Some terrible things that are happening today.

II Peter 3:5

People are made willingly ignorant

because they refuse to believe the Bible

James chapter 5 is our lesson tonight. There are two points to this message.

(1) The first 6 verses tells of the condition of this wicked world.

(2) The rest of the chapter is telling Christians how they ought to react to all this wickedness and filth.

Churches are not standing for the truth

1. 77 Scholars who proclaim that Jesus said only approximately 20% of what is recorded in the Bible.

2. Churches who are against abortion, and claim that every church ought to have an organization in it that fights abortion. In truth, we are supposed to preach the gospel so people will understand why abortion is wrong.

3. Churches that play games when it comes time to worship. There is a time to enjoy fellowship together, but there is also a time to worship God.

4. False doctrines that enter churches.

a. Doctrine of the Holy Spirit - or the second blessing of baptism of the Holy Spirit - or speaking in tongues - or speaking in a heavenly language - or receiving special "words of truth" or "words of prophecy" that supersede the Bible.

b. The doctrine of entertainment: give the people what they are looking for and they will attend, and your church will be large. "Modern" people don't need the old fashioned ideas of the Bible. What is forgotten is that "modern" people were modern when Christ preached the everlasting gospel. A hundred years ago, people were as modern as they could get!

c. Counseling: People do need help, but they need the Bible worse than they need anything else. Some of the ideas that I have heard from counselors is stupid. For example: a child abuser is going to counseling because he is young, and is a pheloide. Give a wicked man enough counseling, and he will be okay. Listen: Sin always deserves punishment!

d. Fellowship is more important than doctrine. There can be no true fellowship without understanding exactly what doctrines are believed. When doctrine is correct, true fellowship will follow. Not because our personalities are alike, but because we have a singleness and unity in Christ.

Abortion

1. It is legal to abort babies. The main reason being that they aren't "human" yet. Abortionists believe they become human only when they are born.

2. In Sweden, it is legal to use the body parts of aborted babies and transplant them to adults. If those aborted babies are only fetus and not a living child, then what about these parts that work in adults.

3. There are plans to take the eggs from the body of an aborted "fetus" and place them in the body of an adult woman who is unable to bear children because she has a lack of eggs. If these eggs, taken from an aborted "fetus" is able to produce another life, isn't that proof that the fetus is a living person?

Crime

1. Two little girls are brutally abused and murdered. And it goes on and on. Nothing is done. The hands of law enforcement officials is tied by the ridiculous laws passed by lawyers instead of legislative officials.

2. Crime is increasing more and more, yet more and more criminals go unpunished. When they are sent to jail, they are released because there isn't room to receive them all. When will people in power understand that crime does pay. That is why crime is continually increasing.

3. Instead of passing laws that hurt the criminal, laws are being passed that hurt law abiding citizens and help the criminals. For example: Gun control legislation is getting more and more complicated, and it is going to be almost impossible for the average law abiding citizen to own guns. But criminals don't obey laws anyway. They will continue to have guns and attack law abiding citizens simply because it is easy to do, and they probably won't get caught. If they do get caught, they won't spend very much time in jail, because the jails are already overcrowded.

Homosexuals

Article in paper about homosexuals who rioted a Baptist church because they were going to have preaching against them.