1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,520 Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, 2 00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:06,480 where we are proclaiming the truth to the world. 3 00:00:06,640 --> 00:00:09,720 My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to 4 00:00:09,720 --> 00:00:10,480 this podcast. 5 00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:14,680 I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen 6 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:16,080 you in the word of God. 7 00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:20,160 Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has 8 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:21,440 for us here today. 9 00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:26,520 If you have your Bibles, we're going to be in First John, Chapter 10 00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:26,880 4. 11 00:00:27,670 --> 00:00:31,510 You can open up with us there to First John, Chapter 4. 12 00:00:32,230 --> 00:00:35,430 And we've been looking at First John here for a little while. 13 00:00:35,430 --> 00:00:38,870 We've gone through chapters one, two, and three, and what we've 14 00:00:38,870 --> 00:00:42,070 been looking at so far has been the idea of fellowship with 15 00:00:42,070 --> 00:00:42,550 God. 16 00:00:43,189 --> 00:00:45,550 And really that's what the book of First John's all about. 17 00:00:45,550 --> 00:00:50,670 It speaks of having fellowship with God, and then from there it 18 00:00:50,670 --> 00:00:55,290 talks about how as we as believers are having fellowship with 19 00:00:55,290 --> 00:00:57,370 God, what that looks like with fellowship with others. 20 00:00:57,930 --> 00:01:00,810 And so we started with in First John, him talking about what 21 00:01:00,810 --> 00:01:05,250 salvation is, how we can have that relationship and that fellowship 22 00:01:05,250 --> 00:01:05,610 with Him. 23 00:01:05,610 --> 00:01:09,329 And then what do we do when we stumble in that relationship with 24 00:01:09,329 --> 00:01:09,530 Him? 25 00:01:09,530 --> 00:01:12,330 That means we come to a place in our life where we've made mistakes 26 00:01:12,330 --> 00:01:16,770 through sin and we've allowed that divide to come between the Lord 27 00:01:16,770 --> 00:01:19,090 and the believer in our hearts. 28 00:01:19,090 --> 00:01:20,010 And then what do we do? 29 00:01:20,010 --> 00:01:23,110 First John 1:9, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just 30 00:01:23,110 --> 00:01:25,350 to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 31 00:01:25,350 --> 00:01:28,790 So it talks about things that will hinder our fellowship. 32 00:01:29,110 --> 00:01:33,630 And chapters one, two, and even into three talks a little bit 33 00:01:33,630 --> 00:01:35,310 about things that would hinder our fellowship. 34 00:01:35,310 --> 00:01:37,830 And then obviously on the other side of that, things that help 35 00:01:37,830 --> 00:01:40,270 our fellowship with God and strengthen our fellowship. 36 00:01:40,270 --> 00:01:42,990 And just as even in a relationship that we have, maybe 37 00:01:42,990 --> 00:01:47,270 with a spouse or a friend or a family member, there's things that 38 00:01:47,270 --> 00:01:49,550 we can do to harm our relationship, and there's things 39 00:01:49,550 --> 00:01:51,930 that we can do to strengthen our relationship. 40 00:01:52,330 --> 00:01:55,890 And I, I many times when we're dealing with people that have struggles 41 00:01:55,890 --> 00:01:58,450 with fellowship with each other, one of the biggest things 42 00:01:58,450 --> 00:01:59,530 is communication, right? 43 00:01:59,690 --> 00:02:02,730 You, you've heard that communication is key in all relationships, 44 00:02:02,730 --> 00:02:05,610 and that's same thing for our relationship with God. 45 00:02:05,930 --> 00:02:07,730 Now, how does God communicate to us? 46 00:02:07,730 --> 00:02:09,490 Well, we're going to look a little bit more about that here this 47 00:02:09,490 --> 00:02:09,770 evening. 48 00:02:09,770 --> 00:02:13,010 But God communicates to us through His Word and through the 49 00:02:13,010 --> 00:02:15,650 speaking and guidance and conviction and comfort of the Holy 50 00:02:15,650 --> 00:02:16,010 Spirit. 51 00:02:16,900 --> 00:02:18,140 And how do we communicate with Him? 52 00:02:18,140 --> 00:02:21,260 Well, we communicate to him through the way that we pray to him, 53 00:02:21,260 --> 00:02:25,380 we call out to him, we praise him, we worship him, we follow his 54 00:02:25,380 --> 00:02:26,300 word in obedience. 55 00:02:26,300 --> 00:02:29,220 These are all ways in which we can have that fellowship with God. 56 00:02:29,220 --> 00:02:32,699 And so if you can learn anything through this study, I think 57 00:02:32,699 --> 00:02:35,340 a meaningful understanding of that word fellowship. 58 00:02:35,340 --> 00:02:37,460 And we've used the Greek word koinonia. 59 00:02:37,620 --> 00:02:40,580 And if there's one thing I will drill into you, in my tenure 60 00:02:40,580 --> 00:02:43,860 as a pastor here, probably if I'm here for 50, 60 years, one of 61 00:02:43,860 --> 00:02:46,290 the words I'll say the most is that Greek word koinonia. 62 00:02:46,290 --> 00:02:46,850 What does that mean? 63 00:02:46,850 --> 00:02:50,370 It means not just being with each other physically. 64 00:02:50,370 --> 00:02:52,290 I mean, that's one aspect of fellowship. 65 00:02:52,370 --> 00:02:52,930 But it's. 66 00:02:52,930 --> 00:02:53,850 It's deeper than that. 67 00:02:53,850 --> 00:02:55,250 It's a spiritual connection. 68 00:02:55,410 --> 00:02:55,770 It's. 69 00:02:55,770 --> 00:02:57,730 It's connecting with a common bond. 70 00:02:57,730 --> 00:03:01,610 And obviously we know that we as Christians can connect with the 71 00:03:01,610 --> 00:03:04,690 common bond of our salvation and the Spirit that indwells us. 72 00:03:04,850 --> 00:03:07,450 But obviously we have that bond with the Lord now that he is 73 00:03:07,450 --> 00:03:08,770 our Father and we are his children. 74 00:03:09,010 --> 00:03:12,120 And that's why we see in 1st John 11 lot of references to believers 75 00:03:12,120 --> 00:03:14,920 being called little children because we are in the family of God. 76 00:03:14,920 --> 00:03:19,200 If you go back to chapter three one John three one, behold 77 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:24,320 what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we believers 78 00:03:24,320 --> 00:03:26,800 should be called sons of God or children of God. 79 00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:30,400 And so there's this beautiful picture that John lays out here in 80 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:30,960 this book. 81 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:34,040 And he says, basically, when we are in fellowship with God, it's 82 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:35,920 like walking with him as his children. 83 00:03:37,210 --> 00:03:39,410 But with that comes things that hinder our fellowship. 84 00:03:39,410 --> 00:03:42,490 We talked about unrepentant sin hinders our fellowship. 85 00:03:43,050 --> 00:03:47,570 Bitterness, anger, all these things that we talked about in chapters 86 00:03:47,570 --> 00:03:52,810 one and two, this idea of a false religion, fake love, empty 87 00:03:53,130 --> 00:03:53,610 faith. 88 00:03:53,610 --> 00:03:54,810 And we saw that throughout. 89 00:03:54,810 --> 00:03:57,090 And they basically says, you got to abide in me. 90 00:03:57,090 --> 00:03:59,290 If you're not abiding in me, you're not walking in fellowship 91 00:03:59,290 --> 00:03:59,490 with me. 92 00:03:59,490 --> 00:04:03,080 Because you can say you're walking with me, you can tell other 93 00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:04,320 people that you're walking with me. 94 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:07,520 But really what makes the truth is that you're actually walking 95 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:08,040 with me. 96 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:12,640 So that you don't just love in word, but also indeed, you're not 97 00:04:12,640 --> 00:04:17,440 just loving with what we would call maybe a disrespectful or dishonest 98 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:17,800 spirit. 