Threshold

    We live in a time of change in Christianity. The growth of mega-churches and the emerging church movement has exploded in the past 10 years or so. Modern day church leaders are continually coming up with a variety of ministries to increase the number of members in their congregations. They say that they are teaching people how to know God and to follow Christ. As a result, countless numbers of people are being introduced to Christianity in a way that they never have been before. There are so many ministries that it is difficult to describe them without using phrases that point to one ministry or another.
    All of these ministries have many biblical, and social, aspects in common. However, if these ministries are legitimate in their desire to teach people about God and how to follow Him, then at some point, they must attempt to bring them into a personal interaction with God.
    If God is indeed real, then the church is the place where people are given this opportunity to actually, in practical terms, meet and interact with Him. So how is the modern, emerging church setting up this personal interaction? What is the purpose of this meeting? When you get past all of the social, charitable, and relationship oriented “ministries” within the church, the spiritual “brass tacks,” if you will, how does the modern Christian interact with God?

    Luke 18:18 begins the interaction between Jesus and a certain ruler that sought eternal life:

18 And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
19 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.
20 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.
21 And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.
22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
23 And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.
24 And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!
25 For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
26 And they that heard it said, Who then can be saved?
27 And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.


    The certain ruler that comes to Jesus seeking the path to eternal life is a picture-type of the modern day Christian. He has been to church all his life. He has done everything that that church has told him is godly. He has lived a moral life, honored the Sabbath, and has kept the commandments by making the appropriate sacrifices for sin that the Old Testament law required.
    The only problem the ruler has is that he is sadly ignorant of why Jesus came to earth in the first place. Jesus had come to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10, 1 Tim. 1:15). This ruler saw himself as capable of following the law, as well as able to successfully follow whatever new principle that he expected to hear from Jesus. He did not see himself as lost and in need of a Savior, just in need of a teacher. Matthew Henry says it this way:

    Men think themselves innocent because they are ignorant; so this ruler did. He said, All these have I kept from my youth up, v. 21. He knows no more evil of himself than the Pharisee did, v. 11.

    This young ruler did not come to Jesus in need of mercy. Jesus, himself, was not the object of this young rulers search. He only sought what he could gain from Jesus, what he could “add to all he had,” so to speak.  While he was wise enough to see that Jesus was in a position of spiritual authority (he did call Jesus “Master”), he was arrogant enough to believe that he had the innate ability to follow the principle that he expected Jesus to tell him was the key to eternal life.  The result of the “ministry” that discipled this ruler was a belief of self-sufficiency, which is the opposite of being “desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9).
    If this young ruler had come to Jesus fully believing that the only thing holding him back from dropping into the eternal flames of hell was the temporary beating of his heart, then selling off all he had would have been an easy thing indeed! (Just look at  Zacchaeus!) This, of course, is the reason Jesus answered in this way. Jesus knew that there was too much of himself that this ruler valued.
    Just as no one would ever take chemotherapy without being personally convinced that they had cancer, no one would ever lay down their life to cling to the foot of the Cross unless they needed a Savior. Just as there was too much about himself that the certain ruler valued, the Luke 18:18 ministry fosters a sense of self-worth and “personal spirituality” that is too valuable to the Christian to simply abandon. The person in this ministry uses it as an avenue to display their inherent goodness. Oh, what a mockery of the Cross! Proverbs 14:12: There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
    If you are a Christian, then this is an important question to answer. When did you first have the personal conviction that you were destined to go to hell? When did you actually know that you would end up in flames? Or did you, instead, simply acknowledge the Biblical principle that “everyone is a sinner”? If the latter is true for you,  dear Christian, then you need to be Born Again!
    So what is this Luke 18:18 ministry? It is any ministry that teaches someone to follow principles and morals before it has taken them to the foot of the Cross. In short, it teaches men to come to Jesus the same way the ruler did in Luke 18:18: wanting godly principles to follow, keeping them ignorant of their need for a Savior.
   

    Repent! For the kingdom of God is at hand!

    This is the message that was deemed so important that it was preached by both John the Baptist (John 3:2) and Jesus himself (John 4:17). When is the last time that you, dear reader, have heard this preached? And when is the last time that you, dear preacher,  preached this message? If it’s been a long time, maybe you are in the wrong ministry.

One day my Lord came up to me
And asked me if I knew
The story of how
I was lost then found
But from His point-of-view

My Lord
I said
Please tell me
And then
I lay at His feet
With my head in His hands

He took a deep breath
And began very slowly
Here is his very special story

I made your each and every part
Your head, your eyes, even your heart
Then placed you inside your mother’s womb
Until those ears I made for you
Heard me say….

It’s time now
Go forth
Into the world
To live long and love true
And to laugh all day through!

