For God So Loved The World

None is righteous, no, not one;

 no one understands;

no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; 

together they have become worthless;

no one does good,

not even one.”

 "Their throat is an open grave;

they use their tongues to deceive.”

“The venom of asps is under their lips.”

“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

 in their paths are ruin and misery,

 and the way of peace they have not known.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 

Romans 3:10-18

How can those such as these, indeed us all, be made right with God?

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:21-26

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-29

The blood of Jesus cleanses us from ALL sin. 1 John 1:7

Therefore, friend, turn from your sin and believe upon this Christ! He has done it all! Take up your cross and follow him!

For God So loved the World that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life.

John 3:16

And this is eternal life; that they might know You (God the Father), and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.

John 17:3

South African Christianity II : The Issue Is Worship

Prologue

For this post to make sense, dear reader, you have to have read the first part of this discourse, which can be found here. Otherwise, this is going to sound nonsensical and out of place. So, we continue from the aforementioned post.

Why does any of this matter?

By now you might be asking yourself why really does it matter if some people are preaching the prosperity Gospel? I mean honestly, these people have a relationship with God, they live decent lives (in that I mean they are not "immoral"), they speak against sin, they stand for Christ, they say that only in Jesus Christ is salvation found, and generally, they are Christians and we should love them. So what if they preach some creature comforts while they're at it? So what if these ministers drive private jets and all, they are still faithful to Christ, right? Aren't they?

Let's go one further. What about the 'easy believism' crowd? I mean surely, these guys go all out to preach Christ and they genuinely preach Him crucified, the only issue is they don't put such an effort to teach Biblical doctrine and they make people pray prayers and tell them they are saved without seeing any biblical fruit or evidence of faith, and, well, sure a lot of people might be walking around thinking they they are Christians when they are not but hey, its not our job to separate the wheat from the tares, right? Right?

A Story..

To answer the above interlocutors, let me reenact for you an event that happened to one of the sisters in our ministry. Her sibling, a working young black lady, was the first one to believe in Christ in the house. She accepted faith in Christ in one of these prosperity Gospel movements in the black community. As time unfolded, eventually faith came to the whole house, when even our sister received Christ. Indeed, so far we've ourselves a wonderful testimony.

The effects, however, of the prosperity preaching which this family was now subjected to every week were soon to unfold themselves. They were taught principles and things, and as sheep to shepherds, they readily applied them. So what do you get? A couple of weeks ago the sister tells me of a very sad episode that happened between her and her sister. At 1AM in the morning she was counseling her sister, who was teary and angry and bitter towards God, because she had applied the principles she was taught (such as giving large sums of money to a famous preacher's account monthly) but God had not blessed her as He blesses others. She felt God does not love her, and she was completely hopeless.

The very fiber of her sentiments towards her loving Saviour were ransacked. Why? She had no proof she was loved by Him. Think about that. She had no proof that God loved her. How come? Because she is told that if God loves you, He will bless you financially. And this is not just about saying hey, God will take care of your needs, no, this is saying, God will extravagantly make you exceedingly rich, because His favour is upon you.

The Issue is Worship

Now the main reason why these heresies are damnable is, apart from the fact that they are unbiblical, which is enough of a reason itself, is that they negatively affect the way Christians worship God. The Lord Jesus said in John 4:24, "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."It is not worshiping God in truth when you need more proof that He loves you. See what this does, it makes the important things unimportant. How can someone, who believes that Jesus Christ came and paid the debt she would never be able to pay in a million years, need more proof of God's love? Did not God shew His love to us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us? Is Christ not enough? 

Easy believism also contributes to false worship, because, simply, without the true doctrines of God taught to you every week you'll end up nothing but an idolater, worshiping a false view of God. Easy believism doesn't tell you the hard truths of God, you are pulled in, and enticed by eloquent words convincing you that nothing will be required of you but some fickle faith. Repentance is a word you'll never hear. You are told that if you can close your eyes and imagine you're in a conversation with God, somehow that conversation will save you. That is fake. Christ calls us to repentance and faith. The Apostle Paul said this "First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds." Acts26:20. Christ said a man must count the cost if he is to be His disciple (Luke 14).


