Well, this morning I would like to...
We have been, for those visiting, we have
been going through the book of Acts.
And we were looking at Peter's second sermon.
His first sermon on the day of Pentecost
were 3,000 people were converted.
I don't know how many people were in
the congregation, but 3,000 conversions took place
and they baptized them and added them to
the church.
And then God did another miracle in healing
a lame man at the gate in Jerusalem.
And last week we talked about how that
healing took place.
But through that healing and the gathering of
the people, Peter preached a second message.
And that message brought in another 5,000,
or roughly 5,000 people.
And so next week, Lord willing, the Lord
gives us next week, we'll look at this
sermon that brought in 5,000 more words
for the Jewish people, showing them that Jesus
is the Christ and the Messiah.
I'd like you to turn, though, this morning
to Ephesians chapter 4.
There's been something on my heart for a
while.
And usually I let it sit for a
while.
And if I get a chance, I'll put
a message together and slip it in at
different times.
And this is something that's been on my
heart for some time.
And so I'd like to share it with
you.
There's a principle that I think you can
learn from.
And also there is some application to it
because some of us have been affected by
these things or are being tempted to be
affected.
So I thought it would be good to
share on this subject.
Let's look here at Ephesians chapter 4.
We're talking here in Ephesians 4 about the
Lord being raised up in verse number 8
and 9 and how when He was raised
up, He gave gifts unto men.
And starting in verse number 11, it says
this, And He gave some apostles and some
prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and
teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for
the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ.
And this is one of the reasons why
God gives gifts.
When I taught through the subject of gifts,
one of the things I learned when God
gives gifts, and I like gifts that are
like this.
My family gave me a gift recently, a
chainsaw.
And I like gifts that I can use
in my work.
And men, I guess, like those kind of
gifts.
And so the Lord, when He gives gifts,
He gives us gifts that we can use
for the work.
For His work.
And so all these spiritual gifts are for
the perfecting of the saints so that the
saints can go to work in the ministry
and the body of Christ can be built
up.
Verse 13, Till we all come in the
unity of the faith and in the knowledge
of the Son of God unto a perfect
man.
This is the goal.
A mature individual.
Unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ.
It's not God's intention, we'll see in the
next verse, for you to remain a child.
For you to remain a baby.
And in order to grow up, you need
to grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We do need knowledge.
We need understanding.
And that understanding comes from the Word.
Understanding comes from understanding God's Word and His
principle.
Verse 14, That we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro and carried about
with every wind of doctrine by the slight
of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie
in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth
in love may grow up into Him in
all things, which is the head, even Christ.
So we're told here that it's not the
will of God for us to be children.
Children are easily deceived.
As a child, I believed in the Easter
bunny with all my heart.
As a child, I believed that Santa Claus,
though he were big and fat and he
had a nice red suit, came down our
chimney, though we didn't have a chimney.
How he got into our house, I don't
know.
But the whole nine yards was pretty easy
for me to believe.
And spiritual children believe a lot of things.
And they believe things wrongly.
They are easily led astray.
It says here they are carried about with
every wind of doctrine.
You know, in the fall you see a
leaf and it's blowing this way and then
all of a sudden it's blowing this way
and then you see it swirling around.
And the picture of how children are so
easily led astray and are confused.
And so it's God's heart for children to
have parents and to have spiritual guidance and
leaders and teachers and pastors to give them
understanding and wisdom that they might grow.
And so this morning I'm going to try
to deposit in you some of that wisdom
and help you to grow in your understanding
of truth and how there are many false
concepts that are even about us.
Some of them are very close to us.
I will mention some of those here this
morning.
Now it says here in verse 14, and
I want to draw out this word, it
says that we henceforth be no more children
tossed to and fro and carried about with
every wind of doctrine.
By the way, there's a lot of them
out there.
By the slight of men.
I want to look at this little phrase,
the slight of men.
And this word is only used one time
here in Ephesians chapter 4, but slight.
I looked up the word slight and it
has to do with magicians.
It has to do with the slight of
hand.
You've heard that statement made, the slight of
hand, the trickery.
