 Amen. So here we are in Acts chapter 19. So Paul is in, Paul is in Ephesus at this point and Paul is actually on his third, if you look at verse number 23 of chapter 18, Paul is actually, you know, he stopped in Antioch and then he just, he just left right away and he went up into Asia and he's been going all around Asia confirming the disciples as he does. So he's actually on his third missionary journey. I didn't really point it out at this time because the fact that really you're starting to see a pattern here that Paul's life is kind of a missionary journey. The missionary journeys of Paul are kind of, you know, they're kind of just defined as he stops in Antioch and he's just kind of going around constantly on a missionary journey and the third one is actually a little bit less harder to define. He stays in Ephesus quite a while and then it, there's a lot of generalities about where he went. But since Acts chapter 18 verse 23, he has been on his, what is known as his third missionary journey. We're going to start in verse number eight of Acts chapter 19. Of course we looked at these men that he saw in Ephesus. He's been in, he's in Ephesus so far and he's going to be in Ephesus for, you know, a couple of years here and he met these men that didn't know anything about the Holy Spirit, talked about the baptism of John last week, looked at some things there. But look at this next situation that comes up. Very interesting situation, very applicable to us today and things that we will see in the past, things that we will see in the future. Just a common thing that happens all the time. But a super interesting point in the Bible here. Look at verse number eight. Definitely a reason that we're given this story in the Bible tonight. Look at verse number eight it says, and he went into the synagogue, this is Paul, and spake boldly for the space of three months disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. So he's in there, he's preaching the gospel to the Jews and the synagogues, but when divers were hardened and believe not, meaning when the people, you know, started to believe, you know, they just weren't accepting it. It says, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples disputing daily in the school of one tyrannous. And this continued by the space of two years so that all they that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus both Jews and Greeks. So like I said, pretty much Paul's whole life is a missionary journey here. He's on his third one. He's spending years in Ephesus here. Must have been pretty fruitful for him to stay there for so long. But you know, yeah, that we could all say that our lives are a missionary journey. I guess just to make a little point there. But look at verse number 11. Not only was he preaching the gospel, but he was also performing miracles as we've seen the disciples do in the book of Acts. Look at verse 11. It says, and God brought special miracles by the hands of Paul. Notice that God did the miracles just through Paul's hands. So it was God that was the one that was doing the healing or whatever these miracles were. Look at verse number 12. So that from his body were brought unto the sick, handkerchiefs or aprons and the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them. Then certain vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus saying, we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preached it. So this is interesting here. So first of all, in verse number 12 and verse number 13, let me point out this two words that we see here, evil spirits. So we see there's these evil spirits. Now there's two types of evil spirits in the Bible. In the Old Testament, turn to 1 Samuel chapter 16. There's an evil spirit that is talked about in the Old Testament, particularly concerning King Saul. And I want to point out the difference between that evil spirit and the evil spirit that we're talking about in the New Testament here. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 16. Look at verse number 14. In the New Testament, these evil spirits, and I'll prove this to you from the Bible, these evil spirits that we're talking about in Acts chapter 19 are literally demons. They're literally entities. They're demons. They're angels of Satan, basically, that are possessing people. But in the Old Testament, look at 1 Samuel chapter 16. Look at verse 14. The Bible says this, but the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. So when it comes to Saul and this evil spirit, you will always see these words that follow this evil spirit after the word's evil spirit, and it says it's an evil spirit from the Lord. This is not a demon from the Lord. The word evil here means it's a troubling spirit. It's a punishing spirit. Basically, God is chastising Saul, and it's more of a, you know, this is the equivalent when it says the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul. That's the equivalent of saying that he was no longer filled with the spirit. Okay, so this is, you know, the filling of the Holy Spirit that they had in Acts chapter 2. This is how you could be filled with the Holy Spirit when you go out and you preach boldly the gospel to somebody. Many times, you will definitely feel like you were filled with the spirit when you were doing that, and that is a real thing that really happens. Okay, and that's what it's talking about here. It doesn't say Saul lost his salvation. It's just saying he's no longer filled with the spirit. Same thing happened to Samson. We know that Samson is saved. And, you know, the Bible says, you know, the spirit of the Lord came upon Samson. This is the Old Testament equivalent of being filled with the Holy Spirit, and, you know, basically grieving, you know, God is what Saul was doing, and he was under God's chastisement. So God troubled his spirit. God gave him a troubled spirit. And if you read the story of Saul, you will basically, it reads like he's going crazy. If you read the