It is sad when many who profess to be Christians draw back, Luke 9:62, from bearing the sword and defending truth. If Paul had “withstood Peter to the face” as is recorded in Galatians 2:11, some of our fellows in the pulpit would have palpitations of the heart!! In every realm of our existence, let us be willing to “stand up and be counted.” The way of modern man has crept into the preaching, bulletins, radio programs, and personnel work of the body of Christ. We hear it in the songs sung in our assemblies (instead of having the depth of conviction, they have the sound of tinkling cymbals. The preaching we hear, the prayers we hear led, will never carry us to the catacombs of Rome!!
All that is necessary for evil to circumcise our preachers is to send them to a “Bible College” where men of no faith teach those who have little faith and create within them, no faith!! If the soldier of the cross remains silent, attempting not to stir up trouble, and neutral, not hurting anyone’s Bible (?) studies, we will learn again the lesson of History. Sin is like the “big bad wolf,” run from him and he will “eat you up,” confront him and he “will flee from you.” Sometimes we have to remember to “weed out the garden” so the fruits of righteousness can flourish— “I withstood him to the face, for he was to be blamed.” We must use the insecticide called “the Gospel” to kill off the deadly roots. If our preachers fear the results of this “poison for denominationalism” and want to join in with those who are not of the truth, we will end up in the cesspool called Hell!! EVIL WILL NOT GO AWAY IF WE JUST IGNORE IT!! Our desire must be to “glorify God.” We have to come to some brutal decisions, one must refuse to attend where the filth of false doctrine is sold! We are not interested in “making waves” or “causing confusion,” we may know better; we are interested in the young Christian setting beside us in the pew, our son or daughter?? Noah did not get to be the only adult teacher on the Ark because of his ego!!
“Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, ‘When you are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan; then shall you drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, molten images, pluck down all their places of worship. Destroy their false doctrines. But if you will not, and you let them remain (and their false doctrines), they shall become pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall show hostility toward you. Moreover, it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them.” Numbers 33:54-55
We cannot “Satan-proof” our youth of today, but when we introduce the “rock and roll” type music, the conversational prayers, the casual breaking of bread, and the giving ‘just what I have left’ as “the type of Christianity we espouse;” and say “every church of Christ is not like this one,” does that make it right?? Lot’s “righteous spirit was vexed within him,” he just never got that message to his four girls, two of which had husbands (it seems his wife did not go along with Abrahamic faith) If Noah and his wife had been interested in a youth program (entertainment instead of worship), and a glib, sweet speaking preacher; could they have saved their three sons? His wife did not have panic attacks because there was “nobody at our little boat my age” or “Ham, Shem, or Japheth’s has nobody to grow up with”!! We must live “soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.” Titus 2:11-13 We cannot be members of the Lord’s Church who wish we were not!! If we are not careful, we will have to become missionaries in America, not evangelists!! Missionary is not a word found in the Bible, they were called “apostles.”!! The term “Gospel preacher” is fast losing its appeal. This “sue for peace” before we say something that might hurt their feelings: cool down, rein-in, gloss over type OF PREACHING is not of Christ!! “Let the light of the glorious gospel of Christ shine unto them.” 2 Corinthians 4:4
