(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Tis the grand esteem in the earth o'er me, Tis the grand esteem, Lord of all your strength, Tis the grand esteem, till the world again our God is able to deliver thee, He is able to deliver thee, He is able to deliver thee. O blessed of rest, look to him for rest, Our God is able to deliver thee, Tis the grand esteem, let the dying flow, To the guilty heart, to the sinful soul, Look to God in faith, he will make thee whole, Our God is able to deliver thee, He is able to deliver thee, He is able to deliver thee, O blessed of rest, look to him for rest, Our God is able to deliver thee. Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Nothing between my soul and the Savior, On the back, congratulations to the Ventura family on the birth of baby Julia Lynn, born Friday, September 3rd at 1.58 a.m. Six pounds, one ounce, 18 inches, and mother and baby are both doing well, so praise the Lord for that. Be sure to congratulate them. Below that, the monthly Spanish night is this Thursday at 7 o'clock p.m. right here. And then if you're planning on going to the camping trip at Mount Graham, you're going to want to sign up over here on the sign-up sheet for that. And also keep in mind that this is not going to be a thing with communal meals or anything. Everybody's just going to be bringing their own food. You may be able to mooch off people a little bit, but the church isn't actually providing a common meal or anything, so everybody's responsible to bring their own food for that. And then other upcoming events listed below. Of course, we've got a lot more of our small town soul-winning trips coming up. Those are just happening on a regular basis almost every weekend. And so the next one is, of course, this weekend, Friday and Saturday up in Heber. And then there's a Friday. Is that right when it says, shouldn't that say Saturday? Yeah, okay, so that's a mistake. It is September 18th. That is the correct date, but it's Saturday, September 18th, just a day trip up to Payson. And that's important because probably a lot of people have a day off on Saturday, and if they saw that Friday, then they might go like, whoa, you know, I got to work that day. So that's Saturday, September 18th, Payson, and then also, of course, the camping trip. And then the Sierra Leone mission strip is coming up. It's been talked about for many, many months, been planned for a long time. Brother Raymond Cooper is the one who's spearheading that, and so talk to him. If you have any questions, want any details, he's been uploading a lot of videos about it, and he's the guy to talk to if you want to just get some last-minute details on that. And that's coming up in October. If you can't go, then, of course, just be praying for them that they'll have a fruitful trip. And that is about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning going back to Thursday. Anything from Thursday? Okay. Anything else from Thursday? How about Friday? Okay. Okay. Anything else from Friday? All right. Very good. And then how about Saturday? Anything from Saturday? And then what about today, Sunday? All right. Whoops. Wrong slot there. Okay. And then we got one here. All right. Any other soul winning from today? All right. Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning. And with that, let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us. All right. You should find Psalm 15 in your hymnal there. If you don't have one, you can raise your hand. One Psalm 15. Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh up rightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that walketh up rightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbighteth not with his tongue, nor to lend evil to his favour, nor take up the throne of Judges' favour. He that backbighteth not with his tongue, whose eyes a vile person is content, the yonder and then that fear the Lord. His eyes a vile person is content, the yonder and then that fear the Lord. He that swear into his own hurt and change it not, he that putteth not out his money to his rent, he that swear into his own hurt and change it not, he that putteth not out his money to his rent, nor take every word against me and sing, he that doeth these things shall never be moved, nor take every word against me and sing, he that doeth these things shall never be moved, Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle, who shall dwell in thy holy hymn. Amen. You all did so good on that song. Let's go to hymn number six now. Number six, Beneath the Cross of Jesus. Hymn number six. Beneath the Cross of Jesus, I fain would take my stand. Hymn number six. On this first verse together, hymn number six. Beneath the Cross of Jesus, I fain would take my stand, the shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land, a home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way, from the burning of the new-time heat, and the burning of the day. Upon the cross of Jesus, my guy and I can see, the very dying form of one who suffered there for me, and from my sittin' carpet into wonders I confess, the wonders of his glorious love and my worthlessness. I dig across my shadow for my abiding place, I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of his face, content to let the world go by to know the gain or loss, my sinful self my only shame, my glory all across. Alright, this time we'll pass offering plates. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to the book of Jude. The book of Jude is a little short book right before the last book, Revelation. So, very end of the New Testament, the book of Jude. We'll begin reading verse number one, follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads. The book of Jude, starting verse number one. In the book of Jude, the Bible reads, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. Ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward, destroyed them that believed not. And the angels, which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation, hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness under the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, in the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, dares not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. But these speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gang-saying of Korih. These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed. And of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts, and their mouths speak of great swelling words, having men's persons and admirations because of advantage. But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the spirit. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, and of some have compassion, making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Father in Heaven, I pray that you please bless Pastor Anderson as he preaches your word, and help us, your children, that we learn sound doctrine. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Amen. In Jude, we have this passage about ungodly men who have crept in unawares. There's also a parallel passage over in 2 Peter chapter 2, and these passages could apply to people who creep into a good church unawares. They could also just be applied broadly to false teachers and false prophets who've crept into Christianity in general, unawares, you know, claiming the name of Christ, and putting on a show as if they are actually men of God when they are actually false prophets or false teachers that have crept in unawares. Now the Bible says there in verse number 1 of Jude, Jude the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. So he's just giving a basic greeting at the beginning of the letter. And then he jumps right in, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. So he starts out by saying, you know, I was going to write about something else, I was going to write to you about the common salvation, but now I realize I need to write to you about earnestly contending for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. And here's why the faith is threatened and why we need to earnestly contend for the faith. And fight for truth because there are certain men, verse 4, crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Kind of interesting how he says they were before of old ordained to this condemnation. You know, here he is condemning them, but actually the word of God is eternal. You know, the word of God was actually finished obviously before the world even began, and yet it's looking into the future knowing that there are going to be these false prophets, there are going to be these false teachers, and he said that these ungodly men have crept in unawares, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the first thing I want to point out to you here is this term lasciviousness. One thing that you're going to see come up over and over again in both the book of 2 Peter chapter 2 and also in the book of Jude is that these guys, they're very carnal. They're walking after the flesh. It talks about lasciviousness, covetousness, all these different things. And what you have to understand is that these people are unsaved. They're not actual believers in Christ. They're frauds, they're impostors, they're fake. And so because they're not saved, of course they're going to be walking after the flesh. You know, all that's there is the flesh, just carnality. And so this is what characterizes these guys is that they are unspiritual because they're not even saved. I mean, how can you actually be spiritual when you're not even saved? Before you're saved, your spirit is dead in trespasses and sins. It's when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that your spirit is quickened or brought to life. And so it should be no surprise that these men are lascivious. What does that mean, lascivious? Well, that has to do with lust and ungodly type of lust, especially like fornication, adultery, those