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Dead or Alive?

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 7:35PM

Dead or Alive

Larry Kirkpatrick. Price Seventh-day Adventist Church

Opening Hymn: #338 Redeemed! Closing Hymn: #240 Fairest Lord Jesus

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Romans 6:11

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We are born under the dominion of death

Happy Sabbath, Brethren! Do you want the good news first, or the bad news? Let's start with the bad news. How's this for bad news: you and I were born into this earth under the reign of death. Turn with me to Romans 5:12.

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

The Bible makes it clear that we are all born with a death sentence hanging over our head. We are like AIDS babies--we have inherited something that we didn't ask for. We are born into our lives "without strength" (Romans 5:6), subject to a moral-warpedness, a gross tendency towards evil. God designed us to be worshiping beings from the beginning, but our trait of worshipfulness is all bent-up, and unless we turn to the Living God, we inevitably turn to the worship of unliving gods. We are born under this reign of death; we are born into a situation that we must each, individually, purposefully resolve. If we do not turn to the only Being in the universe that has the power to restore us, then we will never be remade--never be repaired--never be made capable of dwelling with everlasting burnings (Isaiah 33:14), of living in the same universe as our God who "is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29). Our God is holy, and only a holy people can dwell in His presence. The Bible tells us in no uncertain terms that unless we are changed, we'll go up in a whisp of smoke when He appears (2 Thessalonians 1:8, 9; 2:8). Ah yes; that's the bad news. But that's not the only news...

As Soon As There Was Sin, There Was a Savior, Jesus, Who Instituted the Reign of Grace

You see, as soon as there was sin, there was a Savior. Look to Romans 5:15.

But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

What God has done is so much different from what Adam did! Because Adam disobeyed God, all humanity inherited a double booby-prize. We all received the first death--the sleep death; and everyone of us is going to sleep that sleep of death unless we are translated when Jesus comes. But that death is a consequence of sin, not a directly accountable moral penalty upon us individually. Just like the infant born with AIDS who will eventually die through no moral fault of its own, we are born into a diseased body doomed to dissolution. But that is not as bad as the second half of the results of Adam's disobedience. We also come into this world with an inborn tendency towards evil. If we remain plugged-in to that tendency, we will inevitably go down into destruction. Through the offense of one the whole human race was put on a hopeless road, not merely to the sleep death, but to eternal death, because there was no reserve power left in us to bring us back; Adam's transgression was a one-way door to doom. But that's what grace is all about. God reached down into the abyss of our hopelessness. He gave His Son Jesus so that that door could be pulled open. See, God's side of the door still had a handle on it; ours didn't. He could die to meet the demands of the Broken law in our place, and purchase for us again a fresh opportunity to be changed. Jesus' death is not for only an elite few, but for all.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only-Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

The gift by grace that comes through Jesus has abounded to many. Many have received the grace that brings salvation, and empowers us to live "soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" (Titus 2:12). Grace is given, not as a cheap cloak to hide our sin, but as a medicine to heal our broken minds and hearts, to heal us, and release us from our prisons. But some have radically redefined grace and made it into license--the very thing that Paul in Romans six warns us against! You see, Satan has been trying to hide this truth from us for thousands of years, because his only hope is to keep the universe locked into a sufficient doubt of God's goodness to keep Satan in business. As long as there are still some angels that aren't sure that God is right and Satan is wrong, the demonstration of God's kingdom of grace and Satan's kingdom of sin goes on.

God's Kingdom, Front and Center

The difference between the reign of sin and the reign of grace is vast. Sin reigns unto death; that's not too complicated. If we continue to sin, we will die--we'll be fully identified with sin and ultimately destroyed with it in its final end. But how does grace reign? It reigns "through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 5:21). Grace doesn't simply "reign;" it reigns through righteousness, not unto death, but unto "eternal life." How does it reign "through righteousness?" The answer is "by Jesus Christ our Lord." Look at Romans 6:3-4. Those verses tell us that baptism into Christ means burial into the death that Adam managed to saddle us with, and that Jesus experienced for us. The result is present living in newness of life. The next two verses tell us that our "old man" is crucified with Jesus to free us from the reign of sin. Sin's reign has ended for us because Jesus has paid its penalty. We are living now unto God, who gives newness of life to the resurrected. The rite of baptism does not change us--it testifies publically to what Jesus did for us at the cross, and what Jesus is doing for us now in the heavenly sanctuary. It marks one's recognition of their condemnableness, because it says "Jesus died for me, because I deserved to die." It marks one's public commitment and desire to live the resurrected life, and to be a part of God's present covenant community, living and breathing and existing here and now in this world and in this age! It marks a commitment to discipleship--to following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. Finally, it marks not merely a potential triumph of God and the gospel, but the actual triumph of Jesus over the dominion and reign of sin and death; it is the very symbol of the resurrection of Christ. He walked out of the grave, and when you are baptised, it says to all "I too am walking out of the grave, right here and now..." Who or what is the "old man?" Some have understood this to mean our fallen or sinful nature. But listen, when do we get to trade in that nature? Not until glorification when this corruptible puts on incorruption (1 Corinthians 15:53). The phrase that we are looking at is used by Paul three times; in Romans 6:6; Ephesians 4:22; and Colossians 3:9. In Ephesians 4:22 the Bible tells us to stop behaving like the "old man." God asks us to "put off concerning the former conversation the old man." "Conversation" was the old english word commonly used to mean "behavior," so this text is saying "don't do those things from your old life when you were under bondage to sin." Verses 23 and 24 there urge us to be renewed, and that we "put on the new man." So you see that this must be something that we can experience now, through the power of the Living God. Colossians 3:9-10 tells us that we are not to engage in the old behavior, "seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new." The old man is the crispened, burned character we've built up onto the top of our sinful, fallen nature. We can cooperate with God and see Him change us--change our character while we live. He brings newness of life to us. The fallen nature will cry out; it will whine and roar and holler and provoke; but its power has been neutralized. We can steer out of the ruts of sin and up onto the highway of holiness. The chains are loosed. The question then is whether we will swallow hard and take hold of God's help, or whether we will sink back into the darkness where our darling sin-habits await our indulgence and Satan awaits our destruction. God's kingdom is front and center because His people are no longer under the dominion of sin. Sin's reign has, for us, ended. The question is, can anyone in the universe tell by looking at us?

