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All right, amen. So we're there in Joshua chapter number 13. Look down at verse number 22. It says, Now you can leave your place there and go to Revelation chapter number two. But what we're going to be talking about this evening is the subject of soothsayers. What does that mean? What is a soothsayer? And in order to do that, in order to gain a real good understanding of what a soothsayer is, we need to learn how Balaam lived his life. We need to learn about Balaam. We need to learn certain things that he stood for and put forth as a so-called prophet to better understand that subject. Now if you type in the word soothsayer in the Bible, it's going to come up one time. You're going to see if you type in soothsayers in the Bible app, it's going to come up like six times. And soothsaying comes up one time. But basically what it boils down to is it's a component of witchcraft. And the title of my sermon is The Seering of a Soothsayer. The searing of a soothsayer needs to say, what in the world are you talking about? What does that mean? Well, think about what happens if you put a piece of meat on the grill. It's real hot, right? And you sear it, right? Now it's good for when you're cooking steak, but when you let somebody who's a soothsayer into your life or influence your thoughts or your teachings, it's a bad thing. And we're definitely going to see that this evening. So basically the sermon is about the effects of soothsaying. You're like, how'd you get this idea? Well, you know, it's the month of October, right? We've got Halloween coming up at the end of the month and I've been going into a lot of houses just like last year. And I told you guys last year, one of the things that shocked me when I moved here was how many Mormons like just go all out for Halloween. And that's not to say that Christians don't either, but Mormons especially, you know, I was in that subdivision over in Meridian, you know, these subdivisions that have like the Mormon temple right smack in the center of the neighborhood there, right? If you want to see some of the best, like most grotesque Halloween displays, just go to those subdivisions where the Mormon temple is. And I'm serious, you'll see them. You know, I went to this one and I was, you know, following the GPS, I was going to this house. And in the distance I could see like all these like things hanging off of a tree. I guess they're like dead bodies, right? And I'm like, what are the odds that that's my house? I'm trying to count on the GPS. It looks like the sixth house. I'm like, oh, that is. And I'm like, man, I bet this is Mormon. I walk in there, they got big old picture of the tabernacle over in Utah. They got all the 12, there are 12 false apostles on the wall. And I'm looking around, I'm like, wow, I was right. You're not going to get me this year. And one of the things that they had in there was like this crystal ball, right? They were really into, you know, putting out, you know, they had this like this crystal ball thing and then like these skeleton hands just like coming out of the table. Right. And that's kind of got me thinking about this. I'm like, what am I going to preach about this year for Halloween? And, you know, as I've just been reading, I was like, you know what? Soothe seeing that crystal ball got me. We're going to we're going to go with that and see see what the Bible says here. But this is very important to understand. And you're going to see why in this verse right here. So Revelation chapter number two, we're going to look down at verse number 14. And this is where Jesus is auditing the churches of Asia and he's telling them the things that he approves of and the things that he does not approve of. And in verse number 14, he's talking to the church in Pergamos. And I want you to pay attention to this. Look at verse 14. He says, But I have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication. Now, the Bible talks about how in Pergamos at during this time, it says that Satan's seat was there. And I think that's very interesting because when you study Balaam's life, you know, the children of Israel, they're on a roll. Right. I mean, they're steamrolling nations and they're really, you know, doing good. Joshua was about to take over and start his conquest. And what happens? They run into this guy, Balaam. He wants to curse the children of Israel. Right. And so you got to understand the devil is behind that. And anytime you have a church or a movement that is going really hard for God, there are going to be people like Balaam that will try to creep in here, creep into church, creep into your life and destroy you. OK. And I'm not saying that every person that does that is a soothsayer, but they are out there. I mean, this is a New Testament passage here and we're still talking about Balaam. Right. Jesus saying, hey, you have people there. They may not even understand who Balaam was, but yet they have his doctrine. And so we need to understand what that means for us. So turn to Second Peter, chapter number two, Second Peter, chapter number two, and we'll look at some other passages here about Balaam. Now, you know, sometimes when you read in the Bible through, you don't study. You might read through Numbers 22, 23, 24. And you might think, I don't know. You know, maybe Balaam was saved. Sometimes I'd wrestle with that back and forth. But after studying this, I'm like 100 percent sure this dude is not saved at all. I'm going to show you that here. A lot of Bible verses tonight. So just bear with me here. I think I think it's going to be a blessing for you. Well, first, Second Peter, chapter two, look down and see here, look at verse number 10. We're going to talk about this here because we're going to read from verse 10 all the way through verse 15, which is dealing with a lot of attributes, I guess you could say, about unsaved people that are basically have their heart hardened towards God. And what I want you to see here in verse 10 is this, But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government. Presumptuous are they self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Now, this doesn't just mean any old unsaved person, but it is talking about people who are unsaved here. The reason why I'm hammering that so hard is because by the time you get to verse number 15, which we're going to see, you're going to see Balaam as mentioned in this passage here. Right. But to prove my point that I don't believe Balaam is saved, look at verse 10 again, it says, But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness. Keep your place there really quickly and go to Romans chapter number eight, Romans chapter number eight. I just want to explain to you in the Bible what that phrase means, walking after the flesh. Now, obviously, we all have the old man. Right. When you get saved, you get born again. You've got two natures and you have to wrestle with that the rest of your life. Everybody in here is going to sin every single day. There's no way you can turn from all of your sins. There's no way you're going to go one day without sinning. We understand that and we get that here. But what this passage is talking about is a person who has made the conscious decision to reject Jesus Christ, to reject the way of salvation. And just to kind of show you that here, Romans