When A Church Goes To Hell

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Tonight I wanted to talk about something a little more provocative intellectually.
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I want to talk about what happens baby -step wise when a church begins to go from being conservative theologically,
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I'm not talking about politically or socially, but conservative theologically, and it begins to move down that slope towards liberalism.
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Many, many churches have had this happen. It usually happens to churches as time goes on.
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It is very rare to have a church start off liberal and then roll the proverbial boulder uphill.
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Think about seminaries even. Do seminaries start off liberal and go conservative, or do they start off conservative and go liberal?
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Harvard training men to preach the gospel. Now they have a chaired chaplain who is gay.
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The list goes on. Yale, Princeton, they start off conservative and then they become liberal.
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And liberalism isn't talked about a whole lot now. We say things more like emergent.
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And I think basically emergent is liberalism in Armani. That's what basically we have.
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We don't talk about liberalism anymore. We talk about post -modernism in Perry Ellis.
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That's what it is. It's dressed up. I'll tell you this. When you meet the liberals of the 1920s and 30s, it was kind of easy to reject what they said because they wore horn -rimmed glasses.
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They were crabby. They were moody. And you didn't really like to hang out with them. Now when you meet a liberal,
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Rob Bell or Brian McLaren, they don't have fangs. They don't come across in a mean way.
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They have cool glasses. They have cool slacks. They listen to cool music.
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And they're disarmingly kind. And so we have to be careful.
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There's something called the post -modern creed, but I call it the liberal's creed. We believe in Marx, Freud, and Darwin.
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We believe everything is okay as long as you don't hurt anyone to the best of your definition of hurt and to the best of your knowledge.
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We believe in the therapy of sin. We believe that taboos are taboo. We believe that everything's getting better despite evidence to the contrary.
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The evidence must be investigated, and you can prove anything with evidence. We believe there's something in horoscopes,
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UFOs, and bent spoons. Jesus was a good man just like Buddha, Muhammad, and ourselves.
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He was a good moral teacher, although we think his morals were bad. We believe that all religions are basically the same, at least the one that we read was.
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They all believe in love and goodness. They only differ on matters of creation, sin, heaven, hell,
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God, and salvation. We believe that after death comes the nothing, because when you ask the dead what happens, they say nothing.
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If dead is not the end, if the dead have lied, then it's compulsory heaven for all, except perhaps
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Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan. We believe that man is essentially good.
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It's only his behavior that lets him down. This is the fault of society. Society is the fault of conditions, and conditions are the fault of society.
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We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him. Reality will adapt accordingly.
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The universe will readjust. History will alter. We believe that there is no absolute truth except the truth that there is no absolute truth.
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We believe in the rejection of creeds and the flowering of individual thought. If chance be the father of all flesh, disaster is his rainbow in the sky.
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And when you hear, state of emergency, sniper kills ten, troops on the rampage, whites go looting, bomb blast school, it is but the sound of man worshipping.
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That's a good liberalism creed, isn't it? It's exactly what they think. What do we find when a church goes to hell?
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That's the name of the title of the message tonight, When a Church Goes to Hell, subtitled, How to Spot Liberalism in a
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Local Church. Now, let's start off by asking you, when a church goes to hell, when a church begins to go down the slippery slope towards liberalism, you find what there?
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They teach what there? You can raise your hand and just tell me. What would you find? I see a few people that look like we need some interaction.
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Tell me about liberalism in a local church. You find a liberal church, you'll find what? Not all together now.
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Okay, Brad. Easy -believe -ism. Okay. Instead of the strict demands, the cost of discipleship that we looked at this morning in Luke 14, very easy to believe.
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Contrary to what Jesus said when he says it's impossible to believe. Very. Okay, theological confusion.
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It almost reminds me of the back of a rug. Have you ever seen those ornate rugs?
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They look good on one side, but on the back, it's just a smattering of everything zigzagged all over knots and issues there.
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Okay, good. What else? Yes, Bruce. Focus on love.
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They seem to hone in on one or two kind of pet doctrines. Okay, good, Karen.
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They cater to the emotions and high priority on feelings, where feelings are good, but they're not at the top.
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Why am I going to call you Diane, Joanne? Tolerance. Yes, we're tolerant of other people.
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Good. Excellent. What? Anitra? Doctrine is a dirty word.
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Down with doctrine. You can hear the chant. Down with doctrine. As loud as they used to say the big three,
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Garnett, Pierce, and Allen. Down with doctrine. Okay, who else
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I see? Tiffany? Fifteen to 20 -minute sermonettes.
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Okay, good. For ducks? You had to be here this morning to know that. Yes, Carol.
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Lots of psychology. Man is a victim. He's not a sinner, but we have the wrong view of man.
