SEARCH PROGRAMS January 2018 Topics subject to change without notice JAN 7 FROM GOD OR MEN? When some Pharisees questioned Jesus about His authority, He answered by asking whether John s baptism was from God or men. Whether our authority is from God or men matters to our souls. JAN 14 REVIVE US AGAIN Men naturally seem to tire and lose sight of what is important spiritually. Nations become apathetic and immoral. How can we restore in our hearts the fervor of our faith? What can we do to come alive spiritually? JAN 21 RESTORING CHRISTIANITY With so many churches and different kinds of Christians, it is no wonder people are confused about what God desires from us. Is there a way to restore the Christian faith found in the New Testament? JAN 28 WHAT LACK I YET? The rich young ruler wanted eternal life but lacked a necessary quality to please God. Others today lack necessary qualities to please the Lord. While God s grace saves, God expects His people to do His will.
From God or Men? In Search of the Lord's Way Jesus once asked the question whether John s baptism was from God or men. Today, we re asking the same question, from God or men? God s Word in Scripture can help us distinguish right and wrong, what comes from God and what comes from the minds of men. We must understand God and mankind are not equals. God sees and knows a multitude of things that we will never know. We need His wisdom. I am grateful to God for you, our viewers. For the last nine years you ve watched or listened to this program and encouraged me. I m deeply grateful for your prayers. I am especially grateful to my coworkers and volunteers at SEARCH who work tirelessly for the cause of Christ. We pray to our Father for open doors for the Word so that in this coming year we can reach many who are searching for the truth and bless many who follow it! The source of an idea does matter because truth matters. Whether our beliefs come from God or from the imagination of men determines their validity. God tells us the truth, but the devil has told many lies to distract and lead us astray. Men may think they know and yet still be deceived. Many people, sadly, deceive themselves with what they want to believe rather than what they ought to believe. God reveals what we need rather than what we want. His Word reveals that He truly is, rather than what some imagine Him to be. That is, we know what He s really like. One of the reasons that we search the Scriptures is to find the truth that comes from God. We re determined to follow the Lord s way; we want nothing less and nothing more. The Lord Jesus has the words of eternal life. He is the source of every good thing. We want the Lord. Today s reading is from the life of Jesus in the Gospel According to Matthew 21:23-27. When He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority? Jesus said to them, I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men? And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, (Well) If we say, From heaven, He will say to us, Then why did you not believe him? But if we say, From men, we fear the people; for they all regard John as a prophet. And answering Jesus, they said, We do not know. He also said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. The differences between God and man are enormous. God is omniscient; that means He knows everything. But men don t know everything and have assumed much. God has lived throughout all eternity, but man has only existed a short time. God wisely created the world and watched human history from the beginning. He knows everything about everything, and nothing escapes His notice. If we ignore what God told us in the Bible then we re left with myths, legends, assumptions, and opinions. People use the word scholar or science and assume that their reasoning, dating, and theories must be correct, only to find that some scholar or scientist changes our minds just a few years later. God is not like man. He doesn t tease or tempt us with a fabrication. Numbers 23:19 says, God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Isaiah 65:16 calls Him the God of truth, and 2 Timothy 2:15 calls Scripture the word of truth. God declares in Malachi 3:6, "I am the Lord, I do not change." 1/7/2018 From God or Men? 1
In Search of the Lord's Way God doesn t think the way men think. People trust their judgment and often find their judgments are faulty. Proverbs 14:12 says, There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. He may think he is doing the right thing when, in fact, he is opposing what is right and good. Do you recall the Lord s prediction and Peter s response? Matthew 16:21-23 says, From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You. But He (that is, Jesus) turned and said to Peter, Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God s interests, but man s. Though Peter was zealous and loved the Lord, he was actually opposing, in that statement, the will of God. It s easy to pursue our lives and miss God s truth. Jeremiah saw it in his day, and it s true today! Jeremiah 10:23 says, I know, O LORD, that a man s way is not in himself, Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps. God s thoughts and judgments, however, are true and they re dependable. God said, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). Man by his own wisdom will never fully know the Lord. Paul wrote, For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe (1 Corinthians 1:21) Many people assume that the feelings of their hearts are truer than anything else, but the heart can lead us into great trouble. