gospel

Plugging Your Ears Doesn’t Do Anything

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

Remembering back to your childhood days, you probably remember a common practice by kids that don’t want to listen to other children–they stick their fingers in their ears, and sometimes shout, “I’m not listening…I’M NOT LISTENING! LA LA LA LA LA.” But here is the thing, the child with his or her fingers in her ear may not be listening, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t being spoken to by someone else. The fingers in the ear trick works for the stubborn child, but it doesn’t negate the message.

The prophet Jeremiah had repeatedly spoken out words of warning and calls for repentance, all of which went unheeded. He had suffered abuse and ridicule, and yet he continued to faithfully declare everything that the Lord God told him, even at great personal cost.

In chapter 36, Jeremiah received words from God that he dictated to his faithful assistant. The words were threatening the wrath of God, and Jeremiah’s hope was that the warning might affect the hearts of the people and that they might turn from their sins and return to the Lord in humble submission and obedience. Jeremiah, who was imprisoned and unable to go himself, took the completed scroll with the Words of God written in them, and he handed them to his assistant Baruch with these instructions:

““So you shall go and read from the scroll, which you have written at my dictation, the words of Yahweh in the hearing of the people in the house of Yahweh on a fast day. And also you shall read them in the hearing of all the people of Judah who come from their cities. “Perhaps their supplication will come before Yahweh, and everyone will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and the wrath that Yahweh has spoken against this people.”” (Jeremiah 36:6–7, LSB)

Baruch took the scroll first to the elders of Judah, and when they heard the words written from the mouth of God through Jeremiah, they were struck with terror at what the scroll said. Clearly, God was angry and they needed to have these words read before the king. As the leader of God’s people in Judah, surely he would do what is best and right. But instead of an open heart that was willing to listen, King Jehoiakim figuratively did what a 1st-grade child might do on the playground–he plugged up his ears and refused to listen. Except, the king was no child, and his actions went far beyond those of a child in his offense against the King of Heaven:

“Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king as well as in the hearing of all the officials who stood beside the king. Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning in the brazier before him. And it happened that when Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut it with a scribe’s knife and threw it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. Yet the king and all his servants who heard all these words were not in dread, nor did they tear their garments.” (Jeremiah 36:21–24, LSB)

No wonder wickedness ruled in the land with such a wicked king upon the throne! Instead of listening with a broken and contrite heart, Jehoiakim literally cut the scroll that contained the Word of God and tossed it into the fire, piece by piece. He refused to listen and made sure that nobody else was bothered by the message from God either.

Today, rulers all over the world, politicians, people of wealth, power, and influence sit in places where they have a great responsibility. God’s Word is not hidden from our world. He has given us His complete revelation in the written Word of God, the Bible, and in His Son Jesus Christ. Our institutions of Higher Learning treat the Bible as classical literature, our judges and officials swear upon a copy of the Word of God, and in many of our halls of government the Words of God are inscribed in the stone and marble upon the walls. We have no excuse.

And the common man has no excuse either. Ministries like Gideons International according to their own accounts, “have taken more than 2 billion Scriptures in more than 95 languages to 200 countries, territories, and possessions across the globe.” You can find a Gideons Bible in many hotel rooms to this day.

But are they listening? Is the world listening to the warnings clearly written in the Word of God? Some politicians and leaders, including religious leaders, are doing what Jehoiakim did–they are cutting out the parts of the Bible they don’t like. They don’t like hearing about sin (especially those sins they indulge in themselves), and they don’t like feeling the conviction that comes when God’s Word and Spirit press upon their hearts and tells them that they have committed these sins not only against men but worse, against the holy Creator God!

You cannot muzzle God. People have tried throughout history. Communism and other godless regimes have sought to confiscate and destroy Bibles, but they cannot. They have tried to silence God’s servants, imposing sanctions, imprisoning, torturing, and murdering them. But they have found out that they cannot silence God! They plug their ears, but the Words are still spoken and they are still true. The rebellious heart may not want to hear them, and they may stifle the sound for their own conscience, but it will be to their own detriment. God cannot and will not be silenced.

