Satan the Counterfeiter Print E-mail
 

 Satan the Counterfeiter

By: M. S. Shiflett

 This series of messages was preached at Calvary Independent Baptist Church in Bloemfontein, South Africa

Introduction

 

 

 

            If there is anything that poses a greater threat to Christianity today than fakes and hypocrites, I don't know what it is.  The world is in desperate need of salvation.  The church is in desperate need of revival.  The problem is the world will never be reached by the fakes; and the church will never reach the world as long as it is full of fakes.

 

            Satan has successfully infiltrated the church with a counterfeit Christianity.  The counterfeits have not only been allowed in and accepted, but they are many times the majority.  True men of God that dare to stand and declare what "Thus saith the Lord" are in danger of being ostracized, excommunicated and persecuted for their stand. 

 

            I for one refuse to sit idly by and allow Satan to hinder the church and its mission with counterfeits.  It's high time the church realized that Satan is a master deceiver and do something to stop his evil work.  This book is an effort to pull the covers off of ole Slewfoot and remind the people of God that we are at war! 

 

            No doubt this book will make some people mad.  I hope it does.  I hope it makes them mad at the devil for what he's been doing and I hope it makes them mad at themselves for letting him!  I plan on fighting him until the day God calls me home.  I hope you'll do the same.  When the people of God get mad enough to start doing something about it, we might have a revival!

 

M. S.  Shiflett

 

 

 

1

 

Satan the Counterfeiter

 

 

  • "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works." 2 Corinthians 11:13

 

According to the 1828 Webster's Dictionary, the definition of "Counterfeit" is:

 

"To forge, to copy or to imitate without authority or right and with a view to deceive or defraud by passing a copy or thing forged for that which is genuine."

 

This is a very good definition of the word counterfeit.  Satan is a master counterfeiter and he has a counterfeit for nearly everything that God has.  As I began to study these verses, I realized that Satan has counterfeited too many things to cover in one message.  Everything that God has ever done, Satan has tried to imitate it.  He has tried to mimic it and copy it with his own perverted version, of course.  So what is Satan's mission?

 

  • 1 Peter 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

 

Satan's goal is to damn, destroy, devour and deceive men.  So just as Jesus came to seek and to save, Satan came to seek and destroy.   Satan also has an agenda and he is very intent on completing his mission.   Whether you realize it or not, before the foundation of this world was laid, there was a conflict going on between God and Satan. The forces of good and the forces of evil were battling for supremacy.  Satan is very much alive today, but in order for him to succeed, he must be deceitful.  Most people would not get involved in some of the things that they get involved in if they knew how bad it really was and the end results of it.  Someone once said, "Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you want to pay."  The devil knows this, but does not tell you that up front.  On the billboards and magazine ads, he does not show a drunk lying on the street in his own vomit.  When he is advertising cigarettes, he does not show a man in the hospital with his lips and mouth eaten up by disease and his lungs destroyed by cancer.  He does not show that.  If he showed that, people would not start smoking.  Satan is very deceptive in his approach.  He is a master Deceiver.  Jesus described Satan as the "father of lies" (John 8:44).  The very first words that the devil ever spoke in the Garden of Eden to Eve was meant to deceive and to cast doubt on what God really said. 

 

  • "Yea, hath God said...?" Genesis 3:1

 

Satan is constantly lying and deceiving to bring about his own purpose.  The Devil paints a pretty picture.  He tells you that things are great when they are not.

 

In I Corinthians 11:13, we see at least 3 things to start off with. This series of messages will probably be perceived by some as a very negative series, but we are talking about the devil here, so don't be too critical.  There are not very many nice things that I can say about him!  I feel that it is my responsibility to warn people so that they can be on the lookout.  If your doctor were to call you and say, "Listen, there is a new drug on the market.  They are advertising this drug on the TV and in the magazines, but do not take it because it has some horrible side effects and could eventually kill you."  How many of you would say, "You are always so negative, Doc! You always have something bad to say. Why do you not tell me some good news?"  That would be good news to me, considering he just saved my life!  Some things that we are going to deal with in this series might come across as negative. Just remember that Satan is a counterfeiter and that we need to be made aware of some of the things that he is doing.  Let's look at our text verse in detail.

 

 

False Doctrines

 

  • "For such are false apostles...", 2 Corinthians 11:13

 

Sad to say, it is not politically correct to be honest about certain things. For example, people are walking around with T-shirts that say, "I'm HIV Positive!"  If you have AIDS, I feel sorry for you and I am not going to mistreat you, but I do not see why it is something to be proud about.  If I was HIV positive, I would not want to walk around with it on my T-shirt.  But now, it is politically correct to have AIDS. It is 'cool' to have AIDS; it is 'in' to be dying with sexually transmitted diseases.  How sad!  Negative facts are camouflaged, disguised and distorted.

 

The Bible teaches that there is such a thing as false religions.  The government does not want to talk about false religions.  The masses, the religious realms and most church-going people do not want to talk about the fact that there are false religions today.  There are not just a few, but there are many of them.  The truth is, most religions are false.  They would like you to believe that we all worship the same God together but in different ways.  We are all just one, big, happy family according to them.  We are all the children of God.  I beg to differ!  There are many false apostles, according to the Bible.

 

In 2 Corinthians 11:13, we read that there are men busy preaching false doctrines.  These men do not mount the pulpits on Sunday and say, "Alright folks. I am about to preach to you one of the most damnable heresies known to man."  They do not do that!  They do not tell you that it is false doctrine.  They preach it as if it is true doctrine.  They preach it as if it is the gospel truth and they can be so far out in left field that they are not even in the ball park!  There are many false religions and there are many false doctrines. If you are so naïve that you believe that everybody is right, then you are sadly mistaken.  You need to wake up and realize that there are false doctrines out there. Two things that are different cannot be the same!!

 

Deceitful Workers

 

Believe it or not, there are liars in the ministry!  The Bible tells us that these men that are preaching and teaching are liars and they know it!  The Bible clearly says that they are 'deceitful workers'.  They are not misinformed; they are not uneducated; they are not mistaken - they are liars and deceivers.  I have a certain amount of tolerance for somebody that is mistaken or misinformed.  None of us have all the answers.  I do not know everything, and neither do you.  If you are wrong about something that I know I am right about, I can deal with that.  But do not tell me something when you know very well that it is not true.

 

The Bible says that these ministers are deceiving people.  Notice again the definition of "Counterfeit':  To pass the copy or the thing forged for that which is original or genuine.  They are trying to convince the people that they are working with and ministering to and preaching to that they are preaching the truth, when they know in their heart that it is a lie. 

 

I can not help but to think about the TV evangelists that conduct big, massive, multi-million dollar healing crusades. They walk out into the congregation and say, "Mr. Jones, you have a problem with your liver."   Everybody is amazed at his insight and his 'spirit-led discernment'.  What they do not know is that he had a hidden microphone before the meeting and his staff was talking to people in the foyer and found out his name was Mr. Jones and that he came to be healed of his liver disease.  While all of this is going on, the evangelist has a transmitter in his ear and an assistant back stage says to the evangelist, "To your left there in the blue striped shirt is Mr. Jones and he has a problem with his liver."  They are talking to him in his ear and directing him to those that they talked to prior to the 'healing' crusade.  You might say that does not happen, but it does.  I've seen the documentaries with my own eyes. 

 

One well known example was a man by the name of Peter Popoff.  He's just one of them, making millions and fleecing the sheep.  Construed by thousands of people to be a man of God, he was actually a lowdown, dirty, lying scoundrel.  They are scam artists, liars, and deceivers.  They are no better than common thieves.  There are many liars today that are seducing and deceiving the people of God.

 

 

Transformation is Self-Induced

 

  • "...transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ."

 

God has not transformed them. They transformed themselves! We are commanded to be transformed in Romans 12:2.

 

  • "...but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

 

We are commanded to be transformed, but nowhere are we commanded to transform ourselves.  These ministers look good, they talk the talk and they have the right hairdo.  They wear the right clothes; they have the ‘aura' about them so that when they walk into the room, everybody says, "What a man of God!"  The truth is the man is a crook; he is a thief.  And when he dies, he is going straight to Hell.  He has transformed himself from a regular guy into a "somebody".  I hate it, but it is a fact and we need to be aware that everything that glitters is not gold.  Satan is a counterfeiter.  He does not bother faking pennies!  He fakes big time! He fakes in a big way.  When he deceives, he goes to huge lengths and he has huge results.

