Shane Idleman addresses the complexities and confusions surrounding the end times, emphasizing the need for Christians to discern the right voice amidst mixed messages and false teachings. He encourages believers to ground themselves in the truth of God's Word and to be prepared for Christ's imminent return, highlighting the importance of prayer and wisdom in navigating these uncertain times. Idleman warns against false prophets who scatter God's flock and indulge sin rather than calling for repentance, urging the church to unite and uphold biblical truth. He stresses that true prophets will always point to hope and the necessity of turning back to God, especially in a time of moral decline.

The series that I'm going to be in in the month of July is on the end times. I've been kind of, you know, not avoiding that topic but just not really hitting it head-on and we're going to talk about the different questions out there, the mark of the beast, the Antichrist, and you need to realize though that a lot of Christians are divided over these issues because there's not a lot of clarity. We don't know, you know, when things are going to happen, how things are going to happen, did they already happen, is the mark of the beast, is it here, the Antichrist, what I've been hearing about that, what is that, are we, you know, pre-tribulation meaning you're out of here before it gets tough, post-tribulation meaning you're out of here after it gets tough, mid-tribulation meaning you're going to go through some of the stuff, is there even a tribulation. Shane, what are you? And you remember what I am? I'm Pantrib. I'm gonna see how it all pans out and be ready, be ready, that's the urgency is to be ready for Christ's return. There's an urgency, there's a, there's a, the imminency of Christ and he's coming back at any moment and that's how we're supposed to live. So the message this morning is talking about the end, the end times, the title is the end hearing the right voice, the beginning of the end hearing the right voice, amen. Anyone tired of mixed, mixed reviews out there and mixed opinions and not a lot of sources of truth but we're being, you know, told this and told that and even pastors, many pastors are not kind of, you know, going the direction we thought they would be going. Many Christians are seemingly, you know, thrown to the, this side and others thrown to this side and we just, Lord we need to hear from you. Now on this issue of truth, I'm going to tell you up front that we're starting to move some of our content to something called Parler, P-A-R-L-E-R, parler.com. It's a free speech platform, amen. So I don't get, I don't get stuff from Facebook every week. That's not nice, you can't say that, that's not the truth, that's you know, Facebook and YouTube and Google, you got to understand they're all corporately owned by people who do not like what I'm saying or what the majority of Americans are saying that hold up for truth, stand for truth and even with Google in their analytics and analytics but their algorithms, you know, they will put top stories at the top and you can't find the truth way down here at the bottom somewhere and and that's what's happening. So we're moving of our videos to GodTube.com, GodTube.com and Parler.com. Of course we'll stay on the platforms we're on as long as we can but there has to be a backup plan as things begin to heat up. We want to be prepared for that and last week I was in Ephesians verse there, gird up with the truth, gird up your loins with the truth. Now what did he, what was he talking about? The loins here, the stabilization and many of you in the fitness industry know there's a big trend out there called core stabilization training. You stabilize the core, you strengthen your lower back, your abdominals, this is the core, this is really what keeps everything together and so the truth, you gird up the truth, it would hold things together in place and that's what we have to look to in our society. Gird up with the truth and truth is spoken, yes, but truth is also an idea. It's a reality as well and we have to look only to what God's Word says and I might have to do part two next week. I was going through these different things and it was hard for me to get right to the point because I don't want to rush through a topic like this because we are actually going to talk about traits, characteristics of false prophets, false teachers and we need to be very alert in these dire times that we live in so I might have to do part two next week. We also have special worship next week so I want to encourage you to be here for that. You got to get here early though, if not there's overflow here and there's overflow in the side building and that's just the way it works so first come first serve. So let me get into the message and I'm going to talk about how many of you have seen that video that went viral this week on the dream that that pastor from Kentucky had? Okay, that's a lot of people. I better talk about it for just a minute because it does fit here and a lot of people have been asking how it's relevant with this and I'm gonna get to that in a minute but I believe that God prepares his people. We don't have to live in confusion and wonder what's going on and the world does but Christians are actually supposed to discern the times, to be equipped to understand what's going on. Not fully but to live with hope, live with peace and use wisdom. So how does God direct you? How does God prepare his people? He prepares us primarily through his Word. So this is a call, a reminder that you hear. There goes Shane again on the Word of God. Yep, that's right. And probably till the day I die because you know what I'll make you do? I'll stop talking about it if you start living in it. The Word of God becomes everything to you and you get your your gauge of truth through the Word of God. There's got to be a call back to God's Word because that's how we're supposed to disseminate information. If you're looking to CNN and Fox News, you're gonna be in trouble. What does God's Word say about how we're supposed to live? Amen. I'm gonna try. Just hold tight here. So we have to look to his Word and we have to look to wisdom. Wisdom. What is wise? I'm shocked by how many people not using wisdom and here's what I think the trick is, you can have God's Word as knowledge, but unless you apply it, it's not wisdom. So many people know God's Word, be doers of the Word and not hearers only living in deception. So we have to know God's Word, then we have to walk in God's Word, which we talked about last week. Listen to last week's message on a gentle answer turns away wrath, on seasoning our words with grace, on being quick to speak and slow to listen. Anyone catch that? You're not in the Word. Quick to listen, slow to speak, and that God can gauge us through these times of uncertainty and civil unrest. And I've been running into people that probably don't like me with all the civil unrest and I've been smiling, hey man, how's it going? And you can diffuse that right away. You can actually create an environment of friction, right? You got your NRA bumper sticker, you got your American flag 20 feet high, and you got your shotgun on the back, and you know, you can fuel those flames or you can help to quench those flames of fire. And just so you know, I love the flag, I own a shotgun, and I'm not gonna tell you if I belong to the NRA or not. So, but that's the second service. You guys let me get too carried away here. But I do, I believe, and actually we did a podcast yesterday, so that's why in my heart I believe, I believe that the Second Amendment can be biblical. I believe that the Founding Fathers, realizing that we broke away from tyranny and that the people representing themselves should be able to govern themselves and protect themselves, so that was the whole point of the First Amendment. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. And you know, there's some solid biblical support. On one hand, Jesus says, don't take a sword, don't take a money bag, I'll provide for you. But then he says, when I'm leaving, by the way, grab a sword and take a money bag. And you know, it's okay to protect your family and I think defend yourself in some cases. And there'll be a podcast we're going to release. Me and Luke sit down and talk for about 20-30 minutes on this topic. We also actually, I guess I'll just promote that, but we did a lot of them yesterday. What to say to your child when they come out gay. We talked about how to quench the fires of civil unrest and how do you know God's will. And so we're gonna be releasing all those podcasts on YouTube and on our platform. So be encouraged, look for those. So we look to his word, we look to wisdom, and you have to become people of prayer. Why is that? Because prayer is positioning. We want to hear from God, but we don't want to position ourselves. God, would you show me and open these doors? Yeah, position yourself in prayer. So here's what happens in prayer. I'm removing the news media, I'm removing ungodly influence, I'm removing all that. And Lord, I just need you to speak to me. I need to hear from you. In that time of silence and hearing from God, He begins to direct you and begins to put thoughts into your heart that are biblical and of God. And it's just time away and alone seeking God. Without that, He's not going to direct you very clearly. And you would be amazed. Do you ever hear names like George Mueller, who funded orphanages in the 1800s? George Whitefield, John Wesley, David Brainerd, who used to minister to the Native American Indians. People like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and pretty much all of the great Christian men and women. Amy Carmichael on the mission field, that used to come before us, all spent significant times in prayer. Without a shadow of a doubt. Actually, Martin Luther, who translated the Bible into the German language, I think you might be a little busy there, right? And it didn't have YouTube or didn't have internet where you could copy and paste. It was candle and parchment or scrolls or the book. And taking the Latin Vulgate and translating in the German. And he was so busy, he would still find three hours a day to pray. And they asked him about it. He said, I'm too busy not to pray. See, we forget that prayer doesn't take your time. It actually restores your time. Because you begin to prioritize yourself. And I just hear from so many people. I know they're not you guys. Okay, don't make me, don't get me wrong here. Other people. You know, Shane, I understand. But man, I am so busy. Listen, if you're too busy to pray, you're too busy. But you're not too busy to have the internet on and Netflix for three hours a day. It's actually prioritizing. Let's get convicting. You want to get convicting? Let's get convicting. It's about prioritizing our time. A friend of mine just asked me this week goes, because I'm just, I'm releasing another book, If My People. And it's in Chronicles. And they're like, how do you have time to write a book? I just don't watch TV. That's it. Hey, three hours a day, seven days a week, that's 20 hours a week. That's a part-time job you're giving to the media. That's 20 hours a week. So you take that time and you put it towards the things of God. So it's not I have more time, or you have more. It's prioritizing. Because we all know that we'll find time for those things that are most important to us. Correct? It's amazing how many people are so busy, but they'll find time to go to a Laker game when they had them. Or go to sports event. Or go drive down to the beach for the weekend. We find time for those things are important. So we have to get back to being a praying church. Because God positions our hearts through prayer. We begin to hear his voice through prayer. You don't know this, but now you will. But majority of my sermon notes come from times of prayer. I'll sit there, and I better have some post-it notes. And I'll just start, just God's down, and I'm just writing post-it notes, post-it notes all over my area. And I've got to take those and put them together, and put them succinctly, and make it flow. And God begins to just minister to my own heart during this times of prayer. I've never prepared a sermon watching the media. Or with five kids in the car causing havoc. It's those times of quietness before God. And obviously, then obviously you'll relate to this. Number four is he will guide, he will prepare his people through preaching. He guides people through the proclamation of his truth. That's why all of us, including myself, are hungry for teachers. I listen to Alistair Begg. I listen to Tony Evans. I listen to all the people on our radio network. I listen to them. I need to be fed myself. And we listen, we get direction through the preaching of God's Word. So it's very important at this critical time in our nation's history is to hear the right voice. To listen to the right spokesman. So what about this video, and the only reason I'm tying it in, I normally wouldn't spend time on a sermon, but so many people have watched it. A million people, I think, in one week, and went viral on this pastor in Kentucky. I believe God gave him a dream on what is going to happen to the United States of America. And a couple things. I'm not going to spend a lot of time here, but I want to say I'm not linking this in the category of a false prophet whatsoever. I think he was sincere. I think he did have that dream. I do think how, I see all those things. All of those things could definitely happen without a shadow of a doubt. Absolutely, of course. If anybody doesn't think that could happen, they probably should take a look at the news