Authentic Christianity ~ Jones

[b]SEPARATION (ACTS 2:37–42)

Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.[/b]

—Acts 2:37–42

Why are we dealing with this question of what it means to be a Christian? Is this some sort of anachronism in this modern world? Is it because we are carrying on some old tradition and perhaps have not thought enough even to stop—is that the position? No; the reason is very different indeed. It is because there is nothing today that holds out hope for men and women save this message. It is indeed, as it describes itself, “a light that shineth in a dark place” (2 Pet. 1:19). The world is a cavern, and here is the only light. There are speculations, I know, and men strike their little matches in the dark. They do not last very long and are denounced by the next generation. Ideas come and go and are always changing. Indeed, the most extraordinary and in many ways the most tragic aspect of all is that though the world boasts about its advances, its ideas do not progress but go round and round in circles, just like fashions. They are popular at one moment and then are discarded and ridiculed, only to return in another form.

Today people no longer recognize the category of the moral. Modern men and women say, “We have a new morality.” But that is simply a repetition of what the devil has suggested before. He puts an idea back into some cupboard and brings out another one, and everybody forgets the old idea. He lets a century or two pass, then brings the first one out again. “Brand-new!” people say. “A new morality.” But it is as old as Adam in its sinfulness! Nothing new at all, nothing original in any sense whatsoever. All perversions and all foulness are described in the Bible as well as in the pages of secular history.

For many centuries the Bible has told us, “There is no new thing under the sun” (Eccles. 1:9), and there certainly is not. All the arguments against Christianity, against this faith and way of life, have been put forward many times. So we have nothing to do but to turn back and consider this account, which is the only authority that we really have as to what it means to be a Christian.

We have seen that men and women become Christians because of the action of God and that as a result they undergo a profound change in mind, in heart, and in will. We see that in practice here in Acts, and we find the same thing stated in our Lord’s own teaching and in the teaching of the apostles. Our Lord made a famous statement to Nicodemus, that ruler of the Jews whose idea was that you added on something to what you already had. He was a teacher who thought Jesus had something that he did not yet have. He thought, “I am a master of Israel, but this man works miracles and seems to have a deeper insight than I have. I must have an interview with Him and find out what else I need.”

And the answer Nicodemus received shook him to his foundations, as it was meant to do: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). “Born again”—that is it—a profound, radical change that makes a man or woman an entirely new creature. As the apostle Paul puts it, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature”—not merely an improved creation, but a new creation, a new creature—“Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).

Now that, and nothing else, is Christianity. All else is religion, and I am not here to preach that. You can make yourself religious, but you cannot make yourself a Christian. This is the action of God the Creator re-creating the soul. It is the Holy Spirit taking men and women, convicting them, smashing them, and reassembling them on a new pattern, on the pattern of the image of the Son of God Himself. Christians—to use the title of a famous book that had such influence upon George Whitefield and John and Charles Wesley 200 years ago—Christians are those who have the life of God in their souls. That is Christianity: The Life of God in the Soul of Man. That stands out very clearly in this account of these first Christians who were added to the Christian church.

I want to establish yet further that this is true Christianity. Let me prove it by showing you that this change in someone’s whole outlook shows itself in action. If it does not do that, it is of no value: “Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone” (Jas. 2:17). But true faith, this change leading to faith, always shows itself.

How does true faith reveal itself? Well, the first big thing we notice here in Acts is that it leads to a great separation. It separates men and women from the world and joins them to the church. This is something that is found everywhere in the New Testament. Not one of the New Testament letters was written to people in the world; they were all written to individual Christians or to churches—that is, to people who had been gathered out of the world and put into these new communities. They had been “added to the church” and “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” A tremendous change was taking place within them, and this showed itself outwardly in that they had left one position for another.

This is one of the most vital things that needs to be emphasized at this present time. The church will be useless until this separation is made clear in her life. There is no state church in the New Testament—nothing approaching it! In the New Testament we see a division. A man or woman is taken from the world and put into the realm of the church. An admixture of church and state, world and Christianity, is fatal to true Christianity. It misleads, it is wrong, and it hinders the whole work of the church. In every time of reformation and true spiritual revival this separation, this distinction, becomes plain.
Now let us be clear about the meaning of the term world. As used in the Scriptures, world always means the mind and the outlook of humanity without God. It does not mean the physical universe—there is nothing wrong with that; nor does it mean animal creation. No, world means human beings trying to organize themselves and their lives without God. And my contention is that when people become Christians, they are taken from the world, though they still live in it, and are joined to this other body of people whom they resemble in most essential respects—the Christian church.
Look at this as it comes out plainly in the teaching of our blessed Lord and Savior Himself. Read, for example, Matthew 10 and see how our Lord was always surprising His contemporaries, just as He has surprised people ever since. The common idea about Jesus Christ, is it not, is that He is someone who came into the world to give peace, that He was the apostle of peace. So it is claimed that Christianity is a teaching that denounces war and bombs. But He Himself said, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword” (v. 34).

