Friday, November 28, 2008
This Should Not Be A Novel Idea
My friend Adrian Warnock leads into an extensive quote of Spurgeon with this:
But Adrian is right, we do not hear sermons convicting of sin anymore, and even if submission is the thing, coming to terms with our inadequacies - our sin - is part of learning to submit. Why don't we hear this stuff anymore?
Well, the most standard reply is that people don't want to hear it - it sends them away from church, so we hit them with the good stuff up front and tell about that later. But funny thing, "later" never seems to come. Frankly, being convicted of sin is no fun whether one is committed to the church or not. AS is often the case, what we say about something like this and reality are often not precisely related. Let me lay some other thoughts on you.
For one thing, we substitute the language of the therapeutic for the spiritual. No longer is drinking to excess a sin, it's "an addiction that should be treated." Well, I am here to tell you it is both. We ALL know that the most effective treatment - the 12 steps, begin with a conviction of powerlessness. It is a disease, the root cause of which lies in sin. Treat the symptom, but not the cause, and the disease re-emerges. This is true for so many of the more "common "sins." The therapeutic should work hand in hand with the spiritual, but we seem to use one to dodge the other.
Of course, part of the reason we don;t hear this stuff is becasue we are afraid to be convicted of sin ourselves. We put on a good face, but we are sinners too, and we cannot lead people where we are not willing to go ourselves. I've talked about that a lot on this blog so I will let it be.
The third thing behind this is, I think, becasue we are genuinely afraid of God's intended order. Change, even for the better is a scary thing. That change is even scarier when we don't precisely know what is on the other side.
Now this is the point where most people say, "Ah, but we do, look to Jesus." Yep, but Jesus ended a martyr. Is that what we are calling people to? No we are calling them to the resurrection, but aside from Christ, all the other Christian era martyrs have stayed dead - so we are really back to a change into the unknown.
The fact of the matter is the only way to make the end point of this change known is to go there and be changed. Then it will become evident in us.
We cannot ask others to step out in faith, we have to go there first.
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I wonder—when was the last time you heard another Christian preach or speak about conviction of sin? When was the last time you saw someone on the brink of salvation in tears of anxiety and burden because of a distinct awareness of their sinfulness? It seems to me that true conviction is not present as much as it should be today. If Spurgeon is right, if anyone has not experienced it, we should be very concerned about the validity of their salvation.I long ago quit trying to find surety of salvation- that's God's business, mine is to let it be His. No seriously, because I believe submission to the will of God is the paramount characteristic of being a Christian, then I submit my desire to KNOW whether I am saved or not and trust in Him to make the right judgment.
But Adrian is right, we do not hear sermons convicting of sin anymore, and even if submission is the thing, coming to terms with our inadequacies - our sin - is part of learning to submit. Why don't we hear this stuff anymore?
Well, the most standard reply is that people don't want to hear it - it sends them away from church, so we hit them with the good stuff up front and tell about that later. But funny thing, "later" never seems to come. Frankly, being convicted of sin is no fun whether one is committed to the church or not. AS is often the case, what we say about something like this and reality are often not precisely related. Let me lay some other thoughts on you.
For one thing, we substitute the language of the therapeutic for the spiritual. No longer is drinking to excess a sin, it's "an addiction that should be treated." Well, I am here to tell you it is both. We ALL know that the most effective treatment - the 12 steps, begin with a conviction of powerlessness. It is a disease, the root cause of which lies in sin. Treat the symptom, but not the cause, and the disease re-emerges. This is true for so many of the more "common "sins." The therapeutic should work hand in hand with the spiritual, but we seem to use one to dodge the other.
Of course, part of the reason we don;t hear this stuff is becasue we are afraid to be convicted of sin ourselves. We put on a good face, but we are sinners too, and we cannot lead people where we are not willing to go ourselves. I've talked about that a lot on this blog so I will let it be.
The third thing behind this is, I think, becasue we are genuinely afraid of God's intended order. Change, even for the better is a scary thing. That change is even scarier when we don't precisely know what is on the other side.
Now this is the point where most people say, "Ah, but we do, look to Jesus." Yep, but Jesus ended a martyr. Is that what we are calling people to? No we are calling them to the resurrection, but aside from Christ, all the other Christian era martyrs have stayed dead - so we are really back to a change into the unknown.
The fact of the matter is the only way to make the end point of this change known is to go there and be changed. Then it will become evident in us.
We cannot ask others to step out in faith, we have to go there first.
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