Threats To The Gospel

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Father in heaven, we thank you for this time where we can get together. How good you've been to us in our lives, how you've been so faithful.
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So many things have come and gone, as J .C. Ryle has said, and even our love towards you has flickered at times and grown dim at other times.
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Yet you've been so faithful. You've been faithful, you've been consistent, and you're the
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God who never changes. So thank you for not letting us stay in those dark valleys.
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Thank you for being close to us. I think about our friend in California, Wendy, and I just would pray that this brain tumor would be diagnosed, and you would really help her, and there would be a great outcome in the middle of all this.
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I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Well let me ask you a question. What are the threats to the gospel in our day and age?
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What are the threats in the gospel in basically every age? Tonight we're going to look at some of those gospel threats, but I'm going to ask you the question first.
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On Sunday mornings I ask questions I don't really want you to answer, but on Sunday night I do. So can you tell me what you think the threats of the gospel are?
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Who could tell me? I think a threat of the gospel is, yes Brian? Irrelevant. Okay, that the gospel is irrelevant.
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By the way, I always found that as an interesting thing because by definition God is pretty relevant.
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Heaven, hell, life, breath, sin, forgiveness, God is the most relevant word probably in all of history.
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Okay, other things? Are there threats to the gospel? Is the gospel just going along fine?
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Yes? Okay, I think that's fair for the sake of the, pardon me?
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Okay, so to repeat it, to take the word out of context and people just play fast and loose with the
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Bible without understanding its authorial intent and its purpose and why it was written and what God really means when
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He says something. Okay, excellent. I'll talk about that a little bit tonight. What are some other threats to the gospel? The good news that Christ Jesus saves sinners and was raised from the dead.
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Yes? Okay, good, only giving an incomplete version of the gospel.
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Some of you and I have talked about this even recently. There are churches that will minimize the talk about sin influenced by many people including
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Joe Osteen and Rick Warren. Why talk a lot about sin? You know you're a sinner anyway so let's not talk about that.
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Let's get straight to other issues. Good. Barry? A misplaced desire for being ecumenical and so James chapter 3 we learned this morning.
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Wisdom from above is first what? Then what? It's first pure then peaceable.
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This desire to be ecumenical and be everybody's friend and brother at the expense of truth is always and forever wrong.
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That is a threat to the gospel. What else is a threat to the gospel? Yes, Russ? Okay, the ideologies of science trying to attack the foundation of scripture and its sufficiency and its veracity and its being
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God breathed. Okay, good. Anything else? What I should probably do is ask you in my study about on Wednesday what are the threats to the gospel.
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I could write these things down and I could just preach to you back your own sermon. It's kind of a reverb thing. Just kidding. Yes? The merging of different religions and calling that the gospel.
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Islam and Christianity are being merged. Universalism saying that is the gospel. Okay, when we merge something like Christianity and Islam together.
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What do you call those two words put together? Yeah, chryslum. Yes, those kind of things.
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Sounds funny but it's actually deadly. That is a threat to the gospel. Okay, what else? All good answers so far.
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Yes? Okay, misapplication of the gospel.
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Well, we know what the gospel is but how does it flesh itself out methodologically? Excellent.
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Good. By the way, I don't tell you this very often but I love preaching to you. You know how fun it was this morning?
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Although it was hard to preach Romans 2 to a congregation mainly of believers, it was so great afterwards because basically people were saying, you know what?
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I want the truth. Thanks for the truth. Tell me what the Bible teaches. And so that is so great.
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People told me that 16 years ago when I got here but most of the people didn't really believe it.
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Teach us all the Bible, Mike. Teach us everything. Teach us who Jesus is verse by verse. That's what we want.
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And I came out here to do that very thing. Well, I came out to do it. Kim had to come. But they didn't really want it after we got into some of the tougher doctrines, some of the harder doctrines, some of the severe doctrines.
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So I was super blessed this morning that I could stand up and give you a tough sermon and you were thankful because you heard
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God's word proclaimed. I love preaching to Bethlehem Bible Church. Okay, what else?
