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

Amen. Alright, so hopefully we'll get some more wisdom from Proverbs this evening, this afternoon, for my sermon this evening. I want to focus in on verse number 15 in Proverbs chapter 14 where we just read there where the Bible says, The simple believe every word, but the prudent man looketh well to his going. The simple believe every word. And the title of my sermon tonight is Don't Believe Everything You Hear. And this is, you know, an attitude of skepticism is very healthy. And there's a lot of people out there to deceive. And we need to be able to make sure that we're not simple. And again, the word simple, the Bible has came up already this morning. Our common vernacular that we use today would be stupid. Okay, if someone's simple, it doesn't mean, it doesn't just mean, like, uncomplicated. Because there's nothing wrong with living a simple life in the sense that, yeah, it's not real complicated. I mean, I go to church, I go home, I go to work, you know, I love my family. Not complicated, right? That's not what the Bible's talking about when it's talking about simple here. The simple is saying, like, you just don't understand things. People just don't understand truths that are just kind of ignorant, are simple people. And the simple believe every word. And this happens, I mean, you can apply this truth all across the board. There are people out to deceive spiritually, absolutely, right, false prophets. There's people out politically deceiving, which, I mean, you look at politics, it's virtually everybody. Just about everybody out there is deceiving you. And, you know, even just personally, there's a lot of people who deceive, there's a lot of liars out there. So, the simple just believe everything that's said. And if you think about it, you know, we don't want to be children in the sense that, if you think about young children, children will believe just about anything that people tell them. Right? Why is that? Because they're young, because they don't have wisdom, they don't have knowledge, they're still learning in this world, because why would they think that people would lie to them, even if it sounds really crazy or off the wall, and, you know, man, you know, I just saw this dinosaur around the corner, it's this big, it's huge, you know, like, oh, man, really? Kids will buy just about anything that you tell them, because they're gullible or easy, because they don't have wisdom. Well, the Bible is teaching us, look, the simple believe every word. We don't want to be simple. We want to be prudent. And the way to be prudent, it says why it follows up with a prudent man looketh well to his going. So, the only way that you're going to know things are true for yourself is for you to be prudent, and for you to do the work, and for you to make sure that what you're hearing is right or wrong. Guess what that means? You have to, I know, I probably shouldn't say this word, judge. You have to judge within yourself. Yes, judge. You have to make judgments. I know it's like a four-letter word these days. It's just something that I shouldn't even say from the pulpit in a house of God, right? Judge. No, you have to judge. Of course you have to judge. You have to judge between right and wrong. And there's a lot of people out there that are out there to deceive, and the simple will believe every word. You know, this applies. I'm going to focus mostly on spiritual things, because that's what matters the most, right? Where your source of truth is coming from. Because we all here that are gathered together, we have a world view. We have a presupposition that we know where the truth is, and that the truth is found in God's Word. We all study God's Word. That's why we're here. That's why I'm preaching out of God's Word, because this is our source of truth. This is what we're looking to, to be our light, to be our guide, to be something that we can go to and say, we know that this is true. We have faith that this is true, that everything that this book says is 100% true. There is no lie in this truth, and that we can rely on this, and we can stake our souls on the Word of God. We may not know for certain what other sources of information. I was just speaking with someone between services earlier today, and they were showing me some really cool stuff out of a assembly of the 1611 KJV, right? In the beginning pages, there's all kinds of extra stuff, right? So there's genealogies, there's other things, you know, there's a lot of cool resources. And it's cool stuff, and it's great. But when we're looking at any material that man creates, we always ought to look at everything with just some level of skepticism, because you don't trust what other people say, like you trust the Gospel. You've heard people say the Gospel truth, because you can trust the Gospel 100% because it's the Word of God. It's not saying that, you know, well, you can't believe anything that people say, but you cannot take it with the same amount of weight or gravity like you would with the Bible. And if we're going to not be simple, we need to be skeptical and, you know, judge things against, especially against what you know to be true, which is the Bible. So when you hear information coming across, you can try to determine if what you're hearing is true based on, first of all, whether or not does it contradict the Bible. Real good example, right? There's a lot of people out there