This sermon emphasizes the importance of discerning false prophets and teachers who bring destructive heresies, denying essential truths of the Gospel. It highlights the need to focus on worshiping God sincerely, letting go of bitterness and judgmentalism that hinder heartfelt worship. The message encourages meditating on the truth of God's word and offers an opportunity for repentance and deeper commitment to Christ.

Welcome to West Side Christian Fellowship. If you have not been here before, we are in the book of Matthew. I'm attempting to go through that verse by verse. But interestingly enough, it's not going to be real. What you would consider expository preaching, I call it expository topical. What I'm trying to do is go through expositionally and pull from Matthew, but then also hit on topics that are relevant today. So in doing so, we're going to be kind of focusing in on certain aspects of Jesus's ministry. And then we're going to kind of springboard off of that into different topics that affect us today. And if you weren't here last week, I would encourage you to go online and listen to last week's message, because it's a twin to this message. We talked about false worship last week and some bits of false prophets. Now, this week, we're going to be spending most of the majority of the time in Matthew two still. But talking about this issue of false prophets and you might say, you know, because in the Christian community, there's different, you know, interpretations of what this word means, false prophets. And basically, just to let you off the hook, what it basically means is true spokesmen for God or false spokesmen. They are they are preaching air, although it's mixed with a little bit of truth. And there's other people who are proclaiming the truth of God's Word. And it's getting more and more and more difficult in our culture to contend for truth. Is it not? Tim Tebow comes out of the closet and says he's a Christian. The media says, shut your mouth. This guy, Collins, basketball player comes out of the closet and he's a hero. Where's the disconnect there? And you'll see the article in your bulletins tonight actually is in the Ano Valley Press today. And I've already been getting some feedback on that. You know, why can't we all just get along and why do you have to do this and do that? And what I'm doing, I'm challenging, and I mentioned him last week, Rob Bell. And I don't I'm not a name dropper. I don't I don't take joy in this. Actually, I don't like to do it. But when you have Christian leaders coming out and saying these things are true, according to God's word, you know, same sex attraction is OK and there's no hell and all these things. And then you've got somebody like me on the other side saying, no, God's word is crystal clear on these issues. So where's the defining where? Where's where? How do you know? That's why the culture loves to hear Christians like Rob Bell saying, oh, yes, God is is for same sex attraction. He's for gay marriage. And I don't mean to beat up on this subject. I'm just pulling from what's in the news, showing you the contrast. Because we love we love those struggling with the same sex attraction just like anybody else. And if I preach on this before, we're all in the sin boat. I'm in the sin boat sitting right next to the person struggling with same sex attraction. It's not my struggle. I've got plenty of other ones. I don't need another one. The only difference is I've came out of that boat because of what Christ did on the cross. See, that's the only difference. We're not hate mongers. We're not prejudiced. We're not narrow minded. We're just saying biblical truth. Biblical Christianity holds to this and it can't let go. You guys have heard me preach on that before, that this is a heel on which to die. This is going to be the defining moment. You're going to you'll already see the statements from the media now coming out against Christians witnessing in the military. They're drawing some strong lines there. The president speaking at Planned Parenthood, thanking them, the number one abortion clinic in our nation. You see all this contending for truth and either you're holding to it or you're not. So we need this like never before, because this is the only standard that we have. This is it. So that's why when I don't mention when I talk about false prophets, I'm not talking about some guy saying thus saith the Lord next week, this and this and this and this. I'm talking about genuine men and women of God filled with the spirit of God proclaiming his truth. And then there's others that come in suddenly that Christ warned us about. He said, do not be deceived. There'll be false prophets and false Christ coming in deceptively. And that's kind of what I want to pull from Matthew two. Now, a true expositional teacher, preacher would probably say, you know, I was saying you're taking a little bit too much liberty there. Well, yeah, I am. I'm going to go through Matthew two. But then I also want to springboard off of this whole prophetic aspect because I think it's important. And I didn't finish last week. That's what bothers me a little bit when I have so much to say and I don't get to say it all. And then I've got to bring it in this week and say it. Remember, he breaks my heart and then I break your heart. That's that's kind of how it works. But anyway, last week we talked about true worship. And this is this is vitally important because a lot of what's going on out there is not true worship. And if you didn't see the clip I played, if you weren't here last week, go check it out online. I showed you an example of false worship, what it should not look like. It's towards the end of the video there. But the first thing we talked about was true worship flows from a broken, thankful, humble heart focused on truth. So if you truly want to worship God, if I truly want to worship God, it has to start from a broken, humble heart seeking God. And there's a lot of new faces here. So I'm kind of repetitive on a lot of these things. And that's that's by design, because we cannot hear too much about this, because what happens? We go into a sex saturated culture that mocks God and his word, and we saturate ourselves in that all week long. And then we need it. We need a spiritual shower. We need to be reminded of the biblical truths in God's word. So we talked about genuine worship flows from a broken heart and false prophets. Those who proclaim, say they proclaim God's truth, but bring in a lot of air. They know nothing about brokenness and humility. They are arrogant, rebellious and divisive and unteachable. For the most part, so there are signs you can tell what direction somebody is going. The next thing we talked about, emotional responses often follow true worship. And see, that's a little, you know, that kind of ruffles some feathers, too. But when we're truly worshiping God, there should be an emotional response. He saved me, he redeemed me, he's my creator and there's no emotions. We get excited over Kobe and Lakers and this and but no emotions when we're worshiping God. At birth of a child, there's emotions, marriage, you get married, there's emotions. But when we come to worship God, it's like this. But when I get it, you know, where is that? So heartfelt worship, it's OK to have emotions there. And as I was preparing this, I was thinking about a couple of people in the past have told me, you know, about worship when you're worshiping God and you get repetitive. You know, worthy is the lamb, worthy is the lamb or let it rain. And you're getting repetitive. They said, oh, that's just brainwashing. So not necessarily that can be heartfelt worship. So we have to be careful there because it's OK to have our emotions engaged and feel deeply. That's why God gave us emotion so we can feel him deeply. Can you imagine just going through dead ritualistic