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All right guys, who's ever heard of the Chermagog? Church, mosque, synagogue, all together in one place. I can't remember exactly who it was that brought this up to me, but in Berlin, Germany, they are building what is called the House of God, okay, and what people online are calling a Chermagog, which is basically a church, a mosque, and a synagogue. I find that interesting because we know that the enemy wants to move towards a one-world religion, and we can see that in everyday life. We can see that getting closer and closer just through current events and things of that nature, and so about every year or so I just kind of like to preach a sermon about ecumenicalism or ecumenism. Now you say, well, what is that? Okay, well, ecumenism is basically the coming together of the world's religion. We know that Satan obviously has a guy. He's going to put on the scene who becomes the beast at some point through time. In this sermon, we're going to take a look at just three tactics that the enemy uses to facilitate that, to progress that, and number one is you're going to find that the enemy is perverting our understanding of judgment, okay? You see this all throughout society today, right? Judgment is a bad thing. There are a lot of churches out there that will teach you, hey, don't judge. You know, they go to Matthew chapter seven, don't even read the whole verse, just judge not, and that's their Bible reading for the day. That's their verse of the day, okay? So we're going to break that down and how that plays into end times religion. Now the next thing that we're going to look at is that the enemy perverts the minds of the saved, okay? Perverts the minds of the saved, and what I mean by that is the enemy has set up very cleverly preachers that turn people into merchandise, and their goal is to give this preaching of thorns and briars, which the Bible clearly states chokes us with the cares of the world. So of course, you know, if I was the enemy, that's exactly what I would do. I'd get people away from judgment so therefore they couldn't discern that type of behavior, that type of preaching, and then of course, what does that do? That brings us to the third and final point in the sermon, which is to propel the falling away. The biggest threat to the enemy today is, and I'm telling you this, is an independent fundamental Baptist church with a King James Bible, the right gospel, and a soul-winning program, okay? That is a problem for the enemy and why sermons like this need to be preached from time to time. We need to be motivated to get out there and get these people the gospel so that we can fill the kingdom of God. So I hope this blesses you. Here's brother Josh with a reading of Matthew chapter number seven. God bless. Matthew chapter number seven, beginning in verse one, the Bible reads, Judge not that ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye, but consider'st not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the moat out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the moat out of thy brother's eye. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs. Neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall the Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at. Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that hearth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Brother Ryan, would you please pray for us? Right. Amen. Matthew chapter number seven. Well, last week I spent a decent amount of time talking about who our neighbor is, who our neighbor isn't. And of course, just one more time, wanted to reinstate a couple of things. Obviously, you know, I wasn't saying that we shouldn't do good to people that aren't saved. So hopefully that was clear. Nobody was saying that. That was the case. That's just the way sometimes people can take it. But it's important to understand that not everyone is our neighbor, because that doctrine, that doctrine that everyone is your neighbor, is going to play into, and does play into what we're talking about this evening, which is ecumenism, or in other words, all the religions of the world basically coming together into one. And so that's what we're going to talk about this evening. We're going to talk about basic steps that are being taken towards the New World Order's religion. And I titled the sermon Chermogog, or I guess you could call it Chermoskogog. If you were to grow up in Berlin, or go to Berlin, Germany today, you would find the construction of a building, and it's called the House of God. It's what it's called. It's called the House of God. It's being given 20 plus million dollars from the German government to build this thing. And it's like it sounds. It's a church. It's a synagogue. It's a mosque. It's all three in one. So again, a lot of money going into that from the German government, a lot of money coming from abroad, i.e. the Vatican, United States of America probably contributing as well. And so I figured, you know what, why not go ahead and preach about this, because this is the direction that we are headed, okay? This is the direction that the world is going. You all know that. But before we get really deep into that, I just kind of want to start off with some history. This history was explained to me a long time ago when I was stationed in Louisiana. I was talking to an old school fundamental Baptist that grew up, you know, on a bus route, believe it or not, in the 50s, 60s. And he was saying, until about the mid-60s when Vatican II started, when the bus would go around through the neighborhoods and pick up the kids and take them to church, and they would go through the Catholic neighborhoods of New Orleans, he was saying that their buses would just get pelted with rocks, windows broken. And this was just a weekly thing, an ongoing thing. And of course, the, you know, the Catholic institution is not going to do anything about it. Parents weren't going to do anything about it. And, you know, drivers would do the best they could to try to, you know, take different routes and whatnot. But he said that after Vatican II, that changed. He said, he remembers watching the television, watching news when Vatican II took place, and none of the doctrines of the Catholic Church changed. But what did change was the way that they're going to implement their program. In other words, their goal was to now adapt. Their goal now was to be more inclusive and to bring more people in and to be more accommodating. And he said that literally the next week the rocks stopped hitting the bus, so on and so forth, and