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Sunday school from March 19th, 2017
We're gonna start in the book of rebel at the not revelation exodus 20, and then we're gonna go into Jeremiah 23. But before we do that, let's pray Lord Jesus again as we open up your word. We ask that you would open our hearts our minds send your spirit to help us understand What it is that you have revealed here that you would have us believe and do we ask this in the name of Jesus?
Amen. So you've noticed that we have been crawling our way through exodus chapter 20 the 10 Commandments. This is on purpose so that we can really kind of Understand what these commandments are getting at especially in the first table.
We've already noted what it means to have no other gods. We've also noted that the command against Worshipping graven images is a subset of that first commandment last week We began to unpack the concept of you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
For the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. We noted that last week one of the ways in which God's name is taken in vain is when people who in the name of Christ actually preach and teach false doctrine.
That is making promises for God that he didn't make or making Requirements of people that God does not require or taking his word and making it void by adding your own Stuff to it. We've noted all of this today.
We're going to hit on a more Contemporary issue. Although I Hesitate to call it contemporary because the problem that we're facing right now is the exact same problem that The church has always faced and even the Old Testament Saints also face the same problem that we have and this is the problem of false prophets false Prophets now, I'm going to give you an example of so-called modern-day prophecy.
I don't know if you know who this woman is. This woman her name is Cindy Jacobs. Cindy Jacobs claims to be a living Apostle on the earth. She claims to be a living Apostle at the beginning of each year her and a group of people the apostolic council of prophetic elders.
Get together somewhere in the world and they all pool their collective what they think God is saying To the church today in order to give us the word of the Lord for the year Coming up and this is the this is her prophecy for The year 2017, let's take a listen see if we can hear this.
Hello, I'm very excited to be able to Present to you a compilation report of the epistolic health of elders 99 we first met in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Every instance that We gather with a group of prophets to get the word of the Lord for the year.
These are very seasoned prophetic elders five years ago. We added a new generation Young leaders and they're just holding us Wonderfully accountable as we're mixing the generations and we're holding them accountable.
It's a really good thing to see that we will have legacy as a prophetic group. And so this is a word and as I'm sharing you have to understand this is a.
The.
Acts 13 one and two that says that they met at Antioch and The Holy Spirit said separate unto me Paul and Barnabas and so it wasn't one Prophet speaking it was the Holy Spirit speaking. So in this compilation report We have agreed to these different words and not one Prophet is going to put their name on any part of the word.
Although we might issue individually what we receive but this is something the Holy Spirit has spoken to us and so the word of the Lord for 2017 is the breakthrough year. Very Exciting. Many times we've had words that were not so exciting.
Kind of where we felt. So it's the breakthrough year.
They say the same thing every year. It's like there's like these buzzwords. It's the breakthrough. There's gonna be a shifting. How come they never say this is the year you're going to die in a tragic car crash?
Get your stuff together and get your will in order. You ain't gonna make it through 2017. Nobody ever talks like this. So is this the year of is that what God's saying that today's this year is your breakthrough year?
What does that even mean. If it's your breakthrough year, it means you're gonna go ice fishing. You're going. Maybe the breakthrough year in repentance. Now, I'm gonna tell you what I call this you. Remember when we had little kids and the pajamas that they would wear they were onesies, you know.
It's like they had little feet ease and all that kind of stuff. Now if you're still wearing that, please don't tell me.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, it's been a long time since I've been in one of those. Yeah, but yeah. Now so think of it this way have you ever purchased an item of clothing that said one size fits all. Okay. Yeah. Most one size fits most right?
Yeah. Yeah, I went to go buy a muumuu and I needed a shamu muumuu who knew any. Anyway, so here's the issue. This is a one-size-fits-all Prophecy and what does it mean? It means whatever you want it to mean.
And these people and here's the interesting thing. These people claim to be hearing directly from God and there are literally people who call themselves Christians who cannot make the next decision in their life until they check in with people like this.
So, I mean here we are. It's already Halfway through the month of March. I need to know what's coming in the summer. So I have I've got I've got vacations to plan. I need to check with my prophet or my Apostle to find out what the word of the Lord is so I can find out what I need to be doing in the months.
Ahead.
What they in. When I was growing up we had a term for these people. They were called astrologers. This is the Christian equivalent of having an astrological reading and the Precision of the prophecies are pretty much on par with what you get in the pagan tarot card astrology world.
Right. Have you ever read the horoscope. The daily horoscope and it's like it's ridiculous. You're gonna have a good day. That's great. You're gonna you're gonna find love. Yeah, okay, that's. Wow, I mean how that goes, okay.
Yeah, so.
