Welcome to First Works Baptist Church, let's all find our seats.
As you find a seat, grab a songbook, turn to song number 255.
Song number 255 as our first song this morning, and let's all stand together for this first
song if you're able.
All together nice and strong on that first verse.
Jesus has a table spread where the saints of God are fed.
He invites His chosen people come and dine.
With His manna, He doth feed and supplies our every need.
O'er to sweet, to sub with Jesus all the time.
Come and dine, the master calleth, come and dine.
turn the water into wine to the hungry call it now come and dine the disciples came to land
thus obeying Christ command for the master called unto them come and dine there they found their
hearts desire bread and fish upon the fire the hungry every time come and dine the master call
Jesus, tame all the time.
He who fed the multitude, turned the water into wine.
To the hungry, call it now, come and dine.
To the lamb, we'll take his pride.
The Lamb has died.
All the hosts of heaven will assemble thee.
Oat will be a glorious sign.
All the saints and spotless wine.
And with Jesus, they will feast eternally.
Come and dine, the master, call it, come and dine.
You may feast at Jesus' table all the time.
He who fed the multitude, turned the water into wine.
To the hung, we call it now, come and dine.
Amen, wonderful singing.
Let's start off our service with a word of prayer.
Lord God Heavenly Father we just thank you for giving us another day for giving us this morning that we can come here to
Your house and hear the preaching of your word
And we ask that you please just bless our service every aspect of it
Please bless the singing that it would be pleasing to your ears and prepare our hearts for the message and
Phil passing me here with your spirit as he preaches unto us. Give us your spirit in the congregation Lord
Give us a tenth of years that are ready to hear that we may leave here differently than when we came in Lord
Jesus name we pray. Amen. You may be seated
Please turn your song books to song number
310
Song number 310 foot prints of Jesus
Song number 310 all together on that first verse
Sweetly, Lord, have we heard thee calling? Come, follow me,
and we see where thy footprints falling lead us to thee.
Footprints of Jesus that make
the steps of Jesus, where ere they go, though they lead, or the cold dark mountains seeking
his sheep, or along by Siloam's fountains helping the weak.
that make the pathway glow.
We will follow the steps of Jesus,
where'er they go,
if they lead through the temple holy.
Or in homes of the poor and lowly,
the Lord. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow. We will follow the steps of Jesus
where there they go. Then at last when on high he sees us up.
Where the steps of Jesus end at his throne.
The footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow.
We will follow the steps of Jesus.
Where are they?
All right, great singing, welcome to First Works Baptist Church.
Just a few announcements here.
Before we sing our next song, which will be song number 41, Sweet Buy and Buy.
If you want to get that ready in your songbook, song number 41.
And I don't know, do we have any bulletins?
Love, we do.
If anybody needs a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand.
And one of the ushers can get one for you.
Brother Adrian needs one down here.
Of course, we welcome you to come back to our Sunday evening service tonight at 5pm
and then we have a Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock.
We're currently going to the Book of Isaiah, so hope to see you for our mid-week Bible study.
You see the so many times and teams, the list of expecting mothers,
and the stats for Salvation and Baptisms right there. I think that's what is that for the year of,
I don't think we got 1,023 in the month of January, though that'd be great, but I don't know.
On the right hand side, there is the upcoming church events.
We have the soul-winning training continuing after the service.
It'll be approximately around 12.30.
That'll be the soul-winning training.
And I want to encourage you to stay here for that because we're actually going to go on over some of the hangups that people have at the door.
Some of the answers that people give you that have a tendency to stump some Christians that don't necessarily know how to respond to it.
And so we're going to be going over that today.
And then this Tuesday, February 18th, we have the activity.
at Billy B's and that'll be at 11 a.m. you have the address there and then the
TJ missions is on Saturday February 22nd meeting at the building at 915 and so
want to encourage you to be there for that if you'd like to participate just
make sure you bring your passport and see Brother Hernandez for more details
men's prayer nights coming up on Friday March 7th and that'll be at the
building at 7 p.m. dinner will be provided and that is it for our
Song number 41, sweet by and by, all together, nice and strong on that first verse.
There's a land that is fairer than day,
And by faith we can see it afar,
For the Father waits over the way,
In the sweet by and by, We shall meet on that beautiful shore.
Melodious songs of the blessed, and our spirit shall sorrow no more, not aside for the blessed.
Don't warp out.
In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.
Amen.
Wonderful singing.
At this time the ushers will come forward to receive the offering and you can turn your
Bibles to 1 John chapter 2, 1 John chapter number 2.
1st John chapter number two, 1st John chapter two, the Bible reads my little
children these things write unto you that ye sin not if any man sin we have an
advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the
propitiation for our sins not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole
world and hereby do we know that we know him if we keep his commandments
He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But who so keepeth his word, and him verily is the love of God perfected.
Hereby know we that we are in him.
He that saith, he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which he had from the beginning.
The old commandment is the word which he have heard from the beginning.
Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, because
the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.
He that saith he is in the light, and hatheth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling
in him.
But he that hatheth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whether
I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his namesake.
I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning.
I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one.
I write unto you, little children, because you have known the Father.
I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning.
I've written unto you, young men, because you're strong and the word of God abideth in you,
and you have overcome the wicked one.
Love not the world now that the things that are in the world many men love the world the love of the father is not in him
For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father
But is of the world and the world passeth away in the lust thereof you do with the will of God abide forever
Little children it is the last time and as you have heard that the that antichrist shall come even now are there many antichrists
Whereby we know that it is the last time they went out from us, but they were not of us for if they had been of us
There were no doubt of continued with us, but they went out that they might be made man of us that they were not all of us
But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and
the no lies of the truth.
Who is a liar, but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ.
He is anti-Christ, that denies the Father and the Son.
Whosoever denies the Son, the same hath not the Father.
But he that acknowledges the Son hath the Father also.
Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning.
If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue
in the Son and in the Father.
And this is the promise that he has promised us, even eternal life.
These things have ever written into you concerning them that seduce you.
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you.
But as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie,
even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
And now, little children, abide in him, that when ye shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him that is coming.
If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him.
Let's pray to our God. Thank you again for everything you bless us with just as Jew would meet with us here now this morning
Please feel past me here with your Holy Spirit and bless the preaching and a juicing my prayer men
Amen, okay, we're in 1st John chapter 2 this morning and look down at verse 18
It says in 1st John chapter 2 verse 18 little children
It is the last time and as you have heard the Antichrist shall come even now are there many Antichrists?
Whereby we know that it is the last time they went out from us
But they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have no doubt have continued with us, but they went out
that they might be made manifest,
that they were not all of us.
And the title of my sermon this morning
is Fakes, Fans, and Followers.
Fakes, fans, and followers.
In Christianity, we can say that there are essentially
three categories of those who refer to themselves
as Christians, right?
And it's important for us as believers
to be able to differentiate between the three.
And let me just say this is that not everything
that claims to be a Christian
is a Christian, not everyone who claims to be a believer is actually a believer,
not everyone who names the name of Christ actually believes on the Lord and it's important for us
as Christians to understand that, you know, because here's the thing is that Christianity
has become so diluted and so mixed and so watered down when it comes to doctrinal preaching,
Christians have a tendency to just lack a lot of discernment in this area and automatically assume,
that anyone who claims to be saved is saved,
or anyone who expresses any form of zeal for the Lord,
no, they must be a Christian or something like that.