story of Saul in these chapters, there's a lot of detail on King Saul in the Bible when he's chasing David, he's trying to kill his own son. It literally reads like he's losing his mind. And look, that is a real thing, this troubling spirit from the Lord. You can see that with Christians that are being chastised today. I mean, if you've seen backslidden Christians who are just, you know, being chastised today, many times, you know, Christians that are still in the spirit and in the Word will look at somebody who's backslidden and just, you know, fighting against God, and you'll look at them and you'll be like, it's like you've lost your mind. But that's what this is. Okay? It's the same thing that we're seeing in the Old Testament. All that to say this, Saul wasn't possessed with an evil spirit. He wasn't possessed with a demon like we're talking about in the New Testament. When the New Testament is talking about evil spirits, it's talking about literal demons of Satan. Okay? And I'll prove that to you. Look, go back to Acts chapter 19. So just to get our definitions right. So basically, this man, there are certain vagabond Jews, exorcists it says, took upon them to call over them, which had evil spirits. There's some people that had evil spirits in the name and they were just like, they were just using the name of Jesus here, saying we adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches. There wasn't Jesus that they believed in. They were just name dropping Jesus to try to get some action going here with these demon possessed people. Look at verse 14. Gets more detail here. And it says there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. So there was these Jews that these seven Jews, vagabond Jews, they were traveling Jews or whatever that meant. And they were claiming to be exorcists. And they saw that Paul was doing all these miracles. In what name was Paul doing the miracles? In the name of Jesus, he was doing the miracles. And they're like, hey, we're going to try that. Now look at this, this proves to you, this is an actual entity here. This is an actual individual. This is an actual, I guess you could say, you know, personhood of some kind in verse 15. It says, and the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye? So there's your proof right there that this is an actual entity with a personality. Okay, this is an actual demon here. Look, you never see this with Saul. You never see this with Saul. Saul just, Saul just losing his mind. He's just going crazy. He's mad. He's angry. He's depressed. You know, that's that troubling spirit from the Lord. He was under the chastisement of God. Very similar to, you know, what happened to Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible. All right? Look at verse number 16 of Acts chapter 19. So here we, what's the story? We have Paul, he's doing all these miracles in Ephesus. He's healing the sick. He's casting out evil spirits. He's doing all these great miracles in the name of Jesus. He have these unbelieving Jews. They're just like, Hey, we're exorcists. Let's try this. Right? It seems to be working. Look at verse 16. And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them. So here's a person, a literal human being that was possessed. Look, possession is real by the way too. And if you're saved long enough and you're a soul winner long enough, you will run into people that are possessed. You will see people that are possessed with a devil, with an evil spirit. All right? That's a real thing and it happens today. But this man, the man that's possessed by the demon, he leaps on them and overcame them and prevailed against them. So they fled out of the house naked and wounded. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus. And fear fell on all of them. And the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds. Many of them also, which used curious arts, brought their books together and burned them before all men and they counted the prices of them and found 50,000 pieces of silver. All that to say that a great lesson was learned here and people started giving up these dark arts and all these things regardless of how much money they had invested into it is what that's trying to get at. In verse number 19. But I'm going to stop there. I'm going to stop there and I want to talk about some of the things. I want to talk about these men. These seven men, what they were doing and why they were doing it and why we will still see that happen today. And then I want to talk about what this demon also said. So look, these men, they were exorcists, they were performing witchcraft or whatever they were doing. I'm sure they were doing this as a business for money. And they saw Paul doing these great things and they're like, hey, this is a method. Let's try this, is what they did. So they just tried to use the name of Jesus to, they just said, hey, we adjure you by this Jesus guy that Paul talks about is what they said. Obviously it didn't work out like they thought it was going to work out. But look, they saw it work for Paul and they just started name dropping Jesus is what they started doing. So why this name? Why do people name drop Jesus? First of all, I'm going to give you three levels of Jesus name droppers today. All right. And then you kind of picture who that you could imagine that is these types of people. But look, you're going to see name droppers today that use the name of Jesus to accomplish things for them. All of these name droppers are what the Bible would call false prophets. All right, every single one of them. But I'm going to start with the least serious. Turn to Matthew chapter 15. Turn to Matthew chapter 15. I'm going to start with the least serious, you know, Jesus name droppers and move to the more serious, the most serious Jesus name droppers. I kind of got it cut up into three levels. And this is just kind of how I think about these, you know, groups of people, because there's lots of different levels