Thursday, March 14, 2024

If you lack Faith you won't succeed

 

If You Lack Faith You won't Succeed

Well, praise Jesus today, everyone. I wanted to make just a quick message today about a simple topic, just of faith. So what I first wanted to talk about in regards to faith is just the worldly principle of faith. Give me just a second here. Sorry about that. We're going to be all sideways for a second here. Okay, there we go. Now that'll be a little bit less distraction. So in the world, in order to achieve anything in the world, if you're starting a business, if you're going to do good in college, whatever you're trying to achieve in the world, if you don't have faith, if you don't believe in yourself that you can do it, you're going to fail or you may never even try in the first place. Let's say that you're wanting to be an athlete. You want to be really good in track and maybe you want to be really good at running the mile. You want to break the four-minute mile and you just don't believe it can be done. Well, if you don't have faith that it can be done, then you're probably not going to do it. And for many years, years ago, no one was able to break the four-minute mile. People thought it was impossible. But as soon as someone had the faith to believe they could do it, and they did, then everyone knew it was possible and no longer did they even have to have faith to believe that you could break the four-minute mile. They just believed, I can do this if I train enough. But all of these athletes, all of these track athletes that were great runners started breaking the four-minute mile. And now the mile is down to, I don't know, like three minutes and 48 seconds or something extremely fast. So this concept about faith in the world is well understood. If you want to make a certain amount of money or if you want to buy something in the world, you set your heart and your mind to achieve that goal. And people in the world, I'm not even speaking about in the Lord's Church, but just in the secular world, they have to believe in themselves in order to achieve something. So if you are 18 and you're thinking about going to college, if you don't have faith that you can go to college, if you don't believe in yourself or have the kind of faith that believes that you can get the financial aid that you need, the support that you need, then you're just going to fail. So faith is a huge element, if not the greatest element of your success. Now if this concept works in the world, then obviously how much more does it work when it's applied to our faith in Jesus?

 See if you don't believe that Jesus is real, then you're not going to trust Him. And a lot of Christians don't really have faith in God. They have faith in themselves, they have faith in their wallet, they have faith that they can get themselves through school, they have faith that they can buy themselves one thing or another, but they don't have faith in Jesus because they've never seen the Lord work. They've never opened up their heart in true faith to Him to see how God works. Now I have seen God operate, but before I had seen God operate in my life, I was hesitant to have real faith, to really bank on that sort of faith, because I didn't know if God would come through. It's one thing to believe that God is love, it's one thing to believe that we have faith in God, but it's another thing to actually lean on Him. Now I had to muster up every little bit of faith that I had in order to step outside and leave the rock of religion. See in my life before I was following Jesus, my rock wasn't really Jesus Christ. I said that He was, but really I was on the rock of religion, which really is a conglomerate of a bunch of different sand. It's different principles of men, right? It's ideas from the Bible that the culture has gathered, the Christian church has put together, and all of these Christians gather around this conglomerate rock of church. Not the rock of Jesus, but the rock of men. And when you're around that, you have the security in your religion, and your faith is in your church, your faith is in your pastor, your faith is in your Bible interpretation, and your whole worldview surrounds the principles that you've been taught as a child in your church. But this does not equate genuine faith. You don't really have faith in Jesus, you don't have faith that He would lead you in your life and guide you supernaturally. Why would you believe in Him when you've never learned that? You've never learned to trust in Him with your finances, you've never learned to trust in Him and take up your cross and leave everything behind to follow Him.

When Abraham was called by God, he also had to muster up all his faith in order to leave his town of Ur, to leave his father, to leave his things behind to go towards the promised land, to walk into the land that he didn't know. Spiritually, that is the kingdom of God. Abraham was a sojourner in this world, and so are we if we actually have faith in Jesus. The way this sort of faith is acquired isn't how the Christians teach it. See, the Christians say, having faith just means believing in the Bible, it means going to church. But true faith means that you trust that Jesus is the living God, and that He will provide everything that you need if you leave the world, if you leave the false rock of church behind. If you leave that, you trust Him, that He will guide you supernaturally, that He will provide everything that you need, and that He will make the path straight for you. If you believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and you start to go down that narrow path, then as you see Him work wonders in your life, and open up the doors in your life to walk with Him, then your faith starts to increase.

When I mustered up all my faith to leave church, to leave religion, I didn't know how I was going to support my wife, I didn't know how I was going to pay off my worldly debt, but I just said, “Lord, if You're real, and if You're calling me, I know that You will make the way for me financially, because I didn't want to be a bad testimony, I didn't want to be the Christian who left my work and left my church, then to just have to beg for money and beg for loans in order to pay off my debt.” I just knew that would be a bad testimony, so I said, “Lord, please, if You're the one calling me, help me pay off my debt.” And I didn't want to ask anyone for help, especially from my enemy, that being dead religion, because that's going to your enemy for something that Jesus should be giving you. So I said, “Lord, please provide for me”. And since the time I left dead religion and I left the world, I've never had to ask for money. The Lord has provided me with everything I need and much, much, much more. And that truly has increased my faith. But in order to gain faith, you have to take those baby steps of faith forward. You won't develop faith all at once. How could you? That's like being able to develop physical strength without doing any weight resistance. In order to get stronger, you have to have a good diet, so you have to be eating meat, you have to be eating things that are good for your body, but you also have to be resisting weight. So like weightlifting or running, you have to be doing something to get your body strong. And once your body is strong, then you can be a good runner or weightlifter or whatever you're doing, you get better at that through exercise. And it's the same with growing in your faith. You have to spiritually eat Jesus's flesh, drink his blood, and as He teaches you, you are nourished by Him. And the weight resistance is resisting the devil. And as you resist Satan, you resist temptation, you resist evil, you resist listening to worldly information, then you grow stronger in the kingdom of God. And then your faith is increased because you see Jesus working in your life.

Now that's where we want to get. We want to get to the point where we're not trusting people to provide for us, we're not trusting the government, we're not just trusting medicine, we're not trusting the stock market, but we're truly trusting Jesus Christ for all of our needs. And we want to get to the point where we can just say in our heart, the Lord will provide. And when we know that He will provide, instead of begging people for money, or instead of getting ourselves into more debt, asking for loans, or whatever the case is, we can pray and in faith know that Jesus will provide for us.

A lot of Christians still have their faith in all the wrong things. Their faith is in men, their faith is in the security nets of this world. And the reason why it's in the world is because they have learned that there is a amount of security, at least in America, in the world. But they haven't learned the security of Jesus. If they had learned the security that's in Jesus, their faith would be in Him. So what I want to encourage you to do as your brother in the Lord is learn to put your faith, your security in Jesus Christ. That way you can develop in Him and stop putting your faith and your trust in the world and in people and the things of this world. Truly Jesus can give you everything that you need. But you need to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and then everything else will be provided for you.

But if your treasures are things in this world, as Jesus says, there your heart will be also. So is your heart in this world? Is your security in this world? Or is your heart really with Jesus Christ? And is your security with Him? And is your faith in Him? So, I hope this makes sense to someone out there who is looking for genuine faith that wants to grow in their faith. The way to grow in your faith is by seeking the Lord and asking Him to become real to you. Just say, “Jesus, I need you to speak into my heart. I need to know that you're real. I need you to be working your wonders in my life. And I want to give my heart to you, my soul, my mind. I want you to teach me”. And if you go to the Lord and ask Him to teach you and you have a sincere heart, He's going to start manifesting His truth to you. You'll start to see how He is working in your life. So I want to pray for those of you that want genuine faith, that want your faith to grow, and that you want to leave the false rock of this world, the false rocks of religion.

