Average Christianity

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. [00:00:31] Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. [00:01:06] Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity I think I'm going to stop reading there This is in some ways a very powerful part of Jesus' message right here at the end, close to the end here [00:01:47] Going back to the first several verses that I read I think we would all agree this morning that, and it has been said already in the devotional The road to heaven is not necessarily an easy road, always. There is joy, yes there is. And I looked at the Greek word, this is the word that they use there, stenos, but it means simply narrow from obstacles standing close about. So I think that it's even hard, I think we recognize that it's hard to get started on this road sometimes. [00:02:23] And if we remember back to our youth years, you know, there's there's peers, there's friends around us that would or things of this earth that lure us away from getting in that gate in the narrow gate. There's many obstacles and I'm not going to mention all of them, but there's there's a lot of things that hold us back. but I also believe that Jesus is making a clear distinction between the broad road and the narrow road [00:02:57] and I think we do well to make that distinction and address those things that would keep us from being on the narrow road and the next part there, the fruits, he talks quite a bit about the fruits and I think we are well aware of this scripture as well. We know that a genuine Christian will have fruit and we are all producing something. [00:03:30] We are all, we know where we're at by what we produce in our lives and I think we could say our works have some bearing on this. I know that we're not saved by our works. It not only refers to the actions in our lives, but also the doctrine that we proclaim, I think, is something that we should point out here. We know that man cannot produce a good fruit out of an unregenerate nature, his own unregenerate nature. And I think we need to notice that. [00:04:02] and I think he's talking about the second coming because in verse 19 he says that every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire and I think he's referring to the eternal punishment of hell. This is an apparent picture of that this morning. I think we would all agree that if we look around us And we look at scripture, that the second coming is probably not far away. [00:04:37] I think we've heard, I've heard that since I was a little boy sitting with my dad. But it's still close. It's still right here. It's not far away. But I guess the burden that I have this morning, what I would like to share about really is found in verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. You know, this is telling me that there's probably people sitting in churches this morning that are not going to make it. [00:05:16] And I don't know how that strikes you. And I'm not here to make someone uneasy about their assurance of salvation. but let's be sure that our assurance is based on truth and that we are on the right way. Let's make sure that it's not something that we're just hoping for. That somehow if we go to church, if we kind of tag along, we're going to get in. I think there's some requirements there. [00:05:49] He that doeth the will of my Father. You know, not every professing Christian is truly saved, and even the outward verbal acknowledgement of his lordship itself is not enough to save us, but true faith and repentance will save us. And I think a genuinely saved person will do the will of the Father. The Greek present tense meaning of this is that he is continually living in obedience. [00:06:21] And I think that's very important. It's not something that we just have this one time experience and we think now we're all right. It's every day. Every step of the way we have to continue in this thing. I don't know how it strikes you. I think it's in verse 23 it says, I never knew you. That must be the most awful thing to hear. The most terrible, the most, I don't even know how to describe it. [00:06:55] I don't know how I, I guess we don't know until we're there. And I hope that no one in this room this morning will hear those words. I hope that we're all on the way to glory. I think, I guess, what I would like to speak about this morning is something that, and I will just open myself. As I was studying this, I looked at my own life and I thought, I don't know if I should be preaching this or not. There's little ways that Satan tries to hinder us, and I would like to focus on nominal Christianity, what we call nominal Christianity. [00:07:37] I think rooted deep in the nature of a man, of every man, is the desire to beat the system. We somehow feel that we can have a little bit of the world and a little bit of God in our lives at the same time. We cannot have two masters. We are either saved or we're awfully lost, I guess, as I don't know how to put it in any other terms. Sometimes maybe we want to cross with a wheel at the bottom, something that rolls a little easier, something that goes a little bit closer to what I would like to have. [00:08:16] And I appreciated what was stated in the devotional. We don't change the word of God. We change. We apply our lives. We bring our lives in line with the word. We don't change the word. Charles Spurgeon says this, Christianity is either an awful deception or it deserves to have our whole heart, our whole spirit, soul, and body devoted to it. [00:08:48] I think he's probably correct in saying that. And I don't think, I don't know if I can think of anything that is more miserable, may I say, than nominal Christianity, humanity where we feel we have to go to church because my parents did it or it's the accepted thing to do and yet we don't really have an interest in it. I think that that must be miserable. Well, in fact, I'll just say it this way. I know it's miserable because I have been [00:09:20] there. I have lived that