Loving the Word with the MudPreacher

I have a real problem with the reality and power of Jesus Christ when it comes to the corruption that is in this world through lust. Christians are tolerating evil to the point that evil and immorality are no longer frowned upon or spoken against, even from the pulpit. Does the Holy Spirit of God stir up the saints anymore? Do we just shake our heads and mutter something like “What is this world coming to?”. Where is our righteous indignation, our table tossing zeal for the Holiness of God and the transforming power of the gospel of Christ? I would venture that a majority of Christians have allowed the world to flavor our concept of sin and what is allowable. We are an excusing nation of Christians.

Divorce, sexual immorality, temporal values, drunkenness, homosexuality have become accepted and tolerated in mainstream Christianity. We still draw the line at child pornography but our condemnation of sexual perversion is becoming weaker and weaker. I fear that someday soon even that line will be crossed. Our society is changing, Christianity is changing, our tolerance for sin is changing. Righteousness is being re-defined. Evil is wearing a mask, and Christians are being deceived.

I have enjoyed songs by Ray Boltz. His 1994 song “Thank You” is one of my favorites. My sister Angie sang it at my Dad’s funeral in 1995. There wasn’t a dry eye in the sanctuary as we all thought about the impact my Dad had upon their lives. That is what the song is all about-“changed lives”:

Thank you for giving to the Lord
I am a life that was changed
Thank you for giving to the Lord
I am so glad you gave

Now Ray Boltz has admitted he is homosexual.

I assume that means a practicing homosexual. We are all sinners. But John in his first epistle says there is a problem if we are practicing sinners. Jesus Christ is not just some feel-good guy who loves everybody and accepts everybody no matter how they live. We often see Jesus as the guy who partied with sinners and drunks, so that means he loves everyone. But we forget that Jesus was the Great Physician. We forget that Jesus called them “sick”. We forget that Jesus came to heal sin-sick sinners. We gloss over the need for repentance, for turning to righteousness, the righteousness that Jesus lived.

16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Mark 2:16-17 (NKJV)

The Apostle John cautions us:

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. 4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 1 John 4:1-6 (NKJV)

We need to follow the Holy Spirit in order to be able to test the spirits. We need the Holy Spirit in order to see and resist the spirit of the Antichrist. We need the Holy Spirit, for greater is He that is in us than he who is in the world. John says we are of God! Those that are of God will hear the Word and heed its call. Those who do not listen are not of God. Here is what Paul said about Christians and our attitude toward the Holy Spirit and immorality:

1 Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; 2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. 7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 (NKJV)

God desires all Christians to be SANCTIFIED – set apart. We must know how to possess our vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust. God has called us to holiness, not uncleanness. Anyone who rejects that call rejects God, because God has given Christians the Holy Spirit.

Can a Follower of Christ who has been born again and indwelt by the Holy Spirit be a practicing homosexual, or a practicing adulterer, or a practicing sexual pervert, or a practicing fornicator? Would God tolerate such behavior of His own Son, Jesus Christ? NO! Jesus would have failed in His mission to conquer sin, to become our Sinless Adam. God’s judgment would have been upon Him. He would have rotted in the grave. Paul makes it clear that those who reject the work of the Holy Spirit in their life reject God Himself. Could such a person who continually rejects God have been born again by the Holy Spirit? Read what the Apostle John wrote:

4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. 7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. 1 John 3:4-10 (NASB)

John says that it should be obvious who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are.

Another song that Ray Boltz wrote is “Sinner’s Prayer”

Lord, You’ve touched my heart today
That is why I’ve come to pray
You see all I have inside
All the things I try to hide

Jesus, I believe that You are there
And You’re listening
To this sinner’s prayer
Touch this broken heart and make it new
I believe in You

Please forgive me for my sin
All I’ve done and all I’ve been
Serving You forevermore
Everyday You’ll be my Lord

Jesus, I believe that You are there
And You’re listening
To this sinner’s prayer
Knowing You’ll remember
What You’ve heard
I believe Your word

In Your name this prayer will end
And a new life will begin
Now I know I’m not alone
Hold my hand and lead me home

Ray says he has been a homosexual all along. He is saying that Jesus lives in his Homosexual heart. Jesus tolerates, accepts and loves his homosexuality. Believers everywhere shake their heads and say once again “What is this world coming to?”

What we should be doing is proclaiming the righteousness of God.

Jesus came to heal the sick. According to God’s Word, homosexuality is sick. Jesus was not a homosexual. He did not come to embrace homosexuality. He came to heal the sin-sick souls of this world. He came to transform lives corrupted by the lust of this world. He came to empower us to live victorious lives. The struggle against sin has been won by Jesus Christ! True Christians have the power of the Holy Spirit to walk in newness of life, if we abide in Jesus and His Word! Those who are born again must claim that power and lift high the banner of a Righteous Jesus Christ. True Christians must do as Ray wrote in his 1998 song “I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb”:

By His Stripes We Are Healed

I pledge allegiance to the Lamb
With all my strength
With all I am
I will seek to honor His commands
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb

I have heard how Christians long ago
Were brought before a tyrant’s throne
They were told that he
Would spare their lives
If they would renounce
The name of Christ
But one by one they chose to die
The Son of God, they would not deny
Like a great angelic choir sings
I can almost hear their voices ring

I pledge allegiance to the Lamb
With all my strength
With all I am
I will seek to honor His commands
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb

Now the years have come
And the years have gone
And the cause of Jesus still goes on
Now our time has come
To count the cost
To reject this world
To embrace the Cross

And one by one let us live our lives
For the One who died to give us life
Till the trumpet sounds on the final day
Let us proudly stand and boldly say

I pledge allegiance to the Lamb
With all my strength
With all I am
I will seek to honor His commands
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb

To the Lamb of God who bore my pain
Who took my place
Who wore my shame
I will seek to honor His commands
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb

We must honor the commands of Christ. We must dedicate our lives to embracing His Cross, regardless of the cost. We must reject this world and all of its perversions and upside-down thinking. We must heed the call of God to be Holy and Set Apart! We can love homosexuals, and pray for their redemption. But the cross means death to who you are. Coming to Christ means dying to sin and self and living in the power of the Righteous, Life-Changing Jesus Christ! And Jesus was no homosexual!