Basically, what I've learned is you show me somebody who's claiming they're hearing directly from God and I'll show you somebody who's twisting God's Word and teaching for shameful gain things. They ought not to teach.
Yes, we are. We did. Did anyone not hear from God today during the sermon. Everybody heard from God today during the sermon right. And the reason for that's quite simple is because I preached the word.
But we'll talk about this in a little bit. So what we're gonna do today. We're going to let me get her off my screen because she bugs me.
Let's take a look at a couple of passages. I'd like to go to Deuteronomy 18 and I want to note what the scripture says regarding false teachers. We're gonna note what scripture says about false teachers at false prophets in particular.
And we're gonna look at the biblical standards for what it is. For you know for anyone claiming to be a prophet and in Deuteronomy 18 verse 15. We have a prophecy regarding Jesus Christ. Okay, remember when John the Baptist was doing his preaching ministry in preparation for Christ to come onto the scene.
That they the Jewish Scribes and Pharisees came to John the Baptist and they literally asked him. Are you the prophet and he said no I am NOT. Which prophet were they referring to? Right Jesus the one the prophet prophesied in Deuteronomy 18.
Let's take a look at what the text says. Here's what it says. Yahweh your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among you from your brothers it is to him. You shall listen Just as you desired the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said let Me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God or see the great fire any more lest I die and the Lord Said to me they are right what they have spoken.
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers and I will put my word in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him and Whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name.
I Will require it of him.
Now.
So in Deuteronomy 18, we have a prophecy regarding Jesus He's the prophet prophesied here and notice what the Lord is saying. I'm gonna raise up this prophet and you must listen to him if you do not listen to him I'm gonna hold you accountable.
So they know that this prophets coming and we know from other parts of the Old Testament That this is a prophecy regarding the Messiah himself and the Lord's going to require Everyone to listen to him listen to the words of his mouth.
This is Jesus, but there was an interim of time. Really long interim. Like 1 ,500 years long interim of time from the time God spoke this to the time when Jesus arrived.
So.
What do you think the enterprising greedy false prophets would do? I am the one. I'm the one. I am the one. I'm the prophets in the history of Israel. There are histories. In fact The New Testament mentions a few fellows who basically claimed to be the one and things didn't go well for them.
So immediately the question comes up. Well, if you're gonna send a prophet and I have to listen to him and if I don't listen to him. You're gonna hold me accountable for it. The immediate question comes up.
Well, how can I know with certainty whether? Somebody's speaking the words of the Lord or not. I mean it makes sense, right? There's a standard. So here in Deuteronomy 18, we have the standard given and here's what he says verse 20 but the prophet who Presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded.
Mm-hmm. So there's a group of people. According to Scripture people who say I am a prophet I hear from God thus saith the Lord and They are speaking presumptuously. They're not hearing from the Lord.
This is a category so the one who speaks presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him is to speak or. Here's the other one who speaks in the name of other gods that same prophet shall die.
So in the ancient theocracy of Israel there were several capital crimes. Adultery capital crime murder capital crime false prophecy capital crime. No, God has instituted and here's you got to understand this.
God has instituted governments. Governments are created by God for the purpose of punishing evildoers. And so the ancient theocracy of Israel the government itself the elders and the people, you know.
The government officials of Israel they were tasked with this job. False prophet arrest him put him on trial if found guilty.
He's dead.
See what I'm saying here. So notice it says two things though about false prophets. They speak presumptuously. Or they speak in the name of other gods. Now, let's apply this today. Let's apply this today.
Do you all know who TD Jake's is? TD Jake's denies the doctrine of the Trinity. He teaches a heresy known as modalism. Modalism teaches that well, there's one God and one person and That one God one person likes to wear costumes.
Best way I could put it. It's called modalism. So God goes, you know. Today, I'm going to appear to everybody and today I'm the Sun and then I'm gonna put my bird suit on it. I'm the Holy Spirit and then I'm gonna throw my voice from heaven and I'm the father.
I Wish I was making this up. Now if this were true that God just likes to show up in different manifestations or different modes. There's Jesus on the cross. My god my god, why have you forsaken me? What does that turn Jesus into?
Answer. Pay attention to the word a thespian. He's engaging in theatrics. He's talking to himself. Does it make any sense to you that God the Father appears as a woman.
Yeah. All right. I'm gonna do something. I I don't normally do I'm gonna actually refer you to my radio program go to the archives of fighting for the faith. And I did two programs on on the shack one on the new book by William Paul Young called the lies that William Paul Young tells about God.
He has a new book out that he that just came out called the lies we believe about God and I got the audio version of it that's in the archives and I just did this if like just a few days ago and Then I also did a program where I cover the problems with the shack.
