Another part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is actually just that final verse in verse 18
where the Bible reads in Malachi 3 18, then shall you return and discern between the righteous
and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. Go to Matthew
chapter 7 if you would, just a few pages to the right in your Bible. And that's what I
want to preach about tonight, discerning between the righteous and the wicked and between him
that serveth God and him that serveth him not. And what I want to really talk about is looking
at preachers today and wanting to know what is a righteous preacher or what are the signs of a
false prophet or a bad preacher. Now the reason this is important, look at Matthew 7 verse 15,
it says beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are
ravening wolves. The Bible tells us there are going to be people who come in among us
or try to preach to us and they come in sheep's clothing. They come in the clothing and the garb
of one of God's people but actually they're a lying false prophet. They're actually
preaching lies and they have a facade that makes them look good but we as Christians need
to be able to cut through that facade and discern between the righteous and the
wicked and between him that is really serving God as a preacher and between those that are,
as the Bible says, serving their own belly and not serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
there are many false prophets in our world today and we're bombarded with preaching
sometimes through channels such as the television or the internet. There are all kinds of churches
around us and we hear all kinds of preaching. We need to be able to discern and identify
false prophets and false teachers for what they are and that's what I'm going to preach
about tonight but let's start here in Matthew 7. It says in verse 15, beware of false prophets
which come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know
them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so,
every good tree bringeth forth good fruit but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Verse 21, not everyone that saith unto me Lord Lord
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name
and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works and then
will I profess unto them I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work. Iniquity, God is saying
here that one day people will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and say to them, Lord have we
not prophesied in thy name. Now wait a minute, these are preachers, these are people who preached
the bible in the name of Jesus Christ. They're going to say to them, hey we preached your
word, we preached in your name, we cast out devils and in thy name we've done many
wonderful works but he'll profess unto them I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work
iniquity. You see there are many people today that are trusting in their own good works to save
them and these people will be cast out one day because of the fact that according to the bible
if you trust in your works to save you, you'll be judged by your works and if many of us were
judged by our works we're not going to make it into heaven because we're all sinners and so
the first thing about false prophets and false teachers is that there are many false prophets
out there who are preaching a works-based salvation. They're preaching that salvation's
through works and these guys are surprised actually when they got there and said wait we've
done all these works. You see if I were standing before God I wouldn't say, Lord I've done all
these works. I'd say Lord I believed in you and you said in John 3 16 that whosoever believeth in
you should not perish but have everlasting life. I'd say what about John 6 47, verily verily
I say of you he that believeth on me has everlasting life. I wouldn't be trusting in my
works to save me. The bible says salvation's not of works lest any man suppose so the obvious
thing that you need to watch out for in preachers and prophets of this world are they
preaching a works-based salvation. You say well you know how are we going to identify these false
prophets and false teachers? Well the biggest thing is going to be based on what comes out
of their mouth, what they say. Keep your finger in Matthew 7, flip over to Matthew 12
and let's compare Matthew 7 with Matthew 12. Over in Matthew 12 Jesus says a few similar things
he says in verse 33 this is after they accused Jesus Christ of being possessed by the devil
they accused Jesus of casting out devils through Beelzebub the prince of the devils
and Jesus begins to reject them for that in verse 33 he says either make the tree good and his
fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt for the tree is known by his
fruit. Now he's using that in reference to himself because they're saying well he's casting
out devils by the prince of the devils and he's saying look at all my fruit you know look at
all the good that I've done either I'm good or I'm evil you know either Jesus Christ and I tell
this to people all the time who just try to say well Jesus was a good teacher but he's not
the son of God he's got the Savior. I say well if he wasn't the son of God he wasn't a good
teacher because that's what he ran around saying that he was okay and so that's what he said
look either make the tree good and his fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit
corrupt somebody came to Jesus and called him good master and he said why callest thou me good
there's none good but one and that's God and so you have to understand either Jesus Christ was
God or he wasn't good because he claimed to be God in the flesh he claimed to be the son of God
and so you've got to have it all the way one way or the other here with Jesus Christ you
either receive him as he is the Savior of the world the son of God the only way there
or you don't receive him at all and that's what Jesus is preaching to them he says either
make the tree good and his fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt
for the tree is known by his fruit and then the next thing he says is verse 34 oh generation
of vipers how can ye being evil speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart
the mouth speak it a good man out of the good treasure of the heart bring it forth good
things and an evil man out of the evil treasure bring it forth evil things but i say unto you
that every idle work that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment
provide thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned
and so one of the best ways we're going to identify these false prophets is by what comes
