And I found out that the Purpose Driven Church is Biblical. Because it's in the Bible. So let's open our Bibles in Exodus 32 and see the Purpose Driven Church here. Exodus 32. We'll read from verse 1 to 7 and then we'll continue in the chapter making some comments later. So let's read the Word of God, Exodus 32 verses 1 to 7. And the people, I'm sorry, and when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, The people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we ought not what is become of him. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons and of your daughters, and bring them unto me." And all the people break off the golden earrings which were in the ears and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graven tool after he had made it a mowden calf. And they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat. and to drink, and rose up to play. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go get thee down, for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this time we have here, examining your Word, especially this very critical passage. And help us to understand the things that are going on in many churches today to help us to understand the times we are living and to discern the right from the wrong that we ask you in Jesus' name. Amen. Purpose-driven church found in the Bible. Of course, Pastor Reno said, as he invited me to bring a Sunday school lesson, he said, are you going to speak about Purpose-driven church, are you going to speak good or bad? I'm going to speak against it. Okay, you can bring it. Purpose-driven movement. Well, the main, there are two big churches some of you know. Willow Creek Church near Chicago and Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. Watch this. One of the main ones of the purpose-driven name, purpose-driven church, this expression came from this church, Saddleback Church in Lake Forest. This church is pastored by Rick Warren, a very well-known name now. This church is one of the most influential churches in the world. Warren says, this is a world-class church. making a world-class impact. And this church has influenced from Catholics to fundamentalists. A visitor to Saddleback Church in 2003 reports, The church complex is huge. The main auditorium seats many thousands. There are dozens of other buildings for various ministries. The overall mood of the services is casual in the extreme. The people dress much as they would for secular events. Women are dressed in shorts, short skirts, tight pants, and other types of immodest attire. The church bulletin for that Sunday was patterned after the cover of the TV Guide. So people get used to it. The words TV Guide were replaced with FC Guide, Saddleback Church Guide. The words television was mentioned several times in the message, but there was not a hint of warning about its dangers. Warren said, to insist that all good music came from Europe 200 years ago, that's a name for that. Racism. It's awful, isn't it? We watched the video on Friday about Fanny Crosby and how those people suffered and God just used them in a mighty way used people like Watts, like Wesley, the Wesleys, like Fanny Crosby to write wonderful hymns, sung 200 years, 300 years later. And then all of a sudden came a person saying that this is racism. And he also, Rick Warren, said that the use of traditional music in the church would be equivalent to the sin of idolatry. It's unbelievable. I don't know what I feel when I read this. I mean, Purpose Driven Church Growth Seminar. It's written there. He said, we are not preaching doctrine. Results, 93 different denominations in the Church Growth Seminar. 4.5 million copies of his books. his book, Purpose Driven Life and Purpose Driven Church, and 300,000 pastors swallowing this thing. The music was pure, the visitor continues in his report, the music was pure rock and roll. There were five singers in this service because there are other services going simultaneously. There were five singers two electric guitars and a drum kit, an electric keyboard, two saxophones and a piano, a trumpet, trombone, and flute. Three special numbers were performed with a pure nightclub effect. In the background, swirling lights and attractive female singers swaying and dancing to the music. So is there anything in the Bible suggesting this kind of style, this kind of service? Well, in Exodus 32, we have something like that. Let's go back to our text here, Exodus 32. So what is the context here? The people of Israel just came out of Egypt, they crossed the Red Sea, and they were wandering in the desert, and three months after the exodus, they were here. Moses went up to the mount to talk to God, to receive the law, and the people were here waiting for Moses. Look in verse 1. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mouth, the people gather themselves together. And the first thing here I see is the people. My question is, does majority establish truth? Does majority establish truth? Yes or no? No. And some people just use majority to try to excuse their choices or what they do. Numbers, appealing to numbers. And the majority doesn't impress God. When Luther was fighting against the Catholic Church, somebody asked him, don't you see that the whole world is against you? Are you going to insist on this thing of justification by faith, going against the Church, the established Church? Don't you see that? And supposedly he said, so what? Then I'm against the world. And the people, they saw that Moses delayed. My other question is what? Is this, delayed in relation to what? To their own concepts. Moses is taking too much time. The sin of impatience, the first sin of the people here, The sins concerning the people, we all talk about the sins concerning the leaders. The sins concerning the people. They thought that the majority would establish truth. And they were impatient, delayed. In the New Testament we have two words for time. We have kairos and we have kronos. Kairos means a definite and particular time. A right time. God appointed time for something to happen. In our lives we have events in our lives that God appointed for things to happen in our lives. Sometimes we get impatient. But we have to wait until God's will be revealed. And sometimes we get impatient too. And the people here were impatient. They thought that Moses was taking too much time. But it was God's time, so they had to wait until God said that it was time for Moses to come down. But they didn't think so. Delayed based on what? On their own impatience. That's the problem. And the other word is chronos, which means a measured time. So we have to respect and obey God's time. God's kairos time. So, the first sin was of impatience. The second sin was trying to impress with numbers. They gathered themselves together unto Aaron. And also the sin of unbelief and idolatry. And in verse, still verse 1, they said unto Aaron, Up, make us gods. is an imperative in the Hebrew here. And let's go back to Genesis 19.8 to see what they did, what they said before. Exodus 19.8, after listening to the Ten Commandments, which were given, by the way, before this event here, they knew the law of God. And look what they said. Exodus 1908 and all the people Answered together We're talking about hundreds of thousands of people They they answered together and said all that the Lord has spoken We will what? do And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord will do everything Moses Go to Exodus 24, 3 again. They repeated what they pledged to the Lord. They said, we're going to do everything. We're going to obey the Word of God. Exodus 27, 24, 3. And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And, listen to that again, all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words which the Lord hath said, we will do." Sometimes people say things but they don't count the cost of their commitment. Isn't that true? We see that everywhere. In Moses, verse 4, Moses wrote all the words of the Lord and rose up early in the morning and built an altar under the hill and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. So Moses wrote the words of the Lord. And in verse 7 also, Exodus 24, 7. And he took the book of the covenant and read in the audience of the people. And they said again, the third time, all that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient. And then we jump to chapter 32, and all of a sudden, because Moses delayed receiving in more detail the commandments of God, they became impatient, and they forgot their allegiance, their pledge to God. And make us Gods which shall go before us. Now, for as for thus Moses, This Moses, as if he were somebody that they didn't know, this is the man that led him out of Egypt. This is the man that led them through the Red Sea, and all the miracles, and then all of a sudden he becomes this Moses. This Moses. So this man is away from us, so let's make a new leader here. Let's make somebody that it's not that strict. Let's elect somebody that would do what we want. Do you see the focus here? And this Moses, the man, they recognize that the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we, what not what has become of him. So why? Why don't you know what has become of him? Maybe they thought, oh, maybe he fled, he went somewhere else, he abandoned us. Or they were not trusting God anymore. It's very strange to see the change of attitude just because of impatience. It's unbelievable. And Aaron said unto them, instead of obeying the word of God, instead of doing what God asks them to do, to obey the word and to be priests, Aaron did what people wanted. He said, break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons and of your daughters and bring them unto me. And all the people did that. And we see the sin of forgetfulness. Only three months after the crossing of the Red Sea, And we see the sin of idolatry, verse 4. And he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graven tool after he had made it a molten calf. And they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And we have the sin of idolatry. The sin of idolatry has two different aspects. You have people worship a false god. Like, for example, the Catholic Church, you have, I mean, in Brazil, it's a big thing. We have a lot of different saints. And we have the Aparecida, which is Mary the Appeared One, as they say. And we have Nazareth, which is a big thing in more than what, 1.5 million people in this procession following this Mary of Nazareth, as they say. And we have this, it's a worship, people worshiping a false god, as if that person were a god. Or, you try to worship god in a wrong way. So a worship to