Let us this morning turn our Bibles again to the Gospel of Luke chapter 17. The Gospel of Luke chapter 17 in verses 1 and 2 again. Verses 1 and 2 will launch me into my third message, or actually third series in which I'm dealing with those things that the Spirit of God impressed upon me that I saw in those two verses. as the lord jesus is addressing his disciples and we talked about a couple of the stumbling blocks among many stumbling blocks are fences that i could have preached about preached about how the true believers say we discussed that it in our sunday school this morning uh... the technical aspect of how god saves us in most professing christians have no idea the emphasis God puts on how he saved us. And the reason he does that is to show the glory of God so that we might give the triune God and the Lord Jesus Christ the honor, the esteem that he so richly deserves. The great salvation, the magnificence of his salvation that we were his enemies, we were sinners, and yet The great mercy, compassion of God, mercy and compassion are kind of interchangeable terms. the great love motivated by an immense love, an infinite love. He loved us and died for us in that state of depravity. And only God could do something like that. And when we've learned this great truth, we ought to honor Him. Just like we give honors to human beings who achieve great accomplishments, how much more God who has demonstrated tremendous love for us in dying for our sins. So we dealt with that offense because many professing Christians have no idea how they're saved. True, I would say true Christians have no idea how they're saved, because again, there's a reason why, and we're gonna deal with that in the next couple of weeks. And secondly, we dealt with the offense of eternal security, we call it. Once saved, always saved is the true believer, With emphasis on true believer, is the true believer's salvation secure? And the answer to that is yes, an affirmative. And you would be surprised at the number of professing Christians who have no idea that if they have genuine saving faith in Christ, that they cannot lose their salvation because it must be viewed from the standpoint of God. making the promises and keeping the promises. Or as Paul told the Philippians, beginning a work in us and completing that work in the day of the Lord. And so finally we come back to the passage again, and we want to deal with the offenders. That's the title of my message, the offenders. The one who bring the offenses. The one who cause people not to know the truth. the one who stand in front of the truth or even teach aberrant erroneous biblical teachings that cause people to stumble, which impact the faith of true believers because they're taught something wrong. And so, you know, one of my earlier theories was defective theologies. My saying was defective theology leads to defective thinking that leads to defective behavior. If I believe in thinking error, then I'm going to do the error. So this is the warning the Lord Jesus Christ gives to his disciples, as a matter of fact, gives to this entire audience of people composed of the religious leaders, their true believers there, the Lord's disciples, and all of them hear what the Lord is saying here. And many times, as we do with much of scripture, we just read through it and we don't try to understand the magnitude of what is being said. As a matter of fact, since all of the Bible is inspired by God, it is not just the red letters in our Bible that inspire it because they're attributed to the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's the entire Bible. Because the Spirit of God is the author of scripture, he used men to write it, but it was him who inspired them what to write. So it came from the Spirit of God. So all of it is authoritative to us. But we brush across scripture, we're not careful, we don't dig deep, so we miss a lot of the truths and realities that are essential that we understand, and we see that in these first two verses. So with that said, I wanna talk about the offenders now, the ones who put the stumbling blocks in the paths of not only true believers, but unbelievers as well. In verse one, again as recorded by Dr. Luke, then he was our Lord Jesus Christ, said to his followers, his disciples, those who had come to him to learn, who claimed to be associated with him and to learn from him, he says, quote, it is impossible that there be no offenses, or no offenses, stumbling blocks, or errors, or sins should come, but woe to him through whom they do come. It would be better for him, the offender, if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he was thrown into the sea that then that he should offend one of these little ones. The greatest threat and you've heard me say this for years in this ministry. One of the lessons that the Spirit of God has taught me from the Word of God is that the greatest threat to both the true believer and the unbeliever is the false prophet, the false pastor, the false preacher, the false teacher, the false Christian, or anyone who teaches anything contrary to sound orthodox biblical teaching. Jesus is giving a severe warning to anyone, and that would include not just preachers, that would include any professing Christian Be very careful what you tell people, what you say that God has said. That warning applies to the preacher, but that warning also applies to anyone who is saying that God said something. Even if you've gotten it from the Bible, We must be very careful to make sure that we have the right context and more importantly, the truth when we tell someone God has said. And in James chapter three, you don't have to turn, but in James chapter three, this is the warning that he gives anyone who wanted to ascend to be a pastor. In my sermon, in my message for the next couple of weeks, I'm dealing with Brother Mike and myself and anyone who claims to be a pastor or a preacher. And James writes, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and I remind you that James is the half-brother of Christ, but yet he calls himself the slave of Christ. He says, my brethren, and this