Jun 16
15
THE MESSAGE OF OLD
Many religious organizations proudly advertise their services as “contemporary”. Their true message is, “we deal with topics that are relevant for today’s world.” These religious organizations unashamedly proclaim, “Tell us what you want, and that’s what you’ll get. We will meet your needs”. This tactic is nothing more than an attempt to be all things to all men in order that the masses might be drawn in. These congregations major on issues that are actually nothing more than current events. They sing songs that are designed to glorify the flesh with words that exalt man. Preaching the Gospel has been replaced with “share time” to fill the need for so-called “spiritual growth.” After all the necessary programs have been strategically laid out to meet the criteria of their supposed spiritual needs, these organizations then provide every sort of entertainment and bodily exercise humanly possible. With million dollar budgets, these religious “works-shops” do whatever is necessary to meet the bottom line. That Christ’s honor and truth are being disregarded; that men’s souls are being merchandised means nothing to them! Obviously, men have been left to their own fleshly desires and the blindness of their unregenerate heart.
In the church of the Lord Jesus, oh how different is the case. The issue is not some current event. The believer must hear the truth of Him who changes not. He is not satisfied unless he hears the message of the sovereign, ruling, reigning God who has everlastingly loved a particular people in Christ. The saint of God thrives on the message, the “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” exalting their heavenly Father, the very God who has chosen a people in Christ “before the foundation of the world,” that they should be holy and without blame before Him in love. The believer subsists on the declaration of the beloved Son who, as the Surety of the sheep, has lived in righteousness before God’s law on behalf of all that the Father has given Him. Herald again the glorious message, which is without controversy — the message of God, manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. The regenerate sinner needs to be told again and again how Christ put away his guilt by divinely being made to be sin for him. To the one who has been made to know something of his true need, the message of how the Lord Jesus Christ died under the wrath and judgment of God’s holy law for His sheep, that they might be made the righteousness of God in Him, never grows old. Rehearse again in the saint’s ears these eternal truths, truths that when received are rejoiced in as if they had never been heard before. Justification by Christ’s imputed righteousness, propitiation by His blood, and freedom from condemnation for those blessed ones found in Christ, that is the message that changes not, the message that is the life-sustenance of the renewed man.
Marvin Stalnaker