Join the BBA sophomores and see how well you know the the gospel. Every Christian should be able to tell someone of the good news that radically changed their lives.
The (1) _______________________ according to Jesus is the Good News that the Son of (2) _______________ and second person of the (3) ________________ left the glories of (4)_______________________ and was born of the (5)________________ Mary. As God (6) i_____________________, Jesus of (7) ____________________________________ was tempted to (8) ______________, yet He lived a sinless life, was crucified, (9) ________________ and rose again. (10) ________________ did this so that those who, by the (11) g_________________ of God, repent and (12)___________________ in the Truth can have their sins (13) ____________________________, have their condemnation removed, be (14) s___________________________ from the (15) w_____________________ of God, have their relationship with the God of the Universe restored, receive (16) e_________________________ life, and be born-(17)____________________ as sons or daughters of God.
(18) What does it mean to repent?
(19) What does it mean to believe?
(20) What is sin?
What are thoughts? Was this too easy of a test for these sharp 10th graders?
Chili-n-Chips
Do you enjoy fellowshipping with others as much as I do? Or may be more? The other night a family had us over for a bit of chili and chips and then invited a few others over as well.
What a wonderful time. Thanks.
Fellowship is such an important part of the Christian walk. Friendships begun at church can grow so much stronger in a home.
I know we are all busy, but let me encourage each of you, and most especially our teachers, to plan a get together at your house every now and then—even twice a year would be great. Invite some new members and some not so new members and help people connect.
We enjoy getting to be with church members outside of the church walls so much and hope that God will continue to grant such opportunities.
Once again thanks for a great dinner and time of fellowship.
What a wonderful time. Thanks.
Fellowship is such an important part of the Christian walk. Friendships begun at church can grow so much stronger in a home.
I know we are all busy, but let me encourage each of you, and most especially our teachers, to plan a get together at your house every now and then—even twice a year would be great. Invite some new members and some not so new members and help people connect.
We enjoy getting to be with church members outside of the church walls so much and hope that God will continue to grant such opportunities.
Once again thanks for a great dinner and time of fellowship.
Favorite Study Bible
Do you have a good study Bible? It’s just amazing how much a good Bible can help you get the most out of your Bible reading time.
For those of you who still get to make a list for that overweight man who flies in from the north to deliver gifts on Christmas day let me urge you to put “study Bible” on your Christmas wish list.
I use several different ones for my daily reading and find them to be especially helpful. Let me know if you need some help with what to put on your list and I would be happy to help.
Seriously let me encourage you to get beyond the $4 gift Bible and make getting good quality study Bible a Christmas priority for your son, daughter, wife or husband.
What's your favorite study Bible?
For those of you who still get to make a list for that overweight man who flies in from the north to deliver gifts on Christmas day let me urge you to put “study Bible” on your Christmas wish list.
I use several different ones for my daily reading and find them to be especially helpful. Let me know if you need some help with what to put on your list and I would be happy to help.
Seriously let me encourage you to get beyond the $4 gift Bible and make getting good quality study Bible a Christmas priority for your son, daughter, wife or husband.
What's your favorite study Bible?
The Eternal Consequences of Denying the Person and Work of Christ
Interview between Larry King and Pastor Joel Osteen
“Larry: Do you believe in good deeds?
Joel: I don’t know, what do you mean by that?
Larry: Because we’ve had ministers on that have said your record don’t count. Either you do or you do not believe in Christ. If you do believe in Christ either you are or you are not going to heaven. And if you don’t, it don’t matter what you’ve done in your life, you ain’t.
Joel: Yeah, I don’t know. There’s probably a balance between, I believe you have to know Christ, but I think that if you know Christ, if you’re a believer in God you’re gonna have some good works. I think it’s a cop out to say well, I’m a Christian, but I don’t ever do anything to help any body.
Larry: “What if you are Jewish or Muslim and don’t accept Christ at all…?
Joel: You know, I am just very careful about saying who would and wouldn’t go to heaven. I don’t know. I think only God knows.
Larry: Do you believe that you have to believe in Christ? They’re wrong, aren’t they?
Joel: Well, I don’t know if I believe they’re wrong. I believe here’s what the Bible teaches and from the Christian faith this is what I believe, but I just think that only God can judge a person’s heart. I’ve spent a lot of time in India with my father and you know, I don’t know all about their religion, but I know they love god and I don’t know I’d have to…I’ve seen their sincerity so I don’t know. I just…I know for me, and what the Bible tells me, I want to have a relationship with Jesus, but
Larry: The Senator apologized last week for slavery…”
Why are you picking on Joel Osteen? When you put yourself as a pastor in front of 100 million viewers, everything you say is fair game. Some of you may watch it and think if Pastor Osteen struggles with this, I can understand how I would struggle with it too. Why do I care so much about what he says? My job is not to fix the world, but my job is to pastor you. I serve God by equipping you. I want to equip you today if you will allow it.
Let me tell you something, and listen very closely. When that person comes to you and asks you “what about the god in India” or “what about the god in Africa, the Buddhist, the Hindu, the Muslim, the Mormon, or the Jehovah Witness?” Let me tell you they are not looking for you to say “oh, um…” That is not what they are looking for. That is not the kind of answer that will bring hope to their lives. That kind of back peddling and wishy washyness is not going to confirm in their heart that you believe what you believe. That is not going to do it. I’m not really sure. I don’t know, but let me tell you about my faith. That is not going to work. The world we are living in is looking for decisive answers. They are looking for real people who know what they believe and can take the Word of God and show them what they believe to be true. They are not looking for ways out, cop outs, or one more person who believes in relative truth, and that is exactly what Joel Osteen is proposing in that interview—relative truth. I know about the Christian faith, but I don’t know about that faith. Do you know what I know? I know that Jesus Christ said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) I know that to be truth, and the world is looking for people who know what they believe. The world is not looking for anyone else that is wishy washy. Luke warm Christians aren’t doing anything for the world. They are not turning the world upside down. You can be sure that the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul would not have given a Joel Osteen answer. Those Apostles were fully convinced that if you deny Jesus, there is nothing left. How important is this? This is eternally important. I am fired up because there is fire, eternal fire, behind this. I’m fired up because people are dying and going to hell every single day, every single hour, every single moment. The reason they are dying and going to hell without any hope is that we have too many Joel Osteens in the pulpit.
What I’m concerned about is that you might watch him and think that if Joel Osteen is not so sure about this, I shouldn’t be either. My commandment and commitment is to get you firm. I am going to take the Word of God and hopefully I am going cement your feet into this foundation. That’s my goal.
Please look at1st John 2:23 and Matthew 10:33
1st John 2:23 “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: [but] he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.”
Matthew 10:33 “But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” (You really do not have to wonder there. There is not too much grey area there).
The context of verse 23 demands that the denial of Jesus as the Son specifically relates to Jesus as “the Christ”; that is the spirit and message of the antichrist. We are not saying that this is the denial of historical Jesus. We are saying it is the denial as Jesus as the Christ.
My Thesis Statement
From the context of chapter 2: “Any person that denies that the God-man Jesus of Nazareth was and is the only begotten Son of God—the Christ—God incarnate, the second person of the trinity, does not have a relationship with the one and only true God of the Universe.” This is the foundational statement that I want everyone to grasp. My goal is that you fully embrace that as your truth. My goal is that when you watch Larry King or any preacher botch it up, you will be able to recognize that he missed it. He wasn’t definitive enough, and you will immediately recognize it as heresy. You will recognize it because you know what you believe and what the Bible teaches.
We have all had questions regarding this group and that group, and that is exactly why the Apostle John addresses this subject. He gives us a chapter and verse—a proof text. What should have happened in that interview is that Joel should have gotten out the New Testament and let Larry read it for himself. What we need to understand is that the world we are living in is continually assaulting the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. These weak “Sally’s” who call themselves preachers are not doing anything to help Christians equip themselves. They are not equipping the saints. They are too concerned with being politically correct, not hurting anyone’s feelings, or building a big, huge church, and we recognize that will not go over so well.
Here is the reality: some of you are going to speak to people that I will never contact. You work in places that I will never see. You work with unbelievers. You work with people who are struggling with this exact issue. My job, motivation, and focus is to properly equip you. My goal is to train you so that you are able to give an answer for the hope that lies within you. The objective is to properly address this issue, so that when you hear someone saying “Well, they are sincere.” and “Don’t they love god?”, that you will say “time out.” You have a big responsibility in the great commission to give an answer for the hope that lies within you. All of us are called to be ready to share the faith. All of us are called to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered according to Jude 3. So my job as your Pastor is as coach, trainer, and mentor. I should be getting you equipped to go out into a world of unbelievers and ready to interact with them.
Define Deny
• to declare untrue
– Anyone who says it is untrue that Jesus is the Son of God
• to refuse to admit or acknowledge
– Anyone who refuses to admit that Jesus is the Christ
• to give a negative answer to
– Anyone who answers negatively to the Prophet, Priest, & King
Question: Why is it that a person cannot deny Jesus as the Son of God and still have a salvific (saving) relationship with God the Father?
Answer: Ontologically (being, essence) it is impossible to separate God the Father from God the Son; but we say “didn’t they separate or aren’t they separate?” No; the omnipresence of God communicates that God the Spirit was with Christ every moment He was on this planet. If God the Father were separate from God the Son, He is no longer God. “I and my Father are one.” (same, complete, unified) John 10:30
Isn’t it interesting that a former Jew is pinning a so-called former Baptist to the wall? That is ridiculous. We are supposed to be the ones who are equipped as Christians.
One God
• Ontologically the Father and Son are the same being with the same existence.
• The Father does not have any properties in essence that the Son does not have.
• The Son does not have any properties in essence that the Father does not have.
• They are one in everything that makes God, God.
