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“And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatic, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.”
Matthew 17.14-16
False assumptions always cause false conclusions. False conclusions always create false solutions. False solutions ultimately produce failure. The attempted healing of the demon-possessed boy in Matthew 17.14-21 clearly illustrates these truths. This incident reveals the condition of the Church of Jesus Christ in the world today.
The sick boy pictures the world: hurting, hopeless, and helpless under the dominion of the evil one. The disciples typify the Church: incorrect, ineffective, and impotent. As the disciples could not cure the demon possessed boy, neither can the Church affect the world today. She exerts an ineffective influence upon the world. In short, the Church has failed to fulfill God's commands.
Evidence of Her failure abounds. Stated simply, four main signs testify to the Church’s defeat:
* defection from the Church;
* disavowal of cardinal doctrines;
* difference from the New Testament Church;
* disobedience of the commands of Jesus Christ.
The current plight of the Church follows certainly from her unbelief. The circumstances in Matthew 17 clearly identify the presence and impact of unbelief upon the disciples’ failure. Each of the parties present disclosed their unbelief.
* The Scribes showed willful and persistent unbelief, because they stubbornly sought a sign from Jesus.
* The father revealed unwilling unbelief, when he cried, “I believe, help my unbelief.”
* The boy demonstrated irresponsible unbelief, because he was demon possessed.
* The disciples manifested unconscious unbelief. (7)
Consequently, the disciples reaped the harvest of their unbelief. Their unbelief, which lies at the root of all sin and spiritual failure, prompted an inaccurate diagnosis of the boy’s problem. Then, they attempted an ineffective solution to the problem. Their dependence upon human effort prevented the intervention of God's supernatural authority and ability. (8)
The failure of the disciples replays itself in the Church today. The Church fails to affect the world. Sadly, the reverse is true. Without question, the Church desperately needs spiritual revival. She faces a crossroads. She can continue in the present path toward judgment. Or, the Church can correct the existing condition and seek repentance, reformation, and revival.
From this incident related in Matthew 17, I want to examine with you some particular truths about the disciples and their ineffective solutions to the boy’s problem. I will show how it applies to the Church of Jesus Christ and your life today.
The disciples’ effort
Luke 9.1-10 describes a time prior to this occasion when Jesus sent out His disciples with the power to heal and to cast out demons. They had returned from that assignment rejoicing with accounts of their successes. Then, they encountered the distraught father with his afflicted son. The record does not indicate the methods they tried. Most likely, they tried what had previously worked in other circumstances.
One thing, though, is certain. The methods that they tried did not work. They failed. Their unbelief and failure to seek God's face caused them to attempt an ineffective solution. In like fashion, the failure of the Church today results, in large measure, from the application of ineffective solutions.
Note Jesus’ response in Matthew 17:21:
“Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by
prayer and fasting.”
Take particular heed to the phrase, “…this kind goeth not out but by…” In this fashion, Jesus stated that certain solutions are useless. (9) In other words, the approach used by the disciples had no value with “…this kind…” Their inaccurate diagnosis had indeed produced an ineffective solution. It was unsuitable for the case at hand. It left them helpless and hopeless against the boy’s problem. The sick child remained enslaved.
Without question, the problem of the disciples repeats itself in the Church of Jesus Christ today. The Church, too, has concluded an inaccurate diagnosis to her problems. Further, like the disciples, the Church depends upon ineffective solutions to solve them. By their very nature, ineffective solutions are incorrect solutions. Therefore, ineffective, incorrect solutions produce meaningless, unsuitable activity.
The following section identifies many of the current, prominent ineffective, incorrect solutions in the Church. The Church has adopted these unsuitable activities in a vain attempt to solve her ineffectiveness in the world. They have prevented the intervention of God's sovereign, omnipotent authority and ability. Thus, the Church attempts to affect the world without the power of God.
Incorrect solutions
I have not attempted to identify all of the incorrect solutions present in the Church today. Nor have I attempted to explain all of the problems associated with them. I have noted only a few of the more well known ones.
