 All right, keep your place there in Deuteronomy 18. So we're starting a new series tonight of American heresy. So what I wanna do is, first I wanna focus on that area of Deuteronomy 18 that I wanna look at first. And the part I want you to focus on is verse number 10, 11 and 12 where the Bible reads, there shall not be a found among you anyone that make this son or daughter pass through the fire, or that uses divination or observers of times for an enchanter or a witch, or a charmer or a consultant with familiar spirits, or a wizard or a necromancer for all these things that are an abomination unto the Lord. And because of these abominations, the Lord thy God that drive them out before thee. He's telling them about the type of people and the things that they're doing in the land that they're about to go into. And even in Exodus, the Bible says, thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. We talked about this in the sermon on witchcraft USA. The Bible is very strong about people that practice the occult and witchcraft and things like that to the point where God put the death penalty on it. Now, we're gonna be talking about, in American heresy, we're gonna be talking about, largely, we're gonna be talking about cults in the United States. So what is occult? Let's define that first as an introduction. You know, there's a standard definition of occult today. And the standard definition is a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister. That's not really a pinpoint definition because that really depends on somebody's perspective, right? A system of religious veneration or devotion directed toward a particular figure or object. That one, I sort of agree with. Let me simplify the definition of occult for you from my perspective. Two things identify occult, according to my opinion. This is Jared's opinion land right here. Occult is number one, a sect or a belief or religious belief focused on a man, centered on a man. Okay, and it's very easy to see why these men come up and build these cults and create these cults, in my opinion. So first of all, we see that it's focused on a man. And this man is usually after power, money, power which will give him money and land or resources and usually women for access to women. It's pretty much standard across the board. So that's the first thing. It's a belief or a sect that's focused on a man, a human being. And the second thing is this. There is always extra biblical materials or revelation that this man has access to. So that's my definition of occult. And there's many different cults that fit this today. It relies heavily, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter two. These cults and these men rely heavily on two things. First of all, that most people don't know what the Bible teaches. They pray on that, okay? They pray on the fact that most people don't know what's in the Bible. And they also pray on the fact that unsaved people cannot understand the Bible. It plays right into their hand. In 1 Corinthians chapter two and verse number 14, the Bible says this, but the natural man received it not the things of the spirit of God for their foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. So we talked on Thursday night studying Romans 12 on how you have, God has given you a down payment of the spirit of God in you. You actually have the spirit of God in you if you are saved. And that will help you discern and understand the word of God. Because the spirit of God is God and the word of God is God. It's all the same thing. So it makes sense that if you had the spirit of God in you, you could understand what the Bible says. Turn to Acts chapter eight. Remember the eunuch that Philip had to run to? In Acts chapter eight, the man was reading the word of God and he couldn't understand it. And in Acts chapter eight and verse number 30, the Bible says, and Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet of Psius and said, understandeth thou what thou readest? And he said, how can I accept some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. And then Philip, of course, discerns the Bible for him and he ends up getting saved and accepting Christ. So look, cults capitalize on this. Cults capitalize on the fact that nobody knows what the Bible says and just pretty much it's even, it's probably worse today than it ever has been as far as knowledge of the general public of what the Bible actually says. Because early America, people might not have been saved and there might have been twists and doctrine that made people still not saved, but in general, people kind of had the basic tenets of the Bible. They learned to read using the Bible in those days. So it was a little bit more difficult for people back in the 1700s and things like that, maybe to come up with these crazy cults, but we'll see tonight that it still happened, okay? Now, Satan knows this weakness in people and this is where these cults come from, all right? Part one of American heresy tonight is Mormonism. We're gonna be talking about the Mormon religion and what I'm gonna do on every single one of these sections or every single one of these sermons, what we're gonna do is we're first gonna go through the history of the cult leader, the founder of how did it actually physically come to be? We're gonna go through the teachings that the cult