out of their mouth because if they were a good man if the holy spirit were inside of them
if they were filled with the spirit then good things and right things would come out of
their mouth not a false works-based salvation would come out of their mouth that's going to
identify who they are because of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaking so we can go
by what they say but not only that turn to second Corinthians chapter one
so we've got a bunch of false prophets in matthew chapter seven
that are preaching a workspace salvation we can look at their fruits as they reproduce
themselves as they multiply and we can see that the heresy of lies continue to multiply
as they teach a workspace salvation
we can go by what they say we can listen to the kind of preaching that they preach
but not only that not only are they preaching a work salvation by the way this works salvation
it can be disguised in many different ways right yeah they're usually not just going to come
out and say hey you're saved by your works the devil's a little bit craftier than that
he's going to find ways to repackage that like for example he'll just say well salvation's
not my works but if you don't do the words you'll lose your salvation
even though jesus made it clear he said those that are unsaved he's going to tell them
depart from me i never knew you know those who are not saved it says they have not
believed past tense in the name of the only god and son of god you can't lose your
salvation it's everlasting life but that's a form of work salvation because well you don't have
to work to get saved you just have to work to stay safe it's still work salvation it's the
same thing or they'll say well if you're not doing the works you never really were saved in
the first place you know so you got to have the faith and the works wrong but to him that worketh
not the bible says but believeth on him that justified the ungodly his faith is counted for
righteousness even as david also described the blessedness of the man unto god and puteth
righteousness without works saying blessed are they whose sins are forgiven and whose iniquities
are found blessed is the man to whom the lord will not impute sin and so they'll hide in
a different way or they'll say well you don't have to do the works you just have to be willing
to do the works you know you just have to repent of your sinful lifestyle and be willing
to live right well it's just all different ways of saying you work your way in you straighten
your life out you do or you don't do this or do this or quit this sin or start doing this
or get baptized or whatever it's all lies because the bible says but by grace are you saved
through faith and not yourselves it's the gift of god not it works the same as you both
but the other thing you got to watch out for with false teachers that's the obvious one you
know they're just preaching another salvation they're preaching works okay the other thing you
got to watch out for is the mixed message the mixed message while you're in second
parenthesis i'll quickly read for you first timothy 3 8 this is about the deacons and by
the way the deacons of the bible were actually preachers as well he just finished giving the
qualifications for the bishop in first timothy 3 then he says in verse 8 likewise or in the same
way as the bishop must the deacons be brave not double-tongued did you hear that the deacons
and the bishops should not be double-tongued not given to much wine not greedy of filthy
lucre look at second corinthians 1 verse 18 we were there this morning but as god is true
our word toward you was not yay and nay for the son of god jesus christ who was preached
among you by us even by me and sylvanus and timotheus was not yay and nay but in him was
yay for all the promises of god in him are yay and in him amen unto the glory of god by us
watch out for the mixed message paul is saying here that he and silas and timothy they preached
a message that was yay and amen they didn't preach yay and nay and you'll hear a lot of
preachers preach a mixed message because they're trying to keep all different crowds happy
but i couldn't believe it somebody uh somebody sent me this this week joel osteen okay you know
mr positive only preacher mr prosperity preacher down in houston texas they sent me this thing
of joel osteen preaching against homosexuality you know i couldn't believe it on on tv he was
on tv and this cracks me up you want to talk about talking about both sides you know somebody
sent me this little video in my email and it was joel osteen on tv being interviewed okay
and the guy asked him so you know i know it's kind of a tightrope that christian preachers
have to walk on this issue of homosexuality that's what the host is saying you know i fell off that
tightrope a long time ago he said now you're gonna walk down this tightrope and he said
what do you say about homosexuality joel osteen is it a sin and joel just shocked everyone by
saying yes it is word of the scriptures it is a sin it is a sin you know and the host was
just shocked he's like well that's not what you've said in the past he said i've never even heard
you use the word sin and this host said you know you you almost seem like you came here
today planning on saying that and the host was getting mad because you know the host wants
to promote a pro homo agenda and so he's like well you almost sound like you planned
to come here and say that and i heard you other times say you know that you wouldn't say
it was a sin and what are you doing you know and joel osteen just said well you know i guess i
just learned a lot but but you know these these homos are really good people and i'm not
going to judge them and i just don't think it's god's best in their life i just don't think it's
the best choice to be a homo you know i'm i'm adding that crazy and so basically joel
osteen's up there just flip-flopping you know because i guess he found out that by saying
that being a homo is totally not a sin you know that was making people mad so now he's just saying
the other way you know so one day he'll say that it's a sin one day he'll say that it's not a sin
and then basically he could please everybody because he can say well that's what i really
meant i just messed up over here you know and then other people say well this is what
he really meant and then basically the host starts getting mad at him and telling him he's
judgmental he's like well you're judging you know you're judging these people now look if joel
osteen is going to be called a judgmental preacher there's no hope for the rest of us
we might as well just let it all hang out we might as well just preach whatever we want
because the real preacher is never going to be accepted by the world you know in this wicked
