Counterfeits, Part 1: The Great Counterfeiter, with Pastor Chad Stuart - Oct. 18, 2025

A counterfeit is an imitation of something valuable or important, made with the intention to deceive or defraud. This week, we launch “Counterfeits,” a five-part series designed to help us walk wisely and hopefully in God’s truth—now and into the future. Our first message begins in the dwelling place of the angels before creation and carries through to the end time seen in Revelation. Together, we'll see that while Satan’s tools change throughout history, his methods do not. 

Listen in and worship with us as Pastor Chad Stuart shares the first message in this series, "The Great Counterfeiter."

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Transcript

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Frank Osa was a 34-year-old in Quebec, Canada, and he was on his way to work as a manager of a brake shop, and he pulled up to a red light, and as he was sitting at the red light, he says, he tells a story of himself that two questions popped into his mind. The first question was, why do we go to work? And the second question is, why do we have businesses? And he said, as he sat there at the red light, one word popped into his mind money. And as a 34-year-old man at the time, he said, you know what? I'm tired of going to work and I'm tired of working for someone else's business. I'm gonna figure out how to make fake money. So at a red light in Quebec, Canada, Frank Barza began the journey a becoming the greatest counterfeiter in the history of the United States. He counter... did someone say amen into that? Yeah. Ilya, you start praying for that person, whoever that was out there, please. He ended up counterfeiting 250 million US dollars, and this was in recent history. With the watermark and everything else, and he sold them at a discount to crime, indicates all around the world for the nice cool sum of $50 million. He was eventually caught and the consequences of his crime were that he had to pay a fine of $1,500. And spend six weeks in jail and he got to keep the other 50 million minus $1,500 of his money. How is that possible? It's because he was so good at counterfeiting that he had another$200 million stashed away somewhere, and the US government decided that it would be better to make a deal with him than ever risk the chance. Of this counterfeit money getting out into the world. As a result of that, Frank Bosa now refers to himself as the counterfeit God, as a counterfeit God. But I wanna take you to a land far, far away, and a long, long time ago to introduce you to the beginnings of the true counterfeit. God, not the counterfeit God of the United States or the Count greatest counterfeit of the United States, but the true counterfeit God, his name was shining one, but probably most of you know him by the Latin name. That was eventually given to him, Lucifer, and some of you simply know him as Satan or the Devil, and this being the shining one, he was a resident. Of heaven, but he wasn't just any angelic resident of heaven. He was the supreme angelic resident of heaven. The Bible tells us in Ezekiel chapter 28 that he was the anointed guardian cherub, that, that he was the signate of perfection. In other words, that word signate means that he was the example of perfection amongst all the angels. In other words, when that guy walked by, the angels looked at him, the other angels looked at him and said, man, we wanna be like the shining one. We wanna be like Lucifer. Scripture tells us that he was full of beauty and wisdom. God, his creator said, I placed you on the mountain of God and you walked in the midst of the stones of fire. In other words, he walked and he, he mingled with God with the Godhead. But Lucifer had his red light moment. He was headed to work one day as the supreme Cher. And said, what is the purpose of my work? And something inside of Lucifer made the decision at that red light moment. I don't just want to work for God, I want to be God. And so he began to establish himself as a replacement for God as a counterfeit God. Here's how the Bible describes it. In Isaiah chapter 14, speaking of the shining one of Lucifer, you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high. I'll sit on the mount of the assembly in the far reaches of the north. I will sin above the heights of the cloud. I will make myself like the most high. I will make myself God. Frank Barrow said his red light moment said, I'm gonna figure out how to make fake money. Lucifer, his red light moment said, I am going to make myself God. And the shining one became Satan, not. Frank Vero to the counterfeit God, but the true counterfeit God. And the Bible tells us in Revelation chapter 12 and verse four, that Satan was so good at counterfeiting himself at, at per placing himself as someone who should be honored and worshiped and followed, that he was so gifted in this, in his counterfeiting efforts, that a third of the angels of heaven said, yes, this is a guy we should follow and that we should worship. But Satan was not satisfied with just getting his peers to worship him. He looked all over the universe and he saw a, a planet that was created, a newly created planet that seemed to have the special favor of God upon it, with humans, with beings that were made in the image of God and the likeness and the, the character of God. And, and, and Satan said, I want them to worship me also. That new creative planet was Earth and there were just two human beings living here at the time. Adam, a man named Adam, and a woman named Eve the first created human beings. These aren't fictional characters, although I know that there are people that have tried to make the first few books of, of Genesis as just fictional stories to set up the broader conflict, but these were real