leader created and then we're gonna simply look at what the Bible says. It's pretty simple, okay? Now, let's get into Mormonism. Mormonism, this is a rabbit hole. Well, let me tell you. So just, you know, is there seat belts in the chairs? Just put them on. Mormonism was founded in 1830 by a man named Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith, when he founded Mormonism, was in his 20s, he was like 25 when he officially founded the Mormon religion. He was born in 1804, he died in 1844. He didn't live very long and you'll see why soon. His family was deeply involved in the cult, in the occult, the occult and then he formed a cult, you know, a shocker, right? So his family was big into, you know, what they called religious folk magic back in those days. They were diviners, that's why we read Deuteronomy 18 because of who Joseph Smith was. He was a very superstitious person. He made a living by scamming people out of, he was selling himself as a treasure seeker. That he could come to you and he could find buried treasure for you and the way he would do it is he had a magic rock, this is not made up. He had a magic rock in a hat and he would put his face in the hat, you pay me money, I will put my face in my hat, look at my magic rock and find buried treasure. This was his living. The actual facts of his family was in the 1820s, don't laugh, it's serious. So in the 1820s, his older brother who was the main breadwinner of his family actually died, things were getting rough for the Smith family and he actually was taken to court in the 1820s for ripping off a wealthy farmer with unsuccessful attempts to find buried treasure. Because if I go to brother Trevor and I say, give me a thousand dollars and I'm gonna put my face in the hat and look at my rock and I'm gonna find buried treasure, I can only do that so many times to him before he's gonna sue me. So Joseph Smith was not only a superstitious witch basically, but he was a con man and the legal system of the United States was already after him for ripping people off. So times were tough for Joseph Smith and his family and something needed to change. So in 1823, the angel Moroni, and look, I tried to find as hard as I could connection between the word moron and Mormons, I couldn't find it. I'm sure there's gotta be something though. I mean Moroni, you add a C and it's moronic, you know? There's no connection though. So anyway, we'll be back to the story, okay? Smith's prayer, Smith's prayer to commune, he prayed to commune with some kind of messenger, quote unquote, on September 21st, 1823. And he did this on a night when the moon had reached its maximum fullness the previous day just before autumn equinox because he was a witch. See? He was a diviner, he was a superstitious all the things that we see. He was a consulter with familiar spirits, a wizard and he was divination. He was an observer of times, that's the moon. That's what he was doing. And he found this angel appeared to him and showed him where these golden plates were buried on this hill. And over several years, he translated these golden plates. Many people who he was convincing of this story, you know, asked him to see the golden plates, but the angel Moroni would not let him pull the plates out of the hole, so only he could go back and visit the golden plates and he translated the golden plates by sticking his face in his hat with the rock. Stop laughing. There's millions of people that follow this religion today, all right? But wait, there's more. Here's an interesting story. In 1827, there was a man named Martin Harris and he was conned, he was a wealthy farmer that he was conned into, all these farmers are just getting conned by this guy, I'm sorry brother. But he was conned into financing the publishing of The Book of Mormon, which is where, that's what these plates are, is what we know as The Book of Mormon today. He consed this man, Martin Harris, into financing this publishing exercise and Martin Harris actually stands on the, he sits on the other side of a curtain while Joseph Smith sticks his face in his hat and dictates what the golden plates say, even though the golden plates are not there, no one has ever been able to find them. Other people looked for them, they searched his house, they looked where he said they were, no one was ever able to find them. The angel Moroni hid them from everyone else except Joseph Smith. Lucy Harris, Martin Harris's wife, is irritated with the fact that her husband has been conned by this idiot and she steals, she convinces her husband to get the 116 pages of the first part of The Book of Mormon. And Martin Harris gets the pages, reluctantly Joseph Smith lets Martin Harris take the 116 pages and they mysteriously, Lucy Harris takes the pages and they mysteriously disappear. And quote, Lucy Harris says, if this be divine communication, the same being who revealed it to you can easily replace it. The 100, so the Book of Mormon you have today is the Book of Mormon minus these 116 pages because God punished Joseph Smith and did not let him re-translate the 116 pages of the Book of Mormon that Lucy Harris stole. So Psalm 12, six through eight, the words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times, thou shalt keep them, oh Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever and lest Lucy Harris gets