Bible Lesson 112

WHAT PATH ARE WE ON?

(#2 in series)
“YOUR WORD IS A LAMP TO MY FEET AND A LIGHT TO MY PATH” PSALMS 119:105

“MOST MEN, INDEED, PLAY AT RELIGION AS THEY PLAY AT GAMES, RELIGION ITSELF BEING OF ALL GAME THE ONE MOST UNIVERSALLY PLAYED.” A.W. TOZER

In our last lesson, we said, and proved from the word of God, that many of our mainline denominations are leading people on a path that is leading them to destruction. Why do you suppose any person would purposefully lead people on the wrong path’ Most of the men who do it are men who are not called of God to preach.

They were as we like to say, mama called and daddy sent. Some were good young man who knew just enough about God to be dangerous and their parents wanted them to be preacher boys and so they sent them to seminaries that had enough Armenian professors, and even some atheist professors, and so their minds were clouded and they were taught how to grow that denominations churches, but not how to lead men and women to God. Preachers, Pastors, Teachers and Leaders have slowly but surely, taught congregations to quit the Bible and begin to follow some kind of tribal teaching that neglect the truths of God in the Bible and make up their own religion as they go along.

In the beginning there were, more than likely, some few who knew better than to accept watered down, grace; but they felt it would be impolite and inappropriate to challenge the Pastors and so they finally adapted to the new religion, which is really no religion at all (Galatians 1:6-10; Romans 1:18-22).

God has not given us the Bible for men to proof-read, edit, and expand or contradict it. God did not give us His revelation so that preachers could change it and make it acceptable to sinners’..God gave us the Bible so that it would change men and make them acceptable to God (John 17:14-19; Psalms 119:89; Romans 10:17). Cheap grace preaching has decimated Christianity in the past decades, because oratory from lost men or men who don’t know any better will not produce true salvation (Acts 20:27; Acts 5:33-39 KJV; Hebrews 6:13-20; Psalms 1:1).

We have been taught to worship our favorite preacher or speaker, instead of God, and people today will use what their preacher says to excuse what God has said. That becomes the worship of self, which means that there is no other God than you. We are on the wrong path, but even when we are warned, we refuse to step back and get out of the world’s whirlwind and open our Bibles and ask God to illuminate them for us.

We have been taught to worship our favorite preacher or speaker, instead of God, and people today will use what their preacher says to excuse what God has said. That becomes the worship of self, which means that there is no other God than you. We are on the wrong path, but even when we are warned, we refuse to step back and get out of the world’s whirlwind and open our Bibles and ask God to illuminate them for us.

We like the ways of these new paths that have been set out for us by those who would make merchandise of us. Remember what was written for us back in the book of Jeremiah, there in chapter 6 and verses 12-17, when under the inspiration of God the Prophet said to the people of Judah, ‘Your homes shall be turned unto others, with your fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord.
For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet, even unto the priest, every one dealeth falsely. They have healed also the hurt of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination’ Nay, they were not ashamed; neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is a good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said we will not walk therein. Also, I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said we will not hearken.’

Those warnings from God Almighty must be heard in our laid back, casual, and selfish worship of self ‘.but in all probability many, like the people of Judah will answer, ‘We will not walk in God’s path’. Why do you think that people who are descended, in most cases, from God-fearing forefathers would tempt God to that extent’ I believe it is because we have no concept of God. We have given up on the study of the Bible, because at times it is difficult, and we will not in most cases even consider that we have been on the wrong path for a long time. We have been wrong for so long that we cannot consider what is true and what is false.

We have been taught by leaders in the church that we are the center of the universe, and we have done that in such a way that it appealed to most people who heard it, but God will not allow anyone or anything (especially one of His creatures) to usurp any of His glory or authority. How many young preacher boys who do not know the doctrines of the Bible themselves have challenged their congregations to ‘forget doctrine, because it is divisive” Can we who are truly saved forget doctrine’ Absolutely, and unequivocally NO! Doctrine simply means ‘the teaching of the Bible’. The last time I looked at the Bible, it said that we are saved by Grace through Faith in Christ, and then it said that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Bible); and further, it says that without faith it is impossible to please God. That is all doctrine and more importantly, doctrine informs us of the only way that anyone can be saved and that is by the death of Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 10:17; Hebrews 11:6; John 3:16-21).

