Have you ever been to a wedding where the vows fall way short of God's design and plan? Have you been to a wedding where the pastor/priest preached a message that loaded with sentimental humanistic fluff and lacking in biblical meat. Well in Denmark I have quickly learnt that this is the norm - even for weddings of professing Christians. Rampant feminism and fornication have been allowed to impose themselves on local churches to the point where weddings have become a massive disservice to Christ and His sacrificial love for the Church.
Well the last wedding I attended was the final straw - how about I take some action as a Christian? We are not called to be passive bystanders in life! After receiving a recent wedding invitation I knew exactly what to expect. But this time I was ahead of the game and approached the bride and groom several weeks in advance to see if they would allow me to deliver a short message on marriage at the wedding reception. Out of courtesy I gave them a transcript of the message so they knew what was coming.
My recent three part series on God's design in marriage (part 1, part 2, part 3) was based on this 13 minute message that you can now view on the youtube videos below. It was a great opportunity to present the Gospel, as it relates to marriage. There was a predominantly large crowd of non-believers present. If you listen carefully you might be able to hear the sound of feminists gnashing their teeth . . .
I want to encourage you to be proactive and seize opportunities like this to preach the Gospel to large groups of people. It can be done, and done to the glory of God. If you are attending a wedding soon you can do the same and you are most welcome to use the transcript from this message. Whatever you do . . . don't be silent!
Coming Monday - In response to all the questions it's time to talk more about Rob Bell. This sacred cow just won't die on us!!!
Jesus said in Matthew 24 that it would be like the days of Noah when He returns. Today we conclude this series, with the fifth and final lesson, about what we learn from the days of Noah, as we approach the day of Christ's return and judgment.
LESSON 5 - GOD PROVIDES A WAY TO SAVE WICKED PEOPLE Could the ark hold all the animals?
It is a sad fact that sunday school lessons and pictures perpetuate the idea of a fairy tale via the cartoon like pictures of an old man in an oversized bathtub with an elephant bulging over the sides and a giraffe poking his head out through the roof. The picture above gives a more realistic idea of the dimensions and awesome size of the ark Noah spent over a century building. I don't think the greenies of Noah's day would have been too pleased with Noah's carbon footprint. We're talking a lot of old growth forest for building that hulking vessel.
We need to remember that the animals came after their kind. So you didn’t need 2 poodles, 2 bassett hounds, 2 great danes etc. Just 2 dogs. What about the dinosaurs? Yes it would have had dinosaurs onboard. Based on a worst case scenario it would have needed to hold 45000 animals at an average size of a sheep. That would take 190 railway cars. Well guess what - the ark was as big as 520 railway cars. Even with food it would have used another 150 railway cars. That leaves another 180 railway cars. What do you think all that space was for? Why do you think Noah was preaching for 120 years? I believe God provided plenty of space for people to repent and come onto the ark (source Answers In Genesis).
God has provided an ark for the wicked generation of today. An ark for repentant sinners to flee into before the great and terrible day of God's judgment. Don't be deceived by the ease and comfort of western life in the 21st century. That's just how it was in Noah's day and the flood was upon them before they even realized. And be warned - something worse than a flood is coming . . .
Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" (Revelation 6:15-17)
This ark God has provided for us has a Name. It is the Name above all names, the Name that shall cause every knee to bow and tongue confess His Lordship - His Name is Jesus Christ. The first ark may have cost a lot of wood but the new Ark cost Jesus His precious blood. God made a way in spite of our rebellion against him. Many people ask why a loving God sends people to hell when they should be asking how God can save anybody without violating His character and nature. The answer lies in the Penal Substitutionary Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was more than the corrupt Jewish judges, or the savagery of the Roman executioners, or the schemes of Satan that caused Jesus' primary suffering on the cross. It was the cup of God's wrath against the endless mass of human sin that Christ drank in full on that cross at Calvary.
Did you ever wake up in the morning and wonder “where did all the stars go?” Did they all just disappear? No – but we only ever see them shining in their glory against the background of a dark night sky. And the cross of Jesus Christ shines in its glory against the dark background of our sin against Him. It was only when God helped me to see the awful darkness of my sin against Him that I could start to see the depth of His love for me in sending Jesus Christ.
