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Open our hearts and our ears to your word. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Alright, we're here in Proverbs chapter 14, and I want you to look down at verse number 7 where the Bible reads, Go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. Now the name of this sermon is, Depart from the Foolish Man. Depart from the Foolish Man. So the Bible is giving us guidance on when to depart from somebody that the Bible would label as a fool. Now notice in the second half of this verse it says, When thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. Now if you look this up in the Bible when it talks about people having the lips of knowledge versus the lips of foolishness, it's basically talking about when somebody is instructing you. So it's not saying that you always just depart from a foolish person, because honestly there's a lot of foolish people out there. And we'd never be able to knock too many doors because it's like half the world is pretty foolish when you look around. But when somebody is actually trying to give you guidance or teaching you or trying to instruct you, and what's coming out of their mouth is just utter foolishness and they don't know what they're talking about, there is no knowledge whatsoever, the Bible says you are supposed to depart or go from the presence of that person. And the Bible says that person is a fool. And what we need to realize is in our lives we are constantly getting information. You know you're here at church and for three hours a week you're hearing sermons. You're getting instructed from the preaching. But you know in our day-to-day lives, you know if you watch TV and movies, you listen to music, you're getting instructed from those things. You know you're in school, you're getting instructed by the things that you're hearing. You're reading books, you're looking at things on YouTube or on the internet. You're getting instructed by the things that you're reading and the things that you're hearing. And we better make sure that the source that we have for our information is a pure source. You know people say this phrase where it says, eat the meat and spit out the bones. And basically when people say that, Ken Hovind, who's on his third marriage by the way, who looks pretty foolish now by the world standards or the Christian standards, the way he's living his life, you know he always said, eat the meat and spit out the bones. And one of the people that he recommended was a Seventh-day Adventist, which I'm going to talk about the Seventh-day Adventist in this sermon, and the Seventh-day Adventists are utter fools. They are a complete cult. But he would say, eat the meat, spit out the bones, and basically get as much information as you can and just spit out the bones when it's bad information. That is foolish. That is foolish because the Bible teaches you're supposed to go from someone if you find out they're a fool. So I'm not going to sit here and listen to the Pope talk to me for a while because he's a fool. So why would I listen to him? And if you just get in a bunch of information from a bad source, you will be affected by that information. I don't care who you are. You get a lot of information from a bad source or a false prophet. You are going to get bad information. It's not that easy to just get the meat and spit out the bones. Because we are very easily deceived in our lives if we don't know about a certain topic. So turn to Genesis 27. Genesis 27. And so we're going to look at four different examples where we need to apply this verse to our lives of go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. Now the first thing I want to look at is when you're getting advice from people, you need to apply this verse. To go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. Now in this sermon, I'm going to look at four things. And I'm grouping a lot of things together. Because honestly, there's so many instances you need to use this verse. When I say advice from people, I'm talking about family, friends, co-workers, church members. We need to apply this verse to go from the presence of a foolish man if we perceive in them not the lips of knowledge. And so first let's look at family. Look at Genesis 27, verse 6. And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, Bring me venison and make me savory meat that I may eat, and bless thee before the Lord before my death. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats, and I will make them savory meat for thy father, such as he loveth. And thou shalt bring it to thy father that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. And Jacob said to Rebekah's mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver. And I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. Now, you know, the Bible teaches we should honor our parents, but when your parents are teaching you to sin or do something wrong, you're not supposed to honor them. And she is teaching her son to be dishonest. And Jacob's like, I'm going to seem like a deceiver. And here's the reason why, because you are deceiving your father. If you're pretending to be your brother to try to trick your way into getting a blessing, then yeah, you're a deceiver, and you should not take that information in. You should depart from that information and not apply it. She's telling her son to be dishonest and to be deceptive. And notice what it says. And he says it's going to bring a curse upon me and not a blessing. Notice what she says in verse 13. And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son. Only obey my voice and go fetch me them. And he went and fetched and brought them to his mother, and his mother made savory meat such as his father loved. So his mom says, Don't worry about it, son. The curse will come upon me. Well, here's the thing. She can say that all she wants, but you reap what you sow. And it doesn't matter if somebody gives you bad advice. If you follow bad advice, the curse is going to come upon you. You are going to reap what you sow. And it doesn't matter that she says, Hey, just listen to me. I'll take the curse. You know what? He's going to be held accountable for his own actions. And so you've got to make sure in your life you can't just use this excuse. Well, somebody advised me to do this. Somebody said I ought to do this, so it's not my fault. People always try to pass the buck and blame someone else, but it's your fault for listening to someone that gave bad advice. And his mom gives bad advice, and you reap what you sow. Look at Jacob's life. Jacob acted like a deceiver. Look at the things that he was deceived about. He was tricked into marrying the wrong woman. I mean, you reap what you sow, my friend. You're a deceiver. You're going to be deceived yourself. It doesn't matter that his mom says the curse will come upon me. You reap what you sow. And here's the truth. Most of us, we have family that is going to give us really bad advice. Very few of us have family that are soul winners and zealous and love the Lord. Most of us have family that's going to give us really bad advice that will destroy our lives. Because they're not basing it on this book. Now they could say, and they might be saved, but just because they're saved does not mean they're going to give you good advice. And they'll say they're basing it on the Bible, but when you hear the advice they're giving, 95 plus percent of us, we're getting bad advice from our family. And it might come to the point where you have to make a separation and say, you know what, I don't want advice. What you're telling me is wrong information. I'm not going to take heed to it. Because if we just allow ourselves to constantly get bad advice about how to raise our kids, about why