Man, Ezekiel chapter 13, we just read this passage about the prophets that prophesy
out of their own hearts.
Instead of preaching the Word of God, they preach something that they have dreamed up
themselves, something that comes from within in their own heart.
The Bible says in verse number 2, Son of Man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel
that prophesy and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, hear ye
the word of the Lord.
Blessed sayeth the Lord God, woe unto the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit
and have seen nothing.
Now this is the mentality that a lot of people today have and even Christians today
have, where instead of following what the Word of God says, they follow their heart.
They sort of just go with what seems right unto them, what feels right to them.
And there's so much scripture about this, like for example in Proverbs it says, there
is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
When we read the book of Judges and see all of the wrong things that are described
there in those final chapters of the book of Judges, it says in those days there was
no king in Israel.
Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
They're not setting out to do wrong, hey, let's go be evil, let's go be wicked.
No, they're doing what's right in their own eyes.
But is it right in the eyes of God?
No, they're not following the Bible, they're not following the Word of God.
They're doing what's right in their own eyes.
You know, oh, just trust your heart, the world will tell you.
Follow your heart.
The Bible says, who so trusteth in his own heart is a fool.
The Bible says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
You know, we don't even necessarily understand our own heart.
Our heart is a product of so many things and influences that we have and we've been
taught things and we've seen things and in many ways we've been brainwashed our
whole lives in certain ways.
And so we can't just trust our gut all the time or our instinct all the time or
our heart all the time because it will often lead us astray.
We've got preachers today getting up and preaching nice things.
And we got people in the congregation sitting and hearing and saying, this sounds nice.
I like this.
This sounds right.
You know, I just walk in, it just feels right, just seems right.
But if it contradicts the Word of God, it isn't right.
We've got to follow what the Bible says and God says, I am against the prophets who
preach things that they dream up on their own, they preach things out of their own heart
and they're not preaching what the Bible actually says.
Woe unto the foolish prophets, verse 3, that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing.
Now when it says they've seen nothing, this is referring to the fact that in the
past before we had the complete written Word of God, God would speak to prophets
and he would always, or he would often, I should say, appear to them in visions
and dreams.
And so they would see a vision, they would see a dream, and then they would preach
the Word of God that they had received in that manner.
And he's saying they didn't see anything.
You know, this did not come from the Word of God, they just dreamed it up.
The equivalent today would be you didn't read it in the Bible, you just dreamed
it up because today we have the written Word of God as our guiding light.
The Bible says in verse 4, O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.
We've not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel
to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord.
Now there's a contrast here between the fox and the one who's actually making
up the hedge, okay?
The fox does his own thing.
First of all, throughout the Bible the fox is described as a tricky, conniving type
of animal, and it is harmful, it is malicious, and also it is a solitary creature.
Many other similar animals travel in groups or packs or work as a team, whereas the fox
of the desert is a solitary animal, he's doing his own thing, he's in it for himself,
he's out to trick and to deceive, so obviously this is not what a man of God is
supposed to be doing, okay?
The opposite of that is the one who makes up the hedge and stands in the gap, right?
The one who is in the place where he's supposed to be, where God has put him,
he's a team player, he's working for the best of the whole group, he's looking out
for everyone, sort of like in a battle, when you go to battle, and you have ranks
of soldiers and they're all lined up side by side, and they work together toward the
common goal, which is the cause of Christ, as opposed to just being out and doing your
own thing, trying to just aggrandize self, which is what a lot of preachers are doing.
It says in verse number six, they've seen vanity and lying divination, saying, the Lord
saith, and the Lord hath not sent them, and they have made others to hope that they
would confirm the word.
And as we're going to see in this passage, a lot of what these pastors are preaching
is very positive.
They're not preaching against sin, they're not preaching judgment and wrath of God type
stuff, they're preaching very positive things.
And again, this goes back to the fox versus making up the hedge.
The making up the hedge illustration is going to war, you know, going to battle for the
cause of Christ, right, fighting on the Lord's side, versus just being out there
tricking people and, you know, squirreling away whatever you can into your little den
or whatever that the foxes have.
Preachers need to be willing to preach that which is negative, if it's the word
of God, whether people like it or not, whether it seems right or not.
And if the Bible says it, it is right.
End of story.
The Bible says in verse 8, therefore, thus saith the Lord God, because you've spoken
vanity and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord God.
And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity and the divine lies.
They shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing
of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel, and ye shall
know that I am the Lord God.
Of course, this is being written at a time when the children of Israel are in the Babylonian
exile.
And he's talking about how he's going to get rid of a lot of the wrong people before
he brings them back into the promised land.
He's going to get rid of a lot of these false prophets and liars and phonies so that
the people who come back and reestablish the nation will actually be righteous people
who love the Lord, who love God.
And when it comes to this thing of following the word of God versus following your heart,
where does the Holy Spirit factor into this?
Because obviously, we as believers are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, and we definitely want
to be guided and to be led by the Holy Spirit.
And you can see how these two things could get mixed up, where people could maybe become
confused between listening to their own heart versus listening to the Holy Spirit, because
both of them are inside of us.
So if we look within, are we going to get the right answer or the wrong answer?
Because of the fact that people will sometimes say, hey, you've got to look within, look
inside, and find the truth, and find the answers, and search your feelings, and search
your heart, and things like that.
And there could be some truth to this if you're saved and indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
Now let me say this.
The unsaved man, if he looks inside, he's going to get the wrong answers.
He doesn't have the Holy Spirit.
The only thing he has is his own heart that's going to lead him astray.
It is deceptive, the Bible says.
And so the unsaved man, he looks for answers inside.
He's not going to find them.
He needs to be shown the word of God externally by someone who is saved, who can
interpret it for him, someone who has the Holy Spirit indwelling, that can preach to
him the gospel of Jesus Christ so that he can get saved, that can preach the truth
to him so that he can understand it by the power of the Holy Spirit that is
within that preacher that's preaching it to him.
