Horror from Bad Bible Teaching

I was deeply disturbed by the news this week ...

killing 8 people, 7 of them of Asian decent

was a long time member of a Southern Baptist Church

Active in church leadership, active in youth ministry prior

Felt awful about himself and his compulsion to gratify his sexual urges, perhaps with massage parlor visits.

Georgia police are saying it’s not racially motivated and I don’t want to speak to that issue today because one the Georgia police aren’t listening to me. But in case your wondering, we love and celebrate anyone of any race here. God loves us all including how we look with our shape, skin color, gender, no culture is superior. God loves us all.

What scared me was how much I identified with the thoughts this guy was reported to have, “What I heard was the shooter said, to Tyler Bayless, his roommate at an addiction center, he was scared about falling “out of God’s grace.” How much I could remember thinking similar things, I didn’t visit massage parlors, have any desire to kill people, nor any negativity towards, or any sort of anti-asian feelings.

It is way to simple to say that the shooter’s religious belief was the reason he killed. As one writer said, we don’t have to believe a killer when they tell us why they do things. There was more happening. I don’t know what it was but I don’t want to simplify this at all.

But I do want to address Toxic Faith. Religious belief that sounds so godly, so close to Jesus but actually leads to people doing the most unJesus thing.

Toxic Faith - Be good, do everything to stay good, or God won’t love you, bless you or support you. This is wrong.

Because this young man, who thought he was falling out of God’s grace, he kept doing what he knew he shouldn’t be doing and felt that God was going to reject him because He kept doing it.

How can God love me when I keep doing all these bad things?

Have you heard people ask this question? Or maybe they have told you things like they can’t go to church because the walls would fall in.

Our response is,

“Great we have really good insurance!”

In truth if people say they are too sinful for church they are actually saying

God only loves people when they are good or mostly do good things. NOT TRUE

I don’t need Facebook to fact check this, it is not true.

Today’s message may make some churched people very uncomfortable. It may make those in other churches very uncomfortable.

Yet the implications are actually quite glorious. This truth is important to you at the age of 13 as much if you are at the age of 83. So whether you are talking to your grandparents, your grandkids, your kids, your parents, your friends or your enemies these truths about Jesus are the guidance for their lives.

There is some wrong thinking ...

God will bless you if you are sexually pure and will punish you if your sexually impure.

God will only let good people get into heaven

God knows, and will forgive but no one else can find out or your ruined.

These are all not true.

There is a very, very, very old heresy in Christianity.

Heresy means “opinion or doctrine at variance with the orthodox or accepted doctrine, especially of a church or religious system.” - dictionary.com

According to Eerdman’s bible dictionary, “Heresy originally mean “choice” but the authors of the Bible used it to mean any teaching that guides believers of Jesus from the true gospel (true teachings of Jesus) toward doctrine that erodes the foundations of the faith, leads to ungodly living, and destroys unity in the Church. “

This heresy that the shooter sort of describes is one of the oldest in the church and it’s an answered to

How do you get into heaven?

Heresy - Pelegianism, from Pelagius who taught in 410 AD. He was frustrated by all the immorality around him and to put it simply he taught,

Peligian Heresy (falsehood) - “God made human beings free to choose between good and evil and that sin is a voluntary act committed by a person against God’s law.”

Implication of Peligian heresy - A person who doesn’t do the voluntary act could become sinless.

According to Peligius a person could after becoming a Christian can become good and not sin.

This just is not true. We don’t make up the teachings about who God is but we base them in the eternal word of God.

It says that Jesus said

Luke 19:10 CSB

10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

Jesus also said

Matthew 9:13 CSB

13 Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Sinners, lost these are immoral people. Jesus doesn’t wait for these people to come into the walls of the church, so they won’t have a chance to fall down, God is actively going after them to call Him.

If Jesus is actively going after them, because he loves them, do not think that His love changes after a person agrees to love Jesus. That somehow once you become part of us you can never fail again.

1 John 1:8 CSB

8 If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Don’t bother thinking you’ll ever be good enough for God. You can’t be more loved by God. But if you act like you don’t need God because you finally have it figured out, your not going to be sinning, your full of lies in your own mind.

Don’t think that if you pray more you will never lust. If you practice gratitude you’ll never covet, meaning desire what you don’t have. Don’t think if you read the Bible more you’ll never drink again.

