Brother Ron McKinney of Dallas,
Texas, who is the editor-in-chief of
the Sword and Trial magazine, printed monthly, had an interesting
article in his magazine, which I received yesterday. I planned to print the article,
which was an editorial. in next month's issue of the
Bulletin, but it fit in so well with my message tonight, I'd
like to share just a part of it with you in introducing the
message. The article went something like
this. This is the first part of it. Lawrence and Alice Parker went
to church one Sunday morning with their 11-year-old son Wesley
Parker. Wesley was diabetic, kept alive
like thousands of others in our country by the miracle drug insulin. When the visiting preacher at
the climax of the Sunday morning service invited people to come
forward to be prayed for and to be healed, Lawrence and Alice
Parker took their son Wesley to the front of the church. The
preacher laid his hands on the boy and prayed publicly for him
and then announced to the congregation his belief that God had healed
Wesley. Lawrence and Alice Parker went
home rejoicing in faith that their son had been healed. Now
the Parkers were not lukewarm believers. They wanted to trust
God alone, without reservation. So they withheld the insulin
from Wesley, believing that God had healed him as the preacher
told him. Three days later, Wesley fell
into a coma and died. Maybe the Parkers were poor simple-minded
people, but they listened to the preacher and they believed
what he said. Even their pastor was quoted
in the paper as saying, our church never meant to encourage people
to gamble that much on their faith. Last Wednesday night I spoke
on the mark of a false prophet from the book of 2 John, verse
9 through 11, as a man departing from the doctrine of Christ.
And I said that the great and prominent era of false preachers
and false ministers is departing from the doctrine of Christ.
Whosoever confesseth not that Jesus the Lord has come in the
flesh is antichrist. And God is not with him. But
I find the New Testament to be full of warnings to the churches
and to people who listen to preachers about false ministers and false
prophets and false preachers. Now, the Parkers were victims
of false theology. Bad theology can kill. It killed
Wesley. It killed him. Bad theology killed
him. But the tragic thing about false
preachers and bad ministers is they don't only kill physically,
they kill spiritually. A bad preacher, a false prophet,
can murder your soul, not just your body. You feel sorry for
Wesley. I feel sorry for everybody naïve
and simple-minded, trusting, listening to liars who represent
God. And I'm going through the Bible
tonight and give you some marks of false prophets. Now, I leave
this with you, and I say unto you most solemnly. You know,
last week, John warned us. He said, if they come to you
bringing not the doctrine of Christ, don't let them in your
home, don't let them in the house of God, and don't you bid them
Godspeed. For if you support a false preacher,
You are partaker of his evil deeds. That's what Scripture
says. If you support a false preacher,
if you sit under the ministry of a false preacher and make
his ministry possible, or bid him Godspeed or God bless you,
or encourage him in his terrible error, brethren, this man who
did that to the Parkers is not to be pitied, he's to be blamed. Now, a minister of the gospel
is not going to make a statement like that. Our church never expected
people to gamble that much on their faith. I'm telling you
this, if we preach Christ, you can trust Him completely. If
we preach redemption by the blood, you can rest your soul's welfare,
refuge, hope, completely. I don't preach any other kind
of faith but complete faith. But I'm not asking you to put
your faith in a miracle, but in the messenger of the covenant,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Master. Trust a miracle,
trust the Master. Whatever His will, His will may
be for you to be sick, His will may be for you to be well, but
there's one thing I know His will is for you to believe on
Him, fully and completely. And what I cannot receive fully
and completely, I'm not going to receive or preach. Now here
are some of the marks in Matthew 7, verse 15. Matthew 7, 15. Beware of false preachers. Matthew
7, 15. They are not what they claim
to be. Now watch it. They are not what they claim
to be. He said, they come to you in sheep's clothing. these
false ministers, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Now
most people are naive enough to believe that Satan is only
bad. Did you know that's the conception
most people have of the devil, that he's only bad? That Satan only operates in the
realm of the immoral and the evil. But that's false. Satan doesn't care whether you
are a monk or a murderer, just so you don't know God. He's a
crafty, subtle, conniving liar. Christ said he's a liar. He doesn't
have a reputation to defend, to uphold. He doesn't have a
character of holiness to uphold. He is a shifty, subtle, crafty
liar. He doesn't care whether you are
a preacher or whether you're a prisoner, just so you don't
know Christ. Long as you don't know the Lord,
He'll promote good or He'll promote evil. He'll promote immorality
or He'll promote human righteousness. He'll promote anything to accomplish
His end. Whatever it takes to reach you.
