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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome back to Stronghold Baptist Church. You can open up your headphones to song number 30. Song number 30, Nothing But the Blood. Song number 30. Nothing But the Blood of Jesus. Nothing But the Blood of Jesus. Nothing But the Blood of Jesus. Nothing But the Blood of Jesus. Nothing But the Blood of Jesus. Nothing But the Blood of Jesus. We pray. Let's turn to our next song. Song number 161. Song 161, Our Great Savior. Song 161. On the first On the first Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus I do now receive him more than all in him I find he hath granted me forgiveness I am his and he is mine Hallelujah what a day Hallelujah what a friend saving helping keeping loving he is with me to the end Amen Alright, great singing. It's nice to have a full ensemble here today Appreciate all the musicians who are with us this afternoon This time we'll go through our announcements If you do not have one of these bulletins, just slip your hand up real high. I think most of you probably have one from this morning but if you don't, we'll get one out to you and if you open up to the first page, you'll see our service time listed there Sunday morning at 10.30, Sunday afternoon 4 p.m. and Wednesday night at 7 is our Bible study where Isaiah chapter 50 this week, 50 weeks of Isaiah is coming up here on this Wednesday Make it out to that if you can. Soul winning opportunities are listed there as well as the salvations and baptisms for the month of March as well as for 2022 Let's go ahead and count up any salvations Before we count today, anything prior to today? Anyone have any salvations to report prior to today? Anything this week? No? Alright, how about for today then? Let's count up today's soul winning numbers three, amen one over there one here one over here anybody else? Alright, well this is why I like having a big group of people going out soul winning because when I go out and there's no one coming to the door and everything else and it seems like a day that doesn't seem to have a lot of fruit bearing then other people are going out and we've got six salvations for the day so that's good, praise the Lord for that, so very happy to hear those results, offering totals down there at the bottom of the page through the month of March prayer requests As I mentioned this morning please continue to pray for all of our women in this church that are with child and they will be coming due soon, it looks like as early as next month We'll start having more babies in church so that's always a good thing, praise the Lord for that, it's always fun having new babies in church and man we got May, June, June and July is the schedule there so that's great that's great, so praise the Lord be in prayer for them though as things are getting later on down the road I know by this point I think many of the women are probably ready to be done with it and I've got a little bit longer to go but let's pray for a safe delivery there pray for everyone else, pray for Doris Rogers, pray for Angelica pray for Mr. Freeman, Joseph's father I added Earl Darby here, this is Keith's father, Keith is also under the weather so if you wouldn't mind just giving pray for him too, nothing too serious but he's sick he's staying home, he's caring for his dad but pray for his dad, for his dad's health and his dad's mental alertness being able to understand things he's been trying to give him the gospel and he's elderly so if you haven't started having mind problems it becomes more and more difficult so please pray for him as well, pray for the Goodwin family that's a family that's in steadfast Baptist church faithful members there, but they were involved in a car accident and really tragic loss of their child and had some injuries too serious injuries as well, like not just scrapes and bumps but there's some serious injuries there, so please please pray for them and then we have Caleb Ben-Dodson from Virginia on the loss of their mother earlier this year and then Steadfast Baptist Church of course is still looking, now I know there was some leads, last night I talked to Pastor Shelley about that people were asking me, I don't know for sure if they found a place, the thing is it takes time, it takes time to find a place, even if you find a place sometimes it's not ready to move in all of this takes time and on top of everything they're dealing with the negative media attention that they've been getting, which makes it less likely for landlords to want to even do any business with you because it's a higher risk for them from a business standpoint, so it's going to be harder for them to secure a place to meet, but you know what God's going to provide I was talking to someone earlier today I'm not worried about it, I don't think they're worried about it, but it is a stressful time because you still have to deal with it God is going to provide for them, they are making the right stands, they are making the right choices they are preaching the truth, so absolutely God is going to provide for them but just be in prayer for that too pray that God will get them something quickly that he could just line it up to where they'll just be able to settle in in a good area, in an area that's going to be great for the church to grow in an area for the church to preach the gospel and in a place, in a situation where they won't have to worry about this battles on losing their space to meet so pray for those things, for that church and that they could just move full steam ahead because I look at these things as distractions, right this is just kind of taking up some of Pastor Shelley's time and their staff to have to deal with all of that when and obviously they're still doing the work but it's annoying it's annoying so pray for them and on the next page here on a lighter note, congratulations to Brian and Saba, unfortunately they're not with us today they're on their honeymoon as they got married yesterday so it was a very nice wedding and I had the honor of being able to officiate that wedding and we will congratulate them when they get back and then the April challenge, of course we're spending a time of one hour every day doing something spiritual Bible reading, praying, singing, memorizing soul winning, however you like to make that time work just make sure you do it an hour every day Lord's Supper is going to be practiced here on Wednesday April 13th if you have any questions about that let me know and I also like to give you a little bit of a heads up on that because the Bible talks about everyone do some introspection and the Bible talks about who so eoth and drinketh unworthily of this cup the apostle Paul was saying for this reason many among you are sick and many sleep so it is something that you should be taking seriously when we're going to partake, it's a somber event when we partake of the symbolic body and blood of Jesus Christ so just be thoughtful of that if you're new or here you're not sure what we believe I preach sermon I think just about every single year on this, you can go back on YouTube and find any of my sermons on this subject and to give you a better understanding of what we believe about this or you could ask me, I'd be happy to give you a brief summary of what exactly we believe on our observance of this because there's different churches believe all kinds of different things you know and some churches will do this more frequently, we do this once a year anyways but that's going to be on Wednesday April 13th so if you want it to be here even if you don't normally come on Wednesday night that's when we're going to be doing this, Leslie okay I haven't gotten there yet but we'll do that what? yes yeah I haven't talked to him yet about a schedule for that so I don't know what the plan is so so well let's just deal with that right now soul winning marathon is going to be on April 16th in Macon Georgia and as we've done in the past we're doing the same thing if you are traveling long distances to attend the soul winning event we will put you up in a hotel and this year I decided that or at least for this event we can put you up in a hotel in the Macon area again you know use discretion but you ask me if you're coming from you know you're traveling hours to get there we'll put you up on Friday night and then we'll put you up on Saturday night close to church because we're asking you to put in a whole day of soul winning so in order to get there to be with us in the morning you know I don't want you have to you know if you have to drive three or four hours or five hours or something to get to the soul winning event obviously it's you're not going to be able to get there probably first thing based on where you know where this is at in the state so we're happy to put you up on that Friday night in Macon if you're able to make it down there and then Saturday somewhere close to church so that way you don't have to worry about having to drive all the way back home that night and you'll be in the area to attend church in the morning so that is offered so if you if you would need that then please talk to me send me an email send me a text message send me some communication I prefer communication more than talking if you could if you could send it written it's easier for me to get that done my memory is not the best if I don't have it written down it's going to that's dangerous territory so please send me a message even if you write it down writing it down on a piece of paper would work too because I could take that home with me and I could deal with all that I'll put it in my in my file where I deal with everything and I can handle that so just let me know you plan on doing that and also we're going to need maybe I'll probably ask next week because we've got one week two weeks before this happens so next Sunday I'll just I'll get a show of hands I think for who's playing and be in