Gaze into the mirror of God's law and see your need for Christ while there is still time to repent. Flee into the Lord Jesus Christ trusting Him alone for pardon from sin, His righteousness credited to your account, and salvation from the wrath to come.
God has appointed Noah’s for the people of today – us, to be preachers of righteousness! The kindness of God in saving wicked sinners like us should be the fuel that drives us to preach like Noah for the rest of our lives – even if no one repents – because God’s Name must be glorified. And guess what – I actually believe He might save people in this fallen evil world – He saved me!
Jesus said in Matthew 24 that it would be like the days of Noah when He returns. Today we continue on this series with the fourth lesson, of five important lessons, on what we learn from the days of Noah as we approach the day of Christ's return and judgment.
LESSON 4 - WE THINK OF NOAH AS A BOAT BUILDER BUT GOD CALLED HIM A PREACHER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly (2 Peter 2:5)
We must be preachers of righteousness to the evil world around us. It is sad to say that many modern preachers have made the Gospel about happiness instead of righteousness. But our greatest need is righteousness because of our unrighteousness and we must see our unrighteousness in order to hunger and thirst after the righteousness found only in Christ. That is why we must proclaim God’s Holiness and His law before we talk about Christ and the cross.
Did you ever wake up in the morning and wonder “where did all the stars go?” Did they all just disappear? No – but we only ever see them shining in their glory against the background of a dark night sky. And the cross of Jesus Christ shines in its glory against the dark background of our sin against Him – and it was only when God helped me to see the awful darkness of my sin against Him that I could start to see the depth of His love for me in sending Jesus Christ. We must be preachers of righteousness.
Noah preached righteousness for 120 years to a wicked and perverse world and no one repented. Was there a problem with Noah’s preaching? Poor Noah, maybe no one got into the boat because he didn’t have the Prayer of Jabez or wasn't teaching the Purpose Driven Life. Poor Noah must have been living his worst life then. No No No, Noah was a great preacher because he was faithful in the message he was called to preach. We must measure the success and health of our churches and as individuals by our faithfulness to the Gospel God told us to preach. It is God Who converts people. God was glorified in Noah’s day by judging the world that refused to respond to Noah’s preaching. God will be glorified, if we proclaim the Gospel, either in saving wicked sinners like us, or in judging our society for not repenting. But we have no choice – we must preach and be faithful in our preaching.
To be concluded on Wednesday: Lesson 5 - God Provides a Way to Save Wicked People.
Jesus said in Matthew 24 that it would be like the days of Noah when He returns. Today we continue on this series with the third lesson, of five important lessons, on what we learn from the days of Noah as we approach the day of Christ's return and judgment.
LESSON 3 - DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE WICKEDNESS OF MANKIND
God described the days of Noah, prior to the flood, as a time when:
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)
Has anything changed? The Apostle Paul gives a resounding No:
As it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." (Romans 3:10-18)
But could Jesus say something like that? Yes He did just after John 3:16 in fact:
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. (John 3:17-20)
When witnessing to atheists I always find that all their intellectual reasons for not believing in God are a façade for the fact that they love their sin. That is why we should preach the law of God first because the problem with our lost friends is never a matter of knowledge but always one of morality. We should not be surprised that God instructed Israel to wipe out entire nations, when we consider that not one single person would repent in 120 years of Noah’s preaching. What should surprise us is that God doesn’t destroy everybody right now. That is the right question to ask.
Do our lost friends hate God? Yes – but so did we! Do our lost friends love sin? Yes – but so did we! Do our lost friends deserve hell? Yes – but so did we!
We should preach because we remember where we came from and what Christ has done that He may receive the reward of His suffering. We can take no credit – it is only by God's grace and so it was with Noah . . .
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:8-9)
And it is important to know that Noah’s righteousness was the same as New Testament righteousness – only by faith:
By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. (Hebrews 11:7)
Noah, just like New Testament Christians, was saved by faith. Not of works so no man can boast. In fact when all our works are laid before the righteousness of God, we will be exposed for the miserable wicked wretches that we are . . . unless we have the imputed righteousness of Christ as our substitute. So the next time someone asks you how a loving God can send people to hell or how does a good God allow evil - tell them that they're asking the wrong question . . . just like Voddie Baucham did!
