|
Library
The Christian and the World (Part 2)By John W. Ritenbaugh
|
I think that there is no doubt in our minds that the Worldwide Church of God as a corporate body has gone back to what most of us were converted from, i.e. this world's Christianity. Now many individual members, including deacons and deaconesses have gone back to worldly churches. I know one lady, a deaconess, who went back to the Baptist Church, and another one went to a very large Protestant church in her area. I know of at least one local church elder who is now preaching I believe for the Methodist church after leaving the fellowship of the Worldwide Church of God. I know of one entire congregation that dropped its affiliation with the Worldwide Church of God and joined with The Disciples of Christ.
Now I think that this raises a question that is important for us at this time, and that is, Do these people see something that we don't see? Are we missing out on something? Are those people in the Protestant and Catholic churches just as much a son of God as we are? Are those churches therefore truly Christian, so that fellowshipping with them would be approved by God? Are we being too hard and critical in our judgment of them by calling them deceived, sincere but unconverted, pagan, or false?
Now that there are some very fine people in those churches is beyond question. Their character may even put ours to shame in some cases. In many cases they are moral and law abiding and religious. They openly and unashamedly testify or witness for Jesus Christ. They give themselves sacrificially in service to the community in working in behalf of various charities, and again in many cases they are wonderful neighbors to be in your community. In short, many of them are people to be admired, and in light of what has happened in the past ten years, this may make one think that they are on the wrong track, especially when it might be viewed in light of the fact that there are so many of them, compared to us, -- those of us who consider that we're part of the true church. There are so many of them that it might be overwhelming, and if the majority is right, then we are truly clearly wrong. So we're going to examine this issue again, and we're going to be refreshed in our understanding of principles that must be considered, or we might very well emotionally be carried away by the surface opinions that are readily available. Now in order to keep this narrow, I'm only going to touch on one broad principle, and then two narrower applications that pertain to this issue. We're going to begin in a familiar scripture back in 1st John 2, and verse 15 where it says:
I John 2:15 - Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passes away, and the lust thereof; but he that does the will of God abides forever.
Back in verse 15, that phrase, "Love not the world," should more accurately read "Stop loving the world." This is an admonition, actually a commandment, against an action that was already in progress. It was ongoing when John was writing this back in the first century, and "love" here is being used in the sense of "love for a thing," not a person. It's taking delight in something like an automobile, or clothing, or jewelry, or a house. Here it is "Love not the world." "Stop loving this thing." This word does not carry the sense of affection that one would show with, let's say a kiss, like the word philea. It more indicates the use of the will. Now in 2nd Peter we're going to review this, and I'm going to be reading some verses out of a modern translation. In this case it's going to be the Phillips Translation. In 2nd Peter 2 and in verse 20 all of this is going to be in reference to the world and in reference to 1st John 2, verses 15 through 17. I want you to think of these verses in reference to that, and in reference to the direction that the Worldwide Church of God has gone. In many cases people we knew and fellowshipped with in the past have gone back to this, and we're going to be seeing here that the Bible takes a different view altogether than the Worldwide Church of God is taking. So picking this up in 2nd Peter and reading from the Philips Translation, verses 20 through 22.
II Peter 2:20-22 - If men have escaped . . .
Notice this wording. Doesn't that sound as though somebody was being held captive within, like they were in a concentration camp or something, and they escaped it?
V20 - If men have escaped from the world's contaminations through knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then have become entangled . . .
Interesting word usage there. It sounds like these people are being caught in a spider web.
V20 - . . . and then become entangled and defeated all over again . . .
It sounds like a war.
V20 - . . . their last position is far worse than their first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of goodness at all, rather than after knowing it, turn their backs on the sacred commandments given to them. Alas for them! The old proverb has come true about the dog returning to his vomit, and the sow that has been washed, going back to wallow in the muck.