So “Lord Jesus, I pray for your true church. I pray for my fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord that want to grow in their faith, that want to hear from you, that want to be led by you and not led astray. I pray that your church will not be led by strangers or hirelings or wolves, but they can truly be led by you, that they would hold your hand, Lord Jesus, and walk in righteousness and holiness with you. I pray that you pull people out of the world, pull people out of religion, pull them out of the dead church that is leading people to hell, and that you lead them into the newness of life. Renew their hearts, renew their minds, and let them walk with you in peace, the peace that passes all understanding, that they can also have eternal life and be lights to the world so that their families might repent, and people can truly come into the household of faith with you. So I pray that you bless your church, bless those that have an ear to hear, and may they truly come into your presence. In your name I pray, Lord Jesus, amen.”

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Fish for men in the right area with the right equipment

 

Fish For Men in the Right Area with the Right Equipment!

Well, praise Jesus today everyone. I wanted to make just a short message today about something that's important in the Christian culture and that is the way we fish for men. See Jesus calls us to fish for men. When he called his first disciples he used that play on words. Instead of just fishing, going about our worldly business, we also need to fish for men, calling them into the kingdom of God so that they can be led by the Lord. But the way that the worldly church, that is the Babylon church, has taken these words is to fish for people to get them into their communities, into their organizations and pay tithe and tribute to them. So they have all of these devices to get people into church and mostly it has to do with connecting to the culture and making them feel comfortable in church, which Jesus hasn't called us to look like the culture to make the world feel comfortable.

So when I was in church for example we would have rock bands come play at the church. We would open up the youth building for even totally secular, ungodly bands to come and play and we thought to ourselves, “well at least all of these people are at church”. So one gimmick that the Christians maintain is ungodly music and they think that if they can get people on the church property with ungodly music that then they somehow will be imputing righteousness or imputing godliness into these people just because they are on the church property. One gimmick that a lot of youth groups also have is some kind of ministry that seems cool to kids, maybe it's a skate park at their church, maybe they go BMX biking together, maybe they go and they have a motocross track or something that's really cool. And so you end up collecting all of these people, praise Jesus everyone, you end up collecting all of these people that just want to ride motocross or they just want to skateboard or they just want to see the punk band come to your church. So undoubtedly it is cool, but you're not going to get people into heaven by a cool gimmick.

And that is the first thing I wanted to talk about, but I wanted to share this dream with you that I had just a few nights ago. I may not remember all of the details, but it was quite interesting and it was about this topic. In my dream I was fishing in a certain area, in a certain pond, and I don't know if I was catching any fish there or not, but I met these other fishermen who would fish in a bigger sea, it was like bigger than a lake, possibly the ocean, but I'm not sure, just a big body of water. So I followed these fishermen over to this bigger body of water that was more like an ocean, a sea, it was huge. And when I got there I took my fishing pole and I saw these other men throwing their lines into the sea. And I took my fishing pole and I threw mine in as well. And I had a thought to myself that I didn't really need a fishing line with a hook on it, that was traditional, in other words I didn't need a hook with a worm. I thought to myself, I could probably catch a fish in this sea literally with anything. I probably could just attach any piece of trash to the end and I'd get a bite from some kind of a fish. So in my dream, oddly enough, what was sitting next to me was, it was something that was kind of like a Happy Meal toy, if you can imagine that, if you get a little Happy Meal it comes with a toy for children. So it was this little piece of plastic, this little toy, and I just wrapped this toy to the end of my fishing line and I threw that fishing line into the sea. And sure enough, within minutes I had a bite, I had a tug on my line and I started telling the other people, the other fishermen, see I didn't even need a hook to catch a fish I mean. And so I started reeling this fish in and I could tell it was huge and I was hoping that I wouldn't get pulled into the ocean. So while I was reeling the line in, this fish was bumping along the bottom and hitting rocks and it was dragging along the bottom of the beach. And when I pulled it up, it had already stopped struggling. And when I pulled it up it was a huge fish that was extremely ugly, I mean it had big teeth and it just looked like a sea monster. It was the ugliest green you'd ever seen and I wondered to myself if I could eat this fish and the flesh looked like it was rotting, it was the most disgusting fish you'd ever seen. And the other more experienced fishermen that were fishing by my side, they told me that there wasn't one thing that was edible about that fish, that the only thing I could do is throw it back in the ocean because if I were to keep it, it would make me sick or it would make other people sick. So there wasn't one piece of flesh that was desirable for anything with the fish I had caught. So I just took that giant fish and I threw it back out into the sea and I decided to fish the normal way you would fish, with a fishing hook and with a worm. And so that was the end of my dream.

What this represents is two parts of my life or two parts to anyone's life that repents and comes out of dead religion. See the first part of my dream with fishing without a hook or fishing with some piece of plastic at the end of my line, represents Christians who are trying to fish for men with the gimmicks of the world and with all of the things that Satan has to offer. So Satan says, if you dress a certain way, you'll be able to fish for men because people will think that you're really well dressed, they'll think you're cool. Satan will say, if you just go out to the bar with people and you're an edgy Christian, then you're going to have a lot of friends and you'll be able to be a good Christian testimony to these people because you're in the world and not of the world. So you're trying to fish for men with this plastic, fake kind of relationship. And the kinds of people that you will collect are not the sort of people that are really interested in the gospel. You will notice that they themselves are totally fake and all they care about is the vanity of the world. And like in my dream when I caught the fish, that nothing of the flesh of the fish was good. So these people are that come to church for all the wrong reasons. They're coming to the church for all the gimmicks, for whatever ministry, outreach ministry the church was providing.

And so if we really want to fish for men, a couple things. First we need to be fishing in the right area. When I came to Jesus, He called me out of church altogether. He called me not to fish in church whatsoever because all of the fish there will not be caught or if they are, they're not caught for righteousness. So number one, you have to fish in the right area. The second thing is you have to fish with the things that the Holy Spirit gives to you, the right tackle so to speak. Because if you're fishing with the tackle of men, with fake gimmicks, you're just going to collect people who don't want to hear the truth and who are attached to that gimmick, not to the Spirit of God. So when we truly come to the Lord and when we want to be a light for the world, we have to make sure that our heart is in the right place and that the way we're trying to reach people is truly by the Holy Spirit and by the words of truth that He's putting in us. Being Jesus has nothing to do with being cool and trying to attract people to ourselves by our clothing or by the kind of music we're into or by the sports or hobbies we enjoy. All of those things are of the world and will eventually perish with the world. But the words of Jesus are everlasting and eternal and that is where we have to put our hope, our joy and when we tell people about Jesus, we have to tell people about these things, about holiness, about righteousness, being right before God, what it means to really repent, what it means to throw off ungodliness and false religion. And the people that will listen if we get rid of all those false gimmicks and all those false hooks in the world will be the people that really want to hear about Jesus Christ. But we don't want to waste our time with all of these gimmicks and catching fish, even if it seems like a big fish, because when we catch that fish it will be good for nothing except to throw back into the sea. So we need to stop wasting time as disciples of Jesus with dead religion, with all these sorts of gimmicks.

