The Doctrine of Separation

All right, we're continuing with the Morse corner church statement of faith So far, we've looked at many of the essential teachings of Christianity things

Really that all Christians believe the authority of Scripture the deity of Christ the person and work of Christ and the

Holy Spirit again, these are essential teachings that any sound church would hold to and have probably in their

Statement of faith, unfortunately They might not have some of these other teachings that maybe they're not

Primary issues, but they're very important issues. So what are we going to be looking at today the doctrine of?

Separation so this probably would not be as common to find in a church

Doctrinal statement, let me just read this and again and you can follow along on the screen we believe that all the saved should live in such a manner as Not to bring reproach upon their

Savior and Lord and that separation from all religious apostasy all worldly and sinful pleasures practices and associations is

Commanded by God and then there's a list of verses So let's look up the first verse turn to 2nd

Timothy chapter 3 2nd Timothy Chapter 3

Separation how many of you have heard of this?

Maybe a sermon or heard me talk about it in the past how many separation the this is familiar to you

Okay a couple how many of you are really unfamiliar with this whole idea

Separation the the doctrine of separation the idea that Christians are to be holy set apart

Okay, separate we are to be separate from the world. Basically is what we're talking about I think you'd be hard -pressed to find any any church member or any pastor that says no

We should be embracing and promoting worldliness, you know, we should be celebrating sinful pleasures we should be joining together with Apostate groups.

I don't think anybody's going to say that but guess what a lot of people do it a lot of churches

These days are are doing that. So just to give you a quick example of what this might look like Our church will never hold a joint

Worship service with the Mormons Okay, we're not going to be yoking up and having a joint prayer service with with a

Catholic priest That's not going to happen. Why because we practice separation

Morris Corner Church is never going to You know endorse a pride parade some churches do

We don't because we practice what? Separation separation We would never even enter into a partnership with a secular organization, even if they're doing good

We still are not going to officially Join together with them or rent out even the church building

I mean, I don't know that this would be the end of the world, but even to rent out the church building for some secular event because we believe in Separation But there are evangelical churches

Who do some of these things and then it's just kind of getting worse as time goes on Now it can get complicated.

Would we partner with a group or with a church that would do some of those things? Well, some of those things know we wouldn't

But working with the Catholic Church, I mean I can think of one one church that does that and I don't understand it

We would never do that But you know, would we work with someone who would work with someone who would work with someone, you know?

You then you get into degrees of separation. So really Where do you draw the line? Where do you draw the line?

These are some of the questions we're gonna be looking at Are you confused? Are you following along?

Okay, I See a few perplexed looks so let's read 2nd Timothy 3 1 through 5

The Apostle Paul writes but know this that in the last days perilous times

Will come for men will be lovers of themselves lovers of money boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy unloving unforgiving slanderers without self -control

Brutal despisers of good traitors headstrong haughty Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having and this is the part

I want you to pay attention to having a form of godliness, but denying its power from such people

Turn away. Okay, let's repeat that last part verse 5 having a form of godliness

But denying its power from such people What? Turn away

Okay So right off the bat you can see that the scripture commands that there are people that you should separate from there are people who have a form of godliness that you should

Turn away from some from such people turn away He isn't talking about Paul isn't talking about, you know, the dregs of society or something like that or some

Temple of Satan, you know turn away from them no, he's saying these people have a form of of godliness and he's writing it to a

To a pastor and to a church. So these are people who who may identify as Christians But they deny the power and this isn't the power of signs and wonders or anything like that This is the power of a changed life

So they affirm a belief in Jesus But it really has no bearing on their life.

It has no bearing on their worship It has no bearing on the way they behave and think

So Paul says in the last days perilous times will come. Do you think that is a fair?

Assessment of the days we're living in Yeah Well, it is.

Of course. It was a fair assessment of the days Paul was living in as well So we're living in the last days this current age that we're living in right now

From the first coming of Christ up until the second coming of Christ, basically the last two thousand years this is

The time period known as the last days. This is the last age before Christ comes before the day of the

Lord so when Jesus returns to this earth, he's going to rule and reign and that'll be a

Time really like a golden age for the earth where Jesus is here ruling and reigning

But until then this age will be marked by religious Apostasy, we don't have time to go into it.