Now people in the first century were loving the world and going back to the world. We've seen here that this word love indicates a use of the will, and it wasn't merely weakness. There was a conscious setting of the mind to do what they were doing. Now they were backsliding, so I think that we can say that "there is nothing new under the sun." I don't believe that those people who left the Worldwide Church of God, most especially that whole congregation that left and went with The Disciples of Christ, . . . I don't think that there was any doubt that there was a setting of the will. They knew what they were doing, and they chose to do that, to get themselves tangled up, to be defeated once again, and to become a slave, as it were.
Now in the last sermon we saw that Demas, a close associate of Paul, had abandoned Christ in favor of the world. Now that ought to instruct us to show that association with strong people does not necessarily hold a person from choosing to go back to the world, -- using their will, using their brain, using their mind, and choosing deliberately to go back to the world.
I read these verses, . . . (and we're going to continue on this theme for a little while) . . . because I want us to see that God Himself makes a very clear distinction between Himself, His children, His church, His way, His commandments, His law, His spirit, and His kingdom, and what He calls in His word "the world."
Now here in 1st John, where we just were, . . . and again that's 1st John 2, verses 15 through 17, and Romans 7, [just referring to this] in verses 6 through 9, God commands us to make a choice, and it is implied to "choose life." I'm telling you this because I want us to see that there is a very clear them and us approach in the Bible, so that in the minds of God's children the distinction between the two is not blurred, but that we get a very clear picture, -- that's it's either the world, or God. It's one or the other.
Now in James the 4th chapter. Again I'm going to read this from the Philips Translation, and just verse 4.
James 4:4 - You are like unfaithful wives, flirting with the glamour of this world, and never realizing that to be the world's lover means becoming the enemy of God.
Is that a clear distinction? "You are like unfaithful wives, flirting with the glamour of this world, and never realizing that to be the world's lover means to become the enemy of God."
Anyone who deliberately chooses to be the world's friend is thereby making himself God's enemy.
I think I'll go a little bit here, a little bit further.
V3 - Do you think that what the scriptures have to say about this is a mere formality? Or do you imagine that this spirit of passionate jealousy [of God] is the spirit He has caused to live in us? No. He gives us grace potent enough to meet this, and every other evil spirit, and if we are humble enough to receive it . . .
I think I'll stop there, because then he goes on to a little bit more.
Okay. Let's look at another scripture on this to see that there is a very clear distinction, and this time we're going back to Romans the 12th chapter, and verses 1 and 2.
Romans 12.1-2- With eyes wide open to mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give Him your bodies as a living sacrifice consecrated to Him and acceptable by Him, don't let this world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within so that you may prove and practice that the plan of God for you is good and meets all of His demands and moves toward the goal of true maturity.
Now one more from the Philips Translation. This time in the book of Ephesians, chapter 2. We're going to read verses 1 through 3, and verses 11 through 13.
Ephesians 2:1-3 - To you, who were spiritually dead all the time that you drifted along with the stream of this world's ideas of living and obeyed its unseen ruler who is still operating in those who do not respond to the truth of God, to you Christ has given life. We all lived like that in the past and followed the impulses and imaginations of our evil nature, being in fact under the wrath of God by nature like everyone else.
V11-13 - Do not lose sight of the fact that you were born Gentiles, known by those whose bodies were circumcised as the uncircumcised. You were without Christ. You were utter strangers to God's chosen community Israel, and you had no knowledge of or right to the promise agreements. You had nothing to look forward to, and no God to whom you could turn. But now, through the blood of Christ, . . . (you were once outside the pale) . . . are with us inside the circle of God's love in Christ Jesus.
There is a very clear them and us in the mind of God regarding which is the true way and which is not. Now there are, brethren, in the physical sense, spiritual Gentiles and spiritual Jews. Satan is the adversary, and he too has children, [John 8.44] just like God is a spirit and He has children. Satan is a spirit, and he has children. That word children is used in the sense of showing the characteristics of. And just as assuredly as our children show the characteristics of their mother and father, so in the Bible that word children is used of someone who is showing the characteristic of something. So we have "sons of Belial," and that means these are men who show the characteristics of Belial. So Satan has children as well, and we were his children, as Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 3 shows very clearly that we were operating by that spirit. He held us captive, but we've escaped from that as a result of the work of Jesus Christ.
