Guarding the Gospel with Discernment
[Guarding the Gospel with Discernment | Proclaiming the Gospel Ministries] “What
is the greatest attack on the church today? That was the weighty question asked
of the speakers at a recent conference. I promptly responded, "The greatest
attack we are seeing today is on the exclusivity and purity of the Gospel." The
exclusivity of the Gospel declares all other faiths are false because no one can
come to God except through the atoning death of Jesus Christ (John 14:6; Acts
4:12). The exclusivity of the Gospel also humbles the pride of self-righteous
people and calls them to repentance.
This is why many pastors are compromising the Gospel. They want to make it more
inclusive in order to draw a larger following, gain more influence and be loved
by more people. This man-pleasing gospel makes people comfortable in their sin
but it has no power to save them. It has become popular because it exalts man
and his importance and diminishes God and His significance. It also emphasizes
God's love while ignoring His holiness, justice and hatred of sin.
Tragically those who embrace this diluted gospel are woefully deceived and
remain dead in their sins. Equally tragic is the willingness of born-again
Christians to put up with another gospel. Paul exhorts them to repent of such
apathy with a sharp rebuke: "If someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than
the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you
received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put
up with it readily enough" (2 Cor. 11:4). The only thing worse than a Christian
without discernment is one who has discernment but refuses to use it to
challenge professing Christians in their unfruitful lives. Those who have been
deceived will not know it unless they are lovingly confronted with the truth.
They must be reproved in order to become sound in the faith (Titus 1:13).
Many Christians are unaware of their responsibility to judge and test all
things. Paul commended the Bereans for rightfully judging his teaching. "They
received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see
whether these things were so" (Acts 17:10-11). The apostle John exhorted
Christians to make judgments concerning doctrinal and spiritual issues:
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they
are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (I John
4:1). Clearly, all Christians are called to judge righteously by using the Word
of God as the plumb line for discerning truth from error. And judge we must
because the Father of Lies deals in half-truths, and his fatal lies are often
coated with a thin veneer of truth to deceive the unsuspecting.
Spiritual
discernment is a discipline and a privilege that only born-again Christians can
exercise. Paul wrote: "But the natural man does not receive the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things." (1
Cor. 2:14-16). The ability to make judgments is a mark of Christian maturity.
"Solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained
to discern good and evil" (Hebrews. 5:14). By practicing discernment we are able
to guard and protect the Gospel for the next generation.
As we practice discernment we must make sure our motives are Christ-honoring.
Our objective must be to obey God's word for the purpose of helping, healing,
correcting, warning and sharing in the spirit of love. When our motives are
pure, people will be encouraged to love the truth and hate what is false (Psalm
119:104). Pure motives will result in contending for the purity of the Gospel
and the sanctity of our Lord's Church!
There is no more critical issue in the Church today than guarding the purity of
the Gospel. It is the rudder that must guide the Church through stormy waters
that have been stirred up by every wind of doctrine (Eph. 4:14). Churches that
do not provide a steady diet of God's Word, will become entertainment centers
for goats instead of sanctuaries for the Shepherd's sheep (Mat. 25:32). When
doctrinal truth is being withheld, ignored, denied, or rejected, it will produce
fertile ground for deception. The only way people will know if they have true
faith or a false hope is to discern the true Gospel from a false gospel. It is
the responsibility of every born again Christian to make disciples and challenge
false converts to examine their faith…” Pro-Gospel.org
