94-35 – The Grapes of Wrath – Part II

This sermon is Part II of the series "The Grapes of Wrath" by Dr. Chuck Betters.

There will always be a struggle between good and evil in our lives. The godly kings of Israel allowed compromise in their lives which resulted in a downward spiral through generations. The consequence of their sin is seen in their children and grandchildren. Are you willing to confess, renounce, and turn away from little areas of compromise in your life? The lives of your children and grandchildren may be at stake.

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Welcome to In His Grip with Dr. Chuck F. Butters, produced by Marking Ministries. Each In His Grip message is designed to help turn your hearts toward Jesus and equip you to walk by faith. Let's join Dr. Butters as he preaches today's message.

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Take your Bibles, please, and turn with me to the book of Isaiah, chapter 5. We have been talking about the grapes of wrath. Isaiah's grapes of wrath. The last time we were together, we began this series in Isaiah chapter 5, which is the culmination of four chapters in which Isaiah portrays a picture of inevitable judgment upon the people of God. What I have tried to demonstrate in the past is how the characteristics of Judah, which is the southern state of the kingdom of God's people, parallels what I see happening in the church today. And for that reason, I believe that we who live in the 20th century, who live in this very important age, are either ripe for God's judgment or ripe for revival. Because the stage has been set. The characteristics of the church existent in the day of Isaiah in the writing of his fifth chapter are very similar to the characteristics of the church today. And for that reason, I believe the church is going to have to experience some very tough times. We may even have to experience judgment in order to see revival. It is very possible that we might be living in the very last days. I believe with all of my heart that as the signs of the time continue to increase, we are rapidly approaching the coming of Christ. It may or may not happen in my lifetime or your lifetime, but one thing is certain the coming of Christ in judgment is very near. And just prior to his return, there will be great judgment upon the church. The church will become apostate in the last days. The church will experience a significant hand of God's wrath in the last days. And then he will come again in glory. I think I see that already beginning to take shape. I think I see that already beginning to happen. And for that reason, I believe we are very close to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Isaiah talks about the character qualities or lack thereof of the church of the last days. In the fifth chapter, the first seven verses, he sings a song. In the first part of the song, he is speaking. In the second part of the song, God is speaking. But in both cases, what Isaiah is saying is that you, the people of God, have been planted as a vineyard. And God takes the choicest vines and places the choicest vines in the choicest soil. He surrounds us with himself, protects us, builds a watchtower, dwells among us, and promises to preserve and keep us with one stipulation and qualification. He expects his people to bear fruit. Fruitbearing is part and parcel to being the people of God. Where there is fruit, he will purge the vine so that it may bring forth more fruit. Where there is no fruit, he will judge. God is looking for fruit. He is looking for evidence among his people that we are the people of God. Failure to produce that fruit will net us the same results that happened to the people living in Judah in the day of Isaiah. As the prophecy of the 60-some chapters of Isaiah unfold, you see him moving from a prosperity period into an exile period. You see the transition from being a people who enjoyed great material blessings and great spiritual blessings to a people who were lamented, who were wept over, who were in virtual exile. And then you see Isaiah in the last seven chapters of his book, looking down through heaven's telescope to what I call the eschaton or the last days, speaking of a new heaven and a new earth where God is going to bring his people together to be with him from all ages, past, present, and future. And so you see in this sweeping book a movement of God's spirit, but you see in the midst of these first seven chapters, a time of darkness, a time of despair, a time of emptiness. The first of the grapes of wrath that Isaiah speaks of, we talked about the last time we were together, a practical atheism, professing a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. People who lose their sense of identity, their sense of purpose, who rather than reaching out to the oppressed and the poor, the weak and the infirm and calling men to repentance to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ, we instead annex their properties and build big estates, and we become power-hungry and manipulative rather than having spiritual eyes that see the decay and the darkness around us and reach out in faith to touch those who are hurting and lost in a fallen and a dark world. But now we come to Isaiah chapter 5, verse 11. I'd like us to look at the second characteristic of the church in Isaiah's day, which I believe is characteristic of our churches today. Verse 11 and verse 12. Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord, no respect for the work of his hands. The second sin characteristic of the church in the last days will be hedonism. Not only practical atheism, but a hedonism, a pursuit of pleasure, a pursuit of self-interest, self-indulgence, sensual indulgence, and what goes with sensual indulgence, that is a lack or a loss of spiritual perception. You see, the two go hand in hand. The more sensually indulgent we become, the more spiritual perception is lost. We lose our senses because of our quest or our lust after hedonistic desire. You see, in this particular case, drink was their life. It's what got them out of bed in the morning, it's what kept them out of bed at night. But notice it's not the drink so much that is being condemned. And I would say that many pastors who would read those verses would take the time to exhort their congregations about the wiles of drinking. And I don't believe that's the essence of the passage. It was not the drink that was wrong, it was that little phrase that you see. They lost a regard for the deeds of God. They have no regard. They have no knowledge of God. Oh, now they have a knowledge of God. They believe that God is doing something, but they refuse to grasp the significance of what they see. And the reason they can't see is because they are blinded by the pursuit of their own pleasures. The deeds of the Lord are ignored. They glance over the work of redemption. They say, oh yes, that's a wonderful thing. But it doesn't change my life. They glance over the work of creation. They say, Ma, isn't that beautiful? But it doesn't change my life. They ignore the gospel of law and the gospel of grace. They say, Yes, I know there are Ten Commandments, but it doesn't change my life. I know that Jesus Christ has died to secure salvation on the cross, but it doesn't change my life. I believe God is sovereign over the affairs of nations and men. And I believe that his hand is leading and guiding and directing everything that is happening in this world, specifically what's happening in my life, but it doesn't change my life. Why? Because I'm pursuing other things. I'm pursuing other things. You see, as the people of God in the Old Testament, they had become blinded to the curses of the covenant. You see, there are many blessings to the covenant. There are many blessings to being the people of God, but there are also cursings to being the people of God. When you get home, read Deuteronomy chapter 29, beginning with verse 19. It speaks of the cursings and the wrath of a zealous God who will burn against the deeds of men who ignore the deeds of God. He says, All the curses in this book will fall upon him. The Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. The Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster according to the curses of the covenant written in this book in the law. Now they forgot all of that. They said, Well, we're the people of God. We're the people of the covenant. We're the people who are living under grace. Certainly God cannot bring judgment against us. Certainly, God will turn his back against judging us. Certainly he will wink at our sins. And so we pursue our pleasures and we pursue our power and we pursue our sensual appetites. The contemporary of Isaiah, Amos, would say in his third chapter as you read it, hear the word the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt. You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth. Therefore, I will punish you for all your sins. God says, You are an elect people, you are a people of privilege, you are a people of the covenant, and there is a higher calling and a higher responsibility that goes with being the people of the covenant, to whom much is given, he has expected more. Notice Isaiah 5, verse 13. Therefore, my people will go into exile. This is the judgment. You're going into exile for lack of understanding. Their men of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst. A vivid description in lamentations is given to us of what people years later experienced while they were in exile. Jeremiah the prophet would tell us they had no food. They had to eat the bodies of their own children. There was no honor. They were treated like cows. There was no power. There was no worship. There was no hope. These people lived in virtual darkness. It caused Jeremiah great grief. And he lamented again and again the state of the church of his time. Why? Because they were consumed with sensuality. They were consumed with their own pleasures. What a vivid description in verse 14. Look what he says. Therefore, Sheol or the grave, some versions have hell. Therefore, hell enlarges its appetite. What a picture. And opens its mouth without limit. Into it will descend their nobles and masses with all their brawlers and revelers. Friends, he's talking about the church here. We're so quick to point out the sins of those who are outside of the church and to speak of their lost condition. But there are many who sit here today and others who listen who claim to be Christians who are destined for hell. Who are destined for destruction. Why? Because of the pursuit of your own pleasures. What a picture. He says the party's over. The affluence is ended. There will be no more estates with you sitting like a squire in the middle. There will be no more drink. Why? Because Sheol has opened its mouth. The place of the dead has opened its mouth and has enlarged its lust for the souls of men. And it will consume them again and again and again, and it will never be satisfied. The appetite for pleasure and power and self-serving interests is met head-on by destruction and eventually the fall of their city, Jerusalem. And it would happen in Isaiah's day. God meted out judgment against