Reformed Baptist Thinking

We all know them, the kids who were raised in church. They were stars of the youth group. They maybe even sang in the praise band or led worship. And…

Top 10 Reasons our Kids Leave Church

“Most people catch their presuppositions from their family and surrounding society, the way that a child catches the measles. But people with understanding realize that their presuppositions should be *chosen* after a careful consideration of which worldview is true.” 
― Francis A. Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture

So where do we get our presuppositions?  

¹¹ Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. ¹² For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. ¹³ But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible,^[1]

In 1^st Chronicles 12 the mighty men of Israel under David are listed by tribes, in verse 12 we are told:

Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs, and all their kinsmen under their command.^[2]

The culture that is around us is powerful, we can compromise our biblical worldview to the culture and not even realize we have.  The TV and movies we watch, the music we listen to can and does affect how we look at the world around us.  What do we laugh at when we watch a comedy, does God condemn what we find funny? How do we talk to others about our wives and families?  Do we make jokes about our wives? Do we seek ways to avoid spending time with our children, so we can spend time on ourselves?  Do we capitulate our spiritual leadership in the home and family to our wives?

I saw this posted the other day and while it was intended to be funny I personally think this is an extremely sad commentary of how men have largely capitulated their spiritual leadership and over all authority in the home and family!

This is the kind of thing we need to be watchful of, laughing at things like this sears our consciences a little at a time until we are looking at the world around us through the lens of the culture rather than through the lens of Scripture. We must always be on guard, we must look at everything we do, watch, and listen to critically.  We need to understand that we are in a war. In WW2 there was a saying “Loose Lips sinks ships” why was that important? If the location and movements of military assets was to be inadvertently be given away to the enemy, then lives could potentially be lost.  In the same way we must always be on guard to our surroundings what sounds good and right may not always be good and right when we look at it from the lens of scripture. Worldviews and presuppositions come at us from many different directions, unfortunately, one of common way  false presuppositions come at us is through some “Contemporary Christian Music.  I have many times heard a song on the radio and catch myself singing along only to stop and ask, what did I just sing, and there’s something about that that just doesn’t line up with God’s Word.  And why should that surprise us, Remember for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light^[1].  We must Remember Paul commended the Bereans because they were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.^[2]  So I’ll leave us with this question, If they were commended for examining the Scriptures against what the Apostle Paul said, should we not examine them against what we hear and sing, and read from men today?

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (2 Co 11:14). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

^[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ac 17:11). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Eph 5:11–13). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

^[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (1 Ch 12:32). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Judges 2:1-3

Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.

”The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jdg 2:1–3). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Judges 2 :21-22

I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did, or not.”

”The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jdg 2:21–22). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Some other passages that address this subject are 

Numbers 33:55-56 and  Joshua 23:13

William Gurnall in The Christian in Complete Armour said:

He doth not by this shew thee to be a hypocrite, but gives thee a fair advantage of proving thyself sincere; not much unlike his dealings with the Israelites, before whom he did not, as they expected, hastily drive out the nations, but left them as thorns in their sides, and why? hear the reason from God’s own mouth, Judges 2:22 : ‘That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein as their fathers did keep it, or not.’ Thus God leaves these corruptions in thee, to prove whether thou wilt at last fall in and be friends with them, or maintain the conflict with them, and continue praying against them, by which perseverance thou wilt prove thyself to be indeed upright.

Gurnall, W., & Campbell, J. (1845). The Christian in Complete Armour (p. 252). London: Thomas Tegg.

When we think about “Thorns in the Flesh” we most often think about the passage in 

2 Corinthians 12:7-8 Where the Apostle Paul, speaks of his “thorn in the flesh”. Most folks tend to think that this was some type of physical affliction that affected Paul, and it may well have been. But in looking at some of these passages it’s apparent that there are times when God may give us a Spiritual “Thorn in the Flesh” and based what we read here it sometimes is a result of our own disobedience to God’s Word.

Do we ever have people in our lives, co-workers, neighbors, acquaintances, that it’s clear by their behavior, actions and, speech that they are not believers? I know I have co-workers that every other word out of their mouth is profanity. Their morals or lack thereof are obvious. Yet they and many others like them are placed in our lives. Often, we tend to think our lives would be so much easier if these kind of folks were not around us, that all the unbelievers we encountered were calm, easy going and not blaspheming every time they spoke, and receptive to the gospel, or at least not in open hostility to it? Generally, the folks we are around most of our days are a mix with some on either extreme and most somewhere in the middle.