headlines. However, that type of prophetic word has to come under the submission of other prophetic voices. In other words, the spirit of the prophet, the spirit of those speaking God's truth, has to come under the accountability of others. And so, myself, I looked at many other people, their comments, and I actually didn't share what he said on social media for this very reason. I sent it to maybe a half, three, four dozen people just for feedback. But there wasn't, any time God speaks to his people, there's also going to be hope. So it's not just doom and gloom, buy guns and ammo, store it for food, goodbye America. It's usually a message of hope as well. The prophet Jeremiah would warn, but then he would offer hope. And we also see, this kind of goes against what a lot of us are sensing. A lot of us are sensing this civil unrest, this spiritual upheaval. But I believe, and I'm praying, and I believe God has raised up this church to participate in God bringing another awakening, another spiritual revival. Why would he give me such a hunger for America 20 years ago to start reading the fathers, to start reading something called the Declaration of Independence, by the way. Very good stuff. You ask people, they have no clue. Why are we celebrating 4th of July? I'm not sure. I mean, there's just no, there's no knowledge of what God has done. And he's given me this desire for revival from early on, once I experienced this mighty, powerful, anointing, filling, unction, baptism, whatever you want to call it, you better have it, of this overwhelming power and presence of the Holy Spirit. That's why when we sing that song, I love that song, Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me. And I would submit to you that many of you need that. Many of you need that. I do. That's biblical. That the teaching that you receive the Holy Spirit at conversion, that's it, is good, which is true. But Paul says, BE, being filled. If you look at the breakdown of the Hebrew, I'm sorry, the Greek in the New Testament, and the active tense of that verb, it's a BE, being filled. I'm being emptied through the things of the world, I need to be filled. Spirit of the Living God, would you fall afresh on me? Come on, you know, you know when you got some Holy Spirit gas in your engine, you know when you don't. You know when you're just flat and you're dead. I know there have been times where I didn't get much sleep, like last night, and because people think it's fun to light firecrackers till four in the morning, haven't discovered why that is so fun yet. My dog hated it, my kid, you know, so, so, so God, I need you to move through me, because I'm not feeling it, but the Spirit of the Living God is not concerned with my feelings. So Spirit, fall afresh on me, fill me mightily with your Spirit, so I can discern your truth, so I can preach with boldness. If I walk up there in the power of Shane Eidelman, this will accomplish nothing. And we need that, that, so God's given me that passion for revival, for awakening. There's a stirring, and as I read about awakenings, it would often be dark before the light would come. You should, you should read about colonial America before the first awakening. Drunkenness skyrocketing, prostitution, gambling, lying, mischief, murder, it's just, it's in history, read it. And then God brought an awakening, they shut down bars, hundreds of thousands converted, churches popping up all over, it was so, it was so powerful a move of God that they would have to have what they would call Methodist, Methodist circuit riders. They would go on horseback from every town and preach the gospel. Churches would pop up, bars are closed down, it's amazing to see what God does. So I believe there has to be hope in what a person is offering. So the bottom line is, I don't know, and you don't either, if what he said will come to pass. Now if we see, like he said, Russians and China military in our capital, then we're in trouble. America is no longer existing, I'll tell you that right now. So I don't see that, I don't feel that, I don't sense it. Doesn't mean he's a false prophet, I believe he saw that and he felt that, and we just got to be careful on our dreams sometimes, because I don't believe, it's pretty hard to have an inerrant, inerrant, 100% accurate dream. Right? Because we like to add a little hamburger helper. Well this is what I think, and that's what I think. So I'm not dismissing, I'm not mocking, I think his heart is sincere. I think we should pray about what that means to us. What does it look like? I think we should be prepared. If you're not prepared financially, I would encourage you to be prepared financially. What does that look like? Talk to God. It means don't overspend, get things in order, have some cash on hand. There's nothing wrong with those things. It's good to be prepared. God would spoke through, you know the list, he spoke to Pharaoh about an upcoming famine and used Joseph. Joseph had a dream, right, to avoid persecution, took Mary and Jesus away out of Egypt. I called my son, he came back from Egypt into this area of Israel, and Daniel had a dream, Paul had a dream, a man said, would you come to Macedonia? And so God can use these things. I've had some, I might share at some point if I ever do a sermon on a dream, that is very interesting. I think God will use it sometimes as confirmation. Will he not? So anyway, okay, I know you want to know about one, I'll tell you one. But I've already told you this on a Wednesday night. It was a while back, it was the most exhausting conversation I've ever had with the Jehovah Witness, who knows his stuff. Those kind of, that's tough, because no matter what you say, it doesn't matter, right? And so he was coming back again with a friend, and here we go, I'm preparing. And then that night I had a dream of a black leopard, black jaguar, and I would shine the light in its face, and it would just come around to come and get me, kind of. I'd shine the light in its face, it would come around, it was just very perplexing, so vivid. I wake up, and then wouldn't you know it, God brought that right to my mind as I'm getting frustrated. He's dressed in full black, I'm bringing the light of the gospel, and it's slipping around. And that was like, oh, now you could just say that was just a coincidence. Well, I'm glad it was a coincidence, because it sure helped me. Oh, that's right, Lord. And so I was able to diffuse my frustration, and just keep back on the point of, and you know you're in trouble when you say, hey, do you guys mind if I open in prayer? As long as you don't pray in Jesus's name. That's a cult, if I've ever seen one. That is a group that does not know God, and they need to know God through love and grace, and you got to know your Bible, because they'll bring all kinds of tricky little things in there. The wiles of the devil. They'll bring