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Lancaster Baptist podcast features
the dynamic preaching and teaching of Dr. Paul Chappell, the senior
pastor of Lancaster Baptist Church. The purpose of this podcast is
to help others love God, grow together through the teaching
of God's Word, and serve others in the name of Jesus Christ.
Philippians chapter 1, and we're going to read verses 9 and 10. And this I pray, that your love
may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. And what the Holy Spirit is speaking
of here is discerning love. That we're to love, but we are
to be cautious with respect to certain objects or Things that
we should not love. And so we're to be a loving people
and Christians are to be known by their love. Unfortunately,
many times that's not the case. And sometimes even Christians
bicker with one another. Certainly that doesn't please
the Lord. But when it comes to this matter of love, there's
to be a discerning kind of love. So he says, I want you to love
yet more and more in knowledge and all judgment that you may
approve things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without
offense till the day of Christ. Shall we pray together? Father,
we thank you for this time tonight, for the wonderful music. for
the updates of the ministry and just the opportunity to fellowship
around Your Word. Please bless as we open Your
Word tonight. May it please You and may everything
said and done bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus, we ask
in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. I would
normally never say that a preacher should quit. Normally, I'd never
even suggest such a thing. In fact, I've spent many years
of my life Encouraging preachers not to quit. Writing notes of
encouragement to them. Helping them in any way that
I can. Trying to encourage their families. And just in general,
saying to the preachers, don't quit. Keep on keeping on for
the Lord. However, one of the biggest challenges
we have in 2011, as we go about witnessing, as we go about ministering
in this country, is the proliferation of false teachers in these last
days. Perhaps two of the greatest challenges
we face were addressed first of all last week in the form
of the many perverted forms of Scripture that abound so that
unsaved people say, well, which one really can be trusted? And
secondly, the many perverted messengers that abound who seem
to take the ministry to lower depths with every passing day. And so as we come to Philippians
chapter one, the Bible says, I pray that your love may abound. Do we love church? Yes, we do. Do we love the Bible? Yes, we
do. Do we love God's men? Yes, we do. But should our love
abound with knowledge and judgment? Yes, it should. Should we approve
things that are excellent? Yes, we should. We live in a
day when many false messages and false messengers abound. And it is vital that we practice
discernment and it is vital that we as Witnesses for the Lord
are ready always to give an answer to any man that asketh us a reason
for the hope that is within us. And so it is my hope and prayer
tonight that this message not only would be somewhat of a call,
a clarion call of warning, not only would it be somewhat of
a positioning message so that you might know where we stand
on particular issues today, But also so that when you are witnessing
and someone says, well, what about this guy? He does this
and he's a Baptist that you'll be able to say, in fact, our
pastor preached against that. In fact, on our Web site, you
can find a message that deals with that subject. And by the
way, there are a lot of people called Baptists and I've spent
much of my life telling people, oh, we're not a Jimmy Carter
Baptist. No, no, no, no, no, no. We're not the kind of Baptist
that trying to rewrite the Bible and trying to talk about the
idea that that you can just lower the standard in every which way.
And from time to time, while we don't necessarily need to
change our name Baptist, I don't plan on ever doing that this
side of heaven. Sometimes you have to define
where you are in the realm of that particular name. So tonight,
I want to speak to you about three preachers who need to quit. Three preachers that would help
the name of Christ if they would either get saved and get right
or just completely quit altogether. The first preacher that I'll
speak about in general terms tonight, the first group of preachers,
you might say, are those preachers who sensationalize for their
own fleshly gain. sensationalist. I want you to
turn the book of Jude now to first number 16, and I want you
to see that this is a characteristic of many false preachers. The
Bible says in Jude 16, these are murmurers, complainers walking
after their own lusts and their mouth speaketh great swelling
words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.