world even if they're going to condemn joel osteen for being too negative i mean what in
the world are we doing trying to please the world and so that leads me into my next point
which is this the false prophets are loved by the world look at luke chapter 6 but beware of
this talking out of both sides of their mouth thing because whenever you want to expose these
false prophets to people this is inevitably the response you get because you'll say well here's
a you know here's a video of joel or i'm sorry billy graham saying that jesus is not the only
way to heaven you know there are plenty of video footages out there billy graham saying that
muslims are going to heaven and Catholics are going to heaven and mormons are going to heaven
and people have never even heard of jesus and you'll show people that and this is their
response oh but here's another place where he said that jesus was the only way to happen
like that somehow proves that he's a righteous preacher no that just proves that he's double
tongues that just proves that he's sending a mixed message and false prophets and politicians
both like to send a mixed message because they want to keep everybody happy and so they'll tell
these people what they want to hear they'll tell these people what they want to hear but a real
preacher it's just all yay and amen it's not yay and may it's not a flip-flopping back and forth
of one day i think it's right the other day it's wrong i'm not sure if it's a sin
no a real preacher is going to get up and just preach god's word and it's not going to change
every day when he believes and it's not going to be all this conflicting contradictory preaching
coming out of his mouth but watch out for for work salvation being preached watch out for the
mixed message preachers that try to preach it both ways you know it reminds me of my dad was
in a church and the preacher started preaching calvinism you know he started preaching the same
where god chooses who goes to heaven and hell and people are just foreordained to go to hell
there's nothing we can do about it you know it's all up to god and my dad got up and walked
out of the service praise god so my dad walks out and the preacher comes after him because it
was actually a childhood friend of his and the preacher comes after him and says wait a minute
you know why are you leaving and he said you know i'm not it was another guy that was
preaching beside the pastor so the pastor falls him out the door and says you know why are you
leaving what is this and he says hey i'm not a calvinist i didn't come to this i expect this
to be an independent baptist church i don't want your calvinism that this god chooses who is
saved the bible says god's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to
and so my dad said well what do you believe then what do you believe and he said oh i agree
with you and he said okay well then go tell him he's wrong that's what my dad told the
pastor he said okay well then go tell that preacher that he's wrong and here's what the
pastor said well the bible teaches both you see what i'm talking about my friend the mixed
message the bible doesn't teach both on any subject okay the bible teaches the right way
and everything else is wrong and the right way is when the bible says that god is jesus
christ is the savior of all men especially of those that believe he's the propitiation for our
sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world the bible says that he
by the grace of god tasted death for every man no the bible doesn't say it both ways
it always says that jesus died for everybody and that whosoever will let them take of the
water of life freely whosoever will may come and god is not willing that any should perish
so watch out for the mixed message but uh thirdly watch out for preachers that are loved
by the world and that fit in with the world now i used to use that for joel osteen but now
he's out of graces with his hollywood uh controllers but it says in luke chapter three
or i'm sorry luke chapter six verse 26 woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you
for so did their fathers to the false prophets that tells me right there that if there's a
preacher that the world just speaks well of and all men think he's great that tells me he's
a false prophet jesus says woe unto you woe unto you when you're loved by the world and
preachers today that seek to be loved by the world are seeking to distance themselves from
jesus christ because jesus said they called the master of the house be else above how much
more shall they call them of his household marvel not my brother and if the world hate you
he said if if the world hates you you know that it hated me before it hated you
he said the disciple is not above his master and the servant is not above his lord
it is enough for the disciples to be as his master and the servant as his lord if they call
the master of the house be else above how much more shall they call them in this household a
real preacher is not beloved by the world otherwise he's better than jesus because jesus
said either you're better than me which you're not or you're going to be called the same
things i was called in fact you're going to be called worse names but it says in james 4
4 you don't have to turn there you adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the
friendship of the world is enmity with god whosoever therefore will be a friend of
the world is the enemy of god anyone who wants to be a friend of the world the bible
says is the enemy of god this is the way to identify false prophets my friend
are they preaching false doctrine are they preaching a mixed message are they loved and
applauded by the world are they loved by nbc abc and cbs then they are not of god or the
world would hate them the way that they hated and crucified jesus the way that it stone steven
and the way that they beat and imprisoned the apostle paul and every prophet of the old
testament and every apostle of our lord jesus christ because all that we live godly in christ
jesus shall suffer persecution proverbs 29 27 an unjust man is an abomination to the just
and he that is upright are you listening he that is upright in the way is an abomination to
the wicked the wicked will find the upright preacher an abomination wicked people in this
world consider a bible-believing preacher an abomination and if the world doesn't consider
you an abomination and you're a bible-believing preacher then you need to get right with god
because you're not a righteous preacher that's what the bible says proverbs 28 4 they that
forsake the law praise the wicked but such as keep the law contend with them the real