For His Own Glory did God send His Son (Rom 9,Ezekiel 36:22-24). For he wanted true worshipers, who value things of the Spirit more that any materialistic thing this world has to offer. And that is why the prosperity Gospel, that so enamors our country, and easy believism, are despicable. Even if some people truly do get saved in these movements, it is not an excuse because they do not worship God properly until God takes them out of those movements. If God saves someone he saves him for God. He doesn't save him just to save him from hell, and he certainly doesn't save him to make him rich, but He saves him so he might be reconciled to God, in right relationship, and worshiping Him in spirit and in truth. 

O Lord, let these, Thine Holy words, inspire us and lead us toward Thee:


"and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." II Corinthians 5:15.

South African Christianity : Largely Apostate?

Prologue
 Before we begin our discourse, we have to affirm a great truth: God is indeed working in our land. In this discourse I am not by any means trying at all, indeed to my own destruction, to bring to our attention that the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord has forgotten us. God forbid. The Lord is indeed moving, however even that affirms the problem, for, for God to move there needs be dead and dry bones. Nowhere in church history have people prayed for revival when revival was not needed. In this country, friend, revival is needed direly. But not as much in the taverns as it is needed in most of those gatherings on Sunday morning that are passed off as the meetings of the Church of Jesus Christ.

The Foundation of the Issue

As one who preaches the Gospel primarily on a university campus but also occasionally in the community, there are two things that are ideal when preaching the Gospel to a person. Either you reject Christ completely and starkly and continue in your sin (whatever form it is), or repent, grasp the saving faith granted by a most gracious God. Those two are what seemingly defined the Apostle Paul's ministry. As John MacArthur says it, wherever the Apostle went two things started: a church and a riot. Those for and against. But what bleeds my heart specifically about my country is that there are millions who believe themselves right with God yet are deceived because of either a false Gospel that is so prevailing or post-modern humanistic thinking that challenges not only the inerrancy of the Scriptures but also, more importantly, the sufficiency of it. Let's expand the aforementioned two categories.

The Wolf's Gospel: Prosperity 

When I mentioned false Gospel, I was not referring to cults. No, Jehovah's Witnesses are not the issue here. What's the issue is those men who come from amongst us (2Peter 2, Jude, 1Timothy 6:3-10) and say all the right things that seem to pertain to righteousness but in actual fact they teach exactly what people want to hear (2Timothy 4:3-4). And what do people want to hear? God loves you, and in his love for you, Jesus died so that you would have mansions and cars and the biggest bank account amongst your unbelieving friends. And what this has done to this land is atrocious. It's effects, especially on the black, urbanized community has led to nothing but blasphemies upon blasphemies. The urban community that I grew up in generally believes that God exists in heaven to serve our stomachs. Hence, He's no longer the Sovereign, but the one who responds to sovereign man.

You see, the biggest churches in the townships, the ones that draw the biggest crowds, are those that tell the ever-modernizing young people that God really wants to prosper them in their careers, but what one has to do is give a lot of money to that church, or rather the pastor of that church, and God will bless you. That is the principle, give to these guys, and God will be your debtor. This kind of heresy is not unique, for it stems from the big stage that is America. See, these men copy these things from the big, mega church pastors they see on TBN, and they think its the current Word of God. Ironically, the true preachers of Christ in America you wont see on TBN. John MacArthur, Paul Washer, John Piper, Wayne Grudem, DA Carson, Voddie Baucham, RW Glenn are not common preacher names known in ZA. Why? Because these guys preach Christ as He is in the Scriptures, and since they don't tickle people's ears, TBN won't show you them. Hence, my people in the townships don't have access to them. The men they have access to, Creflo Dollar, TD Jakes, Eddie Long, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn and the like, are stark heretics who cannot even hide their greed, by selling you their sermons at ridiculous prices.

