Rick & Bubba Bible Study Live - July 22, 2020

four three two welcome in to the wednesday bible study from the rick and bubba broadcast plaza and teleport i'm thankful that you've taken time to uh to watch this or listen to this bible study as we continue the series of the unsaved christian and this has spawned a tremendous amount of email and uh you know praise the lord i think a lot of people that are doing exactly what the apostle paul asked us to do in second corinthians which has kind of been our theme through this series and that is to uh you know assess ourselves and look to see uh if we are really of the faith and as as paul says and we've talked about this for years in the bible study if you claim to be redeemed by jesus christ that means god's seed has has abided in your spirit and and if you claim that that the the presence of god lives in your life do you see the evidence of it uh and then he says do you pass the test and and hopefully we would pass the test that our lives seem to reflect the power of jesus christ and it's all in him uh but as i was talking to a group uh this past sunday night had a chance to get with some men up in north alabama uh you know we were talking about our study of the gospel of john in here and we talked about john 15 you know being branches that are attached to the true vine and the word abide is in that chapter over and over again meaning if you abide in jesus then because of how powerful jesus is he does produce fruit so if we're not producing fruit in our life and obedience in our life not to earn salvation but but as the result of the power of jesus if you're not producing those things we've talked about this a lot we have to come to the conclusion it isn't because jesus isn't powerful enough to accomplish it and so this assessment has been hard but i think it's been important and i think it has been used from what i've been reading in emails and conversations that i've been able to have it's saving lives because we don't want to be delusional about our redemption or the lack thereof so this has been an important study and i'm thankful that you have made it a priority in your life this is what we're supposed to do uh also uh just uh some few notes i will be this friday night if you're listening live and it is uh you know this is uh what is today the 21st 22nd 22nd of july if you're listening uh live this week i'll be in lexington tennessee this friday night from themannchurch.com our discipleship strategy is being implemented at first baptist church in lexington tennessee had a great time doing the exact same thing uh having man church and starting that discipleship strategy last sunday at bethlehem baptist in hazel green alabama and this friday night get a chance to do that again in lexington tennessee if you'd like to find out more about that go to burgessministries.com you can look there under events so let's uh let's dive in uh to what we have today as we go to part 11 of the unsaved christian and today we talk about the watered-down word uh this inch deep mile wide version of in this case a protestant uh church in the american church or which you can find these all over our country and we're going to dive in to see is that me today is it people that i know is it the church i attend and we'll do that assessing that paul calls us to lord thank you for today we we will be confronted by the truth of your your scripture today we'll also uh you know be reminded again throughout scripture during this study about looking for false theology false teaching uh and and to be so aware of this and so sensitive to this and so well versed in your word that we spot when your word has been altered changed or corrupted and i pray lord that you'll help us to hear this in in the correct balance again today as you have been accomplishing every week and help us to become the people that the bible says we should be if we've truly been redeemed by you in your holy name we pray amen all right so this is uh this chapter is actually chapter 13 in the book it's a study 11 in the series it's called the watered down word reaching mainline protestants last week we talked about the nominal catholic this week we're talking about the watered-down word version of mainline protestant churches and mainline protestants this is a great quote here from tibiti anya bawili our builay and let me say it again tabithi anya the while i think i got it perfect that time a powerful man of god and here's what he said preaching that points everyone and everything to christ insisting upon his lordship and our submission our repentance and faith tends to separate wheat from chaff and to make the unconverted uncomfortable what a true statement that has been for us hasn't it uh as we've been through the last four years because we have gone to scripture and we have found that lordship submission to the authority of christ repentance of sin and a faith of action when we take these things and we've applied these things to our life it does kind of separate the cultural christian from the real deal and that's exactly what he was trying to say so the the author of the book of the unsaved christian reaching cultural christianity with the gospel pastor dean and sarah out of tallahassee florida uh last week he talked about that he came from a nominal catholic family but he talks this time in this chapter more about his own personal testimony about the coming of faith in jesus christ and the sad part about this and this is why he's talking about in this chapter the watered-down word of these some of these mainline protestant churches that that are very seeker friendly they're an inch deep a mile wide or in some of the worst case scenarios they're actually preaching bad theology or heresy and he said that unfortunately in his personal testimony he came to fight things he to come and come to faith in jesus christ he had to leave the church that he was attending because he had to go to a different setting to actually hear the gospel because he wasn't hearing it in his local church and he heard that at an fca meeting he said i had never had someone tell me i personally was a sinner who needed to be forgiven of my sins i'd never heard anything remotely close to the fact that that that if i had that that that god would not let sin stand against him he wouldn't let any sin against god go unpunished and that i had committed sins not just that were good or bad behavior i actually was committing sin against the holy god he said i'd never heard these concepts before he said jesus christ was someone i was told to emulate that that you know i should what would jesus do he said i certainly was was taught to admire jesus but i was never told that i needed salvation that only he could offer through his death and resurrection i was also never told if i failed to emulate jesus uh what was even going to happen and i was never told that if i was obedient or not does that does that what so let's say i'm not obedient does that matter uh he was never told this in any clear way and he had to leave the local church in order to go and hear the gospel be presented correctly and let's not forget this biblically because remember if we don't know scripture we've talked about this a lot but it can't be said enough if we