Q/A Topics:
        -Purity in Service vs Go into all the World?


Purity in Service vs Go into all the World? (041)

READER COMMENTS:
In many of your articles, I have deep appreciation for your ability to
express Gods Word so clearly.  As for your "Purity in Service" my heart
struggles with the notion that we are to "separate" ourselves from
"unbelievers" because it is an "abomination".  When our Lord Jesus sat
down to dinner at Mathews house, he sat with tax collectors and sinners
and the Pharisees asked the disciples "Why does your teacher eat with
tax collectors and sinners?" (Matt.9 vs.10), vs. 11 says -On hearing
this, Jesus said, " It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the
sick.  But go and learn what this means: ' I desire mercy, not
sacrifice.'  For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

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Jesus is always kind to people, compassionate to people, even those who
were not followers of Gods Word.  But through His Love, people
(sinners-all of us) are able to see the Glory of God.  Should we not,
as "believers", those who Witness the Glory of Gods Word, through the
Blessing of Christ Jesus, deliver His "lessons" to the most
"uneducated" (unbelievers)?  Showing compassion for their shortcomings,
delivering Gods Word to these people to help untangle their lives.

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Yes, God hates sin.  But God loves all.  He sent His Son to Save us and
we need to bring sinners into Gods fold with a hug and not a push!


READER COMMENTS:
I do agree with what you preached about "Purity in Service", however,
there is a practical problem which has to be solved first concerning
our Lord's Commandment: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the
nations, (aliens or unbelievers) baptizing them in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of
the age." Matthew 28:19-20

If we totally separate ourselves from unbelievers or uncircumcised of
heart and flesh, as what we used to be, then how can we make disciples
of them? I don't think it is God's will to encourage His children to go 
to exetremes. We have to sanctify ourselves in our service for sure, in 
the meantime, we must obey our Lord's Commandment to make disciples. 
How to balance God's Words is really a good lesson which we have to 
learn all our life.


VW ANSWER:

First of all, a reminder that this "Purity in Service" (041) was a
rerun of what was originally mailed a couple (?) years ago as a
'Portion'. Back then, also, we addressed:

"Unbelievers in the Assembly" (Aug,99 commentary)

And if you read through to the bottom of that file, you will see links
to a couple of Q/As  1) How to 'weed out' unbelievers
                     2) Place set apart for unbelievers

So, we won't cover old ground here. But let's address this matter of
Jesus eating with tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes, etc. And our
commission to "go into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature" (Mk16:15)

Notice that Jesus was sitting in Matthew's house. (Mt9:10) Jesus went 
'to' where the sinners were gathered. When He met with the woman of 
Samaria, He did not walk by in a door-to-door canvasing campaign, hand 
her a printed invitation to "come hear Him speak" at the local "First 
??? Church of ???" It says that He "needed to go" through Samaria
(Jn4:4) and He talks to her 'where' she was.  When He meets with
Zaccheus He calls out, "..come down, for I must stay 'at' your house."
(Lk19:5)

     -On the other hand, at that last Passover dinner, it was -just-
     Jesus and the disciples. (Mt26:18)

     - When the disciples returned from a mini-missionary journey,
     Jesus says to them, "Come apart by yourselves to a deserted place
     and rest a while. For there were many coming and going, and they
     did not even have opportunity to eat." (Mk6:31) In other words,
     separate away from the multitudes for personal rest and
     nourishment.

     -When Jesus went to pray, He first "sent the multitudes away"
     (Mt14:23).

     -He went away by Himself to spend all night in prayer, and then
     selects the 12, and then, comes out of this place of privacy to
     minister to the multitudes. (Lk6:12-19)

     -The "Olivet Discourse" is a meeting between Jesus and the 
     disciples... "privately" (Mt24:3)  Not the multitudes.

We are to "go -into- the world" to preach the Gospel. But until they
are saved, they should not be in the assembly of Believers, met for the
purpose of "[giving] attention to reading, to exhortation, to
doctrine." (1Tm4:13)

Aah, but... there's the rub, eh! How many assemblies are actually
heeding this exhortation?  They are doing  EVERYTHING ELSE BUT  being
grounded in "sound doctrine". (Tit2:1)  They have abandoned doctrine
in-order-that they can be disobedient and lure the unsaved in. Instead
of spreading God's Word "from house to house" (Ac2:46, 20:20), they
'hire' preachers to "grow-a-church" for them. How else can he 'reach'
them all, except they be invited to that 'building'? So, instead of
"equipping" the Believers "for the work of ministry" (Eph4:12), he is
forced to continually preach "salvation messages" and have "altar
calls". The Believers stagnate and do not grow; all they know is the
"rudiments" of the 'basics' of repentance and faith for salvation.
(Heb6:1) And as the unbelievers are mixed in with the assembly, they do
not get saved, and instead drag the Believers down to hell with them!

As the repeated weekly "salvation-messages" are not having any effect,
then they seek about, devising schemes on how to 'lure' more people in.
That, then, is where the rock music, espresso stands, and all the other
worldly pagan "entertainment" is brought in, "defiling" God's
sanctuary. The world will only come to where more of the 'world' is
offered to them. Pagans will only come to where they find more
'paganism'... that which is familiar to them. That which matches their 
sinful, lust-filled hearts. Are sinners 'saved' in such an environment?  
Not hardly! Those that do "go-forward" do so to a message that does not 
save. They are not exhorted to "repent". Why should they?  They've just
been entertained with the likes of their own sin. To preach repentance
in such a setting would be laughable! The so-called "christians" in 
such an environment are no diffferent from the world.  Why should the 
world change, when they see so-called "christians" being just like 
themselves? But Believers become corrupted to become like the world.

We have a higher calling than that! "Do not love the world or the 
things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father 
is not in him." (1Jn2:15)  Such "[c]hristians" are not "[C]hristians"!  
(Rom9:6b) The "good news" they proclaim is not the Gospel of Jesus
Christ!

The exhortation to preachers for the assembly of Believers:

"Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince,
rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.  For the time will
come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their
own lusts, desiring to hear pleasant things, they will heap up for
themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth,
and be turned aside to myths." (2Tm4:2-4)

Amen!

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