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Now that I've buttered you up, I'm going to go for the kill in just a second. That's the way it works. Yes, Scott. Okay, let me put it in theological terms for you,
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Scott, because you're exactly right. There seems to be an overemphasis of God's imminent relationship, imminent relationship that he's close to us and he's a friend and he walks with me and he talks with me.
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At the expense of God is over us as a holy God who has indignation and wrath and who is righteous and just.
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And so there's a misbalance of we want the love part of God, but we don't want to have the justice and wrath part.
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Would that be fair? Yes. Okay, excellent. Yes. Cultural indifference. Cultural indifference, yeah.
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Apathetic. It just doesn't even matter about the gospel. And so there's no threat because we just don't even care.
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Okay, excellent. Have you been on a college campus lately or something, young man? Okay, good.
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Yes. All truth is truth.
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It's true for you. Absolutely. Postmodernism wants to attack the gospel. Well, good.
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Anything else before I get into the message? Excellent observations congregation.
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Let me take you first to 2 Corinthians 10 before I give you my list, but I'm going to probably focus tonight on the list that is in evangelical circles.
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I could talk about Islam and I could talk about postmodernism, but we're going to talk about threats to the gospel that are in our circles in Christian churches so that we think rightly.
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So I want you to first to go to 2 Corinthians 10 3 and following as we look at what a battle is like.
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We are in a battle and we ought to be acting like men. 1 Corinthians 16 13 and 14.
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Even the women of the church here should be courageous and brave and act like a man would be instead of a child.
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This is not a child's game standing up for the gospel. We need real men of God. We need real women of God, but we have to place our mind rightly to think about how the battle is to be won.
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Because if you don't think about spiritual battles properly, you'll think about armies and numbers and cash and buildings and million man marches.
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You're not going to think about it correctly. And so Paul says, as he's defending his apostolic credentials against fake posing apostles, he says, for though we
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Paul and the real apostles walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
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For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
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That's what we need. We need something that's powerful. And if we're fighting against spiritual things, ideologies, thoughts, and the way people think we just can't come to this like we would in a natural naturalistic way.
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We, verse five, destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey
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Christ. Paul says, I'm not in this battle using weapons of politics, of economics, of ingenuity, how smart, how clever
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I might be. That's like taking a pea shooter and going up to a Panzer in World War II.
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It just doesn't work. And all this language here is language of battle.
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We probably should have sang three songs with Pastor Steve leading tonight, and they all should have been
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Rise Up O Men of God, what are the other soldier ones? Pardon me?
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Honorary Christian Soldier, yes. And what was the other one? Stand Up for Jesus. Is that an old
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Lutheran camp song too? Just kidding. That's right though. Stand up for Jesus. Courage.
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There's a battle. There's a fight. But how do we fight this battle? The battle is against not people.
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The homosexual community isn't the enemy. It's the ideology and the thoughts.
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And Paul says we've got to use the right kind of strategy. And the language is war. See that in verse three?
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Waging war. How many people played the game Stratego when you were growing up?
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Several did. Mark Gale, you didn't play it? I knew you played it. That's the Greek word here. The strategy.
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We strategy. We war against. This is all military metaphor. And Paul knew enough about the military by living in that culture and by being chained to soldiers on a regular basis.
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Paul says we've got to use things that will work, not some impotent methodology. There's an invisible spiritual enemy.
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And philosophy won't work. Entertainment won't work. I could ask you the question,
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Christian congregation. All the rallies and marches over the last 30 years by Christians, are we more
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Christian nation because of all the marches and rallies we've had? All the ecumenical let's get together, are we a more
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Christian nation based on all the ecumenical stuff that's gone on? Doesn't work.
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Politics don't work because it's got the wrong view of sin. Psychology doesn't work because it's got the wrong view of sin.
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Paul says, I need something that really works. And he says, for the weapons of our warfare are the right kind of weapons.
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They've got divine power, verse 4, strong or mighty before God.
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We've got to have something like this because Satan is a deceiver and a liar and he uses subterfuge and he tries to flank us.
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How do we overcome this enemy? Well, if you're going to do man -centered stuff, then you might as well get your
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BB gun out on Omaha Beach on Normandy and start firing away in the pillboxes because that's what effect you're going to have.