that are going to push science that's falsely so-called. And they'll try to tell you this information and say, oh, no, no, see, you know, the Earth is actually billions of years old, and there's these dinosaurs, and they were wiped out, and, you know, and nothing produced everything, and there was this big bang, and then all of a sudden everything was here, but there was no God involved in any of that, and, you know, the result is death and death and death before man finally evolved from monkeys and from creatures and from, you know, living material came from non-living material, all this other stuff, and you say, well, no, it's science. And there's authorities that are going to tell you, no, this is the way it is. But you know what? That goes completely against what the Bible says. So that's one easy way where you can just be like, okay, these people are saying this, and they're trying to teach this with authority, and they're saying, no, this is the truth, but it goes completely against what the Bible says. Sorry, I'm going to stick with what the Bible says. I'm not just going to trust what you're saying. Oh, just trust me. Because here's the thing. At the end of the day, when it comes to information that comes from people, and we really need to get, and, you know, obviously the Bible sets up authorities and governments in our life that aren't to just be, you know, derided or rebelled against necessarily, but it's the proper authorities in the proper area. But we also can't take that too far of giving too much respect to areas where people aren't in authority, or just believing someone because they have a title or because they're in a certain position. So what I mean by that is that, you know, these people who are these so-called scientists that are going to tell you all these things about the age of the Earth, and, you know, the geologic column, and all the things that go along with trying to prove evolution, well, we know that what they're saying, if it's contradicting the Bible, is a lie. It's not the truth. And we need to be able to take that same level, and the reason why is because man is not perfect. And people may have really good intentions, but have been deceived themselves. I mean, think about this. People who, you know, and one of the reasons why soul winning can be hard oftentimes in Hispanic cultures that are heavily Catholic, is because they're brought up a certain way, and I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with people that it's like, it's ingrained in them because they have such a strong, tight-knit family that, no, I mean, my parents are Catholic, I was raised Catholic, I'm going to die Catholic, even if they're not very religious, it gets, for some people, it kind of gets to the point of like, well, my parents wouldn't lie to me, my parents aren't going to damn me to hell, my parents know what's best for me, they're going to tell me this. But if they're wrong, you know, that's going to take you to hell. People need to be able to question even people who are well-intentioned for you as to whether or not it's true. Right? And I'm not saying people don't sincerely believe lies, but if it's a lie, it's a lie nonetheless. And you have to decide, well, what's your source of truth? I've decided mine's the Bible. That is the ultimate source of truth. And everything that I hear, whether it be through media, whether it be political figures, whether it be authority figures, whether it be anyone trying to produce information, is gauge that against the truth and not just believe every word. And this is a trick that so many people are like, oh, well, just trust me because I'm this or because I'm that. I learned long ago, long ago, that just because someone holds a title, just because someone has a PhD, just because someone has a certain degree from some college, some accolade, some certificate that says you are this expert doesn't even mean they're that smart. It means they passed a test. That's all it means. And I remember the first time I've ever learned this was after, you know, I don't know how many years after graduating high school and starting to hear about what people were doing and professions that they were in. And I'm like, really? That person's a doctor? That person's a lawyer? I'm like, well, I know who I'm not going to go to. People are people, though. Right. And it's nice. Oftentimes, I think people want to be able to just put their trust in someone else. Right. And I'm not saying there's nothing to be said about people who have a lot of experience. You know, doctors have a lot of experience treating people. Obviously, you learn things in trades, no matter what that is. That's going to make you an expert. But it still doesn't make you faultless and without error and that you can never be wrong. And we need to be careful, no matter who the source is, of saying, well, I'm just going to believe anything they say. And this is a culture that's been pushed, the medical culture of just trusting anything doctors say has been pushed on us. I know in my generation, you know, from the 50s, 60s era of just like, whatever the doctor says, that's what I'm going to do. You watch out for that. Because even, and I'm not saying they're all just evil, wicked people. I don't believe that at all. I know plenty of people who are in medical profession. But, you know, when you're following a certain path and when you're following a certain science, when you're following