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Color selection varies by store limit, $75 per customer. The following program is sponsored by What's Right, What's Left Ministries and is responsible for its content. Portions of the following program may be pre-recorded. I am Pastor Ernie Sanders, the voice of the Christian Resistance. Stay tuned. My radio broadcast, What's Right, What's Left, is coming up right now.
Coming to you live from Independence, Ohio. We change our life for the better in many different ways. Heard around the world every Monday through Friday. Pastor Sanders is always years ahead of the rest of the media telling you exactly what they're covering up.
This is What's Right, What's Left. I tune in every chance I get to hear exactly what's going on with the voice of the Christian Resistance. Unabashedly cutting through the rhetoric by exposing the hard topics facing our society and world.
A lot of the other news media don't pick up the news items like he does. And bring into light the enemies of freedom who are out to steal your rights, your children and enslaving you. You really get the truth out. I can tune into your show and hear the unvarnished truth.
Thank you. This is What's Right, What's Left with Pastor Ernie Sanders. And welcome to the program. You'll notice this is the voice of the highly unpaid professional co-host, Pastor Joe Larson. Pastor Ernie is a little bit under the weather, and I'm sitting in for him tonight. And my co-host is Deacon Randy Gay, who's going to be sitting in. And at the board is the mighty Andrew, the Master of All Things Technical.
Is that a good title for you? Oh absolutely, Pastor Joe. All right. And Randy, welcome. Glad to have you aboard. How are you tonight?
Be blessed, no stress. You know, and to elaborate a little bit on Pastor Ernie, we finally talked him in to taking a day off. That's basically what happened. And he's fine.
He's okay. But we finally talked him into doing that. Because we told him that even God takes Sunday off. That's right.
And he has been overdoing it for years, I've tried to tell him. But somebody got through to him, and he must have done an amazing job. Anyway, I want to welcome everyone out there to the program. And tonight, the title of the message, Randy, is Compromised Preaching. Okay, so that's a current event thing. We are in this mess.
And I'm going to start. Back in 1873, some of you who have listened to the program have heard this, but we have a lot of new listeners, a lot of new people on the newsletter, so... A pastor named Charles Finney talked about from the pulpit. And part of his decay of conscience that was published, he said this, If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours to a great degree. If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it. And the pulpit has sort of almost disappeared today.
Isn't that amazing what's happened in that short period of time? He was a great visionary there. He saw things, the very foundation of the government. He finished, Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren, but let us lay it to heart and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation. And as Finney was looking to the future, God explained something back in Jeremiah 3. In verse 15, he said this, And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding, knowledge and understanding which is greatly lacking.
Randy, I was talking to a bunch of pastors here a couple nights ago at a function, and I realized once again something I had learned many, many years ago when Pastor Ernie and I were out doing Shake the Nation conferences. Most pastors have no understanding of Christian worldview, really cannot explain it very well. They have no understanding of cultural Marxism, Fabian socialism. They know nothing about isms like multiculturalism, post-modernism, all these different isms that we have, existentialism, which is the basis of every college philosophy course just about the nation. And when it comes to even the founding of this Christian nation, they are ignorant. Ignorant of scripture, ignorant of our founding, ignorant of understanding of the times at all, our worldview, the situation the world's in. Well, if you have pastors who are totally ignorant in all those areas, no wonder we are losing the cultural war, the political wars, because pastors cannot teach and preach on things they do not understand, correct? That is absolutely correct. You know, as Jesus said, the blind leading the blind.
Exactly. So we're going to start tonight. I'm going to read just a verse, and then here in a minute I'm going to have you read. I'm going to start in Jeremiah 5.
Okay. And I want to read verse 21 through 23. Well, I guess if you're there, why don't you read those three?
Sure. Jeremiah 5, 21 through 23. Okay, hear now this, O foolish people, without understanding, which have eyes, and see not, which have ears, and hear not. Fear ye not me, saith the Lord, will ye not tremble at my presence, which ye have placed, excuse me, which ye have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by? By pass it, though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail. Though they roar, yet can they not pass over it. But this people have a revolting and a rebellious heart. They are revolted and gone. Neither say they in their heart. Let's stop there, 23.