of people that drop the name of Jesus just for their own, you know, benefit for their own. We'll talk about the reasons in a few minutes. But look at Matthew chapter 15. Here's the here's the least serious. They're all serious. Okay, they're all we call false prophets. But here's the least dangerous, maybe is what you could look at. Look at Matthew chapter 15. And look at verse number eight. The Bible says this this people draw nigh unto me with their mouth and honor with me with their lips. But their heart is far from me. Here's verse number nine. But in vain, they do worship me teaching, teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men. The Jesus social workers are the are the first level of false prophet or Jesus name droppers. Really, they're teaching for commandments, the doctrines of men, and they're using the name of Jesus to do it. These are that these are the self help gurus that use Jesus. All right, these are the you know, I guess you can put Joel Osteen in this category a little bit. He's a little bit more serious. But these are the people that just want to be out there and they just want to be given advice. And they just want to, you know, they really don't have, you know, any they don't know any doctrine in the Bible. They don't really have any interest. This is your this is your liberal Christian pastor today. Right, this they don't have any doctrine on their website. You can't figure out what they believe because they don't believe anything. They just have they just believe the commandments of men. They just believe whatever the world believes, but they just drop Jesus's name in there. They just drop Jesus in there. And they teach this philosophy, this this worldly philosophy of the fake Jesus. You know, this is the church sign that I drive by every day that says love all serve all. You know, what does that mean? You know, I mean, how could that's that's a ridiculous statement. Love all serve all that Jesus they teach this fake Jesus that, you know, would never would never judge anyone. You know, they it's it's always attached to a false gospel if there is a gospel. But this is the you know, maybe there's no gospel at all is the thing. You know, this is the the church you go to their website and there's no belief statement. You can't find out any doctrine that they believe you can't find out what gospel they believe. And as a matter of fact, if you would actually talk to those pastors, which I have many, many, many times, and I'm using the term pastor tonight loosely. All right, if you talk to those pastors, they really don't care. They really don't care what you believe anybody in their church could believe or teach anything. That this is the Jesus social worker right here. All right, and look, the person the person that goes to this church is going to be the person that goes to this church, and you're going to knock on their door. They're going to have no clue how to get to heaven. You're going to tell them how to get to heaven, maybe even get them saved. Then you're going to be like, doesn't that bother you that you go to a church that just has no interest in telling you how to get to heaven? And they're going to be like, huh, because they go to just this feel good, you know, motivational session, basically every every Sunday morning that drops the name of Jesus. Okay, but what they're teaching the commandments of men. They're not even they're not even really twisting doctrine, which is what, you know, we're going to talk about next they're just name dropping Jesus to just further some social agenda that the pastor has, you know, just to be an advice guru, basically to be this feel good, you know, you're the best Jesus in there. You know, that's what they're doing. And they just throw his name in the mix. Now, this is the lightest version of the false prophet, right here, the lightest version of it's still serious. I mean, it's a false prophet all the same. Now, I've been asked the question many times, you know, do you think there could there could be a sincere false prophet out there? A false prophet out there that's that's just sincere and just doesn't know he's wrong. And the answer I would tell you is yes, I do believe that. Why do I believe that? Because Paul was that. Paul was a sincere false prophet. But here's what I do believe. Here's what I do believe. And you soul winners, you tell me if I'm wrong on this. Here's what I do believe. I believe about a humble, if there's a humble sincere false prophet, he will get saved. That's what I believe. Or she will get saved. All right. I believe if there's a humble, sincere false prophet. Look, because look, Jesus said seek and ye shall find. If you want to know the truth, you know, God will show you the truth, especially somebody like that. And that's why, you know, God went after Paul. Because Paul obviously was ready to receive the truth. He was ready to receive it. All right. But here's the thing. Most of these, even these light versions of false prophets that just have no doctrine. They're just all about some social gospel of whatever their particular social gospel is. There's no doctrine. There's no anything. It's just beliefs mean nothing to them. It just, here's the thing. Most of them are very prideful people. Most of them are very prideful people. And you soul winners tell me if I'm wrong. You know, you knock on the door of some, you know, female pastor that is like this, knows no doctrine, knows zero Bible, knows nothing about what the Word of God actually says, but is a very prideful person usually. Very hard to talk to people like that. You knock on the door of some deacon of a church or something like this or somebody whose, whose uncle is a deacon or mother is a deacon or whatever. They're always, they're always very prideful people. And this is a major problem. There will be consequences, you know, for those people. Right. So look, yeah, there could be, I believe that they're sincere false prophets. Paul was a