Shane Idleman addresses the dangers of false teachers who promote a message of doing what feels good, contrasting it with the truth of God's Word. He emphasizes that true prophets align their messages with Scripture, warning against the allure of cultural acceptance and the temptation to indulge in sin. Idleman urges believers to be discerning and to seek sound doctrine, reminding them of the consequences faced by those who stray from God's truth, as illustrated in the book of Jude. He calls for a return to the authority of Scripture and a genuine relationship with Jesus, highlighting the importance of conviction alongside encouragement in the Christian walk.

The message this morning is part three from the book of Jude on false teachers, false prophets, they kind of use those words interchangeably. The title is false teachers say do what feels good. Here's what false teachers will always tell you, and a false prophet what they mean by that is somebody speaking for God. Thus saith the Lord. Well does it line up with his word? It's very simple. So somebody who says something that doesn't line up with his word is a false prophet, a false proclaimer of what they are saying is truth is not truth. So a prophet really is somebody who proclaims what the word of God is, what the will of God is. So if I'm telling you hey just continue in your sin, God doesn't care I'm a false prophet, and a false teacher teaches people falsely. And let me just tell you, you need to have your spiritual antennas up in these days. You need to be, you need to know what's going on out there because everything on the news isn't legit. Did you know that? CNN, Fox, MSNBC, you know Drudge Report, Huffington Post, be careful. Get your information from the word of God. Because what happens, here's what's happening, we're out of the word of God, not very much, we don't look to the word of God, and we look to what everyone else is saying. We look to what the culture is saying, so what direction are we eventually led in the direction of what the culture is saying? So the big mark you need to know about false teachers is this, we talked about last week but it's going to talk about it again here in Jude. We are in the book of Jude, if you want to turn there, book of Jude verse 5. False teachers tell you do what feels good. So God says run, get away from, flee from what? Fleshly impulses. I want to eat too much, we want to drink too much, we want to run to what the flesh tells us to do. So false teachers will actually encourage that. Nike, what is their slogan? Just, can you imagine if that was our slogan? Shane, I don't know, I'm struggling with this, just do it. Really? Yeah, who cares? God doesn't care, didn't you read somewhere in here it says he's a God of love? That's the new thing right now, did you know that? Lady Gaga has the audacity to rebuke Mike Pence's Christian faith based on God is love. Jesus is love. So that means I can do whatever I want because Jesus loves me. No, he loves you enough to die for you to die for that sin, not to continue in it. What a false perception of love. And these false teachers when they tell you what feels good, they are smooth talkers. They're appealing to the flesh so they always have followers. Who doesn't want them telling them to continue in their lifestyle? Tell me what I want to hear. So I quote this verse often but I want to actually put it on the screen so you can see it yourself. Paul, older Paul is writing to a younger Timothy and these words are very relevant for us today in 2nd Timothy. Look what it says, for the time will come and is already here, if I could paraphrase that, I mean not paraphrase but in brackets, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. What does that mean? The time will come when they will not put up with this anymore. If we don't live in that time, I don't know when it's coming because that is exactly what's happening. People say I don't want to know what this says, I don't want to put up with sound doctrine, sound theology, understanding of God. I don't want to hear about the foundation of righteousness and holiness. I don't want that. I don't want this sound, solid, complete, authoritative doctrine. But according to what? They will look for teachers according to their own desires because they have itching ears. And you might not understand itching ears in our context but itching ears was something where people would be perceptive. My ear is itching, in other words I want to hear what you're saying. It's itching for gossip. It's itching, it's looking for what I want to hear about myself and continue in my sin. That's why Jesus says he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Let him hear what the Spirit of God is saying through his word, through sound doctrine. So the very thing we need they want to run away from. So they look for, they heap up, means they get a whole bunch of them. Have you ever, you know, heap on the onions in and out burger. Now you're paying attention. Heap up, put on more of that. So they heap up, they look for, they go through YouTube. I like that guy, I like that guy. Who's that bald guy telling me a sinner? Dislike. I don't want that so I'm heaping up, I'm collecting in my YouTube playlist all of these people who will tell me what I want to hear. Did