Could You Be Deceived

Good to be out here with you again. I think you knew I was coming here before I did. You managed to get the bulletin. I didn't know this until late yesterday. Okay. See, a lot's happened since I've been here last. The violin section has gotten taller. My son had a granddaughter or a daughter or a granddaughter a month ago, so that's new in our life. I wish I could sign up for your Unleavened Bread Dinner because I think I'm going to be eating sashimi in Kenya. But I'm sure it'll be a unique experience there. That turkey trip is going to be nice if you have a chance to go there. Probably a bit expensive. In fact, you need to go see all these sites because ISIS seems to be wiping them all out as they go all across. Notice that they wiped out Nineveh and Nimrod City and a couple other places this last week. It's a shame the cultural heritage of these people are getting destroyed. But that's something for our times now. We're getting close to the end, and the anger in the world is magnified by all these events that are coming to pass. They're coming a little slower than we thought they were at one time, but they seem to be speeding up. So not a whole lot of time left. The sermon I brought to you today is entitled, Could You Be Deceived?

Turn to Matthew 24.

If you go there, Christ, in verse 24, said, There shall arise many false Christs and false prophets, and shall sow great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible, they shall even deceive the very elect. For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders to seduce if it were possible even the elect.

So we're told by Christ that at the end time there'll be people rising up. But the seduction of the false prophets, we look at this as an end-time chapter, but it's one that's been going on for 2,000 years or more. It's an ongoing prophecy. Christ talked of false people in His time as well. In Matthew 7, turning back a few pages, He says again, Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

They look like sheep. They sound good. They disguise themselves. And He continued, You shall know them by their fruits. And oftentimes we see that and we look at fruits, but as humans we tend to look at fruits on a short-term basis. And I think of so many people that paint their fruits in different ways. Verse 20, dropping down, it says, Wherefore by their fruits you know them. But like stores, often sell lost leaders, something below cost even to get you in the store to buy other things. There are oftentimes people that produce a certain type of fruit that looks good, and the actions may be good, but the motives may be wrong.

And He continues, verse 21, Not everyone that says to Me, Lord, Lord, and those people will be doing good things, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of My Father, which is in heaven. Some false prophets will arise and claim to be doing God's will. They'll be saying, Lord, Lord, they'll be doing those things that seem right. They'll probably use Scriptures to try to do it. And they'll say, verse 22, Many will say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name? We not cast out demons in Your name and done many wonderful works, again, all in His name.

And some people will try to use demons and verses like that to do good things, to prove themselves. And Christ says, they'll tell them I never knew you. So we want to make sure that we're understanding what Christ taught and doing it. Verse 24, He gives a clue. He says, Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock.

See, it must be on Christ's sayings, and what he was saying is the word of God that he gave to the written word, and not the spoken word that he gave to the Creator as well. It must be on His sayings on truth, and on things that can be manipulated. Made up here, as he's without good and in support. We have to prepare all these things in His word. We know if you don't go to the house of the rock, it falls down like so many houses that are built before them.

Sadly, and after, like in Malawi, they lost some of our members lost halted, because they are. It's made of mud. They have a flood. They just tend to dissolve and go away. But it's sad. But verse 29, He says, He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. Oftentimes you'll hear false teachers also look and sound like the real thing. How are you going to know the difference between false teachers and heroes?

What will keep you from being saved? In my lifetime, I've seen enough of you to see the fall of the way. I've got the one question out there that was burned by it, broken. Some of them don't even believe in God anymore, sadly. I'm bringing the sermon today because of the promise I made the charge from years ago when that's the one.

Part of that is warning the deception of the false prophet. When we think of deception, we tend to think of people outside the beast, the false prophet. They make me sin. It's fine. When I was in Imperial schools and clubs, some of the topics would always come up to, how are they going to make you deny God?

Are they going to try to make you eat pork, or make you break the Sabbath, or make you do break one of the commandments? You'd always talk about, no, they're never going to do that. But more and more, as I've lived my life, it seems that people get pulled out more from those who have left from within than those from without.

People who appear to be righteous, who do keep the Holy Days and the Sabbath, perhaps. But some of the other things they do change along the way. They start bringing in heresy and other things that aren't scriptural.

