Can You Back That Up, Biblically?

Intro

Prayer

Before we get started I want to make just a few things clear so that there’s no confusion later on.

We live in what scholars today call a “post-modernist” culture.

In a journal article published in 2001, the International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, says this in its chapter about the philosophical aspects of post-modernism:

Postmodernism is an unstable term that defies definition. Some philosophers ascribe postmodernist doctrines to Nietzsche while cultural theorists describe postmodernism as a consequence of late twentieth century capitalist restructuring. Whereas modernist cultural responses to the ephemeral character of modern life cling to ideas of unity, postmodernism accepts difference and irreducible conflict in human affairs, and plurality in ways of being and knowing. 

And again in 2012, we see a similar sentiment from the journal, Information of Management Organizations. Its very opening statement on post-modernism says the quiet part out loud:

According to the postmodernist perspective, reality is socially constructed and therefore dependent on the nature of experiences of individuals constructing that reality.

A simple example of this playing out in our society today, locally, is the fact that the Texas Legislature currently has a bill within the legislative body to outlaw “non-human” behavior in public schools, known as the “Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Role-playing in Education” Act, AKA the F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Act.

With a “socially constructed reality”, why can’t these people be and do the things they want to be and do?

The cold hard truth that people refuse to accept and realize is this:

God has spoken.

Sinful men twist His Word, often in the face of those who swear allegiance to His cross and plead His blood over them.

People would rather believe a lie than the truth.

I often say this phrase, “There’s no question about what God has said. There’s often no question about what God means by what He said. The problem comes when we desire to glorify sin more than the One who saved us.”

Read Acts 17:10-15

Acts 17:10–15 ESV

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

Immediately before this (Acts 17:1-9) - 50 miles away

Acts 17:1–9 ESV

Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

Luke is writing this AFTER 50 AD, which means the Roman Emperor Claudius issued what is known today as the “Edict of Claudius” (mentioned in Acts 18:2). This command ordered the Christians out of the city of Rome because the unconverted Jews were rioting against the Christians. His solution was to kick out the Christians. This is why they secured bail for Paul & Silas.

Fifty miles west, the Apostle Paul went to, yet, another synagogue, and again, reasoned and explained from the Scriptures.

From the Scriptures.

#1: When confronted with any teaching or doctrine, our first inclination should be to examine the Scriptures to see if these things are so.

In Scripture, there is “prescription” and “description” also known as “imperatives” and “declaratives”.

If Chelsea says, “Adam, go to the store and get the groceries on the list and only the groceries on the list,” that’s an imperative statement. That ‘prescription’ from his wife has some specific mandates that she has for him to do:

Go to the store

Get the groceries

Make sure the groceries you get are on the list

Only get groceries that she put on the list

We’re going to assume that Adam has “the list”

Milk, eggs, bread, cheese, and butter

Adam can do a few things here:

Get all the groceries on the list

Get some of the groceries on the list

Get some groceries on the list plus some that aren’t

Get all the groceries on the list and some that aren’t.

When he gets back, Chelsea will find out whether or not her wrath will be unleashed on her poor husband, who maybe only wanted a candy bar, but that doesn’t matter.

Any abrogation of the law makes us guilty because we have a written standard.

James 2:10–12 ESV

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.

When we open Adam’s grocery bags and we see all the items Chelsea put on the grocery list, we also see things that were not on her list as well.

If Chelsea were reading out the things in the bag and we hear her say, “milk, eggs, bread, cheese, butter, and a candy bar,” she’s not telling him what TO buy, she’s describing what he already bought. That’s descriptive language or “declarative” language. She’s ‘declaring’ what he bought, not telling him to go to Walmart and now go buy a candy bar.

This same thing happens in scripture. We have instances where the author is telling us what is happening then we have instances where God, Jesus, a Prophet, or an Apostle are telling you, “Hey, this is the way it should be. This is the standard. No matter what else, THIS is it.”

This is why, dear friends, that it is so important to be in Scripture daily.

We have a monumental influx of female impastors. Why? Because they refuse to accept what Scripture has said, just has the Thessalonians did in Acts 17.

Where you have healthy churches, even though there may be some disagreement, there will always be men and women of God searching the Scriptures to see if these things are so.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we must not, we cannot afford to continue in this fashion. Oh, the letters the dear Apostle to the Gentiles would be writing to the Churches in America and throughout the world today.

I saw this picture of President Trump in the Oval Office the other day surrounded on either side by these men and women who were bowing their heads in prayer around him at the Resolute Desk.

