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And turn to song 45 Song number 45 when I can read my title clear Sing it out on the first when I can read my title clear two mansions in the skies I'll bid farewell to every fan and why might we be nice? And why might we be nice? And why might we be nice? I'll bid farewell to every fear and why might we be nice? Should earth against my soul engage and fiery darts be hurled Then I can smile at Satan's rage And face a frowning world And face a frowning world And face a frowning world Then I can smile at Satan's rage And face a frowning world Let cares like a wild deluge come And storms of sorrow fall May I but safely reach my home My God, my heaven, my all My God, my heaven, my all My God, my heaven, my all May I but safely reach my home My God, my heaven, my all There shall I bade my weary soul And seize a heavenly breast And not a wave of trouble roll Across my peaceful breast Across my peaceful breast Across my peaceful breast And not a wave of trouble roll Across my peaceful breast Amen. Brother Briley, would you open up for the word of prayer, please? Dear Glen College, we just thank you so much for our time together here this evening. We just thank you for this week and this church and the word of God, Lord. We pray that you still have to join full spirit as it comes forth to preach the message tonight, Lord. We just thank you for everything you do for us. Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. Now go towards the back of your songbooks to 448. Brethren, we have met to worship. 448? On the first, brethren, we have met to worship And adore the Lord our God Will you pray with all your power While we try to preach the word All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down Brethren, pray and holy manna will be showered all around Brethren, see poor sinners round you slumbering on the brink of woe Death is coming, hell is moving, can you bear to let them go See our fathers and our mothers and our children sinking down Brethren, pray and holy manna will be showered all around Sisters, will you join and help us, Moses' sister hated him Will you help the trembling mourners who are struggling hard with sin Tell them all about the Savior, tell them that He will be found Sisters, pray and holy manna will be showered all around Let us love our God supremely, let us love each other too Let us love and pray for sinners till our God makes all things new Then He'll call us home to heaven, at His table we'll sit down Christ will hurt Himself and serve us with sweet manna all around Alright, well good evening, welcome to Shield of Faith Baptist Church If you need a pen or a bulletin just raise your hand and keep it up We'll have somebody get you one So let's go through these announcements here real quick Front page of the bulletin, weekly church service time So Sunday mornings at 10.30 Sunday evenings at 6 and Wednesdays at 7pm Underneath that is a list of our soul winning times We have Saturday mornings at 10.30 meeting right here Sundays at 2 with brother David Mondays at 6.30 with brother Mauser And Wednesdays at 11am with brother Briley And Thursday evenings around 6.30 Again if you do want to go on Thursdays Give me a call at 208-391-5323 I do believe we're going to be meeting here at least for the next two to three weeks But just give me a call or a text or an email Just let me know that you would like to go on Thursdays Praise report, so we are at five salvations for August 71 year to date Let's see here, back page So this weekend, this Sunday evening will be in 2 Samuel chapter number 12 And the note under there says Come celebrate kids day September 5th There will be a second Samuel chapter number 12 And the note under there says Come celebrate kids day September 5th There will be a second Samuel chapter number 12 And the note under there says Come celebrate kids day September 5th There will be a special message geared towards the kids And a special gift after the service for all Kids under 18 years old And the best part is the nacho feed After the morning service So that's what I'm looking forward to Alright, so next up on the list Birthdays and anniversaries for August Will be brother Skulk and Miss Maribel's anniversary on the 31st This week's memory verse is Matthew chapter 5 verse 41 Which says in Whosoever's name We are a family integrated church What that means is we don't separate children from their parents for any reason However, if you need privacy, there's a daddy baby room Right over here to your left A mother baby room right across the hallway over there Tithes and offerings for August are right below that Don't forget to turn your phones off Or place them on silent so they're not a distraction Don't forget about the blessing rack that's in the back there The stuff that is there will be gone come October And we'll be back in a couple of weeks And we'll be back in a couple of weeks And we'll be back in a couple of weeks And we'll be back in a couple of weeks The bottom line of your bulletin says In time, toxic people gain a certain degree of control Over our lives And that was from two Sundays ago So with that being said, we are going to have one more song Before we receive the offering All right, at this time, we'll be seeing our chorus Pastor Jones will be handing those out If you need one, please raise your hand And we'll be back in a couple of weeks And we'll be back in a couple of weeks All right, at this time, we'll be seeing our chorus Pastor Jones will be handing those out If you need one, please raise your hand Our course That All The Earth May Know Sing it out That all the Earth may know That all the Earth may know That all the earth may know With the gospel of Christ we must go That all the earth may know At the top That all the earth may know That all the earth may know With the gospel of Christ we must go That all the earth may know That all the earth may know That all the earth may know With the gospel of Christ we must go That all the earth may know With the gospel of Christ we must go That all the earth may know With the gospel of Christ we must go That all the earth may know With the gospel of Christ we must go That all the earth may know With the gospel of Christ we must go That all the earth may know With the gospel of Christ we must go That all the earth may know With the gospel of Christ we must go That all the earth may know With the gospel of Christ we must go We pray for Ms. Patty that her sister's heart can be softened here in the gospel as well. We pray for more people to follow up with after we get them saved or give them some seeds that we planted. We pray for more people in the community to want to become disciples and that more of our converts will want to come visit the church. We pray for the safety of our children and for them to continue to grow strong in the Lord. We pray for the expecting mothers in our church that they can have healthy babies and safe deliveries. We pray for Ms. Patty that she can be in good health again that she can get over the sickness that she's been experiencing and going through this tough time. We pray for the churches of our friends that they can also