Psalm 119:103-105

How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! From Your precepts I get understanding;
Therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

Let’s Go To Spring Training

When I teach like this some Christians say: “Why preach about the Bible? We already believe it’s God’s Word.” But do we really now? Then how is it we live as we do? How is it today we are so busy seeking personal pleasure and taking it easy while unbelieving family members are but a single heartbeat from Hell!

A message such as this is kind of like the workouts baseball players go through in Spring Training, when the good coach has even Major League, million-dollar superstars go through the fundamentals of their craft each spring until they become second nature to them. Over and over they go through all the basics of fielding ground balls, covering firstbase, bunting–things these players have done hundreds of times. Why do it; because a good coach knows that mastering the basic fundamentals until they become as natural as breathing is the key to a winning team. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you can’t execute your game plan–you lose. And if you lose spiritually, the cost is an eternal one.

It is no different when it comes to the Kingdom of God. Mastery of the Bible, which contains the “fundamentals” of Christianity, is the key to living a life that is pleasing to God. And it is imperative to know the absolute truth if you plan on making an impact for the Lord in this world that God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son. We need to ask ourselves an honest question: What have I given lately?

In this world that doesn’t believe it makes any difference whether they believe in God or not, we must take up His cross and boldly go where great men and women have gone before, and declare that one can only come to God through His grace alone, through faith alone in the shed blood of God the Son, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, Who is the only Savior of the world. Now how’s that for absolute truth?

As most of you already know, the historic orthodox Christian faith doesn’t require you to “check your brains at the door,” as the noted Christian apologist Josh McDowell often says. Nor does true biblical Christianity require you to take a blind “leap of faith” based on “stories” someone else told you; but on the other hand, neither are you somehow excused from having to study to show yourself approved as we see from 2 Timothy 2:15. The Lord Jesus is inviting you to examine the evidence for yourself, and He challenges you to make your stand.

Lessons From The Boy Who Thought He Was Dead

To further illustrate why so many today say there is no such thing as absolute truth and to further bring out the vital importance of knowing the Bible, Dr. John Ankerberg, founder of the Ankerberg Theological Research Institute, uses the tale of the young man who thought he was dead:

There was a young man who went around saying he was dead. His family would introduce him, and give his name-then the young man would say, “Oh, by the way friends, I’m dead.” As you might imagine, this bothered the immediate family a little bit, so they thought: Well; let’s take him to a psychiatrist. So they took him to a psychiatrist and they said, “Doc, our boy’s got a problem, he thinks he’s dead.” The doctor said to bring him in.

So the young man came in and said, “Hi Doc, my name is Jim, and by the way, I’m dead.” The doctor said, “Ah, I see what the problem is.” And so the doctor thought: If I can take one fact from the real world and persuade this young man of this fact, that’ll break his world-view that he’s dead, and then I’ve got him. So he further thought: Let’s take the nature of blood; and the doctor said to the young man, “here’s the fact that I want you to learn: Dead men don’t bleed.”

The young man said okay. And the doctor took him down to the morgue, where he saw dead bodies cut, and they didn’t bleed–showed him pathological textbooks, and so on. Then after months and months of study the guy finally said: “Ok, doctor, doctor, you have persuaded me–dead men don’t bleed! The doctor thought: I got him, I got him! So he said, “Stick out your finger.” The guy stuck out his finger. The doctor took a little pin and pricked his finger, and out came the blood of this kid. And the young man looked at it, and he said, “Well doctor, look at that, dead men do bleed after-all.”

Dr. Ankerberg continues – “Now that just shows you; if you hold on to a view strong enough, no facts in the real world are going to bother you.”

I’ve gone to such depth here through this Internet pulpit of Apprising Ministries to demonstrate the claims of the Bible, because contrary to the comfortable and convenient feeling that there is no such thing as absolute truth, as one sails along on that Sea of Relativity: Today I bring to you as a storm the claims of Jesus of Nazareth in an attempt to not only rock your boat, but to warn you like a fog horn, that with each breath you take you sink further and further toward a port called Hell. A literal, eternal place of conscious torment – forever shut out from the presence of God. A one way ticket to a very close encounter of the ultimate wrong kind!

Now people don’t like it when we preach about Hell, especially today, because they feel people will be offended. Well I can promise you that sailing along on that Sea of Relativity until they dock in Hell will offend them far more than any of our words ever could! And let it be known, the “shore leave” is permanent! When you have time, I suggest you prayerfully read Luke 16:19-31.

Salvation Is Found In No One Else

In John 8:24 Jesus says – I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I Am – [the Eternal God] – you will indeed die in your sins. And He goes on in John 14:6 to say – I Am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. So much for those who say there is no such thing as absolute truth. Apparently Jesus happens to think there is. And the issue at hand is this: If all religions lead to God, then Jesus was the stupidest Man Who ever lived, because He taught things that eventually would get Him crucified for absolutely nothing!

