Religious Liberty

“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” I John 5:3
 
The Declaration of Independence; July 4, 1776:
“… We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness …”
 
The US Bill of Rights – Amendment 1 to the US Constitution; 1791:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
             

As we approach Independence Day, I believe it’s important to revisit what this meant to our forefathers, and what it should still mean to us today. We are deeply blessed to live in America and should not take this blessing for granted. In 1776 brave men signed the Declaration of Independence, committing themselves to the “protection of divine Providence” and pledging themselves to struggle for liberty – or die trying. These signers believed passionately that they had been created by God, and as such were given certain rights by God. These rights:

• to live (and not be unjustly killed or imprisoned)
• to be free (and not be arbitrarily controlled as the subject of a king or tyrannical government acting in the place of God)
• to pursue a good life (and not be oppressed by the taxation of government to the point that their lives existed to forcibly enrich others – the work of their hands should first enrich their own lives as the fruit of their personal property)

These rights were not granted by a king and could not be taken away by a king. They are basic rights given to every person and we should not forget this. These rights translate into the basic Christian tenets of limited government. Limited government means that civil government was never meant to rule all our lives and fix all our problems. Civil government is one sphere of distinct authority in the world. The other two distinct spheres of authority are the Christian church and the family. All three of these spheres of authority must continue in their own distinct ways, playing the role God has designed for them in human existence.

Our forefathers declared their independence when the monarchy of civil government had grown up to oppress the family and the church. It’s of tremendous importance to note that when the war was won and the constitution signed into authority, the first amendment of the Bill of Rights speaks to religious liberty. Religious liberty is the first and most important liberty. The language of this amendment is particular and must be remembered. It states that civil government does not have the authority to pass any law to restrict the practice of religion. This speaks to the separation of authorities. Civil government does not have the authority to regulate God’s church. Instead, the church informs our conscience so that we might be good and peaceable citizens. The church does not serve the authority of government, but limited government is subject to the moral will of God.

The declaration also speaks to how no law should prohibit the free exercise of religion. This means that each citizen of these United States has the right to act on what they believe. Many today want to say a person has the right to believe what they choose but cannot act on that belief in the public square. If a person is forced to speak and act like a liberal secular humanist in the public square, then religious liberty has been lost. We must keep struggling for the liberty to act and speak openly as Christians. Jesus is clear that if we say we love Him, we must obey His commands. If we say we are followers of Jesus Christ, we must live according to His ways. This living according to the ways of Jesus is what has always brought Christians into conflict with non-Christian culture. We are not living under a strange or new conflict. We should not be seeking conflict, but never flinching to live a full and authentic biblical Christian life.

With the recent appointment of three distinctly constitutional Supreme Court justices, we are enjoying a re-birth of religious liberty in America. Let’s celebrate this renewed liberty this July 4, and re-double our efforts to see this first liberty never erode in our lifetimes. Let’s realize that without the first liberty of the free practice of church gathering and worship, government will grow without limit. If you want to see proper limits on government, begin with going to church this Sunday and setting your eyes on the King of Kings, giving your first allegiance to Jesus the Savior.

Let’s joyfully live in full obedience to Jesus, for His glory and our blessing,
Pastor Vic

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Notes from the sermon this past Sunday: “Fallen From Heaven – Isaiah 14:12-15”

Who is Satan?

• god of this world – 2 Corinthians 4:4
• ruler of this world – John 14:30, 16:11
• prince of this world – John 12:31
• has the power of death – Hebrews 2:14
• like a strong armed man – Luke 11:21
• given power over the air (this world) – Ephesians 2:2
• like a prowling lion – 1 Peter 5:8
• a sinner from the beginning – 1 John 3:8
• a liar and the father of lies – John 8:39-47

What should we expect from Him?

• Genesis 3 pattern of temptation:
  • Doubt of God’s word
  • Denial of God’s word
  • Direct lies about God’s word

How should we react to this?

• expect spiritual struggle – 1 Peter 5:8
• submit yourself to God and resist the Devil – 1 Peter 5:9, James 4:7
• give no opportunity to evil in your life – Ephesians 4:7
• do not be careless or fearful or negligent in the things of God – 1 Corinthians 10:12-13
• be strong in the Lord, protected by His power – Ephesians 6:10-18
• pray for deliverance from evil and temptation as a part of your regular prayers – Matthew 6:13

What will be his end?

