James Merritt - Counterfeit Prophets
It would be fair to say that there have been hundreds of thousands if not millions of sermons that have been preached. And yet by common consensus, if you were to ask anybody, «What is the greatest sermon ever preached»? common consensus would tell you it is the Sermon on the Mount. Matter of fact, when Jesus got through preaching this sermon, we read at the end of Chapter 7 in Matthew, which is where we are today, the people were astonished 'cause they had never heard anybody teach with the authority that he taught. So not only was it the greatest sermon ever preached, it was preached by the greatest preacher who’s ever lived.
If you’re a guest of ours today, we started in September of last year just going through what we call the Sermon on the Mount. It’s a series that we’ve been calling «Get Used to Different» because it is radically different. And we’ve been able to go back 2,000 years and see just how different this message would’ve been to the ears of the ones who first heard it. Because the one who said, «I am the truth,» has done nothing up to this point Except tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth because he is God. But now he’s coming to the end of the sermon, and he says some unbelievably fascinating things, like, «No, you shouldn’t commit adultery, but, oh, by the way, if you do it up here, you committed adultery». And they never thought about that before. And he said, «love your enemies and pray for them and bless them». «Well, I know I’m supposed to love my friends». «But no, no, no, I want you to love your enemies».
And on and on and on it goes. But now he comes to the end of the sermon, and he gives a warning and he talks about one of the greatest dangers the church has faced since its beginning. And it’s not a danger that comes from outside the church, it’s actually a danger that comes from inside the church. You see, Satan, and I believe in a devil, Satan attacks the church primarily in two ways. He attacks the church from the outside and he attacks the church from the inside. Now, from the outside, he attacks with fierce persecution. We see it all around the world. China, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, just name it. So many places where I can’t do what I’m doing publicly and openly. You can’t do what you did today publicly and openly.
So he attacks from the outside with fierce persecution. But on the inside, he attacks with false prophets. And it’s amazing to me that Jesus even had to warn us, because you would think, of all people, we ought to be able to recognize the truth from the false. And I’ve often thought, «Why is it that people who come hear me preach listen to false prophets»? There’s some of you in this room, you’re enamored with false prophets. Just because they make you feel good and they sound good and they’re so positive and so uplifting and so upbeat that, «Oh, I just love listening to them preach». It’s kinda like easy-listening radio. And I’ve often wondered, «Why do people do that»? And I basically have found there are really two reasons. One is biblical ignorance, they just don’t know. And the other is just personal indifference, they just don’t care.
So I wanna ask you a question. Have you ever heard of the name David Vetter, V-E-T-T-E-R? I doubt you have. If you’re a doctor, you may have. Other than that, you don’t know who I’m talking about. He’s known as the Bubble Boy. Let me tell you about David Vetter. He was born in 1971. He suffered from this rare genetic disorder. It was called severe combined immune deficiency syndrome, SCIDS. It is a terrible disease. When this young man was born, he was born with a immune system that basically had flipped the off switch. It was totally inoperative. So he couldn’t feel pain. He couldn’t feel sickness. His appendix could rupture, he wouldn’t know it. He could have a crushing migraine headache, he wouldn’t know it. He could be running 110 degree fever, he wouldn’t know it.
So he was born with this extreme risk of sickness and disease because his body couldn’t feel anything. Well, the doctors knew he was gonna be born with that condition. So within 20 seconds after he came out of his mother’s womb, they put Vetter into this protective bubble, hence the Bubble Boy, which was designed to serve as a germ-free environment and keep him safe. This is a picture of David Vetter. He was put into that bubble the moment he came out of his mother’s womb. Anything that went into that bubble, anything had to be disinfected first, poured with special cleaning agents. If a doctor or a nurse went into that bubble, they had to be covered from hand to foot and make sure everything they had was no germs, no bacteria. He only lived for 13 years because he died from complications from a bone marrow transplant.
But for as long as he lived, this kid lived in a bubble where everything, everything, the air that he breathed was carefully filtered, everything he touched was completely disinfected. And here’s why. His body could not protect itself. And I read that story and I thought, «I wish I could put the church in a protective bubble. I wish I could put the church in a bubble where anything that was theologically wrong, this theological bubble that anything that was false teaching, it would automatically be filtered out. No theological error would ever fall on our ears». It would be great. What a beautiful world we would live in if every teacher and every preacher and every teaching and every preaching was sterilized, purified, cleanse, orthodox and true.
