How Do I Know If I Treasure Christ If My Heart Is Cold?

How do I know if I'm treasuring Christ if my heart feels cold? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 25 minutes or so. Again, that's 833-843-2673. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. You can watch Adriel right now live on our YouTube channel and send us a message that way. And of course, you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, here's a question from Verna. She says, I want to write a scripture on my Christmas cards and Psalm 8510 ran through my head. What does it mean for mercy and peace to meet and righteousness and peace to kiss each other? This is talking about the fruit of God's redemptive work, and I think we can definitely point directly to Jesus and in particular to his cross. Steadfast love, that is God's covenant faithfulness to his people, that faithfulness that he has, and righteousness come together, peace. Those two things in the scriptures, righteousness and peace, are often coupled together because we can only have peace through righteousness, through that goodness that God gives.

Ultimately, none of us in and of ourselves, Verna, are righteous, and so we depend upon the righteousness that God gives to us as a gift. What a beautiful thing to meditate upon. This time of the year and every time during the year. God bless.

You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Every year around this time, we start getting calls about the Christmas holiday, and some people say, hey, isn't it really a pagan holiday? Shouldn't we not celebrate it?

Well, we have a resource that actually answers that question. Yeah, it always shocks me, Bill, when people say, well, we don't want to celebrate. I mean, just think about all the food and the Christmas cookies and the great Christmas movies and Christmas carols.

Why would you just not want to rejoice? But anyways, we have a resource in particular for you. If this is something you wrestle with, it's called Five Reasons Why Christmas Isn't a Pagan Holiday, and it really gets to the heart of some of the questions that people ask, some of the objections that people raise regarding Christmas. We know that you'll find it to be an encouragement, so you can get this resource, Five Reasons Why Christmas Isn't a Pagan Holiday, over at CoreChristianity.com.

It's a free download, and we'd encourage you to get that today. Maybe you can have a discussion with someone who feels that Christmas is a pagan holiday because they've gotten that information. Here's what you do.

Go to CoreChristianity.com forward slash offers and look for Five Reasons Christmas Isn't a Pagan Holiday. You can also call us for that resource or any one of our resources, 833-843-2673. Let's go to a voicemail that we received earlier this week. This is from Michelle. I've been told by various people that we're supposed to treasure and love Jesus more than anything else in the world, and I was wondering how do you do that because I don't treasure Jesus and I feel like my love for him is cold.

I was wondering how do you fix that? Well, Michelle, anytime I hear about love for Jesus growing cold, I think about that exhortation that Jesus gave to the church at Ephesus in the book of Revelation. At the beginning of the book of Revelation, in Revelation chapter 2, Jesus here is speaking to these various churches and he's raising concerns with some of them, some of the issues that these churches had, and in particular to the church of Ephesus, we read in Revelation chapter 2 verse 1, to the angel of the church in Ephesus write, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lampstands. Just by the way, the seven golden lampstands, those are the seven churches Jesus is saying, I'm here, I'm in your midst. And so he can go on to say in verse 2, I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance and how you cannot bear with those who are evil but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false. I know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake and you have not grown weary, but I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first. And now listen to what Jesus says to do, remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent, Jesus says. This idea of our love growing cold, I mean Jesus himself speaks about this, there was an entire church there, the church of Ephesus that was wrestling with this and in the context there in Revelation chapter 2, it seems like in particular what this church had lost was its evangelistic rigor.

They were no longer sharing the gospel like they once had, being a light for Jesus and that's why Jesus warns them by saying, I'm going to remove your lampstand if you don't return to me, if you don't repent. And so one, I just bring this up because this is a serious problem that people can have, that Christians can have. And so a couple of things, I mean you think of Jesus as his remedy there, remember, remember me, remember what I've done for you, come back to me, return to me.

So I think that's part of it, I mean I think that's the solution that Jesus gives. But the other thing I want to say is just especially when we think about treasuring Christ and we look inside and we realize, God I fall so short of loving you, and that's each and every one of us, we all struggle with this, none of us love God perfectly, although we strive to love God and we strive to love our neighbor, right? But we don't love God perfectly, so how can we grow in our love for God?