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds (Jeremiah 17:9-10). People frequently lie to themselves and convince themselves that what they want is what is right. The song says, It can t be wrong when it feels so right ; but God may not think that way. Some are so ingrained in their man-made traditions that they assume that these traditions came from God. The Pharisees believed their human traditions even more than they did the written Word of God. They thought following their traditions meant that they were devoted to God, but their human traditions found fault with Jesus when His followers didn t wash their hands according to the tradition. The Lord Jesus, speaking of the Pharisees, said, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men (Matthew 15:8-9). He clearly predicted, Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up (verse 13). Some think if the majority believes it, then millions of people can t be wrong! But God said, You shall not follow the masses in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after a multitude in order to pervert justice (Exodus 23:2). The crowd is not always right. Remember Noah against the whole world. Noah was right but the world was not. Remember Joshua and Caleb, the two spies that came back and said that they should take the land. Then there were the opposing ten cowardly spies and all the weeping Israelites in Numbers 13. Joshua and Caleb stood with God and they did not follow the crowds. The Lord Jesus said, Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it (Matthew 7:13-14). The crowds may think that they re doing well and yet be going the wrong way. This is why we must ask, what does the Lord want from us? Some feel they must please people, so they forget pleasing the Lord. Paul asked, For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to 1/7/2018 From God or Men? 2
In Search of the Lord's Way please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ (Galatians 1:10). Sadly, many of the Jews chose not to follow Christ, because they wanted to please their friends. John 12:42-43 says, Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. They would rather keep their status among the Jews than to enjoy the approval of God. How sad! How mistaken! Zeal for God is important, but not if that zeal arises from misunderstanding. Sincere zeal does not replace God s teaching in the Word of God. The Jews were zealous for their faith but they rejected their Messiah, Jesus Christ. Paul said, For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God s righteousness (Romans 10:2-3). Convictions and zeal in the wrong things will not lead you to the righteousness of God. You must come to Jesus for that. Some folks think following their conscience will lead them to do the right thing, but your conscience may be trained in the ways of the world rather than in the teaching of God. The apostle Paul said, Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day (Acts 23:1). Even when Paul was Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor of the church, he thought he was following his conscience! He said, I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished (Acts 22:4-5). One can conscientiously oppose God and His ways and think he s doing the right thing. Some people follow whatever their family believes, never evaluating whether the family is following the truth. The Lord Jesus said, He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me (Matthew 10:37). You may love your family, but you cannot put them first and still serve the Lord. Though your mother and father were wonderful people, they do not compare with Jesus. Put Jesus first! Just because someone claims to be a prophet doesn t mean he is God s prophet. There were people in Jeremiah s day who claimed that they had a dream or the Lord said this or that, but the Lord never spoke through them. They just dreamed it up in their own imagination. Jeremiah 23:16-18 says, Thus says the LORD of hosts, Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; They speak a vision of their own imagination, Not from the mouth of the LORD. They keep saying to those who despise Me, The LORD has said, You will have peace ; And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, They say, Calamity will not come upon you. But who has stood in the council of the LORD, That he should see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His word and listened? They were dreaming up prophecies rather than really listening to God s true prophets. We have people who claim to be prophets today who dream up calamities and ideas from their own imagination. First John 4:1 says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. We must test everything by the Scriptures. False teachers will always go astray from God s Word. Some people trust the doctrines of men. Second John 9-11 speaks of a false belief about 1/7/2018 From God or Men? 3
