Dangerous Culture - Part 1

Matthew 5:17-20 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Last weekend, I attended the Little Church in the Pines Sunday Worship service in Bass Lake, California. Pastor Herk stated that ultimately, on our own, it doesn’t matter what we think. What really matters is that our thoughts are aligned with Almighty God and His Word. We must be careful to not misinterpret Holy Scripture. Our secular humanist culture rejects or re-interprets God’s Word and dictates what is acceptable, normal and moral thoughts, words and deeds for society.

2 Timothy 4:2-4 “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”

It must be the consuming passion of every ministry of God’s holy Word, Will and Way to rightfully teach and preach the sacred Scriptures of the Bible. When the sinful desires of the flesh, the God-rejecting world system and the deceiving temptation of the devil control the ethics and moral of our culture, the whole church is affected universally. Only God’s Word is true. In an age of rejecting sound Christian doctrine, nominal Christians (aka pseudo-Christians or so-called Christians) are becoming increasingly politically correct, allowing the godless culture to affect the church instead of Christians affecting the culture for Christ. Nobody likes to hear that they are sinful, unjust, and immoral, but the sinner is just that. It is sinful to deny the truth. We need to be honest that we live in a hopelessly depraved world, lost in sin against a just and holy God. We cannot do enough on our own to make ourselves acceptable in the eyes of the Lord.

Romans 3:23-24 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Jesus Christ, sent by God the Father, is our only redeeming Savior. Yet, people turn away from God and Christ because they do not want to hear the truth. They  want to be told that they are doing fine and to hear things that make them feel good about themselves. 2 Timothy 4:3 says, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.” They desire to have their ears tickled. We are not bond by every law of the Mosaic Law, which pointed out our sin and pointed to Christ for salvation from sin. Acts 10:15 tells us, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” The Law is good, but cannot be obeyed by sinful mankind. We are not saved by “good works”, but by God’s Grace through our faith in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. It’s not the letter of the law, but the intent of the law that needs to be understood and taken to heart. The “why” of God’s moral Law is the deeper meaning required. In reality, we can do what the law says, but hate the law and the law-giver. Is that the intent? What is the purpose? What is the motivation?

Let"s continue Pastor Herk's message about our dangerous culture  in the next post.

In Christ, Brian