Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20050327.htm

CHRIST'S PROPHETIC MESSAGE TO CONTEMPORARY EVANGELICALS
Part III: Christ's Appraisal Of Evangelicalism As Two, Offensive, Judging Factions
B. Christ's Evaluation Of Evangelicalism Detailed
1. Christ's Exposure Of The Factions' False Judgments Of Their Own False Works
(Revelation 3:14a, 17a[a,b,c])
  1. Introduction
    1. If Christ predicted our current Evangelical era of Church History would be marked by a completely errant division into two differing, judgmental camps, we would expect Him to provide detailed exposition of it.
    2. Well, Rev. 3:14a, 17a[a,b,c] gives Christ's detailed exposure of the error of these two major factions:
  2. Christ's Exposure Of The Factions' False Judgments Of Their Own False Works.
    1. As we have noted, Christ is appalled at Evangelicalism's two factions, (1) Calvinists who extol doctrine and (2) Arminians experience where each errantly judges the other in self-exonerating rulings, Part III, A.
    2. To BEGIN to detail this problem, Christ notes how ERRANTLY each Evangelical wing views its own respective ministries to the godly, the carnal and the unsaved, cf. Revelation 3:14, 17a [a,b,c]:
      1. We learned in Rev. 3:14b NIV how Christ is the All-Sufficient Source for ministry to the godly ("The Amen"), the carnal ("The Faithful & True Witness") and the unsaved ("Ruler of the creation of God").
      2. In CONTRAST, the rulings of the two Evangelical FACTIONS that promote their OWN respective ministries are EXPOSED by Christ as being FALSE and FUTILE (as follows):
        1. The evaluation of the respective factions' ministries to the godly are alike flawed: (1) Jesus said the Laodiceans judged themselves to be "rich," Rev. 3:17a[a] NIV, recalling Zechariah 11:5 where the Pharisees were predicted to take financial advantage of God's flock while failing them spiritually, cf. Merrill Unger, Zech., p. 192. (2) This state is described in Ez. 34:2-3; 22:25-30; Jer. 23:25-40; Ez. 13:1-12 where Israel's teachers failed to expound God's Word, letting the people slip into sin where God had to discipline them, and all so these teachers could keep their jobs that offered great material gain and fame in not teaching the truth. (3) So, unlike Jesus Who taught the truth (Mark 6:34) at great personal cost so His hearers could repent for blessing, Evangelical leaders have not expounded Scripture, but made room for errant popular beliefs to protect their incomes and ranks at the cost of the spiritual decline of the flock (Robert Culver's A Wake Up Call , p. 68-77 details this)!
        2. The evaluation of the two factions' ministries to the carnal are alike flawed: (1) Jesus said the Laodiceans judged themselves to say "I have acquired wealth," Rev. 3:17a[b] NIV. (2) The same construction appears elsewhere only in Hos. 12:8 LXX (Moul. & Ged., Conc. to Grk. Test., p. 818f; Hatch & Redpath, Conc. to LXX, v. II, p. 1150). Ephraem there treats its wealth as a shield for sin, meaning that (3) Evangelical leaders hide behind errant but humanly grand external success, rarely producing a conviction of sin! (cf. Armstrong (gen. ed.), The Coming Evan. Crisis, p. 36-41 on this)
        3. The evaluation of the Evangelical factions' ministries to the lost are alike flawed: (1) Jesus said they judged themselves as not needing anything, Rev. 3:17a[c] NIV. (2) The Greek words in this phrase exist elsewhere in the N.T. only at 1 Thess. 4:12, Ibid., Moult. & Milligan, p. 1010. (3) There, Paul called the Thessalonians to work with their own hands to uphold their testimony before the lost. (4) Applied to the Rev. 3:14, 17 context, Jesus critiques Evangelical leaders for having relied upon human effort to SAVE the lost, subverting their spiritual effectiveness by human effort [Dallas Seminary's founder, L. S. Chafer, exposed this problem in True Evangelism as early as 1911]!
Lesson: Christ reveals EVANGELICALISM'S Calvinistic (doctrinal) AND Arminian (experiential) factions' self-exonerating JUDGMENTS of their ministries ERR: (1) both factions' leaders claim they are godly for external results when, to preserve their jobs and fame, they have failed at Bible exposition to align with established, errant popular factions' assertions to the harm of the godly. (2) They have also hidden behind false ideas to the extent of not addressing and solving carnality in the Church, and (3) errantly seen themselves as effective in evangelism by futile, mere human and thus futile measures.

Application: We Evangelical leaders have viewed and judged ourselves to be effective in vying against each other's major factions, and that by false, worldly criteria for worldly gain! We must REPENT!