The Truth Behind the Church’s Place

Transcript

GR 1269
4/4/2004
The Truth Behind the Church’s Purpose
1 Timothy 3:14,15
Gil Rugh


I want to direct your attention in your Bibles to I Timothy 3. We’re talking about the Church of Jesus Christ today, and that is key in the reason that Jesus Christ came to earth, why He was here, why He suffered and why He died, why He was raised from the dead—that He might bring together both Jew and Gentile into one body called the Church.

It’s not surprising that there’s a lot of confusion going on today about the church, how it ought to function, what it is, what its purpose is. But some of the things really get strange and far out. Someone passed on an article to me from the Wall Street Journal, so here you can take it to the bank. The title of the article is “Houses of Worship Are Reaching Out to a Flock of Pets.” For the first time in 10 years Mary Wilkinson went to church one Sunday in January and she sat in a back pew at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Stanford, Connecticut. What drew Mrs. Wilkinson back into the fold was a new monthly program the church introduced—holy communion for pets. As part of the service the 59-year-old retired portfolio manager carried her 17-year-old tiger cat to the altar, waited in line behind three panting dogs to receive the host and have a special benediction performed for her cat, Purr Box, Jr. With pews hard to fill a small number of otherwise traditional clergy are welcoming animals into the flock. We do have some empty seats here. Some are creating pet friendly worship services, while others have started making house calls for sick animals. I will draw the line. All Saints Episcopal Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida has doubled attendance at its Sunday evening service since it began last summer to invite pets once a month.

This whole movement toward including pets at the communion service, in the worship services, is part of a spiritual ministry. The effort is part of a large movement among houses of worship to attract worshippers by offering amenities considered important to modern lives. And this is in line, churches and synagogues have added Starbucks cafes and sports clubs and everything else. Churches such as Manhattan’s Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine have long held annual services to bless everything from rabbits to elephants, saying the Catholics have long revered St. Francis as the protector of animals. Then they go on to talk about different rabbis who are getting into the act.

Then here is someone from Ocala, Florida, when her dog, Sarge, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in June, she made religion a part of his treatment. In addition to chemotherapy, Sarge received a 20-minute visit from the rector of Mrs. Eckwardt’s Episcopal Church, who touched him and prayed for his recovery. Sarge also went to church twice and now his cancer is in remission. You see the danger of building your theology on stories. The dog has cancer, preacher prays for dog, dog goes to church, cancer is in remission; therefore Therefore nothing. None of it has to do with anything except the chemotherapy probably works. And then on—it’s a 3-column article. In case you wonder all the details, even tells how one clergyman goes around afterwards with a bottle of spray water to clean up the slobber from the dogs—-jobs I can thank the Lord I never had to do. Mrs. Wilkinson was happy that she brought Purr Box, Jr. to be blessed for his digestive problems. Now she plans to come back each month, rotating her 11 other cats.

You don’t know whether to laugh or cry when you read that. It is so silly that it ought to be laughed at, but it is so pathetic you ought to cry at it, too. But there is a philosophy there I want you to keep in mind. If the goal of the church is to get as many people in, in as many ways as you can, it’s an idea that works. One church doubled attendance by doing this. There was an article in the recent edition of Time magazine, March 29, 2004 on a pastor whose methods and methodology have impacted much of the world. Nearly 300,000 ministers from 50 states and 120 nations have partaken of his training. It’s a large influence. One of his books has sold 15 million copies. It has to do with the purpose driven life and the purpose driven church. He says, the culture is asking, how do I fill this hole in my heart? He says, I think religion has the answer. Warren writes in his book, Rick Warren is the one they’re writing about, that God has 5 purposes for people’s lives—to bring enjoyment to Him, to be part of His family, to behave like Him, to serve Him, to act as His missionary.

For purpose driven church leaders he has developed an evangelism strategy. And here is the evangelism strategy—casual dress, convenient parking, bright lights, live bands, short prayers, simple sermons that accentuate the positive. So as you hear the purposes, you hear the strategies; you think in and of themselves there is nothing wrong with this. But is this the New Testament strategy for evangelizing our generation? I mean does it really matter whether I wear a tie or a casual shirt? Short prayers, bright lights—I mean you say bright lights, good idea. Is that our evangelism strategy? Convenient parking? That’s good, but is that evangelism strategy? And the Lord knows simple, short sermons that accentuate the positive can’t be the solution. I told someone, consider it this way. When you come on Sunday morning you get 4 short sermons. I believe in 15-minute sermons.

