I recently shopped at an outlet mall here in the United States. These malls have the same stores as a regular mall, yet the merchandise is sold at a discount. The original outlet malls were supposed to sell name brand merchandise that was outdated or had been overproduced at considerable savings. But in recent years it appears many of these are actually selling merchandise with the same label as the regular store but the item is of lesser quality. We call the lesser duplicates “knockoffs”! They look like the real thing but upon closer inspection they are not. They are a cheap copy of the regular brand.

Coca-Cola is the most prominent brand in the history of mankind. They say of all the companies and of all the brands, Coca-Cola is the best known and identifiable product around the world and it’s been imitated over and over again. There is one cola overseas that just calls itself “Cola Cola” and they say it’s close to the real thing. That’s why Coke many years ago came out with the slogan “It’s the Real Thing” because there’s a lot of knock-offs out there. They look like Coca-Cola, but one drink and you know it’s not the real thing!

As long as I have breath, there will never be a “knock-off” gospel preached in the pulpit of this church. As long as I have strength, this will not be a knock-off church. We’re not going to be an imitation that just looks like and smells like the real thing. We must be committed to the real thing or as close as we can get in God’s strength. No knock-off gospel; no knock-off church. Knock-offs are the work of Satan. That is what comes when guys get real clever and smart and start listening to natural, earthly, demonic doctrine. We have many church members who have had their fill of knock-off churches, knock-off preaching, knock-off gospels, and knock-off Christianity and their striving to find the real thing. Do you know what that makes you? A normal Christian. You’re just average. Don’t pat yourself on the back; you just live in a world of such sub-normal Christianity.

There’s great paradox in the church. On one hand, the church is a place of respite and rest from the world. It’s a place of unconditional love and caring. On the other hand, the church is also a place of warfare. This is the paradox. It’s a place where you have to fight and struggle and sometimes go to war to protect the truth, both in the proclamation of it and the performing of it. So both are true: a blessed place of love and respite but also a place of fighting and war. Read the epistles where the Apostle Paul writes to practically every church and he goes to war to keep them out of the error of the day. But praise God, it’s also true that a church can mature to a place where the skirmishes are minor and where humility, sweetness, and love is the norm.