type of things. So flip over if you would. Keep your finger there on Jude because we're going to go back and forth between these two passages. But flip back to 2 Peter chapter 2. We saw in Jude these guys have crept in unawares. They're teaching damnable heresy. They're doing it privily. They're sneaking in and they're lascivious. They are carnal. They're filled with lust. We're going to see that a lot more in 2 Peter 2. But look at 2 Peter chapter 2 verse number 1. The Bible reads, But there were also false prophets 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. Now what does that mean, privily? It means secretly. Okay, so these people will make it seem like they actually are Bible-believing Christians, that they actually believe the Gospel, but secretly they're bringing in damnable heresies. Now again, we could look at this on a couple different levels. We could look at this on a local church level or just Christianity in general. But if you think about even in our local church here, many years ago we had people who privily had crept in and were teaching damnable heresy. They were creeping around and denying the Trinity and teaching that the Trinity was polytheistic or that it was a pagan doctrine and they were espousing the view of God that the oneness Pentecostals teach, that is a damnable heresy because the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is of course very important in our faith. And of course these people are going to give lip service, oh sure, we believe Jesus is the Son of God. But then when you actually look at their doctrine, they're actually denying the sonship of Christ by denying the Trinity and teaching oneness, which is that Jesus is God the Father. And then you get into this other kind of screwed up type of doctrine like what I dealt with this morning, the kind of stuff that says, oh Jesus isn't even really the child of Mary biologically. She's just like a holding tank for him or something. You get into this crazy weird doctrine from these false teachers and false prophets who creep in and teach this stuff. Isn't it interesting that the people that we threw out of our church for denying the Trinity, isn't it interesting that they never came to me about this doctrine and said, hey Pastor Anderson, we'd love to share with you this great scriptural insight. Now, there are lots of other people who very often have come to me over the years and said, hey, let me show you something cool that I found in the Bible, or hey, Pastor Anderson, have you thought about this? And you know, a lot of times I agree with what they bring to me, a lot of times I disagree, but people bring me and show me things from the Bible and they have ideas and things that they've learned that they share with me. That's what normal people would do if they're in a church like ours where we love the Bible, we love talking about the Bible before services, after services, you know, we're constantly talking about doctrine, you know, it would make perfect sense to come up to the pastor of the church and say, hey, here's some really interesting stuff, here are some things that I found. You know, isn't it interesting that some of these guys, they had the opportunity to preach at different church plants or different situations where they would fill in and preach, isn't it interesting that they never got up and publicly preached any of this garbage that they were teaching about oneness, the modalism that they were teaching. Isn't it funny how they didn't get up in a public service and teach it? Isn't it funny they didn't upload a YouTube video teaching it? Isn't it interesting that they didn't approach someone like myself or someone like brother Segura or something? Isn't it interesting that they were secretly sneaking around and kind of feeling people out and kind of figuring out who they felt like they could get to with this thing? And of course, I do believe that denying the Trinity is damnable heresy. Of course, someone who's saved might not really know much about the Trinity, might not have a lot of teaching, especially if they're a new believer, they might not understand the Trinity, but anybody who's truly saved is not going to deny the truth of the Trinity when they're shown clear scripture because God's sheep hear his voice. You know, when you get saved, you don't know everything about the Bible. I don't know everything about the Bible, but you know, when you first get saved, you might know very little, okay? But the difference with a true believer is that when they're shown biblical truth, they actually believe it and they comprehend it. They get it. Whereas when you have people that just have no understanding of doctrine, you show them things in the Bible and they just go over their head all the time. That's a red flag that that person isn't even saved. And think about all the sermons when that whole incident happened where we were combating that heresy and I would just went on like a marathon where I just preached all these sermons about the Trinity and all these. I preached three sermons in a row that that's all they were about, but then I kept hitting on it, hitting on it, hitting on it, and then three months later, four months later, five months later, after just completely, just not only destroying that doctrine of modalism, but even just kicking a dead horse and just running it into the ground, you have people, I still think that Jesus is God the Father. You know, it's just like, dude, have you, where have you been for the last four months? I'll tell you what it is, is that the natural man received not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. And so you have people who privily, secretly teach damnable heresies. Let me explain something to you real quick. There's nothing that I teach privily. Nothing. Every single thing that I teach, I teach publicly. And I tell it to anybody who wants to listen. Because people who actually are on the up and up, they don't mind just getting up and preaching any part of the Bible. Openly, publicly, our website has 2,000 hours of my preaching. And here's the thing, I'm not saying that I've preached everything that there is to know, because I'm still learning and there's so much more out there for all of us to learn. But I will say this, I've preached everything that I know. If I learned it, then I've taught it. And I have kept back nothing that was profitable unto you. Okay, I've taught all the counsel of God. Whatever I've learned, that I've shared. But this secret, going around and teaching something, and you know, I'm not going to rehash that whole issue, but it's a good example of people creeping in and bringing in damnable heresy. But also, again, we could zoom out. That's an example in a church. We could also zoom out and just look at Christians and just look at Christianity in general. False teachers and false prophets coming into Christianity, pretending to be Baptist, pretending to be an Evangelical Christian, claiming the name of Christ, and they have other motives that are not about serving the Lord or winning people to Christ. What are their motives? Well, this scripture really illuminates their motives. It says in verse number two, Many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. So these people give Christianity a bad name. They could give a church a bad name. And then it says in verse three, And through covetousness shall they with fainted words make merchandise of you whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumberth not. And this is a word that's going to come up over and over again in this passage, covetousness, through covetousness. At the end of verse 14, or let's read all of verse 14, it says, Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls, on heart they have exercised with covetous practices. Look at the end of verse 15, it says, They've gotten following the way of Balaam, the son of Bozor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. Okay? And so we see covetousness, loving the wages of unrighteousness. And verse 10, it talks about the lust of uncleanness. That goes back to the lasciviousness. So what is it that's motivating these people that they would creep in, pretend to be a man of God, preach lies, preach false doctrine, teach heresy. You know, why would anyone do such a thing? Well, the Bible mentions covetousness and the love of money as a major motivation. Now, there are various motivations, but this is definitely one of them. Now, let me stop and just explain the word covetousness because sometimes we might just take a word like this for granted because it's one of the 10 commandments thou shalt not covet. But I find that in 2021 America, there are many people who are totally unfamiliar with this word. And if you ask them to define it, they can't define it. They don't know what it means because it's a concept that has fallen by the wayside. But like I said, it's in the 10 commandments. It's a pretty big thing. What does it mean thou shalt not covet? Well, coveting is when I look at something that belongs to someone else and I wish that it belonged to me. It's desiring something that doesn't belong to you. It's lusting after things that are out of your reach, out of your grasp. Now, what's funny is that when I explain this to people, they often say to me like, well, there's something wrong with that? Why would that be a sin? What? I mean, I mean, I'm not, it's not like I'm stealing stuff. Is it okay for me to just look at stuff and just wish that I had it or just want to have it? But in fact, this is known as covetousness. In fact, in the Old Testament, the word covet is used interchangeably with the word desire. For example, in the 10 commandments in Exodus chapter 20, it says thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, but in Deuteronomy chapter 5, it says thou shalt not desire thy neighbor's wife. So you can see how the translators use two synonymous words there to help us understand what this word covet means. In the New Testament, the Bible also defines it when it says, I had not known lust, but that the law said thou shalt not covet. So what is it that violates this command not to covet? It's lust. Lust means desire. Desire is often covetousness. When we're desiring something that belongs to someone else. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's ox or his ass or anything that is thy neighbor's. Don't covet anything that belongs to your neighbor. Don't covet his wife. Don't covet his house. Don't covet anything. This is what it means not to covet. These people are covetous. So what does that mean? It means that they are characterized by desiring material things. Carnal things. Whether this is women that don't belong to them, whether this is money, whether this is just the fame, prestige, whatever. These people are trying to satisfy a carnal desire. Lust. Covetousness. And remember, the love of money is the root of all evil. I don't care what these new versions say that have softened this up. In the modern Bible versions, it'll say something like, you know, well, you know, the love of money is a root of many forms of evil. And if you actually look at their reasoning, it's not because, well, you know, the King James Bible translated it wrong. No, no, that's not the issue. Here's what it comes down to. They look at the translation found in our King James Bible and say, well, that just, you know, we just know that's not true. I mean, the argument that you'll typically hear is like, well, come on, the love of money really be the root of all evil. So, you know, let's soften this up a little bit to make, let's make it true. Well, here, the Bible is already true. You don't have to make it true. Okay. And the Bible was correct when it said the love of money is the root of all evil, meaning that when you love money, this will lead you into every other type of evil. The root is the love of money. That's where it starts. That's on the most basic level. You know, there are a lot of people, horrible psychopaths and rapists and murderers and serial adulterers, but you know what? They're pretty decent normal people, but you know what they do? They love money. You know, I literally had a guy tell me this week, he said, I really love money. You know, I was just, I was talking to him about his career and, and that's what he said. He just said, I really love money. And I'm just thinking to myself, you know, you might want to work on that because the love of money is the root of all evil. Okay. See, and people are like, well, come on. I mean, how can the root of all evil be the love of money? I mean, and people bring up like, well, you know, what about a rapist? He's evil. What does that have to do with the love of money? But these people are very foolish because they don't understand the fact that we see actually right here in this very passage, because look at the end of verse 14, it says, in heart they have exercised with covetous practices. Now think about this. If you can exercise your heart with covetous practices, that sounds to me like you could be nine, 10, 11 years old before you're even thinking about, you know, women or those type of carnal desires. You could be just a little boy who's nine, 10, 11, 12, and you're already one who's characterized by the love of money. You know what you're doing as the kid who loves money? You're exercising your heart with covetous practices. And then later on when other desires show up, the same attitude that you had toward money is going to carry over into your desire toward women and everything else. So, you know, I'm not going to sit here and defend that verse all night because it really needs no defense because if you actually understand what it's saying, it makes perfect sense that the love of money is the root of all evil because the love of money is far more universal than other sins. You know, a lot of other sins that may be only certain people or maybe certain fringe groups or certain personality types are, you know, more tempted by these more radical sins. But the love of money is something that I think that almost everyone can be tainted by in their lives. And so this is why the love of money is the root of all evil. It all starts with that. And then you exercise your heart with those covetous practices. And then next thing you know, you're treating women a certain way and you're committing other types of sins that are totally unrelated to money. But the seeds were planted when you started being a money loving person. Why? Because all sin stems from covetousness anyway. That's why the Bible says, when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Let no man say when he's tempted, I'm tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil. Neither attempt at the any man, but every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed. So where does evil come from? Evil comes from lust. People being drawn away of their own lust and enticed. Covetousness is the root sin of all other sins. It is the mother sin. Covetousness. Lust. Desiring that which is someone else's. And so through covetousness shall they with fainted words make merchandise of you. We're in chapter 2 verse 3 in 2 Peter. What are feigned words? Feigned means they're fake. So these people will get up and say things that they don't even believe. They just know how to talk the talk. They know how to drop the right words in the vocabulary and go through the motions, seeming religious or spiritual or godly. But in reality it's all fake and these people will make merchandise of you. So we think of the false prophets that are out there and especially we could think of like the tele-evangelist types. And they're getting up and they're so fake and so plastic and they're getting up and they're teaching lies week after week and what's it all about? It's about their private jet. It's about their fancy car, their fancy house, their expensive suits. They are making merchandise of you. Selling you DVDs at just these incredible prices. And you know, oh you know, you too can get Dr. Hagee's messages on Israel for 150 bucks for like 4 hours of teaching. It's like 120 dollars or something like that. And you say, well you sell something. No I don't. Guess what? You know, I've produced many documentary films and guess what I have not done? I've not sold them. In fact, they're all back there on the shelf for free and you know, if you start taking a bunch of them, you know, because we say, hey go take those, they're free, grab them. You know, if I see you back there taking a bunch of them, you know what I'm going to say to you? I'm going to say, hey would you like paper or plastic? Let me help you load that up. I'm not like, hey wait a minute, that's one per customer. Man, you know, a friend of ours one time, he literally flew here from another country, showed up on a Wednesday, went soul winning, went to church, filled two suitcases full of CDs, DVDs and stuff and I said, so how long you in town? He said, just till tomorrow. I said, what are you doing here? He said, just stocking up on material, man. I was like, great, you know, can I help you pack? It's all free back there my friend, despite what the lying phonies out there in the old IFB who don't like having their false doctrine exposed, whatever they might lie about us and malign us, guess what? We don't sell any of my preaching or my documentary films. It's all back there for free. Anybody can grab it whenever they want. We've also shipped it all over the world. Now, are there private businesses who might sell my DVDs and CDs and preaching? Absolutely. But you know what? I don't receive those profits. Our church doesn't receive those profits. And you know what? In fact, I'm for businesses selling our stuff because it's okay for businesses to sell stuff. In fact, that's what businesses do. They sell stuff. Right? Merchandise. Yeah, that's what merchants do. They sell things. But what we don't want to do is we don't want to make God's house a house of merchandise. Right? And we don't want to withhold truth from people like, well, you too can understand these mysteries of the Bible if you pay this money. Now, it's so bizarre that anyone would ever accuse me of doing this when all of the preaching I've ever done since I started this church, you know, unless we just didn't record it because the first couple of months we just didn't record things. And then, you know, sometimes the recording equipment has failed over the years. But every sermon that I've done is available on our church website right now. You can type in thepreaching.com and just scroll down the list and you got thousands of hours of preaching. And that is, that's all I got, folks. It's not like, well, we keep the good stuff in the back. Actually, that's called bandpreaching.com. But anyway, that's not, you know, but it's all on the church website as well. The church website contains every teaching for free. There is nothing that you have to pay or subscribe to get access to the Word of God being preached here. But is that true of a lot of these false teachers? You know, they'll sit there and say, you've got to buy this, you've got to pay this. And then someone will upload their teaching to YouTube and they file a copyright claim because someone uploaded their teachings because they're selling cassettes, you know, for 12 bucks or CDs for 15 bucks of their preaching. And it's like, what in the world? You know, why? Because they're motivated by money. They're not just interested in getting the truth out, get it out, get it out to as many people. It's about, you know, well, can I profit from this? And again, I'm all for businesses profiting. I'm all for your electrical business and your carpentry business and your plumbing business being profitable out there in the world. You know, I hope that you're out there working hard every day, making money hand over fist. God bless you. But let me tell you something. This is not a for-profit business here, okay? This is church. This is a house of God and it's not about anyone getting rich. Now, obviously, we do believe that pastors and deacons should be paid and I don't believe that any man of God, any ordained minister should be living in poverty or just getting paid a minimum type of a salary. I believe that a man of God should be paid a decent salary to be able to provide for his family and live a moderate life, okay? But that's not what you see with these guys that are making millions of dollars and driving the fancy cars and wearing the fancy suits. Where did the Bible tell us to wear that stuff? You know, to put on some thousand dollar suits and all the Armani and Louis Vuitton and the fancy cars and the circular driveway and the... And, you know, look, if you went out and earned money and you put in a circular driveway, praise the Lord, you know, fine. But getting up and teaching the Word of God should not be the path to some kind of a rich and famous lifestyle with, you know, your Olympic size swimming pool and tennis court and, you know, the property that just goes on and on and on like these televangelist types. You know, look, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. How about that? Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. See, you say, well, you don't know Joel Osteen's heart. Yeah, I do. I can see where his treasure is. That tells me exactly where his heart is. You know, when you see all the mansions and all the fancy things and all of the conspicuous consumption, that tells you exactly where these people's heart is. With covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not. So, you know, again, you could think of this on the macro scale with Christianity in general or you could maybe zoom in to a church, even just a good church where people can creep into a good church and stuff. You know, you say, how would this apply? Well, you could have people creeping into a good church and stealing from the church. You could have people stealing from the offering plate, stealing money from the church. Or you could have people even pastoring churches that are skimming the money from the church and, you know, obviously I'm not even going to bring up that situation, but you know who I'm talking about, the pastor that many years ago was busted for stealing money from the church and he's outspending it on what, right? He's outspending it on fulfilling his own lusts, right? He's out there and he's spending it on hookers and casinos and gambling. You know, all the things that worldly people would indulge in that we as Christians shouldn't be anywhere near those things. Even if we did earn our own money legitimately, we need to be far away from the casino. We need to be far away from the whorehouse. We need to be far away from all of these wicked indulgences of drugs and fornication and adultery. But you can see how someone could use the ministry to filter money toward that kind of a sinful lifestyle. It's the worst kind of wickedness. Through covetousness shall they with fainted words make merchandise of you whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not. He's saying in the end of verse 3 there, these people are going to get what they deserve. These phonies, these frauds, these liars, they're going to get what they deserve. Whether they are people who've crept into a good local church and brought in corruption, or whether they're just phony false teachers on the TV, you know, televangelists or whatever, they will get what they deserve. Now, not only will God punish them, but many times their deeds will be exposed to the whole world, which is why the Bible says, of course, of Janus and Jambres. You know, he said they withstood Moses. They were false prophets in Egypt, and he said that their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was. Just like Janus and Jambres were made to look stupid in front of everybody, these people will be exposed also. But of course, worse than being exposed to criticism from humans, the worst part is that they have to face God. Now, how do we know that these people are going to get what's coming to them? That their judgment lingers not and their damnation slumbers not. Well, he gives some examples. He says in verse 4, For if God spared not the angels that sinned, he said, you know, why would he spare these people if he spared not the angels that sinned? Now, you say, well, why bring up the angels? What do the angels have to do with anything? Well, what does the word angel mean? I mean, the word angel literally means messenger. If we study the Bible, it's not even always talking about a supernatural heavenly being, what we would typically think of angels. Obviously, God usually is using or often is using these type of heavenly beings that are non-human in some kind of a supernatural way to bring a message. But many humans are also referred to in the Bible as angels or just messengers of God. Angel simply means messenger. That's what the word means. When he says to the angel of the church in Ephesus, to the angel in the church of Smyrna, he's talking about the guy who brings the message, the guy who is speaking for God or getting up and taking the word of God and delivering God's message to the people. That is what that's referring to. And we also have traces of this even in our English language because if you take the word, for example, evangelist or evangelical, you know, what does that mean to be evangelical or to be an evangelist? Well, the EV prefix there means good, okay? And then you've got the angel, which is messenger. So the evangelist is the guy who's bringing the good message or he's bringing the good news because gospel means good news. And so evangelist is a bringer of glad tidings, literally, if we break down that word. And so if God spared not the angels that sinned, why would he spare these phony angels, quote unquote, who are claiming to speak for God and bringing lies, bringing heresy, and really just saying whatever it takes to put the money in their pockets? Whether that's trying to ride on the coattails of a successful church like Faithful Word Baptist Church on a smaller scale, trying to ride our coattails, you know, and trying to talk the talk and sound like they believe like us. Oh, yeah, we believe like Faithful Word, trying to kind of tap into people around the world who listen to the sermons from Faithful Word, and then they figure, oh, I can start a local church and tap into that. Or whether it's getting on TV and appealing to a wider audience and just getting up and preaching feel-good sermons like Joel Osteen that are going to make people happy and that are going to make people like you instead of telling people what they actually need to hear. And you know, what did Jude start out by saying in his epistle? And his epistle is about phony preachers and false prophets just like 2 Peter 2. These are parallel passages. What's the first thing he says? Well, you know, here's what I wanted to write to you about, but then here's what I need to write to you about. So right away, even before we get into the meat of the message that Jude has for us, the first thing we see is that Jude is the kind of preacher who's not just there to tell us what we want to hear or what he wants to say or what's a feel-good message. You know, hey, let me just preach to you about the common salvation and let's all just feel good about that. He says, no, no, no, I need to teach you what you need to hear. This is what it's needful for me to write unto you and exhort you to earnestly contend for the faith. That's what you need. See, the righteous preacher gets up and teaches you what you need and the ungodly preacher teaches what people want to hear according to his greed. And again, this isn't always going to take the same shape. This could take the shape of the televangelist Joel Osteen type teaching a positive only message or it could be appealing to parts of other people's personality and getting up and just preaching the kind of sermons that they think that Baptists want to hear or that independent Baptists want to hear or that the new IFB wants to hear or whatever. Instead of faithfully getting up and preaching what the Bible actually says. Okay. And so, if God spared not the angels that sinned, why would he spare any other so-called messenger who claims to be speaking the truth from the Lord and brings lies? And let me just stop and say this. People who teach lies about religion are the worst scum on this earth. I mean, think about it. You know, souls are at stake. There's heaven, there's hell. This is real, my friend. And someone who would pervert the gospel of Jesus Christ is the worst person ever. Someone who would... And then you look at their motives. What are the motives according to the word of God? The love of money, covetousness, making merchandise of you, selling you stuff, getting paid, getting rich, or committing adultery, committing fornication. These are such base motives. They're the lowest motives. I mean, think about it. We could go to the worst derelicts of our city and see if these motives would appeal to them. Hey, would you like to be rich? Would you like to win the lottery? Oh, yeah, that'd be so great. You know, you could go to the lowest echelons of society and everybody just really wants to be rich. I mean, isn't that something that the most base people want? The most immature, the most ignorant, the most foolish, the most ungodly people. They all want to be rich, though, don't they? Okay, and then what about the other? You know, fornication, adultery. You know, that right there is something that even animals are craving. These are not higher level desires or goals or motives, are they? No, these are the basest instincts of just money, more women. You know, it's wickedness. So to take something so pure and lofty and sublime as the word of God, as