The pastor is responsible for the vertical growth of the sheep, not the horizontal growth of the church. God is responsible for the horizontal growth. He adds to the number as He sees fit. The reason why God set the system up this way was so the pastor could tend to the sheep and not compromise the Gospel. In order to grow the church, we see pastors constantly compromising. Bill Hybels removed all crosses from his sanctuary because when he polled the neighborhood of unsaved folks they said the cross made them uncomfortable! We have seen the most absurd tricks used to draw people. Secular and even vulgar songs played during worship. Get a tattoo while the sermon is delivered. A rodeo inside the sanctuary. A motocross track inside the sanctuary. A star wars themed Christmas. Gun giveaways. Preaching life lessons from our favorite movies. But the problem these pastors who fancy themselves innovators is that when you are forced to draw people with the carnality of this world only the same carnality will keep them. That is why this comes in as the fourth lie from the pit of hell destroying our churches today because it makes us no different than the world.
5) That the church needs to be relevant to the culture -- They all talk about it. They all use it as their rationale for destroying the church. That the Gospel of Jesus Christ is no longer culturally relevant to reach the next generation. That is the blasphemy behind so many of the seeker friendly initiatives eviscerating our church today. I have heard it used to defend participating in Halloween. I have heard it used to explain the smoke machines and using unsaved musicians to bring the rock concert that is passed off as worship these days. I have heard it used to defend experiential Christianity over sound doctrine.
The idea is that we need to "meet people where they are at" is not new. It is however always wrong. It is the culture that is happily consigning them to hell. We do not need to be relevant to this culture. We need to stand against it and offer God's culture. People do not need another motivational speaker. They do not need a self-help guru. They need a shepherd. They do not need a god who is their buddy. They do not need a god who is their wing man. They need a God who is the Lord of their lives. How did Paul put it?
And I, when I came to you, brothers,did not come proclaiming to you the testimonyof God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. - 1Corinthians 2: 1-2 (ESV)
Paul understood that his role was to preach the Gospel and let God draw people. He understood that the supernatural power of salvation was contained in the Gospel and not the wise and persuasive words of man. Jesus Christ and Him crucified is all he needed then and it is all we need today. Thus the relevance lie comes in as the number five lie from the pit of hell destroying our church today. It compromises the Gospel. Without the Gospel, no one gets saved.
6) That direct revelation is as common and unquestioned -- As we wrap up the six lies I recognize that there are many many more. I did not even get into changing worship and the Bible to be about us instead of Him! You have to draw the line somewhere though and I think that number six often goes unchallenged by the church today and is blindly accepted, leading many people astray. If you go through the litany of false teachers who are successful today you will find that nearly all of them claim direct revelation from God. Some are simply silly about it, claiming long drawn out conversations with God where He apparently spoke for hours to them. Beloved, please realize that there is a sharp difference between "the Lord showed me" and "the Lord told me." The Holy Spirit can illuminate Scripture for us for example and that is the Lord showed me. I am speaking against the charlatans who constantly pretend God is audibly speaking to them. Joseph Prince always claims direct revelation. He claims his entire false Gospel was divinely given to him by God. Beloved, we must discern better than this. This tactic is used to make the pastor's words equal to the Word of God. They are not. If someone preaches out of the Bible as they ought to then they are held accountable by the Word of God. If they claim their word is directly from God then there is no way to verify it. Remember though:
if we are faithless, he remains faithful-- for he cannot deny himself. - 2Timothy 2: 13 (ESV)
Once you hear someone say they heard directly from God measure up that word against the Bible, which we know came from God and see if they are telling the truth. If the Bible proves them to be false then you know they could not have heard from God! This is the sixth lie from the pit of hell destroying our churches today. Direct revelation seeks to make man equal to God and to cast doubt on His Word.
The key verses today outline that all of these things were going to come to pass. These false teachers we see today have already brought in their destructive heresies into the body of Christ. They follow their own sensuality instead of the Word of God. Because of them the true faith of Christianity is blasphemed. In their greed they exploit people with their lies. Whether those lies be from a true deceiver or the truly deceived means nothing. Only the truth does. The sad thing is there are many more that could have been listed. One should not despair however. The Bible teaches us that there will be a great falling away and it is well underway. The Bible teaches us that few will find the narrow gate to salvation. The Bible teaches us that many will spend their lives believing they were serving God only to discover when the smoke machine stops that He never knew them at all. Consider these scriptures in closing:
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. - 1Corithians 15: 1-2 (ESV)
Unless you believed in vain. Commonly we think of the secondary definition of vain, which means "useless." Certainly that fits but I rather like the primary definition here too. Vain also means to have a narcissistic and conceited view of oneself. It is how we get the word vanity. When you follow these false teachers beloved it is you that you place your faith, not God. To believe in vain means not only to believe in a useless gospel but to believe in oneself over God. Come out from among them beloved. Come out from among them.
Reverend Anthony Wade - December 22, 2015