 

 

2

 

Counterfeit Ministers

 

 

  • "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers..."2 Corinthians 11:14.

 

Notice that they are actually working for the devil himself!  They are on his payroll.  They are his ministers; they belong to him.

 

  • "..it is no great thing if his minister also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works."

 

These guys are working for Satan.  Can you comprehend what God is saying here?  He's telling us that Satan has ministers!  I do not know about you, but that boggles my mind.  It blows my mind that somebody can make a living out of studying and preaching the Word of God and be working for the Devil at the same time. Maybe somewhere along the way you have run into one of these ministers.  I know that I have.  These counterfeit ministers are obvious to us in at least two areas.  To recognize a counterfeit minister, pay close attention to these two manifestations.  They are made obvious to us by...

 

Their Boastings

 

I can tell a lot about somebody by what they brag about.  If you meet a man and he pulls out pictures of his grandkids, then I think that it will be safe to say that he loves his grandkids.  If he pulls out a picture of his family, then he is proud of his family.  But when the guy begins to elevate himself, he is very likely a counterfeit minister.  Let's look at verse number 16:

 

  • "I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little."
  • "That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting." Verse 17

 

He is preparing you because he is about to be a little bit sarcastic.  He is going to be facetious.  He is going to speak as a carnal man speaks.  He is letting you know what he is about to do.  Look at verse number 18:

 

  • "Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also."

 

He says that a lot of these men glory after the flesh and that he can do that too if he wants to.  Look at the next few verses.

 

  • "For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also." 19-21

 

Every time he says, I speak foolishly, he is letting you know that he is being sarcastic and he is being facetious.  He is trying to make a point here.   They say, "I am bold."  He says, "I am bold too." Look at verse 22:

 

  • "Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I."

 

That is Paul's way of saying "Big deal!"  They are bragging about themselves, exalting themselves, elevating themselves.  Look at the next verse, verse number 23:

 

  • "Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more..."

 

You have to love Paul's sense of humor.  He says, "You are a minister of Christ? I am more of a minister of Christ than you are, so what is your point?" 

 

In verse number 23, he clarifies and qualifies this statement.  "I am more of a minister in Christ; in labors more abundant, I have done more than all of them." If you look at the map of Paul's three missionary journeys, this was back before they had cars, trucks, busses, motorcycles and trains.  This man walked!  He said, "In labours? I was beaten in stripes above measure.  In prisons more frequent.  In death, often."

 

In verse 24, he really goes into it. Do you want to hear more?

 

  • "Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep....In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;"

 

I think that he is well on his way to making his point!

 

  • "In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches."

 

Paul is saying that not to mention all the hardships, he's got a lot on his shoulders trying to see about all the churches that he had started.

 

  • "Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities."

 

He says that if he needed something to brag about, he had it.  But he does not brag about it.  He is being sarcastic. He is rebuking those that have elevated themselves and exalted themselves.  They want everybody to think that they are somebody and that they are really important and worthy of praise. They want all the attention.  They want all the praise and honor and glory.

 

Paul was not one to brag and boast.  He was a very humble servant of the Lord. Notice Paul's humility.

 

  • "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints..." Ephesians 3:8

 

Paul knows who he is and where he is.  In 2 Corinthians, he is just trying to make a point.  He says that you can recognize these false apostles and these false teachers and these liars by the way they exalt themselves.  They want you to really think that they are somebody.  They think that they are important.  It was Paul in Romans 12:3 that instructed us to do otherwise.

 

  • "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think..."

 

That is good advice!  Who is he talking to in this verse? He's talking to the church in verses 4, 5, 6, 7 and in verse 8 he is talking to the ones with ministries; those with gifts and those with the ministry of prophesying and exhortation. He was simply reminding them not to have too high an opinion of themselves.

 

Counterfeit ministers are evident by their boastings.  They boast of their own flesh.  They boast of their own abilities.  They boast about the size of their ministry, the size of the crowds that come to hear them.  They boast about how much money they have, how much God has 'blessed' them with.  They brag about everything and anything.  Watch out for them!  God's men do not do that!!  God hates pride!

 

You can judge a preacher, or a so-called preacher whether he is a true man of God or not if he brags about how many people that he has listening to him.  That means nothing!

 

  • "For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." Galatians 1:10

 

What is he saying?  It's simple.  You can not make God happy and men happy at the same time. So, Paul says that he is not interested in pleasing men. The size of the crowd is in NO WAY a reflection of whether or not the minister is pleasing God!

 

  • Luke 6:26  Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

                                                                             

What a verse!  Be careful if everybody thinks you are the greatest!  That is a sign of a false prophet!  I can not help but think about Jesus whenever he had a crowd.  He would preach hard doctrine and run them off, almost every single time.  Notice it in the book of John 6:66,

 

  • "From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him."

 

The point is He didn't have to preach hard doctrine.  He had a crowd! He could have kept them.  If anybody could get up a crowd, Jesus could!  Raising dead people, making lepers clean, making blind men see is one definite way to draw a crowd!  I am not talking about ‘healing' somebody of something that you can not see.  I am talking about healing somebody right there so that you can see that God healed them.  He knew how to get a crowd.  He would heal a few thousand of them and then feed them all a fish sandwich!  He knew how to get up a crowd, but Jesus Christ was not interested in crowds.  He was interested in preaching the truth.  For some reason or another, the truth and crowds just do not mix. 

 

They boast of their following, they boast of their flesh, they boast of their future.  They are always announcing their plans and their dreams and visions and what they want to do.  They have big plans and expectations and they want you to pay for it.  I think about James 4:14-15: 

 

  • "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that."

 

You can judge whether a man is real or not by his boastings about what he going to do. "I am going to do this, we are going to do this."  Look in Isaiah 56:9:

 

  • "All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest.  His watchmen are blind..."

 

Well that is a good thing to say about a watchman isn't it.  What is a guy doing watching out for something if he is blind?

 

  • "they are all ignorant...,"  He did not waste any time telling you what he thought about them.

 

  • "... they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark;..."  They do not preach against anything.  They do not deal with issues. They do not deal with controversy because they cannot bark.

 

  •  "... sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber."  "...Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough..."  He is talking about preachers here by the way!  The watchman is the man of God.

 

  • "...and they are shepherds that cannot understand..."   You can not reason with them.  They do not ever know the burdens, the needs and the concerns of their own people. They are so caught up with their agenda, that they fail to understand what God really wants.

 

  • "...they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter. Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant..."  They boast in their future, "Oh, we are going to have a good life,  this is great." 

 

The Bible says that they are greedy dogs.

 

Some people listen to these men every week and calls them their Pastor.  They are known by their boasting.

 

 

Their Book

 

What book do false prophets use?  Whether you knew it or not, every book that says "Holy Bible" on the outside, is not the Bible.  I do not know if you were aware of that or not.  I do not know if you have been to the so-called Christian book store and seen the so-called Bible display.  Did you know that there are over five hundred different versions (perversions) of God's word in the English language? Over five hundred!  The word "Bible" means the book. I want to know how you can have five hundred ‘the books'!?  I want to know how you can preach from a book written by a bunch of people that do not know God and expect to have God's blessing on your ministry!

 

I wonder how you could pick up something that looks and smells and feels like a Bible, but by the time the editing committee was finished hacking and chopping at it and cutting out this doctrine and that doctrine, you did not have much left.  And the ministers of Satan preach from these books!  They stand up in front of you and say, "This is what God said."  And God did not have anything to do with that book!  That is Satan's book!  Did you know that three or four of us could get together and in a few months throw together another Bible and we could make a fortune off of that thing?  How many people would buy that thing? "Oh this is the newest Bible, so it must be the most accurate one available today."  People will believe anything today!

