Is The Cross
Relevant? - By Bracy Greer
God will
always have a people. He has said He is coming for a church without spot or
wrinkle, washed in the blood of the Lamb. I love the precious way that the Lord
works to purify us and make us His own. He reaches down time after time, down
to whatever level He finds us on, and brings us into a position of believing in
Him. He is our Father, and His great love works gently and patiently in our
lives. That's why we worship Him.
God uses His people to accomplish
His purposes. He works through those who are truly His own. So we must ask: Who
is truly His own? What makes a believer authentic? What makes a Christian
family authentic? What makes a church authentic?
Through His own sovereign will God
is equipping us, making us strong in the faith, filling us with the Holy Ghost,
and sending us forth to glorify Him. His own purposes will be accomplished
through us--but we have to be authentic, truly His own.
The degree to which He can use us
and the degree to which we are authentic are measured by the same measure--our
willingness to submit to His will. In Luke 2 we read how Jesus' parents went to
Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, and on their return they noticed Jesus was
missing. They returned to the city and three days later found him in the temple
talking with the learned men. "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with
us?" Mary asked. This question, like so many questions we ask, has more to
do with our own fears and frustrations than with what God is doing. Jesus
answered her: "How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be
about my Father's business?"
Jesus here is full of wisdom and the
grace of God. "I MUST be about my Father's business," He said. He
came to do the will of the Father, but in doing that he did not violate his
parents' trust. He returned with them to Nazareth and was subject unto them.
God doesn't violate His principles to accomplish His purpose. He doesn't do
away with "honor thy father and mother" to accomplish a divine
purpose.
Jesus came to save the world. His
flesh wanted to say, "You've got important things to do." But He did
the will of His Father, and the Father's business for Jesus turned out to be 18
more years at the carpenter's bench. He didn't suggest to the Father what His
business was. He simply did what the Father wanted. "I MUST be about my
Father's business."
What is your "must"?
"I MUST have significance in the church. I MUST do something important. I
MUST have financial security." No, Jesus' must was doing the will of the
Father. He was misunderstood and kept down, living in obscurity year after
year.
"Mom, don't worry about me. I'm
not going to bring reproach on you. I'm not going to break your heart out of
rebellion, because I'm committed to the Father's business--that same Father who
sent His angel to bring you tidings from heaven, that same Holy Spirit who
overshadowed you and impregnated you. I am committed to His purposes. I don't
have an agenda of my own."
We, too, must set aside our own
agendas. When we get hold of something that we have to straighten out, or when
we're determined to see something happen, we're in for trouble. We thwart God's
plan. The only must we should have is to do the will of the Father.
Contrast the desire to do God's will
with the desire of the modern church to be "relevant." What does that
mean? Instead of waiting on God to see what He would have us do, we try to
figure what to do on our own. And we do it by the worst possible method--asking
the people around us what they think they need and then trying to meet those
needs using their same mindset and their same methods, all in the name of
"relevance." The idea of meeting the "felt needs" of the
society we live in is a humanistic, man-centered idea. "Find the need and
meet it" has built the biggest churches in America. That is relevance
built on human understanding.
The relevance we should be talking
about is based on spirit. We are essentially spirit, for we have eternal souls,
and being relative has to do with relating properly to the originator and
sustainer of our souls--the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the
merciful high priest, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the eternal God.
When I relate to Him, I am relevant. It doesn't have to go any further than
that. That is the center, the core of the issue. Nobody has to understand, and
my relevance doesn't have to meet anybody's need. That kind of true relevance
always yields authenticity, making us truly God's people through whom He can
work and glorify Himself.
Was Noah relevant to his day? It had
never rained before, yet he spent over a hundred years building a boat. His
neighbors couldn't find "rain" in their dictionary, yet he preached
that rain was coming. "The man is crazy. He's lost his mind. What's he
doing?" Nobody understood him, let alone agreed with him. His boat
wouldn't help the town. It wouldn't increase tourism. It wouldn't help anybody.
Even the elders could see that this project was going nowhere. Noah was crazy,
out of touch.
But history, of course, shows Noah
as the only man in town who was relevant. He was used of God to accomplish
God's plan and purpose to establish a people for an eternal bride and companion
for His son, what he always wanted before the foundation of the earth. That is
what He determined to have, and He has never veered from it. His plan is not
relevant to society. You go to the Scriptures and pick the story, whatever
story you want. Where's the relevance? Being relevant is relating to the
eternal, not the temporal. Jesus didn't come to be relevant to the existing
society but to do the will of the Father.
