Friday, October 16, 2009

Case in Point!!

You will need to read the previous post to best understand the basis for this one. As time marches on, more and more people are falling into the cracks of false doctrine, terribly bad teaching and just plain blather from the deceitful workers of iniquity posing as ministers of the gospel. These enemies of the gospel give a false sense of security to their unsuspecting, simple minded listeners with catch phrases , a feel good message, a do it yourself gospel and just down right blather instead of sound doctrine from God's word.
  • 2 Corinthians 11:13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
  • 2 Corinthians 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
  • 2 Corinthians 11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Okay, here is the reason for this post "Case in Point". I was conversing with someone the other day who made the statement professing to be a Christian, My followup question was "how do you know you are a Christian" and then I just shutup and listened. The answer to my question from this very nice, very sincere person I have come to know over a few weeks time was not in any way shape or form surprising, rather, I expected it. It is as follows:

  • I have God in my heart.
  • I have asked forgiveness for my sins.

Now, if you are a mainstream denominational covenant thinking church goer, you would say amen amen!. If you were to go to your phonebook and call every church in your town and ask how a soul is saved and then listen to what they say, you will get really close to getting the same answer this kind lady gave to me. But as a Bible believing Mid Acts dispensational Pauline right divider of the authorized King James Bible, it was obvious to me I was speaking to an unsaved person. After explaining to this individual that it wasn't that long ago, after attending many different churches that in fact, I would have answered the question "how do you know you are a Christian?" exactly the same way she had and that I was not saved according to God's word. After explaining to her the truth of the matter, Jesus Christ did everything necessary to save our never dying souls and that He left nothing undone for us to accomplish according to the scriptures.....

  • 1 Corinthians 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
  • 1 Corinthians 15:2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
  • 1 Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
  • 1 Corinthians 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

I told her if she believed that passage which declares with clarity the "gospel of your salvation" and invoking Ephesians 1:13, God would count her faith as righteousness and save her never dying soul.

  • Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

Once again, her response was not at all a surprise. She responded with "It sounds much too easy" So after a few minutes of reinforcing the Gospel of the grace of God and writing down passages for her to read through, I asked another question and her response reinforces exactly the message from my previous post "Is Paul our Pattern or What". She said she finds the gospel presentation that I gave her difficult to believe because others, including Pastors have told her otherwise. I told her I understand why it would be a confusing issue and hard to get sorted out and that I would be honored if she would allow me to assist her in her Biblical understanding. Of course we all know the first step would have to be the salvation issue in order to have any Bible understanding at all.

  • 1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The point of this entire post is not to demean an unsaved person, nor to elevate my stature, but to demonstrate the destructive message being bandied about by nice looking, kind hearted, smooth talking unsaved Pastors and preachers everywhere. The unsaved, hell bound person who listens to and believes these deceivers are blinded to the glorious light of the gospel of Christ. The ones propagating the false message are doing the work of the god of this world and are the exact ones whose mouth must be stopped.

  • 2 Corinthians 4:3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
  • 2 Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

If we are going to be the soldiers of the cross we should be, we have to get engaged in confronting these folks who serve not our Lord Jesus but serve their own belly. We are told by our Apostle, our pattern to preach the word in and out of season, reprove and rebuke with longsuffering and doctrine. Paul goes on in the same passage to describe what we are engaged in as a fight and from where I am standing, it looks as if we are losing badly. The ministers of deception are planting churches everywhere you look, even in a nightclub here in my hometown and the grace movement can hardly be called a movement at all since it is basically standing still. We need to quit saying we are following Paul and actually start doing it and quit hiding in the bunkers waiting for the fight to be over.

  • 2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
  • 2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
  • 2 Timothy 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
  • 2 Timothy 4:5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
  • 2 Timothy 4:6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
  • 2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

Let's get up an go fight the good fight!!

2 comments:

  1. "2 Corinthians 9:15" has been included in this weeks Sites To See. I hope you like the image I featured, and I hope this helps to attract many new visitors here.

    http://asthecrackerheadcrumbles.blogspot.com/2009/10/sites-to-see_30.html

    ReplyDelete