Favorite False Prophets

The sermon today is titled, Favorite False Prophets. That's a strange title, you might say, but it is about favorite false prophets. Why would I go into something like that, and why would I title a sermon, Favorite False Prophets? Do you have one? You'd say, well, no, not really. I do! As a matter of fact, today is part one of a two-part series on false prophets. So I'll finish this up next week and dive into a new area. What inspired me to give this, because I'm usually into prophecy this time of the year as we head towards the fall holy days, well, I was reading Matthew 24, the Olivet Prophecy, and here Christ is asked, what do we look for? What's it going to be like at the end of the world or before you're coming? And he takes that very strong chapter. You can look it at yourself. Many of you have read that so many times. And he tells what's going to happen in three different parts of Matthew 24. He mentions and sometimes goes into detail about false prophets. False prophets. So it's something that should concern us if we're living in the last days.

If we're not, as some people say, just party down. Hey, nothing to worry about. We're not in the last days. Oh, really?

There are true prophets of God. We'll look at some of those stories. But there are also false prophets. And in the Bible, there's major and minor prophets. But for those who don't know, most of you do know why they're called major and minor prophets. One reason may be, okay, the books are all smaller. Does that make them minor? Maybe they were a lot younger. Maybe they were all under 18 when they were writing this prophecy. Made a minor? No. Maybe it's... they're just not as important. No, I don't know. There's some of the minor prophets. There's 12 minor prophets and pretty pretty good stuff in there. Pretty powerful. Now, they just have four majors and 12 minors. The major prophets, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, were longer writings. And so, as they had, then they had a scroll. If I had a piece of paper, they would have everything written on a scroll. And so, they would have this scroll and they roll it out and then they would read from it. The book of Isaiah, the book of Jeremiah, the book of Daniel, book of Ezekiel, and they were longer. So, they were all individually put on a separate scroll.

But why the mind they were called minor is the 12 minor prophets at the end of the New Testament were all written and they were able to put them all on one scroll. So, all 12 books, you could say, were all on one scroll compared to the other individually. That's why they're called minor. Not that they are minor. But I want to talk about false prophets since Christ kept saying it, mentioned it. What? Peter said it, Paul said it, John said it. They all, in unison, kind of in the scriptures, say we need to be aware of false prophets. That they're going to be out and about as Christ said to even deceive the elect.

Which is saying what to those of you who think we are the elect? Wake up! Keep your eyes open wide, looking for these things that happened. Well, look at the very first false prophet in the Bible. You know what it is? Turn with me to Genesis 3. Turn with me to Genesis 3. Genesis 3 and verse 1. Genesis 3 and verse 1 through 5. You're reading from the New King James version. He said, Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, Oh, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but in the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent, the false prophet, here, predicting, here his prediction, thought, you will not surely die. Tell me there's something against what God had said. If you read the original Hebrews, there's this exclamation, and it means, You shall not die. You will not die. It's an emphatic statement. So this first false prophet was prophesying, Nope, you're not going to die. Wow! That sounds good. Live forever.

Why did he do it? Then he says again, this lie. He lies. It's what false prophets do. Verse 5, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. There's some half-truths there, but there's also some lies in that statement.

The first false prophet came on to deceive. Deceive Eve, and that's part of their jobs. To deceive. To deceive.

Can you recognize a false prophet? Can you recognize a false prophet when you see one? Or how do you determine? A picture of a woman here. Was she a false prophet? It means Ellen G. White. It means Ellen G. White. She was said by her people to have over 2,000 visions.

200 of them, at least, were done in public funerals of various places. By their own writings, they said she just went into a trance, and her eyes would just stay open. She'd just be talking and not even, ah, didn't even know. They had a doctor there one time that took her pulse. And she couldn't find a pulse, but she kept prophesying.

False prophet? How about this guy?

Wearing your sunglasses inside, I guess, or dark glasses? Jim Jones, everybody would say, ha ha ha, now we can agree on this one. Right? He had 775 people follow him to drink Kool-Aid one day. Didn't drink the Kool-Aid. Get shot.

He said he was taking people to a utopia in Guyana. He ended up taken to their deaths.

As he said, let's get the children to drink the Kool-Aid. With strict 9 in it first. And then we'll get the others, and then everybody can join as we're going to a better place.

False prophet? What about this guy? Oh, well, there you go. David Koresh, in Waco, Texas. We all remember that story. Those of us who've been alive a few years, how that all came to be. And all his group of people who were killed.