sincere false prophet, but I believe that they're sincere and they're humble. They will end up getting out of that and getting saved. Okay. So if you find yourself a prideful, even lighter version of this, you know, social gospel, you know, false prophet, it's still something that's, that's very serious. All right. Now look, we're gonna kind of ratchet this up a little bit. We're talking about Jesus' name droppers here. We're talking about false prophets. It's like these seven people were, were doing, they were just using the name of Jesus to further some agenda that they had. But I want you to notice a trend as we get more serious here. Just, I want you to recognize how much more serious and how much more harmful these people become to folks around them and to the world itself. All right. Here's the next one. These are that what I call the Jesus messengers. Okay. The Jesus messengers. These are people who claim to be teaching Jesus' message. They claim to be teaching the Bible. They're taking doctrine and they're twisting the doctrine. Okay. The very simplest version of this is your, you know, your Pentecostals, your Protestants that just have a twisted works based gospel. All right. They're taking the Bible, they're using it and they're twisting it. A more serious version of these people are people that claim extra revelation from Jesus. Now we get into people like the Catholics. The Catholics that claim, you know, the pope is the vicar of Christ and that, you know, his, his revelation and his doctrine, you know, can override the Bible and that's where they get things like purgatory. That's where they get things like how you can, you know, pay for indulgences to get your, your relatives out of hell or purgatory or whatever they make up at the time. That's how they make up so many different doctrines that aren't anywhere near the Bible. They have all this extra revelation through this extra biblical, you know, figurehead that they put, you know, in their church. Okay. And look, you say, is it more dangerous? Well, yeah, the Catholic Church has murdered millions of Christians, literally has murdered millions of Christians. I mean, for things like what? So when you're getting extra revelation, you certainly don't want people reading the Bible. You certainly don't want people having a Bible. So that's what they're after people for. They burn villages. They've killed thousands of people for just having Bibles. You know, once the Bible started being written down, especially in English, you know, it was just, it was an all out war against getting the Bible out of people's hands, because if you're teaching things contrary to the Bible and you know that, you can't have people reading it. All right. So you see it's dangerous. The Jehovah's Witnesses, another one, extra revelation, extra biblical revelation. One of my favorite Jehovah Witnesses extra bill of revelations is the is in California. It's the it's the Bethsira Bethsiram mansion in San Diego. There was a mansion built in 1920 late 20s, late 1920s by the head of the Jehovah's Witnesses Church. And he said, we have to build this mansion because Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are coming back. So we have to build this huge mansion in San Diego. So when they come back and he's like, I'll live in it until they get here. You know, I mean, oh, look at some of this stuff. And you're just like, how do people go along with this stuff? But no, this is real. You can like tour this place today. It went into private ownership, I don't know, 50 years ago, but you can actually take it. I'm not going to say I'm going to take a tour of the devil house. But the point is, I mean, that's a pretty good one. I mean, it's like, you can get people to follow that. You know, I mean, you know, I mean Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they dwelt intense, the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 11. I mean, they dwelt in tabernacles. They don't need a mansion, but no, you know, whatever. They also predicted the end of the world like in 1878, 1881, 1914, 1918. I think 1970s sometime they predicted that the second coming of Christ, not the end of the world, sorry. But, you know, they're wrong every time. And it's like, they're still, they're still at it, you know, so turn to Deuteronomy chapter 18. You know, so all this extra biblical revelation, like this isn't anything new. But this is a more serious version of, you know, somebody that's just name dropping Jesus. These people are not just name dropping Jesus like these exorcists were. They're actually saying, hey, Jesus told me extra stuff that he didn't tell you. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 18. So how can we, how can we, how, I mean, I can't even say how can we, I'm going to say how should people, you know, hold, what, what kind of light should people shine on this? Look at Deuteronomy chapter 18. The Bible is very clear. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 18 and verse number 18. It's not that hard to figure out who the false prophets are, folks. Look at, especially when they're, when they're, I mean, it's really easy to figure them out when they're like declaring the second coming of Christ and then it doesn't happen like eight times. You know what I mean? Look at Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 18. The Bible says I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and I'll put my words in his mouth. This is God speaking and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. So the question is God say hey I'm going to give you a prophet and he's going to speak my words to you. The question would become how do we know God if this prophet is really speaking your words? And the Bible tells us this answer. Look at verse number 19. It shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name. I'll require it of him. But the prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak or shall speak in the name of other