No Other Place On the Earth Like It
Where the Great Plains Prairie & Grassland Meets the Rugged Badlands Wall
M Paulson
Kadoka, South Dakota
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Word-for-word transcription of the audio sermon - transcribed by Bob Harris |
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Part V Deceptions Taught
from Today's Pastors
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OK, if everything is right, here we go. Good evening, out there in the Web site world.
We are in part four of “Despising and Destroying Today’s Religion,” and we are looking at — no, tonight’s part five, part five tonight — and we are looking at part two of “Specific Deceptions that Pastors Preach from Their Pulpit.”
And this morning we looked at ignorant worshipping, and we tossed a little small ones in there, God loves everyone. We know God doesn’t love everyone, he loved — past tense — he made his offer, and if they don’t accept his offer, then they don’t have his love. And I think those are the only two we dealt with this morning. Yeah, I think that’s all we did. No, we looked at the importance of the church. And, by falsely going to Hebrews 10:25, we come up with the wrong reason of the importance of coming to church when the doors are open.
See, people have got to realize, I am not against the local church. It’s there for a purpose. And if the purpose is not being purposed, then you don’t go there.
But people don’t care what the church is doing; they just want to go to one.
I heard this morning about somebody who doesn’t like pastors, doesn’t like their method. Well, he’s got that down. But he likes to go there for the people. What a waste of time!
Been living out here, and this particular guy lives really out in the boonies. I guess that’s the only place you can go to find people. But, going to these things and not dealing with them like we should be, all it does is it continues to encourage people to stay there, to be falsely taught.
Like I said, are you going to keep going to that restaurant just because there’s people there, and keep getting poisoned? And if you do, the people are also going to stay there and keep getting poisoned.
And the two words that we hear a lot from Paul are “beguiled” and “bewitched.” “Who hath bewitched you?” And, “beguiled.” We’re being beguiled. It says “by good words and fair speeches.” Not bad words and bad speeches. But good and fair; they deceive the hearts of the simple, because the simple are just that — simple. And, you’ve got to be able to notice with Paul, because Paul does want us to be simple; this whole thing is simplicity in Christ. But he doesn’t mean that we need to be simple by just following the masses, like the Pied Piper, all these little children following this flute guy around.
And that’s what’s going on, too. We’ve got people following the flute guy — the music — as well as these good words and fair speeches, and they’re tossed to and fro, and that verse says “by the sleight of men.” I mean, they’re out there. It says they’re “lying in wait to deceive.” They’re just waiting to trick people.
So I look at these pastors, and I know these guys are, they know where I’m coming from, and they’re still being nice — so right there they’re liars. But they talk nice, and they’re very friendly, and you know they want to trick you. But they leave us alone, I think, because they know we’re not deceivable. We got a Book that cleans their clock. And, again, these are nice people that we’re talking about here. But some of these people don’t know any better, and I still think some of this stuff could pastor changed around from what he’s preaching to what he ought to be preaching.
I know, because that’s me. I was preaching Ruckman Baptistic doctrine, thinking I need to offend people to make it impressive to God — and that’s not right at all.
So he says here these guys are going to get worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
I remember a long time ago, L.D., you asked me (but with a different Bible version), “Do you think these guys really know that they’re teaching lies?” And the answer is, well, no, some are being deceived and they pass those deceptions on. And there are some, that is their job, their mind, their duty, to destroy that King James Bible.
So, anyway, tonight let’s look at — like I said, we finished looking at ignorantly worship, the worship teams and the worship leaders and all this kind of stuff in the churches today, false worship, there, something fierce terribly, terribly, and the importance of the church, going to Hebrews 10:25 — no, that’s a Tribulation reason.
Tonight let’s look at the purpose of the church. Now, maybe you’ve heard this before. The purpose of the church, and how they’ve deceived and wronged that thing, as well as it kind of ties in together with attracting the lost to church. One of the things pastors teach today is, along with this false purpose, they teach that we want to attract lost people to our services. You know, why? Well, we’ll look at that for a couple minutes here.