Okay, sure. We look at this. Jeremiah, of course, was speaking to his people in his day, but to me these words, Randy, just fit. Foolish people without understanding, and the ones who are to be the pastors, the teachers who are to teach and preach when they are ignorant, and they are like dogs that cannot bark. Scripture said the Hirelings, and in most cases we have Hirelings, and they are afraid to upset anybody in the congregation, afraid to preach on any issue that might be controversial. So they stick to simplistic preaching and preach milk all the time. But isn't it interesting that we've gone from the Word of God being the absolute, undisputable truth to, but, the Bible may say this, but in my opinion, and that's what we're getting, is that it's always but refuting the Word of God in another opinion.
In a way. Well, more than that even, it's they're ignoring the things that they should be preaching, and mostly they shy away from things they don't understand or are afraid of, and doesn't Scripture, what does Scripture say? As pastors, we're to be bold as? A lion.
Supposed to be bold as a lion. Not meek little mice, right? Sure, but they fear the people. They fear the people. They give people what they think that the people want to hear.
Right? Or they're afraid they might lose some money. They put the money before the message. And that is one of the reasons that Ernie and I and all those in this radio ministry, including you, we don't take any money, do we?
No. We are working for the Lord, and the idea is we're not here to gain from this. We're here to be watchmen, and we'll get to that in a minute. Let's go to Jeremiah 5 26.
5 26. Oh, let me, one more thing I should have mentioned. When God's talking about fear me not, will you not tremble? I guess, you know, we forget what a powerful, powerful God we have, and there just doesn't seem to be any awe anymore, any fear, any respect, I think. There isn't any.
Something we did weeks ago. There were more people believe that they were going to heaven than believe that there is a God. And they certainly don't believe that they're going to hell. They have no fear whatsoever of God. I mean, we live in an age where, as far as they're concerned, they really believe that there is no God. They really believe that. But they believe there's a heaven. They're going to go to this heaven.
Yeah. And he talks about God is not the author of confusion, right? This comes from Satan. No, we're going to go to this wonderful heaven.
Everybody's going to go there. And not, not really. Anyway, he talks about a people with a revolting and rebellious heart. They are gone away from the Lord. Well, why?
Well, I think because the pulpits have been silent. So I wanted you to pick it up at Jeremiah 5 26. Okay. For among my people.
I think through 31. Okay, sure. For among my people are found wicked men. They lay weight, as he that seteth snares. They set a trap, they catch men.
As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore, they are become great and waxen rich. They are waxen fat.
They shine, yea. They overpass the deeds of the wicked. They judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless.
Yea, they prosper, and the right of the needy do they not judge. Shall I not visit it for these things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a, such a nation as this? A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means. And my people love to have it so. What will ye do in the end thereof? Among my people are wicked men.
The scripture is, I could give so many other verses where he talks about wickedness and the evil that lies in the hearts of men. What he's saying is they lay weight, they set snares, they catch men. Well, nowadays they do it through what? The public full system? Sure.
Colleges and universities that teach what? That they also, I mean, look at the evil like, just like with the poisonous poke. You can't come to work unless you take the poisonous poke. You can't, look at China with the social systems where if you don't do exactly what they say, you can't travel, you can't send your kids in places. The world is full of it and, you know, our nation is really no different. There's censorship here, they suppress or withhold the truth or even alter it.
Well, the communist social system was created by one of the American IT companies and they are working on the same sort of thing. But beyond that, it started in schools. The point, they started brainwashing the children long ago by teaching all these isms, postmodernism, moral relativism, all this stuff, these anti-Christ isms. Every one of those isms is anti-Christ. And this was the trap, you know. The Bible they were teaching in school, well, they're a bunch of fables, you know, they're stories, they're fables in the Bible.