a brainwashing in, is what it really is. The brain has been so formed in this way of thought, it's hard to break out. So I hope that helps. I don't know if we will release the first service or not, but in the first I talked more about the dream, and what I view on this, and I don't want, I just feel maybe God doesn't want me to spend too much time on that with the second service. We've been having a lot of issues with this type of message. Our internet actually went out during the first service, so thousands and thousands of people didn't even see the first service, and our Facebook threads like, you cut off, you didn't. So the enemy's working overtime for sure. Now is that just coincidence? Maybe. I don't know. All I know is that God has called me to give the message I want to give you this morning. I don't think I'll finish it all, but we're going to talk about unmistakable traits of false prophets. Unmistakable traits of false prophets. You need to be aware, I need to be aware of false voices speaking into our life. Now let me give a big disclaimer here. So many people put false prophet on somebody, and some leaders that are not false prophets. They just don't agree with them. So that's not, a false prophet is a very strong word. A false prophet, a false teacher in the Bible, is someone who actually doesn't know God. They are unconverted. They are apostate. So what they do is they tell you, here is what God says when God doesn't say that. A false proclaimer. A prophet, you don't have to get worried about that term. A prophet is just someone who speaks forth God's Word. So they're saying that God said something when really he didn't. So a lot of these points, you might, on one point you might say, oh I know, that fits that person. No, they could just be weak in the faith. They could be wishy-washy. They could be quenching and grieving the Spirit. So they might have some of these characteristics. That doesn't make them a false prophet. A false prophet will hit all of these characteristics, and they will, it will be blatant and noticeable that they are not following the one true and living God. Especially after you look at all these points. And we'll finally, we'll find these in Jeremiah 23. But I'm going to open with Matthew 24. Matthew 24, 11 and 12. Then many false prophets, many false, this is Jesus, many false prophets will rise up and deceive many people. And because of lawlessness, because of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold. Sound like America today? The love, because, because lawlessness will increase. Lawlessness. What, just turn on the news. Turn on Facebook. Lawlessness will increase. The love of many will grow cold. Are you not sensing a lack of love? I mean, life doesn't matter anymore. Nothing matters. It's just this lawlessness that is trampling upon the rights and freedoms of many people. And there needs to be voices condemning it. Now, I should backtrack a little bit. Matthew 24, depending on what is your eschatology. I tried to say the big word there, but it didn't fit. I'll try, I'll practice for next week. But eschatology is the study of end times. Meaning, you look at the end times. What is going to happen. In Matthew 24, that whole chapter is a famous chapter that people use to talk about the tribulation period. And I don't discount that. But what's interesting is, Matthew 24, if it is for us today, it doesn't mean that it wasn't for the disciples in Jesus's day. Because anytime Jesus would talk to his contemporaries, do this, be prepared, be ready, flee Jerusalem, hope it doesn't happen on the Sabbath, that your flight is in the Sabbath. He's talking to his contemporaries as well. And so that's why this is interesting. Theologians like D.A. Carson would say that if we apply this verse to us today, then that means it's the only time in all of the recorded Gospels where Jesus did an audience shift. So instead of talking to his disciples, he's instead talking to us. See why it gets confusing and why there's different views? All millennial, pre-millennial, post-millennial, pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib. All of those terms come from this type of belief that, did this already happen? Is it happening to us? What's going on? So I'm gonna try to unpack that this month. It's difficult because there are different opinions. So I'm gonna give you the different opinions on that. But I believe this, this is my kind of theory on theology of the end times. I believe God's Word is living and active. Meaning, and the Bible says that, it's applicable 2,000 years ago, it's applicable now. And I believe that God speaks to each generation through his Word. And some things can have dual meanings. So when Jesus spoke to his contemporaries and telling his disciples, which was true, that the false prophets will come, false teachers will rise up. And that did happen in Jesus's time, after Jesus left. And that prepared them. But that is also happening today. So we see this dual fulfillment of what is being happened, or what is happening. But when we get into Matthew 24 more on, show us the end of the times. And Jesus said, well, not one stone will be left upon another stone. They will trample Jerusalem. And you can see that that actually was fulfilled in AD 70 by Titus, the Roman Emperor, that, or the Roman soldier, the general, that conquered Jerusalem. That actually did happen, a lot of those things. But a lot of those things are still coming in fulfillment. So I'm gonna try to unpack that. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna really make you think about something interesting. You can research this. If you take the words, I believe it's Caesar Nero, and you take the Hebrew numeric value of Caesar Nero, it actually is 666. So they believe that John was writing to warn the early church about this person in the conquering of Jerusalem in AD 70. Now, do I subscribe fully to that? I would say that's very interesting. And the tribulation, it looks like, is coming. It looks like there could be a one-world system around there. Looks like the nation of Israel was reborn in the 1940s. So there's connecting a lot of dots here. But that's why the church is divided on this issue, because Scripture is not crystal clear. It might get tough. You might not be raptured out of here when it gets tough. There is, there is a catching away. That word rapture comes from, I believe it's the Latin Vulgate, where it talks about a catching away. And there will be that, the catching away, and coming to Christ, or meeting Christ in the air. But I have a problem sometimes with that, because they don't, those who teach that, do not believe that's Christ's second coming. They believe that will happen, but then there's a second coming later. And I don't see, okay, that's interesting. And in the millennial reign, if there is a millennial, why is there sacrifices