And I was just looking a little bit
into magic tricks and tricks that use the
slight of hand and card tricks and coin
tricks.
It's talking about men who are able to
use their hands, magicians to use their hands.
Have you ever watched a magician taking a
deck of cards or taking a coin and
making it disappear and reappear and pulling it
out of the air and all kinds of
things and you look at that and say,
how is this happening?
You try to observe it and he's so
good at it.
His slight of hand and you cannot figure
it out.
It's like, what is happening?
And so this analogy is used with regards
to teaching and how people come with a
slight of hand.
And you look at that and you say,
wow, it's pretty hard to see the truth
there.
And so this idea of slight of men,
slight of hand.
You know that magician, he doesn't actually make
a coin disappear.
That's impossible.
It's impossible to make a piece of metal
just disappear, but he does it by the
slight of hand.
It's simply trickery.
It's him mastering hiding coins and cards.
Sometimes, as you've heard this phrase, he's got
a card up his sleeve.
Sometimes the card is here.
Sometimes the card is palmed in the hand.
And as he moves his hands, you don't
see it, but he's got a card palmed
underneath the hand and that card is used
then to mix into the deck of cards
he's using and he's able to do and
to deceive people and cause people to wonder.
One of the methods that is used with
regards to the slight of hand is bringing
some outside card or outside coin into the
trick.
Now, I thought about it, but I figured
you probably wouldn't appreciate it.
I'd spend the week learning how to master
a trick and come here and use it
maybe in the children's lesson or do it
in front of you and learn a little
slight of hand, but I figured I wouldn't
do that.
You'd trust me that you've seen magicians and
you know what it's like.
But most often, magicians will use some exterior
source.
For example, they'll bring a deck of cards,
open up the cards, show you every card
is in there, but what you don't know
is there's a card up the sleeve.
What you don't know is there's a card
in the palm of his hand or some
other place on his body, and that extra
card is what he brings in by slight
of hand to work his trick or his
magic and to deceive.
Sometimes it's a coin trick, and magicians have
mastered putting coins between their fingers and holding
them there and running their hand over another
hand and that coin all of a sudden
being dropped out and appearing and different ways
in which by the slight of hand, people
deceive and bring in tricks.
And so Paul uses this phrase, the slight
of hand, as he talks about deception.
And sometimes when I watch magicians, I can't
even see what's happening.
It's hard to understand it.
And so we need some wisdom.
We need some understanding because this kind of
stuff happens in church life.
And it has happened throughout history.
And I want to give you some examples.
And this book I'm going to use kind
of as an example.
This is the deck of cards.
And this is what the magician will bring
forth.
But, spiritually speaking, there is something hidden.
There's something outside this book.
There's something outside the deck, and it's hidden.
And this hidden thing is going to be
brought into the equation.
And it's going to be deception.
So that's one of the principles here for
spiritual deception.
It's happened throughout church history.
And I'm going to go and give you
some examples of how it happens.
But it continues to happen all around us.
And I want you to be aware of
how it happens and giving you some understanding.
I'm going to give you some examples in
church history and how things have been brought
in from outside and mixed in with the
real deck, the Word of God, and how
people have been deceived.
I've gone through some of these.
That's why I know a little bit about
them because I've experienced them myself.
And they are deceptive.
And so let me just give you a
couple of them.
There's many that I could give you.
But all of these have to do with
words or phrases that are not in the
deck.
Words or phrases that are outside of the
Bible lingo, outside of Bible terminology.
For example, here's a word that if I
asked the average Christian, is this word in
the Bible, probably 90% and maybe some
of you would say, yes, it's in the
Bible.
But it's not in the Bible.
And yet an entire theology has been built
on a word that's outside the deck.
It's a word that was brought from the
sleeve or from the palm of the hand.
And that is this word, rapture.
Rapture.
Now many people believe that this word is
actually in the Bible.
And I've gone through this whole study with
regards to the rapture.
But the word rapture is not in the
Bible.
It's actually a Latin word, rapturo.
It comes from the phrase in 1 Thessalonians
4, being caught up to meet the Lord
in the air.
But this word, and you can go to
your concordance, you'll never find the word.
It's not in the Bible.
