SPF 178: Standing Firm & Four Things to Look for in a Church

March 19, 2021

There’s a lot of pressure to conform to culture, but what is the church’s role in standing for truth? Today were are going to look at Ezekiel and see the importance of pastors teaching the distinction between light and darkness.

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Priests and Pastors

“Nations by sin sell their liberty and princes their dignity, and profane their crowns by casting them to the ground.” – Matthew Henry

Ezekiel 20:6-8 – God gave a glorious land to His people, but they were not willing to listen to God and would not turn from idols.

And the people of God were judged and captured and exiled.

How did they get into this mess?

Their own sin was their downfall.

Ezekiel 22

We have the prophets and priests, princes, and the people of the land all committing sinful things against the Lord and each other. Their own sin is their downfall. Their sin is not only a prison for themselves, but they suffered a tangible loss of liberty – loosing their homes, Jerusalem, the temple, not to mention the large amount of lost lives.

One of the duties of the Priests was to teach the law of God.

Deuteronomy 33:10

Ezekiel 44:23

There is a radical distinction between the holy and the common, the clean and the unclean.

“Ministers must take pains to cause people to discern between the clean and the unclean, that they may not confound the distinctions between right and wrong, nor mistake concerning them, so as to put darkness for light and light for darkness, but may have a good judgment of discretion concerning their own actions.” – Matthew Henry

What are our pastors teaching now? What is the church teaching?

There is and has been foul instruction in the church.

Progressive Christianity – Scripture is human, can disagree with it, feeling over fact, subjective, denying historic Christianity – Read More about Progressive Christianity from Alisa Childers: Article 1 Alisa Childer’s website: https://www.alisachilders.com/
Social Justice – Voddie Baucham on Social Justice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsROYzaC_hE and his new Book Fault Lines: https://www.amazon.com/Fault-Lines-Movement-Evangelicalisms-Catastrophe/dp/1684511801
New Age teachings – Doreen Virtue https://www.youtube.com/user/4AngelTherapy

Many churches are not distinguishing the holy from the common. Many pastors are not taking a stand and standing by the truths of God. Many churches are not calling out darkness and exalting the Light.

The people of God are going astray. They need good teaching. They need good instruction.

The Application:

Be a part of a good church.

What to look for:

Open. Church should be open – remember the three spheres of authority. The church is not married to the state, she’s married to her Lord.
Pastors, who are men, who teach and stand by the Word of God even if it contradicts what is popular in culture. Pastors that are holding the line of truth so that light is proclaimed as light and darkness is proclaimed as darkness.
Bible teaching from Scripture and teaching the whole counsel of God. – be on guard against progressive movements or social justice themes that disguise themselves and are often cloaked in good will, but are trading gospel truth for humanism.
Children are valued