 

Did you know that some of the modern translations have left out entire Bible verses?  Did you know that the NIV - the New International Version - has left out 60,000 words?  It has 60,000 less words than the King James Bible.  Did you know that it left out 17 entire verses?  Did you know that there were two homosexuals on the translation committee of the NIV?  Did you know that Rupert Murdoch - the same man that owns the TV Guide owns the rights to your NIV if you have one?  I do not know if that bothers you or not, but that would bother me.  I would have a problem with that. 

 

So how can we tell if a minister is a real man of God?  You can tell by what book he uses.  For some reason or another, true men of God do not have a problem with the true Word of God.  Men that are not true men of God, have a problem with the true Word of God. If you find a preacher that would rather use ANY other version of the Bible than the Authorized King James Bible, watch out!  

 

 

They Change God's Word

 

If you are listening to a man preach and he says, "...the Bible says...but a better translation is...", you better watch him!  He is now correcting God's Word!  You do believe that the Bible is God's Word, do you not?  You might use a modern translation, but you must believe that God has preserved His Word.  You have got to believe that God's Word is out there somewhere, floating around.  Ever since the Garden of Eden, the devil has been changing and casting doubt on the true Word of God.  Today, men are preaching from translations that, to be quite frank, do not even make a good commentary.  They cast doubt rather than build confidence.  You actually get discouraged when you're reading the thing because you are not sure what God really had to say. 

 

Once I was preaching in one of the so-called Christian schools in the city of Bloemfontein, South Africa. The staff had asked me to explain the differences in the Bible versions.  So we assembled all the school kids in the auditorium, and I said, "I want someone here that is really good at finding Bible verses that if I call out a reference, you could find it right away."  A boy's hand shot up.  I said, "What kind of Bible do you have?"  he said, "I have the New International Version." I said, "That is perfect. Here is what I am going to do, I am going to call out a reference and you find it in your Bible and I am going to find it in mine and we will let you read it and then I am going to read it and we are going to see what the differences are."  Everybody was really excited about that.  I said, "Let's start out with 1 John 5:7."  The kid starts looking and he finds it and he stands up and he started to read it and then he sat back down!  He turned the pages and he finally realized that there is no verse seven in 1 John 5!  It has verses six and eight, but no verse seven. It has the same number of verses but one is missing.  I said, "Your Bible does not have verse 7 in it?"  He said, "No."  I said, "Man, you are joking." I walked over there and looked and it was not there.  I do not have NIV so I wanted to see.  It was not in there!  It went from verse 6 to verse 8.  I said, "Well, I wonder what it said in verse seven that they did not want you to know?  I wonder what it was that they did not think was important?  My Bible, the Authorized King James says- "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one."  The strongest verse in the Bible on the Trinity and for some reason or another, they did not think that you needed to know that."  We carried on playing that game for another 6 or 7 more verses until I had all of their attention.  I said, "Listen, I am not being mean.  I did not make you buy that version of the Bible.  I am not telling you to throw it away; I am not telling you to burn it.  I am just telling you that there is a serious problem here. You need to find yourself a real Bible; one with all the verses and words and phrases in it!"  Needless to say, they all agreed.  Do you think that was mean?  I think it is mean to tamper and butcher and rip up my Bible!  AMEN!

 

I have a very profound statement to make right here.  Here we go:  Two books that are different cannot be the same!!  In Mathew 4:4, Jesus said "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

 

If I have to stand before God and give an account for every word, I would like to have an every word Bible. AMEN!

 

 

They Corrupt God's Word

 

The ministers of Satan deliberately corrupt the Scriptures. I mentioned earlier that there were two sodomites on the translation committee of the NIV.  Guess what happened as a result of those two sodomites being on the translation committee?  You will not find the word sodomy or sodomite in the NIV.  They have taken that word and they have translated it male prostitute.  I am not a rocket scientist, but I do know that is NOT the same thing!  We're talking about hidden agendas here.  We're talking about liars, deceivers, counterfeiters. They package it up all nice and neat with a black cover and gold edges and say, "Here is a Bible - the most accurate Bible on the market."  It is so accurate, it has been revised 10 times!  Is that not a blessing? I wonder which one is correct? I wonder when they are going to finally get it right?  God have mercy!

 

Satan is a master counterfeiter, and he has a large number of counterfeit ministers.  There are counterfeiters out there.  You had better wake up and open your eyes.  Allow God to direct your path. Do not get caught up in something because it glitters.  Everything that glitters is not gold.  Watch out lest Satan deceives you.

 

 

Part 3

 

A Counterfeit Message

 

 

  • Galatians 1:6-9 "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."

 

As we have already learned, Satan is a master counterfeiter. He is a master deceiver.  He is good at deceiving people and he does not tell them that it is a lie when his ministers are preaching error.  They do not tell you that it is heresy or false doctrine. It is camouflaged right in there with truth, and the most dangerous error is that error which is mixed with truth.  Nine times out of ten, we would recognize a blatant false doctrine right away.  The ones that seem to get people the most are the ones that are mixed with about 98% truth.  It is so subtle and so hidden that they do not detect it.  What happens next is they become desensitized to that error and they get to the place where whey accept it as truth and it is normal.  They have heard it for so long and they have accepted it for so long that when someone comes and tells them it's not true, they do not believe it. 

 

Satan is very successful with those lies of deceit.  Unfortunately, many people are still drawn into false doctrines that you and I would consider to be blatant heresy.  For example, the Mormons are growing in leaps and bounds.  It is a proven fact that many of the new Mormon recruits come out of Baptist churches.  That is sad because they have sat under the truth yet they do not know their Bible or the truth well enough to keep from getting sucked in by these blatant heresies. 

 

It is amazing what they believe and what they teach in these various cults. What is even more amazing is that they do not tell you up front what they believe.  Only after you have been involved for a while do you realize what they believe.  In fact, I doubt very seriously that you will receive a doctrinal statement when you join a Mormon ‘church'.  On the surface, everything looks just like we have here at our church.  It sounds the same; the preaching will be very close.  But they begin to teach and indoctrinate and once you are in there, the error grabs you and pulls you in.  People are getting sucked up in every cult imaginable. 

 

The Jehovah's witnesses are flourishing all over the world along with the Catholics.  The doctrines and the message of the Catholic Church is nothing but heresy.  Revelation 17 calls the "church" of Rome the "great whore."  She has been responsible for the deaths and the blood of millions of the saints of God in the past and also in the future, according to the book of Revelation.  The Bible says that she is drunk with the blood of the martyrs.  Yet people are being pulled into the false doctrines of the Catholic system every single day. 

 

Other false religions that we could discuss are the Muslims. They are growing at an unprecedented rate.  The Islamic faith in America is growing in leaps and bounds.  I'm convinced that we can accredit a lot of that to our politicians who are speaking so nicely about the Islamic faith and Mohammed and all the other false prophets.  In the wake of September 11, in order to make those American Islamic people to feel welcome, they have seemingly opened up Islam in America.  People now think that it is just another way to God.  They are wrong!   It is false hope, it is heresy and it is damnable and if you believe in it and you follow it, it will take you straight to Hell.

 

It goes without saying to declare that there is a counterfeit message.  What I would like to do is to look at a couple of counterfeit messages that are pertinent for us today.  I do not feel that many of you are ready to go and join the Mormons or the Jehovah's Witnesses, but there are some counterfeit messages that are being preached today from some so-called Bible-believers.  The ministers of Satan are quick to say, "I believe the fundamental doctrines of the Bible", yet they are doing a lot to damage and to hinder the true message of the word of God.  Paul writes and shows us at least three things here that we need to see before we go any further in this message.

 

In verse six, Paul is basically saying that he could not believe that those people would be so soon removed from the truth.  Paul was there, he started the church in Galatia. He preached to them the truth, and he preached to them the gospel.  He could not believe that they had forsaken the truth and the gospel that they had heard and received and gone back to a false gospel.

 

In verse 7 Paul says, "This gospel is not another gospel."  Notice that I did not say that this was a counterfeit gospel; I said that it was a counterfeit message.  Paul says that it is not another gospel because there is only ONE gospel!  The word gospel simple means good news.  And if it is not the right news, it is bad news.  He says that it is now another gospel, "...but there be some that trouble you..."  That phrase jumped out at me and surely this false doctrine should trouble us.  False doctrine and heresy should bother you.  There are some people that are so political and are so nice and so sweet that they would never say anything negative about anybody else. They would never say anything negative about another church or religion or another denomination.  We need to be made aware of the fact that this other gospel should trouble us. 

