Sophistication is a curse. It is a blight on the precious body of Christ. It is a scourge, for sure, and an instrument of the devil. It puffs up. It looks down on and excludes. It denies. It evolves from the wisdom of this world. It is a pernicious demon that denies the Holy Spirit free reign in the lives of men and women. It denies that He is a living, and presently active, member of the Godhead. It denies His power to give life to dead souls, and assigns that power to the logic of man as he responds to the written word. It denies that He is the life giving power in conversions, and assigns that power to the choice making ability and brain power of man. Sophistication demands that the Spirit lives only in the written word. But, dear reader, if you believe this I urge you to read your Bible, in particular Ephesians 4:30, 1'st Corinthians 3:l6, 1'st Corinthians 12:3-12, 1'st Corinthians 2:l0, and Romans 15:l9. The Holy Spirit of God is alive and well today. Sophistication causes the learned class to passively deny Jesus by giving center stage, in their religious discussions, to everything under the sun but Jesus. Sophistication talks about the church, the work of the church, the authority of the church, the worship of the church, the church building, the church programs, the role of the church in politics, the church this, and the church that. Sophisticated scholars teach that it was for a denominated religious institution that our Lord died, and that it must be promoted. The church and all other such promotions which deny, either passively or otherwise, that Jesus is the center stage, are ploys of the great deceiver. Jesus is the crowning emphasis of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Christ and Him crucified should never be upstaged by any other promotion. He is supreme. He is the only thing that is worthy of our promotion. It is to Him that we owe our allegiance and not to a denominated religious organization or any other promotion. If we ever get focused on Jesus we won't need to worry about straightening out the church. But, how can we ever hope to achieve this if we are not even willing to talk about Jesus? A short while ago one of my denominational friends told me that they were up until very late, last night, talking about Jesus. Hold up here! Something is out of kilter here. This "unsaved" member of a denomination spent half the night talking about Jesus, and we of the one true, sound, faithful church are too sophisticated to talk about Him. We are ready, on the other hand, to give a lengthy argument on the church. We are too sophisticated to even mention His name for fear that we will appear to be Pentecostal, or to be branded as a "Jesus freak". If I recall it correctly, there is something about, "confessing my name before men". And if my recall is accurate, this is tantamount to His confessing our names to God. There seems to be a mood extant today that causes people to think that when they confess Jesus' name at baptism, they have completely fulfilled this obligation. Jesus' name is deserving of confession at every available opportunity. Has our sophistication denied us all opportunity? Does our sophistication make it appear that we desire the approval of the world more than the approval of God? One writer wrote that, "It takes guts to say, 'Jesus'.", but long ago, C.H. Spurgeon wrote: "Doth not all nature around me praise God? If I were silent, I should be an exception to the universe. Doth not the thunder praise Him as it rolls like drums in the march of the God of armies? Do not the mountains praise Him when the woods upon their summits wave in adoration? Doth not the lightning write His name in letters of fire? Hath not the whole earth a voice? And shall I, can I silent be?"

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