“ONE OF CHILDHOOD’S MOST PRECIOUS JOYS MANY REMEMBER ARE THE NURSERY RHYMES LEARNED ON OUR MOTHER’S KNEE. HOWEVER, MANY LESSONS LEARNED THERE, ARE OFTEN POOR PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. ”

 I’m Dennis Finnan, host and speaker on the World, the Word & You! Broadcast and in a moment we’ll talk about a popular nursery rhyme and its relationship to God And His Word. Stay tuned…

…All of us have heard and sung to our children, timeless Nursery rhymes. I'm sure there isn't a listener in our audience today that cannot either easily recite some of them, or follow along as they are read.  However, there's one in particular that I want to devote today's broadcast to. Sound strange? What does a nursery rhyme have to do with God's Word and the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  Well, my friend, it has plenty to do with it for many folks today are firm believers in what I call “nursery rhyme theology,” particularly the one called “LITTLE BO PEEP!”  Yes, I'm sure you know that one, but to refresh your memory here's how it goes:

“LITTLE BO PEEP HAS LOST HER SHEEP,
AND CAN'T TELL WHERE TO FIND THEM;
LEAVE THEM ALONE, AND THEY'LL COME HOME,
BRINGING THEIR TAILS BEHIND THEM."

Oh, how I remember that one well! My mother used to sing such rhymes to me; And, I remember singing them to my children as well. However, if you consider the words and thoughts behind them we discover many of these nursery rhymes are in reality, quite cruel statements often based on outright falsehoods.  Well, “LITTLE BO PEEP,” is my case in point today, and after our second musical pause, I'll tell you what this has to do with God's Word, and how you may be deceived into believing its false philosophy for life…

… Perhaps the most misunderstood theology found in the Bible today is the theology of man's relationship to God. Particularly the theology we call “Christian Missions.” However, Christian mission is rooted in the Bible from the very first book called Genesis, all the way through to the last book called “Revelation.” For instance, in our day, the ideas and thinking of humankind are being substituted for the Word of God, when it comes to knowing the state of our relationship to God.  Anthropology and sociology are rapidly replacing theology in today's modern churches. The results are disastrous indeed if one compares these human philosophies to the historic Christian perspective of life. Now here’s my case in point.

According to modern theology that has permeated most religious branches and sects of the Christian faith, man is no longer "ETERNALLY LOST", and many pastors and theologians say this is because a loving heavenly Father would never consign poor helpless human beings to an eternal placed called Hell!   Although man can stray horribly from what God expects of all men, somehow through either man's own wisdom or ways, he ultimately finds his way back to God and eternal life.  Thus, we have what I would call the “LITTLE BO PEEP THEOLOGY,” that believes the nursery rhyme is good theology too. Listen again to “LITTLE BO PEEP,” 

"Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep, 
and can't tell where to find them.
 LEAVE THEM ALONE and they'll come home, 
bringing their tails behind them."  

That's fine for nursery rhymes, but it is a theological falsehood and grave blunder, today to apply and believe that as far as Christian theology goes. Now it’s true, the Bible compares all humanity to sheep. We discover in the Bible, God the Father calls Himself, the Shepherd, and all mankind are His sheep. Thus today, it is widely believed that although man strays from God since birth, that if the Church just leaves people alone, one day they all come back to God and all things will be well.  Now, the Unitarian faith teaches that in the end all will be saved; the Modernist/liberal Church today teaches this too, by downplaying the need for a world to be “born again.” 

In its place, many have substituted a Liberation Theology, or a social theology which the ignorant and naive have swallowed “hook, line and sinker.”  Why just the other day on a radio station, I heard an announcement for a leading Christian missionary work,” where a dynamic, authoritative voice announced: “DID YOU KNOW the BIBLE SAYS JESUS CAME TO FEED THE HUNGRY AND CLOTHE THE NEEDY?” ... " WE MUST FOLLOW IN HIS STEPS!."

I thought about that, and realized this was wrong and a serious perversion of biblical truth! Friend, nowhere in the Bible does it ever say that the coming of Jesus Christ was to feed the hungry, or clothe the needy.  Rather, the Bible clearly says Jesus came for an entirely different reason. Scripture says, 

Luke 19:10 (NIV)  For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

You know, when Jesus looked over the 5000 people who followed Him into the countryside one day, he looked and weighed their hearts. The Bible recounts this and says,

Mark 6:34 (NIV)  When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

Yes, Jesus came to minister to mankind, but the goal was not feeding and clothing them, although He compassionately did at times feed them. Yet, this was not His real ministry, rather it was to save them from their sins and the eternal consequences of it!

You see, Jesus did not teach “LITTLE BO PEEP” theology! And, contrary to popular thinking, humankind is not going to find its way back by itself. Rather we are a lost race of beings, helplessly marching on to eternity without God and Christ, to an eternity to be spent in total separation from all that God is! And, unless GOD SEEKS the sinner, he will NEVER find his way back to God. Perhaps Little Bo Peep's sheep, if left alone come home, but not sinning wayward man.  This is why the missionary mandate of the Church is not to feed the hungry, nor clothe the needy. 

