Book of Amos - Ch. 2, Vs. 11-16 (09/05/1999) | NOTE: Incomplete tape

Park Meadows Church

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Sunday afternoon, we began a series of the Book of Amos. Brother Otis is going to teach one

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Sunday, and then I'm going to pick up where he left off and teach the next Sunday. And then he's going to pick up where I left off one verse later and teach the next

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Sunday. And we'll go like that till we finish this book. And I asked him to do this with me, but primarily because I wanted to study together with him through a book.

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And I thought that'd be a neat way to be able to do that and also to give you the variety of two different teachers teaching through the same book.

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I thought it would be interesting for us to do. The goal is for us to learn together. Well, I believe that this section that we're going to teach this afternoon, starting with verse 11 in chapter 2.

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Amos chapter 2, verse 11 through verse 16 fits very well with the message this morning.

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This morning, we started a series on the sign gifts and with a discussion of which of the gifts have ceased from being operative during the church age.

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Very controversial topic right now. You go back to the early 1900s, it was not controversial at all.

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There was no controversy because before the year 1901, there was no such thing as a Pentecostal or charismatic.

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And so there was no controversy. But now it's the fastest growing segment of, quote,

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Christendom. And so we have to deal with these issues from a base of truth. And it was difficult this morning because there's so much wonderful material out there to be studied and to read what people have said through the ages about these very topics.

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It's not a new issue. It's just that there's never been controversy about it before until now.

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So hopefully, you'll stick with us for a few Sundays so we can move through that material. And it just gets more and more powerful.

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This morning, it's difficult sometimes to introduce something and not have enough time really to bring it to a good ending.

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So it may be four weeks out before we bring it to that good ending. So just keep coming on Sunday mornings.

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And then this afternoon, it's interesting because what this particular passage that we're dealing with this afternoon deals with false teachers.

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And so let's pray. And then we'll begin with Amos chapter 2 and verse 11.

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Amos is the country preacher who's gone to the city, as you remember from Brother Otis' fine introduction to the book last time.

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A lot of it was kind of humorous because you can almost picture this man coming in from the south and going up north and into the city of the king, into the temple.

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I don't know whether we'd call it a temple, but the actual place of worship of the king and then giving a message.

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And perhaps a message where some pulpit pounding was going on because he's a strong preacher.

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And so we got that introduction. We worked our way through chapter 2 and verse 11. But I want to start with verse 11, even though we covered it last time, because it works well with the passage we're going to look at from 11 to 16.

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So let's read that together, and then we'll make some comments. And I raised, wait just a second, let me just review just a little bit in case you were not here last time.

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Because this is very important to see. It's kind of humorous in a way because you can see human nature come into play here.

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But as we begin chapter 2, Amos comes in, and he's in the king's place of worship preaching.

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And all of a sudden he begins to lay out a judgment that God's going to bring down on nations surrounding

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Israel. And boy, they're loving it. You know, have you ever been in a service before where the preacher was really hitting it hard and you said, boy, get him.

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And you're not thinking of yourself. You know, I already know all this stuff. This doesn't apply to me.

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But boy, this is good for everybody else to hear. That's exactly what they were doing as he began to preach. And he comes in and he talks about Moab and how

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God's really gonna bring down judgment. Then he comes in, and you gotta remember now, we're in the, he's from the southern kingdom of Judah, but he's up here in the kingdom of Israel preaching.

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So the next thing he does, he begins to blast Judah. Well, they kind of like that too. This is good, you know.

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And so he comes down through here in verse four, begins to show how the Lord is gonna judge

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Judah. And they're still going, preach it to him, brother. Preach it. And then all of a sudden in verse six, you can just hear the auditorium get quiet.

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You could hear a pin drop and nobody says anything. And there's no more amening.

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There's no clapping. There's nothing. Because all of a sudden he starts talking about them.

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So verse six, he talks about Israel. Well, that gives you the background. Now let's go to verse 11 and look at this specific part of his sermon.

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He says, and I raised up your sons for prophets and your young men for Nazarites.

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Is it not even thus, O you children of Israel? Would you doubt that I've done that? He's saying, saith the

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Lord. But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink, and you commanded the prophets saying, prophesy not.

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Behold, I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.

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Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift and the strong shall not strengthen his force.