In Search of the Lord's Way Jesus that people held in the early church. They did not believe that Christ came in the flesh. John spoke plainly, Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. People who hold false doctrines about Christ have no place with God the Father. You cannot teach a corrupt gospel and not be accursed according to Galatians 1:8-9. You cannot teach a divisive and unscriptural doctrine and stay in fellowship with God according to Romans 16:17. You cannot teach some man-made creed and expect to please God. When you stop believing what Christ teaches or start substituting your own thinking for the Bible, you stop believing in Christ himself. If you support someone who teaches a false doctrine, you are participating in his evil deeds. False teaching is an evil deed because it leads people to believe a lie. False teaching is cruel because believing a human fabrication leaves little room for belief in God. We need the gospel truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. You cannot hold fast to one passage of Scripture and then ignore the others. For instance, we need faith to be saved is clearly taught in Scripture; but to say faith alone saves ignores the need for love, for repentance, and for obedience, which are also necessary to salvation. Paul said, For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God (Acts 20:27). Many today think they can pick and choose what they like and ignore what they dislike. Don t be deceived. We must die to ourselves and to our ways, so that we can live for Christ and His ways. We must lovingly hear His voice and take up our crosses daily to follow Him. The Lord Jesus said, Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice (John 18:37). Ultimately, all spiritual authority resides in Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus said, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). Jesus speaks with final authority. No human council can overrule or edit what He says. They cannot vote Him out or stand in His place. No one has more authority or power than the Lord Jesus. Jesus has spoken in His written Word, and what He says will stand. It ll stand true to the very end of time. Jesus said, Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. (Matthew 24:35). Do you believe in Jesus? Many trust their opinions and experiences above all else, even the revealed will of God in the Bible. They believe if it works, then it must be all right. They forget that what pleases people may not please the Lord. In the end, we are all accountable to Him. Our judgment is often faulty, and our experiences too few to be without flaw; but God s Word is flawless and true. That s why we must listen to God s Word. To become a Christian place your trust in the Lord Jesus and in what He teaches. The gospel of Christ has God s power to save. If Jesus died for your sins, and God raised Him from the dead, you have the hope of salvation. Turn from your sins in repentance and humble your heart before God. Confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God and be baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. When you re baptized, God will wash away your sins and make you His child. When you re baptized God will give you newness of life and add you to His church. Don t let anything keep you from giving yourself to Christ Jesus. Once you become a Christian, stay faithful as long as you live. Make your commitment for life. Since Jesus died for you, why not live for Him and serve Him faithfully to the very end! 1/7/2018 From God or Men? 4
Revive Us Again In Search of the Lord's Way From time to time Christians go through a spiritual slump and they need to be revived. Today, we re saying Revive Us Again! God graciously gives us life, eternal life, and an abundant life. We know this because the Word of God reveals it. We would truly be impoverished without the teaching found in God s Word. What we know about God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit comes from the revealed will of God in the Bible. What we know of creation, of the cross, of the resurrection of Christ comes from the Bible. This is why we turn our hearts to the written Word of God. While becoming a Christian is something that we do once in life, remaining strong in our faith is a lifelong pursuit. From time to time, we all need reawakening to our faith, renewing our love, and reviving our spirit. We are all imperfect and we need the Lord s continued forgiveness and blessing and strength. Psalm 85:6 asks, Will You not Yourself revive us again, That Your people may rejoice in You? We can rejoice in our God when we re revived because we find in Him, once again, the joy of our salvation! Galatians 5:22 places joy right after love as a fruit of the Spirit. Paul urges us, Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! (Philippians 4:4). Nehemiah 8:10 reminds us that, the joy of the LORD is your strength. David had sinned by committing adultery with Bathsheba and by arranging the death of Uriah. His guilt ate him up inside until he confessed his sin and repented. He wrote, Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You (Psalm 51:12-13). When we renew our joy in our salvation, we want to let everybody know about it! Our reading today comes from the words of Jesus in the Book of Revelation 2:1-7. To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name s sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God. This was Jesus speaking very powerful words to the church at Ephesus in the later part of the first century. Just like the Christians at Ephesus, some today have left their first love. Some today have stopped meeting regularly with the church, stopped studying their Bibles, stopped praying to God, and stopped serving the Lord. Some attend worship but rarely get involved in the work of the church. The New Testament speaks about a disciple named Demas; Colossians and Philemon mention him and call him a fellowlaborer with Paul. Second Timothy 4:10 says, for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Demas needed reviving! What is revival? First, revival begins with remembering. Many have forgotten what it was like when they were lost and outside of God s care. They forgot the darkness, the emptiness, 1/14/2018 Revive Us Again 1