But in Matthew chapter 24 we See what Jesus said about birth pangs or the beginning of sorrows

That these things will increase like a pregnancy the the what do they call contractions, right?

They increase as you get closer to birth they increase in frequency and intensity So things are going to get worse and worse the closer we get to the end

It's going to increase So every faithful believer we're trying to live the way the

Lord said we should live but as time goes on things are going to get worse and Worse, what does the word apostasy mean?

Right a falling falling away It's really amazing some of the things that some

Christian churches are promoting these days I don't know if you follow along With the news and Christian news, but if you do it's pretty depressing

So if you know if you're not, you know It's okay to stay away from I guess is what

I'm trying to say But you could say they have a form of godliness, but they deny the power

So what should the response of a faithful believer someone who's trying to live faith faithfully in this age?

What should our response be to all of this? Well, the Apostle Paul makes it clear our response is to practice

Separation from such people turn away. Okay Romans chapter 12.

Let's turn there. That's the next Next verse on our list any questions so far

So If you sometimes people ask me well, you know, who do you listen to what pastors would you recommend what books would you recommend?

What study Bible would you recommend and if you ask me there's certain people I would say

Yeah, this guy's solid this guy's solid if there's a well -known pastor who says, you know,

I think Mormon is you know It's a little different but Mormons are Christians, too I would never recommend someone like that and no other evangelical should ever recommend someone like that.

But in the day and age we're living in Yeah that that kind of stuff actually actually does happen

So, let's see I told you to turn where Romans chapter 12, okay

So based on that passage alone that we just read in 2nd Timothy Nobody can deny that the

Bible teaches the doctrine of separation Can anyone deny that from such people?

Turn away Let's say an individual behaves that way and their life is sort of characterized by that list of bad behavior, you know

They're headstrong Haughty lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God and it's just clearly evident and they almost brag about it

What should we do? What should be our response? Embrace them as a brother and sister in Christ or do what?

Well you you know if you're friends with them you say hey you know How you doing?

What what's what's happening here? I heard that you said this or you know, you posted this like How how's how's things going?

You know, we want to try to reach people but there are many in in the church today in God's name there

They're promoting Worldliness to say the least so remember our goal is to help people.

Our goal is to Ourselves conform to the image of Christ, but we want to see our fellow brothers and sisters conform to the image of Christ Our doctrinal statement says we believe that just to read it again

We believe that all the saved should live in such a manner as to not bring reproach upon their

Savior and Lord, I think Yeah, this is this is a sticky topic but pastors in time past Didn't have social media to contend with you know, social media didn't exist

So if somebody was saying and doing something that was just outrageous you you might never know but today

Facebook is like a window into people's Into people's heart they need to shut the blinds

Well, they need to clean up their heart, but they need to shut they need to shut the blinds So what if someone is consistently doing those types of things promoting worldliness

Promoting ungodliness and they refuse to change. What is the the job of the church?

Right discipline so Matthew 18 15 through 17 you go to that person and you try to talk to them

If they will not hear you you try to bring two or three if they will not hear them

You bring it before the church if they still refuse to listen to the church Jesus said this isn't what

I said or anyone else said Jesus said that person is to be to you like a heathen and A tax collector in other words from such a person turn away

This is going to be one of the most unpopular things But I made a commitment that I was going to teach what the

Bible said not what I want it to say I'm going to teach what the Bible says not what people wish it said whether we like it or not the

Bible teaches Shunning. Oh, that's terrible.

