Is your church 'dead'?

There are a couple of SHOCKING verses in the New Testament which, if heeded, might AWAKEN the 'dead' in our churches.

For the fun of it, I'll give just a phrase at a time... for 'shock' value.

"Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ..."

Stop.
What?

Yes!
This IS really in the Bible.
And WHY would Paul suggest that we LEAVE the principles of the doctrine of Christ?

Seriously.
Think about that for a moment!
...no more sermons about the 'doctrine of Christ'...

IF a Sunday sermon or Sunday school lesson could not contain any doctrine, what would be left?
For some churches and some believers... NOTHING!

BUT, the verse goes on to suggest what should replace doctrinal messages...

"...Let us go on unto perfection..."

WHAT? !!!

Let me put this into plain English.

There are churches that need to STOP preaching the 'principles of the doctrine of Christ' and start preaching the 'pursuit of perfection'.

Said another way...
STOP preaching the gospel to Christians!
START teaching Christians holy living.

The gospel is a message for the perishing... the 'un-churched'.
If your church is still preaching the gospel to its members, it has obviously acknowledged its perpetual 'deadness'.

And there is another cause for the death of a church.
IF the congregation has been being told that they already ARE perfect through repeated doctrinal affirmations, then there is nothing to do but confess lies.

Confess lies?

Yes, that IS what many churches are inadvertently teaching their members to do.

Men and women come burdened with cares or guilt. But rather than teach them how to deal with sin, they are taught that Christ already dealt with sin and sees them 'perfect'.
They are expected to leave church imagining that God has His blinders on, i.e. 'Christ', and doesn't see what they themselves see about themselves that needs to change.

There IS a fate already determined for people who teach in this way...
They will be called 'least' in the kingdom of heaven.
They think they are doing a great thing, but they are not.
Yet, lest we offend these teachers who feel they have 'God's call' upon their lives, we let them continue to serve in positions of service and leadership.
Through this act of disobedience within the church, Satan gains a foothold.

You know why Paul permitted only those who had successfully raised joyfully obedient godly children, and who were happily married, to serve or lead or teach within the church?

"...If a man knoweth NOT how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?"
(1 Timothy 3:5 ASV)

Yet men and women who have messed-up views concerning life, as evidenced by the condition of their children and the state of their marriages, are preaching their own interpretations concerning the things of God.

Jesus said,
"Can the blind guide the blind? Shall they not both fall into a pit?"
(Luke 6:39 ASV)

And they ARE!
They are teaching what they themselves have believed and practiced.
They justify an ignorance of or apathy toward God's law.
It was detrimental to them and their family, yet they have justified their beliefs rather than fall humbly silent before God.
Furthermore, they proceed to spread the way of 'salvation' (of their own mental image of themselves) with others. This usually comes with a fervent push toward 'doctrine' while discouraging a knowledge of Old Testament Scripture.

Jesus said,
"Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven:
But whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 5:19 ASV)

So why not pursue eternal 'greatness'?
Simply this...
It would require an self-assassination of their image and a step of faith into the unknown.

Teaching about God's Law as revealed in the Old Testament is vital!
The Old Testament paints a virtual 'picture' of God... what pleases and displeases Him... the nature of His justice and the limits of His mercy.
Encouraging a knowledge of God's Law is NOT equivalent to teaching 'dead works'.
In the contrary,  knowledge if the Laws of God trains the mind until the heart is given over to the control of the Spirit of God.

That's why Jesus said,
"For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven."
(Matthew 5:20 ASV)

'Dead' works are works by themselves... a mental exercise... 'forced acts of one's will to manipulate favorable results or to purge personal guilt or out of fear.

Jesus came to change hearts.

Yet, because of 'fear'...

('fear', in that you lack the faith that God WILL draw the heart of man without your 'help'... convinced that God needs your help and doctrinal expertise to bring people 'in'...
"Who art thou... to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand."
Rom. 14:4 KJV)

...and as a result of a misunderstanding concerning 'love'...

(evidenced by their 'fear'...
"...perfect love casteth out fear... He that feareth is not made perfect in love."
1 John 4:18 KJV)

...some pastors and teachers work incessantly to avoid the possibly of teaching anything that might resemble or result in an over-bearing religion of works.
The result?
... a powerless religion of 'love'.

Paul prophesied of these times.
He said,
"But know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come. For men shall be
Lovers of self,
Lovers of money...
Haughty...
Disobedient to parents,
Unthankful,
Unholy,
Without natural affection...
Without self-control...
Headstrong,
Puffed up,
Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;
Holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power therefore.
From these also turn away."

Turn away...?
From 'godly' people...?
Really?

I bet you can put a face or a name to someone who is a constant 'thorn' in your church fellowship.

