Q&A 10: What are we to make of all the 'Christian celebrities'?

Now one of the fellows who asked the question isn't here this morning, and so hopefully you'll be able to pick this up on the recordings and things of that sort. But this has to do with a question that Christians do run into whether they ask questions about it or not.

And that is, there are all these different Christian celebrities. Now when I use that term Christian celebrities, here is what I mean by that. This is not celebrities in the secular realm who become Christians. What I mean by the term Christian celebrities is instead a matter of those who are within the Christian realm celebrities.

That is, they have some sort of Celebrity status, people know their name. Sometimes their name is recognizable. Sometimes the face is recognizable. They may be people who have radio or TV programs. They may be people who do a lot of publishing, maybe even have magazines. We've got some pictures of various ones, and it's just a sampling. Geno Gerasi, and then John MacArthur, Benny Hinn, Crufflo Dollar, I don't know if that's the one.

What's her name? What's that? What's her name? Who? Oh, there in the bottom is Joyce Myers. Joyce Myers. Yeah, and then you have the Bible Answer Man, okay, over in the lower corner there. And I could put other pictures up there. Some of those pictures you may not have seen because, for example, the Bible Answer Man is more of a radio personality and has published books. Geno is a pastor at the South Denver Calvary Chapel and has a radio program. So his picture you'd be less inclined to see. And I could put other pictures up there.

There are various ones who have some sort of Christian celebrity status. In some cases, people will recognize the name ahead of, you know, if you ask them, what's this, who is this person, they'd recognize the name more so than what church they're at. And so there tends to be some of that pattern as well. Or even, oh, that's so-and-so's church, where the person's name is, you know, the identity there. So that's what I mean by Christian celebrity status. I've gotten some pictures here. Can you think of some other names that are out there with Christian celebrity status? James Dobson would be another kind of Christian celebrity.

Billy Graham is another one. Robert Shuler is another one. How about King James? Interesting. He's one who's not around, but there's another name. that we would go and have, even though he's been gone for several centuries. Yeah, that'd be another one. We tend to have, and throughout church history, Augustine or Augustine would be another name of someone who's long ago left this earth, but still has a kind of a Christian celebrity status. Let me finish the rest of the question. And what approach and mindset ought we to have about them?

Why are there these personalities with a variety of doctrines and areas of focus who at times speak against one another? One of the reasons for this question is that the two personalities on the left side of the screen will speak against one another from time to time. And they both have a radio program. I may even be on the same station. I hardly listen to radio myself.

But, that will also be the case. Sometimes you'll have them speaking, you know, things against one another. How are we to deal with this? What viewpoint should Christians have? So, it's interesting. We only have three lines for the question and a whole bunch of lines for the answer. So let's go into the answer. Okay? Do you have one? Do you have a handout? You got one? Okay, you're covered. Good.

There have always been issues of personality versus another in the church and people contending for top positions in these things from biblical times on into the present. Isn't that interesting? What has happened now, of course, we've got all these different media that were not present in the New Testament times, but the phenomenon of prominent personalities has been something that has happened, you can see it in the pages of scripture.

And so let's take a look here. Acts 8, 9-11 and then I move on to 18-21. Now there was a man named Simon who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great. Do we have any well-known magicians in our time? Yeah. Can you think of some? Pardon? Houdini, right? Historical. David Copperfield would be another, for example.

My son Ed and I went to see him. Phenomenal show. Amazing. That would be somewhat of a picture of this guy Simon. Basically, it was all about the business of doing this impressive magic here. Claiming to be someone great. And they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, This man is what is called the great power of God. So here he's got a slogan, right? I mean, this guy's got his marketing down, right? He has a claim to be someone great. He's got his slogan in there.

And then in verse 11, there in that same passage, they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts. Oh, that's impressive, right? So in verse 18 there, now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money.

