A Lacking Ingredient in the Church

One pastor told his people recently, “Jesus is no longer in the church. He left it years ago and will not return unless there is a genuine repentance and the people truly make Him Lord of their lives.” He was an American pastor, referring to his own nation, but he could have said the same about my nation Australia, or any other nation in the Western world too for that matter. Another Pastor told his people, “Understanding the Bible creates a burning heart: burning with gratitude, joy, exhilaration, hope, confidence, faith, enthusiasm, excitement. The better you understand Scripture the more joy you have.” Both statements are true; the latter is the solution to the former. 

Spiritual understanding of the Bible is a lacking ingredient in the church; it’s evidenced by the lack of gratitude, joy, exhilaration, hope etc, expressed by too many Christian people. Intellectual understanding of the Bible is not lacking; people seem to understand, “what the Bible says” about all sorts of matters, but when it comes to taking a stand on “what the Bible says” they appear instead, to take a stand-off! In other words, ‘on Christ’s solid rock I stand’ sounds like a good idea when sung in the Sunday morning fellowship, but not such a good idea when mixing it with the Monday morning world. There they allow themselves to become like those they focus on – cold, joyless, faithless and hopeless.

In my personal experience as a Christian, the most difficult thing I find with most Christians is, first: to get them to talk about Jesus not just for a length of time, but at all, and second: to get them to stand on the word of God for all situations they encounter, good and bad. I’m amazed at the amount of times I’ve been to Christian homes for a meal, heard someone give thanks to God for the food we’re about to eat and from thereon give no mention of the Lord unless I give mention … which most surely I will regardless of what anyone thinks or says. And by their religious, “mmmm” responses, I know their thoughts are far from high! Surely it’s not us that Jesus means when He says, Let the dead bury their dead Matthew 8:22, is it? 

Personally I believe if Jesus is close to our heart, the Holy Spirit will make sure Jesus is close to our lips … all we have to do is ask Him for the words to speak. There’s no need for struggle, we simply accept by faith that the prayer will be answered John 15:7, and then we speak out what He gives allowing no room for Satan to worm his way in. On the other hand, what is in our heart does get exposed. The God/god a Christian worships always shows up. This can be tested by listening to their constant talk … mostly it’s of work or a sports game, or similar. For some, their hearts burn with that stuff not 30 seconds after the worship service. Even the pastors and elders get in on the act! That’s a sign Jesus is not around.

Someone says the gospel is all about freedom and liberty and, “therefore I’m free to talk about whatever I like.” True … the question is though, if all you can talk about is that and nothing about the Lord Jesus and what He’s doing/saying in your life, how free and liberated are you, really? If Jesus truly is Lord of the church, that would mean the hearts, minds and mouths of His people would be full of Him and His word, not full of secondary issues that all too often prevail throughout the world of Christendom. One of the problems with most Christians is that they are not afraid of the word of God … they have not been taught to tremble at God’s threatening words nor reverence the revelation of His will Isaiah 66:2.  

To be effective Christians living uncompromisingly according to God’s word, we need first to experience what it’s like to be afraid of that word, to be in awe and reverence of it. For the most part today’s church demonstrates none of that, neither for God or His word. Can we truly understand the love of God without a true understanding of the fear of God? I don’t believe so. On the other hand, if God allowed a few judgments to hit where it personally hurts most, the American church would soon know who was Lord and who wasn’t; so would the church in my nation. The insipid, religious lukewarmness currently spewing itself everywhere would become a thing of the past for many churches in no time.

The unbelieving, God-denying, Christ-hating world faces a day up ahead when the judgments of God are going to hit it where it personally hurts most … and given that judgment begins with us (the house of God) first 1 Peter 4:17, too many in the house are ill-prepared for it because they don’t believe God will actually do what His word says He will do! But still yourself and imagine this for a moment. You are standing before Almighty God Jesus, giving Him an account of your life. Yes, if you are redeemed your salvation is not in question, God will honor that … but your rewards are in question 1 Corinthians 3:12-15. How solid is your foundation? What have you been building on? Any fear? Any trembling? Any awe? Any reverence?

