AN ETERNAL
THANKSGIVING
MIKE
CUNNINGHAM
NOVEMBER 18,
2006
I can’t help chuckling whenever I think about
a question and comment one of my daughters recently entered in my web page
guest book concerning my last sermon. I really appreciated it because hers was
the first of several internet feedbacks I received concerning that particular one.
You may recall it was the one in which I suggested some college professors are intellectual schizophrenic’s.
I also made other attention getting remarks in that sermon, one of which
prompted my daughter to ask: “We’re
surrounded by animated dead people??? Yikes! You scare me a little bit
sometimes, but I love you. Sleep well. Anne-Marie.”
I responded by reminding her that I was
speaking about people who are spiritually dead, folks who are unable to understand spiritual truth, nor do they have any
interest in acquiring it. I suggested she give serious thought to
everything I said in that sermon including statements such as: “All Christians live
in a world which I like to describe as being “The Planet of
the Living Dead.” I went on to conclude my
sermon by making what I know is a very politically incorrect statement. “…all
non-Christians, including intellectual Schizophrenic professor’s, are
spiritually dead fools.
I realize these are rather bold statements and
that the vast majority of people in our country would label me as being an intolerant
fundamentalist Christian fanatic. Nevertheless, I cannot retract or waver on
anything I said for one reason; I spoke the truth. For instance, concerning
non-Christians, the inerrant divinely inspired Word of God insists that every one of them without exception, “cannot
understand spiritual truth,” and I added that they can’t understand it “any
more than the pew you folks are sitting in right now can.”
It isn’t only Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Mormons,
Buddhists and other non-Christian’s who are spiritually dead, but also many
real nice religious people who call themselves Christians. These are the ones
who have developed the
habit of attending church regularly. They find the service to be
nostalgic and comforting, and appreciate the nonthreatening environment. It’s a
rather relaxing change of pace. These folks really enjoy the singing and
preaching and the praying and the fellowship. They know about God, but they
don’t know Him personally. Intellectually they know that “Jesus is the reason
for the season,” but that’s about it. These folks don’t have a hunger and
thirst or any desire to acquire the knowledge to truly get to know their
Creator.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not
suggesting they don’t believe the Bible. They do, but all too often it’s only where
the Bible coincides with their preconceived convictions, but certainly not
anything they consider nonsense, such as the Bible insisting that homosexual
behavior is a sin which, unless the homosexual knocks off, will prevent him or
her from entering into God’s heaven (1 Corinthians 6:9).
Please
don’t misunderstand me on this point either. I’m not suggesting that anyone who
has come to a different conclusion about this issue isn’t a Christian. I’m not
infallible and I don’t have a corner on all truth. I’m also not too old to
learn and I am willing to be corrected, but it must be by the light of God’s Holy
Word. As far as the professed Christians I’ve been speaking about are
concerned, to them most of the Bible is irrelevant, and it shows in their
disinterest in reading and studying it. They are not on God’s wavelength nor do they want to be because
they are spiritually dead. The Apostle Paul addressed this issue in
his letters to the Corinthian and Ephesian Christians.
1
Corinthians 2:14 (AMP) 14 But the natural, nonspiritual man does
not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly
(meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and
becoming better acquainted with them] because
they are spiritually discerned and
estimated and appreciated.
Ephesians
4:17-18 (AMP) 17 So this I say and
solemnly testify in [the name of] the Lord [as in His presence], that you must
no longer live as the heathen (the Gentiles) do in their perverseness [in the
folly, vanity, and emptiness of their souls and the futility] of their minds. 18 Their moral understanding is
darkened and their reasoning is
beclouded. [They are] alienated (estranged, self-banished) from the life
of God [with no share in it; this is] because of the ignorance (the want of
knowledge and perception, the willful blindness) that is
deep-seated in them, due to their hardness of heart [to the
insensitiveness of their moral nature].
“If we don’t remember this fact
we are apt to frustrate ourselves and become discouraged, especially whenever
we attempt to lead them to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” We must
constantly remind ourselves of the Biblical fact that all human beings are born
spiritually dead and, unless there is divine intervention, will doom themselves to
living their life wallowing in sin in this world and the one awaiting them.
There will also come a time when all Christians will sing an eternal thanksgiving
for what Jesus has done for them through His death and resurrection.
Ephesians
2:1 (AMP) 1 AND YOU [He made alive], when you were dead
(slain) by [your] trespasses and sins
Ephesians
2:5 (AMP) 5 Even when we were dead (slain) by [our
own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in
fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ
Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace
(His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved (delivered
from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation).
Romans
3:23 (AMP) 23 Since all have sinned and are falling
short of the honor and glory which God bestows and receives.
Romans
5:15 (AMP) 15 But God’s free gift is not at all to be compared to
the trespass [His grace is out of all proportion to the fall of man]. For if many died through one man’s [Adam’s] falling away
(his lapse, his offense), much more profusely did God’s grace and the free gift [that comes] through the
undeserved favor of the one Man Jesus Christ abound and overflow to and
for [the benefit of] many.
Ephesians
4:17-18 (ESV) 17 Now this I say and
testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the
futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from
the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their
hardness of heart.
