Can a Parachurch Ministry Be My Church?

Can a parachurch ministry be my church? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity.

Well, hi there. I'm Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adrielle Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites, and of course you can always email us your question at questions-at-core-christianity.com. And first up today, Adrielle, we have an email question for you. This one comes from Hector, and he says, Is all sin equal in God's eyes? Like, for example, a white lie versus murder.

Are those equal? Hector, thank you for that question. The first thing I think that we need to do is define what sin is. Sin is not just making a mistake. The best definition for sin, I think, is sin is any want of conformity to or transgression of God's law. That is, sin is when we fail to conform our lives to what God has called us to positively. God calls you to love your neighbor.

Instead, you just are sort of neutral. You don't positively love your neighbor, and so it is failing to conform to God's law, or just when we transgress the law of God. That is, break one of God's holy commandments. Now, all sin deserves God's wrath and curse, and all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But your question specifically is, does that mean that every sin is the same in God's eyes?

I think the answer to that is no. There are some sins that are worse than others. Some sins just in and of themselves or by reason of being repeated over and over again, I think, are more heinous in God's eyes. Even when we consider who it is that's committing the sin, I think, can make it more heinous. So, for example, if it's a person in authority, a religious leader specifically, I think that makes the sin all the more heinous. You think of what Jesus said to the religious leaders. These are going to receive greater condemnation.

Why? Because they have a higher level of accountability. They should know the truth and how it is that God calls them to live, and they reject that. As a result, we might say that in one sense their sin is greater. There are a number of passages, I think, that make this clear.

One text of scripture that I go to, usually when this question is asked, is all sin equal or are some sins worse than others, you think of what God says in Ezekiel chapter 8, where Ezekiel has this vision of these abominations that are taking place among the people of God. We read in verse 7, He brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. He said to me, Son of man, dig in the wall.

So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance. He said to me, Go in and see all of the vile abominations that they are committing here. And so I went and I saw, and there engraved on the wall all around was every form of creeping thing and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jazniah the son of Shaphan standing among them.

Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up. And he said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, The Lord does not see us. The Lord has forsaken the land. And he also said to me, You will see still greater abominations that they commit.

And it sort of just gets worse and worse and worse. And so what we have here is a clear picture of the fact that some sins are indeed more heinous in the eyes of God than others. That doesn't excuse our other sins, you know, the ones that are less heinous, the white lie, you might say. But the reality is there are some sins that are worse than others.

And so all sin calls us to humble ourselves, to repent, to turn, but we can differentiate in terms of some sins being worse than others. Thank you, Hector, for your question. Hector, thanks so much for your question and for listening to Core Christianity. By the way, we have a special group of people we want to say thank you to today. We call them our inner core, and we have a special virtual meeting coming up for all inner core members. Yeah, I'm pretty excited about this virtual meeting and being able to meet with many of our inner core members. And for those of you who don't know what the inner core is, it's a group that supports us with their monthly donation of $25 or more.

Not just supports us but partners together with us to get the word of the gospel out through the airwaves encouraging people, men and women, children even, with the broadcast. And so if you're interested in joining the inner core, we'd love to have you partner with us. And we'll send you, if you partner with us, a copy of Dr. Michael Horton's book, Core Christianity. And as Bill was saying, we also want to invite you to join us for a live virtual meeting that's going to be happening with the core team and other inner core members on April 13th at 8 p.m. Eastern Time, 5 p.m. Pacific, where you'll have an opportunity to ask me questions about the Christian faith or even learn more about the core Christianity organization. And so if you're already a member of the inner core, please be on the lookout for the invitation in your email.

And if you're not, jot that down. Inner Core is that group of people, as Adriel said, who support us and that virtual meeting on April 13th at 5 p.m. Pacific, 8 p.m. Eastern Time. You can learn more by going to corechristianity.com forward slash inner core. Well, our phone lines are open right now. If you have a question for Adriel about the Bible or the Christian life, here's the phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. We'll be taking calls for the next 15 minutes or so. So hop on your phone right now. Again, we're open to any question at all about the Bible, the Christian life, doctrine, theology, you name it.