Years passed on
And you grew everyday
I held you
And loved you
And then came the day

My father who loves me
Said
Now’s the time
Then the Spirit reached down
And opened your eyes

He then placed ten mirrors
In front of your face
And showed you your hideous frame
Your disgrace

How can this be!
I thought I looked good!
Were the words that you spoke
And in wonder
You stood

For your scars and your wounds
Were more than they seemed
Upon close inspection
They were labeled
Unclean

A date
And a place
And a time upon each
With a number resembling
Each mirror
Unique

You looked in each mirror
Reflections of truth
Consequence rendering
Rebellions of youth

Each date you remembered
The place
And the time
You willingly lied
That’s mirror nine

The day that you stole
That’s mirror eight

You dared look at three
Knowing you’d see
The date
And the place
And the time
Just last week

The weight of your sin
You always did bear
Became heavier now
That you were aware

But the price must be paid
The account must be cleared
Yet your burden remained
As your eyes filled with tears

My father requires
Only spotless and clean
Were the words that I spoke
As you stood staring
At me

But I loved you so much
And my father loved me
He allowed me to take
Your penalty

Repent of your ways
Your sins and desires
Confess and then
Turn
Don’t linger awhile

Then you replied so earnestly
Forgive me for being so filthy!
Unclean!
For choosing to lie!
To steal!
Oh Lord!
Please!

Oh Lord
I’m unholy
A sinner, indeed
Oh Lord would you please
Save a sinner
Like me?

Before you had time
To open your eyes
I lifted your head
And said
Child
You’re mine

A mmessage from Pastor Phil 1/12/11 part 2

A message from Pastor Phil from 1/12/11 part 1

Almost everything that you read on this blog will be original writings by the members of Threshold.  However, this one is just to important not to share.  It is by the ministry called Wretched Radio. You can check them out at www.wretchedradio.com 

Does your church use these phrases during it’s invitation?  Is the word “repent” used when calling others to Christ?  Or is it just in the church’s stated beliefs section on its website?

Churches divide over carpet color, building additions and budgets. In the meantime, our fellow church members are going to hell by the boatload.

A.W. Tozer said, “It is my opinion that tens of thousands of people, if not millions, have been brought into some kind of religious experience by accepting Christ, and they have not been saved.”

D. James Kennedy said, “The vast majority of people who are members of churches in America today are not Christians. I say that without the slightest contradiction. I base it on empirical evidence of twenty-four years of examining thousands of people.”

Friend, we argue over so many petty things. May I suggest we have lost sight of the most important debate of all, “What is salvation?” My theology teaches that salvation happens when a man repents and places his trust in Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21).

I would like to present thirteen ways that we have re-defined how a person becomes a true convert. Have we done this intentionally? Certainly not. We have simply created lingo that has a grain of truth in Scripture, but it is so open to interpretation that the un-converted understand it in ways that lead to false conversions.

1. Make Jesus your Lord and Savior. We cannot make Jesus our Lord and Savior, He is our Lord and Savior. We are living in rebellion to Him and He commands us to repent and trust Him.


2. Ask Jesus into your heart. Does Jesus come into our hearts? Yes He does. The question is, “How does He get in there?” It is not by simply asking Him in; it is by repentance and faith.


3. Just believe in Jesus. The demons believe and they tremble. We must repent and trust.


4. You have a God-shaped hole in your heart and only Jesus can fill it. We have far more than a hole that needs to be filled so we can feel complete; we have a wretched, deceitful, sinful heart that needs cleansing. Repentance and faith applies the blood of the lamb for that cleansing.


5. Accept Jesus. Whoa. We need to accept Jesus? This is entirely backward. We need Jesus to accept us–and He will, if we repent and trust.


6. Make a decision for Jesus. Decisional regeneration puts man in the driver’s seat of salvation. When we repent and trust, Jesus decides to save us. That puts Him in the driver’s seat…where He demands.


7. It is easy to believe. While the formula of repentance and faith sounds simple, a complete surrendering of self in repentance is anything but easy. It’s hard.


8. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. The only promises for the convert are trials, temptation and persecution. If that is how you define a wonderful life, fine. Otherwise we must command all men everywhere to repent and trust.


9. Come to Jesus just as you are. We should come to Jesus just as the sinners we are, but He also expects a broken heart and contrite spirit demonstrated in repentance and faith.


10. Come to Jesus and you will receive forgiveness of sins and ________________ (fill in the blank with money, health, a healed marriage). Jesus didn’t promise healed marriages; in fact He promised broken homes because we would divide when one member repents and trusts.


11. Come to Jesus and experience love, joy, peace. Do we get the fruit of the Spirit upon conversion? Yes. But if we come seeking the gifts and not the giver, we will receive neither. Instead, we must repent and trust.


