Beware of Who You Follow

Mark Finley: Erroneous religion fails to understand the significance of God's law. Mark this carefully. Any religious leaders who say the law of God is unimportant, who say the Ten Commandments are passé and out of date, the Bible says there's no light in them.
Guest (Male): This is HopeLives365 with Pastor Mark Finley. Today's message: "Beware of Who You Follow." Enjoy and remember you can always catch up with past messages and stay up to date with HopeLives365 and Pastor Mark by going to HopeLives365.com. And now, Pastor Mark.
Mark Finley: According to the most famous of all German legends, sometime in the May of the year 1284, the little village of Hamlin found itself overrun with a plague of rats. The residents tried everything they could think of, but they failed to get rid of the rats. Finally, the mayor promised a thousand florins, their unit of money, to anyone who could end the plague. A stranger dressed in bright patchwork clothing soon showed up and said he could rid the town of the rats. One night, the stranger played a soft tune on his flute, luring the rats to follow him toward the nearby River Weser, where they were drowned. The mayor, however, refused to pay the stranger and instead ordered him out of town. But the man returned one Sunday morning and again began playing a tune, which only the children of the town could hear. Completely under his spell, the children followed him out of the town, all the way to the mountains. Suddenly, a huge door opened in a mountainside, leading to a cave inside. The man with the flute walked in, followed by the children. The door closed, and the children of Hamlin were never seen again. That is the well-known legend of the Pied Piper of Hamlin. It can be dangerous to follow somebody without thought or question. It can be dangerous to allow ourselves to come under someone else's magnetic charismatic influence. Of course, the story of the children of Hamlin is only a legend. But that story is being repeated in religious venues again and again. It can be dangerous to let somebody else do our thinking for us, dangerous even deadly. Consider one such man with the flute, a man who played a political tune of national pride and revolution, a man named Adolf Hitler. Consider another man, I'll say with a flute, a man whose followers today continue to hear his tune and reverence him so totally that they'd give their lives for him, a man who threatens the world with a nuclear holocaust, a man in North Korea. But nowhere are the results of blindly, mindlessly following someone who plays the tune called "follow me" more deadly than in the realm of religious cults. Consider the infamous 1997 tragedy involving the cult known as Heaven's Gate. Led by a mentally disturbed, unbalanced leader named Marshall Applewhite, who claimed to be an alien from the kingdom of heaven, the cult of 39 members committed collective suicide tragically on March 27 by drinking a combination of phenobarbital and alcohol. Cult members believed that the arrival of a comet called Hale-Bopp was a sign that they were to shed their containers, or their bodies, in preparation to board an alien spacecraft arriving to transport them back to the kingdom of heaven. By the time the Heaven's Gate tragedy was over, the world had already learned just how deadly a cult could be. On November 18, 1978, Jim Jones, the controlling and mesmerizing leader of the cult called the Peoples Temple, ordered his flock, some of whom moved with him to Guyana, South America, to join him in suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid, and all 919 of the people of the compound died. And on April 19, 1993, after a 51-day standoff with the FBI, leader David Koresh's 76 members of his Branch Davidian cult died when Mount Carmel, their compound outside Waco, Texas, burned to the ground. Today I have an urgent message to share with you on this broadcast. It is a life and death message. And my message is: Beware of following any religious Pied Piper who plays the tune "follow me." The childhood game we've all played, follow the leader, is innocent and harmless. But what if the leader you follow, what if this leader is a deceptive religious leader? What if follow the leader is a religious game and we follow the wrong religious leader? And if we follow the wrong religious leader and he makes some mistakes, will he reap the consequences while we don't? Can we really trust our salvation to a priest, a rabbi, a minister, a cult leader? Can we trust our salvation to any religious leader? And when I ask these questions, I'm really including myself. As a minister of the Gospel, it's my great privilege to share Bible truth with you here each week and each day on the Salem Network. And I can assure you that I will never share error on this broadcast. I can assure you that what we share here will be based on Scripture. But how can you know that for sure? How can you be absolutely certain that I don't mislead you? When it comes to your eternal destiny, to