I've seen a lot of people go that direction. So I want you to not be deceived, to know where you stand, because they're more likely to be deceived by people that we believe are doing what God wants. Their deception will be more cunning because of the trip mixture of truth and error. We all remember when people would tell us, 20 years ago, if they ever do away with the Sabbath, I'm out of here. And then they did away with the Sabbath. And some of my friends told me that they'd leave when that happened. Well, they bought into, well, you're a Christian seven days a week. Not just one day. They bought into that lie, sadly. Others try to deceive you by saying, well, if you follow me, you'll avoid the tribulation. You can only get saved if you're with our group, or whatever. That we're more righteous than maybe you'll make it, but it'll be through the tribulation. They'll paint you a lay of the sea or something like that. And those things aren't things that should be done. One thing that Mr. Armstrong told me, and we all know that God used him because of what he sacrificed and what God built through him, on many occasions he told me, Beware of people who make you feel unrighteous. And I give this now because a lot of times I find people, we all are unrighteous, to an extent, trying to seek God's righteousness. And at the time we're examining ourselves, they're God, Love, and Bread, we know that we are unrighteous. And sometimes people try to make you feel unrighteous by their pride and their righteousness to get you to join them. The first time Mr. Armstrong told me this, I wonder what he really meant by it. But over the years it became clear. People that make you feel unrighteousness, unrighteous, tend to want to have a self-righteousness and a pride. And they want you to follow them. And they want you to be more spiritual, which we want to be, but yet some of the things they lead you down a garden path, that's not true. Turn to Luke 18, if you will. Because a true Spirit-led Christian will see his faults. Each of us sees ourselves at this time before Passover like the publican. The two men that went up to the Temple to pray, the Pharisee and the publican.

Of course, the Pharisee prayed and said, God, I thank you. I'm not a Southern man. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, even as this publican. Wouldn't that sound proud? Doesn't that sound like pride? Doesn't it sound like righteousness?

Putting down the publican, making him feel unrighteous. The publican, standing afar off, verse 13, would not lift his eyes up to heaven, smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. True humility, which is what Christ expects of all of us. A humility. Be merciful to me, a sinner.

We have modern-day Pharisees. We have people that are right in their own eyes, who do speak with authority. But oftentimes, it's not the authority of Scriptures. We need to be aware of that. They're often bullies, trying to make you follow their self-righteousness, making you feel unrighteous. It's usually their self-proclaimed righteousness, because I find so many of them do not tell the truth about their own history and things that they claim to take charge of their groups or whatever. And they spin it into some sort of appointment by God or a mission of some sort. And if you question it, then they usually come back with, well, you don't have God's Spirit. You're not righteous. Which is sad. This very thing has been said. If you don't see that this is true, then you don't have God's Spirit. And that does make you feel unrighteous. Sometimes, in cases, if you're examining yourself, you might say, well, man, maybe I need to do that. But you need to examine that against Scripture. You need to see things as they truly are, because they'll try to get you to see things through intimidation, through their so-called authority or so-called twisting of Scriptures. And you have to be that. I saw this self-righteousness employed even to Mr. Armstrong in the 10th Amendment at times, where they would tie something in the Bible to something totally unrelated. You believe in the 10 commandments, so you better do this, which had nothing to do with the 10 commandments. But in doing that to him, even, they would portray their righteousness. One such thing was when one man decided that we shouldn't... ministers shouldn't perform any weddings outside the church. And it was interesting because it says to be separate from the world, come out of her, my people. And we have all these Scriptures which are true. And our ministers don't go around soliciting weddings and things, but Mr. Armstrong, after the minister made his case, he looked at me and said, What do you think, Aaron? And I said, which he usually did. He tested me a lot that way. And I saw Mr. Armstrong. I said, frankly, if I had a son or daughter that was attending church and maybe not baptized and they wanted to get married, I'd want to perform that ceremony. And I said, Nowhere does this end the Bible you can't. In fact, parents in the Old Testament could perform the weddings for their own children. And I said, I think it would be discouraging to a child to have their parent. Well, since you're not baptized, I'm not going to marry you. So then maybe they'll get baptized for the wrong reasons. And they have another problem. And I said, Besides, look at the ceremony we've written. It says in the ceremony, let us consider the laws of God.

So Mr. Armstrong, tell me anybody in this world that shouldn't consider the laws of God regarding marriage. I signed up some atheists that have great marriage because they follow the laws of God, even though they don't believe in Him. And so Mr. Armstrong, he said, Well, I agree with you, Aaron. And so our ceremony, so we are allowed to. Someone asked in certain situations. Again, we don't go out and try to solicit or do a lot of weddings. But I performed a couple myself, the people that weren't in the church, that were very close and asked for me to do so. But it's interesting. My biggest fear is for people that are not totally grounded in the faith to be pulled off by the various groups out there. Not necessarily the groups that keep Sunday. And I don't expect anybody to become Buddhist and Hindu, but some of those who have left. And again, I'm not one who says there's only one true spiritual body. It's not a corporation. But some of the groups out there get a little far off and start teaching things that are damaging. And when people call me and write me, because of my heritage and because they spend their relationship with the past, they call me and ask me what the truth is. And I try to help them. And some of those people are broken spiritually, the way they've been treated, and some are broke financially. The things that they've been required to do. And it's sad. People twist scripture to make that. And there are many men, once associated with the church of God, in the past, that make many claims. And are you literate enough with God's Word to know whether those claims are biblical or not biblical? Because that's the only way you won't be pulled off and deceived. People that were once, quote, in the church, unquote, in the first century did the same thing. We have records of that. And of course, we tend to repeat history, unfortunately.

