Our churches, are we producing consumers or disciples? To be with you. And so don't forget, shout out to Nathan, the bus driver that I met in Kentucky, regular listener to the line of fire. Here's the number to call. You can join in discussing the broadcast we did yesterday, explaining why I don't get into mudslinging battles with destructive critics.
We can talk about today's subject, consumers versus disciples, the state of the American church. There might be something else you'd like to talk to me about, a question you want to raise. Here's the number to call. 866-348-7884.
As always I invite those who differ with me on certain subjects to call. 866-3487. What is the number?
Do we even remember the number? 866-3434. Just making sure you are locked in with us. So give us a call. We'll interact on a wide range of subjects. Tomorrow I want to get into some of the political situation as there's a new pro-life platform because of the Trump committee and where they're going with the Republican Party.
I want to talk to you about some of those issues. Thursday I want to get into some messianic prophecy. Friday, as always, open the phone lines to you.
So we're going to have a rich week together. 866-3434. If you have a question of any kind you'd like to interact with me about. It is our goal friends, to infuse you with faith and truth, encourage and help you stand strong in the Lord. Just discussing with my team the contents of the Frontline newsletter for the month of July. Can't wait to get that up to you with a Reformation update.
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I was speaking with a gentleman in Kentucky yesterday. He worked in a number of mega churches over the years with some over 20,000 in members. None of them were Pentecostal or Charismatic. So this was more in Baptist or seeker sensitive settings and things like that.
But some very, very large churches. And he told me that when he experienced time after time was there was a defective gospel message. There was a message that told people about God's love and concern and care, but didn't confront them with sin and didn't preach repentance. He said the missing word was always repentance. So while you would get the crowds in, you weren't really producing disciples. People were not getting grounded in the word and in right relationship with God. And of course, I've seen much of that in the Charismatic Pentecostal circles in which I travel. I mentioned this other brother to say it's a wider issue.
It's a wider issue of the Church of America. I remember Leonard Ravenhill saying to me once somewhere between 89 and 94, as we're very close to the last five years of his life. I remember him saying to me, Mike, you know, they say that the Church of America is 3,000 miles wide and one foot deep. He goes, I don't believe that. I said, oh, he goes, it's not that deep. I was not expecting him to say that.
But that was his response. I want to share something with you that I wrote in 1990. Just, you know, this is not something I'm just picking up now or talking about now and how we produce consumers more than disciples. This is from my book, How Saved Are We, which came out in 1990. The American church at the end of the 20th century is experiencing a crisis. For years we've preached the cheap gospel and peddled the soft Savior. We've taught salvation without self-denial and the crown without the cross. We've catered to the unsaved and compromised with the world. Now we are paying the price. Our, quote, instant salvation message has dishonored God and deluded men. Our faulty seeds have produced a flaky harvest. What a pitiful crop we are reaping. As American believers, we spend hours watching television but minutes watching in prayer.
Are hungry for the sports page but have little taste for the word. Spend more money on pet food than on foreign missions. Love to feast but hate to fast. Welcome God's blessings but are wary of his burdens. Is this what Jesus died for? Is this our new life in him?
And they go on from there. It's time for some serious soul searching. What kind of, quote, born again experience have we had if it calls for almost no personal sacrifices, produces virtually no separation from the world and breeds practically no hatred of sin? How can we claim to be born from above?
Where is the evidence of our new nature? So I dig in more deeply into how saved are we and to some of the defects, the problems in the message, but it's also a larger problem of the mindset. Look, if your goal was to get the maximum number of people signing up for memberships in your gym, you would have one approach. If your goal was for the people in your gym to be the fittest people in your community, you would approach it differently. You would say we want to get the people in but not at the expense of a good program. If our goal is that the people in our gym are the fittest people in our community, then that goal could be realized by having all 20 members of your gym be incredibly fit and in great shape and totally transformed by the program of your gym.
