It's good to have each one of you here tonight. We're gonna be in First Kings 13 tonight. And the only way I could honestly deal with this is just deal with the chapter. So I shrunk it up real small, put it on a piece of paper, and put on my other glasses and hope I can see it, but at any rate. Let's go to the Lord in prayer one more time, and we're gonna talk about a lying prophet and a deceived prophet. And then we'll get into this. Dear Heavenly Father, as we come to you right now, in the name of Jesus, we thank you, dear Lord, for mercy and grace. And Lord, I thank you that I've got a place to where I can just go through the Word of God. I thank you, Lord, for the people that love it so. And dear Heavenly Father, what a blessing it is that we can just go through the Word of God, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. learning the precious things from the Word of God. And so now, Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit would just work amongst us here tonight, teach us something from the Word of God. We ask it in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. And God's good to us. Most generally, 90% of the time when you approach 1 Kings 13, they always talk about the disobedient prophet and what happened to him. But very, very seldom do you ever get onto the fact that, what about this other prophet? The old prophet, the lion prophet. And he was wicked in what he did. And so we'll talk about both of them and see what we come up with tonight. See if we can find a conclusion somewhere along the road. So let's start off. If you'll notice now that we'll be jumping around some. Some of these, when we get close to the bottom down here, We might have, there'll be a few verses you'll see that I took out just so we could get it on this one page. But let's work our way through this tonight. There's some really good things for us and some principles for us to live by. So let's, may the Holy Spirit teach us tonight from the Word of God about these gracious principles that we find in the Word of God. Verse one, 1 Kings 13, verse one. And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel. And Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. Now, you gotta realize that Jeroboam was corrupting everything, right? He had built these two calves and boy, he was just messing everything up. So he was standing by the altar and now this prophet, you gotta give him credit, he was bold enough to do what God told him to do, right? And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord and said, oh, altar, altar, thus saith the Lord, behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David. Where did that come from? I mean, a prophecy about the coming Christ just stuck in this. I mean, that's God. Let's see what it says here. Josiah by name and upon thee shall he offer the priest of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee. Wow, that's pretty rough. Verse three, and he gave a sign the same day, saying, this is the sign which the Lord has spoken. Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out. All right. So now the prophet has said, this is what's gonna happen. This is a sign that this is going to happen, okay? And when you see that sign, that lets you know that God has done this, God has pronounced this, God is not pleased with this. And so he's going to say that. And so he's telling them, of what's going to happen. But now let's see what this godless Jeroboam does. Verse 4, And it came to pass, when the king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, lay hold on him. Lay hold on him. Listen, when somebody corrupts religion, like Jeroboam had corrupted religion, the one thing he's not going to like is what God has to say about it. Now that, ladies and gentlemen, has never changed, has it? I mean, even today, the one thing that you find is simply this. for those people that worship the Lord in hypocrisy, for those that worship the Lord because of pleasure, for those that worship the Lord because of their own convenience, like Jeroboam was. Remember, Jeroboam said, well, I'm going to have to do something here because all these people will leave and go that way, and we got to stop them. And so what we find then is when the truth comes out, about what God has in mind, what God's opinion is of this, the only person that they're going to try to shut up is the man of God. Because, listen, if the man of God is God's mouthpiece, well, then they think, well, if we can shut him up, we can shut God up. If we can close him up, we can close God's mouth up. And so what we find is this, it makes no difference even today with you and me, if you are the one pronouncing this truth, against wickedness, if you're the one pronouncing this wrong against right, if you're the one that's pronouncing this truth that God is not pleased with that, if you're the one that's trying to tell somebody the truth about it, you're gonna find the same reaction. They're gonna want to shut you up. Jeroboam said, saying, lay hold on him. He made a mistake though, he stuck his hand out when he said it. All right, watch what happened. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up so that he could not pull it in again to him. God just stuck it right there. Now, God has a way then of getting somebody's attention, doesn't he? I mean, that's a pretty good attention getter. Think he's handing out like this and all of a sudden he just froze like that. Wow, he's in a mess, isn't he? You see, oftentimes it's crossed my mind Wouldn't it be great to live in a time when God still acted like that? Huh? I mean, wouldn't it be a scary thing if the man of God Just got upset with a bunch of folks and yelled out, may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits, you know? And all of a sudden, everybody starts scratching. I mean, my goodness. That would be tough stuff, wouldn't it? I mean, or God, you done it, do it again. Give them all hemorrhoids, you know? I mean, that'd get some people's attention too, wouldn't it? Sure would, wouldn't it? But God's got his ways of doing things. On this side of the cross, what does God do? God has a way. Number one, if you're saved, What does he do? God is not a deadbeat dad. He disciplines his children, doesn't he? If you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then ye are bastards and not sons. And so, as a saved child of God, you get crossed up with God. Listen, if you do it and God does not discipline you, what does the word of God say? You're not saved. That's pretty clear, isn't it? If you can live contrary to God and God doesn't discipline you, you are not saved. That's what the word of God says, period, done. All right? But if you are saved, what's God do? Well, the first thing he does, the Holy Spirit starts working on your heart and mind, something terrible. Man brings you under conviction of sin. keeps you awake at night, breaks your heart, disturbs your mind. God has a way of getting really close to you, doesn't he? I mean, he can do it. Now, watch this. Go to verse 5, and here you're going to see the prophecy and the sign come true. The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. Wow. Now, I want to show you something. If there's anything that's consistent through the Word of God, you're fixing to see it. When the people that are contrary to God One of the things that you're going to notice about these people, when God goes to work on them, the one thing that it's permeated all the way through the word of God, it's the same way. Listen, they started off thinking about themselves and they just keep thinking about themselves. You know that? Anyway. Now, watch this. Let's see what it is. Verse 6. And the king answered and said unto the man of God, Entreat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the Lord, and the king's hand was restored him again, and became as it was before. There's two cars that pulled up out in the parking lot. I don't know whether they're just switching or what, but I don't think they're coming in here. Anyway, now watch this. Who was he thinking about? Look at what just happened. The sign was given, wasn't it? Now, did the sign have any effect upon Jeroboam here? It didn't, did it? You see, what you find is this, that's consistent to the Word of God. When you have somebody that's just thinking about themselves, it really doesn't make a lick of difference. What God does around them, the only thing they're still seeing is them. I mean, is he praising God? No. Is he humbled by what's taking place? No. The only thing he wants, he just wants to be fixed, that's all. Just say, praise, give me back like it was, all right? Can you do that for me? You see? And his aggression has been humbled. But his heart and mind has not been humbled. And so watch verse seven. And the king said unto the man of God, come home with me and refresh thyself and I'll give thee a reward. Does he say anything about God? No. Does he say anything about being obedient to God? No. Does he say anything about this reality that's just taken place? Does he say anything about the altar that was just destroyed? No. What? He just tells the man of God, you come on home with me and I'll give you a reward. You see? Listen. The coldness toward God is always manifested in the attitude toward the acts of God. You hear me? It's always manifested. Your attitude of God is always manifested toward the things of God, what God does. And look at him. He said nothing about the altar, did he? No, nothing, nothing. And so it is, ladies and gentlemen. He says, come home with me. All right? But now God had told the prophets, you go into that place, you prophesy, and then get out of there. You don't go home with nobody, you don't eat in that place, don't drink no water in that place, you go there and get out of there. Right? And so what you find here in verse seven, as the first temptation, come home with me. See that? Now drop down to verse 15. Now you've got somebody else saying, you got this false prophet. What does he say? Come home with me. See that? Temptation number one, temptation number two, come home with me. And so the old, the prophet says, nope, not gonna do it. So something's got to take place here for that to happen. We'll get to it in a minute. Now watch this. Go to verse nine. For so was it charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest. So he went another way and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel. Listen, he's doing good so far, isn't he? He's doing good so far. But you know something, you've got to stick to what God said. In my lifetime, I've had a lot of people say, well, I wouldn't do that and I wouldn't do this and so on and so forth. And I said, well, God put it on my heart, that's it, done. And it's always turned out right. because of that. Now watch this. Now verse, I've got a red line there. Now let's go to verse 11. Let's see what happens here. Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel. See that? Now you need to pay close attention to that. You need to mark that. Let me ask you all a question. If there was already a prophet in Bethel, Why did God send a prophet to Jeroboam from Judah? What was wrong with the prophet that was there? Why did God do that? Why did that prophet look at, and why does God tell us this one is from Judah, this guy lived in Bethel? Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel. Well, isn't that where this altar was? Isn't that where the golden calf was, one of them? Why didn't God just stir that old prophet up that lived there and say, hey, go over there and preach against that? It's kind of interesting. One commentator said, well, God had put the lion prophet on the shelf. That's all it was to it. Another commentator said, yeah, God left the old prophet there in Bethel because he really didn't have any convictions about the worship that was going on in Bethel. One man said, well, look at it like this. There was all kinds of false worship happening around there, but no voice against it. So now, if there's no voice against it, does the old prophet have any convictions at all about the things of God? No. So now this is where the warning comes, not only to you, but to me. Here's what we find. Now watch this. Verse 11. Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel. If there's anything I've had to deal with, it's just simply old reprobate Christians. especially old reprobate preachers. I mean, I've had to deal with my share of them. One thing about living in West Kentucky is this. Man, when I first moved there, I was shocked. We lived in a house, and I introduced myself to the neighbors, so I'm like this, and lo and behold, I went over to the neighbor, I'm the pastor out at such and such church. Oh, I'm a preacher. Everybody I talked to was a preacher. Everybody. Now, there ain't none of them going to pastor a church nowhere, but everybody was a preacher. Garbage man pulled up, I said, you a preacher also? Well, yes, sir, how'd you know? I mean, everybody was a preacher. Over in West Kentucky, everybody's a preacher. Man, it's something like they gotta get called to preach or something. I just, crazy. But you know what I found out about them? 90% of them, they hadn't been called. The few of them that had, they were mama called and daddy sent. And most of them were reprobate. And boy, But they'd tell you in a second they've been called to preach. But they all had one thing in common. You know what that is? It always amazed me. They had never pastored a church. They had never been forced to study the word of God continually for the purpose of feeding the sheep. All right, they'd never studied doctrine. They didn't have any of that. But man, they all knew how to tell me how to do it. I mean, they all knew I was doing it the wrong way. Everything. That's why I just finally had me a little card printed up and I put on the thing. They'd start doing that talk and I'd hand them the cards. The card just simply says, I'm following God, not you. Now that created some conversation, I just want you to know that. And his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. The words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father. All right, now the children, they're gonna go home to their reprobate dad and tell him, this is what the man of God said, this is what the man of God did, right? Well now. There's one thing about these type of people. They hate to be outdone. They've got religion, but man, they just hate to be outdone. And their father said unto them, what way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah. Well, too bad they found out, huh? Which way did he go? What way went he? And he said unto his son, saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass and he rode there on. Buddy, I gotta go catch this guy. I gotta talk to him. Why? Why? You see, You're going to find, have you ever heard this thing called peer pressure? Well, I want you to know something. In a lot of things, there's a whole lot of peer pressure. And in the ministry is one of them. I used to think that in the world of martial arts, there's a lot of peer pressure. Most of those guys are stuffed that if they were turkeys, you could feed a whole army off one. Arrogance, unbelievable. But now this guy, you see, I want you to see that you've got to listen, listen folks. Don't listen to what people say. Look at their life. That's where you'll find the truth. I've got to the point, like I said, even being right here. When I talk to people, when I went down to this conference here a few weeks ago, I talked to some of those people. I never thought I'd have to do this, but I did. I had to ask every one of those preachers which one I was talking to. I said, what Bible do you use? Two. Are you a local church man? Do you believe in the local church? I'm not talking about two churches now, I'm talking about the Lord started just one church, that's it, done. You know? And it's amazing. Now, everybody I ask about the Bible, yes. But some of them had no concept about the local church, and they're preachers. They're missionaries. Somebody has failed along the road. Well, I'll pray for them, but I'm not gonna invite them here to this church to preach. Because I'd hate to have to stop them while in the middle of their preaching. If they start preaching something crazy, you let some guy get in his pulpit