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We need to have divine power, look at verse 4, to destroy strongholds because we're after arguments.
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We need to have some divine wrecking ball. And the people at Corinth that Paul was writing to, they all knew up at the top of that hill was the fortress because you put fortresses up on the top of the hill.
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And as Paul was writing to the church at Corinth, they all easily could have said, you know what? Up at the top of the Agora there, not the
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Agora of the Acropolis, we have that fort up there. How do you destroy a fort, a spiritual fort?
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We've got to use God's means. That stronghold's got to be taken down. But how?
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Proverbs 21 says, a wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the stronghold in which they trust.
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And I'd go further and say a wise man uses God's methods as a weapon.
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Mighty not in the world's eyes, but mighty in God's eyes. You know the verse very well, don't you? Zechariah 4, 6.
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This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the
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Lord. It's almost counterintuitive in a day and age of money and groups and how many people you have.
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One man said it tried to invade Normandy with comedians and clowns.
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What did the apostles do? Look at verse 5. We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
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We're destroying speculations. Trying to demolish the citadel of the enemies.
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We're casting down every lofty thing. Maybe your text says, casting down imaginations.
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And then Paul says, we've got to take them captive. It's very interesting, that word captive.
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It comes from the Greek word, two words. One is to be taken and the other word is spear.
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To be taken by spear, the two Greek words. You put them together and that's what it means to be taken captive. We're out there trying to take these ideas captive as POWs.
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All a military metaphor. Paul's going to try to knock these ideas of self -esteem, works righteousness and everything in between off their perch of pride.
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And how is it done? For Paul it is the advance of the gospel. It's all about the gospel.
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How does the gospel go forward? Apply the truth of the Bible to every situation is how
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Paul does it. Responding properly to God, thinking rightly about God.
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Calvin said, we must learn to think of the gospel as a fire at which the wrath of Satan is enkindled.
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And so he cannot but arm himself to fight whenever he sees an opportunity for advancing the gospel.
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So here's my point. No wonder Satan is after our only weapon.
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What is our weapon? Not many mighty here, at least I don't know of many.
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Not many noble here. Not many rich. Not many famous. So what's our weapon?
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Our weapon is the gospel. Our weapon, Ephesians 6 says, is the sword of the spirit. No wonder Satan attacks the gospel.
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Luke and I were watching a YouTube video a while ago or maybe just on TV or something. And there was a guy sitting on a park bench.
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And he had a gun and he was making all kinds of threats. They brought the SWAT team in, the snipers.
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And from a long distance, I don't know how long the distance was. Luke would tell me probably in meters and yards. And the
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SWAT team guy, the sniper, shot the pistol out of the guy's hand. Luke, is that true?
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You weren't watching with me. That was Gracie. But I watched it.
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And so here we have the one thing that is our weapon against this spiritual battle.
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And without it, we don't have anything. No wonder Satan is trying to shoot that out of our hand. So tonight, let me give you several threats to the gospel.
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So you can guard your weapon. So you can keep your weapon sure, clean.
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So you use the sword of the spirit. Threats to the gospel and gospel ministry.
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I'm starting from within first before we move out. Number one, the first threat of the gospel that I have is the church just assumes the gospel.
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The church basically assumes the gospel. Assumes the Christians or the people are
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Christians. Assumes the people know it. They do the whole Osteen deal. We're just going to assume everybody thinks they're sinful people so we don't have to keep talking about sin anymore.
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And when you assume the gospel, there are people in your congregation who don't know the gospel. What is the gospel?
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Some people say to me, well, what's the gospel? If I had time tonight, here's what I would do. I would hand out a piece of paper to every one of you and write down what is the gospel.
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You'd be surprised what I would get. Some might say it's a certain kind of music from the south.
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No, nobody here would say that, would they? Gospel. Some would say Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
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But how many really would talk about Jesus Christ, the sin -bearing
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Savior who died on our behalf and was raised from the dead? How many would really talk about the gospel?