If your goal was to get the maximum number of people signing up to be members of your gym, then you might end up with 5,000 members and maybe 100 of them have gotten really fit and others various degrees of fitness, but nobody would be as fit as those 20 if your goal was just to get the fittest people. What's the goal? Is your goal to coach the most successful football team to gather, bring together, coach, train, equip the most successful football team so your team can win the Super Bowl or is your goal to get the maximum number of people in the stands? Obviously, if your team does well, you'll get the maximum number of people in the stands, but the appeal for a player is different than the appeal for the fan. In other words, you can reduce ticket prices. You can have all these other kinds of benefits.
You can expand parking. You can pick people up at their homes and bring them to the game. You can do all kinds of things to bring fans in, but it's totally different than the level of preparation for a player. One person shows up having trained the entire week, putting their body on the line, having spent years of their lives fine-tuning their craft to be the best athlete they can be, and the other person shows up to have popcorn and a beer and yell and scream.
Two completely different mentalities. Are we in our churches having the goal, having the focus, having the intent, having the purpose? We're going to raise up disciples. We're going to raise up people willing to live and die for Jesus. We're going to be raising up people who are not ashamed of the Gospel, who are not ashamed to take stands, who are people of prayer, who are people of the Word, people living godly lives, people who want to share their faith, people who will stand tall in the midst of opposition. Is that our goal, or is our goal to fill the building with people? And so much of what we do has the goal of filling the building, especially in some of our larger churches with more resources. So maybe the appeal is the coffee shop in the foyer where you come in, in the greeting area, and it's amazingly good coffee at a low price. And that's a good draw. Or the kids are incredibly entertained. They love going to children's church or the nursery because they are super well entertained. And that's why people are coming.
And the thing is packaged in such a way you can get in and out. And the pastor is so, he's funny, he's inspirational. You walk out feeling better. But are you walking out closer to Jesus? Are you walking out with a greater love for God and greater hatred for sin? Are you walking out with a deeper determination to be a godly husband or godly wife or godly single person, or to shine the light in your job or make a difference in your school?
What are we producing? Now, if people are meeting with God in the worship, and if, whether it's long or short, but they're really encountering God, and they're hearing a message that's a life changing message, and over a period of time being confronted with challenging biblical realities, and you have a coffee shop with great coffee, great. If the kids are learning about God, and while they're there, being entertained, having fun with creative ways and with gifted youth leaders and children's leaders and all that, they're having fun and it's a nice environment. And on top of that, they're really learning about God and they want to learn the Bible more.
Mommy and Daddy, can you teach me the Bible? Then great! Have the fun entertaining programs. Look, I would rather preach in a church where the sound system was working rather than as I'm speaking, all you hear is feedback or is static and whatever. I would rather, if I had little kids, bring them to a nursery where there are not bugs running around on the floor and roaches climbing down the walls and pipes bursting. I would rather bring them to a place where things are operating smoothly. I would rather, if I had the choice, not have to park a mile from the church because there's no parking. I'd rather have parking so I can get in and out easily.
I'd rather have all those things. So, if you can do both, if you can preach the true Gospel, if you can bring people into encounter with God, if you can train children on the way they should go and do it in a way that is a beautiful building and the finest facilities and the best of everything, great! If it doesn't take away, if it enhances, great! But so much of what we do, friends, does not have the goal of producing a disciple. At the end of the day, if people will go through X, Y, Z programs, they will not be discipled, then what's the use of it?
When everything is tested, when the fire refines everything, what's the use of it if it hasn't produced lasting quality change in people's lives to make them more like Jesus? What's the use of all the crowds? What's the use of all the numbers? What's the use of all the budget?
What's the use of the great bill? What's the use of any of it if it's not producing disciples? Because the Great Commission is all about disciples making disciples.
I mean people who have truly committed their lives to Jesus as Lord and want to follow Him by life or by death, a biblical New Testament disciple. If we're not producing that in the end, what's the use of it? 866-348-7884 is the number to call to engage the conversation. When we come back I want to share with you a quote from A.W. Tozer as well as a clip from Richard Owen Roberts taking you to an article I wrote about God's concern with His glory, not ours. We'll be right back.
