Tonight I'm going to finish my sermon from this morning that was entitled Buddhism in
Light of the Bible.
I didn't get through all the material in my notes, so I want to finish that tonight.
Just a quick review of this morning, just super fast.
First of all, we talked about the fact that Buddhism has 500 million followers in this
world.
It is the fifth largest religion in the world, and it's mainly people living in Asia that
follow Buddhism.
We talked about, number one, that Buddhism is a religion that denies the existence of
God.
They do not believe that there is any creator.
We talked about all the idolatry in Buddhism.
We talked about the fact that their goal is to achieve nirvana, which is basically just
to die and never come back, and it's basically a worship of death and a seeking after death.
We talked about everything involved with that, and then we talked about the practice of Buddhism,
the three elements that they follow to try to achieve this goal of nirvana, the middle
way, et cetera, et cetera.
So tonight I want to talk about something completely different.
In addition to laymen in Buddhism, there are also multitudes of Buddhist monks.
This would be like the clergy of Buddhism.
And they practice a much stricter form of Buddhism.
They follow a stricter set of rules.
We talked about the five rules this morning, but they follow a set of ten rules.
Now one of the things that struck me a lot as I looked at this was just the similarities
between Roman Catholicism and Buddhism.
And you wonder where these strange doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church come from, because
they certainly don't come from the Bible.
And you wonder where does this stuff come from?
But then you realize that Buddhism has been around since 500 B.C. and Hinduism even before
that, and that Catholicism shares the same false teachings with these Eastern religions.
See it's the same devil that's behind Roman Catholicism and Eastern mysticism.
You see these Eastern religions were demonic.
We showed it conclusively this morning and last Sunday morning with the sermon on Hinduism
that it's demonic.
And that is where these strange teachings of Catholicism are coming from.
Well what are some of the similarities?
Well first of all, both Catholicism and Buddhism have monks, nuns, monasteries, pilgrimages,
to shrines where there are relics of saints and corpses of saints and they want to just
touch the hem of the garment of some dead body in order to get some kind of a blessing.
These things are very similar.
Now the first thing I want to point out tonight though as I get into this, as I said there
are five additional rules and I want to go through these rules that these Buddhist monks
follow.
Well the first one that they follow that's different from the layman is celibacy.
And of course what does that remind you of?
The Roman Catholic clergy is also celibate.
The priest must be celibate.
Now look down at your Bible where we started with the qualifications of the bishop in 1
Timothy chapter 3.
Now the Bible uses the terms bishop, elder, and pastor synonymously.
It says in verse number 1, this is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop,
he desireth a good work.
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior,
given to hospitality, apt to teach.
Now that right there says that a bishop must be the husband of one wife and yet the Roman
Catholic Church would teach the opposite.
They would teach that a bishop must not be the husband of one wife, that he must be unmarried
or celibate.
Where did they get that from?
Where did they get this idea from that it's such a virtue and it's so wonderful to be
celibate?
That did not come from the Bible.
The Bible says let every man have his own wife, let every wife have her own husband.
The Bible said in Genesis it's not good for the man to be alone, I will make it help meet
for him.
And this teaching of extolling the virtues of celibacy comes from Eastern false religion.
Comes from Hinduism, it comes from Buddhism.
This teaching that says, oh if you want to be really holy and really spiritual then you're
going to practice celibacy.
That's not a biblical teaching.
You see inherent in that is the teaching that there is something wrong with the relationship
between a husband and wife within marriage.
And yet the Bible says marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled.
But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
So this teaching that somehow what married people do with each other physically is sinful
that the Catholic Church teaches by the way is a false wicked teaching and it does not
come from the Bible.
The Bible teaches that it's good to be married.
Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth favor of the Lord.
God is pleased when we get married and when we as married couples have a physical relationship
with one another that he designed to be enjoyed by us.
That's not something that as the Catholics would say is venial sin.
No it is not sin.
It's a sin to do that before you're married.
It's a sin to do it outside of marriage but it is not a sin within marriage.
That is a false wicked teaching.
But let's keep reading here in 1 Timothy chapter 3 where he gives these qualifications.
He says in verse number 3, he says, Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy
lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having
his children in subjection with all gravity.
