The Relentless Resistance to Revelation

Transcript

GRM 984
9/9/2007
The Relentless Resistance to Revelation
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh


I have great concern about the direction that the evangelical church, if I can use that term because of its broad acceptance, a church that claims to believe the Bible, claims to believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior. I have great concern about the direction that we are going in the evangelical world. I believe that the foundation that we have is the Word of God. You say well Jesus Christ is the foundation. Indeed He is, but what do we know about Jesus Christ? What we know about Jesus Christ is contained in the Bible. I come to the Bible to find out who Jesus Christ is. I come to the Bible to find out why He came to this earth, come to the Bible to find out that He suffered and died for sin, that He was raised from the dead, that He lives today, that He's coming back again. And so the attacks on Jesus Christ become attacks on the Word of God.

Some time before I left on vacation and some of my studies I was making notes related to what I wrote down as the relentless resistance to revelation, that ongoing opposition to God's truth. And I want to talk to you about that today, but I want to read you just a couple of excerpts, more than a couple, I guess, excerpts from a couple of books that I've been in before and after vacation, that will reveal and remind you of what is taking place in the evangelical world. Because much of what I'm going to say, then, about the scripture will be review for you if you've been at Indian Hills for any length of time. But we must realize how important it is for us to hold onto the basics, otherwise those who come behind us will be left with emptiness.

Recent book written on Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit? edited by two professors of Dallas Seminary. Dallas Seminary having been known over the years as a seminary committed to God's truth. The professors I studied under at Bible College many years ago were mostly graduates of Dallas Seminary, they taught me about the scripture, they taught me how to interpret the scripture. But there's a change taking place. There are various chapters edited under these two men, many of the men involved in this project have their background at Dallas Seminary. This person that I'm going to quote from is a present professor at that seminary. Talking about a difficult experience he went through with his family and he says, through this experience I found that the Bible was not adequate. Now that statement alone is terribly troubling. I found that that Bible was not adequate, I needed an existential experience of the Holy One. Quite frankly I found that the Bible was not the answer. I found the scriptures to be helpful as a guide, but without feeling God, the Bible gave me little solace. Now you see where we've gone. Now we have to have the Bible plus our feelings, and then God works. Now all of us can identify to a degree with this, we've been in situations where it seems the presence of God is exceptionally real. But is the Bible true when Jesus said, I will never leave you or forsake you? Is the Bible true when it tells me that God the Holy Spirit dwells in me permanently, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Now if I'm going to add my feelings to the scripture and have as authority, and this is what they want to do, we have to create a doctrine of the Holy Spirit from both the scripture and our experience, our feelings, because the scripture alone is not adequate.

He goes on to say later. I'm not reading consecutively. Ever since the days of the Princetonians, these are men who were professors at Princeton Seminary the last part of the 1800s, the first part of the 1900s. Men like Hodge, Warfield, Machin, etc. Ever since those days American non-charismatic evangelism has been dominated by Scottish common sense, post enlightenment, left brain, obsessive/compulsive white males. Now this statement is a jumble of bad history and psychology. I'm tired of reading about Scottish common sense and the reason we think that we have to handle the scripture so objectively and so on is because we've been influenced by Scottish common sense junk. Where do we ever get left brain, obsessive/compulsive? I mean you see how psychology ............ My experience is important, we want to tell our story. You cannot add anything to the authority of scripture. Certainly our experiences are real, but I only understand my experience in light of the scripture. Many of you have been through dark times where you've experienced great pain and you felt, you would say, His presence. It's just so real. But you know what? He's just as much with you in the days you don't feel that, if you're His child. Don't you praise the Lord for that? I don't have to get up in the morning and say, Lord, I don't feel like you're here. Where are you? I guess you're not with me today. I come to the Word and I'm comforted to know, Lord, you know my feelings, but I'm glad to know that your promises are true and you will never leave me nor forsake me. Sad. This is not new, but to have men from a seminary such as this now writing that this is the way we no have to approach the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is terribly troublesome.