And so it's important for us to kind of differentiate
between the three and recognize what it means
to actually be a Christian.
And let me just start off by saying by way of introduction
that
The Bible teaches that in order to become a Christian you just have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
Okay, meaning you have to trust Jesus as your Savior place your faith in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ
And you have the gift of eternal life now along with that
The Bible also teaches that you have to believe
that you can never lose your salvation.
You say, why is that?
Well, because eternal security is the gospel, right?
Eternal security is the belief that the gift
that we receive through Jesus Christ is eternal,
which is why the Bible calls it eternal life,
not temporal life.
Not a life that can just end at any given moment
based upon what you do.
The Bible shows us extensively that it's not by works
of righteousness which
We have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us, right?
The Bible says, for my grace are you saved through faith, not through your works.
It says through faith and that not of yourselves.
That's a key phrase there.
It is the gift of God, and then it reiterates this, not of works.
lest any man should boast.
You know, there's a lot of beliefs out there
that tries to emphasize the fact that,
or they try to make it seem as though the Bible teaches
that we have to have works with our faith
in order to be saved.
But over and over again,
the overarching narrative of the Bible
is that it's just by faith, okay?
But to him that work is not, but believe it on him to justify the ungodly, listen to this, his works is counted for righteousness?
No, his faith is counted for righteousness.
And so it's important for us to realize and to understand as Christians that when it comes to being a Christian,
converting to Christianity, that doesn't mean that someone just joins a Catholic church because the Catholic church is not a Christian institution.
doesn't you know it doesn't mean well someone became an orthodox and so that
makes them a Christian that doesn't make them a Christian because of the fact
that the Orthodox Church the Catholic Church anything that names the name of
Christ but does not have the right gospel is not Christian Christian doctrine
is the belief that our faith in Christ exclusively is sufficient for
salvation in fact it's the only thing you can do to be saved okay and so I want
a particular doctrine there, and I'll mention that throughout the sermon.
But let's talk about these three categories that I believe the Bible warns us about.
Fakes.
fans and followers and you know what a lot of churches end up getting goofed up on this because
of the fact that they don't teach doctrine they don't teach their people what it means to be saved
what it means to be a believer what it means to be a Christian so let's go over number one
let's talk about fakes all right those who are phonies they're fakes this is comprised of only
People interpret, sometimes they interpret activity
for evidence of salvation.
You know, you see something on the internet,
you see a sermon, people are preaching heart against sin,
or people are naming the name of Christ,
they're taking a political stance,
and they're saying God, they're saying Jesus,
and all that is like, oh man, this guy's a Christian.
This person must be a believer for sure,
you know, because they interpret activity
as evidence of salvation.
Oh, he's a pastor, so he must be saved, right?
Oh, he comes to be a Christian, he must be saved,
but the Bible teaches, let me just say this,
is that there are imposters in Christianity,
and the purpose of the existence of these imposters
is to deceive people into a false gospel, false doctrine,
a false Christianity.
The Bible tells us you don't have to turn to it,
but go to Galatians chapter two,
if you would, Galatians chapter two.
I'm gonna read to you from 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 13.
It says, for such are false apostles.
Now an apostle is a messenger of God, right?
You have the twelve apostles, they are messengers of God, they are sent from God, they're ordained
of God with the message, but here it says that there are false apostles, meaning false
messengers of Christ.
And if they're not really messengers of Christ, who are they?
They're messengers of Satan.
He says false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
meaning that they are imposters.
They're wolves in sheep's clothing, right?
And it says that no marvel,
meaning don't be surprised at this.
You know, when you hear about some guy
who claims to be a Christian,
they claim to be a believer,
they name the name of Christ,
they talk about the Bible,
they quote verses,
but all of a sudden then later on,
a year down the road,
they're denying Christ,
don't marvel at that.
Yeah, right, yep.
It's very common.
And in fact, the Bible warns us about this repeated.
It says no marvel,
For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light
It's like they're just following the footsteps of their dad, right?
Their daddy Satan does the same thing. He is a fallen angel
But when he's presenting himself via teachings doctrines and churches
He presents himself as an angel of light someone who's coming to bear the truth, right?
You know like like a moroni
in the Mormon Tabernacle Church.
false church. He says therefore there's no great thing if his ministers
also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works.
So what does the Bible tell us?
It's telling us that we need to make sure that we understand it and grow in our discernment to realize that just because they
call themselves an apostle, they call themselves a disciple, a Christian,
we need to make sure that we vet these people and see is it really true? What is it that they believe?
What is it that they're teaching?
What is the core doctrines of their heart to see?
Is this person actually a messenger of Christ?
Are they a messenger of God?
Now, let me just clarify something.
You know, when I'm talking about fakes,
I'm referring to people who intentionally deceive people, right?
People who actually have the agenda to fool you.
Wolves who are in sheep's clothing,
who actually make it their ministry to deceive people,
to trick people, you know, this is what I'm referring to.
I'm not talking about the people
who are necessarily under them.
Because there's a lot of people
who attend these types of churches,
and you know what, they're well-meaning, they're sincere,
they might even be looking for the truth,
but they've been caught up in the deception, right?
These people aren't necessarily bad, they're just deceived.
And so I'm not referring to those who are under them,
I'm referring to the agents of Satan,
these people who are fakes and phonies.
Let me give you another example.
Look at Galatians chapter two in verse number four.
And I just want you to notice these two words right here.
We're gonna read the whole verse,
but I want you to notice these two words.
It says, and that because of, listen to this,
false brethren.
Unawares brought in who came in privately or privately to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus
That they might bring us into bondage now notice that phrase there that there were false brethren who came in now
What does that tell us well a brother according to the Bible we would define as being someone who is a believer in Christ
That's why we call each other brother. Okay, you know, I see brother Adrian, you know brother John
We are brothers in Christ because we have both have gotten saved.
We both believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We're children of God.
God is our Heavenly Father. Therefore, we share that spiritual family similarity that we're brothers and sisters in Christ, right?
Well, here it says that there's false brethren.
Now, what's a false brethren? It essentially means that you're dealing with someone who claims to be a brother in Christ, but actually isn't a brother in Christ.
And the Bible would actually define this also as being a bastard.
Because the Bible talks about in Hebrews chapter 12 that if you beat without Chastisement, then are you bastards and no sons?
So a bastard spiritual bastard child is someone who thinks that God is their heavenly father claims that God is their heavenly father
But you know what God did not be get that person
They did not beget them through the gospel their false brethren and the context of Galatians chapter 2
It's actually referring to Judaizers
Because he's writing to the churches of Galatia, which are Gentile churches and what you have is these
Pharisees and adherents to what we would consider today to be Judaism
And they're trying to come in while the Apostle Paul is gone and teach false doctrine
And they're claiming to be brothers.
They're like, hey, we believe just like you.
We believe in the first five books of the Bible
and the Pentateuch.
We believe in the Old Testament.
We're brothers, but let me go ahead and tell you
about circumcision, right?
And that you must be circumcised to be saved.
That's something that was taught,
according to Acts 15.
And so, these false brethren, what do they do?
They try to target unstable souls, babes and cries,
those who are not knowledgeable about the things of God,
because they're more easily deceived.
This is why the Bible tells us that we henceforth
be no more children.
Toss to and fro, right?
