“Has The Church Become Dull Of Hearing?" Lesson

Second Reading and Lesson

The introduction to our lesson is long, but I do believe is important and comes from a Coast to Coast review of “Reformed” Churches between 2012-2017, and as I will say it is NOT a small Sampling.

As I said in the beginning what we have observed is a huge caution Jesus asks and we need to be aware of as we as a Church will always move this direction.

We will take these two weeks between July 4th and the Martyrdom Of St. James Sunday, after which we will return to of Matthew Series, we will focus on two Dangers I has noticed traveling Coast to Coast Preaching but also listening to Sermons in 7 States crossing the Country from California to New York 4 round trips and from Florida to New Jersey 3 round trips so it is not a small sample.

All I am asking is that you actually listen to the Sermons and stop being impressed by the quotes that for the record are the only part of the message most remember, so stop watching the shiny object going back and forth and start listening to what is really being preached, you might not and should not like what your hearing.

I will be breaking these messages in to two themes;

This Week we will be asking ourselves “Has The Church Become Dull Of Hearing?

Next Week We will ask ourselves “Is The Typical 3 Point Sermon Killing The Church?

 

Please read along, as I believe if we are honest this is the weekly issue.

Matthew 15:1-20, Mark 8:17-21, Hebrews 5: 5-14

1 ? Then some Pharisees and scribes *came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,

 2 "Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread."

 3 And He answered and said to them, "Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

 4 "For God said, 'HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,' and, 'HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.'

 5 "But you say, 'Whoever says to his father or mother, "Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,"

 6 he is not to honor his father or his mother.' And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

 7 "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you:

 8 'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.

 9 'BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'"

 10 ? After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, "Hear and understand.

 11 "It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man."

 12 Then the disciples *came and *said to Him, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?"

 13 But He answered and said, "Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted.

 14 "Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit."

 15 Peter said to Him, "Explain the parable to us."

 16 Jesus said, "Are you still lacking in understanding also?

 17 "Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?

 18 "But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.

 19 "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.

 20 "These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man."

Mark 8:17 And Jesus, aware of this, *said to them, "Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart?

 18 "HAVING EYES, DO YOU NOT SEE? AND HAVING EARS, DO YOU NOT HEAR? And do you not remember,

 19 when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?" They *said to Him, "Twelve."

 20 "When I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?" And they *said to Him, "Seven."

 21 And He was saying to them, "Do you not yet understand?"

Hebrews 5: 5-14

5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, "YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU";

 6 just as He says also in another passage, "YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK."

 7 In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.

 8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

 9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,

 10 ? being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

 11 Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.

 14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

(NAS95)

 

Let’s look at 3 questions, and note they are not 3 points

What are we being told?

What are the signs of Deafness and Blindness?

What can We Do About this, or is it our doing that is the Problem?

 

What are we being told?

It is important to note that the problem the Reformed Church is facing (here after the Church) is first and foremost not NEW!

It has been the same problem that plagued the Synagogues of Jesus day and plagues both Churches and Synagogues today, and has its roots in our natural heart.

We really struggle to see that the Bible is not a book of rules for us to be able to follow for salvation, but instead the rules answer the lie of Eden’s Garden when the Serpent slithered and suggested “We would be Like GOD” as the Law is telling us and dumbed down THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE TO BE LIKE GOD.

Next we are being told rather bluntly and THERE IS NO Wiggle room on this, YOU MUST PERFECTLY comply with as Jesus says Mt 5:17 ? "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

 18 "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

 19 "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

 20 "For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

A poor reading of what Jesus is saying would tell us, “We need to Obey the Law or we can’t go to Heaven” when in fact a real understanding of what Jesus is saying, and there is zero wiggle room, “You are doomed as you must perfectly obey EVERY JOT and TITTLE and never Once in ALL of your life fail!” HE is honestly saying the Law points ONLY to me and I am the only one it ever pointed too.

Jesus follows up by saying what?

Yes if your righteousness 20 "For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

IT Does NOT Say we must be like the Church Leaders, but must surpass the Church leaders, and in fact the Church leaders are doomed!!

 Romans 3:10 as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;

 11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;

So Jesus is in fact saying we are all doomed, but the Great News is that we are rescued in Jesus Christ alone by the will of the FATHER!

All three of our reading tell us our battle is indeed spiritual Blindness and Deafness and I will go further on that theme when we address the Killing of the Church in the typical 3 Point Sermon as they digresses into what we have to do, when trying to be good enough in our own mind is the problem.

So Jesus indeed is laying out the struggle of that the lye of the Serpent in Eden is still alive and well and preached weekly as we can NEVER be Good enough, but Christ alone is.