his church. So he says in verse 15, so man will be brought low and mankind humbled, the eyes of the arrogant humbled. Underscore those words, the eyes. The eyes are the organs of lust and desire. The very things that gave them pleasure no longer will satisfy. The very longing after pleasure is supplanted by a shroud of death. And God has delivered them over to their pleasures. Their pleasures become their gods, but their gods cannot and do not satisfy. They lust, but they have not. Where does that leave us? In the pursuit of our pleasures. That leaves us with a choice between two gods, the God of Hedonism or the God of holiness. You see, his love rejected and spurned demands his wrath. You don't believe that, you don't understand the cross. When you look at the cross of Jesus Christ, what do you have? The love of God in that he punishes my sins. The love of God in that he places the sins of all of his elect on that cross so that he bears in himself our full shield, our full hell, that he suffers the equivalent of hell for all eternity for me and for all of his elect people on that cross, so that I don't have to. But to reject that love, to ignore that love, to spurn that love, demands that the wrath, the same wrath of God that allowed Jesus Christ to be butchered on that cross, is then meet it out on me. Meet it out on you and all who will reject that love. Then what does he say in verse 17? He says, The sheep will graze as in their own pasture, lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich. You see, their flocks, which was the source of wealth in those days. The flocks, which were their witness to the other nations of the prosperity that God had given to his people. Their flocks, which were the vehicle by which they worshipped in sacrificing their flocks. And so their wealth and their witness and their worship is now doomed to roam the ruins of a one-time prosperous nation now existing under the wrath of God. What a gloomy picture. What a gloomy picture. In the past 15 years, and I know I have to be very, very careful when I speak of this. But in the past 15 years, there has been a movement across Christendom, especially in America. And many, many good things have come out of this movement. Many good books have been written, many fine people are involved in it. And so I have to be very careful because I don't want to throw some sort of blanket criticism against the whole thing. But I believe there is a very, very, very subtle danger that in the years to come will become extremely oppressive if the church is not careful in what is called the church growth movement. Now let me tell you about the church growth movement. One of the things that people who are the leaders in the church growth movement are concerned about is the dwindling supply of worshipers in the American church. They look around at our churches and they say, Why are they empty? Why are they empty? Why are there so few people interested? Are we going the same path as England went, where virtually 99% of England's populace does not go to church at all? Are we going the same path as France, which is living in virtual hedonism? Are we going the same path as Germany, where the church and its relationship to its people is virtually nonexistent? Is the Western church, the European church of which we are a part, is it destined to doom? Is it destined to failure? They look at what is happening at a church system in America that one time was great, where the fires of revival lit the prairie lands, where some of you are old enough to remember times when the churches were jam-packed, when revival meetings were held, and thousands and thousands of people were flocking to hear the gospel. It wasn't too many generations ago that we experienced the great preachers of our day and the great revivals under Edwards and Finney and the others. We only read about those things now. They're in the distant past, and we don't know what that's like to live under that kind of church life. But fundamental to their question are some answers that I don't believe are biblical. In fact, there's a philosophical, what I call an oxymoron in the church growth movement. It goes like this. The first thing they do is they describe the world scene. They say, let's look at the church outside of America, let's look at the church around the world, not just in the European or Western culture, let's look at the church universally, and what do we see? Well, we start with America usually. We say, well, there are 375,000 churches in the United States. Did you know that? The median or average attendance in those churches, 375,000 of them, is 75 people. That means that over half of all the people in this country who worship anywhere worship in one-seventh of all of the churches. Churches that have 250 people in attendance or more represent the 95 percentile. Churches like ours that average a thousand people or more are in the 99.9 percentile. That means that only 0.1 of 1% of the churches in America have more people coming out than this church does. The church growth experts look at that and they say, how come 85% of the churches in America are on the decline? Why in America do 50 to 60 churches close every week? Every single week, 50 to 60 churches in this country shut their doors and close up shop. Now, immediately the church growth experts then jump to the world scene. They go over to South Korea. They say, look in contrast, what's happening in South Korea. Look at how thousands and thousands of people are flocking to churches all over South Korea. They go to Latin America and they say that in contrast to the 50. To 