What is going on with the church today? From inviting worldly non-believing speakers to uniting along side heretics to popularize the church of today, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that we are seeing scandal after scandal in the church of today. Everything from Jim and Tammy Baker, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, Ted Hagert last year and not in the least of which, child molestation. Which just weeks after the Catholic Church paid out a $600,000,000 settlement, a Dardene, Missouri Church faces allegations of sexual misconduct with a 12 or 13 year old girl by one of their Deacons Jerry Glenn Crabdree. And last year a Shawn Davies, a 33 year old Baptist Music Minister was convicted of child abuse including statutory sodomy.

Jesus calls us to Repent Matthew 4:17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." No matter what eschatological view point you hold, whether you believe that Jesus will pre-tribulational rapture or whether you hold to the Amillennial that this will be the same day of judgment for believers and non-believers, is irrelevant. On the day we meet the Lord, we better be ready to be judged. There won’t be a second chance.

The apostate church since the beginning has been giving people a watered down gospel and mixing worldly thoughts with the Christian faith and trying to make the two mesh. The problem is that they don’t. In Christianity there is only one right view and that is that the only way to heaven is through Jesus’ salvific work on the cross.

Calling Jesus your Savior and Lord means a transformation has taken place in our lives that is shown by our works. This change happens in a moment of time Acts 9:3 Saul was instantly transformed. If you are living a life that does not illustrate a transformation, it would be a good idea to ask to yourself “do I really believe that Jesus is my savior”. Because remember there is a huge difference between saying you are sorry and repenting; sorry has a host of meanings, such as you may be sorry you were caught. Repenting means turning away from the sins that God convicts our hearts of i.e. you stop and change your ways. Other wise what good is it to know the difference between right and wrong. Even secular people set laws into place that are designed to bring awareness and punishment to sins.

The Church today tells only about Gods love for the sinner but the bible has so much more for us to learn about. In fact Jesus talked about hell more than heaven. God is very complex; he’s love, but he’s also hate; he’s justice and mercy. God hates our wicked ways. And Gods love also allows us to be eternally separated from him by our choosing to not accept his love and grace freely. I know it maybe hard for some to believe, but in the end we may not see people that we expected to see in heaven. 1 Corinthians 6:8 tells us “Do not be deceived.” If you want to know what that means you need to ask the question who is he talking to? It wasn’t God, so who is he saying it to? He’s saying it to us, because in the end our clever arguments that we throw out to convince people that what we may be doing isn’t wrong, won’t cut it with God. So it means if you are arguing that maybe there is another way, God is saying don’t be deceived or don’t deceive yourself, because God isn’t fooled by our deceit.

The church needs to take corrective action within the church to avoid falling into heresy. Before you can understand you are saved the church needs to teach what you are saved from; the bible makes it very clear. Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We all deserve to spend eternity in hell, but if we accept Jesus as our savior we are accepting Romans 6:23 “23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are Clothed in his righteousness, lets start acting like it.

2 Timothy 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” There was a line some years back from the movie Love Story that said “True love means never having to say you are sorry.” That is just wrong; a love for Jesus is an awareness that you have much to be remorseful over and it is time to repent. 2 Timothy 4:2 “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.” If there is no repenting, correcting and rebuking, how are we ever going to change? Remember works are an outward expression of an inward faith.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/st
charles/story/B3E5B84351950EF3862573370016AB98?OpenDocu
ment http://www.snapnetwork.org/news/baptist/missouri_pastor
_sentenced.htm