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The Uniqueness of Discipleship According to Jesus

  


"But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and cry. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers were doing the same things to the false prophets."

Good Morning my beloved,
 
We welcome you to worship today in the name of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It really warms my heart to have each of you here with us today, what a privilege it is glorify God together! I want to take a moment to express my deep gratitude to each and every one of you, I am thankful for your steadfast prayers and unwavering commitment to sharing the Word of God through our website and social media outlets does not go unnoticed. I have found through the experiences in my life, that Jesus Christ is truly the solution to every problem, and the light that shines in the darkness. I pray that all who are in need, whether you are seeking answers, healing, or a deeper relationship with our Lord, even if you have walked with Christ for years, I invite you to accept His offer of grace and mercy as a personal gift, it is the key to a life filled with purpose, joy, and the assurance of unconditional love, a foundation upon which your faith will grow and flourish. Let us remember, it is not just a responsibility to warn others of the coming judgement, and to share the Good News of salvation; it is a privilege. Hear the Good News, regardless of your past, no matter your fears or failures, Jesus Christ is prepared to welcome you with open arms, a give you a transformed life and the promise of His glorious Kingdom today!

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According to the Word of God, there will always be an assault on the Truth from both the outside world and from within the church, those who have professed to have known Christ, known the Truth and have departed from the faith. And, in the last days, there will be a great falling away, what the Bible often refers to as apostasy, which is characterized by denial of the Truth, a denial of the true nature of God. I believe that there is little doubt that we are certainly living in the last days.

In 1 Timothy 4, Paul penned a warning to young Timothy about this departure from the faith, "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.." The most devastating, aggressive attacks come from those within the church who say they believe, they want you to believe that they belong to the true faith, who claim to love Christ but in reality, they merely hold to a form of godliness, they are not true lovers of God, they are not true lovers of Christ, they have in one aspect or another, denied Truth, it may well be a defective Christology. And, I'm seeing more and more of this everywhere I go, I believe that's because we’re not very good at guarding the Truth against those who attack it from the inside today. 

Defending the Truth, with which we have been entrusted, against false teachers, against pseudo-Christians, takes great discernment, it requires fortitude and endurance for the long haul, something the contemporary church doesn't appear to have very much of. We’re not very good at confronting those within the framework of Christianity, we're not very good at warning those sitting in the visible church against spiritual defection, that many will go to hell from a pew because there is no real transformation, no genuine fruit in their lives. It deeply concerns me that we’re willing to do anything to keep from offending anyone, even if that means they're going to face the consequence of sin. I believe one of the clearest elements of biblical salvation is the demand for repentance. Frankly, any preaching that does not crush a sinner under the weight of his sin, causing him to understand his guilt before God, that does not warn of the reality of condemnation and the wrath of God, and eternal torment in Hell is an inadequate Gospel presentation, and will contribute to an external kind of spirituality, in which men will appear to be more holy, more righteous than they are, when in fact, there is no evidence of holiness at all. This form of apostasy has risen dramatically within the church, those who have denied the One True Living God, creating a God of their own liking. Pastors are not called to entertain sinners, but to preach the Truth, even if it offends a "live your own truth" culture confused about reality. That would certainly be a step in the right direction. 

Salvation doesn't come to those who feel sentimental about Jesus or have an emotional experience; true salvation comes only to those who believe Jesus is Who He said He is, God in human flesh; the promised Messiah, the King of kings, and the Savior of all who would believe on His Name and believe His message. Our Lord Jesus Christ was committed to living a life worth emulating whereby any individual who commits himself to Him and His teaching would learn how to live, so that once they've gone through the process of being brought to spiritual maturity, equipping them to reproduce themselves effectively impacting the current generation, and the generations to come by demonstrating kindness, compassion, and love towards others. I thank the Lord for those who have profoundly influenced my life through the years, I never anticipated that it would be such a great blessing, until then I had never even heard of expository preaching, which has since become the heart and soul of what I do because there is no salvation apart from the Gospel. 