The fact that God chose to put on flesh and come on this earth for some period of time should not cause confusion in your mind. Jesus has always existed and will always exist. He’s the Alpha and the Omega. He’s the Beginning and the End. Jesus was there for the hanging of planets, the creation of the planet, and the removing of the rib. His life did not start at the Virgin Birth.
Trinity
• The Trinity may very well be the most difficult thing for any human mind to comprehend; yet, it is one of the absolute fundamentals of orthodoxy.
• 1 John 5:7: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”
You cannot have a relationship with the Father and deny the Son. You cannot maintain a relationship with the Son while denying the Father. It is impossible.
• John 17:11: “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are” [one].
Do not think it is possible for a human being to deny and ignore Jesus Christ and have a saving relationship with the God of the Universe. Why is this so important? If you deny Jesus Christ, it means you do not have a relationship with God. If you do not have a relationship with God, you are dying and going to hell. No one is exempt.
This is what you must grasp. Here is the reality: You are the only one who can reach some people. The Bible does not indicate a time where unbelievers can confront believers, but just imagine for just a moment if that were the case. Can you imagine? You may have spent your entire life with a neighbor, co-worker, or friend, and you never told them the truth. You never told them that in denying Jesus Christ that they do not have a relationship with God. You never shared that with them, and you had been properly trained. You were at Berean Baptist Church and you heard this truth. You visited this church for the very first time. You never came back to this church, but you heard it and you knew that you had a responsibility to share it and you didn’t. You let it go. You said that is too confrontational, and now all of a sudden, it is eternity. They finally find out that all this time they thought they had a relationship with God as they ignored Jesus. Can you imagine if that unbeliever came up to you and said “I can’t believe you knew! I can’t believe you knew the truth and you never ever told me. And now I’m going to spend all of eternity separated from God and you knew!” You cowered in the philosophy class at Methodist University or Fayetteville Tech, and you were not definitive. Someone at work had watched the Larry King interview the night before and the conversation came up. People were talking about it. You had been properly trained and equipped, and when you had that moment in which you could jump in and intervene in the conversation, you didn’t do it. You let it go by instead. You let the opportunity pass you by. Joel Osteen was talking to half the world on Larry King Live and he had one opportunity, a gospel opportunity, to set the record straight. You might not be Joel Osteen, but it might be your brother, your sister, your mother, your father, your cousin, your co-worker, or another student at Methodist College who needs to hear the truth. And you have one opportunity to stand up in a classroom and say “Thus, saith the Lord.” Who do you think you are? What is your authority? The authority is the Word of God.
The relativism of truth has so impacted Christianity that preachers are about “things from my perspective in the Christian faith.” What does that mean? According to Jude 3, there is one faith, once delivered. Everyone cannot have their own faith. You cannot deny that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God. A Mormon will tell you that God had many sons and daughters, and that Jesus is one of many. This is heresy!
Yes! It is hard to understand!
It is exceptionally difficult to understand how God and the Son can be one, yet they communicate one with another and love each other. The Son willingly and joyfully subordinates Himself to the Father. This is exactly why it takes faith. It does not take much faith to trust in a chair that is properly engineered with four legs and metal to secure my weight. This does not take much faith at all because I understand how it all works. But the Trinity is hard to understand. There is not one example that properly explains this concept. The egg fails miserably. The three parts of the egg are not the same in essence. A shell, a white, and yellow: I can taste them, and they are not the same. And every single illustration that you come up with for the Trinity falls short because the Trinity is a God thing. They must believe by faith.
The Logos
• John 1:14
– “And the Word was made flesh [incarnate], and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
– God Incarnate!
• Invested with a body; with flesh
Once the Word became flesh and dwelt among humans as the full and perfect revelation of God, it was no longer possible to deny the Son and maintain a relationship with God the Father. Every Jew that denied Jesus is perishing. The Jews that recognized Jesus as the Messiah had a relationship with God the Father. Those that rejected Jesus as the Christ never had a relationship with the Father. They had a relationship with a god, a god that they created in their own mind.
Jehovah and Allah are NOT the same! Jehovah is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Ergun Caner is the President of Liberty University’s Theological Seminary, and he is a converted Muslim. He said they are not looking for Christians that waiver. They are not looking for Christians who do not know what they believe. They eat those kinds of Christians alive. They think that is a joke. They are not looking for soft Christians. Instead, they are looking for Christians who can say definitively Jesus is the Son of God, and all who deny Him will spend an eternity in hell. Now if you pointedly say something like that to them and you mean it, it will rock them. Because most of the time they meet Joel Osteen Christians—back pedaling, wavering, politically correct, don’t want to offend anyone Christians. The Gospel message is exceptionally offensive. It divides father against mother. It divides brother against sister. It splits family right down the middle. Ergun Caner was converted as a senior in high school. When he came home and told his dad that he was a follower of Jesus Christ, that was it; there was no more relationship. That young man, at 18 or 19 years of age, had to choose between Jesus Christ and his family, and he chose Jesus Christ. We are telling every single Muslim that he has to choose between his family and Jesus Christ. You say that is too harsh, but that is biblical. Jesus Christ said “If any man will come after me. Let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” (John 16:24)
Jesus is God!
• Not part God!
• Not close to God!
• Not some God!
• Thomas said to Jesus:
– My Lord and My God! (John 20:28)
Turn to John 14:7-10
“If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you and yet hast though not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”
God the Father and God the Son are not in competition. They are not keeping track of who gets prayed to the most. God the Father says every knee shall bow and the Son directs us to pray to the Father. God the Father and God the Son have perfect unity. The Father is thrilled when the Son is exalted, and the Son is thrilled when people acknowledge the Father.
God is the King
• Isaiah 44:6: “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.”
Paul describes Christ as the one who redeemed us from the curse of the law in Galatians 3:13.
The Godhead
“They are not three roles played by one person (that is modalism), nor are they three gods in a cluster (that is tritheism). The one God (“he”) is also and equally “they,” and “they” are always together and always cooperating with the Father initiating, the Son complying, and the Spirit executing the will of both, which is His will also.” J.I. Packer
Consider these two verses: Father-Son
• John 14:6: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
• John 6:44: “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
The perfect unity of the Godhead prevents someone from denying Jesus and still having God in their life. They may have ‘a god’ in their life, but it is not the God of the Bible. Jesus is the God of the Bible, and to deny Jesus is a sin unto eternal death.
So, you and I need to be ready to give an answer about this. Let me tell you something. When you are sharing the Gospel from Romans and someone says that they do not understand the Trinity, you do not set that question aside and keep moving on. You stop and deal with that question in the Gospel presentation, because if they do not understand the Trinity, how in the world can you expect them to believe in Jesus Christ in Romans chapter 10? This is not something that you can set aside. This is Orthodoxy. Every single Christian needs to be ready to give an answer about the Trinity. Make sure that you understand that they are three, yet they are one, and there is complete unity and they are never divided.
1 Corinthians 2:1-2
“And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”
Christ’s willingness to subordinate Himself to flesh and a death on a cross should not detract from His preeminence in the Word of God or in YOUR life.
Philippians 2:8-11
“And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (If God the Father was to permit men and women to have a relationship with Himself outside of Christ then one has to ask what was the purpose of Christ?) Wherefore God [the Father] also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
God the Father is not willing to compromise on His love for the Son and plan of eternal exaltation so that some humans can deny Christ and still have a relationship with God. God’s plan is that men and women love the Son and, in loving the Son, the Father is glorified.
Our goal is to get as many to confess that Jesus Christ is God today. Our goal is not to wait. Our goal is to show them Jesus now.
If God the Father permits humans to have a relationship with Himself—outside of faith in Christ, then one must ask: “What was the purpose of the passion of Christ?” If it is possible outside of the faith, then why did Jesus die on the cross?
If God the Father permits Buddhists, Muslims, Atheists, Mormons, etc. to deny His Son in this life without eternal consequences, why would He expect all to bow the knee after life on this earth? When you realize that Jesus Christ was the one that died on that cross, rose from the grave, that He’s at the right hand of the Father currently interceding on your behalf, you get crazy about Jesus. You’re bananas for Jesus. You can’t wait to tell others about Him. You exalt Jesus and lift Him up. There are some serious issues with people who are not crazy about Jesus. Jesus put Himself in flesh and died for the sins of the world. Jesus did not have a place to lay His head. And if you place your faith in Christ, you can live eternally. We are proclaiming Christ in the 21st century, not proclaiming a god. Christ is the Prophet, Priest, and King; that’s who we are proclaiming. Our mission is to go out and proclaim Christ.
1 John 2:23
“Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.”
What does it mean to acknowledge the Son? It means to bow down before Him. It is to receive the gift of Christ. It means to realize that you are a sinner, your sins separate you from a Holy and Righteous God, that you need to repent of those sins, and place your faith in Jesus Christ. That is what it means to acknowledge the Son.
“Larry: Do you believe in good deeds?
Joel: I don’t know, what do you mean by that?
Larry: Because we’ve had ministers on that have said your record don’t count. Either you do or you do not believe in Christ. If you do believe in Christ either you are or you are not going to heaven. And if you don’t, it don’t matter what you’ve done in your life, you ain’t.
Joel: Yeah, I don’t know. There’s probably a balance between, I believe you have to know Christ, but I think that if you know Christ, if you’re a believer in God you’re gonna have some good works. I think it’s a cop out to say well, I’m a Christian, but I don’t ever do anything to help any body.
Larry: “What if you are Jewish or Muslim and don’t accept Christ at all…?
Joel: You know, I am just very careful about saying who would and wouldn’t go to heaven. I don’t know. I think only God knows.
Larry: Do you believe that you have to believe in Christ? They’re wrong, aren’t they?