Another book I recommend you read, Roger Oakland. I don't recommend you read that one. Another book, one I recommend you read, Faith Undone by Roger Oakland. Let me just read you some of his quotes. He is showing where the evangelical church is going, dealing with issues like emerging church and so on. I'll read you some quotes from some men who are having a great influence in the evangelical church today. Here is one who has influenced many leading “evangelicals.” I'm using that term broadly because I do not believe most of these men are saved men in light of biblical teaching. But he says, today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God's house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God. Now this man should be influencing evangelical leaders? They should be referencing him and honoring him? What about Jesus' statement, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me. He says all human beings can walk through the door whether they know about Jesus or not. Jesus said you can't come to the Father but by Me.

Read you another statement. These are from different men, here's a man who for many years has been well known among evangelicals and is involved in these matter of emerging church and the direction of the evangelical church. He says his mother got saved when he was young, so she started taking him to meeting so he could hear evangelism and hear the gospel preached. She was hoping he would get saved, but it never worked for him. But he wants to tell you how it did eventually work out for him. Here's his testimony. In my case intimacy with Christ has developed gradually over the years, primarily through what Catholic mystics call centering prayer. Each morning as soon as I wake up I take time, sometimes as much as a half hour, to center myself on Jesus. I say His name over and over again. Jesus is my mantra, as some would say. This is like Hinduism or Buddhism or whatever? Well you know it never worked for me to place my faith in Jesus Christ as the One who loved me and died for me, but I get up in the morning and I just clear my mind and I say, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus maybe for a half hour. And that centers me. Who is ever saved by doing that? But this is a man who speaks at some major pastor's conferences and so on? This is the kind of doctrine infiltrating in the church?

Here are two men, they are professors at Talbot Seminary. I talked about Dallas, I might as well talk about Talbot. One hundred and twenty years ago when I was a student in Bible college they recommended three seminaries in the United States in those days, back in the '60s—Grace Seminary, Talbot Seminary and Dallas Seminary. When I was graduated from Bible college all my professors at Bible college had been graduates of Dallas so I thought there was no sense in going to Dallas, I had already been there with these men. So I applied to Grace and Talbot, Grace was in the middle of the country in Indiana and Talbot is in California. I was in Philadelphia. Well I first heard from Grace as I did my applications, I thought, I'll just go halfway across the country. But I mention that those seminaries stood for the Word of God, stood for the absolute sufficiency of scripture, stood for clear interpretation of scripture. Robert Thomas' book on hermeneutics I recommend to you highly, he was a professor at Talbot Seminary back in those days.

Let me read you what these two present professors at Talbot Seminary have written in their book. In our experience Catholic retreat centers are usually ideal for solitude retreats. We also recommend that you bring photos of your loved ones and a picture of Jesus or gaze at a status of Jesus. Let some pleasant thought, feeling or memory run through your mind over and over again. They go on with recommendations like this, we recommend that you begin by saying the Jesus prayer about 300 times a day. The Jesus prayer would be Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Say that 300 times a day—Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me; Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me; Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me; Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. What about vain repetition? Is this the gospel? This is how you enter in to intimacy and knowledge of the living God? These are the men on the faculties of our evangelical seminaries today, training pastors to come out and lead the flock of God. Has the evangelical church lost its way?

Here is one of the most well known individuals in the evangelical world today. Here is what he says. When I go out I start telling people, do you want to work with us on poverty, disease, AIDS, illiteracy, injustice? I often find people are more willing to work with us than we are willing to work with them. In other words we're saying, you don't have to change your beliefs for us to work with you. If you only work with people that you agree with, then most of the world you are ruling out. Okay, I don't insist that a Muslim change his belief for me to work on poverty. I don't insist the gay person change their beliefs, they're not going to accept my belief and I'm not going to accept theirs. But this is what the church is to be doing. Go out and find people who agree with you on something and work together. That's Rick Warren.

