The Need to Address Alternative and New Religious Movements

 There is a need to know what the gospel is! The gospel must be clearly defined according God's Word. The problem is that there is so much diversity and variations pertaining to the gospel by which it will be difficult for the average person to understand what it truly is the gospel message. Unfortunely, there are many professing churches and church leadership who have denied people of the opportunity of embracing Christ and the gospel: that of its understanding what the gospel entails and how it is to be applied to everyday life of those who are lost. (2 Cor. 4:3-4)    A basic understanding of the gospel is that of the "good news" of Jesus Christ by which He was crucified, buried, and resurrection by the glory of God. (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 15) It is important to explain clearly point-by-point what is Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. There are those who will seek to "spiritualize" the essentials of the gospel message in terms of Christ for e...

 There are "coded" languages that are communicated with those who are within the world of the health and wealth gospels known as the prosperity faith movement! First, we would think that by the prosperity faith movement being exposed by those who critical of this particular outside of the Word of Faith movement that it would have settled the case. Even though there are books that are critical of the "health and wealth" gospel for example the Health, Wealth & Happiness authors David W. Jones and Russell S. Woodbridge address the historical, biblical, and its theological analysis. But, yet, the "coded" language of this particular movement have not been addressed. (2 Cor. 11:3)  In order to reach those who are entrap within this particular movement known as the "health and wealth" that comes in the form as the Word of Faith is to break into its "coded" language. The only people who can understand such "coded" language is that...

 Just on today I heard on a local radio station here in Atlanta that the Host interviewed a guest on its program. It was the particular guest promotion of her book promoting but utilize such memorable statement "It is your health the promotes wealth." I thought about it for a moment by which the guest distorted the biblical text of 3 John 2. She's going further to talk about spiritual laws, principles by which she encourages her listening audience to follow. In so many words in order for people to be prosperous or to be "healthy" is to follow such principles and spiritual laws. What immediately came to my memory in how many Faith televangelists will contend that God is subject to the laws of the spiritual by which to create the universe. In turn many Faith Christians must utilize the same spiritual laws by which to create the world of their own desires. Also, in so many words what you say is what you create. You must speak such faith-filled words in order to cre...

 There is a misunderstanding of the gospel message! There is in no way that the gospel message is equated with the law or that of the law and the gospel. The law reveals to who we are in light of our own self-righteousness: that we are not able to live up to the standards of the law. The purpose of the law is to reveal the sinfulness of the hearts of people. The law is our schoolmaster by which it leads the self-righteous person to Christ, but that the law cannot save. We are justified by trusting in Christ for our salvation. As if things doesn't get any worse is that many legalists within the professing church will convince believers that even though they are saved there are steps by which maintain that of our salvation by keeping man-made rules and regulations. (Gal. 3:1) It goes to say that we can live perfectly by the law by the Spirit's indwelling. Moral perfectionism, moral plank, sanctimoniousness, and sacreligious are apostate doctrines by which it is taught by demons. ...

 The church's responsibility is to guard the truth! In turn God have also entrusted the elders who are undershepherds in preserving the message of the gospel. The reason for such is that there is an array of false teachings that are circulating throughout the church today by which contemporary evangelicals have in fact followed suit. Paul to Timothy says that there are going to be people who are not going to put up with sound doctrine but they will be selectice of false teachers who are going to tell them what their itching ears wants to hear. As a result of not desiring to hear solid biblical truth that they will turn away from it be giving heed to falsehood. (2 Tim. 4:3-4) It is unfortunate that many pastors who because of pressure cave into telling people what they want to hear; not what they need to hear. Whenever churches especially church leaders are committed to teaching the truth of God's Word will in fact anticipate persecution and sufferings.  When it comes to guardi...

 Just imagine when you were in school and you were taught to read your alphabets from A-Z. You know that is the way by which you read the alphabet. This is not so when it comes to the system of Gnosticism reading of the text of scripture. There are two crucial areas by which many Gnostics within the professing church: that of "misreading" the context of the Bible to contextualize the meaning of the text and the "reframing" of the characters of the Bible through such allegorical interpretation. (2 Tim. 2:16, 17-18) Whenever there is a perversion of biblical truth it will have such disastrous effect by which to greatly impact the way many Gnostics view God and the world at large. The theistic God of creation is viewed as a inferior Being; the world in and of itself is viewed as as cosmic "mess" by which the "spirit" longs to be freed from its incarceration. It is the "spirit" by which it is imprisoned. Many Gnostics are encouraged to abst...

 Text: Prov. 11:30; Ge. 2:9; Prov. 10:1  "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, [Ge. 2:9; Pr. 10:11] and he who wins souls is wise." "And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees [Ezek. 31:8] that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the gardens were the tree of life [Ge. 3:22, 24; Pr. 3:18; 11:30; Rev. 2:7] and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. [Ezek. 47:12] "The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, [Pr. 10:27; Pr. 3:18; Pr. 4:23; 11:30; 13:12, 14, 19; 14:27; 15:4; 16:22] but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked. [Pr. 10:6] Sermon Outline I. An Examination of the Fruit of the Righteous (Pr. 11:30)   A. The character of God's people (v. 30)      1. They possess the gift of salvation in Christ by which it is the fruit of the righteous. (v. 30)        a) Jn. 3:36.        b) Jn. 10:28-29.      2. Bearing fruit by which to h...