chapter eight, look at verse one. It says, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Now, notice this, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. And so why is it worded like that? Well, because when you're saved, you're not condemned. You're still going to sin because you have the old man, you have the flesh. It's just the way it is. Now, that doesn't mean you should use that as a malicious cloak for going out and doing whatever you want to. Because obviously, as God's children, like I always say, you don't get to play by the rule book of the world. You will get chastened by God. You will be brought humbly before him, if you know what I mean. But what he's contrasting there are people who are saved and people that are consciously saying, you know what, I don't want anything to do with that. I'm not saved. I want to walk after the flesh. Jump down to verse five. He says, For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. And I say this all the time, too, and this is taught throughout the entire Bible. You have to be saved to understand the Bible. Okay, Jesus said that we have to worship God. How? In spirit and in truth. These words that I speak into you, they are spirit and they are life. And that's what he's saying here in verse five. They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. When you're out there trying to give somebody the gospel and you run into somebody and you can perceive that they're pretty hard-hearted, right? They don't want anything to do with it. You can kind of tell that they've made their choice, right? You know what? That's what I think of. I think of this verse right here. They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. So there are people out there, obviously, they don't want anything to do with this, and they just solely want to mind the things of the flesh. But nonetheless, it's talking about people who are not saved, right? Just like in our chapter here in 2 Peter. Let's see, verse number six says, For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Somebody who's carnally minded, again, is somebody who just, you know, they obviously they hear the truth. They understand, you know, whatever. But they just, they're minded to serve the old men, to serve, to not serve God, basically, okay? They're carnally minded, and the Bible says the result of that is what? It's death. It's not just talking about the physical death. It's talking about the second death here. All right, real quick, jump down to verse number 13. It says, For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die, but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. What is he talking about there? Being indwelled by the Holy Ghost, because when you're saved, the Holy Ghost comes inside of you and seals you into the day of redemption, not until the next time that you sin, not until the next time you don't pay your tithe, none of that, right? He seals you to the day of redemption. Verse 14, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Again, you go all the way back to John chapter one. How do you become the son of God? You have to be born again. You have to be saved. Done deal, okay? So with that in mind, go back to 2 Peter here, and let's read that verse again. He says, But chiefly, right, actually back up to verse nine real quick. It says, The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. And we've talked about this several times recently. God knows how to take people that hate him wholeheartedly, these reprobates, and he knows how to reserve them like pedophiles till the day of judgment to be punished. Verse 10, But chiefly, so he's saying, But especially them that walk after the flesh and the lust of uncleanness, and despise government, presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Verse 11, Whereas angels which are greater in power might bring not railing accusation to them before the Lord. Verse 12, But these as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption. You say, What in the world are you talking about here? Made to be destroyed. Well, what did Paul talk about in Romans chapter 1? What is the hallmark of a reprobate? Somebody who's rejected God to the point to where he says, You know what? I'm done with you. I'm going to push you over that edge. I'm going to give you over to that unclean mindset, and then you're going to go ahead and do those filthy, horrible things. That's what he's talking about here. Verse 13, And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime. Sounds like Black Lives Matter. Sounds like Antifa, right? That's what it sounds like. I mean, all the stuff fits those people. Look, I'm not saying that every single person in that thing, you know, is a devil worshipper. But look, you know that kid in Wisconsin that shot those two that were pursuing him with pistols? Right? One of them was a Satanist, and the other was a pedophile. And so what does that tell you? They're both pedophiles, and they both fit this bill. They're brute beasts, made to be destroyed. At some point in their lives, they just said, You know what? We want to serve Baal. We want to serve the devil. And that's what they went ahead and did. Verse 14, Having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls. On heart they have exercised with covetous practices cursed children. What does that mean? A cursed children? Right? It sounds like the children of Baal in the Old Testament, doesn't it? Children of the devil. Verse 15. Listen to this. Which have forsaken the right way and are gone astray. So we are talking about people who have heard the truth, who have been told the truth, and have forsaken it. Meaning they have made a conscious effort to say, I want nothing to do with that righteous way. What did Jesus say? I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. Right? He's talking about people who have conscious said, I'm done with that. I don't want that. I don't want anything to do with that stuff. Look at the rest of the verse. Following the way of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. Right? So that verse right there and those verses that precede that, that come before that, I mean, that seals the deal for me. You know, Balaam, the soothsayer. I mean, think about that. You know, what is the first thing that we, I mean, really see with Balaam the soothsayer? He's not saved. Right? I mean, why would they use him as an example of people that have all of these attributes if he was saved? I mean, look, when you're reading Numbers 22, 23, 24, it seems like, I don't know, he could be. He's talking with the Lord. I mean, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, right? He was writing his ass and it starts speaking to him. Hey, why are you smiting me? And he's just like, nothing's out of the ordinary there. He just starts talking back to the donkey. It's like, what are you doing? You didn't think that's strange, you know? I mean, how many people in here, if an animal started talking to you, you'd just be like, oh, yeah. Anyways, I'm glad you got your tongue back, dog, Otis, right? But guess what? You know, you need to quit doing the stupid stuff you're doing and being all rambunctious. No, you would probably fall down and be like, what in the world? But here's what I think in that aspect. I think the reason why Balaam just didn't skip a beat and started talking to him is because