The Church and Social Responsibility

Transcript

GRM 942
9/11/2005
The Church and Social Responsibility
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh


In our regular study on Sunday mornings we’re in the book of I Corinthians, and last week we took a break to talk about God’s role in natural disasters. I want to continue talking about a related theme, which is really tied to our study in I Corinthians 2. The material that I was wondering how to work into I Corinthians 2, and I thought we would just do a separate study and it ties to some issues before us.

I want to talk about the issue of the church and social responsibility. We’ve had a great natural disaster in our country and this has drawn many people to involvement in one way or another. And this naturally raises the question that is always around, what is the church’s role in social action? What social responsibility does the church have? There is quite a bit of discussion going on in the evangelical world …….evangelical, I’m just using that term because I have to use some term. A term to refer to those who believe the Bible is the Word of God, believe that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ. That’s my definition. In the evangelical world there is much discussion going on, what role ought the church to be playing in social matters. And a disaster like the hurricane on the Gulf Coast naturally brings this more to the fore.

I want to say a couple of things as introduction. The Bible is clear that we as Christians must manifest God’s character, we are to be characterized by love and compassion and kindness, generosity and so on. So that is to characterize us as God’s people, that’s to be true of us as the church. Also want you to understand, we’ll be talking about this in detail, but I want to say it up front. I’m talking primarily about the church’s role as the church. And as we’ll see as we move further into this, individuals also have responsibilities before God. And they become somewhat subjective to the individual. If the scripture does not clearly indicate a course of action, then there is individual responsibility. So when I talk about the role of the church I’m not saying individuals don’t have freedom to function in certain areas consistent with the Word of God that they feel led of the Lord.

My concern is, if our church doesn’t do certain things it is sometimes viewed as we lack compassion or love, concern for others. Or perhaps we haven’t thought it through or considered carefully enough what our responsibilities are. And so we fail to have the full ministry that God would have us have. The only way we can find out what the church is to be into is to look at the Word of God. I want to look at first what is clearly mandated for the church, and then look at what are the issues in social involvement as it is presented to the church.

We’re going to talk about the responsibility of the church, now here’s where my focus is going to be—the responsibility of the church to the unbelievers and the unbelieving world, the responsibility of the church to the unbelievers and the unbelieving world. There are responsibilities that we as God’s people and as the family of God have for one another. The focus I want you to keep before you as we’re talking about what is the church’s responsibility to the world, the world of the unbeliever, to those who are lost.

We have to start out with the Great Commission, so turn to Matthew 28. We’re not going to do a study of the Great Commission, but I want to read you the Great Commission as it is repeated 5 times in the first 5 books of the New Testament—4 times, once at the end of each gospel, and then once at the beginning of the book of Acts. Matthew 28. This is following Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and He appears to His disciples. And He says to them in verse 18, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. So here is the one who has authority over all things. And according to Ephesians 1 He is the one under whom all things have been placed in subjection, He’s been given the head over all things to the church, which is His body. So the one who has all authority in all things, over all creation, and the one who has all authority over the church in particular, says to His followers, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. We’ve studied the details of the Great Commission at other times and if you want more detail you can get that from the tapes. I just want you to note this command given, that they are to go and make disciples of all the nations. So their responsibility now will go beyond the nation Israel. It will take them a while to understand the impact of this command. Early in the book of Acts they want to limit their focus to Jews and those ?????? were related to Jews. Finally it takes a special act of God intervening in Peter’s life in Acts 10 to send him to Gentiles. But the command is, you go and make disciples of all the nations. Not just Jews, but people of all nationalities. Making disciples would involve proclaiming to them the message of a crucified Savior who has been raised from the dead. And in His death on the cross He paid the penalty for your sins so that through faith in Him you can have life.