On YouTube it's the same way. People are looking just for views, they're looking for ways to boost the amount of views they have online. And so they do all of these incredible things to attract attention. But are they making disciples for Jesus? Are they being led by the Holy Spirit? Are they pure in heart? Are they holy and righteous? Or are they just trying to catch a big fish? Anyways guys, that's all I have for today. I want to encourage the true body of Christ to be fishers of men, to stay in the love of the Lord and continue to walk in holiness and righteousness. The Lord wants us to keep our eyes on Him and to continue to do what's right before God. The days that we're living in are evil, they are dark, but the Lord makes the way for His children and He makes the way for us to continue to live righteous and to fish for men. “So Lord Jesus, I pray for my brothers and sisters in the Lord. I pray for Your true church. I pray that people really stand in the light of the truth and that they would fish for men in righteousness, that they would come out and be separate from the world and that we would live by our testimonies, that we would live by Your Spirit so people would see the light of the truth in us and want to know You, not because of our clothing or outward appearance or the things that we do in the world, but because we truly are a light for You and because we're truly leading by example, seeking first Your righteousness and Your truth. So I pray for my brothers and sisters also to truly come out of ungodliness and to be worshiping You in purity and being led by Your Holy Spirit. So I pray this in Your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.”

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Bible Deceived Christians

 

Bible Deceive Christians

Well, praise Jesus today, everyone. I want to just make a short message here while I'm on my way to work in regards to the deception that Christians have about the Bible. See, a lot of Christians think that the very essence or the very pinnacle of good Christian living is reading the Bible and being like what they say, Bereans. How Acts talks about being a Berean and being noble because you read the Bible. But the thing is, as far as English-speaking people or the printing press, the Gutenberg press wasn't even invented until like around 1440. And then the first English Bible wasn't printed for almost 100 years after that. So if you do the math on how long Christendom has been around, the New Covenant, you know, believing in Jesus, His death, His resurrection, the atonement of our sins through His blood. The Bible has been only in existence for even Christians only a few years. Now, the printing press being invented in 1440 and then the English Bible after that, if you do the math on that, approximately 71 to 75% of Christians from the time of Jesus up until 2024, today's date, they have not had access to a Bible whatsoever. Yet they were still Christians. We can't say living in the age of technology and after this industrial revolution of the late or the early 1800s, we can't say now that we're all going to heaven and we're first-class Christians because we have the printing press and we have all this new technology, we have now Bibles on the internet, and so we're obviously going to heaven because we can read the Bible more and we have more access to information. Obviously that's a lie.

So about 75% of Christians in all of Christianity from the time of Jesus till this date, 2024, have not had access to the Bible, yet they were every bit as Christian as we are and they were not missing part of their identity because they did not have the Bible.

From the beginning of time until now, what God has required is faith. He requires us to have genuine faith with actions that demonstrate that our repentance and that we love God. The very essence of our faith is faith in Jesus, knowing that Jesus is the one that we worship and that we must follow Him to the very end. To take Jesus out of the equation, you do not have Christianity. That's why we're called Christians, because we follow after Christ, we follow after Jesus. But you can still be a Christian without the Bible and obviously that's true because 75% of all Christianity existed without the Bible. And I'm just talking New Testament Christians. I'm not talking about people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I'm talking specifically after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So keep this in mind when Christians try to make you feel guilty or as if you're not a real Christian because you're not educated like they are in the Bible or because you're not reading the Bible every day. Knowing the Bible and knowing the scriptures, that's great and wonderful and it's a blessing and we have the resources to do that now, so you should. But keep in mind, reading the Bible is not the essence and the very pinnacle of our spirituality. What's important is obeying Jesus Christ. How do we obey Him? What does it mean to be holy and righteous? Well, righteous means that we are doing what is right in the eyes of God. And holy means that you're dedicated to the purpose of God, that you're set apart for Him, that you're sanctified.

Now there are a lot of Christians who are holy and righteous for the Bible. They're trying to keep the principles of the Bible. They're sanctified for reading the Bible, but that doesn't mean they're holy and righteous before the living God. They basically made the Bible an idol and they bow down, they worship the Bible in church. They bow down and they worship their pastor because the pastor has studied the Bible and he knows the Bible maybe even through the context of Greek and Hebrew. But that doesn't mean that we are safe and secure in going to heaven and righteous and holy with God because we know the Bible. I think that can be flushed out in our minds, knowing that the Pharisees probably knew their scriptures better than anyone. Yet Jesus did not speak highly of the Pharisees. He didn't say, you're going to be at the right hand of God, I'm going to share my glory with you in heaven. Jesus spoke angrily to the Pharisees because even though they searched the scriptures and they read them, they despised Jesus Christ, they rejected Him. And the Christians today are doing the same thing. They say they received the prophets; they say that they're biblical like the Bereans, yet they most often reject Jesus Christ and His words.

So think about this guys, 75% of Christianity, 75% of Christians to this date have not had a Bible, yet they are still our brothers and sisters in the Lord. They are not irrelevant, they didn't go to hell because they didn't have a Bible, they're not less of a Christian, they're not less of a brother or sister simply because they didn't have the Bible. So think about this because there's a lot of people who think in their mind that being a Christian means reading the Bible. They think that they're better than the rest of the world because they read the Bible. And that is not the fact of reality. These people haven't studied history, let alone studied God at His feet. So we need to really get to know Jesus by His feet. Of course if you have the resource of the Bible, read it. But know that you are judged according to your works and you need the holiness and righteousness that comes from God, our Father in Heaven. Be holy before Him, be dedicated to His purpose and be righteous. Seek out the truth.

I know I have bad signal through here guys, so bear with me here. Hopefully the video is clear enough that we can hear it. If not I can always make this video again later. But we as Christians have to set our holiness and righteousness in Jesus Christ and practice our holiness and righteousness for Him. Not what people think and certainly not trying to obtain holiness how they try to obtain holiness in church. With modern Christianity, with the modern churches, it's very hypocritical because out of one side of their mouth they are always talking about how they are saved by grace alone. It's through faith, not of works. They talk about that because if it was by works then it would be a salvation by works. They say that all the time but then out of their other side of their mouth they act like they have to have all these works to be saved. They have to be reading the Bible every day. They have to go to seminary, and they have to get more biblical. Then they have to pay tithe to their church and go to church every Sunday.

 So suddenly you realize they are hypocrites because out of one side of their mouth they are speaking by faith alone. And then on the other side they are saying, “oh but wait, then there are all these other laws that you have to keep in order to be a Christian like us”. So obviously it's hypocrisy.

As disciples of Jesus, we want to please our Lord and our King Jesus Christ. We want to be holy and righteous before Him. So are we doing that? Is the essence of our faith pleasing Jesus and being holy and righteous to Him? Or have we misplaced that holiness and righteousness by thinking that the Bible is God and worshiping the Bible and thinking that the Bible is the essence of our spirituality? That's all I have for today guys.

Why Are Christians Read to Like Babies?

 

Why are Christians Read to Like Babies?

Well praise Jesus today everyone. I just wanted to make a short message on this topic of why are Christians read to like children or like babies. The reason why children or little kids are read to is because they cannot read themselves. But if we are an adult, we can read for ourselves. And likely if you've been interested in something you have put forth all the effort, the money, everything that you needed to understand whatever subject you were reading. If you were interested in something you checked out the books at the library that interested, you to learn about that subject.