Well, right it is terrible it's a terrible thing to be shunned and Hardly, anybody does it but that's what the scripture teaches from such people turn away

Let them be to you Jesus said like a heathen in a tax collector when somebody is put out of the fellowship and you know a

Church member reaches out to them and says hey, hey, you're looking good. You know, you're looking hey things are

You're treating it like nothing ever happened and you're really undercutting Undercutting the church you're undercutting the

Word of God you want to reach out to them and and try to bring them back in not affirm them and and praise them in in what they're

Doing. Okay Romans 12 verse 1 any comments No, okay,

I Beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice

Holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service and do not be conformed to this world, but be

Transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove. What is that good and acceptable and perfect?

will of God Paul then gets into the spiritual gifts. So just to stay on topic skip down to verse 9

It says let love be without Hypocrisy in other words love needs to be sincere.

He says abhor what is evil in cling To what is good?

That's a pretty strong statement, right? abhor What is evil?

Now the last time we looked at the doctrine of the two natures of the believer Do you remember that it's probably what month

Month ago the two natures of the believer who wants to kind of give a definition of that The two natures or I'll just call on somebody.

How does that sound? Dad Okay, so there's the sin nature and then there's the new nature so Believer is at the same time both sinner and a saint

Okay, so I can say that I am a saint because I have placed my faith in Christ I have the

Holy Spirit within me. I am a saint But at the same time I still have the old nature and I'm still capable of sin and at times

I do sin So I am a saint, but I'm also a sinner. So every believer has the two natures

So we have our new nature we also have the sinful flesh So and we had said that sinless perfection is not obtainable in this life

We will experience that when we get to heaven but living in this world. Let's face it.

We are all tempted we are all Influenced and if we are not in the word and seeking to obey

Christ, we're going to be conformed to the world, right? What what does Paul say?

I? Beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice Holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service and do not be what?

Right do not be conformed to the world so Paul says along those same lines

Abhor What is evil? There are some things that are just not a temptation for some of us

There are other things that will be a temptation But it's our flesh that desires

Those things what's repentance a change of mind. That's where it all starts a change of mind, which hopefully leads to a change of behavior

Let's look at the next verse 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 verse 1 And again, these are kind of unpopular

Topics, you know if you want to if you want to get a crowd if you want to build a church with the maximum amount of People coming in these are this is not the type of thing you're going to teach on right?

The doctrine of separation that'll clear out a room But honestly though the fact that you come here and that you are willing to sit and Listen to this if I taught this in some

Sunday school classes in churches throughout You know, I'd have people coming up to me and they would not be very happy The question is what does the

Bible teach though? Right? Does the Bible actually say this? All right 2nd

Corinthians 7 verse 1 Therefore having these promises beloved

Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God so this is an ongoing

Action. I remember somebody told me a few years ago. They said well if you want the church to grow you need to accept the

LGBTQ movement You know, that's why your church isn't growing because you're not accepting that yeah.

Well, that's a trap because Well, this isn't gonna happen either but if I tried to bring that mindset here

We'd have a church split right but people try well just compromise on this just compromise

I'll just bring in this worldliness just bring in this outside idea Is that what the

Bible tells us to do So this is an ongoing action that we need to cleanse ourselves and not to single out them

You know, we all need to cleanse ourselves, right? We all have our Issues and our temptations so we all need to do this

On a regular basis people take a bath people take a shower to Clean yourself, right?

You need to do that spiritually as well Going back to what we read in 2nd

Timothy chapter 3 a believer may at times be tempted or given to temptation

But that should not be something where we just adopt it as a pattern of life the word holy means to be

Set apart or you could say the the word holy means to be separate So Christians we are to be different.

We should not think the same way that everybody else thinks I know you've noticed this that within American culture every five or ten years

There's some new thing that people 30 years ago never would have done this

Never would have thought this never would have gone along with this but now that's the new thing starts in Hollywood and the media and politicians and Isn't it funny that the world just they'll go along with anything.

It seems like Christian that's the difference between us and them. We don't go along with just Anything am

I off -base or is this All right

Separate when you hear the word separation. What do you think of? How many of you have heard of Christians that are called separatists?

Separatists, okay. Well, what brings to mind when you hear someone who is a separatist a Puritan okay.