again and animals being slaughtered to Jesus? Hmm. So see, that's why people, my point, my whole point was, I guess I could have said this 10 minutes ago. Hold your end times theology loosely in the palm of your hand. For people to say, this is how it's going to happen, have been proven wrong time and time again over the last, or hundreds of years. So we have to look at Scripture, and we have to ponder. But at the end of the day, we have to say, does it draw me closer to Jesus? Am I prepared for His return? And will I be able to go through tribulation and persecution? Jesus said, be ready. Persecution is coming. Tribulation is coming. If the world hated me, know that it's going to hate you. So we should not be surprised by any of this. We should be ready for it. So here we go, Jeremiah 23. We're looking at traits of false prophets, and I can already tell you a half-hour into this, we're gonna have to repeat some of this next week. So I feel like Jeremiah, let me tell you about poor Jeremiah, known as a weeping prophet. We think we got it hard. This guy preached his heart out and did not see anyone really turn back to God that we know of. Can you imagine that? Preaching your heart out, calling people out on sin, and at the end of the day, they wanted to kill him. Get rid of the voice of Jeremiah. It parallels today. Get rid of the voice. You must understand that a lot of what I'm saying actually would be labeled hate speech. A lot of what I say from the pulpit, love speech, is actually labeled as hate speech. Why? Get rid of the voice that's calling us to conviction. There's no difference. So here's Jeremiah. He says, my heart within me is broken. My heart within me is broken. Why, Jeremiah? Because of the prophets. Because of the false prophets. And all my bones shake. I'm like a drunken man, and like a man who wine has overcome. Why? Why is he like this? Because of the Lord, and because of his holy word. Let me sum it up to you. Jeremiah is broken. He says these false prophets are leading the people astray, and I'm like a drunken man. I'm stumbling through life. I'm soaked. My eyes are like tears, because I recognize the holiness of God. I look to his word. It says here, because of the Lord, and because of his holiness, because of his holy standard, the closer you draw to God's holiness, the more sick you become of sin. And you see, oh God, the weeping, the shedding of innocent blood, the mocking of your truth, the removal of your word, the slandering of Jesus Christ, and oh, I see your holiness, and God, it breaks my heart. Can not anyone relate to that today, or is that just me? I can relate to this like never before. My heart, the heart within me is broken. Jeremiah said, I'm crying tears of water, and turning into rivers, and he actually wanted to quit the ministry. Oh, if you cannot relate to that, I don't know what to tell you. If it wasn't for the fact that God has called me, you don't know how many times that thought entered my mind. But you can't do it, because his word is in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones, I'm weary of holding it back. So we want to quit in our humanity, but we want to go forward in the boldness of the Spirit. So Jeremiah is saying, I saw God, I saw his holiness, and I'm staggering for the sins of the people, for the land is full of adultery, is it not? You can't even watch what you're watching right now on Netflix. They would have blushed 30 years ago. They would have said, how is this allowed in our home 30 years ago? So what used to alarm America, now, I'm sorry, what used to amaze America, now comforts her. What used to alarm us is no longer alarming. We've been desensitized. You don't think so? The perversion that's coming in no longer, they would have never allowed that 40 years ago. Leave it to Beaver. I love Lucy. Where are those shows? Where are those shows where the husband was the hero, not the idiot? The father led his family. I'm gonna take a rabbit trail, I need to get back on the road. But don't you see Christianity is being influenced by the wrong voices? Sexual things we would never allow in our homes or our kids to watch. I don't know, it's no big deal. And so Jeremiah says, for because of a curse, the land mourns. Anytime God's people drift from him, the land mourns. There's a curse on the land because of this debauchery and going against God, and the pleasant places of the wilderness have dried up. Does that sound familiar? The pleasant places, the rivers of water running through the deserts there and the growing trees and all this, God dried up all those things and they become barren and dead, and the course of their life is evil. And their might is not right. In other words, their strength, their vigor of these false prophets, it's not right. It's not pointed in the right direction. And Jeremiah says, for both prophet, God's spokesman, and God's priest, those who would intercede before the people, are all profane. Yes, in my house, God says, I have found their wickedness. And he calls out those people. So let's talk about characteristics of some false prophets. Verse 1 in chapter 23, God says, woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture. Woe to them, says the Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people, you have scattered my flock and driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doing. What do you do when God is against you? He says, you have not attended to my people, you false prophets. And by the way, false prophets will never read Jeremiah 23. They'd be like, what is this? I'm getting rid of this book. Because it convicts their apostate heart. So again, I want to remind you, just because somebody struggles in the points we're going to cover, it doesn't mean that they're necessarily an apostate false prophet. It doesn't mean that. It just means they could need a mighty filling of the soul, the spirit, so they become bold again. So number one, we can glean from this, they scatter God's flock rather than unite them. I'm talking about real believers. A false prophet will scatter real believers. Actually, they'll go look for other churches. They're confused. They don't know what's going on. They scatter. They're not protectors of God's people. They're mockers of God's people. And I saw recently someone I would consider a false prophet, actually, and someone I've tried to reach out to before. And he posted on Facebook, mocking a church that actually had a meeting, a prayer meeting, a revival-type meeting, and some people got sick with the virus there because they weren't following, you know, good... I don't know what happened there. Anyway, as a result, he's mocking them on Facebook. He's mocking churches. He wants... they divide real believers. They're mocking voices. They're there to scatter God's people. They do not unite us. And many of these false prophets you'll see