Hallelujah to God. Everybody was broken and lost when you came to Christ. Every last one of us. Pray for that preacher he's talking about now. He needs God, folks. I know he's head over heels into religion, pastoring a church and all of that, but just pray that the truth will come through to him. He'll see the truth. The Bible said you'll know the truth, and the truth will make you free. All right, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 11 with me this morning, please, if you'd like to stand as we open the book. 2 Corinthians chapter number 11, and verse number 1. 2 Corinthians 11, 1. The Apostle Paul addresses the church at Corinth. And here's what he says, "'Would to God you could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest that by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him." Father, bless this holy word now. And Lord, I pray that you give me the words you'd have me say. Fathers, I stand for you. I stand before you. In your sweet holy name, blessed one, thou art blessed forevermore. In thy name I pray. Amen. They questioned the authority of the Apostle Paul at Corinth. They questioned his authority. They questioned his motives. And a lot of people questioned the authority of the apostle because he was not one of the 12. And he was saved on the road to Damascus as a persecutor. He said, I was injurious. And he was hated among, he was hated and despised like you wouldn't believe among many of the early believers because of what he had done. He'd taken their fathers and their mothers, their family members, and brought them back to Jerusalem, had them stoned to death, put to death. He was hated. And the Apostle Paul, when he was first saved, by his own testimony, he says, immediately, I conferred not with flesh and blood. He said, but I went into Arabia. And there God began to reveal to Paul, number one, why he called him, and number two, the great mysteries that he revealed to this man and how they applied dispensationally to the knowledge of God and Christ and the church as it began to unfold in the first century after Christ. Had it not been for the Apostle Paul, Had it been left to the hands of Peter, the church would have been in a mess big time. I'm not up here this morning to denigrate Peter, but we have to read the Bible and take it for what it says. And Paul said plainly in the book of Galatians that he was carried away with their dissimulation, that he allowed himself to be intimidated by Judaizers, who said that except you keep the law of Moses and be circumcised, you can't be saved. So what essentially they were doing was trying to make Christianity as we know it, and Christ as we understand him, simply an extension of a new Jewish faith. In other words, just another branch of Judaism. And that, of course, the apostle Paul wouldn't stand for. So he confronted him face to face over the issue, and to Peter's credit, because he is a genuine apostle of God. To his credit, he acknowledged the authority of the Apostle, knew he was wrong, repented of it, and got right. And the letters that the Apostle Peter wrote in 1 and 2 Peter are as powerful as anything you'll read in the Bible. Beautiful, wonderful scripture. I do not say that in any way to denigrate Peter. Peter is one of the twelve, but I say it in teaching because it's so necessary. There are those today that teach that the Apostle Paul is a usurper, that he had no business writing scripture. They've got websites propagating that false doctrine, that lie. They're saying the Apostle Paul's message is an adulteration. It's a mishmash of twisted Judaism and whatever occultism he might have picked up. And that the Christ that Paul preaches is not the true Jesus. and that the gospel that Paul preaches is not the true gospel, and obviously that the eschatology that Paul preaches, which has to do with simply a big long word, that means the doctrine of last things, like the rapture of the church and so forth, is just a bunch of garbage. They're those that assail the apostle directly and accuse him of all of this. And so the apostle Paul, standing firm on his calling, said to these people at Corinth, truly the signs of an apostle were wrought by me. And he wrote the biggest majority of the New Testament that you hold in your hands. If you can do away with the authority of the Apostle Paul, you're going to have to tear up half your New Testament and throw it away, which of course is going to destroy your faith in the inspiration of Scripture. It's a very important doctrine, that it is inspired of God. There's no doubt in my mind whatsoever that what the Apostle Paul wrote about Christ is true. And here he warns the church at Corinth, if they're coming to you amidst any preaching another Jesus, Is there another Jesus? You better believe there's another Jesus. Another Christ. The word Christ is the Greek word Christos, and it simply means the anointed. It means the anointed one. The Hebrew word is Mashiach, or the Messiah, the anointed one. But you've got to keep in mind, never forget, that in the Old Testament he said, thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, which is a direct reference to Satan himself. That just because one is anointed does not mean he's the anointed of God. It doesn't mean that he's the bearer of truth. And so when the apostle Paul says another Jesus, he's talking about