Now the part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is there beginning in verse number
15 where the Bible reads,
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are
ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits.
Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?
Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil
fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good
fruit.
A good tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire, wherefore
by their fruits ye shall know them.
And that's what I want to preach about today is false prophets that will come to you in
sheep's clothing.
Now if you study the Bible, there's a consistent thread throughout the New Testament of comparing
false prophets unto evil trees and trees that produce bad fruit.
Now keep your finger here in Matthew 7, we're going to come right back to it, but go to
the book of Jude, Jude, and I want to show you this is right before Revelation is that
small book of Jude.
Let me show you a similar passage in Jude beginning in verse number 4 the Bible reads,
For there are certain men crept in unawares, so again wolves that come in sheep's clothing
creeping in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation unto men, turning
the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus
Christ.
I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord
having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed
not.
So notice this scripture about God destroying those that believed not is directed toward
these false prophets that creep in unawares with damnable heresies.
Now are these people believers?
Are they saved?
Because the Bible is clear here that they are people who believed not.
And then if you jump down to verse 12 it says, These are spots in your feasts of charity
when they feast with you, again emphasizing the fact that they will be among you, they
will creep in, they will be a wolf in sheep's clothing, feeding themselves without fear,
clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, watch this, trees whose fruit withereth,
without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out
their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
These are unsaved, unbelieving people who are on their way to hell and they creep in
with the intent and the goal of bringing in lies, bringing in false doctrine, of teaching
things which they ought not.
Now go back to Matthew chapter 7 because this is a very misunderstood passage in Matthew
7.
A lot of people will try to apply the passage in Matthew 7 just to all men and just to all
believers and say, hey if you're not bringing forth fruit you're not really saved.
Who's ever heard that before where somebody said, hey if you don't bring forth fruit you're
not saved?
But the problem is they're missing the context here because verse 15 says beware of what?
False prophets.
He says beware of false prophets.
What is another word for prophet?
Preacher.
So he's saying beware of false teachers, beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's
clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits.
Who are you going to know by their fruits?
Okay, is he saying you're going to know who's saved by their fruits?
No.
That's how a lot of people will quote this.
I've heard it quoted that way my whole life but yet that's not what it says.
It says ye shall know the false prophets by their fruits because preachers, false prophets
are compared in the Bible to evil trees and then a good preacher or a good soul winner
or someone who preaches the gospel to the unsaved is a good tree.
Think about this now.
Proverbs 11 30, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls
is wise.
The Bible talks about us as believers that if we will be rooted and grounded in what
we believe, if we will add to our faith charity and to charity, temperance and all these different
things, he says then we will be fruitful and he talks about that some will bring forth
fruit.
He said some 30, some 60 and some 100.
Now what do you think that is if he talks about a believer bringing forth fruit and
then he puts a number on it, some 30, some 60, some 100.
Now what does it mean to be fruitful?
If we look at the very first time in the Bible that fruitful's ever mentioned in Genesis
1, what's it talking about?
It says be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.
So the first time the word fruitful is used, it's talking about animals and human beings
reproducing.
And when they are fruitful, when they produce fruit, there is a multiplication taking place.
Now that's perfectly consistent with 30, 60 and 100 fold fruit bearing.
Stop and think about it.
If we had a lemon today, that lemon is a piece of fruit.
That lemon, if it were to be fruitful, if it were to produce fruit, what is it producing?
More lemons, right?
If the lemon is fruitful, it produces more lemons.
If the apple is fruitful, it produces more apples.
That is what it means to bring forth fruit, to bring forth after your own kind.
So as Christians, if we're going to be fruitful, that means we bring forth another believer.
So if I go out and win someone to Christ, that's me bringing forth fruit because I have
now multiplied.
I have now begotten a spiritual child.
When my wife and I multiply, if my wife and I are fruitful, like the Bible promises, you
know, to bless people and to make their wife fruitful, what is he saying?
That they're going to have children.
That's what he's saying.
And when he told Abraham that he's going to be fruitful, he's telling him that he's going
to have children.
And so when my wife and I have children, we are reproducing after our own kind.
We are human, she will produce human children, okay?
The lemon will produce lemons.
The apple will produce apples.
But let me ask you this.
What about a human who does not reproduce?
Does that mean that they're not human?
Oh, you don't reproduce?
You're not human.
That doesn't make any sense, does it?
What about this?
What about an apple that doesn't reproduce?
Is it still an apple?
In fact, what percentage of apples do you think will produce an apple tree or become
an apple tree and produce more apples?
A very small percentage.
In fact, most apples will just, you know, fall on the ground and be eaten by animals
or be eaten by people.
Most apples are going to be purchased at the store and consumed.
It's only a minority of apples that will fall to the ground and die and that seed will go
into the earth and produce another apple tree.
And that apple tree will be fruitful and that apple tree will produce nothing but apples.
So what the Bible is teaching here when it says a good tree brings forth good fruit and
an evil tree brings forth corrupt fruit, what it's teaching is that things produce after
their own kind.
So if that apple is planted in the earth, it will produce apples and nothing else.
It will not produce oranges, it will not produce bananas.
But does that just guarantee that every apple is going to reproduce?
Is every human being going to reproduce?
No, but if they do, you know what you're going to get.
And that's what people are mistaking about this passage.
They think this passage is teaching that every saved person is going to bring forth fruit
when in reality it's just teaching that if a saved person brings forth fruit, it's going
to be good fruit.
And if an unsaved false prophet wolf in sheep's clothing brings forth fruit, it's going to
be evil fruit.
They will reproduce themselves, they will reproduce by producing more evil people.
And those who are saved and that are a good tree, when they reproduce, if they reproduce,
they are going to produce more Christians, more saved people.
You see, it is impossible, according to this passage, for an unsaved person to get someone
saved.
That's what this passage teaches.
Because the Bible says it is not possible for a corrupt tree to bring forth good fruit.
So therefore, if an unsaved person were to go out preaching the gospel, even if they
have a King James, even if they're going through the motions and given the plan of salvation,
they will not get anyone saved.
Because getting someone saved is a spiritual job that takes the Spirit of God dwelling
inside the person who's doing the preaching of the gospel.
That's what it says, folks.
And if you don't agree with that, then you're basically, what you're saying is that an evil
tree can produce good fruit.
See Judas Iscariot went soul winning, did he not?
Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve that was sent out two by two.
The Bible is clear that he did not believe on Christ from the beginning he did not believe.
He never believed on Christ.
