Use of the Law of God
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Important messages
I can’t remember ever recommending a Christian fiction
film before, but because of the value of the truth behind this one, I feel at
liberty to do so. The producers, I think, began with an apologetic theme and
built a story around it. It is called Time
Changers and, if I could persuade you to watch the film, it would probably
not be necessary to write this article.
Its subject is moral values without Christ, which at
first glance sounds like an issue that is harmless and acceptable enough in
evangelical circles. However, we often contradict ourselves, when what we hold
to in general terms, is challenged by an actual situation, in which our
so-called ‘convictions’ are put to the test.
Family
values and moral principles
Among the U.S. presidents, I suppose few were truly
born-again Christians. However, some were God-fearing men and others, although in
some cases immoral, professed a faith in the triune God of the Bible and His
Christ and they knew in which direction to point the nation, when it faced a
crisis. I remember well how George Bush Sr. brought Billy Graham into the White
House during the Persian Gulf conflict and called the nation to prayer.
Likewise after 9-11, George Bush called upon God and people filled the churches
for prayer.
We have never had a president who is a cultist. Any
Christian, who has studied Mormonism, knows that the Mormon god is not the God
of the Bible and the Mormon ‘christ’ likewise is not the Christ of the Bible. Since
its inception, Mormonism has been considered to be a dangerous cult by true
Christians, blasphemous in its treatment of God and deceptive to men, leading
multiplied tens of thousands around the world into eternal damnation. I will
not go any farther in defining the god fabricated by Joseph Smith, or into his
devious lifestyle and diabolical leadership. If Mr. Romney had become president
and faced a crisis, such as the Bushes did, father and son, to whom would he
have turned?
Of course, I am as sure as most of you are that Barack
Obama would do no better. I see him as an evil man, but that is not the point
of this article. There is no question that our country is in deep trouble, not
only because of the deceit of the liberals, but because the conservatives are also
following a lie. The lie is the same one exposed in Time Changers and this is how it manifested itself in the last
elections. (May God have mercy on Americans and the world in the next one in
less than two years.)
Following the lead of a man, whom I, for one, highly
respect, most accepted his logic that Romney “is not a candidate for pastor of
your church; he is running for political office.” Suddenly, the argument that
American society and government was built on true Christianity by forefathers
who worshipped the Christ of the Bible was not important and that we should be
satisfied with “family values and morality” from this Mormon. Interestingly,
the campaign centered on the financial situation, rather than moral decay. And
family values and morality will continue their descent, because there is no way
to define them without turning to the Author of righteousness and true holiness
with a full recognition of His authority.
That, my friend, is exactly the point in Time Changers. In that story a late 19th
Century Christian author asserted that if Christ was unacceptable to an
individual or to society, at least they should be taught moral principle. The
man was, fictitiously of course, transported 100 years into the future to
observe the fruit of his philosophy, into a society devoid of morality and into
a church, where, among many other things, most marriages ended in divorce.
However, people were having a lot of fun playing Christianity. The film showed
that morality and the family will degenerate rapidly, when the Authority behind
them, the Christ of the Bible, is no longer essential. The end result is a pseudo Christianity and a
society akin to raw paganism.
The
Law of God in evangelism
Leaving Western politics behind, I come to a much more
important point, though closely related to what I have already tried to
demonstrate. I want to point to the necessity of presenting the Law of God in
evangelism. It is seriously ignored in modern times and, as a result, few who make "decisions for Christ" have done so on biblical terms.
Only days ago I heard a missionary say that he has
begun to work with drug addicts, because you don’t have to tell them that they
are sinners; they already know it. I don’t think so. He knows he is a sinner?
Does he know that he has offended God? The addict has probably come to the
realization that he has sinned against himself and is on a road to
self-destruction. He might recognize that he has sinned against others,
including loved ones – family and friends. He may understand that what he does
is unacceptable to society. But how does he know that he has sinned against
God, unless he comes face-to-face with His Law?
Granted, because of his condition, he may be more open
to hear the Law, as were the harlots and publicans in Jesus’ day. It may be
easier for him to accept the truth stated by the Law that he is an offender,
than it is for a person who is more acceptable in society. However, he is not
ready for the gospel until he can say, as the song writer, “by God’s word at
last my sin I learned, then I trembled at the Law I spurned”.