Because we don't want to be deceived
by the Judaizers of this world.
And may I say that this not only existed
in the first century AD, it exists today too.
There are Judaizers in churches today in fundamental Baptist churches,
promoting Zionism, promoting Judaism,
promoting the Jews as being God's chosen people.
That is Judaizing.
And he says here that these are false brethren.
Meaning, don't listen to them, they're fake brothers in Christ.
They claim to be brothers in Christ, but they're fake brethren.
And here's how we know.
They came in privately to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might
bring us into bondage.
In other words, they want to challenge the babes in Christ there.
Regarding their salvation, regarding their belief in Christ, and caused them to question that, and essentially bring them back into spiritual bondage and to thinking that they have to go back under the law in order to be saved.
And this is why later on the Apostle Paul comes and he says, I'm afraid of you.
Let's say I bestow labor in you in vain.
Because he's like, if you really believe that you're saved by the law, by the keeping of the law, by the adherence to the law, then you're probably not saved.
Oh, you can't tell people they're not, but the Apostle Paul did.
He's writing to them, and this is a letter that's being read by churches throughout the last couple thousand years
This is something that is very common. He's like I'm afraid. I'm afraid what he's saying. He's not saying I'm scared of you
He's saying I'm afraid that maybe you're not even saved
And that is a fearful thing.
You know, you're working with someone,
someone's attending your church,
they're listening to the preaching,
they're getting the doctrine,
they're going soul-winning,
they're claiming they believe in Christ,
and then all of a sudden,
they're like, actually, it's by works.
You're like, what, hold on a second,
I thought we were brothers in Christ.
I'm afraid of you.
Now, let me just say,
this is the people who are babes in Christ
can be deceived in that manner.
And quite frankly, there's churches out there,
they're not helping with that.
Because they teach such a watered down doctrine,
they're preaching a soul watered down
when it comes to the doctrine of salvation and justification,
they're not equipping their people,
they're not developing their people spiritually,
people like that just get deceived.
And then, you know, they start saying,
well, you know, if you're saved,
then you'll do the works or something, you know?
And so it's important for us to realize
that this does exist.
Now go to John chapter six.
Let me give you one of the most explicit examples
of a false brethren, of a phony, of a fake.
And it's important to talk about this particular person,
because today in 2025, you have churches and Christians
who now want to justify this guy
as being someone who is actually saved.
Okay?
No, thanks to the chosen
This quote-unquote Christian soap opera
That has all kinds of extra biblical revelations. It's all gay and it's just and it teaches a lot of false doctrine
Now before we read that I'm gonna read to you from first John. I'm sorry. I'm gonna read to you from John 17 verse 12
It says, while I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name.
This is Jesus praying unto the Father for his disciples.
He says, those that thou gavest me, I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the Son
of Perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
Now, who is he referring to when he says Son of Perdition?
He's referring to Judas Iscariot.
And so right off the bat, just reading John chapter 17, we know that Judas was not saved.
Let me explain to you why.
You don't call saved people sons of perdition.
Let me give you a synonym for perdition hell
Right. He's a son of hell
all right
Now I admit, you know some Christians can live like hell
But they wouldn't necessarily be called children of hell, you know throughout the Bible were called sons of God, right?
We believed on Lord the Bible tells us in John 1 12
But as many as receive them to them gave you power to become the sons of God even unto them that believe on his name
We should not be called sons of hell the Bible doesn't teach that the son of hell the son of perdition is Judas Iscariot
Now look at John chapter 6 verse 63
It says it is the spirit that quicken it the flesh prophet is nothing the words that I speak into you
They're a spirit in their life, but there are some of you that believe not
For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him now because we've already watched the trilogy
We already seen the sequels and the prequels we know who he's talking about right the people at this particular time when this is being stated
They didn't know what you didn't know who he was referring to we know that it's Judas Iscariot
So based upon that based upon this particular evidence we see that Judas Iscariot did not believe from the beginning
Meaning that when he joined the ministry of Jesus Christ he joined with nefarious intent
He didn't join because he thought he was saved
You know the chosen tries to pass this guy off as being someone like oh, you know
He originally joined because he had the best of intentions. He really wanted to do something great
He really wanted to help Jesus Christ and and do something big. Yeah, the big thing he wanted to do is rob
The ministry is what he wanted to do nothing noble in his intentions
And according to the Bible it says that he didn't believe from the beginning.
And by the way, again, believing is what's necessary for salvation.
This is telling us he didn't get saved when he first joined.
Okay?
It says in verse 65, he says, and he said, therefore said I unto you that no man could come unto me except that were given unto him of my father.
From that time any of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
Then Jesus, then said Jesus unto the twelve, we also go away.
Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?
Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Jesus answered them, have not I chosen you twelve and listen to this, and one of you is a devil.
So in John chapter 17 he calls him the son of hell, the son of perdition, and just in case you're not familiar with perdition, he says that he's a devil.
Right, he says I've chosen you 12. We know who the 12 are and he says one of them is a devil
And let me just say this you don't call Christians devils, right?
And in case you just still don't believe it
Jesus clarifies further in his verse 71. He's fake of Judas Iscariot
The son of Simon
You know just in case you don't know what Judas Iscariot. He told you his dad's name, too
For he who was that should betray him being one of the twelve now
What is it showing us? It's showing us that Judas Iscariot was not saved. He was a devil
He's a son of perdition and we can say also based upon Galatians chapter 2. He's a false brother
He's a false apostle and it's of my humble opinion that when John wrote first John chapter 2 when he talks about they went out from us
For they were not of us. He's referring to Judas Iscariot
Because John is one of the 12
He probably worked and labored with Judas Iscariot. He probably was one who was also deceived of Judas Iscariot's
you know
pretense and all his things that he did and he's passing himself off as a believer and as a disciple
He was deceived. He was carried away with his deception
And he said they went out from us for they were not of us for if they had been of us
They would have no doubt continued with us now
Let me clarify what that passage means because it doesn't mean well if someone backslides and gets out of church
That means they were never safe to begin with because that's a lot of people try to interpret that passage
But what the passage is actually teaching is that these people are antichrist and its context
It's referring to people who essentially go apostate
They transgress the doctrines of Christ.
They begin to deny Christ.
They deny the foundational teachings of Christianity.
And that is evidence that they were not of us.
What's another way of saying that?
They were false brethren, okay?
Go to Luke chapter 20 if you would.
Talk about fakes.
And you know what, in 2025, I guess we just need to teach again that Judas Iscariot was
a devil who was not saved, and he's a thief, because people are just trying to romanticize
Judas Iscariot, as though he's just like, oh, he's just misguided, but what do we expect
from a culture that elevates murderers and stuff?
Right there's like murderers who like you know did their time and now they now they can make a lot of money
Once they get out and make documentaries about them and you know
It's just like hello these people are wicked. They're evil
They've committed murder and it's just like when you look at Judas Iscariot. Well, yeah, he's so money
But he had the best of intentions. He was just misunderstood
Yeah, he was misunderstood everyone thought he was a Christian and they didn't understand that he was a devil
What are we talking about?
We're talking about fakes today.
And you know what?
Judas Iscariots exist today.
And unfortunately, they exist in churches.
They exist in churches.
They exist.
A ton of them are online.