your own personal salvation, you cannot take the risk, you cannot afford to take the risk by letting any religious leader, no matter how persuasive or believable or likeable he may be, do your thinking and studying for you. I encourage you, I urge you, I beseech you: Check what I say out by your own Bible. Jesus said in John 17, verse 17, "Sanctify them through thy word. Thy word is truth." God's word is truth. Proverbs 23, verse 23 says, "Buy the truth and sell it not." Truth can bear investigation. Truth can bear study. That's why I urge you, don't take my word for it, take the Bible's word for it. I love that old poem that says: "What says the Bible, the blessed Bible to me? The teachings of men so often mislead me, but what says the Bible, the blessed Bible to me?" There is a way you can know whether the things that I bring to you here each week are true or not. There's a way you can find out whether any other religious leader is telling the truth. My Bible says in Romans 14, verse 12, "Every one of us shall give account of himself to God." People say to me, "Oh, Pastor Mark, I heard what you said on the broadcast. It sounds so logical and truthful, and yes, it seemed to be from the Bible, but my pastor says, my priest says." And I say to you, your pastor's words, your priest's words, my words are not the sole criteria for truth. God's word is. Where your pastor echoes the word of God, praise God. Where your religious leader echoes the word of God, praise God. Where my words echo the word of God, praise God. The Bible is the foundation of our faith. Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 15 says, "Study to show yourself approved unto God." My Bible says in Second Corinthians 5, verse 10, as translated in the New International Version, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one of us may receive what is due him for the things that are done in his body. Friend of mine, in the final judgment, God won't say, "Well, I realize that you were sincerely convinced that your religious leader you followed was teaching only truth. I realize that in ignorance you were just deceived by errors he actually was teaching you. I realize that you thought it was safe to put your salvation in his hands. I'll just overlook everything." No, God's not going to say that. God's going to say, "I gave you a mind. I gave you the Bible. You were responsible for using them both, studying the word of God." If you sincerely believe that you're on the road that leads to Miami, Florida, but instead you're on the road headed to Minneapolis, you're not going to get to Miami, no matter how sincere you are. And in the end, multitudes will miss heaven and eternal life who sincerely believed they were on the right road, but they weren't. Sincerity is not enough. Were those people that followed Jim Jones in the jungles of Guyana sincere? They were sincere, but they were sincerely wrong. Were those people that followed Marshall Applewhite in the Heaven's Gate cult sincere? They were sincerely wrong. And so, sincerity isn't enough. We must test, we must compare everything we hear to the word of God. It's the only source of ultimate truth we have. Some people say, "Well, Pastor Finley, I go to this certain church and maybe they don't teach quite right, but I love the music. I love the way the pastor preaches." Friend of mine, be sure that that pastor is not feeding you poison. You might as well say, "I love the music in a certain restaurant, even though they do mix a little poison in the soup and I get sick every time I go there, I like the music." Look, our only safety is to follow God's word. Our only safety is to turn away from any religious leader who doesn't teach you in harmony with the word of God. You may not understand what's going on, but if you play follow the religious leader, you may be following a Pied Piper who leads you to your final destruction. I love you, my brother and sister. I'm speaking to you plainly today because I do not want you to be misled. The Bible says in Proverbs 14, verse 12, "There is a way, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." The Bible clearly points out the one road that leads to salvation, to eternal life. But the devil's great success through all history has been to study everything genuine that God has made and counterfeit it. So Satan's plan has been to confuse men and women with an overwhelming array of counterfeits, and his plan has met with tragic, amazing success. Satan has a counterfeit for every truth in the Bible. He has a bewildering variety of counterfeit roads to heaven. Some of them are so radically different from God's way that they're easy to spot. The teachings of most cults are so bizarre that comparatively few are deceived. But I would be remiss if I didn't share with you at least some of the characteristics that nearly all cults have in common, marks that identify them. Among these marks, there are three specific marks. Once you understand this, you will be able to spot a counterfeit.
