John MacArthur gives a brief synopsis of the work of the church as it relates to culture and society. In this short video, he shares part of his life story and where he was when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated.
In the second video, Dr. MacArthur answers some questions as it pertains to social justice and the role of the church in society.
One of the comments in response to my previous post shared another aspect of contentment that is vitally important in our lives. Robert kindly pointed out the aspect of being thankful in everything. Contentment is not just a matter of not fretting; although, it is important that we not fret when things don’t go our way. Contentment is also a matter of being thankful for what we have and what we don’t have.
We live in a culture of ungrateful people. You can help someone and never hear a thank you from them but end up being treated as if you caused them problems and they are entitled to what you gave them. This attitude permeates our culture but we, being true believers, should not have this attitude. When someone helps us out our very attitude should be gratefulness towards that person and we should let them know it. Even more importantly, we should be thanking the Lord that He moved their hearts in that direction.
When the Lord takes something from us, we should be thankful for His loving ministrations. It is very possible we didn’t need whatever it was taken from us or not given to us. Maybe the thing we want will end up a stumbling block to us, maybe we will put that before the Lord in our worship, maybe we need to spend time with the Lord before He is willing to give us anything extra, and who knows what else could be the reason for Him to deny that specific thing to us. That is His peculiar knowledge that He may or may not reveal to us in time.
Charles Spurgeon was known to pray that if something he wanted was not good for him then he would rather the Lord keep it from him. This should be our desire, as well. Even the Lord prayed, not My will but Thine be done. Who are we to think that God has to give us something just because we demand it or deem it to be in our own best interests?
Contentment is not based on just one thing we receive or don’t receive in our lives. It is based on the whole of our lives. 1 Thess. 5:18 is very clear in that in everything we are to give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning us. It’s based on no matter what happens or doesn’t happen, whether things are good or bad, whether evil is being done to us or good is being done to us…let us thank the Lord for all things. Is this easy? No, of course not but it’s the will of God and, as true believers, we are responsible to obey God. We should do it joyfully not just because it’s our responsibility but even more so because we love Him and want to obey Him in everything.
Wherever the Lord has placed us, let us be content in whatever situation we are and with whatever He deems necessary in our lives. Let us give ourselves wholly to being “content with such things as we have because He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you (Heb. 13:5).”
A marketing executive from a Fortune 50 company was presenting his firm’s 
plan for success in the world’s market place. He laid out three key points that he lifted from various sources that are essential to his plan:
Corporate marketing says:
#1 “To reach the wallet, hit the heart.” How many commercials for expensive items aim for one’s emotional center (prestige, self-worth, happiness), making no effort to justify their product on its merits? Where’s your heart supposed to be?
#2 “Family is the target & kids are the key.” Politicians and marketing people all know most Americans worship their children – or at least feel guilty because they don’t and end up letting children lead the family. Too many parents surrender decisions to cultural experts or their selfish kids, who learn very quickly how to manipulate mom & dad. What’s the proper role of children?
#3 “Top 4 influences in culture are sports, music, film, & fashion.” This is the one that made me take notice and write down all three points. Who – or what – is your god?
Let’s put aside the wisdom of the spirit of the age and find out what the Bible says about these 3 points.
#1 Where’s your heart supposed to be?
Matthew 6:19 – 21 “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Proverbs 15:6 “In the house of the righteous is much treasure: but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble.”
Isaiah 33:5 – 6 “The LORD is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness. And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.”
Luke 12:16 – 21 “And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
Luke 18:22 – 24 “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. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!”
James 5:1 – 3 “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.”
#2 What’s the proper role of children?
Exodus 20:12 “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.”
Exodus 21:15 & 17 “And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death. … And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.”
Proverbs 10:1 “A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.”
Proverbs 23:22 “Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.”
Matthew 15:4 – 9 “For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Ephesians 6:2 – 4 “Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
#3 Who – or what – is your god?
1 Corinthians 8:1 – 6 “Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any man love God, the same is known of him. As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.”
Matthew 13:22 “He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.”