a fabrication, a false Jesus, a lie, a lying spirit. that goes out into the church. And it's so necessary, folks, to fight evil. It's necessary to preach the truth, the Word of God. It's necessary to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. It is so necessary, so very necessary. What you get from the government is that we are people of faith. That's a meaningless term. That doesn't mean a thing. But what we are doing in this church here in this house is to preach Christ and Him crucified. My responsibility is not to preach as one who is a member of the faith community. That doesn't mean anything. My purpose in here this morning is to preach Christ and Him crucified. This is why the Apostle Paul says, when I came to you midst, I came knowing nothing but Christ and Him crucified. I'm going to preach the right Jesus to you. I have a purpose in life and living in this world, and that is to preach Jesus. I'm going to preach the Christ of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I'm going to preach the Christ of the Gospels. I'm going to preach the Christ of this Holy Bible. I'm going to preach the Christ that I know that saved my soul and wrote my name in the Lamb's Book of Life. I'm going to preach the coming King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I'm going to preach the one who's the Lord God Almighty. And if he's not the Lord God Almighty, he's nothing. Amen. He's an imposter, a liar, deceiver, and deceived himself by his own lie, but make no mistake about it. He said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest, Saul of Tarsus. Why persecutest thou me? And so the apostle preached Christ and Him crucified. He preached the true Jesus. Let me tell you how you know that you've heard the true Christ. If He enters into you, He'll save you and change you. You'll no longer be a homosexual. You'll no longer be a... whoremonger, you'll no longer be a thief, a robber, a liar. All of these things will change. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away and behold, all things have become new. If you receive the right spirit, you've received the Holy Spirit. And if you've received the Holy Spirit, he will exalt Christ and bring you to God. The Holy Ghost will speak of Christ, and He'll glorify the Father. Make no mistake about it, if you have the true Spirit of God in you, that He'll lift up your head from this dying world, from a world cursed in sin, and raise you up into the presence of Almighty God, and give you something far better than this accursed globe that you live on. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain, the apostle said, and so is the truth. So I'm going to compare this morning the true Christ with the false Christ. I'm going to compare Christ with Satan, because they are undoubtedly poles apart. They are diametrically opposed to each other. There is no comparison or unity. There is nothing to be found in Christ that is of Satan, and there is nothing of Satan that is of Christ. So let's look at some of the comparison. Satan caused the fall of Adam, but Christ brought coats of skins. Satan brought in wickedness to mankind, but the Lord God gave them a rainbow in the cloud. Satan, my friend, sifted Peter and says, I desire to have him, that I may sift him as wheat. But the Lord God said, Peter, when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. There is a difference between the two, they're not the same. One brings death, the other brings life. One is condemnation, the other is salvation. God uses Satan though, because he is almighty God and his wisdom that knows the end from the beginning that worketh all things. After the counsel of his own will, he uses Satan. And Satan despises the thought. God said, do your thing, devil. And when he's done his thing and Satan gloats in his apparent victory, the Lord opens up the end and shows him the power of Almighty God. That's one of the things that you learn as you begin to understand the wisdom and might of God Almighty. Don't ever think you'll outsmart Him. Don't ever play mind games with Him. You're a fool if you think that you let your little pee-picking mind in any way pick God apart and understand Him. What you'll know of God is what God reveals to you. What you'll understand of Him is what God places in your heart and in your soul. He'll give you enough in this world that will occupy your time until you're caught out into eternity, into the presence of that eternal being. That's good enough for me. He can give you more in five seconds than ten trillion years could ever understand and figure out. He's God Almighty and He knows the end and the beginning. When Adam fell, Satan rejoiced in the fall of man, but God used it to bring in the Redeemer. In Genesis 3.15, the prophecy said, He will come. When God turned Satan loose on Job, He went at him with glee in His face to destroy Job and everything that he had. And in the end, the Bible said, God used this to manifest His glory. He let Job understand, though Job was a righteous man in his own right in that day, a man that eschewed evil and stood uprightly. At the end, Job said, my, what a fool I've been. I had my idea of God all based upon my experience and what I could understand. You're greater than all of that. Far beyond what words could ever describe. I loathe myself, for now I've seen you. And what could