Believing Is Seeing: Do You Have Faith?

Have you embraced the content of the gospel? Have you embraced the reality that you need forgiveness  for your sins? The reality is that there is only two destinations for the human soul, heaven or hell. Every person will die, but very few will ever live and discover their purpose. For the follower of Christ, the gospel must impact every area of their life. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus to settle an individual’s sin debt with God has tremendous implications on a person’s life. If it doesn’t, then that person doesn’t really believe. Faith begins in the mind as a person is drawn by the Holy Spirit to go beyond just knowing about the gospel to receiving and accepting the gospel. However, this will never happen until a person is genuinely convicted about their sinfulness. Faith is a real conviction that comes from God’s revelation to man. In Romans 10:17, Paul wrote that “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Nevertheless, not everyone who hears will respond in faith to the gospel. The problem is not with the message, but with the one hearing the message. Are they willing to surrender their life? Are they willing to die to self? Are they willing to place their absolute trust in Christ for their eternal life? Are they willing to suffer for Him? Are they willing to bow their knee voluntarily to Jesus as their King and Lord? Has the Holy Spirit drawn them and brought about conviction to sin? If you understand your sinfulness before a holy God, then you are willing and able to do all the above and only then will you grasp the understanding behind Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” With faith in Christ, a person believes in everything promised for their future by Jesus and a person of faith has hope in every promise of the Bible which has occurred in the past and will occur in the future which cannot yet be seen. There is an old saying “for the unbeliever, seeing is believing; for the believer, believing is seeing.” I pray you see the difference.

Finally, Peter wrote “at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 8, 9). My friends you don’t need to see Jesus in the flesh to have full assurance of the forgiveness of the your sins and complete hope for eternal life. You should have inexpressible joy as you live for eternity and not for your temporal existence on this planet.

Faith means possessing the result of the gospel now, not later, now. Faith means having constant forgiveness as you remain in a constant posture of repentance. All there is left to do is wait patiently upon the rapture of the church or your full salvation of eternal glory. 

Into the Darkness: The Evil Behind ISIS

Deep inside of every person is the desire to live, it’s the only way to explain how people from the most extreme parts of the world fight to survive in the midst of famines, poverty, crime, terrorism, and severe persecution. While God is sovereign and controls everything in this universe, He has also given each person a soul and a spirit. We are spirit beings who possess eternal souls and therefore have an inborn desire to survive. My heart breaks for my Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq as they suffer at the hands of Satan and the wicked evil of ISIS. However, I also rejoice that many are experiencing glory at this present time in heaven with Christ. But how can anyone not be moved with compassion when they see the videos of children being slaughtered. I find it hard to even enjoy myself in my comfortable home as the emotions from having watched an ISIS video flood back into my mind, and perhaps this is the way the Lord wants it to be. I am also praying that the Lord will crush ISIS and remove them from the face of the earth. I pray this knowing that only He can accomplish this since “our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens” (Ephesians 6:12). It’s not my intention to expound on the armor of God or the sword of the Spirit that Paul speaks about in the verses following, however I want to educate all believers on just how wicked Satan is and how wicked he will become as tribulation draws closer. Kent Hughes wrote that “Satan has no conscience, no compassion, no remorse, and no morals. He feeds on pain and anguish and filth.” In fact our human minds can’t even comprehend how wicked and evil Satan really is.

However, may we never forget the amazing faith of believers such Romanus from Antioch who was martyred around 285 AD. On the day of his glorification, Romanus was tied up, scourged with whips, his sides were slit open with knives until his bones showed through, his teeth were knocked out, his face was beat, his beard pulled out, and his cheeks were gashed with knives. Romanus never cursed God or renounced his faith in Christ, instead he sang psalms to all who would listen and thanked the Roman prefect for allowing him to suffer for Christ. In Romanus’ last moments he was cast into a fire, but a storm arose and extinguished the fire, so they pulled his body from the fire and strangled him until he took his last breath. Standing firm in the face of death is what genuine faith looks like. 

Satan and his demons are real and the warfare they wage is real despite existing in the invisible. Nevertheless may we never forget “our light affliction is but for a moment because we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen” (2 Corinthians 4:17, 18). 