we shouldn't homeschool our kids, and everything else, it's going to destroy our lives. Most of us have family that is going to give us bad advice. Here's an example for me in my life. And it's kind of a funny story, but when my wife and I were getting married, we went over to my grandmother's house. And she was kind of talking to us, and my grandmother is very elderly now and everything. And I love my grandmother, but the advice she gave me was not good advice. And she kind of sat us down, and then she's talking to us for about 10 minutes. And she's like, growing up in my day, the roles were kind of different between men and women. And guys were kind of the head of the households. And the women were supposed to listen to their husbands. And the guys made the final decision. But honestly, that's just not the way it's supposed to be. It's a 50-50 partnership when it comes to marriage. And I'm in this tough line because I want to be respectful. I don't want to just yell at my grandmother, but I'm just like, please, just quit talking. I didn't say that to her, but that's what I'm thinking in my mind, just like, please, quit giving me advice, because I want to be respectful. And I didn't say anything. But she's just like, marriage is supposed to be a 50-50 partnership. The husbands are not supposed to be the head of the home. And she's giving me this instruction. Now, was she basing that on the Bible or her opinion? She's basing it on her opinion, which obviously has changed in the last 50 years, because it's very easy to get brainwashed by the world. Why? Because the source of your information is a bad source, and over time, it will brainwash you. And I don't care who you are in this room. If you have a bad source of information, over time, it is going to affect you. And unfortunately for most of us, our family is not the best source of information for guidance. It's not the best source of advice. And you know what? If you're an exception to that, that's great. I know there are a few people that do have family that's very godly. I know Pastor Mendez has a very godly family that he can go to for advice and guidance. But most of us, that's not the case. And honestly, you would do better by getting advice from a godly soul winner than you would by family who is not basing things on the Bible. Turn to 3 John. And this is pretty strong language when the Bible calls this person a foolish man or a foolish person. But here's the thing. When somebody is constantly giving advice and they do not know what they're talking about, the Bible says they are a fool. Now, there are some people that don't have to always give their opinion. Unfortunately, it seems like with family, they feel like they always have to give their opinion. Some people, they might not have the same views as you, but they might not be pushing their view upon you. And that's fine. But if they're constantly pushing their view upon you, you might have to make a bit of a separation there. Another example, as you're in 3 John, is with friends. And I'm not going to turn here for the sake of time. You know, Lord willing, most of your friends are godly, soul-winning friends. It's good if most of your friends are people that are in this room or other people that love the Lord. But I'll tell you what. You need to be very careful who the friends are in your life. The Bible talks about Amnon having a friend. Amnon's friend, Jonadab. Jonadab gave him the worst advice you possibly could. You know, trick your half-sister and then you're going to force her. He raped her. And he took the advice of a friend. Now, could he sit here and say, well, my friend gave me this advice. I mean, you're going to reap what you sow for the decisions you made. And you look at that story and you might think it's just too extreme. How is that possible? But you know, I went to college at West Virginia University, which is usually the number one drinking school in the nation. And you know what? That story happens all the time at college. It happens all the time where people think it's a game and just, oh, just do this. And you know what? I know of an instance of someone near my parents that has this sort of situation. And there's a big court case about whether or not it was forced or consensual. And my opinion was just like, you know what? You reap what you sow. And if you put yourself in that situation, no matter what the case was, you're going to pay for your actions. And this sort of stuff happens in college all the time. You know, we see stories in the Bible and it seems too extreme to be real sometimes. But you have to realize we're not out at three in the morning at bars and clubs where this stuff takes place all the time. Bad things happen at night. Bad things happen at places like bars and clubs. Another thing I want to look at is with church members. Look at 3 John 1, verse 9. The Bible reads, I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words, and not content therewith. Neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbideth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. You know, there are going to be bad people at churches. That's just the way it is. And you can preach it all the time about how there's going to be evil deceivers that come in. And people just are naive to it. They just don't believe it. And people just might assume, well, it's a church member. I can get whatever advice from them that I want. You better be very careful that the person you're getting advice from is a godly person. And you better be very careful they're giving you good advice. Don't just get advice from anybody at church. Make sure it's somebody that is a godly person that actually knows what they're talking about. And the reason why this is kind of a dangerous thing is because usually people that like to give advice are usually the people that don't know what they're talking about. Because there's a time to give advice, and there's a time not to. And people that don't know what they're talking about, they don't really have any filter about whether or not they're being rude. They'll just spout off their opinion whether or not you ask for it or not. And you better be very careful the people that are giving you advice are giving you good advice. Because there are bad people that will enter into a church. And you've got to realize these bad people, they're called deceivers. Their goal is to deceive you. And if somebody's goal is to deceive you, they're making their business and tricking people. So they're going to be very good at it. Especially if they have experience, they're going to be good at tricking people. So you better make sure any advice you get, stop and say, is this what the Bible says? And even if it is a good source, make sure that it lines up with what the Bible says. And it's not just what seems right to a man, but it's actually what the Bible says. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 5. And you can definitely get bad advice from people that are saved, and even people that are soul winners. But we know that there are going to be wolves among us. Paul talked about how he warned people. Don't be surprised if one day we have to kick someone out of church. And you're like, oh man, that person was the nicest person. That person went soul winning all the time. Don't be surprised if it happens. Don't let that shake your faith if somebody ends up getting kicked out of church and ends up being a bad person. Because the Bible says they are going to be among you. But look at 1 Timothy chapter 5. Look at what it says in verse 13. See, the Bible talks about women wandering from house to house and being busybodies, speaking things they shouldn't. Now, I'm not trying to offend anyone in this room. But this is something that the Bible shows us women struggle with a little bit more than men. When it comes to gossiping, being a busybody, getting involved in things that don't matter to you. Now, here's the thing. Guys can be involved in this as well, but it is something that women struggle with more. We see that in the Bible. And here's the thing. In today's world, it's not that hard to wander about from house to house. Because all you have to do is pull out your cell phone and send a text message, and you're wandering from house to house. All you have to do is just send that message on Facebook, and you're wandering from house to house. Unfortunately, it's very easy in today's world to wander from house to house and pour out foolish advice and cause problems. And so this is something that everyone in this room, we ought to take heed to this. Let's make sure we're not a busybody. You might be a good person, but make sure you don't fall into the sin of being a busybody and speaking things which you ought not. And getting involved in things that don't have anything to do with you whatsoever. Where your advice was not asked, and they don't want your advice. And it has nothing to do with you, and they're going to get offended if you give your opinion. And the Bible talks about women being saved in childbearing. And the reason why it says they're saved in childbearing is because basically they're kept really busy raising kids, and they don't have time to wander about from house to house. But see, the Bible shows us that this is a sin that women can specifically struggle with. Turn to Proverbs chapter 12. And here's what you have to understand. There is a time to give your opinion, and there's a time not to. 95% of the time, the time to give your opinion is when somebody asks you about your opinion. If they do not ask you the vast majority of the time, you're better off just keeping your mouth shut. You might be right in what you're saying. That doesn't mean that you should go around telling people that. You might say, well, so-and-so should dress differently. Does that mean you should go around and just tell them how they should dress? Or how they should be a wife, or a husband, or how they should raise their kids? Look, if they didn't ask for your opinion, you don't have to give your opinion. 95% of the time, if you weren't asked for your opinion, you're better off not stating it. It says in Proverbs chapter 12, verses 22 and 23, The man concealeth knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness. So we see the prudent man versus the fool. The prudent man conceals knowledge, but the fool just pours out foolishness. And so you'll realize that people that actually have wisdom, they realize, I don't always have to give my opinion. I can conceal that. I'll have the right time to actually give my opinion. Because there is a time to give information in your opinion, and there's a time not to. Unless you're asked, it's not the time to give your opinion. Turn to Proverbs 17. Proverbs 17, verses 27 and 28, the Bible reads, He that hath knowledge spareth his words, and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise. And he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding. Once again, the person that's wise or has knowledge, they conceal or they spare their words. They don't always talk and give their opinion. They conceal their opinion oftentimes. And the Bible says that if you're a fool, you can be counted wise. Here's the secret. Don't talk all the time. If you just keep your mouth shut, people are going to think you're a lot smarter than you actually are. So I'm just trying to help you if you're a fool out there. If you would just keep your mouth shut, people would actually think that you're wiser than you actually are. The Bible says even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise. Turn to Proverbs 15. And let me say this, that if there's somebody at church that is always telling you their opinion and always trying to give you advice, that is probably someone you might want to have a bit of a separation from. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't shake their hands at church and be friendly to them. But you know what, if there was somebody here who was always giving me their opinion and did not know what they were talking about, I would try to distance myself from that person. I would be friendly, I would shake their hands, I wouldn't be rude, but it's like I don't need to constantly get bad advice. And that's what the Bible says, that you go from the presence of a foolish man. Now just because somebody doesn't have information, that doesn't make them a foolish man. But it's when they spout off their mouth and there's no lips of knowledge, it's lips of foolishness that are popping out, that is someone you might want to separate from. You know, my old church that I went to, we'd have Wednesday night prayer meeting during the service where they'd split off into men and women. And you know, the pastor of my old church, he didn't preach on gender roles in terms of women staying home and husbands working. I'm honestly not quite sure what his thoughts are on that 100%. But I remember when I was getting married that one of the ladies, and she was a very nice lady, but she was telling my wife about how she needed to go and work. And how, well, you know, you had a degree as a nurse in the Philippines, and you can make good money here in the U.S. You need to go out there and work. And you know what, I was pretty upset. Because I'm like, I'm newly married, and I understand she didn't realize what I believed, and the pastor didn't preach on this, so I don't think she was trying to cause problems. But it's just like, you know, she's giving advice to my wife that would ruin her lives. Bad advice. Now at that church, it wasn't preached. But I'll tell you what, if that happened at this church, if you have someone who's telling your wife that she needs to work and not stay home, you as the husband, you might want to take your veto power and tell your wife, ask someone I don't want you getting advice from. Because there's lips of foolishness coming out. They do not know what they're talking about. You know, if there's someone always giving me bad advice, I wouldn't want to hear it. And I certainly am not going to let my wife, if she's getting bad advice from someone about how she needs to work, I would cut that off right there and say, you know what, I don't want you talking to that person. Because they're giving you bad advice, and it's a bad source of information. Look, I don't at my home sit around and listen to false prophets all day. I don't want bad information popping into my head. And I don't want my wife to hear bad information all the time. And here's the thing, you can have a different opinion than other ladies or other men at this church. But you know what, for one, if you know what's being preached behind the pulpit, you know what the Bible says, and you just go and just tell everybody your opinion against what the Bible says, you're out of line. And I'll tell you what, the Bible talks about deceivers entering in and giving their opinions and preaching things against what the Bible says. It says they separate themselves. They do it in front of everyone because they know their opinion is going to be shot down by a lot of people. But they take people one-on-one and give them their opinion against what the Bible says. Let me tell you something, if that's you or if that's your wife, you might want to cut that off. And tell your wife, you know what, I don't want you talking to so-and-so because she's giving you bad advice. You can shake her hand and say hello, but I don't want you to be talking to her where she's giving you bad advice about why she needs to work or why she needs to put her kids in