Recently one of my ex-professors posted a blog about a church worship leader who at some casual hangout event dropped the f-bomb.  If this wasn’t shocking enough, there was alcohol involved in the incident.  My ex-professor presented a tactful call for holiness, particularly in leadership.  Following the post were literally hundreds of comments calling for the worship leader to step down, or questioning his ability to do anything good or godly with such compromise in his life.

I restrained myself from commenting.  I knew I would not add to the conversation, positively or negatively.

I believe that the fundamental issue was not about behavior modification, or the use of culturally unacceptable words or actions that we associate as sin.

I think we have the whole equation wrong.

The traditional argument has worked like this.  God made man.  Man made himself God.  Man committed sin.  Sin leads to death.  Jesus lived without sin.  Jesus died in the place of sinful man.  Men and women that accepted this mental construct and surrendered their right to rule their life to a list of prescribed behaviors were no longer bound to pay for their sin.

The problem with this theory is that it is puts all the focus on power of sin as the negative force within the equation.  Humanity has spent centuries analyzing behavior to determine what meets a standard of being bad enough to be called sin.  Man also fundamentally defined holiness as the absence of sin.  Thus the pressure to understand what constitutes sin, and how to remove it from our life has been a prominent focus within Christianity.   Furthermore, in periods of great evil, hate, racism, greed, abuse, and murder have been masqueraded as acts of making the community more holy (by removing the source of sin from our midst).

If we journey back to Adam and Eve, it is clear that prior to the moment of consuming fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that humanity had the ability to choose to fundamentally obey or disobey God.   Choice to obey or disobey was not the product of sin.  Rather, we see that the motive in the garden was to “be like God”.  The immediate response to consuming the fruit was that Adam and Eve hid, used their skills to hide what they were ashamed of within themselves, and shifted blame when they were confronted by God later.

Guilt, deception, shame, and the use of the skills and materials from the world around them (clothing made of fig leaves in this case) replaced the security they had known by learning of the world and themselves under the shadow of the love of God.  Their sense of identity forever shifted from listening to God and the world He gave them, to listening to a fearful voice within themselves that spoke of shame, guilt, and the need to control and use the world to hide their insecurity.

I believe that this is sin.  Sin is the state of being that all men and women find themselves in where we are compelled by a voice inside that speaks of fear, guilt, inadequacy, and shame.  We reach out to the world around us, and like Adam and Eve, we make clothing out of wealth, food, possessions, friends, religious posturing, social attainment, and so much more.  Sin was the displacement of God from the defining role of our world and life, not the choice to disobey.

In the centuries since, we have become experts in classifying sin.  We are adept at comparing our normal behaviors and best intentions to the failures of others.  We freely grade others on a scale of our own creation, and assign shame liberally to elevate ourselves above our neighbors.  We freely greet sinners with more shame, and somehow believe this will lead the world to salvation.  We have claimed to run houses of healing, when secretly we carried the sick and wounded out to the shed and put them down for the sake of maintaining the perception of health in the community (or the sick learned to apply makeup and act like they weren’t sick for the sake of being a part of our spiritual community).

If we see sin as a state of being, then acts of sin are merely a reflection of where we have not yet silenced the internal voice of shame.  Redemption is then not primarily about controlling behavior, but is about restoring humanity’s broken sense of identity.

I also believe holiness is not then about the absence of sin.  Rather it is a characteristic unique to God and would be better defined as the fullness of all that is good.  Scripture instructs us to be holy as God is holy.  So either we are asked to chase some attainable goal for the sheer misery of being constantly reminded how sinful we are, or we are being invited to a place of a restored identity, a new state of being.  It is a whimsical kiss to invite us to find new hope and believe there is something more than the constant drone of judgment and shame.

So back to the story of the controversial worship leader:  I think you could debate that our treatment of language and alcohol is more cultural than biblical.  But that is not the argument I think that needs to be made.  I think the most tragic thing was not that young man’s actions but the wave of superiority and the dose of shame that hundreds lined up to add to the judgment of this man.  Not worthy.  Not worthy.  You have not right to worship, to lead, to hear the voice of God, to speak on behalf of God.  Not worthy.  You have not mastered your behaviors yet.  We still see your sin.  Not worthy.

I can only imagine the same shame and judgment rumbling in their own hearts and minds.  The greater tragedy is that many have become so deafened by the voice of spiritual judgment, that they associate it with the voice of God, and believe that in sharing it they are doing the work of God.

We all bear the stain.  We all carry the disease.  We all need to be restored, redeemed, and made holy.  We need the fullness of good, not the absence of bad.  We need love, not guilt disguised as love.  We need security, not shame-motivated self-discipline.  We need the kiss of hope, not the stain of judgment.

Yes, we need holiness.  Oh how we need holiness, but the fullness of good will never be ours by eliminating the bad (as we cannot brighten a room by sucking out the darkness).  We will be made holy as we see Him bit-by-bit and find ourselves surrendering to his voice of love more than our voice of shame.

Our response to sinful acts is just as much a sign of the sickness as the acts themselves.  None of it brings life, hope, or restoration.  We will judge as we have always judged if we are changed/motivated by our internal voice of shame.  We will love differently if we have been changed by His love.

Because we mis-diagnose the source of our calamity, we attempt to treat a shame-fueled behavior with shamed-fueled spiritual judgment and no one is redeemed, no love is fostered, the sting of the our self-judging voice continues to dominate and set the tone for how we see ourselves, our neighbors, and God.

Josh Burton works for his state government supporting the community development and neighborhood revitalization efforts of local nonprofits across his state. He carries a deep-seated belief in God’s capacity to lovingly restore and redeem. Visit his personal blog at: Sacred Salvage

They have lost their view on the life mission given to us by Christ Himself to, “speak out the great message of the cross of Christ.” They have definitely not “pledged their heads to heaven.” Neither have they laid their lives down as true disciples saying, “my life for the gospel.”

The Power to Blush…

They have slipped away from their conviction of sin.  They say things like, “I wasn’t as mature in God as I am now.” But as Isaiah stated, “they have lost the power to blush over their sins.”

Their sight of Jesus is so limited that they are in desperate need for God to repair their view of Him.  For it is only in an accurate view of Jesus that we can have an accurate view of holiness, purity, love, power, God and His Kingdom.