Maybe you ARE that thorn.

Does not the previous verse paint a perfect picture of the person who is always in need of counseling?

These people don't need more doctrine.

These people don't need more 'love'.

These people need to be avoided until what time they become ashamed of themselves and choose to 'die' to their flesh... 100%. (2Thes.3:14)

"For of these are they...
Led away by divers lusts,
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."
(2 Timothy 3:1-7 ASV)

And so the 'dead' church continues DEAD... attracting more 'dead' members and 'forever children'... continually preaching the gospel while avoiding a call to holiness.

You know WHY it's SO vital to teach the holiness demanded by God's law?
So that men and women can...
"...Know and understand His will and discerningly approve the better things and have a sense of what is vital, because you are instructed by the Law."
(Romans 2:18 AMP)

But, ALAS!
Discernment had been corrupted with television and movies and novels and, in response, the church has conformed itself to the world in order to attract the perishing while allowing those who have come 'in' to remain undisciplined and unled... undiscerning because of an ignorance of God's Law!

"My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray [to favorite places of idolatry] on mountains [that seduce].
They have gone from [one sin to another] mountain to hill; they have forgotten their [own] resting-place.
...And their adversaries said,
'We are not guilty, because they have sinned against the Lord [and are no longer holy to Him]...'
(Jeremiah 50:6-7 AMP)

The world can see that there is little difference between themselves and most 'christians'.
Why would they want 'in'?

And 'christians', abandoning God's Law, justify the state of their soul by comparing themselves to others who are 'worse', in their estimation.

"However, when they measure themselves with themselves and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding and behave unwisely."
(2 Corinthians 10:12 AMP)

Jude describes this sad situation well,
"...Certain men have crept in stealthily... persons who pervert the grace of our God into lawlessness..."

Did you catch that?
LAW LESS NESS
Less and less and less LAW!
...a perversion of 'grace'.

... and the resulting 'christian'?

"...These dreamers also corrupt the body, scorn and reject authority and government...
These men scoff and sneer at anything they do not happen to be acquainted with and do not understand;
And whatever they DO know by mere instinct, like irrational beasts–by these they corrupt themselves and are destroyed.
Woe to them!
For they have run riotously in the way of Cain, and have abandoned themselves for the sake of the gain it offers them, following the error of Balaam, and have perished in rebellion like that of Korah!
These are hidden elements of danger in your 'love' feasts, where they boldly feast sumptuously, without scruples...
Swept along by the winds... Without fruit...
Twice (doubly) dead..."
(Jude 1:4, 7-8, 10-12 AMP)

DEAD!
WITHOUT FRUIT!

Sadly, I know people like this.
And the fulcrum upon which these 'christians' balance is a misunderstanding of the word 'love'.

God says to the church,
"Those whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I tell their faults and convict and convince and reprove and chasten [I discipline and instruct them].
So be enthusiastic and in earnest and burning with zeal and repent [changing your mind and attitude]."
(Revelation 3:19 AMP)

God HAS put His law into the heart of man.

"...This is the covenant which I will make...
I will put My law within them, and on their hearts will I write it; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.
And they will no more teach each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying,
'Know the Lord, for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest,' says the Lord.
'For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.'
(Jeremiah 31:33-34 AMP)

There IS a progression to true 'faith'...

1. Conscious regard for God's Law
2. Knowing God personally
3. A yielding of ALL oneself to God
4. Experiencing forgiveness

It goes like this...

"Yes, furthermore,
I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him...
For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish, in order that I may win Christ,
And that I may be found and known as IN Him,
NOT having any righteousness that can be called my own, based on my obedience to the Law's demands (ritualistic uprightness)...
...My determined purpose is that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly],
And that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection...
And that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed in spirit into His likeness...in the hope that if possible I may attain to the spiritual and moral resurrection that lifts me out from among the 'dead' even while in the body.
NOT that I have now attained this ideal, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me and made me His own.
I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal to win the prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.
So let those who are spiritually mature and full-grown have this mind and hold these convictions;
And if in any respect you have a different attitude of mind, GOD will make that clear to you also.
ONLY let us hold true to what we have already attained and walk and order our lives by THAT.
Brethren... observe those who live after the pattern we have set for you.
For there are many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, who walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.
They are doomed and their fate is eternal misery; their god is their stomach (their appetites, their sensuality) and they glory in their shame, siding with earthly things and being of their party."
(Philippians 3:8-19 AMP)

Yes.
Sadly, there ARE enemies of the cross of Christ within the church today.

And THAT is why teaching 'doctrine' needs to be set aside in favor of teaching 'holiness'.

