A sermon by George Ramocan
There are 33,000 different denominations in Christianity. There are people who believe that baptism is not necessary; some believe you sprinkle a little water on the forehead; others who believe in immersion. There are some who believe the Lord’s Supper is to be taken daily; others hourly, weekly, monthly or quarterly. The Church of God believes there is a specific day set aside each year in scripture.
There are people who believe so many things…the immortal soul, going to heaven…Christ is coming back to take us there. Many believe Sunday is the new Sabbath. Yet, you can’t have everybody believing different things and yet be part of the same body. You couldn’t if you were a member of the Kiwanis club or Rotary or Lion’s Club. Why should a God of order have His organization, His body, operate in a way where people are doing whatever they feel is right?
Are there minimum requirements that one must meet to be legitimately called a Christian, and if so, what are they?
It is amazing that when choosing a house, a car, or a college to send our kids, the extent to which we exercise due diligence. We consider: Does it have air conditioning? I don’t like the mirror on the side. These carpets do not look good. I like my seatbelts when they buckle both around the waist and across the shoulder. They look for specifics, waiting months before making a decision. In choosing a church, is it as important as the above?
The Bible tells us there is a true church and a false church. Revelation 17 reveals the whore of Babylon and Revelation 12 reveals the Bride of Christ. How do you distinguish between the true church or the counterfeit?
Some people believe a good moral standing is what makes a Christian. What about the man who goes to church regularly on Sunday and is sincere in his heart towards God. He truly wants to worship God. He has never indulged in adultery. He makes personal sacrifices to help the poor. He promotes peace in his home and community. This church-going man, now in his 50s, attended church since he was a child. He never missed a church meeting. Would you consider him a Christian? Most people will say “Yes, of course. How can you say he is not a Christian?”
What about a man who has never indulged in adultery, makes personal sacrifices to help the poor, promotes peace in his home and community, shows love to everyone, but happens to attend the Hindu temple. Is he a Christian? “Oh no! He is not a Christian.” Why? “Well, he does not direct his worship to Christ.” The key is you must be directing your worship to Christ. So we argue that the difference between the man who is a Christian and the one who is not, is not his morality. It is not his church attendance. Well, the shocking news is that directing your worship to Christ does not make you a Christian.
Christ was speaking to some very devout people who all their lives had been seeking to worship God. They were legitimately worshiping in the temple of God. They were the people who God has been working with, but there was something wrong. Christ spoke of them and said:
“This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do” (Mark 7:6-8 NKJV).
Christ admits they are worshipping Him. Yet He accuses them of holding the tradition of men—if their worship is seasoned with traditions that are not in the Bible. You may be worshipping God with all sincerity of your heart, but because your worship practices and your beliefs are not in keeping with the word of God, your worship is in vain.
Jesus again speaks in Matthew 7:21-23: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
These people were manifesting powerful miracles and prophesying. You may think, “That is Christian because I see evidence of the work, the power behind the ministry.” Yet, even though all of this power is displayed, Christ did not know them. Are there clear guidelines in scripture that can help us determine what is true and what is false?
If Christianity is so important, a life or death matter, then it could not be that it is left up to our opinions, feelings, or culture to determine what is right and wrong. The history books do not show His crucifixion or birth. They might make some references, but without the Bible we would have no information. There is a very straightforward way to know what is false. Jesus explains: “Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:11-12).
Deception means you think it is right, but it is not. It is not that the false prophets are coming to you and giving you something that is completely different from Christianity. You are led to believe it is right. So how do you know? Lawlessness is the key element in the message of false teachers, which make their ideas appealing. Even in our society, the law sometimes becomes a restriction. I would like to keep on driving straight without stopping, but the law says I have to stop at the stop lights. This is for my good. There are many laws the legislators thought were good. They are good for somebody else, but not good for me. When you teach lawlessness and say, “America is a free country… drive as you wish.” People call it freedom…liberation. It is kind of a liberation gospel from the law. It is appealing. Lawlessness would be the foundation of the false church (see scripture above).
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15).
This is why it is so important to think about whether you are in the true church. I am not talking about buildings or about denominations. I am talking about a belief system. The church is an organism. Does the belief system promoted in the church you attend adhere to all of God’s law?