Non-Christians do not accept or
welcome or admit into their self hardened hearts the teachings and revelations
of the Spirit of God. They have banished themselves from the life of God and
have deliberately blinded themselves to spiritual truth. None of
these spiritually dead people are interested in finding God. They could care
less, even those of them who have been endowed by their Creator with brilliant
inquisitive minds. If
they were sincere in their quest for truth they would look for it and they
would most certainly find it. And that includes all those folks who live in
some remote area of the world isolated from civilization who never even heard
of Jesus. If they sincerely sought to learn the truth I assure you Jesus would
find a way to make Himself known to them.
Matthew
7:7-8 (AMP) 7 Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on
seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be
opened to you. 8 For
everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and
to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened.
Not only are
non-Christians spiritually dead but every one of them are also fools, some more
so than others. Allow me to explain.
Romans
1:18-25 (AMP) 18 For God’s [holy] wrath
and indignation are revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who
in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it
inoperative. 19 For
that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their
inner consciousness, because God [Himself] has shown it to them. 20 For ever since the creation of the
world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power
and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible
in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So
[men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification],
21
Because when they knew and recognized Him as God, they did not honor and
glorify Him as God or give Him thanks. But instead they became futile and
godless in their thinking [with vain imaginings, foolish reasoning, and stupid
speculations] and their senseless minds were darkened. 22 Claiming to be
wise, they became fools [professing to be smart, they made simpletons of
themselves].
23 And by
them the glory and majesty and excellence of the immortal God were
exchanged for and represented by images, resembling mortal man and birds
and beasts and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their [own]
hearts to sexual impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves
[abandoning them to the degrading power of sin], 25 Because they exchanged the truth of
God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,
Who is blessed forever! Amen (so be it).
Look closely at verse
19. “For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God
[Himself] has shown it to them.” I can’t help wondering if perhaps Shakespeare
had these passages in mind when he had that little elf named Puck who appeared in
his play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” say, "What fools we mortals be.”
Listen to how Lloyd-Jones explains verse 19. “This knowledge of
God is available to man. That is his (Paul’s) statement; he says this is something
which is universal, and that is why all men are without excuse if they are
godless, if they are ungodly and unrighteous. In what ways has God made this
knowledge known? The first thing Paul says is that God has revealed it in them (vs.
19).
Here again is a very
great statement; which I can perhaps put like this. It is a universal fact that there is a sense of
God in mankind. It does not matter where you go, it does not matter
how primitive the tribes may be that you come across in the most remote parts
of the world; you will
never find a human being who has not got within him a sense of a Supreme
Being-a sense of God. It is universal in the whole of human nature everywhere,
and it is a very important and a very significant point.”
“… anthologists and
research workers who have investigated this problem have produced this very
vital bit of evidence: the most primitive tribes amongst the pygmies in the
heart of Africa, tribes like the aborigines in Australia, and in certain parts
of the American Continent, wherever you find the most primitive people
imaginable, even there is found this sense of a Supreme Being, of a supreme
God. It is universal in human nature. Even the man who tells you that he does not believe in God,
and who boasts of the fact that he is an atheist, even he has got a sense of
God. He has to argue against it, and that is why he does so. Whether
he likes it or not, he has got it, and he does his best to drown it and to
ridicule it and to dismiss it, but it is still there. A universal sense of
God-‘that which may be known of God is manifest in them’, deep within the consciousness
of man’s being. Now this is a way of describing the conscience.
There is in mankind universally
this sense of right and wrong, this feeling that sin deserves to be to be
judged, and that sin will be judged, and that the moral Governor of the
universe is righteous and just. …that is something that is innate in the
whole of human nature, in the
whole of mankind. That, then, is the first way in which God has given this
knowledge. It is in us.
It is in
every man everywhere. It is the first reason for the inexcusability of sin.[i]
The recent cyclone
along the coast of predominately Muslim Bangladesh which suddenly snuffed out
the lives of at least 1,723 poor people reminded me of feedback I received from
a friend about the sermon I preached in January 2002 concerning the more than
300,000 non-Christians who were killed in the Giant Tsunami. This man whom I
respect very much emailed me saying: “…God has made every necessary provision for all to have access to Him
even if they never have the opportunity to hear the good news from a current or
past believer (example- books). If anyone fails to get into heaven it is
because they had no interest in the first place or aggressively fought off all
of God's provisions.”
“I have always had some trouble understanding why some go
to hell when they "never really" had a chance. You have helped
me to realize that God
has
sufficiently revealed himself to everyone so that anyone who
has the desire to respond to that revelation has access to heaven. If
they seek, if they question, if they care to receive
answers to the questions that all of nature around them ask, God
will meet their need. Thanks for sharing! Signed; “In His grip,
Wally.”
Other than little children, no one who has just
heard or who may read this message later on will ever be able to claim they
didn’t understand it. I want you to know it’s my heart’s desire that, if anyone
hasn’t already done so, you choose to accept spiritual life which is found only
in Jesus and enjoy an
eternal Thanksgiving.
[i] Romans: An Exposition of Chapter 1, The
Gospel of God. D, M. Lloyd-Jones, © 1985 by Mrs. D. M. Lloyd-Jones, Zondervan
Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530, P,368, 369.
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