For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church
of God?
A person who does not have a wife and children is not qualified to be a pastor.
Not even just having a wife but having a wife and children because of the fact that that
experience of ruling the house is what gives you the ability to be able to rule in God's
house because if you cannot rule your own house, how can you take care of the church
of God?
So the celibacy is a false teaching.
This is one of the things that these Buddhist monks will practice, celibacy.
Here's their other rule because we're going to go through the other five rules that they
tag on to Buddhism.
Rule number 6 is to refrain from eating at the wrong time.
And for them, the wrong time to eat is any time after noon.
So to these Buddhist monks, the only acceptable time to eat is from sunrise until noon, and
that's it, okay?
Now if you would flip over to Ecclesiastes chapter 10, Ecclesiastes chapter 10.
While you're turning there, let me kind of explain to you what's going on with this because
this morning, I don't know if you remember, but we talked about the fact that to cease
from activity is the goal of human life.
That's what the Buddhists believe.
Let that quote sink in.
To cease from activity is the goal of human life.
And remember the great goal is to make nothing from something.
And the goal is to get to the point where you don't care and then you cease to exist.
But this is a religion that seems like a lazy person's religion.
I mean think about what they're saying.
Now it's funny, I was talking to brother Jay this morning, he's from Korea, and Buddhism's
really big in Korea.
And he said he remembers the Buddhist monks over there coming and begging for food and
they are idle and they don't do anything.
He said that they're basically a bum.
That's basically what it means to be a Buddhist monk.
And you know what, if you look at what a Buddhist monk does, that's basically what he is, a
lazy bum.
It's not what the Bible teaches.
You know the Bible teaches that we're supposed to work?
You remember this verse?
Six days shalt thou labor?
I mean God's teaching us to work.
And even in the verse that we just read about being a bishop, it said if a man desire the
office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
So if you're going to be a holy man or a man of God or a member of the clergy in Christianity,
you're going to be a worker.
You're going to be somebody who does a lot of work.
You're going to be a minister.
That's what we call it.
A minister.
A servant.
Somebody who works and serves and gets things done.
Whereas in their religion, the holiest thing you can do is not work and sit around and
be a Buddhist monk.
Now here's what these Buddhist monks do.
They wake up in the morning and they all have this bowl and it's called the begging bowl.
This is their symbol of being a monk.
So everybody's, hey everybody, I'm a monk.
You know, besides the clothing that they wear and the shaved head and whatever.
They have this begging bowl.
So they get up real early in the morning because if you can't eat afternoon, you're going to
get up early, you know, and go get some food.
So they get up real early in the morning right when the sun's coming up and they go to people's
houses and they beg food.
So instead of working with their hands and earning their food, as the Bible says of pastors,
that the workman is worthy of his meat, that the laborer is worthy of his hire, that the
laborer is worthy of his reward.
No, no, no.
No work.
It's just a begging for free food.
They just show up with the bowl and they get the food from the people who support them.
And you say, well why would all these people give them free food?
Well because they're taught that that's going to give them good karma and they're going
to get a better reincarnation and everything like that.
So they're told, hey, give a lot of money to the monastery.
Give a lot of money to the monks.
Put a lot of food in their bowl and you're earning merit.
That's going to get you a better reincarnation, okay?
So this Buddhist monk shows up, he gets the free food in the bowl and he takes it back
to the monastery.
He eats it.
And then what does he do at the monastery?
Oh, just sits and meditates.
Just reads and studies and meditates and whatever, okay?
So this is not anything like what Christianity teaches.
Now the Bible teaches nothing about monasteries in any way, shape, or form.
A bunch of dudes getting together and living in a building, not something the Bible teaches,
okay?
The Bible teaches men being married to their wives, having children, the pastor being someone
who's married with children.
You say, what about the apostle Paul?
Apostle Paul was not a pastor, first of all.
Now the exception proves the rule.
He clearly stated that all of the other apostles were married except for him and Barnabas.
So out of at least 70 apostles, because the Bible clearly teaches that first he ordained
12, then he ordained another 70, okay?
Out of all these men, only two of them were not married, okay?
The rest of them are all married.
So it's not that, and by the way, the apostle Paul was not a pastor.