Joining the Kingdom

Well, and just where is the kingdom of God? Jesus said "the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21). The new-agers love that verse. But if they looked more closely at the Greek they'd realize that among "you" is in the plural, and that the Greek word for "in" translates equally well as "among"; that is, Jesus was saying that the kingdom of God was there, then present among them. He also said that His kingdom was not of this world. John 18:36. He also said that we must be born of both the water and spirit or we cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:1-8). Wow. What a literalist! But why did Jesus insist on this? Why does He insist that we publically participate in this outward rite? It is because when we come to God, He is going to brag on us. When you enter a race, you get a number. A race car has the names of the companies that are sponsoring it painted all over it. They want to identify their products with that car when it wins. And God our Father in heaven wants to identify His products [us] with Him when He wins the great controversy. Indeed, He has put us into a very important role in the great controversy so that He can win it. Our lives will show the universe whether the kingdom of grace is what God claims it to be, or just a blast of hot air out of the heavenly throne-room. Turn with me to Ephesians. What do we find there? We find out why God wants us to join ourselves to an organized church on this earth here and now. Look at Ephesians 3:9-10.

And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ; to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.

God wants us to be part of a literal church body so that all--not just all men, but all throughout the universe, all angels and anyone else who might be lurking out there--may see what is the fellowship of the mystery. It is important for Him to make known to principalities and powers in heavenly places that He has been truly just in dealing with the sin problem in this universe. How does He demonstrate this? "By the church," that is, by means of the church; the church is the earthly instrument of demonstration. See, God owns the soundstage of this universe. And He wants someone to go up on that stage and live out His gospel. And we got the part. God is making a visible demonstration. See, He knows our hearts, that is true. But the demonstration is not for Him. It's for everyone else--all the other beings who cannot see our hearts except through our actions. Look down the page a bit further there. Look at Ephesians 3:21.

Unto Him [God] be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages."

In the Bible, glory often carries the meaning of "brightness," but just as often carries the meaning of "character." God wants His church to shine, but how can we shine unless God is changing our character? "Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord..." (Isaiah 43:10). And Matthew 24:14 says that "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." God is sending His people out there into the world to live this gospel. Changed people are His witnesses, because unchanged people have not experienced inwardly the power of the gospel; they have only an empty bucket. How do we change? Can we do it on our own? Our strength comes from God, doesn't it? So He would know the best way to lead us to nurture that strength and growth. And what do we find? God's people all the way down through time have always been bound together by Him into covenant communities. Look at this: in Acts 7:38 He refers to Israel in the wilderness as a church! Interesting, eh?

This is he [Moses], that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us.

Well, what about it? Weren't they really there, an identifiable, organized, flesh-and-blood grouping--a church-- there on God's stage in the wilderness? And they were a covenant community, bound together to each other and to God; they were not a blurry hodge-podge of individuals each going their own way. Exodus 24:8 shows us a specific flesh-and-blood group of believers, bound under a covenant of blood. What did Paul do when he was converted? He tried to join the church. It took him awhile to get in, too, because they weren't too sure about him at first (Acts 9:26-28). God added to the church daily such as should be saved (Acts 2:47). He gave the members of His church gifts to lead it, to nurture it, and to grow it too. Listen to this from Ephesians 4:16.

From whom [Christ] the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Friends, if we are joined to Christ, we are joined to His body, and His body is a church; it's alive. The kingdom of God is among us, but it is not of this world. That living community of faith out in the desert in the wilderness--that "church," as the Bible calls them, was under the blood. And in the very end, so too will be all who are saved. God will have His last day people under His blood too. Let's make our last three stops today in the book of Revelation. First, turn with me to Revelation 1:5, the last part, and verse 6 too.

Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

God's last-day people are washed in the blood; they too have entered into the blood of the covenant; they are a family, bound together into a community with God and with each other. And let's look over at Revelation 14:4 too. What do we find there?

These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

Now in the figures of the apocalypse, you know a woman represents a church. These are they then, who "are not defiled with women," that is, they have removed themselves from false churches that rise up in the last-days that misrepresent God and His kingdom--who are not His witnesses, but someone else's witnesses. And do you see that "these were redeemed from among men," that is, they have been redeemed--bought back. But bought back by what means? Consider 1 Peter 1:18-19:

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

We have been bought back by the precious blood of Jesus and washed in the precious blood of Jesus. We've been redeemed. We're involved in the blood of the covenant. Together.

An Appeal to Join the Kingdom

Let's turn to our last Scripture today, on the last page of your Bible. Revelation 22:17.

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.

And isn't that what the Holy Spirit is saying to us today? Come! Let us rejoice in the fellowship that we share; let us encourage one another as we see the day of Jesus' return fast approaching; let us remember our covenant with the Lord and experience "newness of life" in Him; and if anyone here has not been born of the water, then the bride--the church--says "Come." Prepare for baptism. Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

End

Paul's argument in Romans 5:12-7:6.

Romans 5:12-19 The reign of death began with the fall through the one, Adam, but the gift of God began with the one, Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:20-21 Sin --> Death Grace --> through righteousness --> Eternal life. Grace reigns through righteousness.

Romans 6:1-2 The purpose of grace is not to facilitate sin, but to remove it from the life in the present.

Romans 6:3-4 Baptism into Christ means burial into the death that Adam managed to saddle us with, and that Jesus experienced for us. The result is present living in newness of life.

Romans 6:5-6 The old man is crucified with Jesus to free us from the reign of sin.

Romans 6:7-10 Sin's reign has ended for us since Jesus has paid its penalty. We now live unto God, who gives newness of life to the resurrected.

Romans 6:11-14 Be aware that you are dead to sin and alive to God. We now yield ourselves to God and our members in particular to righteousness. We are not under the reign of sin's condemnation through the law, but under the reign of grace's righteous newness of life made possible through Jesus.

Romans 6:15-23 We may now freely obey to the working of righteousness. The fruitage of our freedom is the "telos," the outcome or arrival at the goal of eternal life.

Romans 7:1-3 The law has dominion over a person as long as they live (the law of the first husband).

Romans 7:4-6 Because Jesus died for us, we also have died, and are thus released from bondage to the first husband; we are free to be remarried to Christ and live in newness of spirit.

tjadmin |

Untying God's Hands

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 7:32PM

Untying God's Hands

Larry Kirkpatrick.. Moab SDA Church.

Psalm 78:40-43 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:

Approaching to God Without Arrival?

Would you turn with me today to Isaiah 58:1, 2? Let us start in that place.

"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God."

Twenty-seven hundred years ago Isaiah recorded the then current piety of God's people. He said that even though they were sinning and really living in opposition to Him, still they sought Him daily, and were diligent in learning from His Word. "They seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways." Oh yes, they were quite religious, "as a nation that did righteousness," he says. He doesn't say that they did righteousness, but that they acted as if they were righteous. "They ask of Me the ordinances of justice," that is, they pled with God to be fair to them; they thought that they were entitled to something from Him. "We're O.K., so where's God's blessing?" they wondered. They took delight in approaching to God, but it was all approach and no arrival. There was too much ceremonialism and not enough authentic brokenness of heart. Did they realize that "God does not desire our ceremonial compliments, but the unspoken cry of the heart broken and subdued with a sense of its sin and utter weakness..." Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 87?