Turn to 3 John 1, verse 9, if you would.

These things happened before. Sometimes we get surprised by them. We shouldn't be.

1 John 1.9, or 3 John 1.9, I wrote to the church, But diatrophies, who loves to have the preeminence among them, receives us not.

Now this man was, quote, in the church, unquote, to the point that he rose to the top of the church. He didn't seem to have humility. You seek preeminence among them. Wherefore, if I come, I'll remember his deeds, which he does, Praying against us with malicious words, not content therewith, Neither doth he himself receive the brethren, but forbids them, and casts them out of the church.

Somehow this man managed to rise to the top of the church, where John, I can imagine, if John, one of the apostles, who was with Christ, sent somebody, I think I would talk to him. I would want to hear what he had to say. This man rose up. He ought to recognize that people do those things, humanly. In verse 12, Demetrius, though, has a good report among all men, And of the truth itself, that's what we want. The truth itself. Thy word is truth. That's what Christ said. So are you familiar with that truth of that? 2 Peter 1, 21. Turn back a few pages.

It's already in the last verse of 2 Peter 1. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, But holy men of God spoke, as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

They were moved by God when they spoke. But how many men spoke that they said it was God and it was not? Continue on. There's no chapter breaks in the Greek. Verse 1 of chapter 2. But there were false prophets among the people. It's always been that way. Even as there shall be false teachers among you, Who privately shall bring in damnable heresies. Things get brought in. People break away. They start their own church based on their own heresies.

Verse 3, Through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you. I've seen a number of people. That's happened too. Let's skip down to verse 13. And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, As they that counted pleasure to riot in the daytime, Spots and blemishes sporting themselves with their own deceivings, While they feast with you. Verse 19, They promise them liberty. They themselves are servants of corruption, For of whom a man is overcome of the same he is brought into bondage.

A lot of people are brought into bondage by false words. This truth makes you free. It doesn't bind you. Are you overcome with Jesus Christ with the false teachings of men? You have to know your Scriptures. Go back to the Word. The one thing that we have to know before Christ returns is what our book says, And what God says to us. True freedom comes in the truth of Jesus Christ and the message of the Gospel, Through His Word, not in men who seek a following after themselves. And many have. More than 2,000 years.

Closer to 6,000 years. What we saw that John said of doptrophes, Let's look in the past and see some of the other men, How others were deceived, What they said, what they looked like, What it was that made people follow them. I'm going to go back to Numbers 16. Because obviously these people that were evil, they must have seen them.

The Scriptures show they were evil, so everybody should have known to see it. Numbers 16. This is the story of Korah. I'm not going to go through the whole story, but when we look at the story of Korah, He is a son of Levi.

So he's a Levite. He's of the priestly tribe. In verse 2 it says, And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, Two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly. Not men at the bottom, not children. Princes of the assembly. Famous in the congregation. Men of renown. Often physical qualities like this is what people follow.

And they may act right at some times, but usually it's a pride. In verse 3, They gathered themselves together against Moses, and against Aaron, And said to them, You take too much on you, seeing that all the congregation is holy. Every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why do you lift yourselves up above the congregation of the Lord? We're all Israelites. There's a whole tribe of Levi. Why are you up there? Who did this to you?

Who put you on your little throne? We know God put Moses and Aaron where they were, but it's interesting. They're saying that, well, all Israel is the promise. We're all the promise people. We can all do this. And it's interesting. They were probably sincere and believed. Of course, we see a truly converted person in Moses. In verse 4, Moses heard, and he fell on his face. Every time he saw Israel do something wrong and sinned, he's trying to make intercession, trying to help them.

And he speaks to Korah, and he says to his company, he says, Even tomorrow the Lord will show who is his, who is his holy, even him who is chosen, because God chooses, not men. Men will choose themselves. Korah chose themselves. Dropping down to verse 9, Moses says, See, it's but a small thing to you that the God of Israel has already separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to himself, to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord.

He's a Levi. He's already called you. You're already special. Isn't that enough to stand before the congregation to minister unto them? Verse 10, He's brought you near to him, and all your brethren, the sons of Levi, with you, and you seek the priesthood also? It's kind of like saying, you're a minister. Isn't that enough? Why do you have to start your own church? Why do you have to separate? It's sad.

Some people want to be in charge. I'm glad I'm just in the church. I just hope I make it. It's like you. But that's the way they think sometimes. Go down to verse 19. Korah gathered the congregation against them to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the congregation. And, you know, if that temple lit up, I think I'd be thinking maybe there's something wrong here. He thought he was right. And some people are sincere in convincing themselves that they're right.

But it lit up. When the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, separate yourselves from among them, that I may consume them. And what did Moses do? Aaron, they fell in their face as God. The God of the spirits of all flesh shall one man sin, and will you be wroth with the whole congregation?

