CULTURAL LINGO THAT IS SO ANTI-GOD AND ANTI-BIBLE. Introduction: A. As People Who Love God, We Are DETERMINED To Be Loyal To Him! B. As People Who Love Jesus And Are In AWE Of Him, We Are Determined To Uphold Him As The One Who Has ALL Authority! C. As People Who Love The Holy Spirit, We LOVE The Word That He Has Revealed! D. (Slide #2) LOVE God s Divinely Originated Word! 1. (Slide #3) It Is Objective! [NOT Subjective -- Not Changeable Based Upon Man s Whims!] Jn. 17:17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 2. It Is Knowable! Jn. 8:32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 3. It Is Exclusive! Jn. 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 4. It Is Unchanging; Unalterable! Ps. 119:89 Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven. 5. It Is Universal! Mk. 16:15 And He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 6. It Is The Eternal Standard! Jn. 12:48 He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him--the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. 7. (Slide #4) Our Loyalty MUST Be To God And His Word! 1
a. Ps. 1:1,2 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. b. Our Goals: 1. Song: Thy Word! 2. Song: To Christ Be Loyal! 3. Song: I Am Mine No More! 4. Song: This World Is Not My Home! 8. (Slide #5) Cautions! a. ( ) Pr. 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. b. ( ) Jer. 10:23 O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. c. (Slide #6) Jer. 6:14 They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, Saying, Peace, peace! When there is no peace. Also Jer. 8:11; Ezek. 13:10,16 d. ( ) Is. 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! e. (Slide #7) Mt. 7:15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. f. ( ) I Jn. 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. E. The World Uses Terminology and Definitions That Are Anti-God And Anti- Bible! 1. Man may define things as he sees fit; however, GOD gives Divine and holy definitions that are set for all time! 2. However, God has already spoken Truth and defined concepts that the world wants to re-define! a. God gives us definitions and Truth! b. Man has no right to define things. F. Our Language MUST BE Different Than The World s Lingo. G. Today -- Cultural Lingo That Is SO Anti-God And Anti-Bible. 2
I. (Slide #8) The Bible Is A Living, Breathing, Vibrant Document! A. Many Who Hear That Statement Would Immediately Agree Without Understanding What This Statement Is Really Affirming! B. However, This Is An Attack Upon The Objective, Unchangeable, And Unalterable Word Of God! C. This Is The SAME Argument You Hear Politically Made About The Constitution Today! 1. You can t be bound by dead white guys who wrote 200 years ago when slavery was legal, women couldn t vote, and horses were the fastest means of transportation! 2. You hear this contrast during judicial selections: a. Many want liberal/activist judges -- this is those who view the Constitution as a Living, Breathing, Vibrant Document. They see the Constitution as constantly changing with the times. b. You hear the phrase Strict Constitutionalists -- these are people who see the Constitution as the standard of authority; their approach is, What was the original intent? 3. This is a battle for the very soul of our country! D. This Is The SAME Argument You Hear Made About The Bible Today! 1. And this argument is SO deceptive! 2. WHY? They use the SAME WORD GOD USES BUT WITH A DIFFERENT MEANING! a. LIVING! b. Heb. 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. c. Living in the Bible means that God s Word is effective -- it impacts people s hearts! d. Culture uses living to suggest that the teachings of the Bible are not necessarily the standard for today! Thus supposedly the Bible s teachings about sexuality, marriage, morality, or religion, etc. no longer necessarily apply! 3. You hear people say, You can t be bound by Jews 2,000 years ago when they just talked to Jews, when slavery was legal, when women were suppressed, when people walked, rode donkeys, or said on ships! 4. This is a battle for the very soul of religion today! 3
5. This is also a battle for the very loyalty of the Lord s Church to God, Christ, and the Bible today! E. Contrast That Idea With What God And The Bible Affirm! 1. It is Objective! [NOT Subjective -- Not Changeable Based Upon Man s Whims!] 2. It Is Knowable! 3. It Is Exclusive! 4. It Is The Eternal Standard! II. (Slide #9) Church A. Culture Uses Church To Refer To Any Group Of People Or Any Denomination No Matter What They Believe Or Teach. B. One Group On The Internet Called Intertwine Advertises Themselves Like This -- JUST SHOW UP! You Don t Have To Believe In Jesus! C. God s Definition Of Church: 1. The Called Out! 2. Those who have listened to the call of the Gospel and Jesus and who have come to submit themselves to Him and to His Will! D. The Church In The Bible: 1. The Spiritual Institution planned by the Godhead and instituted by Jesus Christ Himself! a. Mt. 16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. b. Ac. 20:28 Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. 2. The Spiritual Body of Jesus Christ! a. He is the HEAD! 1. Eph. 1:22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 2. Eph. 5:23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; 4
