Latest / Voddie Baucham Sermons / Voddie Baucham - The Four Ways That Churches Are Destroyed

Transcript

Voddie Baucham - The Four Ways That Churches Are Destroyed · Voddie Baucham Sermons

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Want to read for you this morning two very recent
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: news stories. Bear with me as I will make the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: connection known later on. You'll see that they're related, but
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: maybe not how they're connected to our text today. The
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: first news story comes to us from Canada. Canada. A
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: retired Canadian couple who refused to give a homosexual couple
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: a room at their bed and breakfast has been found
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: guilty of discrimination based on sexual orientation and ordered to
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: pay thousands of dollars in fines. Lee and Suzanne Molnar
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: argued that they had a constitutionally protected right to freedom
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: of religion and that the cancellation of the gay couple's
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: reservation was justified. The Molnars said the River Bend Bed
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: and Breakfast, which has since closed, was also their home
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: where they hosted Bible studies. However, the British Columbia Human
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Rights Tribunal ruled in favor of Sean Eady and Brian Thomas.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: They said the bed and breakfast was separate from their
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: personal living space and was operated like a hotel. Having entered, quote,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: having entered into the commercial sphere The Molnars, like other
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: business people, were required to comply with the laws of
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the province that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, end quote.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Tribunal member Enid Marion told the Vancouver Sun. Thomas, one
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: of the gay men, said that he was delighted in
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the ruling. He said, quote, sometimes you have to stick
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: your neck out and we stuck our necks out and
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: we feel good and vindicated that we did for the
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: benefit of the people coming behind us. The Molnars will
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: be required to pay more than $ 4, 500 in fines. News
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: story number two from the New York Times, July 10th.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: The Episcopal Church on Tuesday approved an official liturgy for
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: blessing same-sex unions, enabling priests who have the approval of
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: their bishops to bestow the church's blessing on gay couples
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: whether they live in a state where same-sex marriage is
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: legal or not. The adoption of an official rite significant
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: in a church in which liturgy is central further solidifies
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the Episcopal Church's shift to the left on sexual minorities.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: A day earlier, the church voted to approve a non-discrimination
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: policy that will allow transgendered people to be ordained to
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the priesthood. The vote on gay blessings, which took place
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: at the church's Triennial General Convention in Indianapolis, was 171
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: to 50. The vote was by the House of Deputies,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: which includes lay people and clergy members. The church has
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: a bicameral structure, and its House of Bishops overwhelmingly approved
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the new liturgy on Monday by a vote of 111
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: to 41, with three abstentions. This is significant because it's
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: saying this is around to stay. This is not a
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: passing fad, said Mary A. Tolbert, founding director of the
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and and
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: ministry at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. It's
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: making a statement about the continued presence of gay and
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: lesbian people among the congregations of the Episcopal Church and
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: that their lives need to be marked by liturgy as well.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Why the juxtaposition of these two news stories. Because as
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: we look at the letter to the church at Thyatira,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: what we recognize is that there is a kind of
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: pressure brought upon the church through either overt or covert
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: persecution that leads to one of two responses. These responses
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: are either, number one, diaspora or a running away. The
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: church ceases to exist. You persecute the church into non-existence.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: We've seen this, for example, in some Muslim countries. We've
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: seen this in some Hindu countries where people will come
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: into a community where there is a church where there
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: are Christians and will burn the church to the ground.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: We've seen in some places, for example, in Indonesia and
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: other places, in the Philippines and others. By the way,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the world are not Arabs.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Most of the Muslims in the world are Asians, not Arabs.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: And the most popular, most populous Muslim country in the
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: world is Indonesia. And so instances where they will come
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: in where a church on the Lord's day is having
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: a service, they will bar the doors on the outside
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: and set fire to the place. killing everyone in the building.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: So sometimes, churches are just eradicated from certain places or
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: communities by persecution. Other times, they aren't eradicated, but they compromise.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: And this compromise takes a number of forms. One form
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: is refusing to preach the whole gospel to the whole world.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: I believe that's what we saw in the letter to
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the church at Ephesus. there was a compromise on the gospel.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: There was a compromise on that first principle, that first
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: love of proclaiming the gospel, witnessing the gospel. And by
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: refusing to preach the whole gospel to the whole world,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: we're not refusing to preach the gospel at all. We
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: just tweak the gospel so that we don't experience the persecution.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: And so if we put our foot out there and
