Amen. Let's pray a wee moment as we stand here. Father, we thank Thee for the fellowship of the saints here in this meeting, the joy of singing together these great hymns of the faith. And Lord, this is a great challenge that we would go into all the world and preach the gospel. We know that this is not physically possible, even for any one person to do. But as a part of Your church, we have an interest in reaching the world. We pray for our missionaries. We pray for every faithful missionary of the cross. that this message that Jesus saves will reach the unreached today, those that are in darkness, those that are born into lands without the gospel. Grant, Lord, that the light of the name of Jesus will be shed abroad far and wide. We ask Thee to help us tonight in Your Word. Lord, we just submit ourselves to its authority. We realize that we can say nothing beyond the book, but we must be faithful to everything that's in the book. And I pray for that tonight. Lord, make me to tremble at Your Word, and I do, Lord. I fear that I handle Your Word unadvisedly, that I do not preach the fullness of the Word to the souls of men. And grant, Lord, that we might be found faithful in delivering the message this evening, and that You will use it and glorify Your name even through this passage of Your Word this evening. We ask this, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you. 2 Peter 2, then, is our passage, and we've been getting into the first couple of verses already, and we hope to continue on a little bit. Our theme, our subject tonight is, why are phony preachers the most popular in this world? Now, you'll notice something in this passage, that the Apostle Peter moves from false prophets in the Old Testament to false teachers in the New. and he switches the type of office. from prophet to teacher in the New Testament. And that is because after Peter died, and that was his concern, that after his death, these false teachers would arise. After Peter died, and after all the apostles died, there would be no more prophecy. There would be no more revelation from heaven, because it was through the prophets that the New Testament was completed. The church is built on Jesus Christ, the prophets, and the apostles. And once the apostles died, there was no more revelation. The word of God was complete. And you will read that in Revelation 22, 18, 19. We're not to add to this book, nor are we to take away from it. And so if someone comes along and says, I have a new revelation from God, We say, well, God might be leading you to do something, but it has nothing for the church. It has nothing for the people of God. Everything that God has to say is right here in this Word. Now, a couple of weeks ago, we looked at the word interpretation, back in chapter 1 and verse 20. And I went to some length to explain that there is a problem with that translation. And the Authorized Version is not alone in this. The majority of translations have a difficulty here. And the difficulty is that the Greek word behind this word, interpretation, is only once in all of the New Testament. And so we cannot compare, we cannot say, well, it's used here, here, here, and here in a certain way, let's apply it the same way here. It's only found once in the New Testament. Now, we therefore applied the principle of Bible hermeneutics or Bible study of we allow the context to dictate the meaning of the word. And we learned as we read on through from verse 20 to 21, that this word private interpretation is referring to revelation. It's referring to more of God giving His Word. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man. It's referring to the manner in which God gave His Word. And so we explain that the word interpretation means origination. That the Word of God is by no private interpretation for or because the prophecy came, not in old time, by the will of man. Man was not the prime mover. Man was moved to write the Word, but the Holy Spirit was the originator. But when teachers are assigned to the church, their work is interpretation. And one of the problems in the church is that we have an infallible book that is divinely inspired and verbally inspired, word for word. Every word that we have behind the text of our English Bible, the Holy Ghost gave that word, moving men to write. We have a perfect book, an infallible book. But the problem is, we are fallible interpreters. And in the church of the Lord, you will have many people say, no, it means this. someone else will object, no, it means that. And here you have the same passage, the same portion of Scripture, and you will have different views. There is no infallible interpreter. Not even John Calvin, who, let me say, was in the Reformation the outstanding, critical linguist who could get to the very original Scriptures and expound it in its fullness. That's why when you preach and teach on a portion of God's Word, we will consult not just one commentary, but two, three, sometimes four, more. And we will see what the giants of the faith, the sound men of the church, have said about that portion of Scripture. And very often we find that they're