you know you can find them out there? Every sin you want to engage in someone will confirm it. So they look for them and they say but they've got pastor in their title. That's why I'm not a big fan of titles. People say I'm a prophet. You're not a prophet. God will call you a prophet. He'll give you gifting. Man doesn't put titles on it. God calls a person. And that's actually what we do here. Somebody's calling, we just look for God's call on someone. And what we often do is refrain from titles and see how they handle that. Are they in it for the title, the recognition? Because God when he calls somebody he puts that anointing on them. So Timothy, Paul's telling Timothy be careful because they're going to look for teachers. They'll find a whole bunch of teachers who will turn their ears away from the truth. In other words the truth is coming out. The truth is coming out and it turns their ears from the truth to what? To the air. That's why I personally think that God allowed us to purchase the airwaves and not to go to something secular, something different because you have this battle for what? The truth. Are we not seeing the battle for truth in our nation, in the churches? One voice saying this, one voice saying this. I mean and I don't mean to poke fun, it's just perfect illustrations. But for Lady God that elects us on Christianity. But kids believe it. In Philadelphia I think there's a school district, there's a transgender, her name is Annie Christ and she's got horns on and she's sitting there reading to kindergartners. Where's the outrage? See there's this contending. That's wrong. No it's right. No but I think that's wrong. No you're a hate monger. You hate people, you're a racist, you're transphobe, you're homophobe. All of those titles are false declarations to get people to not like you and to dissuade you from the truth. All of those titles. I mean how else are you going to get some, how are you, how else are you going to avoid something? You're going to throw titles at someone and call them a hater, call them mean. So Jude is addressing this. He said, I want to remind you, verse 5, though you once knew, isn't it good to be reminded of God's word? This is why you have to stay in the word of God as often as possible. You'll notice this, when you get out of the word of God and you start to listen to the voice of the world, what happens? You're pulled in that direction because as Christians we think, no I can hold that line, I can hold that line. No, as a man thinketh so is he. You are programmed, I was programmed to be either conformed to the image of the world or conformed to the image of Christ. What direction is the word of God pulling you? So I want to remind you, though you once knew this, you did know this, that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward he destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their own abode, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. As Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Jude, could you be a little softer? False prophets won't even teach the book of Jude, I'll tell you that right now. Because it calls them out, it names them. Exactly what they're doing, they're false prophets, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. One thing that happens is as churches are dumbed down, you know, not wanting to fend and be politically correct and not wanting to hurt people's feelings and hopefully they get convicted on their own if they're reading, is you begin to create an atmosphere where nobody's convicted. So a person comes in in their sin, comes in in their sinful lifestyle, they hear worship, they raise their hands, they praise God, they hear a great encouraging message and they leave and they come back next week. We're only going to focus on the positives. God is love. Turn the other cheek, be nice to people, let's look at the Good Samaritan this morning, isn't that what you, yeah, and then they come back, see, they never get convicted. It's that constant, what's that, that merry-go-round? And they're hearing the same thing, same encouragement all the time, they're never convicted. That's why it's important to read the Word of God. I mean, most people when they do a devotional, they don't read God's Word. They open it and they read God is love. Oh, that was good for the day. And then the next day, turn the other cheek. Oh, that's a good, that's really good. And then the next day, do good to your neighbor. Well, I really like this stuff. But they're not going through it and finding the whole counsel of God's Word, the totality of God's Word, the conviction, as well as the encouragement, because we have to have both. You need the encouragement when you're down, but you need the conviction when you're arrogant. That's what the Word of God does. It's supposed to convict. It's supposed to hurt feelings. It's supposed to offend and build up and strengthen. It does all of those things. Only God can do that. I love what he told Jeremiah, this young prophet, we don't know his age, but he said, God, I can't speak for you. I'm just a youth. And God said, you will go to who I send you and you will speak what I put in your mouth. And what's he say to him? Just encourage. No, he says, you will pull down, you will root out, you will destroy the