Come over to the book of Mark, the end of the gospel of Mark, Mark 16. You see the Spirit of God has directed each of these writers to record the command and instruction of Christ on their responsibility to carry the gospel to the lost. Mark 16:15, and He said to them, go into all the world and preach to all creation. They are to take the message concerning Him, and carry it to all creation. Now I just note the context here. The 11 disciples are huddling together and they’ve heard reports from those who say Christ has been raised from the dead. We have seen Him. But they don’t think it’s true. And note what Jesus said to them in verse 14, the middle of the verse, He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen. I just thought, Christ might have come and said, I just want you to know, men, that I understand what you’re feeling. I know how hard these things have been, these have been difficult days for you. And I know you’re afraid, and I know it’s hard to believe that I was raised from the dead. And I can understand that you wouldn’t believe the message that they said with all you’ve been through. This doesn’t degenerate to any kind of sentimental “I feel your pain and hurt.” Here Jesus appears to these disciples with how shattered they’ve been and He immediately rebukes them as being of hard hearts and characterized by unbelief because they wouldn’t believe He was raised from the dead. I just want to be sure that we are clear that the truth is the truth. And it’s not enough to say well I was feeling this way, or …………… This is the truth. There is no excuse for not believing and responding accordingly. And then His command to them is go to all the world and preach the gospel to all creatures.

Go to Luke 24:46, He’s opened the scriptures to His disciples so they can understand what the Old Testament has said about Him. The Old Testament made clear prophecies about the death, burial and resurrection of the coming Messiah, but they couldn’t understand that. They couldn’t put it together. So He opened their minds to understand the scriptures, in verse 45, and He said to them, thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the grave the third day. You understand, there is the gospel—the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is the gospel, the way that God has paid the penalty for sin. Jesus Christ took our place, died to pay the penalty for sin. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. His resurrection demonstrates the completeness of the work of salvation. Verse 47, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations. You see the pattern He has for His followers. You carry the message of a crucified and risen Savior, calling men to believe in Him, repent of their sins and trust in Him. Forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to all the nations. That’s what His followers are to do

Turn over to John’s gospel chapter 20. Jesus appears to His disciples as they are closed in a room together. And He says in verse 21, Jesus said to them, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so also I send you. Then He breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. We’ll see that will happen shortly, in Acts 2, we’ll clarify that in a moment. You’ll note, though, their commission, as the Father sent me, so I send you. The Father sent Christ to make God known, to reveal the will of God. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. We come to bring that message of grace and truth to the world as the servants of Christ will have been sent by Him. Verse 23, if you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they’ve been retained. That fits with what we read at the end of the gospel of Luke. You preach a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins to all who believe. So we’ve come to declare if you don’t believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins and He was raised in victory, you will be saved, your sins will be forgiven. But I tell you if you do not turn from your sin and place your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you will die and go to hell. There is no middle ground. So that’s the commission given to them. Those sins you forgive, it’s not as though the apostles or anyone else has the authority to forgive sin, only God can do that. But He has entrusted to us the message that brings forgiveness. And we declare to all everywhere that you must repent of your sins and place your faith in Christ, the one who died on the cross and was raised from the dead. If you do not, you will die in your sins. That’s the commission given. The Father sent Me, so I send you.

Turn over a couple of pages to the book of Acts, Acts 1. Jesus is preparing now to ascend to heaven. And there He will remain until He returns to earth to establish His kingdom. And He says in Acts 1:8, but you, speaking now to His disciples, His followers again, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Remember in John chapter 20, He breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit. This will be the enablement, the empowerment for them to go and represent Him. You will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses, even to the remotest part of the earth, the last part of the verse says. You see that. You are to carry this message concerning me, you are to testify concerning me in the power of the Holy Spirit, all over the world. That is your commission, that is your responsibility.

I take it that clarifies what the ministry and role of the church is, because in Acts 2 the Holy Spirit will come and the church will be formed. So now you have the ministry of the church and the power of the Holy Spirit to carry out the commission of Christ. The ministry of the church of Jesus Christ is to carry the message of the gospel, the death and resurrection of Christ as payment for sin to every person everywhere in the world, regardless of nationality, regardless of status in life, regardless of wealth or poverty. The church is entrusted with the responsibility of carrying the message of Christ.

Back up to the book of John again, just before Acts, to John 16. And we’ll be talking more about some of these matters when we get back to Corinthians. John 16. Jesus is preparing His disciples for what is about to occur—His crucifixion, then His resurrection, then the giving of the Spirit in Acts 2. And in John 16:7 He says, but I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper, referring to the Holy Spirit, the paraclete, will not come to you. But if I go I will send Him to you. Now note this, and He when He comes will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. You see what is happening. The followers of Christ now brought together into the body of Christ, the church, are entrusted with the message concerning Christ, His death on the cross to pay the penalty for sin, His resurrection from the dead in victory. And they are provided the Holy Spirit to take that message as the followers of Christ proclaim it, and convict the unbeliever of His sin, of the need for righteousness, and of coming judgment. That’s the role of the church and the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church to the world—take them the gospel.