Certainly, we are called to share the gospel with all the kinds of folks like I just described, even the most vial of these people can have moments where there is an opening to show them that they are sinners in need of a savior, and we must seize those opportunities to introduce them to Jesus. 

However, if we look at the passages above, do we ever consider that it could very well be that God has allowed them to be in our lives as a test of our own unfaithfulness, just as He did when He did not remove the nations from the land of Canaan? And not just those on the extreme, but the “good guys” we are around who may not cuss like sailors, or gawk at every female that walks by, but are just as lost as those who do, can be a test for our own faithfulness. He allows people in our lives that are living in idolatry and it is our responsibility to remain faithful as we go about our lives. We must be careful how much association we have with unbelievers, while we often need to have a working relationship with them, if we begin to develop personal relationships that are not deliberate evangelistic opportunities it very easy to fall into the same idolatrous practices that consume their lives.

This was the Apostle Paul’s warning to the Corinthian church when under the influence of those who were denying the resurrection.

​

1 Corinthians 15:33 ESV

Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

This is why the Israelites were warned by God over and over not to allow inter marriage with the pagan cultures that lived around them and why it usually led to disaster when they did it anyway. 

We must find the balance between being salt and light to a lost and dying world and crossing over into idolatry ourselves by too close an association with unbelievers. We must also surround ourselves with faithful brothers who will keep us on the right path and even bring us correction if they see us start to stray, and we must have boldness to confront our brothers when we see them start down a path away from the truth of the gospel, by their interaction with unbelievers.

So, this week as we go about our daily lives when we encounter unbelievers, remember, look for those opportunities to share with them that they are sinners and that there is nothing they can do to save themselves, but that there is a savior who will save them by His grace. We must also need to see the encounter as whether we will, as the author of Judges says, “take care to walk in the way of the Lord.”

Going to start off by saying I actually started writing this several weeks ago, as I was gathering my thoughts and making some notes, I started feeling bad, and when I finally got bad enough to go to the Doctor, low and behold I tested positive for The Rona!  It hit me pretty hard, so I’ve been out of it for a while.  Still not over it but doing a lot better.

Secondly this blog post is going to be a little different than the previous ones. For this post I’m not going to get theological and we aren’t going to dig into scripture. So, you ask, what is this going to be about then? Well I’m glad you asked!

There have been a couple of seemingly unrelated events that have me thinking about some things and as I thought through them, they may not be as unrelated as I first thought.  We all have heard about how Amazon pulled the plug on Parler by knocking them off their servers, because they wouldn’t shut down certain accounts. Now I’m a great believer that private companies and individuals are perfectly within their rights to do business or not with who ever they choose (this should apply to florists and cake bakers, just as well as Amazon, but that’s a discussion for another day), but another event got me to thinking about something else.

Our pastor leads a group of men mostly from our church (though we have a few from other area churches) we meet once a month and we receive a book then the next month we discuss that book together, after reading it. Each man participating pays a predetermined amount up front that covers all the books for the year as well as a banquet we have with our wives in December. Then through the year our pastor orders the books for the whole group.

He ordered the book we are kicking off with this year, Foundations of Grace, by Steven Lawson, but Amazon would only allow him to order 4 books at a time. He asked me to order 4 more so we could get enough books here in time which I gladly did.

Now I didn’t have to order them from Amazon, there are other outlets I could have ordered from, but Amazon is so easy, put in what you want and 2 day later it magically shows up in my mailbox, and thanks to being a Prime member, I didn’t even have to pay for that 2 day shipping!

But as I considered this, I had to wonder, what is the price we all may one day have to pay for that ease and convenience? Amazon holds the strings that can just decide we don’t want the general public to have access to Parler. (this goes much deeper than Parler, or Amazon and applies to any platform.  Haven’t ourselves and others banned from Facebook, Twitter, or fill in the blank for something they didn’t like us saying.)