is imperative, he said this is always imperative, not many of you should become teachers, knowing that we will receive a stricter, more severe judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a mature, perfect man. If he never stumbles, and he gets all of the word of God correct, then he doesn't stumble, and he's able to control the whole body. And he talks and he gives examples of horses' mouths that then he say, indeed we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole bodies with just that little bit. Same thing with ships, these massive ships are turned, he said, with a very small rudder at the end of verse four. Massive ships are huge, but in comparison to the rudder that churns it, it's small. And he say, even so, the tongue is a little member and it boasts great things. It can set a forest afire. It's like a spark. The tongue is a fire, a whirl of iniquity. The tongue is said among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature and it is itself set on fire by hell. No man can tame the tongue, he says in verse eight. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. What he is talking about here and referencing is what we say, and it's specifically one who claims to be a teacher. He must be very careful because with erroneous teaching, he can set the world on fire. If the devil has control of his tongue, then guess who's speaking? It is coming from hell. This is essentially what he's saying here. It is set on fire by hell. And so you see now how important and why Jesus in Luke 17 puts such emphasis on the offender. The one who proclaims to speak for God. And many of us, I'm gonna warn you one more time. And I'm gonna warn you more, but I'm gonna warn you again today. Quit saying God told you something. Please stop. Because you are going to incur exactly what James just said. Stricter judgment. If you're going to say God has said something, you better make sure God said it. And the only way to know that is to go into the Word of God. God would never say anything contrary to the word of God. Now today, everybody wants to be a preacher. I mean, God has called a lot of people, at least that's what we think and that's what they say. God has called me to preach. We have women now coming, God has called me to preach. Every other man, God has called me to preach. Churches starting up all over the place, God has called me to preach. Let me ask you a question. Why are they so difficult to spot? Why are false teachers, false prophets, false preachers, false pastors, false Christians, why are they so hard to spot? One reason is because we're biblically ignorant. We don't know. We're ignorant to what the Bible has to say about these people. And the Bible has a wealth of knowledge, both Old and New Testament, as to what to look out for. So we're abysmally ignorant of scripture. Another reason is we're stubborn and we have itching ears. And we refuse to listen to truth and we want the errors. And the reason we want the errors, the Apostle Paul said, is because of the passions within us. The lusts within us wants the reality or the myth of what is being preached. So the itchy ear Christian is at fault because that's what they want to hear. But the third reason, and the reason I want to focus on, is why they're so difficult to spot, to see, to unveil, is because they look like us. If you go to Matthew chapter 7, we're going to be looking at selective passages of scripture for the next two weeks to just show you just a sampling of what the Bible has to say about false teachers. And if you haven't been sitting under Mike and myself, this is going to be new to you if you've never heard uh mike or myself pastor mike or myself preach or these things or heard your preacher preach these things then it's going to be new to you and so we go to matthew chapter 7 and we come to the magnificent sermon on the mount which is the most extensively recorded sermon of all of jesus sermons And I want you to notice something that you may have never noticed in which preachers, these offenders, I'm gonna call them offenders, will not teach you. These are the ones who put stumbling blocks in front of you and impact and affect the true believers' trust in God. And actually, as Jesus himself said several times, block the door to keep people who should believe in Jesus Christ from being saved. The offender stands between hell and heaven, between truth and error, between white and wrong, between light and dark. This is why you see the language that Jesus used, woe unto that person. And so at the end of Matthew chapter 7, and you go to verses 13 and 14, very familiar verses. Jesus is taught from chapter 5, what a true believer is. They're blessed. He said they're blessed when they're poor in spirit. They mourn over their sin, their hunger and thirst for righteousness. They want to be right with God. They're peacemakers, they're then compassionate as God is compassionate and merciful to them. They in turn are compassionate and merciful to others. He tells you what the kingdom person looks like. Every true believer is Matthew chapter 5, the Beatitudes. Every true believer. And if one is not, they are not believers. Then he comes to the end and he really gives an introduction, or I would say an invitation to salvation. And as Jesus would use, he uses illustration, figurative language that would help them to understand and convey what he is saying. And so in verse 13 he says, enter by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, that is hell, and there are Sadly, many who go in by that gate. It's always many because of how difficult it is to believe what Jesus is saying, to believe the invitation of salvation. The narrow gate here represents Christ. He is using this type of Figurative language to say just as one would enter the door to enter someplace He is that door if you want to enter into heaven and enter into eternal life You must have faith to walk through a very narrow gate This is the invitation to salvation through faith in him and in verse 14 He tells you why, sadly, many go into destruction. He said, because narrow is the gate. The narrow gate is