Relationship with the World (2)

It's a big subject, and I knew I'd stir up more.  I shall give some teaching this Sunday, as it's demonic December and the headlong flight into Xmas.  As a faithful pastor I must warn off any who will listen.  The perennial tragedy of folks on low incomes getting £1,000 or more in debt to "keep up with the neighbours" must be spoken against.  I find it even more distressing when the psychological pressure is put on through kids, because that failure of parental heart exposes - not shields - the next generation.

I heard yesterday of one group of our saints who have bread and soup for Xmas dinner as little reminder that it's absolutely possible to resist all the insanity.

My friend Brian was explaining how his church stages a carol service to invite in fringe people (parents of Sunday school kids, etc).  Then he admitted that his home group disintegrates in apathy, absences and distraction over Xmas, and it takes until mid-January to recover.

I spent a week in Trier, in the German Rhineland, during December many years back.  One afternoon's sight-seeing took in the famous Tierer Dom, the Catholic cathedral of St Peter.  It was bustling with visitors, disorientating with candle-lit side chapels, ornate, gaudy, and tacky, but somehow cordial and inviting.  Then we moved on to the old Protestant cathedral.  It was frigidly austere, with no internal decoration or embellishment (beyond a plain altar).  Stark uniform benches were set out in precise rows.  It boasts, if I correctly recall, the largest unsupported roof-span in Germany.  The only relief was the natural sunlight from the large windows.  The two seemed to embody contradictory world-views, how we sit with respect to our broad context.  I didn't really enjoy either: that was perhaps the significant challenge.

In preparation for this Sunday (we're back on the air with our recordings, again, now) I dug up some quotable stuff from Horatius Bonar.  I also acquainted myself with Augustine's City of God: 1,091 pages of further commendable study.  But we'll stick with Bonar.

Love Not The World — Why?
Because the gain of it is the loss of the soul — Matthew 16:25.
Because its friendship is enmity to God — James 4:4.
Because it did not know Christ — John 1:10; 17:25.
Because it hates Christ — John 7:7; 15:18.
Because the Holy Spirit has forbidden us — 1 John 2:15.
Because Christ did not pray for it — John 17:9.
Because Christ’s people do not belong to it — John 17:16.
Because it will not receive the Spirit — John 14:27.
Because its Prince is Satan — John 13:31; 16:11.
Because Christ’s kingdom is not of it — John 18:36.
Because its wisdom is foolishness — 1 Corinthians 1:20.
Because its wisdom is ignorance — 1 Corinthians 1:21.
Because Christ does not belong to it — John 8:23.
Because it is condemned — 1 Corinthians 11:32.
Because the fashion of it passeth away — 1 Corinthians 7:31 .
Because it slew Christ—James 5:6; Matthew 21:39.
Because it is crucified to us — Galatians 6:14.
Because we are crucified to it — Galatians 6:14.
Because it is the seat of wickedness — 2 Peter 1:4; 1 John 5:19.
Because its God is the evil one — 2 Corinthians 4:4.

LOVE not the world!
What is there here to love?
That which is loveable is not of the earth;
Fix thou thine eyes above.

2. The face of time
Is never in one stay;
The beauty of this fascinating world
Endureth but a day.

3. Of things below
The best is but a lie;
The blossoms of the spring and childhood’s buds
Must fade, and fall, and die.

4. Be not deceived!
Through all this earthly air
A hellish poison pours its deadliness:
The plague of sin is there.

5. And who shall heal
Or disinfect the air?
Who disenchant it of the pleasant spell,
Or break the unseen snare?

6. Be not deceived!
Into each human vein
Sin penetrates, and we with opiates seek
To soothe the subtle pain.

7. It dims the eye;
It dulls the inner ear;
It dazzles, and it darkens, and it blinds,
It worketh pain and fear.

8. It worketh wrath,
And woe, and want, and doom;
It leads us darkly to the second death,
The everlasting tomb.

9. Love not the world,—
Its dreams, its songs, its lies;
They who have followed in its train are not
The true, and good, and wise.