False prophet? Well, this guy kept the Sabbath. He kept the Holy Days.

He did. He believed in them. Read the Bible. He did.

Would you follow him? Would you believe him? Hundreds did, even thousands did, at different times. False prophet? Leave that up to you. What about this guy? He keeps the Sabbath in the Holy Days.

Teach us from the Bible. Some.

Would you follow him? Last year, this man, David C. Pack, is he a false prophet? Leave that up to you. Last year, at the Feast of Tabernacles, I got emails from people who said, he told his people, you don't have to go home after this feast because Christ is coming. He's coming during this feast. He even gave the day the exact time. As he's given many dates many times before. But he keeps the Sabbath in the Holy Days and clean, unclean meats and has his stuff, believes in faith and grace and everything that I talked about in my sermon at. How do you know?

How about this guy? Could he be a false prophet?

You've been listening to him for almost 10 years now. Could he be a false prophet? Has he said something that was not biblically correct? That he didn't have to go back and change? Has he taught things that does not line up with Scripture? Would you know? Are you willing to look at him and analyze what he says? So that he does not deceive you? Because everyone can be deceived. So could this man be a false prophet?

Well, today I want to give some background on false prophets and kind of a history. And then next week we're going to go into it even deeper. So that you are prepared. So that you're not deceived by anyone out there on YouTube, anyone out there on radio, television, or standing behind this pulpit. It's that important. It is to me this year as I looked at what I should give. And I saw all the stuff floating around out there. And I said, well, let's see. See what God says. So if you will, go with me first to Deuteronomy 13. See what God says about it. Deuteronomy 13. I'll read from the New King James Version. Deuteronomy 13, verses 1-5. He said, If there are rises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them. You shall not listen to the words of that prophet. So he's saying, if it doesn't line up, he may say, Oh, something's going to happen, and it happens. But his words don't line up with what God's word. He's saying it's false prophet.

You should not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the larger God is, whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. This may have passed by a lot of people's eyes before. For God is testing you.

Wow, God, why would you do that? You say, and James, you never tempt us. Doesn't mean you don't test us. Are you close to God? Do you have a relationship with your God so you know? You know, and you know you know what God says. And you believe you have faith in your God and in His words and in His way of life. Amazing how some people get pulled off by the littlest things. I've seen it over my years in the church.

I'll take one little thing and go way off the reservation. So let's go ahead. Go ahead. Your God is testing you to know whether you love, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall follow or walk after the Lord your God and fear Him and keep His commandments and obey His voice. And Him you shall serve and hold fast to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death. That's what He was telling the nation of Israel then. It was a warning to them, brethren, and it's a warning to us today. There's a lot of false prophets out there. Man, I researched this thing this week and got tired of looking at it. So many! What they're teaching, what they're doing, and why they're all trying to get a following. It's sad.

There's preachers standing up every week. Every week. Will you know one standing in this pulpit? Will you know those out there? If you're listening to this on the webcast and you don't go to our church, which we have some don't, can you be fooled? Because he may be a decent looking preacher and man, is he articulate. Yes, he can sell snow to an Eskimo. Oh, I like it! What would you know? Because, as we'll go into later, we'll go into a man who's coming, and I don't know it's that man, don't even know who that man is. Well, he's a preacher, like me. But that's the reason you listen. Not because he tells you just what you want to hear, but as he tells you what God wants you to hear. And can you determine when he's not? Do those red flags go up in your mind? That ain't right.

That didn't sound right. I like it over because God just didn't tell them in that chapter. He went over a few chapters in Deuteronomy 18. Let's go there. Deuteronomy 18 in verse 18 through 22. Deuteronomy 18, 18 through 22. God says, I will raise up for them a... What? Prophet. See that P? Capital P? It's not a little P. Okay. He says, I'm going to raise up a prophet from your own people.

He's talking way into the future when he sends his son. When Jesus Christ was that prophet. Or you've got a man in a church of God that says, no, that wasn't Christ. That was me. That's me. Yeah, I read his book. He said, I'm that prophet. Boy, that would scare the tickens out of me. Standing before God and saying, no, sit down. I'm him. I'm that prophet.

So it happens out there. Let's go. Verse 18, I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren. And I will put my words in his mouth. What did Christ do? I said, I can't do anything. The words I speak are not mine, he was it.

You've seen me, you've seen the Father.

And he shall speak to them all that I command him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear my words, which he speaks in my name, I will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes, oh boy, this covers a lot of ground, this next verses. The prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. Is that important to God? He didn't want his people deceived. He does not want us deceived today. That's why we have to be on the ball. We have to be watching. Look, keep your head on a swivel spiritually, so you're not caught by, oh, that's new truth.