833-THE-CORE is the number. Well, let's go to a voicemail from one of our listeners. This one is from Steve. Hi Pastor Adriel. I'm calling from California. I'm trying to decide which church I should start tithing to. We don't really have an established local Christian church here.

I'm in Northern California in the Bay Area. Things have not gone back to in-person worship yet, but I'm still trying to decide which church should I A, become a member of and B, tithe money to. And I was thinking of Core Christianity because I do listen to your program every day and I love it, but it doesn't seem like a church. It's more of a question and answer, which I like, but I was wondering if you consider Core Christianity to be a church and would, in the eyes of God, tithing to the inner core be acceptable?

Steve, thank you for that question, for your kindness, for your support. No, I do not consider Core Christianity to be a church. We're an organization that wants to come alongside of local churches and pastors. I'm a pastor myself of a local church preaching the gospel, seeking to care for the flock of God in the context of the local church, and we all need to be. If you're a professing Christian, we need to be in churches.

You need to be in a church, Steve, and I'm sorry to hear that things have not opened up where you're at. You need to be in a church, and the other part of your question, which is a really good question, how do I know which church to become a member of? Well, we identify true churches by what we sometimes refer to as the marks of the church. The church is wherever the word of God is being faithfully proclaimed.

It's there that the Spirit of God is working. A quote-unquote church, they can have a building, they can get all dressed up and come together on a Sunday morning, but if the word of God is not being proclaimed, well, God is not speaking there because God speaks through his word. Fundamentally, it's the word of God that creates and sustains the church.

The first thing you need to look for in looking for a good church is a place where the scriptures are valued, where the word of God has priority, where they're not getting together just to tell stories and talk about ways to help the community. The ways to help the community is very important, a good thing, but we come together on Sunday as the people of God to hear God speak to us from heaven, and he does so through his word and by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so you want to find a place where the word is central and where Jesus Christ is central through the preaching of the word, the gospel. You have Jesus being preached into your heart week in and week out through faithful pastors, ministers. I long for that for you and for all of those who listen to this broadcast because we love answering your questions every day about the Christian faith, but as I said, this is not the church. You need a community of believers around you in the flesh who can encourage you, walk alongside of you, who can know you and hold you accountable under the ministry of the word. And so the faithful preaching of the word of God, worship in line with what Jesus has called us to in his word, discipline that is care for the body, fellowship, you know, those are the things that you're going to want to look for.

Now, that doesn't mean you can't support us in other ways, you know, becoming a member of the inner core. We'd love that, but I would say, you know, in terms of supporting the ministry of the gospel, you really want to prioritize the local church that you're a part of. And so I pray for you, Steve, that God would literally, I mean, quite literally open up the doors in your neighborhood and that the Lord would guide you, your family to the right place where his word is exalted, where he is exalted through faithful teaching. And I would say contribute to the needs there and to the advancement of the gospel there. But you don't have to limit your gifts to just the local church. You can give to all sorts of things as well.

And so I appreciate your support and just love that you listen every day. God bless you, brother. I feel for Steve because so many churches during the COVID situation had shut down or just went to online only. And I know you guys at your church in San Diego had to be very creative for a while on how you worshiped on Sundays.

We did. I mean, for a while when everything was shut down, especially early on a couple years back, there was the opportunity to do drive-in worship services. So we actually rented a big parking lot out here in San Diego. And I preached from the top of a lifted Jeep in the middle of a parking lot. And it was pretty awesome.