Hey, I want to buy that trick, right? So verse 19, saying, give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. And so verse 20, but Peter said to him, may your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. You have no part or portion in this matter for your heart is not right before God.

So here is, I want this trick because it'll be another thing that I can add to my impressive array of magical demonstrations. Right? And so, that sort of thing was around a long time ago, just like it is now. We simply have radio, and television, and DVDs, and YouTube, and everything else to propagate it, but the same thing was around then. Here's 1 Corinthians 1, 11-13. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you.

Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas, I am of Christ. Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? We have a contention these days on the basis of personalities. And one guy says, you know, I'm of John MacArthur. And somebody says, oh, I'm of the Bible answer man, right?

And so there's a tendency to align oneself after prominent Christian celebrities. We have that problem. That dividing by celebrities is a problem we have now. Just as they had problems of dividing among certain prominent Christian leaders. Was there anything wrong with Paul? Peter, or Paulus, or Christ? No. The problem was dividing themselves and following certain people.

So, here is Galatians 2.12, which is in the middle of the page there, on page 1. He says there, for prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat, that is Peter, used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. So what do we have? We have a division there, and Peter is finding himself under this pressure, this social pressure to align himself with a particular group, and it was those who were saying, oh, it's good to believe in Christ, but you've still got to be circumcised and follow all the other rules, right?

And so there was this social pressure for Peter to divide himself out and fall under the group, even Peter. So Paul just kind of stood and watched, right? What did Paul do? Pardon? Yeah, right in front of everybody he says, Peter, what are you doing? You're starting to do this social thing of dividing out based on something artificial. Based on something that is not biblical. So here again this problem shows up. Let's take a look at the next one down.

1 Timothy 1.3.

And this is 1 Timothy 1.3 is about Timothy's assignment to go to Ephesus. And here is what Paul wrote to him. As I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrine. Guess what it was?

Certain men. So here's these men, they're teaching odd doctrines, and so what are people doing? The problem is some people are following these certain men, specific ones. Paul doesn't name them, but he does point out you've got particular ones. So now you're going to divide up the church with some odd doctrine. Let's look at the next one. 3 John 9 and 10. And this is one I find very interesting. It's towards the bottom of page 1. 3 John 9 and 10.

I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, and here he names names, Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say. Here's this guy, Diotrephes, and what does he like? What does he love? He likes to be the guy everybody listens to, the one that everybody You know, obeys and understands. Yeah, he wants to be the top dog. He wants to call attention to himself. He wants to call the shots in everybody's life. He likes to order people around. And, he even says, don't pay attention to those apostles, pay attention to me. Right?

Wow, that's pretty intense. So, then, For this reason, if I come, this is in verse 10 there, for this reason, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds, which he does, unjustly accusing us with wicked words. So this is another way that sometimes these personalities who like to get a following, they'll make accusations. And are the accusations true? No. He says unjustly accusing us. So making false accusations, why?

Because the important thing is that they're first. And so whatever it takes, right? Unjustly accusing us with wicked words and not satisfied with this, he himself does not receive the brethren either and he forbids those who desire to do so and puts them out of the church. Basically it's you follow me or else you're going to get it. I'm going to put you out. I'm going to speak evil against you. I'm going to be number one no matter what. Isn't that amazing? I mean that's pretty intense. Things haven't changed much yet. Yeah, I mean this is amazing stuff.

And so you get these people making various defenses of their ministry. You get them making accusations. Even, you know, some of these fellows speaking against one another. R.B. Vane was one of them. Pardon? R.B. Vane was a really good one still. Yes, and the fact that you know that name, that's an issue. The thing was, if you had the 67 tapes, he was pretty straightforward on those and wasn't really as obnoxious. But you take the ones that are on 72, it was like the next batch of tapes he put out. We have both sets at home, and this is where he starts yelling at people and telling them to get up and get out. It starts showing up in his journal. He did that in church once. Yeah, this is not the way it's to be done.