From the beginning he said he was a, he told, Jesus told him he was a devil, and he said
if not I've chosen you twelve, one of you is a devil, early in his ministry.
He said that he believed not from the beginning.
A lot of people say, oh yeah, Judas lost his salvation.
You can't lose your salvation.
Judas, it says he didn't believe ever from the beginning.
Yet he went out soul winning.
Yet he went out and knocked doors with the other disciples.
Did he get anyone saved?
He couldn't have because he's an evil tree.
Now a lot of people will mistakenly say, well when the Bible talks about a Christian bringing
forth fruit, it's not talking about winning another person to Christ, it's talking about
just, you know, you'll see changes in their life.
Who's heard that before?
You know, oh you'll just see changes.
Or sometimes people will say, well the fruit of the Spirit.
Yeah but that's not the fruit of the Christian, that's the fruit of the Spirit.
See the fruit of the Spirit is what the Spirit produces.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness,
faith, temperance.
Okay, that's what the Spirit produces.
Why?
Because he's reproducing after his own kind.
He embodies and epitomizes all those things.
The Bible says God is love.
The fruit of the Spirit is love.
The Bible calls the Holy Spirit the oil of gladness.
That's why the fruit of the Spirit is joy.
Jesus Christ is the prince of peace.
That's why he brings forth peace.
Okay, those are spiritual qualities brought forth by the Holy Spirit.
But this is not talking about the fruit of the Spirit.
You don't get 30 love, 60 joy, and 100 peace.
The fruit of the believer is believers.
The fruit of the lemon is lemons.
The fruit of the apple is apples.
The fruit of humans is humans.
And the fruit of the saved child of God is another saved child of God.
You know why people don't like that doctrine?
Because they don't do any soul winning.
And they do not want to be a zero.
But in reality, when it comes to fruit bearing, if you're not winning anybody to Christ, if
you've never won someone to the Lord in your life, you're at zero right now.
You're not to the 30 level yet.
It doesn't mean you're not saved.
You're saved.
You're a child of God.
But have you become a tree of life?
Have you become fruitful?
Have you begun to reproduce and bring forth fruit in your life?
Jesus said, if you follow me, you might become a fisher of men.
Is that what he said?
No, he said, if you follow me, I will make you fishers of men.
So when you win somebody to the Lord, that's you bringing forth fruit.
Now, it's obvious that every saved person doesn't bring forth fruit, or the whole world
would be saved by now.
If every saved person was bringing forth some 30, some 60, some 100, pretty soon the whole
world would be saved.
But the vast majority of Christians bring forth no fruit.
And then others bring forth some 30, some 60, some 100, some even more than that.
As the seasons of life go by, they bring forth even more fruit than that.
That's what this passage is teaching.
Now here's more proof.
You say, Pastor Anderson, you're not interpreting this right.
Let me give you more proof.
The Bible says that the evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit.
Okay, so according to most people, they'll say, oh, the fruit it's talking about changes
in your life.
Oh, he quit drinking.
There's fruit in his life.
Oh, he got baptized.
There's fruit in his life.
Oh, look, he joined the church.
There's fruit.
Okay, can an unsaved person quit drinking?
Can an unsaved person get baptized?
Can an unsaved person start dressing and looking differently?
Can an unsaved person go volunteer and help someone and give money to the poor?
An unsaved person can do all of those things, but you know what an unsaved person can't
do?
Win someone to Christ.
They can't because only a good tree can bring forth good fruit.
Look, you can teach a chimpanzee to ride a bicycle, right?
You can train a chimp to ride a bicycle.
You can send a chimp into orbit, okay, like the Soviets did and the United States did,
where remember they used to send like chimpanzees up into orbit around the earth.
Well, you can train a chimpanzee to speak sign language and to do a lot of things, but
you know what a chimpanzee is never going to be able to do?
Bring forth human fruit.
Okay, a chimpanzee is never going to be able to produce a human because it's not human.
And a non-Christian is never going to be able to produce a Christian because they're not
a Christian.
And Paul talked about when he won people the Lord, he called it begetting them.
He said, Onesimus is one that I've begotten in my bonds.
He said Timothy is my son in the faith.
He said the Galatians are people that he brought forth as children.
Why?
Because he won them to Christ, he begat them spiritually, soul winning is a spiritual process
that takes a spiritual Christian that has the Holy Spirit living inside of them.
It is not possible for the unsaved to accomplish that task.
And so the Bible's clear here that only a good tree can bring forth good fruit.
The corrupt tree will always bring forth evil fruit, and he says a good tree cannot
bring forth evil fruit.
Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Now this isn't saying that every person you talk to and give the Gospel to is going to
be, you know, is going to be saved and going to be a righteous Christian, because a lot
of times you'll talk to people with the Gospel and they'll just pretend to get saved.
I guarantee you that if you've been soul winning for any length of time, I hate to burst your
bubble, but if you say, well I've won 100 people to the Lord in my life, I guarantee
you at least one of them was probably just lying to you and just going through the motions,
just repeating, you know, what they're hearing you say, and just deceiving you to get you
off their back, or just deceiving you for whatever other reason.
But don't let that discourage you, because it's not the majority of people that you're
talking to.
If you're doing your soul winning properly, if you're being thorough, you're doing a good
job, you know, the vast majority of the people that you're talking to, I believe, are really
getting saved.
There are going to be people that say the right things and they're not legit.
But here's the thing, you didn't beget them, you didn't bring them forth, that's not you
producing evil fruit, just because you went out and talked to somebody and they went along
with it.
Because look, Jesus, he reached Judas Iscariot, and Judas Iscariot was a fraud, but was he
a son of Jesus?
No, it wasn't his son in the faith.
Jesus did not make him into a wicked person, he was already a wicked person before Jesus
came along.
We're not going to go out and produce wicked false teachers, either they're that way before
we got there, or whatever, but that didn't come from our spiritual genetics of true salvation.
So this passage is important to understand, you say, why are we even talking about this?
What's the point of even learning this doctrine?
Because the Bible tells us that these people will be among us and creep in among us, therefore
we need to be warned of their existence.
And we also need to make sure we don't misunderstand this passage and start teaching false doctrine
about salvation, that people have to get baptized and go to church and quit drinking to be saved,
because otherwise they didn't bring forth any fruit.
Well, you don't have to bring forth fruit to be saved.
But if you're saved and you bring forth fruit, it's going to be good fruit.
And if you're not saved, you're bringing forth no good fruit.