Are you going to destroy all of Israel because of these people? The humility that they had. Righteous people don't want other people to perish. It's not what it's about. Like Christ even said to His disciples, well, shall we call fired out in heaven? No, I didn't come to destroy people. Verse 28, Moses said, Hereby shall ye know the Lord has sent me to do these works, if I've done them for myself, if these men die the common death of all men, or visited in old age, die at just normal deaths, then God hasn't sent me.

But if He opens up the earth, and we know about the earthquake, it opens it up and it swallows them all up as soon as He's talking. Going down to verse 35, right after the earthquake, There came a fire down from the Lord, and consumed the 250 princes that offered incense. Now, you'd think when that happened that all of Israel said, Wow, this is great, we got rid of the bad guys. But not so. Verse 41, chapter 16, But on the morrow, the next day, all the congregation of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, You killed the people of the Lord.

They didn't come and say, Wow, you killed all these bad guys. Boy, thank you, God. Moses, you caused an earthquake. You killed Moses. I mean, I can't cause an earthquake. You can't cause an earthquake. Only God could cause an earthquake. And yet they're blaming Him. And this is all the congregation gathered against Moses and Aaron again. And they looked toward the tabernacle, and behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared.

Again, you'd think they figured out, Hey, I think we're wrong here. But they were deceived. And God, of course, wanted to consume them, and Moses again made intercession and stopped Him. Once again, told Aaron to make an atonement for Him. But there was a plague, and 14,700 people died, besides those that died with Korah and the princes. They were led astray by these men who were princes. Men of renown, famous in the congregation.

They weren't following the blind, the lame, and the poor. These men were well known, respected, eloquent. Princes, influenced to go against Moses. And people followed them. Moses, who had led them through the Red Sea, you know, God had used to bring the plagues on Egypt. But people forget. And it's sad. I'd like to look at another case of people going astray. This is the case of Absalom. Because again, look at the type of people and what happens.

Absalom is introduced to us in 2 Samuel 3. Absalom, son of David. I think third in line after Amnon and Inah. Verse 3, it says, Absalom, the son of Mecha, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur, the son of David, by the daughter of a king. I've met a few princesses of my life, and since kings tend to marry a really beautiful woman, they tend to have beautiful daughters and beautiful children. The next mention of Absalom is chapter 13.

When it came to pass in verse 1, Absalom, the son of David, had a fair sister. Her name was Tamar. And of course Amnon, firstborn son of David, was lusting after her. Couldn't do without her. They set up a plot. You know the story. He rapes her, brings her in under false pretense, takes her, shames her. Verse 20, Absalom, her brother, said to her, As Amnon, your brother, been with you, hold your peace, my sister, he's your brother.

Don't regard this thing. So she remained desolate in her brother Absalom's house after this thing. And David was upset at this thing, but apparently he didn't do anything. At least didn't do enough of what Absalom wanted.

Verse 22, Absalom spoke to his brother Amnon, neither good or bad. For Absalom hated Amnon because he had forced his sister Tamar, and people with motives often don't show their cards up front. What they're doing, he was quiet. Verse 23, it tells us after two full years, two years after this incident, Absalom presses his father to send all his sons out for a harvest feast. He manipulates him into doing that. And when he's out there, he has a servant kill Amnon for what he did.

Verse 37, Absalom fled. Of course, David had thought all his sons had died, but now it was only Amnon. And he fed back to his father-in-law, or his mother's father, his grandfather. And it says in verse 37, David mourned for his son every day. But Absalom ran back to his grandfather, the king. And then Joab successfully creates a situation where he has a woman come in and tell a story, similar to Nathan the prophet's story, and gets David upset about it and asks someone who it is, and he makes arrangements so Absalom can come back to Israel through this deception.

And he comes back. It's another manipulation by Absalom. And he returns in verse 24, and the king says, Let him return to his own house, but let him not see my face, because of what Absalom had done. And from the soul of his... talks about him. He says, Don't let him see his face. And then verse 25, it says, But in all Israel, there was none to be so praised as Absalom for his beauty.

Again, another beautiful person. No one besides that. From the soul of his foot to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him. Flawless. I haven't seen one of those for ever. And his hair was beautiful. They talk about pulling his hair, got his hair cut, and they weighed it and did different things.

Beautiful person. Very eloquent. Verse 27 of chapter 14, Absalom were born three sons and a daughter, whose name was Tamar, a woman of fair countenance. He had more children after that. Second Chronicles 11, we read later, that Rheobohm, Lovemeka, the daughter of Absalom, above all his otherwise. This is a beautiful family, beautiful people. Eloquent. Sadly, eloquent, beautiful people often manipulate others to do things that they shouldn't do. They should have read the Proverbs 31-30, which says that favor is deceitful and beauty is vain.

