Good Grief

And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed. Ezek 20:43

There is little our society abhors and avoids more than shame and guilt. The Bible knows no problem with shame and guilt, provided that they are induced by a biblically-informed awareness of our true evil nature. Our society shuns anything that represses what it calls “natural” urges or instincts. Scripture informs us that we are absolutely and totally corrupt and depraved; therefore we have much that should be repressed. Actually repressed is the wrong word. God does not intend that our evil nature simply be untreated so long as it is repressed, i.e., not acted upon.

Biblically informed guilt is proper and healthy. Paul writes, “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” 2 Cor. 7:10 Too often we are prone to feel sorry or repentant for the things we do, rather than for what we are.

The true believer will feel wretched when he considers the heinousness of his sins against a holy God. Whitefield told his listeners that if they had never felt as David did, saying, “For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me,” (Psalms 38:4), then they were deceiving themselves to think that they were true Christians. John Newton immortalized this sense of sin when he wrote the line, “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound; that saved a wretch like me.” It should worry us immensely if we have never felt this.

However, the believer will not be crushed under the weight of hopelessness. Rather he seeks deliverance from the remains of the resident corruption. Paul writes, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24) He longs to rid of all the taints of the Fall and to dwell in the pure light of God’s holy presence. Reading the very next verse (Romans 7:25 – “I thank God…”) tells us something else: The believer is thankful for every victory God grants him along the way.

Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better

Eccl 7:3

Remember Worldliness?

The credit for the idea behind this post comes from my Sunday school teacher, Dr. Beale. His grasp of the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament has been inspiring.

Close to the very end of the Bible we read these words: “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities” (Rev 18:4-5). The Bible practically ends on a theme that runs throughout Scripture.

We first encounter this command of God to His covenant people when God in Genesis 12: “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee (Gen 12:1). Looking back at the end of Genesis 11, we see that Abram was in Haran at this time. [And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. Gen 11:31] However Stephen tells us, “The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy land, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee (Acts 7:2-3). This means that when God tells Abram to come out of Haran this was the second time Abram had been so commanded: first in Ur, then in Haran.

You may have noticed that the English wording of Genesis is “Get out.” The Hebrew word used in this passage and in the others we will cite means “get out,” or “come out.” English uses two distinct words for the ideas of ‘come’ and “go.” In many other languages, Hebrew included, one word does the job.

We encounter this command to “come out” again in Genesis 19. In verses 14 through 16 we read, “And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law. And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.” Here we see conveying the command to his future sons-in-law, which they ignored to their own destruction. Later we see the angels forcefully make Lot obey the command because of God’s mercy on him.

In Exodus 6:6-9, the command is implicit. Moses relates to Israel God’s plan to cause them to ‘come out” of the Egyptian bondage they desperately wanted to escape, yet the passage concludes by stating that the children of Israel refuse to hearken unto Moses.

Again this theme surfaces in Isaiah. The Lord declares through the prophet, “Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD” (Isaiah 52:11).

Once more we read, “My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD” (Jer. 51:45).

Lest we think that this is merely some Old Testament motif whereby God commands His people to leave physical locations that He intends to judge, Paul clearly applies this to God’s covenant people in the New Testament when he writes, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you (2 Cor 6:14-17).

The New Testament therefore illuminates the true intent of the Old Testament warnings. They are warnings against spiritual adultery, i.e., worldliness. One thinks of Jesus’ words to the Disciples in John 15:19. Also 1 Corinthians 5:9, 10 comes to mind. We are in this world, but we are to NOT BE OF IT in any sense of those words.

I now return to the title of this post: What Ever Happened To Worldliness. When I was a child, I heard countless warnings against worldliness. Such warnings were almost exclusively directed as certain behaviors, such as drinking, smoking, cussing, etc. I hear no such warnings today. It may be argued that drinking an occasional glass of wine does not make one worldly, but surely worldliness has not become an obsolete category. Perhaps we have so assimilated the world’s mindset and values that the distinction between sacred and secular has been blurred beyond recognition. The world’s values so permeate the Evangelical Christianity of our day that we can’t even define worldliness anymore. Here is the definition of worldliness my Sunday school teacher gave, which is actually a quote from David Wells: Worldliness is what any society does to make sin appear normal and righteousness seem strange.

