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.