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Amen. The part of the chapter we're going to focus on is found in chapter 16 in verse number 14 where the Bible reads here and the Pharisees also who were covetous heard all these things and they derided him. And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts. For that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. And the title of my sermon this morning is an overview of false prophets in the Bible. An overview of false prophets in the Bible. So you say, why would you preach on that topic? Well, we'll give you this idea to preach on false prophets in the Bible simply for the fact that tomorrow we have a celebration that most of our country is going to be celebrating called Martin Luther King Day, or we would call it Marxist Lucifer King, right? Now obviously, go with me if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 32. Now I think there's been enough preaching on Martin Luther King, there probably could be some more, but we're actually just, I was thinking about this and I was thinking about the fact that our country has become so degenerated and so anti-Christian that we would lift up, right? We would highly esteem, not just as Christians obviously, but as a country, highly esteem this man, Martin Luther King, who really biblically, what, is an abomination in the sight of God. Why is that? Simply for the fact that Martin Luther King was a false prophet, okay? He was a man who paraded as a Baptist preacher, but he was not, he was a communist Marxist. By the way, just like Jim Jones, who also paraded as a preacher, but what was he, he was a communist, he was a Marxist. And most false prophets, what did they come, they come under the guise of being a preacher, a Baptist preacher, so they can infiltrate churches, so they can infiltrate Christians, and infiltrate their ideologies and change them. But the Bible says here that that which is highly esteemed among men, those who people would revere as being someone who's important, someone who's popular, the Bible says they're an abomination in the sight of God. You say, how can I know if someone that I'm watching or someone that I'm listening to is a false prophet, well, are they highly esteemed among men, okay? And we can list a bunch of people, a bunch of prophets, pastors who are highly esteemed among men. You think of John MacArthur, okay? Man who's very popular, even amongst unsafe people, right? With his books and his false teachings on Calvinism, he's a man who's highly esteemed among men. But guess what? He's an abomination in the sight of God. You think of Joel Osteen, I mean, people love Joel Osteen, him and his huge stadium church and his false gospel, his false teaching. But guess what, though he's highly esteemed among men, he is an abomination in the sight of God. And when the list can go on and on, and I'll go with the Deuteronomy chapter 32, I'm gonna read to you from John chapter 15. This is all introduction right here. The Bible says in John 15 verse 18, if the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own, but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. So one thing we can understand from the gospels is that Jesus Christ was not a popular guy. Now the Bible says that the common people hurt him gladly, right? But for the most part, he was hated. Even to the extent that they would kill him, they crucified him, they spoke ill of him, and even after his death, the Pharisees, what do they do? They try to pay people off to lie about his resurrection. I mean they hated him. So he was not a man who was highly esteemed among men, right? Yet you have preachers today and false prophets who try to make Jesus to be some guy who everyone loved and he loved everyone, no, he was not a highly esteemed man. Now look at Deuteronomy chapter 32 says, in fact, what we're about to read, just think of the contrast. Remember we read in Luke 16, that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination inside of God. Look at verse 15 in Deuteronomy 32, but Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked, thou art waxing fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness. And he forsook God, which made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. Rock capital R, who's that speaking about? Jesus Christ. And see that is the actual definition of how Jesus Christ was esteemed. He was lightly esteemed, right? And it goes without saying that Jesus Christ is still the most hated person. You can see that by the fact that people hate us. People hate true biblical Christianity, why? Because Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Jesus was the one who testified of their works that their works were evil, right? And that's what biblical Christians do today. And they hated him enough to crucify him, to kill him. So we can't say that Jesus Christ was highly esteemed. We can't be the kind of Christians that want to popularize Jesus to an unsaved world. It's not going to happen. But you know what the false prophets do? The false prophets try to make him seem as though he was some Greek philosopher, you know, some great man. And by the way, you think of one of the most common false prophets are those prosperity gospel preachers, right? And it's interesting. They want to drive around in their Bentleys and their Mercedes and have their mansions, their see-do's and all their toys and say that they're Christian, right? But what is it? But Jesus Christ was, Jesus didn't even have a place to lay his head. Jesus Christ was a poor man. But yet that's what they want to reflect. No, no, no. They're highly esteemed among men but they're an abomination in the sight of God. Jesus Christ is the name above every name, right? To God, right? And there one day, of course, everyone will bow the knee to Jesus Christ. So the entire Bible references false prophets. However, if you study the subject of false prophets, they're most notably defined within the New Testament, specifically in 2 Timothy chapter 2, 2 Peter chapter 2, and the book of Jude. Now 2 Peter chapter 2 and Jude are two passages that are just like, they fall right in line one with another. If you want to study them side by side, you get yourself an iPad or you get yourself the Bible right side by side and you get those two passages, you'll see that they say basically the same exact thing, okay? Now one's written by Jude, one's written by Peter but guess who's the real author is God. That's why they say the same thing. But in both of those passages, you'll find explicit teaching of who the false prophet is. Now this is very important. You say, why is that? Because within the last 10 years, this teaching has not been taught at all, okay, within Baptist churches. Pastors don't touch this, they don't talk about it, therefore their congregants become ignorant of the subject, therefore false prophets enter the churches many times. By the droves, they creep in unawares and in fact, it's gotten to the point where they don't have to creep in unawares. They can come in telling you what their false beliefs are, that they believe a false gospel, that they do all these wicked things, and they'll still be accepted. Why? Because they've been conditioned to just accept everyone and haven't been taught what the Bible says about false prophets. These are dangerous people, okay? So here's the thing is, within our movement, there's a lot of teaching on false prophets. I mean, I wouldn't say that's our hobby horse. What it is is that it hasn't been taught within the last 10 years, so