Let me prove it to you further, go back to Matthew 3, because there's a statement that's
really similar to what Jesus said in Matthew 7, where He said, every tree, He said this,
every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
A lot of people look at that and say, see, if you don't bring forth fruit, you're going
to the fire.
But hold on a second, that's not what it's saying.
Because it says every tree, every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down
and cast into the fire.
Doesn't say every person who doesn't bring forth fruit is going to the fire, no.
Every tree, and what did the Bible define a tree as?
From Matthew to Revelation, He uses the trees to represent good, what?
And bad.
Is every single person a prophet?
A preacher being used by either God or Satan to deliver either the true gospel or a false
gospel?
No.
So we're not talking about just every person here, we're talking about trees.
Now the good tree is a good tree that brings forth good fruit, and those trees are referred
to as planted by the Father in heaven.
Those are the trees that are planted by the Father.
Then there are the corrupt trees, the evil trees, which are not planted by God, and the
Bible calls those trees twice dead.
He says they are trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the
roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars for whom
has reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
Now what does He mean when He said twice dead?
Now all of us before we're saved were dead in trespasses and sins, but we were not twice
dead.
The one who is twice dead is the one who becomes twofold more a child of hell, it is the one
who becomes reprobate, or what the Bible calls rejected reprobate and so forth.
Now let me show you in Matthew chapter 3 the exact same statement that John the Baptist
preached, same as what Jesus said, because it says in verse 10, and now also the axe
is laid unto the root of the trees, therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit
is hewn down and cast into the fire.
Same thing Jesus said, but let's show you that this isn't just talking about all people,
but it's talking about these false prophets.
Back up to verse 7, who is that statement directed at?
It says, but when He saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to His baptism, He said
unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come,
bring forth therefore fruits, meet for repentance, and think not to say within yourselves we
have Abraham to our father, for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise
up children unto Abraham, and now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees, therefore
every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
This is not even what he's preaching to the general population.
John the Baptist is preaching that they should repent and believe the Gospel, no question
about that.
He is preaching that they need to believe on Him that should come after, that is on
Jesus Christ.
He is preaching the baptism of repentance unto all men.
But this statement about the trees being cut down is very specifically stated as when
He saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to His baptism, He said unto them, O
generation of vipers, He said to them that every tree that brings not forth good fruit
is hewn down and cast into the fire.
Go to Matthew 15.
So just in the book of Matthew alone, this is very consistent because we saw it in chapter
3, we saw it in chapter 7, now let's look at chapter 15 and see the same thing.
Throughout scripture, it says in verse 13, actually let's start at verse 12.
Matthew 15, 12.
Then came His disciples and said unto Him, knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended
after they heard this saying?
That's one of my favorite verses, so funny.
Jesus finishes preaching and His disciples come to Him and say, don't you realize you've
offended the Pharisees?
And He doesn't care.
He's preaching the truth.
And so they say, don't you know that the Pharisees were offended at what you said?
But He answered and said, every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted shall
be rooted up, let them alone, they be blind what?
Leaders.
They be blind leaders of the blind and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall
into the ditch.
So again, who is He referring to as these plants that are going to be plucked up and
what does it say in Jude?
Plucked up by the roots.
Trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.
Jesus said, every plant that My Father has not planted is going to be plucked up by the
roots.
He's talking about leaders.
He's talking about the Pharisee preachers, the Sadducee preachers, these leaders of the
blind that were reprobate, that had a hardened heart and a darkened mind, according to the
Bible.
So it's very consistent.
Now go back to Jude if you would.
This is the passage right before Revelation, book of Jude, short little book there.
Jude talks about these evil trees.
Now let me say this, I don't want you to misunderstand what I'm saying this morning because there
are some people who teach false doctrine ignorantly.
They're not purposely going out to deceive and to lie and to preach a false doctrine.
They are actually just sincerely wrong.
For example, the Apostle Paul was like that.
Remember the Apostle Paul, he persecuted the church of God and he said, but I obtained
mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
Did you hear that?
Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth
all longsuffering for a pattern to them that hereafter should believe on him to life everlasting.
And he said, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
You know what that is implying and you can prove it with other passages.
You don't have to see the implication, but it's implying that if he had not been doing
it ignorantly, but if he were purposely preaching false doctrine, that he would not have obtained
mercy because he says I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly.
Now that tells me that there are some people out there that are like an Apostle Paul who
preach false doctrine and teach false doctrine not on purpose, not because they're creeping
in like a wolf in sheep's clothing, but actually they're just mixed up.
They're just deceived, they're sincere, but they're sincerely wrong.
But don't forget the fact that the Bible talks a lot more about the other kind of false prophet.
There's more scripture, much more warning, much more teaching about the other kind of
false prophet.
And I'm not saying that some false prophets are not sincere because some false prophets
are sincere like an Apostle Paul.
But if you look at the Apostle Paul, he eventually got saved.
Because if you think about it, if a guy's wrong and he's sincere and he's trying to
do what's right, but he's sincere, God's probably going to try to bring things into his life
to get the gospel to this guy.
Brother Garrett was like that.
Brother Garrett was trained in a lot of false religion as a Lutheran and as a Pentecostal,
but he never was like, yeah, I'm going to teach lies.
But he basically was just sincere, and a lot of people might have grown up Catholic, you
might have even grown up Mormon or Catholic, and maybe even taught a Sunday school class.
Because they make everybody a Sunday school teacher in a lot of these churches.
And you might have taught stuff, but it's not like you were doing it on purpose.
You're just ignorantly in unbelief, you hadn't heard the truth, you hadn't heard the gospel.
But case in point, he's saved.
Case in point, Apostle Paul got saved.
But see, there are a lot of false prophets that are never going to get saved.
There are a lot of false prophets who are not doing it ignorantly in unbelief.
And this is where you're wrong if you sit there and say, well, every teacher of these
other religions are all sincere people, they're just wrong.
No, they're not sincere.
The Bible teaches that there are evil people out there who are corrupt to the core, rotten
to the core.
They don't believe on Jesus Christ at all.
They are just an evil false prophet, and you say, why would anyone do that?
There are a lot of reasons why they would do that.
Number one, because they're under the power of Satan.
You know, Satan can influence the unsaved and the reprobate to do a lot of evil things.
I mean, Satan entered into Judas Iscariot when he went and betrayed Jesus.
So Judas was under the power of Satan and being manipulated by Satan.
And even after Judas Iscariot had realized what he had done, he felt bad about it.
