Unprepared for Dangerous Times
By John Fast
“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” – 2 Timothy 3:1
There can be no denying that we live in perilous times. Our age is characterized by all the marks which the Bible declares make a season dangerous, including the proliferation of myths and illusions which lead the mind astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. One great illusion is the idea, fanatically propagated today, that the problems faced by contemporary evangelicalism are due to the unique nature of modern society. Advances in science, we are told, have made the acceptance and belief in the biblical account of creation and a global flood more difficult for the modern mind. Must we really choose, we are asked, between science and faith? The question itself, however, is misleading. It is not a question of choosing between science and faith (with ‘science’ typically referring to evolution) but between the fallen and often wrong wisdom, theories, hypotheses, and assumptions of man, and the infallible Word of God. Besides, contrary to its carefully crafted public persona, evolution is not science, but a religion, and a false religion at that; therefore it is a matter of choosing between faith in evolutionary dogma and ideology, that is, in the wisdom of man, and faith in the Word of God (Hb 11:3); it is a choice between error and truth, between dark and light, and “what fellowship does light have with darkness” (2 Cor 6:14). One invites the curse of God, the other results in the blessing of God, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord….Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord’ ” (Jer 17:5, 7). It is abundantly self-evident to anyone with eyes to see that contemporary evangelicalism is composed primarily of the former and contains precious few of the latter, “And they have stumbled from their ways, from the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, not on a highway,” (Jer 18:15).
Shifts in cultural, social, and moral norms, globalization, technology, the internet, social media, have all, it is asserted, contributed to creating unique problems for modern Christianity that demand ‘new’ methods and a ‘new’ message, and there is no shortage of ‘success’ stories which those who make this assertion can appeal to support their claims. Therefore, the lessons of the past, it is assumed, can hold no solution for present problems, and those who look to past history for answers to the problems of today are considered out of touch, archaic, and woefully unprepared to face these ‘unique’ challenges. The refusal to ‘change with the times’ is, we are ominously told, the greatest danger facing the church today, and without these changes the church, and even Christianity itself, is in danger of becoming obsolete. We are promised a ‘new era’ if only the church would abandon its older ways and adopt the ‘new’ which have proven to be much more ‘successful’ in adapting to these ‘unique’ challenges. Yet, as is the case with most illusions, it is the opposite that is true. The message of the ‘new’ is decidedly man-centered and virtually devoid of any doctrine that has not been rendered impotent through dilution or distortion, and its methods require no supernatural explanation to account for their ‘success’. In the modern ‘gospels’ the world along with its thinking and practices is to be taken as it is, befriended, and integrated and assimilated into the church. It does not need to first be convicted and converted, and it certainly does not need to evidence any fruit of true regeneration in the life. Wherever these ‘new’ methods and messages and their attending and predictable ‘success’ have come to predominate, the result is always in the virtual extinction of the true church, and whatever form of godliness remains that goes by the name of ‘Christian’, sets itself with malignant determination to resist, ridicule, and misrepresent the gospel of Jesus Christ and the doctrine conforming to godliness.
Despite all the propaganda in favor of the ‘new’, we must learn from past history, and if there is one thing that history teaches us it is that the solution to spiritual and moral problems is always the same, and that is faithfulness to the apostolic message and apostolic methods, namely, to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction” (2 Tim 4:2). It is “through the foolishness of the message preached” (1 Cor 1:21) that God has chosen to save those who believe. “These things… were written for our instruction,” (1 Cor 10:11; cf. Hb 4:2) is still true today. “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you shall find rest for your souls” (Jer 6:16). This is the only remedy in every age. The solution to the problems of today are not a ‘new’ message and ‘new’ methods; it is not a ‘social gospel’, a popular ‘gospel’, a therapeutic ‘gospel’, a commercially viable ‘gospel’, a humanitarian ‘gospel, but the pure and unadulterated message and Gospel once for all delivered to the saints, “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn” (Is 8:20).
Such a Gospel, however, is more unpopular, scorned, and negatively caricatured than ever because it does not accommodate sin, error, and human contribution, or stimulate the level of ‘success’ which the more modern versions have apparently generated, and that is so coveted and idolized today. Mutual exhortation, edification, correction, admonishment, and speaking the truth in love (because today, to lovingly tell someone they are wrong in what they believe and how they live is ‘judgmental’, ‘narrow-minded’, ‘bigoted’, and ‘unloving’), has been replaced with syrupy, sentimental, politically correct, and insincere mutual affirmation and flattery, even when what is affirmed is flagrantly unbiblical, erroneous, and sinful. Being “able also to admonish one another” (Rm 15:15), and obeying the command to “admonish the unruly” (1 Thes 5:14), and “building yourselves up in your most holy faith;” (Jude 20) are today actively discouraged and frowned upon; rather the prevailing attitude is one of ‘positivity, positivity; no negativity’. The identification, exposing, correction, and conviction of sin are today vilified (unless it is to correct the ‘sin’ of exposing, correcting and convicting of sin), and affirmation, confirmation, inclusivity, and unconditional acceptance are highly praised, thereby rendering the mass of contemporary evangelicalism woefully unprepared for a dangerous season. It is essentially a politically correct form of the ‘positive confession’ practiced by the heretical Word of Faith movement, and that now dominates much of so-called ‘Christian’ media. Professing Christians who are more in search of excitement, experiences, novelty, entertainment, self-gratification, self-affirmation, and self-importance, and all those things which attract the notice and are so gratifying to the multitude, more than instruction, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16), will find none of what they seek in a church devoted to the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ and to being the pillar and support of the truth. As one 18th century pastor well acquainted with human nature once noted,
“He who desires to strengthen his virtue and purify his principles, will always prefer the solid to the specious; will be more disposed to contemplate an example of unostentatious piety and goodness which all men may obtain, than of those extraordinary achievements to which few can aspire; nor is it the mark of a superior, but rather a vulgar and superficial taste, to consider nothing as great or excellent but that which glitters with titles, or is elevated by rank.”[1]
Another popular and prevalent assumption is that the primary obstacle to Christian influence on society is the uncongenial and indifferent attitude of the age to spiritual truth, instead of the undiscernible difference that exists between the lives and characters of professing Christians and those of the people of this world, and who know, believe, and obey no more of the Bible than an unbeliever. Before Christianity can have any real influence in society and the world, professing Christians themselves must first be reformed, revived, and recovered to a life of holiness and to the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. It is the change that has taken place inside, not outside the church, that explains the failure of contemporary evangelicalism and that has led to the dangerous season in which we now live. It is the incremental and steady drift away from the true gospel of Jesus Christ (Hb 2:1), the ever-increasing accumulation of teachers in accordance to their own desires (2 Tim 4:3), and the acceptance of different gospels, different Jesus’, and different doctrines that do “not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness,” (1 Tim 6:3) that has resulted in a ‘Christianity’ that is totally unprepared for a dangerous season. The salt has effectively lost its saltiness, thereby becoming “good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men” (Mt 5:13). It is the individual Christian, not the corporate institution of the church that is to be the salt of the earth, as Martyn Lloyd-Jones once stated,
“…the Christian is to function as the salt of the earth in a much more individual sense. He does so by his individual life and character,….After every great awakening and reformation in the Church, the whole of society has reaped the benefit….This happened not by the Church denouncing these things, not by the Church persuading the government to pass Acts of Parliament, but by the sheer influence of Christian individuals. And it has always been like that. It happened in the same way in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and at the beginning of this century in the revival which took place in 1904-5. Christians, by being Christian, influence society almost automatically.”[2]
The opposite principle is just as true, as Lloyd-Jones continues,
“Finally, is not the present state of society and of the world a perfect proof of this principle? I think it is true to say that during the last fifty years the Christian Church has paid more direct attention to politics and to social and economic questions than the whole of the previous hundred years. We have had all this talk about the social application of Christianity….But what is the result? No one can dispute it. The result is that we are living in a society which is much more immoral than it was fifty years ago, in which vice and lawbreaking and lawlessness are rampant….The main trouble is that there are far too few Christian people, and those of us who are Christian are not sufficiently salt. By that I do not mean aggressive; I mean Christian in the true sense….The trouble is that the salt has lost its saltiness in so many instances; and we are not controlling our fellows by being ‘saints’ in the way we should.”[3]
Dead Weight
Our nation, like many others, is suffering from serious moral and spiritual problems. Ludeness, promiscuity, immodesty, fornication, divorce, profanity, abortion, pornography, homosexuality, transgenderism, androgyny, lawlessness, self-gratification, self-indulgence, and out and out blasphemy are no longer considered as even indecencies, much less damnable sin. All the ties of moral order and standards of propriety which bind society together are not only relaxed, but abandoned and almost totally extinct. In the meantime, government, education, and even much of professing Christendom have not only done little to arrest the tide of ungodliness that threatens to sweep away every vestige of truth, decency, morality, honesty, and integrity, but they have been instrumental in defending, protecting, facilitating, and propagating it. As a result, people in general do not look to Christianity for the answer, primarily because they see no discernable difference in the lives and characters of professing Christians, and because they have confused a weak, shallow, carnal, worldly, materialistic, mystical, unholy, man-centered, and faithless modern counterfeit for the real thing.
