12/08/04 & 12/12/04 - “CAN MAN BE TRUSTED?” Part 1 of 2
Victory Ministries International presents:
Awesome Truths and Amazing Facts  
Treasures of awesome truths from God’s Word 
and facts that affect you!

Hello!  This is Richard Vaughn

My brothers and sisters in Jesus, just as a reminder, this program “Awesome Truths and Amazing Facts” is now coming to you twice a week. Wednesday mornings at 8:30 am and Sunday morning at 9:00 am. Sundays will always be the repeat broadcast of the previous Wednesday. 

Because we are living in the very last days before probation ends for this world, I have promised to you, that I will cry aloud and spare not, to lift up my voice like a trumpet and to show God’s people where they are transgressing God’s law. Why? Because most Christians will be lost for eternity, in fact many who are listening right now will be lost. Why? I’ll tell you why, if you will listen carefully. It is because they are on the broad road that leads to destruction, and they don’t want to yield the right-of-way, to the king of kings. Jesus said in Matthew 7:13,14 “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:” (He’s talking about Christians here) He goes on, “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” It’s not because God didn’t make adequate provision, He really wants everyone to be saved. Stay tuned and I’ll fill you in why most Christians will be lost.

We are about to open God’s Word so please bow with me as we seek the Lord’s understanding in our study. “Heavenly Father, we will see Jesus. Grant us right now we pray, the gift of the Holy Spirit, to understand the scriptures that we will be reading today. In Jesus name we petition you Lord, as eternity hangs in the balance, for so many of your precious children, show us Jesus. Amen”

The last broadcast the topic was, “Can the Bible be Trusted?” I believe we answered that question thoroughly. And as I stated last week, there is not a single contradiction from Genesis to Revelation. In 45 years of studying, I have never found one. Whenever someone says there is a contradiction, his or her basis for argument is built on sand. The Bible is on a firm foundation and there is no contradiction. If you think you have found one, send your discovery to this station and I will address it.

Yes the Bible can be Trusted, and for that matter, God the Father, Jesus His Son and the Holy Spirit can all be trusted. Which leads me to the topic for this week. “Can man be trusted?” Evidently most Christians believe that man can be trusted. How do I know? Because they believe that the man, or the woman in the pulpit, would never lead them in any direction but truth.

Look at your pastor. Do you trust him or her? Let me expand that question a little bit further. Do you trust him or her with your eternal life? This is a sobering question dear friend, and on the authority of God’s Word, I believe that most pastors today, with every wind of false doctrine saturating Christianity, are the spiritually blind that are leading the blind, and both go in the ditch. 

Sadly, many pastors are almost worshipped by their congregations. They are revered you could say. How do I know that? I know this because pastors are mere mortal, men who are sinners, in need of a Savior. They are not gods. I hear the worshippers calling them Reverend. I see their names on the church marquees with Reverend as their title. Listen brothers and sisters that is blasphemy. For any man, taking a title which only belongs to God, is blasphemy, and it is time for that tradition to stop. The Bible says in Psalm 111:9, “He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.” No man is to be called Reverend. It is God’s name alone. A pastor may appear holier than members of his congregation but I ask you how holy was Reverend Jim Jones? He led almost a thousand people to drink poisoned kool-aid and commit suicide. How holy was television evangelist Reverend Jim Baker? He swindled many people out of their life savings. How holy was Reverend Jimmy Swaggart? He was crying for money on TV and fooling millions with his hypocritical faithfulness, while behind his own wife’s back, he frequented the prostitutes and adult bookstores. How holy was Reverend Jesse Jackson? Preaching morality while fathering a child, in a long-term affair, behind his wife’s back. Pastors are not gods, and they should never be called by God’s name.
Stop calling men and women Reverend. That is a sin that offends God.
Now what does the Bible have to say about pastors? Can a man be trusted?
Psalm 146:3 “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.” That’s clear. And the truth is right on the money. In God we trust, but man will let you down.
 
Now listen friends, there is so much false doctrine being preached in all the churches today, and it has been preached long enough and often enough and loud enough that most folks just assume it’s in the Bible. But on a whole range of topics we will be studying week after week, we will expose the errors that you believe to be truth. The difference is that you hear it from a man, that has repeated it from another man, and that’s the way it’s been for many, many generations. On “Awesome Truths and Amazing Facts” it comes straight from the King James Version of God’s Holy word. I’m not tied to a pension or a paycheck from any church. Everything I do in the cause of building up God’s kingdom is done with no financial support to me. Why will I take no financial help? Because I want no one to dictate to me what I should preach, no one but heaven above. I will preach only the pure truth from God’s Word and not fables.

Now we will open God’s word and I’m going to read from the Bible exactly what God says about the ministers, pastors, bishops or what ever title they carry. I cannot spare anyone’s feelings in these regards because brothers and sisters I would rather become your enemy trying to get you into God’s ark of safety before probation for the world soon ends, than to soft pedal some ear pleasing fables that harmonize with all the other pulpit lies. The Christian world has been mesmerized by Satanic lies long enough, and the truth has been long overdue.

