So this morning, if you'll turn to Jeremiah chapter number 23, I want to preach this morning. I'm not a real big title guy, but if I were to title this, I would say I want to encourage you to be a true man of God, man for God, and a man by God. We need good, true men of God. And I know there's a lot of preachers here this morning, and I want to encourage you to be a man of God, a true man of God. And I know there's younger people in here, and you say, well, what does that have to do with me? Well, you need to stay in a church that has a true man of God. America needs more fundamental, independent, premillennial, Ford truck driving, Dr. Pepper drinking, Big B Baptist Church. It's the kind of churches we need. But if you just have a church, and the pulpit's wrong, and the person in the pulpit's wrong, doesn't matter how beautiful the facility is and what the church is, it's gotta be right on this side. And I wanna encourage you young people, to find a church and stay in a church like this. that has a man of God behind the pulpit. Because my Bible says in Jeremiah 23, and we're gonna look at it, it says in verse number 32, he says, therefore they shall not profit this people at all. So you go to the wrong church that has the wrong person in the pulpit that's not a true man of God, he's not gonna profit you. You're not gonna grow. God's not gonna be able to use his word through that man. And so I encourage you, I'm gonna give the difference between a true man of God and a false man of God this morning. And so I hope that you and I as preachers, we can say, I wanna, with all my heart, I wanna be a true man of God and for God and by God, and I don't wanna have any resemblance of the wrong kind, the false. And so that's what I wanna use this morning. But before I get into that, You get along with your song leader, okay? You do, okay, all right. Well, I lead the singing in my church on Sunday morning, and then I have my son-in-law doing it on Wednesday nights, but there was a pastor and a music director that weren't getting along, and as time went on, the feud began to spill over into the services. So the first week, the pastor preached on listening to the will of God and following his will. Well, the song leader got up and led the congregation in. I shall not be moved. So the second week, the preacher preached on giving to the Lord's ministries, being generous, and the song director led, Jesus paid it all. Then the third week, the pastor talked about the sin of gossiping and complaining and telling stories, and the music leader got up and led, I love to tell the story. So by that time, the pastor became disgusted, and the next Sunday, he announced he was considering resigning the next week. The music leader then led, oh, why not tonight? So the fifth Sunday, the pastor had enough. He informed the congregation that he would be resigning that day, saying it was Jesus who led him there, and it would be Jesus who was telling him to leave. The music leader then stood up and led them into what a friend we have in Jesus. Amen. but I'm glad I get along with my song director. Amen. So, but if you can find a Jeremiah chapter 23, and if you're able to, uh, stand in reverence and love of God's word, just start off Jeremiah 23 verse one. Whoa, whoa. That word is important in the word of God. Whoa. Whoa. Be unto the passers that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture. Sayeth the Lord. Whoa. Then in verse nine, it says, my heart within me is broken because of the prophets, the messengers. Then down in verse number 11, for both prophet and priest are profane. Yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord. And verse 21, I have not sent these prophets, Yet they ran, I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. So we're gonna look at this tonight, this morning, and ask God to bless it. Dear Heavenly Father, God, we come before you this morning, and dear Father, we love you, and so thankful that you love us. And God, I pray that you might use me this morning, just bless the reading and preaching of your word, God, you know my heart. I don't want to be the wrong kind of preacher, the wrong kind of pastor. I truly want to be a man of God. I want to be a man for God and a man by God. God, I pray that you might bless our service this morning. Bless the reading and preaching of your word. God, I pray that it might speak to hearts. Be with Brother Brown as he comes after me. And God, just help us today. Help us to learn from the word of God. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. So here, when I say a man of God, and of is a preposition, most widely used preposition in the English, it means, in English it's used to indicate a relationship between different elements, such as belonging. So I want to be a man of God. I want to belong to God. It is a wonderful thing to be a servant of the Lord, to be a pastor. I'm so glad God called me to be a pastor. God know I'd rather stand up and yell than sit down and be quiet for an hour, amen? But yet it's a wonderful thing to be a pastor and a servant of God, of God. Look what God has done. Look who God is. He created the heavens and the earth. He loves us. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's a wonderful God. And I get to get up every Sunday and Wednesday and open up this book and say, hey, there's a book all about God. Read it and understand who God is and how wonderful God is and what God has done for us. We're going to take the Lord's Supper tomorrow night and remember what Jesus did for us. I've never died for anybody. I try to help people, do what I can, but Jesus Christ died on the cross for us. Went through shame, humiliation, had people turn his back, and the physical pain, and he died on the cross, and he became sin for us. And he's willing to take us to heaven, amen? He's done so much for that, and as a preacher, I get to get up and witness and tell people how great and how good God is. Wonderful. but I wanna be a man belonging to God, like a piece of cake. That piece is part of the cake. That man, I wanna be belonging to, connected to the Lord Jesus Christ, a man of God. And then a man for God. This is a preposition, a reason why something is done. Like I've saved money for vacation. Well, I'm a man for God. I want to be not only belonging to God, but the reason I'm doing this is because of God. And then by indicates the means of achieving something. How did I become that? I became a man of God by God. The devil has his ministers, the Bible says. And but God appoints his ministers and all of us can serve the Lord. So I want to look at this this morning. And first of all, I want to look at the negative in Jeremiah, chapter 23, the false prophets. Here in verse nine, Jeremiah says, my heart within me is broken because of the prophets. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man and like a man whom wine is overcome because of the Lord and because of the words of his holiness. He's saying these guys are false and it was affecting him. And he says, because I serve a holy God. And he goes down through this, he says in verse 11, for both the prophet and the priest are profane. Yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord. Verse 12, wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in darkness. In amazing, the false prophets and priests and messengers don't have the light. My Bible says, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. They don't use the light. And if you're not going to use this, you're going to stumble in darkness. You will not have the light that shows the way you ought to go. But praise the Lord for the word of God, a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And God says in verse 13, I have seen the folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied and bail and caused my people, Israel, to bail. when Ahab and the 450 prophets of Baal. They prophesied, they said Baal, and in the name of Baal, and because of Baal, and inspired by Baal. That was bad. But then in verse 14, I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem. He's saying this is really worse. He's saying a horrible thing. They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen also the hands of the evil doer that none return from his wickedness. They are all of them unto me as Sodom and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. This is worse. They're not saying, hey, we're coming in the name of Baal. Hey, these guys are saying, hey, we're coming to you in the name of the Lord. This is what God has said, but they're lying. God didn't say that. but they're pretending to be from God. God said, I think that's worse. And it says in verse 16, thus saith the Lord of hosts, hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you, they make you vain. They speak a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. That's the difference, young people. You better find a preacher like the preacher that stands behind this pulpit that speaks from the mouth of God. He opens his Bible and says, open your Bible, thus saith the Lord. This isn't, thus saith Scott Hanks. No, he's written a lot of books, it's a wonderful thing, but he takes his material from God's word. And the true man of God is gonna say, hey, thus saith the Lord. Now, I'm not gonna tell you what I think. What's filled with my heart, that would be terrible. but I'm gonna speak unto you the words of the Lord. Verse 17, they say still unto them that despise me. Listen to this, the Lord has said, here's these prophets saying, for you that despise God, ye shall have peace. And they say unto everyone that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, no evil shall come upon you. That's a lie. You start going down this life and going at according to how you feel and your heart, you're not gonna have peace. You're gonna run into some problems. I've been pastor a long time and I've heard people say, I just feel like I ought to do this. Really? What's the word of God say? Well, well, I know that preacher, but I just feel like better watch out if you're going to go according to your own way. Hey, these false prophets say, just do what you want to do. There's going to be peace. Nothing's going to happen to you. That's the wrong thing to go. When we moved to Wichita. When I pastored in Colorado and moved back in 2011, my wife had never lived in Wichita, but I lived there since I was five. So we'd go to church and I'd go one way, the next way I'd go to church another way. And she'd go, this isn't the way. I'd say, what do you mean? Where are we going? We're going to church. No, this isn't the way. Because women have a way, ladies have a way of feeling if things are right. Their intuition. Well, this isn't, I said, honey, I know, I live in this city, I know where I'm going. Well, I just don't feel like this is right. And the false prophet will say, yeah, just do whatever comes to your heart. No evil shall come upon you. And you see in verse 19 and 20, the whirlwind, the fury, the