When I saw this picture, I was reminded of a quote from the Laura Ingraham Show in October 2024. Before I read this quote, I want to tell you who is in this picture. There are 17 people and among them are impastor Paula White-Cain who, along with her husband, publically called for husbands and wives to watch pornography together. Pastor Paula was married and had a child when she met a man named Randy White who was also married with three children. He was an associate pastor at the church she was attending. Paula and Randy divorced their spouses and ended up marrying each other in 1989. They started a church in 1991 and in 2007 they announced to the church they were getting a divorce. This same Pastor Paula states in her video series “8 Promises of the Atonement” that salvation includes physical healing and financial abundance in this life. She also claims that she speaks for God. She promotes what is known as the “Prosperity Gospel” and the “Little Gods” doctrine. She has skirted around Jesus being the Son of God on many occasions.

Also in this picture is the Pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, Dr. Robert Jeffress, who openly endorsed Paula White’s books.

Also in this picture is Owen Strachan, a very solid man of God.

Now, among all of these other “Evangelical Leaders”, pastors, theologians, etc. I want to read you this quote from Donald Trump in October 2024: Trump: “Religion, you know, it gives you some hope. Gee, if I’m good, I’m going to Heaven.” Ingraham: “Do you believe in Heaven?” Trump: “I do. If I’m good, I’m going to Heaven. And if I’m bad, I’m going someplace else, like over there, right?”

With all these people in the room who proclaim the label of Christ, and he still openly proclaims heresy. How is it that none of these people have not laboriously shared the Gospel with him?

#2: The Gospel is the central message of Christianity & changing it is downright dangerous.

Galatians 1:6–9 ESV

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

I want to draw special attention to a couple of things in this selection of Scripture. The word “astonished” is the Greek word thaumazō. This is the kind of amazement experienced in Matthew 15:31 at the healing of various people:

“so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.”

The same word is used Luke 11:14 at the casting out of a demon that caused a man to be mute:

“Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled.”

The one thing these people have in common is their response to what they are seeing, and they literally cannot believe their own eyes. In Luke 11, this is where the Pharisees commit the unpardonable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, attributing the work of Christ to Satan, himself.

Paul uses this word to describe his feelings in a negative way concerning what is happening in Galatia.

These people known from the writings of the historian Josephus Flavius as “Judaizers” were Jews coming into the church at Galatia and insisting that in order to truly be saved, these people still needed to be bound to the Mosaic Law. They insisted on things like circumcision, ritual cleanliness, dietary habits, etc. in order that these people might be saved.

Paul makes a resounding statement here with his resounding statement about the Gospel, “not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”

There is no other Gospel. The idea in Christianity today that we have to fill churches with people and constantly fill their heads with watered down theology that means next to nothing and we separate families into different departments… We send them to nurseries when they’re babies, then to children’s ministries when they get older, then to youth groups in their teenage years (speaking as a former youth pastor...) then, perhaps a college and career curriculum, and wonder why we have something like 88% of the young people leaving the church today. It is because they are not being fed the Gospel.

The Gospel is not just for the lost. The Gospel is for the Christian as well. How am I to repent of sin in my life without the Holy Spirit pricking my heart through...

The preaching of the Gospel. How shall they hear if they don’t have a preacher?

Perhaps I’m just more critical now that I’m a bit older, but there are so many Vacation Bible Schools just in this town alone I would dare not send my children to because the Gospel is so watered down that it is completely ineffective. We have so many churches here, so many pastors, so many leaders in this community alone, that, Praise God everyone’s going to heaven, but this town, this state, this country is so spiritually dry.

We have to examine ourselves. We must examine what we are teaching. I have been going through this very subject with my oldest. We’ve been working on teaching our boys solid Christian doctrine. It is not the church’s responsibility to make sure my children are fed a daily diet of the Bread of Life, but when they go to a church and all they do is color a picture of Noah with some animals, or do a craft with zero message or understanding behind it, something is definitely wrong.

I loved this one craft that my oldest brought home last year for Easter. He collects rocks, so he came home from school and had a small canvas pouch full of rocks. On each of the rocks was a different symbol. One had a crown of thorns, another had a cross, one had a picture of a boulder, the others were various other Easter symbols. Using these rocks he sat at the kitchen table and told me of the suffering of Christ on Calvary. Now, at the time, I think he was four. So, I was very impressed. But do you know that for a six year old he can explain, in a child-like way (not a childish way) penal substitutionary atonement?

That is how Christ, being fully God and fully man withstood the wrath of Almighty God on the Cross and in so doing, His righteousness was given, or imputed to me. And simultaneously, my sinfulness and iniquity and imputed to Him. We’ll talk about how in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed “Father, take this cup from me, nevertheless thy will be done.” What is this cup our Lord speaks of?

