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

message that went on his heart. It's always here. Of course, we received the message from or we love you. And in Jesus name you pray. Amen. All right, Psalm chapter 60. So we're going to continue on this evening with our study about cults. So if you remember a couple weeks ago, I preached a sermon about cults. And I explained that when somebody accuses you, or somebody you know of being an occult, the first thing you need to do is to ask that person, what do you mean by that? And then remember, we talked about, well, who defines what a cult is? You know, every it seems like every single dictionary or church or organization or news outlet defines cult differently. Right? And see, we know in and of ourselves that the person saying that really has nothing else to say. Right? Most of the time, when somebody is accusing you of being an occult, it's because they don't like what you believe. Right? A lot of people, even Christians, even saved, born again, Bible believing Christians will often call us a cult because they don't believe in the post-trib pre-wrath rapture. I've heard it several times, several times, you know, or perhaps you've got to, you know, obviously, you all know that we're, you know, we believe what the Bible says about the Jews, and that, you know, we're Jews, and the ones in the Middle East are nothing but a bunch of head banging works, salvationists, you know, heathens, you go tell that to a lot of people today, and all of a sudden, you're in a cult. You know, you got that from one man. No, we got that from the Bible. You know, that's, that's, that's a fact. And so knowing that, you know, is really imperative. It's important to know where you stand and what you believe. But it's also important to know how to address the people that are attacking you. Now I picked this song because it does a great example of putting, you know, basically demonstrating what to do when you're in perils when you're in trouble. For example, look at verse 11. This give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man. Right? And so this whole this whole chapter here, you can hear, basically, as you read it, right, you can hear the distress that the psalmist is in. And the one thing that you'll notice that he doesn't do is go to man for the help. Now, should we follow men? Yes, if they're following Christ, like Pastor Thompson mentioned on Friday, great sermon, great point, right. But by and large, a lot of people, because they don't understand how to respond to things, will sometimes run to commentaries, or they'll run to, you know, some kind of secular outlet to try to look for these answers. You don't really need to do that. Right? The people that are saying you're in a cult, they made the claim. They're making the accusation. Our job is to make them prove that you made the claim. Now it's your job to back it up. You need to prove what you said. What is a cult? What do you mean by that? You make them explain that. Jessica showed me a an exchange. Was that on Facebook with brother Dylan from Vancouver? Yeah, somebody had said that, you know, we're all a bunch of cult members. And he must have watched a sermon. You know, he's a smart kid. So maybe he didn't. I don't know. But he applied those tactics and completely roasted somebody on the internet. And you say, Well, why is this important? Shouldn't we just be all lovey dovey and cogs? Let's just hug each other and just hugs and kisses and biscuits and gravy and all this stuff? No, there's a battle for people's souls out there, right? There. When people say you're in a cult, they're not going to say that to you privately. They're going to say it on social media. They're going to say it in front of your family, they're going to say in front of your friends, they're going to say in front of your co workers, why? To gain the influence of the people that are around you. The attack is not just against you, but against everybody around you. Right? And so for their sakes, we need to know how to respond to these things. And how does the psalmist respond here when he finds himself in distress? He doesn't go run to man as his final authority. He calls out to God and makes some very bold statements. Hey, Lord, you are the true God. You're the one that can save us. You're the one that can overturn us. So look at verse number one. Now, the title of the sermon this evening is how close are you to being an occult? How close are you to being in a cult? That applies to us, but it also applies to the person that's saying that we are in a cult. So the new evangelical, for example, that wants to accuse us of being in a cult, my next question is, well, how close are you to being in a cult? And we're going to find out. That's what this sermon is about. So the first thing that I want you to understand is it's very, very important for us to understand the difference between man and God. Very simple, right? Very simple, but, you know, it's easier said than done. So look at verse number one. It says, Oh, God, thou hast cast us off. Thou hast scattered us. Thou hast been displeased. Oh, turn thyself to us again. Right? So understanding that, you know, when somebody accuses you of being in a cult or makes a railing accusation against you, you know, you're really out in the weeds at that point. Now, if you don't have the training, you don't have the teaching on how to properly respond. Now you're in distress. Where are you going to turn? Are you going to turn to somebody else to fight your battles for you? You're going to call up your buddy and say, Hey, get on YouTube and start making comments. Hey, get on Facebook and start making comments. Or are you going to defend yourself? Right? That's the question. And clearly here, the Psalmist says, Hey, I realize that God, that we were disobedient. Now we need help. We need God to turn this back into our favor. And you know what? It's the same thing with us. When somebody puts you in the weeds, you have to go to God. It's the word of God. It's your understanding of the word of God that's going to get you out of that thing. Now look at verse two. Thou hast made the earth to tremble. Thou hast broken it. Heal the breeches thereof, for it shaketh. You're not going to find too many real cult members subscribing to this verse. The New Evangelical wants to trust on the scholar and on the people that dig up the manuscripts and upon the popular teachers of our day to translate and to interpret scripture for them, right? They're not going to turn to the Bible themselves because they don't understand it. They don't have the spirit. Now look at verse number three. He says, thou hast showed thy people hard things. Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. So one thing you're going to learn from reading this verse here is that God shows his people the meat of the Bible, the meat of the word. And when God does that, and you begin to proclaim that truth to your family, to your coworkers, to the people that surround you, to your neighbors, or what have you, the result is going to be an attack because they're hard things that obviously only God's people can understand, right? So you have to be ready. You have to be willing to understand that you will come under attack when God reveals the meat of the word to you. Now look at verse number four. Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Thou hast given a banner. Now who has God given this banner to? To everyone? To the fellow Christian or to the people that fear him? Exactly. The people that fear him, the people that are saved. He says, hey, those that are saved, those who are born again, have a banner. Now what's a banner? Exactly. A banner is originally for warfare. It's to symbolize, hey, this is who we are. This is what we're about. It's a proclamation, right? It's an advertisement. Now, before the service, Jessica was showing me some banners from local churches where we used to live in Port Orchard, Washington. And there's a church called Adventure Faith Church, because faith is such an adventure. Go on this adventure of turning from your sins every single day because it's really fun. In this banner, we're looking at all these banners, and one of them was, come join us for our Nerf war. Now I'm all about having a Nerf war, going paintballing and doing all of that stuff. But you know what? I'm probably not going to make a Facebook post and pay $10 a day to get that out in the community because that's not what I want people to come here for. I'm not trying to set up some pojo circus, you know, in this building, right? Our banner is the Word of God. Our banner is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he has given that to those who fear him. Right? You see, there's a big difference between us and the new evangelical. I was like, what was the other one? Oh, taxes. I knew if I looked at you, it would just osmosis. You know, sometimes that stuff works. Other times, when she's trying to talk to me, it doesn't work. But there was another one. Was it Life Church? They're all the same. They are all the same. And it's like, come join us for our piggy bank tax luncheon. And talk, let's talk about taxes. Why do you want to talk to people that may not even go to your church about taxes? Are you going to do them for free? Or are you trying to take their money? But that's their banner. You see, the banner of the new evangelical is money. It's fun. It's everything except the Word of God. Everything except that. Right? So when they get put in the weeds, when they get the railing accusation, hey, you're in a cult, they don't know what to do. Right? So what they do is they turn to the world, they turn to man, they turn to every other avenue to try to respond to them in some intellectual way. Whereas God's saying, hey, you've got this banner here, you're born again, obviously, you receive the word of truth, the state that was sown in your heart, it's sprung up, you have the ability to understand the dark things, search the scriptures, learn doctrine, learn God's Word, and you will not be in distress. So then he says that it may be displayed. So what is the purpose of this banner? It's to be displayed. So you never should be afraid to display God's Word, knowing that it will bring you persecution. This is why Paul told Timothy to be instant in season and out of season. Because he's saying, hey, you know what, there's gonna be people that don't like it. You know, most of the time, the things that we say, the things that are displayed in the banner of the King James Bible are out of season. And you know what, people just get hurt with that. They don't like it. It offends them. It steps on their toes. It rubs them the wrong way. It chased their thighs. You know what, why don't you get some gold bond and sprinkle it on there and keep marching on? What about that? What a concept, right? But you know what, that's just not what's going on today. So you have to preach these things. You have to teach these things. But we as God's people need to understand that God has given us a banner to fly, to display, to go into battle because of the truth, it says. So when somebody accuses you of being in a cult, you fly that banner high, loud and proud, and you stand your ground and you fight. What do you mean by that? What's a cult? Because it's not okay to allow people to just accuse us of being in a cult because they don't like our doctrine. I don't like that you guys are going and knocking on people's doors because that's offensive. That might just turn people off because that's what the Jehovah Witnesses do. And that's what the Mormons do. Well, you know what, that's why we all need to do it because they're going out and sowing their seeds of discourse, flying their banner of Satan in our community. And if we don't do something, if we don't stick our banner out there, then guess what? We lose. We lose the war. We lose the battle. Saved or not, you lost. So that's the point. That's the point of this sermon is to advertise and to fly this banner of truth in this community and say, you know what, we're not going to just sit back and take you calling us a cult. That's not going to happen. We're going to put you on the spot. You made the claim. Now you back it up. Verse number five, that they, he says that thy beloved may be delivered, save with thy right hand and hear me, God has spoken in his holiness. I will rejoice. I will divide Shechem and Medi out the valley of Sukkoth. So you can see what's going on here, right? He's totally trusting in the word of God in God to save him from his distress. Verse number seven, Gilead is mine and Manasseh is mine. Ephraim also is the strength of mine head. Judah is my lawgiver. Moab is my wash pot. Over Edom will I cast out my shoe. Philistia, triumph thou because of me. Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me into Edom? Wilt not thou, O God, which has cast us off and thou, O God, which did not go out with our armies. Now, obviously we're not in that situation today, thank God. You know, it's the backslid in Christian, it's the person that doesn't go to church, the person who doesn't read the Bible, who doesn't meditate on God's statutes, who has no idea what the banner is that God's given us that is in distress. That's the person, those are the type of people that God turns his back on. I'm not going to help you. You're fake, you're phony, you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing. And so I'm not going to trust you. I'm not going to trust this kind of people to fly my banner. You know, and a lot of times what happens is when you see these people that are on Facebook and they pretend to be on our movement, they, you know, oh, they're always amen, you know, this, that, and the other thing. But in reality, they really don't believe anything. They're just there for the drama. They're just there to see a reed shaking in the wind. And there's a lot of people like that. There's people that live here in Idaho that claim to be on our side. You know, every once in a while you'll see them chirp, you know, and chime in on a comment or something, but where are they? They don't want to make the drive. What, I mean, what's going on? Oh, oh, I didn't know there was, yes, you did know there was a church here. There's a church here flying the banner in this community every single week. And you have to be living in a rock by now not to know that. Now look at verse number 11. He says, give us help from trouble. Now this is key for vain is the help of man. Now does that mean we shouldn't help each other out because we're just all flesh? No, right. It's not what he's talking about. But he's saying by and large, if your final authority comes from man, if you're always seeking the commentary from man to fight your battles, you're going to lose because it's vanity. Once you guys turn to Psalm chapter 92 real quick. So we're going to be in a psalm latte. And while you're doing that, I'm going to read for you verse 12. Through God, we shall do valiantly for he it is that shall tread down our enemies. So again, people that want to accuse us of being in a cult, you know, we need to realize, you know, what is God that's going to tread you down? Right? You see, we always bring everything back to the Bible back to the Word of God. But does that make us a cult? Not at all. You know, my question for the person accusing us of being an occult is what's your final authority? Where do you get your information from? Why are you so arrogant? Why are you so pompous with your claims? Prove it right now. I want to know now. That's what's got to be said. That's what's got to be asked. So you're there in Psalm 92. I just want to make this statement here, very obvious statement. One thing that we need to remember is that it is God who creates and it is man that pro creates. So the New Evangelical, this trusting on the scholar, this trusting in the original manuscript only logic, right, has no leg to stand on, especially to call us a cult. Neither do the J. Dubs or the Mormons or the Seventh Day Adventists, or whatever other cult that's out there, because those are cult and you're going to see that here momentarily. But it's God that creates. God is the only one that can speak things into existence. Everything that man does is a result of what God has already created. You say, well, I created this building or I created this. Yeah, out of the stuff that God's already given you. What is most of Christianity doing today? They're trying to create truth. They're trying to create truth without God. But all they're doing is procreating lies and heresies. So really, the biggest thing to remember is this whole cult thing all boils down to what is your final authority? People say, Oh, well, you believe the King James only? You're in a cult because you don't have the freedom to use all the other Bible versions. That's bondage. No, not knowing what God's Word really says, because all the 400,000 billion, you know, versions that are out there saying different things. I think that's bondage. Is that not bondage? Because they all say different things. You there in Psalm 92, look at verse 5. Oh, Lord, how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep. So if God's works are great, the word of God is a work from God to say otherwise, to say, well, that's not quite preserved today. We don't really know for sure. Well, guess what? You're blaspheming God because the Bible says here, Oh, Lord, how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep. So I'm sure if God's thoughts are higher than all of ours, which the Bible says they are and they are, I'm pretty sure he can preserve his word for us. Verse six, a brutish man knoweth not, neither does a fool understand this. So the person once you guys turn to Psalm 119, Psalm 119. So the person that says, you know what? I don't get that. I don't believe we have to hold to one set of truth here. That person is a fool. Now I'm not saying they can't be saved. I'm not saying the reprobate, but they're a fool. They're brutish because why? Psalm 926 says a brutish man knoweth not, neither does a fool understand this. Well, what's this? Well, that the thoughts of the Lord are very deep and that his works are marvelous. His works are wonderful. His works last. He creates, we procreate. All we can do is work with what he's given us. We can't just create like he can. But what do you see today? The human achievement crowd. They're just constantly trying to achieve and constantly trying to work and constantly trying to just create. But they can't. They keep failing. Why do you think they have to release a new Bible version every other year? How many versions of the NIV are out there right now? I don't even know. Who knows? And really, who cares? They all say the same thing, right? Work your way to heaven. Jesus is just the Son of God. He's not God. I mean, that's the type of stuff that comes in. All right, Psalm 119. So look at verse 133. And I'm gonna make a statement here. God's word provides freedom and man's word provides oppression. So God's word provides freedom and man's word provides oppression. You say, why are you saying this? I thought we were talking about cults. Well, we are. But before