"And let us consider one another to provoke unto love AND to good works:
NOT forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."
(Hebrews 10:24-25 KJV)

The doctrine of the gospel of Christ is only the beginning.
Holiness is the goal.

Holiness is a 'doctrine of righteousness'...
The 'doctrine of righteousness' MUST be taught in order for life to be breathed into the 'dead' church.

"For everyone who continues to feed on milk is obviously inexperienced and unskilled in the doctrine of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action), for he is a mere infant!
But solid food is for full-grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to divine or human law."
(Hebrews 5:13-14 AMP)

Amy Grant wrote a song I dearly love.

"I need You Lord, in all I do.
You're always there, to see me through.
I can't get by unless I lean on You Lord.

Your law of love is in my heart.
You wrote it there.
It won't depart.
It lights my way, and keeps me out of the dark.

I thank You Lord, Your word is sown into my life, and there it's grown.
It's roots go deep where living waters are known.

The Lord has a will and I have a need...
To follow that will...
To humbly be still...
To rest in it, nest in it, fully be blest in it...
Following my Father's will.

Jesus said,
"Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and MANY are those who are entering through it.

But the gate is narrow (contracted by pressure) and the way is straitened and compressed that leads away to life, and few are those who find it.

Beware of false prophets, who come to you dressed as sheep, but inside they are devouring wolves.
You will fully recognize them by their fruits.

Do people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?
Even so, every healthy (sound) tree bears good fruit [worthy of admiration], but the sickly (decaying, worthless) tree bears bad (worthless) fruit.
A good (healthy) tree CANNOT bear bad (worthless) fruit, nor can a bad (diseased) tree bear excellent fruit [worthy of admiration].
Every tree that does NOT bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire.

Therefore, you will fully know them by their fruits.

Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven."
(Matthew 7:13-21 AMP)

It can't be said more plainly.

"For God's [holy] wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it inoperative.
For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God [Himself] has shown it to them."
(Romans 1:18-19 AMP)

"They show that the essential requirements of the Law are written in their hearts and are operating there, with which their consciences also bear witness...
Jesus Christ will judge men in regard to the things which they conceal..."
(Romans 2:15-16)

Every man or woman KNOWS when he or she is living in disobedience.
BUT...
When they go to church... guilty...
And they are told they are 'justified'...
They go home unchanged.

Why would Paul suggest we "...go on unto perfection..." IF we are already perfect?

Because there IS something that a sincere servant of Christ will DO!
...and it's NOT 'dead' works.

When God convicts a heart, WHY would anyone discourage that heart from taking steps avoid those things which displease God, as shown by His Laws written in His Word?
Yet I've personally witnessed this happen...sadly.

The dead church preaches doctrine again and again and again.
And the dead Christian is taught and even encouraged to 'witness'...yet they're empty and inexperienced in a discerning walk with God...
"...understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm."
(1 Timothy 1:7)

"This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."
(Matthew 15:8-9)

The following is what you will NOT find in a living, growing, mature church...
...NOT laying again the foundation of 'repentance from dead works'...
...NOT laying again the foundation of 'faith toward God'...
...NOT laying again the foundation of 'the doctrine of baptisms'...
...NOT laying again the foundation of 'eternal judgment'.
(Hebrews 6:1-3 KJV)

So what is left to teach?
...humility and holiness before God!

"Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.  For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;
For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.  He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.
But as touching brotherly love ye need NOT that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another."
(1 Thessalonians 4:1, 3-4, 7-9 KJV)

WHY... why is the church so enamored with 'love'?

Paul said,
"...As touching brotherly love ye need NOT that I write unto you..."

The church has compromised with the world and so its defense against the 'wiles of the Devil' has also been compromised.

Many 'christians' are NOT wearing the 'breastplate of righteousness' and so suffer a heart wounded, or even claimed, by the Enemy (Ephesians 6:14).

Christians ARE compromised when they have mixed human opinions (the Enemy's 'lie') with God's written Truth.

If you wish to strengthen a lie, mix a little truth in with it. "
---Zohar

And THAT is what the father of lies has been and IS doing in the church today.

Are YOU compromised?
Have YOU surrendered to a 'half-truth'?

"But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons."
(Hebrews 12:8 KJV)

If the doctrine of 'love' you believe in does not demand a steady transformation in your life...
If you are not being CHANGED into the image of the One who created you...
You have been misled.

"A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies."
---Alfred Lord Tennyson

"BUT we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are CHANGED into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
(2 Corinthians 3:18 KJV)

"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve...
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
(Joshua 24:15 KJV)

"MY soul shall make her boast in the Lord...
The humble shall hear thereof, and be glad...
I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears...
They looked unto Him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed."
(Psalms 34:2, 4-5 KJV)

"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord."
(Acts 3:19 KJV)