very, very good at explaining the nice, simple things in the Bible. But when you come to the difficult things, they just don't say very much, or they say nothing, and they move on to the next verse, and we're left wondering, how do we understand this passage of the Scriptures? Now I'm saying all this tonight because we are called here by Peter to withstand false teachers. It is wrong to go into the church, take your seat, listen to the sermon, and agree with everything that comes from the pulpit. Now I might be shooting myself in the foot here tonight by saying that. I might even preach myself out of a job if I'm not careful. But we must be Bereans. The Bible commands us all to search the Scripture to see if these things be so. And the reason is we are warned here by Peter and elsewhere in the Bible of false teachers who use many devices and craft and even satanic energy to deceive, and to propound error, and to undermine the truth. And we need to be able to discern truth from error. We're called to exercise biblical judgment. Every Christian is called to be a picker of fruit, a fruit picker. Because the Lord Jesus said, by their fruits, Ye shall know them." Now, as in a plant, a shrub, a tree that bears fruit, it usually takes a whole season. And I don't advocate judging a preacher by his first sermon, unless he's totally off the wall. Give him some time. That's why I would say to anyone thinking about joining a church, attend for a year before you even consider joining the church. Why? Because you want to observe the fruit. You hear good words. You hear things that might please. You hear things that others are commending. But the fruit takes time to observe. And that's why Christians need that patience, that they might observe those things. We looked at a text last night, last Sunday evening, about try the spirits. There is a judgment call. And for those who may not have been with us last week, I say again, do not be disarmed by that statement of the social gospel people who say what Jesus said, judge not that ye be not judged. And then you are disarmed by saying, well, you haven't a right to say anything about anyone who calls themselves a Christian and either says, thinks, or does in any which way. That is absolutely wrong. And it is abused by the liberal element who say, what right have you to criticize? That's negative. That's not Christian. The Bible commands you to judge. In fact, you're judging every day. You're to walk in the truth. You're to walk circumspectly. You are to judge between right and wrong, good and evil. That's the calling of the Christian, to a high and holy calling, where we learn to do the right and stay clear of the wrong. That also means that we need the tools to interpret the Bible properly. And God has ordained teachers of the Bible, and they are called to preach and teach the Word. And a godly, God-sent Bible preacher-teacher is a gift from God. He has a calling from God, and God raises him up, and he becomes a gift to the church. And the church should be praying, Lord, raise up men, men who know the book, men who love the Word, men who tremble at the need to be faithful in the ministry, lest we become a problem or damned souls instead of seeing souls saved. The Lord has told us to pray for laborers. Though fields are white unto harvest, pray that the Lord will raise up laborers and thrust them out into the harvest. What is the great need of the nations of the world? The preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, such faithful men will be trained to some degree, and they will be bound by a confession. Tonight you are worshiping in a confessional church. Now, don't think that means Roman Catholic something. A confessional church is not a box in the corner where you meet with the pastor or, in a Roman Catholic church, a priest, and you confess your sins to him. A confessional church means that we have a very in-depth written statement of doctrine, and it's called the Westminster Confession of Faith. And typically around the world, that's what Presbyterians sign on to as the doctrine of the church. Now, it's safe because it's old. It's not written in our generation. It was written even before I was born, and my father was born, and my grandfather was born. It goes all the way back to 1647. And of course, modernists and liberals hate it because it's old. And it's written, and it's fixed, and Christians are familiar with it. They don't know the confession, they know the catechism. Longer, larger, or shorter. And these confessional doctrinal statements are to be guides. What does the Bible teach on a certain doctrine? Let's see what is in the confession. They are a guide to the preacher. He signs it as his confession of faith. And that's the doctrine then he sets about to preach. And so he is called. to be faithful to the Word and faithful to the doctrines. The people also have the confession, and they can read it, and maybe something strange was taught in the church, something that doesn't sound right. You have a tool to check it out. You have a confession. It's not very long. It's thorough. It's wordy. But anyone with an average intelligence