All right, and there's and then when the book came out years ago actually did quite an extensive bit. There's so many errors I can't I would it would take an entire Sunday school or two to actually unpack it but his view of God is Absolutely blasphemous and it and it borders on modalism.
It definitely does border on modalism, but kind of the bigger issues in all of this. He literally he's straight-up believes and affirms that everybody's saved and That the problem of humanity is that we're just blind.
We're blind to This fact that we're all saved. It's it's really bad. So I've got quotes from him and you get to hear it from him, you know. You hear it from the horse's mouth, but there's so many problems that like I can't even begin to crack that open.
Right, and there's a reason why it's intentionally designed to be confusing okay, William Paul Young is a guy who buys into what's called post-modernism and the movie itself is written that the story itself is written in a way on purpose to deconstruct What the Bible teaches about God so you believe that God is father?
Well, I'm gonna show you God as a woman you got the father as a woman. So now what are you gonna do? You know it? Yeah, I did. It doesn't matter what color the woman is. That's.
Okay, here here's yeah, this is where I say if I'm doing my job. Then you come away from a movie like that. Even if you had no idea that it was teaching here. So you come away with from movie like that going this isn't quite fitting what I'm hearing in church.
No, they don't. In fact, they go to church every Sunday and Literally their understanding of the Word of God you can fill a thimble with it and that's the person who's extremely susceptible and Vulnerable to false teachers and the lies of the devil.
My job is to equip you to feed you get you healthy as a sheep. So that you know God's words so that when something strikes you you sit there and go. This isn't quite right. I've told the story before years and years and years ago.
I lived in Seattle when Barbara and I first got married and I used to work at a bank called Pacific Northwest Bank and it Was a startup. Okay, which means that you know, we didn't have some huge corporate structures.
I mean literally the president's office was like right above you know us on the second floor. So, you know I met the you know. Talked the president of the bank all the time. But we were so small as a bank then when it came time to who learn How to go through the training to spot counterfeits which was an important part of the training for the tellers.
They just said Chris we're gonna send you and the FBI is doing some kind of training thingy and you need to go and you're gonna be there like All day, it's like all day.
What.
Okay, so I get there no joke and I'm thinking I'm you know, how do you learn about you know counterfeit dollar bills and things? Like this I'm thinking they're gonna show us all of these different counterfeits and you look you've kind of learned.
No though the whole class was nothing but focusing in on and Becoming like an expert on what the real money is like What it feels like working with it what its features are and a lot of it was spent counting out brand new Bills which are the worst things in the world to have to have to work with.
They stick together.
But.
After that training no joke. I could spot a counterfeit bill just by touching it. I didn't even have to look at it. Okay, and you know since I mean it's been decades now since I've had that training I can still spot a counterfeit.
I mean, there's been two times in my adult life I've been like Walmart and a fast-food place and they handed me money and I handed right back and said this is a counterfeit. How do you know? I just know run your pen over it and they run their pen over.
You know. So the way you learn how to spot false teaching is by knowing your Bible really well. And that's my job to help you with that. Yeah, as on the line he's he's portrayed allegorically, yeah Jesus the lion in God's word.
Yes. Absolutely. You can see that for me. Yeah, I don't yeah, I I don't recognize the deity in the shack not in the book not in the movie. I there's I.
Yeah, yeah and.
The reality is when you read William Paul Young's newest book I mean just came out in concurrence with the movie called the lies we believe about God. He's straight up I mean, I I counted maybe at least five different for real heresies, you know in this guy's belief system.
Which you can clearly then see is what he's teaching in the shack. The shack is the vehicle for his theology and it's not the vehicle for what the scriptures reveal about God or something. He did write the shack for his children to help them understand his under his beliefs about God.
Right. I will say this though and and let's I got to be careful because I'm not a psychologist. I'm not trained in psychology. I will say this though I've heard him on several interviews talk about the extremely difficult upbringing he had as a missionaries son.
Okay, and you know, he was sent to boarding school and clearly there was there was a disconnect in his relationship with his father and I will say this I have seen a Particular type of false teacher. It's not every one of them a particular fight type of false teacher is Motivated by destroying the religion of his father.
Does that make sense and.
I'm in in listening with William Paul to his theology and his story. I'm convinced that there's a high likelihood that he may not even be doing it consciously. It could be a subconscious thing. He is Working to destroy the religion that he was under under his father.
But it sounds like his his dad was an authoritarian, you know. Really tight-fisted really kind of thing. That's that creates all kinds of problems, but that's a different issue. So it may be we're dealing with daddy issues.