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Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks for joining us on the line of fire. I'm sitting here grinning because I just heard my own ad for TriVita that I had recorded and right before radio today, I took my daily bottle of water with mild health and nitric oxide, part of my daily routine and then no play earlier today. I just did that moments ago. Hey, remember when you place your first order, 100% of it is donated to the line of fire, so go for it on your first order and then if you really don't find the products beneficial, there's a money back guarantee so you're safe. It's a great way to get some great supplements using the code BROWN25 and then to bless the line of fire as well.
866-348-7884. We'll go to the phones shortly. Let me read to you a quote from A. W. Tozer. He said this, the trouble is the whole accept Christ mentality is likely to be wrong. It shows Christ applying to us rather than us to him. It makes him stand hat in hand awaiting our verdict on him instead of our kneeling with troubled hearts awaiting his verdict on us.
It may even permit us to accept Christ by an impulse of mind or emotions painlessly at no loss to our ego and no inconvenience to our usual way of life. I've often quoted Tozer from the old cross and the new where the old cross kills the sinner. The new cross redirects the sinner.
A few years ago I was thinking about that. Let's modify that once more. The contemporary cross doesn't kill the sinner or even redirect the sinner. The contemporary cross, the way we preach it in America, empowers the sinner. This is how Jesus can make you into a bigger and better version of you because it's all about you and God cares so much about you and your destiny and your goals and your dreams because ultimately what he does is for his glory. It is out of love for us but ultimately every knee will bow, every tongue will confess Jesus the Messiah's glory to the glory of God the Father.
And often he worked in Israel's history not because of Israel's faithfulness. He said you've sinned. I'm doing this for my own reputation sake. So friends we've got to turn things right side up.
They are so upside down. It's no wonder that the Church of America is in so many ways so anemic and so compromised in so many ways. Richard Owen Roberts, born in 1931, revival scholar. Decades ago as I was immersing myself reading revival day and night I got a lot of his materials. I spoke at a conference with him decades ago. I remember him reading from scripture and him commenting that his scripture reading was longer than some sermons because he was just going to this important passage read it through.
He taught a lot about solemn assemblies. So Nancy sent me a link that tied in exactly with an article. It's the exact same theme as an article that I just published. If you missed it go to thelineoffire.org and click read. Thelineoffire.org click read and it says God loves us but he's concerned with his glory not ours.
And she read my article and just happened to see this video. It's about 27 minutes long but I'm going to play maybe a minute and a half excerpt for you with Richard Owen Roberts talking about how we've got things completely upside down in terms of who God is, who man is, what sin is and therefore we have salvation upside down. Let's listen. It would be hard to dispute the fact that there is a relationship that is very vital between what I think of God, what I think of myself, what I think of sin and what I think of salvation. And we live at a time when the doctrine of salvation in the American church is close to rubbish. I've had the privilege of gathering an incredible library.
I have thousands and thousands of things published in early America. And you read sermons preached in the 1700s. And what they present as gospel is not the sort of trivia that is presented as gospel in the bulk of churches today. So I'm simply saying there's this linkage, my view of God, my view of self, my view of sin, my view of salvation. We need desperately to correct the view of salvation but we can't at that level because it's linked with what we think of sin.
It's so fundamentally right. If we don't have a right view of God, we don't have a right view of ourselves. We don't have a right view of sin.
How can we have a right view of salvation? Again, the way we preach it in America, it starts with me and all about me and this is who I am. This is how I feel and God is here to please me.
It's the biblical gospel. This is who he is. This is how he feels. We're here to please him. And we deserve judgment but he sent his son to die for us that if we'll cry out for mercy and grace could we because he deserved judgment, he'll give us a brand new life. We now live the rest of our lives for him. Not for us but for him. He doesn't save us so we can keep living for self.