continue to grow and endure any trials and tribulations that they're going through. And we pray for continued medical freedom and vaccines from the vaccines and COVID mandates and for the praise report. We praise the Lord for the church and our members are being in good health and continuing on here in church. We praise the Lord for all of our new church members and the family members that have been able to get saved and their continued growth in the Lord. And we praise the Lord for the freedom to continuously preach the gospel every week and for the Lord to keep us safe during all those battles as well. We praise God for that. And we love you and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, we'll turn with me in our Bibles please to Matthew chapter number 8. Matthew chapter number 8. When you get there starting in verse number 1 the Bible reads, When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. And behold, there came a leper and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man, but go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto them. And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him, saying, Lord, My servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this man, Go, and he goeth, and to another, Come, and he cometh. And to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that, Follow, verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour. And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid in sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she arose and ministered unto them. When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils. And he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Asias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side. And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead. And when he was entered into a ship, the disciples followed him, and behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves, but he was asleep. And the disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him? And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by the way. And behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time? And there was a good way off from them, an herd of swine feeding. So the devils besought him, saying, If thou castest out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine. And behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing. And what was befallen to the possessed of the devils? And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts. Brother Victor, we pray first, please. All right. Amen. So you're there in Matthew chapter number 8. Look at verse number 28. Look at verse number 28. It reads like this. And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils coming out of the tombs, exceeding fears, so that no man might pass by that way. Now, we just read the entire chapter, and so you understand that Jesus actually addresses this head on, and he solves this problem. Now, the title of the sermon tonight is called A Different Jesus. And the reason why I wanted to start here is because the question that we're asking tonight is the Jesus of this chapter, especially of this story, the Jesus of the New Evangelical movement. That is a question that we're going to answer. So if you know, if you've been here with us on Wednesdays, we've been talking about New Evangelical Abuse. So these people love to come after us, people that just believe the Bible, and say that we're extremists, we're too fundamental, we're too hardcore, we're driving people away, whatever the case is. And so we're basically debunking that. You know, they like to depict us as the only people on earth that have abuse or have had abuse. And for the record, you know, our church is pretty young, two and a half years. We haven't had any abuse. The way that our church is set up, it allows us to be able to see things a certain way, and it minimizes the opportunity for people to come in here and actually abuse children or things like that. You know, and with that being said, they'll say, well, that's an abuse because now you don't have a place for the kids to go, you don't have a place for the youth, you don't separate them, blah, blah, blah. And they want to accuse us of all sorts of blasphemy and different things like that. And of course, they negate the fact that every organization on this planet has abuse in it, right? I've talked about this every week. You can go to Fred Meyer, you can go work at Walmart, you can go work anywhere in the world, and there's abuse that takes place. There's abuse in the Catholic Church, right? But how many channels are out there, how many people are actually talking about that, even in the New Evangelical Movement, about the abuse that goes on in the Catholic Church? Well, they're not talking about it at all because then that would make them judgmental, right? Well, if you really look at that situation, that in and of itself is a form of abuse because they're not warning people, they're not teaching people what the Bible says and the harsh truths and realities that it teaches. Now, keep your place there because we are going to come back to it in a little while, but go to Matthew chapter number 24. Matthew chapter number 24. And so, again, the point of this series is not to be unkind, it's not to try to hurt people's feelings, but it's to basically preach the truth. It's to explain the harsh truths that are out there that most people today are shying away from that do not want to confront these things. And I believe it's very important that we do so because we're the ones out there knocking doors every single week and we see the attitudes of the people. You know, we talk to people that go to all sorts of churches around here. This is how we learn about what the spiritual condition is like in the valley here. And it's all from the things that people tell us. It's just amazing to me that people can be going to church for 20 years and not be able to tell you whether or not they're going to heaven. Something so simple, something so basic. And, you know, with that, that in itself, again, is a form of extreme abuse. But what we're going to be talking about today is the fact that the New Evangelical Church movement by and large preaches another Jesus. Now, I'm not saying that every single church except for ours or like ours, they're all reprobates. They're all rejected. They can't be saved. They're all 100% preaching another Jesus. But by and large, the bulk majority, the vast majority of them are. They have a different Jesus. You guys know that. You're going to see that. And I'm going to show you that Jesus even warned us of that and talked about that. In fact, here, if you're in Matthew chapter 24, look at verse number 23. It says this, And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the world? And that's a great question. That's a question that a lot of people have today, especially people that we meet out soul winning. People that come into the church, they're confused. There's a lot of weird things going on right now. And they're trying to figure out how this stuff lines up with Bible prophecy. So again, a great question. Now, look at how Jesus responds in the next verse. Verse number four. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. OK, so notice what does he say first? He doesn't say, OK, well, this is the exact order of events. It's exactly what's going to happen. No, he says, Hey, wait a minute. You need to make sure that no one deceives you. So what does that tell you? The deception in the last days would be extremely thick, very, very strong. Look at verse number five. It says this for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ and shall deceive many. Now, keep your place there. Again, we will come back to it. Go to the Old Testament. Go to Jeremiah Chapter number 14. Jeremiah Chapter number 14. You know, when I was as I was studying this, I was thinking about this verse. And Jesus is saying this to the disciples privately. Right. And he says, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ and shall deceive many. So he's looking at them and he's basically pointing to himself. He's saying, hey, look, in the last days, before the end of the world comes, people are going to come in my name and they're going to say, yes, I'm the Messiah, but they're going to deceive many. Right. So you have this group of people today, for example, let's just say the Mormons. Right. They come to your door in the name of Jesus. They say he's the Christ. But yet they deceive many. The Jehovah Witnesses, the same thing. The Catholics, the same thing. Independent fundamental Baptist churches, in a lot of cases, the same exact thing. New Evangelical Christianity, same thing. They come to people. They come to society in the name of Jesus. Right. And they say, yes, he's the Christ. But then they go off and they deceive many people. You know, a lot of times when I used to read this, I'd be like, OK, well, this is just talking about people that would spring up and be like, hey, I'm Jesus Christ. And there are those types of people and there have been those types of people ever since this time here. For example, there's a guy in the Philippines, his name's Apollo, was it? Apollo Quibboy. And he believes that he's the son of God and he's God on earth and stuff like that. But those types of people, they really don't deceive many. Remember, many means most. OK. The Mormon, the Mormon Church, for example, they've deceived far more people than Apollo Quibboy. They've deceived far more people than this guy down in Brazil. I forgot his name, who just thinks he's the son of God. OK. So, yes, those types of people are out there. Yes, that is an issue. But the bigger issue are the group of people running around saying, hey, I'm coming to you in the name of Jesus. We acknowledge he's the Christ, that he's the savior, he's the Messiah. But then they turn around and deceive many. This is nothing new. There's nothing new under the sun. In fact, Old Testament Israel or Judah in this instance here in Jeremiah was going through the same exact thing. And I'll show you an example of this here. So Jeremiah Chapter 14, just to get you caught up with what's going on here in Jeremiah. If you're not familiar with the Old Testament, Israel has already been carried away. They've already been replaced with a different nation here. They're no longer a nation. They don't have a king. They're out of the picture. And what's going on here is during Jeremiah's day, the king of Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar, is actually in the process of taking the children of Judah out of Judah and putting them into captivity. And that happens in three different ways. Now, the beginning of this chapter here, this is a message from God to Jeremiah. And what he's telling Jeremiah is, hey, you know, the land right now, here's the conditions. There's very little water. There's very little food. There's plagues. Basically, he says, hey, you know, calves or I'm sorry, hinds are calving and they're just basically leaving their calves because they know there's no way to feed them or take care of them or give them water. And this is a terrible thing. People are starving. They're dying of thirst and all sorts of horrible things. And Jeremiah acknowledges that. And he says, Lord, our sins, our iniquity are many. We deserve this. OK. And then what happens is God speaks to him again and says, Jeremiah, don't pray for their good. He says, because I am not going to heal their land. I'm not going to respect their fasts. I'm not going to even respect their offerings. So he's basically saying, hey, if they just decide, you know what, OK, we're wrong this time. You know, we're sorry again for like the millionth time. Right. Going all the way back to the book of Judges. We're sorry again. Well, we'll stop. Well, he's God's like, no, you're done. You are no longer going to be an independent nation with your own king. You will for now and forever be ruled by another nation. And so we're going to pick that up here in verse number 14. And this is a good example of what we read in Matthew, chapter 24, especially verse five. Look what it says in verse 14. It says this. It says, then the Lord said unto me, the prophets prophesied lies in my name. So you see that there in my name. This is the spiritual condition of the nation of Judah during Jeremiah's day. And obviously many, many years prior to that. But God is saying, here's the reason why I'm not going to respect your offerings. I'm not going to respect your fasting. I'm not going to respect anything. If you want to serve me, get on board with the program and go into captivity peacefully. Don't resist. So it says again, then the Lord said unto me, the prophets prophesied 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 not and the deceit of their heart. So you have to understand something here. This gives us great insight under the heart of God. He does not like this, you see, because people are going to listen to this message and they're going to call. They're going to email. They're going to say, you're just so mean. You know, just anybody who just says the name of Jesus. God just loves them automatically. You know what? That is not true, because most new evangelical pastors today, they are abusing their congregations by preaching to them a vision of their own heart. It's the don't judge anyone, the coexist, everybody's going to heaven lie. It's not what the Bible teaches. It's false doctrine and it needs to be called out. And God is saying, this is why I will not hear your prayers. This is why I will not restore this nation because you, the people, suffered this to go on. Look at verse 15. 