guess what we're doing? We're hitting on it a lot to make sure people know what the Bible says about false prophets. So as I was meditating on this and reflecting on this subject, on this topic, I wanted to hit it from a different angle, and I thought to myself, what better way to hit it than to highlight the false prophets found within the word of God? Now there's a lot of material that we gotta go over, so this is gonna be part one, and if you wanna hear part two, you gotta come tonight, all right? So if you're not used to coming on a Sunday night, well, you don't wanna miss tonight. Tonight could be the night you could come, all right? Now go to Jude, please. Go to the book of Jude. So first, false prophet. You say, who is it? Cain. All right? Cain. Now look what Jude... Let me turn there myself. Jude, verse 11, the Bible says here, woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gain, saying, of Corey. So the Bible says in Jude that there is a way of Cain. Now what way is that? Go with me, if you would, to Genesis chapter four. Genesis chapter four. You may be sitting here thinking, well, I know this doctrine, I know this teaching, but you know what? There's new people in our church that need to know these things, right? There's new people in our church that maybe don't understand this doctrine, they don't know the concepts, they don't know the characters of the Bible, so we're gonna go over these things. Genesis chapter number four, in verse number one, the Bible reads here, and Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel, and Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord, and Abel he also brought of the first things of his flock, and of the fat thereof, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect, and Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against his brother Abel and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand? When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive in a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I compare. So we see here that the first false prophet is Cain. You say, how is that? Well simply for the fact that Abel, when he brought his offering unto the Lord, it was a biblical offering, right? It was a sacrifice. And what is the sacrifice picture? The picture is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, right? The lamb of God who should take away the sins of the world. And we know that according to Hebrews chapter 8 and Colossians chapter 2, that the Bible teaches us that these things were a shadow of things to come. People in the Old Testament didn't depend on the sacrifices to be saved, okay? They didn't do a sacrifice every single day in order to be saved. And in fact, Hebrews tells us that. It says if not, I mean, why should they have conscience of sins if the sacrifices could take away their sins? But what was it? It was a picture of things to come that was a shadow of what Jesus Christ was going to do. Therefore, they can believe on Christ who's going to sacrifice himself in the future and be saved. But what did Cain do? Cain brought something that was not a biblical sacrifice, right? And what is that picture? It pictures a works-based salvation. So Cain was responsible, was a false prophet responsible for teaching the very first works-based salvation. His own way of doing things, right? And what is a works-based salvation? It's simply this, trying to go to heaven some other way other than through Jesus Christ. And you can, under the category of a works-based salvation, can fall anything from repenting your sins to you need to get baptized, you got to go to church, turn over a new leaf. But guess what? It's all false. Okay? You have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. So the number one mark of a false prophet is that they teach a works-based salvation. Mark it down. If you ever wonder, man, I wonder if this guy's a false prophet. Just find out what he teaches about salvation because 99.9% of the time, they're teaching a works-based salvation. What do you say? Well, I've heard him talk about believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, but yeah, he does mention repenting your sins. Yeah. Well, you know what the Bible says? It is by grace and it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. It can only be by salvation by grace through faith. You can't add works to that. It nullifies grace if you do. Okay? But you can count on it every time. You say, man, but this guy's so eloquent when he preaches, he sounds so good, he's so bold when he teaches this biblical concept, and yeah, he uses a false version every once in a while, but it sounds so good. Listen to his salvation message. It's probably a works-based salvation. And let me say this. Go to 2 Peter chapter 2. Those who are highly esteemed among men all teach a works-based salvation. All of them. He said, who's the one who's teaching the right salvation? The ones who are hated. Amen. Right. Okay? Amen. And you say, well, I know some Baptist pastor who's not hated, you know, he probably believes right on salvation. He's just not talking about it a whole lot. That's why he's not hated, okay? But those who are austere and strict about salvation, oh, the world's going to look at them and say, don't judge, right? The Muslim can go to heaven and the Buddhist can go to heaven and all this junk, right? You look at Joel Osteen, right, oh, I believe Mormons are going to go to heaven. They believe in Jesus, you know, with his little faggoty voice. I mean, if that doesn't give them away, I don't know what does, right? But what does he say? He says Mormons can be saved, you know? Why is that? Because he believes in a false gospel. Amen. Right. You see, for us, we understand that salvation is simple. Believing is very simple, okay? But that doesn't mean, just because it's simple, that doesn't mean that we can accept any form of salvation because it's simple, you know? It's not just, well, yeah, you can believe in Jesus, but you can believe in Buddha as well. He said, well, Buddhists don't believe that they got to believe in Buddha in order to be saved. I met someone yesterday who said we need to trust Buddha to go to heaven. Don't give me that, okay? It's idolatry. And they need to repent, yes, of what they're trusting in in order to trust in Jesus Christ, but not repent of their sins in order to get to heaven. Okay? Look what 2 Peter chapter 2 verse number 1 says, but there are false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you. So the Bible's teaching us there that back in the day, in the Old Testament, there's a bunch of false prophets. But what does Peter say? There will be false teachers among you. You know, this isn't like Candyland Christianity where everything's all good, roses and daisies. You're not going to find any, everyone believes okay. No. There will be false teachers among you, the Bible says. Look what it says, who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction. So the Bible says here that they bring in what's called a damnable heresy. Now what does that mean? Well, a heresy is a false teaching, right? A damnable heresy is a false teaching that it will damn a soul to hell. So in lieu, so what does that mean? Basically a works-based salvation. A teaching that will teach a salvation that requires anything but believing, okay? And look, I mean, you run into people who are sincere, who call themselves Christians and they believe that they're saved but they repent of their sin, right? But guess what? They're on their way to hell. And