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Turn with me, if you would, to 1 Corinthians 15. I know I'm done with 1 Corinthians 15 technically, but emotionally
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I can't get rid of it. It just keeps drawing me back. You kind of think you preach through a passage and you never have to deal with it again.
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One and done. But no, not the Word of God. 1 Corinthians 15. You know this passage, but I'm going to just keep going back to it over and over and over.
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I used to think on my tombstone I went in 2 Corinthians 5 .21, but I keep finding other verses.
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And so you're going to have to raise a lot of money at this church to give me a big tombstone. Not because I want to be a great guy, but I have got a lot of Bible verses to put on there.
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You know, in the old days in New England you had churches, and then next to the church you would have a cemetery.
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And by the way, the sermons are much more effective when you walk past the graves of your loved ones as you walked into the church.
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Your loved ones weren't buried at Forest Hills, Long, Running Hills Cemetery. They were right here.
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And if the churches back in those days didn't like their pastor, they buried them out in the cemetery.
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If they didn't like him, but kind of grew to like him a little bit, they'd make him closer to the door, the cemetery.
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And if they loved their pastor, they buried him underneath one of the pews in the back. But if he was their super -duper favorite pastor of almost all time, they buried him under the front row.
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But if he was the epitome of being a pastor, he was buried under the pulpit.
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What does this have to do with anything? Well, you're all listening very intently right now, aren't you?
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And it's a Sunday night, we have more freedom to kind of do this, because they spend a lot of time editing the Sunday night sermons before they go online.
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Not much on Sunday morning. See, what was
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I talking about? What's the tie -in? I know that! There's a tie -in.
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Oh, yes! What I want in my tombstone! Thank you! These verses, especially verse 3 and 4, have got to be on there.
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Put 2 Corinthians 5, 21 in a smaller font, but these have to be here too. You know the verses, but let's just go back.
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I'm just drawn to it. Chapter 15, verse 1. I don't want to assume you know the gospel, because that's a gospel threat.
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So what is the gospel? Verse 1. Now I remind you, brothers, of the gospel.
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Of the good news that I gospel to you. There's even a way you talk about the gospel, and you don't talk about the gospel like,
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I have something to share with you. Here's how Paul talked about the gospel. I gospel the gospel!
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I gospel the gospel! He's excited about it. It's something that you tell of victory.
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We won! Of the gospel I gospel to you, which you received. In which you stand.
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And by which, verse 2, the gospel, you are being saved. Gospel just means a good message.
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Good news. Glad tidings. And then
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Paul gives us some specifics. For I deliver to you, as of first importance,
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This isn't Paul assuming the gospel. He didn't assume, yeah, Corinthians, you know it all. No, when
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I went there in person for 18 months in Acts 18, this is what I told you, and now I'm telling you again.
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The gospel isn't to be assumed. You know what it's to be done with? It's to be protected and passed down.
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Preserved by learning, preserved by believing, and preserved by passing the next generation. That's why
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I've said it once, I'll say it a thousand times. If you teach Sunday school at this church, A.
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Thank you. Thank you for teaching Sunday school. Thank you for teaching our kids.
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But if you teach moralism and manners and how -tos every week, then thank you for what you used to do wrong.
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You're fired, and let me teach you the right way, and then rehire you. Is that politically correct enough?
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Scott, is that okay with our deacon policy for Sunday school teachers? Friends, don't assume the little kids.
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When my kids are in your class, don't assume they're the pastor's kids. They know it. You teach the gospel.
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You preach the good news all the time. Paul said in verse 3, as of first importance.
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Everything in the Bible is important, but this is the most important. What I also received.
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Christ died on our behalf as a substitute. This is substitutionary language for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.
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It's nothing new. Prophesied of the Old Testament about the Messiah. Read Isaiah 53.
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Read Psalm 22. That he was buried a certain death.
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That he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. And wouldn't you know it,
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God stands for his integrity, and God protects his integrity, and God forgives sin at the cost of his own son.
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The church doesn't assume the gospel. The church preaches the gospel, preserves it by telling other people.
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We have the Great Commission for a reason. Romans 10, how will they hear without a preacher? Number two.
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The second threat to the gospel in local churches. First is the church assumes the gospel.