we start showing you these different cults that are really cults that are out there, before we can really create a cult spectrum, we need to understand some things. We need to have a foundation here and have some basics. And if you don't have a good understanding of how to defend the final authority, then you're gonna have a hard time defending yourself against the person making a railing accusation against you. Now look at this, Psalm 119, 133. Order my steps in thy word. Order my steps in thy word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Sounds like salvation. Iniquity doesn't have dominion over us today, does it? We're forgiven for all of our iniquities, past, present and future. Romans chapter four, very clear, very clear teaching. How? By the word of God. Right? That's what he's saying here. Order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Verse 134, deliver me from the oppression of man, so will I keep thy precepts. The only way to deliver yourself from the oppression of your family members and your work, your co workers and your neighbors and the people that are making these accusations is to go to the word of God. It is the only way. That is our authority. This book right here in our belief in it as it is written is why we are not a cult at all. Every organization out there, every single one of them, the JDubs, the Seventh Days, the Mormons, the L. Ron Hubbard people, the New Evangelicals, they are closer to what they say a cult is than we are. Because see, we don't have anybody over Shield of Faith Baptist Church. There's no organization that's going to say, hey, you must do this or that. Now the government tries, but that's a whole nother sermon. That's a whole nother sermon. Now, obviously, who's the head of the local church according to the Bible? It's Jesus Christ, right? You see, there's nothing wrong with following the pastor, but you still have the job to make sure that the pastor is teaching the right doctrines, right? That's your responsibility. A cult member doesn't have that freedom. Do you think Jim Jones's cult followers had that freedom? Did Manson's followers have that freedom? Did the Koresh people have that freedom? No. No. Why? Because they prayed on the simple and death was their goal. That's what the agenda is. Death. What's the agenda of the Seventh Day Adventist? What's the agenda of the Mormon or the Jehovah Witness? It's death, spiritually. Worked salvation. Let's drag as many people to hell as we possibly can, because we're all a bunch of stinking rubberbaits, and we know it. That's what the Watchtower Society is. That's what the Quorum of Twelve Apostles over in Utah is. And you know what? That's what the headquarters over on the east coast of the Seventh Day Adventist Church is. Nothing but a bunch of rubberbaits that are worried about their own bellies. So you leave your place there and go to, let's see here, where am I going to have you guys turn? Go to, go to Matthew chapter 24, Matthew 24. So we need to remember that. It's God's word that provides freedom, and man's word provides oppression. So the person that says, you're in a cult, really? Really, Jehovah Witness, I'm in a cult? Well, I believe in God's word, and the Bible says that his word provides freedom, and that man provides oppression. You subscribe to the Watchtower Society, which is clearly run by men who do not believe nor follow the Bible. So therefore you, sir or ma'am, are much closer to a cult by your own definition, and even by the world's definition, than we are here at Shield of Faith Baptist Church. You know, somebody wisely once said, a person that owns one watch always knows what time it is, but a person that owns two watches never knows what time it is. And why is that? Because they're always going to be different. I guarantee if you're to check the time on this phone right now, it'd be different than that clock back there, and it'd be different than everybody who's wearing a watch. Now, are they all right? So let's say Moses has a watch and it says 7.45. Well, that clock says 7.43. You know, let's say the phone says 7.44. Which one's right? Are they all right? If you were to give somebody a test and say, answer this question, Moses says it's 7.43, the phone says 7.44, the clock back there says 7.45. Which one's right? All of them, or the one that basically gets its time from Greenwich, England, right? The place where it sets up the standard for time? They're not all right. They're all off. You say, well, that's kind of minute. Well, yeah, that is, but it's true. If somebody says two plus two equals three, somebody else says two plus two equals four, and somebody else says two plus two equals five, well, they're not all right. I don't care what Common Core wants to teach you. There's only one right answer. They're all one digit off, right? You say, oh, well, we'll just give them a pass because it's just close, right? No, that's not how life works. There's truth and there's falsehood. Two plus two equals four, that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt, even to the staunchest reprobate, that there is a thing as truth. Right? There is truth. And so with that being said, there's no way in the world all these Bible versions saying different things can be right. I'll take the one that stood the test of time, the one that I believe on by faith as my final authority, not what these 12 idiots over here in Utah want to say, and not what these bozos at the watchtower want to say, or the Seventh Day Adventist jokers, or these stupid scholars that say, well, we just got to dig up God's Word because it's buried in the ground. I trust West Cottonhoard. Well, guess what you trusting in man, and the Bible says that we should ask God to be delivered from the oppression of man because man in and of himself provides oppression. In his help is vain, the Bible says. So just listen to this here. Jehovah Witnesses. So how close are you to being in a cult? Let's ask this question to the Jehovah Witness. Now I just pulled some random statements from some of their different websites, and I'm just going to read them for you. You just sit back and listen to this. So here's what they say about the Bible. We recognize the Bible as God's inspired message to humans. We base our beliefs on all 66 of its books, which include both the Old and New Testaments. Professor Jason D. Bedon aptly described it when he wrote that