New Age Vs. The Gospel: Dependence, Submission and Stewardship

New Age Vs. The Gospel: Dependence, Submission and Stewardship

Well, this morning I'd like to call your attention to John chapter 3, please. John chapter 3, and I want to begin the reading in verse 22. John chapter 3, beginning the reading in verse number 22. After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea, and there he tarried with them and baptized. And John also was baptizing in Annan near to Salem, because there was much water there, and they came and were baptized. For John was not yet cast into prison. Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. And they came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth and heareth him rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy, therefore, is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.

And let's look at this. And let's look at this. Let's mark our Bibles to this passage, John chapter 3, this morning, as our scripture text, as we continue in our series from last Sunday. Let's bow our heads together and acknowledge the Lord in prayer. Father, we've already prayed for your blessing on this service, and we pray that you would cause our hearts to be drawn together as we lift up our hearts. In worship today, we pray, Lord, that as we have read your word, that it would truly saturate our hearts and it would become the engrafted word. The things that we read, may they not just be things that go in one ear and go out the other ear, Lord, but may they lodge in our thinking. It really is something, how things of this world have a tendency to lodge in our thinking, but the word of God, we pray that it would. Truly be our meditation. It would be our delight, day and night, that we would meditate on thy precepts and that we would talk of all thy wondrous works. That the things that we're thinking on would affect the things we're speaking, even one to another. Just bless us in that regard, Lord. Fill us with good things to share with others. Fill us with good things. Thoughts that we might be able to, we might be able to communicate some of the things that we've gleaned from your word as we go throughout the week. We pray these blessings upon our each and every heart today for thy namesake. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen.

As I have looked into, we started last week, and I just want to preach a few messages along this theme. I spoke last night on the view of humanity in the new age. And I want to look this morning as well at some aspects and contrasts between the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the new age teachings. Because I believe it's very important that we understand those distinctions and that we understand more clearly. And I believe as we, anytime we look at counterfeits, we can understand and appreciate with greater depth what we have in God, what we have in Christ. But we notice, as I have noticed, as I have looked at a number of videos, read a good bit of material regarding the new age, there's one thing that's very clear, that there's really just two religions in the world, if you think about it that way. I mean, we said the new age was an amalgamation of a number of things. It's sort of like a spiritual, as someone put it, a spiritual salad bar. There's things from Hinduism and Buddhism. There's even a mixing in sometimes of Christianity, but it's so weak and diluted and a deception. It's not even, whenever the word Christ is used, it's not talking about the Christ of the Bible that we know.

And I've noticed as I've looked through this that, and I've heard this statement before, but I heard someone else make this statement. Someone who, a lady, and I can't remember her name, that was saved. Not in the new age. She made the observation that there's two basic religions. There's do and there's done. She said, I was doing, doing, doing all my life. Doing, doing, doing. Trying to attain salvation. Trying to achieve it through enlightenment and awakening from the background that she was raised in. And came to realize that there is one thing about the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that stands out. In contrast. In contrast to so many religions. I know when we were doing a study of ancient civilizations, we were looking at even the works of ancient Egypt religion. How many works you had to do to achieve the favor of certain gods. And it's really no different today. We have many deceptions out there, but it's all something you have to do to attain God's favor somehow. There's only one way that you can receive God's favor, and that's through faith. Faith in what he has done. What he has accomplished for you. Of course we know that faith produces works, but it's not the works that save us in and of themselves. It is the faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ that is salvation. It is faith in the righteousness of God.

Now, John makes this statement today, and we're going to look into it a little bit more. But he makes a statement that a man can receive nothing. A man can receive. He can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven. What a powerful, what a powerful truth that is.

The New Age teaches that we must awaken to the divine within and experience salvation through oneness with the universe. The Gospel teaches that we must hear the good news. We must hear the invitation. We must hear the report. We must, then what? We must believe. We must believe, right? It is through the foolishness of preaching, Paul says to the Corinthians, that God has chosen to save men. Through the foolishness of the preaching of the Gospel, that men are to be saved. God has chosen this avenue, and we are to simply believe on the Lord Jesus. We're to believe that God sent him to save us from our sins.