Clearing the King's Highway

They had a necessary work to do before they could expect to see God working on their behalf. And so do we. Our necessary work today is to personally clear the King's highway so that we may cooperate with God in ending the great controversy. And this work can only be accomplished through prayer and the putting away of sin. If we want to see this new series of prophecy meetings change lives, then we have a work to do ourselves. We must clear the King's highway. We must be purposefully involved in a work of

Putting away personal sin
Personal conversion and reconversion
Interpersonal reconciliation
Spiritual growth
Coming into harmony with God.

Do you know what Ellen White wrote in Evangelism p. 111?

When a special effort to win souls is put forth by laborers of experience in a community where our own people live, there rests upon every believer in that field a most solemn obligation to do all in his power to clear the King's highway, by putting away every sin that would hinder him from co-operating with God and with his brethren.

And that's not saying anything that the Bible doesn't already say, is it? Each one of us must be spiritually "on" or we won't be able to cooperate effectively with God; we'll limit the Holy One of Israel. (Psalm 78:40-43). But how can a mere individual like me or you "hinder" God? He is sovereign, He is in control; man is dust, a vapor. Can man limit God?

Can Man Really Hinder God?

God is Sovereign

God is really the Being who is ultimately in control, there is no question of that. Psalm 115:3 says "Our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased." There is no question that God is sovereign. Even in the book of Job we find it clearly presented that Satan is kept under wraps by God. He is not permitted to indulge his Luciferian malice past a certain point. And you know 1 Corinthians 10:13:

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."

God and Satan have no partnership at all. They are working at exactly opposite purposes. God would be a fool to cooperate with Satan; a house divided against itself cannot stand (Mark 3:24). That's why Satan has been thrown out of the house. God has let him have a long rope in order to hang himself with it. Satan is like "that wicked Haman" in the book of Esther, who built himself a gallows to hang Mordecai the representative of God on, but wound up dangling from it himself. God is all-powerful. He has the sheer unstoppable strength to do whatever He wants. No being could begin to fight against the strength of God.

But He Exercises Self-Limitation

Although God is all-powerful, He has decided to exist and operate His kingdom in harmony with a set of non-arbitrary moral principles. That is, He has chosen to make known to the universe what is morally right and wrong, proper and improper, and then to hold to those principles. Satan can use lies against God to try to further his purposes. But God refuses to use lies against Satan; He will only use truth. For God, this is a long-term bonus, but a short-term problem. Time reveals what is truth and what is not, what is a lie and what is not. The devil wants us to make our spiritual decisions either prematurely or post-maturely; either before we have the information we need, or after we have passed the most opportune moment of decision. God is "bound" in the sense that He exists and operates in self-limitation. He refuses to cross the line. Even though He is right, and He knows He is right, He won't bypass dealing in the fairest way possible with the sin problem. The Bible says that God is "of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." Habakkuk 1:13. But He does every day. He sees you and me and the random murderer in Texas or LA or Moab. Does He immediately carry out judgment when He sees sin? Ecclesiastes reminds us that "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Ecclesiastes 8:11. So what? Does God enjoy giving the wicked time to build up an overwhelming pile of guilt and them "whammo," really let them have it? Keep in mind a few things. Paul, before his conversion was an accomplice in the murder of Stephen. But he turned to God and was changed. David murdered Uriah the Hittite and took his wife. But David turned back to God and was changed. King Manasseh sawed Isaiah in half, that's how he died (Hebrews 11:36-38), but he finally repented and turned to God (2 Chronicles 33:11-13). Apparently he'll be in the kingdom, but he left behind an earthly nation in moral wreckage. What of all of these folk? What about you or me, when we hated our brother in our heart? Were we not murderers too? (1 John 3:15). I'm glad that God did not cut me down then, and I'm glad that He didn't cut Manasseh or David or Paul down when they were murderers. God gives "space" for repentance (Revelation 2:21), He exercises mercy that men might fear before Him. Time showed that these men turned away from selfishness and subscribed to the kingdom of God. They enlisted in God's army and He changed them. No, God can't let evil run on unchecked indefinitely. But he is willing to restrain His wrath against it in order that those who want to choose the One altogether lovely can turn to Him and be changed. Yes, God permits evil to exist temporarily. But the completion of Haman's gallows--of Satan's gallows--is almost finished.

God Remains True to Himself

God won't cross the line. Don't we pray too often asking Him to cross the line, to enter into our moral space and either force His decision upon us or to take the decision away from us? How many years will we go on like this? How much time must be wasted before we each learn that such prayers are futile. Let's learn how to cooperate with Him. Let's learn the science of prayer and go forward. Do you remember the confrontation at the red sea? God told Moses (Exodus 14:1-4) what He would have Israel camp in a place with no escape before Pharaoh's angry following army. And the Egyptians showed up right on schedule to find Israel encamped with their backs against the sea. And the people came up and cried out against Moses about it. And Moses told them to watch and see what the Lord will do. And then he prayed to the Lord. How do we know Moses prayed to the Lord at that point? Look at Exodus 14:15: God says to Moses, "Wherefore criest thou unto Me? Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward!" Go forward? But where? There was no where to go! But there was. They went forward out there into the Red sea, God parted the waters, and they walked out on dry ground. Have you or I encamped with our back against the sea, and prayed to God for deliverance? Could it be that He would likewise say to us, "What are you praying to Me for now about this? Go forward!" Second Timothy 2:14 reveals that God remains faithful, He cannot deny Himself. Titus 1:2 tells us that God cannot lie. God won't violate His own principles; He operates within them. So He waits. Oh yes, He reserves the right to respond in His own way and His own time. But He operates within His own principles. The operation of divine laws does not take away God's freedom (Great Controversy, p. 525). God answers prayer in a manner consistent with His self-limitation.

Our Prayers Authorize God to Act

Did you realize that our prayers authorize our God to act within His supremely fair self-limitation in the great controversy? Haven't you heard this remark before, from Great Controversy, p. 525:

"It is a part of God's plan to grant us, in answer to the prayer of faith, that which He would not bestow did we not thus ask."

And don't just look there. Look at Mark 6:5 and Matthew 17:23, and other places. It is because of unbelief--because of small faith--that God is limited in His reponse to us. We'd best ask and ask in faith. Then we'll see something. So we'd better be asking. Let's get this thing over with. Oh, and by the way, you know that when we pray for deliverance from sin, the response is automatic?

