(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) All right, keep your place in Jeremiah 14. We're gonna come back to that a little bit later in the sermon. Flip over to Isaiah chapter one, if you would. One of the things that I like about doing this challenge every day, trying to give the Gospels to people, is that when I go soul winning, oftentimes I get sermon ideas through conversations that I have and just different interactions and stuff. So, what I'm gonna be preaching on this evening is just something, because when you deal with people, you kinda hit on some subjects that you don't always think about, especially as someone who's saved, these things don't pop in your head. For me, I've been believing a certain way for a long time, but then you kinda hear what other people think and say, and you almost forget sometimes, like, oh yeah, there are a lot of people who think this way or believe this way or whatever. So, it's one of those instances and I wanna preach on just how to know God. How do we know God? How can we know God? And kind of along those lines and since this comes up, this does come up when you're out talking to people. It's a good question, it's an important question. There's a lot of people seeking the answer to this question. Many people out there will claim that having a relationship with God is the most important thing, or it's how you can know you're saved. So, when we go out, we ask the question, hey, do you know for sure that you're saved? Do you know for sure if you died today, you'd be going to heaven? And I was just making this, I was talking before service this evening, and one of the things I've noticed in my experience out soul winning here, in Georgia specifically, that seems to be different than what I've experienced in other places, is the amount of people that will say, yes, I know for sure I'm going to heaven when I die. That say yes, right? So, but there's not a higher percentage of people who are actually saved, but the amount of people who are making that claim of yes. And I can't, it's hard to come up, I can't come up with just some number. This is all, again, my personal experience of what I've dealt with here. It's a lot easier to go soul winning when you have people who will say, well, I don't really know. Right, because right off the bat, if they're saying they don't know, it's like, well, hey, I could show you, would you like to hear this? And you could, you said you weren't sure, you don't know this, but when people already have the confidence in their salvation, it's a little bit harder. Oftentimes, it's not impossible. Obviously, people still talk to you, but when they already feel like they're set and they're okay, but they're really not, then that's a bigger problem, a big problem for them, right? When people get real comfortable in a religion or in a belief system that is flawed or faulty that is not a saving faith, then that is a big problem. So, but usually what you get, and usually what I get, when people give me a confident answer, usually it's a real vague answer as to why. Because I'll make a point and say, oh, well, that's great. I'm glad that you have that confidence. Do you mind me asking why are you so confident? What is it that you're trusting that gives you that assurance that you know for sure you're going to heaven? But then, and that usually gets followed up because they're not expecting that. Most people aren't. And again, it's nothing against people you talk to. It's just, that's not normal conversation. People don't normally come up to you and ask you these things. Unfortunately, that's what we're out there doing now. We're trying to reach people. So they're not always as prepared to talk about the reasons why. But normally what you're getting, one of the things I've gotten is recently is well, you've got to have a good relationship with God. And one person I talked to even went as far as to say, well, it's just a relationship with God. And it's like, it doesn't matter what your religion is as long as you have that good relationship. So it's kind of like, and look, this is a belief that's common, that it doesn't matter if you're a Muslim or a Hindu or whatever, whatever your religion is, as long as you have that relationship. Because we all know there's only one God anyway. So if you would send to worship Him this way and they worship Him that way, and no one really knows, and you're trying your best, God knows your heart. You could see that you're sincere and you're trying to follow Him in whatever way you can, then that's good enough. And this is actually a very Hindu thought. That belief system, I spent some time on an airplane once sitting next to a man that was a Hindu, and I tried to give him the gospel. And he spent quite a bit of time trying to say how no one really knows that much about God. So people are kind of doing what they think they can, but we're all still worshiping the same creator and stuff, which is actually a really wicked religion, because the religions are so different. At least when you have the truth versus everything else, they're very different. The way that you're saved is very different. It's not based on you. It's not based on how well you can obey and listen and everything else. That's not it at all. So they'll say, you know, this relationship, and a lot of people will use that, well, I have a relationship with God. And that's kind of vague anyways, because it's like, well, what do you mean? I mean, what if you have a bad relationship? What happens if you do this or this? You know, and there's never really a good defining point for a lot of people. And I like to point out to people that there's only one relationship that really matters, and that's the relationship of having a father-son relationship. Because normally when people say, well, it's your relationship, they're talking about how well you get along with somebody, right? So if you have a relationship with a brother, Peter and I have a relationship. So like when we're agreeable and can talk to each other and hang out and have fun, then we have a good relationship. But if one of us does something the other one doesn't like, and we're finding we have a bad relationship, and people use that type of