In Search of the Lord's Way and the life without the promise of God. Others have forgotten what it was like when they were first saved. Remember when you became a Christian, when you came up from the waters of baptism clean and pure. Remember your joy in Christ and your zeal. Colossians 1:13-14 reminds us, For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. The Lord Jesus told the church at Ephesus, Therefore remember from where you have fallen (Revelation 2:5). When Christians leave the Lord, sadly, they leave God s blessing behind. This is why worshiping regularly is so vital and important. It reminds us of the most important things to our souls. The Lord s Supper is a memorial of the sacrifice of Jesus body and blood. First Corinthians 11:23-26 says, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord s death until He comes. We must never quit taking communion, or stop singing, or stop praying, or stop studying God s Word, lest we forget what the Lord Jesus has done for us. Second, revival follows repentance. We start repenting when we become Christians, but we continue repenting throughout our Christian life. As often as we sin, we ought to examine ourselves and repent of that sin. The Lord told the church in Ephesus, repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent (Revelation 2:5). This church had existed for decades and had some mature Christians who still needed to change their hearts and ways. The Lord knew people would sometimes stray from their commitment, but He made a promise to Solomon that He would relent from sending calamity on the people if they would humble themselves and repent. The Lord said to Solomon, and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14). Proud and arrogant people will hardly repent. Proud and arrogant people do not seek the face of the Lord. They do not look to Him for help or for blessing. Only people who realize how much they need the Lord will humble themselves and seek His face. When God s people seek the Lord and turn from their wicked ways, God takes notice and hears their prayers for forgiveness. He does more than forgive; He heals their land. He blesses them and provides for their needs. He restores them. Many wonder why they are so unhappy. Could it be that the guilt of their sin has spoiled their lives? Ezra helped to revive Israel and to heal Israel to God. For seventy years the people had been in captivity to Babylon. By God s grace, Ezra led a group back to Israel to begin living as God s people after the Babylonian captivity. Ezra 7:10 says, For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel. When you study God s Word, you learn what is right and wrong. Once Ezra taught the people God s law, the people found that they had sinned by intermarrying with the idolatrous nations that were around them. As you read the book of Ezra, chapters 9 and 10, you learn how seriously Ezra took sin and how sincere he was in leading the people to repentance. Ezra had not sinned himself; he mourned in his heart the sins of the people. Ezra 9:3 says, When I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled some of the hair from my head 1/14/2018 Revive Us Again 2
In Search of the Lord's Way and my beard, and sat down appalled. Verses 5 to 6 say, at the evening offering I arose from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to the LORD my God; and I said, O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens. Ezra 10:1 says, Now while Ezra was praying and making confession, weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God, a very large assembly, men, women and children, gathered to him from Israel; for the people wept bitterly. How long has it been since you wept over your sins? The Israelite men made a covenant that very day to separate from the families they took from the idolatrous nations. Repentance demands that we sacrifice sinful things that we may have loved or held dear. We give up our sins because they are against the ways of God and offend God. We need to be like the people of Ephesus in their early days. When they saw the truth of Jesus Christ, they saw the error of witchcraft and sorcery. Acts 19:18-19 says, Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices (their sins). And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. When you become a Christian, you must leave the sinful world behind. Sometimes Christians grow weary of well doing and they just need encouragement and revival. They need to renew their faith, restore their love, and get busy serving the