works of darkness. And they said, and you will plant and you will build up. See, it's that whole counsel of God's Word. It goes in like a sword. It goes in like something that's living and active. The Bible says that, that the Word of God is living and active like a double-edged sword. It pierces the heart. It's a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. So my heart and my thoughts are going a certain direction. The Word of God comes in like a sword and it pierces that arrogance and it causes a person to repent and believe or to become hard and cold and callous. Isn't it interesting the Puritans were famous in the 1500s, 1600s for saying the same sun, the same sun above that melts the wax, hardens the clay, just like the Word of God. And it's so interesting. This is probably one of the most interesting things that happens in ministry that I see. Hard messages, people are like in tears. Oh my Lord, one guy came up to me this morning. That's exactly for me. I need to hear that hard saying and this and that. And then you have somebody else. How dare you? How dare you? Who do you think you are? Same word, different heart. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. This person is hard and arrogant, turning from the truth. And you'll see this. If you try to go and talk to those that we see in the news, some of those marches and different things, they are so hard. They're so callous. They don't want to hear anything. I think David Stone is if it was legal. Get rid of that person. So we see here there's an Old Testament example. What happened with the children of Israel? He saved them out of Egypt. He brought, they think around 1.6 million people out of Egypt. I will call my children, my nation from Egypt. How many of them in Egypt went into the promised land? Two. Two people? That's not very good odds. A quick maybe, I don't know, two-week journey, 40 years wandering in the wilderness and God kept saying, you're unbelief, you're hard hearts, you're grumbling, you're complaining, you're bickering. That all goes together. Did you know that? I've never seen one with the soft, pliable, humble, gracious heart that's also critical. Oh God this and oh God that. He's, oh I'm suffering for, and I don't, my life shouldn't be, and they're very critical. See it all goes together. It's a heart of unbelief because when you believe, see belief doesn't just have to do with salvation. Belief has to do with God. I believe that you're sovereign. I believe that you sit on the throne. I believe that you have this. I believe that all the nations sit in the palm of your hands. I believe that you have the final say. I believe in who you are. I believe in your sovereignty. I believe that you know what's best for me, and I'm going to trust in you. You said it, I believe it. They used to say that. God said it, I believe it, that settles it. But I heard a major big pastor, I think one of the biggest in our nation, talking on an interview that, I see his point, but we have to be careful where he'll make statements, and he teaches in such a way as to appeal to the world. Like, well you can't say the Bible says anymore, Shane. Oh, okay. Because they don't believe that, and I see what he's saying. I see, I kind of get where he's going, but you start to dumb down the authority of scripture. Because I would say, oh absolutely, I actually think we can. I think we can say, thus saith the Lord. I can say, Jesus said, he who is not for me is against me. John said that if you do not do his commandments, you are a liar, and the truth is not in you. And that word goes out like a devouring fire, like a hammer that breaks a rock to pieces, like a double-edged sword. I believe that we can say that. I believe it. I like what Spurgeon said, you don't have to defend the Bible and hold it back any more than you defend a lion. Open the cage and let it out. That's all you have to do sometimes with the Word of God. You need men and women filled with the Spirit of God, proclaiming his truth. Though the world says, I do not want to endure sound doctrine, God says, I don't care what you want to endure. I am God, you are not, and I will proclaim my truth through spokesmen who want to proclaim the authority of my Word and hold it up, not push it down. And many people are so scared, well, the world doesn't want to hear it. You can't say the Bible any more. You can't say this. You can't say Adam and Eve. That's so passé. People don't know about Noah's Ark, a worldwide flood, a big fish swallowed Jonah, Shane, come on. What are you doing, man? We've got to relate to the people. They don't believe that any more. The problem is you don't believe it any more. And then it comes out in your preaching. Yeah, you can clap for that. That's a good one to clap on. Because Jesus himself said, as in the days of Noah, Jesus himself said, as was with Jonah, three days in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth. Jesus said, in the beginning, God made them male and female. So are you dumbing down then what Jesus said? Because that's authoritative. So I think many people are trying to conform. And what happens is they get attacked. You said the Bible said you are so illiterate, you are so naive. No, you are. Let's sit down and look at it. See, I believe we've got to get back