religion? There's no emotion there. It's disengaged. Let us worship the Lord and the power and the beauty of holiness. And on this topic of worshiping the Lord, I was I was reminded of Isaiah's call. Many of you know Isaiah, the prophet, and he he records later on in his ministry that it was in the year that King Uzziah died. He saw the Lord high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the entire temple and the angels were crying, holy, holy, holy is our God. His glory fills the entire earth and the whole foundation of the temple was shaking. Holy, holy, holy is our God. Holy, holy, holy is our God. And you can see that just that temple shaking the pillars. And as Isaiah was so shooken by this, that he said, oh, I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell among a people with unclean lips. Lord, we are not worthy as they saying, holy, holy, holy is our God. He said, I'm not worthy. And the angel came, he took the coal and he put it on Isaiah's lips. And he says, you're made clean. You can dwell and you can you can worship God now. He's calling you, setting you apart. So there's emotions in there. When people truly met God, they were emotionally stirred. They were challenged. They were changed. But on the flip side, a lot of the false things that's being taught in the church can be highly emotional. It can be dead orthodox. You just go to certain places and it's just dead ritualistic. There's nothing there. But you can go the other side and there's just tons of emotion. And again, go watch the video of last week's. I don't want to repeat all that. But that's why you got to find the balance in there. And how do we find the balance? What's a balancing act? This, this puts everything in balance. And I can't for the life of me find Christians in here. They're totally out of control. They're just going crazy. He's out of control. You don't see that. You see people falling down in the mighty presence of God and repenting and coming to to know him in a powerful way. But you don't see a lot of this weirdness that we that we see. And again, I talked about that last week, but I just want to re reinstate it. And when I'm talking about the power of the Holy Spirit, the church is divided on this whole issue. When I think of the power of the Holy Spirit, I think of dynamite. It's like dynamite that ignites a hunger for God so intense that every aspect of life is changed. We become bold, not passive, stable, not fanatical. And we commit, we become committed, not wavering. That's the power, the unction, the anointing, the filling of the Holy Spirit. It's not a weird thing. That's when God fills you mightily with his spirit. And as a result, you want to worship him. So what's happening in the majority of churches is we are quenching and we are grieving the spirit of God within us. That's why there's not that heartfelt worship, because the Holy Spirit being quenched and being grieved. But that's a sermon for a different day. But that's what's happening. So the last two points before I got cut off last week were this. There is never, ever, ever heartfelt worship in religion. Nothing, unless you are born again, Jesus said, you cannot know God. And let me add that you cannot worship God. There is no true heartfelt worship in dead religion. And finally, on this issue of worship, true worship is a lifestyle, not an event. True worship is a lifestyle, not an event. And if anybody's saying, well, I don't know what that guy's talking about, then worship might not be a lifestyle. Because the psalmist wrote, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. It's that lifestyle that's being set apart and focused on God. Our lifestyle is worshiping how we live our lives. It's not just coming here and singing a few songs and going home. That's a part of worship. But worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. And our lifestyle should reflect that. So that's what I wanted to recap. And that's what I missed last week. So with that said, you can turn to Matthew 2, Matthew chapter 2. In chapter one, we read about the wise men and they came and they found Jesus there in the manger. You know, we know the story. We know the story very well from Christmas. So now we're going to chapter two. And this is when Herod, the king, wants to kill all the little children. So let's pick up verse 13, chapter two. Now, when they had departed, which is Joseph, Mary, when they departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, take the young child and his mother and flee to Egypt and stay there until I bring you word. For Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. This is the same Herod that said, Come and tell me where Jesus is so I can come and worship him. Well, now we know what his worship was all about. He wanted to destroy Jesus. Why? Because he was a threat to his kingdom. Let me destroy this child. So when he arose, Joseph, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt and was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. You see, you see there the prophetic, the prophets of the Old Testament foretold of this time. And they said it will be fulfilled by the prophet saying, Out of Egypt, I called my son. So the nation of Israel would know what he's talking about. The prophetic, the Old Testament prophets are saying out of Egypt, God's going to call his son. So the writer's bringing note to this. Listen, out of Egypt, I called my son. Verse 16, Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry and he sent forth to put to death all the male children who were born in Bethlehem and in all the districts from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. So what does that mean? Can you picture two years and under all the male kids being killed? That would be that would be absolutely horrific. Then it breaks up in verse 17. Then was fulfilled. Here we go again. Here's that word. Then was fulfilled, which was spoken by Jeremiah, the prophet, saying, A voice heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more. So see, Jeremiah wrote about this hundreds and hundreds of years ago, saying there's going to become a time in Israel's history where you're going to weep. Rachel weeping for her children, lamenting, but she cannot be comforted. All those children under two, the male children are being killed. Why? You've got to get rid of Jesus. It's the same thing in our culture. You got to get rid of Jesus. Get him out of everything. Get him out of city council prayer. Get him out of the public school system. Get him out of government. God forbid you can't have a Jesus bumper sticker and get him out of everything. Why? Because it's the only name under heaven and earth that saves. Even the demons tremble when you mention the name of Jesus Christ. People get upset. You can say Buddha, Harry Krishna, Joseph Smith. You can say whatever. Nobody gets upset. We say, I'm going to pray in the name of Jesus. No, you're not. We've got to remove him from our military. We've got to remove him from everything. Why? Why does everybody want to get rid of Jesus? Because there's power in his name, power that shakes the spiritual realm. See, when you name the name of Jesus, you now have the power and the authority, as he did to tell the demonic realm no more to say no more to this. And the name of Jesus Christ, the only name that says there's power in that name. That's why they want to remove him out of sight, out of mind. Right? Get him out of sight, out of mind. Remove the Ten Commandments, remove God from everything. Get him out of here. We don't want any of that. We live in a pluralistic society, Shane. Everything is relative. You can't say this and you can't say that. And we see the same thing today, get Jesus out of everything. So that's all he's doing. Here's coming a future king, Herod said, I'm going to take matters in my own hands, kill every child under two that is a