So Which is why God the father turns into a woman. Now coming back to the point that I was making I Asked the question if you're familiar with TD Jake's. All right. TD Jake's he is the chief vision casting leader and bishop within a movement called the The United Pentecostal Church.
They deny the doctrine of the Trinity and I over the years have seen several church services where TD Jake's has prophesied as part of his church service. Literally the Lord is telling me thus sayeth the Lord and he's speaking is There any reason whatsoever Knowing what he believes about God that I need to test his prophecy to see if it's from the Lord answers no.
No here not his.
Let me read it again.
Any prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name? Of other gods that same prophet shall die. Modalists are idolaters and they don't believe in the Trinity.
They believe in a different God altogether. Therefore, I don't even have to listen to their prophecies. I know anytime they claim to be speaking from God. They are lying right away. Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith.
He claimed to be a prophet. Do is there any reason why I need to read the Book of Mormon doctrine and covenants and pearl of great price to determine Whether or not these are true prophecies from the Lord.
No, and the reason for it simple what who is the God that Joseph Smith believed in his name is Elohim. Which is a weird name for God. You know, that was his name. He was once a man. He became a god by being obedient to his God and he and his spirit wives live near mysterious star called Kolob.
You remember the Battlestar Galactica television program. The newer ones were actually pretty decent but Gary Larson the guy who wrote the Battlestar Galactica story, he's a Mormon and He talks about the Lords of Kobol.
This is that's a attaboy to Joseph Smith and Mormon theology. So Joseph Smith. That's what he believes about God. Is that the same God is the God who is that's a different God altogether. Do I need to test his prophecies?
Nope. How about Muhammad?
Nope, not at all.
So if somebody's an Idolater denying the doctrine of the Trinity you can just rule it out right out out of hand. It's like sorry don't need to listen to you. You're not speaking in the name of the one true God.
You believe in a false God. So you're there's no way you're speaking by the Holy Spirit period. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, right. They're not okay. I I Covered this on in Sunday school just a few weeks ago and It's real simple ask take get a picture of Jesus on the cross Suffering for our sins and just ask him us you say to a Muslim.
This is the God I worship. Is that the same God you worship? Of course not. They're gonna say no that settles it. Right these these are word games.
In the name of Jesus.
Yeah that and see here's the thing I know that I know that personally I've been down that road I spent some time in a cult and You know, I got to say that my Christian education did very little to prepare me and to guard me from that.
It wasn't until after I got out of it that I said I had better get serious about learning what the Bible teaches because I clearly don't know. And that's one of the problems that we live in is the devil is very busy inside of churches doing what getting people's eyes out of Scripture and Onto every other thing that you could possibly think of under the Sun.
Except for what the scriptures say it's so bad in American Christianity that people judge a church service not by how well a pastor handled God's Word or told him the truth.
But by how entertaining he is.
Did he make me cry? Did he make me laugh? You would be better to have a pastor that stutters and Takes forever to make a point who teaches you the truth than to have a clown Entertaining you and keeping your eyes out of Scripture.
But see the problem is is that we live in a culture that values and makes the same value judgments about church that they make. About their favorite television programs. It's been so long since I've really watched Television.
I mean for me, it's like remember when Seinfeld was everyone was talking about it, right, right? You know, oh, I love Seinfeld. And did you see this the episode where they went did everything backwards?
It was really it was amazing. People make the same judgments about church that they do about TV.
We're not here to entertain you.
We're not here to be entertained. We're here to have our sins forgiven to feast on God's Word to feast on the body and blood of Christ to baptize people into Christ. To have fellowship with each other and to pray.
This is what we're here to do and We as Americans we have a very high value on entertainment. From our music to the television. How many hours a week are we consumed in these things? And so we come to church with the same expectations and that's a problem and As a result of it because of these expectations I have literally in the past few decades seen faithful pastors driven out of their churches.
Because they're irrelevant because they preach the word and The church isn't growing so they're gonna get rid of that guy and what do they put in his place? Some pimply-faced 22 year old who wears skinny jeans and.
This kid could not exegete his way out of a paper bag if you gave him a map and a flashlight. Oh. Yeah, right. We're gonna let everybody know that we care about society's values. So we're gonna get we have a woman pastor and Here's what happens.
You put the woman in you put the skinny jeans pastor guy in. Are the people in the church hearing the Word of God? No, they're not. Oh. They being entertained and of course. Those who are mature in the faith.
Who are older they can see the problem? They can see the problem immediately and they begin to voice it and you know what happens to them. They get driven out of the church. You want to talk about Syrian refugees?
Let me tell you about church refugees. I know a lot about church refugees because they contact me. I have nowhere to go. I've been driven out of my church. It was taken over like a corporate hostile takeover and no.