So the unsaved man, if he looks within, he's going to find the wrong answers.
But what about those of us that are saved?
Obviously we're saved.
We do have the Holy Spirit inside of us.
So can we follow our gut or, you know, look within or follow our heart and listen to
the Holy Spirit?
How do we know whether it's our imagination and our own heart that's leading us or whether
that really is the Holy Ghost that is leading us?
And look, I can see how these two things could be confusing because they're both within
one person.
You know, the voice within could be the Holy Spirit talking or it could be your own
imagination or your own heart talking.
How do you know?
The answer to this question is very simple, okay?
That which lines up with the Word of God, that which is right according to the final
standard which is the written Word of God, the Bible, that's the Holy Spirit talking.
And if something contradicts the Bible, I don't care what you felt, I don't care what
you think or it seems, no, no, no, if it contradicts the Bible, that's not the Holy
Spirit talking.
He's not going to contradict himself.
He's not going to tell you something that flies in the face of the Word of God that
he inspired.
And so this is how you can tell.
Now, look, in the past, in the Old Testament times and before we had the full written
Bible, the Bible says God at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past
unto the fathers by the prophets.
So God was speaking through prophets and they're having visions and dreams and different
prophets would speak as the Holy Ghost came upon them and they would say, thus sayeth
the Lord.
But there are also false prophets, right?
And so you've got right prophets, you've got false prophets, and again discernment
had to be exercised about who do we trust, who do we listen to, is this guy a prophet
of the Lord, is he a false prophet?
Now obviously it was more difficult back then to discern truth than it is now because
back then there's an issue of, okay, I don't have a complete Bible, Genesis to Revelation
to test everything with.
You know, at different times they had various portions of the Bible and they had
prophets that they knew were telling the truth and then other prophets that maybe
they don't know.
Do we listen to this guy?
Do we trust this guy?
How do we know?
Okay.
Well, obviously once they had some written Word of God, the prophet that's preaching
better line up with what's written, with what they have.
You know, if they have the law of Moses that they got at Mount Sinai, if they know
that's right and then some prophet is preaching something different, well then they
know that he's wrong.
But then God also says that if a prophet makes predictions and they don't come to
pass, they don't happen, then the Lord did not send that prophet.
In fact, he should be put to death, the Bible says, for being a lying false prophet
pretending to see visions and have a word from the Lord when he doesn't.
So there are some ideas in place where they were supposed to, you know, see if what the
guy says is true, see if it actually happens, see if it lines up with other revelations
that we've had.
You see, the New Testament dovetails perfectly with the Old Testament.
I mean, we as Christians, we bind these together into one leather-bound volume, New
Testament and Old Testament and it's just, it's perfect, it's great, it flows so well
and the Old Testament sets us up for the New Testament and the New Testament reflects
back on the Old Testament and it's one cohesive book here, the Bible, right?
Then you have other people come along and try to add to this, like, say, Islam comes
along and adds the Qur'an, it doesn't line up with this at all.
It's not even close, it's just ridiculously different.
Or the Book of Mormon comes along or, you know, Brigham Young comes along with all
of his revelations and weird things that just outright contradict the Word of God.
And then what's their answer when you show them these things?
They say, oh, well, the Bible's corrupted.
It's funny, Jesus didn't come along and say, oh, the Old Testament's corrupted, listen
to me now.
Is that what he said?
No, when Jesus came along, here's what he said.
He said, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets, for I say unto
you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from
the law till all be fulfilled.
So Jesus comes along and says, everything in the Old Testament is true.
Search the scriptures.
If we're in them, you think you have eternal life, and maybe they would testify of me.
If you believed Moses, you'd believe me.
Search the scriptures.
How read is thou?
Every word in the Old Testament, he said, is true, right?
He said, heaven and earth shall pass away, my word shall not pass away.
And then he said, it's easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one jot or one
tittle to pass from the law.
He didn't come along and say, oh, well, you know, unfortunately, Moses hasn't been preserved.
No, he actually affirmed the preservation of God's word, whereas Islam does the opposite.
They come along and say, oh, well, the Bible used to be good, but it's corrupt
now.
Mormons come along, oh, well, the Bible used to be good, but it's corrupt now.
We need Joseph Smith to tell us what it really says.
And then Joseph Smith, and they don't like to talk about this, but Joseph Smith, before
he died, was working on his own translation of the Bible called the Joseph Smith translation,
abbreviated as the JST, okay?
And he actually, and by the way, part of this is included in their holy scriptures
known as the pearl of great price.
It includes his translations, quote, unquote.
And the reason I put that in quotes is because the man isn't translating from Greek
and Hebrew.
He's basically just changing the Bible because he's getting some divine revelation or whatever.
And if you look at his translation for Genesis, chapter number one, it says, in the beginning,
the gods created the heaven and the earth.
And the gods, plural, said, let there be light and there was light.
And the gods, plural, saw the light that it was good.
See what I'm saying?
He's not affirming previous scripture.
He's coming along and outright changing scripture.
And then in Matthew 24, when it says, then shall be great tribulation, he adds in, and
the old IFB is going to love this, he adds in, then shall be great tribulation upon
the Jews.
He just adds things, takes things out, changes things to fit his doctrine, to fit
what he's saying, because he's contradicting what came before, whereas the New Testament
affirms and points us to the Old Testament.
And Christians love the Old Testament.
We're all carrying around with us.
We all bring it to church with us.
We read the whole thing.
We don't just say, hey, well, you know, the Old Testament's got some problems, just
read the New Testament.
No, read the whole thing.
So in the Old Testament, there are various ways to test the word of God, right?
If the signs and wonders and the predictions don't come to pass, it's a false prophet.
If it contradicts previous revelations that we know are true, it's a false prophet.
If it contradicts the written word, it's a false prophet.
