Let me just briefly explain what's going on in the chapter here, and then I'll get into the sermon, what I want to preach about.
But just to give you a little bit of context, in chapter 8 of Ezekiel, God basically has taken...
And if you would, jump back to chapter 8 just so I can show you this quickly.
It says in verse number 3, I just want to show you one verse in chapter 8, verse 3.
And he put forth the form of a pan, and took me by a lock of mine head, and the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven,
and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north,
where was the seat of the image of jealousy which provoketh to jealousy.
Now, what I wanted to show you about that verse is that this is a vision that Ezekiel is seeing.
He's not physically, literally, seeing these events take place.
Basically, the Lord appears unto him in chapter 8, the angel of the Lord, and, you know, grabs him by the hair of his head,
and it says that he went in the Spirit to Jerusalem.
And he's seeing all these things unfold before him that God is showing unto him that he's supposed to preach about.
And in chapter 8, he's shown all these abominations.
God just takes him from place to place and shows him things that he normally wouldn't be able to see,
like showing him the inner chambers and what's going on behind the scenes.
And he sees how the elders of the people and the leaders of Jerusalem and the spiritual leaders,
they're worshipping Satan, and they're actually worshipping idols, and they're practicing witchcraft,
and there's all kinds of sin and abominations going on that Ezekiel didn't know about.
And so God is showing him all these horrible things in chapter 8.
Well, then in chapter 9, he's still seeing that same vision.
So what I want you to understand about chapter 9 is that these events are not literally happening or literally taking place.
This is just a vision that he's seeing that God's showing him.
And in the vision, he's taken to Jerusalem, and God has these six men that come through,
and each one of them is clothed with linen, and they have a writer's ink horn,
and they go in, and God basically tells them to set a mark upon the forehead
of basically all of the righteous people in the city, the people that had not participated in all the sin
and abominations and witchcraft and whoredoms and adultery.
He has these men go through and put a mark upon them.
And remember, this isn't literal. This is a vision that he's seeing.
Put a mark upon the forehead of all those who are righteous in the city.
Then once they put a mark on all their foreheads, then he says,
okay, now go through and slay everyone else.
All of the wicked people are going to be slain, and he says, men, women, children, everybody is going to be destroyed.
So while this destruction and this carnage is going on,
and I'm just explaining the chapter that I'm going to do the sermon.
While this destruction and carnage is going on, in verse 8, Ezekiel falls upon his face and says,
God, are you going to destroy everyone? Are you really going to kill all these people?
Would you really do this?
And God answers him and says in verse number 9,
Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great,
and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness.
For they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not.
And as for me also, mine eyes shall not spare, neither will I have pity,
but I will recompense their way upon their heads.
So basically, God says, no, I'm not going to stop.
I'm going to destroy these people. They're wicked, they're ungodly, they're all going to be destroyed.
And then in verse 11, the man comes back and says, it's been finished, it's done, what you commanded us to do.
Now, what I want to preach about today is this subject, Satan the counterfeiter.
Satan the counterfeiter. You see, everything that Satan does is a counterfeit of what God does.
He basically takes what God does, what God says, what God creates,
and then he just twists it and perverts it and corrupts it.
Go to Galatians chapter number 1, and I'll get into the sermon.
I'll show you why I read you that story from Ezekiel chapter 9.
Look at Galatians chapter 1, and let me show you what I mean about Satan being a counterfeiter.
In Galatians chapter 1, the Bible says in verse 6,
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel.
But look at verse 7, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you,
let him be accursed, as we said before, so say I now again.
If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
So Paul is warning here about people who preach another gospel,
and he says, you know, there are going to be people who come,
and maybe even an angel from heaven will come to you and preach another gospel.
Don't be fooled. Don't be deceived. Don't listen to it.
But notice this other gospel, he says it's really not another.
It's just a perversion of the true gospel.
He says they come preaching another gospel, which is not another,
but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
The word pervert means to twist, to make it crooked, okay?
And he's saying that basically what the devil is going to do,
and he says even the devil himself is transformed into an angel of light,
what the devil is going to do is he's going to take the truth of God's word,
the true gospel of Jesus Christ,
and he's not going to preach something just completely different.
Oh, no. He'll just twist it just a little bit.
He'll just pervert it just a little bit.
You see, if you think about counterfeit money,
the best counterfeit money is money that looks like the real thing.
The best counterfeit.
Yeah, I know it's all counterfeit.
The sermon's not about the Federal Reserve System.
But anyway, we'll save that for another time.
The bottom line is that if I were to try to make counterfeit money,
I want it to look as much like the real thing as possible.
If I'm trying to pass something off as a gold coin,
I'm going to have to have something that's really heavy
and it's going to have to look gold and find somebody who doesn't know the difference.
Or if I'm going to use paper money, I can try to have paper money that looks...
Who's ever seen counterfeit money before?
Some of it is pretty realistic.
It'll blow you away how much it can look like a real dollar
or a real $20 bill, $100 bill.
And so if I were to pull out Monopoly money,
and just kind of, hey, can I get change for $20?
Just try to be really not so long about it.
They're going to look at me and say, give me a break.
You're an idiot.
There's no way you're going to pass this off as real money.
