Ignoring God's Plain Truth

Invocation:  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. 

Father, we seek insights into Your holy word, asking for Your blessing on each one who comes in worship, and we offer prayers of supplication for those unable to join with us this morning.  We ask these things in the name of Him who loved us first, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Today's Scripture: Romans 1:18-23, 28-32

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹ For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ²¹ For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

²⁸ And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,³⁰ slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.³² Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Key Verse:  For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.  (Romans 1:20)

In the English Standard Version Bible, this part of scripture has the subtitle: “God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness,” which we have titled, “Ignoring God’s Plain Truth.”

          Evangelist and author Bill Bright has said, “We can trace all our human problems to our view of God.”  Is that true?

          What is truth?  Scripture says God is truth.  But what is truth?  We can circle back around again and answer, “God is truth.”  But what is truth?

          The concept of truth has clearly fallen on hard times, and the consequences of rejecting it are ravaging human society. So let’s go back to the starting point and answer the question: What is truth?

One of the most profound and eternally significant questions in the Bible was posed by an unbeliever. Pilate — the man who handed Jesus over to be crucified — who turned to Jesus in His final hour, and asked, “What is truth?” It was a rhetorical question, a cynical response to what Jesus had just revealed, saying He had come into the world to testify to the truth.”

Two thousand years later, the whole world breathes Pilate’s cynicism. Some say truth is a power play, a metanarrative constructed by the elite for the purpose of controlling the ignorant masses. To some, truth is subjective, the individual world of preference and opinion. Others believe truth is a collective judgment, the product of cultural consensus, and still others flatly deny the concept of truth altogether.

So, what is truth?

There is the story about the preacher who learned a lesson about truth one day when he saw a group of kids in an alley with a box of kittens.  He stopped and asked them what they were doing.  One kid explained they were telling lies and the one who told the biggest whopper would win the kittens.

“My, my,” the preacher exclaimed, “that’s terrible, telling lies just to win something?  Why, when I was a kid we’d never think of doing such a thing,” he exclaimed.

“Okay, Preacher,” they all said, “you win!”

Well, here’s a simple definition drawn from what the Bible teaches: Truth is that which is consistent with the mind, will, character, glory, and being of God.  Even more to the point: Truth is the self-expression of God.  That is the biblical meaning of truth.  Because the definition of truth flows from God, truth is theological.

Truth is also ontological—which is a fancy way of saying it is the way things really are.  Reality is what it is because God declared it so and made it so.  Therefore, God is the author, source, determiner, governor, arbiter, ultimate standard, and final judge of all truth.

The Old Testament refers to the Almighty as the “God of truth” (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 31:5; and Isaiah 65:16). When Jesus said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth…” (John 14:6), He was thereby making a profound claim about His own deity.  He was also making it clear that all truth must ultimately be defined in terms of God and His eternal glory.  After all, Jesus is “the brightness of [God’s] glory and the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3).  He is truth incarnate—the perfect expression of God and therefore the absolute embodiment of all that is true.

Jesus also said that the written Word of God is truth. It does not merely contain nuggets of truth; it is pure, unchangeable, and inviolate truth that (according to Jesus) “cannot be broken” (John 10:35).  Praying to His Heavenly Father on behalf of His disciples, He said this: “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17).  Moreover, the Word of God is eternal truth “which lives and abides forever” (1st Peter 1:23).

That God is truth is attested to 21 times in scripture:

once in 2^nd Chronicles

once in Numbers

once time in Psalms

3 times in Isaiah

once in Jeremiah

10 times in John

once in Romans

once in Hebrews

once in Titus

once in 1^st John

Before we get to the specific verses of today’s lesson, let me share some grounding information with you about whom Paul was writing to, and the specifics of what he was attempting to share with them.

So what we have before us this morning is a portion of a letter written by Paul to the members of one church Paul did not found.  These are believers who came together themselves and became the church of Jesus Christ at Rome.  And Paul had yet to even visit them.  These are mostly Gentiles, rather than Jews, and Paul sees himself as a missionary to the Gentiles.

Paul is writing to commend them in their faith, and also to express support for their stand for Christ.  But at the same time, Paul is preparing for a missionary trip to Spain – which at that time was at the far end of his Mediterranean world.  So Paul is writing to this group of believers to provide pastoral counsel for unity, and to enlist the community’s financial support for his continual work among fellow Gentiles.

In this letter, which our lesson begins at verse 18, it’s actually important to know what he says in the previous verse, verse 17, to put into context what he says later. 

It’s kind of like the fellow said, “I know you think you understand what you believe I said, but you don’t understand that what you heard is not what I meant.”

For in verse 17 Paul mentions three phrases that are important to understanding what he says later on:

1.  Paul writes about “the gospel of God;”

2.  the Jew first and also the Greek;

and 3.  the righteousness of God.

We see Paul using the word “God” more than a hundred times in his letter to the Romans.  He also uses “Jesus Christ” often, but his frequent use of “God” early on signals Paul’s intent to highlight the character of God as the ground upon which to build an understanding of Jesus Christ.

Paul’s use of that phrase, “the gospel of God,” is his way of explaining that the gospel proclamation concerning the Son is tied ultimately to God’s covenant with Israel, by flesh in David and through the Spirit in resurrection.  God’s plan of salvation, now made available for all people, through Jesus, remains God’s plan, first initiated by God’s choosing of Israel.

Where Paul uses the term “the Jew first and also the Greek”, we see Roman citizen Paul writing to God’s chosen people who may be among his readers, and also to the Gentile or Greek-speaking audience.

Paul sees himself as ministering to the Gentiles, but at the same time, his letter to the Roman church is full of allusions and references to the Hebrew scriptures, and Paul deals at length with the law of Moses and the legacy of Abraham. 

We see Paul’s concern for the relationship between Jew and Gentile running throughout this letter, suggesting that Paul assumed he was addressing both groups in Rome, with the likely majority being Gentile.

Then there is Paul’s use of the phrase “the righteousness of God.”  He mentions it in his introductory remarks, then several more times, including in Chapters 3 and 10.  However, the phrase appears only once outside of Romans, and that’s in 2^nd Corinthians 5:21.  So why it is so crucial here?