Romans 1:16-17, Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel. Remember that’s the message of the death and resurrection of Christ as payment for sin. I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, Jew and Gentile. There is only one way of salvation, but that’s all right. You only need one way. It is a way sufficient to save anyone who will repent and believe.

Turn over to I Corinthians 15. At the rate we’re going, some day in glory we will sit down and talk about it. If we had had time we would have gotten to chapter 15, but then we will know it as it is. I Corinthians 15 Paul unfolds the gospel that He preached. And he says in verse 1, now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you. I want you to be clear on this. We must know what the gospel is. There is confusion among some today because they don’t know what the gospel is. I want to tell you what the gospel is I preach to you, Paul says to the Corinthians. This is the gospel which you received, in which you stand, by which also you are saved. Verse 3, I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. There we are. What is the gospel? Christ died for our sins. He was buried. That’s simply the proof that He died—you bury a dead person. And He was raised from the dead. There’s the resurrection of Christ in victory. And He appeared to Cephas and the 12 and so on. The appearances demonstrate and prove that He was raised from the dead. The gospel is the death and resurrection of Christ. The death was evidenced by the fact they buried Him. His resurrection was evidenced by the fact some saw Him. I declare to you the gospel. Christ died for our sins. He was raised from the dead. If you believe that, then you were saved. That’s the message that’s entrusted to us by the Lord of the church, and we have been commissioned to give forth that message.

There are many good things to be done in the world. Many people are doing what we would call good things. But the church must stay on focus in what God has entrusted it to do and the mandate He has given us. You know he rebukes the church at Corinth. But he doesn’t rebuke them for some of the things we might think. Look over in I Corinthians 15:34, become sober minded as you ought and stop sinning. Wake up, stop sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. You see the church has been entrusted with the message of the gospel and we are to carry it to every person in every place. But Paul says to the Corinthians, what have you been doing? You’re caught up in all these kinds of problems and all these kinds of conflicts, and I speak to your shame. There are still some people in Corinth that haven’t been told the gospel. There are people who haven’t heard of Jesus Christ yet. That is the shame to you.

Can’t help but think of this passage of us. The Corinthian church was in existence for a few years. Paul writes them. I think, are there people in this city who have not heard the gospel from us? That they have lived virtually on our doorstep, the confines of a small city who have yet to hear the gospel from us? Paul says I speak to your shame to the Corinthians. What would he say to us? You’ve been here 40-some years and they still haven’t heard? How long is it going to take? And it’s not only your city then, what about your state? Then about your nation? And then the other nations. I say this because we have to be careful and think the church will do this, yes, it’s to preach the gospel, but it also does this. There is one mandate and command given to the church regarding the unbeliever—take them the gospel. Now understand we have a clear view here, we’ll talk more about this when we get back to Corinthians. There can be no confusion here. Conversion is not a process, it is a divine act of God through the intervention of the Holy Spirit in taking the preaching of the gospel and driving it home to a heart which brings about salvation. That can happen to a person who is poor and destitute, that can happen to a person who is rich and well off. It’s the power of the gospel. It’s not changing as fast, in fact Jesus said it is hard to reach some people. It is the rich who are hard to reach, harder to get a rich man into the kingdom than it is to get a camel through the eye of a needle. We think they’ll be more reachable when they’re better off. We all know that’s not true from our own experience, and it’s the teaching of the Word of God.

Come back to I Timothy 3, and then we’re going to move to social matters. When I preach a sermon like this, some people wonder, am I attacking other churches. No, because I don’t know what other churches are doing by and large. I’m trying to preach the Word of God to you, to clarify to you and for us what our church is to be. Other individuals, other churches are responsible and accountable to God for what they do. I just want us to be clear on what we do and why we are doing what we do.

Look at I Timothy 3:15, Paul says I am writing to you in case I’m delayed, writing to Timothy who is at the church at Ephesus. I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God. What is the household of God? That’s the body of Christ, that’s the church. Which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. And what does he go on to talk about? The gospel. By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness. He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. I mean the church is the pillar and support of the truth and that truth centers in the finished work of Jesus Christ. He is to be proclaimed among the nations. My understanding is that is the mandate given to the church. Many other good things that can be done, but we have to stay with what is mandated in the church.