But a woman who fears the God is to be praised. Righteousness. But Solomon hadn't written that yet, so I guess they couldn't read that one. And then Joab, Absalom set up another situation, trying to get Joab so he could see his father. He actually burnt Joab's field down so Joab would come see him. And he convinced him to come. And he did. And Absalom then made a big show. 2 Samuel 15, verse 1, it came to pass that Absalom prepared chariots and horses and fifty men to run before him.

A big show. Create an illusion. He rose up early and stood by the way of the gate. And it was so that when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, Absalom would call him. Hey, come over here. Where are you from? Your servant is one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom said to him, Oh, your matters are good. They're right. Yeah, if there was only someone deputized by the king to hear you. I consider this the first blog he took to the press. He stood by the gate where all the decisions were made.

He told people that he should be there. And he said, moreover, verse 4, Oh, that I were made a judge in the land, that every man which had a suit or a cause might come to me, and I would give him justice. The same justice he showed his father, the same justice he showed through the deceit, through the manipulation.

And it was so when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand and took him and kissed him. Sounds like a politician kissing babies. Verse 6, In this manner did Absalom to all of Israel that came to the king for judgment.

So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Was he teaching Israel to look to God or to look to him? Didn't even teach him to look to the legal king, his father. But it sounded good. People bought into it. Verse 10, chapter 15 of 2 Samuel, another allusion. Absalom sent spies through all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, you shall say, Absalom reigns in Hebron. And with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem that were called. And they went there in this simplicity, and they didn't know anything about it.

I often wonder about people that are pulled out of the church in their simplicity, because they haven't studied the word. They're not close to God. Maybe they didn't know anything. You pray for them. And so he became king. His father David had to flee. Verse 22 of chapter 16, Ahithophel, the wise sage in the country, tells him to do this. And they spread Absalom's tent upon the top of the house, and Absalom went into his father's concubines in the sight of all of Israel, taking over his father, the throne legitimately given by God.

He did this in the sight of Israel, so they'd see. Yes, he's the king. He's in charge. Absalom wanted to make sure everyone knew that he was king. There's nothing that God did to prove he should be king. Nothing to appoint him for that, other than his own beauty and his own stature and his own words, his own blogging. He was a prince.

He was eloquent. He was beautiful. And he won the hearts of the people by fair words and sayings. But he did not have the love of God, obviously. He had anger. And anger, I've seen that drive a lot of men over the decades to do things.

He had anger that he hid before killing his brother. He talked against the legitimate ruler at the gates of the city. He had prideful ambition. All people I know take people away and make claims to the throne, whether it be Korah or Absalom or others, diatrophies, etc. Some let jealousy get to them. Some let anger get to them. Some feel they aren't recognized for what they've done. Some feel they've been abused by others that did not correctly, and then they appoint themselves to correct their behavior.

I've just personally seen all these things in Scripture and in life, all the way up to the present. It's sad. There's a deception that counts the people who wish to be in charge. It's a lack of humility, often hidden by a pretend humility. They'll often say, well, I could be wrong. I know one man who was in a choice that, oh, I could be so wrong, yes, I could be wrong.

I remember once I said, well, you are wrong. And he jumped all over me. I mean, he became a lion. And that happened several times. Because everybody else didn't know if he was wrong or not, and they were afraid to speak up because the man had a fairly good intellect and let away no he did, so he never thought he'd be challenged.

And when I challenged him, all of a sudden he got angry. And that's what happens because they want to look humble, but they mask their pride. And the humility goes away when they don't get their way. It's sad. And I've been called by a lot of people who've been kicked out by some of these people who have thrown people out of their groups because they dared to disagree with them on scriptural grounds, things that they shouldn't have been kicked out for.

But these people feign good fruit, and they try to make the appearance that they should be in charge. It's not if you don't see them as they truly are. And they often say that you don't know who I am. And they seek dominion. And they spend the truth with people who don't know better.

One of the things in our past that I think hurt us, we covered a lot of people's sins in love, which is the most wonderful thing you can do if people repent. It's one of the saddest things you can do if they don't repent. To let people hide what their true history is and spin it to their own magnification.

It's interesting when I look at those things. So how do you know if someone's spinning the truth or telling the truth? It's interesting there's different things that men do. They don't ever stand up there and say, I'm deceiving you, please follow me. It doesn't work that way. They may even believe it themselves. It's interesting that some of the men who left early on when Mr. Armstrong was alive, because of some things that happened, there were things that were done wrong. It's interesting that during the last few years of his life, when work grew magnificently and he wrote his different books and things, that they didn't come back.

Because they basically wanted to be in charge. What do deceivers try to do? Well, they often take titles to themselves that they don't have. Without any true history to support it, one man out there claims to be that prophet. Another man claims he and his wife were the two witnesses. Another man claims he's Elijah. And it's interesting, one man now has promoted Mr.

