Why Are There Issues That Must Be Faced? Charles Coats

Transcription

1 Why Are There Issues That Must Be Faced? Charles is a native of Arkansas, born in Gurdon, Arkansas August 22, He has been married to Leanna (Darling) since June 27, They have 2 children - Braon a Ben. Charles graduated Brown Trail School of Preaching in He has done local work in Murfreesboro, Arkansas; Mountain Grove, Missouri; Mammo Spring, Arkasas; Dierks, Arkansas; Fouke, Arkansas; Howell, Michigan a helped establish a congregation in Webberville, Michigan in 1991 where he still labors. He has coucted meetings in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma a Texas. He directed a lectureship while in Dierks, Arkansas. He also maintains a full-time work wi Dunnage Engineering in Brighton, Michigan as e Plant Adminstrator. To say at e church is uer attack from ose outside e church a from ose inside e church is a tru wi which we cannot argue. That e church would be in danger in is way was taught to us by Paul when he warned e Ephesian elders in Acts 20:28ff. Here, ey were told to be on guard against ose who would dress in sheep s cloing, but inwardly ey would be ravening wolves. While we expect ose outside e church to speak against us a try to dissuade or stop us, it is sad at our most dangerous problem comes from wiin. Many unsuspecting Christians will be lead astray by false teachers, a rough it all ese Christians will believe at e false teachers are really men of God. God, in his great wisdom, instructed us to be aware of false teachers, guard against em, a stop em. Consider e following passages: Matew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep s cloing, but inwardly ey are ravening wolves. Romans 16:18 For ey at are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but eir own belly; a by good words a fair speeches deceive e hearts of e simple. 2 Corinians 11:13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming emselves into e apostles of Christ. 1 Timoy 4:1 Now e Spirit speake expressly, at in e latter times some shall depart from e fai, giving heed to seducing spirits, a doctrines of devils. 2 Timoy 4:4 A ey shall turn away eir ears from e tru, a shall be turned unto fables. 2 Peter 2:18 For when ey speak great swelling words of vanity, ey allure rough e lusts of e flesh, rough much wantonness, ose at were clean escaped from em who live in error. Issues Facing The Church 22 Annual Mid-West Lectures Page 1 be be sold. For information contact e 39 Street church of Christ, East 39 Street, Iepeence, MO

2 Titus 1:10,11 For ere are many unruly a vain talkers a deceivers, specially ey of e circumcision: whose mous must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching ings which ey ought not, for fily lucre s sake. 1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try e spirits wheer ey are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into e world. It is because of passages such as ese at we should not be overtaken by false teachers. We should be set for e defense of e gospel (Philippians 1:17). Yet, wi all e warnings, wi all e information God has given us, we still face issues at are dividing e Lord s church a diminishing our influence in e world. We seem to spe more time fighting e false teachers among us an we do in spreading e gospel roughout e world. Certainly, e Devil is pleased wi such. Over e years, ere have been many issues at have come before us. We have had to deal wi ose who were opposed to Bible classes, ose who were opposed to congregations cooperating one wi anoer (especially financially), a ose who teach at miracles still happen. We face e issue of instrumental music in worship, fellowship wi denominations, traditional versus contemporary worship, a so for. To put it simply, ere are many who do not adhere to e word of God. They have chosen to follow a pa at is more pleasing to em. When we try to uersta why we face ese a oer issues, ere are e usual answers pride (Proverbs 16:18); Desire for money (1 Timoy 6:10); a worldliness (1 John 2:15-17). A, wiout hesitation, I would say at all of ese contribute to e problem. Pride causes us to place ourselves above God, a en causes us to get to where we ink we are right, a we refuse to admit we could ever be or are wrong. The love of money is still e root of all evil. A desire for material gain has caused many to seek at which pleases men a brings material gain to em. This ey will obtain even if e Scriptures are compromised or rown out altogeer. A, allowing e world to dictate to us what is right or wrong has placed many a person on e wrong side of God. Frieship wi e world is still enmity wi God (James 4:4). Often, when discussing e issues at face us, it is easy to point out all e big name false teachers. It sometimes gets to e point at it seems like ere are no oers who are false teachers. Articles which talk about false teachers all mention e same people over a over again. They are all well-known, very prominent preachers. They usually always have large congregations wi whom ey work. A, yes, ese men a women have done much to cause e problems at we face in our lives today. I believe at when we discuss why ere are issues at we face, we need to be more honest about why we have ese problems. It is easy to blame all e usual ings at we have already discussed, a fail to see at ere are oer factors at contribute to e problem. I do not blame e whole problem on e false teacher. Some of e guilt for false doctrine being spread must lie wi ose who we would call e faiful of God. We must have e courage of heart a e honesty to admit at we may be a part of e problem, a in some cases, maybe even more a cause of e problem an e false teacher. Issues Facing The Church 22 Annual Mid-West Lectures Page 2 be be sold. For information contact e 39 Street church of Christ, East 39 Street, Iepeence, MO