The only problem is, Jesus said, «That’s not the real world. That is not the case». And so after listening to this true prophet speak pure truth, this crowd heard these words from Jesus and their jaw dropped. «Watch out for false prophets». Now, I’m gonna give you a pop quiz. Let’s see how well you’re listening this morning. You ready? When Jesus says, «Watch out,» then you better do what? That’s right. You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I’m telling you why. There’s false prophets everywhere. «You better watch out,» Jesus said, «You better be careful, because Satan is doing everything he can to poison the biblical will of truth, to pervert the gospel, to prevent people from leaving spiritual darkness and coming to the light of the world».
And so Jesus says, «I’m giving you fair warning. I am telling you, watch out. Do not fall into the trap of counterfeit false prophets». Let me tell you why this is such a big deal. You may think I’m kind of overhyping this, you may think, «Man, why are you so passionate»? You may say, «Good grief, why are you all so worked up»? Because counterfeit money can take you to jail, but counterfeit prophets can take you to hell. So we’ve got a problem. It’s not so much outside the church. We don’t really have a problem outside the church, not in this country. We have problems inside the church.
So here’s the lesson we’re gonna learn today. Very simple, here’s what Jesus is saying, «Not every prophet who claims to be teaching the truth is telling the truth. Not every prophet who claims to be teaching the truth is telling the truth». So Jesus says, «Let me give you three steps to take to recognize and reject counterfeit prophets».
Now, this is not an ego thing with me, I want you to understand. I don’t care whether you take notes or not. I do believe you should. I went here to church last week to another church just to visit, I took notes, and I’d encourage you to write some things down today. You’re gonna need this message. So here’s the first thing I want you to write down. First of all, we must expect counterfeit prophets. We must expect counterfeit prophets. Now, listen again to what Jesus says, fair warning, he says, «Watch out for false prophets».
Now, that word, «Watch out,» is a very strong word in the Greek language. It literally means beware, beware. Now, when Jesus says, «Beware,» you better beware. That’s code red. That’s DEFCON 1. That’s the highest security alert he could give. When Jesus says, «Beware,» you better sound the alarm, you better ring the bell, you better widen your eyes, you better perk up your ears, because danger is just around the corner. And by the way, Jesus never gives a false warning. He never over hypes anything. You’ve seen this happen. I’ve known people that they kind of don’t like people to come around. So they put a sign up on the tree right in front of their front yard that says, «Beware of dog». But they don’t own a dog. Why do they put that sign up? 'Cause they don’t want you coming around. It’s a false warning, there’s no dog. When somebody puts up the sign, «Wet paint,» you better be careful, there’s wet paint.
So Jesus is giving a warning that’s real. There’s a situation. Jesus said, «There are false prophets today. There will be false prophets tomorrow. And as long as there’s a church and as long as there’s a world, there will be false prophets,» 'cause I want you to remember this about Satan, whatever else you wanna say about Satan, he’s a bad dude, I get that, but whatever you wanna say about Satan, Satan is not stupid. He is really smart. He is the captain of camouflage. He is the master of disguise.
Matter of fact, the Apostle Paul said this about him in 2 Corinthians 11, «For such people are false apostles, they’re deceitful workers, they’re masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising then if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, therein will be what their actions deserve». I’m talking from experience. I went to a Baptist college in Florida. I went to a Baptist seminary in Kentucky. I sat under false prophets. I sat under false professors. And I learned firsthand, «Man, these guys are not just dangerous, they are deceptive». In fact, Jesus says, «Here’s how deceptive they are». He says, «They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly, they are ravenous wolves».
They wear wool on the outside, but they’re wolves on the inside. And see, the problem is, it would be great if a false prophet would just let you know, «Hey, by the way, don’t listen to me, I’m a false prophet». They don’t do that. They never advertise that they’re false prophets, they’re too smart. So they’re just like counterfeit dollars, they try to pass themselves off as the real thing. Let me give you an example. They use titles. And by the way, so easy to be fooled by a title, right? So they’re a reverend, or they’re a doctor, or they’re a professor. And I mean, on the outside, they look like sheep. In fact, I was thinking the other day, you know what people call an academic diploma? They call it a sheepskin. Interesting.