99 00:04:17,959 --> 00:04:20,960 But we're loving God with truth, and we're loving others with 100 00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:21,320 truth. 101 00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:25,440 But we get here to chapter four and we're going to see that 102 00:04:25,440 --> 00:04:30,540 there's another aspect of our life that can cause a division not 103 00:04:30,540 --> 00:04:33,660 in our salvation but in our relationship with God, when it comes 104 00:04:33,660 --> 00:04:34,580 to fellowship. 105 00:04:34,980 --> 00:04:37,860 And that's what we would see as false teaching. 106 00:04:38,980 --> 00:04:40,420 Some people call it heresy. 107 00:04:40,900 --> 00:04:44,500 But we would see here that he's going to warn believers, he's 108 00:04:44,500 --> 00:04:49,660 going to warn his children not to believe and trust in and live 109 00:04:49,660 --> 00:04:50,900 in false teaching. 110 00:04:51,300 --> 00:04:54,900 And so verse number one speaks to a really interesting truth. 111 00:04:56,060 --> 00:05:01,180 It speaks to this truth that not every spiritual experience comes 112 00:05:01,180 --> 00:05:06,020 from God and not every encounter that we have with our emotions 113 00:05:06,020 --> 00:05:10,220 or we have in church or we have when someone's teaching us something 114 00:05:10,620 --> 00:05:11,540 is from God. 115 00:05:11,540 --> 00:05:13,860 And we're going to see that here in verse one, he says, beloved. 116 00:05:13,860 --> 00:05:19,020 Again, a reference to believers believe not every spirit, 117 00:05:20,790 --> 00:05:23,590 but try the spirits, whether they are of God. 118 00:05:23,830 --> 00:05:26,950 So if he says, try the spirits, whether they are of God, 119 00:05:27,110 --> 00:05:31,110 that means that some spirits, some teaching, some lessons, some 120 00:05:31,110 --> 00:05:33,670 experiences can come from another place other than God. 121 00:05:34,390 --> 00:05:38,390 And he's already spoken here in this book about the spirit of 122 00:05:38,390 --> 00:05:40,790 Antichrist, which essentially is this. 123 00:05:40,950 --> 00:05:43,390 The, the enemy is against God. 124 00:05:43,390 --> 00:05:46,670 And so therefore anything the enemy pushes forward, any teaching 125 00:05:46,670 --> 00:05:49,880 that the enemy pushes forward, any, any action that the enemy is 126 00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:55,240 presenting to us that is against God is from this spirit of 127 00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:55,880 Antichrist. 128 00:05:55,880 --> 00:05:56,920 It's against God. 129 00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:00,080 And so he says, try these spirits, try these teachings, whether 130 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:03,520 they are of God, because if they're not of God, they're from 131 00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:05,080 another place, another source. 132 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:09,320 And then he gives his reasoning why he says, because many 133 00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:12,680 false prophets are gone out into the world. 134 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:16,400 So we understand through way of context that the way that these 135 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:19,800 spirits are spread amongst the brethren is through what we see here 136 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:24,880 is false prophets, people that are proclaiming the truth, seemingly 137 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:27,840 proclaiming the truth, but yet at the same time they're proclaiming 138 00:06:27,840 --> 00:06:28,200 lies. 139 00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:29,840 Because that's what that word prophet means. 140 00:06:29,840 --> 00:06:33,240 By the way, prophet just means someone who's proclaiming the truth. 141 00:06:33,480 --> 00:06:35,760 They're, they're, they're at least their truth. 142 00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:39,240 The, the truth that they believe or maybe a lie that they 143 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:41,240 want to have people believe that is true. 144 00:06:41,530 --> 00:06:44,650 And so he says there's going to be false teachers, false prophets 145 00:06:44,730 --> 00:06:45,770 that are in the world. 146 00:06:46,090 --> 00:06:49,650 And those false prophets are going to try to get believers to 147 00:06:49,650 --> 00:06:53,210 believe something contrary to what God would have us believe. 148 00:06:53,770 --> 00:06:59,450 And so John is warning believers to not just believe anything 149 00:06:59,450 --> 00:07:03,490 they hear, to not just see an amazing feat and go, wow, that must 150 00:07:03,490 --> 00:07:04,410 be from God. 151 00:07:04,730 --> 00:07:07,810 Don't just go with what people say when they say, oh, this is from 152 00:07:07,810 --> 00:07:08,890 God now, trust me. 153 00:07:09,900 --> 00:07:11,820 And there's no source to their teaching. 154 00:07:11,820 --> 00:07:13,100 Their teaching is their feelings. 155 00:07:13,100 --> 00:07:14,700 Their teaching is their experience. 156 00:07:14,860 --> 00:07:16,460 Their teaching is Their emotion. 157 00:07:16,540 --> 00:07:17,900 I've heard people say this. 158 00:07:18,060 --> 00:07:20,460 They said, you know, God has given me a word today. 159 00:07:20,700 --> 00:07:23,540 And then they proclaim something that is contrary to Scripture. 160 00:07:23,540 --> 00:07:27,340 What God says in this passage is that that is a false teaching, 161 00:07:27,340 --> 00:07:31,060 that is a false prophet, because God is never going to speak 162 00:07:31,060 --> 00:07:33,780 to an individual and contradict himself in accordance 163 00:07:33,780 --> 00:07:34,460 to his word. 164 00:07:35,110 --> 00:07:37,230 And so that's what this warning is all about. 165 00:07:37,230 --> 00:07:44,150 He says, don't assume that every spiritual experience, every 166 00:07:44,310 --> 00:07:48,950 spiritual teaching, every demonstration of spiritual power 167 00:07:49,430 --> 00:07:50,390 is from God. 168 00:07:50,950 --> 00:07:52,830 And I think that's sometimes what we automatically think. 169 00:07:52,830 --> 00:07:56,590 Well, if the person's using the name of Jesus or they have a 170 00:07:56,590 --> 00:07:59,870 miraculous thing happen in their life, something that we can't 171 00:07:59,870 --> 00:08:01,750 explain, that that must be from God. 172 00:08:03,030 --> 00:08:05,630 Now, I don't want to get too far down this rabbit trail here this 173 00:08:05,630 --> 00:08:08,350 evening, but what I will tell you is that there are spiritual things 174 00:08:08,350 --> 00:08:11,430 going on behind the scenes that we don't visibly see. 175 00:08:11,590 --> 00:08:14,190 And not all those spiritual things that are going on behind the 176 00:08:14,190 --> 00:08:15,510 scenes are good. 177 00:08:15,830 --> 00:08:17,590 We know that there's darkness in this world. 178 00:08:17,670 --> 00:08:20,790 Ephesians says that we're dealing with principalities and powers 179 00:08:20,790 --> 00:08:21,990 and workers of darkness. 180 00:08:22,550 --> 00:08:23,990 There's evil in this world. 181 00:08:23,990 --> 00:08:25,470 I think all of us would understand that. 182 00:08:25,470 --> 00:08:28,510 All of us would agree that there are spiritual things that are 183 00:08:28,510 --> 00:08:30,230 going on that are not from God. 184 00:08:30,630 --> 00:08:32,110 Now, they're not going to conquer God. 185 00:08:32,110 --> 00:08:33,750 We're going to talk about that here in a few moments. 