Joel: Well, I don’t know if I believe they’re wrong. I believe here’s what the Bible teaches and from the Christian faith this is what I believe, but I just think that only God can judge a person’s heart. I’ve spent a lot of time in India with my father and you know, I don’t know all about their religion, but I know they love god and I don’t know I’d have to…I’ve seen their sincerity so I don’t know. I just…I know for me, and what the Bible tells me, I want to have a relationship with Jesus, but
Larry: The Senator apologized last week for slavery…”
Why are you picking on Joel Osteen? When you put yourself as a pastor in front of 100 million viewers, everything you say is fair game. Some of you may watch it and think if Pastor Osteen struggles with this, I can understand how I would struggle with it too. Why do I care so much about what he says? My job is not to fix the world, but my job is to pastor you. I serve God by equipping you. I want to equip you today if you will allow it.
Let me tell you something, and listen very closely. When that person comes to you and asks you “what about the god in India” or “what about the god in Africa, the Buddhist, the Hindu, the Muslim, the Mormon, or the Jehovah Witness?” Let me tell you they are not looking for you to say “oh, um…” That is not what they are looking for. That is not the kind of answer that will bring hope to their lives. That kind of back peddling and wishy washyness is not going to confirm in their heart that you believe what you believe. That is not going to do it. I’m not really sure. I don’t know, but let me tell you about my faith. That is not going to work. The world we are living in is looking for decisive answers. They are looking for real people who know what they believe and can take the Word of God and show them what they believe to be true. They are not looking for ways out, cop outs, or one more person who believes in relative truth, and that is exactly what Joel Osteen is proposing in that interview—relative truth. I know about the Christian faith, but I don’t know about that faith. Do you know what I know? I know that Jesus Christ said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) I know that to be truth, and the world is looking for people who know what they believe. The world is not looking for anyone else that is wishy washy. Luke warm Christians aren’t doing anything for the world. They are not turning the world upside down. You can be sure that the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul would not have given a Joel Osteen answer. Those Apostles were fully convinced that if you deny Jesus, there is nothing left. How important is this? This is eternally important. I am fired up because there is fire, eternal fire, behind this. I’m fired up because people are dying and going to hell every single day, every single hour, every single moment. The reason they are dying and going to hell without any hope is that we have too many Joel Osteens in the pulpit.
What I’m concerned about is that you might watch him and think that if Joel Osteen is not so sure about this, I shouldn’t be either. My commandment and commitment is to get you firm. I am going to take the Word of God and hopefully I am going cement your feet into this foundation. That’s my goal.
Please look at1st John 2:23 and Matthew 10:33
1st John 2:23 “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: [but] he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.”
Matthew 10:33 “But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” (You really do not have to wonder there. There is not too much grey area there).
The context of verse 23 demands that the denial of Jesus as the Son specifically relates to Jesus as “the Christ”; that is the spirit and message of the antichrist. We are not saying that this is the denial of historical Jesus. We are saying it is the denial as Jesus as the Christ.
My Thesis Statement
From the context of chapter 2: “Any person that denies that the God-man Jesus of Nazareth was and is the only begotten Son of God—the Christ—God incarnate, the second person of the trinity, does not have a relationship with the one and only true God of the Universe.” This is the foundational statement that I want everyone to grasp. My goal is that you fully embrace that as your truth. My goal is that when you watch Larry King or any preacher botch it up, you will be able to recognize that he missed it. He wasn’t definitive enough, and you will immediately recognize it as heresy. You will recognize it because you know what you believe and what the Bible teaches.
We have all had questions regarding this group and that group, and that is exactly why the Apostle John addresses this subject. He gives us a chapter and verse—a proof text. What should have happened in that interview is that Joel should have gotten out the New Testament and let Larry read it for himself. What we need to understand is that the world we are living in is continually assaulting the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. These weak “Sally’s” who call themselves preachers are not doing anything to help Christians equip themselves. They are not equipping the saints. They are too concerned with being politically correct, not hurting anyone’s feelings, or building a big, huge church, and we recognize that will not go over so well.
Here is the reality: some of you are going to speak to people that I will never contact. You work in places that I will never see. You work with unbelievers. You work with people who are struggling with this exact issue. My job, motivation, and focus is to properly equip you. My goal is to train you so that you are able to give an answer for the hope that lies within you. The objective is to properly address this issue, so that when you hear someone saying “Well, they are sincere.” and “Don’t they love god?”, that you will say “time out.” You have a big responsibility in the great commission to give an answer for the hope that lies within you. All of us are called to be ready to share the faith. All of us are called to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered according to Jude 3. So my job as your Pastor is as coach, trainer, and mentor. I should be getting you equipped to go out into a world of unbelievers and ready to interact with them.
Define Deny
• to declare untrue
– Anyone who says it is untrue that Jesus is the Son of God
• to refuse to admit or acknowledge
– Anyone who refuses to admit that Jesus is the Christ
• to give a negative answer to
– Anyone who answers negatively to the Prophet, Priest, & King
Question: Why is it that a person cannot deny Jesus as the Son of God and still have a salvific (saving) relationship with God the Father?
Answer: Ontologically (being, essence) it is impossible to separate God the Father from God the Son; but we say “didn’t they separate or aren’t they separate?” No; the omnipresence of God communicates that God the Spirit was with Christ every moment He was on this planet. If God the Father were separate from God the Son, He is no longer God. “I and my Father are one.” (same, complete, unified) John 10:30
Isn’t it interesting that a former Jew is pinning a so-called former Baptist to the wall? That is ridiculous. We are supposed to be the ones who are equipped as Christians.
One God
• Ontologically the Father and Son are the same being with the same existence.
• The Father does not have any properties in essence that the Son does not have.
• The Son does not have any properties in essence that the Father does not have.
• They are one in everything that makes God, God.
The fact that God chose to put on flesh and come on this earth for some period of time should not cause confusion in your mind. Jesus has always existed and will always exist. He’s the Alpha and the Omega. He’s the Beginning and the End. Jesus was there for the hanging of planets, the creation of the planet, and the removing of the rib. His life did not start at the Virgin Birth.
Trinity
• The Trinity may very well be the most difficult thing for any human mind to comprehend; yet, it is one of the absolute fundamentals of orthodoxy.
• 1 John 5:7: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”
You cannot have a relationship with the Father and deny the Son. You cannot maintain a relationship with the Son while denying the Father. It is impossible.
• John 17:11: “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are” [one].
Do not think it is possible for a human being to deny and ignore Jesus Christ and have a saving relationship with the God of the Universe. Why is this so important? If you deny Jesus Christ, it means you do not have a relationship with God. If you do not have a relationship with God, you are dying and going to hell. No one is exempt.
This is what you must grasp. Here is the reality: You are the only one who can reach some people. The Bible does not indicate a time where unbelievers can confront believers, but just imagine for just a moment if that were the case. Can you imagine? You may have spent your entire life with a neighbor, co-worker, or friend, and you never told them the truth. You never told them that in denying Jesus Christ that they do not have a relationship with God. You never shared that with them, and you had been properly trained. You were at Berean Baptist Church and you heard this truth. You visited this church for the very first time. You never came back to this church, but you heard it and you knew that you had a responsibility to share it and you didn’t. You let it go. You said that is too confrontational, and now all of a sudden, it is eternity. They finally find out that all this time they thought they had a relationship with God as they ignored Jesus. Can you imagine if that unbeliever came up to you and said “I can’t believe you knew! I can’t believe you knew the truth and you never ever told me. And now I’m going to spend all of eternity separated from God and you knew!” You cowered in the philosophy class at Methodist University or Fayetteville Tech, and you were not definitive. Someone at work had watched the Larry King interview the night before and the conversation came up. People were talking about it. You had been properly trained and equipped, and when you had that moment in which you could jump in and intervene in the conversation, you didn’t do it. You let it go by instead. You let the opportunity pass you by. Joel Osteen was talking to half the world on Larry King Live and he had one opportunity, a gospel opportunity, to set the record straight. You might not be Joel Osteen, but it might be your brother, your sister, your mother, your father, your cousin, your co-worker, or another student at Methodist College who needs to hear the truth. And you have one opportunity to stand up in a classroom and say “Thus, saith the Lord.” Who do you think you are? What is your authority? The authority is the Word of God.
The relativism of truth has so impacted Christianity that preachers are about “things from my perspective in the Christian faith.” What does that mean? According to Jude 3, there is one faith, once delivered. Everyone cannot have their own faith. You cannot deny that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God. A Mormon will tell you that God had many sons and daughters, and that Jesus is one of many. This is heresy!
Yes! It is hard to understand!
It is exceptionally difficult to understand how God and the Son can be one, yet they communicate one with another and love each other. The Son willingly and joyfully subordinates Himself to the Father. This is exactly why it takes faith. It does not take much faith to trust in a chair that is properly engineered with four legs and metal to secure my weight. This does not take much faith at all because I understand how it all works. But the Trinity is hard to understand. There is not one example that properly explains this concept. The egg fails miserably. The three parts of the egg are not the same in essence. A shell, a white, and yellow: I can taste them, and they are not the same. And every single illustration that you come up with for the Trinity falls short because the Trinity is a God thing. They must believe by faith.
The Logos
• John 1:14
– “And the Word was made flesh [incarnate], and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
– God Incarnate!
• Invested with a body; with flesh
Once the Word became flesh and dwelt among humans as the full and perfect revelation of God, it was no longer possible to deny the Son and maintain a relationship with God the Father. Every Jew that denied Jesus is perishing. The Jews that recognized Jesus as the Messiah had a relationship with God the Father. Those that rejected Jesus as the Christ never had a relationship with the Father. They had a relationship with a god, a god that they created in their own mind.