Jehovah Witnesses built their system. Oh, wait, did you catch that? That Jehovah Witnesses built their system of belief and practice from the raw material of the Bible without predetermining what was to be found there. I'll translate that for you. It's whatever Charles Taze Russell said it was who rejected hell who rejected Jesus Christ. He rejected the Trinity and rejected probably two thirds of the entire Bible. And who was proven a perjurer in court. You can look those documents up on the internet or go to any local library and pull the records. It's a fact. He claimed that he could read Egyptian hieroglyphics, and when he was put on the stand, when he was told, prove your case, you made the claim, you can read it, prove it, he could not deliver. Vain is the help of man. So these J-dubs that say, you know, we get our truth from the Bible. I mean, I'm in the Watchtower Society. They're a cult because they get their help from the oppression of man. So if your final authority comes from man, you're under oppression. What do people always say the people in the cult are? That they're oppressed, right? So guess what? They're in a cult. Some people who've been in here probably think that they were in a cult because of all the preaching, but that's just a byproduct of them being weak and having bleeding hearts. He goes on to say this. While we accept the entire Bible, we are not We recognize that parts of the Bible are written in figurative or symbolic language and are not to be understood literally. Translation, not saved. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. If you do not have the Spirit, if you do not have eternal life, you cannot understand the Word of God. So what do they do? They turn to man. They turn to man as their final authority. They just cloak that in a bunch of lies in slick talk here. Well, we've built our system of beliefs on the raw material from the Bible. You're an idiot. And these people deserve that to be said about them because you know what? They go out there too and they do knock doors. They do seek converts. You know what? They try and turn all these refugees against us. And we are not going to let that happen. Goes on to say this, Jehovah's Witnesses are Christians, but they are not Protestants for the same reason that they are not Catholics. Well, we're not Protestant either. We're Baptist. They recognize certain teachings of those religions as unscriptural. For example, the Bible does not teach that God, the very personification of love, tortures people forever in a fiery hell, nor does it teach that humans have an immortal soul or that Christians should meddle in politics. What a wide leap. You went from saying that the Bible doesn't teach about hell Mark chapter nine, where the worm dieth not, the flame is not quenched. How many times did Jesus repeat that? Yeah. The Bible, wait, what? You see, do you see what the oppression of man does? It makes you stupid. You can't see. It's like, look, I had a, I had this, what was she, what a black Hebrew is your life. She starts spewing off the same stuff here. You know, you guys believe in hell. The Bible doesn't talk about hell. We turned to Mark chapter nine and she's like, well, I didn't know it said that. And you're still an Edomite white boy. That's what she said. Oh wow. So you want to say this here? I took these statements here from, from one of their websites here. And it's, it's, it's just a thing you clean, go to jdub.org and just click on the watchtower society. You just follow the long trail of links and stuff and you, you wind up at this stuff. But here's one of the things that Charles Taze Russell said, and now just consider this here. We, this is what he said. He said, we consider it an established truth that the final end of the kingdoms of this world and the full establishment of the kingdom of God will be accomplished at the end of 80, 1914. Is there any Marvel? Why this guy was proven a perjurer in a court of law. It's 2020 now. This didn't happen. Why are there still Jehovah witnesses today? And why are they saying that we're in a cult? Because a lot of them make the accusation that we're in a cult. All right. Here's another one. Also, so also, listen to that. Also in the year 1918, when God destroys the church's wholesale and the church members by millions, it shall be that any that escape shall come into the works of Pastor Russell to learn the meaning of the downfall of Christianity. 1918. It's 2020. We're sitting in church this evening on a Wednesday night, but we're in a cult. Vain is the help of man. Are not these vain words? So who's in a cult? The person who follows man or the person who follows the words that are written in this book right here. So here's a summary real quick. I was going to read, now, let me read this next one here for you. One more. Why not? Let's just, let's just stick it to them. Therefore we may confidently expect that 1925, right? So they didn't get it the first two times. They keep extending the date, right? They must've asked God for an extension, like you do on your taxes. Therefore we may confidently expect that 1925 will mark the return of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the faithful prophets of old, particularly those named by the apostles in Hebrews chapter 11, to the condition of human perfection. Didn't happen. 1914, 1918, 1925. Strike three, you're out. So quick summary on the Jehovah witnesses. And this was just a quick, it only took me about 10 minutes to come up with this stuff. And most of it was just trying to get the computer to cooperate. Okay? Jehovah witnesses, here's what they do. They reduce Jesus to a man and subsequently hold to man, the Watchtower Society, over God. You see why it's important to understand the subject of final authority? Their final authority is man. It is whatever the Watchtower Society says. Jehovah witness is forbidden to go against any teachings of the Watchtower Society. Mormons, I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on this because we talk about this a lot, but here's something from their site. Latter-day Saints believe God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to save all mankind from their sins. God is a loving heavenly father who knows his children individually, hears and answers their prayers and feels compassion toward them. Heavenly father and his son, Jesus Christ, are two separate beings, but along with