daycare or something like that. We're in Proverbs 15. Notice what it says in verse number 2. The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness. The same theme we've been talking about. The person who has wisdom, they realize there is a right time to give their knowledge. They useth knowledge aright, in the right way, in the right manner. But the foolish person, they always give their opinion. They always pour out foolishness. And I'm just trying to help you out. If there's somebody here who's always giving you advice, especially if you can tell they're giving you bad advice, you'd be smart not to allow yourself to constantly hear that all the time. And the Bible talks about that, of people entering in and wolves coming, and their goal is to deceive and cause problems. Turn to Titus chapter 1, Titus 1. And look, I'm not saying that you'd be rude to church members. You know, you ought to try to be as friendly as you can to everybody. But don't have this attitude, well, it's a church member, so I should listen to anything that they have to say, or that they know what they're talking about. Just because they come to this church does not mean they know what they're talking about. Look, I don't claim to be an expert at every topic. You know, obviously I'm kind of new being a father. I ask various men at this church for advice. Because just because I've been saved longer doesn't mean that I know how to raise a son when it's new to me. And I ask my wife. I've told my wife specifically about certain people. I said, you should ask advice from so-and-so. She seems like a very godly lady. She seems to love the Lord. She's doing a great job raising her kids and still being zealous for the Lord. That's someone you should get advice from and ask for help if you have questions. Because I want her to have the best source of information. And you know, praise the Lord at this church, there's a lot of people that love the Lord. And there's so many people that you can ask. Make sure the source you have for your information is a good source, someone who knows what they're talking about. The second thing I want to look at this morning is this. When it comes to false preachers and false religion, we ought to apply this verse to go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. And honestly, this is like an epidemic in our churches, in like-minded churches, how people know somebody's a false prophet, and it's like two years later they're listening to every one of their sermons. It's like, what are you doing? It's like, why are you listening to unsaved people? I mean, if you know they're a fool, you know they don't know what they're talking about, why are you listening to someone who's trying to deceive you? That's their goal. It's like, why would you play that game? If you know somebody's unsaved, you should not just be listening to what they have to say. We'll go to Titus chapter 1, verse 9. Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision. The Bible says there are many deceivers in this world. Their goal is to deceive you. And you have to realize, you get done with one false prophet, there's always going to be another false prophet. I mean, within our movement, so to speak, there's always going to be false prophets out there that are pretending to be like us and causing problems. Are you going to spend the next 40 years of your life listening to every sermon from someone who ends up being a false prophet? I mean, if you have extra time in your hand, why not just listen to Pastor Anderson's sermons? Why not listen to Pastor Romero? Why not listen to someone who can actually teach you something good, as opposed to someone you know as a devil? Why would you do that? I mean, we don't sit around and listen to the pope because we know he's a devil. But we'll listen to someone else who pretends to be like us, who ends up being a false prophet. It's like, why would you listen to what they have to say? I mean, their views get more views than a lot of great preachers in our movement. It's like, why are we listening to unsaved people? It does not make sense. There are a lot of deceivers out there. I mean, just look at common deceivers we know of. Brother Oliver was just telling me how he saw the black Hebrew Israelites over at the Viva supermarket and at the gas station going and promoting their message. And their racist message about how only they get to go to heaven. And people like me, you know, we're basically a son of the devil. We're basically Edom and how we're going to burn in hell because of our skin color. I mean, that's just utter foolishness. That's stupid. It's just like Mormonism is a really racist religion. And you know, black Hebrew Israelites, they're extremely racist. What they're saying is absolute foolishness. Look, we shouldn't go on YouTube and listen to what they have to say for hours because they're absolute fools. Or listen, look at the Jehovah's Witnesses. How many times have the Jehovah's Witnesses predicted the end of the world? 1874, 1914, I think 1911, forgive me if I get the dates wrong. 1915, I think 1917, 1918, I think 1921, I could be wrong. I used to know this. But they predicted the end of the world so many times. You would think after the first time, people would say, they didn't know what they were talking about. I should quit listening to them. But they just keep predicting the end of the world, and you know, somehow their religion grows. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. And honestly, it's kind of strange, but people that predict the end of the world, they always grow in popularity. Look at that Ruckmanite Robert Breaker. I mean, he doesn't predict the end of the world. What he says is, something interesting is going to happen on September so-and-so of 2016. It doesn't happen. So the next year, something interesting is going to happen on September so-and-so in 2017. He's got like 250,000 subscribers. And he got those subscribers by falsely predicting the end of the world. And people still listen to him. They're like, well, he said a lot of true stuff too. I mean, he proved himself to be a devil and a false prophet. I said, why would you listen to that person? Jehovah's Witnesses have falsely predicted the end of the world so many times, and people still listen to them. The Mormons. Joseph Smith has his own translation of the Bible. I don't know if you know that. He has his own translation that the Mormons do not use because there's so much heresy and blasphemy in it that they don't even want to give it credit. And it's just like your leader, the polygamist, the person who commits pedophilia, and that's the person you're going to. And he's made so many false prophecies. If they've made false prophecies, everyone who followed him should have said, I'm supposed to go from the presence of that foolish man. The Seventh-day Adventists, another cult. And I don't understand why people don't say they're a cult because the Seventh-day Adventists are as much or even more of a cult than these other ones. When the Seventh-day Adventists started as a religion, there was a guy by the name of William Miller who was their leader. Now, William Miller became popular because he predicted the end of the world in 1833. So 1833 comes, and guess what? The end of the world doesn't happen. And so all of a sudden he said, well, I guess it's October 22, 1834. Let's just move it back a year. And it's funny because I saw a documentary on this recently, and it's really funny because they have all these Seventh-day Adventists, and they're out at night with their wives, and they're looking up, the sun's setting, it's getting darker, they're just waiting for the return of Jesus. And then it doesn't happen. And the next day they're on their knees just like crying, oh, he didn't