Modern Christians have a greater knowledge of Hollywood than of Christ Himself.  They have set up their home to revolve around a flat screen TV, instead of setting up their lives to revolve around Jesus.  They have a greater sight for themselves than Christ. As Keith Green stated, “It is so hard to see when my eyes are on me.”  The only true and valuable sight is the seeing of Jesus.  Backsliders need their view of Christ restored. All issues in life return to vision, namely, the vision of Jesus.  Not necessarily what He would do, but what He is doing.  It is knowing His heartbeat.  It is an issue of knowing Him, right now.  Not in the past, or recent past, but today.  Do you see Him today? Backslider, regain your sight!  All issues of seeing are summed up in a seeing of Jesus. If there is no seeing of Jesus there simply is no seeing.  No matter the intellect and glory of man, men are blind till they see Jesus.

Looking for Guidance

As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. Luke 18:35-36 ESV emphasis mine

In this blind man’s state, he heard the commotion of Jesus and asked other people what was going on.  The blind backslidden Christian is a person who must look to others for sight.  So many Christians today are looking to a book, a minister, ministry or church to open their eyes.  They look to men for guidance. They cannot see rightly, so they have no other option.  Praise God these people pointed him to Jesus saying, “It is Jesus passing by.”

This blind man wanted his sight back.  He had the sense to notice it is gone.  I pray we would see our deficiency, for we are in a bad way if we lose sight of that.  Look at the heart of this blind man after seeing his deficiency… He cries out to Jesus!  A cry that comes from a revelation of our deficiency will be sincere and deep.  Oh for deep cries that go out to the deep of God!

And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me! vv 38-39

The people around him tried to silence him.  Know this dear reader, if you are blind and backslidden lacking what you once had in God, the whole world is seeking to silence your cry to God.  Worldly satisfactions are trying to bring you to a place of contentment with your blindness.  Lots of Christian things are trying to make you content with blindness and compromise.  Many complacent friends are indirectly seeking to silence your cry.  But you must not listen!  You must, like this blind man, push through and cry out to God for a restoration of what you know is available, the sight of a living Jesus.

And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. vv 40-43

After this blind man pushed through and refused to listen to the silencers, he met Jesus.  He was brought into Christ’s presence and Jesus spoke to him.  This is the only place of restoration, the only place of life; the experience of His presence and the hearing of His voice.  He was then, and only then, healed.  Nothing else will heal you. He received his sight back and he began to follow the Lord.

What do you See?

As he was glorifying God he was made a spectacle to everyone. If we are to be a testimony to the world, it is only as we glorify God with our lives by following Jesus, because we see Him.

Oh reader, do you see Him?

Do you see Him now?

Or are you lost, blind and clueless as to what has happened to you?

Are you wondering how you got to where you are now in life?

Do you look back and say, “Where did I get off?”

Brother, I will tell you where you got off:  you took your eyes off of Jesus and you lost your sight, for just as He is the only seeing, He is the only sustaining of sight.

CRY OUT to Him!

Oh blind one, who cannot see,  my heart breaks for you, as I know the Lord’s does… all out to Him!

If you cannot see like you used to and you have taken your eyes off of Jesus… Cry out to Him!

If in the name of liberty you have opened the door to lesser lovers… Cry out to Him!

If you are not more in love with Him now than ever… Cry out to Him!

If you know you are distant and you know something is between you and God… Call out to Him!

Maybe as you read this, you contrasted your hunger now with your hunger in the past, and have come up sadly lacking… call out to Him! Do not let anything silence you.  He will take you into His presence, speak to you and you will see Him again. At this point and no other can you begin to follow Him rightly.

Reader, look deep within. Are you blind today?  I am not asking you if you know the bible, go to church or profess Christ.  I am asking you… “Have you lost your sight?”

As we continue through Paul’s admonition to walk out our “new life in Christ” in Ephesians 4:17-24 we now come to verse nineteen which reads as follows:

They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

Paul says that they (Gentiles who do not know God) have become calloused (lost sense of feeling and have a seared conscience). This is a very dangerous place to be spiritually. Again, we must remember Paul’s audience: recently converted believers in Christ. So, as I have already stated in part 2 of this article series; we too must take these warnings and admonitions to heart lest we too grow callous to God and his kingdom.

Notice that he says they have “become” callous. Another words, this is a process that takes place over time. This is not an overnight event.

So the question is how do we become calloused?

Well, a big part of the answer is found at the end of verse eighteen. Paul speaks of “hardness of heart.” A hard heart is the springboard to a calloused life. One major way this happens is by continual resistance of the Holy Spirit and his leading and prompting in our lives. The NKJV translates the phrase “being past feeling.” This description is so evident in the church today. It is as if we have been given a large dose of Novocain and are numb to spiritual things. This takes place primarily in the arena of sin (missing the mark). When conviction comes through the ministry of the Holy Spirit (Jn.16:8) and we continually turn away from it, something happens. As Paul says…”We give ourselves up to sensuality.” This is a good spot to speak of the dual work of God and man, which is both the sovereignty of God and human responsibility working together. We do “give ourselves up” but not by ourselves. Behind our “giving ourselves up” (Eph.4:19) God “gives us up” (Rom.1:24,26,28) just as behind our coming to Christ is the drawing of God (Jn. 6:37,44,65). Let’s take a moment and look at this spiritual principal in the letter to the Romans.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.  (Romans 1:24-32)

So we see here the three primary things God gave them up to and the fruit of it in their lives as listed in detail throughout the passages above. God gave them up to:

• The lust of their hearts
• Dishonorable passions
• A debased mind

The above passage is a clear example of where an individual ends up that as Paul says in Ephesians areb futile in their minds, darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. These individuals are calloused and have given themselves up to sensuality. Greedy to practice every kind of impurity. All the sinful living as seen in Romans chapter one can be summed up in the one word that Paul uses in our text we are studying: sensuality. Peter touches on this topic as well. We see this in the following passage of Scripture where he too exhorts us to no longer live like Gentiles do. In this passage we see that when we do “take a stand” for what is right and do not go about living like the rest of the world, they take notice. However, they do not always applaud us. In fact Peter says they will slander and bad mouth you because of this:

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you… (1Pet.4:3-4 ESV)

Elsewhere, Paul exhorts us in his letter to the Romans to be on guard of “sensual living.”

The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (Rom.13:12-14 ESV)

Paul goes on to say they are greedy to practice every kind of impurity (v 19) as we so clearly saw in Romans chapter 1. This next phrase really jumped out to me though. Paul says: “But that is not the way you learned Christ.” I thought to myself; how many today have been falsely taught about Christ in this very way? Taught that it’s ok to live in sensuality. There are some today that teach grace is a license to sin. They teach that because of Christ and what he did on the cross it does not really matter how we live. As long as we “simply believe.” I believe these are the types of people Jude warns us about.