he was a soothsayer. Because he used divination. He used enchantments. He used witchcrafts. And he was probably used to seeing a lot of weird and unusual things. He just figured this is another day at the office, okay? Now turn, if you would, to Numbers chapter number 24. Numbers chapter number 24. Like I said here, we just got a lot of background to dig through here before we get to the main point. And so I just wanted to highlight that for you because the Bible tells us that, you know, Balaam's a good person to study if you want to really learn what a soothsayer is. Here's what the dictionary says, the definition of soothsayer is. I'm just going to read this for you. Dictionary definition of a soothsayer is a person supposed to be able to foresee the future, okay? That's what it says. That doesn't do it good enough for me, all right? Because when you study the life of Balaam and you study the life of a certain woman in Acts chapter 16, which we're going to go to here momentarily, you're going to see that it's a lot more in depth than that, right? This whole business about soothsaying, it's deceptive, it can creep into churches, and our government and the media, they use these techniques on their people all the time, and you're going to see that here, okay? Now here's the Webster's 1828 dictionary. I don't have a problem with this dictionary. I mean, I'll use it every once in a while, but it says this. It says, a soothsayer is a foreteller, a prognosticator, one who undertakes to foretell future events without inspiration. Without inspiration, okay? In our modern vernacular, when you type in the word soothsayer, that might be true, but in the Bible, that is not the full case here, because we're going to see that Balaam speaks the word of God, and a lot of the stuff that Balaam says in the Bible is true. It's the word of God. It's exactly what God told him to say, okay? And we need to take that into consideration here. And off the back of that here, what I just said, look at Numbers chapter number 24 verse 15, because what I want to do is just going to highlight four things that Balaam prophesied that came true here. Numbers 24 verse 15, the first thing you're going to see is he actually prophesied the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, what do you think about that? Balaam, the soothsayer. You type in soothsayer in your Bible app, it comes up one time, and it's about Balaam, who we have already proved is not saved, okay? Numbers 24 verse 15, it says this, And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said. He hath said, Which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty falling into a trance, but having his eyes opened, I shall see him, but not now. I shall behold him, but not nigh. There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth. Now, just for giggles, last night, I was talking about this, who are the children of Sheth? With Kaden here, and I was like, well, let's go see what the scholars say, you know? I like to do that just to get myself angry. It never takes long, right? And there was this website, it was called, like, Hermeneutics for Heroes or something like that. That's not what it was called. I forgot, because it's not important. But the person, it was a Bible college student, right? And he went there, some new evangelical NIV lover, goes there to ask a question. He says, hey, something's really been perplexing me. Who are the children of Sheth? Right? And so the scholar, he's breaking down Sheth throughout the Bible and the old Hebrew, right? And he doesn't even speak Hebrew. And he's just, you know, pouring stuff on that just doesn't make any sense. And then he says, but to answer your question, here's my answer. I don't know. I don't care, because I wasn't alive back then. Find somebody who was alive back then, and then they'll answer it for you. No joke, that was the answer that the scholar gave this person who asked who the children of Sheth are. Well, look, you don't need to go to a scholar to figure out who he's talking about here, right? I mean, think about it. This is a prophecy regarding who? The Lord Jesus Christ. Who are his enemies? Not just your old unsaved, you know, guy down the street. It's the children of the devil, right? Weren't a lot of the Pharisees, a lot of the Sadducees, not all of them, but a lot of them, weren't they his enemies? Right. So he's just saying, you know, and the children of Sheth, obviously that's just a reference to his enemies, right? To answer the question, it's like a scholar can't even figure that out. I mean, if you want to find out who the enemies of Christ are, read 2 Peter, read Jude, read Genesis 19, read Judges 19. Read 1 Kings 15. Read the book of Acts. Read John chapter 12. I mean, come on here. Read the Bible. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ has enemies all over this planet, you know, and to sum them up as a whole, it's called the world. The world does not love our God, okay? And so that was just extra credit there, right? So the first thing that we see that Balaam prophesies that is true is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, number two, I'm just going to mention these. He prophesies here, if you keep reading chapter 24, we have to move on because we've got a lot of stuff, but he prophesies victory over Moab, over Edom, and the Amalekites and the Kenites, and you say, why is that important? Well, who's Balaam? Who's trying to get Balaam to curse the children of Israel? Balak, the Moabite king, right? And Balaam's telling them, hey, God's going to actually use these people to steamroll you, and you're not going to win. But he prophesies that. That comes to pass. He also prophesies the Assyrian captivity, and he prophesies that the Assyrians and the Hebrews would be under much affliction, which we see later after 2 Kings 17. We've already studied that. I'm not going to revisit that, but all four of those things that Balaam prophesies are true. And so for the Webster's Dictionary of 1828 to say that a soothsayer is somebody who foretells the future without inspiration is not accurate when you study the Bible, because Balaam here is prophesying, and he's a soothsayer, with inspiration. That doesn't mean he's saved. That doesn't mean we need to listen to everything that he does, right? But what God puts in his mouth to speak, that's truth. It is what it is. Now, the other stuff that Balaam does, being a soothsayer, that we need to focus on. Now, keep your place there because we will come back to it, but what I want to do now is I want to have you go to Acts 16. Okay? Acts chapter number 16. And I said this before, if you type in soothsayer, Balaam comes up, the only time, the first guy that comes up. But if you type in soothsaying, right, that comes up one time in the Bible, and it's in Acts chapter number 16. And you're going to see a lot of similarities between Balaam and this certain woman that we're going to read about in Acts chapter 16. So Acts 16, real quickly, look at verse number 16. It says, And as it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel, possessed with the spirit of divination, met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. You see that there? Much gain by soothsaying. Verse 17. And the same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation. Now, is that a lie? No, that's true. That's what Paul was doing. Paul and his men, they were going out, they were preaching the gospel, and they were showing people the right way. And she's not lying here, but she's soothsaying at the same time. Notice verse number 18. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the Spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. And when her master saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers. Now, isn't that interesting here? So if you compare Balaam with this woman, both, obviously, the Bible tells us, are involved in soothsaying. There's a ton of similarities. I'm just going to name for you six here. Now, the first one is gain. The first one is gain, because when you're reading Numbers chapter 22, what's the first thing that you see happen to Balaam? Right? Balak, he realizes he's about to go into captivity. He's about to get destroyed. What does he do? He comes up with this idea and says, hey, I need to go hire Balaam, the son of Basor, to come curse me these people. What does he do? He sends his servants to Balaam with the rewards of divination. Right? He sends his people to Balaam with the rewards of divination. Why is that important? Well, it's important because it proves that Balaam had a history of wanting to get paid for his divining, for his divination. He uses divination, which, according to Deuteronomy 18, which we'll look at later, is an abomination to God. Right? See, divination, enchantment, soothsaying, all of these things, they all are like a package deal, all part of witchcraft. Right? What do we see here in Acts chapter 16? She brought her masters much what? Gain by soothsaying. You starting to see the connection here? So the first thing that we can see that a soothsayer does is seek gain. Right? Financial, monetary, materialistic, mammon, gain. That is one of their biggest goals is to gain. Number two is that they both spoke truth, which I thought was very strange. He both spoke truth. You know what? Real quickly, flip to Numbers chapter 22. Numbers chapter 22. I just want to show you this here just for review. Numbers chapter 22. We're going to flip back and forth between Numbers 22 and Acts 16. So Numbers 22. Look at verse 18. Numbers 22 verse 18. Look at what Balaam says here. So, you know, Balaam is like, hey, I'm going to promote you, I'm going to give you honors, whatever you want, just help me curse these people. Here's Balaam's response. Verse 18. And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more. You see, when you read that, you're like, well, he's saying that the Lord God is his God. Of course, he's got to be saved. But what you have to understand, like I always say, is you have to be able to rightly divide the word of truth. So when a character is saying something in the Bible, that doesn't necessarily mean it's true. You have to compare it with the rest of the Bible. Now, when the narrator is speaking, right, when the narrator is speaking, that trumps the statement. So that's how you divide the word of truth, right? The stories trump the statements. And what do we read about in Revelation 2? Jesus said, hey, the doctrine of Balaam. Obviously, it's bad. It's an abomination. It's, wait, 2 Peter 2, what does the Holy Ghost say? What does the narrator of that passage say? The dude's not saved, right? That he's full of all these wicked and abominable attributes, OK? But here you have this. And so what a soothsayer does is obviously they mix truth and error. They mix truth and lies. In fact, when you read, I think it's, hold on, I had it written down here. Yeah, it's in Jude. It talks about how people ran greedily after the error of Balaam, OK? Now, flip, if you would, to Acts chapter 16 and look at verse 17. So remember, number one, the thing that Balaam and this certain woman in Acts had in common was gain. They used soothsaying to promote gain, whether it be financial, materialistic, but it is gain. And number two, what they both had in common is they both spoke the truth, right? Balaam spoke truth. I read for you those prophecies he did. You know, he's speaking the truth right here in Numbers 22, besides the Lord is my God part. Obviously, he doesn't believe that. And I can prove that even further here momentarily. But he does speak what God tells him, right? He tells these people to come to him. Hey, I'm going to tell you everything that God tells me. I'm not going to hold anything back. And he doesn't. Now, look at this here, Acts 16. Look at verse 17. It says, She is speaking truth. But what does she do? She brings much gain to her masters, the people that are exploiting her. Number three, and I've already talked about this, what was the central thing that Balaam was known for? Obviously soothing, but divination, okay? Divination, because the people came to him initially and said, oh, we understand that Balaam likes money, and so we're going to pay him, we're going to give him these rewards in exchange for divination, for telling the future through occultic practices, right? Well, guess what? Look at this woman here in verse 16. And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination. So the common denominator between Balaam and this certain woman is the spirit of divination, right? You need to understand that there. Number four is that they both led to destruction, okay? Now, when you're reading all that stuff that Balaam's prophesying in Numbers chapter 24, when you turn the page to Numbers chapter 25, I mean, at the end of chapter 24, it says that Balak, he goes his separate way, Balaam, he goes his separate way. In Numbers chapter 25, you just start reading about how the children of Israel start to commit whoredoms, they're committing adulteries, fornications, and they're now worshiping the gods of the land. But it doesn't tell you that Balaam did that, or that he pushed that on. You have to read Revelation to get that understanding, or read further along in Joshua and just kind of put two and two together, okay? And so that's what I'm saying. It's game, right? It's through the use of divination, but also it leads to death and destruction because a result of what they did in Numbers 25, it led to 24,000 people dying, God killing them out of anger, because they decided to leave that truth behind and commit all the things that he just got done telling them not to do, right? Now, you can see that in Acts chapter 16, because when Paul casts that spirit of divination out of this certain woman, what happens? The people of the city, they get upset, and they deliver Paul and Silas up to the rulers. It's the same principle. They want them dead, and they want destruction, right? Because you know at the root of all this is the love of money, right? And so anytime you see an organization, whether it's something, you know, Hollywood, the sports industry, the media, you know, unfortunately the politicians of our day, what is at the root of all their evil is the love of money. And you know what they often use? They use soothsaying to get it, right? Guess who else does that? A lot of prosperity preachers. You know, and I'll say this right now, and this is true, the Mormons, they use this as well. You walk into a Mormon service on Sunday, congratulations, you have put yourself under the subjection of a soothsayer. Same thing for the Jehovah Witnesses and all these false religions. Thereafter, gain, they use divination. You look, people