How often does one's DOCTRINE change based on one's propensity toward a particular sin?
In my nearly 50 years...with approximately 31 of those years being spent in some type of ministry...I have witnessed two variations on those who "fall" ( as it is oft noted) in ministry.
1. Those who fail God by entering into sin...and, as a result of their sin, they CHANGE THEIR MESSAGE and THEOLOGY to ACCOMODATE their sin.
2. Those who fail God by entering into sin...and...after their sorrow and repentance leads them back into the GRACE of God...they continue to proclaim that sin for what it is:
SIN...and they REFUSE to preach ANY OTHER gospel!
It is common for the message of the PULPIT to be "We all sin. All of us have sinned in some way this past week or month or year."
But imagine: What if on a given Sunday the ENTIRE CHURCH...the BODY of BELIEVERS...had to CONFESS their SINS to everyone present?!
Could you imagine the PASTOR having to stand in the pulpit and tell his EVERY sin...no matter how SMALL or BIG those sins may be!!
We are OK with sin until we all have to NAME our sin!
And...then...we most likely would lose trust in everyone...everywhere.
You may wonder WHY I am speaking about this. Here is why:
Most in the Church are taking the stance that says since we ALL sin...and...we should go EASY on sin.
Sadly...that is NOT the Biblical mandate we see declared by God in His Word!
We often hear:
"Don't be so hard on yourself!"
But...be sure:
Sin IS a "big deal."
So...what is the BIBLICAL position presented by GOD?
We are to RAISE the STANDARD...NOT to LOWER the STANDARD!
The declaration which says "We ALL sin!" was NEVER to become some banner of PRIDE...as everyone feels JUSTIFIED because those around them are JUST AS GUILTY!
Today...such declarations are made with EQUALITY in mind...and the desire is to "level the playing field."
Now...that might be OK if our GOAL is "To be like OTHERS!"...and COMPARING ourselves to OTHERS will ALWAYS give us a sense of SECURITY...and a sense of SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS!
But...the term CHRISTIAN denotes the desire to be CHRIST-LIKE...and...we are ALWAYS to MEASURE ourselves by the STANDARD which HE set...NOT the STANDARD of OTHERS around us.
Throughout the years...being raised in the Church of God (Cleveland, TN)...I have known of many ministers who have "fallen"...and I have known many who found RESTORATION through CONFESSION, REPENTANCE, FORGIVENESS, GODLY COUNSEL, and a WILLINGNESS to be ACCOUNTABLE.
In my view...that is HONORABLE.
Now...how can we KNOW that one who has "fallen" is truly REPENTANT??
It is usually quite simple:
BIBLICAL DOCTRINE which readily proclaims THEIR OWN SIN as WRONG...and the WILLINGNESS to RENOUNCE it with NO COMPROMISE!!
The Bible speaks of RESTORING "one who has fallen"...and that RESTORATION is noted in their RECOGNITION of THEIR sin AS sin! It is SCRIPTURAL...as we see DAVID repentant before God...and in SORROW he GRIEVES over his sin.
Time and time again...we see those who FAIL God CONFESS that they have SINNED...and that FIRST STEP opens the door to RESTORATION!
Praise God!
Now...here comes the TWIST and the PRESENT-DAY APPLICATION of all of this...apart from what has already been presented here:
I know FEW in the Church who would stand for an UNREPENTANT ADULTERER continuing as PASTOR of a CONGREGATION of BELIEVERS.
But...neither should we be COMFORTABLE allowing an UNREPENTANT ADULTERER to sit UNREPENTANT in the Church!!
There should be a willingness to CONFRONT the one in sin.
You see...it is EASY to adhere to REBUKE and CORRECTION when it fills the PULPIT...but the present day Church is willing to declare "Do not DARE confront sin in the congregation! Everyone sins...and we ALL are guilty!"
Sadly...it is called LOWERING the STANDARD!
It is the promotion of what I call "SINFUL EQUALITY!"
Thus...we now have gone in search of the LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR...and the STANDARD of ALL STANDARDS is relegated to some simplistic label of God as the "Bestower of Grace" who looks down at humanity in a search for the WORST SINNERS.
But...by the UNSPOKEN STANDARDS of the Church...these "worst sinners" are simply ANY OF THOSE who sin...but they do it OUTSIDE the Church...and, therefore, "Their sin is not under Grace!"
