Sunday, March 29, 2009 at 9:17PM
He Speaks Your Language
by Richard O'FfillI was listening to the news not long ago. They told of a lady who had retired as a dean in a certain university. She lives alone and is in her 80s. She received a telephone call from a person who claimed to be, if I remember right, representing Ed McMann from the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes. The person told her that she was the lucky winner of a million dollars, but in order to receive the money she needed to send a bond of ten thousand dollars. This she did. A day or so later the person called again and informed her that she had not won one million but ten million dollars but that she would need to send more bond money. I don't need to tell you what was going on. In the end she lost sixty thousand dollars to a voice on the telephone that had told her to send the money to a post office box number that had since been closed. When they talked with the old lady afterwards about the person who had called, all she could say that she could remember about him was that he was so kind and understanding!
The Scam Gospel
Ladies and gentlemen, as a minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, I am here to tell you that there are voices out there, voices that sound kind and understanding, but these voices could well be robbing you of something much more than sixty thousand dollars. If you will do as they say, these kind understanding voices could cause you to give up the true gospel and invest in a hollow empty gospel. The hollow empty gospel will be kinder and more understanding, but it will be a gospel that will lead the person who buys into it to nowhere but eternal loss. I really don't understand why so many of us are buying into these gospel scams. Can I interest you in buying the Brooklyn Bridge?
We have no one to blame but ourselves for how this will all turn out. The Scriptures say that we have a more sure word of prophecy wherein we do well to take heed as unto a light that shines in a dark place. But apparently we have preferred the darkness--no, we really don't prefer darkness, it is just that many have lost the ability to tell the difference.
The junk gospel that is being preached in more and more places these days is really no gospel at all. As you remember, the word gospel means "good news" and the scam gospel that is being preached in more and more places is not even good news, in fact it is bad news. Maybe I shouldn't say that though, because to some mind-sets, bad news is good news.
The true gospel, the real thing, is the only thing that can save us. The devil knows that, and for this reason he has come up with a gospel that instead of being good news, is bad news even though it sounds like good news. But it is, nevertheless, bad news because the person who buys into it will be lost instead of being saved, and though they will finally see that it is bad news, they will have stayed in it until it was too late because they though it was good news.
The true gospel is both bad news and good news. The true gospel is bad news to the devil and those who have bought into his mind-set and it is good news to sinners who want out.
But here is where the rub comes in. Extensive longitudinal, demographic studies done over thousands of years by the Holy Spirit have concluded that the majority of sinners, when push comes to shove, even when they are confronted with the good news prefer to stay the way that they are.
You would think that this being the case the devil would be satisfied with his winnings over the long haul and just live and let live a little. But the devil is not like that. He is not the kind of a person that you would want for a next door neighbor. He is not into live and let live but rather he lives and you die.
At the end of time just before the close of probation, which by the way is now, he makes a super demonic effort to cause the ruin of everyone who happens to be alive at the time, including the good guys. Satan has a dream--we would see it as a nightmare--but he has a dream and that dream is to to completely eliminate the people who insist on following God on this planet. Let me read Revelation 12:17, "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."
Of course we have come to understand that Jesus isn't going to let the remnant to be wiped out, though there will be many martyrs. Just before the close of probation God in His mercy will put into motion the greatest revelation of the true gospel that the world has ever seen. In order to try to checkmate that move by God, the devil is right now putting into motion the greatest revelation of a false Gospel that has been seen since the Middle Ages.
We Don't Watch This Fight--We Are In It
By now you might be thinking, "Hey, this is going to be some fight. I think I'll stay and watch." No, my friend, we don't watch this fight--we are in it. We are sure how it will finally end but we are not sure who will be on whose side when it is all over. I say this because now what before looked clear is becoming very confusing.
There are huge numbers changing sides every day. People who apparently were followers of the true gospel are running up the white flag and surrendering to the false gospel. At the same time huge numbers who seemed to be on the side of the false gospel are moving across the lines to the true. This move is not always physical. In fact, at this stage of the battle it is a change of ideology. This means that people can even be going to the same church and not be on the same side anymore.
This phenomena is to be expected. Jesus was betrayed by an insider and he himself said there would be false teachers and false prophets and that His true followers would be betrayed even by family members.
