of this, things are different now. I think there's a song out, Things Are Different Now. And you can turn to 1 Timothy. I won't deal with this, and a lot of them as extensively as I want to and will do it in the future. But I think there's my point that I'm trying to stress is how things have changed. They're not like they used to be. Everybody says, I love that old-time religion. But this isn't old-time religion anymore. It's changed. Things are different than when we even started. There's a different spirit. I talk about Matthias all the time. We talk about a different spirit in the churches now. different spirit in listening and get involved in the service and worshiping. And it's just, it's changed. And there's a lot of things that's changed it. But I want to deal primarily in this study, how subtly they changed our worship. It's done through words. changing words, the meaning of words. I read A.W. Tozer's book, one of his books. He had a list, I believe, about 15 words that were really tied to doctrines, major doctrines. And I remember in Tozer's book, and this would have to go back in the 50s. He died in the 60s. This would have to go back in the 50s or 40s that he wrote this book. And he said of those 15 words, he said, every one of them, they have changed the meaning of these words. And every one of them was tied some way to a doctrine. And so it just gives you an idea of what we're facing in our day. The deception is great. And I hope to show that, how subtle it is. Our enemy is a master at playing with words. He tricked Eve with words. And everywhere you read, you'll see that it shows how he just is so subtle. and the way of the play of words. And it is what's brought in much of this apostasy, much of the change of doctrines. I wish I could say the doctrines are like they were back in the 40s and 50s, but they're not. They're changed. You could take the one doctrine that Jesus said, accept your repentance, you'll perish. If you listen, if you listen to most of the easy believism, they never mention that word repentance. And they treat it as just saying, you're sorry. That's not repentance. And that's just a small example of the changing. And I'm going to try to find many words that they've changed the meaning of, changed the whole doctrine. just by manipulating these words in the minds of people. We'll read a little here and then I might skip, I got a few minutes. 1 Timothy chapter four. Now, the Spirit speaketh expressively. He's speaking openly, concerningly, troubled about this, giving a loud voice on it of just what is going on. He's wanting to drill it into people's minds. It's forcefully is what he's speaking, that in the latter times, and this is what we're dealing with. think that these latter times are here yet. They've been here for a good while. The mystery of iniquity already worketh. And when you get all that in your mind, you've got the spirits working continually, already preparing What are they prepared for? They're preparing for the Antichrist to where the people will worship him. And so it's subtle how deceptive it is that the religions are going to keep joining more and more together. And you'll see, just as you begin to realize how they've changed these doctrines, what happens. Notice he says, speaks expressively that in latter times, some shall depart from the faith. Some are just going to leave. They're going to leave faith, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, Believe it in the doctrines of the Word of God about salvation, about service, about giving, or whatever it might be. They're changing their faith. They're giving up. They're turning away. They're apostatizing. They're depart from the faith. Notice what they're going to do, though, giving. And this is what's causing it. This is the why. Why are they leaving? Who talked to him? What happened to him? I mean, you might have seen him before, but you'd never believe that these people... You've seen people that you'd never... Over the years, I've seen people that I thought was great Christians. After the years passed by, they turned away from God, wouldn't even come to church. I thought, how can they do that? How can they do that? Well, it tells you, it gives you an idea here. It says, given heed, giving heed to seducing spirits, giving heed to these apostate spirits, these spirits of, notice it is, of seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Now, that's just not written there just to read it like it isn't going to happen or hasn't happened or it isn't really reaching many people. This is reaching most everybody to some extent, some way. And you've seen it work on people. You've seen people throwing their towels. I ain't going no more. I don't care, you know. Give up, going back to your old life. And you wonder, what happened? And here's a spirit world. Just like you read over in Ephesians 6, talks about you're fighting against doctrines of devils and you're fighting against all these spiritual wickedness in high places, it says. And so you are, there is a spirit war going on. There is demons. They didn't all leave when Jesus left. You do have demonic spirits. You read about them in Revelation. You read about them in the times of Christ. They haven't gone. They haven't quit. They haven't given up. They've just gotten sharper in the way they're dealing with things. And so these are spirits. They're spirits that cause people