I think I’ve told you this before, but a pastor asked a class of Sunday School children, "Who broke down the wall of Jericho?" A boy answered, "Not me, sir!" The pastor was noticeably upset and turned to the Sunday School teacher, "Is this typical?" She replied, "Pastor, the boy is a trusted and honest child, and I really don’t think he did it." Such a response sent the pastor straight to the Sunday School superintendent. After hearing the pastor’s grievance, the superintendent consoled him by saying, "I’ve known the boy and his Sunday School teacher for a number of years and just can’t picture either one of them doing such a terrible thing." In disbelief, the pastor sought out the Chairman of the Deacons. The wise deacon tried to smooth the waters with some of his conventional wisdom, "Pastor, let’s not make a big issue of this. Let’s just pay for the damages and charge it to our maintenance account."
There is a disturbing trend that has entered the world of “Christendom”, and that is a lack of concern and conviction about what “Christians” say they believe. Let me repeat it: there is a lack of concern and conviction about what “Christians” say they believe.
Now when I say a lack of concern about what “Christians” say they believe, a vast majority of Christians do not read their Bibles. Let me give you some startling statistics.
A 1996 survey indicates that the average American owns, respects and swears allegiance to the Bible -- but just doesn’t read it.
In the survey, conducted by The Barna Group, 80 percent of respondents said they consider the Bible to be the most influential book in human history. More than 90 percent of households surveyed own a Bible, and three out of four own more than one.
But 19 percent of those surveyed said they never read it, and 26 percent said they rarely read it.
Here are some more statistics from George Barna’s website:
· 12% of adults believe that the name of Noah’s wife was Joan of Arc. (The Bible does not provide her name.) (1997)
· One out of six people (16%) believe that one of the books in the New Testament is the Book of Thomas, written by the apostle Thomas. Another one-third of the population are not sure whether or not there is such a book in the New testament of the Bible. (1994)
· Half of all adults (49%) believe that the Bible teaches that money is the root of all evil. One-third (37%) disagree with this contention. The actual teaching indicates that it is the love of money that is the root of all evil. (1994)
· A majority of adults (56%) are convinced the Bible proclaims that the single, most important task in life is taking care of one’s family. (1997)
· Three-quarters of Americans (75%) believe that the Bible teaches that God helps those who help themselves. (2000)
Get the idea that some people don’t know what the Bible speaks about? While the statistics are better for Christians as far as reading their Bible, they don’t fare too much better in Bible knowledge.
And while that is of some concern to me (and it should be to you as well), there is something even more startling. There is a lack of concern about what the Bible talks about.
According to the most recent statistics acquired by George Barna, he found an alarming trend within evangelical churches today and their worldview. Defining such a worldview as believing that absolute moral truth exists, that it is based upon the Bible, and having a biblical view on six core beliefs (the accuracy of biblical teaching, the sinless nature of Jesus, the literal existence of Satan, the omnipotence and omniscience of God, salvation by grace alone, and the personal responsibility to evangelize)—these are all things we at Berean believe, or at least say we do. Based on interviews with 601 Senior Pastors nationwide, representing a random cross-section of Protestant churches, Barna reports that only half of the country’s Protestant pastors – 51% - have a biblical worldview.
That means one out of every two evangelical churches that you would visit would have a pastor that really believes the Bible for all its worth. 51%. 1 out of 2! Here’s the more disturbing statistic. Only 9% of all born again adults and just 7% of Protestants possess a biblical worldview.
That’s less than 1 out of 10. That is an indictment on the church today, that not only is half of our churches filled with pastors who believe the Bible, but only 1 out of 10 in the pews really believe the Bible. Here’s how it broke down by denomination: The denominations that produced the highest proportions of adults with a biblical worldview were non-denominational Protestant churches (13%), Pentecostal churches (10%) and Baptist churches (8%).
Here’s another statistic, only 19% of Christians believe that what they practice is the only way to heaven. In other words, only 1 in 5 who claim the name of Christ believe him when he said, “I am the way the truth and the life; no man comes unto the Father but by me.”