them. Because then you can't get them back. It doesn't say that though. Psalm 119, forever, oh Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. The word of God was written before the world was even created. It was settled and lest Lucy Harris gets them. So cults are founded, I don't need you to understand that cults are founded on the fact that people have no idea what the Bible says. No clue. The Book of Mormon. It was strikingly similar by skeptics, it's strikely similar to several books of his time. The Book of Hebrews, the first book of Napoleon, the late war, heaven and hell and the list goes on and on and on where people have just pulled sentences and quotes and all these things and found them in the Book of Mormon. Especially books that Joseph Smith himself claimed were his favorite books. Other plates that Smith claimed to translate, people created their own, this is even, it gets even better. People created like other golden plates and they're like, hey, and they put like a bunch of gibberish on them. They're like, hey, could you translate these? And then they were just complete fakes but he had translated them and they're like, yeah, we did that to trick you. Many others. Over 100,000 changes have been made to the Book of Mormon since 1830. Many of these by Smith himself. So much for pure words. For I am the Lord, I change not. Smith made ceremonies, temple endowments, strikingly similar to Masonic ceremonies of which he was a part of including the Masonic's handshake. It's the same thing. I mean, it's not even a good hoax is what I'm getting at here. You know, the history of his life, he moved to Ohio where he made an illegal bank and was arrested because you can't just create your own currency in the United States unless you're the Federal Reserve but we won't go there. So he created his own bank. He moved to Missouri after he got kicked out of Ohio and he formed the armies of Israel. And then he got kicked out of Missouri and he formed another armed group, the Navu Legion in Illinois where he was arrested for murder and treason and finally he was killed by a mob when he was 40 years old in 1944. His life consists of this. Remember what I told you about the men who create cults? He had anywhere between 34, it's debatable but who cares? He had between 34 and 49 wives. Some were already married, 10 were teenagers, as young as 14. Some were his foster daughters. There were mother and daughter pairs and the coercion methods that he used to get women to marry him were promises of eternal life. Of course, promises of eternal life, threats of hell. And then finally threats on himself like that he would be punished if you don't marry me. After his death, bring him young, carries on, he's the next prophet and bring him young, just see it's constant revelation in Mormonism. We'll get into their beliefs here as well which is very convenient. You can just change whatever you want at any time. Bring him young brought racism into Mormonism. A bring him young quote says this, "'Shall I tell you the law of God "'in regard to the African race? "'If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed "'mixes his blood with the seed of cane, "'the penalty under the law of God "'is death on the spot, this will always be so.'" He was a prophet of the Mormon church. In 1978 though, they changed this because it's just, it's not politically correct. You just can't say that. So they changed it. So blacks could be bishops after 1978. More detail on this later. The Mormon church actually teaches that the skin got dark and people felt darker skin color because of sin. Because of revolting against God. But Mormons believe in modern revelation. So they simply do away with anything that gets them in a lot of trouble. Like polygamy, that started getting them in a lot of trouble. So they did away with that in 1890. They just did away with it. The bottom line, look, I looked into all the different beliefs of Mormonism. It's very secretive. You're not gonna see a lot of things where you'll find the most information of people who were deep into Mormonism then got out and they will have information. But it's very secretive. You're not gonna find a Mormon missionary that knocks on your door and talks to you about the things that I'm gonna talk about tonight. And I verified these things not only against anti-Mormon stuff, I went and looked at the Mormon answers to it. And look, I can read between the lines. So we're gonna get into that. So let's look at, that's the history of Joseph Smith. The con man who started Mormonism and wrote the Book of Mormon. He ripped people off. He formed armies that killed people. I mean, it's a terrible history. I mean, the guy was, we'll get into that at the end of the sermon. Mormonism beliefs in a nutshell. Now this is where you really need to have your seatbelt on, all right? It's based on this idea that there are infinite gods out there that live on these billions of different planets. And the one God, and you won't find Mormons saying this because they really get down to the point where they're saying, well, the only one that really matters for us is Elohim, or whatever his name is. The one they call God the Father. When they talk about God the Father, they're using a term from the Bible to describe their fake Mormon God. So the bottom line is this. Elohim was a man that