He'll promote everything but Christ. Let me show you a few
verses about that here that I just read. Stay right there. Well,
2 Corinthians 11, over in Matthew. Turn to 2 Corinthians 11. I read
this a moment ago. In the scripture lesson, in 2
Corinthians 11, 13, he talked about false prophets, deceitful
workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
And no marvel, Satan himself is transformed into an angel
of light. Not darkness and death and evil
only, but light. Therefore, it's no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness.
He tempted Christ quoting the Scripture. That's exactly right. When he tempted Adam and Eve
to take the forbidden fruit, he proposed to them a worthy
end. He said, you'll be like God.
Go ahead and take this fruit. If you take this fruit, He didn't
tell them you'll be blinded and shamed and guilty and fallen
from God. He said you'll be like God. Don't
you want to be like God? Yeah. Well, take that fruit,
and you'll know what God knows, and you'll be like God. He'll
use any method. It doesn't matter to Him. He's
a liar, Christ said, and the Father of liars. All right, Matthew
15. Here's another mark of a false
preacher. First, he's not what he claims
to be. He's not what he claims to be. He has a false image. All right, Matthew 15, here's
the second thing, verse 8 and 9. False preachers, false ministers,
almost invariably, add to the Scriptures. The Bible is not
enough. They've got to have a little
more than the Scripture. In other words, he's got to have
a Book of Mormon to go along with the Bible, or a Watchtower
magazine to go along with the Bible, or science and health
with keys to the Scripture to go along with the Bible, or catechism,
or creed, or confession of faith, or some kind of quarterly, or
something for you to use in addition to the Bible. The Bible is not
sufficient. Listen to this. Matthew 15, verse
8. draweth noun to me with their
mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is
far from me. But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of me." The Bible's not enough. They've got to also teach the
commandments of me. Oh, false preachers use the Bible. But most of the time he'll introduce
you to other writings and other traditions and other teachings
to support his claim. I was in Michigan one time in
a meeting and went home to eat with a young couple. I was preaching
to some Dutch Reform people. And we were sitting in the living
room visiting after the meal and they had a new baby in the
home. The wife said to me, she said, my husband and I are having
quite a struggle. I said, what about? She said,
well, you know, we were brought up sprinkling our babies. My
husband was sprinkled, I was sprinkled, my grandparents, all
of our friends. We belong to the Dutch Reform.
We've got a new baby. We're having a real struggle.
At that time, Doris and I had small children. And I said to
her, I said, well, I'll tell you what. I said, if you'll take
your Bible and show me anywhere from Genesis to Revelation, one
command to sprinkle an infant or one example that an infant
was sprinkled in God's Word, just one, one command or one
example, I'll go home and sprinkle mine. Well, she went over to
the bookshelf and she reached up on the bookshelf and pulled
down a book. I said, what are you doing? She said, I'm getting
Dr. Murray's book. I said, I don't want to see Dr.
Murray's book. I want to see King Jesus' words
about this. Now, my friends, there's no way,
no way in this Scripture to find anything about the immaculate
conception. You say, what's that? It's the
teaching that Mary had no original sin. That came out a few hundred
years ago. It was proclaimed as a dogma
or religious truth by some religious leader, that Mary never had sin. She was born without sin, immaculately
conceived, that she had no children. Well, you won't find that in
God's Word. You have to have another book to tell you that.
