Who is a Christian, and who is not?

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“We are all fundamentally good. Yes, there are some rogues and sinners, but the heart itself is good.” Pope Francis

“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked;
Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings. Jeremiah 17.9-10

#churchleadership #faith #jesus #Messiah #PopeFrancis #salvation #WhoIsAChristian

https://lightforthelastdays.co.uk/articles/who-is-a-christian-and-who-is-not/

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Learning
Transcript
00:00Well, the answer is Jesus.
00:04Just to close with another little item from the news which I picked up.
00:09The Pope was interviewed by somebody called Nora O'Donnell on the US 60 Minutes program
00:16which he made this statement, we are all fundamentally good, yes, there are some rogues and sinners
00:22but the heart itself is good.
00:27So the answer is that we're all good people and we're going to sort it out.
00:32Now I don't know what Bible the Pope reads but it's not my Bible because my Bible tells
00:37me that the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can
00:42know it?
00:44And Jesus said those things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, they define
00:47a man.
00:48Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
00:55these are the things which define a man.
00:58These are the reasons why the world is in such a mess because out of the heart of man
01:00comes not good things but bad things and we need to be delivered from those bad things
01:06through repentance and faith in Jesus.
01:10Bible tells us that all humans have a sinful human nature, that only through repentance
01:14and faith in Jesus Christ can we be delivered from this.
01:19Paul wrote there's no difference, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
01:23being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom
01:28God sent forth as the propitiation by his blood through faith.
01:34That's the basic message.
01:35Now if we're basically good there's no need for Jesus to shed his blood on the cross as
01:39a sacrifice for our sins.
01:41This case the resurrection through which you conquered sin and death and the devil has
01:45no meaning either.
01:46So there's no need for the church to preach the gospel that Christ died for our sins,
01:50was buried and rose again from the dead.
01:54So maybe we'll all close down Christian churches that preach this message.
01:58Actually the Pope has said there should be no proselytism in the church.
02:03By this he means trying to persuade someone who's not a Christian to become one, in other
02:06words what we call evangelism, telling others the good news.
02:11He says you should not use doctrinal convictions, in other words Bible teaching, to convince
02:15non-believers that they are lost in sin and need to be saved.
02:19According to the Pope what we have to do is encourage people to have an encounter with
02:22Jesus but how we do this remains a bit of a mystery, clearly not by repenting of our
02:28sins and believing the gospel.
02:32So is the Pope a Christian?
02:36Well as he's the head of the largest domination of a religion called Christianity I suppose
02:40you have to say he is a Christian because you have to give him the right to define himself
02:45how he is.
02:47But as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, definitely not.
02:50And actually Jesus didn't tell us to go and make Christians, did you know that?
02:55The word Christian only appears three times in the New Testament, twice used by unbelievers.
03:01Jesus said go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing with the name of
03:05the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
03:10Basically I don't want you to be just a Christian who has a nominal faith and joins to some
03:14kind of a religious system, I want you to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, that means
03:18you learn from Jesus, means you put into practice what he said in his words and you put it into
03:22practice in your life.
03:24And sadly when we look at the leaders of so many of our denominations, not just Catholic
03:28but also Anglican and Methodist and Baptist, they're led by people who are definitely not
03:34disciples of Jesus Christ because they're teaching people to do things which are not
03:37Christian, including blessing gay marriage.
03:41Anybody who is a true disciple of Jesus could possibly say that they could bless a homosexual
03:45couple in a church because homosexuality is a sin against God.
03:49You can't bless sin.
03:51It's just one of many things which show that the nominal Christian church has gone away
03:55from the true faith delivered to us by the Lord Jesus and by the apostles.
04:02What we have to do is to turn back to the true faith of Jesus Christ as delivered to
04:06us once and for all by his apostles and revealed to us in the New Testament, and we have to
04:13become disciples of Jesus Christ.
04:17What is a disciple?
04:18A disciple is somebody who learns, somebody who learns from Jesus and is also willing
04:23to pass on what they've learned to others, as I say, go into all the world and preach
04:28the gospel.
04:29Writing to his disciple Timothy, Paul wrote, therefore you, my son, be strong in the grace
04:40that is in Christ Jesus.
04:41The things you've heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who
04:45will be able to teach others also.
04:48You must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
04:54Commit these things to faithful men and faithful women who will be able to teach others also.
04:59That's our purpose in being disciples of Jesus, not just to have our ears tickled and
05:04have a nice message or even a nasty message like I've given you tonight, but to have one
05:09which is hopefully challenging you to recognize that we are living in serious days and that
05:13what we think is secure and okay around us may not be secure and okay in the future,
05:20maybe even the near future.
05:24So we need to be rooted in Jesus Christ.
05:26We need to be building our house on the rock of faith in him, not on the sand of our own
05:32good ideas and our own religious system.
05:35We need to become disciples of Jesus and to believe in him and to do his will.
05:40That's the only answer.
05:41It's the only thing I can give you, which is good news.
05:44And if you are a disciple of Jesus, then you can look up when you see these things happening
05:47because your redemption is drawing near.
05:49Jesus is coming.
05:50He's going to take us to be with himself.
05:52You're going to be given a new body.
05:55You're going to be with him for all eternity.
05:57But if we're going to come back with him and reign on the earth when he sorts out the mess
06:00which the present government has made and the governments of the world and we're going
06:06to see the government upon his shoulder.
06:09So you want to see a good governmental system, believe in Jesus and put your trust in him
06:14because when the government's upon his shoulder, when the kingdoms of this world become the
06:18kingdom of our God and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever, then we'll have
06:23peace and justice.
06:24We'll have a good society run properly by the Lord as a prelude to the eternal state
06:31in which we'll be with him forever in the new heavens and the new earth.
06:35Hope to see you all there.
06:36Make sure you've got your place by believing the gospel and believing on the Lord Jesus
06:40Christ and look up because although I've told you some bad news, the good news is much more
06:46important.
06:47Jesus is coming and he's going to sort out the mess which humans have made of this planet.
06:52He's going to be with us, give us eternal life in his eternal kingdom.
06:56Amen.
06:57So Lord, we just thank you for your word.
06:59We thank you for the hope we have in Jesus.
07:01We thank you that though we see the great darkness coming on the earth, the glory of
07:04God will rise upon your people and we will see Jesus coming in power and great glory
07:10and setting up your kingdom here on the earth and bringing peace and justice in the end
07:15to this troubled planet.
07:17Pray for the lost outside.
07:18We pray particularly for Israel and the Jewish people.
07:20We pray that you'll protect your land and your people.
07:23We pray that you'll set up your borders on that land and you'll hold back the forces
07:26of destruction.
07:28We pray for the millions of poor people who are starving in the nations particularly of
07:32Africa and in other parts of the world where the harvests have failed and where the crops
07:37are not there.
07:38Just provide for them we pray.
07:40And we pray Lord for our own nation that is so far from you and is facing a new government
07:48and Lord we just pray that people will recognise that they need to repent and believe the gospel
07:53and put their trust in Jesus.
07:55We pray this in his name and for his glory.
07:58Amen.