We must not expect that politicians, bureaucrats, social activists, scientists, celebrities, medication, psychologists, counselors, secular education, forms of godliness, and erstwhile evangelicalism can find or provide any remedy for the dreadful moral and spiritual disease with which this nation and the bulk of contemporary evangelicalism are infected. The plague of sin, when it has been not only allowed, but aided and abetted to operate on the fallen and depraved human mind and conscience with all its poison, can never be cured, and rarely restrained, by the best laws and most dedicated efforts of men and women. God Himself has provided the only remedy for sin and its conscience-searing and soul-destroying effects (Ac 4:12). To look for and resort to any other remedy is not only a futile waste of time, but irrational and a fool’s errand, “Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord, and what kind of wisdom do they have?” (Jer 8:9). More than the conversion of a few individuals is needed if the current climate of evil, materialism, lawlessness, and immorality of this nation is to be changed. The overwhelming scourge of brazen public and unashamed sin and immorality is a dead weight upon all attempts to elevate the moral and spiritual tone of society. The observation of one Australian pastor, made almost one-hundred years ago, is even more applicable today,
“Try as I may, I cannot rid myself of the feeling that it is the Church of God that is largely to blame for much of the present neglect of religion, the forgetfulness of God, the ignoring of His laws, everywhere so patent to us all. The Church of God is absolutely powerless to meet the dreadful unrest of these days, the enervating materialism everywhere in evidence, until it gets back to its original programme; and, ceasing to pare down eternal truth to the level of present-day maxims and fashions, really girds itself to conquer the world by a definite return to ‘the faith once delivered to the saints’.”[4]
History and experience shows that nothing is easier and more common than, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, for ‘the wine to become diluted with water’ (Is 1:22); that is, for the fundamental teachings of Christ and His apostles given to us in the New Testament to become diluted, thinned down, and adulterated by the integration, assimilation, and admixture of human ideas, wisdom, traditions, standards, methods, and maxims that are not only foreign but abhorrent and hostile to the doctrines, principles, and commands of true Christianity. It may seem a truism to say that the thinking, beliefs, and behavior of the Christian are to be governed by the law of God and the doctrines of Scripture, and yet how many have been, and evidently still are, who in the first glow of newfound faith and joy received the doctrines of the Bible as the one and only rule for faith and life, and then have either fallen away under the tests, trials, temptations, hardships, and discouragements of the demands for discipleship, or have gradually yielded to and had their minds led astray by the deceitful and deadening influences of the conventional principles taught and practiced around them. Christianity, we often hear, is a state of mind; it is a life, not a doctrine. What matters is how we live, how it impacts and improves society, not what we believe. Such a notion is not new, but one whose fallacy was exposed by the great Westminster theologian J. Gresham Machen almost a century ago,
“But, it will be said, Christianity is a life, not a doctrine. The assertion is often made, and it has an appearance of godliness. But it is radically false, and to detect its falsity one does not even need to be a Christian. For to say that “Christianity is a life” is to make an assertion in the sphere of history….Christianity is an historical phenomenon, like the Roman Empire, or the Kingdom of Prussia, or the United States of America. And as an historical phenomenon it must be investigated on the basis of historical evidence. Is it true, then, that Christianity is not a doctrine but a life? The question can be settled only by an examination of the beginnings of Christianity….But if any one fact is clear, on the basis of this evidence, it is that the Christian movement at its inception was not just a way of life in the modern sense, but a way of life founded on a message. It was based, not upon mere feeling, not upon a mere program of work, but upon an account of facts. In other words it was based upon doctrine.”[5]
We live in an age that abhors distinctions to the point of irrationally, even rejecting the real and obvious distinctions between male and female, and denying the clear cause and effect relationship between sin and its horrific consequences. It is an age in which not only the world, but the mass of professing Christians dislikes absolutes and hates doctrine and dogmatism. It is an age of compromise, appeasement, and relativism, and that loathes the person who knows what they believe, why they believe it, and acts on that belief, and dismisses them as a stubborn, narrow, and closed-minded person. Believe it or not, there have been periods in the history of the church when standing firm and inflexible on biblical truth and principles was considered to be a courageous and praiseworthy action, but not today. Today it is the man who is willing to consider both sides, allow his viewpoints to ‘evolve’, make the narrow way broad, harmonize truth with error, and bring his principles and convictions into alignment with those held by the ‘majority’ that is glorified by the world. Of all the doctrines that have been adulterated none has had a more deadening and deceitful influence on contemporary evangelicalism than the dilution of the sinfulness of sin. If people are to enjoy their sin and justify their unbelief and rebellion then they must silence the voice of conscience, and they do this by diluting and denying the true nature of God and the true nature of sin. What the Puritan preacher John Yates (d. 1657) noted of his generation is even more true in this dangerous age of appeasement, apostasy, and pseudo-Christianity,
“O how heavily does the wrath of God lie upon the professors of our age for the abuse of gospel light and they do not feel it, God’s administrations in this latter age of the world being more subtle and spiritual and, therefore, more undiscernible than in former ages! O how many have we nowadays who think they walk clearly in the midst of gospel light, magnifying and exalting free grace, triumphing in their Christian liberty, looking upon others as kept in bondage who do not come up to their pitch and practice, and yet are no better than Solomon’s fools who make a mockery of sin, being conceitedly set at liberty, but really are slaves to sin and Satan. Certainly, until men’s consciences are made tender and fearful of the least touches and appearances of evil, they have good cause to suspect not only the strength, but the soundness of their hearts in grace. .…Never, until sin is seen and sorrowed for as the greatest evil, will Christ be seen and rejoiced in as the greatest Good.”[6]
It is one thing to know and assent to a truth and another to actually be governed and guided by that truth in our everyday life and thinking. It is one thing to accept Jesus’ demands of discipleship in theory, and quite another to submit to them in practice. It is one thing to ‘desire’ God, and quite another to desire to be holy and to humbly submit, trust in, and be obedient to God’s revealed Word and will. One is mere sentimentality and does not involve any counting of the cost, whereas the other has counted the cost and has without any reservations responded to the demands of discipleship specified by their Lord (Lk 9:23; 14:26-35). Jesus’ demands and doctrines have not been toned down, diluted, or altered. Granted, each generation will face its own unique set of circumstances, accompanied by a corresponding variation in the external application of the principles laid down by Jesus. Likewise, Jesus’ demands will have an application that is unique to the life and circumstances of each individual. But unique circumstances do not alter the Bible’s demands, prohibitions, and doctrines; rather the demands and principles themselves remain immutably fixed and true, as does the fact that the path of true discipleship remains narrow, hard, and costly, and few are those who find it, and even fewer still who remain in it and persevere until the end. The wide path which leads to destruction is still by far the most popular and most heavily traveled path, a fact to which the state of contemporary evangelicalism bears painful and ample witness.