there for breakfast so we have enough food for everybody on that morning and I'll also have the details by next week of where we're going to you know everything of where we're going to meet in the itinerary for the whole day on the 16th and we are going to have Matt Adams with us he was here not that long ago to help us with our music program and he's coming back on that weekend that's Easter Sunday weekend that's the Saturday beforehand he's going to be here I think Friday he's going to be with us Friday he's going to go out soul winning on Saturday and then he's going to be here on Sunday so I haven't got a schedule from him I know he's going to I think he's going to spend a lot of time with you so if you've already been in contact with him then that's good and if we need him to have any one on one with anyone else here then you can manage that with him okay so that's cool and we are having other people visit us too from from faithful word and I think even from other places Luis is planning on coming out to the soul winning marathon as well so we've got a lot of interest in this and looking forward to that and I'm going to find out if the other churches are going to have people there too so we could have we could have a very large turnout yes sir yes okay pretty much really is there a lease ending or is it no marking violation anything they could come up with okay that's the Spokane location yes absolutely we will we'll pray for that as well pray for that church and then let's all right let's get back on track here Hebrews chapter two we're two thirds of the way through this Hebrew we're on week six of nine hopefully you're you're coming along with this and the goal we're going to keep on just plowing through the book of Hebrews so that's the goal is just the entire book of Hebrews getting memorized so and there will be a prize at the end if you can quote all of the book of Hebrews from start to finish I don't know what it is but you're going to get a good a good prize for being able to do that that's that's a great accomplishment to be able to quote the whole the whole passage so be be working on that and and you know if you if you get that done ahead of our schedule great we'll you know I'll honor that and you could be the first to get a get a big prize you don't have to follow our schedule you go ahead and get ahead but that's that's the plan here so you can if you memorize this passage you'll get a prize just for that and then of course we're going to continue on through this book that's the plan we got the upcoming events there we just talked about the soul winning marathon the gold mine homeschool field trip the sign up sheet is in that metal clipboard so it's inside of that thing all the sign up sheets we also sell the sign up sheets there for the camping trip for the for people who are organizing events activities to lead and to run activities for the whole group for people who are showing up if you wanted to do any type of activity go ahead and sign your name up there with I think that the day and the time when you'd like to be able to do that the preaching is all going to be in the evening so hopefully you can make it out to that and we still have spots available if you know anyone that you're friends with friends from other churches friends from out of town let them know about this we still have space available at the camp so I'd love to get everything filled without having to cancel any of the reservations that we have so please let them know about it and have them contact me if they want to attend we are trying to find people who want to go the entire week as opposed to just for like a day or two but that's the deal there and it doesn't cost anything other than just what you need to eat so you just bring bring clothing right bring a blanket a pillow something warm you know bring something to put over your head hopefully but even you know even if you wanted to sleep in your vehicle you could have a camping spot there's there and there's hookups we've got you've got a power hookup and you know water hookup so you you're good you know we could make it work you go real primitive if you want but the weather is going to be beautiful it's a it's that that second week of May gonna be awesome so try to try to make it out for you and also I put in here the Kristen Miller's baby shower is going to be taking place that week as well so we normally do baby showers here at church but since her family is going to be at the camp and everything that they they wanted to do it then so we're for me that's fine I just want to make sure people are aware that that will be going on I don't know what day it'll be but we're going to let them use the we're going to let them use the facility that we're going to do the preaching in because there's there's a nice place to be able to do that so that's going to be taking place that week we've got the picnic at the park all the inflatables bounce house all kinds of cool stuff we're going to try to have a water slide this time because it's going to be warm enough for it and then we've got Pastor Anderson preaching on July 10th both services try to make it out for that on the back we've got the birthday's anniversary through the month of April and that's it for announcements so I'm going to turn the service back over to brother Peter did I miss anything? all right very good now we're good all right church notice song number 39 song number 39 how beautiful heaven must be song number 39 music church let's sing this song of the first we read of a place that's called heaven it's made for the pure and the free these truths in God's word he hath given how beautiful heaven must be how beautiful heaven must be sweet home of the happy and free fair haven a rest for the weary how beautiful heaven must be in heaven no truth nor climbing no wishing for elsewhere to be God's light is forever there shining how beautiful heaven must be how beautiful heaven must be sweet home of the happy and free fair haven a rest for the weary how beautiful heaven must be and know by their heart flowing an old dream may be free where jewels of splendor are glowing how beautiful heaven must be how beautiful heaven must be sweet home of the happy and free fair haven a rest for the weary how beautiful heaven must be on the last the angels so sweetly are singing of their beautiful sweet hearts are ringing how beautiful heaven must be how beautiful heaven must be sweet home of the happy and free fair haven a rest for the weary how beautiful heaven must be sweet home of the happy and free fair haven a rest for the weary how beautiful heaven must be sweet home of the happy and free fair haven a rest for the weary and free fair haven That's Ephesians chapter 5 and as we do customary here at Stronghold Baptist Church we're going to read the entire passage and ask brother Devin if he can please do that for us. Once again that was Ephesians chapter 5. Be therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. But fornication in all uncleanness or covetousness let it not be once named among you as becometh saints. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them for ye were sometimes darkness but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret but all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. That he might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. But that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherishth it even as the Lord the church. But we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ in the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Let's pray. Brother Chad Gonzalez can you pray for us? Father we thank you for the agility gathered today. We thank you for the salvation over the day. We just pray that you would bless the service and bless the baptism of Christians. We just pray that you would bless the nation. Alright. Ephesians chapter 5. And I'm going to confess my faults to you now. I don't consider this a fault but I love that we read the whole passage. You know it's our tradition here. And anytime again opportunity because you know I don't know what you think the sermon is about. I don't know if you saw the title beforehand but I'm only going to be looking at one verse in Ephesians chapter 5. But I like being able to read the whole the whole passage out loud especially passages like this and Ephesians 5 is only one of them. There's a lot of passages that speak for themselves right because the truth is so plainly obvious. That you don't even have to really expound on it it says what it says. And I love those passages and anytime I get an opportunity to in a sermon I like being able to just say let's just read that out loud. Even if I don't cover all the topics that are that are in that and specifically the chapters that deal with things that are controversial in the day that we live in. And honestly you know people just need to hear the truth over and over again. So even if we're just going to get even if I never touch on that subject in the sermon which I'm not I'm not planning on. Which is we all know what I'm talking about right. What's controversial in Ephesians chapter 5. It's the latter portion of Ephesians chapter 5 talking about husbands and wives. OK this sermon has nothing to do with that. But I'm just enjoy the Bible. I love the word of God and when there's there's things like that that might make people uncomfortable you just need to hear the word of God more. Honestly like I'm not and I'm not when I say this you know obviously I'm kind of half in jest. But I don't do this to try to make people uncomfortable but if it does make you uncomfortable you just need to hear it more. Right if you hear the word of God and it's something that's I don't like what that says. You need to hear it more you need your heart right because you should love the word of God every little bit of it. Then you know just be if you if you're guilty of something you know and you. Well get