I was watching a program a number of months ago, they build hot rods, cars. One of the workers there, in part of his time, built a little model on a keychain for the boss and took it over to give to the boss. The boss was a little taken aback. What do you do—somebody gives you a gift and now you’re going to blast him. But he does. He says I appreciate that thoughtfulness, but let me tell you something. We build cars here and you’re dinking around making a keychain for me, you’re not building a car. And you need to learn what our business is about and stay with building cars. Now I couldn’t help but think of the church. When we stand before the Lord and say, well, Lord, I thought this would be good, I thought this would be good. The Lord says, what did I tell you to do? Well, Lord, we were doing that. Oh, every person in Lincoln has heard? Well, yes. And every person in your state? Well, probably. And every person in your nation? And every person in the world? Well, no we didn’t get that done. But what in the world were you doing, doing the other things? You didn’t do the one thing I told you you do. Well I thought you would like the other things. Don’t think, do, obey. To obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams.

Let’s talk about social action. I wasn’t going to get as worked up on this as I did. Some evangelicals today, and let me talk about evangelicals, those that would fit well within the camp of those who claim to believe the Bible is the Word of God, Jesus Christ is the only Savior, and so on. Some evangelicals think social action and evangelism must go together. One leading evangelical, and I’ll mention his name, John R. Stott, some of you have used his commentaries. He wrote this, I now see more clearly that not only the consequences of the Great Commission, make disciples, but the actual commission itself must be understood to include social as well as evangelical responsibility. So he is reinterpreting the Great Commission. We read it 5 times. I didn’t get anything there that said, preach the gospel and do social action. But he has done some exegetical hijinx and he comes around now. To fulfill the Great Commission you must do two things—preach the gospel and meet social needs. Another evangelical has written, there are two legs to the gospel—evangelism and social action. If we don’t walk or run on both legs, we have a lopsided gospel. I don’t doubt these men are sincere and earnest, but my concern is, is it biblical. Now we’ve seen what the mandate of the church is. How do we get confused?

Now let me note at least four things you must keep in mind so that things don’t get blurred. (1) You must see clearly the distinction between Israel and the church. The church is not Israel, the church is not the new Israel. Israel in the Old Testament was not the church. The nation Israel was an earthly nation, it was unique, the only nation that was a theocracy, ruled directly by God and directly through rulers that He appointed. Now as an earthly nation a full sweep of political, governmental, social, moral as well as religious responsibilities were entrusted to it because it just wasn’t an earthly nation. It was a theocracy, it was a nation comprised of God’s chosen people. Now what you might think from that is Israel as an earthy nation had social responsibilities to the poor and to the widow and so on, that it is fitting that the earthly governments take care of the poor and so on within their realm. But the point I want you to see is you cannot develop the church’s responsibility by looking at what He said to Israel. If you don’t keep Israel and the church distinct and see God’s plan unfold, you pretty soon have the church trying to run the government because in Israel the government was run according to God’s law, and on it goes. So that’s the first way that people get into problems—they begin to equate Israel and the church, so they run to the Old Testament and say, see this is what the church in the Old Testament did, this is what the church is today. There was no church in the Old Testament, and the church is not Israel.

(2) Jesus in the gospels. We sometimes take Jesus in the gospels as our example. We say, well He’s our example, He fed the hungry, He healed the sick, and we want to follow the example of Christ and do the same thing. Well a couple of things. In the gospels Jesus was still living under the Mosaic Law and all that the Mosaic Law unfolded. And there is no one carrying that out today as it was unfolded. We end up picking and choosing and then having reasons, but James said if you don’t keep every single part of the law you break the whole law. So people set up an impossible standard that no one keeps and then pretend they are. Jesus in the gospels was living under the Old Testament law and secondly Jesus was the Messiah of Israel. And when He fed the 4000 and fed the 5000 and healed the sick, He was demonstrating that He was the Messiah. He was not setting a pattern for us to follow.

Back up to Matthew 8:16, just one example. When evening came they brought to Him many that were demon possessed. He cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were ill. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, He Himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases. In other words, to demonstrate He’s the Messiah, He fulfilled what Isaiah 53 said the Messiah would do. He’s not setting a precedent and a pattern that my followers should be involved in helping to heal the sick and cure diseases and so on. We want to be careful. So if we don’t put Jesus’ ministry in the gospels in proper context, people run and say, oh Jesus Christ is our example, we want to be like Jesus. Jesus fed the hungry, we should feed the hungry; Jesus healed the sick, we should try to heal the sick. You understand Jesus didn’t heal anywhere near all the sick in Israel. In fact He went to the Pool of Bethesda and went through all the sick people and healed one. He didn’t feed all the hungry, He did on certain occasions. He did the miracle of feeding, but that was unique. He demonstrated He is the Messiah. We are not the Messiah. So we don’t try to pattern ourselves after what He did while He was on earth. But there are clear instructions and commands given to us regarding what we are to do.