are also aligning with false movements, bad movements. So these movements out there that are against America and what God is doing in there. You know what they are. I'm not gonna say names. I know you know. But the false prophets will align with that and divide God's people. One characteristic of a false prophet is always scattering and not uniting the true body of Christ. And many people might say, Shane, come on. Be nice. Don't say things like that. Oh, no, no, no. You lost that months ago. So many voices pulling us down. It's time to pull us back up. It's time to be that voice crying in the wilderness echoing the opposite. Hey, if they come out with misguided truth, with wrong information, shouldn't we be the opposite voice, the opposing voice, saying this is not right? But so many people are afraid because what might they think if I call out a certain movement? What might people think if I say this about a certain thing? They'll think I'm a racist. Well, what does God think? They're not gonna think you're a racist if you're not. We have to offer the opposing voice. Anytime the enemy brings in error, God often raises up a John the Baptist to confront that voice, that competing voice. You show me where truth is supposed to be silent. Just one verse. Actually, we are to be slow to speak, quick to listen. But when God begins to fill you with the boldness of the Holy Spirit, you can't hold that down. Have you ever tried to hold a basketball at the bottom of a pool? That's what it feels like. That's what it feels like, being filled with the boldness of the Spirit. You've got to say something. They scatter God's flock and the silent majority is no longer remaining silent. We are going to speak out in love, of course. And then number two, they are self-centered and self-focused. A false prophet is self-centered and self-focused. Now, we have to be careful here because who doesn't struggle with that? But I'm glad Scripture clarifies because God said in His Word, you drive them away and you do not attend to them. What is He talking about? They're not really caring for the spiritual needs of people. That's why people are dying spiritually in America. This is amazing. Sometimes I don't know what to tell you, what not to tell you, but you need to know that God has raised up this church to be a voice nationally. We're hearing from people all, every state of the Union, all over for this very reason. To hear, to hear what is the opposing voice. We hear all this fear. We fear all this hopelessness. Where are the voices of truth? The number one email is, right now that we receive, we've been for years, is, can I find, can you recommend a good Bible-believing church in, and you fill in the blank. But now, the biggest question coming in right behind that is, is people being dissatisfied and hurt and confused on why their pastor is not speaking out. Can you believe that? All over, all over the United States. Now, there's many good churches, don't get me wrong, hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, that are holding to the inerrancy of God's Word. But so many people are left confused on this point because they're not being fed spiritually on the things that really matter right now. They're dying on the vine, so to speak. They're not growing spiritually. In these times of turmoil is when we need to be voicing what the truth is. And there comes, there, with that comes a cost. There comes a tremendous cost to speak this kind of truth. It's travail of your own soul. There's a burden you wrestle with, the burden of the Lord. Others may. You cannot, I have to live a certain way into which I just allow the Holy Spirit of God to work into my life. There has to be, you have to be prepared for attacks on a daily basis, spiritually, physically, different mentally, emotionally, and God, God begins to point us in the direction of truth. There's a cost to that. A cost that many people don't want to pay. And I should clarify, if I didn't cling to the cross daily and seek God, I could drift just like anyone else. That's why you don't ever elevate a man, you elevate Jesus Christ. Because all of us, all of us, if I said, you know what, for the next, this month I'm not gonna spend time in God's Word, I'm not gonna pray, I'm gonna check out what's on Netflix, I'm gonna watch the series Breaking Bad, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna be bad, and I'm gonna, you know, do all these things. You think, you think I'm gonna be able to speak boldly into what's going on? Why? Because it's God's Spirit that speaks, and many pastors, many leaders need a mighty refreshment, a filling of the Spirit of God to get that boldness back. And so false prophets are self-centered and self-focused, they don't care about the true spiritual needs of the people. It's often about building up their ministry and, and, and, and, and, and just kind of protecting themselves. You'll notice this too, that anytime, I often say this, and I will continue to say it till the day I die, everything I'm saying this morning, go check it against the Word of God. Go open up Jeremiah 23 and see if you come away with that same thing. False prophets will never tell you that. They'll never say, go check what they're saying to the Word of God. They actually diminish the Word of God. They don't, they don't hold it up, and that's the real problem. It's not the inerrant, inspired, authoritative Word of God, it's something that was written a long time ago, and I think I know more. That's what the false prophets say. They will hide you away from God's truth, won't they? The whole truth. They might quote some nice scriptures that feel good, but they'll hide you away from the truth, and that's what happened with Roman Catholicism many years ago. Have you heard people like, have you heard the names John Hus, William Tyndale? They were burned at the stake, some of those people. Why? Because they dared to translate the Bible into the common tongue of the people. See, the Bible was in Latin. Nobody knew what it said, so you could, you could teach purgatory. You could teach, hey, hey, after service come put $100 in here, and your relative will get out of purgatory quicker. That's how they built St. Peter's Cathedral. That's wrong. I don't care if Roman Catholics get mad at me for saying it. That's wrong, and that's the truth, that's the facts. Anytime an organization wants to hide you from God's Word, run. Run. Same thing, they'll come to your door, Jehovah Witness. They'll have their version, or Mormons. Well, here's the book of Mormon. Let me see the Bible. Well, the Bible's okay, but here's our book. See? No, no, no. Nothing is supplemental. The Bible stands alone as the authoritative God of God's Word. So that could have been another point itself. I just thought of that. They'll get you away from God's Word. They won't say, compare what I'm saying