Now we today really have no excuse because we have this whole Bible, so much information,
31,000-some verses of the Bible here, 1,189 chapters.
I mean, we have got the answers right here, my friend.
And so if you're trying to figure out, hey, I don't know if the Holy Spirit's leading
me, I don't know if God's leading me, or if I'm just following my own heart, am
I being tricked by my heart, test it with the Bible.
Test it with the word of God.
See if it lines up with Scripture, and that's how you can tell the difference.
Because yes, as a saved Christian, I and you, we can look within and actually be guided
and know, hey, this is right, this isn't right.
You know, sometimes you'll be sitting and listening to something and just something
tells you, hey, this isn't right.
If Bible verses are popping into your head, if your opinion ends up matching the word
of God, well then, okay, sounds like that's the Holy Spirit that's working in you
and reminding you of God's word and showing you what is right and what is not right.
Verses, if you just look inside and it just contradicts the Bible, you know, and
you get this little positive message that just seems so right, that just feels so
right, that's garbage, my friend, if it doesn't line up with the Bible.
I don't care how smart you think you are.
I don't care how spiritual you think you are.
At the end of the day, let him that is spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things
that I've commanded to you are the commandments of God, the apostle Paul said.
Let the spiritual man acknowledge the word of God as being the authority.
And so people today, they read the Bible and they're reading along and they're
just like, oh, you know, oh, you know, they're reading the Old Testament and they're
like, well, the death penalty for adultery, that doesn't seem right.
Death penalty for homos?
That doesn't seem right.
According to who?
According to you, because your foolish heart is leading you astray, okay?
Because that's what God said.
God said that.
At Mount Sinai, he spake out of the cloud and Moses wrote that down, that is the word
of God, and you're just like, well, that doesn't seem right to me.
What does seem right to you?
Oh, never mind, I don't care, because only the Bible matters when it comes to determining
truth.
Okay?
Now again, if you're saved and you have the Holy Spirit, you are going to get a gut
feeling that can lead you the right way when the Holy Spirit is leading you, okay?
But by the way, here's a good idea.
If you want to be led more by the Spirit, you got to walk in the Spirit, right?
You got to be filled with the Spirit.
So who is more led by the Spirit versus their own heart?
The guy who's reading his Bible every day, praying, singing hymns, going to church,
going soul-wanting, versus the guy who's just living in this world all day, just nothing
but podcasts from worldly people, just nothing but worldly entertainment, and just
maybe just touching down at the church building for 45 minutes or an hour and a
half a week or whatever.
Okay.
Who's going to be more led by the Spirit?
The guy who's saturated in the things of God, or the guy who barely touches the things
of God and is saturated in this world?
Folks, if you're just filled with this world all the time, then your opinions are going
to match the opinions of this world, and you're going to end up following your heart
and trusting your heart into error and that which is wrong.
And then when we actually test your so-called beliefs against the Word of God, we're going
to find out that, no, you're wrong, thus saith the Lord.
This is what the Bible says.
And it's even worse when we have preachers today that are saturated in the things of
this world.
They're not filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
They're just inundated with worldliness, and then they get up and preach those things
from the pulpit as if they're the Word of God, teaching for commandments the doctrines
of men as opposed to what the Bible actually teaches.
And by the way, some of these guys, they literally become mentally ill and have delusions
of religious grandeur.
And because they get up and they say, well, God told me this, and it's really just they're
dreaming things up, and it's everything's, well, God said this to me.
God told me, and then they just make something up.
And it's often something that just outright contradicts the Word of God.
This is what God told me.
This is what God revealed.
Really, they revealed it to theyself.
They told it to theyself, and then they said, oh, this is the Word of God.
Well, you know what?
And by the way, this becomes like a God complex where they start actually thinking
that they're God.
I know that's hard to believe, but what is that one famous pastor with the really
bad sweater?
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Steven Furtick.
Yeah.
See, I knew that would get it.
He had like some $2,000 sweater, like you couldn't even pay me $20,000 to even wear
that sweater.
I wouldn't want to be caught dead over a fence post wearing that sweater, okay?
And this guy's wearing this $2,000 sweater.
It looks horrible.
Some totally faggoty sweater that he's wearing, and it was like way too big for him, and
then his pants are way too small, so he just looked like this weird bird man or something.
And he got up, and he's up there preaching, and this guy gets carried away preaching.
This false prophet, this lying false teacher gets up, and he literally starts screaming,
I am God Almighty.
And the crowd's cheering for him.
Who saw that video where Steven Furtick yells that he's God Almighty?
I mean, he's like, I'm in covenant with God Almighty.
Actually, I am God Almighty, and they're just like, woo!
And look, maybe that's an extreme example, and I said that guy was a sodomite literally
over 15 years ago, by the way.
But anyway, maybe that's an extreme example when the pastor's literally screaming, he's
like that one TSA agent that lost his mind that one time and started screaming, I'm God,
and had to be dragged away, a true story.
But there's this extreme example of the guy getting up and screaming, I am God Almighty.
But here's the thing, he's not the only one who's thinking that way, because you
got all these other guys who, they look at what the Bible says, and they think that
they know better.
And if you spend decades thinking that you know better than the Bible, you're smarter
than the Bible, the Bible's a little too mean, the Bible's a little too rough, God's
not loving enough, Jesus isn't loving enough, I'm even more loving, you know, eventually
you could get to the point where you literally lose your mind and start thinking that you're
God and develop this God complex, because you've spent so much time correcting the Word
of God, pretty soon you start thinking that you must be God.
I mean, who else would have the right to sit there and edit and change and correct
the Word of God?
I mean, you must think that you're on a higher level.