Because a lot of people like to bring that out. A lot of people.

Words that the Lord has not spoken. Verse 22. When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen, or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken, the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him. He may say, oh, I have this certain power. Oh, I have this relationship with God. No? No? You really don't. They don't. And God hates it. Matter of fact, it's a type of rebellion. What does he say? Rebellion is worse than a witchcraft. But to take someone's name, he's like, now you can take someone's identity.

You can forge their name. That's a crime! And brethren, it's a crime for men, for women, to do what these verses say it would do. And it happens. Now, does that mean God isn't working with us? That he says in the last days, visions and dreams and young men and old men, and things are going to happen. Hey, I've had a lot of dreams. I've had dreams that I could go, wow, two days later they come and I'm going to die. And it comes true. Oh, I love the prophet! No, I've had hundreds of dreams where something happened didn't come true. Whether it's self-fulfilled prophecy, or I just had in my mind when I went to bed that that would come to be, and it did. But I'm not making myself out of profit.

Not my job.

But it is my job to warn you about people like me. They can stand before you and spout out some truth with some lies.

Let's go back and tell a story. The story of Saul. The story of Saul. You remember Saul? An incredible story that is told of Saul and Samuel 10. Saul was a gifted man. A little shy at first. Part of an introverted person. He didn't stay that way very long. Because why? Well, he got to be keen. Got to be this. Next thing you know, felt pretty big. I know of guys that thought they were all of a sudden really important because they stood at a pulpit and gave a message.

What garbage. That's why I want to tell the story quickly of Saul. Because Saul, head taller than everyone else, so he's way over six foot, was a good looking man.

And yet, when he was given more gifts, think about that. When he was given more gifts, talking to us, more gifts than went to his head. And it caused his downfall. Now, let's go to the story. We're going to go on pulling out the New Living Translation since I have to read a little more than usual. I'm not the one that likes a lot of scripture, but this is such an incredible story. It gives us such a backdrop of prophets. And it's interesting because in the Old Testament, the New Testament is all over the place. In the Old Testament, not one time is the two words, false prophet, used or in the written word. It more or less said, prophets who spoke falsely. Same thing, but somebody wants to look up, false prophet, there's not a one in the Old Testament.

That's being a wordsmith and not a good one. Okay, let's go. First Samuel 10. We'll hit, let me look at my card here. One through three said, Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it over Saul's head. He kissed Saul and said, I am doing this because the Lord has appointed you to be ruler over Israel. His special possession, another gift. When you leave me today, you will see two men beside Rachel's tomb at Zalzah on the border of Benjamin. They will tell you that the donkeys have been found and that your father has stopped worrying about them and is now worried about you. He is asking, have you seen my son? When you go to the oak of Tabor, you will see three men coming toward you. You are on their way to worship God of Bethel. One will be bringing three young goats. Another will have three loaves and the third will be carrying a wineskin full of wine. They will greet you and offer you two loaves, which you will accept. Now, I want to go a little bit further. I don't have that up on the screen. Or do I? Maybe I do. Let's go to verse 5. Why don't you follow this? I do have it up there. Okay, when you arrive at Gilbe of God, where the garrison of Philistines are located, you will meet a band of prophets coming down the place to worship. They will be playing a harp, a tambourine, a flute, a lyre. And they will be prophesying. At that time, the Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesying with them. You will be changed into a different person. After these signs take place, do what must be done, for God is with you. Then go down to Gilgal ahead of me, and I will join you there to sacrifice, burn offerings, peace offerings. You must wait for seven days until I arrive, and I give you further instruction. So, he's just been made king. He's just been given the gift. All he has to do is follow the instruction. He said, go down here, do this, and I'll be there in seven days. Simple? Well, let's see. Verse 9, As Saul turned and started to leave, God gave him a new heart, and all Samuel's signs were fulfilled that day. So, God was with him. Man, this would be so great! When Saul and his servants arrived at Gebed, they saw a group of prophets coming toward them. Then the Spirit of God came powerfully upon Saul, and he too began to prophesy. When those who knew Saul heard about it, they exclaimed, What? What? Is even Saul a prophet? And did the sons of Kish become a prophet? They were from a tribe of Benjamin! They're not known for prophesying. They're not known for anything except being the smallest of the tribes. And one of those standing there said, Can anyone become a prophet, no matter who his father is? Interesting commentaries on this, because they're kind of looking like Saul wasn't that well thought of by the other tribe. Neither was Benjamin well thought of. They almost got wiped out a few hundred years before that time for the way they acted. And now one of them is prophesying. Can God use anyone? Never shake your head. So that's why we must watch. So that is the origin of the saying, is Saul a prophet? Which obviously carried down. It's the same. So they all began to question it, not only at that time, but later, because of what he did. And when Saul had finished prophesying, he went up to the place of worship. Where have you been? Saul's uncle asked him and his servant. We were looking for donkeys. And so Saul said, okay.