Now John was called an elder or a pastor.
Peter was called an elder or a pastor, and they were both married.
Both had children, both had families.
But the Bible demands that of a bishop or a pastor.
Now the apostle Paul, he was an apostle, he went around and evangelized and started churches,
but he specifically talked about, you know, not wanting to baptize people, and he did
not stay as the bishop or pastor or overseer of a church.
Why does God want the pastor to be married with children?
Because if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church
of God?
How can a man lead a group of people who are all married with children?
How can he teach on marriage?
How can he teach on child rearing if he's never been there and experienced it himself?
And marriage and child rearing are a big part of life.
So having a pastor get up and teach you that has not experienced those things is not going
to be sufficient for you in your spiritual growth.
You need somebody to teach you and guide you who's actually been through those things.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
Or no, you're in Ecclesiastes, right?
I'm sorry, let's look at Ecclesiastes before we get off that.
Look at Ecclesiastes 10.16, woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child and thy princes
eat in the morning.
Now is the Bible praising, man, just get up real early and start eating, but whatever
you do, don't eat afternoon.
Is that what the Bible says?
The Bible teaches the opposite.
The Bible says, woe unto you, O land, when thy king is a child and thy princes eat in
the morning.
Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles and thy princes eat in due
season for strength and not for drunkenness.
By much slothfulness the building decayeth, watch this, and through idleness of the hands
the house droppeth through.
So the Bible teaches that we should work.
Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise.
Do not be slothful, do not be idle, get to work.
And he says, you don't wake up first thing in the morning and just start filling your
face.
You wake up first thing in the morning, you get something done, you get some work done,
then you eat.
Just like Pastor Coleman said, you know, no Bible, no breakfast was the rule in his house
when he was growing up.
They at least had to read their Bible before having breakfast.
I know that I, when I first wake up in the morning, I get some work done.
I get some profitable labor done, then I start eating.
I don't just wake up and just start eating, okay?
Now this is what these Buddhist monks are doing because they're totally idle.
Roll out of bed, eat some food, beg for it, don't earn it, and then, you know, stop eating
at noon for some bizarre, unknown reason.
But you know what, if Buddha said it, you know, I believe it and that settles it I guess
for these people.
But anyway, I just wanted to show you that in Ecclesiastes.
Flip over to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
I just wanted to show you quickly another scripture on working, then we'll get off that
point about how they think that to cease activity is the goal of human life.
It says in 2 Corinthians 5a, we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from
the body and to be present with the Lord, wherefore we labor that whether present or
absent we may be accepted of him.
So whether we're present in the body or whether we're absent from the body, we labor.
Even in the eternal state after the millennium, the Bible says of God's people that his servants
shall serve him.
We're going to be working forever.
We're never going to cease from activity.
We're always going to have something to do, always to work.
And you know what, work is not a bad thing.
There's a name for people who don't like working?
Lazy people.
People are just always, oh hey, how you doing?
It's Monday.
You know, oh, it's Friday, thank God.
You're lazy.
You should love work, especially as a man, you know, you should desire work.
And then as a lady, there's work that's associated with being a lady.
You know, my wife works hard as a homemaker and those who hate work are lazy people.
But the next thing that they teach for these monks, aside from celibacy, which is a false
doctrine, aside from this thing of hey, don't eat afternoon, go around begging before that
and fill up before that, but next they teach rule number seven, to refrain from dancing
and playing music, wearing jewelry and cosmetics, attending shows and other performances.
Now go, if you would, to Psalm 150 and let's see if this jives with the Bible.
According to them, the spiritual goal is to refrain from dancing.
You know, if you're really going to be holy, according to these people, refrain from dancing
and playing music, wearing jewelry and cosmetics and attending shows and other performances.
Look what the Bible says in Psalm 150, verse one, praise ye the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary.
Praise him in the firmament of his power.
Praise him for his mighty acts.
Praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Praise him with the sound of the trumpet.
Praise him with the psaltery and harp.
Praise him with the timbrel and dance.
Praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
Praise him upon the loud cymbals.
Praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
Praise ye the Lord.
So is the Bible teaching a spiritual standard of saying, hey, refrain from music, refrain
from dancing, refrain from enjoying that.