to the authority of God's Word and be filled with the Spirit of God. So when you speak it, you have the authority because you believe it. Belief is huge. A lot of these people do not believe, actually believe that these things happen. I know Christian pastors right now over that hill that believe in evolution. No wonder there's no power in a lot of these they're preaching. Well, I don't know. I mean, could it be? I mean, I mean, I know homosexuality is wrong, but maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe God's changing his mind. See, flip-flop, you're not running for office. You're in the pulpit. You can't flip-flop. Now, it's okay to have questions. I have questions. I don't understand some things, but I realize that I'm finite and God is infinite. His ways are far beyond my ways. Who am I to question? And it's okay to, you know, Lord, why did you allow? Sometimes I'll read in the Old Testament, I'll go, holy mackerel. Maybe I can't say that, edit that. Wow. Yeah. Or just be like, Lord, I don't understand that. I don't know how there was a command given to go and slaughter every person. I don't, I don't understand, but I will never let that dissuade me from believing and trusting in the one true and living God. And you have to have that, that, that backbone of what, and really it only comes from spending time in his word. The reason many people reject it is because they're not in his word. They have no clue what it really says. That's why you'll hear, well, he's not the God of the Old Testament anymore. Was it, is it a different book? Like, did he switch? And it's the same story. It's the same book. So the Old Testament examples were given so that we would believe. Paul said, I've given you these examples so that you would believe and learn from them. So where are you at this morning? Maybe belief is essential. Has a critical spirit came in? You starting to doubt God and complain? I don't feel like I'm pushed 20 fingers. I can turn into complain mode pretty easily. When the week's not going too good, what happens? Do I get more joyful? Joy-filled. But we have to be careful because that, that heart of unbelief can set in. What about unbelief in regard to salvation? I don't know where all of you are, but you need to really look at your heart. Do you truly know who, who, do you truly know Jesus? Because there's this image of Jesus that he was just a good teacher, turn the other cheek, love, love like the hippies in the sixties. It was just all love, man. He had the look. No, this is the same Jesus who would rebuke cities. Woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethesda. Woe to you. Do you know what that means? Woe. Let's say woe to you, America. Woe to you, Canada. If the good works that were done in you were done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago with sackcloth and ashes. Woe to you, Capernaum. You are raised up into heaven, so you say, but I will bring you down to hell. It's better in the day of judgment than for Sodom than for you because you did not believe. So Doug's begged the question, are you trusting in religion this morning or do you have a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ? There's nothing more important than that. But we put so much, oh, we got to get out of here. The game's going to start. Or we got to do this. We got to do this. No, nothing is more important than do you have that relationship? And I've also found that many people come back to me later and say, you know what? What you said really upset me that day, but it made me go home and think. And now I know Christ. Now I know God. Even the angels rebelled. The Bible says they did not keep their proper domain, which is their area of influence. So God gave them a domain. God said, angels, this is your domain. This is your area of influence. And some of them even rebelled against God. It appears that they were given a free will, a choice to make. And I thought of this too. I want to ask you this morning, are you in a state of rebellion? Are you in a state of rebellion? What does that look like? Very, very, very simple. I hear, but I do not do. I hear, but I do not do. And the reason I encourage you in this area is because once your heart is clean and free of these things, you'll experience the abundant Christian life that Jesus spoke of. So when I do this, it's not to hurt, it's to help. I mean, who's going to get upset at a, at a cancer surgeon for removing a tumor? That hurt. Well, yeah, I got it out. Same thing. We need heart surgery sometimes. He has reserved an everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. So we have to be reminded. He said, I want to remind you, there is a day coming. The Bible says there is a day coming where God will judge the thoughts and actions of man. There's a great judgment coming where we will stand before Christ someday. Isn't that interesting? Not a lot of options. When you stand before Christ someday, when you pass from here, he says either well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord or well, or, or depart from me. I don't know you. Many people don't realize there's, there's, this is not the time to negotiate. At that time, there will be no negotiating. As Sodom and Gomorrah, he said, as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh. Very, very, very