Hang on now as here we go, and keep in mind that when the scripture says priest, it is generally speaking about the shepherd of the flock, the pastor. Malachi 2:7-9 “For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.   Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.”
That scripture I just read applies to nearly every pastor you have ever met. God calls these men contemptible as He says they are partial in the law. That means they are not teaching or keeping all of God’s commandments.

Now we will look at Isaiah 30:9,10 “That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:” God is charging the people in the congregations with rebellion, in that they don’t want to hear God’s law, and they want the pastors to preach smooth deceptive things. Awesome Truths and Amazing Facts will not preach smooth things that tickle your ears. I’m going to roto-rooter your ears in hopes of reaching your brain. 

Listen friends, not to long ago I attended a ministerial association meeting here in town, and one of the pastors said because of all the different lifestyles, it just isn’t safe to preach certain scriptures anymore. I couldn’t believe my ears. Certain scriptures not safe to preach? Lord have mercy on that man’s congregation. Let me tell you this, if it’s in God’s word, it’s safe to preach and teach. It may make some people uncomfortable, but that’s what it’s supposed to do for people living in sin. Jesus died to save us from sin, not in it. Political correctness has reduced today’s pastors to spineless wimps. 

Here is the truth and listen carefully, 1 Corinthians 6:9,10, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” That is straight and to the point and God said it through Paul, the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Paul goes on, “Be not deceived:” Paul is saying don’t kid yourself and don’t try to fool others, “Be not deceived,”
Now he gives the list of the unrighteous, “neither fornicators (that is single people having sex without marriage, and if you are one of them you need to stop that practice if you are serious about following Jesus), nor idolaters (that can be anything that gets your time, your money, your attention and your affection), nor adulterers (that’s married people having affairs, don’t be deceived on this point, heaven condemns it), nor effeminate (that’s all your gay lifestyles, they may say it’s an alternative lifestyle but God says if you are in one, you will die the second death in the lake of fire, get out of it and surrender yourself to Christ and He will both pardon and heal you), nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves (now that covers any form of deceptive practice), nor covetous (that is anyone wanting what another has), nor drunkards (that covers all the chemically dependent people whether it’s alcohol, drugs, prescription or non-prescription, also caffeine and gluttonous eating), nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” God doesn’t beat around the bush. If your pastor is not reading the Bible and your not studying the Bible, then Satan isn’t worried about you. As far as He’s concerned, you may think you’re saved, but chances are he’s got ya. 
And on the matter of abortion, it is murder no matter what month you kill that innocent child of God. 
Pastors, get in your pulpits and preach the old time gospel and stop worrying whose going to be offended. 

Now listen carefully to Ezekiel 22:26,28 “Her priests (that’s the pastors) have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken.”
Here is the number one area where most pastors are living and preaching violation of God’s commandment. God’s Sabbath is holy and He blessed it. Sunday, which is a tradition of man straight out of Paganism, is profane and has no blessing of God. But they hide their eyes from God’s Sabbath, they tell their congregations lies and say Sunday is the Sabbath. God says they are divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken.” This is serious business, and I will be addressing this from God’s Word in upcoming broadcasts.

And you’re not innocent in this dear brothers and sisters, listen to God’s charge in Isaiah 29:13 “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:” In other words, He says we honor Him with our lips, but our hearts are far from Him. We say Sunday is sacred, but we are taught that tradition, as a precept of men. God said the seventh day Sabbath, Saturday, is His holy day, it is the real Lord’s Day, because on creation week He blessed it and made it holy. Man can’t make anything holy. And that is why God says in Isaiah 58:13 to stop trampling on His Sabbath day, get your foot off of it, and the devil says stomp on it. Satan’s lie is, it doesn’t matter which day you keep holy. But my Jesus on the cross says it does matter!

You may say Brother Vaughn, I’m a New Testament Christian and you keep reading the Old Testament. Well let me ask you this, is what Jesus said important to you? What did He say in John 5:39? He said, “Search the Scriptures”. When Jesus said that, the only scriptures around, was the Old Testament. He commanded us to read the Old Testament. The book of Revelation has 404 verses in it and 270 of those verses are quotes out of the Old Testament. All 66 books of the Bible is the testimony of Jesus. 

My, my, it seems like I’m just starting and already the clock says it’s time to stop. Remember, Awesome Truths and Amazing Facts” is now coming to you twice a week. Wednesday mornings at 8:30 am, and then Wednesday’s programs are repeated Sunday mornings at 9:00 am. I will continue with this important topic in our next broadcast, because your eternal life hinges on understanding what God’s Word says and why we cannot put our trust in man.

God bless you friends and study your Bibles daily,

Until next week, Jesus said in John 5:39, “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me”. Even so, Come lord Jesus.”