Lord. We don t know what happened to Timothy, but it seems he began to be timid and fearful and then he faltered in his service to God. Paul wrote to him, For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands (2 Timothy 1:6). We don t know what the gift Timothy possessed was, but he wasn t using it as he ought to. We also recall another minister who wasn t doing his job. Paul wrote, Say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it (Colossians 4:17). Are you fulfilling your ministry? Are you doing what God wants you to do? Third, revival insists that we return to Christ. The Lord Jesus, in Luke 15, tells the story of a young, Jewish man who wanted to live on his own terms and for his own pleasures. He got his father to give him his share of his inheritance early and then he went off to a far country. He wasted his inheritance on reckless and immoral living. It didn t work well for him. Sin never does. A famine came upon that country and he ended up alone, broke, friendless, and ashamed of himself. He decided to come home to his father, but he felt unworthy to be called his father s son. The father graciously welcomed him, embraced him, kissed him, dressed him in the best robe, and celebrated with a feast. The father said, for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found. And they began to celebrate (Luke 15:24). Many have left the church to pursue their own desires. May I ask, How s it working for you? Are you closer to God? Will God hear really your prayers at this point? Are you happy in your soul? Is your family closer to God since you made this decision? John the Baptist came into the world to prepare the way for the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you considered how he would do that? Luke 1:17 says, It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him (that is, Jesus) in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. We live in a selfish, me-first society that separates families. We must turn our hearts back to God and back to the spiritual needs of our families. 1/14/2018 Revive Us Again 3
In Search of the Lord's Way If you leave the Lord, you may lead your children to leave as well. But, if you draw close and stand with the Lord, you will lead others to stand boldly with the Lord as well. If you re spiritually asleep, you need to wake up and look to Jesus who bore the cross for you. If you re complaining, you need to look at the cross and hush. If you ve become apathetic, you need to remember what the Lord sacrificed for you. If you re flirting with sin, you need to look at the cross and remember what sin causes. If you re sluggish in your faith and service to God, you need to look up at the cross and get involved with the Lord and His church! Fourth, revival will lead to renewal. Each day calls us to renew our faith and commitment to Christ. Luke 9:23 calls us to take up our crosses daily. Don t tell me what you did in the past. What are you doing for the Lord today? Romans 12:1-2 says, Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. First Corinthians 15:58 reminds us, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. What we do for the Lord matters. We must remain steadfast in our efforts to do good and to preach the gospel. There is still much to do. Paul urges us, Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith (Galatians 6:9-10). Let s get busy! If all the sleeping folk will wake up, and all the lukewarm folk will fire up, and all the discouraged folk will cheer up, and all the depressed folk will look up, and all the wicked folk will straighten up, and all the lazy folk will get up, and all the immature folk, will grow up, and all the dry bones will shake up, and all the Christian soldiers will stand up, then we can stand strong for God and be revived! What about you? Are you in a spiritual slump? Have you wandered away from the Lord Jesus and become distracted by this world and forgotten your salvation? Are you worshiping regularly at church? Do you read your Bible regularly? How s your prayer life? Are you saying no to sinful behaviors? While we cannot earn our salvation, God expects us to live godly lives that demonstrate our faith and love. I hope you haven t become like the Ephesian Christians who left their first love. When a person wanders away from God, like the prodigal son, he loses more than he thinks. When a person wanders away from God, he loses the grace of God, the ear of God in prayer, and the promise of God for the hereafter. He loses the fellowship of brothers and sisters at church. He loses the joy and the hope found in Christ Jesus. One day lost and alone without God is one day too many. All of us need God in our lives! God is waiting for you; He hasn t moved or left you. You may have left Him. But He wants you to come home. When people sin, they separate themselves from God and His grace. To get back in God s favor, you must place your trust in Jesus Christ; you must repent of your sins; you must confess the Lord Jesus to be the Son of God; and you must be baptized into Christ. Peter told the guilty souls at Pentecost, Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). If you lovingly obey, just as these people did, God will graciously forgive you just as He did them. Why not do just as they have done? Why not obey the Lord today? 1/14/2018 Revive Us Again 4
