Avoiding the Cross: Be Nice.

Isaiah 3:10 "Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat
the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward
of his hands shall be given him."

Isaiah must avoid two snares: Demoralizing the righteous and enabling the wicked.
He is to comfort the one and discomfort the other.

Hence, Isaiah has to know which are which. It will be well with righteous people;
it will not be well with wicked people, because God is in heaven and He knows the
difference between them and He knows their destiny. So should the minister know,
but his knowledge is not specific as is God's, but general. He knows the marks of
ungodliness, but cannot know an individual's final state. God does, of course.

The minister speaks in general as to the condition of the righteous and ungodly;
the Holy Spirit takes the Scripture and make it specific to the conscience.

Ministers, to avoid the cross, often sooth those who should not be soothed and
make sad those whom they ought not to make sad. Sometimes it is in ignorance,
but the effect is the same. It is a great responsibility to preach the gospel of Christ,
for the minister does not have his own message; he is bound to the Scriptures.

Ezekiel said of the false prophets of his day, Eze 13:22, 23 "Because with lies ye have
made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened
the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising
him life: Therefore ye shall see no more vanity, nor divine divinations: for I will
deliver my people out of your hand: and ye shall know that I am the LORD."

Paul said to Timothy: "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove,
rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." --2 Tim. 4:2.

Philippians 3:18, 19  "For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell
you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is
destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind
earthly things."