You won't find the Mediatorial Office of Mary. Mary was a woman
highly favored of God, but a sinful woman. She was born of Adam. She was a daughter of Adam. She
was a sinner who rejoiced in God her Savior. And you won't
find the Mass, you won't find the priesthood, you won't find
the sacraments, you won't find abstaining from meat or marriage
in this Bible anywhere. You'll have to get you another
book. There's no way to find the sprinkling of an infant,
there's no way to find being baptized for the dead, there's
no way to find purgatory, there's no way to find observing Christmas,
Easter, or Halloween, which is the day of the dead. You will
not find that anywhere in God's Word. You'll have to get you
another book. There's no way to find the freedom
of the natural will. There's no way to find the inability
of God to do what he pleases. There's no way to find falling
from salvation or falling from sonship. So the false minister
must supplement the scriptures with tradition. He has to have
the other writings. A true minister of the Lord Jesus
Christ will find God's Word to be totally, completely sufficient.
And that's how you can tell a false preacher. Turn to 1 Timothy 4. 1 Timothy 4. Oh, I know what the Bible says,
but there's no but about it. Well, this is the way we do it
in our circles. If you do it any different from the way God
teaches it, your circle is antichrist. That's right. The Bible is sufficient,
and this is one of the marks. He said they teach for doctrine
the commandments of men, the traditions and customs of men. You look at all the religious
parades, you look at the Catholics and Episcopals and now the Methodists. And you find all of these uniforms
and this certain ritual they go through and the different
robes that they wear and the different meanings of things,
the headgear and all that, it's not in this book. And you have to have some kind
of handbook or directions of worship or some kind of creed
or some kind of denominational literature to promote these things. And that's a sign of error. The
Bible is sufficient. In 1 Timothy, did I say 2nd?
I meant 1 Timothy 4, verse 1. Now listen. Now the Spirit speaketh
expressly that in the latter days some shall depart from the
faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, doctrines of devils,
speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared
with a hot iron, forbidding to marry. commanding to abstain
from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving
of them which believe and know the truth." Every creature of
God is good. Nothing to be refused if it be
received with thanksgiving. For it's sanctified by the Word
of God and prayer. We don't ask somebody to put
approval on it, eating fish on Friday. Where is that in God's
Word? That's the most ridiculous thing that's ever been put off
on the public. If you put the brethren in remembrance
of these things, you'll be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished
up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou
hast attained. But, listen, he says, Timothy,
refuse these profane old wise fables, refuse them, and exercise
yourself rather under godliness. That's a mark of a false preacher.
All right, Matthew 23. Matthew 23. Now I know they're subtle and
crafty and Satan is, he's a master at deception. He knows more about
human nature than anybody but God. He's been in the business
of deceiving for 6,000 years. He's a master at it. He knows
every personality. He knows every trick in the book. But there are ways to detect
him. There are ways to detect his messengers and his servants
who are doing his will. Here's some more marks of a false
prophet. Our Lord says they're hypocrites.
Matthew 23. Matthew 23. Down here in verse
13, He said, Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, comma, you're
hypocrites. You see that? You're hypocrites. All right, let's see why He called
them hypocrites. Look at verse 23. Woe unto you
scribes and Pharisees, you're hypocrites. Why did He call them
hypocrites? All right, let's go back. Look
at verse 5, if you will. All their works they do to be
seen of men. There's no honest motivation.
There's no sincere goal for the glory of God. They do what they
do. They pray and preach and read the Scripture and do these
humanitarian deeds and all to be seen of men. All right, read
on. Verse 6, they love the uppermost
rooms and the chief seats in the synagogue. They love power
and praise and position. They like to be greeted in the
markets. They like to be called of men. Rabbi, master, teacher,
doctor, reverend, father. Don't you be called Rabbi. One
is your master, even Christ. You are brethren. Don't you call
any man your father upon this earth. We're not talking about
our dads. We're talking about he's a religious leader. Don't
call any man your father. One is your father which is in
heaven. Neither be ye called master. One is your master, even
Christ. And he that's greatest among
you, he's your servant. Ah, hypocrites. They love these
high-sounding phrases. They love the praise of men.
They like to be introduced as doctor and reverend and master
and teacher. Read on. He says, if you will,
in verse 13, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites!
