The title of this sermon is called, Seduced from Simplicity, Slight of Man and Subtlety of Satan. And let's pray. Father, Lord, I pray you'd be with us now. Help us, dear Lord. Help those that can't be with us tonight that are sick, Lord. We pray that you'd heal them and raise them up. The many families and different people that are sick here, and Lord, that you'd help them. And help us, Lord, to spiritually be aware and awake and to learn tonight what you'd have for us out of this message. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, the first verse I want to give you here tonight is Galatians chapter 3 verse number 1. So Paul is talking to the Galatians and there's a big problem with them. And he's dealing with how they've been subverted basically. They were infiltrated and they were subverted. And it happens. It happens to those that hold the truth. It happens. I want you to turn to 1 Timothy chapter 4. You're already there. And I want to read you some more verses here. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith. Pay attention. Giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. Speaking lies and hypocrisy, sound familiar? Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God in prayer. Now, notice what he says here. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. So, he is coming to Timothy and he is saying to Timothy, Paul is saying to Timothy, listen Timothy. There's going to be some people that come in and they are going to seduce you away from the simplicity of the ministry, from the simplicity that is in Christ, from the simplicity. By sleight of hand, right? By sleight of men, by subtlety of Satan, they are going to do this. Seducing spirits, whether that's the prophets themselves or the spirit that is behind those men, they are going to come in and they are going to do that. Beware of that, Timothy. Beware that they are going to try to get you off focus, get you out of balance, get you going the wrong way. Remember that. What does that word seduced mean? We do a study of that word seduced in the scriptures. It's interesting. Very scary, really, when you think about it. Webster says it's drawn or enticed from virtue, corrupted, depraved. to draw aside or entice from the path of rectitude and duty in any manner by flattery. How about that? By promises, bribes or otherwise, to tempt and lead to iniquity, to corrupt, to deprave. The Bible speaks often of being seduced from the truth, being drawn away and enticed. It's just enough to bring a little bit of twist in to change some things up and to cause some problems. In the end times, the Bible says evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse. Right? Deceiving and being deceived. Think about it. Deceiving and being deceived. It is so easy for us to be sidetracked in what the Lord has for us and what He wants us to do. I mean, as a person and as a church, it is so absolutely easy for it to happen because it's subtle and it's the sleight of man. If you turn to Ephesians chapter 4, I suppose sometime I should preach a sermon called Grow Up and just deal with Ephesians chapter 4 and to the church and to explain. Because Paul makes it very clear here. He says here in verse number 13, Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children. tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the, what? By the slight of men. See that? Yeah, look at that. Yeah, look at that. By the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive. See that? Yep. They're just waiting. They're watching. They're waiting. They're waiting for their opportunity. They're lying in wait to deceive. That's what they're doing. And Paul says, you know what? Grow up. I want you to grow up. That word slight means an artful trick. A trick or a feat so dexterity performed that the manner of performance escapes observation. Do you see that? It's so cunningly and craftily done that it escapes observation. You don't see it coming. Sleight of hand. Right? Surprise. And just think, it's been there all the time. But who is he talking to? Brother Jacob, who's he talking to right here in Ephesians 4? He's talking to the church. He's not talking to the world. He's not talking to Christians scattered abroad. He's talking to the church. And he says, listen, church, this is why you grow up into him in all things. This is why you have to be mature. It's also another reason why there is differences in the body. And that I'm not gonna go into right now, but I am gonna explain to you on Sunday. Sunday afternoon, we're gonna talk about that. Correcting and writing some things and getting some things straight that need to be for our church to be stronger. So anyway, that's for another time. But listen, that's what it means by the slight of men, it says. You don't even realize they're doing it to you. So don't feel dumb. It takes wisdom and experience and time. Yep. Tough, tough stuff, right? But it's true. But he says here that, what does he say here? He says, the slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie and wait to deceive. He says, listen, you got to grow up and you got to go through some things. So guess what? So you're not a child tossed to and fro. That's why the body has to grow and mature. So when that sleight of hand does come, when that cunning craftiness does come, that you're not like children tossed to and fro. And you don't get nailed. Right? Right? Because they're waiting. They're the creeps. They're the ones that have crept in unawares. They're the ones that are waiting. They're waiting for their opportunity. They're measuring it, and they're waiting to pounce. That's how Satan works. They're seducing spirits to draw men away after them. That's what they're there for. That's what they're doing. All right, so let's get into this thing. I've got a lot of scripture for you here tonight. Number one, we're going to talk about being seduced, being seduced away spiritually. And here's one, the Galatians, number one, were temporarily seduced from the gospel. They were seduced from the simplicity that was in Christ Jesus, that is in Christ Jesus. They were seduced away. Paul says in Galatians chapter three, Verse number one, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you, this only would I learn of you. Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? He therefore that ministereth to you the spirit and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. These were seduced from simplicity, bewitched away from the gospel. They knew the gospel that saved their souls, but men crept in unawares and they seduced or bewitched them with that Hebrew roots movement. Guys like Bill Schnebelin, stay tuned. Guys like Bill Schnebelin, we're going to deal with that too sometime. But they're in the Hebrew Roots Movement, right? Drawing men away after them, coming in and having these fanciful testimonies of barking at the moon and being a werewolf and all kinds of other goofball stuff. And then boom, what do they do? They end up saying they were a witch, they were this, they were high level this, they did all this other stuff. And then what happens to them? Then they, boom, they rush everybody over to the Hebrew Roots Movement. And now he's walking around with a yarmulke or a hamulke, whatever you call that thing on his head. What do you call that thing? A cheeseburger? Whatever that thing is on his head. They got that thing on their head, and they're walking around with their large robes or their long robes and their, what do you call them, philacrates? Is that what you call them? Philacrates. And you got all those things, and you're walking around with your big beard down to your ankles, which there's nothing wrong with if you can grow it. But anyway, you've got that, and you're walking around with that, and you're walking around the woods peeking around corners and doing weird stuff. I don't know what's up with that. I've seen pictures. It was really weird. Anyway, what's the deal with it? Is it biblical? Is it biblical to try to walk around and act like you're some Old Testament Jewish rabbi or some Old Testament Jewish believer? A Pharisee? Exactly. No, it's not biblical. You're not being unkind either. It's not biblical. You're doing what the Galatians were doing. You've been seduced from simplicity. You've been seduced. You're being dragged back under the law. You're being brought back under the curse. Bondage. They were seduced from simplicity. They started concentrating on the flesh more than the spirit. Outward works and manifestation of those works in trying to keep the law and follow the law. And Paul asked them, by the works of the law or by the hearing of the faith? Have you begun in the spirit and now are you made perfect by the flesh? You know what he said in 2 Corinthians 11 3? Turn there. 2 Corinthians 11 3. But I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. See that word? Through his subtlety. That's how he did it. Very subtle, sly in design, cunningly devised. What is it, the same thing as that sleight of hand? Satan is subtle and sleight of men. See? That's how they did it. But I, fearless by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his suddenly, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Do you see that? That's what the devil wants. He wants it for your personal life, and he wants it for the church life. He wants to take you from the simplicity. He wants to confuse you. He wants to confuse the church as to what the mission is for the local New Testament church. He wants to get them off battling a bunch of fairy tales and other things they don't need to be fighting. distractions, wants to distract them from soberness and a sober, true spiritual battle. For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, if you receive another spirit which you have not received or another gospel which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him. He's mocking them, by the way. Okay, but anyway, he's saying, you won't accept me and the truth that I give you. And I've given you the truth and I've given you the faith, but yet you'll accept another Jesus and another gospel and you'll just usher it right in and accept it, won't you? That's what he's telling him. The Galatians were pushing Judaizing of the gospel. They were the Hebrew roots. That's what they were doing. They were pushing the Hebrew roots movement. They were pushing it into the church and they were pushing it in and they were subverting and they had subtly subverted the gospel. It was a subtle transition, but nonetheless it took place. They, in essence, were preaching another Jesus, another gospel. Paul warned them not to add works to the gospel, not to add a conformity to the law for salvation. Their focus was off the gospel and their vision was being destroyed. And Paul knew it. He said, has all this work been in vain? Have you suffered so many things in vain? Is it all vain what you went through for the sake of Jesus Christ and the gospel to now be subverted by a bunch of devils? Man, I'm fired up. Paul says, was all this work in vain? Have you been bewitched by these Hebrew roots people and dragged back under the law? Listen, we have to be careful as a church that the vision God has for us is not sidetracked or seduced by fringe things. And the focus of the church of fulfilling Ephesians chapter four, the edification of the saints for the work of the ministry. Perfecting of the saints, right? For their edification and perfection and for them to grow up. That's the spiritual warfare. And preaching to a lost and dying world, whether it's online or the streets or wherever, that the truth of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ and calling men to repentance is done. We can never let our church's vision and direction be seduced by other things. especially Hebrew roots or Judaizing the gospel or adding the law or any of those other things. The gospel is very simple. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Let no man confuse you or no devil. The gospel is simple. Turn to Galatians chapter one. Paul warned about this. Why did Paul warn the church of Galatia? Why does he warn these people this? Because it's going to happen, that's why. Don't think you're above a warning. I've met a lot of fools that have walked through this door, and I'm not being unkind either. And they've walked out that door, and they've not heeded the warning. I'm not being unkind. I'm telling you the truth. Jesus said there were Christian fools. Galatians chapter 1 verse number 6, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. Which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Wait, really? There's going to be some that would do that? Yeah. I like to affectionately call them perverts. They're the real perverts. They're spiritual pervs. That's a title for a message right there. Yeah, they are the worst kind. Because they seduce. They're seducing spirits, spiritual perverts. Yeah, he does. which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed." So there's no gospel of the van ride, there's no gospel of Satan coming to you and you rejecting him and boom without the gospel you're saved That's not the gospel No, it is the gospel which is able to save your soul it is a sober living and straightforward truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and I'm telling you it is so simple and easy for people to seduce and others away and to draw men away after them. So easy. So easy to try to confuse people. Listen, the gospel is very simple. It is repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Don't add to it. Don't take away from it. It's very simple. Jesus died, was buried, and rose again the third day. You repent and understand that you are a sinner guilty before God and dirty and defiled, and you need the Savior. And you turn to Him and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ so that He's able to save your soul. And by Holy Ghost conviction, He draws you in and saves your soul. Amen, yeah, exactly. It's the gospel that is able to save your soul and change you, by the way, and make you a new creature in Christ. Which brings me to my next point. People can be seduced by a charismatic spiritual warfare of superstition. I'm gonna nail this thing right now. 1 Timothy 4, verse number one. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. These seducing spirits, they're doctrines which are of a deceiving nature. or to men who profess them, and they profess to have the spirit of God and they don't have him, but are evil men and seducers and deceiving and being deceived that lie in wait to deceive and handle the word of God deceitfully. And by attending on the ministry of such persons through hearing them and conversing with them, the defection was to begin and spread, and therefore such should be carefully avoided and their ministry shunned, nor should they be received, nor bid God speed. You can be seduced, you know, into fighting a war that is not your war to fight. You can be set on a course, whether it's a church or a Christian. You can be set on a course. You can be subverted and taken off. And so subtly and by sleight of man, you can be taken off course, seduced. Manasseh was a man that seduced an entire nation. 2 Kings 21 verse number nine, but they hearkened not. And Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel. He seduced them into an entire nation into witchcraft and Baal worship and everything else you could imagine. He changed the entire direction of the nation from the inside. No enemy of Israel could have came in and brought Baal and did that. But an enemy from within. Subtle. But more specifically, men can seduce you into fighting another war that's not your war to be fighting. Yeah. You'll be slipping into cunningly devised fables. That's what you end up doing. Looking for some Christian superhero type comic book crusader mentality. Right? Second Timothy chapter three, please, verse number one. Now think about this in the light of what I'm talking about here, and think about this. Second Timothy chapter three, verse number one. This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. You know what those perilous times are? I've preached on this. You know what? I've preached on this specific topic probably three different times, Lee, on perilous times, maybe three or four times over the last 10 years. And you know something? It means more to me now and it is stronger now than it has ever been in my life. This know also that in the last days perilous times are coming. You know what perilous times are? Dangerous, treacherous. Mm-hmm. Dangerous times. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, Yeah, I did that, right? Boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection. Hmm. Truce breakers. Oh, really? False accusers. What about that? Incontinent, fierce, fiercely evil. Despisers of those that are good. Traitors. Heady. Let me give you that word, heady. I'll give you the definition of that here, hang on. Webster's definition anyway, I'll give you. Rash, hasty, violent, disposed to rush forward in enterprise, apt to affect the head. Interesting, huh? High-minded. Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away. Like I don't need to vote on it? No, I turn away. I don't need to do that? I don't have to listen to a devil speak? No. No, I don't have to from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses. Huh? How about that? They creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins. Led away with diverse lusts. How about this one? Ever learning. and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Yeah, it does. Now, look at this. This even sounds even more familiar. Now, as Janes and Jambres withstood Moses. Oh, wait a minute. These religious guys. Yeah, these religious sorcerers, witches. As they withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further. For their folly shall be manifest unto all men. Hang on, it's coming. Hang on. You made a mistake when you thought you were bigger than God. When you thought you were bigger than the Lord Jesus Christ, you made a big mistake. Big mistake. Scary. He says, for their folly shall be manifest. unto all men, as theirs also was. But thou hast fully..." Now look what he says here. He sobers him up. He said, "...but thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra. What persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me." Amen. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Notice this, though. Notice the plan of these seducers, though. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Do you understand these men that are deceiving people? They are deceived. They are deceived more than they are deceiving others. They are more deceived than they are deceiving others. They believe their own headlines and their own credits. What does he say though? Look what he says to him. He says, but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. See that? And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration. What's he taking back? The Word of God. Look, Timothy, not the cunningly divide fables. Look, Timothy, not the seducers. Not any of those things, Timothy. Not the fanciful, charismatic, spiritual warfare. Not that stuff, but Timothy, the Word of God. Get back to the Word of God. If they want to play with devils and witches, let them go play with devils and witches, Timothy. You get back and you stay with the Word of God. Amen. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished, and do all good works. See, Paul is warning young Timothy, men will come in and swerve you from your work. They're going to try to seduce you, Timothy, from simplicity of the mission of the church. They're going to try to get you off of the word of God and get you into some fanciful things. They'll try to get you into anything they can. The Talmudic traditions, just like the charismatic spiritual warfare that goes on today, looking for demons behind every door and everything, and giving man and his depraved, wicked nature a pass so they can blame their sins on devils. I've heard it all. Oh, you have the spirit of pornography. No, you're a pervert. You need to repent. You ain't got no spirit of pornography. You're a pervert. Repent. It's pretty easy, isn't it? Yeah, lust, that's what it's called. You have the spirit of gluttony. No, you need to practice self-control under the spirit of God. I mean, there's all kinds of things. There's all kinds of these, the demon of mind control, the demon of this, the devil of this, the devil of that. And then they go around, and all these things, I hear these charismatics, those, they want to call themselves, they won't call themselves charismatics, many of them. but they preach the same doctrines as Christians have devils and are always plagued and never delivered. I hear it all the time. Oh, they all have devils. Christians have devils. So these guys have these deliverance ministries. Well, you know what? The apostle Paul didn't walk out casting devils out of Christians. He didn't write in his epistles to cast devils out of Christians. You don't see that happening. Why? Because they don't have them, that's why. What he does tell them is, is walk in the Spirit, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. That's what he said to them. You quit looking for a devil. The one that is, it's right in the mirror. It's in the mirror. You're the problem, friend. It's your own wicked lust and your own wicked flesh. Galatians chapter 5, verse number 19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. By the way, I've seen a similar list like this by charismatic preachers. And these are all devils, these charismatic preachers. They're all the names of demons, they say. And I took that list that they had, and I compared that list with the works of the flesh, and I said, no, those aren't devils. It's you. Right? That's a bunch of fanciful nonsense and charismatic spiritual warfare that does not exist. It's to swerve you. It's to seduce you from simplicity. That's what it's for. And them charismatics are the scariest people you ever meet in your life. And ones like it that are in these deliverance, they're always afraid. Like that, well anyway, I won't get into that, because I'll save that for, anyway, I'm going to keep going. So, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies. Yeah, they had a, this charismatic preacher, he said there was a devil called heresies. I come against the devils of heresies. No, that's the work of the flesh, actually. You weirdo. Anyway. He must have, yeah. Exactly. envyings murders drunkenness revelings and such like of the witch I tell you before as I have also told you in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God what does it say here but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no law and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts but these nuts want to blame everything on devils You know what that is? It's old wives' fables that we were warned against. That's old Talmudic wives' fables. That's what that is. Or new wives' fables. But all they are are fables. Cunningly devised fables. Right? Yeah, the devil made me do it. That's right. That's what that is. You know what real Christian warfare is? By the way, they want to distract you from real Christian warfare. You know what real Christian warfare is? It's living godly every day of your life. It's waking up every day of your life, getting in your Bible, reading, praying, studying, living for God, separating from sin, being charitable to others, blessing others with your life, giving back to the Lord, battling the flesh every day, and staying faithful to God by the power of the Holy Ghost every day of your life. If you happen to run across the devil sometime, he's probably not going to want too much to do with you. when you're doing that. And yeah, they'll come and afflict you and they'll, you know, your conscience and your mind or whatever and try to, that's true. That all happens. We're not denying that. But the point is, is that we're never told to concentrate on that. We're not. In fact, turn to Luke chapter 10. Turn to Luke chapter 10, please. Luke chapter 10 verse number 19, behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you. But what does he say here? Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not. You don't have to brag about how much you have power over devils or whatever. No. You know, what does he say here? He says, notwithstanding in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Rejoice in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Rejoice in the sonship of Jesus Christ. The fact that you are a joint heir with Christ. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Not rejoicing over fighting devils. That's not to be the concentration of your life. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent as revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me of my father, and no man knoweth who the son is but the father, and who the father is but the son, and he to whom the son reveal him. You know what? We understand we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but this fanciful, intense spiritual warfare. That stuff is ridiculous. You've been watching too many, like, old episodes of superheroes. You have been reading too much Crusader Chick comic books that you think that's real life. Okay? You know, look, we're not fighting aliens and devils behind every door. Yeah, we understand there's really devils out there. And you know what? We're not called to stand in front of occult bookstores or go into them and tell them we're putting you on notice or we're starting a fight with witches. We were wrong to do that. Plain and simple. You don't see the Apostle Paul doing that. I can admit that. I can admit to you that it was wrong. I can admit that we were seduced from simplicity. That's not the battle we're supposed to be in. You go preach in the marketplace where everybody is and then witches will come along. Everybody will come along. Don't worry, you preach in the open air, all the devils come out. No matter where you're at. No matter where you're at, they come. They know how to find you. You don't gotta look for them, you sure don't have to go stir up a hornet's nest and kick it and watch all the problems. I'll tell you what that is. That was done on purpose, but not by us. Right, just to antagonize. Right, just to cause more trouble, just to antagonize and cause trouble. But you know what, that's not the fight that we're in. All that does is alert devil-possessed people that we're in the area, and they can start a PR war against us like happened, and also they can send all hell's forces after us. Like I said, we're not some guys in Chick Crusader comic books. Since when did the Apostle Paul go find the biggest, baddest witches he could and try to have intense spiritual warfare with them? Or go hang, I think it's time to go hang out in the woods and have intense spiritual warfare. Where is that? Some of you don't know what I'm talking about. Some of you other ones do know what I'm talking about, and it is funny. But I'll show you later, okay? But anyway, well, you'll find out real soon, actually. But the point is, is that that's not, that's like comic book Christianity. All right, that's not real. And that's not what we're supposed to be doing. Listen, yeah, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. That's in your prayer closet. You're praying and you're asking God to defend you, to keep you, you put on your armor and you go out and battle, but it's not to go into a cult bookstores and go talk to them and try to stir them up and be like, I just want you to know. You know what that is? That's a tactic. That was actually a tactic done to try to alert them to us. So that was about, mm-hmm, and we fell for it. Where's the say in the Bible we need to go look for Bigfoot, black-eyed children, or anything else to further the gospel? You know, if I find Bigfoot, somebody's gonna get saved. Look, if I go beat Bigfoot up in the name of Jesus, people are gonna get saved. Yeah, if I go find vampires, and werewolves, and shape-shifting fallen angels that punch trees really hard, if I do that, people are gonna get saved. Where is that the gospel? Yeah, with the flat earth gospel, yeah. No, we're to preach the word of God and call men to repentance. And whatever the marketplace is, there's going to be witches, sorcerers, pagans, strippers, drunks, sinners all over the place that need to be saved. You're not going to have to go looking for them. They're going to be there. And their guard's not going to be up as much as it's going to be when you're standing right in front of them. Because I find it really fascinating that the goal of some people was to alert witches and people like that to who we are. Wasn't my goal. I didn't even know anything about him. Remember, he knew everything about him. He wrote everything. He had all the knowledge. Everything was done by him. He did everything, remember? That was well said. And we have erred in the past fighting another war that is some charismatic warfare. I don't know we didn't speak in tongues and do all those other things. My point is that it's a fanciful warfare. It's not a sober look. It's being seduced from simplicity. I see men all over the place falling for this though. It's not just You know, us standing in front of a cult bookstore or whatever and preaching like that. Not that there's a sin in standing anywhere and preaching. It's the point of