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Mark Finley: Once you'll be able to understand the truth of God's word, immediately you'll be able to see counterfeits. Here's the first identifying sign of a counterfeit: They all believe their leader is a Messiah or godlike person. That was certainly true of Jim Jones, Peoples Temple. That was certainly true of the doomed followers of David Koresh. That was certainly true of the followers of Reverend Sun Myung Moon. That was certainly true of the followers of Charles Manson and his murderous family. They all believed that their leader had these Messiah-like qualities. My Bible says in Acts 4, verse 12, there is no name under heaven whereby we must be saved except Jesus. My Bible says in Isaiah 45, verse 22, "Look unto me," Jesus says, "all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else." We find Jesus is our only Savior. Jesus is the only one that died on the cross for us. Jesus is the only one whose blood was shed for us. Jesus is the only one that was placed in the grave. Jesus is the only one that was resurrected from the dead. Jesus is the only one that is our high priest. Jesus is the only one who is coming again for us. There is only one Savior; that's Jesus. What do you say? Amen. Secondly, they also believe that they can accept only the interpretation of the Bible given by their leader. They don't believe in independent choice, free will, and free thought. If free choice creeps into these groups and people bring up different opinions, that's a disaster. The Reverend Moon told his followers, "I am your brain," I'm quoting him, "I'll do your thinking for you." Jim Jones was preaching once; he held up the Bible and he said, "Don't look at this; look at me." They believe their leader has the final word, not the authority of the Bible. What does the Bible say? Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 16: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for correction, for reproof, is profitable for doctrine." So all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Acts chapter 17, verse 11: "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, than that they received the word with all readiness of mind and studied whether these things are so." So, yes, God invites us to study the word for ourselves. Thirdly, they believe their leader is going to establish a kingdom of God on earth. They're always talking about specific dates: Christ'll come on this date or that date. They take away emphasis from the cross, while the message of the Bible takes you to the cross. They take away emphasis on the second coming of Christ where Jesus Christ comes in clouds of glory. As lightning flashes from the east to the west, the Bible says when Jesus comes, every eye will see Him, Revelation 1, verse 7. Every eye will see Him. Revelation 1:7; it's a visible coming. Every ear will hear Him, Psalm 50, verse 3: "Our God comes and will not keep silent." First Thessalonians 4, 16 and 17, the Bible says he comes with a trumpet, with a loud voice, the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the sound of a trumpet. Christ's coming is literal. Christ's coming is visible. Christ's coming is audible. And it says that Christ will come, and he will come in the glory of the angels; his coming is a glorious coming. But Satan's greatest success is not so much with strange cults as with producing a religious counterfeit that contains some truth. But it is truth mixed with a tiny fraction of error. So yes, we need to beware of the cults. But we also need to beware of the preacher, the priest, the rabbi, the teacher who mixes, even unknowingly, the tiniest bit of error with the truth he shares. Now let me share with you your ultimate safeguard against religious error. Here it is: First Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 21, "Test all things; hold fast to that which is good." What does it say? Test all things. Test all things. Test every idea, test every spiritual book, test every magazine, yes, every religious broadcast. Test all things against the one source of truth, the Bible. Whatever passes that test is safe and good, and you can hold it fast. Some time ago, the United States government became concerned about a great number of counterfeit bills flooding the country. To help deal with this problem, a six weeks course was arranged. Bank tellers from all over the country met in Washington, DC. And as they met, they studied money. How many counterfeit bills do you suppose they viewed during the six-week period? Not one. They spent hours studying the minute details of the genuine one: the genuine five, the genuine ten, the genuine $20 bill. By thoroughly knowing the genuine, they could immediately detect a counterfeit. In the light of truth, a counterfeit became immediately apparent. And when we become thoroughly familiar with the genuine truths of God's word, Satan's counterfeits, his errors, will stand out like the noonday sun. The Bible is full of warnings against Pied Pipers who come along and bid us to follow them. Some may seem ever so believable, ever so sincere, ever so caring, ever so persuasive. But people aren't deceived when they recognize an error and decide to believe it anyway. People are deceived when they sincerely and without question accept an error as truth. Now did you get that? They're not deceived when they receive an error and they say, "I'm going to believe it." That's not deception; that's foolhardiness. But they're deceived when they sincerely, without question, accept error as truth. Notice with me just a small sampling of the hundreds of warnings against error in the Old Testament. Daniel warning against a coming religious error, which the prophet called the little horn power, a power that would unite church and state, a power that would lead people into apostasy. He says, Daniel 7, verse 25, this power would speak pompous words against the Most High. He shall persecute the saints of the Most High, intend to change times and the law. And it happens. The law this power would intend to change is