Now Amazon has limited their customers from buying more than 4 of a certain book.  Why 4? Why not 2 or, 1 or, none. They say it’s due to limited stock, but do they really need a reason? Couldn’t they just decide that they don’t think certain books should not be read and not sell them anymore? 

So, what would we do then? Maybe we could get it from a Christian Book seller like Lifeway, or Christian Book Distributer.  Or maybe we couldn’t? What if our need for ease and convenience causes these other suppliers to go out of business? Lifeway has already closed all their brick and mortar stores, what’s next?

Here is what I plan to do, when I want or need a book (according to my wife my book buying is close to an addiction) I’ll look first at the smaller publishers such as Founders Ministries, Reformation Heritage Book, or the dozens of others out there.  If I can’t find it there, I’ll look at Lifeway, CBD, or some other Christian book seller.  Only as a last resort will I order a Christian Book through Amazon, or Barnes and Noble and such.

Will the cost be a little higher? Will I have to pay for shipping? Will it take longer to get here?  The answer to all of these is probably yes, but I personally would rather see some of these other resources stick around to have the books I want and need available than to have Amazon or some other big company decide for me what I should or should not read.

I’m not suggesting that others must do this the way I am, but I am suggesting that you should think about it!

Hosea 8:11-12 (NASB)
Since Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin, They have become altars of sinning for him.
Though I wrote for him ten thousand precepts of My law, They are regarded as a strange thing.

We all know the history of Hosea.  How God Commanded him to marry a harlot as a judgement against Israel. Just as Hosea’s wife left him repeatedly for other men so Israel repeatedly left their God for false gods. Hosea’s prophesies were primarily directed at the 10 northern tribes (a few were directed at Judah).  After Solomon the 10 northern tribes rebelled and broke ties with Judah, they were frequently at war with one another.  Time after time Israel would turn their back on God and chance after idols.  Now in Hosea’s day they were on the verge of being taken captive by Assyria, which would essentially remove all remaining association with the other tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

These verses in chapter 8 where we started talk about the alters that they set up for the worship of their false gods.  God had placed His alter in Jerusalem, but they chose for themselves a different way to worship. It says they Multiplied altars for sinning.  The designed intent of the altars was to worship in their own way and in doing so they committed sin against the creator of the universe.  They sought to create a unique way of worship something new and different they came up with a better way to do it than the way God showed them.

Looking at verse 12 the first thing we need to look at is “Though I wrote” It’s important to remember who the author of God’s Word is, actually God.   Too often I think we forget that not Hosea in this case, or Moses, or Paul Or John, but God himself is the author.  He gave us His Word, it is a gift from God, do we view it as a gift or do we view it simply as rules to live by, or even worse just suggestions?  Do we spend time in His Word every day? When we do spend time in His Word do we look at how it applies in our lives?  Three things we need to do when looking at God’s Word 1. What does it say? 2. What does it mean? 3. What shall I do?

Deuteronomy 4:5-8 (NASB)
“See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. “So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ “For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the LORD our God whenever we call on Him? “Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?

The second thing we need to look at is the precepts of God’s Law These are God’s laws, Spurgeon said of this verse “there is nothing in this bible that is unimportant” Ephraim had been give the law of God, yet it was foreign to them it wasn’t a part of their lives.  If you’ve been at First Family, this month we’ve been talking about Worldview.  Even though they had God’s law it was regarded as a strange thing.

As we look at the culture around us today, would you say that there are many who set up “altars for sinning”?  Even many who claim to be Christian but have come up with a “better way” or “some new thing” but they are simply doing their own thing their own way, not God’s way.  We can’t just do something because we think feels right to us, Paul told Timothy, 1 Timothy 3:14-15 (ESV) I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. The people of Ephraim ignored this and many in our day are as well.  The laws of God sounded “strange to them” Many today when faced with the truth of the Word will tell us that the teachings are “strange”

Al Mohler in an article on Biblical discernment wrote;

It is hard not to conclude that theological discernment is now a lost art among American evangelicals — and this loss can only lead to theological catastrophe.

The tragedy that evangelicals have lost the art of biblical discernment must be traced to a disastrous loss of biblical knowledge. Discernment cannot survive without doctrine.

Spurgeon said “Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong, it’s knowing the difference between right and almost right”

With this loss of theological discernment and biblical knowledge is it any wonder that the teaching of the laws of God, even among professing Christians would sound strange?