• Hell has been prepared for Satan’s sure punishment – Matthew 25:41, Revelation 20:7-10
• For now must receive permission to act in a limited way – Job 1:6, 2:1
• In the end, soon enough, the Lord will crush Satan – Romans 16:20

SBC Annual Meeting
 

Last week I attended my first Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting. Redeemer Bible Church is a Southern Baptist affiliated church. Six percent of every dollar given to Redeemer goes to the SBC cooperative program. The SBC is in the news often for many reasons, mainly because it’s the largest Protestant Christian denomination in America, at 47,000 cooperating churches. I have been troubled by some of the news I read about the convention and its leadership, and felt it was important to attend this year. I appreciate Kelvy Donovan and Karen Robinson joining me.
             
In the past I served with a tactical team. Every time there was an emergency of some sort the first thing leadership did was send out an advance team to get the ground truth of what was actually happening. Without fail, the report the advance team would send was different than the news scuttle or the hearsay gossip. We always took action on what was actually happening, not on the news and gossip. This was certainly the case with this year’s convention.
             
For starters, if you’re new to the SBC, or know very little about SBC history, I urge you to look up a podcast to get a good history lesson. The podcast is “B21” (for Baptists in the 21^st Century) Episode 133: A Conversation About the SBC with Nathan Finn. Nathan was a classmate of mine at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) and a central denominational leader in our time. It will help you get up to speed. Listen to the end. I very much agree with his closing statements.
             
Next, it’s imperative to understand that the SBC is a massive organization. Huge organizations have pros and cons – good and bad. We’re a part of the SBC for the good, and push back against and monitor the bad. The two major good things about a very large cooperating ministry group (denomination) is: (1) it presents to the unbelieving world a large unified group that demonstrates something of the universal church of Jesus Christ. This is in contrast to countless small, fragmented, disagreeing, non-cooperating smaller groups of churches. (2) The very large pooling of funds and personnel allows for major things to be accomplished. For instance, Southern Baptist Churches will support thousands of foreign gospel preaching missionaries in countries all over the world next year through funding to the International Mission Board to the tune of nearly $100,000,000. That’s amazing! The IMB is the largest foreign missionary sending organization in the world. Next, let me speak to the seminaries.  Our six seminaries are known for solid Bible teaching, missionary gospel zeal, and sound scholarship at an affordable price. You should visit a campus sometime. As a minister, I am a product of Southern and Southeastern. This would not be possible without the SBC contributing $43,000,000 to these seminaries this year. Ministers and missionaries from every conservative branch of Christianity in the world benefit from these seminaries.
             
Now to the convention this year. It’s a 48 hour massive business meeting (12,500 messengers from SBC churches all over the country) where we hash out business as a group and decide what kind of a group we are going to be. In short, I was very encouraged by this year’s meeting. A group this large will make small steps each year in the right direction or the wrong direction – moving toward God’s word or away from it toward cultural accommodation. This year we made moves to clarify (1) that we are firmly gender complementarian, (2) that we understand the role of all Christians, men or women, participating in the great commission of Jesus, but affirm only spiritually qualified men can fill the role of pastor in a local church, (3) that we must continue to protect our vulnerable children from sexual predators, but that we needed to redirect some of our efforts that got off track last year.

I will speak directly to these things after our member meeting Sunday afternoon, and take your questions, but here’s my quick round up:

