(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) 2 Peter chapter 2, the verse that I wanted to look at there was at verse 15, where the Bible reads, Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Bozor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. And the title of my sermon tonight is Lecrae, the son of Bozor. Lecrae, the son of Bozor. You say, why are you preaching against a man? Why are you preaching against some guy? Well, it doesn't really matter exactly who I preached against, because there's a lot of people that you can put in that category, the son of Bozor. But I think when we're going to get a case study, or when we look at somebody in today's society, someone that fits the characteristics of Balaam, I think Lecrae fits this very well. You say, he's an artist, he's a musical person, some people don't know who he is, but I think he's pretty well known. And I'm going to have you all turn to Acts chapter 20, if you would. Acts chapter 20. But I think this is a very important doctrine, this is a doctrine that affects so many people today, there's so much confusion, what does it mean to be the son of Bozor? Well, I'm taking that, transplanting it, because we're talking about Balaam. And Balaam is a person in the Bible that I think sometimes when you read it the first time, it's a little confusing. Maybe it doesn't make a lot of sense, but I think when you really understand the doctrines of Balaam, when you understand who Balaam was, it's going to help you understand the false prophets of today. It's going to help you understand who they are, what they're like. I'll give you a little bit of background about this person named Lecrae. Says Lecrae on Wikipedia has won many musical awards over the space of his career, including two Grammy Awards and seven Dove Awards. In 2013, he became the first hip hop artist to win the Grammy Award for best gospel album, which was awarded to his sixth album, Gravity. And in 2015, he became the first rapper to win the BET Award for best gospel artist. So this is a guy that's making a splash on the Christian music scene. I mean, he's getting lots of kinds of awards, a lot of people are lifting this guy up, they're saying he's really great. And not only just in the Christian world, in the Christian, you know, music world, in 2014, he had the number one album on the Billboard 200, period. Like we're talking every single genre, this guy was the number one album in the entire Billboard charts, not just in Christian music, not just in hip-hop, just period. More people were buying his album than any other album. And guess what? This guy was born in Houston, Texas, and that's probably the place that I'm going to go, that's the place that I have my heart and desire to maybe start a church one day, it may not, I may change my mind or it might go somewhere else, but you know, I have a fond heart for that area. And this guy's coming out of Houston, you say, well, is he really that popular? Well on Twitter, he has over a million followers. On Instagram, he has over a million followers. On Facebook, this guy has over a 2 million likes. I mean, this guy is loved of the world. This guy is loved of Christians today. So many people are lifting him up. In 2017, this guy's been on Jimmy Fallon, this guy's been on BET, this guy's been part of Obama's administration for fatherhood and mentoring. This guy, he's just loved of the world, and even not just the world, he's going to the Passion Conference, which is this big like youth conference where they bring in all these, you know, hip music stars and all the best preachers, and they preach to just thousands and thousands of young students and college students. I mean, this guy's making a big influence, and in my mind, in all honesty, if I were to look at somebody in the Christian music scene that was really making waves, that was one of the most popular, it's got to be him. That's why I think it's important to preach against the people of today if they're a false prophet, if they really are a son of Beaux Arts. Because if you looked at verse 29, where I had you turn, Acts chapter 20, you say, why preach against this guy? Why preach against anybody? I thought we were just supposed to love everybody and just be kind to everybody. Let's see what the Bible says, look at verse 29, for I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Or watch and remember that by the space of three years, I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears. During the Matthew chapter seven, during the Matthew seven, we see that Paul was warning night and day about the grievous wolves, about those trying to lift themselves up. They're trying to rise, they're speaking perverted things, they're trying to draw away disciples after them. And Paul said, look, I didn't stop warning you night and day, day and night, I'm constantly warning about all these false teachers, these false prophets. But what about Jesus? I mean, what did Jesus have to say? Look at Matthew seven, verse 15, beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Go back to second Peter two, where we were, in Matthew 24, Jesus Christ was asked about the reference to the end of the world, and he said, and many false prophets shall rise and deceive many. So we have Paul preaching against the false prophets, we have Jesus Christ warning about the false prophets. Look at second Peter two, our main chapter, look at verse one, but there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction. I'll read for you in first John four, go to Numbers chapter 22, and keep your finger in second Peter two, because we're going to keep coming back to that. But in first John chapter four, John wrote about, he said, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. So we see, Paul's warning about the false prophets, Jesus is warning about the false prophets, Peter's warning about the false prophets, John's warning about the false prophets. Yet you go to church today, you go to the big liberal church, and they never even mention one false prophet. They never preach against anybody. They're not preaching against, you know, the Catholic church, they're not preaching against themselves, they're not preaching against anybody. But we see that the prophets of God, we see that they were preaching constantly against the false prophets. They're constantly warning, hey, there's false prophets out there, hey, there's grievous wolves, hey, there's these guys drawing up disciples after them, you got to be warned. So if you're going to be a man of God, if you can go to the church of God, you better get a lot of warning. We see Paul did it night and day. I mean, we don't even get that in our church, we don't get it every single day, all night and day. But we should, we need to be constantly warned, and he said, remember, we need to be reminded of who these false prophets are, that they're out there, that they're deceiving people. We need people to constantly preach against the false prophets of not just yesterday, of not in the Old Testament, but today. The people that are rising up today, that are trying to lead people astray. And I think you say, oh, you're preaching against a man, well, Samuel cued Agag in pieces before the Lord, Micaiah preached against Ahab's prophets, Elijah preached against the prophets of Baal, Elijah slew the prophets of Baal, Jeremiah withstood the false prophets, Jesus preached