FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS, volume 7, number 13, March 27, 2008
As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, Ephesians 4:14.
Beware of Dice Playing Men
Phil Harmon, a member of an evangelical church in Seattle, was sentenced in 1998 to eight years in prison and ordered by the federal court to pay $16 million in restitution to the 230 victims of his investment fraud, a Ponzi scheme. The feds believe Harmon had taken up to $40 million from his victims. Many of those Harmon ripped off were church members, close family members, even the pastor of his church and the Christian school. But to make matters worse, some of his victims were widows who trusted him with their nest eggs, consequently losing everything they had. A Ponzi scheme is built on the twin pillars of greed and credulity.
As bad as this is there is something far worse than being defrauded of one’s retirement money; and that’s being defrauded of your eternal soul. Be sure of this- you are prone to trust anyone but God and to believe anything but the truth. Countless people in our world are being defrauded on spiritual issues, their eternal destruction founded on the twin pillars of pride and credulity. They think they can figure this all out themselves. They disdain revealed religion. They refuse to consider that only Christianity is historical, factual, objective truth; while all other religious systems are built on mere philosophical speculation.
Paul begins Ephesians 4 with a practical admonition on spiritual unity in the covenant community, but after writing on spiritual gifts and their purpose he transitions into an exhortation for spiritual maturity. He says that we are no longer to be as children- literally, unspeaking children, infants. We rightly understand that infants do not have the ability to discern truth from error. They are completely at the mercy of those who teach them, for good or for ill. How sad, however, when adults continue to act like unspeaking children when it comes to truth and error, being completely at the mercy of those who move them to trust anyone but God and to believe anything but the truth. Paul goes further to say that we are not to be agitated infants, like the agitation device on a washing machine which loosens dirt from clothing it is washing, like a small boat being agitated by large waves, putting those in the boat at the mercy of turbulence. Furthermore, Paul says that we are not to be unspeaking children, literally carried around in circles by every wind of doctrine, every wind of teaching. In Acts 14:11ff we read of the heathen at Lystra, when seeing Paul heal a man, perceiving that the gods have come down to them, moving them to ascribe deity to Paul. Paul, of course, immediately distances himself from such false worship. A short time later, these same people, being negatively influenced by the Judaizers, seek to kill Paul. False teaching moves people to do strange things.
Paul goes on to clarify what he means by every wind of doctrine. He qualifies it in two ways. He says this false teaching comes by the trickery of men. Literally the Greek work for trickery is a cube or dice. They were being so easily led astray by dice playing men, like a dishonest worker at the roulette table at Mohegan Sun, like a fraudulent card dealer at the blackjack table at Foxwoods. This false teaching also is done by craftiness in deceitful scheming. Paul later warns the Ephesian elders that after he leaves savage wolves will come in, not sparing the flock, and that from even among themselves men will arise, speaking perverse or twisted things, drawing the followers of Christ after them, Acts 20:29, 30.
Beware of dice playing men who, building on your propensity toward pride and credulity, can lead you into destruction. After all, you are prone to trust anyone but God and to believe anything but the truth. Beware of getting your theology from television evangelists who minimize God- who speak only of His love but deny His wrath, who promote His grace, but forget His judgment, who strip Christ of His robe of effectual power to save by giving the impression that sincere Buddhists, Hindus, Mormons, Muslims, animists, materialists, and unsaved Presbyterians can get to heaven. Beware of getting your Christology from The Da Vinci Code which impugns the deity and sinlessness of Christ, which imbibes deeply from the Gnostic gospels written over 100 years after Christ was on earth, which flatly refute the eye witness accounts of the Apostles. And beware of getting your Pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit) from pop psychologists on afternoon television who tell you that you have the power in yourself to heal yourself, your marriage, your children.
The tendency so prevalent in modern, western Christianity is to assume that holiness can be absorbed. Paul says that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, that we are to fight the good fight of faith, to lay hold of the eternal life to which we have been called. Today, however, many believe that they can absorb holiness by soaking in the praise music from the praise band at church, by attending an exciting Christian event, or by foisting their children off on Sunday School entertainment which rivals anything one may encounter at Disneyworld. Holiness comes by seeking God, by repenting of sin, by making restitution, by attending to the public and private means of grace. Nothing else will do.
We all need a big vision of God. In Luke 5:1ff Jesus has begun His earthly ministry and the crowds are flocking to Him. He comes to the lake of Gennesaret and asks Simon to put his boat from shore so that He may speak to the crowd. After speaking to them, He tells Peter to put out into deeper water that he may catch fish. Peter reluctantly agrees and catches an abundance of fish, calling to James and John to help him. Peter, realizing he is in the presence of holiness, says, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." Jesus then tells Peter, James, and John that they will now be catching men. Luke tells us that they left everything and followed Jesus. The more you know about the glory and majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ, the more you will love Him and serve Him, the less you will be duped to trust anyone but God and to believe anything but the truth. Do you love Jesus more today than you did last year? I did not ask if you love Him all the time or if you love Him perfectly. I know you do not, but as you seriously consider who He is, what He has done, is doing, and will do for you; then you will find yourself trusting God and believing what He says.
FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS is a weekly devotional by Reverend Al Baker, pastor of Christ Community Presbyterian Church in West Hartford, Connecticut.
If you would like to add your, or someone else’s, name to the list to receive this weekly devotional (or be removed from it), please contact us at admin@christcpc.org.