We used Scripture from Psalms 119 (Verse 105) as our key Scripture reference for this lesson and until we as the visible church of America can quote that scripture and mean it, we cannot be right with God. Some will say, well, Bro. Bob, I believe in Jesus Christ, so I am saved; however, if you are saved and believe in Jesus Christ, then you are following God’s path, you are walking in God’s light. The problem has become that our preaching or preachifying, often becomes the point instead of the vehicle to lift Jesus Christ. We preach about seasons and occasions and movements and programs and Jesus gets lost in the details.

The only reason for a preacher to mount the pulpit is to warn people who listen about the coming judgment of God and righteousness (Christ) and sin. The pulpit can cover a lot of ground if the preachers are using all that He says to point to the fact that people, in general, are in a hopeless condition, unless and until they see themselves as lost and undone, and going to hell for eternity, and begin to wonder if there is hope. Preaching must encompass teaching of the doctrines of the Bible, and if it does not it normally becomes a means of showing how fanciful the preacher imagines himself. How many churches in our society attempt to teach people anything before they ‘save’ them and make the members of the church’ I served a young church a while back for a few Sundays as they searched for a pastor. The church had been planted by a pastor who had been preaching for over forty years, and he attended the services when I preached.

I realized that the little church wanted to grow, but I warned them about seeking growth without investigation. One Sunday after I finished preaching, the old pastor followed me outside and said ‘Brother Bob, we don’t care about their condition before we allow them into the church; because we are going to teach them about the truth.’ I have never been one to mince words so I told Him’.’Brother, I have seen the results of some of your teaching’ so as long as I am here we are going to do it God’s way.’ Many, seem to think that the only thing that pleases God is to have great numbers belong to the church. Certainly, that looks nice and sounds good; however, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ tells us plainly that only a few will ever take the time and make the concerted effort to go through the strait gate and walk that narrow way. (Matthew 7:13-14;Matthew 22:14).

We have become so accustomed to having everything at our fingertips, readily accessible without any trouble or work that we think that we can do God’s business in the same haphazard way, but that will never work. God says that it takes work and effort to pass through that strait gate, and, in the Greek that was translated as strait or narrow, it pictures a slight crack between two great rocks that a person must contort his body in different ways and manage to squeeze through. It gives the proper idea of salvation, which means we must divest ourselves of all worldly things and enticements to pass through that strait gate. How many average church members in our day do you imagine have ever been told that and how many would give up everything for Christ’

To demonstrate just how careless the visible church of our day is, I will share with you about a large church treasurer, that was in the news this morning here in America. This treasurer, who you would normally think that the church had made sure was at least saved, had stolen over 2 million dollars from the church. Wouldn’t you think that a serious church that was concerned about the souls of people could find a treasurer that was not a thief. Incidentally, a saved person does not steal, and if they were to be hungry they would not steal 2 million dollars to spend on land and clothes and the like.

Circumstantial evidence may point to the fact that Judas was a thief, but Jesus Christ chose him to fulfill His destiny (The Cross). It cost a church nothing except perhaps numbers in the pews and a larger budget, to take the time to teach, and investigate and watch a person’s life before the church makes them official members and dumps them in their baptistery. So why don’t any that I know about try that approach. The visible church is supposed to represent the true Church of Christ, but it is doing a mighty poor job if we look closely. It has been said, and I agree, that ‘Most church members live so far below the standard of the Bible, that you would have to backslide to be in fellowship with any of them. We have become so subnormal that if we were to become normal, people would think we were subnormal.’ It cannot be denied that overall we have come to the point that we are simply going through the motions and we only go through the easy motions at that.

A great old Preacher once said, ‘The church is made of people, and the church is cleansed when we are cleansed. Too many church members, it has been said, have been starched and ironed before they were washed.’ (Vance Havner). It does not give me any thrill to have to tell the truth about the visible church of our day, but that is the job that God gave me. I believe the problem began when young men began to graduate from seminaries that just existed to graduate young preachers. Many young men are ‘mama called and daddy sent to the seminaries and they arrive with just enough Biblical sense to be dangerous and in a few short years in the seminaries, having ‘cherry-picked’ verses to build sermons around, and taught about church growth programs, they left the seminary to be called into ministry. They arrived confused and before long every member of that church was confused. No wonder we have a visible church that does not serve the God of the Bible.

