What are you hearing in your local church; life or death?

Believers, most times when we think of areas of "Satan at work," we imagine red-light districts, war, poverty, child-molestation, fornication and adultery, idol worship/juju, the kind of demonic oppression that gets people rolling on the floor and foaming at the mouth; acts of sin in general.

While the kingdom of darkness works hard at keeping the world that God so loved locked down in such captivity, these overt manifestations are usually the work of minions or lesser devils. Satan himself and "spiritual wickedness in high places" have a more refined approach to their work of stealing, killing and destroying. You find their works in churches where obedience to God's law is upheld as the means of attaining righteousness (and thus enjoying God's blessing) instead of faith in Jesus Christ by whose obedience we are made righteous (Romans 5:19;) those churches where it is preached that your salvation depends entirely or partly on what YOU must do and not what CHRIST has done. Paul spoke of such ministers in 2 Corinthians 11:15-

"And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works."

These ministers of Satan are pastoring churches and preaching their brand of righteousness straight from the pulpit. They sound and act extemely moral and righteous, preach strongly against sin and always act like they just finished having lunch with God. They preach a lot about righteousness and living a godly life but herein lies what exposes them as agents of Satan (some unwittingly:) their own method of attaining righteousness in the sight of God is never through what CHRIST has done to make us righteous but on what WE must do by ourselves; we who can do nothing without Christ.

They preach righteousness according to works (of the law) and not the righteousness (by faith) that is freely given as a gift to all who believe in Christ and through the obedience of Christ, as it is written in Romans 5:19- 

“By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."

Also see 2 Corinthians 5:21 "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Also see Romans 3: "26...and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. 27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith.28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law."

Remember Paul's words in Philippians 3:9 "and become one with Him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with Himself depends on faith."

Romans 6:14 says "For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under Law but under Grace." Try to keep the law and you will continue to wallow in sin. But these ministers of Satan preach this verse in reverse. They deceive many into thinking that a person can be made right with God (and thus enjoy His blessings) by their own effort at keeping the law, a teaching that is in stark contrast to Romans 3:20 which says: "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are."

Believers, God's grace is not a license to sin. It is the Way to right living. Once a person has the Lord Jesus Christ as his righteousness, RIGHT LIVING WILL FOLLOW. "All these things will be added unto you." See Romans 5:17: 

"For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

Also see Matthew 1:21- "She will give birth to a Son, and you shall name Him Jesus (The Lord is salvation), for He will save His people from their sins.”

But these "ministers of righteousness" put the cart before the horse, saying "stop sinning first, then Christ will save you." If we could stop sinning on our own, then Christ died a needless death!

Their weapon is accusations, like their father Satan the Accuser. They point out and accuse people of particular sins, usually things relating to dressing/hairstyle, tithing, club-hopping and "comedians in the church" and make you believe that your salvation or godliness (being like God) depends on how good you are and what you do. They never tell you that without Christ as the SOLE source of a person's righteousness, in the sight of God, the "good and holy" person who only lied about his location on the phone for a good reason is in the same boat of unrighteousness as the child-molesting serial killer; James 2:10 says:

"For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws."

In essence, they preach after the pattern of their master Satan who deceived Eve into believing that she would "be like God" (be godly!) by her own effort: if she ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This tree is a picture of the law from which we get the knowledge of what is good and what is evil; the tree was desirable to Eve as it is desirable to many in the church today; and it is still killing those that eat from it, those who live by the law; those who try to be godly (attain to righteousness) by their own effort: "for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." The good that one does under law kills just as fast as the evil.

Galatians 5:4 says "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace."

But these false doctrine preachers actively preach righteousness before God through keeping the Ten Commandments. See how Satan kills! Isaiah describes this self-righteousness as "filthy rags" (menstrual rags in the original Hebrew translation) in Isaiah 64:6-

"We are all infected and impure with sin.