Here’s a couple others coming down the road; I won’t give you the details, but here’s some of the other things we’re going to talk about here. Music pleases God, today modesty is not true modesty. No roles for man and woman; it’s fine if it works. Everybody believe and pastors teach that we’re all created in God’s image. Everybody talks about Jesus is coming next; they talk about “after this, the judgment,” and they’ve just one judgment on their mind.
These are just simple little things. We must stop sinning; that’s a myth. That if you’re walking a righteous walk, then you’re pleasing God; that’s not necessarily true.
But another one that’s been bugging me a lot lately, and here’s that phrase — you’ve heard the title — it’s called, “Judeochristianity.” And America is a “Judeochristian” country. Yeah, it is. And it’s wrong. That “Judeochristianity” is a false teaching; it’s not a Biblical teaching at all.
So, anyway, let’s go back. This will be quick, because I think if I were to give you a pop quiz, I think some of you could pass this thing, so you have to listen to it again. Let’s go back to Acts chapter 2, and let’s look at the purpose in today’s churches. They go to Acts chapter 2, because this is where the Great Commission is all taking place. This is Peter; everybody wants to follow Peter. Then the preachers go to 1 and 2 Peter, and they go to Jude and all this stuff. Put the fear in people, get them so they walk right, and then that pleases God.
And then here’s another myth. Here’s another false teaching, that God will bless you if you’re doing right. And, if you do bad, you’ll lose your fellowship, you’ll be chastised, and you’ll be hurt — sometimes killed — and, for those who are extremists, you’ll lose your salvation. That’s another false teaching. But it all comes out of Old Testament beliefs, and Old Testament teachings.
Now this thing in Acts chapter 2; so, you want to know what’s going on in churches today. And I could take the time to tell you how I came about this with the Alpha program, and studying the Alpha teaching materials, then I recognized the fact that they’re all getting their verses from early Acts and Peter and everything. Then I recognized the fact that our pastors, our King James guys are doing the same thing, going to the same verses, and that’s when I realized all this is what’s going on.
So, what we’ve got going on here is Acts chapter 2, verse 41, and this is what’s going on in the church today. Now, this is wrong. This is not now; this was then; this is not now. But, unfortunately, this is what is now, but it shouldn’t be. So, little Daniel, when you get to make your own decisions in life and you want to go back to church or whatever, this is what they’re be doing. Verse 41: “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” So, that looks good. Pastors look at that and go, “Well, that’s a good thing.”
“And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine.” OK, we don’t follow the apostles’ doctrine with Paul. We follow Paul’s doctrine. There are places in here where Paul deals with the apostles, and he talks to the apostles, and they hear what he’s saying, and they send him out, and he goes and does what he does to the Gentiles.
The apostles’ doctrine is Jewish. OK? “And fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” So they’re continuing steadfastly in Jewish doctrine, in fellowship — that’s why people go to church, they want to have fellowship — you know. I know the Floyds, you mentioned how lonely you are, and that I didn’t realize what it was like until we got out there, and I’m all by my little lonesome, that’s loneliness. Yeah, I understand that. The fellowship — very little. “And in breaking of bread”? With who? Mixed denominations, mixed people, mixed beliefs, mixed everybody? “And in prayers”? Well, everybody can pray together around the flagpole. Let’s get all the people who say they’re Christians, and they’ll even pray with the Hindus, you know, just pray to whoever your God is, whoever she is is what I was told one time. OK, so, because they continue in that stuff today, they preach this. Verse 43: “And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.” Begin Jewish, Mark 16, end of the Great Commission, or the beginning of the Great Commission, of course that was all done.