These men will make grandiose statements. They will do bizarre
press events in order that their gullible followers will be impressed
with them in order that they might find some form of advantage
with these particular people. But Jude says in verse 17, But
beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the
apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you there
should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their
own ungodly lust. Now, when we think of sensationalists
in this 21st century, I want you to consider with me the identity
of these sensationalists in verse number 16 of our text here in
the book of Jude. We see that they are identified
with certain words, murmurers, complainers walking after their
own lusts. The murmurer was someone who
perhaps was discontented against God or against their place in
life or ministry. Complainers also, speaking of
this spirit of discontentment, speaking with great swelling
words to try to gain that form of attention that really is at
the root of what they seek, rather than seeking to be faithful to
the truth of the Word of God. 2 Peter 2 and verse 18 speaks
of it this way, For when they speak great swelling words of
vanity, they allure through the lust of the flesh. Through much
wantonness, those that were clean escape from them who live in
error. Now, the sensationalists seem
to be abounding today. And once in a while, they're
called even by the name Baptist. I think of one sensationalist
in particular tonight. whose disrespect for our fallen
heroes and disrespect for our military families sickens me
every single time I hear about him on the news. This so-called
pastor, I would question even the use of that term for him
from the so-called Westboro Baptist Church. And don't you know that
the media loves to talk about this Baptist preacher and all
these Baptists and the media can go from zero to a thousand
in about five seconds. with casting aspersion on on
many times millions of people because of the idiocy of a few
while the media continuously speaks about and while our president
continuously speaks about the wonderful religion of Islam. When evangelical type or Bible
preaching type names are in the mix, they're very, very quick
to cast dispersion, cast dispersion out upon them. And I just want
to go on the record tonight that this Westboro Baptist Church
that takes their members around and talks about God hating Israel. Let me just say right now, God
does not hate Israel. God does not hate Islamic people. God does not hate America. God
hates sin, but God loves sinners and he loves sinners of every
color. He loves sinners that work at Westboro Baptist Church
and for ABC and NBC and wherever a sinner crawls under a rock.
There is a God in heaven who sees him and still loves him.
We ought to thank God for that tonight, because we're no better
than any other person on this planet, except for the fact that
God is love, and God loves sinners. And so, with their signs, they
speak of God's hate for people, and God does not hate people. And then, by going around to
the funerals and picketing against families, whose sons and daughters
have given the ultimate sacrifice so I can have the freedom to
preach like I preached tonight. It is a shame that a man would
take the name Baptist and go from place to place and do that.
My Bible still says in Romans 12, 21, be not overcome of evil,
but overcome evil with good. I'm not ashamed to take a strong
stand. I'm not even against picketing.
Honestly, sometimes I wish I could be about four different people. I'd like to be here tomorrow
for graduation. I'd like to be maybe down at some of the Hollywood
studios picketing their promotion of sin. You want to do it? I'll be glad to help you do it.
Some days I've thought I'd like to take about a thousand people
to Sacramento and let them know at Sacramento there are still
a few of us that believe marriage is between a man and a woman.
There are still a few of us that are upset still about SB 777
and all the other garbage that keeps getting run down the pipe
in Sacramento. Sometimes I wish I could be there
and here and there. I'm not against picketing. I'm
not against standing up against wickedness. I'm not against being
publicly against various different types of influences in our country
that are causing, I believe, hurt to the country. But when
someone in a sensational way, calling themselves a pastor,
begins to ostracize people from Jesus in this way and begins
to minimize the sacrifice of our veterans, I have a problem
with that. That is not the way to win them
to the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, there is a time
and a place to be salt and light. But there is also a command to
love people and to speak the truth in love. I think about
this this crazy man, Reverend so-called Reverend Terry Jones,
out in the Dove World Outreach Center. Thank God he's at least
not a Baptist. Who had his own sensational day
and his day was International Judge the Koran Day. And so this
so-called man of God decides the best way to make his point. And by the way, his point is
twofold. Narcissistic attention for himself
and some type of followership that may have some other forms
of gain with it. But his point, other than that,
is a moot point, a stupid point, an unhelpful point for those
of us who would like to see some Muslims accept Jesus Christ as
their Savior. Look, you don't win a Muslim
to Christ by burning their book. You're not going to win a Jehovah's
Witness by burning their book. You're not going to win a Mormon
by having a press conference and burning the book of Mormon. I believe Islam is a false religion. No question about it. I understand,
as the Koran was given 700 years after Christ, and as it speaks
about prophets and such, it speaks about the fact that God the Father
had no Son, and we are here tonight because we believe His Son was
the virgin-born Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. We understand
that. But I believe that while we have
the right to disagree, While we have the right to state that
we believe that their teaching is false, we also ought to pray
for opportunity to witness to these people. Folks, Muslims
need to be saved. You know, I hope you'll understand
this tonight as a red blooded American, I am just so proud
of our Navy SEALs getting over to Pakistan and getting her done.
OK. But I'm not thrilled ever about
anyone going to hell. And we ought to recognize that
there are millions and millions of people and billions of people
of different faiths that that certainly need to know the truth.