the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to take it and prostitute it and cheapen it and twist it and corrupt it so that you can fill your belly or so that you can go out and indulge in, you know, what the world glorifies as the pride of life with the fancy outfits and the cars and whatever, or so that you could just go out and just be like an animal just shacking up with, you know, liaison after liaison. I mean, it's really the worst scum imaginable. And so if God spared not the angels that sinned, how can you think these people are going to get away with it? He says he cast them down to hell in verse number four and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment and spared not the old world but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. So he's saying like, look, he didn't spare the angels that sinned, God's messengers that did not fulfill their mission. He didn't spare the old world but saved Noah. So the first thing we see is that someone who brings a message from God that does not bring that message faithfully, a fallen angel, a person who claims to be bringing the Lord's message but does not bring it, they don't get spared. What about this other illustration when it says he spared not the old world? What's he trying to illustrate there? Well, I believe what he's trying to illustrate here is that he has no problem wiping out the majority, right? Because, you know, when he spared not the angels that sin, he shows just because somebody who's coming in his name, just because somebody's coming on an errand from him, just because somebody works for him, he's not going to spare them. Claiming the name of Christ doesn't mean you're going to be spared. Oh no, you're in more trouble if you're preaching lies. But then secondly, he says, well, he didn't spare the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person. What does that mean that Noah was the eighth person? I'll tell you what it means. It means there were only eight people on the ark and the entire rest of the world was wiped out. Okay, it's not like he was the eighth person on this planet. You know, the world had been around for at least, like, 1650-some years or something at a minimum when this happened, okay? And we see that he didn't spare the old world. He saved eight people and wiped out the rest. You know, that shows that God is not going to say, well, you know, this is popular, a lot of people are doing it, since like he's grading on a curve or something. Well, the whole class failed the exam, so, you know, let's give everybody a C. You know, and the one super smart kid, he gets an A or whatever. God's not grading on a curve. You know, God looks at this and says, you know what, if the whole class fails, then the whole class fails. And if Noah's the only one who passed the test, then Noah's the only one who passed the test. You know, this is telling us something about how God works, that God's not going to spare. Well, I mean, you know, the entire Roman Catholic Church? Yeah, they're all getting smoked. All of these Catholic priests are teaching lies. They're all false prophets. I don't care how many of them there are. You know, why would it shock you that God would condemn just swaths of TV preachers and radio preachers and Roman Catholic priests that he would just condemn these huge amounts and that it would only be the narrow way that leads into life? You know, which obviously there are many millions and millions and millions of people who are saved. There are many thousands and thousands and thousands of churches that preach the gospel. But relatively speaking, it's a minority. But you know what? That's not anything different for God. And so he's not going to spare them because there's so many of them. You know, it's sort of like when you're a kid and, you know, you want to pull something at school and you're trying to get everybody else involved saying, hey, they can't suspend all of us. They're not going to put us all in detention. You know, they can't punish everybody. You know, I used that argument a few times. I think we all pulled that a few times, you know. You know, one time, you know, we got to class. It was like two minutes into class and the teacher hadn't shown up yet. I used that argument to get the entire class out on the playground. You know, and when the teacher showed up a couple minutes later, we were all playing on the playground. And it was like, well, you weren't here. And it was like, they can't get us all in trouble. What are they going to do, send us all home? Because then we'll just come to our parents and say, everybody's doing it. We all did it. I mean, it was the entire class. But guess what? That's not how God works. That might work in elementary school. That might have worked in the fourth grade. But let me tell you something, that's not going to work with God. It's not going to work with, well, God, I mean, I was just doing what everybody else was doing. I mean, it's the biggest church in the world. I mean, you know, I just thought, I just, you know, a Catholic, it's just the one true church. I mean, it's just, you know, I just decided to join the church and had a billion people in it. Yeah, but God warned you when he said, broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many there be which go in there at, because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it. He warned you. So don't think that there's safety in numbers. Because if God didn't spare the old world, then apparently God doesn't grade on a curve. And if only Noah is righteous, then only Noah survives. It's that simple. This is something about the character of God. He doesn't spare his messengers. Well, you know, I got to be loyal to my people. Not when they're not loyal to him. You know, when they're twisting his message, they're going to pay for it. And he doesn't grade on a curve because he spared not the old world. He saved Noah, the eighth person. And then here's the third illustration. And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensemble unto those that after should live ungodly. You know what the lesson there is? That God does not look the other way at sexual sin. You know, when you have fornication and adultery and that type of wickedness going on, and even, of course, the sin of Sodom is even worse because it was homosexuality. But when God sees these type of filthy sins, these major sins, you know, God does not just look the other way. You know, and if you have a preacher or even just church members indulging in these things, they're going to be judged severely by God, by bringing that into the church, by bringing that in. You know, and let me just go on the record. I've already said this a million times, but let me just go on the record once again. Any pastor who commits fornication or adultery is permanently disqualified. Permanently disqualified. Okay? I mean, that should be obvious. Now, I'm not saying, you know, you could make the case that someone who did those things before that they were a pastor, you know, when they were much earlier in life, especially fornication. You know, I personally would never ordain someone who has committed adultery, someone who's cheated on their wife. I don't care how long ago it was. I don't care if they were, you know, even saved when they did it or not. That's not the point because even unsaved people know that adultery is wrong. Okay? And so I would say that that falls outside of having a good report and being blameless, you know, if you've actually cheated. I'm talking about actually committing the physical act of, you know, cheating on your wife. You know, I would say I would never ordain someone like that, you know. Obviously, fornication is pretty ubiquitous in our society amongst the unsaved, unfortunately. But, you know, anybody who's doing that kind of stuff when they're a pastor has betrayed the trust of the people and is permanently disqualified. Now look, I don't believe that we should expect pastors to be perfect or sinless. You know, I mean, pastors are constantly, if they're actually preaching the truth and the word of God, they're constantly preaching that we're all sinners, right? So wouldn't that include me and every other pastor that we would actually be sinners? Of course, every single one of us is a sinner. But you know what? There are certain sins, though, that cross the line of just, hey, we're all sinners. Yeah, but guess what? We're not all fornicators. We're not all adulterers. We're not all drunks and drug addicts and things like that. Okay. And so, obviously, there are certain sins that cross the line and you have men of God so-called indulging in the worst carnal sins like adultery, fornication, and, you know, even, maybe even taking illicit drugs or, you know, doing all kinds of wild things. You know, you ask yourself, like, why are you even a pastor? Like, why are you getting up and pretending to care about the things of God and to be spiritual and you're out indulging in these sins that, you know, we would even look at a layman who did those things and say, you know, you need to be dealt with in a 1 Corinthians 5 banner. But here's the answer why. The answer is that these people are fakes, they're frauds, and they're doing these things because they're in it for the wrong reasons. They're in it for the money. They're in it to indulge in these things. And so we see that if Sodom and Gomorrah was not spared but just burnt to a crisp, then you think God's going to spare these pedophile Catholic priests? You know, you think God's going to spare these pastors that are out and having adultery with wives of the church or something? You know, just committing these horrific sins? Of course he's not going to spare them. They are wicked, okay? And again, any pastor who is doing these things is permanently disqualified. But nowadays you have pastors literally, I can think of pastors right now, who literally, you know, they're cheating on their wife with the