things began to get better. But did they really get better, okay? He said, why would the Catholic kids throw rocks at an independent fundamental Baptist church bus? Well, because the Catholic church back then was very adamant that we were heretics, okay? We're going against their program. And there's many, many, many, many differences between us and Catholics. You guys all know this. And so, you know, of course, why not throw rocks? Why not just act out, you know? Why not do that, right? So the mid-60s is when ecumenism, the ecumenical movement, really started to gain some steam. And you can even go back prior to that, and you can find quotes by Billy Graham saying that like the three greatest threats to Christianity were what he called Mohammedism or Islam, communism, socialism, these types of things. And then you fast forward to after Vatican II, what do you find? You find Billy Graham saying, well, guess what? I sat down with the Pope. I met him. We virtually disagree on nothing, okay? The Pope and us were pretty much the same. And thus, now you have all of these issues that we have today. Fast forward to 1984, okay? And if you remember history in high school, maybe you were taught this, maybe you were. Back in the Civil War, specifically 1867, there was a law passed to keep papal influence out of the United States government. What did Ronald Reagan do? Well, what Ronald Reagan did was restore the ambassadorship between the Vatican and the United States of America. And of course, all kinds of problems were a result of that. One of them being today, open borders. Did you know that the Pope is for open borders? You can say, oh, I didn't know that. Or maybe you did. But what's the point? The point is that ecumenism is the key to the end, okay? The point is ecumenism is the key to the end. The message is doctrine divides and love unites, okay? And you can really find that through a lot of different so-called factions. Of course, the sodomites are big on that. The supporters are big on that. The less big on that. But also just about, I don't know, maybe 90 plus percent of professing Christian churches today would agree with that. Oh, doctrine divide, God will sort it out. As long as we have love, God will sort the doctrine out. Those things are just minor, but they're not minor. There's a big, big problem with that. Now, you're in Matthew chapter number seven. Baby, you're like me and you're wondering, well, how did we get here? Okay, how did we get to the place to where there's a house of God, okay? And there's this movement to join Christianity and Muslims and the Jewish religion into one. Now, what I'm not saying this evening is I'm not saying that every country and every city is going to have a chyrmogog or a chyrmoscogogogog. I'm not saying that, okay. But I am saying there is a movement towards man worship, okay? In order for the devil to have his man take the stand, okay, and for a man to worship him, what needs to take place? Well, we got to get the atheist influence out of the way. We've got to get people in the mode of worship. In order to do that, we have to create a crisis. We create a crisis. We can and create a so-called savior. And so that is what you're going to find today. Now, the first one here, we're just gonna, I'm just gonna give you two quick things on how, or two quick reasons on how we got here, okay? How do we get so entrenched in this, love unites, doctrine divides, tight movement. And you're gonna find it right here in Matthew chapter seven, look down at verse number one, the Bible says, judge not that she be not judged, okay? So of course, we all know this is where most people quote from, but they never read past this, okay? So the first thing really that has to happen is there has to be a push or a perversion of judgment, okay? And you guys, we all see this out solely, you know, you ask somebody, hey, if you were to die today, are you 100% sure you'd go to heaven? I don't know, and I think that's kind of, you know, up to God and nobody can really know and blah, blah, blah. You know, you're starting to get a lot of these answers. And the reason for that is because these churches are perverting people's judgment. They're telling them on how different ways to respond to us. They're telling them, hey, you know, it doesn't really matter as long as you're, you know, about Christ, that's really enough. God will work out all the semantical things in the end, doesn't really matter, okay? By the way, we're called not to judge. We're so, no judgment, no judgment. You hear that everywhere. You hear that in the media, you hear that in the entertainment industry, you hear that in churches, you hear that all over the place, okay? But this passage is not forbidding judgment whatsoever. We are commanded to judge. This is dealing with hypocritical judgment. That is what this is talking about here. So he says, judge not that you be not judged. Now look at verse two. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged. And with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. So the style of judgment that you decide to embrace is going to come back on you. So if you decide to adopt the mindset that he's talking about here and say, you know what, I've got my own issues here, okay? So therefore I'm not gonna just judge every little thing about every single person. Well then guess what? You're gonna receive that back on yourself. Look at verse three says, and why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye but consider is not the beam that is in thine own eye? You don't have to find this, that the most jacked up people tend to be the biggest critics. You ever noticed that? The people with the biggest problems tend to be the harshest critics of other people. There's a reason for that, okay? In verse number four, he says, or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye and behold, a beam is in thine own eye. And of course, you know, if you've got a beam in your own eye, so to speak, a big plank of wood, why are we worried about something small, you know, in another person? Verse five, he says thou hypocrite. So there it is, okay? That's the context here. Hypocritical judgment, not just judgment by itself, but of course, if the devil can convince the masses and especially professing Christianity, that judgment is bad, doctrine doesn't really matter, love is what unites, then guess what? That religion, that one world religion is going to escalate, it's going to speed up and be readily embraced. So he says thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. So the idea here is for the enemy to pervert, to