right. Love the word of God it's not God's fault. But in any case we're not going to we're not going to cover husbands wives today it's not at all what I'm going to be preaching on. I'm actually preaching on the subject of how to identify fraud. And primarily looking at fraud preachers. Right so fraud people who are going to be presenting things. But these truths you're going to be able to apply this to to other frauds not just in a religious standpoint. Because the the the tools and the tactics that people will use to deceive are broad it's it's it's not only applied to spiritual things or as preachers. But specifically will be you know that's what the Bible excuse me deals with the most are false prophets and things like that. So we'll be able to see those attributes and be able to figure out how can we identify frauds if you know. We know that there's bad people in this world we know that there's false prophets we know that there's false brethren we know that there's people who are out to just do evil. And those people exist and I'm not paranoid by understanding that those people are real it's just that's reality the Bible tells us that reality tells us that. You watch the news people get hurt people get damaged and people unfortunately there's some people out there that is extremely wicked people. And some people enjoy hurting people. So we need to be aware of that we need to be aware of frauds. We want to make sure especially in a religious standpoint when it comes to teachers that we're not being deceived that we're not being led astray by someone who has ulterior motives and is in is using deceitful tactics to try to teach you something that is not true. So we're going to look at this and I think that the number one thing here that is most important on how to identify a fraud is if you know the truth it's easy to spot fraud. So the more you know of what's true and what's right when you hear something that's contradictory to what you know to be true then it makes it that much easier to spot it and go wait a minute that doesn't sound right. That's not right. So the first step in identifying a fraud or making sure you're prepared to be able to identify frauds is know the Bible be reading your Bible. Don't just say well I read it once that's good enough. OK read the Bible every day read it over and over and over and over again the more you can get it the more you can consume the more you're going to know the more you're going to be able to reference verses remember like wait a minute know the Bible talked about this know the Bible talked about that. And the more you learn and understand and know about the truth you'll be able to spot the frauds. Even if people are referencing something completely outside of your knowledge base if it's going to contradict the word of God you'll be able to identify that as being false because we know the truth is found in God's word. So what I mean by that if some of some scientist is going to tell you that no no no the earth is this old or whatever you know all these different things if it's going to contradict what the Bible says then we inherently know that that's false or if it's going to come down to you know anything people say oh you don't understand the culture back then and you know you have to understand the historical setting of this and this and this. Look if you know what the Bible says go with what the word of God says you don't have to you know and look if you want to study other things great you're going to find that the truth is the truth it's not going to change in any area things that are true are true the Bible is true we know this is true 100% so anything that's going to contradict that is going to be false just inherently based on our faith. But the Bible says here in Ephesians chapter 5 look at verse number 13 it says but all things that are reproved and reproved means it's it's wrong something that's told to be wrong it's proven to be wrong all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light so all things that are false all things that need to be reproved they are made known they're made manifest by the light for what so ever does make manifest is light well you know where do we get the light from the light the light of the world is Jesus right the word of God. The word of God is there the law is there as a light to lighten our path the word of God is that light to reprove all the falsehoods anything that's not true so if we want to identify a fraud the most basic thing and you know obviously this takes a long time to gain the wisdom and knowledge is going to come from the Bible but let's look at some more specifics now on attributes and things that people will try to do that is going to be a sign. That someone is trying to deceive you right because it's real simple to say well yeah I just just know everything right it's just if you just know all the truth then people won't be able to see me well none of us are there right so we're all going to be able to fall to one degree or another into you know if someone's trying to deceive you. Turn if you would to 2 Peter chapter 2 because I thought of a lot of different things that people have done things that I've seen people do to try to to try to support whether it be false doctrine or just just total falsehoods and everything I'm going to mention today. I'm pretty sure as you know everything I mentioned we're look at has has biblical support and definitely is taught in Scripture one of the things I've noticed those people you can't pin down on specific someone's trying to teach you something that's not true. Oftentimes they'll try to like to speak in more generalities and not be able to get very specific about things and you can notice this in politics and anything just any other realm where people are going to try to sell you something and try to try to pull over a fraud on you. They don't like getting down into the details if what they're trying to tell you is not true because they won't have real factual evidence to support the claim so they're going to want to try to speak in terms of just high level generalities and get you to go along with a concept instead of proving that concept with data with facts. And that's why it's hard to be able to pin people down. Well no let's talk about this and be able to see we ought to be able to not be afraid of being pinned down on whatever we believe. Because we should be open right there's nothing to hide if there's nothing to hide then sure let's talk about that let's go down a situation or whatever and get down to the root and why we believe what we believe or what the truth is about it right but not everyone is willing to do that. And what you'll find oftentimes with people is that they're going to be inconsistent and and will make claims without being able to back them up and a lot of times you'll find people changing their answer based on circumstance. The Bible says in Proverbs 24 21 my son fear thou the Lord and the king and meddle not with them that are given to change. So people who are given to change just like well what you know what's the what's the what's the latest science say on things I mean even that. Well if if science said this 10 years ago but then it said something different 20 years ago and then it said something different 30 years ago and it said something different 40 years ago it said something different 50 years ago. It sounds like a lot of change I don't really think I'm going to put a lot of confidence in something that can't stand the test of time that's always changing. Well this is the best we know right now well it still doesn't sound true though how am I supposed to accept that as fact that is true and you know you see it now with you know with all the censorship and all the fact checkers on social media. What's happening they start censoring things saying that this is you know this is false information this isn't right you can't spread this you can't say this and then like the next year oh yeah that was correct oops. And you know I've just been thrown out the term science a lot just to make sure I'm clear but I love science true science that you know the pursuit of knowledge real experiments things that you could verify things that are true I love that I love the truth in general okay just just the truth. We know that God's Word is truth but you know it doesn't mean that real science is false. There's just a lot of people who want to claim the name science and make that their God and just say well everything science is true it's like well hold on a second that's not true because many things in science are just trying to figure out what is true. It's a pursuit of knowledge but there is no claim on an absolute truth even within science you're going to find theories and hypotheses and other things that yes you could use a logical method to try to pursue the truth but which is also why you see a lot of change. Because things that people thought to be true they find more evidence saying well actually no that's that's not true that's not good enough for me I want the truth. I mean now look following a you know tests and trying to figure out truth great but we have the truth given to us by God himself and not just us the whole world has this available. God wants us to know the truth so I'm not I'm not like anti science that's why I want to understand that I'm anti false science. I'm against the people that and it's funny because there's there's people today that want to stake a claim on science. When there are scientists on the other side are saying that's not true but they want to pretend like those people don't even exist and say no we've got the corner market on science like the people with the COVID stuff like no the science says this and the science says this. Well it doesn't sound like you got very good science because the science says not to wear a mask then the science says to wear a mask then the science says to you know okay keep telling me what the