We have been examining the Pentecostal movement. I said we would state the problem, the solution, and the benefits of the solution. We saw the problem last week. There are two problems: According to the Regulative Principles of acceptable worship, they are false worshipers not following any biblical principles. We also saw that when testing them against the gold standard of the Sermon on the Mount, the summary of the essence of biblical truths, they fail in everything Jesus Christ taught in that sermon. Starting from true spirituality—the internal state of every true religion the Holy Spirit creates, which is poor in spirit, mourning for sin, meekness, and hungering and thirsting after righteousness—because they don’t have this godly internal biblical spirituality, they also fail in every outward rule. Whether it is an act of charity, prayer, or fasting, everything is done in a manner exactly opposite to the Lord’s commands.
What makes our blood boil is how they casually treat the Scripture. The Lord Jesus gave such great importance to Scripture. How did Jesus, God’s own Son, who had the most direct revelation and experiences from God—heaven opened, the Holy Spirit came on Him, He heard a voice from heaven, and He spoke with Moses and Elijah directly—how did that Jesus see the Bible? He used the most powerful language to emphasize the great importance of Scripture.
Just after the Beatitudes, in Matthew 5:18, He says, “I myself, the Son of God, came not to destroy, I came into the world to fulfill Scripture.” “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” He who breaks one of the least of these commandments will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Look at His powerful conviction about the permanence of Scripture. Heaven and earth will pass away, but not one jot or tittle. A jot is the smallest letter in Hebrew, a tittle is a small dot used to distinguish certain letters, to say not one dot. Jesus so emphasized the importance of Scripture. He saw Scripture as so important that even a small period or comma He observed in His study, and He carefully saw not only the meaning of the words and context, but even the meaning of the punctuation. Even that was inspired by the Holy Spirit. This is the conviction of our forefathers, the reformers who gave their whole lives and risked their lives day and night for Sola Scriptura. Wycliffe, with no printing press, wrote with his own hands. Read what William Tyndale had to go through to give us the English Bible; every page of the English Bible has the blood of William Tyndale. They took so much pain so that every word and punctuation in the original is translated accurately, so you and I can read God’s Word in our language and understand and know Scripture.
What makes our eyes shed tears of blood is to see how this group treats Scripture. They give importance to their direct experiences. There is absolutely no honor for scriptural truth among them. They continuously attack everything our reformers gave their lives for: the authority, sufficiency, clarity, and finality of Scripture. Forget about punctuation, they have no respect for its grammar, literary style, or context. They just take the holy, infallible Scriptures only as a pickle, tear it out of context, take one verse here, one verse there, and babble whatever comes to their depraved minds so people will clap for them. Their treatment of Scripture is appalling. There is no verse-by-verse preaching. Christ says every small letter will be fulfilled. All this Scripture says will be fulfilled. The same Scripture says Christ will say to them one day, “I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.”
The Lord repeatedly, eight times in this sermon, says not to worry about what you eat, drink, or wear—the worldly worries about jobs, money, and family needs. “Seek my kingdom and my righteousness first, and all these things will be added to you.” Why shouldn’t you seek these things? Matthew 6:32 says, “For after all these things the Gentiles seek.” Those who are not born again, who are not poor in spirit, do not mourn, or do not hunger and thirst for righteousness—they seek this always. What do we see in their sermons and prayers? They only seek blessings, what they will eat, money, jobs, promotions, health, and success. Jesus says that is a sign of a group that is not born again. They are not children of the kingdom.
The saddest and most heartbreaking reality is that the Lord shows the end of this group. See the depth of their deception. They will even go to the judgment and not just a few, but many will say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” At least most false religions will have a conscience and know a little bit in their hearts that they are not going to go to heaven. But this religion so blinds people and never allows them to see the condition of their hearts. Even on Judgment Day, they have not come out of deception, until the Lord says in Matthew 7:23, “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'” You never had a saving relationship. If you had known Me, your relationship to the law would be different. What law? It is again the Scripture that says heaven and earth will pass away. They completely ignored and broke it. Their worship was lawless, their sermon was lawless, their songs were lawless, and their lives are a practice of lawlessness. They are not according to the infallible Scripture.