12. Jesus is the missing piece. Um, no, the God of the universe is not the missing piece, He demands that He is the center of our lives when we repent and trust.


13. Jesus is better than fame and fortune. That is an understatement, and frankly, it is insulting. Saying Jesus is better than money is like saying that a steak dinner is better than eating a dung hill. He defies comparison and we trivialize the Son of God. Instead, we should be pleading with all men everywhere to repent and trust.

If I showed up at your door with a can of grapefruit juice and a roll of paper towels and offered to change your oil, you would say, “No thanks.” If we wouldn’t let someone mess with our car using the wrong method, why do we allow the Gospel to be presented so ambiguously?

Would you let a doctor operate on your child who was “sort of” accurate? The salvation of men is far more important than an appendix.

I beg you to consider how you share the Gospel. You and I know what we are talking about when we use these phrases, but do the unregenerate? Is it possible that we have so many backsliders today because they never slid forward in the first place? Is it because they were never told that they must repent and trust?

If we are willing to debate shag verse plush in the fellowship hall, shouldn’t we be more concerned about an issue that has eternal consequences?

I have grown up in the church.  As a child, I had the privilege of hearing the Gospel on a weekly basis.  While I was not born again until later in my life, I have never forgotten the lessons of my youth.  I also remember singing both hymns and praise music at church each week.  I grew up listening to Keith Green and others. I believe that the church has been changing over the past 30 years in a way that it never has before.  Throughout history, the Gospel has been both hated and manipulated by men who wanted to use it for their own gain, or for a political agenda.  By doing so, many have been harmed through the poor use of the Gospel.

However, today, the Gospel is being used and changed in a completely different way.  I remember the increasing popularity of the NIV Bible and “Seeker Sensitive” churches.  The idea being that, if the church presented itself in a less offensive way, then more people would hear the Gospel. The idea of the seeker sensitive church exploded.  Today we have mega-churches.  We also have the emerging church movement that is a combination of marketing techniques used to push the business that is church.  Today, there are many reasons to go to church.  Churches have great men and women’s groups, youth ministries, music ministries, relationship resources, as well as many other life enhancing resources. 

Seven years ago, I went to a predominant Baptist University to get a graduate degree.  I chose the school because I knew about the quality of the education I would receive there.  I also wanted to find some people who loved the Lord.  While I did meet several people that loved the Lord, something struck me as being strange.  In the 3 years that I attended, only 1 person ever asked me my testimony.  This was strange to me because my entire relationship with Jesus and my entire belief system fundamentally rests on that single moment in my life and what it means.  For someone to initiate a discussion about the Lord working in their life in a personal way, without the topic of salvation coming up, didn’t compute.

After I noticed this, I took a step back and looked at the message that was being preached in the modern church.  There were two common themes that I heard running through 98% on the sermons that I heard.  These two themes were morality (Christian principles) and giving/dedicating your life to Jesus (usually phrased this way during an invitation). 

And then it made perfect sense.  No one was asking me about my testimony, because true Biblical conversion was not being preached!  How can this be?  In the age of mega-churches, those who claim to be Christian do not have a personal interaction with the Gospel of Jesus!  It is vital that we, as the church, get back to the fundamental Gospel!  What a shame it would be if hell was full of moral people.

So what shall we do then, when Jesus says:

Luke 5:32 “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

And Joel Osteen says

“You may think there is a lot wrong with you, but there is also a lot right with you.” And “You may make some mistakes-but that doesn’t make you a sinner. You’ve got the very nature of God on the inside of you.”

These two people are in contradiction to each other!

Modern Christianity has become a self-help seminar that uses phrases from the Bible to make people feel better! God forbid!  It is time to cling to the Gospel.  Let’s revive the old time religion.  The Gospel is simply this:

1Ti 1:15 This [is] a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

It is the simple truth that  “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)

And that “The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

It is for this reason that Jesus came to die on the cross so that our debt might be paid.  If He had not died on the cross, each of us would have deservedly gone to hell.  It is the duty of those that preach the Gospel to preach the whole truth, not just the end of the story (Luke 24:47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem).  For, while it is true that “The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked”, this is not something we naturally believe about ourselves.  Even those who know they have sinned, at their core, believe that they are a good person that has made mistakes.  It is our nature.  Jesus knew this.  This is why the Holy Spirit draws a man to salvation (conviction of sins)

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

No one can believe that he needs to be found if he does not yet believe himself to be lost.  This is the work of the church: preaching the Word of God so that the Holy Spirit might reveal this to the individual in a personal way (Luke 24:47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem).  It is the crying out for salvation as a result of this belief that Jesus responds to, not the decision to join a church or a life dedication.  According to Romans and Jeremiah, we have no life to dedicate! So, why does the church accept this as an understanding of conversion?