We must also be clear the ones who are not understanding are the very ones closest to Jesus and HE tells them so.

We will dig deeper in our next question, but for now I want you to look at this passage and tell me what you see and it is key to what is happening to the Church and Has been happening since it was the Synagogue;

 Luke 18:35? As Jesus was approaching Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging.

 36 Now hearing a crowd going by, he began to inquire what this was.

37They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by.

 38 And he called out, saying, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

 39 Those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet; but he kept crying out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"

 40 And Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to Him; and when he came near, He questioned him,

 41 "What do you want Me to do for you?" And he said, "Lord, I want to regain my sight!"

 42 And Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has made you well."

 43 Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him, glorifying God; and when all the people saw it, they gave praise to God.

(NAS95)

 

This was chosen for our Opening to worship on purpose and the passage sets us up for question 2, but quickly did you notice who the only one to call Jesus by HIS Messianic Name?

Yes the Blind man!!! And He saw clearer physically Blind then the Sighted Apostles and Pharisees as the HOLY SPIRIT Opened His Eyes before Jesus physically opened them.

 

What are the signs of Deafness and Blindness?

The sad signs of a Church that is no longer seeing or hearing are actually very obvious and yet so overlooked.

One of the clear signs of becoming Deaf and Blind in the Church is to not be able to quote what the sermon was about only minutes after the Service is over, and we are NOT the only ones to notice this as a friend in Texas told us they too asked when a fellow congregant declared “what a great sermon” and the person asked “what was your favorite part?” and the reply was exactly the response my Wife has received since she started asking, and actually got me to listen to these “great Sermons” starting in 2006, The person asked could not recall the core point of the message and actually got VERY ANGRY at this person in Texas, and my Wife for asking a legitimate question, and not a week later but right after the service!

I witnessed more than one such encounter and was stunned at how Pissed the person my Wife asked got.

We might think since Jesus warns about Verse 16 Jesus said, "Are you still lacking in understanding also?” that the Church would be guarding against complacency, but remember strength comes from the HOLY SPIRIT alone by the will of the FATHER, in Christ Jesus our LORD and not because we are told what we need to do, that to be blunt is the lie of the slithering snake of Eden!

The Church will slip into this mess of Blindness and Deafness not because of people in the pews, but because the leadership is poorly trained, and in truth have NEVER really understood the Bible.

You might say, but Wallace, my Pastor has a Doctorate and must know the Bible right?

We let’s answer that one together, who did not get the point of the Bible, the Educated, or people like Ruth, a scrawny kid like David, a liar like Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob?

Yes it was the Educated that DID NOT get it, and yes by the will of the FATHER in Heaven alone.

You see the problem is the Seminaries, and the fact that most students come in too young with no real Bible Teaching Background and then are loaded down with and this is per semester, 25 Books to read, Weekly 5 to 10 page handouts and Studying Greek and Hebrew that train us in everything but the Context of the Bible.

For the Record I am thankful I went to the Seminary I attended as the actually had a 3 semester Preaching Course. You see we were told that most Seminaries have dropped the Preaching component and from what we have been listening too at the Famous New York “Reformed” Church, that we have now given up on attending, a Church just 6 year ago was the model for a Reformed Church, these Pastoral Kids are actually not just poorly skill in public Speaking but can’t connect a Bible Passage on a 101 level and I have written them and said I would love to help.

That brings us to our second sign of Deafness and Blindness;

The Trap of “Fellowship” or to be blunt, the Church Club!

Though I think you know what I mean, I will still explain, as we have seen this clearly;

True Bible Studies get changed into “Small Groups where the lazy Elder or Pastor plays a video series, that for the record comes with a question and answer page, and yet this is considered “Teaching” and yet this is a real and glaring sign as we have allowed for yes men to become Elders when the real skill we were to look for is the list in 1st Timothy 3 that includes what, YES Teaching so why are they needing to play videos and unable to truly write their own lessons???

Because we have really become blind, and deaf!

The “Small Groups” also have digressed into, and you may have guessed it already, Fellowship times, with Gossip times disguised as Prayer request taking up 3/4 of the Study time.

There are more, but the final sign I will address in this lesson is the “Youth” Movement as we will never seem to learn from the Mistake of Rehoboam 1Ki 12:8 But he forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him, and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him.

A clear sign is to turn over the Church to and to try to “attract” the youth at the expense of the teaching and worship service.

We have to adapt to what the young people want, and yes this screams of Rehoboam, and yet is happening every day, and sadly the young pastors are not seasoned by life, nor have they been trained to even Preach.

I have mentioned before that we have had to walk out on every Sermon at Redeemer NYC location does not matter it has been each of them as the Preaching suggests the Pastors are NOT Bible Trained I will address three specifics in the final question.

