In a private conversation, the pastor said he would be willing to preach on any subject except holiness. That was the beginning of his downfall. The Reverend and his deacons rejected the prophecy given the church for future directions. That was the beginning of their downfall. The elder gave the church a false report regarding the outcome of a meeting the church had voted on. He ignored the Lord’s warning to put it right. That was the beginning of his downfall. The pastor of the church ignored the same warning. That was the beginning of his downfall. In all cases the end of the downfalls took years rather than months to eventuate, but eventuate, they did.
What was the common denominator among them all? They were enemies of the cross of Christ Philippians 3:18. The love of Christ, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the grace of Christ, the forgiveness of Christ, the power of Christ and the promises of Christ – all of them preached and taught, including take up your cross, and follow Me Matthew 16:24. Regularly we heard of the need to leave all to follow Christ and to count the cost Luke 14:28, but when each man was tested on this themselves, they failed. Some of them had been in ministry for years before the failure showed up. God, in His mercy, patience and grace gives much time and private warning before He allows a downfall; nothing happens overnight.
Judas Iscariot was an enemy of the cross of Christ. Simon Peter had the capacity to be one, but he was not. What made the difference? He responded humbly to the word of the Lord, kicking out the word of Satan, the devil Matthew 16:23. Judas could have done the same, but he chose not to. That’s the same reality for the men mentioned above. Another difference: Judas didn’t fear God, Peter did fear God, the men above didn’t fear God. The power of God was an attribute desired by all of them , but only Peter got to express it in the manner acceptable to God. That’s the reason he got so much done. Power expressed in the manner unacceptable to God is the reason the others were brought undone!
Enemies of the cross of Christ are willing to preach the work of the cross: Jesus’ death for sins, the forgiver of sins, the promise of heaven, justification etc; but they are not willing to preach the way of the cross: deliverance from the power of sin, the command for holiness and righteousness, sanctification etc. Watchman Nee said, “The blood (of Jesus) procures our pardon for what we have done; the cross procures our deliverance from what we are……. The blood disposes of our sins while the cross strikes at the root of our capacity to sin.” Testimonies to the work of the cross to an unbelieving world would have a much greater impact if testimonies to the way of the cross were unmistakably evident. Words can be doubted, words plus actions, not so.
Enemies of the cross of Christ demonstrate by their lives that they have a preference not to be delivered from this present evil age Galatians 1:3-4. They know this is Satan’s world. They know they don’t rightly belong to it. They know it is coming to a close. They know it worships an evil god. They know they have no right getting caught up in it. But it is all head knowledge to them, not heart knowledge. They know that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked……. Jeremiah 17:9; they know it! But they’re lovers of adulation, pleasure, money and ambition more-so than they are lovers of Jesus Christ. They talk like Peter, but they act like Judas and Simon Magus!
Enemies of the cross of Christ will talk of being delivered from the law, but we don’t hear them saying, I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live…….. Galatians 2:19-20. Self still very much lives in these people. As for law, legalism rules! Whatever laws God has released us from are quickly substituted with laws of their making. Yes, grace and spiritual liberty get spoken about but they don’t exist. To be crucified with Christ means to be free from all guilt, accusation and condemnation, but that’s not what one sees or discerns when speaking with people sitting under legalism. “The joy of the Lord is my strength” can sound like the real deal too when sung in those places but something in the sermon following will give evidence that it’s not so.
Enemies of the cross of Christ demonstrate by their lives that they are not delivered from the flesh – human, carnal nature. The works of the flesh are evident…………… Galatians 5:19-24. Sexual immoralities and perversions are rampant among them. No wonder sodomy is not acknowledged as the abomination that God says it is. Those practicing heterosexual adultery and fornication are not going to come down too hard on it. To do so would mean they’d have to look at their own lives. No wonder, judge not, that you be not judged Matthew 7:1 is one of their favorite quotations! One effective way for a religious person to camouflage his or her own sexual sin is to defend the sexual sins of others.
Enemies of the cross of Christ demonstrate by their lives that they have no desire to be delivered from the world system. Unlike the apostle Paul, they do not say, the world has been has been crucified to me, and I to the world Galatians 6:14. The world’s value system is corrupt. It exalts and applauds everything God deplores and despises. Lives surrendered to Christ are not to, love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him John 2:15. Again, this is one grand way of discerning who is living the way of the cross and who is not. By the way, if they have no love for God the Father, they have no love for Jesus. That means they have no love for you either.
Enemies of the cross of Christ are the greatest adversaries of Jesus Christ. They are not open and direct adversaries, however, they are secret and indirect. “Such are all cowardly, all shamefaced, all delicate Christians.” – John Wesley. We know where we stand with the open and direct crowd; whilst they speak from ignorance and arrogance, they do not speak with a forked tongue! Give me an enemy of Christ over an enemy of the cross every time. No matter how hard they try to conceal it, enemies of the cross of Christ are contentious, divisive, jealous and angry people. When their manipulations and intimidation fail to achieve the results they’re looking for, their religious mask comes off and the real person shows up.
Enemies of the cross of Christ are not confined to local church leadership. The worst of them can be found holding down top positions in church denominations. Whatever their man in the pulpit stands for is more than likely what they stand for and no Holy Spirit-energized Bible Scripture will be allowed to get in the way. They’ve got their own Bible Scriptures; they’ve been clinging to them since the denomination started nearly 200 years ago! Quote: “There is not a demon in hell that can touch the word of God; but our tradition makes it of non-effect.” – Bob Mumford. How true. It is not just the scribes and Pharisees who are the hypocrites…. like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful, but inside are full of dead men’s bones….. Matthew 23:27.
Enemies of the cross of Christ demonstrate a preference for that which is politically correct, not that which is Biblically correct! But they’ll use Bible Scriptures to bring that about. It matters not what issue they speak on; by the time they’ve finished speaking on it, their listeners are left with concepts of God and Jesus so faulty, that over time, they too will become enemies of the cross of Christ, which was Satan’s intended plan for them in the first place. That’s how schisms get a foothold in a church; one takes a stand for this, another takes a stand for that; the result being, “It all depends on your interpretation of what the Scripture is saying.” And so, instead of embracing Scripture’s plain-sense meanings, they end up embracing nonsense!
Enemies of the cross of Christ hold a greater sway over the world’s understanding of Christianity than allies of the cross of Christ. Why is that? Their message is non-offensive, guaranteeing them the most publicity. When it comes to things “religious,” non-offensive messages are exactly what most people want to hear. Their message sounds reasonable; our message sounds unreasonable. They don’t want a message that calls for humility and repentance before a Holy God. They don’t want a message that calls for Lordship over their life. Too, the message of heaven is non-offensive; the message of hell is extremely offensive. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God 1 Corinthians 1:18.