going there and doing that that way. It doesn't prove how spiritual you are. It's stupid. Then you see these men doing this, these deliverance ministry, casting devils out of Christians and all kinds of other things that don't add up scripturally. Why? They're subverted, just like Bill Schnebelin, sucking men of the Hebrew Roots movement. seduced from simplicity. We can't allow ourselves to be distracted by such things. While spiritual warfare is real and we have an enemy, we have a great Savior, and we need to know more about Him than about anyone or anything else. We need to make more about Jesus and His kingdom, not turn a blind eye to Satan's kingdom. Understand that we're in a real war. But you know what the Bible says in Mark chapter 13 verse number 22, for false Christ and false prophets shall rise and shall show signs and wonders to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. They'll seduce them. It's always a little twist, a little turn, just enough to seduce from simplicity, just enough. Next, we can become distracted or imbalanced or even seduced through street preaching. You know, or online ministry. You can take either one of those, street preaching or online ministries. And what I mean by that, because we're to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And yes, the Great Commission is important. It is what God has commanded us to do. And we must preach the gospel in the open air. But you know what? I've seen it so many times with street preachers. We can be seduced very easily into turning into the rebukinator. where you're on the street and rebuke is all you're preaching, and you're not really giving them the gospel or calling men to repent. Yes, you preach the law, schoolmaster. We understand all that, okay? But it becomes rebuking everybody for everything. You cannot take it, and I failed at this. I can admit it. I failed at this, not being able to take an insult from somebody when they go by you and to happen to respond to that. We don't have to respond to every insult that's given to us. Shouldn't we suffer reproach for Christ's sake? Isn't he worth it? So I've failed at that myself. I already know that. I can admit that. It's just one thing that a lot of Pharisees don't understand is I don't have a problem admitting when I'm wrong. You're just not gonna get me to admit something I didn't do. I won't do it. Where I'm wrong, I'll admit it. But you're not gonna get me to admit to something I didn't do. I'll never do that. That's wicked. But you end up, but you know these street preachers, what ends up happening though is they become a street preacher wherever they go and whatever they do. So, with their wives they become a street preacher. And they're rebuking their wives over everything. With their family, they become a street preacher, and they start rebuking their family over everything. With everything, they become like this rebukinator, and then they basically turn it inwardly to the church and start rebuking and finding fault everywhere with their brothers, and they can't get along with anybody. Pretty soon, they're the only spiritual one, and they can't get along with anybody, and they gotta leave because they're too holy for everybody else. That would kind of make you do a video. It would make you do a video You know, and talk about how bad everybody else was in the church, even though you went there for two and a half years. But devils revealed unto you that you weren't supposed to be there. Oh. Well. Yeah. For having a conversation with devils, I figured out I wasn't supposed to be there. End quote. Anyway, when somebody becomes a rebukinator like that, what happens to them? They become completely imbalanced. We had to correct this a year ago because that was happening a lot. And you become somebody with no charity. You can't take anything at all. You can't take any type of wrongdoing. I mean, you hammer your wife about everything. It ends up being that somebody hammers their wife. Some of those guys, I've seen them. A lot of these strippers, they'll hammer their wife about everything. Every little flaw they have. If their wife isn't up to speed with where they are spiritually, or they think they are. And then they end up blaming me and acting like it's my fault that they did that to their wives. I don't do that to my wife. And I've never told anybody to do that to their wife. In fact, if you listen to everything that I preach, it's complete opposite. And if you say, you're a liar, plain and simple. But you know what, it's so easy for us to be seduced and just be, and get tunnel vision. Where we no longer see the bigger picture anymore, it's just focused on one thing. And then your whole life becomes rebuke. And then I've seen these guys, they don't even preach the gospel. They turn into Reuben Israels and they're out there, they're not even preaching the gospel. They're just telling lesbians they hope they die, they hope they get AIDS, all this other stuff. That's not preaching. That's hate. That's not love. Why would you hope somebody gets that? I don't want my worst enemy to get that. And I have a lot of enemies. But I don't want that to happen to any of them. But it's being seduced from simplicity. Next. Oh, by the way, here's another one that people can be seduced with, and that's conspiracy theories. Okay? Now I believe that conspiracy theories, I believe there's a lot of truth to conspiracies. I believe that, it's out there. And as I, did you hear the, did you hear the dun dun dun? Nobody, who was playing that? The conspiracy music, did you hear that in the background? That was totally awesome right there. Boom, boom, boom. I don't know how I trained Charity to do that, but she's only 14 months old and she did that. So that was good timing. Anyway, give her a cookie later for that. But you know what? With conspiracies, yeah, I believe conspiracies, I believe there's truth to a lot of