Because Christ Jesus of Nazareth, with full knowledge that He could be executed for making the claims He did–that He was the only narrow pathway to God, because He was equal to the Father, sharing His Deity–continued to proclaim that He was the truth. So if people can take different roads to God, then Jesus was completely wrong; and that would mean our Lord gave His life on the cross for absolutely nothing! To believe what people in our society today believe, is to make Jesus out to be a fool. This is the crossroad a person today faces: Either Jesus is Who He said He is–the eternal God come in human flesh, and the only Savior of the world–or He was a deranged failure. You see, it must be one or the other–that is precisely the choice Jesus meant to give us.

The absolute truth is: Salvation is found in no one else period! Your secular humanist world-view won’t save you; your so-called “good life” won’t save you; your church won’t save you, nor will the old “bury your head in the sand” ostrich method of simply not dealing with it: “Well; I’m just not interested in spiritual things” – that certainly won’t save you! Only Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, can save you – Acts 4:12 – for there is no other name under Heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

And if you don’t know Jesus today, then it is you who must be saved! Don’t think for a minute that what I have taught you is simply Pastor Ken’s opinion. I have been very careful to quote God’s Word–the Bible–directly, and in context. So your argument is not with me, but with the Lord God of the universe Himself! If you win that one–then you be sure to come back and talk with me. However, remember Romans 9:20 – But who are you, O man to talk back to God.

Test These False Prophets Of The Church Growth Movement By Scripture

I have been asked: Why do you preach so much about salvation, in such depth about something we Christians already have? And as we look at the shape of this world, and the appallingly rapid spread of this current apostasy, then we are now left with no choice but to wonder how many professing “Christians” really have been “born from above.” How can we allow ourselves to live like we do, and without conviction? So maybe that explains a ministry like AM, as the time has arrived to return to the fundamentals–right where we live–and go back and examine ourselves and ask ourselves the tough question: Do I really believe what the Bible says about what it means to be a Christian, and to truly live like Jesus did? Beloved, I firmly tell you in the Lord, we had better make up our minds–and fast!

The absolute truth is: A sermon, a doctrine, or a tradition, is only as true as its being based on the clear teaching of Holy Scripture, rightly interpreted. Frankly, we have now seen a new ism evolve–Evangelicalism–but this absolute fact remains: If an opinion, a tradition or a doctrine concerning the Church, is not based on a teaching found in the Bible, then it is not to be considered as coming from God, but rather from man. And this is how deleterious deceptions like the seeker sensitive purpose driven life, the Emergent Church, and the insideous cult of the Word faith Movement were able to slither from their satanic nest right into the very Evangelical church itself.

But this is what the Spirit of God says through the Words of the Lord, Christ Jesus – Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: ‘ These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” (Matthew 15:8-9) Men and women, by the way we live today and the ease with which these increasing number of serpentine deceptions penetrate the Lord’s Church, we are demonstrating there is far too much of this within the Evangelical Christian camp today.

For in this passage of the Bible we see that it is indeed possible to worship God in vain and to end up with man-made doctrine; no matter how sincere, or well-intentioned–if we are not careful to follow the Divine command of 1 Thessalonians 5:21 to Test everything. And so it now becomes obvious why it is so important to know the Bible; it is critical for finite, corrupt, degenerate, sinful mankind not to trust himself. Listen to Jeremiah 17:9 – The heart [of man] is deceitful above all things and beyond cure – I like the King James Version here where it reads – the heart is desperately wicked.

Beloved rather, we need some objective standard of measurement–the Bible–which has stood the test of time, to examine whether ideas, or “rules” have come from God, man or Satan. Otherwise, people are forever lost on that Sea of Relativity; a ship without anchor–drifting from one conflicting opinion to another, with no real way to decide anything on an issue, since one person’s opinion cannot be considered any more right than anyone else’s. Have you ever watch a political debate, or a talk show, and see them as they just go ’round and ’round and ’round–ad infinitum, ad nauseum?

I realize that we’d all like to think we’re right, and that we’re all God’s children, and that God is unfair not to let people we consider good into Heaven apart from the blood of Christ; and that all religions eventually lead to God. But the Bible–His infallible, eternal and inerrant Word–says it isn’t so. And the LORD God Almighty–by definition–is perfect and right. If we happen to think in a way that is contrary to His revealed Word, we are wrong. It really is as simple as that. This isn’t Alice in Wonderland, and you can’t just hold your breath until you get your way. Sorry about that all you sallow seeker sensitive preachers of Robert Schullerisms who pollute the Evangelical church today; the absolute truth is that we live in the world God created, and He makes the rules. Soli Deo Gloria!

We who are Christians-being bought with a price-are to honor God by representing the Lord Jesus Christ, the living Word of God without one iota of compromise. So many difficult issues face us and the world is looking for answers “in all the wrong places,” as the insipid song goes. Can we afford to just sleep on when they need the absolute truths found only in the written Word of God. Beloved, it is up to us to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world; but if we don’t believe there is such a thing as absolute truth-then how can we? Who would commit themselves to something they are not sure of; now do you see why the Church in America is so pathetically weak? That’s why God had His original Apostles seal their testimonies in their own blood. Men and women, you just can’t get any more committed than that! Yet how committed are we?

Think about it for a moment…is it really such a surprise that Satan and his forces of evil minions have been mounting a mighty attack on the Bible? But I have another pressing question for you: What is happening as our Lord’s Church begins to loose its own grasp on the Holy Scriptures…