gods even that prophet shall die. If thou say in nine hundred how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken. Like how are we going to know if he's telling us the truth God? Look at verse 22. What a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken. But the prophet has spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not be afraid of him. What it's saying is like if somebody's coming and making all these you know end of the world predictions any kind of prophecy to you and it doesn't come true false prophet that's what the Bible is saying. God saying that's how you can tell. He's like then I didn't tell him. All right I mean the seventh day Adventists are the same. The seventh day Adventists sparked they came out of I did a whole thing on this. They came out of the Millerite movement in the mid 1840s I think and the Millerite the Millerite guy like he he was some Methodist and then he predicted the end of the second coming of Christ same thing didn't happen and then Ellen G. White's like oh it didn't happen because I just had all these visions to explain you know why it didn't happen and she's a huge false prophet. There's so many prophecies that she made that never came true. Like you can't even you can't even begin to and what does she have false gospel. You know what does she have there's no hell you know there's just like false gospel works based salvation but eat healthy food. I mean it's just like you know it's just like how are people following this if they just knew what the Bible said like hey people make prophecies and they don't come true that's not of God all right. Now we start to get a little bit more serious but still talking about extra revelation you got the Mormons you got the Mormons you know the extra revelation they literally the book of Mormon is literally called another testament of Jesus Christ. I mean Joseph Smith basically said like look Jesus just told me all this extra stuff that he never told you. So it's it's extra revelation. Joseph Smith actually borders on the last category that I'm going to talk about tonight. He never claimed to be Jesus but he said that he was better than Jesus actually and it makes sense because the Mormons actually believe that you can become equivalent to Jesus. They believe that you can become a son of God just like Jesus. You can have your own planet just like Jesus all this other stuff right. So that brings me to the last category. By the way Deuteronomy chapter 13 talks about it basically covers false prophets. We won't go there but it covers false prophets when it talks about well what if they do do great signs and wonders? Well Deuteronomy chapter 13 says hey if a prophet comes to you and does great signs and wonders imagine Deuteronomy chapter 13 saying this saying if a prophet comes to you and does great signs and wonders but he tells you to go after other gods lowercase g-o-d-s it's like that's that prophet shall die you know that's a false prophet is what Deuteronomy chapter 13 teaches it's almost like you know the whole word of God was written before one word was written because revelation chapter 13 that is exactly what the false prophet of the antichrist is gonna do he's gonna do great signs and wonders he's gonna do great signs and wonders he's gonna raise up this image and say hey worship it and we're like hey no Deuteronomy chapter 13 you wonder like how Christians are gonna recognize all this it's like because it's right there in the bible very simple direction alright so we got the book of Mormon another testament of Jesus Christ so we got these next people you know the the second category that I was just talking about are people that just take God's doctrine and they twist it they use it for themselves they claim that they got extra revelation you know from the Lord the last category is this the last category these are special people right here these are people they don't just name drop Jesus they claim to be Jesus turn to Matthew chapter 24 turn to Matthew chapter 24 and look there's too many people to list even today even today that literally claim to be Jesus there's literally hundreds yeah I'm sure thousands of people since Jesus walked this earth have claimed to be Jesus many of them are alive today you know if you look up if you look up you know people that claim to be Jesus in each century you'll find dozens and dozens and dozens of names of people that claim to be Jesus look at Matthew 24 look at verse number four and Jesus answered and said out of them take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my name saying I am Christ as he doesn't say they're gonna come in my name saying we wanna exercise demons he's saying look there's gonna be people that come on my name literally saying that they're me Jesus says and shall deceive many and people will follow them scores of people throughout history have done this you know some names and look and many times many times these people are seriously dangerous people the people that actually claim to be the son of God sun young moon sun sun young moon died in 2012 you know went to hell in 2012 he was the you know he was the the unification church you know leader that claimed to be Jesus Jim Jones I don't know maybe younger people don't remember Jim Jones was this big you know he was the founder of the people's temple he's the one that took people and just like he claimed to be the reincarnated Jesus and he took all these people and like they all like committed suicide together you know I mean here's another great one Charles Manson like a literally I mean you want to talk about demon possessed I mean Charles Manson you know had to have been demon possessed I mean I never actually like met the guy but I mean the guy is just a murderous psychopath David Koresh I don't know if you remember that story the Branch Davidians from the early 90s or the the mid 90s you know Bill Clinton took care of him that's another story itself but the point is like there's been