60 churches in America that close every week. In every year in South America, 50,000 new churches will be started every year. Why in Latin America are they opening churches at the rate of 50,000 per year? And in America, we're closing them at the rate of 50 per week. They point to the former Soviet Union and speak of the great hunger that exists in those churches. How many, many new congregations are already beginning to sprout up, but now here is where the oxymoron jumps in. You see, these same church growth experts look at what's happening around the world. They look at what's happening in America. And they say, Well, now we need to make a jump. And they make this philosophical jump from we need to do the same things that they're doing in the non-Western churches, in our Western churches, and we will have the same results. And they make a jump that I believe is too big of a jump to make. Now here's the jump that they make. They say, you know what we need to do? We need to speak with relevance to our culture. We need to speak with clarity to our culture. Now that sounds good, but now here is where the trouble begins. We need to change the language. We need to accommodate the changing society around us. We need to begin to structure our preaching and our teaching and our worship so that the average non-Christian will not be offended. We need to engage our culture because our churches are falling apart and our churches in America are falling apart while others around the world are not. And so, therefore, we must accommodate our culture in order to engage our culture. Where it fails is in determining that the reason for such rapid growth worldwide of the church and the contrasting fall of the European and the American church is that in the world church they have refused to bow to the pressures of meeting people's quote felt needs, which is a buzzword of church growth, over against their real need. Here is what the average unchurched man is looking for in a church. Here is what he is seeking for in a church. He wants his felt need to be addressed. But don't talk about his real need. I engaged a man recently in a public setting of other pastors. I don't mind telling you he's a well-respected theologian and a well-respected church growth expert, but I want to tell you he's dead wrong. One of the questions I raised in that setting with all the other pastors sitting there was this. I said, how is it that we make the jump from analyzing the world church where there is such great growth and the American church where there is such great decline, and we fail to ask ourselves why those churches are growing? It is not because they're meeting, quote, felt needs, it is because they are being persecuted, it is because they are suffering, it is because they are refusing to bow to the pressures of compromising the gospel, it is because they're willing to pay the price and not accommodate the culture in which they live, but to contrast the gospel of Jesus Christ. Neither did most of the pastors sitting there. But I believe we have an inherent danger in this system because you see, years later, this is all going to cycle out, and what we're going to be left with is a church system that has met everybody's felt needs, but has failed to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we will be thrust more into our apostasy than we are today. You see, the seminarians are being taught this stuff. The pastors of struggling churches go to these conferences and they come home all psyched up and fired up to engage their culture, to meet their felt needs, to speak the language of the average man. Nowhere in Scripture do the people who are the people of God engage their culture in such a way so as to compromise the message. One example this man used in our little public exchange, which I wish we had a little more time to develop, but it was close to the break, so we couldn't develop it too much more. One of the illustrations was the woman at the well. He says, Jesus met her at her point of felt need. Did he? Is that what he did? Did he meet her at her point of felt need? He said, Give me something to drink. She said, Why are you asking me for something to drink? Don't you know Jews and Samarians don't have anything in common? He said, if you knew who it was that was asking you for something to drink, you'd ask of him and give you water of life. And that exchange goes on. And finally he says to her, in the matter of that one brief conversation, go call your husband. And what does she say? I don't have a husband. He says, You're right, you had five husbands, and the one you're living with now is not your husband. Talk about engaging somebody at the point of their real need. See, I don't understand the jump we're making. If we want to be like the South Korean church, then maybe we ought to live in the danger of invasion from North Korea. If we want to live like the Latin American church or the Russian churches, then maybe we ought to live in the environment of persecution and suffering that comes with anarchy. And I think that's what's wrong with the American church. We're hedonistic. We're too self-oriented, pleasure-oriented. What's in it for me? What are the pleasures for me? You know, we have hedonism at its best. We have no marital faithfulness in our churches. Great openness on the divorce issue. We have no accountability to the rest of the body. The average baby boomer today, we are told, doesn't want to join a church because he doesn't want to make any commitments. Certainly he would never join a church that practices church discipline where his sins could be