against the false prophets, Jesus preached against the Pharisees, Jesus preached against the Sadducees, Jesus preached against the lawyers. We see that Paul warned night and day, Peter preached against them, John warned against them, David called them by name, Hermogenes, Philetus, Diotrophes, names and names of false prophets and false teachers. Don't tell me it's not godly to preach against false teachers. Don't tell me that I'm not like Christ because I'm going to preach against a man, because I'm going to preach against a false prophet. And that's something that we need to get settled in our heart, we need to understand that as a man of God, he's going to preach against the false prophets. And a lot of people don't like it, they don't like it when you get up and you just preach a negative sermon, when you just preach against a man, when you preach against things that are wrong in this world, they're not comfortable. They don't feel good, they don't like it, and many times it's because they like the guy you're preaching against, they like the things that he stands for, they have their own iniquity or sin in their heart, and they're just trying to regard that rather than trust in the Lord, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word. But I think this doctrine, understanding Balaam is so important, it's going to really help us understand the false prophets of our day. So let's read a lot about Balaam, I had you turn in Numbers 22, look in verse 10, the Bible says, And Balaam said unto God, Balaam the son of Zippor, king of Moab, hath said unto me, saying, Behold, there is a people come out of Egypt, which cover the face of the earth. Come now, curse me them, peradventure, I shall be able to overcome them and drive them out. And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them, thou shalt not curse the people, for they are blessed. And Balaam rose up in the morning and said unto the princes of Balaam, Get you into your land, for the Lord refuses to give me leave to go with you. And the princes of Moab rose up, and they went unto Balaam, and said, Balaam refuses to come with us, and Balaam sent yet again princes, more and more honorable than they. And they came to Balaam and said to him, Thus saith Balaam the son of Zippor, Let nothing I pray thee hinder thee from coming unto me, for I will promote thee into very great honor, and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me, Come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people. And Balaam answered and said unto the service of Balaam, If Balaam would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more. Now I want to focus on that phrase that he has in verse 18 where he says, The word of the Lord my God. Now the interesting thing about Balaam, the first time you read the story about Balaam, it's sometimes confusing. It's a little misleading. You're like, Hey, this guy is calling the Lord his God. Hey, this guy is saying he's going to just preach the word of the Lord. Hey, this guy is, you know, talking with God. I mean, this must be a, you know, a spiritual guy. He must be a prophet of the Lord. He must be somebody that we can follow. We can look through his example. But the thing you got to understand about the false prophets is most of the things they speak are with feigned words. Now what does it mean to feign? What does it mean to say with feigned words? We're not going to turn there for the sake of time, but we see one of the first examples is with Jacob and Esau. Now Esau was supposed to get a blessing from his father and he was sent out to prepare him a meal. But Jacob, by the instruction of his mother, went to pretend like he was Esau. So he went on to his father and the Bible says he feigned himself. What does that mean? He was pretending to be Esau. He was pretending to sound like Esau. He was pretending to look like Esau. Why? Because he had the hair on his hands, he was trying to feel like Esau, he was trying to sound like Esau, he was trying to be like Esau, saying he was Esau. He told his father, hey, I'm Esau. And we see that the false prophets of today, just like Balaam, they're going to say they're the prophets of God. They're going to say that Jesus is their Lord. They're going to say all kinds of things that you want to hear. They're going to say things that are right, but it's with feigned words. You can't believe them. And the thing that's interesting about the Bible is it never calls Balaam God's prophet. It never says, you know, by the mouth of the Holy Ghost, speaking as the narrator, saying, hey, this is Balaam, the prophet of God, or God's prophet, or the Lord's prophet. No, it's only by his mouth that he says, hey, this is my God. Hey, this is the guy I serve. But we see later in the Bible, it talks about Balaam over and over. It gives us a good idea of what he actually was like. The Bible tells us from the mouth of the Holy Ghost what Balaam was really like. But when we just look at his words, if we just studied Balaam's words, we get confused. We'd be like, man, this guy seems like a prophet of God. And even later in the story, it says that the Spirit of God came upon him and he was speaking God's word. But we know even in the New Testament that Caiaphas spoke by the power of the Holy Ghost. Does that make him safe? I mean, even in the story, I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but Balaam went to go against the word of God, and his axe that he was laying on opened his mouth and spake to him. Does that mean that the donkey, that the mule was the prophet of God, was some spiritual man? No, it's just a miracle by God. We see that there's lots of stories in the Bible that God uses a way to speak to man that isn't just being, he's a man of God, or he's a prophet of the Lord, or he's saved. We see unsaved people many times are used by God to fulfill his purposes, maybe to even give his word. You know, we see King Nebuchadnezzar saying God spoke to him and gave him, you know, certain words. We see a lot of people in the Bible that aren't saved, that aren't God's prophets, and they still speak the word of God. Satan is speaking in the Bible. Is he a prophet? No, of course not. So we can't get just confused and say, oh, Balaam, you know, he said that the Lord is God, that means he's a prophet of God. That means he's saved. No, he's speaking with feigned words. And if you look at the false prophets of today, if you look at the people like Lecrae, they're going to say right things. They're going to say, oh, I love Jesus, oh, I believe in Jesus, oh, Jesus is my Lord. But they say it with feigned words. You have to listen a little bit harder. You have to look at other characteristics of them to understand, hey, this guy's a false prophet. This guy's lying to us. This guy's saying things with feigned words. Let's look at a little bit more study in Numbers 24. Let's look at Balaam. It says in verse 10 of Numbers 24, And Balaam's anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together. And Balaam said unto Balaam, I call thee to curse my enemies, and behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times. Isn't that just like the false teachers of our day, to just give lip service unto God? I mean, we see them, they'll stand up and they'll say, bless the Lord Jesus Christ and bless God. He's our Savior and he's so great. I mean, even the Pope will get up and say, you