But we never hear anything from the Word of God ever anymore. But man, do we learn a lot about our pastor? Based on my sermons. How much do you really know about me? Yeah, you know that yeah, you don't from time to time some details will show up right.
Right. Yeah, I do yeah that you know that I'm a sinner. I say that all right, that's right but yeah. But I tell you there are literally Millions of people going to church today who are taking notes in a sermon where at the end of the day.
The person they are learning about is not Jesus. It's the guy in the skinny jeans on stage that's who they're learning about and That's a problem. Because none of them can save them. I Can't save you.
My life is just filled with sin and I'm part of the problem. So if I'm gonna point you to me. You and I we're going over the cliff together and it's the lake of fire for us, baby. Right. Yeah, let me tell you about Jesus.
Let me tell you about Jesus even the woman in the story today from our gospel text. Come and meet this guy. I saw he told me everything that I ever did. Could this be the Messiah come on you got to hear this guy who she preaching about?
Jesus she did a better job. Than many of the pastors today. It's something to keep in mind. Let's come back to this though. So a prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him speak or speaks in the name of Other gods that prophet shall die.
Now if you say in your heart, which is a very logical questions, how may we know the word that Yahweh has not spoken? Makes sense, right? You're sending a prophet. We got to listen to him. You're gonna hold us accountable if we don't now we've got this category people who speak presumptuously.
And we've got another category those who speak in the name of other gods. So, how do we know you're not actually talking through somebody because anybody can make the claim. Hey, I just heard from God.
Okay, I don't know if you've noticed in the business world. We talk about barriers to entry. You know the reason why I do not start a cargo shipping business. Because I can't even afford one cargo ship.
Okay, high barrier to entry right the bazillion dollars to buy one of these things and keep it going high barrier to entry. You know what the barrier to entry is to claiming to be a prophet.
There's no barrier.
Last night I Had a dream. And the Word of the Lord for the month of April is cheddar cheese. It's amazing. It's gonna change your life. No barrier to entry at all, but we can test them. Scripture gives us some tests.
If you say in your heart, how many we know the Word of Lord has not spoken so when a prophet speaks in my in the name of the Lord if The word does not come to pass or come true. That is a word. The Lord has not spoken the prophet has spoken.
Presumptuously, what's the penalty for presumptuous prophets? Death, so don't be afraid of them. That's a polite way of saying call the police have them arrested. They're going on trial. So when a prophet says thus saith the Lord Scott I'm getting something.
I'm getting you're you're going to win five dollars in the Minnesota lottery next week. Okay, and then you don't win it. Am I a true prophet or false prophet. False now here's. No, no, here's the thing.
Oh, yeah.
Okay, let me tell you what happens today in the charismatic movement and I wish I was making this up. So you got all these prophets running around the landscape prophesying thus saith the Lord this that and the other thing.
Oh, I see. Oh, you're gonna be married by this time next year and the woman hearing This is all finally I've been single for like ever. Okay, and so that time next year comes up and she's not married.
She's not even dating anybody and she goes to the prophetess and says you told me I'd be married by this time next year and it's this time from last year. It's now and I'm not married. You are not you are a false prophet.
You know what the prophetess will do. You didn't have enough faith. I Gave you a true prophecy. You just didn't do you didn't have enough faith to make it happen. It's your fault. Oh, yeah.
The charismatic movement is now they've now come up with a new category. Here's the category. True prophets who prophesy falsely. Yes, and we'll get to that. Hey stay tuned. Okay, we Know not next week.
I want to get to it this week. Sure.
Uh-huh.
Now I'm looking for something now. Have you guys heard of the International House of Prayer? Okay. Really you guys are killing Barry. Let me see if I can find this audio. Okay, let's see if I can play this.
Hang on a second.
And I mean the prominent prophetic guys in our midst were Bob Jones and Paul King. In the New Testament. When they warn of a false prophet they say they typically have unsettled Sensual issues in their life in other words immorality and not all of them.
But most of them and they have wrong financial practices. And they're not loyal to the doctrines about Jesus and salvation Jesus and wholehearted obedience. I don't think a false prophet is somebody who gives a prophecy and they miss it.
Meaning I believe a sincere believer. Can say I believe there's gonna be a great breakthrough in your life in the next three months. And there's not a great breakthrough in their life. That guy is not a false prophet.
Uh-huh. That's Mike Bickle. Now. Let me listen now how okay according to Mike Bickle the guy at the International House of Prayer big charismatic prophet. What percentage of? Prophecies do you think he believes are true from people claiming to be receiving direct revelation from God?
