(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Let's take a look at the context of that. Ziba meets David at the Mount of Olives, and he ends up slandering Mephibosheth. And Mephibosheth, by the way, this is Jonathan's son, King Saul's grandson. He's lame at the feet. David approaches him after, and during this time, I should say, Absalom is attempting a coup against David. So Ziba ends up accusing Mephibosheth of trying to take over David's kingdom. Look down at verse number one there in second. Samuel chapter 16. At this point, David had fled Jerusalem because of Absalom's appointed takeover. And it says there in second Samuel 16, verse one. And when David was a little past the top of the hill, behold, Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, met him with a couple of asses saddled, and upon him, 200 loaves of bread, and 100 bunches of raisins, and 100 summer fruits, and a bottle of wine. So again, Ziba here, the servant of Mephibosheth, he offers some gifts to David. He sees that David is in dire straits right now. His own son is trying to take over, unrighteously, his kingdom. And so he offers him these items, donkeys, he offers him food, he offers him juice. And it wasn't out of the kindness of his heart. Like I said, he did it to try and earn David's trust to extract something out of him in return. And if that's your motivation, for giving anyone, anywhere, a gift, you're doing it for the wrong reason. You're doing it out of a wicked heart. Look at verse number two. And the king said unto Ziba, What meanest thou by these? And Ziba said, The asses be for the king's household to ride on, and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine that such as be faint in the wilderness may drink. And the king said, And where is thy master's son? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he abideth at Jerusalem. For he said, listen to this, Today shall the house of Israel restore me, the kingdom of my father. So Ziba alleges that Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the grandson of Saul, says, Today the house of Israel shall be restored to the kingdom of my father. He's alleging that Mephibosheth is trying to take the kingdom for himself. Now Ziba, I think, knew what David was dealing with regarding Absalom, and so he exploited that particular situation. Look down at verse number four. Then said the king to Ziba, Behold, thine are all that pertain unto Mephibosheth. And Ziba said, I humbly beseech thee that I may find grace in thy sight. My lord, okay. So after Ziba drops this railing accusation, following giving gifts to Mephibosheth, or I should say to David, when he rails on Mephibosheth, what ends up happening? Ziba gets the inheritance. Ziba gets Saul's land. Ziba gets the materialistic items. The gift offering wasn't genuine, folks, and the reason, this is how you could tell what happens afterward. You know, I've been given a very generous gift by someone in this church, I'm not gonna name the name, an extremely generous gift, and enabled my wife to come home. She used to have to work because we couldn't make ends meet. And this put us over the edge, and it helped us to live the biblical lifestyle with my wife at home, taking care of the home, guiding the house, and me being the breadwinner, going out and working to provide for not just myself, but for her. And this man gave me this gift, and you know how many times I heard about this after I received it? Zero, not one time. He didn't expect something out of me. He didn't expect me to be his personal servant. He didn't expect me to rail on someone on his behalf, and he never railed on someone in my presence after giving me the gift, because he did it because he loved me. It wasn't as a result of trying to manipulate me. So David's trust enables Ziba to rail on Mephibosheth. He claims that Mephibosheth is trying to take the kingdom for himself, and David believes him initially. He gives Ziba the land. Now, if you would, go to 2 Samuel 19. 2 Samuel 19, just a few chapters over. Let's see what happens when David confronts Mephibosheth about Ziba's accusation here after the death of his son Absalom. So that particular controversy has come to an end. And let's see what happens when David confronts him about this allegation. Look down at verse number 24 in 2 Samuel 19. The Bible says there, And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king, and had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the day he came down in peace. Now, let me ask you this question. Notice what it says here, that Mephibosheth didn't trim his beard. It said that he didn't wash his clothes. Does that sound like a guy who's running for political office? No. I mean, think about that for a moment. All these politicians, they look polished, they look clean, right? On the outside, of course, we know the inside is anything but clean. And so we see here that it's obvious he wasn't trying to take the kingdom from David because he had basically, he hadn't trimmed his beard, he hadn't washed his clothes. He'd been waiting for David to return out of a genuine heart. Look at verse 25. And it came to pass when he was come to Jerusalem to meet the king, that the king said unto him, wherefore wentest not thou with me, Mephibosheth? And so David asks him, hey, you know, why didn't you come with me when I fled Jerusalem? Look at verse 26. And he answered, my lord, O king, my servant, deceive me, talking about Ziba, for thy servant said, I will saddle me an ass that I may rinder on and go to the king because thy servant is lame. Remember, he doesn't have the ability to walk on his own. Look at verse 27. And he hath slandered thy servant unto my lord the king. But my lord the king is as an angel of God. Do therefore what is good in thine eyes. So David