don't know scripture and we don't have it in our own lives then when somebody says something contrary to scripture we don't know do i have to do the secret service analogy again it's one of the best you know they they're always shown the genuine article when it comes to our currency they're never shown a counterfeit bill because it doesn't matter if they know what a counterfeit looks like in order to truly spot a counterfeit they have to know what the genuine article actually looks like in every detail and that's the same thing with us and our grasp of sound biblical theology and a sound biblical presentation of the true gospel if you don't know that if someone says something and you know i remember sitting one time i'm hearing someone talk and there's just these little things that you you you catch and there was a time i could not have called it because i did not know scripture when i was a cultural christian and and i think the person made a mistake i don't think it's even what they meant uh i think they were talking about sanctification but they made the statement while speaking and they were just a guest speaker they were not a pastor they were just somebody giving testimony uh and they said it's not like jesus makes us fully righteous uh and i remember going well no that's actually the gospel that he he does make it and that i don't think that's what they meant i think what they meant is you don't get your act together all at once at the moment of redemption and and and that that's sanctification and we talk about that a lot and and the speaker was right but if i had not known the true presentation of the gospel that that comment would have just flown past me and i would never thought anything about it and that's the problem about being at a church that is an inch deep a mile wide and is more concentrated on being seeker friendly than actually discipling people who've already been redeemed uh so anyway so one of the titles he talks about if you want to know if you're in this type of church there's there's things to look for uh is is the bible presented as historical or is it presented as mythical uh and i i was really shocked that some of the things he said had taken place uh in the church a couple of churches he had attended he said we must take this serious we cannot allow teachers to be in leadership in the church who do not consider the bible to be true accounts as opposed to stories uh but believe it or not i mean there's there's there if you don't pay attention and this is one of the things uh that i think churches need to be really really aware of i remember talking to somebody one time about how they vet out their teachers of their small groups in their church you know some of you may call it sunday school others may call it our small groups or bible studies or whatever you call it this is when you're removed from the worship service and now you're in under the authority of a fellow church member or or maybe someone else on staff and they're teaching you the bible and i know there's always a push to hey we need teachers we need teachers and this person was talking to a staff member and they had they had brought to their attention uh that there were some things being taught in the in the sunday school class they were in that were not biblically sound and this person asked the the church member uh the staff member uh how do we vet out these teachers to which he was told well if we if we spend the time you're talking about you know making sure that that they meet the criteria of what the bible says a teacher should be we're not going to have very many teachers to which this church member replied well as opposed to having people learn the wrong thing i think i just have bigger classes i mean you'd be better off to have bigger classes with highly vetted teachers than to have a bunch of these small groups with teachers you don't know whether what they're teaching or whether they have a grasp of scripture and so he said we cannot allow that to go on and he's 100 right he said and where does this lead us uh just because someone makes church enjoyable for people doesn't mean that heresy isn't serious i mean we that that's not that's not the marker we don't say i tell you one thing i like old so-and-so who teaches our class because man he really makes coming to church fun now he does you know teach heresy but we have a blast well no i i i got to tell you we've got to start taking heresy serious because god does as a matter of fact he he does he won't let it stand uh you look at the the the apostles they didn't let this stand how many letters do we see from paul saying we can't let this go on this must be taking taken serious so he says we cannot have teachers that treat the bible as if it's a large collection of fictional stories and he he draws the line and i give him credit for this our brother dean and sarah he says to the church and i agree anyone who says i'm going to teach a class in this church and i kind of approach the bible as a large collection of fictional stories but we're going to have fun that cannot be tolerated i mean people's eternity is at stake i mean we have to take this extremely serious so he tells the story about him him him sitting uh in in in church and and hearing what was heresy from the pulpit and he realized when he when he heard what the pastor was saying in the pulpit he said i the the main thing that was missing from this church that i was attending was the gospel and he talks about this he said we had a new pastor at our church he made a comment during his sermon that made the other leader's views about the bible look like low-fat vanilla ice cream in comparison which means he didn't they didn't like the guy that was there before and this guy was only worse his sermon that day caused my family to finally understand the differences were too significant for us to be part of the church my stat my dad still refers to that sunday as second chance sunday in the sermon the pastor shared that it would be such a tragedy for someone to wait until they got to heaven to believe in jesus and miss the blessings of faith here on earth he believed everyone received a type of second chance to believe in christ my dad turned to being whispered did he just say you can wait until you get to heaven to believe in jesus he said i heard the same words from the sermon as my dad being the fair man that he is my dad wanted to give him the benefit of doubt so he shook the pastor's hand after the service and he asked the pastor if he meant the words he said the pastor didn't hesitate to affirm his own sermon and said that he did indeed his basic logic on this god loves is for everyone well that's universalism that that's rob bell that that that's that's heresy if you don't know rob bell he's uh he is a probably one of the most famous heretics out there and he's corrupted and is corrupting an entire generation of people with heresy and this is that universalism that god is so full of love yeah we're all gonna be all right now there's certain things you should do here on earth and you should have some behavior and and some things that are good and treat people the way you want to be treated that's all good stuff but your salvation doesn't depend on it we need to be good