The last one on that page, Jude 4, on page 1. For certain persons, and here's this certain persons again, right? Certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long before him marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Here is a follow me to the point of radically turning away solid doctrine and a focus upon Christ. There is that element even in today.

Some of these guys on the right-hand side particularly, and yeah, big focus on money. Big focus on money. There is, for Benny Hand up in the upper corner there, They're just headquartered down there in Texas, and there's actually an office of a monitoring group that have set themselves up to watch Benny Hinn's ministry because of all the financial shenanigans. Seems like Texas has them.

It's great sharing. Yes, you're quite correct. If you drive down around the Dallas-Fort Worth area, you will see the signs and see the buildings. Yes, and billboards, the whole thing. I mean, it's a big deal. Okay, let's take a look at page two. Page two, it says, because we've kind of taken a sampling of passages, we could take a look at more.

Just from these passages we see that from the New Testament times there have been those who have some place within the church, and may or may not be saved, who, and we've got about seven bullets there, let's go through those, place a focus upon themselves rather than Christ by whatever means. Place a focus on themselves rather than Christ by whatever means. What are some of the ways that they place a focus on themselves? Pardon?

They get a white suit? Yeah, they get a white suit. Yeah, some really, really spectacular outfit. Yeah. All right. Yeah. The way they dress or their hair may be a particular thing. I'm afraid I couldn't use the haircut, but anyway. Pardon? Yeah, a nice touch. Yeah, kind of set yourself apart. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Could be a clothing or style thing. What are other ways that some of these guys try to set themselves apart, guys or gals? The subtleties such as not necessarily just focusing on the word, but outside issues like working with the community. Okay, on stuff they're doing.

Yes, they market what they're doing, what they're saying, they put a lot to it. Write books, speak, go around and market themselves. We have in our era the specialty of marketing. In fact, when I went through business school, that's what I studied. It caused me to shiver to think of applying that to, here's how we go about doing things in the church. It's one thing to try to sell a product or a service, it's another thing to go about selling a person ahead of Jesus Christ. Here's Paul, he says, we preach Christ and Christ is crucified.

That's what we put forth, right? But these other folks, they, oh no, we've got a way for you to improve your life. We've got a way for you to be wealthy. And we've got a way for you to heal all your diseases, right? And so they say, here's our marketing point here. The second bullet on that page there, pursue a following after themselves and making a name for themselves.

Get their names out there, you know, big time. Have it announced with a really cool announcer's voice with a lot of echo and reverb tuned into the announcement, right? Billy Bob Jones or whatever the name is, right? Oh yeah, you got the organ to really kind of pull up the emotions real deep and then this name comes sweeping in here with some sort of a dramatic presentation, right? Today with the video capabilities you can really do that big time.

And it's all about them, right? Here's the next one. Seek to buy the means for self-advancement and also to sell the gospel. Selling the gospel, buying the means. What do we need to do to get really connected up and get our own TV channel? What do we need to do to get that special station here to include a nice prime time swap for us, right? None of these 2 a.m. things. We want something there that's prime time. Next one.

Divide up the body of Christ according to varying personalities and doctrines. What will typically happen is these personalities will not only set themselves up with a name, but they will often come up with distinctive doctrines and slogans and approaches that have a marketing appeal, and oftentimes appeal, frankly, to the flesh. Oh, if you do our thing and be sure you send in plenty of money, the Lord's just going to bless the socks off you, right?

Randy one time was watching one of these guys and he kept track of it. He says, this guy asked for money every 11 minutes. Yeah. And he actually kind of watched it for a while and kept a statistic. Yeah. Every 11 minutes this guy asked for money. He's got it like down to a pattern. And it's just a little different approach each time. But every 11 minutes he's asking for money.

Joel Osteen? Yeah, Joel Osteen or whatever, yeah. He seems to, as far as personality, he entertains with amusement. Oh yes. And everything's wonderful. Oh yeah, your best life now. It's all about you, right? And by the way, with our you generation, or me generation, something in the title about you, that's a biggie, that sells.