conceal the first five verses here because of the next verse. Okay, look at verse number six. So he wants to corrupt this, he wants to corrupt verses one through five so that we can hide verse six. It says give not that which is holy unto the dogs. Now, is he talking about not giving, you know, GMO dog biscuits to dogs? You think that's what he's talking about? You know, make sure you don't give, you know, what's holy to the dogs. Somebody's talking about, he's not talking about a physical dog, he's not talking about the beast, talking about the animal. It says give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you. Now, in order for you to do this, now, obviously I believe the dogs here are the sodomites, and I believe the swine here are these unclean religions, okay, the religion of the world. We're not supposed to give what is holy to them, right? That's what he's saying here. Now, in order for us to not be able to do that, we have to have judgment. We actually have to employ judgment in our lives. And in order to do that, we need to learn from the word of God. Now, you can leave your place there for now, but we're gonna come back a little bit later. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number two. 1 Corinthians chapter number two. This is something very basic we talk about often, you know, because judgment is very important. It's very important for the believer, but because it's under such attack today, I feel that it's necessary to bring it up quite often because you're gonna run into these types of things out in the community. And of course, you're gonna run into these things with your family members and coworkers and whatnot, and you wanna be able to have the right answers. You wanna be able to hopefully convince people of the need and necessity to be a good judge. 1 Corinthians two, look at verse number 14. So Paul here speaking says, 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. And this is very important. So what do we see here? We see that the natural man, okay? The unsaved, the unregenerate, the unsaved man cannot receive the things of God. So in other words, you run into somebody and say, well, you know, I listened to so-and-so or I go to this church over here. Great, what do they teach about salvation? Well, they teach you gotta turn from your sins and the Holy Ghost comes inside of you and makes you do right, okay? Well, that's a false gospel, you understand that. Now, what else do you know? What else have you judged when you hear that? Well, you know, and you have judged that this person can't receive truth, okay? Look at verse 15, he says, but he that is spiritual, isn't that what we all wanna be? Isn't that the goal for us to be more spiritual? Well, there's a requirement for that, okay? But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. And you might be thinking, well, we get judged all the time. There's people that call an email and, you know, criticize me at work because of this church or what have you but we're not even supposed to regard that, okay? We don't regard that type of judgment. It has no impact on us whatsoever. And that's how we ought to look at it because we understand that we need spiritual judgment, okay? And how do you become a better judge? Well, it's the same way you become better at measuring things. You get acquainted with the tape measure. You get acquainted with the ruler. You learn how to read it. You learn how all those different tick marks work and what they mean and how to actually call those things out. It's the same thing with Christianity. You learn the measuring book, right? You learn, you study, you harbor these things in your heart and you use them, that's the point. You become more and more spiritual and that requires judgment. Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter number two. But we're also commanded to prove all things and to hold fast that which is good. You can't do that if you don't have judgment. So the first thing that the enemy wants to do in order to bring all of these religions basically together is to pervert judgment, okay? That is his goal. So let's look at the second one here. 2 Thessalonians chapter number two, look down at verse number three. So the Bible says, But no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, and of course this is the day of the Lord here, shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. And of course we use this to explain our position on the rapture. I've had pastors in the past, even some that I definitely respect and have learned a lot from, they would always say, well, this falling away is more like a falling up. You guys have probably all heard that. That's not what he's talking about though, okay? There's a falling away, okay? So in order for us to all get caught up together, the day of the Lord to happen, okay? There has to be some things that take place. And one of them is a what? It is a falling away first, okay? And that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, also known as the antichrist. Now look down at verse number four, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he is God's citizen, the temple of God showing himself that he is God. So I said the first thing is that the enemy needs to pervert the minds of us, to pervert the minds regarding judgment, okay? He needs to get that out of the way and twist what that really means so that he can get the world in the right mind frame to not judge, to not look, not assess what's going on. The second thing that he needs to do is he's gonna need to propel this falling away, okay? That's what he's gonna have to do. Propel this falling away. Now go to Luke chapter number eight. Luke chapter number eight. And of course, verse four there clearly demonstrates the antichrist goal or Satan's goal, which is what? It is worship, that's part of it, okay? It's worship and you're gonna see later on it's twofold, okay, it's worship and destruction. Worship and destruction. Kind of like I always talk about the twofold mission of the church, which is to evangelize the lost, edify the brethren, well, his is different. It's to gain worship to himself and to destroy all flesh and I'll demonstrate that for you guys a little bit later. That's his goal, his goal is to worship. And so what you're gonna do now is you're gonna look out and you're gonna see a shift and you've already seen it throughout history. We've studied a lot of the empires in the Bible. You go back and you look at the Egyptian empire, what do you see? Well, you see that they're polytheistic. You go look at the Assyrians, what do you see? Polytheistic, Babylon, same