people and you know what would jesus do and all this but god loves every this this notion of hell and if you you know if you don't do if you're not redeemed you're all you're going to hell and he's going to send people to hell and of course we send ourselves to hell you've heard me talk about that that is out there and it's alive and well and you've got to be paying attention i mean i i had something even going on with uh one of my uh kids that is it wasn't anything bad because this this is a child that is really growing in his faith but he didn't know who rob bell was and so he had something that he was uh enjoying and there were some things going on and i went to listen to it as we need to and it was like a podcast deal and i was excited about maybe even you know sherry and i were thinking hey we might want to listen to that too and all of a sudden just in passing the person that was doing the podcast said i drove 17 hours to go hear rob bell so i'll admit a lot of what i'm going to talk about today comes from rob bell and i was like what did he say did he did he say rob bell and and i was like you know take that back rewind that and when i heard that i said we're done with this i mean and and then but but again if i didn't know who that was or i didn't understand the teachings uh you know with the the uh the love wins book that he he put out then i would have just heard that name and just kept moving now hopefully eventually i would have heard in this podcast what they're saying is not biblical but let's go to scripture right now to talk about how important this is if you have a bible or something with your bible on it i want you to go to first timothy with me and i want you to look at chapter four and we're gonna read verses one through five uh it says now the spirit expressly says that in the latter times i've been i've been looking at the bible a lot lately lately anywhere it says end of things latter times coming of jesus uh you know we want to we want to really be looking at those things uh because we're seeing things going on in this particular country and around the world that are unprecedented now that doesn't mean i know the timeline because i don't but i do know that some of the things that we're seeing come right out of scripture and you find them around phrases like the end times so listen to this now the spirit expressly says that in in latter times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared who forbid marriage hello do y'all realize the number of denominations that are starting to take god's standard for marriage and they're saying that god's changed his mind on this we'll talk about this before we're done today so we have churches that are telling god that the standard he laid out for marriage it no longer stands so here's paul telling timothy now when we get to the end times you're going to see some of this and he says they'll also require abstinence from foods that god created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth this is the deal where they start hanging on to some of these you're not supposed to eat these foods and these foods you're not supposed to eat that is not part of the new covenant he said for everything created by god is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving for it is made holy by the word of god and prayer so here's paul saying watch out for these false teachers they're going to start showing up and listen this how many more times have we seen this you're going to start seeing people also leave the faith they're going to leave the sound doctrine they're going to leave where they're supposed to be they're going to start coming up with a new version of chris of christianity new versions of scripture and these will be deceitful people and they'll actually be teaching the the teachings of demons and they'll be under that spirit now going down to verse seven and eight you may be more familiar with this uh have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths rather train yourself for godliness for while bodily training is of some value godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come stay with this he says the saying is truth trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance for to the uh to this end we toil and we strive because we have our hope set on the living god who is the savior of all people especially those who believe listen to this command and teach these things let no one despise you for your youth but set the believers an example in speech and conduct and love and faith and purity listen to this until i come devote yourself to the public reading of scripture and exhortation to teaching and and so what he's saying is you need to be training yourself in godliness certainly take care of your body that is of some value but if all you have is you're taking care of your body's health and you're not taking care of your spiritual health all you have now is vanity it says godliness is going to hold the key to eternity and the reason why you need to train yourself in godliness like you would train yourself in anything that you want to get better at or anything you want to be prepared for what do we do when we get ready to send people off to war we send them to basic training did we just say hey appreciate you signing up we got a war going on there's a plane leaving this afternoon you need to be on it we don't do that you know why because you don't put people out there without training you we're not going to spot deceitful teachings we're not going to spot heresy in the pulpit we're not going to spot false teaching in our sunday school class if we don't know scripture and that's exactly what paul is saying now if you're still in first timothy turn over to chapter six and i want you to go to verse three and we'll talk about uh more warnings coming from the apostle paul if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with sound with the sound words of the lord jesus christ and the teaching that that accords with godliness he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing will continue to go uh he has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy dissension slander evil suspicions and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and depraved in the truth imagining that godlessness godliness is a meaning is a means i'm sorry of gain now there's a great gain and godless godliness with contentment for we brought nothing into the world and we could take nothing we can't we cannot take anything out of the world so he's saying be careful for these people that are going to be out teaching these things and he's talking here about the prosperity gospel he said look at eight he said but if we have food and clothing with these things we should be content but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation into a snare into many senseless and harmful desires that that plunge people into ruin and destruction for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains now i know that many times and it's okay we read this part of scripture saying we've got to be careful if people out there are worried about wealth more than anything else that's true but don't miss what he's really talking about specifically teachers people who claim to be pastors