Realize please the dire importance of this. Upon what do you base your belief in your own salvation today? Is it because you went up for an altar call? Is it because you recited the prayer the preacher asked you to repeat? Is it because you attend a great church, with a lot of people? Narrow is the gate that leads to heaven and wide is the path that leads to destruction! There is no altar call or prayer that will grant you eternal life. Only a heart that has been truly regenerated by Jesus Christ will enter the kingdom of heaven. What does that mean? That means that from the point after the magic prayer and altar call there was a change in who you were. There was a waning desire for the things of the world and an increase in your desire for the things of God. Your salvation is never in question because you have a daily relationship with God, not a weekend visitation schedule.
This brings us to the key verses for today. They speak about the condition of our eye -- what we focus on. Who are we listening to? Are they filling our body with the light of Christ or the darkness of this world? Remember, we often cannot recognize the darkness. In the days when Jesus walked the earth the religious experts were sure of their position with God. We read about them now and it may seem obvious to us but to many back then, they were the mega-church pastors. They were who was followed. They had Scripture they used to justify themselves. They looked the part. They sounded the part. But their fruit was rotten to the core. They were leading those who followed astray. In the Gospel of Matthew we see this exchange:
Jesus called
the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. What goes into a man's mouth
does not make him "unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what
makes him "unclean.'" Then the disciples came to him and asked, "Do you know
that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?" He replied, "Every
plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.
Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will
fall into a pit." -- Matthew 15: 10-14 (NIV)
Jesus shows us here that the only thing that matters is the truth. It has become acceptable in the modern church to accept partial truth. I have heard the phrase too often that we must "eat the meat and spit out the bones." I disagree. If the root is rotten then the fruit is rotten. The danger is that while you may be able to notice the bones this time, maybe next time they are smaller. Maybe next time they sneak past you. Maybe next time you end up choking on them. Remember the issue is not to hear an intellectually sound word. It is not to hear a motivational word. It is to hear an anointed Word seared into our being by the Holy Spirit of God. The disciples respond as many today in the church might -- concerned about offending man. Remember, Jesus said He did not come to earth to bring peace but division. The Gospel is what the Gospel is. Lastly here Jesus reminds us that the blind cannot lead the blind. Eerily prophetic Word from our Lord considering the times we find ourselves in.
That brings us to the final portion of the key verses. A prophetic call to examine ourselves in these the last days. Jesus is coming back soon. Remember Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of His day:
He replied,
"When evening comes, you say, "It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,'
and in the morning, "Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.'
You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret
the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a
miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah." Jesus
then left them and went away. - Matthew 16: 2-4 (NIV)
We may not be demanding a sign with our mouths but it sure seems that we are with our indifference. The signs of the times are all around us every single day. Wars, famines and earthquakes -- all with increasing frequency. The love of most running cold. Churches gathering to them teachers who will depart from sound doctrine so they can hear what their itching ears want to hear. It is almost as if we are waiting for Jesus Himself to walk into our congregation and assure us it is all real and it is all happening now. Until then, we continue to play church -- thinking we are serving God.
How can this be? So many we know who are genuine in their desire to know the Lord. Genuine in their desire to be doing His will. Genuine in their intent. The problem is revealed in the key verses. There is confusion between darkness and light. Read that last verse carefully -- if the light you think you have is actually darkness -- how deep that darkness is! How difficult it is to convince someone who thinks they are in light that they are really in darkness. Simon the Sorcerer in the Book of Acts believed his darkness to be light and he tried to buy the power of God. Ironically today how many do we see trying to sell the power of God? The seven sons of Sceva convinced themselves that their deeds of darkness were actually light. They thought they could use the name of the Lord without actually knowing Him. How many leaders like that do we have today? How deep that darkness is! As it was, so it still can go today. We have entire denominations thinking nothing of abandoning the Gospel wholesale in response to cultural pressures. How deep that darkness is! We have apostasy on smaller scales where the Gospel is dying one small compromise at a time. No sanctity of the church or the altar. We have the secularizing of the church. Seeker friendly heresy which teaches the Gospel is no longer culturally relevant and we need to trick people into "salvation." How deep that darkness is! Worship designed as entertainment, instead of reaching the heart of God. Showy, flamboyant and oozing with pride. How deep that darkness is! Anyone who dares to speak the truth is dismissed out of hand as needing to "lighten up." How deep that darkness is! How deep indeed. There is nothing darker than false light because it convinces us that we no longer need to seek the light. That we are ok. That our religiosity will get us into heaven. Look at the miracles we did! Look at the demons we cast out! Look at the community outreaches we did! Look at the plays we put on! I-Never-Knew-You.
Realize that I am not speaking about personality, motivation, or intent. As my pastor likes to say, you can be sincere and sincerely wrong. I would hope that no one wakes up desiring to be heretical that day! The end result is what matters. Is it darkness or is it light? Do not confuse one for the other and do not fall for the shades of grey argument. We believe in absolute truth and we need to apply it in every area of our lives.
This walk is never without sacrifice.
It requires something from us. It requires diligence and introspection. It
requires wisdom and discernment. It requires a healthy fear of the Lord. Not
that we are afraid of who God is but that we are ever mindful of forgetting who He is. When we forget who
God is then we can slip into these habits of a little compromise here and a
little compromise there. We can start to think that our works somehow
constitutes and justifies our relationship with God. We can mistake
emotionalism for a move of the Holy Spirit. We can mistake bones for meat. We
can mistake the darkness all around us for somehow being light. It is not
always obvious, especially when we are in the middle of it. Especially when the
incursion is slight over a long period of time. It builds. God has taught us:
