Proverbs chapter 25. Proverbs 25 in the Bible reads,
These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.
It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.
The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable.
Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer.
Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness.
But not forth thyself in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great men.
For better is it that it be said unto thee, Come up hither, and that thou shouldest be put lower
in the presence of the prince whom thine eyes have seen.
Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof,
when thy neighbor hath put thee to shame.
Debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself, and discover not a secret to another,
lest he that heareth it put thee to shame, and thine infamy turn not away.
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold and pictures of silver.
As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.
As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him,
for he refreshest the soul of his masters.
Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain.
By long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone.
Has thou found honey?
Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith and vomited.
Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbor's house, lest he be weary of thee, and so hate thee.
A man that beareth false witness against his neighbor is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow.
Confidence is an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint.
As that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nighter,
so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.
Thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink.
For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee.
The north wind driveth away rain, so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.
It is better to dwell in the corner of a housetop than with a brawling woman and in a wide house.
As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.
Righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain and a corrupt spring.
It is not good to eat much honey, for so men to search their own glory, it is not glory.
He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls.
Let's pray, dear Lord God, thank you for every soul at this church right now, Lord.
I just pray that you bless this service, Lord.
Please fill Pastor Mejia with your Holy Spirit, Lord, as he preaches unto us your word, Lord,
and just bless this service again and the preaching, Lord, and just pray that us and the congregation have ears to hear, Lord.
We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. OK, we're in Proverbs chapter 25, look down at your Bibles at verse 14, it says,
Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain.
At the time of my sermon this evening is beware of the charlatan, beware of the charlatan.
And I'm going to refer to tonight specifically about religious charlatans and what is a charlatan?
Well, a definition of a charlatan is a person who falsely claims to have some sort of special skill and or knowledge.
They are a fraud, they're phonies, they're con artists, they're quacks, OK, tricksters.
This is the proverbial snake oil salesman.
OK, and the Bible warns us about people like this.
And I believe Proverbs 25, verse 14 is a great verse to describe the charlatan, because it says here that they boast themselves of a false gift.
Right. And that's exactly what a charlatan does.
They will often exalt themselves and boast about being knowledgeable, having certain skills, and it likens it unto clouds and wind without rain.
When you look at dark clouds, you look at the wind, it automatically kind of brings to mind, oh, this is the type of weather that's going to happen.
There's some there's water in that it's going to be raining.
And it's saying here that, you know, these people who are charlatans, they're like those clouds, they're like the wind and they have no substance to them.
OK, they have no water in them.
They're actually empty, full of dead men's bones in most cases.
But we see here that this is a very, very much a a glaring characteristic of a charlatan is that they boast themselves of having these types of skills or knowledge.
The Bible says in Job 13, verse four, But you are forgers of lies, you're all physicians of no value.
I mean, you think about how many charlatans exist in the medical realm, right?
People who propose to know about medical science and they know what makes you healthy and they claim to have all these medicines and all of these things that you should do to make your life better.
But really, at the end of the day, they're physicians of no value.
You know, you have individuals that were used in 2020.
All right. During the whole covid-19 era.
Where they're proposing vaccines and they're saying this is what you have to do and wear this mask, you know, one of the biggest charlatans of that time is Fauci, right?
He's a man who proposed himself to be someone who's knowledgeable about health in the medical industry and what's going to help individuals.
But the guy is a complete snake.
He is someone who doesn't know what he's talking about.
He's a quack.
OK, he is a charlatan.
And you say, well, you know, you don't think he had the people's best interest in mind?
No, he had his own self interest in mind.
You know, he did all that so he can sell and make money and create books and make money off of them.
But I'm not referring tonight to those specific medical charlatans.
I'm going to talk about the religious charlatans.
And let me just say this by way of introduction is, as I mentioned in Proverbs 25, they often boast themselves of a false gift.
Whereas someone who actually has knowledge about a particular subject or topic often is characterized by holding that knowledge and not really saying much about it.
And in fact, Proverbs 17, you don't have to turn there, it says in verse 27, he that hath knowledge, spareth his words.
And a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit, even a fool when he holdeth his feet is counted wise, and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.
So often, the man who knows the most is the man who speaks the least.
But the man who claims to know the most is often the man who speaks the most, right?
And so the Bible is telling us here that when you run into an individual who claims to have these gifts, claims to have all this knowledge and claims to be gifted, they're probably a charlatan, they're lying to you, they have no substance within them.
Go to Second Timothy chapter three, if you would, Second Timothy chapter three.
And obviously, you could look at a charlatan and it would fall on the spectrum of being a false prophet, right?
And even on the spectrum of reprobates, but let me just say this tonight that not all charlatans are reprobates.
Now, I would say all religious charlatans are definitely false prophets because they have some sort of underlying motive other than their love for Christ that is motivating them to sell you a bill of goods, you know, get you that snake oil or whatever.
And sell you their book on prophecy, sell you their book on whatever, you know, Paul Chapel and, you know, that crowd or whatever, you know, these are charlatans that are essentially putting out material because they want to be made rich.
They have greed or covetous, but I wouldn't say that all of them are reprobates.
Now, I'm sure there is a fraction of them who are okay, because they would fall on that spectrum.
But look at Second Timothy chapter three and verse number five, here's a good description of the charlatan having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away for of this sort are they which creep into houses and leave captive, silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lust.
So obviously, they have an appearance of being someone who's something right that they know what they're talking about.
They have that form of godliness, but in actuality, deep down inside, they actually deny the power thereof, okay?
They don't really believe what they're talking about. The snake oil salesman doesn't really believe that the snake oil has any health properties to it.
They're denying the power thereof, they just have this form as though they bought into the product.
And the only people that fall for their nonsense are silly, well here it says silly women, but silly men and women, right?
What does that mean? Just people who are simple minded, who are unstable, they're immature, they don't know what the Bible says, these are often the individuals that are taken captive by the charlatan.
And it says in verse number seven, if they're ever learning, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, that's definitely true of the reprobate, and it says, it highlights two major charlatans in biblical history.