preachers of the of this world do not fit in with the world around them look at lamentations
chapter two lamentations chapter two and we'll see the fourth sign of a phony preacher
he won't preach on sin he will not preach on sin look at lamentations chapter two verse 14
this is right between jeremiah and ezekiel in your bible lamentations 2 14 the bible says
the prophets prophet is another word for preacher the prop thy prophets have seen vain and foolish
things for thee and they have not discovered thine iniquity now the word discover in the bible
it's kind of an older version of our word discover it basically is like our word uncovered
to expose that's really what it means to discover something if you look up every time
the word discovers used in the king james bible you'll see that that's what it means to uncover
or expose something and he says thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee and
they have not discovered thine iniquity he's saying they haven't exposed your sins
you know they won't preach on the sin that's actually happening in your nation and he says
they've not discovered thine iniquity to turn away that captivity but have seen for the false
burdens and causes of banishment isaiah 58 1 you don't have to turn there but it says cry
aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression and the
house of jacob their sins god is commanding a preacher there to show his people their sins
to discover their sins to them to expose the sin around us in this world and a real god called
bible-believing preacher is going to preach on sin not like a joel osteen who says well i don't
use that word sin i'm just a motivational coach i'm an encourager i just want to build
people up and he even said in this recent interview where he finally said that you know
being a sodomite is a sin he finally called out sodomy a sin he said well but i never talked
about this from the pulpit he said i only end up talking about in the interviews you know
people ask me about this but he won't preach on it from the pulpit my friend
he won't preach on sin because he's a phony and today we've got so many phonies even coming in
among the independent baptists who will not preach on sin and god is up in heaven god
doesn't change we read it in malachi chapter 3 he said i'm the lord i change not and so the
same god in lamentations 2 that says i'm sick of all these vain and foolish sermons discover
the sins of the people he's still up in heaven saying the same thing he's still looking down
churches across america saying why are they preaching vain and foolish sermons and they will
not show my people their sins they will not expose the sin around them and god feels the
same way as he did then because god never changes look if you went to jeremiah 14 that
leads me to my next point jeremiah chapter 14
the other sign of a false prophet or a phony preacher is the positive only preacher beware of
the positive only preacher now obviously we don't want to be a negative only preacher
but you know what there's a lot of the bible that's negative and there's a lot of the bible
that's positive in fact there's more negative than there is positive that's just the fact
i mean if you just read through the bible and study that's just the hard truth of it
there's a lot of great positive things there's a lot of negative things but anybody who's read
the book cover to cover knows that there's a little more negative than there is positive
and it reads both you know this morning sermon was a very uplifting encouraging positive
sermon i mean what could be more encouraging than a sermon that's called yay and amen
you know i mean that sounds pretty positive to me but you know what there's a lot of
other negative things in the bible and the problem with most preachers today in 2011
it's not what they say it's what they don't say that's the problem
it's what they won't say you see you could go into your average church today
and most of what you hear is always going to be right you know because they're not saying
much you know it's just a really generic positive only uplifting encouraging but they're not
really hitting the nail on the head today and preaching anything that will expose sin or anything
that will be considered negative they're a positive only preacher look at jeremiah 14 11
it says this then said the lord unto me pray not for this people for their good now that's
not a very positive verse you know that's not something that i've ever gotten in a greedy card
or anything i mean that's not really a verse that today is probably thundering across the
pulpits of america and yet today the bible says that all scripture is given by inspiration
of god and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction and righteousness
and he's saying unto me pray not for this people for their good verse 12 when they fast
i will not hear their cry and when they offer burnt offering and an ablation i will not accept
them but i will consume them by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence then said
i honor lord god behold the prophets say unto them you shall not see the sword neither shall
you have famine but i will give you assured peace in this place that's a really good positive
message huh no famine no warfare it's all going to be wonderful uh and jeremiah is saying
god this is what they're preaching but jeremiah knew that wasn't true he knew that there was
judgment and wrath coming from god he knew the babylonians were going to come and invade them
take the captive punish them and yet he said these prophets are all preaching this positive only
sermon that everything's going to be great then said the lord unto me you know because
jeremiah is looking for an answer here god why am i the only one that's preaching this
everybody else is saying everything's going to be fine well god explains it to him in verse 14
then the lord said unto me the prophets prophesy lies in my name i sent them not neither have i
commanded them neither spake unto them they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination
and a thing of naught and the deceit of their heart therefore thus saith the lord concerning
the prophets that prophesy in my name and i sent them not yet they say sword and famine
shall not be in this land by sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed and the people
to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of jerusalem because of the famine
and the sword and they shall have none to bury them them their wives nor their sons nor their
daughters for i would pour their wickedness upon them god says i didn't send that positive
only preacher who tells you that even though you're living a wicked and sinful life and
