Picking up where we left off last time . . .
(If you haven't done so yet, please read part 1--posted below. I'm posting sections from a "free" sermon I was sent, advertising a subscription sermon series).
The sample sermon--supposedly based on Mark 5:1-19--now discusses what both Satan and the Savior can do. And no, as you'll soon see, this is not a proper distinction between law and gospel!
Here are the three main points in the sermon--although you can probably guess where this is going. In fact, this sermon was emailed to so many preachers, you may have already heard it!
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l. WHAT SATAN CAN DO.
It is the mistake of believing that we can play around with Satan. But what they fail to understand is when you play around with Satan, he is not playing.
* Do you know how people become ALCOHOLICS? They become alcoholics by letting the devil tell them they can take a drink and quit drinking any time they desire -- nothing will come of it!
* Do you know how people become DRUG ADDICTS? They become drug addicts by listening to the devil saying that they can experiment with drugs and quit any time they want to -- nothing will come of it!
* Do you know how people become HOMOSEXUALS? They start to play around with SATAN, but Satan is not playing.
* You know how Christians who used to attend church every time the church doors were open started playing around with Satan and he told them they could miss some of the church services and everything would be fine? They start missing and missing and the more they missed, the easier it became.
People's lives are messed up because they think they can play around with Satan.
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So, the devil made me do it! I knew it! Now let me get this straight . . . In a sermon based on Mark 5:1-19--where Jesus encounters a demon-possessed man in the Garasenes--the application that I am supposed to draw is that it is Satan who makes people into alcoholics, drug addicts and homosexuals.
Foolish me, I thought the passage had something to do with the dawn of the kingdom of God and that Christ's power over the demonic is one of the principle signs that the new age of salvation has come. I thought that human sin originated in Adam's fall and is then manifest in the human heart so that it constantly springs into action. I guess I missed the biblical passage that speaks about sin coming from Satan . . .
Next, comes the suggested illustration as to why we shouldn't "mess around with Satan".
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Illus: Someone said, "Sin would have very few takers if its consequences occurred immediately!"
When people start to play around with Satan they do not know where that participation may take them.
* There are DOPE ADDICTS who will tell you they would have never messed with dope if they knew it was going to take control of their lives.
* There are ALCOHOLICS who will tell you they would have never messed with alcoholic beverages if they knew it was going to ruin their lives.
* HOMOSEXUALS who will tell you they never would have played with sex sins if they knew it was going to wreck their lives.
* There are BACKSLIDERS who will tell you they did not intend to get that far from God.
If people only knew how far sin was going to take them, they would never participate in sin. You!
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I don't know about you, but the first thing I thought about when I read Mark 5:1-19, was drugs, alcohol, homosexuality and backsliding (???). You gotta be kidding me!
Now comes the second part of the sermon . . . I know, you just can't wait.
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II. WHAT OUR SAVIOR CAN DO.
The Bible tells us that Satan has come for the purpose of destroying us PHYSICALLY and SPIRITUALLY.
Look at John 10:10. We read, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy."
Look at verses 7-13, [the passage is cited--reminding the reader that the points made in the sermon have nothing whatsoever with the passage cited]
HOW DID HE GET IN THIS KIND OF SITUATION?
He just kept opening the door to the Devil playing around with him, and one devil at a time just kept entering him.
We have looked at :
WHAT CAN SATAN DO? He can destroy a man's life with sin so that he is beyond recognition.
WHAT CAN CHRIST DO? He can take the man that Satan has destroyed and RESTORE him so no one recognizes him!
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Since the sermon never mentions sin, but is concerned only with fact that the demon-possessed man is proof that drug and alcohol addiction, backsliding and sexual sin come from Satan (???), we should not be surprised that the application would be framed along the lines that Jesus came to restore what Satan came to destroy. If there is no mention of sin, of course, there will be no mention of the saving work of Christ!
That (thankfully) brings us to the conclusion. "What we can do?"
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III. WHAT WE CAN DO.
Notice, Mark 5:18-20, "And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel." Jesus told the man that he should not go with Him, but rather that he should... (V. 19), "Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee." That was what the man did. The Bible says, verse 20, "And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel."
DO NOT CLOSE THE BLINDS...we are at WAR WITH SATAN.
* If you are not saved, God wants to take you from RUINS TO REDEMPTION.
* If you are saved, He wants you to share with others what He has done for you.
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Ministers really buy this stuff? Finally, we discover the real point of the sermon--the call to do something (with no mention whatsoever of Christ).
This is immediately followed by the sales pitch to the minister who would like to pass this kind of drivel off as his own work.
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"Thanks for taking the time to read this condensed outline. As you look at the full outline you can see this sermon has so much more! If you subscribe today we will send you Sept/Oct package of sermons that contains this sermon and fifteen (15) more great sermons. When you subscribe you will receive sixteen of these full-length, useable sermons for only $5.75 a month."
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Talk about nerve! It is one thing for a minister to buy someone else's material and then pass it off as his own. Its another thing to subscribe to a series of sermons like this one, which have virtually nothing to do with the biblical text upon which they are supposedly based.
OK, I'm done. I can just hear you saying, "please make it stop." I thought it might help for you to know that this kind of thing actually goes on. I also thought you might be interested to see the quality of the stuff which passes for a "biblical" sermon these days.
While I could say a lot more, one good solution is for everyone who preaches and who listens to preaching to get and read Dennis Johnson's wonderful book, Him We Proclaim (Click here: Amazon.com: Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ from All the Scriptures: Books: Dennis E. Johnson). Johnson's book shows ministers what it truly means to preach Christ from all of Scripture, but it also gives those in the pews a good idea of what they should be looking and listening for from their ministers.
If your pastor buys sermons like this and preaches this way, find another church!
Oh, and don't close your blinds!
Enclosure
Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 08:31AM 
Our next Academy lecture will deal with Paul's mysterious "man of lawlessness" in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12. Preterists see this as already fuflilled. Historicists identify this figure with the papacy. Dispensationalists see this as a future antichrist betraying Israel in a rebuilt temple. Reformed amillennarians tend to see this image as an ever-present threat, culminating in a final Antichrist.
