Why is there so much earthly thinking, and acceptance of it by many in the modern church? Why?? Why is it the norm that many Christians today insist on not "offending" a God-hating, vile, abominable, filthy, rotten, Hell-deserving world by being "culturally sensitive", meaning to apologise for God's holiness and righteousness? The question as to why should the church apologise for God's holiness and righteousness as revealing in His perfect Moral Law is an illegitimate one. The question itself should not even be conceived because God's Moral Law is Sovereign over all things.
Yet, modern evangelicals are opposed to using the Law of God in evangelism because of fear of man. Plain and simple. It is because of fear of man. This is by no means to suggest that one should seek to strive when evangelising and have no fear and trembling. Rather, it is an attitude prevalent in the modern church.
It is not because the Church has been "all about rules" as modern evangelicals put it that the world hates the Gospel. It is because the world is a vile, disgusting, filthy, abominable, Hell-deserving world that it hates the Gospel. It hates God because God's nature is the very opposite of its wicked, depraved, reprobate nature.
Even if the church has fell into legalism and indeed so, this is by no means an excuse for the unsaved to use this as means to be offended by the Gospel, or even by offended by the use of the Moral Law. It has no moral grounds to even use this as an excuse because it itself choose to not seek after God and is evil (Romans 3:10-12). For the unsaved to use this as an excuse is hypocrisy for they think it is all about following a set of laws and that following a set of civil laws makes one moral. Such hypocrisy of the world what hates hypocrisy! What could be be hypocritical than that?
The Moral Law is like a set of symptoms of an illness which the patients knows to be signs of the illness but does not understand why these symptoms are bad. It is a school master (Galatians 3:24). Simply explaining sin to an unsaved person is like a doctor telling the person about the disease but not convincing the person of it because he is unable to even understand the disease and what the symptoms mean. All he knows is that certain symptoms of his disease means that something is not right, but it is not a big deal for everyone has these symptoms.
Why this fear of man? The fear of man comes from spiritual harlotry with the world. James 4:4 says: "Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?" Courting with the world's thinking about how to approach evil, sin and suffering, seeking its respect or approval is to seek friendship with the world. The world attributes all the evils in the world to anything by the human heart which is desperately wicked and deceitful about all things (Jeremiah 17:9). It suppresses the truth by its own unrighteousness (Romans 1:18-19), and therefore is hypocritical an accusing the church of being legalistic when it chooses to not obey the Law of God. It is their own fault!
A church that seeks friendship with the world as indicates by its fear of man results from succumbing to the things of the world - lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and pride of life (1 John 2:16). To succumb to these things is to seek security in the world, that which mammon tempts the church to do and has very successfully done so.
Whatever the church does, the world should be hating the church as much as a fish swims in water. If the church is not hated by the world vociferously, vehemently and with the most ardent, aggressive hatred, there is something wrong with it. It means to fails to shine light on the sins of the world because it has failed to stand firmly on the Word of God without compromise, or fails to be salt in the world when stings its eyes by the very sight of the church. The church should be one that shames the world of its immorality, vile ways, and evil deeds. The church should by no means be tolerant of all the vile false religions, humanistic ideologies and evil abominable deeds - all of which blaspheme God and spit on His face. It should hate the world's ways with all its heart, mind soul, spirit and strength for loving the world is diametrically opposed to loving God vociferously, unapologetically, and unashamedly.
Jesus' command to "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself" (Luke 10:27; Matthew 22:37) requires the Christian to hate the world's ways with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind. The church should have no ordinary hatred of the world's ways. It should have a vociferous, uncompromising, unapologetic hostility against the world. The world should not think the church is merely intolerant or legalistic. It should think it vociferously, and actively hates it just through its actions and mere refusal to agree with the world.
Only when the church returns to its first love for God will it because able to succeed in overcoming the vile, wicked world and able to resist the influence of mammon who feeds on the carnal lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and pride of life.
Why did Jesus say "no one can serve both God and mammon", instead of no one can serve both God and the world, God and the devil or God and sin. It is because mammon is the one that literally tempts everyone into not loving God wholly. He does this by tempting every Christian to focus on one's earthly needs and also earthly duties, that which holds a person back from fully devoting to God.
