The Alex McFarland Show-135-Five Commitments of Every Authentic Christian

The spiritual condition of America, politics, culture, and current events, analyzed through the lens of Scripture. Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show. Philippians chapter 2 is a unique part of the New Testament, and it contains something that scholars call the divine kenosis, or the emptying of Christ.

Hi, Alex McFarland here. I want to talk with you about five commitments that every true Christian, and really any authentic Christian church, must make. Five commitments, and I'll explain in just a moment, but let me read from Philippians 2 verses 9 through 11. The fact that Jesus Christ, the second member of the Trinity, the Son of God, but God the Son, he voluntarily surrendered many of his divine powers.

He did not in any way cease to be deity, but he took on a body. You know he was nailed to the cross. The punishment for our sin was put on Jesus Christ. He felt hunger.

He felt pain. God enfleshed himself so that he could die and rise again and be our Savior for all who would believe. And in light of all this, verse 9 of Philippians chapter 2 says, Wherefore, in other words, in light of all this, that Christ did the greatest thing ever, the incarnation, death, resurrection, for a lost, ungrateful human race. Verse 9 says, Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Think about that. Every tongue will confess. The unsaved will someday confess that Jesus is Lord. Everything in the earth, the created world, even angels, fallen angels, demons, Satan himself, all will confess that Jesus is Lord, because he is. Now if you will put your faith in Christ this side of eternity, be saved.

Believe in Jesus. You confess Christ here. One day throughout eternity we will acknowledge and confess the lordship of Christ, but in a state of salvation. Even the atheists, the unbelievers, the pagans, they will too confess and acknowledge the lordship of Jesus. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess, but in a state of condemnation. The word confession means so much.

It really means to speak in affirmation of something. Early in the ministry, I was still in seminary, and a family asked me to go see their elderly father who was dying of cancer and try to make sure that he knew the Lord. And I was nervous, but I went and shared the gospel and really urged the man to put his faith in Christ, which he did, praise God. But he was older and from New England, and he asked me, he said, are you asking me to make a confession?

And I didn't really know exactly what he meant at first. He said, are you asking me to make my confession? And I said, well, if by confession you mean that Jesus is the Son of God and that when he died on the cross you believe he died for you and you're putting your trust in Jesus to be forgiven and to know that you're saved.

If by confession you mean you're believing in that. And he looked at me, he said, yes, those things I will confess. And he prayed and he accepted Christ, and just a matter of days later he passed away. But he was ready. And I was very impressed, because he took it very seriously. He wasn't just giving lip service or saying, oh, I believe. No, even an elderly man near the point of death, he realized that confessing Christ was serious, and we should take it seriously as well. We should realize that by accepting salvation and putting our faith in Jesus, I mean, we use many terms, born again, saved, redeemed, I'm a believer now, but we're making a confession that we're followers of Jesus Christ.

And that's a serious thing, because we become his representatives. Now think about that for a moment. If you listen to the program much, you know I'm a car guy. I love cars. Fascinating car is Ferrari. I've never really liked Ferraris.

I've never wanted to own one. But it is a fascinating brand, the Italian car maker. And the thing about Ferraris, there's a Ferrari dealership in Greensboro, North Carolina, where I live.

When I was a little kid, we would get my dad to drive us up there and we'd walk around and look at these famous, you know, Ferrari Italian sports cars. But do you know that Ferrari may or may not sell you a car? If you go to a Ferrari dealer to look at a new Ferrari, they check you out, see if you measure up. And if you grasp what owning a Ferrari really is, they believe that if you buy a brand new Ferrari, you become a brand ambassador. And do you know there are what they call non-FLIP clauses in the contract? In other words, if you buy a new Ferrari, you have to sign a contract that you will not sell it within a certain time. And if you do sell someday, you have to notify Ferrari who the new buyer is so they can be vetted out. And there are celebrities.

It's really kind of famous. There are celebrities that Ferrari will not sell a new vehicle to. And these include Justin Bieber, any of the Kardashians. True. It's kind of funny, really. And so Ferrari is notoriously picky about who they will or won't sell a car to. That's why Jay Leno, one of the most famous car collectors in the world, has refused to ever buy a Ferrari.

