2 Timothy 4: 3 & 4...For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

In part 1 of this study I outlined the sins of today’s Church and so this week I will pick up where I left off. For a quick refresher, I will list below the first seven sins that I covered in Part 1 and then I will go into the sins of our Ministers and tie them all together to show how we (The Church), are fulfilling the prophetic scripture of 2 Timothy 4: 3 & 4...Strap in tight because it may get a little rocky here.

SINS OF THE CHURCH...
***Evangelism…
***Tithing…
***Un forgiveness…
***Gossip…
***Judgmental Attitudes…
***Unholy Conversations…
***Conforming To The World…

We left off of last weeks study talking about the Church sin of “Conforming to the World”. The next sin is closely related to “Conforming to the World” and focuses on that dirty little word that has poisoned our Churches called “Tolerance”.

Here is the loose definition I gave last week for the word “Tolerance”…

“Tolerance is another word the world loves because it allows for every kind of action to be accepted as long as there is someone who embraces it. So the Church has adopted this “Tolerant” view toward sin and refuses to come out against sin because we have people in the Church who have decided that they want to embrace it.”

***TOLERANCE… Tolerance was heavily introduced to the United States from our political world. Now, I do not ever want these studies to drift into the political arena because even though I am a “radical conservative” and am not ashamed of this fact, I still want to keep everything lining up with God’s word instead of some political party platform. But, facts are facts and the Liberal wing of the Democrat party introduced “tolerance” to all of us as a way to deflect criticisms that “conservatives” or “right wing nuts” like me might have for certain people and their lifestyles. It has gotten so far reaching now that anyone who speaks out against a person, their lifestyles or sins is immediately tagged a hate monger. They have drilled into our minds for so long now that we must be accepting of everybody and everything lest we hurt someone’s feelings. In my opinion this “Tolerant” attitude has been the driving force to this Country’s overall downfall and it’s Godless state. If fact, to implement such a “tolerant” way of thinking and life, you must first remove God from the conscience of society which they have done with great success. Instead of the Church and it’s leaders standing against such crap, we quietly as meek little lambs headed off to the slaughter without making a sound. Preachers and Churches found that speaking out against something meant intense pressure and criticisms including the possibility of losing their tax exempt status if they continued on being intolerant. Needless to say, we folded like a deck of cards because we put a greater emphasis on money than we do on speaking and teaching the truth of God’s word. Now let’s fast forward to today and the “Tolerant” Church that can’t and won’t call sin a sin.

You know, I read the scriptures that tell us how we in the Church are to handle believers who are openly sinning against God and come away wondering why these people and their sinful lifestyles are allowed to remain. Church members having affairs, drunkards and drug users, you name it, we accept it and turn a blind eye. But the one sin I find to be more readily acceptable today is the sin of Homosexuality and Lesbianism. Now look, I think that anyone and everyone regardless of their sins should be allowed in to our Churches to hear the word of God, but today we are welcoming in those practicing these lifestyles into our Church memberships to Minister to us in various ways including preaching from the pulpit. Allowing sin to dominate our Churches has taken a snowball effect to where anything and anyone is accepted. Enough with my opinions for now, let’s see what God says about tolerating sin in our midst…. Please read these carefully and let them sink into your heart, mind and spirit…

1 Corinthians 5: 1 - 13...It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife. And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."

Need I say more…God says…”Expel The Wicked Man From Among You”! He says to turn these people over to Satan so that their sinful nature may be destroyed and their spirit saved on the day of the Lord. You know friends, I don’t see this being put into practice in any Churches. I will touch on this again as we get into the sins of our Ministers later.

Matthew 18: 15 - 17..."If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

Are you still one who believes we should let those who practice homosexual lifestyles to worship among us and Minister to us? Let’s see what God’s view of homosexuality is…

Leviticus 18: 22..." 'Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. NIV

Leviticus 18: 22...Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. KJV

Genesis 19: 24 & 25...Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.