 

It bothers me as a preacher of the gospel.  It bothers me that I have to compete with liars, scam artist and heretics!  I have to compete with those that are preaching different that what God told us to preach.  It seems as if they have bigger followings and it seems as if they have a louder voice than I have.  It bothers me; it troubles me and Paul says that it will trouble you.  So we see the warning that is will trouble you.

 

He says, " ...and would pervert the gospel of Christ."  That word pervert simple means to change, to turn around.  You could say that it means to turn around backwards.  They have taken the gospel of Christ and they have perverted it.  That is wicked!  I do not have the authority to do that and they do not have the authority to do that.  No one has the authority to take the gospel of Jesus Christ that was preached by the apostles and preached by the disciples and change it.  Many people today think that it is easier to change the gospel than to conform to the gospel.  The truth is, it is easier to change God's Word than to conform to it.  If you do not like it, just change it. How do you like that theology??

 

We can change some things, but when we start tampering with His Word, that is another story.  What has happened is that preachers have realized that this takes too long.  "If I do it this way then I will never build my church up as big as I want it to be, so I am going to just change this, I am going to add this and take away this. I am going to flip this around and I think it will work."  On the outside it looks great because this preacher is really doing something.  Is he?  If he has changed the Word of God, it is not good.  Many times we mistake growth for the blessings of God!  We think because something is big and there are a lot of people involved, that it must be right.  That is not necessarily the case!  I have passed dead dogs on the side of the road that were a lot bigger two days after they died than they were before they died.  But they were not growing, they were swelling. That is a pretty crude illustration, but sometimes what we perceive as growth is nothing but a place that is swelling with unsaved religious people.

 

We do not have the right to change God's Word.  I know that some preachers would say, "You are right. I know that this is the way that the Bible says how it ought to be done, but God has shown me..."  You can stop right there.  God is not going to show you anything that contradicts His Word.  "But I feel like the Holy Spirit would have me..."  WOW stop right there, it what you doing does not line up with Scripture, then it was not God talking to you.  Satan's ministers have perverted the message of Christ.

 

I would like to look at four kinds of counterfeit messages that Satan would like people to believe.

 

 

Counterfeit Message of Salvation

 

The Bible is very clear about what a man and a woman or a boy or a girl must do in order to be saved.  There is no doubt whatsoever. Satan, being the deceiver that he is, being the liar that he is, he has perverted the message of salvation.  Just as it is God's desire to save the world, it is Satan's desire to damn the world, and so he is going to have to tamper with the gospel message of salvation in order to achieve that goal.  So there is only one way to be saved, whether you believe that or not. 

 

Jesus said, "I am the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE. No man cometh to the Father but by me." John 14:6

 

The devil would have you believe that all roads lead to Rome.   All roads might lead to Rome, I don't know.  But the problem is, when I die I do not care to go to Rome.  When I die, I want to go to Heaven and all roads do not lead to Heaven!  So we see that there is a counterfeit message of salvation.  And let me say that the gospel that the people in Galatia were being tempted by was a salvation that was counterfeit because:

 

 

A Gospel of Works

 

The Bible very clearly and very plainly teaches us that salvation is not by works.  Now if you disagree with me on that then listen closely to what the Bible has to say in Ephesians 2:8,9

 

  • "For by grace...

 

Grace is simply God's unmerited favor. We have already cleared it up that it is not by works because it is by God's grace.  How could you earn unmerited favor? You can't!

 

  • ...are ye saved through faith...

 

Faith in what?  In your works? NO! In the finished work of Calvary.

 

  • ...And that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."

 

And you can look at Galatians 2:16:

 

  • "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified."

 

Look at Galations 3:3:

 

  • "Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?"

 

You trusted in Christ for your salvation but now you are trying to maintain, and complete that salvation, by works?  He says, "You are foolish to think that!"  We see that a gospel of works is a counterfeit gospel.  Sadly though, people love to hear that they need to work for their salvation.  It makes them feel so good; it makes them feel so religious.  It makes them feel so worthy if they can think that they are earning their way to Heaven.  I have known people that have a lot of pride and they did not like to take charity and they did not like to take gifts if they thought that you were giving it to them because they needed it.  And even though they did need it, they would not want you to give it to them.  There are people that are the same way when it comes to their eternal soul and when it comes to Heaven.  "No, do not give it to me, let me earn it". 

 

They cannot tell you how long you have to live right and do right before salvation is finally yours.  Do you have to live a righteous life for 1 year or 5 years or 20?  Did the man that only lived to be 20 and was trusting in his works live long enough to earn it?  There is no logic to this type of theology.  There is absolutely NO Biblical basis for it! 

 

There are those that tell you that you can lose your salvation by doing bad works, but they cannot tell you what bad works you have to do!  What sin it is that you have to commit to lose your salvation?  They just believe that you can lose your salvation.  If you could lose your salvation, that would be pretty serious don't you think?  Well doesn't it stand to reason that if someone could lose their salvation, that God would have defined the sins that would CAUSE one to lose their salvation?  He didn't, because our salvation is not kept by us!  It's kept by Him!  They do not have any definite line in the sand where you know you have lost your salvation.  I think about Jimmy Swaggart, who for years preached that you can lose your salvation and then got caught with a prostitute. He then got on TV and cried and apologized and he is back preaching again.  If I was going to believe that you could lose your salvation, then I would believe that Jimmy Swaggart needed to get saved again.  But obviously, that sin was not enough to pluck him out of the Father's hand because he never got saved again.  The doctrine that teaches that you can lose your salvation is a gospel of works and it is not taught in the Bible.  It is a counterfeit message concerning salvation.

 

 

A Gospel of Worry

 

Could you sleep at night, not being 100% sure that when you died that you were going to Heaven.  Those people that are trusting in their works have no assurance of salvation.  They have to worry all the time if they are still saved.  These people do not trust in the finished work. There is no confidence, there is no assurance.  It is a gospel of worry.  And you could ask them on the street corner, "If you died right now, would you go to heaven?"   Their reply would be "I think so, I am a good person."  Or they'll say, "Well, I hope that I would go to Heaven."  You may ask them, "What if you died right now?"   "Well, I do not know, I will just wait and see."  My friend, then it will be too late!  The counterfeit message is a gospel of worry.  I can't help but think about what Paul said in 2 Timothy.

 

  • "...for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." 2 Timothy 1:12

 

Paul said, "I know where I am and I know where I am going.  I am confident that the One that I am trusting can hold up His end of the bargain."  Amen!

 

 

A Gospel of Weariness

 

There is no rest for these people.  There is no rest, unless we enter into His rest.  He has already finished it and we can enter into His rest only when we realize that!  But these folks do not know what it is like to enter into His rest because they are working constantly.  Constantly working, day and night, trying to earn their way to Heaven.  They are weary and tired, but they can not stop, they must keep going.   That my friend, is the end result of the counterfeit message of salvation.

 

 

 

Counterfeit Message of a Spirit-filled Life

 

Did you know that Satan hates a Spirit-filled Christian?  Did you know that a Spirit-filled Christian is about the most dangerous thing on planet Earth to the kingdom and the cause of Satan?   A  Spirit-filled child of God can really give the Devil ulcers. 

 

So, Satan has come up with a counterfeit message concerning the Spirit-filled life to let people think that they are Spirit-filled when they are not.  I think about the fact that the Bible says that the evidence of being filled with the spirit is:

 

  • "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance..." Galatians 5:22,23

 

That is the evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit.  At least, that is what my Bible teaches.  But there are people that are not producing any of these fruit that are convinced that they are Spirit-filled because they can jibber-jabber.  They've heard a counterfeit message concerning the meaning of being Spirit-filled and now they think that because they can speak in some unintelligible language, that they have been baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost.  That is absolute and total nonsense! It is one huge lie that Satan has perpetrated to deceive people into faking and forsaking true, Biblical fruit of the Spirit.