We find a total abandoning of the commitment to the authority of scripture, its absolute sufficiency. So I want to talk with you a little bit about that. Paul warned the elders in the Ephesian church, from among your own selves men will arise speaking perverse things, seeking to draw away the disciples after them. That was his meeting in Acts 20. We see that going on today. These aren't men outside, these are men who claim to be evangelicals. We don't want to do anything but more effective, we want more people to come to Jesus. We want people to have a better relationship with Jesus. The church has failed, it's not that the people have rejected Jesus, they have rejected the church. It's a lie. And what they do is abandon the Word of God. And so we do these things. We're not turning away from scripture, we just want to add our experience, our feelings. If you're an emergent, churches in that kind of realm, you also want to add tradition so you can have the church and tradition and experience and these three things now will make the church more effective. But you cannot add anything to scripture, and when you do, you become the enemy of God. And anyone who does that is doomed to hell, which in their view is another doctrine we shouldn't be promoting. Because how can anybody ever come to believe in a loving God if there is a real hell where this God will send people. And all of a sudden I sort of empathize with that because I don't want to believe there is a hell, either. And to think the people would suffer forever and ever, I never have liked that idea. You don't have to believe that. Oh, I don't, okay, good. Now my feelings agree with their feelings. The problems is both of our feelings disagree with scripture. Now what will be right. The scripture is the word of God.

Let's start there, give you some statistics I have given you before in summary fashion, and that will save us time. Over 2000 times in the Old Testament there is the claim that God is speaking. Expressions like thus saith the Lord, the Lord spoke used over 2000 times. Twenty times Isaiah the prophet says that he is speaking the word of the Lord. One hundred times Jeremiah says the word of the Lord came to me. Ezekiel says the word of the Lord came to him, 60 times he makes such a claim. Prophets like Hosea, Joel, Jonah, Micah, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, they all begin with the word of the Lord came to me. Malachi is a small book, the last book in the Old Testament. Twenty-five times in that small book the claim is made, this is what the Lord says, this is what the Lord says. Then we go to the New Testament and repeat it again. This is the word of God, it is God speaking. God speaks, He is speaking. So strong that in Galatians 1 the Apostle Paul says even if an angel from heaven would come down and stand here and say something contrary to what is said in God's Word, he's doomed to hell. There can be no disagreement with God. And to disagree with God would condemn an angel to hell. This is serious business, this is not a game. It's not, look, we don't have to agree on everything, and there are a lot of views, and we just want to be effective. We have to reach people. Incidentally, do you know who the biggest enemy of these people is? Those that they condemn the most? They are open to work with Muslims, they're open to work with Buddhists, they're open to work with Catholics. But fundamental Christians, those who believe in the inerrency of scripture, they are the problem. They are the ones keeping us from being effective in reaching the world today. You talk about turning things upside down.

God has spoken, and when God speaks, He speaks out of His own character. And He is truth. Turn to Deuteronomy. We're going to speak, there are two issues to cover and then we may blend them together. The issue of revelation, God has revealed Himself, God has spoken. When He speaks His words reveal Himself. They reveal His will, they reveal His character. Deuteronomy 32:3, for I proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God, the rock. His work is perfect, for all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He. Now when God speaks, His word will partake of His character. He's a God of righteousness, justice, truth and so God's Word is a revelation of His very character. That's why Jesus, when He prayed to His Father in John 17:17, He said, your word is truth, because it is God's word.

I usually take you to Psalm 119, so why don't you go there. We'll try to limit the number of passages we look at. If you haven't read Psalm 119 in recent days, you need to read it. It's marked off in sections, according to the Hebrew alphabet, but take time, if nothing else, read a section each day and do that a number of times in succession. It will draw your attention back to the centrality of the scripture. Verse 24, your testimonies are my delight, they are my counselors. Where do I go for my information? I go to the Word of God. Verse 38, establish your word to your servant as that which produces reverence for you. Verse 50, this is my comfort in my affliction, that your word has revived me. Is there something wrong when seminary professors write a book about the Word of God in affliction and they say the Word of God is not enough. And yet the psalmist writes and says, your Word has revived me. And yet they can write and say, your word wasn't enough for me. Something is seriously, seriously wrong.