Jeremiah 25:15–17 ESV

Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.” So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it:

We water down the wrath of God that will be poured out on all unrighteousness because its unpopular. We don’t talk about it because it’ll make us look bad. We don’t tell our children about the nature and danger of sin because we want them to like us or because its this or that or a thousand excuses not to do what we are commanded to do.

Dear friends, we are in a society today where men and women don’t even know what gender they are. How can they hear the words of Life unless we tell them?

Paul continues:

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”

The word “accursed” is the Greek word “anathema”. It is used in various ways in various tenses in scripture but it is never in a good way. One way, specifically, in Acts 23:12 & 23:14 both use a modification of this word, anathematizō, that is to swear an oath with divine consequences should the outcome be negative - essentially, “I swear to God, may He strike me dead and send me to hell...” is roughly the connotation here.

Anathema is a hard word to use when you’re talking about something as precious as the Gospel.

When you discuss the Gospel, you’re not just entering into a discussion about theology. It is literally, life and death. That’s why gathering together, preaching, and worship are so desperately important. You are dealing with people’s eternal souls. We talk about sin as if its just as simple as making a mistake without revealing to those we witness to that death is payment for how we’ve lived. Death, according to Romans 6:23. Death is our wage, but thanks be to God that our Savior took our sin upon himself, and by enduring the wrath that should befall all of humanity, we can be saved.

The great scandal of Scripture isn’t “How can a good God send people to hell?” The great scandal of Scripture is “How can a God who is just, holy, and righteous save sinners at all?”

You want signs and wonders? Share the Gospel, disciple men as they turn from drugs to Christ.

You want visible miracles? Watch as you share the Gospel with a Veteran with PTSD who being haunted with war, thinks suicide is their only way to have peace, and through Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is able to make a recovery and is able to drive and not be afraid of trash in the road.

I challenge you. It all revolves around the Gospel. It is THE central message. It is the ONLY message. We are dealing with life and death and this world has so much darkness and death in our faces you could wipe it away with a handkerchief. What have we done as a society to God’s glorious Gospel?

If a commanding officer gives his Lieutenant orders, and those orders are a matter of life and death, how seriously do you think that junior officer is going to take those orders? It is no different here.

In the case that Paul is making, it would be the same as if another officer came to that same lieutenant and said, “No, that’s not exactly correct. You have to do all this extra stuff to live as well,” creating an undue burden on the poor officer who now feels like they have to jump through extra hoops in order to carry out his life-saving mission

#3: Too Much Culture, Not Enough Christ

According to academics and scholars, there are five aspects that comprise a social culture:

Beliefs and Values

Norms

Rituals

Language

Symbols

Since the 1950s when post-modernism first started taking root, the view of each of these has become subjective rather than objective. People start taking on the idea of “many truths”, he’s got his truth, she’s got her truth, now “they” have “their” truth because not only is truth subjective but so is reality. I was going to say that “We are living in a time when a lie becomes more appealing than the truth” but the Holy Spirit reminded me while I was preparing this of Genesis 3 and our first parents. How they were deceived because a lie was more appealing than the truth. I’m reminded over and over again about how Israel was led through the Wilderness for forty years because of their unbelief, how they constantly fell into idolatry during the rule of the Judges, how during the exile, Nehemiah prayed fervently to God concerning the state of ruin that had befallen Jerusalem. Why had all that happened? Because of the idolatry that was happening around them. And they had allowed it to infiltrate their communion with God.

In short, they broke, and kept breaking, the first and most important commandment. To not worship any other gods other than Yahweh.

Isaiah 2:6-8

“For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of things from the east and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots. Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.”

They begin to turn their worship elsewhere. Its inward rather than toward God. Its “Look at all that I have, look at what I can do, we no longer need whatever ‘higher power’ our out-dated ancestors had. We can do better than they did. We don’t need that ancient religion.”

They turned back to idolatry. I wonder if we listen to music that claims to be Christian music, but is really about making us feel better about ourselves. Rather than worshipping God, I wonder if we really look at the theology of the worship music we listen to, if we might see things a bit differently. This is a topic I spoke on a few weeks ago, but I cannot stand the song “Oceans”. I’m sorry if you like it. You’re allowed to be wrong, but that song is absolute nonsense. Then there are people in that same industry, who when questioned on basic tenets of the Christian faith, respond with nonsense answers. Lauren Daigle, who no longer wishes to be known as a “Christian artist”, when asked about homosexuality on the radio, gave a very “I’m still trying to figure that out...” type of answer.