When we display our righteous deeds,

they are nothing but filthy rags."

Believers, beware of such teaching. It leads to death. Remember what Titus 2:14 says of our Saviour Jesus Christ: "who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works."

This shows us that people who are sinning are in captivity and a price (death) needs to be paid for them to be free; a price that Christ paid with His blood (the wages of sin is death) and is free for all who believe. But these ministers of Satan preach that one can redeem oneself from the lawless deeds that hold one captive by sheer self-will and determination at doing. Right there on the pulpit, they shoot the only weapon of the Accuser: accusations aka "every tongue that rises against you in judgment." Such ministers say things like "You are still stealing" "You don't love your neighbour as yourself" even "Abraham was going to sacrifice his son but you can't even give so and so!" Believers, these are things that Christ came to save us from!

They ask: "how can God bless you when you are still doing such and such?" But they never point you to the only One, Jesus Christ, who can get you out of that prison of sin. They point you to yourself who can do nothing without Christ! They try to make you your own sacrificial lamb, but the lamb used for sacrifice for sins has to die. The letter kills. The law kills all those who are trying to get right with God through law-keeping.

They point out and highlight sins when in Christ, under the New Covenant, our Lord God remembers our sins no more (Hebrews 8.) Romans 8:1 tells us there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus but under their false teaching, people are made to feel condemned because their accusations are true, and after condemnation comes judgment in the form of death preceded by its symptoms (the curse.) A death that Christ already died for the world! They are saying that Jesus who died to save us from sin will not save you from your sins unless you by yourself stop sinning!

Believers, believe right. According to Titus 2, Christ gave Himself to redeem us from EVERY lawless deed (acts of sin.) How could our Saviour use the very sins that He came to redeem us from as an excuse for not saving us? Why would you need a Saviour if you can stop sinning and attain perfection by the law all by yourself? It is Christ's "Neither do I condemn you" that makes us "go and sin no more."

Such ministers attempt to reduce the finished work of Christ to a footnote in their preaching. Our Saviour's name is mentioned in the "in Jesus name" at the end of each prayer point but according to them, the "real work" is in the various fasts undertaken, various vigils, tithes paid, neglect of the body and seeds sown in order to receive from God. This is a gross misrepresentation of our loving Abba Father who gives us all things freely with Christ! Romans 8:32 says:

"He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"

But with such ministers, receiving from God, attaining right-standing with Him and enjoying His blessings depends on your ability to keep the law and "do good deeds" and not what Christ has done. According to them, being free from generational and other curses depends on you, a Christian, attending their "deliverance services" while clutching childhood pictures that they often ask you to bring along, an action that is in stark contrast to Galatians 3:13-

"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”, 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."

Believers, don't be deceived. Believe right. In Christ, God is our Abba Father. Would you really withhold care and protection from your own child because he disobeyed you? Would you let your neighbour's dog bite him to death because you've warned him to stay indoors several times? No! You will train your child in the way he should go and keep him from harm for as long as you can! How much more our Father in heaven who so loved the world that He gave His own Son to die for us! In Christ, we are His own little children! He hates sin because it destroys man that He so loves, so gave His own Son to pay the wages of our sin. In Christ, we have the gift of no condemnation by which we go and sin no more. This is the only way to have victory over sin.

A good fake product is one that most closely resembles the original. By God's grace, beware of these preachers of righteousness by works of the law. They seem to be godly and religious but their way leads to death.

Many of us are aware that some pastors dish out this horrid mixture of part-Law and part-Grace but still hear them because we feel that we can get nourishment from the Grace part. This is akin to eating a mixture of fresh bread and concentrated acid and expecting that your body will only make use of the bread! The letter kills, like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why don't you ask the Lord our Shepherd to lead you on the path of righteousness and make you lie down in green pastures where you get to feed on life today? He loves us so. He hears you when you call. Always.

The Holy Spirit will teach you all things.

Believe Right and you will Live Right.