You can share the gospel with your child. You can share the gospel with your sick relative. You can share the gospel with that person who comes to your door. You can share the gospel with that neighbor or co-worker. You don’t need to call in a pastor to be the designated gospel sharer.     But the only way you’ll share the gospel the way the church in Acts did is if your heart is overflowing with love for God because of who He is and all He’s done for you. So far from taking up another program or coming up with another idea to get Christians to evangelize, we need to focus instead on cultivating a life with God that is so focused on His glory and goodness that we just live there. And out of the overflow of that life we share with others. We become like the apostles we saw earlier in the book of Acts, “We can’t help but testify to what we have seen and heard.” We can get so caught up in the busyness of our own lives or the activities of church life that we forget the fundamental things, like sharing the gospel and reading the Word and praying and walking with other believers through life, and leading our children to walk with God. We are intentionally a church without a truckload of ministries and activities because we believe your primary calling is to be a witness to your family, friends and to all those in your life. We support missions because we want to support the gospel going into the world, and we provide small groups through Sunday School and Men’s and Ladies’ groups to help us help each other to grow, but other than that, we want to keep our activities at church lean. There’s nothing wrong with class parties or picnics or other things, but we want to avoid the kind of church culture where you’re in the church building four or five nights a week. You need to preach and model the gospel for your family and you need to reach out to your friends. So let’s reach out. If you’re saved, you can do it. God will give you what you need. God builds His kingdom this way.
And let’s remember the example of Philip and reach out to all peoples. Philip went to the Samaritans, a people the Jews hated. But Philip, who had lived as a Jew before trusting in Jesus, now went to them with the Gospel. Why? Because the Gospel breaks down barriers. The gospel is the great lifter and the great leveler. There is no place for racism in the church of Jesus Christ. No one should look down on another because they are white or black or Hispanic or Asian.
There is no place for sexism in the church. While there are biblical distinctions in roles for men and women in the church and home, women haven’t received less of the gospel, they are on equal footing in every way with men and should enjoy the blessings of spiritual life fully. And men, church is not something for the women, as if the hunting club or the lodge is for you and the church is for them. That’s a lie.
There is no place for economic barriers in the church. Those with less should not be looked down on by those with more. Those with more should not be regarded with suspicion. What joy it brings to me to see how the gospel can free us from all of these prejudices.
Finally, though sometimes faithfulness to the gospel brings persecution to us, ultimately the gospel is good news that brings great joy. Did you notice verse 8? “So there was much joy in that city.” God was doing mighty works as the Word was preached. I have said on several occasions that I believe the outpouring of miracles in the book of Acts is something that mostly has to do with the original establishment of the church and the unfolding of God’s plan for human history, so that we should probably not expect a similar outpouring in our day. But with that being the case, I don’t want to be heard saying that the consistent preaching of the gospel does nothing. I believe real preaching of the gospel when heard carefully and applied, as the Samaritans did, does bring real results. That’s really important. You can’t put it all on the preacher. People have to have ears to hear. So if people you share with don’t want to hear, don’t be discouraged, keep going until you find listening ears. A gospel preached faithfully and heeded will result in the salvation of souls, the maturing of lives, the restoration of relationships and sometimes amazing answers to prayer.
As the angel said at the birth of Jesus, the gospel is “good news of great joy for all the people.”
So today, I pray that if you’ve been seeing upside down, looking at persecution as a curse and comfort as a goal, I pray you would change your perspective. If you’ve been seeing the gospel as an obligation for gaining eternal life and not as a gift that brings joy, I pray your heart would change. God builds and advances His kingdom through hardship of persecution and the faithful preaching of His Word and this is what it means to be on mission with God.

Over the last few years, several popular books have come out which have made me feel a little uncomfortable, and not in a good way. These are books which focus on the afterlife through the experiences of those who are supposed to have seen heaven or hell. Now these kinds of books have been around for years but in recent years these books have been capturing the imagination of a wider audience in the American church. The most popular of these books has been Heaven is for Real. This book chronicles the experiences of little Colton Burpo, the son of a pastor who has vivid recollections of the afterlife after he comes back from a near-death experience.

Now this article is not a review of this book. I believe Tim Challies does an excellent job reviewing the book (http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/heaven-is-for-real) so I won’t repeat his work here. And I know I am a little late to the game, since the book has been out for a couple of years, but my concern is pastoral and, having heard of some in church life who have recently read this book, I began to think more carefully about a response. I’m ok being irrelevant to the current hot topics of evangelism if I can address this topic in a way that will be helpful to even one person who may have read these kinds of books.