Oh, you said you said a hundred you would you say. You hope that they're all they're all. Well, he's claiming His claim based on him. Okay. This is a guy who's been in the charismatic movement forever.
If you were to get if he were to give you a percentage which percentage of them are true. Which percentage of them are false, what would you guess. You said a hundred? Most of you say. Most of them you say.
He's the only I'm gonna let you hear for him yourself.
Just.
What percentage of it's real? Are you ready? I?
Get.
Probably I don't know how many dreams or visions sent to me from because of the internet around the world email or even people from our city that aren't a part of IHOP and people part of my hub and. Most of them I don't pay attention to.
I just think they're distraction. I think they're not real. I don't mean the people aren't real. Some of them are faking it. Now there's a lot of people faking but even good people just have dumb stuff.
It's just dumb and my I'd say probably 80 of what I hear I throw it away. Does it move me at all. Does it bear witness to me? I still like the guy believe in his walk with God, but I don't believe what he says from God.
So 80 80 of the so-called prophecies coming from God according to the guy who's like Practically at the top of the charismatic movement 80 of the prophecies are totally fake. 80 Okay. Now we're like in like Baseball averages, I think we need to have like prophetic baseball trading cards.
Now batting for the Minnesota Twins Mike Bickle, he has a prophetic batting average of 200. That's a bad batting average. That's a that's a terrible bad. You gotta at least get 300 if you want like big money, right?
So you go to a charismatic church according to Mike Bickle and some people are standing up and hooping and hollering and and claiming they're hearing direct revelation from God and all this kind of stuff and According to him 80 of its fake.
Not true 80 Why would I go there for a minute? I have an 8 in 10 chance of being deceived that which kind of begs the question Why would God the Holy Spirit look down on the church and go? Alright, I'll give you 20
20 of its true. 20 of its real. Okay, and you notice from Mike Bickle when he defined a false prophet he said these words. I Think I Think where does doctrine come from? My mind my heart or scripture the scripture.
I just read to you What does it say? Regarding somebody who speaks the name in the name of the Lord and it doesn't come to pass. They're a false prophet in the ancient theocracy of Israel, do you give them another chance?
They're dead.
You bat 1 ,000 you know what it says of Samuel the prophet in Scripture. Not one of his words ever fell to the ground. Not one not one. Now here's the question I have for you. So somebody comes and says thus sayeth the Lord This this and this is gonna happen by next week.
If this this and this happens by next week, does that make them a true prophet? No, let me give you another text.
Yeah, even a clock is telling you in a broken clock tells the time correctly twice a day. Oh Yeah, right, yeah, right. Jesus keeps sending me friend requests and I keep denying him. I'm probably gonna go to hell.
No, Jesus, I'm not friending you. Haven't you received a friend request from Jesus yet? I get them weekly. Okay, Jesus wants he's wanting to be my friend on Facebook. All right, let's take a look at Deuteronomy 13.
Deuteronomy 13. I Want to give you another category of false prophet and then we'll spend some time in Jeremiah 23. Here's what it says if a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass.
And if He says let us go after other gods Which you have not known and let us serve them. Notice he gave a prophecy said something's gonna happen and it came to pass. But his theology is wackerdoodle.
The guy's an idolater, right? So let's go after other gods. You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams the Lord your God is testing you. To know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Now Jesus himself. Let me give you a quick cross-reference in Matthew 24. 24 Tells us that in the last days. That there will be false Christ's and false prophets and here's what the verse says. Who will arise and Perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray if possible even the elect see I've told you beforehand.
Just because somebody performs a miracle gives a prophecy and says something's gonna happen and it happens that doesn't make them a true prophet. The proof is always in the pudding and the pudding is their doctrine.
What are they preaching and teaching now. I want to give you a verse and this is a verse you want to hang on to and Always let this guide whenever you hear something like this. It's Revelation 19 verse 10.
Revelation 19 verse 10. It's a very simple sentence. And here's what it says. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Revelation 19 10. Yes, it's the back end of the verse.
Look. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Yes the last sentence there. Janet come on keep up. No, no, no, no can't do that. No, sir, Thomas. Yeah, no, sir. Thomas is quatrains. Have you noticed just how ambiguous and fuzzy they are and everyone talks about how eerily accurate they are.
Accurate they don't make a lick of sense.
I.
Put it in the same category as UFOs Conspiracy theories and things like that, you know, it's it's you know, it's little green men and stuff like that. But here's this listen to sentence again. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Now there's a book that I strongly recommend and Let me get rid of her Amazon .com. Hang on a second here I want to show you the book so that if you end up purchasing it you can and it's the name of it is.
No the.
Shy.