He sent him, you know, even the fact that he came. If we're honest, that there is one truth, it's either true that he's a good man and he's a great example and he was sent for that reason, or that he came because we are helplessly lost in sin and we need a Savior to redeem us and rescue us from that perishing in our sins. You can't have it both ways. He either came along as a spiritual guide to help us in our spiritual journey, or he came to save us from our helpless state. It's one or the other. It's not both. You can't hybridize. You can try to do that, but you can't make both work together. It's a lie. It's a deception. And that's what's happening a lot of times in the blending of these two things together.

You know, all religions are basically the same, they say now, right? All religions are basically the same. All religions are basically the same. All religions are basically the same. They're just, you know, manifold expressions of the same truth. It's just, you know, well, kind of like in down east North Carolina, they have their culture. In the mountains, they have their culture, you know. In the triangle area, they have their culture. We're all just children of the same God. We're all just, you know, they try to say that about religions. And for the greater part, as we mentioned, most of the religions, well, really all the religions outside of Bible Christianity say you, when it comes to salvation, you have to do something. You have to do something. You have to do something. You've got to do something to have favor with God.

Well, notice that we must believe. And then Romans 10, 9 says, that thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. And, what does it say? And shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, who? The lucky rabbit foot Jesus? If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the spiritual self-help guide Jesus? No, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, the Lord, what is the Lord? The word in the Greek, kurios, it's very, very clear. He's the master. He's the master. He's the one who tells us what to do. We don't, see, we're not the Lord of our own life. When we believe on the Lord Jesus, he becomes the master. He's now my Lord and Savior. He is now. I belong to him. I belong to him. It's not that he gave me, he handed me some kind of ticket, get out of hell ticket and that's all, and I'll just kind of do whatever I want. No, when I receive Jesus Christ, I receive the Lord Jesus. He is my master. Now I, now by faith, I've got to live in light of that. I have to live according to his word, not because I have to, but because he didn't just help me out a little bit. He saved me from the depths of my sin. He saved me from destruction. And he set me in the path of life. And now my life is to praise the one who called me out of that darkness and brought me into his marvelous light.

You see? You see, that's so different than I'm awakening to the light within. I'm awakening to the fact that I am part of the light. No, I had to awaken to the fact that I am helplessly lost in the darkness of sin and the only hope, not one of the hopes, the only hope that I have is the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only hope because he alone has done for me what I cannot do for myself. He alone has taken sin and borne it as my substitute, as my Savior to the cross of Calvary and has buried, as the hymn says, my sins in the depths of the deepest sea, as far as the east is from the west, so far as our sins are removed from us. Not because we did that, but because he did that. He did it for us.

And so it is very clear. I must… I must confess with my mouth. If we confess him before men, he will confess us before the Father. If we deny him and we're ashamed of his words, in this wicked and adulterous generation, he will also deny us. The confession is a direct… is directly joined, we might say, at the hip to… to faith. If I believe, I must confess. I believe! I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that he alone can save me and has saved me from my sin.

You know, Christianity today is… Pastor Peacock referred to it as a buffet. Or they view the Word of God as a buffet. Take what you want and leave what you don't want, you know? I'll take that part. I like that. That sounds good. And that's what the New Age even will do. It will take certain things. It will take certain things about Christianity. Even Gandhi quoted Jesus at times on things he liked, you know, but he didn't quote other things that he didn't like, right? Just take a little bit here. Take a little bit of that there. If God is at any point a liar or lying, then the whole thing is a lie. No. God is true. Let every man be a liar, but God is true. And his Word is true. His Word is true.

I watched a video. There was this group of women, five women professing Christians and five women that were New Age. And they were asked a question. This side would say something, that side would say something. And I just listened to the sort of debate conversation that they were having over these questions. And one thing stood out to me very clearly about that conversation. Of course, there was quite a variety even on the sides of what people had to say. But one thing that stood out very clearly, the New Age folks got quickly agitated with the Christian women because they said, it sounds like I hear repression and submission in your speech. I hear that you sound like you're submitting to somebody. Who is that? It sounds like you're being submissive. See, we're free and we have love over here. We're free to love. Any and all. But you sound like you're submissive. And I thought, well, that's a pretty good way of summing it up. We're submitting to the Lord. The Christian view is one of submission to the Lord Jesus Christ who alone can save us from our sins. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot save ourselves.

The New Age says there's many ways to God. Would even say it's fine. In fact, there were two women. There was a woman on that side that said they went to some sort of church. But they didn't judge there. Everybody has their own kind of way. They have their own interpretation of it. Well, it's not really a church then, is it? It's because the church belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is His church. And if that is a true Bible church, then it must submit to the head, Jesus Christ.

