Carnal Christians

“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 Corinthians 6:17

When a church becomes more concerned about pleasing man rather than pleasing God, it undergoes a psychological revolution. People’s thinking flip-flops on every issue of doctrinal truth. Looming over a pastor’s mind is the cloud that if I start calling sin, sin, then a large number of the congregation will have little problem finding a church down the road that will accept them just as they are. People reason that since few will “endure” sound doctrine, that it becomes more trouble than it is worth. Many agree that rather than a stand on what is right with God, that it is best to figure out what will fly with the approval of man. Thus, the mindset becomes “the church with the most doctrinal restrictions will lose their spiritual shirt.”

Where carnality has the upper hand, people worry more about people’s feelings than they respect Godly standards. As a result, standing on sound doctrine is resented and modification of positions is deemed most apporpriate.

Bowing to the pressure of carnal mindedness, religious leaders have abandoned the scriptural rule that requires “all scripture” to be applied to determine sound doctrine (2 Timothy 3:16-17). In its place, they are incorrectly applying the term “we’re not under the law” to allow for people to do what is right in their own eyes in following carnal fads and fashions.

“…I had not known sin, but by the law…Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” (Romans 7:7,12) All over our society, situation ethics is now the adopted philosophy. We hear politicians cry, “the will of the people should prevail.” So, rather than respect and follow the rule of law, the trend is now “do what you want”, and then overturn the law, following the mandate that the will of the people should prevail. This practice is now the new political science. But it has been the adopted spiritual science of many churches for some time, who have forsaken the rule of “all scripture”, unto adopting the “no scripture” position, under the guise “we’re not under the law”.

Under the “no scripture” policy, churches have abandoned true doctrine on the Lord’s Supper, scriptural baptism, scriptural qualifications for leaders, scriptural authority in worship, scriptural morals, scriptural identity, repentance, separation, etc., etc.

True, God looks upon the heart. But just as true is the fact that what one does is the manifestation of what is in their heart. Rather than Christianize carnality, let’s glorify God!

SHARING

“Cotton Candy” Religion

By Norman H. Wells

Religion has gotten popular! It’s sweeping the country!! Juke boxes grind out the latest popular hymns! Movie magazines carry news of religious activities of the movie stars! More money is coming into religious treasures than ever before. Great new church buildings are being built. A greater percentage of folks belong to churches than ever before in history! Tremendous evangelistic campaigns are regularly held and thousands are in attendance and great numbers of decisions are recorded.

Quite regularly the current bestseller is a book on religion. The newspapers and magazines carry regular columns by religious writers. The radio and television carry religious programs! Religious Universities, Colleges, High Schools and Elementary Schools are growing by leaps and bounds!

Religion is booming! The cry of “Revival” is heard over and over!! Religion is back by popular demand! The tragedy is that it has been diluted, streamlined, whopped up, condensed, smoothed out, made palatable enough to meet what the public demands in a religion. Instead of meeting the demands of God, religion has been changed to meet the demands of the public!!

In the haste to get everybody aboard the “bandwagon”, a “carnival” spirit has developed. The bands are playing, the flags are flying and everyone is invited to a hayride of happiness—a religious romp! Popcorn, peanuts and paper hats! It reminds me of the first time I took my youngest boy, David, to the Cincinnati Zoo. He was about four years old at the time. It was on this trip that he got his first glimpse of “cotton candy”. We stopped and he watched with great delight as the man behind the counter very skillfully spun the large, beautifully colored sticks full of this wonderful stuff. After watching with envy the others who were receiving this delicious looking delight, he turned, pleading eyes to me, and the purchase was made. I never will forget the look of delight that came on his face as he held the huge, colored concoction and took his first bite. As the cotton candy dissolved into nothing in his mouth, a look of amazement and disappointment took the place of delight.

Appearances had been deceiving. Thus it is with our modern “cotton candy” boom in religion! It’s big and beautiful unto you really try to get your teeth into it, and it dissolves into nothing.

It could also be compared to “bubble gum”—it makes a fine showing unto it breaks and leaves behind a sticky mess!!

The popularity that religion enjoys has been purchased at a terrific price. The desire to please man has supplanted the desire to please God. Today’s religion is designed to satisfy the carnal appetites of carnal Christians and the unregenerate. “What do I get out of it” is the approach made to this religion. When the services are entertaining and make the participants “feel good”, they are stamped as successful. The world’s methods and manners are as in the business world. Finances and figures have been made the test. A lot of people and a lot of money are interpreted as the sure blessing of God. It is considered sacrilege to question the doctrine or the ethics of anyone who has been successful in gathering a large crowd and abundant cash!

