(71)
By Abraham Eli
This study was first taught on December 20, 2020
Topic: The Spoiling of the Church
(use the audio to study)
Background
Last week we saw that Satan’s goal of stymying the spread of the gospel through persecution backfired. As the gospel continued to spread, he introduced the prosperity gospel which is no gospel at all. The prosperity gospel is a group of teachings that encourage believers to focus on earthly things rather than heavenly things, and giving of money and assignment to obtain things from God rather than obedience and holy living.
The prosperity gospel watered down the doctrine of Christ and encouraged its adherents to pursue pleasure and self rather than Christ and love for others. Ultimately, the prosperity gospel made the church of God to compromise its principles, thus, they no longer saw covetousness as a negation of the gospel, neither did they consider moderation or sobriety as words of endearment, resulting in the church being at ease in Zion!
All is not lost though. The church can return through genuine repentance as they turn from their wicked ways and again begin to meaningfully spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Evangelism must not be a department in a church organogram, but the activity that every believer in Christ everywhere and anywhere must actively engage in.
Scripture Text(s)
Acts 4:14-21; Matthew 12:29
As we conclude on our slight digression on our discussion on Satan’s ploy to stymie the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we note that Satan is a resilient adversary. When he was pushed back by the Lord at His temptation, he left Him for a more auspicious time—indeed, many times over, through various individuals and groups he viciously attacked the Lord including through Judas Iscariot, an apostle!
Through the prosperity gospel, Satan had weakened the Church—they were now compromised, vulnerable, and at ease in Zion—then he struck again! Satan has always reserved his most vicious attack for when we are weakest (<strong>Deuteronomy 25:17-18</strong>) and unable to do anything for ourselves, hence we are encouraged to resist him steadfastly (<strong>1 Peter 5:8-9</strong>) and give him no place for a foothold (<strong>Ephesians 4:27</strong>).
Our second scripture text speaks on the strategy of Satan to spoil the church as his final solution to stymying the spread of the gospel. We have been taught over the years that Satan is the strongman, but the Bible has never said so—the Lord merely talks about spoiling a strongman! To Satan, the Church is the strongman and he has made up his mind to spoil her goods!
When we talk of the spoiling of the church, three things come to mind: the <u>carting off of her precious things</u>—ransacking is a more appropriate word—such as humility, holiness, truth, sound doctrine, etc. (<strong>Matthew 12:29b</strong>), the <u>leading away captive of the church</u> (<strong>Colossians 2:8; Genesis 3:1ff; 2 Corinthians 11:2-3</strong>), and <u>the corruption of the church</u> to make it forever accessible to Satan for further spoiling (<strong>Judges 16:4-21</strong>).
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43; 2 Chronicles 18:1ff; 19:1-4; 21:1ff; 22:1ff; 23:1ff; 1 Timothy 3:13-14; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15.
Conclusion
Satan’s plan after succeeding with the prosperity gospel to stymie the gospel is to completely alter the structure of the church so that she will become unrecognizable. In achieving this, he first plants strange men in the church who at first appear to be teaching the truth but are now unashamedly departed from the truth, which is the most precious value of the church. He has thus spoiled the church—ransacked her, held her captive to greed, and corrupted her—so that what many today call the church is not the church of God which the Lord Jesus is coming for at the end of the age (<string>Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 5:25-27</strong>).
But it is not all gloom and doom. There is hope. As the Lord said that the tares and the wheat should grow together and at the end of the age, His angels would separate His own from Satan’s so will it happen (<strong>2 Timothy 2:19; Revelation 22:11</strong>). Thus, every true believer must unashamedly hold on to the doctrine of Christ and keep themselves from the destructive influence of false doctrines.
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