So here Saul was given everything you could ask for. And then he led them into battle, and they won. And they really thought he was this great guy. Now they turn over to 1 Samuel 13 in verse 1. Saul was 30 years old when he became king. Okay, like David, like Solomon. Okay, he was 30 years old. And he reigned for 42 years, which I found amazing. I found amazing because I didn't realize when he went out to battle, and he was killed in the battle with his son Jonathan, he was 72 years old. I don't know that I would be that big of a warrior at 72 years old. Well, let's go. Let's go to 1 Samuel and go down to verse 8. Verse 8 through 13. He's king, and then, so he's given us responsibility. He's looking pretty good. But then a little time goes by, and what happens? He went down to a place, and the Philistines were over here with thousands of men, had twice as many men, and chariots, and everything else. And so they're wanting to attack Saul in a small group. And Saul said, Samuel said, just wait. Just wait for me, just like he did before. Wait, and in seven days, I'll show up. I'll make a sacrifice. Everything will be okay. But you've got to see, Saul thought he was, he knew he was king, but he also thought, hey, I've been prophesying. Hey, what do we need Samuel here for? Big Daddy's just arrived. I'm not only taller than everybody else, I'm better looking. I'm king, and I can prophesy. So what did he do? Verse 8, Saul waited there seven days for Samuel, and Samuel, as Samuel instructed him earlier, but Samuel didn't come, running late. Okay, got caught in turnpike or highway 95 traffic, I guess. Income. Saul realized that his troops were rapidly slipping away because his men were sitting there going, that army's going to take us anytime. And then next thing you know, they're going to slide out at night. And less and less men. And so Saul said, I've got to do something.

So he demanded, bring me the burn offering and the peace offerings. And Saul sacrificed the burn offering himself. Took upon himself what he was not appointed to do. He was not qualified to do. So not only did he not be king and he felt like he was a prophet, now he felt like he was God's chosen prophet. And he would sacrifice, which was a priest job.

Just as Saul was finishing with the burn offering, Samuel arrived. Saul went out to meet him and welcome him. But Samuel said, what is this you have done? Saul replied, I saw my men scattering from me and you didn't arrive when you said you would. It's all your fault. And the Philistines were at McMash, ready for battle. So I said, the Philistines are ready to march on us at Gilgo. I haven't even asked for the Lord's help. So now it's the Lord's fault. So I got to give him something because he's going to allow them to kill us. So I felt compelled. I felt compelled to offer the burn offering before you came. I'm justified. How foolish, Samuel exclaimed. You have not kept the command of the Lord that the Lord God gave you. Had you kept it, the Lord would establish your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom must end for the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. The Lord has already appointed him to be leader of his people because you have not kept the Lord's command. Strong, powerful words to say to a king. Let's go over to 1 Samuel 15. 1 Samuel 15, verse 17. Samuel said to Saul, Although you may think little of yourself, you are not the leader of tribes of Israel. The Lord has anointed you king of Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission and told you, Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, until they're all dead. Why haven't you obeyed the Lord? Why did you rush from the plunder and do what was evil in the Lord's sight? Here, this was the second time, he told him to destroy the Amalekites and destroy everything. And what did he do? He kept the king and kept all the booty. He kept all the money, kept all the sheep and kept all this stuff. Exactly what he's told not to do. Because God told him exactly what to do. Brethren, that's why it's so important we read this book. God tells us what to do. We don't need to rationalize it. Well, I think God meant... Oh, wait a minute. Well, I think God said he's saying...

That's why it's important. And then what did Saul do after that? We'll read that pretty soon. But Saul went to... towards the end of his life. Because things weren't going well. And God wouldn't answer his prayers, neither would the prophets. God wouldn't talk to him. God didn't give him an answer. Because he'd abandoned him. So, if he was 30 when he was king, and he was 72 when he died, he would have 40 years of basically disobedience to God.