You say, where is this coming from?
This idea of just kind of not having any fun and just suffering for the sake of suffering.
You know, the next rule, number eight, is to refrain from soft beds and soft chairs.
You know, these Buddhist monks, they show up somewhere in the bed.
The bed has a mattress.
They'll take the mattress off the bed and just sleep on the metal springs because they
must refrain from sleeping on a soft bed.
You know, rule number nine, to refrain from the use of garlands, perfumes, ointments and
from things that tend to beautify and adorn the person.
Now where this comes from is this idea that we cannot have any fun, this asceticism or
punishing the body as somehow virtuous or gaining of merit.
This is also taught in Roman Catholicism, the same thing.
Because again, the idea of self-punishment and going through all this pain just for the
sake of pain.
Go to First Corinthians, chapter number nine.
First Corinthians nine, while you're reading from First Corinthians nine, because remember
they're saying, hey, stay away from garlands, perfumes, ointments.
Now here's the thing.
There's a little bit of truth in this because the Bible does teach that women should not
be adorned with broided hair, gold, pearls or costly array, but that they should be in
modest apparel.
When the Bible says modest apparel there, it's referring to the price tag.
It's saying don't be in costly apparel, costly array, gold, pearls.
He said be adorned with modest apparel.
It'd be like if I talked about a modest income or a modest home.
It's something that's not super expensive, fancy or flashy.
That is what the Bible is teaching about women and their ornaments.
But he doesn't say, hey, don't put on anything that's going to make you look good or beautify
you.
That's not what the Bible's teaching.
He's teaching not to show off wealth.
That's what's actually being taught there and not to be one who's trying to draw attention
to yourself.
Okay.
Now, when it comes to perfumes and ointments, I mean, ointments, basically here's a translation.
Don't put on deodorant.
Don't use shampoo.
I mean, that's pretty much what's being taught here when they're saying, hey, no perfumes,
no ointments, nothing that will beautify or adorn the person.
You just need to look bad is pretty much what this is saying.
The thing about this is that the Bible says, you're in 1 Corinthians 9, I'll read for you
from Matthew 6 in verse 16, moreover, when you fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad
countenance for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast, verily
I say unto you, they have their reward.
But thou when thou fastest, anoint, there's your ointment, anoint thine head and wash
thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret,
and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
So according to the Bible, we should not put on an outward show of, look at me, how I will
not beautify or anoint myself in any way, shape, or form.
I'm going to publicly go in sackcloth and ashes and not anoint myself and not wash my
face just to show you how holy I am.
Is that what the Bible teaches?
No, it teaches that we should fast when we fast.
He doesn't say, hey, fast all the time.
Fast every day from noon until the next morning.
No, he says when you fast, do it secretly.
You don't put on a big show about it and hey everybody, look at me, I'm wearing a funny
outfit and let's face it, both the Buddhist monks and the Catholic monks wear a funny
outfit.
Why?
To be seen of men?
If you go to the airport, you can spot the Catholic priest or the Catholic monk or the
Muslim imam or the Buddhist monk a mile away because they wear a funny outfit to just show
everybody, look at me, how holy I am and it's an outward show to be seen of men and that
is not what the Bible teaches that we should do.
We should dress normally, not with costly apparel, gold, jewels, pearls, but we should
dress normally.
He's not saying, hey, go in sackcloth and ashes, he's saying wear normal clothes, wash
your face, anoint your head, and be a normal person so that you don't appear unto men to
fast so that you're not putting on a big show about your spiritual growth or your holiness
or whatever you do for the Lord, it's not supposed to be something to be seen of men.
Look at 1 Corinthians 9, here's what the Bible teaches in verse 24.
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize, so run
that ye may obtain, and every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.
Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.
I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air,
but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I
have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
So when it comes to this idea of punishing yourself and just kind of suffering for the
sake of suffering and just no enjoyment, no soft bed, no enjoying food or music or
dancing or singing, when it comes to that, that's not what the Bible teaches.
Contrary wise, the Bible teaches that our life is similar to the life of an athlete,
except we're not doing it to get a corruptible crown.
We're not getting it, doing it to get earthly glory or to get that gold medal or that trophy.