biology that says that everything came from an animal or came from a plant or came from a rock, you're going to have flaws in your understanding of science and understanding of how things even work when you're fundamentally flawed in where everything even came from. And you could be as well-intentioned as a day is long, but it doesn't, you know, when you start thinking that we as human beings, as God's creation, well, you need to have all these injections and you need to have all this stuff in order to survive in this world. And then, you know, to keep everyone safe, you need to get all this stuff pumped into you and you need to get disease pumped into you. And you need to get, you know, these vaccines that are developed off the backs of aborted fetuses or off of animals and just start injecting their cells, their DNA into your system. Sorry, I'm not going to buy it, because it's fundamentally flawed. Don't be the simple, oh, that's what they say, I mean, it's just, they just must be smarter than me, they know more. Look, dig into it and do the research for yourself. Study it out and determine for yourself. Look, I've done the research on the things that I hold to believe like that. I don't just believe one way or the other for just because, well, I like the people over here better. But how many people do that? Or you start believing what other people believe just because, like, well, if they're right on this. Look, if someone's right on one thing, it doesn't mean they're right on everything. Make your own, make up your own mind. But, and don't just believe everything that you hear. Jump down to verse number 18, the Bible says, the simple inherit folly, which is foolishness. But the prudent are crowned with knowledge. Now, we're going to look at a little bit of how Satan operates, because there's deception everywhere. I just brought up a couple things, medical industry, you know, obviously in politics, you got a whole bunch of liars that are just going to try to tell you all this stuff and how bad the other people are and whatever, and your vote matters. That's one of my favorite lies that I've heard, you know. And don't look here, there's no corruption, there's no voter fraud, no, it's all good. We just want you to trust us. And isn't that the big thing that's going on now? I can't believe that these senators and these people are going to try to, you know, bring this questioning on the American people about our precious democracy. Yeah, don't expose any wickedness, don't expose any cheating, don't expose any corruption, because, you know, people's confidence is going to be shattered in the system. I hate to break it to you, but I think probably the majority, if not a large percentage of people, already don't have confidence in the system. I lost confidence a long time ago. It's corrupt, you got wicked people in charge. And I'm not going to believe everything you say, oh, yeah, no, no, no, everything was just fine, there was nothing bad, what happened? Yeah, right. Anyhow, that was that rant, that's over. Let's dig into more important matters. Flip over, if you would, to Genesis chapter 3. The reason why we don't want to be simple, we don't want to believe everything people say, is because there's a lot of liars out there, a lot of people who are lying, a lot of people who are pushing false narratives, a lot of people who are, for whatever, lots of different motivations, but are going to try to deceive you. And we're going to start in John chapter 3 by looking at Satan, looking at the devil, because he's the father of lies, according to John 8.44, the Bible reads, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. So we don't want to be simple, believing everything we hear, because there's lies out there. Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the father by me. He's the truth. Satan is the exact opposite. There is no truth in him. He's a liar, he's the father of it. So we're going to look at some of the tactics that Satan has used in the past, and we're going to see how to identify and how to spot, and not to be simple, and how people can operate when they try to deceive. Look at John chapter 3, verse number 1. The Bible reads, The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. So subtle, right away, that attribute is one that the best liars are going to use to their advantage. They're not just going to smack you in the face with something that's obviously a lie, and just completely contradictory to what you've already held to be true, because that's not subtlety. And if you don't want to be seen as a liar, then don't be subtle with people. When it comes to teaching and preaching the truth, that's why I love hard preaching that's just clear, and I try to make things as clear as possible. If you want to know what we believe, here it is. I'm not trying to dance around issues, and be subtle, and try to trick you into thinking a certain way. I'm just going to lay it all out and say, here's what the Bible says, this is what I believe, it's right there in front of you. Without subtlety, because subtlety is an attribute of the devil. He's trying to deceive. The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made, and he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And notice, he just starts off with a question. He doesn't make a statement, he doesn't say anything overtly just wrong, he just throws it out there. Look, he knows full well that they're not