It says, now as Janus and Jambres whisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds reprobate concern in the faith, but they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be made manifest unto all men as theirs also was.
So one thing about the charlatan, the religious charlatan, is that they can propose their so-called knowledge, and people can even buy into them for a short period of time, but because there's no substance to the cloud, eventually they get found out.
Somewhere along down the road, they're going to be caught, they can proceed no further, and their folly, their foolishness, how fake they are, is actually made manifest.
And I would be honest with you that there's times in my Christian life, as a babe in Christ, that I was taken captive, okay, by some religious charlatan, by some book that I read, by an individual who just seemed very convincing,
But then you know what, as I grew in the Lord, and I read the Bible, heard preaching, learned biblical concepts, you know, I come to understand a lot of these people are frauds, not a fan of them anymore, these people are phonies, they're fakes, they're trying to sell people a bill of goods.
And this is why the Bible says that we henceforth be no more children, tossed through and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine, listen to this, by the what?
The sleight of man, what is sleight of man? It means the deceit of man, sleight of hand, they try to sell you a false doctrine by sleight of hand, and an unstable soul can buy into that hook, line, and sinker very easily, because they don't know what the Bible says, okay?
Especially if you have someone speaking with great swelling words of vanity, who sounds, you know, very intelligent, and they seem to know what they're talking about, people could get carried away with individuals like that, that's why people like to listen to John MacArthur.
And the John MacArthur crowd, the Piper crowd, these Calvinists, they have a tendency to, they're very successful at reeling people in to their subject matter because they sound smart.
But folks, you get any one of those people to actually just start reading the Bible, they'll realize how much of a fake and phony those individuals are, because it's obviously to contradict the Bible, so on and so forth, and so they shall proceed no further.
And again, this is, in my opinion, something that's common with Christians who are younger in the Lord, you know, there's people who are deceiving and being deceived, and each and every one of us have gotten caught up with some false prophet, some charlatan who we gave credit to, and we think, wow, this person's a really good teacher, they're a great preacher, but then you find out, you know, somewhere down the road, this person's a false prophet.
I'll give you a personal example, you know, when I first got saved, I got saved in a fundamental Baptist church, and one of the pastors that were exalted as being just a great man of God, and just a really hard preacher, was a man by the name of Phil Kidd.
And Phil Kidd was like a really hard preacher, and it was like almost considered like an honor to have him come preach at our church, because we were the only church this side of the Mississippi who would actually have him come, because he would just say really controversial things, he'd preach against the sodomites, he was loud and boisterous, and just preach really hard against sin, and we were buying his preaching CDs, listening to him, you know, instead of listening to rap music,
I just, you know, pop him in, because, you know, it fed the flesh, and so, you know, that was like the alternative, and so I'm like listening to him, but then, you know, start reading the Bible a little more, start growing in the Lord a little more, and then you realize, oh, this guy preaches repent of your sins, oh, this guy's, I'm more saved than this person is, you know, and then you kind of feel stupid, and you're like, wow, how did I get caught up in liking some false prophet, well, the way everyone else does,
and that is because immaturity, I wasn't grown in the Lord, I wasn't fully mature yet, and obviously I'm not fully mature now, per se, but I have a certain level of discernment now, hopefully as a pastor, right, you know, that I didn't have when I was a year old in the Lord, you understand?
So what I'm trying to tell you is that Christians are very much susceptible to charlatans, and they can admire them, and even some today could even say, oh, man, God used them in a great way in my life, or something like that, you know, they'll kind of convince themselves of that, but let's just be honest, whatever benefit you got from a false prophet is only because of the fact that he gave you the word of God, and the word of God is what has power, and let me just say this, any accurate thing that a charlatan and a false prophet says,
they got from someone else, okay, and so, you know, if I give you principles from another successful pastor, you know, obviously, you know, I'm not the originator of that idea, you can get it just as well from another person secondhand, and the same thing goes with everyone else, you know, we all learn ideas, we all learn systematic doctrines, a way of explaining things from another person, the only difference is the charlatan depends on that heavily,
okay, they can't necessarily get anything for themselves, they listen to other people, people who are saved, people who are, you know, experts in the subject, and then they just kind of copy that and regurgitate that, and then their followers think, oh, this person is legitimate, and so, you know, beware of the religious charlatan, and I think this is a necessary sermon, because of the fact that, you know, we as a church, we're not gonna be deceived by Rick Warren,
we're not gonna be deceived by a Joel Osteen, or, you know, a Phil Kidd, per se, but I guarantee you, there's some people, because there's like really lame charlatans, who are just really sloppy, and there are those who are just better at their craft of deceiving, okay, and we never want to be a church that follows a person or gives credit to an individual, listen to me, gives credit to an individual, just because they have a special place in our heart or something like that,
okay, or just because God used them in such a great way in the early years, you know, don't be a respecter of people, for a piece of bread that man would transgress, the Bible says, we should obviously always side with the Bible, and prove all things, and hold fast out, which is good, and so it doesn't matter how you felt in your heart about a particular person, evangelist, creation scientist, or whatever, at the end of the day, what does the Bible say?
And you know, if they fit the bill of being a charlatan, you know, side with the word of God, stop making excuses for these people, but I don't want to get ahead of myself in this sermon, okay, and so yeah, you know, we're not gonna be deceived by the very blatant charlatans, but they're charlatans even within fundamental Baptist churches, okay, and you know, there's individuals that are being deceived by them,
they're legitimate individuals who know what they're talking about, they're just a little off or whatever, we don't want to make excuses for people like that, and I'm gonna explain a couple things regarding that particular topic in just a bit, now go with me if you would, to Acts chapter 8, Acts chapter 8, let me give you some characteristics of a religious charlatan, I'm only gonna give you four actually, it's not gonna be a very exhaustive sermon, it's just four main characteristics, number one is they're often characterized by greed and covetousness,
which is why the religious charlatan is always selling something, you know, they're always trying to sell you a book, they're always trying to sell you a course, they're always trying to sell you a DVD set, you know, they're always trying to sell you something, you know, regarding their scope of knowledge, and it's not because they want to give you the knowledge, it's because they want you to give them money, because they are motivated by money, they have the love of money,
and again, let me say this, I think Christians, people who are saved can fall into that trap as well, and I truly believe that there are fundamental Baptists who are saved who are falling into that trap, and in fact the reason we know that that's true is because the Bible is constantly warning people not to be covetous, and in fact it warns pastors not to be covetous, to not be individuals who are greedy of filthy lucre, so that's kind of showing us that pastors have the potential to become greedy of filthy lucre,
and compromise in certain areas, and start writing books and selling them, or whatever it may be, and courses, and DVD sets, and preaching sets, folks, my philosophy, and the philosophy of my friends, pastor friends, and churches that are like-minded, is that information and biblical knowledge should always be free.