You shut up the kingdom of heaven against me, and you don't go
in yourselves, and you don't suffer them that are entering
to go in. In other words, they try to keep
people from hearing the true gospel. You know who the greatest
enemies in any town are of the gospel of God's grace? It's the
other preachers. They can keep you from... They'll
downgrade a man. They'll talk about him. They'll
say all manner of evil against him to keep... They're not going
to hear him. They're not going to study God's Word. They're
not going to look in the Bible to see if God is sovereign and
man is depraved and Christ is a sufficient Redeemer and the
Holy Spirit is an effectual caller. They're not going to study that
and they don't want you to listen to it. And they'll do all within
their power. discourage you from listening
to the gospel. They are not going to enter in,
and they don't want anybody else to enter in. Read on, verse 15. Warn you scribes and Pharisees,
you hypocrites, you come from sea and land to make one proselyte.
You know what they do? They proselyte members from other
churches and other denominations. Boy, I'll tell you the truth,
these preachers, if they can get somebody to come join their
church, If they can pick them up another tither, if they can
pick them up another influential businessman, if they could pick
them up somebody who is somebody, it just tickles them to death.
Proselyte church members. And when you've made him a proselyte,
he's twofold more the child of hell than you are who made him. This is Christ talking. It's
our Lord speaking. He didn't have much compassion
on false preachers. Verse 23, warn you scribes and
Pharisees, you hypocrites, you pay your tithes. Oh, they are
careful to pay tithes on everything. But you have omitted the weightier
matters of the law such as judgment, mercy, and faith. It's alright
to pay your tithes, but don't leave the other undone. I'll
tell you something else about them. Verse 25, you scribes and
Pharisees and hypocrites, you may clean the outside of the
cup and the platter. You appear beautiful unto men,
but within you're full of extortion and excess. The kind of gospel
they preach cultivates an outward shame, an outward phoniness,
an outward piety, an outward righteousness, and leaves the
heart and the soul and the spirit of men bowed down under a terrible
sense of evil and guilt. They preach on outward sins and
neglect inward sins. I'll tell you something else
about them. Verse 29. Warn you scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites,
you build the tombs of prophets and garnish the sepulchres of
the righteous." You know what he's saying there? You brag on
dead prophets and kill living prophets. That's what he's saying.
You brag on Martin Luther, you brag on John Calvin, you brag
on John Wesley, you brag on Charles Spurgeon, and you hate the people
that are preaching today what those men preached back then.
That's right, that's a false prophet. He brags on dead preachers
and with his tongue he cuts up living preachers. Oh, I'll tell
you another mark of false preachers, Acts 15, verse 1. Acts 15, verse
1. You can listen. Tune your ears
and focus your attention. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. Take heed. You know, our Lord
tells us, take heed not only Not only how we hear, but what
we hear, and to whom we listen. Acts 15 verse 1, And certain
men which came down from Judea taught the brethren, and said,
Except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you can't
be saved. Here's another mark of false
preachers. They always mix works and grace, always, invariably. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Yes. You do believe on Christ
to be saved, but you also must be baptized. And if you're not
baptized and obey the gospel, you can't be saved. How many
times you heard that? That's a mixture of grace and work.
I believe a man ought to be baptized. Who knows Christ? But baptism
has not one earthly thing or heavenly thing to do with a man's
salvation. Not one thing. There's no way unto heaven that
water can have any effect upon my soul, or my sins, or my relationship
with God. Christ died for you, but you
must keep the law. The scripture says there's a
righteousness manifested without the law. And that righteousness
is Christ. Here's another. Salvation is
by grace. But you've got to belong to the
right church and be a member of the right denomination. Others,
you must come to the confessional. Others, you must receive the
sacrament. Others, you must pay your tithe.
Others, you must do this and you must do that. I only know
two musts. The Son of Man must be lifted
up and I must be born again. And I don't know anything else
that matters. The Son of Man must be lifted
up. And I, by the grace of God, by
the power of God's Spirit, must be born again. I'm justified
by the grace of God through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me read you three verses
of Scripture. First of all, turn to Titus chapter
3. Titus chapter 3. I want you to
listen to this. Titus 3 verse 5. This Scripture
says, It is not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but it's
according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration
and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. That's the blood of Christ
and the new birth. Turn to Romans chapter 11. Romans
chapter 11. The blood of Christ enables God
to be reconciled to me And the new birth gives me a nature as
reconciled to God. The enmity is put away by the
sacrifice of the Son of God. And I'm made sufficient and meet
and fit for heaven by the regenerating power of God's Spirit. And I
can walk up and down aisles and make funny signs and be baptized
and take sacraments and go to confessional, wear silly robes
and burn candles and do all these deeds. And it doesn't matter
one thing in this world as far as my acceptance with God is
concerned. I'm accepted in the Beloved for no other reason.