The Bible says he repented and brought back the money and gave it back, the money that
he had sold Jesus, the 30 pieces of silver, and they wouldn't accept the money back.
And so he just threw it on the ground and ran away and killed himself.
He was under the power of Satan.
That's one reason why these false prophets could be doing what they do.
Another reason is that a lot of them, the Bible says, teach things which they ought
not for filthy lucre's sake, basically for the money.
That's your TV evangelist, your TV preacher.
I mean, you see these guys who are just multimillionaires, and they drive fancy cars, or maybe even
not to that extreme, but they just have a pretty good salary.
Maybe they just like everybody looking up to them and thinking that they're popular
and thinking that they're wonderful.
They're doing it for the fame.
They're doing it for the glory.
They're doing it for the money.
They're doing it because they're under the control of Satan, or they're doing it because
they just enjoy being a deceiver and enjoy being evil.
I mean, why is Satan evil?
He's just evil.
And to sit there and try to understand the mind of an evil person is not really going
to be possible for you because you're not evil.
I'm not evil.
You're not evil.
Therefore, we might sometimes feel a little perplexed.
Why would people do that?
But you know what?
A person who judges everyone by their own heart and thinks, well, I'm a nice person.
I'm a good person.
That means everybody else is good.
Everybody else is nice.
That person is called naive.
And many Christians today are way too naive.
They think, well, I would never do things like that.
I could never imagine doing it.
But there are evil, wicked people that will stop at nothing to destroy and to hurt and
to pervert and to corrupt.
That's what the Bible's warning us about.
And if you don't know that these people are out there, if you don't know these people
exist, you will be their victim.
Now you can be their victim in multiple ways.
Number one, you can be their victim by falling for their false doctrine, by listening to
them.
A lot of people will sit there and listen to a Bible teacher who's not even saved.
And you'll point out to them, he's wrong on the gospel.
He's seriously wrong on the gospel.
But then they'll just basically say, well, you know, but you can still learn good stuff
from this guy.
No.
You know, you need to make sure that anybody you're listening to, I'm not saying everybody's
perfect.
I'm not saying everybody's doctrine is perfect.
Nobody's perfect, but they better be saved.
You know, they better believe the Bible.
And when they're teaching works salvation, you know, and when they're teaching baptismal
regeneration or they're teaching that you can lose your salvation, that's a deal breaker.
You shouldn't listen to anything that they have to say.
Now let's look at a little more in this passage in Jude, and then we're going to look at the
parallel passage in 2 Peter chapter 2, and I'm going to give you some practical applications
for this.
But in Jude, it of course said in verse 4, there are certain men crept in unawares.
He talks about how these are the evil trees, the trees whose fruit wither.
They're twice dead, all of this, okay.
But let's back up to verse 5.
It says, I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord
having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed
not.
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he
hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves
over to fornication, and going after strange or queer, is another word for strange, strange
flesh are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Now he brings up the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and he says they went after strange flesh,
they gave themselves over to fornication, okay.
But it was not the normal type of fornication between a man and a woman, they actually went
after strange flesh, meaning men with men, women with women.
Of course we read that in the story, and elsewhere in the Bible that's crystal clear.
But he says here in verse 8, likewise, now what does likewise mean?
Likewise means in the same manner, or in the same way, likewise also these filthy dreamers
defile the flesh.
Now what is that saying?
He's saying they defile the flesh in the same way as who?
Now that's a pretty interesting verse there when he says, hey, Sodom and Gomorrah, fornication,
strange flesh, oh by the way, likewise these also defile the flesh.
Same way.
What does that mean?
They're perverted.
Now if you keep reading it says, likewise also these filthy dreamers, notice the word
filthy, not alternative, lifestyle, likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh,
despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
Let's go to 2 Peter 2, the parallel passage.
2 Peter 2, if you've ever compared it with Jude, is a parallel passage.
A lot of the same things are brought up in the exact same order in 2 Peter chapter 2
as we see in Jude.
Look at verse 1, but there were false prophets, isn't that what we talked about in Jude?
Isn't that what we saw in Matthew 7?
Isn't that what we're seeing now in 2 Peter 2?
And there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers
among you.
So notice, false prophet and false teacher are being used interchangeably to help us
know what he was talking about.
There will be false teachers, does he say there might be?
There will be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
By the way, denying the Lord that bought them, tell that to these Calvinists who believe
in limited atonement.
He even bought, he even paid for the sins of the unsaved false prophets.
It says in verse 2, and many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the
way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
What's he saying at the end of verse 2?
These people are going to give Christianity a bad name.
These people will creep in, teach false doctrine, pervert and defile the flesh, and give Christianity
a bad name, okay?
And through covetousness, verse 3, shall they with fainted words, meaning fake words, they're
going to say stuff they don't believe, they're going to preach things but they don't believe
it.
Judas preached a lot of right things as he went door to door, because all of his companions
thought that he was legit, but he was preaching fainted words.
He was saying stuff he didn't really believe.
And it says, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth
not, for if God spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down to hell, isn't that
the same thing we saw in Jude?
And then if we jump down to verse 6, it says, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
into ashes, isn't that the same thing?
It says, condemn them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should
live ungodly.
Let me stop and say this, is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah an outdated story?
It's outdated, I mean in the Old Testament that's how God was.
He was hellfire and damnation, and now the God of the New Testament is just all just,
you know, accepting and loving.
Look, the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever, I'm the Lord, I change not, therefore
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
He says here that it is an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly.
The Bible is saying the New Testament example of what God thinks of Sodomy, of homosexuality,
is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.
That's the New Testament example according to the New Testament book of 2 Peter chapter
2.
It says in verse 7, and delivered just lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the
wicked.
Does that word sound familiar?
Remember the filthy dreamers, the false teachers, the wolves in sheep's clothing, the ones who
creep in, he said they're filthy dreamers, and here he talks about the Sodomites that
they were filthy.
Verse 8, for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous
soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.
Okay, let's jump down to verse 13.
And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness as they that count it pleasure to riot in
the daytime, spots they are, and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings
while they what?
Feast with you.
They're with you.
They're amongst you.
They will creep in.
Jesus had it in his church.
Every church will have people who creep in.
Unless it's just an unsaved church, you know, then it's like, well, I don't need to creep
in, it's just already of the devil.
But if it's a real Bible believing church, he said in verse 1, there shall be false teachers
among you.
He didn't say there might, he didn't say maybe, the apostle Paul in Acts 20 said, I know that
after my departing grievous wolves will come in, not sparing the flock.