people. They existed. In a setting and in a context that we cannot even fathom. We, we may try to imagine it, but, but it is beyond our comprehension. They lived in a place called Eden that was absolutely perfect and, and when I say perfect, I don't mean like, oh, this house is perfect for us. We have to buy it. And I, I don't mean like, oh, I went to Hawaii, and someone says to you, how was it? And you say, oh, it was perfect. No, this was truly perfect, a perfect place. And Adam and Eves themselves were perfect, not like Mary Poppins is practically perfect in every way. They were truly perfect, not like. What I heard at a wedding last week. I was at a wedding and, and I heard some, some bridesmaids and some groomsmen get up as they do to make the toast and, and I heard these types of statements. You are absolutely perfect for each other. You found your perfect one for each other. You know that Twitter painted moment that you got in that, in that, in that early moment. No, these people were actually perfect and they were perfectly made for each other. Probably the only couple in history ever perfectly made for each other. So many perfects that you'd think one plus one would equal two, and yet perfect plus perfect resulted in imperfect. And that is because by this point in time, we don't know how long it took, but by this point in time, Satan had perfected his craft of deceptions, his counterfeiting scheme, so much so well, that he was able to deceive these two perfect beings on earth. And the Bible says that Satan came down to earth. And he took on the form of a serpent. Now, before you roll your eyes, because this seems very fictional, he took on the form of a serpent serpent. Let's remember that we are talking about supernatural beings. We are talking about supernatural creatures and, and we can't even understand the realm and the power that they operate in, but the Apostle Paul confirms that indeed, Satan took on the form of a serpent. In two Corinthians chapter 11 and verse three, Paul wrote the serpent deceived Eve. And in that same chapter, Paul tells us in chapter 11 and verse 13 that Satan is able to disguise himself, even to disguise himself as an angel of light. He's able to take on the aspects of other beings and to be, to be, to appear as something that he is not. I hope it is not so, but I would find it highly unlikely that there is not someone in this space that is not. Had an encounter with a counterfeit demon or a counterfeit Satan. Maybe it's through someone who thinks they have seen a dead relative come and speak to them. This is one of Satan's classic counterfeiting operations to appear as someone we love to engage with us. Or maybe it's just someone that you've interacted with and you don't even realize. But they've been a counterfeit to try to lead you astray from God and his truth. He does it even to this day. But Satan appeared in the garden as a serpent. The Bible tells us that the serpent was crafty, not crafty. Like you like to do crafts, but crafty like cunning, treacherous, deceitful. And Genesis three, one tells us that this serpent. Deceived Adam and Eve. And how did he do this? He did this through a counterfeit, A counterfeit. There was a tree in the garden of Eden and that tree looked like all the other trees in the Garden of Eden. And that tree had fruit on it. And the fruit on that tree looked like all the other fruit. In the Garden of Eden, but there was something different about this tree. God had said, don't eat the fruit from that tree. But Satan came with a piece of that fruit as a serpent. He came to Eve and, and he held that, that fruit to Eve, and he offered it to her and he said, look, it's just like all the other fruit, but here's what Satan did, and this is how Satan's counterfeiting schemes work oftentimes. Satan doesn't just offer a counterfeit, but he offers a counterfeit with a bonus. Otherwise, that fruit wouldn't be tempting. I don't need to eat that piece of fruit. I can have the exact same fruit over here, but Satan says to her, no, this fruit, if you eat this fruit, it looks like all the rest, but actually it will make you wise. It'll make you. Like, God, it seemed better than the real thing. I think of Satan, Satan's counterfeits, like knockoff purses in New York City. Now, I'm not gonna ask any of you if you bought these goods and are supporters of organized crime and the trafficking of human beings. I won't get into that right now. I mean, not to make you feel guilty, just just something to think about. But I was reading an article about the billions of dollars that these counterfeit purses make because they have become so good at making them look just like the real thing, and they're on a blanket on a side street. In New York City is a Louis Vuitton purse, and I could pick it up. And I can smell it, and it smells like a real Louis Vuitton and it looks like a real Louis Vuitton and it feels like a real Louis Vuitton. And now even the name is actually spelled right, real Louis Vuitton. But it's a counterfeit. But this counterfeit has a bonus instead of being a thousand dollars. It's $50. Someone said 30. Okay, 30. Is that the same person that Amen. The counterfeit money? I don't know. And that's how Satan works. He offers you something that looks just like the real thing, but he says, oh, but there's a bonus to it. There's a bonus to it. And the Bible says that. Adam and Eve saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. And so she took of its fruit and ate of it, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. And this was the first sin by a human on this earth. And it was all because they fell for a counterfeit lie. A counterfeit lie. And that counterfeit set up our whole world for the mess that we are in. And even though we have this story in the Bible, and then hopefully, even