So what is the problem with Heaven is for Real? I believe that the book is harmful for two reasons which are closely related to each other. First, Heaven is for Real feeds our desire to uphold the sufficiency of personal experience over the sufficiency of Scripture. Now I am not saying that Colton’s experiences are false. I don’t know whether what he says happened truly took place (I have my doubts for many of the reasons cited in the Challies review). Nor do I know whether the experiences of Don Piper or Bill Wiese or others are true. But whether there experiences are true or not is not the real issue. The issue is the elevation of their experiences to the level of Scripture. When someone says to me, “That story taught me so much about heaven!” I get alarmed. We just can’t take the personal experiences of people in our day and let them supplement and even replace the Scriptures. God has given us in the Bible all the revelation of heaven he desired us to have. This revelation is absolutely trustworthy. I am concerned about a Christian culture that needs the visions of a four-year old to be excited about heaven. It tells me that either we haven’t been reading our Bibles enough or what we have been reading has not sufficiently penetrated our hearts to generate the excitement which should accompany reading about heaven in the Scriptures. We have the Word of God, inspired, authoritative, and sufficient. As the old hymn says, “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What more can He say, than to you He hath said? To you who, for refuge, to Jesus hath fled.” The Word of God shouts that heaven is for real. The rage over Heaven is for Real is really just an indicator of how we elevate personal experience over the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. And of course, this has consequences which are far worse than reading a book. When I elevate personal experience over Scripture, I am really free to do whatever I want, because my controlling authority is my own experience. This is one of the ways Christians end up doing outrageous things the Bible would never sanction.

The second ugly thing Heaven is for Real teaches us is that we have a craving for the dramatic and a disdain for the ordinary. There is a sense in which our craving for the dramatic is probably part of the image of God in us, in that we long for perfection and blessing and glory, but our fallen nature often twists and perverts this good desire. We are awash in a Christian culture which celebrates the flashy, the flamboyant, the celebrity and the apparently spectacular while ignoring the biblical truth that the Christian life is not characterized by these things. Many Christians read Heaven is for Real looking for affirmation. But what they are looking for is not affirmation that God is real or that the Bible is true, what they are looking for is affirmation that God is as spectacular as an iPad or the Super Bowl. Now of course, God is infinitely more spectacular than any of those things, but He doesn’t reveal His glory with trumpet blasts and flashy lights. There is a Day coming when He will go public like that (1 Thess. 4:13-18) but for now He declares His glory as Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer. His present glory is so broad and deep that sometimes we lose sight of it, but it finds its focus in the coming of the Son of God. In Jesus, we see God incarnate, His glory revealed. But in His ministry, what do we see? Humility, service, self-giving love, spiritual power through the preached word, works and miracles which point to the reality of the message. No book tours, no bluster, no competing with the world system for cultural influence. Just the way of suffering that leads to glory.

We don’t like to think this way about the Christian life. We don’t like the thought of taking up our cross daily and plodding along in simple faithfulness to our Suffering Servant and Risen King. How little pilgrim language do we hear in our sermons? We like to think of the Christian life as an unbroken string of miracles leading to greater and greater prosperity and an unending panorama of mountaintop experiences. If large numbers of professing Christians didn’t think of Christian living in this way, Benny Hinn would be out of a job by morning. But he won’t be, and Heaven is for Real will not be the last book to plug in to our insatiable desire for mountaintop moments which, in the ultimate religious perversion, we can use to justify our independence from God’s authority.

I read an excellent article this morning that I wanted to pass on. Kevin DeYoung discusses the issue of measuring numbers in the church. He rightly says that we are prone to pass judgment on large churches and that we are just as likely to dismiss small churches as irrelevant. DeYoung advocates a balanced approach that would take away much of the anxiety many believers feel over the numbers in our churches.

Here’s the link . . .

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2012/01/31/numbers-in-the-church-is-bigger-badder-or-better/

One of the things I have noticed in the last two presidential elections, is the massive number of debates leading up to the nomination for either party. These debates serve to winnow the field of candidates and sometimes they provide pivotal moments in the race, propelling a candidate to the top. Kevin DeYoung has written an excellent article about the debates and what they tell us about our country. The observations he makes are outstanding.