Why would he not expect God to say it? Don't want to hear you. So, what did Saul do? He went, as I say, he jumped the shark. He went to go see a psychic. He went to go see a sincere... He went to go see this woman. Who she was even afraid because she knew what God had said. She should be dead. Get all those people out of my land. We got any in his South Florida? Everywhere you turn around, you can go by some places. Got a blinking light. Psychic! Blinking light! Psychic! And you know they're in business because they're in business. And they're doing business.

I'm not going to ask, but I really want to... Has anybody ever been to a psychic? Think about it yourself. When I was 19 years old, I had a job. And that summer, we worked for a building. Had to work on a house. I was there for three days. And the woman had this big sign in her front yard, psychic. And she had real dark black hair. And I remember she had black fingernails. And that was back in late 70s. And we felt kind of creeped out by her and so forth.

But in her house, this was her house where she lived. She had this room where she would take people. And there was this table. And it almost had something like this. But she also, because I had to be in and out of the house at various times. And she wasn't busy all the time. But she also had a bunch of cards. Had a table with tarot cards and all this kind of stuff. And I remember about the second or third day, she said, Would you like me to read your future? I said, No. I'm good. And what was interesting when I was working there, just for a little time in the room, working on this window.

And I could hear when this customer came in. A young lady had pulled up in the garden, knocked on the door, and came in. And she said, So I just heard. Maybe a few minutes of the conversation. And the young lady came and she said, I've never really been to a psychic before. And she said, Well, I don't want you to worry. She said, Because I don't want any of your money. Till you can tell that I, you know, I really have psychic powers. And she goes, But I can feel there's something coming off you. I feel there's some type of aura here.

You're here because you have a relationship problem. And the girl, Yes. Well, I was sitting there and I had to shake my head. Wow, I could do that. A relationship problem? Everybody's got a relationship problem with somebody. Otherwise, she probably wouldn't have been there. Isn't that pathetic? Isn't that pathetic what's happened? You remember, if you heard in 1990s and I, and I still think this many of you might remember, but I would sometimes be up late at night after midnight, a few times came in, turned the TV on, switched through the channels.

And there was this psychic network. Anybody remember that psychic network? And there was this one woman. Named Miss Cleo. Yeah, you remember Miss Cleo? And Miss Cleo would tell your future. And she could tell all this stuff, and she would have phone calls coming in. So far, get you to call. Had that number right there big on the bottom. You remember, you ever know whatever happened to Miss Cleo? No? Okay. Miss Cleo died a few years ago. She was 53 years of age. But when she started this, Miss Cleo, if I had thought about this, I could have put her picture up here.

But I didn't think about it until just now about her. Miss Cleo said she was from Trelawney, Jamaica. And that she was a shaman there. And so here she would talk.

Well, now that I've been to Jamaica so many times, I realized she spoke Jamaican half, like a Jamaican half a time, and the other time she didn't. Because she was from Florida. She was born in Florida. And so they got her for all kinds of problems. And so then she started this network. And she started hiring people. But you would think, well, okay, how long did she last? I don't know. But I do know when she ended. And when they ended, she went through the bunch of states, sued the network.

And she was on and everything else, because the company she had set up, they had these phone calls and had these people sitting there waiting. They paid them $12 an hour to sit and listen. They were charging people $5 a minute. And the other thing was, the first few minutes were free, and they would put free up there. Well, that's how they got them.

We got one free there, and then their job was to keep them on the line. And it worked! Over the time she had that business, they found out $1 billion was charged to people. One billion. You think she didn't do well? Miss Cleo? Psychic? People believed it. They believed it then, now. They believed it back in Palestine. Palestine. So let's go to this first Samuel 28. First Samuel 28. Let's read a couple verses here. First Samuel 28. verses 6 and 7.

Verse 6. Here is Saul asking, he asked the Lord what he should do, but the Lord refused to answer him, either by dreams or by sacred lives or by the prophets. Saul said to his advisor, find a woman who is a medium. Psychic, shaman, whatever you want to call him. So I can go and ask her what to do. His advisor says that there is a medium. I'm not talking about the size of the woman. There is a medium at indoor. A witch! A witch.