But we notice that these, in this text, today, here we have a man under submission. We have a man in John the Baptist who wasn't just sort of charting his own journey and making up his own ministry as he went. And, you know, whatever I feel like today I'm going to do. No, he was a man whose entire ministry was in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, we might not only say submission, but he was dependent. He acknowledged his dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He acknowledged his submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he viewed his ministry as one of stewardship for which he would give accounts to the Lord. He was dependent, submitted, and understood the aspect of his stewardship. He wanted nothing more. John wanted nothing more. He wanted nothing to be found faithful in the stewardship of that ministry which had been imparted and had been entrusted to him.

So let's look back in the text here in John chapter 3. In John chapter 3, we notice in verse 23, it's telling us here that John was baptizing in Anon near to Salem. Because there was much water there and they came and were baptized. John is, this is after John certainly has baptized the Lord Jesus. We haven't actually gotten to that point quite yet in our study that we've been going through on the Gospels on Wednesday evenings. But in that study, we have already seen where Jesus was baptized. And remember, he went up to the wedding at Cana and then he went to, to Capernaum, came back to the Passover. We've seen him there. And now we see in John chapter 3, this is after Nicodemus. He encounters Nicodemus there while he's in Jerusalem and he points him to salvation. We notice that he continues, and John is continuing his baptizing ministry.

But now there are some, there's some kind of dispute that arises, some kind of question that causes a stir regarding, between the Jews and John's disciples. Do we see that down in verse 25? There was a question about purifying. Some kind of question that arose about purifying. And then we notice it says in verse 26, and they came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him. Well, maybe that's not the voice they said it in. Maybe they said it more like this. Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him now. What do you have to say about that, Rabbi? What do you have to say about this? How do you feel about that?

Well, certainly, the thought could have been in their minds. Isn't he stealing your thunder? You know, he's now baptizing where you were the one that were baptizing. Does that bother you? Does that concern you in any way? And John answered and said, I think John's answer pretty much tells us here, because a man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven. I wouldn't even have this ministry if it wasn't for the fact that I had someone to pray for me. I had someone to pray for me. I had someone to pray for me. I had someone to pray for me. I had someone to pray for me. I had someone to point to. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, he said, I'm not even worthy to loosen his shoe latchet. I wasn't even worthy to baptize him, and yet the baptism was part of the public entrance into his ministry that all righteousness might be fulfilled.

We see that he viewed himself here, as he says down in verse 30, he must increase. This was John's view. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus must increase. I know he's Messiah. I must decrease. You might say, well, I want to be remembered. I want to be remembered for something. I want to, you know, have you ever thought about, will people remember me beyond my grandchildren? You know, it's human, the human desire to, is naturally to get some kind of recognition or some kind of notoriety. I want people to notice, but what? I want people to at least see that I cared. People see that I did something that mattered in my life. See something, see that I was, I was successful at something. We don't, we don't see that at all in John's words. He, it's almost as if he didn't care at all about himself here. He just cared about the Lord.

The one thing you notice about New Age is it draws a lot of attention to me, myself. It's very palatable and easily received because it's already in the vein of what people want anyway in their sin, in their sinful way. They want, we want naturally to pamper ourselves and to draw attention to ourselves. And the New Age is very much in line with that. Become, if you go into the self-help section of, well, we don't have Barnes and Noble, Books of Million and Rocky Mount. And you go in there into the self-help section and you become a part of it. begin to thumb through the pages of those books, they are riddled with new age thoughts. There's some books in there, and I actually, I don't use AI for everything, but I use AI for this to ask the question, if I was to go into a local bookstore, I just wanted to see what, I asked three different ones.

If I go into a local bookstore and I pick up a book in the self-help section, how much of it will be influenced by new age thinking? And I got an answer somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of that would be new age thought. Now, I didn't actually go through and thumb through all the books myself, but what I'm saying is, this is contrary to what John's preaching and his thinking was. In fact, we notice here, it says, he says, in verse number 27, a man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. I am sent before him. I'm not him. I am not divine. I am not, there's not a spark of me.