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Neither shall the mighty deliver himself. Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow.

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And he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself. Neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself.

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And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the

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Lord. And that's where we'll stop for today. Now next Sunday afternoon, it's just shame how this thing works out because this would be a fun part to teach, but Brother Otis gets to teach this part.

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But I like verse two in chapter, I think I'll go ahead and teach it right now. Okay, now, as we look,

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I wanna kind of do an overview of these verses and then I wanna get into some specifics if we have some time left.

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So let's do the overview first. God says, I raised up of your sons prophets and Nazarites and Brother Otis discussed what the

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Nazarite was last week. And these were young men normally who took the

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Nazarite vow. And it was a vow which pictured separation and holiness unto the

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Lord. And we have to always remind ourselves of the true definition of the word holiness. It never meant a sinless state unless it's applied to the holiness of God and then it can include that.

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But when it's applied to man being holy or God's people being holy, it doesn't mean sinless perfection.

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It means it's very similar to the word sanctification. It means to be set apart from the world unto

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God. Very simple definition. And the Nazarite had some symbolic things that he did to show that he is flat out serious about this.

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For instance, he let his hair grow long. And we know from the New Testament scriptures that the

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Bible teaches that long hair on a man is a shame. Notice it does not say it's a sin.

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A lot of our fundamental independent Baptist brethren preach it as if it's a sin for a man to have long hair and they really get down on it.

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I can remember a time when the founder of this church would not let Dr. Rocky Freeman preach here because his hair touched his ears a little bit.

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And that's a sin. I said, well, show me where it's a sin. He read me that verse. It doesn't say it's a sin, it says it's a shame.

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If it were a sin, the Nazarites couldn't do it because they were doing the opposite. They were trying to have a life of holiness.

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So why did they let their hair grow? Because it was a shame and it was an act of humiliation.

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They were humbling themselves before man and before God. And these were awesome human beings really that just gave their life out to live for God and gave up a lot of things that everybody else was doing.

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And now look what happens here. God tells these people that I'm the one who raised these prophets up from your sons and these

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Nazarites. They didn't just all of a sudden work up that faith and decide, well, I'll be a Nazarite. God called them.

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He chose them and put within their heart to do this and to teach lessons, to teach object lessons to the people and for all manner of reasons.

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And God says, I did this for you. And he says at the end of verse 11, do you doubt that I did this?

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He says, is it not even thus? Oh, you children of Israel, don't you know? Can't you look from among yourselves and see that I've called out prophets that are unusual men, strong men who give you the truth and who can turn you back in the right direction?

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And haven't I given you strong young men to take the Nazarite vow to be an example for the people and for the other young people and to picture holiness and separation unto

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God and a heart wholly given over to me? Haven't I called people out? Don't you see them among you?

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And verse 12 is pitiful and pathetic because look what God says they did with these people that God gave them.

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Now, the New Testament teaches very clearly that preachers and teachers and different people who have different gifts in the church are a gift to the church from God.

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God gives those into the church. When we have a man come in to preach like Dr.

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Freeman or other people that might have come in, God says that's a gift I give to you today to hear these men.

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When we have teachers in our own church, when we have ministers of different forms, services and people that have the gift of giving or people who have the gifts of administration, service, all the different ones mentioned in the

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Bible, God gives those people as a gift to this church. And he gave these prophets and Nazarites as a gift to the nation of Israel and look what the nation did with them.

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In verse 12, but you gave the Nazarites wine to drink. Well, they were forbidden to drink wine.

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So they tempted them with wine. The very thing that showed their separation, they get here, have some wine.

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God doesn't care, he lets me drink it and I'm not sinful. So have some with me, no one will know.

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And they tempted the young men to break their vows to God. God said it's better not to make a vow than to make one and break it.

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And they tempted them and caused these young men to break the vow. Ask yourselves the question, why did they do that?

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And then it says they commanded the prophets saying, prophesy not. Now, why would they do that?

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What could they do if they didn't prophesy? Well, I'll tell you what's uncomfortable about prophesying is this, but I will send a fire upon Moab and it shall devour the palaces of Kiriath.