What do we want today? People are not happy, they quit if they don’t see something from God in their lives. Man, you sit down and you read Paul’s teachings, and you will see tons of things in your personal person that Christ did to us and for us. And those are wonders and miracles, but they’re not outward stuff like signs.
OK, so, we have people in the churches today looking for God to do things in their life. So, somebody does something nice to somebody, they say, “Well, see, God told me to do that,” and that was just a miracle that that happened!
Mark, you wrote me that one today your cousin or somebody talking about how, “Let’s pray for such-and-such,” because he needs a miracle, because he’s got heart attack and blood and medical issues. Well, what happened to God taking care of this guy to keep her from that situation in the first place? How about that miracle? Let’s wait for the guy to be dying, and then ask God for a miracle. They just don’t get it.
Anyway, signs were done by the apostles. Well, that’s because they were supposed to — it’s Scriptural — but not today. “And all that believed were together, and had all things common.” Now, they’re trying to get this to happen in the church. So they ignore their differences; they ignore the doctrinal issues; they ignore the music; they ignore the standards. They ignore all the stuff in the walk, so that they can be together and have things common.
“And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.” Right. That’s what’s going on today, OK?
“And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple —” oh, how nice, get the sermons about unity “— and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.” So, they get rid of the divisions, house to house we have fellowship — this is all they get out of the churches.
And then the last verse, which brings in the lost people: “Praising God, and having favour with all the people.” So, let’s quit being antagonistic in the community; let’s go out there, and let’s participate with the community. Let’s go out there and let’s just do what they do.
And I know when that’s taken place. And I’ve heard about it in my pastor. And, you know, the community doesn’t want us if we are who we are, if we are who we say we are and we do that kind of a walk, they don’t want us participating. They shouldn’t want us participating. We can be full of grace and we can enjoy ourselves, we can talk to people, the whole thing. But, in order to participate with what this world is doing, you have to be either immodest or loud or out of place, or something. You can’t follow Paul’s manner of life and participate in this world, and in the community things, all of them. For, we are even told not to, not to be partakers of their — how’s that go — partakers, I think it is, of darkness. We’re not supposed to go out there and be part of that.
It’s a lonely place to follow the risen Saviour, specially amongst religion.
OK, so there we have what’s going on. You just take them to Acts chapter 2, and then, “Well, yeah, we do all that kind of stuff. That’s all like us. That’s great. Yes, you know, and we’ve get prayer, and we’ve got fellowship and apostles’ doctrine, blah blah blah blah.”
Well, I’m sorry, but that’s not who we’re supposed to follow.
We go to — where do we go? How many know this? Where do we go for the purpose of the church today? See if you guys have learned anything here. See if anybody can wipe it in — you should have typed it in already by now. Where do we go to show people what the purpose of today’s church is? Ephesians chapter 4. Look at; see, now, I’m probably just repeating something you don’t need to hear. We’ll make it quickly here. Ephesians chapter 4. Bob must be asleep, and Daniel I would understand that you not know this one. Ephesians chapter 4. And we can go to 11: “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.” I like the “pastors and teachers.” I’ve always said you need to preach what you teach and you need to teach what you preach. A pastor should be able to preach and teach at the same time and teach and preach at the same time. Ah, here comes Grandma! Probably enjoying the fact that her water works again.
Verse 12; here we go, here’s why. Here’s the purpose of our church. Here’s the purpose of pastors; here’s the purpose of our church gathering. And, if we could ever make this the purpose of our Web site, that’s fine, that’s fine, that would be great: “For the perfecting of the saints.” OK, then you study the word “perfect.” It doesn’t mean making an errorless walk, a sinningless walk — doesn’t mean that at all. Completed — we do the things in our manner of life that would change our lives, and becoming a more complete person — finished — not sinless, “sinningless,” I call it.
“For the perfecting of the saints.” But, anyway, that’s the purpose of the church. Now, how do you do that. By teaching.