One person has written a book on Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion. He says that this philosophy of ministry appeals to the notion that size equals success. We’re told that his philosophy not only does something for you in the sense of giving your life meaning, but it also makes you happy materially, religiously and spiritually. What is being marketed is a kind of American religious ideology that equates growth with salvation. Now listen to this and you’ll see that we’re not very far from the pet services in the philosophy. What really is driving this is growth is what matters. Rick Warren says that Sunday attendance at purpose driven churches grows about 20% on average. Who doesn’t want their church to grow 20%? Here’s a quote from him. “The purpose driven principles are like Intel chips. They can be inserted into any congregation, whether it’s a mega church or a tiny one, Lutheran, AME, Pentecostal, Baptist.” In other words, it doesn’t matter what your theology is, it doesn’t matter what you teach regarding the Bible, plug in this chip and it works. I’ve shared with you a number of times--back in the late ‘70s I was on the West Coast visiting with some men involved in the church growth movement, of which this would be a part. We were in Robert Schuller’s church, traveling with a couple other pastors and one of the men in the church growth movement. He was telling me about the wonders that would have been accomplished there. And I said, but what about the theology? He looked at me and said, Gil, that’s the beautiful thing about these principles—they’ll work whatever your theology. Isn’t something wrong when we can talk about building a church no matter what your theology? No matter what you believe the Bible teaches, plug in these principles and you can expect an average of 20% growth. Are we building McDonalds or is the Church of Jesus Christ being built?

So I don’t think the pet services are so far out, because we’re really talking about growth is what it is. Three hundred thousand pastors take this training and we find the pet services amusing, but some churches have doubled their attendance with the pet services. If increased attendance is what it’s all about, maybe it’s not silly after all.

I have to read you one more article; then we are going to the Word. And this points out the flaws. An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord, so gross in its impudence that the most short-sighted can hardly fail to notice it. During the past few years it has developed at an abnormal rate, even for evil. The devil has seldom done a more clever thing than hinting to the church that part of her mission is to provide entertainment for the people with a view to winning them. From speaking out as the Puritans did, the church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her borders, now she has adopted them under the idea of reaching the masses. My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scripture as a function of the Church. He gave some apostles, some prophets, some pastors and teachers for the work of the ministry. Where do the entertainers come in? Were the prophets persecuted because they amused the people or because they refused? Had Christ introduced more of the bright and pleasant elements into His mission, He would have been more popular when they turned back from following Him because of the searching nature of His teaching. I do not hear Him say, run after these people, Peter. Tell them we’ll have a different style of service tomorrow, something short and attractive with little preaching. We’ll have a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it. Be quick, Peter, we must get the people somehow. In vain will the epistles be searched for any trace of a gospel of amusement.

After Peter and John were locked up for preaching, the church had a prayer meeting. But they did not pray, Lord, grant unto your servants that by a wise and discriminating use of innocent recreation we may show these people how happy we are. Lord, clear the church of all the rotten rubbish the devil has imposed on her, bring us back to apostolic methods. The need of the hour for today’s ministry is believing scholarship joined with earnest spirituality. The one springing from the other is fruit from the root. The need is biblical doctrine so understood and felt that it sets men on fire.

Some of you are familiar with that article—Feeding the Sheep or Amusing the Goats, written by Charles Spurgeon. Could have been written today, but he died in 1892. So don’t forget, nothing changes. The amazing thing is the devil continues to redo the same things and the church continues to fall for the same corruption.

Leave a marker in I Timothy 3 and come back to Ephesians 2. We talk about Jesus Christ, His suffering, His death, His resurrection. Important we understand that is why the Church exists. It was His finished work on the cross that enabled the Church to be brought into existence. You understand the Church didn’t exist until Acts 2, following the death, burial, resurrection and ascension to heaven of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote to Timothy, the letter we’re going to be looking into. Timothy was at the church at Ephesus implementing biblical truth. Now earlier Paul had written the letter to the Ephesian Church. And in Ephesians 2 he reminded them, verse 1, that you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. And we all before were consumed by our own selfish, lustful desires. Only two kinds of people in the world—people who once were dead and now are alive in Christ, and people who once were dead and still are dead. People who are dead in their trespasses and sins and people who have been made alive by faith in Jesus Christ. So he says in verse 4, but God being rich in mercy, because of His love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. Look at verse 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not as a result of works, lest anyone should boast.

Then he comes down to verse 11 and he begins to talk about the Church. Remember that you, Gentiles, you used to be separated from God, from the covenants of God. You were the uncircumcision. Circumcision was the mark of the covenant that God had with His people, Israel. The Gentiles were not part of that. You were excluded from Israel, verse 12, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. And He has taken both Jew and Gentile, now, verse 16, to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.