According to some scholars, while Paul is concerned with the inclusion of Gentiles within God’s plan of salvation in this letter to a predominantly Gentile church in Rome, it is possible that also of major concern in Paul’s mind was his approaching requirement to defend his “law-free” gospel before the still-skeptical leaders of the Jerusalem church.  And so he grounded the presentation of his gospel in a conviction these leaders could affirm: that God’s righteous justice falls equally upon all.  From that he argued that God’s saving righteousness must also be equally available to all.

In fact, many in the church world-wide today disagree with whether or not Paul actually taught a believer’s freedom in Christ and how we are to live a godly life apart from the governance of the Mosaic Law, and even today many still believe we should be living under the Mosaic laws.  Just for clarification, there are three types of Mosaic Law:  the moral, ceremonial, and civil law.  I believe scripture affirms Paul taught that Israel alone had received the Mosaic Law and was under its administration. Gentiles were excluded from the Law, as was the Church, the body of Christ (Ephesians 2.11-13;Romans 3.1-2, 6.14). However, Paul taught that when Gentiles or the Church come in contact with the Law, it has the same effect it had on Israel: it condemns (Romans 3.19), it does not save.

Looking then at the verses in today's scripture, beginning with verses 18-22, Paul’s writings accept that human beings have an innate leaning to idolatry of the familiar, turning away from God, suppressing the truth of God as sovereign Lord and Creator.

He sees the obvious evidence for God’s existence in creation, in the handiwork of God, observable by all creatures on earth.  God is and always has been on display. 

It is in describing this dilemma that Paul lays the groundwork for what he will later declare about Christ: That because all have had access to the knowledge of God – through creation or through covenant – and because all have failed to honor God as God, or thank Him, as it says in verse 21, all are under condemnation.  No one has an excuse.

In verse 23 we find an echo of the Genesis creation story.  Again, what Paul is doing is restating the fall of humankind, the essential human problem: that the creature refuses to be dependent upon the Creator.

Then we jump to verse 28.  The conspicuous result of humankind’s willful attempt to take God’s place is, as one commentator put it, “Not a rise above human creatureliness, but a fall below humanity to a level of human beastliness.”  The consequence is that God gives them over to the natural consequences of their behaviors.

Now, as to this business of putting ourselves on part with, or even replacing God with our own wonderful self, perhaps you heard the story of the scientists who prayed to God that He was no longer needed.  That they had advanced human science to the point where they could create human beings out of the dirt of the earth, just as God did with Adam. 

“Well,” God said, “let me see you do that.”

Whereupon they reached down and grabbed a handful of dirt.

“Ah-ah,” said God, “get your own dirt.”

Verse 28 of today's scripture lesson reads: “Since they didn’t think it was worthwhile to acknowledge God, God abandoned them to a defective mind to do inappropriate things.”  Unlike what we saw in the prophet Zephaniah, here God’s wrath is made manifest not in the handing out of divine punishments but in self-inflicted human perversions.  The brokenness of the moral compass is its own punishment.  Destruction comes to humankind not from above but from within.

 Ending up finally at verses 29-32, we find sadly that the “decision” Paul mentions in verse 32 is the death sentence made inevitable by all those who practice and – even more – celebrate a self-destructive lifestyle, knowing full well what they are doing!  Paul’s intent here is to expose the realities of human depravity in the context of the Torah, the Law of Moses.  For even if we are not under Ceremonial and Civil Law, we remain under God’s Moral Law.  Later on Paul comes back to this.

At this point, though, Paul is, as one scholar observes, counting down a “disguised version of the commandments … (1) evil, covetousness, (2) malice, envy, (3) murder, strife, (4) deceit, malignity, (5) gossips, slanderers, (6) haters of God, (7) insolent, haughty, (8) boastful inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, (9) foolish, faithless, and (10) heartless, ruthless…For Paul and those in the scribal Pharisaic tradition, the whole world heard God’s Ten Commandments, although only Israel was God’s covenant partner…”

The romantic poet William Wordsworth wrote a sonnet titled, “The World is Too Much With Us,” part of which reads,

“The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune…..”

To put it more bluntly, every day injustice and hatred abound, and people do not walk with God.  This is the world we live in.

This shouldn’t be news to us.  It wasn’t news to those who first read Paul’s letter – but then Paul wasn’t trying to inform; he was aiming to indict.  His intent was to state the obvious, the undeniably bad news of the human condition, in order to stir a response to the unbelievably good news of Jesus who is the Christ.

  

The point is that we are called to commit to discerning and following God’s will.  If we take Paul at his word in his opening statement to the Romans, then the necessary step before we can ever discern or follow God’s will is to acknowledge and turn away from our own will.

The writer of the student book quotes William Barclay as observing that people willfully reject God’s truth so ”that their own schemes and dreams may be furthered.” 

But I ask you out of your own experience, is it really that easy to become enamored with our own schemes and dreams, so much so that we turn our back on Almighty God?

What do you think?

I wonder, if we had a small hand mirror we could look into, would we be reminded of those moments of reality, when our own self-centeredness, and the consequences that followed, would they come rolling back to us?

Actually, you and I are not any different from those around us who may be caught up in turning their backs on God, except for that one promise from the Word of God such as we find in Hebrews 13:5 – “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

That being the case, how then could we possibly, as the lesson title says, “Ignore God’s Plain Truth”?

Guest Blog: The Church's Relevance

The following link will take you took Janice Cole Hopkins blog, "Past, Present, and Future With God," located at:

http://janicecolehopkins.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-churchs-relevance-webster-defines.html
Her subject is "The Church's Relevance."  Enjoy

Easter and Resurrection Faith

by Pastor Ed Evans

          I want to begin by sharing with you a verse that has been important to me from the first moment I came to Christ in 1958, Galatians 2:20.  It’s even more important this Easter morning: “I am crucified with Christ.  Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.  And the life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

          Twenty-one years ago I preached my first sermon, so I’m very aware that not everyone agrees with my approach.  But I continue to stand in awe of His gift of Easter and ask, “How could it be that this insignificant blip on the human radar screen, can stand with arms outstretched and shout that on my worst day I'm Jesus Christ in Ed Evans.” 