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And he comes down and he says, for three transgressions of Judah and four, for four,

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I will not turn away the punishment thereof. How many of you like to hear preaching like that? And he goes on and says, because they have despised the law of the

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Lord, saying it just like it is. That's the way a prophet would preach. And he comes down and he talks to Israel, thus saith the

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Lord for three transgressions of Israel and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof.

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They're getting a little uncomfortable here to say the least, because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes, et cetera, et cetera.

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Why do they say prophesy not? What did they want them to do? Did they want them just to remain silent?

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Of course not. They wanted their religious services. Oh, they like religion.

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It's just that they wanted to give them a little instruction about what they might ought to teach about. They had certain messages that they really needed to hear that were more important than this kind of message that pointed out sin in the land.

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They said, we need to know how to be prosperous. Could you find some Bible principles in this book that God gave that will teach me how to be a better businessman?

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Well, sure I can. I've done studies like they're all through here. If you want to know how to make money, read this book, it'll show you.

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Everything you need for life is in this book. So would you just bring us some principles about how to make more money?

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Bring us some principles that show us how God doesn't want any of his people to be poor. Bring us some principles that teach us that God doesn't want anybody to ever be sick, that he wants everyone who's right with him to be healed and have perfect health.

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Bring me some sermons like that. Bring me a message on how I can learn to be peaceful and rest in my life.

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June heard one like that last week at a different church. Teach me how

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I can be happy and rest and not have burnout in my life. These are the things we want to hear.

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What nation does that sound like? Well, so the first problem we see in this little passage is yes,

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God had given them gifted men and the people ruined them and turned them into people that would preach what they wanted to hear so they get no help from it at that point.

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And this is certainly what happens today. Let me read you a passage here from 2

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Timothy chapter four and verse one. I charge thee therefore before God and the

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Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead. He shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.

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Preach the word. Now this is talking to modern day preachers. Preach the word.

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Be instant in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

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Boy, there's a word we don't hear much anymore. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers.

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Heap to themselves teachers. Having itching ears. What is it saying?

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What is it saying that in these days of the church age people will be doing the same thing they were doing in Amos?

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God brings gifted young men, calls them out, brings them up and prepares their hearts to preach and they get all excited and they get up and the first sermon that they preach that has anything, the remotest thing to do is sin in the church.

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There's some people that get some countenances on their face that scare those young men so much they never preach about that again.

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They turn the TV on and they hear Dr. So -and -so teaching on these wonderful success principles.

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Even the ones that you guys like to listen, the ones you want. Now this one's good, I like to listen to this one. That's what he's preaching, success principles.

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Right out of the Bible. Here's how you can have a good marriage. Here's how you can have good economy.

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Here's how you can manage your money and be a good steward. All these things in there in the Bible and sure, we can teach, we can have some little seminars and teach on those issues and we gain from it but that's not what

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God wants thundered from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, I don't think. But that's what the people want.

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And so the people heap unto themselves, teachers, who will do those things. And that's why you go into the large churches, the ones that have the salaries, $85 ,000, $100 ,000 a year salaries for the preachers, that's what they preach.

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Because that's what the people hired because that's what they want to hear. Now, what

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God says is he says, there will come a time when no one will want to endure sound doctrine, they're gonna bring teachers to them that'll teach what they do want to hear.

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But when he discusses what you're supposed to do, he says, first of all, preach the word.

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That's what's supposed to be happening. Preach the word, the word preach means to herald.

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It has nothing to do or it does have something to do with it but it's not only talking about a pulpit here.

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It's talking about all the people, all of God's people should be preaching because the word means to proclaim the good news.

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Preach the word, go out and preach to people the doctrines of the Bible. He goes on and he says, preach the word, he says, be instant.

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You know what being instant means? We think it means to be ready, but it actually means to stand upon.

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You have to have something to stand upon before you can stand upon something. The only thing you can stand upon are the doctrines in this

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Bible. The ones that never change. Be instant, reprove.

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The word reprove means to confute. Now today we call that divisiveness.

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If somebody gets up and confutes something that someone else said, so that's wrong, then he's divisive in the church.

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We bring divisiveness, we have division in the church. We don't all love each other. We have to have all the different people that believe different ways have to be all together and we're gonna bring them all back into one big happy church family.

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And the way we're going to do that is we're going to remove doctrine so we have no division. It's the only way you'll do it, by the way.