asks Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, why didn't you come with me when I fled Jerusalem? Everything that's going on with my son trying to take my kingdom from me. I hear this allegation from your servant that you're trying to do exactly what Absalom is trying to do to me. Are you guilty too? What's going on? Where were you? And Mephibosheth says, well, I tried to follow you, but there was no donkey, and since I'm lame, I couldn't. Now, I believe one of the donkeys that Ziba had offered to David as one of the gifts was actually the donkey that Mephibosheth would have used to follow David out of Jerusalem. Now, the implication is that Ziba prevented him from leaving. Look down at verse number 28. I have set thy servant among them that they'd eat at thine own table. What right therefore have I yet to cry anymore unto the king? And the king said unto him, why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said, thou and Ziba divide the land. So he changes his ruling. Initially, he said, all right, all the land, all of Saul's inheritance is going to your servant, Mephibosheth, Ziba. But instead, after he hears the Mephibosheth side of the story, he ends up changing his decree, and now the inheritance is divided between Ziba, the railing servant, and Mephibosheth. Look at verse 30. And Mephibosheth said unto the king, yea, let him take all, for as much as my lord the king has come again in peace unto his own house. So when David tells him, hey, let's just divide the land then, because I don't think he fully buys into either one of their stories. So to be safe, he says, all right, we'll just divide the land between the two of you. And you know what Mephibosheth says back to him? No, no, no, let him have it all. And you say, prove to me that Ziba's the railer in this story. Prove to me that Ziba's the one with the ulterior motive. Prove to me that he's the one that used gifts as a means to exploit the situation, buy David's trust, rail on Mephibosheth, Jonathan's son, and then gain that inheritance that he obviously wanted from the beginning. Prove that to me. Well, I think we can by just comparing the story to what King Solomon did. When he was approached by the harlots who had a controversy surrounding a baby, go to 1 Kings chapter three, 1 Kings chapter three. Solomon makes a ruling to settle a dispute between two harlots. Basically, they dwelled, both of them in one house. They both had babies. One dies, another lives, and one harlot ends up accusing another harlot of switching the living baby with the dead baby, and so the onus was on Solomon to come up with, to come up with a solution to this problem. He's tasked with solving the dispute here, and notice what he says. Look at verse number 23, 1 Kings 3, 23. The Bible says, then said the king, the one sayeth, this is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead, and the other sayeth, nay, but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living. And the king said, bring me a sword, and they brought a sword before the king, and the king said, divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. So essentially, what does Solomon say? Split the baby. If you two can't figure out who the biological mother is, then go ahead and just split the baby. Now notice how the biological mother ends up responding. In verse number 26, she says, then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, oh my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. So the woman who was the biological mother, she says, don't split the baby. Keep the baby, let the other woman have it, don't split it. Verse 27, then the king answered and said, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it, she is the mother thereof. So this is how Solomon knew who the biological mother was, because the biological mother didn't wanna slay the baby, she didn't wanna split the baby. Instead, she said, no, just give her the child, because she wanted it to live. Now back to Ziba. David ruled that Saul's land was to be divided between Mephibosheth and Ziba, after Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, railed against him, saying that Mephibosheth was trying to take the kingdom from David. Solomon ruled that the baby had to be divided between the two harlots who were involved in a dispute over who the true biological mother was. The truthful mother was willing to give her baby up for the sake of the baby so that it would stay alive. Similarly, Mephibosheth, we read about this back in 2 Samuel, he gave up his land to Ziba. When David confronts him, when David confronts him and says, hey, there's this railing accusation against you, how do you respond? Mephibosheth says, you know what, just let him have the land. After he's told, I'm gonna divide it between the two of you, just as Solomon said, I'm gonna divide the baby, Mephibosheth says, no, no, no, let Ziba have it. Let him have all of it. So in both cases, the truthful party was willing to give everything away. And so I believe this is how, by comparing these two stories, we can see the genuine love that the biological mother had for her child and the genuine love that Mephibosheth had for David. And this helps us determine who was telling the truth. But the bottom line is this, we wouldn't have had a controversy like this. It wouldn't have even happened if Ziba, the railing servant, didn't use the juice and didn't use the donkeys and didn't use all these gifts as a pretext to take advantage of the trust that he had just earned from David to rail on an innocent man so he could take an inheritance that didn't belong to him. And so we see here that Ziba used gifts almost as like a down payment to manipulate David. And the reason why I bring up this example out of scripture is because the same thing could happen to