And let me say this obviously on social media you have a mix of what we're talking about here
Because I'm sure there's people out there who you know are on social media
They claim to be a Christian, but they're not saved and it's not because they're trying to do anything the fairy is
It's probably because they they actually think that they're saved because they're just you know
They've been deceived but there's other people on social media that for sure are not saved and they know for a fact that they're not
Saved and there are essentially grifters using the name of Christ to make money
Now look at Luke chapter 20 in verse 17.
Let's look at another example of this.
It says, and he beheld them in verse 17 and said,
what is this then that is written?
The stone which the builders rejected,
the same has become the head of the corner.
Whosoever shall fall upon the stone shall be broken,
but whosoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour
sought to lay hands on him, and they feared the people,
for they perceived that he had spoken this parable
against them.
Now let me mention something regarding the chief priests and scribes because I think that is a very good comparison
To the fakes that we have today
Because there's fakes who are chief priests and scribes who are very wicked
They're not saved their devils
But then there's other Pharisees chief priests and scribes who are actually sincere who actually want the truth now that it's a minority
right
Just like it's probably a minority today vast majority of what we see online who are you know fakes that they're they're probably super wicked
Look at verse 20, and they watched him and sent forth spies
Which should I want you to notice this feign themselves just men
That they might take hold of his words that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor
So what do we see here?
We see that the chief priests and scribes are being critical of Jesus Christ
They're trying to entrap him and what they do is they send forth spies
Who are faking themselves? Fain means to fake themselves
Fain themselves to be what just men saved men
Now, how are they going to do this by saying certain things that essentially he's trying to fool them and to think you pull the people the masses and
Try to fool Jesus Christ that they are righteous people
And so, the point that I'm making here is that don't think that just because they have Christian on the profile,
believer on the profile, mommy-believer, you know, believing family, crisis of the Lord,
a cross on there, an emoji, a certain Christian emoji, a dove with an olive leaf in its mouth.
Oh, all of a sudden, this person saved. Why? Because there's people out there who feign themselves.
Listen to this, to be just men.
Go to Matthew chapter 7 Matthew chapter 7 if you wouldn't people who are fake
Now before we get into Matthew chapter 7
Let me just say this because one of the reasons I wanted to preach this is because of the fact that you know
Recently, there's this guy who came out and made a tweet and you might know who he is
His name is Kanye West
Some of you were listening to him on the way to church
And some of you in your heart are probably thinking to yourself,
his name is Yi, not Kanyi, Pastor.
He changed his name to Yi.
So this guy is a complete anti-Christ,
reprobate false prophet.
I mean, pretty much everything that I just talked about,
that's him.
So how do you know? Well, you know years ago he was he was elevated and unfortunate by the Christian community
And when I say Christian community, I mean it very loosely because we're not a part of that
That particular Christian community, but you know a lot of Christians online. We're thinking we're believing in saying that he was saved
Why oh because he made a song called Jesus walks
He had a tour about Jesus and then he had church services if you can call it that
Where he's performing and he's claiming to be a safe person and you know
Anyone with two brain cells to rub together and they have the Bible in front of them. They can read them be like
No, that guy's a false brother
And people are like no, how are you gonna say that judge not?
How are you gonna say that he's not safe? He could be used so greatly of God and all this stuff and it's just like
No, I guys a son of perdition
It's like, no, that's wrong, you're wicked,
I can't believe you're saying that.
And these are things that people told me.
People cuss me out literally online
for saying that this guy was not safe.
And it doesn't really, let me just say this,
it doesn't really take that much discernment though,
to like know that, right?
Like my five year old can probably say like,
that guy's probably for sure is not safe.
But you know, because he's parading himself
He's talking about, or he said the name Jesus,
because that's all you gotta do, I guess, nowadays.
You know, he's holding so-called church services
and he's elevating Christianity
and he's performing Jesus walks,
you know, which is his Christian song that he made,
so-called.
You know, oh, he must be saved.
And so you have all of these watered down,
lukewarm pastors and Christians who are saying,
oh, for sure he's saved.
And, you know, in their minds they're like,
oh, he can just reach so many people, right?
Because, you know, he's talking about,
Jesus, he's gonna reach so many people.
But here's the thing though, he's not saved,
so who's he gonna reach?
Unsaved people can't reach people for Christ.
They can reach people to their false Christ.
To their false beliefs, but they're not gonna be able to convert them to true Christianity
Why cuz he doesn't really believe in the true Christ of the Bible
Now he's saying all this stuff and people are like, oh, yeah, this is awesome
And he's gonna be used and then recently he came out with this tweet and he's been apostate for a long time
He said a lot of other crazy stuff even a couple years back where it was just obviously it should confirm
Chris to Christians that the guy's not safe, but this is what he recently said. My name is ye
Which I think ye, if I'm not mistaken is short for Jesus, right?
You know because he calls himself Jesus like Jesus and there's another guy in the Bible
Who calls himself? Who's the guy? Oh, yeah, the anti-Christ
Call it does that. No, I thought there was another. Oh, yeah, there is a who's who wanted to be like oh, yeah Satan
That's right. Sorry. I almost forgot that one
My name is ye and this is what he said. I don't need to be saved
And I had to kind of correct the spelling here
because he didn't say it that grammatically correct.
He says, what you go and wash me
in the imaginary blood of Jesus.
Now let me just read this verse to you real quick.
First Corinthians 12, three says,
wherefore I give you to understand
that no man speaking by the spirit of God
calleth Jesus accursed.
Oh, he's just backslidden.
Backslidden was some dude as a Christian that he saved and he's out there smoking marijuana fornicating and involved in all kinds of sin.
Backslidden is not calling the name of Jesus a curse and making fun of the blood of Jesus Christ and saying that you don't need to be saved.
The last time I checked, someone who's backslidden often wonders if they're saved because they're so backslidden.
They're just like man, I kind of like doubt what I'm saying because I'm so involved in sin
I'm just away from God and they're almost embarrassed. They're hurting
He's not that's not this right here
Saying he doesn't need to be saved. Oh
What you gonna wash me in the imaginary blood of Jesus? That's not a black backslidden person
What is that? That's a person who's gonna postate who's mocking Christ?
He's a fake
He's a phony
And you know what, I kind of want to hear people online
say I'm sorry to Christians,
for getting on Christians for saying that he's not saved.
I want to hear people say, hey, guys, you're right, sorry.
But you know what, I'm sure a lot of them
still probably believe he's saved.
Folks, there's fakes out there.
Don't be deceived by the fakes.
And I'm not saying that someone in Hollywood
can't be saved.
Because I don't know everyone who's in Hollywood and there's people who are just not as famous as other people
Okay, it's just people who are not as powerful as other people
But I will say this it's probably a very small
Pool of people who could potentially get saved in Hollywood. It's probably the guy who does the lights or something
He might be mentioned in the credits or something like that. I don't know
And don't get all excited when your favorite football athlete,
when your favorite singer,
when your favorite actor or actress says Jesus.
Like, oh man, we got one.
And it's like a lot of the Christians who feel that way,
they're like, but they couldn't do so much.
Why don't you do so much?
Stop relying on these so-called famous people
to do the work for you.
You go and preach the gospel. You're more famous in the eyes of God than that person
Because that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the eyes of God if I was says
So if you have people who are highly esteemed in the world because they sing their actors
They got an Emmy they got a what's the what's that a Grammy?
God doesn't care about those things
Yeah, but in his speech he said Jesus
In his speech, he said something about God.