So why is it when it comes to the Bible do Christians instead of opening the Bible for themselves and reading about it and talking to Jesus for themselves why do they hire a pastor or someone that's ordained in church to read the Bible to them? At the end of the day if you break this idea down why they're doing it it's because they are not interested in the words of life. See anything that you're interested in you will pursue to no end because you love it you want to know more about it. That is why a lot of people search up things that are very ungodly such as aliens. They're very interested very intrigued by aliens, so they get all the information they're watching all the movies about it. They're getting all the books about aliens. Or what about basketball or any sport? If you're interested in basketball, you'll be researching all of the greats in that particular sport, and you will be doing all the work yourself. You will not be asking other people to read the literature for you as if you are an infant. The reason why you have such a passion for it is because you're interested in it yourself.

So clearly the reason why Christians are letting a pastor do all the work for them and going to the pastor as if they're children that don't know how to read is because they are not interested in the words of life. That is very sad and that is pathetic. Christians are on their way to hell because they do not know the one who has the words of life. Maybe they have read the Bible a little bit for themselves. They've listened to a whole lot of sermons, but they've never heard from Jesus. Jesus says that He is the good shepherd and that His sheep hear His voice and they will not listen by any means to a stranger. Jesus actually says that.

And all of these Christians in church, they're uninterested in the words of life and they're listening to a stranger constantly. They pay this stranger to lie to them every week in church. And they don't do the research themselves. They don't crack the Bible. They haven't read even Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and because of this they're going to hell. Do you care about the words of life? Do you care about the things that really matter? Think about this because you probably learned to read when you were in kindergarten and since that time you were in kindergarten you researched every subject that you cared about. If you cared about it, you learned about it yourself. Every resource that you wanted to learn, you gathered those resources to yourself. And so the reason why you are not learning or reading the Bible or praying or talking to Jesus is because you're not interested.

So for those of you that are interested to know the truth and come out of this deception, I encourage you to come out of dead religion. Get away from hirelings as Jesus calls them. That is paid pastors, people that are paid to itch your ears and to lie to you and spread misinformation in church. Come out from among them and don't touch anything that is unclean. Don't let them read the Bible to you. Since the printing press has been made, men have been picking up the Bible for themselves that cared to learn and they've been educating themselves in this matter. You can read the Bible for yourself. You can also pray to Jesus yourself. You don't need to go to a Catholic priest. You don't need to go to the false altars in church. You don't need to go to some paid pastor in order to be a middleman for you in between Jesus and your heart. That is why Jesus died on the cross and resurrected and that is why all power and all authority is given to Jesus Christ so that you can go to Him directly yourself.

You don't need the pastor. You don't need someone who is educated, who went to Bible college. You have the good master to teach you. That's why Jesus also said that if you receive the Holy Spirit, He will guide you into all truth. Jesus says also, call no one on earth your teacher for one is your teacher and that is the Christ. If you believe in the words of Jesus, you will accept Him as your teacher, as your Lord and you will only listen to Him. You will stop listening to those people in church who want to treat you like a baby. Don't listen to them. Don't let them read the Bible to you. Don't read their information. Don't get their book. Put your faith in Jesus. Make Him your one and only teacher. Receive His Holy Spirit and let Him alone guide you because only Jesus has the words of everlasting life.

Jesus is alive. He will give you revelation. He will lead you and your family. He is well capable of being your chief and commander but you have to put your faith fully in Him. You have to be dedicated to Him. Why would Jesus lead you if you've made all these other people your leaders and Jesus is just one of many other prophets that you don't really care about? Because Jesus is a gentleman, He will allow you to go the way you want. He's never going to force you to repent. He's not going to force you to read the Bible. He's not going to force you to pray to Him. He's not going to force you to make Him king of your heart. You have to do that. You have to choose to repent. You have to choose to have faith in Jesus and pray to Him and say, “Lord, please guide me. Show me your truth. Help me understand the gospel. Help me to live for you”.

 But if you don't care about the words of life and you care about all the things of the world, then obviously you're not going to research the words of Jesus yourself. You'll probably pay someone to do it, like a pastor. I hope this makes sense to someone out there who has been deceived by the pastors in church. I hope this makes sense. I hope that you go and research the words of Jesus for yourself. But don't stop just with research. Don't stop just with reading the Bible. Believe the words of Jesus. Receive it into your heart and make Him your one and only teacher. And He will hold your hand and He will guide you into everlasting life. Because Jesus Himself is the way, is the life, and He is the truth. May the grace of Jesus be with you.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Institutionalized Giving (Tithe)

 

Institutionalized Giving (Tithe)

Well, praise Jesus today, everyone. I wanted to speak a bit today about institutionalized giving. It's the idea that you need to pay an organization or a club of other men 10% of your income as the Bible speaks of. Now the Christians use one particular verse over and over again to justify the biblical concept of tithing, and they make people feel very guilty for not paying their 10% of their income to an organization. They do this even to the extent that they will say you cannot pick the group of people that you want to give to. It can't be your mom, it can't be your dad, it can't be your brother. It has to be an institutionalized, legitimate organization in their eyes. It has to be a 501c3 church, a legitimate club. So I want to bring out three main points that will help expose what is going on around the deceptions of this whole institutionalized giving and this whole guilt tithe that is happening in church. Because there's a lot of Christians that really mean good. They really do want to see the blessings of God. They really do want God's blessings to be poured out in their life. They want to give, but Satan is fleecing the flock, and he is using a lot of Christians' good attitudes to get their money and use their money for evil. And that is what I want to expose today. I don't want to discourage anyone from giving, but I do want people to see the truth that if they are part of this institutionalized guilt giving of tithe, your arm is being twisted and you're being manipulated by Satan. So here are three really good points that I want you to take into consideration. These points aren't in any specific order. They're just three points regarding this institutionalized giving.

Point number one, the verse that we find that the churches are always quoting is Malachi chapter 3, somewhere around verse 8-12. And keep in mind that this verse is Old Testament. And almost 100%, if not 100% of the Christian organizations that are promoting this idea that tithe is biblical and that you need to give your 10%, these exact same Christians say they support the New Covenant and that they are not Old Testament Christians. They are not under the law of Moses. They like to say that they are once saved, always saved, we're not saved by works of the law such as the Old Testament. But then when it comes down to tithing in particular, they pull out this one commandment from the Old Testament, not the New, and then they make their congregation feel guilty as if they're going to hell if they're not keeping this one particular Old Testament law out of Malachi. So obviously guys, that is hypocrisy. So that's point number one. I want to read this verse to you because it is true that God will bless us if we tithe, but the way the Christian church, the institutionalized guilt givers and guilt receivers are asking for this is out of manipulation from Satan. So let's read it.

This is the verse that they use to make you feel guilty. This is found in the Old Testament prophet Malachi chapter 3. I'm starting in verse eight. It says,

“Will a man rob God?

Yet you have robbed Me!”

The churches love this because they want you to think that you're robbing them if you're not giving to them on a weekly basis your 10%.

“But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’

In tithes and offerings.

You are cursed with a curse.”

That's also what they want you to think. You're cursed, brother, if you're not paying your tithe to our church.

“For you have robbed Me,

Even this whole nation.