they're going to have a rude awakening when they die, okay? But the fact of the matter is that the most notable aspect of a false prophet is their teaching. Now obviously there's Christians who get caught up and maybe they get confused a little bit, but when it comes down to it, you gotta go with the Word of God says, and once the Word of God teaches it, you can escape that, and we'll look at what I'm talking about in just a moment. So a notable attribute that false prophets have is their false teaching, and more specifically their false teaching about salvation. Go to Luke chapter 11, Luke chapter number 11, and look, I don't care how eloquent Ray Comfort, though I don't think he waxes eloquent at all, you know, John MacArthur, how good he preaches, you know, how good he sounds and how smart he looks and all these books that he's writing and all this crap that he puts out, it doesn't matter, because at the end of the day, what is he cloaked in? He's using a works-based salvation, okay? You have to repent. And this concept of repenting your sins is foolish anyways, okay? It's very stupid. Because the fact of the matter is, is that all of us even have secret sins, sins that we don't even know about. Then you have two categories of sins of omission and sins of commission. Sins of omission are things that you omit out of your life that you're supposed to do, that's sin, because the Bible says, he that knoweth to do good and doeth not to him, it is sin. And then you have the sins of commission, thou shall not lie, right? Thou shall not bear a false witness, excuse me. And what is that? That's when we commit something that God told us not to do. So there's two categories. You think you're really not committing any one of those every single day, or you can repent of all those every single day? I mean, the world looks at the commandments of God and they think there's only 10, right? There's way more than 10 commandments. So you think of the people who have repented of my sin, it's like, have you read through the whole entire Bible? No, then you have not repented of all your sins. Because there's a lot of stuff that you're doing that you don't know that you're doing that's really bad, okay? And maybe they're doing it in ignorance, but it's still sin. So it's impossible to be able to turn from all your sin in order to be saved. And if it was possible to repent of your sin to be saved, Jesus Christ wouldn't have to have come. Because we could just repent, you know, and be saved. But that's not the case. Luke chapter 11 verse 52, the Bible says, woe unto you lawyers for you have taken away the key of knowledge, ye enter not in yourselves and them that were entering in ye hindered. You see, the very dangerous aspect of false prophets is not only the fact that they're damned, obviously, right? They're going to hell. But they're hindering people who actually want to be saved. Why? Because they're out teaching these damnable heresies and they're hindering people from knowing the true gospel. That's what's dangerous about them. And look, don't have any compassion for false prophets. You know, don't look at the mega church pastor and say, well, I think his heart is in the right place. No, his heart is wicked, the Bible says. He's teaching a false gospel. He's teaching people how to go to hell. He's taking people away from the true gospel. The Bible says in Galatians chapter number one that he's accursed and don't think he's ignorant in doing this. No, he knows he's doing this. The Bible says he's privily bringing in damnable heresies. That means undercover, under the radar. He's bringing this in to teach people these wicked doctrines. Matthew chapter 23 verse 15, I'm going to read to you from Matthew 23 verse 15 says, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees. And remember, in Luke 16, that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the eyes of God. Who is he talking about? The Pharisees. Right? Because really, they're false prophets as well. They're teaching a workspace salvation and Matthew 23 is also talking to the scribes and Pharisees. It says, for you compass sea and land to make one proselyte. And when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Man, I mean, they become children of hell who follow these false doctrines. And look, when I think of this verse about people becoming twofold the child of hell, you know what comes to mind? Calvinists. Calvinists is a perfect picture of those who are twofold more the children of hell. You say, why is that? Because if you have a conversation with a full-blown Calvinist who believes that they don't sin at all, they're the most arrogant, prideful people you will ever meet. You know, they'll say they're not sinning, but what? They're cussing, they're saying vulgar things. You see, you see them sitting around in front of you. I mean, they're lying to you when they tell you they don't sin, right? Why is that? Because they're twofold more the children of hell. And that's who these people who are producing these people are making. You know, I remember, I think John MacArthur has this session at his church where he allows people to ask him questions, you know? And someone asked, like, you know, can I lose my salvation or I'm afraid to lose my salvation? And he could even give him a clear answer, you know? Another lady came up to him and was like, you know, I think my brother died and he wasn't saved. Is he in hell? And it's just like, he was so prideful and arrogant, he had no compassion over the fact that this lady had just lost her brother. But here's the thing, he's going to hell too. John MacArthur's going to burn in hell. He's going to split hell wide open. He said, why is that? Because he's leading a lot of people astray as well. And that's abominable in the eyes of God. Because one thing to be caught up maybe in a false doctrine, right, and you're confused about something and then you get it right, it's another thing to get caught up in a false doctrine, believe it, and teach it to someone else. That's an abomination in the eyes of God. Go to Acts chapter 15, Acts chapter 15. So false prophets, you know, mark it down, Brother David, excuse me, can you turn on the AC? It's getting a little warm in here. You know, false prophets, they're wicked, why? Because they teach a false gospel. I mean, they will, they damn people to hell for all of eternity. You know, and obviously you think of like the Pope, you know, you think of the most common ones, Joseph Smith, and you know, the creator of the Jehovah's Witnesses, these are all false prophets. But you look at those guys and it's just like, well, that's obvious, you know what I mean? You know, the Mormons, that's obvious, right? The Jehovah's Witnesses, that's obvious, right? But then there's people who parade as Baptists, who claim to be Baptists, who claim to believe in the King James Bible, and you say, well, when the Bible says that they privily bring in damnable heresies, how do they do that? How do they privily come into churches? Well, they have to use something, they have to use something or teach from something that Baptists would esteem as being right, right? So what do they do? They come in under the guise of being King James only, right? You think of Sam Gipp, who for years wrote a book on the King James Bible, answers difficult questions to answers, you think of, you know, sleutering all these jerks who say they're King James only, that's how they come into churches. Because you know, any Baptist with any sense, obviously will use the King