can go to that confession and can say, is what the preacher said in line with what is in the Word? Now, having said all that tonight, that we need to be fruit pickers, we need to exercise judgment, we need to pray for God to give us teachers who will be faithful to the Word, We need to be Bereans who know how to search the Word, and we need to belong to a confessional church. I would never advocate anybody to join a church that is not confessional, because there's too much wiggle room. There's too much freedom for any man to come to the pulpit and preach his new ways, and there's nothing to compare it and check it by. That's the difficulty in community-type churches, in sometimes independent churches, congregational churches. There is no thorough statement. Now, I know they'll say they'll have a statement of faith, but it might be about 10 lines long, and it might be something very basic. So, always look for a confessional church. Now, the big thing that you need to notice here, the one thing you need to look for when you are going to check out those who might be false teachers, and Peter's advice to you in verse 2 is, do not be fooled by popularity. The one thing you do not do is to make popularity the rule of the faithful minister or ministry. And unfortunately, that's the thing that impresses people most. Where there's the big gathering, a lot of people, and there seems to be a big buzz about the place, they say, well, this is exciting, and God is working here. Well, there are some huge ministries around the world where you might get congregations, maybe 20,000 people. Can you imagine? It's like organizing a sizable Sports event for every gathering of the church. Thousands gathering in. And in these places, of course, they have big money, big media. They have talented people. They have staff to look after many aspects of that ministry and make it shine. And they do. Very professional. They use their skills and expertise very well. Collaborative teamwork. And they can hire and fire at will to make sure they get it done the way they want. Now, if you're going to follow the line of popularity, we should all be Mormons tonight. Because the Mormons, they're really growing around the world. Really growing. Or some of the other cults. Or maybe the Roman Catholic Church that has its millions and millions of adherents and members. Now note what Peter said about these popular teachers—false teachers. He says in verse 2, "...many shall follow their pernicious ways." For about ten days now, I've been trying to get my mind around the word pernicious. Sometimes I play little games when I think about things. I like to use the word in every way I can—pernicious. But pernicious is an oily word. It's very slippery. It's hard to get a hold of this word. The Greek word behind it is apoleia, and it's translated in our English Bible a whole list of ways—ruin, Waste, perdition, die, destruction, destroy, damnation, all of these terms are used in translating this word in various parts of our New Testament. And it seems that our translators could not get a handle on one particular word or thought that supported this word, Apelea. they used a whole bunch of synonyms. And sometimes that's a good way to learn the definition of a word, a term, is to look at all the synonyms behind it. And so we realize that these teachers who use their pernicious ways They're certainly not doing souls good. They're destroying, they're wasting, they're leading to damnation. And over there in verse 1, he talks about, "...who privilege shall bring in damnable heresies." So these pernicious ways are like what our Lord Jesus said, that they will come as wolves in sheep's clothing. And outwardly they might appear to be very mild and meek, But inwardly, they are ready to devour the flock. I wonder on this Sunday, across our country and across our city, how many people were sitting in pews where there was in the pulpit a wolf in sheep's clothing. A man, well, had all the appearance of ministerial status. He might have a gown. He might have a shirt, tie, and suit. He might have all the appearance of pastor and teacher and minister of the church, and he might have a Bible. He will lead the service, but how many have a totally different agenda from speaking the truth? They have words of butter, skilled at deception. And you'll notice here it says, the way of truth, verse 2 I'm looking at here, the end of verse 2, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. Now the thing to note, they don't leave the truth alone. They don't just walk away from the truth and say, forget it. They attack the truth. These wolves in sheep's clothing, these false teachers, they with an energy and a zeal set about undermining the truth. And for all their nonsense that God is dead, they spend an awful lot of time writing books and attacking God and His truth. Where did they get this energy? Where do they get this zeal for a lie? I have spent many years trying to find an answer to that question. At our youth meeting last Sunday evening, after our evening service, I spoke to the young people about this. My answer, and I believe the Bible