And folks, I'm telling you, this is the insanity, the madness that's out there,
and a lot of preachers will get up today and they'll just say, well, you know,
I don't necessarily have any evidence for this except just, you know, just common
sense, just, it's just obvious, it's just, you know, obviously, you know, obviously
what Pastor Max is preaching is just wrong, you know, obviously what Pastor Shelley preached
here is wrong, you know, and it's just, it's just, you know, and, you know, I mean,
the Bible does say, I mean, literally, in that, in that movie, The Sodomite Deception,
the guy literally says like, well, you know, the Bible does say, and he reads
what the Bible says, but he never explains what it means, he just reads it and says
like, yeah, I kind of struggle with this verse, I mean, it is what the Bible says,
you know, obviously, that can't, I mean, but that can't be right, it can't be right,
why? Because you got to just listen to your heart, you know, whatever, and just,
and just follow your heart, my friend, God is warning us that if you trust in
your own heart, you're a fool, there's a way that seems right unto a man, but
the end thereof are the ways of death, and, and let me tell you this, if you
don't read the Bible, how are you going to be able to test anything? You know, I,
and look, maybe I'm a little bit overboard on this, just because obviously
I'm a pastor, and it's my job, and it's my life, and everything, but man,
I've always just been so nervous about being wrong about stuff all the
time, I'm just like, I'm always just worried about it, am I wrong, and I'm
always just like reading the Bible, and trying to make sure, and, and trying to
figure out, you know, am I for sure right about this, am I wrong, I'm just
constantly proving all things, testing everything, because one of my greatest
fears is to get up and mislead the church, or mislead the congregation, it's
a big responsibility to be a pastor, I don't want to get up, and I'm
preaching, and I'm saying these things with authority, and then it turns
out that I'm wrong or something, I mean that's, that's a scary thing for me,
it's, you know, it's a, that's the biggest response, I would rather get up
and just preach a really boring sermon, I'd rather preach a sermon that no one
likes, but at least what I said was true, my biggest fear is to just get up,
and, and, you know, preach just a banger of a sermon, and it's just wrong, it's
just false, folks, we've got to have the truth, and the only way we can know the
truth is to test it with the Word of God, that's, I mean, this is the
standard, otherwise we don't know who's right, we don't know who's telling the truth, maybe
Steven Furtick's right, maybe that's the right sweater to wear on Easter
morning, how do we know? Maybe he is God Almighty, right? I mean, look, at the end
of the day, we've got to have the final authority, it's the Bible! Let's get back
to the passage here in Ezekiel chapter 13, we left off in verse 10, it
says, because, even because they've seduced my people, saying, peace, peace,
and there was no peace, and one built up a wall, and lo, others daubed it
with untempered mortar, saying to them which daubed it with untempered mortar,
that it shall fall, there shall be an overflowing shower, and ye, O great
hailstones, shall fall, and a stormy wind shall rend it, lo, when the wall
is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, where is the daubing, wherewith ye
have daubed it? Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, I will even rend it with a
stormy wind in my fury, and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger,
and great hailstones in my fury, to consume it. Now what is he saying here?
He's saying, look, you know, the prophets, the preachers at this time,
they're preaching an overly positive message, telling people what they
wanted to hear, telling people what sounded good to them, what felt right
to them, and they ended up giving them a false sense of security by
building this fake wall of untempered mortar, because the wall
represents security and safety, right? In the ancient world, there's a lot of
violence, and you've got a wall around the city so that you can go to bed and
feel safe at night, and not worry about roving bands or marauders or other
armies or whatever coming in and harming you. You want to be able to
sleep soundly in the safety of the walled city. And he's saying that these
preachers, instead of actually building a real wall, making up the hedge,
standing in the gap, they've built up this false sense of security around
people where people feel like everything's going to be great and it's
not going to be great, telling them, oh, it's okay to do this. And so, you
know, this super permissive type Christianity that just says everything's
okay, that says that fornication's okay, drunkenness is okay, taking
drugs is okay, it's okay to just divorce your wife and marry someone else,
just giving them all these kind of permissive teachings and so forth. And
what ends up happening is that they end up building this wall around, and
then they feel safe, they feel secure, and then eventually it all comes
crashing down. Because guess what? Life is going to hit you with storms,
right? I mean, it's just a fact of life. If you're going through hard
times in your life, join the club, so is everyone else. And you say, well, I'm
on easy street. Oh, you just wait. Wait till next year comes. Wait till the
year after that comes. Because I'm telling you, life is going to chew you
up and spit you out. I don't care who you are. You know, when
people talk about how they just had this really easy life, I'm just
like, I don't know, man. You know, I'm real skeptical when people act
like their life is so perfect, it's so good and so smooth, you know, I
don't know. And you know, maybe it's true, but you know, they're
probably not doing much for the Lord. Because it seems like, man, when
you do stuff for God, it's rough. And people that are out living
like the devil, they have an even worse life. They have an even
rougher life. Look, here's what I believe. I believe that the
storms come in everyone's life. Even if everything outwardly is going
well, then there's going to be an internal storm. If it's not
your health, it'll be relationships. If it's not relationships, it's
family. If it's not family, it's work. If it's not work, it's
church. If it's not your body, it's your mind. Something is
going to break, man. That is life. And let me tell you
something. When the storms of life come, you want to be
founded on the rock and you don't want to be standing next to
a wall that's daubed with untempered mortar. And the
idea here is that the wall, you could say, is made up of these
statements about the Word of God or teachings from the Bible
and so forth. If you get real good teachings from the
Bible, here's what you're getting. Each Bible verse is
like a brick in your wall. And then you want the bricks to
be connected well so that things aren't being taken out of
context and connected the wrong way. You want to take a
Bible verse over here and properly connect it to this Bible