186 00:08:34,790 --> 00:08:38,430 Even the Bible is going to say that even we as believers can overcome 187 00:08:38,430 --> 00:08:39,670 them in the power of God. 188 00:08:39,830 --> 00:08:41,910 But he says here, be cautious about this. 189 00:08:41,910 --> 00:08:46,470 We must test the spiritual experiences, the spiritual teachings 190 00:08:46,710 --> 00:08:49,910 and spiritual phenomenon that we see in our life, and to see if 191 00:08:49,910 --> 00:08:51,670 they are really from God. 192 00:08:52,630 --> 00:08:56,150 So he says here, why should we test these things? 193 00:08:56,720 --> 00:08:58,720 Well, because there's false teachers out there. 194 00:08:59,280 --> 00:09:03,400 And so many people think that when they encounter something, maybe 195 00:09:03,400 --> 00:09:06,840 with an emotional thing or a spiritual thing, there's an impression 196 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:07,160 there. 197 00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:07,600 There's. 198 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:08,720 There's an amazement. 199 00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:11,800 And ultimately there can be some people that believe in lies 200 00:09:11,800 --> 00:09:15,000 and overlook things that they should see because of all this power 201 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:16,240 that's happening before them. 202 00:09:16,400 --> 00:09:19,000 And it's important to realize that there are false prophets in 203 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:19,440 this world. 204 00:09:20,560 --> 00:09:23,560 I think a lot of times we can recognize that, but maybe we can't 205 00:09:23,560 --> 00:09:24,960 discern it when it's in front of us. 206 00:09:25,780 --> 00:09:27,100 And so even though the. 207 00:09:27,100 --> 00:09:27,460 The. 208 00:09:27,460 --> 00:09:30,500 As we see here in First John, even though the early church had 209 00:09:31,140 --> 00:09:34,620 a really a direct connection to the original church, what we would 210 00:09:34,620 --> 00:09:38,500 call church leaders like John and others, there was still at that 211 00:09:38,500 --> 00:09:40,940 time false teachers and if there was false teachers at that 212 00:09:40,940 --> 00:09:44,060 time, all the more reason to believe that there's a lot more false 213 00:09:44,060 --> 00:09:44,980 teachers even today. 214 00:09:45,860 --> 00:09:47,460 And so he says, test the spirits. 215 00:09:47,460 --> 00:09:49,500 Now, we're going to talk here in a few moments of how we test the 216 00:09:49,500 --> 00:09:52,710 spirit, because this isn't going to happen like this. 217 00:09:52,710 --> 00:09:54,590 You hear a voice and you go, hey, where are you from? 218 00:09:54,830 --> 00:09:56,350 That's not how it always goes. 219 00:09:56,510 --> 00:09:59,110 Sometimes it might be happening from behind a pulpit or 220 00:09:59,110 --> 00:10:00,590 it might be happening from a screen. 221 00:10:00,750 --> 00:10:04,550 We might be hearing a person who has the title pastor before his 222 00:10:04,550 --> 00:10:07,950 name or whatever, some credentials, and we must say, well, 223 00:10:07,950 --> 00:10:08,550 you know what? 224 00:10:08,550 --> 00:10:11,350 If he has those credentials, he must be trustworthy. 225 00:10:11,350 --> 00:10:12,990 He must be speaking the truth. 226 00:10:13,070 --> 00:10:14,230 But that's not what the Bible says. 227 00:10:14,230 --> 00:10:17,670 The Bible says that we have to be careful not about the person who's 228 00:10:17,670 --> 00:10:19,990 preaching, but we have to be careful about the message that's 229 00:10:19,990 --> 00:10:20,510 coming out. 230 00:10:21,310 --> 00:10:24,030 And so what we see here is that there's a responsibility, not 231 00:10:24,030 --> 00:10:27,710 just for pastors, not just for leaders, but there's a responsibility 232 00:10:27,790 --> 00:10:31,870 of every Christian, specifically, I would say leaders, 233 00:10:32,030 --> 00:10:35,790 but every Christian, to test whether the teachings are coming 234 00:10:36,190 --> 00:10:38,670 in accordance to the Word of God or those teachings are coming 235 00:10:38,670 --> 00:10:39,390 from a different place. 236 00:10:39,390 --> 00:10:41,910 And so this would come through the gift of discernment that the 237 00:10:41,910 --> 00:10:44,430 Holy Spirit brings us to teach us unto all truth. 238 00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:48,480 And so all of these things need to be judged by what we would 239 00:10:48,480 --> 00:10:49,960 say is God's standard. 240 00:10:49,960 --> 00:10:52,200 Now, what's God's standard Scripture? 241 00:10:53,560 --> 00:10:58,200 We have to judge every experience, every teaching, every 242 00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:01,360 display of power by the Word of God, because if it does not match 243 00:11:01,360 --> 00:11:03,760 up with the Word of God, it's coming from a different source. 244 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:05,480 That's what the Bible is telling us right here. 245 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:09,640 And we know that in second Peter, chapter one, verse 20 and 246 00:11:09,640 --> 00:11:14,110 21, that true prophecy does not come from private interpretation. 247 00:11:14,510 --> 00:11:14,910 Okay? 248 00:11:14,910 --> 00:11:16,270 It doesn't come from a person. 249 00:11:16,590 --> 00:11:20,350 It comes from true prophecy comes from the Word of God. 250 00:11:20,430 --> 00:11:24,390 And the preacher or the teacher is just a vessel of the truth 251 00:11:24,390 --> 00:11:25,630 that's coming from the Word. 252 00:11:25,950 --> 00:11:31,790 So if there is a person that's proclaiming a truth that is contrary 253 00:11:31,790 --> 00:11:36,190 to Scripture, that is, that constitutes a false teaching. 254 00:11:36,500 --> 00:11:38,740 Now, I'm not talking about someone misspeaking from the pulpit. 255 00:11:38,740 --> 00:11:42,020 I'm talking about someone willingly or even some ways, unwillingly, 256 00:11:42,180 --> 00:11:45,100 not even knowing what they're doing, misleading people away from 257 00:11:45,100 --> 00:11:45,940 the Word of God. 258 00:11:46,900 --> 00:11:51,020 And so this means that there will be agreement with the Word of 259 00:11:51,020 --> 00:11:52,260 God to the message. 260 00:11:53,620 --> 00:11:57,620 And so how do we know whether or not a message or a person is coming 261 00:11:57,620 --> 00:12:03,420 from God or coming from evil coming from, as it says here, this 262 00:12:03,420 --> 00:12:04,300 false place, these. 263 00:12:04,300 --> 00:12:05,220 These evil spirits. 264 00:12:05,220 --> 00:12:08,480 Well, verse two, hereby know ye the spirit of God. 265 00:12:08,480 --> 00:12:13,680 So this is how you know that this message, this experience, this 266 00:12:13,680 --> 00:12:16,760 feeling is coming from God and not from another place. 267 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:23,160 Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in, come 268 00:12:23,160 --> 00:12:24,720 in the flesh is of God. 269 00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:30,040 So he says here, the very first test that we test this message 270 00:12:30,120 --> 00:12:34,650 from or this teaching from, or this experience from is whether what 271 00:12:34,650 --> 00:12:37,290 they teach about Jesus, whether they teach Jesus properly 272 00:12:37,370 --> 00:12:40,090 or they teach Jesus contrary to the word of God. 273 00:12:40,810 --> 00:12:45,650 And so true prophecy or true teaching will always present the 274 00:12:45,650 --> 00:12:46,570 true Jesus. 275 00:12:46,890 --> 00:12:49,890 I want you to hear this tonight because if you could take 276 00:12:49,890 --> 00:12:52,690 any practical thing with you here this evening that you could 277 00:12:52,690 --> 00:12:57,730 take with you as fuel or as a tool for your spiritual life is to 278 00:12:57,730 --> 00:13:01,120 test it first and foremost with what they teach about Jesus. 