The thief on the cross never worked, he never walked, he never
washed, and he never witnessed. He believed on Christ. He believed
on Christ. What shall we do that we might
work the works of God? These are the works of God that
you believe on Him whom God has sent. Romans 11 verse 6. I wouldn't
mislead you, my friends, not if I could help it. And I don't
believe a man will be misled who looks into this book and
follows it. Romans 11, verse 6, and if it's
by grace, look back at verse 5, even so then, at this present
time, there's a remnant according to the election of grace. And
if it's by grace, then it's no more of works. Otherwise, grace
is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it's
not grace. You can't have both. It can't
be 95% grace and 5% works, because in that way, grace is not grace.
It can't be 95% works and 5% grace. That way, works is not
works. It's either got to be grace or works. Ephesians, you
know this other scripture, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it is the
gift of God, not of works. But the false prophet always,
he must invariably, I don't care what you say some way, he has
got to, he must weave in to this thing of salvation something
for the creature to do, to be reconciled to God. He'll bring
you right up to God wants to save men and Christ died for
men and the Holy Spirit was sent to call men, but he's got to
put a butt there and leave something left for the creature to do.
He can do no other because he is a false prophet. I'll show
you another mark of a false prophet. But I'll tell you this, a true
prophet of God will shut you up to the mercy of God, to the
grace of God, to the hope that men have in Christ, and leave
this thing of salvation in the hands of the Lord. He'll plow,
and he'll plant, and he'll water, and he'll cultivate, but he knows
God gives the increase. In 2 Peter 3, here's another
mark of a false prophet. He'll hopscotch through the Bible.
when he's teaching doctrine. He'll hopscotch through the Bible.
Look at 2 Peter 3, 16. As also in all his epistles,
talking about Paul, Peter writing, speaking in them of these things
in which are some things hard to be understood, which they
that are unlearned and unstable rest or twist or misinterpret. as they do also the other scriptures
to their own destruction. What I mean by hopscotching through
the Bible, I mean this. It is deadly to go over to one
place and pick out a verse of scripture and go to another place
and pick out a verse of scripture and put those two verses together
to make them say what they don't say. Now brethren, when you hear
preachers and when you study the Bible yourself, there are
four things that are essential. Number one, find out who is speaking. Let me show you an example. Turn
to John chapter 9 just a moment. Now John chapter 9. Go with me
to John chapter 9. John 9 verse 31. I was holding
a meeting, Ronnie, back a long time ago when I first came to
Ashland. down Palmyra, Kentucky. You remember where that is? Palmyra.
It's a little railroad town. It's an old town. Out the other
side of Russell, somewhere. Anyway, I went out to that whole
tent meeting. Remember those tents we had?
I went out there and held a meeting. And I was preaching, and I was
more zealous than knowledgeable, but anyway, I preached a sermon,
and after the message, there was a lady came down and her
husband. They said they wanted to talk
to me about being saved. And I stood and talked to them.
There was a deacon there from the Flatwoods Baptist Church.
You know him real well. His daughter went to school with
you in college. And he was a doctrinalist and a theologian and an orthodox,
and he knew everything. But he's standing there listening
to me. And so I said, well, I talked to him about salvation. Then
I said, let's pray. Let's call on God. And he looked
at me and he said, they can't pray. And I never heard that
before. I said, what do you mean they
can't pray? He said, God, don't you know the Bible says God does
not hear sinners? I said, no sir, I didn't know
that. And he turned in his Bible to John 9, verse 31. Now, won't
you look at this. John 9, 31. And sure enough,
there it is. Sure enough, there it is right
there. Now, we know that God heareth
not sinners. It sure says that, doesn't it?