"When we pray for earthly blessings, the answer to our prayer may be delayed, or God may give us something other than we ask, but not so when we ask for deliverance from sin. It is His will to cleanse us from sin, to make us His children, and to enable us to live a holy life." Gal 1:4; 1 John 5:14, 15; 1 John 1:9. Desire of Ages, p. 266.

But there are Scriptural conditions. And we need to know about them.

Conditions to Answered Prayer

The very first condition of acceptance is acknowledgment of our personal guilt. "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." Psalm 34:18. Here is a first step.

Those who have not humbled their souls before God in acknowledging their guilt, have not yet fulfilled the first condition of acceptance. If we have not experienced that repentance which is not to be repented of, and have not with true humiliation of soul and brokenness of spirit confessed our sins, abhorring our iniquity, we have never truly sought for the forgiveness of sin; and if we have never sought, we have never found the peace of God. The only reason why we do not have remission of sins that are past is that we are not willing to humble our hearts and comply with the conditions of the word of truth. Explicit instruction is given concerning this matter. Confession of sin, whether public or private, should be heartfelt and freely expressed. It is not to be urged from the sinner. It is not to be made in a flippant and careless way, or forced from those who have no realizing sense of the abhorrent character of sin. The confession that is the outpouring of the inmost soul finds its way to the God of infinite pity. Steps to Christ, p. 37.

Here are some more crucial conditions in a memorable acronym: SNARF:

S --> We must permit the expulsion of cherished sin. Psalm 66:18.

N --> We must feel need of and be open to the influence of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 44:3.

A --> We must ask. Matthew 7:7; Romans 8:32.

R --> We must make right anything that is wrong between us and others. Matthew 5:23, 24; James 5:16.

F --> We must exercise of faith. Mark 11:24.

God

"...knows whether we are clearing the King's highway from all rubbish and hindrance, so that He can beckon our souls onward and upward, or whether we are filling the path with rubbish and blocking up our own way, and placing stumbling blocks in the way of sinners to hinder the salvation of precious souls for whom Christ died." Mind, Character, and Personality, vol. 2, p. 434.

We must let God take away not only our sins, but our character defects. What are they? Perhaps we can consider them to be long-term patterns of dealing with life that bring dishonor to Jesus and are harmful to our spiritual development. Have we I got any of those? Let's ask God to work on it with us. Let's get started. Ask Him to reveal and then ask Him to empower. He will answer both requests!

Untying God's Hands When We Pray for Others

All of these things we've talked about today are important if we would stop limiting the Holy One of Israel; if we would untie God's hands so that we personally can become more like Jesus, and effectively work for the salvation of others. We should pray for God to intervene in our lives and bring others whom He has already been preparing across our pathway. But our first work is to see that our own souls are right. And we should personally intercede for other souls who need our Jesus. But again, let us be careful, so that our prayers may not be hindered.Let's untie God's hands that our spiritual drowsiness have tied. Today is a day of hope here in Moab. As we grow more serious about our own spiritual state, God will use us to His glory. And soon will His Kingdom come!

tjadmin |

Turning on the Lights

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 7:30PM

Turning on the Lights

Larry Kirkpatrick. Price SDA Church

James 1:16-21 Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

God is the Source for Gifts From Beyond That Impact Us Beyond Today

Let's turn to James 1:13. "Let no man say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God:' for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man." Although Satan wants to peg God as the source of our temptations, our actual sources of temptation are not from above. They are in each one of our hearts, and are provoked by the devil, our initiator provoker towards sin. You know how he goes on and on, launching one temptation after another into our minds. But catch this: he is determined, not only that we should sin, but that we should blame our sins on God. He is persistent enough and we are gullible enough to buy the lie, so James warns us carefully three verses down, "Do not err, my beloved brethren" (James 1:16). And then what does the verse say? "Every" gift of a certain nature is from God; everything that God gives us has a consistent quality about it; all of the gifts of God are pointing in a certain direction. Do you know what that is? "Every good and perfect gift" (vs. 1:17) points up to God, because He is the source of every good gift from beyond that can change us. These gifts "come down from the Father of lights." They come down to us from the very bosom of the Creator of the stars and the planets that beautify and illumine the night sky. The greater light and the lesser light that rule the day, (Genesis 1:16) the sun and the moon, are nothing on his gauge. If there were a meter on God's creative power when He acted and made our solar system, I'm telling you that it wouldn't have even wavered at that outlay of power. Such a needle would never move, because our God has all power. ...All power. He is our steady, morally-potent source of moral life. When faith rightly lays hold on Him, no force in creation can countermand His will. What did James tell us in verse 13? "For God cannot be tempted with evil." How can you be tempted, when you know all that there is to know? How can anyone convince you that it doesn't all add up the way that you already know it all adds up? How does one tell an effective lie to God? It can't be done. In Him there "is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." God cannot be tempted with evil. He not only knows evil's fruitage, but He knows how to perfectly estimate the total cost of evil. He knows that it is only destructive, and He can't be bought off. But that's not all. Neither does He tempt any person (James 1:13). God doesn't tempt you. Don't even think it. If Adam and Eve had remained faithful, they would have known life and known it more abundantly. Our Father would have showered them with "every good and perfect gift" from the beginning, and we'd be far, far in advance of where the human race is now. But let's stick with the way things are. Adam and Eve made a free choice. And now we are all weak. We are their "crack" babies, born oriented toward sin from the front-from the beginning on out. We are not directly responsible for the broken nature that we've been born into, and heaven knows this. But we are responsible for what we finally become. And that's what makes us afraid. Because deep inside (and maybe not so deep), we know that we are behind the curve; that we have not allowed our God to make of us what He would delight to make of us. Not yet. My mom had a habit, and maybe some of us have it: right before leaving the house on any significant trip, she would go around the house and just "make sure" that all the doors were locked, that the stove was turned off, and so forth. And maybe one or two of us right now might suddenly become concerned that-just maybe-the stove was left on in your home this morning. But we have something more critical to worry about. Because friends, for all of us, the stove is left on; for all of us are here at a moment in time, a midpoint along our passage through life, God is still working. And we can be thankful that He hasn't turned off the oven yet. Because we're not done baking; we're not done refining. He's not done offering us His good and perfect gifts; and we are not done receiving them.

