©1996
Throughout history Satan has made every conceivable attack possible in order to hinder the Gospel from being preached and souls being saved. Our present time in history is no different and as the title of a book I once saw said, "Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth." His present strategy is the same as it always has been, only today he uses new names and twists in application. Movements promoting doctrinal error have been one of the Devil's most effective tools. The Bible tells us that until Christ returns false preachers and teachers will used by Satan to place effective stumbling blocks in the way of sinners coming to Christ and in the way of those who are saved to keep them from maturing and honoring the Lord Jesus.
The Bible tells us the Devil's attacks are to be expected and he will continue his evil ways till the Lord comes and cast him into the bottomless pit. What is often not expected and hard to understand is why some Fundamental Baptist preachers aid and abet Satan in his evil work. By their compromising and failure to stand upon the God's word they put themselves into aiding the Devil's camp. This can be seen in two trends among some of today's Independent Fundamental preachers that are certainly helping the Devil do his sorry work. One is a lack of spiritual discernment and the other is an unwillingness to stand up and earnestly contend for the faith.
A pastor who is not discerning of spiritual things will certainly be easy prey for Lucifer's cunning and luring attacks. Being discerning means being alert, perceptive and astute to the "wiles of the Devil" (Eph. 6:11). The man of God must know the truth, love the truth, and if God's wills it, be willing even to die for that truth. You cannot preach and teach that which you do not know or to which you are not committed. The biblical preacher must be discerning and know the truth to such a degree that when the counterfeit comes along he immediately sees it for what it is and jumps to the task of exposing it and taking it out of circulation.
God's man must know the enemy and be wary of his cunning arts, deceit, craft, and trickery. The problem is that by there failure to detect the Devil's work some preachers act as if they do not even know there is a Devil. Many act as if it is meritorious to ignore unbiblical positions and doctrinal error let themselves be governed by the modern philosophy to "avoid controversy at any cost." Did the Lord Jesus avoid controversy or did He speak straight forward telling the Jews who He was and warning them of the "leaven" scribes and Pharisees. Did He avoid controversy and its consequences or did He seek to save the sinner by going to the cross.
Paul lived by the Word of God and stated as he neared martyrdom:
Notice Paul said he "fought a good fight." Paul as God's spokesmen knew the battle first hand because he had been on both sides. He began fighting against the Lord and those who preached God's truth even to the point of aiding in their gross persecution and fir some murder. Paul at that point in his life served the Devil, but thank God he then met the Lord and God gloriously saved him. He then became the subject of the attacks of Satan whom he had once served. Paul knew first hand what it truly meant to be a faithful servant and God's preacher.
Why did God inspire the Apostle Paul to write, " For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ" (Gal. 1:10). Was it not to instruct us that we too should boldly denounce false doctrine and gospels as he did? Note the last statement in the passage, ". . .for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." The preacher who chooses the road of no controversy becomes a man pleaser and God says he is not His servant.
There is no confusion as to what we are to stand on if we read the Bible. We are to stand and defend every word of God's Word. No doctrine or biblical principle is to be ignored and thought not worth defending. Every Epistle that Paul wrote addressed false teaching, false teachers and sin in the early churches. With a deep abiding love for Lord and God's people Paul put himself in "harms way" that men might hear the truth and be saved. Further, when the Devil sent his hirelings into the churches to nullify God's word, Paul boldly met them straight on exposing them for what they were. Many preachers today act as if they do not even read Bible they claim they are called to preach. How could anyone not see that to some degree that every Book in the New Testament deals with doctrinal error and sin and is a polemic against it. The message of the Gospel itself is one of exposing the sin of man and of proclaiming the Grace of God. "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Roman 6:23). You cannot preach the Gospel without addressing the depravity of man and his sin. In order for a man to be saved he must be confronted with the fact he is a lost sinner on his way to the Devil's hell. Paul did not subscribe to the "positive only" philosophy of many of today's preachers who put sugar on sin by their perverted optimism.
