I want you to turn again to Romans 15. We are going to tie three scriptures together. Remember, we are looking at the principle of tolerance and the application they make of it. It might be good for you to begin thinking of what you think the word tolerance means. I will tell you what it is, and what they believe the word tolerance means.
Here again the principle we are looking at is tolerance, or bearing with those who are weak or have a problem or whatever. This word tolerance seems to fit right into those things as the Christian thing to do.
After seeing these three verses, you might ask, What is so bad about preaching tolerance? Are we not supposed to endure and put up with the weaknesses of others as they overcome, and as we overcome our personal faults as well? But did you notice, even though we are to be tolerant of one another in our weaknesses and in their weaknesses, at the same time the apostle Paul did not say, Just stand there and do nothing. He said, In kindness correct them. In meekness correct them, even to the point that if somebody is unruly - do you just put up with or tolerate that person's actions within the congregation? Now we most certainly do teach people to be tolerant.
Now back to the Outcome-Based religion. The leadership of those organizations knows that the people who are attracted to their services have backgrounds with built-in prejudices that may strongly resist the leadership's drive to their concepts of unity, and these resisting people may upset the leadership's apple-cart.
In a previous sermon, I warned you that we are going to come across terms that they have redefined to fit the outcome they hope to achieve. The word tolerate is one of them. To us tolerance means gently bear with. To them it means accept the other person and his belief without reservation. Did you catch the difference? Accept the other person and his belief without reservation. It does not matter what the person believes. It is more important they have the brand of unity the leadership desires than it is to risk losing somebody because they believe something different.
This is really interesting. In plain language, the other person does not have to repent of his attitudes toward God. He does not have to get his beliefs regarding God and His doctrines from the Bible. It does not matter to them. Their membership's beliefs can come out of Hinduism, Buddhism, or Confucianism. You name it. We will tolerate, we will accept that person without reservation. They have elevated unity and fellowship above truth.
Their concept of unity does not demand belief in and adherence to a central core of truths, which the Bible absolutely insists upon. Their teaching regarding tolerance is one of the most deceptively stupid theological concepts I have ever come across in my life. This teaching works only because of the membership's ignorance, the feel-good social atmosphere that shall blind them, and the membership's stiff-necked unwillingness to believe God and the Bible. Instead, they are easily persuaded to believe philosophers and psychologists.
This principle these people are working with is the very principle that Communists used to take over nations. They would go into a nation and they would use terms those people were familiar with, but to the Communists it meant something different from what it did to those people.
But I also continually want to emphasize and re-emphasize that we cannot allow ourselves the liberty of detaching ourselves from these things and so I am going to begin in Romans the 15th chapter, verses 1 through 5 today because of something that it says in verse 4.
I want you to notice the emphasis on not pleasing ourselves. Certainly that is evident in the burnt offering and the meal offering especially. Christ did not do things to please Himself but He gave Himself in complete devotion to God in the burnt offering and He did the will of God. And in the meal offering, He gave Himself to God in behalf of man. And so what was done was done for others, not to please Himself, but was done to please others.
Let us go back to Romans 15. There is a very similar statement that he makes to the Roman church. This is very similar, but coming at it from a slightly different angle. In Galatians, Paul's emphasis is on restoring a brother in humility. He also mentions, there, knowing that you are no better than they are. That is part of the humility thing. Here, he highlights bearing with the weaknesses of the weak to strengthen the other. Let us read it.
Now, it is very easy to please ourselves, rather than help our brothers. Often times, if we are not helping our brothers, we can be found pleasing ourselves - because we just simply do not care.
