GC Dangers

www.scatteredchristians.org

Another Sermon for the Starving Bible Believing Christians All Over the World Wide Web
2005 - Touchet Baptist Church, Touchet, Washington - Pastor Mike Paulson - 2005
Learning the way of God more perfectly - Acts 18:26 with the Scriptures Rightly Divided - II Timothy 2:15

The Truth about the Truth
The Very Serious Dangers of Preaching the Great Commission
in Our Baptist Churches Today

These conclusions are based on my very recent witnessing of the effects and preaching on the Great Commission!
I believe God has shown us His way more perfectly which is living WITH Christ BEYOND the Great Commission!
It is time to take a stand against this very serious and real enemy to the Bible in our KJB churches!
Pastor M Paulson

There are many variations of the Great Commission that are found in the pulpits all over America. ALPHA, Pentecostal, Purpose Driven, Creeks, homeschool Curriculums, all major denominations, all major 'modern' Churches, CCM and forms of music ministry & even the many various and common Baptist churches, etc. Sadly, now more and more of the King James Bible Believers are now preaching the Great Commission.

Why? Because it increases their attendance and fills their parking lot!

Yes, we are preaching Jesus Christ for salvation, as we should, so it apparently makes sense to people to preach His teachings from the Gospels as well. Wrong!

We are to learn and study Jesus Christ from Paul, NOT from Peter, James, John or even Jesus from the Gospels. Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles - so we are told to follow Paul - in fact, we will be judged by Paul's Gospel. Jesus tells the Holy Spirit what we need to be told and then that is told to us through that King James Bible - and even more specifically, from Paul's writings.

But this sermon isn't going to preach about Paul...
...that information is available in well over a year's worth of sermons on this website.

I want to just give you a short outline about the DANGERS of the Great Commission Gospel that I Ihave repeatedly heard being preached in more and more King James Bible Only churches - even our favorite 'old prophets' are preaching the Great Commission now - and they didn't used to!

Here are just a few points about preaching the Great Commission today.
(and if you are not hearing about Paul and his writings in your church,
you are hearing about the Great Commission whether you recognize it or not.)

I. It produces a dead Christianity!

no joy from the people in our churches - 'especially' the younger folks!
guilt about not winning enough souls!
short sermons that are always about getting saved, being saved and leading someone to Christ!
emphasis on building buildings, etc. to get folks to come to church!
people follow the preacher man; people come because of the man, church, programs, etc.!
NO BOOK - they may carry and use the King James but they don't turn the people to it nor do the people know how to understand it!
the lack of rightly dividing increases the folks unto more ungodliness, even if their action appears to be doing right, they are doing right wrong!

II. It ignores the times we are in!

they preach 'increase' in numbers - even though these are the days of apostasy today!
we are in the Laodicean hour of temptation, NOT the Philadelphian. Preaching about the great preachers of the past just put folks on a guilt trip today!
they are actually preaching a false peace - something the antichrist is very good at!

III. Preachers don't preach about separating from the world, etc. as we are commanded to do.

Movies; Music; appearance; testimonies; lack of modesty, etc.
people in these churches are abusing the strings that are attached to our liberty

IV. Keeps people confused, disappointed, guilty, thinking they are not winning enough souls, etc.

always preaching at the people about their lack of winning souls because the church isn't full, etc!

V. Lifts the local church above the Book!

they are accused of not loving their church if they don't bring new folks in!
the church is their final authority!
they are more concerned about the pillar instead of the truth!

VI. They have NO Bible!

even if they are a King James Bible church, it isn't an issue; they don't talk about it much, etc.!
they have no way of understanding the TO and FOR in their Bible, because they do not get rightly dividing!
they don't always have to 'turn to... in the Scriptures" - they just listen to the man tell them about salvation!
their pastor takes their Bible away from them by confusing their source verses from the Gospels to produce their sermon truth about soul winning, thus folks have no idea how to read their bibles and how to discern the different dispensational applications.
they have no fullness of understanding let alone the riches from it!

VII. The pastors manipulate the crowd & deceive the hearts of the simple!

either through music, flattery, vain words, fair speeches, cunning craftiness, enticing words of man's wisdom, great swelling words and especially having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.
they lead folks who are past feeling unto lasciviousness, etc.!
this is not about the preachers themselves, it is about the message and words they preach!

VIII. Here are some phrases and teachings that are very common in the Great Commission churches.
These are phrases that are taken out of context, wrongly divided and are just plain used as guilt-producers because of their unscriptural use and/or improper context and application. I have personally heard these phrases all used in sermons! The folks that come to hear that GC preacher is a dead crowd. They all don't even bring their Bibles. Preaching the Great Commission produces dead Christians - especially to the Book!