through obedience to God became a God. This is the story of Mormonism. And this is what they believe. He became a God and he had spirit children on his planet. So he achieved the great Buddha place where he became a God and he got his own planet. And he had all these children. And the first of these two children were brothers and their names were Jesus and Lucifer. So Jesus and Lucifer were brothers and he decided to send all his spirit children to earth and Jesus and Lucifer had a war because Jesus wanted men on earth to have free will to do the right things and to follow God and Lucifer just wanted to force them. So Lucifer was punished. There was a big war in heaven. A third of the angels went, it sounds a little bit familiar when you see the third of the angels and all these, the war in heaven. But Lucifer and his angels, they did not get physical bodies because they revolted. And Jesus got a physical body and all the Elohim was Adam and he created what is all of us, the human race, Adam and Eve. So Elohim, the God, the father was actually Adam. And then Elohim actually had a physical relationship with Mary to produce Jesus physically, which is also wicked. The modern, now the modern LDS church, this is the Latter-day Saints, takes no position on these crazy statements of the early prophets. Look, silence is acceptance if you know how to read through the lines, read between the lines. Okay. Mormons teach that Jesus also took at least three wives and fathered several children. You know, this isn't anything, there's nothing new under the sun. I don't know if you remember the book, the Da Vinci Code that came out a few years ago, taught the same thing that Jesus was on this earth and he married Mary Magdalene and then he had this holy child. So there's a holy line, bloodline somewhere. I mean, it's ridiculous. And I've even heard people that claim to be Christians say, oh, what does it even matter if Jesus had a wife? It matters because Jesus did not come here for himself. Jesus came here to be a sacrifice and die for the sins of the world. It would directly contradict scripture if Jesus came here to have a family for himself. Jesus was a man on a mission. He came here to live a perfect life, to be all God and all man and to die for the sins of the world, period. And he did it. The modern Mormon church takes no position, which means they believe it. So the story goes like this. In 600 BC, before the birth of Christ, the Israelite saw, certainly Israelite saw by revelation that they were going to be taken into captivity and these Nephites and Lamanites, they moved to America. So they moved to America and they created, they became the American Indians or the Native Americans or whatever you wanna call them and they basically died off until Joseph Smith revived the religion. And Joseph Smith said, that's why they're called the latter day saints because every Christian church according to the Mormons had gone apostate and now he teaches that or he's teaching that you can become gods and you can eventually achieve what Elohim achieved, what God the Father achieved and become your own God of your own planet by following the laws of the Bible. And if you believe in Jesus too, you get extra elevated in like super heaven or something. I mean, it's so crazy. I mean, I got up out of my chair a couple of nights ago and I'm just like, it's too much. I can't believe it, it's just, there's people around the little guys on the bikes and everything, this is what they believe. This is what they believe. Now, let's look at what the Bible says. I mean, it's so crazy. Let's look at what the Bible says. First of all, the Book of Mormon can't be extra revelation because it literally contradicts the Bible itself. If I believed the Book of Mormon, I would believe a book that contradicts the actual Bible and I'm gonna show that to you. It contradicts the Bible. Let's look at God and becoming like him. God and becoming like him, turn to Psalm 90. You see, God wasn't born. He wasn't created by anyone at any time. If you ever get one of these people when you're out soul winning, there's like, oh yeah, well, who created God? Huh? It's an easy answer. Nobody. Nobody created God. Look at Psalm 90, verse number one. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hets formed the earth around the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. You know what that means? You know what that means? If the future is here and the past is here, it's everlasting in both directions. And you could say, oh, it just meant everlasting from the time Elohim got to. No, he was everlasting all the way that way and all the way that way. From everlasting to everlasting. First Timothy 117, now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Look, God wasn't created. He was never a man. He's always God. He's the only God. He's God Almighty. He's from everlasting to everlasting. Period. I mean, it's not complicated. We don't have to go to a dozen different verses which we could easily. It's not a complicated doctrine. Let's look at Jesus. Jesus is not this spirit child of God that's one of billions, literally billions, of children of God that came to earth. He's not one of many. Turn to John chapter one. John chapter one. John chapter one, look at verse number 14. And the word, capital W, was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. He's