To be continued on Monday: Lesson 4 - We Think of Noah as a Boat Builder But God Called Him a Preacher of Righteousness.
Jesus said in Matthew 24 that it would be like the days of Noah when He returns. Today we continue on this series with the second lesson, of five important lessons, on what we learn from the days of Noah as we approach the day of Christ's return and judgment.
LESSON 2 - GOD'S GREAT MERCY HAS A LIMIT
Methuselah teaches us three powerful lessons about God. First that His mercy is very great, secondly that God ALWAYS keeps His word no matter how long it takes, and thirdly that His great mercy has a limit. Methuselah’s name seemed to have great prophetic meaning that something terrible would happen when he died.
Let’s do some math to see a little diamond hidden in Scripture: (Genesis 5:25) Methuselah had a son called Lamech when he was 187 years old. Genesis 5:28) Lamech had a son called Noah when he was 182 years old. (Genesis 7:6) The flood came when Noah was 600 years old. Therefore the flood came (187 + 182 + 600 =)969 years after Methuselah's birth.
So how old was Methuselah when he died? Genesis 5:27 reveals that Methuselah lived to be 969 years old. Wow! He died the year the flood came and he was the oldest man who ever lived. Methuselah’s death did bring disaster. But God’s great mercy was demonstrated by allowing Methuselah to live longer than anyone else in history. This was in order to delay His wrath giving people time to repent. But when God’s wrath came – it was devastating.
Jesus warned us that something much worse than the flood is coming. He was true to His word with the flood and he will be true to His word with the coming judgment – something so horrific the Revelation describes it:
Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" (Revelation 6:15-17)
When we consider the evil around us and how bad the coming judgment will be we should be amazed at the mercy of God. That He gave us time to repent . . . and that He has given us time to preach the Gospel.
To be continued on Friday: Lesson 3 - Do Not Underestimate The Wickedness Of Man
Jesus said in Matthew 24 that it would be like the days of Noah when He returns. Today we continue on this series starting with the first of five important lessons we can learn from the days of Noah as we approach the day of Christ's return and judgment.
LESSON 1 - JUDGMENT IS COMING
Let’s start three generations before Noah at Genesis 5:21 where we’ll find the answer to the riddle which I posed at the end of last wednesday's post - the oldest man who ever lived died before his father.
When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:21-24)
Something happened with Enoch when Methuselah was born. Methuselah was the oldest man who ever lived but he died before his father because Enoch never died. God took Enoch whilst still alive - possibly in the same way that He took Elijah. We know so little about Enoch and I’d love to know so much more. But all God thought necessary for us to know was that Enoch walked with God for 300 years after the birth of Methuselah.
The New Testament also reveals these little windows of information about Enoch:
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. (Hebrews 11:5)
It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones" (Jude 1:14)
So we know that Enoch was a changed and transformed man after Methuselah's birth. At 65 years of age, and from then on, Enoch walked with God as a prophet among a wicked and perverse society (which will be discussed in part 4). The name Methuselah seems to carry the meaning “his death shall bring” (according to scholars including Dr. Henry Morris). It seems to be that God grabbed Enoch’s attention that judgment was coming – the great flood - and Enoch was a changed man from that day on.
Jesus also warns us that just as the flood came when no one was ready, His day of judgment is coming too and it will hit us before we know it! Like Enoch, we must feed off that revelation. By the Holy Spirit, it must fuel our preaching to continually warn of the coming judgment on a society that continually spirals downward in the pursuit of carnal pleasure that is grievously offensive to God - much like they did in the days of Noah!
To be continued on Wednesday: Lesson 2 - God's Great Mercy Has A Limit
Due to my only form of internet access being my wife's iPhone, I have had to postpone the second installment of my series "The Days Of Noah" until Monday. I am sorry for breaking my word and hope that you can understand. Have you solved Wednesday's riddle? All will be revealed on Monday!
But I did think it would be a good idea to take the opportunity to respond to the many questions and comments I receive regarding heretic extraordinaire Rob Bell. Your requests have been heard so stay tuned for further and more detailed discussion concerning Mr Bell later this month.