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (Jude 3-4 ESV)

Or as Paul said:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (Rom.6:1-2 ESV)

“But that is not the way you learned Christ…” Just meditate on this verse. Think to yourself, how did I and how am I learning Christ? Paul continues to say that we are to be taught “in him” as the truth is in Jesus. Again, we see Paul emphasizing the “in him” truth. All we are, all we have, it’s all in him. It is for this reason that Paul told the Colossians the following:

As you have therefore received Christ, [even] Jesus the Lord, [so] walk (regulate your lives and conduct yourselves) in union with and conformity to Him. Have the roots [of your being] firmly and deeply planted [in Him, fixed and founded in Him], being continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving. See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men’s ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah). (Col 2:6-8, Amplified)

It is because “the truth is in Jesus” that it is important to be students of the Word. Jesus is the Word made manifest. His word is truth because he is truth. May we take to heart the words of Jesus himself on this matter.

31…If you abide in My word [hold fast to My teachings and live in accordance with them], you are truly My disciples. 32And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free. (John. 8:31-32 Amplified)

Check out recent podcast episodes on related subject matter:

What Is Renewed Thinking?

What Is True Repentance?

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“They said therefore to Him, ‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.’” – John 6:28-29

There are multitudes of anxious Christians who are inquiring what they shall do to       overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. They overlook the fact that “this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith” (I John 5:4) that it is with “the shield of faith” that they are to “extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one.” (Eph. 6:16) They ask, “why am I overcome by sin? Why can’t I get above its power? Why am I the slave of my appetites and passions and the sport of the devil?” They look all around them for the cause of all this spiritual wretchedness and death. Sometimes they think they have discovered the answer in the neglect of one duty, and at another time in the neglect of another duty.   Sometimes they imagine they have found the cause of their wretchedness to be that they have yielded to one sin and sometimes in yielding to another.  They put forth efforts in this direction and patch up their righteousness on one side, while they make a tear in the other. Thus they spend years running around in a circle, making dams of sand across the current of their own corruptions. Instead of at once purifying their hearts by faith (Acts 15:9), they are engaged in trying to stop the overflow of its bitter waters.

“Why do I sin?” they inquire; and looking around for the cause, they come to the same conclusion: “It is because I neglect such and such a duty!” “But how shall I get rid of sin?” Usual answer: “By doing my duty, that is by ceasing from sin.” Now the real question should be: Why do they neglect their duty? Why do they commit sin at all? Where is the foundation of all this mischief? But all this only brings us back to the real question again: How are we to overcome this corrupt nature, this wickedness, and our sinful habits? I answer, BY FAITH ALONE . No works of law have the least tendency to overcome our sins, but rather they strengthen the soul in self-righteousness and unbelief.

The great and fundamental sin which is at the foundation of all other sin is unbelief. The first thing to do is to give that up – to believe the Word of God. There is no breaking away from one sin without this. “Whatever is not from faith is sin.” (Rom. 14:23) “Without faith it is impossible to please Him.” (Heb. 11:6) Thus we see that the backslider and convicted Christian, when agonizing to overcome sin, will almost always try to use the works of law to obtain faith.  They will fast and pray and read and struggle and outwardly reform, and thus endeavor to obtain grace. But all this is in vain and wrong.  Do you ask, “Shall we not fast and pray and read and struggle? Shall we do nothing but sit down in cheap security and inaction?”  I answer: You must do all that God commands you to do; but begin where He tells you to begin, and do it in the manner in which He commands you to do it. That is – in the exercise of that faith that works by love. (Gal. 5:6) Purify your hearts by faith.  Believe in the Son of God! (I John 5:10)

What Is “Faith”?

The first element of saving faith is realizing the truth of the Bible. But this alone is not saving faith, for Satan also realizes the truth of the Bible, which makes him tremble. (James 2:19) But a second element in saving faith is the agreement of the heart (or will) to the truth understood by the mind. It is a cordial trust or resting of the mind in those truths, and yielding up the whole being to their influence. Now it is easy to see that without the consent of the will, there can be nothing but an outward  obedience to God. A wife without confidence in her husband can do nothing more than outwardly perform her duty to him. Works of law may be performed without faith, that is,  we may serve from fear or hope or some selfish motive, but without the confidence that works by love, obedience from the heart is naturally impossible.

By what I’ve already said, I mean that to seek the grace of faith by mere human works is an utter abomination. It is as abominable as to attempt to purchase the Holy Ghost with money. (Acts 8:20) It is to set aside the testimony of God’s Word concerning our utter depravity (helplessness) and attempt to pawn off our unbelieving, heartless works upon an infinitely Holy God. It is an attempt to purchase His favor, instead of accepting grace as His sovereign gift.

To give any other answer to one in unbelief, and to tell him to perform any work with the expectation that by it he shall obtain faith, is to confirm him in self-righteousness, to prolong his rebellion, to lead him to settle down in a self-righteous hope to produce in the end, discouragement and blasphemy.

Because repentance, faith, love, and every other holy exercise both imply and proceed from faith – without confidence in the character and requirements of God, it is impossible to repent. For what is repentance but heartily to justify God and condemn ourselves ? So it is equally impossible to exercise a trusting love in God without faith.  Submission to God implies the exercise of confidence in God and in His requirements.

Faith is the only exercise that receives Christ with all His powerfully sanctifying influences into the heart. The Bible everywhere represents the sanctified soul as being under the influence of an indwelling Christ. Now the exercise of faith is an opening of       the door by which Christ is received to reign in the heart. If this is so, the proper direction plainly is to do that which receives Christ. If this is done, all else will be done. If this is neglected, all else will be neglected, of course!

Some Helpful Remarks

1. You see why the Church is not sanctified. They overlook the office and necessity of faith as that which alone can produce acceptable obedience to God. They are engaged in efforts to obtain faith by works, instead of first exercising that faith which will  produce within them a clean heart. And in this way they seek in vain for sanctification.   How common it is to see Christians bustling about with outward efforts and works – fasting and praying, giving and doing and struggling – and after all this, they do not have the fruits of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,  faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law.” (Gal. 5:22-23 KJV)

2. You see why the Bible lays so much stress upon faith.

3. You see what the difficulty is for those who are constantly in a complaining state in their walk with the Lord. They seem to know they are wrong, but do not understand what the foundation of their wrong consists of. They sometimes think that a neglect of a certain duty is the grand difficulty, and sometimes their mind fastens upon something else that is the prime difficulty in their case. They set themselves to break off from one sin and another, they practice this self-denial and that duty, and all without that faith that fills the heart with love. Thus they go round and round in a circle and do not see that unbelief is their great, their damning sin, without the removal of which no other sin can be repented of or forgiven. All their efforts are entirely legal, hypocritical, and vain until they exercise faith.