Back in Bible times, in the New Testament era, the apostles wrote letters telling the church that false teachers were trying to get into the churches. Today, they are already here. The enemy is no longer on the outside trying to get in—they are on the inside, perverting what the Bible says as true.
Many big named protestants are now saying that we cannot believe the Bible is inerrant, let alone inspired. And people believe them. Many big named protestant scholars are saying that God is not all-knowing or all-powerful (as the Bible claims)—and Christians believe them.
The church is losing the war; we are fighting a battle that in many ways we have already lost, because we don’t care. Many solid, Bible-believing churches are just around today to make people feel comfortable until they get to heaven. They don’t want to get into the fight; they just want to stay on the sidelines and relax.
We cannot do that here. We need to be involved, we need to defend what we believe, and we need to have a vision to do so. What I am going to share with you this morning is my vision for this year at Berean. The things we are going to do, activities, events, sermons, all of it is going to fit in with this vision. And maybe you are here this morning as guests, wondering, “Well, what does this have for me today?” Let me tell you, you can use this personally, because this passage not only deals with what churches ought to be doing, but we as individual believers in Christ ought to be doing. We are going to look at the book of Jude, verses 20-23.
Now, if you are familiar with the book of Jude, you’ll know it was written by a man by the name of Jude or Judas. It’s narrowed down to three different Jude’s, but in reality we don’t know which one, because they never used their last names in this epistles. Apparently they just called each other by their first name, you know? Hey, Jude!
Here’s what we do know. Jude wrote this letter to combat false teaching. There were people teaching that you could do whatever you wanted in your own body, because the flesh was evil. It wouldn’t count against you, it couldn’t corrupt you. You know, the only problem with that teaching was, it wasn’t right. So Jude wrote this letter, if you look at verse 3, to contend for the faith. He spends most of the rest of the letter describing these people, and from his description, they aren’t nice people.
Yet verses 20-23 tell us how we are to contend for the faith. Last week we glanced at this to help us decided what we are to do while waiting. Today, we’ll find out exactly what it is we are to do.
20But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. 21Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
22Be merciful to those who doubt; 23snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear--hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
We are going to look at four things this morning—things to do here at Berean Church (and in your own individual lives) while we wait.
Here’s the first one, and it’s found in verse 20—Exercise your faith. Exercise your faith.
The idea for building, it’s just that—building on a foundation, and the foundation is the faith. The faith is referring to more than just what it takes to be saved; it’s not talking about faith that Jesus died for your sins, but the whole of faith—the Bible and what it teaches. Jude is telling us to build ourselves up in your most holy faith.
Sadly, most Christians just put on the pounds, not muscles. Instead of looking like spiritual Arnold Schwarchenegars, we look like spiritual Fat Alberts.
We need to build ourselves up in our most holy faith, and that includes two things. The first is increasing in your knowledge of the faith.
Listen to this interesting passage from 1 Timothy 2:1I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone-- 2for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. Not just be saved, but come to a knowledge of the truth. What is truth? There’s lots of truth, but, remember what Jesus said in his prayer in the garden? John 17: 17your word is truth.
We talked about it earlier, how many people who own Bibles don’t know what it says. They don’t know who the God of the Bible is, even though they claim to believe in him. I asked a question a couple of Wednesday nights ago, “Would I like your God?” Perhaps a better question is, “Would I know your God?” Do you know who God is, what his character is made up of, how much he loves you?
Starting in February, we are going to begin a new series on Sunday nights dealing with different doctrinal issues in the Bible. What does the Bible really have to say about God, about the Holy Spirit, about Jesus? What does the Bible have to say about creation, about evil and sin, and about the life to come? We are going to look at what the Bible has to say, because we need to increase our knowledge of the faith.
