Search the Scriptures: April 22, 2001
COMPROMISE
INTRODUCTION:
A. Good morning my friends and welcome to Search the Scriptures. On behalf of the Danville
church of Christ I am honored to be able to spend this time with you as we attempt to
understand better the words of Scripture. As I have been reminding you for the past couple
weeks, I again want to again bring to your attention a very special week the Danville church of
Christ is planning. Beginning on Sunday, April 29 (this is just next Sunday) and continuing
through Friday, May 4 we will be engaging in a gospel meeting. We have invited brother Earl
Robertson, an evangelist from Glasgow, Kentucky to preach for us that week. As I told you, last
week, brother Robertson is a knowledgeable and experienced gospel preacher; one who has
spent the biggest part of his life preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ. And, my friends he
will bring this dedication and experience to the Danville church of Christ for the week of April
29 through May 4. I am absolutely sure that you will not want to miss this special evangelistic
effort of the Danville church of Christ. So remember, next Sunday, April 29 through Friday,
May 4. A gospel meeting with the Danville church of Christ. The times will be 7:30 each
weeknight, Monday through Friday. However, to start our meeting we have decided to change
our services next Sunday afternoon, April 29. On the day our meeting begins, Sunday, April 29
we have scheduled a special song service at 2:30 P.M. And then our evening worship will begin
at 3:30 P.M.; immediately following our singing. I hope to see you at our gospel meeting,
beginning Sunday, April 29 and continuing through Friday, May 4, and remember each
weeknight our times will be 7:30 P.M.
B. Also, let me remind you of our web page. Check out our web site on the Internet if you can.
Our web address is www.danvillechurchofchrist.org. Many things we hope to include are still
under construction, but we do have plenty of things available for you, so check us out. Also, you
can contact me by way of Email though our site.
C. As we enter into our study today, let me throw out a word for you to think about. The word I
want you to think about is compromise. What does the word compromise bring to your mind?
Do you have a good feeling about the word? Or does it reenforce some bad impressions within
you? Perhaps most of us would say that it doesn’t do either, because it isn’t something we are
forced to think about very often. However, if you are a car buyer or seller, compromise is an
important part of in your dealings with others. For example, someone wishing to buy a used car
might decide that he wants to spend no more than 8000 dollars. Finding a car he wants, he then
confronts a seller who is asking 9000 dollars. After spending some time haggling and bargaining
and negotiating the buyer and the seller strike a deal. The seller drops his price by 500 dollars
and the buyer increases the amount he is willing to spend by 500 dollars. The deal is struck
when they reach a compromise. Now, if this arrangement was agreeable to both parties
involved, then compromise is not such a bad thing. But, compromise does not always redound to
good. For example, we elect our senators and members of congress to represent our interests in
Washington, D.C. But our interests often are discarded in the name of compromise. I don’t
know if you have ever watched the old movie called “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” I like the
movie and have seen it several times. The movie is about a humble crusader with no political
background named Jefferson Smith, played by the late Jimmy Stewart. In the movie, the naive
Mr. Smith is appointed United States Senator to fill the term of a senator who died. Smith is
selected because he is unsophisticated and gullible and because the power brokers believe he can
be controlled. In one scene when Smith confronts his colleague, the senior senator from his
home state, Senator Payne. Payne tells Smith that compromise is the way the game of politics
is played. Payne says that during his political career he compromised on certain beliefs so he
could get some things he felt the voters in his state needed. When Smith walked out of Payne’s
office in disgust - it came to me just how highly fictionalized this movie really was. Today, you
can’t find a politician who is repulsed by the idea of compromise. Both our senators from
Indiana would compromise their beliefs, promises and commitments in a twitching of an eye.
Even, I am convinced, if the compromise involved core beliefs and campaign pledges. Today, in
Washington compromise, far from being disgusting, is called bipartisan. And as a result -
compromise does not seem like such a bad thing even in religious matters. The spirit of
compromise is what has given rise to unity in diversity forums, and the merging of churches.
