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Monday, December 10, 2012
Sunday, December 2, 2012
He Died a Person Not a Casualty
Earlier tonight I preached a Sanctity of Human Life message, "The Sanctity of the Unborn" at New Life Romanian Baptist Church in Hollywood (Abortion was legalized in Romania in December 1989).
After reviewing the Biblical accounts of the personhood of John the Baptist (Luke 1:15), Isaiah (Isaiah 49:1), the Apostle Paul (Galatians 1:15), and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5), I quoted Douglas Erlandson (Abortion: Answering the Arguments),
“God deals with the lives [of these men] from conception to adulthood. The Bible does not appear to recognize a special change in God’s dealings with man at birth. God values each of the above men while he is still in the womb – knows him, chooses him, shapes him.”
I continued,
"...the Biblical evidence is very clear. The unborn are created by God and for God. They were created in His image and they are recognized by God as distinct and unique persons from the moment of conception."
After reviewing the scientific evidence for human life at conception, I said,
"Whether you approach the issue of the personhood of the unborn from a Biblical point of view - and we must - or from a purely scientific or biological perspective, the inescapable conclusion is that life within the womb is human life, a distinct person, worthy of protection."
Later in the evening, I watched this moving video testimony someone had posted on Facebook. His parents CHOSE to be pro-life, allowing this precious PERSON to bless their lives, knowing their child, even if born alive, would have a very brief life. Their baby was five days old when he succumbed to severe medical difficulties...but died loved, cherished and with dignity.
Thomas Paine one of the authors of the Constitution wrote (The Rights of Man),
“...All men are born equal and with equal natural rights, in the same manner as if posterity had been continued by creation instead of generation, the latter being only the mode by which the former is carried forward; and consequently every child born into the world must be considered as deriving its existence from God. The world is as new to him as it was to the first man that existed and his natural right in it is of the same kind.”
You can watch the moving testimony of these parents, who perhaps unknowingly, lived out Thomas Paine's words.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Unintended Consequences
According Ryan
Anderson and Andrew Walker,
"Until
Tuesday, no state had redefined marriage by popular vote. Indeed, 32 out of 32
states that put the issue to a vote defined marriage as a union of a man and a
woman. But in this week’s election, citizens in Maine, Maryland, and Washington
State all passed ballot initiatives redefining marriage to include same-sex
relationships. Meanwhile, citizens in Minnesota failed to pass a constitutional
amendment defining marriage as a man and woman. (It remains so defined,
however, by statutory law.)"
(http://blog.heritage.org/2012/11/08/how-marriage-fared-in-the-2012-election/?utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=culturewatch)
I guess the
silence of America's pulpits regarding marriage and the Word of God paid off
for those who are attempting to change the legal definition of marriage in America.
The failure of
pastors to share the whole counsel of God regarding the Christian and their
civic responsibility also contributed to almost 30 million evangelicals not
voting on November 6, and of those that did over 6 million voted for President
Obama who supported the ballot initiatives in the three states that voted to
legalize same-sex "marriage."
Did your pastor
help prepare you for the issues confronting you and our nation in the November
6 election? Did you hear an exposition and application of the numerous biblical
texts that address the Christian's civic responsibility and the critical moral
issues that were tied to virtually every vote you made?
The prophet
Isaiah said, "Those who guide this people
mislead them, and those who are guided are led astray." (Isaiah 9:16) The unintended consequence of silence?
Silence is a failure
to lead. Can you imagine Moses or Isaiah, Jeremiah or the Apostle Paul,
remaining silent in the face of evil that threatened their people?
The Apostle Paul
instructed the church at Ephesus with these words,
8 For you
were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of
light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness
and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have
nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose
them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in
secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes
visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14 This
is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will
shine on you.” (Ephesians 5;8-14 NIV)
If every pastor
in America had followed the Apostle Paul's admonition in Ephesians 5:8-12,
their people might have been biblically instructed how to
"live as children of light...find out what pleases the
Lord" and "have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness,
rather expose them" at the ballot box on November 6.