the Holy Ghost spirit are one in will, purpose and love. So what are they doing right there? They're making Jesus less than God. They're making him man. And they'll say, well, no, we believe he's God. No, you believe he attained Godhood. At least that's what an old man told me at the door. We believe that he, the Elohim, that he attained the Godhood by living perfectly here on earth and heavenly father blessed him with this planet. That's what he told us. And hey, this guy, he also told us that whatever Russell Boy Nelson says over there in Utah is ex-cathedral, that is scripture. So I said, are the newsletters that you get from Utah, are those scripture? He says, yes, they are. So thanks for being honest with me, man. I really do appreciate it. He says, okay, so when they were asked a question, so I took this from a series of questions and answers on the site. So one of the questions was, do you guys still believe in apostles today? They say, yes, the church is governed today by apostles reflecting the way Jesus organized his church in biblical times. Three apostles constitute the first presidency consisting of the president or prophet of the church and his two counselors. So they, they, they misinterpreted that verse that says, you know, there's safety in a multitude of counselors. There's no safety that you're ever going to get from a multitude of Mormon counselors, okay? And together with a quorum of 12 apostles, they have responsibility for leading the church worldwide and serving as special witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. Each is accepted by church members in a prophetic role corresponding to the apostles in the Bible. One more time. And together with a quorum of 12 apostles, they have, wait, who has this? They have responsibility for leading the church worldwide. Well, what about the Bible leading the church? What about going to first Corinthians? What about going to second Corinthians? What about going to Timothy? What about going to Titus? What about just reading the entire new Testament to run church? They can't do that. They say you got to go to the quorum of 12 apostles, right? Because they have the responsibility of leading the church worldwide and serving as a special witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're there in Matthew 24. So they're saying that these people here are authority. They are over the Bible. In fact, they'll even tell you that they're over the book of Mormon. Matthew 24, look at verse 23. Then if any man shall say unto you, lo, here is Christ or there, believe it not. So who's closer to a cult right now? Shield of faith Baptist church or a Mormon? A Mormon every time. You see this spectrum that I'm building here. It's going to really make sense when we talk about the new evangelical, look at verse 24. For there shall arise false Christ in false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders. And so much that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect behold. I have told you before wherefore, if they shall say unto you, behold, he is in the desert going out forth. Behold, he is in the secret chambers. Believe it not behold. He's with the 12 apostles over in Utah. They call themselves a quorum. Believe it not. Verse 27 for as the lightning cometh out of the East and shine it even into the West. So shall the coming of the son of man be. That's what we believe. We believe the Bible. They don't, they believe man. The help of man is vain. And what does man provide? Oppression every single time. So what do people say that cult members are you're under oppression, right? Well, it sounds like we're pretty free. Doesn't it start to look like we're the ones that are free and they're the ones that are in a cult. Because they trust man. So quick summary. Mormons reduce Jesus to a man and subsequently hold to the quorum of the apostles as their final authority. Real quick, move on here. Seventh day Adventists. Seventh day Adventists. Now aren't these the Mary, the L and G Y. I always want to say Mary Baker Eddy. Who's that woman from? What, which, which cult is she from? Did anybody know? I'm out of touch with all these, these guys. I just, I just cherry pick these. Cause these are the ones we run into the most L that's right. L and G Y we were a soul winning one time and we got invited into a house. Remember this little, this little refugee kids, man, they put on a good act. I'm glad these people weren't church members. Cause they would have fooled me big time. I mean, I thought they were going to get saved about three quarters away through the gospel. All of a sudden they're like, let me ask you a question. Do you have any books by L and G white in your church? Why not? And then all of a sudden turned into this. We're out of here. We're done. And so they've done a good job in this community. And by the way, seventh day Adventist in Boise, Idaho, they go door to door. I don't know if you guys knew that they do have a crew that goes out door to door and invites people to their cult. And they are a cult. Listen to this. I took this from their website. The general conference corporation of seventh day Adventist is the governing organization of the seventh day Adventist church. What's the governing document of shield faith Baptist church, the Bible, the King James Bible. Is it my interpretation of the Bible? No, it's the Bible. If you have a different interpretation of a verse than I do. Amen. I've never claimed to be the smartest tool in the shed. And I never would never would I do that. I've been hitting the head just as many times as you guys have. Okay. You're not going to hear that come out of my mouth, but what we don't have here is an organization that we look to. That's ran by a bunch of men and claim that to be our source of truth, our governing organization. It's headquarters is located in silver spring, Maryland and oversees the church in directing its various divisions and leadership, as well as doctrinal matters. Then as the help of man and by and large man brings suppression seventh day Adventists, accept the Bible as their only creed and hold certain fundamental beliefs, wait certain fundamental beliefs to be the teaching of the Holy scriptures. Well, I wonder what those are. It's whatever's in season, right? Go to the seventh day Adventist church and say, Hey, I want you guys to watch psychopath reprobates. It's great. You know, do you guys