a false god, or worshiping god with ideas coming from man's mind. This is also idolatry. So we have two things here. And the people here, they were making, they made this molten calf, and they were attributing that molten calf deity. So this is idolatry. This is what God told them not to do. And all of a sudden, they were involved in this, And look at this in verse 5, and when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. And this expression, feast to the Lord, was first applied in Exodus 13, 6. Let's go back to Exodus 13, 6, and you'll see that. I'm sorry, Exodus 12, 14. This is the Passover, the institution of the Passover, Exodus 12, 14. And it says, And this day shall be unto you for a memorial. The Lord is speaking to the people. And ye shall keep it as a feast to the Lord. So the day The celebration of the Passover, the first day, is called a feast to the Lord. This expression came from the Lord Himself. And also in the seventh day, the seventh day of the eleven bread, now we go to Exodus 13, verse 6. Seven days thou shalt eat eleven bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord. So this is an expression which came from the Lord Himself. And then they're applying the terminology, that's my point here, they're applying a terminology that came from the Lord to a form of worship that came from their own minds. This is purpose-driven, this is the core of the purpose-driven movement. They're applying worship to God, but using methods that came from man's mind. That's the problem here I'm going to show you. Just in a moment. And then, look the sin, the sins here of the people. First of all, they came up with this wrong worship. Every time you have false religion, you end up with immorality. Things are linked. And then, look what they did. Verse 6. They rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings. They insisted in worshipping God with methods that came out of their own minds. And they offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat, and then you have false religion, and then you have wrong behavior to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. This expression rose up to play, it has an essential connotation. So, they were wrong in their worship, they were wrong in their behavior, and they came with immorality here. And so far we have seen the sin of impatience, the sin of idolatry, unbelief and idolatry, forgetfulness, and then now we have immorality. And, look, the Bible issue here in the Purpose Driven Church also, because they are changing the Word of God, that's what they did here too. They are changing the Word of God to fit their doctrines. We have the music issue and the purpose driven church and the Bible issue. As I said, I'm going to make some comments about the music issue, but I want to talk about the Bible issue. An outline of the sermon of the purpose driven church, I will go back and forth to the Bible text and to the purpose driven church philosophy so we can compare both things and see if the philosophy is here. The Bible issue, they gave an outline of the sermon that was handed out with the bulletin. and six or seven versions were quoted. You see, in one outline, six or seven different versions of the Bible were quoted. Most of them paraphrases, such as the Living Bible, a horrible Bible, totally heretical, and the New Living Translation, The Message, the today's English version, and the contemporary English version. I mean, the most corrupt versions. And on the way to the auditorium, that only a few of the people, only a few of the people carried Bibles, of course, because they don't have a standard Bible. And some people told, just made this comment. Instead of seeing, for the churches who adopt this purpose-driven philosophy, Instead of seeing people carrying Bibles, they saw a lot of people carrying only Rick Warren's book. It's sad. And people don't carry their Bibles anymore. And the multiplicity of versions that were used in the preaching were also noticed. It would have been impossible to have followed along in one's Bible. The result is that the people do not bring their own Bibles and do not therefore carefully test the preaching. And this is what's going on. So the people corrupted themselves. So the sins concerning the people. Now the sins concerning the leaders. In this case here is Aaron. And the ascending of the Compromiser. His name is Aaron. And we see here he was Moses' brother. And he was a gifted speaker. That's what the Bible says. But gift is not the prerequisite of a leader. But his heart. That's the prerequisite. Sometimes people judge the leader because he is a gifted. He is a gifted speaker. Oh, look how he is. He has a brilliant personality. But it's not God's prerequisite. He's eloquent. He's bold and confident. He's not embarrassed. He's neat. But he was not fit to be the leader of God's people. He was not capable to lead spiritually. And Moses was the one called. Aaron was not called. And you see, Satan attacked the weaker vessel. And remember what Satan did in the Garden of Eden? Adam or Eve? He tempted the weaker vessel. And I don't believe that no woman is called to preach. And God addressed the man in Genesis 3.17. Let's go back there. And God, His question was, what? Genesis 3.17. unto Adam, he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife. You see, she