Romans 1: 24 - 28...Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

Old testament or New, homosexuality is and always has been an abomination to God. Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed for their wicked and perverse lifestyles and yet we as a Nation think we are above this Judgment of God and what is more pathetic is that we, “The Church”, think we are beyond God’s judgment for allowing these things in His house. We all know that sinners will sin and the wicked will do wickedly, but what is our excuse friends? To continue on in Romans 1, let us see if we have an excuse.

Romans 1: 20...For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

We have tolerated sin to a point now that even we don’t know the difference between righteousness and wickedness. God help us if we do not repent, turn back to God and his righteousness and holiness and follow his commands. Now I highlighted homosexuality because it to me is the most glaring sin and one that God called “An Abomination To Him”. So just because you are not homosexual, don’t think you are out of the woods yet. Because of “tolerance”, I believe there is just as much sin within the Church as there is without. The Church needs to remove the word tolerant from it’s vocabulary and start judging sins within itself on the scale that God has laid out in His word, until then, we can expect Sodom & Gomorrah type judgments not only on this Country, but also upon us, His Church.

Now, if I have yet to offend you and tick you off, don’t go anywhere, because the next sin of the Church is hardly ever spoken of and never addressed. All of you wonderful, beautiful, Christian women, please withhold your judgments, rolling pins and stones until I have fully explained my view on the “Unspoken Sin”, which I have adequately called, “The Spineless Man Sin”.

***THE SPINELESS MAN SIN…I believe that God never intended for “the woman” to be in leadership positions of the Church that they now find themselves in. Let me begin with the main scripture that leads me to that belief and explain my theory.

1 Timothy 2: 11 - 14...A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

Ok, now that I’ve thrown it out there, please bear with me. First of all, I have heard people who don’t believe this to be true, use as their main defense… “ That was then and this is now and things have changed in 2000 years, God never meant for Women to just shut up and learn in silence”. While I believe the last part to be partially true, we have to understand that God didn’t have Paul record this in the scriptures only because it was a slow day in Heaven and he didn’t have anything else to say that day. God put it there for a reason. Now, those male chauvinist’s among us like to use this scripture as a power scripture to dominate the women in their lives, which is a sin in itself, using the word of God as a selfish weapon. I believe God tells us “about the woman” because it was the natural order of things as he so ordained it. Look at the scripture above where Paul gives the reason for that statement… “For Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not the one deceived, it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner”. Let’s take a look at another scripture to shows God’s natural order of things not only in the Family but also in the Church…

Ephesians 5: 21 - 24...Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

This was and always has been God’s natural order to things both at home and at Church. BUT…Before you men say AH-HA!!! I told you… Let’s see what God says to the “Spineless Man”…

Ephesians 5: 25 - 33...Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— For we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Not laughing so hard now are we men. You see, just as it is the natural order of God’s plan for women to be in subjection to their husbands and to not usurp the authority of men in the Church, God lays out a pretty heavy burden for you to fulfill as well doesn’t he? Let’s see if we’ve passed that test…

***Husbands, Love your wives as Christ loved the Church…..FAILED!!!!
***Love our wives as our own bodies…………………………..FAILED!!!!!

Wow, that was a quick but disappointing test, wasn’t it. You see men, Christ meant for us to use his example with the Church as the example of how we are to treat our wives. If Christ treated the Church the way we do our wives, the Church would have disappeared centuries ago. Along with being the top dog in God’s system, also comes great responsibility and we have dropped the ball my fellow brethren. We have let our sexual desires overtake us to where we are now adulterous by nature and move on from woman to woman leaving our wives to fend for themselves. We love our sports, our hunting, our fishing and out T.V. more than we do the woman God has given us to Love and cherish. We abandon our Children and leave them for our wives next husband to worry about. It’s all about me, me, me… Was Christ’s example of his relationship with the Church all about him, him, him? No it wasn’t! It was all about the leadership example that he set for his bride (the Church). We have become “Spineless Men” in the eyes of God! We have neglected our responsibility in our homes so our women had no choice but to “wear the pants” and take over our mantle. We have neglected our responsibility in “the Church”, so our women had no other choice but to assume this mantle as well. We have been terrible husbands and even worse spiritual leaders. So let me sum up my feelings in a separate statement to both women and men in hopes of getting to the truth of what God believes.