Now these people, these children of Satan, are by far and away the larger number. We're going to see in this message that two of those characteristics that the children of Satan show are clearly evidenced in his churches. These people to whom Paul was writing in the book of Ephesians had been both literal physically and spiritually Gentiles. But, there are many who are literal Israelites who are at same time spiritual Gentiles, and just like the literal Gentiles, they show the characteristics of their spiritual father Satan, even though they may call themselves Christian. Now I brought this point up because we live in part in the land of Israel where this world's Christianity is quite strong and we have to be very careful, because the spirit of the world keeps trying to draw us back and to get us to deliberately make the choice to go back to the captivity that we escaped from through the work of Jesus Christ. But the important element for right here in these verses, is that before conversion they were without Christ. They were aliens from Israel, and in this case the Israel of God and the covenants, and the world still is in that condition. Those of you who have been in the church for a while might remember how Mr. Armstrong used to emphasize from time to time that the false church stole the name of Jesus Christ. They appropriated Him to their religion &endash; the "hero" you see, of the competitor, . . . they appropriated Him and the concept of grace, . . . and then proceeded to reject the law of God.
Now I want you to flip back in your mind to 1st John 2 and verses 15 through 17, and listen to this comment from The Hastings Dictionary of the Bible regarding the way the word world is used in 1st John 2, in verses 15 through 17. It's kind of revealing. It's not a long comment, but it makes it very clear, because in the context of 1st John 2, world takes on very dark and foreboding shadows, because we are warned there of it in the strongest of terms. Not only were these people going back to the world, but of course this was being written for those people in the future who would be tempted to go back, and so the wording there is very strong.
I John 2:15-17 quoted from Hastings Dictionary of the Bile, Page 978.
"Here the world is not simply the worldly spirit, but the great mass of mankind in deadly hostility to Christ and His teaching. In contrast stand His disciples, His own, which were in the world, chosen out of the world, but not of it, and therefore hated, as He was hated."
Now we discover "why" in the same book of 1st John, but in chapter 5 and verse 19. We find why this hatred is there.
I John 5:19 - And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the wicked one.
And "the whole world," according to Paul in Ephesians 2 is motivated by, driven by, the captive of, that spirit being -- the adversary who hates Jesus Christ with a passion that we can't even begin to imagine; and because he hates Him, and because we're part of His body, he hates us. But he tries to sell himself to us, himself and his way, as though it was really attractive and glamorous and beneficial and good and fulfilling, rewarding.
In Genesis 3, from the very beginning we find evidence of opposition to God. By following Satan's misdirection, Adam and Eve found themselves in opposition to God, and they attempted to hide from Him. However, a critical choice had been made, and according to Romans 5 the same choice has been made by every one of us to join in opposition to God rather than submitting to Him.
Turn with me to Titus 1, and verse 14. I want to pick up this thought before we go back to Genesis 3. Paul's instruction to Titus was this:
Titus 1:14 - Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, . . .
Notice this last phrase.
V14 - . . . that turn from the truth. 15 Unto the pure all things are pure; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving . . .
Take note of that.
V14 - . . . is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. 16 They profess that they know God. . .
A very important statement. These people who profess that they know God are yet also unbelieving, and they have turned from the truth, and the thing that reveals them, according to Paul, is:
V16 - . . . but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
Well that is quite a condemnation. Okay. Now reflect back on Genesis 3. What in the world did Satan do there? Satan promoted disbelief of God, and this lies at the root of the difference between us and them. Paul characterizes them as turning from the truth.