you're living in a wicked and sinful nation that there's not going to be any consequences
there's not going to be any judgment from god or punishment so i didn't send that guy
in fact they're going to suffer the worst when the sword and the famine comes because they
prophesied lies in my name go to titus chapter one titus chapter number one
see there are a lot of ways it's not hard to spot the difference between the righteous and the
wicked it's not hard to tell the difference because when you see a preacher that everybody
loves and everywhere you go everybody has something good to say about it that's a false
prophet right there you just know that right out of the gate if he's loved by the
presbyterians and lutherans and methodists and catholics and mormons you can tell right there that
is a false teacher that is a false prophet he's loved by every unsaved person that you meet out
soul in it who's not saved who doesn't believe on jesus christ but they'll tell you but i do
like joel osteen and i don't even believe in jesus i don't even believe about it suddenly
wrote me and said how dare you criticize billy graham i'm an atheist and even i love billy
graham you know you're just proving my point right now because they're a false prophet
that's why the man who preached a mixed message they don't make it plain they don't make it clear
i love what paul said in second corinthians chapter three he said having these promises
we use great plainness of speech we don't talk through the what is it that they say in
germany they talk through the flower yeah that's what you say in germany you know someone was
talking through the flower meaning they're not really saying what they mean you know they don't
talk through the flower they just preach the word and it's not a mixed message where you can't figure
out what it's about you know nobody's going to walk out of the sermon tonight and and figure out
and wonder where i stand on any of these issues i'm talking about nobody walks out of
here confused they might walk out of here angry about something that i've said which is all
directly from the bible here but they're not going to walk out confused because there's not a
mixed message coming across this wall but it's a clear message of exactly what we stand for what
we believe and what the bible says and so the one who has a mixed message the one who's loved
by the world the one who preaches a work salvation the one who refuses to preach on sin
the one who's positive only and today we've got a lot of fundamentalists joel osteen's we
got a lot of king james only joel osteen's they get up behind the pulpit and all their doctrine
is right down the line but it's a positive only preaching they need to stand up and preach
what needs to be preached today they need to preach heaven and hell they need to preach god's love
and hate they need to preach god's wrath and god's mercy they need to preach the whole council of
god not a partial message but the whole truth not a positive only message and they need to preach
on sin and discover the sins of the people and expose the sins of our nation and the sins
of our generation and the sins of christians today and call out i thank god for pastors that
i listen to as a young worldly punk when i went to an independent fundamental values church i thank
god they named off the tv shows that i was watching they named off the music that i was
listening to they exposed it for what it was they pointed out to me what was wrong with
those shows you know there's so many shows that i watched and i didn't think they were
wrong i thought they were fine but the pastor was kind enough to discover it to me
to expose it to me you know i remember the pastor of my church in sacramento that i went
to as a teenager getting up and preaching against leave it to beaver and how wicked leave it
to beaver was hey first year come on leave it to beaver it's the cleanest show
but he got up and said hey the stars of the show are not married yet they kiss each other
on the show they're married to someone else you know the mother and the father they have other
you know he has another wife in real life and she has another husband and yet they kiss on
screen he said that's not right he said i'm not going to kiss someone else's wife i'm not
going to have another man kissing my wife i mean can you imagine another man kissing my wife you
say well they're just doing it as acting well then they're paid to do it that's even worse
you think i'm going to prostitute my wife's lips to another man to kiss it and call it
acting and today that was mild back then today they're they're they're committing
fornication on the screen today and they're married to someone else and they're committing
adultery on screen they're they're kissing and all this other physical contact between people
that are married to someone else and you know i never even thought of that until somebody exposed
it to him you know i never even thought about it but the pastor would get up and preach down
the list of all the shows that were popular at the time he preached against seinfeld and
friends and and uh uh what's the one frazier and cheers and you know all these different
shows and he ripped on it and you know what he exposed it from the bible what was wrong with
it and i walked away and couldn't argue with it i you know it's wrong that's what we need today
that kind of thing we'll point it out and say this is what's wrong with that show the actor on
the show is a sodomite quit watching it you know this show is blasphemous of jesus christ
this show is promoting fornication even if it's not showing the action on the screen
it's assimilating that that's what's taking place and that's wrong too we shouldn't even be
enveloping our imaginations with all this fornication and adultery and lust of the
flesh that's on the television thank god for a preacher that would expose it and won't be
under the preachers who won't preach it and why won't they preach it well here's another
sign of the phony preacher titus chapter one give me a second to turn there myself
in titus chapter one we see part of the motivation of the false and phony preacher
but this can also be a way to help expose him for who he is because when we see this
tendency in his life that'll help us to spot him and identify him as a false prophet
sorry i was turning to a couple different places titus chapter one says this in verse 10
for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers especially they of the circumcision
whose mouths must be stopped to subvert whole houses teaching things which they ought not why
are they doing it for filthy lucre's sake now you're in titus chapter one just go back to
verse seven it says for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of god not self-willed