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Excellent. Instead of being sinful, he's good. All right, now, see, we're creating a conversation here, aren't we?
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Okay, good. Mr. Smith? Okay, preaching is out the window, and everything just becomes dialogue back and forth.
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Everybody's equal. There can't be one person up in the pulpit here talking down to people. Good. Just a couple more.
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Yes, Jared. Okay, fair enough.
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Like I say, I have no problem with people being effeminate as long as they're women.
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Right? There's nothing wrong with differences. There's nothing wrong with being effeminate or masculine.
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You know, I don't mind masculinity as long as it's not found in a woman. And so, role reversal, gender reversals, and certainly we, and I'll talk about that probably next time, we are equal in Christ Jesus, and that is a confirmed fact that we are image bearers.
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But there are differences in the local church and the local home.
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Okay, Sixto. Okay, more emphasis on self, and maybe
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I could turn that a little bit. Instead of coming to worship God, you come to get something. Now, the byproduct of worship is receiving, but we come to worship
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God and we give worship. It's not the opposite. Who else?
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All right, Vida. Okay, so the word and the belief about what the word says about itself is gone, and then the cross is either redefined or it's pushed away.
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Those will be on the, I have those tonight. Here's what I'm doing tonight, congregation. Hearing what you're thinking, and then
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I have my own, and then we'll just teach through the list of things that I have. Yes, Mrs. Arnold. Okay, that's on my list as well.
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At best, a kind of tolerable view of Genesis chapter 1 and creationism.
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Certainly not six -day, literal. They would go away from that. All right, last one,
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Fran. Okay, there's three of you in the row. You're like Tiffany. You know, your hands go up so fast.
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Fran first, then Dan, then Ajay. Entertainment, okay. Lots of entertainment. Good. Okay, good.
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Since you got baptized this morning, I'll give you an indulgence. Okay, Mr. Reddy. Okay, the first one is faith in faith.
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And so we believe in faith, but faith has to have the right object. And then it becomes a big, there's nothing wrong with speaking the truth well as long as you're speaking the truth.
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And so there's a man named Fred Craddock who is a liberal preacher, and he's one of the best preachers I've ever heard in my entire life craft a message.
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It's not biblical, it's not right, but he can really, really preach.
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What happens when a church literally goes to hell? Compromise leads to more compromise.
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I don't know if you were a kid. When you were a kid, you ever made kind of a dam with sand and some reinforcement, and you poured some water in, and there's some water running down the street, and you created this dam?
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What happened when a little bit of water started running through the middle of that sand dam that you created? It was disaster.
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And so we want to make sure we are discerning people. Let me give you a list of several ways you can spot a church that goes south, that goes sour, that goes liberal, moving away from the
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Bible. Number one, when a church goes to hell, it teaches that the
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Bible contains the Word of God. It teaches that the Bible contains the
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Word of God. What's wrong with that statement, the Bible contains the Word of God? Where is the theological kind of weasel words?
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Remember, liberalism isn't going to say, Satan is God. Liberalism is smarter than Mormonism that says, by the way,
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Jesus and Satan are brothers. They have more finesse. And so what is wrong with the statement, the
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Bible contains the Word of God? Andrew? Okay.
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It doesn't contain the Word of God like some of it is the Bible and some of it isn't the
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Bible. The Bible is the Word of God. Let me ask you another question. Some people will say, in the
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Bible we hear the voice of God. Is that right? The voice of God. I'll make it easier on you.
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Instead of saying they hear the voice of God, what is the difference between the voice of God and the exact words of God?
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There's a difference. I'm not going to try to impress you with my Latin, but when you hear people talk about the voice of God or the very words of God, we know they're the very words of God.
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This is abscissima verba instead of abscissima vox. It's not just the voice. Somewhere in there
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I can kind of hear God muffled, but these are the exact words. John, the people end up being on top of the
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Bible or over the Bible, and we then determine what we like and what we don't like. And you can see where it goes.
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All the stuff about holiness of God and the sinfulness of man, it's not quite good for our sophisticated palates, and we're too refined for that.
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And so the jettisoning of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man go out. Turn with me, if you would, to Matthew 5.
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I know we've been in Matthew 5 quite often, but I want to remind you what Jesus says about the
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Bible. Our view of the Bible should be Jesus's view of the Bible, and I think when you go to Matthew 5, verse 18, we can be reminded that the
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Bible, in fact, is God's word, and we don't need to add tradition.
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We don't need to add church history. We don't need to add the magisterium. We don't need to add anything.
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We have all that we need, and we don't have to have anyone come along and say that the Bible needs some kind of crutch or support system.
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Matthew 5 .18, This is pretty powerful language.