thing, like, well, if you got a bad relationship with God, then maybe you're in trouble. But if you have a good relationship with him, then you're doing all right. But that is not the relationship that we need to be worried about when it comes to our salvation. Because the relationship that you need to be saved is being born into God's family, being born again, having that spiritual birth, being a member of God's family by virtue of your second birth, and having that father-son relationship. And that's a good tool actually to use with people, help them understand the gospel is that once you're born into a family, you can never be unborn. So whether or not your father is happy with you or angry with you or any emotion with you, you're still a son. And that's the good news. And that encapsulates really nicely the gospel that, hey, you don't have to do anything. You have to earn your way into the family. You're not like a bond server that has to buy your freedom because you can't pay enough. But there is someone that came and made the payment in full to free you and to grant you access into that family. Of course, Jesus Christ who paid for all of our sins. That's the relationship. But this isn't a gospel sermon. So I'm gonna continue on here because that's the, people will try to focus on the relationship. And honestly, I don't spend a lot of time with that. Usually I bring up the father-son relationship thing later on in my gospel presentation to drive that home, especially when people bring that up from the beginning. Because when you speak with people, when you talk to people, obviously the goal is to reach them, right? We don't preach at people. We don't talk at people. We don't run down a list of just like a script, right? Like a sales script or something. We're communicating with people. We're trying to help people to one, understand the gospel and two, persuade them to believe the gospel. So when you can pick up on areas that someone, their understanding of God, of salvation in the words that they're using. And you could pick up on areas where they're off, where it's flawed, where they don't have the right understanding and it's clear through what they're explaining, what they're describing. It's really good to be able to use and correct the terms that they use in their view, because that is something that's gonna make more sense to them, right? So if people are coming at you using this concept of having a relationship, and that's the first thing that's gonna come out of their mouth as to why they think they're going to heaven. I've got a good relationship with God. They're thinking, I pray every day. I go to church. I try to do good. I'm doing all this stuff. That's my relationship. That's where their mind is at. That's where their trust is at. And then you could come along and explain, no, no, no, relationship's important, but this is the relationship that you need to focus on getting down right now. This is the relationship that matters because that can click with them maybe even better than some other things. And they need to change their mind on what they're trusting in. So it's good to be able to pick up on the concepts that they use to explain what they're trusting in to be saved and how they feel they can know God. And you're not gonna be able to know God without having that father-son relationship. You're not gonna have that at all. You may think you do, but they don't. Now, oftentimes, besides just this relationship, a lot of people rely on feelings and experiences to dictate what they believe, that just, oh, well, this happened to me. I had a conversation when Pastor Thompson was in town with a man that was telling, I tried to give him the gospel, and he was explaining how he actually believes in Nordic gods. You don't run into that every day. But I'll tell you what, the guy was sincere, and he wasn't just trying to be difficult. He wasn't just saying, you know, because sometimes you're running into people, and they just wanna give you a hard time as a Christian, and they'll just say whatever to try to rile you up or just try to mock you and things like that. That's not this guy at all, okay? So legitimately, this is what he was believing. And so I had him tell me, well, tell me a little bit. He said, he grew up in a Christian home. What made you change? What is it? And it boils down to, I'm not gonna give you all the details, but he had an experience. He had this experience. He heard this voice and kinda had this experience. He said, I did some research into it, trying to figure out based on what it said and what, you know, that it lines up with the Nordic gods. And I didn't ask him, but I'm pretty sure he probably has some type of lineage or background going that way. So he's like, yeah, he's the god of the Vikings and all this stuff. But he knew about Odin and whatever. I don't even, he knew more than I do about those gods. I've got a cursory understanding of a lot of different religions. That's one that admittedly, I haven't really spent very much time reading about or knowing about, but he did. And the hard part is that people who base their beliefs system off of feelings or emotions or maybe some particular experience, they can be very difficult to convert because they know what they felt. They know what they've experienced. Even though those experiences always, always have a level of interpretation and you can kind of take it different ways, but because it's very personal to them and they had that experience, it becomes very difficult now to try to change their mind to something different than something that you feel. I had you turn to Isaiah chapter one, look at verse number 18. The Bible says, come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. The reason why I'm going to this verse is because if we want to know God, first of all, you can't rely on feelings, you can't rely on some random or not random experiences and just things that are just completely open to some level of interpretation of just not really knowing what happened, but I know I had this experience, I know something happened. God is a God of reason. And in this verse, He's saying, let's reason together, right? Let's talk this out. Let's reason and think logically and think clearly about this. And then what does He bring up? He brings up salvation. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Hey, let's reason together. You're in trouble, you're a sinner, and you need those sins washed away. And it's a very simple concept and God's got a very simple solution and answer, but you know where you're going to get the answer from. It's going to come from God's words. It's not going to come from an experience. It's not going to come from something that happened. We need to remember when speaking with people and trying to give the gospel to them, let's focus on reason. Oftentimes what I'll do in these experiences when people have experiences is not try to dwell too much on their experience because you want to try to reason with them. Because if you say anything about their experience, you don't know what they experienced. You have no idea. You can't really speak to that. It's something that's very personal to them and there's no point in attacking an experience. Now, that is something you may want to, you're going to probably need to deal with if you can make progress with them and just giving them the gospel, but that comes later. Don't focus on dealing with that right up front. Let God's word do the work. Let the gospel do the work in their heart and let them try to reason and not be focused on the thing that may have made them go a direction in the first place. First focus on, hey, here's what the Bible says. This is what God's word says. This is what the Bible's saying and let that sink in into their heart and give them the chance to accept that without having to be confrontational on their experience. Because at the end of the day, when someone has that big experience, you are going to need to deal with it, but do that at the end. And one of the things, and again, I'm not saying I'm perfect in any of this area. I mean, this guy that I'm talking about, he didn't get saved. So this isn't like this was a victorious attempt at giving him the gospel. But especially with a lot of people, and this applies also to other people too that have this relationship with God type attitude or this very ecumenical or idea that anyone can go to heaven. It's like, well, hold on a second though, because here's what Jesus said, right? Bring up what Jesus said. Bring up what the Bible actually says about being very exclusive. And that, hey, Jonathan, pay attention. When Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me, that's very, very specific and that's very explicit. So what you're saying then, and I try to prompt this with people too, and I've done this many times, because you have to make a stand, you have to make a position. It's easy to just say, well, anyone gets to go to heaven, right? But I like trying to get people to make the decision of saying, well, is this false that Jesus actually say this, right? The Bible's just wrong. Because a lot of people that have this view that so many people, like everyone's going to heaven as long as you follow, they have a hard time coming out and saying, the Bible's wrong. A lot of people do, even if they don't really believe in the Bible, a lot of people have a hard time saying that and say, you gotta admit, this is what the Bible teaches. It's either right or it's wrong. There is absolute truth. This is either true or false. This is either true or false statement. There's no middle ground there. Either Jesus said that or he didn't. Either Jesus Christ is the Son of God or he's not. Either there is only one way to heaven, answer Jesus Christ, or there's many ways. Okay, the Bible teaches over and over again that there's only one way. So, in order for there to be many ways and anyone be able to go to heaven, then this can't be one of them. In your view, because this is saying this is the only way. Or at least we have to be very wrong. And getting people to decision points is also important when preaching the gospel to them. Now, turn, if you would, to Romans chapter one. I got way ahead of myself, so we're gonna back up a little bit. How do we know God, right? Now, this sermon is how to know God. How to know God. A lot of people claim there's a relationship that we have to have with God, but obviously the important relationship is a father-son relationship. The Bible teaches us there's a lot that we could even understand. And even without the Bible, we could understand some things about our creator, about God, even outside of God's Word. We do have some notion, some ideas, some things that we can learn about God that leads us to believe in God through his very creation. The Bible says we were to cover this when we went over in Psalm 19. Psalm 19, verse one, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. So just looking at his creation, you can see the perfection, you can see the beauty, you can see the design, you can see all that goes into creation and say, yeah, this didn't happen by chance. There has to be a creator, right? Romans 1, 18, the Bible says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. For God hath showed it unto them, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen. The invisible things of God, as the Bible's saying here, they're clearly seen being understood by the things that are made. Even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. So the eternal power of God and his Godhead, the Bible says that they're clearly seen by the things that are made, that we can at least get that level of understanding about God. Now, you're not gonna know very much about God if you just rely on his creation. You're gonna see some truths, you're gonna see some aspects, but without guidance, without God telling us what's right and what's wrong, you can go in all kinds of different directions, because again, you're gonna be looking at things that may be open to a lot of interpretation, just like feelings, just like these experiences, you could look at something and say, oh, well, look at the way this goes. So God must, and just come to some real weird results of just looking at something without any clear instruction. Just understanding that there's a creator and the information you could glean about God, it's not enough to come to any solid conclusions without