secretary. Okay? And then they turn around, divorce their wife, and marry the secretary, and everything's fine, and they just keep pastoring. What in the world? That's absurd. It's like you can't even make this stuff up. But yet there are wicked people out there who love that kind of a church, don't they? And they'll flock to that kind of a leader because it's a nice reflection of them, themselves, and what they're like. But that is a rotten person. You see, a man of God is supposed to be motivated by a spiritual motivation of loving the Lord, loving the lost, and having a burning desire to preach the word of God to people. You know, you think of when Jeremiah tried to quit preaching, and he said, you know, God's word was just like a fire burning inside. He just could not stop preaching. Right? What's his motive there? He's not trying to be rich. He's not trying to get access to women or anything like that by being in this position of leadership. No, his motive is that he just really wants to get God's word out to people. He just loves God's word. He loves people. He wants to reach people. That's the right motive. There are these other baser motives that motivate false prophets. And if God didn't spare the angels that sinned, just because they're doing it in the name of Christ they're not spared, it's worse. If he didn't spare the old world, I don't care how many of them there are, they're getting punished, they're going to be wiped out. And if he didn't spare Sodom and Gomorrah, but burnt them to a crisp, but they suffered the vengeance of eternal fire, that is an ensemble unto those that after should live ungodly. Those who are out committing carnal sins, fornication, adultery, sodomy, whatever, molestation, whatever. You know, these people are the worst scum and hell awaits them. Now obviously I'm not saying that everyone who does those things is going to hell, but I am saying that pastors who are basically in the pastorate, because that's their motive is to use that position to do these things, they are damned. What you have to understand about false prophets and false teachers, that they are reprobates. So let me just stop and clarify this point here. I'm not saying that somebody who commits adultery or fornication is damned, because obviously Jesus Christ came to the world to save sinners, and of course there are prostitutes getting saved in the Bible, and there are even people who after they're saved commit adultery, and commit grievous sins. Amen. So I want to pause to make sure that you don't misunderstand what I've said. But when we see a pastor who's getting up and preaching the word of God, and he's a serial adulterer, wouldn't you say that there's a pretty good chance that that guy is a false prophet, crept in unawares, or a Judas Iscariot type? I mean, wouldn't you say that that's pretty safe to assume that a guy who's using his position to indulge in the worst sins is probably there for the wrong reasons in the first place? And, you know, and you say, well, you don't really know that. Okay, but you know what? I can assume that if I want, if I'm looking at 2 Peter chapter 2, and if the shoe fits, and I see somebody who's indulging the lust of the flesh, having eyes full of adultery, and they cannot cease from sin, and he's just out there. And I'm not talking about minor sins, folks, because everybody commits minor sins. I'm talking about somebody who's out there actually committing adultery, and doing these things. You know, I would look at that guy and say, this guy's a phony. This guy's a fraud. This guy is in the ministry for the wrong reasons. This guy is one of these false prophets and false teachers. And what you have to understand is that 2 Peter 2 and Jude are describing false prophets and false teachers, and it puts them in the category of reprobates. It puts them in the category of reprobates. Now, when we think of reprobates, we typically think of homos because of Romans chapter 1. You know, because Romans chapter 1 is kind of the reprobate chapter that really goes into detail about that downward spiral of one becoming a reprobate, and it specifically brings up the homos as reprobates. But, you know, there are other parts of scripture that teach that false teachers and false prophets are also reprobates. Okay. What is a reprobate? It's someone who's rejected by God that cannot be saved because they've pushed it too far, they've crossed too many lines with God where they're just permanently doomed. And, of course, that's a whole other sermon to go into that. But let me show you some of the evidence that false prophets are reprobates. You know, first of all, they're compared to Sodom and Gomorrah here, which obviously are reprobates. And he says, are we in 2 Peter or are we in Jude right now? Okay, let's go over to Jude for a second. We'll come back to 2 Peter. You know, the Bible says in Jude, verse 5, I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believe not. What's he saying there? He's saying that, you know, the people who left Egypt triumphantly, crossing the Red Sea on dry land, following Moses, being fed by manna in the wilderness, you know what? They weren't all legit. They were a lot who had crept in unawares. And that's why God, after having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, he afterward destroyed those who believed not. So there were unbelievers who were pretending to be believers. And they got wiped out. Verse 6, and the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness under the judgment of the great day. We talked about that, right? Same thing as in 2 Peter 2. Verse 7, even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise, likewise means thus or in the same way, likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion and speak evil of dignities. And so what do we see here? That many of these false prophets defile the flesh in the same way Sodom and Gomorrah defile the flesh. We know what that was. And that tells you right there that they're a homo. And when you see priests molesting children, you know they're a reprobate. Because that's not a normal desire. That's not even natural to desire that. It's natural for men to lust after women. That's a temptation that's common to man. Every man has to deal with that in his life. That lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, of women that are out there as a temptation unto men. But you know what's not a temptation? Other dudes and little children. Okay. That's an unnatural result of being a reprobate. Okay. But there's more proof that they're reprobates in this chapter anyway. Let's, we spent a lot of time in 2 Peter 2. Let's crank through some of this stuff in Jude before we run out of time. You know let's just jump down for sake of time to verse 11. Woe unto them for they've gone in the way of Cain. What's the way of Cain? Well Cain was the one who represents workspace salvation. You know I teach, I've taught that in other sermons. And ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward. So they're like Balaam, a preacher who's in it for the money. And perished in the gainsaying of Corey. And Corey is the one who said, well all the people are holy. You know, Moses is nothing special. Anybody can do this. You know like Jeroboam who made the basis of the people, prophets and priests of the high places. You know understanding that, you know we need to understand that being a pastor is a spiritual calling that's based on walking with God and loving the Lord and meeting certain qualifications. And you know the biggest qualification, you know besides obviously what's clearly laid out in scripture as guidelines is you know you would obviously have to be somebody who actually loves the word of God and is actually filled with the spirit of God and actually walking in the spirit and not carnal, lascivious and motivated by the love of money. But he says here they perished in the gainsaying of Corey who basically just says that anybody, anybody can just fill that role. Whether anointed by God or not. And look I'm not saying that there needs to be some spooky calling from God or something where the room lights up and you hear a voice from God telling you to preach. But there needs to be a righteous burning desire to preach that comes from the spirit of God leading you into the ministry. Basically it's the idea of actually going into it for the right reason, desiring a good work and so forth. These people, just any old carnal person can just jump into that slot. These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Again, highlighting their carnal motivations. Carnal means fleshly of course. It says clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit witherth, without fruit, watch this, twice dead. There's your reprobate right there. Twice dead. Plucked up by the roots. Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. They're being compared to demons there with the wandering stars. And he says, you know Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, et cetera. Now let's flip back over to 2 Peter chapter 2. 2 Peter chapter number 2. So we see that these people are often, if not all the time, they're often reprobates, if not always, because they, you know, they're compared to Sodom and Gomorrah. They're twice dead. They have a reservation in hell waiting for them, according to both 2 Peter 2 and Jude. And so these people are reprobates. And it talks about them creeping in, being among us, spots they are in blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you. Look at verse 14 of chapter 2. Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls and heart, they have exercised with covetous practices, cursed children which have forsaken the right way and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Bozor who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but was rebuked for his iniquity. The dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbade the madness of the prophet. Now, focus on that phrase there, the madness of the prophet. Madness, what does that mean? It means crazy, insane. Folks, it's madness to play with the god of the universe like that. Don't you, aren't you ever just shocked and horrified when you hear about a so-called pastor who's just out there committing adultery with the church members, or who's just out there just funneling huge amounts of money, making millions of dollars and just, or just, you know, using the church bank account for gambling and whores and drugs, you know, aren't you just shocked like, how could anyone be so insane to play with God like that? Folks, it's crazy. Because we know that our gods are consuming fire. See, those of us that are actually normal people, the only way we know about false prophets, we have to read about them in the Bible to get into their heads, you know. Jude in 2 Peter 2, get us into their heads, because it's hard to put yourself in these people's heads because they're not normal. They're insane, they're crazy. See, normal Christians, me and you, God-fearing people, you know what we do every day? We serve the Lord with fear and we rejoice with trembling. Every single one of us, I don't care if you're a great Christian or maybe you're somewhat of a backslidden Christian, or maybe you're newly saved, maybe you've been saved for 20 years, but I, you know, I don't know, I'd be surprised if every single one of us doesn't fear God, like at least on some level. I mean, even if you're out living a worldly, sinful life as a saved Christian, you know, in the back of your mind, what are you thinking sometimes? Like, oh man, God's going to cloud up and rain on me. I mean, wouldn't you be, aren't you scared when you do stuff? Not, of course we're not scared of going to hell because we know we're already saved and nothing can separate us from the love of God and we have eternal life, but man, I fear what God would do to me in my life if I went out and started living a life of sin. I mean, doesn't that scare you to think about that? Like, like to think about what God would do if you were just out there committing these heinous sins, especially, but what if you're using church to do it? What if you're using God as the excuse? You know, and you know how God feels about this and you have all these examples of the angels that sinned and the old world and Sodom and Gomorrah and of course, you know, you just have all the teachings of Jesus where Jesus talks about, you know, the Pharisees, they're devouring widows' houses, but then, as if that were not enough for a pretense, they make long prayer. Therefore, they shall receive the greater damnation. I mean, that's scary. You know, what if we saw somebody just playing on the edge of a cliff, just playing with live grenades, you know, or we just saw somebody just playing amongst wild beasts. What if we saw someone just climb into the enclosure at the zoo and just start running away from the lion to see if he can catch me? What would you do to that person if they were pulled out of the lion cage in one piece? What would you do with that person? You'd probably seek mental help for that person, right? You'd say, this person's insane, this person's crazy. Just, you know, if we saw someone just getting on the freeway driving the wrong way, you'd say, this person's a psycho, they're a lunatic. Folks, you have to be a lunatic to mess with God like this, to actually use, like I said, that which is the highest, loftiest, most righteous, most sublime word of God and gospel and use that to commit the basest sins. I mean, the dumb ass, an ass is a donkey, right? God miraculously allowed, dumb there doesn't mean dumb like stupid. He's not just calling him like a dumb ass or something. But basically, this is the dumb ass. Dumb means that you're unable to speak. So basically, he's saying, you know, the donkey typically is not able to speak. But the dumb ass, right, the mute donkey is miraculously allowed to speak with a man's voice just to forbid the madness of the prophet Balaam, just what an idiot he is to prophesy for financial gain, you know, to basically curse the people of God. Because that's what they're hiring him to do. To curse Israel, right, back when Israel is God's chosen people and they're being led by Moses, you know, curse the people of God and to think to himself like, man, this is going to be a great payday. It's like, dude, you're an idiot, you're crazy. And even this animal who we wouldn't think of as an intelligent animal has more sense than you and is forbidding your insanity, your madness. He was rebuked for that iniquity. These are wells without water. Now, what is a well without water? A well is a source of hydration. It's bringing the groundwater from deep in the earth, clean filtered water from deep in the earth, and bringing it up to the surface so that we can enjoy that, right, so that we can have that need met of having water. And what is a preacher? A preacher is supposed to be doing what? You know, basically dipping down into the well of God's word and bringing hydration and bringing refreshment and bringing nourishment and what God's people need to survive, right, bringing the word of God because man lives by every word out of the mouth of God. But these are wells without water. On the outside, they look like a source of water. But when you show up, the well is dry, it's empty. And so because the well is empty, they must simulate that which is spiritual because they don't have the real thing. They don't have the goods. They can't get up with the word of God and bring the goods and feed God's people properly, so they have to simulate this. They're wells without water, clouds carried with a tempest to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh through much wantonness those that were clean escaped from those who lived in error. So I'm out of time tonight, but basically what's he saying? They don't have the goods. They're a well without water. You show up to get the actual water of life from this guy, he can't deliver because he's not saved. He doesn't have it himself. He can't give it to you. He's not going to be able to expound God's word or preach God's word in a way that's going to nourish you properly because he doesn't have the Holy Spirit of God. He's carnal. He's doing it in the flesh. So therefore, because he's a well without water, he must allure through the lusts of the flesh and he must speak great swelling words of vanity. Right? Because if you don't have the real thing, what do you have to do? You've got to have some kind of a smoke and mirrors because otherwise people aren't going to come week after week. They're not going to listen to you week after week unless they feel like they're getting something, unless they think that they're getting something. Now you're not actually delivering the goods, so you have to distract them with something else. So that's where you get all the gimmicks, the great swelling words of vanity. Maybe it's great oratory and fancy speeches and tear-jerking illustrations. And you know what? There are a lot of speakers that can get you pretty emotional without teaching the Word of God to you, without preaching the truth, without actually being filled with the Spirit of God because there are just certain stories that are just going to pull on our heartstrings no matter who we are. We all cried when Old Yeller got shot. You heartless monster. We all did. You know, I mean, it's just, you know, what did that have to do with God Almighty? What did that have to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ? But you know what? Movies like that, they know how to pull our heartstrings, don't they? And basically they know what button to push to get you crying or whether you're reading a novel or whether you're listening to a story being told from a pulpit or whether it's on a movie somewhere. You know, there are obviously just easy patterns where you push a button and the light bulb comes on. You can get people emotional. You can get people crying. So you have these preachers. They're not actually preaching the Word of God and teaching good truth or, you know, most importantly being filled with the Spirit and delivering God's message in the Spirit so that your spirit is fed by the Spirit-filled preaching of God's Word. But what they can do is just instead mask their lack of power of God by basically just using a parlor trick or just using vanity. And again, vanity means emptiness. So doesn't that kind of remind you of a well without water? An empty well? Vanity? So it's great swelling words, but there's nothing there. There's no meat on the bone. It's all facade. So yeah, they could tell stories that'll get you crying. You walk out of church and you're like, oh, man, this is a powerful sermon. Okay, but you could also walk out of Old Yeller. Oh, it's so powerful, you know. Right? I mean, you know, I guarantee you, there are people crying in movies every single day. Does that mean the power of God's there? You know, and by the way, there are people who go backstage at a rock concert and, you know, they tingle all over, don't they? The hair on their neck stands up and they have the most powerful experience. So you know what? I guarantee you, when people go see the pope, they probably get the exact same experience as going backstage at their favorite rock band. It's just because they have men's persons and admiration because of advantage and oh, the celebrity and oh, it's the pope. Oh, it's Kenneth Copeland. Oh, it's Joel Osteen. Oh, you know, it's a big name, famous guy. And they could tingle all over. It's like, when I shook his hand, I felt the power of God. No, it's fake. It's a fraud. You understand what I'm saying? You understand what I'm saying? Because they don't have the real goods, so they allure you through the lust of the flesh or through great swelling words of vanity. Empty sermons, but man, are they dynamic. You know, there are