to turn. turn away from the truth, and they're given by the spirits. It's the spirit of apostasy. The word seducive spirits means it's pulling away, pulling them away from God. And so these spirits, they work on you. You don't have to go to church. You ever hear people say, you don't have to go to church? No one says, you don't got to go. I mean, I still love God. I believe in God. It's a spirit that does that. It's a spirit that says you don't need church. It's a spirit that says you don't need to read your Bible. It's a spirit that says you don't need to worship. It's a spirit that says you don't need to pray. It's an evil spirit. It's a doozy, pulling you, apostate spirit that's pulling you away from obeying God, serving God, loving God, worshiping God, believing God. People cast off their faith, you could say. And you'll see that in Timothy. I can read some other places here to you, but I'm saying to you, it's, it's a, it's a power of demonic spirits. And certainly they, they use, sometimes they use preachers. You'll find them in second Corinthians that the devil's preachers that can preach righteousness to a certain extent. It's a subtle thing because some preachers can preach. Man, I've heard him preach hard. I mean hard on sin. I mean, just really, I mean, put you under the seat, turn around, make a joke out of it. Got the people laughing. Holy Spirit of God is within a hundred miles of that stuff. I'm saying to you, it's a very subtle thing. This is, it's a spirit war. Spirited in high places as I said in Ephesians chapter 6 while you armed yourself and give you an idea what the enemy is like So these are one that's Speaking lies in hypocrisy speaking lies in hypocritical ways, like they have something going for them. They really have a relationship with God. They really know their Bible, and they're speaking lies and hypocrisy. They don't have anything. They don't know God. They're not of God. But they're hypocrites, and people believe them through these spirits of persuasion, through these spirits of wisdom of words. And they know how. I was thinking about this, and I was thinking, let me give you an example. If I stood a man up over here that had been in a seminary, he's got two or three degrees in preaching, in ministering, in evangelism, whatever the degrees he had, doctor's degrees, and you got a guy over here I hate to use the man that's passed away. Okay, I'll take a dummy like me. I'll give you an example. If it was weighed out a subject, a doctrinal subject, a deep doctrinal subject, who do you think most people would have put their souls, confidence in? Who do you think they're going to trust? I'm the majority. Don't think just yourself. Don't think just yourself. Who do you think the majority of people are going to do? They're going to pick that educated guy. They're going to pick that guy he ought to know. He's got degrees in theology. I got one in theology, but he's got all kinds of degrees in theology. He ought to know. Well, I wouldn't take that guy over there. What does he know? He has a poor vocabulary, blah, blah, blah. Man by wisdom knew not God. You know one of the hardest part of Christianity is just believing the Bible, all the Bible, where it fits in. And I'm telling you, people trust wisdom of this world, intellect. They figure people that are really sharp with a vocabulary, they can't be wrong. And so they got to be right. They can't be wrong. Well, you got to be kidding. It's a very subtle, deceptive thing. And people trust the wisdom of this world, not what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1, not chapter two, excuse me, about verse four or five. Instead of having their faith in the wisdom of man, it's supposed to be in the P-O-W-E-R, the power, not the preacher, in the power of God, their faith is supposed to rest in. I can take it back to you, but I'm saying to you, this is the subtleness of the deception of our day. It's a word war. A war of words of just causing delusion, confusion, causing people to misunderstand, causing people to think things that ours isn't right. And I'm afraid it's too subtle for me. I mean, you think it's easy to diagnose and easy to detect. It's easy to catch them. No, it's not. They'll take a spiritual word here, spiritual word here, and they'll connect them and they're not to be connected. The Bible says word of study to be able to rightly divide the word of truth. Every, every occult, every occult would take a word out of the Bible here and a word over here. Those Russellites, I don't call them what they call themselves, but they took that 1,000, and used it. That's going to be them. You hear him talk about it all the time. They grabbed that to base a lot of their religion in over in revelation of just a thousands going. And you can't, I don't care who it is. You take all the old preachers used to call them water dogs. They believe in baptismal regeneration. that big church over here that's not telling the truth to the people. And most churches are doing that nowadays. They want to identify what kind of church they are. And so they just call it like, put a name on it. And they put the bridge on there. They call it the bridge church. Well, what is it? If my wife was living, I could get her to stand up and say to her, honey, who told us that she got baptized over there and she says, it was so beautiful. She said, I just saw my sins float away. Do you