It should always be free. Now I'll be quite honest with you, I've not always held to that view, because I grew up in an old IFP church, where that was just the norm, you just sell stuff all the time, and that wasn't really challenged, but then as I grew in the Lord though, and as I was confronted with the truth, I have no choice but to side with the Bible, and realize that you know what, yeah it's true, the Bible should be free. Why sell Bibles at a church? Why sell books about the Bible?
And here's the thing, a lot of these books that these Paul-Chapel-type churches sell, they're super shallow, and I know what I'm talking about, because I've read a bunch of them. I have a lot of them even in my library, in my office.
I've read hundreds and hundreds of books by fundamental Baptists and non-denom pastors, primarily fundamental Baptists, and when you read it, it's just like, well, this is stuff I already know.
And a lot of it is just literally great swelling words of vanity, is what they are. They're not very deep, it's not like systematic doctrine, not to say that there aren't books out there written by fundamental Baptists that have systematic doctrine, because there are some,
but the vast majority of the material that's being put out there is very shallow, has a nice little title, with a nice little cover, it's like a widened sepulcher is what it is.
But then it's full of dead men's bones because they're talking about Spurgeon. It's just like, oh man, this is such a great book, look at the cover, but you go inside, it's just all quotes about Spurgeon.
It's like, how is this beneficial to any Christian reading about a Calvinist who believe a false gospel? But they'll do this because, why? Not because they want you to learn knowledge, they'll do it because they're greedy, they're covetous, they want to make a buck, more than a buck, off of their books that they're putting out or whatever it may be.
And so my thing is, I think we should always make biblical information free, and this is why I upload videos on Instagram all the time, and I'm not selling a course on there.
The vast majority of Christian influencers on Instagram, they put out their info because they want you to buy their course, buy their devotional, buy their book, they want to market biblical information for the sake of making money off of people.
And I don't have that motive, I'm not trying to, I don't know what they call it, monetize, even when our channel, YouTube, was at 112,000 subscribers, YouTube told me, hey, you can start earning money off of your shorts because you get so many views.
And I never actually signed up for that. I never like, hey, before we keep going, make sure you buy my free course on whatever. I just want, you say, why? Is it because you don't want riches? No, I want riches.
I want riches. But I don't want earthly riches, I want eternal riches. So I'd rather just give it all out for free now and get paid later, amen?
But the charlatan wants the monetary wealth now. They're often characterized by greed, which is why they sell their DVDs and books and courses, and this is, by the way, you think of Bible colleges, for example, those are institutions for charlatans.
Because a lot of what's taught in Bible colleges is not very deep at all. And in fact, I could say that I knew more than some of my Bible college teachers when I was in Bible college.
There were instances when I was being taught doctrine in a Bible college and I thought to myself, he's wrong. In fact, I have one particular memory, it was really funny, it was a class on defending, I think it was called Defending the Faith, if I remember correctly.
And the teacher said, which was an assistant pastor at the time, he was like, can someone tell me the difference between James 2 and Romans 4?
And I was like, that's easy. Because he's referring to Abraham, right? And I raised my hand and I was like, one is basically being justified before God, which is Romans 4, through their faith in Christ, and the other one is being justified before man through our works.
I was sitting on the front row, he was sitting there and he looked at me and he looked at his notes and he was like, yeah, that's right.
And it's at that moment that I realized, this guy doesn't even know what the answer was. He needs the answer key. He's a pastor. He's an assistant pastor, he's ordained, but he didn't even know the simplest of answers.
And that's not even like a deep theological question either. It's like pretty much anyone in this church can answer that, you know what I mean, without having to pay for a course on it or something like that.
Anyways, let me read to you from 2 Peter chapter 2 real quick, regarding false prophets. It says, and many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth is evil spoken of.
And you know what? A lot of unsafe people criticize Christianity, but it's not because of our beliefs. It's mostly because of these people, charlatans, who make money off of churches.
That's what they don't like. And so a lot of times, unsafe people will speak evil of the truth because of false prophets with their pernicious and covetous ways.
It says, and through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
Now, let me just say this is that, you know, I'm sure there's a book out there on some sort of doctrine that is well written, and quite frankly, I'd probably be willing to pay some money just to read a book if it's well written and I could actually learn something from it.
I don't agree with the fact that they would sell it, but if that's the only way I can get it, I'd buy it. However, the vast majority of the books that are being put out there, they're not well written, their doctrine is super shallow, and as I read them, I'm like, I could have written something better than this.
Like, this is like, who wrote this? A charlatan wrote it, okay?
Now, let me just also say regarding this particular topic, this point, is that, and I mentioned this in the beginning, is that not all charlatans are reprobates.
So we don't want to paint all these charlatans with a broad brush and think, oh, they're all reprobates, hellbound children of the devil, they're going to split hell wide open.
Some of them are, for sure, but not all of them, and let me give you proof of that. Look at Acts 8, verse 5, it says,
Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.
For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them, and many taken with palsies, and that were lame were healed.
And there was great joy in that city, so you know, the proof was in the pudding. Everyone knew this man was from God, right?
But there was a certain man called Simon, which before time, in the same city, used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one.
You know, like Proverbs 25, they boast themselves of a false gift. When you have to brag about yourself like that and say that you're some great one,
you know, obviously you're dealing with some sort of charlatan there. To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest saying, this man is the great power of God.