Do you see this is the problem statement: the current state and problem statement? If you have to test any group, you have to first test it with Scripture, and secondly, you have to test them with church history. We can actually do another sermon on that, but they will completely fail the church history test. People will be shocked that before the 19th century, there was nothing called Pentecostalism. They can trace their roots only to false teachers like Montanism and other false groups. Before the 19th century, there was nothing called Pentecostalism; it spread like wildfire only after the 19th century. None of the great reformers—Calvin, Luther, Bunyan, Spurgeon, or the Puritans who lived the most holy lives—never spoke in tongues, and never did what these people did.
So we see the problem statement. Why should we see this? We are learning this so we know its danger and do not flatter them by saying, “Oh yes, you also worship the same Jesus.” I am outrightly telling people, “You are in a false movement, that preacher is a false teacher.” You may not realize it now, but one day you will. At that time, don’t tell me I didn’t warn you; I don’t want your blood on my hands. If any of them are hearing this audio/video or if any of you are talking to them, if someone by God’s grace asks, “What shall we do? What is the solution?”
Let us see the solution the Lord gives in the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord says in Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” What can you and I tell our Pentecostal friends when they say, “How can you ever say that we are wrong?” “Oh, don’t believe anything I say, but can you do three things?” Can I call the solution ERT: Examine, Repent, Trust—not Emergency Response Team, but Examine, Repent, Trust.
1. Examine
The Lord says, “Enter through the narrow way.” Realize there is only one way to heaven. There are two roads you can walk in this life. The broad one may seem fun and jolly; they promise it will take you to heaven. What is one sign of that road the Lord says? Many will go on that way; crowds. It promises to take us to heaven and may seem right to us, but it will lead to hell. There is another way, narrow, which leads to life. He says only a few even find it, but that will lead to life. Why? The next verse says in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” False prophets make it so hard to find the way of life. How can I know if I am on the wrong road? The first thing is to examine. Examine two things: examine your heart and examine your way. If you notice, those preachers never tell people to self-examine. They create a false sense of salvation and belonging and keep reinforcing that. Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith.” First, examine your heart. The reason why such false worship is so attractive to people is because you have never truly repented and are not truly saved. First, examine whether you are truly saved. Oh, I know some of them will say, “Come on.” But there is nothing more important than examining the state of your own soul before you die. What will you do when the Lord says, “I never knew you”? You cannot live forever in deception. You must one day die. You cannot avoid the judgment after death. You must stand before the tribunal of Christ. You can escape the summons of the Supreme Court, but not the court of Christ. The state of your own soul must one day undergo a thorough investigation. It will be found out one day what you are in God’s sight. Your spiritual condition will at last be brought to light before the whole world. Oh, find out what it is now! While you have time and health, find out the state of your soul. You think you will go to heaven, but you are being deceived. What will you do at the last time when Christ says, “I never knew you,” and you are thrown into eternal, unquenchable hell fire where the worms never die? Second, examine your way. Are you on the broad way to destruction or the narrow way to heaven? 1 Thessalonians 5:21: “Test all things carefully, hold firmly to that which is good.” 1 John 4:1: “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” With what should you examine? You test it with Scripture. The authority of the Bible: The Bible should be the ultimate authority in matters of faith and practice. The reason you are being deceived is because you are so biblically illiterate and never learned the Bible properly. Start reading the Bible; examine what is the true gospel that the Bible teaches. Why did Jesus come and die for us? Please, please give some time to understand the truths taught in the Bible. Don’t live so blindly like you are living in the Middle Ages. This group is deceiving your mind because of a lack of reading. Read and get to know biblical truths. Any group that claims to be a true religion should be able to trace back its beliefs throughout 2,000 years of church history. There is tons and tons of literature for you to read or hear about God’s Word and to understand the truth. Do some reading online, watch some online videos about preachers who teach the basic truths of the Bible. Start listening to good Bible sermon videos from RC Sproul or Paul Washer. Listen to the series on the Strange Fire Conference by the world-famous Bible preacher, MacArthur. They will help you to see how these systems are completely wrong. Most in Western countries have realized it; it is only in India that we don’t read and are stuck. John Piper says there are four things to identify false preachers: 1. No robust doctrine of suffering: “You must enter the kingdom through many tribulations” (Acts 14:21). In this world, you will have tribulation. They fill you with wrong expectations—no suffering, no sickness—and you will be completely disillusioned and not know how to handle it when it happens. 2. No clear call to deny yourself: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” 3. No serious exposition: Does the preaching take the Bible seriously by explaining what is really there in the text? 4. Exorbitant lifestyles and too much focus on self. Don’t be so naive. Of course, if you like, you can listen to our sermons. I can guarantee if you listen to ten sermons from our church, you will know what biblical preaching means. When you go to church, don’t allow your mind to be numbed by the musical manipulation of praise and worship. Don’t become emotional in church. If you are emotional, you will not think. So, start examining everything the preacher says to see if it is truly coming from the Bible. See our LAC video. See if he is preaching with literary style and context. Be like the Bereans who searched the Scriptures to see if even what the Apostle Paul said was true. The Holy Spirit appreciated them as noble-minded. So first, Examine. If you honestly examine your heart and your way, I can assure you God will definitely open your eyes and give you discernment to see whether you are on the right way.