Restoring Christianity In Search of the Lord s Way When things are broken, we want to fix them. What happens when what is broken is what we believe and practice? God gave us His Words; He gave them to Jesus, who gave those Words to us for all time. His Words contain instructions, encouragements, warnings, and promises. The Lord Jesus said, Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away (Matthew 24:35). They are here once, for all time. Peter echoes that promise, declaring that the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word that was preached to you (1 Peter 1:25). If the Word of God is eternal, then it speaks authoritatively to us today just as it always has. We must listen and follow it. The Lord Jesus is in the saving and the restoring business. He purifies broken and sinful souls. He said, It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:31-32). Jesus walked the earth and He died on the cross, and His goal was the same. He said, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). When people go astray, the Lord, like a shepherd, seeks them so He can save them from the dangers of sin. He also corrects those that are headed in the wrong way and leads them to everlasting life. The Lord grants to all the gift of repentance and reconciliation, which restores a right relationship. The Lord warns and corrects by His Word, the Bible, those who follow false beliefs or practices so that they can leave the error and come to the truth. The concept of restoration is neither impossible nor misguided, for the Lord is in the restoring business. Our scripture reading today comes from the Epistle of Jude, verses 3 and 4. Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. The faith was once for all time delivered to the saints. In fact, John 16:12-13 points out that the Holy Spirit was to guide the apostles into all the truth. Peter makes it clear to us that we have all things that pertain to life and godliness through a knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and virtue (2 Peter 1-3). Faith was once for all time delivered to the saints. The New Testament teaches that Christians are to hold to the traditions, forms, and patterns that were delivered to them by the apostles. These traditions, unlike human traditions, come from God and they reveal what He wills for Christians. Paul praised the Corinthians for following the traditions that he taught them. He said, Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you (1 Corinthians 11:1-2). Paul encouraged the church at Thessalonica to stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us (2 Thessalonians 2:15). These inspired instructions, traditions, gave the early Christians forms or patterns to follow. Whether in the matter of salvation or in worship, they were encouraged to obey from their hearts. Romans 6:17-18 says, But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. When the Romans became obedient from the heart to that form (or pattern) of teaching to which they were committed, 1/21/2018 Restoring Christianity 1
In Search of the Lord s Way God freed them from sin and made them His servants. Again, Paul spoke broadly to Timothy of many things. He said, Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 1:13) To suggest that there are no patterns to follow is to deny what the Lord commands and what faithful Christians did. If the sun, the planets, and the moon in our universe follow a pattern, if every cell in our body has a DNA pattern, and if every leaf on every tree follows a pattern, why would we suppose that the Lord s church has no pattern? The restoration movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in America believed in the need to unite those who follow Christ. They saw the fighting and discord among Christians in the early days of this country and they wanted unity. They wanted to follow the prayer of Jesus where He said, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me (John 17:20-23). There can be no doubt that weak and fallible men have often allowed misguided zeal and wrongheaded attitudes to get in the way of true obedience and unity; but this doesn t mean that we ought to stop following the Lord s teaching. The apostle Peter frequently blundered, but he was serious about his devotion to the Lord and he repented of any evil. He put away his blunders and continued serving faithfully. Peter knew false teaching would come along, that untaught and unstable men would distort the truth. So he said, You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:17-18). Unity comes from the things that unify. Before Jesus prayed for unity, he prayed that His disciples would be sanctified (that is, set apart) in the truth (John 17:17). The idea that people should discard the Lord s teaching about salvation and the church in order to be united with others who believe differently will never bring the kind of unity for which Jesus prayed. Instead, it settles for a union with error. Instead of teaching one faith and one gospel, compromise corrupts the church and the truth by blending it with modern culture. To hold to the truth, we cannot compromise but must separate from those who are in error. Someone has correctly said, It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error. It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals than falsehood that comforts and then kills. It is not love and it is not friendship if we fail to declare the whole counsel of God. It is better to be hated for telling the truth than to be loved for telling a lie. Though we live in a time that demands political correctness, God expects us to be obedient to His Word. God s Word says, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2). Restoring is not the same as reforming. Reforming suggests a makeover that improves the existing system. Restoring, however, suggests the idea of bringing something back to an earlier and better condition. Much of what passes for Christianity today has little likeness to the ideals that are found in the New Testament that Jesus expected of the church in all ages. Some churches have become social organizations; and others have become enterprises, while still others have become an entertainment venue. Many churches have forgotten the way of the 1/21/2018 Restoring Christianity 2
In Search of the Lord s Way Lord and they have pursued whatever culture dictates. Some have so divorced themselves from the truth found in Scripture, found in the Bible, that they believe almost anything. I can understand why many find religion distasteful these days. When we suggest a need for restoring the church, we re saying something is wrong and needs to be corrected. The restoration principle points to the inspired and desired will of God for all congregations, found in the teaching of the New Testament. Even when the New Testament honestly criticizes a congregation, one can learn from the criticism what God does not approve. God speaks to real life and real problems in the New Testament in order that Christians and congregations in later days may not repeat the same mistake. Jesus walks among His churches and will judge them on the last day by His teaching. His Word is that teaching (John 12:48). Since the Word of the Lord is authoritative to the very last day, the same standard will be applied to all. He doesn t have one Bible for one group and a different Bible for other groups. God expects those who follow Him in every age to do His will, not to invent their own churches. When a group strays from the Scriptures, especially the New Testament, and establishes their own religious group that is unlike what you read about, and they do it after their own desires, they re not following the will of God. Religious people can easily assume that their practices are biblical, when they re not. Jack Lewis noted in his book Basic Beliefs, that, Every generation will either be driven by cultural pressures or directed by God's word. It does no good to be admired by our culture only to be rejected by God. What should a church do if it strays from the will of God? The answer is simple repent! That is what Jesus said to the seven churches of Asia when they got away from it. Repentance is a turning away from the worldly, the evil, and the human, and turning toward the way of the Lord. Some sins are moral matters; but others are doctrinal, that is, what men teach. To be restored, people should turn away from doctrinal error to the will of God. Restoration takes place when people repent, and this is necessary to please God. To argue against restoration is to argue against repentance. No one can remain in error and still please God. In the early church, false teachers said that Jesus didn t come in the flesh. John said, Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son (2 John 9-11). God expects us to give up false teaching and abide in the teaching of Christ in order to have God. These false teachers were lying about Jesus and guilty of evil deeds. What do you do when you find out that you ve been deceived, or are in error? You correct the situation. You abandon the false doctrine or the false practice and you come back to God s will and God s way of doing things. This is what one does to restore his relationship with God he repents. Jack Lewis, remarked, Almost every religious revival that has taken place in the history of the church (and in Israel's history too) has been sparked by a return to the basic fundamentals of God's Word. We must never lose sight of the fact that the power behind significant religious change is the living, active Word of God (Hebrews 4:12). Not dynamic preachers, not charismatic leaders, not cleverly written books, not new evangelistic gimmicks, not community-changing service projects. No, the power of the Word, that is in the Word of God resets wandering priorities, puts to death consumer-driven passions, and it recalibrates our values to God's eternal standards. King Hezekiah led Judah to repent of evil. Hezekiah followed an evil king who led Judah into idolatry. He wanted to bring Israel back to the way of God. He did right in the sight of the 1/21/2018 Restoring Christianity 3