Satan do but stand back and look at what God had done, how He had used this to manifest His glory? God said, go ahead, Satan. There's Paul. Send your messenger. Smite him. And so Satan, with glee, turns his messenger loose on the apostle Paul. The Bible said the messenger of Satan to buffet him. And here he came. And he was going to destroy Paul's faith. He was going to pick him apart. He was going to do away with him. And yet God Almighty caught him up into the third heaven. and showed him things that no man had ever been able to see, unlawful for a human being to understand or explain. And Satan could only stand back and mourn because he was the one who opened the door and made it possible when God allowed Paul to be caught into a place Call paradise and look upon a world that is yet to come. That's where you're going if you're born again. To be absent from the bodies, to be present with the Lord. The last time the heart ticks here, the soul breathes there. In a moment, the twinkling of an eye. to be transported from death into the land of light, from a land of sorrow and dying into the land of rejoicing in the presence of Almighty God. Satan is a liar, Christ is the truth. Satan's proud, the Lord Jesus is humble. Satan's a murderer, the Lord Jesus laid his life down so that you could be saved. Satan's a fallen creature, the Lord Jesus is exalted at the right hand of God. Satan's the God of this world, The Lord Jesus is the Lord of glory. Satan's a creature. The Son of God is the creator. Satan's a deceiver. Christ is the light. Satan is the author of death. And the Lord Jesus Christ is life. Satan is full of hate. And the Lord Jesus loves us. Satan is condemned. And the Son of Man is blessed forevermore. Satan is in will go to the lake of fire and brimstone. He knows the Bible. He can quote it. He reads the scripture. He understands that his ultimate doom is eternal damnation in a lake burning with fire and brimstone. A human being, your mind cannot conceive. the end of satan there is no way you can take that in and yet he reads the bible and he knows that a lake of fire and brimstone awaits him what awaits the lord jesus christ preacher heaven he made heaven streets of gold that doesn't mean anything to him Walls of Jasper, preacher, what's that to the one who can bring universes into existence? You say, then what is it, preacher? It's to look into the face of the redeemed and see the ones who are children of hell that have been redeemed by the grace of God, where the blood's been applied, the soul's been saved. You used to be that. You used to be this. You used to be that. But now, by the grace of God, it's all changed. Hallelujah to God. If God would turn back the curtain today and allow everybody in this house to look at the past of everybody else in this house, your old flesh could not handle it. Some of you would run out that back door and grab the first phone you could get and start calling and gossiping and rumoring and let everybody know about it. And the Holy Ghost of God knows everything that's ever happened to every last one of us. And the Bible says that His love covers a multitude of sins. He's the only one that I could ever think of that could walk into this house this morning and forget every dirty lowdown thing you've ever done so that he can have fellowship with you and wash your sins away in the blood of Jesus. It's that ability to forgive that raises higher than condemnation. It's that love that rises higher than hate. It is that benevolence, it is that mercy, it is that graciousness for the one who showed himself to Moses that rises above that selfish indignation where you want retribution for what you do. No, no! The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob forgives and he forgets. Cast as far as the east is from the west. Your sins today that you carried through that back door can be laid at the altar and washed away, glory to God. if you'll only trust in the finished work and the blood that exists right now at the right hand of God. That blood cleanses all sin. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. There is no peace. There is no cleansing. There is nothing that will allow you to get right with God. You say, my church has sanctified me, preacher. Your church is not worth the powder and lead to blow it to hell if it thinks it can come between you and Almighty God, and your clergy, and your priesthood, and your presbyters, and your whole stinking religious mess. There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. I know that's rough talk, and I know it's plain, but I'm going to tell you right now, there is nothing that can come between you and the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. He did it. He paid it. He shed His blood, and you can be forgiven, and He will never let a man stand between you and God. Bless His name. And the longer I live, the more I shout and praise God that the salvation of my soul and my eternity is not in the hands of a man. I know men. I know me. I know what's in man. And this is why the Lord Jesus Christ said He knew what was in man. Therefore, He did not commit Himself unto them. Could it be that there are even greater truths? Could it be that there is even more light? Could it be that there is a wonder and a glory that far exceeds what you can imagine, and it is only because you live in these