male. And that's why there's tremendous weeping in this in this in this period. And it actually reminds me of Proverbs 29 with Herod ruling, when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked rule, they groan. When we have men and women ruling in positions of authority, the people rejoice. Why? Because we're honoring God in all that we do and all that we say. But we have people in positions of authority who are wicked and against God's word, against his truth. See, a lot of people say they're Christians, but you have to look at what they do. What are their actions support? You will know them by their fruit, not by their words, because words can deceive. Out of the abundance of a man's heart, his mouth is going to speak. But it's ultimately his character, it's his choices. It's his lifestyle that tells the story. You have so many people, especially in our in our in our government, that say they're Christians, but look at how they administrate, look at how they make choices, look at how they vote. All these things speaks volumes as to the content of their character. And when the righteous are in authority, we will rejoice. But when the wicked, we will groan. Verse 19. Now, when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise, take the young child and his mother and go to the land of Israel. For those who sought the young child's life are dead. Then he arose, took the young child and his mother and came into the land of Israel. You know, what's really interesting there is God's perfect timing rarely matches ours. They were probably rushing what's going on. I mean, they're going to kill all kids under two years old. So something has been going on for quite a while. And I thought even in my own life, God's timing, we don't want his timing. I want my timing. I want things to happen right now. Why aren't things happening? We need to get that Christ child. We need to get him into, we need to pull him out of Egypt to fulfill one prophecy. Then we have to put him in Nazareth to become a Nazarene, fulfill another prophecy. Lord, we got to do this. It could take years. So that was just an encouragement to me that God is always, His will is always on time because He sees what's going on out there. He sees what's going on over here. He sees a lot of things. So he had to move the enemies of Jesus out of the way and then Christ could walk in and fulfill these prophetic elements of the Old Testament. Same thing in our life. He's got to remove difficulties, enemies, if you will, remove people, remove places out of our way. But the most important thing that I will tell you right now is a living witness with the word of God is my authority, that he cares more about your character than where you're going. We're being conformed into the image of Christ. We're being shaped. The chisel and the hammer are not, they are not pleasant tools. It's not like a nice little massage. He gets out the hammer and the chisel and begins chiseling away and shaping and conforming us into the character of his son. So a lot of times God's will, why is it taking longer? Well, we've got some character that needs addressing. We've got some attitudes that need to be removed. We've got some things that God is working on as we're pursuing his character. That's why it's always in his timing. Oh, that's why I often say if he would have planted this church 12, 15 years ago, I would have sunk this ship big time. See you later. Why? Because it's not ready yet, not ready yet. You've got to you've got to be you've got to go through the furnace of affliction. Christians, we we're supposed to come out broken and humble and strong, not carnal and arrogant and immature. Yet we stay in this state. We wonder why is this not happening? Why is it not happening? And I'm often reminded that 11 day journey through the wilderness took the children of Israel 40 years. Saying the 11 days to walk to Mojave, God says, no, you're going to go down to Orange County, over to San Bernardino, up through Victorville, and then then you'll get there. Why? What does the Bible say? To show you the hardness of your heart. Actually, the sad reality is, is he had to wipe out that whole generation in the desert. Read, read, read when they're entering into the promised land, that whole generation because of their stiff neck, he would call these stiff neck. It's like, oh, that pride, arrogance, it would it was turning away from God. Eleven days to the promised land took them 40 years. That's the other thing we can't ignore, that when God's directing us, God's calling us, we see, Lord, what is your will in my life? Get rid of these attitudes, get rid of these things. You've got to work on this. No, no, no, no. I don't want to do that. Show me my blessing. Show me. I want to know what your will is. I want to get your will now. I'll work on all that later. God says you work on that now and then my will become crystal clear as you go. And even crystal clear is a danger statement because his will is there's certain things that are crystal clear. I have called you to worship me, to be sanctified, to be filled with the spirit of God, to be saved, to make disciples with there's some crystal clear things. But when it comes to understanding God's will for your future, should I move? Should I stay? Should I marry? Should I? What should we do? What should we do? Buy a house right now? Should we not buy a house right now? What should we do with all the stuff in God's will? But the more you draw closer to him. The more his will is revealed. Why? Because your heart's changing. Now you see the heart of God more. You're in his word. You start to see. OK. And the things I used to think were important. Not nearly as important. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and everything else will be added to you. What do we do? We want to seek ye first this and hopefully this will follow later. I'll follow this later. No, it's to seek me first and then I will. Don't I know how to provide for you? Seek me first. That's what God says. If we could just get people to seek him first, not the 401k, not look at the stock, not look at the housing market, not look at the cost index, not look at interest and all this. What's going to happen? What's going to happen with oil? We're out of control. Yeah, we're out of control. It's by the grace of God that he's sustaining us. Look to him. Look to the cross. Look to the creator. That's where our strength is at. That's where our hope is at. Think about how important that is. So when it comes to God's will, it's in his time because he's moving enemies. He's moving obstacles. He's opening other doors and he's building our character. Even it's interesting with Jesus, we don't have any ministry. For 30 years. We hear at 12 years old, he was ministering in the temple or listening and teaching, asking questions, but for 30 years, I mean, I would love to see it at 15. He flew somewhere and at 16 he healed nothing. Because he was growing in the grace of God in the favor of men, he was growing as well. And how that all works, I'm not sure, but we know that God waited until his perfect time. Then he said at 30 years old, you're going to come on the scene. John the Baptist is going to pave the way. He's going to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. I must now decrease. He must increase. He's going to come on the scene. He's going to change the world and turn it upside down in three years with 12 men. And one of them was a devil. The whole world, we don't follow any other person, even close. Nobody matches Jesus Christ. The Bible's been in print and print and print. The best-selling book, why? Why? All this has happened? If it was a lie, it would have died at its roots. It would have never gained momentum. A guy comes on the scene saying, I am the son of God. You would have lost everybody right then. Then he begins to heal. He begins