you. Somebody might give you a brand new laptop. Somebody might give you some money, might help you make rent for that month. Somebody might give you a wonderful gift that you think they're doing out of the kindness of their heart because they love you. But then notice their behavior afterward. Do they start railing on someone else? Do they start making false allegations about someone else? Do they start engaging in behavior that they hadn't engaged in before giving you that gift? Once you see, once you notice the behavior that they exhibit after offering you that gift, then you'll know why they really did it. Then you'll know what their true ulterior motive really was, why were they doing it? What was the point? Because some people use that to manipulate you. They see that as a door opened to try and manipulate you and make you believe things that are wrong about other people and rail on other people. And so we shouldn't be so naive to just ignore the behavior of people after they give us a gift. And you know what? I don't think we should also ingratiate ourselves with folks who are incessant railers on an innocent man. Go to Proverbs chapter seven, Proverbs chapter seven. So I talked about how we need to beware of the true ulterior motive behind gifts and that sometimes people use gifts as a pretext to earn your trust and then rail on someone else. And we saw that's exactly what the railing servant of Mephibosheth did, Ziba, after offering these gifts to David and earning his trust. What does he do? He rails on Jonathan's son and says he's trying to take the kingdom from you. And so his ulterior motive was to earn that trust and exploit that trust for his own personal gain. But in Proverbs chapter seven, we read about the flattering lips of a whore. And that brings me to my next point, point number two, beware of the ulterior motive behind flattering lips, which is to reel you in, just like they do with gifts, and then hurt you, to reel you in with their flattery and then stab you when you least expect it. Look at verse 18, Proverbs 7, 18. Notice what it says there. It says, come, let us take our fill of love until the morning. Let us solace ourselves with loves, for the good man is not at home. He has gone a long journey. Verse 20, he hath taken a bag of money with him and will come home at the day appointed with her much fair speech, she caused him to yield. Listen to this, with the flattering of her lips, she forced him. He goeth after her straight way as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stock. So the Bible says here about the flattering whore, that with her fair speech, she's able to capture the mind of this man who the Bible says, as a fool goes to the correction of the stocks. As a fool, he falls into that pit and the Bible describes a whore as a pit. He falls straight in because of her flattering lips, because she's nice to him. And you know what, men, I want you to listen up real carefully here. You have a sinful flesh. When you get saved, that sinful flesh doesn't go anywhere. It's still around, the old man is still there. And so there are gonna be people in your life who will pray on your proclivity to walk in the flesh and the natural desire that you have, unfortunately, that sin nature that you have that didn't go away when you got saved. And so if you meet a lady at work, and she seems to be giving you all the attention more than anyone else, and she tells you that you're just the best worker she's ever seen in your company and that nobody does the job quite like you do, and she's offering you compliments that are out of this world, unlike anything you've heard before, and she's giving you her attention, and she dresses nicely for you. Let me explain something to you right now. She's using her flattering lips to entice you, and ultimately, she's using her flattering lips to ruin your life. Listen to me very carefully now. At the end of the day, she doesn't like you, she doesn't love you, she hates you, she hates your wife, she hates your family, and she's trying to destroy your life. And so you have to not be naive. Don't allow yourself to be taken advantage of. Remember Proverbs chapter seven, what the Bible says here about how with the flattering of her lips, she forced him, because this man was so enticed by what she was saying that he ended up falling into a pit. Go to Mark chapter 12, Mark chapter 12. It starts with flattery. I talked about earlier how it started with the gifts, and then came the railing accusations. It starts with flattery, and then they try and reel you in, and then they try and backstab you. And so we can't allow, the reason why I'm preaching this is because I don't want anybody here to be taken advantage of. Now that doesn't mean we should be paranoid people. That doesn't mean we should be cynical about people. I love people, you should love people. We should love people that come into our church as visitors, and we should be kind unto them, and we should show them what the Bible says on salvation if they happen not to be saved, and we should make sure that they feel welcomed here. But at the end of the day, just because you're a nice guy doesn't mean you can also be naive. You can be nice, but also vigilant at the same time. Everything, according to the Bible, can be had in balance. Proverbs chapter 20 says, as you're turning to Mark 12, he that goeth about as a tailbearer revealeth secrets, therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips. The Bible says meddle not with the man that flatters you with his lips. Now if somebody were to come up to me and say, man, you're the greatest preacher in the history of all independent fundamental Baptist churches, I would look at that guy and say, you're either insane or a flatterer or both. And you know what, if you really believe that, you probably are clinically insane, okay? At the end of the day, when people offer you these words of flattery, they're not doing it because they love you, they're doing it because they're trying to extract and get something out of you. Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 2, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God which trieth our hearts, for neither at any time used we flattering words. As we know, nor a cloak of covetousness, God is witness, nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. So Paul says here, we didn't use flattering words. And when he commends the saints at Thessalonica, you can know for sure he's doing it genuinely because he hates flattery. Mark chapter 12, you're there, look at verse 13. Notice what the Bible says there, Mark 12, 13. And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians to catch him in his words. There's the ulterior motive right there, to catch him in his words. Verse 14, they come to Jesus here, verse 14. And when they were come, they sent unto him, Master, we know that thou are true and carest for no man. For thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth. So we start with a little bit of flattery here for Jesus. Now let's see if it works. Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? Shall we give or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? Bring me a penny that I may see it. And they brought it, and he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they sent unto him Caesars. And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars, and to God the things that are gods, and they marveled at him. So again, notice the ulterior motive. What's this sermon about? Beware of the ulterior motive. Verse 13, it says that they tried to catch Jesus in his words, meaning they were trying to back him into a corner and get him to say something that they could later use as evidence to accuse him. Flattery used as a device to then turn around and hurt the Lord Jesus Christ, but it doesn't work. Because of the wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, Give unto Caesar that which is Caesars. Just paraphrased it. But anyway, he evades their attempt to distort his words. Totally evades them. And folks, when somebody comes up to you and tries to puff up your ego, just understand there's something coming next. They're gonna try and get something out of you next. Whether it's a railing accusation against someone else, whether it's stabbing you in the back, one of the attributes of a wicked person, an infiltrator, is they're given to flattery. And it's no coincidence that they end up always being the ones that turn out to be the most vicious wolves after they uncloak themselves. Now go to Amos chapter seven. Amos chapter seven. My next point is, beware of the ulterior motive behind compromising churches. Beware of the ulterior motive behind compromising churches. And here's what it is. To take your money, to take your money and fill the church with anyone, no matter who it is. That's why they compromise. A pastor who would compromise on what the word of God says is doing it because he cares about his bank account and doesn't care about feeding the flock of God. And that's why they use these slogans, these meaningless slogans like, come as you are. Here's the thing. We don't want people to come as they are. We want to go to where they are and get them saved. And when you use that slogan, come as you are, what ends up happening is people come as they are and then they stay as they are. Now tell me, is that the purpose of church tonight? Is that the purpose? Is that why we do church? Is that why we preach hard out of a King James Bible so that you can just stay the same? No, the reason why we preach against sin, the reason why we love hard preaching is because it's corrective. It's because when you hear the man of God get up here and rip some face, it causes you to realize, man, there are areas in my Christian life that need to be changed, that need to be tweaked. There are areas in which I am weak and you walk out of those doors knowing what those things are and you walk out of those doors knowing exactly what changes you need to make. That's what church is all about. Change, so that we can exhort you to change, so we can exhort you to be better. But what does come as you are say? Oh, it doesn't matter, just come as you are, it's fine. And those people end up inevitably staying as they are. And the reason why we love hard preaching isn't because we're intentionally trying to get you angry or offended. It's because we love you. It's because our movement loves people. And if you don't love people, you're not gonna want them to change. If you don't love people, you're not gonna cut them to the heart with what the Bible says. Lame churches will go as far as opening up their doors to even the most sick predators you can find to promote their compromising ideology. And in the process, they endanger the flock, they endanger you, they endanger your children. Well, here at Steadfast Baptist Church, we reject that with every fiber of our being because we love children and we love you. And we want you to be able to come to church and not have to worry about anybody harming the most innocent ones among us. Now, I'll give you an example of a church that doesn't exactly believe that way. And it's right here in Jacksonville, Florida. You say, why even bring them up? Because they're in our city. And it's not a liberal fun center that I'm about to bring up here, that I'm about to mention. It's not one of these 1,122 smoky lights, glass flimsy pulpit, jeans-wearing, effeminate preaching-style churches. No, that's not what I'm about to bring up. This church is an independent, fundamental Baptist church. Emmanuel