But now, brother, you better find out who said that. My Lord
didn't say that. Do you know who said that? A poor, ignorant, blind man that
Christ had just healed, who didn't even know who the Messiah was,
Charlie. He didn't even know who Christ was. In fact, Christ
said to him, do you believe on the Christ? He said, well, who
is he? Now, that's the guy that said that. He was a fellow that
was blind all his life, and the Lord came along and healed him,
and those Jews kicked him out of the synagogue because he was
healed on the Sabbath day, and because he said Jesus healed
him, and Christ found him and said to him, he said, do you
believe on the Son of God? He said, well, tell me who he
is so I can believe on him. He's the fellow that said, God
hears not sinners. And there are people, there are
Orthodox Baptists who built a theology on that thing. If God didn't
hear sinners, He wouldn't hear you pray. If God didn't hear
sinners, He wouldn't have heard the publicans in the temple who
cried, God be merciful to me, a sinner! Huh? If He didn't hear
sinners, He wouldn't have heard the thief on the cross when He
said, God be merciful to me. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. Brother, let me tell you something. You better
find out who's speaking, and you better find out to whom He's
speaking, And you better find out what he's talking about.
And then you better weigh it in the light of the rest of the
Word of God. Now, I try. You better weigh
it in the light of the rest of the Word of God. You twist the
Scriptures. To make them mean what you want
them to mean, you twist them and rest them out of context
to your own destruction. That's what the Scripture says.
They rest them, they twist them to their own destruction. I like that little humorous story
about the fellow that was in trouble, and he said, I'm just
going to open the Bible and point to something, and that's what
I'm going to do. And he opened the Bible and pointed and said,
Judas went out and hanged himself. And he thought, well, that ain't
the thing to do, you know. I'll try again. He opened it
and pointed and said, go thou and do likewise. And somebody
said he opened it the third time and said, what thou doest do
quickly. But that's about what that's worth. They hopscotch
through the Bible. And you'll find that that's what
most of these, most of these prophecies, these prophetical
preachers are doing. They hop around from this verse
in Ezekiel to that one in Daniel to this one in Revelation, and
they put them all three together and say, see there? Well, I don't
see there at all. I want to know what all those
verses say. I want to know who's talking, I want to know to whom
he's speaking, I want to know what the subject of his discourse
is, and I want to know how that stands in the light of the rest
of the Word of God. The Church of Christ has built
a whole denomination on Acts 2.38, you know that. He baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin. Brethren,
I tell you, the rest of the Bible does not
teach that baptism puts away sin. So the people to whom Peter
was speaking that and the reason he was saying that, I'll tell
you this, I would say if there was a man sitting here tonight
who, like the Pharisees and Jews of old, who rebelled against
the baptism of repentance and rebelled against the baptism
of John and rebelled against confessing that they were lost
and rebelled against dying to self and to the world and being
crucified and buried with Christ, I'd say yes to it. You better
be baptized, wouldn't you? That's different. If I'm talking
to a man who thinks that salvation is in the water, I don't tell
him to be baptized. I'm going to appoint him Calvary.
I'm going to say, brother, you go to the cross, you just shy
away from that water as far as you can until you find out what
it represents, who it represents. Christ didn't give everybody
the same pill. He didn't go around with that
little ABC, all of sin, believe on Christ and confess it. You
shy away from these Bibles. Let me tell you something else
too. You find your Bible, it's got a recipe in the front. When
in trouble, read this. When in doubt, read this. When
sick, read that. You stay away from that. You
read what the Holy Spirit leads you to read. And I'll tell you
something else to stay away from is these soul winners' Bibles
that got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. First point them to
this. Second point them to that. Everybody's
not alike. You deal with a man 80 years
old, you don't deal with him like you do a 10-year-old boy.
You deal with a prostitute, you don't deal with her like you
deal with a preacher. You deal with a murderer, you
don't deal with him like you deal with a Sunday school teacher.
You've got different walks of life, you've got different personalities,
you've got a different thinking. They're both sinners, that's
right, but it takes a different direction. Christ didn't deal
with Nicodemus like he did the woman at the well, nor did he
deal with her like he dealt with Zacchaeus, nor did he deal with
him like he dealt with somebody else. We've got to show some
wisdom, some understanding, find out who's speaking. The average
preacher and church member today thinks everybody's sitting out
there and they're all thinking the same way, they all know the
same thing, they all got the same background. Here's this
simple little easy believerism, 1, 2, 3, present the gospel.