was the one who sent first, but God is calling him, his responsibility is upon Adam here. And God in verse 9 also, and the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou? So the man is the one who will bear the responsibility of spiritual matters. Of course, ladies will have their responsibilities too, but in terms of leadership, God will ask the men. So, Satan, even though was a man involved here, but he was the weaker vessel, he was not called to lead the people. And he was weak, he was not qualified. And he... was under the urge of the rebellious. He had no backbones against the rebellious. He feared the majority. He accepted his splendor and derogatory criticism against Moses. And he was used by the devil. And he was usurping the authority of the appointed man of God. He shunned from confrontation. A lot of people today in the ministry, I see that. And some years ago I was in the Southern Baptist Convention there in Brazil. And we had to leave because the leaders would not confront sin. We cannot stay here. That's why we had to leave years ago. And confrontation sometimes is painful. Nobody likes it. But it has to be done. When there's sin, confrontation has to be done. He violated the Ten Commandments. And he wanted to... Some people think, oh, we can deal with sin just redirecting people to the good. But sin is not confronted with positives. You have to rebuke, you have to discipline, you have to separate. And in Titus 1, 10 to 13, let's go back, let's go there, Titus. 1, 10 to 13. Sorry, 10 to 13. It says, For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lookers' sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own set of Christians, are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the face of rebuke." Also discipline. 1 Corinthians 5.5. Let's open there. There was sin in the church of Corinth. And Paul, that was the problem. People didn't want to confront because of reactions or maybe people would leave the church or something. But Paul said, no, we have to confront. We have to solve the problem. We have to confront the problem. That's what the true leader would do. So with discipline, 1 Corinthians 5.5, Paul said, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we are gathered together, in my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. And when you do that, because the word of God, if this man here, this person, just joined a church down the street, He would not get rid of the discipline from God. I'm sorry, but some people just think, oh, I'll just join the other church. No. If you are under the discipline of God, you will be under the discipline wherever you go. It doesn't matter. I mean, just go to another church doesn't solve the problem. If it's done according to the Word of God. And leaders are to confront sin. with rebuke, with discipline, and with separation. The same chapter, 1 Corinthians 5, 11. But now I have written unto you, not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or a covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such an one know not to eat. So that's what the true leader does. He exhorts people. It's not pleasant. Sometimes it's painful, but it has to be done. That's what Aaron didn't do. And that's what the purpose driven church does not do. They don't do that because they're committed to the church growth. They want numbers. They want the church packed with people. So they lower the standards and they just they're committed to that, not to the faithfulness of of the Word of God. Confrontation is unpleasant, but has to be done. It's necessary. So that's what Aaron did. He sanctified wickedness. People were rebellious. People wanted to do their own thing, and he just did what they wanted. He was afraid of men. He wanted to please men. That's what The Purpose Driven Church does. And the New Evangelicals, they came in 1948, this term New Evangelical, because Evangelical was synonym of fundamentalist before 1948. And then they said, oh, we are too separatist. Let's do something. Let's not be so divisive. So in 1948, they came up with this term, New Evangelical, because they didn't want to confront sin, and they didn't want to separate from sin. And they blessed, Aaron here, blessed what God condemned. And what about today? People are blessing, what, sodomites? They are blessing all kinds of sins against the family. They are blessing rock music. They are betraying the Lord. And divorced and all kinds of things. And he was blaspheming against God, attributing his glory to an image. So that's what the sin of Aaron was. So the sins concerning the leaders. And now I want to just make some comments what Rick Warren said. about some things here. I was doing some research on that. Five things he said. Five of his claims. He said, compare with the Bible this. The unchurched culture determines our style. Is it biblical? No. Open your Bibles in 1 John 2.15. Somebody read that for me please. First John, yeah, 215. Let's see if the unchurched culture must determine the church culture. Okay. Love not the world, even the things that are in the world. Any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Okay, now 519. First John 519. So, are you going to get the philosophy of the whole world, of the world which lies in wickedness, and bring to the Church? That's what they're teaching. Second point, out