Every generation must walk relative
to who God is, not relative to its own culture, nor even relative to the more
Christian cultures that came before us. It's wonderful to study church history,
but must we comb through history to establish an exact reproduction of the
first-century church? Do we have to labor to find out what they wore and how
they did things and what made them an authentic church? Is the church at the
end of the age just an imitation of first-century authenticity?
It's a lot easier to comb through
history books in search of authenticity than it is to maintain an intimate
relationship with God, to discover what His heart's desire is for my family and
my church and my community. Every generation must walk relative to who God is.
God will never violate His own character and nature. He never changes. When
Jesus did the will of the Father, He was in no danger of rebelling against His
parents; and when we do the will of the Father, we, too, will be in harmony
with God's principles--though often we will be misunderstood.
We search for authenticity
everywhere except the one place we will find it--in the will of the Father.
Why? Because the Father's will inevitably leads straight to the cross, putting
ourselves out of the way so Jesus Himself can live and manifest Himself in our
community.
Our own efforts to be relevant are
only expressions of our insecurity and pride. We crank up our instruments and
drums, run them through big speakers, make a lot of noise, put on a circus, and
draw a big crowd--but noise and crowds don't make us authentic. Community
acceptance does not make us authentic. Staying within whatever boundaries the
elders have dictated doesn't make us authentic. If we love God, we obey Him,
John says, and the Holy Spirit's presence is the authenticity. If the Holy
Spirit isn't present, it's not authentic. It may be exciting, it may be noisy,
it may bless and excite the flesh, but if it doesn't move me in holiness toward
God, it is not authentic.
In the last days there will be
seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. I always believed it was people like
the Mormons who were filling the world with doctrines of devils. But now I
realize that even ordained Pentecostal preachers are filling the world with the
doctrines of devils. In our churches they stand with an open Bible and preach
that which excites and exalts the flesh. When you look for the result, nobody has
been moved in holiness toward God. Oh, such preaching draws the crowds and pays
the bills. But you can have the fastest growing church in America and write
best-sellers and none of that success will make you an authentic child of God.
We live at God's pace, not our own.
The Lord will never move us out and trust us with greater responsibilities
until He has become precious to us in the place where we are--until we are just
as content as we can be, not with the state of things but in the state of things,
without murmuring and without complaining, rejoicing in the love of God with
full confidence. Because He has placed in us a MUST to do His will and has
given us wisdom and grace that regardless of what the circumstances look like,
even to ourselves, He will accomplish His purpose and will have the desired
results.
Brother Clennendon and I were
talking about process and crisis. Our lives are made up of process and crisis.
The process is daily and is so routine it doesn't seem to be accomplishing
anything. But with humility and the fear of the Lord comes riches, honor, and
life. Humility is an unconditional commitment to the righteous processes of
God. Before I ever get into a situation, my mind is already made up because I
am in covenant with God, the covenant I made at the foot of the cross in the
same spirit in which God made a covenant with Abraham. When I knelt at the foot
of the cross by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, God allowed me the privilege to
die to my own plans and my own future. But He also made a commitment to never
leave me nor forsake me. When I come into a new situation, faced with new
decisions, my mind is made up in advance--I am committed to doing the will of
God. I don't reason out where I am going and what the means are to the end. I commit
myself to the righteous processes of God whether I understand them or not, or
whether anyone else understands them or not. I just stick in there with my
commitment to God and faith that He knows what He is about.
We want to understand before we obey.
That's not the order of God. Psalm 111:10 says that they who do the will of God
have a good understanding. Jesus said in John 7:17 that those who do the will
of God will know whether or not a doctrine is of God. We do the will of God and
then we get the understanding--in God's time. The important thing is to do the
will of God, to uphold our covenant with God.
We have big ships down in Houston
and Galveston. One man standing at the wheel can take a ship in any direction
he wants to go. But he can't change direction at all if the ship isn't moving.
In a similar fashion, God cannot work His purposes in us until we're moving in
obedience. Once we're moving in His will, He needs only to touch the wheel and
He can steer us where we need to go. Understanding won't always come right
away. He may take us down the channel and out to the bay and then u-turn and
head back the way we just came. Only later do we realize that He couldn't turn
us around until we had room in the bay. We might have to pass right by the people
who earlier waved goodbye and gave us farewell gifts. It's humiliating.
"What in the world is going on?" they wonder. But all the time we're
in God's will and He is able to take us where He wants. If we just get on our
knees and discern what He wants us to do and begin doing it, He'll teach us His
ways and show us His paths and lead us in truth. He is much more committed to
us than we are to Him. I've learned not to lose sleep over what I don't know,
because He knows.
