Sermon Tone Analysis

You’ve heard me say on any number of occasions,“I’m a Christian by conversion.

I’m a Baptist by conviction.

I’m a Southern Baptist by choice.”

I’m here to tell you this evening that I’m grateful to be a Christian, and glad to be a Southern Baptist.

I’m a Christian because on a Tuesday in June of 1973, half-way between St. Louis and Columbia while driving a delivery truck, God came flooding into my life through His Holy Spirit.

That was thirty-nine years ago.

A year later, I felt that same Spirit calling me into ministry.

I’m a Southern Baptist because after God saved me I bought a Bible and began to read it and check Baptists out.

I had been attending the Baptist Church where Linda and her family attended and really liked it.

But before I joined I spent the next couple of months watching Baptists, and listening to Baptists and learning about Baptists before I decided to become a Baptist.

It’s a decision, I’ve never once regretted.

If someone ever asked me the question, “What would you be if you couldn’t be a Baptist?” I’d tell them I would “Be ashamed.”

There are many, many reasons why I’m glad to be a Southern Baptist.

Let me take a few minutes this evening to give you the three most compelling reasons.

!

I. I’M GLAD TO BE A SOUTHERN BAPTIST BECAUSE OF OUR DOCTRINE AND THEOLOGY

#. first of all, that I am Southern Baptist because of who we are doctrinally

#. the Apostle John wrote three letters to his beloved church at Ephesus where he had been the pastor

#. they are letters in response to certain heresies that had crept into the church

* ILLUS.

The testimony and writings of the early Church Fathers tell us a man by the name of Cerinthus introduced one of those heresies into the church.

Cerinthus believed that Jesus and Christ were two different people.

He said Jesus was human and Christ was divine.

When Jesus was baptized the Christ came into his life, and when he died the Christ left Jesus.

That heresy infiltrated and affected the early church.

It came to be known as Gnosticism, and taught that knowing Jesus was just the first of a whole series of spiritual steps required to get to heaven.

John writes in these three epistles in an attempt to combat and to answer these heresies and to call the church back to doctrinal purity.

#. listen very carefully as the Apostle writes to Gaius, one of the leaders of the church

* /“The elder, To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.

2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.

3 It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth.”/

(3 John 1-3, NIV)

#. three times in these verses John refers to the truth

#. the word for truth that he uses, refers to: the truth as taught in the Christian faith, respecting God and the execution of his purposes through Christ

#. in other words, John is referring to doctrinal truth

#. he is calling the church to a pure doctrinal truth

#. it is absolutely critical that the church in every age contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints (Jude 3)

* 1 Timothy 6:3-5 ?"If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 he is conceited and understands nothing.

He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth . . .

“/ NIV

#. there’s that phrase again – the truth

#. like the Apostle John, Paul is referring to pure doctrinal truth

#. the Apostle Paul writes that teaching doctrine leads to sound instruction concerning our Lord Jesus Christ

#.

I'm a Southern Baptist because doctrinal truth matters to us

#. let me give you a few examples

!! A. WHAT WE BELIEVE ABOUT THE WORD OF GOD MATTERS

#.

Southern Baptists are unapologeticly committed to the Word of God

* 2 Timothy 4:3 /“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.”/

NIV

#. now whom is he talking about?

#. he's talking about those in the church to whom the Word of God does not matter

#. people outside the church have never cared about the Word, they don't like the Word … they're not interested in the Word – except maybe for the parts they like

* ILLUS.

Many folks are like Thomas Jefferson.

They just cut out the parts of the Bible they don’t like or don’t believe.

Thomas Jefferson believed that the ethical system of Jesus was the finest the world has ever seen.

In compiling what has come to be called "The Jefferson Bible," he sought to separate those ethical teachings from the supernatural elements of the four Gospels.

#. the Apostle Paul says that the time will come they – some of those who are in the church – will not accept sound biblical preaching or teaching

#. instead, they will call pastors who will preach what they want to hear

#. they want somebody to affirm and confirm them in their sin

#. they may not say it openly, but their attitude is, /“Let me live the lifestyle I want to live and don't ever bring to bear on it the Word of God.”/

* ILLUS.

Every year – including this one – a group called SoulForce pickets the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting.

It is composed of homosexual activists who insist that you can be openly Gay and a committed Christian.

You see . . .

they just ignore the Scriptures they don’t like.

#.

I am Baptist because Baptists have always been lashed, tied, and chained, inseparably to the Word of God

#. it is the infallible, and the inerrant, and the authoritative Word of God

* ILLUS.

Well over one hundred years ago B.H. Carroll – one of our great Baptist forefathers wrote, If [all] the words [of Scripture] are not inspired, how am I to know how much to reject and how to find out whether anything is from God?

When you hear the silly talk that the Bible contains the Word of God, it is not the Word of God, you hear a fool’s talk.

#. doctrine and practice, whether in the home or church, are not to be determined according to modern cultural, sociological, and ecclesiastical trends or according to personal emotional whims

#.

Scripture alone is to be the final authority in all matters of faith and conduct for the Christian

!! B. WHAT WE BELIEVE ABOUT JESUS CHRIST MATTERS

* ILLUS.

The hubbub over Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is proof of that.

#. every year, we have to hear from a symposium called the Jesus Seminar

#. they’re an interesting group

#. each symposium gathering consists of between 20 to 30 scholars presenting papers and essays to each other

#.

every year they choose a topic to debate – like did Jesus really rise from the dead?

#. then – at the end of all the presentations and discussion – they use colored marbles to vote on the veracity of the Scriptures

#. and gee, guess what? according to the Jesus Seminar folks . . .

#. Jesus was not born of a virgin

#.

He didn’t do any miracles

#.

He wasn’t sinless

#.

He didn’t raise from the dead

#. and He didn’t say 90% of what the Gospels say He said

#. now I ask you, what’s left to believe?

#. almost every year Newsweek and Time and U.S.A. Today magazines will do a cover story showing a picture of Christ and the headlines reads, "Who was Jesus Christ?"

#. conclusion?

#.

He’s a Radical Rabbi

#.

He’s a Wandering Holy Man

#.

He’s a Rabble-rousing Old Testament-type Prophet

#.

He’s an Itinerant Philosopher and Would-be Healer

#.

He’s everything but the Eternal Christ, the Son of God Incarnate who came to take away the sins of the world

#.

OK, what does the Bible say?

* John 1:1-3 “/In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.

3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”/

#.

I believe He was born of a virgin . . .

#.

I believe that He was tempted just as we are and yet He remained absolutely sinless