I John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
Well, Monday the province of Alberta held their elections. The media and the NDP had suggested that the UCP were going to lose the election. At one point just a few days prior to the election the leader of the NDP was lying to the people listening by telling them that she could “feel the energy in the room” and that large numbers of Albertans were telling her they were switching to her party. I do not know how you “feel the energy in the room”. However, for the gullible, it sounds good and they cheer it on.
This election reminds us of a couple of important facts. First of all it must be remembered that hope in man is futile. It does not matter whether it be a Liberal, or Conservative, or NDP govt., they are all corrupt. The important issues of life are all ignored by all parties. It does not matter which party is in power, they will not address the things that really matter. We have witnessed this over the past three years.
What happened in Alberta is that God put a road block into the way of the tyrannical federal gov’t. of this country. It is not that the UCP is a God-fearing gov’t. As we mentioned already, the UCP are guilty before God of trying to shut down religious meetings. It seems more religious leaders were jailed and fined in Alberta than in any other province in Canada. I believe Ontario was a close second.
We are in trouble in Canada. We have been in trouble for most of my lifetime. Many professing Christians have been asleep and have blindly gone along with the “compromise for the sake of getting along” mantra.
Some years ago as I was finishing up my official studies at Bible School, I was asked to meet with the board of a certain church with regard to their interest in calling me to be their pastor. At that time, I did not realize that boards are not Biblical. The school I attended was very deficient in many areas, but at that time it was the best that I knew of. It was recommended by the church we attended. I was a green horn and did not know much of church polity and other things. God was working in my heart and by His grace He could move me closer to where He wanted me over the years because I was surrendered to knowing Him. At that time, I did not know how to rightly divide the Word of Truth. God was gracious with me and has showed me how important that is. All of this is evidence of the poison of New Evangelicalism.
As I met with the board of that church, the discussion turned to public education. I stated that I was in favour of home schooling or Christian school education. I believed that the public system was corrupt and no place for children. One of the board members spoke up and said that he did not agree with my position and that he believed that Christian parents should send their children to the public school to influence the schools for good. He said we do not want to stir up a hornet’s nest by staying away from that system.
Obviously God did not want me at that church and they did not accept me. I could see that it would not work, although I did not know where God wanted me at that time.
God expects His children to live by Godly convictions. You cannot build Godly convictions in a vacuum. Pastors need to teach the whole counsel of God so that those in attendance can know how to study God’s Word properly and how to build their lives on the Word of God. It is not enough to build on the traditions of a church. We must know how to stand upon the truth. We also need to be able to identify the traps that the devil would want to set for us. He is very skilled in trying to trap people. He deceived Eve and convinced Adam to believe a lie. He spent over three years trying to trap Jesus, but he was unable to do that. The apostle Peter had trouble identifying the devil’s traps and the apostle Paul had to publicly rebuke him for his hypocrisy. Peter was an aggressive disciple who needed to be reminded of the importance of Godly humility.
Christians cannot hang on to ungodly practices after they are saved. They must cast them off and replace them with truth. That was true in Bible times and it is still true today.
God directed John to write about the importance of being genuine children of God. God is not in favour of the ecumenical movement nor of the New Evangelical movement. Compromise is not of God. No true prophet of the Old Testament time was a compromiser. No true apostle of the New Testament time was allowed to remain a compromiser. Jesus Christ certainly was not a compromiser. He demonstrated true love in all that He did and said. He loved the disciples. He taught them faithfully. He rebuked them as needed. He also loved the people and He exposed the false teaching of the religious leaders of that time. He did that because He loved them and He also loved the people. He did not want the people to be led astray by false teachers. He wanted the people to build upon the truth.
John has been writing about the importance of being true to God if we are saved. ‘Name only’ Christians are not acceptable to God. John was directed to warn the saints of this fact. We need to love one another. The love we need to have is the love of God. True love is of God. We will demonstrate our genuine faith when we love one another. When we are willing to speak the truth and live the truth, we can help others to see the importance of truth.
We can also see that if we do not love others, we do not know God. God is love. Everything that God does is done according to His love. Truth is important in the Christian life. True saints need to be challenged with the truth. The truth will shine as a bright light. It will expose the lies and deception. We can be and we must be purified if we are truly saved.
“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God;”
Pastor Bartel