castles of clay, you're a dying world and a dying people, and it'll only be when you're brought up into His presence that you can enjoy and receive the glory and the power and the grace that God has for all of us? Amen. I certainly believe it. Don't ever let yourself fool yourself and deceive yourself into the thing where you think that you're sinless. It doesn't exist in this world. Let's look at some of his tactics this morning, and then I'll come to a close. And I want to look at one in particular that's very important because it works on every last one of us. That is the ability of Satan to fire a thought into your mind. Fiery darts, the Bible calls them. You have any problem with fiery darts? At two o'clock in the morning I awaken and a fiery dart will come at me. Let me tell you right off the bat, the purpose of that fiery dart is to destroy your faith. is to tear you down, is to make you feel helpless and hopeless, in plainer words, not with God, but with self, that where you understand there's no way I'll ever get any better, no matter how much I pray, doesn't matter how much I ask for forgiveness, doesn't matter how many trips to the altar I make, I still go out of here and I still have these awful thoughts. I must be the most horrible thing that ever walked the face of the earth. Have you ever felt that way? Well, let me tell you something about a thought. And this is important about it. Please, please listen. A thought is not a sin. A thought is a fiery dart. Over there in 2 Corinthians chapter number 10 and verse 5 it says, casting down imaginations. and every evil thought that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. I might not have quoted it perfectly, but that's exactly what it says, means. In plainer words, when the thought comes, when the thought shows up, it hits you with it. You got your mind on some decent, clean thing, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this filth that is unbelievable fires into your head. Or you're going through a trying time, a time of real sorrow in your life, and this fires into you, and this thought says, God doesn't even know what you're doing. He doesn't care a thing about you. You're going to rot, and that's the way it is. All that you believe is just a big joke. The mind is the workhouse of Satan. Why is it, preacher? Because it's from the mind that he gains access to the rest of you. Go back and get it first now. Get the first part. The thought hits you. And the thought comes in the mind. That's a fiery dart. Bang! It shows up. You don't know when it's coming. You don't know how to expect it. Have the clear blue. I've had it happen to me when I'm preaching. Bang, it shows up. What do you do, preacher? Immediately, you take it captive. You grab it. Just like that. Cast it down. And say, that's not me and that's not true. You're a liar, Satan. Immediately. You don't try to reason with it. You don't try to figure it out. You don't try to understand where it came from. You just simply say, that's a lie. That's not who I am anymore. God loves me. I've been born again and I'm His Son. And I will stand upon what God promised in His Word, not what thing flies through my mind. If you do that, that's done. He'll stop after a while and try a different tactic or a different thought. But when it's done, it's done. You didn't sin. But if you allow the thought to stay in your mind, If you allow it to stay and you don't actively resist it, then it takes root in your soul. Are you listening? Once it enters into the soul, it starts becoming part of who you are. Once it comes into the soul, then you start dealing with it in that complex thing called a human being. That it's not easy to figure out. But once the thought becomes a reality in your soul, it will eventually become a reality in your life. You'll either fantasize about that thought or you'll do the thought. In other words, you'll practice whatever has been born inside you and you didn't cast down. You didn't reject. When that happens, You have come to the point where you've got to get on your knees and confess your sin. When do I have to confess it? I've never done anything yet, but you did it in your mind. You allowed it to play. You thought on it. You kicked it around. Put it aside a while and then picked it back up. The thought didn't dominate you for a while. That's how subtle it is. But then it came back, and it came back with a vengeance. And the thought's been dancing around inside your mind, trying to gain a stronghold in your soul. Every single soul in this house has a past. And every soul that's listening to this preacher has a besetting sin. And every single soul listening to this preacher has a weakness in them. And that's exactly what that thought is going to find. Satan will use it to find that weakness. Once the mind begins to settle on it, once you begin to think about it and may even receive pleasure from the fact that you haven't confessed it and cast it down, you're gonna do one of two things. Either keep it and harbor it in your heart, or you're gonna wind up practicing that very thing. And if you don't confess it, You will be ready for the chastising hand of God. Christian friend, if there's something dancing around in your mind, and you didn't immediately cast it down, and now you're having trouble with it, the only way that you're going to get any peace