He says we're doing it for an incorruptible crown, and just as an athlete is temperate
in all things, so must we as Christians be temperate in all things, and we must keep
under our body and bring it into subjection, meaning that our body should not be in charge,
we should be in charge, and we should be telling the flesh what to do, not the flesh telling
us what to do.
Now if you think about this illustration of an athlete, do athletes just punish themselves
and go through suffering for the sake of going through suffering?
No.
They're going to abstain from certain foods only because they know these are the foods
that I need to be eating that are going to help me train effectively, these are the foods
that are going to harm that training.
It's not just, well I'm not going to eat that because that tastes too good and I don't want
to enjoy that too much, you know, that's going to slow me down.
That wouldn't make any sense, would it?
Or to sit there and say, well, you know, I'm just not going to have any fun because I need
to learn how to suffer.
No.
See an athlete is going to follow certain rules and guidelines and schedule and training
and be temperate, but it doesn't mean that he's just going to not enjoy life and suffer
for the sake of suffering.
However, when you look at other so-called versions of the Bible, all these modern perversions
of the Bible, they will change this scripture into something perverse.
See the King James Bible says the very reasonable thing of I keep under my body and bring me
into subjection.
What does that mean?
If it's under and if it's in subjection, that means that the body is not the boss.
The boss is taking orders, not giving orders.
That's what it means to be under and to be in subjection.
Whereas the new versions will all pretty much say something like I beat my body or they'll
say something like I punish my body, I chastise my body, I whip myself, all these weird things.
The NIV says it that way.
Both the old 1984 NIV and the new 2010 NIV both teach beating yourself in this verse
and that is a Catholic practice to beat yourself.
You say I don't think so.
It's funny in the New World Order Bible versions movie, I was talking to James White and he
said oh man Catholics don't do that and it's funny because you know we edit the movie then
you know there's just all these images of just hundreds of Catholics in the Philippines
and in Mexico walking down the street beating themselves and he's saying oh yeah maybe a
few people but they don't really do that, it's just hundreds of hundreds and hundreds
of them doing it, okay.
But not only that, you don't have to go far my friend.
How far is it from here to Guadalupe?
Two miles?
And two miles from here in Guadalupe, Arizona, they do this around the time of Lent and Easter
where they walk through the streets and whip people and there is a beating fest that goes
on every Easter.
That's why they have signs up all over Guadalupe.
Who's been to Guadalupe?
It's down the street.
It's two miles away and it's in Tempe.
I mean it's right next to Tempe and it's right over here on Priest Road.
You just take a right and it's Avenida del Yaqui and you go down there and they have
all these signs up that say please do not film during religious ceremonies.
They don't want to be on YouTube, you know, with all this beating and stuff that's going
on down there and I've been out soul winning and talked to young people that were Catholics
and they said oh yeah I participated in that and I got flogged and everything and so forth.
So this is something that they do.
You know I just believe that by his stripes were healed.
You know he took the beating, he took the flogging.
I don't have to be flogged or flog myself or flog anyone else in order to somehow achieve
salvation.
But in Roman Catholicism, self-beating has historically been a part of the religion and
maybe a lot of Catholics today don't participate in it, although you don't have to go far to
fight it, but throughout history it's been a part of Catholicism and even in England,
even amongst, you know, our type of Anglo culture where they did self-beat and self-flagellate
and it's all coming from this warped perverse idea of just punishing yourself and suffering
for the sake of suffering and the less enjoyment you have, the more spiritual you are.
And the more you suffer, hey, the more spiritual you are.
And I've even known Christians who kind of have this mentality and this attitude of not
knowing how to enjoy life at all.
I don't believe in it.
I don't think it's a scriptural doctrine.
Let's look at some scripture on it.
Go to Nehemiah chapter 8.
There are all kinds of scriptures that we could turn to on this.
Nehemiah chapter 8 and then we're going to go to Ecclesiastes chapter number 3 next after
we go to Nehemiah chapter 8.
And then the last rule of these Buddhist monks, the tenth rule, is that they can never touch
gold or silver.
You're not supposed to touch any gold or silver.
That's another one of the rules.
Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 9 reads,
And Nehemiah, which is the Tershothah, and Ezra the priest, the scribe, and the Levites,
taught the people and said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the Lord your God.