I think about what John said in 1 John, we love because he first loved us. And so I want to just say to you, instead of focusing on your love, instead of doing the navel gazing and looking within and saying, I just know I don't treasure Christ as much as I should, none of us do. How do you grow in treasuring Christ? It's not by looking inside of you and then being discouraged by how short you fall of loving the Lord like you should, it's by meditating on his love for you, it's by embracing the reality of what he's done. This is why over and over when we go to church we need to hear that gospel, we need to be nourished by it through the means of grace, things like the Lord's Supper, we're fixing our eyes on his love for us, and it's as we grow in our understanding of the love of God toward his people in the gospel, it's there that love for God is kindled in us. And so I want to say go back to that, meditate upon that, and if there are things that you're doing, ways that you're living that you feel like are quenching your love for the Lord, think of what Jesus said again there in Revelation chapter 2. We'll remember and repent, turn back to the Lord, experience his grace, his mercy, his forgiveness, and let him fill you with his love. God bless you, sister, and may the Lord help all of us to treasure Christ as we should.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We'd love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Maybe you've got a question about doctrine or theology or maybe even how your Christian faith intersects with what's going on in today's culture. We would love to hear from you. We're also open to hearing from people who are maybe skeptical about the Christian faith.

If you consider yourself to be an agnostic or an atheist and you have an objection to the faith, we're open to that too. So give us a call right now. The phone lines will be open for the next 10 minutes or so. 833-843-2673. If you want to spell it out, it's 833-THE-CORE. Adriel, here's an email question that came in from one of our listeners named James.

He says, Hi, Adriel. Is oneness or modalism considered to be an error or heresy? If it's heresy, should we break fellowship with an individual that is unrepentant in regards to that view? Keeping in mind scriptures like 2 John verses 10 and 11. Well, first let me just read 2 John 10 and 11. 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. There is this distinction, this separation between the truth and falsehood, between good doctrine and bad doctrine.

And John is here warning, he says, Look, we don't give people who reject the gospel and teach contrary to any place or any platform. Now, with regard to this question about modalism, let me explain what that is. As someone who believes in oneness or modalism, should we consider them as Christians or should we break fellowship with them? If you've never heard that word, modalism, we're talking about a Trinitarian heresy, that is a way of understanding the Trinity that is incorrect and not in line with the teaching of the Bible. The Orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, that is the right doctrine of the Trinity, teaches on the basis of scripture that there is one God with three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Those three persons are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. There's no distinction as to the essence, if you will, the nature, the substance, but that these three persons are distinct, distinguished by their personal properties. The Father is unbegotten, the Son is eternally begotten, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son from all eternity. You get that language in particular in the Gospel of John. You have these three distinct persons, but modalism teaches that the three persons are really one person, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are just different modes of the one being, revealing himself, if you will, throughout redemptive history.

This is an error. This rejects the clear teaching of the Bible, the Orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, and I think it strikes at the very vitals of what we confess as Christians. If we get this wrong, that is who God is, what some people refer to as theology proper, the doctrine of God, who he is, then we don't understand the truth and we can't be in the truth. To get this wrong is to really undermine the faith in its entirety. An individual who holds to Trinitarian heresy, who rejects the doctrine of the Trinity, I would say, no, we don't have fellowship with them within the church. They're not a part of the communion of the church, if you will. They need to be brought to repentance, to a proper understanding of the faith. This was a heresy that was around in the earliest times of the church, in the third century, and it was addressed by many of the early Christians, in particular the church fathers, as they dealt with some of these questions. It's also cropped up in recent days among particular Christian movements or so-called Christian movements that reject, again, the doctrine of the Trinity and teach something like modalism. No, we don't have fellowship with them. I think the way in which we interact with people who hold to these kinds of views is we call them to repentance, as we open up the scriptures and we say, here's what the Bible teaches, here's what you need to believe, because you're misrepresenting who God is, and that is a terrifying thing.