Armstrong to Moses so he can be Elijah. Unfortunately. And they do these things to get a following, to deceive people. Is that any different than diatrophes, seeking preeminence? Another thing that I see done by many of them is, they'll tend to say, I saw the evil in the church. And sadly, because the church fell apart, they say, See, I saw that early when really that's not why they left at all. But because the church fell away, they can spend that to make it look like they saw something that others didn't see. But when the church was back on track, in the earlier years, they didn't come back.

Third thing many try to do is to isolate people from others. Some groups, some of you probably have relatives, I have a couple of relatives that went, Don't talk to them. Don't speak to them. And it's sad. They usually say this because they make claims against other people, other groups, And they tell lies about them. And the one thing a liar doesn't want is people that know the truth to come talk to people.

Their credibility goes away. And I heard many things against the World Wide Church of God years ago, Mr. Armstrong, things against the UCG. Recently, we all know that people said we were going to quit keeping the Sabbath and do away with it. Which was never true, and the people that led that group knew it wasn't true and admitted it. But they say things to get people, to get a following, lack of humility, A pride like Satan when he tried to take God's throne.

They were never true. And when you lie about others, if those who lie to learn the truth, your credibility goes away. So you need to make sure they don't find out, so you got to make sure don't talk to those people. Which is sad. I wish these people would not do those things. In one case, I wrote a man and told him all the things that he had said wrong. The reason I had written him was because his people had called me and they sent me tapes of sermons and things.

He had things and they were totally wrong, and they asked me about them. And I told him, I wrote him, I said, you're saying this is wrong. You're saying this is wrong. It's interesting because when he was answering one of his things I read, He wrote and said, you're going to hear these things about me. You're going to hear this and this and this. And they're all lies. It was just all the things I told him he had done wrong. It was interesting because if someone is going to lie about me, if I said you're going to lie about me, How would I know what you're going to lie about?

Unless you knew the truth and you knew what people would say, and therefore to cover myself I better say it first. They're going to say these things about me. Why? Because they're true. But I don't want you to believe them, so therefore they're lies. When you hear this, and you probably will because that's what happened, how would you know what to say? You're going to lie about someone, to tell what they're going to say, which is sad.

But when you come into contact with people that want to solicit you, you've got to be on your guard. You won't be deceived. Turn to John 1 John 4 verse 1. Because the only way you'll know is if you know your Scriptures. I have a man that calls me periodically over the last 10 years, and he seems to fall for every group that comes along and every new thing, they read this, listen to this. And I hear a little bit of it, and what they say, and I say, well, what about this Scripture?

And he says, oh, I hadn't thought about that. And I keep trying to convince him, just start reading your Bible instead of reading all these websites. Because every time it's, did you read this Scripture? Did you read that Scripture? What about this Scripture? I said, you won't be deceived if you know what the book says. And hopefully he'll take that advice.

First John 4 verse 1, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God. Because many false prophets are gone out into the world. I love the people that come up to me and say, I didn't know where anybody stood on these issues, but I saw the attitude, I saw the anger. And I just patiently waited instead of getting emotion, because if people get emotional, and that's what Satan tries to do, get people emotional. Because with emotion, you can't think logically.

And if you've had a fight with someone, know when you're in the emotional heat, you don't hear things. That's what Satan wants to do. I want to look at an example of a recent doctrine put into his church by someone.

I'm not using any names, because there's no need to. I want you to look at the patterns, look at the type of people that do it so you can recognize it. This is a doctrine that is put in there. This group is doing everything they can to take members from other people, buying websites and trying to advertise and talk against everybody else. He calls it, his doctrine is called, in common, and that you should give all your things to the church, that's what it's about.

And again, I was sent a link to the sermon, and I'm going to read a section. I typed it out. This is a trash kit because this person tends to accuse people of twisting things he says. So I'm just going to read what he says. And again, think about Mr. Armstrong, what he said when he said, where are people that make you feel unrighteous? Here it is. Also, is this term, in common?

Now, that's a term we use to describe what you see in the very beginning of the New Testament church, within two or three verses of God building his church on Pentecost, 31 A.D. In Acts 2, it says they had everything in common. Now, God's people today have not been taught that. It's my job to teach it. It's absolutely biblical of what we have, we sell. Whatever we have, we give it to God's work. That is why we're called. You're not allowed to hold on to your own income. It's all through the Gospels, all through the book of Acts, frankly, all through the Bible that God's people have all things in common.

This will be the greatest single reason many thousands will not come back to God's true church. But others who see the biblical proof, in verse after verse after verse, of this great doctrine that God has used me to restore, it's impossible to miss it. They will believe that they have to obey it. They will see that salvation is attached to it, just as it was with the rich man in Matthew 19. And they will come ready to carry it out. That's the term common. You're not allowed to hold on to your own assets.