This is the guy who knows all about creation science right here. He's the expert, he's debated over 300 people, he has all these de- this is the guy!
It says in verse number 11, and to him they had regard, because that of a long time, he had bewitched them with sorceries.
Sorceries is just another way of saying deception, he seduced them, okay? He's being a charlatan.
But when they believed Philip, preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
And Simon himself believed also, and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done.
So Simon here is an individual who essentially was a charlatan at one point.
Because he's bewitching people, he's tricking individuals by sleight of hand, he's lying to individuals, and he has this complex that he wants to be some great one.
Okay? He's putting himself forth as being some expert, he's the guy, he's the main character, right?
But then, you know, Philip comes and he's preaching, and you know what? Simon gets saved, and amen to that.
He believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, not only that, but he gets baptized, and then he starts seeing that Philip, you know, he's performing these miracles and he's like,
No, that's kind of cool right there, you know, he's doing all these miracles, and he's taking those into consideration.
Look at verse 14.
And when the apostles, which were at Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who, when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost.
For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only that they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost.
So he sees that the apostles come, he lays hands on these individuals, they get filled with the Spirit, and they start, you know, they're filled with the Spirit to do great things for God.
Simon sees this, it says in verse 18, and when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money.
Now why is he offering them money?
Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.
So he's just like, Oh man, I've been in the wrong business this whole time.
You know, let me get some of that power too.
Because what? His sinful habit, or the thing that he struggled with, was that he wanted to be a great one still.
Now thankfully he got saved, right?
God saved, he got baptized, but you know what? The old man still resides there, and the old man wants to be exalted, the old man wants to be a great one.
The old man thinks that he can purchase the power of God with money.
It says in verse 21, Thou hast neither pardoned nor laid in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God.
Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God that perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee,
for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity.
Now what does it say that he's in the gall of bitterness?
Well I personally think what this is referring to is that, you know, you have Simon who was like the head honcho of that area.
Philip shows up and just steals all his people.
And they no longer think he's like the business anymore.
So they no longer believe in his witchcraft and his sorcery or whatever, and now they're following the truth, and he's kind of mad about that.
He's kind of bitter over the fact that no one really considers him as being a great one anymore.
And so in order to compensate for that, he thinks he can purchase the power of the Holy Spirit with money.
And of course Peter says, you know, thy money perish with thee.
You know, you're in the gall of bitterness, you need to repent, get right with God.
And of course he ends up repenting, he feels bad about it.
The point is, is that this is clearly an example of a blatant, explicit charlatan who was a charlatan before he got saved,
and even struggled with wanting to be a charlatan after he got saved.
Now I've seen this because, you know, I've known a lot of old IFB pastors, and you know, even to this day some of them I'm just like, man, I think they're saved but I'm not really sure.
Just because they seem to surround themselves with just a lot of greedy people, covetous people, and they themselves seem very money oriented.
Their ministries are money oriented, they seem to just love possessions and things, and it just kind of makes you wonder, you know, are they really saved?
But you know what, if they are saved, they're still charlatans though.
Because they obviously struggle with the flesh of wanting to be some great one.
Now the point that I'm making with the first point that I just made is the fact that charlatans are often motivated by money.
And this is why, folks, listen, the Bible tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil.
And it's telling that to Christians.
So we need to make sure, especially if you're trying to be a pastor, you want to be in training as a pastor, you need to make sure that you set your affections on things above.
Don't be someone who's greedy of filthy lucre, understand that money has its place, and don't let money possess you.
It's a tool to be used, and if you're going to be a pastor, to make money, you're in the wrong business.
Because you don't make money being a pastor, unless you preach lies, and sell a bunch of books, and courses, and DVDs, and such, or whatever.
Now again, I'm not saying that just because you sell a book that you're some sort of charlatan.
I will say this, that if you're selling them in church though, that's obviously wrong.
Because things should never be sold in church. Bruce and Kyla, pay attention up here.
Books, or anything for that matter, should never be sold in church.
This is the house of God, should be house of prayer, not a den of thieves, where merchandise is being made.
But if some pastor had the conviction of selling books outside of the church, and they actually had some substance to them, they were actually worth your read, there'd be no issue with that.
But again, very far, few, and in between, books exist, materials exist, or that's actually being put forth.
Go with me if you would, go to 2 Chronicles 18.
Now what's another characteristic of a charlatan? Well number one, they're covetous, they're often motivated by money and greed,
which is why they do all these courses and books and materials that they're putting out, haphazardly at that.
But here's another characteristic of a charlatan, and that is that they often propose exotic ideas.
Snake oil, help you with your health. If you drink this, you'll get skinny. It's always like get rich quick, or get the results very fast, type of philosophy.
And they have to promote these in an exotic way, because that's what captures the attention of the recipients. It's like, whoa!
And let me say this is that Instagram, because I'm on there a lot, because I post a lot of material, is filled with charlatans just like this.
And in fact, it's kind of hard to kind of get just regular truths of the Bible out there, because it's so filled with just exotic teachings, and people have itching ears.
They turn away their ears from the truth, and they're turned onto fables, Jewish fables at that. They're turned onto the most crazy, exotic teachings that the Bible doesn't even talk about.
And this is very common among charlatans, because they have to be really loud. Hello my baby, hello my, as they're selling you the product or whatever.
They have to do the whole dance and pony tricks, because they need to get your attention.
And in fact, the Bible specifically says that they have men's persons in admiration because of advantage, and it talks about how they speak with great swelling words of vanity.
They have to speak very greatly with grandeur, and make these incredible claims of extra biblical revelation, because that's what gets the clicks.
That's what gets the views. That's what gets the followers, because unstable souls love exotic teachings about the Nephilim, about the flat earth, about aliens, about even demonology and angelology.
Let me just say this, is that the Bible is exotic enough. If you actually read the Bible, you'll find out that the Bible is exotic enough.
There's some cool teachings in the Bible. And if you want to learn about demonology and angelology, literally you just have to stick to the Bible and that's enough.
