YP Sing Address—D. So, E. James
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Oh, how would I start with this? I normally in young people him saying I like to divide people into groups, but I think this is too big to control that. Some of you probably remember Scranton when we did that with three groups, they turned into quite a bit of fiasco. So perhaps I would do a little bit of speaking tonight because I find when it comes to evening like this, I'm tired to listen. So I don't know about you now do something for me if the person next to you started nodding their head to agree with me.
You have to help me out and give them a little jab just to make sure that either they're really agreeing with me or just resting their eyes.
I was thinking of a.
Passage here. Perhaps we can turn to that first in First Samuel.
Well, before we even read this, maybe I'll talk a little bit of why I think about that.
Young people, this is what this is for. How many of us feel we're still young people here? I am well, as young people, I don't know if you ever feel this. We've been told that the Lord has something for us to do. Have you been told that there's something you want us to do? But sometimes we don't know what it is, and it seems that we've been told that a long time ago. So I thought tonight perhaps we can look at someone who was told that he's going to do something great.
But he seems to have waited and waited and waited before he gets to do it. You know what I mean by that? Do you feel that now, before you can even understand that?
I don't know a lot of you, you know, in the East Coast, I look down the crowd. I I know most of the young people there. Here, I can still recognize many of the faces. My concern about talk like this is just this that many hope. Perhaps I should use the word some are still lost. We had the gospel before us not long ago. If you are still lost and do not have the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior, what we talk about tonight wouldn't really matter to you.
So before you learn anything else, you must have to Lord Jesus as your own Savior, put it on the front as war reminded tonight will not help you. We need him as our Savior first. Now I'd like to turn to first Samuel chapter 16. There is a a young fellow that I want to talk about. His name is David. Part of the reason I'd like to talk about that is I think he has a very nice name.
David.
David has a little bit of a problem. You know, David in this chapter was supposed to be anointed as king. And the problem I see here is this. His own brethren, including his father, didn't think anything of him. Can you associate with that? And now why do you think I say this? Well, let's read a couple of the verses and see my rendition of it and see if it's closed. But we know Samuel came looking for someone to anoint in this chapter.
And we know we've gone through his brother, so let's go right down for the sake of time. It will start at verse 9. Then Samuel made Shama to pass by, and he said neither had the Lord chosen this. And again, Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. And Samuel sat under Jesse, the Lord has not chosen thee. So here we see Samuel gone through one after the other, seven more gone past. No, not the right one.
And then he have to ask this question. Verse 11. And Samuel said unto Jesse.
Out there are hear all thy children. And he said, thou remaineth yet the youngest. And behold, he keepeth the sheep. Well, I think of it this way. This is my rendition. It's almost like when he's asking, they go, Oh yeah, there is still a David out there. Do you ever feel that you have been forgotten? You know his own brothers, his own father. Look how important this is. He's looking for a king to anoint.
Oh, no, yeah, we're that David. That's right. He's still out there.
Well, we know the following verses that David was brought in verse 12 and he sinned and brought him in. Now he was ready and with all of a beautiful countenance and goodly to look to, and the Lord set, arise, anoint him for this is he. Well that was nice, isn't it? Now I know some of us would think that, you know, we've been forgotten, you know, like David. Oh, they're doing the dirtiest job possible and they've forgotten that he should have been the king.
And the part that we remember is we are ready. We're with all a beautiful countenance. Right. Look at me. And they forgot about me. Well, nevertheless, the Lord anointed David. Well, young people, you've all been here, having given or been told. You have been made both kings and priests. You're going to be a king. No, you are a king. Do you feel that? Now look at David here after he was anointed.
00:05:20
You know what happened to him.
Did he move him to the palace?
The Samuel said you saw bringing the chariot and bringing this new king. I don't think we read of that here, do we? In fact, David, if you look at it, I think if you keep going to Second Samuel, and I think it's not until the, oh, I think it's the 7th chapter. If you keep going down there, let me see if I can find this here in Second Samuel.
