weekly sermon7-25-10 What Is A Christian?
I have, for a little over three years now, posted message after message on this site in order to spread the word of God. I was reading something the other day that made me realize that I had started this site all wrong and continued it in the wrong manner. If I had ever planned to allow this site to share Christianity to other folks then I needed to make those same folks understand what a Christian is, according to the Bible.
Do not get me wrong, there have been many messages that have shown us how to be a Christian. There have been many messages that have shown folks how to recognize Christ, there have been many messages on how we are to be like Christ, there have even been many messages on how to receive Christ as our personal Saviour, but the heresy I have committed is offering you salvation and not life and for this I want to apologize.
I had actually allowed myself to fall into an age old trap that was originally laid out be the devil himself. I had such great intensions when this site was first started and allowed it to slip silently away. I know that messages given were gifts from God and hopefully had an affect on one person over the years that would cause them to turn their lives around and come to Christ, but then again that even slipped.
I have given messages over the years on how this site was a black and white site. What I meant was that the Bible shows us that IT is either this or that, no in between. What should have happened was the continuation of that same belief. This over the years slowly fell by the wayside. I fell into, as was stated, one of the oldest deceptions known to man. Let me explain what I am talking about.
This site eventually evolved into something that I had never planned on it evolving into, a form of Modern Evangelism. What is wrong with Modern Evangelism? I will take some excerpts from an article that I recently read and my feelings on what it is that I read to better explain where it all went wrong.
I feel very comfortable taking statements from the article that I read because it is all Bible based and we have always professed, and still do, to being a Bible based site. Now on with the explanation.
In the beginning, of this site, the messages were about the Good Shepherd and Baby Christians. At the time this seemed like a really good place to start because I wanted to, first, tell folks who the Good Shepherd was and what a Baby Christian was. The thing I failed to do was to explain what a true Christian was and this should have been the starting block to the whole spreading of the word.
The Bible clearly states that Christ is the cornerstone of the church, Ephesians 2:20, "And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner [stone];" This being said, this is where we failed as a site to bring the knowledge of Christ to the hungry.
This site should have started out from the beginning explaining how to follow Christ and less on how to find salvation. There are so many that call themselves Christians but if we look at how they live, we would never know this to be true. I have done messages on this subject but would like to take this time to make folks understand why those messages exist and why they should have been presented in another way.
We run across many folks that claim to be Christians, and we are not judging here whether they are or not, but they still live as if they are part of the world. If we do not see a difference in the folks that do not claim to be Christians and the ones that do, then we must believe that they really are not Christians at all. I know this seems like a harsh statement but it is VERY Biblical. 1John 2:15, "Love not the world, neither the things [that are] in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
How is it that we are to be part of the world but not be in the world? This is the part where I believe that this site has slipped. The reason for the slipping of the site was greatly because of compassion. I know this sounds funny because how can compassion be a bad thing? Well let me explain, and believe me it will tie back into what we were talking about in the world. I understand we are going all over the place with this, but it will all come to a complete circle very soon.
I felt an honest need to get the word of God out to as many folks as I could so that they could receive salvation. My compassion for mankind led me in a direction of wanting to offer salvation to the masses and hope that some, if not just one, would get the word and receive salvation. I have come to realize this is NOT my job. My job was, or is, never to offer salvation. Guess what? Salvation is and always has been there and will continue to always be there. Christ died on the cross that we may have salvation. Salvation will always be here because of the death and resurrection of Christ, we can not ever take that away.
Yes, I understand that salvation is something that we believe is to be offered, but I also have a question about that. Where do you ever see in the Bible where salvation was offered? You will not find it anywhere in the Bible. How can I claim this website to be a Bible based website if we are not teaching the Bible? Yes, we are teaching the Bible but we have also been adding to what we have been teaching, and that is definitely against the Bible. I have given many messages on how we are not to add to or take from anything in the Bible, and yet here we have done just that.
I know this sounds very confusing at the moment, but it will all make sense very soon.