That's gonna reach so much people.
I don't know if you know this,
but saying God doesn't reach anybody.
And let me just say this,
saying Jesus doesn't reach anybody either.
You have to preach Jesus according to the word of God.
Because the Bible talks about false gospels.
The Bible talks about another Jesus.
And let me just remind you,
most of the time when these people are talking about Jesus,
let me just tell you, it's another Jesus.
Not the Jesus of the Bible. Look at Matthew chapter 7 verse 15 for the Reuben if you can turn that up, please
Look what it says in verse 15 beware of false prophets
Which come to you in sheep's clothing, but it inwardly are ravening wolves. You 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 now
That kind of corrupt tree bring forth a good fruit
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Wherefore, by the fruit ye shall know, then I want you to notice this in verse 21.
Not everyone to sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many!
Listen to this will say to me in that day Lord Lord
Have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works now
Here's the very interesting thing about this passage. It is very ironic
Because the same people who defend Kanye West will use a passage like this to mock people like yours truly
For believing that all you have to do is believe on Jesus Christ to be saved
right
Oh, saying a sinner's prayer is not gonna get you saved.
It got me saved, what are you talking about?
Saying a little prayer doesn't get you saved.
Many will say unto me, Lord, Lord.
And what is their gospel?
Their gospel is you have to do the works.
Right?
Why?
Because many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord.
Well,
sir,
let's see how works help this person.
Because it says in verse 22 many was saying to me that day Lord Lord. Have we not prophesied in thy name?
I don't know about you, but preaching is that's a big work
right
That's a major work to prophesy in the name of Jesus Christ. That is a work
Let's see what else he does and in that name I've cast out devils exorcisms
That takes a lot of work and in thy name just in general done many wonderful works
Now, the last time I checked, there's no sin involved here.
He's not saying like, oh, you know, I drink, I smoke,
I run with those that do, you know, promoting fornication.
No, it sounds like a list of really good things.
Preaching, exorcisms, wonderful works.
Let's see how that helped them.
Verse 23, then I will profess unto them,
I never knew you depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
So it's interesting how the same people who say well, you have to do the works because the Bible says many will say to me that day Lord
Lord, you know the the people who are saying that
promote their gospel
The people there they are those people and typically I tell those people that's you
Matthew 7 is you
Because notice he didn't say this many will say it to me that day have not I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ only for salvation
Have not I placed my faith in Jesus Christ?
nowhere
It just says all the works that he accomplished right showing us that these people will
essentially expose themselves
By telling you what they believe with their mouth
Okay
And so when we talk about the fakes of this world,
we're talking about people who have the label of Christianity,
the label of being a believer,
but they're actually imposters.
They believe a false gospel.
And let me just read you from Galatians chapter one.
Go with me if you would to, let's see.
Go to Acts chapter 20.
Acts chapter 20, if you would.
I'm gonna read to you from Galatians one verse A.
It says, both though we are an angel from heaven,
this is a good verse for the Mormons to memorize.
Preach any other gospel into you than that which we have preached them to you. Let him be a curse
So it sounds like God feels strongly about this
He's like if anyone comes to you and says anything other than the gospel message that's in this book
They're cursed a curse means that they're damned
Meaning that they can't be saved
Meaning that they become children of hell
Okay, everyone understand that
And he says, if anyone comes to you preaching this
and in context referring to those Judaizers, by the way,
he says, let them be a curse.
And you know, if he said that, you could tell,
you could probably surmise that there's certain people
who are like, well, what's the context, oh, Paul?
What do you really mean by that?
So then this is what he says in verse nine.
As we said before, so say I now again.
If any man preached any of the Gospels either than what he ever received, let him be a curse.
Just in case you didn't get it the first time, he's saying anyone who's preaching a false gospel,
they're cursed, they're damned, they cannot be saved.
So let me just apply this to us in 2025.
People who come to your door, those Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, people preaching that God is a woman,
they come to your door, they're cursed.
Because they're making it their ministry to preach a false gospel
And let me just say this is that every Christian who runs into these people at their door should rebuke these people
Shame them. Why because of the fact that they're damning people to hell
They're literally making it their ministry to send people to hell
And I'm not saying rebuke every Joel's witness either
Because there's Joel's witnesses you meet every once in a while
Maybe you knock on their door or a Mormon or whatever and you you know and meek dissin fear try to present the gospel to them
And if they don't want it you you'd wipe the dust off your feet, but if they're coming to your door
it's on
it's time to earnestly content for the faith and
Rebuke that person so hard and so harshly and aggressively that maybe they'll think twice about knocking on the second door
They're just like maybe we should choose a different block
Like I think that's too much folks that the Bible I mean this is God condemning people who do this
Saying that their curse they're damned their fakes their phonies
I'm gonna read to you from 2nd John
2 9 it says whosoever transgressive and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ listen to this hath not God
So that's a very important statement there. He says if you don't abide in the doctrine of Christ
What it means? What does it mean to abide you know to live it?
Right when you're abiding someone you're remaining there you're living there and it says in the doctrine of Christ
What is the doctrine of Christ? You know the deity of Jesus Christ the gospel of Jesus Christ the Christ of the Bible
So if a person is living in the doctrine of Christ meaning they're in by they believe the doctrines of the Bible and
Then they deviate from that. They no longer abide there. They no longer live in that spiritual house
The Bible says they don't have God
Here's another way of saying it. They're not saved
And by the way, this doesn't mean that they lost their salvation either, because you can't lose your salvation
because a person who is
Who has believed on Christ is eternally secured in the hand of God
Right according to John chapter 10, but none of that someone who's saved
Will never blaspheme the Lord Jesus Christ Christianity God the Father
Because they do have the fear of God in their lives folks. I've run into some really backslidden
wicked Christians
And when it comes to the subject of salvation,
they're like ashamed.
They're just like, I know I'm not right.
It's not like, yeah, Jesus is my homie.
You know, and he's fine with what I'm doing or whatever.
I've never heard a Christian talk like that
in a backslidden state.
Now, you know, you run into Christians who may try to,
you know, try to portray themselves
as they're still doing well.
But obviously, inwardly, they're struggling.
And they're not doing well, but I'm talking about people who just literally transgress meaning they surpass meaning they
Literally break the barrier of their belief in the doctrines of Christ. That is an indication that that person is not safe
What am I trying to get across trying to get across to you?
I'm trying to get across that you judging someone and saying they're not saved
Because they transgress the doctrines of Christ is a right thing to do
God expects us to have that discernment
And don't get fooled by this watered-down Christianity
that exists today that tells you, you can't judge,
what do you know, you know, you're not Jesus.
Yeah, but we got the mind of Christ, the Bible says.
We have the mind of God, we have the Bible,
and you know what, it's our Christian duty
to look at people and look at what they say
and what they believe and say and determine
is this person saved or not.
Well, why is that your job?
Folks, when we go out souling, that's what we're doing.
When we go out and preach the gospel, we're knocking on doors and we're gauging. Is this person saved or not?
Because we want to know if they need the gospel and if someone says, you know, I believe in Jesus and
I don't think you can lose your salvation. You're like, oh great this person saved
But you know if someone says well, yeah, I believe in Jesus, you know, he's a God and is
What would you say?