But the fact is that going into their religious ceremonies or
taking something sacred to them and burning it is the opposite
of what Jesus taught in Matthew 544. I send you love your enemies,
bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and
pray for them, which despitefully use you and persecute you. I
want to go on record tonight that as your pastor, I think
that type of sensationalism does not help us when we go out soul
winning. It only hurts us when we go out
soul winning. I remember years ago up here
at the Mojave Golf Course. Any of you ever played golf at
the Mojave Golf Course? Brother Alvarez is the only one. I think it's about a nine hole
is all I remember it to be, nine hole golf course. Older gentleman
in the church back years ago, and this is going back a ways. I think I was about 25, 26. And
he said, Pastor, you need to have some exercise and you need
to get the stress off. And I really didn't need it back
then, to be honest with you, but he thought I did and so forth.
And we'd go up there. And if you took a track that
had your name or a picture on it, Brother Getsch, and you showed
it there at the pro shop, they said, oh, you're a pastor. You
can play free. I thought, man, that's great.
Play free, nine holes of golf, beautiful Mojave, California. You know, and I don't know, I
went there two or three times and I showed him the track. I
said, oh, come on in, Pastor. And then Jimmy Swagger. By the way, I have I have no
glee about Jimmy Swaggart falling into sin or anything. I'm just
simply saying that when Jimmy Swaggart fell and it was on the
news day after day after day, the next time I went to that
golf course and said, hi, Pastor Jeff. Well, here's what? Oh,
we don't do that anymore. We can't let you in here. We
just don't know who to trust anymore. How many of you know
the devil just loves that? See. But listen, far more important
than your pastor playing nine holes of golf is all of us being
able to knock on someone's door and tell them that Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, shed His blood on an old rugged cross, and on
the third day, up from the grave, He arose. Listen, we need to
have the opportunity to share the good news. And listen, if
a man of God has a chance to be on ABC or CNN, and all he
wants to do is burn somebody's book, or all he wants to do is
pick at somebody's funeral, and he's not taking that opportunity
to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, then he is not a man
of God. And we need to pray for Christians
all over this world, because when an idiot like that does
something stupid like that, you say, Pastor, you shouldn't use
those words in the pulpit. When an idiot like that does
something stupid like that, what it does for the 1% of the Christians
in Afghanistan and the 2% in Egypt, it puts them in harm's
way. Just yesterday in Cairo, a group
of Muslims gathered around the church, and I understand the
Coptic church For the most part, I'm sure, does not preach the
gospel. But they would say they believe in Jesus. And they represent
what we believe in a sense. And just yesterday, hundreds
in Cairo came out of their neighborhoods with firebombs and began to bomb
this church. And they were chanting. You can
read about it in Associated Press. With our blood and soul, we defend
Islam. They were chanting, there is
no God but Allah. And on and on they went until
the church was burned and twelve people lay in the rubble when
it was all over with. And what I'm simply saying tonight
is while we can disagree and while we can even preach against
damnable heresies and while we take a stand in this way, we
also need to make sure that people know that Jesus Christ died on
the cross, not because He hated them, but because He loved them. And so the identity of these
false teachers, according to the book of Jude, is that they
use great swelling words and they allure through lusts of
the flesh. And then we see not only their
identity, we see their insurrection. And I want you to notice in Jude
once again, in verse number 17, the Bible speaks of it in these
ways as we read. But ye beloved, Remember the
words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus
Christ, how that they told you there should be mockers in the
last time who should walk after their own ungodly lust. These
be they who separate themselves sensual, having not the spirit,
in essence, making a mockery of ministry. They are clouds
without water. They are false prophets simply
bringing about through sensationalism an opportunity for a press conference
rather than an opportunity to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And I say it tonight, preachers who are all about sensationalism
and not about the gospel of Jesus Christ need to just hang it up
and get an honest job. Secondly, I believe tonight the
second group of preachers who ought to find a different trade
are those who rationalize. Those who rationalize. Turn in
your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. I speak tonight of rationalizing
the truth and rationalizing when sin is present in the church. I hear rationalization all the
time. I hear men who go into adultery rationalizing why they
did that. Let me simply say tonight, you're
not going to rationalize with God when you stand before him. There's a vow that's made at
the wedding altar. And when you sin, sir, don't
try to blame your wife on your choice. Rationalization. People rationalize all the time
why they don't serve the Lord or why they're not as faithful
as they used to be. You may convince your spouse.