Good things, great wonderful blessings from God do have amazing benefit to your life. God uses them to let you know more of his love for you. Your actions though don’t determine his desires to love you.

You don’t have more value the more right you live. You have the same value. We all live fully dependent on God. This is truth.

So yes you will sin, you will act wrongly.

You have, you do and you will.

But this is also true.

1 John 1:9 CSB

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Who forgives us? Jesus

Why? Because we confess

Because we make it right, nope

Because we become good, nope

Because we are really sorry, nope.

Because He is faithful and righteous He forgives us.

1 John 2:1–2 CSB

1 My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one. 2 He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.

Here is the epitome of why what the man who went on the murderous rampage missed.

Jesus himself is the atoning sacrifice. Not our actions. Not our righteousness but His righteousness.

There is absolutely no way, no possible way to fall from God’s grace.

The word grace means unmerited favor, unearned favor.

If I give you a snickers today. Unearned.

How could your efforts lose what was never earned by effort.

Let me give you another example.

Jesus said,

Matthew 5:20 The Message

20 Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won’t know the first thing about entering the kingdom.

The Pharisees followed all the rules. They strongly worked to prevent themselves from any form of immorality. They would be the type to not own a cell phone because you could accidentally lust threw it. And they would be the type to not be alone with a woman less they sin. If you can think of rules that people tell you to let you know how good of a person they are, these Pharisees were better than them. And Jesus said, they will not enter the kingdom of Heaven.

The freedom of Jesus Christ is real, true freedom.

All of us, all of us deserve Hell. We all are not good enough, just try us, even when we think we want to be good we do wrong, evil, horror.

Romans 3:23 CSB

23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;

So what do you tell someone who says the church walls will fall in on them, first we have good insurance. Then after laughing, remind them God brought you to tell them He loves them. He made this right, did everything He can to let them know, and He is calling them to a new life.

What do you tell a Christian who tells you about their addiction, their sin, their horror.

God loves them. He has finished everything on the cross, died for all their sins and God still loves them.

They aren’t worthless, they are worth so much that He died for them. They can accept responsibility. They willfully did and do what they understand they shouldn’t do. There is a lot in it that causes there desires. They can take responsibility to give those causes to God and God will work with them to heal them. Even so, They can accept that He has forgiven them and that He gives them new life. This sin has no more power over them and does not define them. They may fall again, they may not ever again. But they will always now God’s love for them will not change. His grace will not change. They do not have to become better people to be loved more by God.

Romans 3:24 CSB

24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

God did it all. God does it all. Even those who tell you about their deliverance from alcohol or other drugs, from sexual immorality, from selfishness, from anger and rage, all of them were delivered not by their works but by God and then they just learned what it means to embrace that freedom God’s love has for us.

Romans 3:25–26 CSB

25 God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.

My friends be careful that you do not focus on what good or bad you do to see the status of your walk with God.

Instead ask God about your worship, your love for Him. Ask about how you treat others. Your love for others. And no matter your answers know that God’s love for you HAS NOT CHANGED.

I have spoken only of one aspect today. Of the grace of God but not of the justice or the necessary morality of a follower of Jesus.

Jesus described such high ethical and moral standards that can not be reached completely. Sadly some do not see the obviousness of the need for a savior but instead believe we need to save ourselves.

Moral and ethical living are essential in the Christian life. If you don’t do what Jesus says, than how are you a follower of Jesus?

1 John 2:3–4 CSB

3 This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commands. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know him,” and yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Some of you might have heard what I said about love and thought I can go and do it all again and God will still love me. I’m going back and living it up! There is a reason you recognized that your addictive lifestyle failed you. Part of it was God calling you to a healthy life. Part of it was the natural destruction that comes from a lack of responsibility and a care only for yourself. There is no freedom in that hell to addiction.

Others of you might have heard the verse I just read and thought I don’t keep his commands. I was furiously angry and full of hatred for the person who was driving in front of me. I desired Pastor Bill’s amazing minivan as soon as I saw it in the parking lot. I thought about sinning as Pastor Bill talked about going back to addicition. I am a horrible person who is obviously unsaved and not a follower of Jesus.

This is not true.

See that God loves you. God loves you. God loves you. Accept His love for you today.

There is no reason for me to draw a line that God did not draw. There is no number of sins that can separate you from the love of Christ.

Pursue righteousness without expectation that God will love you more when you get there.

Pursue it because the God who loves you, has a purpose for you, says it is good.