the way which is him. And the reason people don't go in, because it is a very restrictive gate. It doesn't allow us to go in and carry the type of sinful baggage that we would like. We must repent and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, because the gate is narrow and the road is wide, the gate is narrow and it's difficult, he says, and is the way which leads to life and there are how many that find it? Few. Very few are saved. And then he interestingly comes to verse 15. If verse 13 and 14 are the way to salvation, Jesus is the narrow gate. He says in John 10, he is the door. The entrance to eternal life, to salvation. But who impedes this gospel message? Because technically in verse 13 and 14, you have the gospel. Jesus is giving this sermon, showing the impossibility of us coming to heaven on our own righteousness. He even in the beginning of chapter 7 is not negating all judgment but the hypocritical judgment of those who believe they were saved and were condemning others for being sinners. They were judging as though they were God. And this type of hypocritical, censorious, arrogant, prideful judgment where you believe you're better than other people, it's the same type of attitude the Pharisees had in the parable in Luke 18. They were judging from the standpoint that they were better than other people. And yet the very sins and the people they were condemning, they were committing. And so Jesus said, you're hypocrites. You're hypocritical. This is the type of judgment Jesus is negating and forbidding us to do. Judging based on the fact we think we're better than somebody else. We're all sinners in need of salvation. But back to my point. If 13 and 14 is an invitation to believe in Christ and be saved from our sins and inherit eternal life, guess who's standing in the road to prevent that? And why can't we, as the question I ask, why are they so difficult to spot, see, and unveil? And I gave you two reasons so far. The third reason is because they look like us. They talk like us. Look what he says, beware. This is be very careful. As John MacArthur would say, guard your mind. Protect your mind The gospel is a message that has been presented out of the great love of God to us And we must be very careful and how we listen to it and guard our minds against the attack of Satan and his lies and error perpetrated by false prophets This is to be very careful, be very aware, always present imperative. It's imperative that you always be on your guard for false prophets, false pastors, false preachers, false teachers, false Christians, anyone with a contrary message to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're not necessarily talking here about practical righteousness, we're talking about positional righteousness. Positional righteousness means that God has justified me. that through faith in Jesus Christ, the narrow gate, I've entered the difficult gate, the agonizing gate, Luke said, and now I'm saved because of that faith in Jesus Christ. But standing there in opposition, blocking the way to the narrow gate and trying to lead us all into the wide road are your false prophets. And since it uses a present tense verb, it means you must always be on your guard. It is imperative. And see, we're not imperative. We're not always on our guards. And they look like us. Look what he says. They come to you in sheep's clothing. This is the outward appearance of the offender. He comes in with his gown and his garments and his neck, whatever you call those things that go around their necks, big crosses. They look religious. Jesus even condemned the Pharisees by saying that you broaden the boundaries of your garments and enlarge the phylacteries so that you stand out among the people as religious, as righteous. You set yourself apart by what you're wearing. They pretend to be somehow in between God and human beings at an elevated level. And Jesus says, This is what they do, they come to you, they're dressed like sheep, but notice what he says at the end of the verse, but on the inside they are ravenous wolves. Essentially what Jesus is saying is they are dressed like sheep, but they're just a wolf. They're wolves who have dressed themselves like shepherds to lead the sheep. And I preached this sermon before, I understand it much better now. So the question would become, well then how do I spot them? Since they're looking like me, they're sounding like me, bah, bah. I believe that they're true believers. How do I know since they look like me? Well, look what he says in verse 16. And this should tell you that Jesus is not negating all judgment. So the next time the devil's child comes to you and tell you not to judge, or a misguided Christian who has a stumbling block who tell you we don't have the right to make righteous judgments. This is what Jesus said in John 7, 24. He did not negate all judgments. He just negated hypocritical, erroneous judgments. He said, but make righteous judgments. Now, where do I get righteous judgments from? How do I know what is right and is wrong? What is light and what is dark? What is error and what is truth? How do I know? It's from the word of God. This is how Jesus dealt with the devil. When the devil tempted him to disobey his father, disobey the spirit, Jesus knew the word of God accurately and countered the temptation of Satan and obeyed his father because he knew the truth of the passages. But notice what he says. Well, if they look like me, how will I know who they are? You will know them by their fruits. In other words, look at the characteristics. Look at their character. Look at what they do. Watch their behavior. You would know them by their fruit. And then he gives another example that they would have understood. Do men go to a thorn bush to get grapes? What fool does that? Well, you know, Charlene, I want to get some grapes. You know what, I'm going to the thornbush over there and see if they got some grapes on the thornbush. Who does that? Nobody in that time would have gone to a thornbush looking for grapes. Or what about a thistle? Another abrasive bush. Do you go there looking for figs? Why? Because