2. Repent
Repent and turn back. If you are going on the wrong road leading to destruction, the only solution is to turn back and repent. Don’t continue on that road, however attractive or difficult. Turn back. If you discover that some of your beliefs contradict the Bible, be willing to repent and change them. It may even involve leaving that church. That is how reformation can start in your life. This is very dangerous. Repent and Trust in the true gospel of Christ. Trust in the true gospel. The gospel which talks about the work of Christ on the cross as your atoning sacrifice for your sins. Jesus Christ came to save us from our sins, to deliver us from all these false ways. Only when you repent of your sins can you see the way of destruction and turn from it. Only when you repent and trust, you will choose the narrow way that leads to life. The Lord says, “Enter through the narrow way.” Why narrow? It is a metaphor. If it is narrow, what does that mean? You cannot come with that mass crowd, mass hypnotism, with all your family and friends, to enjoy entertainment in the name of worship. No, true salvation is intensely personal; it is not mass manipulation. You have to personally choose and enter alone. It’s not a group event. You leave the crowd behind—the mass hysteria, the rock concert. Stop rushing into a maddening crowd all your life trying to belong to the group. This is not mass manipulation. For the first time in your life, you stop rushing with the crowd, turn, and follow the Lord’s way. Secondly, the way is narrow because you have to leave the baggage of all false teaching and believe only what the Bible says. That is the narrow way. It’s very constricted. What constricts it? The Word of God. We test everything strictly by God’s Word. You have to walk in the narrow way. Your beliefs have to be narrow—Scripture alone. In the broad way, there is plenty of room for diverse doctrine. You can believe just about anything you want. “Let’s not judge anyone; let us not argue about doctrines; let us love everyone; accept everyone.” No, that’s the broad way. “Sure, just come along. Whatever you believe is fine.” But that’s how the broad way works. Not in the narrow way. You have to believe the truth, only the truth, and read, hear, speak, and preach truth alone. Anything away from the truth is false. So, Examine, Repent, and Trust—in the Lord’s words, enter the narrow way. So we have seen the problem statement and the solution. Now, the benefits.