What do we then need to do? First, we need to be in God’s Word daily, we must learn from one another, we must meet together regularly with believers who are sound in the Word.  I’ve often said there is no one person smarter than we all are together. We must speak lovingly and compassionately, but firmly against those who seek to pervert God’s Word for their own purposes, we must diligently teach the truth to those we have influence over whether our families, our SS Class or other study groups, and lastly we must share the truth of the gospel with unbelievers, it must be the true gospel not a watered down gospel, or  feel good gospel, but the true gospel the good news, and the bad news.

Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now am found T’was blind but now I see

Most of us have probably sung this song many times, but how often do we just repeat the words without thinking about what the words really mean. So let’s take a few minutes to look at them a little closer.

Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound, hold on to that and we’ll come back to this line

That saved a wretch like me, what is a wretch? We don’t use that word very often today, so some may not truly understand what it means.  The Dictionary says it’s “a person of despicable or base character.” Many will say well that’s not me, I’m not a despicable person! Who do you think of when you think about a despicable person? Adolf Hitler? Usama Bin Laden? Or the Kid who shot up the school a couple weeks ago? But whose standard are we using to decide if someone is despicable or not? Our own standard? The standard of our culture? Hasn’t the standard of what is considered despicable changed in our culture over the years? There are many things that are accepted today that would have been considered despicable just a few years ago.

The Apostle John tells the Church in Laodicea in the Book of Revelation.   “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are WRETCHED, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” Revelation 3:15-17 (ESV)

So someone can be a wretch, and not know it, as a matter of fact there are many, many people in our culture how don’t realize they are wretches.  All because they are looking at the wrong standard for what it means to be a despicable wretch.  So where do we find the right standard? We find it in the one who made the standard, the one who made us! God’s Word says in Romans 3:9-18 (ESV)
For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, ¹⁰ as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; ¹¹ no one understands; no one seeks for God. ¹² All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” ¹³ “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” ¹⁴ “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” ¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ¹⁶ in their paths are ruin and misery, ¹⁷ and the way of peace they have not known.” ¹⁸ “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

So by God’s Standard who is a Despicable Wretch? I am, others are! Everyone reading this is, everyone you encounter today is.

Think about this when you sing, that Amazing Grace saved a “Wretch like me”

I once was lost, but now am found T’was blind but now I see

Before Grace, we are all Lost and Blind.  Think about someone who is lost in the woods.  They are wandering around, not knowing where they are going, sometimes just walking in circles. What if he finds a map and a compass is he any better off?  Maybe if he knows how to read the map and use the compass!

Now think about someone who is blind, Kids sometimes play a game where they are blindfolded and they have to try to attach a tail in the right place on the picture of a donkey.  It’s fun to watch them and most of the time the tail ends up some place other than where it belongs.
A person who hasn’t received God’s Amazing Grace is like that, they are wandering around in circles in life not knowing where they are going.  Sometimes they may even have God’s map “The Bible” but if they try to  use it as a kind of a “self-help” book they it doesn’t do them much good, they are not using properly. They try to put the pieces of their life together, but they are blind and keep putting them in the wrong places.

But Now I’m found, and Now I see, what caused this transformation? The Amazing Grace of God.  Through the work of Jesus Christ and the power of The Holy Spirit you are to realize that you are lost, and that you are blind but now you can clearly see that you are a Despicable Wretch and that only God’s amazing grace can save, a Despicable Wretch like me, then someone can fully understand just how sweet the sound of Amazing Grace, really is.

Last year during my daily reading I read this passage in 1 Kings 13, and I have been chewing on it ever since.  I have to do a devotion at a meeting next week so I pulled this passage back out and started making some notes.  Then a few days later a friend posted an article from Albert Mohler about a book that was released a few years ago and it was a confirmation that this this was what I needed to speak on.  Read it here http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/01/27/the-shack-the-missing-art-of-evangelical-discernment/ . This book was made into a movie and is about to be released next month, hence the timing of posting an article written 7 years ago.  The popularity of this book and others like it among evangelicals is disturbing and indicates a severe lack of comprehension of God’s Word and What His Word teaches. It seems many professing Christians don’t have even a basic understanding of the Gospel.

