Revival's Golden Key (21 page)

The story therefore
must
have another meaning.

Who is the Rich Man?

Let us establish several principles of biblical interpretation that will help us unlock the meaning of the story of Lazarus and the rich man.

■    Purple is the biblical
color
of royalty (Esther 8:15).

■    Fine linen represents the righteousness of the saints (Revelation 19:8).

■    The Church is referred to as the “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9).

■    
The
tabernacle (a type of the Church) was made up of fine linen and purple (Exodus 26:1).

The rich man is a type of the
professing
Church, and the leper (which is what most Bible commentators agree he was) is a type of the sinner.

The foul sores of sin permeate his very being. He is as “an unclean thing.” His
righteousnesses
are like filthy, leprous rags. Those who touch him are commanded to “hate even the garment defiled by the flesh” (Jude 23). Unclean spirits, like hungry dogs, feed off the wounds of his sin, waiting to consume him at death. He is laid at the gate of the Church—that rich, fat
Laodicean
Church... the “royal priesthood” of believers, clothed in fine linen and purple, faring sumptuously on the teachings of prayer, prophecy, providence, justification, sanctification, and purification. This Church enjoys an “abundant life” of men’s camps, youth camps, marriage seminars, ladies meetings, worship, prayer, and praise; young people’s meetings, Bible studies, audio-tapes, videotapes, and CDs; it heaps to itself teachers, having “itching ears”... ears so scratched by feasting, so dulled by overconsumption,
that the muffled cries of Lazarus at the gate go unheeded!

We have become like Israel when God spoke to them

in
their prosperity, but they said, “I will not hear” (Jeremiah 22:21). The sin of the Church isn’t that it’s rich,
but that it hasn’t the compassion to throw even a few evangelistic crumbs to starving sinners at the gate.

The rich man’s thoughts are only for himself. He is filled with his own ways. We have built for ourselves big beautiful buildings, with cool clear acoustics and
colorful
carpets,
where as
cozy
Christians we sit on padded pews, living in luxury while sinners sink into hell. We say that we are rich, but we are poor, blind, wretched, miserable, and naked. I thank God for comfortable pews and quality sound systems,
but not at the cost of neglecting the lost.
We have lavished luxury on the lifeboat, while people drown en masse around us.

I have watched vast multitudes crowd around ministries of “power,” “healing,” and “faith,” and prayed that what I suspect is untrue. I have listened to the message that these men and women bring and hoped that I was mistaken in my thought that there was something radically wrong. I’m not bothered by what they say,
but by what is left unsaid.
There
is
healing in the atonement (who doesn’t pray that God would heal a sick loved one?); we
need
to have faith in God’s promises; and historically God does bless His people and lift them out of poverty, hunger, and suffering.
But why don’t these ministers preach Christ crucified for the sins of the world?
They consistently leave the cross out of their message, other than to mention it as the means of purchasing healing and prosperity for God’s people. Why
is
there no preaching against sin, and exalting God’s righteousness?

I look at the vast seas of people before them and think that there must be many who don’t know God’s mercy in Christ, yet they are not warned to flee from the wrath to come. Judgment Day isn’t mentioned, neither is hell, nor is there a call to repentance. I try to be gracious and excuse them by thinking that perhaps these are “teachers” within the Body of Christ, whose particular gifting is to exhort and encourage rather than to seek to save what is lost. However, the most gifted of teachers cannot be excused for not caring about the fate of the ungodly. The apostle Paul was the greatest of teachers, yet he pleaded for prayer that he would share the gospel with boldness as he “ought to speak.” He said, “Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). What are the ethical implications of a fire captain who is preoccupied with making sure that his firemen are well-dressed, while people he is supposed to be saving burn to death?

I pray that the following letter I received doesn’t represent the throngs who are followers of these men and women. I tremble when I suspect that it does:

I don’t think I’ve thanked you lately for waking me out of my false conversion. Please don’t let discouragement ever hinder you from continuing to preach “Hell’s Best Kept Secret.” I believe it’s the perfect message to wake up anyone regardless of their denomination...I
never, ever thought the day would come that I would call myself an ex-“Word of
Faith”er
.

If Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews, I was a faith guy of faith guys. A card-carrying, tape-listening-to, TV-preacher-watching, book-reading, seminar-attending, positive-confessing faith guy was I. And it was all a waste of time. I write this to show you that if one who was as extreme as
myself
can be snatched from such a slumber, I believe anyone with an ounce of self-honesty is a candidate for this wake-up call. Not that I am any more opposed to the errors of Word of Faith doctrine than those of others in con-temporary Christendom, but it’s what I’m most familiar with. Like any of them, its greatest error is that it’s a broad way and a wide gate.

