“LAST DAY FAITH-LASTING OR LAPSING?”

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE:  “LAST DAY FAITH-LASTING OR LAPSING?”

     I remember hearing Adrian Rogers, who passed away in November 2005, said in a sermon, “In the last days people will be deserting the Church like rats deserting a sinking ship!”  He was basing it on what Paul said in I Timothy 4:1 “The Spirit expressly says, in the latter days many will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits, and doctrines of demons”. Jesus, Himself inferred that, when He asked, “When the Son of Man Comes again, will He find faith, (people practicing their faith), on earth?” (Luke 18:8).  Are we seeing the evidence of that?  Since 2012 The Annual Church Profile of the Southern Baptist Convention denominationally wide has consistently shown that baptisms and Church membership and attendance are declining.  Steve Gaines, Past President of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Pastor of the Belleview Baptist Church of Cordova, (Memphis), Tennessee said, “we are not growing anywhere near a rate comparable to the population increase”.  The SBC is not the only ones experiencing this decline.  According to Pew Research “every major branch of Christianity has lost significant numbers-the biggest being the Catholics and the mainline Protestants”.  Churches of all denominations are closing or consolidating in record numbers!  According to Barna 73% of Americans say they are Christians, but only 31% feel Church attendance is important, and that explains why that same percent usually attend less than once a month!  Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Louisville, Kentucky says “this is a new age, a secular spirit of our age, with headwinds blowing right in our face!”  Apologist Pastor Voddie Baucham, speaking at the G3 Conference last year, emphasizing the importance of the local Church, said “if we don’t understand the magnitude of the local Church, then what’s the difference between us and the Rotary Club?  If all of this is entertainment then why bother?  God has a plan.  It is the local Church.  It is Plan A.  There is no Plan B!”  As the experts try to explain the cause of the decline, we cannot wave the white flag of surrender!  I think part of the problem lies in the quality of faith that marks the maturity of the believers, or the lack there of, that has caused them to be overwhelmed by the spirit of this secular age, and demonic winds of change blowing on the rank and file of our members. There is an interesting passage of Scripture that talks about this very issue.  II Peter 2:7-8 says, “God delivered Righteous Lot, vexed by the conduct of those around him”.  The word vex here is the word-“kataponeo”-“to completely wear down and exhaust by repeated involvement”.  Then verse 8 says, “that righteous man, dwelling among them day after day, kept on vexing his righteous soul with their lawless deeds.  The second word vex is “basanidzo”- “to buffet, to torment, to beat against, as waves crashing upon a shore!”  The idea is a picture a structure standing on the shore, being battered by the waves and storm of the sea.  Even if it survives, there is usually great damage sustained.  Many times, the structure does not survive the battering!  Think of a lighthouse, standing in the storm to guide lost ships in the storm and darkness, being battered by the winds and waves of the storm.  That is the Lot Complex!  That may be the cause of Christians departing the ranks of the Church in these last days.  That may be the blight of our generation!  Jesus also said, “In the last days, iniquity shall abound, and the love of many shall wax cold!”  The word “wax cold” is “psucho”- “to blow on with chilling air”.  Listen to how Martin Vincent, the Greek scholar translates this verse-“the fervent love of many will be blighted of its spiritual energy by a malignant poisonous wind of evil”.  The question we have to ask and answer is how do we insulate our rank and file to protect their faith from such a last day onslaught, to guarantee they will survive faithful to meet the Lord when He comes?   Jesus was trying to prepare us to get ready for such an onslaught and build up a faith that can stand on the shores of this evil age, and withstand the day by day battering without a total eclipse of our faith.  How do we do that?

