Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; – 1 Timothy 4:1
First off, let me say that I am not against grace. I am for grace. But we are not for this slippery, greasy grace that does not agree with the guidelines and instructions and doctrines of the Bible. In our day, there are too many people running too and fro, living in sin, disobeying God, and believing it is alright. It is not alright. It’s all wrong. This isn’t about grace. This greasy grace is just one thing. What this is about is the Word of God.
We want to live according to God’s Word. And I know that’s an ugly word today. It’s wrong to tell someone how to live. It’s wrong to tell someone what to do. I don’t know if you know that or not. I had a good preacher friend of mine and we used to be friends a long time ago. We haven’t talked in a while. He ran across this doctrine of easy grace. It’s not a new doctrine, but he got caught up in it. And one day he challenged me on it. Not in a mean or angry way, but he challenged me on it. And I listened. Because constructive criticism won’t hurt you.
So my good friend challenge me. And he’s an excellent teacher of the Bible, anointed of God, just off on this one issue and I can’t even hold a candle to the teaching gift that is on his life. But he told me that my preaching was all wrong. So I ask him what I wasn’t doing right. He told me that if I tell someone what to do instead of telling them what to believe you are preaching the wrong Gospel.
I asked him, “Is that right?” What we need to do is contact the Apostle Paul. Because if what you are saying is correct, the Apostle Paul was in flat error and we don’t want to listen to him. Because if you go to Galatians chapter 5 and read what he told those people to do, and if you go to Ephesians and read what he told them to do – The Apostle Paul and I might not even make it.
When I started to bring the Scriptures up and quoting the Scriptures by the Holy Ghost, then it made him mad. I said it made him mad. And I wasn’t being mad or angry. It was just spilling up out of me – “this is what the Bible says.” In other words, his statement disagreed with the Bible. If you notice about people who talk about greasy grace and other false doctrines, when you start bringing up the Scriptures they get mad at you and sometimes want to kill you. Now I’m not against people, but I am against false doctrine. I’m for the Word of God.
If we want to live a good long life, if we want to be a success, if we want to please God, then we have to live according to the holy Scriptures. We can’t just pick and choose what we want to believe. No! We have to live according to the Word of God and believe what the Word of God says, not what we feel like living and believing.
And when all of these new revelations, and the cool new hip thing comes along, we must judge them according to the Bible. What does the scripture say? If you do that – if you stay with the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus you won’t get off and you will fulfill what God has called you to do. God is with you.