3 What do I mean by is? Think about is, false teachers, while proclaiming oerwise, do what ey do for ree basic reasons. 1. They have a lack of love for e Godhead. They will talk about how much ey love Jesus, a how we must devote our lives to God. But, when ey teach false doctrine, ey are saying at ey do not love God. Why? Because to love God is to keep his commaments (1 John 5:3). To love Jesus is to keep his commaments (John 14:15). A, since e work of Spirit was to bring us e word (2 Peter. 1:20,21), to teach e word falsely is to reject e work of e Spirit. One cannot profess to love God a deny e very word at God has given us. 2. They fail to love oers as ey ought. James taught us at to not love oers as we love ourselves is to violate e royal law a we do sin (James 2:8,9). John helps us to uersta at we cannot love God if we do not love our broer (1 John 2:9; 4:20,21). When we love oers as we ought, we want what is best for em, a we want em to have e opportunity to go to Heaven. To not give em God s plan of salvation is to fail to give em at opportunity. If we teach false doctrine a one obeys false doctrine, ey will be lost. While false teachers say ey love us, ey really do not. If ey did, ey would teach us e tru so we could go to Heaven. 3. They do not uersta e seriousness of disobedience. They scoff at using Nadab a Abihu (Leviticus 10) a oers as examples of disobedience. They would have us believe at God will not punish anyone in Hell. They fail to comprehe, for whatever reason, at disobedience of God s word will lead us to Hell (Matew 7:21-23; Revelation 21:27; 22:14,15). While e false teacher is doing his or her work, we sta by a talk about how faiful we are. We talk about how strong a preacher we have a how strong a congregation we have. To us, all e problems for e issues we face lie wi e false teacher. We fail to recognize, in ourselves, e same qualities at make up a false teacher. We have convinced ourselves at since we do not openly proclaim false doctrine at we are not contributing to e problem. The Bible teaches us at when we point out error, we must listen to what we are saying a make certain at we are not guilty of at which we are coemning (Romans 2:3,21). We must always remember at sin is sin. It is just as wrong to teach a false doctrine as it is to live a false doctrine. Consider at we are to be examples of e believers (1 Timoy 4:12). As Christians, we must walk in e light (1 John 1:7). Whenever I ink about is problem at we have, I cannot help but see how our own arrogance has caused us to not honestly examine ourselves. We have been called faiful so long at we do not believe we could be anying but faiful. We en will not admit at we are guilty of at which we coemn. There are two areas at I want to discuss in is section of e lesson. These two areas are encompassing of e reasons we contribute to e spread of false doctrine a why we face issues in e church. They are two areas we talk about a lot, but we do little about. Issues Facing The Church 22 Annual Mid-West Lectures Page 3 be be sold. For information contact e 39 Street church of Christ, East 39 Street, Iepeence, MO