life. In order for us to see clearly our lives the way that Jesus Jesus does. I think we have to take a close look at some of these things and I think really we have to identify the enemy of our souls. We have to identify how Satan would try to mislead us. There are many different sins that people get involved in that cool off their thirst for God. It seems like sometimes it happens ever so gradually. We don't even see it happening. We don't even think about it. And I have chosen just to focus on that a little bit this morning. And I have a story. An average fence. I would guess that many of you have heard this. And that's I've titled my message An Average Christian. This was a story about Mr. Harney, a retired banker, and I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I'll just maybe relate some of it. I have the story here. He was a banker. He lived. I don't even know if this is some fictitious character or if it's a true story. It doesn't matter. [00:10:47] I would like to maybe take a lesson out of this. He was a retired banker. He lived in a house and had six acres and he noticed that the fence was getting weak around his property. And so he got tired of the cow coming out, the neighbor's cow would get over in his field. And so he went down the road to his Amish neighbor and asked if he would consent to coming over to fix his fence or make a new one, repair it at least. [00:11:20] And he was rather a cantankerous old man. He was always kind of argumentative about his faith. And as he pulled in, he noticed that the neighbor was heading for the barn. and he said the neighbor just told him that he was doing some extra work so he wouldn't have to work on Sunday. And of course this old Mr. Harney didn't like that at all. He said that there's no reason why we can't work on Sunday. And then he said the Bible says the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath. [00:11:52] And then this was kind of the start of their dialogue there. He didn't understand the Amishman's perspective and neither, I don't think, Well, maybe the Amish men understood him a little bit better than he thought he did. But at any rate, thus the agreement was made, and early Monday morning an open buggy turned into the lane leading to the house between the sycamore trees, and he went and he started on the fence. And at the noon meal, they had their meal, and Mr. Harney had a hired lady to do it, [00:12:27] And something happened at the noon meal. He reached out for a dish of potatoes and as he did so, well this was Mr. Harney, his coat sleeve brushed against a glass of water, spilling the contents on the clean tablecloth and he cursed. He cursed the glass and he started, and Jed, the neighbor, the Amishman, he winced at the sound. And after dinner, they went out, and Jed just couldn't help it. He said, don't you think that's kind of ungodly, the way that you spoke to him? [00:13:01] And, well, Mr. Harney, he said, I can't see why what I said is wrong. It doesn't hurt to curse every once in a while to let off some steam here. And the discussion jumped from one topic to the other, and Mr. Harney ended up by saying, I guess I'm not so bad a Christian. I go to church every Sunday. Of course, when the weather's bad, I don't. Sometimes I lose my temper, but I'm honest. I drink liquor now and then, but I give money to the poor. I'm an average Christian. I expect the Lord will have a mansion somewhere in heaven for me. [00:13:41] You know, we look at that as false. We understand. We've been taught that that's not the correct way to conduct ourselves. And as time went on, the fence was being built, and I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about this, but the neighbor, finally it was completed. And Mr. Harney asked him, did you build the fence tight and strong? It was a split rail fence. It wasn't the fence like we have today. And Jed said this, I can't say that it's all tight and strong, but it's a good average fence anyhow. If some parts are a little weak, others are extra strong. I don't know, but I may have left a gap here or there, a yard wide or so, but then I made up for it by doubling the number of rails on each side of the gap. [00:14:33] I dare say it's a good average fence on the whole though I can't say it's perfect and you can imagine the outcome of that old Mr. Harney was anything but pleased and he dismissed the man and said that he would take care of the fence now I know that all of us know that a fence like that just wouldn't cut it we can't hold any cows in But, it seems that when it comes to our walk with the Lord at times, we look at things kind of the same way. [00:15:09] We try to average things out and we settle for less than what the Lord would have us do. And so I've got four points that I would like to focus on for the rest of this message. Some things that happen are signs that we have become just average Christians. We just, we feel that we fit in. Point number one, we start bargaining with God about little sins. [00:15:41] What we call little sins. You know, I don't think there's any need for me to talk this morning about sins of gross immorality or drinking or doing drugs or smoking or any of those things that we tend to think are out there. and I am, we take a firm stand, we almost seem to have pride in the fact that our people would never be involved in something like that and I think that's good, we shouldn't be involved in things like that, we shouldn't have anything to do with that [00:16:15] but you know what, the little foxes spoil the vines, I don't think there's a small sin in God's eyes, I don't think that he winks at any sin I do recognize that we're only, we're saved but by the grace of God. We do need the grace of God. I want to inject that here. But when we reason with God that we may not be where we should be, but we do extra well in another area. [00:16:47] We feel that we have done many great and wonderful works maybe. Maybe we feel that way. I don't know. I know that I sometimes know we do