Mourn not, nor weep.
For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.
Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions
unto them for whom nothing is prepared.
For this day is holy unto our Lord, neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your
strength.
So here the Bible's teaching that it is a virtuous thing to do on a holy day to feast
and eat good rich foods and to give gifts and sing songs and be happy and rejoice.
God says over and over again, you know, rejoice in the Lord.
He said, And again I say rejoice.
This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 1.
The Bible reads, To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under
the heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up
that which is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal.
Now this right away goes against the teaching of Buddhism which teaches, hey, you know,
you never want to kill or harm anything for any reason to the point where many of them
will even be vegetarian or even vegan because they don't want to harm animals, because they
think that animals as sentient beings somehow need to be respected and, you know, we don't
want to harm them or hurt them, whereas the Bible says, Slay and eat.
I mean that's a whole sermon in and of itself.
That sounds like a good title for a sermon.
Slay and eat.
But it says here that there is a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and
a time to build up.
But look at this in verse 4, a time to weep and a time to laugh.
So is it just always weeping time, always suffering time?
No.
It says a time to mourn and a time to dance, whereas Buddhism would say, oh, just, you
know, if you're going to be really holy, if you're going to be a monk, totally refrain
from dancing because, you know, no fun, no enjoyment, no happiness allowed in that sense.
So it says in verse number 5, a time to cast away stones and a time to, of course they
would say, well, you know, happiness is allowed because we just enjoy, you know, meditating
and sleeping on a metal rail and whatever.
But anyway, that makes us happy.
But anyway, it says in verse 5, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones
together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to get and
a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away, a time to rend and a time to
sow, a time to keep silence and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate.
And again, Buddhism would just say, oh, all hate's bad.
Just only love, love, love.
Well, that's not what the Bible teaches.
It says there's a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace.
Go to Matthew chapter 9.
So according to the scripture, our life is going to contain both times to mourn, times
to laugh, times to rejoice and dance and be happy and other times when we need to be afflicted
and mourn and weep.
You say, oh, it's the middle way.
No, it's not the middle way.
Here's what it is.
It's that there's a time when suffering is necessary.
God says that if need be, you're in heaviness for a season and you're going through trials
and tribulations, then so be it.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad.
But the Bible does not teach us to go out and seek persecution or seek pain or seek
suffering.
We should be willing to suffer for the cause of Christ.
But the Bible does not teach us to go out and seek suffering.
The Bible teaches that it is something that God has given us and that God has ordained
for us to enjoy pleasure in this life, to enjoy our wives, to enjoy your husband, to
enjoy food, to enjoy rest and to enjoy feasting and fellowship and friends and family.
God teaches us to enjoy our life and not to live an ascetic, self-punishing life.
That is not a biblical doctrine.
Look what the Bible says in Matthew 9 verse 14.
Then came to him the disciples of John saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft but thy
disciples fast not?
And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn as long as the bridegroom
is with them?
But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them and then shall they
fast.
Here we see a time to fast and a time not to fast.
Here we see that when the disciples were following the Lord Jesus Christ for three and a half
years that was not a time to fast.
After he was taken from them there was a time to fast.
There is an appropriate time for these things.
Flip over to Matthew chapter 11, just a few pages to write in your Bible.
Matthew 11 verse 18.
For John came neither eating nor drinking and they say he hath a devil.
The son of man.
Who's the son of man?
Jesus.
The son of man came eating and drinking and they say, Behold a man gluttonous and a wine
bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners, but wisdom is justified of her children.
So was Jesus a self-punishing ascetic?
No, because Jesus was eating and drinking and fellowshipping and they looked at him
and said, Well why do we and the Pharisees fast off but thy disciples fast not?
Why are you guys having so much food and having such a good time?
You need to suffer like us.
That's what they're saying to Jesus and here Jesus is being accused of being what?
A glutton.
Being accused of what?
Being a wine bibber.
Now obviously Jesus was neither a glutton nor a wine bibber.
Obviously these people are just looking to find fault with him.
But because he was living a normal life and eating a normal amount of food, they took
that as, Oh you're not self-punishing and self-immolating enough.