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Second, the church makes the gospel all about how you receive the gospel instead of what
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Jesus did at Calvary. In other words, it's about personal approbation.
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It's wrong side up. You meet a friend. You can do it one of two ways.
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Well, if you come to Christ, your marriage will be better. If you come to Christ, your finances will be better.
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If you come to Christ, your relationship with your mother will be better. Is that the gospel?
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Michael Horton said popular Christian books and broadcasts make Jesus the answer to everything.
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He fixes broken lives, marriages, relationships, helps us to recover from addictions, relieves stress, teaches us how to raise kids, positive kids in a negative world, improves our self -esteem, boosts our optimism about life.
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It is an objective announcement, rather, about what God has done for us in His Son.
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How do you preach the gospel? You should be preaching the gospel by, this is what Jesus objectively did.
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Now, eventually, if you want to say, here's how you believe, this is what repentance is. If you want to tell them your story, you can.
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But here's what we do at Bethlehem Bible Church. When there's a baptism, we ask this, please write out your testimony.
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And so, what do most people do? Well, let's even back up a little bit. What I like to do at new members classes and other times, could you please tell me your testimony in one minute?
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I learned that trick from Mark Dever. And then if you're really, you know, if it's a guy,
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I probably will get out my watch. If it's a lady, I'll just smile. Get out your watch, go.
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You got one minute. 50 seconds in,
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I say, 10 seconds left. And you know what? They're still telling the story about how they opened up the
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Gideon Bible in the hotel. They haven't gotten to anything yet, like sin, substitution, resurrection.
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But the other thing about giving your testimony is, well, when I was down and out of my luck, and when
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I had this, and when I had that, and then I let Jesus in my heart, and then I allowed him to believe, and then
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I let the gentleman Jesus in who was knocking the door, and then I opened it up and let him in. Okay, I'm not going to be mean.
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I understand what you mean. But the gospel in these terms in 1 Corinthians, the gospel in the
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Bible days, the gospel in the days like the Reformation, it was all not about me.
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It was about what Jesus did, how Jesus accomplished redemption, how Jesus accomplished propitiation, how
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Jesus accomplished reconciliation. No wonder it's called the gospel of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the
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Son, the gospel of the kingdom, the gospel of the grace of God, the gospel of the glory of Christ, the gospel of peace, and the eternal gospel.
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My life isn't the news. For those of you that know me well, I'm surprised you're not yelling amen right now. Woodward did with his eyes, but he was too afraid to do with his lips.
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Mike's not the good news. I need to be... Sorry, Dan. I was in Christian love.
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Horton goes on to say, getting saved has come to mean what happened to me when I said yes to Jesus rather than the announcement of God's triumph at the cross.
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But see, in this postmodern relational time we live in, share with me how you came to the
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Lord. Share with me how you came to the Lord. Okay, I understand that. But when people ask you the question, then you say, all right,
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I'd love to share. Now let me first tell you about the one who is the Lord, how he brought me to himself, what he did.
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Give him... Here's what I always tell people with their baptismal testimonies.
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You need to be passive in your testimony and have God be active.
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Use active verbs for God. Use passive verbs for yourself because God is the
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Savior and you are the wonderful recipient of said salvation. God doesn't believe for you,
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I know. But put more focus on what Jesus did with his life and death than you put on how you appropriated that into your life by faith.
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Of course, talk about faith. Of course, tell people about your testimony. But there's not a whole lot of testimony talk in the
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New Testament. You say, oh, I know Jesus said to the man, go tell everybody the great things God has done for you.
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That's true, but the focus is on go tell everybody the great things God has done for you, not how you let
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Gentleman Jesus into your house. Stand there knocking until you let him in. Ritterbos said, while in Calvin and Luther, all the emphasis fell on the redemptive event that took place with Christ's death and resurrection.
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Later, under the influence of pietism, mysticism, and moralism, the emphasis shifted to the individual approbation of the salvation given in Christ and to its mystical and moral effect in the life of the believer.
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Friends, do you see why this is important? Because you can go talk to a Mormon and ask him how he got changed and saved and the burning of the bosom and all that stuff.