and start talking about, well, they believe in two churches, the local church and then the universal invisible church, well, that does it. Sermon's over with, you know. The fact of it is, is listen, Watch this man now, watch him, watch him. Let me say something else that's very important. And I've said this and said this and said this and said this. If you look a lot of my tapes, especially years ago, I've always said this. I had multitudes of people trying to get me to prostitute my ministry, you know. Well, man, you go over to that big Southern Baptist Church over there, you know, they're looking for some missionaries. They want some independent missionaries to come over there. And man, they'll give you a lot of money and this and that. I said, sorry, I'm not prostituting my ministry. If I go there, I'm going to have to compromise everything I believe because that guy, look at what he believes. I'm not going to prostitute my ministry. I'm not going to do it. No, if I say I believe it, I believe it. If you don't, then we're sorry. You are not one of my peers. You see that? And that way I sever a whole lot of peer pressure. But boy, it's there, isn't it? Now watch what he said. So his sons saddled him the ass and he rode there on. Now watch this, verse 14. And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. Now the reason I put that in red, found him sitting. Now just think, if the man of God had not had stopped, if he had kept on going to get out of there, if he had kept focused on what God wanted him to do to get out of there, This reprobate would not have found him sitting there. Sometimes to tarry in the realm of temptation will destroy you. Eve, what was she doing? Well, man, she was in the garden and talking to a snake. That don't even make sense to me, does it you? You let a snake start talking to me, I'm out of here. He don't even have to talk. He just show up and I'm gone. But the reality, look at this, Eve tarried in the realm of temptation, didn't she? This man, if he would have kept on going, But he didn't, he sat down. And he said unto him, art thou the man of God that camest from Judah? He said, I am. Then he said unto him, come home with me and eat bread. Now watch this. Listen, if you know what God wants you to do, it's kind of like this. If God tells me what he wants me to do, and somebody else comes up to me and says an angel said it, I'm gonna say, now listen, if God wanted me to do that, he'd show up and tell me. All right? Remember this, folks. When God tells you something, don't you let anybody on earth tell you something else. Period. If God tells me to go, I'm gonna go until God tells me to stop. Other than that, you can look me in the face and say, well, an angel told me. I'd say, well, the angel lied to you because you're trying to lie to me. Let's see what happens here. Listen, these people like this old prophet, I'm gonna prove to you something here in just a minute. I'm gonna prove it to you. I'm gonna prove to you that this prophet, this old prophet was a Democrat. I'm gonna prove it to you. You ready? Watch this. All right, verse 15. Then he said unto him, come home with me and eat bread. And he said, I may not return with thee nor go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place. For it was said to me, by the word of the Lord thou shalt eat no bread, nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest. Now let me ask you a question. If that's what God told him, why was he sitting down? He wasn't supposed to eat nothing there. He wasn't supposed to drink nothing there. He wasn't supposed to stay there. So why was he sitting there? Good question, huh? All right. Verse 18. And he said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art. He's claiming he's one of his peers. I've had a lot of reprobate preachers over the years come and tell me, well, man, God called me to preach. I said, why aren't you preaching then? Well, yeah. I know, look what he says, and an angel speak unto me. By the word of the Lord saying, bring him back with thee into thine house that he may eat bread and drink water. And the word of God says, but he lied unto him. Now listen to me, folks. There's a lot of people that'll say they're Christians, and this place around here is eat up with them, and they'll act like they're one of your peers. They'll tell you they're one of your peers. It's like some of these preachers I was talking to, oh, I'm one of you. Yeah, I'm, yeah, mm-hmm. Yeah, man, I'm a preacher. God called me to preach just like you. Well, what Bible do you use? Well, I use that one. Well, that ain't the same one I use. What do you believe about the local church? Well, I believe we got two churches. Well, that's not what the Bible teaches. So guess what? He wants to claim he's one of my peers when he's nothing but a lying reprobate. You say, well, you shouldn't say that about him. Yes, I should. Because listen, If they're using a different Bible that's translated from a different something else, then it's not the word of God, is it? Either that or it's a perverted word of God. So now either I believe this or I don't. That's like Greg Wynn out there. He's invited me, you know, come out, do this, come out, come out with us and have this meeting. I'm not going out there with him. I asked the question, I said, what Bible do you use? Well, we all use different Bibles here and so on. Guess what? If I go out there, you know what I'm saying? It's