Hindsight

My heart is broken today as I think about my son.  Today, it is one year since he passed from this life into the next.

My heart is broken for a variety of reasons.  Right now, at this particular point in time, I'm thinking about the hypocritical life I lived I front of him and the false gospel that was taught to him for years and years.

Parents, teach your children the gospel.  Not the gospel of try harder and do nice things and be better and volunteer at the food pantry and go on mission trips to dig wells and build things.  That's all well and good.  It's not the gospel.

If you do not know the gospel, here it is:

God is holy...
You are not...
God hates sin...
You are a sinner.  Because of the fall of Adam, your nature is inherently sinful.  Even on your best day, you fall miserably short of pleasing God...
You have violated God's law and deserve His just wrath and condemnation.
Jesus Christ came to this world...
was born of a virgin...
lived a perfect, sinless life that you could not live...
died a horrid death, nailed to a cross, paid the penalty for sin that you could not pay, with His perfect sacrifice, saving from wrath all those who would believe.  On that cross, He took the sin of all those who would believe, placed it upon Himself, and placed His righteousness upon them...
He was raised from the dead, proving His sacrifice for sin was acceptable to the Father, and is seated at the Father's right hand...

If you, deserving nothing but just wrath from this holy God because of your sin, feel the weight of your sin…

If you, deserving nothing but just wrath from this holy God because of your sin, realize there is nothing at all that you can do to save yourself and your best deeds are as filthy rags before God…

If you, deserving nothing but just wrath from this holy God because of your sin, will fall on your face in repentance, cry out to God for forgiveness and place your faith and trust in Christ because of His finished work on the cross….

You will be saved.

Teach that.  Away with the social gospel.  It is impotent and saves nobody.

This is what our children need.  This is what my son needed as a teen.  He got the other.  After God was gracious and opened my eyes, he got the real thing.  May it not have been too late.

If you've believed a false gospel, repent.  Repent and trust Christ today.  Believe the good news of the gospel.  Then, give it to your kids.

Take a Stand

"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths."  (2 Timothy 4:3-4 ESV)

Sound teaching will anger people and cause division.  Why?  Because people have "itching ears".  In the original Greek, the verb translated "itching", or "tickled" in other translations, can carry the idea of wanting to hear something pleasant.  Sound teaching isn't always pleasant.  Sin isn't pleasant.  Repentance isn't pleasant.  Hell isnt pleasant.  The sovereignty of God in all things, especially salvation, isn't pleasant to prideful people.  Humans, by nature, want to hear nice, sugary, positive affirmations because that is what their sinful, corrupt, prideful hearts desire.

In parenting, some people try to be their child's best friend.  In an effort to keep them happy, they let things slide.  They don't do what needs to be done or say what needs to be said.  This is to the detriment of the child.  They need to hear the hard truth.  They need to receive disciplinary action.  The child may not like it.  They may be mad at you.  They may try to avoid you or shame you because they don't like what you said or did.  That's ok, though, because it's our job, as the parent, to prepare them for the real world.  The real world isn't always the way they think it should be and they need to learn this.  As parents, it's our job to discipline our children, telling them the hard truths they don't want to hear or doing the job of disciplining that they don't want done, whether they like it or not, because that is what they need.

It's the same in the world of the church.  We are not called to be everybody's friend, making them feel good about themselves in particular and life in general.  We are called "to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3).  As a believer, that's our job.  We are all called to contend for the faith.  That means we are going to have to take a stand against false teachers, some of whom may be darlings among the people.  We have to stand against Sarah Young and "Jesus Calling".  Jesus isn't calling Sarah Young.  He didn't speak to her in her alone time.  She was hearing from someone other than Jesus.  How do I know this?  Because Hebrews 1:1-2 tells me that God SPOKE to prophets long ago but in these last days, he HAS SPOKEN TO US THROUGH HIS SON.  God doesn't need to speak to us.  He's already done so through the written Word and the Living Word.  Peter talked about his experiences with Christ, referring to when he was on the Mount of Transfiguration.  But, immediately after this, he says that "we have something more sure, the prophetic Word" (2 Peter 1:19).  Scripture is our only sure, objective foundation.