Rom 5:8   But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Eph 2:8-9   For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

It is true that unless the church presses into the heart of the matter with each and every individual that it comes in contact with, it is not doing it’s job.  How many people are walking around, comfortable in their Christianity, that have not ever had the personal understanding that they deserved hell and needed a savior?  For if they have never experienced this, then they have had no reason to repent and no reason to believe the Gospel.  Oh, they might acknowledge that the Gospel is true for those that need it (and thus, follow it as they feel “led”).  They may even change some behavior.  However, if they aren’t led by the Holy Ghost to believe that they deserve hell (and subsequently repented of their sins and believed the Gospel), then they haven’t been born again!  What a wicked deception! No wonder Jesus said that:

Mat 7:21-23 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

There is one problem with this Gospel: it is inherently offensive! People don’t want their belief in their inherent goodness challenged!  And if people don’t want to hear the message, good-bye mega-church! This is a risk that is eternally necessary!  But this inherent conflict is the reason that the alternate message is preached.  This alternate message is the “anti-gospel”.  This anti-gospel is that of morality.

The teaching of morality is fundamentally against the Gospel because by teaching how to do good, it states that we have the capability to do good.  It provides us with a balance system of being able to do more good than evil, and makes us believe that it actually makes a difference eternally.  Let us remember:


“The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

And

Eph 2:8-9   For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

If there is nothing that we can do to earn our way into heaven (if there were, I’m sure God would have chosen that over killing His own Son!), then preaching about the good way to live can only bolster ones belief that we are inherently good and deserve to go to heaven, even if we make mistakes along the way.  This makes genuine salvation that much harder!



Wake up church! It is time to remember the Gospel of Jesus and cling to it!  Preach so that men everywhere might be saved!  It is time to stop worrying about the size of the congregation and start caring for the souls of men.  It is time that the church realized that the Gospel is not a self-help guide, but the answer to a need that no one believes they have!  The offense of the Cross must not be white-washed or eased in any way, for it is the precious conviction that draws men to the Cross!  Its time to hear about the Cross and the Blood of the Lamb everyday, not just on Easter!


1Ti 1:15 This [is] a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

We’ve been given everything that we need to believe.  Will you?

In the well known “Hall of Faith” of Hebrews 11, we are presented with the stories of Old and New Testament heroes of the faith. At the end of this long list, the lives of these and many more unnamed believers are summed up in a few verses. One of these particularly stands out:

They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented. Heb 11:37

This simply does not match with the prosperity preaching and opulent comfort of the modern day church. Is it certainly not with promises of that sort of life that people are attracted to sit in the auditoriums, join life groups and network with Christian business people. This is hardly a “Jesus will make your life better” gospel.  

I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD. Zephaniah 3:12

This verse comes in the middle of a prophetic portrait of the last day Church. Yet it is so very different from the varnished, perfectly packaged face of the “Emerging Church” today. Who then, are these “afflicted and poor people” that this verse speaks of? This is a group of people who came to the end of themselves and were sought out and redeemed by the Lord. These are people who have been afflicted by fatherlessness, fornication, addiction and godless intellectualism. They were jaded, angry, depressed, bitter and loveless before the Lord saved them. It was then, that they experienced a different sort of affliction. Listen to how it is presented in the book of Micah.

In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted. Micah 4:6

This remnant has experienced the affliction of the Holy God, in the form of conviction. They have completely submitted, bowing the knee to His authority. The true redeemed of these last days are not worrying about lighting and color coordination. Their focus is not in advertising or the number of “seekers” who are drawn into a perfectly packaged church program. Yet these are the things on which the “Emerging Church” seems to be centered. God is merely an idea, a secondary goal, a part of the catch phrases used to attract people.

To the destitute, afflicted, redeemed generation of souls, He is everything. They are desperate for Him. Before Him and without Him they very literally had nothing but their own death and destruction. For this reason, they are zealous to see souls saved. Not to see a city become more “churched” or people to follow godly principles. They desire to see people snatched from destruction, restored in affection and healed from the scars of sin, as they were.

There are so many of these souls who have been saved out of “successful” modern churches. Yet in those establishments, no one ever cared for their souls. If you may be in such a church, think back to see if any one has ever asked you for your testimony. If not, then they have not cared for your soul.

Look closely at yourself and those around you who claim the name of Christ. Are you a part of this group of afflicted and destitute people, marvelously saved by a miracle of the Lord Jesus Christ or are you simply a part of a church movement? Is your heart passionate to see lost souls around you saved? Most importantly, have you ever experienced the affliction of a Holy God that we call conviction of sin? Have you come to the end of yourself and repented, bowing the knee before Him?

Real men of God: Stand Up! We can not let the religion of false conversion continue in our nation!