Principles and values will differ among people and in
different societies. Opinions vary and so do laws from one place to another.
The authority behind the laws, depending on the population that they represent,
carry little or a lot of weight. City law is on one level, state law is above, and
then there is federal law that carries a heavier burden of justice. All these
are formed by human beings and their legislatures.
I thank God
that Ray Comfort is discomforting evangelicals because of their neglect in
confronting sinners with the Law, but please understand this: The presentation
of the Law as a forerunner to the gospel did not originate with Ray Comfort. It
is at the very heart of all four gospels and carried out by John, the baptizer
unto repentance. If I have been influenced by men, concerning this vital matter,
it has been preachers such as Martin Luther, the Puritans, John Bunyan, John
Wesley, George Whitefield, Charles G. Finney, C. H. Spurgeon, and in more
recent times, Martyn Lloyd-Jones and a Scottish preacher, Duncan Campbell, who
have done so. In fact all great soul-winners knew the value of the Law in
preparing sinners for the gospel. The men I mention did not develop a method,
which they used to get effective results from their preaching. They were men of
the Word, who understood that the Scriptures taught that the gospel could not
be accepted, then or now, unless sinners were firmly accosted by the Law of
God.
Scriptural
Teaching
Here is what they learned from the New Testament: Matthew,
referring to his own testimony, quotes the words that he heard Jesus speak at a
dinner that he himself prepared for Him along with his fellow publicans. It was
spoken to the Pharisees: “It is not
those that are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick… I did not
come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mt.9:12-13), and Luke adds that
He called the sinners to repentance. In the 2,000 years that the gospel has
been preached, never have the righteous been called and not one righteous
person has been saved. Therefore, the only hope for the righteous is that they
come to see themselves as sinners.
It was Matthew, who heard from his Master, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that
of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” He
heard Him go beyond the Law, written in the Old Testament, in order to show the
vileness that is in every man’s heart: “You
have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’… but I
say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before
the court… You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’,
but I say to you, that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has
already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
He went on from there, making point after point from
the Law, until by the Law, everyone was
guilty before God. Who was able to
stand and declare himself righteous before that barrage from the mouth of the
Son of God? Jesus said, "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin (or guilt according to the Greek), but now they have no excuse for their sin" (John 15:22). The Apostle Paul understood perfectly well Jesus’ intentions in
doing so: “Whatever the Law says, it
speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and
all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no
flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Ro.3:19-20). In Galatians 3:24, he wrote, "The Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ...".
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| Plaque of Moses in U. S. Congress |
The Book of the Law was found among the rubble in the
temple in the days of Josiah and when the young king heard it read, “he tore his clothes” and said, “Great is the wrath of the Lord that burns
against us” (2 Kgs.22:10-20). He sent word to a prophetess to see if there
was any hope for himself and his people. The prophetess saw the brokenness of
heart and true repentance in the king: “Because
your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord… ‘I truly have
heard you,’ declares the Lord.”
The proper response
The declaration of the Law is absolutely essential to
bring about the proper response that confronts the sinner with his sin and leads
him to true repentance. When he then learns of the hope of the cross, he flees
to it and embraces it. The hymn writer had been properly and biblically
evangelized, who wrote:
“I was humbly kneeling at the cross,
Fearing naught but
God’s angry frown.”
Only the Law of God is useful in bringing the sinner
to see the immutability of that Law and the absolute Authority that he has
offended. He sees the awful frown on
His countenance. A. W. Tozer saw the need of properly presenting God in the
presentation of the gospel and including above all the first and greatest commandment:
“It is essential in
evangelism that God be presented rightly: The multiple burdens of time may be
lifted from (a man, but) the one mighty single burden of eternity begins to
press down upon him with a weight more crushing than all the woes of the world
piled one upon another. That mighty burden is his obligation to God. It
includes an instant and lifelong duty to love God with every power of mind and
soul, to obey Him perfectly, and to worship Him acceptably. And when the man’s
laboring conscience tells him that he has done none of these things, but has
from childhood been guilty of foul revolt against the Majesty in the heavens,
the inner pressure of self-accusation may become too heavy to bear. Unless the
weight of the burden is felt the gospel can mean nothing to the man; and until
he sees a vision of God high and lifted up, there will be no woe and no burden.
Low views of God destroy the gospel for all those who hold them.”
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