Verse 63, I am a companion of all those who fear you, of those who keep your precepts. Woe to the Christian who is in a church that is not faithful to the Word of God. Your companions ought to be those, well this is my parents' church, I have other reasons—my kids like it. Are you a friend of the living God or not? I am a companion of all those who fear you, of those who keep your precepts. I mean, it just goes on and on and on. I've shared with you on other occasions, there are times when I've been tempted that we'll come together and when I get up to do my sermon, the sermon today will be we are going to read together Psalm 119. And I know what you're thinking, that would be better than a lot of the sermons. And we may yet do that.

Jump down to Psalm 119:142. And while you're there, I'll stop at verse 130, the unfolding of your words gives light, it gives understanding to the simple. I mean those who reject God's Word, what kind of wisdom do they have? Look at verse 142, your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, your law is truth. You'll note how the Word of God is connected to the character of God. Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, your law is truth. Because it comes out of who God is. The righteous God can only speak truth. Down to verse 151, you are near, oh Lord, all your commandments are truth. I want you to note the next verse, we'll be talking about more of that in a moment, but we won't come back here. Of old I have known from your testimonies, that you have founded them forever. All your commandments are truth, you have founded them forever. Disgusting to read these men who say we live in a different day, we live in a post-modern culture, things have changed. If the church wants to be effective, it must change. That's a lie from hell, that is a demonic doctrine. God's truth is eternal. The church is the pillar and support of the truth, it is preaching today what it preached 500 years ago, the true church, what it preached 1000 years ago. The truth of God is unchanging, because the God who spoke that truth is unchanging. Down in verse 160, the sum of your word is truth. From the first verse of Genesis to the last verse of Revelation, it is truth and it is everlasting. It's truth today, it was truth 2000 years ago, it was truth 3000 years ago, it's been truth from the moment God spoke it and it will continue to be through eternity, because it's the revelation of His very character.

Come over to the New Testament and limit it there to just one chapter basically. Go to John 8, then I'll have you look at a verse in John 7. Jesus, of course, is speaking during His earthly ministry. Look at John 7:28, then Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, you both know Me and know where I am from. And I have not come of Myself, now note this, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. There is the issue. God is true, and He is truth, but you don't know Him. So Jesus said you don't know Me. Come down to chapter 8 verse 26, Jesus again speaking, I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you. But He who sent Me is true. Now note this connection. And the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world. You see the One who sent Me, My Father, is true, and I have things to speak from Him. What will those things be? Truth, they will be true. I come to speak His truth to the world. That is the revelation of God, of His purpose, His character. Verse 31, so Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed in Him. How did they come to believe in Him? Verse 30, as He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. They heard the truth from the true God, and they believed it. And we are born again by the living and abiding Word of God. We are not born again by having the name Jesus as a mantra—Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. We're not born again by reciting a prayer some 300 times a day. That's not the way of salvation, that's not the way of Christian growth. That's the way of paganism, that's demonic doctrine, to substitute some kind of feeling and emotion for a true relationship with the living God, based upon the truth that He has spoken.

Verse 31, so Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, if you continue with these feelings, then you are truly disciples of Mine. No. If you continue in My Word, what He has spoken, the One who is the way, the truth and the life. You will know the truth and the truth will make you free. Where does He say it is important that you have a feeling about this? It's important that your emotions sense ............. I'm not saying that we don't have feelings and emotions, but they come as a result of the working of the Word of God in the hearts and lives of those who believe the Word of God.

Jesus goes on, jump down to verse 40, but as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Where do we get the idea that the world out there is just falling over itself; they'd love to believe in Jesus, but the church is the problem, and the way we do church is the problem. Are you saying the way Jesus did His ministry was the problem? Then you are the enemy of Jesus because Jesus said, the real problem is I tell you the truth which I received from God. Look down to verse 43, why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father, the devil. You want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning. Note this, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature. He is a liar, the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears the words of God. For this reason you do not hear them because you are not of God. That is as simple and clear as it gets. It's not because fundamentalist Christians are hammering away with the Word of God, it's not that they're preaching that this is the Word of God and it's just that black and white. What the Bible says is true, is true; what the Bible says is false, is false. There is no middle ground. Like Jesus said, you are either with Me or against Me. Jesus said the problem is those who are of the devil don't want to hear the truth. Why would they be pouring in the doors of the church to be stabbed in the heart with the truth. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil, the devil doesn't want the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ to shine in their darkened hearts. Men in their sin don't want to hear the truth, it antagonizes them. That's why these men reveal their true character when they are so antagonized by those who believe the Bible to be literally true. It's all right to be a Catholic, it's all right to be a Buddhist. There are some of these talking about a Hindu doesn't have to leave Hinduism, he can be a Hindu who has Christ. I don't think so. You can be a Muslim Christian. I don't think so. In fact I know it's not so. Well that's your opinion, that's my opinion. No, God's Word says. Right?