know, things that are right. We see all the false prophets will say things that are right at times. That doesn't make them a prophet of God. Go to Joshua 24. Go to Joshua chapter 24 and we'll actually see what the Bible says about Balaam. It gives us a lot better description of what Balaam is like. Because if you just read the story about Balaam, sometimes you kind of get a little confused. You might think, hey, this guy's saying a lot of right things. He's saying he's not going to preach anything against the Bible and he's not going to preach against God's Word. But even in today's world, we have people like Creflo Dollar, I don't even know anything about this guy. This guy only uses the King James Bible. He only preaches the King James Bible. That means when he gets up to preach, he's preaching the Word to God and he's committed. Hey, I'm not going to preach anything that God didn't say because he's using the King James Bible. Does that make him a prophet of God? No, he's a false prophet. He's a false teacher. He teaches a false gospel. He's a disciple of Kenneth Copeland. That guy's the biggest false prophet I've ever seen. But we see just because a prophet would even use the King James Bible, that doesn't make him saved. We say there's a lot of people that only use the King James Bible, that doesn't make them saved. The Mormons will say they use the King James Bible. The Jehovah's Witnesses will say they use the King James Bible. That doesn't make them saved. And just because Balaam wasn't going to just, you know, depart from what the Lord said doesn't make him a prophet of God either. Look at Joshua 24 verse 9. It says, Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and said and called Balaam, the son of Baor, to curse you. But I would not hearken unto Balaam, therefore he blessed you still, so I delivered you out of his hand. So we see now God's given the description of what Balaam was like. He said Balaam was coming, he wanted to curse you. He wanted to curse the children of Israel. He's pleading with God, please let me curse them. Why? Because he wanted to get all those wages. He wanted to get promoted. He wanted that money. He wanted that filthy lucre. He's like, God, let me curse them, let me curse them, but God wouldn't hearken. We see that Balaam was a false prophet because he wasn't testifying, hey, you know what, I'm trying to curse these people, I'm trying to preach bad, but God won't let me. No, he's just saying, oh, I'll just only preach what God says. He kind of, he kind of banes himself to the king of, you know, Balaam, saying, you know, I'm just going to preach what God says and he just blesses them. He never, he never testifies them, hey, I'm trying to, you know, I'm trying to curse these guys, I'm pleading with God, but he won't let me. We see that Balaam's actually a wicked person. He wants to destroy God's people. He wants to curse the children of God. He wants to go against the word of God. God already said don't curse these people. God already said don't go with them. We see he's going with them. We see he's trying to curse them. He's trying to say, let me curse these people, but God wouldn't let him. So when you get a, you get a description of this guy from, you know, the mouth of God, from the Holy Spirit, we see he's not that great of a guy. And when you get into the New Testament, it makes it really clear. This guy is not saved. This guy is a false prophet. Go to Jude chapter one in the New Testament. Jude chapter one. The Bible makes it clear that there's a lot of false prophets out there. And there's even different types of false prophets. The Bible makes it clear that Balaam, in our chapter verse, he loved the wages of unrighteousness. So this is a guy, this is a guy that wants the money. Now Balaam actually wasn't, uh, maybe as greedy as some other people, because when he had the opportunity to just curse them, he stuck to his guns and just did what God said. You know, at the end of the day, he did go against the word of the Lord. He went against his will and went unto them. But at the end of the day, when it got time, the trench time, he still just blessed them. He just said whatever God said. But there's a lot of prophets that when they get to that point, they'll just lie. They'll just say whatever. They'll just, they'll just curse and swear and blaspheme. They don't care. They just want to get the money. They want to get the payday. We see Balaam didn't get the payday. You know, there's even preachers today, false prophets today that aren't getting paid. You see there's a little, you know, Calvinist church over here on the corner. We see the little Methodist church over here on the corner. We see the Jehovah's false witness little church. They're not making big bucks. There's a lot of false prophets that aren't getting their payday, that aren't getting a lot of money. That'd be like Balaam. He wanted the riches, he wanted the money, but when it came down to it, he wasn't willing to just lie. He wasn't willing to just preach, you know, all kinds of false junk. He wasn't willing to go against God's word back to the uttermost, so he didn't get paid. But there's a lot of false prophets today that they'll go to any link to get these riches. They won't stop like Balaam did, they'll just continue to lie, continue to lie. Look at Jude chapter 1 verse 10, but these speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally as brute beasts, and those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for a reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Kor. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. So we see here, here's a description of Balaam, does that sound like a good description? Does it sound like it's a good guy, a guy he wanted to hang out with? Wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever? No, this guy was a false prophet, this guy was a false teacher, and he was twice dead as the Bible says. Of course he would lie and say that he was God's prophet and say all these things, but we see he was actually a son of Belial, as it were. So I'm trying to just lay a foundation and make it clear that Balaam, he might say the right thing sometimes, he might say good things, that doesn't mean he's not a false prophet. He might even, you know, stop himself from, you know, all the way blaspheming God or all the way going against God, that doesn't make him not a false prophet. We see that he was constantly going against God's word, he was a deceiver, he was feigning himself, he's feasting with you, feeding himself without fear. He's just sitting there pretending to be your buddy, knowing he's not. He hates you, he doesn't like anything about you, he just wants your money, he just wants to feast on you, he just loves covetousness, but he's, oh I love you brother, hey how's it going? God bless you, you're so great, come sit right next to me. I mean these guys, they're so double minded, they're so evil, they're so wicked, because the ministers of Satan are not the ones that just present themselves as some Satan is and some murderer. No, the really bad Satanists, the ones that are really his ministers, are deceivers. They're ones that come up to you and say, hey I'm a good guy, hey I'm like you, just like the Jehovah's Falls witness in Mormons, oh we believe just like you do. No they don't, they're lying, they hate you, they don't want you to even