to do miracles that confirm the word of God. Then he had to die that perfect death on the cross to redeem mankind. Then now the disciples who were so discouraged, now they're filled with the spirit of God. They go back to their houses, so discouraged and down. They killed him. I can't believe they killed him. Then three days later, he rose again. He visited them. He said, look, touch of me, see of me. I've been I've been lifted up. I've been glorified. Death cannot hold me. Now they now they wait in the prayer room. Jesus says, go and wait until you receive power from on high. And they wait and they're praying and they're petitioning. And that place actually calls it the whole place shook like wind, like tongues of fire fell upon these men, fell upon these women, 120. And they were filled mightily with the spirit of God. Then they came out of there and they spoke. Peter used to warm himself by the fire and deny Christ. Now he's saying you put Christ on the cross. Peter saying that you put him on the cross. What must we do to be saved? Peter, repent, repent and turn back to him. Oh, you're just drunk. You're speaking all these other tongues. No, this is what the prophet Joel spoke of many, many years ago. Again, the prophet Joel spoke of this is just being fulfilled now. Now come a time when I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy your men. Your women will dream dreams and see visions. And all my men servants, all my maidservants, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. That's the event that turned the world upside down. That's why the church is still going. The true bloodbought church of Jesus Christ is humble, broken men and women of God, filled with the spirit of God doing the work of God. And that's a small minority because you have spectators going, I'm interested in that. That sounds pretty good. But not too many people want to actually get in the game and surrender their hearts and finally repent of their sin and turn their lives over to God. That's just the truth. So that brings you back to verse, after a very long rabbit trail, verse 22. But when he heard that Achilles was reigning over Judah instead of his father Herod, this is Joseph, when he learned that there's a new king now, he was afraid to go there as well. And then again, being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene. So see, just from what we read, we see three aspects and three confirmations. This is what the prophets wrote about hundreds of years ago. I think Isaiah and Jeremiah, don't quote me on this, but I think they're 600-700 BC. They're writing in that time period, and they're prophesying what's going to happen. So as we're talking about this thing of false spokesman and true spokesman for God, the number one thing you have to know is a true spokesman, a true prophet of God, or somebody who's speaking God's Word will line up with truth. It will come to pass. It's true, it lines up with truth. Now, I'm kind of walking a fine line here because I'm not talking tonight about what some would consider the gift of prophecy and being able to speak into somebody's life and say, listen, God's impressed on my heart, and God's speaking into a person's life, and then to see if that comes to pass. I'm not talking about that tonight. We'll get to those points in the churches again, divided on this issue. Pretty much everything I talk about, there's divisions on both sides. And on this note, I actually had a guy come in here about a month and a half ago, just after the service, kind of weird, random. And he just wanted to pray for me, and the Lord's put all this stuff on his heart about West Side Christian Fellowship. You know, what's going to happen? You know, and he was prophesying and saying these things. And so he said, what do you do, Shane? Well, what I do is I take his email, and when the year's up, I either thank him or I say, you're a false prophet. You see how that works? The growth that we're going to experience, this, this. I mean, is he just saying it to say it wants to, you know, you know, some money? I don't know. So see how that works? But on the other hand, you can't dismiss what God can speak through his people. And usually it's a person who's humble. They're not arrogant. They don't have a business card that says profit on it. You know, they just say, listen, God has impressed on my heart. I have to share this with you. And he just, they just impress upon your heart. And you're like, I needed to hear that. I needed that clarification. It doesn't supersede this. It confirms it. But that's a whole different thing. I'm not really talking about that tonight. I'm talking about, well, the whole thing on false prophets, the characteristics of that. So we already talked about what is a prophet? Well, it's somebody, if you'd rather use a better word, you can use the word perceiver or preacher or somebody who speaks boldly God's truth with clarity and brings it to the culture and prophetically speaks that. So that's what it is. They're speaking on behalf of God. So it's very important. Very, very important. And that's one of the reasons I don't just come up here, hop, skip and a jump and yeah, yeah, let me see. Oh, I wonder what my opinion. It's very like, Lord, if you're not saying this, if you're not directing me, I don't want to take opinions on some of these matters that I'm not really well, real clear on, because your word is kind of, you know, vague on certain things. And for the Trinity and knowing that there's a Trinity, but how to break that down. I mean, how do you, you know, so you have to come up here with humility and allowing God to speak through you. It's not just, you know, well, let me see you. This is what this means. I think this what this means. And that's why I'm so scared of these guys coming out and challenging God's truth. Because where do they where do they come up with this stuff? Where they come up with this stuff is they're probably not reading the whole Bible and they're probably not truly open to what God's wanting to say. They want to be liked and everybody's friend. Tell me what I want to hear. Does that sound familiar? Paul said there will come a time where we'll look for teachers who will tell us what we want to hear. And you realize that that's not just a judgment on the false teachers. That's a judgment on the listeners. Because God says, you want people to tell you what you want to hear, go for it, go listen to him. We always think it's a false teachers. But the Bible says they look for people who will tell them what they want to hear. And when it comes to God's truth, you don't need a second opinion. Those people that when you when you counsel in the word of God, God's truth, they say, well, I'm gonna go get a second opinion. There's no second opinions when it comes to essential, absolute truth. Now, of course, it's good to get second opinions on medical things and making a move or things, but I'm talking about when we start to barter God's word, we start to pick and choose. We're in a very dangerous spot. So that's basically what a person is doing, this prophetic element. They are speaking the truth of God. That's why it's so important. So God uses the prophetic to confirm for his people. And we sit here and we go, oh, yeah, that's interesting. Isaiah said this. Jeremiah said this. Can you imagine living in that time? I mean, the people, they would they would memorize the first five books of the Bible, Genesis and Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. The Jews had their stuff down. They knew the prophets. They knew the time they wrote. They knew that. I mean, this was living. This was their people, their book, their God. So when God would say or that Matthew would record, this is that which the prophets spoke of. Remember, out of out of Egypt, I call my son. This is that that the prophets spoke of. Rachel lamenting for her