Sermons
April 14th, 2024 by Pastor Solley041424AM The Emerging Church
Sub. The emergent church
Theme: Danger and end of the emergent church.
Text: 1 Kings 22
“The Emerging Church” 1 Kings 22
Introduction
I want to speak to you this morning about the emerging church, the dangers of the emerging church and the end of the emerging church. The emerging church has spawned the mega church movement and is all about church building, building bigger and bigger churches. That is the first error of the emerging church. The Lord Jesus Christ never commanded man to build the church, Jesus commanded men to preach the Word of God and He, Jesus, would build His church. Jesus commanded all believers to go and spread the gospel message and He would build His church. The emerging church takes the church out of the hands of God. The emerging church is the Laodicean church of Rev 3:20 which has Jesus Christ on the outside knocking and begging to come in. But that church never lets Jesus in. The emerging church takes the church out of the hands of the Lamb of God.
I. The emerging church changes the purpose, methods, practices and even the name of churches: It is a church rooted in man and not in Jesus Christ and because it is rooted in man the emerging church is very popular and will continue to be so. But being popular does not make one right.
A. These things you will find true of the emerging church, the mega churches: All of these to one degree or another.
1. The Word of God is replaced with perversions of the Word of God: NIV, ASV, Living Bible, RSV and so on. The ESV has become the chosen Bible of the emerging church. The ESV states that it is a literal translation that seeks as far as possible to capture the precise wording of the original text in literary excellence. Why not just stay with the precise text? My KJB is the precise text.
2. Songs, hymns and spiritual songs are replaced with Satanic counterfeits: There is band with a rock beat, or a country sound, or a rap overtone. No more hymnals to use, huge TV screens for people to look at. Why not sing the great hymns of the faith?
3. Special music is replaced by talented performers: They perform special selections often in seductive ways. Why not honor God?
4. Church buildings are renamed: Now they are worship centers or fellowship centers or new life centers with focus or circle groups. Get together with your chosen pier group and look into only what you want to study. What is wrong with the whole counsel of God?
5. The look of the churches and not just the names are changed: Churches are anything but churches.
a. There needs to be a coffee shop and a snack bar. The look of a Starbucks is preferred to a vestibule.
b. There needs to be a play area for children. You can’t have them hear the Word of God.
c. The sanctuary is changed into a theater atmosphere. Ones I have had to go in and I have seen.
(1) Everything is dark. Dark floor, dark walls, windows darkened just like a movie theater.
(2) The platform is dark as well and lighted by spotlights.
(3) No more pulpit. A lectern that is often glass or see through and a high chair for the speaker.
(4) No more dressing up for church. The one in charge looks more like he is going to a picnic than to church.
6. The emerging church has a central hub and then many satellite centers: The satellite centers replace the pastor with a lay leader who follows the directions of the main hub leaving those attending with no spiritual leadership to speak of.
7. The emerging church speaks of a Jesus who is everyone’s friend, will help everyone and sooth everyone: But there is no mention of sin or repentance in order to have Jesus be those things. Nothing said of judgment.
8. The purpose is to bring as many in as possible, make them feel as comfortable as possible, and get as big as possible: They are successful in that last point and the previous points lead to that success.
B. The problem is that Jesus is on the outside knocking and they will not let Jesus Christ in: They claim to do all in the name of Jesus but they do not know the Jesus Christ of the Bible. The emerging church is taking countless numbers of people to hell.
II. Did you know the emerging church is seen in your KJB? In Revelation three for sure but did you know the emerging church is seen in the Old Testament? Nothing ever takes God by surprise and the emerging church is seen, a picture of it, in the Old Testament. In 1 Kings 22 we find a picture of the emerging church. Not only do we see a picture of the emerging church but we see the danger of it and the end of the emerging church as well.
PROP: Let us consider this morning the picture of the emerging church we find in 1 Kings 22. TS. Let us also learn the danger and end of the emerging church so that will help us stay faithful to the church that Jesus Christ has promised to build.
Body
I. To be part of the emerging church one must go down: 1 Kings 22:1-4 Very interesting here that the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel, that Jehoshaphat came down to Ahab. – 1 Kings 22:2 – If you look at a map Judah is south of Israel. The southern kingdom of Judah is south of the northern kingdom of Israel. Why does it say Jehoshaphat went down? God did not get confused in direction.
A. To be aligned with Ahab Jehoshaphat was going to have to go down, not directionally, go down spiritually: Look at these two.
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1. Ahab was evil in the sight of God: 1 Kings 16:27-30 If you study the kings of the Northern Kingdom, the kings of Israel this becomes a very harsh statement. – 1 Kings 16:30 Ahab was an idol worshiper, a liar, a murderer, a servant of the devil.
