| Whatsoever
Things Are True
by Dan Coburn Pastor, Emmanuel Baptist Church pastordan@mtida.net We (for the last two weeks), have been discussing the law as applied to two specific individuals (Barb and Arnold), and then by extension to society. We noted that some are violently frustrated by the lack of application of the law in an equitable way, while others have a seeming total disregard for the law. So what exactly, do we do with the law? What law? Are we talking God's law or man's law? Let's turn the Spiritual Switch by establishing a couple of ground rules. First, from this side of the pulpit, all is under God's law. I can overlap, but cannot separate them. In Romans 7, to a good Jew, it must have looked like Paul was at least diminishing the law if not eliminating it. After all, he established that the law could not Save (ch. 3), Sanctify (ch 5) or even condemn (those in Christ - ch. 8). "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace" 6:14. Add this to 5:20 and 7:4-6, and many concluded that it was the law which caused them to sin. And so today, the purpose of the law is avoided altogether in most Churches. Nugget: Only after the Holy Spirit turns on the searchlight of the law will one be willing to repent, exercise true dependant faith, and Savingly Believe. The chosen tool God uses to accomplish this for your benefit and His glory is --- the law. Today's Church has abandoned the intended use of the law in favor of popularity, felt needs and budgets, while Charles Spurgeon said: "I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the law. The law is the needle and you cannot draw the silken thread of the gospel through a man's heart unless you first send the needle of the law to make way for it. If men do not understand the law, they will not feel that they are sinners. And if they are not consciously sinners, they will never value the sin offering. There is no healing a man till the law has wounded him, no making him alive till the law has slain him. The heart is like a dark cellar, full of lizards, cockroaches, beetles and all kinds of reptiles and insects, which in the dark we see not. But the law takes down the shutters and lets in the light, and we see the evil". Contrast this with the fact that modern evangelism begins with love and progresses to making us feel better. Somewhere, there is a disconnect. Listen to how Charles Finney summed it up- "Evermore the law must prepare the way for the gospel. To overlook this in instructing souls is almost certain to result in a false hope, the introduction of a false standard of Christian experience, and fill the church with false converts." There you have it; so are we today. You cannot receive the Good News, absent the Bad news. This ain’t imaginary, better get repaired. |
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