For gods and Country

During Hitler’s reign as chancellor of Germany he banned prayer in schools and forced church leadership to compromise and submit to him as their master, with an ultimate goal of making the church irrelevant and divided. Hitler’s Nazi government also reinterpreted the meaning of Christmas and Easter, eliminated Christmas plays from schools, and forbade nativity scenes. If this sounds familiar, it should, it’s happening in America and in our military. Liberal groups across America are waging war on Christianity in ways that are eerily similar to Nazi Germany. One question that needs to be asked is how did the church and its pastors respond to the Nazi regime? Essentially, two groups emerged, those who chose Hitler’s way of religion and those who stood upon God’s word and the cross. The majority of pastors played it safe and compromised their convictions about God’s word in order to please Hitler, while others such as Dietrich Bonheoffer and Martin Niemoller chose to stand with Christ despite the consequences. When I was reading about the tragedies of the German church I learned there was a man named Alfred Rosenberg who was to oversee the spiritual training of the Nazi party and his ultimate goal was to purge Jesus from the Nazi mind. Out of fear and compromise most pastors remained silent and even supported the genocide of the Jews.

What many are unaware of is how our military chaplain corps’ are becoming more and more like the Nazi military under its spiritual teacher Alfred Rosenberg. By the hand of Satan, US military leadership has slowly eroded the effects of Christianity and has systematically worked to force out qualified chaplains for those who are willing to compromise and do just about anything. In January 2014, the Commandant of the US Army Chaplain School stated that his “greatest concern was too many white evangelical chaplains.” The Chaplain Corps’ of our military branches operate under the banner of pluralism in its most extreme form. Even for chaplains from evangelical denominations, the temptation for compromise is before them every day, with officer evaluation reports and 20 year pensions which are often so financially enticing compromise becomes necessary to achieve their temporal goals and promotion. Are these chaplains dying to self so Christ can be glorified? Not a chance, because the focus is systematically shifted away from the Great Commission to work that is needed for promotion to the next rank. In fact the Army Chaplain Corps has become an environment of anything goes. While left wing groups seek to erode the moral fabric of our country and push God from government, military leadership is doing the same. At one time the motto was “For God and Country” and now it’s evolved into “for gods and country.” The almighty Cross of Jesus shares equality with the symbols from Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism, religions that either reject Jesus as Messiah, worship no God at all, worship false gods or for some millions of false gods. But this is what happens when relativism and liberalism reigns and permeates an organization. In Isaiah 45:12, God speaks powerfully and says “I made earth and created man on it.” He also said “turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:22). I pray you can see the destructive journey our military and nation face if we don’t turn back to God who has created us and seeks to save us through His Son’s spilt blood.

Our Conscience Bears Witness

Have you ever wondered by what standard non-believers will be judged? In Romans 2:12-16, Paul clearly states that no one will ever be judged by a standard that has not been made known to them. “For there is no partiality with God” (Romans 2:11) and because God is completely impartial the standards for judgment are fair and just. Paul introduces the law because it reveals what sin is and it shows we know what is sin; it’s also how we know we have fallen short of God’s perfect glorious standard. Paul would go on a say to the Romans that “no one will be justified (declared not-guilty of their sin) in God’s sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law” (Romans 3:20). But what about those who don’t know the law? What about those who have never been exposed to the gospel or the law? The answer lies within a person, something called the inner law, the law written in their hearts. No matter where I serve or who I encounter, one powerful truth guides my conversations; every person has been created in God’s image. This foundational truth helps me understand that God has written His law on the hearts of every human being He has created. Each person is accountability to God for the knowledge they have been given and this is why there is no one walking this earth from the streets of Charlotte to the jungles of Africa, whose “conscience is not bearing witness” to God’s inner law.

Since we are created in the image of God we are without excuse, to include the hidden areas of our lives. Whether its sinful actions or immoral thoughts “God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ” (Romans 2:16). God has entrusted judgment to His Son, His judgment will be completely just and based upon the inner knowledge God has placed inside each man. Thus when I see the constant grumbling of atheist and homosexual/transgender groups for equality and individual freedom I know this goes completely against God’s inner law and they stand in defiance of His holy standards.

For the born again believer, judgment has been dismissed by the atoning blood of Jesus. They have been justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that is found in Christ Jesus. Our hearts should be filled with gratitude that we have found refuge in Christ from His judgment and coming wrath. 