Oh but no, that's not sufficient for the charlatan, because that doesn't sell as much. So they have to go beyond the boundaries of things that God has revealed, and go into vain jangling, profane and vain babblings, things that are not true, in order to captivate the audience.
Now let me read to you from 2 Peter, chapter 2 verse 17 says, these are wells without water, you know like Proverbs 25, right?
Clouds that are carried about with the tempest, to whom the midst of the darkness is reserved forever, for when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lust of the flesh.
What is the lust of the flesh like? Exotic things. Things that are just unnatural, you know, things that are just kind of wild and crazy.
Through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. Listen to this, while they promised them liberty, if you drink this, if you eat this, if you do these five things, you know, while they promised them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption.
For of whom a man is overcome of the same he is brought in bondage. And I keep going back to Instagram on this particular topic because I just see it a lot on there.
Where you have people who claim to be Christians, they claim to believe the Bible, and they're constantly promising these exotic things.
You know, oh man, the world's gonna end. The Euphrates River just dried up. Have you seen this? Bible prophecy being fulfilled this week.
And then it comes and goes, and you kind of want to ask them, like, what now? The snake oil didn't work. You know, I didn't lose weight. It didn't get rid of all the diseases.
But that's exactly how they operate. They have to give you these exotic teachings. Look at 2 Chronicles 18 and verse 6. We'll have an example of a real prophet and a charlatan here.
It says, But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him? And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat,
There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, for he never prophesied good unto me, but always evil, the same as Micaiah the son of Imlah.
And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so. And the king of Israel called for one of his officers and said, Fetch quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah.
And the king of Israel, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, sat either of them on his throne, clothed in their robes, and they sat in a void place at the entering inn of the gate of Samaria.
And all the prophets prophesied before them. So they have this great host of prophets before the kings, and then they got Micaiah.
And you know the king is like, who can we inquire that's not going to be just a pussyfooter, is what he's asking for.
They're like, oh Micaiah is one, but I can't stand him because he always, basically he's saying he always tells me the truth.
Verse 10, And Zedekiah the son of Canana had made him horns of iron, and said, Thus saith the Lord, with these thou shalt push Syria until they be consumed.
Now that was probably a powerful sermon. You know what I mean? Making horns of iron?
And he's just like, you know, I mean who knows what he's doing? But everyone's like, whoa man this guy is, you know, that's like awesome, that's a very exotic illustration.
But if you compare that to Micaiah's message, Micaiah is just like, you're going to die.
Any questions? Like what other thing do you want to learn? What else do you want to learn?
He's just very straightforward, just tells them what's going to happen, but this guy is like, with the horns, and this is what this reminds me of, and I think Brother Cody and I talked about this, like Instagram is filled, like if you ever have preaching clips, if you call it preaching, of these non-denom churches on Instagram, it's just like, it's just theatrics.
How are you going to make it tomorrow? How are you going to make it the day after? I'm telling you, you just got to get up, you got to get up, you got to get up, and get up again, and get up again, and it's just like millions of views.
They just say a whole lot without saying a whole lot. But people love that stuff, you know, but they don't really love the prophet who says you're going to die.
You're going to hell. They're like, well I hate him, but they love Zedekiah though. Why? Because he has iron horns.
He has iron horns, he has this great illustration, song and dance that goes with his proposal here, his preaching, and by the way, all the prophets, when they saw it, they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what's going to happen, yeah.
Kind of shows us that just because a bunch of people agree with you doesn't mean it's true.
You know, because sometimes you'll get comments and it's just like, yeah, a billion people disagree with you on this, and you really think you're right, it's like, yeah, a billion people are wrong.
There's going to be way more billions that are going to go to hell.
Just because it's a majority that agree together on the particular topic doesn't make it true.
So all the prophets prophesied so, they're like, yeah, with the iron horns, you know, just this really exotic, but then Micaiah's prophecy actually came to pass.
And of course, you know, the kings, they get mad at Micaiah, and they're like, throw him in jail, and you know, when I return, and then Micaiah's like, if you return.
If you return. You know, because people always make a, they always talk about the if in, you know, the, what is that, the 300? Spartan 300?
They always talk about Leonidas saying, you know, if. That if sucks. This if is better.
This if is like Micaiah's like, if you return in peace. Meaning you're not going to return in peace. You know, the guy's going to die on the field.
But the point that I'm making is that charlatans are notorious for being exotic with their teachings. Now, with that being said, turn with me if you would to go to Exodus.
Actually, go to Deuteronomy 18. Deuteronomy 18. With that being said, this leads me into my third point, and that is they can never quite deliver according to their claims.
The snake oil salesman has never really had someone who has benefited from their snake oil.
And even if you have someone who said, it's held my life so much, he's working with the charlatan. He's getting a percentage of the cut from the money that he's making.
He's lying, he's another charlatan. He's charlatan B. Charlatan A and charlatan B. That's Janice, and this is Jamboree's.
But there's never really an individual who actually benefited from these people because of the fact that they are clouds without rain.
They can't provide any substance. They can never deliver according to their claims.
You know, they have these dubious credentials, questionable trend, they claim to be experts, but they never deliver when they talk about whatever it is that they're referring to, biblical prophecy or whatever.
Now, who do I think about when I, from the Bible, when I think about this particular point here, and that is Janice and Jamboree's.
Because remember, in the beginning, when they're going back and forth, the magicians with Moses, they're able to hang for like the first two or three plagues.
But after a while, they're just like, they can't replicate what God is doing. Even to the point where they're like, no, this is the finger of God.
Oh, they're able to replicate the blood, you know what I mean? They're able to replicate some of the plagues, but when it came to the lice, they just couldn't replicate that.
You know, why? Because charlatans can't deliver what they claimed it can do. You understand?
In fact, let me read to you from Exodus chapter 8. It says in verse number 16, the Lord said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
And they did so, for Aaron stretched out his hand with the rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man and in beast, and all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not. So there were lice upon man and upon beast, then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. It's always been the finger of God.
And Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened unto them as the Lord had said. By the way, I always find it funny that they replicated the blood when everything's already turned into blood.