God's law, the Ten Commandments. Look, in Isaiah chapter 8, verse 20, it says: "To the law and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, there's no light in them." Notice: To the law and to the testimony. To the law of God, the Ten Commandments, and the testimony of Scripture, the truths of the Bible. If they speak not in harmony with this word, there is no light in them. Now it doesn't say there's no truth in them, because the devil mixes truth and error. It doesn't say that there's no power in them, because the devil sometimes can give power. It doesn't say that there is no love in them. It doesn't say there's no warm embrace. It says there's no light. Why does it say there's no light? "To the law and to the testimony," Isaiah 8, verse 20, "If they speak not according to this word, there's no light in them." Light is what we follow. God will have an end-time people that love Jesus so much that they follow Him. Where are they? How can you tell them? Revelation 14, verse 12 says, "Here are the people of God. Here is the endurance," that is, the steadfastness, the perseverance "of the saints, the believers. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus." God'll have an end-time people saved by grace, redeemed by His love, have Christ's faith living in their heart. They hang on in the crisis of this earth's history. But it says: "Here are they. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus." Grace leads them to obedience. The faith of Christ dwelling in their heart leads them to obey God. In the New Testament, Jesus says this: Matthew 24, verse 24: "For false Christs and false prophets will arise to show great signs and wonders, to deceive if possible the very elect." The Apostle Paul says in Acts 20, verse 29 through 31, he issues an urgent warning: "I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in you, not sparing the flock. Also from among your own selves will men arise, speaking great things." See, savage wolves, what are they? They destroy the flock from without. But he says men will arise from among you, right within the church, speaking perverse things. What kind of things are perverse things? They're crooked things to draw away disciples after themselves. Therefore watch and remember, for after three years I didn't cease to warn you with day and night with tears. Paul says apostasy's going to come. Look, Revelation, the Bible's last book, John warns about false religion in the last days. Revelation 18:1-4, he says, "After these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great authority; the earth was illuminated with his glory." He cries mightily with a loud voice saying, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, 'Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, lest you receive her plagues.'" Babylon means confusion. What an appropriate symbol of the confusing babble of voices calling us today from countless cults and churches and false religious leaders saying, "Follow me." At the trial of Jesus, the Roman governor Pilate asked him, as it's recorded in John 18, verse 38: "What is truth?" In his ministry, Jesus had already answered that question in John 14, verse 6. He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." And as he once prayed to his Father, Jesus said, "Sanctify them by your truth; your word is truth," John 17, verse 17. Jesus is truth. The word of God is truth. Only here will any of us find truth. All else is defective and imperfect and erroneous. A moment ago, I shared the three marks of a cult. Now there's a fourth mark I want to add. But it's a characteristic not just of strange cults but of all false systems of religion. Here it is: Erroneous religion fails to understand the significance of God's law. Mark this carefully. Any religious leaders who say the law of God is unimportant, who say the Ten Commandments are passé and out of date, the Bible says there's no light in them. You don't want to be misled or misguided by leaders into unending darkness. Don't open yourself up to deception. Do you want to find truth? Find a people doing the will of God. Find a church doing the will of God. Find a church that honors the law of God. Find a church that gives more than lip service to God's law of love that includes all the Ten Commandments, not just some of them. That includes the most neglected, ignored, and attacked commandments of all: the fourth commandment, the seventh-day Sabbath. Without a single doubt, there are good Christians in many churches. The Bible says in these last days, God is speaking to us. Jesus is speaking to us. Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments." How is it with you, my friend?
Guest (Male): You've been listening to HopeLives365 with Pastor Mark Finley. We hope you've enjoyed today's message and remind you that you can find more in our many ministry resources at HopeLives365.com. And you can support this ministry by going to HopeLives365.com/donate. And now, a final thought from Pastor Mark.
Mark Finley: Is Jesus your only Savior? Is Jesus your Lord right now? Satan has his eyes on us. He has his eyes on countless religious organizations that are preaching error. Satan wants to promote error; Jesus wants to promote truth. Error takes many forms; truth takes only one. And it protects us from playing follow the leader with professional deceivers. Only Christ can save us. Only the Bible offers us safety of God's word. Only by grace leading us to obedience will we build a hedge of protection around us. Only looking for the second coming of Christ will prepare us for that great day. So many voices, so many choices, so many tunes falling on our ears each day, luring us to follow someone claiming to have the truth. It can be confusing and bewildering. But today, I invite you to have your consciences, as Martin Luther said, bound by the word of God. Today I invite you to God's word that knows no confusion, no uncertainty, to fill your mind with the truths of Scripture and to cut through the confusion of this world. The Bible is a powerful spotlight that cuts through the fog.