some preachers that are super dynamic and they're up there yelling, you know, you got all these guys in the south and they preach like this. You know, they do all this weird stuff where they get so excited and they're running around and they're wild and they're preaching fast and hard and loud, you know. And I don't understand why that has ever appealed to me, but that's because I'm not from the south. Why has it ever appealed to people, that kind of weird, ah-ha, ah. I don't know why they do that weird breathing technique, but I'm not from the south, so maybe somebody from the south can explain it to me. But the point is, though, you know, you got a lot of guys that are, they believe in a total wrong gospel. It's not salvation by faith alone. It's a workspace salvation, but they're running around and wild and yelling and woo! And it's like, oh, the power of God was in that service, woo! But you know what, that's fake. It's not real. And you know what, I'd rather listen to a guy who's totally monotone, but actually bring in the word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit than some guy who's swinging from the chandeliers and there's nothing there spiritually. Okay? Or, you know, and here's the thing, like I said, I don't get it, because I'm not a southerner, but you know what, the devil appeals to different people in different ways. He appeals to that kind of southern camp meeting crowd in that way, but you know, what about the Roman Catholic Church? I mean, they sure have a lot of smoke and mirrors, literally. I mean, they're burning incense, and they're lighting candles and stained glass windows and amazingly beautiful music sometimes, right? Gigantic pipe organs that are worth, you know, tens of thousands of dollars that cost thousands of dollars to even maintain. Gigantic pipe organs being played by just expert musicians and beautiful choirs and you walk in and it's beautiful music and it's, you know, it's appealing to a different crowd than the woo kind of crowd. But it's kind of the same thing. It's basically using something physical or carnal to allure to the flesh to distract you and to make you think that the spirit has been touched. Your spirit hasn't actually been touched, okay? What actually happened was it was the cool music that touched you. And I mean, look, some of that music's pretty powerful. You know, I've been on YouTube before. I was on YouTube one time and I was listening to a sermon and as soon as the sermon ended, you know how to, like, roll into the whatever YouTube thinks you need next? Whatever, you know, YouTube lays on your heart to show you. But basically, like, it just rolled into this beautiful music and it was some kind of a hymn that we're familiar with and it was so beautiful, just the choir and, you know, and I'm listening to it and, you know, and I didn't even touch that dial because I was like, because I was on another screen, I was working and I just had this sermon playing in the background. It rolled in and I was like, man, this is good. You know, I could jam on this for a little bit, you know, because there's the organ and the choir and they're singing, like, you know, I don't know if it was a Christmas song or something that would be in our hymnal. And then next thing I know, you know, some guy's talking and saying all this weird stuff. So then I click back over to that browser and there's a guy dressed up like a wizard. He's in a wizard suit. And I'm like, huh? What's this wizard suit guy? And I'm like, oh, it's a Catholic church. That's why he's dressed up like, you know, Mickey Mouse in Fantasia or something. And so then I was like, oh, okay. But, you know, you can't deny that the music was great. But see, that's what they're using, the beautiful building, the beautiful architecture. I mean, some of the most famous and beautiful works of art have been commissioned sometimes by churches, right? You know, like for example, no, I'm just kidding. But, you know, we're not really alluring through the lust of flesh here. You gotta come for the preaching. But this is a great painting though. It's an awesome painting. But, you know, I'm talking about, you know, the Michelangelo's and Raphael's and all these different things. And the thing is, you know, they've got these beautiful stained glass windows and the light shines in and you've got the architecture and the music. And you know what? I'll be perfectly honest with you. I can see why that appeals to people because there's a part of me that's kind of like, oh. You know what I mean? If I'm honest. Because some of that stuff looks pretty cool or sounds pretty cool. I'm not into the cosplay with the wizard outfit. But I'm saying like, you know, some of the other stuff you can see how it kind of like, okay. You know, but guess what? It's a fraud. And it's to hide the fact that the Spirit of God is not in that place. But you walk out and you feel like you had a spiritual experience when you genuflected in front of that candle and smelt that incense and heard that beautiful music and the light shined in and you swear that you saw, you know, the outline of the Virgin Mary and the reflection on the wall, the apparition. Because when they don't have the real thing, that's what they'll use. And so let me just try to sum up the whole sermon in just one moment here quickly to say this. You know, real Christianity is a spiritual endeavor carried out by spiritual people that are actually saved, that love the Lord, you know. And you know, a real spiritual experience, you know, it better actually involve you loving God and actually reading your Bible and winning souls to Christ. Because you know, frankly, you know, at this point in life, I'm really not impressed by wild church services. I'm not necessarily impressed by tear-jerking illustrations. You know, for me, it's more about that which is real. You know, I want to actually learn the Bible. You know, if I go to a service, I want to learn the Bible. I want God to speak to me in a still, small voice, not in the thunderous rock band up on stage, you know, cranking out the praise tunes, not necessarily even in the swinging-from-the-chandelier-type preaching. You know, I want God to speak to me in a still, small voice from His Word. That's what matters the most to me, is that moment with God where God's Word has spoken to me. And you know what? I'm interested in going out these doors and actually talking to someone about Jesus Christ with my Bible in hand and actually showing them the Gospel and winning somebody to Christ. You know, I want to get people saved. And then I want to see people who get saved grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You know, in short, I'm looking for that which is real. Okay, and I'm only interested in that which is real. And I don't care if the church is in a strip mall. I don't care if the church meets in an office space. I don't care how comfortable the seats are. I don't necessarily care how proficient the musicians are. You know what? I'm just glad that it's the real thing. That's what matters. You know, I want to have a real pastor. I don't want the most talented pastor. I don't want the most perfect pastor. I don't want the best dressed pastor. I don't want the guy who is the most eloquent. You know, I just want the guy who's real. I want the teaching that's real, the doctrine that's real, the soul winning that's real, the Christian life that's real. Not this carnal fake. And listen, it's out there and God's warning us that it's out there. Accept no imitation. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for these chapters, Lord, that warn us about how there are just so many frauds out there in charlatans and they're in it for the money. They're committing all these lewd acts with other women or even filthier things with dudes or whatever. But Lord, you've warned us that they don't have the spirit. They're sensual having not the spirit and that they're going to allure through the lust of the flesh, Lord. Help us never to be tricked by these smoke and mirrors and vanity of great swelling words, Lord. But help us to be tuned in to your spirit, Lord, and studying your word and to be able to recognize the genuine article for what it is, Lord. And Father, I pray that no one in our church would be deceived by these false prophets and false teachers, whether they physically actually literally creep into our church or whether it's through TV, internet, radio, or whatever, Lord. But help those unstable souls that could be tricked by these people to get grounded in the faith, Lord. And I pray that this sermon would be helpful so that they would know what some of the red flags and warning signs are. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Let's turn our hymnals to hymn number 116. 116, He leadeth me. Hymn number 116. Sing it all together on this first verse. One, one, six. He leadeth me, O blessed God, O Word to them we come, Word brought. What e'er I know, where e'er I've been, Still tis God's hand that leadeth me. He leadeth me, he leadeth me, By his own hand he leadeth me, His faithful follower I would be, For by his hand he leadeth me, Sometimes with scenes of deepest blue, Sometimes where he and his power's blue, By water still o'er troubled sea, Still tis his hand that leadeth me. He leadeth me, he leadeth me, By his own hand he leadeth me, His faithful follower I would be, For by his hand he leadeth me, For I would last thy hand in mine, Nor ever burn, nor refine, Content whatever heart I see, This is my God that leadeth me, He leadeth me, he leadeth me, By his own hand he leadeth me, His faithful follower I would be, For by his hand he leadeth me. And when my past honor is done, When by thy grace my victory's won, In death's way I will not flee, Since God heard your hand leadeth me, He leadeth me, he leadeth me, By his own hand he leadeth me, His faithful follower I would be, For by his hand he leadeth me. Thank you for watching!