Defense
apologetics (10)
Down through history, this method has captured the fancy of numerous advocates. It is the attempt to make Christianity acceptable and commendable to mankind. In recent years, this approach has centered in three areas, philosophy, psychology, and science. The Church has tended to defend its truths by attempting to show a Biblical background for each of these fields. The result, they claim, establishes a credible Bible. Thus, it becomes more appealing to persons impressed by these comparisons.
archaeology (11)
In a similar vein, some ardent Bible students emphasize the confirmation of Biblical records to make its record appealing and acceptable to people. In a clever way, however, it undermines faith in God. To rely upon archaeology for proof shows that the person really lacks faith in God's word. To trust God's word explicitly and exclusively would rule out the need for archaeological evidence as proof.
However, these discoveries frequently give rise to a variety of interpretations, which muddy the waters. Granted, every confirmation from these discoveries encourages believers. But faith does not rely upon external proofs but an inward witness from God by the Holy Spirit.
authority
Still others attempt to defend the truthfulness of the Bible with reference to authority figures. These authorities come from all areas of life. They do have one thing in common, a well-known image. (12) For example, these people come from sports, business, politics, humanitarianism, and even religion. These witnesses have powerful personalities and attract the masses. In effect, the Church uses them as an endorsement of the Bible and Christianity.
These three incorrect solutions have one common attribute. They try to defend the Scriptures and God, as if He needs defense. But, God does not need an endorsement.
Modernity
In recent years, local churches have relied upon numerous devices in their misguided attempts to fulfill God’s mandate for the Church. Space does not permit me to list them all nor to comment fully on them. This examination will categorize the emphasis of modernity into four groups.
emulation
Many Church leaders stress emulation of other “successful” churches. They buy the books of best selling authors on Church growth and adopt their strategies. Often, these authors, frequently pastors of large churches, provide seminars and symposiums, where they teach the methods that they used to expand their churches into large congregations. The attendees, then, attempt to emulate these leaders by embracing the same methods. They create committees within their churches to implement these methods in hopes that they will experience the same degree of “success.”
research
The reliance upon research has grown significantly in recent years. It has fostered a new Church related business sector. Many Church leaders who desire growth in the size of their congregations hire these Church doctors and consultants to help them in their pursuits. These consultants then prepare a plan of action for the church based upon a series of surveys, polls, and demographic studies of the church and community. Often, these consultants develop their recommendations without an intimate knowledge of the church and its congregation. The congregation, then, adopts the recommendations of the consultant’s report, assuming that the “expert” knows what is best for them.
facilities
Often, the previously mentioned Church growth leaders and consultants will recommend the kind of facilities that contribute to church growth. A checklist will include paint colors, lounges, width of hallways, number of bathrooms, and other building design characteristics. Some also include building location and parking lot size and configuration. Clearly, this emphasis attempts to establish that church growth depends in large measure upon a church’s facilities. If a church wants to grow in size, the “experts” say that it will have to change its building characteristics to cultivate it.
Influence
politics
Many well-meaning Christians believe that the Church faces a political problem. They identify problems in society and trace their cause to political issues, e.g., prayer in schools, abortion, definition of marriage, etc. They mount massive campaigns to attempt correction of governmental policies and programs. In so doing, they believe that they improve the Church and its impact upon the world.
Granted, these issues pinpoint certain sins of society. However, like all of the previous methods, this approach ignores the spiritual nature of the Church’s problem. The correct political climate and policies will not solve the sin problem of the world nor correct the spiritual decline of the Church. Only God by His Spirit through the Church can produce such cures.
economics
This concept has two general emphases currently, boycotts and shortages. Some believe that if the Church would apply its economic muscle to the marketplace, she would impact the world and effect change. So, they spend hours researching offending businesses to attack. They recommend boycotts of their products and services in hopes of effecting correction of perceived ills.