supposed to eat of every tree, and even the wording, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Because they were given liberty and freedom to eat of every tree but one. They were told, hey, you could eat of all the trees, just not that one. And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, verse 3, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. Verse 4, and the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die. So now it starts off with the question, just putting, you know, sowing the seeds of doubt in your mind, wait, did he really say that? And then when she responds with, well, this is what God said, now he comes out with just the flat out line, flat out contradiction. Well, you're not surely going to die. For God doth know, and here's his justification as to why, what he's trying to trick and deceive Eve with, for God doth know that if they eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Saying, well, you know, he might have told you that, but you're not really going to die, though, because once you eat it, you're going to be like gods. And there's that allure, there's that attraction to sin, and then there's this concept that Eve never heard before. Well, maybe that's true. And you start to doubt what God had said, because Satan's bringing up just a total lie, when he says you shall not surely die. But what did God say? We know that God instructed the man even before Eve was created. And if you go back to chapter 2, we'll be able to see it. Now, we don't know if God instructed Eve orally, verbally, right? That she was able to hear it. But we know that Adam was able to hear it, and he must have at least relayed that to Eve. Because here's what God said in verse 16 of chapter 2. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat. So there is a command that says, hey, you may freely eat of every tree of the garden. And that's what Satan tries to use. Have God said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Yeah, every tree of the garden. But, verse 17, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. So God says thou shalt surely die. But what does Satan say? Ye shall not surely die. Complete exact opposite. Yet he still convinces Eve of this. And this is why, just right off the bat, hey, Eve could have and should have spotted this liar because it's contradicting what God said. First he plants the seeds of doubt, then he outright lies. There's plenty of people that are out there that are going to try to deceive you for their own agenda. Satan has his own agenda. Ultimately, they don't really care about you at all. Anyone who's going to lie to you, the Bible says that the lying tongue hateth those that are affected by it. Flip over, if you would, to Ephesians chapter 4. And you might say, if that's the person, so, Satan was right because they didn't really die. That's where you're wrong. The day that Adam and Eve sinned and ate, they did die. They just didn't die physically in their flesh. Their spirit died the day that sin was found in them. Their spirit died, which is why they need to be born again. The Bible teaches that all of us, when you're born, your spirit is alive. That's why infants, babies in the womb, before people learn and know of sin and have a knowledge of sin, they're innocent and they're pure and they don't need to be forgiven of any sins or wrongdoing because they don't have any. Once iniquity is found in them, the Bible says when sin revived, I died. So once you have the knowledge of sin, once you know sin, that's when your spirit dies and that's when you need to be born again. It's that second birth that's necessary as a result of your spirit dying as a result of sin. So, and that's exactly why Adam and Eve then needed that sacrifice and they needed their coats of skins made to cover their nakedness and cover their shame and cover their sin. The blood sacrifice needed to be made to atone for that. So yes, God's Word was true. They did surely die in that day, but they were redeemed as well. Ephesians 4, verse 14, the Bible says, and this is talking about the teachers and pastors that God has given unto men, henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. There are people out there just waiting to deceive you with doctrines, using sleight of hand and cunning craftiness and they're just waiting to deceive people. Now, the false prophets and the people who are peddling these lies are doing it for their own gain because they make merchandise to the people. They don't care about you. They care about themselves. They want to make themselves look good and they'll lie and deceive just to reel you in. But the Bible's saying, look, don't be children and toss to and fro. You shouldn't be simple. Don't just believe everything you hear. Study it out. There's a common, and I'm going a little bit out of sync with my notes here, but flip over, if you would, to John 7. Because one of the deceptive tactics that people will use, and it's actually a logical fallacy, it's the appeal to authority. And I started going over that a little bit with the medical thing and stuff like that, but this happens in religion as well. And we see examples of this in the Scripture from the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the people who were in power at the time, and trying to dissuade people from believing in Jesus Christ. In John 7, we're going to see John 45. The Bible reads, Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him? The officers answered, Never man spake like this man. Then answered them, the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived? So, they're basically saying that Jesus is a great deceiver, and when they come, they didn't bring him. They didn't arrest him. They didn't bring him to him. They're like, why didn't you bring him? No man spake like this man. So, you also deceived? Are you deceived by him? And then look what they say in verse 48. Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? So, this is their, the way that they determine truth. Well, I mean, who else is believing on him? So, if the Pharisees and the rulers aren't believing on him, then it must be wrong, because we're so smart and we know so much. Look, truth doesn't matter who believes it. For something to be true, it doesn't need anybody to believe it, to be true. So, it's logically, it's a fallacy just to say, oh, well, just because, you know, because all these people don't believe it, then it must be false. That doesn't hold water. That logically doesn't make sense. You can't come to that conclusion. Just because people don't believe it doesn't make something untrue. Something that's true, it's either true or false. It's either a fact or it's fiction or it's a lie. But they say, look, have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed on him? Verse 49. But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. And it's that proud, haughty spirit saying, you, you peons don't know anything. Look, we know this. And this is what you hear of coming across the TV. This is why you don't believe what you hear on TV, like, ever. It's all fake. Because they're going to be telling you, oh, here's what the majority, there's a consensus, and any time someone's going to tell you there's a consensus in science, you know they're lying right off the bat. Well, science has already concluded. Yeah, they've concluded because what you call science, you just want to dismiss anyone that would be contradictory to what you want to be true. And you hear this now, I mean, you want to talk about coronavirus, you want to talk about any of that stuff that's going on, watch out for those people. Oh, well, of course, you all have to wear masks. And it's so crazy how blatant the wicked people are getting with their control because they expect you to just forget things that just happened months ago. Like, you were just saying this and now you're saying this and then you're, you know, but they pretend like it never happens. Just the stuff goes down the memory hole. And unfortunately, the simple are going to believe every word. So as soon as it's, you know, get yourself glued in front of CNN. Oh, we shouldn't wear masks. Hey, don't you wear, don't wear masks. Don't do that. Oh, wait, now we need, okay, man, why aren't you wearing a mask? They said not to wear it before. Haven't you been paying attention? I mean, Fauci's saying, we got to do this. Hey, we can't be in gatherings. Okay, okay, don't gather. You can't have more. Wait, six feet. Okay, it's got to be six feet. Why? Well, the scientists said so. Six feet, man. That's established science. Don't you know that? Six feet. Are you coming up with numbers? They're scientists. Believe. Oh, now, oh, wait, now, okay, now we can't have Thanksgiving together. Don't worry about what the political class is doing that says you can't do that. Don't look at them. Don't do what they do. Do what they say. And just keep believing, just follow them right off the cliff. Don't be simple and just believe everything. Now, look, again, I'm bringing up the garbage that's just thrown out the mainstream media that it's virtually all lies. If you're interested in the truth on that stuff, try to find some independent sources and do some work. You know what, it takes work. Unfortunately, it takes work. The hard part about knowing the truth is that it's going to take you some work and some time to try to figure it out, and you're still not always going to necessarily be able to trust everything, you know, come to a completely solid conclusion on it all, but at least you're going to be able to see through the lies if we're able to spot and identify how deceivers work. And when you start seeing people have a horrible track record, and people are starting to tell you that, oh, man, there's all these deaths and stuff. I just saw numbers recently, and again, I don't know where these numbers came from either. I mean, you see numbers all over the place. When you start seeing a lot of contradictory numbers, though, it starts making you go, who knows what they're talking about? Talking about the deaths for the 2020, all these COVID deaths and everything, and it's like falling along the same pattern and trend of the amount of deaths that have been going on, where you're supposed to think that this is the worst thing in the world. It's crazy, because it's not, there's an ulterior motive going on behind the scenes. And this is the same attitude that the Pharisees had. This people who knoweth not the law are cursed. Well, you guys don't know anything. We know everything, you don't know anything, and if we aren't saying that it's true, then it's not true. You guys are just cursed. You guys are just ignorant. Verse 50, Nicodemus saith unto them, he that came to Jesus by night being one of them, doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doeth. So now he's bringing up this issue just about Jesus