Talks are always underway between two or more denominations seeking a common ground
where compromise might be reached. This is how many new denominations are born. For
example, the denomination called The United Church of Christ, (which, by the way, has
absolutely no fellowship or association with the church of Christ at Danville that presents The
Search the Scriptures’ bible study program). Anyway, the United Church of Christ came into
existence as a result of a compromising merger between the Evangelical Reformed Church and
the Congregational Church. However, my friends, the religion of Christ (Christianity) did not
originate by compromise nor can it exist by or with compromise. When it comes to the bible and
things revealed in the bible, compromise becomes a foul word. This is easily seen in one of the
letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation. In Rev. 2:12-17 Jesus condemns the
church in Pergamos for compromise. There were some in that church - whom we’re told - the
Lord had some serious problems with. Jesus says to them, but I have a few things against you,
because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a
stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit
sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who the hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans,
which thing I hate. Balak, a character in the Old Testament, was the king of Moab, and he was
persuaded by Balaam to provoke Israelite men to commit fornication with Moabite women. That
is, compromise the ethics of Israel with the ethics of Moab. And, my friends, this attitude of
compromise was alive and well in the church at Pergamos. There were some who felt they could
be loyal to Christ and loyal to Rome, the persecuting power, at the same time. There were some
who claimed allegiance to Christ while participating in pagan festivities and while honoring
Caesar as king. They did not renounce Christianity, but they simply compromised it with the
world. Jesus, however, said “I hate such compromise.” Ladies and gentlemen, the bible is the
truth of God. Jesus said in Jn. 8: 31-32 if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed.
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And, truth, by its very nature
is absolute, and therefore truth cannot be compromised and remain truth. It is deplorable to see
and hear of those claiming to be New Testament Christians’ compromise with error - simply in
an effort to get along, and be well liked by those who are twisting the truth of God’s eternal
word. Paul wrote in Eph. 5:11 and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,
but rather expose them. This is commanding that we, as believers in Christ never compromise
truth with error for a moment. If truth is compromised with error, it ceases being truth.
Christianity is not politics, and it isn’t like buying or selling a car. It is founded in and upon the
absolute and not in the conditional. But, in spite of this, there is an abundance of compromising
going on.
I. Take for example the desire on the part of some to compromise the Genesis account of
creation with the Godless theory of evolution. There are some who wish to espouse what can
only be called a gap theory. That is, they believe that the earth is billions of years old, as the socalled
scientific world claims - but they also want to give token loyalty to the account of creation
presented in the bible. Men, such as John Clayton, founder of the Does God Exist organization
have tried to compromise the biblical account of creation with modern scientific teaching.
Rejecting that the earth is relatively young, Clayton and others have accepted that the earth is
more than 10 billion years old. But when the bible is taken literally, it becomes impossible to
conclude the earth is anywhere near that old. But how do you reconcile this scientific age with
the bible? Compromise! This is done something like this. They say that when the bible tells us
in Gen. 1:31- 2:2, then God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. So
the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth, and an the
host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done,
and he rested on the seventh day from an his work which he had done. Instead of simply
accepting what the book of God says, they offer a compromise. They say, that the six days of
creation are not literal days like you and I understand them, even though God said each day had
a morning and an evening. And literally would have been the only way the first readers could
have understood days. Instead they tell us that these so-called days are really eons (or ages) of
time. That is, God began this process by specific creation but instead of accomplishing it in a
matter of six days, he used billions of years. Clayton said that God “is powerful and patient
enough to have used billions of years.” My response to such foolishness is this. “God is
powerful and fast enough to have used six days - like he said he did.” According to this
compromising picture of creation, it is assumed that man was not created by God until after the
earth already existed for billions of years. Now, my friends, I could spend a considerable amount
of time telling you of the inherent problems with the scientific dating upon which this
compromise is offered. But, I believe it best simply to remind you of what Jesus said and
believed about the creation. Once, when Jesus was asked about marriage and divorce he said in
Mk. 10:6, but from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. Here
Jesus said that man and woman were made from the beginning of creation. This is what Jesus
believed about the matter. He said that man and woman were formed at the beginning of the
creation. Our Lord’s belief and teaching did not allow for billions of years having passed before
man and woman were created. They were created, according to Jesus at the beginning of
creation. Genesis says this was on the sixth day of creation, not after God had spent billions of
years making the earth old. The term “from the beginning of the creation” speaks of man being
created while the earth was young, and not when the earth had been around for billions of years.