anger of the Lord. Hey, God sees it, God's not happy about it. And in verse number 21, plainly, I have not sent these prophets. Yet they ran, I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. They don't get their message from God's word. They get it from within and what's gonna profit them and what's gonna make the people happy. And God said, I have not sent them. I'm not speaking to them and then they speak to you, which the way it should be. They're just speaking whatever they wanna speak. Verse 22, if you're in a real church and a true man of God, but if they had stood in my counsel and had caused my people to hear my words, what's the result? Then they should have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings. It's good to see all the young folks here. Even though I'm a little bit older than your pastor, I'm still young. But I'm still older than you. Anyway, but I'm glad you're here. And the purpose of preaching and when your preacher gets up here, it's not to fill in time, it's to help your life. It's here to warn you and help you and admonish you for what God wants you to do. And if you listen and God speaks your heart, do something about it. Turn from your evil way. Turn from those things that God has spoken to your heart about. God's word takes effect. And so verse 23 and 24 tells us about the Almighty God. Verse 25, I have heard what the prophet said that the prophesied lies in my name saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, there are prophets of deceit of their own heart. I'm a dreamer. When I go to bed, my mind just runs. The other day, I was dreaming. I don't remember where it was. I was in a dream, but I was on a cliff, and there was way down there, and I was like, ah! And I woke up then. I'm like, I'm glad that was a dream. I'm glad that's not reality. But yet these guys say, I've dreamed, I've dreamed, I've heard from God, and let me tell you what it is, and it's a lie from the false prophets. And what does that do, verse 27, which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbor as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. But the prophet that hath a dream, let him tell the dream. But look at this, he that hath my word. If you got a King James Bible, you got God's word, God's infallible, inerrant word of God, amen? This is a living book. It's amazing how the infidel, his printing press, he said, within 100 years, Christianity will be obliterated and it won't be, no Bibles. And in that very house, the printing press printed multiples Bibles and in the house, stacked after his death, stacks of Bibles. I think God had the last laugh on that one. This is a wonderful book. But it says, let him that speak my word, He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully, truly. What is the chaff to the weed, saith the Lord? Chaff and the weed are totally different. The chaff is the outward part of the weed. It's light. It's husk. It's not edible by humans. It's not digestible. It's worth nothing. but the wheat is nourishing, it is for food, it's profitable. And yet God says it's totally different from what man says to what God says, hey, what man says will not profit you. I love no-bakes cookies. And we had goats for a while, and my daughter's, I guess my daughter had made, on the counter, there was a plate, it looked like Nobake's, just like Nobake's. And we were all in there, and then I came in, I saw it, and I grabbed it, and I took about two bites, and, and my daughter goes, dad, those are for the goats, those are goat treats. I'm like, it looked edible, but it wasn't edible. Didn't do me any good. And I'm telling you, a church may look like a church, a preacher may look like a preacher, but if he gets up and does not say, thus saith the word of the Lord, it's not gonna profit you, it's shaft, it's gonna blow away, it's not gonna make any difference, it's not gonna have any lasting effect on your life. But the word of God. Verse 29, is not my word like a fire, saith the Lord, like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? There's a lot that can be said about fire. It can be used for light. It can be used to soften. It can be used to burn. It can be used to warm the cold hearted. But you take a rock and put it under a fire, it doesn't do it any good. God said, my word's like a fire, but if that doesn't penetrate, it's like a hammer. that breaks the rock in pieces. So what's the biggest thing about these false prophets? Well, look in verse number 31, 32, or 30, 31, and 32. Therefore, behold, I'm against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words, everyone from his neighbor. Steal my words, he's against them. Look at verse 31. Behold, I'm against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues and say, he saith. They're not sent by God. These men are not sent to say, hey, God said this. They're saying, hey, this is what I think. This is what you ought to do. This is what our religion said. No, you ought to say, thus saith God. This is what God wants you to do. And then the third one. Behold, I'm against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies and by their lightness. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded them, therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord. Number one, God's against them. I don't want to be in any place that God's against me. I want God for me. I don't care if it's in my finances, in my personal life, in my marriage, in my ministry. I don't want God saying, hey, I'm not, I'm against you. I'm not for you. I'm not going to help you. I don't want to be in that situation. But the last thing here it says, they will not, therefore they shall not profit this people at all, at all. I hope you kids will always find a church like this. As a man of God, you gotta love your preacher. Take care of him. Send him notes. Give him candy. Give him Dr. Pepper. He needs more of that. Anyway, but love your preacher. A man of God that will stand and do right is worth his weight in gold. He's gonna profit you because he picks up the word of God and the word of God is powerful and it's profitable. For the word of God is profitable. So that's the negative. But I wanna look at the positive this morning, the ones that we oughta follow. How in the world do I know the difference between a false prophet, one that's gonna tell lies and not profit me, and a good man of God? A man of God, a man by God, a man for God. Well, go to Jeremiah chapter number one, and I'm gonna look at Joshua, but Jeremiah chapter number one, Jeremiah says in verse five, behold, And this is God, behold, I, God, formed thee in the belly. I, God, knew thee before thou camest forth out of the womb. I, God, sanctified thee. And I, God, ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Hey, this is a man of God, this is a true servant. God said, I knew you, I ordained you, I sanctified you. All of you are created by a wonderful God. I'm glad we all don't look the same. I'm glad we're all different. God made each one of us. We are fearfully and wonderfully made for a specific purpose. I'm glad God made Sarah Cinnamon Martin for me. She writes my sermons and all that. She's a wonderful wife. No, no. God knew she would be my wife. We've adopted four kids. God knew those four kids would be my kids. I love my kids. Got my youngest daughter. And she's almost 18, but God knew that before the foundation of the world. A special purpose by God for us. But then he says in verse number 6, Then said I, O Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am but a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child. And this is God sending him, for thou shalt go to all that I send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Doesn't sound like, oh, Jeremiah, just whatever you wanna tell him. Whatever, just tell him to go do whatever you want to, whatever, if you feel like it. If you feel like going to that church, just go to that church. If you feel like living the way, just live that way. No, God said, I'll tell you what you're gonna say. And in fact, look at verse nine. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth and the Lord said unto me, behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. Where do we find God's word? The wonderful word of God. Others may contain a little bit of God's word, but if you have a King James Bible, you have the very words of God. You got words here, the same God that said, let there be light. The same word that says Lazarus, come forth. Same God that wrote your Bible. All scripture is given by inspiration. God breathed. That's what makes this book so wonderful. So the man of God is sent by God. But I wanna look at Joshua and compare, this is the good man of God, the true man of God, by God and for God, Joshua. Just finished last year, victory in Jesus. We do have victory in Jesus. Canaan land is the victorious Christian life. It's not heaven. We're not gonna have to fight in heaven, amen. We're not gonna have any defeats in heaven. We're not gonna have any failures. Hey, in heaven, it's gonna be a wonderful thing, living and reigning with my savior forever and ever. But Canaan represented the victorious Christian life. And Joshua got to lead God's people into the promised land. By the way, the only way you can have a victorious Christian life is be saved. The only way they got out of Egypt is through the blood applied. Joshua was a firstborn. Joshua would have never got to lead if the blood had not been applied to his household and his life, and you cannot go to heaven until the blood of Christ is applied to your life. But then you get to go into the promised land. And several things I wanna look at this morning. Joshua was a man of God. He was a servant. Joshua 1.1, now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses minister saying. And then you see in chapter 24, verse 29, it calls Joshua a servant of the Lord. It's a wonderful thing to be a servant of the Lord. A servant just does what he's supposed, does what he's told to do. He can't do what he wants to do. He's supposed to do what his commander, his boss, his leader, and true servant of God will follow God's leadership. He's a servant of Almighty God. It's a wonderful thing. But first of all, he had God's word. Look in chapter 3, verse 9. It says, And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither. and hear my opinion. Come hither and I'll tell you what I think. Come hither and hear the words of the Lord your God. Pay attention, this is not what Joshua says, this is what God says. In chapter 4 verse 1 and 2 it says, And it came to pass when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua saying, take you 12 men out of the people of every tribe and command you them saying, take you out. Hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests feet stood firm 12 stones and you shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you shall lodge this night. God said, Joshua, here's what I want you to do. And you read verse