Thanks for that question. Tough one, and certainly there are heresies that are floating around. Like we often say, there's nothing new under the sun. People come up with a new doctrine or belief that really maybe was around since the first or second century, and they push that in the local church, and that's a big concern, right?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's good to know church history, because as you said, there's really nothing new under the sun. Satan's deceptions, he doesn't got a lot of any tricks up his sleeve. He's just sort of doing the same ones over and over again, but if we're not familiar with history and with the teaching of scripture, we're liable to be deceived, and so it's so important for us to know these things and to respond according to the Bible. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Gilbert calling in from Topeka, Kansas. Gilbert, what's your question for Adriel?

Yes, Adriel. In the book of Deuteronomy, it talks about to a thousand generations, generations, and then in Matthew chapter 1 verse 17, it says 14 generations, and then another 14 generations to David, and then 14 generations to Babylon, and then 14 generations to Christ, so we're at 42 generations. My question is, are we getting close to that thousand generations, or will the generations continue into the millennium? Yeah, it's good of you to bring up this question about the genealogy of Jesus, especially as, you know, we get closer to Christmas, we're thinking about the birth of the Lord, and one thing that's helpful to know about the genealogies where it talks about the generations, if you will, you see this throughout the Bible, in particular, the whole book of Genesis, for example, is broken up into these series of genealogies, if you will, the generations of such and such, and so it's something that we see throughout scripture, and oftentimes, when you get these genealogies, these descriptions of generations, what's happening there is you're focusing on, the biblical author is focusing on key players in the history of redemption, he's focusing on individuals that he wanted to highlight, and in order to make a point, so oftentimes the genealogies and the gospels are focusing on the fact that Jesus is the king, the rightful heir to the throne of David, that was something that was very important, you think about the Davidic Covenant in 2 Samuel 7, this promise that was given to the people of God and Jesus being the one who is the heir to David's throne, so that's one of the things that's highlighted, another thing that's actually quite interesting to me when I think about the genealogy in the gospel of Matthew in particular is some of the characters in the genealogy who often weren't viewed very highly, I mean, you have people in Jesus' genealogy who were Gentiles, you have people who had had these sinful relationships, these sinful experiences, you think of Matthew chapter 1 verse 17, all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to Christ, 14 generations, you think of David's relationship with Bathsheba there, and so these are some of the things that are being highlighted there, and it sounds to me like a part of your question is, well, how many more generations are we going to go until? You know, is this going to go all the way into when? You know, the thousand generations if you are, I would say when you're thinking about that language in the Old Testament, you don't need to take that as God sort of prophesying that there are going to be a thousand generations, if you will, until the end of the world. We know that time is going to continue until the second coming of Jesus Christ and that he commands all people everywhere to repent, and the reason he hasn't come yet is because he's long-suffering towards us, patient, wanting all to come to repentance and to receive Jesus, who was born of the Virgin Mary for us and for our salvation, and so yeah, I mean that's I think how I would respond to your question, and as you meditate on Matthew 1 and the coming of Christ, especially around this time of the year, around Christmas time, may the Lord fill your heart with his love and with his presence. God bless. Amen. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone lines are still open. We're taking calls for the next five, six minutes on our live program, and then we're going to record a second show today, so if you weren't able to call in this half hour, you can call in next half hour, and let us know if you've got a question about the Bible, the Christian life, doctrine, or theology, so anytime in the next 40 minutes or so, you can call us at 833-843-2673.

That's 833 THE CORE. We'd love to hear from you, and no question is off limits, right, Adriel? Yeah, I mean, no question about theology or the Bible.

We like that. Don't ask me about, you know, cooking and how to fix a car, that kind of thing. Auto mechanics? No. Okay.

Building a house. I don't know anything about those things. All right.

I've got some spark plugs that need to be installed if you'd like to help me out with that. Yeah. No? Sorry. Okay. Let's go to Melissa, who's calling in from St. Louis, Missouri. Melissa, what's your question for Adriel?