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As long as this world lasts, we have this word of God, and not one smallest letter.
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What's a small letter? Do you have a King James Bible? What does it say? It says what?
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What's a small letter? Oh, yeah, you use a small letter, but what I mean is, what's the other translation? It was a wrong question for me to ask.
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What's a jot? Okay. And what's the other one? Instead of saying a smallest letter or stroke, people like to talk about one jot and one what?
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Tittle. Okay. It's interesting. I did a little research. The smallest little jot, it's called an iota.
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It's the smallest little Greek vowel, but here it's representing the Old Testament Hebrew yod, smallest little
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Greek Hebrew letter. How many do you think are in the Old Testament? Jesus is obviously talking about the Old Testament here.
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Now, one of these little tiny dots of an i is going to be affected until the world ends.
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How many of these little jots or yods are found in the
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Hebrew Scriptures? These were counted, by the way, pre -computer. How many was
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Jesus talking about? Well, somebody went through all of the Bible and counted these little, it almost looks like a little comma, 66 ,420 yods in Hebrew Scripture.
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As long as the world is here, Jesus says these things are important.
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The Bible calls itself a fire, Jeremiah 23, 29. Is not my word like fire?
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It calls itself a hammer, like a hammer that shatters a rock. It calls itself a sword, for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two -edged what?
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By the way, don't think of some kind of big sword that's like ten feet long, some kind of jousting thing.
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This is a small, little, sharp, kind of almost surgeon's scalpel. It calls itself a seed, for you have been born again out of a seed which is perishable, but imperishable.
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Let me just give you three quick reminders about the word of God, and we'll use a little acronym,
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CRT. What's a CRT? Old school, but what's a CRT? Anitra? Cathode ray tube.
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Let me just teach you a quick something about the Bible with a little acronym, CRT, cathode ray tube.
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A little vacuum tube containing electronic gun and a fluorescent screen. See, the
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Bible is comprehensive. See, the Bible is comprehensive. Turn with me to Psalm 19.
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I'm not going to go through the whole thing, I just want to quickly remind you that we are never going to leave from the word of God, leave the word of God, because of society or liberalism.
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And by the way, if I ever do go liberal, then I hope you kick me out.
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That's what I'm after. We can't have this in a local church. Psalm 19, verse 7.
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The Bible is comprehensive. It is complete. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.
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The word perfect means lacking nothing. It means all -sided. It means complete.
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It means exhaustive. It means all -inclusive. It means sweeping. It does not mean partial.
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It does not mean incomplete. It does not mean shallow. It does not mean restricted nor limited.
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It is perfect. It covers every issue. Sin, creation, salvation, judgment, second coming, how to be a good husband, how to get along with your spouse.
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It covers every single thing. It is complete. God's power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.
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R -C -R -T, cathode ray 2. The C is complete. The R is relevant.
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The Bible is relevant. How many times do you hear people say, well, you know, the Bible's not relevant and it's old school and it's a dusty old book.
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Robert Green Ingersoll said, if a man would follow today the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal.
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If he would follow the teachings of the new, he would be insane. You know the
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Bible. The only people that read the Bible are the Amish. And they drive what? It's out of date.
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It's expired. You ever get food? And you get the food. Yesterday I was at Trader Joe's and I wanted to get some produce and it said, sell by such and such.
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It said, sell by 626. And I looked at my watch and I go, today's 626.
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I'm going to go back a little bit in the back and pick one that says sell by 7 -1. Well, we don't have to do that kind of thing with the
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Bible. It is relevant. I'd ask you a question like this. Is knowing how to die well relevant?
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Is knowing how your sins are forgiven so you don't have to pay for them in hell forever relevant? Is it relevant that God's still holy?
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Of course. And if you look at Psalm 19, there we are again found in verse 9. The fear of the
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Lord, this is another word for the Word of God, the fear of the Lord, the Scriptures, the Bible, is clean.
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It's without corruption. It's without sin. It's not tainted. It's not kind of milky. If you put some kind of ink in water, it kind of clouds it up a little bit.
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It's clean. And how long does it last? Enduring for the Jews only in Palestine in 1500
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B .C. No, it endures. What does the text say? Forever. C, complete.
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R, relevant. And if you had to guess a T, what would you guess? True. Good. It's true.
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The Bible is true. Look up at verse 7 of the same chapter. Psalm 19, verse 7.
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The testimony of the Lord, the Word of God, it bears witness to God. This testimony that bears witness like a person giving testimony in a court, a witness.
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The testimony of the Lord is sure. It's true. It's trustworthy. You can rely on it.
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In the day and age we live in with frauds and scam artists and rip -off artists and con artists and the mad -offs of the world, this is true.