Jehovah and Allah are NOT the same! Jehovah is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Ergun Caner is the President of Liberty University’s Theological Seminary, and he is a converted Muslim. He said they are not looking for Christians that waiver. They are not looking for Christians who do not know what they believe. They eat those kinds of Christians alive. They think that is a joke. They are not looking for soft Christians. Instead, they are looking for Christians who can say definitively Jesus is the Son of God, and all who deny Him will spend an eternity in hell. Now if you pointedly say something like that to them and you mean it, it will rock them. Because most of the time they meet Joel Osteen Christians—back pedaling, wavering, politically correct, don’t want to offend anyone Christians. The Gospel message is exceptionally offensive. It divides father against mother. It divides brother against sister. It splits family right down the middle. Ergun Caner was converted as a senior in high school. When he came home and told his dad that he was a follower of Jesus Christ, that was it; there was no more relationship. That young man, at 18 or 19 years of age, had to choose between Jesus Christ and his family, and he chose Jesus Christ. We are telling every single Muslim that he has to choose between his family and Jesus Christ. You say that is too harsh, but that is biblical. Jesus Christ said “If any man will come after me. Let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” (John 16:24)
Jesus is God!
• Not part God!
• Not close to God!
• Not some God!
• Thomas said to Jesus:
– My Lord and My God! (John 20:28)
Turn to John 14:7-10
“If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you and yet hast though not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”
God the Father and God the Son are not in competition. They are not keeping track of who gets prayed to the most. God the Father says every knee shall bow and the Son directs us to pray to the Father. God the Father and God the Son have perfect unity. The Father is thrilled when the Son is exalted, and the Son is thrilled when people acknowledge the Father.
God is the King
• Isaiah 44:6: “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.”
Paul describes Christ as the one who redeemed us from the curse of the law in Galatians 3:13.
The Godhead
“They are not three roles played by one person (that is modalism), nor are they three gods in a cluster (that is tritheism). The one God (“he”) is also and equally “they,” and “they” are always together and always cooperating with the Father initiating, the Son complying, and the Spirit executing the will of both, which is His will also.” J.I. Packer
Consider these two verses: Father-Son
• John 14:6: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
• John 6:44: “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
The perfect unity of the Godhead prevents someone from denying Jesus and still having God in their life. They may have ‘a god’ in their life, but it is not the God of the Bible. Jesus is the God of the Bible, and to deny Jesus is a sin unto eternal death.
So, you and I need to be ready to give an answer about this. Let me tell you something. When you are sharing the Gospel from Romans and someone says that they do not understand the Trinity, you do not set that question aside and keep moving on. You stop and deal with that question in the Gospel presentation, because if they do not understand the Trinity, how in the world can you expect them to believe in Jesus Christ in Romans chapter 10? This is not something that you can set aside. This is Orthodoxy. Every single Christian needs to be ready to give an answer about the Trinity. Make sure that you understand that they are three, yet they are one, and there is complete unity and they are never divided.
1 Corinthians 2:1-2
“And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”
Christ’s willingness to subordinate Himself to flesh and a death on a cross should not detract from His preeminence in the Word of God or in YOUR life.
Philippians 2:8-11
“And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (If God the Father was to permit men and women to have a relationship with Himself outside of Christ then one has to ask what was the purpose of Christ?) Wherefore God [the Father] also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
God the Father is not willing to compromise on His love for the Son and plan of eternal exaltation so that some humans can deny Christ and still have a relationship with God. God’s plan is that men and women love the Son and, in loving the Son, the Father is glorified.
Our goal is to get as many to confess that Jesus Christ is God today. Our goal is not to wait. Our goal is to show them Jesus now.
If God the Father permits humans to have a relationship with Himself—outside of faith in Christ, then one must ask: “What was the purpose of the passion of Christ?” If it is possible outside of the faith, then why did Jesus die on the cross?
If God the Father permits Buddhists, Muslims, Atheists, Mormons, etc. to deny His Son in this life without eternal consequences, why would He expect all to bow the knee after life on this earth? When you realize that Jesus Christ was the one that died on that cross, rose from the grave, that He’s at the right hand of the Father currently interceding on your behalf, you get crazy about Jesus. You’re bananas for Jesus. You can’t wait to tell others about Him. You exalt Jesus and lift Him up. There are some serious issues with people who are not crazy about Jesus. Jesus put Himself in flesh and died for the sins of the world. Jesus did not have a place to lay His head. And if you place your faith in Christ, you can live eternally. We are proclaiming Christ in the 21st century, not proclaiming a god. Christ is the Prophet, Priest, and King; that’s who we are proclaiming. Our mission is to go out and proclaim Christ.
1 John 2:23
“Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.”
What does it mean to acknowledge the Son? It means to bow down before Him. It is to receive the gift of Christ. It means to realize that you are a sinner, your sins separate you from a Holy and Righteous God, that you need to repent of those sins, and place your faith in Jesus Christ. That is what it means to acknowledge the Son.
Anxious About Tuesday November 4th?
Are you anxious about who is going to be elected President Tuesday?
Should you be anxious? It depends; if you are a follower of Jesus Christ the answer is no—NO! Regardless of what happens my conclusion must be: this was God’s will.
I base this upon God’s Sovereign rule over every election, appointment and establishment of governments throughout the world.
He, God, the Sovereign One raises up whom He sees fit.
If Senator Obama is the next President, I must conclude God has decided that He is God’s man—regardless of whether he is a Christian or not.
If Senator McCain is the next President, I must conclude God has decided that He is God’s man—regardless of whether he is a Christian or not.
I get this from the OT reference to Cyrus as God’s shepherd.
Isaiah 44:28 who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’ ”
(Personally, I don’t think either of them conducts themselves as though Jesus is the King!)
Above all, I must not be anxious—I have already cast my vote, but I will NOT advocate for a political party. My responsibility is to advocate for the gospel and the Word of God. I will speak on behalf of the unborn babies that are being aborted every day. I will speak on behalf of the acceptability and encouragement of alternative lifestyles that make God sick at how mankind perverts His sovereign plan for a man and woman united in holy matrimony.
What America needs far more than change enacted by one party or the other is the gospel. Christians who believe America is going to fall apart if one or the other candidate is elected have forgotten that Jesus is the King.
He rules in the Kingdom of men. America is my temporary home; my citizenship is in a Kingdom that will last forever. I vote as my civic duty, based upon what I believe God’s will is with regard to the platform each candidate stands for and then I recognize that God uses my vote as He sees fit to accomplish His Will and I am exceptionally thankful that He is Sovereign.
Should you be anxious? It depends; if you are a follower of Jesus Christ the answer is no—NO! Regardless of what happens my conclusion must be: this was God’s will.
I base this upon God’s Sovereign rule over every election, appointment and establishment of governments throughout the world.
He, God, the Sovereign One raises up whom He sees fit.
If Senator Obama is the next President, I must conclude God has decided that He is God’s man—regardless of whether he is a Christian or not.
If Senator McCain is the next President, I must conclude God has decided that He is God’s man—regardless of whether he is a Christian or not.
I get this from the OT reference to Cyrus as God’s shepherd.
Isaiah 44:28 who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’ ”
(Personally, I don’t think either of them conducts themselves as though Jesus is the King!)
Above all, I must not be anxious—I have already cast my vote, but I will NOT advocate for a political party. My responsibility is to advocate for the gospel and the Word of God. I will speak on behalf of the unborn babies that are being aborted every day. I will speak on behalf of the acceptability and encouragement of alternative lifestyles that make God sick at how mankind perverts His sovereign plan for a man and woman united in holy matrimony.
What America needs far more than change enacted by one party or the other is the gospel. Christians who believe America is going to fall apart if one or the other candidate is elected have forgotten that Jesus is the King.
He rules in the Kingdom of men. America is my temporary home; my citizenship is in a Kingdom that will last forever. I vote as my civic duty, based upon what I believe God’s will is with regard to the platform each candidate stands for and then I recognize that God uses my vote as He sees fit to accomplish His Will and I am exceptionally thankful that He is Sovereign.
True Believers Continue in the Faith Once Delivered
1st John 2:18-22.
Today we will look at the fact that true believers do in fact continue in the faith that was once delivered.
1st John 2:18-22
v. 18. “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come (future tense), even now (present tense) there are many antichrist; whereby we (plural) know that it is he last time. v. 19 They (plural) went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. v. 20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. v. 21 I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
v. 22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.”
Jude 3
“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.”
Here is our opening question: Once saved, always saved? Does the Baptist church really believe that you can be saved and then go into whatever you want for twenty or thirty years and still go to heaven? Does the Baptist church really believe that a person can be saved at Vacation Bible School and then live like the devil for twenty years, but because they were saved in Vacation Bible School they will still go to heaven? Does the Baptist Church believe “once saved, always saved?” Do Baptists believe this understanding from the Word of God? Do they believe that Jesus is the Christ, stop believing, and then still go to Heaven? We are going to deal with this exact issue today.
The Apostle John addresses this exact issue in 1st John 2: 19. The reason he is able to address it so authoritatively is that John spent three years with the Lord Jesus Christ and was instructed by Jesus Christ. I am going to show you today the teaching from the Lord Jesus Christ that led John to the conclusion he writes in 1st John 2:19.