We need real scientific truth. And the ones that started, that one that said this house, their house is full of deceit, well, they've become great, lax and rich. You look at these people, these tenured professors who have gotten rich, you look at Congress. Did you know that the richest members of Congress all belong, mostly belong to one political party?
Sure, yeah, yeah, the donkey. This is what the rich Republicans, I heard growing up, the rich Republicans. Well, you know, yeah, there's some rich Republicans, but you look at our Congress and the Progressive Caucus, the richest people in government are the members of the Democrat Party. Sure, and if you look at the old foundations, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, ad nauseam, and those are all people that are not Republican people, they're Democrats. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And then they talk about, in verse 28, they prosper, but the right of the needy they do not judge. You know, something came to mind, the world hated Donald Trump, especially all of the Democrats, the liberal media, everybody hated Trump. And I think it's real simple, Trump came out kind of like the Wizard of Oz, the story, you know, when they finally saw the man behind the curtain, you know, looking into the microphone, he opened up the big lie.
And what's the big lie? Well, the left had always been, we're the party of the people, right? We are the ones that are going to make your life better, right? We've got the Great Society, oh, wait a minute, that was a dismal failure. We've got urban renewal, that was a dismal failure. There was a war on drugs, dismal failure. In fact, I went looking, I can't find one idea that the left put out, since I can remember, and I'm very old, I was a Barry Goldwater supporter.
That's enough said, right? Well, but so you forget, there is one thing that they set out to do that's working like a charm. And that's to destroy America, destroy the economy. But their promises were to improve the life of their people.
We are the party of the working people, we're the ones that are going to make your life better, right? And Donald Trump comes out and shows, what, that they were liars. That they were liars, that's exactly right. That every promise they made, except the one like what you bring up, so what did they do? They turn now and they call us liars, seditionists, terrorists, racists. We're the haters, because once they were exposed, what did they have left? We were the deplorables queen to our guns and Bibles. All they have left in their bag of tricks now is attack and hate, because all of the lies were dispelled, right? That's right.
The light. So, just when I saw that, you know, when it said that, you know, the right of the needy, they do not judge. They never did improve the lot of the needy, the great welfare, the billions and trillions of dollars spent on the great society, the welfare scheme. Things were worse than they ever were.
There was no improvement. And they also, I guess the word is what I want to say, under-motivated, demotivated people to do the things that they could do to better themselves. Yeah. You know, the very mechanism that was available to them to remedy the situation, they defused it. They took the wind out of the sail. You know, it's like when the eggs were in that basket, they dropped them.
I mean, that's exactly what they did. Yeah. It's sad. When I look at Jeremiah verse, I said, well, I should look at this. When you said a wonderful and horrible thing, the people loved to have it so because the people were told that, oh, you can go sin.
It's all right. You can have gay marriage. You can have abortion. You can gamble. You can, you know, the left, just basically everything goes and you don't have to, you know, stuffy old Bible thumpers out there telling you you cannot do these things.
They just don't want you to have any fun, enjoy life, you know. And what's more, we'll give it to you, quote, free. Yeah.
Free, right? Right. Especially, and if you have your sex, let's look at Jeremiah 7. I'm going to just read one verse here, I was going to do more, but timewise I'm going to read one. And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the sun of Hinnom, and burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I commanded them not.
Neither came it to my heart. He's talking about the abomination, the children of Judah did wicked, did evil in God's sight. And they did their abominations in the Lord's house. And we have through abortion, child murder, and through the parties finding the penumbros and hidden things in the Constitution that there is a right to kill your unborn child, right, basically, a right to commit murder. Now don't forget now that we have it where you can kill your born child up to 28 days after they've been born.
Yeah, and there were people who said it should even be longer, up to six months, all kinds of horrible stuff, you're right, it's just sickening. But let's see what God says, let's go to Jeremiah 6, and I want you to read verse 15 through 19, please. You said Jeremiah 6? Jeremiah 6. Okay, and here we go.