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And what does it do? I'm thankful for what it does. Making wise the simple. It will make you skilled in every aspect of holy living.
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I've never forgot it when I was originally taught. When people say to you, you just need to have an open mind.
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How many people have heard that? You just need to have an open mind. The Hebrew culture would not say, way to go, open mind.
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The Hebrew culture would look at somebody and say, that guy's got a mind or that woman's got a mind that's open to any thought that ever comes in.
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And he's also got a back door that's open, so any good thought that he keeps, he doesn't keep anymore, it goes out.
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The proper way to say something to a Jew back in the Bible day would not be, well, that's good to have an open mind.
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He'd say what? It's good to have a closed mind. Be careful what comes in and be careful what goes out.
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And what does the Bible say? It makes wise the open -doored. It makes wise the naive.
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The Bible is complete, relevant, and true. And when we get rid of it, I'll tell you the main reason why people get rid of it in a local church.
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They don't like what it says. The corners are too sharp.
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They want to round it off a little bit. And we in this local church have come to realize that if God would say from Mount Sinai, thus saith the
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Lord, or the Bible says in a chapter and verse, which one carries more authority?
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If you heard God speak from Sinai, or He speaks from His Word, which one has more authority?
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John Calvin said, and we should treat the Bible as if we heard God audibly speaking its message.
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Same authority. Same person speaking. It is the authority of God. And what the emergent church does now, what liberalism does in Armani, it says, you know, the
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Bible is really not clear. We can't quite understand it. I'd rather be like Jonathan Goforth.
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Who knows Jonathan Goforth or knows of him? Really? Tell me about him, young man. Yes! I will fall on the sword gladly.
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I thought you were just raising your hand. I will gladly fall on that sword, Jonathan. Hey, your namesake.
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Jonathan Goforth. What a name! A missionary named what? Goforth. Jonathan Goforth.
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My deepest regret on reaching three scores in years and ten is that I have not devoted more time to study the
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Bible. Still, in less than 19 years, I have gone through the
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New Testament in Chinese 55 times. Psalm 19 .10.
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They are more desirable than gold. Yes, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
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Number one, a church goes to hell when it abandons the Word of God. Number two, a church goes to hell when it denigrates preaching.
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Number two, a church goes to hell when it denigrates preaching. I probably don't even really want to get started, but I guess
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I've started, so I have to do it. When I go to a church and they have some kind of Now This segment, and they'll say, you know,
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I'm preaching a little bit on this passage, and now to illustrate the point, let's show a little Braveheart video to kind of make you get the point, some kind of gladiator thing.
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I think it's pretty fascinating, the story of gladiator and the story of Braveheart, but it doesn't really stand up to the
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Word of God. We don't really need it. What kind of crutch does the
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Bible need? But you know what? It is consistent for the liberal who says, who needs the
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Bible? So if you don't really need the Bible, then why do you need the Bible to preach? And if you don't need the
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Bible to preach, then why preach at all? We just might as well just share. Gone are the pulpits and in are the roundtables.
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When I go to Santa Cruz tomorrow, there are churches that I've been to that have just roundtables, and that means nobody's up front saying anything.
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We all just kind of talk and dialogue. And what we see in churches that go liberal is a thousand and one how -to messages.
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How to have a happier marriage. How to handle your money. How can you like your job? How can
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I get out of an adult children of alcoholics pattern? I mean, that's a real sermon
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I found. How to be a better parent. How to get more time for myself. How to feel better about myself.
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I have a sermon that I like to hear once. How to teach a leopard to change its own spots.
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That would be a good how -to one that I'd go to. That would be a really good one. Secret sensitive preaching says limit the preaching time.
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These people have to go. Do you know there's a place where you can have a drive -up funeral?
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And so what you do is you drive up, you say your name, and then they open up the curtains. It's like a little kiosk, you know.
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I guess they should serve espresso. They'd probably get more people there. But they drive up, open up the curtains. You see the dead body there laying there, your loved one.
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You can look at it for a little bit and kind of, you know, let all the kids take a look. The thing closes and you drive off. It's good to go.
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That's how they do preaching now. People say, well, that was a good message. Translated, it was a short message.
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Ken Parker in a book called The Pastor's Church Growth Handbook. If you'd like to grow a church, you say,
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I'll read this book. How would you grow a church? It's a whole book and it has nothing about preaching.
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Robert Shuler, How to Be a Successful Pastor, Three Characteristics. He has an article in that book.
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Not one talks about how to be a good preacher. There's another chapter in there by Charles Mylander, How to Build Morale in Your Church, and it doesn't talk about the pulpit.
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Sounds a lot like Ralph Waldo Emerson to me. I like the silent church before the service begins better than any preaching.