Can I tell you something I’ve learned? Not every PhD comes from a good tree. I’m gonna just dip my toe in something, get right back out. One of the reasons why they’re having all these problems up at all these Ivy League schools is 'cause they got a lot of false prophets up there. Well, they got their PhDs, but they couldn’t recognize truth if it hit 'em in the face. So just because you got a PhD, you got a Dr. in front of your name, doesn’t mean you are a true prophet. I wanna say it again, when I was in seminary, when I was in college, I sat under a professor at a Baptist university in Florida. My religion professor did not believe in the divinity of Jesus. He did not believe in the virgin birth. He didn’t believe in one miracle in the Bible. I sat under professors at seminary who did not believe in the resurrected Jesus. They did not believe Jesus was physically raised from the dead.
And Jesus said about people like that, «Beware. You better watch them like a hawk». Now, here’s the problem. Before you can beware of something, you’ve got to be aware of something. You cannot beware of false prophets if you’re not aware of false prophets. Now, here’s what’s really interesting. The Greek word there for false prophets, two words in English is one word in the Greek, it is pseudoprophetes. Pseudo is the word for lie. And here’s what I need you to hear. It wasn’t just that Jesus talked about false prophets, oh, that would be enough, you actually read about them in almost every New Testament letter. For example, here they’re called pseudoprophets.
In 2 Corinthians 11:13, they’re called pseudoapostles. In 2 Peter 2:1, they’re called pseudoteachers. In 2 Corinthians 11:26, they’re called pseudobrothers. And in 2 Timothy 4:1, they’re called pseudospeakers. Timothy, Paul, John, Jesus, everywhere, when you read the New Testament, they said, «These prophets are everywhere. They’re liars, they speak lies». And here’s the problem, here’s where they’re really good. They’ll speak just enough truth to make you think they’re not telling you a lie. I mean, they are so good. And here’s what you need to remember about these false prophets. They use our vocabulary, but they don’t use our dictionary. Oh, they’ll talk about Jesus, for example. But when you dig deep, the Jesus they’re talking about is not the Jesus I talk about. They’ll talk about the love of God, but the love of God they’re talking about is not the love of God that the Bible talks about.
And the problem is, they wear sheep’s clothing even though they are ravenous wolves. But that raises a question, Jesus knew what he was doing, why do you think Jesus compared false prophets to wolves? Why didn’t he compare a false prophet to say a Tennessee Volunteer tick hound? Why didn’t he do that? Or an Auburn eagle? Why didn’t he do that? Why in the world does he compare a false prophet to a wolf? Well, you do a little study, you say, «Now I understand why». A large wolf can weigh in excess of 160 pounds. When a large wolf is hunting a prey, a large wolf can jog up to 45 miles a day without stopping. I mean, they are persistent, they’re tireless, incredibly strong, A wolf can bite through the hind leg of a horse with just one snap. A German shepherd exerts 750 pounds per square inch of pressure with his jaws.
A wolf, 1,500 pounds. But here’s what’s really interesting, bet you didn’t know this, wolves never hunt in the daytime. They always hunt at nighttime. Do you know why they always hunt at nighttime? Because they have night vision. They can see you, but you can’t see them. They can detect you, but you can’t detect them. Because they have a chemical in their eye called rhodopsin, and it enhances their night vision. That’s why their eyes glow in the dark. They can literally see you in the dark, but you cannot see them. And see, they love to come in under the radar. That’s exactly what a false prophet does, he comes in under the radar. He’ll wear a clerical collar. He’ll wear a nice suit. He might even hold this in his hand when he’s preaching. But he’s a false prophet.
And, oh, by the way, don’t get the idea, «Well, Pastor, I know there are, but there’s not a lot of 'em out there». Really? The world’s full of 'em. You know what John said about false teachers? Here’s what John said, «Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world». Oh, they’re out there. You can hear them today on the radio, you can see them on the television, you can follow them on social media, you can read their bestselling books. There are plenty of them. So Jesus said, «Number one, we must expect counterfeit prophets».
Now, Jesus says, «That being true, not only must we expect counterfeit prophets, well, if that’s true, we must detect counterfeit prophets». I mean, you gotta recognize one when you see one. I mean, listen, it’s one thing, if you said to me, «Pastor, I believe you. Pastor, I believe that there are false prophets in the world,» that’s great. My question is not do you believe there are false prophets? My question I’m asking you today, but can you pick them out? Do you know one when you hear one? Do you know one when you see one? You gotta have spiritual discernment because they’re not always easy to spot.