his word. What about people who have visions, right? Visions, and this is, again, I've talked to many people who claim to have visions and have dreams and see things and have these experiences. Well, you know, Muhammad had visions, the founder of Islam, he definitely had visions, he talked to, you know, suppose he talked to angels, and Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, he said he had visions. There's many people throughout history who claim to have visions, right? Now, I'm not even doubting that these people actually had some kind of vision. I mean, I had a dream last night. How many people here had a dream last night, or maybe the night before, or the night before, right? We have dreams, people can have visions. Does that mean that it's automatically coming from God, though, is the key question? And that's what needs to be analyzed and studied, and that's one of the points that you also wanna, you know, when you communicate with people, talk to about, because a lot of people like to have, you know, it's great to get this special feeling, this specialness of a relationship with you and God. And I'm not saying that that doesn't exist. God knows the number of hairs on your head. So we do have this very comforting, unique relationship that we can have with God, and that God knows everything about us, He knows our thoughts, He knows everything, He knows the number of hairs, He knows all these things about us, and He loves us. So that is enough to make all of us feel very special when it comes to God. I mean, God's got a big family, right? But we can all feel very special to God, but sometimes that desire to be special, a special person, maybe in God's eyes, can cause people to make some extra leaps in how special they are as being like a special prophet and receiving special visions and getting this extra special information and knowledge that goes above and beyond or is contradictory, especially to God's Word. And again, everything can have some elements of truth. Even having visions, did God use visions to communicate with people in the past? Absolutely, yes, He did. And you'll find that in Scripture. Genesis 15, verse one, the Bible says, "'After these things, the word of the Lord "'came unto Abram in a vision, saying, "'Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield, "'and I, exceeding great reward.'" In Numbers 12, verse number five, the Bible reads, "'And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud "'and stood in the door of the tabernacle "'and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forth. "'And he said, Hear now my words, "'if there be a prophet among you, "'I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision "'and will speak unto him in a dream.'" So we see this being used in Scripture by God. People have visions. The Apostle John had visions in Revelation. There are people that had, Peter had visions, right? He had a vision of the basket coming down from heaven with all manner of beasts in it, right? Four-footed beasts and creeping things, and he heard the voice from heaven. That was a vision, okay? So this isn't discounting visions altogether. We're not like some total atheist or unbeliever or someone who would just say like, well, it's all just nonsense, because it's not all just nonsense. You can't just blow it all off. At the same time, how can you know if a vision is false or not? And as we started in Jeremiah 14, let's go back there. Hopefully you kept a place in Jeremiah 14, because God gives us direction. And God explains things to us, especially in the book of Jeremiah. God really goes off on the false prophets, because there are false prophets. There are people that have false visions and false divinations and false dreams, and they want to teach people things, and we need to be able to know and discern and understand. And when you sit down and reason with someone, especially someone who's relying on things like visions, they're relying on things like experiences and feelings. You know, the Mormons, when you ask them, sometimes if you're getting a long enough discussion with them, I had a lot of them out in Arizona, because there's so many Mormons out there, they all have the same testimony of, at some point in their life when they're young, you know, praying to God to know, because they'll try to tell you, well, how do you know that the Book of Mormon isn't the Word of God, right? How do you know that the Bible just is it, that these aren't prophets, and that, you know, and they said, well, so how do you know it is? Well, you know, I prayed about it, and I sought the truth, and I prayed to God with all my heart. You know, God, please reveal to me if this is your word, if it's not, let me know. You know, and they tell you the same exact story, and it's amazing how every single Mormon has the same exact experience with this, and that these experiences are recounted over and over and over again. I'm sure there's nothing to that, but they just all have this experience, and no one else does, except for these Mormon guys, right? But they say, well, I felt this burning inside. It's just this burning. Maybe that was indigestion. They felt this burning to show them that the Book of Mormon is true, but, you know, we can kind of make fun and find that silly or amusing, but they hold to that, and honestly, you know, you're talking to some teenage kids, teenage elders in the Mormon church that are on their mission, but so many of them honestly believe this, okay, and that does matter for us, because, you know, we may be able to get a laugh out of things like that, but honestly, we care about the people, right? We don't want them going to hell. We want them to repent. We want them to put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We want them to be saved. So understanding that there are these people that come from this mindset and trusting and feelings, we need to be able to say to them, hey, let's reason together. Let's speak about this rationally and reasonably, because whatever experience you have, what if someone doesn't have that experience? What do you do? You know, if you're gonna reason with people, you know, I talk to people, man, well, I had this happen, and God saved my life