You may get some sympathy out of your preacher, maybe not too
much. But there is a tragic amount
of rationalization leading to compromise in this realm spoken
of in First Corinthians, Chapter five, it is reported commonly
that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as
is not so much named among the Gentiles, that one should have
his father's wife, and ye are puffed up and have not rather
mourned that he hath done this, that hath done this deed might
be taken away from among you. Look in verse four. In the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye gather together in my spirit
with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such in one
to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit
may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, your glorying is
not good. Know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump? I want to say tonight that when
a pastor or even a church begins to rationalize sin in the church,
there is still a third person of the Godhead who is called
the Holy Spirit. And as a person of the Godhead
living within us tonight, when there is sin, When there is hatred,
envy, wrath, emulation, when there is fornication and we sit
in the church house acting as though there's no problem and
we know that it's taken place and it's not being dealt with.
I want you to know tonight, the spirit of the living God is quenched. And when a pastor is aware of
it and is doing nothing about it, I believe the spirit of the
living God is quenched as well. The church at Corinth was well
aware of the fornication. That's the tragedy. Not just
that sin existed. Let me just say here, you don't
have 8,000 members on your roll without every week having someone
involved in sin. We don't teach the doctrine of
sinless perfection. There's one who's sinlessly perfect,
and his name is Jesus Christ. We certainly are not a sinless
people. That's not the point of this
message. The point of this message is that when the sin occurs,
I'm not talking about the sin of being cut off in the parking
lot, all right? Don't come up to me after church tonight and
say, Pastor Chappell, Brother Jones just cut me right off in
the parking lot, didn't even look at me, didn't even say he was sorry,
just cut me right off in a very sinister type of way. We're not
going to convene a meeting for that, okay? I mean, I've had
my car hit in the church parking lot, And just I just wave. I mean, to me, it's not worth
even discussing it. It's a material matter. You're
my brother in Christ. I've got insurance. See you later,
alligator. And sometimes people have to
have meetings about everything, though. My kid was in the school
lot, and all he was doing was trying to ride on the swing.
And the other kid came and saw him on the swing and pushed him
right off the swing into the dirt. And we're one-fourth Italian,
and I think it's because we're Italian that he did it. And all of a sudden, Pastor,
we hope you're gaining some strength, but we need two hours of your
time to discuss third grade and kindergarten relations. We need
a summit. I'm not talking about these things. But I know the night of Baptist
churches. Where one man in the choir leaves
his wife for another person in the choir and the whole church
knows, but because he gives a lot of money, nothing is ever said.
And I'm going to tell you right now, it'll be a cold day where
the boogeyman lives when that type of reasoning goes on in
this church about who's approached and who's not approached. They knew that this was going
on. Again, not a trivial manner. Often Christians today emphasize
and argue over preferential little things. I believe it grieves
the Holy Spirit, frankly. With the whole world in need
of the Gospel, I know of missionaries, pastors and Christians who spend
excessive, inordinate amounts of time on the phone and on the
Internet talking to others about you know, how they perceive what
somebody wore or said or did. That's just not even, they're
not even sure. It's just a borderline type of
an issue. And many times, folks that are
always pointing out faults in others have a more, much more
major sin in their life. And their little sideshow is
nothing more than a smoke screen to cover up for the real issues
mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. So we're not talking about
trivial things here. We're talking about rationalizing
sin issues in the church. Oftentimes at Lancaster Baptist,
over the years, something will come to our attention. Maybe
a wife will call, maybe a husband will call, maybe parents whose
child has gone wayward. And if they're a member of this
church, then there will be some mature Christians Maybe one,
but often to go and say, hey, this, by the way, we may or may
not be true, but it's been reported and we're just concerned for
you. And a lot of times there will be a repentance on the other
end of that. And we're able to have prayer
and counseling and and we're able to have maybe a husband
say, I'm sorry. Will you forgive me? And then
a very godly wife filled with the Holy Spirit, not with anger
to say, I forgive you." Or maybe a wife to say, I'm sorry, and
a godly husband to say, I forgive you. And how many of you would
agree with me that when there's sin and repentance there can
always be restoration? Our idea has never been to say,
ha ha, we caught you. You're out of the church. It's
never the goal of God. Listen, God's heart is not to
condemn. It is to restore. But you can't
restore something until it's properly mended. And there must
be the spirit of repentance prior. And yet whenever that is not
dealt with, the spirit of God is grieved. Matthew Henry said
the way to preserve the peace of the church is to preserve
the purity of the church. The presence of known sin not
being dealt with can quench the spirit. And those who rationalize
that, well, it's sin, but everyone does it and it's sin, but are
failing to realize the holiness of our God. Kind of reminds me
of the man who returned from his cabin where he'd been staying
on vacation. He was terribly scratched and
bruised. His wife said, what happened?