realize she might be in hell because of that? And we're not supposed to say nothing. Us preachers are supposed to keep our mouth. You can't condemn. Well, where's the authority of the Bible? How do you teach people what is right and wrong? How are you going to instruct them in righteousness? Well, God said to condemn them. God says to expose them. That's what he's telling us here. That's why this is coming out strong. The Spirit speaketh expressively, forcefully. You better listen to this. There's people out there with spirits that can change you, change your mind about your faith. I told you about that preacher's daughter that the Russellites got. Had her fully convinced there was no hell. Most of those occults don't believe in a burning hell. Most of them don't believe it. And here she said on her dad, he was a good preacher. He was a precious man. Him and his wife, I knew him well. Precious people. And their daughter was deceived. But he kept praying and she got back. She woke up in the middle of the night, thought she's going to hell and she went back to see her dad. I'm saying to you, speaking lies in a hypocrisy, having their conscience the only hope you have of knowing right and wrong. That inner voice, that inner enlightenment, that conscience God gives you, even as a young person, as a young child, they tell a little lie, a little fib, they do something, And if every one of them tell you the truth, and they say, no, I didn't do it, but if you could get them aside and say, did that bother you to say that? Did it bother you when you used to tell your parents and lie to them? That's that conscience. What chance have you got, what hope you got, if you don't have a conscience? searing that conscious, wasting that conscious, throwing that conscious away with subtle words, deceptive words. Doctrines of devils. It's frightful. It's frightful to even think about it, how subtly they work on people, their hypocrisy, They're actors, and they can act like they really know the things of God. Turn to me quick, and I'll close. Turn to 2 Peter, not far over. 2 Peter. I want you to see these play on words. 2 Peter chapter 2. Read your Bible, read your Bible. But there are false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be, this is for us now, shall be false teachers among you. Let me stop right here. Paul says in the book of Acts, he says, they'll rise up among you, write your own church. He says, there shall be false teachers among you who privately shall bring in, and you're not swearing. What's that saying? It's they're condemned to hell. It says damnable. That means soul-destroying heresies. Doctrines of devils, that's what it is. It's just soul-destroying heresies. that people are gonna hear that's gonna destroy them. How many do you think are destroyed already by easy believism? And you can't touch them, you can't convince them. I don't care what you do, what you say. I don't care how loving and kind and take your Bible. and say there's more to experience a relationship of salvation than just saying, I believe. There's something that's got to deal with all of you. It's got to deal with your body, soul, mind, and spirit. The song says, I surrender all. If a man saves his life, he loses it. It's a total commitment. It's you give up everything. It's not, well, I won't do it. No, no, no, no. Salvation is you give up all for the cause of Christ. And they've worded it so now that all you've got to do is just say, do you believe this? Yes. I mean, that's pretty easy. I mean, the Bible says if you'll do this, you'll be saved. Do you believe that? Yeah. Well, let's pray. You're saved. It's not a joke. It's not funny. It's terrible. I got family members, you got family members that believe a lie. Did you get that? They're believing a lie. And we're not bothered much by it. I like it when that ruler of India told that one missionary, he says, if I believe what you're saying, he said, if it was true what you're saying, he said, I'd get on my knees and crawl in glass across this country to tell people. Hard for us to say a prayer. Your kids are going to hell. Your mom's going to hell. Your dad's going to hell. Yeah. Look, what do you expect me to do? Boy, do you realize how bad it is? Realize how much they're stealing our loved ones? Realize how blind they're making them, and whom the God of this world blinds the mind, lest they believe. That's a demonic spirit. Just blocking God out. Just blocking God out. He said, even denying the Lord that bought them. What do you mean denying the Lord? Denying that He can save, denying that He really is the only Savior, really denying what His Word is, what He says, denying His authority, denying Him being the only Savior. I had four young boys in UVA questioning me, talking one day. We was building a building down there. And they were my helpers. Of all helpers, I had helpers. Now, preacher, we don't believe like you do. We don't believe the end is going to like you say. We have a different belief in eternities and things like that than you do. They don't make it right. That'll make it safe. You see, people really do. They really do. You can argue this out of your mind all you want to. They really trust themselves. What is the two words they say? I know. I know. I know. Or you get the new statement now. I'm, what's that word? It's a word you should never say that way. You should never make that connection. I'm