We have lost far too many Christians to a phenomenon that I call liberal drift. While the word liberal has a generally positive connotation in the Bible, it can also mean “licentious or free to excess.” This type of liberalism is the sin of giving oneself license to disregard the Word, will, and way of God.
The Psalmist begins Psalm 119:10 with the inspired declaration, “With my whole heart have I sought thee.” What a great testimony! Many of God’s servants in the ministry and devoted believers serving in local churches can make the same assertion. Yet, we are all susceptible to satanic seduction regardless of past sacrifices.
Satan is an expert at leading once committed Christians down the destructive paths of excess and self- will. Let’s learn how to guard ourselves against this pervasive liberal drift.
No one drifts to their desired destination.
In our text verse, the Psalmist recognizes our sinful tendency to wander from God and His commandments. The hymn writer made the same observation when he penned, “prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”
Yes, we have a tendency to wander. As a child is drawn to walk away from the security of a parent to the unknown dangers of a crowd by bright lights at a carnival, so God’s children are drawn to wander from the safety of God’s will by the Devil’s false promises of pleasure and liberty.
Jeremiah 14:10
Thus saith the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
Wandering without direction is so terrible that it is a punishment God uses to correct for sin.
Numbers 32:13
And the LORD’S anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, that had done evil in the sight of the LORD, was consumed.
The word “wander” implies a tendency to drift or roam. Wandering or drifting is not a willful decision to depart from God. It is an unconscious movement away from Him. It is born in distraction. It continues with a lack of focus on what is most important. Wandering, or drifting, is a failure of commitment to pleasing God by keeping His commandments.
With these truths in mind, we see the reasons for God’s admonition to stay focused in Hebrews chapter two!
Hebrews 2:1
Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
If you become casual in the Christian life, you will become a casualty. If you don’t hold tightly to the things of God, you will allow them to “slip.” You will drift off course if you don’t set your destination and follow the directions with uncompromising determination.
No one drifts to their desired destination.
The journey of faith is often compared to navigation.
Paul was caught in a storm on the sea. They lost control of the ship and were driven about by the waves and wind.
Acts 27:13–15
And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, loosing thence, they sailed close by Crete. 14 But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon. 15 And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive.
Too often, our lives are driven by the winds of public pressure or personal affliction. Many times the direction of our lives is altered by things other than the plan of God. Unless we hold the rudder to stay on course, we will drift.
Drift to where?
We never drift to greatness. We never roam to excellence. We never please the Lord by accident. When we drift, we always drift away from God’s Person, purpose, and plan.
Why must we guard against liberal drift? Why are we so prone to wander into compromise and sin?
We drift away from God because of sin’s corruption.
No one drifts to their desired destination.
We are sinners by birth and by choice. Our corrupt sin nature loves to sin. It reaches for ungodliness. It leans toward iniquity. The flesh cries for control like a petulant child. It always seeks to draw us away from God.
Like the unseen pull of a magnet, our sinful nature is constantly attracted by the sin of the world. The world, the flesh, and the Devil conspire together to seduce us into sin. Our own flesh will betray us by lying, stealing, and cheating to fulfill its wicked lusts. We must be vigilant!
The second law of thermodynamics captures this biblical principle. Everything in creation is moving toward disorder and decay when left to itself. Our lives, families, and ministries are no different.
If you begin to drift, you will always, ALWAYS, drift away from God into sin and licentiousness.
Remember that we are not only talking about weak Christians who backslide. The best of us can unconsciously drift into compromise and iniquity. It was the committed follower of God who prayed to stay faithful in Psalm 119:10.
Commited Christians can drift into sin.
Sunday School teachers can drift into false doctrine.
Soul winners can drift into apathy. Preachers can drift into pragmatism. Deacons can drift into self-will.
There is no sin that you are not capable of committing, given time and opportunity.
Every Christian is in danger of drifting into liberalism.
