Living Hope Fellowship Church...Sermons From the Pastor

FLESH PREACHERS
by Pastor Kevin Badgley

I want to expound unto you by the Spirit of the Lord out of the Word of God. We will start by reading in Jeremiah Chapter 17, Verse 5 and 7. "Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD." "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is."

The Bible declares to us that God curses men who turn to men for their answers about the things of God. Their foolishness turns people's counsel and hearts from God. What do I mean by this? There are some people that hear the truth of the Word of the Lord. When the conviction power of the Holy Ghost of God comes upon them, it convicts them of their sins. Some people then will quickly run to someone that they "respect," rather than a proven man of God. They go to get comfort from that individual who will smooth over the thing that they have wrestled. It will smooth over the tribulation they have felt, removing the conviction of God from them.

God declares that this man, woman, young person, whoever it is, shall be cursed. You will be cursed if you trust in a man's word rather than God's Word. If what your preacher is saying doesn't line up with God's Word, yet you would believe him over God's Word, (because, after all, he's got an education; he's got a Ph.D. or some other form of doctorate, or something like that) you're still going to be cursed! There were doctors of the law whom Jesus, at age 12, was able to astound. They had no answer for him as he questioned them on many things when he was found in the Temple by his parents. Do you remember?

God declares that cursed is every man who trusts in man rather than in God's Word. It is
fine as long as they are lining up with the things of God and with what God's Word says. Search the scriptures daily to see if the things you hear are so. If you can't find it in the scriptures, ask them about the situation. If they refuse and cannot give you an answer that is based on Bible scripture, then you have cause to wonder about them. In due season if God does not vindicate them, you may realize that God may be trying to tell you something about that individual. Whatever that person's position, the Bible declares that blessed is the man who trusteth in the Lord.

In other words, your hope is in God rather than in man. Many people will go to someone they trust and say, "Do you really think that's so?" Why do you have to ask about the things of God's Word? If it comes out of God's Word, it's not something you have to pray about, except for understanding. When God says, "Thus saith the Lord" in his Word, it is so; it is not possible to be otherwise. To pray to see whether or not God really meant it is inviting deception.

Why is this so? In Jeremiah 17:9 the Bible declares (talking about the heart of mankind), "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" No one can know the heart of man except God. No one can understand the deceptions of their own heart, except God reveal it to them.

Many people are fooled into thinking they are fine, and they are going to make heaven their home. Oh, they give a little money in church here and there; they shake the preacher's hand; they give respect to the elders; they attend church fairly regularly (when it's convenient); and they do all the right things, supposedly, as the church world has ordained them. However, their heart is not right with God. They don't know it's not right, because it's more deceitful than anything else according to God's Word. It's even got you fooled.

You see, if you want something long enough, you'll begin to believe it's your right to have it. Pretty soon it will take you over, and you'll be deceived by your own heart. Worse than that is when someone comes in the name of the Lord and deceives you out of the wickedness of their heart, using the Word of God deceitfully. That is being done! Be watchful unto prayer, because if you trust someone like that, you'll be cursed with a curse, as he or she is.

You need to read these things in the Word of God. Look in the 23rd Chapter of Jeremiah,
Verse 1 and 2: "Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD."

This is a warning to preachers. This is a warning to anyone who trusts in flesh (man). A lot of people say, "Yeah, we didn't approach them with love, and we didn't visit them when they were hurting." There are times when dogs will run out of the house, because they seek to remain dogs. If they seek to remain dogs and not children of God, then let them go. Jesus said in Matthew 15:14, "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."

However, those who are really seeking God deserve and will have, by the Spirit of the Lord, an unction from God when a man of God preaches to them. The problem is that there are pastors who are preaching out of their own hearts, and who are making flesh their arm. They are comforting and soothing flesh, which causes people to keep their sin; they are actually scattering the sheep away. They are not keeping them from gathering, because the crowds are getting bigger in some places, but they're scattering the sheep away from the presence and anointing of God, and it's damning their souls.

Let's read more of what God's Word says about these things. In Jeremiah 23:17 the Lord is talking about these men of God. "They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you." Verse 21-22 says, "I have not sent these prophets [this is God talking], yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings."