The question is not whether they (the rulers, leaders, celebrities, politicians, and the “power brokers” of this world) have refused to hear God. The question is whether YOU have done this. Have you plugged your ears to the warnings that God has sent in the Bible? Have you ignored the reality that if you would simply listen, these warnings are filled with the mercy and grace of God offered to you? If God didn’t care, why would He warn? If He did want you to turn from your sin, why would He mobilize an army of His servants to take His message all over the world? God cares, the question is, are you listening?

Justified by Faith in Jesus Christ Alone

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“But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:4–10, LSB)

In yesterday’s post, I contrasted the works-based religions of the world with the biblical gospel that says that Jesus Christ paid the full payment for sins on the cross and that this salvation is offered to sinful mankind by grace alone (sola gratia), and not based upon our merits. And since even our good works are tainted by our sin, we cannot hope to somehow earn salvation through our own righteousness. Paul called this whole predicament “dead in our trespasses and sins.”

Since we are dead in our sins and incapable of doing the good that God demands, God must act. In verses 4-7, Paul wrote that our salvation is given by the grace of God from beginning to end:

1. God is rich in mercy toward us. This is grace because we are sinners who don’t deserve God’s forgiveness!

2. God shows his great love to us by sending Christ to take our punishment for us. This too is grace since we are rebels against God, and we don’t want his love at first.

3. God shows us his great power by making us alive–first spiritually, and then one day he will resurrect us from the dead.

4. Finally, God demonstrates his massive generosity by seating us with Jesus Christ as royal children of the King. What grace! Remember that only a few short verses ago we were described as sons of disobedience, and then in verses 6-7 we are described as being seated with our King.

Verses 8-9 further drive this truth home. They say, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9, LSB). Faith in Jesus Christ alone is how we are saved. That message and the fact that it is offered to us is all of grace. Humanity did not deserve for God to send his son to earth to save us. We did not deserve Christ as our substitute on the bloody cross. We were not worthy, nor were we lovely and deserving. It was while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us. Salvation is God’s gracious gift. It is unearned and undeserved.

It is only after the Apostle Paul has laid out the gracious offer of the gospel that he introduces good works. Grace leads us to respond: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10, LSB).

In this verse, even good works are attributed to the Lord. He created them for us that we should walk in them. Even our good works are not truly our own. We must live in gratitude, but never with an attitude that we are gaining the favor of God by our works. We must be sure that our good works are meant to bring glory to our great God and Savior

What are the practical implications for the doctrine of Grace Alone?

  1. We must ensure that our gospel witness does not downplay the reality of sin in a person’s life.
  2. We must make sure that our gospel witness highlights the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
  3. We must make sure that our gospel witness clarifies that good works are the fruit of salvation and not the root of salvation.
  4. We must ensure that our own experience of the gospel leads us to worship and praise. 

Soli Gratia in a Pluralistic World

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“And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” Ephesians 2:1–3 (LSB)

The Reformers did not set out to cause a split in the church. They wanted to bring the church back into a proper understanding of many of the doctrines that had been distorted and changed. The chief doctrine that they saw as the hinge of all their discussions was the doctrine of justification. How is a person made right with God? The doctrine of Soli Gratia (Grace Alone), and its connected doctrine of faith alone brought the true gospel to the forefront of the Reformers’ differences with the Roman Church.

This battle is not new. Jesus opposed the Pharisees, Paul fought the Judaizers, John fought the Gnostics, Athanasius fought against Arius, Augustine fought Pelagius, and Luther fought Erasmus, and the battles against false gospels continue to this day. All of them wanted to add the necessity of good works to their gospel message. Today, there is still a need for reformation because the gospel is still under attack, by cults, false religions, and even some within the church itself.