We all would surely agree that the Gospel needs to be preached in purity, but what of supposed lesser matters in God's Word? Paul was placed in an awkward position when Peter came to Antioch and yielded to the pressure from the Jews to eat with them which in effect shunned the Gentiles in the church and supported the Law and the Judaizers. Peter's actions in moving his seat from the Gentiles' table to the eat with the Jews confused God's truth that Paul had been preaching which was that the Lord made no difference between the Jew and the Gentile. To some it might have seemed a small matter and better left alone, however Paul set the example for us by rebuking Peter to his face for his unthoughtful actions. Peter's seemingly small infraction misled Barnabas and the other Jews and was certainly wrong. Paul took the road of defending truth and confronted Peter and the Jews face to face. Paul was not respecter of persons in reproving error small or large and neither should God's preacher. (See Galatians 2:11-21) You see he understood proclaiming and standing for God's truth is more important than any man.
Paul was discerning and he "tired the spirits" as John warned us (1 John 4:1,6). He instructed Titus, to hold , ". . . fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake" (Titus 1:9-12) Paul then stated the reason for "holding fast the faithful word," "This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith" (Titus 1:13). God's preacher is to rebuke the false teachers "sharply" that they might be brought to a position of being sound in the faith.
God tells us in 2 John 10-11, that if we receive false teachers we are "partakers of his evil." You see this is the heart of the matter. When no one stands for the truth, the truth is not upheld. If the truth is not stood for and boldly proclaimed then error and lies prevail. When lies and false teaching is taught unopposed men will believe a lie. When the truth is not taught and held in purity in the churches the people falter and there is confusion. God's power and blessing is withheld from such a congregation because God cannot bless error. Satan basks in such an environment and hinders the assembly from any true service for the Lord. Error excludes God's presence and produces chaos and chaos makes spiritual casualties.
How does the "controversy avoider" apply Jude 3, "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. What instruction does he conclude is the meaning of Proverbs 28:4 "They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them." Be assured one and all....where there is compromise Satan's work is being done. When error is mixed with truth God cannot nor will have any part of it. God is holy and pure and by His nature cannot bless even a partially true teaching or positions which contain error.
No one likes controversy. We all want to live in peace avoiding confrontation. Yet, the man God calls to preach must understand that he is called to be a soldier ready, willing and able to recognize the enemies subtle attacks. God's man must be like the Minute Men of the American Revolution, who at a moment's notice was willing to grab his musket and defend with his very life his God given freedom. Many of today's preachers are acting like cowards and wimps in the face of the Devil's assaults. Lacking discernment and a willingness to stand and defend truth, they hide, ignore and turn away allowing Satan's dupes to spread heresy. We have something a lot more important and vital in the lives of men than mere freedom, we have the very Words of God to defend and the destiny of men's souls is a stake. The consequences of our failure to stand, preach and defend the pure Word of God means souls lost to the eternal fires of hell and the wasted lives of believers.
Today pragmatism, rather than God's Word, rules in many churches and has become the philosophy of many preachers. Because of a lack of discernment unbiblical ideas are accepted without question. If it works then its OK. We are told we must forsake the "Old Paths" because they are no longer effective and abandon them for newer more entertaining methods of directing our churches. These modern teachers tell us that "church growth seminars" and "experts" are to be consulted because the Bible's methods are out dated and out of step with our time. Once doctrinally sound churches have replaced biblical worship with entertainment. The pulpit has become a stage where man-pleasers perform instead of preaching "thus saith the Lord." God honoring hymns based on biblical truth is shunned in favor of repetitious choruses and so called "Christian rock" music.
The dilemma is not that we have liberals and new-evangelicals spewing out their false teachings. They have always been on earth to plague God's people and turn men from the truth, but the tragedy is that some men who claim to be Fundamentalists, which is suppose to mean men who live and preach the unadulterated Word of God, buy these tainted good from Satan's dupes and feed them to their congregations God has entrusted to them to protect. Further, some of these misguided men refuse to stand with anyone who stands up and says, "Thus saith the Lord." Because of their lack of discernment and refusal to take a stand for God's truth they become like the "hiring" Jesus spoke of in John 10:12, "But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep." God's true shepherd will not leave the Lord's sheep untended and unprotected. God's man has given his life for the sheep following his Lord example (John 10:11).
Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:14-22, warns these wayward assemblies of participating in the feasts made to idols. The principle is clearly presented ". . . that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils." Gentlemen, it is aiding and abetting Satan and fellowshipping with devils to participate in practices or movements that are not doctrinally pure. God will not bless error nor have any part in it.
Peter stated the commission of all God's men in Acts 10:42, "And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. "
Paul proclaimed:
"For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! (1 Cor. 9:16)."
"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:18).
"Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus" (Col. 1:28).
"Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine" ( 2 Tim. 4:2).
No preacher can say he is being faithful to God and his calling if he refuses to preach all God's truth and not ". . . be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine" ( 2 Tim. 4:2).
Part of being God's man is standing with God's other preachers. Some will pound the pulpits and loudly denounce false teachers, but when another brother is attacked by Satan's pawns they run and hide and nowhere be found. Others will privately tell you in glowing terms how much they agree with your stand and will pat you on the back, but will flee to the hills at the first sight of the enemy. These men become silent when they perceive they might be looked upon in disfavor if they correct an erring brother or speak against some unbiblical popular practice. Note also in the presence of some well known or "big named preacher" they immediately lose their spine. Some are like Demas who for a while accompanied Paul, but loved the world more than God (2 Tim. 4:10) When Paul was down and discouraged and needed a friend, his former companion Demas forsook him. Understand that Demas had not given up preaching because the passage says he went to Thessalonica. But Demas had given up standing with God's man and for God's truth. It seems he did not want to bare the stigma of being associated with "ole fanatical" Paul who had got himself locked up in prison for preaching God's Word. John too had his Diotrephes, "who loved to have the preeminence among the brethren" (3 John 9). Some men are more motivated by a fear of some well known preacher's displeasure or organization than God's disfavor. They are like a modern politicians who take a position only after they have poled the people and tested the air. Instead of seeking wisdom from God's word, and in faith proceeding on God's sure course they are, as James says, "like a wave in the sea driven and tossed." James 1:8 concludes "a double minded man is unstable in all his ways."
If any preacher is bold and committed to God enough to "contend" for faith, he must understand that he will assuredly be ostracized and his intentions maligned. Many a man of God with pure intentions, with love and concern has stood up and proclaimed God's truth desiring to inform and alert God's people and is immediately accused of being fanatical, unloving, unlearned and as one called me a short time ago "way out on the edge." The accusation is always made in the form of a personal attack on the individual and never addresses the issue of truth and doctrine. That ought to run up the flag of caution to everyone. The basis of the attack should be examined. Doctrine is the basis of everything and you cannot have love, hope, or faith apart from sound doctrine. If not rooted in truth the fruit of love, hope and faith are vain and powerless to save or help in the least.
There can never be compromise with God's Word. There is no middle of the road and straddling of the fence when it comes to truth. You are either in the right or wrong. You either stand for the Lord or you stand for Satan. Too many fail to understand that you cannot mix truth and error. If you take the purest truth and mix it with the smallest error and it becomes a lie. Truth does not exist apart from purity. Yet, many go out of their way in trying to appease and speak well of those in doctrinal error showing they do not believe doctrinal purity to be important.
There is more to being a preacher and a man of God than just preaching the Gospel. Yes, we must preach the Gospel and the whole counsel of the Word of God. But Gentlemen, if you do not live it and stand for it and stand with those with those who stand for it you are worthless and no servant of God. You have failed and you are not true to your professed calling. It is the mark of a coward who boasts in the time of peace and runs when the battle the alarm is sounded. No true soldier is a coward. The soldier who is trained to fight hates war and fighting, but when his country and his family and friends are in danger...he grabs is rifle and gear and heads toward the sound of the battle. God's true man is ready to defend his flock and his fellow warriors from the enemies attacks. It is appalling that today the preacher who is a compromiser is in come circles often held in highest esteem, when in fact he should be drummed out of the corps in disgrace.
