Praise the Lord saints.
Services are finally starting back up this Sunday 2:30 p.m.
As always, str8 no chaser. Nothing but God’s true Word, uncompromised. Hope to see you then.
2 Thess. 2:8-12. 8 Then the lawless one [the Antichrist] will be revealed and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of His mouth and bring him to an end by the appearance of His coming.
9 The coming of the [Antichrist, the lawless] one is through the activity of Satan, [attended] with great power [all kinds of counterfeit miracles] and [deceptive] signs and false wonders [all of them lies],
10 and by unlimited seduction to evil and with all the deception of wickedness for those who are perishing, because they did not welcome the love of the truth [of the gospel] so as to be saved [they were spiritually blind, and rejected the truth that would have saved them].
11 Because of this God will send upon them a misleading influence, [an activity of error and deception] so they will believe the lie,
12 in order that all may be judged and condemned who did not believe the truth [about their sin, and the need for salvation through Christ], but instead took pleasure in unrighteousness.
The prophet Hosea wrote in 4:6, “My people perish for a lack of knowledge,” it never says we perish because of a lack of love.
To judge or not to judge
Today we hear “don’t judge!” The disease of “don’t rock the boat” brings only criticism as well as rejection by the very people that you thought were on the side of Jesus to be truth proclaimers.
“Beware of false prophets!” said Jesus in Matthew 7:15. This is a warning but comes as a command of our Lord. But how could we “beware” and how could we know they are “false prophets” unless we test what they say?
Instead of obeying what Jesus said, we actually support them. How? By saying don’t judge! God’s standard by which we are to judge is “To the Law and to the Testimony: if they speak not according to THIS WORD, it is because there is NO LIGHT in them” (Isaiah 8:20). “Ye shall know them by their fruits,” Christ said (Matthew 7:16). in judging the “fruits,” we must judge by God’s Word, not by what appeals to our human feelings.
Love is not the answer in this situation, truth is. This can take time to sort through. Many things seem good to human reasoning at first but are false to the Word of God. It appears that scripture makes a direct correlation of false teaching and false prophets affecting the saints and the Church losing its zeal and compassion for the truth at the end of time.
The Apostle Paul commands believers, ” Now I urge you, brethren, NOTE THEM (identify) who cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned; and Avoid them. For those are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.” (Romans 16:17-18).
It is the false teachers who make the “divisions,” and not those who protest against their false teaching. And these spokesmen are not serving Christ, as they profess, “but their own appetites” or their own carnality and selfish desires.
An example would be those who preach that saints are to be rich because they want to justify the way they live in extravagance. Smooth words trick the gullible those who will believe anything. Discord is made by those who teach divisions, those who point this out by using the truth are peace the makers.
This apostolic command could not be obeyed if we were not allowed to test what is said by the teachers in question. God wants us to know His Word and not just accept all the teachers that teach it. This does not mean we walk around with a critical eye on everything said. But we are not to be simple and naive.
Biblical love for people does not mean that I ignore what they say so that the person can feel comfortable with me. This is not love. To love someone who teaches false doctrine does not mean that I make myself blind ignoring his error and strive to have unity with him despite his false doctrine.
To do this gives them a green light to continue to lead people astray and bring ruin to people’s lives. Many who religiously quote, “Judge not,” are doing this in order to protect themselves teaching what is false to God’s Word. They don’t see their own inconsistency in judging others who want to obey the command about testing what they speak as either true or untrue to the scriptures. They run to an undeserved cover with yet another misuse of the Scripture (don’t judge) to cover the others they have misused.
Till next week,
God Bless.
Bishop-Elect Rev. Dr. Robert L. Harrison, PhD