thing. The Grecians, the same thing. The Romans, the same thing. By the time you get to the Ottoman empire, what do you see? You see a shift towards monotheism, okay? One God, we believe in one God, three persons. You say, explain that, give me a perfect analogy. I can't, I've done sermons on that in the past, but we are not polytheistic and we don't allow people to call us that. We do believe in the Trinity, these three are one. But of course, you're going to see that being attacked today and it is, and there's a lot of Christian circles today that are shifting towards what we would call a modalist or oneness type position. There's a reason for that, okay? It is to gear up for the coming of the Antichrist. Now, here in Luke chapter number eight, so I said point number one is to pervert judgment and number two is to propel the falling away. Now, I just wanna kinda explain that and what that looks like to you guys. Look at Luke chapter number eight, verse number 11. This is Jesus explaining the parable of the sower here. He says, verse 11, now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. Cause remember the disciples were like, well, what does this all mean? So he's explaining this to them, verse 12. So he says, those by the wayside are they that hear, now look at this, then cometh the devil and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. Now, if you haven't been soul winning for long, you may not have actually seen this in real time, but if you've gone for any length of time, my guess is you've seen this happen and maybe even been a part of a conversation while it's happening. I can't tell you how many times I've been giving somebody the gospel and it's like, they're tracking, okay, I get it. Romans 3, 23, I got that, I got that. And then all of a sudden it's all gone. You know, you get halfway through the gospel and they're like, yeah, that's right. You gotta turn from your sins. And it's like, I never said that. And they're like, you didn't? Have you ever got that far with somebody? It's like, how, wait, I never said that. I'm trying to disprove that. So you get it ironed out again, you get it all straightened out. Maybe you rehash with them, you proceed through the gospel, you get to John 3, 16, you explain it clearly. And they're like, that's right. You just gotta give up all your sins. It's just like, what in the world's going on here? How can you say that? It's not what I'm saying, okay? There's something happening spiritually that you can't see. And it's probably this right here, okay? The devil plucking that word right out of their hearts. But what else does this also teaches? And this is just kind of a side note. Well, this teaches Jesus confirming the very fact that guess what? We're saved by hearing the word and believing it, receiving it very crystal clear, not by works or offerings or sacrifices or anything of that nature. Verse 13, he says, they on the rock are they which when they hear receive the word with joy. And these have no root which for a while believe and in time of temptation. Now look at this next phrase, fall away, okay? Again, that phrase there. Now, what is different about this group of people versus the group of people in verse number 12? Verse number 12, the devil took the word out of their hearts so that they could not believe and be saved. Verse 13 is very clear, okay? What does it say? They on the rock are they which when they hear, so they heard the word and they actually received it. And they received it with joy, okay? But what happened to these people? Well, there was no root which for a while believe and in time of temptation, they fall away, meaning they leave Christianity. They don't lose their salvation, okay? That's impossible, we know that, but they fall away from being active in the faith. They're no longer producing fruits, getting people saved, doing the edification process that we've spent so much time talking about, okay? They don't fall away. Now, what is this temptation? Well, he explains it further here in verse 14. And the third group, he says, and that which fell among thorns are they which when they have heard go forth, okay? So they heard, they go forth and are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. Here it is, and bring no fruit to perfection. So again, that is the goal. The goal is for us to bring fruit to perfection, okay? We are indwelled by the Holy Ghost, okay? We have tools that are available to us. Some of them are automatic. You're gonna see that in a little while, and others are manual. We have to actually go out and acquire these skills to be able to implement them, okay? But if I was the enemy, this is exactly what I would do, okay? I would not want Shield of Faith Baptist Church going soul winning from one end of Treasure Valley to the other end. That is dangerous. That is not conducive to my plan, why? Because we're out there getting people saved, talking with people, and even if they don't, a lot of times we're able to leave a good taste in their mouth and explain doctrine or explain a position or explain something to them that gets them thinking. That is not on the enemy's to-do list, in other words. Now, you can leave your place there. Go to Matthew chapter number five. Matthew chapter number five. So what is it that causes this fall away? What is this temptation? Well, it's the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, okay, and I've said this a thousand times. There's nothing wrong if you're rich. There's nothing wrong with having materials. There's nothing wrong with that as long as those things don't have you, right? That's what Jesus had said here, okay? These people get choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. So in other words, these thorn bushes, okay, metaphorically speaking, what do they do? They grow around you, they trap you, and they pin you down so that you cannot move forward as God would have you to do. Now, what does that do? Well, let's take a look here. You go back to the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew five, look at verse number 13. Jesus says this, ye, okay, ye, and obviously he's talking to people that are saved here, even though there's a mixed crowd, but he says, ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? Now, why does he use salt there? Well, because salt is a preservative. Salt preserves, that's what it does. Not only does it preserve, but it also creates thirst, okay? And that's the idea here. We go and we try to get people saved and produce a thirst in them to want to learn more. This is why we invite them to church. This is why