I skip through several verses but I encourage you to go and read the entire passage.

1 Kings 13:1-34 (ESV) ¹ And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the LORD to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings. ⁷ And the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.” ⁸ And the man of God said to the king, “If you give me half your house, I will not go in with you. And I will not eat bread or drink water in this place, ⁹ for so was it commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came.’ ” ¹⁰ So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel. ¹¹ Now an old prophet lived in Bethel. And his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told to their father the words that he had spoken to the king. ¹² And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone. ¹³ And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him and he mounted it. ¹⁴ And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. And he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.” ¹⁵ Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” ¹⁶ And he said, “I may not return with you, or go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place, ¹⁷ for it was said to me by the word of the LORD, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came.’ ” ¹⁸ And he said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” But he lied to him. ²³ And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. ²⁴ And as he went away a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body.

Reminds me of 1 Peter 5:8. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. In our culture we are surrounded by people that claim to know the way of God, but many, or probably most are not speaking from the true source of God’s Word.  They are speaking from their own thoughts, their own ideas of how things ought to be, using proof texts to make their point sound as though it’s God’s Word.  That’s what this prophet did!  Vs. 18 “I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD” “But he lied to him”

We see this happening in books and movies like the Shack, but every “Christian” book we read or movie we watch, every sermon we hear, every radio program, every podcast, every song we hear, every conversation we have with professing believers must be held up to the light of God’s Word and where what we hear isn’t consistent with His Word must be rejected.

Keeping in mind that we can be wrong, that we can have a misunderstanding of the Word, we need to stay first of all in Scripture and prayer, we also need to be in constant and close fellowship with others who are in the Word regularly (it’s what we call the church).  This serves to keep us lined up with scripture, and to correct our brothers and sisters in Christ from falling away as well.

Al Mohler says in his article about the Shack “All this reveals a disastrous failure of evangelical discernment. It is hard not to conclude that theological discernment is now a lost art among American evangelicals — and this loss can only lead to theological catastrophe.”

So what this prophet experienced in listening to someone who was promoting his own agenda we can too if we aren’t careful to listen closely to God’s Word.  But this has been going on for a long time, Genesis 3:1 (ESV) Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” Satan has been twisting God’s Word from the Beginning, and he continues to do it today many times through people who call themselves evangelical Christians.

We have become a culture of professionals. When we need our tax returns filled out we gather up all our receipts and take them to a tax professional, when we don’t feel good we go to a medical professional, if we need a plumber, and electrician, or a roofer we hire a professional, when we need the oil changed in our cars, we take it to a professional. I got my first car in 1973 and from then until 2003 nobody ever changed the oil in one of my vehicles except me, but something happened in 2003. I bought a new car, and as I was doing the paperwork, the salesman brought me a laminated card, and said bring this back with you every 3000 mile and we’ll change your oil for free for as long as you own this car, ever since, most of the time I take my car or truck and have the oil changed. It was just easier even when I got rid of that car and had to pay for it myself, maybe I just got lazy? Sometimes we may use a professional but we still need to have a good idea of what is going on, suppose our tax preparer makes a mistake on our tax returns? Who is the IRS go to be coming to see? I had something like this happen to me about 8 years ago, my accountant gave me some tax advice and I trusted him, but when I had him do my taxes for that year, I ended up owing $10,000 when we asked him about it he just said he was sorry but that happens sometimes, he had been charging $200 to do my taxes in previous years, but this year he charged me $350. Needless to say he didn’t do my taxes again. But I got over that, yeah it cost me some money, I was mad at the guy for a while, but I survived and I got over it.

Unfortunately I believe that too often we bring this culture of professionals in to the church.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (ESV) “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

In 2009 by Ken Ham wrote the book Already Gone he reveals some very disturbing statistics. Research by George Barna a well-known Christian Pollster found young adults who were active members of conservative evangelical churches in America during their childhood and youth years (These are the kids in our Sunday school classes, youth groups, and here with their parents every Sunday) that 61% of these kids will completely leave the church by the end of their freshman year of college.