(3) We must understand what the Bible is talking about when it talks about the kingdom, the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Christ. One person I quoted who said there are two legs to the gospel, evangelism and social action. One of the chapters in his book is entitled, The Kingdom of God, and is premising on the fact that this is what is required of those who are in the kingdom. And people spiritualize the kingdom that was promised in the Old Testament to the nation Israel and say we are in the kingdom today. This is why certain churches like Roman Catholic churches, Lutheran churches, other major denominational churches can get involved in major social action. They don’t believe in a coming earthly kingdom, they are amillenial, they don’t believe in a coming earthly millenium, no millenium. We are in the kingdom now. So then they take the characteristics of the kingdom and try to apply them to today. They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, says the Lord. Well see we ought to do away with war because it’s God’s intention in the kingdom that there be all peace. And then on you go to all kind of social programs. That comes out of their theology. I want to understand, they can be consistent within the way their theology operates, I don’t believe it’s biblical, but they are being consistent. But for me to jump in and follow. People say, why did you do that? This church down the road………… Well if they don’t understand we’re not in the kingdom, they’re trying to live as though we’re in the kingdom and apply what is going to be true of the kingdom to today. You can’t have a kingdom until you have a king. So many within the evangelical camp, reformed in their theology, covenantal, do not see the distinction between Israel and the church, do not understand Jesus’ role in the gospels, do not see the literal characteristics of the kingdom prophesied in the Old Testament that will be fulfilled literally when the king rules over the earth. Then there will be no poverty, there will be no disease, there will be no sickness. That’s what Jesus was demonstrating by His actions—I am the one who can bring that to pass if you will turn to Me in faith. They didn’t, so the kingdom will be established at His Second Coming.

(4) We confuse individual responsibility with corporate responsibility. Individuals have responsibility, but that does not transfer over to the whole church. You say, well isn’t the church made up of individuals, so if it’s an individual responsibility, then it must be the church’s responsibility. No. I’m responsible to take care of my family, the church is not responsible to take care of my family. In fact if I don’t take care of my family so the church has to do it, the Bible says I’m worse than an unbeliever. So I can’t transfer that personal responsibility and accountability to the church. Many of you do many acts and deeds of kindness to unbelievers in a variety of ways—neighbors, friends, people you don’t know. You have a friend, you help, little things. Like you have a neighbor and maybe they break their leg so you cut their lawn, and in the winter they are elderly, you clean their sidewalk. You don’t come back and say, I cleaned the sidewalk of my elderly neighbor, you know the church ought to be cleaning the sidewalks of all the elderly in the city. No. That’s not to say it’s not a good thing to do, but now to say that’s the church’s responsibility, that’s to try to transfer what might be a burden of yours personally to the corporate church. And this creates confusion in a number of areas.

All right, those are the reasons the church gets confused. Let me note a couple of things and then I just want to walk through quickly some of the key verses that are used for social involvement. And I think they’ll be self-explanatory in light of what we said. Let me read to you from a couple of evangelicals that did a book together, and I have great respect for these men, one of them now is with the Lord. But I think there is a flaw in their thinking. Listen to what they say. Many of the biblical injunctions about the Christian’s role in society relates to individual believers as citizens, not to the church as a whole. And I think that is correct. It seems, then, that the fundamental vision of the corporate church must be spiritual. I agree with that, that is the fundamental mission, that is the mission, period, of the church. It is spiritual—proclaim the gospel to the unbeliever. They then ask, what should the corporate church do in society? Unfortunately there is no direct scriptural teaching on this issue. In other words, the Bible doesn’t tell the church to do anything in society, except preach the gospel to the lost.