4 The first ing I want to discuss is our own ignorance. When I say is, I am not talking about one s educational level. In any congregation, you will have people wi various levels of education. Yet, all of us can uersta God s word. The worst part of is ignorance is at it is a willful ignorance. That is, we choose to be ignorant. This same situation was what led Israel to its destruction (Hosea 4:6). The problem wi a lack of knowledge of God s word is at we are open to attack from false teachers. We cannot use e sword of e Spirit to defe against e false teacher, because we have not armed ourselves wi his word (Ephesians 6:10ff). Because we do not know God s word, we do not recognize when a person is teaching false doctrine. We cannot know false doctrine unless we know e tru. Our lack of knowledge of God s word leaves e door wide open for false teachers to bring in issues at will disrupt a divide us. We ease our own consciences by making sure we have strong preaching from e pulpit. We desire at our elders be knowledgeable. But, often, we never make e effort to improve our own knowledge. God told all of us to study (2 Timoy 2:15). Not just a few of us. Our lack of knowledge causes us to enter into discussions using only our emotions a feelings as e tools by which we make decisions. This is why ere are so many arguments about ings. Everyone is taking about what ey ink, ey feel, a no one is looking to see what God says. Of course, ey are not looking to see what God says because ey do not know where to look. A en, pride enters in. We do not want to admit at we do not know, erefore we put on a show of righteousness at makes us appear godly. We get puffed up a challenge anyone who would dare to question our faifulness! Of course, in all of is, we never discuss what God wants. The false teacher seizes e opportunity, quotes a lot of scripture, makes statements at sou good, a leads people astray. He uses e Bible for his own purposes, but we do not have enough knowledge to show where he is wrong. We lose a God loses, because we are ignorant of God s will. By our lack of knowledge of God s word, we cannot teach oers e tru. When we fail to or cannot teach em e tru, we leave em open to false teachers. We also leave ourselves open to false teachers because we do not have e information to keep e Devil out of our hearts. Our ignorance of God s word gives e Devil e advantage in e fight. A, he will crush us because of it! The seco area in which we fail a in which we contribute to e issues at face us is our failure to live according to e Scriptures. We talk a good talk about how we must be faiful to God. We are appalled at a false teacher would dare to come into our area a teach such ungodly ings! But, we do not see at we are just as guilty as he. By our hypocrisy, we open e door for people to not obey e gospel. They cry hypocrite a refuse to listen. The false teacher comes in a uses our hypocrisy against us, presents himself as a faiful child of God who lives what he preaches, a gaers in his followers. We cannot do anying about it, because we are hypocrites. Issues Facing The Church 22 Annual Mid-West Lectures Page 4 be be sold. For information contact e 39 Street church of Christ, East 39 Street, Iepeence, MO

5 It has always helped me to remove e emotions from a discussion a analyze e situation from a purely logical stapoint. It is also good to remove e particular situation a analyze what is happening by facing what is really happening. For instance, we te to categorize sin. We look at lying as being bad, but not necessarily as bad as murder. We en fi a way to justify at least some lying, especially when we have been caught lying. But, because we are not a murderer, we fail to recognize at we are just as guilty as e murderer. Why would I say is? Because lying is sin, a murder is sin. Therefore, bo e liar a e murderer are sinners. Since ey are bo sinners, ey are bo guilty of violating God s word (1 John 3:4). They sta equally coemned before God (Revelation 21:8). When we try to justify our actions or make light of our sins, we open e door for issues to come in among us. It is difficult to tell someone ey are wrong when we are as guilty as ey. What are some of e ings at we do at contributes to e issues before us a helps open e door for e false teacher? When we exceed e speed limit or break any oer law of e la, we are guilty of sin a are hypocrites (Romans 13:1ff). When we tell a dirty joke, we are guilty of sin a are hypocrites (Ephesians 4:29; 5:4). When we go see a dirty movie, we are guilty of sin a are hypocrites (Philippians 4:8). When we fail to defe e tru, we are guilty of sin a are hypocrites (2 Timoy 4:1ff). When we fail to atte all e services of e church, we are guilty of sin a are hypocrites (Hebrews 10:25). When we fail to study, we are guilty of sin a are hypocrites (2 Tim. 2:15). When we fail to teach oers, we are guilty of sin a are hypocrites (Matew 28:19; 2 Timoy 2:2). When we fellowship false teachers by atteing eir gospel meetings, you rallies, women s days, a so for, we are guilty of sin a are hypocrites (Ephesians 5:11). When we fellowship denominations, such as e Salvation Army or e YMCA, we are guilty of sin a are hypocrites (Ephesians 5:7). When we fail to prove all ings a hold fast at which is good, we are guilty of sin a are hypocrites (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Certainly, we could continue to add to is list, but ese should suffice to help us uersta at we often sta guilty of e same ings we coemn in oers. We face e issues among us today because we have failed to live what e Bible teaches. We have compromised scripture a Issues Facing The Church 22 Annual Mid-West Lectures Page 5 be be sold. For information contact e 39 Street church of Christ, East 39 Street, Iepeence, MO

6 present ourselves as faiful. To be honest about it, at last statement is how I would describe a false teacher. Why are ere issues at face us today? While ere are many false teachers among us (2 Peter 2:1,2; Jude 3,4), a ese false teachers have lead many astray. At least some of e blame must fall upon our shoulders for not defeing e word a for not living e word. We need to do all at we can to stop e mous of ose who would cause issues among us. We need to put down pride, a solve problems on what e Bible says, not on what we ink or feel. A, we need to study God s word, apply God s word, a live God s word. Issues Facing The Church 22 Annual Mid-West Lectures Page 6 be be sold. For information contact e 39 Street church of Christ, East 39 Street, Iepeence, MO