These young preachers have been taught that they must love everyone in their church and soon they are preaching a God who is no god at all. The true God is about Truth first and love in how it is preached. That does not mean that love will allow anyone to short change the truth. If the truth hurts then God meant for it to hurt if it makes someone mad, or sad or glad, that is what the Lord meant it to be. Every time that the truth is preached, some get mad, some get sad and some get glad, that is the reason we call it the truth. Those who will not accept truth get mad, those who know the Lord get glad, and those who don’t understand get sad.

We like to adapt our knowledge of God to sweet-sounding phrases and ‘bumper sticker doctrines’ and again it is because we like fast service, so we say things like Jesus saves, but we do not know what that means. If you corner the person who says that, they will normally retreat to John 3:16, where we read, ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life’; now, understand me, I believe that is a wonderful verse of Scripture and it is proper if we understand it in its context. What most think is that it is the life raft that God gives us when we acknowledge some type of mental ascent as to its truth.

What we must understand about that verse of scripture is that it condemns more people than it saves. John 3:16 tells us that those who believe, will not perish, but everyone else is condemned right here and right now. So, what does the church normally teach that ‘belief’ means’ the church teaches what we like to think it means and that is that we in our minds believe something about God and His Son and that God wants to save us from hell. That’s the problem because we have failed to teach that the belief that it takes to be saved is a belief that is so strong and deep that it changes us radically.

The saved person Is ‘not’ anyone who has professed to know Christ; but only those who have been called by God and allowed to repent of their sin, and been born again by God, made a new creature who walks in the newness of life, and is obedient to God. That may be too strong and straight forward for many but that is what happens to every person who is ever saved by God. All of that is accomplished by God in the Salvation process, the sinner takes no part in his salvation; however, he comes out the other side of salvation fully submitted to God through Jesus Christ. The problem with John 3:16 is that it, like all of the verses in the Bible, must be understood in its context and the context for John 3:16 requires that we read and understand it in the context of verse 17-21. If you will please mark your place here and get your Bible and read John 3:16 -21, and work it out in your mind.

If we understand ourselves and our churches we must understand that perhaps not every church but the vast majority of churches in our day can be seen as the blind leading the blind and the Bible says that they will both fall into the ditch. We are guilty of playing church and the church has enjoyed and striven to be all things to every person. The last time I checked it was God that was everything to everyone. It is with a burdened heart that I warn people today that for the most part, the visible church has become a great army of people, marching in place, waiting for their judgment and destruction.

It would be easy to correct that if we would simply come back to the Bible and preach nothing but the Word of God and apply it to ourselves, and repent and seek God’s face. The visible church has enabled the breakdown of the family units of America. Whether we like it or not God gave children to parents’.not to the church! But the church to keep us so busy that we would not have time to think about or consult God about anything, has begun to separate the families who come to the church for a lot of different reasons. There is only one reason for people to come to an organized church and that would be to hear the Word of God, however, it does not work out that way, at least in America.

The lost that come to church seeking something are dealt with in many ways, least of all, in teaching them about their lost condition and warning them of the coming judgment and watching to see what they do. But what the church does is to split the family, first thing. We send the babies to the nursery and the children to different Sunday school rooms and the parents to other rooms. Why do we do that’ It enables us to be all things to everybody. Then we begin to occupy the parent’s time with different things so that the family has no time to be a real family. Parenting children is the job that God gave to the family and I don’t care that Hillary Clinton wrote a book about it taking a village to do it, it’s the job of parents.

What the true church should be teaching parents is how they should be training their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The church should be emphasizing the Parent’s responsibility in Marriage and all the rest but first, the church should preach the whole counsel of God to them to see if they understand enough for God to save them. We should emphasize the contract of marriage between one man and one woman for life.

That might help us to cut the divorce rate in America which is about 50 percent. In the time of Augustus, divorces had multiplied and family seemed about to be dissolved, so Augustus strove to arrest this downward tendency by edicts and laws in the encouragement of marriage and the restraint of divorces. But the trouble was too deep-seated in the failing moral and religious life of the times to be reached and remedied by any measures of the state. The only solution will come if indeed the church will begin to turn back to God and His Word and it’s an application to all who take part in the church.

In closing, let me say that we are on the wrong path, and we have gone pretty far down that path when we are glorifying sin and sinners in almost all of their sin. Just remember there will be no sin nor sinners in God’s heaven.

Until next time,

may God bless and keep you

This is Bro. Bob