Some people struggle with the idea of “once saved, always saved,” and the reason they struggle with it is that we as Baptists do not emphasize enough that not everyone who professes Jesus is born again. If we were to profess enough that everyone who professes is not in fact born again, people would have less difficulty understanding once saved, always saved. But often times, we’re guilty of putting emphasis on only one area versus the whole counsel of the Word of God. Look at verse 19, and notice what he writes:
vs. 19 “They (plural) went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” I want to draw your attention to the word “they”; it refers to the word “antichrist” from verse 18. In other words we could say “Many antichrists went out from us…”
Antichrists deny:
- Jesus came in the flesh
-anyone who says Jesus Christ was only a spirit
-anyone who says Jesus Christ is not the Only Begotten Son
- Jesus Christ was or is the Messiah
- Jesus Christ is fully Divine
-Jesus Christ is Incarnate God
-Jesus Christ is a Prophet, Priest, and King
-Jesus Christ is the only Savior, Lord, or King of the Universe
John says that there was a group of people who went out from the body and became antichrist in their attitude, doctrine, beliefs, behavior and choices. These people were initially thought to be part of the church. They went to AWANA, were saved in Vacation Bible School, served in a ministry, were an usher, or taught a Sunday School class and seemed to be one of us. We believed they were a brother or a sister in Christ. And then they departed from this community of faith. We got word back that they were now teaching that which is contrary to the Word of God, had stopped going to church, or they are part of a fringe group with bazaar behaviors. John is describing this group: initially, we thought they were part of the church, but when they went out we heard some things that caused us to doubt. The “us” refers to everyone that is in this New Covenant of believers, the Church. We distinguish the New Covenant from the Old Covenant in the Old Testament and this is the New Covenant in Christ.
Here’s the reality: Everyone on the planet fits into two categories. You are either part of the body of Christ, or you are not part of the body of Christ. There is not a third group. You are either born again in Christ, or you are not. You cannot be neutral. There is no option to say “I’m not for Christ, and I’m not against Him.” No one gets that option. You are either a sheep or a goat. You are either a follower of Christ, or you are not. You are either saved or you are lost. There is no in between. It is kind of like either you are pregnant or you are not. There is not an in between or neutral ground.
We live in a community in which people deny absolutes. Let me show you an absolute truth from the Word of God in verse 22. “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.” This does not refer to a particular people group. This is any people group, period of time, or continent. Anyone on the planet who denies that Jesus is the Christ is not telling the truth. And when you do not tell the truth you are in fact a liar. There are people who resist the idea of an absolute truth. They resent the fact that we impose absolute truth on them. In fact, I would submit to you that if you had a large group of people together, there someone would say, “Pastor I do not agree with you on that absolute. In fact, Pastor, you need to be a little bit more relative. I’m not sure that you are being fair. I’m not sure that you are accounting for the heathen in Australia or the remote group of people in Africa. It seems to me that you are making a blanket statement. It sounds like you want me to believe that all people everywhere need to repent and believe the Gospel.” It is kind of like Act 17 and the whole message there. You see, some people do not believe that truth is absolute. They deny it. Perhaps you fit in that category.
In Texas, a professor was teaching a philosophy class and they were discussing whether or not people believe in absolute truth. And the professor said, you know what, this is how I am going to grade. If you are 50 years or older, you get an A. If you are between 40 and 50 you get a B. If you are in the 30’s you get a C. If you are 20, you get a D. If you are older than that or younger than this, you fail the course. The students responded “That’s not fair.” What does that statement imply? It implies they have a standard. There is something called fair. People do not have a problem with absolute truths. They have a problem with specific absolute truths. They like the absolute truth as long as it is their absolute truth. For example, the absolute truth that there is not absolute truth is in fact an absolute. They are attacking the absolute truth that Jesus is the Christ. Once you get beyond that point in your life, you might get saved. Jesus does have a right to establish an absolute truth that He is in fact the Christ, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. Once you are willing to acknowledge that truth, you are on the track to getting saved. You are on the track to being regenerated. You are on the track of submitting to Jesus Christ. Why am I so bold about preaching Jesus Christ? The reason our mission in the 21st century is proclaiming Jesus Christ is that John said you are lying if you deny that Jesus is the Christ, and in Revelation he says you are going to hell if you are a liar. He says all liars have their place in the lake of fire. They will participate in the second death. So if we as a church want people to avoid the lake of fire, then we need to proclaim the absolute truth that Jesus is the Christ. We need to proclaim it passionately, boldly, and with our whole life, because we need to remember and recognize that anyone, any people group anywhere in the world that says that Jesus is not the Christ, is lying. And God will punish them that lie for all of eternity in eternal separation in a lake of fire, a place called hell. He says in verse in verse number 19, “they went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued.” If someone we knew relocated to Washington and departed from the faith it would shock us. We thought he was part of us. He served among us for a long time with us and then we find out that he’s gone away and is teaching that there is more than one way to salvation. He’s teaching something that is antichrist. Imagine someone we’ve known for years and years and yet he moves into a covenant, or a community of Buddhists, it’d be shocking to us. We would begin to wonder what is going on with him. That is what John is dealing with here. He’s saying we thought that they were part of us, but when they left, they stopped and abandoned the faith. They are no longer following Christ.
So now, do we conclude that they were never saved, or do we conclude that they lost their salvation? Free Will Baptists would say that they lost their salvation. What does the Bible say? The Bible says that people who follow Christ do continue in the faith and that continuing in the faith is the assurance of salvation. Those that do not continue in the faith should not be falsely assured that they have eternal life. Where did John get this idea from? Turn back to the Gospel of John and let me show you what he used as his basis. Let me show you the truth that he used. I want to know. I want some assurance. Sometimes Satan bothers me and makes me struggle in my mind.
John 8:31
“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed” (truly, genuinely).
So when John saw people leaving the church and moving to Ephesus, Philippi, Macedonia, and Turkey, and word got back that thee people were teaching that which was antichrist, John did not say “oh, they lost their salvation.” (They were teaching that Jesus did not come in the flesh, He is not coming again, or that He was not part of the Godhead and He is not God.) He says, they were never followers of Christ. And the reason he says this was that disciples follow Christ. Where did he get that from? Turn to chapter 10. This is the verse that we use to conclude once saved, always saved.
John 10:27
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. “
Do you know what voice that is? That is the voice of the Prophet; the Prophet Jesus Christ speaking to you. So when was the last time you heard Jesus Christ speak to you personally and individually? When you are reading your Bible and you get a real sense that God spoke to you through a verse, a confirmation, something personal or individual, that is how you can know you are a sheep. The reason you can know you are a sheep is that He said “My sheep hear My voice.” Sheep are characterized by being able to recognize the voice of the shepherd. If you haven’t heard from Jesus lately, if He doesn’t speak to you through the Word of God, if He doesn’t speak to you through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, if He doesn’t speak to you through preaching, if He doesn’t speak to you through a godly song, if there isn’t a sense in your life that God is speaking t you, don’t think for a second that you are a sheep! Notice what He says next.
John 10:27
“And I know them, and they follow me.”
Sheep are characterized by following the shepherd. That is what sheep do, they follow the shepherd. Sheep do not abandon the shepherd and go another way. Notice verse 28.
John 10:28
“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish; neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”
You can’t even pluck yourself out of His hand. When He put you in the hand, you are in the hand. So John concludes that they were never in the hand. If they were in the hand, they would have continued to follow Christ. If someone leaves this community of believers and walks away from Christ as their Prophet, Priest and King, they are either backslidden or unregenerate. They are either backslidden or they are lost. Those are the only two categories if they are walking away.
The more that they manifest antichrist behaviors and beliefs, the greater the chance is that they were never born again. This is exactly why John says they were never of us. He knew what they were teaching or what their behavior was. He just says that their behavior was antichrist in its faith and practice—what they said or the way they acted. And he looked at that and said that Christians do not act that way or believe that kind of stuff. That is antichrist behavior. His conclusion wasn’t that they were saved and lost their salvation. His conclusion was that they were never part of us from the very beginning. They might have looked liked it, acted like it and talked like it.
Do all of us as Christians have periods in our lives of being backslidden? Sure we do. Do you know what? When you are backslidden, you still hear His voice. Notice again what He said, “My sheep hear my voice.” When you are backslidden, you know you are backslidden. It bothers you. You’re miserable. Why? He is speaking to you. John’s conclusion is that this group of people was in this community of faith, and when they went out, there was no evidence that the Spirit was speaking to them. There was no evidence that they were concerned. There was no evidence of repentance.
What does it mean to continue? We are talking about following, worshipping, striving, repenting, confessing, acknowledging, being forgiven. It is up and down, in and out, and working hard. Not for salvation, but working hard in following. Obviously we don’t save ourselves or keep ourselves saved. Rather, that is an act of God. But we are commanded to follow Him. So this continuing does not keep us saved. It is God who keeps us saved.
Philippians 1:6
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
So your assurance that God has performed a work in you is that you want to be with God’s people, and when you are not with God’s people and you are not hearing His voice, it bothers you.
Continuing or not continuing provides visible evidence of conversion or a false profession. In the last part of verse 19 it says “they were not all of us.” John describes a group of people who left the church and when they went out they did not continue in the faith once delivered either in faith or in practice. Notice very closely, the New Testament does not separate faith and practice. Saving faith is always accompanied by right practice, and right practice is a result of saving faith.
There are no saved Muslims out there. You do not having a saving faith and then a practice that is antichrist. There are no saved Hindus. There are no saved Buddhists. There are no saved idolaters, Mormons, or Jehovah Witnesses. Someone could be temporarily deceived, perhaps, but you cannot be a fully converted follower of Satan while holding to a “back up” profession of Christ. It is not an insurance policy; if this first thing doesn’t work out, I’ll go back to my Vacation Bible School profession of faith. Christians follow Christ. Christians are characterized by following Christ. When you are not following Christ, it bothers you. Why?
1st John 2:20
“But ye (Christians) have an unction from the Holy One.“
If you are a Christian, you have an unction. What is an unction? It’s right between your middle toe and your big toe. Do you want to check? Where does the unction come from? It comes from the Holy One. The Holy One is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ said He was going away and He was going to give us Someone: the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter, the Holy Ghost. If you are a Christian, you have the Spirit of Truth residing inside you. It’s not by your toe. It’s in all of you - the Spirit of Truth. An unction is a gifting, an anointing; it’s a consecration.
