A Tract on Worship

The behavior required of Christians is no mystery; it is spelled out in scripture, but there is no need to make a list of duties, for there is only one reasonable service that God seeks, and it is worship. The Christian duty of true worship sets all other priorities in due order, for above all else, God is first. 

God has revealed His authority in scripture, and the humble will submit to His word in order to know what is pleasing to Him. Christ told the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well that God seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. The sons of Aaron, the first High Priest, sought to worship God their own way, but they didn’t live to tell about it because God struck them dead. Shall we, the children of no such noble birth, expect a different outcome if we worship God in an idolatrous way? Certainly not, for how shall we who are dead to sin expect to live spiritually while practicing false worship? True worship requires right knowledge of God and right sacrifice of all things that distract us from Him.

The religions of this world give honor to themselves by worshipping their gods with show and pomp. Many claim God as their motivation, but the character of their god reveals that they do not know the true God because they have embraced a lie. They do their religious acts to receive praise for themselves, but the worship of God’s children is the result of their experience of Him and His mercies. Their worship consists of giving themselves unreservedly to God because He is holy, just, and merciful. Those who participate in false worship receive the praise of the world, but those who worship God in spirit and truth are unified in His righteousness and receive the gifts of His Spirit.

Natural man does not have a spirit to worship God in communion with the Holy Spirit because he is unregenerate. The spirit of natural man was killed by the disobedience of father Adam, and as a result, Adam's offspring cannot understand spiritual things; they are foolishness to them, but those who are alive in Christ are described by the Apostle Paul as new creations who are called to continually give themselves over to God as living sacrifices.

If you have been given life by Christ alone, through grace alone, through faith alone, remember these mercies and give yourself, your thoughts, attitudes, intentions, and desires to God as an act of true worship which is reasonable and necessary. Do not be like righteous Lot who had new life but sought contentment from the ungodly world around him. Instead, seek contentment from God who will provide it to those who worship Him in spirit and truth.  

Lastly, in your pursuit of worship do not forget the maxim, "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble." Those who are humble submit themselves to the whole counsel and authority of God as found in the Holy Bible. They worship God in the way He prescribes not according to their prideful feelings. True worship is primarily objective. When we obey truth, right feelings will follow, but when we follow our feelings, truth Is obscured. No man can serve two masterS. You cannot worship God and the objects of your lust.

John 4, Ephesians 2:8-10, 1 Corinthians 2:15, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Numbers 3:4, Romans 12:1-3, 2 Peter 2:7-10, Galatians 5:22-23

A TRACT ON REVIVAL

Revival is an often misunderstood Christian phenomena characterized by the use of new methods, intensified evangelism, emotional rapture and an emphasis on morality. The term revival can be heard behind the doors of most churches in the United States along with the urgent plea that it is sorely needed.

However, true revival is best characterized as an extraordinary outpouring of the ordinary means of God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. Any "revival" that falls short of God's work of humbling proud sinners and calling wayward mankind to repentance and dependence on Christ alone for righteousness which cannot be earned, inherited or acquired is simply idolatry in religious clothing. What men and women of this generation need is not modern revival, it is to be humbled with the fear of God by realizing that they will be held accountable for everything they have ever done, thought or failed to do.

Paul's warning at Mar's Hill rings true today, just as it did two two thousand years ago: the sovereign God of our creation has appointed a time when He will judge every person according to His objective, righteous standard which was achieved by Christ alone. Anyone who comes up short of the standard is subject to God's holy wrath. Therefore, our pet and petty sins of dishonesty, self fulfillment and self pleasure will be revealed against us as a testimony of our rebellion against God who created us to glorify Him, find contentment in Him, and participate in the holy task of furthering his kingdom.

Here then is the ancient call of revival: God calls all persons everywhere to repent immediately and believe on Jesus Christ. This Christ, who alone in all mankind was able to achieve God's perfect standard, not only died that rebellious people might be covered in his righteousness, but He also willingly and eagerly gave himself as a sacrifice for the sins of his people. After His death, the Father God revealed his acceptance of His Son's sacrifice by raising Him from the dead three days later, thus authenticating the only hope for wayward mankind who are separated from God by sin. This then is how we know God's love for us: Jesus Christ laid down his life for those who readily and willingly rebel against Him. 