So...now...COMFORTABLY the Church sits...with the ability to look around at the other members with this wonderful truth:
"I am JUST AS GOOD as the REST of these!"
I have always wondered why we never hear the sorrowful proclamation:
"I am JUST AS BAD as the REST of these!" as the altars fill with those who want SOMETHING MORE...SOMETHING BETTER...SOMETHING HOLY:
A TRANSFORMATION that can only come through the HOLY SPIRIT as we seek to be MORE LIKE JESUS...not just BETTER than CHURCH MEMBER X, Y, or Z!
But...what about the ONE SIN which REIGNS SUPREME in PULPITS across America...in varying denominations...yet...the sinners GUILTY of this sin are NEVER held accountable, NEVER called to REPENTANCE, NEVER rebuked or corrected...and...NEVER removed from leadership AT ALL...no matter how OPENLY they sin?
What IS that SIN, you ask?
The SIN of teaching FALSE DOCTRINE...the SIN of preaching LIES as TRUTH...the SIN of OPPOSING TRUTH...the SIN of teaching "doctrines of demons"...the SIN of being a "hireling"...the SIN of being a FALSE TEACHER!
Oh...how READY the masses are to REMOVE a man from the PULPIT if he commits a SEXUAL SIN (as SHOULD happen)...yet they want the pulpit SILENT if a MEMBER commits that SAME SIN!!
BUT WORSE...how READY the LEADERSHIP is to REMOVE a man who commits a SEXUAL SIN (as SHOULD happen)...yet that leadership will NOT remove a man for preaching FALSE DOCTRINE!!
Here is the reality of our time...and a sobering truth:
The PULPIT has been EQUALLY DEFILED by SEXUAL sin AND SPIRITUAL sin!
And...any attempt to JUSTIFY the refusal to set STANDARDS of TRUTH within DENOMINATIONAL organizations is nothing more than COMPROMISE!
It is NOT "diversity in ministries"...it is FALSE TEACHING and LYING SPIRITS...and it is IRRESPONSIBLE to IGNORE the DOCTRINES of ERROR which are being taught under the banner of "truth!"
Face it...within a denomination...allowing ONE CHURCH to preach the PROSPERITY GOSPEL and ANOTHER CHURCH to preach that the PROSPERITY GOSPEL is a FALSE gospel is nothing more than "a house divided against itself!"
And...sadly...most denominational leaders would choose to decide WHICH teaching to SUPPORT simply by determining WHICH MESSAGE is MORE PROFITABLE...and WHICH MESSAGE draws the BIGGER CROWDS which leads to BIGGER CHURCHES and MORE TITHE COMING IN.
Few would do the RIGHT thing...which is this:
To be as the BEREANS...seeking out TRUTH...without regard to what is POPULAR and CONVENIENT and PROFITABLE! (Acts 17 gives us insight into the Bereans...as they LOVED to RECEIVE the Word of God...but the REFUSED to believe what was being TAUGHT until they CONFIRMED it by "searching the Scriptures.")
In almost EVERY REALM, the STANDARDS of Scripture have been LOWERED to meet the demands of a SINFUL CHURCH.
And...NEVER has that STANDARD been ANY LOWER than the STANDARD of TRUTH which is now PREACHED and ACCEPTED in PULPITS across America!
God did not SEND us GRACE so that we could STAND in our SINFULNESS...He sent us GRACE to FREE us from our SINFULNESS!
"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32)
The Spirit of God comes to RAISE the STANDARD...not to LOWER the STANDARD!
"So shall they fear the Name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun: when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him." (Isaiah 59:19)
But read this passage in CONTEXT (provided in the link below)...reading Isaiah 59 in totality.
Note the REFUSAL of the people to maintain a STANDARD of HOLINESS...as SIN and FALSE TEACHING are ALLOWED...as the people demand SILENCE from the PROPHET.
Here...Isaiah establishes that sin and false teaching CANNOT go without REBUKE and CORRECTION!
And... then note that it will ONLY BE when the STANDARD is RAISED...which comes by the SPIRIT of the LORD...that the people will be CAPABLE of OVERCOMING the POWER of the ENEMY in the realm of SIN and FALSE TEACHING.
