Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. (Romans 16:17)
This is the word of the Apostle Paul. He knew it was imperative that the doctrine be protected, even to the point of staying away from those who were in error. There are doctrines today that are false and you should not listen to those who promote them. There are those that I personally will not listen to or read after. Why? The number one way a seducing spirit influences you is through another person whom is already deceived by it. If you hang around that spirit, it will get off on you, and you will get into error eventually.
And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. (2 Thess. 3:14-15)
We were taught to eat the hay and throw the sticks away. This means glean the good you can from a message but don’t accept the error. That is true unless the message is poison. I was told 90% of rat poison won’t hurt you at all. There is 10% of it that will kill you though. There are doctrines that are absolute poison and you can’t eat the hay and throw the sticks away. Paul said, Stay away from those brothers, admonish them.
The Apostle Paul would be very unpopular today, just as he was in his day. The new gospel of some today is to compromise the message and truths our elders taught us. The idea is, the world will like us more, if we embrace their ways and show them we are just like them. The problem is, we are not like the world and they should realize they are different from a Christian. When a sinner or demon-possessed person can sit comfortably in a church service, there is a problem.
The unscriptural message today is that the church is preaching too much condemnation. Therefore, we must present a new message of grace that embraces all lifestyles and even sin. That has led to all sorts of alternative ungodly lifestyles being brought into the church and accepted as normal. It is not. What many are calling condemnation is really the convicting and reproving of the Holy Ghost to get people to repent. That is one major reason the Holy Ghost is in the earth. If our doctrine does not have the conviction and reproving of the Spirit of God in it, God is no where around. These book report sermons have no power. We may have a wonderful, motivational message, but the Lord doesn’t agree with it.
Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) – Philippians 3:19
The glory in their shame church has leaders or life coaches who may not be saved themselves. They are baptized in the secular, worldly, modern culture of society around them. Usually, the meeting begins with secular rock and roll music to attract the world. Everything is timed to the exact minute to get the people in and out before they get bored too much. A motivational speech of about eighteen minutes is given with great emotion to make the people feel good and then they leave. It is psychology which affects the mind and has no lasting change from His Spirit.
I am not against encouraging people, but change and repentance must be preached also. Because these church meetings are designed around the people, the Holy Ghost is not invited or desired because He might mess up the program. Secular music and worldly methods grieve the Spirit of God and He will not be in the meeting. I refuse to offend the Spirit of God with secular methods and you should too.
We will never be pleasing to God until we turn our eyes away from the world and focus them back on the Lord. The more time we spend in the Bible and in prayer will show us what God wants us to stay away from & how we should truly worship Him. The more time we spend in fellowship with the Lord, the more we will understand His heart & what He truly desires us to do. We have been called to be set apart. We are in the world. We are not supposed to be the world. God is with us!
