The Problem With Churchianity

For the next few months, our church (Calvary Chapel of Wilmington - Calvaryofwilmington.org) is reading through the book of Isaiah. 5 chapters a week. I've decided that I'm going to blog my thoughts on these chapters as we go through. Hope you're blessed!

Chapter 1:

Isaiah was written by Isaiah the prophet. Tradition says that he was the cousin of King Uzziah. He prophesied for at least 58 years (739-681 BC). Isaiah's name means, "God is Salvation" pretty fitting seeing as his ministry mainly consisted of telling Israel to turn back to God, and that they could only receive salvation from Him. 

Isaiah is writing in a time when the nation of Israel is in political turmoil (in 722 Israel will go into captivity to Assyria) and in Spiritual decline. Nobody follows God anymore. 

In Isaiah chapter 1, Isaiah paints a picture of Israel being God's children. He claimed them as His own and He raised them, but they have turned away. 

Verse 4 says "They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged."

Israel had chosen sin over God, and it put up a barrier between them. 

We can be just like Israel. Our sin will always separate us from God. That's the reason that Jesus came. He came to break down the wall of separation! But we can still try and rebuild it. 

Christian, be careful. Stand firm in your faith and don't allow sin to divide you from your Creator.

God challenges Israel on this sin, He asks them why they're continuing in it. Don't they see what it's doing to them? Their country is being laid to waste because of these decisions. 

They need to turn back to God, but that isn't what they do. They decide that the best course of action to fix this problem is to make a bunch of sacrifices. They're giving offerings left and right, but it isn't helping. In verses 11-15, God says that He is sick of their sacrifices. Not because the sacrifices are bad, but because their attitude is incorrect. In verse 13, God calls them "vain offerings". They aren't helping anything. 

The problem that Israel has is one that we face all the time. Israel was trying to fix their problem with doing "spiritual" things. Today it might be seen in someone feeling guilty about sleeping with their girlfriend, so they go to church that week. 

I've coined this "Churchianity".

We think that all of our problems will be solved if we can check everything off on our Spiritual checklist.

Go to church. 

Tithe.

Read a pastor's blog and call it a quiet time.

The problem with "Churchianity" is that it deals with the actions without dealing with the heart.

It fixes the symptoms without ever addressing the cause.

Now understand me here, I'm not saying that these are bad things to do! 

The problem was not that Israel was making sacrifices. They were commanded to do that.

Israel's problem was that their heart wasn't lined up with their actions.

In verses 16-18, God shows Israel what a correct response looks like.

"Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil..."

"Cease to do evil, lear to do good;"

You see, God was going beyond Israel performing the correct actions, to them changing the way that they were living. He calls them to stop living in sin. To turn back to Him.

Verse 18 is beautiful.

"Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."

God's promise to Israel is that if they will turn from their sin and turn back to Him, He'll make them clean. He'll wipe their sins away.

Verse 19 adds a condition. It starts with the word "if". Israel has to do something.

"If you are willing and obedient." Not just willing, and not just obedient. You have to follow God with the right attitude. 

God continues through the rest of the chapter painting a picture of what Israel's sin has done to it. God promises that their sin will be dealt with, but those who turn back to God, and repent of their sin will be redeemed. 

It's the same for us today. If we look at the course of our lives, it isn't hard to see where sin took us, and (if we're saved) what God has redeemed us from. 

However, there is a choice to be made. Will you follow God? Will you repent of your sin, and turn to Him with your whole heart? He wants to wash you white as snow, if you'll let Him.

If you don't want to do that, you can see how it will go for you in verse 28.

"But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed."

The choice is yours.

Contaminated

If you've ever drank bottled water, you've probably seen the "Nestle" Water. They sell it at Walmart, and grocery stores, and gas stations, pretty much everywhere.

I was drinking some today, which is pretty standard. I noticed that their slogan on the bottle is "Pure Life" That really got me thinking. They say that to remind you that it doesn't have any junk in it. The water doesn't have anything that would pollute or contaminate it. It did at one point, but it was put through filters, and those things were worked out of it so that we could have Nestle Pure Life water. 

If it said "Kind of pure" or even "mostly pure" we wouldn't want to drink it! I don't want to drink water that has "only a little bit of pollution" in it. I want pure water! We even go so far as to support getting clean water to other countries. We send money to dig wells and get purifiers to them so that they don't have to drink contaminated water either. Clean, pure water is a big deal to us.

What about ourselves though? James 4:8 tells us, "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." 

1 Timothy says that we should be setting the example in purity.

Throughout the Bible we're told to be pure. We're told that we need to rid ourselves of the contamination and the pollution. Christ made us His bride, His pure bride. 

We're made pure by the blood of Christ. His death paid for our sin, it removed our impurity. However, that doesn't justify lifestyles of sin. We're called to live pure and blameless lives! (Philippians 1:9-10) 

We're not okay with putting contaminated water into our bodies, why should we be okay with leaving contamination in them? We need to rid ourselves of the pollution from sin.

Just like with water, that requires a filter.

Our filter is the Word of God. God has given us His standard within the Bible, we are called to live by it.

Philippians 4:8 is one of my favorite verses, and I've often described it as a content filter. 

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

These things are what we're called to live by. That implies that things that don't qualify in this list don't belong in our lives. Remove the pollution! Decontaminate! 

I recently saw the new movie, "Monster's University" and it reminded me of it's counterpart, "Monster's Inc." In that movie, one unfortunate monster gets contaminated by items belonging to humans on multiple occasions. Every time the clean up crew runs in yelling "2319!!!! We have a 2319!!!" They put him in a bag, and they shave his entire body, and they spray him down. All with the goal of decontaminating him. 

We need to become like that towards our sin, urgent to decontaminate ourselves, no hesitation to remove anything that might get in the way of our walks with God. 

Father, purify our hearts, create in us new hearts with a desire only for You. Change our focus to Your face and Your glory. Lead us in Your paths, make us like Jesus. Amen.