being guilty. Don't we at least hear it out? I mean, shouldn't we at least hear a matter? This is the point he's bringing up. That makes sense. That's actually a good point. Well, hey, shouldn't we at least hear this out instead of just shutting it down without question? But look at how they answer him. Verse 52, they answered and said unto him, art thou also of Galilee? So what, are you a Galilean too? Huh? Notice, they're not even dealing with his objection. They're not even going to answer that. All they're going to do is sidestep it and say, oh, what? So you think are you of Galilee too? Search and look for out of Galilee arises no prophet. So now they're changing their goat palms and they're saying like, oh, no. Well, I mean, the Bible says no prophet comes out of Galilee. Well, what does that have to do with anything? I said, does our law judge any man before I hear him? You're making assumptions and you think you know the truth on this and you don't. Their presupposition was false because did he come out of Galilee in a sense? Yes. But is that where he was born? No. Is that where he really came out of? No. He was born in Bethlehem. So he came out of Bethlehem. And of course, every man went to his own house. And this is how the authorities will often behave. They deflect. They appeal to authority. They give false information and they want to control the narrative. You've got to be able to challenge those things. Turn to Matthew chapter 28. I mean, even when it comes to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you know, here's the official story. We're going to see the official story on Jesus Christ's resurrection from the authority perspective. If you're going to trust the government to tell you the truth on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, here is the official version of what happened three days after the death of Jesus Christ. Verse number 11, Matthew 28. Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. All the things that were done, by the way, in context, is talking about the tomb being removed, the tomb being emptied, the stone in front of the tomb being moved, the tomb being emptied, Jesus Christ's resurrection, and the angels being there that the guards all witnessed and saw. So they tell the chief priests everything that was done. Verse 12, And when they were assembled with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye, his disciples came by night and stole them away while we slept. And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him and secure you. So they took the money and did as they were taught. And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. That's the official story. Oh, nothing to see here. Oh, yeah, his disciples came by night and stole his body. That's what happened. Well, weren't you in charge of watching over them? Yeah, but I mean, that's what we saw. Then how come you're not getting in trouble? Oh, don't worry. I'm sure they staged some trial and they're guilty, but then nothing really happened because people are just going to forget about it and move on because that's how they operate. I said, don't worry, we'll secure you. Nothing's really going to happen to you. You come up on these charges, you're some crook, you're some criminal, some liar, and then it comes out like, look, these guys are lying. But then what happens? Nothing. These politicians that just get caught like doing all kinds of immoral things and breaking the law and everything, what happens to them? Nothing. Ever. But that's the official story. Just keep that in mind when you want to trust, oh, but our government would never lie to us. Yeah, never. Never. There's no such thing as spiritual wickedness in high places. There's no such thing as people who are wicked and evil that are in positions of power in this world, no way, not in our country, not in America. Yeah, right. Open up your eyes. Don't be simple. You need to be able to challenge the official story. I mean, the Bible tells us the official story. The Bible tells us the truth. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. We need to search out a matter. That's why, turn if you would to Matthew chapter 7. That's why the Bereans were considered to be more noble than the people in Thessalonica. Now the people in Thessalonica got saved and the people in Berea got saved but why were the people in Berea more noble? The Bible says in Acts 17 verse 10, And the brethren immediately sent away Paul in silence by night unto Berea, who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so. So they were ready to hear the truth. And here's the line that you just got to make sure that you're not going too far of being so skeptical that you just can't receive the truth even when you hear it. Right? Of just everything and just become agnostic and I just don't know anything. You need to be ready, have a readiness of mind but then you need to search the scriptures daily whether those things were so. And that's what they did. Therefore many of them believed, also vulnerable women which are Greeks and of men not a few. They're noble. We need to be like the Bereans. We need to be able to search the scriptures daily. You hear teaching. You hear preaching. You hear someone trying to tell you this is the truth. Search it out and verify whether these things are so. We need to be careful who we learn from and who we listen to and who we follow. Because there are false prophets or wicked people out there. Matthew 7 gives us a little bit of insight into how to identify false prophets. Verse number 15. The Bible says beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they're ravening wolves. People get deceived because of the sheep's clothing. They look, they try to sound like and look like other people and that's going to happen for a time but how are we going to know who's a false prophet and who's not? Well verse 16 tells us. 