the only begotten Son of God. Period. John 3.16, the most famous verse in the entire Bible for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Look, Jesus is the Word. That's another thing. How do we, people say, well, how do you know that the Bible wasn't transcribed by some guy looking at a rock in a hat? Well, here's how I know. First of all, the Bible of the history of documents that have ever been found by man, the Bible has 20 or 30,000 manuscripts that have been found that match by 99%. As far as just the history of it, there's not even anything that is a close second, any kind of document. Like, famous poetry and the Odyssey and things like that, there's just like a handful of documents, like a dozen that have been found and everyone's like, oh, look at that. There's tens of thousands of manuscripts that verify the Word of God. They all say the same thing. It was written, it was written by 40 different human authors over 1,500 years that did not know each other and many of them did not have the other documents and none of it contradicts one time and it all points towards the same person, Jesus Christ. The book itself is a miracle in itself, the Bible, that it could even exist. You have to believe that it's the Word. But the Bible explains it, God preserved His Word. It was written from the beginning of the world. Jesus, is that Word, become flesh? And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus was the Word. Look at John 5.18. And he was not a child of God. He was not some lesser man. He was not a man trying to achieve Godhood. He was not born a man and then trying to live this good life to get into Godhood. Look at John 5.18. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him because he not only had broken the Sabbath but said also that God was his father making himself equal with God. Turn to Isaiah 9.6. Isaiah 9.6. Jesus claimed to be God. He claimed to be God. He made himself equal with God. He was not the first spirit child of God the Father. That's certainly not what the Bible says. Look at Isaiah 9.6. Now this is a complicated one but let's try to understand it together. This is a prophecy of the coming of Jesus Christ. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called what? Wonderful. Counselor. The mighty God. The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. The Mormon Jesus is a completely different Jesus. It's not even close. I mean the mighty God. You tell that to a Mormon and they're just like, I mean, they're gone. If you've ever talked to them, they're gone. It's like they've been given a lobotomy. This is not complicated scripture. He was the only begotten Son of God being equally God and equally mighty. The Bible says the mighty God. It's a different Jesus. Let's look at another aspect of the Mormon beliefs. Turn to Matthew 16. The complete apostasy of Christ's church. This idea that the church was just completely destroyed and that we have to have these Latter-day Saints because the church was lost. So God can't keep his word and he can't keep his church either. That's what you have to believe to be a Mormon. That God can't keep any of it. But what did he say? What did God actually say? Matthew 16, 18. You know, the funny thing is, these aren't even complicated scriptures. Anybody who's tried to read the Bible has read John 3, 16. And I mean, you know, it's brainwashing. Matthew 16, 18. And I say also unto thee, that Thou art Peter and upon this rock, we already talked about Jesus being the rock a couple weeks ago. Upon this rock, he said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That's why we can always find a remnant of the true believing church in history. That's why books by Pastor Carol, Dr. Carol called The Trail of Blood are so important because whatever the name was, the people that held the doctrines of the Bible, you can find them because they were getting slaughtered throughout history. And it's a trail of blood and it can be traced all the way back to Christ. All the way back to Christ. Look, it left a trail. The trials of the Christians that held our doctrine, the documents, their statements of faith. We talked about this on Thursday night as well. Their testimonies as they were being killed. That's the trail that the gates of hell will never prevail against Christ's church ever. There will always be a what? A remnant. God promises it. They're just throwing God's promises in his face. Final note, no, not final note, man. The Bible never teaches anything close that man can achieve Godhood. I mean that, I don't even know. This eternal round, it's just this eternal round, that's what they call it. It's the same thing as like Buddhism. It's not even original. That you can just achieve through your works. You can achieve this state of God in this point. Turn to John 1, too. The John 1, 12, I'm sorry. John 1, 12, the Bible says, as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, lowercase S. When you got saved, you got adopted. Romans 8, 15, you received the spirit of adoption. The same spirit that was given to you as the earnest of your salvation. The spirit of adoption. And then God talks in Hebrews 12, like we talked this morning, that God will chastise his sons, his children. And if you're not chastised, if you're not saved, you're a bastard, not a son. It's about