What was that again about a God, you know
You would say that person is not saved or you shouldn't judge. No, the Bible tells us to judge righteous judgment
That's a righteous judgment to make and if you are the person who does not like to judge your person that does not like discernment
You know what discernment is a godly virtuous quality
It's something that God expects for us to have okay. Look at acts 20 verse 27 now. How do we avoid?
You know being fooled by people like this. Well, obviously, you know, we're not going to be able to
Name every reparate that exists out there regardless of what people think they can do
You know, it's just like well, I know every single reparate. I know when people are false prophets
Well, you know what the Apostles didn't know that Judas was and they walk with Jesus
There's some deceivers out there who are just really good at their deception
They know how to pull the wool over people's eyes
And you know what it's not a shameful thing to get caught off guard and be like well
I thought that person will save the whole time
Because it happens to everyone because you know we're not God
You know if you know every who every person who's a reprobate then you must be God, huh?
But you know we're not God. We don't have perfect understanding. We don't have omniscience
Therefore they're gonna catch us off guard. You know
That's just how it is
But we can do certain things to avoid these fakes or to expose these fakes look at acts 20 verse 27
Here's a way, he says for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
So the apostle Paul in this context, we're going to read a little further in just a bit,
is saying he's warning them about false prophets.
And what did he do to protect them from those false prophets?
He says I've taught you the whole counsel of God.
Now this is what you need to do in order to grow in your discernment,
be in a church like this that's teaching you what the Bible actually says
so you can grow in your discernment.
Because you know sometimes Christians are just too merciful.
They're just like, oh
But they they talk so nice about Jesus though and they claim to be you know, they're farmers aren't all farmers Christians
Aren't all online farmers Christians
You know being in church here in the Council of God helps you to have the sermon and it's a good
You know this morning's sermon is a reality check for you
For those of you who you know like that farmer Christian who claims to be safe because now you're gonna think like
Is that person saved and you know, I don't know all the
Homesteaders online homesteaders the ladies do but but but you know
You know, I'm sure there's like a lady out there who's just super popular at homesteading
And then she just like drops a Mormon doctrine on you and you're just like
What
And it's just like, surprise, well, well, well, surprise, surprise.
It's out there.
But when you're in church, you hear something like that.
You're like, yeah, actually, I can't just assume that everyone who's a homestead
are saved just because they claim to be a Christian.
Just this is not in my sermon, but let me just give you a good little marker to determine if those online people
Homestayers are Mormons or not. Okay. Well without them saying anything about Mormonism
If they talk about God and they say and they say father God
That's like a really common phrase obviously we use that a lot, but when they just say yeah father God
You know says in the Bible father God this father God that that is like a marker to determine if they because that's that's how Mormons talk
They say father God, and I'm not saying father God is bad. I'm just saying that's like the only thing they said
That's how they that's the only way they address God
They always say well father God did this father God did that just kind of throwing that out there
And now you'll pay attention more because you're receiving this counselor, man
He says verse 28 take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost has made you
Overseers to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. He's telling these pastors
You got to make sure that you educate the churches
Give them the whole counsel of God why verse 29 for I know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you
Not sparing the flock it's gonna happen people are gonna try to deceive you
And you know we may not have like you think of a church like ours
We're not gonna have grievous wolves enter in here like 24-7 every week or something
You know, it's very doctrinally sound and very educated in the word of God
We have a lot of mature Christians who understand this
But I don't think here is where they'll necessarily enter in.
They're going to enter in through your phone at home.
That's now in 2025, it's more so through social media.
Because they can't, they're not going to come here.
Why?
Because they could just DM you.
They're not going to come here because their video is just
going to pop up on your Instagram, on your Twitter,
on your Facebook for the boomers.
They're going to pop up in those areas.
That's how they don't enter in and not spare the flock.
Because now you can watch false prophets
from the comforts of your own home and privacy
without anybody knowing.
Whereas if a false prophet comes in here,
they got a ton of Christians that will come down hard
on that person if they're teaching false doctrine.
That's not necessarily the danger now,
although that could obviously be a possibility.
More so it's just people coming through your phones.
Podcast, right?
He says in verse 30,
also of your own selves shall men arise,
speaking perverse things,
to draw away disciples after them.
What do you mean of your own selves?
The false brethren.
The fakes, the phonies, the people who claim
to believe the right things, but they actually don't.
What's the point that I'm trying to make here
with this first point?
The point that I'm making here is that,
understand there are fake Christians out there,
there's fake people, believers, there's false brethren,
false gospels, don't just put everyone
into under one canopy of Christianity
and just think, well, they're just a little off.
Well, let me just say this, you can't necessarily be
a little off on the gospel.
Like, well, I believe in Jesus,
I just believe you can lose your salvation.
That's not a little off, that's a lot off.
That's so off, you're just gonna, right into hell.
You know, you're just gonna fall off
right into the flames of hell.
And so, even if that trajectory moves a couple degrees
in the doctrines of Christ, uh-uh.
That can obviously damage a lot of people now turn with me if you would to mark chapter 6 mark chapter 6
The title of the sermon is fakes fans and followers fakes fans and followers understand. There's a lot of fakes out there
Who are feigning themselves to be just men you know why I know some Christians who are saved and they're fakes
Yeah, but that's a different kind of fake right?
That's people who just try to overcompensate because they want the admiration of people and they're just you know
Immature Christians we're talking about those who are just not saved. We're talking about the Kanye West's of this world
Okay, his name is ye whatever
We're talking about them
Now, let's talk about the fans.
So the fakes are those who are comprised of unsaved people.
The fans, on the other hand, can be comprised.
I see a flash.
I keep seeing a flash right here under you, brother Alex.
He's secretly filming me.
I'm just kidding.
Then you have the fans.
Fans are comprised of both unsaved and saved people.
Now, what is a fan?
Someone who is an admirer of the truth.
Okay, and quite frankly
Both camps can fall into this category right unsay people can be fans of there can be admirers of the truth
And that's those are the people we want to reach
Someone who is an admirer they like the truth
They like what Christianity has to offer because we can use that to reel them in to get them saved
Right, but then sometimes people get saved and they stay a fan
Now look at mark 6 first and foremost look at verse 16
Just to show you that fans in the unsaved world exist.
It says in verse 16, but when Herod heard thereof,
he said, it is John, whom I beheaded.
He is risen from the dead.
Of course, he's referring, he's hearing of Jesus Christ
and he thinks it's John the Baptist.
Verse 17 says for Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold on John and bound him in prison for Herodia's sake
His brother Philip's wife for he had married her for John had said him to Herod
It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife
Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him and would have killed him, but she could not
For Herod feared John knowing that he was a just man and holy and I want you to notice this and observed him
And when he heard him he did many things and heard him gladly
So Herod was actually somewhat of a fan of John the Baptist, okay?
Now obviously you can't take this too far because he ends up killing John the Baptist
Okay, so obviously he didn't love him, but when he says he heard him gladly. He's like, yeah, let him talk
I want to hear this guy
And I'm gonna tell you why because he's a Baptist. That's why you know Baptist are pretty entertaining to listen to
So, you know, you know John, you know John
He's got camel's hair, leather and girdle.
He's preaching, not like these long robe priests,
Pharisees, all of these false brethren.
They're given their homilies, right?
All the while John the Baptist is actually preaching
the word of God.
And Herod's like, oh, I want to hear this.
Look at him go, you know?
And you know what?
I didn't say people are like that.