But the flesh is so insecure that I
confess I still lose sleep over what I do know. Flesh doesn't want to die, and
it must die daily. It must give up its own desires, its own plans and goals.
Brother Ravenhill has rightly taught us that pride is the last thing to go and
the first thing to come back. So I must continuously pray over what I do know.
"Oh Lord, I know what You want me to do. Lord, give me a heart willing to
do it. Where my faith is weak, increase my faith. Oh God, I know nobody is
going to understand this, but if I can just please You in it, I know You will
glorify Your name."
The flesh rears up even as we try to
put this message into practice. We see the need for authenticity--but then we
try to establish it ourselves. Folks, that is not our responsibility. It's His.
He's the one. His presence is what makes us authentic. His presence cannot come
and dwell with flesh, so our flesh must die. Only when people see His presence
in our lives will they recognize us as authentic believers, as one of God's
true people.
Isaiah 50:10: Who is among you that
feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in
darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay
upon his God.
Who among you fears the Lord? You
say, "I fear the Lord." Who obeys the voice of His servant? You say,
"I obey the voice of His servant." But when I ask, Who among you
walks in darkness and has no light?, no hands go up because we are proud. But
in this scripture all three are happening to the same person. The same person
fears the Lord, obeys His voice, and yet walks in darkness. Walking in darkness
means to have no illumination, no understanding, and no frame of reference--we
feel like we've never experienced this trial before and never talked to anyone
who has. We don't have the slightest idea why this crisis is happening and
don't know what to do. Isaiah is talking to those of us in such a predicament.
The next phrase tells us what
someone should do in such a spot: "trust in the name of the Lord, and stay
upon his God." Don't do anything new, and don't go any place new. Just
stay upon your God. Just do. What you knew about God's nature and character
before you got into that dark place is still true. Live consistent with it.
Stay with your God. He has his own purposes, His own timing. All of God's
delays are appointments--all of them. "Be still. I am going to glorify My
name."
Sarah was past child-bearing age.
Her womb was closed. Abraham was 99, going on 100. They had grown so old they
were silly, senile. They went around calling each other silly names.
"Sarah" meant "fruitful womb," and "Abraham"
meant "father of many nations." The neighbors thought this silly old
couple had lost touch with reality. "Fruitful womb, is dinner ready?"
"No, father of many nations, but it's almost ready." Were their names
relative to who they were? In God's time, they certainly were. Among their
offspring was God's Lamb. But to the neighbors they looked foolish.
What won't we do to keep looking
good? Looking good becomes the driving motivation in all our lives if we allow
it. As I spent time in preparation for this conference, I had to deny the
desire to want to look good. The flesh constantly pulls us to think,
"Lord, I don't care what you say, and I don't care who you say it to, but
when it's all over, let me look good." That's the way we are. We have to
be brutal with that. Raise the knife to that.
God is looking for people who will
do His will. He will take care of the rest. He will set the scene. He knows how
to make it look so black that when the glory of God shines out against that
black, everybody knows it's God. Isn't the God of Abraham something?
The next verse--Isaiah 50:11--makes
clear what our choice is: Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass
yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks
that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in
sorrow.
You can kindle a fire of your own
making. You can refuse humility and vulnerability. You can just keep looking
good. Or you can give up on yourself and wait for God's fire.
How many churches prepare for the
crowds by lighting their own fires? As
a preacher's son, I can tell you story after story of people in the church who
wouldn't embrace humility before God. I'm not talking about whether they were
right or wrong in their observations, but they didn't live out a commitment to
the righteous processes of God. When God holds out his hand and gives the
sorrow He promised in Isaiah, it is more grievous than any cross we could ever
get on. We can choose God's way, or we can choose our way.
Was Christ's cross relevant? Did
anybody understand it? "Far be that from Thee, Lord," Peter said, and
Christ answered, "Get behind me, Satan. You are minding the things of men
and not the things of God." Was the cross relevant to society, to the
elders, to the chief counsel, to the people who walked by? "Ha. He saved
others; why can't He save Himself?" Those who looked on found no
relevance, no authenticity, but it was wholly relevant and authentic to God. It
was the sweet savor of His will being accomplished. It was victory, the
sprinkling of the acceptable blood on the mercy seat. It was a sweet reward to
those Old Testament saints who for all those centuries had clutched promissory
notes through obedience and faith. It was carrying captivity captive. It was
the redemptive plan of God accomplished once and for all.
Was it relevant? Was it authentic? You're
proof of it here today. It's authentic, folks. It's not of the flesh, it's not
of the counsel of men. It's of the will of God.
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