okay, fellas. I'll accept this with you. I'm not going to accept that. Either this is it or it's not. In Germany, I had the same issue with missionaries. The old Luther's text translated straight across with this old King James Bible. Now that is something that most missionaries wish they could have right up front. But it didn't, most missionaries wish they could have that. But they can't. They have to do something. But the old Luther's text, buddy, translated right straight across. I mean, it just, it worked so good. I could lay that thing down and it just, it was just good. It just worked. I mean, man, it worked. I didn't have no problem with that. But then you come out with a different thing. Boy, then they started updating the old Luther's text. And all of a sudden, now all these words are missing. And now it's worded totally different. I just kept with the old Luther's text. And everything worked fine. You see, you're pretty narrow-minded about that. Well, I really don't want to get eaten up by a lion. Look at this now. But he lied unto him. So he went back with him and did eat bread in his house and drank water. And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back. And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, thus saith the Lord. For as much as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee. Now wait a minute. There's something about this story I've wondered about for 50 years. Nothing's ever said about the lying, the liar. in this story. The old prophet that lied. That's it. I've had a lot of people say, what happened here? I don't know. Doesn't tell you, does it? Doesn't tell you what happened to that old prophet that lied. The only thing I know is this. There's some old preachers preaching on this up in the mountains. And he said, you better be careful who you listen to. And he took to preaching, just like an old mountain preacher would, he took to preaching out of this passage of scripture about you better be careful who you listen to. Especially if they start off by saying, I'm one of you. He said, that ought to alarm you right up front because they're going to try to convince you that they're one of you when they're not. You say, well, he was a prophet like he was a prophet, but he wasn't one of them. He wasn't a prophet with integrity. He wasn't a prophet that feared the Lord. He wasn't a prophet that was honest. He was a liar. And he cared nothing about the consequences of God upon the man he lied to. And that's the way it is today, isn't it? Most people that lie to you are really not concerned about the consequences of the lie. They just want you to believe the lie. They don't care how it affects you. Well, it was death to this prophet, wasn't it? Why? Because he believed the lie. Let me, let me, I told Floyd a few minutes ago before we started the service tonight, I was thinking that I really need to put a message together about the fact that, as Gary and Floyd and me were talking back there, the Bible says, and they were blinded, the Bible talks about the blindness of Israel, isn't that right? But we, you know, a lot of people, we say that, but what in the world does it mean? Is it, does it mean they were just blind? They can't see? Oh, a lot more than that. We say, well, they're blind. And, and, you know, we just kind of accept it and never go beyond that. Right. But the fact of it is, when God says he sent blindness to Israel, it means that they cannot see spiritually. They cannot reason spiritually. It means that God has done something to their mind. They're blinded, they're mentally blind, and they cannot see. the truth of the word of God concerning Jesus Christ and so on. They can't see it, so when God sends blindness, it's a mental, spiritual blindness that robs people of their reasonings and they can't even see truth. Get it? When God, that's why, that's why, Listen, if you can recognize that in people, that'll save you a whole lot of trouble in life. Because you'll realize they don't see it. Having eyes to see, they see not. Having ears to hear, they hear not. In other words, man, there's nothing behind the eyeball working. There's nothing on the other side of the eardrum working. It's spiritually dead. Listen, so when God sends blindness, you don't see it. The reality is this. There's a lot of people, like the old preacher said, yeah, when somebody comes up to you and says, hey, I'm one of you, every alarm in your head ought to go off. Why do you want to be one of my peers? Because you want to lead me down a path or something, there's always a secondary motive for that. After 50 years doing this business, boy, I've learned that to be the truth. The first thing people tell me, well, like I said, over in West Kentucky, everybody's called to preach. I mean, In the Baptist church, all the men are called to preach. In the Pentecostal church, all the women are called to preach. What a mess. But they'll all say, all right, my pastor, well, I'm one of your peers. Oh, no, you're not. Let me ask you three questions. What Bible do you use? What do you believe about the local church? What do you believe about separation? Oh. So now all of a sudden the old prophet was inspired of God to give God's condemning words to the prophet. Well, let me ask you a question. Did the lion profit? Get eat up by the lion? Nope. You see, when somebody comes to you and they want to be one of your peers, want to talk to you nice, they don't mind if it happens to you. They