All my life I had heard of what was going to happen in the last days. What is happening was clearly told us in the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy. But I think we were kind of like Jesus' disciples. He told them over and over again that He would be betrayed and crucified, but they must have been thinking of something else at the time because they never caught on.
And so God revealed to us through His Word that it would be this way but we must have been a little bit like the guy who said that he wasn't afraid to die. He just didn't want to be there when it happened! But then I said that the devil would come up with a good news gospel that was really bad news because it would be fatal to your salvation if taken according to directions.
The Same Vocabulary Used by the False Gospel
The gospel that the devil has devised for the nineties is almost impossible to differentiate from the true gospel. This is because the false gospel uses exactly the same vocabulary that the true gospel uses with a few exceptions and some serious spin doctoring.
It is incredible how clever he has been. He has basically invented a gospel that is every sinner's dream come true. Of course we are all sinners, but there are two classes of sinners these days. Listen to me now, I repeat we are all sinners, but there are two classes of us sinners and we are 180 degrees apart. One class of sinners like it that way, and the others want out.
The devil has designed a gospel for the first group. The true gospel is for the second. His gospel tells every sinner in good and regular standing what they have always wanted to hear, that Jesus saves us while we keep on sinning.
The true gospel is the news for every sinner who is fed up with sin and longing to be set free from its penalty and power and that gospel is sin shall not have dominion over us.
I don't know if you are into physical fitness. It is important that we get exercise. We use the expression "keep in shape." Not long ago my wife and I joined Bally's. We go there to walk, to swim and to use the conditioning machines. I have heard that weight lifters say "no pain, no gain." If that is true in muscle building it is also true in the spiritual life. If you hear a gospel that doesn't cause pain and death to the life of sin then you are hearing a junk gospel.
We need to set the record straight. There may be some who don't understand. But listen, to me now, when Adam and Eve sinned something didn't just happen to their bodies, something happened in their hearts. Where five minutes before their nature was joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self control, five minutes later we are talking about people who now were bent to adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, emulation, wrath, strife, sedition and heresies.
Think now, the gospel, if it is going to be good news, has got to address both problems. The problem of a body which is now old age positive and a nature that is suddenly anti-social. Do you understand what I mean?
It is easier, if you can say such a thing, for God to do something about our mortal bodies, than it is for Him to do something about our contaminated hearts. To do something about the body is simply a blink of the eye as far as He is concerned. To do something about our hearts is infinitely more complex. It requires us to want to change. Sinners who are into sin feel good about themselves the way they are. This makes it impossible for God to save them. Though nothing is impossible with God, the one thing He will not do is give you a new heart when you don't want one. If that was the way that He did things He would have aborted what happened at the Tree of Knowledge. Do you see where I am coming from?
Ladies and gentlemen, God created us to be holy. We are not holy, therefore the gospel is not a true gospel unless it is having the effect in your life and mine of de-installing the works of the flesh and installing the fruit of the Spirit.
I told you that the sham gospel the devil has come up with for those that are into sin uses the same vocabulary as the true gospel with some strategic omissions and some special spin doctoring. For this reason a person who is looking for a way out of sin can become momentarily confused when he hears the false gospel being preached.
The devil is an evil genius. He knows how to play on words and to play one concept off against another. A person can be thrown off guard. Now let me give you a few things to look out for. Remember he speaks our language.
He Speaks Your Language
"Legalism"
1. Be careful when you hear people talking a lot these days about legalism. This word is being used more and more often as a smoke screen to try to play down the Ten Commandments.
A person in their theological right mind in the nineties doesn't believe that we are saved by keeping the Ten Commandments. But make no mistake, people who are being saved are people who want to keep the Ten Commandments and they are committed by God's grace to do so.
By the way, the reason you can't be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments is simply because a person who hasn't been born again can't keep the commandments from the heart no matter how hard they try. The Bible teaches us that the Ten Commandments can tell you what not to do but they can't give you the power not to do it. Only the Spirit of our Crucified and Risen Lord can do that. But make no mistake, Jesus died and was resurrected from the dead not to get you and me out of obedience but to get us into obedience.
If you hear someone preaching against legalism who is telling you that people who are being saved don't have to keep the commandments, that person is preaching a false gospel because a person who has the Spirit of Christ in them moves out of disobedience into obedience and He who has begun this good work in us will finish it.