Now admittedly, such works of kindness and care are necessary and appropriate for human love, but only a minor part, for the major work of Christ's Church is to bring people to the awareness that life's conditions are often the result of our personal or societal disobedience to God. For instance, hunger in India is due mainly to false religion, as is in other areas too. So is much disease, and ruination a result of failing to follow God's principles for life and living. 

The Bible teaches us we are all born spiritually dead in our sins, and apart from God seeking the sinner, none can ever be found and saved. 

Unfortunately, we have laid this shocking truth aside, and lost this message from God found in the Bible through these false theologies and teachings that abound. In fact today, salvation is seen more as societal, not personal anymore. “Humanization” not “redemption” is our new key word. Mankind, many religionists say, needs rather to be delivered, not from the penalty and power of our sins, but from the corrupt power structures that have destroyed our authentic manhood and alienated us from his neighbor.  How is this to be accomplished today?

Well, faulty or false Christianity answers, by applying human psychology, the work of good deeds, and bathing it all with so-called “love.”  Look around you how this theme has been adopted as the missionary call of many in today's church. Why? Well, if we simply leave humanity alone to grow in our own intellectual pursuits, many wrongly believe, the world will come home to God! How utterly false and spiritually damning!  

Yes I submit to you, this is the growing theology of even some our evangelical groups today, and it is becoming more popular as true theology is passed by in favor of popular religious teaching and opinions.  Friends, we need a refresher course in theology about God's dealings with the sinner, his state and God's answers to man's dilemma. So, let’s go over it and see if you’ve come to believe God’s Word on the matter of the lost sinner or, you still believe the nursery rhyme’s version. 

First of all, let's examine the Bible to see what God's dealings are with fallen sinful man. My Bible tells me that,

#1 The future of the human race is not decided by ourselves, but by a judicial act of God.  

Yes, contrary to popular beliefs, we are not masters of our own fate. Our future was decided by our progenitors of humanity, Adam and Eve. When they chose to sin against the Creator and refused to obey His rules for living in His universe, their sin caused the entire human race that came forth from them, to be lost and separated from God. This lostness and separation earned a penalty called death. The Bible warns us that we are all born spiritually dead in our sins, and awaiting the just penalty of separation from God in a place called Hell for all eternity. 

What’s worse, none of us care at all about it, and glibly live out our lives in rejection of God's right to rule us.  However, God has decreed that because of our sin, the whole human race is judged guilty and awaits its punishment, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. We are all sinners and we cannot save ourselves. However, is the story of the gospel there is GOOD NEWS! God must punish our sins, yes, but God doesn’t want to. Why? Because He is a God of love, compassion and mercy. God doesn’t want to punish humanity, but He must because He is a just and holy God and cannot bypass sin and sinners who reject Him, His will and Word.

Now the Bible teaches, it is God alone who sovereignly chooses to save some and pass others by. Read your Bible, look at (Matt 13:14-17; Rom. 11:8; Acts. 16:14 ; Acts 2:47 and Acts 13:48 )  If man is to be saved, he must repentantly come before God and claim His sovereign mercy to forgive us by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  That alone is the basis of how all men alone can be saved, or found! Secondly, 

#2 ONLY THOSE WHO ARE "DRAWN" BY THE FATHER WILL EVER COME TO CHRIST -  

Jesus' own teaching on this matter is clear. In, 

John 6:44 (NIV) "No one comes to Me, unless the Father who sent me draws them" 

Thus left to himself the ungodly sinner, which is a classification of all men born in this world -- the sinner will never forsake his wicked way of self rulership; He will never seek  the one true God (Rom. 3:10-18). Therefore God must take the initiative. Friend, this is the good news of the Bible. God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, to seek lost men and to save them from their sins( Luke 19:10 ).  Without the seeking shepherd, the sheep would never be found.  Without the Spirit of God convicting sinners of their need to be saved, none will ever be saved.

Here's a 3rd truth forgotten by many in today's church, yet found surely in the pages of the Bible. 

#3 The very faith by which a person believes, is itself a gift of God - 

Paul said to the Ephesian church,

" For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God"( Eph. 2:8) 

We must never forget it is God who saves, and saves completely! It is not the clever preaching of men, the well organized evangelistic crusades, music concerts - it is the divine will of God reaching out through the preaching and teaching of God's Word in the ears of lost sinners, who will hear.  The Bible tell us this in,

Rom 10:17 (NIV) Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Now listen carefully, if God of His own free will does not give this saving faith, no man can ever be saved by any independent exercise of his own intellect to believe in Christ. (See- Mt 16:17; 1 Cor. 12:3). Thus today, men must "hear" the Gospel which is indeed very simple! Perhaps today you have never really heard the Gospel of Christ? Listen now to its simple truths. 