Now let us be fair. When our Lord said that, He did not mean He had come into the world to make nations fight one another. Of course not! But He was nevertheless dissenting very strongly from the notion that he was just “a pale Galilean” or “a gentle artist.” He was not some aesthete or a moral philosopher who had come simply to bring people together, break down barriers, and urge peace. He rejected that.

The idea that the Christian message is just a message to be nice and kind and friendly to one another is a travesty of the Gospel. It is too profound for that, too radical, too strong, too fundamental. There is no sloppy sentimentality about the Christian message. It is a message with a sword, and we see this in operation right at the beginning, on the day of Pentecost. I am anxious to prove this point because the idea still persists that the church is like some sort of maiden aunt who comes in on certain special occasions with a sentimental touch. In the name of the church and of Christianity, I protest! Here is strength and power; here, I repeat, is a sword.

One day, on the road to Damascus, our Lord commissioned a man called Saul of Tarsus, and this is what he told him:

[b]Rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I now send thee.[/b]

What for?

[b]To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.[/b]

—Acts 26:16–18

That is the commission that Paul was given. He would separate the Gentiles—call them out of darkness and into the realm of light—this great separation from the world into the realm of the kingdom of God.

We find this repeated everywhere. “Come out from among them,” says the apostle later on, “and be ye separate” (2 Cor. 6:17). He had just written, “What communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?” (vv. 14–15). You cannot mix light and darkness; you cannot mix Christ and Belial. And the difference between the Christian and the world is the difference between light and darkness. These things are eternal opposites. They are as different as God and the devil, heaven and hell. Here is the great contrast.

Or again, take the specific statement that Paul makes at the very beginning of his epistle to the Galatians: “Grace be to you, and peace, from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world.” That is it; that is why Christ died on the cross, that he might separate us, deliver us, from this present evil world—“according to the will of God and our Father” (1:3–4).

Again, the apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians, “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkenedye have not so learned Christ” (4:17–18, 20). They must not go on living as they used to live, like the rest of the Gentiles to whom they belonged. They had been changed, they had “learned Christ.” Things were different now.

Paul puts it still more specifically in the next chapter:

[b]Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of lightproving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.[/b]

—5:6–11

[i]Cont.[/i]

Not one of the New Testament letters was written to people in the world; they were all written to individual Christians or to churches—that is, to people who had been gathered out of the world and put into these new communities.

The idea that the Christian message is just a message to be nice and kind and friendly to one another is a travesty of the Gospel. It is too profound for that, too radical, too strong, too fundamental. There is no sloppy sentimentality about the Christian message. It is a message with a sword, and we see this in operation right at the beginning, on the day of Pentecost. I am anxious to prove this point because the idea still persists that the church is like some sort of maiden aunt who comes in on certain special occasions with a sentimental touch. In the name of the church and of Christianity, I protest! Here is strength and power; here, I repeat, is a sword.

“Born again”—that is it—a profound, radical change that makes a man or woman an entirely new creature. As the apostle Paul puts it, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature”—not merely an improved creation, but a new creation, a new creature—“Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).

Now that, and nothing else, is Christianity. All else is religion, and I am not here to preach that. You can make yourself religious, but you cannot make yourself a Christian. This is the action of God the Creator re-creating the soul. It is the Holy Spirit taking men and women, convicting them, smashing them, and reassembling them on a new pattern, on the pattern of the image of the Son of God Himself. Christians—to use the title of a famous book that had such influence upon George Whitefield and John and Charles Wesley 200 years ago—Christians are those who have the life of God in their souls. That is Christianity: The Life of God in the Soul of Man. That stands out very clearly in this account of these first Christians who were added to the Christian church.

this is what i am dwelling on right now... true christianity. nothing less that the very life of God inside the soul of man.

you can make yourself religious, but you cannot make yourself a christian.

thank you brother mike

Amen brothers ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And Paul exhorts the Christians in Philippi to be “blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15). What could be stronger? He says the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is that the Christian is like a star in the blackness of the heavens on a dark night. Christians shine as luminaries in the heavens, in the midst of all that darkness. That is Paul’s definition of a Christian.

