Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who

correctly handles the Word of Truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 It would seem that Biblical doctrine has become irrelevant and that too many members in our church today do not care or worse yet do not know any better because they do not study. Unfortunately, we would rather be entertained today with a short sermon where personal opinions or cute quips are given rather than a long Biblically correct one where it is define only by Gods direct Word. To read a new book-of-the-month or take a spiritually-enlightening class compounds this problem beyond measure! And this problem runs deep, we members are being shown an easy, quick-fix human solutions for difficult eternal problems and it is beginning to run rampant throughout the whole church. In fact, it is such a problem today that it is starting to become accepted as normal. Yes, it should be noted that this approach has a measure of spirituality. When Jesus said One of you will betray me did the disciples turn and point their fingers at Judas, the trusted treasurer? No, for he too had a measure of spirituality. We Christians seem to want what man says more than we want what God says! This fact cannot be denied otherwise we Gentiles would be studying in great detail the writings of Paul! There are only 66 God-given books that we should be concerned about. Until these are studied and learned nothing else can matter. Is not all scripture given by inspiration of God? Where are our in-depth classes on how-to-study the Bible? Why are we not told from the pulpit that its Gods command to know His Word? It is His command to know His Word so we will stop embracing anything and everything that comes into His Church disguised as or under the name of Christian! No matter what you believe, the Father and the Son will only revel themselves to those that obey His Word, read John 14:21. But this problem that we are now facing is not new, but it is very real, as Paul warned us in 2 Timothy 4:3-4. Over one hundred years ago Charles H. Spurgeon, called the Prince of Preachers wrote; Everywhere there is apathy, nobody cares whether that which is preached is true or false, a sermon is a sermon whatever the subject, only, the shorter it is, the better. Spurgeon was gifted with the ability to foresee the problem even before it actually became a problem. In hindsight his warnings proved to be absolutely correct. Spurgeon saw that the churches were trying to be relatable or in todays language user-friendly for the sole purpose of trying to draw bigger crowds. He saw preachers beginning to compromise truth and doctrine by preaching less of Gods word and doing other entertaining man-oriented things more and more. He knew that it all sounded spiritually good but was neither correct nor Biblical. Spurgeon was so concerned about this issue of sticking to the straightforward Godordained method of preaching in order to save souls that it actually negatively impacted his health which lead to his death. And this is the main problem in the modern church of today as many of our pastors are following the notion or idea that what determines the worth of something is whether it produces results or not. It is this thought that has done more to suck the truth out of

Biblical teaching than perhaps any other scheme Satan has ever devised. As an example, to some pastors if a technique, book, or course of action gets good results then its good and if it doesnt seem to work or if it doesnt seem to produce the results they want then to that pastor it must be wrong. As an example look at the astonishing rate at which Christians fall away from the church. Today many of our seminary-trained pastors are taught in their evangelism classes to simply say Jesus loves you and if you believe on Him you can have a great new life - NOW. All a person has to do is say the sinners prayer and they are assured of going to Heaven! This is a half-truth presented as a whole truth! And this is the problem; you see the believer was never told of the tribulation, temptation and persecution that Jesus promised would happen to them. No one told them that they must have and show true repentance of sin, which by the way is the transgression of Gods Law as written in 1 John 3:4. They seem to have forgotten to tell their believers that they can no longer seek after the lusts and trappings of this world. (By the way, do you ever notice that the sin of worldliness is never preached anymore) That they are to separate themselves as stated in 2 Corinthians 6:14-17, James 4:4, 1 John 2:15-17, etc. Those believers are to focus their entire life on God and His word. It would seem that those pastors never understood how they are to preach as Paul emphatically stated in 2 Timothy 4:2. Sadly the Christian soon realizes that this New Life in Christ is not as easy as they were told as the cares of this world and deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things enter their life as quoted in Mark 4:19. They feel disappointment in their earthly spiritual leader so they return to the world with a callused heart. Never to be seen again, doomed to Hell because man thought his way of saving souls was better than Gods! Simply another false convert. Read again the Parable of the Sower in Matt. 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8. This frightening approach of good results at any cost is inherently relativistic, in other words to one that subscribes to this man-made method of teaching, there is no absolute right and wrong, good or evil, truth or error. To them everything is relative; it depends on the circumstances of the times. This is a very dangerous philosophy that has severely crippled the church. The Bible is not at all relativistic! From start to finish it is very black and white, for it is built on truth! Gods Truth and not mans version of His truth. It is very clear on what is right and wrong, it was given to the Church to keep pure without change. And we must beware of those pastors or teachers which say that Gods word is too deep or too harsh or too intolerant for the Christian believer, for what those preachers and teachers are really saying is I want a god that makes us all comfortable in this world! Thus denying God Himself and making one in their image of whom He should be. Jesus spoke directly of those poor souls in Matt. 7:22-23. So you may still be asking whats so bad with this notion of using anything that is useful, meaningful, helpful or if it works it must be good. It becomes very wrong when it crosses the line and becomes our churches main focus or methodology to make moral judgments or when it becomes our guiding philosophy to Christian life, theology and ministry. For it will always end up clashing with scripture. And eventually it will lead to the death of your soul and Church!