Alright, 15. Were they ashamed when they committed an abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore, they shall fall among them that fall at the time that I visit them. They shall be cast down, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the way and see.
Ask for the old past, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein. Also, I said, watchmen over you, saying, hearken to the sound of the trumpet, but ye said, we will not hearken. Therefore, hear ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. Let's stop there.
Okay. Let's stop there, there is so much here. The old, see ye in the ways, the old paths, there's the good way. Scripture talks about a highway in the Old Testament, it's really the highway to heaven. And in a way, it's the gospel church, the gospel, the Bible-believing church. And too many times out there, I hear people, Randy, excuse me, they don't understand church. The church is a meeting place and everything else.
And I want to give my definition, and I think it passes, Pastor Sanders musters. The church, we are, Scripture said, lively stones. And the lively stones are built upon the cornerstone, which is Jesus Christ, the cornerstone the builders refused. And these living stones build a living church upon a, what? Living risen Lord. That cornerstone is a living cornerstone. This is the true church.
There were no denominations. It was built, each one of us was a living stone built upon Christ, his gospel, his doctrine. And we were to become, what, his bride? We were to become one with him. Scripture said, what's marriage? When two become as one, the bride was to become as Christ. And we've gone so far from that definition, haven't we, out there in the world?
Oh, absolutely. You know, I think of the other thing is how the world has changed. Remember when it was not offensive because you and I went through a school system where we pledged allegiance to the flag. We even could pray in the school system. There were the Ten Commandments were not considered an abomination. And in our lifetime, it's gone from actually, you know, embracing that and embracing it as one people, because, you know, we didn't all worship in the same, what I want to say, religion. But we all acknowledge pretty much the same God. And now we've gone from that to no God at all.
You know, we're coming up on a break. There is no religion. We have a personal relationship.
We are part of the Lord because we have the indwelling of his Holy Spirit. That's correct. So it's not a church or a religion. It is a relationship. You're absolutely right. It's a fellowship. I'll tell you what, we're coming up on a break right now.
So why don't we go ahead and do it? I can picture in my mind God on the throne. He's not very happy with what's going on. He's so disappointed in this world and its ways. If you'll listen real good, you might hear him say, Don't make me come down there. I'm not in a good mood. I still remember what my son did for you.
I felt the nails when you drove them in him. Don't make me come down there. I'm tired of your sin. You live like it's nothing, like you'll never be judged. Forsaking his mercy, forgetting his love. Making your own rules as you go on your way.
Not caring or hearing what God has to say. Don't make me come down there. I'm not in a good mood. I still remember what my son did for you.
I felt the nails when you drove them in him. Don't make me come down there. I'm tired of your sin.
I can picture in my mind the Lord in the sky. The Christians all leaving and waving goodbye. The sinners all crying and trying to pray.
But they didn't listen and now it's too late. Don't make me come down there. I'm not in a good mood. I still remember what my son did for you. I felt the nails when you drove them in him. Don't make me come down there. I'm tired of your sin.
I felt the nails when you drove them in him. Don't make me come down there. I'm tired of your sin.
Well, welcome back. You're listening to The Voice of the Christian Resistance. What's right? What's left? Radio ministry. And this is Pastor Joe Larson sitting in for Pastor Ernie Sanders, taking some time off.
Hopefully, home resting for a change. And my co-host tonight is Deacon Randy Gay. You know, I'd like to jump in here, Joe, and say a couple things. One, I want to thank everybody for last week for Pledge Week. We had a good Pledge Week. And I want to remind everybody that you can now pledge or give through the internet, because we now accept all forms of the alternate forms of payment other than the checks and the money orders.
You can certainly go to WRWL.org, and you can give either through PayPal or with your credit card. And we want to say thank you for that, and hopefully we'll do better at it. The other thing I wanted to point out is that a number of you keep asking about the religious exemption forms. We feature on the portion of our website that says blog, downloadable religious exemptions that are either the Christian form, or you can use the one that comes from the World Court from Nuremberg, and they're both there.