here, and this happened to me here, but what do you say to somebody else that doesn't have the experiences you have? Are we just stuck to wait till we have an experience? Because most of them won't tell you that. They won't tell you, oh, no, you have, you know, there's gotta be something concrete. I mean, if God's real, it only makes sense that God's got some rules and some plans, something that's gonna apply to everybody and not have to rely on some experience. And people who tie to the experiences, they like doing that because it makes them feel more special and closer to God, but they still, by and large, the people in my experience I've talked to will still, because you wanna get them on the train of thought of let's reason together. How is this gonna apply to me? I didn't have that experience. I mean, when I prayed to God about what's right, I didn't get a burning in my heart about the Book of Mormon. So what do I rely, I mean, are you better than me because it did it for you and not for me? How can you convince me that that's true? I wanna know, I'm genuine in my faith. I wanna know what's right and what's wrong. So if I don't have that experience, I mean, are we both right? How can we both be right? Reason, right? Go down this line of thinking. But God gives us here, I was talking about visions. When you have people who rely on these visions that they have, verse number 11, Jeremiah 14 about reads, Then said the Lord unto me, pray not for this people for their good, which a whole nother sermon in and of itself that there are people not to pray for for their good. We'll leave that there though. Verse 12, when they fast, I will not hear their cry. And when they offer burnt offering and an ablation, I will not accept them, but I will consume them by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence. Then said I, ah, Lord God, behold, the prophets say unto them, you shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place. So what's happening here is there's a conversation with the Lord and Jeremiah. And he says, that's where we started verse 11. Then the Lord said unto me. So the Lord is speaking to Jeremiah. And he's saying, you know what? Don't pray for this people. I'm not gonna hear them. There's gonna be destruction. I'm gonna bring all this disaster on them. They're gonna be taken captive. All these bad things are gonna happen. And Jeremiah's response is, hey, you know what though? The prophets, they're saying, we're gonna have peace. There's not gonna be any famine. We're all gonna be good. So what about that, God? I mean, all the prophets are saying the exact opposite of what you're saying right now. Verse 14, then the Lord said unto me, the prophets prophesy lies in my name. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them. They prophesy unto you a false vision and divination and a thing of naught and the deceit of their heart. Therefore, thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say sword and famine shall not be in this land. By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed. And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. And they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness upon them. This is a great example in the scripture of people who are saying and claiming to have visions and everything else. Now, what if these people had visions? Does that make them any less wrong? No. And you know what, maybe some of these guys were sincere and had dreams, and oh man, I had this dream, I had this vision, and I woke up and we were safe and the enemy tried to get in and our walls held strong and the Lord delivered us and everything was great. It would be a false vision. It would be a vision not from the Lord. The reason why we could even know, in turn if you go to Jeremiah 23, we could know who the prophets of the Lord are is because when God says something and when God does something, it always comes to pass. When God makes a proclamation, it always happens. It never fails. Every single time without fail. And this is one of the easy ways to spot false prophets. This is how we know Joseph Smith was not a prophet of God because he's speaking thus saith the Lord and you could go back and there is countless times recorded of the prophecies that he made and I mean, from rebuilding of the temple and Jesus Christ's return and all this stuff. He had dates, he had everything just spelled out and none of it came to pass. Yet people still wanna say, oh no, no, he was a prophet. No. God didn't send him. They're claiming the name of the Lord. You know, a lot of people claim the name of Christianity. A lot of people say that they're followers of Jesus Christ. A lot of people say, well, I'm a Christian. But they're not. God didn't send them. They're not listening to God. Look at verse 13 in Jeremiah chapter 23. Bible reads, and I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied in Baal and caused my people Israel to err. I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem and horrible thing, they commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen also the hands of evildoers that none doth return from his wickedness. They are all of them unto me as Sodom and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. So now, I mean, this is talking pretty bad things that these prophets are involved in. They commit adultery. They walk in lies. They strengthen the hand of the evildoers. Now, how do they strengthen the hand of the evildoers? Here, they're saying, because they're saying peace. There's gonna be peace. Oh, we're fine. You know, don't listen to this Jeremiah guy. He's off his rocker. Don't worry about what he's saying. This doom and gloom pastor trying to tell you that you're in all this sin and do all this. Don't worry about that. You're fine. Everything's fine. God's for us. God loves us. We're His chosen people. And let's just keep doing what we're doing and strengthening the hands of the evildoers. Because you know what doesn't strengthen the hands of evildoers is telling them that they're in sin, telling them that they're wrong, telling them, hey, you need to change. Hey, you're in wickedness. Hey, God's judgment is gonna come upon you. That doesn't strengthen their hands. Now, they