Because it's too different.
It's just completely different.
But a good counterfeiter is going to strive to make it look like the real thing.
But it still has no value.
It's still worthless.
It might look like the real thing, but it has no value.
Well, that's how Satan is.
He's a counterfeiter.
He doesn't just make his own monetary system.
No.
He basically takes what God has created and what God has done
and he just changes it just enough to make it a total lie.
Just enough to make it worthless.
Just enough to make it ungodly.
But it still looks like the real thing.
And you'll notice throughout scripture, that's what he is constantly doing,
trying to copy what God does and corrupt it.
So I'm going to show you several counterfeits this morning.
But let's talk about that story in Ezekiel chapter 9.
Turn, if you would, to Revelation chapter 22.
Revelation chapter 22, the last chapter in the Bible.
Now a lot of you are probably not even familiar with that story in Ezekiel chapter 9.
It's kind of an obscure story.
It's a vision that's shown to Ezekiel
and probably if we were to ask most Christians or most of the believers today,
chances are they probably wouldn't even know that story is in the Bible
or have heard of it because, let's face it,
most people have not read the Bible cover to cover.
And that's a tragedy.
But on top of that, you might read it over the first time
and maybe it doesn't really sink in.
That's why you've got to keep reading the Bible over and over and over again
until things really sink in and you can really learn what's going on.
But that is an obscure story in the Bible.
It's not one that I've ever heard preached on.
And it's one about God sending forth his angels, his servants,
to mark the foreheads of God's people and destroy everyone else.
Look at Revelation 22. Here's something else you may have not noticed.
It says in verse 3,
This is talking about the new heaven, the new earth.
This is after the millennium. This is after everything.
This is just the final new heaven, new earth.
It says,
Watch this.
You might not have noticed that part before when you read your Bible either.
Look back to Revelation chapter 7.
Revelation chapter 7 in the Bible.
Revelation 7 and look at verse number 2.
It says,
And I heard the number of them which were sealed,
and there were sealed 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
Now turn to chapter 13.
You see, you might not have even noticed those scriptures before
or thought much about those scriptures before.
But you see, the devil is a counterfeiter.
He doesn't make up things on his own.
He just takes all of what God does and he twists it and corrupts it and perverts it.
Look at chapter 13, verse number 15.
It says,
This is an idol of the anti-Christ that people are being forced to bow down and worship.
And it says,
And that no man might buy or sell,
save he that hath the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom.
Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast,
for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred threescore and six.
Of course, the 666 number of the anti-Christ.
You see, the anti-Christ is a counterfeit Jesus Christ.
This is what people need to understand.
He is a counterfeit Jesus Christ.
He is going to be pretending to be the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's going to pretend to the Jews,
Hey, I'm the Messiah.
He's going to pretend unto so-called Christianity,
Hey, I'm the second coming of Jesus Christ.
I'm Jesus Christ, come back the second time.
And he will use these scriptures that I showed you
as a justification for putting that mark in people's foreheads.
I mean, I just showed you several scriptures in the Bible
that he could use and pull these out and say,
See right here, you've got to get this mark in your forehead
or you're going to be destroyed, you're going to be killed.
You see, he didn't make that up.
He's a counterfeit, and many people will fall for him,
and I'll tell you why, because they don't know the real Jesus Christ.
See, if you know the real Lord Jesus Christ,
and if you know the Bible,
when you're confronted with that counterfeit of the anti-Christ,
pretending to be Jesus, you're going to know,
Hey, wait a minute, this man is not the real thing.
Now, how are you going to know that?
Well, obviously, if you do the Bible,
you'll know that when Jesus Christ comes in the clouds,
every eye shall see him.
Everybody will see him coming in the clouds.
It'll be like when the lightning shines from the east to the west,
the heavens are going to depart,
the sun and moon will be darkened,
the stars will fall from everywhere.
You're going to know that's when it's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Also, how you're going to know is because the Bible says,
He that is of God, he whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God,
for God given not the Spirit by measure unto him.
And you see, the anti-Christ, he'll speak a lot of words
that sound like God's word,
but it's not going to be the exact God's word.
It's going to be a little different.
Because you'll notice Satan, he quotes the Bible.
All the time in the Bible.
I mean, he came to Jesus Christ on this earth to tempt Jesus,
and he said, It is written,
He hath given his angels charge concerning thee,
and in their hands they shall bear thee up,
lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
If you look up that quote in the Old Testament,
it's a little different.
He changed it just a little bit.
And he is a counterfeiter.
The anti-Christ will be a counterfeit Jesus Christ.
The mark of the beast in the forehead
is just a counterfeit of the mark that God will place
someday in the foreheads of his servants,
long after the millennium, way off in the future,
in Revelation 22.
It's just a counterfeit.
Be not deceived.
But today there are other counterfeits.
Go to 2 Corinthians 11.
2 Corinthians 11.
So the devil is a counterfeiter.
Now, how do you, as a banker or as a clerk at a store,
how do you guard yourself from being given counterfeit money?
Well, you've got to be an expert on the real money.
You've got to study it and handle it and look at it
and get to know every little watermark and every little cup.
And that's the same way you're not going to be fooled
by Satan's counterfeit, is when you know the real thing.