Let's pray together,

Heavenly Father,

Father, we humbly thank You for Your Word, apart from which we cannot know the truth and believe the truth, that’s why we are so committed to proclaiming Your Word to people around the world. What a tremendous privilege it is to participate in Your divine plan of redemption in the proclamation of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. May we become so effective at living the Gospel that with great expectation the world might see Christ in us, His selfless love and compassion for the broken and hurting, grant us the courage to call the lost out of their spiritual condition, to help them see their poverty and call them to repentance. Lord, we understand that there are churches all over the place filled with self-righteous, professing Christians that have substituted Your salvation, denying the character and nature of Christ for that which makes them self-satisfied, lives filled with ungodly desires and lust, and they are not eager to have Your Word imposed upon them. Lord, I pray that You  would cause them to abandon their sin and embrace Christ. All for Your glory!
In His Name we ask and pray
Amen

Today's Message: The Uniqueness of Discipleship According to Jesus

Open your Bibles with me, if you would and turn them to the Gospel of Luke chapter 6. Luke 6:24-26. I invite you to follow along with me as I read, to set the text in our minds, while we open up our hearts and listen for what the Spirit of God has to say to each of us today.

"But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and cry. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers were doing the same things to the false prophets."

In this passage, Jesus offers us a stark warning to those who are well-liked by others, but not by God, in this counterpoint to the Beatitudes, in which He blesses those who are poor, hungry, and persecuted by pronouncing three woes or curses on those who seek to be temporarily self-satisfied rather than a right relationship with God and a life of obedience to His Word, they may experience the temporary pleasure and security of a life well-lived, they will ultimately experience an eternity of grave disappointment and sorrow. 

There are many Christians who lack integrity, who lack honor, which is frankly a very serious issue because it will ultimately reveal their hypocrisy. Let's face it, because the world is filled with people with a relative goodness, who say they believe in God and do on occasion, kind and good things for others, it is not always apparent how lost, how sinful a man really is to other sinful men. But there is a point when the sinfulness of man is clearly seen, it becomes unavoidable, it can no longer be hidden and that is the point when he comes face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is at that point, a man's sinfulness is explicitly unmasked and no matter what his life outwardly appears to be from the outside, regardless of how he appears before men, his sinfulness will ultimately be exposed and with no longer a cloak to hide his sin, there can be no more hiding his wretchedness behind a facade of hypocrisy. Many have appeared to love God, to obey God and to uphold His Word, because of the mask of religiosity, which they have worn so well, nobody has recognized how vile, how evil their hearts actually are. This is true in liberal churches, where people go to worship God at arm's length, they talk about the Bible, they talk about book reviews and they discuss political and social problems, the moment the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is introduced, the mask falls off, and their true spiritual condition is exposed.

God is sovereign, He knows and controls everything, how dare we imagine that His authority ends on the steps of the White House? Or your house or mine?

Obviously, these verses are a dramatic testimony to the power of God, a repulsive diagnosis in judgment of the ungodly, no matter how religious or holy they might appear to be. I am sad to say, that even Christians, don’t quite get this when you are confronting their self-righteous, their sinfulness and giving a true diagnosis of the spiritual condition of their heart, when you’re faithful to Christ in attacking that, you're going to be hated, you’re going to be persecuted. I have come to the point in my life that I don't care what people have to say about me or try to do to me in this life for preaching the Truth, I'm keeping my eyes on Christ, staying focused on the eternal perspective, knowing there will be a reward for me in glory.

The truth is today's culture has become rather well-insulated from the reality of Hell, churches won't talk about it, preachers won’t preach about it; writers won’t write about it, even though the Bible is very clear on the reality of Hell. And thanks to a host of superficial Gospel presentations, sermons have no threats, no warnings about sin, judgment or Hell, therefore, most people think everyone is basically good and life after death either one big party or it doesn't exist at all. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke more dramatically about Hell and the horrific judgments of Hell than anyone else in the enter Bible. Obviously, we’re not going to be able to cover all the verses, so I'll point to two of the most profound examples where Jesus tells the story about a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. And, in Matthew 5:21-26 that "whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell." 