He comes down into chapter 3 and he says in verse 4, that this was a mystery, new material revealed to him by God. This wasn’t made known, verse 5, to other generations. And what has been made known, verse 6, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body. The body of Christ, remember, when you believe in Christ the Spirit of God places you into the body of Christ, and that’s the Church. You become identified with Christ, and thus fellow partakers of the promise. When we think of the finished work of Christ, we think of what He has done to bring the Church into existence, to make it possible for you and me, wretched, hell-bound sinners to experience forgiveness. Those who were dead, separated from God, cursed by our sin, to be forgiven, to be given life, to become part of the family of God, the Church.

Turn back to I Timothy 3 and note what Paul writes to Timothy. Verse 14, I am writing these things to you hoping to come to you before long. If you’ve been with us in our study of I Timothy, remember that Paul came to Ephesus with Timothy, but for some reason not told, he had to leave and evidently go on over into Greece. He intended that would be a short trip, that he would be back very soon. But evidently it’s taking longer to accomplish the mission he had in Greece. So he writes saying, I am hoping to come to you before long, implying that it’s already taken longer than I anticipated. And I want to be sure that you understand this material. I am writing in case I am delayed, verse 15, so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. If you were with us at the beginning of our study of I Timothy, this is where we started. We didn’t start with chapter 1 verse 1, we started with chapter 3 verse 15, so that we would understand what this letter is about. It’s about how God expects His people to conduct themselves, how His Church is to function, how it is to be organized, how His people are to behave. All these things included, I’m writing these things. The first part of chapter 3 talks about the organization of the Church with elders and deacons, talks about the role of men and women in chapter 2. He talks about how important correct doctrine, healthy teaching is in chapter 1. He’s going to continue these themes when we come into chapter 4. And here he reminds them what he’s writing about, so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God.

You know, knowing what the Church is, what it is to do is not so complicated.
I’m amazed that people flock after every new thing that comes along, every new idea.
You know, people like to be entertained. Spurgeon wrote about it 120 years ago, others wrote about it earlier than that. It comes down to today; people don’t want to do serious study of the Word of God. They want to come, we like drama, we like plays, we like to sit back. We don’t like intense study; we don’t want a lot of material. We want to enjoy it. Well we need to come to the Word of God and find out, that’s what God has written, so you know how you are to conduct yourself, behavior in the household of God. That’s what the Church is. Remember, Jesus Christ suffered and died, that’s the point we read in Ephesians 2. That enabled the Church to be brought into existence, comprised of people of all nationalities, Jews and Gentiles. He’s talking not just how we behave ourselves when we come into these walls of this particular physical building, but how we function as the Church when we’re here and when we’re in other places. He’s writing to a local Church in a local place, the Church that was in Ephesus, what they were to be. They have to understand they are the household of God, this is God’s family. It’s not my family in the sense it’s God’s family. It’s my family in the sense I belong to it. It’s not my family in the sense it belongs to me. So I call this my Church because it’s the Church that I belong to, but it’s not my Church in the sense it’s the Church that belongs to me.
It’s God’s Church, it’s His household, this is His family. He’s in charge, He is over it. That’s why in Ephesians Paul wrote to the Ephesians in chapter 1 and says, Christ is the head of the body. We are His body, the Church, Christ is the head. It’s His body; I am part of that body.

So it’s God’s household, we’re in God’s family. It is the Church of the living God. Any question about what the household of God is, it’s the Church of the living
God. Again, we talk about the universal Church comprised of all believers everywhere. And there are times when the word Church is used that way in the New Testament. I’ve shared with you before, there are about 114 uses of the word “church” in the New Testament, 114. But you understand at least 90 of those uses is a reference to local churches. The manifestation of that universal Church is the local Church. This is the Church of the living God, meeting in this place. This is not the only church, this is not all there is to the church, but this is a complete church. We are a manifestation of the body of Christ to the world. There are manifestations of that body in other places, to be sure. But we understand what the Church is, it’s the body of Christ, it’s the family of God, it’s the Church of the living God.

You know if we went through the Old Testament, we don’t have time to do that, the title the living God is used numerous times. It marks God off from all the gods of the world, people who make gods out of wood and clay and stone, people who create gods out of their own thinking. They have no life, they don’t really exist. So the Bible refers repeatedly to the living God, here is the God who really is, the only God there is, the God of all life and the source of all life. He is the living God. He is the one who has brought life to those who were dead. You were dead in your trespasses and sins, we read in Ephesians 2. But He made you alive in Christ. He’s the living God, He’s the only God there is and in Him there is life. That’s what happens when a person turns from their sin to place their faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