there's many people still alive today that claim to be Jesus and look many of these people of the names I just read you many of these people are very very dangerous people the people that follow them many of them ended up dying and then ended up going to prison murdering people you know there's many other names of people that claim to be Jesus even alive today that are just murderers and they're in prison because they're just like they just go out and they start murdering people so it's like demon possession and this you know are definitely tied together this week it's funny I was writing I was reading and writing this sermon and then this week there's some I'm not going to mention the name but there's some famous Flat Earther pastor that now claims to be Jesus like for real like straight up like I'm the son of God I'm Jesus and like this one's unique because he's not the second coming he's like no I'm the first coming of Jesus like that's I mean that's that's an extra bold one right there you know I've never really addressed like the Flat Earth thing you know like from the pulpit but you know here's the thing like I don't think being a Flat Earther like makes it so you can't get saved but like if you are a Flat Earther like there's major issues there you know for these Flat Earth people I didn't even know it was a thing until I moved to California but it's a real thing and here look talk about conspiracies I believe that it actually is a conspiracy the Flat Earth thing like for real now I'm being serious and I think this is true okay I believe the Flat Earth I believe the Flat Earth groups and people and all this because look it's not moderated on it's not taken off of YouTube it's not taken off of anywhere they just these Flat Earth people they just run rampant everywhere I mean all over the place this Flat Earth stuff is all over the place I believe that it's actually there it's it's there to discredit to discredit actual conspiracies it's it's there to be this this over the top you know conspiracy thing that just looks completely crazy to make anybody who has any kind of conspiracy theory look like a nutcase so I mean I believe that the Flat Earth thing is actually a tool of Satan to to discredit people that are seeking truth out there and look I mean I believe that it's working because you know I mean the Flat Earth thing is is completely it's it's bonkers like I said I'm not saying you can't be saved if you're a Flat Earther but I'm telling I mean just personally as a pastor I don't think I'd want a Flat Earther in church I mean because there's just gonna be so many other problems that come along with that unless of course you can you know sit down with them with a globe and you know spin it around a few times and and maybe convince them but you know I mean look you know I'm not even against conspiracy theories but you know for you know for crying out loud your conspiracy guide should be you know question everything you know but not the Bible don't question the Bible all right get off at that salvation stop you know get off at that salvation bust bust stop there and realize you know hey you know all the other stuff is is is kind of like noise right and we we love to talk about stuff in this church but at the end of the day you know we all know that the only thing that matters is the Bible the only thing that matters is the word of God and we don't doubt that here all right so look back to this back to this Jesus name dropping situation we got these three levels that's kind of this the levels is just kind of the way I've always thought about it you know but you know you think about it you think about it it's really kind of a cult playbook right I mean you kind of got a playbook of anybody that is using the name of Jesus I believe is what I classify as a cult I mean if you're using the name of Jesus and you're falsifying it you're forging it you're not you're not teaching what Jesus taught you're just using his name for your own you know benefit and your own vanity and your own whatever you know I believe that that is a cult right there and look all these cults follow the same thing they predict the end of the world and then you know if they get really crazy they say that they're the Messiah they say that they're Jesus himself alright go back to Acts go back to Acts so why do people do it alright why do people do it like I just wanted to show you though that there's no new thing under the sun okay there's no new thing under the sun we're gonna keep seeing this happen until the end is here alright in Philippians chapter 2 look at verse number 9 turn to Philippians chapter 2 in verse number 9 just keep your place in Acts chapter 19 you know what is it about why do people do it now we see you know that people do it on varying levels why do they do it why do they do it look at Philippians chapter 2 in verse number 9 see it's all about this name it's all about Jesus' name look at Philippians chapter 2 in verse number 9 the bible says wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the sun and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord the glory of God the Father there's no other name that even claims that there's no other name that claims that every single person will every single person in heaven and earth will bow to this what this name there's no other name that claims that go back to Acts chapter 4 go back to Acts chapter 4 go back to Acts chapter 4 and look at verse number 10 now the guys the disciples were using Jesus' name the whole time in the book of Acts look at verse number 10 of Acts chapter 4 why this name is the question be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom ye crucified whom God hath raised from the dead even by him that this man stand here before you he just healed somebody and he's saying look you know it's by Jesus' name that this man was healed this is the stone which was said it not of you builders which has become the head of the corner and look at