By David J. Stewart | January 2011
Matthew 15:8, “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.”
Our
churches today are plagued with a modernistic plethora of praise worship
instead of old-fashioned Biblical preaching. Today's apostates are all a
bunch of sycophantic (pronounced “sicko-fantic”) worshippers. Do you know
what the word “sycophantic” means? It means “to use flattery to win the
favor of influential people.” It refers to kiss-ups! It means phony!
That is exactly what modern worshippers are doing instead of truly worshipping God. They all get together on Sunday, or at their Christian Rock concerts and on praise teams, so they can sing a bunch of sycophantic mumbo-jumbo to God, chanting vain repetitions over and over again. They draw nigh unto God with their mouth in lip service, but their hearts are far from the truth of God's Word. Jesus plainly taught in John 4:24 that God MUST be worshipped “IN TRUTH”!
It's all love, love, praise, praise, worship, worship; but DON'T ANYONE DARE PREACH THE TRUTH about sin, judgment, hellfire, and God's wrath against the wicked!!! No one dare teach the DOCTRINE OF CHRIST!!! If someone did, the house would be EMPTY! All the worldly churchgoers would leave and find another apostate group to join!
All they do is chant a bunch of holy, holy, holy mumbo-jumbo; but the Word of God is NOT preached and Christ is not genuinely honored. They think God will be impressed because they utter sycophantic praises to Him. God wants to be worshipped IN TRUTH. The fact of the matter is that MOST PEOPLE absolutely refuse to worship the God of the Bible as HE IS. They don't want to worship the I AM of Exodus 3:14; they want to worship that I am of self. Most of the apostates who utter their sycophantic praises to God absolutely hate fundamentalist Bible-believers who stand for God.
When entertainment becomes God, God cannot be worshipped unless He becomes entertaining. We are living in a generation of people of shallow thoughts, consequently living shallow lives. Our heart is an idol factor, full of wickedness and deceit (Jeremiah 17:9) and America is a nation of idols galore—media, entertainment, sports, blogging, texting, you name it! People are in control of their own lives. Think about it, whether you use a computer, text someone, listen to a music headset or surf the internet, you are in control of it all. But do we ever take time out to let God speak to us and allow God to be in control of us for awhile? Forgetting God leads to disobedience and pride (Deuteronomy 6:11-18). Even the desire for information has becomes an idol in our lives.
Visit most churches today and you'll receive an emotional experience; but you won't get the truth of God's Word. Today's contemporary Christian music (CCM) is so wishy-washy, lame, and lacking any real doctrinal content. For example: Here are the lame lyrics to apostate CCM singer, Don Mcclurkin's sycophantic song HOLY...
Donnie Mcclurkin “Holy” Lyrics
I will lift my voice
And I will sing
I will sing holy, holy
To my Lord and Savior
My God and King
I will sing holy
I will sing holy
I will praise the lamb of
God who sits upon the throne
I will worship Him
And give the praise to Him alone, yes
He who was and is and is to come
I will sing before His throne forever, forever
All the angels sing and they bow down
And they sing holy
Hallelujah, holy
We, Your sons and daughters
We praise You now
And we cry holy
Yes we cry holy
I will praise the lamb of
God who sits upon the throne
I will worship Him
And give the praise to Him alone
He who was and is and is to come
I will sing before His throne forever, forever
Holy, I say holy
Holy, yes holy
Everybody raise your voice and say
Holy, holy
Holy, holy
Holy, holy
Holy, holy
Holy, holy
Holy, holy
Holy, holy
Holy, holy
You're holy, holy
Holy Lord God, holy
Somebody join and sing
Holy, holy
Holy, holy
Holy, holy
Holy, holy
Holy, holy
Holy, holy
Holy, holy
Holy, holy
This is typical of the rhetoric propagated by the greedy CCM industry today. The lyrics are intended to get everybody excited about religion, and open their wallets; but at the same time don't preach doctrine that would offend people and actually make a difference for God. Today's music is lame as far as getting the truth out. Even a demon-possessed man in the Bible worshipped Jesus (Mark 5:6). Worshipping God means nothing if you have not the Doctrine of Christ. 2nd John 1:9: “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the DOCTRINE OF CHRIST, he hath both the Father and the Son.”
Everybody wants to praise and worship today; but no one wants to preach the Word of God, contend for the faith, take a stand against public wickedness, and go soul-winning. I guarantee you that the NIV using churches with praise teams DON'T go out public soul-winning as the Apostle Paul did in Acts 20:20 (a soul-winner's 20/20 vision). It's the King James Bible toting crowd that is getting the job done for Jesus Christ!
2nd Timothy 4:3: “For the time will come when they WILL NOT ENDURE SOUND DOCTRINE; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” Mcclurkin's online videos have been viewed MILLIONS of times; but red-hot hellfire and damnation sermons are fortunate to see even a thousand views. Modern apostate churchgoers don't care about preaching; all they want is to please the flesh with sensual and worldly music. One thing noticeable in all of today's apostate religious music is that people really get into the music, swaying back-n-forth, closing their eyes, raising their hands in the air, bobbling like bumbling blobs... to nothing more than holy, holy, holy repeated over and over again like zombies. Jesus condemned praying with vain repetitions in Matthew 6:7 “as the heathen do.” The same goes true for vain praise and worship as well (Matthew 15:8). The TRUTH must be preached.