2. Jehoshaphat had a heart to follow the Lord and do right in the sight of God: 2 Chron 17:1-6 God blessed Jehoshaphat, there was a revival in Judah under Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat set up boundaries in Judah to keep out the evil of Ahab. – 2 Chron 17:2 , 9-10 God was blessing, Jehoshaphat was walking with the Lord. Jehoshaphat was one of the few Godly kings, one of the few God could bless.
3. What dealings should Jehoshaphat have had with Ahab? Ahab was leading a kingdom into sin, judgment and captivity. Jehoshaphat was leading a kingdom in the ways of the Lord. What dealings should Jehoshaphat have had with Ahab? None at all!
4. But Jehoshaphat went down to Ahab: 2 Chron 18:1-3 It is not a physical direction Jehoshaphat was going, it was spiritual. That good king decided he would go down to Ahab.
B. What took Jehoshaphat in that direction: Bigger must be better, more of the world must be better. – 2 Chron 18:2 – Sheep and oxen in abundance and more people as well. The Northern kingdom of Israel had more than the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
1. They had more people and so a bigger army: More numbers.
2. They had more flocks and herds: More money.
3. They had more land: More opportunity.
4. Bigger must be better and so Jehoshaphat went down to Ahab: But was bigger really better?
C. To be part of the emerging church, the bigger church, the richer church, the church accepted by the world one must go down: One must leave the old paths, one must leave the proven way, one must step away from what God established in His Word and move in a new direction and that direction is not taking one up, it is taking one down.
1. One must leave the spiritual music, leave the hymns of the faith and replace them with worldly and fleshly music:
2. One must leave the old fashioned preaching of the Word of God as the focal point of the service: It needs to be replaced with entertainment and performances that please the flesh.
3. One must leave that old fashioned and outdated Bible: It must be replaced with something that pleases man and ignores sin.
D. Jehoshaphat went down to Ahab and to be part of the emerging church one must go down spiritually:
II. To be part of the emerging church one must ignore the true Word of God: 1 Kings 22:5-19 The request comes from Jehoshaphat so we see that he still has the knowledge that he should be following the Word of God. – 1 Kings 22:5
A. Ahab had long before turned away from the Lord and the Word of God and only false prophets surrounded Ahab: 1 Kings 22:6 All of them in concert telling the two kings to join in battle and God was going to give them a a great victory.
1. Jehoshaphat knows something is not right: 1 Kings 22:7 He knows something is not right and should have turned away.
2. One true prophet of God remained and gave a true prophecy: 1 Kings 22:17 That was not what Ahab wanted to hear from the prophet of God. – 1 Kings 22:18
3. For Jehoshaphat to continue with Ahab he was going to have to turn away from the truth of the Word of the Lord: In order to stay with Ahab Jehoshaphat is going to have to turn to a different version of the Word of God. Jehoshaphat will have to turn from truth.
B. To be part of the emerging church one must turn away from the truth of the Word of God: They must turn to another version.
1. The King James Bible 1611 is the true Word of God: The Bible I have before me today does not contain the Word of God, it is the Word of God. This Bible does not contain truth, it is truth. This Bible is not outdated, it is for all people of all time and is eternal.
2. The King James Bible is the living Word of God, is powerful and is eternal: Heb 4:12-16 This Bible is all that we need today.
a. We have a living Word. – Heb 4:12
b. We have a powerful Word. – Heb 4:12
c. We have a cutting and dividing Word. – Heb 4:12
d. We have a revealing Word. – Heb. 4:12
e. We have a Word that tells us when we are wrong and condemns sin in our lives. – Heb 4:13
f. We have a Word that points to the eternal Son of God who is able to meet all our needs. – Heb 4:14
g. We have a Word that grants us access to the very throne of God through Jesus Christ. – Heb 4:16
3. We have a more sure Word of prophecy that we should never turn away from: 2 Peter 1:18-19
4. We are King James and I am King James and stand I pray forever on the King James and pray the strength to stay that way: There is only one true Word of God and we need stand on the good old King James Bible today, tomorrow and yes forever. Just like Jesus Christ this book will never change.
C. To be part of the emerging church one must ignore the true Word of God:
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III. To be part of the emerging church one must ignore obvious dangers: 1 Kings 22:29-33 The king of Syria had commanded his captains to seek out and kill the king of Israel, kill Ahab. That was common practice, kill the military leadership first.
A. Ahab knowing this would disguise himself as an ordinary soldier: 1 Kings 22:30 But what Jehoshaphat does goes beyond my understanding. – 1 Kings 22:30 – Jehoshaphat agrees and dresses like a king while Ahab disguises himself.