not soon angry not given to wine no striker not given to filthy lucre look back if you would
at first timothy just go back a few pages first timothy chapter three
first timothy chapter three says this of the bishop it says not given to wine verse three
first timothy three three not given to wine no striker not greedy of filthy lucre but patient
not a brawler not covetousness not covetous verse eight likewise must the deacons be great
not double tongue not given to much wine not greedy of filthy lucre go to uh matthew chapter
six matthew chapter number six first book in the new testament matthew chapter six and while
you're turning there i'll read for you roman 16 17 now i beseech you brethren mark them
which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrines which you've learned and avoid them
people who cause division are not the bad guy it's the people who cause division contrary to the
doctrine doctrine you've learned if division in and of itself were bad then jesus would be
bad because jesus said think not that i've come to send peace on earth i came not to bring
peace but division he said i met another place he said i came to bring a sword but he said i
came not to bring peace but division he said i came to bring division in genesis one god's
word constantly brought division he divided the light from the darkness day one day two he divided
the wires which were under the firmament from the wires above the firmament day three he
divided the dry land from the seas day four he divided time into days and years and months
by using the stars and the sun and moon to make those divisions god's a divisive god but
he says there are some who cause divisions contrary to the doctrines which you've learned
they come in and they want to divide people by preaching a false doctrine and he said listen to
what he said about him in romans 16 verse 18 for they that are such serve not our own
i'm sorry they serve not our lord jesus christ but their own belly so that's what
they're serving they're not serving jesus they're serving their belly what does that mean
it means they want to put good food into their belly and that is just symbolic of the fact
that they want the luxuries of this life they're serving their flesh and they want money and they
want comfort and they want to feed the flesh and he says they serve not our lord jesus christ
but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple did
you hear that good words fair speeches and they deceive but they're serving their own belly
they're in it for the filthy lucre they're in it for the money did you turn to matthew
chapter six let me get there myself matthew chapter six verse 24 no man can serve two masters
for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and
despise the other you cannot serve god and mam you can't serve god and be laying up for yourself
treads upon earth because there's a few verses up if you go to verse 19 it says lay not up for
yourself treasure upon earth where moth and rust are corrupt and where thieves break through and
steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust corrupt and
where thieves do not break through nor steal for where your treasure is there will your heart
be also now get that last verse where your treasure is there will your heart be also out
of the abundance of the what heart the mouth speaking where's your heart well that's where
your treasure is if your treasure is on this earth that's where your heart is and that's the
kind of stuff that's going to come out of your mouth everybody got it because he said out of
the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh he said where your treasure is there will your
heart be also that's why you can't serve two masters you either serve god or you serve
mammon you serve the lord jesus christ or you work for filthy lucre and it's all about money
to you beware of the money oriented preacher he's a phony he's a phony god warned us about it
greedy dogs he called them uh preachers in uh isaiah i forget which chapter he said they're
greedy dogs he said the prophets they prophesy lies he said they do it they teach things that
they ought not for filthy lucre's sake it's the money you see preachers today who are covetous
who are greedy who are uh filling their their their pockets and filling their their belly
and they're serving not our lord jesus christ but they're serving the almighty dollar you
know this is their god right here this is what they live for and they want to accumulate
as many of these as they can and that's where their treasure is right here on this earth and
that's where their heart is and that's why everything out of their mouth is money money
and you hear these preachers on and on money money money we need more money we need money
money money money raise more money pass the plate again money money money money money
but you know what the things of god can't be purchased with money
that's what it says in acts chapter eight now look i believe in giving to the local church
i believe in bringing the tides into the storehouse you know we read it in malachi 3
right before the sermon you know i believe in giving 10 of what the lord gives unto you
and putting it in this offering plate and giving to the local church that there will be
meat in god's house hey i believe that i stand on that but you know what that is not the
emphasis of my ministry that's not the emphasis of our church that's not the emphasis of our life
and a real god called preacher is not all about money money money you know we have
churches today and i'm sorry it's an abomination they'll sit there and say well we're not leaving
tonight until we raise all this money and then people stand up i'll give a thousand and i'll
give 500 and i'll give 300 hey that is just totally glorifying of money and glorifying of
the rich and glorifying of those who will stand up and pledge to give money and get their name
engraved somewhere hey i just rejoice that my name's written in heaven i don't need to be engraved
in some metal somewhere for all the money that i gave and stand up you know and i remember i was
in church for and this woman came to preach her preaching you know she was waving money
to give unto him you know that's not right the bible says you know not to do your
righteousnesses before men but you know what you can put all the money you want on that
offering plate why don't you go out and win somebody to Christ and serve god and get some
treasures in heaven you know that's what it's all about and you know if god blessed you financially
and you give a financial gift hey praise god for that praise god i hope you're doing it for the