dealt with. So we say, we need to get rid of church discipline. We need to get rid of membership requirements. If you want to reach the baby boomer, then water down the message. Get rid of the membership requirements. You want to reach that person out there who's thinking about divorcing his wife or her husband without biblical cause, then water down the message. Don't talk about the fact that the scripture clearly God says I hate divorce. Don't talk about that. Otherwise, you won't reach the divorced people. Don't preach any messages that are transformational. Always preach positive messages. Don't talk about the fact that God's word can change your life. Because you see, that might be offensive. They might be content with the way their lives are. Don't be a church that's user-unfriendly. Be a church that's user-friendly. Don't say or do anything within the context of worship to offend. Because you see, that average Joe Schlo out there who's unchurched, he might be offended. And so in many of these churches, worship is done away with. Absolutely done away with. And thousands of people come out to these churches and they look at these great numbers and say, see, we're reaching the masses. We must be right. The liberal mainline churches across this country boast of millions of members. Are they right? The Mormon church is growing by thousands and thousands of people. Are they right? The fastest growing cult is the Jehovah's Witnesses. Are they right? And what about the Unitarians who offend nobody? Are they right? The answer is no. Simple numbers does not mean you're right. Don't be rigid in your doctrine because you see the average baby boomer. He's appalled by rigidity. Don't talk about the fact that there's a virgin birth. Don't talk about the miraculous in the Bible. Don't talk about doctrine that binds me. Give me freedom to believe whatever I want to believe. Give me choices. Give the average church member a remote control when he comes to church. So if he doesn't like the channel, he can switch it. He can get what he wants. A potpourri of incorrect doctrine. Don't be rigid. Hedonism. Hedonism. Don't make my commitment inconvenient to my routine. You see, the average baby boomer out there, he doesn't want to make any commitments. Make it easy for me to be a Christian. Accommodate my needs so that when I come to your church, you ask nothing of me. What I give, I give freely, so long as it doesn't interrupt my routine, so long as it doesn't become inconvenient. Don't ask me to make any long-term commitments, we're told. Because the average baby boomer sitting out there, he only wants to invest in short-term projects. I'm in it for the short run, and if I don't like it, I get out. You see, if something better comes along, I'm out of here. Color me gone. I'm history. Nothing long term. And get this. The average baby boomer says, I want my privacy. And I want to respect the privacy of others, so don't ever ask me to share my faith. You know what's happening in the church growth movement across the board? Sadly. Many, many godly men, godly men, are feeding themselves with all this thinking that's going on in the boomers, in that generation they want to reach. They're saying, well, now we have to now pattern our church in such a way so as not to offend him and therefore to reach him. We need to build bridges by meeting his felt need so that we open the door to meet his real need. This is hedonism at its best. And I believe the church growth movement will cycle and it will leave in its wake a string of churches that have become nothing more than scaled-down religious clubs with virtually no impact upon our post-churched and post-Christian era in which we live. That's why this church and churches like this church are going to become more and more a minority. If you're an unchurched person and you're here, I think the most important need you have is your need of Jesus Christ. And there is nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing that is going to take the significance of that message away from the impact and dynamic of what this church is all about. If you want to hear that message, this is the place. If you want a country club, this is not the place. Hedonism. A second of the sins. A second of Isaiah's grapes of wrath. Let's look at a third one. Isaiah chapter 5, verse 18. Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes. To those who say, Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come so we may know it. Now see, here's a picture of a beast harnessed to and dragging a cart with cords of deceit and falsehood. By holding on to what is false, the people of Judah bound themselves to sin. What starts out, by the way, notice the change of the words, what starts out as cords become cart ropes. What starts out as what pulls the cart becomes a rope that binds that's unbreakable. Notice he puts together two words, sin and wickedness, sin and iniquity. Anytime you find those two words mentioned in the same verse, when used together, they point to both a behavior that is evil and an attitude that is evil. You see what he's talking about here is an arrogance. And here's the arrogance. God, prove yourself to me. Prove yourself to me. Why? Because they're wrapped up in sin. They demand that God prove that he is who he says he is. Here is a skepticism which doubts that God is at all involved in the world, a blindness which cannot see his hand at work, and thus a blindness that denies the supernatural. Here are men and women who are so wrapped up in their sin they demand of God proof. They say, God cannot be involved in the things