Our Lesson today is titled Resurrection Faith, from Mark 16: 1-8

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Him.  And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.  And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”  And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large.  And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.  And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him.   But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”  And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

          Today’s lesson is entitled “Resurrection Faith.”  The resurrection of Jesus was frightening for the women who first discovered the empty tomb, and it was unsettling and challenging for Jesus’ first followers – and even for us.  Because of Jesus’ resurrection, things will never be the same.

          Some have raised the question of the three women’s motives in going to Jesus’ tomb that morning.  Were they going because of their love for Him, because it was just another task for the women, why them?  In that part of the world, caring for the body is the responsibility of the oldest son.  Since Jesus had no oldest son, I would have thought the disciples would have taken that on.  And maybe they did, because these women all had connections to the disciples, and they had nothing better to do than what they were told.  In that culture and time, that’s what women did.

          In this case, the women made no excuses for not doing what they came to do.  The stone had already been rolled away for them, but the body they were to anoint was gone.  What they found, instead, was a young man who is described in Matthew 28:3-4, as “His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.  And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.”

          Note that this young man is found sitting on the right side, the place of authority.  He also demonstrates divine prescience in knowing why they have come.  With the legitimate right, then, to command them, he tells them, “Go, tell His disciples, especially Peter, that He is going ahead of you to Galilee.”

          Don’t miss the fact that an angel has been dispatched to call Jesus’ disciples back into action.  Jesus is not ashamed of failed disciples, and now He leads them to Galilee where His message has been widely accepted, unlike Jerusalem.

          There is also a great irony here in Mark, that these women who were strong enough to attend Jesus’ passion, brave and courageous enough to go to Joseph of Aramathea’s tomb, the place of burial, and enter a tomb not knowing what they would find – now, even they fail.  Mark’s last words of them are “they were afraid,” and this in a gospel in which fear signals a lack of faith.  Mark’s gospel ends on the chord it has struck throughout.  One note is the call to discipleship, the other is the fear of what it will mean.  And yet, we see God’s word of promise prevailing despite human failure.

          But this young man says they are “especially” to tell Peter.  Why especially Peter?  

Probably because Jesus and Peter still had something to resolve by the Sea of Tiberius; three questions Jesus was to ask Peter. 

          This incident has always touched me, deeply.  For just as Peter denied Him three times, Jesus gave Peter three opportunities to restate his love for Jesus.  But look here, if you study the Hebrew wording, it goes even deeper.  The word for “love” first used is agapao – Peter really likes Him -- and only in answer to the last question does Peter finally use the word “phileo” – a love that values and esteems, an unselfish love ready to serve, cherishing the object above all else.  It’s the difference between liking someone very much and genuine love.

          Remember, God’s love for us unshakeable; in the most desperate situations He will be there for us.  And His Son, Jesus, loved us first, before we ever knew Him.  But what He wants from us is that same unconditional love with which He loves us.  Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love Me?”  But most likely at that moment Peter no longer trusted himself to admit his love for his master.  Three times Peter denied Him after assuring his Lord that he would never do that.  Peter is embarrassed, humiliated, and so sadly sorry for his weakness, but Jesus won’t leave Peter there.

          Our Lord persists, perhaps because He knows Peter’s heart better than Peter does.  And at last, Peter answers the resurrected Jesus, as we read in John 21, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”  It was more important to the faith of Peter that Peter admit this, than it was for Jesus to hear it.

          Some followers think Jesus is concerned about giving us a ticket to stay out of hell, when what He wants is that we understand His depth of love that He shares with us so freely, and that we share it with others.  It’s our faith in that love, demonstrated on the cross, that opens the gates of heaven for us.

          D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe joined together to write a book entitled “What if Jesus had Never Been Born?”  They say of their book, “We live in a cynical age in which only one prejudice is tolerated -- anti-Christian bigotry. Yet despite the unbridled slanders and attacks against the faith, one powerful truth is undeniable: if Christ had never been born, nearly every facet of human life would be much more miserable than it is today.”

          Interestingly enough, there has been no book written titled “What If Jesus Had Never Been Crucified?”, and yet if you search that on the Internet, you will find 527,000 entries to read.  It certainly has been discussed.  Fact is, if Jesus had not been crucified, then there would have been no resurrection. If there had been no resurrection, we would still be bringing sacrifices for the atonement of our sins. Religion would still be based on our efforts to amend or atone for our sins. There would be no Christianity because there would no Christ the Redeemer to look for as our Savior. We would still be looking for the Messiah. So, yes, the world would be totally different. 

          Sometimes perhaps we wonder, why did Jesus have to die?  Was there no better way for God to accomplish our salvation?  The answer to that must be that if there were any other way, God, being God would have known it and accomplished it without His Son’s agonizing death on the cross. 

          Remember, Jesus did not become God’s Son when He was born in Bethlehem.  He was God’s Son all the way through.  He was there at creation.  God loved Him all the way through it.  There was no other way.

          Now, back for a moment to those 527,000 Internet entries, there are many which claim He was not crucified, after all.  For one thing, the Islamic religion claims Jesus was never crucified, but was merely a human prophet and was spirited away by His followers.  Their god, Allah, says there was no risen Christ.

However, we also know that Jesus was seen by more than 300 people after His death.  And that is more people than those who witnessed the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and yet no one doubts that.

Perhaps the most compelling reasons to believe in Jesus' resurrection are the lives of His disciples. Josh McDowell says it better than I can: "We must ask ourselves: What caused them to go everywhere telling the message of the risen Christ in the face of non-believing Judaism? 
         “Had there been any visible benefits accrued to them from their efforts -- prestige, wealth, increased social status or material benefits -- we might logically attempt to account for their actions, for their whole-hearted and total allegiance to this risen Christ. 
         “As a reward for their efforts, however, those early Christians were beaten, stoned to death, thrown to the lions, tortured and crucified. Every conceivable method was used to stop them from talking. 
        “Yet, they laid down their lives as the ultimate proof of their complete confidence in the truth of their message." 
        [Historic writings show that eight of the disciples were martyred, with Peter and Andrew being crucified.]
        “Now think about it...If you were living at that time and weren't totally convinced of His divinity would you go out in a hostile community and talk about the resurrection?”  If you would like to know more about this, get on your computer and Google: “Evidence for the resurrection" and read what scholars have to say. Many of them were atheists prior to their studies. 