In Search of the Lord s Way LORD, according to all that his father David had done. He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan. He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. For he clung to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses. And the LORD was with him; wherever he went he prospered (2 Kings 18:3-7). Likewise, King Josiah led Judah to repent at a later time. Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. Josiah said, great is the wrath of the LORD that burns against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us (2 Kings 22:10-11, 13). Josiah called all Judah together and read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD. The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant (2 Kings 23:2-3). Josiah destroyed everything idolatrous and evil. Josiah s example of repentance restored Judah to God s teaching. If we find that we re in error, let s do the same thing! The Bible is the complete and final authority. Just as a seed will produce only after its own kind, so the seed of God s Word will produce the same Christianity today that it did in the first century (Luke 8:11). The Word of God works today the same way it did when the Lord gave it in the first century. So the work of restoration is actually soul-winning, since it leads a lost soul out of sinful error into God s saving grace. Imagine you re driving and come upon an automobile accident. You find a man there who is injured; his leg is grievously broken. He s in great agony and he s crying for help. So you immediately call 9-1-1, and an Emergency Medical Team arrives soon. The man tells the technician, Give me something to deaden the pain! Just knock me out! Surely, he ll give him something to ease the pain; but he won t stop there. He will also set the leg so that it can heal. If the leg is not set back into place, the man s leg will not heal. That may require surgery. The problem must be corrected if the man is to be whole and healthy. As the great physician, Jesus brings healing to our lives by correcting the morally broken doctrinal places in our lives and in our churches. He eases the pain through forgiveness, but corrects the life through repentance. Repentance means getting our hearts and lives right. God s gracious forgiveness is abundant, but it works with repentance, not apart from it. It takes both grace and repentance for people to transform and to be like Christ. Becoming a Christian includes both our salvation and our commitment to follow Christ and be united with Him. Being united with Christ takes place when we follow that form of the death, burial, and resurrection. When we have repented and confessed our faith in Christ Jesus, we need to be baptized. Romans 6:4-7 says, Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. When we re baptized into Christ, we re united with Him in His death and resurrection. It s at that time God washes away our sins and makes us His child. Don t wait to be united with Christ! 1/21/2018 Restoring Christianity 4
What Lack I Yet? In Search of the Lord s Way Many years ago, a young man asked, What am I still lacking? We may all lack some basic spiritual convictions or skills that we need to grow. The inspired Word of God is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. God is able to take a man where He finds him and then transform his life into the likeness of Jesus Christ. The Bible provides us with everything we need to know about life and godliness. It helps us make the most of this life and then opens the door to eternal life. There simply is no greater treasure than the Word of God. We are all in a state of development. We didn t enter this world full-grown, and we enter the church also as babes in Christ. It takes time to mature, and we all lack some things. We all have room for improvement; God is not finished with us yet. Paul said, For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6). God has been working in our lives through His Word, answering prayers, providing our needs, and working in ways beyond our understanding. Paul said, Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14). Paul hadn t stopped growing; he wanted to keep developing as a Christian. Our reading today comes from The Gospel According to Matthew 19:16-22. And someone came to Him and said, Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life? And He said to him, Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments. Then he said to Him, Which ones? And Jesus said, You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The young man said to Him, All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking? Jesus said to him, If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me. But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property. This must have broken Jesus heart for this young man to walk away. The rich young ruler seemed to have everything going his way. He had youth and money and power. He had connections and respect. Mark 10:21 says that Jesus looking on this young man loved him. When the young man asked what he still lacked spiritually to have eternal life, the Lord Jesus told him, If you would be perfect, (or complete) go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me (Matthew 19:21). The young man went away sorrowful. He counted his possessions as more important than following the Lord. Let s consider what some are lacking today. First, some lack knowledge of God. I m shocked at the number of people who have never read the Bible from start to finish. I hear many quote a passage here or there but have little idea what the specific book they quote is all about. Many want to speak out about this or that, but few want to listen to God. Hebrews 2:1-3 says, For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the 1/28/2018 What Lack I Yet? 1