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 profits be consumed. This is the, you know, this is the thing here. I mean, this is exactly what we see going on today. You know, you got all sorts of conspiracies that are just out in the open, all sorts of problems with government, all sorts of lies and just false information being taught in pulpits, being pumped out through movies, music, media. And what does the New Evangelical Church do today? They say nothing to see here. There's no famine. There's no starving of the word of God. There's no problem. People are just going to get saved by osmosis and they just keep pushing this lie. And this is why our nation today is in the situation that it's in. And I'm going to tell you right now, this tactic here leads to a greater problem, which we'll see further in the chapter of Matthew 24. Now, you can leave your place there and go to Jeremiah chapter number 23 and we'll see the same exact thing. This is a big deal. Think about this. Because the people who had the law didn't want to listen to the law. They didn't want to listen to the preaching, right? They just wanted to go about things their own way. They wanted to view God the way that they wanted to view him. And God said, that's fine. You can do that. But now guess what? You're not going to be that special nation that I had you to be. You're not going to be that light in the world. You're not going to be doing anything for me. In fact, you're going to go serve a wicked king named Nebuchadnezzar. So Jeremiah chapter 23, look at verse number 25 says this. I have heard what the prophet said that prophesy lies, notice this again, in my name, saying I have dreamed. I have dreamed. This is why prosperity preaching today flourishes because what they're doing is they're selling you their dream. You can be rich. You can be free from all your diseases, all your sickness, all poverty, whatever the case is. As long as you just get up and you just have enough faith and you gear up a strong mind. Well, you know what? That's not true. If you've made poor decisions, you're going to have bad regrets. That's just the way life is. God's not going to automatically just restore everything in your life because you got saved or because you decided to roll out of bed and go to church for a week and a half. That's not how things work with God. But notice what he says there. I have heard what the prophet said that prophesy lies in my name. God keeps track of this type of activity. This is nothing like, oh, you know, as long as my name's out there, you know, I'm just good with that. No, God wants his name out there, but he also wants it out there in truth. We need to preach the real Jesus Christ, the one who said, you know what? I didn't come to bring peace. I came to bring a sword. And what is that sword? It's the word of God. That is what it is. Look at verse 26. 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. So just like it was back in Jeremiah's day, this is the same thing that we're seeing in our day. And what is it going to lead to? It's going to lead to tribulation and eventually God's wrath. Look at 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. So go to Matthew 24 again. Go to Matthew chapter number 24 again. So this is exactly what Jesus was warning us about, rather, is that people are coming in his name, acknowledging that he's the Savior. They say, yes, he's the Christ. Yes, he's the Messiah. But then they go out and they deceive people and they do that by many different ways. One being, what I've already been mentioning, is they paint Jesus in a way that he's not. Okay, well, everybody can be saved, even pedophiles. You know, it doesn't matter. As long as they just turn from that, they can be saved. No, that is not what the Bible teaches. There's no way you can prove that. Jesus said it was better for them to have a millstone hung about their neck, meaning that is their best option. But yet these people want to come around and say, oh no, they can be saved. No, that's blasphemy. That's a different Jesus Christ. That is not what the Bible teaches. So, again, the results are what? The results are going to be the great falling away. What did Paul tell the Thessalonians? Guess what? There's going to be a falling away and then the man of sin will be revealed. Well, how does that ball get rolling? Well, it gets rolling because people are not checking what is being taught today against the word of God. They're not taking this sword and drawing a line in the sand and saying, hey, no, that is wickedness that's going on in our society today. They're not going out and telling people, hey, salvation's a free gift. You don't have to work for your sins. They're lying to the people. They are prophesying lies in a vision of their own hearts or the heart that they got at their Bible college or whatever the case is. So you're back in Matthew chapter 24. Jump over to verse number 11. Matthew chapter 24. Look at verse number 11. Jesus says this, and many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. Now, notice this in verse 12. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Well, that's exactly what you're seeing today. You know, I never thought even 15 years ago that I would see a day where women and children are walking through an apartment complex and some politician wants to come out screaming and cussing and trying to fight them. I mean, how do you explain that? And you say, well, that's a one off. That's just an anomaly. No, that sort of behavior happens all the time. And look, I'm not trying to scare you. I'm trying to help you understand why we are in the situation that we're in. It's because people are listening to lies today. And what does that do? It causes the love of many, many means what? Most to wax cold. This is why a lot of times these people, they'll come out and they just want to fight. It's like, why do you want to fight somebody carrying a Bible just inviting you to church? We're just asking a question. We don't put our foot in the door. If you want us to leave, we'll leave. Now, we're not leaving the whole complex. Don't get me wrong, but we'll leave your door unless we're about done and we'll let you think you got one on us and we'll come back later. But we got to get every door. We got to preach the gospel to everyone who is willing to listen. So we don't try to force that on anyone. You guys have been with me before. If someone's like, I don't know, and they got the door open like this, I'm like, all right, fine, I'm out of here. I'm not going to waste my time. I'm not going to waste God's time. Time is precious. We are looking simply for people that are interested. That's it. Right. But what is happening today? Well, these people look at that and they see us come in and they're just like, oh, I can't believe you knocked on my door. The gall, the nerve that you had to invite me to a church. Where's that zeal against the wickedness that's going on in this nation today? That's the question that I have. How come you're not upset about that? How come you're not upset about the fact that child molesters are getting off on a regular basis that they're being released from prisons in the name of COVID-19? You understand that's what's going on today? That these governors and some of these wicked states are actually releasing these people back into the population. There is an agenda there, and if you can't see it, you need help. You need to study the Bible. This is why it's so important that we heed to this verse. You don't have to turn there. I've read it many times in the past. John 13, 35. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. This is why on Sunday mornings I'm spending so much time this year going over relationships and how we get along with one another. Because it's important. The people can perceive that. If you've got beef with your soul wanting partner and you're at someone's door and they want to hear the gospel, they can pick that up. We've all been in this situation. This is a small church. When someone comes in here and they're not happy and they don't like what's going on, they don't even have to say anything. You can just feel it. Well, how much more can they feel it at their own door? Or somebody in your own family that you're trying to get saved? This is so important that we learn how to get along with one another because we want people to see what real love is because it's missing from the world today. Why is it missing? Look at verse number 12 again. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cool. Why does iniquity abound? Because there's an abundance of false prophets and there is not an abundance of people that have the guts to stand up and say, hey, thus saith the Lord. Look at verse number 13. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Well, say from what? This isn't talking about heaven and hell. Remember who he's talking to here. He's talking to the disciples privately who he's already explained, hey, these guys are already saved. Right? Have I not chosen ye twelve yet? One of you is a devil? Isn't that what Jesus said? So what he's talking about is if you understand this principle here, if you understand this concept, hey, no matter what's going on in the world today, preach the Bible faithfully. Love your brother. Love your sister. Get along and go out and fulfill the Great Commission. Get people saved. Bring them in here and try to get them discipled. Then guess what? You're going to be saved from the deception. You're going to be saved from the heartache. You're going to be saved from the destruction that is a result of that. You'll be saved from that lack of love that is the byproduct of a nation that has an abundance of false prophets. Look at verse 14. It says this and this gospel see and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come. So Jesus is giving us hope here. He's saying, hey, despite all of this, there will still be seven thousand men that have not bowed the knee to Baal who will go out and preach the gospel unto the nations. Now, go back, if you would, to Matthew chapter eight, and we're going to revisit the verse that we opened the sermon with. And so what we're going to do is we're going to take a look at that story here about the two men that come out of the tombs exceeding fierce. We're going to look at one verse in Matthew, because we already read the chapter, and we're going to follow it through Mark and then through Luke, and then we will be done. And I'll make the application here at the end why this is important. So what have we learned so far? Jesus warned us. He said, hey, guess what? In the last days, before the end of the world comes, guess what? There will be people that come in my name, acknowledge that I'm the Christ, but yet they deceive many. We are to watch out for that. The best way to watch out for that is to obviously study and make sure you have a very good understanding of who Jesus is. This is why we're so big on preaching the whole counsel of God. But within this story that we're about to take a look at, you're going to see that there is actually some great nuggets of truth that we can teach other people. Now, again, look at verse number 28. This is where we started. It says this. And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils coming out of the tombs. Notice this. Exceeding fierce so that no man might pass by. Now leave your place there and go to Mark chapter number five. Mark chapter number five. So this story here in Matthew is the only account in the gospels that actually mentions two people. So you need to understand that. This is Bible study, right? So when you read the story in Mark and you read the story in Luke, it talks about as if there's only one person there. Just know that there was two people there. And obviously, Jesus is communicating primarily with just one of these two men that are here. So what are we doing right now? What is going on here? Well, we see that two men are possessed with devils. Plural, okay? And what is the condition of this nation here? Well, nobody wants to pass by here, right? And these people are exceeding fears. So they're literally oppressing these two guys filled with devils. Understand this. They are oppressing this country here. The small part of town here. They are oppressing it. This is a problem. And this is something that, hey, they have tried to deal with, but yet they have no solution. They can't figure out how to get these guys healed. They can't figure out how to get rid of them, whatever the case is. So let's pick the story up here in Mark. Look at Mark chapter five and verse number two. So again, and when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. So notice how it says a man with an unclean spirit here. Just understand there are two guys there. Obviously, one guy got to Jesus first. Look at verse number three. Who had his dwelling among the tombs and no man could bind him, no, not with chains. So what does that tell you? That they tried, right? These people tried to bind him because he's just a nightmare. He's a terrible, in a terrible situation, but they weren't able to bind him. Look at verse four. Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains and the chains had been plucked asunder by him and the fetters broken in pieces. Neither could any man tame him. So this is very interesting here because this guy has, or both of these guys rather, they have like this superhuman capability at this time. They're possessed with devils. They're able to somehow break these chains and yet not really hurt themselves. I mean, this is a strange situation. You know, I think sometimes this is what happens when people get on drugs, you know, that are in the occult and in, you know, the satanic religion and they start to have these issues and the cops show up, you know, and they try to tase them. You know, they always want to blame the coke. They always want to blame the meth and I'm not saying that's not true, but I think sometimes there's a little bit more to the story than just the drugs. Look at verse number five. It says this, and always night and day he was in the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones. So, I mean, this is great insight here on how these guys are actually plaguing the town. I mean, night and day they just won't shut up. It's like living with my dad with Alzheimer's. Just night and day he just doesn't shut up. No matter what's going on, just, I hate you, I want to kill you, just 24-7. You know, luckily I'm becoming numb to distractions and I think that's why God's letting me go through this here. But these guys are worse than that. I mean, they're actually speaking the language or yelling at people. They won't let people pass by and this would be a scary sight because they're cutting themselves, but they're not dying. Notice that. They're not like bleeding out. They're just cutting themselves. They're just breaking anything. It's just a horrible situation. Now look at verse six. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshiped him, verse seven, and cried with a loud voice and said, what have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not. So here Jesus shows up and there's instant results. All of a sudden these devils are like, okay, wait a second. We know that you're the son of God here. Please don't, you know, cast us out into the abyss. And it tells you, look at verse number eight. It says, for he had, or for he said unto them, come out of the man thou unclean spirit. Right? So he cast these devils out and then has this conversation with them. Look at verse nine. And he asked him, what is thy name? And he answered, sing, my name is Legion for we are many. Now again, Jesus never asks a question because he doesn't know the answer. He's asking this question to teach those around him and obviously so that we could read it in our day and get application and learn truths from the Bible. Look at verse number 10. And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. So this just keeps getting worse and worse and worse. These people are plaguing the towns because they're possessed, right? They're cutting themselves. They're tormenting the citizens. But notice their attitude here. What do these demons say? We don't, please Jesus, don't send us out of the country. They don't even want to leave this country. Why is that? Because there's probably a lot of hosts. There's probably a lot of people that aren't interested in the things of God. So it's easier for them to go ahead and possess these people here. Now leave your place there and go to Luke chapter number eight. Luke chapter number eight. And we're going to pick the story up again over here in Luke. Each time you read the story, you're going to get different insight because it was written by three different accounts, same story. You just got to put the pieces together. Okay. So again, keep in mind this whole time, these people of this, this country here, they've got no idea how to deal with this. Jesus shows up. Boom. He's instantly got these guys cast out and he's about to restore this entire situation. They're like, we don't want to leave the country. Don't send us away from the country. But they also don't want their torment to show up earlier than the appointed time. Then the appointed time. Look at verse 31. Luke chapter eight. Look at verse 31. And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. Well, that, you know, you can read that in Revelation chapter 20. That's the pit. That's the great abyss. That is hell. And what are these demons saying? Hey, don't send us to hell, please. Before the appointed time, before it's actually time for us to get there. Look at verse 32. And there was there unheard of many swine feeding on the mountain and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them and he suffered them. So that means that he, Jesus is allowing this to happen. Look at verse 33. Then went the devils out of the man and entered into the swine and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake and were choked. You know, and I was just kind of like joking around to myself when I was reading this and I just wrote down that, you know, these pigs, they would rather commit suicide than be possessed with devils. But obviously, you know, this is the only time you really read something like that. I'm not sure if, you know, this sort of thing happens in our day. The point is these demons hop into the pigs and, you know, what do the demons do? Well, what do angels do? Well, they're ministering spirits. They help. They minister. So the opposite, the fallen ones, what do they do? They destroy. They destruct. So it would make sense that they would possess these animals and just commence destruction, you know, and just obviously what would that do? Well, that would provide fear and torment in addition to the people in this city. In fact, you'll see that here. Look at verse 34. It says, when they that fed them saw what was done, they fled, went and told it in the city of the country. Okay, notice that. But notice what else that they saw. Well, they saw that the man got healed, right? So they're going to say, okay, all of our swine are now dead. This guy who's been plaguing us is healed. What do you think they're going to do? Hey, come meet the guy that's basically saved our problem, solved our issues. Is that what they're going to do? Look at verse 35. Then they went out to see what was done and came to Jesus and found the man out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and don't miss this, and in his right mind, and they were afraid. So these people are afraid. So technically, the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Right? So right off the bat, they should have used this fear to say, okay, Lord, teach us your ways. Obviously, we've spent all of our resources, all of our time, all of our energy trying to fix this problem. We could come up with nothing. You show up and in an instant, you've got our problem solved. And you didn't even make us pay for it. You didn't even make us work for it. Right? See where I'm going with this? But they don't do that. No, they're mad because their human achievement efforts were rejected by Jesus Christ. You see, this is a picture of what we're dealing with today. You know, we show up to people with the Bible, which provides the easy message of salvation. Hey, all you have to do is stop trusting in your own works or whatever false gods you're trusting in, and put all your trust on Christ, and you're saved forever. He forgives you for your past sins, your present sins, and your future sins. Go read Romans chapter number four. Very crystal clear. There's no debating that. And what do people do? They get afraid. They get scared. And then guess what they do? They do what we're going to read next, and they ask Jesus to depart out of the land. I mean, think about it. This guy is now in his right mind. And obviously, you know, I can understand maybe your initial reaction being like, is he going to turn again? You know, is this going to happen again? You know, I mean, you've just seen these two guys, you know, possessed with devils for who knows how long. All of a sudden, they're talking normally. You might have an initial reaction that says, okay, are they trying to play us? They're trying to play Frogger. You know what's going on here. But that's not the case because he's in his right mind. Right? And they see that. They understand it. Look at verse 36. They also, which saw it, told them by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed. So they understood the situation from front to back, the whole thing. They realized that Jesus healed this situation. He solved their problem with no works required, no payment. Right? What do a lot of preachers do today? If you sow a seed of $10,000, God is going to bless you beyond measure. That's not the Jesus of the Bible. Look at verse 37. Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes, same place as what we read in Matthew, round about, but sought him to depart from them, for they were taken with great fear. And he went up into the ship and returned back again. So you see what's going on here? We don't want that Jesus in our nation. We don't want that Jesus in our country. So what does he do? He leaves. That's the same attitude that you saw in Israel before Israel fell. That's the same attitude that you saw in Judah before Judah fell. That's the same thing you're seeing today in America. And that's why America will fall. 100% guarantee. Go back to Matthew, chapter number 24. So this is what we are dealing with today. The new evangelical churches of America, of Europe, of wherever they are, they have a different Jesus. Their Jesus doesn't want to tackle the people that are fierce, that are exceeding fierce, that are providing chains, you know, or just torments. All that is a picture of what we deal with today. We knock on people's doors, right, and they are scared to die. We have the solution. It's no works. There's no works involved at all. And once you're saved, you're saved forever. And then to top that off, we can break all the fetters, all the bans. Well, they say, well, what about the pedophiles? What about this? What about that? And we have the answer because we believe the Bible as it is written. And so we're breaking chains all over the place. And sometimes, what do people say? Depart from us. You know, they start to get scared. Who's ever been there? Where you've given somebody the gospel, they're starting to understand it. They get it, they can repeat it back to you, right? They're like, hold on, I've got to go get somebody else. They bring that person out and all of a sudden, they're just like, you know what, I don't know. I don't want to make a commitment. I don't want to pray and ask Jesus to save me right now. I've got to think about this. You know, and then you see them again later and this has happened to me. And all of a sudden, it's like they're just totally rejecting the Bible. Right? It's because they go inside and they say, but what about all the work that I've done? What about all the stuff that I turn from? That's good, but there's no way you're turning from all of your sins. There's no way. It plagues you and it plagues them too. They just don't want to admit it because pride is what abounds today. It's pride. Look at what I've done. Look at all the good stuff that I've done. Look, we're not against doing good stuff. We do good stuff all the time. But the problem is when you're trusting in those things apart from faith in Christ, apart from being born again. Your works are as filthy rags. You can read about that in Isaiah. So Jesus shows up. He solves that problem and he's doing the same thing today. Right? We have the information. We have the Jesus that breaks these bands, that breaks the fetters, that breaks the chains, that breaks this torment and provides healing. And what do we get in return for it? Depart from us. Right? This is too scary. We can't have people out here saying things about these wicked politicians and about all this corrupt stuff going on in the world today. We can't have that. We just want to be left alone. Just have all peace. Well, you know what? What did Jesus say about peace? I came not to bring peace, but a sword. And the sword is the word of God. So going back to Matthew 24 again, look at verse number five. So again, this is what we have today. The battle of human achievement versus the battle of Christ, which his message is very simple. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. And we know that to mean forever. Matthew 24, verse five. Really starting to intensify now. What was it? Just a couple of weeks ago, this megachurch pastor named Stephen Furtick was preaching a sermon and got a little bit too carried away with what is the abundance of his heart and said, I am God Almighty. That's what he said. You know, he's not the only one that said that. He's not the only one to teach or even preach that. That attitude is going to increase as we get closer to the end. Why? Because false prophets abound. The love of many waxes cold. So people aren't getting together and sharpening each other up anymore. That's what you're seeing today. That's what this whole social distancing agenda is going to wind up doing to a lot of people is separating people so that we can't talk. A lot of people today are just more than content to just sit in front of the computer, play their games, just order all their food online. In some cases, even make their money online. I was telling a story about a guy, a family who's visited our church several times. He was out soloing and he knocked on this person's door. And this guy here, like, he never leaves his house. And he even said that. He's like, I make all my money playing video games. Like he doesn't. He was even being gross because he opened up the door and, you know, this guy was standing there trying to get him saved. He was like, I had to leave because the stench was just so bad. And he was telling me that the guy who he was talking to says, look, I don't even go to the bathroom. He's like, I stay in that chair 18 hours a day. I sleep on the couch. I get right back up and go to work. Now, that's a little bit extreme. OK. But, you know, if the government is going to start paying everybody's rent and start paying everybody's groceries and just canceling debts, you know, bringing on this communist style regime, you know, but saying, hey, you got to stay away from each other. You know, they're censoring all truth. You can kind of see, I mean, what's going to be the result? This type of attitude that we're reading about here is going to flourish. So people like Stephen Furtick are going to flourish. They're going to become more popular. They're going to become like a, I don't know, like like rats where they just manifest. They just keep growing and just multiplying and multiplying. Think about the Catholic organization, the pope. What is the office of a pope claimed to be? The vicar of Christ, meaning Christ on Earth. That is exactly what we just read here in Matthew, chapter 24, verse 24. And there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very like. So this deception that is coming is very strong. It is very thick. And this is why it is so important that we operate the way that we do. We don't need less church as we see the day approaching. We need more church. We need more time with each other to talk about spiritual things. You know, even if it's not just church, you know, we should be talking to each other throughout the week. Like, hey, what's going on with you? You know, can I pray for you? Can I help you out in some kind of a way? Here's a verse that blessed me. Here's something I was, you know, praying about that God answered in my life. Those things make for a great church. That is how we're going to get through this. Just about every organization, though, fits this. Right? The Mormon Church, the 12, you know, what is it? The Quorum of 12 Apostles over here in Utah. Right? They are the representatives of Christ on earth, according to that organization. The Jehovah Witnesses, the Watchtower, it's the same thing. And here's the kicker, the one that I like to bring up the most. When you have a pastor that stands up and says, in the original manuscripts, in the original languages, he is no