Will you take it or won't you? Will you believe on Jesus or
won't you? Will you accept Him or won't you? You don't bundle
up this thing of eternal life in a little package and get it
fixed up and give it to folks at the end of the service. It's
line upon line, and precept upon precept, and the tearing down
by the Holy Spirit, and the rooting up, and the plowing, and the
digging, and the destruction of pride, and the taming of the
wild ashes cold, and the breaking of the Spirit, and the breaking
of the heart, and the revelation of Christ, and bringing men to
the cross. It takes the Spirit to do that. It takes a wrestling and a work
and a striving and a seek. Seek to enter in. Strive to enter
in the violent. Take the kingdom of God by force.
If this righteous scarcely be saved, where is the ungodly and
the sinner going to appear? Preachers aren't serious about
this thing. Paul, even these people at Corinth, he said, I
fear, I worry about you. I worry about you, afraid Satan's
going to deceive you after all. The people over there we were
reading in our Sunday school lesson recently, he said, I travailed
to Christ be formed in you. Another group, he said, have
I labored in vain? Show me I hadn't labored in vain.
All right, let me show you a few more things here. Matthew 24,
and I'll quit. Matthew 24, verse 24. He says here, and this is what
will shake you up here, Matthew 24, 24. Our Lord says in Matthew
24, 24, There shall arise false Christs,
false preachers, shall sow great signs and wonders, in so much
that if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect.
You just don't follow. Let me read quickly our times
over. Let me read you a scripture in the book of Acts. I can find
it quicker. Acts 20, 30. Listen to this. Paul said, Of
your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to
draw away disciples after themselves. It's another mark of a false
prophet. He likes men to follow him. He loves to have followers. I'll tell you something else.
He says over in 2 Timothy, they strive over words. They're getting
an argument over words and the meaning of words. That's right,
they strive over words. I'll tell you something else.
Colossians 2. I want you to look at this one.
Colossians 2. I want you to look at this one
with me. Book of Colossians. I'll give you a moment to find
it. Chapter 2. Verse 16, Colossians 2, 16, now listen, let no man
therefore judge you in meat, that is eating or drinking, or in respect of an holy day,
keep in holy days, There was a preacher I read about
the other day in the paper that said we ought to open all our
churches during the Christmas season so people would come by
and see our decorations, so everybody could see our idols is what that
means, holy days. I don't know, I don't, this Christmas
mess, and that's what any true minister
of the gospel will call it, a Christmas mess. And I don't know what to
do about it. We're certainly not celebrating
anything to do with our Lord. God wouldn't put up with this
thing that had nothing to do with Christ, the commercialization
and the bad theology. These holy days are new moon
or Sabbath days, which were a shadow of things to come. The body is
Christ. Let no man beguile you. of your reward and a voluntary
humility, worshipping of angels, worshipping of dead saints, Saint
Jude and Saint Christopher and Saint Patrick, worshipping of
angels, dead saints, intruding into those things which he hath
not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. Oh my! And then watch, listen to this.
I'll just turn over here and read this one. 2 Peter chapter
2, listen to this. False prophets are among the
people, even as there were false teachers among you, who bring
indomitable heresies. And verse 3 says, and through
covetousness, covetousness, with vain words they make merchandise
out of you. That's what it all boils down
to. These religious cults and sects and denominations and false
preachers They're making merchandise out of men and women, boys and
girls. We are to them a statistic, we
are to them a church member, we are to them a parishioner,
we are to them something of that sort. We're not to them a living
soul who needs Christ, a brother, a member of the family. A person
to be dealt with sincerely, dealt with compassionately, dealt with
in the name of Christ the Lord. Our Father in heaven, oh, that
we might preach the word, that we might worship Thee, the living
God in spirit and truth, that we might be delivered from deception
and error, false teaching, It might be delivered from ourselves,
from our pride. We know not as we ought to know. We see through a glass dimly.
We know in part. But Lord, we are hungry to know
more of Thee.