Then, writing to the Colossians, Paul says, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (1:12–13). There has been a great transference, a movement of population, if you like, from one realm into another.

Then take one other statement. Listen to the apostle writing to the Thessalonians:

[b]But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness [that is, we were, but we are not any longer]. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.[/b]
—1 Thess. 5:4–8

And the apostle Peter preached exactly the same message. This is not only Pauline theology, as foolish and ignorant people would have us believe; this is the teaching of all the teachers in the New Testament. Peter writes in his letter:

[b]Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.[/b]
—1 Pet. 2:9–12

And we must not leave out the apostle John—this is the universal apostolic message. John puts it like this:

[b]Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.[/b]
—1 John 2:15–17

Is that not enough? Well, says John toward the end of his first letter, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (5:4). And finally he says, “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness [in the wicked one]” (5:18–19).

So there is the statement that is so plain and clear in the whole of New Testament teaching. Once men and women are dealt with by the Holy Spirit, through this Word preached, they are entirely changed, and the change reveals itself in their separation from the godless world.

But we must go a step further, and I do this in order that we may establish once and for all that becoming a Christian is the most profound change that can ever take place in a human being. Think again about what our Lord said to His disciples: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” Then, “For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.And he that taketh not his cross”—whatever it may cost and whatever separation it may involve—“and followeth not after me, is not worthy of me” (Matt. 10:34–38).

This is our Lord speaking. Yet people think of Him as one who just says sweet, sentimental nothings! No, no. Here is a Gospel that produces heroes. Here is a Gospel that produces martyrs. Here is the strongest thing in the world. Do you see how it works? “The brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved” (Matt. 10:21–22).

All those passages establish that when people become Christians, something so profound takes place within them that not only are they separated from the world in general, they are separated even from their nearest and dearest if they are not Christians. Do not misunderstand this.

It does not mean that a man has to leave his wife, or the wife the husband, or the father the child; but it does mean that whereas the members of a family had been living the same sort of life more or less in harmony, the moment one member becomes a Christian, there is an inevitable separation, and everybody knows it. The man or woman to whom it has happened knows it, and the others know it and resent it. Something has come between them—between a husband and wife, between a father and son, between a mother and daughter. Something has disrupted the nearest and the dearest relationships. Becoming a Christian cuts and divides even the most tender earthly associations— “Think not that I am come to send peace but a sword.” Our Lord’s words show how thorough, how profound, this change is. There is nothing one can say beyond that. That is what our Lord Himself says, and His words have been fulfilled throughout the centuries.

But why should there be such a change? That is the great question. And the answer is right before us in the pages of Scripture. The teaching is that we all by nature belong to the world. The human race is one. There is such a thing as the solidarity of the human race. It is one in sin; it is one in evil; it is one in its alienation from God. This is true of everybody born into the world. This is deeper than all the world’s divisions. Look at all the talk today about segregation and color and so on—why can people not see that “one touch of nature makes the whole world kin”? All the people in the world are sinners, whatever the color of their skin. All human beings are “shapen in iniquity” (Psa. 51:5). Sin reveals itself in every continent, in every clime, in every culture. In every division of the human race we find the same things being done and the same problems arising. That is the teaching of the Bible.

Now, by nature men and women are not aware of this. That is why there are these separations and divisions. We think we are superior or we feel we are inferior, and there are clashes. But whether the world knows it or not, our mutual fallenness is a fact. And when people become Christians, the Holy Spirit, using the Word, opens their minds and awakens them to a realization of this tremendous truth. That is what Peter said in his exhortation at the end of his sermon. We are told, “With many other words”—many similar words—“did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.”

How, then, do you “save yourselves”? Well, once men and women are dealt with by the Spirit of God and begin to understand this message, their minds and understanding are awakened to the tremendous truth of the solidarity of the entire human race in sin. At first they do not know what Peter is talking about when he says, “Save [separate] yourselves from this untoward generation.”

“I’m in the world—how can I save myself from it?” they say. “Is Peter asking me to become a monk or an anchorite or a hermit? Is he asking me to segregate myself from society?”