It was also pretty terrifying because it was probably like a, it felt like a 10 foot drop off. So you can't be running around up there. You have to just stay still. But yeah, I mean, we want to get the word out however we can. And so I know for many ministries has been a challenge, but I'm grateful for those who are, who are really striving to continue honoring the Lord by gathering together. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Chris calling in from Illinois. Chris, what's your question for Adriel? My question is, once you give your life to Jesus and you're saved, can you lose your salvation and become unsaved? Hey Chris, thank you for that question.

A very common question. And I don't know if you're, I mean, I imagine maybe this is something you're wrestling with for yourself. I know it's something that I really wrestled with as a newer believer. Just saying, oh gosh, I've experienced the grace of God in my life. I've believed in Jesus. I've felt his presence in my life.

What if I mess this up? What if I do something that causes God to abandon me? My firm conviction, as I've studied the scriptures, is that Jesus does not forsake his own. That if you have given yourself to the Lord and you know Jesus by faith, you've received him for the forgiveness of your sins, that God himself, Chris, is going to be the one who keeps you and sustains you. Now that doesn't mean that we won't have struggles in the Christian life, and indeed we do. And that there might not even be seasons where maybe because of sin, some grievous sin, it feels like God isn't there anymore. But I think of the promise that we have from Jesus himself to his people.

I will never leave you or forsake you. Now there are some people, Chris, who I think are deceived. Maybe they prayed a prayer and they said, yeah, I accepted Jesus into my heart. Maybe I went to church or been in church for a long time. But there's a difference between sort of being around Christianity and having a vital faith in Jesus Christ. There are people, I think, who can deceive themselves.

And so that's a different issue. But I would say for those who truly belong to the Lord, those who have been born of the Spirit, that they cannot and will not lose their salvation, but that God himself is the one who is going to keep them. And I think of what Paul said in Romans 8, verse 29, For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called. And those whom he called he also justified. And those whom he justified he also glorified. God is the one who justifies. He's the one who glorifies.

He's the one who calls and predestines. He does the work. And because the work is in his hands, we can rest. And so the question for each of us is, have I truly believed in Jesus? Have I received him for the forgiveness of my sins? And if we have, if we believe in him, then what the scripture says, what John says in his first letter is we can know that we have eternal life. God bless you, Chris.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We've got phone lines open right now. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, here's the phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. We'll be taking calls for the next five, six minutes or so.

So hop on the phone right now. Let's go to Russell in Missouri. Russell, what's your question for Adriel?

I'd like to explain it. First Corinthians 15, 50 through 58, mainly on 1554. You're looking for an explanation of those verses, Russell?

Yes, mainly. First Corinthians 15, 54. Okay.

Hey, thank you. Yeah, so First Corinthians 15, really coming here in the context of a discussion about the resurrection of the dead, and it seems like in Corinth, this city where Paul is writing to, there was confusion amongst the Christians there on the doctrine of the resurrection. Paul says, beginning in verse 50, I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed.

So he's talking about the last day, the resurrection of the dead, this transformation that's going to take place. Verse 53, for this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable and when the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is your victory?

Oh death, where is your sting? Right now, we live in these perishable bodies, if you will, Russell, affected by sin and sin's entrance into the world. Because sin entered the world, death came through sin.

Paul says this very clearly elsewhere in Romans chapter 5 verses 12 and following. And so we've inherited sin, corruption, guilt even, and through that comes death. Now Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth, assumed humanity so that in that humanity he might live, suffer, and die for our sins. And in dying conquered death for us, he rose again from the dead.

Christianity answers the problem of man's greatest need, the problem of sin and mortality. People are looking to figure out how can we live longer. There are even some people in Silicon Valley that are talking about ways to try to make us immortal. There's all sorts of money that's being invested even now in trying to extend the human lifespan for as long as possible, trying to conquer the problem of death. And people think as we look forward to science and medicine and technology maybe, maybe we'll be able to conquer the problem of death. The reality is it's not about looking forward. The answer to the problem of death is not looking forward, it's looking back to the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, to the one who conquered death so that in him we have the hope that these mortal, perishable bodies might put on immortality.