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: they stomp on our foot, we'll put our foot back down.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: We'll just back it up a little bit. So instead
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: of preaching a gospel that speaks of sin and judgment,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: we preach a gospel that just speaks of Jesus as
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: your friend. We'll preach a gospel that says your life
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: is empty and Jesus wants to fill it. We'll preach
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: a gospel that does not speak of sin, that does
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: not speak of judgment. And we will bury those aspects
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: in order to avoid the persecutions. Another way is incorporating
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: false teaching. So in the first, there are aspects of
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: the gospel that we just won't bring forth. In the second,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: there are other things that we will bring into the
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: gospel that simply are not true in an effort to compromise.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: This is what Paul talked about in 2 Timothy 4,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: 1 through 4, was it not? When he wrote, I
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: who is to judge the living and the dead, and
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. Be
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: their own passions and will turn away from listening to
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: the truth and wander off into myths. This is the
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: second form of compromise, where we actually bring falsehoods into
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: our gospel. The third is failing to confront and discipline sin.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: We saw this on last week, and we see it
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: again this week. A failure to confront or discipline sin.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: The classic example of this is in 1 Corinthians chapter 5,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: of course, where Paul says that It is actually reported
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: that there is sexual immorality among you and of a
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: kind that is not tolerated even among pagans. For a
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: man has his father's wife and you are arrogant. Ought
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: this be removed from among you. There's a fourth kind
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: of compromise. And that is embracing the sinful aspects of
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: the culture. Here's what we see in the last news
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: story about the Episcopal Church in America. Actually compromising to
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: the point of embracing aspects of our culture that the
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Bible clearly calls sinful. But what does that have to
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: do with the letter to the church at Thyatira? Brothers
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and sisters, the answer is Because that is precisely what
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: is happening in the church at Thyatira. Although this church
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: has not, to our knowledge at this point through the letter,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: experienced direct persecution. they are experiencing that indirect persecution that
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: often leads to compromise. So we find here, Revelation chapter 2,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: beginning at verse 18, the longest of the seven letters
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: is It reads, to the angel of the church of
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Thyatira write, the words of the son of God who
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: are like burnished bronze. I know your works, your love
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: and faith and service and patient endurance and that your
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: that you tolerate that woman Jezebel. who calls herself a
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. Just
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: pause there for a moment. That's almost unthinkable. Unthinkable that
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: there is someone in the church who is actually enticing
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: people in the church to engage in idolatry, sexual immorality.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: onto a sickbed and those who commit adultery with her,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: her works. And I will strike her children dead And
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: all the churches will know that I am he who
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: searches mind and heart. Literally kidney and heart. And I
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: will give to each of you according to your works.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: But to the rest of you in Thyatira. Who do
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: not hold this teaching. Who have not learned what some
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: call the deep things of Satan. Amen. To you I say,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: I do not lay on you any other burden. Only
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: hold fast what you have until I come. The one
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: who conquers and who keeps my works until the end.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: To him I will give authority over the nations and
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: he will rule them with a rod of iron as
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: when earthen pots are broken in pieces. Even as I
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: myself have received authority from my father and I will
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: give him authority the morning star. He who has an ear,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: This is a disturbing letter. These are disturbing ideas and occurrences.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: This is a disturbing confrontation. And it's disturbing on a
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: number of levels. It's disturbing because of what was introduced
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: into this church. It's disturbing because of what was being
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: allowed in this church. But it's also disturbing in Christ's response.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: It is disturbing to think that there is sin in
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: the church and that Christ says. It's disturbing to us
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: because we think, you know, the God on the left
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: side of the Bible is different than the God on
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: the right side of the Bible. And the God on
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: the right side of the Bible is, you know, lowly Jesus,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: meek and mild with the sheep across his shoulders, you know.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Hair like a shampoo model. Hands that have never done
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: a day's work. Fine, beautiful, European, non-Jewish features. That guy
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: says he's going to kill people. That's disturbing. We're not
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: used to thinking about him in this way. We're thinking
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: about the Jesus who's always twiddling his thumbs and pining
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: away just hoping that somebody will come. That's not the
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: picture at the end of Revelation chapter 2. And it
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: is a bit disturbing. And yet, this is the Word
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: of God.