I was on some talk show one time on television where he said he would never mention the name of Jesus Christ. Wow. That's pretty severe. He says, I'll talk like God, I won't talk like this. Wow. That's pretty severe. And that was a double take on my part. Yeah, I would say it. He has a publication of like 10,000. Oh yeah, that's plenty big. Yeah. Here is the next one.

Refuse to recognize the authority of God's Word and God's appointed leaders. That's what 3 John, that passage in 3 John from the previous page was about. They don't listen to us and they don't recognize the apostles because this guy wants to be first. What will often happen is they will front something out there But in the end, they really won't recognize God's work. In the end, they don't want people focusing on even personalities in the Bible. They want people focusing upon themselves.

Do they start out that way, or do they get drawn into it? Say that again? Do they start out that way, or do they get drawn into it? That's a very good question. Do they start out that way, or do they get drawn into it? one way or another be both of those. Some of them may start out that way. I mean, it seems like that's where they're headed from the beginning. Others, it seems like they get pulled that way as things develop.

We make a mistake, too, in assuming that everybody whose name you recognize follows this pattern. Yeah. Because A.J. Arnside was an evangelist and went around. Sure, yeah. There are many others. Don't assume it just because you recognize them or they have a TV show that you fall into this. It's interesting. Does everybody whose name you recognize have the problem?

No. And it depends upon how they are going about it and what they intend to do. It depends on how they're going about it and what they intend to do. Nancy and I will often have, and if somebody says, What do you recommend for a study Bible? I'll recommend frequently the Ryrie Study Bible.

Now, Ryrie, however, is not into drawing attention to himself, and he continues to put the focus on Christ. I've met him, he is not one who does these marketing tricks. The fact that you recognize the name does not, you're correct, does not automatically mean this person has a problem. So what you have to look at is what of these elements are in here. So thank you, that's a good point.

Let's look at, just lead others astray in doctrine and their lifestyle. The next one, though these problems have been present in the church for centuries, there are four modern developments that have allowed these problems to build to new heights, or perhaps better said, new depths. So these are the four points in the middle of page two. The first one there is the failure of churches to apply scripture to the focus, doctrine, practice, ethics, morals, leadership, operation, and purposes of the church body. It's a lack of applying scripture to everything that the church is doing. That's one of the ways that this happens. Frequently taking upon themselves a level of authority. and setting scripture aside.

The next one is the rise in the number and magnitude of parachurch organizations which, though not explicitly a church and not explicitly forbidden in scripture, seem easily led into teachings and practices that are contrary to scripture and even in competition with the explicitly biblical entities called churches. Here is an example. Parachurch organizations. Organizations that are not explicitly a church. And, excuse me, we have this situation where, does the Bible say you cannot have a parish church organization? Does the Bible forbid them? No, the Bible does not. So they are not categorically unbiblical.

However, it is possible for a parish church organization to, for example, start competing with a local church. Some of the ways that they can do that is, for example, as a para-church organization, they'll take on teaching, which ought to be something centered in the local church, and put that in this para-church organization as a listen to us. So what ought to be in a church context is then taken out. And there may be other ways in which they compete. What are some of those ways that a para-church organization can compete with a local church? for your time and your efforts, and you get sucked up in the mind.

That's right, yeah. In other words, instead of being involved in the local church, which is fully biblical, they'll pull people away to the point where everything is focused upon the parachurch organization. You're right. What are some other ways? Money.

Yeah, it's just a matter of, boy, I'm sorry, I can't give to my local church because I've you know, promised everything to this para-church organization. The other thing that can happen is instead of a focus on the local church, it may even be a matter of location. where people shift their Christian teaching and fellowship to a certain location. This is where we have our big TV personality church. And so all of a sudden you're part of some church that's on the special cable TV channel instead of the one that God intends to have you involved in.