To teach or believe otherwise is merely godless compromise. Either Jesus knew what he was
talking about or he didn’t. Let me ask you a salient question, “Who was at the beginning of
creation, Scientists or Christ Jesus?” I ask this, because only those who were either
eyewitnesses or participants can speak with all authority as to what occurred at creation. The
apostle John wrote in Jn. 1:1-2 in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. This Word, which was at creation,
is later identified in verse 14 as Jesus Christ. If you wish to know about creation consult the
testimony of the one who was there and who participated in it, Jesus Christ, instead of those
scientists who often begin their research with a predisposed opinion that God does not exist. We
may not be able to answer all the questions the scientific community might ask, nor will we be
able to present so-called scientific evidence that changes the minds of those who believe the
earth to be billions of years old. But we have the testimony of scripture that God created the
earth and all that is in it in six days. We also, have the testimony of scripture telling us that man
and woman, the crown of God’s galaxy, were created at the beginning of creation. This is from
the words of Jesus, about whom, we are told in Jn. 1:3 that all things were made through him,
and without him nothing was made that was made. Either this is true or it is false, and when we
try to compromise the bible with the theory of evolution, then we destroy the integrity and the
truth of the scripture. The six days of creation cannot be compromised with the present scientific
canon of the earth existing as it does because of evolutionary changes covering a span of billions
of years.
II. And, my friends, neither can we compromise with false religious organizations no matter
how much truth they might take on. Jesus offered this parable in Matt. 9:16-17. No one puts a
piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and
I the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins
break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new
wineskins, and both are preserved. The core of the Lord’s teaching in this parable is that it is
impossible to compromise the new with the old. For example, if one sews a piece of new
garment; one that is prone to shrink, but has not been shrunk, onto an old garment that has been
washed many times and shrunk as much as it can. Then, when the garment is washed again the
new piece will shrink and pull away from the older garment making the tear worse than it
originally was. Jesus was warning his listeners that they could not patch his new religion to the
old Jewish religion. If they did, it would spoil both. This, my friends, is a valuable lesson the
people of God need to learn. That is, we cannot be pleasing to Christ when we seek to
compromise with - or in any way - peacefully coexist with human established denominations.
Nor can we be pleasing to the Lord while seeking to compromise with those of us who have
gone into apostasy. Again, we must emphasize that if the bible contains the body of God’s truth
(and it does), then it must be absolute and compromise becomes impossible. If baptism is for the
remission of sins, and it is - just read Acts 2:38 that says, repent, and let every one of you be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Then there can no conceivable
way we can compromise with those groups who deny and repudiate this text. One will assume
the disappointment and wrath of God if he seeks to work out some ecumenical compromise with
false religious organizations. Jesus did not send word to the religious leaders of his day asking
for a unity forum. He didn’t seek to iron out the differences between his disciples, and the
Pharisees and the Sadducees. Instead he rebuked those clergymen and demanded they comply
with the teaching of God. In Matt. 15:14 Jesus said of the clergy of his day, they are blind
leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch. Often people
will wonder why I don’t just preach what “my church teaches” as they put it, and leave everyone
else alone? My friends, it is because of the nature of truth. Truth is absolute and I cannot and I
will not compromise that truth in an effort to peacefully coexist with denominations and their
preachers. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s like this. The bible tells us that there is one church - not
some, not many and not a few, but one. Paul expressed it this way in Eph. 4:4-6 when he said
there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord,
one faith, one baptism; one God. This one body is identified as the church in Eph. 1:22-23
where he wrote that God gave Christ to be head over all things to the church, which is his body.
Now, there is no way that someone loving the truth of God can compromise this with present day
denominational jargon, which says that there are many churches. These pious false teachers who
deny the truth of God are not to be admired for their sincerity, nor are they to be praised for
being so civic minded. Instead they are to be exposed as the false teachers and deceivers they
are. I often hear Christians, and even some gospel preachers, speak admirably of some well
known denominational preachers. This is a crime! Once a brother wrote a book on the false
teacher Oral Roberts that was advertised as merely a biography instead of an expose
denouncing his false teaching and damnable heresies. This was not something that believers in
the first century would have done. Note how the apostle Peter described false teachers who were
leading people into error in the first century. He wrote in 2 Pet. 2:10-15 they are presumptuous,
self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries . . . But these, like natural brute
beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and
will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as
those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes,
carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you . . . They have a heart trained in
covetous practices, and are accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone
astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.
Peter wasn’t willing to overlook some doctrinal differences and accentuate only the points of
agreement. Instead he spoke of them in the way that he was led by the Holy Spirit of God. And
he described them precisely as they were - blemishes upon the truth of God’s word. My friend,
you will not find a lover of the truth setting down at a conference table negotiating with some
false teacher in an effort to establish some common ground. This would not only include
denominational preachers but preachers who have left the truth and embraced liberalism and
institutionalism, premillenialism or any other ism. Nor will we seek to have any unity meetings
with representatives of the Christian Church in some misdirected desire to unite upon the
principles of the restoration movement. Truth is absolute, and the only thing that men and
women can do - is come to and embrace that truth. We cannot give a little and take a little in an
effort to find some palatable middle ground. For example, if the church is only authorized to
send money directly to a preacher in his work of evangelizing. Then I have no room for
compromise with those churches sending to some sponsoring church or to a missionary society.