In your quest for revival, seek not heaven or rapturous feelings here on earth; instead, seek righteousness for without it no person can know God. True revival is the gospel and is comprised of knowing ourselves and knowing God. Let no one think more of himself than he ought but in quiet reckoning see himself from God's perspective, repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ alone. Only then will we know true, God ordained revival. (See Acts 17:30-31, 2 Corinthians 5:21 and Titus 3:5) ~ the Forgotten Puritan

Flee From the Wrath to Come

      Someone pulled a thread and we are unraveling. The whole thing is coming apart at the seams while we watch in unbelief. We thought our history would sustain us, our embrace of freedom, our ability to rally together as a family and fight and die if necessary. But now we are left with factions so diverse that each individual is torn in many different affections. We thought our tolerance would uphold us, that very unique way where we turned from our wrongs and embraced those we once enslaved, but our tolerance has become intolerable, for we now call the killing of the innocent good and the death of the evil wrong. We thought our Christian standards would save us, for we delight in kindness, generosity and acceptances, but we abandoned the very Christian morals that gave us Christian standards and now we are left with counterfeit virtues. We thought education would see us through the dark times, but we watered down our education to a self-esteem boosting, permissive, entitlement-driven system that teaches our children they are merely the product of evolution and natural selection while training them how to wear condoms and how to receive benefits that they have not earned.
      So...where do we go from here? If you have reached the end of your line there is only one place to go...to God; not a god of suicide bombs or meditation on self-realization, but the God of Truth, the God of righteousness, the God of our very creation. The God who shows himself to his creation by joining in our miseries, not being born to entitlement, but being born in a manger. The God who not only died for his own, but suffered and died, so that the righteousness he requires can only be found and can only be had in Jesus Christ alone.
     Give thought to your soul, for our days are short, and remember this above all else, "God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble." Humble yourself, and flee from the wrath to come. Look to Jesus and live!

13 Evangelistic Phrases That Produce False Conversions By Todd Friel Source-Symphony of Scripture

A.W. Tozer said, “It is my opinion that tens of thousands of people, if not millions, have been brought into some kind of religious experience by accepting Christ, and they have not been saved.”

D. James Kennedy said, “The vast majority of people who are members of churches in America today are not Christians. I say that without the slightest contradiction. I base it on empirical evidence of twenty-four years of examining thousands of people.”

Friend, we argue over so many petty things. May I suggest we have lost sight of the most important debate of all, “What is salvation?” My theology teaches that salvation happens when a man repents and places his trust in Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21).

I would like to present thirteen ways that we have re-defined how a person becomes a true convert. Have we done this intentionally? Certainly not. We have simply created lingo that has a grain of truth in Scripture, but it is so open to interpretation that the un-converted understand it in ways that lead to false conversions.

1. Make Jesus your Lord and Savior. We cannot make Jesus our Lord and Savior, He is our Lord and Savior. We are living in rebellion to Him and He commands us to repent and trust Him.

2. Ask Jesus into your heart. Does Jesus come into our hearts? Yes He does. The question is, “How does He get in there?” It is not by simply asking Him in; it is by repentance and faith.

3. Just believe in Jesus. The demons believe and they tremble. We must repent and trust.

4. You have a God-shaped hole in your heart and only Jesus can fill it. We have far more than a hole that needs to be filled so we can feel complete; we have a wretched, deceitful, sinful heart that needs cleansing. Repentance and faith applies the blood of the lamb for that cleansing.

5. Accept Jesus. Whoa. We need to accept Jesus? This is entirely backward. We need Jesus to accept us–and He will, if we repent and trust.

6. Make a decision for Jesus. Decisional regeneration puts man in the driver’s seat of salvation. When we repent and trust, Jesus decides to save us. That puts Him in the driver’s seat…where He demands.