probably be saved. They hate most people. The Jews hate other races. We see that these false prophets, they're just evil and wicked on the inside. So let's go back to the title of the sermon, Lecrae, the son of Bozor. Why am I calling him that? Why am I accusing this guy of such a grievous thing? Well he's what's called a hip hop artist or whatever. That's what he likes to call himself. He was actually asked in an interview, he said, so are you a Christian rapper? And he was like, no, no, no, I'm not a Christian rapper, I'm a hip hop artist that happens to be Christian. It's like, wait, he wanted to distance himself from being Christian. He wanted to distance himself from being a Christian rapper, no I'm just a hip hop artist. And he said, my Christianity bleeds out in my music. Because if you think of someone as a Christian rapper, what does that make you think of? Okay, this is a guy that raps in songs about Christ, songs about God, songs about church, songs about religious things, right? If someone were going to distance themselves from being a Christian rapper, that would mean to me that he probably doesn't sing about Jesus. He probably doesn't sing about God. Maybe it's kind of subtle. Well let's look at some of the songs that he sings. One of his songs is called Jesus Music, and it's spelled M-U-Z-I-K. I don't even know if I can pronounce it right. Jesus Music. I'll give you a little bit of this song. It says, everywhere I go, people caught up in themself, money, cars, and clothes. They talk about it all the time and put it in their songs. They drive around and play it loud like it ain't nothing wrong. And all they talk about is sinful stuff. Not everybody acting bad, thinking they a thug. They try and drown me out, but nah, they ain't going to count me out. I got a backpack full of tracks, plus I keep a Johnny Mac so we can pound it out. Plus I'm bumping these Jesus beats wherever they see me. People looking all confused, because every one of my tunes is screaming Jesus peeps. I was bumping that trip, Lee, DJ rolling with me, both our heads nodding like we dozing or we tipsy, but we ain't been drinking, man. Nah, this song just banging, man. Got us screaming Jesus out the window, while we changing lanes, while we just riding with our top down, listening to Jesus music. Now I've never heard more ill-literate, thug, gangster, just stupid, foolish, garbage. And it's blasting this song. This is John. I don't even like reading this John. But of course this guy didn't get First Thessalonians 5, which said abstain from all the things of appearance of evil. He's proud of the fact that in this song they're driving, yeah, we're nodding like we're dozing or we're tipsy. He says, but we ain't been drinking, man. No, he's not trying to abstain from all appearance of evil. He wants it to look like he's drunk. He wants it to look like he's a thug. He wants it to look like he's a derelict loser that hates Jesus Christ. Some ghetto thug who wants to just kill, rape, and pillage, and steal, that's what the gangsters are like. He wants it to look like one of those and scream Jesus out the window? I mean that just sounds like blasphemy. When's the last time you see somebody going down the highway screaming Jesus out the window in a good way? No, it's usually blasphemy. It's usually an explicit. They're trying to curse the name of God. They're trying to curse people. Nobody's just screaming Jesus out the window of their car in some kind of glorious, praising way. Go to Psalms 98. Go to Psalms 98. You say, why are you preaching this? Why are you preaching against this guy? Well, it's not just the preachers of this world and the false prophets. It can be the musicians. We see that Satan himself was a great musician. We see Satan himself had great pipes, you know, created in himself. We see a lot of the false prophets today are musicians. Are these people that want to get up, lift themselves up, become a teacher, begin criticizing Christians, criticizing churches, criticizing pastors? Go to Psalms 98. Look at verse one. I want to read the whole Psalm and this is kind of where I got the motivation for my sermon. It says in verse one, O sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm hath got him the victory. The Lord hath made known his salvation. His righteousness hath been openly showed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. All the earth make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the voice of a song. With trumpets and sound accorded, make a joyful noise before the Lord the King. Let the sea roar and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands. Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord. For he cometh to judge the earth with righteousness shall he judge the world and the people with his equity. Do you see kind of a difference between those two songs? Do you see kind of a difference between the lyrics? Something that's actually intelligible, something you can actually understand, something that's praising God that's making a joyful noise. Make a loud noise, rejoice, sing, praise, joy, let your hands clap. I mean we see so much joy, so much rejoicing, why? Because of God's mercy, because of his grace, because of his power, because of his might. We see these thug musics, they want to roll down their top like a gangster, like a thug, looking like they're drunk. That has nothing to do with the Lord Jesus Christ, that has nothing to do with holiness, with righteousness, with anything in this Bible. They just want to glorify themselves, they just want to look to themselves as some great person. Oh, I'm singing about Jesus, look how great I am, I'm not like all the other thugs, even though I look like him, even though I'm walking around like I'm a drunk gangster thug murderer, and if you look at this guy on the internet, if you look at any video, you can't tell the difference. This guy looks like every other thug rapper that ever existed. He's got the gold chains about his neck, he's got the gold watch, he's got his pants down low, he looks like a thug. You know what, my two-year-old makes more sense than these lyrics, my two-year-old can make more grammatical sense than this song that Lecrae sings, and you think that's praising unto God? You think God likes it when we can't even form a complete sentence? I mean, Paul said, I'd rather speak five words of my own understanding than to just speak about some blabbering and vain jingling and just all this junk. No, we're supposed to praise God with our understanding. We're supposed to sing what he says in verse five, I love this phrase, look at the end of it, the voice of a song. God likes it when he sings the psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. It says in Ephesians 5, speaking to yourselves in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. That's not melody, this thug music, it just sounds like a bunch of trash, and this hip-hop music's not glorifying unto God, it's not the harp, it's not a joyful music, it's not melody, it's just trash, it's garbage, it's fill, I don't even want to hear it. It's not praising unto the Lord, it's not rejoicing. It's earthly, sensual, and devilish, that's what it is, and anybody that thinks that that kind of music is praising unto God is a fool. They're not being honest with themselves, they just love the carnality and the flesh of the world. They're not singing with