children. This is that that the prophets spoke of. He will become a Nazarene. You see all these prophetic elements coming to life to life now for the children of Israel. They confirm God's word. That's why it was so important. And as I mentioned last week, there are over 400 prophecies in the Old Testament about Jesus Christ. Want me to give you all 400 or just a few? Let's do a few that are familiar with most of to most of us. Isaiah 714. Remember, 700 years. Somebody can check this. I'm probably going to email saying it's not this far, but I think Isaiah was about 700 years B.C. before Christ. He said, Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel, which is God with us. Micah 5 2. But thou, O Bethlehem, even though you are little among the thousands out of you shall come a ruler of Israel whose goings forth will be from everlasting to everlasting. Isaiah 43. The voice of one crying in the wilderness. This is John the Baptist. Isaiah wrote about this 700 years before John the Baptist comes on the scene. He said a voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord. Repent. So what did John the Baptist say when they came and they said, Who are you? Who are you? Why are you saying all these things? Who gave you this authority? He looks back 700 years and said, I am the one. The voice crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord. So you see all this confirmation that we really can't appreciate here. So in Jesus's day, you just have to outright deny him because there was so much when you have the prophetic accuracy and then you have the miracles. And just people being healed. Jesus never missed it. I can't heal that one. I don't know what's going on. I mean, you know, he just anybody, anybody, whatever he wanted to whoever he wanted to heal. He told demons to leave. He healed bodies. He made lame the lame people walk again. Everything to confirm. That was the main point. And we think, you know, there's also divide in the church on signs and wonders and signs and wonders. And are they for day and signs and wonders, conferences and signs and wonders. The main the main purpose of signs and wonders was confirmed that Christ was who he was, that Paul, the disciples, that they were his even his handkerchief fell on people. They got healed, even a shadow. They people get healed to get up, heal, heal, heal. They're confirming the word of God. That was the major point there to confirm the word of God. So back on track, Psalms forty one nine tells this is amazing what to it tells that Judas would betray him. Yeah, my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which I did eat of my bread. You have lifted up your heel against me. Zechariah eleven twelve perfectly predicts the payment of thirty pieces of silver. Isaiah fifty three spoke of his sacrificial death by the by paying the price of our sins. Psalms one oh nine says that he will be mocked by those who watched him. Psalms thirty four said none of his bones would be broken. Psalms twenty two says that people would gamble for his clothing. Psalm thirty one contains the word that Jesus said when he committed his spirit to the father. Isaiah fifty three says that he would plead for the forgiveness of those who persecuted him. Amos eight nine records the darkness that would follow his death in that day, declares the sovereign Lord. I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth and broad daylight. All these things are fulfilled, fulfilled at the cross, fulfilled, fulfilled, everything fulfilled. Can you imagine if you're a Jew that knew your Bible in that day and you're just putting the pieces together? That's why when Paul and Peter and people would preach, they would say, oh, it is written. Remember, it is written. You stiff neck people got Isaiah wrote about you eight, seven hundred years ago. You you are not repenting. You've been your eyes have been veiled. They've been closed off. You need to repent and turn back to God for it is written. The man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. For it is written in him. I live and move and have my being for it is written. They kept going back to that, that's how the prophetic element was so important and probably one of the most famous prophecies that I love to read is we all know is when Jesus finally taught that we have a recorded sermon that he gave in one of the temples there. Jesus Christ preached a sermon. Can you believe that I would give anything to hear that? But we have it. What did he do? He walked up there, they handed him the scroll of Isaiah. He opened it, turned to the spot and he said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to preach the glorious gospel, to set captives free, to deliver those who have been bound, to set the captives free, to strengthen the sick, to redeem the lost. The spirit of the Lord is upon me. He reads all of Isaiah word for word, nails it, and then he sits down. And he says, what you have just read is now fulfilled in your hearing. I am you. Can you imagine that the crowd, the spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the gospel, that scripture has just been fulfilled in your hearing. I mean, I wonder if you could hear a pin drop. I would have loved it. I mean, would they say, no, that's just a carpenter son. We know him. That's just a carpenter. So that's Mary Joseph's boy. No way. That can't be true. Now you see why all the signs and wonders to confirming who he was. They would, I mean, if you just think that they would come to arrest him and the Sadducees, the Pharisees would say, why didn't you arrest him? They would say, no man ever spoke like this man. He has authority. Even the demons tremble. He has the authority. Say, woman, thou art loose from your infirmity. And she stood up after so many years. Woman, thou art. She touched him of his garment. She was healed from that issue of blood. There's no, there's so much power in the name of Jesus Christ. If we would just bow to that name on a daily basis, seek him with all of our heart, those things can still happen. He can still set the captive free. He can still redeem the loss of spirit of the Lord. Not only is it upon him, it's upon Christians to preach the glorious gospel, the same gospel that he preached. We are preaching. Turn back to God. Repent of your sin and turn back to God. We can say that as Christians. And the spirit of the Lord is upon me. We read about that in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit would pair up, come upon, come alongside people, paracletus, alongside. And then we see the spirit in us and then there's another Greek preposition, epi, upon us. And that's that feeling of the spirit, the unction of the spirit that comes upon us. That's the power of God speaking his truth, trying to convert and change man. That's how powerful that is. And Jesus walked up there, he said, today, this has been fulfilled in your hearing. And you might say, yeah, but they could just wrote, they could just write that down and say he said this and all this. Well, there's probably something that I would consider one of the biggest archaeological finds, I would say, in our lifetime, other than finding the Ark, finding the, you know, the Ten Commandments, finding, you know, finding certain things. But you can go on and even Google it. It's called the Dead Sea Scrolls. And a Bedouin shepherd boy, I think it was 1946, was around these caves and he threw a little rock. You could hear it was like, like he hit some clay. And what they began to unpack out of those caves when they would open them up is the same book of Isaiah that we read today, written around 200 or 100 BC before Christ was even there. That was their job is to transcript, to translate, to write down the Old Testament. And all they had all these parchments saved. That's a huge discovery. Nobody can deny it, not even the Jews, nobody, because it's right