We Are Privileged to Be a Kind of Firstfruits

How do God's people arrive at 144,000-hood? Not by sitting by while the good and perfect gifts remain unclaimed. They will seek out and by experience learn how to cooperate with their heavenly Father. See, we are to be "a kind of firstfruits of His creatures" (James 1:18). The firstfruits of the harvest in ancient times were always the first to mature, and the best of the harvest. And God's will for you, is that you be one of the first to mature; that you would be among the best in His harvest. No, not the person sitting next to you there. No. You. See, because all of us live at the end of time, don't we? And all of us are here in this place to be changed by the message we bear to the world, aren't we? And what is the result of the third angel's message supposed to be? It is plainly a message that is designed by our Creator to facilitate our becoming more like Jesus. Oh friends, how could we ever entertain the idea that doctrine doesn't matter? That we can bumble along like a pinball, randomly careening along the devils bumpers and buzzers? We need to grow, and our Father offers us every good gift and every perfect gift so that we can grow into this likeness. Legalism? No, not at all. I like to call it, Jesusism.

An Attitude From Beyond

I am so glad, my brothers and sisters, that the gospel isn't bottled up someplace in someone's garage, with some bored angels selling tickets for a walk-through tour of it. Since every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, it is obvious that heaven has no plan to make merchandise of the gospel. Buy the gospel, and don't sell it. But the gospel is free. It cost heaven an infinite price, but it is offered to us freely, without money and without price. Does that mean there are no conditions in there? No. The gospel has some very important conditions built into it, because it comes from the Father of lights in whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. And that means there are moral edges in this universe that there is no way around. We will never put one over on God. Oh why do we try?! Yes, we've failed, each one, to live God's way always; but that was yesterday. Today--here--now--we can start again. We can receive one of heaven's good and perfect gifts here and now. If we will let God give to us. But who here needs gifts from the Father of lights? Well, only those of us who have sinned. I guess that would be all of us. Only those of us who need to let God work on us and change some of our less-than-dynamic personality traits. By that I mean maybe some of us need to loosen up, while some of us need to get more serious about our life. I'm not your pharmacist, so I'm not standing here prescribing for you. You listen for the Holy Spirit. Let Him convict you. But I'll bet that there's something that He is ready to do for you. God needs to adjust our character carburetor; He needs to tune our onboard computer; but He won't do it if we don't pop the hood for Him. Maybe we need to pop the hood so He can work more.

Tips For Turning the Lights On

What suggestions would our God offer us today? Look with me at verse 19 and let's see what we find: "Wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath."

Be Swift to Hear

See, because God has set out to make us "a kind of firstfruits," He urges us to adopt these important behaviors. And the first one given is "let every man be swift to hear." Practical Christianity right here-that's what James presents before us. "Let every man be swift to hear." To hear what?

To hear and live the teaching of God
To hear the godly counsel of our fellow believers
To weigh the preaching we hear and apply it to our lives
To hear the Bible's doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness

To apply all the balm to all the wounds. To receive the healing of the word in our actions and let it fit up our character. Let us receive the help that God would give. And its awfully hard to receive with our two ears when our one mouth is flapping along at warp speed, its fire lit from the hellish torch of Satan. But it need not be that way. We all need to control what we think and what we see so that we don't needlessly spew darkness out onto the wind. Yes, "let every man be swift to hear."

Be Slow to Speak

Again, James admonishes us to be "slow to speak." What does he mean? Perhaps in part he means that we need to be more purposeful about weighing and thinking about the things that come to us before we open our mouth to respond to them. If our natures weren't fallen, this might not be such a problem. Pride would be a lot less likely to get in the way. We might much more readily be willing to admit we were wrong. But we do have fallen natures, and we have long practice in indulging these natures. Once we've opened our mouth and committed ourselves by saying something, the only thing we can do if we were wrong is to take it back, to back down. But in the fallen nature this means pushing the pride button. If I back down, I lose ground; I look like a fool for having said what I said it was in the first place. So heaven warns us be "slow to speak!"

Be Slow to Wrath

If we are swift to hear and slow to speak, then and only then, I think we have hope regarding the third admonition: that we be "slow to wrath." If we will start by listening, and then thinking about what we have heard, we'll be much slower to provoke or respond in wrath. Notice in the next verse that "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." The righteousness of God can only come if we let God rebirth us by His own will with the word of truth. Look back to James 1:18. Oh yes. Some of you saw me go past that. Yes, I did; but I knew we were coming back to it. Let's read it through: "Of His own will begat He [God] us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures." I want you to know something: it is God's will that we be begotten. This word here in the Greek means that it is through God's will that we are given-birth-to. And the agency of our new birth by God is His "word of truth." But did you know that in James 1:15 it speaks of birth using the same Greek word? "And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death," literally, "and sin, when it is finished, gives birth to death." The contrast here is between two all-important agencies:

The word of truth, through which God's will can give birth to us as renewed people, and
Following our own lusts, through which our own willful disobedience leads finally to anti-birth, to death

What a contrast! Isn't it obvious that if God's power gives us new life, we'll be slow-to-wrath, or that if we persist in our disobedience, we will be the cause of our own fast-to-wrath life that finally ends in our own death? God's will and His Word give life. Our will and our rebellion give death. See, if "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God," is it not the reverse, namely the self-control of man through the Holy Spirit that worketh the righteousness of God?

What to Lay Aside

And so the last verse now comes to us: James 1:21: "Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." Literally, "therefore, strip off your sinful ways." But it's not so easy to set aside our wicked ways, is it? But there is something going on here. Do you know also that this is in the middle voice, and means "therefore, you strip off your sinful ways." There is a work for each of us to do that won't be done for us. No, we are not called upon to empower it, but to consent to it, to cooperate with it. God gives the power, we cooperate, and He gives the victory, and He is glorified. And what is this "superfluity of naughtiness?" It speaks here of excess, an excess of badness. Why will we let a crust of overflowing wickedness build up upon our being? We are to strip off our sinful ways with God's help, and we are to strip off the character-warping crust of evil too. See, we're not prisoners to that anymore. If we are looking to God, then that's not part of our reality any more. So strip it off! In exchange for this toxic, stinking monkey on our back, God gives us something so good. Do you know what it is?

What to Receive

No, not the wrath of man, but the meekness put into man by God is necessary if we would receive "the engrafted word," literally, "the implanted word." Commenting on the passage here, Cleon Rogers says in the Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament "It is the word for an 'implanting' not at birth but later in life." p. 725. And I like the way the SDA Bible commentary puts it in commenting on this verse: "The 'word' is 'engrafted' within a man when he chooses to make the principles of Scripture the pattern for his life." vol. 7, p. 513. Now let me share this with you. After doing my Bible study on this passage, I turned to the writings of Ellen White, just to see what she had said. And what did I find there? Listen!