No; he is simply asking you to separate yourself from all that is true about the world in the biblical sense. It works like this: When the Holy Spirit begins to work in people, as I showed you earlier, they begin to think for the first time, and they find that there is such a thing as “the mind of the world,” which is opposed to God. They did not know that before. They thought they were original thinkers. They thought they had their own ideas, that their point of view was absolutely their own. But they wake up to the fact that it is nothing of the sort; they are victims of the mind-set of the world. E. C. Bentley put it like this in a little poem he sent to his friend G. K. Chesterton:

The world was very old indeed
When you and I were young.
And how true that is.

We are all inheritors of prejudices and wrong ways of thinking. We are all imitators, phonograph records, almost robots—repeating, repeating, repeating. Why do we do certain things? Because everybody else does them! We want to be up-to-date, abreast of the times. We want to do “the thing to do.” We are victims of propaganda—the propaganda of the newspapers, the television, the radio, the billboards and plays. And this world-mind that makes us what we are is opposed to God.

There is some interesting teaching about this in the New Testament. As men and women are dealt with by the Spirit of God, they begin to see it more and more clearly. Listen to the apostle Paul putting it so plainly to the Ephesians: “You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (2:1).

“But they were alive,” you say.

Of course they were, but they were “dead in trespasses and sins.” People can be alive physically and dead spiritually. And as we have seen, that is the trouble with all human beings; we are all spiritually dead. We are not aware of the spiritual realm. We do not think in a spiritual manner. Then Paul goes on to say:

[b]Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.[/b]
—2:2–3

There is no such thing as freedom of the mind. We all inherit a prejudice against God. We all have this worldly outlook. A young man reaches a certain age and he says, “I’ve been made to go to Sunday school and to chapel, but no more! I’m going to think for myself!” Then he begins to say things that he thinks are brilliantly new, absolutely original. But his father did exactly the same thing, and his father before him, and it has been done ever since Adam and Eve fell, back at the dawn of history.

But then the question is: What is it that controls the mind of the world? What controls this outlook that people have on life and God and death and themselves and eternity? Well, according to the apostle and according to the whole of the Bible, all of this is controlled by the devil. Yes, I still preach the existence of the devil! And I do so because it is stated in the Scriptures. But even if it were not, I would still do it because there is no other explanation for the state of the world. What is it that thwarts all the efforts of humanity to put itself right? Why does every civilization fail? Why is it that the world is still struggling, as it has throughout recorded history, to deliver itself, but cannot?

There is only one answer—the devil, the “god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4), “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). The world is as it is because it does not know that. It is because of the devil that all our efforts are vain and futile and nothing can deliver us. A tremendous, unseen, spiritual power is paralyzing and blinding the minds of men and women. The apostle Paul says, “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christshould shine unto them” (2 Cor. 4:3–4).

But now, under the influence of the Spirit and this teaching, people begin to understand. They suddenly see the awful prejudice, the spiritual tyranny. They see that there is no such thing as a free thinker. Then people ask, “So how has all this happened? When did it start?” And there is only one adequate answer. It is all due to the fact that man in his folly rebelled against God. Before the Fall, the world was in harmony with God. Man enjoyed fellowship with God, and God blessed him. The change came about like this: The devil asked, “Did God say? Why did God say? God said it to keep you down and to rob you of your privileges as a man. Assert yourself and you will become as God.”

That is the outlook of the world, and its author is the devil. Worldliness started in the original rebellion and fall and sin of Adam. And as they realize these things, men and women begin to see that they are victims, and especially when they try to fight against it, for they find they cannot. They make their resolutions, only to break them. They are always in a state of defeat. Then the Holy Spirit shows them that the explanation is that the world is controlled by the devil and they cannot get free.

“Save yourselves,” says the apostle Peter, “from this untoward generation.” The word “untoward” is the biblical description of a person in sin. It means crooked, intractable, not manageable. It means that men and women have a twist in them, that they are perverted. John the Baptist made the same point, quoting Isaiah: “The crooked shall be made straight” (Luke 3:5). According to the Bible, this is what people see as they begin to become Christians, as they come under conviction. It is not only the world, it is they themselves that are twisted and perverted. There is nothing straight, nothing pure, nothing clean.

If you want a description of the crookedness of men and women as they are by nature, and the world as it is apart from God, you will find it all in the opening chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans, in the terrifying words that are to be found there:

[b]Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things [worshiping idols and so on]. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.[/b]
—vv. 21–27

Here is a summary of it:

[b]Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.[/b]—vv. 29–32

That is a description of any big city without God! That is the life of the rich as well as the poor. Here is humanity without God, slaves of sin and evil, foul, debased, disgusting, vile. “Untoward generation”! Twisted! Perverted!