teachers and he says suddenly they leave the reason they're there and before you know it they start taking godliness and try to turn that into a somehow they can get financial gain for that it's not just talking it yes the root of all evil evil is the love of money for everybody but he's specifically here still talking about false teachers and that that's a clear warning that the prosperity gospel was coming our way and i think we can see the prosperity gospel and i think we can understand them but now these universal people this universalism that god loves everybody everybody's going to heaven sin is not a big deal don't worry about it all that that i think has become even more prominent than the prosperity gospel right now but look what he says to timothy and he says to us in verse 11 but as for you o man of god flee these things pursue righteousness godliness faith love steadfastness gentleness fight the good fight of the faith now if you want to go to the uh the the second go to chapter three and and i think that's one of the things that that we missed did everybody hear me say the word fight in scripture did anybody miss that we don't just let this go hey don't don't no paul tells us not to get involved in foolish quarrels we don't need to get involved in some of the secondary issues and get inside of denominations and say well you know we probably want to be sure we never have those arguments in front of lost people because it confuses them and we certainly want to have a unity on the things that we do agree on and that being the gospel and that and making disciples and the advancement of the kingdom uh but that's not what this is talking about this is talking about that that we do not compromise uh when it comes to heresy we do not compromise when people are teaching false doctrine we do not compromise when some church says we know how to draw a lot of people but we're drawing them with false teachings we fight the good fight and we demand that the purity of scripture and the and the purity of the right presentation of the gospel anything less than that is not to be tolerated and if you're in a church where that's going on you sitting there saying i just don't want to make trouble you yes you should make trouble or leave i mean you we should we should bring we should say i can't let heresy go and and we're called to fight the good fight and demand that it meet the standard of scripture because you can't do that if you don't know scripture and you may be learning something that is not the gospel at all and uh and i've seen this happen many times where people have asked me questions especially going through this series and and i've come to the conclusion i don't think they've ever been taught the gospel not not the way the gospel is presented in scripture so by the way we don't want to present anywhere else uh ii timothy if this continues paul's really driving this point home chapter 3 verses 1 through 7. but understand this here he's going to say it again say it with me that in the last days there it is again there will come times of difficulty well in the last days there will come times of difficulty for people will be lovers of self are y'all ready for this list anybody ready do you think we're lovers of self right now we even have a picture named selfie we're consumed with self so he says but understand this that in the last days there will come times of difficulty you've heard me make this point before especially the guys have been around me a long time when people you hear some of this you know sometimes you go into churches and and what you're really hearing is it sounds like you've got a philosopher in the pulpit as opposed to someone who's who's teaching scripture or somebody who's giving you some some life choices that you could take and you feel like you've been sent to a you know a counselor or a life coach uh not you're being taught scripture and uh you hear this sometimes you know you just gotta learn to love yourself hey can i give everybody a heads up i've been around to pray people and i'm and i was a depraved man who's been redeemed we got no issue with loving ourselves uh where we really need to to work on is not loving ourselves so much and care more about others and ultimately care about the lord and savior that we serve uh he's on record for how much he loves us the biggest problem is have you come to the conclusion on whether you love him or not so he says understand this that in the last days there will come times of difficulty and then he lists things see if any of these hit home with you for people will be lovers of self lovers of money proud arrogant abusive disobedient to their parents ungrateful unholy heartless unappeasable i'm going to say that again unappeasable you can't even find out what they want what do you want cannot be appeased slanderous cancel culture that we're in right now that's the cancel culture without self-control everywhere brutal everywhere not loving good everywhere treacherous reckless swollen with conceit lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of god and then listen to this having the appearance of godliness but then denying its very power we've talked about that a lot you know what that means i get up there and talk a lot about who god is but yet when i when it gets time to talk about sin i act like that sin is no big deal and god has no power over it i talk about godliness but then i like it's never going to be achieved you see this in a lot of reckless churches i mean i've gone to churches before i thought i guess you get saved and nothing really changes so they talk about godliness but then they deny its very power and then listen to this and this is a this is instruction from the apostle paul you're ready for the next line in verse 5 of chapter 3 of second timothy avoid such people hey get up out of that church and go in your personal life avoid these kind of people i mean it doesn't say you know try to be sure that you're not real close friends with them or don't let them in your inner circle or you know just don't make trouble but you might want to you get home and talk about the things you don't agree with when it comes to personal relationships or somebody standing in the pulpit where you go to church if you see somebody that talks about godliness but then they deny the power of godliness and and you need to avoid these people then this same list that you just heard before that avoid these kind of people and if you don't see this as as as the times that we're living in that i don't know where you are did you hear the list that i just read that's in ii timothy 3 starting with verse 1 if you just want to read until you stop screaming out i can't believe it's as if the apostle paul saw these times coming and then he says that if you have a chapter three let's go to verse 10 now as well talking about where scripture comes from and how important it is it's breathed out by god you however have followed my teaching my conduct my aim in life my faith my patience my love my steadfastness my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at antioch iconium and and in in lystra where persecutions were there that i endured yet from them all the lord rescued me indeed all who desire to live a godly