to God's Word. Please do. And then verse 14, they commit adultery. These leaders commit sexual sin, and they walk in lies. They also strengthen the hands of evildoers. Can you imagine that? God is rebuking these prophets. They would call themselves prophets and priests representing God. They would actually strengthen the hands of evildoers. Anytime a person is strengthening sin, voices in our nation strengthening sin, they're on a very dangerous path. And that's why I'm concerned with some of these pastors backing ungodly movements in our nation. They are strengthening the hand of sinners. They're not calling people to repentance and reconciliation. They're fueling more anger. So God said they strengthen the hands of evildoers so that no one turns back from his wickedness. Instead of preaching repentance, they're preaching peace. God loves you. Don't worry. Don't change the way you live. There'll be peace. It doesn't matter. So number three, they indulge. False prophets indulge the flesh rather than fight it. They will tell you things that will indulge your flesh. They will not call you to repentance. They will encourage you to sin. Now let me clarify that as well. We should encourage people through their sin, right? A person's caught in sin, we encourage them through. It's not doom and gloom. You sinner, how could you get out of this church? What is that? That's not the heart of God. That's something you thought was serious, right? But you encourage them through it. God will see you through. Take the struggle to Christ. Repent of your sin. You see them through. The false prophet encourages them in it to stay in it. For example, if you watch the interview I did on Fox News, the hour-long one on YouTube, the question was asked of the person I was debating, would you, if somebody came to you and they're struggling with same-sex attraction, what would you tell them? He said, I would encourage them to embrace it. So you're encouraging them to embrace sin. That's a very dangerous road. A true spokesman for God will tell people you need to repent. There will be encouragers in one sense, but they will not encourage people in their sin. And what you do, that's why I guess on this topic I'll touch base on it. The big complaint right now against what things like what I'm saying is that people who struggle with homosexuality and lesbian and same-sex attraction, Shane, they're committing suicide at an alarming rate and you have to stop being more encouraging. No, the reason they're committing suicide is because you're not offering them hope. Everyone in Hollywood and even their church can come around and say, it's okay, it's not wrong, embrace it. And there's still the conviction of the Holy Spirit which you can never ignore. So I believe that you can offer them hope and say, listen, point them to the cross. I point you to redemption, hope in Jesus Christ. And they say, sometimes Shane, I'm still struggling with it. Well, guess what? We're all struggling with something. Right? If you're not struggling with any sin after church, I would love to meet you. Tell me how you do that. Right? The alcoholic is one drink away. The Xanax user is struggling right now as I'm speaking. Opiates. See, God doesn't often, doesn't always just deliver someone. Sometimes they've got to live the rest of their life struggling with the very thing they've been delivered from. Sometimes God does deliver. Praise God. I've met people like, Shane, once I came to the Lord, I never had that desire ever again. Praise God. But some of us aren't that fortunate. Some of us still struggle with the old man because he wants to take us down again. So if you tell someone that, listen, just because you struggle doesn't mean you don't know Jesus Christ. Actually, sometimes the greater the commitment to Jesus, the greater the struggles. The enemy and all hell will break loose to try to get you to go back and ruin your testimony. You don't think, I think the devil's got a target on my head and on my heart, and he's just waiting for that old man to come out again. That's how he works. The wiles of the devil, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. He's waiting to use those things against us. So I truly believe it's not hate speech, it's love speech. If I talk to someone who struggles with any type of sin, you point them to the cross. But false teachers will validate their sin and not point them to Jesus Christ because they themselves have never been converted. That's where the word apostate comes from. They are apostate. They are children of the devil. They are not spokesmen for God. They're liars and deceivers and God calls them to repentance. So a sure sign of a false prophet is they encourage people in their sin. I don't know for sure, I've never researched this, but I'm willing to bet many false prophets can get on Oprah. I don't think I'll have a shot. Or most people, right? Or most people that speak. Why? What's the number one? Tell us what we want to hear. They will have people on. Like I would consider, if you want names, Rob Bell. I would consider a false prophet. Mocking the virginity of Jesus, of Mary, and the inerrancy of Scripture, and embracing game, and all these things. If you go public, people say, Shane, why do you do that? Because if they go public saying things, I have a biblical mandate to go public as well and counteract what they're saying. I didn't open up the can of worms. You opened up the can of worms with your false statement. So stop blaming me for saying things, because you opened up those can of worms. You came out and said those things. And see, they'll go on these shows, tell us what you want to hear. What is that? Oh, God doesn't care about sin. It's okay. God loves us. God is love, Oprah. God is love. But he's also holy. God doesn't have one attribute above all the rest. As a matter of fact, if you've been coming here a while, you know I've talked about this before. The attribute, if you study from Genesis to Revelation, the attribute of God above all other attributes. Are you ready for this one? It is holiness. The holiness of God. The angels cry, holy, holy, holiness. And the holiness is, without holiness, you cannot see the Lord. Come and worship the Lord and the beauty of holiness. And those come out from among them. And be holy, be holy and set apart for God. Because true love is the embodiment of holiness as well. And that's how we follow our Lord and Savior. We cannot elevate the love of God without elevating the holiness of God, the righteousness of God, the justice of God, the judgment of God, and the love of God. Isn't it true that it's the love of God that compels us to share the truth of God? So it is out of love. If you think, you know what, I'm glad I remember this again. It's not my notes at all. But with so many people listening to this, there are some watching this that are excited