4. If persons without faith, in an unsanctified state, set themselves to obey the commandments of God, their efforts must necessarily be legal, self-righteous, and destructive. To them the directions of the Gospel, as well as the commandments of the law, are a horrible pit of miry clay. And when you cast a man into a horrible pit of miry clay, the more he struggles the deeper he sinks. Every effort at obedience without faith is sin, and as it confirms self-righteousness, is sinking him further and further from God and rational hope. And the more violently he struggles, the more desperate and alarming his case becomes. The clay surrounds him and cleaves to him, suffocates and kills him. Just so the commands of God to an unbelieving heart are a snare and a pit. Without faith, there is ruin and damnation in them.

5. To the careless, unawakened sinner who knows nothing of his lostness, it might be important and proper to direct his attention to the law of God to bring conviction – not with the expectation of promoting holiness in him, but of convicting him of sin. Thus we find Christ requiring the rich young man who is wrapped up in self-righteousness to keep the commandments, bringing out before his mind his supreme love of the world and of things. (Luke 18:18-23)

6. You see how to the Jews and to all unbelievers, the commandments of God are a stumbling block. All outward conformity to them is useless and ruinous. Love without faith is impossible . And consequently, the merciful directions and instructions contained in the dos and don’ts of the Bible are made the food of self-righteousness and the snare of death. But to those whose souls are full of faith and love, the commandments of God are just the instruction which they need when, in their ignorance, they earnestly inquire what they shall do to glorify God. “Do this and avoid that,” and the like, are just the things upon which hearts of love will seize as the needed directions of their Heavenly Father.

7. But someone may inquire, “Do not men learn to exercise faith by what you call legal efforts and an obedience to the legal directions?” No. They only learn by experience that all such directions are vain, and that they are totally depraved and       dependent, which they ought to have believed before. They set themselves to pray and read and struggle, expecting at every meeting they attend, with every prayer they make, to obtain grace and faith. But they never do until they are completely discouraged and despair of obtaining help in this way. And the history of every self-righteous sinner’s conversion and every anxious Christian’s sanctification would develop this truth: that deliverance does not come until their self-righteous efforts are proved by their own experience to be utterly vain, and abandoned as useless – and the whole subject thrown upon the sovereign mercy of God. This submitting a subject to the sovereign mercy of God is that very act of faith which they should have put forth long before, but which they would not exercise until every other means had been tried in vain!

8. But perhaps you will say, “If by this self-righteous struggle they learn their depravity and dependence, and in this matter come to prove by their own experience the truth of God, why not encourage them to make these efforts as at least an indirect way of       obtaining faith?” Answer: Blasphemy and drunkenness and any of the most shocking sins may be, and often have been, the means of working conviction which has resulted in conversion. Why not encourage these things to possibly bring about ultimate salvation for some?

The truth is, when a sinner’s attention is awakened and he is convicted and puts forth the inquiry, “What shall I do?” and when a Christian, struggling with his remaining corruption, puts forth this same inquiry, why should they be thrown into the horrible pit of which I have spoken? Why not tell them at once, in the language of the text, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent”? (John 6:29)

9. Let me say to you who would make the inquiry, “How can I overcome sin?” don’t wait to fast, read, pray, or anything else – don’t expect to break off from any sin in your unbelief! You may break off from the outward commission – you may substitute       praying for swearing, reading your Bible for reading magazines, outward employment and honesty for theft and idleness, soberness for drunkenness, and anything you please – but this, without faith, is after all, only exchanging one form of sin for another – it is only varying the mode of your rebellion towards God. For remember that in unbelief whatever your conduct is, you are still in rebellion against God. Faith would instantly sanctify your heart, sanctify all your doings, and render them in Christ Jesus, acceptable to God.

My dear friend, you inquire whether you shall obtain holiness by reading the Bible, or by prayer, fasting, or by all these together. Now let this sermon answer you and know that by neither nor by all of these, in the absence of faith ,are you to grow any better or find any relief. You speak of being in darkness and of being discouraged. No wonder you are so, since you have plainly been seeking sanctification by outward works. You have “stumbled over the stumbling stone.” (Rom. 9:32) You are in that pit of miry clay. Immediately exercise faith upon the Son of God! It is the first, the only thing you can do to rest your feet upon the Rock – and it will immediately put a new song into your mouth!

Finally brothers… (Paul is saying to sum up this whole book) whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Philippians 4:8

I used to be really introspective.

On the outside I was quite happy and fun but I often used to over analyze people’s reactions to anything I said or did. I thought a lot about anything that was wrong in me because I wanted to be pleasing to God.

I went to a bible school that came out of a revival and it was a place where holiness was so important. God definitely changed my life there, I wouldn’t trade my experience for anything. But in that culture of repentance and holiness a lot of us became often introspective. Always looking for new sins to repent of, and trying to look around our heart for anything bad to despair over. There were altar calls twice a week. Through all of this I never really felt good about my relationship with God, I felt there was always so much more sin to get over before I could really be close to God. Then one day I read a prayer.

I was reading a book by Bill Johnson, one of my biggest heroes in the world. He was so hungry for revival and always trying to repent and get closer to God. But he kept feeling so down by how far he felt from God. Then one day he prayed a prayer like this

“God you know I don’t do so well when I always focus on my sin. Would you please convict me when there’s something you want me to deal with? Let me just worship you and keep my eyes on you, that’s what I like the most.”

It blew me away, I felt so much freedom and excitement that such a lifestyle was possible. Here was one of the holiest men I knew of who walks in incredible miracles and the presence of God and he just trusted God to convict him whenever God wanted him to deal with an issue. It was so freeing.

On the race it’s really easy to compare, it’s easy to get frustrated because there are so many amazing people, with really strong giftings, or beautiful personalities and it’s easy to feel like we are missing out. I’ve caught myself a few times this year getting introspective and frustrated with how much I still need to grow. But I feel like God is calling us to be sons and daughters again. Children don’t care much for self-analysis, they just love being with their dad and playing with him. They want to help him at work and they don’t mind if they mess up much because they just love being with him and doing what he’s doing. And he loves that!!!