The true Christian life always has and always will involve the cross, and the cross never becomes easy, light, comfortable, respectable, or popular. It is still a stumbling block to the self-righteous and foolishness to prideful human wisdom (1 Cor 1:23). It is always painful to the flesh because the cross shows us what horrible, wretched, miserable, and hopeless sinners we are and it exposes our sin for the vile evil that it is; therefore the flesh instinctively recoils against it and looks to avoid the cross. The cross not only tells us that we are wretched sinners and failures, but that all our self-effort and self-wisdom is totally worthless and all our righteousness is as filthy rags. It shows us that we are not saved by humanitarianism, religion, morality, science, or good works, and so is an offence to the natural man. Any ‘gospel’ that would add human cooperation and contribution to grace, make salvation contingent upon and the result of some action on the part of the person involved, deny the necessity of repentance and holiness, that would turn grace into license, and condone what the Bible condemns and permit what the Bible forbids, is a ‘gospel’ that will always be popular with the masses because, “Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished “(Gal 5:11). A ‘gospel’ which has no doctrine of repentance and of salvation from guilt and the wrath of God, backed up by a holy Christian life, is at its heart no gospel at all. The whole purpose of God which Paul did not shrink from declaring to the Ephesians (Ac 20:27) included much more than the happy message of forgiveness. Among all those who find the true message of the cross so offensive there is one group in particular for whom the cross is especially offensive as D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once noted,
“But perhaps the people who find the cross most offensive of all are those who on the surface seem to praise it most of all. I am thinking of the people who tell us that the cross is a very beautiful thing. They preach a lot about the cross, yes, but they preach it as something that is beautiful – so touching, so affecting, so moving. And yet I would say that they, of all people, are the ones who feel the offence of the cross most of all. In fact, they feel it so much that they have got to turn it into something that it was never meant to be. They find it so offensive in its stark reality, that they philosophize it into the most beautiful thing, a kind of aesthetic enactment, and so they sentimentalize the cross and talk about it with great pathos. These, of all people, are the ones who feel the offence of the cross.”[7]
An easy-going, comfortable, entertaining, trendy, non-self-denying, worldly-minded, materialistic, mystical, doctrine-denying, sin-accommodating, unholy, man-centered, man-pleasing, self-exalting, arm-chair ‘Christianity’ may be the popular form of godliness of this age, but it is not the Christianity taught by Jesus, His apostles, and the Bible. Jesus did not give us the option of choosing an easier path, writing our own Bible, and following our own Christ – an easy-going, broad-minded, worldly Christ for an easy-going and worldly Christianity. Such ‘Christianity’ is a corrupting, not a correcting, cleansing, and purifying influence on society. It always has been and always will be a dead weight on the moral and spiritual life of any nation, and renders those who cling to it totally unprepared for a dangerous season. There is only one Jesus, and His doctrines, commands, and demands of discipleship have not changed. They do not shift with the changing of the times or changes in human knowledge, thinking, morality, technology, scientific theories, and social standards. Are we willing to abide in Christ, fellowship with His sufferings, and so bear much fruit? God’s precious and magnificent promises and privileges belong only to those who travel the narrow, hard, and costly path of true discipleship, “in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust” (2 Pet 1:4).
Distinguishing Promises
God’s promises are made and belong to characters, not to persons. Rarely in the Bible are any promises or consolations given to God’s people without some distinctive mark of the character to which they apply, and which distinguishes them from unbelievers and false professors. “God causes all things to work together for good” – yes, but to whom? – “to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rm 8:28); “and all these things shall be added to you” – added to whom? – to those who “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Mt 6:32); “There is therefore now no condemnation” – for whom? – “for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rm 8:1), and they are those “who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (Rm 8:4); “and I will give you the crown of life” – but to whom is this given? – to those who are “faithful unto death” (Rev 2:10); “yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach” – yes, but only – “if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, (Col 1:22, 23); “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness” – toward whom? – “toward those who fear Him” (Ps 103:11). “But to this one I will look,” – which one? – “to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Is 66:2).
This is their habitual character. This is what distinguishes them from unbelievers and by which they differ from all nominal and pseudo-Christians, and it would be much better for the souls of men and the body of Christ if this way of distinguishing true from false believers and teachers were practiced in the church rather than the current habit of affirming people as believers in broad and general terms without any further description of what constitutes a true child of God. Such affirmation should be reserved for those whose character brings forth fruit in keeping with repentance, and is in conformity with the Bible’s description of a true Christian and the new birth, namely, those who inwardly hunger and thirst after righteousness, who love and submit to all of God’s Word, who love holiness and hate sin, who actively mortify the flesh and the world, and who from this inward love to God and Jesus Christ are habitually growing in their love, knowledge, and practice of sound doctrine and holy behavior, “And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;” (1 Jn 2:3, 4). The opposite practice has had the evident tendency of instilling and bolstering a false assurance and presumptuous security, that when called into question and examined by the light of biblical truth, is ready to turn on and tear to pieces the faithful servant of God. Darkness, no matter what form it takes, still hates the light, and does not come to the light for fear that the light will expose their deeds for what they really are, namely, evil (Jn 3:19, 20). This indistinguishing way of preaching and teaching in an age that abhors distinctions is nothing less than casting what is holy to the dogs, and is one of the worst mistakes any preacher can fall into, tending as it does to desensitizing the conscience and hardening the hearts of the ungodly, and to strengthen their hands that they should not repent of their evil ways, and in proportion, discouraging the hearts of humble, sincere, and truly repentant believers. O that all God’s people might learn to distinguish between the clean and the unclean, and between the holy and the profane (Ezk 22:26).
Every true Christian is given at regeneration a spiritual, holy judgment and taste by which they either agree or disagree, like or dislike certain teachings, dispositions, and actions, and find themselves delighted or disgusted by them. Like the psalmist they will say, “I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart” (Ps 40:8), and “I hate every false way” (Ps 119:104,128). Therefore, when they discover that something they may have believed or assumed was true is in fact either contrary to or nowhere taught in Scripture, they bring their thinking and behavior into conformity with Scripture. It is by means of practice that they have their senses trained to discern good and evil (Hb 5:14). They “hold fast to that which is good;” and “abstain from (apecho – ‘avoid, keep away from’) every form of evil” (1 Thes 5:22). “Evil” (poneros) denotes that which is maliciously evil and destructive, corrupting, harmful, and evil in its effects. This includes not only evil actions, but the evil ideologies and maxims that lead to the evil actions; ideologies such as feminism, evolution, humanism, materialism, political correctness, neo-Marxism, liberal theology, the notion that God is still giving new revelation today, false theologies of regeneration, justification, and sanctification, erroneous conceptions of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit (so prevalent in modern ‘Christian’ music), as well as spiritual lies, false gospels, and corruptions of the truth. In other words, all that tends to lead the mind astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. Nothing is more needful to make a person a real hater of evil and every false way than to be a genuine and sincere believer in Jesus Christ. Where there is no aversion to sin and every false way there is no true saving faith, but only a form of godliness.