Oh, how convenient. You know, you can replicate turning the water into blood when everything has already been turned into blood. It's like it's not hard to just kind of do a bait and switch there.
Okay?
Another example in the New Testament would be the seven sons of Sceva, who are supposed to exorcists, right? And they're trying to cast out devils, and they're like, we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth, and they couldn't deliver, right?
They ended up getting their rear ends handed to them by the man who's possessed with the devil, and they were made an embarrassment.
Look at Deuteronomy chapter 18 and verse number 20 says, but the prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
And if thou say in thine heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken?
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shall not be afraid of him.
So he's saying, you know, if you have a person who's claiming to be a prophet of God, and they make some sort of prophetic statement of future events or whatever it may be, and it doesn't happen.
That's just confirmation that they're not of God.
Why? Because they can't deliver.
Now, let me talk briefly about this Instagramer who's a Christian influencer.
Hey boys, boys, boys, you're being a little distracting there, okay?
Sit up straight, listen to the preaching.
How many of you ever heard of RealBigNick?
You guys ever heard of him?
He's huge on Instagram.
He has like 300,000 followers.
And this guy, he just kind of came on the scene within the last year or so or two years.
But back to the previous point regarding like exotic things, well, he just looks exotic, okay?
And I use that very loosely because he's like a small person and he has like one colored eye or something.
I don't know if he's blind in one eye or something like that.
Now you guys know what I'm talking about?
He has this like gray eye and he's always talking about these really exotic things that are just not found in the Bible.
You know, the Nephilim and just things that are just out there, okay?
His name is RealBigNick, okay?
Now, he recently came out with a video and he's talking about the solar eclipse that's going to be happening on April 8th, okay?
And he says that, you know, this solar eclipse that's going to happen on April 8th, it's going to plunge certain parts of America into total darkness.
And it just so happens that this particular eclipse, the pathway of this eclipse is going to go through the United States and it's going to cover eight cities that are called Nineveh.
Not only that, but it will take place under the constellation Cetus, which by the way means whale, huh?
Nineveh, Jonah, the whale, huh?
He claims that history records that there was a solar eclipse called the Bur-Sigali right before Nineveh repented.
Now, I look this up and you can't really pinpoint if it happened during that particular time.
There was an eclipse that took place that was called that and some speculate that it happened around the time of Jonah preaching, but they can't say for sure.
You know, because how are you going to know that?
You know, they can base it off of whatever king was reigning at that time to kind of pinpoint the timeline, but even then it's just speculation at that point.
You can't say for certain.
But here's the thing is that when you actually go on a valid website about, because you know there's entire institutions dedicated to like following these eclipse and giving you all, everything you need to know about the eclipse and what's going to happen,
it's only going to pass over 13 states and only one of the cities is called Nineveh, okay?
And so, you know, it's passing over 13 states. A ton of cities are being covered in towns, but only one of them is actually Nineveh out of the eight.
But he's saying that there's eight.
And then, you know, this is what he captures people with.
You know, this is what the Bible says.
Is it possible that this is a 2,000-year-old prophecy that's going to be fulfilled on April 8th?
And then he quotes Matthew 16, verse 4, that says that a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.
It's like, can you give us a little bit of material to make fun of you with?
Like, why don't you just hand over the punchline to us?
So he's like, you know, wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there shall no sign being given unto it but the sign of Jonas the prophet.
So he's saying that that's going to be fulfilled on April 8th with this solar eclipse.
Now, here's the thing is that, you know, he claims this is going to be fulfilled, but number one, the dude is 2,000 years too late.
He's literally 2,000 years too late because the sign of Jonas the prophet is the fact that Jesus Christ resurrected just as, you know, Jonah came out of the mouth of the whale of the fish, you know, and actually came out and was, you know, thrown up into land even though he was in, you know, the symbolic depths of hell.
Well, in like manner, Jesus Christ was going to come out of the grave as well.
That prophecy has already been fulfilled.
The guy's 2,000 years too late.
That's number one, okay?
And then he says this in the video, you know, America has been pretty wicked and it might just, what do you think is going to happen with the solar eclipse?
It's only happening for like a limited time. It's following a pathway, you know, I mean, like what, you think someone's going to look up and just burn their eye? I mean, what could possibly happen?
It's literally just an extraordinary event that has no spiritual significance whatsoever and in fact, the Bible specifically warns us not to observe these things in the sky, the host of heaven.
That the heathen are dismayed at them, the Bible says. Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven for the heathen are dismayed at them.
Who are the heathen? Big Nick.
Big Nick is like, oh man, the solar eclipse and he's got to add all this extra information to give it credibility and veracity but you know, he's lying and look, I'll just be honest with you, like I don't even think he believes this stuff.
Why? Because he's a charlatan trying to sell you some snake oil from the serpent, that old serpent, which is the devil.
He's trying to beguile and people are like, wow, this is powerful. What are you going to do on April 9th when you realize that nothing happened other than you just missed a really cool solar eclipse?
The only regret I have regarding that solar eclipse is that I can't see it. But I'm not dismayed at the signs of heaven because of the fact that it's a solar eclipse, it is an awesome view but it doesn't affect anything spiritually.
And you kind of wonder like, wow, the people who follow us are really stupid. They're idiots. They're like silly women laden with sins. You say, why? Because they don't even go to the Bible to actually read Matthew 16 because if they did, they would realize, oh wait a minute, this has already been fulfilled.
He's literally implying that the sign of Jonas is that solar eclipse. I mean, I don't know if he thinks that God is just shooting a magnifying, it's like a giant magnifying glass or something and through the shade that the solar eclipse is providing, he's just going to melt. I don't know, what do you think is going to happen?
But you know what, that day will come and go and you just won't mention it. Just like every other Instagram social media charlatan, they want, oh the Euphrates River dried up. So what? Throughout the years it's always been filled with water, then it dries up, then it fills with water, then it dries up. That's just how the world is. Who cares?
He's like, oh man, Bible prophecy is about to be fulfilled. Because you know, they point to Revelation where the Euphrates River is being dried up to make way for the kings of the north and it's referring to the battle of Armageddon.