you can observe that and know, no, that's not good. I'm not going to get grapes from that, nor am I going to get figs from a thistle bush. So visually, I know better. Intellectually, I know better. I know I can't get a grape or figs, some sustenance, some food from those bushes. See, and the fallen bushes and the thistles represent your false pastors. So you're going to your false pastors, false teachers, false preachers, false Christians. You're going for the wisdom of God. What do you think you're going to get? You're going to a thorn bush and a thistle. You're not going to get the truth. He goes further in verse 17, even so every good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit. The constitution of the tree determines the quality of the fruit. If you are a bad person, you're not gonna produce good things. That's not gonna be the consistency. You can do good things, you can sometimes imitate good behavior, but when the consistency of your life is gonna be bad. It's gonna be bad, why? Because you're a defective tree. The fruit is the result of the tree being defective, being bad. And he said, if it's a healthy tree, a good tree, then guess what it's going to produce? It can't help but produce good fruit. The internal quality and makeup of the tree determines the type of fruit. For the true believer, God has changed them on the inside. And so he habitually produces righteousness, good fruit. The false Christian, because he's never been transformed on the inside, and if you watch them closely, you can see the bad fruit. That's why so many Christians are standing with the wickedness in our society. They're false Christians. This is why they seem to have no problem with all the wickedness that's going on in our world. They have no problem with it, it doesn't grieve them. That's because they're not, they're false. He says in verse 18, a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. You see how Jesus is making this clear. He's not saying, well, maybe. No, he says, listen, a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. They would have understood that because that's what you did with a bad tree. You pulled it up, threw it in the fire. You didn't keep it around as a souvenir. You would take the bad tree that was producing bad fruit, and you would throw it, dig it up, throw it in the fire, and then you would put a tree down, healthy tree, to produce what you wanted, which was good crops. Well, a tree that's not good, this imagery has a parallel. The bad tree means that's the unbeliever who is taken by God and thrown into hell. And then at the end, in conclusion, based on what he says, therefore by their fruits, you will know them. You have to be a fruit inspector. You need to be inspecting brother Mike and myself. You need to inspect anybody that says they speak in the name of God. Anybody. You ought to test them and we'll see that. You test every spirit. I want to test that one, I'll test these over here. No, you test everybody. You test me, you test Mike, you test John MacArthur, you test Votie Barkham, you test everybody that says they speak in the name of God. Paul in Acts 17 said the Bereans again, they were noble. Why? Because they were eager to listen to what Paul said, but they were very careful to go to the word of God and make sure what he said was true. And Paul said they were more noble than the Thessalonians who rejected it. At least they would listen to it and say, Paul, we've heard about you, that you saw Jesus, the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, and we are eager to hear what you say. And what you said is, I mean, just so powerful and impacting, but we'll get back with you because we got to go to the word of God and make sure what you said is true. And Paul said they would know, but he had no problem. with them going to make sure that they verified what he said was true. Go to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 11. Why are these people so hard to spot? I remember something, Brother Mike, that John MacArthur said, and I'll repeat this to you again. He says, In his entire life, he has never seen a time where professing Christians are so gullible. I see professing Christians quicker to quote the very bad trees that are out there calling themselves preachers. They love to quote these people with empty, vain, useless, worthless, supposed theological statements. They're worthless. They sound good and impressive like they're some kind of spiritual rapper. It sounds good, but it is complete garbage, has no power, has no ability to mature and grow you spiritually. It is just some ditty that sounds good because it rhymes and it comes from an offender dressed like a shepherd. And I actually get angry at people because you tell them over and over and over, stop listening to these people. And they continue to do it. Look at 2 Corinthians. You've heard me read this many times. Why is it so hard to spot these people? Now remember, they're not all behind this pulpit. There's many of them sitting in the pews thinking they're some kind of pew preacher. Male and female. They swear they're the fourth person and the fifth person and sixth person of the trinity. And they sit in the pews and they, I know more than the pastor. I'm smarter than him. Yeah, he don't know what he talking. Let me tell you what's going on. That passage he just told you, that's not right. Let me tell you what it means. I have no clue what it means. Paul said, verse 13, for such a what? False, pseudo. The word false, the Greek word is pseudo, false. Not real, not genuine, not authentic. He said they are false and then he ties the word with apostle. false apostles in the Corinthian church, putting stumbling blocks, these offenders are causing people to stumble. He says for such a false apostles, deceitful workers, look what they do, transforming themselves. They dress up, they change the outside with no ability to change the inside. Only God can change the inside Only God can make me a new creature and over and over and over He takes the credit for making rod who he is He says I'm the one who made you to do good works in Christ Jesus I Take credit for that And when you think about it, that is why the Lord says in Matthew 7, you will know them by their fruit, because nobody can transform themselves. You can mimic Christianity, you can mimic being a Christian, just as Judas did, but only God can make you one. Look what he says. They transform themselves, they dress up the outside as what? They transform themselves as ambassadors, representatives of Christ. This is human effort. Human doing. Look at verse 14. And why are you amazed again? For Satan does the same thing. He transforms himself into an angel of light. And look what he says in verse 13. Therefore, based on what he just said, the therefore looks back specifically at verses 13 and 14. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers, well who is the his? That's Satan. So he's saying, Paul is telling the Corinthian Christians that Satan has ministers in the Corinthian church dressed like shepherds. Saying, bah, bah. They transform themselves into ministers of righteousness. Whose end will be according to what? What did Jesus say? This is deception here. The devil deceives and his ministers deceive. Are you going to sit here and tell me today that every minister, along with Mike and myself, are true ministers? And these are some of the verses. There are many, many more. Ask yourself a question. Why don't they tell you about these things? Why don't they warn you? Well, what are some of their fruits? Paul says Verse 19 for you put up with fools gladly since you think you're smart For you put up with if one brings you into slavery if one destroys you One takes from you if one exalts himself and one strikes you in the face take all your stuff under the guise of the man of God and Has the birthdays and the celebrations and you got to get a pass to the best and man, he just rapes you You know a matter of fact Jesus Essentially calls them swindlers They're swindling you they're merchandising you your means to an end He has the fruit We got to give the pastor the best. Pastor needs to be driving a Mercedes. Pastor needs to have a big house, a pastor this, this, and a pastor that, and a pastor, pastor, money, money, pastor. And then when someone tells you, no, quit that nonsense. Stop doing that. Oh, you got to tithe. You got to get 10% and a love offering. And all of this stuff. of ways to get money out of you, they're devouring you. Just like a wolf devours what? A sheep. So you know what I do? Because I remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, I look at the fruits. When I see a man taking the money from the people, I know what I'm dealing with. I'm dealing with a person who has transformed themselves into apostles of Christ. And on top of it, they teach you nothing. Nothing but myths and fables. You got to get a man of God, the money, and then God's gonna bless you. That's a myth. And because people are greedy, themselves, just like the pastor is, then they're giving the money, expecting God's gonna give it back to them tenfold, because that's what the defender told them. How do we not know who these people are? Well, what is he saying? They disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. They disguise themselves as shepherds, Matthew 7. I got another one for you. Coming in the future, if you go to Revelation chapter 13, coming in the future is the most, two of the most wicked men that ever walked this planet. One is called the Antichrist, the beast. The other is called the false prophet. false prophet. Does it ring a bell? Pseudo prophetess, false prophet. He is claiming to speak for God. Look at verse 11. Why can't I see these people? How do you, this is what you see. Look what he says in verse 11. Then I saw another rapacious beast. coming up out of the earth and he had two horns like a lamb. What does he look like? What does he look like? He looks like a lamb doesn't he? Notice he doesn't say just sheep he says lamb. Oh he's so innocent, harmless, docile. Oh he's so pretty and cute and cuddly and affectionate. He's just Seems to be a lamb is no threat Who's afraid of a lamb a? Lamb Charlene a walk up and kick him She'll boot him Who's afraid of a lamb in here if you saw a lamb coming in unless you just don't know about at lambs you You're not running from a lamb Matter of fact, most of us, if we see a lamb, we'll go to the lamb to pet the little animal. So John, the revelator saying he has two horns like a lamb, so how am I going to know who this guy is? Does he really represent God? Is he really a true prophet of God? But look what he says at the end of it. He spoke. like a dragon. Who is the dragon? Satan. In chapter 12 of Revelation it told us the devil is the dragon. So he looks like us. He looks like a spokesperson for Jesus Christ. He looks like a lamb. Because when you take what Paul said, he dresses himself up to look righteous, to look like an apostle of Christ, or what Jesus said in Matthew 7, he dresses up like a shepherd, but the way to know who he is, you have to know the word of God, because he's speaking like the devil. So how do you spot him? You have to know the word of God. You have no chance against people like this. And this is why you have so many people sitting up in churches who don't know the truth and can sit up and listen to these people as they steal them completely clean. Taking their money. Church full of people because most people are on a wide road. So you go back to Matthew 7 and what Jesus said, I want you to go to Exodus. And we're gonna finish at Exodus this week. Because I wanna go all the way back to Exodus where God took his people, Exodus 12. God took his people out of Egypt. He delivered them after 400 years in Egypt. He delivered them out of bondage. He sent Moses with a staff against the impressive armies of Pharaoh and delivered the people of Israel with his power. it showed him that no government on earth is more powerful than he is and he systematically strained out Egypt with plague after plague after plague after plague to show that they were powerless against him and the people of Israel would have understood that God is the one that delivered them