may choose to continue doing what they're doing, but you're not strengthening them. Strengthening them is saying, no, no, buddy, you're doing great. Keep up the good work. No problem. We're all God's people. No big deal. That strengthens people who are doing wicked to continue to do wickedly and to do more wickedly. Verse 15, therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets. Behold, I will feed them with wormwood and make them drink the water of gall for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you. They make you vain. They speak a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. As we continue to read this, notice what is it that's the focus where God is telling us where the truth is coming from. He's comparing what's coming out of their hearts versus what's coming out of the mouth of the Lord. We see over and over and over again, if you wanna know what the truth is, you have to get it from the word of God. That is how you're going to know God. Because there's lots of people out there gonna tell you lots of different things. Let's reason together, right? You had an experience. You had a vision. You had all these things. I didn't have any of those experiences. How am I gonna know what's true? You're telling me one thing. That guy tells me something else. Someone else is telling me something else. How do I know that's just not out of your heart? How can you prove that to me? How can you tell me? Am I supposed to have faith in you? Am I supposed to have faith in your belief, in your vision that what you had is from God? I don't need to do that. We've got a book. We've got scripture. We've got a recorded words that have already been tried and tested, that have already come through proof positive. It's true. They've been tested. They've made prophecies that have come to pass and has been accepted as the word of God throughout history and has brought the change and has given us the truth. Why should I trust you or your vision if it's saying something different than what this book says? You want to know God. Don't go seeking to have any special experience, any burning in your bosom, any vision. Seek to know God through his word. Let's keep reading here about these false prophets. Verse 17, they say still unto them that despise me. The Lord hath said, ye shall have peace. And they say unto everyone that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, no evil shall come upon you. Again, just telling people that there's no consequence for their sin. It doesn't matter. We're fine. You're doing good. Verse 18, for who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord and hath perceived and heard his word? Who hath marked his word and heard it? Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind. It shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord shall not return until ye have executed, until ye have performed the thoughts of his heart. In the latter days, ye shall consider it perfectly. I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings. You know a good way to judge a prophet is judge whether or not they're causing people to hear the word of God and to turn from wickedness and turn from an evil way. Seriously, when you've got a preacher that's only preaching positive, only preaching, oh man, everything's good. You know, everything's great. You're doing good. God loves you. God bless you. All the time, just over and over and over again, they're not willing to preach on sin and preach on wickedness and try to get you to change to become better, to become more sanctified, to become more holy in your lifestyle, getting rid of sins. When people aren't willing to do that, to turn from evil way, pretty good bet they're not of God. Because that's part of the job of a preacher, of a prophet, is to prophesy the word of the Lord. You know, the word of the Lord, while there are many positives to it, it's not all just, I would say it's not all rainbows. But where did a rainbow come from? It came after a lot of destruction. That's just a promise that God's not gonna do that again. But it's not the promise of no more further destruction because we already have promises of that. Verse 23, am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord? I have heard what the prophets said that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. Again, these false prophets just bringing up these dreams. Why, because how are you gonna prove someone wrong? Well, I had this dream. Okay, well, I don't believe you or your dream. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. Watch out for the people that just wanna tell you, oh no, you could know God through these visions and these dreams. Don't worry about the Bible. Hey, you can't trust the Bible because there are people out there that'll tell you that. Oh, it's been changed, we don't know about that, but you know what, you can still have this relationship with God, and let me tell you how to do it, and it has nothing to do with God's word. That is a false prophet preaching out of their own heart, their own lying visions, their own lies of their own heart, the deceits of their own heart. That's what they're doing, because the word of God is how we know about God. Verse 28, the prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream, and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord? Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Therefore, behold, I am against the prophet, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophet, saith the Lord, that use their tongues and say, He saith. Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded them. Therefore, they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord. Jonathan, sit still. Watch out for all these people that wanna tell you what God says, and they're not quoting scripture. This, unfortunately, is very common amongst Christianity at large. Well, God told me, and watch out for the language, too. It's spiritual language. I was talking with God the other night, you know, and God just told me that I should tell you guys this. Watch, don't go there, okay? And anyone who's gonna be a preacher, you know, we got some people who are gonna be preaching, don't do that next week when I'm out of town, telling everyone what God told you. And I was praying that God would tell me what to preach, and God told me, you know, Pastor Burzins, you need to preach this, you know. But how many times have you heard a preacher say things like that? It made me real sad once I went to a funeral. I think I've told this story once in a sermon before, but I went to a funeral, and it was real sad because the person that died had some younger children. You know, they're young. And it was one of these big mega churches that the services were held at, and, you know, the preacher, I don't know if it was a pastor or whoever it was, was, you know, giving a sermon, and he starts talking directly to the son of the person that died and saying, you know, well, hey, God wants you to know, God told me this, and he wants you, you know, and just starts going on and on about all this stuff that God told him. And I'm just thinking, you stinkin' liar. God didn't tell you that. I don't believe, God's not having some conversation with you. I mean, if you're hearing voices, buddy, you know, you got some problems. Now, thankfully, the things that he was saying to the child weren't like real bad things, but you know what, we need to have respect for the word of God, to not just be flippant about saying, hey, God said this to me. If you say, well, God said that whosoever believeth in him should not perish by everlasting life, amen. If you're trying to comfort someone in grief and say, you know what God told me? God told me that, you know, anyone that believes in Jesus Christ is saved and in heaven, you know, that, okay, amen, right? If you say things like that, say things that are actually in the Bible, that this is what God said, and you could say, God told me because you read his words, that's fine, but don't go making stuff up. The thoughts of your own heart. Don't think that your thoughts are so godly that it's like God speaking to you when you have thoughts. Your thoughts are not God's thoughts. And I'll tell you this much, you know, when I prepare sermons, I pray, I ask God, God please help me, God be with me, God help me to find the right words, God help me to preach on things that people are gonna need, that people are gonna use, that the church needs to hear. You know, I ask for some guidance, but not for one second do I think, oh, when I start having thoughts, oh, this is God speaking to me and telling me this is what you ought to, no, no. That leads down this path to being like these false prophets. Verse 32 there of Jeremiah 23 is, behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies. It's a lie, if you're saying this is what God said and God didn't say it, that's called a lie. And by their lightness, and these are the very people that have no respect for the word of God, that use lightness in every area, right? It's light, things are light, sin, it's, well, it's not that bad. These are the ones that preach on a cold hell and, you know, not bad sin. Good sin, cold hell, everything's fine. Lightness, it's not that big of a deal. When the word of God is a big deal, when God's judgment is a big deal, when God's commandments are a big deal, look, this is, oh. Flip over, if you would, to John 17. The word of God breaks down how there's lots of people that have lots of visions, lots of things that they're gonna claim, and they're gonna claim are from God, but what we see being repeated over and over again in these chapters is, there's a difference between what God actually says and what other people are claiming God said. What God, you know, who God's actually speaking to, God's actually speaking to Jeremiah. Jeremiah actually received the word of the Lord, and you know what, that was proven because the children of Israel went captive. And every single time that Jeremiah made a prophecy concerning what was going to happen that hadn't happened yet, they always came true. And everyone else was saying the opposite. Guess what? We know who was true. We know who was of God. We know who was receiving the word of the Lord based on what actually even happened. And in the book of Jeremiah, who is a tried and true prophet of God, it tells us, yeah, there's gonna be all these prophets, and God's not with these people. They're claiming God, but that doesn't mean that they're of God. They're making all kinds of claims. But they didn't receive the word of the Lord. And the big problem with what they're saying is it's contradicting what God actually said. So if anyone wants to come at you with a feeling, with hearing, I've had someone say, I heard this small, still voice, right? Because they wanna hear what some other prophet heard. They wanna put themself in the Bible and have the same story that's already been recounted. People say, I met God, or I almost died. I shouldn't be here right now. If you only knew, it's like, okay, well, how do I go to heaven then? I mean, God saved your life, great. But just because God saved your life physically doesn't mean that your soul is saved. Bible says in 1 John 4, 1, beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Well, how are we supposed to try those spirits? We try them against truth. We try them against the word of God. People need to recognize that there is absolute truth and God has given it to us. There is absolute truth. Things are either right or wrong, true or untrue. John 17, 17, Jesus said, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. The word of God is truth. That's our foundation. That's our starting point. You wanna know about God? Learn about God through the truth. Where's the truth? Thy word is truth. We have the word of God. We trust the word of God. God has promised to keep his word. We can know about him through that it is the word of God that ultimately matters and where your foundation should lie. Romans 10, 17 says, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Our faith is derived from, I mean, how are you even saved? You can't get saved without the word of God. The word of God is the foundation of everything that we believe and know about God. It comes from the word of God. And you know, I pointed this out in the past, but John one teaches us that Jesus Christ is the word. He's the word made flesh. And just as much