Further down into Second Samuel, I'm sorry I lost my place here. Now in the 5th chapter before he was reigning as king when he was 30 years old, some somewhat 1516 years later. So what happened in between? As this boy David, anointed to be the king just like you are, You have been made kings and priests. Well, let's go back to the 16th chapter. What do we know about David here?
Well, let's see you know the latter part of Chapter 16.
Saw, we know that he got in a lot of trouble and he needs someone to play music for him. And someone suggested, oh, yeah, remember that Jesse's son, we heard him playing harp out there. Yeah, I think he's pretty good, you know. So they bring him in and that tells us what David was doing. So let's go down to verse 19. Wherefore Saul send messenger unto Jesse and said, send me David thy son, which is with a sheep.
So what did David do after he was anointed king?
He gone back to look after sheep. That's a lowly job. I mean, this is for kids that really have no skills, right? He's out there. I mean, we read later on his brothers, a big and strong, they go to war and David was saying to send them some some supplies for them. So David anointed back with his old dirty job. But you know, it's just like us here. How many of you come to a conference like this? You get all excited, you learn things and you encourage one another. You watch your friends. They all want to go on for the Lord and you want to go on for the Lord too. You know what I mean by that?
And then come Monday, we'll go back to school.
Oh boy, that's another world again, isn't it? And all that excitement is gone. Well, you know the Lord allows that. You see, in David's case.
He was set anointed as king, but the Lord knew that he wasn't ready. He has to go to school in a sense. What did he have to learn before beforehand? Well, let's see now who can help me? I'm looking for the chapter where he's going to fight, fight Goliath. Now something you know these verses well. And Saul said to him, how are you going to fight this big man Goliath? And David then has to bring out his credentials. It's almost like bringing out his report and say, hey, I can handle this guy. And because I went to school in the backside of the desert, right? What did he do in the meantime? He learned well.
Maybe I'll tell you in 17, in 17th chapter here we find out in between these times. These are some of the many things that David has to learn because it will come in handy later. So let's see in verse 33 and Saul said to David, thou are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him. For thou art but a youth and he is a man of war from his youth. Well, how many times have you been told that you can't handle that? You're still a kid and these guys are so seasoned about it.
And David in verse 34 said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb off the flock. And I went out after him, and smoked him, and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smoked him, and slewed him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear. In this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he had defile.
The the armies of the living God and David said, moreover, the Lord hath delivered me out of the paw of the lion and of the paw of the bear. He shall deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. So David Powers credential, what did he do? He learned how the wrestle bears and how many of you get to do that?
00:10:15
Not too often a well, you know, there are a lot of things that you get to learn at the mean time.
He learned to fight lions. He learned to handle bears. He learned to handle sheep. He needs to be gentle with those that need to be gentle. He needs to know how to fight something that came as fierce as a lion and as a bear. And you know what else you have to learn? You have to learn how to jump out of the way of javelins coming at him too. You know there are many things you have to learn. And through all these years, David learned. For some 1516 years, the Lord put him quietly on the side, learning the skills required.
So that when he when is the rightful time for him to do his work. In this case as a king, he was able to do it.
What are we to do? What are we to do? Well, I'd like to turn to a verse in, I think it's in Second Timothy.
Two Timothy, chapter 2.
We're young people here, we have school to learn, we have things to learn from school, but we also need to learn from the school of God too. Second Timothy chapter 2, verse 15 sets your study to show thyself approve unto God a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Oh, is that important? Very much so, isn't it? You know, in school we study a lot of things. Some of you learn it through the academic side, and maybe some of you learn it through doing things hands on. But you go to school to learn something. Here we're told to study. Study to show thyself. Approve unto man. Am I right in saying that?
Now he said unto God, And you know the reason I use the word man is we'll find often we do things to please our friends.
Do we?
Yeah, we do, don't we? Because we're afraid that they're going to say something if we do it differently than what other people do. But here, study to show thyself approved unto God, a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed. Learn to rightly dividing the word of God.
Getting lead, we won't expand on that, but I want to go on just a little bit more.
Some of you.
Well, all of us come from various backgrounds. Am I right in saying that I'm sure here in the West Coast here.
Is different.
And from where we are?