And all you have to do is download them, and it's free. And I want to say thank you much for your support, for your faithful listening, and the support. You know, something we didn't do also, we did not pray for Pastor Sanders. And I think we should collectively before we go into the second half of the hour here. All right.
Because the way you said it with taking a little time off, I didn't know just how much you guys, how much was wanting to be said. But why don't you go ahead and lead us in a prayer. In fact, you can pray for both of us. I'm facing two or three surgeries this summer, and I think we could both use a little, if you wouldn't mind, to pray for both of us.
Sure. We come to you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And dear Lord, we're asking you that you, the divine healer, the all-knowing, all-powerful Jesus Christ, and sometimes I know, Lord, we forget that you're almighty too, Lord Jesus, like the Spirit and the Father, and you are. We ask that you might be not only our sin bearers, and we ask that you, and each and every person here, the listeners and ourselves, but you might be our burden bearers as well.
Would you bear our burdens of life? May we be in memory to cast all our care on you, because you care for us. And we love you, Lord.
We thank you. And I thank you for this privilege of praying for our, we call it our radio pastor, spiritual shepherded pastor, Pastor Ernie Sanders. I ask you to touch his body, you would heal him, and help him get through this period, like the allergies, because you know he wrestles with the spring and that kind of stuff.
And among his other maladies, as we all age, we all have things. I pray for Pastor Joe too, that you might touch his body, and that you might heal him, that you might govern, guard, and guide both of these men through this period in their lives, and that you might bring them out like you did with Moses, where you said that none of his natural forces abated as he aged. And I pray that for these men. I pray that you would touch their bodies, that you would touch their minds and hearts, and so that we might be your vehicle, your vessel, and your voice here in this ministry, and be a witness unto you. May those that are not saved, as we connect the dots to the current events with the Bible and the news, that they would be saved, those that aren't, and those that are, that they would be lifted up and encouraged and strengthened. May we be forgotten like a dream. May you be exalted like the sun. And we ask these things in your name, Lord Jesus, and for your sake. Amen.
Amen. Thank you very much. That was a very good prayer, a wonderful prayer. I was thinking way back, before I became a pastor, I was teaching Christian worldview, and did a college course on the founding of the Christian founding of our republic. And I remember one of the things, Randy, that I ran into, there was a 1815 Supreme Court ruling from Pennsylvania. It was a state Supreme Court, but they took the ruling and went to the ultimate Supreme Court, who kicked it back and said, no, we totally agree with the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. It was called Commonwealth versus Sharpless and Others. And I want to read just a little bit of it.
Sure. It said morality is defined as a condition of conforming with right principles. It pits right against wrong. To legislate means to make law. Laws impose rules of conduct and enforces them with authority. What law has ever been enacted by any government in the history of man that has not named something wrong and its opposite right? Every law establishes and legislates morality. Now think, remember, 1815, I'm quoting, what today's critics are saying, we don't want God to have anything to do with today's morality. This was 1815, but it sounds like today, doesn't it?
It sounds so, I always think about the fact that whenever, you know, I read something like that from the past, and that to hear them talk about immorality and how things are unraveling, and I'm like, you ain't seen nothing yet. We want to determine what is right and wrong without God. America has become the battleground between the two, the world's two oldest religions. The first religion appears to appear in history of mankind worships God. The second major religion worships man, humanism. In America, the first is expressed primarily by Christianity. The second is humanism. It is not a question whether morality can or should be legislated. It is a question of which religious guidelines will undergird the legislation, undergird the law. Religious guidelines that deify God, or religious guidelines that deify man.
Boy, did they hit the nail on the head with that, because we have a world trying to bring in the humanistic, humanism, moral relativism, post-modernism, all this stuff, and it's just basically because we don't want God's morality today, right? Well, remember God got voted out in one of the Obama elections. I can't remember if it was the first one or the second one, and they voted him out.
Remember, they voted him out. Yeah. And it's like, you can do that.