Now when they get in trouble is where they go next. They go on to recommend ways that the church should be involved socially in society, and they conclude with this reason. We see no reason why churches individually and collectively cannot and should not both proclaim the gospel and meet social needs in the ways mentions. They’ve given some examples of what they think you could do. Nothing scriptural mandates the kind of involvement we have set forth, but nothing prohibits it, either. That’s like the man who owned a car-making business. He had never told his workers, don’t make keychains on company time, so therefore it was all right if they did it. No it wasn’t all right if they did, because he told them what they should be doing “on company time.” So the fact that Christ hasn’t told us everything the church should not do, He’s covered that when He told us the one thing we must do. And quite frankly, we will never have it done. So we never have time for other things in our ministry in the world, because we can never get the one thing done. And in this discussion they also caution, we are not suggesting involvement in every problem, because that would not leave time for the fulfillment of the church’s commission to preach the gospel. So in other words, just leave time for things that seem to be really important that are not the gospel. In other words, things we would find very important. Or take a poll of Christians and find out what things there are general agreement that they think are important. I think we should go to the head of the church and leave it there. What He says what is important and what is the role of the church to the unbelieving world, that is the role, that is our ministry. And from my perspective that’s where we have to stay focused. Now that other churches do other things, that’s between them and the Lord. So don’t misunderstand, don’t go out and tell somebody in another church, Gil was attacking you today. Well, that’s their problem, all I do is preach the Word and say how I would understand our church ought to function. Now they might say, well we think the church is Israel and we have to fulfill what God said to Israel. Well, then they’ll have to give an account to the Lord, not to me. But I am responsible with the Word.
There are a number of passages on social action, let’s just look at them quickly. Micah 6. Now Micah is lost in the minor prophets at the end of your Old Testament, if you don’t get to it, I’ll read it to you. God is speaking to the nation Israel, and in verse 8 He says, and this is a verse you will hear often in the context of social action. He has told you, oh man, what is good. What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and love kindness and to walk humbly with your God. Now first you ought to note He is addressing the individual within Israel. And here is the individual’s responsibility. And I have no problem with taking this which He said to the Jews and say it would be true of us today, too, as believers. The Lord requires of us to do justice. Isn’t justice to characterize your life in all that you do? It doesn’t say to impose justice on unbelieving nations. You understand Israel had no evangelistic program per se. Jonah went to the city of Ninevah, capital of Assyria, but that had to do with God’s plan for Ninevah and bringing judgment on the northern kingdom and taking them into captivity. But you don’t find God saying anything, how many people have you sent out to this nation or that nation. They were a light before the nations, but they didn’t have an evangelistic outreach to the nations. My Hebrew professor at seminary said, anyone who talks about the evangelistic or missions program of the Old Testament has never read the Old Testament. So we want to be careful.

But here’s a personal responsibility—we must do justice, we must love kindness, we must walk in humility with our God. Of course. When you go to your job tomorrow, secular job, secular employment as we call it, you are to function justly, righteously, show them the character of God, deal with your co-workers kindly, thoughtfully. You are to walk in humility with your God through the day tomorrow, and so on. So to say that see, the church ought to be spearheading some kind of social justice program, it just is pulling a verse out, putting two verses together and we think we’ve proved something. Judas went out and hung himself, go thou and do likewise. Both biblical verses, we use it because it gives us a chuckle. Judas went out and hanged himself, go thou and do likewise. Both scriptural, doesn’t mean I am to do likewise. Well we pull out Micah 6:8 and we say well there is the social justice program.

All right. Matthew 5:13. You’ll note the context, He’s just given the Beatitudes, the spiritual blessings that will come upon repentant sinners, those who mourn over their sins, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and so on, those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness. Verse 13, you are the salt of the earth. If the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Let your light, verse 16, shine before men in such a way that they will see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Then He comes down to this section in verse 20, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. How are we salt and light in the world? Well we go out and help the poor to get richer, those things. Bring justice and equality to the downtrodden. No. We bring the message of life, to bring righteousness. That’s what brings righteousness and salvation, that’s the light. We are the salt. You understand when you clean up a drunkard, you have a cleaned up drunkard. The well-to-do high society of Jesus’ day were not as close to heaven as the prostitutes in one sense, Jesus told them that the harlots are going into the kingdom before you. There wasn’t a social program to do away with immoral conduct and helping people to earn a living in a right way and see that they get their fair desserts in society. If we aren’t careful we make them more unreachable. We are the salt and light of the world, to be sure. Now you have to read a lot into that to say, therefore we ought to go out and be preserving society by doing social work. We ought to be going down and presenting the gospel, that’s the only thing, the only thing, the only thing that brings salvation and light to an individual. You understand the best of the world’s people are on their way to hell. There is no salvation in good works.