The preaching of this gospel is characterized normally by two things: A blatant taking out of context of verses and a playing of words that always tend to crowd please. Let's take a small example. You'll always hear them say plant a seed and reap a harvest, and that seed is always money, according to them. Problem is, nowhere in the Bible does it talk about money being a seed. Seed can mean various things (eg the Word, Luke 8, and Christ, Galatians 3:16), but money isn't one of them. And they always, more than anything, preach out of context from Old Testament texts. You'll never hear them say Christ said lay up not treasures for yourselves here on earth, but in heaven(Matt 6:19-240. Or, Christ said sell your possessions and give to the poor(Luke 12:32-33). No. Their Christ always says "pressed down shaken together".

(For a much more scholarly correct examination of this heresy, check out:
http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/90-63M/Toxic-Television-A-Biblical-Answer-to-the-Prosperity-Gospel-Part-1)

The scary thing here is, an examination of 2Corithians 11:4 suggests that if anyone preaches another Gospel, then those who receive it receive another spirit. Hence, you get false assurance on the hearers, a false sense of security in God. What I mean by this is, if you look at JW's or mormons, they have a sense of peace, a feeling on them that says they are right with God. Why? Simply because it's another Jesus, with another spirit, received under the preaching of another gospel. The people who sit under the preaching of prosperity also have the exact same experience. The above mentioned verse, especially if read in context, is very scary. Concerned yet?


The Other Side of the Coin: The Smart Man's Gospel

This gospel, on the other hand, isn't so prevalent in the townships. Its more prevalent amidst circles of wealth in this country. This gospel simply says profess belief in Christ and you're saved. Baptism is replaced with an altar call, and the command to repent is replaced with a prayer that is nowhere found in Scripture. This is a different kind of fight. Here, Jesus is declared as Saviour and Lord (instead of the other way round as defined in Scripture), and, the methods used to declare that message are less than biblical. So the fight here is the sufficiency of Scripture. Does the Bible truly tell us what to do in every single situation, and more importantly, how not to do what we must do? Does the Bible truly mean what it says? Or should we just memorize it, know what it says in Greek and then do a Bible study on it, without actually doing what it says, how it says it?

And there are preacher proponents of this side too. Know guys like Rob Bell? The heretic who teaches that there is no hell anymore, because, well, that's not nice of God to do that? Problem is that guys like Rob bell are very influential amongst the intellectuals of my country. They like to reason out a lot, and Bell's reasoning satisfies their itching ears. There are many other such proponents, and their influence of thought and writ are felt even on these shores. You can also call it the Liberal's Gospel. As long as you bringing people to His kingdom, who cares how you do it? Wait, do we really think that the Sovereign God needs us so much that He'd have us break the laws of Christ set out in the New Testament in order to bring in sheep? How can you expect the Spirit to work when you are appealing to men's flesh to bring them to salvation? Does regeneration even matter anymore, or is it all about church memberships? This is not shepherding, its goat herding at best.

(For a much more scholarly correct examination of such, check out:
http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/qna/easybelieve.html )


O Lord, Heal our land!

 Any man who diligently studies his bible knows this simple principle. Commit to the Lord all your endeavors and you will be successful. This means, let the Bible rule everything. In its sufficiency. We need to go back and pray, that God raise us more men of our land like Andrew Murray and Keith Daniel, who would not move from the stepping stones God has placed in His Word for His Church. My biggest fear is that millions in my country die without hearing the true Gospel of Christ. They hear fables and treacheries taught by these fakers who copy fallen-American doctrine, and some reject this gospel because they see right through the greed of these men, and, as a result, hence conclude that Christ is all about making some men rich. Remember when the Lord said to the Pharisees "You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to." - Matt 23?

Oh God, have mercy on our land. Bring back the Gospel with all it's commands. That men would repent and believe in this, the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, and let us be satisfied with it and it alone:

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2Cor 5:21

Our God Begging : Part I

                                                   This is what the LORD says:    

                                            “What fault did your fathers find in me,
                                       that they strayed so far from me?.." - Jeremiah 2:5(NIV)

When you read the Prophets, there is a trend that you pick up and, just like getting used to a beautiful mountain, becomes so familiar that we forget, nay, neglect, its beauty and in doing so forfeit the very encounter of God's heart. The enormity of this is much more a miracle than the very creation of the universe, and at it's heart it's a paradox, for it is more beautiful than Eve's smile yet much sadder than the sound of her cry. The trend is this: God begs His children to come back to His ways, His very heart, and the Father does so repeatedly it breaks my heart just wondering how He bears it.