This is something that has been of grave concern to God for a long time. But it is nonetheless true, even today, that there are some people who come very close to a true knowledge of Christ, there are some people who claim to be a Christian, but are very far from Christ in reality, because they have come very close to knowing God, very close to knowing Christ, very close to having their sins forgiven, however, they have never truly been saved. Very often, its because they have become a victim of false teaching, or of their own failure to believe the Truth,
which is always a great danger, and always has very serious and very eternal consequences because it destroys everybody involved with it. I believe this is a problem within the church that demands our response. 

As many of you know, I have always believed very strongly in the purity of the church, I have always believed very strongly in the holiness of God’s redeemed people. I do not believe that you can read the Scriptures and not be overwhelmingly convinced that God is not content with the disobedience of His people. You cannot separate biblical Truth from living the Christian life. I do not believe that any preacher can preach a message he doesn’t live with integrity. Frankly, it doesn't do any good to preach a message calling God's people to holiness if you do absolutely nothing to enforce that message. It doesn't do any good to preach a message against sin when people know the church will do absolutely nothing about it. That's why there are so many churches all across our country and perhaps in other countries, that are filled with people who really don't care whether they sin or not, which is the ultimate hypocrisy, because even if sin is denounced, nothing is ever done to implement or enforce that reality in the lives of the people. 

It is almost unheard of in our society to disciple church members, there’s a tremendous lack of integrity in the matter of holiness. Christians aren't living the Bible we claim to believe and affirm. And, nobody seems to want to talk about that, pastors are afraid people won't stand for it, as one pastor so elegantly phrased it, "If we go around sticking our nose in everybody's business, trying to hold people accountable for their sin, they’ll never stand for it. You’ll empty out the pews and the collection plate, and we just can't have that!" One of the responsibilities that a pastor has is to call God's people to holiness and to hold them accountable to that standard, and the congregation has the same responsibility to hold the pastor to God's standard, because when one goes into sin, there is a loss to the Body of Christ, we have lost a part of the treasure, because each child of God is irreproducible. I mean you can’t just preach a message about sin and then be completely indifferent to what people are doing in response to that. Do you understand that?   

I still can’t get over the fact that the Bible speaks so clearly, so severely about dealing with our sin, and yet churches want to sweep it under the rug, just ignore it. It won't go away folks, it'll spread like cancer until it destroys the body. That's why in Matthew 5:29-30, Jesus says "If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell." 

Christ is still the head of His church, He hasn’t changed His attitude toward sin, He has put His church in the hands of men who lead the church, with various kinds of leadership styles, some of whom are preaching the wrong message, that beyond the word of Christ. That’s where church discipline is to take place among God’s redeemed people. God has always been concerned with the purity of His church, and He's always been concerned with restoration, that's the purpose of church discipline, it's not to embarrass or humiliate people, it's not to throw people out of the church, it's to bring them back into a right relationship with God, because each and every person's soul is a treasure to Him. I hasten to say, as well it should be to all of us. Woe to those who entice His children to do things that He doesn’t want them to do or influence them to believe things that He doesn’t want them to believe. If we as human beings desire to protect our children from the wicked and evil influences of this world, then you can imagine how much greater a concern it is that His children be well protected by those He has entrusted to care for them.
When we've lost a brother or sister to sin, that is a very valuable treasure that’s gone from us. I want you to understand something, no child of God is worthless, every son and daughter has value. 

Think about the parable of The Lost Coin in Luke 15, "Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!’ In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." God works through the body of Christ to bless others through their spiritual gifts. I know that God has tremendously enriched my life through close-knit fellowship, the bonds formed have become one of the priceless joys in my life and I must confess that when one of them were gone from my life for a time, it was a terrible, terrible loss to me, was a cherished treasure that needed to be regained. Beloved, I am always amazed at the tremendous lengths that men will go in order to gain and regain monetary wealth and are willing to go far less lengths, to regain the loss of a human life, which is of infinite value. If you find yourself feeling too much spiritual pride, an inflated sense of spiritual superiority that prevents you from reaching out to your sinning brother, may I suggest it may be time to take a good long look at your own heart. If you can smugly remain in indifferent to your habitual sin with the idea that you have no responsibility, then, you really are far from the heart of the shepherd.