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It has nothing to do with the Gospel. Even our faith takes its true character,
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Sinclair Ferguson said, and quality from its object and not from itself.
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Dia Carson said, way how many presentations of the Gospel have been eased by portraying
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Jesus as the one who fix marriages, ensures the American dream, cancels loneliness, gives us power, and generally makes us happy and relevant.
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If you begin with perceived needs, you will always distort the Gospel. Good reporting, which we don't get much these days, did preach their
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Gospel of news. It wasn't good news in the newspaper, but it was news. This is what happened.
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There's been a shooting downtown and so and so, there was a shooting in Santa Cruz recently, two policemen who didn't have uniforms on went to the house of a young man.
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He saw them outside. He ran around with a gun, shot both of them with his .45,
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killed them both, took their guns, jumped into the squad car, drove off trying to shoot other people.
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Eventually, he was surrounded and he died in the hail of gunfire. Everything I told you just happened in Santa Cruz just a few days ago, but I told it in such a way that it represented what happened.
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It wasn't, well, and then I was there and this is how I felt and this is how
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I perceived it to be and this is what my emotions were like. Newspaper writers don't write that way.
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At least they didn't before all this craziness was going on in the last ten years. So here's the simple thing.
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When you get the opportunity to talk about Jesus, talk about Jesus instead of how you let
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Him save you. Getting saved should be what God did through Christ primarily and then secondarily get to how
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God has changed your life. Number three. I was almost tempted to ask
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Mark Arnold, the encouraging eager one, to give me the one minute presentation of the gospel, but we'll do that another time.
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I was tempted. Sixty seconds. You got fifteen seconds to talk about your own sin and depravity and get to the cross.
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That's what you've got to do if you've got one minute. Number three. The third threat to the gospel.
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It's not making the gospel the top priority in a local church. It blends in with some of the others, but what is implicit let me make explicit.
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Number one, assume the gospel. Number two, make the gospel about how I received it versus what Jesus did. Number three, not making the gospel the top priority.
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Friends, if I could just go a little no -co on you right now, I should probably call Steve up to do that very thing.
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Do you know why people pick churches today? If they're not thinking properly?
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Steve? Fundraising? Yeah. You're privy to information that not everybody else is privy to.
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What's the youth group like? What's the band like? What?
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What's the parking lot like? We're so smoked with that.
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How do people choose churches? It never ceases to amaze me.
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I know we are what we are by the grace of God, but grown men allowing their families, especially their children, to lead them.
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How would you like a church? Well, you think a kid who's a pagan kid who's 12 years old is going to like church without super cool rock music and a big youth ministry and a watered -down sermonette for Christianettes?
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It's okay if you ask the kids, did you like the church today? And they said, yes, we did. Well, what did you like about it? Well, this is what you should like about it, and good job for liking that.
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Or, no, that's not what we should like. The top priority is the gospel, not is it fun or they have drama.
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I think those of you that know me, you know that I like to have fun. I think it's probably a pride thing, but I would hope to think that you think
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I have a lot of fun and that I'm fun to be around. We'd like to have Mike come over. He'd be fun. I'm into fun.
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Somebody said, yeah, but on Sunday, he said, I notice when you're in the pulpit, you're deadly serious.
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Well, that's true because we are underneath this Word. Go back to verse 3 of chapter 15 of 1
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Corinthians. As of first importance, if I have to win people with rock music, then
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I'm going to have to keep giving it to them, to keep them. From now on, if you're ever out of town, on business or vacation, and you want to find out a
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Bible teaching church for you to worship on Sunday, if you can't get the Internet, give them a call. Say, oh, you know,
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I'm looking for a service to go to on Sunday. Could you please tell me what's the gospel? That would be a good thing to ask.
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We get calls to the church all the time. Steve even got an email this week. Basically, do you have a singles ministry?
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Do you have, what did she call it, Steve, a fun ministry? A fun ministry.
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Yeah, I guess. It's the Ladies Tuesday group. They seem to have a lot of fun. She also asked, what was the other interesting thing she asked?
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Is there a reason why all the elders are men or is it just like coincidence? Steve responded, and he wrote back, and he did it in a very nice way.