I’ll read you a statement by a Greek commentator on this subject. In the apostolic era there were no believers who functioned outside the organization of local churches.
I’ll occasionally meet people and in the conversation they’ll express that they are believers. I’ll say, where do you go to church? Oh, I don’t go to church anywhere, I read my Bible at home and pray. I’ll say, I thought you were a believer. Oh I am, you don’t have to go to church to be a believer. Show me that in the New Testament, would you? What happens when a person believes in Christ? They are placed into the body of Christ, I Corinthians 12:13, by one Spirit we were all baptized, placed into the body of Christ. Well I’m a member of the universal Church, just not a local Church. Well just tell me what the manifestation of the universal Church is in the world. It’s the local Church.
You can be sure a person who is not part of a local Church is false in their profession to be part of the body of Christ. Oh, yeah, I’m part of God’s family, I just don’t like to be with them, I don’t like to be part of them, I don’t like to associate with them, I don’t like to be involved with those people. Give me a break. I mean, just tell the truth. You’re not comfortable with God’s people, what makes you think you’d be comfortable with God? I mean I John, John wrote and said we have fellowship with one another and our fellowship is with God. You don’t have any fellowship with God, it’s no wonder you don’t have any fellowship with God’s people.

So when it talks about the Church of the living God, the family of God, it’s important we understand the concept. You don’t get saved by coming in these doors.
I’m aware there are people who sit and hear me preach every week who are still dead in their trespasses and sins, because coming into this building doesn’t save anyone. Getting baptized in this baptistry doesn’t save anyone. Hearing the truth concerning Jesus Christ and your sin and believing in Him as your Savior from sin saves you. But that salvation changes your life, you’ll never be the same again. And your desires change—your desire for the Word of God, your desire for fellowship with God and God’s people. So we have the Church of the living God.

Now if it is His Church, and it is, it’s His family, He purchased it. Acts 20:28, the Church which He purchased with His own blood, it was the death of Christ that brought the Church into existence. We are the people of God because we have been redeemed by the grace of God through faith in Christ. What is the Church to do? This is where all of a sudden we begin to unravel. Most of those who would claim to be evangelical, to believe the Bible, would find that the Church is the people of God. Even those who aren’t evangelical, liberals, claim that the Church, yeah we’re the people of God. But even those who claim to be Bible-believers begin to get confused when they say, what is the Church to do? That’s why you find churches running here and there, conferences here and conferences there, articles written, books written, pastors running to find out, what should the Church do? Well here we’re told. I’m writing so you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. That's what the Church is all about, the truth. The truth. Just that simple. Oh I go to Church to have my needs met; I go to Church to get help for this or that. You understand this is the family of God, this is the Church of the living God, and He says it’s about truth. The pillar and support of the truth. The Church does not originate the truth; the Church did not exist at one time, but the truth did. We have the Old Testament, the old covenant. That existed before the Church came into existence. That was God’s truth. The truth precedes the Church.

But the Church is now entrusted with the truth, to be the center of truth, the proclaimer of truth—the truth concerning Jesus Christ. John 14--Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me. John 17:17 Jesus prayed to His Father and said, your word is truth. Some people like to try to disassociate Jesus Christ and the Bible and say well we believe in Christ and believe a relationship with Christ is most important. We don’t make doctrine and the details of the Bible the issue. You understand you cannot disassociate the two.

They had a sad article in the paper this weekend, some of you read it, it was the local paper about a little girl getting ready for her first communion in the Catholic church. Sad. This little girl is so excited and so thrilled she is now going to be part of Christ.
Sad. Her emotions were real, her parents believed it. How do you know it’s not true?
She went and knelt down, they put that wafer on her tongue and she is ecstatic—she became part of Christ. Not so, it’s a lie, deception. How can you say that? The Bible tells me so. Isn’t that how we know? People who try to disassociate Jesus Christ from the Bible are trying to create their own religion and their own God. There is no separation. The only Jesus Christ we know is the one revealed in scripture. Jesus condemned the religious people of His day, He said, you search the Scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life. But it’s the Scriptures that testify of Me. And He told them later that when you reject Me, you reject my Father, you reject God. You cannot reject the Scripture and have a relationship with Christ. You cannot disassociate Christ from the Word of God.

So we understand truth. Jesus Christ is the truth; the written Word of God is the truth. And you come to a relationship with Christ by hearing the Gospel. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. There is no separation. It’s sad, people going around trying to stir emotions. An article in the paper before that article I just referred to, started on the same page, it was about a lady who has created her own religion. And she’s happy with it, feels good about it. Well there are a lot of ways to feel good. Turn on the television; now you get a pill if you’re depressed, a pill if you don’t feel good about yourself, a pill if you have fear, a pill if you’re not comfortable with people, a pill
if I mean we’re a drugged out society. We thought the hippies were off track in
the 1960s; we’ve just all come around to be like them. I’m afraid to be with people, got a pill? I have one for you. I don’t feel good about myself, got a pill for me? I have one for you. We just legalize it and call it a prescription. Be careful in taking it, as we’ve noted, it will do all kind of things to you.