Some of the ministries, for example, that work on campus can get to be all absorbing. And I'm not saying there isn't a validity for it. Nancy and I can say we've benefited from ministry on campus. So I'm not speaking against that. But it is possible for that to all of a sudden become be-all and end-all. So that can be an issue. Here's the next one, number three.

The development of modern media technologies, printing, radio, television, computers, internet, mp3 players, on and on and on, which though certainly not categorically wrong, can leverage biblical personality cults to greater profile and influence. Pardon? You said biblical. Yeah, leverage unbiblical personality cults to greater profile and influence.

It's frequently, there's nothing wrong with any of these technologies per se, but frequently those are the means by which those who have some ill intent carry it out to an even greater degree. And the next one, tax advantages for non-profit organizations and constitutionally protected freedom of religion which can be manipulated for the advancement of the above referenced personality cults and related problems.

During New Testament times, the Romans gave nobody tax break, because you're a non-profit. If you said, I'm a Christian organization, they'd say, so what? Pay your taxes, right? They didn't give you any tax breaks for it. We live in an era where not only those who donate, but those who operate within these non-profit areas have the opportunity to manipulate the tax system to their advantage. And so that's another thing that's happened in our era, in our country, that has given another leg up for those who do want to distort things.

And some of it has even come up before the Congress, where they've reviewed some of these big televangelist names that were taking, in many cases, hundreds of millions of dollars. And a lot of times the hundreds of millions of dollars is just for one of those faces up there. So I mean, it's just like, wow. And they've got quite a number of people and a lot of organization backing it. Some of those televangelists have private jets, multiple private jets.

OK. At the bottom of page two is the title, Recognize the Authority, Singular Gospel, and Doctrine of Scripture. One of the reasons for the division by personalities that took place in Corinth was the failure of people there to recognize the authority of scripture and the exalting of personalities as authority. This problem has been longstanding, but so has the solution. As was address last week, God intended there be one singular set of doctrines, the faith, the truth, as high-profile and prominent, but God never intended that there be personalities that are high-profile and prominent.

On page three there, we have the title, churches have clear biblical validity, but parachurch organizations, not so much. From the end of the Gospels to the book of Revelation, we have a great deal of godly insight from God himself as to what he had and has in mind for the church and for individual church bodies. A number of the letters in the New Testament are directed to churches. From these letters, it is clear that God has an eternal plan, place, and purpose for the church.

The problems that churches encounter come not from a lack of revelation to and about churches, but a lack of diligence and attention to what has been revealed about churches. As much as there is revealed to us about the church and individual churches, it is difficult to find any support or guidance for parachurch organizations.

That is not to say that parachurch organizations are forbidden. They are not. But it means that para-church organizations must even be more careful that they are not standing or operating outside of biblical bounds or in destructive competition with the local churches that are biblically valid and do have ample biblical definition. It is possible for a para-church organization to end up becoming an entity in itself and people put all their focus and attention on the para-church organization. to the loss of what ought to be the focus in the local church, which does have validity.

Can you think of some parachurch organizations that have done a pretty good job of staying in their right bounds biblically? Yeah, that was a name I was going to mention if you didn't come up with it. New Tribes is one I think has done a good job of staying on course biblically. Keeping things in perspective and not being in competition with the local church.

Good one there. Any others come to mind? Pardon? The Gideons? The Gideons, yeah, where they're just trying to get the Bible out there. Yeah, and it's certainly not in competition with the local church, if anything. It's something that has a cooperative place because those people, once they become believers, they need to get into a local church and become involved. Yeah? Well, we've been members of the Gideons for several years. Yeah, I would say that that's perhaps one hazard out there.

They have not put themselves in competition with the local church to the extent that they favor legalism that that may go against what the local church is teaching. It certainly gets what we would teach. A tendency, because they're coming from varying perspectives, for that legalism to come out.