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Remove the doctrinal teachings and just talk about the love of Jesus and we all get along.

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That's what the big movement in the world today, in fact, the charismatic movement today, the big one thing they want to do is for everybody to get along.

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They want to bring the Catholics in, they'll bring the Roman Catholics. If you'll read Fox's Book of Martyrs, you'll see that the

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Roman Catholics have killed more born -again Christians than any other movement in the world, history.

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There have been more Christians killed by Catholics than by lions, and we don't believe that.

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And yet we want to bring them in, be friends with the Catholics, love them, and we want to bring everybody in.

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We want to bring the apostates in, we want to bring the liberals in. We want to get along, and those few who stand up and have the audacity to say, no, doctrinally these people are wrong so we can't walk with them, those are the divisive people.

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Well, I'll remind you what the scripture said this morning. We didn't leave them, they left us. You go back to the 1900s, the late 1800s, you didn't have

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Charismatics, Pentecostals, and all that stuff. You had some Methodists, you had some Baptists, you had some Presbyterians, you'd be surprised how close they were in their beliefs.

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Who can remember a day where the Methodists and the Baptists would actually meet together and hear the same preacher? I'm telling the truth about it.

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And you wouldn't say, oh, that's the Methodist preacher, I don't think he can preach, I don't think I'll go hear him.

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No, you wouldn't say that, why? Because he got this old thing out right here, got right in the middle of it, preached something to you.

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And yet, nowadays, we don't even believe that book is true anymore, and the seminaries that put out the young Methodist preachers and the young Baptist preachers and all of them are teaching the young men that the word of God has errors in it, and that only part of it is

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God's word, and you have to be smart enough to figure out what's his word and what's not, and they teach them all that stuff, and so now you have such differences of belief that you can't have the denominations get together, so you have all these denominational divisions.

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Now what we've done, we've gone full course, now that everyone believes differently, the charismatics wanna bring us all back in one room so we can have confusion, and that won't work either.

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So Satan cuts it on both ends. First, he divides up the denominations and makes them where you can't meet together, and then he brings it back and said, well, let's have peace and let's all meet together once it's all confused.

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So he gets the best of both worlds when it comes to religion because that's his thing, is religion.

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And so we see that what God says we're supposed to do is that preachers, when they preach, they should preach the word and they should reprove, they should confuse things, they should disagree with things that aren't biblical, and they should admonish, which the same word's been translated in different places in the

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New Testament into the word convict. How many of you think if you go hear a sermon on successful Christian living that you're gonna get under conviction about anything?

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So that's not preaching, which convicts. The word also has been translated to convince people.

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It's also translated, I'm talking about this word reprove, it's translated to tell a fault, to point out a fault, to rebuke, to reprove.

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And so he says, preach the word, be instant, and reprove, reprove, confuse, admonish, convict, convince, tell a fault.

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And then he goes a little stronger than that and he uses the English word rebuke, which comes from a

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Greek word which means to tax upon. That means you're feeling a little uncomfortable when that starts, to rebuke, to censure, or admonish, to forbid.

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Did you know that there should be certain things preachers forbid in the church? I mean, if they're called man of God and they have any administrative calling of God at all, they just say, we don't do that here.

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If you do that, you just go somewhere else. Now, you can't build a very big church if you do that, and I guarantee you, you can't build a very big school if you do that, can you,

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Mrs. Rogers? And so rebuke carries the meaning of forbidding certain things. And then it says exhort, which comes from the

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Greek word parakaleo, which is the same word paraclete comes from, which is the comforter, the

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Holy Spirit. But when a preacher exhorts, it means he's supposed to call near and invite people and invoke people to follow him as he follows

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God. Now, that's not just the preacher, preacher, that's all of us are supposed to be doing these things if we're right.

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If this church is right, we should be preaching the word to our friends, not just getting in and kowtowing to all of this success preaching, and well, yeah,

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I know you believe a little different than I do, and at least I still love you, you know, and well, yes, you know, if they're in the

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Lord, you can love them, but it doesn't mean you can't rebuke them at the same time and forbid their false doctrine.

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Now, you know, there are right ways and wrong ways to do it always, and you have to let the Holy Spirit lead you to know exactly what to do.