If we study any part of the New Testament gospels we will see the life of Christ and how he taught and lived. If we follow any part of this, we will NEVER see that Christ invite anyone to salvation. One statement that I recently read in the article I was talking about earlier led me to understand this point to be true. Why did Christ never invite anyone to salvation? An invitation can be politely declined without fear of reprisal. Christ never wanted to give an offer that could be declined. Yes, it is the free will of mankind on whether he wants to spend eternity with Christ or in Hell, but that offer is freely given but not as salvation.
Christ taught in a completely different manner. Reread that statement I just wrote. I want us to notice the first two words in that statement, Christ taught. Christ never offered or invited anyone to anything, Christ taught. Christ told us to follow Him to the Father. It is taught in the Bible that we are to be like Christ. It is taught in the Bible that we are too seek out the Father. Amos 5:14, "Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken." John 13:33, "Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you."
If you can understand what it is that I am trying to say here, we are NEVER to seek salvation, but we are to seek Christ and He will give us salvation. I will use another excerpt from the article I had read. If you said a prayer to receive salvation so that you could get a ticket to Heaven, you have made a MAJOR mistake. This is NOT six flags over Jesus. You can not purchase a ticket by saying a simple prayer. We know this to be true for several reasons. First off, no where in the Bible does it say pray to receive salvation and you will receive Christ. What it does say is, seek Christ and you will receive salvation. Let us look at salvation in another manner than we have ever in the past. If we are seeking salvation then we are being completely selfish on what we are seeking. If we seek salvation then we are seeking something for ourselves. If we seek Christ then we will follow Christ and in turn seek to do the things that Christ has done.
As I stated, Christ never came to offer salvation, no where in the Bible do you see an altar call. All you see in the Bible is a Christ call. Christ was the original terminator, come with Him if you want to live. Do you REALLY want salvation? All you have to do is seek that which is above, Christ. Colossians 3:1, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." If we truly believe that Christ died on the cross and was raised from the dead, we are already saved, but to maintain that salvation we must continue to seek out and follow Christ.
Do you honestly believe that if you believe that Christ died on the cross and was raised from the dead you will be saved? If you believe this is the one true ticket to get into Heaven then you are very sadly mistaken. This is where I did not want this site to continue to go, in a direction that allowed folks to believe this. You want me to prove why one would be mistaken if they believed that? The devil, himself, believes, because he knows, that Christ died on the cross and also rose from the dead. Does this mean that the devil is saved?
What differentiates us from the devil if we both believe the same thing? The title of this message holds the answer, what is a Christian. A Christian is one that wants to be like Christ. To be like Christ you must constantly be seeking Christ and following in His footsteps. Christ was not of this world, John 8:23, "And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world." This is what makes us different that the devil, we both believe the same thing but only one of us wants to be like Christ. The way to true salvation is to constantly seek out Christ and stop living yourself. This one verse will show you the exact difference between a true Christian and one that claims to be a Christian, John 17:3, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." Life eternal is received ONLY by the simple act of KNOWING Christ and God.
Now, I hope you can understand why I felt the strong need to have this messages posted. I honestly believe that this site was intended to spread the word of God, not to invite folks to be saved. If I ever believed this site could offer salvation then I would have believed that I was God. God is the ONLY one that has salvation, not this site.
Does this mean that I will stop offering folks a chance to say the sinners prayer and receive the gift of life that Christ has to offer? No this does not mean that at all. This means that if you were not a Christian and you said the prayer to receive Christ, then we want to help you with your discipleship. Once you have received Christ as your personal saviour, then you must follow and seek out Christ. As a baby Christian you will need guidance with this, that is where I hope this site will help. I am only here to spread the word of God, God will handle the rest.
Do you want to fully turn over your life and allow Christ to be Lord over you that you may receive true eternal life? All you have to do is say a simple prayer to get started. Once you have said this prayer, then you will have to start seeking Christ, that you may be like Christ.
Say this simple prayer with me, Dear Lord, I want you to be the Lord over my life, forgive me of my sins, and give me the gift of everlasting life. Amen.
If you have said this simple prayer, then we believe that you have received salvation. We would love to rejoice with you, so please drop us a note, in our link, to let us know and confess Jesus before man, so that we may send you a few things that we hope will help you in your new Christian walk.
With Love in Christ, Pastor Stone
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