279 00:13:01,830 --> 00:13:02,750 What is the message about? 280 00:13:02,750 --> 00:13:04,230 Is it about the true Jesus? 281 00:13:04,390 --> 00:13:04,710 So. 282 00:13:04,710 --> 00:13:07,910 So the way that you could phrase it is this true teaching, 283 00:13:08,150 --> 00:13:12,870 the true message, will always present the true biblical Jesus. 284 00:13:13,830 --> 00:13:14,190 So. 285 00:13:14,190 --> 00:13:16,950 So let's say someone comes knocking at your door. 286 00:13:17,110 --> 00:13:19,270 Some, probably most of you have had that experience. 287 00:13:20,070 --> 00:13:22,270 Someone comes knocking at their door and they say, hey, we 288 00:13:22,270 --> 00:13:23,350 want to tell you something. 289 00:13:23,910 --> 00:13:25,510 We want to tell you what we believe. 290 00:13:26,550 --> 00:13:32,250 And they come across and they sound good, they sound spiritual. 291 00:13:32,490 --> 00:13:35,930 They might even bring out a Bible and start quoting the Bible. 292 00:13:36,970 --> 00:13:39,810 The very first thing that I would advise you to do is ask them 293 00:13:39,810 --> 00:13:41,570 what they believe about Jesus. 294 00:13:41,570 --> 00:13:45,530 Completely ask them, do they believe Jesus is God? 295 00:13:45,690 --> 00:13:49,290 Do they believe that Jesus came to this earth and lived a perfect 296 00:13:49,290 --> 00:13:52,810 life and died on the cross for our sins and he's the only way, and 297 00:13:52,810 --> 00:13:54,810 that he conquered death through the resurrection. 298 00:13:55,220 --> 00:13:58,340 Ask those questions and ask pointed questions, specific questions, 299 00:13:58,500 --> 00:14:01,860 because the Bible does say that there will be people who preach 300 00:14:01,860 --> 00:14:04,820 Jesus, but it's not the Jesus that we see in Scripture. 301 00:14:05,620 --> 00:14:08,940 And I want you to see that passage of Scripture, because I think 302 00:14:08,940 --> 00:14:11,980 a lot of times people will say, well, they're saying Jesus and 303 00:14:11,980 --> 00:14:14,980 they're saying Bible, and they're saying all these different 304 00:14:14,980 --> 00:14:15,380 things. 305 00:14:15,700 --> 00:14:17,100 So doesn't that mean they're good? 306 00:14:17,100 --> 00:14:19,380 Doesn't that mean that they are someone that we can trust? 307 00:14:19,460 --> 00:14:21,900 We'll go to Second Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 4 308 00:14:21,900 --> 00:14:24,360 with me, because I want you to see this here this evening. 309 00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:27,560 One of the cautions that I would have for all believers is to 310 00:14:27,560 --> 00:14:32,080 be aware that just because someone says Jesus or church or heaven 311 00:14:32,080 --> 00:14:35,440 or the kingdom or whatever, it doesn't matter what they say. 312 00:14:35,840 --> 00:14:37,520 It matters what they're preaching about. 313 00:14:37,600 --> 00:14:38,800 Jesus completely. 314 00:14:39,280 --> 00:14:40,040 Completely. 315 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:42,280 And so if you go to Second Corinthians, chapter 11, and you 316 00:14:42,280 --> 00:14:45,400 look at verse number four, you're going to see that even the 317 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:49,760 apostle Paul warned us against people preaching a different Jesus, 318 00:14:50,250 --> 00:14:52,810 a different Gospel, a different spirit. 319 00:14:54,170 --> 00:14:57,970 And I'm not going to sit here this evening and list out all the 320 00:14:57,970 --> 00:15:01,370 false religions and all the false teachers, because that would. 321 00:15:01,770 --> 00:15:02,970 Would take all of our time. 322 00:15:04,170 --> 00:15:08,090 So when I want to teach about the true Jesus and the true gospel 323 00:15:08,090 --> 00:15:12,490 and the true word of God, the best thing to do is expose you to 324 00:15:12,490 --> 00:15:13,770 the one and only truth. 325 00:15:13,770 --> 00:15:16,650 And then anything else that doesn't match up with that is counterfeit. 326 00:15:17,050 --> 00:15:19,170 You don't need to know all the false religions out there. 327 00:15:19,170 --> 00:15:21,530 You just need to know the one true faith in Jesus Christ. 328 00:15:21,530 --> 00:15:24,410 If you know the true Jesus, anything else that doesn't line up 329 00:15:24,410 --> 00:15:25,490 with him will be a red flag. 330 00:15:25,490 --> 00:15:26,730 And you'll say, nope, warning sign. 331 00:15:26,730 --> 00:15:27,850 That's not true Jesus. 332 00:15:28,810 --> 00:15:31,010 And so I want you to see what Second Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 333 00:15:31,010 --> 00:15:31,370 4, says. 334 00:15:31,370 --> 00:15:36,690 It says, for if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we have 335 00:15:36,690 --> 00:15:41,930 not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, here's another reference 336 00:15:41,930 --> 00:15:43,400 to the spiritual realm. 337 00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:45,920 He says, if you receive another spirit which ye have not 338 00:15:45,920 --> 00:15:50,000 received, or another gospel which ye have not accepted, ye might 339 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:51,080 well bear with him. 340 00:15:51,080 --> 00:15:56,840 And so the idea here is to be aware and recognize that people will 341 00:15:56,840 --> 00:16:00,120 come with fancy religious language, but it will not be the 342 00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:01,360 true Jesus necessarily. 343 00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:02,720 So we need to test that. 344 00:16:03,280 --> 00:16:06,720 And so we go to back to First John, and we see, okay, he says, 345 00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:07,280 test it. 346 00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:09,120 So it's not the only test, by the way. 347 00:16:09,410 --> 00:16:10,450 I need to be clear about that. 348 00:16:10,770 --> 00:16:15,490 It's not the only test because someone might have Jesus, right? 349 00:16:15,730 --> 00:16:18,170 But they might skew some other aspects of that. 350 00:16:18,170 --> 00:16:19,250 And we need to be careful. 351 00:16:19,730 --> 00:16:23,850 But I would say the first and most important test is testing what 352 00:16:23,850 --> 00:16:24,810 they say about Jesus. 353 00:16:24,810 --> 00:16:27,610 So if you go back to First John, chapter four, verse two, he 354 00:16:27,610 --> 00:16:31,970 says, okay, test the spirits, test the message, test the spiritual 355 00:16:31,970 --> 00:16:32,290 experience. 356 00:16:32,450 --> 00:16:34,010 And then he tells you how to test it. 357 00:16:34,010 --> 00:16:35,330 He says, here's the easy test. 358 00:16:36,620 --> 00:16:44,020 Do they confess or profess or proclaim that Jesus Christ is come 359 00:16:44,020 --> 00:16:47,100 in the flesh and is of God? 360 00:16:47,260 --> 00:16:49,020 Now you would say, why do they mention that? 361 00:16:49,020 --> 00:16:55,620 Because at the time here in this case, the major prevailing false 362 00:16:55,620 --> 00:16:57,900 teaching out there was something called Gnosticism. 363 00:16:58,140 --> 00:17:02,140 And what Gnosticism was was essentially a belief that Jesus came 364 00:17:02,140 --> 00:17:02,700 from God. 365 00:17:02,700 --> 00:17:04,580 But Jesus did not come as a man. 366 00:17:05,540 --> 00:17:06,900 He did not come and. 367 00:17:06,980 --> 00:17:08,540 And come in flesh and bone. 368 00:17:08,540 --> 00:17:11,340 And so what they would say, is this Jesus? 369 00:17:11,340 --> 00:17:15,220 We believe Jesus came, but he's not who you say that he is. 370 00:17:15,540 --> 00:17:16,660 He didn't come as a man. 371 00:17:16,660 --> 00:17:17,820 He didn't come in the flesh. 372 00:17:17,820 --> 00:17:21,020 Well, that would be contradicting what Gospel of John 373 00:17:21,020 --> 00:17:21,380 says. 374 00:17:21,780 --> 00:17:24,500 And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. 