“For the work of the ministry.” OK, now there is a ministry at work that should be taking place. And that’s what hard about the Web site. How do we all work together for a ministry, other than just to promote the Web site, I guess. But, I don’t know of any people who have ever come because you all said, “You ought to turn to this —” How many of you have actually asked somebody to go to this Web site? We all have. And I guess we don’t know if they do or not.
I did find out a couple of months ago that the school board has all checked out the Web site just to see what I’m teaching. And that was when the principal said to me, “Well, you can teach the truth, but you just can’t use the Scripture references.” I’m OK with that; that’s no big deal. That doesn’t bother me at all.
So, in our older music classes, seventh and eighth grade, we’re going through the history of music. I didn’t start with Shem, Ham, and Japheth; I started it with white, black, and brown people. And, as we go through this thing — wait a minute, they had to have the Dark Ages; why were the Dark Ages so “dark”? Because the church was in control of the world. And what happened? They reformed out of that thing; Martin Luther and the Reformation, howling about the Reformation. And so we told them what was going on; if you didn’t join that church, they killed you. “What’s the church?”
“Well, I’m not going to tell you.” You know, and we’re into Bach now, and we’re getting into some of this. So there are a lot of little side trips that pull up, and the kids ask. I’m not saying any Bible verses, Bible references. I’m teaching the girls to take care of themselves, away from these boys, no Bible references, just trying to get some stuff in there. Now, have we ever talked about a salvation for a person? Well, we actually have. But not in a manner of where I put he pressure on them, etc., etc.
One kid wants me to bring him a Bible. OK, I’ll bring him a Bible, no big deal. “Do your parents care?”
“No, because they’ve already given me one, but I’ve lost it.”
“Oh, I’ll bring you one.”
So, anyway, how did we get into that? How did I get into that? “Work of the ministry.” What kind of a ministry do we have? What is our purpose of this Web site? Well, one of them is, “for the perfecting of the saints.” Is that what’s going on in the churches? No, that’s one of the reasons why some of us have left. There’s no “perfecting” going on. They were satisfied with where we were. No trying to uplift standards, no trying to increase a better walk, no pressure put on the church people to have a better testimony in the community. That’s “for the perfecting of the saints.” We grow. We grow as a Christian, according to Paul’s teachings. Romans 2:16 tells us we are going to be judged by those things anyway. Our works are going to be judged by them.
And then, “the work of the ministry,” like I said, what is it that we do do with the ministry. And, “for the edifying of the body of Christ.” OK, so this is the three purposes of the local church.
Now, it follows through with this: “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God.” OK, so then that preacher should be teaching about faith — his faith as well as our faith. He should be teaching the knowledge of the Son of God. Well, where is the Son of God? He’s risen. OK, teach that. Teach the knowledge of the risen Son of that, as well as his testimony — like Paul says, he’s not ashamed of his testimony, the Lord. You know, Genesis — we’ve been through this, go through the Gospel, before Jesus was the Creator, you’ve got Old Testament, you’ve got the Law, you’ve got the Gospels, you’ve got the Great Commission, you’ve got Paul, you’ve got the risen Jesus Christ, and you’ve got the Jesus Christ that comes back from the Tribulation. You’ve got the Jesus Christ in the Millennium, and you’ve got the Jesus Christ of eternity. That’s the knowledge of the Son of God. Why did they leave out the risen Saviour with Paul? We know that.
“Unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” Fullness of Christ — that’s all of Christ there. OK, so those three purposes — “until,” we get to this point. And then it says, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” But ... we’re supposed to be “But speaking the truth in love.” See, they don’t love us. They may say they love us, but they don’t love us because they don’t teach us what they believe is truth. They teach us what they believe. And, if they want to believe what we believe, go ahead.
“Well, what you believe truth?”
“Well, we don’t know.”
Well, I know. I want to speak the truth in love. I want to tell people what’s going on. Why? Because I do care for them. That’s speaking the truth in love.