Soli Gratia, simply put, teaches us that salvation is not by works, but by the grace of God alone. Religious pluralism (above and beyond simple religious freedom) is the idea that there are many gods, many religions, and many roads that lead to heaven, and nobody is wrong as long as you are sincere. The opposite of pluralism is exclusivism. An example of exclusivism can be seen in Jesus’ words, “…I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6, LSB).

But there are at least three major problems in what religious pluralism teaches that need to be addressed:

Religious Pluralism says:

  1. Man may be morally sick, but he has the strength to help himself. This is contrary to Ephesians 2:1: “And you were dead in your transgressions and sins,” (Ephesians 2:1, LSB)

This is the heresy called semi-Pelagianism and it is still inherent in the doctrine of salvation in the Roman Catholic Church as well as any church that teaches that man must exercise his free will to come to salvation.

The semi-Pelagian slogan said this: “God will not deny his grace to those who do that which lies within their power.” This means that you do all that you can, and God will make up the difference where you fall short. The Roman Catholic Church called for people to draw close to God through the sacraments, and do their very best. When they fell short, they could add to their good works through the good works of others, such as purchasing indulgences, viewing relics, going on religious pilgrimages, and praying the rosary.

But this idea isn’t limited to the Roman Catholic system. It is part of every man-made system of religion, and unfortunately, we can find it in some Christian churches. If you think that praying, church attendance, ministry involvement, tithing, Bible reading, and other activities are things that earn God’s favor and help make you right in God’s eyes, then you are adding to the gospel. 

Look at what the Bible says in Ephesians 2:1. It describes us before salvation in Christ as spiritually dead. Dead means incapable. We are not simply spiritually sick or weak. We are dead! We cannot do anything to please God in ourselves. We have no strength in ourselves to do anything that might earn us favor with God.

Religious Pluralism says:

2. Man has many paths by which he can achieve peace within and with God. This is contrary to Ephesians 2:2: “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience,” (Ephesians 2:2, LSB)

If we accept that we can reach God on our own, assisted by our good works, then the next step would naturally be to discover the path that we must now take to achieve personal peace in ourselves and peace with God. 

I mentioned the Catholic path of the sacraments, but the RCC isn’t the only religious group to make a pathway to gain peace with our good deeds. Jehovah’s Witnesses fulfill their duties as well by door-to-door witnessing and regular attendance at meetings. Mormons go on their mission and meet the standard of tithing and right living, as well as regular attendance at meetings. Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, Hindus, animists, and every other religion on the planet all have various paths on which they seek to find inner peace and peace with their gods.

But look at what the Bible says in Ephesians 2:2: there is one course or path that all of humanity naturally takes. There are not many roads in this life although they may slightly vary. Just like it was said that “all roads lead to Rome,” in the seeking after inner peace, all roads lead to hell. The Bible calls it “the course of this world.” It is the path that follows Satan himself, called “the ruler of the power of the air.”

The relativist might think that he has chosen his own path, but his spiritual deadness makes him unaware that he is on the same road as everyone else—and the road that all unsaved men are on leads to destruction.

Religious Pluralism says:

3. Man has the power to change himself and society if he simply changes his behavior. This is Contrary to Ephesians 2:3: “among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” (Ephesians 2:3, LSB)

Another tenant of the pluralistic worldview says that we can all make a change in ourselves and our world if we simply try hard enough. Maybe you have seen the bumper stickers that say “Visualize World Peace.” This was a wacky campaign by a New Age group that taught that if enough people in the world stopped on a certain day and pictured in their minds a world without war and hostility, then it would come to be a reality. Guess what? It didn’t work! But that doesn’t stop people from trying!

Our society also thinks that things like education, economic equality, human rights, and environmental awareness will change society. However good these things might be, they are impotent to make lasting change. Why not? Because these things all require that we work on ourselves to be better persons. But this goes against what God says in Ephesians 2:3.