we explain and answer questions about doctrines and things of that nature, but also salt is a cleanser, okay? It's all three of those things, actually a lot more, but he says, look, we who are saved are the salt of the earth. So we preserve the earth. We are holding evil at bay. And then he says this, and he says, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men. And again, that's exactly what happens when people get caught up in the cares and the riches and pleasures of this life. Those thorns represent people, represent the world. And what does it do? It tramples people. It stomps us out. It prevents us from doing our job as a preservative. Okay, look at verse 14, it says, ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. And of course, this is why we have our stuff on social media. One of the biggest complaints that I always got from these protesters was, you better take your stuff off YouTube. How dare you live stream? You need to get off there. It'd be, you know, we would leave if you, this is what the chief Satanist out there had told me one time. He said, we would stop doing this if you would just take your crap off the internet, okay? Not happening, we're not doing that, okay? Why? Because we want to help the truth spread. We want to get the truth out there. And the internet is a great tool in order to do that in addition to going door to door. I personally think that door to door is much more effective because I mean, how many people have we talked to and got them saved and then actually squared them up on the sodomites and got them right, got them thinking in the right way about that doctrine? I mean, we've done that to quite a few people in addition to other things as well. But look at verse 15, he says, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. And then of course the application verse 16, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father, which is in heaven. Now, of course, new evangelical Christianity will take that verse there and say, see, there's no reason to be rude. I even heard this in a Baptist church, if you can believe this. There's no, you don't have to be a jerk and go and knock on someone's door and tell them they're not saved. What are we supposed to do then? You know what their solution was? Well, on Sundays, we're gonna go to the park after the evening service and we're gonna hand out lollipops and just sit around and talk with people. And then he cited this verse here as justification for that. And then we sit back and wonder, why is evil abounding in today's day and age? Well, it's because the salt has lost its savor. And guess what? This guy has the right gospel. I believe wholeheartedly this guy saves. King James only, right gospel, but that's his position, that's his attitude. He's more worried about getting his boat in and out of his fifth garage than he is getting soul owners from door to door and neighborhood to neighborhood. So the point being, if I was the enemy, I would do this. Of course I would. I would try to propel the falling away. I would try to raise up minister after minister, preacher after preacher, and get them to get people in a mind frame that says, hey, real work is just to love thy neighbor. And by doing that, you need to actually live your best life now. You need to learn how to acquire wealth because then people see that and they understand God's blessing you. And then they want that. And then they'll come to the church house. And that's the drive today. That's the focus. It's money, it's empiricism, it's all of these things that are unbiblical in the Bible. And I'll go back to Matthew chapter number seven. So kind of on the same note here regarding the falling away, Matthew chapter number seven, look at verse 15. So Jesus says, beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Talked about this a few weeks ago, but let's look at it from a different angle. Look at verse 16. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Now who's the them there? Okay, if you were here a couple of weeks ago, you know that them is the false prophets, okay? We don't take this and go around and audit believers. Oh, you don't, you didn't get five people saved last week. You're like, probably reprobate. You know, we don't do that, okay? That's not the point here. The point is to use judgment, okay? Righteous judgment to determine whether a person is good or bad, okay? Is this preacher saved or is he false? Meaning, is he lost? And here's the key, verse 16. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Then he says, do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Okay, rhetorical question. You're not gonna go to the sticker bushes and get grapes. Now here, of course, a certain time of the year you can get blackberries and make some pie. That's all well and dandy. The point is here, you're not going to go to thorn bushes and expect grapes. You're not going to go to thistles and gather figs. What's the deal with grapes and figs? Well, grapes in the Bible are a picture of many different things, okay? One of them is spiritual growth and maturity, nourishment, joy, a bunch of different things, okay? So the point is here, what these false prophets are going to offer you is basically thorns and thistles, okay, which are what according to Luke chapter number eight? Well, they are the cares, pleasures, and riches of this life, okay? That is what you're going to get when you hear these people. Now go to Hebrews chapter number six. Hebrews chapter number six. So in other words, you're not going to go to Steven Furtick. You're not going to go to Benny and you're not going to go to John Hagee. You're not going to go to, I mean, I could stand up here all night and call off false prophets. You're not going to go to these people and find grapes and figs. What you will find is artificial. You might throw, you might find a line here or there. Oh, love your brother and blah, blah, blah. Okay, but they don't mean it. Their goal is to get you wrapped up to give them monetary things, money, fame, I mean, just an unwavering following, okay? That's what they want. They don't want you questioning their teaching whatsoever. Well, Hebrews chapter number six, I realize there's different positions in our movement on this, okay? I don't have time to get into that. The thing that we all agree on is it's not talking about losing your salvation. Look at verse six. So basically, I believe Paul wrote this here and it says in verse six, and he's basically just got done talking about, we don't need to revisit and stay on these milk type doctrines, okay? We don't need to keep on going through