Still others view the Church’s problem in terms of a shortage of money. They say, in effect, that if the Church only had more money, she could more significantly affect the world. Thus, they assert that increased funds would permit greater and grander programs and facilities. Then the Church could impress the world and rescue it.
personality
During recent years, the Church has relied increasingly upon personality and personal power in the selection of its leaders. For example, the advertisements in Christian magazines for candidates for leadership positions in the Church and Christian organizations reveal the pervasiveness of this problem. The criteria emphasize personality characteristics and motivational skills, people powers, to the near exclusion of spiritual, and Biblical qualifications. It is no wonder that moral and financial failures have exploded in the Church and Christian organizations lately. Ungodly men can fit the criteria. Godly men need not apply.
Conformity
adaptation
Vast numbers of Church leaders today emphasize that the Church will fail unless she adapts to the culture. While many in the past have tried to segregate from their surrounding culture (with no effect), today’s emphasis lies in just the opposite. In ways too numerous to list here, the Church has fallen for this concept in droves.
Rather than counter the culture and its customs the Church conforms to it. The Church leaps into the pit, which has engulfed its wallowing victims, and hopes, that by joining the sufferers, they can bring them to safety, instead of standing on sound ground and drawing them out with a sure lifeline. In its watered down state, the Church flounders helplessly against the world’s constantly changing mores. She neither fits in nor stands against it. Therefore, it does not, yea cannot correct and change it.
The culturalization of the Church always draws the Church from her Biblically stated means, message, and mandate. God will not, does not bless such efforts.
translations (13)
In this attempt, the incorrect solution takes the form of presenting the Biblical message in understandable terms. Rid the Bible of its stilted language, and the world will beat a path to the Church’s doorstep, advocates proclaim.
Sadly, again, this ill-fated method has not solved the problems of the Church. Mostly, Christians buy the new translations, not the world. Furthermore, new translations have not aided comprehension and understanding. (My computer has not given a readability score on any Biblical text greater than the 8th grade.) It denies the role of the Holy Spirit in the illumination and understanding of the Scriptures to the human mind and heart. (See 1 Corinthians 2.14.)
marketing (14)
This emphasis depends upon modern marketing and advertising techniques to sell the Church, the gospel, and its life changing truths. It assumes that the Church and the gospel are products that it can entice unbelievers to “buy.” It sounds good. After all, the world, politicians, and businesses use it successfully. Why not the Church?
So, many churches adopt multimillion dollar advertising budgets in this dead-end concept. They select their target audience and attack it with multimedia promotions. This prompts several questions:
* Which people group(s) do you select?
* How do you select the target audience?
* How do you defend the exclusion of other people groups?
* How do you know where the Holy Spirit is dealing with lost men and women?
* How do you know where the elect reside?
Reliance upon human mechanisms instead of the Holy Spirit produces failure. Sadly, the Church on a broad scale has bought the lie of the devil and rejected the One Who can solve it all, the Holy Spirit.
evangelism (15)
In our day, the Church has molded a popular form of evangelism in an attempt to garner believers. Habitually, preachers utilizing this method attempt to bring sinners into the kingdom through the back door. By that, I mean that they present the gospel as a means for solving marriage difficulties, bringing personal happiness, or increasing income.
Not only is the “gospel” presented as a cure all for people’s ills. It is introduced frequently in an “easy believeism” manner. “All you have to do is ask Jesus into your heart.” Sadly, I know of no scriptural authority to offer salvation in that fashion.
Furthermore, the “gospel” of today eliminates repentance, life change, and self-denial as requirements for salvation. The modern presentation skirts regeneration, justification, and other pertinent doctrinal truths of salvation. At best, the modern emphasis substitutes a partial truth as a whole truth, thus misleading multitudes of people as to the truths of the gospel.
In a slightly different vein, many Church leaders eliminate all obstacles in their pursuit of converts. For example, they believe that the ends justify the means. The importance of the salvation of even one soul overrides any perceived barrier or Church practice, even Biblical standards, that would make salvation less appealing. It leads to conformity to the world and the sanctification of means used to proclaim the “gospel” and to evoke a misleading “decision for Christ.” In the process, the Church has become a Circus Maximus, because the ends justify the means. Means and methods have supplanted reliance upon the Holy Spirit to save the lost.
excitement
In recent times, many Church leaders have expended significant time and resources to develop exciting programs and strategies. They hope that these emphases will stem the tide of member defections and increase attendance. Further, they have concluded that the presence of excitement established the evidence of God's blessings and presence upon their programs and strategies.