the harp, they're not singing with the stringed instrument, they're not singing with the trumpet, with the high cymbals. Colossians chapter three says, let the world of Christ dwell in you rich and in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. The Bible says that when we offer praise, we're just singing with grace towards God, we're saying, look how great God is, look how wonderful God is, look at all the great things He's done, His power, His might, His grace, His truth, His salvation, we're singing about the Lord Jesus Christ, what are they singing about? His Jesus beats. We're singing about how we're not, you know, singing about drugs and alcohol, that's great, that's great if you don't want to sing about that. I don't want to sing about it either, but if you're going to make a song about Jesus, why don't you get the voice of a song? Why don't you get the book that He gave you of a whole hundred and fifty songs and sing them? But they don't want to sing them. He said in an interview, I don't know any gospel music, I don't know any of the songs of the old. He just wants to sing His hip-hop trash and call that Jesus music. That's trash, that's filth, and anybody that wants to listen to that does not love God, they don't want to praise God, they don't want to sing with the voice of a song. They don't want to actually do what God said and praise the Lord. They want to just lift up themselves with pride. So I'm giving you kind of a history of Lecrae, and no, Marvel, go back to 2 Peter chapter 2 if you can, because it's interesting when you learn a little bit about history, Lecrae testifies on the fact that as a little boy, he was abused many times, that he was actually sexually abused. And then even later in his life, when he was dating some girl, they ended up getting pregnant and he took her to an abortion clinic and tried to convince her to get an abortion and he paid for it, and he aborted his child. Look at 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 14, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin beguiling unstable souls, in heart they have exercised with covetous practices cursed children. Now I don't like to think about this, but the Bible talks a lot of times that the false prophets, they had a cursed childhood, they had a rough childhood. Now they have a choice when they go through these sufferings to go through these bad things to choose, hey, am I going to just reject God and hate God because of all the bad that happened to me, or am I going to just forsake God and hate God and never go back to him. You have a choice to love and choose God no matter what good or bad you have in this life. But go to 2 Peter chapter 2, look at verse 3. So I have five points of why this guy is the son of Bozor. It doesn't really matter who it is, you could put in Hillsong, you could put in Trip Lee, you could put in any of these Christian, you know, Christian contemporary music singers and leaders, these Christian rappers, these Christian rock metal bands, any of them. Put them in these categories and see if they line up if they're a son of Bozor, if they're you know, singing the voice of a song, or if they're singing this just trash filth music. So in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 3 it says, And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumber not. We see that these guys are motivated by money. Now Lecrae in the last year has signed a record deal with Columbia Records. Now Columbia Records is actually a really well known record label company, but they don't have like a bunch of Christian singers, they just have a bunch of worldly singers, like Adele, like John Mayer, like you know, all kinds of famous singers. None of them are Christian, Beyonce, I mean just all the world's, you know, most famous musicians, most popular musicians, he just signed a record deal with the world, with the ungodly. He's not, you know, separating himself, he's not living a separated life, he's going and chasing after the world. Why? Why would you sign a record deal with Columbia Records for money? There's no other reason. Don't lie to me, don't lie to yourself, he's chasing after money, he just wants to get famous, he wants to chase the dollar. That's why he came out with a new record called Blessings, and the person that he has featured on it is called Ty Dolla Sign. He likes some guy, some rapper called Ty Dolla Sign, why? Because he's got lots of dollars, and he wants to be like him. He wants to have fellowship with the unrighteous, with the wicked. These guys aren't even claiming to be Christians, they're not even claiming to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, yet he's producing music with them, why? For money. And this guy is making millions. This song, Blessings, that he just came out with, brand new record, a song, brand new song that came out, and some of the lyrics it says, I put my girl in a brand new diamond necklace, she said, baby, you a boss, baby, clear your schedule, dolla you a boss, let's do something special. And it just says, count it up, count it up, I want blessings. I mean, they think blessings is money. They think blessing is riches. They think it's a blessing to get your girl in a diamond necklace and to travel the world. That's not blessings. Go to Psalm chapter 1, we'll see what it means to be blessed, according to the Bible. But they're just thinking of 1 Timothy chapter 6, where it says, supposing gain is godless. They're supposing that gain is godless, they think money is godless. And you know, you look, all the Christians today, so called, they look at Lecrae, and they look at all his popularity, they look at all his success, they look at all his money, and they say, oh, God must be blessing him. God must be giving his hand of blessing on this guy. He's reaching the world, and he's preaching to the world, and people are coming to Jesus. No one's coming to Jesus with this trash music. Nobody's coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Psalm chapter 1, verse 1. The Bible says, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungod, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Look at Psalm 2, 12, it says, kiss the son, lest he be angry, and he perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are they that put their trust in him. Go to Psalm 32. Flip over just a couple chapters, go to Psalm 32. We're looking at the voice of a psalm. We're looking at the psalms that God wanted to sing would it mean to be blessed? Psalm 32, verse 1, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man on whom the Lord impudeth not iniquity, and in his spirit there is no guidance. Look at Psalm 33, verse 12. It says, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance. Look at Psalm 34, 8. It says, O taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Look at Psalm 40, flip over a couple more chapters, Psalm 40, verse 4. Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Look at Psalm 41, verse 1, blessed is he that considerth the poor, the Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble. LeClay thinks that the blessings are money, diamond necklaces, the traces of this world. The Bible says that blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. This guy's yoking up with tied dollar sign, with Columbia Records, with all the wicked and the heathen and the ungodly. He's yoking himself up with unbelievers. We should be blessed because of salvation. We're blessed because of godliness, because of righteousness, because we consider the poor. That's how you're blessed. Not by having diamond necklaces your wife has, your girlfriend has, your mistress has, or whatever. No. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. So the first thing that we see, he just loves money. He's just chasing money. This guy wants money, that's why he's willing to say whatever he wants. And yeah, he says some right things. Yeah, he testifies with good things, but he's just saying it with feigned words. You're going to have to speed up. Go back to 2 Peter chapter 2. My second point is that he's filled with pride. Look at verse 18. When they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lust of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. We see this guy speaks with great swelling words of vanity. What does that mean? It means his music, songs, they have no value. They just sound good. You know, he got a bunch of cheap rhymes, a bunch of cheap music that just sounds good and is full of vanity though. And through that vanity, he's going to, you know, he's going to lure people through the lust of the flesh. You know, he's going to preach, hey, it's okay to get a tattoo. Hey, it's okay to drink. Hey, we're free in Christ. Hey, live however you want. I'm not going to judge you. Don't judge me. Let's not go to church and get judged by a pastor. No. And he has this song called Tell the World. It says, I got the old me in the rear view. Now the new me got a clear view. And I was so dead I couldn't hear you. Too deep in sin to come near you. But you drew me in, you cleaned me up. So take me home, beam me up. Before you do, just let me tell the truth and let those folks know I've done seen love, your love. And it's everlasting, infinite. It goes on and on, you can't measure it, you can't quench your love. They can't separate us from the love of God. There's no estimate. My face looked the same, my frame ain't rearranged, but I've changed. I promise I ain't the same. Your love so deep you suffered and took pain. You died on the cross to give me a new name. Ain't nothing like I've seen before. I got a beam and glow. I was low, down, and dirty. But you cleaned me. Lord, you adopted me. You keep rocking me. I'm gonna tell the world, ain't nobody stopping me. Now he's got this song called Tell the World. It's supposed to be something like evangelistic peace. What is he telling the world? He's saying, hey, I used to do drugs, and I used to fornicate, and I used to do all these wicked sins, but now I'm clean. So I'm gonna tell you how clean I am, and how great I am, and how pure my sin is from my eyes. And guess what? He's preaching a works-based salvation. He's not preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't say believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't say trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for the cleansing of sins. He's, no, I'm gonna tell everybody how great I am. And you go to one of these big, literal churches, what do they do? They get some guy who lived some wicked life to get up and say, oh, I was doing drugs, and I was committing all these bad sins, and then I found Jesus. Now I don't do those anymore, so I'm saved. They're just preaching a works-based salvation. And it's no different with this guy. He's just so filled with pride. And only the proud will think that because of their life's change, that they're saved. And this guy must be just, I mean, the most lascivious, the most agenomian I've ever seen, meaning what? He thinks that, I mean, to sin is like almost nothing in the Bible. There's basically nothing you can do to sin, because if you look at the differences in his life, does he look different? Actually, no. He still looks like a gangster dog rapper. Does he still drink? Yes. Does he still go to church? No, he doesn't go to church. No, this guy doesn't do anything good. The only thing he stopped doing was maybe drugs and abortion, but I don't think I'm going to say, hey, I'm going to heaven because I stopped committing abortion. I mean, that's not cleaning your life up. That's not giving yourself to the Lord. You see, this guy's still worldly. He's still below the world. See, he's not like Paul. Paul said, oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Even Paul, one of the greatest Christians in this world, he was humble enough to say, look, I still, you know, I'm a wretched man. I still have sin. I still struggle with things. He's not preaching, oh, look how clean I am. Oh, look how righteous I am now. I used to be this really horrible person. Now I'm a great person that makes me saved. And you know what? He had the most to boast in. He had the most to boast in the fact that before he was a blasphemer and a persecutor and a jurist. I mean, he was a grievous sinner and now he's serving the Lord Jesus Christ. But he didn't boast in that for one second. He says he considers it all but dumb that he may win Christ. Why? Because we're not saved by the deeds of the law. We're not saved by the works of the flesh. We're saved by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in 2 Peter 2, where our main chapter is, And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. So this guy's lifting up with pride. He's chasing money. My third point is that he's blasphemous. And if, uh, go to 2 Peter 2, where we had, look at verse 10, It says, But chiefly, them that walk after the flesh and the lusts of cleanliness, and despise government, presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. So we see that these guys, they're not afraid to speak evil of dignities. What? People in authority. People that have rule. People that have power. Like who? Like the pastors of today. The Bible says that we should be submitted under the pastors of today. We should be submitted under the church. We should be submitted under Christ. And he made some song called Church Clothes, where he mocks the church, where he talks about false, he talks about the church as just being this false religion. And of course, he's comparing, like, the Catholic church and, you know, all kinds of wicked churches under, like, a good independent fundamental Baptist church, but he's condemning all church. That's why he's settling a song that's backwards, and I lack words for these actors called pastors. All these folks is hypocrites. And that's why I ain't in church. He says every pastor's just an actor. It's just so fake. They're just so phony. Religion's just a man-made thing. That's why he doesn't go to church. He doesn't want to get judged by some pastor that's a hypocrite or some phony or some actor. And yeah, there's a lot of false preachers out there. The Bible gives us a lot of warning, though. You have no excuse. There's many false prophets. There's many false teachers. Just because there's false teachers doesn't mean you shouldn't go to church. Doesn't mean that you can forsake the assembling of yourselves together. The Bible says that we should come to church, that we should be under the man of God, that we should worship God in the sanctuary, in the presence of the congregation. That's when we should be worshiping God. And of course, he's just going to speak evil of dignities. He's even going to speak evil of God. He's so blasphemous. I saw in an interview they were talking