Also among your own selves, he said, shall men rise up, speaking perverse things to draw
away disciples after them.
He said, I know for a fact that some of you are a fraud and will rise up and preach heresy
after I'm gone and that other people will come in after I'm gone.
He said, I know it.
2 Peter 2 says, it's a fact.
Jude, it happened.
It's not something that is a questionable thing, it's just something that is guaranteed
to take place.
He says in verse 14, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling
or deceiving unstable souls, on heart they have exercised with covetous practices, cursed
children which have forsaken the right way and are gone astray, following the way of
Balaam the son of Bolsor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.
So notice all the common denominators that keep coming up.
You know, they're doing it for the money or they're doing it for the lust of the flesh
or they're committing adultery or they're beguiling the unstable or they're defiling
the flesh like a sodomite.
All these different perverted acts, false teaching, wickedness of all sorts are all
together in the same person.
This false prophet, this person who creeps in, what we can call the evil tree that brings
forth corrupt fruit, okay.
Now this doesn't have to be a pastor or even a Sunday school teacher or preacher.
This could even be, you know, a soul winner.
This could even be somebody who's leading a Bible study.
You know, there are people like this who creep in that are evil people.
Now look, you need to get this in your head right now, that not everyone that goes to
church is automatically saved.
Not everyone that goes to faithful word Baptist church is automatically saved.
Not everyone who goes to faithful word Baptist church and talks the right talk and looks
like they walked the right walk and goes soul winning is even saved.
There are people who creep in that are evil people and I'm not saying that we should go
on a witch hunt and try to unmask the traitor this morning and figure out, you know, lock
the doors, we're going to figure out, you know, no one's leaving until we figure out
who the Judas is.
Jesus knew that someone in his church was a Judas Iscariot, but I believe that part
of the reason why he allowed him to be with them for those three and a half years, obviously
the main reason was so that the scriptures could be fulfilled and he would be betrayed
by his friend Judas.
And not only that, I think that he's just trying to give us a really strong message
that these people are going to be among you.
And even for the three and a half years that he was the pastor, they were among them.
Okay, go to 1 John chapter 2, few pages to the right in your Bible, 1 John chapter 2.
But he's just sending a strong message that says, I even had a wicked infiltrator in my
church.
Why do you think that your church is never going to have people like this?
Okay, so what's the practical application to this?
Number one, watch your kids.
Watch your kids.
And here's the thing, most people today in independent fundamental Baptist churches will
literally drop their kids off at the home of anyone who's just from church.
Oh, from church?
No problem.
I mean literally, I remember being in churches where they wanted my wife and I to go on an
overnight retreat and they said, drop your kids off with this family from the church.
I'd never even met them.
I had never even seen them.
It was a big church, never even met them.
And they said, no, no, these people are from church.
And they expected us to say, oh, they're from church?
Oh yeah, sure, no problem.
I'll be glad to drop my kids off with them.
But the problem is that just because somebody's from church, even if they've been in church
for a long time, and here's what a lot of churches will say, oh yeah, we do background
checks.
Let me explain something to you.
Every criminal, every pedophile, every pervert at one point had a clean record.
Because there's always a first offense.
And by the way, they usually don't get caught on the first offense.
Many of these creeps will get away with this for 20 years before they're ever busted.
And so to sit there and say, oh, we do background checks, that is the stupidest thing in the
world.
Background checks are the stupidest thing in the world.
They make absolutely no sense to sit there and say, oh, don't worry, we did a background
check.
That doesn't tell, did you look into the future?
Did you do a foreground check?
Now I don't even think background checks should exist because people who do that kind of stuff
should be killed anyway.
I mean anybody, if our justice system were truly just, somebody who molests children
would basically just be executed for that.
That would be the biblical punishment for that.
In fact, the Supreme Court ruled about six, seven years ago that no pedophile can be executed
in the United States.
Did you know that?
They ruled about six or seven years ago.
They said that no pedophile can ever be executed, even if they molest 100 children, no pedophile
will ever be executed again in our country until the Supreme Court changes that ruling.
They said we'll only execute murderers, but we'll never execute a pedophile.
You know, I'd rather, I mean, in some ways you'd rather someone were murdered than molested
in some ways.
I mean, it's almost as bad to that person, you know, depending on how they react to it.
I mean, think about it.
I mean, if someone were going to sit there and point a gun at me and say, you know, you're
going to be molested or killed, I'd just say pull the trigger.
You know, I would rather, if I had the choice right now to be murdered or molested by some
sodomite, I would rather be killed.
Who agrees with me?
You'd rather be killed?
Yeah, of course.
You know, and I always, that's why I teach my children.
Never get in the car, you know, if somebody points a gun at you and says get in the car,
I say look, and by the way, all children should listen to this in case you're not in my family.
Just learn this, children.
If anybody ever points a gun at you and says get in the car, don't get in the car.
You run away because number one, number one, if you run away, they're not necessarily going
to fire that gun because they might not want to draw that kind of attention that a gunshot
would fire.
Number two, even if they fire the gun, they're not necessarily going to hit you if you're
running away.
And number three, even if they hit you when you're running away, you have a better than
50% chance of not dying from that gunshot wound.
You have a less than half chance of being dead after one shot, okay?
So when somebody's, and number four, you might suffer a fate worse than death if you get
in the car.
So you never get in the car, you never go with the kidnapper, you never cooperate, you
always run screaming in the other direction, kids.
Everybody listening?
Very important.
And you should teach your children this kind of safety and stuff like that, too.
But what I'm saying is that you can't just sit there and assume, oh, well when we go
to church, we're in a safe place.
So just let your kids run wild, go everywhere, don't watch.
I mean, even after church when we're fellowshipping, I'm constantly watching.
You know, I don't have to watch the older ones as much, mainly because, and not just
because they're 12, 11, and 9, because you know what, the older boys, it's not just that
they're that age, because a lot of kids at that age will still be victimized.
But I have taught my children very clearly and very strictly how to be street smart in
this way.
They expect it, they know it's coming, they're ready for it, and they're also older.
I still watch them.
I still supervise them.
But the ones I supervise the most are the younger kids, too, especially the girls.
And I watch them, and I don't let them out of my sight or my wife's sight.
You can't just sit there and say, oh, I'm at church.
Just let them be behind closed doors, let them go hither and yon, and we don't know
where they're at.
Look, you've got to watch your kids.
And don't you ever drop your kids off with people from church to babysit your little
kids.