Silence can have unintended consequences. I'm not sure the silent preachers of America
anticipated this one.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Your Worldview and Your Vote Part 3 - Forming a Biblical Worldview
Lastly,
this morning, a word about how we form a biblical worldview. Pastor Guy McGraw
has said,
"Nothing
that is morally wrong should be politically right."
Our
worldview will determine how consistently we are able to carry that out as we
cast our ballot. The Bible gives us a truth base from which to shape a biblical
worldview that speaks to every issue we face in our personal lives and as
a nation.
As you
know, the letters of the Apostle Paul all followed the same pattern. He began
with what is teaching or instruction, followed by practical application. The
book of Romans follows that pattern. The first eleven chapters are
doctrinal in nature. That is, Paul teaches biblical truth or instruction about
the Christian faith. Then the concluding four chapters focus on applying
doctrine to everyday living.
In
other words Christian living is to be based on Christian doctrine. How we live
as Christians should be consistent with what we believe. That is what a
biblical worldview is all about.
Remember Pastor Warren? "...every
time you make a decision you access the worldview database in your mind and you
decide, "Because I believe this, I’m going to do this."
When
you come to Romans 12:1 and following Paul transitions from doctrine to
practical application. The word "therefore" in verse one identifies
the transition. You've probably heard this before. When you come to a
"therefore" in Scripture you need to stop and see what it is there
for!
May I
suggest to you this morning, that Romans 12:1,2 is foundational to establishing
a biblical worldview. What is Paul referring to when he says
"Therefore"? He is looking back to his teaching about the gospel in
the previous 11 chapters, probably the greatest treatise on justification by
faith in the entire Bible. Here is a sampling of that doctrine,
Romans
1:16-17, (ESV)
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the
power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also
to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed
from faith for faith, as it is written,
“The righteous shall live by faith."
Romans 3:23-24 (ESV)
23 for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a
gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Romans 5:1, (ESV)
"Therefore, since we have been justified by
faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Romans 10:9-11, (ESV)
9 ...if you confess with your mouth
that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you
will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified,
and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture
says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame."
This gospel is the foundation of a biblical or
Christian worldview. You will find it very difficult to embrace a biblical
worldview without first being reconciled to God by faith in His Son Jesus
Christ. I think we are seeing the truth of that in our society today.
Based on the truth of the first 11 chapters, Paul
makes this appeal, Romans 12:1 (ESV)
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."
This was nothing less than a call for consecration, because of what God had done for them through the gospel. You see reconciliation with God precedes consecration to God. He saved you to possess you.
Consecrating
yourself to God means to surrender yourself to God and His will. That is
implicit in the metaphor of
presenting yourself as a living sacrifice. And Paul says this is "your
spiritual worship," literally your "reasonable service."
The
word translated "worship" involves the mind, reason and intellect. In
other words this is a conscious, deliberate, voluntary, and rational decision
to set ourselves apart to God for his purposes.
Friends,
this is the foundation for living your life based on a Christian worldview. Remember
Barna's claim that
only 9% of "born again" Christians have a biblical world view. Could
this be at the heart of the problem?
Have
we decided in one way or another to follow Christ but have failed to embrace Jesus'
definition of discipleship? Matthew 16:24
(ESV) Jesus said,
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross and
follow me."
Self denial always precedes submission. You
cannot submit to Christ without first dethroning yourself. The cross has always
been an instrument of death. In this case a metaphor of the self-denial Christ demands of us if we are to follow Him.
Paul
then calls the Romans to take another decisive step that flows logically from
the first. Romans
12:2 (NIV) "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will."
Doesn't that sound like a biblical formula or
definition of a Christian worldview? You see, a worldview is a lens or filter through
which you look at life, through which you interpret life and then determine
what to do.
