Dear America: Chapter 3 (vs. 21b-23)

You can have whatever you want.

Does that sound familiar? Your country thrives on this statement, right? 

Would it surprise you if I agreed with them? You can have whatever you want. 

You argue over who is greater: myself, Piper, Driscoll, Stanley or Keller. Again, you can have whatever you want. So, pick one of us. Take your pick. You want to live or die. You pick. You can have whatever you want. You want to live it up now or plan for the future. You can have whatever you want.  

Everything is yours. But...

You belong to Jesus Christ. You are bound to Him. You are completely bound to God. 

So, everything you have - everything your wisdom and the wisdom of others can get you - all of it belongs, not to you, but to God. 

There is not pride in the life of a believer. You cannot brag about your wisdom. You cannot brag that you follow me or Piper, because we belong to God too. 

Before I move on, let me beg you once more. 

Do not let the wisdom of your country's men or women cause you to fight against each other.

You all belong to God. You are one in Him. 

Dear America: Chapter 3 (vs. 19-21a)

I would hope you are catching the theme here. All of America's wisdom is stupidity compared to God's wisdom. The book of Job says, "He catches the wise in their own craftiness." In other words, people plan and scheme all their lives, and to God it's no more effective than an ant scheming. In the end, The Lord could simply put His foot in front of us, and we would have to change our plans.

As one Pslamist said, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." The plans of the wise are meaningless - useless.

I know many of you do not think of yourselves as wise, and many of you are too lazy to even try and find wisdom. So, you have completely put your faith in the wisdom of others. Some of you have put your faith in politicians or teachers or psycologists. As I have already said, this is foolish, since compared with God they know nothing.

However, some of you rationalize that putting your faith in your pastors is better. They are still human! On their own they are no wiser than a man who hates God. Do not put your faith in either.

You trust your pastors' wisdom so much that you do not search the Scriptures for yourselves. You do not even bring your Bibles to worship when the church meets together on Saturday or Sunday or whatever day you meet.

You fall into a rut of listening to no one but them. You view them as the head of the church body. You would never admit to it, but you even worship them above God himself. Think about it. How much do you read, listen to and talk about your pastor compared to reading Scripture, praying and talking about Christ your Savior?

You give up your soul to the local pastor and let him take it wherever he wants, to the point that if you pastor were taken down by Satan, the whole church body would go down with him.

And lastly, your infatuation with your pastors has even set church against church, as though the gospel were some kind of competition.

Pastors should despise such behavior in their followers. I am quite sure that Piper and Keller and I have no desire to be set against each other, but to simply be used for your own spiritual development.

God, not your pastor, is the One you should seek first.

Dear America: Chapter 3 (v. 18)

"Do not be led away from the truth and simplicity of the gospel by pretenders to science and eloquence, by a show of deep learning" (Matthew Henry).

Whether it is pastors, guest speakers, psychologists, etc.; do no be fooled by their credentials. Do not be fooled by doctrine that sounds appealing to your lives, but cannot be backed up by all of Scripture. Throw away the wisdom of the world so that you look like a fool to them. You "must distrust (your) own understanding and not lean on it" (Matthew Henry).

True wisdom is found when we throw away whatever we think we know and hold on tightly to Jesus Christ alone. 

Dear America: Chapter 3 (vs. 9-17)

Your leaders in America and I are God's helpers. You are His field. No, let me give you a different occupational example.

You are God's building, and I am the master builder. God has shown me enough grace to trust me with building your foundation. But I will be long in soon, and someone else will build on my foundation.

But I warn whomever I hand the tools to; build on no other foundation than the one I have laid, because I have built a foundation of Jesus Christ. The cement under the "building" of the believers is made of Jesus Christ alone so that it cannot fall.

One day, you will be judged for how you built the church of God (I am not referring to a building but to the works done for the furtherance of the Gospel). Some will have built on my foundation rightly. On top of the foundation of Christ, they will continue to add layer upon layer of gospel truths, and it will be like gold put in fire. It will pass the test.

But some will have built on my foundation poorly. While they will build on the foundation of Christ, they will add "their own fancies and inventions" (Matthew Henry). They will preach Christ, but they will add things not found in Scripture. Many of your own pastors have done this in an attempt to make your lives easier, or to justify the decisions you make. This will be like hay put in fire. It will fail the test. If you have built on the foundation poorly, you will most definitely be judged severely. However, the figurative fire which will destroy the works you did on earth will not destroy you. You will be still be saved, though in shame. You will not hear "Well done." What a disappointment to trade pleasure in such a short time on Earth for a disappointing entrance into eternity.

Do you not know that the temple of God is your local body of believers? God used to reside in the Most Holy Place - a temple built by hands. But now - when you meet together as believers - that is where He dwells. Therefore, if anyone starts up outrageous arguments (like I have previously mentioned, arguing over whether or not you follow Stanley or me) it is just like someone years ago polluting the Most Holy Place. And for those more serious arguments that split bodies of believers, it is like someone destroying the Most Holy Place.

Can you imagine what would have happened to an Israelite had they thrown garbage into the temple, let alone destroyed it? All of Israel would have banded together and killed that man. So why do you take it so lightly when someone pollutes your body of believers? Why are you not offended when someone talks trash about God's new Most Holy Place? Why are your spirits not crushed when local bodies of believers (or "churches") are divided?

Dear Americans, you are collectively the holy temple of God. How dare you take that so lightly!