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2012/01/25/what-the-debates-say-about-america/

The Holocaust is often called the most horrible tragedy of the 20th century.  At least 6 million Jews were exterminated under the Nazi regime led by Adolph Hitler.  But the 20th century was filled with other atrocities as well.  At least 10 million Russians were exterminated under the leadership of Joseph Stalin.  Three million Cambodians died in the killing fields in the late 1970’s.  One million Rwandans were killed in the Genocide in that African nation in the 1990’s.  It is likely that in China at least 3 million and perhaps up to 10 million citizens were killed in the transition to communism in the 40’s and 50’s.  If you add all these atrocities together you get a staggering 33 million lives lost in the last century due to the oppressive actions of one person to another.
But since the Supreme Court declared it legal in 1973, we as a nation have legally permitted the lives of over 45 million babies to be taken by abortion in the United States.  By sheer numbers more than the holocaust, more than the purges of Stalin and Mao, more than Cambodia and Rwanda, more lives than all of these combined.
I am thankful that we as Americans have, many times in our history, stood up against long-standing injustice and inhumanity.  I am thankful that we are the nation of Abraham Lincoln, who stood up to the scourge of slavery on the principle of the founding fathers, that all men, including black men who had been originally imported for their labor, are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights: the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  I am proud to be in a nation that came to realize in the aftermath of slavery “separate but equal” policies of race were no way to live as a people.  I am thankful to live in a nation that listened to Martin Luther King’s cry that we be judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character.  And I am thankful for that the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision are just one week apart on the calendar, for we need a new dream in America.
And so, because we have done it before, I have a dream today.  I dream of a new birth of liberty for those not yet born.  I pray for and long for a new day where life is upheld in the womb and cherished outside the womb.  Will we be the generation that puts an end to this national nightmare?  I have a dream.
The case against abortion is very simple. God has commanded us,  “you shall not murder.”  Our laws make murder illegal. And abortion is murder.  It is the taking of human life, not in self-defense or act of war, but by act of personal choice.  And our culture by and large knows it is murder.  Even now there are laws on the books that say that if a pregnant woman is murdered the offender will be charged with two counts of murder, one for the woman and one for the baby.  So our laws already acknowledge that the unborn baby is a life worth protecting, but through some great mental gymnastics and effort to obscure this truth, we convince ourselves that this issue is about a woman’s choice and not about a baby’s  life.  We have now groaned under almost 40 years of injustice for the unborn.
Through the centuries the Church around the world stood up for life.  In ancient Rome both abortion and exposure of infants was common.  But Christians stood against these practices and often took in babies they found abandoned.  Even now Christians in America do great things for orphans and the needy and those affected by disasters around the world, but in many cases we have remained silent when it comes to this fundamental issue of the life of the unborn.  We are afraid of being too political.   And I will be the first to acknowledge that many politicians in both parties are quick to use abortion as a political football to rally their supporters.  But this is not a political issue, it is an issue of life and whether we, as people made in the image of God, have the right to take the lives of other people made in the image of God.  It is profoundly a human rights issue.
Some will object that the aborted baby is not a human being but is a fetus, just a collection of developing tissue.  This is in fact an issue that the Supreme Court side-stepped in the Roe v. Wade decision, as the justices wrote,  “We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to an answer.”  This all sounds so humble but in reality it is illogical, for if the justices were really not sure when life begins, how could they possibly have opened the door for legal abortion?  The only way the Supreme Court should have ruled for abortion is if it could have been demonstrated definitively that the fetus was not a human life.  This could not be shown, therefore they gave this kind of non-committal answer.  But think about it, would you use this kind of criteria for any other kind of life or death situation?  If you were a hunter in the woods and you heard a sound, would you turn and fire if you were not sure it was a deer?  Of course not.  You’re going to be sure.  As one writer says,  “A hunter who hears rustling in the bushes shouldn’t fire until he knows what is in the bushes. Likewise, a Court which doesn’t know when life begins, should not declare open season on the unborn.”
In reality, there is no doubt that the baby in the womb is a human life from the moment of conception.  How do we know this?  Well, because we can see the end result when the pregnancy is completed.  What comes out of the womb is not a rabbit or a cow or a tree or a cat.  The end result of every successful delivery is human life.  The courts and the politicians know this deep down, so in the years after Roe v. Wade further arguments were made which separated personhood from humanity.  The argument was made, “Yes the baby is a human even from conception, but because the baby is not fully formed and is totally dependent on the mother, the baby is then a part of the mother. Therefore, because the baby is not yet a full person, abortion should be legal, since the baby is at this early stage really just a part of the mother.”  But we see the slippery slope of this argument don’t we?  How do you measure personhood?  And if you can’t measure it with absolute accuracy, you have no right to take a baby’s life.  And in fact, the baby is human and grows as an individual from the start, becoming more fully formed every day.  Babies have a heartbeat within the first 18 days, before most women even know they are pregnant.  Babies have been recorded as having brainwaves at about 40 days.  As one writer has said,  “If the absence of a brainwave indicates death, why will pro-abortionists not accept that the presence of a brainwave is a confirmation of life?”  At 11 weeks, all body systems are present and functioning.  This is a person from the very beginning.  As to the slippery slope, do we not see that the same argument used to deny personhood to the unborn was used to deny freedom to slaves 160 years ago and to perpetuate the separate but equal dogma the Civil Rights movement fought so hard against?  The Dred Scott decision allowed slavery to continue on the basis that the slaves, though human, did not possess full personhood under the law.  Unborn babies are our generation’s oppressed people in need of emancipation. So, while we should never let go of the King dream of racial equality, we should also dream the dream of life for the unborn.
Some will object that abortion must be legal in cases of rape or incest or if the mother’s life is in danger.  But a 2004 survey tells us that only 1.5 % of abortions in the U.S. fall under this category of rape and incest.  And in any case, how do two wrongs make a right?  What did the baby who was conceived through rape or incest, have to do with those terrible deeds?  Why punish a child for the actions of others?  Why not instead have the baby and then put it up for adoption?  Over a million and a half couples in America today are waiting to adopt a child.  The mother’s life is threatened by a pregnancy in only a miniscule number of cases. How can we justify millions of abortions for the sake of a handful of people whose lives are threatened through their pregnancy? With the recent story of the baby who was born weighing 9 ounces, does it not make more sense in a high risk pregnancy to at least attempt to bring the baby into the world rather than opt for abortion? All measures short of murdering the baby should be taken to protect the mother’s life and in our day of Caesarean sections and advanced medical technology, mothers should be able to be kept safe and life in the womb should be given a chance for life outside the womb.
It is time to take a stand for the unborn.  The Bible commands it, our own consciences commend it, many present laws support it and the founding impulses of our country demand it.  We as Christians must care first and foremost about the gospel, bringing the message of eternal life through Jesus Christ to the world.  But we must also be concerned with the injustices of the world.  While we recognize that it is a sinful world and that we can not stop all injustice, we must not turn a blind eye in those situations where we can speak out for biblical truth and work for the good of others. Justice for the unborn is not the only one of these issues, but it is an exceedingly important issue.