I mean, I got a ton of people following me on Instagram
And I would just there's about 10,000 people following me on Instagram
And I would say it's possible that maybe like five to eight thousand of them are probably just not safe. I
Don't know. Obviously. I don't know for sure, but I'm sure a lot of them just like to watch
just because it's like entertaining or
Because Christianity has so much to offer a culture
You know can improve a society when those principles are being put forth people who are unsaved. They're attracted to those truths
You know Christianity is very family oriented, right?
And so you have people who love the family and they want to raise their kids in a
Very godly way, but they're not necessarily interested in getting saved. They're not interested in doctrine. They might like that kind of content
Right because that attracts them be like oh raising your kids in a moral manner to be law-abiding
Citizens to be functioning members of society that's attracted to them because that's what Christianity promotes and offers
Christianity is just an awesome religion and not just an awesome. It is the most superior religion in this world
Because it affects every facet of society and it improves it
And so you have different people in society
who are attracted to different aspects of Christianity.
They hear a preacher get up and preach
about those particular topics
if they're preaching the whole Council of God
and they're attracted to become a fan.
Now I know this for a fact
because I've talked to people online
who just love my content about the Jews.
They're fans and I can see why.
They're fans about anti-Zionism stuff, anti-dispensational stuff, and we see eye-to-eye, I mean, they're
just like, brother, put out another one, and this is so good, and thank you so much for
this.
But then when we actually have a conversation about salvation, you know, because it's like
the Jews brought us together, right?
They bring us together and then as you you just find this common ground with them
You know, and then all of a sudden we talk about the doctrine of salvation and it's just like
They're straight repent of your sins
They don't even they don't even believe in the afterlife
In some cases
They're just against Jews, you know
The state of Israel and then all of a sudden it's just like oh, well, we're actually not the same
You're like, oh, you hate Israel because you're prejudiced.
I hate Israel because of what the Bible says,
we are not the same.
I hate it for biblical reasons because they crucified
my savior and he calls them the synagogue of Satan.
Sorry, we are not the same.
But you know what, that person's a fan.
And obviously you have fans online who,
they get won over because of these particular subjects
and that's great and some of you,
that's how some of you were reached, right?
It exists.
The point that I'm making here is that we have to understand that just because someone's
a fan of Christianity, it doesn't necessarily make them a safe person either.
And we also need to realize that just because they're a fan of a particular doctrine, of
a particular principle of the Bible, we want to make sure we don't just stop them there.
We want to bring them all the way to Christianity, right?
All the way to salvation, all the way to the foot of the cross and transform them from a fan to an actual saved Christian who believes the Bible, okay?
And let me say this, when it comes to John the Baptist, Herod heard him gladly, but the Bible also says that the common people heard Jesus gladly.
Common people were made up of just people.
It doesn't say what religious background is.
It doesn't say if there are believers.
It's just people just like to listen to what he had to say.
Why?
Because the word of God is attractive.
When someone hears the preaching of God's word,
they hear verses from the Bible
and the principles of the word of God.
The law of the Lord is perfect.
And it leaves people in awe.
It leaves people intrigued.
It leaves people wanting for more.
Why?
Because it's God's word.
And so it shouldn't come as a surprise when there's people out there who are fans of the word of God
Go to second Chronicles if you would second Chronicles chapter 9 second Chronicles chapter 9 now the point that I'm also making though is that
Just because they're a fan doesn't mean automatically that are saved
And let me say this just because they're a fan doesn't necessarily mean that they're a good person either
Because Herod was a fan and he beheaded John the Baptist
So just because someone is a fan of Christianity, they're a fan of what the Bible says, they're a fan of, you know,
what you're espousing, they're a fan of what you're preaching doesn't necessarily mean that makes them a righteous person.
I say that for all of you, Alex Jones lovers out there,
all the conspiracy videos that you like to watch that they claim the name of Christ, just because they, you agree,
On a particular secondary or tertiary doctrine doesn't mean they're righteous people.
Sorry to break it to you, okay?
I'm just giving you a reality check here.
But I will say the vast majority of fans of the Bible, it's possible for them to be saved.
And it's a bridge, right, that we can use to bring them to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
But here's an Old Testament example.
Look at 2 Chronicles 9, verse 1.
It says, and when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem
with the very great company and camels that bear spices in golden abundance and precious stones and when she was come to Solomon
She communed with him of all that was in her heart and
Solomon told her all her questions and there was nothing hid from Solomon which he told her not
And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon and the house that he had built and the meat of his table and the
Sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel his cut-bearers also and their apparel and as a
Scent by which he went up into the house of the Lord. There was no more spirit in her the modern phrase
The parallel to that would be there was no more breath in her like it left her breathless, right?
It says in verse 5,
Blessed be the Lord, listen to this, thy God,
which delighted them thee to set thee on his throne,
skip down to verse nine, and she gave the king 120
talons of gold and of spices, great abundance
and precious stones, neither was there any such spice
as the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon.
I love this story because obviously Solomon pictures who?
Jesus.
And Jesus, of course, reiterates this story in the gospels,
how people come from far and wide to hear
the wisdom of Jesus Christ.
But the point that I want to make here is that it doesn't necessarily say or indicate whether she got saved or not, right?
And in fact, it says in verse 8 bless it be the Lord thy God
So obviously there's not a possessive state. It's not a possessive statement regarding God for herself
It could be that she got saved, but let's just say for example say that she wasn't
What attracted her to the land of God where God's people were?
It was the wisdom of God that was in that land.
It attracted her to come to the house of God, to see God's people, and it impressed her greatly.
And let me say this, you know, even though it's possible that she wasn't saved, what did she do? She glorified God.
You know what? We want to make sure that we glorify God through soul winning through preaching
But you know what? We also want the unsaved and the heathen to glorify God when they see what we have
Even if they don't come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, we want that to happen
But you know what? There's people out there that see a work that's being accomplished
They see your family. They see your conduct. They see your behavior. They see your work ethic
You know what they do in their heart. They glorify God
They're like, man, God is with that person.
You're like, yeah, but what if they don't get saved?
Obviously, we want them to be saved, but you know what?
We also want people just to glorify God in general.
Because the residual of godliness from God's people
would cause even the unsaved people of this world
to say, wow, God is great.
Look at this wonderful family.
Look at these well-behaved children.
Look at this godly young man.
Look at this godly couple.
Look at these people.
And what do they do?
It causes them to want to glorify God.
They're fans of what God has to offer, but it causes them to glorify God.
Now let me also say this is that when it comes to, go with me to Mark chapter 5, if you would,
Mark chapter 5.
We want to use those things to get people in right Jesus Christ used food feeding of the 5,000 and
People came to him there after and he even tells them like you're coming to me
You know because I fed you and he didn't shun them away, but afterwards he gave them the truth
He wanted to use that meal as a bridge to bring them into the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ
Now let me say this there's nothing wrong with the fan, but once you get saved stop being a fan. Amen
You say, can Christians be fans?
Yeah.
Christians can often come to church
just because they're a fan of the preaching.
They just want to be entertained,
because preaching is entertaining.
I mean, how many would say preaching, for sure,
is entertaining?
It is.
It's just like sometimes I just like to listen to preaching
because it's just fun.
