The Assembly of the Dead

"Why do you seek the living among the dead?" Luke 24:5

 

Two angelic messengers asked this powerful question to those fearful women who had made their way to the tomb on Sunday morning in order to ensure that Jesus had a more proper burial. But the One they believed needed appropriate spices added to His grave clothes, had already walked out of His borrowed tomb. The sting of death had been swallowed up in victory, and His glorious gospel was about to embark on a global tour that continues to change lives around the world - Amen!

I remember several years ago, while traveling in itinerant ministry, how the Lord led me to only speak on these weighty subjects of biblical revival: a continual lifestyle of repentance, personal humility revealed through brokenness, and the need to be emptied of self and filled with the Spirit in order to accomplish the eternal work of God. As I was obedient to what I believed was His will, I noticed how few church members wanted to hear these truths. Although He gave me great liberty and fresh anointing to preach His word, the responses during these meetings were always the same: personal indifference and corporate unconcern.

Knowing that I was doing what He required of me, I began asking for a demonstration of His mighty power at work in and among His people. There were times when I wept at how callous the hearts of church members were to God's truth. Easter season was approaching at that time, and I was re-reading the gospel accounts of this most blessed event, when I saw Luke 24:5 in a whole different light. As I had been burdened to pray for a work among God's people, desiring to see church members repent of their sin and renew their love for Jesus in order to experience abundant life in His grace, God seemed to ask me: "Charles, why do you seek the living among the dead?" In other words, why are you looking for a demonstration of the abiding life of Christ in those people who might be considered religious, who wear a Baptist label, yet remain spiritually dead?

Alarming statistics are once again moving me when I read that we have some 13.5 million Southern Baptists on our church rolls, but on any given Sunday just 3.6 million of those members will be actively involved in the life of their church. This means that only about 25% of members actually attend, while the other 75% rarely see the need for worship, fellowship and discipleship. Now I understand that some certainly have legitimate reasons for non-participation, but this would only represent a very small minority. Most are absent because of illegitimate excuses! They are not enthusiastically involved in the life of the church because they don't want to be. Which reminds me of another verse: "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that they were not of us." 1 John 2:19

We need to experience an awakening among the membership rolls of our Southern Baptist, as well as other evangelical, Bible-believing churches. The lost in our communities will not be interested in the gospel of Jesus Christ until they see a demonstration of His life in those who name His name, and especially in those who proclaim His name! In October of 1740, the great evangelist George Whitefield said, "The reason why many congregations have been so dead, is because dead men preach to them. Oh, that the Lord may quicken and revive them for His own name's sake! For how can dead men beget living children?" I was stirred recently when reading this testimony by a devotional writer concerning a man named Brett: "It was a natural step for Brett to attend a Christian college and study the Bible. After all, he’d been around people who knew Jesus his whole life - at home, at school, at church. He was even using his college studies to prepare himself for a career in Christian work and ministry. But at the age of twenty-one, as he sat with the small congregation in an old country church and listened to a pastor preach from 1 John, he made a startling discovery. He realized that he was depending upon his own understanding and the trappings of his religious traditions, and that he’d never truly received salvation in Jesus Christ. He felt the Lord tugging at his heart that day with a sobering message: “You don’t know Me!” That very day, Brett repented of his sin and placed his faith in Christ alone. Today, his deep passion for Jesus and His marvelous salvation is no secret. It comes through loud and clear every time he steps behind the pulpit and preaches the word of God."

Please join me in praying for a heart breaking, sin killing, life changing move of God's Spirit within our convention, and in our churches, beginning in our pulpits! AMEN!!

"A man who wanders from the way of understanding,

will rest in the assembly of the dead." Proverbs 21:16

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have 

forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children." Hosea 4:6

Progressive Salvation

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith
into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
Romans 5:1-2

The word 'progressive' used today in a cultural, educational, or political setting is not looked upon favorably by a conservative like me. So, when you look at the title of this Bible study, you might question my sanity. No, beloved, I am not talking about some liberal type of religious experience that has no saving merit. But I do want us to consider this important subject using the historical meaning of the word progressive.

Before this word was hijacked by certain radical elements of our society, the word simply meant to move in a forward, methodical motion; or to proceed in steps, continuing steadily by measurable increments. Embracing this definition and thinking biblically about salvation, one might believe that nothing about gaining a right standing with God through the Lord Jesus Christ would be considered progressive. And that belief would be mostly correct, but not entirely. Let me explain using theological terms that you should be familiar with...

• REGENERATION, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It might take years, or only a few moments, for a person to fully experience this unique and divine activity of grace. As the work of conviction leads a person to a saving knowledge and relationship with Jesus Christ, they are wonderfully, supernaturally, personally, instantaneously, and eternally saved. HALLELUJAH!
• JUSTIFICATION is a legal term found in the scriptures whereby God, in His gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness, declares all sinners who repent and believe in Christ as being perfectly righteous, completely holy, and eternally pure. This work of grace brings the believer unto a relationship of overwhelming peace with God, as justification means that God looks upon those who have been saved and He sees the sinlessness and righteousness of His Son. Therefore, the holy eyes of God look upon us just as if we never sinned.  HALLELUJAH!
• SANCTIFICATION is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person’s life. Sanctification is related to personal holiness. Abiding, learning, obeying, and maturing in holiness as a believer is another aspect of God's amazing work of grace. It is His will that we bear fruit, which speaks of our inner character being displayed through our outer conduct in a way that brings glory to the One Who has saved us and is transforming us. HALLELUJAH!
• GLORIFICATION is the culmination of our salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed. The Bible clearly states that one day all of those who have experienced regeneration, or the new birth, will enter into the presence of the God Almighty forever. Amen! For most of the saved throughout the ages, that entrance has been realized via the doors of death. In the future, a wonderful event will unfold that will usher countless believers into His presence at one glorious moment of time, which is called the rapture. No matter the details concerning the process of our glorification, it is a promise of God that will one day be fulfilled to all of the redeemed. HALLELUJAH!

Now, let's look at those important terms that are firmly associated with regeneration in a little different light...

• Justification: This is my POSITION in Christ - because of His sacrificial death on the cross and my oneness in Him, I am saved from the PENALTY of sin!
• Sanctification: This is my CONDITON of becoming like Christ - because of the Holy Spirit living and working in me, I am being saved from the POWER of sin!
• Glorification: This is my EXPECTATION of being like Christ - because of His promise to one day take me where He is, I will be saved from the very PRESENCE of sin!

Great and marvelous truth, is it not? It certainly is, yet the reason for this devotional and its title is based upon the reality of personal experience with vast numbers of unregenerate church members. Who are these people? They are the ones who claim a type of salvation experience that dismisses God's work of sanctification. They claim to be saved and on the way to Heaven, but they give no evidence to support their claims. Therefore, they embrace the principles of justification and glorification (though they would never use these terms because they have no idea that they exist or what they mean) while denying the reality of sanctification. Listen friend, if someone testifies of being saved and on their way to Heaven, they should consistently display a 'progressive' salvation that reveals a sustained spiritual growth in measurable ways. This does not mean that we reach a place of sinless perfection in this life, but it does mean that others should be able to observe spiritual fruit in our lives, which proves the reality of the inner working of the Holy Spirit within us. Jesus said, "You will know them by their fruits... Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit... Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

"Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked." 1 John 2:3-6