Sermon Central
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Counterfeit Christianity Series
Contributed by Jerry Shirley on Jul 7, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: A good exposition not only of the fakes in some of the pews, but of sorcery and the occult so prominent today. SIMON’S PRETENSION, PROFESSION, PRESUMPTION.
Counterfeit Christianity
In the previous verses we saw: city wide revival w/ Philip the Evangelist. Miracles were performed, souls saved.
And here’s a scriptural principle which follows: wherever God sends genuine revival, Satan attempts to send counterfeit revival. God sows some saved souls, and Satan sows his tares among that wheat.
For example: John the Baptist preached a message that centered on repentance… “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”.
Repent=change of mind which leads to change of life.
When I got saved, God gave me a new heart, new desires, and set my feet in a new direction! The idea that you can be genuinely saved and not turn, but continue to plow iniquity, is foreign to the Bible.
2 Cor. 5:17
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Well, the Pharisees and Sadducees came to be baptized, but they had not repented of their sins, and there was no evidence they had been truly converted, and their lifestyle was the same wicked one it had always been.
But when he [John] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? [8] Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
“You bunch of counterfeits, fakes, pretenders!”
And it’s a fact w/out exception. Where there is the real thing, Satan will plant counterfeits, and make them look real. And if the Rapture occurs at church time it matters not how Bible-based the church, there will be left behind some sitting, wondering, scratching their heads!
In the movie “Left Behind” it was the actual pastor of the church left behind!
This is not at all inappropriate…it also happened in the ministry of Paul.
False teachers had come in and were leading people astray, saying they had divine authority [super apostles, even above the apostles!], which was bogus. They claimed to be true servants of God, but were impostors.
2 Cor. 11:13-14
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. [14] And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
“You bunch of counterfeits, fakes, pretenders!”
For all God has, Satan has a counterfeit.
Ex.—The Gospel—the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Satan has a counterfeit gospel:
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: [7] Which is not another [of same kind, that is]; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. [8] 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. [9] 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.
Counterfeit righteousness:
For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Big difference between righteousness and self-righteousness! [filthy rags]
Counterfeit church:
Rev. 2:9
… I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
They gather in buildings locally and all over the world today, thinking they know the true and living God, and realize not they bow before Satan himself!
It may be politically correct, but it’s dead wrong to say “we all call God by different names, but we mean the same thing!”
Counterfeit preachers:
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
Some do some things in the name of Jesus, but what they do is contrary w/ the Word…[healings, etc.]
Satan is a master counterfeiter! He will go so far as to even create a
Counterfeit Christ
during the tribulation…the antichrist.
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
By the way, some counterfeit preachers soften/alter their message so much to this world that they inadvertently create a counterfeit Jesus of their own! They preach another Jesus…not the literal God-Man of the Bible, but a more tolerable Jesus that you’d think He just stepped right out of pop-culture and into their church!
