Dakota Community Church
August 8, 2010
Tolerance – Part 4
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.
1. What about the “no judging” passages?
2. When there is much “fruit”
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 - If this is true aren’t we:
3. Putting God in a box
We do not – we cannot put God in a box. He is “I AM”
What the sound doctrine does, what teaching in line with the Words of Jesus does; is KEEP US IN A BOX!
Isaiah 53:6
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
A.) Why are there boundaries?
Because we stray
All of us – not some of us – all of us - have rebelled against the reign of God
All of us – not some of us – all of us - prefer our own will to the will of God
Genesis 6:5-6
5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.
Psalm 51:5
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Luke 13:34
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
Not only is this state of heart a reality, not only do we rebel continually; but we are utterly and completely incapable of changing ourselves of our own volition.
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
O to grace how great a debtor - Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter; - Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, - Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, - Seal it for Thy courts above. (Robert Robinson - 1758)
Because there is an enemy and we are children of war.
Ephesians 6:11-12
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
We have all seen the National Geographic Channel – we know what happens to the wanderers
Our enemy is described as a schemer, liar, deceiver, angel of light, wolf in sheep’s clothing, thief, devourer, killer, destroyer, roaring lion, accuser, beast, murderer, tempter, wicked one; and the lawless one.
The box of sound doctrine is to protect us.
B.) What are the boundaries? How is the sheep pen defined?
Sheep Pen Slides
Sheepfolds or sheep pens had large walls which were made out of rocks. The walls of the sheep pens were about five feet high. On the top of the four stone walls were briars or prickly branches. The shepherds put the prickly briars along the top of the wall, so it was like our barbed wire today on the top of walls. The result of all of this is that the mountain lions and wolves couldn’t get inside the sheep pen.
Now, the door way was about two feet wide. This wide. Not wide at all. It was a small entry. It was like one small gap in the wall. So I ask you: what was the door made out of?
There was no door. The shepherd himself was the door. At night, the shepherd himself would sleep there in the small opening of the rock wall. He would sleep there, by the fire, with his rod and staff. If any mountain lion would come, the shepherd would fight it off with his weapons, his short stocky club or his long pointed staff. Literally and actually, the shepherd himself was the door.
John 10:7-21
"I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
11"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."
19At these words the Jews were again divided. 20Many of them said, "He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?"
21But others said, "These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"
We literally come into the sheepfold, the Church, through Jesus – there is no other way in.
Once inside what is it that defines the walls?
What decides what the church is and what it isn’t?
Jude 1:3
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.
The faith once for all entrusted to the saints.
How was it entrusted to the saints? God became a man and literally gave it to the apostles.
Paul was taught it by special revelation of Jesus Himself and this was confirmed by the apostles.
Galatians 1:11-12
I want you to know, brothers that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
1Timothy 6:3-4
If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing.
C.) How do we stray?
Acts 20:25-32
25"Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. 27For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God,[b] which he bought with his own blood. 29I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
32"Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
By listening to distorted truth – we go astray
By following men – we go astray
The true shepherds point us to Christ and makes us His disciples – not their own.
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