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,

That there may be food in My house,

And try Me now in this,”

Says the Lord of hosts,

“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven

And pour out for you such blessing

That there will not be room enough to receive it.”

 So you can just see how these manipulators fleece the flock with this verse. So if you're not paying tithe, they say you're robbing God. If you don't know how you're robbing God, it's obviously because you're not paying your tithe. If you're not going above and beyond 10% and doing your offerings, you're also robbing God. So not only do we want you giving 10% of your income, we want you giving maybe $1000 every other week just to support the pastor because he deserves it. So they make you feel super guilty if you're not, but look, if you are paying your tithe and giving offerings, then God will bless you. He will give you everything that you need.

So you can see it's extremely manipulative. Obviously God wants us to give us, you know, he wants our whole heart and he will bless us if we are giving our whole heart to him. But clearly the Christian church is making people feel guilty and they've institutionalized this Bible verse out of complete hypocrisy because this is Old Testament, which they say they don't believe in. They say they're a new covenant and anything of the Old Testament law is a work of the law for you to try to do. So clearly point number one exposes the Christian hypocrisy.

So if this wasn't enough, if this first point is not enough, that it's hypocritical, that brings me to my second point, which is that Jesus Himself specifically talked about the hypocrisy of tithing institutionally. And I want to read for you specifically what Jesus said, because it is exactly what the Christian churches do today to fleece their flock. And it's so ridiculous that it's hard to understand why anyone in church doesn't see the plain truth right in front of their nose when Jesus says it loud and clear. He obviously speaks against this institutionalized guilt kind of tithe and giving. But I want to read to you what Jesus says. This is found in Mark chapter 7, and I'm going to read you starting in verse 6.

6He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:

‘This people honors Me with their lips,

But their heart is far from Me.

7And in vain they worship Me,

Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

So these people teach it's a doctrine to tithe, but it's actually a commandment of men, not a commandment of God. So then Jesus says,

8For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”

9He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. 10For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 11But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”—’ (that is, a gift to God), 12then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, 13making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

So do you see what Jesus is pointing out here? The Christian church, they say, any extra money you have, you need to give it as tithes and offerings to the church. So you might say to your own parents, “You know, I know that you need money to pay your electrical bill. I know you need money to take out your trash, but I can't give that to you because my church wants my 10% and I don't have any money to help you take out the trash or to help you with your medical bills. I can't help you with that, mother and father, because any extra money I have needs to go to my church to pay tithe and my offerings”. So you make the natural laws of God of helping your parents and your family of no effect by the traditions of men, of giving tithes and offerings to the church. So Jesus spoke specifically about this hypocrisy and the Pharisees were doing this all the time. In fact, they would make people feel guilty if they were helping their own parents because you're not helping out the church. That money that you're getting a little bit extra should be Corban. You should be giving it as tithe and offering. You shouldn't be helping your natural neighbor or your natural children. You shouldn't be helping your blood. You shouldn't be giving to people that you just think need money out of love. Oh, no, no. You need to be giving institutionally out of guilt. That is, I mean, if that doesn't get your attention, I'm not totally sure what will because this rebuke was specifically to the religious order and the Christians today are doing ironically the exact same thing. So ridiculously identical that it should just make you scratch your head. How Christians don't see this? How do they feel so compelled to tithe these organizations and not be helping out their family when Jesus Himself clearly speaks about this whole Corban and when He clearly rebukes the Pharisees for this? I'm not sure how deceived they are, although I am because I was in their position at once. People get very deceived by listening to people and not to Jesus.

 So guys, this brings me to the third point. One more thing before we get to the third point, though, about Jesus rebuking the Pharisees. You can also see His rebuke specifically against the institutionalized tithes and offerings in Matthew chapter 23. Jesus speaks quite specifically and directly to this topic of tithing to institutions. Jesus says, Matthew 23, I'm going to start in 23. He says,

23“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. 24Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

So Jesus goes on and on about this sort of hypocrisy. Now there are some people that say, well, I'm already paying my parents way. You know, I'm giving enough to them so I think that I can pay my tithe. Man, you need to be warned where you're giving your money because these church organizations are robbing you. They will rob you and make you feel guilty. I would pray and just ask the Lord where you need to give your money because the Lord has put people in each of our lives that are naturally in our life and the people that want to take your money, these institutions are not part of the natural laws that God set up. Unatural laws are these institutions and these governing authorities that say you need to put your family underneath our teachers and our leaders and we will control your household and we will control your money. But the very natural laws are the natural laws of love that God put in families, Loving your wife, loving your children, taking care of things around the house. So this is the third point in regards to this whole deception around institutionalized giving. The third point is it's against natural laws of love to support an unnatural law of institutionalized giving.

So clearly the people that are naturally in your life are the ones that were born of your own blood. So Jesus calls us to love our own family, to love our own wives, to love our neighbor as ourselves. But he's never said go out and find an institutionalized religion and make sure you join the club and pay enough money to keep your membership up. That's not natural, guys. So I hope that these three points can open someone's eyes to the truth. Maybe you're wondering how you should spend your money, how you should give and maybe you've been made to feel very guilty by the devil for not giving to an institutionalized religion. So don't let Satan try to manipulate your finances or your readiness to serve God outside of the institution. I want to just encourage you to give where you felt led out of love, not out of manipulation or guilt.

In the world everyone tries to make you feel guilty or pressured. That is what business people do all the time, salesmen all the time, they try to make you feel guilty or pressured and that's the same thing the false institutionalized church has been doing for years. Don't fall into their prey, don't be manipulated by them any longer. Give as the Lord gives you and of course He will pour out His blessings on you as the prophet Malachi says. But don't let that verse be a form of manipulation any longer by these false institutionalized religions.

So that's all I have today guys. I want to pray for those of you that want to hear from the Lord and want to be led by Him, that want to be set free from false guilt, false religion and the bonds of the world.

 “Lord Jesus I pray for your true church, for those sons and daughters of your kingdom that want to be guided in their finances and in their hearts and just in their lives in general to go the right way. I pray that they will not be distracted by false religion or the lies of Satan or those that want to steal their money in order to control their life. I pray they can give their hearts and their minds and their souls fully to you Lord Jesus that they be led in righteousness and that they would take back what is rightfully yours or rightfully theirs that you have given them so that they can use these things that you have given them for your kingdom purpose and no longer for the purpose of the devil. I pray you unshackle people and set them free in your name that they can be free to serve you as your bond servants living for you Lord Jesus all the days of their life. So I pray for my brothers and sisters that are part of the true church. I pray in your name Lord Jesus. Amen.”

Fear God or Die

 

Fear God or Die

Well, praise Jesus today, everyone. I have just a quick message that I wanted to speak about today, and it's in regard to fearing God vs. fearing men.

There are not too many men today that fear God, not many Christians that really fear God. Most Christians fear people. They fear their peers, their contemporaries. They fear what people think, and there's a reason for that. Likely the people they fear, they feel that they are the ones supporting them. So they don't want to undermine those that support them, even if their support comes from an evil area. So they will never stand up for the truth at their workplace because they fear they might get fired. They won't stand up for the truth around their parents, their family members, because they might be outcasts in the family. And at the end of the day, they fear men and what men think way more than they fear God.