You cannot trust.
And look, I'm not saying, oh, I'm just suspicious of everyone.
Here's my motto.
Suspect no one, trust no one.
Did you hear me?
Suspect no one, trust no one.
I don't care who it is in this church, I'm not going to sit there and drop my kids off,
and especially they'll sit there and, oh, yeah, drop them off for an overnighter, drop
them off for this retreat, drop them off all day.
No!
You've got to watch your kids.
We are living in perilous times.
God said in the last days, perilous times shall come.
We are living in those, perilous means dangerous.
We're living in those dangerous times where you cannot be too careful with your children.
That's part of the reason why we don't have Sunday school here.
Why?
Because in a lot of churches, you'll get there and they're like, oh, yeah, your kids go here,
these age go here, these age go here, your baby goes here, and it's going with strangers.
Oh, but they're from church, oh, we did a background check.
It means nothing.
It means nothing!
And we've got to protect our children.
And by the way, this is why we don't have a bus ministry.
And I'm not against, I'm not mad at people who have a bus ministry.
There's a lot of good things about the bus ministry.
I used to work in the bus ministry and, you know what, a lot of people get saved.
I'm not saying, hey, anybody who has a bus ministry is a wicked person, because, you
know what, a lot of good is done through the bus ministry, but you know what else happens
though in the bus ministry?
What happens?
Ministries are being brought unattended from their parents and you've got workers working
with them and you don't know what those workers are going to do or what they're going to be
like.
And all of the big churches that have bus ministries have had this happen under their
watch.
I will not be responsible for it.
It will not happen in my ministry.
It's not worth it.
Say, oh, you're going to let all these kids go to hell.
No, we'll go knock the doors, we'll preach the gospel.
I just won an eight-year-old boy to the Lord about ten days ago out on soul winning, okay,
with his mother right there, and I presented the gospel to an eight-year-old boy and got
him saved.
And by the way, the bus ministry is so expensive and takes so much work and effort, if you
put that same money, time, and effort into soul winning, you will get more people saved.
So we're not just saying, oh yeah, just let them go to hell.
No, you'll get more people saved just by doing bona fide soul winning if you put the same
amount of time, energy, money, and effort into it.
Now again, I'm not saying that if a church has a bus ministry, it's a wicked church,
but I will say this, a church that has a bus ministry is probably opening themselves up
for wickedness to take place in that church, because any time you set up a ministry where
you're giving people unfettered access to children, look, a lot of those children's
workers are great, godly, righteous people that love those kids and want to give them
the gospel and want to get them saved.
There are many wonderful children's workers, but what about the one person that's not a
wonderful children's worker?
You got the 99 righteous, godly Bible teachers, and then you got the one Judas, the one evil,
corrupt, tree, filthy, dreamer, defiling the flesh, beguiling unstable souls.
It's not worth it.
It isn't worth it.
And I remember when I used to work in the bus ministry years and years ago, a decade
ago, I remember I'd knock on the door and we'd be advertising the bus ministry, and
people would say, oh, I'd never send my kids on a church bus because I don't let my kids
out of my sight.
I'd always say, good, you're right, I wouldn't either, because I wouldn't either.
I would never put my kids on this bus.
People would put four year olds on the bus.
The bus would pick up four and up.
You know, put a four year old on the bus, and if you think that there are no molesters
out there, look, every church that I've ever been in, are you listening to me?
I have been saved since I was six years old.
I have gone to a Baptist church every week of my life since I was born, okay?
I was born and raised a Baptist.
I went through a period in my teenage years where we went to a more liberal Baptist church,
but I've always gone to a Baptist church.
90% of the time, we're going to independent fundamental Baptist churches.
I've been in a bunch of different independent fundamental Baptist churches.
I was born in it, raised in it, saved at age six.
I know what I'm talking about.
I have experienced every church that I've ever been in, people in that church later
turned out to be perverts.
Every single church I've ever gone to.
And it's funny, because I'll get up and preach a sermon like this, and it goes over people's
head.
And then what will happen is, someone will be exposed, like six months from now, and
you're going to be like, Pastor Anson, I remember you saying that, but it wasn't until I actually
saw it happen that it really hit home with me.
It's like you have to see it to believe it.
A lot of people are listening to me right now and they're skeptical of what I'm saying.
And I'm sure a lot of people believe me, but there are some people that are skeptical.
But here's the thing.
Six months from now, 12 months from now, 18 months from now, I'll come to you with an
example from our church, and then you'll be like, oh wow.
Now I know what.
Look, we have examples.
For example, there was a guy who was going to our church less than a year ago, okay?
Six or nine months ago, okay, and this guy went soul winning, and his own wife brought
us evidence that he was a homosexual.
And that he was into, that he desired to molest children, okay?
This was brought unto us by his own wife, okay?
This happened less than a year ago, and I cast him out of the church, and he was trying
to keep coming to the church.
And said, oh yeah, she's lying and everything else.
Dude, it's your wife telling us.
Number one, this isn't just some railing accusation.
Number two, she brought us a big stack of evidence that we verified, okay?
And it was true, and look, what else do you have to be told to know that this happens?
This guy, look, there was a Baptist pastor in Phoenix, okay, that had come over to my
house and knocked on my door when I started the church.
He came over, knocked on the door, hey, welcome to the area, independent fundamental Baptist
pastor.
Hey, welcome to the area, and you know, all this stuff.
And he was trying to be our buddy and everything like that, and this guy, he needed some electrical
work done on his church building, okay?
And so I'm an electrician.
So I said, sure, I'll do that electrical work for you, you know, oh yeah, you know, I'll
pay you.
I said, no, no, no, let me just do it for free.
You know, you're a pastor, you know, yeah, let's do it, it's for the church.
So I went over there, I ran electrical wires for him and everything, and this guy, and
my wife will tell you, he was always trying to say, hey, my daughters can babysit your
kids.
Did he not say that repeatedly?
He'd always be like, oh, I've got these teenage daughters, they love to babysit, they're so
good with kids.
Man, you need to get out without your kids, this is what this pastor would do.
You need to get out without your kids, you need to go on a date, you need to leave your
kids, and my daughters will watch your kids, okay?
I'll give you his name, Pastor Nick Minerva, two miles from here, okay?
And this guy literally was caught by the police because he was online trying to hook, this
guy's in his 50s, he's online trying to hook up with like 14 year olds, okay?
Over the course of like 10 months, this guy's trying to hook up with young teenagers, okay?