Why Do Good People Drift Into Liberalism And Sin?
If we are to protect ourselves, we must be students of the Bible and human nature. Consider the following reasons people drift away from God’s Word, will, and way.
- Some drift into liberalism because of old age. They get tired of fighting. They let go of doctrines and practices, not because they are wrong, but because they are difficult.
- Some drift into liberalism because of youth. They have not settled their own thoughts about doctrine and practice and listen to the wrong people. They are led down the same destructive paths of previous generations but cannot see the danger because they lack context and experience.
- Some drift into liberalism by saying, “We can reach more people if…” This is the same idea that ruined Billy Graham in later years. We never gain ground by transgressing God’s Word or leaving out vital Bible doctrines.
- Some drift by saying, “Only doctrine matters” and letting everything else go. Sadly, these misguided individuals miss the point that they are trusting themselves to determine which doctrines are important. Every doctrine of God is essential – including the doctrines of righteousness, holiness, soul winning, and separation.
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Satan is an expert at leading once committed Christians down the destructive paths of excess and self-will.
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- Some drift by saying, “I will only preach the Gospel.” While that sounds spiritual, God gave us an entire Book to teach and preach. A Bible preacher will leave no stone unturned and no subject off limits as He expresses the whole counsel of God.
- Some drift because of discouragement. They see liberal, compromising churches which seem to thrive while they struggle in their ministries. They begin to believe the lie that standards of righteousness and sound doctrine don’t matter. They buy into the falsehood that life will get easier, the church will grow, and God will be pleased if they cater to the crowd.
Don’t believe it!
Success is not determined by full pews and overflowing offering plates.
Success is relentless obedience to the Word of God. We will not receive Heavenly rewards unless we strive lawfully. (2 Timothy 2:5)
Consider two areas in which we must protect against liberal drift.
1. Guard Against Personal Drift.
God saves us and cleans us up after we are saved. We are called to have a clean heart and mind as Christ sanctifies our new lives.
In fact, our departure from iniquity in our daily lives is half of “the seal of foundation of God.”
2 Timothy 2:19
Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
We must purge ourselves from willful sin, living according to God’s standards of personal righteousness, to be used in service for God’s glory.
2 Timothy 2:20–21
20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.
21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.
We must strive to purge sin from every area of our lives, seeking to please the Lord in the following areas:
- Doctrine
- Ministry
- Speech
- Behavior
- Thoughts
- Entertainment
- Music
- Dress
- Friends
- Priorities
- Purposes
Through salvation, God delivers us from our previous lives of self-will and sin to a sanctified life that can be used for His glory.
However, the flesh is not defeated completely. We must engage in a daily battle to subdue the flesh and live in the Spirit.
Galatians 5:16–18
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
If we don’t subdue the desires of the flesh, we will become a shipwreck.
1 Corinthians 9:27
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
Consider this important verse.
1 Timothy 1:19
Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
We are called to hold, or retain, the doctrine of faith at all costs despite all opposition. Also, we are called to hold the faith while maintaining a “good conscience.”
How do we maintain a good conscience regarding the faith? We must do what we know to do and say what we know is right in accordance with God’s Word. To act in a way contrary to what we know about God’s Truth is a violation of our own conscience. When we leave out unpopular or inconvenient elements of God’s Word for personal indulgence or to increase numbers, we sin against our conscience and our Lord.
The phrase “which some having put away concerning faith” refers back to “a good conscience.” What does this mean? It means that when we choose to preach or live in a way that we once held as the Truth, our lives and ministry will end in shipwreck. How many good men have lost their ministries and families because they loosed the anchors of faith and a good conscience only to drift into destruction!
Galatians 2:18
For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
While the interpretation of this verse speaks of trusting good works to save us after we have claimed Christ as Saviour, we can also apply it to the Christian life. It is surprisingly easy to go back into the same way of life from which Christ delivered us.
We should pray to guard against the drift of wandering away from God’s Word.