life in christ jesus will be persecuted how many times have we said in this class are you being persecuted at all i mean is there anybody that said that has anybody ever come against you because your devotion to christ i mean do you live a life that that is so separate from the world that the world hates it and if you're you're not getting any persecution once so all whatsoever it may be no more complicated is that you're just not living a godly life paul goes on to 13 while evil people imposters will go on from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived but as for you continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed knowing from whom you have learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in christ jesus to make you wise 16 all scripture is breathed out by god somebody say all all scripture it's not some scripture so that's where you got to get careful with these hair with these heretics they'll pick and choose scripture some of it's god breathes some of it's not dangerous dangerous how do they know what's god breathed and what's not but the apostle paul says in the very scripture that they're picking and choosing in verse 16 of chapter three of second timothy he says all scripture is breathed out by god and profitable for teaching for reproof we don't like that for correction we don't like that for training in righteousness that the man of god may be competent equipped for every good work that the man of god may be competent that he he may know the word that he's ready to defend the word of god are you doing this are you doing this i i had someone asked me before what's the first step i need to take to know scripture more what's the first step i need to take uh to to be to be sanctified what's the first step i need to take to grow and mature my faith to be able to defend scripture to know scripture to advance the kingdom to disciple somebody to mentor somebody uh to to to to reach somebody for christ and you know what i say it's not complicated you just simply devote the energy and passion to it just like you do everything else in your life that you deem of value i usually become pretty confident on things i care about no but i couldn't just make myself care about scripture i had to have the seed of god come into my spirit and and make it alive when i was redeemed and when that actually happened not a cultural exam yeah i never had a thirst for scripture when i was a cultural christian you know why i was lost but when i when i submitted to the authority of christ and i confessed that i was a sinner and i confessed him as my lord and i submitted to his authority and i i submitted to him i resisted the devil and i came near to him he came near to me and it was faith but it was a faith of action and then something happened i had a thirst for scripture i had a thirst for for worship i had a thirst for going out and telling people about jesus i didn't do it he did but then i then i then i did what he said to do seek me and you'll find me love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind i started doing that and then i'll show you how to love your neighbor as you love yourself you know i'm working i'm getting there things are changing why because i've got a new code of conduct and uh some some self-control that i came up with no because jesus really is changing me like he does everybody who submits his authority and here's paul saying you got to be ready and then you look at in chapter four verses 1 through 4 and buddy do we have this going on too it says this i charge you in the presence of god and of christ jesus who is the who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearance in his kingdom preach the word be ready in season and out of season reprove rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching look at three and we are here and it's about what this chapter is all about for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teaching teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wonder off into myths universalism rob bell these these there's there's churches everywhere right now where there are people in the pulpits and you know what people are saying i don't know whether this person is teaching me scripture because i don't know scripture very well but i do like what they're saying and it makes me feel so much better and it's and it makes me feel good and i told you one of my uh friends and and mentors that has helped me great powerful man of god he says he's had people say that to him before after he preached a very hard message pastor i want you to know i really enjoyed the message today to which he replied then you must not have been listening because there was nothing enjoyable about what we went through today it was beneficial like discipline can be and and the writer of hebrews talks about that i know when i started trying to deal with the gluttony a sin of gluttony in my life and and started saying i need to exercise and i need to do better and i still got a long way to go i can i cannot think of a time that i went through a workout that i found it to be enjoyable but i absolutely found it to be beneficial and so we are here and this is before us and we have been warned one final warning and then we'll jump into the rest of the book in uh in second peter chapter 2 and by the way the next study we're going to do in this wednesday bible study we're going to walk through word for word first and second peter so you'll hear this again but ii peter chapter 2 1-3 but false prophets also arose among the people just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies even denying the master who brought them bringing upon themselves swift destruction and many will follow their sensuality and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed wow this is very very serious stuff and the bible warns of it and it warns of it very clearly and powerfully in all the verses and others that i've just shared today sermons everywhere in beautiful sanctuaries that cannot be categorized as false gospels because as pastor dean and sarah says we can't call it false gospels because really they offer no gospel at all it's just nothing there it's it's feel goodism it's it's emotion we sing songs that have terrible theology and we preach messages where sometimes a bible verse will stay up on the screen but it's never really ever mentioned or walked through it and before you know it's a lot of you know self-help um you're good i'm good we're all good kind of messages the the the the point is we're not we're not all good i mean we're things are not okay i don't want to be a debbie downer things are going to be okay for those of us that have been redeemed but they're not okay this this world i mean how anybody can stand up in a pulpit right now and not say let me talk to you about what's going on outside these doors here's what's going on here's what scripture has to say here's so we're supposed to be in the middle of it i don't know what you're doing uh it's it's pretty important uh that we that we talk about the times that we're in because i think that there is a great opportunity in the mainline inch deep mile wide watered-down version of the mainline western protestant church is not going to do much good well