You have an income. You live a wonderful life, and life goes on normally. But if you were called by God, and you're to participate in His work, and walk in His ways, you have to turn over your assets to God's church. That's the pattern. Acts 2, Acts 3, Acts 4. It's what Christ said in the last part of Luke 14.

Be planning to do it. You're going to come to be convinced, if you have the Spirit of God, that I am who I say I am, and Mr. Armstrong is who I say He was, and the Bible says who He was, if I'm restoring this doctrine, it's incumbent on you to obey it. And when you hear the term common, think of what I will explain to you.

Because God used my office to teach truth, not what God's covetous enemies do not want you to do, not lose your support. That term is very important. People do not want you to look into your Bible to see what is impossible, impossible to misunderstand. That's the New Testament church had all things in common. Mr. Armstrong didn't see it. I'll end right there in the quote. Sounds authoritative, doesn't it? Sounds spiritual, scriptural.

But He said this biblical. But is it? Now, one thing He said right, Mr. Armstrong didn't see it. Because it wasn't biblical, and He didn't teach it. If you have to give everything, then there'd be no such thing as tithing and offering. Would there? You've already given everything.

The fact that this self-appointed leader ties salvation to this common doctrine is totally wrong. Jesus did deal with the wealthy person. What did He tell that wealthy person? Go and sell all you have and give it to the poor. Didn't say give it to the church. God's people are generous.

This is not the pattern of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, that you give everything. God's people do give tithes and offerings, but they're never required to give everything. I asked my class a couple weeks ago after people had sent me the sermon. Same way Mr.

Armstrong asked the class back in the 1950s when he was reading the Bible. When God was calling, he knew that we wouldn't be angels above them, but he thought he'd be blessed to be part of the family of God. He read in the Scriptures all these things, and he said, It looks like Christ is the firstborn of many brethren, and we'll see Him as He is, and He's our older brother. It seems like we're only part of God's family. He asked all the students, if He were the classes, and they said, Look, I want all of you to go home and read your Bibles and look in the Scriptures.

Is there anything in Scripture that shows this is wrong? Because if it's wrong, it's out. And that's what you have to do. Look in the Scriptures. If something in the Scriptures says it's wrong, then it's out. And someone's trying to deceive you. Some of the things that the class came up with, it was interesting because he said, It's all through the Bible, Old New Testament. And I asked my class, and they said, and one of them quoted Proverbs 13.22, where it says, A good man leaves an inheritance to his children and his children's children.

Kind of hard to do that if you've given everything away. In fact, inheritance is used 254 times in the Bible in the Old Testament. And most of them, some are spiritual references, but most are physical. That's a good thing. Having personal assets is definitely biblical. Another one that came up was Matthew 15.4. And that's where the Christ says, You make the law of God no effect by your traditions, where he says that God commanded, saying, Honor your father and mother, and he that curses his father and mother, let him die to death.

But you say, Whosoever will say to his father and mother, It's a gift. A gift to the temple, and give it to the church. By whatsoever you might profit by me, and honor is not his father and mother, he shall be free.

Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Doesn't that sound like that Trump's giving everything to the temple, to the church? Look at Acts 5. He used Acts to try to prove his thing in common. And they did share things when Christ had left them, because they thought he was coming right back. When Peter quoted the prophecies, and the Spirit's coming, the next verse says that Christ returns. Of course, there's a couple thousand years between those two verses, but they didn't know that, and they thought he was coming right then when he quoted Joel.

So they were hanging around, and finally God caused persecution to scatter them. But Acts 5.1, we read about the students, said, What about Ananias and Sapphira? They sold a possession, and they kept back part of it. You know the story. Verse 4, what does Peter say? While it remained, was it not your own? After it was sold, was it not your and your power?

They were allowed to keep it. And there are all sorts of people that Paul stayed in Lydia's house, the woman of virtue, and the seller of purple, who was a wonderful woman. And Peter stayed in Simon the Tanner's house, and all through it you see these things. The house where church was, in his house. Even in Philemon, it looks like Paul had borrowed from Philemon. He indicates that Philemon might want some of the things Paul had taken back. Why would he want to do that if everything has to be given to the church?

Philemon had assets. Millennium will all have our vine and our fig tree. It's all part of it. Turn to 2 Corinthians 11, verse 7. Because again, if you have to give all your assets to the church, beyond tithes and offerings, what is there? It's in conflict with a lot of Scriptures. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 7. Paul said, I committed an offense in sustaining myself that you might be exalted, because I preached to you the gospel of God freely. He didn't take money from them. I robbed other churches, taking wages of them to do service. Wait a minute. If they were giving everything, then he would not do that, would he?

Verse 13, chapter 11. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transferring themselves into the apostles of Christ, saying things boldly, making you feel like you're not righteous. If you had God's Spirit, you'd see this. No marvel for Satan himself transformed into an angel of light. No great thing for his ministers to be transformed as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. You need to be like the Bereans. Paul talked about in Acts 17, where he said the Berean searched the Scriptures daily and that these things were so.

