The next time that you find your heart cold toward God as you read the Bible or sit under the preaching of God’s Word—it might not be because Satan has lured you into the dark world of pornography on your iPhone. It’s likely due to the fact that you’ve missed opportunities to praise God and serve God with joy because you’re filtering every sermon and every Bible verse.
I enjoy spending time with older men. They have gray hair and wrinkles which often point to the fact that they have gained some wisdom through the years. Time spent on the road of life doesn’t always equate to wisdom, but in many cases it does.
One thing we need to be reminded of is that Satan is a created being and he’s much older and wiser than you. He is crafty and strategic in how he attacks. It never ceases to amaze me how the devil often uses theological debate to rob God of worship. Since the devil cannot drag a Christian to hell, he will seek to prevent children of God from worshipping and glorifying God. The great deceiver and dragon of sin is pleased to use pornography or the classic Calvinism v. Arminianism debate to accomplish his goal of discouragement and defeat in the life of a Christian. Beware of falling into the trap of Satan (1 Peter 5:8).
The Purpose of Big Theology
The ultimate purpose of theology is to bring glory to God. The results of this glorious purpose include the doxology of God’s people. We worship God in order to ascribe to God glory, honor, and praise.
How many times have you ran across a website that was seeking to use Romans 9 or Ephesians 1 as a theological stick to beat people over the head and win a theological debate? In many circles, Romans 9 and Ephesians 1 exist for the sole purpose of argument and theological friction. But, when I was preaching through Romans 9 some years back, I pointed out to our church that Romans 9 was breathed out by God for the purpose of the church at Rome to see the glorious salvation plan of God which was intended to lift them to the heights of worship.
The grand purpose of big theology is to reveal the bigness, or better stated the sovereignty of our God. Such a breathtaking revelation should lift our affections Godward with a song on our tongues and praise from our lips to the only wise God who is to be glorified forever (Rom. 16:27).
Hard doctrines are not for seminary classrooms—they’re for the church of Jesus Christ. Paul did not write Romans to a seminary. He wrote it to a local church. Hard truths break through hard hearts and bring us to a sweet place of worship. When the preacher is preaching the Bible, are you consistently looking down at your Bible seeking to read the commentary below the biblical text to see if your pastor agrees with your preferred system of theology? When you read the Bible over coffee in the morning are you putting every biblical text into a systematic theology debate to see if the biblical text agrees with your preferred system? That approach to Bible study and worship will lead you to a miserable and fruitless condition.
