By Their Fruits

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Protecting Your Heart From Deceit

I'm an admirer of Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel. I became even more impressed with him as I heard him speak to our Ohio ministers this past spring via interview by our Superintendent. I love the statement he always makes when his team is leading in the second half of taking the "surest path to victory". The rationale is if you're holding a lead late in the game and winning being the goal - don't do anything to mess that up. Makes a lot of sense.

Spiritually it makes a lot of sense as well. As Christians there is a way that we can take the surest path to victory and guard our hearts from deception and heresy - this surest path is the proper study of the Bible. Many will agree that the Bible is the infallible and authoritative Word of God. But how can we make sure we have the proper interpretation of the Bible? How do we ensure that our understanding of God's Word is the right one?

Human history is littered with desperately deceived people misusing and misquoting the Bible to advance a cause or an agenda. Some pretty awful things have been done in God's name throughout history. It's our job as genuine Christians to make sure that we don't make those kinds of mistakes - and the job of pastors to equip and train the wonderful people that God has entrusted us with to guard against this deception.

Here's a thumbnail sketch of how we can make sure we are understanding and interpreting the Bible in the proper way:

First, pray for wisdom before you begin reading. James says: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 1:5.

Historically people tend to fall into doctrinal error when they become Biblically unbalanced. James again says: "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure..." The wisdom of the Lord guards us from error and heresy because it is first pure, or true. Remember there are some great people, preachers, teachers and some wonderful human beings both historically and currently who have fallen off the wagon theologically and fallen into error because of this very point. Only a humble reliance on the wisdom of the Holy Spirit can keep us sound. No one is exempt from this.

Next make sure you are right with God before you study. This requires listening to the convicting voice of the Holy Spirit. If you've been convicted of something in your life and you've ignored doing something about it - beware. Some have tried to plow through the Bible while living in adultery, or other gross sin, and seem to 'not see' or gloss over the scripture that deals with their very sin. Others have fallen into error because they were opening the Bible to try to find a 'verse' to justify themselves. This has sadly led some down the path to the devastatingly false "God told me" conclusions. I can't tell you how many times in dealing with people over the last twenty years I've heard: "God told me to" or, "God showed me this". While I knew it couldn't have been the God of the Bible that did the telling, the person went on to shipwreck their life via a poor choice in a marriage, a relationship or some other ill-fated idea blamed on God. It's difficult to argue with a person who's told you "God told me to". That's why we, who would use that line of reasoning, must humbly examine our hearts and lives with a fine tooth comb - and ask for the Holy Spirit's assistance while doing so.

A third step to ensure proper Biblical understanding is - be ready to admit you're wrong. Something I've discovered as I've studied the Bible verse by verse, is that some of the views I've held weren't biblical. It wasn't anything deep, dark and hideous, but it was places where my thinking wasn't consistent with God's Word. I realized that I was wrong and had to align my thinking with God's thinking. Sometimes it's wisdom to suspend what you might think on a certain topic until you can do some in depth study in the Word on the topic. It's much easier to say "I'm not sure - I'm studying it out right now", than to speak and later have to retract.

Finally, be sure that the Bible is the first place you turn. Not Christian TV, not a pastor, not the Internet - but the Word of God. As a pastor, I'm intent upon Christians thinking and digging in the Word and not being told what to think. This is accomplished by Christians getting into the Word of Life for themselves and prayerfully studying it out.

Ponder for a moment how much more sermons would "hit you where you live" if you and the preacher were on the same page. This assumes that the preacher is actually and primarily using the Bible in his preaching, and that the listener is studying their Bible regularly. It can be that powerful when we realize that God is speaking to us from His Word - today! God has been revealed to us as a God who desires intimate fellowship with us (1 John 1). As Christians everything we do should be "Father filtered", so our thinking in all areas of life should have as its basis the Word of God.

How Saved Are We?

That’s a disturbing question.

But observing the average American Christian today, it’s painfully obvious that something has run amok. I’m not even talking about heretical movements that are flaunting false doctrine in abundance today - nor am I referring to declining church attendance. My concern is for those who are sitting in our pews.

The “sheep” are becoming more difficult to recognize as sheep. We’re undoubtedly reaping the fruit from decades of preaching a soft Savior, salvation without self denial, a crown without a cross and using unbiblical language like “accept” Jesus as one’s Savior (He accepts us).

So how many of our “sheep” have really experienced Biblical salvation? The late Dr. D. James Kennedy pondered the same question, when he stated that based on the empirical evidence, he had come to the conclusion that “75-80% of people attending church weren’t really saved.”

Jim Elliff essentially asks the same in his article about the Southern Baptist Church when he said: “When as many as 70-90% of “converts” are giving little if any evidence of being saved after their first weeks or months of emotional excitement, questions should be asked, both about our understanding of the gospel and about our methods.”

Questions indeed - and the biggest one - How saved are we?

Many church goers would say that they "know who they are in Christ” - but I must kindly beg to differ. Only 1-2% of Christians EVER share their faith - blatantly ignoring even an attempt at fulfilling the Great Commission. The divorce rate is actually higher in the church than it is in the world. (I've cited on this blog that the divorce rate among church attenders is actually higher than it is among atheists). The percentage of Christians involved in cohabitation and other sexual promiscuity rivals the world’s numbers. Again I wonder, how saved are we?

Ron Sider, author of The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience says, “If American Christians simply gave a tithe rather than the current one-quarter of a tithe, there would be enough private Christian dollars to provide basic health care and education to all the poor of the earth. And we would still have an extra $60–70 billion left over for evangelism around the world.” Apparently us church folks aren’t the most generous bunch either. That flies in the face of the very definition of a true Christian.

Evidence points to the fact that, by and large, we have a defective church. And the reason? We have preached a defective message. We have done a big disservice to our hearers in two ways: We have failed to tell them the old life must end; and we have failed to definitively show them the new life in Him. The truth is our Americanized modern gospel has created a lot of followers who are not true sheep, but geese - as in, lost as a goose.

The sad and difficult part is, many actually believe they are saved merely because they may have said some sort of a prayer, perhaps have a church membership card in their wallets or maybe even have baptism waters dripping off of their face.

John MacArthur, speaking about some of these church attenders who populate the American church: “People are breezing through these wide, comfortable gates with all their baggage, their self needs, their self esteem, and their desire for fulfillment and self satisfaction. And the most horrible thing about it is, they think they are going to heaven.”

The preaching of Biblical salvation is long overdue. So how Biblical is our salvation? Here is Biblical salvation in a nutshell:

1. To be saved there has to be a complete, utter surrender and sellout to Jesus Christ. This is often referred to as “believing in Jesus” or “putting your trust” in Him. God’s holy Son died for the world. The Perfect One suffered a criminals death. He bore all of our sin on the cross. The Righteous Lamb died for foul sinners. He paid the price completely for sin. We sinned. He died. We were guilty. He was punished. We deserve death. He gave us life. We rejected Him. He accepted us. Salvation is through Him completely. We add NOTHING to our salvation. It’s a gift of God given by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ the Righteous.

2. With this sellout, there is something called repentance. Repentance is a change of mind, a change of direction - we abandon the sin we used to partake in. Jesus described our salvation experience as being “born again”. That describes an upheaval. A drastic change. A brand new start. Does that sound familiar? When the Spirit of the Living God comes to inhabit our lives, there should be a big difference - a before and after - Liars stop lying. Thieves stop stealing.

It’s time to wake up the pew sitters in America with the truth. It may be shocking and offensive to many that have been lulled asleep by having their ears tickled, but it will be oh so healing, redemptive and life changing.

“Therefore He says: ‘Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” Ephesians 5:14.