He thinks they're too snooty. But here's the thing. The moral of the story is this. Ferrari takes ownership of their car as a privilege, not a right. And they use every marketing and legal means to uphold their brand image, because to own a Ferrari, they believe, is to represent the company.

You're a brand ambassador. And shouldn't it be that way, at least to a degree, with Christianity? And I realize salvation is free.

It's a free gift. But if we accept the free gift of forgiveness that Jesus paid for on the cross, we should also accept the responsibility that we represent him and represent him well, and that we are ambassadors of the gospel. And many people make their evaluation of the nature of Christianity based on watching the believers. They evaluate how worthwhile, how precious, how much equity is in Christianity.

And maybe if we take it lightly, the watching world doesn't take Jesus seriously either. So there are true commitments that need to be made if one is indeed a Christian. When we come back, we'll talk about the five commitments of every authentic Christian and church. Stay tuned.

We're back after this brief break. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. In the midst of a culture obsessed with relativism, Alex is a sound voice who speaks timeless truths of Christianity in a timely way. With 18 published books to his name, it's no surprise that CNN, Fox, The Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets have described Alex as a religion and culture expert. To learn more about Alex and to book him as a speaker at your next event, visit alexmcfarland.com or you can contact us directly by emailing booking at alexmcfarland.com.

He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to The Alex McFarland Show. Welcome back to the program.

Alex McFarland here. You know, as I record the program, the world is still talking about the victory of Donald Trump. As you know, we gave away hundreds of thousands of prayer guides, the Faith and Freedom Voter Guide, and there were people downloading it.

And I was on a lot of media leading up to the program. I want to share with you the statement that I made. You know, I had a lot of even Christians push back on this statement. I absolutely stand by this statement. Here's what I said when Donald Trump won the election. Quote, God has blessed America today with the victory of a president who believes in that divinely ordained document, the U.S. Constitution. Our founding documents and guiding principles are second only to the Bible in bringing freedom, prosperity, and human thriving to countless multitudes. Donald J. Trump and his team understand these convictions. As the Trump administration prepares to govern, let us pray for them to have wisdom from God as so many have prayed for America to be under providential guidance during the election itself. End of quote. Reverend Alex McFarland, Greensboro, North Carolina, had several Christians push back on me and say, Why would you say that the U.S. Constitution is a divinely ordained document?

Well, I absolutely do believe that. And I do think I could defend my assertion that the U.S. Constitution and our founding principles are second only to the Bible in bringing freedom and prosperity and human thriving to countless multitudes. But at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, as I've taught many times about how they had reached an impasse, and Benjamin Franklin, 74 years old, the oldest person at the Constitutional Convention, urged them to stop and pray. He said, Please get on your knees and pray. And he brought in ministers. They heard sermons for about a week.

Then they reconvened, and they wrote the longest-standing Constitution in world history. And 248 years into the American experiment, we are a God-ordained nation, and I love this country. I truly, truly love this country, as many of you know. And I think that it's worth pointing out that a big part of the reason that we lead the world in benevolent giving, we lead the world in bettering the human condition, we certainly have led the world in living out the Great Commission and taking the gospel around the world. Many of the churches around America, even as we speak, are engaging in preparation for Operation Christmas Child and the shoebox ministry, the wonderful work done by Franklin Graham and Samaritan's Purse.

Or maybe you're doing the angel tree ministry started by my dear friend Chuck Colson in prison fellowship so many years ago. And there are countless innumerable charities and wonderful things that we've been able to do as a nation because we've been so blessed. Well, there are some commitments that have made these things possible. You know, it's been well-documented that wherever Christianity goes, there is the betterment of the human condition. The commitments that flow from our confession, Philippians 2-11, that we confess Jesus.

Well, what does that look like? Let me share these commitments. If you're a Christian, number one, there's commitment to the Son of God. Jesus, the one and only Savior, the one and only Son of God. The Bible says in Acts 4, verse 12, there's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

Only through Jesus can one be saved. There is commitment to the Son of God. Secondly, there is commitment to the Word of God.