Often, life’s hardships are the greatest and most effective ways of learning. God blesses us when we understand that the pain in our lives can (with a little bit of internal and external listening to God) be transformed into a blessing. Not all blessings are easy to come by, and in fact, probably most come with scars. Scars serve as reminders that life was difficult, but there is life on the other side of the pain.  I think of the song by Fanny Crosby, “I Will Know Him by the Nail Prints In His Hand”, scars my Jesus endured for me, for you.

          The first stanza and chorus read:

“When my lifework is ended, and I cross the swelling tide,
When the bright and glorious morning I shall see;
I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side,
And His smile will be the first to welcome me.

Refrain:
I shall know Him, I shall know Him,
And redeemed by His side I shall stand,
I shall know Him, I shall know Him,
By the print of the nails in His hand.

In the midst of the pain and the loss, the tears and the grave are a paradox. What was final is simply not final.  The grave is empty.  Death has indeed lost its sting.

THAT is why the day death died is called “good”; Good Friday.

Amazingly, we find Easter inside the cross!

It’s on Good Friday that we need to look deeper within our own brokenness and search for the “good” in our life. You and I, we’re beautiful – not despite our scars, but because of them. You should have been blessed this Good Friday, and may you find the beauty with all of who you are.

For we find that who we are is intrinsically tied to our relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and our Savior.  How blessed we are, and yet in this day and age Jesus is currently the center of a great controversy in the Christian world, and you and I are right there with Him.  For some who desire peace with the Islamic jihadist terrorists are willing to agree that Christians and Muslims worship the same God.  But Muslim worship does not recognize the Holy Spirit or the Son of God.

Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton, at the 2006 Missouri Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, said, “When we sacrifice truth for unity, we end up with neither.”

Although I have been to the Middle East twice – once in Beirut where in 1983 Iranian Muslim terrorists bombed the Marine Barracks, killing 263 of my Marine brothers; and in Iraq during 2003-2004 – I don’t speak Arabic.  So when it became obvious several years ago that I needed to know more about Islam, I had to depend upon others for information regarding the Islamic faith.  Among the many books and articles which compare and contrast Islam and Christianity, two by Ergun and Emir Caner stand out in my mind: “Unveiling Islam” and “More Than a Prophet”. 

These two brothers, raised in a strict Muslim family were, with a third brother, disowned by their father when they became Christians. They put their faith in the resurrected Christ, and they were fortunate.  For a strict interpretation of Hadith 9.57, calls for them to be killed. They state plainly that they did not “switch religions” but they were saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, and, they add, on page 16 of their first book, “Christianity is not about religion; it is about a relationship with the Savior. It must be understood that orthodox, Biblical Christianity assumes the existence of truth. Truth implies the existence of error, and mutually exclusive claims of truth cannot both be correct. Such is the case with Islam and Christianity. Either Islam is correct in the assumption that ‘there is only One God, Allah, and Muhammad is His prophet,’ or Christianity is correct when Jesus says, in John 14:6, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’.  They cannot both be correct”.

I hasten to add that it is not my desire to belittle the beliefs of another faith, nor to try and prove someone right in order to prove someone else wrong.  And it certainly does no good to add fuel to the fires of controversy that rage around the general discussion of beliefs of different religions.

However, I have seen the incredible works of God, I have experienced His presence, His love, His faithfulness, His healing and His saving grace.

I feel, honestly, that if I did not speak out, as scripture tells us, the very rocks would cry out, for I consider it an egregious offense to equate with any other deity the Holy God we serve, the One who said, in Isaiah 42:8: “I am the Lord.  That is My name, and My glory I will not give to another.”

In his book, “Jesus Among Other Gods, the Absolute Claims of the Christian Message,” a man who grew up a Hindu in India, Ravi Zacharias wrote: “All religions are not the same. All religions do not point to God. All religions do not say that all religions are the same. At the heart of every religion is an uncompromising commitment to a particular way of defining who God is or is not and accordingly, of defining life’s purpose... Every religion at its core is exclusive.”  And exclusive is what Jesus is, for He did say in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father but by Me.”  For anyone who cannot believe that, no amount of “living a righteous life” will get them into heaven.  In the vernacular of the 1950’s, it’s either Jesus’ way or the highway.

I saw a quote the other day that applies here.  It read, “The idea that there is a highway to hell and a staircase to heaven indicates the kind of traffic we can expect.”

I begin to close by reminding you, it is Easter.  We are a forgiven people!  We live in the promise that we, too, shall be resurrected, made new, by the power of God’s perfect love for us.

We need not fear; we need not make excuses; we need not tremble before the cross, for the cross is empty!  Christ is risen!  Christ is risen indeed!

          Join me in praying: “Almighty God, You came to earth to prove Your love for us once and for all in and through the empty tomb.  We, like Peter and the apostles, hasten to follow You in the confidence that the power of the Resurrection still lives in and through us by Your grace and forgiveness.  We offer this prayer in the name of the risen Christ, even Jesus our Lord.  Amen.”

Hearts and Banjos - by Dennis Fisher

We're just a couple of days away a brand, spankin' new year, so read and give some consideration....

("Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?" - Psalm 85:6)

Hearts and Banjos

by Dennis Fisher, Managing Editor, ChristianCourses.com, DeWitt, Michigan

While working my way through graduate school, I taught five-string bano in a music store.  The job provided me with the opportunity to buy a brand new, professional -quality instrument for nearly half-price.

That was over 30 years ago, and that banjo has accompanied me on ministry efforts around the world.  But, despite its excellent craftsmanship, eventually it needed to be refurbished.  A master repairman pointed out how imperfections had worn into the banjo.  He was confident that his repairs would result in the instrument sounding better than new.

I wasn't disappointed.  The action on the strings and the clarity of the sound are astonishingly superior to its original condition when I purchased the instrument.

In a way, our lives are like musical instruments intended fo "the praise of the glory of [God's} grace" (Ephesians 1:6).  But over time, life wears us down.  Our hearts cry out for renewal.  The psalmist prayed: "Will You not revive us again?"  (Psalm 85:6).

The Hebrew word for revive means not only "to restore and refresh" but also "to repair."