But it’s not enough to increase it, we need to use it. That’s where the exercising comes in—use it. You may know a lot of Bible, but maybe you’re not sure how it’s relevant to today. That’s the other part of Sunday evenings—we are going to explain to you how the doctrine of God and other such issues should impact day-to-day living. Some people think that doctrine is fine and dandy, but it doesn’t help with day to day life. Well, the apostle Paul wrote that all scripture is profitable. And it is useful. And if we familiarize ourselves with it, and use it, we will be equipped for every good work. James 1: 22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
A middle-aged woman posted her Christmas wish list on the refrigerator for her husband to read. Rather than list certain items of desire, she simply requested "something that will make me look sexy and beautiful." When Christmas rolled around she expected to open a package with some fancy lingerie inside. To her surprise, he gave her an exercise bike instead.
Many Christians need to exercise. We are going to be starting an intense, spiritually-fit, aerobic exercise program, designed specifically to help you bulk up in the faith. Exercise your faith.
But not only should we exercise our faith, but we should exercise our prayer life. Our prayer life.
And we do this in two ways—by praying alone, and by praying together.
Here’s another area where many believers fall short, and don’t recognize the power of prayer. You can walk into prayer meetings across this great country and find around 25% or less of the members of a church there for prayer meeting. I wish that weren’t true here, and I don’t want to make you feel bad, but the same is true here. People don’t care to come together to pray anymore. And that is why many churches don’t even bother to pray. They no longer have prayer meetings, because no one comes.
But that will never happen here, as long as I’m here. Just because many people don’t care to do it anymore doesn’t mean that we should stop doing it, especially since the Bible tells us we ought to! Often times in the New Testament, groups of people would get together to pray, and as they did so powerful things happened. Remember when Peter was imprisoned, and the church got together to pray, and Peter was released by an angel! Remember that? But do you remember how the story goes? Peter came to the door of the church, and they didn’t believe it was Peter, and they went back to praying. Nowadays, we don’t believe prayer does anything, so we don’t even bother.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have got to pray, and we have got to do it together! And the wonderful thing is, even when we are alone, we never pray alone. We pray in the Spirit, and the spirit prays with us and for us. Romans 8: 26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
Here at Berean, we are going to stress the importance of prayer for our Wednesday night meetings. We are going to look into doing some other things, even during the morning service to stress the importance of prayer. The important thing is—we all ought to be praying, to be exercising in this area. Pray in the spirit.
Here’s the third thing, exercise God’s love. Exercise God’s love.
WE do this through two things, and here’s the first—focus on God’s love for you. I’ve often said this from the pulpit, that it’s not that we don’t love God enough, it’s that we don’t know how much God loves us. 1 John 3:1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!
I’ve seen a commercial recently that makes me laugh hysterically. It’s a sports commercial, but it doesn’t look like one. How many of you are familiar with college sports? Usually, there is a rivalry team for each college, and there are no rivalrys stronger than the one between Michigan and Ohio State. I mean, they hate each other. Well, this commercial begins with a couple making out on a couch, whispering sweet nothings to each other. But as the camera pulls out, you see that one of them is wearing a Michigan sweatshirt, and the other is wearing an Ohio State sweatshirt. Then some writing comes up on the screen—If it weren’t for sports, this wouldn’t be disgusting.
You know, something similar could be said for the love God has for us. The Bible tells us that while we were yet sinners, while we were as unlovable as could be, God loved us so much that he sent Christ to die for us. He loved crossed all boundaries and knew no limits in reaching out to us, so that we could know him. We ought to focus on God’s love for us.
But we also need to focus on obedience to God.
Now, where does that come from? That phrase found in Jude is similar to what Christ said to his disciples in the upper room before he was betrayed. John 15:9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
How do we remain in the love of God? Obeying his commands. That does not mean that we can lose our salvation if we don’t obey him, nor does it mean that we cannot make God love us less. Here’s what someone said about this passage: “Once people have realized that they are the unworthy objects of the love of God in Jesus Christ they are challenged to respond in love. That love must be shown in behavior.” We do that through obedience.