Secondly, there is commitment to the Word of God. It's been said that the Bible is our roadmap or our textbook. And I love how many of the old statements of faith would say it, that the Bible is the final guide for life and practice. You know, there is no holy book except the Holy Bible. To be a Christian means that we are committed to the Word of God.

That's why there are many people in religion nowadays, even old mainline denominations, that varying degrees of liberalism or wokeness have crept into their schools, their seminaries, even into the teachings of ordained ministers. But if you are a born-again believer, you name the name of God the Son, well, there should also be a commitment to the Word of God. One of my favorite verses, I've quoted it many times, is Psalm 119 verse 93.

I will never forget thy words, for through them I found life. It's through the Bible that we hear about salvation. Now, part of what we've done with our apologetics ministry for 25 years is taught the evidence for the Bible, the Bible of divine origin. The Bible is a supernatural book. The Bible has been miraculously preserved. The Bible is infallibly accurate. The Bible has miraculous life-changing power.

The compelling lines of evidence that point to the supernatural nature of the Holy Bible, that's another subject perhaps for another day. But let me just say this, that for 2,000 years of church history, well, at least up until the last 40, 50 years in the liberal, postmodern West, Christianity presupposed fidelity to the Word of God, and it should again. You know, I loved growing up, going to VBS, when we would, in vacation Bible school as a child, even when I didn't really know what it meant, we would do the three pledges.

Maybe you did this as well. We would say the pledge to the Christian flag, and we would say a pledge to the Bible, and we would say the pledge to the American flag. And I remember different children at different nights of Bible school, you know, I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag and to the Savior for whose kingdom it stands, one brotherhood uniting all Christians in faith and love. Do you remember the pledge to the Bible? I pledge allegiance to the Bible, God's holy Word. I will make it a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. I will hide its words in my heart so that I might not sin against God.

That's a quote from Psalm 119, 105. But these are two of the commitments, and we've got to pull away, take a brief break. When we come back, we'll talk about three other commitments, authentic commitments, if one is a true and genuine Christian. Stay tuned. Alex McFarland.

We're back after this. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. We unify by collaborating with like minded organizations like the Family Research Council, the Family Policy Alliance and My Faith Votes. We mobilize by providing practical tools you can use to impact your local community.

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Do you have a desire to deepen your faith, better understand Christian apologetics or to get a biblical perspective on current events? Well, I've tried to make it simple for you to do just that. On my Web site, alexmcfarland.com, there's a new section called Ask Alex Online. It's simple.

It's clean. And you can read my answers to common questions about God, faith and the Bible. So visit the Web site alexmcfarland.com and look for the section that says Ask Alex Online. He's been called trusted, truthful and timely. Welcome back to The Alex McFarland Show. Welcome back to the program. We're talking about the commitments that go along with authentic Christianity. And I want to say a big thank you as this exciting year kind of begins to draw to a close. As we get towards Thanksgiving, I want to express how thankful I am for the many, many people who support our ministries, events, publishing, broadcasting, for evangelizing the lost and equipping the saved. We are absolutely committed that America, and especially many of our smaller, struggling churches, do not close.

So would you please help us? Would you help us evangelize the lost and equip the saved? Would you help us preserve Christianity in America? If you would please give a generous gift, you can give securely online at our Web site alexmcfarland.com.

We sincerely appreciate it. We have got some exciting initiatives for 2025 that we know God is going to bless. They'll be very fruitful, and we invite you to partner with us to call America back to Christ. Speaking of our call to Christ, I want to conclude and talk about the five commitments of every true Christian. We talked about the fact that a true Christian has a commitment to the Son of God, a commitment to the Word of God, and thirdly, a commitment to live as a child of God. The Bible says that when Jesus comes in, all things are made new. 2 Corinthians 5.17, the old has passed away. And I meet a lot of people, and I'll say, are you a Christian?

Yes, I hope so, they'll say. Do you go to church? Well, no. How's your walk with the Lord?

Well, it could be better. Here is the point that when we become a believer, yes, salvation is a free gift. Yes, it is by God's grace, not works. That's Ephesians 2, 8-10. But the call to be saved is really the call to become a disciple of Jesus. Now, a disciple, biblically, is defined as this, a consistent, learning, obedient follower.