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Show me a church that goes liberal, and I'll show you a church that doesn't care about preaching. What did Paul say to Timothy?
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Let's just turn there for a minute. You know the passage. I think I'm going to go a little faster. I don't want to get too bogged down.
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Let's go a little faster. 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4.
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Whether the church grows or not, that is irrelevant. We are told to preach, and therefore we preach.
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And so 2 Timothy chapter 4. You see the solemn charge there in verse 1.
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I solemnly charge you, courtroom language, raise your hand and repeat after me. I solemnly vow to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
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It's that language. In the presence of God, even Christ Jesus, who's the judge, the living and the dead, you're standing before this judge, and he's coming back to preach the
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Word. That's all we need right there. We preach, and if nobody listens, they don't listen.
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People think preaching is overrated. You watch. It's on its way out the door as fast as you can get.
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Number three, it's related. A church goes to hell when, number one, it says the Bible isn't the Word of God, when preaching is thrown out, number three, when moralism is elevated at the expense of the gospel.
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Do good, be good. By the way, you see this in 1 ,001 VBSs. If you have to sell
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VBS curriculum, how do you sell VBS curriculum? Through eBay?
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No, that's not my point. How do you sell it? You have to dumb it down so Methodists can buy it,
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Episcopalians can buy it, Baptists can buy it, Roman Catholics can buy it, Mormons can buy it, everybody can buy it.
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But what happens when you do that? It turns into having good manners and obeying quickly.
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Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4, if you would. I want to remind you that first comes the gospel, then comes behavior.
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The Old Testament was you obey, you get blessings. The New Testament is I have blessed you and therefore you should obey.
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The Old Testament is different. Obey, you get a blessing. Disobey, you get the curse. The New Testament, it seems to be this pattern of I've blessed you so therefore obey.
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Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1. He's talked about what it was like to be in Christ in chapters 1, 2, and 3.
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I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.
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He says I want you to walk in a manner worthy of chapter 1, 2, and 3.
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If you are in Christ, act like it. We call this conduct befitting an officer.
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You wear that uniform and then you should act like you own that uniform. Theology affects methodology.
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Become who you are. God has done these things for you in chapter 1, 2, and 3.
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Therefore, be obedient. Now I like that little section there.
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Do you see in verse 1, in a manner worthy of your calling? Here's basically what happens.
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Worthy means weight. Let's think of something that weighs a lot.
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What weighs a lot? A pewter. Do you ever have any pewter? It's very, very dense, isn't it? Here's the scale.
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The old scales weren't digital. You just didn't stand on there and look. Oh, here's my weight. The scales were like this.
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I don't know what it is here. I'll act like I know what I'm talking about. Some fulcrum or something. What is this thing right here called?
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Fulcrum? Jonathan, go forth. The weight goes here of Ephesians chapter 1, 2, and 3.
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It's heavy. It's dense. It's pewter. This is your calling. And so Paul says in chapter 4, verse 1 of Ephesians, by the
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Spirit's empowering grace, live out who you are in the gospel. That is how you walk in a manner worthy.
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Moralism, it's all switched around. It's be good, do good. If you're a
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Sunday school teacher at this church, would you please do me a favor? Every single Sunday school that you teach, every single junior church that you teach, would you have this in mind?
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Have this in mind. These kids can learn obedience to me, the teacher, and their mom and dads, and still bust hell wide open.
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And we ought not to get up there and tell the kids, of course, do we like good manners? Is delayed obedience disobedience?
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Yes. But we teach them who God is and what the gospel is and how Jesus is this great
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Savior who sacrificed himself and raised himself from the dead, and then believing on them they have life.
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And then the manners go a lot farther. By the way, look at chapter 4, verse 1.
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Worthy of the calling with which you have been called. When God sovereignly picked you and didn't pick somebody else, how should you act?
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God sovereignly chose me before time, unconditionally elected me. He predestined me.
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And He said, you're mine. And if God has done that for you, well, what do you do? Well, you say,
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I want to obey. Number 4. All right. Keep going.
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It's a rough crowd. Got to keep them awake. Action. It's a sin to make the Bible boring. Number 4.
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When a church goes to hell, it teaches that man was a product of evolution. Let's just turn quickly to Genesis chapter 1.
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I mean, you look at society today, if you believe in six -day creation, you are an ignoramus, you are a troglodyte, you don't know anything, and you should be in the moral majority, and you should probably go to some kind of school liberty or some place like that and just get out of our way.
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We have an agenda. Reminds me of the Russian cosmonaut,
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Garrigan, who was circling around earth, and he came back and he said, I didn't see any God up there.
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And I always remember what MacArthur said. You should have put your head out the window and took your helmet off. You would have seen
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God right away. Immediately, without a space suit.