Only when the church returns to its first love for God will it truly be able to love the unsaved, who are to be pitied for they know not what they do and are headed for Hell, most of whom are deceived into thinking they are good, and even righteous people. It is only the love of God abiding in the Christian that enables him or her to love one's enemies for "he that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love" (1 John 4:8)
Yet, modern evangelicals are opposed to using the Law of God in evangelism because of fear of man. Plain and simple. It is because of fear of man. This is by no means to suggest that one should seek to strive when evangelising and have no fear and trembling. Rather, it is an attitude prevalent in the modern church.
It is not because the Church has been "all about rules" as modern evangelicals put it that the world hates the Gospel. It is because the world is a vile, disgusting, filthy, abominable, Hell-deserving world that it hates the Gospel. It hates God because God's nature is the very opposite of its wicked, depraved, reprobate nature.
Even if the church has fell into legalism and indeed so, this is by no means an excuse for the unsaved to use this as means to be offended by the Gospel, or even by offended by the use of the Moral Law. It has no moral grounds to even use this as an excuse because it itself choose to not seek after God and is evil (Romans 3:10-12). For the unsaved to use this as an excuse is hypocrisy for they think it is all about following a set of laws and that following a set of civil laws makes one moral. Such hypocrisy of the world what hates hypocrisy! What could be be hypocritical than that?
The Moral Law is like a set of symptoms of an illness which the patients knows to be signs of the illness but does not understand why these symptoms are bad. It is a school master (Galatians 3:24). Simply explaining sin to an unsaved person is like a doctor telling the person about the disease but not convincing the person of it because he is unable to even understand the disease and what the symptoms mean. All he knows is that certain symptoms of his disease means that something is not right, but it is not a big deal for everyone has these symptoms.
Why this fear of man? The fear of man comes from spiritual harlotry with the world. James 4:4 says: "Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?" Courting with the world's thinking about how to approach evil, sin and suffering, seeking its respect or approval is to seek friendship with the world. The world attributes all the evils in the world to anything by the human heart which is desperately wicked and deceitful about all things (Jeremiah 17:9). It suppresses the truth by its own unrighteousness (Romans 1:18-19), and therefore is hypocritical an accusing the church of being legalistic when it chooses to not obey the Law of God. It is their own fault!
A church that seeks friendship with the world as indicates by its fear of man results from succumbing to the things of the world - lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and pride of life (1 John 2:16). To succumb to these things is to seek security in the world, that which mammon tempts the church to do and has very successfully done so.
Whatever the church does, the world should be hating the church as much as a fish swims in water. If the church is not hated by the world vociferously, vehemently and with the most ardent, aggressive hatred, there is something wrong with it. It means to fails to shine light on the sins of the world because it has failed to stand firmly on the Word of God without compromise, or fails to be salt in the world when stings its eyes by the very sight of the church. The church should be one that shames the world of its immorality, vile ways, and evil deeds. The church should by no means be tolerant of all the vile false religions, humanistic ideologies and evil abominable deeds - all of which blaspheme God and spit on His face. It should hate the world's ways with all its heart, mind soul, spirit and strength for loving the world is diametrically opposed to loving God vociferously, unapologetically, and unashamedly.
Jesus' command to "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself" (Luke 10:27; Matthew 22:37) requires the Christian to hate the world's ways with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind. The church should have no ordinary hatred of the world's ways. It should have a vociferous, uncompromising, unapologetic hostility against the world. The world should not think the church is merely intolerant or legalistic. It should think it vociferously, and actively hates it just through its actions and mere refusal to agree with the world.
Only when the church returns to its first love for God will it because able to succeed in overcoming the vile, wicked world and able to resist the influence of mammon who feeds on the carnal lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and pride of life.
Why did Jesus say "no one can serve both God and mammon", instead of no one can serve both God and the world, God and the devil or God and sin. It is because mammon is the one that literally tempts everyone into not loving God wholly. He does this by tempting every Christian to focus on one's earthly needs and also earthly duties, that which holds a person back from fully devoting to God.
Only when the church returns to its first love for God will it truly be able to love the unsaved, who are to be pitied for they know not what they do and are headed for Hell, most of whom are deceived into thinking they are good, and even righteous people. It is only the love of God abiding in the Christian that enables him or her to love one's enemies for "he that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love" (1 John 4:8)
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