When A
Church Starts to Get Things Right
It is really impossible for the people
of any local church to understand the spiritual consequences of worldliness and
carnality upon the operations of God.
God cannot bless where He wants to bless! God’s work is hindered and stifled through
carnality and worldliness in the lives of church members. In Paul’s second epistle to the members of
the church at Corinth, he commends them for taking care of the matters he
addressed in his first epistle. Although
the Corinthian believers had accepted Christ as their Savior at the writing of
Paul’s first epistle to them, they were living in carnality. They were integrating various aspects of
their previous pagan worship into the worship practices of their local church. Paul reminds the Corinthians believers of these
issues in II Corinthians 7:1 and addresses once again the solution to these
problems.
“1 Having
therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
2 Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have
defrauded no man. 3 I speak not this to condemn you:
for I have said before, that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you.
4 Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my
glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our
tribulation. 5 For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had
no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings,
within were fears. 6 Nevertheless God, that comforteth those
that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus; 7 And not
by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you,
when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward
me; so that I rejoiced the more. 8 For though I made you sorry with
a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same
epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. 9
Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance:
for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us
in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not
to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. 11 For
behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what
carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what
indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what
zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves
to be clear in this matter. 12 Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I
did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that
suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear
unto you” (II
Corinthians 7:1-12).
The
Holy Spirit of God is constantly working to bring about revival in every local
church. He does so by convicting of sin,
righteousness, and judgment. However, He
does not override the free will of mankind.
The work of the Holy Spirit seeks to bring people to see their failures,
repent of those failures, and yield their lives to His use. Humanity has two basic responses to the
convicting work of the Holy Spirit.
1. Repentance with yieldedness
2. Hardening with resistance
Real repentance and yieldedness will be
accompanied with real effort at real change. Hardening to the Holy Spirit’s work can come
in many forms of resistance. People
commonly refuse to recognize that the Holy Spirit is using a truth to speak to
an area of their lives. Others recognize
the truth that He is convicting of, but their pride keeps them from owning it
and their carnality keeps them from change.
Modern
Christianity has cultured two attitudes which keep revival from taking place. If a Christian possesses either of these two
attitudes, revival will not happen in his life.
1. We want divine action without human
participation.
2. We want to win spiritual battles
without experiencing spiritual conflict.
This results in an attitude of trying to avoid conflict at any costs.
We
cannot fight a spiritual war without participating in that war or without some conflict
with those refusing to do what is right.
Often the battle is with our own carnal natures. To seek revival is to join one’s self in
partnership with the Holy Spirit while declaring war on anything and everything
that is in contradiction to the will of God.
That is the partnership Jesus endorsed.
“He that is not with me
is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth” (Luke 11:23).
According to II
Corinthians 7:5, when believers enter the struggle for revival, resistance will
often be equal to or greater than our efforts.
If a
believer wants to do the Lord’s work in the power of the Holy Spirit, he must
realize he will constantly face conflict and problems to the degree he seeks to
advance the cause of Christ. The person
who adopts the self-protecting attitude of avoiding conflict at any cost will
determine to restrain forward movement that will advance the cause of Christ to
reduce the resistance of the forces of evil.
Why did Paul write the Catalog
of Carnality we call the first epistle to the church at Corinth?
“Wherefore, though I wrote unto
you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his
cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God
might appear unto you” (II Corinthians 7:12).
Paul wrote the first
epistle because he wanted them to know he cared for their spiritual welfare. Would it have been easier for Paul to simply
avoid the conflict? According to II
Corinthians 7:8-10, Paul understood that before a local church could advance
the cause of Christ in their community, it would require that local church to
be unified in PURPOSE, DOCTRINE, and PRACTICE.
We all must understand this truth. This is the definition of a revived local
church. However, that will only happen
when each and every person in that local church is revived of God by active
co-operation with the indwelling Holy Spirit and determined to “do the work of
the ministry” and to do it God’s way.
According to II Corinthians 7:1, if revival is going to take place, personal holiness
must be the believer’s clothing before the message of salvation can be his
banner. Paul saw the ministry
of the pastor/shepherd as twofold.