interesting point here. I've talked to, I won't mention names, you wouldn't know many ways, but I would say in the last, I don't know, five, six years, I've talked to, what I would consider false prophets. I've had lunch with them. I've read some of their books. And in every single case, what they do to get out of this sexual immorality clause in Jude is they say God was upset at Sodom and Gomorrah because they didn't take care of the poor. And I believe one of the Old Testament writers says that Sodom, you're judged because you neglect the poor. It also says they're into drunkenness, innocent blood, revelries, and all these things. But they, they will avoid this sexual immorality clause. But it's crystal clear, just like Sodom and Gomorrah, they gave over to sexual immorality and they went after strange flesh. Now, if you look up this phrase in the Greek language, which it was written in, there's an interesting word there. Let's see if this sounds familiar. Heteros, heterosexual, heterosexual, of the same flesh. So they went after the same flesh. Homosexuality is, is clearly outlined in this book. And people say, well, you can't hang your hat just on that. Well, go to Genesis. God made them male and female. And he said, go and be fruitful. Can't do that. In Leviticus, it says, do not lay with a man as a woman lays with a man. It's an abomination. Paul in Romans says they suppress the truth and they embrace the lie. And God gives them over to a debased and corrupted mind. And they start to exchange the truth for a lie. And they start to burn with passions, one for another, women for men, women and men for men. Corinthians, Paul says, neither adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor all these other groups will enter the kingdom of heaven. Then you get to Jude. I don't think that's, that's vague. And then what will happen is, Shane, you're a homophobe. Now, if the truth be told, let's take a lie detector test. And I love those who struggle with sin. I will talk to anybody who struggles in sin. Somebody committed an adultery, somebody hooked on alcohol, somebody on pills, somebody in this, a homosexual, whatever it is, sin is sin if they don't know Christ. That's why it says, Paul says, neither fornicator, living together, nor idolater, somebody idolizing work or Hollywood and they hate God, nor a adulterer, somebody in adultery, nor homosexual, nor thief, somebody just loves a thief and they're lying and they're a thief. He goes down the list. Drunkard. See, people struggle with alcohol and say, God, please take this away. I'm struggling. Help me. That's not the lifestyle. The drunkard says, I don't care what God's word says. I'm going to drink and I love drinking. I don't care. I'm going to party till the day I die and I hope they serve beer in hell. Lifestyle. And that's where people, they don't understand. We're not coming against one sin over another, but what's happening now is there's this big movement towards sexual immorality in this area of perversion going after strange flesh. Why isn't there any movement against adultery? Women for adultery, men for fornication, walking the streets. It's just, it's just, it's the spirit of Antichrist rising up in the world of sexual immorality and a false prophet will avoid this. Google pastors, pastors, prominent pastors who think that gay marriage is okay in homosexuality, and a list of false prophets will come up. False teachers. I don't say it arrogantly. I say it with brokenness and with tear-stained pleased to some of these people. One recently who came out was on Oprah, Rob Bell. I don't know if any of you've read his book. He starts questioning the inerrancy of scripture. He's okay with gay marriage. There's no hell. Francis Chan had to write a book refuting his book. These are false prophets. I don't want to say that, but I have to say it because they encourage people in their sin. The person, you can watch this too. I was on Fox News a year and a half ago when me and Morgan went to New York, and if you could have saw my face, it was an audio version. It was an hour-long audio. I was stunned. I almost didn't know how to answer, which is kind of hard for me, like unusual, but she said, well, Lauren Green on Fox News, if you are helping someone in your church, and they come to you, and they say, we're struggling with same-sex attraction, we're convicted, we don't know what to do. He said he would tell them to give into it, act on it. And I love people enough. I love him enough. I wrote him an email later, and I called him out on these things. This is not good. This is a characteristic of a false prophet. How on God's green earth could you give permission to engage in any type of sexual sin? But they'll often say God is changing. Or my favorite, the Spirit is revealing new things. Really? Run for cover. Or now, Shane, we have a better understanding of God's nature. We have a deeper truth. The Spirit's taking us in a different direction. Never, never will there be a different direction, a new truth. If it's new, it's not true. If it's true, it's not new. What did we learn last week? If an angel or any other person preaches to you a different gospel, they're to be accursed. Jesus says, woe be to that person who encourages another in sin. Woe be