“The
Leaven Permeating & Destroying Today’s Fundamental Baptist Churches”
Preached at
the Midwest Independent Baptist Pastor’s Fellowship meeting at Ravenswood
Baptist Church, Chicago Il. August 12-13, 2013
1 Corinthians 5:6-7 “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little
leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7 Purge out therefore the old leaven,
that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our
passover is sacrificed for us:”
Let’s examine two things that are
leavening today’s Fundamental Baptist Churches…
·
The Leaven of Broadmindedness & Tolerance
Never before in
40 plus years of ministry have I seen what I am seeing today: Once fundamental,
Baptist churches distancing themselves from biblical separation and adopting a
broadminded, tolerant, progressive stance toward the beliefs and practices of
the world!
The call today is for open-mindedness
and tolerance so that everyone is accepted and so that the unsaved won’t
be offended!
By and large, the modern
“church” is not
emphasizing teaching doctrine, not
preaching against sin, not promoting holy living, and not pointing people to Christ! They fear they would lose
members and money. Today’s churches want people to “feel good” and “be comfortable.”
I have seen so many Fundamental
Baptist churches and schools change their theology, though they claim they have
not changed! They will blog till they are blue in the face claiming they are
FUNDAMENTAL! However, they have turned their back on Biblical Separation!
Separation has become a “dirty word.” If you are a separatist you intolerant,
unloving, and narrow minded!
One example of many is Northland
students are now “rapping” for Jesus and the school participated in the I am Redeemed
CCM rock concert tour.
You don't have to be different from the world to be
a church-member now. There is little about the average church to make men stand
back in reverence toward God.
The Church has sacrificed depth for width and
instead of being a deep well to draw refreshing, thirst quenching living water
it offers stagnant swamp water polluted by sewage of the world!
We MUST remember that the New Testament Church started out on the narrow road and stuck to
it!
Matthew 7:13-14 Enter ye in at the
strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that
leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait
is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life,
and few there be that find it.
The New Testament
church was not broadminded and tolerant! It was the most exclusive fellowship on earth! They
did NOT cater to the unsaved crowd! They did not integrate worldliness into
their services to attract and please the world’s crowd!
As one preacher put it, “We
face the peril of the wide gate and the broad way today, and it tantalizes us
all the more because ‘many enter through it.’” And, today most Christians
would rather be called almost anything on earth beside narrow and intolerant!
The power of political correctness IS leavening an increasing number of
fundamental Baptist Churches!
Preacher, don’t let the leaven of broadmindedness
& tolerance get into your church! If it is there, purge it out! There are
things you SHOULD have a holy intolerant of! (sexual promiscuity, adultery, child sexual abuse,
cohabitation, incest, teen pregnancy, the murder of the helpless unborn, homosexuality,
same sex marriage are but a few).
Far too many churches are
sheltering sin in the Church. And, if a preacher cries out against it he told,
"Don't be too hard, nobody is perfect," or they selectively quote --
"Judge not that you be not judged."
We are paying an awful
price today for our tolerance of sin within the Church. “If the church of the
Acts had overlooked iniquity and by-passed evil and smilingly looked the other
way while the devil sneaked into every phase of her life as we have done today,
Christianity would have died in infancy.” (Vance
Havner)
Many churches are lack
the power of God today because they are tolerating sin within. As difficult and
distasteful as it is, we MUST exercise Church discipline when face with sin in
the Church body. Paul exhorts the Church at Corinth – “Your glorying is
not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7 Purge
out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.
For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:” 1 Corinthians 5:6-7
The second thing that is leavening fundamental Baptist
Churches today…
·
The Leaven of Running A Show Boat Instead of A Life Boat
When Linda
and I went on our Mediterranean cruise there was lots of entertainment
available. We went to one ice skating show and went to just a few minutes of
another show…it was not fit for Christian consumption!
Many
churches are shifting from the Biblical model of ministry to a worldly model of
ministry! Perhaps you are wondering what I mean by that. Let me explain.
ü The World’s Model of Ministry
The world’s
ministry model for ministry is focused
on entertainment. The Webster’s Online Dictionary defines entertainment to
be – amusement or diversion provided especially by performers.”
I have seen
it firsthand several times in churches I have attended, most recently in
Florida. Two BIG screen TV’s were running information and clips constantly once
you walk into the auditorium until the live entertainment started. Worship
teams with choreographed music presentations were next. Actors gave their
performances and finally, there was a short Cotton Candy message: That’s a
message that is very sweet but has no substance.
The word
“entertain or entertained is only used twice in the New Testament and that is
in Hebrews 13:2 “Be not forgetful to entertain
strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Obviously it has
NOTHING to do with entertainment as defined above.
In the late
1800 Charles Spurgeon wrote an article called – Feeding Sheep or Amusing Goats.
It is definitely applicable to our day! He wrote in part –
“The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the Church
that part of her mission is to provide entertainment of the people, with the
view of winning them…Providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in
the Scriptures as a function for the Church. If it was a Christian work, why
did not Christ speak of it? ‘Go ye’…into all the world and speak the Gospel to
every creature. This is a clear enough. So it would have been if He had added,
‘and provide amusement for those who do not relish the Gospel.’ No such words
are to be found…. Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over them, but never
sought to amuse them.”
ü The Biblical Model of Ministry
In the
Biblical model of ministry PREACHING & TEACHING the Word of God is central!
My 1828
Webster’s Dictionary defines preaching this way – “To discourse [formally talk]
on the gospel way of salvation and exhort to repentance; to discourse on
evangelical truths and exhort to a belief of them and acceptance of the terms
of salvation.”
The words preach, preached, preaching, and preacheth are found 136 times in the
New Testament.
Christians
are told to “preach the Gospel” (Matthew 16:15); Christ sent the disciples out
to preach (Mark 3:14); He commanded the his disciples to preach unto the people
(Acts 10:42); It is by preaching that men are saved (1 Corinthians 1:21); For
believers, preaching is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18); It builds up
believer’s faith (Colossians 2:7).
That brings
me to another preaching related issue. We have people who have recently come to
our church because another large Fundamental Baptist Church will not deal with
anything controversial. Their preaching has definitely been leavened, and corrupted.
Many once
solid churches have adopted the stance that preaching should be non-judgmental
and non-directive. That means, don’t call anything wrong and don’t tell them
what is biblically right!
The Bible
tells how to handle time like we are facing!
2 Timothy 4:1-5
I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; 2
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 3 For the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to
themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their
ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 5 But watch thou in all things, endure
afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
One preacher said - “Fearless preaching
is all the more necessary in dangerous times. When people will not tolerate the
truth, that’s when courageous, outspoken preachers are most desperately needed
to speak it. Sound preaching confronts and rebukes sin, and people in love with
sinful lifestyles will not tolerate such teaching. They want to have their ears
tickled.”
Refuse to join the pastors
today are either ignorant of or totally ignore Paul’s directive relating to
preaching. If you are a believer, refuse to stay at a church
that uses leavened preaching!
We must go
against the tide. We must purge out the leaven of broadmindedness and
tolerance. We must not look at church as a show boat but a life boat. Our
preaching must be strong and direct!
Jude 1:3-4 “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of
the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you
that ye should earnestly contend for the
faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 4 For
there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to
this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into
lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
We
must never become one of those Churches that are so engrossed in trying to
please non-Christians that many have forgotten their first duty is to please
God.”