Good good Historically What has happened that the large institutional churches the denominations?

over time conformed to the world Just as an example

This has been a controversy Like I said, if you follow along with Christian news, this has been a big controversy within the

Southern Baptist Convention That they're just kind of going along with whatever the culture is doing social justice.

You've heard the term woke Critical race theory all of that stuff is in the realm of politics and culture

Well now they're bringing that right into right into the churches and you're hearing sermons about this stuff and they're promoting it

Obviously they have softened their stance on LGBT and many people within the convention are now

Separating themselves and say, you know what? I am no longer a Southern Baptist They are the churches are leaving the convention people are no longer identifying as Southern Baptist why because they are practicing the the doctrine of separation so the label separatist

Was used for those who separated themselves originally this started with the

Church of England the Church of England was persecuting certain groups the separatists were

Going out of the Church of England and the separatists believed that each local church should be ruling themselves

So and that's what we believe we believe that Morse Corner Church should be ruled And run by the people here at Morse Corner Church is that is that a radical concept?

Isn't it to me? This is so basic Morse Corner Church should be run

By the people of Morse Corner Church Not by some archbishop off in another state

See, here's the thing with the large institutional churches and the denominations That they eventually all go bad

There are some that haven't gone bad yet, maybe smaller groups, but really I think it's only

Only a matter of time because the bigger you get the more people you have to please the more money there is and and People just start looking to defend their their place in their position.

So The large churches typically will go bad and then people will separate from the large

Institutional churches just an example of this. You've heard me tell the story before in the 1940s

Morse Corner Church was part of the Congregationalists denomination and We saw

I say we like not me obviously, but I don't think anyone here but the people of this church

Saw what was happening in the Congregationalist denomination. They viewed the gospel as offensive

Now with that they didn't say that we love Jesus and we believe the gospel Well, they redefine the gospel the idea that Jesus died on the cross that God sent his son to die

For our sin and there's all these songs in the hymnal about being washed in the blood that offended them

So they don't preach that We don't believe that God would punish his son for our sin

Take the hymns about the blood out of the hymnal We we saw the handwriting on the wall.

We left the denomination Why because we practiced? Separation Those Saints here at Morse Corner Church in 1942 or whenever it started, you know

God bless them because who knows what this place would look like today. I have an idea What it would look like it would look like a lot of the other congregational churches so this is the doctrine of Separation there are some things that we are not going to go along with there are some things we must separate ourselves

From can anyone give an example of something that you know Maybe you were part of another church or you know, you don't obviously don't mention names or anything like that But you know of a

Christian who? Say you need to adopt this or they were trying to get this idea and they wanted you to go along with it

You said no, I'm gonna remain separate No, okay

Well, here's the thing everyone draws a line somewhere right even the so -called liberal progressive denominations

They want to separate themselves they would want to Keep a distance from the fundamentalists, right?

Everybody here's the thing. I want you to remember everybody practices separation everybody

There are some things that These groups will not endorse.

There are some things they will not go Along with so the question is what is the standard?

You know the answer to this? What's the standard? The Bible. Okay. God's Word is the standard what happens if something is in the

Bible, but ooh, that's that's not really popular Okay, let's figure out how we can come let's figure out how we can compromise it and And not make it look like we're compromising.

That's the way people operate these days Okay, Philippians. Let's go to Philippians 4.

Yes I Was just gonna say I don't know if you've heard of the case in Helsinki Finland Where they're prosecuting two people for hate speech for quoting the

Bible. I Did hear something about that? Right Right We're hateful

Yeah, you know and that's kind of that's kind of the big issue of our day and trust me if I talk about that's not because I want to it's just the

Elephant in the room, right? That's it's just the issue of of our time and the other side they want to paint a picture like well

You're just you know, you're hateful towards it. Well, I mean, I know there are people that are hateful

There are people are who are hateful on both sides but like I said, everybody

Everybody struggles with temptation and say it's not a matter of singling somebody out if there was a movement that Christian churches need to accept lying and let's say let's have a

Parade where we're proud of lying. Oh, we'd be against that too. Hey, let's have it.