These people are hard to spot, these offenders. But it's imperative that we do. And so in Exodus, and there's another point I wanted to make, until it comes back to me, I wanna go back to Exodus, and I wanna go back to the beginning of God delivering these people. And God giving a warning. They're hard to see, but let me ask you a question. Does God know they're there? Well then why does he leave him there? He knows that Jamal Bryant said that Christ only fulfilled 15% of his ministry. He did not fulfill 85% of his ministry. I hope Jamal hears what I say. Give me a call, Jamal. Yeah, give me a call. You or any other who reprobates. Or maybe someone that goes to his church. Tell them to call Rod. Word of Life Community Church, Jacksonville, Florida, 32209. Why does God leave him there? Ask the question, why does he leave Satan there? He's using Satan. Satan is a tool. And the false teacher is a tool. It's not like Jesus doesn't know they're there. You know what, I got one more passage before I deal, no, no, I'm gonna leave, I'm gonna stay here. Now, it's gonna be tough for me to do, but I'm gonna try to read from Deuteronomy 12, 29 all the way to the end of 13. It's gonna be tough because it's so full of rich theology. But the question I ask you, you who like to sit up and listen to these people, Doesn't matter what I say. I'm not asking you for money. I'm not telling you to pay 10% There's no church anniversaries. There's no church past the birthday none of that stuff You give what you give I don't beat you over the head about what you give You can never say rod is taking a penny from this church. You can never say you can say it, but it won't be true And God knows that You can never say that I tried to come up with some gimmick to extract money from you. You give what you give. None of that stuff. If anything, you have saw Mike and I painstakingly tell you the truth. Let you see what the Bible is actually saying. And most of it, guess what? It's not this itchy ear stuff. So why does God leave false teachers, the offenders there? And I'm gonna show you why. let's go to verse 29 and let me see if I can read through this from chapter 12 verse 29 all the way through chapter 13 verse 18 so Israel is about to go into the promised land you know Moses is going to die Joshua will lead them in verse 29 when the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go in to dispossess and you displace them and dwell in their land the nations God had told Abraham he's gonna go in it and those nations incurred the judgment of God and God was moving them out and letting Israel have the land that's what he's saying in verse 29 notice what he says in verse 30 take heed to yourself now that you are not entrapped to follow them after they are destroyed from before you and that you do not inquire after their gods saying how did these nations serve their gods these all your other religions small g How do they serve their God? I also will do likewise. Verse 31, you will not worship the Lord your God in that way. For every abomination to the Lord which he hates they have done to their gods. And he gives you one example. Now I want you to look at what he says. They burned even their sons and daughter in the fire to their gods. You know what they were doing? They were taking a living child and throwing them into a fire to the gods, the false god. And from what I've understood is when the fire abated, they would go to see how the bones of the child who was incinerated alive, how they settled as an omen from the gods. You know what the modern day equivalent to this is? Abortion. And you Christians are sitting in this church, and I'm gonna say you, because there's not me on this one. You Christians are sitting in this church, supporting people that are throwing their children in the mow leg. Burning them in the fire. Killing them before they come out of the womb. just like the pagans did. You are supposedly sitting in church worshiping the true God the way you would worship Molech and sacrificing your children under the guise of as Raphael Warnock, the fake pastor in Georgia who the senator said was woman's health care. Verse 32. Whatever I command you be careful to observe. Did you hear what he said? He didn't say flippantly just run through the Bible and believe whatever you want to believe and pick and choose what you like He says be Careful to observe it you will not add to it nor take away from it Now we go into chapter 13 verse 1 If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams. What does dreamer of dreams means? It means those people who like to say God gave them a dream and gonna tell you what they heard. Everybody has a dream. Jude mentions this dreamer of dreams. These are supposedly spiritual dreams from God. Relevatory dreams. God told me to tell you something. Well, if God, like I always say, if God want me to know something, he can tell me. What does he need to come through you for? So these are people are claiming profit or they're getting revelatory dreams from God. And he gives you a sign or a wonder. And the sign of the wonder happens. See, this is how people get you. Because they may say something and it happens. And then the next thing they do is they turn you to another God. Astrology, crystal balls, necromancers speaking to the dead, tarot cards, horoscopes, astrology. Turn into other gods. I used to be into horoscopes and what really got me was I read something and it happened. Then the next thing you know, I had every book. I was buying them up, boy. And I mean, I was religiously had them all ready. Let me see what's happening next. Let me see what's happening next. And I had all of them books until the Lord delivered me from that nonsense, from that wickedness, that abomination. He said, and a wonder in verse two, come to pass which he spoke to you saying, let us go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them. Why does God allow this to happen? Why does he allow this dreamer of dreams, this false prophet to come to the people and claim that he's spoken by God and give a sign and a wonder and it happens? It happens and then he leads you