For example, let’s take our children, who grow up all their lives in AWANA. They have heard from birth that Jesus is the Christ. They have memorized Bible verses that show them Jesus is the Christ, and they understand all of this to be truth. Then they go off into a college class in a secular university, and they get off the track a little bit. You know what I’m talking about. The Holy Spirit inside them will prompt them on a regular basis
“That’s not truth. That’s not true. That’s heresy. That’s falsehood.” That is what the Holy Spirit inside them will do. Because they are not their own and have been bought with a price, the Holy Spirit will keep them. He who has begun a good work, will keep on performing that good work in them. And we should expect to see that young person come out of that fringe group and get back into church. We should see and will expect to see that. That is our assurance that they are in fact followers of Jesus Christ. And John concluded that for whatever period of time that they were gone and for whatever they were teaching or practicing that they were not part of us. He did not say they were backslidden. He said they were never part of us. So how do I receive this special unction. The Bible tells us.
Ephesians 1:13
“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel (the Good News) of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.”
We now suffer no condemnation because of what Christ did. Those who have believed were sealed with the Holy Spirit because of the promise. So each and every believer at the moment of salvation receives an unction, a gifting, an anointing, a consecration from God. This is the Spirit of Truth that keeps you out of heresy. You know all things. He’s not referring to every thing. He’s referring to the ability to recognize heresy. He’s referring to the ability to recognize the spirit of the antichrist. He’s referring to the things which cause us to get off track. He’s saying I gave you a Holy Spirit to help you recognize these kinds of things.
Have you ever met a converted Catholic that can tell you all about salvation by faith in Christ and will tell you everything that is wrong with the Catholic Church? He will tell you that he does not believe in the pope because the pope is a man just like him. He only believes in the Bible and not the manmade stuff. They will call it just the way they see it. Where does that knowledge come from? It comes from the Holy Spirit that is inside them.
So do you know for sure that the Holy Spirit is inside you? Would you be able to recognize falsehood? Would you be able to recognize it to keep you out of trouble? Would you be able to leave this church, relocate to another country or state, and find a good, Bible believing church? Do you know what a good, Bible believing church looks like? Do you know what you should look for so you could continue following Christ? Is Jesus Christ your Prophet, Priest, and King? Does He speak to you?
God manifests His grace in their departure. There are a few reasons. Their departure is a God-ordained departure. One reason the false prophets and the antichrists need to get out of the church is that a little leaven leaveneth the whole loaf. So if they have a false teaching, they need to depart with that false teaching. There’s another reason: when they depart and stop following the faith and practice of the Christian faith, we can change how we pray for them. We can change how we relate to them. We now can begin to see them as unconverted. We will pray for them to be converted. We will pray for them to change. We will pray for them to come to Jesus. We will evangelize them. We will no longer think of them as saved and lost their salvation or backslidden. Their departure alerts us to the fact that perhaps they were never one of us. Now we don’t know for sure because none of us know the heart, but this passage gives that person the alertness to know that they are not part of it.
I will conclude with this point. If you say I’m a believer and stop following Christ and it doesn’t bother you, and if you could walk out from the church and not miss it for anything, do not be assured of your salvation. You cannot hold to a profession of faith from Vacation Bible School and go become a Buddhist. You cannot hold to a profession of faith in AWANA and then go into the Muslim religion. You cannot serve Muhammad all your life and then somehow think in the back of your mind “I’m still good to go.” You cannot do that. That is the spirit of antichrist. If you depart from this place and don’t link up with another fellowship, it should bother and concern you. You are expected in the Word of God to stay in the church. It does not have to be this church, but it should be an evangelical, Bible believing church. You shouldn’t be able to flake away for months and years at a time. It should bother you. It should be concerning you. If it is not concerning you, don’t conclude that you are still part of us. Conclude for yourself just the opposite, and I believe if you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit will bring this exact verse to your remembrance and get your heart right. If you are not a Christian, it should concern you.
Today we will look at the fact that true believers do in fact continue in the faith that was once delivered.
1st John 2:18-22
v. 18. “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come (future tense), even now (present tense) there are many antichrist; whereby we (plural) know that it is he last time. v. 19 They (plural) went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. v. 20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. v. 21 I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
v. 22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.”
Jude 3
“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.”
Here is our opening question: Once saved, always saved? Does the Baptist church really believe that you can be saved and then go into whatever you want for twenty or thirty years and still go to heaven? Does the Baptist church really believe that a person can be saved at Vacation Bible School and then live like the devil for twenty years, but because they were saved in Vacation Bible School they will still go to heaven? Does the Baptist Church believe “once saved, always saved?” Do Baptists believe this understanding from the Word of God? Do they believe that Jesus is the Christ, stop believing, and then still go to Heaven? We are going to deal with this exact issue today.
The Apostle John addresses this exact issue in 1st John 2: 19. The reason he is able to address it so authoritatively is that John spent three years with the Lord Jesus Christ and was instructed by Jesus Christ. I am going to show you today the teaching from the Lord Jesus Christ that led John to the conclusion he writes in 1st John 2:19.
Some people struggle with the idea of “once saved, always saved,” and the reason they struggle with it is that we as Baptists do not emphasize enough that not everyone who professes Jesus is born again. If we were to profess enough that everyone who professes is not in fact born again, people would have less difficulty understanding once saved, always saved. But often times, we’re guilty of putting emphasis on only one area versus the whole counsel of the Word of God. Look at verse 19, and notice what he writes:
vs. 19 “They (plural) went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” I want to draw your attention to the word “they”; it refers to the word “antichrist” from verse 18. In other words we could say “Many antichrists went out from us…”
Antichrists deny:
- Jesus came in the flesh
-anyone who says Jesus Christ was only a spirit
-anyone who says Jesus Christ is not the Only Begotten Son
- Jesus Christ was or is the Messiah
- Jesus Christ is fully Divine
-Jesus Christ is Incarnate God
-Jesus Christ is a Prophet, Priest, and King
-Jesus Christ is the only Savior, Lord, or King of the Universe
John says that there was a group of people who went out from the body and became antichrist in their attitude, doctrine, beliefs, behavior and choices. These people were initially thought to be part of the church. They went to AWANA, were saved in Vacation Bible School, served in a ministry, were an usher, or taught a Sunday School class and seemed to be one of us. We believed they were a brother or a sister in Christ. And then they departed from this community of faith. We got word back that they were now teaching that which is contrary to the Word of God, had stopped going to church, or they are part of a fringe group with bazaar behaviors. John is describing this group: initially, we thought they were part of the church, but when they went out we heard some things that caused us to doubt. The “us” refers to everyone that is in this New Covenant of believers, the Church. We distinguish the New Covenant from the Old Covenant in the Old Testament and this is the New Covenant in Christ.
Here’s the reality: Everyone on the planet fits into two categories. You are either part of the body of Christ, or you are not part of the body of Christ. There is not a third group. You are either born again in Christ, or you are not. You cannot be neutral. There is no option to say “I’m not for Christ, and I’m not against Him.” No one gets that option. You are either a sheep or a goat. You are either a follower of Christ, or you are not. You are either saved or you are lost. There is no in between. It is kind of like either you are pregnant or you are not. There is not an in between or neutral ground.
We live in a community in which people deny absolutes. Let me show you an absolute truth from the Word of God in verse 22. “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.” This does not refer to a particular people group. This is any people group, period of time, or continent. Anyone on the planet who denies that Jesus is the Christ is not telling the truth. And when you do not tell the truth you are in fact a liar. There are people who resist the idea of an absolute truth. They resent the fact that we impose absolute truth on them. In fact, I would submit to you that if you had a large group of people together, there someone would say, “Pastor I do not agree with you on that absolute. In fact, Pastor, you need to be a little bit more relative. I’m not sure that you are being fair. I’m not sure that you are accounting for the heathen in Australia or the remote group of people in Africa. It seems to me that you are making a blanket statement. It sounds like you want me to believe that all people everywhere need to repent and believe the Gospel.” It is kind of like Act 17 and the whole message there. You see, some people do not believe that truth is absolute. They deny it. Perhaps you fit in that category.
In Texas, a professor was teaching a philosophy class and they were discussing whether or not people believe in absolute truth. And the professor said, you know what, this is how I am going to grade. If you are 50 years or older, you get an A. If you are between 40 and 50 you get a B. If you are in the 30’s you get a C. If you are 20, you get a D. If you are older than that or younger than this, you fail the course. The students responded “That’s not fair.” What does that statement imply? It implies they have a standard. There is something called fair. People do not have a problem with absolute truths. They have a problem with specific absolute truths. They like the absolute truth as long as it is their absolute truth. For example, the absolute truth that there is not absolute truth is in fact an absolute. They are attacking the absolute truth that Jesus is the Christ. Once you get beyond that point in your life, you might get saved. Jesus does have a right to establish an absolute truth that He is in fact the Christ, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. Once you are willing to acknowledge that truth, you are on the track to getting saved. You are on the track to being regenerated. You are on the track of submitting to Jesus Christ. Why am I so bold about preaching Jesus Christ? The reason our mission in the 21st century is proclaiming Jesus Christ is that John said you are lying if you deny that Jesus is the Christ, and in Revelation he says you are going to hell if you are a liar. He says all liars have their place in the lake of fire. They will participate in the second death. So if we as a church want people to avoid the lake of fire, then we need to proclaim the absolute truth that Jesus is the Christ. We need to proclaim it passionately, boldly, and with our whole life, because we need to remember and recognize that anyone, any people group anywhere in the world that says that Jesus is not the Christ, is lying. And God will punish them that lie for all of eternity in eternal separation in a lake of fire, a place called hell. He says in verse in verse number 19, “they went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued.” If someone we knew relocated to Washington and departed from the faith it would shock us. We thought he was part of us. He served among us for a long time with us and then we find out that he’s gone away and is teaching that there is more than one way to salvation. He’s teaching something that is antichrist. Imagine someone we’ve known for years and years and yet he moves into a covenant, or a community of Buddhists, it’d be shocking to us. We would begin to wonder what is going on with him. That is what John is dealing with here. He’s saying we thought that they were part of us, but when they left, they stopped and abandoned the faith. They are no longer following Christ.