verse number 12 so verse number 12 it says neither is there salvation in any other for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved so up in verse number 10 the name heals this is what the guys in Acts chapter 19 were trying to use it for because they saw Paul with this name that was healing all these people they're like hey we can use that give me that wrench they're trying to heal with it in verse number 12 we see that it's the only name that saves so it heals it saves Philippians chapter 2 says that it's so powerful that literally every single person in heaven and earth will bow to it it's powerful it heals it saves it saves that's why people use it that's why people forge it Acts chapter 3 verse 6 Peter says silver and gold have I none but such as I give to thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth get up and walk so they're always saying in the name of Jesus Christ so many people today use the name of Jesus for these reasons power and control that's why that's it the Catholics the Mormons Jehovah's Witnesses all the false prophets all these Christian cults it's all look that's why they do it for power and control that's it over people they use the name of Jesus influence money just you know control over people control over their wives control over their families I mean just I mean with the extremes that we talked about tonight with the extremes from the light false prophet that just believes nothing but is just preaching some social gospel dropping Jesus's name in there to the wicked evil many times demon possessed person that is claiming to be Jesus Christ himself with those extremes of people wicked people out there using Jesus's names it is so stupid for people today to believe that anyone claiming the name of Jesus is saved yet isn't that what people think today that oh it the church has a cross on it no look at all the categories of people that we use look at these people in Acts chapter 19 they were just dropping Jesus's name the bible doesn't even who would even pretend that these people and these seven men were believing on Jesus nobody they were just and the demon knew it this demon knew better than many Christians today think about that the demon himself knew better even politicians use Jesus's name for power every republican presidential candidate since I've been this tall has got a name drop Jesus why we got to get that evangelical vote so what do they do what do they do they they gotta they gotta they gotta they gotta they gotta say the name of Jesus a couple times in a in a speech or an interview or something and then they're good all the evangelicals are like oh he said Jesus this demon knew better the demon knew better california has used the name of Jesus the words of Jesus to justify murdering millions of unborn babies they have put Jesus's words on billboards to try to justify murder this demon knew better than this what folks it takes more than name dropping to be saved turn to matthew chapter seven turn to matthew chapter seven turn to matthew chapter seven look at verse twenty two the bible says in matthew seven verse twenty two it says many will say to me in that day lord lord they're gonna drop his name right at his feet some of these people have we not prophesied in thy name doesn't this make a little bit more sense now of course you prophesied in my name jesus i mean lots of people prophesied in the name of jesus in thy name cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works and then jesus has this he says and then i will profess unto them i never knew you just like he didn't know these seven men he's gonna say i never knew you depart from ye that work iniquity name dropping is not gonna work with jesus just i mean just like the demon jesus is gonna say to those people who are you even the demons are smarter than ecumenical christians today there might even be ecumenical saved christians that believe this garbage that anybody that drops the name of jesus is saved name dropping may work with men but not standing before jesus so we talked about the name droppers i want to talk about two things about the demon now let's talk about the demon we talked about the seven men and the name droppers name dropping jesus is something you're gonna see for the rest of your life on this earth you're gonna see it from the light social gospel to the extreme demon possessed nutcase who literally claims to be jesus right there's nothing new under the sun there's two things i want to point out about the demon go back to axe chapter nineteen go back to axe chapter nineteen there's two things i want you to take away from this demon the first thing is this keep your place in axe nineteen keep a finger there you're gonna go to mark chapter one we're gonna go to mark chapter one the first thing is this the demon knew jesus turn to mark chapter one but guess what folks being saved is about believing on or trusting jesus not just knowing who he is look at mark chapter one verse twenty three we see another example of this the bible says that there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit same thing evil spirit demon here and he cried out saying let us alone what have we to do with thee thou jesus of nazareth art thou come to destroy us they knew who he was they were afraid of him i know thee who thou art the holy one of god they knew who jesus was they knew he was the messiah and they knew he was god but is this demon saved no because you must trust on jesus you must that's what believe on means knowing that he's the messiah knowing that he's the son of god knowing that he is god is not good enough he must trust in him even the demons know who jesus is james two nineteen says thou believe it that there is one god thou do as well the devils also believe in tremble that's what we see in mark chapter one but they don't believe on him they don't trust on him okay so first of all the first point i want to make is this about the demon is he knew jesus the demons