Luke 12:51
Do you think I came to bring
peace on earth?
No, I tell you, but division.
Many preachers preach a different Jesus than the one found in the
Bible. The Jesus they preach has been sanitized, culturized,
modernized, politically correcticized, folded, bent, spindled,
french-fried, with a healthy helping of watered down luke-warmness.
This is NOT the Jesus of the Bible.
Jesus told people to "go and sin no more".
Many of today's preachers tell people to feel good about their sin,
because it is really an alternate lifestyle, or that it is not sin
because the Bible was written a long time ago, and our culture has
changed. Yes it has, it has become toxic to our spiritual lives!
Is "sin" what WE think it is, or is "sin"
what GOD thinks it is? THIS is the big question. In fact THIS is the
biggest question you will ever ask yourself. If sin can be determined
by each person, why wouldn't everybody just do what they want? Charles
Manson, Ted Bundy, Hitler, your aunt Nellie, YOU, everybody could
determine what sin according to their own choice. This would be an
amazingly messed up world, much as it is today, because many actually
believe this is true.
It is NOT!
God is the determiner of what "sin" is.
Those that have either been deceived or that have deceived themselves
will find out what sin is, and what the penalty for sin is. Believers
have had this penalty already paid for them with the death and
resurrection of Jesus.
This makes Jesus of primary importance.
So, if you believe in Jesus, you had better believe in the Jesus of the
Bible, not the phony-balony Jesus that most preachers preach about
these days!
Jesus came to divide believers from
unbelievers.
Jesus divides the believers from the
unbelievers.
Jesus divides the Christians from the non Christians.
Jesus divides the righteous from the unrighteous.
But doesn't the Bible teach against us
dividing others? Yes.
The Bible teaches us NOT to divide the Church.
If you want to do a good study, study the
word 'peace'. Many of the lessons in the Bible can not be found by just
studying the word 'divide'. A good study requires both words.
As Christians we are supposed to enjoy
peace. This is why we should share the Word of Truth with others, so
that they can also enjoy peace. Jesus is the King of Peace.
There is no peace without Jesus.
The Bible teaches us that we should share
the news of what Jesus did on the cross, and that He arose in order
that He could be the sacrifice each of us needed to be reborn
spiritually.
By the very action of our obedience to
God, in our sharing the message of salvation, in our living righteous
lives, the world will be divided.
THIS is the very reason Jesus came.
To DIVIDE!
Matthew 13:24 Jesus told them another
parable: “The
kingdom of heaven is like a man who
sowed good seed (1) in his field.
27 “The owner's
servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn't you sow good seed
in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
28 “‘An enemy
did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us
to go and pull them up?’
29 “‘No,’ he
answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root
up the wheat with them.
30 Let both
grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the
harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be
burned; then
gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”
Matthew 13:34 Jesus spoke
all these things to the crowd in
parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.
36 Then he
left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to
him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
37 He
answered, “The one who sowed the good
seed is the Son of Man.
38 The field is
the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the
kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,
39 and the
enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the
age, and the harvesters are angels.
40 “As the
weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the
end of the age.
41 The Son of
Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his
kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.
42 They will
throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.
43 Then the
righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
He who has ears, let him hear.
2 Timothy 3
1But mark this: There will be
terrible
times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of
themselves,
lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive,
disobedient
to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love,
unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal,
not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash,
conceited,
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—5having a form of godliness
but denying its power. Have
nothing to do with them.
6They are the kind who worm
their way
into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded
down
with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7always learning but never
able to acknowledge the truth. 8Just as Jannes
and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of
depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are
rejected. 9But they will not get very
far because, as in the case of those
men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
10You, however, know all
about my
teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith,
patience,
love, endurance, 11persecutions, sufferings—what
kinds of things
happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I
endured.
Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12In fact, everyone
who
wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13while evil men and
impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving
and being deceived. 14But as for you, continue
in what you
have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those
from whom
you learned it, 15and how from infancy you
have known the
holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through
faith in
Christ Jesus. 16All
Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching,
rebuking,
correcting
and training in
righteousness, 17so
that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Teaching People are convicted. The word convince is
linked to
the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came for three reasons, to convict the
world
of sin, for righteousness, and
judgment. Preaching is not from the Holy
Spirit unless it convicts people of sin and guilt or to become more
righteous, because these are
the tools that will convince people to change.
Rebuking People are corrected. Rebuke means to
correct, or to
put right, and it has a
severe and
stern tone about it. Our task is to rebuke from the pulpit and in our
interactions with people. We are not to capture the spirit of the age,
but to
change it because God's Spirit does not change. We are the conscience
of the people. If you have a Red
Letter Bible,
open it and find the first red letters. The first red letters are not
creation,
or John 3:16, of the Sermon on the Mount. The first red letters, the
first
words spoken by Jesus were a rebuke to John the Baptist.