All right, all this to come back you know what happens. If the Church
is not the pillar and support of the truth, there is no testimony for truth in the world today. You understand that. What God has established as the center, foundation, defense for His truth is the Church. If the Church is no longer the pillar and support of the truth, it is no longer functioning as God brought it into existence to function. People go to Church and go away feeling good about themselves. That’s not what the Church is for. Sometimes you come to Church and you feel terrible about yourself. Why? Because as the Word was opened it revealed areas of my life that were not what God says they ought to be.
That grieves me; that means I have to make changes and adjustments that I might find hard. If you came here because you wanted to feel good about yourself, that’s not the purpose. The purpose is to proclaim God’s truth. Now when you submit to God’s truth, you will find the realization of God’s plan for your life. But the Church is about truth. Where would you go to find the truth?

Years ago a man who was part of the National Council of Churches, so not an evangelical in any sense of the word, wrote a book. And in that book, this goes back maybe 25-30 years. He said the Church loses any reason for existence when it fails to be the center of spiritual life, becomes a social organization. There are other social organizations that are more effective. Becomes a political group, there are other political groups more effective. Even there an unbeliever realized there had to be something unique about the Church. It’s the pillar and support of the truth. You talk to someone who said they went to Church today, you say, did you learn the truth? Oh we had a great drama, it just was so insightful. One of you sent me a note here in the last couple of weeks that you were talking to someone at the grocery store and they were telling you about the Bible study they went to. And they were studying the different television shows and movies. They were up to the Beverly Hillbillies, or something like that. I mean, what’s that got to do with anything? The Church is the pillar and support of the truth, the truth, the truth.

Come back to Deuteronomy. You’ll note before God brought the Church into existence, He had a people called Israel. Israel was the center of God’s work in the world and His work of salvation up until Acts 2 when God brought the Church into existence. The Church will be the center of God’s work of salvation and the manifestation of His truth in the world until the rapture, when it is removed from the world. Then God will resume His focus in the nation Israel, preparation for the coming of His Son to earth to establish His kingdom. In Deuteronomy 4, and this is preparation for Israel going into the promised land. Look at what he says in verse 2, you shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. He’s very clear, let’s get this straight at the beginning, Israel. Listen to the statutes and judgments which I am teaching you to perform. Don’t add to this book, don’t take away from it. We’re somewhat familiar with the sad history of Israel. They just drifted; they failed to take seriously what God repeated so strongly. Don’t add to this word, don’t take away from it.

You know where the evangelical Church begins to drift like Israel, doesn’t begin to drift by denying the Word of God, begins to drift by taking away from it. Not taking away from it by standing up and saying, you know we don’t believe this. It just ignores it. As one person in one of the largest evangelical churches in the country said, we believe in sin, we just don’t focus on that. What did I read you in Rick Warren’s methodology? Simple sermons that focus on sin, on hell, on judgment. Simple sermons that focus on the positive. What comes to mind when we think of the positive? That spiritual giant, Robert Schuller and his mentor, Norman Vincent Peale—nothing to do with biblical truth. You wouldn’t need to write whole books like this. The Church has had the Bible for years. You know what the problem is? They’re ignoring it, so we’re ready for somebody’s ideas that will guarantee an average of 20% growth. If God is not going to grow this Church, we will. We’ll do it with Him or without Him. Don’t add to this book, don’t take away from it. Paul said he was free from the bloodguilt of all men because he taught them the whole counsel of God, in Acts 20. Don’t add to the book, don’t take away from it. Oh we go to a church, they almost never talk about sin, but I think they believe in it. Don’t go there anymore. They’re taking away from the truth. They decide, well these are the portions that we think are worth looking at.

Turn over to Joshua, just after the book of Deuteronomy. Most of you know Joshua was the successor to Moses. Moses dies at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, and Joshua is the successor appointed for him by God. Note what God says to Joshua, we have a change of leaders, everybody has their own style, everybody has their own way. Now maybe things change in Israel. Joshua 1:5, God says that I’ll be with you just as I have been with Moses. Verse 6, be strong and courageous. Verse 7, only be strong and courageous. Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right nor to the left. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, you shall meditate on it day and night, so you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. There may be a change in leadership for Israel; there is no change in the program. Israel is to be focused on the Word of God; they are to be built on and around the Word of God; they are to live the Word of God. They don’t deviate a little bit to the left; they don’t deviate a little bit to the right. They just stay with the Word of God. That’s God’s plan for the Church. That’s God’s plan for His people, Israel, in the Old Testament. God’s people are always to be a light in the darkness, the place where God’s truth is manifested and manifested faithfully and clearly.

