Sermon Tone Analysis

Preserving sound doctrine

Purge the evil from among you

!!! /07-05-06am/

!!! Announcements

!!! God’s Word in our midst

!!!

Call to worship

The Lord foils the plans of the nations; He thwarts the purposes of the peoples.

But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.

(Psalm 33:10-11)

!!! Blessing

Grace to you from God our Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord, and the holy Spirit, our Comforter.

!!! Doxology Hymn No 112:        /”All creatures of our God and King” (verses 1 & 5 only, with “AMEN”)/                                  

!!! Prayer of Adoration, Invocation and Thanksgiving Lord’s Prayer

!!! Hymn No 53:                               /“All people that on earth do dwell”/

!!! Prayer of Confession of sin

!!! Forgiveness

Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.

(Isaiah 65:24)

!!! Scripture Reading                     Galatians 1:6-10

!!! Tithes, offering and dedication

While the stewards wait on the tithes and offerings, all remain seated and sing:

!!! Hymn No 612:                            /”As men of old their first fruits brought”/

!!! Prayer for others

!!! Scripture Reading                    

!!! Sermon

!!!!!! Introduction

My dear brother and sister and young friends in the Lord Jesus Christ, let me ask our younger members a few questions.

Look at the screen.

What sort of tree do you see?

What sorts of fruit do you see?

Let look at this particular plant.

What is it?

To me it looks like a banana plant.

Let’s put these fruit and hang them up in the banana plant.

See, we have changed the banana plant:  it is an apple tree now.

Do you believe that?

It easy, next time you don’t like the banana plant in your back yard, just put some apples in it.

You might even take oranges and turn your banana into an orange.

What do you say?

But, and this might be a slight problem, what is going to happen with your converted banana plant next year when it is time for fruit?

Do you expect bananas or apples or oranges?

I think you know.

Why?

Because a tree can actually just bear fruit which is of the nature of the tree.

So it is with people.

And more so with church leaders who pretend to be very good preachers and prophets of the Lord, and yet, they have not turned to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and a new life.

They may outwardly bear fruit which may remind us of a certain tree, but inwardly they are liars and enemies of the kingdom of God.

The Bible tells us to be careful and on the watch for such people.

They pretend to be disciples of the Lord, but actually they are like a wolf dressed as a sheep.

Remember that.

The only way we can tell the true from the false, is by testing them and what they say against the Word of God.

If what they say is not what the Word teaches, they are false teachers.

We should listen to them.

Someone made this remarked:  History has shown that once a church compromises its position and sells short the fundamental doctrines of the World, there is no chance of their going back to retrieve that which they originally adhered to.

Not in one instance has there been an apostate body that returned to fundamentalism.

Beginning with rationalism in Germany and with Deism in England, Modernism and Post Modernism now permeates every major denomination.

So-called Christian leaders boldly and blatantly deny the Virgin Birth of Christ, the Inspiration of the Scriptures, and Atoning of Christ, the Literal Resurrection of Christ, and of course they ridicule the Second Coming of Christ.

A minister declared, “We have closed our minds to such trivial considerations as the question of the resurrection of Christ.

If you fundamentalists wish to believe that nonsense, we have no objections, but we have more important things to preach than the presence or absence of an empty tomb 20 centuries old.”

Our study of Deuteronomy brings us to thus very point this morning.

This chapter is divided in three sections.

Each section starts with the word “if” and presupposes different scenarios, all of them having the purity of doctrine in mind.

The first has to do with official worship and involves prophets and dreamers or seers.

The second paragraph takes us to the private worship within family circle.

The third describes civil life where towns and cities come under the spell of a deceiver and deception of apostate teaching.

In all circumstances the scenario is:  “Let us follow other gods”, and in all cases the instruction of the Lord is remove the evil from the midst of the people, even if it means harsh steps and methods.

We will concentrate more on the first paragraph this morning.

The Lord might give us the grace to look at the other paragraphs somewhat later down the track.

!!!!!! Official worship and doctrine

Let is right in the beginning make this remark:  Worship and doctrine can not be separated.

The way you worship influences the way you understand doctrine; /vice versa/, the way you understand doctrine determines the way you worship.

You cannot worship without an underlying doctrine; you cannot adhere to a certain doctrine and not have that influence the way you worship.

Depart from the doctrine, and you depart from Christ.

Or, better, keep watch over your doctrine and "you will save . . .

yourself" as the apostle says in 1 Timothy 4:16.

That's high praise for good doctrine.

You would think evangelicals would agree.

And that is precisely what the Bible wants us to understand this morning.

There is the cry to not preach doctrine, but rather lead people in “meaningful worship”.

But we are more likely to hear things like, "Christ unites; doctrine divides," or ask, “Whom do you trust?” not “What do you believe?"

The minimization of biblical doctrine has become common.

Well known preacher and theologian Josh MacDowell writes:

Many pastors don't preach doctrine because they claim it's divisive.

You talk about truth, and it is divisive.

Instead pastors say, "We have a lot of praise and worship."

But I respond, "If you don't talk about doctrine, how do you know who you are worshiping?"

You don't.

We need to teach truth, or we will be worshiping the figment of our imagination.

Ten years ago someone would tell me, "I just can't believe in Jesus Christ."

So I would share the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I would shoot down every argument this person had.

Two hours later, I would ask, "Would you like to trust Christ as Saviour?"

He would respond, "Yes."

Today I sit down with young people and present the evidence, showing that Christ is God.

I ask, "Do you want to accept Christ?"  "Nah."

Why?

Truth is not the issue any more.

Deuteronomy 13 pictures a scenario where a prophet could arise.

This arise means “to take office”.

He is the official representative of God to the people and of the people to God.