He begins
with a negative command, "Do not be conformed to this world." Phillips
paraphrases it this way, "Don't let the world around you squeeze you
into its mold."
Friends, we do not live in a vacuum. Every day we
are bombarded by competing worldviews. Every time you turn on the TV or listen to your I-Pod; or
read a newspaper or book; talk to your neighbor, work associate or classmate; read
the newspaper or something online; you are exposed to someone's worldview. Everyone
has a worldview.
In
other words, every day we are vulnerable to worldviews that are often in
conflict with our Christian faith. The
question is what worldview are you allowing to shape yours?
Paul
says, don't be conformed to the world. Perhaps you remember in the message I brought back in February (The
Destructive Power of the World) that we defined the world as "The system
that is opposed to God, satisfies self and serves Satan."
Recognize
that what Paul identifies as "the world" breeds many kinds of
worldviews that compete with the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives.
How
then, do we live in such an environment? How do we remain faithful to the will
of God?
Paul
goes on to admonish us to, (vs.2b) "be
transformed by the renewing of your mind." This is both a
deliberate choice and a continual process. We get our word "metamorphosis" from the Greek
word translated transformed."
It means
to be made into something new. It's like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar
into a butterfly. What emerges from the chrysalis is something that looks distinctly
different from the original caterpillar.
The mind
is the center of our thinking, where we reason; where we make ethical judgments;
where we make moral decisions. Paul says it is our mind that is to be
continually transformed. To what end, so "... you will be able to test and
approve what God’s will is --is good, pleasing and perfect will." (NIV)
I believe that one reason, perhaps the most
significant reason, that only 9% of "born again" Christians have a
biblical world view is because a high percentage of Christians have failed to
familiarize themselves with the Word of God.
Back in 2001, George Barna warned us, quote 'The
Christian body in America is immersed in a crisis of biblical
illiteracy.'"
In Paul's second letter to Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV) he
wrote, "All Scripture is breathed out by
God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for
every good work."
Paul identifies four reasons the Word of God is
profitable: It teaches us - that's doctrine, what to believe. Then it corrects us when we fall into false doctrine.
Thirdly, it trains us. In other words, instructs us in proper behavior. Then
lastly, it reproves us or rebukes us, when we get involved in wrong behavior.
Remember the "worldview database" Pastor
Warren spoke of? Here it is! The Word of
God gives us the right doctrine to believe; it corrects our false
doctrine; it defines how we are to
behave and it corrects us when we misbehave. All of that, so that
we might be in a position to recognize what God's will is, and do it.
So
there you have God's provision for us to answer the question "How shall we
vote?" Base your vote upon your
biblical worldview. And then vote for candidates that share your worldview.
Your
pastor told me that several weeks ago he gave out a quick summary of the two
major views on 23 issues prepared
by Dr. Wayne Grudem, everything from abortion to solutions to poverty, economic
justice, religious freedom, same-sex marriage, government debt and more. It
included biblical references on all 23 issues. Study them before voting.
On you
message outline I have included excellent online resources that will help you identify
the worldview and
positions of candidates on many of these issues including their voting records.
In
closing, listen to the words of Samuel Adams, one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence over 200
years ago, who also served as the Governor of Massachusetts. (1793 1797)
“The
moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the
basis of all our civil constitutions and laws...[Therefore,] when you become
entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be
impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who
will rule in the fear of God. The preservation of a republican government
depends on the faithful discharge of this duty. If the citizens neglect their
duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be
corrupted...If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and
happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and
elect bad men to make and administer the laws.”
Historian,
David Barton issues a similar challenge:
"Voting,
that is being salt and light in the civil arena, is not only your right as an
American citizen, but it's your duty as a citizen in God's kingdom."
As we
prepare to participate in this year's
elections as Christian citizens, remember Pastor Guy McGraw's advice,
"Nothing
that is morally wrong should be politically right."
All Rights Reserved James
P. McGarvey
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