Inescapable Judgment

The world is void of truth, yet the majority of people draw from its empty well. They turn to worldly education, daily talk shows, their own experiences, religion, and much, much more as their sources for determining truth. The world rejects absolute truth and devises its own standards for truth and integrity, if they believe in truth at all, thus tremendous conflict exists in our world. The foundational problem is that Christians find truth in one person, Jesus Christ (the living Word) (John 14:6) and the world does not. What Paul is saying to the Jews and the Gentile moralists (Romans 2:1-5) in Rome is that the judgment of God is always right and yours is not.  He is also clearly stating in Romans 2:1 that there is no one moral and ethical enough apart from Christ and finally, he is saying that God’s judgment is inescapable and because of God’s general revelation they are also without excuse. The only way to escape judgment is to repent and receive the finished work of Jesus. For Christians we are to never condemn a person or judge anyone based upon a standard from God’s word that we ourselves are falling short of. Christians have no right to condemn a person’s sin while not acknowledging their own sinful short comings. However the context of Romans 2:1-4 is the delusion of comparison judgment and self-righteousness, while being overly critical of others. Paul stated in Romans 2:2 “but we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.” We are not to measure ourselves against anyone; we are to measure by God’s truth.

Our standard for righteousness must be based upon God’s word and His Son Jesus Christ. For Christians it’s non-negotiable, our lives must be guided by His Word. There is nothing more sobering for a Christian and non-Christian alike, than to expose themselves to God’s standards for judgment. For the Christian, it humbles him or her and brings to light their need for God’s amazing grace. For the non-Christian, it brings them face-to-face with a holy God and standards they will never be able to obtain. In fact, this is exactly what Paul encourages people to do, to come before God’s truth and His righteousness.

When our eyes are focused on the purity and perfection of Christ, we look into a mirror and see our need to be cleansed. Jesus said that “blessed are the pure in spirit” (Matthew 5:3). Those who see themselves broken and destitute before God have expressed godly repentance and are able to live lives that are pleasing to God because of the gratitude for the inconceivable mercy they have received through the gospel.

To function on the frontlines of a spiritual battlefield, Christians must strip off their self-righteousness and embrace the truth by which God will judge the world.

Tremble at Sinful Thoughts

Puritan pastor and theologian Thomas Watson wrote "O how much contemplative wickedness is in the world!" He wrote this in 1681, so you can imagine the increase of wicked thoughts with the modern technology and television shows of our day. Thomas wrote "we startle at gross sin, but we are not troubled so much for sinful thoughts." For Christians, their thoughts are what God judges. Do not be deceived, if you don't tremble at your thought life before a holy God, then you don't understand your need for His daily grace. Nor do you understand that you have been saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8). Before we ever act it out, sin has already been birthed and lived out in our thoughts. Paul addressed this reality in his letter to the Romans when he wrote "but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no plans to satisfy the fleshly desires" (Romans 13:14). Paul essentially says we have two choices, Jesus Christ or our sinful nature. But how is a believer to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ?" 

The context of this verse is to never assume we just remain in Christ without a daily, moment by moment relationship, where our thoughts are continually upon Him. No, we are to lay hold of Him and live under Christ as our Lord. Neglecting God's word, refraining from prayer, and living for ourselves will remove Christ and distance us from His presence and grace. The result is gratifying the flesh and our self-centered nature. Whenever the word "flesh" is used in scripture it refers to our old enslavement to sin and the corrupt world system. We desperately must continue to be transformed and sanctified by the Holy Spirit and God's word. Separation for a day, week, month, or years greatly cripples a relationship which affects our thought life. The prophet Micah stated that men first devise sin, then act it (Micah 2:1, 2). So what occurs with separation, the heart and thoughts of men "make plans to satisfy the fleshly desires."

So here is Paul's intent as he wrote Romans 13:14, without putting on Christ, believers will be dragged back into sin and given over to temptation. Then provision follows, meaning "forethought." Believers begin to plan their sin in their thoughts. The remedy is to make sin undesirable and inconvenient in our thoughts, so that its never birthed and then carried out, which is only done by putting on Christ.

Put on Christ daily and abide in Him while your thoughts become more holy and honoring to God.