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. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. And flip over if you go to 2 Timothy chapter 4. The best way to find out a false prophet is by their fruit. Now the best way to understand what someone believes is going to be coming out of their own mouth. Now we know that people can lie but after a while people will, even liars are going to slip up and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth is going to speak. It happens. That's why people end up getting exposed that were false brethren that do creep in, that do try to wear the sheep's clothing after a while, you know, and especially the more talking someone does and someone who's in the position of being a prophet or a preacher is going to be doing a lot of talking. And they're only going to be able to deceive for so long before things start coming out. But also you can look at the fruits of the ministry itself. And this is another good way to examine and to know is examine the ministry. 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse number 5. This was an instruction from the apostle Paul to Timothy. He says, but watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. So how is he making full proof of his ministry? By enduring afflictions and doing the work of an evangelist. And what's the work of an evangelist? Bringing forth fruit by bringing people to Christ. So when you do the work of an evangelist, you're bringing forth that fruit and you know what? When you bring forth that fruit, that makes full proof of your ministry. So what's the proof of your ministry? Well, this person, this person, this person, this is the fruit of my ministry. These people who are on fire, they're motivated, they're preaching the right gospel, you know, this is the fruit of the ministry. And you're going to know that by examining the ministry. You're going to hear the words that are coming out and you're going to examine the ministry. It's the best way to know whether or not someone is being deceptive or not, being a false prophet. And unfortunately, when it comes to people who have, you know, lived before us and written books, you don't always have a good way of knowing. I mean, that all you have to go off of is their writings and maybe if you have any understanding of what happened with their ministry. But I'm not saying you can't read things that other people have written in the past or whatever, but just be careful and have that level of skepticism when you, you know, of being able to judge what you're being taught or told and not just blindly accepting everything that you see or everything that you hear. And be able to judge it against the truth and judge it against the Bible. False accusations are going to come. Last place we're going to turn is Matthew chapter 5. We're almost done. Matthew chapter 5. And the last thing I want to talk about is, you know, not believing everything you hear. Don't believe everything you hear from the so-called authorities. You don't have to believe everything you hear from the media, for sure. Don't believe everything you hear just from any preacher, any teacher, you know, any prophet. Challenge all of those things, you know, compare against the truth. But also don't believe everything that you hear about someone else, about some good man of God, about some brother, sister in Christ. Don't just believe everything you hear. There's a lot of people that lie and make false accusations. I mean, how many people hated Jesus Christ and were making up all kinds of... You can't just believe everything you hear. A lot of people came forward to bring false accusations against Christ, and it took them a while, the Bible says, before they could even find two witnesses where their witnesses agreed together. Because they're going to put someone to death, they at least needed two witnesses to agree together. But they had a whole bunch of people that was willing to lie about them. You can't just believe everything that you hear. And this is important in judgment, because false accusations are going to come. And they come for a lot of reasons, especially against churches and against people who are doing a good work. Because false accusations, they do a lot of destruction. And it's also why you want to be careful not just to repeat things that you hear that are accusations against people. Because if you don't know, you better hold yourself to a standard, regardless of what any other person uses for their own standard. If you're going to open up your mouth and say something about someone else, you better know what you're talking about. And don't just rely on something that someone else said, even if there's someone you know and trust and love. Don't just rely on that to be your standard of truth. You can't do that. You're going to end up having your own problems as a result, if that's what you do. Because if false accusations are going to come, and if you get caught up in that, don't be surprised then if they come