CHURCH TOO?
1. Last Wednesday was a sad day in American history.
2. All 9 of the Democratic
Presidential candidates expressed support for the legal recognition for
2 men or 2 women.
3. All 9 of these candidates also endorsed partnership benefits for 2 men or 2 women.
4.
7 of the 9 candidates spoke at
5. President Bush says marriage is a bond between a man and a woman but at the present time
He has not said he would support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages.
IN
VIEW OF THESE KINDS OF FACTS I USED LAST SUNDAY TO CONTEND THAT OUR NATION IS
HEADING DOWNHILL FAST.
A. Today we want to look at a related but separate issue.
B. What are things like in the area of religion?
C. If our nation is in serious trouble, is the church serving as a stabilizing force?
D. When a nation is plunging downhill, hopefully religion is strong enough to bring it back.
2.
There is a religious group in
3.
This group is called the “
4. I am not picking on this group.
5. This organization has been selected because it is typical of others and because it is in the news.
6. The fellow preaching for the Higher Dimensions Family church has created some controversy.
A. The preacher’s name is Carlton Pearson.
B. I am not directly familiar with him, but he is supposed to be a nationally known preacher.
C.
He formerly had connections with
D. This fellow is openly proclaiming a “doctrine of inclusion.”
7. In simple terms his teaching is this.
8. All or most everyone will be no matter what they do.
9. This mean believes everybody can plan on going to heaven.
10. This must be the cause because the Bible says “love never fails.”
11. If love never fails, people cannot be lost.
12. Mr. Pearson’s conclusions do not stop here.
13. He also believes it is “reasonable” to conclude that Satan will also be saved.
14. The death of Jesus is supposedly the golden ticket for universal salvation.
15. This man as well as quite a few others believe in and teach some form of universalism.
16. Universalism means the place known as hell will be empty.
17. Pearson says hell is a temporary place that is for correction, not eternal punishment.
WHEN
TEACHERS LIKE MR. PEARSON MAKE THE NEWS WE CAN THINK BACK TO THE PROPHET JONAH.
A. A short time ago we heard the entire first chapter of this book read.
B. God had a will for the prophet but Jonah didn’t want to do it.
C. The prophet decided to make up his own rules and go his own way.
D. He decided to do what pleased Him, even though it directly violated God’s commandments.
2. The reasoning process used by the prophet is still in existence.
3. Last week we noted how it is in society.
4. When we look at religion, we find a similar problem.
5. In denominational groups there are men like evangelist Pearson.
6. This man considers hell to be an uncomfortable teaching so he and others try to get rid of it.
7. Satan doesn’t sell well so it is said that he will also be saved.
8. Teaching that some will be lost upsets people so the scriptures teaching this point are explained away.
9. We can talk about the decline in society and we are exactly right.
10. As society goes downhill, we should be able to look to the church to find help and aid.
11. When we look at American religion, we find that things are quite often in a sad state.
12. Today a lot of religious groups are hand in hand with the world.
A. Consider some of the church advertising done in our society.
B. There are several key words that occur again and again.
C. Love, tolerance, acceptance, broadmindedness, open, modern, contemporary, liberal.
D. Other terms include moderate, freethinking, progressive, forward thinking, and cutting edge.
13. These terms describe how many religious groups are thinking, acting, and teaching.
14. The world says this is what people want so this is what many churches offer.
15. More than a few religious groups have conducted religious surveys to figure out what people want.
16. After churches determine what interests people they make it available.
A. The church is supposed to bring the gospel to the world, not be influenced by the world.
B. In our day and time the church is often being led instead of doing the leading.
17. The progressive and broadminded approaches in religion are not endorsed in the Bible.
18. Jesus spoke of “broadness” but He did not refer to it in a favorable way.
19. He said the broad way (we might say broadmindedness) leads to destruction, Mt. 7:13.
20. When we study the New Testament we can also find some information about love and tolerance.
21. God had love for Jonah. He had a deep love for the prophet and this love caused God to be patient.
22. Jonah was given several chances to get things right.
23. God’s love did not allow Jonah to do what he wanted.
A. The first chapter in Jonah says a prophet expressly violated God’s will.
B. Was God so broadminded that He said, “Go ahead and run away; I don’t care?”
C.
“I wanted you to go to
D. God nearly destroyed the ship and He arranged for a fish to swallow the fleeing prophet.
E. Jonah was carried around for 3 days and then vomited from the fish’s mouth.
F. God told His servant what to do and He was unwilling to accept anything less.
24. This is not the only time we find God expecting people to do exactly what He asked.
A. In 2 Chron. 30 we find that king Hezekiah invited a lot of people to a Passover.
B. Many didn’t come but thousands of others did accept the king’s offer.
C.
