And they said unto him, verse 5, Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.
You know, there are a lot of people out there who just think, anybody who is any kind of a priest or a pastor or a rabbi or whatever,
just, oh, hey, bless me, Father. They just kind of think, oh, this guy is a man of God, a man of the cloth. He's clergy.
But let me explain some of you about ministers. You know, they can be great people or they can be literally the scum of the earth.
Because I'm telling you, the worst scum are phony preachers, false teachers, false prophets.
Because what kind of an evil, horrible person would get up and preach lies about something so important,
I mean, about something that's heaven or hell, I mean, where souls are in the balance. To get up and preach lies about that,
you have to be the worst scum of the earth to be a fake preacher, a phony preacher.
And, you know, the Bible talks about how in the Old Testament, Jeroboam made of the lowest of the people priests unto the high places.
So what does that show you? That shows you it's the low of the low that take that job of being a false prophet and worshipping Baal and doing all this stuff.
But these people, they just think, oh, a preacher, oh, a pastor, oh, a priest. They just think they're all good.
When in reality, most are bad. Broad is the way that leads to destruction. Many there be which go in there at.
Straight is the gate. Narrow is the way which leads to the light and few there be to find it.
And so you got all kinds of phony preachers and false teachers out there. They just kind of think, oh, you're a priest now?
You're a Levi now. Well, inquire of God. Ask counsel of God.
We pray thee that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.
Now, there's no mention of him actually asking the Lord.
Ask counsel of God. There's no mention of.
OK, so then he goes and he prays and he, you know, searches the scriptures and he asked counsel of God.
I don't know. He just turns around and says, go in peace before the Lord is your way wherein you go.
Here's another sign of a false prophet. It's just positive only.
Just bless everybody. Good God, good devil, cold hell, and it's all great.
And just blessing everybody. I mean, it's just an automatic blessing.
This kind of a coin operated preacher doesn't actually check the scripture,
doesn't actually pray to the Lord and figure out whether these people are right with God, whether what they're doing is right.
He just kind of just gives them a blessing, a little bit of holy water and calls it good.
And so not always the phony preacher in it for the wrong reasons, in it for himself and not in it to help and bless other people and reach people.
But number two, he's a positive only kind of a guy.
Now, I do want to turn to one place tonight. Keep your finger in Judges 18 and go to Jeremiah chapter 29.
This is this is a passage that I really like in Jeremiah. I'm sorry. Chapter 28 looks like is where it is.
Jeremiah Chapter 28.
And this is where Jeremiah is confronted by some preachers that are preaching a positive only message when God has said the opposite.
I mean, God has said, look, Judah is not right, not right with God.
They're going to be punished and they're going into captivity and it's going to be bad.
There is a group of preachers who just continue to preach positive message about how it's going to be your best life now.
And and, you know, God's going to bless Israel no matter what. And and all that.
So Jeremiah is rebuking this. And I love what he says.
It's one of my favorite passages from the Book of Jeremiah. Look at Chapter 28, verse seven.
Nevertheless, hear thou now this word that I speak in nine years and in the years of all the people.
The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries and against kingdoms of war and of evil and of pestilence.
So he's saying, you know, I think back to the preaching of the past and the preaching of the past by real men of God.
It was against countries. It was against kingdoms. They preached about war, famine, peasants.
I mean, they preach some doom and gloom. They preach some hellfire and damnation.
They preach some negative messages. He said that's how the prophets of the past have typically preached.
And he says in verse nine, the prophet which prophesied the peace. When the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known that the Lord had truly sent him.
And here's what I love about this. Obviously, God has us preach positive things. I mean, I preach positive sermons all the time.
A lot of people, they think I have this reputation for only just preaching negative things.
But that's just only because they chose to only click on my negative sermons.
They click on all the most radical sermon titles and all Pastor Anderson is so mean.
That's because they're not clicking on the ones about the love of God and peace and harmony and all.
Because I preach a lot of positive sermons and a lot of nice things too.
You know, you can't just listen to the most radical five minutes of the most radical sermon and think that you're getting the fair picture of,
you know, our entire church here and my entire ministry or something, right?
So obviously, God has called us to preach about love and joy and peace and all these things.
But here's what Jeremiah is saying. He's saying, look, when somebody shows up and they're preaching a positive message,
the default is to kind of be suspicious of that because the Lord has moved so many preachers to preach so many hard negative things
that when somebody comes and starts preaching peace, I'm like, I'll believe it when I see it.
That's what he's saying, right? He's saying when it comes to pass, then we'll know that it was from the Lord.
But he basically says, frankly, I'll believe that when I see it.
But when some guy comes in and says, God's going to judge America, it's just like, yeah.
You know, it's like he just has me at hello because of the fact that you know it's true.
And that's how the Bible reads. I mean, the Bible has all these really negative things.
It has a lot of judgment and a lot of wrath of God. And so that's the kind of preaching you expect from a real man of God.
And of course, we read the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah is preaching a lot of rough things.
Isaiah is preaching a lot of rough things. Ezekiel is preaching a lot of rough things.
Now, there are some really peaceful chapters in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
You think of Isaiah, you know, come for ye, come for ye, my people.
I mean, there's all kinds of positive stuff, but there are a lot of rough chapters, too.
And so what he's saying here is be suspicious of the prophet who comes and just tells you everything's great and it's wonderful.
And God's just going to bless America and we're the chosen ones and all this stuff.
Whereas the guy who preaches a negative message is more likely to be telling the truth.
I mean, that's what the Bible is saying here. Hard, negative preaching is more likely to be the true story from God than the positive only stuff.
So this verse doesn't really bode well for like a Joel Osteen type of preaching where it's just very positive and doesn't talk about anything negative.
It's funny how all the prophets of the past weren't like that.
It's funny how all the guys in the Bible are preaching rough sermons. Something isn't right when it's all sweetness and light.
So in Judges Chapter 18, if you want to turn back there, we see that, you know, some of the signs that this guy is a bad preacher, a false prophet, is that,
number one, he's just more interested in his gig. This is just a gig to him.
I'm getting paid. Look how well I'm being treated. Look at my money. It's a gig to him.
Number two, he's a positive only kind of guy. He doesn't even ask God because he already knows it's a yes.
You know, he just kind of just tells everybody what they want to hear.