I am, there's, there's nothing in me that is equal with the son of God. The Christ, the son of God is unique. I'm just a pointer. I'm pointing to him. Aren't we all to do that? That is our purpose, that our lives may glorify and show forth the praises of the one who has called us out of darkness. We didn't awaken ourselves. He called us. The gospel call came to us, and we believed what the gospel says, that you are lost and you are helpless in your sins. And the only help and hope that you have is to turn to the turn at that call. Brother Bergman in his recent bass bites, was it last week or this, this past week or the one before he alluded to how he used that illustration of repentance. Um, and I've, I've used the illustration before, that if he was to call someone and they turn around and come back to him when they call, that's, that's a 180 degree turn.

I am now, when I have turned from my own way, every one of us had gone astray. Everyone had turned to his own ways and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. But when we turn at the call of the gospel, what are we doing? We are, we're going in his way now. This way doesn't belong to us. It belongs to him. This way is Christ. And now as I walk, I walk by faith in Christ. I walk by faith in Christ and it's not, I'm not Christ, but I'm walking in Christ. John is saying, I am just, my ministry is, is to point to him. It's to call men to turn to him, not to me. It's not about me. It's about pointing to Christ. I am sent before, him to prepare the way so that men may see him and turn to him.

And so he says, he that hath the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, that's me, John says, which standeth, standeth and heareth him rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. What was John's joy? Well, the joy that he got was in pointing to Christ and pointing men to Christ so that men might see him and not John. He did not, he was not overjoyed that men would pay attention to his ministry. He was overjoyed that men would see the bridegroom. I was reminded of a quote by Andrew Murray. He said, the chief mark of counterfeit holiness is its lack of humility. He says, every seeker after holiness needs to be on his guard, lest unconsciously what has begun in the spirit be perfected in the flesh and pride creeps in where its presence is least expected. John practically showed us what holiness is. He showed us that holiness just is not even thinking about me. It's thinking about, talking about, pointing to Christ. My mind is on the Lord. He is my Lord. He is my master. I confess him with my mouth. From the moment we confess the Lord Jesus and believe on him in our heart, we're going to be able to confess him with our mouth. We're going to be able to confess him with our mouth. Our life now is to be one of confession of him. Confession of him. To confess him before men.

To confess him in a world that may reject him. To those that may not receive the confession, but that doesn't matter. Noah spent his entire life, ministry, building an ark, confessing God's and confessing the righteousness that comes by faith. And men, though they didn't receive it, he kept on confessing, didn't he? That's holiness. That's what holiness looks like. Holiness is not painting an image that we want people to see of ourselves through pride. Holiness is just doing the will of God in the new life that we have now in Christ, in our thinking, in our words, in our actions. John is saying, I'm nothing, but God has given me a life, and he must increase. The hymn writer wasn't it Charles Wesley that said, false and full of sin I am. Thou art full of truth and grace. There's nothing good in me, but thou art full of truth and grace. See the distinction here between the new age thinking and the scriptures. In the Bible, I find that God is both creator and savior. In the Bible, I find, I find that little story. Remember, have you ever heard the story about the boat twice owned? Have you, have you remember that story? I may have, I think I shared it once or twice before. The story basically, in so many words, it says a little boy had a boat and the boat got lost. He had made the boat himself and the boat became lost.

And later on, after seeking, after it and trying to find that boat, he found it, that it had been sold in a second-hand store and it was there to be purchased. And he went and bought that little boat that he had made with his own hands from the store. He bought it back. And so we can say it's a boat twice owned. And that story, that little simple child, children's story illustrates in some part of what God is to us. He created us. He created, we're not divine, but he created us. We're not God. We're not, we don't have a spark of divinity within, but we were made in his image, as we saw recently. We were created in God's image. We were created, as we saw recently, with an eternal soul. We have reason. We have, know the basic right and wrong. We have a conscience. We can choose. We, we have the ability to imagine and create. And then, and in sin, we have the ability to imagine and create. And in sin, we have used that ability, actually, to work against God. We've used that ability. We've used that, that reasoning, that creative capacity to create our own idolatrous image of who God is. But he calls one and all. Turn. Come unto me. And John's message was, repent. Repent and believe. Repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. And to believe on the Lord. Well, he was sent before Christ to prepare the way.

He was sent to point men to Christ. And to, and to point men to the fact that they could not save themselves. You cannot save yourself. What did he say? John 129. The next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith, what does he say? Behold, the Lamb of God. Which taketh away the sin of the world. There's not any other Lamb. He is the Lamb. And he alone can take away the sin of the world. John, John knew this personally. He also said, I cannot, he also said that his life is not his own. John admitted, my life is not mine. It belongs to him. When his disciples come to him, well, John, we heard the Jews are talking. This question arose and Jesus is baptizing. You baptize him. What are your thoughts about that? Well, John says, I, I, everything I have came from God in the first place. Everything I have, I'm not my own. And as a Christian today, I cannot walk as I ought to walk unless I fully acknowledge in everything that it's not mine. I am not mine. I belong to him. When I belong to him, I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him. I belong to him.

