True Revival Begins with the Scriptures

I’ve known cowards in ministry. What I mean by cowards is they were men who desired to preach boldly, but feared the senior ministry team, or feared their congregation, and so they taught what they felt would be safe. By safe, they meant “What will keep me my job.” Many preachers preach their best sermons on their last Sunday at a congregation for this very reason, and why? It’s because we have developed a culture of consumerism within the Church. Our Bible colleges don’t teach men to preach biblically, they teach them to build churches, and often that pushes consumerism and cultural issues. Unbiblical practices, such as congregational votes, have burst the Spiritual momentum of many preachers (apart from the appointment of Matthias, and even then it was done by the Apostles, find me that practice in the New Testament; Elders were appointed). And, while accountability is absolutely required, the local congregation is often led by a mob run by the strongest personalities rather than led by Biblical elders who seek the fear and righteousness of God.

I am not writing this to lament the state of the modern church culture (maybe I am), but my great desire in all of this is to implore you, church member, to read the Word. Deeply examine the New Testament Church, and implore your elders to make the proper reforms. Do not bow to the culture or strongest personalities in the congregation, do not appeal to emotion, but, in the Spirit, lead according to the Scriptures, and, by God’s grace, begin with yourself. The center of the message of the Bible is not happiness, affirmation, or emotional well-being, it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

And the message is that we are all sinners, rebels against our design and Designer, who deserve to be removed from His presence and under His wrath for all eternity. But God, being rich in mercy and at the right time, sent His Son, who always has been and always will be God, to die for our sins (transgressions, rebellions) against His perfect Law. Being that the wages of sin is Death, Christ could not be held by it because He never sinned, and so His payment for our sin was complete, and He rose from the grave on the 3^rd day, conquering death once and for all. If we believe, repent, and are baptized in to Christ (Acts 2:37-38, not my words) for the remission of our sins, we will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, receiving new life in Christ and gifts from the Spirit to serve the Father and one another. We need to hold fast the Scriptures, keeping on course for reunification with Christ, and if we fail, by the Scriptures and the Spirit, we need to return to Christ’s design for the Church. Strong personalities, culture and cowardice are no excuse. Preachers and parishioners alike must be united as one body in Christ to look like Christ and to do the work of Christ. We must eagerly wait for the day of His return, waiting to be found faithful when Christ returns or calls us home.

2 Timothy 4:1-8

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

Jude

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.