This word brought into the deck, into the
Scriptures, has caused a lot of confusion.
Actually, it has allowed for men to weave
in a concept that there's actually two different
comings of the Lord Jesus Christ.
One called the rapture, seven years before the
end.
And the second one called the revelation or
the second coming of Christ, which is at
the end of this world.
But the Bible does not teach that at
all.
The Bible only teaches the Lord is coming
one more time.
He left and He says, I'm coming back.
He's not coming two more times.
And so by bringing in this word, rapture,
we now have the ability to represent another
second coming.
So now we have, in much of Christendom,
two second comings of the Lord.
Hebrews 10, verse 28 says, So Christ was
once offered to bear the sins of many,
and unto them that look for Him shall
He appear the second time without sin unto
salvation.
The Lord is coming a second time.
He is not coming a second time and
a third time.
Could someone get me a glass of water?
He's not coming a second time or a
third time.
The coming of Christ in the Bible, and
I know this is not the message here
this morning, but the coming of Christ in
the Bible is always a singular event.
And so this word rapture, which is not
in your English Bible, has been infused into
the Christian lingo by the sleight of hand
of men in order to work things that
are deceptive.
Now I believe someday you and I are
going to be caught up to meet the
Lord when He returns in the end of
the world.
I'm all for the idea of being raptured.
But this word that is outside the Bible
deck has been used to promote false concepts.
There's a lot of confusion in the church.
There's another one that I've dealt with over
the years.
I'm just going to give you a few
examples before we get into some that I
think are close by us.
And that is this idea of the second
work of grace.
The second work of grace.
Now you won't find that phrase in the
Bible.
Second work of grace.
And that's gone around different churches throughout church
history.
But it promotes some sort of a crisis
event after your salvation.
Everybody gets saved, and then they have to
have a second work of grace.
And so those who had the second work
of grace are kind of special.
They've been sanctified.
And so you look through the Bible, and
I used to look through the Bible, and
you can't find this concept.
You can't find the concept because the phrase
second work of grace is not in the
Bible.
Now just think about this for a minute.
Just use our common sense.
If someone was promoting something that was solidly
biblical theology, could they not use the words
and the terms or the phrases that are
in the Bible?
I mean, if we talk about salvation, we
use a Bible word.
Salvation.
Saved.
You talk about being born again.
We use biblical words.
You talk about modesty.
We use biblical words.
But you'll find that many false concepts have
been brought into the church by using words
that are outside of the Bible, up the
sleeve, in the palm of the hand.
And they're brought in, and then doctrines are
built on those words.
Transubstantiationism.
You know, the Catholics use this a lot.
Big word, beautiful word.
And yet, that word is promoting a concept
that is heretical.
It is unbiblical.
You'll never find that word in the Bible.
You can hunt for a long time.
Go to your concordance.
But a word has been brought in.
And by the way, those words are brought
in by people who are leaders.
They're the ones who define the word.
They're the ones who control people with those
words.
Another word that the Catholics have brought in
is the word Pope.
It's amazing that this word is so big
in the Catholic church, yet the word Pope
is never mentioned in the Bible.
There's no such word.
And yet, this word has been brought in.
And many people are following a concept that
is certainly unbiblical.
So we have words that are outside of
the Bible lingo that are brought in to
the Scriptures to support concepts.
And here's the important thing.
Concepts that people want.
Concepts that leaders want.
And maybe the Bible doesn't communicate these concepts,
and so they bring in words to try
to bring those concepts to the people.
And then as I've seen over the years,
they go to the Bible then and try
to arrest the Scriptures to prove those concepts
are true.
By the sleight of hand of men.
So words outside of the Bible are brought
in by the sleight of hand to promote
false or heretical concepts.
And by the way, this is human nature.
It's done in the political world too.
The word progressivism in the political world is
a cover word.
It's covering for something more cynical.
I mean, what's a wonderful word?
Progressive.
We want to be progressive.
Democrats are talking about being in the progressive
party, but it's a cover word.
It's a cover word for socialism.
It's a cover word for communism.
It's a cover word for we're heading in
this direction.