He saves us so we can die to self and live for him. Let us go over to North Carolina. Scott, welcome to the line of fire. Hello, Dr. Brown. It's really a pleasure and a pleasure to be here.
It's really wonderful to hear you talk about this. This is something that I'm writing my thesis on. And I think that one of the main things, there's so many parts to this. The short answer to what you asked is, yes, we're making consumers now rather than disciples.
And there are several reasons for that. For one, the church has lost all understanding of what a disciple actually is. We have took on the mentality of reinterpreting Matthew 28 to say go and make converts rather than make disciples. And I remember this came to a head for me whenever, before I started writing my thesis, a gentleman asked a question that I believe that every Christian actually has in their mind, true Jesus loving Christians, but never asked this question. We had watched or had a Wednesday night service and it was an absolutely wonderful teaching. And at the end of it, the associate pastor asked, he said, does anybody have any questions? And this elderly gentleman stood up and he said, I believe everything that you said, I agree with everything you said, we could see it in the scriptures, I believe it.
How do you do it? And I think that that is the question that never gets answered anymore. And because it's not being answered anymore, we have the only answer that you can come up with now is try harder if you don't understand what true discipleship is, which produces transformation. And what we're doing right now is that in man's wisdom, which always leads to death, we think that we're smarter than God in modern times. So rather than reorient the ship and start coming back to what is biblical discipleship and centering on transformation, what we've done instead is that we found new methods and ways of trying to do church rather than be her. And I think that this discussion right here is like core to the church. I am so happy. Sometimes I felt in preaching, I felt like I was a long ranger in talking about this.
I am so happy hearing you talk about this. Well, Scott, I appreciate it. And thankfully there are churches, communities that seem to have a better grasp of this and that are living this out.
But for the most part, yeah, it is like an epidemic in our churches. And I pray as you write, Scott, that God will give you wisdom so that your thesis not only analyzes the problem but presents practical solutions for the body so we can live this out together. Hey, thank you for the call. Be encouraged, my brother.
We'll be right back on the other side of the break. Hey, friends, Michael Brown here. My delight to serve as your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. We are living in such urgent times today, friends, that all of us are in the line of fire. There's a target on your back.
There's a target on my back. If you simply seek to live by biblical values or just conservative moral values, you could be canceled. You could be cast out.
You could be put down. You could be silenced. I'm here to say, friends, that I am not about to be silenced, and I don't believe you are either. It is time for us to stand up. It is time for us to say enough is enough. It is time for us to push back in Jesus' name. Not fighting the way the world fights.
No. Overcoming evil with good. Overcoming hatred with love. Overcoming the flesh with the power of the Spirit. Overcoming lies with truth. And that's what we're here to do on the Line of Fire broadcast.
And friends, it's not just a broadcast. It is a movement of people around the world. God's people standing up saying enough is enough and saying, Lord, here we are. Send us. Use us. I want to urge you today to join our support team because we are on the front lines together and we are literally touching people around the world in America, in the nations, in Israel. And together with your help, we're going to amplify this voice and spread this movement around the globe. So I encourage you, go right now to thelineoffire.org. Thelineoffire.org. Click donate monthly support.
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Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. That's a great question that older brother asks. How do we do it? How do we do it? And that's where living in community, that's where working things out as a church, that's where being part of a fellowship, say, let's go do this together.
Let's live this out together. That's how things get done ultimately. 866-34-8784 to join in with this discussion, call with regard to yesterday's broadcast as to why I don't get engaged in mud-slinging debates with destructive critics, although I do my best to receive input from anyone. You know what I'm saying? It could be someone very hostile to our ministry, but if they have something truthful to say, I want to receive it from anyone. But I'm not going to get into mud-slinging battles with destructive critics. I'm not going to get into mud-slinging battles with anybody, period. What's the use of it?