has an answer here for us, is in 1st or 2nd Corinthians. I sometimes get mixed up in these two passages. It has to be 2 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 11 is the communion passage, so it has to be 2 Corinthians, and it's chapter 11, verse 12. And it says here, but what I do that... 2 Corinthians 11, 12. Yes, but what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion, that wherein they glory they may be found as we. For such are false apostles." Now, Paul is here speaking in the present. There were those who were attacking him in his lifetime. They were claiming to be apostles with apostolic powers, and he called them false apostles. deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ, and no marvel for Satan himself. is transformed into an angel of light. And I think that passage answers the question, where do false teachers get their zeal? What is it that makes the Jehovah's Witnesses knock doors on a Saturday morning with repeated zeal and energy? I wish I could get free Presbyterians to do door-to-door work the way the Jehovah's Witnesses can do. Where do they get this drive? How can they be so organized? How can they be so seemingly committed? There's another energy at work, and we trace it right to the dark work of the devil, who is the enemy of the truth. Now I come to my topic tonight. How and why are false teachers so popular that many follow their pernicious ways? First of all, let me say this. God says there is judgment. False teachers will say there is no such thing as judgment. And that's why they're popular. Look at verse 3. And through covetousness shall they with fiend words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." Peter says that these very false teachers are themselves already under judgment, and it will not linger. Peter goes on to talk about God, how he spared not the angels. that sinned. They were put out of heaven. They were pure. They were holy. They were created in that pristine fashion by the will of God. But the moment that they rebelled, they were cast down to hell. And there we have all the followers and the demons, the dark, black, sinful angels that serve and follow after Satan. And then the next one is Noah, verse 5. God says there's judgment, and God reminds us that this world has already been judged under the wrath of God when a worldwide flood came in that day. And then in verse 12, You'll see how judgment comes here again. These as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil of the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption. But these false teachers deny all of that. They say God is love, there is no such thing as judgment, there's no such thing as hell, there is no such thing as the wrath of God. And then over in chapter 3, 4, and saying, where is the promise of His coming? The faithful man, the faithful ministry will warn our present generation, Christ will return. There will be a judgment day, and you will meet your Maker. You will give account of every word and deed, and you will be judged according to your sin, and you need a Savior. You need to be washed in the blood of Christ to get to heaven. But these false teachers deny all of that. They say there's no judgment, there's no wrath, God's not like that, and therefore they have no gospel, because you don't need a gospel when there is no wrath. If you look at chapter 3, verse 7, it categorically states, But the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved onto fire against the day of judgment. Now, which is going to be the most popular? The ministry that warns of judgment or the ministry that preaches butter words? There is no judgment. God's not like that. And so they gain a large following. Secondly, God calls men to holy living. These false prophets say, you can live as you please, and that is why they are popular. Now, Peter in this epistle has a whole lot to do with, a lot to say about men's lusts, sinful passions. You'll see it in chapter 1, verse 4. Chapter 2, verse 10, but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness. Now, we don't even have to guess at what kind of uncleanness Peter's talking about, because his chief example in this chapter 2 is Lot. And you remember the bad decision that Lot made He looked toward Sodom, and he saw the valley of Jordan in its green lush pasture, and he parted with Abram, pitched his tent toward Sodom. And Lot now becomes the warning of the man with the idea, I can live as I like, I can do as I like, There are no consequences. Well, poor Lot, he lost everything except his soul. He lost his family. He lost his wife. But that righteous man was vexed with the sin of Sodom. You see, men tell us there is no such thing as morality, no such thing as right and wrong. and we're not called to live a holy life. That's not necessary. As long as you're saved, as long as you're justified, don't worry about living a holy life. The Bible warns us very clearly that if we live like Lot, we will fall. That's the theme of this book. We will fall. And maybe I'm speaking to someone tonight and you're tempted by the low level of evangelical Christianity today. where Christians