science says because you keep on telling me something different every other month. Every year something different yeah it sounds like you've got some really good truth there it changes often well the Bible says meddle not with them that are given to change. You know what doesn't change the Bible the Word of God that doesn't change and you know what stood the test of time the Bible doesn't need to change. People who are trying to sell you a fraud oftentimes will also then move the goalposts too right so when you're able to say well that's not true because of this they say well and then they'll bring up something else. As to why they still don't want to accept the truth or they want to sell you something like well yeah don't look over here now it's look over here and every time you try to answer something when people just keep on trying to go. Like I mean think about this here's a real good situation that many of you may be familiar with just you go out soul winning with somebody or you try to preach a gospel to someone that's in a false religion right and they have an objection about let's say you know. Works not being required for your salvation right they believe in a workspace salvation and they're going to try to tell you why well no you know faith isn't enough you got to do this or this and then you show them a verse that shows the exact opposite of what they just said. They don't want to talk about that anymore now they're going to say yeah but if you do this that you know you're going to keep on trying to bring up maybe a different Bible verse or something else and keep on changing the subject to some to keep moving it. It's a fraud. Now they might not even realize I'm not trying to say that that people who are deceived are like consciously trying to deceive you they've just been deceived but there's other people who are trying to deceive and that will push this doctrine or whatever the doctrines are and and those people are and that and that's how they even teach you know it's it's interesting. Because when you when you especially with the cults like Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses my communication with those people has is very similar from person to person showing the training that they're that they're getting and the indoctrination that they're getting is pretty much the same across the board. The things that they'll bring up even specific verses and the things that they'll say it's just all like the same. Now I think if people were to talk to people individually here from our church and have an objection on anything that we believe. You're going to find a variety of different responses that you're going to get to prove that truth because there's first of all there's more than one scripture to support a core doctrines right I mean so so you're naturally going to people and you've got people here that they know the Bible not just what I say. So if I'm just teaching the same thing and just be like this this this this and everyone just going to go out like a robot just kind of repeating the same thing you get this in the cults when you're following a man when you're following one person when you're following one leader like that and that is your source of truth and that's what the followers go out and repeat and that's why you get all the similarity in the cults. But when you go to a church that everyone's interested in the truth. Well we have people here that know how to read for themselves and think for themselves and are able to back up what they believe with the scripture and that's the way it ought to be. We're identifying a fraud you got to watch out for people trying to move the goalposts can't pin people down on specifics. Did I have you turn the second Peter to another thing when people try to sell you a fraud is they'll use uncommon terminology or big words to give off the impression that they are very intelligent and that they are very well studied and you don't know anything you just have to believe me and they want to make you confused and make you feel stupid because you don't know what they're saying. And they use all of this stuff just just to give the appearance as if they are superior intellectually so you must listen to what they have to say and what you have to say isn't very important because you don't even understand the words that they're saying. That is a very common tactic. Yes in spiritual things but in many other things too. You know my background is in the IT world. And I come across this sometimes where people want to and you know I've been doing that for a long time. So I've gained a lot of knowledge over the past couple of decades of in that career. Right there's still tons of stuff I don't even know about at all and I'm not afraid to say I don't know I mean the amount of things I don't know is way more than what I do know. But I still do have a good background of a lot of things I do know I've been exposed to a lot of different areas enough to know when people says Bill identify other people who don't know what they're talking about. And see in the IT world there's acronyms for everything I mean there's just like I can't even keep up with them. I mean there's so many different just letters for this and that and this and it's just kind of like all right we got to stop shortening things up because then you start getting overlap and like which one are you talking about this or that. IP address URL these things are common that's that's great let's just stick HTTP okay we're good and then you start getting off into every other type of acronym and it's like people throw this stuff around. But what's funny is when people start to use that language and it's like that doesn't even make sense what you just said. But see most people don't understand those things just because there's a lot of specialty in some of these areas and you catch that it's like you're just saying that so you can sound smart. And I usually don't call people out on that either one and like when I find that I'd rather just let them continue thinking. And I know how to deal with that but it's a you know there's usually not a point in calling them out about it because there's just not but it you'll see that in many areas I just brought my specific field you know because I've seen that. You can see that in theology and people who want to say you know the the most common thing is gonna be people pastors want to go back to the Greek right because most people I mean how many people here know Greek raise your hand if you if you could say like I could speak Greek like any Greek not not even you know like New Testament Greek but just any Greek. See no one. I didn't raise my hand either by the way. Which is also why you're going to notice when I preach I'm not saying well what this means in the Greek. Because I don't know. I could know I mean as good as you could just say if I could go to a strong concordance or a definite you know. But that's not that's not something you should be teaching. When you don't know the language at all and you're just relying on some dictionary definition I mean. You could do this go to like just read it in a sense in English from the Bible and then go to a dictionary and even see if that would make sense to get some different like definition for for every word that you see in say like a paragraph is it really going to sound or get across the exact meaning it may not. You know what I mean like like you look at this it's like well in the context it's not really. Yes that's like the definition but when you when you get the whole context it's it's kind of explaining something a little bit different or whatever. You can't just do that with with the Bible and if you don't know I mean. There's so many things you don't know about like I don't want to go into all the all the specifics on language just in general and the conjugations and and and usages of words and how languages are different and use those things different the grammar rules are different if you don't know all that stuff. You can't just go to a dictionary to just give you all the answers right you just shouldn't do that. It's going to mislead you it's going to misguide you. Second Peter chapter 2 verse number 17. This is second Peter chapter 2 and the book of Jude are both refer to false prophets right so it's a very excellent place resource to look at some of the tactics that they're used and attributes about the false prophets verse number 17 about says these are wells without water. Clouds that are carried with a tempest to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever for when they speak great swelling words of vanity. They speak these great swelling words of vanity they're empty that's why the Bible says they're like clouds without water they look like these big storm clouds oh man we're going to get the rain coming in the clouds come and they go there was nothing inside of it there's really nothing that's going to provide value because you know rain is good to grow crops everything it's like oh yeah here comes this great rain but there's nothing there. Wells without water oh man I'm so thirsty oh look there's a well right there oh it's dried up it's empty there's nothing there right it's empty it's meaningless. These great swelling words and they're going to make it sound like they're there's they know so much and they're going to rattle off all the theological terminology and they're going to talk about soteriology and they're going to talk about you know I don't even I don't have all those terms in the top of my head right now. I know what half of them mean I don't know what all of them mean but it doesn't matter because you don't have to know what the terms mean you just have to know what the truth is right you have to be able to explain it and you know the preacher's job is supposed to be able to make things simple and easy to understand. It's not to show off how smart you are. A teacher apt to teach that means able to