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But we're supposed to be instant. We're supposed to stand upon something. We're supposed to reprove, confute, admonish, convict people.

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We're supposed to rebuke, which is in a taxing way and forbidding something that they're doing, and then we're supposed to exhort, which means we call them near and say, now, if that's wrong, let me show you the right way.

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Let's go together and follow the Lord. Now, that's the way it should be. Look around you in America today and tell me how much of that you're seeing.

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It's supposed to be done with patience, the Bible says there in the same passage, and in doctrine.

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Now, that's important. Isn't it interesting that there in 2 Timothy 4, that as it gives all of these points, it says to do this with patience and do it with doctrine.

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And yet we have Christian schools in this town that have advertised in the newspaper, and the big thing they were bragging to point is we teach no doctrine here.

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Now, what does that mean? We teach no teaching here. The word doctrine means teaching. We teach no teaching here.

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And so there you go, and they're telling the truth. It's not false advertising. And then they're supposed to watch and endure and evangelize and approve the ministry.

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Now, that's what's supposed to happen, but you know what happens when God sends along young men like that? All of a sudden, the people say, well, you know, young man, that was a pretty good sermon, but you're gonna run some people off with that and offend a few people.

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If you would just teach these people how to be successful, then they wouldn't mess up. So just teach them how to be successful. If you'll teach them how to have money and be financially fit, then they won't have all the problems that people have that don't have money.

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And so you won't have so many problems in the church. If you'll just stick with those things, you'll do better. And they destroy the young preacher.

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And you go into Amos, I gave you prophets and your young men as prophets in Nazarites, but you gave them wine to drink and you commanded them not to prophesy any longer.

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Well, you know, the Bible teaches very clearly in 2

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Thessalonians 2, in verse three, let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first.

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And that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. We can see these things going on around us, but it doesn't mean that we ought to be depressed about it.

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We ought to rejoice and say, we see prophecy being fulfilled every day. All around us, we see it being fulfilled.

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As we see the very falling away from the truth, we can see a man,

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I get in trouble here and I don't care because I got the pulpit. We see a man who's been teaching the word for 40 years under three different ministries.

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Now, most people go to that many churches in one year nowadays, but over a 40 year period, teaching the word in three different ministries, teaching people how to teach

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Sunday school, and you go into the home over there and you got about four people hanging around listening to that Bible study.

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There ought to be 900 people in that room. You get a church here and I'm not saying anything about me, but anybody that gets behind this pulpit preaches this book, unless we make a mistake and then it only happens once and they don't come back again to this pulpit.

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And you come in here, we've got quality here, but we don't have quantity, do we? You know what?

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Great day, we might have, what, 80 people in here? 75, 80 people. There are churches in this town that have 2 ,000 people in attendance, probably or 1 ,000.

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Why is it that we can have Bible teachers who are preaching the word and exhorting and admonishing and rebuking in the power of the

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Holy Spirit people don't want to show for it because we're in the process of a great falling away, an apostasy from the truth.

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Now, God's people will still be here and you can't be drawn to it. And that's why I said we have quality here.

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God's people are drawn to it and you can't run them away. But the people of the world and the carnal, what they call carnal

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Christians, you know, I don't even know if that's an accurate term. In most cases, it's a lost person, but they're not drawn to that sort of thing.

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And so we can rejoice in the fact that we're in that day of the falling away. Jesus said in Matthew 24, 24, for there shall arise false prophets and false

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Christs and shall show great signs and wonders. Do you not see around you that we're in the age where the churches are going into signs and wonders?

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You laughed this morning when I zapped Brother Richard on the forehead and he falls off and wiggles in the floor.

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Well, they don't laugh where it happens because it's a wonder and a sign. And Jesus predicted these things.

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And I'll promise you, if you go before the year 1901, you won't find that in church history. I'm gonna prove it.

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If you'll just keep coming on Sunday mornings, I'm preaching right through it in detail. I've got history,

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I've got Bible, I've got reality. If you wanna hear it and share it with your friends, give you a few things to rebuke and admonish about, few things where you can confuse a little bit, few things where you can say, hey, you're wrong.

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I'm gonna show you where you're wrong. I know it feels good to your heart, but you're wrong, you're deceived. What'd be wrong with us doing a little bit of that around town?