just don't want it to happen to them. They really don't care what happens to you. They've lied to you. They don't care. Do yourself a favor right up front. Draw the line in the sand. And if you've got to stand on the other side of that line by yourself, bless God, stand there. You'll find that there's going to be some people that'll step across the line with you. But the fact of it is, notice this, those that say they're your peers will lie to you and then you will have to pay the consequence for living and doing disobedience to God. Verse 24, and when he was gone, a lion met him by the way and slew him. And his carcass was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, and the lion also stood by the carcass. So now here you got this dead prophet laying there. On one side, there's his mule. On this side is the lion. They're just sitting there with the dead prophet in between them. All right, verse 25. And behold, men passed by and saw the carcass cast in the way and the lion standing by the carcass. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, it is the man of God. When I started this lesson tonight, about an hour ago, I said to you, I want to bring it, I won't find a spot for a conclusion, huh? Isn't it interesting that the lion prophet recognized something about the guy that's dead now? He said, it is the man of God. See that? He just recognized who he was. Oh, he's gonna pick him up and take him and bury him. Oh, that's nice of him, isn't it? You know, it's interesting. David lied to somebody, didn't he? And David wrote a note and gave it to Bathsheba's husband and said, go on back there. You see folks, when people get a little taste of sin and compromise, They might recognize what you are, but they're not gonna respect you enough to be honest with you. Did you hear me? That lion prophet didn't respect the man of God enough to be honest with him. If the lion prophet was a real man of God, when the true man of God said, nope, can't go back, God said this to me, he'd have looked at him and said, well, then you do exactly what God told you to do. Nothing more, nothing less, get out of here. What are you doing sitting here? Get out of here, go. But that's not what he did, is it? So listen, as I end this, I want you to know something. He said, it is the man of God. He was willing to recognize what it was, but you never see here in this scripture where the word of God refers to the lying prophet as a man of God. Just because somebody says they're your peer is no sign that they'll not lie to you. And here's the truth of it. That's why it was so important for this true man of God to adhere tenaciously to what God had told him. God told him, you go in there, then you get out of there. You see, folks, I've learned this in the ministry, whether it be you or me, and I've seen it more in you folks than in me, but just as much, when you start getting narrow-minded about the word of God, your family will raise up against you. When you people started hearing to the truth, I've watched it, I've watched it, I've watched it in the families of church, Ben, you lived, Mother, father, grandma, grandpa, sister, brother, boy start getting narrow-minded about the things of God. Boy, all of a sudden the family raises up against you. My question is this. Is there enough in you to take it? Can you handle the rejection? Can you handle the conflict? Do you have enough faith in God to say, hey, God's right, you're wrong? Do you have enough courage to make a stand against your peers? Listen, when you compromise, you're sanctioning their sin. When you don't stand up for the Lord, and you're just saying to God, God, I'm a dirty, rotten coward. I'm afraid if I do this, my sister will say this, and mom will say this, and they'll say that. Let them say it. God can compensate for them. Truth is truth. Do you have enough convictions in you to tell your friends, relatives, and so on the truth? Well, I think that's a pretty good place to stop, don't you? I don't challenge you folks too much. But may the word of God challenge us. May the Spirit of God challenge us. Now, listen to me, folks. They might say, oh, there's the man of God, right? The only problem is this. He was killed by a lion because of a lion, a lying prophet. He was killed because that man said, I'm your peer. and he lied to him. You see that? I wanna tell you something. You'll find a lot of so-called Christians, they'll lie to you to get you to do something that God doesn't want you to do. Don't ever forget that, because that's just the way it is. You're gonna have to have enough convictions and courage to say, listen, it's God's way, period, I'm done, that's it. You're gonna have to pray and ask God to give you the courage, the understanding. Listen, if God has not blinded your mind, then you better speak up. Because just maybe God will use what you know to speak to them. Why in the world should they worry about down and going to hell if you never tell them they're going there. Right? Why should they worry about being crossed up with God if you never tell them they're crossed up with God? Why should they have fear of God if you never tell them to fear God? Get it? Now that's the truth. And that's a truth that we all, you and me, we're all in this same boat together, that we all, that's a truth that we all have to deal with. Okay? Praise God. I concluded that. It's done. It's over with. And praise the Lord. Let's all stand if you would please.