teach is a qualification for a bishop. If you just go around talking you know using big words and hard to understand language you're not really teaching very well because you're going to find people more confused and not understanding what you're talking about. But there's less of a chance for people and here's it's a natural instinct for people. In general when if someone is using big words most people aren't even going to ask the question on what that means because they don't want to look stupid so most people will go along thinking well maybe everybody else understands what they're talking about and I don't. So I don't want to be the one to ask the question what are you talking about and that's human nature I mean this just happens all the time where people won't want to say it and that's why these deceivers can get away with it because they know people aren't going to call them out on it. And if they do they'll just throw more garbage terminology that you don't understand back at you to make you stop asking questions and feel stupid so that you could believe whatever their lie is. But one of the things you do is just keep asking the questions try and that's where you try to pin them down and that's why I don't want to be pinned down so you know can you just break it down for me and explain it to me. Because at the end of the day if they're just speaking these great swelling words are not going to be able to do that. And isn't it funny I mean you could hear these the false prophets if you've ever heard any of their sermons or speeches it's probably a better word for it. They they'll say some things that sound really nice and can get people fired up or motivated or you know clapping or crying or whatever but when you really break it down most of times it is really empty. And it's just kind of like well what does that really mean they say things that sound cool but what does that really mean. Even just the catch phrases you know people say well let go let God I don't know how many times I've heard that it's just like what does that really mean. Well you just don't understand you got yeah but how do you how do you apply that it sounds cool but give me some specifics give me some Bible verse show me some truth right show me what the Bible says. But these people says when they speak great swelling words of valor they allure through the lust of the flesh through much wantonness those that were clean escape from them who live in error turn if you would real quick to Jude also the book of Jude verse number 16. So these are murmurers complainers walking after their own lusts were in verse 16 and their mouth speak of great swelling words having men's persons in admiration because of advantage and you'll see a lot of name dropping and just referencing to other people because it's going to give them an advantage or you know that it's it's also that clout. Where they like to throw that around to also try to get you to believe what they're saying right so people will name drop to try to pass a fraud off on you well so and so said this oh well if they said it then it must be true. Right so people will name drop to try to pass a fraud off on you well so and so said this oh well if they said it then it must be true or they teach this or they believe this watch out for people to try to convince you of things by just saying well this person said it. Look I don't care who the person is. OK if you're going to say in our circles it would be well Pastor Anderson said it. Shouldn't matter. Well show me from the Bible. Right. First of all people are going to be throwing his name around anyways whether he said it or not. But second of all he's still just a man anyway so it's not going to be good enough to just throw any name around and look that's not disrespect to Pastor Anderson I love the guy you know I think he's got a lot of wisdom and knowledge but it's not good enough to say that anyone believes this because everyone can be wrong about things. Prove it from the scripture prove it from the Bible. Turn to John chapter 7. Deceivers like to just name drop and say oh this person that person it doesn't matter. The truth doesn't rely on who is a proponent of it you know it doesn't matter. Something could be true with nobody supporting it but one person or whatever you know it's not who believes a certain thing it's just what is true. And if you have to start appealing to different people then. You've got a weak argument. And just try to convince people oh well you should believe this because these people believe it I don't care. John chapter 7. Another way to identify a fraud is people who are going to be boasting of all their education and they can't listen to anyone else. Look at verse number 14 the Bible says now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught and the Jews marveled saying how knoweth this man letters having never learned. So they're looking at Jesus was teaching and they're saying how could this guy even know how to you know how to write letters and things like that because he never learned. And what they mean by never learned is he didn't go through like the Pharisee school right. So they're gonna say well he never well did Jesus really never learn. No of course he did the Bible says he grew in wisdom and in stature of course he was learning. He just didn't go to the to the state college the Jew college or whatever that that turns out Pharisees. So he didn't go to their Bible college. Well yeah wouldn't be there their Torah college or whatever whatever they're going to their you know whatever they would call it that he and he didn't do their traditional learning. So they were amazed at this but Jesus answered them look how he answered them and said my doctrine is not mine but his that sent me. And this should be what all of us should be able to say hey look this doctrine isn't like my doctrine. I didn't come up with this it's because the word of God says this it's God's doctrine the Bible teaches this and we should be able to point to scripture to support all good doctrine. And anyone who's going to try to teach you anything it needs to be coming from the scripture. Verse 17 if any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. So whether it's just my own opinion or whether it's from God is what he's saying. He said if anyone's doing the will of God they'll be able to know whether or not what I'm saying is of God or not right or it's just something he's just imagining out of his own heart. Verse 18 he that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory but he that seeketh his glory that sent him the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him. Now later in that same passage jump down to verse number 45. The Bible says then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees and they said unto them why have you not brought him? Talking about Jesus Christ arresting and bringing him in the officers answered never man spake like this man then answered them the Pharisees are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed on him but this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. So notice the Pharisaical attitude is well I mean have any of us believed? I mean if we haven't believed who do you think you know like like oh you foolish people right you you are just ignorant you're cursed you don't even know the law. I mean we know the law you don't know anything how could you think that you know you're just being deceived by that charlatan Jesus or what you know like. This is their attitude why because they think that they have the cornerstone on the truth and they can't be taught by anybody. No if you're anything that truth is going to come from us and no one else and what he says we don't agree with so you're you're ignorant and you know people who want to talk about their education their schooling how smart they are. It means they have a weak argument if they're trying to convince you based on how much they study not not a very good argument. Now I mean you could ask yourself how many times in my sermons am I up here saying well you know I mean I've read the Bible this many times and I do this and I do that and this is why you should believe me because I mean hey I'm studying this and that you know that's not an argument I'm going to make. Now do I study the Bible absolutely I study the Bible but that ought to be demonstrated and shown through the teaching from the Bible I shouldn't have to convince you of that. If anybody here has doubts on how much I know or have read or whatever you know that should come through on how I teach and what I'm teaching you and that's the way you dissolve doubts on that I shouldn't have to come out and say it ever and I don't. And I'm not going to because that's not a very good argument because of my it doesn't matter I could read the Bible a thousand times and if my knowledge is just really poor like I just don't understand anything that I'm reading it doesn't even matter if I write it that many times. Right I mean really doesn't and someone could have read the Bible one time and you read the Bible a thousand times and if they have more knowledge and wisdom and good doctrine you don't win because well I've read it this many times it doesn't matter. But what you'll find is people trying to pass a fraud they're going to try to appeal to that. And you know it drives me nuts sometimes because people will say like and people do this out in the world too just with a college degree. Oh well do you have a degree? Yes I do have a degree. And you know what it really wasn't even that hard to get a degree and all the things that like I'm doing on my job right now I learned very little from my degree like almost nothing that I do is from my degree. Okay it's like on-the-job training is where you get your true experience and wisdom and knowledge and that piece of paper from that school half the time was garbage anyways. So you got to take all these electives and all