In Amos 4, we’re not going to take the time to go there, but beginning with verse 6…….. Write down Amos 4:6 and when you get home today open your Bible to Amos 4 and read to the end of the chapter and highlight or underline every time God says, but you would not turn to Me, but still you did not turn to Me, but still you would not return to Me. God says I brought famine on you, I brought drought on your city. He didn’t say Israelites ought to be running around helping the cities in famine, helping the cities in drought. You know what He says? That was my hand to try to get their attention. The issue was a spiritual one. Place your faith in Me. We confuse things often, even in the work that God is doing. I’m not saying government shouldn’t be meeting the needs of its citizens. I think the Old Testament nation Israel might be an example for that. It’s not a ministry entrusted to the church, it’s not being salt and light. Our ministry on behalf of Jesus Christ is.

Look at Luke 10. You can’t talk about social programs without talking about the Good Samaritan. And this is in the context of verse 21, He talked to His disciples about how blessed they are to have had their eyes opened by His Father to reveal things the wise and intelligent haven’t been able to perceive. Verse 21, He has hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, in this way it was well-pleasing in your sight. We need to be careful. We think by doing these kind of social things it will make people more receptive to the gospel. We are going to wait and deal with that issue next week in our study of Corinthians. But that is a denial of the doctrine of sin, doctrine of man and the doctrine of the work of Christ.

He comes down in this discussion to verse 25, a lawyer stood up, put Him to the test saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Now read the context. He’s not a sincere man, desirous of knowing how can I have eternal life. He is a man, an expert in Mosaic Law, who wants to trap Jesus, to put Him to the test, put Him in a box He can’t get out of, cause Him to lose respect before the people. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? So Jesus meets him on his own turf. What’s the law tell you to do? The law tells me to love the Lord my God with all my heart, and with all my soul, with all my mind and love my neighbor as myself. Jesus said, you have answered correctly, go do this and you’ll live. Is he going to be saved by works? No. Submit yourself to the living God, submit yourself to Him, salvation comes. But wishing to justify himself. You see he still hasn’t changed course. He’s not going to say, well I didn’t do that so I have to come back with another question. Who is my neighbor? You know, how in the world do I carry that out in the first place.
So you have the story of the Good Samaritan. Now note this, this is told to an individual, told to an individual in the context of the issue of righteousness and life. An individual who is opposing Christ is trying to discredit Him before the crowd. But here is what it means to have a neighbor. You come across somebody in need and you have the opportunity to help them, do it. That’s your neighbor. Now how this gets translated over to the whole church ought to do this……… Here we have another individual action. You walk out tomorrow and see your neighbor tripped over the curb and broke his leg in 4 places, you don’t say, I’ll just get in my car and go to work, he’s not a believer. I mean I wouldn’t help him—dirty old Lutheran or dirty old Catholic or dirty old non-Indian Hiller. I wouldn’t help him. No. Of course I’d help him, he’s my neighbor, even if he’s not my literal neighbor. Maybe I see him down the block, I run down, or I see him on the way to work. I mean I have an opportunity there. Here is an occasion for me to show kindness, compassion. ???????qualify as a neighbor, that’s just an act of kindness, goes on all the time in our life. We’re going up the steps and the person beside us trips, we reach out and help catch them. We don’t say, oops, just an unbeliever, there he goes. No. He’s my neighbor, I help him. I mean it’s showing God’s character, loving our enemies as well as our friends.

Therefore the church ought to have a Samaritan program. It just doesn’t translate. This is individual responsibility. That doesn’t mean you are obligated to go out and find every person who might have a need that you can help. I read one statistic, I don’t know how true it is, said 10,000 people a day die in the world of malnutrition. How many of those do you help? I mean this goes on all the time, part of it is life and part of it is we do help those whom the Lord burdens us for or He brings into our path, and it’s part of what we do individually. I can’t pass that off to the church. Jesus didn’t tell him, here’s what Israel ought to do with the nation. Here’s what YOU have to do.