Now a lot of Christians I know belittle or they speak down against those who have the fear of God in them. They say, we shouldn't really fear God, we should love Him. And we shouldn't fear going to hell. We shouldn't fear because, you know, we should have love in us. And they say the fear of God is only the beginning of wisdom. And they say, perfect love casts out fear. So they pull these Bible verses out of the Scripture to try to convince you that you don't really need to fear God anyway. But the hypocrisy of it all is, these same Christians that say that fear men to no end. That is why they always compromise with their religion to what people will say. They're always molding their religion to the pattern of the world and not to what God thinks of them. And that proves that they have fear of men over the fear of God.

But the interesting thing here is, Jesus Himself, it says in the Scriptures, had the fear of God. Now Christians will say, well, perfect love drives out fear. So if you are made perfect, you won't fear God anymore. You don't have to. It's just love. And they go through the words of the Apostle Paul and all these different Scriptures that say you don't really have to fear God. Well wasn't Jesus perfect? Yet the Scriptures say He had the fear of God in Him. Did Jesus ever sin? No, He didn't, yet He had the fear of God in Him. And that's what the Scripture says. If you don't believe me, go look it up for yourself. It's Isaiah chapter 11, specifically verse 3. It speaks prophetically that Jesus would have the fear of God in Him. And Jesus was perfect. He was without spot and without blemish.

So if Jesus being the Messiah and Lord and perfect Lamb of God, had this reverent fear in Him of His Father in Heaven, then how is it that we can say "We don't need fear. We're being made perfect and then once we're perfect enough. We don't have to fear God. We don't have to really obey Him. We can just know we're safe and secure and going to Heaven. And it doesn't really matter what God thinks anyways, because we can twist His arm at the end of our life to let us go into Heaven because,  we prayed a prayer years ago"?

That's obviously rubbish. It's a false doctrine. We have to fear God and we have to put this into practice. I was thinking about this the other day, how the fear of men leads so many people. They call it peer pressure in school. So when you're in junior high and high school, the word is peer pressure. You feel peer pressure to do things and that is fear. You fear that people might not think you're cool. And so you dress a certain way. You fear when you get older that you might not be intellectual enough. So you read more books or you research certain things so you don't look ignorant. And obviously we don't want to be uneducated. A lot of people are led by fear of their contemporaries or their peers or the people at their workplace. And at the end of the day, they care a whole lot more about what the people around them think of them, you know, ten times as much as they care of what God thinks. If people were to really care what God thought of them more than anything, they would be scared to be looking at pornography. They would be fearful to be lusting after the neighbor's wife because they know God would smite them, that He could send them to hell for that. They would fear that God has all power and all authority and He could deal with them in a horrible way if they didn't serve Him and obey Him.

So both of these things have to lead us as Christians, fear and love. Jesus truly had the fear of God in Him even though He wasn't thinking about disobeying God. And so if the prophet Isaiah wrote this about Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, then we also have to fear God because if we don't daily work out our salvation with fear and trembling, then we're bound to become lukewarm, complacent, not caring about our neighbor, not loving others as ourself, not picking up our cross, all those things that we need to do as a Christian we will not do, if we're just thinking, “well I don't need to fear God, I was saved 20 years ago and now I can just sit back and do whatever I want, it doesn't matter, God has to let me into heaven.”

See most Christians have absolutely no fear of God and it shows in our towns and in our cities and in our nation. People really, really care what others think of them but they don't care what God thinks and that's going to be the demise of a whole lot more families and nations, it's going to be the demise of our world. The whole world cares about what people think but they don't care about what God thinks. So I want to encourage you to get the fear of God in you. Jesus Christ has the power and authority to send you to hell or to welcome you into his kingdom so you better get to know him. And whether you think that is a good thing or a bad thing, if you are scared of God and you know that you're on the wrong side of the law, if that leads you to repent, that is a good thing but then don't stop there, then start having the reverent kind of fear towards God to loving him.

You know as parents, our children should fear us but they should also love us. There are parents and there are governments and ruling authorities that only rule by fear. And they make everyone their subjects and they force people to do things out of fear. And fear is ultimately not as powerful as love. It also turns people away and it makes people hate a tyrant government. So ultimately what needs to lead us is the love of God, loving our neighbor as ourselves, but of course we need to have a reverent fear towards God knowing that he has all power and all authority and that he is a just God.

If we don't believe that God is just, and we think that he is just love, only love, then we will be like the complacent Christians that think that we can go on sinning and that there is no, that God doesn't have morality, that he's going to let paedophiles into heaven, to be molesting people in heaven and it's absolutely ridiculous. What Christians think will be allowed into heaven because they're allowing it into their church. So God is just. He will not allow perversion, he will not allow hatred, murderous thoughts and impure heart into his kingdom. So we have to fear God but then after we learn to fear him, we have to learn to love him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and walk forward in faith with him and teaching others to do the same.

Do we fear God? Do we love Him, and do we obey Him? Or do we just have a love for this world, We just have a carnal love for those in this world, the sort of love that says, I will love you as long as you love me back? I will give you money as long as you give me money back. I'll be your friend as long as you do good things to me back. Remember Jesus said, what reward do you have in heaven if you just invite rich people who can pay you back? But when you invite people over as your guests, then invite people that can't repay you, the blind, the poor, those that are lame and then you will have treasure in heaven. We want our treasure to be in heaven because where our heart is, there our treasure will also be. We want our treasure to be in Jesus, in eternity, not with things that are perishing in this world.

So we got to be introspective with this and look into our own hearts. Do we really fear God at the end of the day? Can you say with certainty that you fear God more than anything and you love him more than anything? Or are you being led by peer pressure? Are you being led by fear of what people think? Are you being led by ultimately the fear of men? So look into your own heart and into your own life and answer that question. And if you realize you do have the fear of men like how most Christians do, then you need to repent of that and say, “Lord Jesus, help me to fear you and to love you more than anything so that I can be set on the right path, and not on the path that leads to destruction that most of this world is on.”

So I want to pray for those of you that want the true fear of God in you that you may be set on the right path. “So Lord Jesus, I pray for those that are part of your true church, for those that are wanting to come out of the world. I pray that the fear of God will enter them, the same kind of fear that was in you, Lord Jesus, when you were walking this earth. I pray that you can pull your sons and daughters out of the world, purge them of worldliness and ungodliness and let them be separate and severed from those of the world that are polluted with sin and ungodliness. Let them be separate because we know that you are separating the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares. Let us be separate from this world so that we can follow you and obey you in complete righteousness and with the fear of God and the love of God in us that we may walk in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life and endure with you to the very end. May more children of yours come out and be separate from the world so that they can proclaim the truth and be salt and light and bear good fruit for you. In your name we pray, Lord Jesus. Amen.”

Monday, February 26, 2024

Hypocrisy of Church Denominations

 

Hypocrisy of Church Denominations

We’ll praise Jesus today, brothers and sisters. I wanted to make a message about just the hypocrisy of church and the denominations that are in the world today. A certain brother brought this up to me again, and I've made some messages regarding this in the past, but this certain brother also brought up some very good points which all of us have seen that are Christians, but many of us look over. And so what I wanted to touch on in this message is the hypocrisy regarding denominations that in the Bible is also called sectarianism. And we know from the Scriptures that Jesus condemned this, and so did Paul, and it's quite obvious. And anyone that is a Christian that knows their Bible, such as a Catholic or any Protestant, should know this if they've ever read their Bible. So it's pretty hypocritical that we have so many church denominations and pastors and the leaders in church uphold this as if God wants it, yet in their own Scriptures, obviously, Jesus condemned denominations, sectarianism, and so did the Apostle Paul.