four. Then Joshua called the 12 men, said, here's what God wants us to do. Take you 12 stones out of the Jordan and put them in Gilgal to be a reminder. So the man of God has the words of God. He tells you what God has said. And one of those is God is the same. Amen. Hebrews says Jesus Christ the same. Yesterday, today, and forever. And because God is the same, God is with us. God is with us. Some of you say, your last name's Swope. You're not Ted, right? I'm not Ted Swope. I'm not my dad, all right? My dad pastored Bethel Baptist for 41 years, and now I've got to pastor it for 14 years. and things have changed. As far as in my family, in my heart, in my life, my mom's gone, my dad's gone, and my brother passed away March 8th. We sold the family house. Things are different. But I serve the same God. And as God was with my dad and Bethel Baptist for those 41 years, Bethel will celebrate 70 years next year with just four pastors. Hope I can make it that long, amen? But it's the same God, different leadership, different circumstances, yes, a different chapter in my life, but hey, it's the same God, amen. And he reminded them, God reminded Joshua that he was the same God. Look in verse number one, verse five. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life as I was with Moses. I will be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. The Lord never let my dad down. He never let his servants down. And because he's the same God, he's never gonna let me down. Praise the Lord. Chapter three, verse number seven. And the Lord said to Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. Amen. Chapter 4, verse 23. He says, For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan from before you until you were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea. Same God, different circumstances, different area, but it's the same God. Things change. I look at the toys and technology, and I do good when I go to antique stores. Because I say, I used to play with that. I used to have that lunchbox. I feel more at home in the antique stores, amen? But things have changed. Things pass off the scene and come on, but yet we have the same God, same God, and he's with us. And he assures us. Back in February of 2024, had to take my brother to St. Joe Hospital in Wichita. It's kind of like a mental hospital and we had to get him some help. So we walked in and they kept him and he had a little bed in the emergency room. And as we were leaving, you know, we were leaving and I turned around and he was going like this, come here. And my wife said, oh honey, come on. I said, no, I just got to go back. So I went back and he says, do I have to stay and all that? And I said, David, you got to stay here. You got to get some help. So when I left him and was leaving, I heard a, hey, brother John. And there was a nurse in the emergency room and says, hey, how you doing? She was in my youth department years ago. And she said, is that your brother? I said, yeah. And she said, I'll take care of him. You know that's God. That's God. He did that just for me. Hey, assurance. Hey, I've taken care of people in the past and I will take care of your brother and I will take care of you. Wonderful God. Just little assurances. Hey, I've got it all taken care of. God is so good. So good. It's the same God. And we know that, we sing Christ is all I need. We sing he's able, he's able, I know my God is able. We sing my Lord knows a way through the wilderness, all I have to do is follow. That's my God, he's the same. Number two, I think a real man of God would say God keeps his promises. God keeps his promises. And because of that, we can have courage. We can have courage. Courage is not facing something that's fearful. No, courage is facing something, difficulties and hardships with the thought in mind or with the assurance that, hey, God's with me. God's gonna take care of me. As long as I do what this Bible said, everything's gonna work out okay. Everything's gonna be okay according to God's word. We see here in chapter one and verse number five, he says, there should not be any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, I will be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. That was God's promise. Very next verse, be strong and have a good courage. For unto this people shalt thou divide for inheritance the land which I swear unto the fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous. Why? Because I'm gonna be with you and I've made some promise to you. I've given you this land. They had to do some fighting, but God did a lot of fighting for them. God came through on his promises. Look at chapter 21, I love this. Chapter 21, look at verse 44. Chapter 21 and verse number 44. The Bible says here, and the Lord gave rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers, and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them. The Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. In verse 45, there failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord God has spoken unto the house of Israel, all came to pass. God's word is true. Chapter 22, verse four, and now the Lord your God hath given rest unto your brother as he promised. We celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ every Sunday morning. How do we know he rose again? Well, historically, but biblically, but the Bible says he rose from the dead as he said, amen? You follow this book and there's some courage in life. You can go step by step. Hey, God's with