To sum it all up if you are thinking about your sin you are in fact sinning. Because sin isn’t pure, lovely, or admirable. If God convicts you then just repent immediately and quickly move on to abundant life with Him. I can testify that ever since I let God worry about convicting me and shifting my gaze to God and everything that’s good and pure and admirable in the world my life has changed dramatically. It’s amazing. I remember I used to watch movies with my eyes on the look-out for swears, or sex scenes to look away from then after my Christians friends and I could complain about how bad movies are nowadays and say things like “Why did they have to put that scene in there and ruin the whole movie?”. Never did I realize that the whole time we were focusing on what wasn’t pure. It’s often the people who are the hungriest for holiness that have their eyes most fixed on sin (in order to avoid it).

Now whenever I watch a movie I have my eyes fixed whatever is beautiful in the movie, where courage is displayed or genuine love. I ask God to highlight anything he wants to teach me from the movie. I am so focused on just absorbing everything beautiful and good from the movie that I hardly remember any bad parts. (as a disclaimer, I’m still not perfect and I’m growing in this, but it’s an exciting adventure). Paul would read greek and cretan poets and was trained under Gamaliel, one of the most culturally aware and relevant rabbis of his day. Still regarded today as one of the great rabbis of all time.

I think as Christians we need to start absolutely being committed to beauty, to purity, creativity and life. We can’t retreat any longer into our comfy sanctuaries and churchy lingo. The gates of hell can’t stand against a church on the offense. The armor of God has nothing for our backside, our only protection is continual advance and victory. Let’s not fear creativity and truth, no matter from where we find it. Every good and perfect gift is from above.

Editor’s note:

Currently David Hepting is traveling the world doing “The World Race”.  To learn more about it and to read up on regular updates, visit http://davidhepting.theworldrace.org.

‘Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.’ -Lev. 10.3

The nations are perishing and the Church is languishing for want of the knowledge of God. This generation of American souls is largely ignorant of the God of the Scriptures, and we have been too preoccupied and distracted by this world to come into that knowledge ourselves. We have preached a hollow message that bears little resemblance to the revelation of God set forth by the apostles and prophets, and the condition of our nation testifies to it.

We have made light of sin, made the faith into a mere subculture, and the cities of America remain mostly unconvinced of the reality of God. We have not demonstrated His love and purity, for we have been functioning along the lines of the world, catering to self and living under the intoxicating influences of a consumeristic society.

This story of Aaron’s sons rattles our presumptuous definitions of God, and while it may seem unsavory or distasteful to consider, it is a vital portion of Scripture that needs to be reflected on. We need to reckon with passages like this until we break into a fuller understanding of who the Lord is, for if we pick and choose passages only of our own liking, we end up forming distorted views of God. Indeed, we all see in part, but to willfully neglect an aspect of who He is according to the Scriptures is to open the gate to deception.

I believe the message of His great love must increase and be shouted from the rooftops, but if He has also shown Himself as holy, and we fail to see Him as He has revealed Himself, what foundation do we have? His attributes are not categories that we can pick based on personal preference, as if the Bible was a menu at a restaurant. His traits are intertwined and tied up with His Person, and every revelation of God given in the Scriptures is a glimpse into His great heart. We cannot discard the portions that seem less appealing. If we do that, we have created our own view instead of receiving His. At best, our revelation of God will be a partial foundation, and that is not sufficient for a life of discipleship, nor will it hold in days of great trial and upheaval. We need to be rooted and grounded in His great love and purity, walking in the joy of communion and the fear of the Lord, for this alone will fit us to glorify Him in the day of His power.

He has revealed both His “kindness” and His “severity” for a reason (Rom. 11.22). It is not merely so that our systematic theology will be accurate. He has revealed Himself in this way because this is who He is, and to know Him and love Him as He is, that alone is eternal life.

Decades ago, A.W. Tozer wrote:

I refer to the loss of the concept of majesty from the popular religious mind. The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men. This she has done not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge, and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.

…. The world is evil, the times are waxing late, and the glory of God has departed from the church as the fiery cloud once lifted from the door of the Temple in the sight of Ezekiel the prophet.

The God of Abraham has withdrawn His conscious Presence from us, and another God whom our fathers knew not is making himself at home among us.

(A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy; Harper & Brothers, 1961; pp. 6, 49)

I am convinced that Tozer’s words are profoundly true of the Church in our times, and one of the chief reasons for this loss of majesty is that we have diminished- perhaps unconsciously- the sense of God’s holiness. We need a recovery of reverence, hatred for sin, and a baptism of fire to purge us of the arrogance and strutting that still marks too many of our lives and ministries.

There are wonderful teachings on the love of God in circulation, and I pray they continue to increase as our hearts enlarge in the experience of His kindness and compassion. But we are radically lacking a sense of His holiness, and since He is both loving beyond comprehension, and holy beyond description, the whole counsel of Scripture is essential for a true knowledge of God. Passages like this from Leviticus 10 provide a crucial vantage point for our understanding of Who God is.

Aaron’s sons, along with the people of Israel, had witnessed the majesty of God at the end of chapter 9. “The glory of the Lord appeared to all the people,” “fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering,” “and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.” (9.23-24)

Without a doubt, the scene was exhilarating, and the sense of God’s mercy and holiness was overwhelming for all who were present. Reverence and joy mingled within them, and the people fell prostrate with shouts of praise and awe issuing forth. What happened next is both devastating and sobering.

“Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.” (10.1-2)

We don’t know exactly what prompted Nadab and Abihu to perform what is recorded in chapter 10. Were they trying to reproduce the elation of the previous event? Were they wanting their names to be recognized before the people, rather than being jealous for the glory of God’s name? We don’t have the answer to every question here, but we do know that the fire they offered was not authorized by the Lord. It was offered in their “respective firepans,” and its source was of men rather than of God. It was “strange” and unholy, something “which He had not commanded them.”

It was so offensive to the Lord that “fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.”

At this point it is easy for our hearts to short-circuit. We lose touch with the raw reality of the Biblical passage. We cannot fathom the thought that the very fire of God Himself actually came out from the holy place and devoured the sons of Aaron. Our view of the Lord is casual and light, and the idea of judgment is foreign to most modern believers. If the idea of God’s wrath is agreed to in a credal way, it often bears a feeling of unreality, and the idea of judgment actually touching men on the earth seems fictitious or mythical.