verse and then stack the right Bible verse here. This is how
these things go together. This is how it works. Then you
have a solid structure of your faith. And when you go
through trials and tribulations, your faith is
going to sustain you. Your faith is going to protect you
because it's real. It's correct. You know, it's not
just like, well, anybody can just start piling rocks and
just throwing slime between them. Right? You want to have
somebody who actually knows what they're doing build that
wall for you. Because guess what? You build a wall and
the earth shifts and the storm comes. You want that
thing to withstand the forces of nature. Well, Jesus Christ
gave a parable about the man who builds his house upon
the rock. Right? The rains descended, the floods came and
the winds blew and beat upon that house. And it fell
not for it was founded upon a rock. The foolish man
build his house on the sand. The rain descended, the
floods came, the wind flew and beat upon that house
and it fell and great was the fall of it. And
this is the same idea here of being founded on the
rock, a solid structure, a wall of rectangular bricks
with sharp edges, clean cuts, and nice tempered
mortar as opposed to, you know, you ever buy stuff at
Home Depot and it's just like cheap, flimsy, and
you're just like, ah, you know, whatever, whatever
the materials or the parts were. One time I bought a
shovel from Home Depot and I tried to dig with
it and it was just, it was, the metal was just
too weak. It was untempered. Right? And, and I
walked up to the lady and she said, why are you
returning this shovel? And I just went, I said, that's
why I'm returning the shovel. And she's just like,
okay, because I'm not that strong. I shouldn't be
able to do that with my bare hand. You know,
other times you buy drill bits and they're just
dull immediately. It's like one hole, they're
dull. Or you can spend a little more money and
get a drill bit that can last you for years. Or
you buy one stupid drill bit after another that
just, you're just burning through 10 drill
bits in a row. Then you get one good one. It
could replace 100 bad ones. It's, you know,
and this is the same idea here. The untempered
mortar, it's some kind of a watered down mortar
that's not gonna hold. You know, you want
something that's gonna be hard as a rock. And
I guarantee you that some store somewhere is
selling some janky mortar that they cut corners
on what went into it and, and basically the
bricks are just gonna come falling apart. You
know, you could just run into it if you're,
you could just run into it and if you're like
a cartoon character it'll just be the shape of
a person cause you just ran through the brick
wall. Right, and that's not supposed to happen.
But it's untempered mortar. You see, wrong
preaching, preaching that comes from the worldly
mentality, the worldly heart, just kind of going
with the culture of what people believe and what
people think, the zeitgeist if you will, what
people think is right in 2024. That kind of
preaching is a wall daubed with untempered
mortar and when the floods come and when the
rains blow your life is gonna come crashing
down. I don't know, I went to church, you know,
I did what they said. I don't know why. They
were lying to you. That's why you gotta check
it on your own, check it in the Bible. You
know, I can't even count how many people
have walked up to me and said, man, I wish I
would have heard this preaching when I was
younger. I wouldn't have made a lot of the
decisions that I made because my church was
telling me that this was okay and then I did it
and ruined my life and they said it was fine.
Well, guess what? Just because they said
it's fine doesn't make it fine. You need to
see what the word of God says. First of all,
you need to get a church that's actually
preaching the word of God. Number two, you
need to be searching the scriptures daily
whether these things are so and then you'll
know whether you're being told the truth
or not because your life can really come to a
crash and burn if you're following bad
teachings and following wrong advice and
listening to wrong counsel. All of us are
going to get hit with the hailstones, the
storms, the rain. That's what it means
to be a human being in this world. The
difference is whether your faith will sustain
the barrage, whether the commandments that
God has taught you to follow are going to
help you live a life that's built on a
solid foundation because who's the one who
builds this house on a rock? Jesus said,
whosoever heareth these sayings of mine
and doeth them. That's who's building on
the rock. If you're doing what Christ
taught, when the floods came, you'll be okay.
Whereas if you just do what a church
taught you, if you just do what your
heart taught you, the storm comes, you can
you can all come crashing down. You
know, no matter how bad it gets in the
life of a Christian who's following the
Bible, in the end, they're going to be
okay. All things work together for good
to them that love God. In the end, it's
all going to work out and God's going
to fix everything and even if you're
like Job and go through the worst
things imaginable, you're going to come
out the other side and this is what
Job said, when I'm tried I shall come
forth as gold. He knew, man, I'm going to
go through this and I'm going to come
out as gold. Whereas if you've got the
wall of untempered mortar, you're going
to, you might just end up as a pile
of rubble at the end of your life.
There's no guarantee that says your
life will not crash and burn. There's
no guarantee that says your marriage
will not crash and burn. There's no
guarantee that says your family or your
church or your job or your business
will not crash and burn. Any of those
things can happen. You've got to put
your faith in the Word of God, build
on a solid foundation and then you
know that no matter what happens, God
will get you through it. But you've got
to trust in something that's real, the
Bible, the Word of God. And by the
way, listening to what this world
tells you is right, sand is a perfect
illustration of that. Listening to what
your heart tells you is right, sand is
perfect illustration. Why? Because this
world is constantly changing their
opinion on things. I mean things that
I preach today that are considered
insane, you would have been insane 75
years ago if you didn't believe those
things. And I'm just talking about
worldly, unsafe people would have said
you're insane. More than two genders,
you're insane. You think being a homo
is normal? You're insane. Right? I mean
dressing in drag, it's insane. 75 years
ago, worldly people would have said
you're nuts. Now you get up and just
preach the Word of God and people
say you're nuts. But you know what,
some of us don't care because we're
not building our life on that anyway.
And look my friend, I promise you, I
have been influenced by this world. I
have been brainwashed. I have been
influenced by the media. I have been
influenced by Hollywood. I have been
influenced by the things in this world
that are wrong. That's why I'm not
infallible. Okay? Because we've all
been subjected to these things just
living in this world and that's okay.
