"The Divine Aristocracy" - Don't Take the Bad with the Good (page 11 of 18)

Don't Take the Bad with the Good

Verse 18 tells us that “wisdom is better than weapons of war; but one sinner destroys much good”. I have seen this many, many times: it happens when a new church is founded, because every new work will be tested. Every time a new church is planted a lot of zeal, enthusiasm and prayer goes into it; the Lord moves and does things. But then one person comes in with his or her own agenda. That person can sink the whole ship. Sometimes it only needs one person to sow seeds of discord in a congregation and ruin it. One of the things I have learned is what the Maccabees learned: many will join us in hypocrisy in the Last Days. The fact that someone is against what you are against does not at all guarantee that they are for what you are for.

Most of the people who will read Dave Hunt's books or listen to my tapes or read Bill Randles' books or things like this are sincere Christians. Many have been burned by crazy churches or exploited financially or something similar to that, yet they themselves are sincere, genuine Christians. However, there is a small percentage that will simply use good teachers or good churches as sounding boards for their own agendas. Give them enough time and they will fall out with you. These are not people who have righteous indignation and are standing against heresy or immorality; these are people who could not fit into any church. These are people with a rebellious spirit, who cannot accept any leadership or any commitment except on their own terms. Very small numbers of them can destroy a whole church. In a church of 200 people, 5 can cause a split. "One sinner destroys much good."

Let's continue with Ecclesiastes 10:1:

"Dead flies make the perfumer's oil stink; so a little foolishness is weightier than wisdom and honor."

There is a foolish argument which says that because a thing is not all bad it must be good. We address this in The Sons of Zadok, explaining the Greek word “parasaxousin”, meaning to put truth next to error, and looking at the word “acatharsis”, meaning a mixture of truth and error, and their uses in Scripture concerning a mixture of good and bad doctrine. When you hear someone saying, "We have to eat the meat and spit out the bones," you are hearing man's flawed wisdom. The Hebrews were forbidden to make a garment out of flax mixed with wool; God did not allow it. (Dt. 22:11) A little leaven leavens the entire lump of dough. (1 Co. 5:6) This does not give us the right to find fault over every little doctrine, but it does require us to take a stand over the things that are fundamental.

Here in Ecclesiastes 10:1, however, this principle is described in a specific manner: “dead flies make the perfumer's oil stink”. Fragrances in the Bible are types of worship. Remember that Scripture calls the prayers of the saints incense, (Rev. 8:4) and that when God was angry with Israel and they offered Him burnt offerings, His response was to say “I will not smell your fragrances”. (Lev. 26:31) So let's say I come home from Hong Kong with a bottle of duty-free perfume as a gift for my wife, only there's a fly carcass floating in it. What would have been a nice gift is ruined by one small thing. (Interestingly, the Latin philo-genetic name for a fly is “musica domestica”, or “house music”, because of the buzzing it makes.) When the carcass of a fly begins to decompose in a bottle of perfume, its enzymes interact chemically with the perfume, and this causes it to give forth a very foul odor rather than a sweet fragrance.

Again, fragrances Scripturally refer to worship. I've been to church services where they are singing good choruses and good hymns and the Holy Spirit is moving, but then they suddenly begin to go into something unbiblical – usually something pneumo-centric, directed toward the Holy Spirit, which is unbiblical since the Holy Spirit is never prayed to in the Bible. He is only prayed to or worshiped within the context of the Trinity – He Himself always points to Jesus. Our faith is Christo-centric, not pneumo-centric. In any case, back to this church service: Ten choruses or hymns are all good, and one is wrong. But it only takes one fly to spoil the ointment. The Father wants to be worshiped in Spirit and in Truth. This idea that we have to take the good with the bad is man's flawed wisdom, not God's perfect wisdom. For saying this, I am often called “critical”. Somehow, being Biblical has now become being critical. Nonetheless, this is a scriptural truth: it doesn't take more than one fly to ruin the perfume. Something that was sweet-smelling thus becomes revolting, because death is in it.

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