Biblical Church 2019 (Biblical Christians)
Text:Luke 8:4-15
Well, this morning we’re going to hit the pause button on our lessons from John’s Gospel for a little while. There’s a few things on my heart that I want to share with you all, plus we’ll be doing a Thanksgiving focused sermon in November, and our Advent Sermons throughout the month of December. So I felt like having gone through John, up to chapter 10, it was a good place to stop and look at some other things that I believe that God has put on my heart.
So what I want us to do this morning, is look at the Church… not necessarily the universal Church, but First Baptist Sharon. Every single one of us, wants this to be a Biblical Church.
Now there’s a book out there called 9 Marks of a Healthy Church, and it’s a good book, a very short, easy read, and it’s full of good insight and Scriptural principles. But it’s a book… and I want to share with you out of THE BOOK… Directly from God’s Word. So let’s go ahead and open our Bibles to Luke 8:4-15. And as you’re turning there. I’m going to throw out a challenge to you all. I want to challenge you – every one of you… If you’re here this morning. I challenge you to stay with me through this study. What I’m saying is – if you can. Don’t miss a Sunday during the month of November. Pay attention to what’s being said, and engage yourself in listening and understanding.
Ok… Let’s go to Luke 8 (READ TEXT).
So… what I want to do over the next few Sundays is talk to you about us being a Biblical church. You see; when we look at Scripture and break it down, there’s a lot of things we could point at and say, “that’s what it means to be a church.” And, “that’s what it means to be a follower of Christ.” But ultimately, when we get to the root of things, we find five things basically… and those five things branch out in a lot of ways, and filter off into every aspect of the Church, but really it’s five things that come from the root that create this system of branches. And I’ll just go ahead and say them, so you know where we’re going in this…
A Biblical church is: #1. A Church made up of Biblical Christians… so we’re talking about true conversion. You can’t have Biblical Christians without Biblical Conversion. #2. A Biblical Church is a church that is learning the Bible. #3. A Biblical Church is a church that is sharing the Bible. #4. A Biblical Church is a church that is worshiping as the Bible says we should. And #5. A Biblical Church is a church that is growing in a Biblical way.
So what we’re saying is that a Biblical Church is one that is made up of Christians that are learning, sharing, worshiping, and growing. And today we’re going to focus on the first one.
A Biblical Church, is made up of Biblical Christians.
In one of his sermons, Mark Dever quotes Langston Hughes’s story from his youth… let me just read that to you really quick…
“I was saved from sin when I was going on 13, but not really saved. It happened like this. There was a big revival at my auntie Reed’s church. Every night,, for weeks there had been much preaching and singing, praying, and shouting. Finally; all the young people had gone to the altar and were saved, but one boy and me. He was named Wesley. Wesley and I were surrounded by sisters and deacons who were praying. It was very hot in the church and it was getting late now. Finally, Wesley said to me in a whisper, ‘I’m tired of sitting here, let’s get up and be saved!’ So, he got up and was saved. Then I was left all alone on the mourners bench. My aunt came and knelt at my knees and cried while prayer and songs swirled all around me in the little church. The whole congregation prayed for me alone, a mighty wail of moans. God had not struck Wesley dead for taking His Name in vain, or for lying, so I decided that, maybe to save further trouble, I’d better lie too – to say that Jesus had come and get up and be saved. So; I got up. Suddenly the whole room broke into a sea of shouting as they saw me rise. I couldn’t bear to tell my aunt that I had lied, that I had deceived everybody in the church, that I hadn’t seen Jesus and then, now, I didn’t believe there was a Jesus.’”
By all accounts, Langston Hughes was an atheist until the day he died.
But by golly he went forward and made a profession once.
A.W. Tozer, a pastor and theologian from ages past once said, “It is my opinion that tens of thousands, if not millions, have been brought into some kind of religious experience, and yet have not been saved.” And of course Jesus Himself said, in Matthew 7:21, that many will come to Him on the last day and say, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your Name, and cast out demons and do many wonderful works in your Name?” And He’ll say, “Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you!”
So what does it mean to be a Biblical Christian? To be truly saved? To be born again?
Does it mean that at some point in your life, you went forward before a group of people… maybe at a church, or youth camp, or a revival meeting like Langston Hughes and repeated a prayer that some pastor or evangelist said.
In our text from Luke, Jesus gives the parable about the sower… and this is a passage, and a teaching about conversion. About people who are saved, and people who are lost, and people who think they’re saved, but are actually lost.
And as He explains the parable to the disciples, He says, “The seed (in the parable) is the Word of God.” So anytime we actually share the Word of God with someone, we’re planting seed… Make sure you understand that. Oftentimes you’ll see someone do a good deed for someone, or bless someone in some material way, and they’ll say, “Well at least I planted seed.” Not according to the Bible they didn’t. Planting seed is when you actually share God’s Word with someone. It’s when you tell them about Jesus, and their need for Him as their Savior and Lord.
So Jesus says the “Seed” is the Word of God… it’s the same in every instance… So if the Seed is the same in every instance, then what’s different? The type of soil it falls on.