The Christian's priorities ought to be spirit, soul, and then body last. That is, the needs of the spirit and soul come first. Preaching is more important than singing and praise. Obedience is more important than sacrifice. However, the carnal believer follows the priorities of the sinful world, which is: body, soul, spirit. They put the body (flesh) first above all else. Everything going on in today's new (neo) evangelical churches is centered around the flesh: music, entertainment, movies, fun, et cetera. Preaching is boring to most people. Most churches spend 75% of their church service on entertainment, and 25% on some psychological-based sermonette given by a wimp that couldn't preach his way out of a paperbag (if there's any sermon at all).
The following passage of Scripture accurately describes most apostate churches in America today, where people nod their heads in agreement with the preacher, and speak much love toward each other with THEIR MOUTH (without natural affection); but when all is said and done none of them OBEY THE WORD OF THE LORD. They are covetousness, materialistic and backslidden...
Ezekiel 33:30-31, “Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the LORD. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.”
Worship is vain unless it is based in THE TRUTH, and the truth is the inspired Word of God (John 17:17). Entertainment-based worship is of the Devil. This spoiled, namby-pamby generation of selfish, pleasure-seekers, wouldn't know the first thing about worshipping God. Jesus taught in John 4:24 that true worshipped of God the Father MUST be done in spirit and truth. Today's bratty youth are intolerant of hardcore Biblical preaching against sin, like the grotesque sin of homosexuality; or Biblical preaching that warns sinners of the coming judgment in Hell-fire forever.
Instead, people want to come hear
preaching that will make them go away feeling better about themselves. Well,
you're a dirty, filthy, rotten sinner (and so am I), and God HATES sin with
a passion! Thank God for the precious blood of Jesus that cleanses our sins
away (if we've placed our trust in Him). The gospel is that Christ died, was
buried and rose from the dead three days later (1st Corinthians 15:1-4). If
you add anything to that, then you've corrupted the simplicity which is in
Jesus Christ. We are saved by faith in the gospel (Mark 1:15).
Nightclub Churches
Churches today have become entertainment centers, with their giant video telescreens and surround-sound speaker systems. Churches are going high-tech to escalate the apostasy to new heights...
“Harvest is as high tech as their virtual site. The physical church is too. It's a multi-million dollar communication center complete with a TV studio and state of the art audio and video systems. This month, Pastor Greg Laurie, founder of Harvest, starts Day Seven, the a new worship service geared towards his younger tech savvy congregants. For this service the stage of the sanctuary is outfitted with 15 large plasma screens that Laurie will use to reinforce his sermon with pre-produced video segments, rock videos, clips from movies and more. Laurie will also field questions from the audience in the church and from the Web.”
SOURCE: High Tech Religion
15 large plasma screens? ...a multi-million dollar communication center? ...rock videos? Sounds like a mega nightclub!!!
Nothing can take the place of THE TRUTH of God's Word... NOTHING! The truth is that this wicked generation will NOT tolerate the preaching of the truth; so churches are resorting to taking out mega-loans from mega-banks to install mega-entertainment centers to lure mega-apostates into their mega-hellholes of sycophantic worship! It's all mega-sickening!!!
In today's apostate churches there is no preaching on the DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. That might offend someone! There is no warning about the coming judgment and eternal damnation in Hell. That will be guaranteed to offend somebody! Americans, Australians, Europeans and Canadians have become so spoiled that you dare not teach that anybody is going to Hell, because they WILL NOT ENDURE SOUND DOCTRINE just as the Bible says in 2nd Timothy 4:3.
People today want a god that fits their immoral gay and feminist agendas, a god that fits their apostate abortionist way of thinking, and a god that fits their sycophantic type of phony worship. They have churchianity without Christianity. They have religion without truth. Most of the people who sway to the sound of the music, and raise their hands in the air in sycophantic worship, do not have Christ. They have been taught a false gospel of surrendering one's life to Christ to be saved, praying the Jesus prayer, thinking that their salvation rests in one's willingness to give all for Christ. It is a bloodless gospel that espouses Catholic theology rooted in self-righteousness.
I'm sick of apostate churchgoers singing praise, praise, praise; but they won't touch Biblical doctrine with a 10-foot pole!!! BEWARE my friend of anyone who talks about praise and worship, but neglects the Doctrine of Christ. Something is wrong! We are living in an apostate generation when churches have become so worldly, that the world is now becoming churchy. Many unsaved people are coming to religion, to join apostate churches that have brought worldly music, the nightclubs, and all manner of evil right into the church.
Do you want a church that supports abortion? (Here you go) How about a church that has a homosexual pastor? (Here you go) How about a lesbian associate pastor? (Got ya covered) Perhaps you'd like a church that teaches psychology instead of the Word of God. (There's Joel Osteen and thousands of apostates like him) Or how about a wicked pastor who recommends divorce? (Ok, you got it) Take your pick of churches, there's one for every apostate. There are tens-of-thousands of ministers who will tell you anything you want to hear to get your money. But a genuine man of God doesn't pass out menus... you get THE TRUTH!
Increasingly as apostasy sets in like rigor mortis into a dead body, churches today are being drawn into the sycophantic praise and worship movement that abandons truth in order to increase attendance (and donations). God is sick of sycophantic phonies who praise Him with their mouth, but their heart has no sincere desire to know THE TRUTH.
Everyone wants to record a music album. Everybody wants to record a singing album. We need Biblical DOCTRINE today more than we need anything else! Our churches are starving to death spiritually because of a lack of Biblical preaching of THE TRUTH!!! We don't need entertainment centers and plasma TV screens, we need to get right with God.
John 4:22, “Ye worship ye know not what...”
The King James Bible Defended!
NIV 2011... the Feminist's Lesbian Bible!