A true sign of a real man of God is someone who rebukes sin, rejects sin, exposes sin, preaches on sin, and preaches a hard message. Some say, "Jesus didn't do that; he came to them in love." In Matthew 23:33 Jesus looked the church world in the eyes and said, "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers [sons of serpents, or broods of snakes], how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"

How do you think they regarded that? Jesus told the truth; He was a hard preacher and held a hard line. He held a perfect line, and he commands the same thing out of us. Look at Matthew 5:48: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Jesus didn't just say that to have something to say (as a lady once told me)! God have mercy on those who think that Jesus just "says" words. God have mercy on those who think it's just something to strive for, knowing that you can never attain. That thinking is a lie from hell and an excuse for keeping sin.

You need to know a real prophet, a real preacher, or somebody who will turn you away from sin. You need to know one who will expose sin to you and tell you why there's bondage in your life, your house, and in the world. You need to know someone who will turn you away from shaking your fist at God, so you will start kicking your feet against the devil! Someone who would preach to you that way would be a man of God. Start seeking the Lord on it. Jeremiah 23:25-26 says, "I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart."

We found out earlier [in Jeremiah 17:9] that the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful. Are you listening? It's deceitful above all things. All those prophets in the land at that time prophesied out of deceit! God declares in Jeremiah 23:29, "Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" Does that sound like a smooth gospel to you? Does that sound like that's the way it ought to come across? God says His Word is like a hammer. It smacks you right between the eyes when it gets you!

People have told me, "You stepped on my toes today!" If you're not lined up with God, in the next meeting you'll get hit again. When sore toes are hit, they hurt worse the second and third time. Pretty soon they become a problem, becoming numb, and they don't feel anything. That's what happens when you keep rejecting conviction that comes from the Word of God. You're damaged, but you're numb and don't feel it. Listen to the voice of the Lord and what he says in his Word!

God says furthermore in Verse 30-31, "Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith." This is like someone standing up and prophesying a big line of malarkey, malarkey, malarkey . . . that's a lie for a bunch of foolishness, and they prophesy in the name of the Lord. God says he is against them. Verse 32 says, "Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD." Their lightness includes their leniency.

Once again, these are blind leaders of the blind, and they both shall fall into the ditch. God have mercy. Oh, that this last hour remnant church would cry out to God saying, "Yes, Lord, have mercy!" We need God to deliver us from the bondage of "us", and bring us out of lamentations and woe into a higher place in God.

The remnant church that's really burdened and wants to be free from their shackles and chains needs a deeper place in the Lord Jesus. God makes a declaration in Jeremiah 23:3-4, "And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD." Hallelujah! Glory to God!

Church, don't give up. People, do not give up. Praying saint out there in the wilderness, don't give up. God's got a place for you. He's going to set up a preacher who can preach the truth. When you begin to hear him, I want you to go to him as quickly as possible and seek God. Don't trust in flesh; trust in God!

When someone begins to line up and walk with God there should be signs following and an anointing for purging, cleansing, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Then you can know you're in the right place, with the right message, and in the right anointing and move of God, because anything that is of God, cleanses. An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit, and a good tree cannot and will not bring forth evil fruit (see Matthew 7:18). Trust the Lord today.

I thank God for the victory over all the power of the devil that has infiltrated in the church world. I thank Him for the anointing that destroys every yoke. I pray that it will free every captive sheep and it will loose the bondages. I thank the Lord for the victory, and for the anointing that destroys and then replants that which is of the Lord. Let this word today be a warning to all preachers, and to all those who claim to be leaders in the church, or just anointed prophets of God who claim, "God told me this," when it wasn't of God.

Let it be a warning to them, God, that soon you will root them out and visit the evil that they have done upon their own heads and upon their own households. God, I ask you to set them free. Lord, I ask you to pull the sheep out from under those leaders that won't be free, and give them pastors that will feed them and bring them to you. God, in the name of Jesus, I believe it for your glory. Amen.

Email the pastor at

 livinghope@hughes.net

© Living Hope Fellowship, Inc.