different than the pope because he doesn't have access to the original languages. He never has. Not even Moses had that because the original manuscript is written in heaven. That's what the Bible says. So when a man gets up and says that, he is basically claiming to be the vicar of Christ. I am Christ on earth. You need me to teach you the truth because obviously you've got a job, you've got a family, you've got kids, you've got stuff going on. You're not going to be able to go dig up all this truth that's under the ground that the scholars have dug up. Right? That's my job. You need to come to me. This verse that you just read, it doesn't really mean that in the Greek. It doesn't really mean that in the Hebrew. No, no, no. You need to come to me. No, that is Catholic. That is wrong. That is false prophets. And you know what? That attitude deceives a lot of people today. Look at verse 25. Jesus says, Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert. Go not forth. Behold, he is in the secret chambers. Believe it not. So when people say, well, we don't have the real full preserved word of God today, we need to dig it up. It's in the secret chambers. It's below the earth. Some of it's in the Vatican. Some of it's over in Syria or whatever the case is. Really, this is what they're saying. Hey, the truth is in the secret chambers, right? Stick with me. I'll guide you. No, no, no. That's not what Jesus said. He says, hey, I can preserve my word throughout all eternity, throughout all generations, and not even one jot or tittle would fail. Not even one jot, no one tittle would fail. But yet we have so many people today saying, you know, behold, no, no, no. He's in the desert, right? The deserts of Egypt. That's where a lot of the word of God is. We need to just kind of see what the scholars dig up and how they interpret and how they go. And then we'll get a new Bible version to come out. It will completely be fine. And then we've got to roll with the times. We've got to evolve with the science, right? No. The God that spoke this universe into existence, you want to tell me he can't preserve his book? You are absolutely out of your mind. You have been deceived by what we've been reading about here. Look at verse twenty seven. For as lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. And this is why it blows my mind when people are like, oh, you know, there's going to be a secret rapture. All of a sudden just millions of people are going to be missing. Planes are going to be crashing and stuff, you know, and no one's going to know what's going on. No, he just told you, don't believe that. Don't believe that. So when people say, no, no, no, there's a secret rapture and, you know, he's going to come back and he's going to rescue us all before any tribulation. False doctrine. That's not what I'm reading here. Look at verse twenty eight. For where so ever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. And boy, doesn't that sum up today, right? Wherever the carcass is. So what is a carcass? A carcass is dead. What is Stephen Furtick? He's spiritually dead. What is the pope? He is spiritually dead. What are the quorum of twelve apostles? They are spiritually dead. What is any pastor who gets up and says, oh, no, no, no. And the original man, he's spiritually dead is what he is. The pastor who gets up and says, oh, no, no, you have to turn from your sins to be saved. That's how you do it. If you don't have the works, if you don't have something to show for it, if you're, you know, not constantly repenting on a daily basis, you're not saved. Guess what? That's a carcass. And guess what? There will the eagles be gathered together. So you say, how can you suspect that some people aren't saved? Well, based off of this verse here, when I see people gravitate towards those and they're sympathetic towards those, it lets me know, you know what? For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. And eagles like to feast on dead flesh. Well, it's the same thing today. People who are spiritually dead, people who are not saved, they are running to these carcasses week after week to get fed a bowl of lies. And so we have the job to straighten that out. And that, my friend, is a huge abuse from the evangelical church. That's what I'm saying. We need to go out there. We need to teach people, hey, you know what? Christ is all love, but there's things that he hates in one of them. The big one is that you have to turn from your sins to be saved or that once he saves you, it's only temporary. That's false doctrine. Leave that to the carcasses that are out there. Okay? It's our job to learn how Jesus operates. So you saw when he went to those guys in the tombs, what did he do? Instantly healed. Instantly solved their problems. And what did they say? We don't want you here. Please just leave. And he left. And he left. So what does that tell you? That when the carcass is running the church and the eagles are gathering around, guess what? He's not there. Doesn't mean he doesn't know what's going on. It doesn't mean he's not observing that. But he is not there. He is not in that. What is written in our Bible is what we go with every single time. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you again so much, Lord, for truth that you bring to us week after week, Lord. I just pray that you would help us to all read our Bibles by ourselves, Lord, and that you would just continue to motivate us, get us disciplined, Lord, so that we don't ever lose that zeal. And I just pray that you would lead us to those that are hurting out in the community, Lord, that we may give them the peace that you gave to those men that were possessed, Lord, the total freedom to be saved and to actually serve you the way that you would like to be served in Jesus name. I pray. Amen. All right. Please grab your song books one more time and turn the song. Forty four will work till Jesus comes. Song number forty four. We'll work till Jesus comes on the first. Oh, land of rest for the eyesight. When will the moment come when I shall lay my armor by and dwell in peace at home? We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home to Jesus Christ. I fled for as he made me cease to roll and lean for soccer on his breast till he conduct me home. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home. I saw that once my savior side. No more my steps shall roll with him. My brave dash chilling tight and reach my heavenly home. Singing out. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home. Amen. Brother Jeff, would you close us out on a word of prayer, please? Do you want to thank you so much for this church, Lord? We thank you for all the great brothers and sisters of Christ that we have here to encourage one another, to lift one another up, Lord. It's a dark age, Lord, where there's so much falsehood out there, Lord. We pray you help us to be bold and stand for the truth in the Bible and maybe we can open the eyes and hearts of some of the people stuck in the new evangelical life, Lord. We thank you for all of this, Lord. Give us opportunities in our daily lives. We're in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.