When one is fully emptied of self, when every false god is cast out of the soul, the vacuum is supplied by the inflowing of the Spirit of Christ. Such a one has the faith which works by love and purifies the soul from every moral and spiritual defilement. The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, can work upon the heart, influencing and directing, so that he enjoys spiritual things. He is "after the spirit," and he minds the things of the Spirit. He has no confidence in self; Christ is all and in all. Truth is constantly being unfolded by the Holy Spirit; he receives with meekness the engrafted word, and he gives the Lord all the glory, saying, "God has revealed them to us by his Spirit." "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God." The Spirit that reveals, also works in him the fruits of righteousness....When God's people humble the soul before him, individually seeking his Holy Spirit with all the heart, there will be heard from human lips such a testimony as is represented in this scripture: "After these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory." There will be faces aglow with the love of God, there will be lips touched with holy fire, saying, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." Ellen G. White, from The Home Missionary, November 1, 1893

What is this "engrafted word," this "word of truth" that will make your heart and mine glow with the love of God? It is a gift from "the Father of lights." It is one of His every good and perfect gifts. There is no shadow of turning in Him, and there is no shadow of turning in His perfect gifts. What there is, is change, positive change, growth, new life. But we haven't let James finish yet, have we? Because the last part of his sentence says not just to receive this implanted, engrafted word, but of the word he speaks of, of this gift from heaven, we read that it "is able to save your soul" (James 1:21). It illuminates. It turns on the lights. It brings power for change. It doesn't affect just an isolated sin here and an isolated sin there, but it changes the whole person. It can change even deeply ingrained character patterns. See, it saves not by counting you something; it saves by making you something. And that something is a new creature in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is an implanted word of truth, not a divinely spoken lie draped over you. Oh friends, if you've ever doubted whether God cares for you, whether he can change you I pray after this morning you'll doubt it no more. Let His light be turned on. Let your light shine, because the night is far spent, the day is at hand (Romans 13:12). Let us walk in the light as Jesus is in the light; and He was always basking in the beams of glory of His Father of lights. He endured the darkness of the cross so that the Father of lights could enter your heart, and do a work there. Let us receive so that we may live like Jesus before a world caught up in darkness. Let's turn on the lights.