Right. Things are better in the East Coast, right?
Oh, that's all relative I guess, right? Some of you are from Canada, you know it's better there, right?
I mean, we have to trade, what, 10 inches of snow to come down here for this 6075° weather? Well, I didn't mind that. No, I say that jokingly, but we all grew up differently. So some of you may say, but you don't understand. When I go home, it's so different. Am I right in saying that? You know, when I go to school, it's so different, you don't understand. It's easy here when everybody speaks the same language.
Everybody would encourage us to go on with the word of God. Well, we have to learn that the Lord put us.
In different situations because he wants you to shine for them. You know, sometimes I thought of this.
How come the Lord doesn't put us all together? Wouldn't it be nice that we're all together all the time?
We don't have to phase the world, but I remember Brothers spoke on this one time at Sunday school. He said, he said, have you ever noticed in most cities they have streetlights? You know, I flew into here last night. It only took us about 13 hours and a three hours flight. We get to see overhead what LA is like. We see street light all over the place. And he said something funny about street light is that he said, I haven't seen a place where they gather all the street lights and put them in one spot.
I said, Can you imagine if we put them all in one spot, how bright that would be?
Well, you're laughing, but you know what I'm trying to say there, don't you? The Lord want us to shine for them.
We got, we ought to be a testimony for him wherever we are. That's why we're here now. We have about 10 more minutes. You still awake?
00:15:09
OK, I promise that they'll give you some goodies after this. OK? If you stay here, wait for 10 more minutes.
I like to look at a few more kings and see how perhaps from different family, different backgrounds, see if things would be different. And I like to first look at in Second Chronicles.
Let's go to 2nd chronic codes.
Chapter Well, let's start as chapter 25. By the way, the example I'm going to use doesn't matter which king we're going to use, you'll find we find the similar things. As you know, there are 21 Kings of Judah and only about six or eight of them that are good and many were evil. And there are about 21 Kings of Israel and none of them the word of God speak of anything good about. And we can learn a lot of lessons from these kings.
I'm just going to go through it very briefly. We're not going to go through 21 of them in 10 minutes.
So we'll just pick a few. Chapter 25 and Messiah was 20 and five years old when he began to reign and reigned 20 and nine years in Jerusalem. Verse two, he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. Now I just picked this king to start somewhere. So we know, here's him. Look at him as a father because I want to look at his son afterwards. So here's one who walked rightly before God. Yes, we know he will have some faults too.
But here we know that basically the Lord told us that He walked rightly before God. So I like that as an example for many of us here who grown up in a Christian home where your parents walk rightly before God. Am I right in saying that many of you have that privilege from a very nice home? Now his son, chapter 26, his son's name is Uzziah. Now what do we know of Uzziah?
Well, let's just read a little bit of that.
Uzziah verse four, chapter 26, Two Chronicles chapter 26, verse four. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his Father and Messiah did. Oh, isn't that nice? We see one walk the same way as his father before the Lord, and we can look around us and he can find some of your friends did just that. You can see He's just like his father.
He walked right before the Lord. Now Uzziah got a lot of problems.
Even though he walked right look at the next verse verse five and he thought God in the days of Zachariah who had understanding in the visions of God and as long as he sought the Lord God made God made him to prosper. I said he has a problem did that verse sounds very bad about Uzziah.
I don't think so. Was I wrong in that? Well, let's look at it again. You see, if that was right before God and He saw God in the day of Zechariah.
That's nice, isn't it? And we ought to. And that's why we're here at a conference, is this. That's why we're here and the young people get together. It's the fact that we want to encourage you to seek the Lord, to walk in a way pleasing to him. But here is a little catch. He did it as long as Zechariah liveth.
Without Zacharias encouragement, we find later on he didn't walk right before the Lord. Do you need to walk because somebody else is holding you?
We need to pay close attention to that. Are we walking before the Lord because we want to seek the Lord?
He was raised in a nice home.