We know the history of Israel; that’s not a very exciting program. And they get distracted and pretty soon they have less time for the Word of God. Pretty soon they were concentrating on being serious with the Word, so pretty soon their life begins to drift. Pretty soon they are the enemies of the Word of God.

Turn over to Ezekiel 2. We could go to almost any of the prophets. Jeremiah spoke repeatedly about it. It got to the point in Jeremiah’s life he said, the Word of God has resulted in nothing for me but shame and derision. Here’s a prophet raised up to speak to Israelites, Jews, and he said it only brought shame and derision to me. Look at Ezekiel 2, I take you to this periodically because I love the graphic way it’s put; it’s so blunt and clear. Ezekiel 2, God says, son of man, stand up, I want to tell you something. So I stood up. Verse 3, He said, son of man I am sending you to the sons of Israel to a people who love me and love my truth and will want to hear it. No, to a rebellious people
who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me
What happens from the day that Deuteronomy Now there are people who are
against the word of God. I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children. You shall say to them, thus says the Lord, as for them, whether they listen or not, for they are a rebellious house, they’ll know a prophet has been among them. You son of man, neither fear them nor fear their words, though thorns and thistles are with you and you sit on scorpions. I think of this every time I watch an animal program and they show scorpions, I think of Ezekiel 2:6. Neither fear their words nor be dismayed at their presence. They are a rebellious house. But you’ll note here, the responsibility of Ezekiel does not change. You shall speak my words to them whether they listen or not.

You know what the attitude of Israel became? They didn’t want to do that. We don’t like to tell people what they don’t want to hear. You know what the Church has come to be? We don’t want to tell people what they don’t want to hear, I don’t want to be unpopular. I like the idea of 20% growth. I tell people what they don’t want to hear, we may get 20% shrinkage. I’d like to know where a man gets off guaranteeing an average of 20% growth. I’ve seen men go into churches and teach the Word of God and get 50% shrink. That’s what happened to the prophets. Jesus Christ didn’t get any better results during His earthly ministry. The Apostle Paul sure couldn’t guarantee 20%.
You’d think we’d be perking up our ears and saying something is wrong that 300,000 pastors are falling over themselves to take the training. Evangelical churches in this city jumping into the study of the books; this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. This is exciting. For over 2,000 years the Church has had the Word of God; that’s not very exciting, but now we’ve got somebody’s book and we’re all lit up. I mean something is wrong, and it ought to be so obvious.

He goes down into Ezekiel 3 and He tells him the same thing. Verse 4, speak my words to them. The end of verse 6, I sent you to them who should listen to you. Yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, since they are not willing to listen to me. Verse 10, son of man, take into your heart all my words which I speak to you and listen closely. Go to the sons of your people, speak to them and tell them whether they listen or not. You know, my job is simple. I have to present to you the truth of God.
You know what I have to do next week if only half of you come back? Present the truth of God. You know what I have to do if 90% don’t come back? Present the truth of God. How do I give an account to God for being so stupid that I didn’t know what my job was? Lord, they quit coming when I preached the Word so I found something that they really like, but I never denied the Word. They prefer drama to teaching, so we gave them drama. We used Bible verses with it, so it wasn’t all bad. And we gave them principles on how to do better at their jobs, and how to raise teenagers, and how to have a happier marriage. So you know all those things? I think we were within the bounds of biblical, Lord. We may not have taught the Word. I read Rick Warren; you know the thing that bothered me about his purpose driven church more than anything else? You know what he’s most critical of? Not Robert Schuller who he’s had in his church to preach but churches that focus on Bible teaching. I’m his enemy? I’m the trouble in the Church today for teaching the truth? And evangelicals are falling over themselves to buy into this. Do we understand what the Church is? It’s the family of God; it’s the Church that belongs to the living God; it’s the pillar and support of the truth. It’s not for you to play out your good ideas as you see them, for me to come up with good ideas. It’s the pillar and support of the truth.

The question you have to ask yourself when you are done at the service here, you go out and say, were we taught the truth? Yes, but I had heard it before. That’s fine. My goal is not to teach you new truth. Were you taught the truth? Another question will be, will you act on the truth, submit to it and allow the Spirit of God to make it part of your life? That’s what the Church is about.