feel that they can live as they like, do as they like, decide as they will, and it will make no difference. It does. And God, in his grace, spared Lot very mercifully. False teachers, of course, will say there is no morality. There's no right and wrong. And they're like the prophets in Jeremiah's day who When God's judgment was coming, they preached peace, peace, when there was no peace. And it says that the priests bear rule by their means, and my people love to have it so. The people of Jerusalem in Jeremiah's day loved the false preachers. They hated Jeremiah, and they put him in a pit, in a water tank underground. They hated his preaching. They put him in the stocks and mocked him. Why do false preachers get a popular following? Because they preach peace, peace. They do not preach the need to be right with God and to walk holy. The people of Vancouver, people of our city, are no different. They love to have it so. They love the preacher, whether he calls himself Christian, denominational, or evangelical, whatever he calls himself. They love to have a man who doesn't preach holiness and the fear of God. The people of Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, the cities of this nation, they love to have it so. and the following in church after church, in ministry after ministry. They have their thousands, and it seems that they have the favor of God. But we have to put the question mark, because we're warned in the Bible that where they are the many, look out for the false teacher somewhere in the midst. Another reason why these false prophets are popular, because God says, come out of the world. These false prophets say, bring the world into the church. And I'm thinking here now of what has arisen in our generation called the emergent church. And their philosophy is that they are to bring the church down to the level of the man on the street, that they might reach him with the gospel and make it more acceptable. We're to break down the wall between the world and the church. That's the philosophy behind the emergent church. It's wrong to disobey God, but the emergent philosophy doesn't say that. They want to join the world and the church together. And it really is to deny what the church is. You know what the church is? You want to know? The Greek word ekklesia means called out. The church is the people of God whom He has called out for His own name. Called out from what? Called out from the world. They are to be a separate people. They're to be a peculiar people. They are to be marked with Christ-likeness. They are to be known as having a zeal for the glory of God and for holiness. Come out from among them and be ye separate. saith the LORD." But false prophets, whether they be emergent or some other fad that might come along, they lower the standard. The church is called to lift the standard, but the false prophet lowers the standard. And therefore, many will follow their pernicious ways that lead them to destruction. Now, one particular power that is used to bring the world into the church is music. And the music of the world is adapted, tweaked in any which way, and is used in the church. It's a very strange thing to me. It's a bit like why false teachers want to even be religious. It's a very strange thing to me why so many musicians, and I'm talking now about secular musicians, rock bands and so on, and they are all interested in religion. Elvis Presley had his Graceland. He sang gospel hymns by times. I just learned this week of a rock band, it's called Lamb of God. It's going to be playing in Penticton in April. Now, obviously, I got that from Andy Foster this week. He was not happy about it. So I went online to check out this band, what they really are and what they're doing. The name, of course, would interest a Christian—Lamb of God. Well, when I went online and checked that out and watched their video—and I would not recommend anyone to do it, I was horrified. It was hellish, and it was mingled with scenes of death. It was the group out at a riverside partying, drinking. And there was a corpse right at the edge of the water, as if it was washed up at the side of the river, and it was covered in plastic and bloodied, and the face actually was very pretty. It was one of those weird scenes. It was almost—I was ready to see this figure come alive. But the Lamb of God. And I learned, through that wonderful source called Wikipedia, that some of the year in the 90s, they changed their name to that because they didn't want to be perceived as devilish. And so they put this false name on what really is a depraved, debauched, worldly band, and they give it the name, the Lamb of God. Now, as I looked at that video and I saw the link between hard, hard rock and death, And if you've ever listened to some of the lyrics in that music world, there is an awful emphasis on death and even hell. Many of their lyrics talk about hell. And I've also read a statistic that since the 1960s, right up to these present times, that exponentially, the rate of suicide to people who listen to rock music, there's a direct correlation. I read of one young man who committed suicide, and