to a false god? Why does he lead these people here? Now pay very close attention to what he's about to say. And that goes for any of you who think that I'm a fool when I tell you lead these people along. If they're not telling you that you're a sinner in need of salvation through Jesus Christ, if they're not telling you how to honor the Lord by living a life that is righteous and honor him because you have been saved, living out your salvation with fear and trembling, because that's our responsibility. He saved me to behave like him. If they're not telling you how the glorious salvation of Christ, how God loved us so much, His enemies, heinous, repetitive, habitual sinners, and through Christ had compassion and mercy and showed us great grace, if they're not constantly telling you Christ and Him crucified, stop listening to them! Listen to because you're greedy just like they are you're always coming to Christ looking for something He can't never give you enough. You're never gonna be satisfied with silver He who loves silver never gonna be satisfied with it. It's never enough money, and I know that's true from my own experience And you're coming to Christ give me something give me something give me something what have you done for me lately I And he tells you, oh, let me tell you how you can get all the stuff from God. You the head and not the tail. God just couldn't do without you. He gonna give you all the goodies. Now, all you got to do is take this formula that I'm gonna give you. Taking scriptures out of context. Oh, faith is a substance of, see your faith, God has faith in his faith. And see, y'all, you got God-like faith. That means you can call something into existence. I'm sick of hearing that one, too. Hearing that nonsense makes you want to turn tables over. Sick of hearing it. But why? Why does God allow these people to exist? You better pay close attention to the next couple of verses. Verse three, you will not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. Why should you not listen to him? Because he said, even though the miracle or sign happened, they were leading you to another God. He said, if they do that, and let me tell you, the prosperity gospel is straight from the pits of hell. It is not true, it doesn't work. All it does is fuel internal greed of the listener. That's it. There is no fulfilling of it. It's another God. It's what John MacArthur told in the story, the cargo God. He's bringing cargo because that's what you want. Don't listen to him, he says. And why? Look at the middle there. For the Lord your God is testing you. He's trying you, He's proving you. But what is He proving? Whether you love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul. So I'm going to tell you one more time, lead these people along. These people are a curse on all of us who don't want to hear the truth. Creflo Dollar, T.D. Jakes, Joyce Myers, Kenneth Copeland, his wife, all of them, many in this city right here, Kissick, almost all of them. They're telling you what you want to hear, and they are the test to see whether you love your God more than their lying message. And if you embrace them, then guess what? You showing that I don't love God. It's a test. They are actually, as Paul Washer say, a judgment on people who don't want to believe the truth. Now you see why God knows they're there. He's warning them because God is going to allow them to remain. To test you and I to see whether we love the Lord our God. Stop listening to these people. Now let me read the rest of it as quickly as I can. Verse four, you will walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice and you will serve him and hold fast to him. But on the contrary, that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death. Now we don't kill him today, but just as Jesus uses the parable, if your eye offends you, Plug it out. Your hand offends you, cut it off. Extreme measures. Get them out of your life, get these people, because you're not listening to these people, you're listening to the devil. I'm gonna show you that next week. You're listening to Satan. Satan is talking through them. Didn't you just see in 2 Corinthians 11 that Paul says they're the ministers of the devil? You're not listening to men, you're listening to the devil. Get him out of your life because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God. You, you say who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeem you from the house of slavery to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you will put away the evil from among you. Look at verse six, if your brother The son of your mother, your son, or your daughter, the wife of your bosom or your friend, who is as your own soul, secretly entices you saying, let us go and listen to Creflo Dollar. Let us go and listen to T.D. Jakes. Let us go listen to some of these fakesters and fraud artists who are appealing to our inward passions, what we want. He say anybody. This is what he says. Remember when God, Jesus said you must love me more than you love your father, your mother, your wife, your husband, your children, and even yourself. You cannot be my disciple. Do you say what God is saying here? God is saying I don't care who it is. I don't care if it's your family, I don't care if it's your brother, your wife, I don't care who it is. Let us go serve other gods which you have not known, neither nor your father. Verse seven, of the gods of the people which are all around you, pagan gods, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. Verse eight, you will not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall I pity him, nor will you spare him or conceal him, but you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death and afterward the hand of all the people." Now again, we don't kill people. But that's how serious it was. And it didn't matter whether it's family members. If your brother, somebody in your family told you to go after another God, your hand was supposed to be the first on him. Verse 10. And you shall stone him with stones until he dies because he sought to entice you away from the Lord your