It requires “practice” (hexis), that is, doing something over and over, to have our senses trained by the pure and unadulterated Word of God, and illumined by the Holy Spirit, to discern good and evil (Hb 5:14). The senses that are untrained and undisciplined by a vigorous, consistent, and prayerful devotion to understanding God’s Word, or that have been trained by error and not truth, will be ill-equipped and unfit to discern good and evil. People who will not endure sound doctrine can never have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Their senses cannot be trained if they sit under teachers of their own choosing because they teach in accordance to their own desires, thus the reason for choosing them, and who cannot and will not discern good and evil. It is impossible for their senses to be trained to discern good and evil when they have turned their ears away from the truth and turned aside to myths. They cannot help but be undiscerning, and therefore woefully unprepared for a dangerous season. As the preeminent preacher of the 18th century George Whitefield so aptly warned, “As God can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give them faithful, sincere, and upright ministers, so the greatest curse that God can possibly send upon a people in this world is to give them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm, and unskilled guides.” When the spiritual guides and leaders of people do not have their senses trained to discern good and evil, when they turn a blind eye to false teaching and false teachers, when they are unable or unwilling to teach the difference between the clean and the unclean, and by their negligence leave their flocks to be ravaged by wolves in sheep’s clothing, then the people cannot help but be unprepared for a dangerous season, nor will they be able to stand firm in the evil day.
The reason that it takes practice to discern good and evil is because evil can take many forms and often comes disguised as good, or that from which good can come. Eve was deceived into thinking that good could come from eating the forbidden fruit; that she would be like God (Gn 3:5). Today many are deceived by the same notion, namely, that good can come from sin and evil, but evil can never be the author of good; it can never be harmonized with good; it can never be justified by any apparent good that might come from it. Sin is not capable of any good whatsoever. Sincere and good intentions cannot make sin and evil good, as Saul learned the hard way (1 Sam 15:20-23). Sin’s evil is not lessened by good intentions, and good intentions are no excuse for not abstaining from every form of evil. The apparent ‘good’ and ‘success’ that might come from sin is an illusion. There is no such thing as choosing between the lesser of two evils, that when faced with two sins we might choose the least sin. God may place us in a situation where we must choose between a lesser or greater suffering, as He did David (2 Sam 24:12-14), or between sin and suffering, as He did the apostles (Ac 4:19, 20; 5:29-42), but God never places any man or woman into any situation where they must choose between this or that sin. We may have to choose between this or that hardship, affliction, or suffering, but never between this or that sin. Choosing the least sin can never be the means of preventing the greater sin; rather, the lesser prepares the way for the greater by desensitizing the conscience to the sinfulness and evil of sin. Choosing a little compromise, a little appeasement, over a big compromise will only lead to a big compromise. Choosing a little error, a little untruth, over apostasy will, sooner or later, lead to total apostasy. Using worldly, carnal means for spiritual ends does not sanctify the means, but it always corrupts the ends. This is the immutable principle taught in Haggai 2:11-13, namely, that the holy does not sanctify the unholy, but the unholy corrupts everything it touches. We cannot ‘sanctify the culture’ by borrowing popular ideas and methods from the culture for spiritual work, “Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?” (Mt 7:16). Such a practice only and always corrupts the work, and can never sanctify the means, “And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say), “Let us do evil that good may come”? Their condemnation is just” (Rm 3:8). Lawlessness always results in further lawlessness (Rm 6:19), and ungodliness always leads to further ungodliness (2 Tim 2:16). Modern society and contemporary evangelicalism are living proof of this timeless principle, resulting in a generation of professing Christians who are totally unprepared to stand firm no matter the cost in a dangerous season.
This is the great defect in unregenerate people which the Holy Spirit supplies in regeneration (1 Cor 2:14). The unregenerate, being “hostile in mind” (Col 1:21), rather than conforming their mind, life, tastes, and desires to Scripture, work to conform Scripture to their mind, life, tastes, and desires. They seek to harmonize evil with good, light with dark, error with truth, turn grace into licentiousness, obedience into legalism, worship into an ‘experience’, add their own works to grace, and make their own feelings, presuppositions, preferences, imaginations, experiences, maxims, and popular opinion the test of truth, and which supersede the commands and doctrines of God. They refuse to submit to any authority other than their own mind. When these people attempt to harmonize the wisdom and opinions of man with the doctrines and teachings of Scripture, which of these is typically altered, compromised, and ‘corrected’? Is it the wisdom, opinions, and principles of man, or the doctrines and principles of Scripture? The answer is self-evident. Just as some people may be totally destitute of any taste for the beauty of poetry, music, or any other subject; they take no delight in them, have no interest in them, have no taste or judgment about them, and appear totally ignorant concerning them in the eyes of all who delight in and have a taste for such things, so it is in all unregenerate people with respect to spiritual things. The lack of any taste for poetry, music, art, or any other subject is not a sinful disposition because nowhere does God command that we delight in such things. However, it is the duty of every rational human being to love, delight in, and have a taste for holiness, spiritual-mindedness, and obedience to God’s revealed will, and no one can be destitute of such a desire without being in a very bad, sinful, and unregenerate condition. When Paul prayed on behalf of the Thessalonians that God would “fulfill every desire for goodness” (2 Th 1:11), he was speaking of those desires that are the fruit of a new, regenerate nature – the desire for holiness and purity of life, obedience to the revealed will of God, submission to His Word and providences, to walk by faith and not by sight, perseverance in the midst of opposition and suffering – desires which no unregenerate person can have; rather their desire is to do the will of their father the devil which is to distort, dilute, corrupt, and reject the Word, will, and nature of God.
The natural man may, by way of reasoning and argument, be persuaded in their judgment and conscience that holiness is in many instances right, good, and reasonable, and sin wrong, evil, and irrational, but still be destitute of any love for one or hatred for the other. They do not obey out of any love for God and His Word, and because it is joyful, pleasant, and a delight to them, or avoid sin and every false way because it is evil, odious, and offensive to them, but from other motives and for other ends. The true Christian, however, has this defect remedied, and the principle of divine life with its accompanying love for spiritual things implanted in the soul by the Holy Spirit. This is why it is they, and only they, who find Christ’s yoke easy and His burden light, who “joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man” (Rm 7:22), and who find that “His commandments are not burdensome” (1 Jn 5:3), because only to them are spiritual things compatible with the inward desire and taste of their souls. They hunger and thirst after righteousness, this is the atmosphere in which they desire to live, and when they are not in the way of God, they are as much out of their element as a fish out of water. This is why a true Christian can never sit comfortably under false teaching and unfaithful teachers, which includes all women preachers, or partner in ministry with unfaithful teachers, nor ever worship in an atmosphere of carnal worship (which only appeals to carnal not spiritual tastes and desires), or intentionally compromise with evil, or befriend this world. They have no taste for the modern doctrines, gospels, theology, maxims, and practices that are so much in vogue today. Having tasted the true, they have no palate for the adulterated and artificial; having tasted the old, they do not desire the new, but say the old is better. In this sense the Apostle John states, “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 Jn 3:9). In the same proportion that we have a desire and taste for holiness, see its beauty and taste its sweetness, we will have a loathing and dislike for sin and every false way, and are disgusted with, avoid, expose, and make no compromise with evil.