So when men and women are under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, they begin to see these things and to understand them. They find a vileness in themselves, an ugliness and a foulness—evil imaginations, evil thoughts and actions. They say, “What’s the matter with me? I’m a mass of corruption! What can I do?” That is what happened to the people at Jerusalem and made them cry out, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”

And then the gospel message goes on to tell us that we were never meant to be like that and that the world was never meant to be as it is today. This is not the world as God made it. This is the result of man’s rebellion and foulness and evil. I am not what I was meant to be, for I was originally made in the image of God. But I see another view of humanity—I see another possibility. The Gospel alone gives it to me, and I am convinced of it.

And then the Gospel reveals to me the fate that awaits the world as it is without God, being antagonistic to Him, and it is a terrifying fate. That is why Peter cried out on the day of Pentecost, “Save yourselves from this untoward generation.” What did he mean? John the apostle puts it in these words: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world,” because, he says, “the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever” (1 John 2:15, 17).

The message that came home to these people at Pentecost was just that. They were a part of the world that had sinned against God, and the wrath of God was upon them—God had pronounced judgment on the world. According to the prophecy of the Son of God Himself, far from getting better and better, the world would get worse and worse. He said, “Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars” (Matt. 24:6). Today many people put on rose-tinted spectacles and promise us an era of universal peace, but their words are a delusion and snare of Satan. The world will fight and wage war. Evil and sin, lust and foulness will increase in spite of modern civilization, until the Son of God returns in mighty judgment.

God has revealed the coming judgment throughout the history of the human race. He revealed it in the Flood; He revealed it in the destruction of the Tower of Babel; He revealed it in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; He revealed it in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. And I believe He is revealing it in the wars of this twentieth century. We are making a mockery of our civilization, of our great advancement. The state of the world is a manifestation of the wrath of God. He has handed us over to evil. He is allowing us to stew in our own juice. He is withdrawing His restraining power in order to warn us to save ourselves from this “untoward generation,” in order to warn us to “flee from the wrath to come” (Matt. 3:7).

The people in Acts 2 heard the warning. They said, “What shall we do?” and Peter answered, “Save yourselves.” The answer that Peter gave was that God had sent His only Son into this world. What for? To start a new humanity, to start a new human race. Adam failed and fell, and we reap the consequences. But God has sent His Son, the second Adam, the last Adam, and He is “the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29).

We can be forgiven. We can be rescued. We can live in this world and yet not be of it. We can have a new life, a new nature, a new start. We can become the sons of God and look forward to the glory everlasting. That is the message, and all we are called upon to do is to believe it, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and at all costs follow Him, leaving the world, taking up the cross, and following Him wherever He may lead.

This may mean misunderstanding in the family, but what does it matter? My soul is at stake. I was once in sin with them, but God has chosen to reveal to me that my soul matters. They will die, and I will die, but what of my soul? What is the value of the good opinion of your family or country, or what is the value of a state funeral and a magnificent procession [a reference to the funeral of Winston Churchill], or the tributes of the universe if your soul is lost and you are a stranger from God and you go to everlasting misery and perdition and suffering and loss?

“What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). This message tells us that we must be separated, that the sword must come and divide us. And it tells us that we must ask Christ to use the sword to set us free. He came into the world in order to do just that. He said, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). Here is a message, a truth, coming in the power of the Spirit, that separates us from the kingdom of darkness and translates us into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. People show they have become Christians when they leave the world and all it represents and join the body of God’s people and continue among them. This is not a mere intellectual change. Having seen this truth, they hate the world.

I hate the sins that made Thee mourn,
That drove Thee from my breast.
[i]William Cowper[/i]

They want to be delivered. They want to be like Christ. Not only is the mind affected, but the heart and will as well. Becoming a Christian, as I said at the beginning, is the most profound and the most radical thing that can ever happen to a man or woman.

So I end by again asking the same question: Has the sword of the Son of God been wielded in your case? Has it divided and separated you from the world? Do you differ from the mind and the outlook and the desires of the world? Have you seen its baseness, its foulness, its pretense, and its utter emptiness? Have you seen that if you die like that, you are under the judgment of God? Have you given proof that you have seen it by separating from the world and by giving yourself to the Son of God and joining in the life and fellowship of His people? Do you know anything of the “gladness” that came into the life of these first believers and the “joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8)?

Oh, may God by His Spirit bring home and apply this truth to all who hitherto have been ignorant of it!

Martyn Lloyd-Jones