from it now is not saying cast down, because it's already got a stronghold. You allowed it to have a stronghold. You're gonna have to confess it to Christ, plead the blood of Christ on it, and verbally reject it and rebuke it, and plead the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on that thought. You'll have to do it. And if you don't do it, you're very foolish, because you will physically do what you've thought about in your heart for a long time. And now if you refuse to do it, You've been playing mind games with it and tossing it around in your heart and in your mind. God knows it and you know it. He loves you. You're his son and he's gonna chasten you. And when he chastens you, he's gonna let you know real fast that thing that you'd harbored in your heart is the issue between you and the Lord. And until you get it settled and get it taken care of, there's not gonna be any fellowship and communion between you and God, and He wants communion. He wants fellowship. He wants fellowship. Isn't it remarkable how simple it is to handle something like that? When a fiery dart comes, you just cast it down immediately. No, that's not me. You're a liar, Satan. Done with you! Christ has saved me and cleansed me. Acknowledge where it came from. That is from the wicked one. And go no further with it. But that's not what we do, is it? How many of you in this house this morning are guilty of what I'm saying? It's that favorite TV show. You may be having a relationship with somebody on that TV screen. Started out just with enamoration, you know. You liked their looks or they were cute or they were funny or whatever. But then after a while, you didn't even realize that while it was happening, you're dependent upon that thing you're watching on TV because they've become a big part of your life. And now you put yourself in that screen with that person and nobody around you knows it. But you know it. It's right here. The time will come when it will go much further than simply looking at a screen. Much further. Cast it down. I want to read it for you the way the Bible says it. Then I'll close. Every once in a while I can quote scripture pretty good and sometimes I can't. So let's just take it and read it. Here it is. 2nd Corinthians 10 5 The weapons of our warfare are not carnal Mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalt with itself against the knowledge of God and Bringing into captivity every thought see that every thought to the obedience of Christ If you've got an active mind If you've got an inquisitive type mind, if you've got the kind of mind that likes to look under rocks and look around the corner and find out why this ticks and where'd this come from and what's going on over here and why do you say that or why'd they do that? That's a fertile mind. That can be good. God can use it for the glory of God, but it can also be a clearing house for Satan because you can find yourself in something you shouldn't be in. Whatever the situation is, take that thought captive. Cast it down to the glory of God. In Jesus name I pray, Lord. I've delivered what you put on my soul. I thank you for every soul that heard it this morning, for those that heard it on the internet, for those who may hear this later. Thank you. It's your word and it won't return void. Oh, I know that. I know that. It won't return void. It'll accomplish that which you please, and it'll prosper in the thing to which you've sent it. There's someone in this house today, Lord, in their heart and in their soul, they know it's true. They know what I've said's true. They know it's very true. They're wise enough, mature enough to know when something foreign has entered into their life and it doesn't belong there. I pray, Heavenly Father, they do what you told them to do. Stop it now. Stop it dead in its tracks. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's stand up and sing. Page 124 in your All-American. Are you washed? In the blood, in the soul-cleansing blood. Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Won't you come? Won't you come? Are you washed? Let me say something, would you please? I have the distinct feeling this morning that I did some sewing. Yep. I do. Yep. And I fought the red clay one time up in Union County. I had a little garden up there. If you've ever had red clay for a garden, you know what I'm talking about. And I fought the red clay and had a little garden. But I didn't expect anything for a while after I sewed it. It takes a while. It's been sewed this morning. I love you, and I'm praying for you. Do something about it now. In due time, do something about it. It's been sowed. I got full confidence in the seed. No better seed in the world. No better seed. Good seed. How many of you ever had a seed catalog, if you know what I'm talking about? You get on there, but their seeds are the best seeds. Nobody's seeds anywhere near their seeds. That's a seed catalog, you know, and sometimes there may be some truth in it and all this and that and so forth. They brag on their seed. Well, I'm going to tell you something about the seed that I sowed this morning. That's the seed. It'll bring forth fruit in due time. The seed's perfect. Amen. We'll have a word of prayer and we'll let you go. Meet again this evening at 6 o'clock. Don't forget now if you'd like to meet with me at 5 o'clock this afternoon.