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Nothing's happening anyway. Now, Jesus said, false

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Christ and false prophets will arise in the last days and show great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very who.

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Why is it that you're always telling me, I know I have friends that are going to charismatic churches that are born again.

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Why are you always telling me that? Because it's true. There are some elect in there.

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Why they stay, I don't know. And I don't believe they'll stay very long because Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me.

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They won't be in there very long, but I'm not saying there wouldn't be one in there today somewhere. But this verse,

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Jesus predicted that in the last days, they will be so powerful, these preachers. And listen, you want to see some pulpit pounding preachers, go in your charismatic churches.

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No wonder people like to listen to them. They are truly that, they're charismatic. They'll burn a trench in the ground, moving around up down these aisles, keeping your attention and bringing you to the point of tears and the point of laughter and get you to roll around or jump and shout.

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And your emotions are just so into it because they can turn you on and turn you off just like that. And the very elect can be deceived by that.

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They shouldn't be, but it says, if possible, they would be. Well, he doesn't say it's possible and he doesn't say it's not possible in that verse.

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If you just read it, it doesn't say either way. It may be possible to deceive them. And obviously it's possible to deceive them.

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Eve was deceived before she fell, wasn't she? So people can be deceived by this type of false, but it's so wonderful that Jesus put it right here, very plainly.

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He said, look, when you get towards the last days and you see a bunch of signs and wonders, stay away from it.

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Get out of it, stay away from it. Because if you're not careful, if you're so prideful as to think you can look into those things, you may well be deceived.

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Mark 13, 22, for false Christ and false prophets shall arise and shall show signs and wonders to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.

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Why would they do it if it weren't possible? They're showing signs and wonders.

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Listen, you don't have to believe what I'm saying because I know it doesn't feel good because you have friends that are involved in these churches.

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But Jesus Christ said that the reason, the purpose for these signs and wonders is to seduce people.

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Now, what does seduce mean, if not other than to seduce them out of what is right into something that's wrong?

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God said this would be happening in the last days and that even the elect would be affected by it.

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And that's why the fastest growing movement in Christendom today is the charismatic movement because they're being seduced.

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Now, let me go on. The Bible shows you how, 2 Corinthians 11, 13. Now, let me stop just a minute.

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Let me remind you what we're talking about. Why do you think these preachers are out here doing this? Don't you think they know better?

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I mean, they got the same Bible we have. Why don't they see these same verses? Why don't they interpret them the same way?

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They used to. Somebody seduced them. You know who seduced them?

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The people. The people pay them to preach this. Why do you think it is

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I've never taken a salary from this church? Because it'd break this church if I took a salary from this church.

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What would I have to do though to build a crowd big enough where I could take a salary from this church?

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I'd have to change my ways a little bit and get people like Richard to come up here and let me slap him around a little bit.

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Amen. I'd get me some thin slivered, how do I say it? Thin slivered alligator shoes.

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Get me some rings on my fingers and get Charlotte to go blonde on us and get some of them eyebrows.

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And put her right up here. And a Rolex. I may get one of those someday,

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I don't know. A Rolex watch. And a house in California and a house in Florida and pay for it all with gospel money.

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And so we know how to do it. We're just dumb around here, aren't we? We just refuse to do it. Thank you.

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I will thank you later if you do shoot me. You saved me a worse whooping.

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Kind of reminds me of Brother Bland's story. He told me, is he here? Good, he's gone. He left after lunch.

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I can talk about him a little bit. One time, over at our old building, we had a demoniac that lived right behind us.

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Remember that? Mr. Noakes. My little children grew up calling him Brother Noakes. He's the furthest thing from a brother, but they called everybody brother.

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So it was Brother Noakes, the demoniac, Brother Noakes. And he came out and Brother Raymond was out there putting up a privacy fence for the sole purpose of keeping that man from bothering our children in the church.

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He'd get up there and stare at him like that and say vulgar things. So Brother Raymond and his wife were out there building this beautiful privacy fence and Noakes comes over there.

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This may not even have been the day they built the fence, but it was one time Brother Raymond was out there. Noakes comes over on our property and gets right up in Raymond's face.

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Raymond said, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do, Mr. Noakes. He said, I'm fixing to give you the worst whooping you ever had. And he used a word that only a brand new baby

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Christian would use, but he told him that. Mr. Noakes said, you do that, you'll go to jail.