He walked, right and we find, and we're not here to find fault with the servants of the Lord. We find later on that it got to his, it got to his head and he sinned, but nevertheless it was considered a good king. So now we see a father raised a son who walked before the Lord. Let's go to the 27th chapter. Now, does that mean that the tradition would carry on? Now let's look at Amaziah's son or Uzziah a grandson or Uzziah's son. By the way, I didn't make a mistake when I say son. You'll find in scriptures often when they say son, it could mean grandson too, and that's the way scripture worded so.
Just as a side comment now, chapter 27.
And Joe them was 20 and five years old when he began to reign.
00:20:04
Verse two. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. Oh, isn't it nice? Here's the father, a son and a grandson all walk in the way. Isn't it nice? But some of you say, wait a minute. And my family is not like that. Well, let's see if God tells us more again. What? I'm just going to jump now to chapter 28. His son Ahaz Ahaz was 20 years old. Now remember, this is from a godly genealogy. The great grandfather, the grandfather, the father. Now come the son. Ahaz was 20 years old when he began to reign.
Well, I think some of you, there are quite a few here, would be in that age group, wouldn't that 20 years old, young as it can be. And he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. Oh, now the next part. Read it carefully. It's sad he did not.
That which was right in the sight of the Lord, like David his father. How sad David has to go to school. Remember to learn.
Here when we get to his great, great, great grandson, even though his father, his grandfather, and great grandfather before him walk rightly before the Lord, he did evil in the sight of the Lord. Verse 3.
Verse 2 For He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also motive images of Balaam. Moreover, he burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burned his children in fire.
After the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. Oh, how sad to see someone who know what the truth is.
He did. That was wrong. Before God, he worshiped other gods. He let his friends take over. And he walked like his friends, the other kings of Israel who worship Balaam. He even sacrificed his own children by fire. Oh, how sad to see that. Well, now you may say that. Some of you may say, yeah, you know, my family was like that. I didn't have the proper upbringing, as many of you do. Well, does that change anything?
Now let's look at his son real quick. Let's go to chapter 29.
Hezekiah, his son Hezekiah. Hezekiah began to reign when he was 5 and 20 years old. Verse two. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. I'm sorry of the Lord according to all that David his father hath done. Well, what did Hezekiah's father did that was so wrong? Ahaz himself. Let's look at what Hezekiah did and you'll see that what his father did, I'm going to jump right down.
To verse six for our fathers, that Hezekiah's father have trespassed and done that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the inhabitants, from the habitations of the Lord, and turned their backs. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put all the lambs, and have not burned incense, nor offer burned offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel.
Well, we knew he worshipped all the gods, so here Hezekiah listed three things. And that we have to be very careful with. He said his father shut up the doors of the porch. He put out the lamb, and he stopped burning incense in the House of the Lord. So what does that all that mean? Shut up the doors of the porch? Well, he stops people from approaching the temple.
Some of you are bobbing. You got a job, You're friends for me.
And he shut the door of the temple.
He put out the light, the lambs. Now we know the lamb. If you study the word of God, He speaks of the Holy Ghost because they use oil, lamb, and the oil speaks of just that. So they stay away from the church, from the temple. They rejected the Holy Ghost for helping them and they stop during burnt offerings. Burnt offerings speaks of the offering to God, about our Lord Jesus Christ, The perfectness in everything of him ascended to God.
So in our today's term is we don't go to meeting anymore. We don't want to have the spirit to lead us.
We want nothing to do with Christ. What Hezekiah has to revert all that?
Even though his father did evil and turned all the people away, because of that he did to open up. So if you have a family that's different, well, it is still up to you to follow after our God. Now there are many examples we can go, we can go through with these kings and you'll find whether they are good parents or have bad parents, you find that it doesn't really matter. Every one of them has to sod the Lord according to the way of God.
00:25:29
Well, what lesson is there for us?
The lesson, really, is this regardless.
Regardless of your family background. Regardless of your friends.
What are you to do? You know, a question was raised. If you remember, a brother Chuck mentioned all these things that we talked about. How is that going to affect your life?
Now this is Friday, this is a long conference. You have Saturday and Lords Day come Monday.
Is this going to change?
Now if you wait till Monday to change, it may be too late when you go back to your room tonight.