We're pro covetousness We'd be against that too. So any any sin where you're saying this is good and should be sell it we'd be against Any of this so it's not a matter of singling out

Certain people. Okay. I told you to turn to Philippians chapter 4 any other comments? The world people of this world for the greedy and swindlers or idolaters, otherwise you would have to leave the world

So I can see how people could Take that out of context. Uh -huh

Right, right yeah, the issue that Paul is dealing with is someone who says

I'm a Christian and I I promote this That that's what he's addressing

Because you know the world does what the world does. I mean, that's just the way the way that it is

You know if you had to separate yourself from every Yeah, you'd have to go out of the world.

You couldn't live on planet Earth, right? Philippians 4 verse 8 Paul says finally brethren

Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just whatever things are pure Whatever things are lovely whatever things are of good report if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy meditate on these things

So the biblical teaching we're looking at is separation. The church should be focusing on talking about promoting

Good things not celebrating Evil things or not promoting

Worldly things it's it's so basic and yet that's kind of what's happening.

Yes Marcus Because the first thing is whatsoever things are true

There's a lot of things that are true Never like all bad news, you know all of that.

Yeah everything bad that's going on. That's what the news reports This but then it goes on and says whatever things are honest just pure lovely of good report so it

If you want to set your mind on something set it on something that is all of those things right yeah, and I had asked for a

Example let me give you a personal example Every Wednesday morning.

I'm on the radio live at 9 a .m. And for years I would drive to the radio station listening to the radio and there was another church locally that was on before me and I heard what this guy was teaching and he was not practicing separation

He was taking all the worldliness and sin and you could see slowly He was bringing it into the church and now you need to support this and I I told the station manager

I'm like this guy should not be on the radio station He is not teaching the

Bible he's departed from the faith and it took a little while For the you know that final evidence to come out that okay

We can't deny this But I didn't want my program being on right after this guy when he's saying outrageous things and now here

I am People are gonna think well, yeah, we're just two churches two ministers. No, I want to be separate from him

So if the station didn't drop the guy which eventually they did Praise God.

I would have said okay, you know I'm out. I just We have to practice separation.

It's not easy though. I understand it. This is not easy it's much it's so much easier to just let things go and go along with the flow, but Let's turn to first John chapter 2

We have about 10 minutes left But now we're gonna get into the subject.

So we've kind of been talking about worldliness and sin and how we should Separate ourselves from that, but now we're gonna focus on religious apostasy and 2nd

Thessalonians 2 verse 3 the word Apostasia is translated as some of you said falling away.

So apostasy is a departure from the faith a falling away from biblical truth

And as Paul said the more time goes on the more of this we should expect to see first John chapter 2 verses

Will start in verse 15 John says do not love the world or the things in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the

Father is Not in him the 20th century saw the rise of what is called the seeker sensitive movement

I think most all of you have heard of this and the idea of the seeker sensitive movement or the church growth

Movement that in order to reach the world you need to become like the world Now you still preach the gospel, but in all these other areas, you know you kind of become all things to all men that that was kind of the the line and Basically, it's bring worldliness into the church.

Well, they might not have put it that way But that's what happened verse 16 for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life

Is not of the Father but is of the world and the world is passing away in the lust of it

But he who does the will of God abides forever now listen to this verse 18 little children it is the last hour and As you have heard that Antichrist is coming

Even now many Antichrists have come by which we know that it is the last hour

The term last hour is just another way of saying the last Days, you know this final age between first and second coming of Christ So we're talking about the

Antichrist or John mentions the Antichrist. Guess what the Antichrist is not going to do He is not going to practice

Separation He's going to bring all Groups together. He is going to bring all religions together all different Christian groups

Together and by the way, what does John say many Antichrist are already here?

He's saying that's a reference to the false teachers in Revelation 13.

We've talked about this many times In the end times there's going to be a one world government one world religion one world economic system

We're focusing on this morning the the one world Religion, so when the

Antichrist comes he is going to bring together All religions. Well, that's impossible, right?