You know, you need to fast and suffer and go through pain.
So I'm not saying that we should seek to find a middle ground between living a life
of suffering and living a life of self-indulgence.
No we should live a life that follows the commandments of God.
We should follow the pattern of life that God has laid out and if we follow the commandments
of God and if we follow the pattern of life that God has laid out, our life will involve
both pleasure and suffering as God sees fit to give us pleasure and suffering.
You see if you go through life and you follow the plan of God saying, Hey, you know, you
work hard, you work and labor and then you also take rest.
I mean if you look at the Old Testament pattern, in the Old Testament pattern they had one
day of rest per week but then they also had three weeks of rest in the year where they
had rest and what would they do during that time?
Eat a good feast and eat a bunch of good food and rejoice and eat all the summer fruits
and have a good time and enjoy themselves.
You know, and here's the thing, if you live your life and get married as the Bible teaches,
you know, and again there's the exception that proves the rule.
Some people are going to remain single but that's very rare.
But if you follow the pattern of life that God lays out and you get married, hey, there's
going to be pleasure in marriage.
There's also going to be some suffering in that marriage, alright?
It's going to be both.
But you don't just suffer for the sake of suffering.
You take the suffering that God gives you and as Job said, you receive good and evil
at the Lord's hand and you say, Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And you say like the Apostle Paul, I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound.
Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry.
Both to abound and to suffer need.
I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.
What's he saying?
Sometimes I'm in prison and going through suffering.
So be it.
Praise the Lord anyway.
And other times I show up to town, I preach the Word of God, people bring me into their
homes and provide me with a bunch of good food and things are going well.
I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound.
I know both to be full and I know how to be hungry.
Why?
Because I'm going to take whatever God gives me, whatever God sees fit to bless me with,
whatever trials and tribulations God sees fit to put me through.
But I'm not going to sit around deciding, you know, am I suffering enough, am I going
through enough pain, am I enjoying too much pleasure or am I not having enough pleasure?
You just live a normal life and you follow the commandments of God.
And here's a key teaching from Ecclesiastes.
Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man.
This is the whole duty of man.
What does that mean?
There is no other duty outside of fearing God and keeping his commandments.
That's the whole duty of man.
Therefore if we are living a life that follows the commandments of God, if we are obeying
his voice, if we are not doing that which he tells us not to do and if we are doing
that which he tells us to do, then God will be pleased with us.
We don't have to beat ourselves and no fun and no pleasures and suffer for the sake of
glory.
No, we suffer if need be, as need requireth, as the trials and tribulations come.
Do you see the difference between what the Bible is teaching and you see this is why
we don't make a big deal about talking about you need to suffer more.
You know what?
If you serve God, you're going to endure persecution.
You don't have to go out looking for it.
If you obey the commandments of God, there's going to be some suffering.
Here's the thing, if you, we as men, we live our lives and there's suffering in our lives
because if we're going to provide for our families and work hard, there are times when
we have to stay up really late and work into the night and burn the midnight oil or we
have to get up super early or we have to skip breaks and skip meals and work our fingers
to the bone and there's suffering involved with being a provider.
We don't have to go looking for it.
Now maybe some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth or they just have some
easy job where somebody goes around giving them back massages in their ergonomic chair
in their climate controlled office building, but most people's job involves getting cussed
out and working hard and getting up early and staying late and working your fingers
to the bone.
I mean that's life.
There's suffering involved with that.
We don't have to go looking for it.
If we go out soul winning, that's hard work.
There's a little bit of suffering associated with that.
When it comes to resisting temptation, abstaining from sin, some of that can be hard to do.
But here's the thing.
We don't go out and seek to suffer for the sake of suffering.
Now if you look at a lady's life, there's going to be some suffering inherent in that.
Being up with the baby all night when he's sick and fussing and crying and whatever.
How about just childbirth itself?
There's suffering involved with pregnancy and morning sickness.
There's suffering involved with the pain of childbirth and then just the hard work of
raising children and then the worrying over those children.
When you follow God's plan for life, there's suffering.
Now here's what would be wrong, trying to avoid suffering by violating God's commandments.
Well you know I don't want to go through all that hard work, so I'm going to take this
other route.
See I'm not going to follow God's commandments.