"Christ Did It All"
2. Another time you want to wake up and fine-tune is when you hear people say that Christ did it all and that we don't have to do anything. This is a package bomb that will blown off more than your fingers.
I say a package bomb. The mistake is in the combination of concepts. Of course Christ did it all. Who said he didn't? When Jesus died on the cross and three days later was resurrected and 40 days later was taken to heaven the sin problem had a decisive solution. It is complete and permanent.
I said the problem is in the packaging of the concepts. The thing blows up in your hand at the part of "we don't have to do anything." Now if we were lesser life forms that would be true. But we were originally created in the image of God and as such we have been endowed with the power of choice. This means, ladies and gentlemen,that although Christ did it all it means nothing to us unless we buy into it. Are you kidding? We don't have anything to do? For we who were dead in trespasses and sin, accepting the life changing power of Jesus Christ into our lives is the most important decision that we will ever make. I wish they wouldn't say that we don't have to do anything.
I told you that the devil had done a lot of spin doctoring. You have to fine-tune though. If we sign the contract on the devil's gospel and then go to claim our heavenly real estate we will hear the words "depart from me ye workers of iniquity...I never knew you."
By now you might be saying,"but I have heard that it is easy to be saved and hard to be lost."
The truth is the Word says if scarcely shall a righteous man be saved what shall be the end of those who refuse the gospel? 1 Peter 4:18, "And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?"
But if it is hard to be saved Jesus' way, it is impossible to be saved any other way. But be saved we must and be saved we will.
"Pharisee"
3. Out in the world, if you want to put somebody down you can call them an "xyz." But in the church there is a nice clean way to shut up someone and that is you call them a Pharisee. Calling a person a Pharisee in a religious context is like calling them an "xyz" outside.
As you remember, the Pharisees were the bad guys in the Bible. It was better to be a prostitute or a tax collector than a Pharisee. The Pharisees were the enemies of Jesus. So when they call a person a Pharisee these days it is just about the worst insult you can give to someone, because it means you are an enemy of Jesus and besides that you are a hypocrite and think you are better than anyone else.
You might be thinking, surely no one out there would call a person a Pharisee. I'm sorry, but it is happening. It is happening more and more. The scripture tells us that we do not battle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. You know the text. We are not supposed to be fighting against each other rather we are supposed to be united in the truth in the struggle against error.
Unfortunately, we are not united. Some have lined up with the truth and others have lined up with error. Back in the old days it would have been easy. Back then we had a lot of strong opinions but we agreed that the Bible would be the last word, and so we would all go to the Bible and when it was over we would settle our differences by the truth of God's Word. God's Word was the last word! Sorry to say, those days seem to have passed. God's Word seems to no longer be the arbitrator of truth. There are still some who see the Bible as the ultimate test of authority, but there is a growing segment of opinion who feel that the Bible somehow falls short of meeting the complex issues of the 21st century. They say we must overlook a plain "thus saith the Lord" and that we must talk it out and come to a meeting of the minds based on a little from my culture and a little from yours, and throwing in a whole lot of the culture of the world for good measure. Mix it all together and we come up with not a new theology but rather a new morality that at its core is the old immorality.
Back in what must have been the twenties, my wife's grandfather came to the United States from the Ukraine. He was in his late teens and alone on a boat headed for the USA. A group of Russians approached him and said, "where are you going?"
He said, "I am going to America."
They said, "You can't just be going to America, you have to be going to somewhere in America."
"I don't know where I'm going", He said.
"Then why don't you go with us? We are going to Southern Virginia."
And so he did. The Russians set themselves up as farmers in the area around Yale Virginia. They even built a little church. They put a sign out front that said "Russian Baptist Church".
One day a couple of Seventh-day Adventist literature evangelists came along. They told the church leaders that Saturday was the Sabbath. The leaders of the Russian Baptist Church said that the men were wrong, but that they would be willing to study the matter from the Bible and so they did. When it was all over, the leaders of the Russian Baptist Church took down the sign in from of the church and put up a new one that said "Russian Seventh-day Adventist Church".