10. The wise and good,
They choose the better part;
To the true world that is to come they give
The true and single heart.

11. Love not the world!
He in whose heart the love
Of vanity has found a place, shuts out
The enduring world above.

12. Love not the world!
However fair it seems;
Who loveth this fond world,- the love of God
Abideth not in him.

13. The heart of thine
For God, thy God was made;
Who love this God of love,- he lives;
Who loveth not, is dead.

14. Though this wide earth,
With all its love and gold,
Were his, yet still he liveth not whose heart
To God is sealed and cold.

15. Seek not the world!
‘Tis a vain show at best;
Bow not before its idol-shrine; in God
Find thou thy joy and rest.

16. A better world
We have who all forsake.
This promised land of holiness and love,
More fair than words can speak.

Horatius Bonar © Public Domain
Last verse: NCCC © 1986 Jesus Fellowship
Songs/CopyCare Ltd.

18 Gospel Truths

I have to say this started with discontent.  I found our Sunday night gospel presentations trite and unimaginative.  You know, a gyration around the predictable, "You’re guilty and Jesus paid the penalty”, having had a bash at some obvious sin.  Come on, it's far bigger than that.  Now I find that there's even a recent Evangelical Alliance magazine article suggesting the church takes up the challenge of this deficit.

So I offer this list to stimulate some more creative preparation for "gospel messages".

1 Death to life.  There's death in our relationships too.
Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. (Romans 6:13)

2 Darkness to light.  Jesus was big on darkness: like blindness, it was a symptom of a hard, corrupt and unbelieving heart.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light  (Ephesians 5:8)

3 Bondage/captivity to deliverance.  Freedom is as full product of salvation as forgiveness is. 
But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:6)

4 Foreigners to citizens.  I particularly like to expand this where you've got asylum seekers in the audience.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household,  (Ephesians 2:19)

5 Despair to hope.  Hope is the Cinderella affect, whether earthly or transcendent/heavenly.
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, (Ephesians 1:18)

6 Curse to blessing.  Can take in self-curse or inner vows.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." (Galatians 3:13)

7 Disobedience to righteousness.  Don't get snagged up in the OT Law: in the NT righteousness is living just like Jesus, "acting right with every person with whom you come into dealings".
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.  (Romans 5:19)

8 Independence to dependence. O this is so basic, from the definition of Adam's (therefore humans') life as "contingent", to the fall of Satan, and the spirit of our age.
It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.  (Romans 9:16)

9 Alienation to friendship.  Alienation, constitutional disfranchising, rejection, marginalisation - all in here.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. (Colossians 1:21)

10 Orphans now adopted.  Jim Packer says adoption is the summit of God's redemptive purpose.   
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." (Romans 8:15)

11 Scattered now gathered people.  Ah, but your group/church/fellowship has to be a gathered people - there can be no fudging this one.
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:10)

12 Defiled now clean.  Andrew Murray writes of this - think of shame, too.
let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:22)

13 Enemies now surrendered.  Not passivity - you bring your weapons and prowess into the service of a new lord. 
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (Romans 5:1)

14 In debt now remitted.  I like this: I have a lot number sticker from Banbury Cattle Market and dramatise an auction. 
having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:14)

15 Condemned now acquitted.  Think of taken-into-accounts as you confess the fullness of your offence.  Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. (Romans 5:18)

16 Captivity to freedom.  God wants us to be creative grown-up sons, not cramped by self-limitations.
because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)

17 Offending to reconciled.  I like offence - even scandal - it overturns today's insipid tolerance.
that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:19)

18 Weak now ruling.  This is in Romans 5:17, too. We're preparing for an amazing new earth ministry.
for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. (1 John 5:4)

Scripture quotes from the New International Version.
You can replay or download our Sunday meetings on http://recordings.crownoflife.org.uk/