"Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater." Just because some people or many people abuse truth, or the gifts of the Spirit, or the Word of God, etc., it doesn't mean we should throw out the whole shebang.
Study the Scriptures in their context. Learn the right way
of doing something, and then do it right, in the power of God’s Spirit. Don’t
let men decide for you what you should believe and what you should not believe.
John 10:7-10 ESV
“So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Many False Teachings
There are many false teachers today teaching many false
doctrines which are leading God’s people astray, or they are causing confusion
for them in their minds, or they are leading them to doubt God and his Word.
We, as the Lord’s sheep, are to be discerning about messages
we get from men or women who say they are speaking for God, or the words of God,
or the teachings of Christ and his word.
Yet, we don’t just write them off because they are saying
something maybe we didn’t hear before, or because it disagrees with what we
have always been taught, unless we have already examined what they are saying
and have found it to be false. We don’t need to keep going back and forth like
on a seesaw.
Yes, there are many people who are abusing the Scriptures
and the gifts of the Spirit, but we should not throw out the Scriptures or the
gifts of the Spirit just because some people are doing them or teaching them
wrong.
This is why the Scriptures teach us to be discerning and to
test what we see and hear and read against the Scriptures (in context) and in
prayer and against what we know of God’s divine purpose and will for our lives.
The primary false teaching of today, I believe, is the cheap
grace gospel, for it supplants the true gospel of grace in people’s hearts, and
it promises them salvation from sin and eternal life with God based on a lie,
not on the truth.
For they reduce faith to a mere confession of Christ but
with no real repentance followed by obedience and submission to Christ as Lord.
Thus, they give their adherents free license to continue living in sin, which,
according to Scripture will end in death not in life everlasting (Rom 6:16).
Denying God’s Spirit
Then, there is this teaching which denies God’s Spirit and
his voice to us and which denies the gifts of the Spirit (or some of them). I
have been dealing with this one lately on Twitter with a very few number of
people who are contending with me about this.
They don’t believe we can hear the voice of God, of his
Spirit, not even as a nudge or a gentle whisper or as an impression or
whatever. They believe God only speaks to us through the physical Bible,
through the written word. In that case, though, they should quit Twitter, stop
reading anything but Scripture, not listen to any music, and definitely stop
listening to preaching.
But they are, like the cheap grace gospel people, distorting
the Word of God, which I believe is intentional. And its goal or its purpose is
to lead God’s people away from their pure devotion to Jesus Christ to follow
after the teachings of man, and to not listen to God’s internal voice speaking
to them.
For, this teaching that says we can’t hear God speaking to
us except through the physical Bible is not biblical. It is of man, not of God,
for it keeps people from hearing the Spirit’s promptings, his warnings, and his
callings, etc. And it prevents us from using the gifts God has given us for the
building up of the body of Christ to maturity in Christ (Rom 12; 1 Co 12; Eph
4).
What they are teaching is like returning to the letter of
the law. It is like going backwards. But God has given us his Spirit to teach,
encourage, comfort, counsel and lead us. And we are to walk according to the
Spirit and by the Spirit be putting to death the misdeeds of the body (Rom
8:1-17).
John 10:11-13 ESV
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.”
These false shepherds of the people who are lying to the
sheep, telling them that they don’t have to repent, obey, or submit to Christ
and/or who are telling them they can’t hear God speaking to them through his
Spirit and that certain spiritual gifts no longer exist, are not the Lord’s
servants.
They are deserters of the body of Christ, of the faith, whose
authority is not God or the Scriptures. For the Scriptures teach that we are to
hear and to listen to the Spirit speaking to us, and that God does give us
spiritual gifts which we are to use for the encouragement of the body of
Christ.
But these false doctrines of the faith or these false
gospels which deny Jesus, and which deny the Holy Spirit, are on the increase,
and many people are falling for them, as there are people falling for those who
teach the Holy Spirit and his leading in ways which are not biblical.
So, study the Scriptures word for word, in context, and see
what they teach about the gospel of our salvation and its requirements of us,
and see what they teach about the Holy Spirit and his role in our lives and in
the church, and then follow the truth and reject the lies.
God not only speaks to us through his written word
(primary), but he speaks to us through his Spirit in many different ways, too,
and he speaks through nature (Romans 1) and through parables, etc., including
dreams and visions (Acts 2:14-21). Just test everything you believe you are
hearing.
Acts 11:12: “The Spirit told me to go with them without misgivings. These six brethren also went with me and we entered the man’s house.”
Acts 13:2: “While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’”
Acts 20:23: “…except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.”
John 16:13: “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”
So, "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater."
For
Our Nation
An
Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: we’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
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