Dear America: Chapter 3 (vs. 1-8)

Sadly, very few of you truly understand this wisdom. Not because you are unbelievers, but because you are infants spiritually. The last time I was with you, you were brand new believers, and this was to be expected. Like a newborn baby receives only milk, I fed you the same spiritually. I taught simple messages, knowing you would just choke, or be confused, by anything else. What saddens me is that I'm still forced to feed you only milk. Brothers and sisters, most of you have been believers for four years. Does a baby diet only on milk after so long? Of course not!

I do not doubt you would argue with me on this issue. After all, I did spend the opening sentence of my letter praising you for your many gifts. So how could you be infants spiritually? You don't need to look far to answer that question.

Look at how jealous you all are of each other's gifts. Look at the bitterness between your churches. Look at all your division. You have divided yourselves so many times from each other, it's a wonder anyone could ever guess you were all under the same God.

Is it not obvious that you are spiritually immature, behaving no differently than anyone else in your country?

I can't help but keep thinking of the letter I received about each of you being followers of your preachers before Christ Jesus Himself! Followers of Stanley? Followers of Piper? You are obviously spiritually immature. There is no question.

Who is Keller or Driscoll that you should be followers of them. There are simply the ones who pointed you to Christ.

It's like a garden. I planted the seeds and Piper watered them. Should either of us get the credit for growing the plant? I'm not a scientist. I don't have the faintest idea how God makes the plants grow. Don't praise your preachers. Don't praise me for simply showing you something God has done for you. We are not responsible for your spiritual awareness or growth. We simply do the task God has called us to, and every single result is because of Him.

Dear America: Chapter Two (vs. 6-16)

(Continued from Chapter Two)

That being said, to those of you who are spiritually mature, you know first hand the wisdom I am talking about. We have not been fooled by even presidents or kings, who are assumed to be wise, but are ultimately as damned as the next person. 

When we speak of Christ on the cross, we refer to a mystery. That's what it is, mysterious. For thousands of years this wisdom was hidden from the world. The Gentiles had no idea it even existed, and while the Jews waited for it to be revealed, they completely missed it when it was. This is obvious since they put our Savior on the cross.

Remember the words Isaiah the prophet wrote?

"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."

When he wrote that, Isaiah longed to know those things which God had prepared. It was a mystery. It was hidden. But dear Americans, it no longer is! 

We hold the very key which opens these secrets...inside of us. To those of us whom God has called, we hold His very Spirit, which reveals this wisdom. Most of your citizens, no matter how wise they may sound, have only the spirit of the world in them, and this is ultimately useless.

Therefore, do not stumble over the simplicity of my message, because I am not concerned about winning any speaking competitions. I speak only as the Spirit of God leads me that I might preach, not pleasing the ears, but your spirits. 

The average person will leave church disregarding the words of this letter, since human knowledge tries to convince that person it is all stupidity. This is not shocking to me. For if that person does not accept this message, they are spiritually dead, and it is literally impossible for them to understand spiritual things. My words will sound like a foreign language, and they lack the Spirit of God to act as an interpreter. 

Those who have the Spirit of God are able to discern all things rightly. They are able to see beauty where others cannot. They are able to see sin where others see none. They are able to see the foolishness of this world's wisdom and the holiness of God. But just as God's wisdom looks foolish to the average human, so will you look foolish to them. 

But you know otherwise. 

Isaiah also once said, "For who has known the mind of The Lord that he may instruct Him?"

We now do! We know, at least in part, the mind of Christ! And while it would be great sin still to "instruct" him, we live with unmatched power because we have the mind of Christ inside of us. 

Dear America: Chapter Two (vs. 1-5)

The First Letter from the Apostle Paul to the chuch of God in America.

(Adapted from the NKJV 1 Corinthians)

CHAPTER TWO (vs. 1-5)

For example, think about when I travelled to America and preached in your church buildings. I did not succumb to the many temptations I received from your elders to "enhance your worship experience." Is this a common phrase among you?

What enhancing does the Spirit of Almighty God need?

Again, when I came to America, I did not preach nearly as eloquently as your beloved pastors do. My message was so incredibly simple that the comments left online suggested that I actually lacked wisdom. 

Yes, my physical appearance was not what you are used to. I am short and thin and rarely dressed as well as you would like, and you could probably see my knees shaking and hands trembling. The weight of my messages were so burdensome to me. 

Does my appearance and sermon delivery really impact you so much? Are you offended that I declined your worship teams offer to play "emotional music" during my final prayer? Are you offended that I didn't tell funny stories or jokes? Are you offended that I didn't use deep theological terms and well designed charts or power points? 

Are you so offended that all I talked about was Jesus Christ on the cross for your sins?

"It's too elementary," was one comment I received.

"If Paul didn't know the story of Jesus on the cross he would have absolutely nothing to preach on for his over-the-time-limit sermons. I guess we all know if he comes back, it's a good week to skip."

Brothers and sisters, I grew up a man of religion. If I desired to preach on something else, I have quite the repirtoire. Unlike many of yourselves, I have spent my life, not gaining knowledge, but ridding myself of it. The only thing I want to know is Jesus on the cross. 

Because only that is wisdom. Only that is power. 

Dear Americans, your country begs you to put your faith in money and sex. They beg you to believe that success is wise to pursue. This faith and wisdom is damned. 

Put your faith in the cross. That alone, with no substitute, is wisdom.