Shepherd and Sheep Series-Sheep Must Be Protected While They Eat

In this Shepherd and the Sheep Series, we are studying the subject of meditation. God says if we meditate on the Word we will be wiser than all our enemies. "O how love I your law! It is my meditation all the day. You through your commandments have made me wiser than my enemies: for they are ever with me" (Psalm 119:97-98). Sheep are defenseless. They have no way of protecting themselves. They cannot kick, bite, or hide. In fact, they cannot even run away from the enemies that prey upon them. The normal body temperature of sheep is 103 degrees F. If they run very long, their thick coats of wool will cause their body temperature to rise dangerously, and then they will die. Since sheep have no built-in defense system, they have many who prey upon them. Chief among these are lions, bears, and wolves. These predators stalk the sheep day and night, placing the sheep in need of continuous protection. One of the chief functions of a shepherd is to guard the sheep. God compares Satan to a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. (See 1 Peter 5:8). False teachers are pictured a ravenous wolves who creep into flocks and carry away captive the young and the weak. Sometimes they enter under the guise of being sheep themselves. Jesus warned, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15). We need to learn how to spot vicious enemies. Cults are counterfeits of the Christian faith. They often use the Bible in their teachings, but they distort and misapply verses in an attempt to support false conclusions. The Christian who meditates upon God’s Word should be able to detect false cults quickly. However, it is also the responsibility of the shepherd to expose false teachers and to protect the flock from them. Learning how to avoid poisonous foods. Lions, bears, and wolves are not the only danger from which the sheep need to be guarded. They also need protection from poisonous plants which grow among the grass they eat. Sheep will eat any green plants they find, even if they are poisonous. Once eaten, these plants will cause severe damage or death. For this reason, the shepherd must go into a field and prepare it for the sheep by searching out, pulling up, and destroying any poisonous plants. The same precautions are necessary to protect sheep from polluted water. On the way to pure streams, sheep may stop and drink from germ-infested puddles. Here they can pick up various parasites and diseases. This preparation is also the responsibility of the “under-shepherds” of Christ. They must identify worldly philosophies and humanistic presuppositions that so easily creep into teaching materials. Collisions 2:8 warns that we are to let no one deceive us “through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” We are also commanded in II Corinthians 10:5 to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. We must learn to discern what doctrinal heresy is. Just as sheep can eat too much of one thing, such as clover, and become bloated, so a Christian can overemphasize one truth and become heretical and schismatic. Every Biblical truth has a balancing truth: law is balanced with grace; justice is balanced with mercy; work is balanced with rest; love is balanced with truth. Truth out of balance leads to heresy. Dr. Ken Copley is available for counseling, conferences, and local church meetings.