He said, I met a snake on the trail. She said, didn't you remember
the park ranger told us yesterday that none of the snakes here
are poisonous? He said, they don't have to be
poisonous if they can make you jump off a 20 foot cliff. Let me tell you what. When there's
a snake around, you've got to deal with the snake. If there's
a sin problem around, it's got to be dealt with. Rationalizing
church sin is not the will of God. You say, Pastor, is there
some big sinner sitting here tonight trying to get him up
a tree about something? No, I mean, there's a couple
thousand big sinners in here tonight. I'm not speaking to any particular
issue, I'm just speaking the truth to you tonight that this
ought not to be. Rationalizing church sin, let
me say secondly, rationalizing abuse. I speak here of the sin
that is a particular sin, often against children. The Bible says in 1 Peter 4,
15, let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as
an evildoer or as a busybody in other men's matters. God says,
I don't want my people committing the crimes and the abuses that
are known commonly in the world. Now, does that happen sometimes
in churches? Yes, it does. Does that type
of sin happen? Yes, it does. And recently I
saw a couple of clips of some documentaries that were done
illustrating certain types of this type of activity, even in
some Baptist churches. And I have no idea if the story
was true or not. I'm sure these things have happened
in different places. Again, I always feel it's wrong
to try to say this is how all Christians are. Look, just because
some Roman Catholic priests have molested children doesn't mean
every Roman Catholic priest is a homosexual. And so you cannot take a line
of reasoning like that. Some people like to take lines
of reasoning like that. So whether some of the documentary
is true or not, and I certainly, by the way, I don't trust the
major networks to put church in a good light, by the way.
Let me just tell you that. Let me say something tonight. If
there is abuse, known abuse. A child comes to this church.
Somehow one of our teachers, our teachers are all trained
on this, have been for 20 years. This happened to me at home or
I have this mark because I got slugged or whatever. We have
no choice but to call the authorities. We have and we will. And let me say that the idea
that, well, Maybe that 16-year-old girl deserved it, is perverse
and sinful and wicked. Or that 16-year-old boy deserved
it. Let me just say tonight, what a child deserves is a loving
environment at home and at church, where they might know the Lord.
And so we thank the Lord that God has kept us free from those
types of things, and we've had a few times in these years where
we've had to report something, and we've even had to endure
the anger of a few that were angry that we reported it. But
the fact is that I believe, as Romans 13 teaches us, for rulers
are not a terror, to good works, but to evil. Will thou then not
be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou
shalt have praise of the same, for he is the minister of God
to thee for good. And I believe that when it comes
to those matters of abuse that pastors who rationalize and say,
well, it happens and And you know, you know, it's sort of
their family matter. No, no. When it comes to the
attention of a church worker, it's your matter now and something
must be done and it must be reported. And let me tell you, friend,
when I hear about those instances in any kind of a church and I
might say any denomination as well, the first response I have
is not to get angry at the media, though that may come later. My
first response is, number one, grief that it might have happened
to anybody. And number two, grief if it happened
in a Christian setting, because it hurts the entire name of the
Lord Jesus Christ when that sin happens. And thirdly, my response
is not to get angry and get up and call everybody by some kind
of a name, but to pray that it will be dealt with in a godly
manner. And the godly manner is that it's reported to the
authorities. And so pastors who sensationalize
with their picketing are doing a disservice to the ministry.