God adopting you into his family. It's about being saved, which any Mormon will never know unless they get out of this garbage. Final note, false prophets. Let's put it up against the test. God told us there's gonna be false prophets everywhere. He said many will come in my name, saying I am Christ. He said there's gonna be false prophets. I mean, how are we supposed to know? I mean, do I actually have to read the Bible? How am I supposed to know, God? Well, he gave us exact instructions on how we can know. Turn to Matthew, Deuteronomy 18, sorry. There's a test I read about online. It's like, it's the Mormon test. It's the Book of Mormon test. Here's what you do. You pray and then you read the Book of Mormon and then you feel if it's true or not. I took the test. I read it, it's the stupidest thing you've ever read. I'm serious. Just read it, it's dumb. It will come across to you as someone, here's what it comes across like. Someone who's trying to sound King James-y in their writing, but it's just dumb. It's stupid. The sentences don't even make sense. I was gonna give a bunch of examples, but it's dumb. I don't even wanna read it. I mean, so I took the test. It's stupid. I mean, how you can believe it. I mean, I've read it like a couple of times before and I read it again. I'm just like that. It's not even good writing. I mean, it's crazy. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 18. Look at verse number 20. God gave us direction on how we can know if a prophet is a false prophet or not. Isn't that handy? Isn't that nice that God did that for us? He gave us some directions. But the prophet, but the prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak. Well, how am I supposed to know God? Or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. So we're supposed to kill him. That's the first thing. And if thou shalt say in thy heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? Good question. Verse number 22. When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing with the Lord hath not spoken. But the prophet hath spoken it presumptually. Thou shalt not be afraid of him. He's a false prophet. So if the things that he say, in Matthew 24 of 24, I'll just read a few. For there shall arise false Christ and false prophets. And it shall show great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. But if we follow this rule, if the prophet prophesies something and it doesn't come true, he is a false prophet. It's that simple. So let's look at some prophecies. There's a lot of prophecies. You would think they would not do it. If they were smart, you would think that they would like keep things really general and really vague. Because, I mean, there's a lot of prophecies. I can only list a few for sake of time. 1832, Joseph Smith, 1832, New York will be destroyed. What I'm saying? Oops, I mean, oh man, I should have been more general about that one. New York and Boston will be destroyed if they reject the gospel. The hour of judgment is nigh. Whoops, 1833, Smith said, it gets better. 40 days shall not pass and the stars shall fall from heaven. Ooh, I mean, what were you thinking? I mean, the guy's not even smart. You know, I mean, to say that 40 days will pass, I mean, he must be like, you know, he must just have a bad day is what I'm thinking. Because 40 days shall pass and the stars shall fall from heaven. I mean, it's also possible and I do believe this as well that just a demon was like just taking control of this guy. You know, I mean, and of course, this is my favorite one because what kind of false prophet would you be if you didn't predict the second coming of Christ? I mean, really, I mean, that's like false prophet 101. You gotta do it, you gotta do it. So he waited till like five years before his death and he's like, all right, here we go. Second coming of Christ is gonna be 1891. Ah, I missed it again. You know? He said in 1835 that this thing will wind up in 56 years. The coming of the Lord, which is nigh, even 56 years should wind up the scene. I mean, but it just doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter to these people. Turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 11. 2nd Corinthians chapter 11, look at verse number 13. I mean, every false prophet has got to predict the second coming of Christ. So if you're watching on YouTube and you wanna be a false prophet, I mean, you just, you gotta do it. You gotta put it on there. So, but these false prophets and not even just Joseph Smith, I'm just shocked all the time because there's a lot that have happened in the last 20 years too. Like people predicting like, you know, the second coming of Christ, the end of the world. I mean, you know, the blood moons thing. I mean, people are just like, and then it just doesn't happen. And I was like, oh yeah, but so what? You know, I mean, it's crazy. God said if they say something that doesn't come true, they're a false prophet, period. 