We have been told that knowledge is power, but this is not always true in the spiritual realm. History and experience bear abundant witness, and we have a multitude of contemporary examples to show us that mere knowledge, no matter how great, cannot keep a person from having their mind led astray and from falling away from the faith. Knowledge without the inward work of the Holy Spirit has no life-giving power at all. There is today a great deal “of what is falsely called ‘knowledge’ ” that has spawned many “opposing arguments” (1 Tim 6:20) against virtually every clear teaching and doctrine of Scripture. The great Puritan pastor and author Robert Trail stated it very well when he wrote,
“Three things are simply necessary unto any man’s having of true religion and godliness; sound principles of divine truth known, the savour of that knowledge in the heart, and the power of that savour in a man’s worship and walk….If the principles of truth be not from God’s word, there can be no true religion; if the truth professed be consonant to God’s word, and faith and love be wanting, it may be a man’s notion and opinion, but it is not the man’s religion; and if the power of known truth be not in his walk and conversation, neither should he himself, nor ought any other think that such a man hath any religion at all….For certainly religion consists not so much in the notions of truth in the mind, (in which the devils, the most irreligious of all creatures, exceed all men), as in the faith and love in the heart, and in the fruits of that faith in the life.”[8]
In an age when so many conflicting voices are clamoring for our attention, when there are so many counterfeit gospels and false Christs in circulation, so much pseudo-Christianity being promoted by so many ‘knowledgeable’ but unfaithful teachers and preachers, so much artificial spirituality, so much compromise with and appeasement of evil, so little distinction made between the holy and profane by ministers and ‘Christian’ media, when ‘love’ is defined as accepting virtually anything and anyone instead of by its biblical definitions – “And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments” (2 Jn 6); Christian love “does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth” (1 Cor 13:6); and “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (Jn 14:15) – and when good is called evil and evil good, when conviction and shame are considered bullying and psychologically and emotionally harmful, and when spiritual discernment, the making of clear distinctions, and calling sin by its right names has become not only scarce but disdained, we should not find it surprising then if the mass of contemporary evangelicalism finds itself woefully unprepared for life in a dangerous season, “For if the bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle?” (1 Cor 14:8).
Unprepared
To suffer for the cause of Christ and for the sake of righteousness is a gift and blessing that very few, especially in this nation, have received. Where among the multitude and crowds of professing Christians shall we find any considerable numbers who are willing and prepared to be persecuted for the sake of righteousness and to separate themselves not only from the world and its evil practices, ideologies, and maxims, but from false Christianity, erstwhile evangelicalism, and to stand firm in the evil day no matter the cost? There is much talk today in some circles of the need for a new Reformation, but how many would-be reformers are willing to deny themselves, take up their cross, teach and preach the whole counsel of God, make clear distinctions between the clean and the unclean and the holy and profane, forsake all their popular and profitable but worldly and unbiblical practices and programs, false theologies of regeneration, man-made forms of worship, and all that leads the mind astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, and that are prepared and willing, if need be, to stand virtually alone? How many are willing to subordinate and even sacrifice their worldly and material self-interests for true spiritual growth and advancement? How many there are today, especially among so-called ‘celebrity’ Christians, whose profession of Christianity is more detrimental than helpful to the cause of pure and undefiled religion, and the true gospel and cause of Christ are for the most part misrepresented, polluted, and corrupted by their worldly, carnal, compromising, unholy, and unrighteous example. How many of these professions of faith would we witness if they were accompanied by the real probability of suffering the loss of all their earthly fame and treasure? The answer is self-evident.
How many professing Christians are willing to give up their comfortable, convenient, traditional, self-pleasing, sin-justifying, and non-self-denying churchianity for the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ and His Word? How applicable are the words of the prophet Hosea to the mass of contemporary evangelicalism, “Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God. For a spirit of harlotry is within them, and they do not know the Lord” (Hos 5:4). How appropriate are the words of Jeremiah to the season in which we now live, “For it is a land of idols, and they are mad over fearsome idols” (Jer 50:38), particularly the idol of ‘success’. The Hebrew root translated “mad” coveys the thought of a mindset and behavior that is irrational, nonsensical, and even self-destructive, such as the worship of idols, chief of which are the idols of self and this world, and that evil can be harmonized with good. The greater portion of modern evangelicalism appears to be given over to the idolatry of self and this world in one way or another. This madness fills the heart and mind of unregenerate men and women, “Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives” (Eccl 9:3). When sin is allowed, and aided and abetted not only by society, but also by professing Christians who reinterpret the Bible to justify their sin, compromise, appeasement, rebellion, and unbelief, this leads to people becoming more irrational than normal. What is more irrational and nonsensical than the idea that the complexity of life ‘evolved’, the concept of ‘gender neutrality’ and the idea that the real distinctions between male and female are the judgmental cliques of an antiquated social order, the normalization and celebration of perversion and immorality, the ‘right’ of a woman to murder her own offspring, that drugging children is preferable to disciplining them, and the notion that unbelief in the Word of God, rejection of its commands and principles, friendship with the world, and a sinful lifestyle is compatible with being a Christian? The degree of insanity and irrationality we are witnessing today, even within professing evangelicalism, can only be explained in terms of God’s spiritual judgment in giving people over to their own wills and their naturally sin depraved and insane mind, thereby leaving them to sink into the deepest and most filthy mire of moral and spiritual depravity (Rm 1:28-32). You may be tempted, dear reader, to think that I am exaggerating the apostasy, madness, and depravity of our times, but I have understated rather than overstated the facts. What J. Gresham Machen noted almost a century ago is even more true today,
“The modern world represents in some respects an enormous improvement over the world in which our ancestors lived; but in other respects it exhibits a lamentable decline. The improvement appears in the physical conditions of life, but in the spiritual realm there is a corresponding loss….Material betterment has gone hand in hand with spiritual decline….In the midst of all the material achievements of modern life, one may well ask the question whether in gaining the whole world we have not lost our own soul.”[9]
It is doubtful there has ever been a season in the history of the church when sin was as deceitful as it is now. Even the most blatant, wicked, vile, and abominable sins have succeeded in gaining the sympathy, acceptance, protection, and aid of government, education, business, philanthropy, and public opinion, and seduced the bulk of modern evangelicalism into calling a truce with sin, error, heresy, and the world. How little remains among modern Christianity of the faith, holiness, and self-denying, self-disciplining, and spiritually-minded spirit and simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ that characterized much of the early church, the Reformers, the Puritans, the Great Awakening, and pioneer missionaries and those who supported them. This modern age has produced a sort of ‘Christian’ and a kind of ‘Christianity’ of another stamp and spirit. We have more privileges, but they had more life, commitment, and devotion. We have more choices, prosperity, and programs, but they obeyed, did, and suffered more. We have much more access to truth, but they knew, believed, trusted, sacrificed, and actually practiced so much more. How many there are who wear the name of Christian, yet are unwilling to endure the least hardship for the cause of Christ and the well-being of their own soul. If we cannot be faithful and obedient to the Word of God, and stand firm in a season of ease, comfort, liberty, and accommodation, how will we be prepared to stand firm and suffer in a season when doing so may cost us everything? “If you fall down in a land of peace, how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?” (Jer 12:5). This unpreparedness, unreadiness, and unwillingness to persevere and stand firm in a dangerous season are the characteristic features of more than one kind of professing Christian.