Well, you can ask him to leave and tell him you aren't going to include him, but yeah. Anyway, I want to start with a story. I think you have it there. There was a report came out, and I hate to be the bearer of this news, but this is what is wrong with the Church, and has been. We remember the horrible, horrible mess the Roman Catholic Church has been in with its pedophilia, with the priests molesting young boys, and the court cases, and the lawsuits, and so, so many young men were abused.
They were hiding, passing. They would find a bad priest, and they would pray over him, and send him off someplace else, try and keep him away from young boys, but they never really did face or handle the problem. Well, for years, and I think I talked about this on the radio a couple years ago, there has been some accusations against the SBC, the Southern Baptist Convention, against the Southern Baptist Church, the largest Protestant denomination, and they were complaining that the heads there were stonewalling, denigrating the survivors of clergy sex abuse, and this has been going on nearly two decades. The big SBC, the Convention's executive committee, was basically seeking to protect their reputation, and this is according to a 288-page investigative report that was issued this last Sunday, Randy, May 22, and this has been going on a long time, and been hidden. Well, finally, I guess last year, some of the people had had it, and they said, no, we want accountability, and they forced an investigation. What they did, they called, they had a seven-month investigation conducted by Guidepost Solutions, an independent firm, and it was contracted to take it out of the hands of the executive committee. Well, since they started this investigation, several of the top executive committee members resigned, and the new interim leadership is going to meet tomorrow. This is pretty, you know, current events, right?
They'll meet tomorrow to discuss this 288-page report, and then in three weeks, they will have its big national meeting in Anaheim, California, and they are going to bring up the report there. So, in other words, sunshine is the best disinfectant, and it's such a, as I was reading through the article and stuff on this, it's such a shame, because there was so much resistance, stonewalling, and people tried to come, people reported the abuse. They were either disbelieved, told to keep quiet, and story after story of different people are in this article, you know, being rejected, told to go home and pray about it, but what happened, nobody took any action, to make a long story short, against any of these ministers that were accused of abuse, and nobody removed them from positions of power, and the list included the names of hundreds, this 288-page report, hundreds of abusers, thought at some point to be with the SBC, and so, as I'm looking at this, one of the new people said he was grieved to my core for the victims, and thanked God for someone propelling this forward, you know, to bring the light of day, but as we look at this, two decades, they've been trying to cover up, it sounds just like what happened with the Roman Catholic Church, and I remember, unfortunately, listening to some of the people that were a member of that Southern Baptist Convention, speaking out against the Roman Catholic Church, and thinking, now, boy, talk about, what's that old phrase, the pot calling the kettle black? And this is part of what has been wrong with the Church. We have so many changes within the Church of Jesus Christ, it has branched out, it has so many denominations, the Gospel has been watered down, changed to the point they're teaching more dogma than doctrine, and story after story of things like this come out, and I sit back and I go, well, no wonder people have mocked the Church, that people have left the Church, they've seen things like this in a Church where nothing happens, and they leave and don't come back, they don't send their children back to Church.
For many people, between the scandals with the Southern Baptists and the Roman Catholic Church, I imagine there's a lot of people that, pardon the phrase, but probably wish to God they never sent their children to Church. Well, and for good reason. I mean, because one of the things that's sad is the type of hypocrisy that's being exposed, because they're laughing at us because of that. The world is. They are. They're laughing at us.
And it's really sad because there's some truth in their accusations. At the same time, in defense of the Church, what I always say is this, is that because we have presented ourselves as being, if you will, perfect people to a certain extent or a different breed, but we are all saved by grace, sinners saved by grace. And it's not what we do, it's what Jesus does. And I think that we don't witness that way. We make it seem like that I'm holding the banner and that, because if you look at me, you're going to find enough sin to send all of us to hell, because that's just the way that that is. It takes one sin to go to hell.
How many have all of us done? So I'm not defending the abusers. I feel like that they need to stand up and take it.