When you know Jesus Christ and you know the Bible
and you know the truth,
that's how you're going to be able to spot the lie.
If you're not that familiar with it...
For example, let's say I go to Germany.
Well, you know, when I'm handling the money in Germany,
I'm not that familiar with it.
And the bills in Germany are weird.
They're different lengths.
Like, our money is all the same length.
Well, if you're in Germany or in other European countries,
the money is different lengths, and it's all different colors.
And it has these little windows and weird stuff.
Now, I'm not familiar with that.
So if I were in Germany and somebody handed me counterfeit money,
I'd go, okay, thanks.
And even if it looked nothing like the real...
I don't know the difference.
If it said euro on it, I'm just going to say,
I'm just going to take it.
Okay, this is money.
Because I'm not familiar enough with the real thing.
Getting to know the real thing
is what guards you against the counterfeit.
It says in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 3,
But I fear, lest by any means as the serpent...
Of course, the serpent was Satan.
Beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
so your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ.
For if he that cometh preacheth what?
Another Jesus.
So you see how there's a counterfeit Jesus out there?
The antichrist is a counterfeit Jesus.
But the Bible says there will be many false Christs.
Counterfeit Jesus.
Another Jesus whom we've not preached.
Or if you receive another spirit, which he has not received.
Or another gospel.
We talked about that in Galatians chapter 1.
Which he has not accepted.
You might well bear with him.
And he says that scares me
that I feel like you're so ignorant
that somebody could come in and fool you
with another Jesus or another gospel, another spirit.
And you're going to be tricked by it.
He says you will bear with him
if they preach another gospel.
What's another gospel?
Well, it's the true gospel.
Just change this a little bit.
Like, here's the true gospel.
Jesus Christ died on the cross.
According to the description,
he was buried and he rose again.
And the Bible says,
What must I do to be saved?
And they said,
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved in thy house.
Here's the true gospel.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life.
And then here's the true gospel just corrupted a little bit.
Well, he didn't really bodily rise from the dead.
Just his spirit came out of his body.
His body didn't rise.
That's corrupting it.
Because the Bible says that he died and was buried.
And they didn't bury a spirit.
They buried a body.
And it says he died and was buried and rose again.
And Jesus said,
Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.
And he spake up the temple of his body.
And so Jesus bodily rose from the dead.
But he just changed his own little bit.
And I brought that up to one of these Jehovah's false witnesses.
They were on my street yesterday, by the way.
They seem to do more soul winning than most Baptists for some reason.
Even though they're preaching another Jesus
and another gospel and a false counterfeit.
It's a sad thing when they're out knocking doors
when Baptists can't make time to knock doors
and preach the real true gospel to every creature.
And I brought that up to a Jehovah's witness.
And here's what he told me.
Oh, you're splitting hairs.
You're splitting hairs.
What does it matter?
He said, why does it matter whether his body rose?
Or whether it was just a spiritual thing.
His spirit left the body.
Why does it matter?
I'm going to tell that next time I try to spend a counterfeit bill.
Why does it matter if the ink is a little bit bluish instead of green?
Why does it matter if it doesn't have the protective watermark?
I mean, they're both a bunch of pieces of paper anyway.
What's the difference?
What does it matter?
It does matter.
And by the way, that's twisting the gospel just enough to send somebody to hell.
Because the Bible says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus
and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
And they don't believe any of that.
They don't believe he died on the cross.
He died on a stick.
Well, you know what?
You're corrupting it.
You're changing it.
And it's enough to damn them because they don't believe the truth.
And they've counterfeited it and made a fake Jesus, a lying Jesus.
The Mormons, they believe in a Jesus, but he's the brother of Satan.
And there's all these hundreds of gods and thousands of planets and solar systems and galaxies out there.
You say, well, wait a minute.
It's the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Same thing, right?
No, it's not the same.
It's different.
Of course it's going to have a lot in common, or else how can Satan pass it as a counterfeit?
I mean, the devil doesn't want to come to you and just say, go to this church, you know, Satan Church.
First Satan Church of Tempe.
People aren't going to go there.
But they'll go to something that's called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or Jehovah's Witnesses.
There's got to be a little bit of truth in the lie or else people won't fall for it.
So the counterfeit has to look a lot like the real thing.
So there are counterfeit Jesus out there.
There's a counterfeit gospel out there that tells you, well, Jesus died on the cross for you, but you've got to work your way to heaven.
You've got to earn it.
You've got to do the works.
And so there are all these different counterfeits out there.
But not only that, are you in 2 Corinthians 11?
Just go back a few pages to 2 Corinthians 2.
Because not only is there a counterfeit Jesus, a counterfeit gospel, but there's also a counterfeit Bible.
Look at 2 Corinthians 2, verse 17, and it says,
For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God.
Now, think about this if you would.
Keep your finger there and go over to 2 Peter.
Keep your finger in 2 Corinthians 2, 17, and go to 2 Peter.
And remember, nothing in the Bible is incidental, coincidental, or accidental.
Everything in the Bible is there for a reason that way.
And every word of God is pure.
He's a shield unto them that put their trust in Him.
Add thou not unto His words lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.
2 Peter, chapter number 1.
I'm sorry, I got that wrong.