Correcting People are instructed. We must preach the
word, or
exhort with teaching and
instruction.
We must teach, warn, and instruct so that
everyone in our congregation can be found worthy.
Training in
righteousness People
are to be
converted. Preach the word, do the work of an evangelist. We are the
harvesters. If we preach and convict, correct, and instruct, we should
also
convert. With our proclamation, we must give invitation.
Not “dividing” hardens believers and
unbelievers to the
Gospel!
Division
Where we don’t
give invitation through application
and then believe for a
verdict, we not only harden saints we harden sinners. The saved
can
become puffed up with knowledge, but if they do not live holy lives,
they will
harden, fall away, and eventually die. We
must call believers to a commitment or they will become immune to
challenge. Unbelievers must also
be called to a
commitment, or they will simply view the Church as another group of
hypocrites
that are after their money. They can see a sellout a mile away, and if
there is
no difference between believers and nonbelievers, there is no reason to
become
a believer.
Division
Luke
2:4 So
Joseph also went up from the town of
7 and she gave
birth to her
firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger,
because
there was no room for them in the inn.
8 And there were
shepherds
living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at
night.
9 An angel of
the Lord
appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they
were
terrified.
10 But the angel
said to
them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will
be for
all the people.
11 Today in the
town of
12 This will be
a sign to
you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a
great company
of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory
to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his
favor rests.”
15 When the
angels had left
them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go
to
16 So they
hurried off and
found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
Division
Every time that
Jesus spoke
he caused division. Even when Jesus was being crucified on the cross,
He caused
division. One thief went to heaven and one went to hell. If we are
going to
follow in Jesus’ footsteps, we must understand that we are also going
to cause
division, NOT in the Church, but in
the world. It is our JOB! Looking only for positive results to
our
preaching will mislead us into doing sermons that please only man, and
not God.
If we are going to look for the results of our preaching as a way to
measure
our effectiveness, we must look for spiritual change in people, and not
just
compliments. If people walk out of our sermons, and we have been
faithful to
the Bible’s teachings, then we have done our job of convicting people
either of
their sin (in the case of non-believers), or to live a better life (in
the case
of believers).
Division
Matthew 10:11“Whatever town or village you
enter, search
for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave.
12
As you enter
the home, give it your greeting.
13 If
the home
is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace
return to
you.
14 If
anyone
will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your
feet when
you leave that home or town.
15 I
tell you the
truth, it will be more bearable for
16 I
am sending
you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and
as
innocent as doves.
Division
Matthew 10:34“Do
not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not
come to
bring peace, but a sword.
35
For I have come
to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
36 a
man’s enemies
will be the members of his own household.’
37
“Anyone who
loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who
loves
his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
38
and anyone who
does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
39
Whoever finds
his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find
it.
40
“He who
receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who
sent me.
41
Anyone who
receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s
reward, and
anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will
receive
a righteous man’s reward.
42
And if anyone
gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he
is my
disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”
Division
Mark
9:38“Teacher,”
said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told
him to
stop, because he was not one of us.”
39
“Do not stop
him,” Jesus said. “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next
moment
say anything bad about me,
40
for whoever is
not against us is for us.
41 I
tell you the
truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you
belong to
Christ will certainly not lose his reward.
42
“And if anyone
causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be
better
for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around
his neck.
43
If your hand
causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life
maimed than
with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.
45
And if your
foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life
crippled
than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.
47
And if your eye
causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the
48
where “‘their
worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’
49
Everyone will
be salted with fire.
50
“Salt is good,
but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have
salt in
yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”
Division
Mark 5:30 At
once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He
turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who
touched my clothes?”
31 “You see
the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you
can ask,
‘Who touched me?’”
32 But Jesus
kept looking around to see who had done it.
33 Then the
woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and,
trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.
34 He said to
her, “Daughter,
your faith has
healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
You
can not do a study on “dividing” without doing a
study on “peace” because the message of dividing is taught, but the
actual word
isn’t always used. Even so, it is indisputable that the concept of
dividing is
used.
Mark 9:50 “Salt
is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you
make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each
other.”
The
Church, Christians, are the salt of the world. We
are to live in peace. If we fall away, we lose our saltiness, and we
are a part
of the world, then we lose our peace.
If you are living as you should, division
just happens. I’m teaching holiness, truth, and Christian
living. I’m teaching the Bible. If you live a godly life, if you pray,
if you
do good works, if you read the Bible, if you truly try to please God,
and you
mention this to other people, you will divide automatically, because we
follow
Jesus, and Jesus divides. Telling people about Jesus divides. This is
what we
are called to do. We should judge our actions, our activities, our
faith, and
our very lives as to whether we cause division to the secular world. If
we do,
this is the only thing that can save people.