there, dated way even before Jesus. So there's the same book of Isaiah, a few variances here and there. The same thing we read today is the same thing he was reading. I mean, I can't imagine, I can't imagine Jesus Christ stepping to the pulpit and saying the spirit of the Lord is upon me. He's been he's he's called me to set the captives free, to preach the gospel to the poor. Now the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. I am he which the prophet spoke of. And you'll see throughout the entire New Testament, that's why I encourage people to read the Bible. Jesus never, never argued and debated. He would just say, I'm a son of God. This is who I am. If I was in this world, my armies would come and fight and you'd be wiped out. I am he that you spoke, I am he, I am the resurrection and the life. I am the son of God. I am the Alpha. I am the Omega. I'm everything. I was a bright and morning star. I was a brazen serpent that Moses even lifted up. I can even show you Christ in the feast and the festivals. Not only that, the Passover. Glam, he was our great Passover. What about Leviticus, the shedding of blood? All this blood has to be shed. Jesus steps on the scene that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. He fulfills everything. I mean, the Bible is so I mean, to think that this is a product of man boggles my mind, because not only does it speak to you spiritually, scientifically, prophetically, archaeologically, it is interwoven. Everything saying the same thing. Consistency, the truth, there's coming out. It's jumping out, basically transforming lives. It can't just be the work of men. It can't be, that's impossible. So why the deception? Why is there deception? And John MacArthur's dad, I was reading another book by him. He said this and it really stuck out. People do not counterfeit what isn't valuable. So when we see the enemy coming in and doing Holy Spirit pep rallies or all this weird stuff. He's trying to counterfeit what's valuable, because I've seen a powerful move of God at some conferences and places and it's not pretty. I almost can't, I almost can't, I can't keep preaching. I have to just, I have to just sit down. The worship team comes up, people start breaking at the foot of the cross. Men are repenting, they're coming to the altar. That's just God pouring out a spirit. You can't fabricate that. That's the spirit for life that God wants for us. So he's always trying to counterfeit something. So see, that's what the Holy Spirit can do in your life. Let's counterfeit it. Let's make it look all weird and like, you know, what you see on TV. Let's counterfeit it so people get caught up in it. What else does he counterfeit? The Word of God. Most cults out there have most of the Word of God. Not quite. Well, that sounds, oh, now you got to that point. See, you just lost me now. Why he counterfeits that. I've been tempted all week. I don't even know if I can tell you this story, because it might take a long time and lose a sermon. But it was, it was so, I mean, it's God. He has a sense of humor, I think. But anyway, I had this sermon out. I think it was Wednesday or Thursday up on the aqueduct. I just got out of my truck. OK, I'm going to, I have this. I usually walk and I just study and meditate. You know, I change it around and just kind of pray over it. Well, there, right in front of my truck, pulls in a car about 20 feet away. And four Mormon missionaries hop out. And they're studying their Bible. They sit down on the curb and say, I'm like, oh, Lord, I just want to work out today. You're not going to make me go to work, are you? So I ran. OK, good luck, guys. You know, you've got to really show me, you know, if you're going to want me to speak to you guys. And so, I mean, they're probably right here to the third row. Like you're sitting there. Hey, how's it going? So I'm kind of going and jogging and I just can't get it. You know, I just how do you how do you not sit and talk? They're 19, 20 years old. They're dressed nice and they're reading the Bible out there. Actually, they're reading the Book of Mormon. The Bible is on the curb. So I went over there, you know, and just I'm just some workout clothes. And I said, what are you guys reading? What do you what are you reading? Because, oh, the Book of Mormon. Oh, really? What's what is how is that different from Catholics and Christianity and Joseph Jehovah? Wait, I mean, how is that different? And they just laid it out for 10 minutes. I mean, they know they got it down. They boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Joseph Smith Smith came to restore the new gospel, the real gospel in the 1800s. And, you know, boop, boop, boop, boop sounds, you know, he just laid it out. I said, well, I said, you kind of put me in a unique position. You said, well, how's that? I said, because you can't have Joseph Smith right and Jesus Christ. Well, sure you can. The Book of Mormon complements the Bible. I said, no, sir, it doesn't. It's at odds with it on every point. As your mouth kind of fell, I go, what's this guy talking? I mean, and then I just started for 10 minutes. I said, listen, I appreciate your guys's heart. I mean, you guys do a lot of good things, but I just have to be honest with you to say to say that God was once like us and we're going to be like God someday. Guys, it's blasphemy. It's blasphemy. I said, the word of God says nothing about that. And I just went and broke it down from marriage, celestial marriage to, you know, I said salvation is through Christ, right? Yep. OK, we're on the same page. And then through the Mormon ordinances, right? Yep. That's OK. And then and then through good works. Yep. OK, see, see there. See, now I have to go back to what Jesus Christ said. And I just preach the gospel lovingly. If you just confess with your mouth that Christ is Lord, you will be saved. That's it. No, he's finished work on the cross. You have to belong to the denomination. And then and they're just sitting there listening. No talent, nothing. And just was able to break and just show them the contrast. Look, no, no, no, no. You can't say that. You can't you can't, you know, say, what about ongoing revelation? Yeah, right here. As long as it's consistent with this, I see. See, you have no plumb line. You have prophets that come in from Hinckley, Joseph Smith and bring him young. They come in and they bring in the things that contradict this. So what do I believe? This has to be the standard. It is not written in addition to anything. It is our standard. And based on a well, I would just encourage you guys to check it out. Archaeologically, nothing in the Book of Mormon has ever been found. Nothing, not even a spear that they used. Nothing. You see, you've got to you've got to you said you open yourself up to this burning in this bosom. Do you know that you could open yourself up to deception? And an angel of light, Galatians 1 8 says, if we preach to you any other gospel than what's been a preach, let him be anathema, which is to be a curse. And I just laid it out to these guys in love. And I mean, they didn't have anything to say. They're kind of like, oh, shoot, what are we going to do here now? You know, but I kept encouraging me just seem to repent and follow the right, you know, the right Christ. And finally, one guy got a little, little, little brave. He said, he goes, wow, I'll challenge you. Why don't you just be why you just at least read the whole Book of Mormon and just ask God to reveal it to you. So I can't do that because we'll see. There you go. I said, no, that's that's not see. Here you go. I can read your three guys, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and Norman Hinckley, all these prophets, what they're saying, all of them. Goes against the word of God, so that's all I need to know. I don't need to read the entire package when I know that there's