They really need to take whatever comes from that. Scripture says that God may forgive them, but there will be consequences. He doesn't wink at it.
He doesn't wink at it. And that's a God's truth. And we all want mercy versus judgment. They were more worried about their reputation and different things rather than the truth. Which also says that there's no sorrow there.
Right. If they had focused on the truth, we found sinners within the Church, well, then that you preach there are sinners within the Church. The devil is in the Church.
We know that. The devil is people come to churches to divide and conquer, to break down. I mean, just because you walk into a place that's quote-unquote called the House of God doesn't mean that everybody that goes in there is a born-again believer, and the Satan and evil are alive and well, because Satan is trying to destroy the Church, trying to drive people from God, separate them from his love and mercy and salvation. And if you preach the truth, the people will hear it.
That's true. We saw in the Church, Judas betrayed Jesus. It's in Scripture, right? Not everybody that was part of his Church was faithful. That's right.
That is so true. I mean, the Bible always has an answer, and that's what we as pastors and you as a deacon and studying in the Word, we are to go to God's Word and find the answers. Now, this came out, I remember I looked it up. It was in 2019, there was a report in the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio paper, I forget the name of it. But it was documenting hundreds of cases of complaints against the Southern Baptist churches, and some perpetrators were supposed to be still in the ministry. Some had been, I guess, left or driven off, or the Church members chased the pastor out or whatever. I remember just doing the story a little bit and thinking, well, let's share something with the Church having a cleansing.
Well, it took until this year, or last year, for a bunch of people to finally get mad and say we need an outside, independent investigation to do this. And this is what's wrong. We have this concept of Church denomination. Instead of preaching it's a relationship, we are part of a body, and sometimes the body gets cancer, doesn't it?
Absolutely, absolutely. Or infections, wild infections, poison, the body can be poisoned. Jesus used parables and stories like that, he would have taught in a case like this, wouldn't he have made a parable about a poison or a cancer that got in and started to destroy the body of the Church? And we don't do that. I don't hear pastors doing this anymore, or at least where I am.
Do you hear anything like that back in Ohio? Of course not. I mean, if you think about it, there are issues in the Church that are no longer discussed. Nobody talks about shacking up, nobody talks about adultery, nobody talks about drug usage.
You know, willingly, if you will, having children out of wedlock, because you had sex out of wedlock, obviously. And those are things that need to be addressed. And at least they should, and so you don't want to hurt anybody. And then you've got influential people that they will wink at their sins because they don't want to lose their prestige or their money or their power. I mean, you know, and you can't just say, well, everybody sins and walk away from it. But at the same time, we have to acknowledge that we sin too.
And I think that, like, you know, we raise the banner for our personal behavior too high. And we need to talk, like you said, it's a relationship and it should be about what Jesus does. And it isn't that you don't have to do anything because you do have to live as best you can to chase life. But as long as you're down here on earth, we need to level with people and say that you will sin. Yeah, as long as you're in this body, you will sin. You know, whether it's by thought, word, deed, action, habit, whatever it is, but you will sin.
You are one of the biggies. Let me add there, because one of the things people forget, the biggest one of all, is the things that were left undone that God wanted us, told us, begged us to do, and we ignored. I think that's one of the biggest sins. And again, there's a topic, a sermon I've done, that I've asked other people. I've never heard a sermon on the sins that were sins of omission, the things I didn't do.
I've asked people at different churches, and they go, I've never heard that preached. Right. Well, and for the most part, it's not. I mean, you know, but at the same time, you know, there's that too. And I think that the sign of a mature Christian is that the closer you get to God, the more you absolutely abhor yourself and your own sin, and you see the imperfection in you. And that's as we're brought more into the likeness of Christ, the more disgust that you become with yourself. It's a frustration kind of thing, and it's a paradox in its own way too.