just think, oh, soothsaying, divination, witchcraft, you know, that's only for, you know, the one witch with a green face and the hat with a pointy thing on the top. You know, witchcraft is much more deceptive than all of that, right? You know, you'd be surprised. You know, you guys that work for some of these bigger companies, you know, it's not uncommon for like the CEO and the chief dogs of a lot of these Fortune 500 companies to be wrapped up into all this witchcraft garbage. And you'd look at those people, they wear a suit and tie, they talk about their families, you would never know from a basic conversation with those people, right? But when you really understand what a soothsayer does, what a diviner does, what somebody steeped in witchcraft can be like, I mean, it should open up your eyes, right? Because if you were to just kind of glance through the Bible, right, not really, you're reading it, but you're not really studying it and trying to put two and two together and rightly divide, then guess what's going to happen? You're going to kind of miss out on a lot of these deeper things. Because, I mean, think about it, if you were to talk to Balaam at this time, he would tell you that the Lord is his God, that he only speaks the truth, and you would actually see him do that. I mean, if you were to meet this certain damsel here in Acts chapter 16 before she had the spirit of divination cast out of her, you would see that she's speaking truth, right? She's bringing blessings to her masters, bringing gains to them. And you would think, hmm, you know, she's not foaming at the mouth like these other people, like Legion, you know, that are foaming at the mouth, or that are possessed, you know, so what I'm saying is that these witchcrafts and this stuff is deceptive, it can creep into churches, it can creep into organizations, it's just something we need to be careful of, especially in the church, especially when somebody creeps in, and we've had this here before, we've had people that meet this criteria here, and you can always tell after they leave or after they get the boot, because then they go online and they, boy, they let those fangs come out, don't they? They let their nasty little heart be heard. So, number four is they both lead to death and destruction, okay? If you study the story of Balaam and this woman here, that is something that they definitely have in common. And number five goes without saying, and it's obviously, it promotes false religion, right? Though they both speak the truth, you know, they're away from the way. Do you think that a certain woman, I mean, she says, yeah, these are the disciples of God, these are here for Jesus Christ, they're showing people the way of salvation, but do you think she could give you the gospel? Not at all. But she has a mental knowledge of that because that spirit is speaking through her, right? It's the same thing with Balaam, right? What did he do? He ultimately realized, okay, God is not going to allow me to curse them like I want to, and he spends all of chapter 23 trying to do enchantments and stuff, and maybe we'll get into that here in a moment. And he's trying to do these divinations by, you know, burning ox and rams on these altars, which God never told him to do, you know, with Balak. And Balak's like, oh, come on, this didn't work? What? You know, he does that three times in Numbers chapter number 23. What does that prove? False religion. But yet he's speaking the truth here, right? He's speaking the truth. And then obviously, number six is pride. Number six would be pride. You know, it's a prideful thing here. Actually, let me show you this here. Where are you at, in Acts? All right, we're all over the place tonight. Acts, look at, I'm going to write this one down, Acts 16, look at verse number 21, Acts 16, 21 here. Acts 16, 21, it says, so after Paul casts the spirit out, right, these people are upset. And here's what they say. They're saying, you know, they bring them to the rulers, the magistrates, and they're saying that these guys are troubling our city, verse 21, and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe being Romans, and the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them. That's a result of pride. That is a hardcore result of pride. I'll show you the same result in Numbers chapter 25. Go to Numbers 25. And you can stay in Numbers. I think we're done with Acts. We're done with Acts. Numbers 25, look at verse number 6. Actually, just for context reasons here, look at verse number 1. Acts 25, 1, it says, and Israel abode and shed them, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab, and they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods, and the people did eat and bowed down to their gods, and Israel joined himself to Baal Peor, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. Jump down to verse 6, right? So they're starting to do all of this stuff here. Verse 6 says, And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Tell me that's not pride. Tell me that's not extreme pride. And you know what that's a result of? That is a result of Balaam the soothsayer. That is what that is. You say, man, what in the world? What is going on with all the soothsaying stuff here? Here's the bottom line. I mean, a soothsayer is not just a person who foretells, you know, future events. So we can use that in our modern vernacular, but in the Bible, the soothsayer is somebody who mixes truth with lies for financial gain. And they don't care who they destroy as a result. That's what it is. That goes deeper than those dictionary definitions. But you know what? That's what you're going to find when you study the lives of Balaam and this woman here in Acts 16. Now, just for another bit of context, because the common denominator between both of them was divination, I'm going to have you turn to a couple of verses here. Go to 2 Kings 17. 2 Kings 17. We'll just take a look at some verses on divination so you can see how that's connected. Again, a dictionary definition of the word divination is this. The practice of attempting to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge by occult or supernatural means. If you read all of Numbers 23, which we don't have time for today, that is what you will see. In the beginning of the chapter, you'll see Balaam's like, hey, Balak, all right, you know, we're going to build this altar here. You're going to take seven rams, seven oxen, take these seven animals, and we're going to do an offering. OK, completely a violation of Leviticus chapter one, two, three and four. Right? Because it's like, wait a minute. Who told you to do this offering here? Are you the sons of Aaron? No. Are you a priest? No. Are you doing a trespass offering, a sin offering, a meat offering, a peace offering? You know, are you doing any of those offerings? The answer is no. What they're doing, according to Numbers chapter 24, is they're using enchantments. That's what the Bible tells us. OK, so just keep that in your mind. Second King 1717. Look at this verse right here. First time divinations used, it says, and they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire and used divination and enchantments and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. So what I want you to understand about divination, this idea of trying to look into the future through occultic