God. That's what they're doing to you. And that's why so many Christians sit up in church have no idea what the Bible's saying. They don't know. They're clueless. That's why they don't know how to say. They don't know that you're saved eternally if you truly say. They don't understand that the Word of God is not the contrivance of men. It was inspired by God. They don't understand any of these things. Because they've had a stumbling block thrown in front of them. You know what? I think that was enough on that part. I want to show you one more and then we're done. I want you to go to Luke chapter 6 and we're going to be done. These are the offenders. These are the ones who teach error. These are the ones that teach you to do the wrong things. These are the ones that put you in opposition to God. It sounds good because it's coming from the devil. He's like a siren who sings a beautiful song that you can't resist. Without the divine word of God, you have no way of fighting these people. You've got to know the word of God in context rightfully. Are they going to lead you astray? And if you're willing to follow these people, you're proving to God and showing you're not proving to God because you already know. You're proving to others who understand the word of God that you love these people more than you love God. If you're in Luke chapter 6. I want you to go to verse 37. I want you to see the context. Because it matches what I said in Matthew chapter 7 about judging, right? Don't let anyone tell you you can't judge. Just make sure that your judgments are what God said. If God says there's only two genders, then guess what? That's righteous judgment. If someone says there's more than two, you can say no. They can't say you don't judge me. No, yes I can. The Bible says there's only two. And then the other thing, where there's multiple ways to be saved. No, there's only one way to be saved, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. There's only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. No one comes to the Father, Jesus said, except through me. There's only one way to be saved. There are not two ways, or 200 ways, or 2,000 ways. There's only one way to be saved. That is righteous judgment. Do not come to me telling me that nonsense. Salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. Don't come here telling me that salvation is through baptism or speaking in tongues or going to church on the Sabbath or any other supposed righteous act. Salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ alone. I'm judging you to be in error. What you're saying is wrong. And it's not that I believe it's wrong. God said it's wrong. Put the responsibility on God. if you know what the truth is. Verse 37, judge not, and you will not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Now see they run with that verse, they pull it out, discard everything else around, they then run off with it and tell you, you can't judge me. Now they're doing evil now, but you can't judge me. Judge not that ye not be judged. Do you even know what that means? What is the context of the passage? Context how you spell that? What is it? He says forgive and you will be forgiven Give and we've given to you good measure press down shaking together and running over Will be put into your bosom now. You know what they run off with that one. Don't you? to empty your pockets For with the same measure that you use in judging as well, it will be what? Measured back to you. Now watch the context. Verse 39, and he spoke a parable to them. Now who he's talking about are the religious leaders and those who condemn other people because they weren't doing what they thought should be right. Remember they had established false Judaism that it imposed a burden, a religious burden on people that nobody could keep. And told people if they wanted to stay in right standing with God, they had to do all of this stuff. And then they would condemn people and judge people harshly because they didn't do these things that were unbiblical. And God said where the kind of harsh judgment you use will be used against you. These were unbelievers so we know what the harsh judgment would be. Now I want you to notice verse 39. And he spoke a parable to them. Can the blind lead the blind? Now guess which blind person is leading the other blind person? The offender. The ones that you like to sit up on TBN and Daystar and watch them. They're blind as bats. They can't understand the Word of God. I can tell by listening to them. All you got to do if you know the Word of God, you can clearly see these people are off their rockers. They're not saying nothing. It sounds good because they're impressive with their language. Great swelling words of emptiness. He says, can blind people lead blind people? Can they? Think about that in the real world. Do you want to be led by Stevie Wonder? And I don't mean to poke fun at Stevie Wonder, but I'm not gonna let a blind man lead me. Can you imagine you going down, going across a bridge or something, some narrow bridge, and, you know, restraints are missing or something. You want to be following him? A blind man? Well, the blind man represents blind religious leaders. Can the blind lead the blind? And the answer should have been no. You know why? They will both fall into a ditch. Wonder what the ditch is synonymous with? Hell. So you don't heed the warning of Deuteronomy 13. And you, right, you and brother Mike, you're nuts. What is, they said Jesus was nuts. So, oh, I don't want, I like these people. I want to listen to the offenders. where then you're blind and the reason you're following the offender is because he's blind. Now listen now, look at verse 40. A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. So if your teacher's blind and you're listening to him, you're going to be just like him, blind. If your teacher knows the truth and exposes the Word of God correctly, then guess what? You're going to be like him. So Jesus is telling you now, stop following these offenders. Be very careful because God is testing us to see whether we love the Lord our God. Here's about.