At the same time, the Navigators, it happened to be the Lord used two men of the Navigators to lead us to the Lord. And we're glad that you're involved with us here at the local church. The next one in the middle of page three here is biblical leadership places Christ and the Word of God ahead of personality. The Bible provides a great deal of revelation regarding the ultimate leadership of churches following the time of the apostles, including, and we have four bullets here, each local church is to be led by a plurality of elders who meet the biblical character qualifications operating biblically and take on the roles of elders biblically. Church leadership, second bullet, church leadership is to be entirely subject to the Lord and to the Word of God.

Number three, the Bible prescribes doctrinal succession, 2 Timothy 2.2, not apostolic succession. What do I mean by this? There are churches that subscribe to this idea of apostolic succession. And one of them, for example, is OK.

And Peter, supposedly in the Catholic Church, was the first pope, which, by the way, doesn't have a whole lot of biblical reinforcement, or even historical reinforcement. There's even a substantial tradition in writing that Peter ended up in Antioch, not in Rome. So a succession from Peter is not biblical.

What did Paul write to Timothy? Because, I mean, in one way you could say, here's Timothy. If Paul was going to have somebody who took his place in a succession of personalities, Timothy would have been it. But what did he tell Timothy? He says, the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, these things teach to faithful men who will in turn teach others also. It's a doctrinal succession that God wants, not a personality succession. And here's another reason. The apostles and the prophets, along with them, were a foundation.

Ephesians 2.20. A foundation not to be built. Can you imagine a house or a building where they just keep building the foundation? Pretty soon they're going 100 feet up in the air and they're still building the foundation. You don't do that. You build a foundation so that you can build a building on top of it, right?

The next one is believers, including church leaders, ought to be holding forth the word of life rather than the word of any human personality. Ultimately, it's not, you know, MacArthur says, Ryrie says, Dean says, you know, and that's one of the reasons why I give myself an allowance of two times a year where I get to tell you, you know, don't trust anything I say. Don't believe anything I say. Check it out.

Well, yeah, in bringing up the Mormon Church, what they do is they, first of all, they get a president, which is really hard to find that anywhere in the Bible. They have a president, but then they have these apostles. And of course, you know, you look at their requirements for being an apostle and they don't fit. So do they have 12 apostles in their church?

I guess so. I'm aware they have apostles. I assume they have 12. I don't know. But they do have a group called apostles. They also have this priesthood, you know, different categories of priesthood. And then they have these guys that are 18 and 19 years old and they call them elders. So I don't know. And they even go around with little plaques and say they're elders, you know. They all have bicycles. Oh yes, elders on bicycles. And then they have a large group of bishops. Yes, they have bishops. I personally know some Mormon bishops.

Yeah, which is another question mark. Scripturally, there are three different words. Elder, overseer, which is the word episkopos, we get the name episkopal, and that is also the word that is carried over in English as bishop. So you've got that, and then shepherds, which we carry over in English as pastors.

Those are the three titles, if you will, but they're actually not given as titles. for a church leader, but bishops was not over a group of churches or anything like that in biblical times. That was something that was added and pretty quickly after the New Testament. What was the third one? You had bishops and pastors, what was the third?

Well, elders, overseers, is actually the episkopos. It's epi, which is over, and then skopos, like our word scope, is overseer. That's the word that is translated in English, bishop. Now, where does elder come from? Is that different? Yeah, Elder is Prefideros in the Greek, and that's the word for Elder. It's the one we most typically use around here, because bishops get a little bit confused. And then the word pastor, sometimes people will be inclined to call me pastor, and I kind of gently refuse the title, because first of all, I don't find any example for using titles.

The only place that the word pastor is used in the Greek New Testament for this guy who is an elder or a bishop, the only way it's used as a noun is Ephesians 4.11. That's the only place. That same word is used as a title only for Christ. The bishop, the overseer and shepherd of our souls. It's the only place that that word is used as a title.

