For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. -- Romans 1: 16 (ESV)
It is time for people who call themselves Christians to wake up to the schemes of Satan in this country. Beloved, what matters to us as believers? What should really matter? What is the only instruction Christ gave us before He left? What is at stake for the world? The answer to all of these questions is the only thing that truly matters and that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our key verse explains clearly that it is only the Gospel that has the power of God unto the salvation of man. What does that mean? Simply put that only the Gospel can save someone. Not the church. Not our zeal. Not our smoke machines and disco lighting. Not becoming seeker friendly and purpose driven. Only the Gospel.
That is one side of the spiritual war we are in. The Gospel is all sufficient but does not stand unopposed. There is an enemy. That crafty serpent of old, the devil. If the only thing that matters is the Gospel then what would you think the enemy's primary goal is? To stop the spread of the Gospel of course. Why? Because he also knows that it is the only thing that has the power to save anyone. So he works his hardest in trying to distract the people of God from the only thing God has commissioned them to do -- spread the Gospel. Amongst these efforts, which God has specifically warned us about, is the proliferation of false gospels. A false gospel contains some truths and appearance of piety but in the end it must lead to a false christ. Paul experienced this early on at the Church at Galatia:
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. -- Galatians 1: 6-9 (ESV)
So the notion of a different gospel is as old as the days when the church first began. Satan has always tried to infiltrate the church from within. Maybe with well intentioned people but people who ultimately lead others away from the true Gospel and thus the true Christ. The end result is simple. No one gets saved. The devil will appeal to something familiar. Something that the people want or even want to believe. He will build theologies around these beliefs and false teachers will arise promoting these heresies. Because they are essentially scratching itching ears, they will enjoy much carnal success which the devil will sell as the approval of God. In Galatia, because the new believers were Jews, Satan went after circumcision, which was an old and revered custom. The false teachers that he rose up were called the Judaizers and their message seemed fair and reasonable. Sure you needed faith in Christ for salvation but you also needed to practice circumcision. That is what is astonishing Paul so greatly in these verses. Later in the letter he breaks it down further:
Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. -- Galatians 5: 2-6 (ESV)
Paul is saying if you add anything to faith in Christ then you no longer have faith in Christ. Only the Gospel matters. When saying goodbye to the elders at the Church at Ephesus in Acts 20, Paul declares himself free of their blood for he did not hesitate to proclaim the entire will of God to them. The entire Gospel. So who are the modern day Judaizers in the church? Who has infiltrated the church with arguments that sound right and pious but actually are leading away from the Gospel? While there are many and they often intersect, today we will focus on one of the more grievous offenders, the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and their worship America theologies. The NAR is chock full of false teachers that are quite prominent. Bill Johnson, Mike Bickle, IHOP, Charisma News, the Kansas City Prophets, General Cindy Jacobs, Lance Wallnau, Jennifer Leclaire, Rick Joyner, Chuck Pierce and so many others. Many local churches are NAR infected and may not even know it.
The NAR believes in the seven mountains mandate which teaches that the church must conquer the world in order to facilitate the second coming of Jesus Christ. It does this by taking over the seven mountains of cultural influence, one of which is government. This is what has led to the unhealthy obsession amongst the false teaching leadership with American revival. Mind you the Bible does not speak about a great end times revival but rather a great end times apostasy. What's the ultimate goal here though beloved? Why is Satan working overtime on projects such as this? Because for every second spent focused on this country and this world is a second apart from the Gospel. You remember the Gospel? The only thing that has the power to save anyone? So Satan has spread what some might call "fake news" throughout the church that their religious freedoms are under attack. That we must influence our culture back into revival.
So we come to the ceremony at the White House this week. President Trump ran on promising to overturn the Johnson Amendment. This decades old provision stuck into the tax code prohibits churches that receive tax exempt status from preaching politics from the pulpit. The argument Satan makes is that this is somehow muzzling the church's right to religious freedom. Nonsense. If the government ever said the church could not preach the Gospel -- that would be an infringement upon our religious freedom. The ban on speaking politics is a good thing. It is one less distraction from what the church is charged with speaking -- the Gospel. Trump has realized now that he actually cannot repeal the Johnson Amendment because that will take an act of Congress. So he instead signed an Executive Order essentially instructing the IRS to not prosecute any violations. From a political standpoint this is delivering on a promise made. From a spiritual warfare standpoint it was a victory for Satan.
What are you saying preacher? What about the state of morality in this country? Preach the Gospel. What about the sanctity of life and marriage? Preach the Gospel. What about the liberal agenda? Preach the Gospel. Whatever distraction the enemy throws up in our faces we are to preach the Gospel. Why? Because only the Gospel has the power of God unto the salvation of man. People imbedded in churchianity are trumpeting this as a victory today when it was a defeat for the cause of Christ. Just look at who was standing behind the president clapping! Paula White is the poster child for defrauding millions of Christians. She has made five million dollars lying to believers in order to steal their money. She is not a faith leader. She is a vicious wolf who has torn apart the sheep of the Lord for decades.
Next to her was Baptist pastor Jack Graham. Next to him was a Catholic Bishop and next to him a Rabbi. If you ever wondered how the road to a one world religion gets paved it was on display this week. Beloved, most agree these are the end times. Jesus is coming back soon. When he does it will be too late for those on the outside of salvation looking in. I understand that the argument made by the NAR crowd can sound right at times. Just like I am sure the Judaizers sounded right in Galatia. The reality is that we have a church today that barely preaches the Gospel anymore to begin with. They preach self help and motivational seminars. They preach a seeker friendly purpose driven slop that contains nothing about sin and repentance. They are more likely to exegete the upcoming summer blockbuster movies than they are the Bible. If many had their way they would preach politics too. Every Sunday, choosing one carnal party of man over another. The reality is this country is the Titanic and we already struck the iceberg. The ship is going down. Trust me; I have seen how the movie ends. There is only one lifeboat and his name is Jesus. The Gospel is what points people to the right lifeboat. The coming one world religion will tell everyone that any lifeboat will do. The NAR crowd are arguing over who is best qualified to steer the ship into its icy grave. Today they celebrate while the Gospel weeps. It is time we wake up beloved. There is a grand cosmic backdrop hosting the spiritual war we are engaged in and losing quite handily. On one side there is the only thing that has the power of God unto the salvation of man -- the Gospel. On the other side is every new shiny object Satan can muster to distract us from the only task we have. Today that shiny object was found at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the NAR and leaders of churchianity applauded while Satan laughed.
Rev. Anthony.