In view of the seeming boom in religion, it would be well to consider what has happened to the gospel!! What little gospel is preached is of such a shallow, frothy nature that it would bring a snort of disgust from such an one as the Apostle Paul. The strong message of the gospel has been so diluted as hardly to be recognizable. Sickeningly cheap, sentimental appeals are made for sickeningly cheap, sentimental decisions! What has happened to the sledge hammer messages concerning the hideous corruption of sin?

Has the day of identifying the sinner past? Today it is advertised so that no one will be offended at the preaching of the gospel!! What a change! What a come down!! The gospel has always offended! It offends Satan! It offends the guilty sinner and either brings him to repentance or hardens his heart! It offends the carnal Christian!! It offends the false teachers and their followers! It offends the promoters of sin and sinful pleasure! In today’s gospel, the question of sin is dealt with in such generalities that it is almost impossible to determine who is guilty!

Repentance has become a forgotten doctrine confined to the yellowing pages of neglected articles of faith. What used to mean “Godly Sorrow”, doesn’t even involve mild embarrassment today! The crowds have never responded very well to true repentance, so modern religion by popular demand has discarded it. Faith has been reduced to a mere head consent, a hand shake, and a card signed.

Today’s gospel has been watered down so thin it has lost the miracle working power of regeneration and is producing a shallow, casual, unregenerate religion.

Contrary to the popular idea that we are in the midst of revival, stand some undeniable facts that show we are in the midst of a time of apostasy!!! There is a great “falling away”!

First of all, consider the moral condition of our country. The figures have been published so many times they do not need to be reprinted here. Crime is at an all-time high!! Juvenile delinquency increases every year!! Divorce rates climb every year. Jail houses, penitentiaries and detention homes are packed to overflowing!!

Drunkenness and dope addicts mount with each passing day! Illegitimate births and abortions increase every year. Murder, rape, suicide, robbery, scream the headlines of our papers!! Sex-mad and whiskey-soaked, the nation reels down the path of the pursuit of Pleasure!! Check the material in the popular books, songs, radio and television shows, movies, etc. and get a glimpse of what appeals to America. True revival will check the flood tides of sin!! This has not happened in today’s so-called revival!!

It is not producing hatred for sin and love of righteousness! It does not demand that Christians live a separate dedicated life to God.

Second, consider the rapid rise and growth of a multitude of cults and false religions. This is not revival!!

Real revival brings men and women a love for the truth. The entire revealed truth of God is not declared in the Gospel of today, so the “converts” wander off after whatever religion suits their particular fancy. The keynote today is compromise. Everybody is to forget their “petty doctrinal differences” and join hands in a “great compromise”. In the midst of this kind of atmosphere, false cults and religions are booming! Modernism marches on!!!

Third, consider the shallow carnal Christian today’s so called “revival” produces, indeed, if it produces any Christians. May God help us to return to a gospel that glorifies God, antagonizes Satan, squelches sin, convicts sinners, produces repentance, routs false teachers, abolishes false religions, promotes sound doctrine, and brings about the miracle of regeneration that makes a hell bound sinner into a new creature in Christ Jesus.

SHARING

Reverent Worship

(The only kind of true worship there is.)

“Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.” Ecclesiates 5:1-2

THE BENEFIT OF REVERENT WORSHIP: “be more ready to hear” = hearing. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) A person can have ears to hear, and yet not be hearing God’s Word. Reverent worship calls for both regarding and making the response that God’s Word calls for.

THE PERSONAL DISCIPLINE REQUIRED FOR WORSHIP: “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God”, v1. God requires the individual to hold themselves responsible to have Christian conduct, yea, zeal and interest in themselves, to promote the reverent worship of God.

THE VIOLATIONS (VIOLATORS) OF WORSHIP: “…for they consider not that they do evil”, v1. Those who violate the sanctity of worship or fail to involve themselves, don’t see that they have a problem. They consider the “difference” between themselves and what is going on, just to be the hang-up of others. Many fail (care not) to perceive that what may be permissible conduct in secular gatherings, falls way short of the reverence, carefulness, attentiveness and holiness involved in the worship of God in spirit and in truth.