Now can a person be a Christian without believing? Can a person be a Christian, picking and choosing what to believe and what not to believe? Satan has deceived the whole world, and he deceives by subtly promoting disbelief of God's word. It is so simple. And there it is. It is contained right at the very beginning of the Book, and I know that many of us groaned maybe every time that Herbert Armstrong turned back to Genesis 3. But he was trying to get back to this very simple beginning to help us understand a principle that can be a foundation for great understanding and insight. Now let's go back there, because God clearly shows what delineates His people from the world. What Adam and Eve did was laid the foundation of the world, and so the world as we now see it, with all its cultures, all of its political, educational, economic, business and religious system, grew, or was built following the same general pattern of disbelief in what God said. The same general pattern of good and evil. Some from God, some from Satan. Okay now. Let's follow the pattern.
Genesis 3:1 - Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman. Yes, has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Do you see what he's doing? He's subtly getting her to question the simple truth that God told.
V2 - And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die.
A bold-faced lie by this time. First he raises doubt, and then he tells a very clear lie. At least it's clear to us.
V5 - For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Partly true, and partly false. So we see a pattern developing here. God gave clear instruction. Simple instruction to Adam and Eve. Satan entered the scene, and he deceived them into disbelieving, distrusting God's simple clear directions. Okay now. Verse 6.
V6 - And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Disobedience followed right on the heels.
V7 - And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.
A different perspective enters.
V7 - And they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Now this is kind of interesting, because immediately after sin, and the knowledge of what they had done begins to enter, they immediately begin to make do. Adapt things. Now this is illustrated by them making clothing for themselves. Remember that quality of clothing is later used in the Bible as a symbol of the quality of righteousness; and them making do is showing you and me that going in the direction they were going they were creating their own standards of righteousness. And then, to add insult to injury, they hid from God when they knew He was about. Verse 8.
V8 - And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
Now remember, Jesus later said . . . [and this was Jesus here] . . . "I am truth." They hid themselves from truth; and all the while they were making do. What we're looking at here are the world's major spiritual, moral, and ethical characteristics.
Now turn with me back to John the 8th chapter, and in verse 41.
John 8:41 - You do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
They professed that they know Him. But Jesus just told them that they did the deeds of their father. Now we know what verse 44 says, but let's drop down to verse 54.
V54 - Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing; it is my Father that honors me; of whom you say, that he is your God: 55 Yet you have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep His sayings.
And that's what separated Jesus from them. He truly did show the characteristics of God, and He did it by keeping God's sayings. He did not turn away from truth. He did not hide himself. He was right up front. They did everything that Adam and Eve did in the garden, and all the while they were proclaiming to the world that they were sons of God. And so we can see very clearly where Paul got that teaching there in Titus 1. They professed that they know Him, (and he was even speaking of the Jews right in the context there), . . . but in works they deny Him, being abominable.
Okay. Do you see that the difference between the world and the church is beginning to show very clearly? The body of Christ will do what Christ did. They will follow the sayings, the truth of the Father. So the conduct of people reveals whether or not they are really Christian despite what they claim with their mouth. Now if one knows what to look for, then you can pretty well tell whether or not those churches are Christian.
There are two characteristics of this major principle. The major principle, the one that I said was very broad is: They simply do not believe God. I don't know how I can make it any plainer. They simply do not believe Him. Okay now. From this we're going to branch off into two characteristics, two applications of that. The first one we've already gone into it a bit. That one is: In works they will deny Him. Because they don't believe Him, then they will be disobedient. Okay. The second of those two is shown to us in Genesis 11. Before we even get out of the first eleven chapters where God is laying foundations, we find the second characteristic that grows out of the major one, and that major one is that they simply do not believe.
Genesis 11:1-4 - And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
V9 - Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
Okay now. Here is a microcosm of how the world, as it was established by men in opposition to God, came to be the way it is. This chapter is inserted so that we will understand clearly that the world is in confusion. Not only is it disobedient, but to add calamity to things, it is also in confusion. When disbelief enters, disobedience and confusion are the fruits. Okay. The world is in disbelief of God, and therefore it is in confusion. Here are two characteristics by which we can judge the questions posed at the beginning of this sermon. Let's briefly apply these two principles to those churches claiming to be Christian, but which we understand as being churches of this world: 1) Do they obey God? and 2) Are they in confusion? Okay. Again I have to lay a little bit of ground here. Let's go to John again, this time in chapter 14 and verse 15. I'm going to read some very familiar scriptures, but they are important to seeing these principles.