So anyway, now here's underneath those bullets in the middle of page 3, right above the final section title there, it says, it should be carefully noted that outside of the Church of Jerusalem, the New Testament does not explicitly give the name of any elder of any church anywhere, though the highest authority after the time of the Apostles is among local church elders.

Very interesting. Once you step outside Jerusalem, we know the name of James. Once you step outside of there, we don't know for sure the name of any church elder anywhere in the entire New Testament. Isn't that interesting? After the time of the apostles, it's clear that's the highest level of authority. But nowhere is there any support for any of these elders being high-profile, big-name people. Amazing, huh? And as I said before, and no evidence that any of them carried a title.

Yes. Yes. Yes. The goodies they've become accustomed to, and I wonder if the same thing doesn't happen to, let's say, I'm ranking, you know, I draw a million dollars on my TV, they keep producing, they got a production. That's right. Essentially what we can easily do in the church is adopt the world system.

And even if you think about it, if we have like a senior pastor, associate pastor, assistant pastor, what do we do? We draw this work chart just like it's all about following the world system. There's no evidence of a senior pastor. There's no evidence of an associate pastor in the Bible, or assistant pastor, or anything of the sort. No such distinctions are made in scripture. Those distinctions are easily adapted from the world system. Or we end up just taking the world's organization chart and just putting spiritual titles on it, or at least spiritual-sounding titles. Yeah. It is quite possible for us to adapt and adopt things from the world if we're not careful. Yes?

What about the title of the reference? Yeah, and you know, my grandfather was a pastor in the Assembly of God Church, and he used to use that, but I look back on it, you know, because pretty soon it gets pretty crazy, you know, and you've probably seen it, you know, the right reverend, the exalted, you know, high muckety muck, big ducker, you know. Yeah, yeah, Grand Hoobah, all this. Before you know it, the title just gets outrageous.

What's that? Perhaps it's the Reverend Jones. Yeah, yeah, here's this guy who used to sit across from the PTA meetings, you know, Jim Jones, right? And they call him Reverend, but I don't think he was. And, you know, I ended up having some of my high school friends drink the Kool-Aid. Yeah, and they called him Reverend. Yeah, not so much.

Pardon? The Macy's folks have some pretty good Yeah, that would be another one. And the Masons have various issues, including one of their oaths talks about, I'll see you at the White Throne. Let me tell you, you do not want to be at the White Throne judgment. You know, serious. You do not want to be there. So they have a serious misunderstanding. I don't want to tell anybody I'll see you at the White Throne judgment. I don't want it for me. I don't want it for them. That's not a good place to be.

Wow. I suppose you could kind of call it a para-church organization. Oddly enough, a lot of them meet at church buildings. Especially in the South, that's a common thing. Eastern Star. Yeah, they've got all these associated things. Order of the Eastern Star, Job's Daughters. Dimalay. What's that? Dimalay for the Boys. Yeah, Dimalay for the Boys. They've got that. Pardon? Rainbow Girls. The Rainbow Girls. Yeah, so on and on. They've got these various organizations.

The truth is, you know, it's a kind of a social group with some, you know, spiritual overtones. I certainly wouldn't want somebody to think that that's somehow equivalent to church, and in fact I generally would not encourage involvement with it. But, because a lot of the doctrinal issues, primarily. Oh yeah, and they don't recognize it, and they'll also have alternate statements, you know, like you're seeing their little symbol and there's a G in the middle, you know, and that's supposed to be God, but it can also be this big, you know, great architect of the universe. Yeah.

Well it becomes a religion for a lot of people. Yes, and it can be, and for some people it's purely social. Other people, they get involved in the religious part of it, including my dad's dad, who was at the highest level of Masons. And we still have it on the $1 bill. Yeah, the Masonic influence on our $1 bill. Let's look at this next one.

