Compromised Christianity
Scriptures: John 17:17; Matthew 24:3-14; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 5:19-20
In John 17:17 Jesus made the following request of His Father as He prayed prior to His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” The word “sanctify” means to separate from a profane to a sacred use; to consecrate wholly to God and His service. The primary meaning of the word is not to make holy, but separation. It can also means to make holy when the person or thing sanctified needs to be cleansed from sin in order to be fit to be separated unto God and His service. Jesus asked God to sanctify His disciples through His truth which was His word. It’s the truth of God’s word once we have it internally that will give us the strength to be separated from the world in which we live in. The title of my message this morning is “Compromised Christianity.” This message is part one in this series dealing with how Christianity has been compromised as foretold in Bible prophecy.
Compromise is defined as (1) undermine or devalue somebody or something by making concessions; (2) settle a dispute by agreeing to accept less than what was originally wanted; (3) expose somebody or something to danger or disgrace.” In the compromising of Christianity, we are fulfilling all three of these definitions. We are devaluing the Word of God; we are settling disagreement by saying everyone is right and all religions lead to heaven; and we are exposing people to the danger of hell fire based on our compromised teaching. Let me put it another way. Have you ever heard a medical professional use the word, “immunocompromised”? That word is defined as, “having a weakened immune system. Patients who are immunocompromised have a reduced ability to fight infections and other diseases.” Each one of us has an immune system that fights off anything foreign that tries to enter our bodies. Our immune system is what keeps us healthy and alive. However, some people are prone to sickness and disease because their immune system has been compromised. In this case special care must be taken to keep the person healthy. These immunocompromised people cannot be around other sick people because their immune system cannot fully protect them from getting sick based on their contact with other sick people. Well the Body of Christ is in an immunocompromised state which was foretold about two-thousand years ago. The Word of God is a Christian’s immune system and it’s the Word of God that is being attacked today. We have allowed our immune systems (the Word of God within us) to be so weakened that any and every new teaching is making its way into our bodies and further incapacitating us. I want you to keep the visual of an immunocompromised (weaken) person in your mind as we go through this series.
In April of 1981, I preached my very first sermon that I titled “Time Is Running Out.” The foundation Scripture for that message was found in Matthew 24:3-8. In these verses we find where Jesus was asked by His disciples “What are the signs of Your coming at the end of the age.” Jesus replied with the following words; “…..See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.” (Matthew 24:4-8) We will go in more depth of this Scripture later but for now I want you to consider a few things that are happening today that were not happening in April 1981 when I preached this sermon.
In April 1981, we did not have many Pastors who said that sin was not sin. Same-sex relationship, while happening during that time both within and without the Church, was generally considered to be sin. In April 1981 no one imagined that your Church doors could be closed because the Pastor said that that lifestyle was wrong. In April 1981 it was unfathomable to think that a Pastor would be labeled as promoting hate when speaking about sin; or that a person could lose their job if they said anything to a co-worker about someone’s lifestyle, even when only expressing their beliefs based on their being a Christian. In April 1981 we did not witness the President of the United States attacking anyone who disagreed with him by calling them names and assassinating their character. The most powerful man in the world carried on his shoulders the reputation of the people of the United States and he understood the impact of his actions.
When I preached my first sermon in 1981, I was sincerely concerned about the things I was seeing happening around the world. I read in magazines about wars and famines (we did not have the internet so what we read was all in print.) I could see the sin that was around me, and I am talking about sin that people said, “Yes that is sin.” I remember singing in our community mass choir and watching people hook up after our concerts to go party at the clubs and wondered how you could sing about the glory of God and then go party. I remember seeing Church members coming to Church after partying hard on Saturday night and looking like they had been partying all night. Please understand, I was in no way pure and without sin sneaking around doing my “devilment” as my mother called it, but in the midst of what I was doing I was yet fearful of going to hell. I had a strong sense of fear that God was displeased with me and that I needed to change some things even though my flesh was saying different. Most of us have been there. My point is this, in 1981 if you were a Christian you were expected to live as a Christian. That was the expectation even though many did not live that way. And while people still lived like they do today, sin and hell were still preached from the pulpit. Pastors still told their members (even when they themselves were sinning) that sin would lead to hell. That was in 1981. I believe people had more fear of (respect for) God in 1981. So where are we today? I think a good example of this is a video that was circulated on the internet of a pastor voicing his opinion of his role as a pastor – some of you may have seen it. My brother sent this to me recently. This is what that pastor said which apparently received a lot of “likes” for his perspective on his role as pastor:
“I don’t beat nobody up for smoking, drinking and having sex and doing all that, not because I did it, but because I can relate. I can relate. If you ever notice, preachers who get up and beat people for doing it because conviction pulls you into the presence of God. Condemnation pushes you out of the presence of God”.
“I’m not the Holy Spirit. It’s not my job to convict you. I’m God’s servant and it’s my job to relate to you and if I can relate to you, I can pull you out of depression. I can pull you out of pain. I can pull you out of homosexuality. I can pull you out.
