“Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.” Psalm 16:4

“If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you”  John 15:19.

“This road to peaceful coexistence with the culture is typically paved with a series of incremental compromises…. As the church becomes comfortable with the culture, its witness is compromised and it begins to forfeit the favor of God.” https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/revelation/related-topics/the-results-of-compromise.html

Light has no fellowship with darkness. They are opposed to one another.

In an interview about the Wuhan virus, published April 8th, Pope Francis said “I don’t know if these are the revenge of nature, but they are certainly nature’s responses”. He went on to say, “There is an expression in Spanish: ‘God always forgives, we forgive sometimes, but nature never forgives,'”

No, nature does not forgive. That’s because nature is not a person and has no capacity to forgive. Nature will not, indeed cannot seek revenge . Nature does not have motives or feelings or reasoning. Nature is part of a description of God’s creation. As leader of the world’s largest sect of Christianity, why speak of nature as if it is personal?

Throughout history and still today there are many religions at least partially based on the personal characteristics of nature. Man has often tried to make gods from nature and even make a god of nature. Christians are to have nothing to do with such beliefs. They are an abomination and insult to God.

It is not the role of Christians to meet the world and its other religions (yes, everyone has a religion, even the atheist) half way. It is often said that most all religions have a lot in common. No, Christianity has very little, minuscule amounts, in common with other religions. The differences far outweigh the similarities.

 â€œSo, in the interests of survival, they trained themselves to be agreeing machines instead of thinking machines. All their minds had to do was to discover what other people were thinking, and then they thought that, too.”

—Kurt Vonnegut, American Writer (1922-2007)

The cardinal virtue of today has become compromise. It is more important to get along than to stand with truth. The truth is often not popular. We must never compromise the truth with the false gods and religions of the world. Spiritual compromise happens when we view salvation as a human endeavor rather than as an act of God. The world’s religions, in one way or another, all teach us to walk up the mountain to salvation. Christianity is about a Savior who came down the mountain to us to save us.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the man whose name we have all come to know during this pandemic recently said this about shaking hands. “I don’t think we should ever shake hands again, to be honest with you. Not only would it be good to prevent coronavirus disease, it probably would decrease instances of influenza.” So shaking hands, something that has been a part of cultures for thousands of years is something we should do away with.

Interestingly, the same Dr. Fauci was asked in an interview with Snapchat, “If you’re swiping on a dating app like Tinder, or Bumble or Grindr, and you match with someone that you think is hot, and you’re just kind of like, ‘Maybe it’s fine if this one stranger comes over’ What do you say to that person?” Here is Dr. Fauci’s advice, “If you’re willing to take a risk – and you know, everybody has their own tolerance for risks – you figure out if you want to meet somebody…”, “If you want to go a little bit more intimate, well then that’s your choice regarding a risk.”

From the doctor leading America’s response to the current pandemic, shaking hands with others should not be something we do but having sex with strangers, well that’s your choice. Where’s the science here? Where’s the logic here. And for certain, where’s the morality here? Let’s get this straight. We can choose for ourselves to have sex with strangers, but we are told we shouldn’t shake hands. We can choose to engage in risky sexual behavior with known health dangers, including mental health, but we cannot make our own choices when it comes to going to church, going to work, and more.

The issue here is not whether the current response to this pandemic is right or wrong. It is about what are the sacred issues to the world? You see, we can talk about social distancing and lock-downs to protect our health and the country as a whole buys in. We can tell people to make sacrifices for some good that we value, i.e the health of ourselves and others we may infect. We even respect a person for telling us these things, whether we agree with them or not. However, we cannot tell people how to live their lives when it comes to sexuality. That is off-limits. That is forbidden.

These are crazy mixed up values. God has made it clear how we are to live our lives when it comes to human intimacy. We choose not to listen to Him though. We will listen to a human ‘expert’ but will not listen to the God of creation?

How many times have you heard “If I had been the only sinner, Jesus would have died for me”?

Ask people what the core message of Christianity is and most will answer something like, “God
loves me.” While it is absolutely true that God loves us and in a way that is beyond our comprehension, that is not the core of Christianity. Look closely at that answer; the core, the most important thing about Christianity is God loves ME. The subject of that answer is ‘me’.