Some people from
D. Because they came late, they did not go through the needed purification rituals.
E. In our time many religious experts would say, “That doesn’t matter.”
F. “It is all subject to interpretation. Come as you are and do what you want.”
25. In verses 18 and 20 of 2 Chron. 30 two important points are made:
26. The king had to pray for those who were disobedient.
27. God heard the prayer and “healed” the people.
28. Was God so broadminded and tolerant that He set aside the laws of purification? No.
29. Something happened to the people so that they needed to be “healed.”
30. We are to learn and apply this lesson.
AT THE PRESENT TIME THE FALSE VALUES OF TOLERATION AND PROGRESSIVENESS IN THE WORLD ARE BEING BROUGHT INTO THE CHURCH.
1. They have been in denominations for a long time. Now they are hitting us, and they are hitting hard.
A. The Lord’s Supper is being offered on days other than Sunday.
B. It is being given at times other than Sunday worship.
C. Congregations are accepting people as members though they have not obeyed the gospel.
D. A few are toying with women elders and women preachers.
E. Asking what God wants or what His word says is becoming less and less common.
2. It is time for religious people—especially members of the church—to do some serious reflection.
3. There needs to be a dramatic wake-up call to go back to God and His word.
4. The world needs this call as well as members of the church.
5. We can make this call based upon 1 Cor. 15:14.
A. In this part of the Corinthian letter Paul argued that the resurrection is true.
B. He said there are several terrible consequences if the resurrection is not true.
C. In verse 14 he told the Corinthians that without a resurrection their faith was vain.
D.
He also said something else which bears close
consideration – READ
verse 14.
6.
Paul said it
is possible for “preaching” to be “vain.”
7.
This word has
the sense of useless, empty, good for nothing.
8.
In the current
religious climate the general consensus is that any religious teaching or
religion is good.
9.
Any church,
faith, or religion is all right because we are a broadminded and tolerant nataion.
10. Whatever we want to believe and cherish for our personal spiritual life
is fine and good.
A.
God says all
these ideas are false.
B.
1 Cor.
C.
Notice if you
will the kind of teaching that Paul described.
D.
A person might
teach about the true God.
E.
He might
instruct others about the problem of sin and the need of a savior.
F.
He may teach
all the right points regarding morality.
G.
If
he is wrong about the resurrection—a single religious point in the Christian
faith—the preaching is vain.
H.
This is just
like the story cited from 2 Chron. 30.
I.
When God has
expressed His will, we have no right to be tolerant of other ways.
11. We are facing a time which is not unlike what the first century
Christians faced.
12. Acts
13. This teaching made people angry.
In our day and time this reaction is becoming more and more visible.
14. Jesus said He would build His church (Mt.
15. The Bible says salvation is in His body (Eph.
1.
The New
Testament teaches that most of the world will be lost (Mt.
2.
God must be
worshipped in truth (according to His word, Jn.
3.
Adding to the
instructions in the New Testament is wrong and condemned (2 Jn. 9-11).
4.
Doing less
than what the New Testament says will result in condemnation (Gal. 1:6-11).
A. As members of the church we need to brace ourselves for what seems to be bad news.
B. We live in a society, which when we look at from the secular standpoint, is going downhill.
C. We live in a nation where a lot of the religion is far different from what wants and accepts.
D. With the passage of time we can expect persecution from three different fronts:
5. There will be problems from the world.
6. There will be problems from religious denominations.
7. There will be grief from members of the church who refuse to carefully follow the New Testament.
8. We cannot control too much that happens in our nation but we can have an impact in the church.
A. When we worship with a place that has a full time preacher we need to expect some things from him.
B. Make sure that he teaches the truth. Insure that he is faithful to the Word of God.
C. When a congregation hires a new preacher, make sure that he is sound in the faith.
9. Elders in the church need to support what the Bible supports and oppose what the Bible opposes.
10. When we appoint new elders, we must insist that they are sound in the faith.
11. Elders need to be held accountable so local congregations stay on the right path.
12. A similar standard must exist for our Bible class teachers.
13. They first need to know the truth and we then need to insure that they teach and hold to the truth.
14. Long ago Joshua said, “For me and my house we will serve the Lord.”
A. There were people in his day and time who were religious and broadminded.
B. Joshua was around people who talked about religious toleration.
C. One of the devil’s best tools to deceive religious people is a false message of:
D. Love, toleration, broadmindedness, and a progressive spirit.
15. In Mt. 7 Jesus said that many follow this way but the path leads to destruction.
16. Joshua made a choice and we must do the same.
17. Will we take the broad way that leads to a place known as hell?
18. Will we be so tolerant and broadminded that we allow our souls to be eternally damned?
19. Will we take the way that Jesus describes the narrow way—the way that leads to life?
20. We must make a choice and that choice will determine our eternal destiny.
21. If you want the narrow road but you are not currently on it, we would like to help.