What The Bible Says
Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
False teachers “have forsaken the right way and are gone astray” and are “wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest, … to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever” (2Pet2:15,17). We are warned that they will speak great swelling words of vanity, promise liberty, and deceive many (vr.18-19). Such “pernicious ways” are not only found in charismatic missleaders of the church, they are rampant in society and Godless government! Through the lust of the flesh, and much wantonness” they can deceive even genuine believers (vr.18). Government is ordained by God to promote the good, punish the evil, and protect the innocent, but gone awry and corrupt, ours presently exploits the five longtime vices that bind mankind and cripple “Christians”; (wine, women, weed, drugs, and gambling). That second “W” has “advanced” to every form of reprobate perversion known to man, and in such a twisted society one can now “smoke-weed” in exotic flavors and suck even more exotic drugs into their lungs via “much wantonness.” There is always a destructive consequence to being gripped in a vice; emphasis is on “destructive”, i.e. “pernicious.”
False teachers and destructive (pernicious) ways are prevalent, persistent, and promoted, even by our government today. Many are gripped in those ways, even those who name the name of Christ; though he came to break our bondage and set us free. Which is why we regularly echo the promise given to Solomon, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2Chron 7:14). America is in dire need of that healing, but it only comes with a turning; a turning called “repentance.”
An Essay for week #31 - Aug 1, 2021
Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs210801.mp3
Copyright © 2021 Good Samaritan Baptist Church, All Public Domain, Freely Copy and Distribute.
A weekly 300 word essay- The Penny Pulpit
Our mailing address is:
Good Samaritan Baptist Church
54 Main St. Box 99
Dresden, NY 14441