You would think that the self-sustaining YAHWEH, the Creator without a creator would not have a heartbreak over anything. You would think that He would annihilate or at least choose to forget all those who were His yet denounce His ways by their deeds and prostitute themselves to other gods, who are not gods at all. Indeed I would think His heart is not attached to objects that are not even the most beautiful of His creation. Thing is, you and I are not Him. When choosing a people, this is what He says:

                                 " See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
                                            your walls are ever before me." - Isaiah 49:16

For a reason in my humanity I will never be able to understand He chooses to bind Himself to those He has chosen to love. The above scripture is beyond me. How is it that He takes these people and engraves them on His hands such that He cannot look away from them, and as He says, "Your walls are ever before me", meaning He is constantly compelled to look upon His chosen ones, and since He never sleeps, every move they make is before Him and every time they suffer or rebel He is compelled to watch. No wonder he is constantly in agony of the prostitution of His bride! To understand my meaning, take a cup of coffee and read Ezekiel 16.The love story that will unfold before your eyes will make Jane Austen seem like kiddy tales.

The book of Judges gives us a pattern that shows the true sadness of this. They forsake Him and prostitute themselves to other gods, and He hands them over to their enemies, then they call out to Him, and He saves them. Over and over again. And He continually says stuff like "Come, and let us reason together, though your sins be red as crimson, they shall be like wool." Isaiah 1:18. It's almost as if He's using all leverage He has to get them to look at Him, anything to turn them away from their sin. It's almost as if, dare I say it, He's begging. Imagine.

And then, right in the midst of the complaint, He speaks of a time when they will follow His ways. He says for His own glory, since His Name has been profaned among the nations, His people will be careful in His instruction. As a woman consoles herself after a heartbreak when her beauty is questioned, so does God speak heavily of a time when He will rule from the throne in Jerusalem and on men's hearts. He speaks of a time, the Millenial Kingdom as scholars call it, when every breathing soul will no longer profane His Beauty. Jesus, King of Kings, will come again and end God's begging.

 "For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." - Ezekiel 36:24-27 (NIV)

Arrogance - One of Satans Major Steals

Satan stole the idea of arrogance from the LORD. He never came up with it. The thing drives people to beat their chest because they are so sure of who they are and what they have was never thought up by him. In fact, he's initial sin was that he confused who he was and what he had that he drove himself to ideas of greatness and rule that were false and had absolutely less than a fraction of hope for materializing (Ezekiel 28), so we can't possibly attribute the forming of a  fearlessness and assurance that is unwavering and stable and would cause people to stamp their authority to a being that is confused as Satan.


The original arrogance is the exact same substance that caused a teenage David to run at a 2.7m tall Goliath, that caused a frail, depleting Paul to stand before rulers, or an old Abraham to leave his homeland. In the natural it's called believing. Or faith. Hebrews 11 explains "faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."

The word assurance has more components to it in the English than we give it credit for. Google defines it simply as "freedom from doubt." That's why I personally can't stand pastors of mega churches who go on Larry King and say "well, only God judges the heart, we can't know for sure.." Of course we can know for sure!! Which Bible are you reading?!! By asking a person a simple question, according to Romans 10:9, I can know for sure!


I'm past believing. I KNOW that Jesus is God's only provision for sin. I KNOW that I have an audience with God the Father through all Jesus is.I KNOW that I have eternal life!! I have Kissed the Son, so I've ducked God's wrath (Psalms 2:12). Maybe I should back up a little. I KNOW that God exists! I don't have to prove it anybody! I am SURE!! And I ain't gonna apologize for it! Go ahead. Call me arrogant.

We can't be double-minded about Who and What God is. James 1:6-8. For Jesus to use us we have to be arrogant in Him. When dealing with all religions, which are, according to Biblical language, pagans, we ought to not apologize for claiming that ONLY Jesus will get you heaven. The word "apologetics" does not mean to apologize, it means to defend the faith (Greek "Apologio").  Friends, it only comes down to one thing: Do you believe in what Jesus did for You? With all your mind? Then be arrogant about it.