We need to speak this truth.  Our family and friends may not like it.  But, it is necessary.  It is necessary because the enemy has come in, "disguised as an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14), and has wrecked havoc upon an undiscerning, poorly taught church.  He is attacking the word now just as he did in the garden.  He is calling the authority of God's word into question now just as he did in the garden.  Our family and friends need to hear these truths.  They may not like it.  They may disagree with us.  They may get their feelings hurt.  They may try to avoid us or shame us.  However, that's beside the point.  They need the truth.

Brothers and sisters, we must be watchmen on the wall and sound the alarm.  We must take a stand for the truth.  It will not be pleasant.  It will not be easy.  It will, however, be necessary.

As Yoda Would say, "Told Me, God Did"....

"God told me..."
"God spoke to me in this dream..."
"I heard God say to me..."
"The Spirit spoke to my heart..."

Do these words and phrases cause your hair to bristle?  Does your radar start to go off when you hear words like this?  If not, then please allow me to give you something to chew on.  Words and phrases like this should cause alarms to sound in your mind.

People who want a "special revelation" from God are likely to take almost any happening and turn it into "a word or sign from God" because that is what they so desperately and badly want.  But, how would a person know, beyond a doubt, that this "word or sign" is definitely from God?  Satan is more than happy to give people what they want.  2nd Corinthians 11:14 says, "And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light."  In context, this passage is talking about false teachers who lead their listeners astray.  But, Paul says it is no wonder that these false teachers are able to disguise themselves because even Satan is able to do this.  Satan is able to perform false miracles and give out information with the sole purpose of deceiving the one who receives this miracle or information.  Does not our Lord tell us in Matthew 24:24, "For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect."  Where do these false prophets get the power to perform these great signs and wonders?  The obvious answer is Satan himself.  The hard truth is this:  People are not able to definitively tell you if the word or sign they receive is from God.  How could they know?  They have nothing firm upon which to base their conclusion.  They must rely upon subjective feelings and experience, which is never a good barometer for truth.

What about objective truth?  Something to hang your hat on?  OK, well, let's go to the source of truth, God's word and someone who had an objective, hang your hat on this experience.  Peter says this:

"For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.  For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased", we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.  And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place."  (2 Peter 1:16-19 ESV)

Peter, James and John had an experience...a wonderful experience...a verifiable, documented encounter with God.  But notice what Peter said.  He said that we have something MORE SURE, the prophetic word, referring to the O.T. prophets.  The implications could not be any clearer.  Peter, who saw Jesus transfigured before his very eyes, who heard the voice of God the Father on that mountain of transfiguration, who saw all of the miracles that Jesus performed, said that the word given through the prophets was more reliable than his own eyewitness account.  Let that sink in for a minute.

The writer to the Hebrews said, right out of the gate, chapter 1, verse 1, "Long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets."  Notice the verb tense here..."spoke to our fathers".  He uses past tense.  But he goes on, verse 2, "but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son."  Again, notice the tense..."has spoken to us by his Son".  He uses past tense again.  He is saying that God has already spoken.  He has said what needed to be said, through the O.T. prophets and then, ultimately, in his Son, who is the Living Word.  No further revelation is needed.

There is only one reliable source for truth.  That is God's word.  Jesus, in his prayer in the garden in John 17:17 says, "Sanctify them in your truth; your word is truth."  We must hold onto the scripture because "All scripture is breathed out by God."  (2 Timothy 3:16)  That is why we must study and stick to the scripture.  It is our only source of objective truth.  It is breathed out by God.  It is authoritative.  It is binding.  It is inerrant and infallible.  And, if we do not know what it says, Satan will come, disguised as an angel of light, and deceive us.  Peter told us Satan is a roaring lion, prowling around, seeking someone to devour.  When we place our hope, faith and trust in voices in our head, dreams we have had or subjective promptings, we open ourselves up to be deceived.  Satan can easily use those experiences to deceive.  He wants you to trust in those fleeting things because, as soon as you look to subjective experience over God's objective word, you are primed for deception on a grand scale.  Place your hope, faith and trust in God's objective word.  It is your only solid foundation upon which to rest.