I mean, good night, that's not normal.
I mean, look, committing adultery is a wicked sin, it's a horrible sin, the Bible said they
should be stoned with stones, but let me tell you something, you know, that's not how
a normal person commits adultery, you know, when you're going after these children and
unstable souls, adultery's wicked, but that's not wicked, that's just reprobate, you know,
when you're sitting there.
And he was caught, the police came and surrounded the church building, and they were gonna do
a search warrant on the church building, and this guy always carried a gun with him, and
he pulled out his gun, and he blew his own brains out, just like Judas did, committed
suicide, because he was busted, he was caught.
And look, the news article stated that it was over these particular months that this
guy was doing these activities on the internet.
I looked at his church website during that month, he preached a series on purity.
Now how evil is that?
When you're getting up behind the pulpit and preaching a message on, a series on purity,
while you're out trying to commit fornication in a strange way, okay?
What I'm trying to say is that I could've very easily, okay, had I not read these scriptures,
had I not been a little more street smart, I could've easily said, oh sure, and look,
I'm not even saying his daughters are bad.
His daughters seem like very nice girls, and I'm not gonna, you know, say that just because
they're his kids they're bad, of course not, you know, because maybe his wife was, I don't
know, I don't know if the kids are good, bad, I'm not saying anything negative about them,
okay, because what I think could've easily happened though is that what if I would've
said, yeah honey, let's go on a date, baby, drop the kids off at the home with those girls,
but how do you know that if you drop it off with those girls, how do you know what he's
gonna do?
See what I mean, like, oh girls, you know, let me just take them and show them this or
you know, hey, I'm just gonna run them up to get some ice cream, you know, who knows?
Even if the girls weren't the problem.
Do you think I would've wanted to read that news article and have, oh yeah, that's the
guy who, my kids were being babysat at his house all the time, but you know what, every
church I've ever been in, the culture was that yeah, you drop them off, yeah, oh yeah,
they're from church, oh yeah, drop your kid off at that nursery, drop your kid off at
that Sunday school, let them go over to that house, let them spend the night, they're from
church, they're from church, and look, that's not, the example that I've given you, it's
not all the examples I could give.
I could give way more examples, way more examples, now, thankfully, our church does not attract
perverts, and here's why our church doesn't attract perverts, because we don't give anybody
access to children, we don't have these closed door children's ministries, we don't have
these opportunities for people to just have all this access to children, so thank God
our church doesn't attract people where that's their goal, so that's one blessing about our
church is that it doesn't attract perverts, okay, another reason is because sometimes
they can't handle the preaching against homos, you know, and our church preaches so hard
against, and a lot of people are offended by it, even some normal straight people are
like, whoa, you preach way too hard against the homos, you know, you're just, you're just
mean-spirited, you're just hateful, and they'll quit the church over it, I mean, I've had
a lot of people say, man, I started listening to your preaching, but I quit listening to
your preaching because you're just so hard on the perverts and so hateful toward these
homos and stuff, I just, but then they're like, but then I went back and listened to
it more anyway, you know, but anyway, but they're just like, oh, man, you know, a lot
of people are offended by it, but let me tell you something, I'm glad, I like the fact that
the preaching is like that, because it helps get rid of some of the perverts.
We had a guy show up, and I could tell stories all morning, I mean, how much time you got,
you got time?
No, I'm just kidding, but anyway, you're hungry for lunch, but anyway, we had a guy show up
one time, and this guy just, oh, man, praise the Lord, hallelujah, you know, just talking
all the spiritual talk, oh, man, we're independent fundamental, oh, yeah, the King James brother,
praise God, from whom all blessings flow, you know, this guy's just giving all the right
life, he's there with his wife and kids, normal guy, right?
Well the guy sits down with his family, and I start just ripping some face on the homos,
imagine that, Pastor Anderson, so I'm just ripping face on the homos, and the guy just
like got uncomfortable, he's like kind of uncomfortable, and he gets up and walks out
of the service, you know, during that part of the sermon, then when I got onto something
else, he comes back in, and he's kind of hanging out toward the back, okay, a lady in our church
went up to go use the bathroom, okay, and in those days, we were in a smaller building
and the bathroom was outside, you had to go outside the church, walk about 75 feet or
50 feet, and then there was the outdoor restrooms, so a lady stepped out to use the bathroom,
he followed her out there, and basically, you know, propositioned her with indecency,
and tried to talk to her about, you know, committing adultery with him, and fornicating
with him, okay, how many examples do you need?
And I mean, the guy was only there for one service, and you know, as soon as we found
out about it, you know, we basically railed on the guy, and you know, told him never to
come back, and blah, blah, blah, you know, this and that, but what I'm saying is that,
you know, even though our church is not going to be a magnet for those types, because we
don't have all these children's ministries, which, you know, that's what children's ministries
end up doing, is becoming a magnet for, you know, for pedophiles, and I'm not, I'm not
saying that the people who run the children's ministries are bad, I'm just saying that bad
people do come in, it's the same thing with even like, if you just look up sports coaches,
school bus drivers, janitors at schools, why?
Because they just want that access unto children, because, and by the way, let me just say something,
just everybody get ready to quote me on this, every homosexual is a pedophile, there I said
it, that they are, get over it, it's a fact.
Now the mainstream media will try to hide that from you, but it's the truth, they're
all pedophiles, okay, and so they love to get into schools and sports leagues and churches,
these are, look, why do you think that the Catholic priest, who's preaching good doctrine
or false doctrine, is he a good tree or an evil tree, okay, why are so many pedophiles?
Because that's what the Bible said would happen, he says the same guy who perverts doctrine
perverts the flesh, okay, and that's why guys like Dr. Jack Skop, famous independent
fundamental Baptist preacher, he was preaching false doctrine, he was preaching perverted
doctrine and I said, I called it eight years in advance, I said that guy is a pervert,
and I went and I publicly declared him, I said he is a pervert, he is a predator, he
is exactly what the Bible warns about, I said that eight years before he was arrested for
statutory rape, eight years before I already called it, oh you must have, you know, magical
clairvoyant powers, no, I read the Bible and the Bible said if they pervert doctrine they'll
pervert the flesh, it's that simple, perverted doctrine, perverted person, and again, I'm
not talking about little nitpicky doctrines, I'm talking about perverting major doctrines
of the Bible, okay.