John 8:24, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. Period. That's black and white, that's a clear statement. The issue is truth, and nothing will drive away the people of the devil quicker than the truth. You will make enemies more quickly by telling people the truth of the Word of God than any other way. But it's also true that only those who hear the Word of God can be saved. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. You are born again by the living and abiding Word of God. You see what the “evangelical” church, which is to be the pillar and support of the truth, is guilty of today. Replacing God's truth with man's thinking, and oh it is so appealing that thousands of people pour in and they say, see, we are reaching people. But the devil's people have always been happy with the devil's doctrine. That doesn't offend them. They are happy to worship their father, the devil. It is the truth of God that is so offensive, and so the constant attack is on the Word of God.

The issue is settled, Psalm 119:89, forever, oh Lord, your Word is settled in heaven. It stands firm. There may be debates going on on earth and there are people saying I don't believe that. No, the Word of God is something we must have but we must also wed it to our experience, and wed it to tradition. God's Word is settled in heaven. A major doctrine, and we'll get into this as we get back to I Corinthians 15, under assault today is the substitutionary atonement of Christ. They have no qualms about saying that is a terrible doctrine to say that God would require His Son to die so He could forgive you. In other words His forgiveness is conditioned upon somebody paying the penalty. That's not true forgiveness. The church has totally misunderstood the doctrine of Christ's substitutionary atonement. They deny the only master who bought them.

Don't expect to make friends by proclaiming the truth. You will make friends of those who have believed the truth, but you will antagonize those who do not know the truth, do not believe the truth. Isaiah 40:8 says, the word of our God stands forever. Not just our God stands forever............. Of course we believe God is eternal. But the Word of our God stands forever. And you know what the context of that is? All flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of the field. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever. Repeated by Peter in I Peter 1. That contrast. Men come and go, their great ideas, their new doctrines, their new thinking come and go. But God's word is here. You can study, I have one of the books in my library, The History of Heresies. Men come and go, God's Word abides forever. Jesus said, heaven and earth will pass away, my Word will not pass away. It's not possible for one jot, one tittle, one dot of the i or crossing of the t kind of idea. Not the smallest little thing can pass away from the Word of God without fulfillment. God's Word is settled, it's firm.

Now we are entrusted with that Word in these earthen vessels, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, that all the glory may be of God. But woe to anybody who tampers with it. Now people say, you have your interpretation, you want to make your interpretation authoritative, and it's true God gave His Word, but He gave it through human instruments and humans are fallible. We all agree on that, right? So we can expect when human beings sat down to write what God said, God may have spoken it perfectly but human beings aren't perfect so they didn't get it all right. Now we have an impotent God up there, if He could only get through to men. But every time I try, somebody messes it up. Well you're aware, God has provided for that.

Go to II Peter 1. Now when you begin to deny the authority of scripture, then you can set aside all the things that you don't want to have to believe. But II Peter tells you how God worked and how He continues to work. II Peter 1:20, know this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. No prophecy was ever made by an act of human will. Here we are, dealing with Old testament scripture. No prophecy of scripture was ever made by an act of human will. Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. So it's true, human beings are fallible, but when God determined to reveal Himself, His Holy Spirit took the Word of God and so worked in the life of that prophet that they spoke the exact words that God wanted spoken. Why should that be so amazing? God wants to communicate to human beings, He wants to use one human being to communicate to another, He can do that and control that it would be said accurately. Of course. Otherwise we're left never knowing for sure what God has said. That's why II Timothy 3:16 says all scripture is God-breathed and profitable, that the man of God may be complete, perfect, lacking in nothing, equipped for every good work. That's a sovereign God who has spoken, it is His Word. Jesus spoke about this in John 14:16 when He said, when the Holy Spirit came He will guide you, He will teach you, He will bring to your mind all these things.

