"A Chink in the Armor"
Why paying attention to our affiliations matters when it comes to our personal and public witness of Christ.
Download or email this sermon The Enemy Within
But going back to 2 Chronicles 18 here is the line you'll always get – this is what Ahab will say. "We have a common enemy. My people are as your people, my God is as your God, we're brothers. We have to have unity; we have to be united to overcome the opposition. Can't you see, the abortion rate is going through the roof? Can't you see homosexuality is influencing the schools and the media? Can't you see Eastern religion and the cults are growing? We can't afford to be divided. We have to stand together to save God's land. We have to be united. We can't go on bickering against each other. Oh, I know we've had our differences but we can't afford that anymore. There's a common enemy. My people are as your people; my God is as your God. After all we're all born again Christians." Sounds very convincing, sounds very logical. To a degree it even sounds initially biblical.
As I pointed out yesterday, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth and He is the Spirit of Holiness. There cannot be a unity of the Spirit where there is heresy and immorality. Oh, we have a common enemy! An external enemy is easy to deal with; an internal enemy is something else. When Jesus warned about false prophets of the Last Days He was not primarily warning about the Moonies or the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons. I have no doubt that the proliferation of the cults is in itself of some prophetic significance, but those are not the false prophets He was mainly warning us about. He's warning about those who would come into evangelical churches and try to seduce us. It is the internal enemies that are the most dangerous. Until we deal with the enemy in here we are not going to be in a position to deal with the one out there.
But you'll always get the same story "Don't be negative. Don't be too critical. We have to unite. We have to stand together in face of the common threat." And then as the family element comes in, look out.
Look how the king ingratiates himself. Ahab puts on a big party, a big splurge. He slaughters all these animals and he throws a big, big banquet. That's what he does. These people know how to ingratiate themselves. People with an agenda know how to con and manipulate. They learn it from their wife, Jezebel.
Look at how many people have met John Paul II. The Vatican a few months ago issued a statement saying it was the one true Church. In Mexico in 1999 John Paul II told the Catholics to "rise up against the Protestants", quote unquote. He makes no secret of his agenda. A man who says Mary co-redeemed us? A man who prays to the dead? Makes no secret of his agenda. Yet one evangelical after another will call him the "holy father" despite the fact that Jesus said, "call no man your father." And they say, "Oh, the pope was so wonderful, so gracious. He's such a kind man. How can you speak against him? I met him, he was so this, he was so that ..." They know how to ingratiate themselves. What does Paul say about Lucifer? He comes as an angel of light. And so will his servants. They know how to ingratiate themselves, just like Merodach-Baladan came to seduce Hezekiah. (Is. 39:1-8)He brought him some presents. "I heard you were ill." Oh, what a caring person. He was the king of Babylon, he had an agenda, but he was a manipulating con artist.
Well, king Jehoshaphat gets sucked in. There's a family connection but then there are other connections, "Yeah, we have a common enemy. We can't be negative. We shouldn't be critical. We don't want to be divisive." The word "divisive" in Romans 16:17 is dichostasia (dee-khos-tas-ee) where you get the English word “dichotomy”. It says divisive people are the ones who leave the teaching of the New Testament, who depart from the doctrine of the Apostles.
I'm not divisive by warning about Benny Hinn or Kenneth Copeland. If the Benny Hinns and Kenneth Copelands have gone away from the teachings of the New Testament, they are the divisive ones by biblical definition. I haven't departed from New Testament doctrine. If I did, please show me where, I want to repent of it. But these days it's the one who upholds New Testament doctrine who becomes divisive. They make an idol out of this unity but it's not the unity of the Spirit. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11:19 there must be factions among you to prove which is true. That word for factions in Greek is hairesis (hah'-ee-res-is) where we get the word “heresy”. Heresy is meant to bring division. And so much of what's being propagated in the Church today is purely heretical.
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Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.