good. Do some of your kin say that to you? I'm good. I'm good. I'm quitting. Here we go. Look closely at this thing. Damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, bring upon themselves swift destruction. Verse two, here's our kin. And many shall follow their pernicious ways, their wicked ways, their deceitful ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." Would you agree that old-time religion of people really having it was necessary? Now, I can remember back, and I think some of you can, it was back in the early 60s and the 60s, that most of your old preachers would preach this, that there has to be, if a person doesn't have Holy Ghost conviction, they'll never be converted. You heard it over and over again. Old preachers say, has to be Holy Ghost conviction on the inside. You don't hear it now. And many shall follow their pernicious ways, their lost ways, their ways of eternity by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. Look at verse 3 in Al-Quid. And through their covetousness shall they with what kind of words? Fiend words. You see, I keep telling you, it's words. It's a play on words. Fiend words. Actually means artificial, made-up words. All that kind of words that they say to people that you can be saved, they're fiend words. They're lying words. They're deceitful words. They made them up. Did you ever lie? Listen carefully. Listen to me real carefully. Listen to me real carefully. If you convince, if you can, if you can convince a person to get saved, somebody can convince them they're not saved. It's not meant to be in your power. It's meant to be in the Holy Ghost power. Anything you can do, Believe me, the devil can undo. Anything the Holy Ghost can do, he can't rule over that, overrule it. He can't take it away. Once the Holy Spirit of God's on the inside, guess who's gonna make you win the battle? You should be overcomers. And through fiend words, make merchandise of you. You want to know what they're doing? You can write down there. They're buying and selling your soul. Merchandise. Making merchandise of your soul. Fiend words. They know how to say it. I remember that one guy, he had a special way. I remember I used to try to just read some of what they did and how they trick people into salvation. I mean, literally trick them. One of the ways is you don't let them take over the conversation. You command the conversation and you make them say this and this, and you put these words in their mouth, bow your head, now you can repeat right after me. You know, you know that's not Holy Ghost salvation. Fiend words, made up words, made up false doctrines, doctrines of devils. The doctrine of easy believism is a devilish doctrine. And yea, millions will die believing just like in Matthew 7. Lord, Lord, did you see what we've done? Look at all the mighty works we did. Look at the churches we built. Look at all the things we did. Look at the people we reached. I never know yet. Never knew you. See, people aren't taking that serious. You can't go another way other than what the Bible teaches. Jesus is, and the only one is. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is. And the Holy Spirit of God, He said, He's gonna speak of Me, Jesus. When he has come, he'll speak of me. And he's the only one that can speak of you, of him to you. I can't get to your spirit. I can't get to your spirit inside. There's no way I can deal with that. That's not my territory. That's the spiritual territory. It takes the Holy Ghost of God to get into that spirit of a man. Spirit to conviction, spirit to convince, spirit to save. He does it all. He convicts, convinces, And then he not only that, he gives us a clear conscience, void of offense, I belong to Jesus, my sins are covered. No, no, my sins are taken away. They're not covered, they're taken away. Let's stand. The more you study this, the more I dig into it, the more it troubles me how subtle. You go home and look it in Ephesians 4 and you'll see these words in Ephesians 4. It'll tell you, listen to these words in Ephesians 4. Let me see if I can get it right quick for you. It just shows you how how this happens. Here you're trying to teach a guy, train a guy, and the Bible says in Ephesians 4, he says, that henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine, or slight of men, slight of men, or every slight of, where am I at, a slight of men, and, you know the next two words, cunning, Craftiness. Cunning craftiness. It carries with it the meaning of just being able to really convince people and trick them, fool them. Cunning craftiness. The Bible tells you what it is. How we need to dig in this Bible, and let it rule and reign over our lives. I don't care what anybody says. It don't matter what anybody says. It don't matter what I say, anybody says. It really is the final authority for what you believe and how you live. It is the authority. Father, in Jesus' name, help us to be better stewards of your word. Help us to be people that study to show ourselves approved. We're not ashamed of what we believe. We know what you say is true, and we know how to rightly divide it. I thank for these that come out tonight. I pray for those at home. I pray, Lord, it should work in their lives. They'd get in this book, dig in this book, study this book to know you. I love you, and I thank you for your grace and mercy. In Jesus' name, amen, amen. Yours, Mr.