How are you?
What are you going to do that could change how you walk before God and man?
And don't look at your friends first.
Because sometimes one of the worst things we have of friends, you know, friends, we need friends. Don't get me wrong on that. But sometimes friends can Hindu as more so.
What are you to do now? I'm going to quote one more verse because I think I just ran overtime by one minute there.
I want to turn to one. I'd like to turn to one more verse in Philippians.
Is it OK if I spend 2 more minutes?
You OK with that?
All right.
Now all this thing that we talked about, I know many of you already know this, You find that when you come to conference, sometimes you really say to yourself, I didn't learn a lot of things new, but I've been reminded a lot of things that I have learned but I've forgotten. Am I right in saying that, you know, a lot of it's not new?
Well, this is what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians chapter 4 verse nine, and I think many of you can appreciate the first part of this verse.
Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me.
Can you associate with that the things that you have both learned, received, heard, and seen in me?
You know, sometimes people will say, look at that speaker. He's saying the same thing over and over and again. I remember a brother was at our place last week and he was making fun. I guess we ought to, we make fun of certain brothers. We try to do invitation of certain ones, right? And he said about his brother is this, oh boy, this is the 7th time I heard him talk about his granddaughter. Well, that's, you know, sometimes it's hard to say the same thing, right? But anyway, here it's just things that you have both heard and learned and received and heard and seen.
It's not new things, you know it, And some of you can stand up here and preach better than many of us can. And I'm sure you do an imitation at home when you play, don't you?
And even with the right accent at times.
But this verse did not stop there. There's one little word, it has only two letters in it, and it's the toughest word to follow.
That you notice I stopped before that word. Do you know what that word is?
What is it?
What?
Do Christianity is an action word? It's not just all talk, is it?
Faith and work is together, isn't it?
These things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do. And the God of peace shall be with you. If you want to see a change in your life you need to do, you need the first thing to do is not What you're going to do is to be on your knees before the Lord and ask Him what He wants you to do.
And I believe that would be a very good start. Let's commend ourselves. Let's look at Two Timothy chapter 3.
And verse 13.
Second Timothy 313 But evil men and seducers shall work wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
00:30:09
You know, some years ago, probably five or six years ago, I was talking to her brother Bob Tony, many of you know Bob and, and know him quite well. We were visiting about some things that he said, have you ever read the book The Seduction of Christianity? And I said, no, I've never heard of that. So he referred it to me and suggested I read it. And I read that in the sequel to that book about it about the same time. And how many here have ever read that book? Had a curiosity.
Reggie.
Nobody's else familiar with that book.
One other person. OK, well, I'll describe some things about it for you then, because in recent months we've had some dear friends of ours who have really struggled with some things spiritually and in their family and.
They've been turning to some things that seem to be somewhat questionable, and so the last week or so, again, I pulled out one of those books again and thought, well, I better get brushed up in some of that stuff. It's an interesting title, isn't it? The seduction of Christianity.
And I appreciate Brother Bob Tony referring me to that because I believe that he brings out some things that are exceedingly important in that book. And I'd like to speak a little bit about that. And let me give you just a little summary of some things first that maybe you can appreciate. I also went to college some some over 30 years ago now too. And before I went to college, I'm thankful that like many of you young people, I had the privilege of being raised in little meetings.
Where I heard the truth of God. That's a wonderful thing, isn't it, To hear the truth of God. And I heard the things we've been hearing today. Again, I heard that about the all sufficiency of Christ.
I heard that we sang the song as we often sing, Jesus, Thou art enough the mind and heart to fill. And we sang, Have I an object, Lord below, which would divide my heart from thee? Many of those hymns that we still sing. And I'm so thankful that I learned the truth of Christianity there, just as I hope you, dear young people, are learning the truth of simple Christianity, that Jesus is sufficient. He can fill our hearts and our minds.
That's a wonderful truth, not just for our heads, but more importantly, it's a wonderful thing to learn in our lives. I learned that the scriptures were all sufficient, and I think you people of young people have heard that too. But you know, there's always a tendency to take other things and mix them in with the scripture, as if the scripture really weren't enough. It's one thing to mouth certain truth that we've heard we hear. It's another thing to mix it up with some other things, isn't it? So I was taught, as I'm sure most of you young people have, that.