So the question is, well, how do we detect counterfeit prophets? Well, again, Jesus tells us. Here’s what he says, «By their fruit, you’ll recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit». Jesus said, «Listen, let me tell you something about a wolf. A wolf can wear sheep’s clothing, but he cannot grow a sheep’s coat. You could put thorns and figs on thistles, but they can’t grow there». And Jesus said, «You can tell a false prophet by what he preaches and what he produces». You know the old saying, «You cannot judge a tree by its leaves, but you can judge a tree by its fruit». You can judge a tree by its fruit. And Jesus opens the door and closes the door with the same phrase, the same piece of advice, he says, «By their fruit, you will recognize them».
Now, that word recognize is a garlic breath-strong word in the Greek language. It’s more than just knowing something, it’s more than just, «Yeah, I think I can pick it up,» it means full knowledge, traceable, undeniable. And Jesus said, «You can see their fruit always in two ways, their belief and their behavior. Watch their belief, watch their behavior, that will tell you whether or not they are true prophets, and both will be bad fruit». By the way, that word bad is an interesting word. There are two different Greek words in the Greek language for bad. One is the Greek word kakos. kakos means harmful, hurtful. The other word is poneros, and that word means wicked or evil.
Jesus doesn’t use the first word, he uses the second word. He says, «Look, this is not just fruit that will make you sick to your stomach, or make you upset, or make you feel bad, it’s not that kind of bad». He said, «It is evil fruit. It is wicked fruit». He said, «It is fruit,» he’s not just talking about something that bears bad fruit, he’s talking about someone that bears bad fruit. He’s talking about false counterfeit prophets. Now, let’s get real specific. That’s kind of a generality, let’s get specific. But how do you know? How do you spot them? How can you really say, «I know this is not right»? Well, Paul gives us a clue about some things to look for in a counterfeit prophet.
Listen to what he says. 2 Corinthians 11, he said, «If someone comes to you,» now watch this, here’s the way you can tell, «and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough». So Jesus said, «There are two ways you’ll know you’re hearing from a false prophet». First of all, he said they will talk about a counterfeit master. They’ll preach a different Jesus. Let me just give you some examples of the different Jesuses you’re gonna hear about today. For example, some people will say, «You know what? Jesus will give you anything you need and he’ll give it to you when you need it. He’ll give you any money that you want, any miracle you desire, you just ask him, he will give it to you».
I call him the Santa Claus Jesus. But then there’s this Jesus, and they say, «Oh, this Jesus, he lives in everybody. You don’t have to come to Jesus, you just gotta recognize Jesus already lives in you. He lives in everybody». I call him the cosmic Jesus. And then you’ve got people who say, «Well, there’s the Jesus, he gives everybody salvation under their Christmas tree. You don’t even have to ask for it. You don’t have to believe. It doesn’t matter». I call him the inclusive Jesus. Everybody comes, everybody’s in. But then here’s the big one. Here’s the one you hear the most. There’s this Jesus who people say, «Jesus loves you. He doesn’t care what you believe. He doesn’t care how you live. He doesn’t care what lifestyle you practice. You’re okay, I’m okay, he’s okay, we’re all okay. He will accept you just the way you are. He made you just the way you are. You don’t have to change anything».
And I call him the tolerant Jesus. The only problem with that is, that is not the Jesus in the Bible. That’s the problem. So they preach this counterfeit master, but then he said they also will speak a counterfeit message. They preach a different gospel. By the way, it wasn’t coincidental, you remember a couple of weeks ago what we talked about? We talked about the broad way that leads the destruction, the narrow way that leads to life. Jesus had just got through talking about that, now he talks about counterfeit prophets.
How do you think those two are connected? He said, «Let me tell you one of the marks of a false prophet. A false prophet is someone that will tell you, 'Oh yeah, there’s a broad way, but everybody’s on it and it all leads to life.' So if you’re a Buddhist, you’re on that road. If you’re a Christian, you’re on that road. If you’re a Muslim, you’re on that road. If you’re an atheist, you’re on that road. If you’re an agnostic, you’re on that road, if you’re straight, you’re on that road. If you’re gay, you’re on that road. Everybody’s going to the same place, all road leads to exactly the same place. I don’t care how you believe, I don’t care how you live. In the end, everybody’s saved, all roads lead to heaven». And they’ll stand up and they’ll say, «Now, look, Jesus is one way to God, he might even be the best way to God, but he’s not the only way to God».