this other junk in garbage science and just just stupid philosophy that's nothing to do like for me it was IT like technical like why do I have to take all this junk? You shouldn't have to do that stuff but you do you go to university that's what you're going to do because that's what you need to do to be educated. You're smart you know that means nothing. It literally means you know there's there's a lot and I came to this realization a long time ago I probably have brought this up in the past but after after high school maybe I don't know five years ten years something like that. You know going to school with people for a long time you kind of get a feel for who is bright and kind of just maybe naturally intelligent and kind of smart and understanding of things and other people who just I mean they're just not that not that bright right. And then I heard about people like like one person in particular that became a doctor and I'm just going like I would never want to have that my health be put in this person's hands because I don't think they're that smart. Now honestly and it doesn't mean they're a bad person or anything like that but they're just not so what does that prove well they were able to make it through medical school okay. I still don't think they're that smart right and probably not the best at being able to make those those important decisions on your health. And how many times have you been and you start experiencing things you go to a mechanic or you go to a doctor you go to people they just get it flat out wrong. And aren't able to help you why because they may not be that good because there's other there's a whole bunch of people you don't know. So when I hear about the people I did know it's like oh man how many people out there now you don't know that have all these different businesses and practices. They may be able to show you a college degree but it doesn't mean they have a lot of wisdom it doesn't mean you just believe everything they say they're the expert. Yeah I've been called an expert many times and you know sometimes I've been called an expert and my opinion on something was on something I didn't know very much about. But I was the expert and I wouldn't even want to trust myself for someone saying you're the expert in something that I didn't really have a whole lot of knowledge in. But I was the expert in with in the group of people because I had the most knowledge which was still very little. That's the way the world works but people like to throw around these terms and say like the expert and this education and everything else and just put the stock in that and the weight in that. No don't trust it people because of that because of an accolade because of a title. Everything we believe should be based on evidence on facts on truth and people trying to sell you a fraud will point to well believe me because I have a doctorate. Believe me because I have three PhDs believe well no that's not good enough for me. I don't I don't need your letters of commendation especially in the world system. I mean that just tells me you went through the indoctrination center of a whole bunch of times. But that's what and this is what the Pharisees did well which ones you know which of us have believed. Well none of you because you're all false prophets because you're teaching a false religion. That's why not because you're smart. They're actually fools. Turn to Matthew chapter 23. We're going to see a little bit more about the Pharisees here and here. I think it's the last place we're going to turn out. There's one more passage after that. Matthew 23 great passage where Jesus just lays into the Pharisees right. I mean he's just going after them and calling them devils and everything else. But what we're going to see here in the rebukes of Jesus is more of their tactics in how they deceive people and the things that they use to get people to be convinced about what they're saying. And again these these tactics are used on more than just in religious circles. The people who want to talk about how much they study and this is just kind of on that previous point. They're often covering for the fact that they don't really study. Honestly. Because you hear when people just want to talk about oh man I just studied this out and studied that out and I studied all this out. And then they say something really stupid. They didn't really study that hard. They just want you to think they did and they're kind of covering for themselves and it's on their mind that they didn't really study it out that much. But they want you to think that they did so you'll just accept what they have to say. And oftentimes people will project their own weaknesses or their sins on the opposing view as well. Like people just will try to say well you haven't really studied this or you haven't read the Bible. I mean I don't know how many times people have said well you know you must did you ever did have you read in this? Yeah I've read that. I have I've read it. Have you? Matthew 23. Emphasis on title and clout. I've brought this up already but let's look at how the Pharisees did this in verse number five the Bible reads. But all their works they do for to be seen of men. See they don't care about it being true like Jesus said hey anyone walking in the will of God is going to know whether my doctrine is mine or is of the Father. Right? Because Jesus cared about the truth. Hey the words of the Father is what he's going to preach. That's what he was there to do. But the the words of the Pharisees were there for their own glory for their own honor. They cared about themselves more than what's right by the Word of God. All their works they do for to be seen of men they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments and love the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues. See the people who love all that stuff and love all the attention and love the benefits of being oh you know Pharisees so and so you're here rabbi. It's so nice to have you here right and all the greetings here's his greetings in the markets and to be called of men rabbi rabbi. They just like having that title they like being that position they like being in that power of come to me my children like the Pope kiss my ring right. The people just they love that there's people out there that just love that. And it's weird it's right it's wicked it's wrong. Watch out for people like that that need to be called by titles and need all this stuff. And and just love all the the extravagance that goes along with that. Because for many people that's why they do it. Verse number eight Jesus rebukes and says but be not ye called rabbi for one is your master even Christ in all year brethren. You know what that tells us there that that word rabbi means master. So you'd be like well I don't know what rabbi means I'm not Hebrew I don't know what you know what Jesus told us what it means. So all these rabbis and their synagogues here that's all blasphemous for any of them to be called rabbi. But that's their tradition and they're Jewish you know what one is your master even Christ they need to get that you know knowledge through their yarmulke. But you know and it's not just rabbi because then he says and call no man father upon the earth for one is your father which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters for one is your master even Christ. Right rabbi master father they're all basically meaning the same thing that you are just so superior and he's saying no God is superior. You're all brethren right I'm brother versions right yes I'm the pastor of the church but I am not above anybody else. I don't have some special you know phone that I could talk to God with that that you don't have so you just need to hear the truth for me and well if I don't believe it then you can't believe you know that's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. But this is how they acted and were like well did any of us believe on this. No because you guys are all idiots because you're blind you're blind guides. Verse 11 but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant and whosoever shall exalt himself shall be a base and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Another sign of false false prophets especially not just deceivers but false prophets are people who oppose soul winning. People want to speak out you know they're deceitful. They for whatever reason you know many of them just because they're really wicked but you know that they feel like they're going to lose their authority or lose their position or whatever and you know I've heard of different pastors doing this just opposing soul winning. And this is something that the Pharisees did. Verse 13 says but woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. Like you're preventing people from getting saved is what he's saying there. You're shutting up the kingdom of heaven again for ye neither go in yourselves neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. So the people that want to get saved and want to go that direction you are stopping them and preventing them from getting saved. That's what the Pharisee does that's the false prophet that's going to prevent people from getting saved they're opposed to it they're opposed to the truth. Making long prayer for their own glories another sign. Verse 14 woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye devour widows houses and for a pretense make long prayer therefore you shall receive the greater damnation. So while they're doing something really wicked like devouring a widow's house I mean how low can you get as to try to take the goods and take the house of a widow. Right? And the way that they get you to not focus on what they're actually doing is they just make long prayer. That's their pretense. That's how they're going to try to get away with it. They just make this extremely long prayer to where people are just going like I don't even