Larry Wessels, director of Christian Answers of Austin, Texas/ Christian Debater (YouTube channel CANSWERSTV at https://www.youtube.com/user/CAnswersTV; websites: http://www.BIBLEQUERY.ORG, http://www.HISTORYCART.COM & http://www.MUSLIMHOPE.COM) presents another broadcast featuring special guest Dr. James White, director of Alpha & Omega Ministries (http://www.AOMIN.ORG), host of "The Dividing Line" & the author of over 25 books (including "The Potter's Freedom: A Defense of the Reformation and Reply Norman Geisler's Chosen But Free," "The Forgotten Trinity," "Letters to a Mormon Elder," "God's Sovereign Grace," "The King James Only Controversy," "The Same Sex Controversy," "The God Who Justifies," "Debating Calvinism: Five Points, Two Views," "Pulpit Crimes," "Scripture Alone," "Mary: Another Redeemer?", "What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qur'an" & on the list goes). James has participated in over one hundred formal debates & he has an extensive theological educational background. He is an elder of Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church. Here James White is invited by Larry Wessels' home church Dayspring Fellowship of Austin, Texas (website: www.DSF.org) to give the 25th anniversary sermon. Dr. White chose as his text Acts 20:17-32 which says,"From Miletus he sent a message to Ephesus, telling the elders of the church to come to him. When they arrived, he said to them, “You yourselves know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I set foot in the province of Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, and with the trials that happened to me because of the plots of the Jews. You know that I did not hold back from proclaiming to you anything that would be helpful, and from teaching you publicly and from house to house, testifying to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus. And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem without knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit warns me in town after town that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me. But I do not consider my life worth anything to myself, so that I may finish my task and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God’s grace. “And now I know that none of you among whom I went around proclaiming the kingdom will see me again. Therefore I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of you all. For I did not hold back from announcing to you the whole purpose of God. Watch out for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son. I know that after I am gone fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Even from among your own group men will arise, teaching perversions of the truth to draw the disciples away after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning each one of you with tears. And now I entrust you to God and to the message of his grace. This message is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified." The Apostle Paul warned the elders of the Ephesian church that savage wolves would enter the church, and that some would even come from within the church. These false teachers would speak perverse things and draw people away from the truth. Jesus warned His followers of “false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15). The preferred approach of the “savage wolves” is the Genesis 3 attack. These wolves twist God’s Word in order to shift the focus away from Christ and onto man and his works. This has been Satan’s modus operandi from the beginning. The nineteenth century featured an onslaught of Genesis 3 attacks on the church. Naturalistic and uniformitarian thinking in geology led to a rise in humanistic philosophies. Millions of years, evolution, a denial of miracles, and numerous cults became commonplace. The church’s response to these attacks is telling. Liberal theologians and preachers responded by blending many of these humanistic ideas with Scripture. These preachers downplayed Christ’s sacrifice and emphasized man’s ability to transform culture. People were told that they can be saved by feeding the poor and making this world a better place rather than through Jesus Christ alone. This is known as the “social gospel,” which is making a comeback in our day. These ideas took over many Christian colleges and seminaries. Wolves in sheep’s clothing will continue to sneak into the church to downplay and attack God’s Word. So, we all must be discerning by searching the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11) and trusting that God’s Word is truth (John 17:17) and the authority for evaluating all teachings. (Mark 7:5–13).

• published: 19 Nov 2014
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