It's really quite amazing. So what Paul is talking about there is the glorification of our bodies, the resurrection of the dead, this act that God accomplishes through the power of the Holy Spirit so that we might dwell with him in perfect purity and peace and in immortality. And that's what Paul is getting at there in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And that's the hope that each of us has united to Jesus Christ by faith.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Just a reminder, you are invited to join that special group of people we call our inner Core.

They are regular supporters of this ministry. And we have an event, special event coming up, an inner Core virtual meeting which will be on April 13th at 5 p.m. Pacific, 8 p.m. Eastern. If you are already an inner Core member, make a note of that. And if you join inner Core in March, we will invite you, send you a personal invitation to that and a copy of Dr. Michael Horton's book, Core Christianity.

So check that out at corechristianity.com forward slash inner Core. Let's go to Mary who's calling in from Omaha, Nebraska. Mary, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? My question is, I have noticed here in the past three weeks or so that we have been horrified by the killing and the aggressiveness that has been going on in the Ukraine. And I was wondering why do we as Christians not vocalize so much distress and horror about the murder that goes on with the abortions here in the United States, here at home. And I can't quite figure out why some death seems to be of greater significance than others.

Could you help me? Well you're right, Mary, it doesn't make any sense at all, does it? And I think that our hearts should break when we think about the things that happen here at home as well. Yeah, we see it on the TV screen abroad in Ukraine, the suffering there, our hearts should break about that too. We should pray for God's mercy, for peace, for the salvation of world leaders, those who are engaging in these conflicts. But we should also pray for things to change here that God would bring about repentance, that God would bring about healing. You think about in the Old Testament, how Scripture says that blood, especially the blood of the innocent, stains the ground and grieves.

It leads to, I think, the righteous anger of the Lord. And so I think there's a lot of repenting and crying out to the Lord that we need to do as well. Now of course I say all that, recognizing that there may be some listening right now who, you know, they just don't like talking about this because maybe in their past, they think about their past and things that they've done, maybe having an abortion, it's so difficult for them as they think about it, maybe they've become Christian since then.

And so it's just a hard thing to talk about. This is something where we lament and we say, God have mercy, bring about change, bring about repentance. We cry out for the lives of the innocent and those who are helpless, but we also know that there is the hope of the gospel, that the blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient to cleanse, wash away our guilty blood-stained hands, and that he brings us to himself, forgiving our sins and causing us to enter into his house of mercy and grace. And so there is hope, but that hope does come through confession and receiving the grace of God. And there really is no answer to, you know, why are we outraged about one and not the other?

There's no rational answer, I think. I think sometimes we just like to hide or conceal the things that we know we're guilty of, the things that are happening here, sort of in our own backyard, and get upset about things that are happening elsewhere. But the reality is both should upset us and cause us to grieve and cause us to cry out to the Lord. And so may God bless you as you cry out to the Lord, and may God bring healing, both in Europe right now with everything going on and here at home in the United States as well.

Amen. You know, Adriel, I was thinking about the fact that I've heard ultrasounds described as a window into the womb, and you mentioned things done in secret. I think a lot of that, what we're talking about here, we see those images about Ukraine every day on our television and on the internet, and they do grieve us. But so much done in secret here, so many dark, terrible things done in secret that need to be brought to the light of day.

Yeah, that's right. And maybe that's one of the reasons why, you know, it's sort of, you know, if I don't have to see an image, if I don't have to think about it, maybe that'll make it easier. And I know with friends who have worked in the pro-life movement, you know, talking about the importance of ultrasounds and, you know, what being able to see an image of your child can do as an individual is thinking about this. And so, brothers and sisters, we pray for God's mercy to be poured out.

And even on those who are thinking about maybe that kind of decision, maybe you're thinking about that for yourself. God loves you and He loves your child. And so may the Lord be with you and bless you. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar. Or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.