If you step in a cow paddy you’ll get it all over your boot, Christian or not.”
–Cliff Hudgins (Viejo and the Ranger)
“The wicked strut about on every side When vileness is exalted among the sons of mankind.”
–Psalm 12:8 (NASB)
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How to Live in a Pagan, Apostate, and Foolish World
Key Verse: “Have confidence in the fact that we belong to God, but also know that the world around us is in the grips of the evil one.” –1 John 5:19 (VOICE)
My former pastor, Tom Minter, has developed one of the best series on how to live the Christian life that I have ever heard. It is called The Journey. As we journey with Jesus, He becomes our friend, and as we become His friend we learn more on how to live and walk along the journey of life.
Fellowship is what we desire with the Lord. Fellowship means deep, committed companionship. How can we walk in the company of Jesus; how can we have that intimate fellowship and companionship? Enoch understood, for the Scripture says, that he “walked with God” (Genesis 5:22). That was true fellowship. That is what a husband and wife should have as they go through this life together. That is what we must have as we go through this journey of life with Christ.
To have companionship/fellowship there are some requirements. Each of the people as they walk along must come to know the character of each other. Since God is omniscient He knows ours, therefore, it is up to us to know His. That comes through the Scripture, through prayer, and through our daily walk. As we draw close to Him, He will reveal more of Himself to us. One thing for sure regarding the character of God–it is utter holiness.
God knows our character and it is sinful. (Romans 3:23) We cannot understand the Bible and the character of God without understanding the doctrine of sin. Man is sinful, however, most want to disregard this doctrine, or excuse it saying that God made us human and we are only human. That is far from the doctrine of sin. In fact, one of the subtle ploys of Satan is to get man to play down or disregard or dispute the doctrine of sin.
“There is a kind of general objection; the average person today, without thinking about the doctrine and without examining it, just dismisses it as being soft. ‘Ah,’ they say, ‘that old-fashioned doctrine in which the fathers delighted, with the morbidity and almost perversion.’ They talked of sin and preached about it, and hasn’t that been part of the whole trouble? It made men live a kind of cramped and narrow life; they did not know what life and living meant. They so turned in upon themselves, and so overpainted this picture of our imperfections, that they really put fetters upon mankind!”
–D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
This new “woke” generation of cancel culture would have this doctrine completely done away with. However, no matter the fine speeches, no matter the policies, no matter how enlightened man thinks that he is there is no denying sin. They can try to eradicate it from their speech and from written material, but sin is still there. They say that the doctrine of sin has made life miserable and all the brightness of life has been removed. That is one reason for the revision of history–to show that the “saints” were not good people.
“So there is this common deep-seated objection to the whole New Testament doctrine of sin, and, of course, along with that goes the view of life which maintains that really things are not quite as bad as the Bible and the theologians in past have made it out to be. ‘So long as we do our best,’ people say, ‘and look to God occasionally for a little help, then everything can be put right. We must not take these things too seriously…'”
–D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Not take them seriously??!! It was sin that put Jesus Christ on the cross! It was because of sin that Jesus left heaven to become the atoning sacrifice! Sin is disastrous; sin is like vomit; sin is vile and Jesus came to defeat it. Sin leads to death, and Jesus came to overcome it. Listen! Get this! Without the doctrine of sin there would be no amazing grace!