That's life. We're all going to be in
this world. We're all going to get
influenced in one way or another,
whether it's at work or at school or
whatever. You know, we're not trying
to just go live in a cave and just,
you know, it's just us and the
Bible and, you know, we can never be
misled. God wants us to be in the world
but he doesn't want us to be of the
world. Now obviously I'm not saying
to just fill your mind with all this
junk, but what I am saying is that
realistically all of us have already
been influenced by it. Even if you
stop consuming a bunch of trash, even
starting today, you already have. You've
already been influenced by it. And you
say, well no I haven't. Okay, well
then your own heart will lead you
astray. You don't even need the media's
help. You don't even need the devil's
help because the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately
wicked who can know it. Even just
your own sinful flesh can dream up
stupid things. And so at the end of
the day your heart is not infallible.
All contraire, your heart is pretty
much guaranteed to lead you astray
ultimately. And so you've got to
get in the Word of God. And again,
it feels good to follow your
instinct, to follow your gut, but
make sure that you're saved, make
sure you've got the Holy Spirit
indwelling, make sure you're
walking in the Spirit, and then
follow your gut all you want.
Then follow your heart all you
want, as long as your heart is
right with the Lord. And how are
you going to know that? Because
what you're saying, what you're
doing, what you're believing is
lining up with the Bible. And so
follow your heart sounds good,
and it could be good if your
heart is in tune with the Holy
Spirit of God. The problem is
when a sinful world out there
is just saying follow your
heart, well, that's going to
get you nowhere. Let's hurry
up here and finish a little
more in this chapter. It says
in verse number 14, so will I
break down the wall that you've
daubed with untempered
mortar and bring it down to
the ground so that the
foundations thereof shall be
discovered, and it shall fall
and ye shall be consumed in
the midst thereof, and ye shall
know that I am the Lord. Thus
will I accomplish my wrath
upon the wall and upon them
that have daubed it with
untempered mortar, and will
say unto you, the wall is no
more, neither they that daubed
it. To wit, the prophets of
Israel, which prophesy
concerning Jerusalem, and
which see visions of peace
for her, and there is no
peace, saith the Lord God.
And he kind of moves into
another subject here in
verse number 17. He's talking
about these women. They
sound like some kind of
sorcerers or witches or
something that are basically
doing divination, taking
bribes, and some kind of
sorcery. I'm not going to go
into that for sake of time,
but it says in verse 22, it
says, because with lies you
have made the heart of the
righteous sad, whom I've not
made sad, and strengthened
the hands of the wicked,
that he should not return
from his wicked way by
promising him life.
Therefore, ye shall see no
more vanity nor divine
divinations, for I will
deliver my people out of
your hand, and ye shall know
that I am the Lord. The
last point I want to make
here is in verses 22 and
23, this idea of lying false
teaching, lying false
preaching, either making
the righteous sad or
strengthening the hands of
the wicked so that they
don't turn from their
wickedness. You see, if
preachers get up and
preach things that aren't
biblical, and let's say
they preach things that
are not biblical, and
they're super strict,
and they could get up and
be condemning people who
aren't really doing
anything wrong. Sort of
like Jesus said, if he had
known what that meaneth,
I will have mercy and
not sacrifice, then you
would not have condemned
the guiltless. Because
if you remember, the
Pharisees and the
Sadducees are condemning
Jesus' disciples for
breaking their rules, but
it's because they had
made up all these rules
that weren't in the
Bible. So you have these
super strict rules about
washing your hands and
about what you can and
can't do on the Sabbath
day where they had
taken it overboard. And
so they've gone overboard,
and then they end up
condemning the guiltless,
or maybe getting up and
preaching standards that
are so high and so
impossible and so
unattainable that
basically it could just
be depressing where
people just kind of just
throw in the towel and
just say, oh man, you
know. It's like these
pastors who pretend to
be just so righteous,
and they're just so
godly, and then you're
just like, oh wow, I
could never live up to
that, when in reality
they're just like you.
Now hopefully the pastor
is a little bit more
righteous than the average
church member, but the
point is though, hey,
the pastor's just like
you. We're just human
beings. We've all sinned
and come short of the
glory of God. There's
none righteous, no, not
one. And so pastors who
put themselves on a
pedestal pretend to be
sinless, act like they're
not even tempted with
sin, and they're just
on some other level, or
constantly making people
doubt their salvation. Oh,
well, you know, if
you're struggling with
sin, you're not even
saved or something. You
know, this kind of dumb
stuff, just basically
making the righteous
sad, like making people
that are actually saved
doubt their salvation,
or making people that
are actually doing the
right things always
constantly feel like
they're not good enough
or something, because
they don't fit all your
man-made rules and
expectations and going
overboard. But then on
the other hand, on the
other side of that
coin, there's the
pastor who gets up and
is too permissive, and
basically he just has this
anything-goes attitude,
and he's just condoning
of everything, okay?
Because what's he doing?
He's strengthening the
hands of the wicked. I
mean, someone's living a
wicked lifestyle, and he
tells them, hey, you're
fine. This is fine.
Yeah, go ahead and do
this. He's strengthening
the hands of the wicked,
and then they don't end
up turning from their
wickedness. I mean,
think about it. If you
have some serious sin in
your life, and you're
going to church, and
the pastor's telling you
it's fine, then you might
just be like, oh, it's
fine. And then you're
just going to keep doing
it. Whereas if you go to
church, and the pastor's
getting up and preaching
against your sin, and
he's using the Bible,
then you can say, okay,
I need to get this sin
out of my life. I need
to fix this. And that's
what God wants. God
wants us growing and
becoming better and
becoming more godly,
growing in grace and in
the knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ that we would
increase more and more
in our love and also
in sanctification,
being holy, being
righteous. God wants us
to grow and do better.
So which one is it?
We don't want to be
too super strict and
make the righteous sad.
We don't want to be
too super lenient,
and then we're
strengthened in the
hands of the wicked.
How do we find that
balance? Here's how we
find the balance. We
preach what the
Bible teaches. We
preach what the
Bible says, okay?