Pastors and Christian workers who rationalize when there's
no adultery. Everybody in the church knows
or when there's some reported abuse and nothing's done, it's
just rationalized away. I say tonight, that does not
please the God we serve. There's a third type of pastor
that I believe ought to find different work tonight. And that
would be the pastor who apostatizes. The word apostasy speaks of falling
away from the truth doctrinally. Turning away from the faith once
delivered unto the saints. Turn, if you would, please, to
2 Peter 2, verses 1 and 2. 2 Peter chapter 2 verses 1 and
2. Those who sensationalize, those
who rationalize, and thirdly, those who apostatize, those who
turn away from or deny the faith. Now, 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse
1. But there were false prophets also among the people, even as
there shall be false teachers among you, who privilege shall
bring in damnable. What's the next word say? Heresies. even denying the Lord that bought
them and bring upon themselves swift destruction. Notice the
phrase denying the Lord. And then notice in verse two,
and many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way
of the truth shall be evil spoken of. Now, tonight, I want you
to think about the method of the apostate, the method of the
apostate, and I want you to understand that many apostates Many of those
who have denied the truth, who have turned from the truth are
men and women who at one time called themselves born again,
sometimes Baptist, even sometimes evangelical. Other terms may
be fundamental. But then either having never
been saved in the first place or having been so filled with
bitterness and having quenched the Holy Spirit, they are now
turning away from the truth that had been delivered and that they
had at one time claimed to believe. And most of these, I believe,
in the context of Scripture, never were saved in the first
place. And I believe, as we study in 1 Peter here, we begin to
see that, first of all, they will downplay the doctrine of
the Word of God. In 2 Peter, rather, chapter 2
and verse 1, it says that there will be false teachers bringing
in damnable heresies. The list is large tonight, and
time would not permit. But I think of men like Robert
Shuler who said, the worst thing we can say to an individual is
that they are a sinner. We do not want to bring that
news to them, he said in that way, and be so condemning to
tell someone that they are a sinner. Now, friends, tonight there's
a few reasons why we must tell men that they are sinners. First,
we must tell them that they are sinners because the Bible says,
for all have sinned. Preachers are sinners. Priests
are sinners. Popes are sinners. Imams are
sinners. Everybody, according to the Bible,
is a sinner. So we tell them because the Bible
tells them so. We tell them because, in fact,
they are, in their human nature, a sinner, Romans chapter 5. And
thirdly, we preach that, not to be negative or derogatory,
but because until somebody believes that they're a sinner, they will
never repent and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
Look, getting saved is not adding Jesus to your little jewelry
box of religion. Getting saved is turning from
all of that mess and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
2 Timothy 3 and verse 5 speaks about these people. If you'd
like to turn there, 2 Timothy 3, 5. It tells us that the apostates
have a form of godliness. Can I tell you that the Unitarian
Universalist Church that is promoting gay marriage? Can I tell you
that the that the false churches of this day have clergy and they
have pulpits and they have choirs and they have foyers and they
have pews and they have songbooks and they have all the rest of
it, but they don't have Jesus? They have a form of godliness,
but they deny the power. How many of you understand, for
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it, what? The gospel for it is the what
power of God unto salvation. I don't care how large the choir
is. I don't care how beautiful the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is.
The fact of the matter is, as long as the Mormon Church is
teaching that Jesus and Satan were brothers and that somehow
we as men have to become like God and that Jesus was a man
who became like God instead of teaching that Jesus was God in
eternity past, who took the form of a man, as long as they deny
the deity of Jesus Christ, then you mark it down, my friend.
No cult is going to help someone find their way to heaven. They may have a form of godliness,
but if they don't believe the Jesus of this Bible, it's just
a show. It's just a show. Notice 2 Timothy
3, 5. Denying the power, that's Jesus,
from such, what does it say? What does it say? Now, again. There are opportunities, I've
had many to be in various meetings where in a religious sense, Pastor
Chappell, would you come and do this? And would you, we're
going to have this guy do this part and this guy to this part,
and we're all going to come together for some kind of religious meeting.
And in that context, my answer is always no. I'm not going to
join hands with someone who is an apostate, who denies the power
of Jesus Christ under the guise of worship. There may be times I've had a
few occasions where I've been to a welcome home the troops,
or dedicate a building, or I've gone out maybe to pray for something,
and there may have been a few other, quote, clergy there in
a non-religious type of thing, and I've felt in good conscience
to do this for the community or for America. But when it comes
to religious gatherings, the Bible's pretty clear there. From
such, turn away. Sometimes people say, Pastor,
at my work, there's a little spiritual study and there's just
several that want me to get involved. And there's a Jehovah witness
and a Mormon and a Baptist and this and that. What should I
do from such turn away? Now, those who downplay doctrine
are on the path to apostasy. I think of one gentleman, and
I'd read of him a little bit here and there, out in the state
of Michigan, involved in what's called the Emergent Church, which
is really a detergent church. They need to get washed. A man by the name of Rob Bell
recently wrote a book in which he denied the existence of a
real heaven. He said, by the way, he was once
an evangelical. He never was a fundamentalist,
to my knowledge. Then he was an evangelical. Then now he's
emergent. Now he's nothing. Because that's what apostates
do. In his book, he said, really, to me, this earth is the beginning
of heaven. Now, first of all, it's a sad
thing when someone of such and so community church doesn't have
a better message than the average Jehovah Witness. Folks, if this earth is heaven,
we're in trouble. I mean, I got to call somebody
from the city tomorrow and tell them to get some graffiti off. There's wars and rumors of wars.
You know, in America, we're so stinking materialistic, we just
think that, you know, we're having our little heaven here. Let me
tell you something, folks. Did you know that during one
particular period of time in Africa, that there were as many
people dying every single day as died on the one day of September
11th? Was September 11th terrible? Absolutely. But during a two-year
stretch, that many people died every day of starvation and AIDS
in the country of Africa. I'm just simply illustrating
the fact that if you think that you've got your health and your
retirement and you've got a nice little neighborhood, this is
heaven. You have, first of all, not even read the Bible, my friend.