them. But what ends up happening is eventually everything is a conspiracy, nothing's real. Somebody can die right in front of you, it's like, yo, it's a conspiracy, it wasn't real. It wasn't real, it didn't really happen. Nobody really dies, and there's like, you know, you see the morgue taking people, or the, I mean, taking away body bags or whatever, and like, nobody's really dying there. That didn't really happen. And then like, as soon as a tragedy happens, somebody makes a video about how it's a hoax. You know, and it's fake, and that didn't really happen, and everything else like that. And then that's like, so pretty soon nobody ever dies. Nothing ever bad happens. And that's what we've kind of, with social media is the rise of that. And you can get carried away with that stuff. To where your whole mind is like looking for a conspiracy. And it can't just be like normal people that like this happened to. Everything's a conspiracy. Everything's a lie. Everything's a conspiracy. Everything's that way. Right? Again, I believe that there are some. And there's a lot of them. And I've preached on them. You know my stand on those. But you can also get carried away with that. Where nothing's real anymore. You know? You just lose balance of everything. And you get seduced from simplicity, and now nothing is simple, good, evil. It doesn't become that simple anymore. You know, and then also, seduced from simplicity about the man Christ Jesus, about who Jesus is. There's so many. Turn to 1 John, chapter 2. I'm gonna read these to you, and then we're pretty much done here. Verse John chapter 2, verse number 8. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which things is true in him and in you, because the darkness is past, the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. Whose name? Jesus. He's talking about Jesus Christ here. I write unto you fathers because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you young men because you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you little children because you have known the father. I have written unto you fathers because you have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you young men because you are strong and the word of God abideth in you and you have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." Little children, it is the last time. And as ye have heard, that Antichrist shall come. Even now are there many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. Yep. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. What's he talking about? Some of the falling away. Some of men falling away. There's that foreground, four seeds, right? The fourth one, the good ground. The other three, not good ground. No fruit. Christians always produce some fruit. Always some fruit. Some 30, some 60, some 100. Exactly. He said that it might be made manifest that they were not all of us. But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ, he is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that ye have promised us, even eternal life. Notice what he says here, though. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which you have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of Him." Now, he says he's teaching on Christ, and he's talking about another Christ. And we've went through this before, John 1, 1 John 1, Colossians 1, Hebrews 1, all deal with Christ, his Godhead, they deal with the Trinity, they deal with all those other verses that we'll talk about sometimes. But, you know, there's a lot of people out there that are, they're in Arianism, is it Modalism, is that what it's called? Also, they're into that, they don't believe in the God of the Bible, they don't believe in the Jesus of the Bible, and they are cunning and they are very crafty with how they do it. They're very tricky with how they do it, but they are there to deceive. And the Bible is very clear that we need to be careful not to be seduced away from the Christ of the Bible, from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus. Be very careful that no man seduce you. You know, you stay firm and you believe what the Word of God says. Because you know what? We can be seduced by the slight of men and by the subtlety of Satan to get us off of what the church is supposed to be doing. of what our goal is, of what our scriptural goals are. We can, in your own personal life, you can be seduced from simplicity, and you can be off studying other things instead of the word of God, instead of what you're supposed to be doing, and instead of staying in there. And you can be seduced by this spiritual warfare that is like a comic book spiritual, charismatic spiritual warfare that's not even real. And it's there because, you know what? It can be fascinating to think about. You know, fighting the devil and fighting this. Stories like, yeah, and Satan really came to me. Oh, so you know it was Satan. Like, why, did he have his name badge on or something? Did he have a name badge on that said, yes, I am Satan? And would you believe a devil if it told you it was Satan? You would believe it, like, automatically? Like his devils don't lie? Really? Because he feels different? How do you know? How many experiences have you had with Satan? See what I mean? I just wish that examination would have been done earlier. That's all. But you live and learn. You live and learn. But, you know, seduced from simplicity, we have to be careful. We have to watch and be aware. Father, Lord, help us. Help us to have our discernment and our senses exercised to be able to discern both good and evil. And help us, Lord, never to be seduced. And forgive us where we were, Lord, where we were taken off course, where we were steered the wrong way, where we were served, swerved away from the truth. And Lord, help us to stand bold in the faith and be strong. Help us now, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.