always know jesus and this demon knew jesus in acts chapter nineteen verse fifteen he said jesus i know but look at this look at the next part of this verse where he says and paul i know as where it gets a little you know little hairs on the back of your head should start standing up because the second point about the demon is the demon knows who jesus is but the second point is this the demon knew who was saved so the demon know jesus and the demon i mean look isn't that isn't that kind of an amazing thing it tells you that the demon is a spiritual being do you really know who saved i say that many times to people you know like i can't see your heart you know only god can see your heart but the demon knew who was saved so the demon knows satan knows who is saved on this earth satan is a spiritual being and he knows who the saved are and look this is very real you need to understand this he knows who the people that are preaching the real jesus are satan knows this i've said this to many of you you know many times that as you grow in your christian life i mean please remember this you should please be aware of this you should always know this look because guess what why you say why pastor like so you can protect against it that's why so you can protect against it look you can't be damned as a saved believer you can't be possessed by a demon as a saved believer because you are sealed the holy spirit the holy spirit is in you but you can be tempted you can be personally destroyed you can have satan and his demons pulled you away from god you know satan and his demons can destroy your relationships on this earth this is why we preach so much you know why i preach so much what the bible says about relationships and marriage and children and families because the devil can destroy all that for you even though you're saved he could pull you away from the spiritual things in your life and put you into the worldly things in your life if you allow it to happen but you need to understand as you grow as a christian as you become somebody that is out there bearing fruit the demons and satan their boss want to stop that they want to stop that fruit coming to fruition and they will do anything to stop you you see folks satan doesn't care about the catholic he doesn't care about the Mormon he doesn't care about the unsaved soul today because he's already got them he cares about you who are going to those people i just mentioned and trying to preach the gospel to them and pull them out of that that that's what he cares about that's what he cares about every single christian every single christian that has been knocked out of the christian life by satan will cost scores of souls you think about this think about how important this is and how big of a mission this is you think about another soul winner coming into this church and another soul winner coming into this church and just doubling the size of this church of soul winners look it's a force multiplier for the gospel we will get if we have double the size of this church we will get more people saved next year if we double that we will get more people saved it's a force multiplying equation the same works backwards one soul winner taken out of the christian life will send scores and scores and scores and scores of people to hell because that's just that there's not enough because there's not enough of us to get the whole harvest i've said it this way before we're gonna leave grain on the ground we're gonna leave grain on the ground and if satan and his demons can get to the christians will leave more on the ground that's what he's trying to do you have to be you have to be aware of this you have to be aware of this it's the fruit bearing tree that he wants to burn he's focused on you turn to isaiah chapter eight the more you grow the more he will attack the more you grow the more you should be filled with the spirit the more knowledgeable you should be you should be able to recognize those attacks you should be able to recognize when those things are happening so keep that in mind because the devil the demon he knew who jesus was but he also knows who you are as far as people using his name here's a simple methodology for you when you finish your bible reading you're gonna get to revelation chapter twenty two where basically i'll just summarize it for you this is how god ends the bible god ends the bible god ends the bible by saying if anybody adds to my word or takes away from my word i'm taking their their name out of the book of life meaning if you add to the bible if you add to my revelation or you take away from my revelation he's like you're gonna go to hell that's how god ends the bible you always wonder like the best book how was how's that last page how's that last page that's the last page like you add or take away meaning you change it in any way so there's your extra revelation folks but look at isaac chapter eight verse number twenty isaac chapter eight verse number twenty that coupled with this should should just answer anybody dropping the name of jesus for you to the law and to the testimony what's the testimony so this right here if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them every single spectrum of those people named dropping jesus from the social gospel no doctrine person all the way to the person claiming that they're jesus is like there's there's no light in those people there's no light in them because they're speaking against what god's word says keep that in mind this is a super important story for us it's it's something that we're gonna see for our entire lives people dropping the name of jesus and look these demons and satan himself is walking this earth god is allowing it god is allowing it for now we we must be aware of this white tells us these things in the bible he knows who jesus is and he knows who is saved he knows who's working for jesus we have to keep that in mind let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer