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Scandalous Faith – a Millstone around our neck
Lent 2023 AD +
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Original post date: 29 March, in the year of our Lord 2022
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Today’s topic is scandal!

ASH WEDNESDAY in the year of our Lord 2023, we begin with TODAY’S subject:

Christians in the shoes of Jonah
Lent 2023 AD +
Christians in the shoes of Jonah
Jesus Warns disciples
A last-days appeal to the Evangelical
Scandal – Do you recognize it in the warnings of Jesus?
Luke 17:
The Millstone
So what’s the scandal?
Repent, Jonah!

It’s raining and you are NOT Noah who will save only his own family from the flood.

The ground is shaking in the year of our Lord 2023 and you are NOT Abraham who will rescue only his family from the evil and the fate of Sodom or the judgment of Gomorrah.

This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says:
“I, myself, have risen against Babylon!
I will destroy its children and its children’s children,”
says the LORD.
Isaiah 14:16 NLT

Yet the Prophet Jonah REFUSED to preach to the few who could be saved from the wrath to come to the city of destruction.

Ashes of Ash Wednesday + a Preparation of Repentance

So YOU claim to be an evangelist of JESUS to the nations?

GO into all the world and preach Good News, the Gospel of forgiveness and eternal life for those who will REPENT of their sinful past and FOLLOW Jesus Christ as our Lord.

The Good News of Jesus’ death and resurrection, however, becomes BAD NEWS to any who turn the other way – in the direction away from God’s grace.

Such bad news for evangelicals! christians who suddenly turn in the other direction + a direction of SELF and a gospel of what God has done for ME (and should do for you).
- Have you turned to a path AWAY from the word of God, even like Jonah?
- Won’t sailing away from the command of the Lord have dire consequence?
I WON’T PREACH THAT, Jonah responded by sailing away from the command of God.

But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness
1st letter of Paul to the church at Corinth 1:23 KJV

Christians proclaim a scandalous faith. Our Cross worn as jewelry may well be a millstone worn around our neck.

Repent, Jonah! Lest Christ who hung on a Cross hang a millstone around your neck.

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness;
but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18 KJV

Jesus Warns disciples

As we have learned in ACTS of the Apostles, disciples are followers of Christ Jesus.

Evangelical christians who claim His Name but turn away from God’s command become obstacles to the Lord saving others from the cities of destruction.

At the moment Jonah turned away from Nineveh even this Prophet of God was not an obedient disciple ‘chosen‘ for eternal life.

A last-days appeal to the Evangelical

Evangelicals who claim other cause of the world above Christ cannot boast of the burden of the millstone placed around their necks.

And evangelicals who embrace condemned cultures of the cities of destruction without revealing the cost of the Cross may find the weight of the Cross around their neck weighing down their witness with veiled hope while singing of ME and JESUS.

Scandal – Do you recognize it in the warnings of Jesus?

Luke 17:

Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come!

“It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
Luke 17:2 NKJV

“Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.

Luke 17:3

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.

Jonah 4:1 NKJV

Then the LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city.

– Jonah 4:4-5

The Millstone

“It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck..
- Does this punishment (even self-inflicted) remind you of Jonah?
And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.”
Jonah 1:12 NKJV

So what’s the scandal?

Returning to the Gospel of Luke (NASB20) and Jesus’ warning:

“It is inevitable that [temptations to sin] stumbling blocks come, but woe to one through whom they come!

σκάνδαλον – skandalon

the movable stick or trigger of a trap, a trap stick
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(And evangelicals with ears to hear, now hear this:)
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any person or thing by which one is (entrapped) drawn into error or sin

Scandal: fig. applied to Jesus Christ, whose person and career were so contrary to the expectations of the Jews concerning the Messiah, that they rejected him and by their obstinacy made shipwreck of their salvation

Is your faith scandalous because you dare Talk of JESUS?

‘But I have a few things against you, because you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling^G4625 block^G4625 before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 2:14 LSB
+ for one of the most influential churches of 1st c. AD Christianity at Ephesus

OR will your reluctance to share the Good News of Christ, including the cost of His CROSS, leave you in the same boat as Jonah?

‘Therefore repent. But if not, I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.

‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John 2:16-17a LSB
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Your comment on this post and these Scriptures encourage the witness of this author. RH  (original post date 29 March in the year of our Lord, 2022)
Thanks.
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Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
February 22, 2023
Best NOT Preach This
REPENT! For why should I believe your preaching
IF you will NOT preach truly from SCRIPTURE?

Last time in our Saturday Post series on Doctrine (of and for the Church) we examined some DISTINCTIONS of D. Martyn Lloyd Jones on the Christian Life from a Jason Meyer biography, DOCTRINE AND LIFE AS FUEL AND FIRE.

Distinction between the Kingdom and the Church of Christ

“Preaching is the primary business of the Church, and preaching should have two main objects in view: upbuilding the saints and evangelizing the lost. – M. Lloyd Jones

This Saturday we will not only continue with some of those distinctions, but I will introduce some Scriptures your Sunday gathering will never hear in YOUR church – the kinds of Scriptures you’d best not preach to a culturally-constructed church freed from bondage of a Holy Bible.

Our Two Main Headings (for today & our NEXT Saturday Post):
1. Preaching Church Doctrine to the Preacher AND
2. Preaching Biblical Doctrine to ourselves (the ‘church’)
“Failure is being successful at the things that don’t matter.”
.. There is a category of saved fool–of those who are saved by grace, but whose lives were not well spent.
Rico Tice, Faithful Leaders and The Things That Matter Most

DOCTRINE – What do you believe? Can you affirm it to others?

Pastor, You’d best NOT Preach THIS!

a letter of the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth 3:

And I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to fleshly men, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it..

10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.

For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
- Pastor, you’d best not preach this to the fleshly infants gathered to your church.
14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

But I’m winning the world to JESUS.

“WE’RE NOT REFORMED! ” a pastor once added as an apologetic for his preaching?

‘So you’re NOT Protestant, then?’ I thought, as I wondered why this evangelist in the pulpit suddenly counterattacked the doctrine of the church in his own sermon.

‘NOT like Luther or Zwingli, NOT like Wycliffe or Wesley, NOT like Bunyan or Newton, NOT like Spurgeon of Edwards?

But of course, they suffered for their Christian faith and for the Doctrine of the Church. A 21st century church is built on a different foundation for a fiscally well-heeled audience.
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Continuing in Lloyd-Jones' four key distinctions of the Doctrine of the Church:
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The kingdom of God [*] is “wider and bigger than the Church”..
*[‘God‘ the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’]

because it is the “the rule and reign of God [*]” over everything.
The Doctor’s Doctrine, p.104 + [*] my trinitarian reminder – RH

Daniel 5:27 תְּקֵל תְּקִילְתָּה בְמֹֽאזַנְיָא וְהִשְׁתְּכַחַתְּ חַסִּֽיר׃

The writing NOT on your wall

The church is an expression of the kingdom “wherever the Lord Jesus Christ is acknowledged as Lord.”
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Great Doctrines of the Bible

ONLY CHRIST?
- Do YOU, dear PASTOR of Christ’s church, preach and acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord?
“You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I am commanding you.
Deuteronomy 4:2 LSB

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
2 Timothy 3, KJV + from the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
- Are YOU wise, dear proclaimer of God’s word in the pulpit of Christ’s Church?
ONLY SCRIPTURE?

Galatians 1: [Version of the King]

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
Letter of the Apostle Paul to the church at Galatia 1:6-9 Version of the King (James)

..for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Galatians 1:10b-12, King James Version [under the heading: Perversion of the Gospel + Let the Preacher beware.]
- NO version of this rebuke from any Bible will tickle the ears of my growing church–best NOT preach this.
A Second Letter of the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth:
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Recall that in his first letter the Apostle called them 'fleshly men, as to infants in Christ.'
NOW Paul addresses them as 'saints' or 'holy ones.'
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even to live.
- Pastor, if THIS is the ‘Christian‘ LIFE—you’d best not preach affliction, burden and despair of this life..
For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.
2 Corinthians 2:17 Legacy Standard Bible

The Gospel of the Glory of Christ 2 Corinthians 4:

2 but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation [visual evidence] of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

For we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus.
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Christ Jesus as Lord, the Shepherds of Christ as bond-servants or slaves; metaph., one who gives himself up to another's will those whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing his cause among men
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For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
2 Corinthians 5:11
- I can’t preach that all must be judged by Christ–ALL judged by the clear evidence of our good deeds or bad. So best NOT preach THAT life with judgment by Christ. (I need much more GRACE than that for THIS life.)
Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the teacher of the law?[scholar] Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish?
It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us — our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, in order that, as it is written: Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 1:20,30-31 Christian Standard Version
[at one time written on the wall behind your preaching,
a gospel for all to see that you ‘are not lying’ (to borrow from Paul)]

The writing NOT on your wall

“Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

– The Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John 2:5 CSB + writing to the church at Ephesus from Patmos

All of us, like sheep, have gone astray..

DOCTRINE – What do you believe? Can you affirm it to others?

DOCTRINE

+ a line in the sand for the evangelical CHRISTIAN preacher
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TO BE CONTINUED, God-willing, + with a line in the sand + for THE CHURCH...
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October 1, 2022
Distinction between the Kingdom and the Church of Christ
Kingdom OR Church?

Is distinction lacking in the Gospel of YOUR Church?

WE like to think that OUR Church has a great vision of Gospel grace, but do we PREACH any distinction between DOCTRINES and the WORK of evangelical ‘christians’ from OUR stages of worship?