“May grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” That’s us. That’s supposed to be us. That’s tough for us on the Web site. We are a family; we are a body. This is our church, as such, and we’re supposed to be “fitly joined together.” Well, that’s pretty tough when you don’t see each other during the week, or type to each other during the week, or some of us just miss on Sunday nights and some of us miss Wednesday nights, you know. I’ve got somebody back there who’s slowly leavening, just taking that person apart. It just happens. But if we were that body, together, it wouldn’t happen as easily.
“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk —” and then it just goes on. So there’s the purpose of the church. It’s to be perfected, it’s to give us a ministry to work with. I’ve said repeatedly on the Web site, we got Rebecca Orchard out there who’s got cancer and now a brain tumor. We’ve got Jeannette, you’ve got to know the insurance company quite well. We used to say got to know the doctor quite well, but, no, we just get to know the insurance companies — hopefully we have it, some of it anyway. Eighty percent of a million dollars still leaves us with a huge bill to pay — which is just part of the American way anymore.
We have people with eye surgery — we have all sorts of things; I can’t even think of the whole list we have. But we’re a family. And we don’t have the time to e-mail; we don’t have the things. There is a weakness to having just a Web site ministry. However, we have the Book; we have the Lord; we have an actual relationship with God if we have taken this stuff beyond the knowledge, like the mid-Acts guys, beyond that knowledge and actually turned this into a relationship with you and God, him speaking to you, and you speaking to him, and all the day long, you think about him, you think about this, you do something wrong, you realize why, because your flesh wins and you think of Romans chapter 7, you think of the manner of life — you go through all this stuff all the time, and you talk to the Lord about it, and you know he’s not going to slap you down, you know stuff that you’re doing that doesn’t please him is going to burn, but you’re not — you know, you just get this whole thing rolling.
And these people talk about a relationship with your Saviour. They have no idea what that means! They think just putting on a good CD of Sandy Patti and — I can’t even think of the modern people anymore — Mark, you mentioned Carmen — you know, these music that’s going on. People think that this is how they worship God.
And taking us back to this morning — Paul says, “Listen, this isn’t the kind of God we have. This isn’t how it gets done, people.” And, if you’ve been around to different churches, we know that this is what’s going on in the churches. And you finally get ahold of your Bible and you realize, I got to get out of this place. I like the people, you know — I don’t like the youth director, he’s too, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about with my kids, so — but now you’ve got to take your wife home, you got to take your kids home — now what are you going to do? Now the ball’s back in your court. And you don’t want the ball in your court. You can barely hang on to the racket, let alone hit the ball back over the net and score a point.
That’s where we are these days. Get out there and grab the racket and give it a shot, give it a try — instead of sitting around and just watching everybody just poison your family, you know. Anyway. You know, “for the edifying of the body of Christ” — to be taught. “Until we come in unity of the faith.” We’re not going to be children, bopped around anymore. And we speak to people the truth in love. And we’re all together.
That’s the purpose of the church. Not to change your purpose so you can have lost people come. You don’t want to have — the local church is not there for lost people. It’s just not. And if it is, what’s the point of having it? Go to the local Grange then, if that’s what you want.
“Having favor with all the people” — Paul did not have favor with all the people. Jesus himself did not have favor with all the people. During the Great Commission, they wanted to have favor with all the people, they were teaching the apostles’ doctrine — it was signs — and they wanted people to get this stuff, they were fearful because of what the miracles were doing. This is from God, and we better buckle down and take care of God in our lives.
That’s not what Paul teaches. Paul teaches — you guys got to understand, the Jewish people had the severity of God. We look at Romans chapter 2, and we see that the goodness of God brings people to repentance, not the fear, not the judgment of God. Now, it’s there, and we can talk about it. Paul doesn’t talk much about it. He really doesn’t. He does mention it, but he doesn’t talk about it a lot. He talks about how marvelous and wonderful this God is, that he gave us his Son, his only begotten Son; we know that from John. But, in order to have that Son, Paul tells us how to have him. And Paul tells us what it is this risen Saviour does to us and for us.
