Come Down, Lord!

  * I have heard some say that I have changed .  They mean by that that I am not preaching and teaching what I used to, that my emphases have changed, my convictions have changed, my leadership has changed.  In fact, it hasn't .  Anyone can go back and listen to the sermons preached at Faith even 8 years ago, and they will find I was saying the same things then.  Actually, I used to grieve over the fact that people seemed to be hearing without hearing.  I suspect that with the onset of the pandemic and the legal implications of what I was teaching that suddenly congregants who weren't hearing began to hear.  And that is why they have become unhappy under the preaching, because they are hearing now with ears that hear!  And now it isn't just theoretical but profoundly practical. The following is a sermon preached in December of 2013.  I have not updated it except to highlight in bold portions particularly relevant now.       Rom...

A friend asked me the other day, "do you regret it?"  He had heard that my open letter to the Church had stirred up controversy and that I might be in trouble.  My answer was immediate.  No , I didn't regret it.  I believed (and still believe) it needed to be said.   In fact, as time has passed and I have prayed over the matter my feelings and my resolve have grown stronger not weaker.   God has tried us to see what is in us, and we have been found out.  We aren't the lion hearts we thought we were.  We are strong on theology and confessions and ecclesiastical procedure, but we aren't so strong in the day of adversity (Proverbs 24:10). But my friend's question raises an interesting question.   First, why would I  regret what I had written?   My friend was assuming that the events that had transpired since the letter was first written had somehow changed my mind.  He was wondering if maybe the trial had...

I would have liked my first post to have been about the subject of revival itself.  The trouble is we cannot have revival without repentance.  We are living in a time of compromise and spiritual declension.  Before the pandemic many pastors were comparing the Church of North America to the lukewarm Laodicean church.   Instead of responding with humility, sorrow and repentance, the Church has remained proud and unmoved.  But what is particularly troubling is how the Church has recently responded to God's hand of judgment.  This pandemic is should be serving as a wake up call to God's people.  Instead we have retreated.   Instead of ashes, sackloth, and days of joint fasting and prayer we have closed our churches.  We say they aren't closed because we are livestreaming, but our doors are actually locked, people aren't gathering anymore for worship and the communion of saints now only exists virtually.   The following is a ...