It's vital that we submit our souls to the Master's restorative touch.  Why not set aside some time for spiritual retreat and ask the Lord to repair your heart?

Look, There’s A Squirrel!

Reaching retirement age has a number of benefits, one of which is that there isn’t anything left to be learned the hard way.  Almost anything that comes up, we’ve been there, done that, got the t-shirt.  One of the things I’ve had time to practice is my  ability to focus on one thing at a time.  Being a creative type, trained as a photojournalist, my mind is usually tracking three or four things at a time.  My equally creative wife, the artist, calls that the “squirrel reflex”.

That’s where the fellow is talking along and suddenly stops to blurt out, “Look, there’s a squirrel!”  And everything else is forgotten.

Now one way to improve both one’s concentration and effectiveness, the experts tell us, is by using lists to sort out and prioritize what lies before us.  If you’ve never operated that way, you should try it.  You sit down and list all the things you need to do, need to buy, need to accomplish, all the people you need to speak with and why.  The you pick out the top five and number them one to five in accordance with which are most important. 

Then you have before you all that is important to you, for that day, and the sequence in which they should be accomplished.  That’s how things get done and not forgotten or lost in the shuffle of the day.

This year 2016 is a sparkly, brand new year, not at all like last year.  We’re not even completely aware of the opportunities and challenges waiting for us there, yet.  But we each have a few things we would like to accomplish before this year is out, meetings and conventions we would like to attend -- like what is promising to be an exciting one in Pigeon Forge this year -- and a few triumphs we would like to be in on.  That’s where your list comes in.  Set priorities.

Now, if we could just get our legislators to make a few lists in our favor, that might work to our benefit.  Seems like in the middle of doing the people’s business, somebody’s always yelling out, “Look, there’s a squirrel!”

No Room in Love for Fear

By Pastor Ed Evans

“There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life – fear of death, fear of judgment – is one not yet fully formed in love.” – 1st John 4:18 (Message)

For the past weeks and months Americans have been treated to the fearful actions of Islamic extremists who think nothing of slaughtering people, even blowing themselves up if they can take innocents into death with them.

Over the past week the news has been filled with the recounting of Muslim jihad slaughter of French people, deadly raids and hostage situations, French bombing runs against the ISIS enemy forces, violent incidents in England, Africa, and Belgium, as well as in Syria.

Even as this is happening, with blood yet running in the streets, the President of the United States boasts he will bring thousands more Muslims into America as refugees. There are already thousands of Muslims in America, some in business, some in training camps across the U.S., some in prison for incidents of jihad violence. This has led the American people to proclaim loudly that they wish no more Muslim refugees right now. They have proclaimed that desire to the news media, to their State Governors, Congressmen, their Senators, and the President.

Still, President Obama proclaims the FBI and DHS vetting of refugees will protect the American people. Even as he does, the Director of the FBI and a member of the Senate Commission on Homeland Security admit they cannot adequately vet that number of foreign immigrants as quickly as the President wants them moved into states across the U.S.

As of this date, 27 State Governors have said they will refuse to allow Syrian refugees to settle in their states, citing the necessity to protect the people of their state. These refusals come even after the Supreme Court has said only the President has the authority to refuse refugees, and only he can say where they will and will not be resettled. The 27 Governors, who control the funding to support such resettlements, continue their refusal. Congress has also passed a bill defunding any Syrian refugee program, in response to a week of vociferous contact by their constituents.

The President’s unkind response was to belittle the American people, speaking fro the Philippines, for being afraid of “widows and orphans.” However, it has not been lost on the American people that nearly all the photos of crowds of Syrian refugees are of men who are of military age, with no “widows and orphans” in sight.

I think it is obvious that much of this refusal, by the people of America, by their Governors, Congressmen and Senators, is driven by the continuing Muslim violence in Europe, and the many individual instances right here in the United States. At its core, it is cold, hard, fear.

There is an old saying many of us probably remember from our high school sports days, that says when things get tough, the tough get going. Our football coaches used it on the playing field, and over time, it became useful in other areas of our life. “When things get tough, the tough get going.” Basically, when the situation facing us becomes difficult, that’s when the strong, the hard, the determined knuckle down and come up with solutions to the problem. That old saying has been attributed to Joseph P. Kennedy, father of President John Kennedy, and to football coach Knute Rockne.

Whoever said it first, it is still the best way out of difficult problems. Sitting around moaning about our circumstances, becoming emotional over them, closing our eyes and pretending nothing has gone wrong – all useless reactions. But this is what we see much of the world doing, plus looking for others to blame, others upon whom we can wreak our vengeance for our mistakes in not stopping it sooner.

For the Christian, for those whose worship and faith are grounded in the Living God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, none of that is necessary. Believers in Jesus Christ actually do live in a different, an altered if you will, world. Psalm 20:7 tells us, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God." The American military is the best-trained, the best-equipped, with an ability and a prowess that is respected all over the world. It is often said, “The enemy knows our name.” They watch for our mistakes, our weaknesses, to exploit them to their advantage. But especially in this case, it is not America’s military prowess and ability that will make the difference. Our enemies are the enemy of God. This is His war. He will win it His way.

And what should His children be doing in the meantime? We should be remembering 1st John 4:18 – and the Message version says it best -- standing strong in His Word, without fear, acting in love. “There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life – fear of death, fear of judgment – is one not yet fully formed in love.”

In every circumstance during this difficult period before us, remember love, without fear. Stand in His love, plan in His love, act in His love. Then, be still and know that He is God, and watch Him work. Amen.

How to Defend a Lion

By Pastor Ed Evans, by virtue of Pastor Ray C. Stedman

Tonight I listened to a quote used on a TV drama that intrigued me, wrongly attributed to Aquinas.  In fact, it was Augustine of Hippo who said, “The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.”

 The computer search for attribution led to a marvelous sermon by Pastor Ray Stedman, given March 14, 1982.  Prescient, I would say, sitting here in September of 2015, nearly benumbed by the evil I see swirling around my beloved nation, stunned by the misinformation and misadventure surrounding my beloved Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and Almighty God.

Join me in a worm hole visit back through time and space to March 14, 1982, and Pastor Ray Stedman, sharing how the great preacher Charles Spurgeon used that quote, as Stedman was holding forth from behind his pulpit to his congregation regarding the Word of God in that place and time.  It speaks to us yet, today.