First, there are the self-serving, shrewd, and nominal professors who are Christian in name only. They are often Christians by birth, not by new birth; therefore they have no spiritual capacity to remain steadfast when trials, temptations, pressures, and hardships come. They are “a generation that did not prepare its heart, and whose spirit was not faithful to God” (Ps 78:8); they have not prepared their minds for action nor are they sober in spirit (1 Pt 1:13); rather they fall for and chase every new theological fad, and are tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine (Eph 4:14). God’s law was never written on their heart, and they never had a heart, mind, and taste for spiritual truth and holiness, so no wonder if they are undiscerning, will not endure sound doctrine, are ashamed of the words of Jesus and His apostles, compromise, and work to harmonize evil with good. A Christianity that begins in tradition, culture, self-interest, and self-righteousness cannot help but end in false assurance and apostasy. They are stony and thorny ground ‘believers’; hearers but not doers of the Word, and so deceive themselves (Jm 1:22). They selectively ‘believe’ parts of the Bible. “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them” (1 Jn 4:5). They have a form of godliness, but deny and bear no evidence of its life transforming power and the fruit of regeneration, so when their faith is tested and their devotion to the Word of God is tried, they compromise, give ground, and then cloak their unbelief, rebellion, and appeasement with noble and spiritual-sounding names and motives, false compassion, pseudo-intellectualism, and work to redefine the clear doctrines and commands of Scripture to justify their compromise, rebellion, and unbelief. When they drift, they drift drastically; when they fall, they fall terribly and usually irrecoverably (Hb 6:6; 10:26, 27), because they have neither the seed of God abiding in them (1 Jn 3:9), nor any of the promises of God made to them. Are there not many such professors to be found in every place today? Might you, dear reader, be this kind of ‘Christian’? I speak now to your conscience.
Simply consider how difficult it is to persuade the bulk of professing Christians today to any action that involves self-sacrifice, self-denial, self-discipline or any inconvenience and alteration of their lifestyle, or that requires more than the bare minimum of effort. Does not the Bible teach that the sincere Christian stands ready to submit to and obey all the known will of God, “Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it” (Ps 119:35); “And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.” (1 Jn 2:3)? Did the early Christians, the Reformers, the Puritans, and faithful saints throughout history enquire more about what is easy, convenient, cheap, safe, popular, and involved the least risk to their earthly reputations and own worldly self-interests? Are not many today like Naaman who desired God to excuse his appeasement and compromise with the idols of the culture (2 Kgs 5:18)? Are not many today like Balaam “who loved the wages of unrighteousness,” (2 Pt 2:15), yet, like Balaam, they desire to “die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!” (Num 23:10)? Today we are told we must accommodate, appease, and integrate shifts and changes in the culture in order for the church to grow, but the faith and love of the Thessalonians grew terrifically and persevered “in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endured” (2 Thes 1:3, 4); precisely the conditions we are told today that are detrimental to a thriving Christianity. Either the Bible and Church history are wrong, or the mass of contemporary Christianity is wrong; both cannot be right.
Do we really think that what we are witnessing today among the mass of professing evangelicalism is consistent with the sincere obedience that exempts no obligation, nor argues with any command, doctrine, and principle of Scripture because they all flow equally from the one and only Sovereign Lord and King? Is it not more consistent with, if not actual atheism, then with that practical atheism that professes to know God yet by their deeds they deny Him (Tit 1:16)? How many today have even the slightest experiential acquaintance with the promise made by Jesus to His disciples, “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you;” (Jn 15:19); “And you will be hated by all on account of My name,” (Mt 10:22), or with Paul’s words to Timothy, “And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12), or with the words of John to the churches of Asia, “Do not marvel, brethren, if the world hates you” (1 Jn 3:13), or with Peter’s words to scattered Christians, “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed,” (1 Pt 4:14). Has the world grown less hostile to God and His Word, or has the mass of contemporary evangelicalism simply become more congenial toward and virtually indistinguishable from the world? If the church is suffering today it is not for the same reasons as the early Christians and the Reformers; it is not due to its holiness, separation from the world, striving against sin, perseverance, faith, and faithfulness to the Word of God; rather it is because it has compromised, corrupted, adulterated, rejected, and all but abandoned the Word of God along with the God of the Bible who is Sovereign Father, Lord Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit. These are the living God who is the all-knowing, all-seeing, Sovereign Creator, Ruler, and Judge of the universe, and who has spoken in the Bible which alone is His authoritative, sufficient, complete, clear, final, inerrant, and infallible Word, and which is to be trusted and obeyed at all times.
Secondly, I appeal to you reader, whether there are not many professing Christians today, and even entire denominations, who would rather choose sin than suffering and affliction; indeed, many who have already chosen sin, compromise, accommodation, and appeasement rather than suffer loss, scorn, rejection, and afflictions, and who then deny that their actions are sinful and reinterpret the Bible, or claim some sort of personal, private, and extra-biblical exemption or permission in order to justify their sinful and rebellious actions. This is always the choice of the nominal and pseudo-Christian. They consider suffering not sin as the greatest evil, and so do all they can to justify their choosing sin over suffering. It was to avoid being persecuted by the Jews for the cross of Christ that the false teachers in Galatia tried to compel Gentile believers to be circumcised (Gal 6:12). Paul might have avoided his persecutions if he had been willing to do the same, thereby abolishing the stumbling block of the cross (Gal 5:11), but he would rather suffer for the truth and the cause of Christ than knowingly sin to avoid suffering. He knew that “it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong” (1 Pt 3:17). He knew and taught that it was a gift of God’s grace to be able to suffer for Christ’s sake (Phil 1:29). Paul once protested, “If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ” (Gal 1:10), clearly indicating that he could be one or the other, but not both. It is still impossible to serve two masters, yet how much of contemporary evangelicalism, both in its message and its methods, is intentionally designed to be pleasing to the sight, senses, wisdom, pride, and preferences of man, thereby choosing sin over suffering. How many, like the Judaizers in Galatia, have, and continue to compromise and side with the culture, then reinterpret the Bible to justify their compromise, in order to retain and gain the approval of man? They have chosen sin over suffering.
Are there not many today who have, and many others who are well on their way toward allowing the culture to dictate the meaning of Scripture, and then deny the plain meaning of Scripture to rationalize their compromise, rejection, and unbelief when they see how costly and what difficulties attend faithfulness to God’s Word? It is the “unstable” (asteriktos), that is, a person who is prone to changing and wavering in their views, principles, and attitudes who “distort” (strebloo) the true meaning of Scripture by changing its meaning, explaining it falsely, and reinterpreting it in order to deceive others and to justify their compromise and unbelief (2 Pet 3:16). These in turn “entice unstable (asteriktos) souls” (2 Pet 2:14). As long as they could live upon the profession of truth, and were admired for adhering to sound doctrine, they were content to preach, teach, and believe it, but when the demands of discipleship become too real, and truth becomes detrimental to their earthly self-interests they suddenly begin to ‘rethink’ certain traditional understandings of Scripture, their views begin to ‘evolve’, they become ‘woke’, and eventually even apologize for their previous ‘misunderstandings’, insensitivity, and narrow-mindedness, and secretly wish that they had never undertaken the cause of truth.