The Scripture are all sufficient that the scriptures are the revealed word of God and that they contain all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
And so I was taught those things. I was taught some other things we heard today, thankfully, again, some of the resources for the pathway of faith. It's a difficult pathway, isn't it? In many respects. Nobody ever said Christianity would be easy, but you know, life isn't easy either. But there are resources for the pathway of faith. We spoke about one of them, the all sufficiency of Christ. He won't disappoint us. We spoke about the perfection and the sufficiency of the Scriptures.
We heard today about the fact that we have the indwelling Spirit of God, what a wonderful, powerful truth that is. And so these many resources we have, the Lord Jesus Christ up on high as our high priest. Do you think you keep yourself? Sometimes I think that way. I know better. But sometimes we think, well, you know, we kind of get what we deserve. That's not always true, is it? There is such a thing as the government of God. But so often, you know, it's the grace of God that preserves us, doesn't it? We do things, we take certain steps.
The Lord preserves us by His grace. He takes us back from the precipice. So another resource of great of for the pathway of faith is the priesthood of Christ, the high priesthood of Christ. Aren't those wonderful things? I learned those things in the little meetings where I was raised as a child, and I'm so thankful for that. Then I went away to college and immediately I found out some different things, as I suspect many of you young people have, not only in college but also in high school. I found out, first of all, practically, if I didn't know it theoretically.
That the God of this world is Satan. The God and Prince of this world is not God, not the God we heard about in the meeting room, but the God and Prince of this world, according to scripture, is Satan. And so when I went to college, they were basically indoctrinating me in a rival religion. That religion had two parts to it, mainly. The one part is called humanism. It says that man is the measure of all things. And I studied, one of my majors was biology. Maybe you've studied biology before.
00:35:26
And of course, they taught us that there's a unifying system to biology, and that's called evolution. And Needless to say, it's managed. Religion always does. You know, you start out with a piece of dirt, I guess. And it changes miraculously over these years, in spite of the laws of thermodynamics that they teach us. Nonetheless, it supposedly migrates into these various things. It's really just, it's really just a form of Hinduism, isn't it?
Reincarnation is really what it is. It goes from one form to another and it always goes higher. And guess who's right at the top? Well, it's man, It's a rival religion. And I learned something else in those classes, and that is that, you know, they've had some problems with that theory of evolution because the fact is that the more scientists have learned about biology, they realized and, and chemistry, they realize how sophisticated and complex it really is. And some people have gotten out their calculators and computers.
And figured out that it's it's impossible for such complexity to have come together.
By probability and chance, it's not even close. It's impossible. So now we have an idea called Neo Evolution.
And this is the second great religion that I was taught, this rival religion I might mention in college. And this new evolution says, well, there's got to be some kind of a guiding hand. It's impossible according to many of the scientists in in, in the statisticians and probably people who do probability tests, it's impossible for these things to happen by chance. So therefore there must be a guiding hand, which is really what we sometimes call the New Age movement. So when I went to college.
I learned 2 new rival religions to Christianity. The one was humanism, which says man is the measure of all things, not God, who have been taught to been taught about in the meeting room. But I learned that it was according to according to the system of which Satan is the God and Prince, that in fact it's that man is the measure of all things, not God. And then secondly, I learned about this new age system. And this new age system is really the occult. It's really just heathenism with the new name.
But it is the occult. It has to do with supernatural systems. Can it work? It can work in parts because there is such a thing as supernatural powers. They're demonic powers, not divine powers. And that's the thing we have to remember and understand. But these are the two rival religions. I was taught in biology, and nobody actually explained it to me and said this is a rival religion to Christianity. It's much more subtle than that, isn't it? But I was taught that pretty plainly. Well, I was interested in teaching some, and I did teach for 10 years.