There are Pretenders Among Us

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.” (I John 3:1-10). The U. S. Treasury Dept. has a special group of men whose job it is to track down counterfeiters. How do these men learn to identify fake bills? They learn by studying the real ones. They can become so familiar with authentic bills they can spot a counterfeit by looking at it or simply by feeling it. This is the approach in I John 3, which warns us that in today’s world there are counterfeit Christians, , children of the devil,” (v.10). The Scripture gives us a clear description of God’s children. The contrast between the two is obvious. It is clear that no Christian is sinless, but God expects a true believer to sin less, not to sin habitually. An unsaved person lives a life of habitual sin. Sin, especially the sin of unbelief is the normal thing in his life. Because the true Christian knows God, he lives a life of obedience and he does not practice sin. John gives three reasons for living a holy life. The first reason for living a holy life is because God the Father loves us (3:1-3). The whole wonderful plan of salvation begins with the love of God, (John 3:16). Verse one of I John 3, tells us what we shall be. God’s love continues throughout our lives and takes us right up to the return of Jesus Christ. When Jesus appears, all true believers will become like Him. In the same passage verse three tells us what we should be. In view of the return of the Lord we should keep our lives clean. The unbeliever sins against law; the believer sins against love. The second reason for living a holy life is because the Son of God died for us (3:4-8). John turns here from the future appearing of Jesus to His past appearing. John gives two reasons why Jesus came and died. He died to take away our sins (vv. 4-6). Sin is basically a matter of the will. We sin when we assert our will against God’s will, this is called rebellion. The child of God cannot practice lawlessness. John’s epistle defines sin as lawlessness, defilement, and here he views it as defiance. The emphasis is on sin (singular). Sin is the root of which sins are the fruit. He identified with the sinless Christ. Jesus died to take away our sins. The whole work of the cross is denied when a professed Christian practices deliberate sin. The Cross broke the power of the sin principle in our lives (see Romans 6: and Galatians 2:20). Christ appeared to destroy the works of the devil (3:7-8). The logic here is clear, if a man knows God he will obey God; if he belongs to the devil, he will obey the devil. John accepts the reality of a personal devil. The word “destroy” means to rob of power. After World War II, Japanese troops were discovered hiding in caves and in the jungles of the Pacific Islands. When they were told the war was over, they quickly surrendered. Satan may win a few battles, but he has already lost the war. The Christian has no desire to obey Satan and live like a rebel. The person who can live in deliberate sin and doesn’t feel convicted had better examine himself to see whether or not he is really born of God. The third reason we are to live a holy life, is the Holy Spirit of God lives in us (3:9-10). Salvation brings tremendous spiritual changes. There is a new standing-justification. We have a new position-sanctification. We experience regeneration-a new nature, God’s nature. In the natural world, physical life produces physical life. In the spiritual world, spiritual life produces spiritual life. Let’s compare the outer man with the inner man. The outer man needs food, the inner man need the Word of God. The outer man needs cleansing; the inner man needs examination, confession and repentance. The outer man needs exercise, the inner man exercises by sharing Christ, Christian service, and building others up in the body of Christ. There were false teachers who taught that only the body sinned and in no way affected the spirit. In reality the body is neutral. Do I have the diving nature within me or am I merely pretending to be a Christian? Do I purposely cultivate this divine nature by daily Bible reading and prayer? Has any unconfessed sin defiled my inner man? Do I allow my old habits to control my thoughts and desires? When temptation comes do I “play with it” or flee from it? Do I immediately yield to the diving nature within me? The life that is real is honest with God about these vital issues. Dr. Ken Copley is available for counseling, conferences, and local church meetings.

Responding to an Infection in the Local Church

What should you do if your church becomes infected with spiritual poison, or even defects to the other side. My advice to Christian leaders is: Do not allow any spiritual battle to rob you of God's joy and peace and your sleep. When you do, the enemy is winning the battle. Instead, use prayer, a mighty weapon and the encouragement of dialogue with other leaders who can offer good counsel and a godly response. Remember, a godly response means correction of error, but done with gentleness and in love. Dwight, the senior pastor of a conservative charismatic church, used that strategy after a group of men from his church returned from some special downtown meetings with renewed enthusiasm, but also false doctrine. They began to teach that there is only one manifestation of the Godhead-the person of Jesus Christ. Sometimes He might take the form of the Father or the form of the Spirit, they said, but there is only Jesus Christ. They argued that the Trinity was an evil doctrine. Their teaching touched a significant number of people in his church, and Dwight knew he was on the verge of a firestorm. He brought the other leaders of the church together, and they began to hold prayer meetings three times a week, crying out to God to change the hearts of those who had strayed from truth. In the sovereignty of God, the lies were exposed and all but three members of the group were brought back to an orthodox position about the Trinity. God also exposed the extreme excesses of the original group and showed that His power would never be demonstrated in people who were not correct in their doctrine. By gentleness and love, what could have been a fierce, divisive controversy simply resulted in the loss of three members. That was fortunate, although, sad too say, it rarely happens that way. Satan always wants to scare a pastor and make the church leaders shudder at what's happening in their church body in a way that makes them fearful of taking action. But when you cling to the Lord and cry out to God, God often gives victory in ways none could anticipate. Dr. Ken Copley is available for counseling, conferences, and local church meetings.