to you if you make one of these little ones stumble. It'd be better for you to have never been born or a millstone hung around your neck and cast into the sea. These are strong statements. It says that everlasting punishment is reserved for these people. So my heart plea is, is I pray for these people. God, please. Because without God awakening them and showing them, it won't happen. Because another characteristic of a false prophet is pride. Unteachable. Reject authority. Reject the authority of God's Word. They are proud and unteachable and eager to dispute. And you'll see in our culture, marketing, all the marketing out there is based on feelings. Look at buying that new Lexus. And they have The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, driving it. You'll look like that too. Or what's a Wolverine guy? Hugh Jackman. You'll look like this if you do this. I've told you before, I'm the same age, the same height, and the same weight as that guy. And I do not look like that guy. You're laughing. So, but see the way we want to hear. Nike, just do it. Just do it. Kids can cave into all these things. Look at all these advertisements out there for kids. Especially junk food. Don't get me started. Why don't you ever, I never see broccoli dipped in hummus on a commercial. Never. It's always Captain Crunch. Trix. What are they? All those same cereal. It's all just to the flesh. The lust of the flesh. And all these. It's been years since I've watched some of these sitcoms. And now if I just happen to go, I was like, how is that even allowed now? How is that allowed? They can drop F-bombs. They can show on TV. When did this happen? Slow descent. Slow descent. How quickly. You've heard me say this before. We went from Leavitt to Beaver. Remember Leavitt to Beaver? Family all around the table. Gee golly, Wally. And I stole the piece of gum. Let's go. We're taking it back, young man. Or the Waltons. And now, my Lord. It's just unbelievable. The culture is dead. Their conscience have been seared to the things of God. I don't want to alarm you too much, but there's a big movement to, I don't think it'll get very far right now, to claim that Christians have a mental disorder. Who has the mental disorder? Rejecting God. Now I should kind of throw this out. I don't want everybody leaving here thinking everybody's a false prophet. There are confused pastors. The one I talked about that I know, I would say he's confused. I would not say he's a false prophet here locally. I'm a friend of a few of these people. I have cracks in the armor. I don't have perfect theology. Nobody does. Why like this person? Well I bet they disagree with this person on the rapture. I bet they disagree with this person on baptism. I bet they disagree with this person on church government. I bet they disagree with this person on gifts of the Spirit. See, nobody has perfect theology, but you have to have the essentials down. What are the essentials of the gospel? Those have to be foundational. So the confused pastor or a person who is confused, they aren't always a false teacher. These people are struggling and they have questions. Especially you're seeing that right now, even with those in their 20s. We've got friends, I'm sure you do, that are Christians, but they're gravitating towards the wrong side. They're gravitating towards what the world says because they're struggling. They're looking for answers. They don't quite, they don't know what the Bible says. So if all these famous actors say it, then it must be true. Right? That's what they're believing. I'm going to get political, so I'm going to stop. Likewise, all these dreamers defile the flesh. So these false teachers, they are dreamers. Have you ever said, you're dreaming? Do you remember that? You're dreaming. You're a dreamer. Well, what is dreaming? Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible says, this shows someone is completely out of touch with the principle of God's kingdom. We've just put a few people in office in the United States of America, in the Senate and Congress, who are dreamers. They are completely out of touch with God's kingdom. And what do these dreamers also do? They submit to authority? No, they reject authority. You see what's going on? And they speak evil of dignitaries, anybody above them. They do not speak well of them. So we go from 30 years ago, whoever, I don't care what Republican, Democrat, Independent, I don't care what you are, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, you could never say what we're saying about the president today. Never. They reject any type of authority. I don't want this, this person's not my authority. They reject it. And then they reject this authority. So who becomes authority? Themselves. I, I, I, what I feel, what I want. So what we have now is a lot of 22-year-olds that are still two, or 32, and rejecting authority. So be careful, you are on the wrong path if you are rejecting authority. Now I'm talking about God-given authority, not abusive type of authority. But if you're rejecting God's word as authoritative, if you're rejecting those in positions that God has put above you, and you're rejecting that, be careful. Because that's a spirit of the Antichrist as well. That's, that's these false people, there's no, these false