But as we work for justice for the unborn, we must not use the same weapon of violence that the unborn suffer at the hands of those who take their lives.  There is no place in our efforts for attacking abortion doctors or bombing abortion clinics or carrying on with other efforts that use physical threats or violence to attempt to shut down abortion access to others.  Nevertheless, let us not shy away from working to end this great national tragedy just because a few people have worked to end it in the wrong way.
We can pray, we can write to our political leaders, we can participate in marches, we can work at a Crisis Pregnancy Center, we can donate to the Center, we can personally counsel our loved ones and friends, we can speak up for life in the public square, we can adopt, showing that we care not only for life in the womb but for life outside the womb.  There are a multitude of things we can do to promote a culture where life is valued and abortion is opposed.  The question is, will we?  Will we be the generation that stands up and says, “Enough!”  Our cause is just, our work is good and God-honoring.  And the tide is turning.  A survey in 2009 showed that for the first time since the survey had been taken, a majority of Americans classify themselves as pro-life, 49%-45%.  Dozens of life-affirming pieces of legislation have been brought forth in states all over the country in recent years. There are encouraging signs all around, but more must be done and we must have the courage to stand against this assault to the fundamental right to human life.
I pray that the day will come when little girls and boys will again be protected in our country, from conception into childhood, so that they can grow up to enjoy the blessings of liberty.  I have a dream that one day we will live in an America where every child will have the right to life.

Each week before our Sunday morning worship service, many of our younger adults meet for a class called Bible Application. We study a topic each week and then meet on Sunday to discuss it together.

This week’s we are supposed to be studying what the Bible teaches about disciplining our children. So I was interested this morning to find two articles on line which dealt with this very topic. Christianity Today wrote an article about spanking and then Denny Burk responded. So if you are in the class or you are just reading about these things, here is some food for thought on this topic for your Tuesday . . .