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He said, I'm not afraid to go to jail. He said, I'm fixing to whoop you and then I'm gonna go to jail.

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When I get out, you're gonna get the next one. And he said, if I go again, when I go to jail, you're gonna have another one coming.

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So it would do good. So if you shoot me and it's because I'm raising money by preaching that way, go ahead and have at it.

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And if I go to heaven, you can just shoot me again or something. Second Corinthians 11, 13 says this, for such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

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And second Peter chapter two, verse nine says, the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.

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And he says, but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise governments, that's the

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Jehovah's Witnesses. They won't salute the flag. Presumptuous are they, self -willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

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Whereas angels wouldn't do that. Verse 12 says, but these are natural brute beasts. Now see, we view them as just brothers who just believe a little differently.

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These preachers that preach this false doctrine. They're just brothers, they've just been a little bit deceived.

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But God says they're natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed. They speak evil of things that they don't even understand.

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I mean, they'll speak evil about the grace of God. They'll get up and joke about how Baptists say, well, once saved, always saved.

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You can just go out and get saved and you can go live for the devil. And they'll joke about grace and they don't even understand the grace of God.

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They don't understand the work of the Holy Spirit in a person's life, where he will not allow you to go live that way.

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You're talking about shooting, the Holy Spirit will knock you down if you try to live that way, if you belong to him.

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And they don't understand that, so they speak evil and they make jokes about it. But they shall utterly perish in their own corruption,

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God said. And they shall receive their reward of unrighteousness as they that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime.

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Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you.

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They're fellowshipping with us. They're sitting down at the Word wanting to discuss the Bible with us.

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They're eating with us, having eyes full of adultery. Have you ever read of any charismatic leaders that had a problem in that area?

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Such as a stack of Playboy magazines under the front seat in the car?

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And they always say, well, I just look, I never touch. That's what they always say.

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Having eyes of adultery, isn't it funny that they say that? Eyes of adultery. And they cannot cease from sin.

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Why is that? Because they're not saved. Before you were saved, could you cease from sin?

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No, you're a slave to it. Beguiling unstable souls. What is it a charismatic loves?

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If someone comes to this church and they get under conviction and God saves their soul and they go home, the first person at their house to disciple them will be a charismatic.

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They'll come get them and they'll wanna teach them their stuff and grab a brand new baby and try to beguile an unstable soul, someone who doesn't know the truth yet.

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He calls them cursed children which have forsaken the right way and are gone astray following the way of Balaam.

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Do you know what the way of Balaam is? Anybody remember that? What did he do? What did he preach for? Gain for money.

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Who love the wages of unrighteousness. Second Peter chapter two, verse 17 is a parallel passage.

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It calls these same preachers. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever.

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What does that sound like? What place does that remind you of? Darkness forever. For when they speak great and swelling words of vanity, they allure, listen to this, through lusts of the flesh.

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I asked Frank Ford, my friend, one of my first Sunday school teacher who moved to Arlington. He said, David, there's a church out here, grew from 28 people to over 2 ,000 members in a year.

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I said, man, how'd they do it? He said, they passed out tambourines. And he wasn't knocking, he thought, maybe this will work.

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Maybe you should try it, David. He was trying to get me, maybe it'll work for y 'all down there. I thought about it for about a week.

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But anyway, Miss Rogers liked the idea too, but Richard didn't, so we voted it down.

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But look at this important phrase in second Peter 2, 18. They allure through the lusts of the flesh.

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Things are taught that appeal to the flesh. Through much wantonness, those that were clean escape from them who live in error.

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Titus chapter one, verse 10 says, for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, those that believe in works, those that are pharisaical, whose mouths must be stopped.

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Now, let me ask you this, you live in an age where if you shut someone's mouth up, you're divisive, you're not kind, you're not living right towards your brother.

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But the Bible says that there are people whose mouths have to be stopped. Now, who's gonna stop them? We just sit quietly in our homes, in our

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Christian school, in our little safe church. Who's gonna stop these mouths? Somebody needs to say something because they subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake.