Modern media is a stepping stone for service, but not a pedestal for personality. Modern media can certainly provide a number of advantages for both evangelism and building up the body of Christ. The advantages in time, geography, and potential benefit to the body of Christ are substantial. These things having been said, there are those who use the advantages of modern media to advance their own names rather than the name of Christ, along with all the other errors surrounding personality promotion.

So now on to page 4 here. In the end, there is no substitute for discernment. Believers may attempt to solve or prevent the problems outlined above by trying to change the secular government's laws, church bylaws, policies, etc. And there may be some limited value in these measures, but in the end there is no substitute for biblical discernment, which is the role of the elders of the church along with everyone else in the church. Elders are to exercise discernment, Titus chapter 1, verse 9. As a matter of fact, we quote that.

Right below there, Titus 1.9. Elders, aka overseers, shepherds, must be holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, notice the definite article, the singular teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine, literally the doctrine, the sound one, here's again the singular, note again the singularity of the doctrine and to refute those who contradict. So there is a discernment required of elders. However, deacons, 1 Timothy 3, 8 and 9, right below that, deacons likewise must be holding to the mystery of the faith, noting in the singularity.

The one single set of doctrines is taught by the apostles with a clear conscience. Philippians 1, 9-11 Paul writes to the church, and by the way, in the beginning of that letter, he also greeted the elders and the deacons. But even at that, he's writing to the whole church. And here's Philippians 1, 9-11, what does he say?

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more, in real knowledge and all discernment. Not just embracing everything, right? But in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. So, we talked last week about how scripture really lays out a single doctrine, not a, here's all these different doctrines, embrace them all, right? Or, who knows what the truth is, but a singular set of doctrines, and looking at scripture as there is one intended meaning, not all these. a variety of teachings, and applying that, testing everything with that.

And I've said here, test me. When it comes to testing, pick me. Check out everything that I tell you. Don't just say, well, Vernon says. Don't believe anything I tell you. Check it out in God's Word. God's Word is the standard, not any human personality.

Make sense? I'm going to read the very last paragraph, which is only one line long. Biblical discernment exercised by all will then impact churches and parachurch organizations by operating and teaching biblically, giving biblically, and exalting in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ above all names. Above his name, there is no other name. Now, questions? Comments? Exasperations? Inspirations?

They're all either profoundly puzzled, or I've been so clear that you have no questions whatsoever. It's just amazing how far it's drifted. Oh boy, yeah. Yes, amazing how much drift. And there's two areas of drift. One is in doctrine, and the other is in practice. And eventually, if one is off, both will be off. If we err in doctrine, our practice will be off. If we err in practice and hold to that, our doctrine will be off. Eventually they both get contaminated.

If you find yourself in one of these organizations and you realize what they're doing, is it better just to leave or to try to change it? Ah, okay. She asked a very good question. I hope we have enough time to answer it. If you find yourself involved with one of these, is it better to leave or to change it? Any thoughts on that? I think what you'll find is assess whether you can change it, other than that, leave. If it's truly one that's off track, see if you can change it. Occasionally I've seen things have changed for the better.

But if you cannot, rather than this continual row and squabble, it's better to leave and go somewhere where there is biblical fellowship. The flip side of that, you're never going to find a perfect church. This one isn't perfect. You're never going to find a perfect church. Not going to happen.

But what you want to look at is, is this church If there are areas where the church needs to grow and to change, is this church one that is seeking and desiring to do so? To be biblical, and if there is something that needs to be changed, to pursue that. Are people listening to the Word of God, or are they centered around a personality, or even a group of personalities?

Yeah, good question, good point. Alright, I think we're done. Alright, let's pray. Lord, thank you that as we come to these issues, that you have in fact made it quite clear what we're to do. And because of the danger that's been there since the apostles were walking the earth, and continues up till today, we just ask that you would guide and lead us into the truth as you have promised, not just in doctrine, but also in practice in our daily life. And as Paul prayed for the Philippians, that it all might be done in love. We pray in Jesus' name.