If the bible teaches when we sing praises unto God it is to be without instrumental
accompaniments, then I have no room for compromise with those using mechanical instruments
of music. What will I do, offer to use the instrument every other week? Now, if this sounds a
little inflexible to you, I’m sorry! But the bible is inflexible. It contains the absolute standard of
authority. So absolute is its authority that it tells us in Heb. 8:5 see that you make all things
according to the pattern.
III. Also, ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to ethical matters that are revealed in the
scripture there is no room for compromise. In morals, many are wanting to keep one foot in the
church and one in the world. When it comes to ethics, many are wanting to do a considerable
amount of compromising. This is often done, by declaring that one may follow the truth as he or
she sees and understands the truth. Take, for example, the matter of marriage. An institution the
bible says is honorable according to Heb. 13:4. So honorable is marriage that God said there is
to be no divorce with the one exception of fornication (or sexual immorality; adultery). Jesus
said in Matt. 19:9 whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries
another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery. Now,
my good friends, this is the will of Christ on the matter. This teaching is easily understood, but
difficult to apply. So when “easily understood” meets “hard to apply” - the result is often
compromise. Jesus said that divorce for any cause other than fornication (sexual immorality)
will result in adultery when a second marriage is entered into. This is true whether we are
talking about Christians or non-Christians. This is true whether it seems fair or unkind. It is true
whether it is in my family or in yours. This is the truth of the matter and there is no room for
compromise. “Ah, that’s easy for you to say,” some might say, “because you don’t have a loved
one in this situation.” Well, my friends, truth doesn’t change just because I am now faced with
the stark reality of its consequences. For what it might be worth, I do have relatives who are in
unscriptural marriages, but I love them too much to ignore their plight. What good would it do
them to compromise what the Lord teaches with the prevalent idea of marriage? Jesus also taught
that some just might have to live celibate in order to go to heaven. He said in Matt. 19:12 for
there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who
were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for
the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it. But some are not
willing to accept it, because this means that someone we love will have to live apart from
someone they love. So, instead of accepting it, many seek to ram through a compromise. They
will say the verse applies - but only to those who are in the church. So if your divorce occurred
before conversion, don’t worry, you are fine. That is nothing but compromise! Others will say
the verse is applicable - but only for the Jews of Jesus’ day. That is, the Lord is just explaining
the law of Moses and he does not intend to bind this on anyone today. This, too, is compromise!
There are so many compromises being offered to lessen the power of Christ’s teaching that time
would not permit us to examine them all. But now, my friends, while we are discussing
compromise in the area of ethics, let us consider the general attitude of compromise when it
comes to morality matters. Frankly, there are not enough modern fathers (even in the church)
with the spine of the father of the prodigal son, revealed in Lk. 15. Here was a man unwilling to
compromise one bit when it came to his younger son’s immoral living. That father’s values were
such, that if his son wished to live depraved he had to go into a far country, because he wasn’t
allowed to do it at home. This is in stark contrast to some modern parents who willingly
overlook, and cover-up, what their amoral children are doing. Whether it’s drunkenness, or drug
use, or sexual promiscuity - some parents allow such to go on unchecked, uncorrected; often
even within their own homes. There have been parents (claiming to be Christians) who have told
me that if their son or daughter is going to drink alcoholic beverages that they would rather
provide them with a safe place to drink in order to keep them off the highways. Other parents
have told me that they willingly provide birth control devices and pills to their children so that if
they engage in sex they will do so responsibly. My friends, regardless of the sincerity of these
parents, their reasoning is flawed and misguided, Instead of helping their youngsters withstand
the temptations in the world, they are actually contributing to reckless and sinful behavior. They
have compromised their values and their faith with the immorality of the world.
CONCLUSION:
A. Ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to the scriptures, to the revelation of truth - there can be
no compromise. This is so, whether we are discussing science, religious matters or virtuous
living. Truth must be adhered to, and strictly followed if we ever hope to be saved in heaven.
B. And, this will have to be our final word for this morning. Please stay tuned for some closing
announcements, and join us again next week as we Search the Scriptures. Until then, this is
J.R. Bronger saying goodbye for now.