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When in Rome, DON’T Do …

For much of our nation’s history, Christians could float with the current of culture as it was going generally in the same direction we wanted to go.  Christianity was ‘mainstream’–literally!  But, several decades ago, while complacency and compromise with things in the culture that didn’t fit with the Bible let us drift asleep, the current swept us down the wider branch that leads to destruction instead of the narrow creek off to the side that few find (Matthew 7:13-14).  Many are just now waking up to our danger and wanting to fight upstream but don’t know how.

I.  1 Peter 4:12-19.  We must know the current.  In the first century, Christians were persecuted because the paganism of ancient Rome insisted that they worship the emperor as a deity.  Terrible things occurred to those who trusted in no other God and wouldn’t bow to the affairs of the state.  Today, humanism that tolerates no god but man himself, seeks the state as man’s savior and demands fealty to doctrines contrary to biblical teaching, such as gender identity, homosexual marriage, abortion until birth, etc.  It’s no wonder that Christians today find themselves in the rapids and up against the rocks of persecution like those twenty centuries before (Philippians 3:10-11; Hebrews 2:10-11).

II.  2 Corinthians 10:2-6.  We must know our equipment.  To fight upstream in this spiritual battle, we must know that we will lose if we wage war as the world does.  We have spiritual weapons that can demolish strongholds.  Among many methods mentioned in Colossians 3:12-17, love is foremost to bind all these efforts together and should be used while leaning on God’s understanding (1 Corinthians 1:18-25).  The full armor of God with all of its various functions is essential as a true “life” preserver in determination to regain the narrow fork.  We must recognize the attitudes, beliefs, values, and practices of the world that we’ve accepted into our lives and put in the hard effort of paddling upstream to return to God’s Word in all things for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3-11).

III.  1 John 3:1-3.  We must know our destination.  As individual Christians we must know to avoid the world (2 Timothy 3:1-5), but we must help others keep the focus of walking as children of light (Ephesians 5:8-11).  Fixing our eyes on Jesus, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, we won’t grow weary and lose heart in the hard work that will be required to set ourselves back on the narrow fork (Hebrews 12:1-4).  Jesus is that hope through the temporary trials of the rapids and rocks (1 Peter 1:3-7) until we reach our goal.  It will take great determination to purify ourselves and encouragement of others to fight our way upstream.

The pull of the humanistic current of culture is strong and hard to resist.  Awakening to the spiritual battle, we must understand the danger, equip ourselves with the weapons God has provided for us, and fight upstream to the destination promised to us.  Who can you get to fight against the current with you?

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DON’T Lean on Me, When …

For many generations, the church in the West has been able to float lazily along on an inner tube because the current of culture was flowing in roughly the same direction.  And so, we fell asleep, not realizing that in the past few decades the current has reversed its course.  Like the frog in the pot that tolerates each increased degree of heat until it boils, Christians need to recognize what is happening to us and why.

I.  John 8:31-47.  Jesus addresses “the Jews who had believed him” and yet contrasts them with true disciples who abide in His word, know the truth, and do the works of God.  It wasn’t enough for them to be descended from Abraham if the shriveled and wormy fruit they were showing was that of their father, the devil.  The same goes for those who point to their baptism into Jesus for the forgiveness of sins but who are blinded by complacency in their faith or whose hearts are hardened by compromising with the culture.  These love the world more than they love God (John 12:37-43).

II.  1 John 2:15-17.  As we float along on the wide river that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14), we can take too much confidence that we differ from those drowning around us in degree but not in character.  What Eve reasoned in her mind to justify disobedience to God (Genesis 3:2-6) is exactly that which describes those who love the world.  The current of culture affects the love we have for God, which should be with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength (Luke 10:27-28), and therefore our obedience (John 14:15) and the seeking of His kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33).

III.  1 Corinthians 1:18-25.  We’ve all heard Bill Withers’ song, “Lean on Me” that, if promoted, can be a false comfort from one not aware of himself floating with the current of culture.  Rather, we must stick to Paul’s model of comforting and demonstrating of the Christian life (1 Corinthians 11:1).  Our understanding before we became Christians was not to be trusted (Proverbs 3:5-6), so should it not be leaned on if we are complacent or compromised Christians.  Rather, we must lean on God’s wisdom as found in His Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  Avoiding the world’s wisdom (2 Timothy 3:1-5), we must walk in the light and awaken (Ephesians 5:7-14).

We must all jump out of the pot that is almost at boiling.  We must all sit up on our tubes and paddle furiously upstream. How much have you let tolerance of the world affect you?

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None of Self and All of Thee

In our relationship with God as in our earthly relationships, we would all insist that we love the other, but to what degree do we love?  The transition to love for God begins when we recognize ourselves in the first stanza of this song and obey the gospel:

O, the bitter pain and sorrow That a time could ever be,

When I proudly said to Jesus, “All of self, and none of Thee” …

[In brackets, I will tell the story of four Valentine’s Days or my spiritual journey: In our last semester of college while student teaching, my wife and I both obeyed the gospel on Sunday, February 14, 1993, just four months before we would graduate and be married, and thus we began our married life together as new Christians.]