these. We need to get to the real doctrines, okay? The stuff that Jesus taught in Matthew five, do you understand that? Do you understand Matthew six? Do you understand Matthew seven? Do you understand how to apply the book of Proverbs in your life? Do you get these or is every conversation, okay, baptism, salvation, okay? Just only prophecy, all good, always good to review, okay? But he's saying it's time to move on from that stuff. In verse six, he says, if they shall fall away to renew them again and to repentance seeing they crucify to themselves, the son of God afresh and put him to an open shame. And so again, I'm not gonna get into the different positions tonight. That's not my point. The point here is that phrase fall away, okay? So what I believe he's saying here is that, you know, when people fall away, it's impossible for them to get re-saved because you cannot lose your salvation, okay? Look at verse seven. This will make sense in here in a second. So he says this, he gives us an illustration. It says, for the earth, which drinketh in the rain that cometh off upon it and bringeth forth herbs, meat for them by whom it was dressed, receiveth blessing from God. So in other words, God supplies the proper amount of rain on the earth for the herbs, okay? It's suitable for them. When they drink it, they increase, that is a blessing from God, okay? If you insert yourself into this, okay, he has rained down upon us, his blessing, his word of God, and when we consume it, we flourish and we grow, okay? But he contrasts that here in verse number eight and says, but that which beareth, and here's that phrase again, beareth thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned. And I believe he's talking about works here. I believe he's talking about when people fall away and they're just consumed by the riches and the pleasures of this life and the things that don't matter, that's wood, hate and stubble, okay? And so that's what I believe he's saying there. That is what contributes to it. Now look at verse number nine, it says, but beloved, we are persuaded, now don't miss this, okay? Better things of you, you, plural, you Hebrews, you that are saved, we're persuaded better things of you. This is why I don't believe he's talking about reprobates here because I think if he was, why would he say that? It's not possible for a believer, but if you believe that the falling away is something different, maybe that makes sense to you. I'm fully persuaded in my position and I invite your reply. Verse number nine says, but beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. And of course, this gets greatly abused as well because people will say, well, if you're really saved, there's things that accompany and that's works and that's this, it's not guaranteed. Some things are automatic. When you get saved, you know what's automatic? Your royalty, you know what's automatic? Indwelt by the Holy Ghost. You know what's automatic? You can never lose your salvation. You know, there are things that are automatic. You can now have the ability to read the word of God by yourself and learn and grow. You're in the family, okay? But to properly edify a brother to actually go and give the gospel and give it thoroughly, okay? These are manual. These are things that we have to learn ourselves. So he's not saying automatically, these things automatically accompany salvation. He's referring to works though, why? Look at verse 10, for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward his name and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. Now go to Revelation chapter number 13. So again, the first point is, if you're the enemy, what you're gonna wanna do is you're gonna wanna pervert people's understanding of what judgment really is. And the second thing you're gonna wanna do is you're gonna want to propel the falling away. What is the greatest tool available to the enemy? Well, it's to install and to promote preachers that will very subtly get people wrapped up and choked with the things and the cares and the riches of this world so that they become unfruitful, unprofitable. So that the salt, in other words, has lost its savor and is good for nothing but to be trodden under the foot of man. So we've got that out of the way. Now let's just kinda look at something to talk about something real quick. Just what can we look for here in regards to the coming one world legend? Revelation 13, look at verse 11. So the Bible says this, and you know, Revelation 13, there's two personalities being spoken of. We're talking about the second personality, i.e. the false prophet is what he's referred to here. Verse 11 says, and I beheld, so John says, and I beheld another beast, so as opposed to the first one who had his deadly wound and was healed, the Antichrist. So, and I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth. And he had two horns like a lamb and spake as a dragon. Now a lot of us believe this could possibly be a reference that he's not only religious, but he is also a political figure, okay? And when I read this, my mind tends to wanna go towards the Pope or a Papal type figure. Look at verse 12. It says, and he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, okay? Well, what is his job? What is he doing? Well, he's trying to unite the nations of the world into one government, that is his goal, okay? The false prophet here, this other beast, he's got two horns, so he also operates as the first beast does, so he's involved in politics, but he also speaks as a dragon. So one of his horns, right, it says two horns like a lamb. Okay, that lamb there is a reference to a faux religion, so he's probably, you know, got some form of Christianity. Maybe he goes to a chermagog, I don't know. But verse 12 says, and he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him and causeth, okay? So he has power here and influence and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. Now, I don't know if you, sure everybody probably understands this, but the Vatican, and I'm not saying this is for sure, that, but that's the only institution in our day that I could kind of think of that would really fit here, and I think it's very possible that that could be, you know, if it happens in our lifetime or maybe even shortly after, that the Vatican could play a huge role in end times prophecy, probably not the pope of now, but maybe a future one or something like that. But, I mean, you think about it, the Vatican is its own, and I'm gonna use this word, its own sovereign, its own independent nation inside of Rome, inside of Italy. And you can thank