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I mean, if you believe the Bible, if you're that dense to believe the Bible, if you're that narrow -minded, then at least say,
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I will reflect the views that are found in the Bible. If not, call yourself, you know, Mikey -anity or something like that, because Christianity is already taken.
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Makarowski -ism or something. I don't know. Call yourself anything you want, but Christians believe in Christ who affirmed the
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Old Testament. And he affirmed the Old Testament with Noah, with Sodom, with Lot, and the most strangely supernatural stories
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Christ affirmed, including Genesis chapter 1. God said,
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Genesis 1 -26, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. This is the language of royalty.
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There's nothing about the Trinity here. It's just this great royal language. And let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
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God created man in His own image, in the image of God. He created him. I mean, how hard is that to read?
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Male and female, He created them. Matthew 19,
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Jesus said, Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female?
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Show me someone that believes in evolution, and I'll show you somebody that likes to sin, but doesn't want to stand before God on judgment day.
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Unbelief, and the unbelief in creation, lack of belief in creation, and a belief in evolution, is a moral problem.
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The fool has said in his heart what? There's no God. Who wants to sin, when in the middle of sin, you've got a conscience that says, there's a divine layaway program.
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You ever heard of those? Kim put something on layaway the other day, and I thought it was so strange, because what's layaway?
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It was the last time we had heard of layaway, and I was really proud of her. You know, it's that strange concept that you don't buy anything until you have the money to buy it.
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And so, she said, I got this on layaway. There's a divine layaway program too. Sin now, pay later.
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And that will spoil your party really quickly. Evolution is a religion that will allow the conscience to sleep at night.
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Number five, number five. This was brought up earlier. When a church goes to hell, it proclaims the victimhood of God, of man, excuse me, that a man is a victim.
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I've heard that about Michael Jackson already this week. He was a victim of media, of culture, of all these kind of things.
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Michael Jackson was a sinner. James 1, please.
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Is man really just a victim? Is man just dysfunctional? I read this week that one person was so bad, another one came alongside and said, he doesn't really know what he's doing.
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He is morally handicapped. That's an interesting way to put it.
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The story of the 14 -year -old Rod Matthews who watched faces of death so much that he wanted to see death for real.
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James 1 says, this whole dysfunctional thing, you can't use it as an excuse.
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There's a book called I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional. Because sin has affected us. I've found this week there are drug addicts, alcohol addicts, sex addicts, love addicts, money addicts, shoplifting addicts, child abuse addicts, fast boat addicts, successful business addicts, religious addicts, a host of others, maybe talk show host addicts,
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I don't know. So much so that Hallmark cannot miss its way into a holiday and has a special line of cards that can be good for therapy.
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Matter of fact, I've always hated Hallmark because it makes me feel guilty for some kind of weird holiday made just for the increase of guilt for the husband.
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And so they've got probably a card for me as I feel guilty when I don't remember this special holiday that Hallmark created long ago.
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That would probably be good. We have overeaters anonymous, gamblers anonymous, spenders anonymous, debtors anonymous, fundamentalists anonymous, parents anonymous.
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What's that? Child workaholics anonymous, pills anonymous.
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I like this one. This is big. Emotions anonymous, kleptomaniacs anonymous, compulsive shoppers anonymous.
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I think we're pretty sick. But it's not sick.
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It's sick if you say the heart is desperately sick, deceitful above all else, tying it to sin.
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Look at what James says. Let no one in verse 13 when he's tempted say, I'm being tempted by God, it's
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God's sovereignty and first cause, secondary cause and all this kind of ordained stuff by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil and He emphatically
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Himself does not tempt anyone. James says, don't you dare say this.
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You can't say that. Who really made you do it? Verse 14, each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his wife.
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Each one is carried away and enticed by his didn't feel very good that day.
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Each one is carried away and enticed by the pressures I have at work. Each one is carried away and enticed by his own environment.
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Each one is carried away and enticed by what? By whom? His own lust.
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I mean, I grew up in the 60's and 70's. We have a couple of older folks here tonight. I mean, it is Flip Wilson theology for sure.
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Flip Wilson was the equivalent of Bill Cosby for you kids as a comedian and he got up there and he said what?
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The devil made me do it. Specifically, what did the devil make Flip Wilson do? The devil made me buy that dress.
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I guess you didn't see that. I mean, yeah. Johnny, go forth. People blame everybody but themselves.
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Oh, it's my Italian temper. I PMS.
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I ate some Twinkies and then I murdered the guy. Who do you blame for your sin?
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I love the story with J. Vernon McGee. Some psychologists were talking and discussing with patients.
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What about your background? By the way, if you're not over 45, you won't get the joke.