James Bible, right? You have your liberal Baptist churches who use the NIV, I don't consider them Baptists at all. But there's Baptists out there who obviously they're like, yeah, we're King James only. But because they don't study the issues, what happens? Then Sam Gipp can come in, right? Then these other wicked false prophets come in, who they say, yeah, we're King James too. And they'll make videos of why are the King James Bibles inspired, preserved Word of God, and they're like, yeah, amen, amen. And then they say, yeah, and the Bible says you have to repent of your sins, and they're like, yeah, I guess so, you know? Why, because they're not studied. And then they begin to teach this, and then there's leaven in the church. And a little leaven, leaven at the whole loan. That's what the Bible says. Acts 15, verse 1, speaking of the Pharisees again, says, And certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. So this is taking place even back then. Now obviously this wasn't a repent of your sins, but it falls under the same category. It's a works-based salvation. They believe you have to obey the commandments in order to be saved, and we know that was false. So we have to repent of your sins crowd. And look, this is so stupid, because the repent of your sins crowd also believe that the person who gets saved, who repents of their sin, they have to feel sorry for their sin. Right? They're like, you got to, they have to have conviction, no conviction, no conversion. Now it's funny, yesterday I went out sowing with a friend of mine, his name was Chris Cervantes. He was from my old church, and he came sowing with us yesterday. We had a great time. We led four people to the Lord. It was awesome. So this guy, you know, in the block we went on, there's like, there's dogs like crazy. I mean like German Shepherds, Huskies, and Rottweilers, okay? Every once in a while you get a little chihuahua. But one of the doors, they had a, they had a, they had a German Shepherd, and they had that Beethoven dog. I don't even know what that dog's called. I just call it the Beethoven. You guys know what I'm talking about? That monster? Yeah, the St. Bernard. These dogs were vicious. And you're like, argh! And they're like, you're going crazy, and then the guy hits the corner, and he's just like normal as ever, you know? He's like the opposite of the personality of his dogs. And I was like, hey, how's it going? I'm at, I'm at the gate. And I said, I just want to give you an invitation to our church, and he's like, he's like, hi, you know? And then I said, can I give you this invitation? He's like, yeah. He walks over, as like, slow as a snail. I probably could have led five people to the Lord at the time that he came to the gate. So I give him the invitation, so you go to church anywhere? Yeah, I go to church. Where are you going? Catholic. Okay. And I'm like, man, this guy's not going to want this, you know? So I start, I say, are you 100% sure that if you die today, you go to heaven? No. I said, okay, you know, would you like to know? Yeah. I said, all right. So you know, I'm like, is this a joke? You know, is he, is he, is he messing with me? So I start giving him the verses. Now if you follow me on Instagram, just look at the Instagram story, that Instagram story, that's the guy behind the gate. And I start, every single point, I said, do you understand that? Yeah, I understand that. I'm like, do you believe you're going to hell? No. So I give him the verses, and then after I give him the verses, I said, do you believe now? Do you deserve hell? Yeah. You know? And then go to the planet of eternal security, everything. I said, would you like to get saved right now and call upon the name of the Lord? Yes. You know? And then the guy gets saved. And then, you know, and then he goes, thank you very much. You know, he's just very thankful, and he goes, where's your church again? You know, what time is his services? He starts asking, but he has the most monotone personality you ever meet, but the guy got saved. And look, he didn't weep and cry and howl, you know, when he, look, those are great too. You know, I mean, those are touching moments when you lead someone to the Lord and they break down and they like, they recognize it. That's awesome. I love that. Those are very few, far and in between. Then you have on the opposite side of the spectrum, the guys are just like, monotone of the day is long, but they still get saved. You know why? Because believing doesn't require an emotion, it requires faith, right? But these repenting your sins crowd, what do they do? They say, well, you need, there needs to be some sorrow, there needs to be some repentance, it needs to show on their face. They need to shed a tear, they need to scream, they need to do something, you know, or else they're not saved. Go over to Matthew 27, let's see if that's true. Matthew 27. Now, we're going to highlight Judas in just a bit, but I'm going to talk about him real quick. Obviously, Judas, even those who wouldn't agree with us, as far as our stance is concerned, would say Judas was not saved. Judas is in hell today. The Bible says that Judas is the son of what? Perdition, right? That means he's in hell, okay? He's split hell wide open, he's been there for the last 2,000 years, burning for betraying the Lord, right? He wasn't saved, nor did he get saved. Now, look at Matthew 27, verse number 1. When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death, and when they had bound him, they led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate, the governor. Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, what does it say? Repented himself. And brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. So here we see that Judas, he repented himself, he repented, even to the extent that he brought back the money. And look what verse 4 says, saying, I have sinned, and that I have betrayed innocent blood. I mean, he was sorry. He's like, I've sinned, I messed up. Now let me ask you something. Did Judas go to heaven? No. No. The Bible says he's the son of perdition. So this guy, who repented, he felt sorry for his sin, he even brought back the money. He turned over a new leaf. He's still in hell today. You know why? Because he didn't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why. So false prophets, by the way, verse 5, and he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, departed, and went and hanged himself. Amen. He fulfilled scripture by doing that. But the fact of the matter is, is false prophets, the number one thing, and look, if you're not familiar with false prophets, just get this point down. They teach a false gospel. Point it simple. It doesn't matter how they dress, how they talk, how good of a teaching and philosophy they have, how much of a following they have, just know this. If they teach a false gospel, they're a false prophet. Bottom line. Now go back to 2 Peter chapter number 2. Second Peter chapter number 2. So the first false prophet is Cain. You know, because why? He was the first one to illustrate a works-based salvation. And the Bible highlights him in Jude as being someone, or excuse me, when referring to false prophets, as following the way of Cain. What is that? A works-based salvation. Then we have the second one, the second false prophet in the Bible, is Balaam. Okay, look at 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 15 says, which have forsaken the right way and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Bozor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but