But that is not the truth. If we look at the foundation of all things we do not find ourselves or even the collection of all humanity. What we find, is God the creator and sustainer of all things. The eternal, almighty, majestic, God of love is the most important. Our society approaches everything as if we were at the center. The reason for that is the fallen nature of man. We are corrupt, corrupted by the lies of the father of lies. The chiefest among those lies, that we can be like God.

Jesus came to redeem us, to restore us. But that redemption comes at a cost. The cost paid by Jesus on the cross. There is a cost to us as well. Consider this, the Bible never once mentions asking Jesus to come into our hearts. It does however tell us that if want eternal life we must take up our cross and follow Him.

Check out the downloads page for a fuller discussion of this topic in the sermon study guide of the same name

The bible is where we find the answer for what makes us a Christian.

Now, some will argue that it is faith in Christ that makes us a Christian. True, but let us consider the following:

• Where did we get that idea and what makes us believe it is correct? The bible

• How do we know who Christ is apart from the bible? Is there a separate Christ from the bible? The bible actually calls Jesus the Word. There is definitive unity between Christ and the bible.

• Faith and the bible are inseparable. There is always an object of faith. When we speak of having faith, we speak of having faith in something or someone. Faith in Christ means a faith in the Christ of the bible.

• Christ himself validated the scripture by His own words. This Christ that someone says they believe in is the Christ of the bible – by His own admission.

Followers of Christ cannot be selective in what parts they believe and what parts they live. By its own witness and by the witness of Christ Himself the Bible is true. Instead of following the bible based on the filter of our opinions and worldview we should allow the bible to form our opinions and worldview.

Consider the story Jesus tells of the man who had the demon cast out, only to have it return with more. In Matthew 12 Jesus says, “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

I was contemplating the acts of Jesus and his disciples when they drove out the demons from different people and a thought came to me I had never considered before.  There is nothing in the scriptures that indicates that for every person who is delivered from these evil spirits they became a disciple of Christ, or that they even remained free from demons. What a sad thought.

Every instance we read of Jesus or his disciples driving out the demons demonstrates for us his absolute power of evil. They cannot stand against him. But God is a God of justice and if a person rejects God and wallows in the mud of evil, even though they may have demons driven out, the evil spirit has a right to inhabit their life.

The Israelites grumbled and complained in the wilderness after having seen such incredible demonstrations of God’s power. Ten lepers were healed, to have only one return and say thank you.

So many people have had so much done for them by God,only to turn to their old ways again, “like a dog returning to its own vomit”. This is not what God has for us. He came to give us life, and that more abundant. What will it take in a person’s life to surrender to Him? Finish the race.

 

All over the world Christians gather for worship on Sunday. There are lots of different ways we express our worship. Is this gathering a big deal? Is it important? Are Christians told to gather together by the Lord?

Why Sunday, isn’t Saturday the Sabbath? Christians gather on Sunday because it is the Lord’s Day. We do so to commemorate His resurrection. The resurrection is the keystone to Christianity and should not be taken lightly but rather commemorated and celebrated – together.

Is it required we get together for worship? Paul tells us not to forsake gathering together like some are in the habit of doing. He gives us instruction on how we should conduct ourselves when we do gather together for worship.

Jesus died for the church, the entire Body. the body is supposed to work together. Believers are never told to isolate themselves from one another but rather to work together as one Body.

I heard a story years ago about a preacher that went to visit a man that had stopped being a part of the gatherings of the church. The preacher entered the man’s home and sat down by the fire with him. He told the man they missed had missed in their getting gatherings and wished he would return. The elderly man told the preacher he didn’t see much need in it. As they sat by the fire the preacher grabbed the tongs and used them to pluck a cola from the fire. He sat the hot coal on the hearth. As they sat there together looking at the coal it gradually cooled until it was noting more than ash, with no fire in it at all. The preacher had made his point and needed say no more. Removed from the fire the coal became nothing more than ash with no fire or heat. Like us, the coal found its fire and heat by being a part of the larger fire.

Worship together provides for our health as Christians. It provides benefits that are unavailable to us individually. We are to build each other up while we are together. We are to be instructed in the Word together. We are to pray together. We are to show acts of love together. Jesus died for the whole body and the body as a whole. The body works together, not separately.

We are fooling ourselves when we think we can do this alone; when we stay at home we rob ourselves and our fellow believers of the blessings of God