of this world, that there is no such thing as a supernatural, that there is no such thing as the miraculous, that there is no transcending God who also involves himself in the affairs of men. God, prove yourself to me. Prove you are who you say you are. Practical atheism, hedonism, the third sin, rationalism. I want to tell you, rationalism is alive and well today. An arrogance that demands that God proves himself. And I want to tell you, this denial of the supernatural is at the heart of modern-day rationalism. It's nothing new. In the New Testament, it was the theology of the Sadducees. Remember anytime you read about Jesus dealing with the Sadducees, they were the rationalists of that day. They said there's no heaven, there's no hell, there's no angel, there's no devil, there's no resurrection. They denied everything that was supernatural. And then later, when the church was given birth and when the apostles started going out, the rationalism took on a form of heresy called Gnosticism. Gnosticism said, well, the spirit is basically good, matter is basically evil, and in its extreme form, they said Jesus was not really a man. He couldn't have really been a man. Therefore, he didn't really die on a cross. Because you see, he wasn't really flesh. Why? Because all flesh was evil. So he didn't really physically rise from the dead because he never really physically was crucified in the first place. Early heresy called Gnosticism. Spirit is good, matter is evil. Christ could not really have been flesh and blood. Denial of the resurrection, denial of the supernatural, denial of everything that was called miraculous in the Bible, all of the miracles of the Bible were demythologized. Take the myth out, get to the kernel of truth. Rationalism is alive and well in the church today. In fact, I will go as far as to say this to you: the system of rationalism that we see inherent in Gnosticism and in the Sadducees is the prevalent philosophy and theology of ministry preached and taught in just about every major seminary in the country today. What does John 1-1 say? John says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And then in verse 14, the word became what? Flesh. Why do you think he said that? Because the heresy of Gnosticism was already in full bloom. The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Paul would say to the Colossian Christians in chapter 1, once you were alienated from God, you were the enemies. Your minds, because of the evil behavior, you were the enemies of God. But now he has reconciled you by Christ, listen, by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight. If you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel, this is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Notice what he says. He says that Jesus physically died. Jesus physically rose from the dead. Why is he saying that? Because of the Gnostics in the church. In the second chapter of Colossians verse 8, he would say, See to it that no one takes you captive. Listen, through hollow and deceptive philosophy. Now he's going to define that hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ, listen, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. Why did he say that? Because of the Gnostics. And you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. You see, Gnosticism, rationalism, the denial of the supernatural is not new. It's not new. I've always wondered what the Gnostic, heretical, rationalistic, mainline preachers say when they go to a funeral. I've always wondered what they could possibly say to somebody. What comfort could they possibly give them? What hope? What could they possibly say to make that person cling to any semblance of hope? What would I have done if I were one of those preachers? When on July 6, 1993, I held my son's dead body in my arms. What would I say? This is it. This is all there is. Hang it up, pack it in. There is no resurrection. My purpose, Paul says, is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding. In order that you may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. You see what he's doing? He's setting up two contrasting systems. One in which the wisdom and knowledge of God that reveals itself supernaturally, and the sufficiency of Christ's work is held in sharp contrast to what the Gnostics believe, what the rationalists believe, what the Sadducees believe, and what the liberals today believe about spiritual issues. Christ, our sufficiency, or the sufficiency of your own mind and your own wisdom. The two are set in dire opposition to each other. You see, the rationalists believed that every man had a spark of deity inside of him. And that this spark was the key to unlocking the mysteries of knowledge in order for you to gain great spiritual illumination. Inside of you was the key that unlocks the door to the mysteries of the unknown. And you know what happened? It caused many in the early church to seek hidden knowledge beyond what God had revealed to us in his word. Two sets of Christians were established those who know it and those who do not. Those to whom great revelation was given, those to whom great revelation wasn't given. Those who had mystical experiences and revealed truth beyond the scriptures, and those who were trusting in the scriptures alone. So a whole Arbitrary system of knowledge was established. Truth was determined by the one who was searching out the truth. He would rationalize truth. He would decide it for himself. Rationalism. You see, what Gnosticism was, was a direct attack upon the sufficiency of the work of Christ. It promised something