The first one falls near the road or path…This is someone who is casual about hearing God’s Word… they hear God’s Word, and it has no impact on them. So what makes the ground hard? The path right? It’s well traveled… this is a habitual hardening of the heart. It’s someone who says, “eh, another sermon, big deal”. It’s someone who pays no attention, and makes no effort to understand. So the “Seed” doesn’t penetrate this soil… and the devil comes and snatches it away.
The second one falls on the rocky or stony ground…This is someone we would say has a shallow faith. It’s not saving faith. He’s had a positive reaction to the Gospel. He got the “warm fuzzies” a time or two, but they have no root. God’s Word has never gotten deep down into them, and changed them. And they get exposed as soon as things get hard. The sun beats down on them… the light of Christ, begins demanding things like repentance, and faithfulness… and they’re like, “Nope. I’m out.” You know… you can take a pig, and clean it up, and pour perfume on it, and make it look really nice. You can put bows on it, and scrub it until it’s really clean. But once the sun shines on it for a while, you know what that pig’s going to do? It’s going to go wallow in the mud. That’s why pigs wallow… to cool themselves off. To get relief from the sun. And that’s what this person does… they say, “I can’t take the heat.” And they go back to sinning, and living for themselves, and living for the world.
The third one falls into the thorny ground, and Jesus says that’s the cares, and riches, and pleasures of life. This would be someone kind of like the Rich Young Ruler, or maybe even Judas. Or the Prosperity Gospel people. Ask yourself this – if Jesus said to you, “IF you follow me, you’re going to live in poverty until the day you die.” Would you still follow Him? If He said to you, “IF you follow me, you’re never going to have the nice home, the nice vehicle, the nice life. Instead it’s going to be hard. You’re going to struggle in your finances. You’re going to struggle with health issues… you’re going to struggle. “In this world you will have trouble.” Would you still follow Him? This is the kind of person who says, “I want the world, but I want to go to heaven when I’m done too.”
But Jesus says’ it doesn’t work that way. “What would it profit a man, if he gained the whole world and yet loses his own soul?” And John says, “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.” (1 John 2:15).
But then there’s the fourth soil. This is the one who hears the word, holds fast to it, and bears fruit with patience.
And people say, “Ok, but what does that look like?” “What does that mean to hear the word, hold fast to it, and bear fruit with patience?”
Well; let me show you a little bit about what a Christian looks like from Scripture…
First of all: do you believe? Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe that He has taken your sin and paid for it on the cross? Or are you still trying to earn your salvation, and work for your salvation, and make yourself right with God by being religious and checking all the religious boxes?
1 John 5:1: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, as been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father, loves whoever has been born of Him.”
What does that mean? It means you believe that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Savior. The only begotten Son of God, and the only way of salvation. It means that you believe that He has done everything needed to make your right with God, and secure your pardon. He’s absorbed the wrath of God in your place. He’s redeemed you and bought you, and now you belong to Him forever. Do you believe that? Do you trust in Christ alone for your salvation? If you’re trusting in works, that’s not going to do it… if you’re trusting in behavior, that’s not going to do it. If you’re trusting in your profession, or your church membership, or your baptism… that’s not going to do it. You have to trust in Christ. And rest in Him. That’s faith.
It means that you love God… and you love His Church. You want to gather with His Church. You love other Christians – “Whoever has been born of Him.”
Secondly: Are you progressing in sanctification? Or are you still living a lifestyle of sin?
1 John 2:29: “If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.”
1 John 3:9: “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
What these passages are telling us… and there’s plenty of others we could look at… is that as Christians; we are “not of this world.” The Bible teaches that there is a distinction between true Christians and the rest of the world. We pursue different things. We desire different things. We think differently. We live differently. Our hearts are set on things above, not on worldly things. And we are progressively growing in sanctification and holiness. Yes… sometimes it’s a slow, painful process, but it’s happening. It’s not saying we never sin. It’s saying we fight against temptation, and by the power of Christ, we resist temptation. We hide His Word in our hearts so that we might not sin… and it’s saying that when we do, we’re convicted of that sin and by God’s grace we repent. To repent means to change your mind about sin, and change your behavior toward sin. It means to stop going your own way, to turn around and follow Jesus’ way.
One more Scripture and we’ll be done…
2 Corinthians 13:5: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail to meet the test.”
If any church is going to be a Biblical Church, then it’s got to have Biblical Christians. And please hear me and understand… I’m not standing up here saying that we have a bunch of folks who aren’t Christians. That’s not what I’m saying at all. What I’m saying is what Paul was saying to those Christians in Corinth. Be honest with yourself. Look at the fruit in your life, or the lack of fruit. Get someone who will speak the truth in love to help you be honest with yourself. And I'm not saying, "Do more.", "Work harder.", "Be better." What I'm saying is love God. Focus on Christ. Turn your eyes upon Jesus - look full in His wonderful face... and as you do that, the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of HIS glory and grace.
Ultimately; if a church is full of worldly, unconverted people, who want worldly, un-Christian things, then the church is going to be worldly… not Biblical.
CLOSING