“So this is why when I get calls and people say do you know they’re living together and having sex, I say yeah and I don’t care, because I am the pastor, not their parent. It’s my job to cover you, not control you.”
Hmmmmm. I do understand about our needing to relate to the people where they are as pastors and ministers, but there is nothing in Scripture where I can find that says I am just to cover you while you continue in sin. While he was delivering that message he definitely got a lot of support because what he was saying something that was very pleasing to the people’s ears. I want you to imagine hearing me tell you that I do not care about your sins, I am going to relate to you and provide a covering for you while you continue in sin in hope that through my covering I can pull you out of sin. How many of you would praise God and keep right on sinning? Don’t answer that question as I do not want to get anyone in trouble this morning. But listen to what Paul wrote to Timothy concerning leaders who were sinning; “Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.” (1 Timothy 5:19-20) While Paul told Timothy not to listen to or receive gossip and refuse to act quickly on every rumor pertaining to a leader, he also directed Timothy to receive hard evidence, with provable/viable facts, presented by "two or three witnesses" and to act on it. He told Timothy to rebuke the leaders openly in the presence of all so that the rest of the body would be fearful of sinning. Does this sound like what this pastor was saying? There was a time in our history when Churches did this, but no longer.
Paul told Timothy to expose the sin publicly so that others could understand the severity of sin and thus be afraid to do it. He never said Timothy’s job as pastor was to just provide a covering for his congregation as they continued in sin! No, they were to be taught to come out of sin. What this pastor said is not all that uncommon in the Church today – not by a long shot. Many Christians are buying what he, and others like him, are selling. And the more they buy this “altered gospel” (Galatians 1:6-9) the more spiritually immunocompromised they become as well as those who look up to them and model their behavior. And what is really concerning is that if they continue, eventually the “light of life” that they received from Jesus will be extinguished and they will once again be in eternal darkness. Their immune system (the Word of God) will be so compromised in their life that they will not be able to withstand the new teachings/revelations that will continue to attack the Word of God they used to hold dear. When we know the Word it provides strength to withstand heresies and biblical misinterpretations. However, when we do not know the Word for ourselves, we become open to lies about the Word which is like an infectious organism entering the body of an immunocompromised person and making them sick. I know this is not a popular message, but I am trying to save lives and make you think versus making you feel good. So I will not apologize and you can truly count this to my head and my heart. I care about you and the life you’re living so if this series makes one person stop in their tracks and change the life they are living then offending all of you is worth it!
So let’s revisit what Jesus said to His disciples about the last days. The very first thing Jesus said in His response was, “…..See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many. (Matthew 4b-5) Let’s focus on the first part about being misled. The definition of the word “mislead” is “to cause somebody to make a mistake or form a false opinion or belief, either by employing deliberate deception or by supplying incorrect information.” Jesus told His disciples (and subsequently us) not to allow anyone to cause them to make a mistake or form a false belief about His return because there will be many out there that will try. The only way to protect them from being misled was to know, understand, accept and believe the truth – God’s Word! It is not enough to just know and understand the truth, you have to accept it as fact and subsequently believe it. Remember the three definitions I gave earlier for the word compromise? They were to “undermine or devalue somebody or something by making concessions; settle a dispute by agreeing to accept less than what was originally wanted; and expose somebody or something to danger or disgrace.” I want you to see the connection here. If we are ever misled we immediately become compromised and enter a danger zone. We cannot separate the two. Why? Because when we are misled we will make decisions off the wrong information. If someone told you that your lifestyle does not matter to God as long as you are baptized what would you do? The average person would rush to the Church, get baptized, and continue living as they were because the only thing that mattered was the baptism. The decision to continue as you were after being baptized would still send you to hell because you did not search the Scriptures for the truth. Lies are so much easier to accept and believe versus the truth, especially when you have to “work” to find the truth. Let’s look at three more verses.
“For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many……Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:5, 11-12) Jesus said that many would come saying that they were the Christ and people would actually believe them and be misled. He was talking about both people familiar and unfamiliar with the gospel would believe and follow them. (I use that word familiar intentionally because many people read the Bible but do not “study” it so they are familiar with some of it and can recognize some truth from it when they hear it, but not all truth.) If you did not study the Word of God you would not understand what must happen before Jesus’ return or “how” He will return. As you think about whether someone can claim to be Christ and actually have people believe it, let me enlighten you.
• Alvaro Theiss. Believes he is Jesus Christ “reborn.” He lives with 12 of his disciples - three men and nine women - in a compound surrounded by barbed wire and an electric fence outside of Brasília, Brazil, in a town he has named New Jerusalem. To mirror his continuity with the Jesus Christ, the one who came from Nazareth, he is known to reminisce publicly about his earlier life 2000 years ago. But a lot has changed since the days of the gospels. He loves technology and reinterpreting the final verses of the Bible in light of modern inventions. For example, in Revelations 1:7, where Jesus is promised to be “coming with the clouds,” Theiss takes to mean that he is free to travel the world by airplane. The verse continues that “every eye will see” the coming Messiah, which to Theiss interprets as a mandate to spread his message on television and on the internet. He regularly preaches on YouTube and on Facebook Live, on which he has over 330,000 followers.