Scripture: 2^nd Timothy 1:14 – 2:2

“By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

“You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me—may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.

“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

Almost every Christian alive has heard the famous quotation from Charles Spurgeon, the great English preacher, about defending the Scripture.  Spurgeon said, "Scripture is like a lion. Who ever heard of defending a lion? Just turn it loose; it will defend itself." That oft-quoted word has a great deal of truth in it. Notice that it does not deny that lions sometimes need defending; it merely recognizes that the best way to do that is to turn a lion loose and it will defend itself.

The Apostle Paul, in his second letter to Timothy, suggests a similar approach. Writing from his prison cell in Rome to Timothy, who is left all alone in the great, pagan city, Ephesus, Paul tells his young son in the faith (Chapter 1, Verse 14):

Guard the truth which has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. (2 Timothy. 1:14 (RSV)

I would like to give you a slightly different, perhaps more accurate, version of what Paul wrote, because that translation suggests that the phrase, "by the Holy Spirit," is linked with the entrusting, i.e., the Spirit has entrusted to Timothy the truth. Actually, that phrase goes with the word guard: "Guard by means of the indwelling Spirit the good deposit," is what Paul wrote. The "good deposit" is the gospel, or the Scripture of truth. Though the word truth does not actually appear in this verse, it is not inaccurate to render it as this version has, "guard the truth by means of the Spirit."

The great claim of Christianity is not that it is a religion, but that it is the truth; it is the way things really are in life. Dorothy Sayers said, "The test of any religion is not that it pleases us, but that it is true." That is what marks the character of Christian faith -- explaining life the way it really is. That is why, when Jesus taught in his day, every time people heard him say something, inwardly they thought, "Yes, of course. That's right, isn't it?" Jesus was speaking to their experience, even to their unconscious, unarticulated experience, which they felt deeply and which his words explained. The glory of Christianity is that it is knowledge, knowledge that can free us from the lies that the world in its blindness is following to its own destruction.

Arnold Grunigen, a well known Christian businessman and leader in the early days of this congregation, used to put it this way: "The Bible is God's instruction book which goes along with man." When you buy a new car you get a book with it that tells you how it operates and what to do if it does not. When you get a new washing machine or a new toaster you get a book with it. When you buy a personal computer you get a big book with it. God sent us into the world, complicated beings that we are, so it makes sense that he would give us a book that goes along with man. That is what the Bible is, and Timothy is to "guard that truth by means of the indwelling Holy Spirit."

It is very important that we understand what the apostle means here. It is not merely the words of the Book that make it powerful, rather it is the presence of the Spirit enlightening the words of the Book. The Spirit illuminates the Book; he brings it home to the heart. He makes these words living words, penetrating words, powerful words, words that enlighten the mind, pierce the heart, words that produce profound changes in attitude and behavior in mankind. It is true that the words are truth, that this is the Word of God, without error as God gave it to man, but it is the Spirit who makes this Book a living word, and transforms it, if you like, into a powerful lion which is capable of defending itself.

How do you turn the lion loose? That is the question we are facing in this passage and throughout this section. In fact, the first thirteen verses of Chapter 2 will detail for us four ways by which Timothy was expected to turn the lion loose to let him defend himself. We will trace these four things, taking two of them today and two of them next week.

First, the apostle would remind Timothy, and us, of what the times were like in which this "guarding of the truth" was to take place. Verse 15:

You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, and among them Phygelus and Hermogenes. (2 Timothy 1:15 RSV)

It would not have been news to Timothy that there had been a great turning away from the authority of the Apostle Paul in Asia. Timothy lived in Ephesus, the capital of the large Roman province of Asia, which was about the size of the State of California. Timothy was expected to teach and to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in Ephesus, so he faced every day the problem that Paul mentions here.

In fact, Timothy was running into increasing opposition to what Paul taught. I do not think that implies that there was a widespread turning away from Christianity -- a denial of Christ. Rather, there was an attempt to separate Paul from Jesus. This is always the beginning of apostasy -- to deny the authority of an apostle as opposed to that of the Lord himself. This, of course, was something Paul faced everywhere he went because he was not one of the twelve. Jesus had not called him in the days of his flesh. Many people took advantage of that and accused Paul of making himself an apostle. They suggested that his were invented words, that his teachings went beyond what Jesus taught and added to it things that Jesus never intended.

You can still hear that argument on every side today. Even Christians who ought to know better are suggesting that Paul was an encrusted old bachelor who had no use for women. His writings with regard to women ought to be disregarded, they say, because he was speaking out of his own soured experience. These people suggest that we need to pick and choose in Paul's writings as to what is from the Lord and what is not. That is exactly what Timothy was experiencing, and that is what Paul is referring to here.

We do not know exactly who Phygelus and Hermogenes were. They evidently were prominent leaders whom Paul expected to support him. As I read this account, I wondered if they were not among those people, described in Acts 19, in that time of riot and uprising in Ephesus, whom Luke calls "certain Asiarchs" (Acts 19:31 RSV), i.e., of Roman authorities. Luke said these were friends of the apostle who would be expected, perhaps in a day when Paul was under charge by the Roman government, even facing possible death, to come to his defense, yet they refused to do so. It may be that these were people whom Paul had looked to to support him, but they had refused to do so, and he was left alone to defend himself.

At any rate, it is clear that it is hard for Paul to write the statement, "all in Asia have turned against me." Luke records in the book of Acts that just a few years earlier, as a result of Paul's teaching in the rented school of Tyrannus in Ephesus for five hours a day, all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks, (Acts 19:10), What a wonderful awakening that represented! That was a time when the whole province seemed to be alive with the power of the gospel, and thousands were turning to Christ. Yet, a few years later, Paul has to write, "All in Asia have turned against me."

That brought to my memory the scenes, less than ten years ago, when this room was jammed with young people on Sunday nights. They would sit in the aisles and up here on the platform because we had no room to seat them elsewhere. That was part of a great spiritual awakening which we now call the Jesus Movement. Without any apparent reason thousands of young people left the drugs scene, the world of the occult, and the world of profligate sex, and turned to Christ. They began to read their Bibles, and seek after the truth. The whole of the West Coast was electric with excitement as we saw the power of the Word at work in young people's lives. But today, apathy is apparent on every side. Many of those young people who welcomed the Word with such excitement in those days have faded into the background. There is resistance to the truth, and a turning away from the authority of the apostles. An apostasy has set in.