have any queers in here? Cause if you do, you need to get rid of them. What do you think is going to happen? You're not loving, get out every time, right? Maybe that's why they say that they hold a certain teachings of the Bible of those fundamental, whatever their organization tells them is their fundamentals. Right? I mean, cause they says that that this organization governs doctrinal matters goes on to say an expression of the teaching of the scriptures revision of these statements may be expected at a general conference session when the church is led by the Holy spirit to a fuller understanding of the Bible truth or finds better language in which to express the teachings of God's Holy word, quick translation, man, whatever their organization says. So they'll sit there all day long and tell you that all we believe that Jesus is God, you know, but when you really get down to it, most of the time, what do they tell us? No, he was just God's son. They trust in Ellen G white and her teachings. And they trust in that organization, their headquarters to interpret what she said to be their final authority. And Ellen G white split hell wide open when she died. Yup. So next one, Islam. Listen to this. I took this from one of their sites. It says that they have two main texts that are consulted by Muslims, the Quran, which are the words of God. Muslims believe that it was revealed to Muhammad by the archangel Jibril or Gabriel. This was originally an oral and written form. They were later assembled together into a single book. The Quran, its name is often spelled Quran in English. This is not recommended as some Muslims find it offensive. Now I I've mentioned before about the crown. It's just random teachings. They called Suras. There's no continuity from the beginning of the book to the end, like the Bible, right? We talked about that continuity, right? A clear path of information or a clear path of electricity. Remember when I plugged in that fan, I said, this fan is an object that does work in order for this fan to do work. It must have continuity. How do you get the continuity? You have to plug it into a source of power. And I plugged it into the outlet here in the thing began to do work. It's just like the Christian, right? The Christian in order to do work needs to have continuity. How do you get continuity from plugging yourself into the sports, which is God's word, right? So these people obviously have no continuity, which is why you have different groups of Muslims and why you always find them doing different things. Number two, it says, this is the next book. The Hadith, which are collections of the sayings of Mohammed. They are regarded as the Sunnah, lived example of Mohammed. The Quran gives legitimacy to the Hadith. It states, nor does he say ought of his own desire. It is no less than inspiration sent down to him. However, the writings are not regarded as having the same status as the Holy Quran. The latter is considered to be God's word. The great Islamic scholar, Yahin Bin, Sheriff Undin, whatever his name is, complicated or compiled a collection of 43 sayings of prophet Mohammed. It is now known as the Al Nahawi's 40 Hadith. All right. So basically a quick summary. You all know who they look up to, whatever Mohammed said, Mohammed was a pedophile and that's their source of truth. Right? They reduced Jesus to just a man. He's just a prophet according to them. That's what they say. And guess what? They're no different than the seventh day advance. They're no different than the Mormon. They're no different than the Jehovah witness. That's right. Now we're going to shift gears here real quick. Let's talk about new evangelical Christianity. You say, why are you always bringing this up? Because it needs to be brought up. We're saturated in this community with new evangelical Christianity. I would even venture to say there's more new evangelical churches out there than Mormon tabernacles or whatever. Maybe I might be wrong. I don't know. There's two or 3000 on each street here. It seems like right now, listen to this. I just picked a random church, the pursuit, because I saw a sticker the other day. So I went to their website and you know, people like to say, well, some people cut and paste and that's true. I'm guilty of doing that, but at least I know what Verity believes. Right? But anyways, I was sent out from there. That's okay. It's on their site. They own it. Plain and simple. Here's what they say about their final authority and about their, about their Bible. Now, this is a fact. People that go to the pursuit, they would consider us a cult. And some of their, some of their members have even said that to us. Listen to this. The Bible is the authoritative word of God for the Christian faith. Sounds great. It is without error in the original documents. Although culture changes, the word of God does not. We will continue to derive our beliefs and way of life from the Bible alone. Okay. That is cognitive dissonance. That is what that is. This I'm not even going to read the other new evangelical church statements because they all agree. If you go to a church or you hear of a church and they use multiple Bible versions, they are what's called original manuscript only-est. Right? There's really only two positions. Either the King James only or your original manuscript only. They say, oh, you're K.G.V. only. Well, you're Omo only. Original manuscript only. And yours sounds closer to homo. So I don't want anything to do with it. So they say that it's without error in the original manuscripts, which they claim to not have. And they don't, they're correct. They don't have them. Nobody does. And I've talked about this before. When Moses came down from the mountain, he did not have the original documents because the Bible says that God's word is settled in heaven. It's always there. It's been there from the beginning of what we know as time. Very simple. So with that being said, who is the authority in a new evangelical church? It's man. So we started talking about the people that most would say are a cult member, right? J-dubs, Mormons, seventh days. Now we're talking about people who claim to believe in the Trinity. A lot of them say they do. They say, we believe Jesus, God. God will turn from your sins of course, right? But you know, obviously they have a false gospel, but who's closer to a cult. How close are you to being in a cult? Well, if