Heaven's a place being prepared by Jesus Christ. Heaven's not
the figment of our imagination. It's not just some spiritual
existence. It's a literal place with streets
of gold, my friend, where houses are being built for the child
of God tonight. When you start questioning any
part of this book, you're going to question every part of this
book. He said hell. Now, hell, he said, of course,
of course, you're not going to find an apostate who believes
in hell. You can't hardly find half of evangelical Christians
much to believe in hell anymore. He said hell, quote, is the real
consequence we experience when we reject love. See, my Bible says something
like this. And in hell, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment,
and all them whose names were not found written in the book
of life were cast into a loss of love. I think it still says a lake
of fire. Listen very carefully. If there's no heaven in hell,
then I ought to join Finn and Feather tomorrow and just start
fishing. Maybe go start a company. Maybe
you might want to go do something else on Sunday night. If there's
no heaven and hell, we're the silliest people for being here
and giving money to missionaries. And if there's no heaven and
hell, there's no reason to preach the gospel. There's no reason
to sing how great thou art. There's no reason to sing when
the trumpet of the Lord shall sound. There's no reason for
any of this if there's no heaven and hell. And I say it again
tonight, a preacher who believes in no heaven or hell ought to
go ahead and hang it up. Why even call yourself a preacher?
Why even have church? Why even pretend? This past week, according to
Associated Press in Denver, quote, headline, Church touts homosexuality
as a gift, not a sin. Now, this is They say an evangelical
church, meaning not liberal, but maybe a little closer to
the truth. But when they said in their press statement, being
gay is a gift from God. The folks again, does God love
people who are in all kinds of sin, including homosexuality?
Yes. And should we give the gospel to them? Yes. And should we be
kind neighbors? Yes. But does God love their
sin? No. The Bible refers to it as an
abomination. And yet, when you apostatize
and when Deacon Jones, whose son is gay, gives a million a
year, maybe it's not so bad after all. I like how the Scriptures say
it. Buy the truth and sell it not. Sell it not. You see, this idea
that you can begin to dumb it down, this idea from Rob Bell,
universalism, that all people will eventually go to heaven
is nothing new. It's an old lie from the devil.
And that type of a preacher is giving people false hope and
involving everyone from every background, thinking that they're
going to church and they're OK. And one day they'll get to heaven.
But until they receive Jesus Christ They're going to get to
heaven and some might say, Pastor, you're supposed to be getting
rest. Just take it easy. Give us a few more sermonettes before
you start preaching like this. Let me tell you something, friend.
I'd rather die right now of a heart attack preaching the truth than
ever deny the deity of my Lord Jesus Christ. It would be to God that that
truth would continuously be prominent and that Jesus would continuously
be exalted at Lancaster Baptist Church. would be to God that
these 194 young people will leave this place on Wednesday, and
they will go out holding high the banner of the cross, and
they will go out without compromise, and they will go out not being
stupid idiots and sensationalists, not trying to somehow just be
an aggrandizement in their community and causing harm to the cause
of Christ. I'm not talking about that, but I'm not talking about
compromise either. And I'm going to tell you what,
there will come some legitimate days when all men will think
you're weird. And there will come some legitimate
days because the Bible says all those that are godly in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution. I'm not ashamed of suffering
persecution. I'm not afraid of suffering persecution. But I'm
not going to go about it by just doing some stupid sensational
thing to get some kind of attention. But if you stand for the truth
and you stand against apostasy and you get some attention, just
keep standing. Don't back down from the truth. of the Word of God. We see their
mode here, their MO. Verse 1, they downplay doctrine.
Verse 2, then, they'll begin to deny Christ. And the Bible
tells us that many will follow their pernicious ways. And these
ways include teaching against the truth of Jesus. It's spoken
of in 1 John 4. Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits, whether they are of God. Because many
false prophets have gone out into the world, whereby, 1 John
4, 2, hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Listen carefully to this
verse. In fact, turn there. Let's turn there very quickly.
