The following post is almost four years old. I came across it tonight and bring it back to demonstrate that the problems that we face are not new.....that they are growing in intensity..... but that the answer remains the same....
In roughly twelve hours from now pastors will take to pulpits across this land. What will be preached from those pulpits will entertain, inform, motivate and comfort. Folks, I don't mean this as a compliment. From other pulpits doctrine will be preached in amongst extravagant worship... doctrine that is man-made and worthless, and yet in others there will be a condemnation with no love and no realization that that condemnation was first ours before God reached in and plucked us out of the fires. In other pulpits, and I don't know what percentage this is, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is indeed preached. The cross is preached. The love of God, demonstrated to us from Calvary, is evident along with judgment mixed with mercy for those who believe.
My hope and my prayer for America, has been what I wrote first in a post from July of 2011: My prayer has consistently been for God to allow 40 more years...one more period where we would be a source of stability in the world, one more generation added to a storied past of spreading freedom and liberty, one more testimony to the rest of the world that God upholds nations who trust in Him. I hope only for 40 years because of human nature. A couple decades of trusting solely in Jesus Christ and we surely would begin to fall away again. Pessimism, you say? I look at it as the opposite for it is only God's mercy and grace that permitted the world to reach this stage and God is as real today as when He, time and again, humbled and blessed repentant Israel.... as when He sent His church throughout the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.... as when the Reformation of the 16th century exploded in the hearts and minds of peoples and nations.... as when he guided the Mayflower to Plymouth Rock and as when He crushed the occult Nazi Third Reich. We will turn to Him as a nation...only should He will it. And if we do not then that is also His will, also glorious as it would be His plan and maybe...maybe...a precursor to His Second Coming in power and glory, the fulfillment of all of history and the final triumph of good over evil. As bleak as the future of our nation is it is within one word of restoration and that word would be spoken within the Godhead. If you are not overly concerned right now, any words that I write would surely seem ridiculous. If you are, then we are two of hopefully many who are petitioning God for one more manifestation of His power in mercy and blessings upon our nation...and therefore the world.
Personally, I'm convinced that should God have mercy upon us as a nation it will begin in our pulpits. If you should happen to agree with me then please pray for your pastor. Pray that he would be overcome with dread at what we as a nation have become and then filled with the power that only God's Holy Spirit can give, the power to preach the redemptive graces won on that cross of Calvary. Graces that can protect us from the deception that engulfs us as a raging forest fire destroying everything in it's path.
The Chapel Library is a ministry that "Send (s) Christ centered materials from prior centuries worldwide." I would like to quote the 19th century Anglican preacher from London, J. C. Ryle, from some materials I just received: "You may know a good deal about Jesus Christ, by a kind of head knowledge. You may know who He was, where he was born, and what He did. You may know His miracles, His sayings, His prophesies, and His ordinances. you may know how He lived, how He suffered, and how He died. But unless you know the power of Christ's cross by experience, unless you know and feel within that the blood shed on that cross has washed away your own particular sins, unless you are willing to confess that your salvation depends entirely on that work that Christ did upon the cross-unless this be the case, Christ will profit you nothing.... you must know His cross and His blood, or else you will die in your sins."
The Reverend Ryle, who preached at the same time and in the same city as Charles Spurgeon, continued, "As long as you live, beware of a religion in which there is not much of the cross (emphasis his).....there is carved oak and sculptured stone; there is stained glass and brilliant painting; there are solemn services and a constant round of ordinances; but the real cross of Christ is not there. Jesus Christ is not proclaimed in the pulpit. The Lamb of God is not lifted up, and salvation by faith in Him is not freely proclaimed. And hence, all is wrong......Do not be ashamed of the 'old paths' in which men walked who were inspired by the Holy Ghost. Let not the vague talk of modern teachers, who speak great swelling words about 'catholicity' and 'the church' disturb your peace and make you loose your hands from the cross."
Our pulpits, many of them, are filled with men who love Christ but for one reason or another failed in their calling to preach Him. Pray for them for in doing so you will be praying for us all in a nation that, evidenced by news items every day, is hastening to oblivion.