Are you a Christian, and you are not being
persecuted? Really? If you believe you are a Christian, and you are not
being persecuted, then I would look at my life and see why you are not
a living threat to Satan and the kingdom of darkness.
If you're not fighting at the edge of
battle, you are not in the fight!
Division
Luke 12:49 “I have come to
bring fire on the earth, and how I
wish it
were already kindled!
50 But I have a
baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is
completed!
51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth?
No, I tell you, but division(3).
(3)(äéáìåñéóìüò
diamerismos
dee-am-er-is-mos'
division, from the word
äéáìåñßæù diamerizo dee-am-er-id'-zo
to partition thoroughly
cloven, divide, part. As in a cloven hoof). The sheep and the goats.
This word
comes from the word ìåñßæù
merizo
mer-id'-zo
(literally) to apportion, bestow, share, or
(figuratively) to
disunite, differ:—deal, be difference between,
distribute,
divide,
give part. In this sense, God will apportion each part to their place,
and will
reward them with what their nature deserves).
52 From now on
there will be five in one family divided against each
other, three against two and two against
three.
53 They will be
divided, father
against son and son against father, mother against daughter and
daughter
against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and
daughter-in-law
against mother-in-law.”
Division
2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is
God-breathed and is
useful for teaching,
rebuking,
correcting
and training in
righteousness, 17so
that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Teaching to convict people. Unbelievers to become believers, and
believers to
live godly lives. Preach with the
authority of the Holy Spirit.
Rebuking
people. Rebuke to
correct those in error. All Christians are
conscience buddies” of all other
Christians. This is why we are told to confess our sins to each other,
to pray
together, to worship together. To live in peace with each other. This means that YOU can not be
changed by your congregation, but rather YOU are the vehicle of change
to your congregation. I am absolutely amazed at how many wimpy sermons
are preached every single Sunday.
Correcting
people. Instructing
people, exhorting people to help each
other, and to live godly lives. Don't
preach until you get compliments, or Amen's, preach until somebody
living in sin walks out. If you have truly reached them, they will come
back after the impact of what you actually said reaches them. Preach
until someone cries. Preach until someone comes forward and tells you
they want to be saved, and to become a Christian!
Train in
righteousness. It is
our job to preach the true Gospel, or in other words, not just to share
interesting stories, or clever sayings, or to try and win a popularity
contest, or to try and be known as a really great public speaker, but
rather to share
the gospel with other people so they will be converted. We are to
invite them
into our Christian family of the Church.
John
14:27Peace I leave with you; my peace I
give you.
I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be
troubled and
do not be afraid.
John 16:33“I
have told
you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you
will have
trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Matthew
13:24Jesus
told them another parable: “The
kingdom of
heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came
and sowed
weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the
weeds also
appeared.
27“The owner’s servants
came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field?
Where then
did the weeds come from?’
28“‘An enemy did
this,’ he replied.“The servants asked him, ‘Do
you want us to go and pull them up?’
29“‘No,’ he
answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the
wheat
with them.
30Let both grow together
until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First
collect the
weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and
bring it
into my barn.’”
Matthew
13:34Jesus
spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say
anything to
them without using a parable.
35So
was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I
will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.ӣ
36Then he left
the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said,
“Explain
to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
37He answered, “The
one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man.
38The field is the world, and the good seed stands
for the sons
of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,
39and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The
harvest is the
end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
40“As the weeds
are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the
age.
41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they
will weed
out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.
42They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where
there will
be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
43Then
the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
He who
has ears, let him hear.
Matthew 16:47 “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a
net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish.
As
Christians, WE set the terms of division. Those we
reach will be separated from those that are cast into hell. ONLY those
we
reach.
| I found this great list
of what true Christianity is about at http://www.truechristianity.com/true.htm 1. True Christianity must line up with the Bible, the word of God. 2. True Christianity will
be rejected by the vast majority. 3. True Christianity will
be considered radical by most people. 4. True Christianity will
boldly rebuke and hate evil to such a 5. True Christianity will
be controversial and cause divisions 6. True Christianity will testify
that almost everything that 7. True Christianity will
be about true love, which is sharing and 8. True Christianity will
not be conformed to the world by 9. True Christianity will
not be able to be proved wrong, 10. True Christianity will
not be deceptive or misleading 11. True Christianity is
positive about good things and doing 12. True Christianity has
the fruits of commitment to doing Where does this leave the
mainstream Church and the millions |
Amen.
Franz Sigel Shroy
Love Christian Fellowship.