Mussolini for that. You can thank the, I forgot what that treaty was called back in 1929, but, you know, you can thank him for that. And what does that really mean? Well, if you think about it, I mean, they could literally get away with murder. Do you think that the Vatican wants open borders? You think they're gonna ship immigrants inside of there? No, but they're totally fine with doing it throughout the rest of Europe and the rest of the Western world. Something to think about there. There's an agenda to that. Look at verse 13. It says, and he doeth great wonders. You see that? And he doeth great wonders so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And so you're also seeing this. Another thing, after Vatican II happened and this push towards ecumenism really started to take off, another thing that kind of simultaneously happened is the charismatic movement picked up steam and started really kind of charging forward. And what happened towards the late 60s during that time is the Catholics realized, hey, wait a second, we're starting to lose influence here. So you know what they did? They adopted their own brand of charismaticism as well. And of course they've got their tentacles in Hollywood so they start coming out with movies like Poltergeist and, you know, things of that nature, proving that they have the gift to do exorcisms. And really they're just the sons of Siva, but you know, deal with that later. Look at verse 14. So again, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by sword and did live. So not only do we have a perversion of judgment, a propelling of the falling away very strategically here, but when you have those things and you don't have your measuring book here, people then are basically programmed and prone to look for empiricism, sensationalism, feeling, what do I see? Whatever I see is truth, okay? Whatever I see is truth and so that's what the devil's doing here, providing them so-called miracles which are really called lying signs and wonders in the sight of man. Now verse 15 says, and he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. So what is his goal here? His goal is absolute control. How do you take control of a nation? How do you take control of a society? Well, you cause division first. That's what you do, you cause division. You get these people to fight these people, you open up their borders and you cause a little bit of chaos and then you come in again with the solution and then if all goes well according to your evil plans, you get control and that's what they do. So you can leave your place there and go back, go to 2 Thessalonians chapter number two. We're almost done. We're just gonna go to two more passages and we'll be done. 2 Thessalonians two, then we're gonna end in Matthew chapter number 24. So 2 Thessalonians chapter number two, kind of let's just go into these wonders here. Look at verse number eight, the Bible says, 2 Thessalonians two verse eight says, and then shall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. Verse nine, even him who's coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. Notice he doesn't say in true wonders, okay? So we're gonna have to be obviously on our game or whoever's alive at this time, you're gonna have to be on your game and really understand the word of God because the Bible says in Matthew 24 that these lying wonders, they're gonna be so good, okay? The deception during that time is gonna be so good that it would be possible to deceive even the very elect. So they're gonna do a good job at whatever it is they're doing. You're gonna be like, wow, these people are really calling fire down from heaven. They're really healing migraines at restaurants and stuff. Look at verse 10, he says, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. So what surrounds these lying signs and wonders? It is deceivableness and unrighteousness. So a false gospel is very heavily entrenched here. Again, it all goes back to human achievement. You know, we preach sermons like this and we like to talk about the gathering of the world's religions. They're already pretty much the same. I always talk about this, right? They're all the same anyways. What's their message? It's probation. Do, do, do, just do this, do this and you'll be good. That's it, just do, do, do. As opposed to the religion of the Bible which is divine accomplishment. Jesus did what we could not and the message is simple. It's salvation, it's done as opposed to do. Okay, look at verse 11, he says, and for this cause, okay, so you've got many, many people on the earth now, they're just deceived by this unrighteousness. These lying signs and wonders and he says, for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. I heard a preacher one time, he's like, in the original languages, it doesn't mean that God's gonna actually send people delusion so that they believe a lie. Okay, it just basically means people are gonna be wore out and they're gonna wanna lie down and go to sleep. If you understood Greek, you'd get the real message. It's not what it says. It means what it says and says what it means. And for this cause, so because this is being allowed to happen, okay, where are people at? You know what I'm saying? Where's the salt? You can tell that it's dwindled down. I mean, even Jesus said, you know, when I come back to the earth, am I even gonna find faith on the earth? You know, basically letting us know that the saved man doing works for God, you know, is just, there just is not an abundance. And so verse 11 again says, for this cause shall, or for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. Verse 12, that they all might be damned, believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness as opposed to had pleasure in righteousness, which is imputed unto us by the Lord Jesus Christ from God. And you know that last place and we'll be done. Matthew chapter number 24, Matthew 24. So again, just while you turn to Matthew 24, okay, the whole point of the sermon is to say this, ecumenism is key to the end. A collective gathering, a push to get all people to view themselves as one in everything, that is the key to the end. And that's what you're seeing. This is why you're seeing this push for all these, you know, religions to come together, open borders. You know, I wonder if one of the solutions is, well, you know, we just build you a free churma-gog in your city and then you won't have to worry about it. You guys can all go to the same church. Just don't go to that shield of faith church in Boise because that's bad. Amen. Verse 22 of Matthew chapter 24. So the Bible