But you know what, it dried up and there's no kings of the north there. Probably just a couple dudes and just nothing has happened, business as usual.
These people are phonies, they're fakes, they're quacks. Big Nick is a false prophet. He's a charlatan, I do think he's a reprobate by the way. Selling people a bill of goods, you know, just nonsensical things.
And you know, his followers are like unto him. If they actually believe in that stuff, again there's enough exotic things in the Bible, you don't need to go into extra biblical revelation that it's not even true.
Go to Acts 13 if you would, Acts 13.
Here's my last point and that is that religious charlatans never give you a straight answer about the basics.
You know, they talk out of both sides of their mouth because they can't really pinpoint what they really believe. Because all they're trying to do is just continuously reel you in with exotic teachings and not give you just concrete answers.
And you know, someone who's notorious for this is Kent Hovind. And you know what, Kent Hovind is a major charlatan. That guy is a notorious charlatan.
And I know people like them in the old IFB and even in new IFB, they esteem him as being some great one because of his DVDs or whatever, even though he's preaching repent of your sins in that DVD series.
And here's what people will say, okay, here's what people will say, yeah but that was years ago, he says he believes in faith alone, he believes in eternal security, oh well then shut my mouth, let me just throw out this point.
Oh wait, no, you know what, he also promotes kingdom exclusionism, which is the teaching that Christians will go to the lake of fire for a thousand years if they misbehave here on earth.
What kind of nonsense is that? He said well does he believe it though? I don't care. If you are on a show promoting a guy who does believe it and saying this is a great book, everyone should read this book, I can't refute it.
How are you going to say you believe in eternal security and in faith alone and you say you can't refute that damnable heresy? You're a charlatan. You're speaking out of both sides of your mouth.
And let me just make something very clear because people come to the aid of Ken Hovind all the time because he made such a difference in their lives by teaching them about the ice circle and all the dinosaurs and all the funny jokes about his wives or whatever.
Let me just say this, because people will often say this, they'll say yeah but you know Christians can get into heresy though.
And you know what, to that I say that's true. That is absolutely true. People can be deceived. Christians can be deceived for sure. They can fall into heresy.
And in fact heresy is a work of the flesh according to the Bible. That's undeniable. However, there is an exception to that and that is if you are a pastor, a minister of the gospel, this is what you're doing full time, you have a ministry.
You put yourself forth as being a teacher of the Bible. That means your full time job is to study the Bible. You're teaching other people about the Bible. Your church is called Genesis Baptist Church. He's the pastor of a church called Genesis Baptist Church.
I can't say he's the pastor but that's his church. Genesis Baptist Church, he's definitely a minister. For years he's taught the word of God and claimed to have been the authority on this particular niche subject of creationism.
Young earth creationism and you're going to tell me that we need to give him slack for that? No my friends. You know if someone, if there's a doctor who claims to be a heart surgeon but doesn't know where the heart is, we would say you're not really a heart surgeon.
Oh but look at all these degrees and I've done 367 debates. How is it that you say you've done 365 surgeries but you don't know where the heart is?
Now you know what? Or you know whatever organ in the body. Now you know the nurse probably can't find that specific organ. Maybe there's an organ in the body that a nurse doesn't really know or someone who's not really qualified. We wouldn't be surprised at that.
Because that's not what they're there for right? That's not what they receive training for. But a brain surgeon, a heart surgeon, someone who's at the top of the chain when it comes to that, they should know better or they should step down and not be a doctor.
So we're not going to cut slack to the person who proposes to be a heart surgeon and doesn't know the functions of the heart or gives iffy information about the heart. You understand what I'm saying?
So look I cut people slack if they're just Christians in a church, they haven't been saved for very long or maybe they have but they're just being duped by some false prophet.
But when you are a pastor, an evangelist, a full-time Christian worker, this is your job. You have no business not knowing the subject of salvation.
Hello? That is like what if I just didn't know, I was like yeah it might be repent of your sins, it might not be. What? It would be complete nonsense.
Why? Because that is like the most basic of Christian information that first of all every Christian should know but especially the pastor.
And if the pastor doesn't know that, then you know what? He shouldn't be the pastor, he shouldn't be an evangelist, he shouldn't be serving in the local New Testament church because he's leading others as though he does know.
And he's doing more harm than good because promoting books that literally teach and it's just like I can't refute it, I can refute it.
I did two part series on kingdom exclusionism, it was cake because you don't even have to know that deep doctrine to debunk that crap. It's easy.
How do you say it? Well I can't, but you know what? It might be because he's getting a cut off that book whoever buys it because again that's how charlatans operate.
I can't give you a straight answer. I'll be happy to debate you another time. Why? Just do it now.
And let me say something about charlatans is that they're always scripted. They need a script to work off of.
And this is why sometimes I'll have Catholics, they'll challenge me, they'll message me, and they'll be like this on Instagram, they'll be like, I'll debate you anytime, anywhere, you just say the time, we'll schedule something.
And you know what I'll do? I just call them right then in the spot. I'm like, right now.
And they're like, oh no, we should do it another, why another time? Just do it right now.
You're a student of the Bible, I'm a student of the Bible, let's just use the Bible, I got the Bible right here, and in fact if I didn't have the Bible I got it right here, I got it right here, let's go!
Oh but they need a script, they need time to write out their points. I don't need time to write out my points.
You know I write a sermon only because I don't want to just deviate from whatever it is that I'm talking about, but you look at every sermon that I preach on the video, I'm always looking at you guys, I rarely look at my notes.
Because most of the stuff is just coming from the heart. Unless of course you're like Garrett Kirschway that you have to just read your entire sermon all the way through because you're a fake and you're a phony.
And you know what, I love, and by the way let me say this, that Baptist Bias episode was awesome, it's the only full length episode I've ever watched.
But it was worth all my time, amen. I loved it.
You know I loved it because of the fact that I wanted Pastor Anderson to just mow that guy to the ground, because you know Pastor Anderson is a man who knows his stuff.
And you know it's like he just kind of shot from the hip and gave him whatever knowledge he had and he still just burnt them.