Simplified, this passage says that we are all selfish. We do what we want and only what we want. This makes us “children of wrath” because we oppose any sort of rule over us, and that includes God. We are children of God’s wrath. As the last phrase says, this isn’t just the worst criminals. This is all of us without Jesus Christ. This is our nature. That means it is who we are at our core. When we think about our ability to “just be good,” the prophet Jeremiah said, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?  Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil” (Jer 13:23). You and I can’t just choose to be good because it is not in our nature. We are not sinners because we have sinned. In reality, we sin, because we are sinners by nature.

The baby tiger may drink milk when it is a toothless cub. But in that little tiger cub is the nature of a meat-eating man-killer. Time and opportunity will show that to be true. The same is true for all of mankind. We might be able to be good and religious for a time, but we will not be able to stay that way for long. Our true nature will eventually kick in and we will soon enough show who we truly are, sinners under the wrath of God.

These three reasons are why all man-made religions fall short of bringing salvation. We need to know this so we have a good grasp when we share with our unbelieving family and friends the difference between their understanding of salvation and the biblical gospel.

But we also need to make sure that our understanding is biblical and not a warped version of a do-it-yourself salvation.

So How Can a person be right with God? By Grace Alone!

The most incredible part is still ahead in the following verses!

Pastor, Why Do They Come to Your Church?

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

“As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.” (Matthew 11:7–9, ESV)

Christmas and Easter are the two holidays that cause a jump in attendance at churches all across the United States as people attend who don’t normally darken the door of the church. Many come to “feel close to God” during these precious Christian holy days.

But for those “churches” and “pastors” that are enamored with nickels and noses when people come into their buildings, Christmas and Easter are opportunities to “wow” their audiences with a spectacular show that will hopefully get them to stay and “experience” all that this type of church has to offer.

I don’t mean to disparage those churches that see the infrequent visitors as a mission field to whom they can minister to and share the wonder of the incarnation and resurrection with. We would be remiss as Christians not to take advantage of this opportunity. But there is a definite philosophy that loses the baby Jesus with the bathwater when productions, lighting, and stage histrionics take the place of the power of God vested in the gospel.

I point to Jesus’ words above from Matthew 11:7-9 as sobering truths for all of us. We need to ask ourselves, “Why do people come to our church?” In doing so, we reflect this time when Jesus asked the disciples why the crowds went out to see John the Baptist. Did they go out to see a reed shaken in the wind, or as we might say it today, a man taken by the latest fads and opinions of men? No, the people didn’t go out to see that.

As a matter of fact, Jesus asks if they went out into the wilderness to see a man dressed in soft clothing. But John was famously known to wear a rough-cut animal skin with a strip of leather for a belt around his waist. He ate what he could scavenge out there in the wilderness–locusts and wild honey. John wasn’t a skinny-jeans wearing, cappuccino-sipping, bearded hipster having “dialogues” with the people. He must have looked like a wild-eyed madman compared to the refined religious leaders of the times. Instead John looked like an Old Testament prophet of God, most notably, like the prophet Elijah. His sandals weren’t Birkinstocks, and his beard wasn’t oiled with shea butter and lavender. They knew if they wanted to see a man in soft clothes that they wouldn’t go out to the wilderness.

So why did they go out to see John? Because they wanted to hear from God. And to do that, they needed a prophet. Not a fancy boy who spends his days taking selfies in a mirror to gain more followers. Not a politically correct parrot who takes the temperature of the world to adjust his message to fit the popular opinions of men. They needed a faithful messenger who would speak the truth–unvarnished and true.

So, the next time you are considering what you can do to polish up your look, your sermon, or your church’s “stage,” remember John. People came out to hear a word from God. And if they want to hear something else, there are plenty of false churches and false teachers that will accommodate them.

