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Welcome to OHBC

Welcome to Oak Hill Bible Church of Santa Clarita!
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Sermon Series

Worship Service at 4:00 p.m. at the Sloan Canyon Church facility (click here for directions)

 

Our Current Sermon Series: The Gospel of Mark
This Sunday’s Message (August 31): “Resurrection Life”
A study of Mark 12:18-27

What's New?

• Institute Class: Next Christology Class: Sunday, Sept 7, at 10:00 a.m.
• Israel 2009: Q&A Meeting on Sunday, Sept 7, following the worship service
• Missions Sunday: Sunday, Sept 14 … meet our missionaires to South America
• Men’s Houseboat Retreat: Sept 26-29 at Lake New Melones

OHBC Photo Album

Most recent images: Dodger Game! … click here to view the rest of the photos!

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Blog:

Title: Politics or Preaching?   Author: Pastor Jeff  Date posted: August 28, 2008

Part One of Phil Johnson’s editorials on church and state as it relates to reforming culture in postmodern America:

Some evangelicals, it seems, cannot conceive of any remedy for social ills other than legislative measures. They seem convinced that if we’re not lobbying for political solutions to evils like abortion, homosexuality, pornography, and secularization—then we’re doing nothing at all. Suggest (as I have) that the church should focus more on gospel preaching and less on political lobbying, and they’ll accuse you of promoting indifference.

This week and next week, I’ll be making a series of four posts suggesting a more biblical way to look at how the church is supposed to make her impact on culture. I’ll highlight four biblical principles contemporary evangelicalism seems to have forgotten. The first one is found in 1 Corinthians 1:21.

1. Preaching – not politicking – is how we make truth known.

Preaching is the main strategy we are called to employ in order to unleash God’s truth into an ungodly society. As a matter of fact, this is the main point that dominates the first major section of 1 Corinthians. Chapter 1, verse 21 is Paul’s proposition statement for that opening section of this epistle: “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” Both the message we preach and the methodology of preaching seem like foolishness in the judgment of worldly wisdom. Both the strategy and the substance of gospel-preaching run counter to what common sense might suggest is the best way to communicate truth to a sophisticated society such as Paul found in the 1st-century Greek culture.

Likewise with ministry today. The conventional wisdom—worldly wisdom—tells us that if we want to get our point of view across in egalitarian America, we must do it through the democratic process. We need to campaign for candidates and lobby for legislation that reflect our point of view. We have got to harness the power of the Supreme Court and Congress and use them to halt the moral unraveling of our culture for Christ, or else we’ll lose the culture war.

But preaching in the public square, not lobbying in the halls of congress, is the biblical way—and the only truly effective way—Christ’s church has always made His truth known. Incidentally, when Scripture speaks of “preaching” in a context like this, the reference is not exclusively (or even primarily) to a message given from the pulpit to a church congregation. Paul is speaking of every kind of gospel proclamation. It would include even our private proclamation of the gospel to your neighbors—everything from open-air preaching to one-on-one personal evangelism. Whatever the venue, “preaching” is simply the clear and emphatic proclamation of the gospel. That’s what Paul has in mind here.

In short, Paul is contrasting the biblical strategy for evangelism with every other kind of strategy—especially those schemes that aim to win people by impressing them or entertaining them or seeking to gain their respect and admiration with a display of scholarly erudition. The biblical strategy is simple and straightforward: we simply proclaim the truth as clearly and as authoritatively as possible and call people to repentance. Everything else, Paul says, is wasted effort—even counterproductive.

Listen to the way he carefully outlines the distinction. Notice how he starts chapter 2: “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” And then he adds this in verse 8: “None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

Paul was proclaiming a truth that is incompatible with the political machinery of this world, and he said so as emphatically as possible. Rather than trim the message or try to shoehorn it into some existing system of earthly philosophy, some worldly political scheme, or some pleasing format that would make it seem popular and appealing, Paul was determined to preach it plainly. And he did this even though the message was so counter-cultural in sophisticated Greek society that even the great apostle Paul said he struggled to preach “in weakness and in fear and much trembling.” It was no easier for him than it is for you and me to proclaim truth to a hostile culture.

Still, rather than trying to harness the political machinery, impress the philosophical academy, or get on board with the entertainment industry of his times in order to gain people’s admiration, Paul says he was determined to know nothing among the Corinthians other than the simple gospel message he was called to proclaim.

What seems mere foolishness to the worldly mind is actually the only thing that can reach sinners and turn their hearts to Christ, because it is the wisdom and power of God. And (verse 25) “The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” That’s why the clear preaching of the gospel is infinitely superior to any political strategy or philosophical argument when it comes to reaching people and lifting them out of the bondage of sin.

That’s also why Paul’s one strategy was preaching—not politics, not diplomacy, not academic-style dialogue, and certainly not compromise for the sake of winning public accolades or grass-roots approval. But by that one strategy alone—preaching the gospel—he made an indelible impact on the Corinthian culture. Furthermore, even after that church was planted, he continued to employ that same strategy as the means by which he pastored the church of God.

That’s our calling, even in an election year such as this one: Stick to the message. Stay on point. Determine to know nothing but Christ crucified—and then make that message the heart and centerpiece of everything you preach.

It is not possible to find God through the pursuit of worldly wisdom. There is only one thing that can give a sinner a new heart, and that is spiritual regeneration—the new birth. So neither society nor individuals can ever be redeemed (or even influenced for good) by worldly wisdom, and Christians are seriously deluded if they think the most important battles for righteousness are being waged in the arenas of politics, education, entertainment, or the arts. Those are the realms of worldly wisdom, and worldly wisdom will never be an instrument for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom.

So to sum up: Clever amusements, pep rallies, legislative agendas, political strategies, philosophical arguments, and all the Supreme Court rulings in the world will never turn sinners into Christians. All those things epitomize what Paul meant by worldly wisdom. They are the baggage of a carnal and utterly ineffectual strategy that will never reform a society like ours that is in love with sin. And the fact that such things consume so much evangelical energy today is a testimony to our unfaithfulness and the utter failure of the modern and postmodern evangelical movement.

God is pleased to save sinners through the clear proclamation of gospel truth. And that is what we ought to devote our resources and energy to if we want to have an impact on our culture. We have a clear mandate to proclaim the gospel as clearly, as accurately, as powerfully, and as often as we can. We have no mandate whatsoever to use any other strategy—especially a strategy that attempts to harness aspects of worldly wisdom for influence under the misguided belief that these are more powerful than the gospel itself to transform our culture.