But often times, we look for ways to short-change God. “God, I know you want me to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but football is on TV, and there’s only two weeks left in the season, so, sorry.” “Yeah, God, I know that you sent your son to die for my sins, and that you don’t want me to gossip, but this person was so mean to me—he deserves what he’s got coming.”
God’s not going to buy that. Exercise obedience. Exercise the love of God. And we will have lots of issues and topics on how we can exercise that love. In fact, that’s coming up next week, as we discuss strengthening our marriage, in showing obedience to God in our marriages. Believe it or not, he wants your marriage to be successful, and he’s already gotten the blueprints down for us, we just need to follow his game plan. Exercise the love of God.
Here’s the final thing, shown in verses 22-23, exercise your witness. Exercise your witness.
This is one area most of us struggle with. Most of the time, we just don’t care enough to do it, but even when we do, we don’t know how to do it.
Jude tells us to approach people in three ways. To those who doubt, be merciful. Now remember, this is in the context to those who were not sure about false teaching but were maybe being persuaded. But that should carry over to our witness to unbelievers as well. I shouldn’t go up to my unsaved friends and say, “SINNER! YOU ARE GOING TO DIE IN YOUR SINS AND BURN IN THE VERY PITS OF HELL!” That won’t open up the communication lines there, would it? Be merciful to those who doubt.
You know, often times Christians are viewed as those people from “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. Ever see that movie? You know, the one where the aliens come and take the bodies of real people and grown fake ones in pods, and when they find a real person they stand their and point and screech? The world views us as such because we look as foolish as that and sound as stupid as that. We are to be merciful. Galatians says, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
But also, save some as though from the fire. Since Jude refers earlier to the eternal fire of hell, this would be those who are unsaved. We need to be in the snatching business. There’s a song entitled, “Run to the Battle,” and the first line goes like this: “Some people want to live within the sound of the chapel bell, but I want to run a mission a yard from the gates of hell.” We as believers need to be on the frontlines, snatching people from hell.
The book of Acts talks of the apostles as preaching and teaching boldly the kingdom. Do you? Most of them time, boldness is not what we would use to describe how we speak with unbelievers. Now that doesn’t mean that we knock them over the head, but we need to not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation. DO you believe it? Share it.
TO others, we are to show mercy, mixed with fear, and that is speaking of those who’ve fully bought into the false doctrines. Plead with them, speak with them, but be careful of them, lest you be caught up in the same area. Here’s the point—with everyone we meet, we must carefully discern how to approach them.
A man fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out. A Christian Scientist came along and said, "You only think that you are in a pit." A Pharisee said, "Only bad people fall into a pit." A Fundamentalist said, "You deserve your pit." A Charismatic said, "Just confess that you’re not in a pit." A Methodist came by and said, "We brought you some food and clothing while you’re in the pit." A Presbyterian said, "This was no accident, you know." An Optimist said, "Things could be worse." A pessimist said, "Things will get worse!" Jesus, seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit.
A lot of people are stuck in the pits of this life. Will you, by your witness, pull them out, or leave them there? IN the next few months, we will have a series on sharing what we believe, and we will go over these issues in detail. We have missionaries of the church that we will be getting here to speak on Sunday mornings. We will have opportunities for you to personally get involved in sharing your faith. There’s a new youth center opening up in Scranton within the next several months that can help us out with that, but the point is, we need to be exercising our witness. We cannot keep silent anymore.
Well, that’s my vision for this year. You know, the Bible says that where there is no vision the people perish. Someone else modified that verse to say, “Where there is no vision the people join a different parish.”
We can no longer be content just sitting around, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life, as that one part in Jude says. We are to be active. We are to be exercising. Building up our faith. Praying together and in the spirit. Keeping ourselves in God’s love, and sharing our witness. Eternity hangs in the balance for too many for us to sit on the sidelines anymore. Are you willing to catch the vision and say, “I want to be a part of that.” Let’s pray.