God in the Flesh - Unimaginable Love and Mystery

Holy scripture says that "He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world...by that Man whom He has ordained." Who will this judge be? No other than Jesus Himself (John 5:22, Acts 17:31, etc...). To believe Jesus to be anything less than His full deity is blasphemy and will ultimately condemn a person to hell. This sounds harsh, but it's also reality. In Isaiah 9:6, roughly 750 years before the birth of Jesus, the prophet foretells the coming of  "a Child and Son" who would be born and given to the world. The prophet states that "government will be upon His shoulders and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." 

The Messiah would come and come He did, however this would be a two phase operation with a first coming and a second coming. Phase one is complete or "finished" to borrow the words of Jesus as He hung on the cross, but phase two is coming soon, we just don't know when. The titles spoken of by Isaiah identify a Messiah who would be more than simply a mortal man, this Man would be something greater and remains a mystery that is hard to understand. This "Mighty God" would possess both divine and human characteristics. This man would be completely holy and perfect, He would be without accusation and beyond temptation, and yet He would experience everything we would on this fallen planet. This Man would be able to "sympathize with our weakness " (Hebrews 4:15). This man would be born through the virgin Mary and be known as Immanuel, meaning God with Us. Yes, this is Jesus, the King of Kings. Jesus would fulfill what no human could ever fulfill and do what we could never do, become a perfect sacrifice. As the Prince of Peace, Jesus would teach the world  the way to peace with God and then promised to empower us to live lives of peace.

Isaiah foretold of one of the most important events in history, the coming of the Word, God incarnate, God coming to earth. If anyone wonders what God is like, look no further than His Son. While Jesus Christ was completely human, He fully revealed the Father. The apostle John carefully wrote John 1:1 with one intention, to identify Jesus as fully God, not just fully human. The Word and God share the same essence, therefore whatever is true about God, is true of the Word (Jesus).

In summary, before time ever began on earth, Jesus Christ existed. Jesus (the Word) and God were together and they were the same being. Jesus and God were distinct, yet they shared the same nature and attributes.
These amazing facts transform the way believers view life, because we understand life is found in a person who walked this earth and dwelt among us, the Godman who came to save the people of this earth from the debilitating sin that has infected every human since that day.

Love and life are found when our souls acknowledge the Wonderful Counselor for who He was, who He is. and who He will be when He returns. 

Athens 2014: A Postmodern America Will Fall

Thousands of years have passed since Paul walked into Athens, but America remains very much the same. Just like first century Athens, moral absolutes are rejected in favor of relativism, pluralism, hundreds of gods, and the enlightenment and education a person can obtain. Paul walked into Athens with the truth, he walked into Athens having met the Truth, and Paul was intent on sharing that Truth. What Paul saw in Athens was a city “given over to idols” (Acts 17:16). When we walk around America we also see a country and people “given over to idols.” These idols manifest themselves as career advancement, materialism, accomplishments, self gratification, food, even family. However, leave no doubt, these idols are no different than the wooden or stone idols Paul encountered in his day. 

What did Paul decide to do? Did he just walk around hoping they would notice his lifestyle? No. Paul decided to engage them with the gospel. Paul “reasoned in the synagogue and in the marketplace daily” with all those who would listen. It was in the streets where Paul encountered the Epicureans and the Stoics who referred to him as a babbler (Acts 17:18). Undeterred, Paul preached Christ and His resurrection and the philosophers were so captivated they ushered Paul to the Areopagus to hear “these strange things” he was speaking about. They weren’t interested in learning about Jesus, they wanted to know more about this new belief they were unfamiliar with in hopes of gaining more knowledge.

But Paul “stood in their midst” undeterred because he was there to proclaim to them the “unknown God” that was written on an altar nearby. Of interest is that Paul evangelized them from the beginning of creation and not from the Old Testament as he did with the Jews.

The application for us is that God has revealed Himself to all men in every nation through His creation and “He is not far from anyone” (Acts 17:27). No matter if a person identifies themselves as an atheist, an agnostic, a Buddhist, a Hindu, or something else, God has revealed Himself to their conscience and they are without excuse. Now we must encourage them to acknowledge their sin and repent because “God will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained” (Acts 17:31).

Real love is always concerned about the soul of man, thus we must remain undeterred and unashamed of the gospel no matter where we are called to live and serve (Romans 1:16).