 

Because they can do this or do that, they are told that they are filled with the Spirit. I have a problem with that.  We see in the book of Matthew chapter 7 that even unbelieving ministers can perform miracles!  Unbelieving ministers can cast out devils.  Unbelieving ministers can perform the sign gifts.  But they were not even saved, so tell me how can they be filled with the Spirit?  Being Spirit-filled is proven by producing fruit. 

 

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh."  Galatians 5:16

 

If someone is walking after and fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, guess what?  They are not filled with the Spirit!   Some of Satan's ministers will tell you that you have got to do this or that or you have got to pray and ask for the baptism of the Holy Spirit; but that is not what the Bible teaches.  There is a huge difference in being baptized with the Holy Spirit and filled with the Holy Spirit!  The Bible teaches that we are baptized with the Holy Spirit the minute we get born again.  Then it teaches that if you walk in the Spirit, then you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.  That is evidence of being filled with the Spirit.  You will walk in the Spirit; not after the flesh.  Therefore, it states in Galations 5:22 and 23 that you will produce fruit.

 

  • "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another." Galations 5:25

 

If Satan can tell somebody that they are Spirit-filled when they are not, then they will never know what it is like to be truly Spirit-filled.  We should all be filled with the Spirit on a daily basis.  We are commanded to be.  The Bible plainly says

 

  • "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit" Ephesians 5:18

 

That is a commandment!  We are commanded to be Spirit-filled, so do not be deceived about what it really means to be filled with the Spirit.  The Bible is very clear on what it means:  You will produce fruit and you will not walk after the flesh.  There are many other evidences, but we will not go into detail on them.

 

 

Counterfeit Message of Sanctification

 

There are many popular messages concerning sanctification being preached today that the Bible very clearly proves to be counterfeit.  Let me give you a couple of famous lines that preachers use when they deal with the topic of sanctification:

 

 

1. "Man looks on the outside, but God looks at the heart."

 

No doubt, you know that is a Bible verse.  But that Bible verse does not say that God is blind to the outside!  Many of those people will tell you not to worry about externals, but for you to just worry about your heart.  Yes, but not only does man look on the outside, but God looks at the outside too.  And I believe that there is a balance in this thing.  Some churches preach more on externals and leave the internals alone, which is dangerous.  It is very wrong.  Then you have churches that only deal with the internals and never touch the externals, because it makes people upset.  You see, people do not like for you to tell then what you can and cannot do.  People do not like for you to tell them that certain clothing is not right to wear.  They do not want to hear that.  They do not want to hear that there are certain places that they should not go to and certain groups of people that they should not be around.  They do not want to be reminded that there are certain kinds of music that they should not listen to. 

 

They do not want you to tell them that.  And they will say, "Man looks at the outside, but God looks at the heart." That is a counterfeit sanctification message.  Be very careful.  I as preacher, try to be as balanced as I know how to be when I deal with this matter of sin.  There are sins of the heart and there are outward sins.

 

Now here is the problem with outward sins.  Outward sins hinder your testimony as a Christian.  Your heart can be right with God, but if you are doing something on the outside that is evident to the eyes, a sinner can go by and that can be a stumbling block.  That sin can be an offence to them and it can cause them not to be saved, or not to want to be saved or not to want to have anything to do with the church if they see certain church people doing certain things.  There are certain things that my family and I do and certain things that we do not do.  Not because I have to, but because I love Jesus.  I do not want to offend someone else, a weaker brother or sister or an unsaved person. 

 

I ask myself, would Jesus wear this?  Would Jesus walk out of the house and walk around in town with his shirt off?   I do not, because I'm sure He wouldn't.  The Bible teaches that we should not be naked.  That is nakedness.  A man with no shirt on is ½ naked, you might say that you are ½ clothed, but you are actually ½ naked.  I see women in the mall that are about ¾ naked and the problem is that they think that they are okay and they will even go to church dressed like that.  Mini-skirts and halter tops.  I am convinced that Christ would not allow that.  I have never seen my precious wife in a pair of pants or shorts.  She read in her Bible that God wants the women to be dressed in modest apparel, and that it is an abomination for a woman to wear clothing that pertains unto a man, and she just obeyed it.  She has graciously submitted herself and her wardrobe to God's standards and guidelines for clothing.  You might not think that the externals matter, but God says they do.   We see that this ‘man looks on the outside and God looks on the heart' is a message that is twisted around to allow tolerance for external sin. 

 

 

2. "We are not supposed to judge others."

 

"Judge not lest ye be judged."  That is exactly what the Bible says, but unfortunately Satan's ministers use that verse to justify things that should not be justified.  The Bible says that, "ye shall know the tree by the fruit that it bears."  I do not have the right to judge, but I can be a fruit inspector.  I can say, "That is an apple tree because that tree has apples growing on it."  Does that make me a judge by saying that that is an apple tree?  I do not think so.  Another message that we hear:

 

 

3. "Who can lay any charge to God's elect?"

 

This is the comeback of the self-righteous, puffed up church member. "Who can lay any charge to God's elect?  I am above reproach, and you should not look at me like that.  You should not condemn me with your eyes or with your message or with your words."  No, that is not what that verse is talking about. If that is what that verse is talking about, then pray tell me what Paul meant when he told Timothy, "Reprove, rebuke with all authority."  Reprove what?  Righteous deeds?  Rebuke what?  The right kind of attitude?  The right kind of apparel?  No!  Rebuke and reprove those that are not living right and doing right! That is a counterfeit message of sanctification taken completely out of context.

 

 

4.  "We are free from the law"

 

Some preachers will say "I do not have to obey the law.  I have liberty.  You better believe that you have liberty.  Though my four children have liberty to play and do whatever they want to do in the back yard, our yard has a perimeter. God has boundaries and God has restrictions and God does not just turn his children loose on the street and tell them to have fun.  He does not do that.  We have safety and liberty within our God-given boundaries.  If your life does not have boundaries, then you are not right with God and you have been listening to the wrong message on sanctification.  We have been commanded to sanctify ourselves. We have been commanded to be sanctified.

 

  • "That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;"

1 Thessalonians 4:4

 

God says we are supposed to be sanctified. That word sanctified means set apart.  If you are in step with the world, then you are out of step with God.  We had a young lady at one of our youth meetings one Friday night who said that she is saved and loves Jesus, but her dream is to go to Hollywood and become an actress.  I have got news for that lady.  She is either not saved, or she is seriously out of God's will. A child of God that is in love with Jesus will not have a desire to have anything to do with Hollywood, much less go there and become one of them.

 

  • "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." John 2:15

 

That is what the Bible says. Yes, Satan has successfully infiltrated the churches with his counterfeit message concerning sanctification. 

 

 

 

Counterfeit Message of Soul-winning

           

  • "The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest." Luke 10:2

 

Jesus also said in another place, "Lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to harvest."  Believe it or not, thanks to Satan's ministers, we have a counterfeit message circulating today concerning soul winning. There's a group of people that say,

 

 

1.  "Man does not have a choice"

 

Since man has no choice, there is no reason for me to preach to everybody, because everybody can not be saved."  That is not what the Bible says. 

 

  • 2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

 

What part of this verse does the Calvinist not understand??  What about this verse?

 

  • Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

 

Is this talking only about the elect?  Do they honestly believe that Jesus only died for the 'elect'?  If so, then what does this verse mean?

 

1 John 2:2  "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."

 

The only way to understand this theology is to understand that Satan is a master deceiver and has produced counterfeit messages concerning soul winning.  Remember, Satan is trying to condemn and damn souls.  He does it by perverting the message of soul winning. He perverts the command to evangelize the world.  If he can convince people that man does not have a choice, then it makes evangelism totally unnecessary and makes our duty to proclaim the Gospel pointless. 

 

If a man does not have a choice, if he is predestined before he was born, if God elected him to hell before he was born then why should we witness to him?  If that is truly the way it is, why should I try and win anybody to the Lord?  The ones that God predestined to go to Heaven will go to Heaven, and the ones that He predestined to go to Hell, will go to Hell regardless of the effort that I put forth.  The one thing that the Calvinists cannot explain is if God is so Sovereign (and He is!), then why does His will for mankind depend on my willingness to tell them??  Who's God is greater? The God that created man with a free choice or the Calvinist's God that created robots?

