BEWARE!

MATTHEW 16:1-12

Rick Jackson

The days of the Pharisees and Sadducees are not over. There are those that want the respectability of being Christians but oppose the very Word of God they claim to represent. I have some quotes for you from a certain well-known television preacher that I would like you to compare to the Word of God. A little lesson to remind us of the words of our Saviour, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees”

1. “There are some things in the Bible I cannot swallow but you get saved not by the Book but the blood.”

-I Pet. 1:23-25 (without the Book we wouldn’t know about the blood, they stand together
-Granted you may not understand all the Bible, you’re not God, but as Martin Luther once said, “If you cannot understand… then grant the Holy Spirit the honor of being more learned than you are.”

2. “Understand God is a God of grace and glory so forget the matter of justice.”

-Gn. 18:19, Ps. 89:14, Is. 9:7, Jer. 23:5, Acts 3:14, 7:52, 22:14 (God's love is not the only attribute of God, the Bible says over and over that God is holy and justice is a byproduct of holiness.)

3. “Jesus never called a person a sinner. Rather he reserved his righteous rebuke for those who used their authority to generate guilt and caused people to lose their ability to taste and enjoy their right to dignity.”

-Lk. 5:32, 6:32, 34; 15:7, 10; Rm. 3:23, 5:8, I Tim. 1:15, Jude 15 (Jesus said He came to call sinners to repentance. We are all sinners.)

4. “Salvation is to become the person God wants you to be here and now.”

-Rm. 1:16, 10:9-13 (Salvation is to miss Hell and gain Heaven by the merits of Jesus Christ, a changed life is the result of salvation.) Eph. 2:8-10

5. “A person is in hell when he has lost his self-esteem.”

-Lk. 16:23-31 (Tell that to the rich man. Jesus never spoke of Hell as a loss of self-esteem, He often spoke of it as a place of fire).

6. “Pride is the great thing we need to strive for.”

-Pr. 8:13, 11:2, 14:3, 16:18, 29:23, Mk. 7:22, I Tm. 3:6, I Jn. 2:16 (Pride is never mentioned in the Bible in a positive way. It is often, if not always, at the bottom of every sin. It is what caused Lucifer to fall.)

7. “Sin is any act or thought that robs myself or another human being of his or her self-esteem.”

-I Jn. 3:4 (He is attempting to redefine sin. So when he "preaches against "sin" he is not saying what you think.)

8. “Do not say that the central core of the human soul is wickedness. Positive Christianity does not hold to human depravity, but to human inability.”

-Gn. 6:5, Ps. 51:5, Mk. 7:22, Lk. 11:39, Rm. 1:29, I Jn. 5:19 (Postive non-Biblical thought might hold to that but true Christianity teaches both human depravity and inability).

A choice must be made. Will we accept the Word of God or will we follow a false minister like Robert Schuller? Every numbered quote is from the Robert Schuller who claims to be a minister of God but his words are in direct contradiction to God’s Words. (II Cor. 11:3-4, 13-15)