And, because of that, you learn that stuff, you want to follow the risen Saviour. How do you follow the risen Saviour? By following Paul. He’s our apostle; that’s the apostle, not plural. The apostles’ (possessive), apostles’ doctrine is to follow Paul’s doctrine. It’s the difference between Jews and Gentiles.
The Judeochristian concept is Jewish teachings mixed with Jesus’ teachings. Well, I’m sorry, but Jesus Christ took care of the Jewish teachings. They’re gone; they’re not there. They’re there to show that you’re a sinner, that you’re lost.
But if you want to do the right thing, you want to walk righteously, you learn from Paul. If there is anything in the Old Testament that the risen Saviour wants us to learn in our walk, Paul will tell us. We don’t have to go back and search for the Old Testament to find the stuff that we can do. Remember, Paul doesn’t tell us the Ten Commandments. He tells us the nine commandments. It goes on like this forever.
“Judeochristian” is a myth; it’s a lie; it’s a deception. “The purpose of the church is to have favor with all the people in the community” — that is a deception, that is a lie. “The importance of church is so that we can go there to exhort each other”? That’s not now; that’s coming up later. We can exhort to each other, not a problem. But that is not the purpose.
And this “worship” going on in churches today? Those are lies. That is ignorant worship of an unknown God that people have no clue.
So, anyway. So, there’s that. I think we’ll just leave it at that. That’s enough to pass on if you just keep your mind about it here. We are still going to be going through Paul’s description and teachings and warnings about this pastors. I just got this little bunny trail going about what it is that these guys that are lies, that are deceptions. And we’ll probably just spend one more night at it, and then we’ll get back to what Paul teaches about these guys, and then we’ll see what it is that we’re supposed to be being taught today.
It’s probably the same old thing for people, but, you know, that’s where it’s at from these lips, anyway. And when you drive by these churches out there, do you think of anything when you drive by all these churches everywhere, you know, big monstrosities, or little ones, you know, and you think of the poor people in there. Just like Jesus said. These people don’t have a shepherd. I’m talking about the Jews; they didn’t have a shepherd.
So, I’ll say it again to make sure you don’t misunderstand me. Pastors are not shepherds today, because we’re not sheep. But you look in there, and I feel bad for these people. For one, been there, done that. I got nothing out of church — other than religion. And I watch it slowly unravel. So, I just know these people are being duped, they’re being deceived, I look at these pastors, not “pastorettes,” and I think, “You know, you are just a liar; you are a minister of the devil, you’re a minister of righteousness, but you’re teaching the wrong righteousness. You think that gain is godliness, so you’ll do anything you can to get gain and then people will believe you. And yet you’re fifty thousand dollars in debt, and you think you’ve gained.”
Oh, they’re preaching profane and vain babblings because they don’t teach the King James Bible — that’s 1 Timothy chapter 6. They’re destitute of the truth. All that stuff goes across my mind, and I think, “How can you tell these people that?” Well, we all go through that frustration all the time. How do you tell somebody? And when you do tell somebody, they just burn you with it. They don’t want to hear that stuff. It’s Bible — doesn’t matter anymore. We’ve come to the point where the Bible means nothing. Even to Christians.
Or, you run across these people who are really impressed — “Oh, yeah, you really know your Bible really well.” And they’re glad to get out of there, because you’re some kind of a nut. Remember what they said to Paul? Festus said to Paul, “Paul — all that learning — man, you’ve become a nut case!”
That’s why I like Paul so much. Paul, other than the Saviour himself, Paul is the one I love reading about, because he is what we would be if we could even come close to trying to do some of the things Paul did.
Anyway, it’s just repetitive ramblings from me, I suppose, but there you are Floyd (Hugh), you take care of your back.
