Sweet Teas, Forgiveness, and Preaching the Word<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
 
 
A large sweet tea and a double cheeseburger! For many that sounds like a quick lunch but for me this meal is a delicacy. "Why," you ask? Well I assure you it is not for the nutritional value. No, this meal is a description of one often shared with a very close friend. Every month or two he and I go to our favorite McDonalds and sit down to a meal that has become a tradition. While the sweet teas and cheeseburgers play a huge part of this tradition, it is the deep spiritual conversations that ensue that never cease to amaze me. Jesus once said, "Where two or three are gathered in my name I am in the midst…" and I can honestly say that when my buddy and I get together, Jesus is certainly there.
It was in a recent talk that our conversation fell upon the subject of sin in people's lives and Jesus' power and willingness to forgive. My friend had asked me a question regarding someone he was counseling on the subject of recurring sin. His friend felt that he couldn't pray to God for help or forgiveness because of the decisions he had made. He believed that he needed to do some kind of good and somehow attain some kind of favor from God before God would hear his prayer and work in his life. "How untrue," I assured my friend, "we can do nothing to merit or earn God's favor." The Bible clearly tells us that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God"(Rom. 3:23). It also says, "there is none good no not one"(Rom. 3:19). There is no righteousness apart from Jesus Christ and by that righteousness alone God is pleased with us.
Since that conversation I have mediated on why this thought of "attaining some kind of self righteousness to earn God's favor" is so popular today. There are thousands of people who are trapped in this idea and therefore have set themselves on a course to "get their own lives in order" and then they will seek God. This ideology and lifestyle is fruitless and most assuredly leads away from God and ultimately to eternity in Hell. Ironically this is often the thought of many "Christians" today. They downplay the infinite value of Jesus Christ and His righteousness while arrogantly promoting their "righteousness" to others. Although this idea is surely a characteristic of our sinful nature I also blame man-centered, Bible-abandoning preaching for this faulty thinking. Jesus said in Matthew 5:3-4, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted." Being poor in spirit speaks of a deep humility that recognizes our depravity and spiritual deadness (Eph. 2:1) apart from Christ, and Jesus said without it there will be no reward of Heaven. We should mourn over our sinful state because this leads us to the greatness of the cross of Jesus Christ. As the law of God is our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ, so the mourning of our violation of God's law will bring us to the place of repentance and we will be comforted by the blessed gift of Salvation. However, this is often forsaken in the proclamation of the gospel today. Preachers love to speak to the sinner of how God loves them and has a plan for their life but how can one see his need for God and His love if he is not first convinced and convicted of his hopeless state. How foolish and wasteful it is to cast the pearls of Christ's salvation into the pigpen of sinful humanity without first leading them to see who they really are. It was not until the prodigal son saw himself for what he was that he humbly and eagerly ran to the arms of his father begging for mercy and grace. Again I ask, how then can we expect arrogant sinners to respond to their desperate need of a Savior if they have not been made aware of their pitiful state? Oh but how sweet it is to see a man who is broken by his knowledge of his bondage to sin. How precious to see him humbly bow before the throne of grace, repent and place faith in Jesus Christ. This will be a changed man. He will be one who is faithfully and fully devoted to Jesus Christ. He will be one whom God uses mightily for His kingdom for it is this man who sees the greatness of God's grace.
There are truly two kinds of people in our churches. Those who are poor in spirit, who gladly mourn and are comforted by the Good Shepherd. They are the ones who were weak and weary but have now received with joy and thankfulness the rest of Jesus Christ. For He has given grace to the humble. They love Him and worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. Then there are those who do not see the infinite value of Jesus Christ and His righteousness. They are confident not in Christ alone, but in their self-righteous piety and in their many works seen by men but rejected by God. For James 4:6 says that God resists the proud. They don't love Jesus. They don't see Him as the wonderful Savior He is and therefore they do not treasure Him as they should.
Though I do not place all the blame solely on today's pastors and teachers of God's Word. I do believe that as preachers of God's Word who will one day answer for everything that we have taught must heed the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to Timothy and "Preach the Word". Today is not a day in which we need doctrinally shallow seeker minded wimps in the pulpit. No, we need to pray for godly men who will stand up and take the place of great men of the faith like Dr. D James Kennedy and preach the Word uncompromisingly. We must quit catering to the politically correct mindset of this world and not be afraid to offend someone with the truth of Jesus Christ and salvation in Him alone. Jesus said He is the Bread of Life and that we must eat His body and drink His blood or we will have no life. The call of salvation is offensive to a world that loves its darkness, but we are the light of the world. How can we expect to see God move if we abandon what He told us to do?
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Preach the Word!