To some who know neither their own deceitfulness and hypocrisy, nor the awful delusions of the devil as an angel of light, I may appear harsh, bitter, severe, bigoted, narrow-minded, and to deserve every other term of reproach which self-seekers and flesh-pleasers heap upon those who fearlessly hunt out their refuge of lies. To preach the gospel in our days is to preach to PLEASE EVERYBODY AND OFFEND NOBODY, to starve the real children, and feed the illegitimate, to beat the heir, and caress the dog, to call the children of God antinomians, and to call empty formalists decided Christians; to style opening up Satin’s delusions “preaching in a bad spirit;” and wrapping up hypocrites, impostors, Pharisees, and self-deceivers in their delusions, “not preaching in the spirit of the gospel.” This turning of things upside down, this calling good evil and evil good, and putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter… J.C. Philpot
When the true Gospel is held back for fear of offending people and the desire to please everybody, the true Gospel is rejected and denied at that point. This leads to men preaching the things of self rather than the things of Christ. Where this is happening, which appears to be in the vast majority of cases in the modern day, ministers are more concerned for themselves and their own interests than they are for the true and spiritual welfare of the people. If true believers are present in cases such as those, then they are starved and do not find what is good for their souls and the truth of Christ. When men in their own wisdom desire to please everybody and hold the hard edges of the Gospel back for fear of offending people, they offend God and displease Him. While they may please sinful men, they are actually doing great harm to them. The true Gospel will offend and when ministers desire to please men at the expense of the Gospel, true harm is being done to the ministers and those who listen to them.
20 For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.
21 For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus. (Phil 2)
The focus of professing “churches” at this point is on earthly things (money and numbers of people, buildings, honor and glory of the minister) rather than on spiritual things. But, of course, that will be denied and spiritual reasons will be given. After all, who will be reached with that money and look at all the people that can be reached with those new buildings. But again, the true Gospel is not being preached and so the real reason for all the activity of these places is not truly for Christ. It is nothing but people getting excited over the forms of Christianity and is not life itself. The flesh can get excited over getting more people in the door and building programs. The flesh can get excited over larger amounts of money. But the flesh cannot get excited over the denial of self which is needed to truly follow Christ.
It is interesting to note, as Philpot pointed out in the quote above, that when men teach a false gospel they will attack the true Gospel and true ministers. When men preach a false gospel, they will blast away at the true Gospel from differing angles depending which heresy they hold. Rome blasted away at the Gospel of justification by faith apart from works by saying that it would lead men to lead godless lives. On the other hand, those who preach that while men are justified by faith alone they are not justified by a faith that is alone are blasted for legalism or as being Pharisees. The Gospel is like a narrow road with precipitous falls on either side. Those who proclaim the true Gospel will be blasted at by those on both sides of that narrow road.
While men cry down the preachers of the true Gospel as being harsh and mean spirited, the ones who are crying down the preachers of the true Gospel are in fact those who are being harsh and doing the real harm to eternal souls. Those who preach a false gospel, which is anything that is a different gospel than what Paul preached, are in actuality teaching things that deceive men and increase their own damnation as well as that of others. If that is pointed out, even with the greatest amount of concern, those pointing it out will be blasted at for lacking in winsomeness and in tact. Pointing out to men that they are not preaching the Gospel will be perceived as a personal attack that is delivered with an unkind and censorious spirit. But of course the prophets of old suffered greatly and were killed for proclaiming judgment on the false prophets and telling people the truth that they did not want to hear. The same thing is true today and will always be true. Men hate the true teaching of grace and the God who gives that grace at His sovereign pleasure. It should be of no surprise that men will attack those who teach such things.
Leave a comment