375 00:17:24,820 --> 00:17:26,940 And we know that he was born of a woman. 376 00:17:26,940 --> 00:17:29,270 He was 100% God. 377 00:17:29,270 --> 00:17:30,830 Yes, but 100% man. 378 00:17:31,310 --> 00:17:34,870 And so here in this case, John is contextually dealing with one 379 00:17:34,870 --> 00:17:36,510 false teaching about Jesus. 380 00:17:37,310 --> 00:17:39,630 That doesn't mean that the only thing that we ask them is, do 381 00:17:39,630 --> 00:17:42,590 you believe Jesus came in the flesh and is from God and is God. 382 00:17:42,990 --> 00:17:47,150 But what he's saying here is they need to test completely that 383 00:17:47,150 --> 00:17:49,230 Jesus is the true Jesus of the Bible. 384 00:17:49,390 --> 00:17:52,990 In this case with John in the early church, it was dealing with 385 00:17:52,990 --> 00:17:54,550 Jesus's humanity. 386 00:17:54,630 --> 00:17:56,790 And so that's why he's talking about that there. 387 00:17:56,790 --> 00:18:00,470 So it's not the only test, but it's the first and most important 388 00:18:00,470 --> 00:18:00,790 test. 389 00:18:00,790 --> 00:18:01,350 Verse 3. 390 00:18:01,350 --> 00:18:04,030 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus has come 391 00:18:04,030 --> 00:18:05,710 in the flesh is not of God. 392 00:18:05,710 --> 00:18:08,630 Meaning if there is an inconsistency with their teaching 393 00:18:08,630 --> 00:18:10,230 of Jesus, it is not from God. 394 00:18:10,790 --> 00:18:13,550 If they're willingly misleading people in the fact that 395 00:18:13,550 --> 00:18:17,270 Jesus is not who he says he is in Scripture, they are not from God. 396 00:18:18,150 --> 00:18:21,270 And so John, in John's day, the issue was about Jesus coming 397 00:18:21,270 --> 00:18:24,540 in the body, truly coming in the body, and, and having a bodily 398 00:18:24,540 --> 00:18:25,260 resurrection. 399 00:18:25,260 --> 00:18:26,660 And we must believe that to be true. 400 00:18:26,660 --> 00:18:29,780 And by the way, I would stop right now and say that if you do 401 00:18:29,780 --> 00:18:34,220 not have a strong grip on what you believe about Jesus and who he 402 00:18:34,220 --> 00:18:36,780 is and what he has done, that's a good place to start when 403 00:18:36,780 --> 00:18:38,900 it comes to your own personal study. 404 00:18:39,539 --> 00:18:41,540 Discipleship starts with who Jesus is. 405 00:18:41,940 --> 00:18:44,300 And so if you say, well, I'm not really sure about Jesus, or I 406 00:18:44,300 --> 00:18:46,340 really, I don't really don't know what I believe about Jesus, 407 00:18:46,340 --> 00:18:48,420 I would say that's really where you need to dig your heels 408 00:18:48,420 --> 00:18:49,260 in and start to study. 409 00:18:49,260 --> 00:18:52,720 Because really we know that Jesus says in John 14:6, I am the 410 00:18:52,720 --> 00:18:54,840 way, I am the truth, and I'm the life. 411 00:18:54,840 --> 00:18:56,840 No man cometh unto the Father but by me. 412 00:18:57,160 --> 00:19:00,160 And so if you don't understand completely who Jesus is according 413 00:19:00,160 --> 00:19:02,640 to his word, I would say you shouldn't go anywhere else. 414 00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:03,880 That's the first place to go. 415 00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:06,440 Because there's going to be no way to discern whether something's 416 00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:08,720 coming from God or somewhere else if you don't even know what 417 00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:10,120 you believe about Jesus. 418 00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:11,640 And so he. 419 00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:14,760 We need to know that in John's case, John is saying, hey, look, 420 00:19:14,760 --> 00:19:17,520 you need to have a proper view of who Jesus is. 421 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:21,030 And in this case, believe that he came in the flesh and that he 422 00:19:21,030 --> 00:19:23,590 dwelt among us and that he died on the cross for our sins, and 423 00:19:23,590 --> 00:19:27,150 they conquered death through the resurrection with a bodily resurrection. 424 00:19:27,310 --> 00:19:29,750 By the way, there's people today that don't believe even in 425 00:19:29,750 --> 00:19:31,390 a bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. 426 00:19:31,550 --> 00:19:34,830 They believe that it was some sort of a spiritual resurrection, 427 00:19:34,910 --> 00:19:38,750 that his power is amongst us today, but his body is still in the 428 00:19:38,750 --> 00:19:38,990 grave. 429 00:19:38,990 --> 00:19:42,470 Folks, if that be the case, the whole Bible is a lie. 430 00:19:42,470 --> 00:19:43,950 Because what, what if Paul. 431 00:19:43,950 --> 00:19:46,580 I mean, if you want to get into a deep study, go to First, First 432 00:19:46,580 --> 00:19:47,580 Corinthians, chapter 15. 433 00:19:47,900 --> 00:19:51,180 Basically, Paul says in First Corinthians, chapter 15, if we don't 434 00:19:51,180 --> 00:19:53,100 have the resurrection, we don't have anything. 435 00:19:53,340 --> 00:19:53,820 Okay? 436 00:19:53,820 --> 00:19:56,140 Everything that we do is in vain if Jesus didn't conquer death 437 00:19:56,140 --> 00:19:57,100 through the resurrection. 438 00:19:57,740 --> 00:19:59,780 So if you're having a conversation with somebody and it 439 00:19:59,780 --> 00:20:02,060 goes like this, well, oh, I believe Jesus existed. 440 00:20:02,060 --> 00:20:03,420 I believe he's God. 441 00:20:03,660 --> 00:20:07,060 I, I believe he died on the cross and paid the price for my sins. 442 00:20:07,060 --> 00:20:10,700 But I don't really believe that a bodily resurrection is necessary. 443 00:20:10,700 --> 00:20:14,440 He can just spiritually live with us today, folks, then what Paul 444 00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:17,000 says is that you have no hope in your resurrection one day. 445 00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:20,520 Because if Jesus didn't conquer death and bodily resurrect, 446 00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:20,840 then. 447 00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:23,320 Then we don't have that same hope that's promised to us throughout 448 00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:24,440 the New Testament as well. 449 00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:29,399 So we have to believe Jesus in the word of God and what that says 450 00:20:29,399 --> 00:20:30,040 completely. 451 00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:33,600 So I, I won't spend too much time on the Gnosticism and, and that 452 00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:35,800 belief system, but go to verse number three with me. 453 00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:38,680 He says, every spirit that confesses not that Jesus has come, 454 00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:44,420 come in the flesh, is not of God, and this is that spirit of Antichrist. 455 00:20:45,700 --> 00:20:46,660 So what is he saying here? 456 00:20:46,660 --> 00:20:49,380 He says anyone that doesn't preach Jesus properly, who denies 457 00:20:49,540 --> 00:20:51,540 one element of Jesus is, Is against him. 458 00:20:51,540 --> 00:20:54,420 It's, it's the spirit of Antichrist that's already been mentioned 459 00:20:54,660 --> 00:20:56,219 before, earlier on in chapter two. 460 00:20:56,219 --> 00:20:58,980 And so the way that we could summarize it is this. 461 00:20:59,220 --> 00:21:05,300 To deny the true Jesus is, is the basis of false teaching. 462 00:21:05,300 --> 00:21:07,860 It's the basis of that spirit of Antichrist. 