John 14:15 - If you love me, keep my commandments.
Now are we going to see whether these people really love Christ? "If you love Me, keep My commandments." This is the way He wants our love for Him expressed. Now remember, the world in works they deny Him. They are disobedient. But if they really loved Christ, they would keep the commandments. Let's go back to 1st John chapter 2 and verses 4 through 6. Let's read verse 3 too. That's a good one.
I John 2:3 - And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 He that says, I know him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
I want you to reflect back to John 8 and the dialogue that took place between Christ and these Jews. This is what Christ kept coming back with. He called these people "sons of Satan," that "he [Satan] was a liar from the beginning," and "the father of liars," and "the father of murderers." And they were showing his characteristics. And when He told them, "Why do you try to kill Me?" they denied that they were trying to kill Him. But before that conversation was over, they picked up rocks to throw at Him.
V4 - He that says, I know him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoso keeps his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. 6 He that says he abides in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
John 8:55 says, "I keep My Father's sayings."
I John 5:3 - For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
Now these are basic scriptures, but they lay a foundation for revealing how far these people fall short of living up to what they say they are. Well let's add to this John 7, and in verse 17, where we pick up a principle here that I think we all know, that we keep the thought going in the right direction.
John 7:17 - If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
See, that would clarify. That would remove the confusion. If a person does the will of God, confusion begins to dissipate, because obedience promotes understanding. Disobedience promotes confusion.
Now I do not care which commandment you choose to explore as to the world's Christian submission to God, but you're going to find them failing, and in many cases they're going to be failing miserably in living up to them.
Now turn with me to Romans the 8th chapter, and verses 5 and 6. We'll go through another thought in here.
Romans 8:5-6 - For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.
Those who are in the world, they mind the things of the world.
V5 - But they that are after the Spirit [they mind] the things of the spirit.
Them and us once again.
V6 - For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Them, and us. Two distinct and clear ways. The word mind means sides with. Now the practical application of what we see here in Romans 8 and verses 5 and 6 is that a person's conduct will reveal his orientation; that is, his conduct will reveal what he sides with, and it will be one or the other. It will either be God, or it will be the world. Whatever it is the person submits to will be revealed by that which he tries to please. Now Jesus added in Matthew 6:24 that no man can serve two masters. That is a universal principle, and the fruit of that principle cannot be hidden forever. It will come out. Our conduct will reveal which master it is that we are serving.
Now just for the sake of exercise we're going to apply these principles to the Sixth Commandment. God has given a clear and simple instruction -- a command. "You shall not kill." For the purest, "You shall do no murder." Now do the world's churches involve themselves in the wars of their home nation? What is war? War is murder on a mass scale. It is murder ordered by somebody else, supposedly in the national interest, and we may not like it, but a person who goes to war becomes a professional "hit man." They become accessories to the fact. They are supporting it. Now does it make any difference whether we break the commandment because some man orders us to do it in the national interest, and we follow through? Doesn't there appear in Acts the 5th chapter and verse 29 that we ought to obey God rather than men? You see, the instruction is clear. To those who love God, He says, You shall do no murder, and you are to obey Me, not some man. Now the way a person goes is going to show, is going to reveal his orientation regarding this. Is the orientation going to be toward the world in obedience to it, in submission to it? Or is a person going to resist following somebody else's instruction and obey God rather than men? Does not each army that goes to war have chaplains who lead the soldiers in prayer before they go into battle? Does not the other side, the enemy, do the same thing? Wouldn't you say that's confusion, added to murder? In World War II we had German Catholics and German Lutherans having their priests and ministers praying before they went into battle against the American Lutherans and American Catholics and the English Catholics and the English Lutherans and the French Catholics and the Canadian Catholics. Isn't that not only murder, b
JWR/smp/
 |
 Printer-Friendly  E-mail this page |
|
| Articles | Bible Q&A | Bible Studies | Booklets | Sermons |