come back, we were wrong. That should have been the end of the religion. You falsely predicted the end of the world twice. Go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceiveest not in him the lips of knowledge. And when that religion started, their whole religion was based on predicting the end of the world. That was the entire religion. They said, it doesn't matter what denomination you are, it's all about the end of the world. Extremely ecumenical in predicting the end of the world. So the only thing they were known for, they were complete and utter failure about. They were wrong about it. That should have been the end of the religion. Instead, they kind of changed the religion. Now they're like, well, let's get obsessed with the Sabbath day. And not only that, they started off being really ecumenical and now they're really against ecumenicalism. It's a completely different religion. It came from William Miller, and then they had Ellen White who had all these Pentecostal prophecies where she just gets knocked out and God gives her all these false visions, things that did not take place. And she makes all these false prophecies, and yet we still have the Seventh-day Adventists today. They falsely predicted the end of the world and very few people left their religion. They just said, well, it turns out Jesus did return. It just kind of happened up in heaven. He didn't return to earth. So we were close. It's just all this took place in heaven, so we didn't see it. I mean, that's just utter foolishness. You ought to go from the presence of a foolish man when you perceive in them not the lips of knowledge. Look at verse number 11. The Bible reads, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy, lucre's sake. It says they subvert whole houses. It's so easy to do in today's world. They're teaching you. If somebody is teaching you and instructing you and it's not the lips of knowledge, you're supposed to depart from that foolish person. You look at the Ruckmanites. The Ruckmanites. I mean, these people, they say there's aliens and UFOs and zombies and all this crazy stuff. And 90% of people agree, yeah, it's crazy, but they have so much information, they're right on other stuff. All just listen to what they have to say in the presence of that foolish person. If they prove they're a moron and a false prophet, you don't keep getting information from them. You ignore them. They are a complete phony. You know, I went to this church after I got saved. It was the second church I was a member of. And I didn't realize this at the time, but this church was into lordship, salvation, and repentance of sins. I didn't know that topic at the time. You know, I didn't really understand the fight that there was out there. And here's a pastor who lied to us about being a Calvinist. I preached a sermon against Calvinism, and he was saying amen the entire time. I was ripping on Calvinism for like five minutes in the sermon, and he's screaming amen. It turns out he's a full-blown Calvinist. It's like because he's a deceiver. False prophets will lie to you. Don't be surprised by that. False prophets will be liars. But I remember he preached a sermon, and he went to Jude 1. Our message of salvation, that is just by believing, we're preaching a message of lasciviousness because we're not mentioning that you've got to return from your sins or repent of your sins and be saved. Now, when he was preaching this, you have to realize I was a baby Christian, and this was new to me, but it just didn't click because it's not the voice of the shepherd, and I was like, this doesn't make sense. And I remember my friend's dad walked out of the service, and I remember we talked about it afterwards This is the sort of reaction we need when it comes to false prophets. You find out somebody's a false prophet, you completely ignore them. And honestly, that had a big impact on me when I was young. We should do the same thing with the false prophets from our movement that pop up. You find out they're a false prophet, don't pay attention to what they have to say, and guess what? They will die off. If we don't give them views, if we don't share their videos and say, look at how big of an idiot this guy is, they will die off. If they're false prophets, the Bible says you go from the presence of a foolish man. You're not supposed to listen to them if you know they're a false prophet. Now, when you're preaching sermons, if you're going to expose a false doctrine, you might have to study it a little bit to show people what the false doctrine is. But if you're not doing a little bit of study to preach a sermon to show people why it's false, you shouldn't be at home reading the Book of Mormon. You shouldn't be at home saying, I want to read the Book of Mormon one time to find everything that's false in there. That's foolishness. Just ignore it. And with these people that are false prophets that have popped up in our movement and are complete phonies and devils, you should not listen to them at all. That is what the Bible says. You go from the presence of that foolish person. Turn to Malachi chapter 2. I mean, this is the same thing we do at the door. When we're going soul-winning, we are there to instruct somebody else. When they want to instruct us on a false doctrine, you don't sit there for 15 minutes and listen to them or argue with them. You eventually go. And you say, well, Brother Stuckey, if I leave the conversation, they're going to think they won. But here's the thing. If you stay in the conversation, they did win. Even if you make them look like a fool, if you stay in that conversation, they accomplished their goal. They won, and you lost if you waste 15 minutes. Now, if you walk away, you don't feel like you lost in your flesh, but you won the battle. Because the Bible says if they're a heretic after the first and second admonition, you reject them. We need to learn to walk away from conversation. We don't always have to prove ourselves right. I remember when I first got saved, and I was in college, so the topic of evolution I studied a lot. I used to watch Ken Hovind all the time. I memorized all these facts. And I remember there was a door specifically. I was with my friend, and he was getting the topic at the time. He was getting his master's in biology, man. I absolutely stumped him. What a waste of time. It did nothing. An hour I could have been preaching the gospel. And honestly, I know far less about that topic now because most of that information is just not that important to know. The Bible is what converts people. And look, you know, I know honestly, it's a vain, prideful thing where you say, man, I want to win that debate or win that argument. That's not our goal when we're out soul-winning. That's probably our goal on Facebook or YouTube to try to make somebody look like a fool. If they're a fool, just let them spout off whatever. Be like David in the Bible. Didn't David just ignore foolish people that would mock him? And he said, you know, the Lord's fighting my battles. That's how we need to be. We ignore these false prophets. Don't give them any views. Don't listen to their stuff. Don't share their videos on Facebook. And honestly, in our movement, it's like an epidemic. It's like you shouldn't be listening to these false prophets. Even though they're false and their goal is to deceive you, ignore them. Because honestly, even if you don't change your mind on a topic, they could still confuse you a little bit. Their whole goal is to deceive you. If they're spending all their time trying to deceive you, they're probably going to have a little bit of an impact on you. I don't care who you are. So we should not listen to them. In Malachi chapter 2, it says, verse 6, last book of the Old Testament, the law of