Why does this happen? Ken Ham and others say that it is because these kids don’t see the things they learn in their church and youth group lived out at home. They are not a priority in the lives of their parents, it’s not a priority in the lives of their friends and extended family. They see their parents making a priority out of being successful in their career, to have a bigger house or a nicer car, they see them making golf, or fishing or hunting a priority in their lives. Kids are being driven to get a good education, to excel in sports, but if parents don’t take time to make the reading and study of God’s Word a priority then why would we expect our kids to make church a priority when they are not being “made to go”. Voddie Baucham, in his book, “Family Driven Faith” says “If I teach my son to keep his eye on the ball but fail to teach him to keep his eyes on Christ, I have failed as a father”

I know the impact that a father can have on a young person’s attitude about the church, and about God’s Word. I grew up in a church going home, but we were what I referred to as Sunday Christians. We were in church most every Sunday morning, but the other 6 ½ days a week you couldn’t tell us apart from the rest of the pagans in the neighborhood. I distinctly remember one Sunday Morning, that I think was a turning point for me. My Step-Dad was a musician, and was in a band he played saxophone and sang, now this was the early 70s and he was playing Bing Crosby, and Perry Como, and I was listening to Led Zeppelin and the Allman Brothers so there was very little common ground musically. But the Saturday night before this Sunday I remember he had played with his band at the Elks Club (or Moose or something like that) and apparently they must have been doing pretty good because somebody kept buying the band rounds of drinks and he got pretty drunk, so drunk that he came home and crawled straight in to bed. But Sunday morning and he woke up late and he started cussing out the alarm clock, because it didn’t get him up, of course he hadn’t set it the night before, but he was really upset because this was going to cause us to be late for church, and he had to get to the choir because he was supposed to sing a solo that morning. But my 14 year old mind saw it for what it was, but my 14 year old mind also said “what’s the point of all this church stuff. Why does everybody pretend to be someone different on Sunday morning from what they are the rest of the week. It was then that I waked away from the church, and was years later before ever came back to it.

I saw the hypocrisy in my step-dad and our kids will see hypocrisy in us, because every one of us in this room has been a hypocrite in the past, is a hypocrite now, or will be a hypocrite in the future. The important thing is how they see that we deal with it, either in a spirit of repentance, or a spirit of denial.

So what does it mean to Teach God’s commands “diligently to our children”? John Bunyan the author of Pilgrims Progress in an essay entitled Christian Family speaking of fathers says;

“First, concerning the spiritual state of his family; he ought to be very diligent and cautious, doing his utmost both to increase faith where it is begun, and to begin it where it is not. Therefore, he must diligently and frequently bring before his family the things of God, from His Holy Word, in accordance with what is suitable for each person. And let no man question his authority from the Word of God for such a practice.

So what are some things we can do? The most important thing you can do is start. Start by reading God’s Word out loud to your family. There are numerous Devotional books based on scripture for all age groups that can help you get started. Allow your children to ask biblical questions. This helps in a couple of ways, you may have to dig in to God’s Word yourself to find their answers, which is a good thing, and it also stirs their hearts toward God, and they see that it is important enough for you to answer. I if you really get stumped, then ask somebody yourself, but at all possible avoid the “That’s just the way it is” answers. Some other things you can do is let your family see you reading and studying Scripture, let them see you pray, pray with them, pray with your wife, study the Word with your wife. Now I know the big question is “Where am I going to find time to do all this”? Well we must make it a priority, maybe start with turning off the TV, Learning about the exodus has more value than learning who gets voted off the island, and What the apostle Paul has to say is much more important than what Bill O’Reilly has to say. It all comes down to what we consider a priority.

Now keep in mind I am not suggesting that we need to run off all the youth pastors, and shut down the children’s programs. They exist to help families and reinforce what we are teaching our children at home. We can’t expect our youth and children leadership in the church to be able to teach in a few hours a week everything our families need to overcome the bombardment that we all face the rest of the time. But don’t rely on professionals to exclusively to teach your family God’s Word.

A long, long time ago back in 1976 outside the Naval Base in Great Lakes, Illinois myself and a couple of guys I was going through training with had a free weekend so went to town and watched a movie. That was the first time I ever saw the movie “The Outlaw Josey Wales”. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I have probably seen it dozens of times since then. But about 5 or 6 years ago I sat down to watch it and after seeing the opening scene I stopped the movie to unpack something I had never seen in it before. Hopefully you have seen the movie if so it will be a lot easier to see what I’m talking about, but if not here is a brief overview of the scene.