That is exactly what the apostle is experiencing here. In the words of Dr. E.M. Blaiklock, professor of classics at the University of New Zealand (a wonderful Christian scholar who preached at PBC in the early days), "Of all the centuries, the twentieth is most like the first." It is evident that you and I are living through similar times to what Paul and Timothy are facing here. Even the Christian community is turning away from Christian standards, morals and ethics. Divorce is epidemic among Christians, who ought to be manifesting the ability of the Spirit of God to keep a family united in love and grace and growing in truth and righteousness. Instead, Christians are succumbing to the ways of the world around. Immorality is rife among us; famous names are turning away and forsaking Christian standards. That is what Paul and Timothy were facing.

In the Roman world of that day when this letter was written, (about the year 67 or 68), the whole Roman East was aflame. Like Mt. St. Helens, it was giving evidence that it was about to erupt and explode. Just two or three years later, the Roman armies under Titus would surround Jerusalem and attack the city. They destroyed the temple, killed hundreds of thousands of Jews, and led others off into captivity. All this was about to happen, so that the world of that day was being shaken as the world is being shaken today. Paul's word for such an hour is to "guard the truth by means of the Holy Spirit which has been entrusted to us."

By contrast, there was one man from Asia, Onesiphorus, whom Paul describes as having found a way to "guard the truth" in his day. Here is what Paul says about him (Verses 16-18):

May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me; he was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me eagerly and found me -- may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day -- and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus. (2 Timothy 1:16-18 RSV)

Onesiphorus means "bringer of help." Here was a man who lived up to his name. He was, evidently, a businessman. Paul had known him and his family when he himself was in Ephesus. There the family and the man had ministered to Paul many times, so he prays a blessing upon them.

In his business travels, Onesiphorus had come to the city of Rome after Paul had been captured. Painstakingly, at great effort, he sought and found the apostle. That was not easy to do. The Romans were not telling everybody where Paul was imprisoned, but Onesiphorus kept looking until he found him. And he was not ashamed of Paul's chains. He found him at great risk to his own life, for, to befriend an enemy of Caesar in those days was to put one's own life in peril. Nero would eliminate anybody for the slightest deviation from a manifestation of loyal support of him and his plan.

Onesiphorus ministered to Paul and refreshed his spirit. He did not come gloomily wringing his hands, beating his breast and talking about how terrible things were all through the Empire. He came with confidence that God was still in charge and upholding things. Here Paul prays for him now that he is still away, probably on another trip somewhere, and he asks Timothy to support his family there and prays that God would bless him "on that Day."

By his life and his actions, here is a man who found the way to turn the lion loose in his own time. Onesiphorus was fearless, he was faithful, and he was cheerful. He reminds me of that favorite definition I have used many times of how a Christian ought to be: Completely fearless. Continually heerful. Constantly in trouble.

Paul now returns to Timothy and gives him step-by-step instructions on how he can guard the truth, how he can turn the lion loose in a day of widespread declension and apostasy. This passage runs on through Verse 13, but we are only going to take two verses this morning. Chapter 2, Verses 1-2:

You then, my son, he strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. (2 Timothy 2:1-2 RSV)

The first thing you have to do when things start falling apart, Paul says, is to be strong yourself in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; that is a fundamental principle of helping anybody. You can only pass on to others what you yourself have received. Head knowledge is of no value. If you merely pass on a knowledge of the truth -- teaching people the various doctrines of Christianity -- you have done nothing to help them at all. Unless they can see that that truth has changed you and made you different, that you speak out of the experience of having been altered by the truth you believe, you will never do anything to help someone else stand in the hour of danger. If you want to strengthen others, Paul's advice is, start with yourself: "Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." That is the way to guard the truth. That is what Onesiphorus had done. He was strong, he was able to withstand the fear and the pressures of his day because he had found that Christ could strengthen him. So he becomes an example to Timothy and to us of how to stand in an evil day.

That which strengthens is grace, Paul says, "the grace that is in Christ Jesus." A peculiar thing about grace is, it is never available to strong people. That is what makes it difficult for us to get hold of it sometimes. We are continually assaulted today with a barrage of propaganda teaching us that the way to be strong is to develop some quality about ourselves, some hidden power, some reserve of personality, some right that we need to demand and stand on and insist upon that. But if you believe your Bible, that is the way to be weak -- and that is what proves to be the case. God's grace alone is strong enough to handle the pressures of a fallen world, but the only way you can lay hold of the grace of God is to acknowledge that you are so weak you do not have anything else that will hold you. So the first thing that grace demands is that we admit our weakness, not our strength.

Many today are unable to be strong and unable to stand in the day of pressure, although they give great testimony about how they are going to follow Christ and stand for him. In the moment of pressure, however, they go down almost instantly. They have bought the lie of the world that if they just make up their mind, that if by their will or their effort they display their tremendous natural gifts, or if they develop some power to ride over the rights of others, they can stand. Not a day goes by but we are exposed to invitations to send away for this course or sign up for that one that will teach us how to stand up for our own rights. There is even a course offered today on how to intimidate others. That is the spirit of the age. But Paul's word is that the way to strength is to discover "the grace that is in Christ Jesus." Recognize your own weakness and then accept God's promise to work with you and through you in your weakness to make it strong. That is how it works.

Christians are to be forever learning to say, "I can't live up to this demand, I can't do this thing that is asked of me, but he can, therefore I can." Take the action based upon the expectation that God is in you and he will enable you to do what you otherwise cannot do. That is authentic Christianity. It is supernatural. Natural strength is its greatest enemy. When we learn that, we can be "strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus."

J. Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, was a marvelous exemplification of what we are talking about. Here is a quotation from his writings:

It makes no matter where he places me or how; that is rather for him to consider than me. For the easiest positions he must give me grace, and in the most difficult, his grace is sufficient. So, if God places me in great perplexity, must he not give me much guidance; in positions of great difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength? As to work, mine was never so plentiful, so responsible or so difficult, but the weight and the strain are all gone. His resources are mine, for He is mine.