Who knows what I'm looking for?
The incorruptible seed.
Isn't that 1 Peter 1, 23?
Am I wrong on that?
Yeah, there we go.
1 Peter 1, 23.
Did I say 2 Peter?
That's what I did wrong.
1 Peter 1, 23.
Now look at this.
In 2 Corinthians 2, 17, it says,
But we are not as many which corrupt the word of God.
Now let me ask something.
Is this something that's only going on a little bit?
Or are a lot of people doing this?
Many.
He said we're not as many.
He didn't say we're not as a few.
We're not as some people who corrupt the word of God.
No, he said we're not as many who corrupt the word of God.
So there are a lot of people out there that are corrupting the word of God.
And he says,
But as of sincerity, but as of God, and the sign of God, speak with me in Christ.
Now look over at 1 Peter 1, 23.
It says,
Being born again, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever.
So the Bible tells us that God's word is incorruptible.
Now break that word down.
The Ibl at the end, it means able.
Incorruptible means it's not able to be corrupted.
Do you get that?
That means if something's corrupted, it ain't God's word.
Because God's word is incorruptible.
Because God has promised us to preserve his word.
He said heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
The scriptures cannot be broken.
And if God's words were to pass away, then that promise would not be true.
And God would be a liar.
And God cannot lie.
And God said it is easier for heaven and earth to pass
than for one jot or one tittle to pass from the law till all be fulfilled.
God's word is incorruptible.
What does it mean to corrupt?
Corrupt means to change form or decay.
For example, corruption.
The Bible uses the word corruption to talk about
when you bury a body in the earth, a dead body, it corrupts.
It decays.
If you have food on the shelf at home, it decays.
It gets old.
It has an expiration date.
You have to eat it in a certain amount of time.
My wife brought home this jar of honey yesterday.
What was the expiration date?
It was like 3247 A.D. or something.
It was a joke because honey doesn't go bad.
So it set on some expiration date like a thousand some years from now.
And so that honey is incorruptible.
Do you see what I'm saying?
It doesn't corrupt.
It's preserved.
It will last.
It will be there.
Whereas other things decay and corrupt.
Well, that's the way it is with God's word.
God's word is the incorruptible seed.
It is the rock that never changes,
that hundreds of years can go by or thousands of years.
Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven.
God's word is incorruptible.
But there are many who corrupt the word of God.
But wait a minute.
Once you've corrupted it, it ceases to be God's word.
Because God's word is incorruptible.
Look what it says in 1 Peter 1.23 again.
Being born again.
What's born again talking about?
Salvation.
Being born again.
Not a corruptible seed, but of incorruptible.
And what is that incorruptible seed?
By the word of God.
And he explains the incorruptibility of the Bible in the next phrase.
Which liveth.
So God's word is alive.
God's word liveth and abideth forever.
It means it's always going to be here.
It's always going to remain.
Even when that honey expires in 3247 A.D.,
God's word will still be here.
It will still be incorruptible.
It will still be preserved.
It will still remain.
But that does not change the fact that there are people out there who are constantly corrupting.
Many that are corrupting God's word.
Well how do you corrupt it?
Well you've got to change it.
Because if it stays the same, well then it's God's word.
It's incorruptible.
But you corrupt it when you change it.
Like Satan did where he misquotes it a little bit, change it a little bit.
And you see we've got all these phony Bible versions so called out today.
And let me tell you something, they're counterfeit Bibles.
They're counterfeit.
They're fake. They're not real.
And in order to fool people, they make them very much like the real thing, Job 6 6.
They make them very much like the real thing, but just different enough to where it's corruptible.
Now the Bible said being born again by the incorruptible seed.
Now a lot of people will say, well it doesn't matter who you hear the Gospel from or what Bible they're using.
You know, you could still get saved.
And I've heard people say this, there's enough truth in there for you to get saved.
Well hold on a second though.
If somebody's preaching to you a lie, you're not going to get saved.
And if somebody's preaching to you the corrupted word, that's not going to get you saved.
The Bible says a corrupt tree brings forth corrupt fruit.
And a good tree brings forth good fruit.
And so if you've got some corrupted Bible, look at how just a little change can make.
Go to 1 Corinthians 1.18. Here's just a little change.
Now look, this is a really good counterfeit that I'm holding in my hand.
In fact, I'm going to hold two counterfeits in my hand.
Here's two counterfeit Bibles in my hand.
One of them is called the Living Bible.
Okay?
And one of them is called the New King James Version.
Now which one of these is a better counterfeit?
Well the New King James is a better counterfeit and here's why.
Because the New King James, even the name.
King James, New King James, right?
What's the difference?
Let me show you the difference.
Read for me, Brother Jordan, 1 Corinthians 1.18 nice and loud.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved is the power of God.
So, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved is the power of God.
Now let me show you the New King James. It's pretty much the same thing.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Now that's a little difference that makes a huge difference.
The King James Bible says those of us who are saved, it's done, saved, done.
This one says well you're being saved, making salvation a process.
The King James Bible says narrow is the way of salvation and few there be that find it.
The New King James says difficult is the way.
No, salvation is not difficult.
It was difficult for Jesus when he lived a perfect life.