I have no problem with Bell's books or teaching . . . so long as they stop classifying it as "Christian" and start filing it under "new age postmodern fiction". Rob Bell's theology has as much in common with Christianity as the Dalai Lama (at least the Dalai Lama doesn't pretend to be one) and I will be explaining why. In the mean time, if you click on the "Rob Bell" label under this post, you will find a fairly extensive archive of articles and information that I have compiled thus far. If you take the time to sift through it you may find some answers to your questions and a large amount of useful information.
And please tune in on Monday for the second installment of "The Days Of Noah" . . .
It was the day before Good Friday in 2007. Denmark had become my new homeland just two months earlier. I witnessed to some people asking them if they knew what Easter was about. Noone had the foggiest idea. As I watched the shoppers scurrying about spending their money and seemingly oblivious to the reason for the holiday I was pierced with a dreadful irony. Firstly, that they gave no thought or regard for the reason why they got to enjoy several days off work. Secondly, the reason these people had affluence and the technology it could buy can be traced back to the days when Christian Reformers blazed a Gospel trail across Europe lifting it out of the dark ages. The tragedy was quite grievous to an outsider saved by the precious blood of Jesus Christ and inspired by reformers like Martin Luther.
As I stood to preach in the town square I couldn't help but feel like I was standing amidst the ruins of the mighty reformation that happened almost 500 years earlier. And Jesus words from Matthew 24 took on a spooky reality:
For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:37-39)
How terrifying to think that those swept away by the flood of Noah were oblivious until it was upon them and it will be just the same for those oblivious to the coming wrath of God that draws closer every day. The day when Jesus Christ returns, not as a Lamb, but as a Warrior making war with His enemies (see Revelation 19:11-21).
Theologians tell us that we have been in the “last days” ever since Christ’s return to the Father and the day of Pentecost. Maybe we are getting close to Christ’s return but the issue I desire to stress is the darkness of our day, the urgency of the hour, and the power of the Gospel.
Since it shall be like it was in the days of Noah I believe it a worthwhile exercise to take a closer look at the days of Noah and turn to the book of Genesis. I have five major lessons from the days of Noah that I will be revealing over the coming days but in the meantime I have a riddle for you to try and solve before it gets used as a prop in the next post. Here it is - the oldest man who ever lived died before his father! Answer that and you will go a long way towards the subject of Friday's post - Lesson 1 From the Days of Noah . . .
Paul Washer is probably best known because of a stunning sermon he delivered at a youth conference back in 2003. Someone filmed it and when the video started to circulate it generated a huge underground buzz. Paul Washer went from an obscure (and faithful) missionary to the most downloaded preacher on youtube. Millions download his sermons all the while Washer remains almost oblivious to the whirlwind. Brother Paul is largely ignorant of the, now massive, internet archive of his preaching. He has his hand to the plow preaching continually like a "dead man walking" - a preacher unaffected by the applause of men, and unencumbered with the need to please them.
It is no secret that Paul Washer's preaching has affected me in a large way. John Wesley once shared this advice with a group of preachers - set yourself on fire and people will come to watch you burn! That comment sums up Paul Washer. But my personal experience of Paul Washer goes beyond that. I know him as a compassionate and affectionate man who cares deeply about lost sinners and God's glory. Someone desperate to be a husband and father who honors God. A man who loves the precious Gospel so much that he rails against preachers who pervert it. A man so broken and acutely aware of his own human frailty (I doubt he would like me saying these things about him. I sincerely hope my comments do not convey a form of human adulation. He is a fellow son of Adam saved from a life of wretchedness to the glory of God. But I cannnot help but speak glowingly of my up close experience of a man being spent in labor for the wonderful Savior). In the video that follows Paul Washer gives the background story to the events that led up to the most downloaded sermon on youtube. Here is a quote from the interview:
When Jesus was persecuted, when people said bad things about Jesus, they were always wrong. When people make critiques of me they are not always wrong. We are men, we are weak, we are failing. I just want people to know that when someone says something about me that is not very positive, they may be right. And I want them to know that I know that they may be right, and it breaks me, and I do want to be more exact; I do want to be more Holy.