Josey (Clint Eastwood) is a Missouri Farmer in what some call the American Civil War, but others may call the War of Northern Aggression, and others might call the War for Southern Independence, but we’ll just call it “The War Between the States”. The scene opens with Josey and his young son plowing a field with a Mule, his wife calls the boy home to get “cleaned up for supper” Josey goes on plowing, then he hears an odd sound, then looks and sees smoke rising from the direction of his house, he runs to see what is happening, as he approaches his house he sees that it has been torched and there are Kansas Red Legs (Yankees) everywhere. His wife and son are crying and screaming, as Josey rushes to try to rescue them but receives a sword to his face for his efforts. He wakes up sometime later to find his home is just a pile of ashes and his family is dead. After he buries them, he digs through the ashes of his home and finds his pistol. But when he starts practicing with it we find out he isn’t a very good shot, but as he continues to practice he just get better and better. He then joins up with a band of confederates, but if you want to know more you watch the movie. A DVD from Amazon is about 5 bucks, or just wait for it to come on AMC.

What I saw in that scene was a picture of a modern American Christian Family. You have a Husband and Father who was focused on providing for the material needs of his family, he wanted to provide for food and clothing and shelter. And this is a good thing, this is what we are called to do, and deep down it is what we men are hard wired to do. God commanded Adam to “Dress and Keep the Garden”, and later after the fall God told him “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread” Genesis 3:19a (ESV), and The Apostle Paul told Timothy “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” 1 Timothy 5:8 (ESV). Working to provide material needs for ourselves and our families is a good thing.

While we are called and expected to provide for the material needs of our families our responsibilities don’t end there. You see where Josey and many of us in our day we fail is we are oblivious to the war that is going on all around us, Josey probably had read about the war in the newspaper, but didn’t think it would ever affect him! He was just a farmer minding his own business wasn’t he? It wouldn’t affect him! What he didn’t recognize was that the enemy was out to destroy anything that he believed represented his opposition. Aren’t modern Christians doing the same thing today? We know there is an enemy who is out to attack and attempt to destroy any family that tries to represent God’s Kingdom? Satan is out to destroy your family and my family if we are living for the Kingdom. The destruction that he can bring is more real than anything we see on a movie screen, and the enemy is worse than Yankee red legs, he is more He is more determined, more destructive, and more subtle. He is in our communities and our schools, and we invite him into our home on the TV. The question isn’t if he will attack your family but when? And the question becomes will you be prepared when he does?

By the end of the movie Josey is a pretty good shot with his pistols, it came from diligent practice and constant use. Imagine if Josey had been practicing with his pistol before the attack came, could the outcome been different? What if he had taught his family to shoot as well, could they have held off the attack? Made the enemy realize it just was not to his benefit to attack this family? Maybe so but then they wouldn’t have made a movie about it! We have been given a weapon to use against the attacks of Satan. Jesus used this weapon against him when he was tempted and we can too. Our weapon the is more powerful than a Colt Black Powder Revolver, it’s more powerful than an M4 Tactical Rifle, it’s more powerful than a Cruise Missile or a Smart Bomb, but we better be prepared to use it properly and we only do that with practice.

When the apostle Paul describes the Armor of God in Ephesians 6 he tell us to use “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” All the other pieces of armor is purely defensive, but a sword can be used defensively, or offensively, however it’s needed. The Word of God is our offensive weapon we can use against Satan. If your bible is sitting on a shelf collecting dust, it’s just like having a pistol locked away in in a lock box. Read God’s Word, Study God’s Word, study God’s word with other brothers in Christ, teach your family God’s Word. Young men who don’t have families yet, the time to start preparing is now, don’t wait until you have a family to be prepared for the battle, be prepared before you have a wife and family, and your marriage will be stronger for it. Older guys who don’t have children living at home anymore, that doesn’t mean the war is over, keep preparing for battle, fight for your adult children and your grandchildren. Be ready to defend yourself and your family when the attack comes, because it will come.

Finally, when Paul tells the Ephesians to ^“Put on the whole armor of God”, he tells them why they need to “that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”