We're almost done. 1 John 4. This is the method of the false
teachers and how to avoid it. 1 John 4, 1. Beloved, believe
not every spirit. But try the spirits, whether
they are of God. Because many false prophets have
gone out in the world, I'm not saying I'm against every TV preacher,
I don't even know who they all are, but if there's a TV preacher
who's not preaching through the Bible, not calling them to turn
to Jesus Christ, if he's not being true to doctrine, then
then we need to try the spirits on that matter. Verse 2, Hereby
know ye the Spirit of God, listen, every spirit that confesseth
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that
confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of
God. And this is that spirit of antichrist where you have
heard that it should come. And even now already it is in
the world. This is the method of the false
teacher to deny, deny, deny until they are now denying the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. That's why when Larry King on
his television show asked this preacher down in Texas, Joel
Osteen, he said, Now, Joel, are you saying that people can only
go to heaven by the way that you teach at your church." And
Joel looked at him in the eye and said, now Larry, I wouldn't want to say it that
way. He literally turned from the
truth. Because it's not what his church
or this church says. The truth is, and all they had
to do was quote it, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No one, including Larry King,
cometh to the Father except by Jesus Christ. We could go on with the motives
of these men. 2 Peter 2.3, Through covetousness
shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you. Feigned
in that verse. is from a Greek word, plastos,
speaking of plastic. They're plastic preachers. They're
toy preachers. They're Ken and Barbie preachers. Merchandise, you see that word,
is from the Greek word which also comes the word, from which
also comes the word emporium. They're more interested in the
emporium than they are in the soul. Spurgeon said it is a remarkable
fact that all the heresies which have arisen in the Christian
church have had a decided tendency to dishonor God and to flatter
man. And let me say tonight, the Bible
speaks of double honor. The Bible speaks of giving thanks.
We do that here. We're going to do it at our 25th
anniversary conference. We're going to thank some men who for
50 years have stood on some street corner somewhere preaching the
gospel of Jesus Christ. That's a wonderful thing. But
we do that to encourage them and to bring honor to the Lord
and to try to challenge some younger men to say, you go out
and you do that for the Lord. And the fact is that when apostasy
is taking place, there's less and less and less of Jesus and
more and more and more of men. We need discernment tonight.
As Bible-believing Christians, as Bible-believing independent
Baptist people, when there are those who are sensationalizing,
we need to be willing to call their show a show. Someone says,
what do you think about the guy from Westboro Baptist Church?
You ought to say something like this. What do you think about
Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus? And what do
you think about what the elephants leave on the streets after the
circus is over? Next question. When there is sensationalism
like that, you're going to have to be prepared at work, because
someone who knows you're a Christian, they go, hey, hear about the
Baptist picketing the army funeral? You're going to have to be able
to say, you know what? We at our church totally disagree
with that. We believe that man is using
swelling words for the wrong purpose. When there is rationalization,
when there is known sin, instead of saying, well, you know, it
happens in these days, I guess in the church. No, we must lovingly
confront the sinner. We must pray for repentance.
And in some cases, we must even call the authorities to say,
you know what? This particular instance involved
a minor and we're going to have to call the authorities in this
matter. We're not going to rationalize. We're going to obey the word
of God and honor the law. Thirdly, with those who apostatize,
we're simply commended to speak the truth in love. Titus 310,
a man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition,
reject. I believe tonight that we're
moving into an era of world history that is ushering in a platform. Folks, listen very carefully.
I'm told and I've studied this out, may not happen, but many
economists believe that in the year 2016, the dollar and the
United States economy will officially be number two in the world by
2016. Whoever's elected our next president
will likely be the president of the United States of America
during the last four years that we are economically the greatest
nation in the world. The calls are from every corner
of this world for international monetary system. The calls are
for every corner of this world for a platform that I believe
is indicative of what we read in scripture concerning the last
times. And I believe that there will be a proliferation of false
teachers. We're not going to get away from
it. We're going to have to have tough skin when people try to
liken us to it. And we're going to have to determine
to be ready so that when there's sensationalism, we speak against
it. And when there's the tendency
to rationalize, we act biblically. And when there is apostasy abounding,
not that we're always naming names and always every week in
the negative, but when it's coming up and showing its head and perhaps
making an influence, then from time to time, we're going to
stand right here as I did tonight. And we're going to state what
the Bible says and what's wrong with telling people there's no
heaven and there's no hell. And we're going to stay by the
truth of the word of God. May God help us in these last
days to take the right stand in the right way, and may God
help us as a church to hold high the banner of the cross. Let
me remind you that you can receive a daily devotional by logging
on at dailyintheword.org. If you'd like more Bible study
materials, you can also visit scribingtogether.com. Anything
we can do to help and encourage you in the work of our Lord Jesus
Christ, we would count that as a great honor. God bless you.
Three Preachers Who Should Quit
| Sermon ID | 51011153102 |
| Duration | 55:11 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Philippians 1:9-10 |
| Language | English |
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