truth was in his mouth and iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity and did turn many away from iniquity. When it says he turned many away from iniquity, this is kind of twofold, because someone who's godly should be winning a lot of souls to the Lord, but also they should be instructing people and teaching them good doctrine. It says, for the priest's lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. And so the priest should have the lips of knowledge, and he should be speaking and helping people out. If somebody is speaking and what they're saying is false, we should completely ignore them. You know, we go to a church where we have a great source of information. We hear great preaching every week and we learn from the Bible. But don't in your free time allow yourself to get a bad source of information. If you know somebody's a phony, just ignore them. And honestly, this is my opinion, but in your personal time where you're listening to sermons, if you have time, don't just listen to a sermon because it seems like it's an entertaining sermon. You know, the sermons I listen to or the preachers I listen to, even within our movement, I look at the ones where I feel like I learn the most information. And my opinion could be different from yours about who I learn the most from, but if I'm going to spend my time an hour listening to a sermon, I want to listen to one where I feel like I'm going to learn something new. The last sermon I would ever click on is a sermon about the Sodomites. That's the truth. And it needs to be preached because of the world we live in, but I don't want to hear the same sermon for the 20th time. If I'm going to spend extra time, I'm going to look at a sermon where it's like, man, I don't know what that passage is talking about. I'd like to learn. Because our goal is to get knowledge and to learn something. Now, yes, we need to be reminded of the same things, but in our free time, we should be seeking to learn, especially if we're listening to sermons. Turn to Colossians 3. Honestly, when it comes to listening to false prophets, it's a little bit of a prideful thing because people have this attitude, well, I would never be deceived. So I'll just listen to what they have to say, and I can prove them wrong. Look, any one of us can be deceived. I'm willing to freely admit that if someone's a false prophet and their whole goal is to deceive me, and they practice at it all the time, that they could be somewhat successful in confusing me. Obviously, if you're saved and you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, you're going to change your mind, but they could confuse you. They could bring up stuff and say, man, I don't know. How would I answer that question? Their whole goal is to deceive you. That's what they're an expert in, so they're going to be good at it. The third thing I want to look at is this. When it comes to politicians, politics, and conspiracy theories, we need to apply this verse to go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. Now, I combined a lot of things together here. Politics and conspiracy theories, basically. And what we're talking about today is having a good source of information. If you're going to listen to someone, make sure that they're a good source of information. Now, in Colossians 3, this is what the Bible says. In verse 1, If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. The Bible says Christ is our life, and we're supposed to set our affection on things above. Now, do you see Jesus spending all this time thinking about politics and conspiracy theories? Do you see that in the Bible? Do you see John the Baptist always worrying about the politics and conspir... No, you don't. Why? Because it's something that is not above. It's something on the earth. It's something temporal. You might enjoy it. You might find it interesting. But it gives you no rewards in heaven whether or not you know what happened to JFK. Zero rewards for figuring that out. It's basically a waste of time. And, you know, honestly, I've never really understood how people are that into politics because I've always found it boring. But, you know, honestly, I've had things I've wasted my time on. I used to waste a lot of time watching sports, which is a waste of time, and it's something on earth. It's not something above. But a lot of people spend all of their time on politics and all of their time on conspiracy theories. Honestly, a lot of people that are here today, you probably got attached to this movement as a result of conspiracy theories. And that's great, but now it's time to go the other way. Forget about the conspiracy theories and start reading this book and not caring about all those things that have no value and do you no good. You know, some examples of this are with the liberal media. And the liberal media has been proven to be full of lies and very slanted news for a long time. I'm sure almost everybody in this room would agree with that. But, you know, Fox News is just as bad, if not worse. And, you know, I come from a family that everybody thinks abortion is murder everybody is conservative by the world's standards but, you know, a lot of them spend all their time watching Fox News. And I try to have conversations with them and I'm just like, I don't know how you come to that conclusion. They're not basing it on the Bible, they're basing it on what Fox News says. And there's probably many of you in this room that know that as well. And Fox News, they might give you a lot of information that's true, but it's very slanted news. It's the wrong perspective on things. And you have to realize Satan is the god of this world. The TV, which the devil is controlling, he wants to waste your time. And he's wasting people's time learning information that oftentimes is completely false. And it's just a waste of time. And when you perceive in someone not the lips of knowledge you are supposed to depart from that person. Now, I think most of us would agree with that with politics. But let's talk about conspiracy theories for a little while. Let's look at various sources of information. Right here I have a list of predictions that Alex Jones said were going to come to pass. Okay? Now, this is during less than a two-year time period. I watched a video, and it was in 2011. And it started in February 2008 to January 1, 2010. And Alex Jones is the biggest source of conspiracy theories out there. Many of us have, you know, listened to him before. But here's the thing. The Bible says go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceiveest not in him the lips of knowledge. So if he's lied about a lot of stuff and proven not to know what he's talking about, people should not listen to him. That's what the Bible teaches. Well, listen to the things that he said over the years. In February of 2008, Hillary Clinton has been chosen by the Illuminati to be the president. Now, did she become the president in 2008? I mean, he said it like... And honestly, I didn't just look at this online. I listened to it come out of his own mouth. I heard him say it, okay? He said all of these things. I can verify all of these. He said Hillary Clinton was chosen by the Illuminati to be the president. Now, you have to understand, Alex Jones is a conspiracy salesman. So he'll just say anything that's a conspiracy. He's not a good source of information. Did Hillary Clinton become the president? No, she didn't. June 15, 2008, the dollar will be worth 10% of what it is now in two years. Now, the dollar is worth less than it used to be, but is it worth only 10%? In two years, did it go down to 10%? No, it didn't. August 10, 2008, he said there was going to be a national draft for the war. Was there a national draft for the war? Didn't take place, did