though, hopefully we're all grounded in the Bible, yet all of Usin continue to chase after these counterfeits of Satan. Just like Adam and Eve did, and, and someone may ask, well, well, how have I fallen for the counterfeits of Satan?'cause sometimes when we think of the counterfeits of Satan, we think about these big grand conspiracies. Here's how we fall for it. The Bible says, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And folks, every sin is a counterfeit offer from Satan. About something that God has offered to you. Every sin is a result of a counterfeit that Satan has created and Satan has become so good at counterfeiting folks that he has made us into partners in his counterfeiting scheme because we call the counterfeit lies. And the evil that counterfeit is good in our lives. Lemme just give you a few examples from the Bible. If you have your Bibles, you can turn to the book of Exodus chapter 32, the book of Exodus chapter 32. This story is about the children of Israel, God's people, and this man Moses, who was the leader of God's people at the time. Was up on a mountain actually visiting with God, and he left all the people under the care of his older brother who was to be the religious leader. Aaron. And Moses was up there for a long time talking with God and spending time with God and, and getting instruction from God and the people down. Waiting in the valley below became restless. And in Exodus chapter 32 and verse one, the Bible says, when the people saw that Moses was delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and they said to him, up, make us Gods who shall go before us? As for this, Moses, the man who brought us up outta the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. So Aaron said to him, take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me so that all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a cra, a a, a graving tool, and made a golden calf. Lemme just pause right there. This moment to me is just kind of humorous in the Bible. And the reason why it's humorous is not because I think it's great that they were creating this idol to worship. It's humorous to me because it, it is so like human nature. In just a few verses later, we're not gonna read it, but in just a few la verses later, Moses comes down the mountain and he is upset and Aaron says, Hey, hey, don't, don't be upset with me. He said, I mean, I don't know what happened. I just got all this gold suddenly and I threw it in a fire and then out popped this calf. And here the Bible is saying no, no. They, they made it. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's like us as human beings, we say, we, we say, I, I don't know how that, candy disappeared. I mean, I only took one piece and then suddenly all the rest of it was gone. Mom or dad? I don't know. I don't know how that happened. You know, they, this, this, this is that aspect. I don't know how it happened, but he says this to them, but then what happens next? Look at this. These are your gods. And the people said, this is what the people said after he had made and fashioned this idol for them. The people said, these are your gods. Oh, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt? Remember what I said? Satan creates counterfeits and he's gotten us to partner with him by looking at the situation and deciding we're gonna call. What is evil? Good. Oh, and Aaron suddenly realizes, oh man, I've made a mistake here. Because now they're, they're saying this calf is a God. And he said, so what I'm going to do is I'm gonna repurpose this counterfeit image and I'm going to say it's of God. And so Aaron says to them, Aaron says to them. After they say, these are your who, who come out of the hand of or out of Israel, who brought us out of Israel, Aaron says to them, tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. In other words, he says, you know, I know it's a counterfeit, I know it's not real, so I'm going to appropriate it to God. I'm gonna, I'm gonna make it like a God. I'm gonna make it acceptable, taking that counterfeit of God and make it acceptable. Moses came down from the mountain and verse 30, Moses speaks very clearly what has happened here. He says, you have sinned a great sin. Such stories in the Bible are many. We could go to the, to the Book of One Kings. And the story of Ome King. Ome is a man that is chosen by God. God said to Solomon, you have not followed me as your father. David followed me. Therefore, I'm going to take away part of your kingdom and I'm going to give it into another's hands. And so he takes away part of the kingdom of Israel and he gives it to Jarome, and he says, Jarome, you are now the ruler of this part of Israel, and as long as you walk in my ways, I will be with you. I've established you. And King Gerome is grateful and he says, we should worship God. We should honor God. And he says, but wait a second. If they go down to Jerusalem as God has told them to do and worship him, then they might be tempted to go back to Judah and I'll lose my power. And so he says, why don't I establish a new way to worship God? We're still worshiping God, but we can do it. In a new way so that I can keep my power. And the Bible tells us in one Kings chapter 12, that he established two places of worship, one in Bethel and one in Dan. And I've been to the, the place of worship in, in Dan. It's right up along the border of Lebanon and Israel, and that is a war and torn area Now. But, but it is a beautiful spot. You walk through this path with, with all this lush greenery, and there's this beautiful water that runs through it that goes down and feeds into the river Jordan, and eventually into the Sea of Galilee. It looks like a beautiful and a wonderful place and a serene place to worship God. And yet it wasn't the true place of worship that