practices is evil in the sight of God. It's an abomination. OK? And you know what? I'm just going to go ahead and say this, too. You know, these Pentecostal preachers, they want to say, oh, the Lord told me this. The Lord told me this. Oh, you know, I fell in a trance and I started speaking in tongues and God gave me this word of knowledge. You know what that is? That's a soothsayer. That's somebody who's using divination. And you know what? God looks at that and says, hey, you know what? That's evil. That is not OK. That is not right. God's words are found within the pages of your King James Bible. That's where you're going to get the word. You're going to meditate on it. You're going to pray about it. You're going to read it. You're going to study it. That's how you get the knowledge of the future. Right? By reading God's word, not by going to some guy that's like, I'm so filled with the Holy Ghost, man. You know, God told me this. God told me that you should write me a check for ten thousand dollars, which, by the way, I have had somebody say that to my face. And he was dead serious. Dead serious. You really think God told him that? I got ten thousand. I don't even have ten bucks. You know, I was in the military at the time. I was like, I barely got ten bucks, man. God's going to have to give me a car. You know, I'm going to have to trust on faith. But you know, that's what you get when you start bouncing around in these other churches. But anyways, divination, enchantments, all these things work together, OK? Not for good, but for evil. Now, see, I'm going to have you go to Ezekiel 12. Ezekiel 12. Type in divination in the Bible. It's going to come up a lot in the book of Ezekiel. And while you're reading there, I'm going to read for you Jeremiah 14, 14. So you go to Ezekiel 12. Jeremiah 14, 14 says this, Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake I unto them. They prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of naught, and the deceit of their heart. So you say, what is divination? It is a vain, false vision, right, that always comes to naught. But it's also the deceit of someone's heart. That's what it is. And look, you know, Life Church, for example, on Eagle Road, right, they like to give us a hard time when we knock on their doors. I almost wonder if they talk about us sometimes. I could be wrong, but, you know, one thing that they'll often bring up is you don't have the full gospel. You don't have the Spirit. Well, here's the funny thing about that, Diviner, because when the coronavirus hit, they shut down for like a long time. And if you apparently have these words of knowledge directly from God, I can go to you and you're a direct pipeline to God, and you have all these healing services. Why weren't you down at the hospitals? Why weren't you out in town healing people? Why did you run, Todd White? Why did you run? I think that's a pretty good question. I think that's a valid question. They have no answer for that. But I've got the answer, Jeremiah 14, 14. They prophesy unto you a false vision, right? You can have your best life now. Isn't that what Joel Osteen says? You can have your best life now. Or Joyce Meyer. Hey, God's not mad at you. Well, you know what? When you're a false prophet, guess what? God's mad at you. And you know what? Even when you're saved and you're backslidden and you're doing stuff that's wrong, obviously, you know what? God's mad at you. You know what? God gets mad at this guy right here all the time, okay? Because I've got the old man, and I make mistakes all the time. Ezekiel 12, look at verse 24. Ezekiel 12, 24. For there shall be no more any vain vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel. You see the condition during these times where Jeremiah is prophesying, where Ezekiel is prophesying. What is the condition? What's the culture like? False religion, false gods, right? You've got these prophets who are supposed to be bringing the Word of God to the people, but instead they're bringing the Word of their own heart. And it's, hey, we will prosper. Hey, don't worry, Ahab. We'll be able to go up against the Syrians and we'll beat them, we'll smoke them, we'll roast them. Yeah, how'd that work out for Ahab? It didn't. It led to his death, right? And that's what happens when you subject yourself to these soothsaying-type people. And you know what? I'll say it again. Joel Osteen is a soothsayer. Joyce Meyer is a soothsayer. It's all this positive, you know, flattering, vain, empty preaching that doesn't ever tell you what you've done wrong, and we all do wrong all the time. It's all of that stuff, and it's for what? It's for financial gain. It's divination, it's soothsaying, it's wrong, it's an abomination. You know, Halloween doesn't just come around once a year. It comes around 52 times a year in those types of churches. Go to Ezekiel chapter 13. Ezekiel chapter 13, just a few more verses here. Look at verse 6. Ezekiel 13, 6. It says, So that, my friend, is what divination is. It is trying to foretell future events through occultic practices. So that's the difference, I guess you could say, between divination and soothsaying. And so, I did, let's see here, I did lie. Go to Acts 16 one more time. See? Again, I don't know who the guy was, but you know, you're about to think he's perfect. No, I don't. You go to Acts 16. I'm just going to read for you Deuteronomy 18, 10. All of this stuff is connected. Look, you're not going to run into somebody that's like, Oh, I'm soothsayer only, right? We're King James only, but you're not going to, Oh, I'm a divination guy only. I'm a witch only. No, it's a package deal. The doctrine of Balaam that Jesus talks about in Revelation, he's expecting you to really read, you know, Numbers, the whole Bible, up until you get to that point, okay? And so we need to understand it's a package deal. We're just focusing mainly on the soothsaying aspect today. Because this is so prevalent in our culture, right? Most people look at Joel, so you tell him he's a soothsayer, and you'll be like, No, he's not. He's a false prophet or a baby, but not a soothsayer. Well, he is a soothsayer. He's just like Balaam. He seeks gain, uses divination, preaches false, you know, false future events. God is not mad at you, you know, all that stuff. You know, you can have your best life. Now, look, we preach encouraging sermons. I try to do that on Sunday mornings, you know, something that's like super applicable, right? But we also have to balance it, right? So we have Sunday nights, we just go through a book of the Bible, and you're going to get whatever it is. And Wednesdays, I try to bring something that maybe you haven't seen or heard of in a while that might sting a little bit, might be a little uncomfortable, but you know what? We need to preach the full counsel of God, be in season and out of season. So again, you say, we're just going to move on here, right? Soothing is just a component of witchcraft. You say, why do we need to know this? Why in the world do we need to know this? Again here, look at verse 16, Acts 16, 16. And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothing. And the reason why we need to be so concerned with a soothsayer is because soothsayers use divination. And the Bible says that there's a demonic spirit connected to divination. You need to understand these prosperity preachers