THE OPPONENTS OF WORSHIP: “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God”, v2. The attainment to reverent worship can be completely frustrated by the lack of depth, preparation and/or self-restraint. There needs to be prayer, study, forethought, and discrimination, so as to eliminate ramblings, confusion, error and imprudence. We are to diginify God, rather than just be given over to fitful impulse.

THE ATTAINMENT OF WORSHIP: “…for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth”, v2. The object of worship is to be in communion with God; to walk on holy ground; to partake of spiritual meat; to divest ourselves of all of our preoccupations and assumptions; to come to an open heart and mind to seek and receive what God has to convey.

REVERNT WORSHIP is so fundamental to the faith of Christianity, that we must not allow ourselves to become weak-kneed about it. DON’T let your kids develop habits of sleeping in church. WAKE THEM UP and keep them awake. Teach them to worship God in church. To be a spiritual dead head in church is to let everything spiritual pass you by.

SHARING

Higher Ground

James 2:13 “…and mercy rejoiceth against judgment”

Christian causes and accomplishments are properly advanced through actions of wisdom being chosen over actions of judgment.

To have perfect judgment, there must be a perfect judge with perfect knowledge, insight, authority, and motives. Thus, we do not qualify to be the judge of other men.

When a person is having a problem, they should only be burdened with the task of finding the right answer for their problem. Wisdom shed abroad by another will greatly aid this. But imperfect judgments passed by imperfect judges against them, leaves them in the impossible position of coming up with the many answers required to satisfy all the suspicions, doubts, accusations, rumors, and bad feelings that the judgments of others have raised against them. Thus they have no peace or opportunity to find the one answer they really need. The best way is to shed light abroad for others to be able to see.

Once we pass judgment on someone, we develop a mindset toward them based on our judgment of them. This mindset limits our actions towards them to that which satisfies our feelings of judgment concerning them. So this shifts our response toward them from really doing what could be a help to them, unto an action based on what is pleasing to our judgment of them, no matter how imperfect that may be.

Such is the case in the story of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37.) The priest (Luke 10:31) and the Levite (Luke 10:32) both passed by the victim because of what their own judgment of his situation was. But the Samaritan, without limiting his response to any judgments he would make as to why the victim was naked and wounded on the wayside, chose to use wisdom to see what was needed and to choose the wisest course of action to meet that need. The Lord credited him as being the only one of the three men who rightfully fulfilled his neighborly duties.

Christ’s command is to love one another as He has loved us – John 13:34. We will miss the mark here if we give ourselves unto the responses that our imperfect judgment of others would call for. Rather, we need to exercise mercy instead of judgment, so that we remain free to prescribe the unsearchable riches of the wisdom of God’s Word and to have no dictates, other than seeking and finding more wisdom from God.

We should require of ourselves to exercise mercy, rather than judgment when we think we have seen fault and failure in our brethren. Thus, resisting doing the things that the feelings of our judgment would cry out for, we purpose to do only those things that will shed abroad greater light and understanding from the Lord to enable our brother to see and act in faith and hope.

Judgment will incline us to fixate on the problem. Mercy will wisely employ us in striving for the right solution for deliverance.

SHARING

The King James vs. The New Versions

**This comparison will be the passages of Matthew 7:13-14

KING JAMES VERSION: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION: “Enter in by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

THE NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Both the NKJV and the NIV change the word “strait” gate to “narrow” gate. The word “strait” sets forth that which is restricted to God’s way, whereas the word “narrow” implies that which is limited. Jesus is the gate to salvation, “the door” (John 10:9), “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6), and the only “name” whereby any can be saved (Acts 4:12). This is strait, i.e., restricted to God’s one Saviour for mankind.

“Narrow is the way”, thus there is no margin for error, the way is limited to just “the way” with nothing else. While Jesus is the strait gate, He is not limited in what He is. But the way is limited to nothing more than Jesus. Calling the gate narrow implies that Jesus, Himself, is limited, whereas calling the gate strait implies it is restricted to Jesus.

The NIV says, in verse 14, “small is the gate”. There is certainly nothing small about the Saviour or His salvation, even though the way to be saved is limited to none other than Jesus Christ.

The NKJV says, “difficult is the way that leads to life”. This does not hold true with salvation by grace through faith. How difficult is it to receive the “gift of eternal life” by faith in Jesus Christ? Rather, saying that the way that leads to life is difficult is lending itself in support of being saved through works, which requires that one go through much difficulty before they actually arrive at having attained to life.

The King James says it like it is, declaring the supremacy of Christ, as well as manifesting the clarity of salvation only by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

SHARING