Psalm 119:10
With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
We should join in the prayer of the songwriter of the hymn “Come Thou Fount.”
Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here’s my heart, O take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above.
We must guard against personal drift into sin and licentiousness.
2. Guard Against Ministry Drift.
In our efforts to plant new churches, we must not neglect the good churches that already exist. Far too many churches have gone soft who once preached God’s Truth and worked to save sinners. Don’t let your church drift into compromise.
Ministry drift is a result of personal drift. If the church’s leadership drifts away from the Truth, the entire ministry will surely begin to drift. My heart aches with examples of men and ministries who have drifted into false doctrine, worldliness, and pragmatism in recent years.
If a drifting pastor starts to change an established church, faithful members must hold the line of righteousness to preserve the assembly.
If the church members drift from God, they will put pressure on the preacher to stop preaching challenging truths from God’s Word. How sad when a faithful pastor must fight His own members to stay obedient to God! Every local church member should live in full surrender to Christ and support a faithful man of God.
In every case, large changes in any ministry begin with small changes in the heart.
Everything in this sin-cursed world seeks to diminish the Scriptural beliefs and Biblical practices of faithful churches. The strong currents of worldliness, rebellion, pragmatism, hedonism, and materialism are in direct opposition to the direction God has called us to go. We must swim upstream against the current of popular culture lest our churches drift and become a wreck. Thankfully, with God’s help, we can not only survive, but also thrive!
A Bible-preaching church must maintain Biblical standards in areas such as:
- King James Bible
- Sound Doctrine
- Spirit-filled Preaching
- Faithful Church Attendance
- Biblical Worship
- Baptist Distinctives
- Leadership Requirements
- Personal Standards
- Sacred Music
- Soul winning
- Discipleship
- And more!
Be not deceived. Every ministry that holds God’s standards of holiness and righteousness in a decaying society will pay the price. There will always be people looking for a church that preaches soft messages, requires no accountability, and rubber-stamps their behavior. Sadly, there will always be weak churches to give those to them. Be warned! No matter how little godliness you require or how much sin you allow, there will always be churches that expect less. And you will defile your own conscience while disobeying the Almighty.
Compromise is just not worth it.
It is far better to learn the mind of God from His Word and hold the line. Hold the line! Your community doesn’t need another liberal church. As your ministry drifts into liberalism, it loses its distinctiveness, becoming like every other church in town. It will lose its reason to exist. Christ may even remove your candlestick. (Revelation 2:5) Your community needs a true House of God with a preacher that speaks the Truth, all of God’s Truth, in love.
Never dip your sails to keep people who don’t want to live like Christ. Never cater to people who reject the Truth. Never give in to the demands of someone who wants to live in self-will rather than submission to God.
Your local church belongs to God. You have no right to change it. Christ is the Head. Preach to an audience of One – God Almighty. Set up your ministry to the exact specifications of the Saviour. Follow the best practices of the generations of soul-winning and separated Baptists that have gone before us. Don’t experiment with God’s house. Don’t be enamored with unproven trends and silly fads. Don’t ignore holiness and righteousness for personal comfort or ministry gain.
Preach the Word. Seek Sinners. Win souls. Baptize new believers. Uplift the Saviour. Preach the whole counsel of God. Trust Christ to build His church as He promised. Hold the faith with a good conscience. Christ will build His church, and God will bless your faithfulness.
We must guard our ministries against liberal drift.
We live in days of apathy and apostasy. It seems that every day another pastor quits preaching the Truth, another church becomes liberal, and another church family backslides. We are not immune to this trend.
1 Corinthians 10:12
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
We must protect ourselves, our families, and our churches from liberal drift. Don’t be a casualty. Beg God for strength and wisdom to stand in the evil day. As the world gets darker, your light will shine brighter. Each day we choose to serve Christ will matter for eternity. May we be able to say with the Apostle Paul, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith!”