Spurgeon on 'False Doctrine'

I cannot endure false doctrine, however neatly it may be put before me. Would you have me eat poisoned meat because the dish is of the choicest ware?

[b]It makes me indignant when I hear another gospel put before the people with enticing words, by men who would fain make merchandise of souls; and I marvel at those who have soft words for such deceivers.[/b]

“That is your bigotry,” says one. Call it so if you like, but it is the bigotry of the loving John who wrote: “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.”

I would to God we had all more of such decision, for the lack of it is depriving our religious life of its backbone and substituting for honest manliness a mass of the tremulous jelly of mutual flattery. [b]He who does not hate the false does not love the true; and he to whom it is all the same whether it be God’s word or man’s, is himself unrenewed at heart.[/b] Oh, if some of you were like your fathers you would not have [b]tolerated[/b] in this age the wagon loads of [b]trash[/b] under which the gospel has been of late buried by ministers of your own choosing.

You would have hurled out of your pulpits the men who are enemies to the [b]fundamental doctrines[/b] of your churches, and yet are crafty enough to become your pastors and undermine the faith of a fickle and superficial generation.

These men [b]steal the pulpits[/b] of once orthodox churches, because otherwise they would have none at all. Their powerless theology cannot of itself arouse sufficient enthusiasm to enable them to build a mousetrap at the expense of their admirers, and therefore they profane the houses which your sires have built for the preaching of the gospel, and turn aside the organisations of once orthodox communities to help their infidelity: I call it by that name in plain English, for “modern thought” is not one whit better, and of the two evils I give infidelity the palm, for it is less deceptive.

[b]I beg the Lord to give back to the churches such a love to his truth that they may [u]discern the spirits,[/u] and cast out those which are not of God.[/b] I feel sometimes like John, of whom it is said that, though the most loving of all spirits, yet he was the most decided of all men for the truth; and when he went to the bath and found that the heretic, Cerinthus, was there, he hurried out of the building, and would not tarry in the same place with him. There are some with whom we should have no fellowship, nay, not so much as to eat bread; for though this conduct looks stern and hard, it is after the mind of Christ, for the apostle spake by inspiration when he said, “If we or an angel from heaven preach to you any other gospel than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”

According to modern efficiency he ought to have said, “Let him be kindly spoken with in private, but pray make no stir. No doubt the thought was original, and we must not question his liberty. Doubtless, he believes the same as we do, only there is some little difference as to terms.”

This is [b]treason to Christ, treachery to truth, and cruelty to souls. If we love our Lord we shall keep his words, and stand fast in the faith, coming out from among the false teachers; nor is this inconsistent with charity, for the truest love to those who err is not to fraternise with them in their error, but to be faithful to Jesus in all things.[/b]

[i]-Sermon 1411 entitled Under Constraint, preached the morning of April 28th, 1878. [/i]

Great article, thanks for posting it. Oh, I think we need discernment like no other generation. There are many here on SI that have much discernment but there is a danger in discerning the hearts of men without also discerning the heart of God. Carter Conlon recently preached a couple of outstanding sermons on discernment, Greg has posted them here on SI...

[url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/visit.php?lid=15044]Last Days Return to Discernment Part1

[/url][url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/visit.php?lid=15109]Last Days Return to Discernment Part2[/url]

[i]Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.[/i]
(Mal 3:16-18)

In Christ,

Ron

Oh,brother.
How many people have gone to hell because sombody, "Whom should have spent more time reading the Word, and less time preaching", told them a bounch of lies that are not based in Scripture.To make manners worst is the fact that most people tend to belibe what sombody who graduated from a teological school says.Oh, that there would be men and women whom make God and the Bible their Supreme Authority. People everywhere would have more descernment of the truth if they where to search more for God. God Bless

One hundred twenty nine years later ...