But that does not discount the truth of the passage, and we need to realize that this is an actual historical event. It is not allegorical or symbolic, but a true piece of our heritage in the faith. It is meant to bring to us what it brought to Moses, Aaron, and the people of God; namely, a sense of His holiness, and an awareness that He does not tolerate sin, nor any activity that is carried out in His name that misrepresents His glory.

Just when we might have blamed the event on some demonic attack, Moses gives clarity to what has occurred.

“Moses then said to Aaron, ‘This is what the LORD spoke of when he said:
‘Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.’
Aaron remained silent.” (v. 3)

This event of judgment, which gripped the community of Israel with holy fear, is completely intertwined with the revelation of God in the Scriptures. It is just as much a revelation of His personality as was His washing of the disciples feet, His blessing of little children, and His raising of Lazarus from the dead. It is a revelation of God’s holiness, and it is one that we need desperately to recover. He is holy, and we cannot use Him for our purposes.

This hits home in a concentrated way in this present generation. Perhaps the fouls committed against the sense of His holiness are no more flagrant than in certain segments of the Charismatic Church, where charisma and gifting are often elevated while the Scriptures and the character of Christ are undervalued.

My heart aches in this hour of often flippant faith, when silliness and frivolity are equated with “liberty in the Spirit,” and when anyone with jealousy for truth and reality is accused of having a religious spirit.

When I see men placing a low value on the Scriptures, or labeling anyone with passion for the Word a “pharisee,” I tremble on the inside.

When I see men acting as if they are inhaling the Holy Spirit through imaginary marijuana joints, calling it “Jehovajuana” and claiming that they are “toking the Ghost,” I am mortified at the total loss of reverence for God. There is absolutely nothing holy about such activity! It is a deplorable and scandalous example of strange and unauthorized fire.

When I see men boasting of great power and bragging about the international influence of their ministries while the sense of His holiness is absent, it makes me apprehensive.

When a so-called “revivalist” can shed his wife and marry another woman with no Scriptural grounds, only to re-enter public ministry with the blessing of well-known leaders, I am filled with concern. This has happened many times over the years, and I am wondering where the standard of truth has gone!

I want to be merciful towards all men, but there has to come a point where the gullibility and lack of discernment are spoken against. I don’t think we are far from Tozer’s description, that “another God whom our fathers knew not is making himself at home among us.”

A few of my mentors have even encountered a trend among “worship-leaders,” where they will use profanity, or do other wild and crazy things in services, claiming that by this absurdity they are “shaking the religious spirit off of the crowd.” I cannot give words to how far we have fallen.

You may say that I have a religious spirit myself, but I cannot give my soul over to these expressions of spiritual activity that militate against the revelation of God that I have received over the course of my life in God. He is holy, holy, holy, and the line of revelation from Genesis to Revelation does not alter one bit. He is kinder and more loving than we can describe, but He is pure and just as well, His judgments have already touched the earth, and He is still slated to return as both Savior and Judge.

We do need to desire “earnestly” the gifts of the Spirit and the outpouring of His power. We need to be awakened more and more to the depth of His great love and compassion. And indeed, when the Spirit of God moves in power, things will happen that we cannot explain and that take us by surprise. But what has happened to the fear of the Lord?

I am convinced that our unwillingness to come into the knowledge of God, as the Scriptures have revealed Him, has produced the seedbed for our sub-apostolic Christianity. Before the cities of the earth will be “turned upside down,” we need to regain the majesty of the revelation of God Himself. We need to turn from sin and return to the God of glory, to the Scriptures, to prayer and fasting, to worship and obedience.

We have lost the sense of His holiness, and I fear the consequences are much worse than the immediate judgment of two priestly sons. The Lord has permitted many to veer off into their own ideas of Himself, even while chasing supernatural activity, and their stupor grows heavier the more and more men make light of sin and neglect the Scriptures. A widespread famine of the true knowledge of God is even more tragic than the death of Aaron’s sons. Entire movements are chugging along without a sense of His holiness, quite at home with sin, and so intermingled with the world that there is no “distinction between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean.” (Lev. 10.10)

We cannot rightly value the kindness and mercy of the Lord if we have diminished the bright light of His holiness and the radical nature of His hatred for sin.

We are more like the 1st-century Church at Corinth than we realize, and the word of the apostle Paul is the same to us as it was to them. He did not doubt the validity of their gifts, nor did he consider them unbelievers. But he had serious correction to give as well, for they were veering off in the wrong direction:

“Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals.’ Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.” -1 Cor. 15.33-34

Oh, for the true knowledge of God! For the joy of communion and the trembling of reverence! The salvation of Israel and the nations, and the raising of our sons and daughters depends entirely upon the measure to which we have come into the knowledge of God, as He truly is. He kindly invites us into the purity and joy of union with Himself, for which reason we have been saved. We need to be enlarged in His love. We need the sense of His holiness. May we hear from God Himself in this hour.

Lord, our lips are unclean, and we live amongst a people of unclean lips. We have failed to see You as You are, but You have been so gracious to give us the Scriptures. You have been so gracious to send Your Son. You are merciful enough to send us Your Spirit and to lead us into all truth. You have been so patient with us. Would you wake us up to the reality of Your holiness? We want to turn from silliness and deception, and to come into the apostolic faith of the Scriptures. Make us a people of humility, holiness, love, and power. Let us come into the sense of Your holiness, that a line of distinction may be drawn in the earth again. Let us know You as you are, and let Your name be honored and glorified above all.

In this article, we revisit an often overlooked and forgotten fundamental of gospel preaching; the convicting power of God, an essential component in the experience of conversion. Conviction is that divine power that convinces and draws the sinner to Jesus. Thus, unless men are convicted and convinced of their awful sinfulness before a holy God they will never come to the Lord Jesus Christ.

“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
-John 6:44

Jesus presents us with an absolute, the theological implications thereof, are often overlooked/neglected in this hour of seeker-sensitive, easy-believism. Sadly, the tendency today is to overlook, redefine, or ignore altogether the necessity of conviction in the new birth experience. If we fail to understand the dynamics of the gospel, and conviction in particular, we are ill prepared to be a witness for Jesus. Now, if conviction is absolutely essential in the conversion of souls, then we must desire to see lost sinners come under conviction, yes? This being true, let us consider what the Bible tells us about true Holy Ghost conviction.

I. FIRST, HOW MIGHT WE DEFINE CONVICTION?

John 6:44a No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him…

Now, we’ve heard this term “conviction” many times before, but what does it actually mean? According to Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, “conviction” can be described as…

The act of compelling one to admit the truth of a charge; the act of convincing of sinfulness; the state of being convinced; the state of being sensible or aware of guilt. By conviction, a sinner is brought to repentance.