something for someone, it goes unnoticed, what are we looking for? Maybe we're looking for some honor and glory from someone, I don't know. Maybe we're just a little disobedient to the church or a little unkind to our spouse or maybe as a husband we fail to support our wife properly [00:17:19] or maybe as a wife we don't let our husband lead out the way he should. You can fill in whatever you want to, but I think that God requires that we look at His Word and we see where we're supposed to be. And though we may not be involved with these big sins, I think there's things that we need to be aware of that come in and cool off our desire for the things of God. [00:17:50] Point number two, we start comparing. We start comparing ourselves with others in our circles, and we feel that we're not doing that bad after all. You know, we see Brother So-and-So, he does these things, and this sister, and we've always done it like that. And I think we're probably all right, and I want to be careful. I really appreciate the examples that I see here, and I think it's good to follow. [00:18:22] But let's be careful that we don't just try to average things out and at the end fall short on some of these things. If we continue to do that, I think there comes a time when we develop a wrong view of truth. We are no longer able to, because we look about us and we just try to line up our lives with the people around us, Instead of the Word, we are no longer able to examine ourselves properly or base our faith on God the way that we should [00:19:01] because we are basing our experience with the Lord on the feelings that other people have. All the while, the machinery goes on. We keep going to church and we look average. We're just average. But you know what? I think the Lord wants our heart. Point number three, we become defeated Christians. We no longer have power to overcome sin. And I think that nominal Christianity is powerless Christianity. We have no power to overcome those little sins in our lives. And I can tell you, it would be too shameful to say it over the pulpit, I think, I remember my own experience in this. [00:19:55] You know, I wanted to break free so badly sometimes. I was involved in things, in sin. And there were times when I would go a month, six months, without taking a hold of that thing. And I felt like I was free. But then the temptation would come. There was just no power to overcome that thing. There was no, when the temptation came back, there was no strength. I was trying to do it on my own strength. [00:20:26] And I just couldn't. I failed. I would fall back. And you know what? It did not, those temptations did not leave me until I surrendered my will to the Lord. And I think really, when we try to average things out, I remember I would think that, you know, I'm not the only one involved in this. There's others. There's one thing that I would like to say about being a defeated Christian and having no power. [00:20:57] One of the most powerful things that, or to me, one of the most powerful things that we have is a transparent life. Confession. We all know what 1 John 1.9 says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You know, I was unwilling for a long time to confess, to be open. But once you open up your life, when you're transparent, you have nothing to hide. Then you have power. [00:21:30] That defeat is gone. And you know what? It's not only in maybe this area, but there might be a whole line of other little things that we are just unable to conquer. And I think if we open up and we're willing to make confession, to be honest, I think there's power there. We overcome that powerless, defeated state. There's another thing, I didn't really study this one, but I have noticed that when we compare, there's often a lack of fresh Bible study. [00:22:12] And I've noticed that, especially in the setting where I came from, there was always the same cycle. No fresh Bible study. When we don't have a testimony anymore, when we don't have a fresh testimony, when we're not reading, when we're not close to God, I think we could say we're just nominal Christians. We go to church, we're average. The fourth point I have here is there's a lack of outreach. There's a lack of reaching out, I should say, would maybe be the proper term. [00:22:46] When we cool off, when there's no zeal for God, there's nothing going forth. There's no life that we can give to others. Maybe we try to reach people through questionable means, or we try to reach people in ways that don't really line up with the Word of God. And again, I think in each one of these, we bargain with God. We do the same thing that these people said. [00:23:18] They thought they did many wonderful works Because in one area we're maybe doing quite well And again, I don't want anybody to question their salvation experience this morning Or feel uncomfortable with it But let's make sure Let's be careful You know, in the setting where I came from We preached hope We did not preach assurance of salvation and we were taught that you could not know if you were saved. [00:23:54] I appreciate that we can have assurance of salvation, that we can know that we're in right standing with God, but let's not abuse that. Let's be careful. Let's make sure that we have a continual walk with God and that we're not just saying that or giving lip service as some people say it. I would just like to remind us in closing that if we have a changed heart, if we have been transformed, [00:24:30] we live a life that is bubbling over with the things of God. And many times we don't have to say hardly anything, it just comes forth. When you go on your, when you're at work, when you're working, what are we there for? You know, we're there, we have a job, yes. But really, if we're attached, if we're looking forward to the kingdom to come, we're there to witness to our fellow man. And I would like to remind us that when we don't have that, that joy, that peace that radiates forth, then probably we are not where we should be.