Everybody gets dirty. You may get a lot of eyes, you may get more YouTube subscriptions or more clicks on your articles or more likes, but that's the same thing. Is the goal getting popular or is the goal making a difference? The goal is to make a difference. I wrote an article sometime back, we are called to be disciples, not consumers, learning a lesson from the persecuted church.
Can I share that with you? So Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, Jewish Christians from Romania, they were in prison, mistreated, especially Richard brutally tortured for their unwavering faith, but they wouldn't bow their knee to the spirit of the age. They wouldn't submit to the godless communist agenda that had come through Romania or any other godless agenda. They were only going to bow their knee to Jesus. So they didn't suffer hardship and imprisonment because of a one-time cavalier act. They didn't just wake up one day and say, let's do something radical for Jesus. No, instead, year after year, they were determined to obey the Lord regardless of cost or consequence. And that's when the great crisis came, that's why they were ready to obey once again. So the Nazis occupied Romania and Richard Wurmbrand risked his life preaching the gospel, being arrested and beaten for his faith. Then in 1944, the Nazis were displaced by the Russians who began to establish their communist regime in Romania with 1 million soldiers occupying the country.
Then great tests came. Richard and Sabina were attending the government-sponsored Congress of Cults along with other national religious leaders, and the event was being broadcast on live national radio. As one religious leader after another publicly praised communism, I'm talking about Christian leaders praising an atheist regime in the name of Christianity, the Wurmbrands became second in their spirits. Sabina said to her husband, who by then was well known in Romania, Richard, stand up and watch away the shame from the face of Christ. They are spitting in his face. He replied, if I do so, you lose your husband.
She answered, I don't wish to have a coward as a husband. Oh yeah, this really happened friends. This is real life.
One of the great honors of my life was to get to spend some hours with Richard and Sabina back in the 90s. So he made his way forward to the podium and he prepared to deliver his remarks. So this is going to be going out on live national radio. People's ears are glued to what's happening and Wurmbrand was highly respected. So the communist leaders thought, hey, let him speak. He's obviously going to get up and praise communism as well.
So Christian History Institute reports this. When Wurmbrand stepped forward to speak at the Congress, there was a hush as everyone anticipated his endorsement of the new government. Into the electrifying silence fell Wurmbrand's proclamation to 4,000 delegates that their duty as Christians was to glorify God and Christ alone. He was hustled from the podium and from that moment became a marked man. As he continued his ministry, the government watched him. Three years later, on the morning of February 29th, 1948, as Wurmbrand walked to church to prepare for the morning service, a secret police van pulled up beside him.
Two men pushed him into the van, which quickly drove away. Thrown into prison, Wurmbrand ceased to exist as though he had disappeared from the face of the earth. His name was registered as Vasily Drogescu and he was forbidden to pronounce his real name even when speaking to the guards. When foreign ambassadors or family members inquired about him, about Wurmbrand, he didn't appear anywhere on the list.
But that's not the end of the story. Christian History Institute continues, Richard Wurmbrand endured two terms of prison, totaling 14 years. Sabina continued their underground church work but was also incarcerated for three years in Romania's terrible labor camps. Wurmbrand became so ill, Richard, in prison that he was put into what was called the dying room where guards sent prisoners who were expected to live no longer than a few days. Wurmbrand survived for more than two years before being released from the dying room. During that time he ministered to many people before their deaths.
Finally, in 1965, friends ransomed the now freed Wurmbrand family from Romania. So his most famous book, Torture for Christ, has been translated into scores of different languages, multiplied millions distributed. I asked him in 1993 if his book was the most translated book of the 20th century because that's what I heard.
He smiled and said, no, Agatha Christie novels, the books of Agatha Christie, they've been translated more. But his was the most translated religious book of the century. So think, he's in a prison cell, he's tortured, three years of solitary confinement put in the cell for people dying. Two years languishing there somehow survives. And nobody knows his name. He's been blotted out for his existence, blotted out. And then his message gets out around the world, becomes the most well-known, tortured, persecuted Christian in the 20th century. His book, the most translated book, religious book written in the 20th century. God has his ways of getting a message out. So he found it, Voice of the Martyrs, a ministry that for decades has brought awareness of the suffering church to believers across the globe.