2nd Corinthians chapter 11. For such are false prophets, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. That is exactly what Joseph Smith did. He transformed himself into the apostle of Christ. And no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Let's look at what they believe about salvation. Belief in Christ is necessary, quote, only to obtain passage to the highest celestial kingdom, for which not only faith, but participation in the Mormon temple rituals and obedience to its laws of the gospel are also prerequisite. So it's faith plus belief in fake Jesus, right? All right, now here's the irony. Here's the irony of the whole thing with the Mormons. Even if it was just completely by faith, I mean, it would be better. It would be a better counterfeit that way. But even if it was just completely by faith, it's faith in the wrong God. It's faith in it, it's not even close. These people that call, I mean, these people that call Mormons Christians, there is nothing that ticks me off more than that. I mean, I can't believe how stupid you must be and uneducated and unlearned about the Bible to call a Mormon a Christian. And I mean, most of them are, I'm sure, not saved themselves. Look at 2nd Corinthians 11, chapter four, 2nd Corinthians 11, verse four. And the Bible says, for if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit which he have not received, or another gospel which he have not accepted, you might bear well with him. Paul knew that there were just gonna be people that come preaching other Jesuses. I mean, the Bible just tells us over and over and over that these people are coming, that Joseph Smith is coming. But ultimately, the whole belief of the Mormon religion is this. The whole thing, it wraps up like this, okay? Now, wait for it, it's works. I mean, you're like, oh, all that? I thought it would have been something better. No, it's just works. It's another works-based religion with a false God, is what it is. It's not even creative. It's works to the wrong God. You would think with all these planets and gods and you know, it reminds me of the story of like the Superman comics. You know, we're like, they're on like krypton, kryp, whatever the planet. And his parents are like these gods and they send the baby. I mean, it's like the same thing. You wonder if they stole it from Marvel or something. I suppose the Mormon's had it first. It's just, what can you say? But with all the planets, I mean, you'd think it would be better, but it's just another works-based religion. That's what it is. Look at Galatians one. Galatians one. You had to get there eventually. Galatians chapter one. Now we laugh and we joke and it's crazy and we know because we believe the Bible and we're grounded in the truth. But let's look at how we, you know, the seriousness of it. All right? Galatians chapter one, look at verses eight. Start in verse eight. But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you, that I mean, if any other angel appears to you, and preaches another gospel to you, if the angel Moroni actually appears to somebody, if you just didn't make it up, but though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we had preached unto you, let him be accursed. So if an angel did pop up, and Joseph Smith was a saved Christian, and this being popped up to him and said, hey, let me show you. He said, be accursed. Demon. That's what Paul's saying. Paul's warning us about all these things. And then he says it again just to make sure we get it. The Bible often says things two, three times. He says it in the next verse. He says it. Look at verse number nine. As we said before, so say I now again. If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you've received, let him be accursed. Let him burn in hell is what he is saying. So let's just look at a cult test here. Let's just do a cult test to wrap this thing up. How can we identify a cult? First of all, what was Joseph Smith's motive? Why would he have done it? Why would he have done something like this so crazy? Right? I mean, he got killed young which he probably didn't see that coming. But why did they, you know, bring him young. Why did they do it? Why did they do it? Well, it's not hard to see why they did it. Money, power, women, bring him young was governor of Utah Territory. He was an extremely powerful man in his time. He had 55 wives. Six of them had husbands. How would you like someone to just marry your wife? When he was 42, he married a 15-year-old. There's a university named after this guy in Utah. Today, we're not just reading about something crazy from the 1850s. People believe this today. People worship this man today. When he was 44, he married a 16-year-old. When he was 45, he married another 16-year-old. These guys are a bunch of perverts, pedophiles, sickos, and ultimately, reprobates is what they were. And false prophets is what they were. Ask yourself this. What did Christ gain? What did the men who followed Christ gain? Think about it. Fishermen, doctors, tax collectors, working men. They had businesses. They had families. Peter was married. They had families. What did they gain? They lost everything. When they were preaching, after Christ ascended to heaven, when they were preaching the gospel to the world, they all lost everything, including their lives. Here, you had ordinary men who witnessed something extraordinary. And they took it all the way, no matter what it cost them. They gained nothing. They lost everything. Do you see why it had to be that way? It's a testimony to us. Do you see why? When you look at Joseph Smith, he gained everything. Money, power, your wife, everybody's wife, starting banks. He's just a sicko. He's just a sicko, just stealing and being a pervert and