right reason you know i hope you're doing it because you want souls to be saved and because
you want the work of god to go forth but you know what i'm not going to sit here and get
up and preach and talk about money money money all day long because you know what if this
church has zero dollars this church will continue to go on and win souls and we will still serve
god we'll meet outside somewhere we'll meet in somebody's house somewhere you know we will
baptize somebody in a swimming pool we'll run a garden hose and next sunday morning from my
laundry room of hot water into that spa and fill it up and baptize somebody and you know
what we don't need money god owes the wealth in every mind and cattle on a thousand hills
but you see preachers with all their gold rings and fancy apparel and and they donned their
day apparel and they've got the gold rings and the fancy car and the lexus and the mercedes
and they've got the fancy italian suit and then they get up and you know we really need
to dig deep folks we really need to get this building built we haven't got everything gold
plated yet that we need to we need a gold faucet you know above the urinal in the bathroom
you know we need everything to be gold we need everything to be adorned in precious stone
look is that what you love is that what it's all about to you i'd rather just get people saved
you know what i mean and look what do you need all this palace for and these fancy cars for
and what do you need all these fancy clothes and you say you're preaching your opinion i'm
preaching the bible because the bible clearly expressly spells out he said that women should
not wear costly apparel that's bible go to first timothy chapter two
first timothy chapter two and this is bible preaching tonight and it's not what people always
want to hear but it's the truth look at first timothy chapter two it says in first timothy two
in verse nine in light manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shame
in this and sobriety not with broided hair or gold did you hear that should women be
adorned with gold no or pearls or costly array costly clothing but which become women
professing godliness with good works that's what the bible said and look i don't think
that god was saying you know put all the gold on the man so you can look like mr t
you know neither neither my wife nor i should be decked out like a christmas tree
and decked out with gold and silver and precious stones okay that is not what god has
called us to do that is not what our life is about amassing treasure and these great shows
of wealth and he said you know it's the pharisees who love to wear the fancy garments and the
long flowing robes and to have the uppermost seats in the in the feasts and in the synagogues
and to be called of men rabbi rabbi and they love the titles and they love the fancy clothes
and they've got their wife decked out in the gold and silver and precious stones
and they've got the costly array and the costly apparel and the fancy clothes that is not
what the bible has called us to do with our lives to live for money and to adorn ourselves
with gold and silver and precious stones the gold and silver and precious stones that we
need are the ones that are up in heaven our treasures in heaven that's what we need today
and if you have all this treasure on this earth the problem is your heart's going to become
tied to that treasure it's a fact he didn't say well where your treasure is your heart
might be also is that what he said no he said where your treasure is there will your heart be
also and then he also said this what did he say just had a good verse on the tip of my
tongue oh yeah he said but they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare he didn't
say they might he said they that will be rich or want to be rich he said they fall into
temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction
and perdition for the love of money is the root look the love of money is the root of
all evil where does phoney preaching come from well it starts with the love of money
that's where all evil things come from he said the love of money is the root of all evil which
while some coveted after they have heard from the faith that's what got them preaching the wrong
things because they coveted after money and now they heard from the faith okay and so beware
of mr money bag preacher mr decked out in gold mr raise money for this raise money for that
money money money look give your tithe unto the church that's what the bible commands you to do
and that should be it right there that's fine you know and if you give an offering about that
as god blesses you hey god loves a cheerful giver you know but you know god's gonna bless
you and i've given abundance in the past and god blessed me for giving an abundance
but you know what that's not what it's about that's not what our church is about
and by the way these these big rich people who come in and they've got all the money
and they can write the big checks you want to know what really finances faithful word
baptist church at the end of the day though it's just the people who just go to work you know and
they just they just earn their income their basic income and they just put 10 of it in the
plate every week i mean that's really what fine because if you think about it somebody might
give a big check one time you know and praise god for it but you know what really actually
gives more in the long run is just the people who just consistently just come to church every
week just put in their time and you say well i don't really give that much you know i just
put in you know whatever a week it's not really that much yeah but you know what you do it for 30
years you know that's what that's what keeps this place rolling you know what i mean that's
what keeps the lights on you know it's just that consistent just doing what god told you to do
but let's not ever get them let's not ever be money oriented at this church
let's never get it to where we're good enough oh man we need more money you know here's
our philosophy of faith the word if we don't have enough money we just won't spend it
okay it's not that complicated because god promised to supply all our email so if we don't have it
you don't need it see how simple that is if we don't have it we don't need it
so if we don't have the money to pay for this building i guess we don't need this building
you know of course we do have plenty of money to pay for this building if we don't
have money to pay for for whatever you know we'll just not have it we don't have enough
money to pay for this or pay for that or pay for this food or pay for these chairs or
your favor, you know what? Then we just won't have it. God must not think that we need Him.