It is hard in the mind-set of the nineties, here at the beginning of the 21st century, to settle issues having to do with truth, with faith and with morals, with the Bible. For even Christians, and I might say even many Seventh-day Adventists, the Bible is no longer the standard of right and wrong.
But back to the matter of someone calling someone else a Pharisee. Don't worry if that happens to you. Don't forget that it is human nature to begin to call names when reason breaks down.
I was participating in one of the discussions in the Adventist Forum on CompuServe. The theme of the discussion was homosexuality. The discussion had been going on for at least six months. I happened to find it one day. Believe it or not, the discussion was being carried along by a practicing homosexual who is a prominent person in a certain Seventh-day Adventist church, and this person was being supported by a group of people who believe that there is such a thing as a practicing homosexual Christian.
Ladies and Gentlemen, a person who practices any sin with impunity--by that I mean without shame whether they be a practicing homosexual, or a person who is fooling around with some else's spouse or a compulsive liar or what have you, is blaspheming the name of Christ if they call themselves a follower of Jesus. At best they have departed from the faith.
The apostle John is clear. He says in 1 John 1:6: "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth." But that text is easy to turn on its head. These days people simply call darkness light.
So there they were in the forum debating whether it is right or wrong to practice a homosexual lifestyle. If the early founders of our church knew that it would come to this, they would turn over in their graves. To say nothing of how Jesus must weep. This is indeed what it means to crucify the Son of God afresh.
I joined the discussion. I used the Scripture to establish the truth. The other person argued that scripture was ok for a certain time, but had to be taken with a grain of salt in our time. Finally the other person said that the problem was that I was a Pharisee. When arguments run out, first you will hear a point of view that will begin to run down the Bible, and then they will start to call you names.
Friends, I know that what I am saying is unusual. Yet we are in a struggle. We must understand the issues and how the devil's will try in intimidate us into giving up the truth. In some ways, the persecution of the last days is underway. It is a mind game at this stage.
But listen, don't back down when, in the struggle between right and wrong, between truth and error, someone begins to call you names. You are in good company. When they couldn't handle truth anymore they said that Jesus was a devil. So don't worry, if they called Jesus a devil why worry if someone calls you a Pharisee? Besides, Pharisees were themselves sinners in denial. That is what I said to the pro-homosexual lifestyle group on the forum. I said, I am not a Pharisee. A pharisee was a sinner in denial. I do not deny that I am a sinner. It seems to me that if we want to get technical, a Pharisee is anyone who is into sin but denying it."
So remember what I am telling you. The devil wants you to back down from the truth. He will try to intimidate you by classing you with the enemies of Christ. But don't worry, that is exactly what they did to Jesus, and Jesus said rather clearly that those who would stand for the truth would be treated like he was treated. You can bank on it.
Remember what I said early on. The devil speaks our language. He is now using the words that we used to use to call people out of sin. He is using the same words to institutionalize sin and give credibility to his junk gospel. Remember what I am telling you now. He speaks our language. Before you agree to buy into what is being said, take the time to read the fine print.
"The Devil's Trump-word"
4. Now I am going to tell you about the word that is the most misused and and abused of all. It is the devil's trump word. I don't need to tell you which one that it is. You can guess his trump word is the word "Love".
It is almost unbelievable, but the word love is the buzz word in the devil's sham gospel. It is the most dangerous word of all. He has painted the word love on the door that leads to eternal loss and any number of people are streaming into it.
Now I know what you might be thinking by now. "Pastor O'Ffill, I suspected something was wrong with you, now I know it. You are against everything, and now you have revealed your hand because you are against love."
Did I say that I was against true love? I am not. God is love, and I love God. It is not me who is against love. It is the devil that is against love. But to do it right he has taken the word love and turned it inside out. Listen to me now please. Listen up and listen closely. The love that is being preached in more and more places these days is really not love at all.
This is why when you hear someone preaching about how important and wonderful love is, before you get that warm comfortable glow, it would be smart to ask the person what they mean by love. When a person says these days that all that matters is that we love one another, ask them what they think about living together before you are married. Don't let them off the hook. Insist that they answer you.
When a person says these days that all that matters is that we love one another, ask them what they think about the Sabbath. They will probably say that they believe in it. That's good, but don't stop there, get them to tell you how we ought to keep it.