7. It is easy to believe. While the formula of repentance and faith sounds simple, a complete surrendering of self in repentance is anything but easy. It’s hard.

8. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. The only promises for the convert are trials, temptation and persecution. If that is how you define a wonderful life, fine. Otherwise we must command all men everywhere to repent and trust.

9. Come to Jesus just as you are. We should come to Jesus just as the sinners we are, but He also expects a broken heart and contrite spirit demonstrated in repentance and faith.

10. Come to Jesus and you will receive forgiveness of sins and ________________ (fill in the blank with money, health, a healed marriage). Jesus didn’t promise healed marriages; in fact He promised broken homes because we would divide when one member repents and trusts.

11. Come to Jesus and experience love, joy, peace. Do we get the fruit of the Spirit upon conversion? Yes. But if we come seeking the gifts and not the giver, we will receive neither. Instead, we must repent and trust.

12. Jesus is the missing piece. Um, no, the God of the universe is not the missing piece, He demands that He is the center of our lives when we repent and trust.

13. Jesus is better than fame and fortune. That is an understatement, and frankly, it is insulting. Saying Jesus is better than money is like saying that a steak dinner is better than eating a dung hill. He defies comparison and we trivialize the Son of God. Instead, we should be pleading with all men everywhere to repent and trust.

If I showed up at your door with a can of grapefruit juice and a roll of paper towels and offered to change your oil, you would say, “No thanks.” If we wouldn’t let someone mess with our car using the wrong method, why do we allow the Gospel to be presented so ambiguously?

Would you let a doctor operate on your child who was “sort of” accurate? The salvation of men is far more important than an appendix.

I beg you to consider how you share the Gospel. You and I know what we are talking about when we use these phrases, but do the unregenerate? Is it possible that we have so many backsliders today because they never slid forward in the first place? Is it because they were never told that they must repent and trust?

If we are willing to debate shag verse plush in the fellowship hall, shouldn’t we be more concerned about an issue that has eternal consequences?

The Fourfold Attack of Sin

To find empirical evidence of sin we need go no further than our own heart. For sin is defined as "transgression of the law" and there is no law apart from God. For those who have ears to hear, the evidence of sin from within us is fourfold: pleasure, legacy, ownership and envy.

The basest part of our carnal existence is pleasure. O man do you not seek to please yourself? Yet we were created to please the Most High, thus our self pursuit of pleasure is the first evidence of spiritual conflict. As Cain, the first born of man, found conflict with God as he sought to please himself, so wilt thou be in conflict with God when you ignore him and seek to please yourself.

Secondly, we are called to seek the Kingdom of God…that is we are to be personally involved in building the Church of Jesus Christ. But fleshly man disregards the kingdom of the spiritual and seeks an earthly kingdom, which by its very nature is doomed to destruction. In vain many who bear the name of Christ seek to build cathedrals, castles, titles and even their own progeny and posterity. These things should not be brethren, for your calling is to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, not in self-pursuit of empty riches, fame and fortune.

The third manifestation of sin in our lives involves ownership. The child of God is not his own, for he has been bought with a price, which is the blood of Jesus Christ. Why wilt thou O man declare self-ownership? Dost thou think that you created and redeemed yourself? Wilt thou make markings upon your flesh as the heathen do? Wilt thou seek out a harlot because you conclude that you can use your body as you please? Repent O sinner, for the deceiver seeks your soul! No man owns himself, for what do you have that you have not received?

Fourthly, sin is clearly manifest in our pursuit, yet lack of contentment. Be not deceived, we are an envious people! Dost thou complain? Dost thou criticize? If so then recognize the root of envy in your fleshly soul. Circumstances do not produce joy, for joy is a product of the endurance of trials in our lives. Contentment only exists in Christ! If thou be a son of man, then you were made in the image of God. Deny this not, for there is no contentment outside of God and no communion with the Father without the Son.

Recognize your short comings and flee from the wrath to come O sinner, for thy time is short! Are you not spiritually poor and needy? Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up.