It was difficult for him when he was beaten and spat upon and nailed to the cross.
Hey, it's not difficult for you to just believe that.
It's easy to be saved. Even a little child can be saved.
And so this counterfeit is a very effective counterfeit because it's so similar to the real thing.
Even the name is similar.
But it's filled with corruption and error and lies in regard to salvation, in regard to the deity of Christ,
in regard to the doctrines of hell and heaven and so forth.
The Living Bible is so off the deep end.
If anybody really thinks this is a Bible, I give up because you read this thing
and sometimes you can't even tell that it's even a Bible.
It changes things so much.
It makes things so completely different that people don't fall for it.
Turn to Job 6.6. I like to show this to children because it seems to stick with them.
I remember when I was younger and I used to preach to a bunch of kids
in the bus ministry of the church that I went to when I was just newly married.
And I would preach this to kids and kids loved this.
And whenever somebody would come with a false Bible, I would say,
We've got a counterfeit Bible!
And especially when they would have a Jehovah's false witness Bible.
You know, the New World translation.
Based on the area where we were having church,
there were a lot of kids that would come with the New World translation.
It's just that the Jehovah's false witnesses were really big in that area.
And so I'd bring the kid up and I'd say,
He's got a counterfeit Bible!
And I'd say, I'll prove to you that it's counterfeit.
And here's the verse I would read.
I would read from the King James where it says,
Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt?
Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
And I would ask him, I would say, Is there any taste in the white of an egg?
No. It's bland. It doesn't have any flavor.
You have to salt that egg to get any flavor out of it.
Especially if you're not eating the yolk, you're just eating the white of the egg.
Okay, go ahead and read for me from the New World translation, Brother Garrett.
Will tasteless things be eaten without salt?
Or is there any taste in the slimy juice of marshmallow?
Now, I would read this for the kids.
And they would never believe me.
I would always read on that part where it says,
Is there any taste in the slimy juice of marshmallow?
And they would say, It doesn't say that!
And the kids would run up and say that.
Come on, run up and say it.
They'd say like, It doesn't say that!
And I'd show it to them.
And then the first kid would read it and go,
It doesn't say that! It's a fake Bible! It's a counterfeit!
So that just goes to show you.
And obviously that's kind of a silly thing.
But it is true that it's not the slimy juice of the marshmallow that has no taste.
It is the white of an egg.
But the bottom line is there are all these counterfeit Bibles.
There are hundreds of them.
And it's funny because you'll talk to people and they'll say,
Are you saying that the King James Bible is right and everything else is wrong?
Of course that's what I'm saying.
And they'll say, Come on, do you mean to tell me that there's only one way to heaven?
You know, there's only one way.
Look, if we're going to ask you the question, 2 plus 2 is?
4.
How many right answers are there to that question?
1.
How many wrong answers are there?
As many as you want.
3, 5, 2, 20, 700.
All of them.
And that's the way the world is.
There's only one thing that's true.
When you have two things that are totally different, they might both be lies.
But they can't both be true.
You can't say that, well God said both.
The slimy juice of the marshmallow and the white of an egg.
No.
One of those things, Job said, and one of them he didn't say.
So which one is it?
Which one's the truth?
Which one's right?
Well, they're both right.
No, they can't both be right.
One of them's a counterfeit.
One of them's a fake.
And so there are all kinds of counterfeits out there.
There's a counterfeit Jesus.
There's a counterfeit Bible.
There's a counterfeit gospel.
And remember, what are these counterfeits?
They're trying to look as much like the real thing, but they come short of it.
But they want to look as close as they can in order to fool the most people.
But let me show you counterfeit miracles.
Go back to Exodus chapter 7.
Exodus chapter number 7, counterfeit miracles.
So there's counterfeit Bibles, there's counterfeit Jesus, counterfeit gospel, counterfeit churches.
Look at the counterfeit miracles in Exodus.
You see, the devil is able to perform counterfeit miracles.
A lot of people don't realize this.
A lot of people, they see a miracle and they say, wow, this is the power of God right here.
But hold on a minute.
Satan is able to perform counterfeit miracles.
He can copy God's miracles.
Look at Exodus chapter 7 verse 20.
It says that Moses and Aaron did so as the Lord commanded.
And he lifted up the rod and smote the waters that were in the river in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants.
And all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.
Now this is where Moses and Aaron, they perform this miracle where God turns all the water into blood.
It's a pretty amazing miracle.
But look what the Bible says in verse 21.
It says that the fish that were in the river died of course and the river stank.
And the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
And the magicians of Egypt, look at this, these guys are not of God.
These are wicked men.
The Bible says they're reprobates.
The Bible says they were satanic.
If you look at the book of 1 Timothy, he names them Janus and Jambres.
It says how they were reprobate concerning the faith and how they resisted the truth.
And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments.
So they're using witchcraft, spells, enchantment, all the stuff that your kids are reading down at public school.
Harry Potter.
And what's the new one that's out?
Twilight and...
I'm not worldly enough.
What is it?
What else are they into?
Harry Potter, Twilight.
Lord of the Rings and Narnia.
I don't know what it is.
Whatever this stuff about.
It seems like there's a whole section now in the store about it.
I don't know.