Benefits
What are the benefits of the narrow way? Yes, that will lead you to life, eternal life. Let me show you the blessings of that way in our passage in Leviticus 10. I know this series and this chapter have been negative, but I think there is a wonderful positive in this passage. If you repent of these practices—unbiblical, man-centered, and mindless worship—God not only shows mercy and forgives all your sins, but God comes running to you like the prodigal’s father, embraces you, and welcomes you to a true feast. So I titled this message, “Father’s Feast or False Worship.” Oh, if you can just have one taste of the Father’s feast, you will feel like vomiting when you think of false worship. Come back to the Father’s Feast. A comforting reassurance. Let us see the passage. Imagine Aaron and his remaining sons. Their two sons offered strange fire, wrong worship, and they are dead now. Aaron and his two remaining sons’ hearts are broken. They surely must have repented and felt guilty about what their sons had done. You read of God’s comforting assurance to them through Moses in verses 12-15. There is a reassurance first of all regarding the grain offering. Verse 12: “And Moses spoke to Aaron, and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons who were left: ‘Take the grain offering that remains of the offerings made by fire to the Lord, and eat it without leaven beside the altar; for it is most holy.'” Verse 13: “You shall eat it in a holy place, because it is your due and your sons’ due, of the sacrifices made by fire to the Lord; for so I have been commanded.” He says, “Take the grain offering,” then he says, “eat the breast and thigh.” You can count five times that there is the emphasis that says, “for it is your due,” “allotted for you,” “prepared for you.” God calls, “Come to the table.” “Eat it in the holy place, it is your due. It is your sons’ due. It is your portion; it was their privilege. It was their property.” Grain, breast, and thigh—it is perpetually your due to have these portions. God had said this is their due in chapters 6-7 again and again. Why do you think God reiterated these things at this moment? We see great compassionate sensitivity and grace of God here. The Lord knows the hearts of all men. If your heart is broken because of false worship, the Lord knows your heart today. The Lord knew what was going on in the hearts of Aaron and his sons. They were not arrogant and unrepentant like so many, saying, “Oh, what wrong did we do? Why should we repent?” Aaron’s heart is broken in repentance. “Oh, I was such a horrible, undeserving person, I already made a calf and made all of Israel sin against God. But even though I don’t deserve it, He elected me and my family to such a height as high priest and priests. Now my sons have sinned so shamefully.” We know how much we as fathers feel the behavior of our sons; we blame ourselves. So Aaron must have thought, “By offering strange fire, we have broken God’s strict law of worship where He punishes the third and fourth generation. Now God will surely reject me. We will lose all privileges by that awful sin that had been committed. Maybe the earth will open and hell will swallow us like Dathan and Abiram.” There was no doubt a trembling and an insecurity. The same God who killed arrogant sons who offered arrogant, strange fire, when we come to Him with a contrite heart, God is gracious and compassionate and abounding in love. We see that He reassures His sinful servants that their privileges remain as full as ever. With this reassurance, God, as it were, wipes their invisible tears and heals their emotional wounds with continuing love and friendship. See, if you may have been caught up in this movement for many years, doing wrong things, going with the crowd. If you repent and come back to God with a contrite heart, He will shower such true gospel and true blessings and make you enjoy a true feast! Oh, false worshipers, you have no idea of the Father’s feast. He says, “Take the grain offering, breast, and thigh. It is prepared for you.” Remember, all this points to the gospel blessings in Christ’s work on the cross. Christ is the true bread of life, He is our grain. The breast is His eternal love. The thigh is His strength. You feast on that. I welcome you to gospel blessings. The true gospel not just meets your superficial physical needs, but it meets your deepest spiritual, social, and psychological needs, and of course, physical, but that is last. We are studying in Ephesians. Oh, how cheap prosperity preaching seems compared to the infinite, eternal blessings God has given. Let me tell you, those people who say “we are enjoying” do not know anything of true kingdom joys. All their joy is animal tingling to the senses, feeling emotions, music concert highs. They really don’t know what a true soul feast in God’s house is. The feast that comes from God’s Word. “Man shall not live by bread alone,” but by “every word that comes from the mouth of God.” They are only focused on bread, not the Word. When His truth is understood with a discerning mind, that truth doesn’t just touch the senses and skin and make you feel “kundali” senses, but truth pierces through the deepest heart and conscience and transforms your soul. It meets your deepest needs. What joy! Every week we are enjoying this. I see when I wish each of you, “Oh, what joy,” a beautiful joy you go home with. So satisfied that your soul is fattened with the feast of God! Some of our most eager, active, sacrificial, and committed members are people who come out of