You know, especially if you listen to a wild-eyed preacher you're listening to someone who's just hanging from the chandeliers
And let me just say there's like Baptist had generally just been that way
Even in the old IFB there's a lot of old IFB preachers who preach and you're just like I just want to come here
Just I just want to listen to this see what kind of crazy thing this guy's gonna say and
They're saved like they're saved people who do that they just constantly listen to preaching because they want to be entertained
But here's the thing we need to move on from that
And not just, I gotta be careful doing this,
you know what I mean?
My heart goes out to you guys.
But you know, there's people who basically,
they come to church and they're not necessarily interested
in applying the preaching, they're not interested
in executing what the word of God says,
they just wanna be entertained.
And it's what Ezekiel, it's what the Lord said to Ezekiel
in Ezekiel 33, that they're unto you
as a very lovely song.
They're like listening to you like,
that's a good song.
That's a good sermon.
That's a, that was just good.
But they're not really, they walk away from that,
you know, the law of liberty
and they forget what manner of man they were.
And I'll be the first to say like,
I love listening to preaching.
And I'll be honest, sometimes it's just
for entertainment's sake.
But at the end of the day we just need a reality check to realize that we can't remain fans of preaching
We need to be executors of preaching
We need to be obedient to preaching. We need to be applicators of
Preaching we need to take the divine word and apply it to what we have going on
Look at it. Look at this example in Mark chapter 5 verse 19
It says, how be it Jesus suffered him not,
but saved them to him, go home to thy friends,
and tell them how great things the Lord had done for thee
and had compassion on thee.
Who's he talking to?
Talking to the maniac of Gadara.
You know, this guy was naked in the tombs,
cutting himself with stones.
The man was possessed with the legion of devils.
Jesus Christ comes, he exercises him of those devils,
and then he's sitting and clothed and in his right mind.
And what does he do?
He's a fan of Jesus.
He's like, let me go with you.
I want to go wherever you're at.
He wanted to go with Jesus and just kind of hang out
with Jesus Christ.
And what did the Lord say?
He says, you can't come but go to your friends
and tell them what great things the Lord had done.
Look what it says in verse 20.
And he departed and began to publish in Decapolis
how great things Jesus had done for him
and all men did marvel.
You know what's he here?
We see a person who became a fan
but then he actually became a what?
A follower.
He was a fan. He's just like I got saved. I'm a fan of Jesus
I just want to go with you and the Lord's like if you really want to come with me then just go and preach
Go home go actually be a part of the work
And you know he probably never saw Jesus ever again after that this side of eternity
But he was able to go out and actually do the work because my last point is that he became a
follower turn with me if you would to Matthew chapter 4 Matthew chapter 4
My last point is two minutes long
three minutes at the most
We're talking about fakes fans and followers fakes are people who claim to be Christian claim to be saved
But they're not fans are people who are some are just fans of the principles of the word of God, but they're not saved
But there are also people who get saved, but they just remain fans of Bible content
They remain fans of preaching they remain fans of biblical principles, and they don't go beyond that
They don't grow out of that
And you know it's great if you're a fan, but you know it's time for you to grow up
Grow up and no longer be a fan of the Bible
But a lover of the Bible and an obedient Christian to the Bible and obedient Christian to the word of God
It'll be the in Christian to preaching and of church and become a follower now again
This is under the premise here that obviously a follower is a person who is saved
But just because someone isn't a follower doesn't make them not saved
We obviously understand that, right?
We're talking about people who are already saved and they choose to follow the Lord. Look at Matthew chapter 4
And verse 18 it says in Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee
Saul to brethren Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishers
And he saved them to them follow me and I will make you fishers of
men
Now, what does this tell us?
It tells us that if you're gonna be a follower
of Jesus Christ, it actually requires action.
Right?
So take that off of your bio.
If you're not.
Follower of Jesus, bro.
Yeah, I'm a follower of Jesus.
Oh really?
So do you preach the gospel?
Well, in my own way.
Well, there's only one way to do it though.
And it's not your way and according to the Bible if you're a truly follower of Jesus Christ
You're a fisher of men. I mean what's a fisher of man someone who wins people to Christ?
It's someone who shares their faith with another person in order to bring them to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and
We can go through the list of what it means. What is entailed of being a follower?
But here's just a great introduction to that and that is soul winning
Preaching the gospel getting people saved because here's the thing is what what are we doing when we go when we're souling?
I'll tell you what we're doing. We're talking about Jesus
Right. I mean that's a very just rudimentary way of explaining it
But that's literally what it is. We're going out there and telling people about Jesus now
Obviously, we have a very systematic way of doing it
We have the plan of salvation mapped out and we have all these verses. It's not just like Jesus loves you, you know
We're actually going out there and showing them from the scriptures opening our mouths boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel
You are winning people to Christ and let me say this if you want to
Graduate from a fan to a follower one of the best ways to do it is by learning how to share your faith
Learning how to tell people about Jesus hey learning how to win your friends to Christ
All of us in here not myself because all my friends are here
And some of the friends that I have are further out,
obviously, and they're pastors.
But as far as just friends, I don't really have friends.
But some of you may have friends though,
at your job, in your neighborhood.
And you know what?
There's someone who should come to mind right now,
who you've been thinking about and you're like,
it's time for me to give this person the gospel.
It's time for me to share the Lord Jesus Christ
with this person.
Hey, there's a cousin that you got.
There's an uncle that you have.
There is a brother or sister, there's an aunt,
there's someone in your family that you know,
it's time for you to just go to that person
and witness to them.
You know, it's time for you to exercise some
of that boldness that you have at the door
when you go with the church.
You need to put on that boldness
when you go and talk to that relative.
and just say, hey, I gotta talk to you about something.
It's been on my mind for a really long time,
and I feel bad that I just have not done it more
a lot sooner, but I wanna tell you,
because I love you, and it's really important to me,
so if you can just listen to me,
I wanna show you what the Bible says
on how to go to heaven, and be sincere with them.
Just tell them, the reason I wanna say this
is because according to the Bible, there is a hell.
And I don't want you to go there and so I want to talk to you about this and so can you just give me a couple of minutes please to just kind of explain to you from the Bible what the Bible says about that.
You know what?
Sincerity of heart can win a lot of people.
The point that I'm making here is that you know what there's fakes out there, differentiate who they are, learn the difference.
There's fans out there so don't think that everyone who talks about Jesus Christ as a fan of Jesus Christ is actually saved.
But then there's fans within Christianity of people who are saved it's time for them to graduate and become a follower of Jesus
Christ someone who continues in the word of God someone who's reading the Bible who makes church a priority who makes
Sowning a priority who makes the Lord Jesus Christ a priority
Which one are you well if you're fake it out
But if you're a fan stick around
And I hope that if anything maybe you're not a follower you graduate today to becoming one
Let's pray father. We thank you so much for your word and thank you for
The principles thereof Lord, and we're so thankful that the word of God is attractive to all
It's even attractive to the unsaved because the word of God is quick and powerful sharper than any two-edged sword
And it has power as life
and it's able to search the inner recesses in the rains.
And I pray, Lord, that you would continue to use it
in our personal lives, but also continue to use it
as an instrument in our hands to get it to the public,
to those who are not saved,
and maybe those who are backslidden,
to get right with God.
And I pray that you'd bless us as a church, Lord,
help us to be followers of you, and we love you,
we thank you, pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.
Please turn your song books to song number 44.
Song number 44 will work till Jesus comes.
Song number 44, all together nice and strong on that first verse.
Wonderful singing, you are dismissed.