***WOMEN…I do not believe that God ever intended for you to be in the roles you now find yourself in, be it the home or the Church. Let me also say I believe you have all done an admirable job in the absence of willing men to do theirs. I pray that one day you can return to your “Natural Position of God”, as it was intended. Secretly, I believe most women truly desire in their hearts to become “the Church” again in the eyes of their husbands, to be loved and adored again as it was intended. To be protected and cared for again as a beautiful bride and to have a husband that will take the mantel of spiritual leader once again.

***MEN… or should I say, “Spineless Men”. You know guys, we like to go around spouting that women should be submissive and keep silent and all of that crap but we don’t want to trace the problem back to it’s original source…US!!! We have been spineless so long they should call us “Hunchback Christians”. If we truly want the natural order of God to be restored we are going to have to grow a Spine Brothers. We need to take back that position not by force or commands but by example. We need to earn that respect back not only by our women but by our God! Give up the Cowboys and embrace compassion! Give up hunting and become honorable husbands! Give up the fishing and become Jesus freaks! Give up the sports and become spiritual leaders! Give up the T.V. and become thankful and obedient servants to our families and our God! We are the reason that the natural order of God has been changed. We need to quit being “Spineless Men” and become “Supermen” to our wives and more importantly, Our God!

One more scripture and thought here men as we increasingly see women doing the jobs that God had intended us to do…

Luke 19: 35 - 40...They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!" "I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."

Matthew 3: 7 - 9...But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

These two scriptures show us that even though God did not intend a certain thing to be so, he showed his flexibility of performing his will in an alternate way. Jesus said that if his disciples held their peace, God would use the stones to praise him. John the Baptist told the Jewish religious leaders that God could use those stones to raise up Children to Abraham. Just as Jesus has raised up women in our stead because we have refused to be the natural Head…

Ok ladies, you can drop your rolling pins now!

We have now covered nine sins of the Church so far. I have become so long winded in this study that a third part will be coming as I have yet to even touch on the sins of the Ministers yet. So before I get to that, let’s finish up with the tenth and final “Sins of the Churches”.

***FALSE DOCTRINES AND TEACHINGS… Although I will cover this sin more extensively in the “Sins of Our Ministers“, I also want to touch on it here as the Church (Believers) are just as much at fault for false teachings as our Ministers are. We have become so lazy in our walk with God that many Christians don’t even read God’s word anymore let alone know what it says. We have been told throughout scripture to be on the lookout for false teachers, preachers and doctrines, especially in the last days.

Example:

Matthew 7: 15..."Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

The problem, is that the Church is so dead spiritually that we couldn’t discern the difference between a harmless house dog and a ferocious wolf if our lives depended on it, and by the way, it does! We don’t know a “False Doctrine” when we hear it because we don’t even know what the “True Doctrine” of God says. We neglect reading, studying and immersing ourselves in the Word and we rely on our Pastors and Preachers to tell us what it says. Would you walk out blindfolded onto a cliff 5000 feet high and trust just anyone to tell you how many more steps you had before falling to your death? I wouldn’t, but we do that with our souls every day! Any Pastor, Teacher or Preacher worth his salt would demand that you confirm in God’s word what he is telling you. If they are not, they are probably relying on your ignorance and want to keep it that way. We think that our Pastors and Preachers are untouchable and so much wiser in the things of God than we are. If they are true men of God then that way of thinking may apply, but if they are ferocious wolves, it is our responsibility to unmask them and send them on their way. If you are in a Church that loves the “Wolf” teachings and refuses to see the truth, then for the sake of your soul and those of your Family you better pack up and find a new Church. We must remember though that knowing God’s Word is vital to being able to recognize false doctrines and teachings. If you don’t know His Word, you will fall for any teaching under the sun and be none the wiser. So I hope you see that our complicity in false teachings is our ignorance of God’s word. Study the Bible, know it and live it and do your part in uncovering the false doctrines that have flooded our Churches in these last days. I have only given one “False Doctrine” scripture here today but plan on getting more in depth next week as we look into the “Sins Of Our Ministers”. Hope to see you then…

Your Brother In Christ
Tim Barrett