In roughly twelve hours from now pastors will take to pulpits across this land. What will be preached from those pulpits will entertain, inform, motivate and comfort. Folks, I don't mean this as a compliment. From other pulpits doctrine will be preached in amongst extravagant worship... doctrine that is man-made and worthless, and yet in others there will be a condemnation with no love and no realization that that condemnation was first ours before God reached in and plucked us out of the fires. In other pulpits, and I don't know what percentage this is, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is indeed preached. The cross is preached. The love of God, demonstrated to us from Calvary, is evident along with judgment mixed with mercy for those who believe.
My hope and my prayer for America, has been what I wrote first in a post from July of 2011: My prayer has consistently been for God to allow 40 more years...one more period where we would be a source of stability in the world, one more generation added to a storied past of spreading freedom and liberty, one more testimony to the rest of the world that God upholds nations who trust in Him. I hope only for 40 years because of human nature. A couple decades of trusting solely in Jesus Christ and we surely would begin to fall away again. Pessimism, you say? I look at it as the opposite for it is only God's mercy and grace that permitted the world to reach this stage and God is as real today as when He, time and again, humbled and blessed repentant Israel.... as when He sent His church throughout the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.... as when the Reformation of the 16th century exploded in the hearts and minds of peoples and nations.... as when he guided the Mayflower to Plymouth Rock and as when He crushed the occult Nazi Third Reich. We will turn to Him as a nation...only should He will it. And if we do not then that is also His will, also glorious as it would be His plan and maybe...maybe...a precursor to His Second Coming in power and glory, the fulfillment of all of history and the final triumph of good over evil. As bleak as the future of our nation is it is within one word of restoration and that word would be spoken within the Godhead. If you are not overly concerned right now, any words that I write would surely seem ridiculous. If you are, then we are two of hopefully many who are petitioning God for one more manifestation of His power in mercy and blessings upon our nation...and therefore the world.
Personally, I'm convinced that should God have mercy upon us as a nation it will begin in our pulpits. If you should happen to agree with me then please pray for your pastor. Pray that he would be overcome with dread at what we as a nation have become and then filled with the power that only God's Holy Spirit can give, the power to preach the redemptive graces won on that cross of Calvary. Graces that can protect us from the deception that engulfs us as a raging forest fire destroying everything in it's path.
The Chapel Library is a ministry that "Send (s) Christ centered materials from prior centuries worldwide." I would like to quote the 19th century Anglican preacher from London, J. C. Ryle, from some materials I just received: "You may know a good deal about Jesus Christ, by a kind of head knowledge. You may know who He was, where he was born, and what He did. You may know His miracles, His sayings, His prophesies, and His ordinances. you may know how He lived, how He suffered, and how He died. But unless you know the power of Christ's cross by experience, unless you know and feel within that the blood shed on that cross has washed away your own particular sins, unless you are willing to confess that your salvation depends entirely on that work that Christ did upon the cross-unless this be the case, Christ will profit you nothing.... you must know His cross and His blood, or else you will die in your sins."
The Reverend Ryle, who preached at the same time and in the same city as Charles Spurgeon, continued, "As long as you live, beware of a religion in which there is not much of the cross (emphasis his).....there is carved oak and sculptured stone; there is stained glass and brilliant painting; there are solemn services and a constant round of ordinances; but the real cross of Christ is not there. Jesus Christ is not proclaimed in the pulpit. The Lamb of God is not lifted up, and salvation by faith in Him is not freely proclaimed. And hence, all is wrong......Do not be ashamed of the 'old paths' in which men walked who were inspired by the Holy Ghost. Let not the vague talk of modern teachers, who speak great swelling words about 'catholicity' and 'the church' disturb your peace and make you loose your hands from the cross."
Our pulpits, many of them, are filled with men who love Christ but for one reason or another failed in their calling to preach Him. Pray for them for in doing so you will be praying for us all in a nation that, evidenced by news items every day, is hastening to oblivion.