And so they say, well, if you want to teach, you have to take certain psychology classes. So I started taking psychology classes and, you know, I found the same thing, the same two rival religions underlined what they taught in psychology class. Freud was an agnostic and he talked about, he talked about these wild theories that have never been proved. And there's a number of conflicting schools in psychology and so on and so on and so forth. And so they ran into some of the same problems the evolutionists did. And so they said, well.
Since this doesn't work by itself, I guess we have to bring in some system to get it to work.
And so it's a proven fact that many psychologists are turning to the occult to try to get results. It's a bankrupt system by itself. So they turn to a power that's higher than themselves. It, again, is a rival religion. That's my point. So I learned those things in college, and I suspect many of you young people have, too. I hope you understand it in such simple terms sometimes. It's called worldview, isn't it? But one of the saddest things now.
Is that?
Is that these things are starting to come into Christianity. And as I said, one of the things that that made me want to reread some of these books again and get freshened up and some of the ideas was the fact that some of our dear friends were struggling and they were looking at things and some of these resources seemed to be somewhat questionable. You know, dear young people, what's happened is Christianity has been seduced.
When Christianity began, it was characterized by having resisted syncretism. You know what syncretism means? Who knows what syncretism means?
00:40:06
Jeannie.
Pardon.
Well, synchronistic probably, but synchronism means that you combine two systems together. You know, there was actually a time when it was, it was recommended in the Roman Senate that Jesus Christ become one of the gods in the pantheon of Rome. Rome would conquer these different peoples. They take their gods and they take them to their pantheon and, and Rome and they all were in the same place. They all faced off each other and basically canceled each other out. And Rome said, well, we can take Jesus and do the same thing with him. He's just like the religions of all the others.
And the Christians said, no, they said Jesus is our Lord, He's the one true living God, and he judges Caesar and all people in the world, and he's the creator and the Savior of mankind. And so Christians were martyred because they refused syncretism. They refused to combine the world system with Christianity. Christianity stood against the world system. But you know, I've also noticed as I read Scripture, we find there's a number of dispensations in Scripture.
What do you mean by dispensation is it's a way that God deals with mankind over a period of typically over a period of time. Sometimes it's not over a period of time, but typically over a period of time. And in these different dispensations, what what's characteristic? Look at the Jews, for instance. Remember Abraham was called and that began the the system of law, or some would say promise, but it was certainly a system when the call of God was was was brought forward.
He was called as an idolater. We're told in Joshua that Abraham was actually an idolater himself, but he was called out of that whole system to be a testimony to the one true God. And we know that he then became the the the patriarch of the Jews who were characterized by taking a stand as as serving the one true God. But when did the Jewish period end? Why did the Jews lose their place? Why were the 10 tribes and then later the two tribes carried off?
Why did the Lord allow that? What happened?
What happened to those people? Why were they judged?
Idolatry, exactly the thing they've been called from, right? And what characterized that dispensation was that when those who had the peculiar calling of the dispensation were no longer distinguishable from that from which they were called, they were judged. The same thing is going to happen to Christianity. Scripture points that out plainly. We have a call. We were called out from this syncretism, called out from this hedonism, this humanism, which is really the foundation of philosophy.
Called out from the heathenism, which is now called New Age, and Christians were called to stand against that. But in the last days, dear young people, it's well documented that Christianity now, even in evangelical circles, has been seduced by these same two systems. How is it done? Well, if you read some of these books, The Seduction of Christianity, I think you'll find it well documented that the system used is what's called psychology. By and large, not all of psychology, of course. There's learning psychology and neuropsychology and those sorts of things that are by and large scientific.
But particularly what's called psychotherapy when psychology, when humanistic men try to deal with the souls problems using their own resources.
That's what psychotherapy is, and it's a failure. What's happened now in Christian circles?
Have you ever heard of Christian psychology?
What does it mean Christian psychology? Now people are students, a lot of you which is stronger and an adjective or noun.
Which is, excuse me?
Which is stronger, an adjective or a noun? What does an adjective do? It describes what? A noun. So the noun is obviously stronger, right? Because an adjective just simply describes it. So when we're talking about Christian psychology, which is the adjective and which is the noun?
Come on, you guys have been in school since I have.