already mislabeled and bad ingredients in the package. I don't need a Snickers bar, I can just read the ingredients to tell you it's not good for me. They're not. I know you guys like Snickers bars. You don't want me to give you a five minute lecture on partially hydrogenated oils and what that does. So anyway, so I said, I can't read that. I said, I would encourage you to put that down or read the word of God because there has to be a plumb line. I will tell you guys, I appreciate your hearts, but they do not go together. They actually are polar opposites. They hit each other on every point that you you said. And all they could say, well, I appreciate your time, thanks. No arguing, no nothing. I didn't get loud. I said and I even I even I did give him the church, you know, the card of the website. I said, compare the Mormon preaching to this preaching. Just compare it. Is it dead religiosity because there's no spirit of God or is it somebody filled with the spirit of God proclaiming God's truth? And I said, we're humble, we want to seek God, I want you guys to know God. But you're going in a very, very dangerous direction because it does not line up with the word of God. Back to what I said originally, you cannot have Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith both be right. You can't. There's no way around it. So that was my my intro into this, this whole message this week, kind of God had a sense of humor because I was not planning on that. But and again, you know, anytime I talk about these things and mention names, it's not, you know, a lot a lot of people do it to poke fun or I don't I really don't I just feel bad. I mean, I don't I don't I don't want to beat up Mormonism or Jehovah Witness. I don't. But as a pastor, when they when they begin to bring in deceptive lies, I I've got to disseminate, I've got to discern, I've got to say, listen, there's wrong here. This is why according now, if we if we don't want to use this, we're sure that anything goes. Why even come to church? So this has to be the standard by which we judge everything. So there's a big difference between attacking people and there's ministries out there. All they do is attack and attack and attack. And I go on, I go on site and you read about they're coming against Mormonism or Jehovah Witness or coming. There's no love in that. No words are seasoned by grace. You got to tell people you got 19 year old kids that are going witnessing for the next two years. I got to appreciate their heart. They're seeking God. They want to do good. You know, that's that's to be commended. Now, here's where you're you might want to consider this. Have you considered this? You know, you just just lovingly bring them back to the point, because after that, they could not say anything because I was just quoting scripture. And I even told them truth invites scrutiny. Error will run from it. I'll sit and I'll meet with your bishops for the next three hours and we'll just sit and talk, I guarantee they won't want to meet with me. You want to know why? Error runs from scrutiny. It doesn't want to be challenged by the word of God. But truth invites it. Sure, let's sit down, let's reason together. Let me show you the truth of God's word. So that's one of the main things right there. That's why there's deception, because people don't counterfeit what isn't valuable. They want to they want to they want to you'll see new translations come out. That begins to remove this sin and that sin in the gender neutral Bible. Let's make truth more appealing. And, you know, that's what they're going to try to counterfeit that. So what does God think about destructive doctrines? Any any any idea what God thinks about destructive doctrines that lead people away? Well, few things. Jude, Jude, verse chapter one, verse three. Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once and all entrusted to the saints. Why? For certain men whose condemnation was written long ago have secretly slipped in among you. See, the devil doesn't just come in with red with red horns and a pitchfork. He's sitting the third row back over there, wanting to bring in destructive lines that Jesus really said, wait, if I could get into that men's group and start to to shake their minds a little bit, let me come in deceptively and see if I can do that. Bring it. Did Jesus really say to Jesus? Really? I mean, you know, do you guys meet on Saturdays? You're Sabbath worshipers, right? So see how that works. They bring in deceptive little lies. You've got to be careful there. I'll get it out when I get to that part of the Matthew. They are godless men who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality, and they even deny Jesus Christ who bought them or who is our Lord. So that's one of the things of false prophets. They will they will they'll give a license for immorality. I mean, isn't Rob Bell doing that? Yeah, you can embrace the homosexual lifestyle and still be a Christian. Absolutely. They're giving license for this. You can still do this. You can still do that. And on that note, would I consider him a false prophet? Probably so. Based on everything he's been saying and reading and writing, you know, sadly, I would say that is a destructive things he's bringing into the church. I mean, these are these are essential doctrines that he's denying hell. He's denying this. And that's a very dangerous direction. That's why we all can't just get along, because when he strays from truth and we try to hold it, see, I can't have company with that anymore. And go to lunch with him and talk to him, but I can't fellowship with that, I can't acknowledge that as a true spokesman for God because they're denying the very essential elements of the gospel. So that's that's why we and you have to do it. Look at Jude says this. He points it out. The writer of the Bible points it out. What about Timothy that I read earlier? For the time will come when men will not endure sound doctrine instead to suit their own desires. They will gather around themselves a great number of teachers who say what their itching ears want to hear. So our culture is going to start to look for people, tell them what they want to hear. First Timothy four, 16. Watch your life and your doctrine closely. Paul said, Timothy, watch your life and your doctrine closely, persevere in them, because if you do, you will say both yourself and your hearers. So that's one of the things they do, they come in secretly, they come in secretly. And you know what they say a lot of times, we must decipher God's word for you. You'll notice that, right? The Book of Mormon, all these different things we will tell you what I mean, I couldn't believe they thought they said the same thing. Obviously, they're not reading one of the two. Or you see the magazine Watchtower, Jehovah Witness, let us tell you what God's word says, let us decipher it for you. For many years. All that would all that the priest would speak was Latin. Right, so the people couldn't know. Let us tell you what the word we don't want this in the common man's tongue, we don't want this in in the language that everybody can understand. Why? Because there's some air there. Truth should be proclaimed, truth should be announced and pronounced, truth should be promoted. This is the way the truth, the life Christ is. But this shows us that he is the way, the truth, the life. This shouldn't be ran from, it shouldn't be embraced. Get in the word of God, read it daily, because then you'll see that what we're saying here, it does line up with scripture. So that's one of the things you've got to always remember. If people do not want you to get into the word of God for yourself, they want to tell you, then that's a sure sign that there's some deception there. I wish I could get through this whole thing, but Peter, second Peter clarifies, I want I want I want to leave you guys