rick how do i know if i'm in one of these kind of churches i'll tell you here's here's a list that dean and sarah puts together on page 158 here's some of the things you need to look for believes in evangelical christian is extreme when when it comes to faith and i know i'm about to show my ignorance here and pardon me for that you know i haven't been to seminary i haven't learned you know all the proper things i've just kind of learned scripture uh i'm a little confused when i hear this word evangelicals what other kind of christian is there supposed to be if you go to to scripture i understand it's a label i'm not that stupid and i and i know but i i mean that's that that's that calhoun county common sense c c-student thing in my mind raised by people who had a lot of common sense if the bible says go and make disciples if the bible says go out and to to every every nation into every part of the world to any and go out and tell them who i am teach them all that i have commanded you baptize them in the name of the father son and the holy spirit and lo i'll be with you to the end of the age so there's a version of christianity that you don't do that are you i'm a christian are you an evangelical well aren't we all am i just not understanding that i i mean because i'm goofy it could be i just don't see in scripture where jesus says now some of you will be evangelical some of you will not some of you do not have to go make disciples i do not want you doing that i do not want you going out and and uh you know baptizing people in the name of the father son and holy spirit and keep your mouth shut about all these things i've commanded you that's not for all of you to do is for some of you to do where did i miss that in scripture are you a christian are you an evangelical yes i thought we all were so you'll see that kind of thing downplayed as is if you're someone who actually makes disciples and and actually defends scripture you're an extremist uh another mainline protestant thing to look for admires the bible but does not view it as authoritative especially on the matters of the day this is the uh we've developed a new form of marriage god's okay with certain sins now even though scripture says he's not we like the bible and we we certainly hold it in some regard it's just that have authority on things that are going on today look for that it's is more likely to conform to earthly patterns of behavior but is is likely committed to loving others this is universalism again you'll go to you'll you'll sit at the church and the church will almost say we we don't want to get too heavy-handed on scripture except for that part about loving others we love that well the problem is remember what we've talked about in here before here we go what did jesus say he was he he was love but he was truth and you don't go love outranks truth and truth outranks love remember they're on equal standard they're equal pillars jesus is love yes he is but he's also truth well what's the truth that we're all going to hell if we're not redeemed by him which makes his love all the more wonderful because i just found out the truth that without him i'm doomed well i guess he does love us if i don't know the truth god loves you well okay doesn't everybody no no you know why god loving is a big deal why is it a big deal well because you needed to be redeemed you're going to hell if if he doesn't go to the cross and he doesn't pay for the price on the cross and he doesn't he doesn't go into the tomb for three days and and walk out resurrected and ascend to heaven and is preparing a place for you you're going to hell well is that what i deserved no you you actually deserve to go to hell matter of fact we can go back do you know the bible very well there's one time in the bible where god took all of mankind and and reduced it down to eight so so it's a really big deal that god has said it's his desire now that none no more should perish and he's paid the price that was due you and me oh so god loves me even though i'm a wretched sinner you are correct well now that is good news well if you don't know the truth of the matter it's not even good news it's not even a big deal no wonder you don't treat it with any any any kind of importance other thing you'll see in mainline protestant churches a lot of tradition views church as more of a formal occasion usually very traditional when it comes to church preferences often goes to the the person who's a mainline protestant goes to the same church as their parents and their grandparents and values the heritage of the church though often treats it as a as separate from the rest of one's life love my church i'm telling you i've run into these people before buddy they are they are clinging to this church and this church means more to them than jesus does you can't say anything negative about it you can't bring up i don't think that message but i don't know about that song did you that you should you can't question anything because bob golly that's the church that their grandmama went to that's the church their gran their daddy went to and their mama that's the church they're going to it's the church their kids are going to go to and then you know you want to say hey that's all good do you think that this church went to the cross for you this this the domination this building uh this uh this this pastor of all this heritage you know this this uh this small group that you're in that you just love and do life together do you think that's how that's how you're going to be redeemed do you care that the church might be teaching heresy do you care at the church it may not be doing maybe making disciples this is church this church is a tradition with our family well you know what jesus needs to be your tradition not that church and if that church decides that they're not teaching your family jesus then you need to get out of there and may and you know maybe it's not the same church that your mom all went to maybe they've drifted so you see things like that also we get to theology when it comes to the mainline protestant claims a belief in jesus christ but has little knowledge of the gospel outside of historic facts about the life of jesus claims their theology is inch deep my wife you ever heard that inch deep my what i'm familiar with the person of jesus i got a little knowledge of the gospel i know the history of that i know what took place but if you ask how this applies to my life if you ever want to have fun and i'm i mean i'm doing this for for people's own good because it happened to me this is not and this is not a self-righteous deal i usually start this way i'm getting these emails about this series i don't know if i'm saved or not you know what my question is so tell me how you were redeemed tell me you're saved because of what you're redeemed and tell me how that happened and if they can't do it no wonder they're confused because they're not seeing the fruit of it you know why because it never happened i'm i'm one of those people so i'm talking to me but i think there's a lot of people out there like me but i'm not that guy anymore not because again some new found self-control on my part because i actually found jesus and he changes me and continuing to do so more bad theology