Ephesians 2:4-9 “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
Last Sunday, Pastor Herk of Little Church in the Pines at Bass Lake, California continued in his sermon series on the topic of “worship”, stating that we have to come to the realization that it is not just about me. Sometimes, that fact is a hard pill to swallow (difficult to accept). The entire process of Salvation is God’s gift. It cannot be purchased, is not earned and never is deserved. The word “Lord” is fading today in many churches. The word “Lord” is defined in the 1828 Webster’s dictionary as: master; a person possessing supreme power and authority. In scripture, the Supreme Being; Jehovah, Almighty Creator God, our Heavenly Father. The word is applied to Christ, and to the Holy Spirit. But, in some modern churches, their practice has become to leave the word “Lord” completely out of the liturgy, out of services and making all references to God “Gender Neutral”, believing that faith is personal. Where did this notion come from?
On Jan. 10, 1963, Congressman Albert S. Herlong Jr. of Florida read a list of 45 Communist goals to destroy America from the inside into the Congressional Record. One of the goals was to “Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity.” There is a serious problem with removing the word “Lord” from our church language. The word “Lord” is used over 7500 time in the Bible. How do they deal with Romans 10:9 “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved”? This fact is clear, not confusing, that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. John 4:24 states, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” But, in every single place in the Bible, God is described as “God the Father”; it’s unambiguous. The term is always masculine; not mother or even parent. There is a reason for that distinction, because God described as our heavenly Father helps our limited and finite human understanding about His nature that He wants us to understand.
It is obvious that there is a more fundamental attitude that underlies these efforts by the new-age churches. They impose their own ideas and “Self” thoughts about who and what they want God to be, and how they want to worship Him, Her or It. We all worship something and, sometimes, it’s ourselves. We do that by setting parameters on our worship according to what’s acceptable to us. Well, it isn’t about us. We cannot say: “I read this in the Bible but, I cannot go along with that. It’s not acceptable to me.” We shouldn’t be surprised by that attitude, since our secular culture today has an overall theme of: “It’s all about me”.
The object focus has shifted. Our society has an “I” problem that has blinded them to spiritual truth. They have taken that theme and applied it to their relationship with God, so in many of our churches, it has become a fallacy that it’s “all about me” and not about the reality of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), our infinite Maker. Now, churches are trying to change things around so that you do have an option to make it “all about you”, with the warped theology that God is love – period. They have put aside the God who created them in His image, and created in their mind, a god in their image. Love certainly is an attribute of the One true God, but is also Righteous, Holy and Just, and therefore must punish sin. But, since new-age, “Come and See” interpersonal relationship ministries don’t want to deal with those aspects of God’s character, they have made a conscious decision to just ignore those parts of the Bible and invent a god to their liking and a Savior who is not Lord, but glorifying self. That is idolatry.
I mention this, because we have to be very careful not to change God’s Word in order to make it about us. What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever (1646 Westminster Shorter Catechism Question #1). This is an age-old issue since the “Fall of Man” in the Garden of Eden, where the serpent [the devil] said to Eve, “You certainly will not die! For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil” - Genesis 3:4-5 (meaning – it’s all about you). The “self” religion picks what they want to believe and what they do not want to believe, in order to make the perfect religion that they want to worship. If there is one overall theme that we see in our Ephesians text above, it has to be that everything about our relationship with God, starts and ends with God – a God-centered relationship. The culture then is much the same as we have today.
Let's continue Pastor Herk's message on Jesus in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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