And so it was meant to destroy the church, only made it stronger. As Wurmbrand said in Torture for Christ, persecution has always produced a better Christian, a witnessing Christian, a soul-witten Christian. Communist persecution has backfired and produced serious dedicated Christians such as rarely seen in free lands.
These people cannot understand how anyone can be a Christian and not want to win every soul they meet. These persecuted believers following Jesus was not a matter of convenience or comfort. By the way, this is excerpted from my book, The Silencing of the Lambs.
If you want much more along these lines, The Silencing of the Lambs, the ominous rise of cancel culture and how we can overcome it, this article was excerpted from that chapter. So Wurmbrand said this in his book, In God's Underground, a man who visits a barber to be shaved, who orders a suit from a tailor is not a disciple. So he wanted to emphasize that following Jesus, especially in persecuted countries, was not a matter of convenience or comfort.
It was simply the choosing of a better, more prosperous life. So he said, so it was not simply the choosing of a better, more prosperous life. So he said, a man who visits a barber to be shaved, who orders a suit from a tailor is not a disciple, but a customer. So when it comes to the Savior, only to be saved is the Savior's customer, not his disciple. A disciple is one who says to Christ, how I long to do work like yours, to go from place to place, taking away fear, bringing instead joy, truth, comfort and life eternal. So we are called to be disciples, not customers, not consumers, not casual seekers of carnal convenience. Instead with joy, we deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, Luke 9 23, and by God's grace, we walk worthy of our Lord. That means that we love Him more than father or mother, more than son or daughter, even more than our own lives.
Why? That's what disciples do. Further references for that Matthew 10 37 to 39, Luke 14 25 to 33. So ask yourself in your own life, your relationship with God.
Do you have the mentality of a consumer or a disciple? Have you heard a gospel where basically the Bible is a great menu and you just click on things just kind of like, wow, a smorgasbord of amazing this and this and this and just whatever you need is there. But there's no thought of Lord, what can I do to please you today? What can I do to bring you joy? It's a matter of God, what can you do for me today? Now, the amazing thing is God's incredibly good, kind, loving, merciful, and He does good things for us all the time. Psalm 84, no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly before Him. So He loves to bless, He loves to do good, but He is not, as many have said, an eternal blessing machine or some heavenly slot machine where you just, you put in your money and you get this amazing return.
Wow. Our purpose here is to glorify Him. Our purpose here is to serve Him. Our purpose here is to bear fruit. Our purpose is to be disciples and make disciples. Our purpose is to know Him and make Him known. That's why we are here. And that's why He saved us. As Oswald Chambers said, it wasn't just out of pity, but it was to have holy vessels who would now live for Him and honor Him and glorify Him.
So, ask yourself, do you have the mentality of a consumer or a disciple? Are you thinking daily, what can I do to glorify Jesus? What can I do to bring people to Him? What can I do that will honor Him and please Him? What can I do that will push back against the kingdom of darkness and advance the kingdom of life?
How can I shine? How can I be a better witness, a better example? How can I draw closer to the Lord? How can I pray more effectively?
How can I be used more fully? These are just normal thoughts for a disciple. It's just part of breathing.
It's just, of course, this is what you're thinking about. Or do you have the mentality of a consumer? Go to church to get something good out of it so I can be happier. I read the Bible so I can find out about the latest promises so I can ask God for more. Without the thought of, Lord, whatever you blessed me with, how can I honor you with it? Whatever you blessed me with, how can I be a blessing to others? Whatever I do get from church, how can I share that with others? Are you a consumer or a disciple? Pastors, leaders, what's your goal?
Filling the building with people or producing disciples who will bear fruit that will last? It will affect our whole approach, our whole mentality, our whole message. We'll be right back. Hey friends, many of you know about the radical lifestyle change in my own life when I went from 275 to 180 pounds in less than 8 months.