to, and the interview said, Hey, Lecrae, now you said the movie The Shack is phenomenal. So he has a chance to defend himself. He says, oh yeah, man, that movie was dope. He says, the message is so powerful. And the guy's like, asking him, he's like, yeah, but what about, you know, this black woman being God? And he's like, you know, I just thought that was kind of like a dream. He says, but even if it wasn't, the message is so powerful. And the interviewer goes, well, I highly doubt God even has a gender. And Lecrae says, yeah, I don't think so either. The guy says, I don't even think God has a gender. Lecrae, this great spiritual leader, this guy that wants to lift himself up, say you don't need to go to church, just listen to this guy's music, and he's saying God doesn't even have a gender. Obviously, he's never read the Bible. God the Father, God the Son, the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit being he and him. The Bible makes it clear that God is a male. We see in, it says in Genesis chapter 1, so God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. Man was made in God's image, male. We see in 1 Corinthians 11, for a man indeed ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. We see that God made man in his own image. And there's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The Bible says Jesus Christ was a man. He's not some black lady. He's not from the shack. And we see that Pastor Anderson made it clear, anybody that loves that book does not love God. Does not love the Bible. Does not love the Jesus of the Bible. They love another Jesus. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 says, but I fear lest by any means as the serpent of God leave through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For he that cometh preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit which ye have not received, or another gospel which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. These people that love this guy's music, that want to lift up Lecrae, they love another Jesus. They're worshiping another Jesus. Hey, if you're listening to Lecrae's music, he doesn't worship the God of the Bible because the God of the Bible is a man. His God doesn't have a gender. He said in the Chronicles of Narnia, it was a lion. So I guess God's is whatever he wants it to be. He's more like a Hindu or a Buddhist apparently because he doesn't worship the God of the Bible, the man Christ Jesus, because if he did, he would talk about him as a male. The Bible says that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father. Galatians chapter 1 says grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. And Mark chapter 1 says the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Bible makes it clear God's man. I mean, how could you read this book even one time cover to cover and tell me God doesn't have a gender? That just means you don't love the Bible. That means you haven't read the Bible. He's just speaking out of his own evil heart. So this guy is blasphemous. This guy lives up with pride. This guy loves money. And even worse, he preaches a false gospel. Go to Romans chapter 4. This guy is a Calvinist, if you can believe it or not. And you know, this Calvinism is spreading like a disease. It's spreading like a cancer. And they call themselves Reformed Baptists or they call themselves the New Calvinists because they're very antinomian and that's very appealing to people. They love the fact that they can go out and drink and live however they want and still be saved and still go to heaven. Not because of anything they did because they don't believe that they did anything to get them saved. Nothing. One of their doctrines is called unconditional election. Now this is the dumbest foolish thing I've ever heard. It has nothing to do with the Bible. Every verse on salvation in the Bible proves this wrong. But you know, he's lifted up by John Piper, by John MacArthur, by Mark Driscoll. They look to this guy and they say, Oh, this guy's so great. This is somebody that young people can look to because they want to preach their false doctrine unconditional election. I took this from reform.org. It says, unconditional election of the doctrine does not rule out. However, man's responsibility to believe and the redeeming work of God, the son. See John 3 16. They say, look, you got to believe in Jesus. We are born Baptist. We are Calvinists. We think you have to believe in Jesus. But then it says this, Scripture presents a tension between God's sovereignty and salvation and man's responsibility to believe, which it does not try to resolve. So they say the Bible doesn't resolve the idea of the fact that you have to believe to be saved and the fact that you can't do anything to get yourself saved. They say the Bible's unclear. Now God's not the author of confusion. That's why it makes it very clear that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised them from the dead, thou shalt be saved. It doesn't say, well, if God lets you. If God lets you believe. If God gives you the ability to believe. No, God's not willing that any should perish but that all should come under repentance. Now tell me how that verse makes any sense if unconditional election is true. They believe that God picks and chooses who can believe in him to be saved. Well, if God gets to pick who's going to be saved and then people don't do it, why? Because God didn't pick them. And he says, I want everyone to be saved. Well, then that means either God's a liar or everybody's saved. Because if God wants everybody saved and he's in complete control, then that would mean everybody's saved. Or God's a liar. That verse makes no sense to the Calvinists. That's why they wrestle with the scriptures. That's why they say there's a tension between God's sovereignty, which of course the Bible doesn't teach that God is sovereign in the fact that people don't have free will. Sovereign just means power. And God is all powerful. God has all power, but he gives man the ability to choose. He gives a man the ability to have free will. That doesn't change the fact that God's not all powerful. I mean, you could potentially have a king over the entire earth. That was all powerful. Meaning what? He was in control of everything. He had complete control. That doesn't mean that people can't rebel against him. We see it through the whole Bible. People rebel against God. Why? Because they have free will. Because we make a choice every single day. It wouldn't make any sense if God was just forcing us as puppets. It says in John 3.18, He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Now if God had no condition on salvation, I mean, why is it even saying that they weren't saved because they hadn't believed? They couldn't even do it. I mean, you should just say, God didn't allow them. God didn't let them believe. The only people that God doesn't allow to believe are the reprobates that reject him, and he blinds their eyes. And they could believe not. Why? Because when they had the opportunity, when they had the free will, they rejected him. And he gave them over, they're twice dead. Like all these false prophets that we're reading about. 