I'm not going to follow the plan.
It'd be like if a woman says, well I don't want to do all that work so I'm just not going
to have kids.
I'm just going to use birth control and not have kids.
Well the Bible commands us to be fruitful and multiply.
The Bible says that that's part of life is in sorrow bringing forth children and yada
yada yada.
So this idea of, well I'm just not going to go to work because that's too much suffering.
That's just too hard.
Or I'm going to make my wife work too, you know, and foot part of the bill.
These are all ways to try to escape from the suffering that God has ordained for us.
That's different than just going out and looking for more suffering.
If we follow God's plan for our life, there's going to be pleasure and there's going to
be suffering.
And we need to take the good with the bad and say, blessed be the name of the Lord.
That is the life that God has laid out for the Bible-believing Christian.
Turn to Proverbs chapter 5, Proverbs chapter number 5 and I'll show you another scripture
along the same lines in chapter 5 verse 18 of Proverbs the Bible reads, let thy fountain
be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe.
Let her breast satisfy thee at all times and be thou ravished always with her love.
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a
stranger?
So again, what's God teaching here?
Enjoy being married.
Enjoy the wife of your youth.
Enjoy pleasure.
He's not telling us to abstain from that which is pleasurable.
Now another thing, go to Romans chapter 14, Romans chapter 14.
Another thing that these Buddhist monks are instructed in is that the Buddha taught them
to live as islands unto themselves.
Live as islands unto yourself.
See this religion is a very inward-looking religion and you're just an island unto yourself.
Well what does the Bible teach in Romans 14, 7?
It says, for none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself.
Whether we live, we live unto the Lord and whether we die, we die unto the Lord.
Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's and the Bible says none of us liveth
to himself and no man dieth to himself.
You see everything that we do affects the people around us and we are not our own but
we're bought with a price and the Bible says we are to glorify God in our body and in our
spirit which are God's.
Now again how does this tie in with the false teachings of Roman Catholicism?
You know they have hermits and really monasteries as well with monks and nuns where they separate
themselves from society and just are an island unto themselves and they're just in their
little spiritual enclave, their spiritual cloister and this teaching of a Catholic hermit
is not a biblical teaching.
A holy man that would go off and live by himself out in the middle of nowhere.
The Bible teaches that we as God's people are to be amongst the people and to go out
into the highways and hedges and to preach the gospel to every creature and not to go
hide ourselves and seclude ourselves somewhere.
You know Jesus said that we're not to be taken out of this world but just to be kept from
the evil.
He said I pray not that thou wouldest take them out of the world but that thou wouldest
keep them from the evil.
So we're to be in the world but not of the world.
And so we should not seclude ourselves in some compound somewhere or in a distant place by
ourselves but rather we should live amongst our fellow man so that we can win them to
Christ so that we can preach the gospel to every creature.
That is what the Bible teaches.
So all that to say this, the doctrines of Buddhism are false.
They're not compatible with what the Bible teaches and when we look at the strange doctrines
of the Roman Catholic Church and wonder where are these things coming from.
I don't see this stuff in the Bible.
Monks, nuns, celibate clergy, where is this stuff coming from?
Eating blood?
You know where is this teaching coming from?
You can find it all in these false eastern religions.
That's where they got it from.
There's no new thing under the sun and the devil just keeps repackaging the same religion
and giving it a different name but it is his doctrines.
It is what the Bible says are the doctrines of devils.
The Bible says that in the last days some shall depart from the faith giving heed to
seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.
What are those doctrines of devils?
Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats.
What does that sound like?
Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats.
You know that would apply both to the Catholic clergy and the Buddhist monks, both.
And he said these are doctrines of devils.
These are seducing spirits.
This is demonic.
And so we need to follow the teachings of the Bible and understand that Christianity
is the true religion and that all these other religions are false and they are demonic as
we showed very clearly this morning.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father we thank you so much for your word Lord and we thank you for all the joy that
you've given us in our lives Lord.
Joy unspeakable and full of glory.
All the pleasures that you've given us in this life Lord.
And Father help us to be willing to suffer for the cause of Christ if need be.
And help us to let these words sink down into our ears and live a life that would honor
and glorify you.
And in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.