KEEPING TRUTH IN BALANCE... ... As a matter of fact, any teaching in the Scriptures that is not ‘balanced’ is not truth! For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. - Acts 20:27. “We as pastors are supposed to keep on our knees and ask God to keep us balanced, so that we preach grace along with the fear of the Lord. I see the pendulum drifting off balance” – Dr. Lutzer I have very high regard for Dr. Lutzer! He is a Canadian and if I remember correctly, he at one point was a lawyer and then later became a minister. He is the pastor of Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, one of the original evangelical churches in America, founded by D. L. Moody the great American evangelist. Dr. Lutzer is so very correct, in that there is a very great imbalance of teaching today in most churches and more particularly on the air-waves! I want to elaborate still further with another of Dr. Lutzer’s quote, “Today you would not hear a message like Jonathan Edwards quote Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Now many of you will not necessarily relate to the name Jonathan Edwards because he lived more than 200 years ago. However he was a great and mighty man of God. He was one of the founding leaders of Princeton University. This sermon of his, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” was a classic for 200 years and still is considered by some as such. Now of course in the last 50 - 75 years his sermon would be practically unheard of today. Edwards read his sermons from the pulpit and had very poor eyesight and held his manuscript at his face, and yet while he was preaching sinners ran to the altar crying, “Mr. Edwards Mr. Edwards is there no mercy with God, is there no mercy with God.” Can you imagine a sermon of that type today? Totally unthinkable! But equally how tragic! Beloved be sure, we have one and only one option – we are going to have the judgment of God very soon or we will have a revival very soon. May He show mercy and have revival! Today we hear endlessly of the ‘Love of God’ and ‘The Grace of God’ and little or nothing of the ‘Judgment of God’. Perhaps there will be a few that have enough interest to read Edward’s sermon, if you do not have it, look on the internet and you will find it without difficulty. Now many will say, well that was an interesting sermon! Now Beloved, I am very much aware that such teaching is not the way Dale Carnegie writes in his once famous book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” However my aim as a writer is not necessarily to win friends, but to influence people in an effort to present a “balanced truth. Now some will say, “now Dr. Steeves your teaching is now not balanced.” Yes that is so, but only so temporarily; as the weight on the scale is so imbalanced I am making an attempt to bring the scale to some measure of balance of truth. At a certain point I am going to bring my teaching, and soon, to an acceptable balance of truth. However, until then I am going to show from the Scriptures several verses from the Bible and needless to say, there are a multitude of these verses in the Old Testament and in the New Testament Scriptures. Now if Edwards’s sermon seems harsh, then let me quote a verse from the Bible in Psalm 7:11 “God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.” Is God angry? Can God be angry? Stop and think for a moment! Do you love your children, why of course you do? Have you ever been angry with them, of course you have? God is angry with the wicked, and every day! Now someone will say, well you have just signaled out one verse. Please don’t fool yourself. There are dozens and dozens of verses and expressions of God’s anger. Now then the point is that God is love and also God can be angry. Folks, if there is a Heaven, there is a Hell. If there is a Heaven to be enjoyed, then there is a Hell to be shunned. It can’t be both ways! “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts…” – Isaiah 55:7. This is God’s way of seeing the sinner – does He love the sinner, yes indeed He does and ever will, but the justice of a righteous God demands that he be just, as that is one aspect of His character. God must ever be consistent with his character. His attributes demand that the unrepentant sinner be judged. Read Genesis 6:5-7, “And God saw the wickedness of man was great…” Please read the text thoughtfully. Read Proverbs 1:22-33, however I will read only one verse from this text. Here my dear Friend is what the Almighty says in this verse, “I will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;” God is a good God, a gracious God and a compassionate God; but a sovereign God, who does not play games with the eternal souls of men. Think on this verse, “God will laugh at your calamity.” Read the text and you will understand why God deals with rebel sinners as He does! I am going to quote several verses from the New Testament from the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, “If the world hates you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they persecuted me they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep your’s also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no clock for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both been and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.” – John 15:18-25. Now Beloved think carefully and prayerfully on these words of the Lord Jesus! Preacher friend be careful when you present the Word of God. When they all love you, and find that you are dearly loved; it may be because you have not applied the truth in a way that brings conviction of sin. The Lord Jesus presented Biblical truth about sin and He was hated, not only by himself, but by His Father also! In John 3:19, And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. When we present the truth of the Word of God, we shine the light of truth and their sins are exposed and they either repent of their sins or hate us as was so with Jesus! “But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God… - John 8:40. Now stop for a long moment and think what these verses say; it clearly says that the wicked hate God! They hated Jesus Christ! They hated Him so much that they crucified him! Can you imagine this; that man hates God! Jesus clearly states that the reason for the sinner is that he loves his sin. Listen Folks, these were not lovely little altar boys with shining armor that crucified Christ; they were wicked men. The heart of man has not changed - see Romans 3:10-19, There is no fear of God before there eyes. - verse 19. Jesus says, ...they had not had sin: (no cover), but now they have no cloke for their sin. It was mans sins that crucified Christ! John 16:8, “And when He has come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” There will come a day when the sin issue will be dealt with; if the sinner refuses to repent. “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” – Romans 2:5. Here the Apostle Paul, “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that that knows not God, and obeys not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” – 11 Thessalonians 1:8, 9. When last did you hear these words from the sacred Scriptures? Is God a God of love, yes he is indeed! For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. - Luke 19:10. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. - Jeremiah 31:3. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. - Isaiah 55:6. John 3:16 makes this crystal clear, it could not be more clearly, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Thank God for His great love, were it not for his love we would be in great trouble! Yet as we read the 36 verse of the same chapter we read, “He that believeth on the Son shall have everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Revelation 6:17, 18, “And said to the mountain and rocks, Fall on us, and hide him from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath has come; and who shall be able to stand.” The point I am making here from all of this, is that there must be a balance of Scripture, or the message is not true. I do not need to spend time on showing the love of God and the grace of God, as it is heralded from a multitude of pulpits and air waves. - Dr. Steeves “…not willing that any should perish, that all men come to repentance.” – 11 Peter 3:9. “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.” Romans 13:11, 12. -------------------------------------- Please share e-mail addresses of pastors, church peoples, friends, neighbors, etc. to us, so we can add their addresses to the e-mail network, so that they can also be blessed. However be certain to get their permission before sending! Also share these Inspirational thoughts to as many as possible. Also feel free to comment on any of these articles. However your comments will not be shared on the network; without your permission. YES! You have permission to post these emails and forward to friends or church groups, boards, etc. - unless there is a copyright that says differently. We may not necessarily agree with all aspect of our Inspirational Messages. However our purpose is to bless and provoke thought and study of the Word of God, in the light of the Holy Spirit. [email protected] libertyworldministries.ca Liberty World Ministries Inc. Federally in 1982. ______________________________________ Address: Town Centre Tower 7C 32330 South Fraser Way Abbotsford, B.C. Canada V2T1X1 _____________________________________ 604-864-4357 Office 778-549-1421 Cel ______________________________________ Rev. Dr. Duane F. Steeves, DD President
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 03:41:00 +0000
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