 

There is a counterfeit message of soul winning. The Bible says, "whosoever will, let him come and take of the word of life freely" It does not say: "whosoever that I have predestined to be saved, let him come."  He gave an invitation to whosoever will.  John 3:16, "For God so loved the world..."  The Calvinist will simply tell you that that world just simple means "the elect".  But that is not what it says.  I for one choose to believe what the Bible says, not what you tell me is says.  

 

 

2.  "God calls those that He wills"

 

Without a doubt, God has to call a man to salvation before he can be saved.  You can not just get saved anytime that you want to.  God has to call you.  The Bible says, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him."  (John 6:44)  Here is the problem. The Bible says,

 

  • "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" Romans 10:14

 

People are dying and going to Hell, having never been drawn by the Holy Spirit because the church did not obey the command to go and preach the gospel unto every creature (Mark 16:15) and we will stand before God and give an account for those souls. (Ezekiel 33:6)  God calls those who hear the Word.  That is obviously the prerequisite for salvation.   Before someone can be saved, they have to hear the message.  The problem is not that God is not drawing men; the problem is that we are not preaching the message.

 

 We are commanded to preach the gospel unto every creature.  A man once said to me, "I do not believe that certain people can be saved because I believe that they have been cursed."  I said, "You know what?  You might be right.  I do not believe that but I am not going to argue with you. That still does not alleviate my responsibility to preach the gospel to every creature because I do not know who has been cursed and who has not."  You say, "I do not believe that everyone can be saved."  That is not for you to judge.  We are just supposed to preach the gospel and we are supposed to evangelize the world.  Jesus commanded it!

 

 

3.  "We should not preach "whosoever will"

 

I actually heard preachers say, "We should not preach ‘whosoever will' because whosoever cannot."  Here is my question:  If whosoever cannot, then why did Jesus taunt those people by making them think that they could?  Why offer something to somebody that can't receive it??

 

 

4.  "God's call is irresistible"

 

The hyper Calvinists call it irresistible grace.  They try to make you believe that man can not resist salvation.  But I can show you plenty of places in the word of God where they did.  I can show you plenty of places in the Bible where they turned and walked away.  I think about the rich young ruler.  He turned and walked away sorrowful.  Did Jesus chase him down?  Did he tell his disciples to chase him down?  No!   The man made his decision.  We know from the Bible that it is not God's will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.  So, if there is such a thing as irresistible grace and irresistible calling, then everybody in the world would be saved because God wants everybody to be saved.

 

He has given men a choice and a free volition.  I sometimes think about this and it bothers me because there are a lot of people that are preaching this doctrine.  As a result of that doctrine, millions down through the centuries have died and gone to hell.  Because of a counterfeit message, these people thought: "I am in the elect and you are not.  It stinks to be you.  I would hate to be you.  I am glad that I am me."  And they did not evangelize them.  Now we're seeing the results of that belief and that theology.

 

There are some counterfeit messages out there folks.  Be wide awake, be alert and do not believe it.  Believe the Bible.  Some of you might not like the things that I have said, some of you might not believe the things that I have said.  Here is what I am going to challenge you to do.  I am going to challenge you to do what the Bereans did when Paul finished preaching.  He said that the Bereans were more noble because they went home and searched their Scripture whether those things were so.  Paul commended them for it.  Paul did not get up in the pulpit and say, "Do not question me."  He did not say that.  If a man says, "Do not question me", then he has just lost me.  But if he says, "Go home and search your Bible, because your Bible has all the answers", then I'll listen to that man.  

 

If you do not agree with something that I have said, then go read your Bible.  Do not pick up a commentary and do not go to the library. Do not get on the phone and call some ‘expert'.  Read your Bible!  If you have the Holy Spirit of God living inside you, the Bible says that He will lead you and guide you into all truth.  The Bible has the answers.  There is a true gospel, there is a true message and there is a counterfeit message.  You need to make sure that you know the difference.

 

 

 

4

 

A Counterfeit Music

 

 

  • "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." Ephesians 5:19

 

  • "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Colossians 3:16

 

We have been looking at the fact that Satan is a master deceiver.  He is very careful and tricky in his deceit.  He does not come across as being a heretic or stating that he is preaching false doctrine.  Instead, he transforms himself into an angel of light and into a minister of God.  So, many times when people listen to ministers and listen to messages that have been preached, they do not know the difference between truth and error.   Just like a man trying to make counterfeit money.  He will do everything possible to make that note look like the original so that nobody can tell the difference.  That is what Satan has been very successful in doing. 

 

We are now going to look at the third part in this series.  We looked at counterfeit ministers and counterfeit messages. Let us now look at counterfeit music.  I am aware of the fact that this might be potentially controversial and that I might step on someone's toes.  I am however not trying to step on anyone's toes; I am aiming for your heart.  Satan is out there, and you need to know it!  The music you listen to is extremely important.

 

In the last few years, the church has allowed counterfeit music to creep in.  You might not feel that this is an issue.  Let us look at it now and see what you have to say at the conclusion of the message.  I want to look at a couple of aspects about music.  Let us first look at the different descriptions of music.

 

 

Music's Descriptions

 

Music has been described by a lot of people in a lot of different ways.  I will not repeat what the secular people have to say about music because it is actually very crude and vulgar.  To put it into common terms, they will quite readily admit that rock-and-roll music has everything to do with immorality, drugs, fornication, and idolatry.  They admit that is the music that you listen to when you have that type of lifestyle.  I did not include those quotes because they are quite nauseating.  What I want to do is share some quotes by ‘so-called' Christian artists.  Many of these were researched by David Cloud, an evangelist and missionary.

 

When we look at the text in 2 Corinthians you will see that the Bible states that these men are ministers.  It says in verse 25, "...his ministers."  Talking about whom?  Satan!  So, Satan does have ministers.  Not only behind the pulpits, wearing a tie, carrying a Bible, posing as a man of God, but we have musicians posing as ministers.  They call themselves ministers; they call their work ministries.  The real question is: Whose ministers are they? Here are some quotes found in several 'gospel' music magazines:

 

  • "There is no such thing as gospel music. Every style and form of music can become gospel.  Whether it is Jazz, Pop, Rock and Roll or Rap."

 

  • "There is no such thing as 'Christian music'.  That it because all kinds of music are capable of expressing Christian thoughts.  It is not the music that is Christian, it is the lyrics."  That is a quote coming from the CCM Magazine (Christian magazine) June 1991.

 

  • "I believe that music in its self is a neutral force.  Now the rock and roll stars will tell you that it is not, but the Christian artists will tell you that it is a neutral force."

 

 

  • "Music, per sé, can be seen as morally neutral.  It is neither sinful nor holy.  Its morality is determined by the use to which it is put."

 

  • "We take the music of the street and apply Christian lyrics to it."  Now, that was from a 'Christian music' producer. 
  • "We need to know rock and roll; we need to know the gentleness of a folk tune, we need to know the majesty of Handel's Messiah, we need to know the awesome reverence of the Gregorian chants."

 

  • "Music is not good or evil because of the formation of the notes or the structure of the beats.  Music is good because of the heart of the person playing it is innocently and sincerely - giving praise to our God." 

 

Now, I do not know whether I have lost any of you yet, but I am confounded that people can be so ignorant!  Let's continue.

 

  • "Music is just music; it is the message that is important."

 

  • "God is the King of soul.  He is the King of all rhythm."

 

Can you believe that one?  Unbelievable!!

 

  • "There is no such thing as Christian music. Music is generic."

 

  • "God gave Rock and Roll to you; He put it in the soul of everyone.  If you love the sound, then do not forget the source." 

 

Remember, we are talking about counterfeit music here.  These guys have transformed themselves into angels of light and they put forth a whole lot of effort many times to disguise it.  As far as I am concerned, some of the stuff is too obvious.  They're not even trying to hide it anymore! Here is another one,

 

  • "All music was His to begin with and He will use any medium to convey His message." 

 

By the way, these are so-called "Christian artists"!  They sing in churches.  Can you believe it?

 

  • "There is nothing un- Christian or anti-Christian about any form of music."