And sadly, people that see that often bring it up, and they get kicked out of the church. It's sad. I had a man call me. He was kicked out of another group about ten years ago, and I asked him, well, he was a minister for their group, and I said, well, what happened? He said, well, we were in a ministers' meeting, and the head of this church stood up and said that you men that are sitting right here are going to have to decide who in your church gets to go to the place of safety.

And he raised his hand and he said, well, my Bible says all judgment is given to Christ. And he got his fellowship done thrown out. And his Bible did say that. So does mine. So does yours. But people take these things in themselves and they try to make you feel guilty, make you feel unrighteous. It's sad.

I don't bear any hatred or angle toward any of these people. I wish they would repent. And I wish, pray for the people that are simple that wouldn't get sucked off by them, by the way they manipulate things, the way they tell their own history, which is wrong. Romans 16. In verse 17, Paul knew there were people there in the group.

He said, I beseech you, brethren, mark those with cos division, and offense is contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them. These people aren't part of united. I'm not marking anybody or bringing anybody by name. I feel sorry for them. I pray for them that they can come to their own senses. But verse 18 is very clear, but they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly. And by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. And they do. Some of them are very good speakers. Different groups that leave, they say different things. Some of them say, well, all the good speakers are not with us, or all these people aren't with that, or all the righteous people are here. I mean, they have some saying that tries to set themselves apart. But you're set apart by God and Christ by the truth of His Bible. Not by the deceptions of men, unfortunately. And again, I don't bear any anger against all of them, but I wish they would stop doing what they're doing. Because when people call me and say they've given everything to this church, and then they brought up a scripture and got kicked out, and they're broken spiritually, they're broken financially. We all have to pray for people like that and make sure that we don't become one of them. Because again, it'll probably get worse as we get closer to the end time.

In 1 Peter 5, verse 8, we know who the true enemy is. Peter makes that clear, and God does through His scripture. In 1 Peter 5, verse 8, it says, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil has a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour. He would like to devour you, like to devour me. He'll use anyone or anything he can to try to devour you. He'll use scripture like he did with Christ when he tried to tempt him. He'll use it wrongly, but it'll sound convincing. People that are eloquent, people that are bold, they speak with authority.

The only way you'll know the ones that are of God is by knowing your scriptures, knowing the Word of God. So you better know your Bibles, like Paul taught. Be instant in prayer, instant in study. When something sounds different, you have to have God's Spirit to guide you. Don't let others make you feel unrighteous, because they say, well, if you had God's Spirit, you'd see this. Then I know when the apostasy took place in the 90s, some of them are so against it.

The ones who changed, it's interesting, talking to them. They said, well, I prayed to God that He would show me how this is true. And I said, I only pray for God to show me the truth. And when you start asking to show me how this is true, you can pray something so you can still be a part of it.

One man who said that to me said that. The next phrase was, I just couldn't see myself out of a job. And that made it more clear what he meant by wanting to see the quote-unquote truth. It was sad. If you have God's Spirit, you will see through what they're saying.

You'll understand. It's deceit. Only God knows who He's given His Spirit to. There have been thousands of people in the church over the years. They baptized 3,000 people in one day back in the first century. They baptized Simon Magus. There are people that are out there. And people that will deceive themselves. But you have to do the one thing. Mr. Armstrong always told me, and you, those of the older ones, heard it a number of times, don't believe me, believe your Bible. Believe what it says. Know it inside and out. That's the only way. We're here to protect the flock. We have to try men against the Scriptures.

Men who want an endorsement. They want to create a success. And as if having the money and the success proves you're righteous. I think part of the reason we lost the campuses and the things we had in the past is because we started looking to things. And when people would come, and what do you believe? Oh, look at this beautiful campus. Look at these beautiful students. Look at this. Look, look, look. We lost it all. And what do you say now? Look at me. Look at you. Look at the way we live our lives.

With love, concern, with charity. Trying to help people. Scripture is what does it. So as you examine yourself this season, and we're entering the Passover season, we look, and we are filthy rags to God. Our righteousness is. But don't let men try to say that to you. Let God say it to you. Let God help clean up your life. Because we're made perfect through Christ. That's what sacrifice does. And then Christ presents us blameless before God. It's not men. There's no man who can say that you don't do this. You're salvation to the sake.

I don't have control of your salvation. You can have control of mine. You can only lose your salvation to the sake of God. You can only lose it if we give up. So don't let them make you feel unrighteous. Because that's what the sake of death will want you. It wants you to lay down, it wants to discourage you, and make you successful. It wants you to be successful.

It wants you to be successful. If you do false in motion, usually try to capture you. We want to remove sin. But let God do it. You know, you have to be one of the wise virgins. Fill your lap with oil. This is oil. Squeeze it out. Know it. You have the word. Know it and use it. If you do, no one can ever deceive you.