When I applied for a Lead Pastoral role at Coral Ridge they had indeed gone the path of the Youth, and in my letter of introduction I said “ One of the first things I would do is reinstall the Traditional Service” Well I was passed over for the position as at 57 I am the “wrong demographic “ and have been told this 98% of the time.

But the rejection is not the point, as I was pleased to see that Coral Ridge after a couple of years has taken this advice and reinstalled the Traditional service along with the Contemporary, though my suggestion for a Saturday Night Service has not been done as we Christians Still think down deep That ONLY SUNDAY Morning Worshipers are Christians, as we don’t really trust the predestination of the LORD and that some Christians do indeed in the 21st Century have to work on Sunday Mornings.

This will bring us to our third and most vital question;

 

What can We Do About this, or is it our doing that is the Problem?

First and this is HUGE, and indeed another sign of Church Deafness, and Blindness, WE CAN’T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!!!

That is one of the most glaring signs and yet we are indeed blind to it, just really listen to the Sermon if the quote 3 Star Authors or Theologians other than the Bible they are probably getting Cover fire as they find themselves trapped in a passage that is over their heads or have been poorly trained as even a good Seminary gives you 4 Classes in Bible Review out of 35 Classes you have to take. Sure you have other Bible Book classes you take, but for the most part these kids come out with NO Background, and are sadly “Impressed” with their Greek and Hebrew classes, but actually sound like they missed the point of the language classes.

As I pointed out and was the reason for our walking out of 12 out 15 Redeemer NY “sermons” and causing us to Give up on them was;

The example of Jesus coming to and YES This was said, “Establish Justice” when Jesus would suffer though greatest injustice at OUR Hands, and had we been given Justice we would all be consumed to burning dust and sentenced rightly to Hell!

Next the Sad account of the Vine and the Vine Dresser where the kid saw the use of the Greek Abide (In English too) and suggested “We must abide, as this is the Point” well that is crap, and as I wrote them;

The point is the Vinedresser Jesus Clearly tells us is the FATHER, Jesus is the Vine, and HOLY SPIRIT is the very Sap in the Vine and must dwell in the Vine to give Life.

So the actual point is just as I suggested it was and as I wrote this kid it has NOTHING to do with US abiding, but the Vine Dresser grafting us in and caring for us in the vine!

I suggested to this kid, “Please take a chair go to Central Park pick a branch that has fallen to the ground and sit there for a month and report on the activity of the Branch.

But you say this Wallace is a waste of time as the Branch is going to do nothing at all!!!

Has the light switch gone on as this is a Sign of deafness and Blindness in the Church?

We actually think we can do something about the attendance through some program, or write some Bible Study as if the Bible is not good enough on its own.

We hire consultants to do Congregational surveys, or hire our new Pastor as if the Congregation is not better equipped to know the area and skills our new Pastor needs.

We also allow or encourage the Pastor to think he is the CEO of the Congregation, and as such get a Preacher who does not understand there is more to Shepherding than Talking to the sheep.

These signs are clear, and most Churches are suffering with them, as we have failed to see that the Church is Jesus Christ’s alone and our trust in HIM alone the proper path for a Healthy Church.

Another sign is when the Senior Pastor scolds the Congregation with “Lack of Commitment” and Yes we had this “Lesson” in December, when in fact had the Senior Pastor actually reviewed the Change in the Preaching at the Church from 2007-10, and now in 2016-17 they might actually had their eyes actually been open to see that the Crappy agenda driven gospel bankrupt preaching and culturally relevant direction of the 3 NYC Churches might actually be AND IS the cause!

When Our Eyes are off the LORD as the Rescuer of the Church and the Church Starts Hiring “Church Consultants” We Know the Congregation or leadership IS Deaf and Blind as Christ alone is our Leader and Shepherd.

But again How do we change?

WE DON’T Christ Jesus alone changes us and walks us to be more like HIM.

This why we learn what sanctification (becoming more and more Christ like) really means and we should have been taught that this is by the Work of the HOLY SPIRIT alone.

This may sound very blunt and we will indeed address this again at a future date as it is really important we actually pray for open eyes as the Religious Leaders Historically are NOT going to help the Church but indeed be the problem as it has been from the very beginning.

Pray for the Church and your Church Leaders as they are fellow sinners saved by Grace, and always remember unlike the program at Redeemer NYC said last week That said “we need to be quite and learn and not quick to talk”, we sure can ask questions of our leaders when sermon is not good, and the Kids sermon on Genesis 3 was another we walked out on as he was clueless but he can be helped, but the LORD is the only one who can open the eyes to ask for help.