John 17:14 – 16 “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”
James 4:4 “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
1 John 2:15 – 16 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”
Be known as a child of the King, be not mistaken for a worldling. 1 Peter 2:9 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”
Martin Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) offers a sobering warning from the grave:
“If the West goes down and is defeated, it will be for one reason only: internal rot. . . . If we continue to spend our lives in jollification, doing less and less work, demanding more and more money, more and more pleasure and so-called happiness, more and more indulgence of the lusts of the flesh, with a refusal to accept our responsibilities, there is but one inevitable result—complete and abject failure. Why did the Goths and Vandals and other barbarians conquer the ancient Roman Empire? Was it by superior military power? Of course not! Historians know that there is only one answer: the fall of Rome came because of the spirit of indulgence that had invaded the Roman world—the games, the pleasures, the baths. The moral rot that had entered into the heart of the Roman Empire was the cause of Rome’s ‘decline and fall.’ It was not superior power from the outside, but internal rot that was Rome’s ruination. And the really alarming fact today is that we are witnessing a similar declension in this and most other Western countries. This slackness, this indiscipline, the whole outlook and spirit is characteristic of a period of decadence. The pleasure mania, the sports mania, the drink and drug mania have gripped the masses.”
Your sermon of the week is a fine message by Thabiti Anyabwile entitled Fine Sounding Arguments. The subtitle of this message is How Wrongly ‘Engaging the Culture’ Adjusts the Gospel.
Anyabwile deals with the propensity of so many Christians to “engage the culture” in ways that are not biblical, and he examines not only what “engaging the culture” should be, but he shows how current culture-engaging methods may actually be counter-productive to the message of the cross.
A very well formulated and delivered sermon; it will make you rethink what you’ve been conditioned to believe about our role as believers in relation to how we are to engage the culture.
Martin Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) offers a sobering warning from the grave:
If the West goes down and is defeated, it will be for one reason only: internal rot . . . If we continue to spend our lives in jollification, doing less and less work, demanding more and more money, more and more pleasure and so-called happiness, more and more indulgence of the lusts of the flesh, with a refusal to accept our responsibilities, there is but one inevitable result—complete and abject failure. Why did the Goths and Vandals and other barbarians conquer the ancient Roman Empire? Was it by superior military power? Of course not! Historians know that there is only one answer: the fall of Rome came because of the spirit of indulgence that had invaded the Roman world—the games, the pleasures, the baths. The moral rot that had entered into the heart of the Roman Empire was the cause of Rome’s “decline and fall.” It was not superior power from the outside, but internal rot that was Rome’s ruination. And the really alarming fact today is that we are witnessing a similar declension in this and most other Western countries. This slackness, this indiscipline, the whole outlook and spirit is characteristic of a period of decadence. The pleasure mania, the sports mania, the drink and drug mania have gripped the masses.
The problem is not that television presents us with entertaining subject matter but that all subject matter is presented as entertaining. – Neil Postman
The following great piece comes from Jake Hunt at WiserTime:
You’ve seen these, right? They make me mad. Why? Because they don’t really mean what they say.
Let’s break it down. We’ll call each worldview by the letter it’s supposed to represent. So:
- C = Islam
- O = Pacifism
- E = “Gender equality” (=the LGBT agenda)
- X = Judaism
- I = Wicca / Pagan / Bah’ai
- S =Taoism / Confucianism
- T = Christianity
And let’s assume a very broad definition of “coexist”: living together without calling for the destruction of each other. Here are the problems with that:
- C wants to kill E, X, T, and (by implication) O. If they achieved the world they wanted, I and S would also no longer exist.
- O doesn’t allow for effective resistance or defeat of C.
- E stands in direct opposition to C, X, and T, and accuses those who speak against them of hate speech. Also, they’re trying to edge X and T out of public schools in favor of their own agenda. (They’re afraid C will be offended, so they get less trouble.) E is actually very, very intolerant.
- X’s existence is threatened not only by C but also by O, who invariably supports C over X.
- I and S are statistically insignificant and are mainly on there to complete the bumper sticker.
- T is who the bumper sticker is really arguing against, but poses no physical threat to any of the others.
Historically, T has brought about more tolerance– “coexistence” if you will– than any other movement. But the kind of “coexistence” the people who make this sticker envision is one where at least X and T are completely marginalized.
Sometimes you can just use a good laugh.
The following video is a great follow-up of the post Woe Unto You.
And this video is a great follow-up to The Idolatry of Celebrity Worship.
Ingrid covers the arrested development plaguing many Westerners in this CrossTalk episode: Death of the Grown-up.
This edition of Crosstalk begins with Ingrid’s review of Diana West’s book, The Death of the Grown-Up: How America’s Arrested Development is Bringing Down Western Civilization.
Do you remember a time when kids wanted to grow up to be like their father or mother? Unless you are a certain age or older, you may not even notice the shift that has taken place whereby American adult men and women, many in the church as well, often look and act like “teenagers.”
The highlight of this program is caller discussion that focuses on this idolatry of adolescent immaturity, and how we can get beyond that and raise children properly toward Christian adulthood.
Christ Alone Wyoming 