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Steve's kind of suave on this kind of stuff, and that's why I let him do it. Thank you for asking.
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And then he did the whole pastor thing. I'm glad you asked this, but this is what you should really be looking for in a church.
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And this is what the gospel is. And then he preached the gospel to her because she, by her questions, made him wonder, could she maybe not even be a
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Christian? And then she wrote back, and she said, what?
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Rude. Rude. You're rude and disrespectful. That's it. What if next week we instituted a policy?
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No youth group. No nursery. No music. No singing.
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An hour and a half sermons. That's it. I pray. I preach for an hour and a half. That's it.
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Oh, sorry. And a two -minute intro by Mark about a book.
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Oh, they do book reviews there. Friends, of course we're supposed to sing and give and all these other things.
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But if you want super -duper great drama, why watch
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Christians who are half -baked in their drama and it looks cheesy anyway go buy yourself tickets to the
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Wang or Broadway? It's like a caricature, some kind of Saturday Night Live skit when you see
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Christians doing drama because it's so bad. The world does it better. Same thing.
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We want the rock music thing. It's a characterization of some kind of, you know, I don't know what it is.
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I almost said striper carol, but that wouldn't have been fair. Just some kind of, like striper today, but they look like back in those days.
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Some rocks. Friends, I know what we can do. I can even do it better than the world.
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And that is preach the gospel of Christ Jesus verse by verse. The world can't do it. What does the church offer that the world can't do better?
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The preaching of the Word of God. How big is the youth group? Jerry Bridges said, the gospel is not only the most important message of all history, it is the only essential message in all of history.
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When you think about the old church buildings, it was one square building, Puritan style.
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No rooms for Sunday school. No rooms for the bathroom. One meeting place.
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That was it. And then what happened? Then Charles Finney comes along and says, let's buy a theater.
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And the whole idea of corporate worship changed when you move from a building meeting house that square with the pulpit in the front and the center to now the place that has the stage and the architecture helped
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Finney change worship. All right. Well, I don't know how much,
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I don't really have that much time, but you're asking for the 90 minute deal, so let me just skip this one and we'll do the last one.
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We'll have to pick this up in a couple weeks. Threats to the gospel. This slogan is a threat to the gospel.
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Number four. This slogan is a threat to the gospel and here's the slogan.
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We want to be known for what we're for not what we're against. Turn your Bibles to Galatians chapter one, please.
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Galatians chapter one. Christian man, Christian woman. You better get used to something right now and let me speak firmly.
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Get used to saying the word no. That is not acceptable. Not and no. No, that's a false gospel.
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No, that's a false prophet. No, that's not biblical. No, that's works righteousness. We will not do it.
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No, no, no, no, no. And how does Paul start off Galatians? The third word is a word that Machen says people are afraid to say as Christians anymore because they want to be liked by everyone.
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I'm not advocating being mean and rude and insensitive but I am advocating this.
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If you're for the gospel you're against anything that attacks it. I'm against the gospel of works.
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I'm against false teachers. I'm against TBN. I'm against all kinds of things because truth is propositional.
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If you believe this that means you don't believe any of that. And to have this slogan thrown out there.
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We want to be known for what we're for not what we're against. Call yourself a church if you'd like. It's a free country. But the name is taken.
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John MacArthur says. It's fascinating to me. Look at the book of Galatians.
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And of course you know it starts like no other book in the Bible because the gospel was at stake.
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Paul wasn't mean and rude and insensitive. But the third word in Greek which is the fourth word in the
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ESV. Paul. Apostle. Not.
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And that's pretty much the way Galatians goes. Paul, apostle, not.
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I'm not going to bow down to all these false teachers. They're a curse. No. Not.
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And that's the way the book goes. You think you're saved by circumcision?
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Then you might as well castrate yourself. No. No. Look at what he says in verse 6.
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I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.
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Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. Well, Paul, you're known for what you're for, not what you're against.
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No. These are fighting words for Paul. And by the way, when you stand up and you say no, it's going to cost you.