• Pastor Bart Barber was re-elected SBC President for a second year. You can only hold the office twice, so this will be his last year. He did an excellent job leading the meeting and under his leadership every thing I’m about to outline happened last year. He is a calm, unifying, Bible-believing, mission-oriented leader that is doing a good job at our helm.
• We passed nine resolutions. These are statements made by the SBC that declare who we are and what we stand for. See the resolutions here: https://www.sbc.net/resource-library/resolutions/  These resolutions squarely identify us as a people that are holding the line on biblical gender and sexual ethics. This is THE biggest issue of our time and I’m proud to say these resolutions were passed with majorities in the 90% range. They all point toward complementarianism. This means that men and women are created equal in personhood, worth, and dignity before God, but are different from each other in essential ways that work to create one whole in the bond of marriage. Husband and wife / father and mother together make one in marriage, creating a healthy God-designed home, and those families join together building healthy churches. There is much to be said here. If you would like to learn more, I suggest Kevin DeYoung’s book “Men and Women in the Church” or visit the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. The opposite of this is egalitarianism, which promotes the concept that men and women are essentially the same with no substantial or God-ordained role differences. This is the first step toward transgenderism, which is the idea that one’s gender can be changed because it is self-determined, rather than determined by God.
• We appointed 78 NEW foreign missionaries to go to foreign lands all over the globe. It took nearly an hour for them to all introduce themselves and say something about their work! Many were introduced behind screens and without last names because they will go to lands hostile to the gospel. We must be faithful to pray for these faithful and courageous brothers and sisters. The Walkers are with the IMB on the field now. Pick up a prayer card at the welcome table and participate in their ministry through prayer.
• We acted on our statement of faith that only spiritually qualified men can fill the office of pastor by rejecting the appeal, and disfellowshipping Saddleback Community Church (Pastor Rick Warren). This was one of the largest SBC churches and came on the heels of Warren retiring and handpicking a husband and wife team to fill his senior pastoral role. The wife, and other women, often fill the pulpit to preach at Saddleback. Warren had passionately hoped to use his influence to set a new precedent in SBC life, but was voted out by 88% of messengers.
• The sexual abuse task force was continued for another year, but has terminated it’s relationship with Guidepost legal (the firm that conducted the original inquiry) and the official “Caring Well” curriculum (that became compromised through various political agendas). The purpose of the group remains very important (to protect our children from sexual predators, and to minister with effective compassion to those who have been harmed by sexual abuse). The group issued some very concise and helpful structures for accomplishing these important ends. They will be helpful in implementing these goals at Redeemer. I still have concerns over one aspect of their “listing system” and intend to write the chair with my concerns.
• We met with representatives of The Pillar Network (thepillarnetwork.com). Inside the big tent of the SBC there are smaller cooperating groups that exert influence on the whole. Pillar is one of those groups consisting of approximately 300 SBC churches. These churches are like Redeemer in basically every way. They are marked by gospel proclamation, in person Bible expositional preaching, elder leadership, Biblical authority in all things, theologically baptistic, and focused on planting new churches along these lines. July 30 one of the board members – Ryan Hutchinson, Senior Vice-President of SEBTS – will be at Redeemer to preach and tell us more about joining with the Pillar Network of SBC churches. Exciting times.

Praise the Lord for His work in the SBC during a time of radical church decay and decline in America. May we be faithful and ever press to see our partnership be true to the word, ethic, and mission of Jesus,
Pastor Vic

Fathers

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4

              
This Sunday is Father’s Day, an important time to reflect on the role of dad in the home. Children need a mother and a father. Both bring vital, but different, dynamics into the life of a child. Fathers, I believe the most important thing I can point out to you on Father’s Day is that you learn what is means to be a father by following after the example of our Heavenly Father. It’s not a coincidence that God instructs us to address Him as Father. God could have instructed us to address Him by many other honorific titles, but He chose “Father.” This title is one of honor and respect, but also of relationship and love. Every Christian father will learn what it truly means to be a father by looking to and learning from our Heavenly Father. No matter how good or how bad of a father you may have, we each look to the Heavenly Father for the ideal and example of how we ought to be a father to our children.
             
This all begins with salvation. Have you turned away from your sins and believed in the salvation of Jesus? Those who love the Son (Jesus), also love God the Father. “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also” 1 John 2:23. When we come into the salvation of God the Father, this is also described as being adopted into the family of God (John 1:12, Galatians 4:4-7). We move from being enslaved to our sinful passions and under the dominion of Satan in this world, to be adopted children of God. We are called His friends and given an inheritance in His kingdom. As children of God, we experience and learn about His fatherly love. We ourselves grow up under His care and go out to follow His example to love our children by His power.
             
There are at least five aspects of being a Father we learn from the Heavenly Father and should work out in our lives.
             
First, be present in the lives of your children. Faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit because it is a fundamental part of the character of God. “I will never leave you nor forsake you” Hebrews 13:5b (also Joshua 1:5, Psalm 37:25, 2 Corinthians 4:9). God the Father does not come and go from our lives based on our performance or by changes of purpose in His own heart. His love for us is purposeful, unconditional, and unchanging. He is always present in our lives. In the same way, we must be ever-present in the lives of our sons and daughters. This doesn’t mean we all work from home, but in its most basic form it does mean that we will never abandon them through the selfishness of divorce. The fear of being left by you should never enter the mind of your child. As we are secure in the love the Heavenly Father, so your children should rest secure in your love. However, beyond that, you are pressing day by day, and week by week to be involved in their lives in every way you possibly can. You are present with them.
             