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is this. (1) First we must all understand, all men are born in the state of sin and rebellion to God. We are all born in Adam, who rebelled against God and came under the penalty of death.  All who are born from him likewise are under the penalty of death. But (2) secondly being born of a rebellious sinner by nature, Adam passed this same nature on to all of his race.  Upon the age of reason, all men born of Adam also rebel against God in thought, word and deed. Thus by birth and by our own fallen nature and hearts, we are rebels against God's ways and word! The Bible says "all have sinned and come short of the glory or expectation of God for mankind". So the Bible declares man is born dead in trespasses and sins, and he cannot help or save himself! However, the Gospel says God devised a plan whereby all who are born in Adam, can be delivered from the penalty upon the human race, and from their own disobedience to God.  So, God sent another man to begin a whole new race of beings. This man, unlike Adam, was in fact God Himself come in the flesh of Adam (John 1:14 ).  

However, being born of God and woman, Adam's fallen nature was not passed on to this man.  We see then that Jesus Christ is God's special gift to a lost world. As such, Jesus lived a spotless, sinless, holy life, undefiled by any of man's sinful ways:  He presented His perfect life to God the Father on behalf of sinners in Adam's race; God the Father accepted Jesus' death on Calvary 's cross, as a payment for the sins of Adam's race;  Jesus being fully man through his earthly birth of his mother Mary, he qualified to be a substitute for mankind's sin penalty; Jesus though being born of His heavenly father was also fully God; thus, His life was infinite and being infinite, He could be the substitute for the entire race of Adam.  

What does this mean? Well, when Jesus died for the sins of mankind, God the father judicially accepted His death on behalf of all who would by a divine act of regeneration, be spiritually born into the family of this 2nd Adam, who is Jesus Christ. How is this transaction accomplished? By the mystery called the NEW BIRTH! 

The Bible says a man can enter this state if he simply BELIEVES on the Lord Jesus Christ! What are we to believe? We are to believe that Jesus is nothing less than God come in the flesh; and that His sinless perfect life was actually offered to pay for the sins of the world. Furthermore, that through this offering made once for all, God the Father fully accepted His death as a substitution for all who would come into His family and race. So my friend, the Gospel is very simple -- men must come to God confessing their sins, and believe in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation and life eternal.  

Now, when did this all begin? Well, the world's greatest manhunt began in the Garden of Eden where God called out, " WHERE ARE YOU ADAM." Yes, God is still calling out to save humanity. The question is, have your heard the voice of God calling you? What is the offense? 

We have sinned against God's will for our lives. So all mankind is found running away from God, substituting ourselves in God's place. All people are fleeing God, and some seek to flee through the use of drugs, others through sensual gratification, or intellectual pursuits. From the cradle to the grave man frantically runs, seeking satisfaction in things - only to be terribly unsatisfied.

How a lost world needs to hear that because of sin, we are separated from God, and no amount of human religiosity or social effort will bring us to Him - save God opening the heart of the sinner to receive Him. Seneca the Roman philosopher wrote: " If only a hand would reach down to lift me out of my sin" Thank God a hand has reached down to all men. It is through the Person of Jesus Christ.

 The Chinese have a proverb that speaks of two good men. One is dead and the other is unborn! Yes my friend, all mankind needs salvation from the Lord. The great question is - have you found this great God of love? You can, simply if you believe God's Word, that God is seeking lost sinners and that God loves you and is pursuing you. It was only when I personally came to recognize that life without God was leading me to a point where I had to look up one day and acknowledge Jesus Christ, that the great manhunt for my soul ended. The GOOD NEWS of the Bible today is-- God is calling out to you today. Are you afraid of Him? Are you running from Him? Is your life proof of this at this very moment? What the whole world needs is not a new religion, or a deeper ascetic practice of the many futile religions embraced, what the world needs now is to receive Jesus Christ as its Lord and Savior, for nothing else will do!..

…LITTLE BO PEEP'S sheep seemingly would come home by themselves, but God's Word says, Adam's children will not! It's time for the true Church to abandon its folly of social salvation, and humanistic wisdom.  The lost of this world are not only the heathen in far off jungles, but the heathen who populate the streets of our community, who carry hymnbooks to churches, who establish good works, but inwardly their hearts are not right with God, for they have never humbly acknowledged before God, that they were indeed LOST SINNERS in desperate need of forgiveness for their sins.  

Millions of so-called Christianized Americans need desperately, to be saved, and unless we get back to that old fashioned Gospel for old fashion sin, our world will blindly walk on into a lost eternity!  I urge you to face this fact, today. on your knees and be sure that you're saved from your sins. 

So I ask you now-- Have you ever called personally upon Jesus Christ to save you?  Have you ever confessed before God that you were a lost sinner on the way to Hell?  Have you ever acknowledged Jesus Christ personally and publicly as the only means of righteousness before God? If not, LITTLE BO PEEP'S THEOLOGY is really your theology, and I'm saddened to say it will not stand as truth on that day we all meet God.

Man will never be judged for the good he does, but rather for his sin against the light God has given him. The standard of righteousness that alone will pass the bar of God's judgment is 100% perfection, and all of us have fallen short.  May God open your eyes that you may see, Jesus only, and come to the light and be saved from your sins.