 

  • "Using what is neutral in a society as a vehicle for the gospel is not only acceptable - it is sound missionary strategy."

 

I'll stop with those.  These are quotes about music from so-called Christian artists.  They believe that music is neutral.  They take the philosophy that the notes on the piano or the notes in your song book are neutral.  Let me remind you that the notes can be put together to form something that is not neutral.  A neutral cup of paint and a neutral paintbrush taken by someone with a perverted mind can produce a pornographic image.  There is such good music and there is bad music.

 

Where we tend to disagree is the fact that some so-called Christian music that is not good music.  I now want to look at some things concerning music, just to let you see what is out there.  I do not listen to a lot of the music that people listen to today.  I am very particular in the music that I listen to and I do not think that just because I listen to it that it is the only right music.  I will be honest with you and tell you that there have been times that I went to the store to buy a CD or cassette tape of one of my favorite groups only to discover that I could not listen to it!  While driving down the road, we have rolled the window down and taken CD's and made Frisbees out of them.  I might have paid good money for it, but I am not listening to it!  My kids are sitting in the back seat of the car and I am not going to let them listen to it either.  You might ask what was wrong with it.  Well, I did not like the beat, I did not like the rhythm or I did not like what it did to my body. I did not like the way that it made me feel. 

 

I refuse to listen to Christian music that makes me feel like I am in a nightclub.  When I listen to Christian music, I want to feel like I have been to church or I want it to make me want to go to church.  I do not want to feel like I have just come out of a bar, and that is what is happening today with a lot of so-called Christian music. 

 

Notice some of these quotes from some famous men from many years ago.

 

  • Plato (428 BC), "Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inner places of the soul."
  • Aristotle said, "Music directly represents the passions or states of the soul."

 

  • "Gentleness, anger, courage, temperance, if a person habitually listens to the kind of music that rouses noble passions, his whole character will be shaped to an ignoble thorn. In short, ‘If one listens to the wrong kind of music, he will become the wrong kind of person. Conversely, if he listens to the right kind of music, he will become the right kind of person." (Aristotle)

 

  • Here is another one from 4 AD. "Music is part of our human character and has the power to either improve or debase our character." I say amen to that.

 

  • John Calvin said, "We know by experience that music has a secret and almost incredible power to move hearts."

 

Did you know that some dentists have played music in their office and that they can pull teeth without anesthesia?  It is a proven fact.  The music will subconsciously sooth and calm someone in pain.  Have you ever been in a restaurant during rush hour?  That is the time between 11:30 AM and 2:00 PM and the music that they play will just drive you up the wall.  Have you ever been in a restaurant like that before?  Do you know why they play that kind of music?   They play it to get you out of there!  They do not want you sitting at the table all day.  They want you come in, buy your food, eat it and leave.  It is all in the mind.  If you go to an expensive restaurant, normally they will be playing calm music.  They want you to stay, because the longer you stay, the more you eat.  You order dessert, you order coffee, you order this, you order that.  Don't tell me music can't affect you. 

 

Martin Luther said, "Whether you wish to comfort the sad, to terrify the happy, to encourage the despairing, to humble the proud, to calm the passionate or to ease those that are full of hate and who can number all these masteries of the human heart, namely: the emotion's inclinations and affections that compel men to good or evil?  What more effective means than music could you find?

 

You say, "Music is neutral."  Ask the advertisers on TV if music is neutral.  You say, "Music is neutral."  Ask the movie makers that spend millions to get the perfect score to go with their movie.  Tell them that music is neutral.  Ask the night club owner.  Ask the guy that owns the strip bar if music is neutral.  Ask him how prosperous his business would be if our church members came in one Friday night and sang "Rock of Ages"!  Ask him if music is neutral.  Ask the orchestra director.  You have seen those guys that stand up in front of the crowd and they have those little bowties on and the little stick in their hand.  Ask them if music is neutral.   Ask the rock and roll band if music is neutral. Ask the rock and roll fan if music is neutral.  The only ones foolish enough to make claims like that are COUNTERFEIT MINISTERS OF MUSIC!

 

Music is not neutral.  There is a good music and there is a bad music and in our churches today, bad music has crept in. In some cases, it didn't have to creep in - it was invited in. I think that we have proven that point. I want to tell you something else that really bothers me.  I was doing some research this afternoon and was dumbfounded with what I learned.  What would you think if I got up in the pulpit and called Jesus Christ "JC".  Would that offend you?  Would it bother you if I said "Praise JC, I want JC to be with us tonight."  Would that make you uncomfortable? Get this.  In Carmen's album:  The Standard, he referred to Jesus as "JC".  He sang, "You take Him high, you take Him low, you take JC wherever you go.  Tell me: Who is in the house? JC!  Tell me who is in the house? JC!"  Godly music?  Not on your life!

 

Carmen made a rap video called "Resurrection Rap".  The video portrayed Jesus Christ as a street hippie.  The crucifixion took place in a back alley gang fight and His body was dumped into a garbage dump.  Now that is not only sacrilegious, but that is the height of blasphemy.  Now, I do not know whether you have a problem with that.  I do.  I do not believe that is pleasing to God.  There is another video that he made named Live and Radically Saved.  It depicts Jesus and John the Baptist as hip-hop street kids.  Carmen said, "Jesus is always cool, He has always got his things together."  He blasphemes Jesus, walking along in a hip- jive manner, doing what he called "the Messiah walk".  Michael Jackson has the moon walk and Jesus has the Messiah walk.  That is absolute blasphemy. 

 

I do not care if the singer has a testimony of salvation as good as anybody; that is pure nonsense.  This junk is going on in our churches and our church members are buying this stuff and our kids are buying it and listening to it. 

 

An artist called Daniel Band has a song entitled "Party In Heaven" that states, "There is a party in Heaven, the bread is unleavened, the tree of life is growing fine, it is way past 11, my number is 7, the Lamb and I are drinking new wine."  He depicts heaven as a wine-drinking, party scene.  Do you think that God is pleased with that?  Do you think that honors God?  Of course not!

 

Brace yourself for this quote by Mark Steward of the group Audio Adrenaline.

 

"The only difference between rock and Christian rock is the lyrics and then the difference is sometimes subtle.  Christianity is about rebellion; Jesus Christ is the biggest rebel to ever walk the face of the earth.  He was crucified for His rebellion. Rock and roll is about the same thing... rebellion.  To me, rock and the church go hand in hand."   

 

These quotes are in 'Christian' magazines by so-called 'Christian' ministers of music.  Unbelievable!!  This is unbelievable what is happening.  This is absolute blasphemy.  Jesus was not a rebel.   The "Christian" rock group Petra recorded a song called, "God gave rock and roll." which was the same song that KISS had put out earlier.  They just changed some of the words.  If you know anything about KISS, then you will know that they are a heavy metal, Satan worshipping rock and roll group.  Their name stands for, "Knights In Satan's Service."

 

To say that there is such a thing as Christian rock is an oxymoron; it is impossible.  The term rock and roll came in the 1950's by a white DJ named Allan Freed, who called the music that he was playing "Rock and Roll". That phrase was a back-alley, street term for the act of marriage.  Now, how can you say that there is such a thing as Christian rock and roll?  To try to connect this morally filthy music to a Holy God is utter blasphemy!  One drummer of the so-called Christian rock group called Stryper painted on the back of his chair:  "Jesus Christ Rocks".  I stand here and now proclaim boldly "NO HE DOES NOT!!"  You might not like what you are reading.  Well, I do not like it either.  Truthfully, it bothers me a lot. 

 

The Messiah Prophet Band had a song that called Jesus Christ the "Master of Metal".  Here are some of the lyrics.

 

"You hear a loud guitar, you wonder which we are, you say we are all the same, you see us dressed in black preparing to attack, you say that it is such a shame.  But, do you really know, the force behind our show?  Our one way ticket home, we are rocking for the Rock.  We will never stop, this you have got to know.  Jesus said upon this Rock my church will stand.  He is the Master, the Master of metal." 

 

This is being played in churches.  There are actually pastors and ministers and music ministers that are inviting these idiots into their church and letting them sing these songs to their people.  Does that bother you?  It bothers me.  How else would you describe this except as counterfeit music?