That’s something to think about, isn’t it? Sin seems so normal to us anymore that we don’t even flinch when our theologians and pastors sweep aside God’s commands with a sleight of hand that would make a magician jealous. Every day I hear discussions about whether the Bible really forbids homosexuality or fornication. Every day I hear profanity pour forth from the mouths of professing Christians. This is not pietism on my part, friends; it is a call to “Come out” from the world lest we be polluted and defiled by her sins.

Doctrine Is Supposed To Divide.

We have all heard the familiar refrain, “Doctrine divides.” I think this is true, but I deny that it is a bad thing. Doctrine is supposed to divide. It is supposed to sift us out and show who among us is walking in intentional error. Whenever heresy or schism is spoken of in the Bible, it is always implies that the schismatics were intentionally deviating from the doctrine handed down to them.

What about love? There is no love in letting a person live in error. It is not loving to let someone drag unsuspecting souls into damnable heresies because we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

The simple fact is: whenever someone appeals to “love” against doctrine, they are betraying their secret belief that doctrine is unimportant. This is simply the Osteen-esque idea that as long as someone is sincere and tries to be nice and smile they can get into heaven, regardless of what they believe. Away with such unity!

In the words of Martin Luther:

“Just as in the days of the apostles, so at this day we are forced to hear from certain denominations that we (by our obstinacy to the truth) do offend against love and unity in the churches, because we reject their doctrine. It would be better (they say) that we should let it pass, especially since the doctrine in dispute is what they call ‘non-essential’. And, therefore, (they say) to stir up so great a discord and contention in the church over ‘one or two doctrines’ (and those not the most important ones) is ‘unfruitful’ and unnecessary. To this I reply: Cursed be that love and unity which cannot be preserved except at the peril of the Word of God!”

Thomas Goodwin on Apostles

“I hear there are apostles abroad, at least those that say there are to be apostles still in the Church, and to the end of the world; and those that affirm it are not of the Romish party only, who make the popedom a perpetual apostleship, but of those who would be in all other things most contrary unto the Pope. To refute whom, this is here sufficient, that the apostles’ call is to be ‘by the (immediate) will of God,’ as hath been opened in Acts i. You read that when Judas was dead, all the eleven apostles could not have chosen another apostle; yea, they would never have thought of adding another, had not God by a prophecy said, ‘Let another take his bishopric,’ (and he quoteth a Psalm to warrant it, Ps.lxix.,) that is his office of apostleship; and he there mentions a qualification that was to be in him that should be chosen to that office, which I am sure hath not been found in any man these fifteen hundred years; and he puts a necessity upon it that he that was to be chosen should be so qualified, a must, upon it, ver. 21, 22, ‘Of those men that have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto the same day that he was taken up, must one [if any] be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.’ And though they named two, for God to pick one, to shew that God’s immediate call was requisite to authorize an apostle, that it might not be by man but God, they by prayer cast lots, and it fell to Matthias; and it is God alone who, by an immediate hand, doth dispose the lot, as Solomon tells us: for apostles were to be by the will of God immediately.” Thomas Goodwin, Works 1:10

I won't expound on this much, since Goodwin says it so much better than I could anyway. But let me simply say that when we see the heresy infesting large portions of the Christian world under the guise of supposed "apostolic" ministry, we have only our own spinelessness and historical ignorance to blame. Had the Church simply had the courage and doctrinal integrity 100 years ago to excommunicate anyone who even shook hands with an Irvingite, we wouldn't be witnessing the demoniac nonsense of Benny Hinn, C. Peter Wagner, Matt Ford, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar and the whole host of other foolish people that parade around the world bringing reproach on Christ's name. Now let me tell you how I really feel!