says this, okay, and except those days should be shortened, there should, now look at this, no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. So I told you the beginning, okay, the devil's goal is to get the world into a place where they worship him. Remember man is made in the image of God. The devil hates that, okay? People think, oh, the devil just hates the saved. He hates all flesh because man was made in the image of God. He hates God and wants to destroy him. So not only does he want worship, but he wants to completely destroy all flesh. You know, I was thinking yesterday, I heard that Kamala Harris picked her running mate, you know, and I guess this guy's a stolen valor communist, far left clown, you know, and I'm seeing people out here just, oh, I can't believe it and this is gonna be great. And I'm just thinking to myself, like, do you not love this country? Do you not love just the basic freedoms that you have? You know, that's gonna go away if you keep electing people like this. I get like, how can you not see that? But you read this, how can these people not see the fact that the devil wants to kill them? Okay, it's just, it's a thing that's out there. It's in the water, so to speak. Yeah, but look at what Jesus says next. He says, but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened, which is a proof that we're not all just raptured outta here before the tribulation, but that's a sermon for another day, verse 23. Then if any man shall say unto you, lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not. You know, I try to tell Catholics this, you know, hopefully lovingly at first, and I would tell my mom this, you know, and it's like, mom, you know, when that priest puts on his vestments, he becomes an altar Christos, another Christ. You know, I seem to remember something in the Bible against that, you know, and it's right here, okay? So when people say, hey, Christ is over here, he's over there. Hey, I got a vision from Christ, you know, and he spoke to me last night and told me to tell you. No, you didn't. You're lying. It will be very clear when he comes back, verse 24. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. And again, this is to gain worship. That's the goal here. That is the point to get as many people in the world together as possible to demonstrate this, okay? Verse number 25, Jesus says, behold, I have told you before, wherefore, if they shall say unto you, behold, he is in the desert, go not forth. Behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not. So they say, oh, you know, he's in the confession booth. No, don't believe that. Don't go anywhere near that confession booth. All sorts of bad things happen in those places. Verse 27, for as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be, for wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Now, this is obviously a reference to Revelation when Christ comes back and talks about the birds or the vultures, the eagles eating and feasting on the kings of the earth that tried to fight against God. But this is also, I see a metaphor here and something spiritual, and that is wherever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Wherever there's a dead preacher, you know, just an unsaved thorn, you know, type of guy, you ever notice they don't get kicked off YouTube? You ever notice they don't get messed with very often by the government? They're not bothered like we are? Okay, there's a reason for that. It's because the eagles are gathered to them or more dead people to feast off of what they have are collectively gathered together there. But I don't have time to really get too deep in on that. The point is here, we need judgment, okay? We need judgment if at any time it's now and obviously going forward. Otherwise, how are we supposed to recognize things like not every single human being is my neighbor. And if, you know, I mean, think about it. If every single person is your neighbor, then you can't judge them. And if you're not judging them, how are you supposed to judge what is right in the sight of God? How are you supposed to prove works that are acceptable unto God, spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable unto him? I had a preacher one time and he was telling me the story about how he was at a coffee shop recently and some young girls came up to him and said, hey, you know, we'd like to buy your coffee. And he was like, you know, he said at first, he's like, man, I'm 60 years old. I think I still got it. Kind of reconsidered. He's like, oh, no, this is a scam. There's something wrong here. So he's like, no, I'm really good. But let me ask you, why would you want to do that? And he said, the girl said, well, we're just going around doing random acts of kindness like Jesus did. And he's like, what church do you go to? Well, we go to the Methodist church. Yeah, the same church that approved sodomite marriage and all sorts of abominations, you know? And it just kind of goes to show you that's the type of ignorance that's out there today. And that's what's looked upon. Oh, you know, if you were a real man of God, you would go out and do random acts of kindness instead of knocking on people's doors at 10 30 in the morning on Saturday and waking them up and getting them all mad. It is what it is. If you get mad, you get mad. It's not my fault. We're commanded to go out and give the gospel. But here's the thing. You get mad at 10 30, you get mad at 11 30, you get mad at 1 30, it don't matter when we knock. You're going to get mad. You knock at seven o'clock. Oh, people came to my door and it was 9 30, you know? You can't placate these people. So you just got to accept the fact you're going to get some people mad. And that's okay because at the end of the day, it's our job to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. And we don't have to worry about anything. We're going to do our part. Might be small, it's all good. As long as we're doing what we're told to do and what we understand is right in the word of God, then guess what? We don't have to feel bad. We don't have to worry. We don't have to get all upset about this coming one world religion or this house of God over in Germany and that type of movement. It don't matter because we're going to keep doing our mission and our part. We're going to do it right. So let's stop right there. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this church and for all that you do for us. I just pray that you'd bring us back. Again, safely, Lord, this weekend and be with us as we go our ways. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.