There are celebrity pastors, who like Daigle, when questioned about the core tenets of the Christian faith likewise give very bland answers. Joel Osteen, years ago on the Larry King Show on CNN was asked about Hindus and Muslims. “Are they going to heaven?” Larry King asked. Osteen responded, “I don’t know. God knows the heart. I know they love God!”

I wish Mr. Osteen would read into the book of Romans just a small bit and see the following quote from the dear Apostle Paul in Romans 3:10-18:

“As it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.’”

Paul is quoting heavily from Psalms but the idea here is very clear: there are none that seek after God. No one is good, not even one. The final thought here relates to so many topics that I don’t have the time to get into right now, but in this closing statement, he says “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Proverbs 1:7 states very clearly “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge...”

Proverbs 9:10 says the “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”

So, Mr. Osteen is not just wearing the label of Christ is is openly promoting a false gospel influenced by the cultures of our day. Anything goes as long as you think you love whatever God you have constructed in your mind. It sure makes worshipping it a lot easier when it demands nothing from you, the praise you offer is self-centered, and there is no cross to bear.

We see this in scripture that when an Apostle, the very apostle that Paul stayed fifteen days with in Jerusalem after his time in Arabia in ch. 1, here in ch. 2, he out-rightly opposed him openly because he allowed the Jews, their authority, and their culture to affect the Gospel.

Galatians 2:11–14 ESV

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Why is this a big deal?

It distorts and bastardizes the Gospel.

English Standard Version Chapter 2

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;

So what is “justification” then? Some people often say, “Its ‘just if I’d never sinned” and that is wildly wrong. When a President or Governor gives a person a pardon, even after spending time in jail, that doesn’t mean that they haven’t committed a crime.

1) to use the executive power of a Governor or President to forgive (an act of grace) a person convicted of a crime, thus removing any remaining penalties or punishments and preventing any new prosecution of the person for the crime for which the pardon was given.

We see in the doctrine of Justification, there is not only the act of Christ’s righteousness being given to us, but also on the tree, our sin is also given to Him. This is called a “double imputation”.

1 Peter 2:24 ESV

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

As our sin brought Him death, His death and resurrection bought us life.

#4: Reasoning From the Scripture

After the Resurrection, we see in Luke 24 that there are two disciples walking about seven miles to a town called Emmaus. While on this small trek, these two disciples were greatly distressed, and that’s putting it mildly. Distraught would probably be more accurate. They encounter the risen Lord, but scripture says their eyes were “kept” from seeing who he was. The word that’s used here in Greek means to “grab hold of, or to be taken ahold of”. Their eyes were taken ahold of and they were not permitted to see Christ.

In this moment, He could do a few things:

He could have revealed Himself right then and there.

He could walk with them and tell them to remember all the miracles that Jesus did, the healings, walking on water, calming the storm, casting out demons, etc, tell them to have faith that they would see Him again, and go on His way, or He could do what we should do...

He could reason with them from the Scriptures.

He sees their distress and sadness and (really, a lack of faith) rather than provide and immediate temporary cure, He says this in Luke 24:25-27

Luke 24:25–27 ESV

And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Do we see this regularly with our young people today? Do we see this happening in the life of the Church today? We see people cherry picking life verses out of the Bible like its grab bag, “I don’t like this one, let me pick another one”, and yes, I do have a favorite verse in the Bible. But we ought NOT cherry pick verses and do “Jerk-A-Verse” Theology and have these one-line “wanna go viral” absolutely hollow statements that do NOT stand up to the test of Scripture.

What was the result of Christ’s approach?

Verse 32 says “Did not our hearts BURN within us while He talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” They then RAN back to Jerusalem, shouting “He’s alive, he’s alive!” Vs. 34 “The Lord has indeed risen, and as appeared to Simon!”

Christ then appears to the rest of the disciples and does the exact same thing: Luke 24:44-47

Luke 24:44–47 ESV

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

We are commanded to have a defense for the hope that is within us. If we truly believe that as Paul wrote to Timothy:

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

That word is the same word in Hebrews 11:1

Hebrews 11:1 KJV 1900

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

We do not have a blind faith as some would assume. We can and should reason from the scriptures, as Paul did and Christ did.

So should we do also.

Application #1: Joshua 1:8 We don’t separate ourselves from Scripture. We keep His word, not just in our mouths, but in our lives.

Application #2: Psalm 119:11 We hide His whole word in our heart to protect us from sin, that we “might not sin against God”.

Application #3: Gal 2; Just as Paul did, we cannot be afraid to call out, “mark and avoid” false teachers and false doctrine.

Application #4: Regardless of how ill equipped we are, the Word of God is true and trustworthy. It can handle hard questions. Isaiah 40:8