Member of Trinity it the name of the book is the Holy Spirit the shy member of the Trinity and this is the book and it's just Fantastic and it's a short read too, which is helpful. The Holy Spirit shy member of the Trinity by Frederick Dale Bruner.
This is a wonderful book and it's good Theology regarding the Holy Spirit and their basic idea is is that when you read the scriptures? You find that the Holy Spirit never points people to him. The Holy Spirit's always pointing people to Jesus.
The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. In fact, you can kind of think of the Holy Spirit as like Jesus is PR guy. Here to sit down and have coffee with the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit. Have you have you heard about Jesus?
I gotta tell you about Jesus and they kind of liken it to you know. Like if there's a chalkboard, you know, the old-school chalkboard and on there somebody's sketched out Jesus and it's a magnificent looking.
Where's the Holy Spirit? He's standing behind the chalkboard and all you can see is his fingers. He's going look look look. It's Jesus. It's Jesus. It's Jesus. The Holy Spirit's all about Jesus. Jesus himself says of the Holy Spirit that when he sends the spirit the spirit would convict the world of sin and unbelief.
Primary function of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit speaks through his word. So you see that the Holy Spirit really is about Jesus and this is a great book to read in that regard now. We're gonna take a look at another passage and I got to watch my time we're gonna end in Jeremiah chapter 23.
Jeremiah 23 and I want you to note here that this is one of those passages the Prophet Jeremiah Had to deal with false prophets himself in his own day. We're gonna start at verse 9 and just so that Janet can keep up.
I'll start in the first sentence in verse 9. Okay, here's what it says. Concerning the prophets my heart is broken within me all my bones shake. I'm like a drunken man like a man overcome by wine because of the Lord and because of his holy words.
For the land is full of adulterers. Because of the curse of the land mourns and pastors of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil and their might is not right. Both prophet and priest are ungodly even in my house.
I have found their evil declares the Lord. So notice starting us off that in Israel at the time of the Prophet Jeremiah adultery was running rampant even among.
Holy men.
Prophets and priests. There's a reason for this. There's a reason for this that's given. Both prophet and priest are ungodly even in my house. I have found their evil declares the Lord. Therefore. Their way shall be to them like slippery paths in the darkness into which they shall be driven and fall.
I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment declares the Lord. In the prophets of Samaria I saw an unsavory thing. They prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray. But in the prophets of Jerusalem, I've seen a horrible thing.
They commit adultery and they walk in lies. They strengthen the hand of evildoers so that no one turns from his evil. All of them have become like Sodom to me and its inhabitants like Gomorrah. So you'll see here.
That false.
Prophets strengthen the hand of evildoers. So I want you to think for a second. Let's pretend that we've decided that we're gonna have prophets here at Kong's finger, right? So our prophet stands up and declares to anybody who shows up and maybe we're packing the house now.
People are coming from all around to hear what the prophet has to say. And so some fellow comes in and this is a fellow who is not a believer in Jesus not baptized not penitent. Not forgiven. And the prophet stands up and said I have a word from the Lord and the word from the Lord is you are going to have A breakthrough God is going to bring.
Just lean into it. You're about to experience your destiny. You're gonna go from zero to hero and it's just around the corner. Just believe it. Now the fellow I described who's not a penitent believer in Jesus Christ.
It's there goes. Whoa.
Whoa, dude.
Okay. Score I Made it right and so he's now believing God for his destiny and for this breakthrough and finances and all this kind of great things happening in his life. He's still on his way to hell.
Okay, you said I gotta say I gotta sit down. Don't you think if he showed up at church that maybe it should have dawned on the person preaching to let the fellow know. Yeah, he's all happy after having come to church.
Has he learned anything. About his real condition the danger he's in what Christ has done for him. None of that. So by prophesying this nonsense, what have we done? We've strengthened his hand in evil and.
So I come along after because obviously I've been kicked out of Kongsvinger. If this is what's going on here, and I find this fellow and say listen, these people are lying to you.
They're lying to you.
You need to repent of your sins. You are on your way to hell, but Christ has bled and died for you. No, he's gonna say to me He's you know, I don't want to hear it. I don't believe in that God. They told me that Jesus is this way and you're lying to me.
He's not that way. That's what's gonna happen.
Let's just put it this way.
I have yet to find anyone who claims to be hearing from the Holy Spirit Who after testing their theology and their doctrine and their message can stand the test not one. Yes, that's right. We'll get to that.
Look we're gonna get to that. You're getting ahead of me see. See Janet needed to. You know, keep up. You got to slow down. The answer is yes, but we're gonna get to that.
Yes, yes.