• Jim Jones (1931–1978), founder of Peoples Temple, which started off as an offshoot of a mainstream Protestant sect before becoming a personality cult as time went on. He claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus. At the time of his death he had 900 followers, most of who died with him.
• Yahweh ben Yahweh (1935–2007), born as Hulon Mitchell, Jr., a black nationalist and separatist who created the Nation of Yahweh in 1979 in Liberty City, Florida. His self-proclaimed name means "God, Son of God". Many of his followers deemed him to be God Incarnate. He had hundreds of followers and at one point had amassed an empire worth $100 million.
• Alan John Miller (1962–), more commonly known as A.J. Miller, a former Jehovah's Witness elder and current leader of the Australia-based Divine Truth movement. Miller claims to be Jesus Christ reincarnated with others in the 20th century to spread messages that he calls the “Divine Truth” and he too has a following.
This is just a short list of individuals who have claimed to be Jesus Christ and had other intelligent people believe and follow them, there are many others. We hear of people who claim to be Christ and we discount them as being mentally unstable, but some are true false prophets whom people will follow which fulfills exactly what Jesus warned the disciples about. Now look at verse twelve.
“Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12) The word “lawlessness” (iniquity) includes all forms of immorality. Who is Jesus talking about in this verse? He’s talking about those in the Church! The false prophets will increase because they will say what the people want to hear. What they say will accommodate the sin in people’s lives just as we are seeing today. This is what I thought about when I watched the video of the pastor and saw the affirmations he received from the congregation? I am in not saying he is a false prophet or that he does not mean well. What I am saying is that one segment that I watched was scripturally not provable and was problematic because many already believe it’s not the pastor’s job to call out sin. And is this not what we are seeing in Churches where people are saying sin is not sin and what is sin is covered by grace so there is no need to feel bad or repent because you are already covered by the blood of Christ? You do not have to tell me that this series is not making some people uncomfortable but let me tell you that it will be a lot more uncomfortable in hell and that is for an eternity! If you want a feel good message this is it! You can feel good that you know the truth, accept it, believe in it and therefore your place with Christ is secured. Now if you don’t accept the truth and you need a feel good message, you won’t find that here. We are running out of time and if we do not get serious about telling people the truth then we will be as guilty as they are!
I want to close this morning with two final scriptures. First, turn to First Timothy chapter four. We will read verses one through three. “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.” (First Timothy 4:1-3)
As we see in these verses and from others recorded in the New Testament, in these last days people will depart (fall away from) their faith. Regardless of what people may say about once saved always saved, according to the truth of God’s word, it is possible to depart from the faith and apostatize. No man can depart from something that he does not already have. We are warned to take heed lest our hearts become evil and unbelieving and cause us to depart from God (Hebrews 3:13). This can happen when we give heed to deceiving spirits regardless of the charisma of the vessel with the spirit. There are deceiving spirits that seduce men, leading them astray, drawing them into evil, especially enticing them into sexual impurity. If you knew that demons are charged with carrying out a program of enticement designed to get us to forfeit our virtue or surrender our chastity, would we protect it better? Just a question for consideration. No I am not one that blames everything on demonic spirits, but I am also not one who doesn’t believe we have an active enemy we are fighting against. It is impossible to fight against an enemy you do not believe exist and one of Satan’s greatest victories is getting people, especially Christians, to minimize his influence in the world today. Paul warned against our giving in to the doctrine of demons – so there is a demonic force present today with a counter doctrine to biblical truth that is much easier to hear and simpler to follow. We just have to recognize it.
One final point to be clear on how we can be compromised in our thinking: people who pretend inspiration and revelation and false teachers of all kinds are agents of demonic spirits according to Second Corinthians 11:14-15 which says, “No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.” Just to be very clear and totally transparent, Christians should question and reject any teaching and/or religion that denies the reality of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Atonement, the death and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, sin, sickness, Satan, demons, hell, heaven and the other fundamental doctrines of Scripture. To not do so opens the door for us to be compromised! Plain and simple truth!!! Not compromising does not mean we don’t love or respect those who do not believe as we do. A question for next week, “Why is that other religions know what they believe and are not swayed by the teachings of Christianity but Christians can be swayed by other religions because we do not want to be offensive or judgmental?” Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. Our service Sunday worship starts at 9 a.m. and Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. Also, for use of our social media, you can find us at newlightchristianfellowship on FB. To get our live stream services, please make sure you “like” and turn on notifications for our page so you can be notified when we are live streaming. We also have a church website and New Light Christian Fellowship YouTube channel for more of our content. We are developing more social media streams so please stand by and we will notify you once those channels are up and running. We look forward to you worshipping with us. May God bless and keep you.)