The above Scriptures tell us that our work for God will be revealed by fire and that which is useless will be burned. For many, how embarrassing! All that lip service; all that religious sham; all that pretentiousness! For others whose works passed the test of fire, how awesome! Jesus really was their Lord in earthly life. Under all kinds of great struggles, sufferings persecutions, reproaches and tribulations they refused to cave in. They understood the Bible and entertained no thoughts of casting away their confidence and boldness and now there is great recompense of reward for them Hebrews 10:35. They attempted “impossible” things for God, which He in turn made possible for them because He supplied the faith as they took His word seriously.

Understanding the Bible from a spiritual perspective is guaranteed to create a burning heart, burning with gratitude etc. That’s exactly what happened to two of Jesus’ disciples as they  walked along the road with Him. Initially they didn’t know it was Jesus speaking to them, they thought He was dead. But as they listened to the Lord, beginning at Moses and all the prophets expound to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself Luke 24:27, they were astounded and asked Him to stay on. Later when their eyes were opened they knew Who it was that had spoken to them, And they said to one another, “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” Luke 24:31-32.

The key to understanding the Scriptures is to begin at Moses. In other words, at some point in our Christian walk we definitely need to start at Genesis and discover Jesus within and then go all the way through the Old Testament discovering Him. Jesus is the Word of God … In the beginning was the Word John 1:1. But for the committed child and servant of God, the beginning does not begin with the gospel of John, the beginning begins with Genesis. The Old Testament is just as much a living word of God as the New Testament. That’s why Hebrews 4:12 tells us the word of God is living and powerful. Certainly Jesus reveals Himself in the New Testament, but we can’t afford to stop there or we’ll become spiritually stunted.

The Old Testament is unique. People who limit their view of it simply to fine literature and history would be better off not to have any view of it at all. The Old Testament is God’s revelation of Himself plus His redemptive plans for sinful humanity. Genesis 3:15 reveals that He is a merciful God, it’s here He gives us our first glimpse of Redeemer Jesus. In Exodus we see Jesus, The Passover Lamb. In Leviticus, Jesus, the High Priest. In Numbers, Jesus, the Cloud and the Fire. In Deuteronomy, Jesus, the Prophet like Moses. In Joshua, Jesus, the Captain of our Salvation. In Judges, Jesus, the Judge and Lawgiver….. and so on. How about the Psalms and Proverbs … Jesus, the Lord our Shepherd and the Wisdom of God.   

There is a spiritual goldmine in the Old Testament and it is ours for the taking; how foolish not to take! Not only do you discover Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, Joseph, Moses and David in there but you discover yourself in there too. In other words, as you read and study their lives, their fears and worries, their fraudulent sneaky rackets, lies, deceitfulness and conniving etc, it won’t be long before you hear yourself saying, “These people are just like me!” Then when you couple that with the love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, wisdom, patience, peace, plans, purpose and direction God poured out on them (because of belief, faith, humility, repentance and obedience) you’ll see this is exactly how God deals with you too – and me.

Yes, in the Old Testament we do get a grand picture of the wrath and judgment of God upon willful unbelief, faithlessness, pride, arrogance and disobedience – but so we should! God is righteous. God is holy. God is not compromising and politically correct; He’s not a vacillator and a fence-sitter … and He doesn’t care what you and I think to the contrary. But line your thoughts up with His, live according to His revealed truths, principles, patterns and practices and there it is … you’ve got a burning heart: burning with gratitude, joy, exhilaration, hope, confidence, faith, enthusiasm and excitement, just like the pastor said!

Another thing about the Old Testament … not only is it a book revealing God’s dealings with people of the past, it also reveals God’s dealings with people in the future. It’s a prophetic book. In fact, unless Christian people have some insight into Old Testament prophecy, they will not have sufficient insight into New Testament prophecy. I’m convinced this a major reason why Jesus has left the church. People say they don’t understand prophecy – especially in the book of Revelation. The truth is they don’t believe prophecy. I wouldn’t want to hang around with anyone who didn’t believe me either! Our job is not to understand, it is to believe; then God gives the understanding, it’s not the other way round.

So the two pastors highlight our only two choices. One: continue on with your Christianity churchianity kidding yourself that it has meaning even though you’ve abdicated the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and cast Him aside. Two: abdicate the authority of yourself, cast yourself aside and in humility and repentance, put Jesus back on the throne and serve Him as LORD. You don’t have spiritual understanding of the Bible; you do have spiritual understanding of the Bible. Which is it? Your call. “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of My mouth. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” Revelation 3:16,21.