as we need Jesus Christ, our faith in Jesus Christ to be saved, we need our faith in the word of God. Jesus Christ is the word incarnate, made flesh. We wanna know God today? Know him through his word. We wanna reach people that have had visions, that have had experiences, that had feelings. Let's reason with them, but reason with them out of the word of God. The only way that you're gonna be able to bring forth life or light and help that person get converted is through the word of God, right? The Bible says in Luke chapter eight, the story of the parable, it talks about the sower sowing the seed. And in verse 11 it says, now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. That's what the sower is sowing, the word of God. That's what you're trying to bring to people, the word of God. When we go out sowing, that's why we bring Bibles. That's why we focus on memorizing scripture because we're bringing the word of God. That's what we want to get through because the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It's able to divide the soul and the spirit. It's able to pierce through. It's the word that gets planted in someone's heart. And sometimes, don't get discouraged either with people. Sometimes I feel like, man, I had this conversation with people, but it just went nowhere. They're relying on this, they're relying on that. But you know what? Don't think that it's all in vain because you don't know what happens. If you can faithfully go forward, try not to use all of your own wisdom. We get some wisdom through experience, but keep going back to the word of God. Reason with people. Listen to them enough to know where they're coming from and then answer them with the word of God. I spoke with someone that wanted to know, where is God? And he said, well, I don't want someone just throwing scriptures at me. And was continuing to talk, and I said, well, you want to know the answer? I said, but I don't think you're gonna accept my answer. Because you said you don't want someone just throwing scriptures at you. Well, I'm not gonna throw scriptures at you, but you know what? What if knowing God is only found through scripture? You're looking for something else. You want to know the answer to the question, but you're not willing to accept the right answer. This is how you're gonna know about God. It has to come through His word. The word itself says that it's gonna come through His word. The word tells us, people can't just go out and be saved because someone's going around and preaching unless they're preaching the word of God because that is what brings life. Our job is to help people to know God. Don't get discouraged when you run across the hard cases. You know what, they just need a little bit more plowing. Keep sowing the word of God. That's gonna help them to know the truth. You may not see the result. Maybe they'll never receive it, but you know what, that's not on you. But our job is to remember and say, focus on it. Hey, if we want people to know God, it's in His word. We don't have to make anything up. We don't have to wow people. I have my own personal experiences, but that's not how I know that I'm saved. And I almost never even mention anything like this, and I'm not gonna go into details, but after I got saved, I had a dream. I had a dream. You know what I never do when I go out sowing? I never tell people about that dream. Seriously. I'm not gonna ask anyone to put confidence in my dreams. Even for myself, that's not how I know that I'm saved. I don't tell people I'm saved because I had this dream after I believed. I have no idea if that dream had anything to do with coming from God or not. I don't know. It's just an experience. It was just a dream. It doesn't matter. It's not gonna be used to try and convince anyone of anything. I wanna reason with people because the Word of God is what says, hey, if I put my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and I'm saved, I have eternal life, and I did that. Doesn't matter whether I had a dream or not. Doesn't matter whether I shed a tear or not. Doesn't matter the amount of sorrow I had and the brokenness I was at. That doesn't matter. That aspect of the salvation, of the conversion doesn't matter. What matters is what the Bible says and what I did. And the doing was nothing other than believing and calling on the name of the Lord. That's it. Hopefully, there's something in this sermon today because we deal with all kinds of different people. And I want our church to be better soul winners. And at the end of the day, if you are just going through the gospel with people, then you're doing a great job. Because that's what we wanna focus on. Don't get too hung up and get into all these conversations that can go on and on and on and on for hours. Try to reel people back in to reasoning with them. Don't go in depth in all of their experiences. Get them the gospel first. Because if they're willing to accept the gospel, then go down that path. But don't start down the path of all their feelings and stuff. Because you will never win an argument like that, ever. And you're never gonna convince them or convert them if you're just talking about their experience. Let's bow our eyes and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank You so much for giving us the truth, for helping us to not just be floating along in this life and just wondering and waiting and hoping to have some dream, some vision, some feeling to understand more about You. Lord, we thank You for using prophets, for using men to give us very clear instructions, very clear details on who You are, on what You expect from us, how we ought to live, dear Lord, and just giving us truth. God, thank You for that. That provides us with a light and a way and a path. Help us to bring others to that path. Bring others to the light, dear Lord. And help us to be just as well-equipped as possible to reach people and to remain focused on the main things, dear Lord, and that we wouldn't get puffed up in our own pride and the thoughts of our own heart to try to reach people, but that we can keep it simple and just rely on Your words to have the power that people need to be converted. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.