Advice For Young People

I frequently hear parents complain about the way kids act these days. Even the parents of kids that grow up in the church register the same complaints. It seems ironic that there should be a decline in the character of young people, at least among church kids, for the simple fact that no self-respecting church is without a substantial, sometimes inordinately substantial, youth program. Most churches wouldn’t be caught dead with a hip youth pastor that knows how to communicate to the kids “in their own language.”

I could say a lot about this phenomenon. I could question the wisdom of teaching our young people maturity by supplying them with a pastor who behaves like one of them. I could question the entire practice of segregating young people and tailoring ministry to them (since Scripture provides no precedent). But I will restrict myself to showing what our churches used to teach their young people.

The following advice comes from a book entitled Thoughts on Religious Experience, by Archibald Alexander (1772-1851). Alexander was the first professor of Princeton Seminary, so it may be said with confidence that he knew about teaching young people.

Here is Alexander’s advice to young people:

1. Aim at consistency in your Christian character. Alexander warns about compartmentalizing one’s life, therefore being inconsistent in character – being guided by principle in some areas of life, but by custom and fashion in other areas.

2. Let your relationships with others be marked by a strict and conscientious regard to truth, honor, justice, kindness and courtesy. Here Alexander encourages young people to be guided by the Golden Rule, giving the proper respect where it is due and being forgiving of others’ shortcomings.

3. Govern your tongue. More sin is committed by the tongue than any other part of the body. If one cannot control his tongue, his “religion is in vain” (James 1:26). This includes, Alexander stresses, all profane speech, obscenity and falsehood. Scripture warns that “in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin” (Prov. 10:19). Talking too much will get you into trouble. Double entendres and sexually suggestive language anesthetizes one to the inappropriateness of such behavior among Christians and inevitably leads to temptation.

4. Keep a good conscience. It is important to have a biblically informed conscience, first of all. Our consciences only guide us according to the best standard we have been taught. But presuming we have been taught God’s Word, it is of utmost importance to never violate one’s conscience. Paul warns of one having a “seared” conscience, one that no longer feels hesitant about sin, because it has been frequently ignored.

5. Learn to bear affliction with fortitude and resignation. Here is a great lesson for our degenerate, nihilistic and narcissistic age. Christ resigned Himself to the Father’s will even under the most difficult of circumstances, saying, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” The sort of patience and strength which Scripture commends can never be developed by people who will not tolerate adversity. Christian maturity comes inevitably through hardship.

6. Cherish and diligently cultivate genuine piety. Alexander notes that “Early piety is the most beautiful spectacle in the world.” By piety we mean holiness. Our society has so conditioned us that we shrink from holiness because we actually believe that it will detract from our happiness. It is a reproach on our Creator to indulge such a thought. Holiness of life is God’s aim in saving us. Someone has said that God never justifies a man He doesn’t intend to sanctify. God intends to conform us to the image of His Son. Christian life with no living notion of holiness and continual growth in holiness, is no Christian life at all.

7. Seek Divine direction and aid by incessant fervent prayer. It used to be the hallmark of an unbeliever to pray only when he was in trouble: “God, if You get me out of this fix, I promise I’ll serve You.” But since Evangelicalism has turned God into a slightly glorified coach, most so-called “Christian” prayer is no better. Right doctrine is of little avail if we only seek God’s guidance as a last resort because we can’t solve our own problems. It is easy to be a Calvinist orthodox in theology, yet brazenly Pelagian in practice.

Alexander concludes with this final “serious and affectionate recommendation:

8. Make immediate preparation for death. Happy-go-lucky, healthy young people may not want to think about this subject. But the fact is young people die every day. Alexander also points out that nothing makes a person slow down and think twice than a grasp of the fact that death must be encountered by everyone. It can come at any time for anyone. Will we insanely close our eyes to this reality? Repentance towards God for all our sins, trust and reliance on Christ’s atoning sacrifice, regeneration of heart, and a renewed life – these are the proper preparations for death.

I wonder what our youth groups would produce if they were fed this kind of teaching?