Because it's free to preach. It's free to say. It's free to go soul-willing. It's free
to read the Bible and memorize the Bible and pray. It's all free. And you know what?
God did ordain that money would be given unto the church and that people could get
paid to do the work of God as a full-time pastor or a full-time deacon or whatever.
Hey, that's all biblical and that's all fine and dandy, but you know what? It's
not really what we need. I mean, it's just whatever God gives, that's what we'll do.
And whatever we don't have, we don't need. But watch out for this money-driven religion.
Don't ever let anybody convince you that if we just had more money, we'd get a bunch
of people saved. That's not true. If we have people preaching the gospel, we'll
get people saved. You know what I mean? And you know what? They can go on a bike
or walk or get on a bus and do it. I mean, we can preach the gospel in this church.
We will preach the gospel in this church when we have no money. If the money is gone,
I mean, I don't know if that's going to happen, but if we ever just have no money,
we'll keep preaching it. We'll keep winning souls. And it's amazing how many souls
that we win without spending a dime. And yet, people try to convince you that if we
just had more money, we could get all these people saved and people would just
give and we could just get that gymnasium built. No. That's not what we need today.
We need preaching. And we need a preacher that will get up and preach on sin.
You know, nothing wrong with preaching about money because that is a biblical subject,
you know, in its place. But you know what? We need a lot more preaching on sin
and a lot less preaching on money is what we need. A lot more preaching on soul winning.
A lot more preaching on winning souls to Christ. And so beware, my friend. There
are plenty of phonies and charlatans out there. There are a lot of preachers out there
that are serving their own belly. They're not serving Christ. There are a lot of preachers
out there who are scared and they won't preach what needs to be preached because
they think it's against the law or something. You know, hey, my Bible says against such
there is no law. When you're filled with the Spirit, you're not even under the law.
If you're doing what God told you to do, how can there be a law against that? We
got to obey God rather than men. They're scared to break the law or they're scared
to break the bank of some Mr. Moneybag deacon or whatever. You know what? I preached him
out the door a long time ago because I got sick of the way he was looking at me
while I was preaching. And the bottom line is this. There are plenty of charlatans out
there. You better be able to identify them. And here's your arsenal tonight of how
to identify the false preacher. Is he loved by the world? He's a phony. Is he talking
out of both sides of his mouth? He's not qualified to be a bishop or a deacon. Is
he preaching a positive only message? God didn't send him. Is he up and refusing to
preach on sin? Beware. Is he the guy who's just always about money and he loves to
show his flashy clothing and flashy vehicles and all the jewelry that he wears and the
gold ring and all these different things? You know what? Beware of that guy. Because
he may be one of these ones that God warned us about over and over again. Every time
he gave the qualifications for a pastor. Every time he...you know, watch out. The
one who's greedy, the one who wants filthy lucre, the one who's serving mam and watch
out for him. And so this is not an exhaustive sermon tonight. There are a lot of other
things that could be summed up here of what a false preacher is. But these are just
some real obvious things. And usually if they can make it through all these tests
here and they're not preaching work, salvation, you probably got a good preacher in front
of you. If he's preaching the gospel and he's not coveting and he's preaching
hard on sin, what more can you ask for? That's what we need today. And we need
to avoid these other guys who are serving their belly and not patronize them. Because
you know what? They're not serving God. They're serving their own belly. Let's
bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your
word, dear God, and for all these warnings that you've given us to help us spot
these people, these wolves in sheep's clothing, these charlatans and phonies.
Boy, the world loves them. The world eats it up. They love the Joel O'Steens and the
Billy Grahams and the Rick Warrens. They love them all day long. But God,
help us as your people to gravitate toward people who are actually preaching
your word. And God, I pray that even in this room, there are many young men in this
room. I pray that you raise up some young men in this room and preach, dear God,
and that young men that are listening to my voice right now in this auditorium
would one day stand up behind a pulpit somewhere and preach and breathe fire
against sin and make the gospel clear and plain and simple and not talk out
of both sides of their mouth. We love you and thank you for your word. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.