was rebuked for his iniquity. The dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbade the madness of the prophet. And skip down to, I'm sorry, no, just stay right there. So Balaam is the next false prophet. So who's Balaam? He's a man who was a false prophet simply because he loved the wages of unrighteousness, the Bible says. Okay, what does that mean? He wanted the reward. Now go to Numbers. Go to the book of Numbers chapter 22. I'm going to read to you from Jude 11 once again, where the Bible says, woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward and perished in the gains of Aaron and Corey. So the Bible says the false prophets, they run greedily after the error of Balaam. Okay. Now we're going to read the story of Balaam in just a bit, but Balaam basically convinced Balaam to tell him what to do in order to curse the children of Israel. He said, look, if this is, if you just, if you cause them to disobey the commandments of God, then God will curse them. But the reason they did that was for reward. Okay. In other words, he compromised the message for money, right? In our modern terms, we would say money, correct? Now there's a lot of false prophets who are like that today. Now you have a lot of extremes. You have the extreme who they know they're teaching a false, they're false teaching, but they do it for money. The preachers of LA is a perfect example of that, right? They're preaching, they dance, and they have their, the way they orate and all these things, but they do it for money. I mean Noel Jones is a perfect example of that. Him and his Porsches, and you know, he's a fornicator, he's a wicked man, but people love him. He's highly esteemed among men, but he's an abomination. You know why? Because he's greedy of filthy lucre is what he is. And no pastor should, look, no pastor should ever have a love for money, okay? Now money is necessary, right? We got to pay the bills, but money is a tool to be used for the work of God, not for our own pleasures so we can just exalt ourselves, have the nicest of things, right, and make merchandise off of the flock of God. But there's people who do that. You got the Benny Hinns of this world, right? The Benny Hinns are, send in your dollar, send in $5, send in $100, and I'll bless you from the television, right? We'll send you a hankie dipped in holy water, and you'll be blessed by God. That's false. These are men who are not saved, they're false prophets and they're just trying to make money is what they're trying to do, okay? What do I have you turn, numbers, right? Numbers 22, verse 22, the Bible says, and God's anger was kindled because he went and the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass and his two servants were with him, and they asked Saul the angel of the Lord, standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand, and the ass turned aside out of the way and went into the field, and Balaam smote the ass to turn her into the way. But the angel of the Lord stood in the path of vineyards, a wall being on this side and a wall on that side, and when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she thrust herself unto the wall and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall and he smote her again. So this ass is seeing the angel of the Lord and it's just like, we've got to go a different way, right? And she's like smashing his foot up against the wall and he's just like smacking the donkey. He's like, man, what are you doing? Well, she's trying to save him, right? Trying to help out this prophet here. Verse 26, and the angel of the Lord went further and stood in the narrow place where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she fell down under Balaam and Balaam's anger was kindled and he smote the ass with his staff. And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee? That thou hast smitten me these three times. And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me, I would there were a sword in my hand, for now I would kill thee. And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? Was I ever want to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay, and so on and so forth. So what's the problem here? God is trying to use this donkey to help Balaam get back on the right track, right? But Balaam is so filled with anger that he begins to take out his anger on the ass. The ass is just trying to help, you know, and even to the point where the ass opens his mouth. I mean, you would think Balaam was like, oh, snaps, this thing's talking. Like I would be, I mean, the first time that thing talks is just like, okay, let's just, for example, say, let's say I was a false prophet, right? I'd be like, man, I can make some money off this, a donkey that talks, but he was so filled with anger and rage. He just like smacking that thing. Why? Because he was greedy. He wanted to get to his destination, to get his money, to get his reward, the wages of unrighteousness. Now, again, you have one side of the spectrum, the Benny Hinns. But unfortunately, you know what we have nowadays too? We have Baptist preachers who, you know, I believe most of them are saved, who have become greedy of filthy lucre as well. What do they do? They trim back the message. They don't say what needs to be said. They do it why? Because they don't want to lose tithers in their church. They don't want to lose the people who are giving the most to the building program in their church. Right? And what happens? God puts an ass in these churches, right? People congregants who are trying to go and say, hey, this isn't right. Maybe you should preach on this. Don't talk about repenting your sins. Don't tolerate the faggots in the church. And what do the prophets do? They begin smiting the ass, right? God opens the mouth of these donkeys in the church. And when I say donkeys, I'm not saying, you know, that they're donkeys as far as like they're stupid, right? But these are lowly animals, obviously, right? And maybe these lowly, exactly, servants in the church, they come and say, hey, this transgender freak is in the church. The Bible says we shouldn't tolerate that. You know, and what does the prophet do? What does Balaam do? He begins to smite the congregant. You don't know what you're talking about. Shut up. You know? And what is the ass trying to do? He's trying to forbid the madness of the prophet. He says, look, this is crazy. There's faggots here, you know? This is crazy. This guy believes in repenting your sins. This guy's teaching this. This guy's leading people astray. There's a false prophet within the church. He doesn't even use a King James Bible. He's leading people astray. All these things. And what is it? Thank you. And what is it? What does Balaam do? He begins to smite the ass. You don't know what you're talking about. I mean, there's churches all over America who are doing that. They're beating the donkey congregant in the church who's trying to forbid the madness of the prophet. And what is it? He's so covetous. He's so greedy that he doesn't want to get rid of the people that he needs to get rid of. And look, there's a lot of people in Baptist churches, they need to just get out. And the pastors need to boot them out. They need to put on some Timberland boots, tie it up, and give them the boot. He's saying, well, they're going to mistighten the members. You know, God blesses when you obey Him. And the churches who are so greedy of gain that they're not willing to get rid of these people, not getting rid of the false prophets, they're the ones who are in debt anyways. You know, the ones who have to have all kinds of accounts to pay for all the things in the church, they're the ones who are in debt the most. You know who God blesses? Those who just obey God's commandments in spite of logic and reasoning. Okay? Because look, the commandments of God need to be obeyed by faith, right? We need to have faith and say, look, I'm not going to lean on to my own understanding, and all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy past. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, the Bible says. What does that mean? So in times when we say, the Bible says this, man, it doesn't really make that much sense, but I'm just going to obey it anyways. Guess what? God blesses that. But what is Balaam doing today in Baptist churches, smiting the donkey who's trying to correct them? You know, it would be good if some of these Balaams in these Baptist churches take notice and say, you know what, maybe this donkey has something to say, right? Maybe they're right. Maybe the wrath of God is right before me, and He's trying to help me out, right? And correct the issue. And look, thank God that there have been Baptist pastors who have done that. You know, within our movement, you think of Baptist pastors who maybe someone came to them and they're just like, you know what, I was wrong. That's right. You know, and they got right. But there's a slew of other ones who love the wages of unrighteousness. They're greedy of game. Why? Because they like money. They trim the message. They preach soft sermons, right? Because they're afraid to offend people. Okay. And look, it's dangerous when you begin to trim the message for money because you're not preaching the whole counsel of God. So what happens? The people miss out on biblical truths for their family, for themselves as individuals, simply for the fact that the pastor wants to make some money. They don't want to lose the tidy members. They want to get their brand new car. They want to get their brand new whatever. All because of money. Now go back, let's see here, where am I having to turn here? Go back to 2 Peter. The Bible says in verse number 3, and through covetousness shall they with fain words make merchandise of you whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not. Fain words. What does fain words mean? Deceitful words. You know? And the Bible teaches us that false prophets, the way, because look, the way people deceive is not by just telling you a flat out lie. They need to make some truth in that. What do they mix, they mix truth, they mix lies with truth and therefore it becomes fain, it becomes deceitful. Because those who are unstable, the Bible says, right? They'll get beguiled, they'll get spoiled as the Bible tells us in Colossians. What does spoiled mean? Well if you remember in the Old Testament, when there was a war, there were spoils to the victor, right? And when they would come, they would come and take the spoils, they would take them. Sometimes it was people, right? They'll take the spoils captive. Well what happens when someone is preaching a false gospel and the person is unstable in his faith? They get spoiled. They get taken captive by the ideologies and false doctrines of the devil. That's what that means. Okay? Through fain words. 2 Peter chapter number 2, so the first false prophet that we see in the Bible is Cain, teaching a words-based salvation. The second false prophet that we saw was Balaam, he loved money, okay? The third one that we're gonna look at today, let me say this, let me go back on the second point here. Another thing that false prophets do in order to keep congregants in the church is something that's called flattery. Okay, you guys know what flattery is? Flattery. Flattery is basically just blowing someone's head up to cause them to stay, you know? They admire them, they just try to shower them with compliments and it's just like, look, I know I'm not that good, okay? But they're just like, oh, you're just like the best and you're just like, I'm so thankful that you guys are here and man, I love you guys, it's just like mushy, talk. Look, there's nothing wrong with giving a compliment, you know what I mean? Just like, hey man, that was a good sermon, or hey, thanks for coming, I'm glad you guys are here, you guys are awesome, you know? But when it gets to the point where it's just like mushy, they're just like, you're freaking me out. Well, you think, you know, you say you're exaggerating, no, that happens, okay? And pastors do this all the time, especially if they know that a tithing member's gonna leave their church. They'll turn that thing on to high gear, 10 degrees hotter, you know? Like man, I gotta turn up the flattery like 10 degrees hotter, you know what I mean? I mean, I know of a guy who told me about a pastor who's doing that to him right now. I mean, he's trying his best to make sure he doesn't leave his church, because this guy's a valuable guy and he's like, he's doing everything he can in his power, complimenting on everything and times when he didn't before, right, times he would criticize him, now he's like trying his best to make sure this guy doesn't leave, but what is he doing? He's flattering. Look, there ain't no flattery here. In fact, we're not worried if someone, someone just told me that they were leaving our church. Hey, oh well, you know, I mean, what do you want me to say? Yeah, God bless you. You know, and by the way, the doors are open if they ever come back, but I'm not gonna flatter someone and brown-nose congregants to stay. That's foolish. You know, I'm not gonna be butt-kissing just to get someone to stay so we can keep their tithe. That's foolish. Look, my God owns a cattle in a thousand hill. He holds all the silver and gold in the world. He can provide for all the needs. I don't need one congregant who's a tithing member, you know, and I'm gonna brown-nose them so we can stay. Ain't gonna happen. And see, that's the kind of preaching that we need in America today. And if these pastors will get the gall and get the guts and the backbone to say the same thing, they would keep the people who they thought they were gonna lose. Why? Because people want a bold pastor who's not greedy or filthy lucre, who's not motivated by money. Okay? No, you know what they want? They want someone to tell them the truth. And look, often, I've noticed that once you tell the truth, people just enjoy it a lot more. And they're more likely to say, they're like, well, at least I know this guy's real. He's kind of a jerk when he says it, but hey, at least he's being honest. You know, I don't agree with the whole butt-kissing thing, but hey, he's right. You know? But you know what we have today? Pastors who are full-time butt-kissers. You know? They don't preach sermons. They preach sermons to try to keep people in church is what they're doing. And once one person even threatens to even think about going to a different church is like, oh, don't leave. I need you. And it's like, novellas. You know? Novella style. Okay? Soap opera style. Why? Because they're greedy. A filthy lucre is what they are. The third prophet, false prophet, Korah, or the New Testament, as the New Testament refers to him as Korah. 