more, some high spiritual resource, all to lead one to the belief that the work of Christ was insufficient. Is rationalism dead today? Hardly. Hardly. New Ageism is not something that just Shirley McLean dwells in. New Ageism is something that is so prevalent in our culture, so prevalent in our churches, that it is hard to go to a church or listen to a sermon where you do not hear some sort of New Age philosophy being propounded. I happen to tune in to one of my very favorite people. I just don't miss Oprah Winfrey. A woman that I believe is one of the greatest disguises and counterfeits of truth that you'll find in America today. And on her panel, there were three people. Two women who had been jilted by their boyfriends, and they were continuing to pursue their boyfriends. And her whole show was based on women who pursue their boyfriends after being jilted. You know, the extraordinary means they go through to pursue their boyfriends after they've been dumped. But there was a third person on the panel, a gay man, who also had been jilted. And the gist of the whole discussion was that he was treated in the same way that the two women were treated, as though his behavior was just as normal as their behavior. New ageism. Rationalism. I'm not kidding you. You think I'm kidding. They have taken scriptural license to try to demonstrate that the reason God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah was because the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were homophobic. What deception. If we don't like something in the Bible, throw it out. Rewrite it. That's rationalism. That's the thinking, that's the mindset of those who deny the supernatural. If the revelation of God's character and God's nature given us in the Word is insufficient, then we are forced to do one of two things: either change that revelation or search elsewhere for some hope or comfort. Anything but face the fact that God is who he says he is. God has revealed himself a certain way, and thus saith the Lord, period, exclamation point. If we don't like it, rewrite it. Change it. Why? Because wisdom has been given to us. Some professor somewhere has decided that he can demythologize and decode the scriptures. I went to seminary back in the late 60s. And I gotta tell you, this was in full bloom back then. I had many, many arguments with my professor of Old Testament who denied the supernatural. He would rewrite the scriptures. He would pull out his Masoritic text that only six people in the whole country can read in the first place. And he would try to prove his positions, denying that God has revealed himself in a supernatural context. It didn't take long for the professor of New Testament to come out with the same kinds of things. So you had an Old Testament professor and a New Testament professor controlling the Bible departments of one of the one-time most evangelical seminaries in the whole country. Those two men refused to sign a doctrinal statement. I remember it clearly. I remember Dr. Carl F. H. Henry, one of the leading evangelical scholars of our day, walked into that classroom and announced to us that he would never ever come back to that seminary because the men who were the professors of Old and New Testament refused to sign a statement saying they believed in the inerrancy of Scripture. This is not new. This is the theology I was raised with. And I would imagine if I went back to that same school, I would find that the same things we argued about that were controversial then are now acceptable as truth. I remember one time we went to a chapel service. The chapel service, to our absolute amazement, was a communion service. You say, well, what's so strange about that? It was a communion service conducted by the Hare Krishna cult. And we were celebrating a communion service with Hare Krishna pictures and statues and everything else, and the bread was being offered up in the name of Hare Krishna. We stood up and we said, This is evil. We actually disrupted the service and said, This is evil. And we encouraged the other seminary students to walk out. And we were the ones chastised by the professors of Old and New Testament for being too narrow and not open to the cultures and religious changes of others. It's not new. That happened twenty-some years ago. But it's more so today than ever before. Rationalism, the denial of the supernatural. For that reason, I believe that we are primed, primed for either judgment or revival. And I don't know about you, but I'm praying for revival. I'm praying that God would purge his church of the subtle heresies, of the direct heresies, of the obvious heresies, and that he would bring this church into the forefront of church leadership.

SPEAKER_02 51:25

May we never be a people who compromise the message of Jesus Christ. Now may the grace of God, the love of our Lord and our Savior Jesus the Christ, the very presence, person, and power of his Holy Spirit, abide with each of you now until Christ comes again and forevermore. And all God's people said it.

SPEAKER_01 51:54

You have been listening to In His Grip featuring the preaching and teaching ministry of Dr. Chuck F. Betters and produced by Mark Case Ministries. Mark's Ministries exist to offer help and hope to hurting people by pointing them to the promises of God and the comfort of his word. Through In His Grip, ask Dr. Betters, Phil Easter, and Help and Hope, we provide free, faith-based resources for those walking through suffering, grief, confusion, and seasons of easy needs. To learn more about Dr. Betters, explore our resources or contact us, visit F-A-R-K-I-M-C.