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You can also go to TriVita.com and use the code BROWN25. Let's get you healthy and strong. It's the line of fire with your host Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.
Welcome back to the line of fire. We'll go to the phones shortly 866-34-87884. First an important announcement. If you're listening live then you're listening Tuesday July 9th, right? July 9th. I do lose track of days.
Days of the week, no, but dates, yes. So if you're listening live tomorrow night, so Wednesday July 10th, so if you're listening on podcasts before then Wednesday July 10th, 8 p.m. Eastern Time. Wednesday July 10th, 8 p.m. Eastern Time on the Bless God Studios YouTube channel.
Bless God Studios hosted by Ruslan. There will be a debate. I have been challenged by Gabriel Finocchio of Theos Seminary, Theos University, these online schools. I've been challenged to debate him as to whether the Jewish people are still chosen, whether Israel is still elect. Yes, he actually challenged me to debate me on that.
We had some good talk off by phone having some fun with one of those. So he's coming in feisty, guns ablaze, but he's not fighting me. He's fighting the Bible on this one. So join us. Join us. Wednesday night July 10th.
Bless God Studios YouTube channel. It'll of course be archived after that, but this way you can watch the debate live. Alright?
Got that? And we'll send out a note or send out links to folks either right before or right after the debate. Before I go to the phones, my article I referenced earlier, God Loves Us But He Is Jealous For His Glory, Not Ours.
And I said in this article, again if you missed it, go to thelonoffire.org, click read. In the American church today we hear so much about God's love for us that we sometimes think that the Gospel centers on me, my needs, my goals, my dreams, my destiny. Instead the Gospel centers on the Lord, His desires and goals and plans. And while He cares deeply for us, sending His Son to die for our sins, He's working to see His name glorified, not ours. Put another way, it's not about us, it's about Him.
We are replaceable, He is not. And what matters most is not our reputation but His. And that's why the first words of the Lord's Prayer are, our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name. So may Your name be revered as holy by the people of the world.
That is the goal. And as His name is revered, it is better for everyone involved. When Israel was in exile, He acted on Israel's behalf. The Jewish people scattered around the world in the 20th century. He acted on our behalf.
But notice what He said. He said, I had concern for My holy name, which the people of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone. Therefore say to the Israelites, Ezekiel 36, I'm reading from, this is what the sovereign Lord said, it is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I'm going to do these things, but for the sake of My holy name, which you profaned among the nations where you've gone. I will show the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them, then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes. Look at some of these verses in the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 48 verses 9 and 11. For My own name's sake, I delay My wrath. For the sake of My praise, I hold it back from you.
So as not to destroy you completely. For My own sake, for My own sake, I do this. How can I let Myself be defamed?
I will not yield My glory to another. So God does things that may shake us, that may cause upheaval, but it's because His name is being misrepresented. His name is being blasphemed. Even in the shaking that's happening in the church and the purging, so much grief and so much pain and so much disorientation for so many.
Think of it for a moment. Short term, it makes the Lord look bad. It brings reproach to His name because His servants have failed or been exposed for sin. And it makes the church look bad.
It makes Jesus look bad. It hurts people. Many lose their faith. Many become disoriented.
Who can I trust? At the same time, we have to realize God is acting to purify. God is acting to cleanse. God is acting so His name will not be blasphemed long term.
Will not be defamed long term. After Nadav and Avihu, Aaron's two eldest sons offer up unauthorized fire to God. Unauthorized incense. This is right after, right after Aaron has offered up sacrifices in obedience. And the fire comes from the presence of the Lord and consumes the sacrifices.
And the next things that happen, Nadav and Avihu may be drunk, there's a possible implication from some other texts, but certainly caught up in the euphoria of the moment, the fire comes out, consumes the sacrifices, they now go do something contrary to the Lord's commands. This is not the day at the dedication of when you are now being set apart as priests to the one God of the universe. You men have the role of priests. Aaron the father, the high priest, and the four sons as priests. Nobody else on the planet has this right. Don't do this, don't do this, lest you die.