Thus, conviction is the experience of the sinner being awakened to the sinfulness, the penalty, and the only remedy of his sin. There is perhaps nothing in the human experience more disturbing, unsettling, and gut wrenching than Holy Ghost conviction. If it were not for its glorious end, it would be accurate to call conviction awful and terrible torment of the mind and soul. And remember, we, above all, must desire/have this happen to those we hope to win to Jesus.

II. AS I MENTIONED, CONVICTION IS AN ABSOLUTE NECESSITY FOR CONVERSION.

John 6:44a No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him…

Our text irrefutably teaches the absolute: no man will come to Jesus apart from God’s convicting power. Now, contrary to popular thought, fallen humanity has no innate interest in God, but rather, is predisposed to evade and hate Him. And thus, there has never been even one man who sought God of his own accord: not because we can’t, but we won’t.

Psalm 10:4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

I heard a preacher say, “the increased popularity of the occult proves men are spiritually hungry, searching for a God they don’t know.” Such a statement presupposes three unscriptural and illogical concepts:

a. Sinners can seek God apart from God.

Romans 3:11 …there is none that seeketh after God.

b. Sinners can sincerely seek God and not find Him.

Jeremiah 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

c. Sinners are completely oblivious to God, His nature, and His law.

Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse…

Such unscriptural notions reveal how little we understand about the gospel and the new birth. No, men infatuated with the devil may mean many things, but certainly not that they are hungry for God. The Bible teaches that sinners, by their sins, are utterly alienated from God. This separation is not merely a difference of opinion, or a philosophical misunderstanding. No, the sinner has willfully set himself against God: his ultimate enemy. The sinner is a rebel against God, His authority, His law, His gospel, and His Son. Sinners are willfully separated from God and have chosen to remain in a hostile position of opposition toward Him.

Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

We no longer believe this, the sinner is somehow, unconsciously seen as some kind of victim. And this one truth alone necessitates the utter need for the prevenient grace of conviction: they will never come, except the Father draw. Thus, as our text teaches, without conviction, no sinner will ever seek God.

III. THERE ARE THREE ESSENTIALS IN HOLY GHOST CONVICTION.

John 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove (convict) the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment…

There can be no Holy Ghost conviction apart from the reproof regarding sin, righteousness, and judgment. And perhaps there are no three topics more rejected in the professing church, and more hated in the world. Should we wonder why there is so little Holy Ghost conviction? Yes, the gospel preacher’s message, if anointed and led by the Spirit of God, will emphasize reproof. And his rebuke will concentrate on the sinner’s sin, his lack of righteousness, and the judgment he will soon face. Now, the world and religious hypocrites hate such preaching, accusing it to be, “judgmental/offensive/counterproductive.” Over the years, the professing church, carnal, backslid, and seeking the approval of man, has been seduced by such reasoning. Above all, they seek to avoid the preachy image, bending over backwards to be non-offensive and make the sinner feel comfortable. There is an obvious denial of Biblical conviction. That leads me to our next point…

IV. THE CATALYSTS FOR CONVICTION.

Romans 10:14 …how shall they hear without a preacher?

Without a true Gospel preacher there can be no Holy Ghost conviction to draw the sinner. Gospel preaching is God’s ordained means to communicate the gospel. And as we pointed out, his message, for the most part, will be a message of reproof: declaring the law to expose sin, lifting up Jesus to define righteousness, and boldly warning of the great and terrible day of God’s judgment. If we don’t get back to preaching the fundamental gospel message, men will never truly be drawn to Jesus. There can never be Holy Ghost conviction without Holy Ghost preaching (not Holy Ghost singing, not even Holy Ghost living alone). No, the human vessel, consecrated wholly to God, filled with God’s Spirit, declaring God’s Word is essential to God’s method of drawing.

John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

Yet, the modern church, Biblically illiterate and carnally motivated, has thought to promote the gospel like a bargain rummage sale. They say, “if we are prosperous, joyful, blessed, folks will come to get what we have.” Indeed, they may, but this is not the right motivation (see John 6). Or, they reason, “if they see miracles, they will believe the gospel.” They apparently forget that Jesus, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, renounced such thinking…

Luke 16:31 …if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

Others say, “If they just see Jesus in us they’ll come knocking at our door.” But the Bible says…

Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

In light of the absolute stated in Isaiah 53 how can this be? No, as the Bible teaches, we must first GO, before they will ever be under conviction and then COME.

VI. THE NATURE OF THE CONVICTION EXPERIENCE.

John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him…

As we’ve mentioned, conviction is synonymous with reproof for sin, which produces a crisis. Holy confrontation always draws a line, gives an ultimatum, and forces a moral choice.

Hebrews 12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous…

Conviction literally compels lost sinners to do what they would never do themselves. To consider what they would never consider otherwise: look at the Greek word translated draw in John 6:44…

Draw: {Greek} hel-koo’-o, Literally or figuratively to drag.

It is a crisis, not a circus: serious, grave, and sober. A man diagnosed with cancer has some hard decisions to make, nevertheless, they are necessary. Likewise, the man under the eternal sentence of divine conviction realizes his latter end. It is no laughing matter. Conviction is, above all, loving, compassionate, and merciful beyond human comprehension: but to the unregenerate it seems tormenting. It is an affront to the sensibilities, a slap in the face of fallen human pride, and an offensive and brutal attack on sinful self-worth. And it will only lift when the sinner either repents or resists to the point of grieving God’s Spirit.

VI. FINALLY, THE DIFFERENT RESPONSES TO CONVICTION.

John 7:12, 41, 43 And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him: for some said, He is a good man: others said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people…Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? So there was a division among the people because of him.

Conviction brings men face to face with the Biblical Jesus, and then they must make a gut-wrenching choice. They must either believe the gospel and therefore forfeit their own life to gain Christ, or reject Christ, so as to justify their sin. There is no middle ground, conviction either breaks a man or hardens him. For those who resist conviction reactions can run from insanity to violent persecution, but react, all men do.

May God help us to get out of the way and allow God’s Spirit to drag sinners to Jesus.

“I have made a covenant with my eyes;
How then could I gaze at a virgin?
…. for that would be a fire that consumes….
and it would burn to the root all my increase.” -Job 31.1, 12

I understand that many would brand my faith antique and my convictions archaic for approaching this subject, but that is a minuscule risk for me to take. God is too glorious, His Gospel too precious, and the fate of our sons and daughters too much at stake for me to worry about the consequences that these themes bring. I am convinced that we have woefully underestimated the damage that is done to the world and to the Church, particularly with regard to the issue of so-called entertainment.