Are there not many today who place their desire for programs, convenience, excitement, entertainment, numbers, amenities, trendy décor and posh facilities over and above the pure and unadulterated preaching of God’s Word; in other words, who are willing to compromise truth for their own personal preferences and desires rather than compromise their stuff for truth? Are there not many today who think that because they sit under the ministry of, or enjoy the teaching of a faithful and prominent pastor that somehow, by association, this makes them a genuine Christian who truly loves the Word of God, holiness, and obedience to God’s Word, yet who in their daily lives habitually deny the very doctrines and teaching they claim to enjoy and who choose sin over suffering when faced with suffering for the truth they profess to love? Are there not many today who think that because they intend to live holy lives, intend to read, study, and know their Bible, intend to spend time in earnest prayer, intend to be the spiritual leader of their family, and intend to be obedient to God’s Word, not perfectly, but sincerely, and therefore by intending to do all these things that they actually do them? Hell will be full of people who were good intenders but poor and negligent practitioners.
O reader, examine yourself as to whether you are this kind of ‘Christian’. Have you become ashamed of doctrines that now go against the grain of popular opinion and that are now scorned and maligned by the culture? Are you now willing to consider the possibility that the Bible or its human authors may have been wrong in some of their doctrines; that the truths which they wrote and taught are not the very Word of God; that the consistent understanding of certain doctrines by faithful Christians has been mistaken for over two-thousand years? Are you already willingly, deliberately, and consistently choosing sin over suffering? Have you chosen to side with the culture rather than be despised, maligned, and ostracized by the culture and by compromising and nominally Christian friends and family? Are you willing to concede to the popular notion that someone who lives in sin, immorality, and is a friend of this world can be a true Christian and go to heaven when they die? It gives me no pleasure to warn you that you are not a true Christian, but it was some outward form of godliness and desire to be considered a Christian that first elicited your profession of faith, but will never enable you to stand firm in a dangerous season and when difficult days come. It is clear by your consistent willingness to choose sin over suffering that you are a stony ground believer, and that some outward selfish reason first moved you to your profession of faith. Take away that self-serving motive, that lust for the praise and admiration of man, self-importance and acceptance, or whatever it may be; make steadfastness in sound doctrine and the exposing and refuting of error and every false way unfashionable and personally costly, then that hidden unbelief and hostility to truth will breakout at last. You can never hold out long under trials and afflictions for sound doctrine and the true gospel of Jesus Christ. How many sad departures are we witnessing today. How many shall we witness in the days to come as opposition to the truths of Scripture grows more intense, and which, in some way, will be justified by the corruption and/or denial of God’s Word. Woe to those who lack a true, sincere, and persevering faith, the faith that is the fruit of regeneration, “For it would have better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them” (2 Pt 2:21; cf. Hb 6:4-8).
As these kinds of ‘Christians’ have no depth of root, and therefore no habitual readiness for suffering, and therefore must be ruined by them, so there are others who may be true Christians who are still a long way from an actual readiness, and so are likely to be a scandal and bring reproach on the name and cause of Christ when their fiery trial comes for the testing of their faith (1 Pt 4:12). It is not a token belief, a little faith, an academic and theoretical knowledge, and a sleepy, drowsy, and sluggish habit that will prevent us from being deceived and ensnared by some ruinous sin, false doctrine, and led into some scandalous fall. We will not and cannot lose our salvation, but we most certainly will suffer loss to our assurance of salvation. The power of God within us will recover us and prevent total apostasy, but consider what an unhappy, miserable, and distressing thing it is to enter into, yield to, be caught by, and overcome by any temptation; to be held up by Satan as one of his conquests and become, like unfaithful Israel, “a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and a derision to those around us” (Ps 44:13), and be the cause of having the name and gospel of Jesus Christ maligned and slandered. Consider the shame when others say, “This man began to build and was not able to finish” (Lk 14:30). How many there are among the people of God who discover too late that they have little or no actual readiness for suffering as a Christian. By no means is any Christian to “suffer as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer” (a catchall term for any kind of illegal or immoral activity, cf. 1 Pt 2:12), “or a troublesome meddler” (1 Pet 4:15), yet how many professing Christians today are.
When Peter told his readers, “but if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed,” (1 Pt 4:16), he was describing an entirely distinct category from any other kind and reason for suffering. A person must first be a Christian before they can suffer as a Christian. Many suffering people today make themselves out to be victims and martyrs when in reality they are suffering as a result of being ensnared by some sin, not as a Christian; they are suffering for doing what is wrong, not because they are doing the will of God. They are suffering as a result of neglecting, ignoring, corrupting, suppressing, and violating God’s Word. If they are a truly repentant genuine believer, then they are to be restored by those who are spiritually mature in a spirit of gentleness (Gal 6:1). Those who suffer as a Christian, however, suffer because of their uncompromising loyalty, devotion, faith in, and obedience to Christ, His Word, His will, and His doctrines.
More than ever the world and wicked people try to shame the true child of God. They try to bully, intimidate, and shame into silence the Christian who would call sin by its right names and for warning that all who practice such things, or approve of those who practice such things, shall not inherit the kingdom of God (Rm 1:32; 1 Cor 6:9, 10; Gal 5:19-21). They ridicule a literal belief of the Bible’s account of creation and a worldwide flood. They scoff at the doctrine of God’s judgment upon unrepentant and unbelieving sinners. They denounce as judgmental, intolerant, and hateful the Christian who would dare to make clear distinctions between true and false doctrines, true and false teachers, expose the unfruitful deeds of darkness, and distinguish true Christianity from the spurious and specious. If there were no such thing as money, there would be no counterfeit money. If there had been no Lord Jesus Christ, His true Word, and His pure, life transforming gospel, there would not be so many different Jesus’, so much corruption of His Word, and so much counterfeit Christianity to expose and warn against. How careful we are to guard and protect ourselves against counterfeit money, yet do virtually nothing, and actually resent the exposing of counterfeit Christianity. True Christians are ridiculed for receiving the Bible and only the Bible for what it really is, not the word of man, but the very Word of God (1 Thes 2:13; 2 Tim 3:16). They are reviled as ‘Calvinists’ (uttered as if it were a dirty word), for believing and teaching the doctrine of God’s sovereign election, especially by those who hold to a false theology of regeneration. Today, beliefs, behaviors, dress, and speech that should produce the utmost shame do not even cause most people to blush (Jer 6:15), whereas the things of which we should not be ashamed, namely, Jesus Christ, His Words and doctrines, and suffering as a Christian, most people are. They are ashamed to distinguish and teach the difference between the clean and unclean, to call sin by its right names, to expose false doctrine, almost truth, partial gospels, unbiblical practices, and unfaithful teachers, to proclaim the unadulterated and whole counsel of God, and come out from among them and be separate. This leads to moral and spiritual cowardice, compromise, and even the denial of biblical truth.