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:1–5, ESV)

Fundamentalism, Modernism, and the Dangerous Middle (part 3)

/ Richard Bargas / 4 Comments

In my last two posts (read them here and here), I laid out the danger of those that seek a middle ground between biblical fidelity (biblical fundamentalism) while also chasing acceptance by the liberal/modernist/progressive church and academy. Those that have sought acceptance in this way often find that they have made a deal with the devil that brings about either a theological slide, or forces them to abandon the hope of ecumenical cooperation because the stakes are too high.

These historical examples are worthless if we don’t stop and take some time to consider what this means for the situation in the church today. Certainly some of those that tried the middle ground and failed would warn us if they were still living (You can read about some of Billy Graham’s regrets here). So, how can history help and warn us?

Considerations for Today

I wish I could teach this subject as an odd historical lesson that we have learned from we should now move one, but we have not. Today the same faulty logic is being promoted among many conservative Christians, churches, and denominations. 

Consider how many Christians today do not think that doctrine is important, but only what one feels about Christ? How many evangelicals see Roman Catholicism as basically compatible with Protestant Christianity, and say things like, “We believe the same things and worship the same God.” This same false idea is spoken of by some regarding Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Oneness Pentecostals, and other aberrations of historic Christianity. The whole Charismatic Movement is driven by emotions over doctrine.

Fearing that they would be seen as judgmental, many Christians are content to accept all that come in the name of Christianity without question. The results have been disastrous. London pastor Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones spoke in 1966 about the dangerous middle-ground that Christians in the 20th century were mired in regarding the idea that doctrine divides and we mustn’t judge people’s faith by what they believe:

I argue that people who do not believe the essentials of the faith, the things that are essential to salvation, cannot be guilty of schism. They are not in the church. If you do not believe a certain irreducible minimum, you cannot be a Christian, and you are not in the church. Have we reached a time when one must not say a thing like that? Have evangelicals so changed that we no longer make an assertion like that?[1]

–D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Seeing what was on the horizon of the theological compromise in America, J. Gresham Machen said in 1924:

Paganism has made many efforts to disrupt the Christian faith, but never a more insistent or insidious effort than it is making today. There are three possible attitudes which you may take in the present conflict. In the first place, you may stand for Christ. That is the best. In the second place, you may stand for anti-Christian Modernism. That is next best. In the third place, you may be neutral. That is perhaps worst of all. The worst sin today is to say that you agree with the Christian faith and believe in the Bible, but then make common cause with those who deny the basic facts of Christianity. Never was it more obviously true that he that is not with Christ is against Him.[2]

–J. Gresham Machen

I certainly agree that the Bible speaks against a brawling, pugnacious spirit (1Tim 3:3; Titus 1:7). This is good and true, but the Bible also calls us to fight for some things, including doctrine (1Tim 1:18-20; 6:12; 1Cor 10:4-6). This is the basis or our spiritual war.

Like the modernists who followed Friedrich Schleiermacher, many in conservative Christian churches affirm his idea that Christianity is less about what you believe and more about what you feel in your heart. This dangerous idea sets the stage for the outright rejection of all orthodox doctrines of our faith. We are seeing the ravages of this idea among our young people leaving the faith because they have no doctrinal anchors for their souls. They are adrift upon a sea of subjectivity and the church has aided that.

Today, the church and denominations often function like big money corporations that are very slow to change and reluctant to put at risk the surface sense of unity for fear of putting at jeopardy the large amount of financial giving that benefits it. Because of this, “statesman” leaders arise within the church and denomination that seek to walk the middle ground and keep peace among all parties. This is a long cry from Jesus words:

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. (Matthew 5:10–13 (ESV) 

Many have lost their saltiness because they refuse to suffer hardship, persecution, and being reviled for their faith. The middle ground has proven to be not only ineffective, but deadly. May the Lord raise up more courageous Christians who are not afraid to speak up for truth, even if it may cost them friends and influence in this life.

[1] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Evangelical Unity: An Appeal,” in Knowing the Times, (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1989), 254.

[2] Quoted in Beale, 159.