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse number 10, the Bible says, but chiefly them that walk after the flesh and the lust of uncleanness and despise government, presumptuous are they, self-willed, they're not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. I'm going to read to you from Jude in verse 8, likewise, also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominions and speak evil of dignities. Verse 11, woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for the reward and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. Now go to Numbers chapter 16. So this brand of false prophets that we're going to highlight at this moment, they're not pastors, because most false prophets are pastors, right? They're pastors of someone who's in leadership, someone who's preaching behind the pulpit. You know what I'm talking about. Korah, on the other hand, or Korah, is not that. He's in the congregation. He's the person sitting, and we would say the pew, right? But this person is just as much dangerous as the one behind the pulpit, who's a false prophet. You say, why is that? Because he has access to people as well. And they are the ones who the Bible says they creep in unawares, obviously, right? They come, they look like us, they talk like us. They even say they believe like us, but what happens? They speak evil of dignities, of the authorities, so on and so forth. Look at Numbers chapter 16 and verse number 1. We'll read the story here, a couple of verses, and we'll summarize it here. And verse number 1 says, Now Korah, the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the son of Eliab, and An, the son of Peyleth, sons of Reuben, took men. And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown. So we see that these guys, they were known, right, in the congregation. These were people who people knew about. They were men of renown. And they gathered themselves together against Moses, and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. So they're saying, nah, you guys are too proud, you guys are trying to, you need to spread basically the authority to everyone. You know what they wanted? They wanted a democracy. Verse 4, And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face. I mean, this is a meek man right here. I mean, Moses, he could have just been like, shut up, that's what I would have done. But you know what he did? He fell upon his face, because he understood the wrath of God that was about to be poured, because of this. Verse 5, And he spake unto Korah, and unto all his company, saying, Even tomorrow the Lord will show who are his, and who is holy, and will cause him to come near unto him, Even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him. Now, we won't read the whole story, but let me just tell you how it ends. Korah goes to hell, okay? He didn't have a hand basket, he just went to hell. I mean, the earth opened up, swallowed him, I mean, when the Bible says that God is able to destroy both body and soul in hell, that's exactly what happened to Korah, okay? He didn't even get a chance to just die, and his soul go to hell, and go through the whole process that everyone else is going to go through, God just said, I'm just dropping you in there just with flesh as well, okay? So this brand of false prophets are not necessarily the pastor, they're often found within the congregation. He said, how do you know if they're false prophets? They try to cause divisions, and will speak evil of leadership, okay? And what they'll do is they'll try to rally people to their cause. Now this takes place in all kinds of Baptist churches, okay? Now I don't think this is going to take place here, or excuse me, I don't think it has taken place here. It might take place in the future, because the Bible talks about it, and there's a reason why the Bible warns us about it, because it potentially might happen, but we need to know who they are like. They're like Absalom, right? Who's the son of David who tried to rally people to follow him instead of David, okay? Now go to Proverbs chapter number six. The major thing about these people is what? They try to cause division. Now one thing that a church needs in order to go forward for God is what? Unity, right? There needs to be unity. Now within the church you'll find people, especially within our church, all kinds of different personalities, gifts, strengths, and weaknesses. I mean, we're all one blood, but we all, there's different races in here, okay? Like there's a wide spectrum of races here, and praise the Lord for that. That's how it's going to be in heaven, amen? But with different personalities, there's just different people, we can still have unity even in the midst of that, right? But what God hates is when there is division within the church, okay? I'm talking about our church and any other churches, but we're talking specifically in our church. Look what the Bible says in verse 16 of Proverbs six. These six things that the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him. A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, and heart that divides the wicked in imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. So the Bible uses this word discord, which means division, and what they do is they try to go between brethren and try to pin them up against one another. They try to basically create a clique, okay? Now, the Bible doesn't want, God says that God doesn't want cliques, okay? We are a clique, right? Which is the church. But there shouldn't be cliques within the church, okay? And the Bible talks about the gainsaying of Corey that speak evil against authorities, they speak against righteous authorities. And if we're not careful, that can take place even within our church. You say, what do you mean? When people speak evil of me. Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a second. You're lifting yourself up to be the leader. Yeah, you know Pastor Anderson is the pastor of this church, but guess what? When he's not here, guess who's the leader? Me. Amen. Amen? You say, well, you know, I don't agree with that. You know, I've been listening to Pastor Anderson for years. Oh, I'm sorry. Well, shut my mouth. I didn't know that you're the ordained YouTube listener of the gospel. But guess what? That doesn't work here. Every church has to have a leader. It's not Democracy Baptist Church. I'm not going to get up here and take a poll of how we want to do things around here. What do you think is best? What do you think this verse means? No, we're not doing that. This isn't Democracy Baptist Church. So I don't agree that, you know, Pastor Anderson put you, the door, there's two doors. Pick one. Amen. Right. But look, that's what Korah was guilty of. You know, and Korah just could have kept his mouth shut. Could have been blessed by the Lord, gotten saved first, then God blessed by the Lord. But guess what happened? The earth opened up and swallowed him up. Okay. Now go to Titus chapter number one. They say, yeah, but you know, you're not even ordained. You know, and you could come up with all kinds of lists of anything that you say. But at the end of the day, guess what? I'm in charge. Okay. Now, look, I'm not saying like, because there's churches that pastors who are like, they get a little weird when it comes to like being in charge, like being the authority. I mean, they try to dictate everything. You know what I mean? Even like who you hang out with, you know, like you can't, I mean, we had someone tell us this week, like, you can't hang out with Brother Bruce. And they're at my house like on Friday, you know, like hanging out, having dinner. They're like, that's weird. You know? I'm like, yeah, it's cultish. Okay. And I'm not, we're not of the brand that's going to say, Chad, you can't hang out with, you know, people