Truth vs Numbers

So many of these modern preachers are much nicer people than the Apostle Paul!  They never say a word against anyone at all, they praise everybody, and they are praised by everybody.  They are never “negative”!  They never define what they believe and what they do not believe.  They are said to be “full of love.”  I am not misjudging them when I say that that is not the explanation.  The explanation is that they do not “contend for the truth,” they are innocent concerning the “wiles of the devil.”  It is not for us to decide what to leave out and what to drop for the sake of unity.  My business is to expound this truth, to declare it — come what may!  We must not be interested primarily in numbers, we must be interested in the truth of God.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “The Christian Warfare: An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10-13,” pg. 119

Love vs Doctrine?

I do not understand that mentality in the Christian Church today which says that we must all come together and sink our differences; and that what we believe does not matter.  It is a denial of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, and of the story of the twelve ignorant, untutored and unlettered men who knew whom and what they believed, and who had the power of the Spirit upon them, and who “turned the world upside-down.”  This is surely one of the central messages of the Bible.  The great concern of the New Testament Epistles is not about the size of the Church, it is about the purity of the Church.  The Apostles never said to the first Christians, “You are antagonizing people by emphasizing doctrine.  Say more about the love of God and less about the wrath of God.  They do not even like the Cross, and they cannot abide the story of the resurrection!  Drop that talk about the wrath of God and Christ’s ethical teaching!”  Not so do the Apostles speak!

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “The Christian Warfare: An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10-13,” pg.118

There Is Only One God and One Mediator

I am not interested in a World Congress of Faiths.  I cannot kneel down together with, and look up with people, one of whom is looking at Confucius and another at Mohammed and another at the Buddha, and another at some philosopher.  I cannot!  There is only One to look at, it is this blessed Son of God.  And I have no sense of unity and no fellowship with any man who is not looking together with me at the same Saviour.  “There is one God and one mediator (and one mediator only) between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).  There is on unity apart from this.  We are together in failure and hopelessness, and now we are looking together at the same blessed Person.  And if we are not, what is the value of talking about unity?  What is the value of talking about having things in common and claiming that we are all one, if there is any question about Him, as to whether He is Son of God or only man?  If there is any doubt about it there is no unity, there is no fellowship.  We must confess together that there is only one Saviour, one only Lord Jesus Christ, God and Man, two natures in one person, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, risen again.  There must be no question about Him!  There is no unity unless we are agreed about Him!  The same Saviour, the same Person!

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, God’s Way of Reconciliation: An Exposition of Ephesians 2, pp.284-285

True Unity

To me one of the major tragedies of the hour, and especially in the realm of the Church, is that most of the time seems to be taken up by the leaders in preaching about unity instead of preaching the gospel that alone can produce unity.  The time is spent in talking and in conferences, endlessly -- conferences in which they "explore their difficulties".  You will never get unity that way.  It is the gospel alone that will produce unity.  And while there is disagreement about the gospel it is a waste of breath and of energy to be talking about any other possible way to unity.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, God’s Way of Reconciliation: An Exposition of Ephesians 2, p.157

Unity in Truth

I just finished reading an excellent book by Norman Geisler & Ron Rhodes titled, “Conviction Without Compromise.”  I highly recommend it.

One of the lessons at the end of the book is, “There is no true unity without unity in the truth.”  I think that says a mouthful, and should be heeded by those in the Emergent church movement, not to mention everyone else.  Too many people are willing to have “unity” at the expense of solid doctrine.  It can’t be done.

An illustration used by the authors was about worship:

“Jesus instructed us to worship God ‘in spirit and in truth’ (John 4:24).  So there is no true worship without worship in the truth.  Because worship means ‘honor’ or ‘worth-ship,’ one cannot truly worship God without speaking the truth about Him.  Surely parents would not be honored by a child who spoke falsehoods and lies about them.  Neither can God be truly worshiped by songs consisting of words that are not doctrinally sound or that speak falsehoods about Him.  Likewise, no matter how good one may feel about a so-called worship or spiritual experience, if it is not based on and does not express truth, it is not a true experience of God.  We conclude, then, that there is, in truth, no true unity without unity in the truth.”

This reminds me of those who claim to be Christians while at the same time claiming that God is okay with homosexual behavior and abortion.  They are telling lies about God.  God is not honored by such people who refuse to tell the truth about Him.  Of course there are many other lies supposed Christians tell about God, but these two seem to be the most prevalent among those who are liberal in their belief system.

Remember, God is not honored by worship when those who worship him tell lies about Him.