In Isaiah 59...we see a description not just of humanity before the Son of God was sent to REDEEM us...but we see a parallel of the CONDITION of the CHURCH and SOCIETY today....as Isaiah notes that TWO things have been SO DISTORTED that BOTH are almost NONEXISTENT:
JUSTICE and TRUTH.
Clearly presented is a picture of LOWERED STANDARDS...and these standards are now the NORM...even among those who are SUPPOSED to be a HOLY PEOPLE!
Then...again...notice that the Spirit of God does not come to LOWER the STANDARD through GRACE...but through GRACE the Spirit of God "lifts up"...or RAISES...the standard!
Be sure...Satan WILL NOT be DEFEATED...nor OVERCOME...by a Church whose HOLY standard is ON PAR with SATAN'S standard!
If the STANDARD is not JESUS CHRIST...then our STANDARD is no STANDARD at all!
And...if our STANDARD is CHRIST...then SIN is never MINIMIZED in His HOLY PRESENCE.
No...it is in CHRIST'S PRESENCE that EVERY imperfection is ILLUMINATED...and NO SIN IS HIDDEN in the LIGHT of the SON OF GOD.
So...I feel the Spirit of God calling...calling us to REPENTANCE...calling us to SUBMISSION...calling us to HOLINESS...calling us to recognize that we MUST NOT repeat the path of Israel in the days of Isaiah.
Israel would end up REJECTING the very GRACE they had long awaited...as they TURNED AWAY from God time and time again!
And...in so doing...Israel began to ACCEPT a LOWER STANDARD!
Will the Church continue down this SAME PATH...as it sits COMFORTABLE in a RIGHTEOUSNESS that it has REMADE in its OWN image?
Will the Church fail to recognize...as Israel did...the cry of God spoken through the PROPHETS...as God tries to REVERSE their COURSE before the day of JUDGMENT set their eternal fate forever?
I pray that the SLUMBERING CHURCH will AWAKEN...and that they will see before them the HIGH STANDARD of HOLINESS which is HIGHLY EXALTED...and that the STATUS QUO CHRISTIANITY which has INFESTED the Church will MELT AWAY in the FIRE of CONFESSION and REPENTANCE which is SO NEEDED within it!
In Christ,
Ron
In my nearly 50 years...with approximately 31 of those years being spent in some type of ministry...I have witnessed two variations on those who "fall" ( as it is oft noted) in ministry.
1. Those who fail God by entering into sin...and, as a result of their sin, they CHANGE THEIR MESSAGE and THEOLOGY to ACCOMODATE their sin.
2. Those who fail God by entering into sin...and...after their sorrow and repentance leads them back into the GRACE of God...they continue to proclaim that sin for what it is:
SIN...and they REFUSE to preach ANY OTHER gospel!
It is common for the message of the PULPIT to be "We all sin. All of us have sinned in some way this past week or month or year."
But imagine: What if on a given Sunday the ENTIRE CHURCH...the BODY of BELIEVERS...had to CONFESS their SINS to everyone present?!
Could you imagine the PASTOR having to stand in the pulpit and tell his EVERY sin...no matter how SMALL or BIG those sins may be!!
We are OK with sin until we all have to NAME our sin!
And...then...we most likely would lose trust in everyone...everywhere.
You may wonder WHY I am speaking about this. Here is why:
Most in the Church are taking the stance that says since we ALL sin...and...we should go EASY on sin.
Sadly...that is NOT the Biblical mandate we see declared by God in His Word!
We often hear:
"Don't be so hard on yourself!"
But...be sure:
Sin IS a "big deal."
So...what is the BIBLICAL position presented by GOD?
We are to RAISE the STANDARD...NOT to LOWER the STANDARD!
The declaration which says "We ALL sin!" was NEVER to become some banner of PRIDE...as everyone feels JUSTIFIED because those around them are JUST AS GUILTY!
Today...such declarations are made with EQUALITY in mind...and the desire is to "level the playing field."
Now...that might be OK if our GOAL is "To be like OTHERS!"...and COMPARING ourselves to OTHERS will ALWAYS give us a sense of SECURITY...and a sense of SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS!
But...the term CHRISTIAN denotes the desire to be CHRIST-LIKE...and...we are ALWAYS to MEASURE ourselves by the STANDARD which HE set...NOT the STANDARD of OTHERS around us.