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What about your background? Did your mother love you? Did anything unusual happen while you were in the womb? Well, my mother was caught in a rainstorm while she was carrying me.
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The psychologist responded, that's the reason you're a drip. I said
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I would never make a joke in the pulpit but J. Vernon McGee said it. I just read it. Syndromes.
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It's like there's some kind of external force. Some kind of attack that comes on the outside and then it's left like, well, we're not responsible.
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One of the best verses I could ever share with anybody in this church comes from Proverbs 28 .13.
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If you haven't memorized it, you should. Proverbs 28 .13. When we have the right diagnosis, we have the right solution.
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If we don't have the right diagnosis, we don't have the right solution. And here, when we realize that, as Jesus said, the evils come from the inside and make a man unclean.
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That we own what we do. We say we did it. We can't say our feelings pushed us.
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We say we're fallen creatures and we have sinful bents and propensities.
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We then can come to this great forgiving God and Proverbs 28 .13 says,
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He who conceals his transgressions. I was born that way. I don't know. Something came upon me.
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Will not prosper. But he who confesses, God, I agree it's a sin.
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It's not some kind of disease or syndrome or something that came upon me that I can't control.
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I agree. And I will, by your grace, forsake. They will find what?
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Mercy. You want compassion from God and mercy from God? Then don't go around blaming everything on everybody else.
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Proverbs 19 .3 says, A man's own folly ruins his life. Number six. Let's find the spiciest thing
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I can find. Well, it's not as spicy as you might like, but it's very important and I want to end on this one.
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Number six. You can tell when a church begins to slip down the slope of liberalism and go to hell.
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Proverbial hell is when they think that Jesus on the cross only died as an example of love.
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Was that love on the cross? God demonstrates His own love.
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While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. But was that the extent of it? If you think it's only an example of love, if you think it's only, oh, what a good martyr's death, you've missed it.
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You've missed the real meaning of the atonement. What is the key word when you think of the atonement and what
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Jesus did? What's one of the key words that you could think of so you won't think, oh,
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He only died as a martyr. He only did it because He kind of loved us.
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What's the key word? Sacrifice?
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Close? Propitiation? Good. Who said that? Good. Substitution.
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That's the word I'm looking for, which includes propitiation, which includes God the Son being a wrath bearer.
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Why don't you turn to 1 Peter 3, verse 18. Jesus did die as an example of love.
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That was love incarnate on the cross. But love doesn't atone for sins. Love doesn't have to say, you know, sin must be punished by the holy justice of God.
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Love only says, well, that was an act of love before, man. It doesn't say God is angry with the wicked every day and is going to punish
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His Son. That God, in fact, will treat His Son as if He's damning
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His Son on Calvary so He doesn't damn us. He will punish us. He will take an eternity's worth of hell, condense it into three hours, and then judge
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Jesus. And so what we have to have so we don't turn into liberals is to be clear and precise.
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By the way, there's a good thing that happens when there is liberalism that pops up.
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Here's the good thing that happens. The church looks at it and says, you know what, that's not good. We'd better have a council.
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We'd better have a committee. We'd better write a statement to say this is what we affirm and this is what we deny.
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That's a good thing that happens. Over the centuries, whether it's any kind of council and the
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Athanasius Council or anything else where you say they have affirmed and denied things and they would say, we affirm that it was an act of love.
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We affirm that it was a good example. But we deny that that's the only thing that it was. And listen to the language of substitution.
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One dying in the place of another. Vicarious substitution. Without it, you have no
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Christianity. You have no forgiveness of sins. Jesus has to die instead of sinners, on their behalf, in their place, for them.
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1 Peter 3 .18 is a good encapsulation of that. See if you can find substitution there. For Christ also died for sins once for all.
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The just for the unjust. There it is, in order that He might bring us to God.
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That's what we have to make sure we don't lose is this idea of substitutionary atonement. If God is angry with the wicked every day, how does
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He assuage His wrath? He doesn't pour it out on the people of His own choice.
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He pours it out on Jesus instead. So you have to remember the substitutionary atonement of Christ Jesus, not just He was a
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God of love and He was showing love. Because that's what the Unitarians do. That's what the Socinians do.
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That's what the unbelievers do. Boy, I hate to just stop.
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If you don't preach for five weeks, you don't want to stop. Last one. I said it was going to be the last one.
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If you've got to go, Jonathan, go forth. But if you want to stick around, one last one
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I'm going to stick around for. When a church loses its way, it begins to teach that when you discuss hell, it's counterproductive.
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Don't talk about hell anymore. Just like with Brian McLaren saying we should have a five year moratorium on homosexuality and discussing is that a sin or not?