463 00:21:08,390 --> 00:21:09,710 And essentially what it is, is. 464 00:21:09,710 --> 00:21:15,270 It opposes the truth of God and it offers what we would consider 465 00:21:15,270 --> 00:21:18,630 some sort of a substitute or a placeholder for what God has already 466 00:21:18,630 --> 00:21:18,950 said. 467 00:21:19,110 --> 00:21:22,030 So it's basically people trying to create their own belief 468 00:21:22,030 --> 00:21:23,670 system, their own gospel. 469 00:21:23,910 --> 00:21:27,030 And if we go back to Second Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 4, 470 00:21:27,030 --> 00:21:29,990 he says if someone comes to preaches a different gospel, be aware, 471 00:21:30,470 --> 00:21:31,350 be on guard. 472 00:21:32,630 --> 00:21:34,790 I read this quote and I wrote it down. 473 00:21:35,630 --> 00:21:36,190 It says this. 474 00:21:36,190 --> 00:21:40,030 The devil doesn't care at all if you know Jesus or love Jesus or 475 00:21:40,030 --> 00:21:44,990 pray to Jesus, as long as it's a false Jesus, a make believe Jesus, 476 00:21:45,070 --> 00:21:48,910 a Jesus who is not true, cannot save. 477 00:21:49,310 --> 00:21:50,710 So I want you to be aware of that. 478 00:21:50,710 --> 00:21:55,550 That don't just the way that I would say it is this. 479 00:21:55,550 --> 00:21:57,950 Don't just take for granted that, hey, I believe that there's 480 00:21:57,950 --> 00:21:58,990 a big man upstairs. 481 00:21:58,990 --> 00:22:00,270 I believe in religion. 482 00:22:00,430 --> 00:22:02,070 I believe that Jesus was a good man. 483 00:22:02,070 --> 00:22:02,830 So I'm okay. 484 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:04,360 Satan would love that. 485 00:22:04,360 --> 00:22:06,120 Because Satan loves religious people. 486 00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:08,440 He loves religious people that are against God. 487 00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:09,160 Okay? 488 00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:13,200 Because religion is all about how, in many cases, religion is all 489 00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:16,720 about how a man or a person can earn their way to heaven. 490 00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:18,920 We know biblically we cannot earn our way to heaven. 491 00:22:19,079 --> 00:22:21,680 So therefore Satan wants people to flock into that path. 492 00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:23,680 He wants people to think that they can earn their way. 493 00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:26,200 He wants people to believe in idols and false gods. 494 00:22:26,360 --> 00:22:29,120 And so what we need to see here tonight is that it's not just 495 00:22:29,120 --> 00:22:30,120 about being religious. 496 00:22:30,120 --> 00:22:32,440 It's not just about having a spiritual experience. 497 00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:34,040 That's not just about going to church. 498 00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:38,200 It's about knowing and believing and trusting in the one 499 00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:41,200 and only true Jesus who can save us from our sins. 500 00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:44,800 And so he says, if they are preaching something contrary to that 501 00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:47,080 true Jesus, they are the spirit of the Antichrist. 502 00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:50,800 Where if ye have heard that it should come, meaning ultimately it 503 00:22:50,800 --> 00:22:54,520 will be fulfilled in this one leader in the end times. 504 00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:59,650 But as it is as a spirit, he says, and even now has already is 505 00:22:59,650 --> 00:23:00,610 in the world today. 506 00:23:00,610 --> 00:23:03,170 So what we can see is that he says the spirit of the Antichrist 507 00:23:03,170 --> 00:23:04,450 was already there at that time. 508 00:23:04,530 --> 00:23:06,450 The spirit of the Antichrist is here today. 509 00:23:06,770 --> 00:23:10,050 Now, there's a lot of confusion with, with that. 510 00:23:10,370 --> 00:23:16,130 I will say that the ultimate consummation of this spirit of Antichrist 511 00:23:16,130 --> 00:23:18,930 will be found in what I believe is an end times political 512 00:23:22,500 --> 00:23:25,780 false religion leader of the world in the end times. 513 00:23:26,260 --> 00:23:29,140 But in essence, what John is saying here is that the spirit of 514 00:23:29,140 --> 00:23:32,460 the Antichrist is promoted back at this time and it's promoted 515 00:23:32,460 --> 00:23:32,740 today. 516 00:23:34,020 --> 00:23:36,180 So you would say, wow, well that sounds pretty scary. 517 00:23:37,060 --> 00:23:39,020 Like how, how do I know how? 518 00:23:39,020 --> 00:23:40,540 How can we overcome evil? 519 00:23:40,540 --> 00:23:42,740 How can we overcome the spirit of the Antichrist? 520 00:23:42,900 --> 00:23:45,540 Well, John mentions here in verse 4 something amazing. 521 00:23:45,540 --> 00:23:47,220 He says you are not of that. 522 00:23:47,220 --> 00:23:48,980 You are not of that evil spirit. 523 00:23:48,980 --> 00:23:49,220 You. 524 00:23:49,220 --> 00:23:50,740 You cannot be controlled by that. 525 00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:55,520 He says, ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them. 526 00:23:56,720 --> 00:23:57,600 So you're. 527 00:23:57,600 --> 00:23:58,520 What is he saying here? 528 00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:02,840 He says you're an overcomer, not in your own strength, but as 529 00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:04,280 he says here at the end of verse four. 530 00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:06,879 And this is an amazing verse that we can take as way of testimony 531 00:24:06,879 --> 00:24:08,320 in our life if we're believers. 532 00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:13,920 Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. 533 00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:17,920 Folks, the Bible is very clear that there is evil in this world. 534 00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:22,000 The Bible is very clear that even the world system is run by evil. 535 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:26,080 The Bible is very clear that Satan, our greatest adversary, is 536 00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:26,880 alive today. 537 00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:32,240 And he's moving about looking for opportunities to seek, kill, 538 00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:34,320 destroy, devour. 539 00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:38,080 And that sometimes makes Christians fearful. 540 00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:42,840 But what this verse is telling us is that in the power of God, in 541 00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:46,120 the presence of God, with our identity set in Jesus Christ, there 542 00:24:46,120 --> 00:24:47,200 is no reason to fear. 543 00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:47,480 Why? 544 00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:50,600 Because he that's living within us is greater than the one 545 00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:53,040 that is in the world today, now, in our. 546 00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:56,360 In our own strength, outside of the blood of Jesus Christ, on 547 00:24:56,360 --> 00:24:57,920 our account, outside of his grace. 548 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:01,200 If we're just unsaved people trying to walk about being good people, 549 00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:04,400 the Bible does say that the evil one will overcome us. 550 00:25:04,560 --> 00:25:09,280 But ultimately we see that it's not our strength, it's the one 551 00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:12,280 who is living within us that gives us the power to overcome the 552 00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:12,720 enemy. 