a new evangelical wants to say that we're a cult because they don't like what we do, they don't like what we say, I would venture to say, well, guess what, pal? By your own admission, you are closer to a cult than I am because I don't believe that if you go to a church that teaches that God's word was only in or without error in the original manuscripts, now you have to look to man to provide you with truth. In vain is the help of man and man brings oppression. And that's why they're oppressed. This is why when you talk to them, they have no idea whether or not they're going to go to heaven or not. No clue. Well, that's for God to sort out, not you. Now here's another statement and this one's kind of tricky. And I used to go to this church, Northwest Bible Baptist Church in sunny slope, Washington. Here's what they say about the Bible. Now the pastor, when I went there was saved, the new guy maybe saved, I don't know, but I don't like their statement. I don't like their stance in the Bible. You know, I remember they, they started doing away with Wednesday services and going to these small groups and guess what happened next. People start showing up with the ESV and the NIV and guess who's calling them out. This guy right here. No one else has, well, everybody's got to have room to go. Okay. Here's how you don't grow people. When someone shows up with an ESV and you say, would you like to read? And you keep asking, would you like to read? Would you like to read again? Would you like to read again? That's not how you grow a fundamentalist. So here's their statement. We believe the Bible to be the revealed word of God, fully and verbally inspired of God. This is another way of saying original manuscript only. When you read that they believe it's without error or that it's preserved verbally, right? It is fully and verbally inspired of God. We believe the scriptures to be an infallible word of God has found within the 66 books from Genesis to Revelation. We believe God not only inspired every word, but has preserved them through the ages. It sounds great, except for that verbal stuff. Goes on to say for reasons of unity within the church and textual reliability, we only use the King James version of the Bible. Translation, original manuscript only. The only reason, and they're telling you this, the only reason they use the King James is so that we can all just have the same Bible, just to make it easier. Not because they believe it's really preserved, not because they believe it's without error, but because they like to have man as their final authority. So who's closer to being in a cult? Us or them? They are. Because they have to get their source of truth from man. Because who's the authority when you don't have God's word? It's the scholar. It's the anthropologist. It's the historian. It's the Discovery Channel. It's Fox News. It's Rush Limbaugh. So quick summary here. New evangelical Christianity, they seem to preach Jesus Christ, but in all reality, they reduce him to a man. And you say, well, how so? Because Jesus is the word. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Right? And they say, nope, we don't have the word today. It's buried in the ground somewhere. And as the great men of God dig that thing up, we get truth. Always goes back to man. They are the most clever about it though. And they need to be exposed. Don't ever settle for a new evangelical telling you that you're in a cult because of what we believe or what we say or what we do. They are closer to a cult than we are. Much more so. Let's move on here real quick. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter three. 2 Corinthians chapter three. I'm just gonna give you a quick glimpse into next week's sermon here. Because, you know, I've heard it from people of all the organizations that I've mentioned say that we're cult members. You're Justin Anderson and I, you're all cult members. Right? Isn't that what Sammy boy get down the road says? You're a cult. It's true. It's what they say. They say that you're a cult. And they would much rather yoke up with a Jew worshiping new evangelical than us. They'd be more than willing to put aside the King James Bible issue, which they claim and cherish and say that it is the word of God. They would much rather put that aside and go yoke up with Rush Limbaugh and his Jew worshiping buddies than they would you to go out and win some souls. And so I said this, you know, cults put people in bondage. And what does the Bible say that man does? It puts people in oppression, which is bondage. And it says that vain is the help of man. So obviously they are much more closer to a cult than we are. In fact, we're actually free. I'll prove it to you. Second Corinthians chapter three, look at verse 17. Now the Lord is that spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. So when we proclaim the truth that are from the banner of this book, that's freedom. You might suffer some persecution. You might get put on blast, but you know what? That banner is gonna be able to withstand that. You can take that banner to battle and it does something. It conquers, it divides. You don't have to turn there. I'm just gonna read for you Psalm 119 45, which says this. You know, we'll walk at liberty for I seek thy presets. So the man who looks to the banner of the Bible to get his precepts, to get his teachings, that person is free. Not the new evangelical, not the Mormon, not the Seventh-day Adventist, not the Jehovah, and it's not the atheist. They all get their truth for men. We get ours from the Bible. We are the furthest thing from a cult that you could get. The furthest thing from a cult that you could get. Galatians 5, one, stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. So the Bible says, before you get saved, you're entangled with the yoke of bondage, which comes from man, which takes his orders from Satan. It's not that hard to figure out. We are the furthest thing from a cult. And we're gonna stop right here and we're gonna talk more about that subject next week. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Well, thank you so much for this church. I thank you so much for your truth, Lord. Let's pray you continue to bless our church, Lord. Thank you so much for the souls that you've allowed us to go witness to, Lord, this month. And I just pray you bless the fellowship after the service. In Jesus' name I pray.