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him for “WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”
Romans 10:12-13 LSB
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That's very nice - a good glance at WHO could be part of the church. 
BUT the Bible bids us to make some distinctions.
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So you will return and see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.
For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every worker of wickedness will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them aflame,” says Yahweh of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”
Malachi 3:18-19 [4:1]

What are the distinctions of Denominations?
- ARE SOME ‘christian‘ churches the chaff of wicked false teaching?
- Is the gospel of YOUR church drawing in sinners while making no distinction of sin?
- SHOULD some DENOMINATIONS be sifted as anathema to Christ’s Church?
  - (So they want to leave PROCLAIMING their SIN proudly?
  - Let them go!)
WICKEDNESS is nothing NEW in any 21st century church OR limited to the Old Testament.
- Do SOME lead worship or TEACH a class you attend NEVER ASKING:
  - Do YOU make any distinction?
  - between
    the damned of the world
    and the repentant sinner SAVED by CHRIST JESUS?
Listen to Paul’s approach to making distinction between gifts and their usefulness to believers of the church:

.. what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching? Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp?
For if the trumpet produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle?
The Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Church at Corinth 6b-8

Listen to the trumpet! SOME in the church are chaff!

FOUR Distinctions of Church Doctrine

As we continue discussion from our last Saturday Post just a reminder here that teaching is doctrine. (And so is preaching doctrine, as well as what doctrines which we neglect to preach. – RH)

The theologian Lloyd-Jones outlines

What are the distinctions of Denominations?

The First Distinction

The essential difference between the church and the kingdom of God is that the church is an “expression” of the kingdom, but cannot be “equated” with it.
The church is an expression of the kingdom “wherever the Lord Jesus Christ is acknowledged as Lord.”
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones – source

The Second Distinction

The Distinction between the Spiritual, Invisible Church

AND

the Local, Visible Church

FROM Paul and all the brothers who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia: – Galatians 1:2

ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις ho ekklēsia –TO: The Churches

Paul and his Christian brothers write to the churches. They are not claiming to write to everyone in Galatia or Corinth or EVERYONE anywhere else in the idol-worshiping gentile world.

Is that OUR approach?
- Isn’t it nice to watch some preacher online (or on T.V.) and conveniently claim to the culture that you are ‘a christian?”
  - ARE YOU?
    Simply because YOU watched some christian preacher saying graceful things?
Lloyd-Jones declares that Paul speaks not of “one unit divided into local branches” but of individual churches or a plurality of units in Galatia.

Of course we’re talking about the SPIRITUAL INVISIBLE CHURCH here.

Which ‘christian’ are YOU?
- Spiritual Christian of the Invisible Church PLUS a Local MEMBER of a Visible Church
- NOT a member of Christ’s Invisible Church, BUT a visible MEMBER of YOUR LOCAL church
- NOT a Spiritual Christian OR a MEMBER of any visible Local Church
  - (YOU just ‘go to church’ occasionally.)
- Spiritual Christian of the Invisible Church, BUT invisible worshiper NOT a MEMBER of ANY LOCAL CHURCH.
The Third Distinction

Biblical Unity or Ecumenical Unity?

‘The ecumenical movement has tended to minimize doctrinal definitions of what makes someone a Christian.. ecumenical unity is a far cry from Biblical unity.’

“..believers cannot have church unity without unity around the apostle’s teaching..

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. 2 John 1:9-11 ESV

“..the Doctor explains:

The significance he [John the Elder] attaches to doctrine and to truth is so great that he says, in effect, ‘You mustn’t receive the man into your house because if you do you’re encouraging him. If you give him a meal and send him on his journey you are encouraging his false doctrine. Don’t do it.’”
Lloyd-Jones, The Church and the Last Things

If there are spiritual and doctrinal marks that make one church true and another church false, then those marks must be clearly stated and explained.
The Doctor’s Doctrine, p. 106

The Fourth Distinction

As if dealing with the previous three distinctions was not already enough to consider, Lloyd-Jones now adds an even more challenging look at THREE marks of a TRUE CHURCH.

The Distinction between Right and Wrong
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Of course by now we must NOT be asking once more, 'What is truth?' as if truth or 'right and wrong' are a matter of subjective personal opinion rather than an objective Biblical standard by which Christians may claim God's Word as Good News to those who will believe.
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1. the Word is truly preached
2. the sacraments are truly administered, AND (look out, here..)
3. discipline is truly exercised
Right Preaching and Wrong Preaching

The church is “essential to believers,” because conversion means they are “born as babes in Christ” and desperately need to be “instructed” and “warned against error and safeguarded against heresy.”
Lloyd-Jones, The Church and the Last Things
Of course since I am NOT a preacher, I could say anything I want IF subjective truth rather than Biblical truth was our standard of right and wrong.

But by the standard of doctrine rooted in Biblical truth NO theologian (even Lloyd-Jones or your preacher) should take subjective liberties in preaching the Gospel.
2 Timothy 4:

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:
- preach the word;
- be ready in season and out of season;
- reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and teaching.
And what does the Apostle Paul prophesy to his disciple of the way, the truth and the life as REASON ENOUGH to remain faithful to Scripture?

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
Second Letter of the Apostle Paul to Timothy 4:3-4 LSB

ARE WE THERE YET?

Preaching in the last days
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Again, the standard isn't mine (IF you accept the Doctrinal line in the sand of Scripture.
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.. in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts..

The Apostle Peter reminds the church in is final letter, The Day of the Lord Will Come:

The Lord .. is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up].

Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way,

what sort of people ought you to be…

What sort of men and women proclaiming Christ Jesus OUGHT WE to be?

READ more from 2 Peter 3:11-
September 24, 2022