No true Christian should be ashamed to suffer as a Christian; rather “in that name”, that is, all that the name ‘Christian’ stands for, “let Him glorify God” (1 Pt 4:16). Reader let me ask you, what does the name ‘Christian’ stand for today? A genre of music? A demographic to which ‘Christian’ products can be marketed? A political constituency? A kind of bookstore or T-shirt or business? A radio or television station or website? A catchall term for anyone who was born into a family that attended a ‘church’, or who has ever shown the least interest in religion, or that professes to believe parts of the Bible, or that sticks a fish symbol on their vehicle? Has not all meaning been washed out of the word ‘Christian’, just as it has been washed out of the word ‘Church’? Does the name ‘Christian’ stand for anything anymore? This is why we must distinguish between what is and is not Christian, and between those who are true Christians and those who are Christian in name only. This is what is involved in reclaiming the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, and it is in doing this that not only the world, but especially the various forms of godliness that call themselves ‘Christian’, will do all in their power to make you feel ashamed for being a Christian. This is when you will come to know practically and experientially what it is to suffer as a Christian.
How many Christians today are possessed by spiritual laziness, ease, comfort, and slumber? Even the wise and ‘knowledgeable’ as well as the babes and immature seem to now be asleep to the danger of the season. There are two types of spiritual sleep. The first is total, and is found only among unregenerate people, and it is one of God’s bitterest and most dreadful afflictions upon their souls, “For the Lord has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep” (Is 29:10; cf. Ac 28:26, 27; Rm 11:8). The Hebrew word rendered “deep sleep” is the same word used of Adam when God “caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man,” (Gn 2:21) while He took one of Adam’s ribs which He fashioned into a woman (Gn 2:22). It has the connotation of being rendered insensitive to danger. Its Greek equivalent, ananephosin, used only in 2 Timothy 2:26 in the New Testament, describes a sleep and insensibility that is brought on by a drunken stupor. It is out of such a sleep that the Holy Spirit awakens all who once opposed the true gospel, but to whom God has now granted repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth (2 Tim 2:25), and they never fall into it again. This sleep is called by Paul “the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will” (2 Tim 2:26).
The second type of spiritual sleep is partial. This is what infected the church in Sardis, “Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die;” (Rev 3:2). This is the sleep which Paul warned the Thessalonians to avoid, “so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober” (1 Th 5:6). This is that spiritual lethargy, apathy, and sluggishness that can come upon even true Christians in times of ease, prosperity, comfort, and accommodation, and never, it is to be feared, has it prevailed upon the church of Jesus Christ more than now. Where is the hunger and thirst for righteousness today? Where are we to find any significant number of professing Christians who truly hunger for the pure milk of the Word of God? Where is the discernment that exposes the unfruitful deeds of darkness, and that teaches the difference between the unclean and the clean? How many spiritual leaders are preoccupied with programs, numbers, and generating revenue yet are totally unconcerned by the fact that many, if not most within their congregation, are reading, listening to, believing, and following false teaching and teachers, attending ungodly conferences, and repeatedly falling for the latest theological fad? How many choose the broad road of willing ignorance, appeasement, accommodation, and lukewarmness rather than risk offending any party? They ignore the wolves lest they upset and offend the sheep. How many have already repeatedly chosen the broad path of pragmatism and least resistance rather than the narrow and hard path of uncompromising obedience and loyalty to all the Word of God? Where is the zeal and fear of God? Where is the hatred of sin and every false way? Where is there a generation such at that in Psalm 24:6, “This is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face.”? Where is there to be found, except here and there, anyone that has a deep and abiding sense of God’s holiness, of His indignation against sin, the danger of the season, or that trembles at His Word? Is it not with most today what God described of Old Testament Israel, “Who among you will give ear to this? Who will give heed and listen hereafter? Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to plunderers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned, and in whose ways they were not willing to walk, and whose law they did not obey? So He poured out on him the heat of His anger…and it set him aflame all around, yet he did not recognize it; and it burned him, but he paid no attention” (Is 42:23-25).
How many today are gripped by a private, individualistic, self-absorbed, and worldly spirit, eagerly pursuing the gratification of their own personal desires and preferences, and fanatically absorbed in chasing after the fads, trends, fashions, money, pleasures, luxuries, securities, honors, and values of the world? O, how friendly has modern evangelicalism become with the world. How does the world eat up our time, our energy, our priorities, our money, our zeal, cool our spiritual affections, make us soft and cowardly, willing to compromise and appease, and render us wholly unfit for the yoke, burden, and kingdom of Christ. Those who taste so much sweetness and see so much beauty in their life in this world will have a hard time when they are called to forsake and deny it for the name and cause of Christ. They are totally unprepared to take up their cross, deny themselves, and suffer as a Christian. They are completely unaware that it is “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Ac 14:22). How unfit they are to stand firm in the evil day and in a dangerous season. Many have already proven to be totally unprepared for present trials, temptations, and opposition, so how can those who have not yet been led astray prepare themselves for greater trials? How can those who have not yet succumbed to the spirit of the age prepare themselves for suffering as a Christian? Our faith, love, courage, patience, and perseverance must be prepared before God calls us to the practical and experiential use of them in a dangerous season. The diligent and faithful preparation for suffering, girding our minds for action, putting on the full armor of God, and using the means God has provided, namely, His pure Word to train our senses, prayer for His protection and power to stand firm, and fellowship with other faithful believers who are standing firm and persevering, is the surest way of not succumbing to the dangers of the season that have already proven so fatal and destructive to many who thought they stood, but have now shrunk back, compromised, and capitulated.
Are you, dear reader, prepared for a dangerous season? Are you taking any steps to be prepared, or are you willingly ignorant and see no reason why you should change anything and risk appearing out of step with the spirit of the age and making yourself an object of scorn and derision? Prepare your faith, love, mind, steadfastness, and courage before God calls you to exercise them in the evil day. Preparation for suffering is the most successful means of preventing our fall and ruin by those sufferings, and succumbing to the temptations that accompany them, namely, the temptations to sin in order to avoid suffering; the temptation to which so many have already succumbed, and then redefine the Bible to justify their sin and compromise. If our Lord Jesus prepared Himself for the sufferings He endured on earth, even suffering the shame of the cross for us, should we not prepare ourselves to endure any hardship, difficulty, and affliction for Him? Therefore, “consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart” (Hb 12:3). Let us be diligent to heed the exhortation which the Apostle Peter gave to Christians living in a society that was growing increasingly hostile toward true Christians who refused to compromise with the culture, “Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same purpose,” (1 Pt 4:1). Reader, do not go on deceiving yourself with false securities and groundless assumptions of immunity and peace and safety just because we live in a land that constitutionally guarantees religious liberty. Constitutions do not change the inbred hatred and hostility of the unregenerate human heart toward the doctrines, commands, and glory of God. They do not protect against the wrath and judgment of God, nor do they prevent the Lord from disciplining, sometimes severely, all whom He loves (Hb 12:5-10). The marks of a dangerous season are all around us. If we neglect to prepare ourselves to bear up under suffering as a Christian, we will not be able to stand in the evil day.
In the next study I hope to provide some words of encouragement, comfort, and support to those sincere souls who are making every effort to prepare themselves for sufferings, yet are being sorely tempted to sin rather than suffer, and fear they may in the end fall away from the faith rather than persevere when their trials become severe.
[1] Quoted in Steven Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God (Reprint, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996), 10.
[2] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959-60), 135.
[3] Ibid, 136.
[4] Quoted in Iain H. Murray, Australian Christian Life from 1788: An Introduction and an Anthology (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1988), xiv.
[5] J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 1923), 19-21.
[6] John Yates in Jeremiah Burroughs, The Evil of Evils (Reprint Grand Rapids: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1992), vii-viii. (Emphasis added)
[7] Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Cross (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1986), 44-45.
[8] Robert Trail, The Works of Robert Trail, Vol 2 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, Reprint 1975), iii.
[9] J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 1923), 9, 15.