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So too, they don't want to talk a lot about hell. True or false? Jesus talked more about hell than He did heaven.
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True or false? Hell, as revealed in the Bible, seems so horrible that if it wasn't for the teaching of the
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New Testament, you could not dare believe it. True for me. If the Bible wasn't in my mind confirmed as the
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Word of God, I couldn't believe it. And in Matthew chapter 5,
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Jesus speaks of hell. People should be thrown into the fiery hell if they just say you fool or they have hatred in their heart.
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Matthew chapter 5, if you stumble into one sin, hell is deserved.
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Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10, Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear
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Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. Show me someone who reads the
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New Testament and says that's true. It is so horrible, it is so unimaginable that they resort to other things.
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We can't have that. We need to add in 1500 purgatory. We can't have that.
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We have to say everybody just goes to sleep. We can't have that. We have to say you're annihilated.
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We can't have that. Something has to give. And once you say, I know it's so horrible I can't take it, then you're on your way to liberalism.
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2 Peter says, If God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into the hell and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment,
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I wonder what He'll do for the false teachers. And so I leave with this thought. It's not a happy thought, but it's a true thought.
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It ends in joy. If you're here today and you have one sin not paid for by Jesus Christ, when you die, you are going to hell.
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One sin. When I was a kid, I used to like to shoot BBs. I have a question for you.
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When you'd shoot a BB through a glass window like that right there, would it shatter the entire glass?
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Most of the time it doesn't. It kind of gives this little hole, and on one side on the entrance it's a small hole, and on the other side it's kind of this it almost looks like it's kind of countersunk.
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I mean, it's just the the BB blasting some glass out, and it's kind of and that's how people think of sin.
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I've sinned one time against God. God's not really that holy. The sin's not that big a deal, and it's just like a little
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BB gun through the window. It was about two years ago, and I was shooting the
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BB gun. I was telling Luke what not to shoot at and what to shoot at, and I looked over there and shot, and I shot a hole right in the glass of my shed in the back.
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I wanted to blame my son, by the way, and don't you ever do that again. You're making my arm move, looking at me the wrong way.
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But here's what sin is, according to James 2, verse 10. It is like a sledgehammer going through that window.
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It is like a 50 pound head of a sledgehammer swung by some kind of huge ox of a man, and it shatters the entire thing.
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One sin puts you under the curse of God, Galatians chapter 3. One and only one.
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If you have lived a perfect life in the past, which you haven't, and only sin once in the future, there's hell to pay.
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If I said, let's close in prayer, we'd all deserve it because we've all sinned. We've all done the wrong thing.
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But what you won't hear in a liberal church very often is this. There is real forgiveness for real sin because a real
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Jesus on a real cross really assuaged the wrath of God and drank the wrath of God fully so we wouldn't have to.
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There's only one hope. Judgment's coming. We talked about it this morning.
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What's the lesson when Michael Jackson dies? Answer, you're next. Or you could be next.
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So we have nothing to hope for except what the Bible teaches. If you cast the
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Bible out and don't want to believe it, you might as well just get rid of everything because it's a big lie if you don't want to just believe it on its face.
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So I ask you, when you die and stand before God and He says to you, what right do you have to come into my heaven?
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What's the answer? The answer will probably be with a crouching, look, I don't have any right and I have sinned against you and I've called myself a victim.
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I thought I was a product of evolution and I thought if I had a wafer, every
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Sunday we're good to go and then I could live like hell the rest of the week. The answers are over and over and over.
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I would have said this before God saved me. I was baptized as a baby. The only hope people have is to say what the song said that we sang about before.
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My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' what? Blood and righteousness. We are redeemed people.
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Could there be anything greater for us to say we know from the Bible about heaven, hell, what happens when you die and if Jesus comes back today, we know the truth.
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Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for this day. Thank you for the teaching that your son has given us through the word, through the
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Old Testament prophets and through the apostles and we are very, very thankful that you've protected our church and how by your grace we believe in heaven and hell and sin and judgment and Jesus, the wonderful Redeemer who does love his people and so we're thankful for that and I pray that you would guard this church long after I'm dead and gone, the elders are dead and gone.
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I pray for the next generation of Bethlehem Bible Church to be godly men and women.
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I even think about Jonathan Rathbun. Lord, may you make young men like Jonathan and maybe even
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Jonathan, a man who would stand in a pulpit and stand there and proclaim the word of God with all candor, with all passion and with all truth.
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Would you raise up other men and women at this church to hold the baton when the old ones pass on?
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We would never want it said of Bethlehem Bible Church. Don't go there. It's like a sepulcher.
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It's like a tomb and on the inside there's nothing but dead men bones. Lord, protect us from that until your son comes back in Jesus' name.