Second, God the Father is full of love toward His children. “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love…” 1 John 4:16. The actions of God toward us are motivated by His passion of love for us. God is not dispassionate. He is not just keeping score. God the Father loves His children and is actively shaping their lives. He is providing for their needs, guiding them to good places, teaching and disciplining – but all in love. God the Father is for His children – not against them. He shapes their lives in a serious way, but He does not act in anger toward them. He is drawing His children close to Him in love, not pushing them away in coldness, pride, or frustration.
             
Third, God the Father disciplines those who are truly His children. “The Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives” Hebrews 12:6. God the Father does not allow us to do whatever we want. He does not sit back idle as we run into sin and destroy ourselves. In love, God the Father brings corrective discipline into our lives. Purposeful pain to get our attention, correct our course, and get our relationship with Him back into a healthy place. As fathers we must also discipline our children in love. We cannot sit back and let our children do whatever they choose. To do so is to neglect our role as a father. But we must also not allow anger to shape our discipline and so wound the hearts of our children. Loving discipline brings order to the lives of our children and is a foundation for them understanding God’s ultimate authority in their lives. By wisely disciplining our children we are helping their spiritual formation.
             
Fourth, God the Father provides for our needs, and we should provide for the needs of our children. “Give us this day our daily bread…” Matthew 6:11. We are instructed to pray and call upon God the Father to meet our daily needs. We live in trusting dependance upon God the Father. In a similar way, your children live in trusting dependance upon you – dad. This is why the IRS calls them ‘dependents!’ This does not mean you give them whatever they want, but through hard work and self-sacrifice you provide for them what they need. God the Father does not supply our needs grudgingly but is glad to give us good gifts (Matthew 7:7-11). In the same way, we should die to ourselves and find joy in supplying the needs of our children. A significant part of the security and love your children feel comes from knowing that they can come to you with need and know you will lovingly work to meet that need.
             
Fifth, God the Father discloses Himself to us so we might know who He is and how we might come to salvation in Jesus. As father’s it is commanded by God that we train our children in the instruction of the Lord. It is primarily our responsibility to make the salvation of God known to our children. We must make believing in and serving the Lord the highest priority in our own lives, so we lead by example. We must model godliness to our children all along the road of life – at family meals, in the car, in times of stress, in good times, in hard times, and on Sunday morning. There are countless activities that never stop competing for the hearts of our kids and youths. As fathers, we must set the tone in our families that the things of God always come first – before sports, before career, before secular education. There must be no doubt in the mind of your children that you agree with Jesus, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?” Mark 8:36-37. We must lead in spiritual things, so they can follow.
             
Happy Father’s Day dads! Count fatherhood for the blessing it is, and ask the Heavenly Father to make you more like Himself one day at a time!
 
May we follow in the example of God the Father,
Pastor Vic

Pride Month

“If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes He condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if He rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked…then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passions and despise authority.”
2 Peter 2:6-10

             
Over recent years June has become a designated time in the United States to give the public spotlight and microphone to the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender communities. During this month-long focus people from these groups advocate with passion for their understanding of sexual morality. They are working to radically reshape the moral landscape of America and are succeeding in their advocacy. It’s vitally important that we not remain silent during this month. What is of greatest importance is that we not lose sight of what the Bible teaches us about sexuality and gender. It’s become impossible to chase all the various forms of sexual perversion developing in our time. We must instead clearly know, live by, and defend a Christian worldview.
             
As Christians, we must always be more defined by what we are for, than what we are against. We must be about the gospel not culture war. We must be about evangelism over boycotts. Only by seeking the lost that they might come to salvation will we ever see dramatic change in America. This is praying for and laboring after spiritual awakening. However, the gospel requires that we point out sin. There is no need for a Savior if I’m ok and you’re ok. Pointing out sin in a person’s life is offensive. This is especially true when you declare that according to God’s will the way a person is living – openly, passionately, and defiantly – is causing them to be under the active condemnation of God. However, by speaking to sin and calling for repentance, some will be convicted of their sin, repent of their sin (turn away from it), and call out in faith to Jesus for forgiveness of their sins. By this a person will be forgiven their sins. Their guilt before God will be removed. They will receive eternal life and begin to go forward making incremental, but constant, steps toward following Jesus and living a different life of godliness.
             