Throughout the years...being raised in the Church of God (Cleveland, TN)...I have known of many ministers who have "fallen"...and I have known many who found RESTORATION through CONFESSION, REPENTANCE, FORGIVENESS, GODLY COUNSEL, and a WILLINGNESS to be ACCOUNTABLE.
In my view...that is HONORABLE.
Now...how can we KNOW that one who has "fallen" is truly REPENTANT??
It is usually quite simple:
BIBLICAL DOCTRINE which readily proclaims THEIR OWN SIN as WRONG...and the WILLINGNESS to RENOUNCE it with NO COMPROMISE!!
The Bible speaks of RESTORING "one who has fallen"...and that RESTORATION is noted in their RECOGNITION of THEIR sin AS sin! It is SCRIPTURAL...as we see DAVID repentant before God...and in SORROW he GRIEVES over his sin.
Time and time again...we see those who FAIL God CONFESS that they have SINNED...and that FIRST STEP opens the door to RESTORATION!
Praise God!
Now...here comes the TWIST and the PRESENT-DAY APPLICATION of all of this...apart from what has already been presented here:
I know FEW in the Church who would stand for an UNREPENTANT ADULTERER continuing as PASTOR of a CONGREGATION of BELIEVERS.
But...neither should we be COMFORTABLE allowing an UNREPENTANT ADULTERER to sit UNREPENTANT in the Church!!
There should be a willingness to CONFRONT the one in sin.
You see...it is EASY to adhere to REBUKE and CORRECTION when it fills the PULPIT...but the present day Church is willing to declare "Do not DARE confront sin in the congregation! Everyone sins...and we ALL are guilty!"
Sadly...it is called LOWERING the STANDARD!
It is the promotion of what I call "SINFUL EQUALITY!"
Thus...we now have gone in search of the LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR...and the STANDARD of ALL STANDARDS is relegated to some simplistic label of God as the "Bestower of Grace" who looks down at humanity in a search for the WORST SINNERS.
But...by the UNSPOKEN STANDARDS of the Church...these "worst sinners" are simply ANY OF THOSE who sin...but they do it OUTSIDE the Church...and, therefore, "Their sin is not under Grace!"
So...now...COMFORTABLY the Church sits...with the ability to look around at the other members with this wonderful truth:
"I am JUST AS GOOD as the REST of these!"
I have always wondered why we never hear the sorrowful proclamation:
"I am JUST AS BAD as the REST of these!" as the altars fill with those who want SOMETHING MORE...SOMETHING BETTER...SOMETHING HOLY:
A TRANSFORMATION that can only come through the HOLY SPIRIT as we seek to be MORE LIKE JESUS...not just BETTER than CHURCH MEMBER X, Y, or Z!
But...what about the ONE SIN which REIGNS SUPREME in PULPITS across America...in varying denominations...yet...the sinners GUILTY of this sin are NEVER held accountable, NEVER called to REPENTANCE, NEVER rebuked or corrected...and...NEVER removed from leadership AT ALL...no matter how OPENLY they sin?
What IS that SIN, you ask?
The SIN of teaching FALSE DOCTRINE...the SIN of preaching LIES as TRUTH...the SIN of OPPOSING TRUTH...the SIN of teaching "doctrines of demons"...the SIN of being a "hireling"...the SIN of being a FALSE TEACHER!
Oh...how READY the masses are to REMOVE a man from the PULPIT if he commits a SEXUAL SIN (as SHOULD happen)...yet they want the pulpit SILENT if a MEMBER commits that SAME SIN!!
BUT WORSE...how READY the LEADERSHIP is to REMOVE a man who commits a SEXUAL SIN (as SHOULD happen)...yet that leadership will NOT remove a man for preaching FALSE DOCTRINE!!
Here is the reality of our time...and a sobering truth:
The PULPIT has been EQUALLY DEFILED by SEXUAL sin AND SPIRITUAL sin!
And...any attempt to JUSTIFY the refusal to set STANDARDS of TRUTH within DENOMINATIONAL organizations is nothing more than COMPROMISE!
It is NOT "diversity in ministries"...it is FALSE TEACHING and LYING SPIRITS...and it is IRRESPONSIBLE to IGNORE the DOCTRINES of ERROR which are being taught under the banner of "truth!"