me. God's gonna take care of me. Is there sometimes when you wonder? Absolutely. Is God all, is early? He's usually not early or late. He's right on time. We sold the family house. And this year, and I promised the Lord, let us sell it at a price I'll give. a good portion of the church, we're gonna remodel our church, and have given extra, and I'm like, God's gonna take care of us. So come tax time, of course, and with the sale of the house and everything last week, they said, well, you need to get an appraisal for the house, $450 to put on your taxes. I said, $450? So I went and got the appraisal, and we got it in yesterday, sit down with the lady, and we got a refund last year, about $4,000 or so. So I sit down, and I'm expecting God to take care of us. And she goes, she turns her head and says, well, right here, you owe $780. And my heart sunk. And then I looked at the fees for preparing my tax return, it was $889. And I'm like, Lord. I'm a Baptist preacher, silver and gold have I none, amen. Where am I gonna get that? Lord, I don't understand, I'm trying to do your will, I'm trying to be generous, I'm trying to give my tithes and offerings, God, you know. But I know I love offering $5,000 for preaching today, is that right? God already took care of it. I'm like, are you sure? She said, well, let me do, and she began to, and she goes, oh, yeah, you're self-employed, but you, yeah, okay, you're a preacher. She clicked a button, and she goes, oh. Oh, it's different. I'm like, I knew it. I was a little scared, but I knew God was gonna come through. She turned it around and it went from over $700 to getting a nearly 3,000 back. Woo, amen. And then she said, well, I know it's 889, but we'll drop that feed for you for 640. I said, glory, amen. I started speaking in tongues, amen. Hey, God's good. God's good. God does do what he said he would. God will take care of you. He does, he does. God says in Matthew 21 and verse 22 that prayer, we can go to our Father and receive things of the Lord. Matthew 21 and verse 24, or 21 and verse 22, it says, and all things whatsoever you ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive. I've been really trying hard. to pray this year. I failed in the past, but I made the Lord. I said, I'm not gonna do that no more. I'm gonna pray for my kids and everybody in my church every single day. I'm not gonna fail. You know, God answers prayer. God answers prayer. There are several ladies that I put on my prayer list, and we'd go visit them, and they didn't answer the door, they didn't answer the phone, they didn't come to church, but two ladies in particular. in the last month, walked through the door. And I'm just like, wow, thank you, Lord. I prayed specifically for them to come. Specifically, and God heard my prayer. Another lady, she'd come on Sunday morning, and I said, Lord, she needs to be more faithful. God, press upon her heart to have her come more often. Sunday night, Wednesday night. And you know what? She's coming on Sunday night. Coming on Wednesday night, when I went to preach for Brother Carty, she came, amen, amen. God hears and answers prayer. I'm telling you, God answers, God keeps his promises. Two more and I'll be done. Number three, God hates sin. Remember the false prophets? Just do whatever your heart says, it'll be peace. Nothing's gonna happen to you. Is that what your Bible says? My Bible says the way of the transgressor is hard. There's some commandments from the word of God. In Joshua chapter number six and verse number 18, God told the nation of Israel when they went into Jericho, and ye in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing lest you make yourselves a curse when you take of the accursed thing and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it. Hey, the spoils are not for you this time, it belongs to the Lord, burn everything. But all of you know, Achan saw some things, he coveted, he took it, he hid it, and no one knows, God knows. So the nation of Israel went to Ai, 36 men died as a result of sin. That wasn't peace. When you do wrong, there's consequences for doing that which is wrong. God hates sin. Jesus Christ became sin on the cross. And so, Joshua gets on his knees and he asks the Lord, and I love it, chapter seven, verse 10, and the Lord said unto Joshua, get thee up. Wherefore liest thou upon thy face? Israel hath sinned. And they have also transgressed my covenant for which I commanded thee. And he says, verse 12, neither will I be with you anymore, except you destroy the accursed thing from among you. You know, if you're God's child, you can't just everything be all right with you and God with sin in your heart and your life. I know we're sinful people, but we can get on our knees. And the Bible says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But yet if you have known sin in your life and wickedness and rebellion, and you're going this way and God wants you to go this way, there's no fellowship with you in God. There's no peace. And God said, you need to take care of the sin, get it out. Chapter seven, verse 19, and the Lord said unto Achan, my son, give, I pray thee, glory to God of Israel and make confession unto him and tell him now what thou hast done, hide it not from me. And Achan confessed. And then what Israel did, the Bible says in verse 25, why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble you this day and all Israel. Stone them with stones and burn them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. There's