It is a counterfeit message. But let me tell you how deceptive counterfeit prophets really are. See, the way you can spot a counterfeit prophet, listen to this, this’ll be worth coming to church for. The way you can spot a counterfeit prophet is not just by listening to what they do say, it’s listening to what they don’t say. Say, «What do you mean»? Well, they won’t necessarily say something that you’ll immediately go, «Well, that’s not true,» but they just won’t tell you the whole truth. Can I give you some examples? They’ll talk about heaven, but they won’t talk about hell. Here’s another one. They’ll talk about the love of God, but they won’t talk about the holiness of God. They’ll talk about redemption, but they won’t talk about repentance. They’ll talk about the God of inclusion, they won’t talk about the God of exclusion.
And listen carefully, here’s the words you’ll, they’ll use these words a lot, «Jesus, love, compassion, acceptance,» but they’ll still clear of words like repentance and holiness and judgment and hell. As a matter of fact, the only negative word you’ll ever hear coming out of their mouth is when they criticize people like me who tell you the truth. «He’s so intolerant. He’s so narrow minded. He’s so bigoted». So I want you to keep a couple of things in mind, you ready? First of all, it is the root that determines the fruit. Remember that, it’s the root that determines the fruit. You don’t get figs from thistles and you don’t get grapes from thorns. Watch this. If the root, this is so important, if the root of anyone’s teaching is not biblical truth, the fruit will be untruthful teaching. If you don’t hear anything else I say, if the root of anyone’s teaching is not biblical truth, the fruit will be untruthful teaching.
Now, the second thing to keep in mind is this. Yes, it is the root that determines the fruit, right? But it is the fruit that reveals the root. So if someone’s always talking about success, but never about suffering, if someone’s always talking about accepting, but not rejecting, if someone’s always talking about inclusion, but they never talk about exclusion, if they always talk about God’s love, they never talk about God’s holiness, they always talk about the resurrection of Jesus, but they never talk about the substitutionary death of Jesus, or they always talk about the kindness of God, but they never talk about the judgment of God, I got news, you better find yourself another prophet. It’s false prophecy.
So we must detect counterfeit prophets. But that’s not enough, the church has another responsibility. So I’ve warned you, you’ve been given fair warning, we must expect counterfeit prophets. And then we’ve kind of given you a little tutorial about how you detect counterfeit prophets. But if we expect them and we detect them, then it leads to reason, we must correct counterfeit prophets. I mean, it’s one thing to expect one, it’s one thing to detect one, but if I’m gonna preach the truth and I’m gonna practice the truth, I gotta be willing to correct untruth. Because at the end of the day, and I’m gonna tell you, people hate it when people like me say this, but at the end of the day, there are only two kinds of religious beliefs, only two, true ones and false ones. There’s no in between.
There are true beliefs, there are false beliefs. There’s the narrow way of the cross, very narrow, there’s the broad way of culture. There’s the narrow way of Jesus, and there’s the broad way of, take your pick, Muhammad, Confucius, Buddha, some god, no god, doesn’t matter. But here’s the problem, and this is the thing I want you to understand, when you decide to stand for truth, then you have to stand against lying. It’s not a half a loaf. When you stand for one thing, you’ve gotta stand against another. So I want you to keep one last thing in mind, listen to me carefully. It is the root that determines the fruit, and it is the fruit that reveals the root. But it is the seed that determines both the root and the fruit.
Now, I’m not a farmer, okay? Farming’s not my thing, okay? Don’t take this the wrong way, but I talk to people and they say, «I just love yard work». And I think to myself, «You’re sick. You need therapy, you need help». I’m not a farmer, that’d be the last thing I’d ever wanna do in my life. And I love farmers, thank God for farmers. It’s not my point. But even though I’m not a farmer and I don’t know a whole lot about agriculture, I’ll tell you one thing I do know. If you want an apple tree, there’s only one kind of seed you better sow. Do you know, what kind of seed is that? Yeah. If you sow a watermelon seed, you’re not gonna get an apple tree. I know that much. It is the seed that determines the root and the fruit. Therefore, if you do not have the right kind of seed, you won’t have the right kind of root. And if you don’t have the right kind of root, you won’t have the right kind of fruit.