back around on you. And you end up reaping what you sow. You be very careful when it comes to accusations in general against anybody. And be interested in finding out the truth, and do your diligence to know what the truth is. And don't just be a respecter of persons, and don't just believe things because anybody says them. Because I say them because anybody says them. It's not good enough to say, well pastor said, so it must be true. Look, I'm not saying this because I'm like, oh I'm just some big liar, so just don't trust me. I want you to be able to trust me, but you also need to have the skepticism to not just put all of your faith in any one man. No matter who that man is. And I would expect if you find me to be some big liar, then you're probably not going to want to have anything to do with this church anymore. That's what I would expect. If I was going somewhere else, then to me that makes sense. But the point is to be able to judge for yourself, and be aware when people say things, not to just believe everything that's said. People will use language to incite others and to plant ideas, oftentimes without explicitly coming forward and actually saying the thing that they're trying to plant in your head. People that sow the seeds of discord will be very, very subtle. And this is why there's certain people that I don't associate with anymore at all, that make their own YouTube videos and they really subtly try to make people look really, really bad. Because that is not a sign of someone who has the truth, that's just going to be bold and come forward and say this is what is going on. They're being subtle, and they're dancing around issues, and they're not really coming forward and actually saying something, but they just want you to think that. And it's an attack. It's an attack of the devil. False accusations are an attack of the devil. They come as an attack, one, to confuse people, and say I don't know what's true anymore. To make you have doubt, to discourage people, and thinking oh man, here we go again, to wear people out. Because normal people don't want to just deal with drama, I get that. But there's nothing you can do when people are attacking, they're going to attack. Slant or good people in the split churches, those all happen from the false accusations. So we just need to be able to expect it, and if we read Matthew chapter 5 verse number 10, Jesus said this, Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and look at this, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. So you're saying, you know what, you're blessed when people lie about you, and make false accusations against you for the sake of Christ. And he says in verse 12, Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. And all throughout scripture, we're not going to go through all the examples, we're closing with this, You're going to see the prophets of God, and what's going on by those that are in charge, by the authorities, they're trying to minimize, they're trying to downplay, the false prophets are all just trying to say, I mean, remember when, you know, Elisha's called, and they're going, oh, this is what all the prophets are saying, so why don't you just say what they're saying? No? Because I actually have integrity? Because I'm going to preach the truth? Because I'm not just going to agree with a bunch of people? I mean, if you're just looking to see what the majority of people think or believe, you're probably going to be wrong the majority of time. The majority is not always right. And in a world where the majority of people are going to hell, and can't even get salvation right, I don't want to trust what the majority of people think. Don't believe everything you hear. The simple believe every word. You know what, again, like I said this morning, it requires work. Yeah, it does. You have to study, you have to read, you have to be astute, you have to be sober, you have to be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. That's why. And lies are abundant. But praise God, we have the truth. We have a light. Use the light, and compare it against what you hear in this world. Don't be simple. Don't be ready to hear, be ready to learn. Berea, they were ready to learn. They were ready to receive the Word of God. They were ready to be instructed. We all ought to be ready to be instructed and to learn and increase knowledge. And not just shoot everything down that you hear, just because you're being a little bit too guarded, right? Be guarded enough, be ready to hear and learn, but test it all and search the Scriptures. Is this true? Yes. Is this true? Yes. Is this true? No. Reject. Amen. Amen. As far as I've ordered prayer. Dear Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for giving us all the wisdom, especially throughout the book of Proverbs and Psalms. Lord, you give us so much wisdom and so much guidance and so much instruction. Lord, help us not to be forgetful hearers but doers of the work. I pray that you would please open up our understanding and help us to commit these things to memory, so that as we're confronted with so many different ideas and so many different thoughts and so many different people that are trying to push agendas, Lord, and have a good working knowledge of the truth to be able to compare things against. And I pray that you would just help lead us and guide us into all truth and wisdom, Lord. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.