Neither Paul nor any other legitimate church leader in 2000 years has ever found it necessary (or even helpful) to use streetwise sex education—not as an evangelistic strategy, and certainly not as a means to sanctification for people already overwhelmed with sex-talk from a corrupt culture. Adopting the world’s obsession with sex and filthy talk cannot possibly have a sanctifying effect, because the strategy itself is unholy.
The notion that degenerate subcultures and sexually-addicted people cannot be reached without “learning to speak their language” is an absolute fallacy. Grace Church is seven miles from Hollywood, in the heart of Southern California, in a carnal, pleasure-mad culture well-known worldwide for everything but healthy spiritual values. No city in America is more “unchurched” than our valley, which houses more than three million people. The people of Grace church are reaching friends and neighbors in every imaginable subculture—from ex-cons to ex-Catholics to people in the entertainment industry. We baptize new believers virtually every Sunday night. It is neither necessary nor helpful to inject explicit sexual references into the conversation in order to reach people from such a culture. God draws them to Christ through the gospel.
– John MacArthur
Would that we could see the wall of separation between the church and the world made broader and stronger. It makes one sad to hear Christians saying, “Well, there is no harm in this; there is no harm in that”, thus getting as near to the world as possible. Grace is at a low ebb in that soul which can even raise the question of how far it may go in worldly conformity.
Most people will agree that they are sinners. However, few will readily admit that they are helpless sinners. There is a big difference.
Take notice, that it stands as a blot in the reputation of the Corinthians, that they were altogether for a gospel that should cost them nothing. Corinth was the most convenient, and so the most frequented, port of trade in all Greece. The inhabitants are said to have been very wealthy, proud, and voluptuous. They had abundance to spend upon themselves, but could find nothing for Paul, while he resided among them, and preached the gospel to them. . . . It is a sad word, but too frequently experienced, that a faithful minister of Christ may labor, and yet live in want, in a wealthy city.
The man who is thoroughly devoted to the Lord does not need to wear some badge in his coat lapel, nor to proclaim that he is “living a life of victory.” It is still true that actions speak louder than words.
You must equip your children to function in a culture that has abandoned the knowledge of God. If you teach them to use their abilities, aptitudes, talents, and intelligence to make their lives better, without reference to God, you turn them away from God. If your objectives are anything other than “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever,” you teach your children to function in the culture on its terms.
In the ordinance of singing, we must not make noise, but music; and the heart must make melody to the Lord. Augustine complained of some in his time, that “they minded more the tune than the truth; more the manner than the matter; more the governing of the voice than the uplifting of the mind;” and this was a great offense to him. Singing of Psalms should be joyous breathing of an elevated soul; and here the cleanness of the heart is more important than the clearness of the voice. In this service we must study more to act the Christian than the musician. Many in their singing of Psalms are like organs, whose pipes are filled only with wind.
There is very little understanding or desire for biblical truth and theology even among Christians. The Bible is not being expounded in many pulpits today. Christian radio saturates the airwaves with talk shows and psychology experts. Christian magazines aimed at the laymen are full of testimonies but devoid of solid spiritual food, and so few believers study the Word for themselves. As a result, we are a spiritually starved people who are no longer able to discern truth from error.
Wanting to listen to the Word is inevitable if men and women are born again and have become Christians. A babe…has an instinct for milk. He wants it!…He is alive and wants the mother’s milk, and rightly so. The point is clear. One simply cannot be a Christian and have no desire for a knowledge of this truth — it is impossible.
The church of Christ can as little bear continual prosperity, as long adversity: a calm is sometimes as dangerous as a storm. Many are the temptations and snares of a prosperous condition: it breeds hypocrites; errors and heresies spring up like weeds in rank ground; professors are apt to grow remiss and careless, wanton and secure; to be too fond of the present and to hanker after more temporal happiness than God judges good for them.
I have often thought that the best Christians are found in the worst of times.
Grace will bring a man to Heaven without working miracles, but working miracles will never bring a man to Heaven without grace.
Christ Alone Wyoming 