with this point when it comes to false teachers, you look at their character during their ministry and their consistency of their ministry. You look at their character during their ministry and their consistency during their ministry, you look at all of that because now you go on websites and they'll say, you know, Billy Graham's a false prophet and Chuck Smith, Calvary Chapel is a false prophet and Mark Driscoll is a false prophet. They just like to lump everybody, everybody in this big old group that doesn't meet right down the middle with their theology. And that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about looking at a man's character or a woman's character in their consistency in their ministry. Look at Beth Moore, Kay Arthur and Graham Lotz. You look at you look at their consistency and their character and what they're saying. Second, Peter, but there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly here we go again, bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed by covetousness. They will exploit you with deceptive words for a long time. Their judgment has been idle, has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. So the way of truth is blasphemy. And I could keep going on, but I'm going to I'm going to get ready to conclude this and maybe we'll do part three next week. But that's the main thing, that truth is blasphemy. And then Peter says, but these like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, they speak evil of the things they do not understand and will utterly perish in their own corruption. They have eyes full of adultery and cannot cease from sin. They entice unstable souls. See, that's where I wanted to really get to those who are led astray into a lot of these are unstable souls. They're tossed around to and fro. They don't really know their doctrine. They don't know the word of God. So it sounds good. It sounds good. But and they're allowing man to teach him instead of instead of listening, looking into it for themselves. So that's the whole point. I want to get you to be to be a stable soul. You got to know what the original looks like. Remember we talked about last week bank tellers don't look at counterfeit money all week when they're training. They look at the original. They look at the original, they want to see what the original looks like. And that's what my whole point is to get you back in that. So next week, I want to talk a little bit more about this, this whole issue. But you know what? I don't know how many few of you here were at the mayor's prayer breakfast at the fairgrounds and the guy who spoke, I'm going to try to get his video from Chris. It's just a fantastic message. He's president of Promise Keepers, and he talked about. Just this bitterness and strongholds, it really doesn't apply with where I just left the message because I had some more to get into, but I thought it was relevant for us. And it's going to be on this note in chapter one, I talked about we have come to worship him. Remember, the wise man said we have come to worship him. And it begs the question, have we? Have we truly come to worship him? Have we or we just come to play church because a lot of people are just playing church, you're not truly coming to worship him. And this guy talked about it really resonated with a lot of things in my past and other people is if we if we don't let this bitterness go. This bitterness go and judgmentalism and being so bitter and judgmental, everybody, somebody's wounded me and somebody's upset me, somebody's hurt me. If you don't let that go, it's going to it's going to prevent heartfelt worship. It's that kink in the hose I've talked about before. That if we just hold this judgmentalism and actually I was going to talk about some of it, some in the church are so judgmental of people, they'll call everybody a false prophet. They're shooting brothers, brothers are shooting brothers, sisters are shooting brothers. We're holding the sisters. We're holding in all this judgmentalism and all this bitterness. And experience true worship, we've got to let that go. We have to. So as Gabe and Chelsea comes up, I just want to kind of end on that note. They're going to do a few songs before we conclude the service. But I just want to just experience in Lisa, too, just a heart of worship. You know, one of the things I'm reading a good book by Warren Wiersbe, you guys should pick it up if you get a chance. I believe it's called God is not in a hurry. And one of the it just goes through and one of the chapters he talks about, many people are so rushed, you know, we came to church, we read the word of God, but we never take time to meditate on everything we just heard. We never take time, just meditate, let it sink and let the truth of God's word just sink in. Because if you don't realize it in a whole hour, I just laid out the message of the gospel to that we are sinners dead in our trespasses and our sins. Oh, Shane, you just believe that. Listen, that's what the Bible says. We are lost in our sins. And unless we repent of our sins and confess Christ as Lord, we will be separated from God in eternity. So this picture of hell is not some evil God, it's going, listen, if you're not in right relationship with me through the blood of Jesus Christ, I cannot bear that. I cannot be a holy God, cannot stand with sinful man. So that's what it's separated in eternity and hell it is. A lot of people preach that just to get people stirred up. I'm just preaching because it's the truth. If we deny Christ and reject him, we will spend eternity separated from God because that is the only provision, our only hope. So let that sink in to let that truth sink in during worship. Meditate on these things. If you don't know him, why do you think you might have come tonight? I always want to give people that opportunity because he's tugging at hearts and he's one he's drawing us back. How does he draw us back? He draws us by the convicting power of the word of God preached to the power of the Holy Spirit to help and change man. He's calling us back to him. So he's either calling us to full repentance and to give our lives to the Lord, or he's calling many of you, many of me, myself included, to seek a deeper life, that deeper life that Christ spoke of, that true worshiping heart, that heart that's broken and humble and seeking him. We can never get too much of that. Jesus said the spirit of the Lord is upon him. He's done it all. It's finished. The finished work of Christ on the cross. All we have to do is embrace it. And with that, Lord, I just ask that you would, Lord, begin to heal families, Lord, tonight. I pray during this time of worship, Lord, begin to bring women and men, Lord, to their knees. Lord, break the heart, but restore the family. Lord, I pray for men in here. Lord, help us be the men that you've called us to be and to lead our families. Lord, in the fear of you, Lord, I pray that you begin to mold and direct people right now as they seek your will. Lord, give them direction. Lord, give them clarity. Let prayers be answered tonight, Lord, for finances, for the prodigal son to come home. Lord, we pray for the prodigal tonight. The way we're daughter, Lord, we pray for them. Lord, we're petitioning. We're asking that you would bring them home or bring them back to their mothers and their fathers. Have them cry out to you, Lord, just like the prodigal when he came to himself. Lord, have these people come to you, quicken them with your spirit, Lord, convict them, draw them back. Lord, I pray that spouses would leave here tonight, cherishing one another, loving one another. Lord, in the fear of you as well, the spouses would love each other, Lord, and raise their kids better. Lord, we want to know you in a more intimate way. We pray that you would bless this worship time. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.