Matthew 25 and we’ll wrap this up. I had two more passages, Matthew 25, the last one on this subject. This is the favorite of the favorite—giving a cup of cold water in my name. And the context is when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then He’ll sit on His glorious throne and all the nations will be gathered before Him. Then He’ll separate out the sheep from the goats and He’ll say, verse 34, to those on His right hand, come you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. Kingdom is yet future, you know, at this point, folks. Now you can inherit the kingdom that’s prepared for you. ?????is the time for the kingdom, we’re not in it now. I was hungry, you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, you invited me in; naked, you clothed me; sick, you visited me. I was in prison, you came to me. And the righteous will say, when did we do all these things? He said, when you did it to the least of these. Verse 40, to the extent you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me. Here is how one leading evangelical interprets this. As you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me, Matthew 25:40. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the needy is doing these things to Christ Himself. Failing to do these social goods is failing to do them to Christ. For as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me, Jesus said. The Christian, then, should perform social good out of the motive that he is doing it for Christ. This is a man who for many years was on the faculty of the school that is dispensational. That in the writers of their other professors indicate the context, here. The context is the Second Coming of Christ, after the 7-year tribulation. Christ is sitting on His throne and now the living nations are gathered before Him and they are separated out on the basis of how they treated the brethren of His. Who are they? How they treated the Jews during the tribulation. Only those who have truly come to believe in Christ and thus understand the revelation of God given in His Word will treat the Jews with kindness during the tribulation. So that’s the dividing point here, it has absolutely nothing to do with whether you take food to someone in need today. Now I’m not saying that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take food sometimes, the Lord burdens your heart to do it. But Matthew 25 isn’t telling you to do that. It doesn’t say you will be rewarded on the basis of that. The only people in view in Matthew 25 are unbelieving Gentiles and believing Gentiles, those saved during that 7 years that are being divided now and the indicator is how they treated the Jews during the tribulation. We’re not in the 7-year tribulation. We don’t have opportunity of ???????? this out here. If you’re a believer, you never will because you’ll be raptured before the tribulation. So again, it’s another example of taking something totally out of context and then applying it to today. And besides that, it’s individuals being judged here and what they’ve done individually. But it has nothing to do with our action today.

Turn over to Revelation 22 and we’re done. The last written letter of Christ He wrote to His churches, He called it the letter to the churches. The book of Revelation is written from Christ to the churches. And in Revelation 22, this is the last word from Christ we have and we’ll hear from Him again when He calls us to Himself, He talks about the time coming at the end of verse 5, where they will reign forever and ever, the kingdom is yet future. Verse 7, behold I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book. Verse 12, behold I am coming quickly, my word is with me to render to every man according to what he has done. Verse 14, blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life, may enter the gates into the city, the New Jerusalem. Verse 17, now note this, the Spirit and the bride say, come. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit, the bride is the bride of Christ, the church, you and I. What is our ministry today? Joined with the Holy Spirit in calling people to Jesus Christ. Come, let the one who hears say come. So those who hear the message of the gospel from us as believers become part of the church and they join in giving out the invitation. They choose by the Spirit to bring others to Christ. Come. He who is thirsty, come. Let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. Then a strong warning on adding or taking away anything from the letter Christ has just written. Verse 20, he who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming quickly.

What is the ministry of the church today? To be out joined with the Holy Spirit who indwells us in calling men to come to Christ to a free salvation. Partake of the water of life without cost. You don’t work for it, you don’t earn it, you just recognize that you are a sinner condemned to hell, that God Himself has intervened on your behalf and had His Son die on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin. And He’s been raised in victory. If you will believe in Him, you will be saved. You know every single person in Lincoln should hear that promise. Every single person in the state of Nebraska and then out. Praise God that in His common grace there are others who can do many other things in meeting the temporal needs of people. But we have something that no one else can do. We can bring life to them. We can bring salvation to them. We can bring them to the Savior who loved them and died for them. We just can’t get diverted, we can’t do the gospel plus. So we must consume ourselves with a relentless passion to take the gospel to the lost.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace, your grace demonstrated in the world to all people. But Lord particularly your saving grace of which we have been a part. We heard the ministry and the message of those that you sent to come to Christ, the Spirit brought that message to our heart and now we join and invite others to come. Lord, it is to our shame that there are some who have not the knowledge of God. Give us an increased passion, may we be stirred with the spiritual lostness of men as we are stirred as we see the physical suffering brought to our attention. Lord, may we be burdened that all may hear that by your grace some may believe. Thank you for the honor of representing Jesus Christ and proclaiming the message concerning Him in these days. We look forward to His soon return and we pray in His name. Amen.