about my message. They can't wait to send this message to family and friends. Oh, this message is for you too because you've got a hard, arrogant, Pharisee heart. We should not be excited about these things. These things should break our heart. Like Jesus says, He wept over Jerusalem. So I don't say these things. I don't say these things with the spirit of arrogance and want to get them. I say them with a broken heart and encouraging people. Turn back to your Savior. Turn back to the Lord you're denying. Get on the right road because the broad road to destruction is what you're on. Come back to Christ. Kneel your knee at the foot of Jesus. That's one thing you can kneel for right now in these dire times. Kneel. I kneel to Jesus Christ and Him alone. And you have to call them out and it's because of love. And so many of you who are pulpit pounders and loud, get out of this building sinner. You need to repent of your arrogance. Arrogance is just as bad. God says, I hate a proud look. I hate the stench of arrogance. The arrogant I will humble and the humble I will exalt. Humble yourself before the mighty hand of God. In due time I'll exalt you. Exalt yourself and I will abase you. God hates arrogance. Why? Because humility is the aroma of the Holy Spirit. Humility is walking and being conformed into the image of Christ. That's why Leonard Ravenhill used to famously say that you have to weep before you whip. Jesus would weep over Jerusalem before he made the the court and whipped. There's a getting your heart right before God. There's a there's a there's a waiting on the Lord and then out of the the abundance of your heart your mouth is going to speak because you spent time with God. And then fourth, you could tie this in with the other one, they encourage sin rather than repentance. You will not hear them talk rarely rarely about repentance. It's all they encourage the person in their sin and I talked about this before and I don't want to go into again but we do need encouragers. You know not everyone has a calling of John the Baptist. For example, you know Max Lucado, you read his books, you know some of you is good encouragers. People like that great encouragers. They're not they're not they don't do what I do and I don't do what they do. We need we need each other. God raises up different voices, different encouragers, but these people do not encourage them in their sin. They call them out of their sin. They continually say to those who despise me. So look at this is God. I'm gonna end with this. They continually and I'm only halfway done. So next week, they continually say to those who despise me, the Lord has said you shall have peace. You shall have peace and everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart. They say no evil shall come upon you and that's what I just tied in. They preach peace and not repentance. This is amazing. These false prophets are doing this. It's happening right now. They continually tell those who despise me, don't worry about it. God's not judging you and those who walk according to the dictates of their own heart means they do whatever is right in their own eyes. The false prophets say, don't worry. God doesn't care. You're good with God, man. That's what a false prophet will do. They will not call the nation to repentance. The false prophets today, you will never hear a false prophet calling our nation to repentance, pointing out sin and calling people back to God because they themselves need to repent. That's actually, do you ever heard the term liberal theology? That's where it comes from all of this. They are liberal in their theology, meaning God's Word is not the inerrant, inspired, authoritative Word of God. They're liberal in their theology and it really is a seat of arrogance because they say, did Paul really say? I think I know more than Paul. We're more educated than Paul. Poor Paul, he kind of put the Bible together and these early Christians didn't know this and Jeremiah, he was over the top. Jesus was just mild and meek and never really upset anybody. Just this humble attitude and he would probably protest like the protesters are protesting. He would probably burn down things. They just have this arrogance about them countering what the Bible really says. That's a sign of a false prophet saying, peace, peace. So you will not hear them sounding the alarm today. False prophets do not sound the alarm. They don't say peace, peace. I mean they say peace, peace when there is no peace. Let me just encourage you before I'm going to get into the rest next week, nothing is hopeless when we turn to God. Amen? Nothing is hopeless when you turn to God. You do not allow, you do not have to allow the false prophets to dictate or to control your choices and your decisions. You can come out from among them, be separate. You can reject the voice of falsehood and embrace the voice of truth and it begins, maybe it begins with some of you in this room, some of you listening. You've been listening to the wrong voices. You've been following the wrong movements. You've been growing angry and irritable in your spirit and God says, come back home. Come to me. Bow your knee to me and let me rebuild your life. Let me renew your life. Let me restore you. Focus on hope again. Isn't it amazing how when you get back into God's words, you get built up and encouraged again? Reading the Psalms and you read that God is your refuge and that God is your strength and that God will see you through and when you look to the hills and where does your help come from? Your help comes from God Almighty. Just look to the hills. Where does my help come from? It comes from God, the maker of heaven and earth. What army is going to come against God? What king is going to stop his plans? What nation is going to reverse what God has done? What movement in our nation can stand and shake their fists at God and get away with it? Oh there's a day of reckoning. There's a God of vengeance but the Christian community has to turn to God in prayer and fasting again and uphold his word, uphold his truth and get back to magnifying him and who he is. We have to point people to the cross. Point them to the cross. So many people are being silent but you got to point people to the cross. I told my wife this week I'm a spiritual sniper. I'm going on Facebook and social media and I'm just posting stuff, posting stuff. They say didn't you see their comments? I don't care what their comments is. Truth will not be questioned. You can post the truth and say I laid it out. This is what God's Word says. Watch all those people. They just want to debate all the time because they can't take the unfiltered pure Word of God for what it is. They have to try to deconstruct it and they want to comment, comment, comment, comment. Thus, sometimes you just say, thus saith the Lord and let the chips fall where they may.