I want to point this out to you because so many people are deceived into thinking they cannot give up the fellowship with their denomination, they think that they have to be in church giving tithe, and all of these things are actually clearly manipulation, fleecing the flock. The pastors are hirelings who make their congregation feel like they have to go and be loyal to them, to their denomination, and they encourage people to be baptized only because baptism in our modern times equates church membership. So the more people that a church baptizes, automatically they become members of that church, and of course you have to go through their doctrination, their Bible study, to become a member. I also, when I was very young, about 8 years old, was baptized into a certain church. It was technically non-denominational, but it was essentially Baptist, and of course I became a member of that church due to baptism. That is pretty much how it works, but interestingly enough, this idea that if we are baptized under a certain man, we're part of that denomination, goes all the way back to like 2,000 years ago when that happened during the time of the Apostle Paul, and this was strictly forbidden. The Apostle Paul spoke against it clearly and loudly, and Jesus also spoke against this, yet the ridiculous and hypocritical thing is, the churches today still partake in this hypocrisy to no end.

So let's get started in talking about this topic, and hopefully your ears and eyes can be opened to the truth, so that you can see the difference between the true children of God that have love in their hearts for the truth, versus the wolves in sheep's clothing that are pretending to be leading God's flock, yet they're really just fleecing the flock and hirelings.

So the first thing I want to bring up is the fact that there are over 45,000 sects of Christianity globally. So the three main big sects of Christianity, they narrow down to basically three different groups or three different churches, and it would be mainline Protestant, it would be Protestant Evangelical, and then of course Catholic, Roman Catholic. Now under each of these big organizations are hundreds and hundreds of other smaller denominations, but pretty much all of the sects come down to you are either Catholic, that has a hierarchy that comes down to the Roman Catholic Church and their priests, or you're Protestant. The Protestants, as we know, they broke off from the Roman Catholic Church, the reason why they're called Protestant is because they were in protest against the Catholic Church. We know about the Wittenberg door and Martin Luther that posted those 95 theses against the Catholic Church. One of the big reasons guys that the Protestants broke off and started baptizing in full water immersion was because the Catholic Church was not doing this. So that became one of the first dividing factors in the church, that the Catholic Church was not baptizing and they were doing a bunch of other things like keeping the scripture from their congregation, only teaching in a language that people didn't understand. So they were keeping the scripture from the laity, the people in the church, and you know it was a good thing that people broke away from the Catholic Church to protest against those ungodly things. But then what ended up happening is there's all these different sects. You have mainline Christianity, that basically they are not like evangelicals because they don't really care to spread the gospel. Mainline Christianity says this is what I believe but you can be whatever you want. These sorts of Christians don't really care what you believe, they just claim to be Christian from birth. Many of them are once saved, always saved, but they don't really care to evangelize anyone. They're happy just being lukewarm Christians.

And then you have Protestants that are evangelicals. These are your Christians that are very dedicated to going door to door, knocking on people's houses. Many of them have a workspace gospel that they think that the more people they bring into their church, the more godly they will be. And so they are very set on evangelizing the world, going on mission trips. That's why they're called evangelical, is because they are trying to evangelize. The only problem is they're making proselytes that are serving the churches of men and they're bringing people into churches of men rather than into the kingdom of God. But that is a discussion for a different time.

And then of course you have the largest group of Christianity, the Catholic Church with over one billion adherents. They make up a huge portion of Christianity, false Christianity of course. You know, up to like 25% of the world's population is Catholic. And so out of these three main sects of Christianity come an enormous amount of religions. Yes, of course, also Orthodox, not just Catholic. But that's also a discussion for later. There's Eastern Orthodox which broke off from the Roman Catholic Church in 1054 AD. So that was the first, they call it the Great Schism. But anyhow, we have all of these different denominations within Christendom. And you have basically a brand of Christianity for whatever you want to believe. Now if you're homosexual, they have homosexual churches. If you're right-winged American, they have a church for you that they go out and they shoot guns on the weekend. And if you're, you know, whatever you want to believe, they have the perfect religion for you. So all of these different groups to the world sound great. And in order to be part of these groups, you have to be baptized into them, you have to pay your tithe to them, and become part with those specific groups. Pay your homage to them in other words.

 Now first off, I want to read what Jesus says and what is recorded in the scripture that is against these sort of churches and this sort of idea because it's pretty plain and clear that all of this sort of thing is, it's counterfeit and it's false. So let's just read it because it's pretty plain and clear in the Bible that these sorts of churches are condemned. So the first one we want to look at is what Jesus said against sectarianism and this is found in Mark chapter 9. And we're going to look at it starting in verse 38.

38Now John answered Him, saying, “Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us.”

So in other words, there's a different sect of people, there's a different denomination, and they're not part of our disciples. So we told them, no, you can't do that. You have to be walking around with us 12. So what does Jesus say to that?

39But Jesus said, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. 40For he who is not against us is on our side. 41For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.

So all of us could suppose that if there was the perfect church on earth, and the perfect leader, obviously, it would be Jesus. So if anyone could condone the perfect group of people and condemn everyone else, it could have been Jesus. Yet Jesus did not do that. In fact, he did the opposite. He told his disciples, if some other guy is, you know, baptizing in my name or calling others to follow me, even if they're not with us, don't condemn, don't condemn him. So right there, right in the scripture, we see Jesus forbidding sectarianism. The next obvious passage against this would be the Apostle Paul that speaks about this in Corinthians. So if you do have your Bibles, you could look with me at 1 Corinthians, chapter 1. I'm going to look, starting in verse 10. And this one is interesting, because this goes all the way back, you know, this whole deception of saying that if you're baptized by a certain man, then you belong to that organization, and now you're Baptist, or now you're Catholic, or whatever religion you're part of. So let's look what the Apostle Paul says on it, because it's so plain and simple. So Corinthians, 1t Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 10.

“10Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you…”

So again, condemning denominations, condemning sectarianism,

“…but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

Now obviously, the worldly church is in great disarray. They're definitely not in the same mind, or the same heart. All of them have different ideas, and different spirits, even though they say they all belong to the same God. But clearly, the only way it's possible not to have sectarianism, or divisions, is if we really are in the true church. If we really have Jesus as our head, then all of us bow down to Him, and whatever Jesus says goes. But as soon as you put a man as your head, and your pastor, and your leader, then there's going to be divisions, because that man is going to say, well we believe in baptism like this, so we believe in sprinkling, we believe in doing the Eucharist like this, so we believe in doing communion on this day, or that day, or we believe in doing worship on Saturday, the Sabbath. So you have suddenly all these denominations.

11For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. 12Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” 13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

This exact same thing happens today. If people get baptized in one church, and if they listen to one pastor, then they are a disciple of whoever that pastor is. Maybe John MacArthur, maybe you have gone to some specific church, maybe you were under Billy Graham, and you were baptized into his ministry, so now you say, well I follow the Jesus Billy Graham taught, or I follow the God that John MacArthur teaches, or I follow this pastor, or that pastor. And again, obviously the Bible and those who spoke truth during the biblical times, all were against this sort of denomination and sectarianism. So the apostle Paul says,

13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. 16Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. 17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.