But we know the American people won't accept
these other words, so we're going to give
another word, and we'll define it, and we'll
bring people in under another phrase or another
word.
So it's human nature.
Here's a word that's often used, and I'm
not being critical of this word, but I
try to stay away from it.
There has been a lot of confusion in
the church throughout history over the word trinity.
Trinity is nowhere found in the Bible.
And so when I talk about the Godhead,
I use the Bible word, the Godhead.
And so many people have found themselves confused
by a word that is brought in from
outside.
Another word.
This is the last one I'm going to
give you here, but we're going to launch
out, talk about some things that are a
little closer to us that I've been hearing
lately, and I want to share with you
some of the concerns I have.
Here's a word that's common and probably another
word that if you ask the average person,
the average Christian, is this word in the
Bible?
Oh, sure it is.
Probably many times in the Bible, but it's
nowhere in the Bible, and that's the word
denomination.
Denomination.
Where did this word come from?
Denomination.
You hear people say this, what Christian denomination
are you a part of?
Christian denomination.
So another word from outside the Bible is
brought in to promote a concept.
Denomination is not a Bible word, yet it's
a common word, a common lingo amongst many
Christians.
But here's the secret.
If I would not use the word denomination,
but would use the actual biblical word that
it's promoting, then no one would listen to
me.
For example, what Christian schism are you a
part of?
Oh, I'm not part of any Christian schism.
What Christian division are you a part of?
Well, the Lord's not for division.
I'm not a part of any Christian division.
Well, what Christian denomination are you a part
of?
Well, I'm a Baptist.
I'm a Methodist.
See, all of a sudden, taking that word
denomination and substituting it for biblical words opens
the door for acceptance and actually even boasting.
And so, this is by the sleight of
hand of men who use words that are
hidden and brought in to the Christian lingo
that are not biblical words.
And why is that?
Because if I stood up here and preached
to you about schism, you would recognize it.
If I tried to promote schisms, you'd say,
Whoa, whoa, whoa, brother.
I'm sorry, we're not going to listen to
you because I just read last week in
the Bible that a schism is a bad
thing.
If I talked about, Hey, we all need
to be divided and we need division, you'd
say, Whoa, whoa, whoa, brother.
We know, we've read in the Bible that
division is not a good thing.
But if I came here and said, We
need to have some denominations.
Oh, that's an interesting word.
What does that mean?
Maybe we can be behind that.
So many of you, your ears, you don't
pick up on that word denomination like you
would on schism or you would on division.
So I'm able to pass off a scheme
that violates the Scriptures by using a word
that you don't recognize.
And this has been happening in Christian churches
all through history.
So you're reading your Bible and you see
these words schisms, you see these words divisions,
and you know that they're wrong.
So I can't come to you with these
words.
If I want to promote this type of
a thing, I need to have different words
outside of the Bible in order to promote
that.
So by the sleight of hand, words are
slipped in.
Lingo is slipped in unawares and false concepts
are built around those words.
Often those concepts are in direct opposition to
what the Bible teaches.
So no preacher could stand, and I couldn't
stand up here and speak positive about Christian
division or Christian schisms because you know those
are not good words.
You're reading them in the Bible.
But if you're a child in the faith,
and I talk about Christian denomination, well, that's
different.
I don't know what denominations really mean.
And it's a word that's outside of the
biblical parameter so we can be deceiving or
we can cause people to be deceived.
So if we use Bible words and phrases,
we can see those things are condemned in
the Scriptures.
But if we use a word outside the
Bible and use other lingo outside the Bible,
we don't easily recognize it as being wrong.
And so here's one way in which people
have used the sleight of hand.
You know, here's the deck.
Words like division and schism, here's the deck.
And I'm going to move the deck around
and then I'm going to slip my hand
underneath my shirt and bring out another word.
We're going to mix it in.
It's called denominations.
And by doing so, we deceive.
So let me ask you this question.
Why don't we use Bible words for teaching?
Why don't we use the words, and we
do, I know, salvation.
We're talking about salvation.
Why don't we use born again?
We're talking about being born again.
But sometimes, if you notice this, sometimes people
then leave the Bible words to go off
and try to make a new word.