Do this, do this, do this, yes, yes, yes. Fire comes out, consumes Aaron's sacrifices offered in obedience. People fall down on their face and shout. Nadav and Avihu now rush forward and offer up fire incense, unauthorized by the Lord, contrary to His command. And that same fire comes out from that same divine presence and consumes them.
Whoa. And what does Moses say? Look at this. This is what Moses says to Aaron. This is what the Lord spoke of when He said, among those who approach me I will be proved holy. In the sight of all the people I will be honored. Leviticus 10 three.
Here's what I wrote in whatever happened to the power of God in 1991. Either by sanctioning our specific obedience or by condemning our presumptuous disobedience God will show Himself holy before the world. He will, He shall, He must. What an awesome responsibility it is to be in the service of the Lord.
He will get Himself honor through us. So when Aaron and his sons obeyed the Lord's commands down to the minute details and ordinances, His glory appeared among them. All Israel knew that He was holy, that He would back up His word. When Nadav and Avihu disobeyed Him in a seemingly minor infraction, His glory appeared again. Once more, all Israel knew that He was holy, that He would back up His word.
How much better it is for us when God shows Himself holy by what He does through us instead of by what He does to us. High voltage wires can electrify or electrocute. It all depends on how they're handled. You can't play games with 10,000 volts. You can't play games with the power of God. Serving Him is serious business. Our carefree attitudes must go. We must carry out His work in His way or His fire will consume us instead of our offerings. Sobering days in which we live. Days that should get all of us on our faces. Days which should get all of us asking God to reveal anything unclean in us. Days which should get all of us walking with a limp rather than a strut.
Days which should get all of us fixing anything in the past that must be fixed so that God may be glorified by what He does through us rather than what He does to us. May the Lord give us ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. May we respond as disciples and not consumers. All right, I do have time for one more call.
So let us go also in North Carolina to Jim in Raleigh. You are on the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown, I appreciate you taking my call. I really appreciate you and men like you who are out trying to win souls for Christ. And if I disagree or we disagree on anything, I respectfully apologize.
I'm a little worried. Yes, brothers, that's just fine. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, go ahead.
Okay. There's two verses in the Bible that's been worrying me. I've been focused on lately. One of them is Mark 3.24 and Matthew 12.25, which Mark 3.24, the kingdom is divided against itself. That kingdom cannot stand.
In Matthew 12.25, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to destination. I'm 85 years old and I have gone, I've seen a lot of different things politically and every other thing. I'm just, it's getting to the point, if I want to speak to somebody and if I bring you up religion, you know, and they, actually I'm an independent, but it just seems that how do you get around this thing by, I think if you're talking politics and you're going to lose half your audience, you know, every time. I was trying to get how you felt about that and are you as poor as I am about this country. It's never been so divided. Let me just jump in only because I have like a minute and change and I want to honor your question and your call.
Bless you, 85 years old, going strong. This should gravely concern us. These verses should because America is more and more deeply divided. The kingdom of God itself is never divided.
The kingdom of God is unified, but God's people can be divided. And America is suffering deep, deep divisions. And as much as we don't want to compromise an ethic or a value, we need political leaders whose whole goal and demeanor is not divisive and can somehow say, can we rally around common causes or can we move forward without destroying each other in the process?
Here are strong convictions we have. What we have to do as believers, sir, is we have to determine that we in front of the world will be louder and stronger about our devotion to Jesus than our voting for a candidate. And that the world should see that we are more united around Jesus than we are divided around a candidate. We know that Jesus said his coming into the world would bring a sort of division between families and individuals because one would follow him and one would not. But as the children of God, let us again make our devotion to Jesus louder and more prominent than who we vote for. And may the world see that in the midst of our differences, political, theological, we love one another. That unity must start with us. America will never have it without us.