Pentecostalism, right? Not people who have always been here. Like my wife says, “You are eating good food, and you have not realized its value. I will stop cooking for three months, then you will know.” So some don’t realize the value. But people, when they come out of such Pentecostal churches, always hearing “miracle, miracle” and “blessing, blessing,” all superficial messages, when they hear God’s Word preached, they drink deeply as if they have been thirsty for months. They hear four or five sermons every day, and they find an ocean of truth. There is no limit to their joy in learning the truth. On one side, there is great pain for so many years wasted, but on another side, there is so much joy knowing these precious truths. They know the value of truths more than older people. Oh, false worshipers, come back to the Father’s feast. You don’t know what you are missing. The mountain peak joy of being an elect of God. The joy of forgiveness of all past, present, and future sins. No music joy, worldly blessing, or anything in the world is comparable. Complete atonement, the joy of standing as justified before God. To feel the peace of God beyond all understanding, no loneliness anywhere in the world. The joy of being adopted by God. The Father’s assurance that all my needs the Father will meet; I don’t have to bribe any pastor. Eternal life removes the fear of death. All this you cannot enjoy in that false religion. It comes through the cross of Christ and the heavenly ministry of Christ. That is why God invited Aaron to the Old Testament rituals. Today, we can enjoy the fulfillment of all by faith in Jesus Christ’s work. All this outward music and outward show completely quenches the spirit of faith and never allows us to enjoy. Sadly, people in that movement absolutely don’t know what they are missing. By offering strange fire, they are missing all of God’s feast, the feast of true worship, the feast of truth, and the blessings that come from truth. They have been eating unsound, unhealthy, poisonous food. Here, God says, “Come to the feast.” Just like God said to Aaron, “When you have repented of the false worship of your sons and continued My worship, I know you are crying inside, but I invite you to come to My feast. I want to give you a reassurance of the feast. I want to give you my ministry and my blessing service!” Remember, this is exactly what the Lord Jesus did to Peter. Peter denied the Lord three times with three traitorous denials. He repents and weeps bitterly, and you know how the Lord restores him in John chapter 21. He sees the Lord Jesus on the shore of the Sea of Galilee while he is out fishing. He jumps into the water and he swims all the way to the beach. And no doubt the Lord saw from afar that his conscience was still smarting with guilt. The Lord knew that Peter was still suffering from an insecurity about his own love and his own acceptance. And you know what was the first thing that Jesus said as Peter had just brought this net of fish up onto the beach, standing before the Lord Jesus? Jesus said in John 21:12, “Come and have breakfast with me.” Peter wondered if he still had any affection for the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ invited him to a meal. And so too, just as Aaron had been given the reassurance, “the cereal offering, the grain offering is yet for you.” “Welcome to my feast.” And when the meal of friendship was finished, we see Jesus reassures Peter of his love by giving him an opportunity three times to reconfirm his allegiance. “Do you love me, Peter?” “Lord, you know that I love you.” “Do you love me, Peter?” “Do you love me, Peter?” “Then go off and feed my sheep.” Brethren, we see in passages both Old and New that our Lord does not want His people, whose consciences have been freshly split open by their sin, to be anxious and in doubt about His undying love. Could it be that some Pentecostal brother and sister are hearing our message? Convicted and asking, “Will God accept me? I have done this wrong, man-centered, mindless worship for so many years.” Let me tell you, God still loves you if you repent and come. Just like the father ran and came and hugged the prodigal, He will shower His love. And let me tell you, if you start walking in the path of truth, you will find so much light and love. You will feel like you are feasting on God’s treasures. In this way, God says He welcomes you to His feast. “Oh, pastor, what about my problems?” Come, feed on the breast and thigh. The breast is the heart of Christ. God will fill you with such a sense of love. Oh, we see blessings of election, and acceptance in eternity, loving us as He loved His son. Oh, what thrills! Someone said, “Ah, ha, Paramahamsa,” you will rejoice. “But what about my needs? I am a pastor in that church; I am a deacon; I am benefiting; they are giving me support, they helped…” You notice all these groups, whenever someone is sick or weak, they run and offer support. They catch them in their emotionally weak moments and make them their prey. Yes, you can be grateful for the help, but that doesn’t mean they are right. Most social services are done by the Catholic Church, so should we agree with all they say? It is God who provided for those needs. God will provide for your needs. Feed on the thigh of Christ, the power of God. God is able to provide for all your needs. You seek His kingdom and righteousness; I will tell you God will bless you ten times more. They are the ones who are keeping you in a cursed state.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 