The dude got toast, he got fried on live! YouTube!
And then he's just like if you want to talk about this later we can debate later, I've done 300, okay if you've done 300 debates you should just know this stuff off the top of the head.
That didn't help you much, but he's a charlatan my friends.
And you know what, I know there's people, skip, where would I have you go to?
Skip whatever I had you go to and go to Philippians chapter 1, Philippians chapter 1.
Subtlety and all mischief.
You say do you think Ken Hovind is a reprobate? I don't know and I'm not going to call that out because I honestly don't know.
I want nothing to do with the guy.
He's disqualified himself from being any type of spiritual leader based upon his salvation, the things that he teaches about salvation.
His charlatan style ministry of creationism and some of the weird things that he's taught even in that podcast alone that contradicted itself.
And his personal character is questionable since he's on as like his fifth wife it's not really his wife.
He's on his fifth concubine or whatever.
Because he doesn't even believe that the government should get involved when you get married.
So he just performs his own weddings and just you know your wife you know.
He just calls him a wife and that's it, he thinks he's Adam.
So collectively all the evidence stacked against them would say okay I'm not going to say you're a reprobate.
But let me just say this you shouldn't be Dr. Dino ministry with your own little compound selling your material when you can't even give the most basic of information.
And when your ideas are challenged you just fold.
You just completely fold.
And then you start adding ad hominem in your discussion because you just can't handle someone actually challenging the truth.
People can challenge what we believe anytime any day.
And you know what you can do nothing against the truth before the truth.
Plain and simple.
And so look I remember when I first got saved people gave me you know a series on Ken Hovind and I loved it.
Because I was a brand new Christian I never heard anything like that before.
And you know throughout the years I just kind of stopped listening to him because I just got into like real preaching and I started learning the Bible.
But then you start realizing that this guy you know promotes the shack which is a blasphemous book.
Yeah he promotes the shack like he's a major fan of the shack.
It's an extremely blasphemous book about God.
He's teaching all this weird stuff he's doing all these fake he's even he's even officiating weddings for people with no government involved.
He's teaching weird doctrines his science is all quirky and doesn't make any sense.
And so there comes a point where I was just like this guy is not who I thought he was.
His folly was made manifest I want nothing to do with this guy.
And people like they have a problem with that.
Because you know he made a difference in someone's life because he talked about dinosaurs or whatever and it's just like he holds a special place in people's hearts.
But folks let's be people of integrity though.
Okay and realize you know if someone's a phony they're a phony plain and simple and we shouldn't associate with people like that.
Now I get it though you know because people give him a lot of credit they're like well if it wasn't for him I wouldn't learn about the King James.
But that's probably true you know I heard him say that a couple times and you know that kind of opened the doors for me as well.
And you know what yeah God used an ass, Balaam's ass to get that truth across.
But Balaam's ass is still an ass though.
Doesn't really change anything.
Look what it says in Philippians 1 here's a great attitude to have regarding this it says in verse 15.
Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife and some also of good will.
The one preached Christ of contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds.
But the other of love knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel.
What then notwithstanding every way whether in, listen to this, pretense or in truth Christ is preached and therein do I rejoice yea and will rejoice.
And that's what basically Ken Hovind did he preached in pretense he's faking it the whole time.
And you know if you benefited from that amen it doesn't make him a good godly person.
It doesn't even make him a saved person.
And don't be ashamed you know because I think I feel like sometimes people are defending him because they're afraid to say like you know he's like an unsafe false prophet because he like blessed them.
He was probably some false prophet out there that blessed me too but I'm not going to just make excuses for them and say well I still think that they're saved even though they're preaching a false gospel or something.
You know I remember before I got saved I had a friend who was a Pentecostal and you know what he was a blessing to me when I initially got saved.
Because he was teaching me things about the Bible stories about the Bible but you know looking back I don't even know if he was saved or not.
Because he was a Pentecostal and Pentecostals don't believe in eternal security.
You know they typically believe you can lose your salvation but am I just going to make excuses for him and say no no no for sure he was like a saved person because I'd be embarrassed to do something like that?
Did someone like that help me? No I'm not embarrassed at all.
Because I credit that to God at the end of the day.
God used an ass to speak to Balaam.
He can use some false prophet to give you some specific truth or whatever.
And so you know beware of the Charlatans my friends.
And let's not be a church that just follows someone just because they're your favorite whatever fill in the blank.
They need to meet certain qualifications of the Bible, certain standards of the Bible.
It doesn't matter if they've invested in you, they gave you money or helped you out during a hard time or whatever.
You know if they've gone the way of Balaam, if they've gone the way of Cain, let them be anathema.
And you know I'm just tired of this attitude of like oh we can't call out whatever Ken Hovind or something because he's the expert in creation science.
He's not an expert in that.
He's an expert in the pseudo version of creation science.
That's what he's an expert in.
He's an expert at repeating all his dumb lame jokes.
All his one-liners and all the things that he said, that's what he is an expert at.
And this is why I'm glad that I'm a fundamental Baptist who has the Bible as my final authority.
Because I'm not required to follow a particular man just because of X, Y, and Z.
Because at the end of the day this is the final authority right here.
And if they go outside of the parameters of the Bible then I don't need to follow them anymore.
Or consider them to be a righteous person because they blessed me in the years past or something like that.
Be people of integrity amen.
And so beware of the charlatan.
Let's pray. Father we thank you so much for your word.
Help us Lord to continue to grow in our discernment Lord.
And to be cautious about people and not make excuses for individuals just because they benefited us in times past Lord in a certain area.
Lord I pray Father God that you would help us to always side with biblical truths.
And obviously sometimes people fall in a gray area and I get that.
And we can't make a judgment call.
But we definitely can when someone has put out so much information about the Bible.
They claim to be experts in the word of God.
Experts about subjects of the Bible.
And yet they're so wrong in so many different areas Lord.
That's obviously a very questionable characteristic.
And very much a blatant characteristic of a charlatan.
And I pray you help us to discern that.
We love you. We thank you.
Pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.