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I mean, this just describes the typical television evangelist and the typical charismatic and the typical charismatic church and the

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Baptist are into it too. I mean, non -charismatic, it's not just the charismatics, it's the whole new age, the whole

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Laodicean church. You go into your big Southern Baptist churches and I'm sure there's some huge independent churches where they're not even preaching anymore, they're doing plays, they're doing musicals and plays.

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Anything they can do to draw the flesh into that building so they can count those numbers. Titus 116 says, they profess that they know

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God, but in works they deny him. You ever seen anybody like that? Preach a pretty good sermon, but you start digging around their life and you see things that ought not be there.

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Being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate. Jude 11 says, woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain.

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You remember who Cain was? Did you know who Abel was?

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Did you know Abel was the first preacher? Check it out. I'll do an

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Otis on you, find that next week. Show me scripture proving that Abel was the first preacher.

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You're gonna be surprised where the scripture is, it won't be where you look. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain.

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Cain was a preacher killer. Cain was a preacher killer. That's what the

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Bible says in Amos, the people were doing, they were killing preachers. They were shutting them up really quick while they were still young before they could be strong.

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These are spots in your feasts, your love feasts. They're fellowshipping with us. When they feast with you, they feed themselves without fear.

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Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit are withered.

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Can you imagine the cloud coming up? How long, how many days has it been without rain? We had a drop yesterday, but how many, year and a half with no rain.

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Now can you imagine this beautiful, dark, heavy cloud coming right up on the horizon, lightning coming down and it gets right over there and it just keeps right on going and just goes on by and no rain comes out of it.

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That's the way a false prophet is. He's carrying a Bible. He looks like he's gonna bring the water of the word and he just stays there for about an hour and a half and you got nothing, still dry.

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Still a dry and thirsty land after you heard him preached. He's like a tree with no fruit on it.

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He's twice dead, he's plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, these false preachers.

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They're like wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

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They're foreordained to go to hell. And we consider them brothers and they eat with us in our love feasts.

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And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these saying, behold the Lord cometh with 10 ,000 of saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and with all of their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

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These were murmurs, complainers, walking after their own lusts and their mouth speaketh great swelling words.

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And they are the first of the nations having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. They got the rich businessmen in town there and preaching just what they wanna hear.

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Now, which is more modern and up to date, that passage or the passage in Amos where they were doing the same thing?

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The same thing. It goes on and God says right after this, he says, behold, because you've done this in verse 13 of Amos chapter two,

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I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves Can you picture an old cart going down the road and it's so full of sheaves that the wheels are buckling out and the sideboards are buckling out and it's just looks like it's just about to break

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God says I'm just about to explode here I'm just about to explode on this nation because of this and I'm gonna touch on that in a minute

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Let me see what time we've got here I don't have time, but I'm gonna touch on it anyway 14 says therefore the flight shall perish from the

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Swift. We've already read this verse 14 through 16 What does it say? It says weakness is coming and defeat

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Your strong men will be weak He says one strong men in a group of men in battle will not be strong enough to win the battle

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Because there's too many weak ones with him And that a picture of the church today

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If you want to say this is a strong church brother Otis says it is I mean He's seen some other churches in the area and he comes here and says you're unusually strong in the word

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But do you think we're strong enough to carry the whole thing in America I Don't think so Because the

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Bible says Therefore the flight shall perish from the Swift and the strong shall not strengthen his force

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You can put the strong one in the midst, but he's not enough by himself to strengthen the whole force to win the battle

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It's gone too long. Perhaps it certainly had in this day and God says if we're not there yet Let me just say this we're gonna be there

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We're going that way because the same sins that he lists America's in the midst of it and multiplied

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So weakness and defeat is the end result now Let me close with this because I want to set up I want to give brother

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Otis's introduction to chapter 3 for you right now just briefly Look at Verse 11 where we started and look at the last word in the verse

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You see that word Somebody tell me what it is. So I know if you're still with us

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It's what happens when you close up your Bible thinking the message is over Lord and it has all caps.

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Do you see that? Well in the English Bible anytime you see the word Lord with all caps.

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It has been translated from the Hebrew word That we call Jehovah or Yahweh and that is the word here

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Now we're gonna come into some interesting areas and really when you get to verse 13 You see where it says behold

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I am pressed under you as a card is pressed that is full of sheaves Wouldn't you agree that that verse almost if you didn't know the