Now, obviously, we're
never going to be
perfect at this. Pastors
are never going to
be perfect. Obviously,
you have to be patient
with pastors and
understand that they're
human and that they're
trying and that they're,
you know, hopefully
doing the best that
they can. You're
never going to find
this exact balance
point, but we want to
make sure that we're
not going beyond what
the Bible teaches and
being pharisaical and
teaching for doctrines,
the commandments of
men and laying on men
heavy burdens that are
difficult to be born.
And then, by the way,
typically the people
who are lading on you
those really heavy
burdens, they don't even
touch them with one of
their fingers because,
you know, Jesus talked
about how the Pharisees
behind closed doors are
super wicked. They
just outwardly seemed
righteous. They outwardly
appeared righteous unto
men, but within they
were full of hypocrisy
and dead men's bones.
And so, on the one
hand, there's the
overly strict adding
rules that aren't in the
Bible, just ridiculously
high standards, and
then there are the
ridiculously low
standards that are just,
they're just totally
fine with things that
the Bible outright
condemns. How do we
find the balance?
How do we avoid
falling into the ditch
on either side of the
road? How do we go
right on, straight ahead?
We've got to test it
with the Bible, okay?
You know, and you
can walk in and
sometimes, sometimes
you hear the pastor
preach something and
it sounds too strict.
And you think, that
sounds too strict, that
doesn't sound right.
But wait a minute,
it's in the Bible.
Follow it. Right?
And look, we have
some strict views, you
know, according to
this world, because I
don't consider anything
I preach to be radical
or extreme or anything,
because I'm just
preaching what the
Bible says, what's
right. To me, that's
the middle. The middle
is what's right and
what the Bible says.
Right and left are
deviations from that.
So I don't, because
I'm not an extreme
right-wing, no, no.
I am a centrist, but
I'm centered on the
Bible, not necessarily
centered on this world's
political spectrum or
spiritual, religious
spectrum, whatever.
So the point is, you
know, what the Bible
says is the center.
That's the middle, you
know, and then people
could depart there
from to the right hand
or to the left and
get too radical in
either direction.
Okay, so sometimes the
pastor will get up and
preach something and to
this world it seems
radical. You know, for
example, we preach here
not to drink alcohol.
Okay, you don't want
to say, well, we just
want to take a middle of
the road on everything,
you know, do a little
fornication, drink a
little bit of beer,
smoke a little bit of
pot, snort a little bit
of cocaine, gamble a
little bit, watch a
little bit of porno.
You know, is that
what we mean by
moderation? Absolutely
not. The center is what
the Bible teaches.
Okay, the centrist view
would be no alcohol.
That's what the, because
the Bible actually teaches
that. And I know there's
people out there thinking
that I'm wrong about
that. Well, go listen to
my sermons on it because
you're wrong. Just go on
faithfulwordbaptist.org,
go to the sermons page,
search for the word wine
or alcohol or something,
and listen to my
sermon and you'll find
out that you're wrong
and that the Bible teaches
that we should not drink
alcohol. That might see,
you might walk in and
your heart tells you,
well, that seems extreme.
Your heart tells you,
well, I think it's okay
to, you know, have a
glass of wine with
dinner or whatever.
You might think that,
but you'd be wrong
because the Bible says
you're wrong. And
again, I'm not going
to preach that whole
sermon because I don't
have time, but guess
what? I've already
preached that sermon
several times and I
used a lot of Bible
and alcohol is wrong.
Okay. You know, other
views that we preach
might seem extreme to
you and that might
seem too, you know,
like for example,
I preach an extreme
view when it comes
to marriage and
divorce. The world
would say it's extreme,
but I don't consider
extreme. I believe
that my view is
dead center right on
because it's what
the Bible says.
I mean, if Jesus
flat out said,
whosoever marrieth
heard that is
divorced, committeth
adultery. That's a
quote from the
Bible. Whosoever
marrieth heard that
is divorced, committeth
adultery. Oh man,
what a radical
teaching. No, it's
just the right
teaching. Radical
teachings would be
deviations from the
word of God. Radical
teachings would be to
teach you to be
celibate and not to
be married at all.
Radical teachings would
be teaching you,
oh, you're divorced
and remarried. You
have to go back to
the first person
that you were
married to. No,
that's not what
the Bible teaches. If
you're on your fifth
wife, you're supposed
to stay married to
your fifth wife until
death do you part.
That's what the
Bible actually
teaches. I don't
have time to prove
all these things in
this sermon, but I've
done it in other
sermons. The point
is, you might think
that something that's
preached is radical,
but it's only
because our society
has become radically
permissive. Right?
There was a time
in this country when
alcohol was
literally illegal.
Nowadays,
virtually everyone
condones alcohol.
Do you see how
that shift has
happened in our
own country? Just
in the last hundred
years, it went from
being totally
illegal in America
to sell or drink
alcohol. Now,
everybody virtually
thinks it's okay
to drink alcohol,
even Christians.
Now look, I think
making it illegal
is an extreme view
and that it should
not be illegal.
I just think that
we should not drink
it of our own
volition.
And so the point
is that just
because something
seems radical,
folks, we're living
in a world today
where every time
you fill out a form,
it's like,
what gender are you?
Male, female?
Prefer not to say.
Who the hell
doesn't want to say
what their gender is?
We're living in a day
where it's like,
gender, male,
female, non-binary.
Right?
I mean, male, female,
and then sometimes
they'll even have
like five options,
ten options,
twenty options,
right?
So that's extreme.
So then if I get up
and say,
hey,
there's basically
three kinds of people,
male, female, and pervert.
And say,
oh, that's so extreme.
No, that's not.
That's just normal.
There's male, female,
and mentally ill.
Right?
Look,
oh, it's so extreme.
You believe that
homos should get
the death penalty.
The Bible says that
in Leviticus 2013.
If a man lies
also with mankind,
as he lies with a woman,
both of them have
committed an abomination.
They shall surely
be put to death.
Their blood shall be upon them.
Oh, it's so extreme.