So it all goes back to the seed, which raises the million-dollar question. Well, what is the seed? Well, Jesus tells us what the seed is. In Luke 8:11, Jesus said, «The seed is the word of God». That is the seed. So we’ve got, I’ve got, you’ve got, we all have a responsibility to confront people who claim to be true prophets, but they deny the truth of God’s word, or they distort the truth of God’s word, or they denigrate the truth of God’s word. So, «Yeah, I know what the Apostle Paul said about homosexuality, and I know what he said about marriage, but that’s not really what he was talking about,» or, «Yeah, I know what the Bible says about leadership in the church and I know what the Bible says about marriage and the relationship. I understand all that. They just got it wrong».
So they deny the truth, or they distort the truth, or they denigrate the truth. And here’s what I wanna say to you today. You parents better listen to me because your kids are at stake, and you grandparents better listen to me because your grandkids are at stake. The only way to detect a false prophet and the only way to correct a false prophet, you better know that book. You better know what’s in that word. You better know what the word of God says. If you only think about, and I think I’ve told you this before, you know treasury agents, you know how they’re trained to spot counterfeits? You know how, right? They don’t study counterfeits. What do they study? Dollar bills. They said, «Look, don’t worry about the counterfeit. You just make sure you know the real thing from top to bottom».
When the prophet Israel was warning the children of Israel about false prophets, he said, «Here’s what you do to make sure false prophets never ever lead you astray». Here’s what he said, «You consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn». Now, why do you go back to the word of God? Because that book’s the only thing that never changes. The world may change its mind, God doesn’t change his. The world may change what they say is right and wrong, God doesn’t change his. The Supreme Court may say something’s okay, but it’s not okay if God says it’s not okay. The Congress may vote legislation that says, «This is legal,» it may be legal, but if God says it’s wrong, it’s wrong. It’s not what I say, it’s not what you say, it’s not what I think, it’s not what you think, it’s not what the president says, or what the Congress says, or anybody else says.
It’s one simple thing, what does God say? What is the word that never changes say? It’s the only unchanging standard of truth by which every other message preached by every other messenger is to be judged. I read something about Canada the other day. I never knew this one, I bet you didn’t know it either. For some reason, they have a big problem with counterfeit money in Canada. So if you become a Canadian citizen, I didn’t know this. If you become a Canadian citizen, you have to memorize a motto. You have to memorize it, then they teach you to practice it. Here’s their motto, «Touch, tilt, look at, look through». They teach you, first of all, «We want you to know how to recognize our currency».
Then compared to that currency, you take any other dollar bill you take and they say, «Touch it, is it the right texture? Tilt it, is there anything there that’s out of whack? Look at it, hold it up to the light. And look through it». Simple test, can be done quickly, easily, immediately. And it will show you whether or not a bill is real or counterfeit. They want their citizens to be able to discern what is real from what is false. You know why? Because once you accept a counterfeit dollar, you’re responsible for it. So you can take a counterfeit $100 bill and you can go to the grocery store and you can put all of your groceries on the counter and you can hand that person a $100 bill, but if that $100 bill is counterfeit, they’re gonna take that bill away from you, they’re gonna destroy it and you better have another $100 bill or you’re going home hungry.
Now, we not only have a legal right, we have a spiritual responsibility to recognize any spiritual or theological counterfeit to reject it, to request the real thing. So I want you to hear me clearly, and hopefully what I’m about to say will put some confidence, if you have any doubt about me, hopefully this will take it all away. I don’t want you to ever take anything I say as true just because I say it. For some of you, I’ve been your pastor since we started this church 21 years ago. For some of you, I’ve been your pastor for 30, 35 years. I don’t care. The only thing I say to you that’s worth hearing and the only thing I say that’s true is what lines up with that book. «But you got a PhD,» I don’t care. «You read the Greek New Testament,» that doesn’t matter. «You’ve been preaching for 47 years,» that’s irrelevant.
I want you to test everything I say just like I do anybody else. You need to discern everything you hear, everything that’s preached, everything that’s taught, and you need to hold it up to the light of this book and examine it and compare it. And if it doesn’t fit, you throw it out. So I wanna close with this, we’ll be done. I hope you understand why this is a big deal. I hope you understand why, this is one of those messages, I hope you just don’t just kind of file it away and take it home and just go about your business. I don’t wanna sound egotistical when I say this.