Biblical sexual morality is rather simple and straight forward. God created two genders, male and female. God has purpose in creating two genders, and that purpose relates to complementing genders forming one whole in marriage leading to the birth and raising of children. No person is born with the wrong gender. No person is born as a blank slate with no gender. God has an induvial purpose for each person’s life. The purpose and plan for each life begins with being a man or a woman. God has designed the bodies and the souls of one man and one woman to relate together sexually in a life-long bond of marriage. This deep physical, emotional, and trust-based bond works to build the deepest of all human relationships. This stable relationship works to provide a stable home for children, then stable generations of family, and stable community relationships.
             
This month a radically different worldview is being is being advocated. The LGBTQ worldview believes that each human being comes into the world a blank slate. Each blank child grows and will determine their own gender and morality according to their own feelings. We are told that parents have no authority or place to direct, guide, or discipline their child. We are told that God has no say, because there is no God. Each adult is supposed to simple affirm and support the choices of the child along the way, and present to them a view of God that also affirms their choices. The outcome of this type of living will be chaos as each person literally does whatever is right in their own eyes without restraint.
             
God’s plan for human sexuality only works in connection to the gospel. Only when sinners turn from their sin and believe in Jesus will they strive after the sexual ethics of Jesus. In Christ we learn to die to ourselves, live with self-control, and love other people unconditionally. As Christians we learn the virtues of self-control, modesty, and faithfulness. In obedience to Jesus, we reject the ways of the world and live in the ways of Jesus. The darker and more perverse our culture becomes, the more that following in the ways of Jesus will make us an offense to the world. Let us remember the words of Jesus, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me” (Matthew 11:6, Luke 7:23).
             
We live in a pluralistic culture. This means that our culture views all religion as the creation of human culture, and all are equally relevant or good. No one religion inherently has authority over another. No one religion is true or right in any objective way. Any religion that claims moral authority over another is labeled intolerant and bigoted – especially in the area of sexual ethics. This is often rolled into arguments related to diversity. The world is filled with wonderful God-ordained diversity. Diversity of races, national customs, foods, music, artistic expressions, and natural beauty, but the Bible makes no room for diversity of moral expression. Being a follower of Christ does not relate to a person’s race, gender, or national origin. One of the beautiful aspects of biblical Christianity is that being a follower of Christ allows for diverse cultural and racial expression. To be a follower of Jesus does not mean becoming a middle eastern Jew in culture expression. This was well adjudicated and settled in the book of Acts. However, it does mean that you live according the to revealed moral will of God no matter who you are or where you come from.  
             
Our culture is pushing so hard to change language and normalize things that are clearly non-Christian in their expression. One of many examples relates to the cultural pervasiveness of ‘drag queens.’ A drag queen is a homosexual cross-dressing male that dresses up specifically to act in a female sexually enticing way. No Christian should have to consider long that this life choice would not be declared righteous and godly by Jesus. Therefore, as Christians we cannot approve of this lifestyle or giving someone in it a public platform. This goes for any person that intentionally pursues sexual expression that is condemned and forbidden by God.
             
In closing, it’s very important to recognize that this is not a small part of the Bible. From Gensis all the way through 2 Peter, the event of God warning then destroying Sodom and Gomorrah is mentioned almost thirty times. Each time it is referred to, the reference serves as a warning to hard-hearted ungodly, especially the homosexual, that they are doomed to the same end of destruction if they do not repent of their sins. We must not act like these many verses and many warnings do not exist. God knows and cares about how we conduct ourselves morally. Sexual actions are moral actions – no matter how many times people in modern American culture say they are not. Moral actions affect your relationship with God. You cannot go on living in sin and also live under the blessing of God.
             
Let me finish where I began. It must be our earnest hope and prayer to see people come to salvation in Jesus. Our goal must be Jesus’ goal, to seek and save the lost. In appealing to the lost and naming their sin, it will bring us into direct moral conflict with the world. But in living for Jesus, let us be known foremost as those filled with love, sacrificial service, hope, and truth. Let us walk in the boldness but also the winsome grace of our Lord Jesus. Let’s fix our eyes on Jesus, abide always in His word, and live lives of constant holiness in a lost and dying world.
 
Soli Deo Gloria,
Pastor Vic