Yes, but you're letting the cat out of the bed. You're letting the cat out of the bag. Let's keep it in the bag. Okay, just I don't like to be in the bag. Let's let's keep the cat in the bag for just a minute longer.
So I've seen a terrible thing. I've seen a horrible thing. They commit adultery. They walk in lies. They strengthen the hand of evildoers so that no one turns from his evil. All of them have become like Sodom to me and its habitants like Amora.
Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts concerning the prophets behold I will feed them with bitter food give them poison water to drink for the prophets of Jerusalem. Ungodliness has gone out into all of the land.
So thus is the Lord of hosts. Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. Listen to what they do filling you with vain hopes. False prophets are always gonna say God is for you who could be against you.
He wants you to be rich and prosperous so that you could be a blessing to the nations. He wants your children to all be perfectly behaved. Just send in your seed offering of a thousand dollars or more right now and God will bless you.
Yeah, oh, yeah, I gotta dab my head. Yeah. So they speak the visions of their own minds filling you with vain hopes not from the mouth of the Lord they say. Continually to those who despise the word of the Lord the written word it shall be well with you.
God's gonna give you a destiny and a purpose. You're the head and not the tail. I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you.
This is how they talk.
They say to you it shall be well with you everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart. No disaster will come upon you. But who among them has stood in the council of the Lord to see and to hear his word?
Who's paid attention to his word and listened. Behold the storm of the Lord wrath has gone forth a whirling tempest It will burst upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he is executed and accomplished the intents of his heart.
In the latter days, you will understand it clearly. I did not send the prophets yet. They ran. I did not speak to them yet. They prophesied but if they had stood in my council they would have proclaimed my words to my people and they would have turned them from their evil way and From the evil of their deeds.
Which now will let the cat out of the bag. What is prophecy? In the truest Definition of a prophet. A prophet is somebody who speaks words given to him.
By God.
To give to other people. I only know of one place I can go to find those words.
The scriptures I.
Can't look in here. It's really loud in here and it's black and dark and there's spiders. Yeah, all right, I need a spider ectomy. So I don't listen in here. Where has God promised to speak? The written Word of God.
All scripture is God breathed. So Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, I Take his words. I put them in my mouth and I preach them to you. Here's a question I have for you. Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, are you strengthened in sin?
Or you confronted with your sin. Sunday after Sunday, do I just leave all the thorny bits of scripture out and tell you fill your minds with all stupid ideas. Or do I tell you? You need to repent. Trust Christ.
Be forgiven. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Who's speaking? Prophetically. Me or them. And let's just make it a little bigger. Any pastor who does this. Who preaches God's Word is speaking? Prophetically to turn you from your sin.
To bring you to Christ. To have you be forgiven. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. God himself says the false prophets don't do that. They're speaking in his name things. He's never told him to speak.
And if they were speaking his words, they'd be turning people from their sin. So it doesn't matter which church you're in whether the church is one where they have a prophet or they just have a pastor or Pastrix if the person in the pulpit isn't really speaking words from God.
They're making you comfortable in your sin and basically saying everything's gonna be fine with you. No big deal. No problem. The real pastor who preaches prophetically preaches from every text of Scripture.
God's law in his gospel. Which confronts you with your sin? Brings you to repentance and placards. Christ is the only solution. And Then you do good works because you are Christians and you despise and turn away from your evil.
You see the difference. You can always tell the false prophet and believe me when I tell you. False prophet is not the one who always says I'm hearing from God. The false prophet is the one who is in the pulpit.
Claiming to be preaching to you the Word of God and still strengthening you in your sin. Filling your minds with nonsense. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Who are the scriptures about you or Jesus?
They're about Jesus and what he's done for you. So the question is who do you hear about in the preaching? Christ. What do you hear about me?
Yeah, but you do also hear this that in Christ you are a new creation and you do Good works because you are a Christian. Of course, so you do hear that you have to get that distinction.
Again.
Yeah in a situation like that you're gonna have to actually like brother. Let's sit down and take a look at those texts that you think are teaching what you're this because you're gonna find out. They're not saying what you think they say.
Well in this particular occasion, it was my son's friend. And so I just said well There's people that have different beliefs because I didn't want my son to think that he's gonna go to hell.
Yeah, exactly. And and here's the idea The best thing to do is know the faith well enough know what scriptures teach regarding baptism so that you can come back through the text and say listen, this is what God's Word actually says on this matter and This person is well-meaning as they as they are.
I mean, it's great that they actually care enough about you that they that they believe they want. They're trying to help you in this way. But the reality is is that they're erring in their understanding of Scripture and you do have to confront that.
So, but that's another that's a whole other topic we'll end here. Catch you guys next week.