A. Trust the Lord for increase! Expect increase - believe - have faith for the increase!
What a thing - this is Pentecostal preaching mentality in our Bible Believing churches now. In other words, if there is little or no increase in their church attendance, souls won, visitors, money given for building programs, etc etc, etc. then it must be because the folks have little faith. What a guilt trip is put on folks!!!!

B. Bless us with souls!
What does that mean? We are winning souls for us? for our rewards? for our church size, etc.? Souls are won to Him, not to us.

C. Be a willing and waiting vessel!
Right, so if you are not winning or bringing anybody, it must be YOUR fault!

D. It's all about Surrender! Give yourself to God!
More guilt!

E. Great and marvelous things will happen!
Like what? Buildings, increase in numbers, happier kids, etc.?

F. Do you love the church?
Of course, but not more than the Lord - not more than the King James Bible - not more than a RIGHTLY DIVIDED Bible - not more than all that Paul wants us to be fed - not more than the truth!

G. We will stand before God!
No - our WORKS will stand before God! Just more and more guilt for not being a great soul winner!

H. Serve God as His Servant!
Sure, but also strive to not only live FOR God, but to live WITH Him! We are more than servants - we can be His friends, too - and will eventually be His bride soon.

I. Get them to come to Christ!
Of course, but do we have to be told this week after week, Sunday after Sunday? What about all that Paul wants us to be fed as he tells us in Ephesians 4:11-16!

J. Look to God for guidance!
Sure - through Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit in that King James Bible right down to Paul and all that is TO us! Then we can also consider all that is FOR us - not just some guilt producing pastor asking you to pray about 'giving' money or yourself without your own understanding of God's will for your life through growth in and by the Scriptures. Our inner feelings are not from God. This is the sensual crowd as warned about in Jude.

K. If God can't trust you IN all, then God can't trust you AT all!
Man, I am getting sick of this guilt stuff. What does that mean? If God is not Lord of all, then He is not Lord at all... This is the same thing - in other words, if you are saved, then you will do these things that I preach. If not in all, then you are not at all! etc. Such junk!

L. Don't turn in your Scriptures to... but the Bible says...
What a thing - that is why we bring our Bibles to church - to be SHOWN the scriptures. Don't worry about the time it takes... these folks need to learn how to be able handle their Bible WITHOUT the preacher always telling them where to look or not!

M. You are a chosen people - live like it.
We are NOT the chosen people. I Peter 2:9-11 is about and TO the Jews, not us. Romans 11:25 warns us about thinking we are the chosen ones - we are very conceited if we think this salvation, etc. is all about us. It isn't!

N. Quoting the great old preachers!
But those guys were from an era that God blessed with open doors, etc. The credit is to go to God, NOT to the preachers Those preachers had some poor doctrine and knew little about rightly dividing it seems. They preached hard, but the increase was all because of God at that time - NOT TODAY. You could take those messages from those preachers and preach them today and you won't get the same results at all! It wasn't the sawdust and tent that made that era work - it was God. He wouldn't even let their poor doctrine, etc. shut the door. God blessed His words, not the personal greatness of the preachers! In fact, they had little if any education - many could not even read that well.

O. Confess your sins - don't lose your fellowship with God!
What? That is ONLY found in I John 1:7-9 which is NOT to us today. We are already forgiven. That is for Tribulation, etc. There is nowhere where we read where God cancels out fellowship with us. Any lack of fellowship is us turning our backs on Him - not Him on us! What a guilt thing - what a rotten thing to preach to your people! I John 1:7-9, etc say NOTHING about fellowship! We can grieve and quench the Spirit, but God never stops the fellowship nor does He ever not forgive us. Our sins are gone - they are washed away - they are not even imputed.

P. Doing God's commission as stated in Matthew 28:19,20, Mark 16:15-18 and Acts 2:41-47.
Ok, if that is true, then why are not baptists doing the Apostles doctrine, why are they not speaking in tongues or grabbing deadly serpents, where are the Baptist healers?

Come on folks - if we take people to the Gospels today as if they were written TO us, you would have a lot explaining to do about why they can't do it all! Paul's gospel is NOT the Great Commission!

We need to feed the church with Paul's gospel - from Romans to Philemon. The local church does have a purpose - see Ephesians 4:11-16. Bringing in the 'lost' and shoving out the 'saved' is not God's design for the local church!

The preaching of the Great Commission today is an enemy to the truth of Christianity.
And it is a serious enemy!

I believe it is killing our Bible Believing churches all across America and replacing the Book with rock, "gospel" and hillbilly music - but alas, that is another sermon!