Now look what the Bible says in verse 18 of 1 John chapter 2, this is the last place
we're going to turn, please, please listen to the sermon, you say, I don't like the sermon,
you know, why do you preach on the sermon, look, it doesn't matter whether you like the
sermon, it doesn't matter whether you say, Pastor Anderson, this is my least favorite
sermon you've ever preached, Pastor Anderson, your sermon's boring, Pastor Anderson, I don't
agree with you, look, I just want you to take one thing from the sermon, one thing, do not
blindly trust people from church and don't let your kids out of your sight because you
don't know who the Judas is, and I'm not saying be suspicious of people and, you know, and
just every, you know, paranoid of everybody, because here's the thing, just live your life
in such a way where you don't have to be paranoid because you just always watch your kids, you
just always on the lookout, you just always prepared for it, just assume that it's here,
and if there's been one in the past, why wouldn't there be one now?
Maybe under the sound of my voice is a Judas, and if not, then they'll be here next week,
they'll show up next week, or the week after, you know, I'm not saying every service, but
chances are, you know, there's always, but look, we know for a fact that they will be
here, they've been here in the past, they'll be here in the future, be careful, look at
1 John 2 18, it says, little children, it is the last time, and as you have heard, that
Antichrist, singular, the Antichrist, right, you've heard that Antichrist shall come even
now are there many Antichrists, plural, whereby we know that it is the last time, now look,
doesn't this say that as we get toward the last days there's going to be more Antichrists?
And what is an Antichrist?
The Bible says, who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ, he's Antichrist
who denieth the Father and the Son.
So basically this is an unsaved person who doesn't believe that Jesus is the Christ,
but yet they creep in and they're amongst us, you say, well how do you know they're
amongst us?
It says in verse 19, they went out from us.
Now were these people amongst them?
They went out from us, but they were not of us.
For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went
out that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us.
Now again, some people will misapply this scripture again and just apply it to all believers.
If they don't continue with us, they're not saved.
If they went out from us, they're not saved.
Anyway, no, but when it comes to a preacher, when it comes to these Antichrists, these
false teachers, false prophets, he says, they went out from us, but they were not all of
us.
For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went
out that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us.
Now here's the thing, we haven't really sent out a lot of people to start churches yet
because we're just, you know, we're a newer church ourselves.
We've only been around for eight and a half years.
But here's the thing, we're going to send more and more people out as pastors.
You know, so far, you know, we didn't send out Brother Jimenez, but I did train him and
teach him, so he's kind of virtually sent out by us, although not officially sent out
by us in Sacramento.
And then of course, Brother Dave Berzins was sent out from us to start a church in Prescott.
And Brother Dave is someone who I know very well, very closely.
Brother Romero is another one that we're going to be sending out in just a few months' surgery.
We've only sent out a handful of guys, and they're all godly, righteous men, or we wouldn't
have sent them out.
But here's the thing, can you imagine a day when Faithful Word Baptist Church sends out
a hundred people to start churches across America?
I believe that it will happen if God allows, you know, if the Lord will, and we continue
here as what we're doing, and our church keeps growing, and we keep training young men to
preach the gospel and to send them out.
Can you see a day, and I'm not saying a hundred in one day, but I'm saying can you see a day
where we're sending out the 98th guy to start a church, and the 99th guy to start a church,
and the 100th guy to start a church, and can you see the day when maybe we don't know them
quite as well as the guys that we're sending out now?
And can you even fathom or imagine the idea that we could send out a guy some day to start
a church, to pastor a church, and that guy turns out to be a Judas Iscariot?
Is that possible according to scripture?
It happened to the apostle John!
I mean John is a, because I was talking about this with somebody, because we heard about
an independent fundamental Baptist that we knew that turned out to be a total fraud.
Okay.
And I was thinking to myself, I wonder if that would ever happen, you know, where we
would send somebody out who later turned out to be a fraud.
And I remember thinking, would that, would we be responsible?
Would that be our fault if we, but you know what, actually John is saying look, they went
out from us, but they were not of us.
And they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
So look, if even somebody that John, that the apostle John is sending out and ordaining
for the gospel ministry, turned out to be a Judas, do you think that maybe we could
be fooled by people around us?
If John was fooled?
And by the way, all the disciples were fooled about Judas.
And he said, Judas is the one, they all, he said, one of you is going to betray me, they
all said, is it I?
They didn't say, oh yeah, Judas, it's Judas.
They said, is it I?
They were suspecting more of themselves than of Judas.
And Jesus says, it's the guy who I hand the sop to after I've dipped it.
He dips the sop, hands it to Judas, and he says to Judas, that thou doest, do quickly.
And no one understood.
Everyone at the table thought, oh, he's just sending Judas to go buy something.
He just said, okay, here's who's going to betray me, here you go, go do it.
And they're just like, no, it's not Judas.
In fact, I took a gun safety class and they taught that one of the reasons why people
get killed sometimes in a gunfight is because they don't realize that their enemy is someone
that they know.
So basically, someone will come in to attack them with a, you know, and they look at that
person and they're like, so and so, what are you doing?
And they think because they know that person, that person cannot be the enemy.
And people are killed that way.
They said you got to be prepared that the enemy could be someone that you don't expect
to be your enemy.
You know, this is like a gun safety class, nothing to do with the Bible or spiritual
thing.
They're just explaining that, you know, sometimes your cousin or your uncle or your, you know,
church member or your friend can sometimes be an evil person without you knowing it.
Even the world is teaching that.
Okay, but what's the Bible say?
They went out from us.
They were not of us.
Don't let this message go in one ear and out the other.
I know it's not a fun message.
I know it's not positive and uplifting.
It's the truth.
And this could save your life or save your children's lives, you know, or someone that
you love.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, please help us not to be deceived, Lord.
There's so much naivety today amongst Christians.
And Lord, I believe that the reason why Christians are so naive is just that they're good people.
And good people tend to think that everyone around them is good also, Lord.
Lord, we as good people, we can't understand the sinful, perverted, wicked mind.
But Lord, help us to just take your word for it.
Thank you for warning us in the Bible because if the Bible hadn't warned us of these things,
we would just assume everybody was basically good.
I mean, the world tells us that everybody's basically good.
Lord, help us to realize that these warnings in the Bible are real and that no, everyone's
not good.
Some people are just rotten, evil people, Lord.
Please protect us.
And Lord, as we all do our best to watch our children and not to let them out of our sight
and to be very careful of these things, Lord, even as we do our best, Lord, we're not perfect.
We're human, Lord.
And so please just protect our children, Lord.
And help none of our children to fall victim to these type of wicked people.
And in Jesus' name we pray.