 

Listen to this song by Barren Cross.

 

"Give it a chance, freedom at last.  Yours for free, take and receive.  Better that pot, Jesus rocks.  Come and believe you will find our joy will come to you.  Take it drink it, come and believe, smoke on His love and you will see the rock."

 

That is absolute, unbelievable blasphemy!  Absolute blasphemy going on in the name of religion - going on in the name of Christ and you know what... Christians are just eating it up.  Where is our discernment today?  We think that if we slap the word "Christian" on something, it makes it Christian.  That is not true!  How can it be Christian if it is not Christ-like?   That is what the word "Christian" means! 

 

I love music as much as anybody and those that know me know that to be true.  I listen to music throughout the day. I play at least five different instruments.  I love to sing and write songs.  I grew up in a musical family where we traveled as a family and sang in other churches.  But there is a line that has to be drawn somewhere.  Where do we draw the line?  Do we draw it according to our feelings?  Do we draw the line according to what we like? You might say "But I like that kind of music."  Yes, and the dope addict likes his drugs too.  The drunk likes his beer.  He likes his liquor.  Does it make it right?  No!  Do you think that because it says "Christian" on it that it is really of God?  If you are going to think like that, then you can smoke if before you light up a cigarette, are ask the Lord to bless it!

 

 

Music's Demonstrations

 

There are two different kinds of demonstrations that we find in the Bible concerning music.  There are correct demonstrations and incorrect demonstrations.  Let us start with the positive.  Look first at the correct demonstration.

 

As soon as the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea and the waters closed in on the Egyptians, the Bible says that the Israelites began to sing a song.  Moses led them in that song.  They began to magnify and praise God.  That is the first time in the Bible that we find singing.  Now, you will see in the beginning of Genesis that the son of Cain, Jubal, was the inventor of all musical instruments.  However, the first time that we see people singing, it is praising and magnifying God for His deliverance. 

 

In 1 Samuel 18:6, the Bible says that after David killed Goliath, he came back into the city and the ladies came into the streets and began to sing and began to play all different kinds instruments.  They were rejoicing in God's deliverance of them.  That is correct demonstrations of music.  In Psalms 100:2, we see that singing is praising God correctly.  There are correct ways to have music and there are correct ways to sing.  Now let us look at the incorrect demonstrations.

 

In Exodus 32:18, Moses had just come down from the mountain and had the two tables of stone in his hand.

 

  • "And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.  And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear. And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.'

 

So we see here that the incorrect demonstration of music is worshiping false gods.  These people were obviously singing the wrong kinds of songs.  The Bible says that though it was singing, it was so chaotic that Joshua thought that it was a battle going on!  Have you ever heard a battle or seen a battle scene in a film?  There is nothing beautiful about it.  It is nothing but noise.  These people were dancing around this golden image singing.  I wonder what they were singing.  Do you think that they were singing gospel music?  Look at the next thing that happened to these people.  Look further down in the chapter at Exodus 32:25.

 

  • "And when Moses saw that the people were naked"

 

Oh, my goodness!  Isn't it amazing that the wrong music today still makes people take their clothes off?  Here are a few characteristics of the incorrect demonstrations of music - taking off your clothes, worshiping false gods and the singing sounds like a battlefield!  That is what happened and by the way, it made God very angry. It made Moses angry too and he threw the commandments down and broke then.  Do you want to know how mad it made God?  He told them to pick up their sword and kill everybody there.  He commanded them to kill every man his companion and his brother and his neighbor and they did.  They killed about 3,000 people that day.  For what?  It was just an innocent little rock concert at the bottom of the hill!  "What is the big deal Preacher?"  Ask God! He's the One that had a problem with it.  You say, "How can I tell if music is right or wrong?"  Well, what does it make you want to do when you hear it?  If it makes you want to walk around like a chicken, if it makes you want to dance and take your clothes off and feel lustful, then there is something wrong with it. 

 

 

Music's Dividends

 

According to the Word of God, what is music supposed to produce?  What is music's purpose?  According to our these verses, we see that it does two things.

 

  • "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." Ephesians 5:19

 

  • "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Colossians 3:16

 

 

It affects our attitude and it effects our actions. Music will affect your attitude.  I have been in the store or in a restaurant and the music was just blaring and I would look at my wife and say, "I have to get out of here! I can not handle it."  I can not take it, my nerves can not take it.  It makes me a nervous wreck.  

 

There is a story about this couple that just got saved and they were going on vacation and they put their dog in the back seat of the car.  It was a German Shepherd.  Naturally, they popped in a cassette of their favorite rock and roll group.  They did not know any better because they had just gotten saved and hadn't been taught any different.  While listening to this rock and roll music, the dog in the back was going back and forth in the seat and they thought that it must need to get out, so they pulled over to let the dog out.  The dog was fine.  It just stood there.  They got back in, put the dog in the back seat and started the car.  As soon as they started the car, the music came back on and the dog started going up and down the seat again.  Back and forth, and back and forth and back and forth.  They pulled over about three times to let the dog out and it always did the same thing.  Finally the man ejected the tape and as soon as the tape popped out, the dog lay down and went to sleep.  Now you may be wondering what my point is. The truth is that music does the same thing to humans, but they just do not have enough sense to realize it. 

 

So we see that music is supposed to do something.  Our text verse in Ephesians 5:19 says:

  • "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."

 

That is what music is supposed to produce.  It is supposed to produce a worshipful attitude towards God.  I know that you may laugh, but I recorded some of the singing here at the church a few weeks ago and I listen to it all the time.  I just sit back and I close my eyes and if somebody walks in and starts making noise, I say, "Shhh! I'm listening."  I like it.  It does not get on my nerves!  It doesn't make me want to take my clothes off.  It makes me want to pray.  It makes me want to serve God, and it makes me want to talk to God.  That's what music is supposed to do.

 

  • Colossians 3:16 "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."

 

Singing with grace!  How can you go to a "Christian" rock concert and say that they are singing with grace?  They are jumping up and down, banging into one another, pulling their clothes off.  You say, "They do not do that at Christian rock concerts."  Yes, they do, I have seen video footage of it.  They were running and banging into one another inside a Baptist church!  I do not believe that is what God had in mind when he said we should be 'singing with grace'. 

 

I am going to close with a couple of questions and we can look in the Bible for the answer:

 

Q: Is there a difference in God's music and the world's music?

A: Let's look at our Final Authority for all matters of faith and practice - the Word of God.

 

  • Psalms 137:1-4"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.  We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.  For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a strange land?"

 

They were saying that the music that they were singing did not match where they were and who they were.  They told the Babylonians "You would not like the music that we are used to.  We are accustomed to singing the Lord's song!"  There is definitely a difference.  No doubt about it.

 

Q: Shouldn't we try to reach people with their type of music?

A: That is an all time famous line.  Let's look at 1 Corinthians 1:21

 

  • "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."

 

How do people get saved?  Did you know that you cannot find one place in the Bible where music was used to win lost people to God?  You either have saved people singing or you have lost people singing.  I challenge you to show me one time in the Scriptures where saved people were singing to lost people in order to get them saved.  I am not saying that songs cannot have a gospel message in them.  That is perfectly Scriptural.  We sing songs like that in our church.  Songs like Jesus Saves, Nothing But The Blood and many others.  But, you will not find in the Bible where they were singing to heathens to get them saved.  To answer the question, God said preaching is what will get the job done - not singing worldly music.

 

Q: What about our liberty as believers?

A: Do we have liberty as believers to listen to worldly music?  Let's see what the Bible says about our liberty. 

 

  • Galatians 5:13 "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another."

 

Let me ask you a question.  I am going to be real blunt here.  I am more comfortable when I am blunt.  Have you ever seen people singing ‘Christian rock' with those lyrics that we just read about and the women were modestly dressed - like godly women - and the men were dressed like godly men?  When you look at those people that sing that music, do you think, "Wow, they must have a great prayer life!" or "Wow, they must be great soul winners?"

 

How can you say that kind of music is godly and right if the people that are listening to it act like they are in a night club and look like they are in a bar somewhere?  To be honest, I do not know what women think some times.  Women, did you know tha