They are wrong. They have confused emotion with the presence of the Holy Spirit. Granted the Holy Spirit often manifests His presence with emotion. However, the presence of emotion does not guarantee the presence of the Spirit. You can experience emotion without the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. Stirring music, beautiful scenery, moving stories, and thrilling action can produce emotion without the Holy Spirit. The world does it frequently, as does the professing Church.
In addition, the Church frequently stresses the spectacular instead of the supernatural. Again, the Holy Spirit often produces spectacular results. However, the occurrence of spectacular events does not equate to the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Church, most often at Easter and Christmas seasons, produces programs that fit this description.
Since the purported reason for them is to attract the unsaved and present the gospel, no one dares to object to them. However, they seldom accomplish either goal. Most frequently they only provide an occasion to satisfy fleshly desires, ambitions, and attitudes. You can be sure that he Holy Spirit is not present at those times. Too often, these productions result from emulation and competition of other organizations.
Moreover, many churches use popular motivational speakers to excite their congregations. Like spectacular productions, they rationalize these meetings with the stated purpose to enthuse believers and to entice unbelievers to attend. Again, excitement does not equate to the presence and work of the Holy Spirit.
Furthermore, I have attended many of these kinds of meetings and found them wanting. The speakers’ usual fare includes many funny and moving stories that move the emotions, frequent references to past successes, numerous mentions of large speaking venues where they have spoken, and wild physical gyrations, which entertain the crowd. I have never sensed the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in any of these meetings that I have attended. I have left them disappointed and sorrowful for the name of Christ.
Leonard Ravenhill, noted preacher and writer, has stated correctly, “The Church would rather organize than agonize.”
Granted the adherents of these methods can point to some meager favorable results. But, in the face of these apparent successes, I will remind you of several important truths. The Church has become pragmatic instead of powerful through obedience to God's word. Regardless of the apparent success, such an approach reveals unbelief and causes disobedience. Paul clearly admonished the Roman Church who practiced this very concept. He warned not to continue in sin that grace may abound (Roman 6.1-2)
These truths outline for us some of the more popular ineffective solutions for the Church’s problems. I pray that the Holy Spirit has opened your eyes to understand them and believe them. In the next chapter, I will examine some of the implications of these fallacies and their sad effects in the Church.
“Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” Matthew 17.21
As mentioned at the end of the previous chapter, this one will examine the implications to the Church and believers of the adoption and reliance upon the means and methods, which that chapter listed. These practices have become predominate in the life of the Church and cause significant consequences.
To follow them rejects and, at best, ignores the sovereignty of God in the life of the Church. The Bible clearly describes Christ as the Head of the Church, His Body. All of these devices replace His role as Head of the Church.
To guide, enlighten, edify, and empower the Church to fulfill His plans and purposes, Jesus prayed the Father to send the Holy Spirit to Christ-followers. The Father, Who has established Christ as the sole Head of the Church, has provided the Spirit for these purposes. A brief reading of John 14-16 along with the description of His actions in Acts and of the clear reliance upon the Holy Spirit by the Apostles in their writings will give ample evidence of His role in the Church and Her growth.
Because of the serious nature of the affect of these devices upon the lives of Christ-followers and the Church, I will consider some of the implications of the Church’s rejection of the sovereignty of God.
First, they abandon the divinely appointed role given the Holy Spirit. God has given the Church the Master Consultant and Advisor, the Holy Spirit. The Lord of the Church communicates His plans and purposes through the Spirit.
Sadly, the professing Church has replaced the Spirit with a humanly flawed system. It works in this fashion. We establish a set of goals for the Church and design plans to attain them. To help us in this process, we employ polls, demographics, success stories of other places, and perhaps even a professional consultant. After we set our goals and plans, then we pray and ask God to bless them.
We think that we have followed a right path. After all, God gave us minds, and He expects us to use them. However, God does not bless the use of our minds at the expense and sacrifice of reliance upon the Holy Spirit. Prior to the development of any plans, the Church needs to follow a simple 4-question process.