Turn over to II Peter 3. Peter talks about the writings of the Apostle Paul and in verse 16 he says, and also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand. Peter says, Paul has written some things that are hard to understand. So I guess that's all right if we all have a different view of it and we say it means this to me, it means that to you. No. Which the untaught and unstable distort as they do the rest of scripture to their own destruction. Even though what Paul is hard to understand, it can be understood through the ministry of the Spirit. And if you distort it or alter it, you're on your way to destruction.

This idea that God spoke, well ............. He guaranteed its accuracy. Well, but everybody has their own interpretation. Well then, God didn't communicate very well. If I stand up here and speak and everybody goes out and thinks I said something different, I mean what verses have we read and you say, that could mean 35 different things. I've shared with you, I was at a school here in town speaking to a theology class and the professor was taking the position that everyone has their own interpretation. So I said, well let's look at a verse of scripture. The Bible says all have sinned. Oh, I could interpret that 35 different ways. Well maybe he could, but there is only one true interpretation. You can twist and distort the scripture, but what God said is clear. When He says forever His Word is settled in heaven, forever means forever, is settled and firm in heaven. That means He's not going to change. It can only be changed by heaven because it comes from heaven and it's never going to be changed. It's settled.

The untaught and unstable distort Paul's writings like they do the rest of scripture to their own destruction. That's pretty clear. If you twist and change what Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Spirit, you're on your way to hell. And people who do that with Paul's writings do it with the rest of scripture as well. They're on their way to hell. This idea of people saying, I know they love Jesus, I've talked with them about it. And if you talk to them, they're just so nice, I think they have a passion for the Lord, I think they are sincere. It doesn't matter what I think, it matters what God says. We must be committed to God's Word as our absolute, final, unchanging authority. It's not, well as long as you have the scripture and it's okay if you're going to add tradition, because if we're trying to create a feeling, if my feelings are ________, now we move back to tradition. Let's go back to the early church, did they use candles, did they use pictures. That's why these seminary professors said take a picture of Jesus or look at a statue. Because this is the way some of the Roman Catholic mystics did it. But you know you can create your own mood. We talk about that. They sell records, it's romantic music, to put you in the mood. And then they say, we're going to create a romantic atmosphere, we're going to light candles and turn the lights down and do all these things. Is this the way we enter into a relationship with God? We're going to create a mood, so you come next week and we're all going to have candles around, we're going to have pictures up here of Jesus, and maybe family members that will put us in an emotional ......... Maybe a loved one who died, and that will create a solemnity, we'll dim the lights. Then we'll have the Eucharist, that is becoming a focal point for Protestants and Catholics because something about the Eucharist moves us into a kind of experience. All of a sudden the Word of God is pushed back because anytime you try to wed God's Word to anything you destroy God's Word. You cannot mix God's Word without destroying God's Word. You can't put a little bit of poison in a bottle of good milk and have good milk, you have poisoned milk. It's as we long for the pure, unadulterated milk of God's Word that we grow with respect to salvation, I Peter 2 says. As soon as you adulterate the Word of God, you have destroyed its effectiveness. That's the danger. We want to put our experience here with scripture. The Word of God is not enough, but when you put the Word of God plus men's experience, so here we have a book and part of what happens is each of these men relate their own experiences so you can enter into their experience and add your experience to it, and then mix the Word of God in with that. And then what do we have? We have a lie, we have the devil's doctrine, we have a Word of God that does not change a life. So then we have people who need a mantra—Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. We need centering prayer, we need a life of solitude, we need to go back to the mystics who never knew God themselves.