God designated. It was a counterfeit, but Jibal said, why don't we make this acceptable by saying that we are worshiping God here? Why would it be wrong? And one Kings chapter 12 and verse 30 says, then this thing became a sin to the people of Israel. It's a counterfeit, but it, but isn't it good God? Isn't it appropriate? God? Aren't I doing the right thing? God, I'm still worshiping you. It's not what God asked. It's a counterfeit. We can remember Gideon, you know about Gideon in the Bible. Gideon starts off a little bit weak, but then he grows stronger in his faith builds and, and he eventually defeats the enemies of God with 300, only 300 soldiers. He defeats the enemies of God. You can read about this in the Bible, in the Book of Judges chapter eight. And the people come to Gideon after all of these victories and they say to Gideon, rule over us, you, your sons, and your grandson also for you have saved us from the hand of Midian. And Gideon says to them, I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you. The Lord will rule over you. The Lord. And the Lord alone is ruler. And we would say, yes, Gideon, awesome. Praise God. You are right. But then Gideon said to them, but let me make this request of you. Why don't every one of you bring your earrings? From the spoil and all a sense like, no, Gideon, we see where this is going. Don't do this. You just said the Lord is one, but he's saying, but you know, it might be nice to have, even though I know that the Lord is rule over, it might be nice to have something just to help us remember that the Lord is ruler and the Bible says that they brought their earrings to him and Gideon made an EOD of it and put it in his city in Oprah, Oprah. Did I say Oprah? Sorry, Oprah was named after this, but her grandma just spelled it it wrong on the birth certificate. A little bit of inside history for you, but the next line is so sad and all Israel hoarded after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family here. Here's what I want you to understand from all these stories, good, sincere. Godly individuals, followers of God, men chosen by God, and yet they embraced aspects of the counterfeits of Satan and it became a stumbling block to them and to others. And we folk, when we choose sin in our lives, we do likewise, and each one of us. Probably in some way or another have built little counterfeits in our lives that we have appropriated as good and acceptable to God when actually they are stumbling blocks and snares and sources of harm in our lives. And we may say, well, we don't, we don't make idols for ourselves. Yes, we do. Lemme give you two examples, just from. The Christians I know and in the Christian world in which I live, the example, the first example is from our most intimate relationships and the greatest intimacy within our closest relationships, marriage and specifically the gift of sex. God gave sex as a gift to us to be experienced in the confines and the context of marriage between a man and a woman, and it's a gift. But Satan has come along and he does not deny that sex is good, but he offers a counterfeit, and with a counterfeit, he puts forth what, what would seem to be a bonus. He said, this is such a good gift. Everybody should be deserving of this gift. Sex doesn't have to be exclusive between a man and a woman in marriage. Saying comes along and says, you're right. It is good. So why don't you just enjoy it with whomever and wherever and whenever you want. This is an idol that we have built in our day. That's not my words. That's Paul's words from Colossians chapter three and verse five, where he says, sexual immorality is idolatry, and this includes premarital sex, extramarital sex. It includes, it includes sex between people of the same gender. It includes pornography, and just not to let anybody off the hook to quote Jesus. It includes the lust in our hearts. It includes the lust in our hearts, and yet our world says these counterfeits are good and needed. And that many of these sexual immoralities are actually loving gifts from God and many good people that I know and that I love. People that I see in communities of faith have said, yes, I think these are from God, and they should be open to anybody and everybody no matter what. But they're counterfeits that Satan has set up to begin to become snares in our lives. Let me, let me give a second example and this second example May, may step on a few more even toes in here, and I apologize if I get too close, but, but many of us have fallen for the counterfeit idol of work. Of work and we call busyness as work. Now, we know that Paul says that if someone's not willing to work, they should not eat. And so we say, well, Lord, we're, we're doing what you told us to do. You, you gave us the work to do and we should do a work. But we've made that an idol and can I step on even a few more toes here or maybe get close to stepping on some toes here, especially in the context of this community and this church just, I love you all and I am guilty too. Good, sincere men and women that love the Lord. Have rationalized that as workers for the church, it is okay to establish the counterfeit work of Satan as truly from God. And they are busy beyond what God calls them to do. And so they sacrifice their health and their families and they rationalize it in the name of serving the Lord. And the Lord's Church because we all have to work until our fingers are ground down to the bone and the soles of our shoes are gone until Jesus comes and they travel too much and they don't get adequate sleep and they don't have a healthy diet and they don't get enough sunlight and they don't balance work and recreation and they don't get exercise. Why? Because they've fallen for a counterfeit God that places thy identity in their work rather than in Jesus.