his hard rock device was blaring when he was discovered that he had killed himself. This is the demonic, dark side of rock music. Now, that's depravity and the abuse of religion outside the church, and that scares us. I don't want to even know much about it. I don't advocate anyone researching that stuff. But what really ought to concern us is when the parallels of that world and that music and those methods are brought into the church, and it's called Christian, and it's called worship, that is the scary part. And the reality is that mainline churches are awakening to the fact that they're losing members. They're losing a young generation. And their only chance, if you believe in chance, their only pragmatic way to try and turn the tide of loss in membership is to use the music of what now is called CCM Christian rock music, contemporary music. And it's working. The statistics of mainline churches and big ministries in the 90s, they were losing, losing, losing. With the adoption of this music, They're rebuilding. And it is by the power of CCM and music of all varieties, and I don't claim to be an expert in music, but I can read statistics, and I can determine what is of God and what is of Satan. And we ought to be alarmed today. I have a number of quotes of various authors and writers and people who said this and that and the other thing, but I'm not going to even go there tonight. The least little bit of research would complement and back up what I've said here this evening. Peter warned of false teachers. And do you know who is making the big impact in modern ministries today? It's music leaders. Now, as in everything, there are good and bad. I can't condemn everything. There are good and bad, and there's the nth degree of evil and the nth degree of good, and there's many somewhere in the middle. But I assure you, so many, even Reformed, Those who subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith for their doctrine are adopting CCM to some degree as the way to gain traction, to attract especially millennials, young people. And it's working. It's working. But it's going to be the ruination of evangelism. You have men like Paul Washer. And it seems that every conference he goes to, his emphasis is, we need to evangelize young people in the church, because there is any number of them who have the idea they're Christians, and they need to be converted even inside the church. And so why are these false prophets popular? They were willing to bring the world into the church. That's why they get a following, and it works. They are pragmatists. The next one we see here in verse 3. We're moving very slowly here. You'll notice it's money. These false prophets are motivated by money, and they motivate others by money through covetousness. And as the old saying goes, just follow the money. And these false prophets, they use the power of money, money for themselves. And then, of course, the preaching of the prosperity gospel. Joyce Meyer's Word of Faith. Those that themselves live in the millions of net worth and project the image that if you're faithful to God, He wants you to be rich. And they make a whole ministry out of it. Now, there's an endless list of names that we could go down that have come from the same school in Florida where Joyce Myers graduated from. And they come from the same school, the same thinking, the same tactics, and they all preach this prosperity gospel. There's one fellow who is exceedingly well-named, and his name is Creflo Dollar. His name is actually Dollar. And he not only is called Dollar, but he preaches the dollar. He has a net worth that is somewhere in the region of $27 million. He got himself in a bit of church trouble there because he was promoting the idea that people should donate to the purchase of a private jet costing $65 million. And they weren't too thrilled about that. These are the kind of fellows that one dollar means nothing, it's millions. And the harm is not only done in America and Canada, the harm is done in the third world. Because you've got people in Africa, like Nigeria, and there's a fellow over there called David Oyedepo. And he is one of the wealthiest preachers in the world, a native Nigerian. And he is preaching the prosperity gospel that makes himself rich. And he's calling on people to donate to his ministry, people who live on two dollars a day. It's unconscionable. It is absolute. Consumerism. And what does Peter say right here in this verse 3? And through covetousness shall they with fiend words make merchandise of you. But Peter is warning here, we ought to take note, men who have no conscience, about leading people into personal hardship while they themselves grow rich. This prosperity gospel goes back at least to post-World War II. It certainly became more and more popular since then, when affluence became more the norm in Western society after the ravages of two world wars. And these ministers, preachers, they live it up themselves, and they present it, because God blesses me. They have no shame. They have no shame, and proclaim that God wants every Christian to be rich. And if you're not rich, you've