Face it...within a denomination...allowing ONE CHURCH to preach the PROSPERITY GOSPEL and ANOTHER CHURCH to preach that the PROSPERITY GOSPEL is a FALSE gospel is nothing more than "a house divided against itself!"
And...sadly...most denominational leaders would choose to decide WHICH teaching to SUPPORT simply by determining WHICH MESSAGE is MORE PROFITABLE...and WHICH MESSAGE draws the BIGGER CROWDS which leads to BIGGER CHURCHES and MORE TITHE COMING IN.
Few would do the RIGHT thing...which is this:
To be as the BEREANS...seeking out TRUTH...without regard to what is POPULAR and CONVENIENT and PROFITABLE! (Acts 17 gives us insight into the Bereans...as they LOVED to RECEIVE the Word of God...but the REFUSED to believe what was being TAUGHT until they CONFIRMED it by "searching the Scriptures.")
In almost EVERY REALM, the STANDARDS of Scripture have been LOWERED to meet the demands of a SINFUL CHURCH.
And...NEVER has that STANDARD been ANY LOWER than the STANDARD of TRUTH which is now PREACHED and ACCEPTED in PULPITS across America!
God did not SEND us GRACE so that we could STAND in our SINFULNESS...He sent us GRACE to FREE us from our SINFULNESS!
"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32)
The Spirit of God comes to RAISE the STANDARD...not to LOWER the STANDARD!
"So shall they fear the Name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun: when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him." (Isaiah 59:19)
But read this passage in CONTEXT (provided in the link below)...reading Isaiah 59 in totality.
Note the REFUSAL of the people to maintain a STANDARD of HOLINESS...as SIN and FALSE TEACHING are ALLOWED...as the people demand SILENCE from the PROPHET.
Here...Isaiah establishes that sin and false teaching CANNOT go without REBUKE and CORRECTION!
And... then note that it will ONLY BE when the STANDARD is RAISED...which comes by the SPIRIT of the LORD...that the people will be CAPABLE of OVERCOMING the POWER of the ENEMY in the realm of SIN and FALSE TEACHING.
In Isaiah 59...we see a description not just of humanity before the Son of God was sent to REDEEM us...but we see a parallel of the CONDITION of the CHURCH and SOCIETY today....as Isaiah notes that TWO things have been SO DISTORTED that BOTH are almost NONEXISTENT:
JUSTICE and TRUTH.
Clearly presented is a picture of LOWERED STANDARDS...and these standards are now the NORM...even among those who are SUPPOSED to be a HOLY PEOPLE!
Then...again...notice that the Spirit of God does not come to LOWER the STANDARD through GRACE...but through GRACE the Spirit of God "lifts up"...or RAISES...the standard!
Be sure...Satan WILL NOT be DEFEATED...nor OVERCOME...by a Church whose HOLY standard is ON PAR with SATAN'S standard!
If the STANDARD is not JESUS CHRIST...then our STANDARD is no STANDARD at all!
And...if our STANDARD is CHRIST...then SIN is never MINIMIZED in His HOLY PRESENCE.
No...it is in CHRIST'S PRESENCE that EVERY imperfection is ILLUMINATED...and NO SIN IS HIDDEN in the LIGHT of the SON OF GOD.
So...I feel the Spirit of God calling...calling us to REPENTANCE...calling us to SUBMISSION...calling us to HOLINESS...calling us to recognize that we MUST NOT repeat the path of Israel in the days of Isaiah.
Israel would end up REJECTING the very GRACE they had long awaited...as they TURNED AWAY from God time and time again!
And...in so doing...Israel began to ACCEPT a LOWER STANDARD!
Will the Church continue down this SAME PATH...as it sits COMFORTABLE in a RIGHTEOUSNESS that it has REMADE in its OWN image?
Will the Church fail to recognize...as Israel did...the cry of God spoken through the PROPHETS...as God tries to REVERSE their COURSE before the day of JUDGMENT set their eternal fate forever?
I pray that the SLUMBERING CHURCH will AWAKEN...and that they will see before them the HIGH STANDARD of HOLINESS which is HIGHLY EXALTED...and that the STATUS QUO CHRISTIANITY which has INFESTED the Church will MELT AWAY in the FIRE of CONFESSION and REPENTANCE which is SO NEEDED within it!
In Christ,
Ron
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