So now, do we conclude that they were never saved, or do we conclude that they lost their salvation? Free Will Baptists would say that they lost their salvation. What does the Bible say? The Bible says that people who follow Christ do continue in the faith and that continuing in the faith is the assurance of salvation. Those that do not continue in the faith should not be falsely assured that they have eternal life. Where did John get this idea from? Turn back to the Gospel of John and let me show you what he used as his basis. Let me show you the truth that he used. I want to know. I want some assurance. Sometimes Satan bothers me and makes me struggle in my mind.
John 8:31
“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed” (truly, genuinely).
So when John saw people leaving the church and moving to Ephesus, Philippi, Macedonia, and Turkey, and word got back that thee people were teaching that which was antichrist, John did not say “oh, they lost their salvation.” (They were teaching that Jesus did not come in the flesh, He is not coming again, or that He was not part of the Godhead and He is not God.) He says, they were never followers of Christ. And the reason he says this was that disciples follow Christ. Where did he get that from? Turn to chapter 10. This is the verse that we use to conclude once saved, always saved.
John 10:27
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. “
Do you know what voice that is? That is the voice of the Prophet; the Prophet Jesus Christ speaking to you. So when was the last time you heard Jesus Christ speak to you personally and individually? When you are reading your Bible and you get a real sense that God spoke to you through a verse, a confirmation, something personal or individual, that is how you can know you are a sheep. The reason you can know you are a sheep is that He said “My sheep hear My voice.” Sheep are characterized by being able to recognize the voice of the shepherd. If you haven’t heard from Jesus lately, if He doesn’t speak to you through the Word of God, if He doesn’t speak to you through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, if He doesn’t speak to you through preaching, if He doesn’t speak to you through a godly song, if there isn’t a sense in your life that God is speaking t you, don’t think for a second that you are a sheep! Notice what He says next.
John 10:27
“And I know them, and they follow me.”
Sheep are characterized by following the shepherd. That is what sheep do, they follow the shepherd. Sheep do not abandon the shepherd and go another way. Notice verse 28.
John 10:28
“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish; neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”
You can’t even pluck yourself out of His hand. When He put you in the hand, you are in the hand. So John concludes that they were never in the hand. If they were in the hand, they would have continued to follow Christ. If someone leaves this community of believers and walks away from Christ as their Prophet, Priest and King, they are either backslidden or unregenerate. They are either backslidden or they are lost. Those are the only two categories if they are walking away.
The more that they manifest antichrist behaviors and beliefs, the greater the chance is that they were never born again. This is exactly why John says they were never of us. He knew what they were teaching or what their behavior was. He just says that their behavior was antichrist in its faith and practice—what they said or the way they acted. And he looked at that and said that Christians do not act that way or believe that kind of stuff. That is antichrist behavior. His conclusion wasn’t that they were saved and lost their salvation. His conclusion was that they were never part of us from the very beginning. They might have looked liked it, acted like it and talked like it.
Do all of us as Christians have periods in our lives of being backslidden? Sure we do. Do you know what? When you are backslidden, you still hear His voice. Notice again what He said, “My sheep hear my voice.” When you are backslidden, you know you are backslidden. It bothers you. You’re miserable. Why? He is speaking to you. John’s conclusion is that this group of people was in this community of faith, and when they went out, there was no evidence that the Spirit was speaking to them. There was no evidence that they were concerned. There was no evidence of repentance.
What does it mean to continue? We are talking about following, worshipping, striving, repenting, confessing, acknowledging, being forgiven. It is up and down, in and out, and working hard. Not for salvation, but working hard in following. Obviously we don’t save ourselves or keep ourselves saved. Rather, that is an act of God. But we are commanded to follow Him. So this continuing does not keep us saved. It is God who keeps us saved.
Philippians 1:6
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
So your assurance that God has performed a work in you is that you want to be with God’s people, and when you are not with God’s people and you are not hearing His voice, it bothers you.
Continuing or not continuing provides visible evidence of conversion or a false profession. In the last part of verse 19 it says “they were not all of us.” John describes a group of people who left the church and when they went out they did not continue in the faith once delivered either in faith or in practice. Notice very closely, the New Testament does not separate faith and practice. Saving faith is always accompanied by right practice, and right practice is a result of saving faith.
There are no saved Muslims out there. You do not having a saving faith and then a practice that is antichrist. There are no saved Hindus. There are no saved Buddhists. There are no saved idolaters, Mormons, or Jehovah Witnesses. Someone could be temporarily deceived, perhaps, but you cannot be a fully converted follower of Satan while holding to a “back up” profession of Christ. It is not an insurance policy; if this first thing doesn’t work out, I’ll go back to my Vacation Bible School profession of faith. Christians follow Christ. Christians are characterized by following Christ. When you are not following Christ, it bothers you. Why?
1st John 2:20
“But ye (Christians) have an unction from the Holy One.“
If you are a Christian, you have an unction. What is an unction? It’s right between your middle toe and your big toe. Do you want to check? Where does the unction come from? It comes from the Holy One. The Holy One is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ said He was going away and He was going to give us Someone: the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter, the Holy Ghost. If you are a Christian, you have the Spirit of Truth residing inside you. It’s not by your toe. It’s in all of you - the Spirit of Truth. An unction is a gifting, an anointing; it’s a consecration.
For example, let’s take our children, who grow up all their lives in AWANA. They have heard from birth that Jesus is the Christ. They have memorized Bible verses that show them Jesus is the Christ, and they understand all of this to be truth. Then they go off into a college class in a secular university, and they get off the track a little bit. You know what I’m talking about. The Holy Spirit inside them will prompt them on a regular basis
“That’s not truth. That’s not true. That’s heresy. That’s falsehood.” That is what the Holy Spirit inside them will do. Because they are not their own and have been bought with a price, the Holy Spirit will keep them. He who has begun a good work, will keep on performing that good work in them. And we should expect to see that young person come out of that fringe group and get back into church. We should see and will expect to see that. That is our assurance that they are in fact followers of Jesus Christ. And John concluded that for whatever period of time that they were gone and for whatever they were teaching or practicing that they were not part of us. He did not say they were backslidden. He said they were never part of us. So how do I receive this special unction. The Bible tells us.
Ephesians 1:13
“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel (the Good News) of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.”
We now suffer no condemnation because of what Christ did. Those who have believed were sealed with the Holy Spirit because of the promise. So each and every believer at the moment of salvation receives an unction, a gifting, an anointing, a consecration from God. This is the Spirit of Truth that keeps you out of heresy. You know all things. He’s not referring to every thing. He’s referring to the ability to recognize heresy. He’s referring to the ability to recognize the spirit of the antichrist. He’s referring to the things which cause us to get off track. He’s saying I gave you a Holy Spirit to help you recognize these kinds of things.
Have you ever met a converted Catholic that can tell you all about salvation by faith in Christ and will tell you everything that is wrong with the Catholic Church? He will tell you that he does not believe in the pope because the pope is a man just like him. He only believes in the Bible and not the manmade stuff. They will call it just the way they see it. Where does that knowledge come from? It comes from the Holy Spirit that is inside them.
So do you know for sure that the Holy Spirit is inside you? Would you be able to recognize falsehood? Would you be able to recognize it to keep you out of trouble? Would you be able to leave this church, relocate to another country or state, and find a good, Bible believing church? Do you know what a good, Bible believing church looks like? Do you know what you should look for so you could continue following Christ? Is Jesus Christ your Prophet, Priest, and King? Does He speak to you?
God manifests His grace in their departure. There are a few reasons. Their departure is a God-ordained departure. One reason the false prophets and the antichrists need to get out of the church is that a little leaven leaveneth the whole loaf. So if they have a false teaching, they need to depart with that false teaching. There’s another reason: when they depart and stop following the faith and practice of the Christian faith, we can change how we pray for them. We can change how we relate to them. We now can begin to see them as unconverted. We will pray for them to be converted. We will pray for them to change. We will pray for them to come to Jesus. We will evangelize them. We will no longer think of them as saved and lost their salvation or backslidden. Their departure alerts us to the fact that perhaps they were never one of us. Now we don’t know for sure because none of us know the heart, but this passage gives that person the alertness to know that they are not part of it.
I will conclude with this point. If you say I’m a believer and stop following Christ and it doesn’t bother you, and if you could walk out from the church and not miss it for anything, do not be assured of your salvation. You cannot hold to a profession of faith from Vacation Bible School and go become a Buddhist. You cannot hold to a profession of faith in AWANA and then go into the Muslim religion. You cannot serve Muhammad all your life and then somehow think in the back of your mind “I’m still good to go.” You cannot do that. That is the spirit of antichrist. If you depart from this place and don’t link up with another fellowship, it should bother and concern you. You are expected in the Word of God to stay in the church. It does not have to be this church, but it should be an evangelical, Bible believing church. You shouldn’t be able to flake away for months and years at a time. It should bother you. It should be concerning you. If it is not concerning you, don’t conclude that you are still part of us. Conclude for yourself just the opposite, and I believe if you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit will bring this exact verse to your remembrance and get your heart right. If you are not a Christian, it should concern you.
Making a Combined Ministry Budget and Budget Shortfalls
Yesterday, I received a very legitimate question that is worth spending a few minutes answering. The question was, “What happens if BBC or BBA doesn’t make budget?”
First, let me define what we mean by budget. Budget is what we have projected to bring in as income and what we are projecting to spend. When we say we are not meeting budget, we mean that we are not receiving all that we projected, but we only spend based on what is brought in.