of five. You have to intentionally, now listen to this, you have to intentionally learn to think like an unbeliever again. That's what Warren said. Such as changing the way you greet visitors, the style of music that you use, the translation you preach from. Becoming a purpose driven church by Rick Warren. So, why do you think they are using all kinds of different translations? Because they want to fit their wrong philosophy based on the wrong versions of the Bible. They don't teach doctrine. That's why they are saying that. But look how it is totally anti-biblical. Read in Ephesians 4.17 what the Bible says about the mind of the unbeliever. Ephesians 4.17 If you find, if you found it, just read it. Vanity. So should I use vanity to come up with new things in the church? No. Not only that, Romans 128. Go ahead. Romans 1 28. Talking about the depravity of the heathen. Reprobate mind. So we have to learn to think like a reprobate mind. I'm sorry Rick Warren, you're completely wrong. But how can you say that because they are having so wonderful results, people just flock into the church. I don't care, they are wrong, we have to compare with the Bible. Number three, and to insist that one particular, I said that before, I'll repeat it here, and to insist that one particular style of music is more sacred than the other, there's a word for that, it's called idolatry. Unbelievable! They are saying that, I mean, the hymns of the faith that we sing here, produced by godly people like Crosby, you see how she suffered and her life was totally dedicated to help other people and love other people, to reach them to Christ, and then 8,000 hymns, and then how can you say that it's idolatry? I'm going to tell you what's idolatry. Let's see the contemporary Christian music world. That's idolatry. That's personality worship and all the way they dress. One famous contemporary Christian music singer, she was given an interview in Good Morning America. She had to cross her legs because if she didn't, her underwear would just appear. And then she was saying, wearing this miniskirt, so indecent and obscene, and then she said that, the first time I heard the Beatles, I want to hold your hand, I thought, yes, that's it. And she made what they call crossover. She went to where she belongs. She went to the world. This is idolatry, as far as I'm concerned. And idolatry is what they do. They dress like sodomites, they look like sodomites, they look like devil worshippers, and they're not ashamed of that. Wearing earrings and tattoos and long hair, and looking like demons, like striper. This is idolatry. Is it the kind of music that you're going to bring to the church? I'm sorry. And you're trying to condemn people like Crosby, like Watts, like the Wesleys, like godly men, like Bliss. I'm sorry. It's totally insane. And not only that, look what he said. It's amazing. I get upset. I don't know about you. He said, we are unapologetically a contemporary music church. I mean, contemporary music. It's anti-biblical. It's sensual. It's ecumenical. It's associated with charismatics. The messages are deluded and heretical. It's worldly. It's carnal. This is contemporary Christian music. Go to the bookstores and you can see that. Look at the results. There are concerts. People are screaming for their idols. And just like the world, it's not just like the world, they are the world, they are doing what the world do. And they are putting a Christian terminology as people of Israel did, and they want God to accept this worship. I'm sorry, but God will not accept that. The God of the Bible is a holy God, and the worship to a holy God must be holy too. Number 5, and I'll be done with that. When a church continues to use methods that no longer work, That is being unfaithful to Christ. So, his measure to be faithful to Christ is what? The results. You see how wrong he is? This is called pragmatism. You justify the means by the results you get. This is wrong. This is what the Bible, I mean, the Bible condemns this thing, I mean, from cover to cover. It's not what the majority is doing. It's what God wants us to do. Doesn't matter the numbers. So, that's their purpose here. It's purpose-driven. It's a very proper name. I mean, they're oriented to reach a goal. Doesn't matter the means. So they violate the Bible with that. So, my final plea will be here and back to Exodus 32. And we have to pay the price for, I mean, our faithfulness to God. And when Moses came down and he saw that, and he saw dancing, and we have a lot of other interesting things going on, he broke the law. The covenant was broken because the people of Israel broke the covenant with God. And then the question, the rhetorical question is on verse 26. Then Moses stood at the gate of the camp, and I'll finish with this, and said, Who is on the Lord's side? And then he said, let him come unto me. And then all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. My question is, are we like the sons of Levi this morning? Are we willing to serve the Lord no matter the cost? If yes, we are on the Lord's side. And I don't care what's going on out there. If they're not doing according to this book, according to the Word of God, they are wrong. I don't get impressed with their numbers. Who is on the Lord's side? May God bless us this morning. Thank you very much.