The Church is largely bored with the Scriptures, unwilling to sacrifice for eternal things, unacquainted with the Spirit of prayer, and is harboring such distorted views of God that it is often difficult to tell if the One she is proclaiming is the same Lord that the apostles and prophets set forth. There may be a litany of reasons for this decrease of majesty, but I believe that one of the greatest of these is that Hollywood has a stranglehold on the hearts and imaginations of God’s children.

The pornography epidemic could be driven home here, and to sound the trumpet against that demonic system will require the emergence of a true prophetic voice indeed. Almost 40% of American pastors admit to a current struggle with internet porn, and the numbers are even greater amongst “non-clergy.” This is beyond tragic, and we are in need of a massive overhaul of repentance and mercy. Now more than ever are we in need of awakening, and if you are in this category there is deliverance and freedom from this deathtrap. The Gospel of Jesus sets us free “from all sin,” and He will give you grace to slam the door once and for all on this terribly besetting sin, when you repent and turn to Him with a whole heart, clinging to the Son of God.

Yet as horrific as the pornography phenomenon is, that is not the primary burden of my heart in this writing.

I am convinced that the Church of America, as a majority, has been removed from, or has never known, the kind of trepidation and tenderness of heart that Job was expressing when he declared, “I have made a covenant with my eyes….”

It was part and parcel with the faith of all the saints of old, that what they allowed to pass through the eye-gate, and what they permitted willingly to go into their ears, would taint their souls at best, and find residence in their lives at the worst. I am suspicious of modern “prophetic” men who commonly site movies and shows that contain illicit sex, profane lingo and themes, glorified violence, immoral innuendo, and other defiling examples as points in their messages. The only reason these points hit home with so many church members is that they themselves are given over to the same powers and influences.

Our hearts are too taken up with this world, saints, and there has never been a generation wherein the spirit of this age strikes the soul with such color, such special effects, and such mesmerizing influence as the one we find ourselves in. Yet we are called to an ultimate holiness nonetheless, and it may be said that one of the distinguishing factors between those who will bear the testimony of Jesus at the end of the age and those who will take the mark of beast during tribulational times will be this radical consecration of the eyes to God Himself.

In Eph. 5, Paul declares that there should not even be a “hint of immorality” in the lives of God’s people. Dear believer, I ask you pointedly, what constitutes a hint? How many of Hollywood’s characters, themes and plots can we drink in without receiving a “hint” of darkness?

There is something sleazy about many of our lives, charismatic or not, and while it might not be overt, I believe there is a residue of immorality resting upon those who have freely given themselves to morally compromised entertainment. There is something flimsy about our religion, and the bright burning of holiness that marked John the Baptist, the prophets of old, and Jesus Himself is conspicuously absent in the sanctuary, where His name is declared “holy” in verbal exercise, but the sense of His holiness has become foreign.

“…. it would burn to the root of all my increase.”

While we have boasted in “liberty,” and spoken poetically of our spiritual interpretations of Hollywood flicks (interpretations that Hollywood would largely reject and ridicule), we have too often condoned the spiritual pollution of our hearts.

Would the porn epidemic be so far-reaching and deeply-rooted if the Church hadn’t dropped the ball in areas of more subtle compromise? We have become arrogant in our boasting. And we wonder why our kids are prayerless and numb to eternal reality, buying into agnosticism and atheism when they graduate high-school and make it to their respective Universities. We wonder why thousands of “evangelical” teens are converting to Islam or diving headlong into the “party” life when they get out from under the wing of a youth group, and into the reality of college life. This may not be the only issue, but it is much more prevalent than we know. It’s a battle of ideologies, and hell has no greater method than to slowly dull our hearts to the God of righteousness through cute and subtle, entertaining displays of hellish ideas. As a friend of mine so rightly wrote:

We have so saturated our minds and imaginations with man-created images that we are bound to those images and therefore subject to the agenda of the men creating them.

It has burned to the root of our “increase” in Christ. We have lost the hunger and thirst for righteousness that Jesus encouraged, for we have given our hearts, minds, and pocketbooks to the broken cisterns of carnal entertainment.

It’s staggering to me that when the subject is raised to most believers, the tag of legalism is immediately raised. While there are legalistic souls who lack an understanding of mercy, and who often place heavy yokes upon others, the vehemence and rage of those who dish out accusations that men like myself are “legalistic” is far more widespread, at least in my own experience. I’ve never heard more warnings against “the religious spirit” of “legalism” than I have in the last few years.

In the area of entertainment they say, “Paul said we had liberty in Christ.” Yet these modern warnings are usually employed in a context that is far different from the situation with the Judaizers in the churches of Galatia. The apostles, quite contrary to the liberal ideas of today, addressed issues of righteousness with remarkable frequency and intensity in the New Testament, and I believe they would weep over the Church in our day, that we would be delivered from the murky waters that have tainted and dulled our spirits in the realm of entertainment. Our liberty is not license, but freedom from the death grip of this dying age. It is a liberty to come into the wonderful reality of communion with the Living God, and to taste of the “powers of the age to come.”

This is not about judging our movies based on their ratings. A thousand “PG” movies could be just as detrimental as one “R” movie. Addictions to CNN and social networking must be challenged if they burn up our time and keep us from the place of prayer and worship, diminish our passion for the Scriptures, and blur our awareness of the lostness of humanity. This is about a total consecration of our eyes and hearts unto Him, that we might gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, tremble before His majesty, remain in the loving counsel of His voice, and set Him forth in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

Our eyes have been too opened to the lying glimmers of this age. The time is here for an ultimate consecration of the eyes to the Lord, that we would see the increase of Christ Himself in our lives. We haven’t got room even for a “hint,” friends.

Let us return to Him with weeping and mourning, that so many of us have preferred the fading lights of this age to the glorious light of God Himself. We need not buy into the lie any longer. He longs to pour out mercy upon us, to purify us down to the marrow of our bones, to make us a tender-hearted people, enjoying deep communion with Him, and walking in meekness and holiness unto the day of His return.

Oh God, cleanse and purify our hearts with the fire of Your holiness and love. Catch us up in the Spirit of prayer and the glory of worship, quicken our souls to love the Scriptures, awaken us from fantasy and bring us into eternal reality. For Jesus’ sake.