1. The pastor was to work to keep the
corrupting influence of the world out of the church.
2. The pastor was to preach truth that
the Holy Spirit would use to motivate the local churches to take the message of
salvation to the world.
The great difficulty in
these two things was that each new believer coming into a local church would
re-introduce the things of the world back into the church. The local churches then would tend to become
fortresses against the world rather than evangelism training centers to reach the
world for Christ.
I see six attitudes
of a revived Christian that come through the attitude of genuine repentance (II
Corinthians 7:10-12).
1. “Carefulness” is from the Greek
word spoude (spoo-day')
A. “Carefulness” does not mean
cautiousness.
B. “Carefulness” refers to an
overwhelming desire to accomplish something for Christ.
C. To possess this attitude, one must
constantly be repenting of its opposite - the care less attitude.
2. “Clearing of yourselves” is from
the Greek word apologia (ap-ol-og-ee'-ah), meaning a verbal defense.
A. The idea is an attitude of
doctrinal and emotional preparation to answer any challenge that might arise.
B. “Clearing of yourselves” means to
maintain an attitude of Christian love from which all service flows.
C. “Clearing of yourselves” means to
do all of this regardless of what it costs you to do so.
D. Jude summed this second attitude up
in Jude 1:3.
“Beloved, when I gave
all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me
to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for
the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3).
E. To possess this attitude, one must
determine to change with godly sorrow against the natural tendency to be
neutral and avoid conflict.
3. Indignation” (v. 11) is from the
Greek word aganaktesis (ag-an-ak'-tay-sis), meaning to be bothered or irritated.
A. A person is indignant when he sees
someone treated unfairly, or unjustly, and is so irritated by it he is consumed
with making it right.
B. This person is driven with the
desire for justice in all matters of righteousness.
C. Any injustice, any ingratitude, or
any meanness of spirit must be confronted and dealt with.
D. To possess this attitude one must
determine to change with godly sorrow.
4. “Vehement desire” is from the Greek
word epipothesis (ep-ee-poth'-ay-sis), meaning to long after something
with a passion.
1. This person has fervency about him.
2. When we do not possess a burning
passion for the cause of Christ, it affects the way we see people.
3. The un-revived do not see people
the way God sees people.
4. The un-revived do not see people
with a passion to win them to Christ.
5. The un-revived do not see people
lost and doomed to an eternal Hell.
5. Zeal” is from the Greek word zelos
(dzay'-los), referring to an excitement of the mind, excited with expectation
and purpose.
A. Zeal is contagious. People with
zeal create zeal in the lives of others.
B. Those with cold, stifling deadness
in their souls produce the same in others.
C. Real zeal is when a Christian
becomes a walking burning bush declaring the glory of God.
D. If you do not have that kind of
fervency in your Christianity, you need to determine to work at change in godly
sorrow for not having it.
F. “Revenge” is from the Greek word ekdikesis
(ek-dik'-ay-sis) and refers to vindication or the meeting out of justice.
A. The intent here is in the sense of
vindicating a person who has been wrongly accused of something or has been hurt
by someone’s vicious attack.
B. The person with this attitude must
seek to right wrongs.
These
are the attitudes of a revived heart. These
attitudes reveal someone on fire for the Lord.
Revival does not come to most churches because they are unwilling to
repent of the attitudes that keep revival from happening. God always wants to see revival and is
working to that end. Do you suppose the
Spirit of God possesses all of these attitudes?
If we expect divine action without human
participation, revival will not come. If
we try to avoid conflict at any cost, revival cannot come. Every Christian must honestly examine his own
life before God. He must allow the Holy
Spirit full access and complete control.
Only then will the “godly sorrow” that brings about real change
happen. Revival is your decision!
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Numerous studies and series are available free of charge for local churches at:
http://www.disciplemakerministries.org/
Dr. Lance Ketchum serves the Lord as a Church Planter, Evangelist/Revivalist.
He has served the Lord for over 40 years.
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