I From the moment I confessed the Lord Jesus Christ, I was saying, at least with my mouth, not that maybe I fully even comprehended everything now that I see now, but I recognized that I'm not my own. I must, He must save me. I cannot do it in my own way. It must be His way. I cannot come to God. John will tell us in chapter 6, verse 44, I cannot come to God however and whenever I please. I must come to Him, as He says here in John 6, verse 44, no man can come to me, Jesus says, except the Father draw him, right? No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him. Well, as John was speaking, God was drawing. As John was speaking, God was working through the foolishness of preaching, wasn't He? It doesn't mean you can't get saved at home. It doesn't mean that God can't work in your heart at home, in your own Bible study, in your family devotion time, that you can't, God can't work in a conversation throughout the week, but it is the Word of God. It is that, I find even after I preach, I stand up here and I preach a message, I find the Holy Spirit keeps on preaching that message to me. It keeps coming back to me. It keeps coming back to me. He will not let me forget about it on Monday. And if I transgress in something I've said on Sunday, He's going to even just in a thought, no, that is wrong. Thank God for that.

My thinking was wrong in something. My words were wrong. My actions were wrong. The foolishness of preaching is going to echo back in my ears by the Holy Spirit. John recognized, I'm a steward of all that God has entrusted to my care. I can't receive, I haven't received anything that hasn't been given to me, but I'm a steward of this. And I will give an account to God for what I've done. And I will give an account to God for what I've done with this ministry. The only way I can faithfully execute the duties He's given to me is He must increase. I must decrease. He must increase. This is totally opposite. As I thought about that video, I mentioned the conversation between these Christian women, these new age women. You can see the spirit there. It's my way. I want to do, what I want to do. And the new age thought facilitates that. It empowers me. John's ministry was not a ministry of self-empowerment. It was a ministry of humility, submission. And yet, there's a liberty that comes because the Lord will never do us wrong. The Lord Jesus Christ will only lead us in a way that's good for us. It may even lead us in a way that's good for us. It may even lead us in a way that's good for us. It may even at times hurt. It may even at times be painful to follow Him. There will be a cross to bear. There will be decisions and choices we make that cost us.

And yet, there's freedom. There's love as we love Him. Then we can rightly even love the brethren. What does it say? By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. There's a liberty there. There's a liberty there in following Him. No, He didn't say it was going to be easy. He said it's a narrow way, didn't He? He said it's a difficult way at times. And yet, it is a way of peace. The peace that only comes from God. Well, may God help us to be like John the Baptist. In our thinking, something the new age knows nothing of is what we said today. It knows nothing of submission to God. Self-expression is what it knows. It knows nothing of dependence upon God and His Word because it depends on the changing whims of whatever comes up and out of this deceitful, depraved heart. And it knows nothing of a stewardship and accountability to God that as Christians, we will give an answer. As John lived in light of the accountability that he would have to God for his ministry, not what people thought of him, not how popular he was, but what he had done with what had been committed to him. May we likewise have that humility we see in John. May we have that humility we see in John. May we have that spirit that we see in John that we may think rightly of our Lord. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for these moments we've had in your Word today. We thank you for the fact that no matter what we may accomplish in this life, we're still unprofitable servants. This is not some, to be some made-up self-deprecation. This is truth. There really is nothing good in us. There is, we're absolute, our heart is deceitful above all things. It is desperately wicked. The only good that's in us is because of what the grace of God has done for us. It's something, Lord, that you took, like the little boy who took the time to go to that store and buy that boat back. It's something that you even take time with fallen humanity. It's something that you take, it's something that you take time to look upon us and consider us and be long-suffering to us. We account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. It's something that you would do that for us. May we be, may our spirit's vision be so enchained on the crucified one that we lose sight of any and all of ourselves like John did and that we would truly be able to say from the very, deepest desires of our hearts, Lord, that I must decrease, but he must increase. I have received nothing from myself. There's nothing good of myself, but everything I've received, I've received from heaven. Bless us now as we conclude this service. In Jesus' name, amen.