1 John 5 says, He that believeth on the Son of God hath to witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. The Bible says when someone rejects the word of God, the clear plan of salvation from the Bible, the record that God's given to every single person, they're calling God a liar. When they only believe one third of the record, they're calling God a liar. When they only believe two thirds of the record, they're calling God a liar. You've got to believe the whole gospel. You can't believe one part of it, otherwise you're calling God a liar. But if unconditional election were true, that doesn't make any sense. God's saying, hey, you can't believe in me, and you're calling me a liar. Well, how can you call God a liar when you didn't have a choice to believe in, if you didn't have the capability to believe? The Bible makes it clear in Romans chapter 4, where I had you turn, look at verse 5, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man on whom God imputed righteousness without works, saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. We see what it's truly like to be blessed is to have your sins covered, to have your iniquities forgiven by the Lord by faith, for free, the free gift. But that's not the blessings that Lecrae wants to preach. That's not the gospel that he preached. And if any man preaches any other gospel, let him be accursed. We shouldn't have any fellowship with this guy who loves money, who's filled with pride, who's so blasphemous, who preaches another gospel. And yeah, I got a fifth point. He's of the world. The Bible says that woe unto you and all men shall speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. When we see a guy getting lifted up, when he's loved of the world, when he's winning all the Grammys, when he's got the best-selling album, when everybody's just saying, this guy's so great, he's probably a false prophet. He's probably a false teacher. Why? Because of the love of money. He's exposing gain as godliness. Because of pride. He thinks that it's changed life is what saved him. That's what he preaches to people. He says, look how godly I am now. That's the power of God. No, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and of salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jude verse and also to the Greek. You go to these people's websites, and what do you never find? The gospel. Because they're ashamed of the gospel. Anybody that loves the cray is ashamed of the gospel. They don't love Jesus Christ. They're serving another Jesus. They're not singing with the voice of a song. They hate God. You need to get on the Bible screen. You need to sing with the voice of a song. You need to be blessed because you don't walk in the counsel of the ungodly. That's what it means to be God's servant, to be his disciple. Be adulteress and adulteresses. Know ye not that friendship of the world is an enmity with God? Whosoever there will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Why am I preaching hard? Because I don't want you to be an enemy of God tonight. If you love these guys, if you love the cray, if you love Tripp Lee, if you love Hillsong, if you love all those friends of the world, you're an enemy of God. God doesn't like it. God doesn't have any fellowship with you. He doesn't like you singing like a first grader that's illiterate. No, he wants you to sing with the voice of a song. He doesn't want you to be some thug that's loving money, that's chasing after money. No, he wants you to be a servant of God who wants you to be humble. He doesn't want you to be blasphemous and sure as heck, he doesn't want you to preach a false gospel to listen to someone that breathes in Calvinism. That thing's the most junky doctrine I've ever heard, only for the prideful. And he's so of the world. Go to Psalms 95, we'll finish there. It says in Titus chapter 2, Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded, in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works, in doctrines showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to save you. We should not be patterned after the world, we should be patterned of good works. We should be patterned, how do you get good works? Well this Bible will tell you how to live good works, to praise the Lord Jesus Christ, to sing with the voice of a song, to serve him, to go out and preach the gospel, not a changed life. And if you go to these people's websites, they don't preach the gospel. You can't find the gospel on the faith site. You can't find a YouTube video of this guy preaching the gospel. He doesn't preach the gospel. He preaches a changed life. He preaches lordship salvation. He preaches unconditional election. He preaches false junk. But look at Psalms 95, verse 1. O come, let us sing unto the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. Get that in your mind, a joyful noise unto him with psalms. Of course Jesus Christ likes it when we sing loud. He wants us to be excited. He wants us to be joyful and rejoicing, but he wants it to be a song. He wants it to be his words. He wants it to be his doctrine. You know, not this, Our God is an awesome God. He reigns from heaven on high. What religion can't sing that song? What religion can't sing our God is an awesome God? They all have a God. They all think he's awesome. The other Jesus that Lecrae sings about, he thinks he's awesome. But you know what? You can't sing this song about another God. You can't sing the songs about other gods because of the praise of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the praise is the God of the heavens. Because the praise is the one that's mighty. That's terrible. That brings forth salvation. That's not any other God. Allah doesn't bring forth salvation. We don't see the Hindu gods bringing forth the salvation. They're not righteous. They're not the God of the Bible. They're not the creator of the heavens or the earth. They're not the only God. But when you sing with the voice of a song, you can only praise the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't praise some other god. You can't praise some false god. But we see that the ecumenical songs of the day, the songs that Lecrae and all these false musicians and false teachers want to sing, they're so generic, they're so watered down, they'll just praise anything and everything. They can be applied to anything. And they preach another Jesus. Just because you might get up and say with faint words, I believe in Jesus, what he really means is you've got to obey him. You've got to change your life. You've got to believe in the God of Calvinism. It's unconditional. I didn't choose to believe. He just chose me. It's just a bunch of junk and garbage. Let's close in prayer. Thank you God for your word. I thank you that you've given us your psalms that we can sing praises unto you with joy in our hearts. I pray that we would just be understanding of your doctrine of Balaam. That we could see that even though people get up and praise you, that these false teachers might give lip service unto you, that we can see the faint words when we look at their pride, when we look at their love of money, when we look at their blasphemy, when we look at their false gospel, when we look at the fact that they're of the world and not separated. We can look at your Bible and your word and we can have a greater understanding of the world around us. I pray that we would always sing with the voice of a psalm, not with our own wisdom, not with our own heart, but with the words that you gave us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.