False Doctrine is being Preached

Scripture: Jeremiah 5:30-31

"An appalling and horrible thing Has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?

Insights: Before I begin, I owe a debt of gratitude to James MacDonald and his Vertical Church tour for revealing these truths to me.  6000 churches close their doors every year.  3500 people leave the church every day.  Only 1 out of 10 preachers will survive the ministry to “retirement” years.  Why is the church of America hemorrhaging so?  Verse thirty tells us there is an appalling and horrible thing happening and it is true for us today.  The first problem is false doctrine is being preached.  In the day of Jeremiah the prophets stopped saying, “Thus says the Lord!” and started saying whatever made people happy.  There is a pathetic story of king Ahab in 1 Kings 22 that I would recommend you to read, but in cliff note form, Ahab was about to go to war.  Jehoshaphat asked him if he had inquired of a prophet and Ahab responds, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, because he does not prophecy good concerning me, but evil.”  We in America are doing the same thing with its preachers.  We don’t like to hear sound biblical doctrine preached.  We want desserts only and no real substance in our preaching.  You may argue this is not true, then why is Joel Olsten’s “church,” I use that term loosely, the largest church in America right now?  The answer is because people just want to feel good and receive platitudes instead of the truth of the Bible.  What ends up happening is a church hires a preacher, and they don’t like what he has to say, so they run him off.  The hire a second thinking he will be better, but he is not, so they run him off.  Third time is a charm, but it is not.  At this point the church has lost so many members because every time they run someone off they lose bodies in the church.  Then they have this debt they cannot pay and finally the doors have to be closed.  And the preachers, after being run off several times, say, “I don’t have to put up with this kind of treatment,” and they quit the ministry.  This pattern is the reason for MacDonald’s statistics he provided.  Beloved, we must return to sound biblical preaching.

Questions:

1. Are you attending a Bible believing and doctrinally sound church?
2. Do you just receive sugar and sweets in your spiritual diet?

Prayer: Father, forgive us, the believers of a nation, for our desire of fluff and comfort.  As a result we have grown cold to the hard truths of Your word and become ineffectual at the proclamation of Your grace.  Soften and convict our hearts oh Lord.  Amen.