The other day I received a call from a pastor from whom I had not heard for years. A long time ago the sovereign Lord performed a major operation upon a congregation of which he was pastor and I was the evangelist. Now he is in another state and pastor of another congregation. He said that the people of his congregation needed to be plowed up, busted right down the middle, and brought to an awareness of the gospel of God's glory. He asked that I come to be used, if it should please the Lord, to perform the operation. His call reminded me of a situation that I have to wrestle with each time I go for a "revival meeting. Shall I aim at the condition within the church that prevents it from truly representing Christ or just seek to pull some precious souls from the fire, as if by fire?
Increasingly it is (at least in my limited experience) becoming harder each day to do the latter. Evangelism which seeks to reach men for Christ, who are outside our churches, is essential, but I am persuaded that what is more crucial in our time is evangelism inside the membership of our churches. This seems to be the imperative for our time. Nearly everyone is a member of somebody's church. I am far from being a loner in this regard. There are two questions that are pressing for answer now and pressing more people than at any time in memory. They are, first, are we the church of Jesus Christ that we claim to be? Secondly, are we the ministry of Jesus Christ that we claim to be? We need desperately to ask and answer these questions. I believe that self-criticism lies at the very heart of a biblical ministry and church. It is no cause for satisfaction that at present in this country we are still strong on confidence and weak in self-criticism. We ought to face the fact that the very existence of most churches is under serious attack, not simply whether they shall continue but whether they should continue!
The ability to see any line of distinction between the Christian faith that has its origin in the person of Jesus Christ, and the forms of today's respectable religion that stop short of an unconditional relationship with God in Christ and stop short of an unconditional commitment to Christ, has largely been lost. One could almost say that church membership is fast becoming the best place to hide from God.
When we turn from the Gospel to the situation today, we are met by the fact that congregations have made decisions for Christ, they believe the Bible, they meet once a week for a period of "worship", and for the hearing of a sermon. Occasionally they call in a visiting preacher and hold a revival meeting, employing techniques and pressure to manipulate other human beings (for their own good, of course) to "decide for Christ." When one plays with this sort of thing, one should know that he is walking on the edge of the pit of hell.
It is still true that membership in the church is meant to be the outer symbol of inner commitment to Jesus Christ. But churches today are loaded with nominal (unreal) members, at peace with the status quo. (That's Latin for the mess we are in). They are nice, quiet, friendly folks who are totally ignorant of the word of God but quite devoted to the traditions of their fathers. They yearn for institutional security, rather than adventures of Christian freedom, come weal or woe. Their preachers have sold their evangelical birthright for a mess of pot-bellied respectability.
Back after all this to my opening remarks. Can we afford to ignore and religiously refuse to open the awful sore of powerless, popular Sunday morning religion? Shall we allow church members to go to hell unwarned or shall we set our faces toward God and cry, "Revive thy work in the midst of the years."
We won't make much headway in finding a solution if we do not understand the problem. A cure is not likely to be found if we have no knowledge of the disease. In the matter of salvation the problem is man's sin; the solution is God's grace. The disease is moral depravity and spiritual inability; the remedy is God's mercy in Christ.If a man is near-sighted, he only needs corrective glasses but if he is blind, he needs the miracle of sight! If a man is sick, he only needs medical aid, but if he is dead, he needs the miracle of life! If man has only strayed from the way, he needs directions, but if he is completely lost, he needs to be found!
Here is the question to be settled by preachers and people "What happened in the garden?! When one feels obliged to come to some conclusions on the subjects of election, irresistible grace and particular redemption, it would be wise for him to first determine the condition of the sinner who is to be saved. If man was only wounded by the fall he needs assistance; if he is dead in sins, he needs to be resurrected and that by the purpose and power of the God of life. If fallen man still has his moral ability and power of choice, then let us wait for him to choose and seek God, but if he loves darkness and will not come to Christ then Christ must love and come to him.
Psalm 85:6: "Wilt Thou not revive us again: that Thy people may rejoice in Thee."
Habakkuk 3:2: "O Lord, I have heard Thy speech, and was afraid, O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy."
Luke 19:10: "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."
Isaiah 57:15: "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, Whose Name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."