Because oftentimes the Bible word does not promote
what they desire to be promoted.
And there's many examples, and I'm not going
to go through all of them.
I just gave you about six examples here
of how through church history, words have been
used.
But I want to bring out a couple
of words and some of these things we've
talked about before.
Some of these words that are very close
to us.
I was sitting in a meeting probably a
year ago, a little over a year ago
with some elders.
Many of you would know who they are.
We were talking about different things.
There was a church that I was trying
to help.
And this church wanted to fellowship with another
church.
And this other church wouldn't allow them to
fellowship based upon a phrase that continued to
be used.
And this phrase is a phrase that's got
some nice words in it, but it's not
a biblical phrase.
And I kept hearing this phrase, Sister Churches.
Sister Churches.
What are Sister Churches?
Well, I come to find out that Sister
Churches are a group of churches who banded
together, who are like-minded in many different
ways, and who do not allow other churches,
other brethren, who they consider to be Christian,
but do not allow them to have fellowship
or become a part of their group.
They form a group of Sister Churches.
Now those words, Sister, it's a good word.
I hope most of you have good thoughts
when you think of Sister Churches.
That's also a good word.
Two words, Sister Churches.
Yet, if you go to your concordance, you'll
never find that phrase in the Bible.
The Bible does not talk about Sister Churches.
This phrase, again, should be schism.
It should be division.
That's the true word that should be used.
But Sister Churches is being used as a
cover word to support and approve something the
Bible does not approve of.
And that is schism.
And that is division.
The reason why biblical words are not used
is because the concept is not in the
Bible.
I remember sitting at a meeting, I'll tell
you a little bit about it here later
on, but a meeting out in Indiana, and
individuals using words.
And I thought, boy, that's an interesting word.
I've never heard that word.
It's outside the Bible.
It's outside of Christian lingo.
But it kept being used over and over
again.
Words outside of the Bible.
And I couldn't really understand what was trying
to be promoted.
And they were trying to promote something that
was not actually in the Word of God.
Something that was actually contrary to the Word
of God.
And so they were using words that were
outside of the context of the Scripture.
And so this idea of Sister Churches, why
do people use that phrase?
Isn't there any biblical terminology that we can
go to and say, here is what God
says, why we should group up into small
groups and separate ourselves from other groups.
And the Bible says it and teaches it
right here, and here's the words and phrase
that God uses, and we're going to use
them.
You know why they don't use those words?
Because they're not there.
They're not in the Bible.
So since there is no Bible words or
terminology for something that is unbiblical, then other
phrases and words need to be made up.
So when a preacher gets up like myself
and promotes schism or promotes division, you know
the common Christian, those of you out there
would say, whoa brother, you're not speaking truthfully.
You're leading us astray.
I just read last week in the Bible
that schisms or divisions, they're not good.
But if a preacher stands up and he
begins to promote sister churches, the concept of
a group of churches coming apart and separating
from the church at large, people sit and
think, that's an interesting phrase, sister churches.
And in a sense it's a cover, it's
a cover for something that is not biblical.
Just like pulling a card out of the
sleeve or a word to bring into the
lingo.
I'd like you to turn over to 1
Corinthians 3.
We've looked at these verses before.
I'd like to read them here again.
1 Corinthians 3 starting in verse number 1.
Paul speaks about this and he does on
many occasions.
1 Corinthians 3, verse 1, And I, brethren,
could not speak unto you as unto spiritual,
but as unto carnal, even as unto babes
in Christ.
You're being babies.
I have fed you with milk and not
with meat, for hitherto you were not able
to bear it, neither yet now are you
able.
For you are yet carnal, fleshly.
For where is there among you envy and
strife and divisions?
Notice that word divisions.
Are you not carnal and walk as men?
Aren't you living fleshly?
Aren't you walking like the world?
Aren't you walking as men?
By the way, if you go out in
the world, you'll find division everywhere.
You'll find it in the political world.
You'll find it in the sports world.
You'll find it in the economic world.
You'll find people dividing and competing with each
other.
It's the spirit of the world.
God help us when we divide and compete
against each other.
It's simply the world showing up in the
church.