Turn over to Revelation 22. One of the men writing in this field talks about the book of Revelation, those who have tried to take it literally have done great damage. Shouldn't take it literally. Interesting to me, Revelation 22:7, Jesus says, blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book. There is a promise given at the beginning of the book as well. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book. Why? I'm coming quickly. You need to be ____________________ obeying what I have said here, His words. Look at verse 18, I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. If anyone takes away from the Words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life, from the holy city, which are written in the book. We could just spend time doing nothing but going to passages like this that emphasize the importance _____________. Don't add anything, don't take away anything. This is God's Word.

One person writing on this said we need to put a moratorium on speaking about homosexuality for five years, just because the church has talked too much about sins like this. Let's not say anything more about that. In five years we'll see if we feel any differently about it. If not, we'll add another five years to our moratorium. That's they way we deal with God's Word? This is a part I'm not comfortable with, we just won't talk about it. Have I become God's editor? Let's take this out, I don't like that, never did care for that portion. Hell always did bother me, get that out of here. I won't tear it out, I'll just say ............... It's not that we've rejected it, we're just not going to talk about it for the next five years. Who am I to tell God we've decided that what you said on this is not acceptable to us, so we won't allow it to be heard. Where does it stop? It doesn't, because the devil is never satisfied until he destroys the Word of God.

Better be careful, those who change the Word of God do not belong to God. Be careful and clear. They say, who are you to judge? I am no one, there is one who judges men. Well then I'll wait and leave it to Him. You better do what He says. He makes it clear here. I would not want to have to say............. Gil, why didn't you tell them what I told you? Well, Lord, they didn't like it, so I put a moratorium on it. You what? You overruled Me? You know where I'm going. I mean, what does He say? They're going to destruction.

Come back to Jude. Jude started out to write just about the salvation they share together as God's people, verse 3. While I was planning to do that, I felt the necessity to write to you, appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all handed down to the saints. He says there will be no changes, this was a finality. When God gave it, that settled it. And we are required to contend for it, battle over it, give our lives for it if necessary. Why? For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ. How could they creep into the church unnoticed? How could they become teachers in the church when they deny the grace of God and they deny Jesus Christ? Well they probably came like they are coming today. We just think the church is ineffective the way it is functioning. And all this emphasis on a literal interpretation of the Bible, and the Bible is God's Word, and it has to be believed literally, and it has just driven people away. We want to have a mission that will reach people, that will be encompassing. Isn't He a God of love? I can't imagine Jesus Christ driving these people away, He drew these sinners. And pretty soon we're saying, well, I guess I could see that, they have good intentions. And pretty soon like sheep led to the slaughter, they are led away from the truth. Paul's concern for the Corinthians, I am concerned that you will be led away from the purity of devotion to Christ.

I'm not surprised the world lives in sin, I'm not surprised the world pursues immorality or the world pursues you-name-it, money and fame or whatever. But it is a tragedy beyond measure when the church allows itself to be corrupted and led astray from the purity of devotion to Christ. Because the church is to be the pillar and support of the truth. Where will people turn to hear the truth if they don't hear it when they walk through these doors? If they don't hear it when the come to our Bible studies? We are to be proclaiming the truth, we are to be lights in the darkness, and we are not to put our light under a bushel because God has placed us as lights in the darkness, so the light of the glorious truth that He has revealed can shine, and the light of the gospel come to darkened hearts. People can be saved and we continue to grow. That's the ministry, mission of this church and every true church of Jesus Christ.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your Word. Thank you, Lord, that you have spoken. What an awesome reality, the living God has spoken and every word is truth. You are the God who cannot lie, and Lord, your truth is unchanging. What you spoke thousands of years ago is true today. Men come and go, cultures undergo changes, but the Word of our God stands forever. The ministry and mission of your church is the same today as it was in the days of Paul. Lord, may we be committed to this truth, may we be a people ready to contend for the truth, not to be contentious, but Lord, to love your truth, consider it more precious than gold because through this truth men and women come to know you, through this truth we are privileged to grow and mature and develop in your character, which is being produced in us. May we be faithful personally and as your church until Christ comes. We pray in His name, amen.