Hi. I was calling because I have a friend. We have been friends, I mean, literally since I was five, and recently she has, she's getting ready to get married. Unfortunately, she's turned into a lesbian, and so she's going to be getting married in a couple months, and as I get closer to God, and I'm aiming closer to God, I'm trying to see how do I continue the friendship, should I keep the friendship, you know, and still respect, you know, the religion that I have as well. Melissa, just a follow-up question. In terms of her own life, I mean, is she someone who professed faith in Christ, Christianity, and then left it, or she's, where is she at in terms of what she believes? Currently, she does believe in God, but I don't, you know, it's not as strong as I am, you know, walking with Christ currently, but, you know, she came from a family, you know, that went to church, so her background, I believe, is strong, but her walk as she got older is not as strong.

Okay. Well, so a couple of thoughts here. One, I don't see any reason why she's here. One, I don't see any reason why you should stop being a good friend to this woman who sounds like you guys grew up together. You should continue to be a good friend, to love her, to care for her, to encourage her in various ways, and that doesn't mean that you have to stop believing in Jesus or reject what the Bible teaches about sexuality. The Bible is very clear that, you know, gay and lesbian relationships are sinful, that's something to repent of, but that doesn't mean that you can't have friends who don't believe like you do. And so I think, I mean, the text of scripture to go to here is 1 Corinthians 5, where Paul writing to the Corinthians said, I wrote to you in my previous letter not to associate with sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater, reviler. So he says, look, if an individual says, I'm a Christian, I believe in God, I believe in Jesus, I've received Christ for my salvation, but they live in this way, well, in that situation, you do make a judgment. You say, hey, you're living not in line with what you profess to believe and because your soul is in danger, I'm not going to just pretend like everything's fine and let's go hang out and have dinner together and just not address this issue, this serious issue in your life. He says, in that situation with the brother, with someone who confesses faith, if they're living in this way, well, then you pull back and you call them to repentance, to live in line with what they profess. If they're not a brother, well, you or a sister, well, you continue to have that friendship with them. I mean, you can't pull yourself out of the world.

Why? Well, so that you can shine the light of Christ so that they might see who Jesus is, so that they might get to hear the gospel through you. Maybe that's something that's right now a difficult thing, but praying that the Lord would give you opportunities, Melissa, as you continue that friendship to share about who Jesus is and what he's done in your life and ultimately what he's done to call all people to himself regardless of their sin that they commit. I mean, just in the very next chapter, in 1 Corinthians 6, as Paul is writing to the Corinthians, he says, don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God, and such were some of you. Paul said to the Corinthians, you used to be this way.

You used to be identified by these things, but not anymore. Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. Melissa, Jesus loves you, and he loves your friend, and he calls all of us to faith and repentance. He may very well use you to be a light, to be an example, to be one who shares the gospel with your friend.

I would say continue to have that relationship. The gospel is for everyone. It's for homosexuals. It's for the sexually immoral.

It's for the greedy, and we're all called to repentance. I would say based on the fact that she doesn't necessarily have a strong faith, doesn't go to church, isn't professing to be a Christian, be the Christian influence in her life and love her. As you do that, hold fast to what the Word of God teaches on these things.

You don't need to compromise what you believe. You can hold fast to what you believe, what Jesus teaches, and draw near to him even as you seek to love her and to maintain that friendship. God bless you, and may the Lord give you wisdom, and may the Lord just open the heart of your friend to hear from the Lord through Scripture. So thank you for giving us a call. Melissa, thanks so much for listening to Core Christianity. We appreciate having you as one of our regular listeners. Just a reminder that we are going to continue taking calls if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, about theology or doctrine, or maybe how your Christian walk intersects with what's going on in our culture. We'd love to hear from you.

We'll be taking calls for the next 30 minutes or so, and here's the phone number to call, 833-843-2673. And Adriel, just want to remind our listeners about the great offer that we have, the free offer of five reasons why Christmas isn't a pagan holiday. Yeah, get a hold of that resource if you haven't yet over at corechristianity.com, and once again, thank you so much for listening to the broadcast. May the Lord bless your day. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833, the Core. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.