tjadmin |

Stop The Music

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 6:53PM

Stop The Music

by Richard O'Ffill

If it can be said that religion is a personal thing, it cannot be said that corporate worship is a personal thing. Corporate worship is just that. Something that we do together. In recent years there has been a movement at every level of the church from the top down and from the bottom up to try to bring vitality to the worship that we do together. We are talking about what we usually do when we go to church on Sabbath morning. Not only has this movement been in our own denomination but it has pretty well spread over the Christian world. But particularly in North America, Australia and Western Europe. This revolution in worship style was largely initiated by the segment that we call the charasmatics. I use the word revolution because it is an overthrowing of the existing forms of worship and replacing them with other forms. It would have been appropriate to have a reform of our worship in as much as a reform is not the same as a revolution, but as one young minister told me, "We are in charge now." I have entitled this sermon. "Stop the Music". I am not saying that we should stop the music permanently, but only until we have sat down together and found answers to some questions which must be addressed. Remember, corporate worship is just that. It is something that we do together. It is unimaginable that we have come to the state of affairs in some places and in more and more places in which worship is something that is dividing us rather than uniting us. We should not be surprised. There is after all the old saying, "divide and conquer." It seems to me that we should see what is happening and say, "Wait a minute, something is wrong here. Whatever we are doing must not be the right thing to do because what is going on is causing divisions and confusion in the very place where Jesus prayed that there would be unity." I know that something is fundamentally wrong. When the young minister told me, "We are in charge now," his words illustrated that what is going on is a true revolution in every sense of the word. Friends, this must not be. The Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus is the head of the church. An attitude that sees the church as being dominated by one race, culture, gender, or generation is not the church that Jesus established when He was here on earth. This is why I think there is a basic fallacy in the argument that worship is a cultural phenomena. If that were true, it would mean that you and I ought to be able to worship God any way that our particular culture is inclined to do. If Christ is really the head of the church then it would seem to me that instead of debating among ourselves as to whether we should worship according to my culture or yours, we might do well to set down together and discover what are the Biblical principles of worship. In Jeremiah 9 we read: "Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness, judgment and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight." In the context of what is presently going on in some places that text might say: "Thus saith the Lord, Let not the young people demand a change for change sake, let not the older people defend the status quo, let not anyone think that you can worship God any old way you please, but let the young and the old, let those from your culture and those from my culture, let all cultures sit down together and study to understand and know me that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight." I am increasingly convinced that as things seem to be going now, that we are not gathering together to worship God, rather we are increasingly gathering together to please ourselves. This is why we are insisting on doing it your way or my way. What this seems to be saying is that as far as God is concerned, anything goes. The aspect of worship that is the focus of our problem is music. Of all the arts as we understand them the Bible tells us that music is the only one that will continue into heaven. Music began in heaven as a vehicle of praise to the Holy God and it will continue throughout eternity in the same role. The angels sing, the elect saints sing, and someday, we will hear the Lord Jesus Himself sing praise in the midst of the assembly. Heb. 2:12: "Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee." In Rev. 15: 3-4 "And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb,saying great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God almighty; just and true are thy ways thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name: for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest." On the other hand the Bible tells us that one day the music of the world will cease. Rev. 18:22 says that the sound of the harpist, musicians, flutists and trumpeters, shall not be heard in you anymore. Inasmuch as music was provided by God to his creation to be used to be something to praise and worship Him then it would seem to me that the music that we use to worship Him should be based on what we might call his culture not our own. Do you see what I mean? I cannot help but think that the problem that is manifesting itself in music these days is due to what I hope is a misunderstanding. If worship is something that we are doing that is directed to us, to ours and to theirs, then surely we must give a little here and take a little there. But if music is about God, then it would see to me that we must (as I mentioned earlier) sit down, put aside our differences, and discover together who God is. I don't need to tell you that our worship and therefore our music reveals who we think that God is. Unless we discover from the Scripture who God is, we could actually be worshiping another God or just, as they say, "whistling in the dark". In this case it would be the darkness of our own misunderstanding. God talks to us in Ps. 50:21. He says, "These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes." Just because we are not being struck by lightening, or the ground is not opening to swallow us up we must not necessarily come to the conclusion that whatever we choose to offer the Lord in worship is pleasing to Him. He tells us not to see Him as one of the boys --" thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself". In Heb. 11:6 we read,"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." A number of years ago I read that we can rise no higher than our concept of God. This is why it is imperative, not only for his glory but for our salvation, that we understand who has made us and how He expects to be worshiped. All of our worship, both in music and in the spoken word, must produce a high view of God. Our chief aim must be to glorify God and worship Him forever. Ps. 29:1,2, "Give unto the LORD, O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness." Ps 96:9 ," O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth." Worship is not about us. It is about God. If worship is to be acceptable it must be consistent with who God is. Worship is not about us. It is about God. More and more we are hearing that worship is to meet our needs. Though it is true that we have a need to worship God, it is unthinkable that we can worship Him as we see fit. Even in God's redemptive plan for man salvation never begins with man and his need but with God and His glory. We seem to be trying to make worship attractive to more and more people. I have already said that this is not valid unless we are in fact not directing our worship to God but to each other. God is not pleased when just anyone pretends to worship him. It is even possible to worship God in vain. That means under certain circumstances that worship can even be a waste of time. In one place it says "Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" Matt 15:7-9 The point is God cannot be worshiped and glorified where sin is accepted and entertained. This plainly means that a person who is living in known and open sin, a person who is resisting the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in their lives cannot worship inasmuch as the Scripture is clear that true worship must be from the heart. You may disagree with me 100% but this means that worship is not for everyone. Excuse me if I use a plain illustration, but just as physical intimacy between a man and a woman is only legitimate in the context of the marriage covenant, so worshiping a Holy God is only for those who have made a covenant to serve Him as their Maker and Lord. Some have decided that they would craft the worship service for the unconverted, but in doing so they run the risk of profaning the name of our Holy God. In our worship we must obey God, rather than seek to please each other and especially the lost. Paul wrote in Gal 1:9 ff. "As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man." You remember when Elijah challenged the children of Israel? He said, " If God be God worship Him, if Baal be god then worship him. We cannot serve both God and the world. These days some are trying to create an environment where the sinner feels as comfortable as the person who is committed to Jesus. When we do this we run the risk of three things. 1. Insulting the Holy One. 2. Misrepresenting God to the lost 3. Deeply grieving those who have made a commitment to Jesus and whose consciences are defiled by forms of worship that are closely patterned after the things of the world. The unchurched or unbelieving person comes to us with ideologies that Scripture calls "darkness." Jesus makes it clear in John 3:19 that the world "loved darkness" (NIV). The biblical way to deal with darkness is to confront it lovingly with light. Creating a church environment that makes ideologies of darkness feel comfortable is to confront, as it were, darkness with darkness. There is a real danger that, in trying to reach the "lost," we find ourselves incorporating into the church concepts and perspectives incompatible with the truth and purity that the gospel represents. We often hear that the church is a hospital for sinners, but it must be borne in mind that a hospital is where the sick go to get well. According to the metaphor, the church is a place where one goes as part of the getting-well process. Persons satisfied with themselves the way they are may not feel comfortable with the gospel call to repent (to change, to get well). Also, much is said these days about the church being an accepting place, but there is a real danger that the word "accepting" may be confused with "status quo." A person who loves "the world" and "the things that are in the world" (1 John 2:15) may not feel comfortable in the church. It is even likely that many of the unconverted's felt needs are diametrically opposed to what salvation is all about. I am impressed that the Old Testament fundamentally teaches two basic concepts. One is that God is Holy. The word in Hebrew for Holy means separate. That means that He is not like us. This means that the more we try to make him like us the further away from the truth we find ourselves. Another concept that is clear from the Old Testament is that the Holiness of God and the corruption of the world are incompatible. You will remember when God told Moses to take off his shoes because where God was the ground was holy. In the sanctuary service there were a host of ceremonies that had to do with purification. The point is clear. We are not to bring the profane into the presence of the Holy: to do so is to blaspheme our Holy God. There were occasions in the Old Testament where when this was done the result was the death of those who did it. But because this did not happen every time and because it doesn't seem to be happening now we have come to believe that good and evil can co-exist and that light and darkness, truth and error can somehow be harmonized. This concept that truth and error, light and darkness can exist together has been institutionalized in the Asian concept of the "ying" and the "yang". You may have seen the symbol. It is a circle with black and white flowing together side by side inside. We must not allow ourselves to deceive ourselves. God's Spirit will not always strive with men. There will come a day in which all that is profane will be purged away and only that which is holy will remain. The problem is that for the time being it seems that we can make an accommodation with evil. It seems that evil and good can co-exist. But when good and evil are mixed together it is the evil that washes