So here's the interview, an interview that is fascinating for those who have already been deeply impacted by Paul Washer's "shocking youth message" . . .
This video is an excellent satire that highlights the delusions of grandeur that world leaders can have and also the delusions Christians can have in the political process. We should support things that are morally right and stand for righteousness - this is all part of exercising the biblical worldview. But the only way to bring about genuine change is to prioritize our energies towards the proclamation of the Gospel. Because the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.
Only God can change that sinful heart. We may receives plenty of good counsel on how to conduct ourselves or bring about change but it will all turn out to be a complete failure with no positive results unless conversion lies at the heart of the process. From that point on godly counsel serves as a valuable outlet to demonstrate how God has changed us inwardly. Please hear me on this – there are good programs out there but unless God has done a regenerative work in our hearts the program becomes worthless. This is the issue that must be explored before all others.
The issue of being transformed or “saved” by God has become the Evangelical no-brainer of the 21st century. We all like to think we’ve got a tick in the salvation box and it’s time to move on to more interesting stuff. If that is your thinking then you need to take a holy pause. It can be a dangerous assumption to think that we or our neighbor are “right with God”, especially if there is no outward fruit of inner transformation. I have to confess that I spent many years of my Christian walk with only a shallow understanding of the Gospel. When I stopped trying to move on from it and started to mine deep into it I was able to find pearls of wisdom and treasures of truth that transformed my life. To correct a famous quote of Billary Clinton “it’s the Gospel stupid”.
Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron have an entire ministry (Way of the Master) focused on understanding, experiencing, and articulating the Christian Gospel rightly. They do a lot of interviews and street witnessing, and regularly speak with professing Christians. This has made me acutely aware of the massive subculture out there who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and deny Him with their lifestyle. Christianity for most of these people hinges on good works, church attendance, birthright, or baptism. I think Keith Green summed it up well in the seventies when he said that “going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to McDonald’s makes you a hamburger”.
But easily the most deceptive and alarming trend that Ray and Kirk have exposed is the multitude of professing Christians out there still living in slavery to their pet sins all the while entrusting their salvation in a ”sinners prayer” that they once recited. I’m not saying that altar calls are totally wrong, but what I am saying is that prayer does not save people – it is the One we are praying to who saves us (provided it is the biblical Jesus) and initiates a miraculous transforming work within us. Jesus told Nicodemus “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3b) and that “unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5b). Jesus is talking about a lot more than a sinner’s prayer here. What Jesus is referring to with water and Spirit is explained in Ezekiel 36.
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your Uncleanness (there’s the water), and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you (there’s the Spirit). And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezekiel 36:25-27)
It is God Who is speaking in these verses and it is worth noting how He explains conversion and Who it is that does the converting. I will sprinkle clean water on you; I will cleanse you from all your idols; I will give you a new heart; I will remove your heart of stone; I will put MY Spirit within you; I will cause you to walk in MY ways; I will cause you to obey MY commandments. God does everything when he saves someone – even the ability to walk in obedience is a gift from God. This is what happens when someone is truly born again.
Please understand that this is not about judging every person’s salvation. But it is a call not to take salvation for granted. It is a call to heed the Apostle Paul’s advice to the church in Corinth (II Corinthians 13:5) and “examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith”. To see whether we are bearing the fruit of the Spirit that testifies to His inner work. CJ Mahaney always reminds his church members to preach the Gospel to themselves daily. In his book “The Cross Centered Life” he says: These are God’s promises to all who respond to His wonderful plan of salvation. Too many of us have moved on from that glorious plan. In our never-ending desire to move forward . . . too many of us have stopped concentrating on the wonders of Jesus crucified. Too many of us have fumbled the most important truth of the Bible, and therefore we’ve suffered the consequences (p17).
AnI have really labored this point because it gets so easily bypassed in our haste for practical solutions to every conceivable problem. Genuine conversion and the resultant indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the foundation that must be in place in order for us to enact all other biblical principles. Wherever we are in our relationship with God, let us pause and take stock. May we come humbly before God and examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. May we fervently explore the endless depths of Christ’s love for His Church demonstrated in the cross.