First, does the Bible specifically instruct the Church to pursue the plans that we want to pursue? For example, we may desire to have a big Church. Does the Bible anywhere specifically instruct us to have big churches? Granted, He may grow a small Church into a larger Church. However, that does not justify our saying that God wants big churches, and therefore, we can set in motion a series of plans to build one. In other words, we must first examine our goals in light of the Bible and pursue only those that the Scriptures specifically mandate, and reject all of those that do not meet this standard.
Second, what means does the Bible reveal for the accomplishment of those specific plans and purposes that it specifically mandates? The Scriptures always describe God's ways to accomplish His plans and purposes for Christ-followers and the Church. What are His prescribed means for the Church to use to fulfill them?
Third, do we pursue after God, beseeching Him to fulfill His promises, and obey His divinely appointed means in reliance upon the Holy Spirit to make them effective?
Fourth, if not, why not?
The Church has elevated a commonly held fallacy to a place of honor: the ends justify the means. Thus, we have accentuated the use of means instead of the elevation of the God of the means. Yes, God frequently uses means to attain His purposes. However, He never contradicts His stated means. (See further discussion later in this chapter.) Nor does He bless the flesh to the exclusion of the Holy Spirit.
Further, apparent success does not equate to God's blessing. The Holy Spirit will never lead Christ-followers and the Church contrary to His word. Despite appearances, God never blesses human means that oppose His requirements. Nor does He share His glory with another. The reliance upon means instead of upon God brings failure, despite how it appears.
The absence of the manifest presence, power, and glory of God in the midst of the Church confirms Her failure to function according to His delights. We have failed to seek the Lord of the Church first to receive from Him His will and desires for us. Prayer has become perfunctory at best. If at all, it comes after we have decided what we want to do. The record of the mighty progress of the Church as recorded in Acts and in Church history confirm the role of prayer in the ministry of the Church.
There is no substitute for the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Christ-followers and the Church. These false devices prevalent in the Church today grieve the Holy Spirit and quench His work. In this fashion, we resist Him, Who alone brings God's manifest presence to God's people.
Second, they attempt to make Christ and Christianity
acceptable and commendable to sinners. These methods assume that if the Church
makes salvation attractive, sinners will flock to it and receive salvation.
Thus, the Church will accomplish Her mandate to reach the world. Like
However, this vain hope rests upon a false premise: the Church can sell salvation to the lost. In addition, it drives the Church into spiritual decline and into the morass of unbelief prevalent today. This unbelief elevates to truth what a given practice means to the individual. Thereby the Bible becomes obsolete and meaningless. An attempt to make Christ appealing and acceptable to the world quenches the Holy Spirit and fails. Either it ignores or rejects the exclusive role of the Holy Spirit in drawing sinners to faith in Jesus Christ (John 6.44).
Third, these fallacies assume that the Church is an organization, like a business. Therefore, it is assumed that whatever works in the business world will work in the Church. We must operate as they do, Church leaders say, and use the same techniques and methods that builds their success. Thus, Christ, salvation, and Christianity become products to sell to the lost. The Church can use any successful method from the world that will help sell its products.
However, the Church is an organism, not an organization, nor an entrepreneurial enterprise. These methods may build shopping centers, but the Church is not a shopping center. It operates upon different foundations and functions differently than business. The Church cannot sell Christ as a business sells it products. The Church is the body of Christ. The Church cannot use Christ. Christ uses the Church and reveals Himself to it and through it.
Further, no one can sell salvation to a sinner. Salvation is entirely the work of the Holy Spirit, from start to finish. He alone gives life to unbelievers, enabling them to see their sin, to turn from it in repentance, and to trust Christ to the saving of their souls. Therefore, no amount of advertising, promotion, or other methods can accomplish what the Spirit alone does.
Fourth, they appeal to the flesh and rely upon human efforts for their motivation and success. When we implement them in the flesh and realize some measure of apparent success, we think that we have God's blessing and presence. Someone has correctly said that if it takes a circus to bring people in, it will take a circus to keep them. Unfortunately, the Church, through the implementation of many of these devices, has created a circus-like atmosphere and mistakenly called it the presence of God.