So right here you see Paul condemning people for making a man on earth their pastor, or the one that baptized them as their leader. This is forbidden by Jesus, it's forbidden by the early church leadership, and we should also be against it as well. It's false.

So why do you have pastors and denominations today who adhere to this? It's because they are money preachers, or it's because they are prideful and they want you to be a notch on their belt. I had someone in my family that loved to baptize people. He wasn't paid to do it, but he wanted to baptize my sisters, he wanted to baptize us, and the main reason this particular person in my family wanted to baptize all of the grandchildren and all of the people in my family was because it gave him spiritual authority over those members of his household. He didn't really care to do it, obviously, for money, he wasn't making a dime, but it was spiritual power and authority. He wanted to be their spiritual father. And when we started realizing this, we knew that it was from the pit of hell.

A lot of Christians are this same way. They are baptizing because as soon as they baptize you, they feel that they have ownership over you. Churches do the same thing, and that is why one of the main ways to become a member of whatever church is out there is to be baptized by that pastor. So let's say you walk into a certain church, you talk to the pastor, and you say, I'd like to be a part of this organization. He may say to you, well, welcome here. Are you from this neighborhood? And if you say yes, then he'll ask you, well, do you already have a group of people that you fellowship with? And if you say no, then immediately he says, he says in his heart, perfect. This family doesn't belong to another group of people, so I can win them over and I can make them my slaves. They can belong to my organization. I can baptize them. Then I will have power over that husband of that family and that wife, and they will be my members. So what he's done right there is he's made disciples of his own sect. That's sectarianism, and that is against what Jesus taught. It's against what everything in the Bible teaches. But that is what the churches do because it gives them money. It secures their livelihood in the world.

Now suppose that you were already part of a church organization in one area, and you decided to visit a church in a different area, and maybe you drove, you know, a couple hundred miles, but you already belonged to a certain Baptist church, and for a week you decide to visit this other church, you know, in a city that is a few hundred miles away. So you walk into that church and the pastor says, welcome, how are you? And he's very nice to you. He talks to your wife. What happens as soon as he figures out you're an out-of-towner? He says, oh, well, why are you here? And this happens all the time, guys. And you might say, well, I'm out of town just visiting, but I would like to, you know, visit this church for a while. And that pastor may say something like, well, do you have a congregation back home that you're part of? Now why would he care if you have a congregation back home? Why would he care that you're part of a sect or part of this sort of sectarianism? Why would he care? If the body of Christ is undivided and we're following Jesus and not men, why would he care that you're following a certain sect a thousand miles away? The reason why, guys, is because if you belong to an organization already, then he cannot win you over. He knows that you're already taken. You're off the meat market. So if you don't belong to an organization, he may ask you, well, are you planning to move here? And if you are, we'd love you to join. But if you already live a thousand miles away and you're part of a church over there, then we're glad to see you for today. And then he's not interested to speak to you much more because he knows that you're not going to make him any money. He knows that you're already owned by a different pastor.

So that's how the pastors and organizations treat you. If you belong to church, you're basically their slaves, guys. You belong to religion. If you put yourself at the feet of these false lying pastors, you become their slaves and they treat you as if you're just a warm body in a pew and they will collect tithe from you. They're glad to see you in church because you're going to help the pastor pay his bills and you support that pastor's livelihood. But they don't care about you if you already are part of a different sect. Now all of that is obviously wicked.

So why is it that Christians don't see this? A lot of Christians don't see this because they are not following Jesus. Even though they've read the Bible their whole life, they've just played church, they've been distracted by people, they have been listening to the lies of the pastor, and they haven't opened their hearts and minds up to the truth of Jesus. They've only been playing religion and so distracted with the world, they can't see what is clearly hidden right under their nose. Every day when they go to church, right there below their nose is the Scriptures. And the pastor is probably even reading to them from 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and they still don't even see this deception right in their church. They're blind, they're spiritually deaf, they're being stolen from, they feel condemned if they are not giving their loyalty to these wolves, and they feel guilty if they're not part of these false organizations.

But I'm here today to help your eyes be open. Not that I can open your eyes, but Jesus can open the eyes of the blind. Jesus can open your ears, He opens the ears of the deaf. And if you ask Jesus to open your ears and your mind to the truth, then He will do that for you, and He will show you the difference between His true church, the body of Christ that is undivided, that are all in unity by the Holy Spirit, compared to the false churches that believe in this kind of sectarianism. So I think that's pretty much all I wanted to speak about today. Either we are loyal to men, either we're loyal to these organizations, or we are loyal to God. And at the end of the day, we're either pleasers of men, or we're pleasers of God.

If we really become pleasers of Jesus Christ, we become enemies of the false church. That doesn't mean that we hate Christians or hate people that are spiritually blind, but we become enemies of the false church organization. We stand against it, we oppose it, because we know that it is leading people to hell. Sectarianism and the wolves that call themselves pastors are leading people to hell every day. They come with really nice smiles, they tell people that they will be your friends and that you can join this club and they will help support your family, they'll put these tools in your hand, but at the end of the day, they're pushing people out the back door straight into the lake of hell. So you can either put your faith in Jesus, who is the good shepherd, who loves you, and you can bow yourself at the feet of him and place yourself and your family, your children, at the feet of Jesus, or you can be loyal to these wolves, this sort of denominationalism and sectarianism and these prideful men that only want to baptize you and only want your membership for your money and for them to gain more power.

So I just want to encourage you not to give your money to them, don't give your time to them, don't listen to their lies when they say, you can't give up the fellowship, brother, you need to give up the fellowship with the devil. These people are devils, they're worshipping the devil, they don't have your best interest in mind. Jesus called them hirelings, and a hireling runs when the wolf comes because they don't care for you, they don't care for the flock, they only care to make money. They're hired by the devil. And so we want to point people to Jesus, we want to be in the hands of Jesus, we want to be in his care, and we want to be loyal to him, and we want to have fellowship with Jesus, and we don't want to give up the fellowship, the true fellowship of the brothers and sisters who really love the Lord.

But certainly, give up fellowship with the apostate church, give up fellowship with dead religion, give up fellowship with sectarianism, give up fellowship with false denominations.

And so I want to encourage you as your brother in the Lord, don't be part of any of those 45,000 sects and denominations that are in the world. Get out of there, be separate, don't let them steal your money, don't let them deceive you or your family. Come to really know Jesus, worship him, and live for him with all your heart. So I want to pray for you today if you want to be separate from the harlot church system, if you want to be separate from ungodliness, and if you really just want to follow the Lord by his Holy Spirit. “Lord Jesus, I pray for my fellow brothers and sisters that are part of the true body of Christ, or even those out there that want to join your true body but they are deceived by the world and by false religion. I pray that the scales will fall off their eyes, that their eyes may be opened to the truth today, that their ears may be opened to hear you, and that they would set you up Lord Jesus as their one and only teacher, and that they would tear down all the idols, that they would tear down the idol of the false pastor, that they would tear down the idols of sectarianism and the false denominations and the false churches across America and across the world. I pray that they tear that down and that they come out of false religion and that this sort of false denomination and false sectarianism also comes out of their hearts and minds so that they can really be your pure children wearing their white robes and ready to walk into your kingdom. So I pray that you bless my brothers and sisters and let them be set apart and divided from false religion and worldliness. I pray this in your name Lord Jesus, Amen.”