a big old pile of rocks. I guarantee every time Israel came and the little kids, hey, why are that pile of stones right there? You can't get by with sin. God hates sin, you better do what God says. You don't hear very much preaching on sin anymore. Just make the people happy. We serve a wonderful, loving God, but he's got a judgment. There's consequences for sin. I'm telling you, God sees everything. God knows everything. I don't understand why Achan that night, all right, tomorrow, everybody's gonna come, man, I would've been knocking on the preacher's door. Hey, hey, hey, Joshua, hey, hey, you don't have to do that. I've sinned, please forgive me. He waited. He waited, you know, till his turn, and all right, what have you done? God knew. Why don't we just get right? Why don't we just live right according to God's word? Lastly, the true man's gonna tell you to Have faith in what God says and be obedient to his word. That's the only way. Trust and obey. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. You must follow this plan. Well, I don't understand about salvation. Truly, you baptist think you can just say a prayer and then you're going to heaven. Well, you can't just pray a prayer. You have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then you have to call upon him and place your faith and trust in him. And yes, you are eternally saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. You can never lose it. You can't fall away. You are saved forever. That's God's plan. A lot of people don't believe that. No, religion, you gotta do this and that and that, you gotta be baptized. Baptism has nothing to do with your salvation. But yet, that's the plan of God. What was the plan for Jericho? Well, walk around it for six days, once a time, and then the seventh day, walk around it seven times. Then the Lord will cause the walls to fall down flat. Does that make sense? Seriously? That's what you want me to do? There's no torpedoes, no hand grenades, nothing. Just follow God's plan. Obey! And you see in chapter You see in chapter 10 that God caused hailstones to come out of heaven and they killed more with that than the Israelite did with their swords. And then God made the sun stand still for about a day. Man, you follow God's will and you follow his plan and you obey his word, there's blessings. There's blessings. And Joshua said it over and over again. He started Joshua chapter number one, verse seven, "'Only be thou strong and very courageous "'that thou mayest observe to do "'according to all the law. "'Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, "'that thou mayest prosper whethersoever thou goest.'" Hey, don't turn to the right, don't turn to that, don't add to it, don't take away from it, just do what it says. Do what it says. And so at the end of his life, chapter 22, Joshua knows he's gonna be pass away and off the scene, but 22 in verse five, but take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law which to Moses the servant charged you, to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his commandments, to cleave in him, to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. But he told them, obey, trust in the Lord. 23 in verse number six, be therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses that ye turn not aside there from to the right hand or to the left. One chapter later, he's off the scene. I want to remind you, a good man of God, a right man of God will say, hey, obey this. I'm not the authority. Oh, well, we can't do that because my pastor said. I can't do that because my church said. You better be able to say, I don't do that because God said. My Bible says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works. We don't do anything like that to get to heaven. We do that because we are going to heaven. Amen. A soldier, he doesn't have a haircut and do all the things he does to be a soldier. He does it because he's a soldier. And we ought to do some things because we are saved, because we are going to heaven. I've heard that legalist saying all my life, you legalist, you say you have to dress a certain way, haircut and get good movies and all that, you legalist. I've never once said that that's what gets you to heaven. It might get somebody else to heaven. We had a Tuesday night service, and so we were home on Wednesday night, and my neighbor came over, and he said, he said, isn't it Wednesday? I said, sure is. He says, don't you go to church on Wednesday? I said, yeah, I just didn't go this time. And he goes, huh? I said, we had it last night. But he knows. He knows. Come Sunday morning, and Sunday night, and Wednesday night, hey, our family's going to church. Not to get me to heaven, but because I am going to heaven. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. So, gentlemen that are preachers, let's be true men of God, for God, and by God. Let's not tell people what we think they wanna hear. Tell them what you know God wants them to hear. Is it easy? I got a text yesterday saying, preacher, why do these people hate you so much? That's not a fun text. I'm a likable guy, I thought everybody liked me. But I was reading my devotions in 1 Samuel, it says David behaved himself wisely. And you know, it's not easy, but it's rewarding. Because I'm a man of God, and I wanna be a man by God, and a man for God. Because I serve the same God, God's with me, God keeps his promises, I can have courage, God hates sin, and I must have faith and trust in the Lord.