However, God never blesses the flesh. In fact, the Scriptures declare that the Holy Spirit fights against the flesh to subdue it (Galatians 5.16-17). Further, the Bible says that the flesh is at enmity with God and not subject to Him (Romans 8.7). Apparent successes attained by the flesh actually dishonor God and His name.
Fifth, they avoid the Biblical means that God has instituted for the salvation of sinners and the growth of the Church. In the last several years, the Church has adopted these means as the ways to reach sinners and bring them to Christ. At least, this summarizes the reasons given for their use. As their prevalence has increased, the use of biblically stated means has declined, almost to extinction.
In fact, many self-proclaimed leaders of the Church openly declare that the next expansion of the Church depends upon the rejection of God's mandated means and the adoption of their methods instead. The scriptural ways are discarded.
For His own reasons, God has chosen things foolish in the eyes of mankind to glorify Him. Specifically, the Bible says that He uses the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe (1 Corinthians 1.18-25). In this way, God destroys the wisdom of man. Christ-centered preaching (explained in more detail in my book Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing) displays the grace of God in His provision for sinners. Under the demonstration and power of the Holy Spirit, preaching reveals the power and wisdom of God, convicts and converts sinners, and glorifies God.
Further, in his letter to the Church at
A dearth of Christ-centered preaching prevails in the Church today. In fact, some churches proudly state that they do not have such preaching to entice the world to come and visit them. The plans of study at major professing Christian seminaries and training schools for pastors dictate more preparation to counseling, economics, and Church organization than to emphasis upon training for preaching.
Christ-centered preaching under the anointing of the Holy Spirit has become a lost practice. It appears proudly so. However, the Church will never realize its God proclaimed purpose to glorify Him and reveal Christ, nor will she experience God's manifest presence without it.
Last, not surprisingly, then, these methods accentuate cultural issues instead of Biblical truth. The Church today increasingly emphasizes successful life in our society. It promotes self-attainment as the ultimate purpose in life and develops books, Church services, and seminars on how to attain it. In a similar vein, pastors stress “How To…” messages on topics like marriage, finances, resolution of emotional hurts, etc.
Although some of these issues have value, they must not replace the declaration of doctrinal truth. Unfortunately, they have. The Church has departed from the essential doctrinal foundations of the Church. In fact, I have noticed that some professing Church leaders have stated that doctrine is unimportant and unnecessary. Therefore, they have virtually removed the preaching of Biblical doctrine from the regular ministry of the Church.
No wonder, then, that they preach a false salvation (on those infrequent occasions when they do). It has progressed to the point where Church leaders no longer preach Christ as the exclusive Savior of sinners. After all, doctrine is not important, they say. Everyone can have their own personal Christ.
As a further consequence, the Biblical knowledge and understanding of professing Christians has declined to an abysmal level. Someone has stated that the Church is a mile wide and an inch deep. Whoever made that statement is an optimist. The Church today is neither a mile wide, due to the false declaration of the gospel, nor an inch deep, because of the absence of doctrinal preaching. (See my book Wolves In Sheep’s Clothing for a description of essential doctrines absent today.)
In summary, these strategies entice the Church to implement programs and devices as an attempt to woo sinners to the Savior and/or to encourage the growth of the Church. However, they replace the biblically stated means for spiritual life, its attainment, and for the growth of the Church. It would save countless man-hours, financial cost, and fruitless efforts if the Church would return to and rely upon the three means that God has designed for this purpose: prayer, preaching, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
At the heart of these issues lies a rejection, or at least an ignorance, of the power of God to use His means to His glory. We lack it because our love affair with the world’s methods has grieved and quenched the Holy Spirit, and has caused us to resist Him. The next chapter will concentrate upon this missing ingredient in the life of the Church.
References
7. G. Campbell Morgan,
8. Lloyd-Jones, p. 15.
9. Ibid, p. 15.
10. Ibid, p. 15.
11. Ibid, p. 16.
12. Ibid, p. 17.
13. Ibid, p. 17.
14. Ibid, p. 17.
15. Ibid, p. 18.