no faith, you're not godly, you're not holy, you're not pleasing God. Your heavenly Father wants you to be rich. Very quick answer to that, by the way. There was only one Abraham, and he had 600 servants. Abram was a very rich man, but there were 600 fellows who served Abram. and they lived for wages. They didn't all have an estate like Abraham. So it's not true to say that every Christian must be rich or they're not walking with God. Some of the godliest saints live very, very meagerly, and it's because they're godly. They've given up the things of this world that they might serve the Lord. Now, one last thing, in verse 3, you'll notice that these false prophets, they're popular because they stoop to fiend words. Fiend words. Now, there's a very interesting Greek word behind the word fiend. It's the word plastos. And I haven't read anybody that actually said it, but I think there may be, well, a connection there between plastos and plastic. Some linguists say that it certainly refers to a mold, something that's potty and pliable. And these men, they use fienid words, pliable words, words they can manipulate. Manipulate the words that you can manipulate the minds, that you can manipulate the outcome. These are false teachers. They have no love for the truth, but they are adept and skilled playing with words to their own end. And that leads me to my final little illustration tonight on the relativism of this day. Relativism teaches that there is no absolute fixed truth. What that statement means to you is one thing. What that statement means to another is a different thing. Because truth is subjective and there is no fixed absolute truth. And they say that because we know absolute truth comes from God. God is truth. And when our facts and figures and history are lined up with what God has said, that's absolute truth. That's absolute. Doesn't change. Because God himself doesn't change. But this Relativism, promoted by educators like John Dewey and so on, they have turned society to an amoral, no right, no wrong, no truth, no error, and of course, it justifies any kind of lifestyle. What is the end of these prophets? Well, in verse 1, "...denying the LORD bought them, bring upon themselves swift destruction." Verse 3, "...whose judgment now for a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." I wouldn't want to be in their shoes for a moment. I don't mind. I don't have an interest in how many dollars Creflo Dollars has. I wouldn't walk in his shoes for a day. I'm going to stand before God one day. And as Isaiah 66, verse 2 says, "'To this man will I look, he that trembleth at my word.'" And that's what we ought to do, and we're going to give account of how we've handled this book. And the tools, the skills, the art of Bible interpretation is a must for every teacher, preacher, and for every Christian. Every Christian should do the basic 101 on Bible hermeneutics, Bible interpretation. If you're not interested in that, don't call yourself a Bible teacher. If you're not interested in how to handle this Word with all its right balance—and we're back to that statement again, balance— Peter pleaded for balance. Add to your faith these seven things. The preacher needs balance. We must not go off to the right. We must not go away to the left. Why? Because there's a ditch at both sides of the road. And if you go to an extreme either way, you go wrong. The truth is in the middle. It's fixed and it's sure. And we need to handle God's Word very, very carefully. I'd rather be with Noah than with a false teacher. Thank God Noah saw his family saved, and he did see the ark filled while the world around him was lost. Noah was not a popular preacher. In fact, he is the example of one that they mocked. And we must not think that in the 21st century that we will preach this book faithfully, and not be despised by the world. We will. And we better knuckle down and pray that God gives us a thick skin and gives us grace to preach this word, because as the Lord Jesus was hated, so shall we. Why are we in a small church tonight? Well, we'd all want to see it bigger, wouldn't we? But maybe we're paying the price to some degree. of lifting up the standard, preaching holiness, standing for truth, and not worrying about the money and the other things. I must say, in my ministry, I'm very touchy about money. I don't like making announcements about money. I'd rather put it in the bullet and say nothing. But as an eldership, we have a responsibility to inform the congregation on financial matters from time to time. It's important. It's wise to do that. I don't touch money. I don't get involved in counting money. The only thing that sometimes happens to me, I might visit a senior or a radio listener and they give me an envelope. I just pass it along to the treasurer. The preacher My Bible teacher in college warned me of two things. He warned every student of two things, the two M's, money and morals. Those are the things that make preachers fall. The church is riddled with scandal over money and morals. And we need to pray for purity and that God will make us faithful and make us true to the book.