And Paul here recognizes this and he tells
the church there shouldn't be envy and strife
and divisions.
You're carnal and you walk as men.
Verse 4, For while one saith, I am
of Paul, another, I am of Apollos, are
you not carnal?
So who wants to be carnal?
Who wants to walk like the world walks?
Well, nobody does, at least if you're in
the church and you want to do the
right thing.
So you don't use words like division.
You don't use words like schism.
And throughout church history, people have brought in
these words.
And one of the things I'd like to
say to all of you is to be
mindful of this.
Error is often brought in by the slight
of men using words outside the biblical context
and bringing them into the Christian church and
getting the church to accept new lingo and
then building upon that lingo.
And I would say that if you and
I are promoting biblical concepts, we ought to
have biblical words to promote them.
If the Bible is teaching a concept, then
there ought to be words that promote them.
Here's something else, and we've talked about this
some before, but I wanted to bring it
out in this message because I sense or
see this thing happening in some lives of
people near to us.
And I think we ought to warn them.
We ought to instruct and give them some
direction here because this is not a good
direction.
A few years ago, I was sitting in
a meeting.
There's a number of ministers there.
It was a minister's meeting actually in Indiana,
and I sat there, and they began to
use words.
And I was really confounded.
I didn't stay very long.
But I watched.
It almost looked like they were all using
the same words.
You heard the idea of a talking point.
Everybody's using the same word, and I noticed
this word structure kept coming up.
One minister after the other would stand up
and talk about how we need structure in
our churches and structure in our church.
And I thought, yeah, that's a good word,
structure.
But it's not a biblical word.
As a matter of fact, if you go
and you won't find in the New Testament
the word structure anywhere.
So I kept listening, and then the word
brotherhood commitment came up.
I said, well, there's another interesting word.
And I go to my Bible, and I
can't find the word brotherhood commitment in the
Bible even.
Then the word standard.
These three words, standard, brotherhood, commitment, and structure
were being promoted.
But you know, interesting enough, none of those
words or phrases are found in the New
Testament.
They're all wonderful words, but why would we
not use biblical words?
Why wouldn't you use biblical phrases to promote
the truth if you're teaching the truth?
Here's why.
Because the Bible does talk about structure.
It does talk about brotherhood commitments.
It does talk about standards.
But the words it uses are commandments and
doctrines of men.
Now if I get up here in front
of you and tried to teach you about
commandments and doctrines of men, some of you
would say, whoa, brother.
I just read in my Bible last week
Jesus said that's not a good thing.
Let's stay away from that.
And so if I'm going to promote those
things and try to get people to receive
them, I cannot use Bible lingo.
I cannot use commandments and doctrines of men
because your antennas will go up and you'll
not listen to me.
But if I have a real desire to
do that, I'm going to have to do
it in another way.
The way to do it is to change
the wording and use words like our church
needs structure.
What do you mean by that, Brother Jerry?
Well, I'll tell you what I mean by
structure.
Our church needs a brotherhood commitment.
We need standards.
All of those are not in the Bible.
They're not words that are found in the
Bible.
So none of your antennas go up because
when I read my Bible and if someone
uses the word commandments and doctrines of men,
I saw that in the Bible and the
Spirit of God quickens me and it's like,
no, that's not good.
But standards.
Huh.
A brotherhood commitment, that's a good word, isn't
it?
Brotherhood commitment.
Structure.
Everybody needs structure.
All those words are used.
And it's an attempt to get around what
the Bible is warning against and teaching things
that are contrary.
I want to read to you here a
couple of passages.
Colossians 2 talks about these very things.
We've talked about commandments and doctrines of men
here.
Colossians 2, verse 20, Wherefore, if ye be
dead with Christ from the rudiments of the
world, why, as though living in the world,
are you subject to ordinances, touch not, taste
not, handle not, which are all to perish
with the using after the commandments and doctrines
of men?
Which things have indeed a show of wisdom
in will, worship, and humility?
Some of you have come from a background
where you know exactly what that means.
It does have a little bit of wisdom
in will, worship, and humility.
You know, just do what we say.
If we want you to wear blue socks,
if we want you to wear a red
head covering, if we want you to paint
your bumper black, just do what we say
and be humble.
