Jesus Never Preached

I want to make a startling statement, friends. Jesus never preached a sinning religion. Somewhere down the road, the modern church killed off the doctrine of holiness and replaced it with a lawless lifestyle.

But I can promise you this, friends, Jesus never preached a sinning religion. I'll never forget the young Baptist pastor who tried to turn his church into an experiment. He led a men's Bible study at a local cigar smoking shop, and he addressed his young congregation with the craziest notions.

He never failed to mention that his favorite TV show was watching the Kardashians. Here he was, a seminary graduate from a conservative Baptist cemetery, supposed to be a man of God. And every week he exposed himself to nudity and profanity and anti-Christ philosophy because his flesh enjoyed it.

He was addicted to it. And on top of that, he saw nothing wrong with it. But where is the power in our pulpits today? How can we have authority from on high if our personal lives are impure? I remember Alan Redpath summing all this up years ago when he said of the contemporary church, today, the Christian church is helpless behind the scenes and away from the public arena.

We are facing powers of darkness too strong for us because somewhere in our personal lives, we have forfeited our right to the Spirit's anointing, His authority, and His power. In His absence, all we can do is to substitute planning and organization schemes and techniques. And I will highlight what Redpath said, friends, because we are in a day of the technique-driven church.

We are void of the Holy Spirit's authority, so we just try to reach folks with the latest technique. But if we compromise ourselves during the week in known sin, how can we stand up on Sunday and represent a Christ who knew no sin, who suffered and died because of sin, the same Christ who will rebuke all church hypocrites with the words, Depart from me, ye who work iniquity. Like I said, Jesus never preached a sinning religion, but we do.

Our congregations are hotbeds of vice and carnality, and we look the other way. There's no church discipline anymore. I remember the time when Adrian Rogers caught a staff minister of his with a Playboy magazine, and Dr. Rogers rebuked him.

Then he took that Playboy magazine with him in his car on his way home, and he pulled his car over to the curb and threw that trash in the gutter where it belonged and then drove home. How can we expect our congregations to live holy lives unto God when the man in the pulpit doesn't see any importance in that? How can a minister feed on the Kardashians during the week and stand in the pulpit on Sunday and say with authority, Thus saith the Lord, he cannot. Psalm 24 isn't preached on much today, but it should be, Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

I guess that knocks out a bunch of young lawless pastors today who feel they are once saved, always saved, can sin all they want to, and teach that lawless doctrine to their lawless congregations. But I repeat, friends, Jesus never preached a sinning religion. Let us pray.