Pardon. Psychology is the noun, isn't it? And Christian is the adverb which adjective? Which is stronger psychology? It's a godless system invented by godless men. Are the scriptures sufficient or not?
So what's happening in this last day? As I said, what characterizes the end of a dispensation? Their time is just about gone. But what characterizes the end of a dispensation to your young people? And it's done in a very subtle, seductive way. That's why I read this verse. First of all, is the very thing from which we were called Christians were called in the 1St place is that thing from which those who had that calling Christians are no longer distinguishable. Be careful of the seduction of Christianity. Be careful of what you read. Some of the things have pretty harmless titles, like Chicken Soup for the Soul.
00:45:29
It's a new age book.
What's the other one? The Purpose Driven Life, written by a man who I think is actually a Christian, but he's a disciple of Robert Schuller who doesn't even recognize the fall of mankind.
He just talks about human potential. He doesn't talk about the work that Christ did for us and dependence on Christ as our only source of blessing. Christianity has become seduced. In fact, this man in this book writes and says the same Christians that were able to resist Darwinism.
Have now fallen to the seductions of Freud and Maslow and Laird. That's a sad thing, isn't it? Christians have been seduced. Christianity is falling to syncretism. It's combining with an anti religion with a rival religion. It's the same rival religions that I was taught in college. They didn't call them that, but that's what they are. The same rival religions that I was taught in college have now syncretized with much of Christianity. Be careful, dear young people. I don't want to go into any more detail than that, but there's abundant detail if you want to look into it.
But much of what's passing for Christianity Today says Christ is not sufficient. It's Christ and something else. The Word of God is not sufficient, but we need the help of godless men to find our way through this world. It's not because Christ isn't sufficient. It's because we're looking in the wrong places, aren't we? Let me just read one thing and then I'll close. I thought it was quite striking. It's a quotation. You're probably like me. You're probably write some quotations down in the back of your Bible.
But one thing we need to be careful about.
Um.
Let's see if I can put my finger. I thought I.
OK, here's a quotation that maybe will help us discern some of these things. It says our business, this Christian author wrote, is to put what is timeless, the same yesterday, today, and forever into the particular language of our own age. That's fair enough, isn't it? The Word of God speaks of that which is applicable to men at all times.
But umm.
The bad teacher actually does the opposite. He takes the idea of our own age and tricks them out in the traditional language of Christianity. That's the serious thing, isn't it? And dear young people, that's what's been done on a wide scale in Christianity. Be very careful of what's called Christian psychology. Even men like James Dobson. I don't say it's all bad, but it's a mixing of woolen and linen, isn't it? It's a mixing of principles. It's a syncretism.
The very thing that people were martyred for, they resisted that syncretism in the early days of Rome is the very thing that seduced Christianity in these very last days. We live at the very last days of the church, and I just want to warn us about that, the danger of the seduction of Christianity. Be thankful for what we the kind of ministry you've heard today. It's true Christ is sufficient. It's true that the word of God is sufficient. It's true that the work of Christ is sufficient to meet our needs as men in this world.
And to walk a pathway that's pleasing to the Lord Jesus. You know, just one final thing and then I'll close. I think one of the tests of true religion is this. Some years ago, and I imagine many of you young people probably know this, but it's been a help and encouragement to me to think of Christianity as the the the acrostic for joy. I don't say all Christianity, but it's a great help and what's true religion, isn't it? You know what the acrostic for Joy is? Who can tell me what the acrostic for joy is?
Either you're shy or I'm asking questions that are too hard. I don't know.
Right. Thanks, Allison. Everybody hear that? Jesus first. Is that what these religions teach? No. Evolution has men at the top. Not Jesus. Jesus first, others next. Jo and yourself last. That's a measure of Christianity, isn't it? A false religion. Always put self first. It puts self first. Be careful of that. You know what the great lesson of Job is?
00:50:19
Job sought God for the blessings God could give. In the process of the book of Job, he learned God for who he was and himself. That's a tremendous step forward, isn't it? And I think too often that's a great danger today is we want God's blessings, but true Christianity is to know Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Let's bow our heads.