1. Jehoshaphat has to know he has set himself up to be a target, the main target in the battle: Why would he do that?
2. Jehoshaphat also knows God cannot be happy with the alignment with Ahab: Why would he do ahead with that?
3. Jehoshaphat also knows the only true prophet had told of coming defeat in battle: Why wouldn’t he listen?
4. Jehoshaphat was blinded to the truth in front of Him, ignored the obvious danger he was in:
B. Many Christians who know better, know of the danger of compromise, know of the danger of sin, ignore those dangers: It is not so much the unchurched who are caught up in the emerging church movement that causes concern and distress, but some know better.
1. Those knowing of the purity of the King James Bible choose to move away from God’s truth: After all they reason “Doesn’t every version at least contain parts of the Word of God?” They also contain so much error that they poison the rest of the Word.
2. Knowing what the Bible says about compromise and separation they ignore those warnings: They reason that we are all going to the same place so what does it matter how we get there? We are not all going to the same place.
3. Knowing that God sees sin and must judge sin they engage in sin all the more: After all they reasons “Times have changed” while ignoring that God never changes and sin is still sin.
4. The emerging church invites the judgment of God to all who are a part of it: Because when one knows truth and turns away from that truth they do invite the chastening hand of God. – Luke 12:48 At the very least they rob themselves of the blessings, peace, and joy that God has promised to those who obey His Word.
C. To be part of the emerging church one must ignore obvious dangers:
IV. The emerging church will fall under the judgment of God: 1 Kings 22:32-35 All things were working out for Ahab. Jehoshaphat went along and joined company, ignored the prophet of God, agreed to make himself a target, the enemy was fooled and Ahab was safe. But was Ahab really safe?
A. God was still in control, the sovereign God of eternity is always in control: 1 Kings 22:33 God is always in control.
1. A certain man drew a bow at a venture: 1 Kings 22:34 That means he didn’t aim, had no target, had no idea where that arrow would go. He just shot that arrow into the air.
2. The arrow happened to go in the direction of the disguised king of Israel: 1 Kings 22:34 The arrow finds the chariot of Ahab.
3. Ahab has a full compliment of armor on that would turn back any arrow: Ahab was safe from an arrow shot from a distance.
a. But where that armor came together there was a weak place. 1 Kings 22:34 There was a joint, a ring, where the different parts of the armor came together and that was a weak spot. That is where the arrow struck. – 1 Kings 22:34
b. We would say it was one in a million shot.
4. It was God who directed that arrow: The true and sovereign God was in control.
B. The true and sovereign God is still in control today: We don’t need a new church philosophy that will lead to chastening and judgment, we just need to follow God.
1. Ahab was king of Israel, king of the Northern kingdom for twenty two years: During that time Ahab turned away from the Lord, refused to listen to true prophets, elevated false prophets, fought against Elijah, allowed Naboth to be killed for a vineyard and did many more things that were an affront to the God of heaven.
2. Perhaps Ahab began to think he was bulletproof: In twenty two years nothing happened to him, why should something happen now especially when he had take precautions.
3. Just because the judgment of God does not come immediately does not men God is not going to judge: There is often a period of time between sowing and reaping.
C. Be sure God will judge sin and compromise: Gal 6:7-8 This is not written to lost people, it is written to believers. – Gal 6:1 , 18 This chapter, beginning to end, is written to born again believers.
1. God still sees sin and compromise: No secret sins hidden from God.
2. And God still chastens and judges His children:
3. God has not changed His mind on sin:
4. God has not changed His mind on separation:
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5. God has not changed His mind on compromise:
D. The emerging church will fall under the judgment of God:
Conclusion
The emerging church is the popular church today. The emerging church is building mega churches today. But what do we know about the emerging church?
I. To be part of the emerging church one must go down: 1 Kings 22:1-4 Very interesting here that the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel, that Jehoshaphat came down to Ahab. – 1 Kings 22:2 – If you look at a map Judah is south of Israel. The southern kingdom of Judah is south of the northern kingdom of Israel. Why does it say Jehoshaphat went down? God did not get confused in direction.
II. To be part of the emerging church one must ignore the true Word of God: 1 Kings 22:5-19 The request comes from Jehoshaphat so we see that he still has the knowledge that he should be following the Word of God. – 1 Kings 22:5
III. To be part of the emerging church one must ignore obvious dangers: 1 Kings 22:29-33 The king of Syria had commanded his captains to seek out and kill the king of Israel, kill Ahab. That was common practice, kill the military leadership first.
IV. The emerging church will fall under the judgment of God: 1 Kings 22:32-35 All things were working out for Ahab. Jehoshaphat went along and joined company, ignored the prophet of God, agreed to make himself a target, the enemy was fooled and Ahab was safe. But what Ahab safe?