Spiritual and Biblical truth should not be determined by testing what does and doesnt work. Lets teach this or lets do that! Spiritual and Biblical truth is tested by one principle - Does it match with what the Bible says or not! As an example, if people are responding and they feel loved and their human felt needs are being met, then do those results somehow prove God is blessing the methods being used? No, Jesus himself denied that line of reasoning and taught against it as we read in Matt. 6:25-34. It should be stated that in scripture true and accurate teaching of the Gospel often does NOT produce a positive response from people. Conversely, very often mans deceptive spiritual writings and half-truth messages can be quite effective in gaining positive responses from those listeners. In fact, most people will reject the truth, as we know by what is recorded in the scriptures. Most people rejected the truth and the largest crowds followed the messengers that taught popular modern messages. The Bible is very clear on this point. So majority reaction is not a very good measure of whether or not we are on the right road. In fact it is usually a bad sign. You should learn more of Gods chosen road by reading what Jesus said in Matt. 7:13-14, next follow that up and read about Jeremiahs ministry. Its very important to understand that Jeremiah obeyed God and did it Gods way. But Jeremiah NEVER had a single convert! Read Jeremiah 20:7-10 & 29:13. Next take a look at Ezekiels ministry as stated in Ezekiel 2:7-8. God gave him a true fundamental approach that should shape all ministries- Preach what is given and nothing more! Enough said! Its not important whether the people listen or not! This style of preaching is Gods chosen instrument for delivering His Word. When you give His word in the method He describes it is going to be less attractive and less entertaining for its not to appeal to mans flesh but to his soul. What did Jesus say to the rich young ruler when asked Good Master, how can I have eternal life? Read how Jesus evangelized in Mark 10:17-22, Matt.19: 16-30, Luke 18:18-30. (Was He too harsh??? W.W.J.D.!) Its important for you to understand that the transformation of a human soul can only occur by a supernatural method, the Holy Spirit inspired method of preaching Gods direct Word. It is not an ordinary human decision that we can influence, manipulate or help along by human methods! Look up John 1:12-13. Only God can cut a mans heart so that the Holy Spirit can heal his soul for eternity! Our pastors and teachers are commissioned to give people not what they think they may want nor what they think might be well received but what God says they need. No man has any business walking into the pulpit to entertain us or to make us feel comfortable with our worldly lives! His only purpose is to present Calvary in all its fullness of Hope and Glory! Amen. Turn in your Bible to 1 Corinthians 1:18-24. We must trust the Wisdom of God. There is no other road to follow, for when we focus more on what man says than Gods direct, never changing word, it is simply satanic. Its just another way Satan has gotten us to distrust Gods word and take matters into our own hands. To measure results by the seen whether it be attendance figures or the number of new believers instead of by faith in the unseen. This is Satans oldest strategy; his goal has always been to tempt men to trust their own feelings or their own methods over the direct word of God. Lest we forget what happened in the Garden of Eden!