I have to bring you to the New Testament, come to I Corinthians 2. The Church is not Israel, but Israel was the people of God, the people of which God was making Himself known to people that He entrusted His truth to. And they failed. And you and I as students of the Scripture read it and say, how could they do that? You know what?
We are more guilty than Israel. We have the history of Israel written for our admonition so we might learn from them. We have additional revelation added to the old covenant, of the new covenant, the New Testament. We have the Spirit of God indwelling us. Yet we repeat the same error of finding ourselves uncomfortable with the truth and nothing but the truth, instead of devoting our lives to proclaiming the truth whether they listen or not. So we think we can help God out with principles that will work. And it’s an offense to God. He said don’t add to it, don’t take away from it, don’t veer to the right, don’t veer to the left. Don’t change what you say, whether they listen or whether they don’t listen.

In I Corinthians 1:17, Paul says, for Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech. That word cleverness means wisdom.
Not in wisdom of speech. In other words, He sent me with the pure, plain, unadulterated gospel. And I didn’t try to dress it up with my wisdom, because if I had, the cross of Christ would have been made void. You see what’s happening here, folks? Once you mix anything with the pure Word of God, you have diluted the Word and canceled its effect. Sometimes I listen to preachers that I know are not believers, and they’ll quote Scripture and use Scripture. I’ve sat thinking, why does the Scripture not have any impact? You know why? They’ve mixed it with their thinking; they’ve mixed it with error. It’s like you mix a little bit of poison in that dish of healthy food. And what happens? The health of that food is destroyed; it’ll kill you, not make you healthy. Oh no, there is good food there, not just poison. You mix your ideas with the Word of God, you nullify the Word of God. Isn’t that the problem with the Judaizers? The Judaizers in the New Testament were Jews, Acts 15 and Galatians 1, who believed that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, at least they claimed to believe He was the Messiah of Israel, the Son of God. And they taught that you must place your faith in Christ as the Messiah of Israel to be saved. They did not deny the resurrection of Christ; they did not deny that He died on the cross for sin. But they said in addition to that you must be circumcised, keep the law. You know what Paul said? They are cursed; they are cursed to hell. Well wait a minute; they are more like us believers than anybody else on the face of the earth, and they’re cursed to hell. You know what we’re looking around for? We’re looking around today for Judaizers who can mix a blend that people will like. You know what Paul said they are trying to do? Taking away the offense of the cross. Sure, simple sermons that are positive.

What did Paul say? Verse 18, the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. Who wants to preach stupidity? I knew when I came to the Greek city of Corinth that the Greeks love wisdom, and it would have been “more effective” for me to dress it up. But in I Corinthians 2:2 he says, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. My message, verse 4, my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom and demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. What are we building, called a Church, if it’s built on the wisdom of men and not on the power of God. What have we done? We’ve become the enemy of God by trying to build a counterfeit of what He does. You can preach the truth until you die and your Church may not grow, but you put these principles to work and you get an average of 20%.
Something is wrong. I get terribly disturbed that the Church seems to be totally ignorant or unconcerned about it. We’re to be about truth, pure truth. As newborn babes long for the pure, the unadulterated milk of the Word of God, that you might grow with respect to your salvation. Corrupting the Word of God not only destroys its effectiveness in bringing people to salvation, it destroys its effectiveness in producing growth in the life of God’s people. You need the unadulterated milk of the Word to grow with respect to your salvation.

Oh, we’re always nitpicking. I knew we’d be against it; I knew sooner or later we’d take a stand against it. Well, I’ve read it to you. I mean, was it true? I mean, is that what the Bible says? These are like Intel chips, whatever your church believes or teaches, plug it in, it works. Too bad Paul didn’t know about it, could have saved himself a lot of grief. Too bad Peter didn’t know how to get the job done, and on we go. Too bad for 2,000 years the Church floundered around with nothing but the Bible. Realize how we go from one thing to another, psychology, here’s the answer. Now the Church is going to do this. Now here’s a purpose driven life, now we’re going to do that.

Let me read you this. I put it in my do not read pile, but I’ll read it. For at no time, perhaps since the Reformation, have Protestant Christians as a body been so unsure, tentative and confused as to what they should believe and do. Certainty about the great issues of Christian faith and conduct is lacking all along the line. The outside observer sees us as staggering on from gimmick to gimmick, stunt to stunt like so many drunks in a fog, not knowing at all where we are or which way we should be going. Preaching is hazy, heads are muddled, hearts fret, doubts drain our strength, uncertainty paralyzes action. Unlike the first Christians who in 3 centuries won the Roman world, those later Christians who pioneered the Reformation, the Puritan awakening, the evangelical revival, the great missionary movements, we lack certainty. Why is this? We blame the external pressures of modern secularism. This is like Eve blaming the serpent. The real trouble is not in our circumstances, but in ourselves. The truth is, we’ve grieved the Spirit. God has withheld the Spirit. We stand under judgment. For two generations and more our churches have suffered from a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord. For us, too, the Word of God is in a real sense lost.