teachers don't sit under any spiritual authority. They often are, are, are, are proclaimers of error on themselves and others. They don't sit underneath any type of authority. So they reject spiritual authority. But guess what? When you reject spiritual authority, you also lack spiritual authority. As soon as I begin to reject this, then I will lack spiritual authority. Sermons won't carry weight. They won't hit the heart. They won't go right to the issues. You can tell there's something dead, there's something off, there's something wrong. You might as well just hire a speaker from Toastmasters. Because once you reject this, because the only way somebody can truly preach with powerful spiritual authority is because they submit and they sit underneath this. So this comes into here, out to there. It's, it's, it's, is His word your authority this morning? Think about it. Are, is His word your authority? The Bible says be doers of the word and not just hearers or you'll live in deception. It's a very important call to us. And then verse nine, I'll go quickly. Yet Michael the archangel, contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reveling, I'm sorry, revealing accusation. I don't know if I must print it here. Reviling. Yep, there we go. Reviling accusation, but said the Lord rebuke you. So the, so this whole context is interesting. God took Moses's body and hid it. We don't, nobody knows where he's, the Bible says that his eyes were not dim and his natural forces were not abated. He was in, he was in a healthy state and God took him and hid his body. But apparently Michael the archangel, contending with the devil, dared not He said these things. He brought it. He didn't bring an accusation against him and he said, the Lord rebuke us, rebuke you. So the practical application for us this morning is let the Lord fight your battle. I don't know who that's for, but let the Lord fight your battle. Not yourself, not anger, not a friend. Let the Lord stand and fight for you. And then verse 10, but these speak evil. These people, these talking about these speak evil of whatever they do not know and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts. And these things, they are corrupt themselves. Woe to them for they have gone in the way of Cain and have run greedily in the air of Balaam for profit and perish in the rebellion of Korah. Three new, three Old Testament examples. Why is the Old Testament so important? Why should you be reading both? Paul says that these things, these people, these situations in the Old Testament were given to us as an example that we might not lust after evil things like they lusted. So there to be an example for us. And we'll talk about these three in a minute. But they do whatever they don't, whatever they want, whatever they don't even know. Don't you, don't you, don't those people bother you that you know they don't even know and they act like they know, they just come in, they're so prideful and arrogant, they have no clue. They just do whatever they want, whatever they do naturally, like brute beasts. That's what an animal does. An animal just is an animal. So that's what these people are. They're just brute beasts doing whatever they want to do. And they corrupt themselves in doing that. So pride speaks out against God. Like brute beasts, they have no self-control. So watch out for teachers who tell you self-control doesn't matter. Give in to it. If you have these tendencies, one thing that actually kind of bothered me from about, it's been about a year and four months ago, you can find it on YouTube if you put my name with Fox News, that pastor I debated in New York when I flew to New York. We were in the, it was an audio interview so you can't see the facial expressions, but I still remember mine today. She asked him, what would you tell somebody, a gay couple that comes to you and they're convicted, they're struggling, they need advice. He said, I would tell them to give in to their desires. That's a false prophet. That's a false proclaimer of what is not true. That hurts people. Anytime we tell people, just give in to it. Just give in to it. And false prophets are consistent across the board. They're not really concerned with marriage too much. I'll just give in to it. It's a fling, no big deal. And they'll encourage your sin. So if anybody ever speaks the truth and love to you, you should thank them, not get upset. Because what happens first? What do we do first? Pride, like brute beast. Like when I want to tell my dog, get outside. No. Brute beast. They don't want to listen. This is interesting. Historian Edward Gibbon, think about in the 1950s or 60s, he wrote a book talking about the conditions of Rome before Rome fell. He said, number one, there was a rapid increase in divorce and the undermining of the dignity and the sanctity of the home. Hello? That's knocking at the door. Number two, more taxation and the spending of public funds on food and entertainment. Don't worry, I won't keep knocking. Number three, the mad craze for pleasure and sport. Sport becoming every year more and more exciting and brutal. Number four, there is the moral decline of the people. And number five, the decay of religious faith, faith fading into mere form. So he said here, Jude said, they've gone the way