Rooted & Unwithered

Therefore, let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let everyone fly out of Sodom: “Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed.”

Visit bcnewton.co for more resources for knowing and loving God's Word.

This sermon is not a repeat of our dissecting of the Secular Creed. Instead, I am aiming to focus on the actual text of 2 Timothy 3:5 through the particular focus of how it presently applies to secularism in our day. That is by no means the only application of that verse. In Paul’s own day, he was probably thinking about ascetics who thought they were godly through how rigorously they punished their bodies. Such asceticism has only an appearance of godliness, but it ultimately denies its power. Yet today that description applies very fittingly to secularism, which is the de facto worldview here in the West.

For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co

Rather than the gospel being an abolition of the law, as many Christians seem to think, the gospel eliminates our debt for breaking God’s law and writes His law upon our hearts, giving to us the freedom to actually choose obedience. Since we no longer have any fear of the condemnation that the law brings, we are free to see the beauty of the law as it reveals the will of our Father. Thus, it is in the law that we discover how to “be imitators of God, as beloved children” (Ephesians 5:1).

For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co

Notice that these are not programs to be implemented but rather a lifestyle to be lived. This makes things both easier and harder. It is always easier to blame Christians as a whole than to become the ideal yourself. However, you do not need pastoral or committee approval to implement these changes; you just need to love your church, love your family, and guard your eyes and heart.

For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co

We each deserve death because of our own sins. Sin brings death, and Adam’s sin brought sin to all of us as his descendants. Nevertheless, we still justly earn our own condemnation.

For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co

Why indeed would the psalmist make this passionate cry if his keeping of God’s statutes were already steadfast? Within this plea of desire, we also find a lamentation. His life does not fully conform to his theology. He knows the goodness of God’s commands, yet he still wanders away from them. He yearns to be steadfast, but he ebbs and flows like the tides.

For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co

Secularism is very much a religion, and if the sexual revolution that began in the sixties was its equivalent of the Reformation, then we are presently living through its Great Awokening.

Christian, in your flesh, you are incapable of obeying God’s law, and that is why your hope is in Christ rather than in yourself.

And although the Iliad certainly ought to be read, there is a great danger in not going further into that great conversation. In comparison to the mushiness of our postmodern world, where division is very often actively fostered, the ancient wisdom of Homer can seem like a firm foundation. Indeed, that is certainly why paganism is a growing worldview. Yet the hope of mutual shared grief in light of life’s suffering is no hope at all. Or, at best, it is hope for some kind of hope.

For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co

Sadly, the world’s proclamation that kindness is everything only means that we must affirm all those who continue to drive their metaphorical cars off the broken bridge of their sin. As Christians, we must reject such a mockery of kindness and of love, for it is not kind or loving to pretend that unrepentant sin does not lead to death! Instead, we must imitate our Lord, who never flinched from exposing sin’s hideousness, while also never failing to love and serve those around Him. Such kindness is too deep for secular hearts to grasp; therefore, let us show them in word and deed the boundless kindness of our Savior.

For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co