Now, let’s discuss how BBC determines its budget. The 2008 budget of $1.4 million for projected church income was determined by examining the giving for the last six months of 2007. Based on the assumption that church members were giving on a monthly basis, a six month glide path of continued giving made the 1.4 budget very attainable. We had no idea, and quite frankly were shocked, that in the opening month of 2008 members would withhold tithes and offering to the tune of $50,000. This was quite a surprise and we had to immediately make substantial adjustments in our spending. With giving that averaged around $125,000 a month for the last six months of 2007, a reduction of $50,000 is about 40 percent of one month. It indicates that 2 out of 5 of our faithful givers either gave nothing or substantially reduced their normal tithe in January. February was also lower than normal. No one knows why this happened because the giving did bounce back to its proper amount by March, but this reduction has made it hard to catch up.
My family, has been tithing for the past 20+ years with a consistent month to month income. The idea of skipping months or not giving to catch up on bills or take a vacation has never been an option. According to Malachi 3, the tithe is the Lord’s. I don’t ever want to be guilty of robbing the Lord. I believe that God blesses people’s lives according to their faithfulness to His plan of economy, and the tithe is the debt I owe.
Giving financially is one of the clearest and most distinct acts of worship that I can do to show my love for God.
Now with regard to the Academy’s projected income budget: it is based on projected student attendance. We have done the analysis to determine that XXX number of students bring in approximately $Y,YYY amount of revenue in the form of tuition, fees, and other costs. We then estimate the growth we expect to experience and budget accordingly.
Second, let’s discuss “What happens if BBC or BBA doesn’t make budget?” The answer depends upon how much of a budget shortfall either experiences. The collective budget of the entire ministry reflects a certain amount of money for visionary projects and desires for growth. Let me explain what I mean by that.
Our budget was built in such a way that if both BBC and BBA met the 2008 projected income, we would be able to make some significant improvements to the campus. For example, in the Academy I have expressed a belief that there is a strong need to equip all the rooms with projectors connected to the teacher’s computers so that PowerPoint and other audio visual presentations can be shown to the entire class. The administration believes this project is very important and will significantly enhance each teacher’s ability to effectively communicate knowledge and thus improve the learning of the students. Other ideas include a media center full of books and a weight room full of a lot of different apparatus to aid in strength training. We also have a desire to equip the building with wireless Internet so that students can bring in laptops and do research during their study halls from any classroom in the high school. Obviously all of these initiatives cost money, and if we were to make budget in the Academy we would be able to move forward on some of these projects. If we miss budget by a small amount, then we aren’t able to do all the projects.
On the church side of the campus, we also have special projects that will have to be delayed until we meet or exceed budget. These projects include:
• Finishing the choir room renovation with foldable desk chairs and flat screens for the choir to read the words of the songs they are practicing and teachers to use PowerPoint. This multipurpose room will also be a great place for lecture type instruction for classes as large as forty-five students.
• Replacing the main HVAC unit for the auditorium. This is a very important need as it is getting nearly unbearable on about 8 Summer Sunday evening services.
• Renovating the bathrooms in the preschool and office wings of the church. These bathrooms have never been remodeled since they were originally built well over 25 years ago.
• Replacing the carpet in the auditorium and redesigning the platform.
• Equipping the auditorium with a new sound system to increase our ability to clearly hear the choir and speakers.
In both the school and church aspects of the ministry, we are meeting projected income sufficient to pay our bills, support our missionaries, give to special missionary projects, give to benevolence needs of people in and outside the congregation, execute special ministry events, and maintain the cleanliness, functionality, and appearance of the campus. To some degree, we are continuing to make campus improvements such as the painting of several rooms, some new carpet, and the initial choir room renovation.
Our practice has always been not to spend what we don’t have. If the income is down, then we automatically reduce spending. Just because we established a budget of $1.4 million does not mean that we spend $1.4 if we are only on track to receive $1.3. We reduce our spending so that we only expense what has come in. We are exceptionally mindful when we don’t make projected giving and income, and we are committed to staying within budget as much as possible. In some areas, it is exceptionally difficult. For example, when an HVAC unit goes down it must be replaced. Our rooms are not designed to be able to use an alternative cooling method. In my house, I could open a sufficient number of windows to get a cross breeze and use ceiling fans to make it for a few weeks, but in the church and school this isn’t the case. Sometimes a freezer or a computer server will go down. These are pieces of equipment that are critical to the ministry. We depend upon our computers to pay bills, record tithe and offerings, research, and communicate. Today our computers are just as important as the phone system. In these situations, we may exceed the budget in a particular line item, but we are committed to keeping within the total budget as close as possible and to not spend any monies that we do not have on hand. To the glory of God, we have not had to access our sinking fund or strategic reserve account and are committed to preserving the value of these accounts as good stewards of what God has provided through faithful Christians.
Finally, we want to be transparent about the finances of this ministry. If at any time you have a question about the way the finances are being handled, please don’t hesitate to ask.
First, let me define what we mean by budget. Budget is what we have projected to bring in as income and what we are projecting to spend. When we say we are not meeting budget, we mean that we are not receiving all that we projected, but we only spend based on what is brought in.
Now, let’s discuss how BBC determines its budget. The 2008 budget of $1.4 million for projected church income was determined by examining the giving for the last six months of 2007. Based on the assumption that church members were giving on a monthly basis, a six month glide path of continued giving made the 1.4 budget very attainable. We had no idea, and quite frankly were shocked, that in the opening month of 2008 members would withhold tithes and offering to the tune of $50,000. This was quite a surprise and we had to immediately make substantial adjustments in our spending. With giving that averaged around $125,000 a month for the last six months of 2007, a reduction of $50,000 is about 40 percent of one month. It indicates that 2 out of 5 of our faithful givers either gave nothing or substantially reduced their normal tithe in January. February was also lower than normal. No one knows why this happened because the giving did bounce back to its proper amount by March, but this reduction has made it hard to catch up.
My family, has been tithing for the past 20+ years with a consistent month to month income. The idea of skipping months or not giving to catch up on bills or take a vacation has never been an option. According to Malachi 3, the tithe is the Lord’s. I don’t ever want to be guilty of robbing the Lord. I believe that God blesses people’s lives according to their faithfulness to His plan of economy, and the tithe is the debt I owe.
Giving financially is one of the clearest and most distinct acts of worship that I can do to show my love for God.
Now with regard to the Academy’s projected income budget: it is based on projected student attendance. We have done the analysis to determine that XXX number of students bring in approximately $Y,YYY amount of revenue in the form of tuition, fees, and other costs. We then estimate the growth we expect to experience and budget accordingly.
Second, let’s discuss “What happens if BBC or BBA doesn’t make budget?” The answer depends upon how much of a budget shortfall either experiences. The collective budget of the entire ministry reflects a certain amount of money for visionary projects and desires for growth. Let me explain what I mean by that.
Our budget was built in such a way that if both BBC and BBA met the 2008 projected income, we would be able to make some significant improvements to the campus. For example, in the Academy I have expressed a belief that there is a strong need to equip all the rooms with projectors connected to the teacher’s computers so that PowerPoint and other audio visual presentations can be shown to the entire class. The administration believes this project is very important and will significantly enhance each teacher’s ability to effectively communicate knowledge and thus improve the learning of the students. Other ideas include a media center full of books and a weight room full of a lot of different apparatus to aid in strength training. We also have a desire to equip the building with wireless Internet so that students can bring in laptops and do research during their study halls from any classroom in the high school. Obviously all of these initiatives cost money, and if we were to make budget in the Academy we would be able to move forward on some of these projects. If we miss budget by a small amount, then we aren’t able to do all the projects.
On the church side of the campus, we also have special projects that will have to be delayed until we meet or exceed budget. These projects include:
• Finishing the choir room renovation with foldable desk chairs and flat screens for the choir to read the words of the songs they are practicing and teachers to use PowerPoint. This multipurpose room will also be a great place for lecture type instruction for classes as large as forty-five students.
• Replacing the main HVAC unit for the auditorium. This is a very important need as it is getting nearly unbearable on about 8 Summer Sunday evening services.
• Renovating the bathrooms in the preschool and office wings of the church. These bathrooms have never been remodeled since they were originally built well over 25 years ago.
• Replacing the carpet in the auditorium and redesigning the platform.
• Equipping the auditorium with a new sound system to increase our ability to clearly hear the choir and speakers.
In both the school and church aspects of the ministry, we are meeting projected income sufficient to pay our bills, support our missionaries, give to special missionary projects, give to benevolence needs of people in and outside the congregation, execute special ministry events, and maintain the cleanliness, functionality, and appearance of the campus. To some degree, we are continuing to make campus improvements such as the painting of several rooms, some new carpet, and the initial choir room renovation.
Our practice has always been not to spend what we don’t have. If the income is down, then we automatically reduce spending. Just because we established a budget of $1.4 million does not mean that we spend $1.4 if we are only on track to receive $1.3. We reduce our spending so that we only expense what has come in. We are exceptionally mindful when we don’t make projected giving and income, and we are committed to staying within budget as much as possible. In some areas, it is exceptionally difficult. For example, when an HVAC unit goes down it must be replaced. Our rooms are not designed to be able to use an alternative cooling method. In my house, I could open a sufficient number of windows to get a cross breeze and use ceiling fans to make it for a few weeks, but in the church and school this isn’t the case. Sometimes a freezer or a computer server will go down. These are pieces of equipment that are critical to the ministry. We depend upon our computers to pay bills, record tithe and offerings, research, and communicate. Today our computers are just as important as the phone system. In these situations, we may exceed the budget in a particular line item, but we are committed to keeping within the total budget as close as possible and to not spend any monies that we do not have on hand. To the glory of God, we have not had to access our sinking fund or strategic reserve account and are committed to preserving the value of these accounts as good stewards of what God has provided through faithful Christians.
Finally, we want to be transparent about the finances of this ministry. If at any time you have a question about the way the finances are being handled, please don’t hesitate to ask.
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