out the good, or should I say that corrupts the good. Remember the Scripture tells us that a little yeast affects the whole lump of dough and so it is also in worship. It seems more and more clear that in our enthusiasm to call the sinners out of the world, the effect seems more and more to be that we are bringing the world and evil into the church. This would not be the first time that this has happened and if you wonder what the result will be, find a good history book. In 1 Kings 12:28, 29 we discover that Jeroboam was only trying to make worship more relevant and accessible to the people when he set up the golden calves in Dan and Bethel. The consequence of this sin ultimately brought about the destruction of Israel as a nation. In the Christian Era Constantine took the lead in making Christian worship relevant to the people of the Roman Empire, Christians and non-Christians alike. Of course, he had to change the day of worship to do it. This is why I insist that what we are doing is not making history but repeating it. I think if this is the course that we are bent on, we should sit down and study history to see if the results of the past are what we want for our present, and if they are not we must do a serious mid-course correction. I greatly fear that our change in worship styles is largely only a reflection of our change in lifestyles. In the past the call to the young people was to come out of the world and live a holy life. That call now seems to be, "Hey we don't care what you do, just come to church and we will do our best to make you feel comfortable." Often I hear quoted as a justification for the new music and ways of playing it, that the scripture calls us to sing a new song and that the new music is just doing what the Bible is telling us to do. But what we are calling new songs in many places are simply trying to fit new words into old music. New and old in this respect are not about time. They are about lifestyles. God is surely not telling us to do new music as compared to old music or that would mean that we couldn't put the Psalms to music. The Psalms are the oldest religious songs that there are. When the Scripture calls on us to sing a new song, it is calling us to a new and different life. A new song is to be about a new life. Not a blending of the old and the new or a recycled old life but a life in which forgetting the things which are behind we are pressing forward toward the mark of the high-calling of God in Christ Jesus. The Psalms call on us to sing unto him a new song. It is to be a song of a redeemed people of God. This new song is to be different and distinctive. It is to be a more glorious song, a purer, truer and more beautiful song than the world can ever sing. " Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints" Ps 149:1. In the book of Revelation it speaks of the saved: Rev 5:9,10."And they sung a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue and people and nation." A new song, by the way is not just new words. When Scripture is calling on us to sing a new song in the first place it is calling on us to reject the world and to abandon it's sinful ways and then our song will not be just a song of new experience but it will be sung to a new melody and played in a different way that the way of the world. Christian music must be just that--Christ-centered in its every aspect. Even the style and the melody must be to the glory of God. By the way, there are those who say that style and melody are neutral and all that matters are the words. This is simply not so. First, why do platinum-selling secular artists not believe that? Paul McCartney, originally of the Beatles and a solo artist since the 1970s, told the Washington Post: "The message is not in the lyrics, but in the music." Few people have had the kind of influence that McCartney has had on contemporary music, and if he is right, then music is hardly amoral. It's little wonder, then, that philosopher Allan Bloom, in his best-seller The Closing of the American Mind, wrote that rock is characterized by "antinomianism" (without law) and that "young people know that rock is the beat of sexual intercourse." To be fair, the kind of raucous music that McCartney and Bloom are describing isn't yet being advocated in most Adventist churches, but there are disturbing trends in that direction. Promoting the gospel message of our holy God through an unholy medium can only be called profanity. Second, should music that reminds the listener and participator of the secular songs of the day be introduced into the church? It's time to put to rest the tired apocryphal story that Martin Luther used the "tavern tunes" of his day. Of the melodies in Luther's 37 chorales, 15 were composed by him, 13 came from Latin hymns, four were from German religious folk songs, two had originally been religious pilgrim songs, two were from unknown origin, and only one came directly from a secular folk song) This one song appeared in Luther's first hymnal in 1535, but was replaced by an original tune in his 1539 hymnal. Historians believe that Luther discarded the secular tune because people associated it with its previous lyrics). Luther's goal was to replace the world's music, not duplicate it. He used four-part harmony because he wanted to attract the worshiper away from secular songs. If we are going to use music to honor God then the music must honor him in every way. We cannot justify taking styles and rhythms that are used create an atmosphere of sex, drug abuse, violence and the like and by changing the words think that we now have something that is to the glory of God. If we are to be honest we must admit that music without words is used to create atmosphere. I don't need to prove that to you. In the world of business and entertainment music is carefully chosen so that it will create just the atmosphere that is desired. I greatly fear that when Christian artists take an old song of the world, dress it up, modify it and say it now represents the person of Jesus Christ, a Christian message or describes the character of God, they are assaulting the gospel and diminishing the gift that has been entrusted to them. This is inappropriate at best and sacrilegious at worst. We cannot pour new wine into old wineskins. Jesus himself said in Mark 2:22: "And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred, but new wine must be put into new bottles." Friends, I think you can see that what is involved in worship is not simply a matter of personal preferences, age or cultural background. I am more and more persuaded that worship is merely an indication of the different concepts of God among the membership. There is a Latin saying that goes, "Lex orandi, lex credendi," it means "As the man worships, that is how he believes." Yes it is true, how we worship God is how we see Him and how we see God dictates the way we live. You may be thinking to yourself, "Pastor O'Ffill, you are trying to divide us. What you are saying is divisive." No, friend, what I am doing is merely describing what is happening and as I mentioned earlier this is not something that is just happening in our own denomination. The issue of worship is causing concern in many quarters outside our own church. What shall we do then? Personally I think one thing that we could do to resolve this at least for the moment would be to simply use Christian courtesy. The apostle Paul is clear that we must not do something that knowingly offends the conscience of a weaker brother. In 1 Cor 8:12,13 it says, "But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend." Though this is talking specifically about eating meat offered to idols the principle is the same. We are not to intentionally offend each other. In the matter of the contemporary worship styles I definitely consider myself among the weak. We who are weak in this respect not only have a sensitive conscience about rock rhythms in worship but we have the same standard for our lives when we are not in church. In the same respect those of us who have a sensitive conscience about doing theater in the worship service don't go to the theater and a growing number are deep sixing the TV. Betty and I don't have a TV. We raised our children without one. Somehow we have survived. We are up-to date on the news without having to watch the evening news. So to answer the question is it possible to live without TV the answer is "yes". In fact life without the TV is a fuller, richer, cleaner and more peaceful life. It is difficult if not impossible for the Holy Spirit to put into us the mind of Christ when we are needlessly exposing ourselves to the things that are watched by the average Christian. I believe we can make our worship services meaningful to those who are serious about worshiping a holy God and pleasing to Him without having the congregation go to sleep. I must warn you though that inasmuch as spiritual things are spiritually discerned, a person who is used to the life of the world could find church at times uninteresting and even boring. I think that is something that a person must solve between them and God and bringing a band or a puppet show to church is not the way to go about it. Let me speak for a moment about puppet shows and drama. Our life in the nineties tends to be largely fantasy, from sports to videos and virtual reality. I am sad to tell you on one hand but happy to tell you on the other, that the Christian life and its worship of a Holy God is not a fantasy, we don't need to simulate it in some kind of drama, we can actually share with each other what God is doing in our lives and we can do that without having a rap rhythm in the background. God is calling His people everywhere to separate themselves from the pleasures of the world. Job 14:4 "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one." And in 2 Cor 6:17, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." I visit churches in many places. I often see worship services that are vibrant and alive. They are full enthusiasm and spirit and yet there is nothing there that would offend the weak. On the other hand, I was in one church not long ago and for the children's story they had a hand puppet show. It was done by the children themselves. The children provided the arms and the voices but the ones that were acting out the story of Daniel were grotesque Sesame Street characters. You may not find any problem with that. I do. In the first place it was more fantasy. My wife was reading to me from an article in which it was saying that our children in this generation have a hard time distinguishing between reality and fantasy. It is no wonder that when they grow up they will treat a basketball game as reality and their marriages as fantasy. I cannot see how we are honoring our Holy God in whose presence angels viel their faces when we represent his workings in the life of the men and women of scripture through the medium of lesser life forms. For many young people Lion King has more meaning than Jesus who will come to this world one day soon as King of kings and Lord of lords. My brother, My sister, we must not simply sit back and think that whatever gets a good laugh must be to the glory of God. Isaiah saw God and he didn't laugh or give Him a round of applause. Listen to this from Isaiah the sixth chapter. " In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." Just in case you may think, "but Pastor O'Ffill, that is just an Old Testament concept," listen to this from Heb. 12:28, 29, "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire." I greatly fear that our trend in the nineties to mix the sacred with the profane is indeed playing with fire. We sing that our God is an awesome God, and indeed He is, but that word is now used to describe most anything from a touchdown to a horse race. It is no wonder we worship a cheap god. May God have mercy on our generation that has mixed the sacred with the profane until we are often no longer able to discern the holiness of God from a clown in a polka-dotted suit with frizzy green hair and a red ball for a nose who is telling us that Jesus loves us. I have not told you anything new. I have merely described what is going on. I plead, before it is too late. let us as individuals and as congregations seek the Lord while he still may be found. Let us call upon Him while he is nigh. Let us forsake our wicked ways and let us return unto the Lord. And the promise that gives us hope is that when we do, He will abundantly pardon.

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