And in American soteriology, the Greek word soterios, which means to save, soteriology is the study of salvation. We're not really giving the complete saving message if we don't say this, that with the free gift of forgiveness also comes the responsibility to obedience. And so we are to live as children of God. Maybe you walked an aisle, maybe you recited a prayer, but if your life has not changed, and there's nothing different, then I would say, as Paul wrote, examine yourselves and see if ye be in the faith, that we are to live as children of God. Fourthly, there is a commitment to the Church of God. Hebrews 10.25, speaking of church, that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but so much the more as you see the day approaching. So if you're a Christian, you need to be in church, since within a few weeks after the resurrection, Christians have met on Sunday, that's Resurrection Day, to worship the risen Savior.

Be a part of a church. Finally, not only commitment to the Son of God, the Word of God, living as a child of God, commitment to the Church of God, finally, and in closing, there's awareness of and commitment to the Kingdom of God. Do you know, in the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Bible refers to the Kingdom of God 52 times, the Kingdom of Heaven 20 times. It's fascinating. Now, in the New Testament, the word is basilica.

You've heard that word, no doubt. The Kingdom of God, the basilica. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word, really synonymous concept, but it's malkuth, m-a-l-k-u-t-h, appears 91 times in the Old Testament, meaning the kingdom or the reign or the empire of the Savior.

So a total of 163 times, the Bible references Christ's coming to usher in his kingdom, and the coming reign, literal reign, of Almighty God on earth with his people. That is one of the unique things about the Gospel, the Kingdom of God. Many religions have a lot of do's and don'ts.

Do this, don't do that. The Christian message is absolutely unique about, yes, the risen Savior, the empty tomb, forgiveness, but when you become a born-again believer, you become part of the Kingdom of God. That's why the Apostles' Creed talks about that Jesus is coming to judge the quick and the dead. That's one of the Lord's Prayer, Matthew 5-7, Jesus says, on earth as it is in heaven.

And we Christians, you may as well start living as a kingdom citizen, because soon and very soon, Christ is coming back, and we will be a part of his kingdom here on earth. You know, as I close, I wish I had so much more time, but I want to reference how we really are to be salt and light and a preservative in a culture that is declining. There was a German historian many years ago, Otto Spengler. He was born in 1880, died in 1936, and for decades Spengler studied the world's great civilizations Babylon, Egyptian, Indian, Asian, Central America, Greece, Rome. He studied Western civilization, and in 1918, Spengler published a two-volume work, The Decline of the West. And he talked about the seasons that a culture goes through, which he believed could be very predictable.

There was spring, summer, fall, and winter. The winter of a culture, according to Spengler, would be when all things die. And he said the harbinger of a culture in the death season of winter would be when morals and family and religion are lost.

Now, in his day, other historians dismissed Spengler as amateurish, quote-unquote. But today, many think he was prophetic. And he said when morals are lost, a culture will die. Now, he predicted the fall of Western civilization, and who would be blamed for it when Christian Europe and Christian America dies? He said it would be journalists. Those were a favorite target of Spengler's criticism. Liberal, academics, and agenda-driven journalists, but also ministers that didn't preach truth. And Spengler said 120 years ago, prophetic, the battle for the future is not academic so much, not economic, but the battle for the soul is moral and spiritual.

That is absolutely true. So as I close, think about your confession. Philippians 2.11, that we are to confess Christ. Have you confessed Christ? If you haven't, you can do it today. He's as close by as a prayer.

On our website, there's a tab. What does God say about my relationship with Him? If you need to come to Christ, or maybe you need to come back to Christ, do that today. And in your walk and in your growth, everything we can do to help you and encourage you in Jesus, please don't hesitate to contact us. May God bless you. Stay bold.

Stand strong for truth. Be committed to the Christ I hope you've confessed. You can also reach us at Alex McFarland, P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404, or by calling 1-877-Yes-God-1. That's 1-877-Y-E-S-G-O-D-1. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again on the next edition of the Alex McFarland Show.