and from the mainline protestant often viewed as theologically liberal but is usually more theologically agnostic if you really get down to it people from mainline churches may not be sure what they believe outside of basic theism typically the person in the pulpit is liberal as well you see this going on a lot now and we'll give you an example of this we're running out of time but i think i can get it uh also the main uh the mainline protestant possesses a faith that isn't dependent on the gospel story believes that jesus died on the cross but doesn't believe in the exclusivity of faith in christ for salvation you ever seen this person you're a christian yep you believe jesus is a is the the way the truth in the life and nobody nobody comes to the father except through me that sounds a little judgy for me i think that everybody finds their own way to god really so so god took his son he took on human flesh and he just went and slaughtered him on the cross but that really wasn't necessary i i couldn't just come up with something else hey listen the cross makes zero sense if god provided other ways for everybody to get there that makes there's no need for the cross we would have just all done these other roads that was the only way that that we could be redeemed period i say that because of scripture but sometimes the mainline protestant they don't like the exclusivity all this jesus is the only way makes them uncomfortable which means they probably do not know him so let's get into some of the examples that we see of this uh there's there's a great quote here uh in 1923 uh and um and this this is this is a quote um concerning things that we saw happen with the uh uh with the episcopal church i mean this is this is this is relatively um recent in 1923 j gresham machin christianity and liberalism he argued that a liberal understanding of christianity was actually a completely different religion posing as the christian faith this is in 1923. and so jay gresham matron says anybody that takes christianity christianity and tries to wrap it in liberalism that really a liberal understanding of christianity is just a completely different uh uh completely different religion just shrouding itself and saying we think we'll call ourselves christianity but it but it really isn't uh we know what happened um and this is one of the things that uh that he said listen this according to christian belief jesus is our savior not by by virtue of what he said not even by virtue of what he was but by what he did he is our savior not because he has inspired us to live the same kind of life that he lived but because he took upon himself the dreadful guilt of our sins and bore it instead of us on the cross such is the christian conception of the cross of christ that's what i just said it's it's not that you know hey jesus was a kind of a good teacher and and he's a hippie and and it's all about love and i think i'll try to live like the way he's living of course we'll never do that no that's not what made him our savior that he that he had he's he has some nice things to say he became our savior when instead of us being nailed to the cross he was instead of us being uh you know removed from the presence of a holy god he went and came and paid that price and fix that problem that we have between a holy god and sinful man that's what made him our savior and what you'll find in some of the mainline protestant churches is they really love to talk about jesus like he's a hippie philosopher as opposed to our lord and savior in 2003 the episcopal church in the united states was in a crisis um a bishop in new hampshire had not only left his wife but he did so for a homosexual relationship the episcopalian churches that believed in biblical authority and therefore believed in the covenant of marriage designed by god between one man and one woman they were troubled after realizing that reform was not an option within the denomination which had drifted significantly to the theological left many episcopalian churches left their denomination and formed the angel anglican church of north america placing themselves at the first under the authority of the bible believing churches bible-believing churches in africa and latin america they joined that by the way even in the methodist church do you know what churches in the methodist church would not vote for changing the standard of marriage that was the methodist churches in africa they wouldn't have it and praise god for them uh staying with the standard but the episcopalian church had a very similar run-in uh back in 2003. something significant was said during the denominational upheaval that that that struck the author of our book dean and sarah this is going to blow your mind if you haven't read this yet realizing many churches in his own state would be leaving uh because of uh because of new hampshire's decision one american bishop pounded his fist and exclaimed the following lord forgive us for this kind of heresy are you ready to hear what a bishop in the episcopalian church said in new hampshire when there were people saying if this denomination goes against god's covenant for marriage and his biblical standard of one man one woman we will all leave and they did and we will be part of another group of churches we will not be part of this here's what he said to those who were leaving are you ready their god needs to learn to change with the times now dean and sarah says this is not rumor he said i know this because i was in the room when it was said i was serving as a pastoral intern to one of the churches going through the process of leaving the episcopal church i learned as a young intern that when biblical authority is neither established nor believed the only possible outcome for the moral and ethical issues is that what that is that god is supposed to change with the times can you imagine him sitting there as a young man hearing a a pastor say that hey it's just gotten so different out there god your standard is so foreign to the world out there right now you've got to get with the times man to god so we're going to take god and say he changes with the times not us leaving the times and clinging to him and adhering to his standard only he this is that classic deal we've talked about this bible study many times in four years hey be very careful when you decide that you are you're part of any church that decides that they're going to start telling god who they think he should be hey god we want to make you something we're more comfortable with you've got to change with times no no no no that's blasphemy that's heresy that if you do not change will not be tolerated by holy god he can't tolerate it because he's holy no what we need to do is to repent of our sins we need to lay down at the feet of the cross we need to look to a holy god and say due to your holiness i realize how wretched i am and i am in need of redemption that only you can provide through your grace and i repent of my sin and i say please lord i plead with you forgive me and and lord forgive me for the attitude and arrogance of me wanting you to be something that my flesh was more comfortable with and change me as only you can into something that your holiness is more comfortable with i can't