of Cain. What was the way of Cain? You know, Cain and Abel. Cain's sacrifice was not acceptable to God. Scripture's not real clear on this, but whatever his sacrifice was, it displeased God. And God said, Cain, why are you angry? Why are you angry? If you did well? If you did well, I would have rewarded you. But be careful because sin is crouching. The Old Testament gives this image like a lion crouching, waiting for that door to open. Sin is crouching at the door. Be careful what you open. Be careful what you open. So like the way of Cain, actions that displease God. Are there any actions this morning in this room that are displeasing to God? Listen, with the Bible, you're supposed to preach it and give practical application. That's everything he's talking about. Is there something in our lives that is displeasing God? Actions that are displeasing Him? Then repent to that this morning. And then he says here, they have run greedily. They have run greedily in the air of Balaam for profit. What is that? Well, at your leisure, write down or read Numbers 23. I believe it's 23 or 21. I should have looked it up. But Numbers 23, this King Balak hired Balaam to go and curse the children of Israel. I'll give you riches and riches. Look, this great and mighty nation is coming towards me. Go up on this mountaintop and curse the children of Israel. So Balaam, for profit here, he says, greedy. He said, I'll curse the children of Israel because I'm going to be wealthy. And he began to curse the children of Israel. And what happened? God began to pour forth blessings. Oh, they're going to be a mighty nation. They're going to come in and take over the land and God's going to multiply them. And the king's like, no, that's not what I paid you for. And he said, I cannot go beyond what the word of the Lord says. And there's a wonderful principle there in this study of Balaam, basically is you cannot curse what God has blessed. That should strengthen many of you this morning. You cannot curse what God has blessed. It's impossible. The enemy cannot curse your marriage. The enemy cannot curse what you're doing in your life. The enemy cannot curse, override, overrule what God is doing in your life by blessing you. But be careful, there's a flip side to this doctrine. You've heard me teach on before. You cannot curse what God has blessed unless you remove yourself from that blessed place. Your marriage is blessed. You begin to remove outside of that. Here comes, you're opening the door for sin. The children of Israel were blessed. What happened? They cursed themselves. They begin to go after the women of the land and commit sexual immorality. See, it's always linked to that often. Like brute beast, they cursed themselves. If this is all convicting, maybe you need to hear it. And then he mentioned Korah. What was Korah? Korah went against God's authority. Korah said, Moses, who made you ruler over this people? Who made you ruler? And Moses basically said, the ground opened up and swallowed this man. God doesn't mess around. One thing you'll get out of the Old Testament, God does not mess around. You can't negotiate. You can't twist his arm. You can't say, okay, well, I'm just not going to talk to you today, God. You better do something. He doesn't care. He's not going to play games. He says, here's my truth. I lay it out before you. Choose life and choose death. It's your choice. So is there any area in your life that you're going against God's authority this morning? Any area that you know? You know what? You might want to stop going to those who tell you what you want to hear. You know, right? The woman who wants confirmation that her husband's a jerk and she divorces runs right to the beauty salon. Girlfriend, you need to leave that guy. Do you like my voice? You can do so much better. You need to take him for half everything he's got. I'm going to tell you what to do to him. And somebody says, go talk to that pastor's wife or go talk. No, no, no, no. Why? Because they're not going to tell me what I want to hear. We go to people who tell us what we want to hear more than we think, don't we? Continuing sin will go to our friend who's caught in the same sin to validate it. So this morning, if that's you, you need to repent and believe. Say, I believe in Jesus. I believe he died for me. I repent and I believe this morning. And I also want to encourage the believer. Are you bound to sin and trapped in darkness? As a believer, are you bound in sin? Because we see all this rain out here. It's a good analogy. God said, I will pour down water on the thirsty. I will pour down water on the dry and barren land. And it's this picture of this land being receptive. Lord, pour down rain. I'm open, I'm receptive. I'll take in that water. I need it. So God says, I look for that parched soil. I look for that heart that says, pour into me. God, I want more of you. That's who I look for. I don't look for that concrete heart. Have you ever watched water go into concrete? It doesn't happen. It goes around. So many of the hearts of people today are so hard. And God says, I will pour out water in those who are thirsty. I will pour out water on that parched soil. But you have to be willing. You have to say, Lord, fill me. Fill me with your spirit. I'm desperate for more of you.