Thinking about my son and the gospel....

My wife and I lost our son, Nathan, on Sept. 22, 2016.  He was 25 years old.

As parents, we want nothing more than for our son to be praising God in heaven, to be a part of the heavenly chorus singing around the throne.  We do not have this hope with any amount of certainty.

Our son made a profession of faith when he was a child.  He was raised in the church.  He did all the right things, said all the right words.  You know, he acted the way a good Christian was supposed to act.  He "prayed the prayer", "accepted Jesus into his heart" and was off and running.  His mother and I, having no other barometer to measure against other than what we had been fed, the "gospel" of do this and don't do that, thought all was well.

Then things fell apart.  My wife and I, after years of struggling through our marriage because, for all intents and purposes, my profession of faith was a sham, were divorced.  Our son, having watched his dad live a hypocritical life, saying one thing on Sunday and doing another Monday - Saturday, realized that, he too, could not live up to the smothering behavioral code that we had yoked to him.  He turned away from what he had been taught.

While divorced, God was gracious enough to show me what a horrible sinner I really was, how I had sinned against Him and deserved nothing but His just wrath.  I was turned inside out, brought to my knees in repentance and was granted faith in Christ by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.  After 3 years of separation, my ex wife and I were remarried.  Our relationship was, and still is, better than it had ever been.  With Christ at the center, it's amazing the difference in a marriage.  The damage, however, had already been done to our son.  He was as lost as a ball in tall grass.  He was in with the wrong crowd, using drugs, into eastern religious mysticism, a wanderer, refused to work, went from place to place, despised any kind of authority, had no respect for anyone.  I tried to make amends with Nate but the anger from years of terrible parenting on my part ran deep.  He left Indiana and ended up in Murfreesboro, TN.

He met a girl there, quit the job he had and followed her to Roanoke, VA.  In VA, he made some bad choices and had been in trouble with the police.  He was on probation for some alcohol offenses.  When drinking, his temper would flare and he would yell and carry on when things weren't going the way he thought they should.  He has his dad to thank for that example.  At any rate, he was trying to turn his life around.  He had a job, an apartment and was keeping his nose clean.  But, at the same time, because of his past choices, consequences were starting to pile up.  His girlfriend no longer wanted to be his girlfriend.  He was alone in Roanoke, VA, away from family and any friends he had. He took his own life.  My wife and I do not know his reasoning.  We never will.  We think it was a combination of everything, culminating in utter despair and hopelessness.  Like I said, we will never know.

I tell you all of this to tell you this:
Parents, if you and your kids are in a church that teaches a "gospel" of Do's and Dont's, run.  That's not the gospel.  That's works righteousness.  My wife and I placed a burden on our son that WE WEREN'T ABLE TO BEAR, let alone a child.  When our son got older, he realized there was absolutely no way he could live up to expectations so he walked.  People in the church are asking...Where are all of the kids who grew up in the church going?  I have just given you the answer.

We, as parents, grandparents, youth workers and pastors, have not given our kids the gospel.  We have given them the law and it's destroying them.  As Michael Horton said, "Moralistic Theraputic Deism" is what we have given our kids.

The Word tells me that if my son repented of his sin and placed his faith and trust in Christ alone for his salvation, he is secure.  We are holding onto this hope.  We can do nothing else.  I cannot fathom anything else.

At the same time, it is excessively sad for me to look back at the damage I caused, living a hypocritical life,  placing a burden on my son that was impossible to carry.  I cannot stress this enough.  I have no idea how things would have turned out had I raised my son in a household where the gospel was proclaimed but I can only imagine that it would be a wee bit different.

Do not burden your children with a list of Do's and Dont's.  As soon as they realize they cannot do all of the Do's and they do all of the Dont's no matter how hard they try not to, they are going to despair and give up.

Believe me, please.  I speak from experience.