A Generation That Is Pure In Its Own Eyes

Last Sunday our pastor preached about the spread of spirituality in our nation. People are becoming more spiritual; that’s why in the class I am teaching on Wednesday night, “Share Jesus Without Fear,” the first question you ask is: “Do you have any spiritual beliefs.” It is important to take a person’s “spiritual temperature” to see what’s going on inside. I want to know a person’s beliefs, get them to enunciate them, and then we can ask them about Jesus, heaven and hell, and the afterlife.

Last year The Barna Group released its latest findings on self-described Christians’ worldview; the number are not encouraging. Barna asked about people’s biblical worldview, defined as “believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today.”

Barna writes that “varying numbers of Americans embrace the different aspects of biblical worldview thinking.” The survey found that:

    One-third of all adults (34%) believe that moral truth is absolute and unaffected by the circumstances. Slightly less than half of the born again adults (46%) believe in absolute moral truth.

    Half of all adults firmly believe that the Bible is accurate in all the principles it teaches. That proportion includes the four-fifths of born again adults (79%) who concur.

    Just one-quarter of adults (27%) are convinced that Satan is a real force. Even a minority of born again adults (40%) adopt that perspective.

    Similarly, only one-quarter of adults (28%) believe that it is impossible for someone to earn their way into Heaven through good behavior. Not quite half of all born again Christians (47%) strongly reject the notion of earning salvation through their deeds.

    A minority of American adults (40%) are persuaded that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life while He was on earth. Slightly less than two-thirds of the born again segment (62%) strongly believes that He was sinless.

    Seven out of ten adults (70%) say that God is the all-powerful, all-knowing creator of the universe who still rules it today. That includes the 93% of born again adults who hold that conviction.

Go through those numbers again later and let some of the information sink in, but for now I’ll concentrate on a few things. Less than half the Christians surveyed believe in absolute truth. That means 54% of Christians believe that whatever is true for me may not be true for you. Six out of ten Christians believe that Satan is not a real force. Fifty-four percent of Christians believe you can earn your way into heaven. Thirty-eight percent of Christians believe Jesus committed sin.

From where is all this stinking thinking coming? It has to be coming from the pulpits across America. Too many panicky pastors are afraid of offending the flock so they use the NTFV (New Touchy-Feely Version) Bible and preach only on your best life now.

Why is this so? It is because of moral relativism and secular humanism we believe we can devise our own purity. The wise Agur once wrote:

    “There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness.” (Proverbs 30:12)

What is Agur speaking of? He’s talking about self-righteousness and the Prophet Jeremiah warned against this:

    “Yet you say, ‘Because I am innocent, surely His anger shall turn from me.’ Behold, I will plead My case against you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.'” (Jeremiah 2:35)

Secular humanist try act as though they have wisdom and yet they are fools for comparing themselves to themselves! The Apostle Paul wrote of this:

    “For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” (2 Corinthians 10:12)

There has never been a more evil generation in modern times than today. Some will say, but wait Bro Dave, Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini were such evil men. Those men were indeed responsible for millions of deaths; estimates are as high as 35 million, which comes up 15 million short of the genocide that has gone on in the abortion factories across America since 1973. And this generation describes the premeditated murder of an unborn child as a woman’s choice or a reproductive right, as though it is a good thing!

    “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)

Woe to anyone who considers abortion as anything other than premeditated murder!

We are not a generation that is pure in its own eyes; we are a generation that is perverse in God’s eyes! Woe to us, an evil generation who foolishly and recklessly calls out for God’s mercy and all the while the church whores itself for political and financial gain!

    “I will not have mercy on her children, for they are the children of harlotry.” (Hosea 2:4)

If you are in a church that teaches blasphemy, do not leave from there…FLEE from there! You know you should not be there!! If you are truly a child of God, a blood-bought Jesus Christ born-again believer the Holy Spirit has been contending with your spirit all the while your tickling ears are being filled with heretical teaching.

Beloved, I would drive one hour one-way to go to a Holy Spirit-filled, Bible teaching church. And you need to be in church, not some second-best substitute for a body of believers:

    “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:23-25)

If we are to have a revival that brings the repentance which will cause restoration in our land, it has to begin with Christians. The lost are lost; they cannot be revived; they need to be saved. And if Christians will repent of their materialistic and selfish ways, then revival will come and evangelism will be the natural outpouring of revival. But revival will not come to our churches today because pastors will not preach repentance. I want to leave you with two quotes and I encourage you to share them with your pastor. These quotes are from the mighty lion for Jesus the late Leonard Ravenhill:

    “The last words of Jesus to the church (in Revelation) were ‘Repent!’”

    “If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified.”

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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    Copyright © 2010 David Jeffers

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