Woe to those who don’t believe
Bro. David Rogers
Pastor Bethlehem Baptist Church
Winona Ms
Matthew 23:1-39
Prayer
Introduction
Years ago, I heard a story about a preacher who went to a small town to preach a series of gospel sermons. His attempt was to evangelize that little town. He preached for two weeks. During the whole time, only one little girl responded to the invitation at the end of one of his sermons. She confessed Christ, was baptized, and turned out to be the only convert during the entire meeting. The preacher judged the meeting a failure, and for years, bemoaned the great effort he had made for such little result.
However, he did not have the right view of things. That little girl grew up to be a strong, faithful Christian woman. She married a Christian man, and together they produced several sons, all of whom became preachers of the gospel. Those sons converted thousands of unbelievers to Christ.
Now, what do you suppose would have happened to that little girl and her family, had that gospel preacher not faithfully proclaimed Christ? Do you really think that preacher’s effort was a failure? Sometimes, what looks like a very small, insignificant effort on our part, turns out to be far greater than we think.
God takes one individual and through him He may touch thousands of souls. Billy Graham has touched millions of people and has lead thousands to Christ. Yet if it was not for a country preacher who was willing to preach the Gospel we may not have had a Billy Graham. That one person has been used by God greatly. All we have to do is let God lead and just follow. But today we don’t have in our churches and pulpits a drive a need to spread the Gospel. We would rather have programs than salvation grams.
Four things that Doug Murren says in his book Churches That Heal that hinders the church from becoming a church that heals:
i.A Lack of Compassion
He notes, “Two million people die every year. Only about 200,000 of those die knowing Jesus as their Savior. Loneliness is one of the major contributors to the high number of heart attacks. Each year 800,000 babies are born out of wedlock (Churches That Heal pg. 104).
ii.The “Us verse Them” mentality
This mindset builds walls and barriers toward unbelievers. We are to be the light and the salt to this lost world around us. We are to tell people about Jesus Christ and show them the way to eternal life. Not hide from them (105-108)!
iii.A lack of transparency (108, 109)
We must live lives that show that we are “Saved by Grace” and that we are not perfect. We must be genuine and authentic with others.
iv.A consumer mentality
This view has devastated the church today. Christian view church as a place to have their needs met. They have no desire or will to sacrifice and serve others. It is self-centered Christianity which focuses only on what do I get out of this church. The reason there is tremendous turnover in the church is because people move to keep getting their selfish needs met and do not desire to serve the Kingdom of God.
a.Doug notes, “In my city Seattle, nearly every church has a turnover of between 20 and 30 percent every year…By failing to denounce consumer Christianity, we are encouraging believers to become self-serving-a deadly killer of compassion…Making disciples must be our goal, not satisfying consumers” (110).
I.Many today are following false teachers who are teaching false doctrines. This feel good, pray it and claim it, and that God wants you to wealthy and if you are not then He is mad at you are all false teachings. They are Satan’s attempts to alter the Gospel message, to destroy the church’s testimony.
1.These false teacher place many burdens on their followers.
1.They require special rituals, traditions, and rules that their followers must follow.
2.Their followers must either follow rules and works salvation and hope that they have done enough or were good enough to be saved.
3.They live in fear because there is no assurance of salvation.
1.Woe to them. What a horrible life they must live. Never knowing whether or not they have been good enough or done enough to be saved.
1.Many will follow these teachers because the false doctrines allow them to do several things.
1.They can do what they want to.
2.They can do something to save themselves.
3.They can be in control of their lives and salvation.
4.They don’t have to surrender to a God who loves them and they would rather surrender to a man or organization that could care less about them.
II.These False Teachers are after power and prestige.
1.Many people want to follow someone. Many people today want something for nothing. They will follow anyone who they believe can give them what they want. They will sacrifice everything for a false religion. But they refuse to hear and follow the truth. Where they think they are getting something for nothing the are actually having work very something and in the end gain nothing.
2. Many are like a monkey. I once heard this story about monkeys: Native hunters in the jungles of Africa have a clever way of trapping monkeys.
They slice a coconut in two, hollow it out, and in one half of the shell cut a hole just big enough for a monkey’s hand to pass through. Then they place an orange in the other coconut half before fastening together the two halves of the coconut shell. Finally, they secure the coconut to a tree with a rope, retreat into the jungle, and wait.
Sooner or later, an unsuspecting monkey swings by, smells the delicious orange, and discovers its location inside the coconut. The monkey then slips his hand through the small hole, grasp the orange, and tries to pull it through the hole. Of course, the orange won’t come out; it’s too big for the hole. To no avail the persistent monkey continues to pull and pull, never realizing the danger he is in.
While the monkey struggles with the orange, the hunters simply stroll in and capture the monkey by throwing a net over him. As long as the monkey keeps his fist wrapped around the orange, the monkey is trapped.
It’s too bad-the poor monkey could save its own life if it would let go of the orange. It rarely occurs to a monkey, however, that it can’t have both the orange and its freedom. That delicious orange becomes a deadly trap.
The world sets traps for you that are not unlike the monkey trap. You hear constantly that if you just have enough money, enough stuff, enough power, enough prestige-then you’ll be happy. Under that illusion people spend their whole lives thinking you must have it all.
The call of Christianity is unlike that of the world. The world focus’ on what you and get out of life. A Christian should focus on what they can give.
3. Like the monkey many today are willing to give up their very lives for a few moments of pleasure. They grasp at emptiness looking for fullness. They are willing to give up all they own to a religious leader who can not heal them, can not give them life, and in no way save them.
4. They will surrender all to a mere man. Some will even claim that the man is god, and this man does not care for them much less love them. But they refuse to believe in a loving God. Do you see how Satan can blind our eyes.
5. These false teachers are all show and there is nothing real about them.
1.They have no real message except for lies and half truths.
2.They have no real salvation.
3.They have no real hope.
4.They have no real life.
III.They keep others from entering heaven. That is why we are to fight against them. They are the enemies warriors waring against the church.
1.They don’t teach the truth and they block their followers from hearing the truth.
1.They don’t allow open discussion of their groups beliefs.
2.They don’t allow members to talk with nonmembers
3.They isolate the group from the public and family.
4.The teacher is not a believer so the followers want be a believer.
5.Woe to those who prevent someone from coming to Christ.
6.These false teachers are dead on the inside. Their souls are dead.
7.They are condemned because they don’t believe in Jesus Christ.
8.They have turned over their life to Satan.
9.As Satan’s servants they try to destroy the Gospel by
1.denying it.
2.And preventing their followers from hearing the truth.
IV.What are we to do?
1.To stand against false teaching and prevent it from entering into our lives, our family’s lives and the church by following God and teaching the truth the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
2.We are to pray for those who are unbelievers.
3.We are to arm ourselves with the armor of God and go into battle armored and ready to do battle.
4.We are to serve faithfully.
5.We are to speak even when speaking about God may be harmful to our physical bodies. We are to be bold.
6.What about you?