553 00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:18,680 And so I would call this the protection of God to his children, 554 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:21,000 the protection of the child of God. 555 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:25,720 So the child of God does not need to fear evil or the spirit of 556 00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:26,520 the Antichrist. 557 00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:29,800 Even though we need to be warned about the dangers of it, we 558 00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:32,280 need to be warning about the false teaching that comes along with 559 00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:32,600 it. 560 00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:37,840 We need to understand that the Holy Spirit that indwells us as believers 561 00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:41,540 is greater than anyone that could come against us with false 562 00:25:41,540 --> 00:25:42,020 teaching. 563 00:25:42,020 --> 00:25:43,940 And so there's no reason to fear false teachers. 564 00:25:43,940 --> 00:25:46,180 I mean, sometimes when I teach about false teaching, people are 565 00:25:46,180 --> 00:25:47,540 like, well, how can any of us know? 566 00:25:47,860 --> 00:25:49,700 You know, maybe I'm being deceived. 567 00:25:49,700 --> 00:25:50,820 There's no reason to fear. 568 00:25:50,820 --> 00:25:51,860 Go back to Scripture. 569 00:25:51,860 --> 00:25:54,500 Go back to His Word and allow the Holy Spirit to guide you into 570 00:25:54,500 --> 00:25:55,939 all truth, as the Bible says. 571 00:25:56,660 --> 00:25:59,220 And so the believer has a resource. 572 00:25:59,780 --> 00:26:01,460 The resource is the Holy Spirit. 573 00:26:01,620 --> 00:26:03,700 And the Holy Spirit leads us to the Word of God. 574 00:26:03,780 --> 00:26:06,860 And the Word of God leads us to understanding God more and strengthening 575 00:26:06,860 --> 00:26:08,660 our fellowship and our relationship with him. 576 00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:11,800 And so Jesus gives us the victory. 577 00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:18,440 So the everlasting Presence of the spirit gives us the confidence 578 00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:21,320 to know that we can overcome evil in this world. 579 00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:22,520 We can overcome the enemy. 580 00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:25,440 And so this means that the Christian has no reason to fear. 581 00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:27,640 Second Timothy, chapter 1, verse 7. 582 00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:32,040 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, power, and of love 583 00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:33,240 and of a sound mind. 584 00:26:34,370 --> 00:26:34,530 And. 585 00:26:34,530 --> 00:26:38,210 And I think that a lot of times, including my own life, I've 586 00:26:38,210 --> 00:26:41,770 seen the spirit of fear grip me to the place where I'm not able 587 00:26:41,770 --> 00:26:44,490 to do the things that God has called me to do because I'm so afraid 588 00:26:44,490 --> 00:26:48,450 that I'm either going to fail or I'm going to lead someone else 589 00:26:48,450 --> 00:26:49,010 astray. 590 00:26:49,010 --> 00:26:49,290 Or. 591 00:26:49,290 --> 00:26:52,610 Or maybe I'm gonna fall for a false teaching or maybe God can't 592 00:26:52,610 --> 00:26:53,890 redeem what I've just done. 593 00:26:53,970 --> 00:26:56,930 The Bible says, no, God has not given us that spirit of fear 594 00:26:56,930 --> 00:26:57,570 that grips us. 595 00:26:57,570 --> 00:26:59,410 It doesn't mean that we don't have fear. 596 00:26:59,410 --> 00:27:02,340 Like, for example, you know, like, I think it's okay for you still, 597 00:27:02,340 --> 00:27:05,100 like, if a snake slithered through the floor here tonight. 598 00:27:05,260 --> 00:27:07,860 I don't think, like, you're not a good Christian if you get upset 599 00:27:07,860 --> 00:27:09,180 and scared and, like, move away. 600 00:27:09,260 --> 00:27:10,940 That's not what that's talking about there. 601 00:27:11,100 --> 00:27:14,020 It's talking about that fear, that spirit of fear that grips us 602 00:27:14,020 --> 00:27:17,100 and petrifies us to a place where we can't move for him. 603 00:27:17,260 --> 00:27:20,780 So the opposite of that, the thing that God has given us is power. 604 00:27:22,060 --> 00:27:27,060 The Greek word for that word, power is where we get dynamite from. 605 00:27:27,140 --> 00:27:28,740 Power, explosive power. 606 00:27:29,140 --> 00:27:34,180 God has given us not a spirit of fear, but a power and of love 607 00:27:34,820 --> 00:27:39,740 and of a sound mind, clear thinking, sober thinking, understanding 608 00:27:39,740 --> 00:27:40,620 that, hey, you know what? 609 00:27:40,620 --> 00:27:43,740 What Satan wants to do is he wants to scramble our minds and get 610 00:27:43,740 --> 00:27:48,340 us so confused and filled with anxiety and doubt and confusion. 611 00:27:48,500 --> 00:27:51,040 And the Bible says that God is not the author of confusion. 612 00:27:51,110 --> 00:27:51,590 Confusion. 613 00:27:51,670 --> 00:27:55,270 And so if we're defining our place as a believer as we don't know 614 00:27:55,270 --> 00:27:57,190 what to do, we don't know where to think, we don't know where 615 00:27:57,190 --> 00:27:59,630 to turn, that's the place in our life where we need to go back 616 00:27:59,630 --> 00:28:01,910 and say, no, God has not given me the spirit of fear. 617 00:28:02,150 --> 00:28:04,190 He's given me the power of a sound mind. 618 00:28:04,190 --> 00:28:06,710 And I need to start thinking clearly about what God's word says. 619 00:28:07,109 --> 00:28:10,110 And then that I need to go back and claim in my life and believe 620 00:28:10,110 --> 00:28:10,470 in. 621 00:28:11,030 --> 00:28:15,030 So it says in verse four that God, the one who lives within you, 622 00:28:15,030 --> 00:28:17,270 is greater than the ones who are in the world. 623 00:28:17,270 --> 00:28:19,670 And then it says in verse five, they are of the world. 624 00:28:19,910 --> 00:28:22,070 Those evil things, that, that's of the world system. 625 00:28:22,310 --> 00:28:23,830 Therefore speak day of the world. 626 00:28:23,830 --> 00:28:25,350 That's, that's all about the world. 627 00:28:25,350 --> 00:28:26,390 That's the world's way. 628 00:28:26,550 --> 00:28:29,630 It's the world's thinking, it's the world's actions and it says 629 00:28:29,630 --> 00:28:30,590 the world heareth them. 630 00:28:30,590 --> 00:28:33,510 So that, that kind of teaching resonates in this world. 631 00:28:33,670 --> 00:28:35,590 Satan's thinking resonates in this world. 632 00:28:35,590 --> 00:28:35,790 Why? 633 00:28:35,790 --> 00:28:37,030 Because it makes sense to us. 634 00:28:37,350 --> 00:28:40,030 Because if you're of the world, if that's where you live, 635 00:28:40,030 --> 00:28:44,310 that's your identity, then Satan's path, Satan's idea, Satan's 636 00:28:44,310 --> 00:28:47,180 wisdom is his teachings are going to make a lot of sense to people 637 00:28:47,580 --> 00:28:49,220 because they're going to say, well, yeah, that makes sense. 638 00:28:49,220 --> 00:28:50,540 That's what makes me feel good. 639 00:28:50,540 --> 00:28:51,580 That makes sense to me. 640 00:28:51,660 --> 00:28:53,020 Your truth is your truth. 641 00:28:53,020 --> 00:28:54,540 Make it up however you want to be. 642 00:28:54,860 --> 00:28:56,340 That's the world system. 