Witchcraft and spells and the occult and vampires and undead and all this kind of stuff.
It says they did so with their enchantments and Pharaoh's heart was hardened.
Neither did he harken at it because basically he looks at it and says,
Well, look, my magician turned some water into blood too.
Therefore...
Now hold on a second.
Did his magicians turn a whole nation into blood?
No.
They could turn a little bit of water into blood.
See, this is how we do it.
He turned the whole river into blood.
Look at verse 6 of chapter 8.
Flip over to chapter 8.
This is some of the other miracles that God's doing when he's saying the plagues on Egypt.
It says in Exodus 8.6,
And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt.
And the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.
And the magicians did so with their enchantments and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.
And then Pharaoh's probably saying,
Why did you guys do that?
We already have a lot of frogs.
We're bringing more.
Are you nuts?
And then look over at verse 17.
It says they did so for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod.
This is another miracle that Aaron's going to do.
And smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man and in beast.
All the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
So he takes the dust and turns it into lice.
Now look, lice are animals.
Lice are a living creature.
Very small, but it's an animal.
Look what it says.
And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not.
So there is a limit to Satan's power.
You know, Satan can do a parlor trick of turning some water into blood.
He can play his little flute and like the Pied Piper make frogs come when he blows his frog whistle, you know.
You know, then a bunch of frogs come.
But when it came to actually creating a living thing, I mean turning dust into an animal, like God,
in the beginning created the animals from the earth and created man of the dust of the earth
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.
This is where their power is limited.
They could not turn the dust into lice.
They couldn't do it.
And it says in verse 19, then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, this is the finger of God.
Finally they're impressed by God's power.
And Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he hearkened unto them, or he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said.
Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 in the New Testament.
So you see, the devil has a lot of power.
He was able to turn water into blood.
He was able to bring the frogs.
I mean, you and I couldn't bring a horde of frogs onto the state of Arizona.
We would not be able to do that.
So they did have power.
And that's what I'm trying to get you to understand, is that Satan has power.
And Satan can perform counterfeit miracles.
While you're turning to 2 Thessalonians, I'll bring you back to, you don't have to turn there, but in Revelation 13,
when it talked about the anti-Christ and the false prophet,
how they were going to make people get a mark in their forehead.
Was that their idea? Did they come up with that? No.
Just a counterfeit of Ezekiel chapter 9.
Just a counterfeit of Revelation 22 and Revelation 7.
But it says he doeth great wonders.
The false prophet doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth and the sight of men.
And it says that the men that dwell on the earth were deceived by the means of those miracles, which he did.
So the miracles that the false prophet and the anti-Christ are going to do,
bringing fire from heaven, that's what's going to cause people to be deceived,
because they don't realize that the devil can counterfeit the miracles of God.
Who brought down fire from heaven? In the Bible. Elijah.
And when they saw that, they said, this is the God. This is the truth.
But look, the devil's going to counterfeit that same miracle someday in Revelation 13.
Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 8. This is also about the anti-Christ.
And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth,
and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan,
and look at these next words, with all power and signs and lying wonders,
and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that perish,
because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved.
And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie,
that they all might be damned to believe not the truth of that pleasure and unrighteousness.
You see, the Bible's clear that the devil is able to do miracles,
and some people, when they see that miracle, are going to be deceived,
and think, hey, this must be Jesus. This must be the second coming of Christ,
because look at the miracle that he's doing, because they don't know the Bible,
because they don't realize that what the anti-Christ's saying is not consistent with the Bible,
because they don't realize that when he comes, he's going to come in the clouds,
and that every eye shall see him, and it'll be like as the lightning that shines from the east to the west,
and we which are alive remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds.
When the sun and moon are darkened, nobody's going to be wondering what's happening.
It'll be clear that it's the Lord Jesus Christ coming in the clouds.
This guy's just going to come and, you know, hey, do a little trick here,
and people are going to fall for it.
Now, some miracles and signs and wonders are just parlor tricks.
That's all they are. Some of them are just magic tricks.
And, you know, I've seen some magic tricks that were pretty convincing.
If you go and see a magician, I mean, it can be pretty convincing sometimes.
So a lot of things are just, you know, a little parlor trick,
you know, a little magic trick that people will fall for.
The kids are like, huh?
See, kids, look, I can take my thumb and remove it. See, look.
So that's not a very good trick, but I've got an antichrist,
but it's not a false problem, so I don't do something.
But not only that, some of the miracles are actually real miracles,
where the devil does have power to turn water into blood.
He does have power to bring forth frogs.
He does have power to make fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.
He has that ability, and there are people today who counterfeit miracles,
and when the antichrist comes, he's going to do some serious counterfeiting of miracles,
and the miracles will be so convincing that the Bible says,
if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived.
Even those who are saved would fall for it, but that's not possible.
They're indwelled by the Holy Ghost. They know the truth.
They know the real Lord Jesus Christ.
But he says, man, if it were possible, even many of them would be deceived,
because it's going to be so convincing of a miracle.
Today you have these charlatans with their miracles.
Benny Hinn, for example.
You know, these so-called charismatic or Pentecostal preachers
that come into town in the white suit with all the gold rings on,
and they'll basically slap people on the forehead, and they fall over and flop on the ground.