Baptist Church. Emmanuel Baptist Church. They open their doors to anyone that comes in. And worse, they put them on the payroll. And worse, they want to start a Bible college with them. Emmanuel Baptist Church is a safe haven for pedophiles. And it's in our city. It's wicked as hell. An independent, fundamental Baptist church. Now, you say, why are you even touching on this? Because we're not the Catholic church, folks, okay? You know, the Catholics, they have pedophiles, they have these perverts. And what are they, they try and hide it. You know, they put their little pedophile, they put the pedophiles in a box and tell people to go confess their sins to them. But here at an independent, fundamental Baptist church, we're gonna shine the light on the cockroaches so they can scurry back into the darkness. Matthew 18, you don't have to turn there. Jesus says, but whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. This is the Lord Jesus Christ, for those of you who don't know, saying pedophiles, that it would be better for them if they drowned in the depth of the sea. And so this is why at Steadfast Jacksonville, we will never water down the message. We will never compromise. Because this kind of preaching protects you. This kind of preaching protects your children. And we believe that any man, we believe that any woman who would harm a child in that filthy, disgusting way, that would defile a child, that that person, it would be better if they would put a bullet in their brain before they hurt another one of God's precious children. You say, I don't like that. Perhaps this church isn't for you then. Cameron Giovanelli, I'm gonna name the names tonight. Cameron Giovanelli, a Jacksonville pastor, this is according to local media, he was arrested for child sexual abuse, a case in Maryland. The police believe there are other victims as well, folks. So it's not just one, police believe that there are others that this person has defiled. I'm gonna spare you the details because it's a shame to speak of those things which are done to them in secret. And so there'll be no reason for me to go into it, but I'll just tell you this, this guy was a filthy rat. That's who he was. Cameron Giovanelli is a pervert, he is a pedophile, he is a freak, but you know what? He found refuge here in our own city. Sick, it's sick, it's wicked. Now I wanna show you in Amos chapter seven, preaching done right. But before I do, before I do, I just have to mention this. There's a reason we preach the reprobate doctrine, folks. There's a reason we believe what the Bible says in Romans chapter one about these people. When it says that they're filled with all unrighteousness. When it says that they're filled with fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness. When it says that they're filled with all, when it says they're full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but a pleasure in them that do them. And God forbid we have anybody in this church that has pleasure in the wicked deeds of those who've been given over to a reprobate mind. There are those out there who hate and reject the Lord so many times that God gives them up, the Bible says in Romans chapter one. It says, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. At that point, they become capable of committing certain sins that are unnatural, like Cameron Giovanelli and what he did. Now look at Amos chapter seven verse 10. Let's look at preaching done right, preaching that cuts to the heart. He say, show me a Bible, an example in the Bible about the way you guys do things here at steadfast Jacksonville. Let's look at Amos seven verse 10. Notice what the Bible says there, Amos seven verse 10. Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. Now this Jeroboam is not the Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who feuded with Rehoboam, and that resulted in the kingdom being divided. Jeroboam, this is the son of Joash, king of Israel. He reigned 41 years. The Bible says he was evil. Amaziah the priest, he's basically triggered at the preaching of Amos, and he's trying to get Amos to stop because he's offended at what Amos is saying, preaching judgment here in Amaziah. So he rails on him. He says he's, quote, conspiring against Jeroboam. Well, that's a lie, obviously. Look at verse number 11. For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land. And folks, that ended up happening with the Assyrians who judged the northern kingdom. It was taken captive by the Assyrians. This is a few hundred years before the Babylonians famously invade Judah and overtake Judah for 70 years. Look at verse 12. Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread and prophesy there. But prophesy not again any more at Bethel, for it is the king's chapel and is the king's court. So Amaziah tells Amos, hey, you can't preach here, buddy. Go to Judah. We don't want you preaching here. Now watch how Amos responds. Because if I had a nickel for every time somebody commented on our Facebook and said, hey, you guys can't preach that. Or every time somebody sent me a private message on Facebook or an email, or Brother Theo, he's gotten some calls. He knows that you go talk to him after the service if you want some proof about that. If we had a nickel, every single time somebody tried to get us to water it down and stop preaching the way we do, we would be rich. Look at verse 14. Then answered Amos and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son, but I was an herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. So what's he saying? Hey, I was just a regular guy. We're regular guys too. God uses regular people to proclaim his word. Yeah, that's right. Look at verse number 15. Oh, not the theologians, by the way. He's just a regular person. I'll get to them later. Look at verse 15. And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, go prophesy unto my people Israel. Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord, prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac. So he repeats what this priest says to him. Look at verse 17. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line, and thou shalt die in a polluted land. And Israel shall surely go into captivity, fourth of his land. So Amaziah says, please stop preaching here. Go to Judah. And Amos says, okay, I'll stop. No, is that what he does? He says, your wife's gonna be a harlot. That doesn't sound like he backed down. He says, this guy's wife is gonna be a harlot. He says, your family will fall. He says, Israel is going into captivity. Now I want you to understand something. Amos could have watered down the message, right? He could have deviated from the word of God and maybe uttered a false prophecy concerning Israel that would have satisfied Amaziah. But what does he do instead? He says, your wife's gonna be a harlot. And he preaches even harder. You know what? He turns up the intensity, doesn't he? He turns up the intensity. And so when haters, when the haters out there, haters gonna hate, right? When the haters out there, when they whine about hard preaching and when they whine about preaching that comes straight out of the word of God, when they whine because we preach against freaks like Cameron Giovanelli. When they complain and when they get triggered, you know what that does to us? You know what I've noticed about the men in this church? All that does is fire us up even more. All that does is make us wanna rip Cameron Giovanelli apart even more. All that does is just make us wanna be even more fire breathing. All that does is just make us wanna preach even harder, just like Amos did. All that does is make us wanna turn up the intensity, just like Amos did, who was told, go preach in Judah, go preach somewhere else. We don't wanna hear what you have to say. You're conspiring against the king and Amos said, your wife's gonna be a harlot. And Israel's gonna be judged. So what's the ulterior motive behind compromising churches? First of all, they want your money. And that's the reason why they put pedophiles on the payroll, just like Greg Neal did, so that they can bring more people in through the doors. They want your money. They wanna fill the church. They want the seats to be filled. They want a sold out crowd, if you will, with anyone, it doesn't matter who it is. It could be the most sick, vile predator on the face of the planet, as long as they're putting money in the offering plate, they're good. But hard preaching keeps the pedophiles out. Hard preaching protects your children. And hard preaching ensures that if anyone tries to come here and do anything to the children at Steadfast Jacksonville, they're gonna be grabbed by the neck and thrown out. And if those doors don't open, they'll be thrown out through the glass. Makes me sick that there are independent Baptist churches who conversely, instead of doing that, bring them in and pay them and wanna start a Bible college with them. Cameron Giovanelli, let him be accursed. And you know what? I found this out soul winning. It was almost like God wanted me to hit on this church today. Look at the short haired lady on their track, their invite, if you will. Emmanuel Baptist Church. We found this out soul winning. And it's amazing to me that they have the audacity to put these on people's doors. Like, hey, come to our church where we're a safe haven for pedophiles. Come to our church where we've got predators who are convicted sex offenders on the payroll. Come to our church, come on in, come as you are. It makes me sick to my stomach. This is filth. I almost feel like I need to wear gloves to hold this invite. Greg Neal should be ashamed of himself. Now go to 1 Corinthians chapter number two. 1 Corinthians chapter number two. My fourth point is beware of the ulterior motive behind pseudo-intellectual theology. Pseudo-intellectual theology. A lot of men get up here with great swelling words. But what are they really trying to do? They're just trying to be seen of men. And they're also trying to lead people astray. That's why they use these big words which you don't understand. You know, James White, his style of preaching, he likes the big words. He likes bow ties. And he likes vain jangling. But what is that? It's just a cloak. And it's just a cloak that he uses to package lies. That's all it is. Now imagine if I went soul winning like this. Now imagine if I knocked on someone's door. And I got my church invite in hand and they opened their door and I'm like, excuse me, sir, but might I trouble you to hawkin' to my didactical presentation on soteriology? They'd probably slam the door in my face. You know what's better than that? How about, hi, my name is Ben. I'm with Steadfast Baptist Church. We're inviting people to church. Are you 100% sure you're going to heaven? See, that person, right, isn't trying to be seen of men and isn't using weird, fringe, pseudo-intellectual theological terms that no normal person uses. And the preacher that does that is trying to lead you astray. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter two. Look at verse number one, the Bible says, and I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God, for I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. When we go out soul winning, it's not about these excellent words and these wonderful words of wisdom and the SAT words and all these big theological terms that we could use to impress people. No, it's about Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's all that matters. That's who we glory in. And God forbid that we would glory in anything else other than Christ. That's the essence of the gospel, that you can't be saved without what Jesus accomplished for you at Calvary. Now, if I wanted to, I could study all those SAT words and I can get up here and regurgitate the theological terms and look real smart and puff myself up and appear to be seen of man as if I'm this wonderful theologian, but what good would that do? Who am I gonna get saved doing that? You know, these theologians graduating with a Master of Divinity degree, they're going in themselves. They glory in themselves. They glory in philosophy. They glory in vain deceit. They don't glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. Bible says in Colossians 2, eight, you don't have to turn there, beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. So beware, that's why I'm preaching this sermon. I don't want any one of you to be taken advantage of. Beware of the YouTuber. Beware of the Calvinist who loves his debates. Beware of the false prophet who uses philosophical nonsense. Nonsense to lead you astray. And he disguises that nonsense as Bible doctrine. This is commonly known as apologetics, where they use philosophy, they use vain deceit, they use man's wisdom to try and convince a God-hating atheist that God exists. You know, the Bible says, the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. That's all I need. Look at verse number three, 1 Corinthians chapter two. Look at verse number three, the Bible says there, and I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. That's what it's about, the power of God, the word of God, the King James Bible. And listen, you could sit up there in your penthouse and exegete all you want, and exegete all you want, and look as smart as you want, and make YouTube videos about it, and use your big words, but at the end of the day, that's gonna do nothing about this world that right now, folks, is riding a bobsled straight to hell. So while these theologians are in their mansion somewhere, in their seminary somewhere, locked in a room, exegeting scripture, and going back to the original language, what's their ulterior motive? Not to save souls or else they'd be out knocking doors. No, it's not about that. It's about themselves. Verse six, look at verse six, 1 Corinthians 2, verse six. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God had prepared for them that love him. Listen to this, verse 10. But God hath revealed unto them unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. There's nothing wrong with knowledge. There's nothing wrong with seeking after knowledge. There's nothing wrong with seeking after the meat of the word and trying to understand the deeper things in the word of God and studying doctrines after you've been saved for a while and you've got the fundamentals right. Keyword, you've got the fundamentals right, okay? Once you've got those fundamentals right and you wanna seek after deeper knowledge, that's great. God's gonna bless that. But ultimately, that knowledge you end up receiving from your study time comes from the Holy Ghost, not from man's wisdom. Look at verse number 11. For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Why does the theologian get up and preach a sermon using man's wisdom? Because they're trying to deceive you. That's the ulterior motive. They know what they're saying deep down. It's not coming from the Holy Ghost because if it were, it would be truth, but they don't want you to know the truth. Look at verse number 14. This is the key. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. So Paul says compare spiritual with spiritual, and that's what we do here. We're not perfect at it. We're still growing. We're still growing, folks. And you know what? We're nowhere near the level that we probably will be maybe 10, 15, 20 years down the line. But we're growing and we're trying. And we compare spiritual with spiritual. But he concludes the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Yes, why is it that a guy like James White, when he had Pastor Jason Robinson, the pastor of Mountain Baptist Church, a great independent fundamental Baptist Church, when he had him on his radio show, why couldn't he understand what Pastor Robinson was clearly articulating concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ? Because the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and we'll be done. Last place I'm gonna have you turn. Now while you go there, I'm gonna read from 2 Corinthians 11 where the Bible says, Paul is worried about the Corinthians and he says, hey, I'm worried that your minds are about to be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. Now what does that mean? The death, the burial, the resurrection, the fundamentals of our faith, it's simple. It doesn't take a theologian to understand that Jesus died on behalf of Jesus Christ. It doesn't take a theologian to understand that Jesus died on behalf of Jesus Christ. It doesn't take a theologian to understand that Jesus died on behalf of you to take the penalty for your sins, to pay the penalty for your sins, that Jesus went to hell for you, that he rose again the third day, that salvation is by grace through faith alone and once you're saved, you're always saved. No ifs, ands, or buts about it, it's done. You don't have to add anything. You don't have to subtract anything. That's easy. The fundamentals of our faith are easy. The simplicity that is in Christ is a beautiful thing. But there are people out there, and this is why I wanted to hit this point. There are people out there who want to try and deceive you and corrupt your mind away from the simplicity that is in Christ. Away from the simplicity that is the fundamentals of our faith. And so don't allow these theologians, so-called, through their philosophy, through their vain deceit, to lead you into an area of heresy. 1 Corinthians 14, six, notice what the Bible says there. Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you? Except I shall speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge or by prophesying or by doctrine. And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what has piped their heart? For if the trumpet give an unclean sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For ye shall speak into the air. The Bible says there, the trumpet that gives an uncertain sound, it can't be used, excuse me, it can't be used to prepare for battle. Likewise, if you don't use easily understood language, keep it simple, stupid. If you don't use easily understood language, how can anyone profit? How can anyone profit? Now, this is why liars will often go back to the original language. Remember, what's the sermon about? Beware of the ulterior motive. What's the ulterior motive behind using big words to dress up their heresy with a nice looking cloak? What's the ulterior motive behind constantly going back to the original languages, the Hebrew and the Greek? And I guess the Aramaic at some points is to try and because you look, you're not fluent in Hebrew. I don't know anybody here that is. You're not fluent in Greek. So what are they trying to do? Exploit that, take advantage of that. And they know that that trumpet is an uncertain and unknown sound to you. And so they'll take you to the Greek and they'll take you to the Hebrew to say that whore is sodomite in the Hebrew. I mean, they'll say anything by taking you first to the original language, knowing you're not fluent in that language to exploit your ignorance in that language and use it to teach false doctrine. And the worst thing about it is people actually believe that junk. All right, let's recap here. My first point is beware of the ulterior motive behind gifts, not that gifts are inherently bad. Don't be afraid to give me a gift. I'm not gonna preach against you now, okay? I like gifts. But if you're gonna give me a gift, if you're gonna give anyone a gift, do it with a good heart. Do it with a genuine heart because you love that person, not because you're trying to get something out of them. My second point is beware of the ulterior motive behind flattering lips. I talked about the whore you might encounter at work who uses flattery to destroy your life. They wanna extract something out of you. Beware of the ulterior motive behind compromising churches who water down the message to take your money, fill the church, and on top of it, they create a dangerous environment for you and your family in the process. And finally, my fourth point was beware of the ulterior motive behind pseudo-intellectual theology, dressing up false doctrine with big words and taking you back to the original languages to lie to your face knowing you're ignorant of those languages because you're not fluent in them. And you know what, they're not fluent in them either. They can't order a ham sandwich in Greek. I always mess this up. They can't order a gyro in Greek and they wanna teach you Greek. If you can't walk onto somebody and say, hello, my name is Bob in Greek, then stop teaching me the language. How about that? So here's my conclusion, folks. I preached this sermon, again, out of love. I don't want anybody here to be taken advantage of. I don't want anybody here to be exploited through ulterior motives that you don't see coming. I hope that you take this message and realize that it's possible for someone to be disingenuous when they're offering you a gift. It's possible, depending on their behavior afterwards, of course, it's possible for somebody to use these false teachers and these false prophets to use their compromising churches, to bring in predators for filthy lucre's sake and put your family in danger. It's possible for somebody to use flattery to destroy your life. It's possible for people to use pseudo-intellectual theology to lie to your face and lead you astray. But ultimately, if you stay grounded in the truth and if you stay vigilant, that's what's important here, folks. If you stay vigilant and you're not naive and you don't allow these people to take advantage of you because you take heed to the preaching, you take heed to the word of God, you will not be exploited by a deceitful person. You will not be exploited by someone with an ulterior motive. And that's the goal. That's the goal today. Not that you should be paranoid. Don't be cynical. People are innocent until proven guilty, okay? Let's not go crazy with this. But just keep your eye out. Stay vigilant, be vigilant. And understand that there are ulterior motives out there and learn from what the Bible says. Don't take my word for it. Learn from what God himself says about what you can do to protect yourself from being taken advantage of by these deceitful people. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you for this church. Thank you for the attentiveness of the crowd today. I know it's been a long day with a lot of things going on. Lord, I just pray that you would bless our church, protect us from those who want to use ulterior motives to harm us and take advantage of us. And Lord, help us to be vigilant, but also help us to be well balanced. Not that everyone's bad. Help us to have discernment. Help us to realize that we are being taken advantage of when someone uses a gift to try and entice us to believe a railing accusation or anything close to that, Lord. Help us to be wise. Help us to be well balanced. And Lord, help us to be Christians who have the discernment to know when someone has a deceitful incentive. We love you and thank you so much for the church that you've given us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.