My friends, do I need to tell you things are not like what they look like or sound like these days. If we don't have the ability to discern right from wrong, when Jesus comes, we could discover that we have gone to a lot of trouble for nothing. Can't we see? The devil speaks our language now. He is using all the right words, but they now have all the wrong meanings.
You want to really know what is going on? When you hear someone talking about the fact that all that matters is that we love on another, ask them what they think about obedience. Here is where the hidden agenda will come out. The love that is being preached in many places is a substitute for obedience to the Word of God. That is how you can tell the true love from the false love. The true love is into obedience to the Word of God. False love always will play down obedience. That should be your signal that something is wrong. Remember what Jesus said. He said, "If you love me keep my commandments."
Unfortunately the love that is being taught in more and more places is actually a cover for selfishness, an "I will decide what is right and what is wrong for myself" attitude.
We are being told that love is all that matters and that is right. True love is all that matters and true love works like this. Listen, you remember how it goes. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."
I don't need to tell you that the "love" of the nineties doesn't have much in common with what I have just read. If you could characterize the love of the nineties in just a few words you might say that love of the nineties takes. I doesn't give and when it does, it wants something in return.
"Judge"
5. Another word that the devil is using very effectively to keep people from being able to discern between good and evil, right and wrong, truth and error, is the word "judge".
When you are discussing a particular matter with some and the conversation drifts in to matters having to do with faith and morals, it is more and more common for someone to say, "but we shouldn't judge." I would like to ask why not? When we buy a house, we judge. When we buy a car, we judge. When someone accidentally gives us the the wrong change, we judge. When someone backs into your car and dents the bumper, we judge. What is the deal? If someone hurt our child or a family member we don't mind judging. But a person may say, "but that is different! I judge when it has to do with me, when it doesn't have to do with me it not my business."
A few months ago, I was called to jury duty in Seminole County, Florida. The day that I spent there helped me to better understand the significance of the process of judgment here and before God. As I sat in the court room I thought of the fact that the Bible says that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. The judge and the lawyers emphasized over and over again that the accused was innocent until proven guilty.
It occurred to me, and maybe what I am about to say is not a totally good illustration, but when we give our lives to Jesus we are then declared innocent. We are, as we say, under the blood. Jesus is our Righteousness, yet we continued to live after we professed to accept Him. The question in the judgment will be to see if we stayed under the blood or we didn't. Those who accepted Jesus as Savior and then are lost, will be condemned by their own lives. They either did or didn't let Jesus cleanse them in an on-going way from all unrighteousness.
The Last Generation?
I was talking to someone about the times in which we live. Do you realize, my friends, that very likely we are the generation that is being given the opportunity to be the ones in which Jesus will finish his work. We are very likely the generation that will meet God face to face without seeing death. This is enormously different from any generation before us. This means that Jesus will finish his work in us while we live. This means a cooperation with Him that is by it's very nature different than any generation before. Not because we are better than any generation that has gone before, but rather because of the work that Jesus must and will complete in us. It must be said of us, "here are they that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus," and in another place "these are they that follow the lamb where ever he goeth". Here is the text: Revelation 14:4 "These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb."
Jesus is serious about completing the work in us that He has so graciously begun. This is no time for business as usual. We cannot afford to slack when we are so near the end. We love Jesus too much to let Him down just now when His great plan for the cleansing and blotting out of sins is about to occur.
Conclusion
The Devil has done more to damage the church of God since he joined it than he ever did when he was trying to wipe it out in the persecutions of the past. He now has learned the language of the gospel. He knows all the right words to say at all the right times. But as I have been pointing out, he is not using the words to further the plan of salvation but to try to deceive and finally destroy those who don't seem to know what is going on.
What are we going to do about all of this? What we must do is forget about trying to find a new interpretation to the faith that has come to us from our fathers, and discover how things were meant to be. Our faith was based on truth. We may not have applied it consistently or understood how deep and wide it was, but that was not a problem of truth and error but rather of application of truth.
Let's get into the Word as we never have before. May I suggest the book, Bible Readings for the Home? Its format is question-and-answer and each question is answered with a text of scripture.
Let us get into praying that the Holy Spirit will make the gospel real in our lives. We've gotten into trouble because we were often not growing in grace, and even sometimes we were not practicing what we were preaching. It is not too late. God will help us.
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