God-Centered Religion
If I were to write a description of the Berean Baptist ministry over the past two decades, I would enthusiastically say we are a church concerned with truth, doctrinal exposition of truth, and refusal to compromise the truth. There are no perfect churches this side of Hebrews 12:22-24, so we do not claim to be. I suppose others favor a different balance of ministry, but prayerfully, we are consistent in our doctrine and the desire that people should know the Christ of the Bible through the doctrines taught in scripture.
In these two decades, my sermons tended towards explaining doctrinal positions and how they affect our knowledge and understanding of God. I am thankful for those who have grown in the faith with this approach and the kind words as they express their thanks for better understanding of the Almighty sovereign God we serve. This change in thinking is most evident in what we would describe as a different worldview. It is the shift of focus from a man-centered religion to a God-centered one. While there are few who openly claim to have a man-centered religion, they do not realize they in fact do. They do not realize it because they do not know what God-centered religion is. There are multiple ways to express God-centered religion because all our doctrines have Him at the center. In only a brief space, I would go back to the beginning of the creation to explain. The emphasis in Genesis 1 is God-centered religion. It is not that God was lonely, that God needed us, that God must have someone to love Him, that God is not complete without us, etc., etc., etc. God is supremely holy and happy in Himself.
The emphasis in Genesis 1 is “In the beginning God…” “In the beginning God…” The purpose of the beginning was not to create man so that God would have someone to love, but to create for His ultimate glory. He magnifies Himself through the creation. God is not determined to bestow free will on anyone as if the ultimate expression of love is for God to receive it as a free choice. And yet, we repeatedly hear that God wants us to love Him only if we want to love Him. This would be the main tenet of man-centered religion. In other words, the will and determination of the creature supersedes the will and determination of God. Without our cooperation and choice, God cannot fulfill the design of the creation. In this view, the election and predestination of God spins out of existence in favor of salvation conditioned on a moment in time choice. God does not control this choice, and thus all the plans of creation rise or fall on an uninfluenced, undetermined choice that can go for or against God. Therefore, the sacrifice of Christ provides only a possibility of options, one of which, because of multitudinous hindrances, is logically and manifestly more than frequent failure to accomplish its purpose.
God-centered religion avoids this preposterous dilemma. Those in man-centered religion insistently and persistently argue they have a God-centered religion while at the same time holding to a worldview that is a world-view. The message today expresses the problem of a man-centered view. It always ends with rejection of Christ because without the active monergistic God, the greatest miracles and the most eloquent preaching cannot do what salvation requires. Only God can change a heart and bring dead sinners to life. There is no person who chooses to love God without an act of God upon a heart fettered with sin. When GOD breaks these chains, there is one and only one free will choice. This choice is God. In God-centered religion, God is first…always first. “In the beginning God.”
Pastor V. Mark Smith