Dakota Community Church
July 25, 2010
Tolerance – Part 3
We live in an age of tolerance.
An Issue of Definition
Tolerance has come to mean the acceptance of every viewpoint as equally true and valid.
True tolerance means treating with integrity dignity and humility a person whose opinion I consider to be untrue and invalid.
What about:
1. What about the “no judging” passages?
A.) You have to go to them privately.
B.) You have a log in your eye so how can you talk about the speck in theirs?
C.) We are not supposed to worry about these things until Jesus comes to deal with them.
1 Corinthians 4:1-5
1So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. 2Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 3I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.
This is about not judging motives of men’s hearts.
We cannot judge these because we cannot know these – WE CANNOT!
Most of us feel that we can know the motives of another, say your spouse or child, the truth is we may guess correctly sometimes but only God truly knows the heart.
Most of us routinely judge what we cannot know, and refuse to judge what can know and SHOULD judge.
Example:
1. I am preaching a series in which I am correctly judging content of messages that can and should be judged – this is the only way to prevent being rebuked like the Church in Thyatira.
2. Some listeners are judging my motives for doing this saying I am just fearful and preaching what will make me feel right and safe; or in another case saying I am jealous and tearing down men who have greater followings than I do.
My motives (which cannot be known) are judged, while the judging of sermon content (which can be known) is protected from being judged.
This is how a church winds up with Jesus against them for their tolerance.
Remember from last week what Paul said about the motives of certain preachers.
The content is what matters – not the charisma of the speaker.
Philippians 1:15-18
It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. 16The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. 18But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
Galatians 1:8
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
This passage from 1 Corinthians is talking about ministry preferences.
Some things must be judged before that time because they can be known and later will be too late.
If you embrace the Buddhist faith as true and accept The Four Noble Truths
1. Life means suffering. 2. The origin of suffering is attachment. 3. The cessation of suffering is attainable. 4. The path to the cessation of suffering. The Noble Eightfold Path
1. Right View Wisdom 2. Right Intention 3. Right Speech Ethical Conduct 4. Right Action 5. Right Livelihood 6. Right Effort Mental Development 7. Right Mindfulness 8. Right Concentration
You had better judge that content before – “before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes”
You will stand before God in your sin, uncleansed, without wedding clothes and still under the wrath of God because of your guilty stains.
It will be too late to judge correctly the teachings of men then!
1. What about the no judging passages?
What about:
2. When there is much “fruit”
We make a serious mistake when we base our judgement of the content on the niceness of the messenger!
A good looking nice guy will lie to you all day long and you will love him and thank him but; a fat bald guy with no charisma who tells you the blunt truth; him you will reject along with his message.
Here it is anyway:
A false gospel is damning and must be rejected!
Matthew 7:15-28
15"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
28When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
What does Jesus mean here by the word ‘fruit”?
This entire passage is about what we are talking about in this series – false teachers (prophets) and false messages.
What is fruit - personality traits, giftedness, niceness, sweetness? NO:
Matthew 7:15
15"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
What is fruit – large ministries populated by massive followings? NO:
Matthew 7:13-14
13"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
What is fruit – signs and wonders, miracles? NO:
Matthew 7:22-23
22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
Well what is it then; what is this fruit we are to recognize the true from the false prophets by?
Context – Context - Context
We are talking about knowing the messenger by the content of the message!
Matthew 7:24
24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
We know the false teachers by the fruit of their message – true prophets line up with the words of Jesus. False prophets refuse to stick to those boundaries.
The words of Jesus are the boundaries.
False teachers will not abide by the teachings of Christ.
This brings me to the final point for next time (August 8) - If this is true aren’t we:
3. Putting God in a box
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