It should be. There are many times I know when I've done a sin, I totally understand you go to the Lord, you ask for forgiveness, he forgives you, but you realize even as a pastor you have these thoughts and things, and it's a daily battle against sin. God gives you all these things to help you, but it's still a battle that we all have to face. And I remember preaching one of the sermons that was hard to do, it was on that topic, and I was talking about when Christ went on the cross, and it was like there was a list of all my sins, and it was nailed on the cross with him, and he took all of those sins that I had committed, and I thought, that must have been like a huge boulder being slammed down on this sinless, spotless soul. All these horrible sins, how horrible that must have been for a perfect person who had never sinned. And then I started thinking all of those horrible sins of mayhem and rape and lies and deceit and cheating and sexual abuse, on that sinless soul. What he suffered emotionally is beyond, is actually totally beyond my comprehension because the greatest pain in the world is emotional pain, isn't it? Sure, but you know what's interesting is that if you think about it, but to show you how Christ was dealing with it at another level, the worst thing for him was separation from God.
God. And people that sin have no concept of that, none of us do. Right. And the sin is what separates us from God. Right.
That's right. But actually being separated from God was the worst thing. You know what, Coach Dwayne has been trying to get in here, and he says he needs an emergency prayer, so I know it's a little unusual, but he's one of our own. Let's bring him in. Hey, Coach. Hey, God bless you, Randy. God bless you, Pastor Joe. Hey, howdy, my friend. Okay, it's good to hear you, but can we pray for you?
Why don't you tell us what we need to do? Yeah, here's what's going on. One of my best friends, his brother, and I know his brother, Matt's brother. His brother, Timmy, has been a heavy smoker for years. Matt finally got the gospel through him, got him to acknowledge Jesus Christ, forgive him of his sins, and Timmy is a diabetic, and he's addicted to cigarettes. He's going to die from this.
They've already got a couple of toes off. Tomorrow morning, they're cutting his foot off, and they told him if he doesn't quit smoking, he's going to die. His body's going through all kinds of things, and Matt is one of the most wonderful people that does stuff for everybody. We've lifted weights together, played ball together, we do things, and it's really on his mind for his brother. So I says, I will get prayer out for your brother. Timmy McCoolick is having his foot cut off tomorrow, and he needs prayers.
Okay, well then you know what to do, because you can do it, and we're with you. Dear Heavenly Father, I come before you with a heavy heart. My best friend, Matt, his brother, he loves so very much, and he finally got him to accept the gospel. Dear Father in Heaven, only you can take that addiction away from nicotine that's got him bound, and his body's going down with diabetes, and now he's going to lose a foot, Father. And there's really nothing good coming out of this other than he got saved in salvation. But Father, we ask you to take the addiction away, and to stop this leg.
His whole leg is starting to turn black and purple from no circulation. Father, it's going to take you, and we know you can do all things. You are God. We worship you. We love you.
You're our Creator. Father in Heaven, we give you the glory. With your mercy, would you reach down and help these doctors do the right thing, and then cut this off, Father, where the circulation will start all over again, and Timmy can have a few good years before the rapture, before you come get us. In Jesus' name we pray, and Father, thank you for Joe. Watch over him for what he's going through with his disabilities, and Randy, give him knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. And for Pastor Sanders, Father, please heal him and lift him up, because we love him, and we love all the supporters out there who support this radio ministry, What's Right, What's Left. And I want to thank all of you so much. In Jesus' name we pray, Father. Amen.
Thank you very much, and that's okay. And what we're going to do for the people listening is that we're going to open up the lines for some callings towards the end of the next half an hour, and we'll bring that in. But I wanted to let Coach DeWayne in for that burden on his heart. The most important thing we can do, we will all need prayer, and I wish I'd forgotten to just mention to have you all pray with us, because there is much power in prayer, and the Lord is just happy when he hears more people praying. Coach, I hate to cut you off, but we're coming up on the half-hour break, and we're inside of ten seconds. We'll be back. This is a short break, folks. Please stay with us. We'll be right back. The half-an-hour is coming up next.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-04-15 06:51:30 / 2023-04-15 07:10:32 / 19