And if you don't believe me, read Psalm 1: 30:35

27 in verse two, and we read it like this. It is vain that you rise up early and go late to rest. You know what? I looked up in the Hebrew and you know that word, we translate vain. You know what it says, it is an idol that you rise up early and go late to rest. Eating the bread for anxious toil for he gives his beloved sleep. It's an idol and it's a counterfeit fit. Folks, we all have these struggles. We all have these challenges. Counterfeits are everywhere. We sometimes of Adventists get way too obsessed with the counterfeit conspiracy theories that are out there not realizing that Satan is attacking each of us with these subtle counterfeits in our lives. And we have stumbled and we have chased after those. And the reason why we're doing this series is yes, we're going to talk about the four global. Counterfeits that are going to come upon this earth in the last days of earth history. And we're gonna talk about how those also personally relate to us. But I wanna remind us that, that we are facing counterfeits even now in our own personal lives, and we need to ask the Lord to, to give us strength against those, to prepare us for the greater counterfeits that are going to come. The Bible says that that. In, in Second Thessalonians that as we get closer and closer to the time of the end, that the power of the lawless one, the power of the enemy, the power of Satan is only going to increase. Ellen White says that the power of the temperature as is, is tenfold stronger in her day than it was in the days of the Apostles, and he's only getting stronger and stronger as we go along. And so we need to be aware. Of these counterfeits that are around us. But sometimes we're so busy looking out there and saying, oh, the counterfeit church and the counterfeit government and the counterfeit day of worship, that we don't realize that in our own hearts, we've made space for counterfeits that are undermining God's work in us and strengthen us even now, and we need to be mindful of that. And I tell you this, not to scare you or not to make you feel guilty. I tell you this because I'm convinced above one thing above all other things that I know to be true because I have experienced in my life Jesus is in love with each one of you, and he came to this earth to show you the true picture of God. He came to this earth and died on a cross so that you would see what love and perfect love and a perfect life would look like. So that you would know the truth, and as the Bible says, the truth will set you free. We don't look at the counterfeits to be able to say, oh, look it over there, the boogeyman, or Look it over there, the boogeyman, or look it over there. The boogeyman. We know the counterfeits and we try to discern the counterfeits to remind us to remind us that we don't want any part of that. We wanna be solely with the one who loves us enough to come to this earth and die for us. And so as we move into the next four parts of this sermon series, and we're going to the book of Revelation, please keep that in mind. As we're going to talk about some aspects of the global challenges that we'll face, please don't just become obsessed with those things and figuring out, is there a chip in my head somewhere that's been subtly planted there by 5G or something like that? Don't think about those things. Think about am I making space for Satan to create in me his image, or am I allowing the Lord to create in my heart his image? A week from tomorrow, I'm running a marathon. It'll be my 10th marathon. And for those of you who, who don't know this, and I'm gonna tell you this because sometimes people come up to me and say, how far is this marathon? All marathons are the same distance, 26.2 miles. And yes, I'm about to do my 10th of those, but when I run marathons, I try to have a, a thought in my head so that when things get tough, as I, as I'm going along the run, there will be something that I can remember. And so for each of these sermons, I'm gonna give you like, a kind of a little thought to run with into your next week as you think about the message. My last marathon, the, the thought in my head. Was this, when I came to tough spots, Christina's had three kids. That's more painful than what I'm doing. Keep going. Truth, truth. When my legs hurt, Christina's had three kids. That's more painful than what I'm doing. Keep going. I don't know what my mantra will be for next Sunday but it'll be something. But here's what I want you to think about. As you run into this next week with this sermon, I want you to have this. Thought or question that you put before God. God, what are the counterfeits in my life that I'm not seeing? Help me to see those and please take those away from my heart. That's that's your thought. Lord, what are the counterfeits in my life that I don't see? Help me to see those and take them from me. So this week you remember nothing else. Pray that prayer. Lord, what are the counterfeits in my life? That I don't see help me to see them and take them from me. Lord Jesus, I thank you so much that you are a great and a loving God. You've given us the word of God to help us to discern right from wrong, but even when we discern right from wrong, we will still struggle unless we are focused on you, Jesus. So Lord. This week as you show us the counterfeits in our lives that we're struggling with, Lord, we pray that you'll give us the strength to give those counterfeits to you, and we pray, Jesus, that we'll trust you and your power to overcome all those things in our life and in the world beyond we thank you Jesus. In your name, amen. Amen.