Now look, a lot of it's just actors. A lot of it's just completely fake.
You have psychic readers today, where you go in,
and I read a whole book about this, exposing how they do their tricks and everything.
But basically you go to these psychic readers, and you write something on a piece of paper,
and you put it in a sealed envelope, and then they hold it,
but they don't open the envelope, but they know the contents of the envelope.
It's all just magic tricks, and there's a way that they do it.
There's a way that they open the envelope, that they hold it up to the light.
You know, they have all these different tricks of how they can see how you move your hand
to see what you're writing and all this different stuff.
So there are ways that these psychic readers can do line signs and wonders
that deceive people. And you talk to these people that are into these psychics,
and I know it sounds silly because you think, nobody's into this.
Well, these people must be staying in business with all their advertising
and all their 900 numbers and everything.
You know, call this psychic reader. And people will say, I know it's true.
I called that psychic, and they knew everything.
They knew everything about my relationships and everything.
It's a lie. It's false. It's fake. But it deceives the simple.
And then you've got these faith healers who have actors, you know,
who come in on crutches, and then they throw down the crutches.
You know, and they're healed.
But not only that, I even, listen to me now,
I even think that some of what those guys do is real.
And I'm not talking about the healings.
I'm talking about where they slap people on the forehead
and they fall on the ground and start flopping around.
I think some of that's real. I think they're just demon-possessed.
I think it's just the devil. The devil can do stuff like that.
And I've talked to people who sincerely, I talked to a guy that I gave the gospel,
and he got rid of all that stuff.
But he said that back in the day, he had gotten something like that,
and he had fallen on the ground and flopped around.
And he said that he just totally blacked out and had no remembrance of it.
And he was just, had no clue what was happening.
Totally out of the driver's seat.
I don't know how much of it is a lying wonder,
how much of it is the power of the devil,
how much of it is just sleight of hand magic tricks that they do.
But I'll tell you one thing. I know that it's false.
You say, how do you know it's false?
Because it's not the gospel of Jesus Christ that they preach.
See, I've never, never, never seen one of these faith healers
or these Pentecostal magicians that come through and perform all these miracles
that told you, hey, salvation is by grace through faith,
and you can't lose your salvation. It's eternal.
They all believe you can lose your salvation.
They all believe in some kind of a workspace salvation
or repent of your sins salvation or give your life unto Christ's salvation.
They never say that if you just believe, that's what saves you.
They don't believe in faith alone for salvation. Never.
They all believe in a false gospel.
And when you see them preaching a counterfeit Bible,
whether it be the NIV, the New American Standard,
the NAS, the RSV, the HIV, whatever version they preach,
you know it can't be of God when it's the wrong gospel,
when it's the wrong Bible, when it's a counterfeit Jesus.
Just because you see a miracle, you can't just say that it's the truth
because the devil does counterfeit miracles and lying miracles
and lying signs and wonders where he'll do a trick and then say,
see, now listen to what I preach, and then it'll preach lies to you.
That's what the antichrist is going to do.
And we have many antichrists today that do the same thing,
that preach lies and couple it with some kind of a sign or a wonder.
Matthew 24, you don't have to turn there.
It says, for there shall arise, and this is talking about in the end times,
in the last days, false Christs and false prophets
and shall show great signs and wonders.
It says in the last days there will be multiple false Christs
and multiple false prophets who will show great signs and wonders.
I mean these are major signs and wonders.
And it says, insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect.
Mark 13, 22 says the same thing,
for false Christs and false prophets shall arise
and shall show signs and wonders to seduce if it were possible even the elect.
That's why God's Word has to be our final authority.
Not a miracle, not a sign or a wonder, not something that we see with our eyes.
You see, Jesus when He was on this earth,
He definitely performed a lot of miracles, right?
And there was a time when the people were very impressed by His miracles.
They marveled at the miracles that He did.
And His answer then was, let these words sink down into your ears.
It was always all about the Word that He preached.
He did the signs and wonders to confirm the Word.
He did the signs and wonders, that's what got people's attention to come and hear the Word.
But it was all about the Word that He preached.
John the Baptist did no miracle, the Bible says.
No miracle.
And yet all things that he said of Jesus Christ were true.
Yet he preached the truth and pointed people unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ the apostles did miracles.
But just because they did miracles, that's not what made it the truth.
It's the Word that was the truth.
And the devil is able to counterfeit miracles.
He can do false miracles and lying signs and wonders that will trick people and seduce even the elect.
The Word of God is what we have to be anchored to.
And we must know the Word of God like the back of our hand.
So that we can't be tricked or deceived.
So that somebody can't come along and show you and say,
And you say, wait a minute, I'm not taking that mark in my forehead.
This isn't Jesus. This is a false Christ. This is an antichrist.
I'm not taking that mark.
Oh well sure, look right here in Ezekiel chapter 9.
God wants you to take the mark. You didn't know that scripture, did you?
Look right here in Revelation 22 it says, take a mark in your forehead.
Look right here in Revelation 7, take a mark.
You see the devil uses the Word to twist it and deceive the ignorant and the simple
who don't know the context of these passages.
Who don't know the truth of God's Word.