Please don’t take this the wrong way. Can I tell you something that, I don’t ever embarrass anybody, but sometimes I just don’t even know what to do, is I have people come up to me, they’ll see me in an airport, or a restaurant, or maybe I’m out and about somewhere, maybe I’m speaking. And they’ll come up to me and they’ll say, «Oh, I watch you on TV every Sunday. And then I love to hear you preach». And just about the time I’m about to go, they go, «And I’ll tell you something else, I listen to this guy». And I go in my heart, «What»? You listen to me and think I’m cool, and you listen to that guy and you think he’s cool? And I just, I can’t even wrap my mind around it. So let me just make sure you know what I think you already know, but just good to repeat it every now and then.
I believe this book is the word of God. I don’t believe there’s any other book in the world like this book. «Yeah, but men wrote it». Yes, they did, but God authored it. The author of this book is not men, the author of this book is God. As a matter of fact, let me tell you about this book. There’s only gonna be one book that makes it to heaven, it’s this book. You know why I know that? Because God said about this book, «My word is settled in heaven». Hey, I got news for you. Listen to me, listen to me. That book was created before you were, it was just written down. But that book’s always existed. It will exist in eternity.
You say, «Well, how do you know it’s always existed»? Because God’s always existed. And if this book is the word of God, it’s always existed. So I got news for you. There will be Bibles in heaven. You cannot destroy the word of God. Jesus said, «Heaven and earth may pass away, but this book’s not going anywhere». So I believe the Bible’s the word of God. I love you. I believe Jesus is the Son of God. I believe he was exactly who he said he was. I believe he did exactly what he said he did. And I believe that salvation is only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, who is the only way to God. And I believe that the gender you are is the gender you got when you were born. And I believe that marriage should be reserved for sex. And I believe that marriage is reserved for men to women, not women to women and men to men. And I could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on.
Now, whether you believe that or not, that’s not my problem. Whether you even like that or not, that’s not my problem. But I’m gonna tell you what I believe. If this is the last message, and who knows? I may be in heaven tomorrow. I’m not only not ashamed of the gospel, I believe the gospel is too important to let it be misused and misapplied by false teachers. And I believe the gospel is too important to be misunderstood and missed by people who need to hear it. And I believe the message that Jesus came so that we would have one, that we are sinners in need of a savior, and he is that savior. And he was fully God and fully man. And he lived a perfect life. And he died on the cross as a substitution for you and me. And God raised him from the dead. And he is coming again. And he will come again as your Lord, and he will come again as your judge.
I believe everything about that. That is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So would you bow your heads and close your eyes for just a moment? And this is so important, I want you to hear this clearly. I can’t prove this, but I would not be surprised if there are not people here today and people listening to me right now. You think you’re going to heaven, but you’re not, because you have believed a false gospel and you’ve been worshiping a false Jesus. Jesus himself said, the only way to heaven, there’s a two-sided coin, on one side is faith, the other side is repentance. You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but you must repent. You must turn away from what you want, what you like, what you desire, the way you wanna live. And you’ve gotta give everything you are to everything Jesus is, or according to Jesus himself, you’ve lived under a false teaching, you’re living a false life and you’re going to spend eternity with false gods.
And if you’re here today and you know deep down you’ve never really trusted this Jesus, you’ve never given your heart and life to this Jesus, you’ve never truly repented of your sins, you walked down an aisle, you filled out a card, you may have even gotten a baptistry, but you’ve never been born again, you’ve never been truly regenerated, you’ve never really ever truly been saved and changed, I’m gonna invite you to pray with me right now. And let me just say, and well, so important, you’re not saved by saying what I’m gonna say. You’re not saved by saying a prayer. You can say what I’m about to tell you to say every night before you go to bed, you won’t be saved. It’s not saying it, it’s praying it and meaning it. But if today you’re willing to say, «I don’t wanna listen to false stuff anymore. I believe everything you said, and I wanna give my life to Christ,» then why don’t you do this right now? I want you to say:
Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner, I need a savior. I cannot save myself. But I believe you died on the cross for my sins. I believe God raised you from the dead. And I believe you’re alive right now. Please, Lord Jesus, come into my heart. I trust you as my savior. I surrender to you as my Lord. I repent and turn away from my sins. I give everything I am to everything that you are.