know what this guy's talking about anymore. And just keep on talking and talking talking talking and it's somewhere in those words maybe what I'm doing makes sense. No. Watch out for that. And people that want to go on this whole oration of a prayer you got to ask yourself is that for God for God's sake or is that for your sake. People want to make themselves look good through their prayers. It's a sign of a deceitful person. Now I'm not saying everyone who makes a long prayer is deceitful. They just like the accolades or whatever but it is a sign. It's a red flag. It's one of those things where you could be like looking out for that. Verse number 16. Those are people who are focused on money more than the things of God. Woe unto you you blind guides which say whosoever shall swear by the temple is nothing but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple he is a debtor. So they don't care about the temple being holy but the gold yeah yeah you better not say anything about that gold. Why? Because they care they put the value in the money in the gold and those treasures not actually the things of God where the temple is holy. It's not the gold right it's that's not the gold is it what's important it's it's a temple itself and they've got it completely backwards. You jump down to verse number 24 where Jesus said ye blind guides which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. They focus on the wrong things the minor things like this minor details while completely missing the most important things. This is another thing that that false teachers will do is they really want to nitpick and talk about the smallest of things when you're missing the big picture. You know it's it's I mean obviously this is hyperbole this is this is a huge difference between a gnat and a camel. So they're gonna spend all their time just imagine like a bowl of soup or something and I know it's hard to imagine this imagine a camel just being in that bowl of soup and a gnat. And they're not gonna worry about trying to get the camel out of their soup they're just gonna get like like get the microscope out and be like let me get this gnat I mean this is a real problem we gotta get this gnat out of here it's like dude you've got a camel in there. Like you don't want to eat that because you want to swallow that gnat but like how about you get rid of the camel. Like that that's that's how ridiculous is and that's how ridiculous they are is that they focus on all these small things and they distract with all these small little things. And again try to use that as being superior which is why they said you know why tithe of the mint and cumin and and it's you know and they're tithing and all these small things like your average person probably isn't doing that. But you know what if your average person is is actually has respect for the law and judgment and mercy they don't have the camel in their soup they may have a few gnats. But they've got the big things taking they don't have the big beam sticking out of their eyeball right they may have a moat they may have a speck in there but you know they don't got the beam. The Pharisees have that big old beam it's just completely off and people who are out to deceive especially again the fault this is dealing more with on the on the religious side of things on the prophecy side of things. They've got the main things wrong and when people if you come across a teacher that doesn't say have salvation right don't listen to anything else that they have to say. There was someone that brought up something to me recently about a particular topic and when I found out who the source was of this thing and I don't want to be too specific but it's like I don't want to listen to anything that person has to say. The reason I'm not trying to be too specific is I want this person feel bad because I think they're they're fine or something you know like they're a good person but you know people listen to other people online and end up getting doctrine from people and it's dangerous. Because if you don't know you know like like the guy that was brought up as a flat earther it's like I don't want to get I don't care what he has to say at all. I mean it's so deceived and most of those flat earthers they make the gospel about flat earth. I mean literally there it's like that's the most important thing oh this great truth is being concealed from everybody and this is hidden and this is that great lie and it's like it's meaningless. The shape of the earth is meaningless compared to the gospel but it's like they're trying to make all these people out to be these bad people and they're all deceiving you to believe in this global. What does that have to do with anything anyways? Who cares? I mean if you believe that the earth is flat I don't care if you believe that. I'd say you're wrong but I mean I'm not going around checking everyone saying well hey do you know what shape the earth is? To me that's worse than the Jehovah's Witness saying do you know what the name of God is? Seriously that's worse. Because I could give a little bit more credibility to the name of God because you know the name of Jesus Christ is very important. There's none other name given among men under heaven whereby we must be saved right and I know I just mixed those words up apologize for that but that name is important. At the name of Jesus Christ every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess the glory of God the Father Jesus Christ the Lord. That name is important but where do we see anything saying well if you you know if you believe in your heart and understand that the the earth is flat then you'll be saved. Like no no there's nothing to do with it anyways people like that like I don't I don't care what they have to say about anything about anything. Because you know what they're out evangelizing about the shape of the earth and that's what they spend all their time doing. How about you evangelize the gospel of Jesus Christ and let me hear your gospel presentation and I'll see if I even want to listen what you have to say. Because if you're preaching a false gospel I don't want to hear anything from you. If you can't even get that right you've got the biggest beam in the world coming out of your eyeball and you can't see clearly in fact you're blind. So you're going to learn something from anybody make sure that they're saved that they preach the right gospel because anything else that comes out of your mouth I'm not going to believe. And it's not that I just believe everything a saved person says but that's the starting point. That's just that's step one are you blind okay good you you you're saved that means you're not blind now we could progress further to see and test what you say against scripture. But if you're blind I'm not even gonna go to I'm not gonna hear it I just won't even I don't have anything to do with it. On spiritual things I'm really I don't care. Let's keep reading here in Matthew chapter 23 verse 25 man I'm running out of time here. It says woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter but within there full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter that the outside of them may be clean also so don't be deceived by the hypocrites the deceivers they may look good on the outside. Right. They might be dressed nice and have a Bible in their hand but that doesn't mean that you could just trust what they have to say you have to take the content what is it on the inside. That's what matters not the outside. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye are like unto whited sepulchres which indeed appear beautiful outward but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Jesus can see through their lives he can see through their exterior what they like people to see as being these holy men of God. And he's like you're actually dead inside you're like the coffin that is real beautiful and ornate on the outside that nice tomb that nice grave has all these engravings and looks real beautiful. But that but inside it's just full of decayed rotted flesh and bones right that stinks and is you know just death that's what you're like on the inside. I don't know about you but I don't want to learn from people like that right they're dead on the inside especially if they're twice dead. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3 we're going to close up here. There's lots of ways to spot frauds obviously there's too many to even go through in one sermon but when we start to see some of these patterns and see what people are focused on see where their intents are that's a good way to spot a fraud. And people's appeal unto their knowledge which without actually showing you any facts without showing you evidence everything ought to be backed up. Any claims that people want to make show the evidence if it's about a biblical thing show that show the evidence in the scripture if it's not a biblical thing will show me the evidence. Then outside prove it to me don't tell me who believes this don't tell me who teaches this don't tell me who show me. And don't be so quick to just believe people because they have a title. This is one of the great failings in my opinion of like my parents generation. You know we were brought up just anything the doctor says is like the gospel. For your health and that's you look no question everything. Question it right you don't have to be a doctor to question that's a stupid thing people have a well you're not an expert should like you can't have an opinion on anything like you don't have a brain if you are not the expert in that area. No I can have opinion I can judge things I'm going to decide for myself. I don't have to be a doctor to be able to see if things make sense and be able to say no you could teach me if I'm going to go and research something and learn about it. Well why am I any different than the doctor that spent time learning what he knows. Well because he's a doctor and you're not okay well I think I could learn I have the capacity to learn too. And if you can't break something down and explain it to me I don't think you know it very well either. You're going to try to tell me what's true but you know what most of the doctors in the world are relying on studies that other people did. They may be aware of the studies but how much do they really know how much did they dig into that and verify no they're trusting what someone else said and they're trusting what someone else said and what someone else did. At the bottom line there's not that many people involved ultimately in determining what a huge amount of people are going to believe to be true. But you're just everyone's just taught just accept that. No I'm not going to that's not good enough for me. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse number 1 the Bible says this know also that in the last days perilous time shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of love for those that are good. Lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins led away with divers lusts. Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith but they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was. So there's a lot of opposition to the truth. There's lots of people who will be deceiving like Jannes and Jambres trying to get the people moving against Moses and using their tactics to try to deceive and try to call out something and make lies about Moses. And these were men of clout, people who had respect within the congregation but had just lies against Moses. They didn't have anything concrete against him but they were turning the people against him. But this is why you know it's important for us for anyone you want to teach you need to make what you know what you believe fully known and not make people rely on just a title or you said so. Right so the Apostle Paul said this to Timothy says but thou has fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, and then he goes persecutions, afflictions, which came into me, Antioch, and Iconium, Elistra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Look you've fully known my doctrine. Why? Because he's clear about all of it. Because everything he's teaching he's just laying it out there. Watch out for people who don't want to just answer all the questions and lay it all out there. It was sad to me when I was interviewed recently just about current events and about the wickedness of the Sodomites and all that stuff that this person who came to me and interviewed me felt that they couldn't even go to their own pastor. Because they didn't feel like they were going to get a straight answer. That's not biblical. You're a coward. But you ought to be able to, like the Apostle Paul, hey you've fully known my doctrine. That's why I tell the people here, hey we're not trying to hide anything. You want to know what we believe? I will tell you exactly what we believe. Just ask away. But you know what? If you go on YouTube you could probably find, if our channel is still up, you could find everything that we believe about everything. Go to the website. Go to these places. We are not trying to hide what we believe one little bit. Whether it's controversial or not, I am an open book when it comes to my beliefs, when it comes to my doctrine, when it comes to my manner of life and purpose and faith. This is the way people who bring the truth ought to be. Hey, open book. You can know everything. I'll teach you everything. I'm not going to hold anything back. Flip over to chapter 4. Verse number 1, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead and his appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word. Again, encouragement and instruction unto Timothy from the Apostle Paul. Preach the word. Be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things and do afflictions, do the work of evangelists, make full proof of thy ministry. Full proof. Why? Because any reasonable person should be looking for proof. And if we want people to believe what we think, what we believe, what we teach, what we say, hey, make full proof of that. For a long time I was seeking the truth. And I have a love for it. That's why the first church I started is called Word of Truth because I love the truth. That was what it's all about for me. That's how I even got saved. I wanted to know what was true. And the answer came to me through the Word of God that Jesus Christ is the truth. All right. Amen. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. I took that route. I went through Jesus to receive the truth. After that, of course, I had many years where I wasn't doing, living the way I ought to live, but I still had an interest in the truth just in general. I try different churches and go different places. And you know what? I had a hard time finding people who would just like preach the Bible. Right? Imagine that. I mean, they might take a verse and talk about their opinion a lot, but that wasn't enough for me. I don't want to just believe what you have to say. I mean, teach me from the Scriptures. And I couldn't even tell you at the time, put it into words to articulate what it was that I needed, that I wanted, that I needed to hear. It's easier looking back to be able to articulate, yes, I was not being fed with anything. I just wanted to hear the truth. I just wanted to hear God's Word expounded and taught in the way that it is in front of me that I could pretty clearly see, but I just need a little bit of help in kind of understanding and making sense. Oh, yeah, that's exactly right. And every truth I've ever learned, it's like, I always felt like, how could I be so dumb to have not known this? Because it just seems, I mean, it just, of course that's what it means. Of course it's right there in front of me. And I didn't really know that before, but then it's just like, oh, well, yeah, I mean, it's kind of, and then you feel like you've always known it. Because it's true, because it's just, when you receive something like that, it's like, absolutely, yes, 100%. And we need that, and that's why God has churches and pastors and teachers to be able to help people along that path to come to that, to be like, oh, yeah, of course, that's what it means. And I mean, so many different topics, you know, I've preached on it, and I've heard people come up to me and be like, yeah, I mean, I just never understood that, but that's so simple, it makes so much sense. And anything for me special, it's just, hey, I came to that realization at another point in my life, and someone else taught me those. You know, it's not like it's anything great on me, but it's, we all need that, but here's the thing, my point is, when it comes to the truth, it's easy to accept. It's easy to see. It's not complicated. It doesn't take, you know, a bunch of mental gymnastics to try to figure out how are we going to make this fit. It's clear. It's plain. It's easy to be understood. Watch out for the people who try to make everything difficult. Watch out for the people who are going to try to make you believe something by just saying, well, I studied this out, you just need to believe me, I'm the pastor, I'm the this, I'm that, you know. No. If you ever hear me say, well, just believe me because I'm the pastor, question even more. All right? Question it even more. Everything ought to be able to be spelled out clearly, and clearly defined, and just like the possible said today, you fully know my doctrine, and then you make full proof of your ministry too. Everyone should know exactly why, should be clear, should be open. That's the way the truth works. The truth brings the light. The truth fears no investigation. Bring it on. Search it out. And for people who love the truth, hey, if you could find out I'm wrong on something, yeah, let me know because I don't want to be incorrect in my doctrine because I'm interested in truth. I care about the truth. And people who try to obfuscate the truth are the deceivers. And people who teach and try to convince in a way that's not open, watch out because they're probably a fraud. Let's bow our eyes and have a word of prayer. Dear Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for these words of wisdom from the scripture. I pray that you please help us not be deceived by the deceivers out in this world because there's so many of them, dear Lord. And I pray that you would please just help us to continue to increase our learning and our understanding and our knowledge, dear Lord, from your word. Help us be able to spot the frauds quickly before any damage can be done. And we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, Brother Peter, please lead us in our last song. On the first marvelous praise of our loving Lord, Praise that it seeks for sin and our guilt, Yonder on Calvary's mount fell poor, There where the flood of the Lamb was still, Praise, praise God's grace, Praise that will pardon and bless within, Praise, praise God's grace, Praise that is greater than all our sin, Sin and despair bind the sea with gold, Renten the soul with infinite loss, Praise that is greater gets grace untold, Poise to the refuge the mighty cross, Praise, praise God's grace, Praise that will pardon and bless within, Praise, praise God's grace, Praise that is greater than all our sin, Torque is the stain that we cannot hide, One can avail to wash it away, Loom there is flowing of crimson tide, Wider than snow you may be today, Praise, praise God's grace, Praise that will pardon and bless within, Praise, praise God's grace, Praise that is greater than all our sin, Our sin of the last marvelous symphony, Matchless praise freely bestowed on all who believe, You that are longing to see His face, Will in this moment His praise be seared, Praise, praise God's grace, Praise that will pardon and bless within, Praise, praise God's grace, Praise that is greater than all our sin. Thank you for watching!