Look at Jesus, for example. Jesus ate with sinners, and when the Pharisees protested, He said, "...They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick" (Matt. 9:12). In other words, Jesus came to save the lost, heal the sick, and deliver the captives. He did not despise the ungodly; He ministered to them.
A Proper Balance
In much the same way, we as Christians must keep a clear mind and maintain a clear line of demarcation between right and wrong and between righteousness and sin when we are ministering to sinners and winning the lost.
There are many Christians who are trying to run with the devil's crowd; they don't know how to keep that line of demarcation. But you can keep that line clear and your mind steady the same way Jesus did—by realizing and understanding that you are in this world but not of this world.
I want you to notice that Jesus reached out to sinners and ate with them, but if they didn't start following Him, He didn't follow them. He was the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to bring sinners life, and they either came into the fold and received that life, or they rejected it and left Him.
Jesus never rejected people; they rejected Him. Jesus reached out to people, but it was up to them whether they accepted or rejected Him.
We need to reach out to others, too, but we ought to have better sense than to go with them to certain places. For example, I don't agree with some people's philosophy about how to spread the Gospel. For instance, they think its all right to go into bars to preach the Gospel to sinners.
Unless its a supernatural move of God prompting us to go into a bar to give someone the Gospel, we don't belong in bars. We can open ourselves up to harm by doing those kinds of things.
Use the Spiritual Discernment God
Has Given You—And Be Blessed!
Psalm 1:1 says, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly..." but I like to say, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the stupidity of the world"!
Psalm 1:2 says, "But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night." When you "walk not" in the counsel of the ungodly but delight yourself in the Word of God, meditating upon it continually, you will be blessed.
Some people just don't exercise what I call "good common sense" when it comes to the everyday affairs of life. As a result, they aren't enjoying "good success" in certain areas.
"Walking Not in the Counsel of the Ungodly"
Can Keep You From Being Gullible
Another area of life in which some Christians do not "deal wisely" has to do with missions work. Now don't misunderstand me. I am not against anyone who's doing a real work for the Lord. Its important to support missions. But I am against those who try to get money for so-called works they've established in other countries, yet those works either don't exist at all or they are nothing like what they're represented to be.
In other words, some people talk about what big works they have in other countries, but when you go to those countries, often the works aren't half as big as they were described or may even be nonexistent!
Friend, its time we begin to deal wisely in some of these areas. Jesus said, "Be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves" (Matt. 10:16).
Walking Not in the Counsel of the Ungodly
Can Help You Recognize False Teaching
We also need to use some sense when it comes to false teaching that doesn't line up with the Word of God.
Some Christians can be so smart when it comes to business deals. They are astute when they believe someone is trying to take advantage of them in the natural. Yet when it comes to people trying to deceive them spiritually, those Christians will believe almost anything!
In other words, someone could just "poke" any doctrine down their mouths, so to speak, and they'd "swallow it" like a baby bird with its mouth wide open!
But the other side of that coin is, a person can become so cynical that he's not sensitive to anything, not even to God's Word and His Spirit. There has to be a balance in these things. And you achieve that balance by walking not in the counsel of the ungodly and by delighting yourself in God's Word!
The problem with some people is that they're often not wise enough to keep from being drawn in by the sinner's conversation and lifestyle. They reason, "Oh, but, Preacher, they said they were Christians." But First John 4:1 says, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."
We are to "try the spirits." We are to exercise a little bit of spiritual discernment and not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. I have seen good Spirit-filled Christians getting "sucked into" wrong doctrine like it was quicksand!
In other words, they didn't get sucked in all at once; it happened gradually. They began to walk with certain groups that looked good, sounded good, and so forth. But those groups were preaching doctrine that went against the Bible. (Thank God, some people who are deceived do eventually fight their way out of the quicksand of deception.)
Don't Be Moved By Outward Appearances
You see, just because something looks good on the surface does not mean that it is good. For example, I like cherry pie, especially the kind with cross-strips of crust on top, sprinkled with sugar. But I'll tell you what...if I walk down the street and see a piece of cherry pie just lying there on the curb, I'm surely not going to eat it!
You may laugh at that illustration, but there's a valuable truth to it that I want you to see. No matter what something may look like on the surface or at first glance, you have to choose wisely if you want to be successful and blessed in life. You must choose your friends rightly, and you must rightly divide the Word of truth so you can hold fast to sound doctrine.
How can you do that? By not doing something—by not walking in the counsel of the ungodly, by not standing in the way of the sinner, and by not sitting in the seat of the scornful!
If you keep yourself from getting tangled up in the counsel of the ungodly from the beginning, you will never end up at the place of sitting in the seat of the scornful.
Similarly, the Bible says, "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise..." (Prov. 13:20). This is what will happen when you walk in the counsel of the godly - you will be wise!
I want to get you thinking in line with the Word of God. When the Word says you'll be blessed if you do certain things, then do them! And when the Word says you'll be blessed if you don't do certain things, then don't do those things!
From Genesis to Revelation, we can see that blessed is the man or woman who does what the Word of God says to do or not to do!
Excerpt permission granted by Faith Library Publications
Kenneth W. Hagin, President of Kenneth Hagin Ministries and pastor of RHEMA Bible Church, ministers around the world. Known for calling the Body of Christ to steadfast faith, he seizes every ministry opportunity to impart an attitude of “I cannot be defeated, and I will not quit.”