There is a price to pay when you go down the wide road in which we are headed. When we spend more time using mans version of Gods Word as our guide - churches, pastors and the congregation end up loosing their Holiness. He is above us! They will always loose their perspective that God is to be revered and obeyed. They will forget that He is a Just and Holy God to be feared and respected. Man will always try and bring God down to his level. God is not our buddy!!! Did not God pay the ultimate price for us, therefore Glorify God! in His manner-1 Corinthians 6:20. Our sanctuary is to be His Holy Place of Worship, where we come before Him with humble and contrite hearts. Where we hear more prayers of thanksgiving than idle chatter or our childrens candy wrappers! How are our children to know about Gods Holiness? By our actions or our simple words? For it is in the House of the God that His Judgment is to begin!, as 1 Peter 4:17-19 tells us! We are to act as it is written in Isaiah 66:2, to tremble at His Word! It is God that is to be first in every aspect of our life and not we as James writes in chapter 4:13-17. It is our command to hold fast to His doctrine as stated in Titus 1:9 and 1 Timothy 4:16. We cannot cross over the line to a place where an experience or a purpose is valued over the written word of God. In fact, the Bible makes it abundantly clear that scripture must interrupt our experiences and not the other way around. Read what the Apostle Peter wrote in 2 Peter 1:16-21 and then read what Paul writes in Galatians 1:8-12. Now go back and re-read them! So for the Apostles, the word of God was a more trustworthy and reliable source of Truth than even an actual appearance from an Angel! Which should tell us something about the value we are to place on fluctuating personal experiences or the latest Christian Best-Seller, in comparison to the never changing plumb line of scripture itself! But yet it would seem that our churchs overriding goal has sadly become church attendance and worldly acceptability rather than a transformed empowered and separate life. Preaching the direct Word of God and boldly confronting sin has become an oldfashion method of winning the world. After all we are told that those methods will actually drive most people away. So why not entice people into our church by giving them what they want by creating a friendly comfortable environment, where we cater to their felt needs. Maybe this will get them to accept Jesus by somehow making Him more likeable or by making His message less offensive. Please understand His Great Commission is not about an all-out marketing effort! Evangelism does not require salesmanship but Prophets and Preachers giving the Word of God as He instructed them to do! Add nothing and take nothing away!!! He knows what He is doing!!! Trust His Judgment!!! As hard as it is to swallow, revelation is closed! And Gods Word is the final authority in all issues of doctrine and morality. Although we are very quick to verbally affirm this fact many Christians open themselves up to divine revelation outside of scripture. And why do some seek the Holy Spirit through some type of new religious experience or some new word of prophecy as a source of revelation, rather than seeking the Holy Spirit to illuminate or bring light and clarity to what has already been reveled in

scripture. We need to realize that when God gave us His Holy Spirit it was not to inject new revelation into our minds but to bring the revelation that is available in scripture alive in our hearts. And its this approach of Gods never changing design that allows the Holy Spirit and the Word to work jointly forever and ever without any help from man! In closing, it is not innovation that we oppose. We realize that styles of worship change. We do not desire a stagnant Church. Our only concern is the road in which we are heading. It is clear that God and the preaching of His Word and to the obedience of His Word have taken a back seat in our Church. Scripture is clear that it is unbiblical to elevate mans word and entertainment over Biblical Preaching and Holy Worship in the church. And we stand in opposition to those that believe that salesmanship and best sellers can bring people into the Kingdom more effectively than our Holy God and His Word by the power of the Holy Spirit. If God wants to save a man He will draw him in by His Holy Spirit and He saves him by the straight plain preaching of His Word. We agree with Paul when he said, I am not ashamed of the Gospel! We are not trying to cause controversy nor are we trying to cause dispute. We simply have a fire in our bones that pushes us to give our Biblical convictions, for so much is at stake. Its in that spirit that we present our concerns. It is not a personal attack on any person or ministry in particular nor is it strictly a problem at our Church. It is a plea to the entire Church regarding matters of principle and not personality. We understand that when matters such as these are presented plainly that people sometimes get angry, but please know that this was not written in anger. We only ask that you receive what we are saying with the same spirit in which it is being offered. Our prayer is that this will challenge your thinking in such a way as to drive you to the scriptures to see whether these things are so. To be like the Bereans that checked Paul out in Acts 17:11 so that they could see if he was telling them the Truth! Paul even called them Noble for doing this! Our goal is to ultimately unite and not divide, although we realize that in the short term it may have ruffled some feathers. But here we stand and unless we can be convinced by scripture and not by pastors nor best selling books nor councils, who often contradict each other, unless we are so convinced that we are wrong by His Word, we should be bound to our beliefs by the text of the Bible. Our conscience should be captive to the Word of God. To go against God and conscience is neither right nor safe! Although it may cost you everything, stay on the narrow road!!! Please go back and read 2 Timothy 4:1-2 Make it your purpose to show yourself as a WORKMAN approved by God! God Help Us All!