Show of humility.
But the commandments and doctrines of men, those
brought forth through brotherhood commitment and things of
that nature, are something the Bible teaches again.
By the way, this book right here is
sufficient for you.
The Bible says, as you behold the glory
of the Lord in the Scriptures, you are
changed.
Amen.
And our problem is this.
We have turned our hearts away from the
glory of the Lord, from loving His Word,
from walking in the Spirit, and that's basically
all we need.
Really, we have the Word of God that
sanctifies us.
The Bible says, sanctify them through the truth.
We have the Holy Spirit of God who
sanctifies us.
This is what God desires for our sanctification.
And as you behold the glory of the
Lord in His Word, you are changed into
His image.
I tell you what, you put this Bible
down, you start walking in the flesh, you're
not going to be changed into His image.
And you're going to need another way to
do it.
And there are many men and people who
are willing to find a way for you
to do it.
And it's their way.
It's not a biblical way.
So if I stand up before you and
I say I want to promote the commandments
and doctrines of men, each one of you
would reject me, you'd reject my message because
you have light and you know the Scriptures,
you know what they say.
But if I stand up here and talk
to you about structure, brotherhood commitment, standard, all
of a sudden, I don't know any place
in the Bible that talks about that.
And we are opened up to things that
are leading us in a different direction.
And so the idea of the sleight of
man is the same as a magician who
presents a deck of cards but has something
hidden in his sleeve.
And he uses the sleight of hand to
bring that out and present that as a
part of the deck and by it to
deceive people.
So here in Ephesians 4, verse 14, that
we henceforth be no more children tossed to
and fro and carried about with every wind
of doctrine by the sleight of men and
cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to
deceive.
The Bible says there are people who are
lying in wait to deceive you.
And they're using cunning craftiness and the sleight
of men to do it.
And one of the prominent ways that it's
done is by bringing in a word or
a phrase outside of the Scripture to promote
an idea that is unbiblical.
So I wanted to share that with you
because we have brothers and sisters that I
have concern for.
And I know where this is heading.
It's heading back to the former way.
It's heading back to the Amish church.
It's heading back the way it was.
And oftentimes what happens in human nature is
I remember 30 years ago when I became
associated with Denny Kennison and Mo Stoltzis.
I remember back then.
They had come out of their settings and
amongst the plain people there was this idea
that the plain people were accusing Denny and
Mo and all of those who were coming
out of that that you'll never make it.
You'll never make it without standards.
You'll never make it without a brotherhood commitment.
And these type of things.
You'll never make it.
And I remember Denny and those men used
to say, yeah we will.
We'll make it with the Word of God
and the Holy Spirit.
We'll have revival and we'll make it.
You know it was going good for a
while.
But then the next generation, the following generation
came and the hearts of people were not
as that first generation and people began to
move away their hearts from the Lord.
And there was a lack in spirituality.
There was a lack in a love for
the Word of the Lord.
There was a lack.
Fathers, mothers, the next generation.
So now what do you do?
You've got people who are wanting to go
to the world because they don't have a
heart for the Lord.
So in order to keep people in check,
these kind of things are brought into the
church.
You know what?
We really need the revival.
The Bible talks about when you leave your
first love in Revelation.
It talks about to the church at Ephesus,
by the way, the same one we're reading
from, that the Lord didn't tell them that
they needed more brotherhood commitments or standards.
They needed to return to their first love.
That's what you need.
You need to have a revival and get
back to your first love.
And I still believe that.
No manner of force or rules are going
to bring people into line.
Only the Lord can do it.
And I've given you this illustration before, but
I'd like to give it to you again.
You know, Abraham and Sarah, they were a
godly couple, but they made some mistakes in
their life.
And one of their biggest mistakes was God
had promised them a child.
And instead of waiting patiently for the child,
you know, they got past childbearing age and
they were getting a little concerned and years
went by and finally, I'm sure one day
they sat down and said, maybe God wants
us to use our own head.
And so they sat down and probably Sarah
came up with the idea.
Abraham, there's Hagar, our handmaiden.
Why don't you go in under her?