If the Prodigal Son had returned to his father
before
he realized that his desires were base, he may have come to him with a different attitude. Instead of seeing that his desires were for pig food and saying, “Father I have sinned... make me like one of your hired servants,” he may have said, “Father, I have run out of money.” Rather than saying,
“Make
me,” he would say,
“Give
me.” Instead of wanting to serve his father, his father would become his servant. That is the category of many who sit in the midst of the Body of Christ. The Law has not been used to show them that their sinful desires are
exceedingly
sinful. God is merely a means to further
their own
ends.

Admirers of the Admiral

Few see how great a sin it is to neglect evangelism, because so few have any concern for the lost. Many within the Church think we are here to worship the Lord, and evangelism is for the few who have that gift. Their call to worship is a higher calling.

There was once a respectable captain of a ship whose crew spoke highly of him. They said they esteemed him to a point where everyone knew of their professed love for him.

One day, however, the captain saw to his horror that an ocean liner had struck an iceberg and people were drowning in the freezing water ahead of his ship. He quickly directed his vessel to the area, stood on the bridge, and made an impassioned plea to his crew to throw out the life preservers. But instead of obeying his charge, the crew lifted their hands and said, “Praise the captain...praise you...we love you! You are worthy of our praise.”

Can you see that the reality of their adoration
should have been seen by their obedience to his command?
Their “admiration” was nothing but empty words.

If we worship in spirit, we will also worship in truth. To lift our hands in adoration
to
God, yet re-fuse to reach out our hands in evangelism
for
God is nothing but empty hypocrisy. “You shall worship the Lord your God,
and Him only you shall serve
” (Matthew 4:10, emphasis added) is more than a mere satanic rebuke. If the average church made as much noise
about
God on Monday as it does
to
God on Sun-day, we would have revival.

Yet, in his book
The Coming
Revival, Bill Bright reports that “only two percent of believers in America regularly share their faith in Christ with others” (
NewLife
Publications, p. 65).

Evangelist Bill Fay has spoken at more than 1,500 conferences and churches. At each meeting, he would ask how many had shared their faith in the previous year. Never once did he find a church where more than ten percent raised their hands. In December 1999, at a church of nearly 4,000 in Southern California, he found that only 12 had shared their faith in the previous year. Early in 2000,
The Gatekeeper,
a publication of a major denomination, revealed that ninety-seven percent of its membership will go to their graves without sharing their faith. Evangelism should be the life’s breath of the Body of Christ. If the breath is not in the body, neither is the life.

This lack of concern for the lost may be because Christians haven’t been taught the biblical priority of evangelism—even though it is so evident in Scripture. However, if we are aware of our debt to both Jew and Gentile, and yet refuse to hold out the Bread of Life, we prove to be the rich man of whom Jesus spoke.

I have always maintained that the very reason the Church exists on earth is to evangelize the world—to be a light in darkness, to preach the gospel to every creature. If we worship God, yet ignore His command to take the gospel to every creature, then our worship is in vain. It is to draw near to Him with our lips, but to have our hearts far from Him. I have often said that if you want to find the “evangelism” section in your local Christian bookstore, you had better take your magnifying glass. This is not the fault of the store, but is just an indication of where the modem church’s priorities lie.

With this concern in mind, I wrote a book calling Christians back to evangelism, and sent the manuscript to an organization to review it. If they think the book has potential, they forward it to a publisher. This is what the reviewer said:

I like the content of this manuscript very much.

It contains a much-needed message for Christians about the Great Commission. Nevertheless, I see a serious problem when it comes to marketing this material. In order for a book to be marketed successfully in the bookstores, its identity must be clear. Where does this book go in the store? Is it a devotional book? Or a Bible study manual? Or is it an inspirational, “Christian living” book?

They rejected it on that basis. Despite this being a “much-needed message,” they think the “serious problem” lies not in the Church itself but in the marketability of the message.

The Evangelical Enterprise

One of America’s most positively popular preachers once made a crystal clear statement that revealed his priorities. He said, “I don’t think anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and hence counterproductive to the evangelism enterprise than the often crude, uncouth, and un-Christian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition.”

What then does he consider to be the “evangelism enterprise” if it’s not to warn sinners to flee from the wrath to come? It is clear what the problem is. Modem Christianity has degenerated into merely a means of self-improvement, self-esteem, and self-indulgence. It is self-
centered
rather than
centered
on and in the will of God. The same preacher reveals the cause of his error by saying, “The Ten Commandments were designed to put pride and dignity in your life.”
That’s not what the Bible teaches.
The Ten Commandments were given to do the exact opposite: to humble us. They show us that sin is “exceedingly sinful,” and that we are in
desperate
need of God’s mercy. The Bible tells us that the “Law brings about wrath” (Romans 4:15). It shows us the reality of God’s wrath abiding on us. It is God’s purpose for us to use the Commandments lawfully—to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition, “crude and uncouth” though it may seem to some.