A hundred years ago. People would have said that's not that's not possible It might seem impossible for you this morning

I can see how that's very Very possible. In fact, it's already starting to happen.

You know, if you're paying attention, it's already starting to happen I really believe something changed

I don't know what it is, but in the middle of the 20th century things in the world drastically changed

Maybe it's not a coincidence that in the middle of the 20th century You saw the re -establishment of the

State of Israel, didn't we you saw the rise of the United Nations? Global governance you've heard of globalism, right?

Nationalism is a bad thing where you know, you have your country and you know, you put your country first.

Ooh, that's terrible We need to have a global community Okay, that that's the

Antichrist spirit. All right. So we want peace on earth. We want the whole world to come together

That's never going to happen That's never going to happen except when

Jesus comes he will bring Jesus is the only one who's going to do it.

The Antichrist is going to try he's going to actually be Somewhat successful. How are all religions going to come together again?

What are we talking about separation? We're not going to yoke together with the Mormons We're not going to join together in a joint prayer service with the

Catholic Church. We practice separation Is that being practiced though across the board?

How many of you remember the memorial for the 9 -11 victims? And you know, this was a nice thing

Generally, you know come together and pray for the families we can we can support that but do you remember what happened at that event?

the Pope presided over an interfaith prayer meeting that brought together

Catholics Protestants Hindus Muslims in Jews and some other religions

At a joint prayer meeting. What's the obvious question you have to ask them? Who are

They praying to right? You know who was a president at that prayer meeting the separatists the people who really believe

Really believe the Bible so something changed in the middle of the 20th century

With air travel the world became smaller and people started encountering other cultures

And you know now we kind of know people from around Other religions and and the one good thing that's come from it is you know that people get along a little better How many of you can remember some of you can remember this?

I'm sure back in the day Catholics and Protestants didn't get along right? How many of you remember that?

Okay, many Catholics thought Protestants were of the devil

Protestants thought Catholics were of the devil the cults thought everybody else was of the devil right

Now, you know you can kind if they live next door you can kind of get along and they're just other people

They're lost. We want to see them saved Right, so that's the one good thing people can get get along But we want to see them saved we can come together

In a community and be kind and help them out And if they're sick bring them a meal and tell them you're praying for and all that stuff is great

We don't yoke up together though. We don't have joint worship services with some of these other groups

Verse 22 Who is a liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the

Christ How could you have spiritual fellowship with a religion that says Jesus is not the

Christ? You can't you can't Verse 23 whoever denies the son does not have the father either he who acknowledges the son has the father

Also, how could you have? spiritual fellowship that denies that God the

Father and God the Son even exist you can't Any final questions or comments we just have two two or three minutes left, so this is

Separation there's some churches that were very much on the same page We could have joint worship services together.

We do Gather together for prayer. I gathered together for A time of fellowship and prayer every month with people that are of different Protestant Groups, and I don't see any problem with that.

You know why because I believe they're saved We have different ideas, but they're

Christians. I believe they're saved there are some groups that There there can be no joint

Cooperation with because they're not abiding in the doctrine of Christ Go to 2nd

Corinthians 6 and this is where Where we will end article 2 of the

Church Constitution As to the purpose of Morris Corner Church, it says in section

F that we will cooperate with Christian activity functioning in harmony with God's Holy Word The Bible so as long as There's a group that's seeking to obey the

Word of God You know we can have fellowship with them, and we should I actually believe it's a burden on my heart to see more

Christians coming together You know it might sound like I'm saying. Oh, we should just be separate from everybody.

That's not what I believe I think Christians should be coming together more than they do But it has to be those groups that are

Abiding in the truth look at 2nd Corinthians 6 14 Paul says do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness and what communion has light with darkness

So if they're saved if they're preaching is sound regarding Christ and the gospel

We can and I believe we should work together with them You know we're all going to live together in heaven with one another we should start learning to get along down here

But there are some groups that Do not hold to the the true gospel and there are certainly

Groups promoting worldliness and sinful pleasures from them we must do what?