Few today among us Fundamentalists are willing to be out spoken against those who are turning our pulpits into stages and turning our worship of God into entertainment. It is becoming very unpopular to identified as a true practicing "separatist." If you name the false teachers, organization and movements you will surely be taken to task. Speaking out against contemporary "Christian" music, corrupted modern translations, the Promise Keepers, the Charismatic movement, popular new-evangelical preachers, schools abandoning their calling, false doctrine and unbiblical practices in modern mission boards, money making schemes such at Greater Ministries International, etc and you will surely be ostracized by many who you once you thought were brothers.
But thank God there are men who truly love the Lord and will stand for truth no matter what the cost. They do not serve money or self-esteem. They preach because God called them His service and commissioned them as His ambassadors to proclaim His true message without error. Paul spoke in glowing terms of the faithfulness of Luke, Tychicus, Onesimus, Artistarchus, Justin, Ephaphras and even John Mark. You can hear the encouragement they were to Paul in his closing statements to the Colossians, "These only are my fellow workers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me" (Col. 4:11). Surely God has a special reward for these men who stood for truth and who did not forsake their fellow preachers who because they were taking a stand was getting hit with everything the Devil could throw at him.
Living as a true man of God faithful to His word will soon weed out the fair weather friends, the cowards, the wimps, man-pleasers, the hirelings and those that love the world and the preeminence and favor of the men rather than the favor of God. You will often be all alone, maligned, misunderstood and false judged. You will find yourself discouraged by the lack of spiritual discernment of men you thought were sound. You will be upset by the cowardly acts of those you thought would stand with you for the truth. You will be frustrated because you know that men such as these are unwittingly aiding the Devil and hindering souls from being reached and Christians being edified and matured in the faith. You will be baffled at their blindness in not understanding that when they refuse to take a stand for truth their are supporting error and helping Satan spread it. You too will be amazed at how naive they are to be conned by the Devil's crafty tricks and not even be aware of being duped.
Do not be alarmed. The Devil has made sure that today we have modern piteous religious scribes and Pharisees who are just as blind and mean spirited as their were their ancestors. Jesus warned that , " . . . They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service."
But dear faithful preacher, do you fully understand in whose company you now reside if you choose to stand for truth and refuse the compromise? Note who God says you are in company with:
"And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect" (Hebrews 11:32-40).
Paul, God's true preacher boldly proclaimed in the face of all opposition and fiery darts of Satan, "For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!" Gentlemen the hireling takes up the profession of a preacher, but he does not take up the "necessity laid upon him." He serves for personal gain, prestige, and for the praise of men and be warned you will find out in short order how important these things are to him if you address his sin. He may mouth God's truth, but there is no power and strength in his words or in him because he has no depth and his foundation is but shifting sand. Do not be fooled by the hireling being found in a place of leadership, prominence and having the praise of men. Satan is too smart to use some failure or washout. Do not be surprised if you pose biblical questions to him that he will attack you and his friends denigrates your good intentions. The actions of these men show that they are an authority unto themselves and they live in the flesh and not by the Spirit.
God has some strong words for the "lackey" who bears the name and not the calling or conviction of God. It should be a sober call to repentance to read of how God looks upon the man who claims he speaks for God whom God has not sent:
"Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD. . . . And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man's word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God. Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence: And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten." (Jer. 23:30-32, 36, 39-40)
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." (Hosea 4:6)
"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction." (2 Peter 2:1).
Take heart, if you are a true man of God. The course God has put you on is the best that is available! There is no higher calling! No matter how distressful the moment might seem....the end is in sight and God has revealed it to us. The future for God's true steward is sure and absolute! The outcome is known and our faith is not blind. We can in humility and with full assurance proclaim with the Apostle Paul:
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. . . At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. " (2 Tim. 4:7-8, 16-18)
May I also say, AMEN! Be assured dear brother, God and His truth are your vindication!
" And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" (Romans 10:15).
©1996