who don't get along with me or whatever. Now, I don't think Chad will get, will hang out with them. You know, I think, you know, they will know Chad. But the thing is, we're not the brand that was just like, we will dictate everything that you do. But guess what? One man's in charge. One leader. That's it. End of story. Let's pray. That's how it works. You say, yeah, but when you correct, I only listen to what Pastor Anderson says when he comes here. Now, when you, well, let's look what the Bible says here. Titus 1 5 says, for this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting, and ordained elders in every city as I had appointed thee. Verse number 11, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake, one of themselves even a prophet of their own. Said, the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true, wherefore call me up, and I'm gonna come down there and take care of it. Is that what he said? All right, let's read it again. This witness is true, wherefore send me a letter so I can know what's going on and I'll take care of it. You just go home and go to your wife and don't, preach the sermons and don't worry about anything else. No. No. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith. You know what Paul said? Hey, there's some stuff happening there, rebuke them. That's what you're there for. And guess what I'm here for? To rebuke you sharply. I don't agree with it. There's two doors. There's two. Choose one of them if you don't like it. You know? And look, I don't think this is good, this is not, this is a preventative message, right? This is preventative. We're trying to prevent things in the church. But if you don't like my leadership, then, I mean, I was gonna say sorry, but I'm not. You know? But this is how the way our Baptist churches are run. There has to be one leader. And look, when Pastor Anderson's here, he's in charge. And I answer to him, okay? He's my boss. So even if there's things that I wanna do, he's giving me a scope of leadership to say, look, under this, these rules, you do whatever you want. But there's certain things that, yes, I call him, I text him, I say, hey, can we do this? Or what do you think about this? I run it by him because I understand this matter of leadership. I understand the matter of authority in the church, right? But when he's not around, there's a reason why he has placed me here is because he obviously entrusts the leadership here, okay? He say, yeah, but I don't know, what if like you're a false prophet? Here's the thing. What if you're a false prophet? I mean, seriously, right? Yeah, I don't know, I don't know where you came from. I came from Long Beach. You know, I grew up in the hood. What do you wanna know? You know, you wanna know about my beliefs? Yeah, but I don't, I just don't trust you. Well, guess, you know, sorry, I mean, what do you want me to do? I'm here. Yeah, it's the beard. You just look too Muslim to me. No, no, look, the fact of the matter is, is that Cora, there's always been Korahs in the church. You know, think of Evan, yeah, you think of Tyler Baker. It's funny because Cora had Nathan and Abiram, and Tyler Baker had Rick and Elliot, or those two guys. They typically come in threes. So this is what we do in our church. If we find out there's a Korah in here, we just get rid of Nathan and Abiram first, you know what I mean? So he doesn't have anybody to rally to him. And look, if there's someone in here who's like, if ever there comes a time that someone here teaches something differently or they're speaking evil of dignity, come talk to me. We'll deal with it real quick. You see, I've been to churches or pastors, they're afraid to talk to the congregants. They're afraid to confront them. I mean, I used to work for a guy who used to have me go talk to the guy who was, he's like, can you just go talk to this guy right now? You know, he's gonna, he's doing this. I was like, why don't you go talk to him? I'm not talking about it as like, he was too busy. He wasn't busy. He's afraid. You know, we don't have that problem here. I don't have a problem coming to talk to anybody. Okay. I'll come talk to you. And look, I'm not, I'm not saying in the sense of like, we're going to fight, you know what I mean? But look, a man ought to be able to talk to another man and say, Hey, what's up, Alex? What's going on? I heard you were doing this. Is this true or what? You know? Because here's the thing. If I'm afraid to talk to you, then, then you need to be suspectful of me. Not necessarily of my doctrine, but of my ability to lead. Right? Because there needs to be some fortitude in leadership. Okay. To be able to say, Hey, what's going on with this? Is this taking place? You know, blah, blah, blah. So on and so forth. Let's take care of it. Okay. But Cora is a false teacher in the Bible who the Bible teaches us. What is it? What is this primary? Now let me say this. All false prophets have all these things. It just so happens that these guys, this is the, the characteristic that highlights their false prophecy or whatever, you know, their characters, so to speak, because one that caused division, he caused discord and it ain't happening. Okay. The Bible calls that division and God hates it. We're going to finish up right now. So I was going to get into the next one, but you're going to have to wait till tonight. Okay. So what is, what is the message today? We need to know what false prophets are. Okay. We need to know how they behave, how they act. What is it that they try to do? Well, the first three ones that we highlighted is, first of all, they bring in a damnable heresy. Okay. And I don't think, I don't think someone's going to be able to infiltrate our church with a false gospel because that's so ingrained in our movement that we know, I mean, from the least to the greatest, from the youngest to the oldest spiritually knows what the Bible says about salvation by grace through faith, right? But we got to be vigilant regarding these other things as well. You know, Balaam was greedy, a filthy lucre. Okay. Corey, try to, try to cause divisions within the church. These are all characteristics of false prophets. You're going to have to wait till tonight for part two. We got, we got like three, we got four more to go. Okay. And you don't want to miss out on the last one. The last one is going to catch you off guard, right? I'm trying to, I'm trying to promote it here. Tonight I'm only going to do like three. Psych. No, I'm just kidding. All right. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. Thank you so much for the word of God that teaches us so much. And we're thankful that you loved us so much that you put these teachings of false prophets in the Bible, because it's, it warns us, it helps us to, to steer clear of those who would cause these things in the church. And I pray that you'd help us to be vigilant, help us to be humble, of course, and, and to be as Moses, to fall before our face and to seek you out, your word. Because in, in, in reality, you know, we don't want to run into these kinds of people, but we obviously know that they are going to come in wolves in sheep's clothing, as the Bible would say. And help us not to be ignorant, help us to be vigilant, to be spirit-filled preachers and also congregants to be able to spy these out when they come in. And I just pray you bless the remainder of our day, help us to see a great harvest of souls won after the service today. Thank you again for all that you do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.