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CORE Evangelism School

A God Worth Knowing

Dee Casper

01 The God Who Hears and Knows

02 The Problem of Evil: Does God Care?

03 The Faith of Jesus

04 Are We In This Thing Alone?

05 A New Covenant Experience

06 Bad Religion

07 The Reminder of Your Value

09 A Matter of Life or Death

10 Unquenchable Love

12 A God Who is Always on Time

13 The Gospel in Types and Symbols

15 Last Church Standing

16 An Abundant Life

18 Why God Won’t Leave

19 Jesus Understands

17 A Voice of Reason

14 The Coming Crisis

08 Building a House for My Wife

11 A New Birth

Sweet Jesus, thank you for the privilege to have access to your word, that you're revealing biblical truths to us and that we're seeing Jesus at the heart of them.

That was our goal and you've not let us down, but God, we need you to do that again tonight.

I ask that you would bless us, that you'd speak with clarity and conviction, and I pray that we would have ears to hear.

And we ask this now in Jesus' name, amen.

So tonight we're gonna be addressing the topic of the last church standing, God's end time church, and what he wants to present to the world.

Is it confusing to you that there are so many denominations today claiming to all believe the Bible?

Is that confusing to anybody else, right?

If you were to just go through a Rolodex of churches that exist, there are varying numbers that some people say it's in the 5 figures of like 20, 000 to 30, 000 denominations, but some of those are probably like really not recognized, you know, like people getting bit by snakes out in the woods of West Virginia or other things that aren't maybe like organized denominations.

No offense, by the way, if you have any family or connections to the snake-biting brethren.

But whatever the circumstances may be, if you have any varying backgrounds that there's thousands at least.

We don't know how many fully officially, but the idea is it's confusing, right?

If everyone's claiming to believe the Bible, then why do we have worse than Baskin Robbins of options?

How do we know where to plant our banner?

And my next question is, do you think that's God's plan?

First Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 33 tells us that God is not the author of confusion, and I say amen to that.

God is not the author of this confusion, but of peace as in all the churches of the saints.

So if he's not the author of this confusing situation, who do you think would be?

Jesus alludes to this in John chapter 10 beginning in verse 11.

The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep, but a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, 1 who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf catches the sheep and Scatters them.

Who do you think that wolf is that big old bad wolf the devil and Satan, right?

So Jesus is talking about his people and compares them to sheep So the devil is the 1 who's scattering and dividing the sheep.

This is his goal, and it just makes sense, right?

In military, you're trying to kind of divide and spread people out because it's easier if they're isolated and separated than if you have a unified front.

And his part of trying to, you know, have the best advantage that he can have.

So Jesus is the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep.

Now, if the devil's in the business of scattering Jesus' sheep, do you think Jesus has a plan to counteract that?

He's not just gonna let the devil walk off with his precious sheep.

It says, "...and other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they will hear my voice, and there will be 1 flock and 1 shepherd." So, the remedy here is hearing his voice.

That Jesus will be speaking to his people, and this will lead them into 1 fold.

He says that many sheep I have which are not of this fold.

And the implication is God has earnest, sincere people in other folds that he's pursuing as we speak, that he's speaking to, and that he's leading as we speak, and he's leading them into 1 fold where they will have 1 shepherd.

So the question then is, well, how do we hear his voice?

I don't know about you, but if that's how this works, sign me up, right?

Well, we find that in 2 Timothy 3 in verse 16.

The NIV is actually a little closer to the original language on the point that's listed here, so we use that for this verse.

Usually we're using New King James, but in this 1 we're using the NIV.

It says that how much scripture, all scripture is God-breathed and it's useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.

So what the Apostle Paul is saying here is that Scripture comes from God Himself.

We talked about that in our first night together.

Now, it's also alluding to this idea that it's spoken directly from God.

We do not believe in a word for word, or like a, you know, there are varying views when it comes to this idea of how we got the Scriptures.

Did God dictate every single word that was given to man, or did He basically give thoughts to man, and they use their own language to communicate those thoughts, we take that position, the second position.

But the point is that this comes from God.

It's as if God is speaking to his people through scripture.

So through the scriptures, I'll be able to hear where Jesus is calling all of his sheep.

But then the question is, would you be willing to go where he leads?

If you know that he's speaking, would we go where he's leading?

So, what are some of those characteristics then of his sheepfold?

Well, in 1st Timothy chapter 3 and verse 15, similar reference but different book, 1 Timothy 3 15, it says, But if I'm delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God.

For those who don't know, Timothy was a disciple of Paul's.

He was a young man and Paul was training him for ministry.

So he's writing in these letters and how to kind of run a church, how to organize things, how to lead a church.

So he's saying, I'm telling you how to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, and then what does he give as an explanation for the church?

So the pillar and the ground of the truth.

So if a church doesn't teach what is biblically true, could it be the house of the living God the Apostle Paul is referring to here?

If it's gonna be the pillar and ground of the truth, then it's gonna have to teach things that are true, right?

It can't be peddling or repeating previous heresies from other churches or other, you know, philosophies and so forth, it's going to need to teach and preach the things that are true and clearly from Scripture.

You can't be the foundation of truth if your fundamental teachings on the character of God or the teachings of Scripture are not true.

Now, this conversation about an organization, as it's talking about an organization as a whole, not individuals within it, right?

But the fact that people can be saved outside of a corporate church does not mean that God does not intend for there to be a corporate church.

The fact that God is reaching people in other places does not deny the fact that He does have an ideal for His people, right?

And He desires a pure church with pure doctrine that's consistent within itself and that accurately teaches how He operates, how He does life, and a true picture of who He is.

So the first characteristic of this sheepfold is it's the foundation of truth.

It teaches what is true based upon the foundation of the Scriptures, not human traditions or distortions of the truth or distortions of God's character.

Because remember, if someone is teaching something that distorts people's view of God's character, it cannot be teaching what is true, right?

If the implication of what's being taught gives us an unhealthy picture of God, that can't be true.

So then we get to Revelation chapter 12 and verse 17.

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Series

A God Worth Knowing

15 Last Church Standing

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

CrossFit

46m

In the Mean Time

48m

Hands-Free Operation

56m

Preparing For the End of Time

1. Why Prayer Matters

45m

Jesus On Prophecy

Prophecy, Spiritual Abuse, and the Divine Right of Man

53m

Sexual Purity: Lost and Found

1h 19m

A God Worth Knowing

03 The Faith of Jesus

1h 1m

It Happened Because of Prayer

Give Him Not Silence

42m

How to Study Your Bible

1-Foundational Principles

1h

The Almost Overmastering Delusion

54m

What We Do is Not Good

53m

WYC 2012 Morning Devotional

Fruits and Gifts, Part 2

43m

Sound Doctrine