change you you got to change me but the arrogance that we see in some of the churches right now telling god what he needs to do and that he needs to change matron writes again it is no wonder then that liberalism is totally different from christianity for the foundation is different christianity is founded upon the bible it bases upon the bible both its thinking and its life unlike liberalism on the other hand it's founded upon the shifting emotions of sinful men oh that's good that's good it's no wonder then that liberalism is totally different from christianity for the foundation is different christianity is founded upon the bible it bases upon the bible both its thinking and its life liberalism on the other hand is founded upon the shifting emotions of sinful man if you'd like to detect christless christianity when listening to a sermon and we'll close with this listen to this when listening to a sermon it can it can be easy to adopt one of two postures blind acceptance meaning you just give the preacher the benefit of the doubt and you question nothing because this is me mom's preacher that's wrong don't do that but also don't be a fault finder don't have a critical spirit where you look for every evidence that the person is a heretic both of those can be problematic instead try to listen to a lens of a big picture gospel clarity what is the point of this message what is the problem presented here what is the solution given and listen to this doctor i mean uh pastor dean and sarah and i love this and i've taken this and applied it to me when i get to preach and teach he said in seminary a professor gave me a piece of advice that has stayed with me this is good pay attention to this never preach a sermon that would still be true if jesus christ hadn't risen from the grave don't ever don't ever listen to a sermon or preach a sermon that really that sermon would stand whether jesus went to the cross and resurrected or not that's probably uh some self-help advice it's it's probably not biblical teaching never preach a sermon that would still be true if jesus christ hadn't risen from the grave so when listening or preparing bible teaching keep that in mind it's possible for a sermon to contain nothing that seems to be you know explicitly explicitly uh heretical on the surface but it could miss the point entirely use questions like this below to make your judgments would this message still make sense if jesus was just a good moral person is jesus referenced merely as an example or as a substitute is his lordship mentioned is his deity acknowledged that's a biggie is the point of the message self-improvement or deeper commitment to and trust in jesus what does the listener need to do after this message ends anything can i tell you a message that's just not very good one that doesn't demand a response all the messages that god has used to help me you know what i did i got to change something i i got i got to deal with that if i hear a message that never i feel like what's your response to the message today nothing be listening what what is the point of the message and what should the listener of the message do anything but what strength is the listener to accomplish this work legalism better conduct are through the sanctification found in the holy spirit what scripture is cited in the message is it read in context is it properly utilized to point to jesus or am i the listener the subject of the message you ever had this before one that you missed a lot when they did the david and goliath thing all of a sudden we all become david hey we're not david we're goliath we're the one that's blaspheming god and and and see what what what what jesus is saying is i as david represents christ i can't allow you to blaspheme the one and only living god but then what happens we die and then then we're redeemed so so are we the point of the message am i the focus or is jesus the focus always look for that most people when it when it went in in this research that was called why americans are fleeing liberal churches for conservative christianity and i think that's good news you know sooner or later people realize this didn't do me any good and a lot of people are fleeing liberal churches for conservative christianity and here's what the author of the book david shiflett said he said most people go to church to get something they cannot get elsewhere this consuming public people who already believe and who are attempting to believe or who are attempting to believe two different categories who want their children to believe go to church to learn about the mysterious truth on which the christian religion is built they want the good news not the minister's political views or intellectual coaching the latter creates a sprawling vacancy in the pews in other words they're leaving because the bible isn't present which also means the gospel isn't present either right now uh barna is doing research on us being in this covid19 a lot of churches are not meeting uh a lot in person there's a lot of online options and they're great i'm glad that's available but they're seeing right now that there's already starting to show some signs that one in three people who regularly and they said regularly like once a month and that's not even a high standard once a month going to church one in three of them are not attending at all they're not watching the online they're not they're not going into some place at social distances they have stopped going all together and what the research is saying is the concern is even we get back to meeting will will one in three of these people have come to the conclusion that the church meant very little to them and usually if you're in a mainline protestant church that is weak on doctrine week on theology you figure out pretty quick it didn't have much of an impact on your life so you probably don't return to it but now if you're at a church that presents jesus christ sound theology biblical preaching you're realizing you're missing that so really when we see what happens when the smoke clears these mainline protestant inch deep mile wide liberal churches will probably discover that as seeker friendly as they may have been people have learned to live their lives without them let's pray lord thank you for the message today thank you for um the opportunity for us to unpack uh so much scripture today that told us to be looking for these false teachers be looking for these heretics and you keep using the term today on the list of all the things that we should see and we see these things in our society everywhere you keep using the term in the in the latter days in the end times we don't know what that timeline is lord but we know we're closer today than we were yesterday may we evaluate ourselves through the things we've heard today and ask the question am i just living under some new religion that is shrouded in the name christianity or am i a devout follower of jesus christ in his name we pray amen thank you for being with us today if i can help you in any way you can reach me rick rick and bubba dot com you

Channel: Rick & Bubba

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Id: tXpAsN28Wr8

Length: 63min 20sec (3800 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 22 2020