Sailing to Hell on the Love Boat Pt. 2

“….and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord…..” Genesis 3:8

“And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. “For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” John 3:19,20

When our first father Adam first sinned against God he ran and hid among the trees to from the presence of the Lord lest his sin should be exposed and ever since that time his children have been doing the very same thing year after year after year. The minds of men have become a veritable factory of lies, each one designed to hide them from the face of God and from the thoughts of the Day of Judgment; that great day that we all know deep down in our hearts is looming on the horizon.

Some have created false religions to hide their minds from the judgment of God. Others have maintained that we can never know anything at all about God. And still others dogmatically declared that there is no God at all. Agnosticism, atheism and every false religion have at least one thing in common; they are all contrivances of sinful men meant to hide us from the true and holy God. False religion is not an act of men reaching out for God, it is an act of fallen men hiding from the true God.

Men love their sinful autonomy dearly and don’t want to part with it, yet thoughts of the Day of Judgment hound them constantly. They know that they are sinners and even that they deserve to die according to Romans 1:32. They have to hide from this truth or sink into deep despair. This is why we killed Jesus Christ; the light was too bright! He was the exact image of the invisible God (Colossians 1: 15). To see Him was to see the Father (John 14:9).

But perhaps one of the most sinister things that mankind have done in order to escape dealing with their own sinfulness is to take parts of the Word of the true God and create a false version of that God; a false religious system, a false god, a false jesus and a false holy spirit. We could mention Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Emerging church and even many of our Protestant denominations and Churches who have drifted into the practice of trading the True God of Scripture for a fake.

Many of our more protestant churches have simply ripped the encouraging, uplifting and positive parts of the Bible out of the rest of Holy Scripture and have conveniently overlooked the hard and difficult passages thus creating a happy-go-lucky always smiling god who loves everybody just the way they are. This fake version of the true God is always encouraging and accepting. No fear, no judgment, no anger, no conviction of sin, no condemnation, no hard and harsh words, no law; just love for everybody just as they are.

Accordingly, this false god has a false gospel message: “god loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, so just ask jesus into your heart.” (Where do you find that in the Bible?). There’s no exposing of sin in this gospel message because those who hate to have their sin exposed know that others hate it also. There is no calling for repentance because repentance has to do with sin. There’s no fear and trembling before this God because this god isn’t angry with us the way that we are. The false gospel message of this false religion calls on men to love themselves, accept themselves, have good self-esteem and never, never, never judge anyone or expose their sin for what it really is.

What a far cry this false god is from the true and holy God of Scripture who is angry every day (Psalm 7:11), who hates those who practice iniquity (Psalm 5:5), who calls on men to repent and abhor themselves for their sinfulness (Ezekiel 20:43; Acts 17:30) and who loves Himself above all else and commands us to do the same (Isaiah 48:11; Matthew 22:37, 38). The God of Scripture does not “accept us just as we are” but offers to save us from who we are. The God of Scripture calls us to denounce our self-esteem and esteem Him alone (Isaiah 2:10, 11, 17, 22).

Yes the God of Scripture is a God of Love and Mercy, but His love and mercy are not blind. They never function apart from holiness and justice. They never operate outside the parameters of His Law. God loves himself chiefly and supremely and hates everything that is contrary to Him. That is why in the Gospel the God of Scripture offers to save us from what we are and remake us into the image of His Son, then He can pour out His love upon us unsparingly because we become a reflection of Him.