That is a Christian response to the pressures of the day. I love to hear a congregation sing the hymn, "Amazing Grace," especially when they put the emphasis upon the "zing." That is what grace does: it puts zing into life. "Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me."

That is what Paul is writing to Timothy. So if you want others to be pure, learn to be pure yourself, by "the grace that is in Christ Jesus"; and if you want others to stand, then learn to stand yourself by "the grace that is in Christ Jesus." That is the place to start. If you cannot demonstrate it in your own life, you will get nowhere trying to communicate it to others.

But if you start there, then the next step is, as Paul points out, "what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." Pass it on; communicate it; let them see what you have learned. Let them see the struggles and the temporary failures that you went through in the learning of it.

That is why Paul adds these words, "before many witnesses." Timothy had accompanied Paul on many journeys. He had often heard him preach and teach; he was with him when he addressed pagans and at times when he addressed Christians. He heard the marvelous truths that the apostle understood which fleshed out all the words that Jesus had said. He saw the tremendous impact these words had made upon various people, both for good and for bad; some words that led to life, and other words that seemed to lead some to death. He must have discussed this frequently with Paul. He saw the hurt and the opposition that introduced into the apostle's life, the struggles Paul had as a result of faithfully proclaiming the truth. Timothy also saw the fantastic blessing that spread, the tremendous changes that were introduced, and the lifting of a whole level of a community's life because of the truth as it is in Jesus. So, Paul says, "What you have heard and seen and learned from me, pass it on to faithful men."

How do you tell a faithful man? (That is a generic term that includes both men and women.) How do you tell faithful people who can learn truth? Let me share with you four qualities I look for in someone in order to pass on what I myself have learned.

First, I look for a searching mind, a mind that is ready to learn, a mind that has given evidence, both in secular and sacred ways, that it wants to know something. Such a mind is not content to pass through life with a radio blaring, or a TV on, being entertained all the time. It wants to learn, to search out truth, to listen to what is going on around; it is willing to think about it, to meditate on it and explore its application. That is the first thing: a searching mind.

Then I look for a humble heart, for somebody who has already learned that truth is bigger than he is. He will have learned that we are to set aside our own egos, that truth is not given to us in order to build up our image in the eyes of people, that we are not to manipulate people to gain standing or prestige among them, but we are to be willing to submit ourselves, to put ourselves down and not seek credit; a humble heart.

The third thing is an evident gift. That is what Paul says here. Look for someone who is "able to teach others also," somebody who has a gift of the Spirit that can communicate and impart to others what he himself has learned. That is a process of duplication and reduplication that will rapidly spread truth throughout a body of people; an evident gift.

The fourth thing I look for is a faithful spirit, somebody who has demonstrated by a track record that he does not quit when the going gets tough. He is not ready to leave when some more enticing thing comes along, when the skiing gets good or the sun is hitting the beach, but he is willing to stay with what he has committed himself to; a faithful spirit.

A searching mind, a humble heart, an evident gift, a faithful spirit; when you find such as those, commit yourself to them. Paul says to Timothy, "Give yourself and everything you know to such men because they will pass it on to others, and soon the truth will spread."

I was recently in touch with a church which, when it was founded a couple of decades ago, had great understanding of the truth about the church, about the gifts of the Spirit, about the nature of elder leadership, and the authority of the Lord Jesus in the midst of his people. Because of its commitment to truth, for a long time that church made a tremendous impression in the area in which it is located. But of late it has been going through severe struggles. It has had one serious split, and now it is gradually becoming more and more an ordinary church, merely fitting itself into the usual plan and program of the church. I asked one of the elders of that church what had gone wrong. His answer was, "It was our (the elders') fault. We did not pass on to the newer elders what we ourselves believed."

All of us live just one generation away from total apostasy. The work of the church can fall apart in one generation if we do not faithfully pass on what we ourselves know -- parents to children, elders to the younger ones, leaders to those who follow; "faithful men and women who are able to teach others also." That is God's process of supporting and spreading truth and helping it to stand in the hour of attack.

I do not think there is any greater testimony to that than what has happened in China. When the missionaries were thrust out of China in 1950, Christians everywhere wrung their hands and said, "This is terrible. China will go back into the dark ages under the Communist heel. The poor Christians there will be reduced to nothing." But the truth has now become evident. The door is open to China again, and Christians who went back in found that the church had increased numerically sevenfold over what it was when the missionaries left.

I have always maintained that God's most significant approach to evangelizing a city is to begin by locking all the preachers up in jail. Remember that Paul wrote to the Philippians, "Many of the brethren are much more bold to preach the gospel because of my imprisonment," (Philippians 1:14 RSV). That is God's method of spreading the church. When you and I look around and see the apostasy that is setting in, in our day, among Christians in the church, we must remember, as the poet James Russell Lowell put it:

Though the cause of evil prosper,
Yet 'tis truth alone that's strong.
Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne.
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadows
Keeping watch above his own.

"Truth crushed to earth shall rise again," is a famous, oft-quoted saying. How true it is.

What then do you do in the day of declension, when people are turning away from Christianity? How do you let loose the lion that he might defend himself? Paul says there are four steps which we can take. We have looked at two of them: Practice a daily communion with the Lord Jesus yourself; and then communicate that to faithful men and women around you.

In the remainder of the passage Paul goes on to speak of the necessity for an earnest, dedicated commitment of the will, and of a confidence in the power of God that will continue to stand in the midst of pressure. We will look at that next week.

In the meantime, let us start to put into practice what he exhorts us to here -- a daily communion with Jesus himself, and a communicating of it to those with whom we have influence.

Prayer

Lord, we thank you for calling us to stand in this evil day. We know we are not living in a world that is going to minister to our comfort and please our indulgence very long; for that which can be shaken is about to be shaken. All the world seems about to fall apart around us; we cannot avoid it by hiding our heads in the sand. Grant that we may be faithful Christians who have learned how to guard the truth by means of the Holy Spirit in order that the lion of truth, made powerful by the Spirit, may be loosed among men and women in our day; and we will see the truth surmount its enemies and rise up to bless the world yet. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.