Of course this is a myth, albeit a popular one. There are more: There is a common myth that I constantly hear among professing Christians. Very often people tend to predict that it is the end of times — and it is literally happening right now.
The reason of course for this bold claim is the following: people are not passionately pursuing Christ, marriages are falling apart, the youth is historically the most rebellious specifically during the present time and the country we live in is becoming increasingly hostile to Christianity. I would say the latter for sure is the case. The reason for why the other three items are occurring is not because of the time period we live. They are happening precisely because the powerful gospel of Jesus Christ has been misunderstood at best or completely neglected at worst.
At a recent Pastor’s Conference, Voddie Baucham gave this following message:
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If you have the time, I would encourage you to make the time and either watch it here — or download the podcast of the session. The whole message is powerful, potent and dripping with gospel goodness.
The reason for the many messy issues that we encounter — has nothing to do with the age or time period or culture that we live in. It has everything to do with the way in which an individual or a family or a society understands and handles the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Do you remember the story about the teenage brother who experienced a near fatal conspiracy from his brothers? His life was later providentially spared and he was sold into slavery.
How about the various issues that families had with one another including a husband who was married to one woman engaging in illicit relations with someone who was not his wife?
What about an entire nation rejecting the very God who saved them out of slavery and then provided for them all necessities for four straight decades?
If any of these stories ring a bell, then you would know that they are pretty old stories that did not just happen within the last few decades.
Voddie spoke about the issue of leadership within families and within the home, based off of Ephesians 5.
Here are a few quotes that I would like to highlight from this message:
Families are in trouble in our day…But everybody is in trouble in our day. Families have always been in trouble.
Marriage is a living and breathing picture, an illustration if you will, of the relationship between Christ and His church. If this picture is going to be an accurate one and not a blasphemous one — then just as the church submits to Christ, the wife must submit to her husband. Not because of social norms or success of society but because of the gospel.
Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
Love your wife not because God told you to but love your wife because this is about Christ. Your wife is a member of the body of Christ. She belongs to Christ.
God has given your wife to you that you might be a sanctifying influence in her life, so that she is more like Christ and brings more glory to Christ as a result of having been married to you, than she would have had she not.
If it is about Christ, you endure for Christ’ sake.
It is not about the culture having better marriages. Though I am all for that. This is not about the world thinking better of us. Though I am all for that. This is about the gospel.
Some men say: You do not know how bad it is out there – and men have not seen examples — therefore they do not know how to be husbands and fathers. I do not do really well with that. I just don’t. Can I just be honest with you? Pray for me. I was raised by a single teenage buddhist mother. Never heard the gospel until my first year in college. My wife and I have been married for 23 years. On both sides of our families combined there have been 25 marriages and 22 divorces. That cannot be an excuse for me to fail as a father.
I am a born again, blood-washed follower of the Lord Jesus Christ — who has given me the only perfect picture that any man has ever seen or ever will need to see.
I do not need an imperfect human man to show me what it means to be a father because I have the perfect God-man who not only shows me that but lives inside of me and empowers me to be what he has called me to be.
I am kept and sustained by Christ. As his glorious radiance shines on me, I see what it means to be a perfect man/husband.
There is nothing that he calls me to for which he will not equip me and through which he will not see me. My God is able.
The problem is not with culture or society or youth rebellion or families splitting up. The root of the problem is sin and the cure for the problem is the gospel.
When anything else other than the main root of the issue is diagnosed and when anything else other than the cure for the problem is prescribed — calamity awaits and catastrophe strikes.
I do believe that the gospel of Jesus is powerful enough and potent enough to redeem the direst of situations. This is the substance of my faith and my perpetual prayer.
Question: Do you think that it is an accurate claim that the inadequate grasp of the gospel is the root cause of any and all sin issues we face today?
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