Examine whether you are in the faith, critically look at what you believe or the things you practice from the Bible. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).
I am challenging you to look critically at what I am saying, because I could be a false prophet. You need to know. But how? Do you know that you have the Holy Spirit? How do you know? Test the spirits! How do we test the spirits? You may argue that spirits cannot be tested because you feel it within you. Or the Lord healed a hand or healed you of the internal ache—that is not a good reason for saying you are a Christian. He causes the sun to shine upon the just and the unjust. The very life you have or the life of a murderer –his breath belongs to God. Salvation is a different matter. The fact that God gives you life does not mean you are a Christian. You cannot determine your Christianity on those terms.
The Bible says if you have not the Spirit of Christ, you are none of His. (Romans 8:9)One of the ways in which you can know if you are in the true church is to get back to the fundamentals, because every Christian believes that to be a Christian you must have the Holy Spirit. The question is: What is the underlying reason why God sent his Spirit? If we can see what was happening in biblical history to why God had to send his Spirit, then it will give us an idea whether we have the Spirit. God was dealing with the nation of Israel and there was a problem. You need to understand the past in order to appreciate the present and to understand the future. What was the first cause, that God looked at to send his Spirit upon His people, His church, His congregation.
“O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!” (Deuteronomy 5:29).
The Israelites were not doing what he wanted and He wanted to find a solution. He says, “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to me.” As I would say about my child who may be going wayward: “Oh, if you would only follow my instructions, how well it would go with you.” This was a problem of the heart. God wanted to do a heart transplant.
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36: 26, 27).
Why is the Holy Spirit necessary? What was the underlying historical reason? We need the Spirit of God to move us and incline us to obey the commandments. If you claim to be a New Covenant Christian, then you will understand the relationship between the spirit of God and the laws of God. Jeremiah prophesied the new covenant.
“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” ( Jeremiah 31:31:33). If you read Hebrews 8:8-10 you will find the exact same message.
The Holy Spirit is not just to make you feel good and have praise and worship and to speak in tongues, and work miracles and touch people. The work of the Holy Spirit is to convert a carnal heart into a spiritual heart, because the Bible says “the carnal mind does not love the law of God nor can it.” The new covenant is about putting the laws of God in that mind and in that heart to incline us to obedience to the laws of God.
Are we keeping the laws of God including the Sabbaths and Festivals? John 16:13 says: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.” David understood this connection between the Spirit of truth and the laws of God. “I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws” (Psalm 119:30).
If you have chosen the way of truth, your mind is set upon the laws of God. It has nothing to do with miracles. Miracles are not exclusive to God. We see that in Egypt with Pharaoh and Moses. The presence of miracles in a church is not proof of God. God speaks of counterfeit miracles in the last days carried out by those who do not observe his laws.
“And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of His mouth and destroy by the splendor of His coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing” (2Thessalonians.2:8-9).
Lawlessness is the identifying mark of the counterfeit church. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan. “And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived” (Revelation 13: 13-14).
This is deception. It looks good. It glitters. It must be gold. So, you think, it must be the right church.
To be a Christian one must have the Spirit of God. “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9).
How does one receive the Spirit? The apostle Peter said, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).
How does one repent of sins? We can only repent of sin if our mind is open to understand what sin is. Sin is defined in the Bible. “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). Jesus said to the rich younger ruler: "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments" (Matthew 19:17).
And the ruler asked, verse 18, "Which ones?" Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother and love your neighbor as yourself.'"
Because we live in a culture of Sabbath breaking, where everybody else is going to church on Sunday you would feel like you were the only one keeping it. We are not seeing Biblical Christianity in action, but cultural Christianity. Christianity comes from the Bible. “If I believe that I can be a Christian and live as a Sabbath breaker, but I cannot be a Christian and live as a fornicator, then I am saying the fornication law is more important than the Sabbath law. But the Bible proves the commandments are all equal. “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker” (James 2:10-11).
“Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression” (Psalm 19:13).
Yes, even in the church we are not perfect and we do break the laws of God. That is why we repent. “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God” (Hebrews 10:26,27).
“We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did” (1John 2:3-6).
Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie” (Revelation 22:14-15).
