I have heard it said by two different missionaries from two different countries on two different occasions that if the majority of missionaries (please note I said majority and not all) came home they would be doing the work of God a great service.  The social gospel that is being preached today in the U.S. is being spread like wild fire through out the world.  The Gospel of Jesus is put on the back burner while man’s good works are displayed among the lost in hopes those good works will attract the lost next Sunday to a church service where they learn how they too can perform good works and the church/ministry flourishes while the people remain in bondage.  Their ministries are of works, albeit good works but the focus is on the works and not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  As my dear friend and brother stated, they are busy, active and involved in their works which leads to self righteousness.

“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Matthew 25:40.  The Bible is full of scripture about helping the needy and by no means am I saying we should not.  What I am saying, quite bluntly but in love, is that a door knob, a donut or a ditch will not defeat sin.  What the lost need is liberty that can only come from Jesus Christ.  When the hearts of the people who are living in such darkness and despair are told of this Hope, this Good News of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit will prick their hearts and their hearts will be changed.  It is the hearts of those who are living in that community that must be changed in order for our good works to sustain.  If hearts are not changed by the Gospel of Jesus and His light given to the community, the forces of darkness will re enter as soon as we leave and that well that was built or that door that was replaced will further the kingdom of darkness instead of the Kingdom of Heaven.

“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” James 2:14-17.  Proper faith will produce proper works that God will recognize; as opposed to improper faith in works of the flesh that God does not recognize.  Our works won’t save them Church, but His Gospel will, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.  I understand the churches go on mission trips all of the time and they usually go with zeal and a purpose to help the community.  Unfortunately, it is that zeal that the enemy uses to overshoot the Great Commission of spreading the Gospel and it becomes the great commission of good works and local missions with a watered down Gospel being preached. 

Perhaps the most disturbing thing my friend said was the reason for the difficulty in preaching the full counsel of the Word of God, rightly divided on the mission field these days.  His reason rattled both my husband and I to the bones, opened our eyes wide open.  You see, as we know, the United States has always been looked upon as a Christian nation.  We have led the way in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  However, because of the watered down, sugar coated, 40 days, 100 ways, harbingers, shemitahs, blood moons, motivational  and social gospels that have been preached from the pulpit and the Children of God not standing up for the Word of God, the missionaries around the world can no longer point to the sin condoning United States as a nation who preaches the Gospel.  I realize many unbelievers may feel that same sex marriage is a move in the right direction and to you I will point to the nations who have not followed the ways of the Lord to show you the direction the US is headed…whether you believe it or not makes no difference.  Because we, the Children of God, have not been vigilant, the devil as a roaring lion has been devouring the lost and weak (1 Peter 5:8).  Our vigilance has been in our good works which have been burned up in the chafe, instead of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We need to quit treating the symptoms of sin and start preaching the deliverance of sin….Jesus Christ and Him Crucified, be determined to know nothing else!  – Donna Clark Warren