Let's look at verse 24, "But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full." What a damning indictment on the implications of our choices.
This is a curse in stark contrast to those who are suffering; poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the sorrowful and the rejected who are counted among the blessed because their reward is great in heaven. We who are not worthy to suffer for the name of Christ have been given the tremendous honor, the great privilege of suffering for His sake. Again, He's not talking about material wealth, He's talking about the pious, self-assured, self-righteous religious, those who perceive themselves to be superior to those spiritually in need, the poor, hungry, thirty, blind and the oppressed, those who He later identifies as hypocrites because they imagine they don't need a Savior, falsely believing they possess enough spiritual riches to purchase their salvation, buying their way into the Kingdom. Woe to you because  you are receiving your comfort now on earth in full, best you enjoy it, because you're not going to find any comfort in Hell where  never-ending torment and discomfort will never die. That's why Jesus repeatedly warns us over and over again, telling us in Hell there's going to be gnashing their teeth, those wanting relief for their tormented soul will never find it. Dare I echo the strong warning of our Lord, "Woe to you who don’t think that you are the sinner." 

Then, in verse 25, He says "Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep." If you’re full of yourself, satisfied with your self-righteous, content with your arrogance and hypocrisy, in need of nothing because you don’t think you’re the sinner, woe to you, you’re going to hunger forever for what you endlessly crave and can never attain. Rather than relying on the temporary comforts and earthly pleasures of this world, I encourage you to pursue a deeper relationship with God, finding true comfort and satisfaction in our Lord Jesus Christ, and be filled with the hope of salvation. Then, He says "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep." Woe to you if you are content with your superficial religiosity, happy with your outward morality, you might laugh now but you're going to weep forever with no way to dry your tears. To illustrate to you how God feels about this matter pride 
Proverbs 6:16-19, "There are six things which the Lord hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers." And, Proverbs 8:13, says "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate."

That brings us to verse 26, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way." If men speak well of you because you have a theology that's not offensive, you’re in serious trouble, Jesus says it’s a sign of being cursed. Scripture is pretty clear, those are willing to compromise the Word of God, telling people what they want to hear, affirming sin that God condemns, that's what false prophets do, you might be popular now, but woe to you, you're outside of the kingdom. Even a dead fish can swim with the tide, to swim against it, you must be alive and kickin'.

The prophet Jeremiah warned everybody about judgment, and nobody listened. In chapter 14:13-6,  But, "Ah, Lord God!" I said, "Look, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see the sword nor will you have famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.’" Then the Lord said to me, "The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and the deception of their own minds. Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name, although it was not I who sent them—yet they keep saying, ‘There will be no sword or famine in this land’—by sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end! The people also to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and there will be no one to bury them—neither them, nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters—for I will pour out their own wickedness on them." The greater your popularity, the more everybody likes your interpretation of the Gospel, that’s a pretty serious indication you're not preaching the Truth about sin and judgment. Woe to you if you're preaching the deception of your own mind, rather than God's Word, Judgment is coming! Scripture is clear, the Lord is going to destroy false teachers along with the people who follow them. 

If you're going to preach and teach the Truth, the way Jesus preached, there’s a price to pay. You’re going to be rejected, hated and persecuted now, anybody who loves his sin and is going hate the messenger who exposes it, but blessed are you when you are persecuted for the name of Christ, for the Spirit of Glory and of God rests on you.

The sad reality is that many Christians are rejected, hated and persecuted not for the name of Christ, but because they are mean-spirited, obnoxious, proud and judgmental. Listen, we're not called to win popularity contests, but we are called to be rude and hateful. We must remember to speak the Truth, with love, gentleness and compassion, without compromising with a fallen culture, that even one more might believe that Jesus Christ is the only hope of the world, that He is the only way to the Father. 

May it be so..

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,

And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name

Amen



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