Maybe God wants you to go in under
her and you can maybe have a child
through her and that'll be the child God
promised.
So Abraham agrees.
I'm just reading into the story.
He goes and they have a child.
You know, Abraham and Sarah thought this was
the greatest thing.
We got Ishmael, our son.
Promised son.
God did it.
And you know what?
It looked good for a while.
It looked really good.
Ishmael.
Then what happened?
I don't know how many years later.
Then what happened?
God came and visited their house and said,
hey, it's time for your baby to come
now.
It's time for me to give you a
child.
My child is child of promise.
Abraham, oh boy.
Lord, we already got one.
No, no, no, no, no.
No, he's not the one.
You know what Abraham said?
Oh, would it God, Lord, that Ishmael would
live before you?
I want Ishmael.
Lord said, no, Ishmael is not the one.
It's my son.
My one I'm going to give you.
And so Isaac was born.
And interestingly enough, and you'll find this in
church life and human nature, but interestingly enough,
that Ishmael then became the greatest persecutor of
Isaac.
And you know, you'll see this, and maybe
you'll understand this later on as you think
about it, but you'll see this in church
life that those who try to force out
Christianity by imposing restrictions and force, they can
only go so far and then all of
a sudden God will send a real living
revival.
And people will get their hearts right from
the depths of their soul and they'll begin
to walk in the Spirit and they'll begin
to do great things for the Lord and
the greatest persecutor against that movement will be
the Ishmael.
The Ishmael.
Weren't the Jews the greatest persecutors against the
true children of God?
Yes, they were.
It wasn't even the heathens.
It was those Jews who had established their
own religion and didn't wait for the Lord
to do His work.
I don't think we ought to impose restrictions
on those whose hearts are not right with
God.
What we need, and we can pray about
it in a week or so, we need
a revival.
We need a revival.
We need people's hearts changed from the inside
out.
And if that never comes, then it's never
going to come.
But I'm not going to step in and
try to have an Ishmael.
Try to do it in my own strength.
It's going to turn out worse.
Let's just wait on God.
He's promised us He'll sanctify us through the
Word of God and through His Spirit.
And so throughout church history, you can go
back.
There's many examples of this.
These words that are coming into the church,
where are they coming from?
Where does this word rapture come from?
Transubstantiationism.
Where does this idea of the pope or
denominations or many other words and then theologies
are built around those words and lead the
church astray.
Let's build our theology on the Bible terminology.
Bible words.
And if there is no Bible to promote
my theology, then I lay it down.
So, let's instruct others.
I think we ought to be instructed ourselves.
And there's other areas of life.
If you stop and think about it, what
concepts have been brought into your life, our
church, even us here, our families, that we've
embraced, words, phrases, theologies that have not a
biblical basis.
And I can bring up others, but I
think this is sufficient for us here this
morning.
Let's use biblical terminology and let's not hide
our intention with words that are outside of
the Bible itself.
So, I want you to be wise, and
one of the reasons why God gave us
pastors and teachers is to perfect you, that
you would not be tossed back and forth,
back and forth, by every wind of doctrine,
by the slight of men.
Now, I believe a lot of men, and
I've been in this situation, I've been deceived.
I think we've all had some sort of
deception in our life, but I think a
lot of individuals, they're not purposely trying to
deceive.
I think they're just deceived.
They have good hearts.
In my life, and I think we've all
experienced this, I go back and think, why
did I believe that?
Why did I teach that?
Wow, I was deceived.
And so, what we need to do is
exhort and encourage and try to help one
another.
Let's not be deceived ourselves and tossed to
and fro.
Paul goes on here, and I'll close with
this, but speaking the truth.
What is the truth?
It's just right here.
This is the deck of cards.
Speaking the truth, the Bible, in love.
Now, I realize that none of you would
probably be easily deceived if someone came with
words that were in direct contrast to the
Scriptures, what they say, and I think the
enemy knows that.
So, what he's trying to do is to
bring in words that are good words, bring
them into the church that are outside this,
and then formulate concepts around those words that
lead people off and astray.
So, let's be mindful of those things.
Don't be a child and be led astray.
Let's close, and I'll open it up here
this morning.