b. All of the saved are added to It! Ac. 2:47 3. Every Church that belongs to Jesus Christ is to teach and to practice the SAME THING! a. I Cor. 4:17 For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church. b. I Tim. 3:15 I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. c. Why? They are established upon Christ, His Authority, His Word, and the Revealed Bible. 4. Only those in His Church will be saved! a. Eph. 5:23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. b. Heb. 12:23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, III. (Slide #10) Christian A. Culture s Definition Of Christian : 1. One who believes in Jesus [Question: What does he have to believe about Jesus? 2. One who is Christ-like. 3. One who is a follower of Jesus. 4. One who belongs to a church that claims to be a part of Christiantiy. B. God s Definition: 1. One who BELONGS TO CHRIST! 2. How do you belong to Christ? a. Study the last two Sunday AM sermons: 1. Redeemed How I Love To Proclaim It! 2. Blood Flowing Through The Body. b. Christians are those bought with a price -- the BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST! c. When are we purchased? When we approach Christ in faith, penitence, with confession, and as we are baptized! Rom. 6:3 5
IV. (Slide #11) Post-Modern Lingo! A. Your Truth Is Not My Truth! 1. That may be truth for you; it is no my truth! 2. I will live as I choose! 3. Truth is a construct of your mind! 4. Whatever! 5. Don t condemn what I do! 6. Don t judge! 7. All ideas are equally valuable! a. REALLY? b. You own a car. I will just come and take it as mine! Is one idea as good as another? c. You are married. Some man or woman comes and has sex with your mate or takes your mate away from you because they lust for your mate! Is one idea as good as another? d. Life? Death? -- So what if someone leaves you alone or kills you? 8. The determining factor: FEELINGS! B. Contrast These Views With The Introduction Above, Point D -- LOVE God s Divinely Originated Word! C. The Reality -- Truth Originates From God!!! NOT FROM MAN!!!! V. (Slide #12) Gay Marriage Or (Slide #13) Same Sex Marriage A. Those Who Promote Homosexuality Declare That Homosexuals And Lesbians Have A Right To Love And To Be Married. B. This Is NOT A Hate-Filled Attack On Anyone -- What Do God And The Bible Say? 1. This is no different than what God says about people living together BEFORE marriage! 2. This is no different than what God says about people living together instead of marrying! 6
3. This is not different that what God says about people living in adulterous marriages. 4. I have an obligation to guide people AWAY FROM SIN and into a life where they can be forgiven by God and live a life of HOLINESS! C. Many Vociferously Declare That God Loves Homosexuals And Would NEVER Obstruct A Person From Being In A Loving Relationship; They Even Declare That God Does Not Condemn Homosexuality. But God Is So Pointed About This Sin As Well As Other Sins! 1. Lev. 18:22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. 2. Lev. 20:13 If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. 3. Rom. 1:24,26,27 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,... 26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. 4. I Cor. 6:9,10 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 5. I Tim. 1:9,10 knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, 6. Jude 1:7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. 7
D. (Slide #14) Another Phrase Of Cultural Lingo: Traditional Marriage. 1. This simply suggests that marriage is just something that has been traditional for awhile; that it is merely a cultural phenomenon. 2. This again suggests that there is no set, settled truth about marriage. E. However God Tells Us In The Bible About Marriage! 1. Marriage was established by the Godhead in the Garden of Eden! a. Gen. 2:21-24 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. 23 And Adam said: This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man. 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. b. Mt. 19:4-6 And He answered and said to them, Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female, 5 and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. c. Mk. 10:6-9 But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. 7 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh ; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. d. Eph. 5:22-33 Paul teaches Christians how to treat their mate by learning about their relationship with Christ. 2. We learn that marriage came from the GODHEAD in the very beginning! It is not just a cultural institution! It is NOT just a traditional institution! 3. These truths: a. Eliminate co-habitation before marriage! b. Emphasize that marriage is a commitment! (People will commit to a mortgage quicker than they will to a marriage.) c. Homosexuality and lesbianism are unnatural, unbiblical, shameful, and sinful! Rom. 1:26,27 8
F. Culture Will Attack Those Who Promote Marriage As Designed By God! 1. We may be called bigots! 2. We may be called hate-mongers! 3. However, these attacks are not legitimate; we simply exalt God and the Bible because THEY are the standard! (Slide #15) Conclusion: A. ( ) Protect Yourself! 1. Rom. 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 2. Js. 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. 3. Js. 4:4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 4. I Jn. 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 5. Ps. 1:1,2 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. B. ( ) Seek To Answer The Culture! 1. With Truth! 2. With a humble heart! a. Pr. 15:28 The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, But the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil. [The righteous ponders, thinks, weighs an answer!] b. II Tim. 2:24-26 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. c. Eph. 4:15 speaking the truth in love. 9
3. God s People Must Boldly Affirm His Truths; We Must Do So With An Attitude That Will Exalt The Gospel And Hopefully Encourage People To Consider What We Teach. 4. Urge people to know God, to know Christ, to know Their Will, and to have a submissive heart! C. Be Loyal To God And His Truth NO MATTER WHAT! 1. Song: To Christ Be Loyal! 2. Song: I Am Mine No More! 3. Song: This World Is Not My Home! 4. I Am Resolved! 10