That’s true. We’re just going around. I’ve shared with you sometimes, usually in the evening, the brochures. Here’s another conference to show you how your Church can be effective. Here’s another conference on Church growth. What is wrong with the Bible? I mean if the Church is the pillar and support of the truth, and this is the truth, get about the business of proclaiming truth, the truth. Will it make us popular? Will our Church get larger or smaller? I don’t know; that’s not my business. My business is not to build a large Church. My responsibility is to build a healthy Church that is nurtured and nourished on the Word of God. That is our responsibility together, is it not? And we exercise the diversity of gifts that God has given us in submission to His Word so that the body can build itself up in love. Oh, yeah, but if we don’t get bigger we won’t be viewed as successful. By whom? We don’t believe that some of the most successful churches today are these small, struggling churches. Nobody is asking them to do a church conference. They are like the small, struggling churches that Christ addressed in Revelation 2-3 that were about to go out of business, it looked like. But He said, that’s all right, you’re doing fine. But to the Laodicean church He says, you make me sick, I can’t take you.

We are to be about truth. That’s the measure of what this Church is, what it ought to be. Is this where the truth of God lives? Oh doesn’t truth have to be lived? Of course it has to be lived, but you can’t live when it’s not preached and taught. And I cannot act on your will, only you can act on your will. You cannot act on my will. So all we can do is give forth the truth and encourage one another, come alongside one another to help, do all the scripture tells us to, but always in the context of the truth.

We’re done with Revelation 22. We looked in Deuteronomy, how God began early with His people. We could have gone to the opening chapters of Genesis when Adam and Eve didn’t take God at His word, didn’t do exactly what God said, and we still reap the trouble from that. Revelation 22, Jesus says this in His closing words to the church. 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 this book. Talking about the book of Revelation, but you see God’s attitude toward His Word. It’s like Peter wrote in II Peter 3, those who twist the writings of the apostle Paul do so to their own destruction. We give too much leeway to people who play fast and loose with the Word of God, but oh I’m sure they’re believers. Well why are you so sure? Well I know they love the Lord. How do you know? The Bible tells us that those who don’t handle the Word of God faithfully don’t know the God of the Word.

I’m done reading you Scripture, but I have to read you another comment. Listen to this, there is nothing new under the sun. People had acquired a craving for effects and a desire for speedy results, which made everything else subordinate to that end. The Gospel is not attractive enough for people nowadays. Ministers must bait their trap with something else. The old fashioned topics are seldom heard. That was written by a pastor in the state of New York in 1846. We think well, it’s the day in which we live.
Television has influenced people, they want entertainment; it’s secularism; it’s
materialism; it’s secular humanism; it’s It’s unregenerate man, the same as
he was in New Testament days, the same as he was in 1846. Be it therefore the inflexible purpose of every Christian, every church and every body of churches to cling with a grasp that will not be relaxed to the truth, to truth alone, to the whole truth, to the truth in doctrine, in worship, in practice. We can afford to be branded with old fogeyism, if old fogeyism can do what the history of the Church shows it’s done. We may be proud of the name, we may say to those, particularly those who may be beginning their ministry, cling to the truth, pure and simple. To the truth, and not to mere feelings, impressions, sentiments. To the truth, to not tampering with falsehood. To the truth that is heaven borne. To the truth that is from God. He knows best what we should believe, what we should do. To the truth; it is sure to bring the rich blessings of its author. This was another writer who wrote in 1888.

But we go through the cycles and the Church, particularly in the United States, is going through the cycle. The truth, it’s just not good enough. We want more, we want something else; we want to give people what they want. And we can win them, because they’ll want to come to Church. And then when they want to come to Church; then we’re going to reach them. In other words, we will compromise truth to win them with truth. That never, ever happens. It brings the judgment of God; it brings maybe a large Church, but not a church that is the Church of the living God that He has built for His honor and glory. Another commentator said because we have reason to be proud, we have reason to fear. Better men, better women, better churches than us, so to speak, have failed and wandered. Only by God’s grace as we walk with Him step by step will we be faithful to Him until the end.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your Son, Jesus Christ, who loved us and died for us. Thank you, Lord, for bringing the Church into existence where we Gentiles can experience the wonder of your salvation, the blessing of being partakers of the promises, of being given hope. Lord, thank you that Jew and Gentile alike have been united into one body, the Church, which is to be the pillar and support of the truth. Lord, may we be faithful to that task and that ministry in these days. May the greater and deeper the darkness be, the brighter and clearer the truth go forth from our lips. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.