The Church of Cultural Relevance or The First Church of Idolatry

It is said today that we in the church must conform to this world, or at the very least make the world comfortable in our midst. How sad of a day when the 10 Commandments are removed from our society because they offend a minority of people. How much worse when the Church of the very God who gave those commands removes them because they may offend someone?

The truly offensive here are the ones who remove Gods Word because someone may become offended. That is the worldliest bunch of garbage I have ever been confronted with. Where are the bold men of God who proclaim His Holy and Mighty Word without fear of anything or anyone? Where is this man of God today? He is not in too many pulpits today.

In our culture right now we have men in charge of the largest churches in America, and they stammer around the issues afraid to say that sin is sin. You have these wimpiest of men afraid to say that Christ is the ONLY way to be SAVED, that He alone is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE! We have men who will associate themselves with ungodly, unbelieving men who represent a cause, just because an ungodly world sees them as popular. It is akin to having Satan preaching in the pulpit. I am being general for a reason, I know who these men are and more than likely you do too. I am being so general because it is the right thing to do. My purpose is that if you are in the congregation of one of these harlots, that you yourself confront them, according to the biblical standard. Go to your brother, and confront him is he repents, you have won your brother, if he does not, go to him with two or more witnesses, and confront him again, if he refuses to repent remove the evil from your presence.

I am not in favor of churches splintering or splitting, at the same time, there are procedures for discipline in the church and they must be followed to remove those who are distorting the truth of God’s Holy Word.

Recently I listened to a sermon based on the message of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians 9:19-27, I was completely appalled! The message of Paul was ripped out of its Historical context, and became a message that we should embrace this world and that we need to immerse ourselves in the culture, read what the culture reads, listen and watch what the culture listens to and watches, the only good in the message was he did say that we are not to sin, when we do this. According to this preacher, that is what Paul did. The only problem with that is the fact that the Apostle Paul, also know as Paul of Tarsus, who was a Jew, but was a Hellenized Jew, he grew up in a culture that was predominantly Greek/Roman. This pastor said that Paul went so far as to learn the poets and philosophers of the day, this is contextually wrong, he knew some of these things because he grew up in that culture. Let it also be known that He (Paul) considered himself a Jew of Jews. He took what he knew and used it to confront people about there unknown god, to show them that this God was not unknown to him and did not have to be unknown to them. A couple of things that this pastor forgot were, that we are not to do things which could cause another brother to stumble, and we are to be Holy for the Lord our God is Holy.

This particular pastor went as far as to say, “we are in sin if we do not contextualize” the Holy Word of God, which is to take the scriptures out of their natural context and make them apply however, the situation warrants. I am here to warn us against such pagan principles.

Situational ethics are not scriptural and they are wrong, just as this too is wrong! One the first part of this pastors statement, he is dead wrong, and man cannot pronounce what is sin, only God can tell us what sin is! As for the way we present scripture, we do need to make application that applies to our present life and time, but we cannot rip them out of their context so we can apply some cockamamie and half-baked truth. The biggest danger with these pastors is their inherent desire for us to mold to the culture to win people to Christ.

Friends we cannot win one person to Jesus, scripture is clear, faith comes by hearing. We are to be faithful in our preaching of the word of life. We are to come out of the world, we are not to be defiled by the world. In James 4:4, we see the message is clear, “You adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Do you and we really want to become once again at odds or become enemies of the God who saved us from sin and death?

Brothers and sisters, remain faithful, remain strong in the faith and challenge these ungodly methods, these worldly ways that have been introduced either by men who are blinded by the enemy or are willing participants in evil. We are called to be a Holy and Blameless people of God. James the brother of our Lord Jesus tell us in “James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

I desire to make clear they way we are to be toward this heresy that has entered into our midst, we are not to love the world or the things in it. 1 John 2:15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

We need to go forth and preach the Gospel as we are commanded but we are not to compromise with the world or the enemy or anyone in that task. NO COMPRIMISE! When we compromise our faith and God’s Word we step out of the obedience that we are called to. I want everyone who hears me preach come to know God’s mercies, His love, and the Joy that waits for His children, but I cannot compromise His Holy word to get the job done. When any man puts himself in the position that he compromises the Word of God, he just tried place himself above the Thorne of God, and that is exactly what Satan tired to do and that is the reason he was cast down form Heaven.

Friends it only makes since that Satan would continue to try to exalt himself above the Throne of God as he did before, and it makes even more sense that if he can get a man who is preaching the Word of God to stray he will get him to try to place himself above God’s Throne as well.

If we set out to make ourselves the apple of the world’s eye, if we desire their love we will find ourselves in an awful way. We have been called out of the world for a reason, and the reason is so very simple to share our joy with those we come in contact with, to share the love of Christ, to Preach His Word, to those around us, not to compromise with them. We are not going to have the love and the friendship of the world because of Christ. Jesus told us this in, “John 15:19 "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”


Lastly, I plea with you to fight the good fight, to race the race with a desire to win, we must confront the evil in our midst. We need to be steadfast on our resolve that we never compromise the Word of God or our relationship to Him, for any reason. Diligently seek Him and His Wisdom, for it is not the wisdom of this world. Paul tells us in Romans “12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

If you find yourself in one of these worldly churches, confront your pastor or your leadership with your concerns; confront them with love and with scripture. We have no business compromising the Word of God for when we do we set ourselves up as a supreme authority, over and against God. We are the created not the creator and should respect our place, Jesus said “if you love me then you will obey me” and we are not to add or remove from His word, and we are to do all that He commanded and teach other to do the same.

May the Lord grant us the strength we need for the battles that lie ahead!