just living, just like Garrett said the other night, just living 100% in the flesh, no conscience. That's what he was. On the other hand, the apostles, who, you know, the Bible was completely penned, I believe and most people believe, by before 70 AD. When they were finishing, through the work of the Holy Spirit, when they were being used to write the Bible down and they were being slaughtered and murdered and putting this together, they lost everything. Why do I believe that? Because Jesus actually predicted that the temple would be destroyed. It was one of his biggest predictions in Luke 21. And don't you think that they would have mentioned it if it had happened already in one of the books of the New Testament? That's a heavy proof that the Bible was finished before 70 AD, when the Romans tore down every stone of that temple. So the cult test, ask yourself what they have to gain. It's pretty easy to see what most of these men that start these cults have to gain. There's always gonna be, there's always gonna be extra biblical revelation too, because they can't stand, that first of all they can't understand the Bible and they can't stand on it because it totally goes against everything that these cults teach. Now, let's talk about Mormons today and what you're gonna experience when you go soul winning with Mormons today. First of all, I have never seen a Mormon, like when I say Mormon, I'm talking like the bike Mormon with the white shirt and tie. I have never seen one of those guys even close to being saved, not even close. If you talk to them, you will find that they are brain dead. They are completely indoctrinated in this. They will lie to you. They will just look straight through you. They don't care what the Bible says. You know, if, turn to first, second John 10, verses 11, verse number 11, second John, I'm sorry, go to Titus 310. I got some mistakes in my notes here. But you will not, they are thoroughly indoctrinated folks. They are thoroughly indoctrinated in what they believe. In Titus 310, the Bible says this, a man that is in heretic after the first and second admonition reject. There's no point in arguing with people that you've given one or two admonitions to. Just get out of there. Because God's gonna take care of it. You know, and by the way, in second John, the Bible says not even to wish them Godspeed. So we talked in the soul winning tip yesterday about being polite to people and you know, not getting into arguments of people's doors, but that doesn't really apply actually to Mormons you see walking on the street. If you wanna give them a couple Bible verses, go for it. I'm just warning you that, you know, it's probably not gonna go well. I have however, seen people that are studying with these people saved. Because see, they're knocking on people's doors and they're trying to convert people. And you don't be nice to these people. When you see these Mormons on the street, don't you wave to them and be like, hi. Don't you wish them Godspeed because then you are partaker of their evil, the Bible says. These people, you need to understand what they are out there doing. They are murdering people's souls. These false prophets. And you need to recognize, no matter how nice they look, they are evil people. And they're out there to send people to hell. So try to give them a Bible verse. But the people that we wanna find are the people that they're talking to. Are the people that are listening to them. And you can find those people. And you spend some time, please, if you find somebody who has been studying with a Mormon, even if that person doesn't accept the gospel at that door, please take the time to explain to them and have the knowledge to tell them to not talk to those people. And that they are false prophets and they are murderers of souls. Take that time. And then two years down the road, maybe we could get that person saved. But you know what? They won't have had their soul murdered by a false prophet. So that's how you handle these people. They're very likely, once they've been into this thing that they do for two or three years, they're gone. And most people, look, I know there's a one in a million chance, so I'm not saying that. But the point is that most people will agree with me on this who have experience with it. We have to get to the people that they're talking to. That's our goal. Because this heresy in America here, it's on the streets. It's walking around with us. So we need to not wish them Godspeed, get to those people, give them the actual gospel of the Bible. And then inform them on who these people really are. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Bible. Lord, we thank you for just the clear instructions that you've given us to watch for. Watch for these heresies. Watch for these cults, Lord. That are twisting your word. That are changing your word, Lord. And that are adding to your word, Lord. And we know how serious you take that from the Bible. Lord, I pray that you just take these false prophets and you just burn them in the lowest parts of hell. We thank you for the Bible and just the clarity that you've given us and help us find the people that these people are trying to get to before they can twist them around their wicked ass. Lord, we love you. Thank you for this church. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.