it? Throughout 2009, many times he predicted the assassination of Barack Obama. He said it like it was a fact. He said it will come to pass. Barack Obama will be assassinated, or they're going to make an attempt of an assassination on his life in order to use that for political gain. Did that ever happen to Barack Obama? I don't remember him ever being assassinated. He said on February 13, 2009, there will be a staged biological attack that will shortly come to pass that will kill half the population of the U.S. Did the Black Plague hit in 2009? I was just too young to remember it. Didn't happen, did it? Let's see, in August 24, 2009, Bernie Madoff's going to mysteriously die of cancer in a few years. Did he die of cancer in a few years? Didn't happen, did it? In January 1, 2010, he said that, and this is not him saying this in January 1, 2010, this was somebody on his show, but he backed it up, so I know people are going to make a comment like, oh, he didn't say this, but he said there's going to be a 9-11 level terror attack created by the government in 2010, just like 9-11. Did that take place on the scale of 9-11? No, it didn't. Look, he's not a good source of information. People should have stopped listening to him because he proved himself to be a phony. And you say, but I learned a lot of stuff from him. Yeah, but you know what? You can learn a lot of stuff from the Catholics, too. They believe some things that are true. It doesn't mean you should take in all their information because they say a lot of things that are false. And anything that he learned that was accurate was either a guess or he learned it from somebody who knew what they were talking about. And you say, well, how did Alex Jones even become popular? He really became popular because he predicted a lot during the Y2K disaster about how it was going to be the end of the world. There's going to be no gasoline. So he became popular just like these people predicting the end of the world by making a false prediction, and then afterwards people said, well, you know, I'm still going to listen to him because I can still learn a lot. No, you can't. He proved himself to be a phony. Why do people listen to him? Honestly, he's a modern-day Nostradamus. I'll give him credit. Alex Jones is a modern-day Nostradamus. You know, he's right one out of 20 times. That's pretty good. Modern-day Nostradamus. And a couple of the other big conspiracy salesmen and fear mongers, because that's what they are. They're fear mongers. They put you in a state of fear. Even if they're right on some of the stuff, it does not benefit you in the spiritual life. One of the other big guys was Bill Cooper. Bill Cooper was kind of Alex Jones' rival right around 2001, and he was shot. He had a shootout with the police. There's various opinions of what happened. Bill Cooper might have been writing some stuff, but he was also really dogmatic about aliens existing. That's not a good source of information. He's obviously not basing it on this book. One of the other big guys is David Icke. David Icke, a long time ago, proclaimed himself to be the Son of God. Now, that's a pretty bad source of information. I don't know how he did this. He reinvented himself and later became the big expert on conspiracies. He said, our politicians are all reptilian people. They're all secretly lizards. You can see their eyes change. It's like, what in the world? People just believe the craziest things. I want you to understand about this. You say, brother Stuckey, I find politics and conspiracy theories interesting. I'm not saying you can ever spend any time on this, but here's what I am saying. We all have hobbies that waste our time, but honestly, I don't really think the devil cares what you do on Sunday, as long as you're not in church. I don't think he really cares what you do during the week, as long as you're not soul winning. I don't think he really cares what you do throughout the day if you're not spending time in the Word of God and praying, as long as he gets you to waste your time on something vain. That is a topic that a lot of people in our movement, they waste their time on, politics and conspiracy theories. You might have a little bit of time to study it some, and you find it interesting. You need to be very careful that you have a good source of information, and you don't spend too much time. The last thing I want to look at this morning is entertainment. Look at Colossians 3, verse 16. When it comes to entertainment, we need to apply this verse to go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. Now, when we preach about music and TV and movies and things like that, usually what we focus on is the fact that it's inherently sinful. Rock music, country music, and that's true. It is inherently sinful. But another reason why you shouldn't listen to it is because there's no knowledge whatsoever that they're saying at all. It's not just that it's just sinful. There's also no knowledge. It's a waste of time. They're not teaching you anything valuable. The Bible says in 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. You see, when you sing from this hymnal, you're not wasting your time, because this is teaching you and admonishing you. That's what the Bible says, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You might say, well, Brother Stuckey, I'm not going to spend any time singing hymns or anything like that. I just want to spend my time reading the Bible and going soul-winning. There's nothing wrong with singing the hymns, because they will teach you. They'll teach you doctrine. And honestly, these kids at a young age, they're learning good doctrine, like the song Holy, Holy, Holy, and so they're not going to have a problem with understanding the Trinity when they grow up, because it's being taught in that song. At a young age, it's being ingrained and taught to them. But the music of the world, it's not teaching you any knowledge. What's coming out of their mouths, there's no knowledge in it, and you ought to go from the presence of that foolish person. It's not just that it's inherently sinful. They're teaching you nothing valuable. Turn to John 8. And in John chapter 8, I want you to look at verse number 44, where it's funny, I can't remember who it was. I saw somebody on YouTube made a comment about how it's really unchristian to call people names. Here we are in John 844. Notice what Jesus says. Year of your father the devil. That was pretty unkind, wasn't it? Year of your father the devil. He's saying that you're a reprobate. You're twice dead. You're on your way to hell. You have no hope of going to heaven. Year of your father the devil. And the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. Notice how it keeps calling the devil a liar, how there's no truth in him whatsoever. You'll notice this when people end up being reprobates. Once all the information comes out afterwards, they're like these big pathological liars, always. They said so many things that were half-truths and dishonest and not true at all. It makes sense. Why? Because they're of their father the devil. He was a liar and abode not in the truth, so they're going to have the same characteristics. They are going to be liars. They're going to be dishonest. It's always interesting when someone gets kicked out of church and you find out they were a bad person, all of a sudden all the stories come forth. It's like lie after lie after lie after lie after lie. I remember when there was a big case at a church I went to about 10 years ago. This family got kicked out of church. When all the stories came back, there were differing opinions on whether those kids were even theirs. One of their daughters had told people different things, whether or not it was their daughter, or whether or not it was from a child. They just lied about everything. All of a sudden you look at it and you're like, man, everything they said was a lie. They tell one person one thing and one person another thing. The thing about a liar is eventually they get their stories mixed up and they tell the wrong person something opposite what they told before and you start seeing how they're a liar. But you have to understand that Satan we know is the god of this world, and Satan is a liar. So when it comes to this entertainment, the TV and the movies, you have to understand there's no knowledge in it. It's just going to be a bunch of lies. Turn to 1 John 2. So the TV and the movies, it's all going to be a bunch of lies and it's all going to be a bunch of deception. Somebody posted on Facebook this week, and I hadn't thought about this movie in a long time, but I remember one of the last movies I saw in the movie theater was The Dark Knight. I think that was the name of it. With Heath Ledger, the guy who ended up dying of drugs or alcohol or whatever he died of a year later. And he played the Joker. It was a famous movie ten years ago and everything. They posted this picture and they said, what the world thinks a psychopath looks like. And they showed a picture of Heath Ledger from that movie. And he's got the crazy face painting. And obviously he was maniacal if you saw that movie. I'm admitting I watched that movie. It was ten years ago. But then all of a sudden they said what the psychopath actually looks like. And then they showed three guys wearing nice suits, well-dressed and everything. It was interesting to me because I hadn't thought about the movie in a long time, but I was like, man, I was subtly deceived into thinking that a psychopath is going to look like a crazy killer like that all the time. And you have to understand these movies, you might not catch what they're doing to you and the lies that they're promoting, but they will subtly deceive you without you even thinking about it. And I was willing to admit, man, I was deceived by that. Now, I knew what the Bible said about reprobates, but I didn't realize that the devil was subtly trying to deceive me. I just didn't catch it at all. And when you watch these movies and these TV shows, you might not be able to spot what the devil's doing, but I promise you he's doing something. He's feeding you some lie. He's trying to deceive you in some way, something against the Bible. I'll go to what it says in 1 John 2, verses 15 and 16. It says, 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. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. See, what the Bible says is you cannot love God and love the world. You cannot spend all your time watching the movies and listening to the ungodly music and say that you love God. It's one or the other. You either love God or you love the world. And I'll tell you what. You link up with the world. The Bible says you're the enemy of God then. And the world, through the entertainment they have, the movies, the music, the TV shows, there's no knowledge in it whatsoever. It's not just that it's inherently sinful. It teaches you nothing. There's nothing valuable. There's plenty of hobbies you could do that would actually be beneficial in some way. You know, you could go for a jog. You could get a workout. That benefits you in some way. You know, some of us guys, we played basketball last night. You know, we're working out. We're getting exercise, having a good fellowship. There's at least something beneficial in that. There's plenty of hobbies you could have. You could read a book and learn about something. The music, the movies, the TV shows, there's nothing beneficial whatsoever. It's inherently sinful and it's teaching you a bunch of garbage. You're learning nothing valuable whatsoever. Turn to James chapter 4. You see, there's a difference between the believer and the unbeliever. See, the unbeliever, they live their lives completely based on what entertains them, what feels good, what pleasures their eyes or their ears. They live their life based on entertainment, but we as believers, we should not spend all of our life trying to be entertained. And that's definitely something I don't want to teach my son as he grows up. I don't want his whole life just to be about entertainment. And yes, kids can have fun and there's times to have fun, but there's a lot of work to do. Not just getting people saved, but things that actually matter. We shouldn't just spend our life completely on entertainment. Look at James 4 verse 9. The Bible reads, Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. You see, the world, their whole life is about laughter and entertainment and joy. But we as believers, there's things we ought to mourn about. There's things we ought to have heaviness about. You see the way this world's going? I mean, it's pretty bad out there. I mean, you can just take a walk outside and look out, and 95% of people you're looking at are going to die and go to hell one day. That's pretty sad. There's things that we should be mourning about, we should be heavy about when you see how wicked this world is becoming. We should not live all of our lives completely based on entertainment. Turn to Hosea chapter 4. And so the four things we looked at where we need to apply this verse to go from the presence of a foolish man, we looked at when it comes to getting advice from people. If somebody proves themselves to be a fool and they don't know what they're talking about, you should go from the presence of that foolish person. When it comes to false prophets, I mean, if you know they're a false prophet, you need to go from the presence of that foolish person. Don't spend your time saying, Well, I just want to read the Koran once. Just don't read it at all. When it comes to entertainment and also when it comes to conspiracy theories, politics, or really any of your hobbies, make sure that it's not something where you're learning just absolutely nothing valuable whatsoever. The Bible reads in Proverbs 17, 4, A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips, and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. See, the wicked person, they give heed to false lips. I hope you're not a wicked person this morning. If you're not a wicked person, why are you giving heed to false lips? Because that's what the ungodly person does. We as believers, we should not be like that. We're in Hosea chapter 4. Let me actually turn there myself. Hosea chapter 4 and verse number 6, the Bible reads, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me. Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. See, the Bible says God's people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Knowledge is extremely important. And we live in a day where you can find anything on the Internet and people are getting dumber every year. There's so much knowledge out there to be had and people are getting dumber and dumber. You say, why is that? Because they're spending all their time learning foolishness and spending all their life on entertainment. We need to take real value in knowledge. And there's a lot of things that you can learn in this life, but the best source of knowledge you can come to is going to be found in this book right here. And it's like your life, you should spend reading this book, learning this book, memorizing this book. We need to get knowledge, because if we don't, we are going to be destroyed, just like the Bible says. And the Bible makes it very clear. It says, depart from the foolish man. If you know somebody is foolish, do not waste your time listening to what they have to say. Just read the Bible. Just listen to a good preacher. Don't waste your time on foolishness. Let's close in a word of prayer.