No soup for you
Notes
Transcript
What kind of Christian are you?
What kind of Christian are you?
As I mature in my faith and understanding of God, and quickly reminded of how little I know. As a finite human being try to wrap my finite little mind around and our infinite God, not surprisingly, I come up woefully short.
But God gave us His revelation. The Word and it is the whole truth, without mixture of error.
But as I read it and try and understand it, especially where it has to do with eschatology (study of end-times) it becomes helpful to look at the study of men smarter than me, and see, not only what they concluded, but how they got their.
When I was younger, it was enough that Adrian Rogers said it.....
Now, not so much. Not that I would try and argue that Adrian Rogers was wrong, but that He never claimed, to my knowledge, to have any revelation by God apart from the Bible.
So if Adrian Rogers was a premillennial dispensationist, I should be able to look at the passages in the Bible that He used to come to his conclusion.
And so as our understanding matures, we end up picking up labels.
Calvinist or Arminienist - Different ways to try to summarize how God deals with mankind.
Pre-Trib, Mid Trib, Post Trib An attempt to place the rapture of the Church to be with Christ in the time-line of end times.
Premillennial, postmillennial, or amillennial. Or will Christ return before He sets up a 1000 year kingdom, will he return after the 1000 years, or, for the amillennial, is the 1000 years mentioned in Rev. 20 not meant to be taken literally, but that we are currently living in that “1000 year” or long period of time where Christ is on his throne.
I have always been taught premillennialism, but in order to “test every spirit” I desire to see it and understand the arguments for myself. I want to be able to be fed directly from the Word, and and not need to be fed from the pulpit, namely because I am standing in the pulpit.
I have said it before, and will say it again, don’t take my word for it, look up for yourself what I say up here. I am fall-able, so if you here me say something that doesn’t line up with the Bible, The Word is right and I am wrong, and I would appreciate you correcting me.
Agree to disagree
Agree to disagree
The problem is that well studied, genuine Bible believing scholars, that have spent their entire life dedicated to the study of God’s word, will come up with different conclusions about certain beliefs about God.
What happens to people that die without ever hearing about Jesus?
Dr. Tony Evans believes one way, John McCarther believes another. but it is only an academic debate, because if either of these men became aware of a specific people that had not heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they would either send a missionary, or go themselves.
And many of the disagreements that we see are like that. Where every you place that rapture of those that will be alive upon Christ’s return, has no bearing on one’s salvation.
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
So sometimes we have to agree to disagree, or simply say, I don’t know.
The Problem
The Problem
As we have come to accept that scholars will disagree on minor issues, it opens the door for the wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing to sneak in.
So Vodie Bacham and John MacCarther have differing opinions about the millennial, so be it, they are rock solid on the Salvation found only in Christ.
But there are those in the Evangelical world that have attempted to undermine the Gospel.
An attempt to undermine what it is meant to be saved and they have followers. They have influence, and they will lead many astray.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,
What I am referring to is the doctrine that says you can be saved, while not accepting Christ as Lord. That you can somehow rise to intellectual ascent of who Jesus was, and that He died, and rose and did so for your sins, but not be changed.
The opposite view is that view is labeled as discipleship salvation, or Lordship salvation, that says at the moment of salvation, you are changed and that because God changed you, your desire will be to follow Christ as Lord.
This morning we are going to look at a parable sequent teaching that Jesus told that settles this question.
16 But He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many;
17 and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’
18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’
19 “Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’
20 “Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’
21 “And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’
22 “And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’
23 “And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.
24 ‘For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’ ”
Accepting vs rejecting Christ
25 Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them,
26 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
27 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
28 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?
29 “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him,
30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
31 “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
32 “Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
33 “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.
34 “Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned?
35 “It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
To be a disciple you must put Christ above all other relationships.
Not literally hate, but strong language to emphasize the contrast.
To be a disciple you must put Christ above your own life.
To be a disciple you must be prepared to suffer whatever it takes to follow Him.
Carry his own cross.
To be a disciple you must understand what it is you are getting into.
Build a tower, does not calculate the cost.
King meeting another king in battle considers weather he is strong enough.
So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.
Again, strong language.
Salt.
34 “Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned?
35 “It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
“I want to be a Christian, but I don’t know about this discipleship business.”
Can you be a Christian and not be a Disciple?
Does the bible anywhere teach two classes of Christians?
What happens in Churches all over this nation.
There is a pastor pouring over how great Christ is, they are pouring over how much we have failed and were separated from God, and how if we repent and accept Christ, He will save us.
and then they say, with every head bowed and every eye closed, if you want a change in you life this morning, will you raise your hand.
Hands up all over.
Come forward, say a prayer, sign a card, and boom. Pat them on the head, tell them they should be baptized, and send them on their way telling them they should find a small group and start reading the Bible.
Spiritual warfare and that if anyone tries to convince them that they are not saved, they are from the devil, and just to not listen to them.
In John 8 Jesus is telling the people who He is.
12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
18 “I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me.”
24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
And then check this out.....
31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
No, the Bible doesn’t teach about two classes of Christians.
No, you can’t be saved and not be a disciple.
When don’t go from being a bad person to a good person when you are saved.
You go from being Dead to being Alive.
You are Changed from being Tares, to being Wheat.
Your dead rotten heart is removed and you are given a new heart.
You are a new creation.
The desires of your heart are changed. You don’t give up what you want to do for what you ought to do, your “want to” is changed.
You want to follow Christ.
And when your flesh causes you to stumble, and it will, you hate your flesh and cling to Christ.
Salvation is a miracle, performed by a living God, through His Son Jesus.