And look, all it would take is some long-haired hippie to show up tomorrow.
Think about it now.
Some long-haired hippie to do a few miracles and bring fire from heaven
and your average person in America would say, this is Jesus.
He's back.
Some long-haired hippie would just have to walk on water and that would be enough.
Isn't that true?
You know it would be true.
It wouldn't matter that everything he preaches is contrary to God's Word.
It wouldn't matter that what he preaches contradicts Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
It wouldn't matter that it contradicts what Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John says.
Oh, he's a long-haired hippie and he's walking on water.
This is him, guys. This is Jesus. Come back.
And this is what the world's going to fall for, a counterfeit.
But those who know the Bible really well aren't going to be fooled by it.
Now those who are saved aren't going to be fooled by the Antichrist.
But they can be seduced and fooled by other false teachers and false prophets.
And the more we know the Bible, the less we're going to be deceived.
The Bible says that we should be henceforth no more children,
tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine
and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
The Bible says, be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines,
for it is a good thing that the heart be established by grace.
With grace, not with meats that have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
The Bible tells us we should not be able to be swayed and just carried about with every wind of doctrine.
When somebody preaches a false doctrine, when somebody pulls out that counterfeit gospel,
that counterfeit doctrine, a counterfeit rapture, a counterfeit second coming of Christ,
a counterfeit of salvation, a counterfeit version of the Bible, a counterfeit of miracles,
we should instantly be able to say, hey, that's a counterfeit.
I'm not taking that $100 bill. I'm not taking that $20 bill. It's counterfeit.
Push the little buzzer under the counter on you and the cops will be here and whatever.
Well, let me just go look at this in the back and bring the cops around because it's counterfeit.
But if we don't know the Bible, we can be tricked by things.
People will come along with some cute new doctrine, some cute new teaching,
and people will just go for it, hook the line and take care of it.
And people are hitting us with new doctrines all the time.
You don't need the word to be saved. It's just the truth that saves you. You don't need the word.
That contradicts like 20 scriptures that say faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
That you've got to have the word to be saved.
But you know what? It would be easy if people don't know those scriptures.
Yeah, that's true. It's just the truth that saves.
You know, people will come up. There's a guy down in Texas that has this cute new doctrine.
It's not very cute, actually. He calls himself a Baptist and he teaches that if Christians are disobedient,
they're going to go to like a purgatory, like the Catholics believe.
And it's basically they spend a little time in hell, okay?
That is so contrary to the Bible. We're saved. We're never going to hell.
I'm never going to be in hell for one second, my friend, because I'm saved.
And Jesus said, whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
And the Bible says the dead are there. They're dead in hell.
I'm not dead and I'm never going to die. I am going to live forevermore.
I have everlasting life. I have eternal life. I shall never die.
I shall not come into condemnation. But I've been passed from death to life.
And people come along and say, oh, you're going to be punished for your sins when you get to heaven.
God's going to punish you. And some don't take it to the extreme of this guy and this cult leader
who says that people are going to actually go to hell for a little while like a purgatory
where God's going to just straighten them out a little bit.
But they'll still say God's going to punish you when you get to heaven.
No, he's not going to punish me when I get to heaven. We get punished on this earth.
We reap what we sow here and now on this earth. We will be recompensed for our actions.
But we are not going to be punished when we get to heaven. It's not happening.
And so that's a false doctrine. But see, people who don't know the Bible, they can get sucked into stuff like that
and say, oh, yeah, you know, maybe we are going to be in trouble when we get there
because we did so much bad stuff on this earth. You're going to be in trouble down here,
but thank God Jesus died for your sins. That's the punishment. He took the punishment for you.
And he paid it all. The reason he chases us and chastises us on this earth is for our prophet
that we might be partakers of his holiness. But you have to know that scripture.
You have to know Hebrews 12 to explain that.
And so the bottom line of the sermon is this. You've got to study your Bible today, my friend.
In a day, 2011, when there are more false teachers, more false prophets,
more antichrists and liars in this world than there have ever been. Did you hear me?
The Bible says that in the end times they will abound more and more.
There will be more and more false prophets in a day where lies are everywhere,
where there's just universal lies everywhere. You must know the truth.
In a day where every other person is going to hand you a counterfeit bill,
you better know what the real bill looks like. You better know what the real word of God is.
You better know what it says. You better know the Jesus of the Bible
or you're going to be one of the ones who's deceived. You're going to be lied to.
You're going to be tricked and fooled. Don't be deceived.
And the Bible tells it over and over. Let no man deceive you by any means.
Don't be a child. Grow up. Don't be deceived. There are counterfeits out there
and you must learn to recognize them by knowing the truth.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for having given us the truth.
The word of God which liveth and abideth forever.
I thank you so much that we have the Bible that is incorruptible.
It will never change. It will never decay or corrupt or change into something else.
It will be the same yesterday and today and forever.
Thank you so much for that incorruptible word.
Help us to preach the incorruptible word unto the lost that they might be saved.
And help us not to get sucked into one of these counterfeits,
one of these counterfeit Bibles or counterfeit churches or counterfeit preaching,
counterfeit miracles. Help us not to fall for any of it.
Help us to recognize the real thing and in Jesus' name we pray.