that are out there, right? And I'll yoke up all these guys, the Mormons, the JDubs, you know, all of these cultic, these cult religious groups that like to portray themselves as Christians, they all fall under that same banner. You know what you're going to find at the highest levels? Divination. You're going to find soothing. You're going to find gain, destruction, and death. Because ultimately, what do they do? They send people to hell. That's what they do. Week after week, year after year, they send people to hell by trying to convince them to get out of the way. Isn't that exactly what Balaam did? What was the result of the soothing? It was Numbers, chapter number 25, to get the children of Israel away from the Moabites. How did he do it? By saying, hey, God won't let me curse them, so let's seduce them into our false religion. By how? By women. Death and destruction was the result of that, okay? And it was the same attempt in Acts 16. So let's move on here. Let's talk about that because the Bible tells us that she had the spirit of divination. So it tells you there's a demonic spirit connected to this idea here. And just to talk about the spirits for a moment, go to 1 Timothy, chapter number 4. 1 Timothy, chapter number 4. And we're getting close to being done here. 1 Timothy, chapter number 4. Look at verse 1. The Bible says this. 1 Timothy 4. Look at verse 1. It says, The Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter time some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to what? Seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Look, that's why I'm saying this soothsaying stuff, it is not just smoke and skulls and these warlocks and wizards wearing these funny hats. A lot of them wear suits. A lot of them say Bible. A lot of them say church. Brother, sister, Jesus Christ, salvation, free gift. Don't the Mormons tell us that? Right? Oh, you're saved by faith. Yeah, there's no works. What happens if you don't work? Well, then you're not saved. That's what they'll tell you, right? You've got to dig it out of them, though, you know? That's what a lot of Christians will say. Well, if you don't work, you're not saved. Right? And so this is the verse here. It's very important. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter time some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. And one of those spirits that is seducing is the doctrine or I'm sorry, the spirit of divination, which who use that soothsayers. OK. And look, this this stuff gets crazy here. Go to Matthew chapter number eight. Now we're told in Leviticus 19 not to regard them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards to be defiled by them. And he says, I am the Lord your God. And so when you subject yourself to these teachings, these preachers here, you know, like that guy Storm who came in here last year and wanted to cause all kinds of problems. You know, he fits the bill here perfectly. He was a low level devil, as I think Cruz called him, right? His kids say the darndest things, but they're smart. You know, they pay attention, a low level devil. But, you know, I would say he he fits the bill here perfectly. He regards these soothsayers like, hey, what do you think about David Wilkerson? And, you know, he starts naming off all these NIV preachers. You know, are these guys pretty good to listen to? Try that somewhere else, buddy. This is a King James, so independent fundamental Baptist Church. That ain't going to work here. It's like, get out of here. But anyways, what the Bible says in Leviticus 19 is that the people that use these things are or subject themselves to those teachings and those people that they are defiled by them. That is, again, what they do. They defile, they destroy, they destruct, they cause death. You see there's a common denominator here. It's death. A lot of D's, right? So here's what we need to do about that. You're Matthew chapter 8. Look at verse number 16. Here's what we have to do about this. Matthew chapter 8 verse 16. It says this. When the even was come, they brought unto him, that is Jesus, many that were possessed with devils. Well, that's interesting because the woman in Acts chapter 16 clearly says she was possessed with the spirit of divination, which would be a devil, a devil, not the devil. It says, and he cast out the spirits with his word and healed all that were sick. So you say, okay, I get it. Spirit, you know, soothing, divination, false pictures, all that stuff. I understand. Well, we have to do something about that. What did Jesus do about it? He spoke the word, right? We have the word here, right? That's why we need to be sharp in the Bible, in the scriptures, because there are some tough nuts out there to crack. Right? We understand that. And you know what? These seducing spirits in the latter times, Paul told us they're going to seduce people and get them away from the faith. And that's exactly what we do not want. Right? This is the battle that we're in. And the way to fight it is through the word of God. Go to 1 John chapter number 4. And so I'll say this. We need to increase our skill in the word. That's what you're going to see there in Matthew chapter number 8, verse 16. Increase your skill in the word. Say, how do you do that? Here's a phrase that I want you to remember. If you are not applying, then you are dying. If you are not applying, then you are dying. Say, what in the world does that mean? Well, how does a person become wise? By applying knowledge. Right? You learn something, and then you go out and you apply that. You do that, and then you get the wisdom that follows after. So that's why I say if you are not applying, you are dying. Right? Knowledge puffeth up. That doesn't mean we don't need to learn. We need to turn that into wisdom when we can only do that through applying. So again, if you are not applying, you are dying. It's a good way to measure, you know, how am I doing in the faith? How am I doing in my walk? Am I applying the word of God? If not, then guess what? I'm on the wrong track. I am dying. I need to reverse that. 1 John chapter 4, look at verse number 1. It says, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Again, how do we try these spirits in the Bible? From you learning the word of God. It's not enough for the preacher just to get up here and know the word of God. No, the whole congregation has to learn and study the word of God. You need to check these things that I'm saying on your own time and continue. You've got to read the Bible every day. You need to read every day. Right? That's how you get fed. That's how you get your food. That's how you're going to increase in that knowledge and in that wisdom to be able to help in this fight. Against these soothing, seducing spirits that are out there. It's a promise. They will try to come into churches, but they will try to come into your lives individually as well. And you know what? If you aren't up on how they operate, how slick they can be like Balaam or like that certain woman, then you know what? You're going to be in for a wild ride. You'll be led about and having all kinds of trouble, all kinds of problems and being like, man, what is going on? I can't figure it out. It's because you're under the spell of a soothsayer, somebody who's using enchantments. Again, it goes deeper. That's just one thing I wish I could get across to people. You know what? It's not just the smoke and the skulls and the Marilyn Manson stuff. That's the low level stuff. That's the easy stuff to see. No, it's the guy with the suit and tie that has 10,000 congregants that says, Love everybody. Don't judge. Coexist. I stay in my lane. That's what we need to be aware of. Where do I have you turn? You're in 1 John? Go to 1 John. Let's see. Go to chapter two real quick. Yeah. Very familiar verse. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ. He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Somebody got mad at that Trinity sermon I preached last week. I knew they would. It's like you're an antichrist. You're denying the Father and the Son. You're saying that the Father just changes hats and bam, now I'm the Son. Now I'm the Holy Ghost. Hello? You're an antichrist. You deny the Trinity. These three are one. Go to chapter one. Of course we understand that every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. Second John chapter one. Second John chapter one. Look at verse seven. It says for many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. And that's really what a soothsayer is. They're a deceiver. They mix truth and lies to get people to be on their side. All so they can gain and so that they can profit and just basically fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Let's see here. Last place I'm going to have you turn is going to be Proverbs chapter number eight. Proverbs chapter number eight. And, you know, I'm having you read these verses about the antichrist and stuff because we're headed towards the final time. We're headed towards, you know, the end, whatever that means. You know, I'm not going to get up here and say, you know, we got the X amount of time left. I don't really know. But one thing I know is that in John's day, he saw the spirit of antichrist already working. Right. So obviously it's working and it's coming to more power as we go through our lives, as we, you know, get closer to the final day. You know, and you should read Revelation 16 sometime about the description about these spirits of devils that work miracles. And they go into these kings and, you know, they speak lies into them. And you're going to see more and more of that. You're going to see a time where these politicians actually start to get up and say things that make sense to the world. It might sound a little bit different than what our politicians speak like today. And you're going to see a lot of people follow after that stuff, you know, and so just get ready. We need to understand that. So last place I'm going to have you turn. Proverbs eight. Look at verse thirty six. Proverbs eight. Look at verse thirty six. This is going to answer the question, why do we need to do it? So I told you, we need to increase our skill in the word. If you're not applying, then you are dying. Proverbs eight thirty six. But he that sinneth against me. This is obviously wisdom speaking here, but it's still God's word. It's still a reference to God. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death. And, you know, as I was studying this subject out about Balaam, it's obvious that he really hated God. Now he might not stand outside and be like, I hate you God, or act like some of these people around here do. Right. But just the fact of reading Numbers twenty three, how he was trying to do enchantments to stop God from blessing Israel. Should be enough proof for you to understand that, you know, he actually hates God and he loves death. Why do you think he seduced the children of Israel to worship Baal Peor and to commit whoredoms? You didn't think he didn't know they were going to die? Of course, he loved death. Right. But the Bible, you know, I've been racking my brain for a long time. Like, what's a good way to just answer the question? What is it about a lot of these so-called Christians around here and these Mormons that just love, absolutely love Halloween? Part of it has to do with the soothsayers that they subject themselves to. But the other part is found right here. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. So you have these people that subject themselves to these soothsayers. They wrong their own souls. And I'm like I said, I'm naming, you know, false these prosperity preachers, all of that stuff. Right? They will lead you to wrong your soul. But then it says this about those people, all they that hate me love death. And you know what? A lot of Mormons reject the way. You know, a lot of them, many of them, especially the ones that we see, right? These ones that have gone on this mission trip and they've spent a couple years telling people that they have to turn from their sins in order to be saved. You know, that Jesus was a spirit brother of Lucifer, all of that stuff. You know what? They hate Jesus Christ. They hate the word because that's not what the word says. That is a hateful act. And it's no wonder why they love Halloween. Why they love the skulls, why they love the soothing, the crystal balls, the divination, the enchantments, all of that stuff. And so I titled the sermon The Searing of a Soothsayer because soothing leads to death and destruction. Right? And don't think that we're so, you don't think you're so high speed that you can never fall prey to this. Because if you're not up on studying what these people do and their tactics, how they can creep into your life by speaking the truth, you may never catch the divination that's under the table. Right? There's things that you got to look out for. Are they doing this for gain? Are they doing this to prosper, you know, with earthly, worldly things? And if they are, then we have a problem. You're dealing with somebody that's a soothsayer. And so, you know, a good definition about a soothsayer again would be somebody who's mixing this truth with lies for financial gain. Right? And I mean, look, in the Mormon church, what do you constantly hear about? You know, there are people riding bikes around here. You know what a lot of them are doing? They're following up on the people because they didn't tithe. I actually heard a conversation today in a home about somebody who hadn't been paying old Russell Nelly Belly Nelson Hem's tithe. You know, and they were talking about that. Like, how are we going to get caught up? Maybe we can get a break. These people were, they were like afraid. I'm like, I got to get out of here because I'm just going to lose it and say something. But whatever. I'm not against tithing, obviously, but you know what? I'm not going to go to your house and be like, hey, what's up? I don't even, you know, I just trust God, whatever. He hasn't let us down yet. We started in Mike's house, went to my house. Now we're here. We've got chairs. And you know what? We're still going to go solely tomorrow. We're still going to get people saved. We're still going to fight devils and false prophets. And we don't need to be rich to do it. We just need to be rich in the Word of God. We need to apply so that we don't die. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this study in the Bible. Just pray you help us to remember these things, Lord. I know it's kind of in depth, but I just pray you cause us to apply these things to our lives, Lord, and just to help us to be vigilant because we know that our adversary, the devil, is worrying about seeking.