     Without offering a pat answer, I believe that the writer of Hebrews, in his great chapter on faith, pointed to the lives men and woman of faith, to show us how they withstood the challenges that battered them in their day, and yet ran their race victoriously.  We cannot look at all he said to emulate from them, but I would like to point out three things he stated will fortify us against those diabolical winds that blow on us continuously in these last days.  First of all, in the face of great evil, he points out that Abel was able to withstand the onslaught by his exemplary WORSHIP OF GOD.  “By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice (act of faithful worship) to God.”  The word “offer” is “proskuneo”- “act of worship”.  “God therefore testified that he was a righteous man…and even after his death…his life keeps on speaking as an example to others”.  The first ingredient to bring a strong faith is worship.  Faithful worship.  In these last days there is nothing more important.  The Church has believed the devil’s demonic lie that worship is not all that important.  Someone has said, “seven days without worship makes one weak!”  That is an incontrovertible truth!  If we neglect worship, we are setting ourselves up for failure in these last days!  That is why the author of Hebrews exhorted “Stop forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the habit of some have become, in so much as you see the day approaching!” (Heb. 10:25). The very best definition of worship I have ever read is from William Temple.  He says, “Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God.  It is the quickening of the conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of our mind with His Truth; the purifying of our imagination with His beauty (perfection); the opening of our heart to His Love; the surrender of our will to His purpose-and all gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which we are capable”.  A life that is fortified with that kind of daily experience will be able to stand strong in the face of the winds of evil.  A.W. Tozer tells us that worship, that kind of worship is imperative and primary!  He says, “We are to be worshippers first and workers second.  We take a convert and immediately make a worker out of him. God never meant it to be so.  God meant that a convert should first learn to be a worshipper, after that he can learn to be a worker.  Then the work we do will have eternity in it.  When we give God what He is worth, (all our love and all that we are), we become more of who He wants us to become…all the rest will follow.  I am tired of being whipped into line, being urged to work harder, pray harder, give more, without being shown who Jesus is, and how much He deserves all of me, for giving me all of Him”.  Maybe when we deprive our faith of worship, we find ourselves distracted from the very one that makes us invincible!

     The second person of faith that is held up to us in Hebrews 11 is Enoch.  It says-“Enoch walked with God”.  Don’t rush over that statement of faith.  The name Enoch-(Chanokh) means “dedicated”.  Enoch was committed to walking daily in the presence of God, when everyone else was walking away, going their own way.  That has become the habit of most Christians in this last day.  Instead of rushing into the presence of God, when feeling the onslaught of the winds of evil from our generation, we let those winds beat us down, or blow us farther away from His presence.  He is the Rock of our Stability.  Every step you take in these evil days should be in close proximity with God.  The further you stray from His presence the more of a sitting duck you become.  Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of each evening.  It was by His design.  They learned of life from Him…not independently from Him.  Walking with God moment by moment throughout all the experiences of our day is the only way to survive in these last days.  We must start each day in His presence and we will soon learn to complete our days having walked with Him every step of the way.  C.S. Lewis warned us that that must be done at the start of each day.  He writes, “It comes the very moment you wake up each morning.  All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals.  The first job each morning consists of simply shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.  And so on, all day.  Standing back from all your natural fussing’s and fretting’s; coming in out of the wind!”  (Mere Christianity). That is daily walking with God.  That fortifies our faith for these last days! Enoch did it daily until the day he was raptured.  What an example for us!

     The third example of faith is Noah.  Listen to what it says about him.  “By faith, having been instructed by God, concerning things not seen, but soon to come, moved with reverential fear, built an ark of salvation”. (Heb. 11:7).  II Peter 2:5 says that Noah proclaimed the righteousness of God, and the coming flood for 120 years.  The word flood is the Greek word “kataklusmon”-cataclysm.  In the last days before the flood, while the world continued on in their wicked rebellion against God, Noah worked every day building the ark of salvation according to the instructions of God.  When asked what he was building he warned of the flood and pointed to the ark as the only way of salvation.  He worked and witnessed daily to everyone who would listen.  He did that faithfully for 120 years.  The demonic spirit of the age prevailed.  But Noah withstood the winds of the evil age till the day the flood came and took them all away in destruction.  What an example of how we too can be strong in the faith in these last days.  Noah withstood ridicule.  He declared the truth though he could not prove it!  His faith helped him work and witness and God kept him strong!  He will do the same for us if we commit to that same activity as we see the day of His coming approaching.  How do we keep our faith from lapsing in these last days?  Worshipping God with a whole heart.  Walking with God-Practicing His Presence.  Working for Him-letting our lights shine in the darkness around us. Witnessing by “holding forth the Word of Life” to all that might have ears to hear.  That kind of faith can withstand the frightful forceful winds of this evil age.  That is the kind of faith that Jesus is looking to find in us when He returns again.  Keep the faith!  That kind of faith!