"Declaring what we are against way more than what we are for. All too often when people hear the word "Christian" they think, "oh, those are the people who hate me and what I do." What if we, as church leaders, stopped screaming at people and actually took the time to serve them? THAT could change the world."
The third and final rule for today for false teachers is to move away from the cross. It is at the cross that we must gaze upon the ghastly visage of our crucified Lord and Savior. It is at the cross that we must face the burden of our own sin and realize we need salvation. It is at the cross where we finally recognize our desperate need to repent. None of that however is allowed in the seeker friendly church. Bill Hybels for example chooses to not display crosses in his church because his market research revealed that it offends the unsaved. Good! It is supposed to offend them!
"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. - Matthew 10: 34-39 (ESV)
The Bible is a dual edged sword. It cuts. It is meant to. The Gospel will force people to look at their sins and either repent of them or embrace them over God. Now, I am not suggesting that we scream at the unsaved. We do not need to. We simply preach the Gospel and the Spirit will draw them. How they react is up to them. What Noble is advocating for here however is one of the rallying cries from the false teacher playbook. Replace the need to repent with a social works that sounds pious but has no eternal value. Those jackasses who want to go deeper? They're just religious sticks in the mud, but me? I want to serve you! What better pitch can one come up with to lure people who are unsaved to come back to your church? Don't worry about those pesky sins you hear so much about! We are here just to serve you.
Now maybe Noble is right. Maybe that would change the world. Maybe he could teach an old goat new tricks. Probably not because the nature of man is fallen. The larger point however is even if he managed to change the world, he still never addressed the real problem. The real problem people have is they are going to spend eternity in hell. They are separated from God. While cleverly couched as "what I do" in the Noble quote the reality is there is a word for that. It is called sin. It is what needs to be addressed and repented of. But not in the purpose driven mind of Perry Noble. To him it doesn't matter where you spend eternity as long as you spend next Sunday at his church.
Beloved this has been a rare glimpse into the mind of the false teacher. Noble is just a microcosm of the larger problem and that is that this playbook is what most churches today operate under. Always protect each other. Marginalize doctrine. Move away from the cross. The recipe for the false teaching mega churches of these last days. I think sometimes we get confused about them because we make the mistake of assuming we are on the same team. I am not on the sane team as Perry Noble. He is a wolf devouring the sheep of Almighty God. He will lead untold numbers down the broad path that leads to destruction while making himself filthy rich in the process. The key verses today teach us how to deal with what is false in our lives. I want to highlight three quick points:
Do not be deceived by empty words
Try and discern what is pleasing to the Lord
Expose the unfruitful works of darkness
The first lesson here is that we need to be careful to not be deceived. Sometimes we think wolves walk around with big neon signs around their neck. Granted, once someone calls someone a jackass from the pulpit, plays the ACDC heavy metal song Highway to Hell in his church, or drops the N word in a sermon - all of which Noble has done - we should be able to tell. Others however are slicker than Noble. They require stricter studying of the Word and to test everything that is said. The second lesson is that we ought to be trying to discern what will please the Lord! If He sent His only Son to die on the cross do we really think it is pleasing to Him to never speak about it from the pulpit? To avoid speaking about it in case it offends someone who Jesus died for but is still on the outside of salvation looking in? Do we think it is pleasing to the Lord to use derogatory language and profanity to describe people who want to go deeper in His Word? To pretend doctrine is a dirty word? Once we discern what is pleasing to God we should be doing those things and not doing what we discover He is not pleased by. Lastly here we are not supposed to sit idly by as the wolves tear apart the body of Christ. We are to mark them. We are to come out from among them. We are supposed to expose their unfruitful works of darkness. That is what this writing was all about. I do not feel bad for Perry Noble because he is a wolf of the highest order. I feel bad for the slaughtered sheep he is leaving behind.
Reverend Anthony Wade - June 13, 2015