And so what did he do? He found out what he didn't want to find out. He also found out that there are different ways in which to do some things, ways that they shouldn't. But I think about it because I go back to a time. The time was 1970. And in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, at the university, they built a brand new basketball track facility. It's called Murphy Center. Murphy Center. And this Murphy Center was built with the latest in technology and engineering. There's a shot inside of it. I used to go to basketball games. There was a shot on the outside. But 1970, it was built unlike because they spanned such a long span on the inside. And it had a count of lever weights on the outside. And it was never done quite like that before, an engineering marvel, which today would be nothing. But everybody's like, oh, this is really great! Until the famous psychic other day came and said, Jean Dixon, for those of you who don't, you remember her? She used to make all kinds of predictions. She'd be on TV shows. She'd be everywhere because she was the big psychic of the day.

And because she had a few things that she predicted came true, compared to the hundreds that didn't, she was considered, oh, put her on and she could articulate. She had degrees. She had all this stuff. Well, Jean Dixon said that the first basketball game that's played when there's ice or snow on Murphy Center, the whole thing would collapse and kill all these people.

The year is 2021. Snow, ice, and a whole lot of basketball games, and that thing has not fallen. But she had a lot of people for the first few months. They're like, I don't know whether I want to go in there. Oh, some of them said, I don't want to be around. I'll go in there in the summertime, but I'm not going there in the wintertime. I'm not going to go in there when it's raining. Oh, because some quack psychic said it's going to fall. What a shame. What a shame that educated America, that anyone that supposedly believes in this would believe in that. But I need to talk because there is a false prophet coming on the scene that we all need to be aware of. We all need to know. But today, I want to just give you some background. I'd like to turn to a couple of scriptures. Turn to Jeremiah 1414. I'll read from the New King James Version. Jeremiah 1414. It says, And the Lord said to me, The prophets prophesied lies in my name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them. They prophesied to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their hearts. So at the core of it is deceit. At the core of it today, it was in Jeremiah's time, it is today. As you saw, Miss Cleo knew how to bring in money. She didn't make thousands, she made millions. Millions!

Some preachers' false prophets today, they do it for not only the money, they do it for the following. They do it for the ego, just like it happened to Saul.

We need to be aware of that. Let's go to the last verses today. Last verse today, I'd like you to go to Jeremiah. I'm going to be going from the New Living Translation, because I think this lays it out very well. The same is going on then is going on today. And so we need to make sure, you know, those who fail to learn from the lessons from history are doomed to repeat them. I think Santiana said that. George Santiana. But it rings so true today. Jeremiah 23. And let's go to verse 21. Let's go to verse 21. As he was running into that day, guys, I have not sent these prophets, yet they run around claiming to speak for me. I have given them no message, yet they go on prophesying. If they had stood before me and listened to me, they would have spoken my words, and they would have turned my people from their evil ways and deeds. You see any prophets trying to do that today? No, it's all about this 1-800 number you can call or this address. Or now they even pop up things that you can call for a prayer, and then they have credit card things that you can go right on. PayPal. Just send them the money. Verse 23. Am I a God who is only close at hand, says the Lord? No. I am far away at the same time. Means He's omnipresent. He's over there. He's over here. He knows what's going on all the time. Can anyone hide from me in secret places? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and the earth?

Verse 25. I have heard these prophets say, Listen to the dream I had from God last night. And then they proceed to tell you lies in my name. How long will this go on? Well, from this time, about 3,000 years.

They are prophets of deceit, inventing everything they say. By telling these false dreams, they are trying to get my people to forget me, just as the ancestors did by worshiping the idols of Baal. Let these false prophets tell their dreams, but let my true messengers faithfully proclaim my every word. There is a difference between straw and grain. Does not my word burn like fire? Is it not like a mighty hammer that smashes a rock to pieces? Therefore, says the Lord, I am against these prophets who steal messages from each other and claim there from me. I am against these smooth-tongued prophets who say, This is the prophecy of the Lord. I am against these false prophets. Their imaginary dreams are flagrant lies that lead my people into sin. I did not send or appoint them, and they have no message at all for my people. I, the Lord, have spoken. Suppose one of the people or the priests asks you, What prophecy has the Lord burdened you with now? You must reply, You are the burden, and the Lord will abandon you. Stay away from them. Get away from these people.

Brethren, I want to open our eyes between this week and next week. I want you to realize and know it when you hear it. Know it when you see it, especially when it comes to this book. I want to talk about my favorite prophet, my favorite false prophet, but I can't say singular because there were 450 of them involved, and I want to go into that next week because they're my favorite because they're the most entertaining. They're the most entertaining prophets you will read about in your scriptures. So we're going to look at that, but also next week. Title will be 10 ways to spot a false prophet. 10 ways to spot a false prophet. Be here next week. I want to do that because to me, this is what's important at this time, at this juncture in the history of God.