I.  1 John 4:7-12.  Growing in our relationship with God, however, progresses from our second birth–just as a baby grows from his first birth or a marriage grows from a wedding.  Sadly, many Christians stagnate for years with a head knowledge of God and the gospel.  They can often cite book, chapter, and verse and can tell all about the love of God (Romans 5:6-8) without truly loving Him in return.  They are caught in the second stanza:

Yet He found me; I beheld Him Bleeding on th’ accursed tree,

And my wistful heart said faintly, “Some of self, and some of Thee” …

[On February 14, 1994, my wife gave me a study Bible to celebrate our first birthday in Christ.  I dove into knowing everything I could learn about it, God, and salvation, even completing a Bible degree.  While my wife was always a solid rock of faith–even through a cancer diagnosis of 2012 and a first brain tumor diagnosis of 2017, I used the gifts God gave me to teach and preach for the next three decades with a strong head love for Christ that went up and down through the years.]

II.  1 Peter 1:6-9.  In the Old Testament, God speaks about refining His people in the furnace of affliction.  In the New Testament, He speaks of using various trials to test the genuineness of our faith that hopefully leads to the salvation of our souls.  In most places today, the freedom to worship and general lack of persecution has made Christians complacent in our spiritual growth and content living with a low level of faith.  Struggles can stir us to a heart love for God as seen here:

Day by day His tender mercy Healing, helping, full and free,

Bro’t me lower while I whispered, “Less of self, and more of Thee” …

[The previous summer had my wife reacting to air quality, chemicals, surfaces, electricity, and wifi.  In desperation, she attended a naturopathic clinic in Kansas in January that showed a mold toxicity in her system.  I began mold remediation and reconstruction in the house to prepare it to sell while also cleansing, storing, trashing, or burning our possessions.  Living with a friend with similar issues, my wife met me for dinner on February 14, 2020, less than a month before her second diagnosis of brain tumors, where we spoke about our uncertain future.  Through radiation, a host of physical struggles, and months of hospice care, God gave us a last season together while He and I worked to break through my wall and I could grow in my heart love for Him.]

III.  James 4:7-10.  A total submission to God in a Christian’s head, heart, soul, and strength is required for him to truly love God and live (Luke 10:27-28).  This soul love can only come with a yielding of oneself to Him entirely and is beyond a head and heart love.  It comes through much prayer and perseverance.  When seeking of His kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33) is added to fear of God and the keeping of His commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13), submission can be achieved.  It is beyond the first four stages of grief after a great struggle or loss: denial, anger, bargaining, and depression.  It is found in acceptance and is spoken about in the last stanza of the title song:

Higher than the highest heavens, Deeper than the deepest sea,

Lord, Thy love at last has conquered, “None of self, and all of Thee” …

[I did not arrive here when my wife died in mid-December.  It was only in the past couple of weeks when I finally gave up in my fight against God, no longer struggling to make provision for the flesh (Romans 13:11-14), that I awoke to that soul love for God and Christ, my Savior.  Not that I no longer face temptations, but I am wearing the armor of God while fully submitting to Him and seeking for Him.  And so, this is the lesson I am preaching this Sunday, February 14, 2021, on the 28th anniversary of when my wife and I first professed our love for God, having first realized His great love for us.]

Which stanza of the song do you find your love for God?

 

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Behold Your Gods, O Israel

Writing just decades before the Northern Kingdom was taken into captivity, Amos attributed its decline to the sins of Jeroboam two centuries before (Amos 7:8-11).  This is how any nation ends that doesn’t put God first.  From a study Bible section on the historical situation of Amos, I’ve substituted the U.S. for Israel:

“The U.S. was enjoying great prosperity and had reached new political and military heights.  It was also a time of idolatry, extravagant indulgence in luxurious living, immorality, and corruption of judicial procedures and oppression of the poor.  … The U.S. at the time was politically and spiritually smug.  … The nation felt sure, therefore, that she was in God’s good graces.  But prosperity increased the U.S.’s religious and moral corruption.”

I.  1 Kings 11:9-40.  Because Solomon had not lived up to the “if” God gave him in following His commands (1 Kings 3:14), God raised up enemies for Solomon.  Among them was an ambitious man named Jeroboam, who once he heard that God was going to give him ten tribes of Israel to rule, turned against Solomon and escaped to Egypt until the crowning of Solomon’s son as king.  Even though God knew the choice that Jeroboam would make, in His greatness, God still gives Jeroboam his own “if” that if followed would result in his own covenant like God had made with David.  Jeroboam was faced with a choice after the prophecy came true if he would trust in God’s promise or in his own power to rule his new nation.

II.  1 Kings 12:13-32.  Because he rejected God for the might of his own strength, Jeroboam needed to rewrite history, lest the people of the ten tribes of Israel he now ruled remembered that they were God’s people.  So, erecting golden calves in the northern and southern reaches of his new nation, he told them that these were the gods who had really rescued them from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 32:7-10).  He then assigned priests from any tribe he wanted to (based on bribes perhaps?) and even offered sacrifices himself.  Jeroboam’s sins became so ingrained in the culture that the works of every evil king was compared to him, e.g. 1 Kings 22:52.  There would be no dynasty for Jeroboam as he turned from God’s offer (1 Kings 15:29-30).

III.  John 4:19-30.  Once the prophesied split was made, Jeroboam divided his country not just from Reheboam but from David [and so ultimately Christ] (2 Samuel 7:16) and from Moses [and so the covenant with God] (Exodus 19:5-6).  The Assyrians sent the Northern Kingdom off into captivity after Amos wrote.  The area was resettled by a mixture of peoples, but did that mean that God was done with them?  The heir of David’s covenant revealed Himself as the Christ to a Samaritan woman at a well and spoke of true worship that was soon open to all.  With joy, she went away proclaiming Jesus as the Christ to any who would listen.  John 15:1-17 gives us our own “if” to obey His commands and abide in Jesus.

Will we trust in God’s promise or our own power?