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/january/editorial-spanking-abuse.html

http://www.dennyburk.com/christianity-today-goes-on-the-record-against-spanking/

4 Jan

We often hear the phrase “preaching the gospel” but have you ever thought that the act of preaching is itself a picture of the gospel? Ray Ortlund explains, from a recent interview . . .

“Preaching not only communicates the Gospel, it exemplifies the Gospel. A preacher stands up, who is just as needy as anyone else, but God has called him. And God has called the people to sit and do nothing, but just listen. Just receive it. That’s a metaphor of the gospel itself. We just listen, sit there listen and believe, just receive it. And that’s the big burner at the center of the church.”

In our culture, which chafes at the idea of sitting under authority, the idea Ortlund describes is not a popular one. People don’t like the idea that they should just sit there and let somebody else talk to them for 30 minutes or more. In our day, people want to be participants. Many people will check out of church if they are not really involved in a lot of things in the church. There are even some people who will come to a Sunday School class, where they can participate, but not to worship, where they are just called to listen.

I believe the unwillingness to hear preaching evident in some circles is deeply related to the above quote from Ortlund. We don’t see hearing the sermon as a picture of the Gospel, which we received with empty hands of faith. Further, there is a tendency to look at the preacher as the authority rather than the Scripture he preaches.

So this Sunday, and every Sunday you sit and listen to the sermon, you are not doing something useless. You are living a picture of the gospel, as God’s Word feeds you.

Andy Rooney was a professional curmudgeon. Every Sunday night on 60 Minutes, he would rail on all things cultural for a few minutes with his inimitable nasally voice. From death to taxes to Lady Gaga, Rooney covered it all with wit and sarcasm. He was America’s grumpy uncle and many people loved him for it. But for all his fame and humor, Andy Rooney was a lousy role model for Christians to follow in his approach to life. Yet, as I look into my own heart and out across the evangelical world, I see evidence of many “Andy Rooney” Christians, believers whose approach to life is more like the crusty commentator than the Christ they profess to follow.

As we enter a new year, how can we make a fresh start as believers and avoid being just another talking head? Here are a few suggestions.

1. Don’t be a critic. Spiritual discernment is important, but many people use discernment as an excuse to nurture a critical spirit. If you are spending your time in church evaluating everything about the service, you may be more a critic than a worshiper. If your first impulse with a new person is to size them up, to determine whether they fit in with your view of life, you may be more a critic than a friend. Don’t make people jump through hoops to earn your love. God loved you when you were His enemy. By the power of the Holy Spirit, you can love people who frustrate you, who confuse you, who disappoint you.

2. Don’t be a cynic. The sky is not falling. God reigns. He is saving people, even today. His Word is going out into all the earth. Our problems are great. The world is a sinful place. The church in America can be a place that baffles us as we see so much frivolity, entertainment, and fluff and so little gospel. It is easy to allow these challenges to push us down into a very small, cynical mindset. As a cynic, we begin to take potshots at everything and everyone we don’t fully agree with. Don’t get me wrong, false teachers deserve criticism. But many who are not false teachers are often lumped in with those who are false teachers in the mind of a cynic. If a preacher or teacher doesn’t line up with you on every point of doctrine, don’t write him off. God may have important things to say to you through such a teacher. Belief in a sovereign God should make us optimistic rather than pessimistic.

3. Don’t be conceited. You have nothing to boast in that God did not give you. You were saved, not through anything in you, but entirely through the mercy of God. Your growth in holiness is not owing to your innate goodness but to the work of the Spirit and the Word in your life. Your theological system does not make you superior to anyone else. There are godly people all over the world who can not articulate their theology very well but live it far better than most of us because they live by what they see in Scripture and they walk with God. We need to acknowledge that God can use greatly in His service those who don’t agree with us on every point of doctrine. We need to be thankful for all in whom God is working and for all people whom God is using in His service.

4. Be a Christian. Be a follower of Christ. Be known for what you love and proclaim more than for what you are against. Don’t be afraid to stand against sin or against false teaching, but don’t make it a hobby either. Get out there and seek to bless people with the life God has given you. Use the gifts God has given you to serve the body of Christ and to love the lost. Live in the Word and prayer. Love your family and encourage them spiritually most of all. Let joy, peace, humility and contentment overflow in your life as you identify with the cross, not with being a curmudgeon.

There was only one Andy Rooney. Let him rest in peace this year and get on with following your King.