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It's going to cost attendance. It's going to cost friends. But we want to answer to the
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Lord anyway. I'm not advocating being mean to people. I'm advocating throwing out this insipid, watered down, deluded, unbiblical pablum called we're known for what we're for, not what we're against.
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Verse 8. But even if we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you.
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Remember when John sees angels in Revelation? Down on the floor he goes. Worship the angel.
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If an angel showed up with a message, we'd want to believe it. Contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
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Send him straight to hell. That's what we've said before, and I now say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
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You know Paul says this in verse 10. For now, am I now seeking the approval of man?
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If he was, he wouldn't talk like that. It's church shrinkage movement. Or of God.
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Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. The church is the servant of Christ passing along this truth.
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When somebody attacks it, there better be some men on the front line. There better be some women on the front line who say no.
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That's not acceptable. You're kind, you're friendly, you're moral, you're my grandma, but the answer is no.
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Secondary issues, we need to have liberty. This is not a secondary issue. Anything that goes against the gospel is anti -gospel.
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Anything that goes against Christ is anti -Christ. Where are the men and women who are mature in the church, who like Paul say no?
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Listen to what Machen says. The third word is a word that is now regarded as highly objectionable.
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A word that Paul, if he had been what modern men would have desired him to be, never would have used it.
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It is the small but weighty word, not. That word, not, we are told today constantly, ought to be put out of the
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Christian vocabulary. Our preaching we are told ought to be positive and not negative. We ought to present truth, but ought not to attack error.
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We ought to avoid controversy and always seek peace. With regard to such a program, Machen said, it may be said at least that if we hold to it, we might just as well close up our
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New Testaments. For the New Testament is a controversial book almost from beginning to end.
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That is of course true with regard to the epistles of Paul. They at least are full of argument and controversy, no question, certainly can be raised about that.
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Even the hymn to Christian love in the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians is an integral part of the great controversial passage with regard to a false use of spiritual gifts.
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That glorious hymn never would have been written if Paul had been averse to controversy and had sought peace at any price.
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But the same thing is true also of the words of Jesus. I think we can say it reverently, are full of controversy.
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There is one word which every true Christian must learn to use. It is the word not, or the word no.
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A Christian must certainly learn to say no in the field of conduct. There are some things that the world does which he cannot do.
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But he also must learn to say no in the field of conviction. The world regards as foolishness the gospel upon which the
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Christian life is based. John MacArthur said, this is a battle we cannot effectively wage if we always try to come across to the world as nice, nonchalant, docile, agreeable, fun -loving people.
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We cannot take our cues from others who are perfectly happy to compromise the truth whenever possible for harmony's sake.
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Friendly dialogue may sound affable and pleasant. But neither Christ nor the apostles ever confronted serious, soul -destroying error by building collegial relationships with false teachers.
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In fact, we are expressly forbidden to do that. You want to know if the gospel is being attacked?
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It's being attacked, and it's being attacked by some dear Christian people who fall for the stupid line, we want to be fun -loving, agreeable people known for what we're for.
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I'm not advocating being mean. But I am advocating for men and women to stand and contend earnestly for the faith.
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If you're being mean or standing up against people because they've hurt your pride or they're after your ego or you just want to argue for arguing's sake, forget it.
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That would be sinful and wrong. But are we to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered?
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Yes. And when people infiltrate the church, we need to tell the truth. People say things wrongly to try to affect
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Christians, we need to tell them the truth. We are under attack, and our duty is to contend, not to cave.
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And we're thankful to go back to J .C. Ryle's initial comments that I read from his book, and nothing's going to stop the church from being built.
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I'm happy for that. Not one thing. Well, next time we'll look at some more trends. Let's pray and we'll be dismissed.
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Father in Heaven, we are now thankful that You've shown us the truth. You've opened our eyes.
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We're not better than any of these other people. But now that You have opened our eyes, we feel the pressure to stand for truth.
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The men here, I'm certain, if their wives were attacked, they would muster the courage to protect her.
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So Father, by Your Spirit, may we be men and women, having nothing for a weapon except the
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Word of God, understanding that all of our salvation is freely and graciously given.
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There's a price to be a Christian, and that price includes standing for truth, standing for the purity of the
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Gospel. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.