No, it's not.
Extreme would be
to put you to death
for wearing that sweater,
Steven Furtick.
That'd be extreme.
That's overboard.
Okay.
So no,
just because you walk in
and say,
well, that doesn't feel right.
That seems extreme.
No, my friend,
how do we know
what's extreme?
How do we know
what is the central view?
How do we know
what is moderation?
How do we know
what is reasonable
and logical?
The Bible.
Okay.
If the Bible tells you,
look not on the wine
when it is red,
when it giveth its color
in the cup,
when it moveth itself aright,
don't look at it.
Okay.
Then it's not extreme
to say,
hey, I don't drink
any alcohol.
Okay.
If the Bible says,
whosoever marrieth
her that is divorced,
committed adultery,
then it's not extreme to say,
no, sorry,
I'm not going to perform
your remarriage
to another woman
who's already been married
to someone else.
No, I'm not going to do that.
Oh,
so such a hard line.
Not really.
It's just,
I'm just,
it's just the Jesus line.
Okay.
You see,
there are things
that seem right
that are not right.
There are things
that seem wrong
that are not wrong.
Oh,
I just,
I mean,
I just can't see
how God would,
well,
I'm sorry
that you can't figure it out,
but that's what God said
that he did.
If that's what God says
that it is,
then that's what it is.
And look,
I'm just throwing out
a few examples,
just kind of randomly,
of stuff
where people would say,
we're out,
we're radical,
we're out to lunch,
we're crazy,
right?
They would say,
that's crazy.
But yet,
if we went back in time,
you'd be crazy
if you didn't believe it.
We go back 100 years,
all preachers are against
virtually drinking alcohol
to the point
where it's even illegal
in America,
okay?
We go back,
you say,
well,
you know,
oh,
you're taking such a radical
view on homos.
Homosexuality was illegal
everywhere in America
50 years ago.
Every state,
illegal.
Go back a few hundred years
and it was the death penalty,
right?
But,
oh,
Pastor Harris is crazy.
Oh,
you say,
oh,
what about this hard line
you're taking on divorce?
Okay,
how about
President Andrew Jackson?
President Andrew Jackson
married a divorced woman
and it was such a scandal.
People were so horrified,
just newspaper articles.
I'm talking about worldly people saying,
he is desecrating the office
of the presidency.
This is about,
what,
170 years ago or something?
Forgive my math on that one.
A little more than that.
It was less than 200 years ago,
okay?
Less than 200 years ago,
Andrew Jackson
horrified the nation
by marrying a divorced woman
and from the time he got voted in as president,
because you know how,
like today,
we have the election in November
and you actually become president in January?
It used to be that you had the election in November
and you became president in March,
okay?
Things moved a little slower back then.
Well,
here's the thing,
from the time,
I forget exactly when it happened,
but from the time that he got elected
to the time that he took office,
his new wife died.
And you know what the pastors of America said?
That is the judgment of God
because God didn't want us having,
you know,
her as our first lady
because it tears down the office of the presidency.
You know,
look it up.
You think I'm crazy, right?
Okay,
why don't you go look that up?
Why don't you go buy a book on Andrew Jackson
and read it?
Because I've done it.
I've read the books on Andrew Jackson
and what I just told you is a true story
that every book on Andrew Jackson will tell you.
Now,
if it's written by some left-wing historian,
he's gonna be like,
oh,
can you believe it?
You know,
whatever.
But at the end of the day,
that's what every book on Andrew Jackson
is going to tell you
because it's a fact
that people were scandalized by Andrew Jackson.
And then today,
what do we have today?
We have pastors on their third wife
or on their fourth wife.
I mean,
back then,
they're horrified for the president to do it.
The president's not a man of God.
This has never been a religious government.
America has always had a secular government.
There's always been separation of church and state.
And so they were horrified
by just the secular leader
being involved in that.
Today,
pastors can be on their second,
third, fourth wife,
and they're still pastoring.
Nobody bats an eye.
So who's crazy?
Because,
look,
I just backed every single example.
I just brought up backed up,
which I'm sure there were certain people
that are kind of like cringing and like,
Oh man,
why is Patrick Anderson saying he's wrong about that?
Everything I brought up,
I was able to give a historical example
from the last 200 years
where the majority of people in America
would have been on my side.
Not that I need anyone on my side
because this is all I need on my side
is the Bible.
But you know,
you love what the world thinks so much.
You love common sense so much.
You love mainstream,
you know,
decency.
Well, guess what?
I just gave you an example
from the last 200 years.
Every radical so-called thing I preached
within the last 200 years,
at some point in America,
the majority of Americans,
saved or unsaved,
Christian, non-Christian,
the majority of Americans agreed with me.
So what,
how are people going to feel 200 years from now?
You know,
200 years from now,
it might even become more permissive.
We might be living in a literal
Sodom and Gomorrah here.
Or 200 years from now,
maybe it'll go back the other way,
and maybe 200 years from now,
everybody will be super conservative
like they were a couple hundred years ago.
But you know what?
At the end of the day,
I don't care.
Because if the world becomes too conservative,
too right-wing,
then I'm going to preach the Bible
and pull it left.
And if the world gets too left-wing,
I'm going to pull it to the right.
At the end of the day,
the Bible doesn't change.
Change!
How do you know whether I'm right or wrong?
You know,
oh, you're crazy,
I'm never coming back this year.
How do you even know if I'm right or not?
There's only one way to know if I'm right.
And it's the book that's sitting in your lap right now.
That is the only way to know whether or not I'm right.
Let's borrow the number of words of prayer.
Father, please help us to study the Bible, Lord,
to learn the truth.
Help every single person here
not to trust in their own heart,
but rather to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit,
which is always going to be consistent with your word, Lord.
Help us to study your word.
Help us be filled with the Spirit, Lord.
Help us to prove all things
and help us to discern between good and evil.
And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.