643 00:28:56,340 --> 00:28:58,900 And that sounds good to someone who is not redeemed by the 644 00:28:58,900 --> 00:28:59,580 power of God. 645 00:28:59,900 --> 00:29:03,860 So you, you think about like today, like I, I've heard someone 646 00:29:03,860 --> 00:29:06,020 recently, they were like, well, that's what you believe and 647 00:29:06,020 --> 00:29:06,460 that's great. 648 00:29:06,460 --> 00:29:07,900 This is what I believe and that's great. 649 00:29:07,900 --> 00:29:09,260 And I think we both can be right. 650 00:29:09,980 --> 00:29:12,700 The problem is, is like, what if we both put believe two different 651 00:29:12,700 --> 00:29:15,220 things that contradict each other? 652 00:29:15,300 --> 00:29:20,460 How can one be right and one be wrong at the same time, but then 653 00:29:20,460 --> 00:29:21,220 be okay? 654 00:29:21,620 --> 00:29:22,220 It's not. 655 00:29:22,220 --> 00:29:24,660 And so what we see here in this case is that he's speaking to 656 00:29:24,660 --> 00:29:27,380 this idea that we would expect the world to be evil. 657 00:29:27,380 --> 00:29:27,620 Why? 658 00:29:27,620 --> 00:29:30,820 Because the world is run by an evil, evil spirit. 659 00:29:30,900 --> 00:29:33,420 And the evil spirit that guides them is something that makes 660 00:29:33,420 --> 00:29:34,940 sense to them and the world's going to hear it. 661 00:29:34,940 --> 00:29:37,820 But verse six, we are of God, meaning we're not of the world. 662 00:29:37,820 --> 00:29:39,210 We're not in the world. 663 00:29:39,370 --> 00:29:41,530 Even though we're in the world, we're not of the world. 664 00:29:41,530 --> 00:29:42,770 He says we are of God. 665 00:29:42,770 --> 00:29:44,570 He that knoweth God heareth us. 666 00:29:45,770 --> 00:29:48,170 He that is not of God heareth not us. 667 00:29:48,570 --> 00:29:51,570 Hereby know we, the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 668 00:29:51,570 --> 00:29:54,970 The way that we can understand the truth of God is understanding, 669 00:29:54,970 --> 00:29:57,730 number one, that we are children of God, understanding that 670 00:29:57,730 --> 00:30:00,570 when his voice comes, we can discern that and we can know that. 671 00:30:00,650 --> 00:30:03,450 And when it's not the truth, when it's counterfeit, when it's 672 00:30:03,450 --> 00:30:07,540 something contrary to the word of God, the spirit of God and the 673 00:30:07,540 --> 00:30:11,020 way of God, we can identify that and put up our hands and say, 674 00:30:11,020 --> 00:30:11,420 you know what? 675 00:30:11,420 --> 00:30:13,460 That's not something that's going to enter into my mind. 676 00:30:13,620 --> 00:30:15,860 It's certainly not something that's going to enter into my heart 677 00:30:15,860 --> 00:30:17,860 and it's not going to enter into my actions. 678 00:30:18,580 --> 00:30:23,460 And so those who are of the world act like the world, speak like 679 00:30:23,460 --> 00:30:23,860 the world. 680 00:30:24,180 --> 00:30:26,420 Those that are of God should act. 681 00:30:26,580 --> 00:30:29,500 The ways that God has called us to act, speak the way that God 682 00:30:29,500 --> 00:30:30,580 has called us to speak. 683 00:30:31,030 --> 00:30:35,110 I think about Matthew chapter 12, verse 34. 684 00:30:36,550 --> 00:30:40,430 Jesus is speaking and he says, O generation of vipers, how can ye, 685 00:30:40,430 --> 00:30:42,230 being evil, speak good things? 686 00:30:42,310 --> 00:30:45,750 For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. 687 00:30:46,709 --> 00:30:50,790 So really what we are harboring in our hearts will be manifested 688 00:30:50,790 --> 00:30:56,390 by what we say, by what we do, regardless of, of what we want people 689 00:30:56,390 --> 00:30:57,270 to think about us. 690 00:30:57,270 --> 00:30:58,870 Because there's a lot of people in this world that are trying 691 00:30:58,870 --> 00:31:01,550 to, to falsify their testimony. 692 00:31:02,030 --> 00:31:05,150 They're trying to have people think about good things about them, 693 00:31:05,150 --> 00:31:06,910 even though that it's not true about them. 694 00:31:07,230 --> 00:31:11,470 But what Jesus is saying is that evidently eventually what's 695 00:31:11,470 --> 00:31:13,310 in our heart will come out of our mouth. 696 00:31:13,870 --> 00:31:16,910 It will, it will be manifested by the way that we live our life. 697 00:31:17,710 --> 00:31:20,910 Our testimony will align with what we are trusting in. 698 00:31:21,630 --> 00:31:27,240 And so the people that are in the world, they're going to reject 699 00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:30,760 the truth of God and actually preach against the truth of God. 700 00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:35,360 You see that today with, with things that are what the Bible says 701 00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:38,560 is good, people say is bad, what the Bible says is bad, people 702 00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:39,720 say is good. 703 00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:44,760 It's a complete opposite of what God has ordained for us in this 704 00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:45,080 world. 705 00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:51,720 And so we can see that the world and the people that are defined 706 00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:59,110 as the world evil are going to feel comfortable and celebrate evil. 707 00:31:59,190 --> 00:32:00,110 That's what the Bible says. 708 00:32:00,110 --> 00:32:01,190 It's in their character. 709 00:32:02,310 --> 00:32:06,510 But it says those who hear God, those who are of the Lord, are 710 00:32:06,510 --> 00:32:10,710 going to enjoy the truth, they're going to enjoy fellowship, 711 00:32:10,790 --> 00:32:13,590 they're going to enjoy things that honor the truth of God. 712 00:32:14,470 --> 00:32:16,510 And so what would this look like? 713 00:32:16,510 --> 00:32:20,790 This would look like even though I hear a truth that my flesh 714 00:32:20,790 --> 00:32:24,310 does not like, I rejoice in it because it's from God. 715 00:32:25,430 --> 00:32:28,070 I, I don't know about you guys, but there was a time in my 716 00:32:28,070 --> 00:32:31,030 life when I would hear preaching that would step on my toes, 717 00:32:31,030 --> 00:32:32,230 that I would get really upset. 718 00:32:32,230 --> 00:32:35,030 I would just be like, who does that guy think he is up there preaching? 719 00:32:35,270 --> 00:32:37,230 He doesn't have that right to say that about me. 720 00:32:37,230 --> 00:32:40,310 He doesn't know what I've gone through and I don't like what he's 721 00:32:40,310 --> 00:32:40,670 teaching. 722 00:32:40,670 --> 00:32:42,230 Okay, that's flesh speaking. 723 00:32:42,230 --> 00:32:45,430 Because Flesh wants to reject truths of God. 724 00:32:46,090 --> 00:32:49,450 But when we are walking in fellowship with God, as much as we 725 00:32:49,450 --> 00:32:53,730 might not necessarily like the feeling that this preaching is bringing 726 00:32:53,730 --> 00:32:56,570 to us because it makes us uncomfortable, that should bring 727 00:32:56,570 --> 00:32:58,090 us to a place of conviction. 728 00:32:58,170 --> 00:33:00,890 That should bring us to a place of confession, which should 729 00:33:00,890 --> 00:33:02,650 bring us back to a place of fellowship. 730 00:33:03,210 --> 00:33:05,730 So the preaching of the word of God is there to help us. 731 00:33:05,730 --> 00:33:06,970 It's there to teach us. 732 00:33:07,130 --> 00:33:08,410 It's there to convict us. 733 00:33:08,570 --> 00:33:11,530 It's there to get us to a place in our life where we can, as 734 00:33:11,530 --> 00:33:14,830 First John chapter one says, get back into the right relationship 735 00:33:14,830 --> 00:33:17,510 with him to have a spirit of repentance. 736 00:33:18,630 --> 00:33:21,190 You can't have revival without repentance. 737 00:33:22,390 --> 00:33:25,390 You can't be on fire for God unless you recognize the things in 738 00:33:25,390 --> 00:33:28,590 your life that are causing you to have your fellowship separated 739 00:33:28,590 --> 00:33:29,230 from the Lord. 740 00:33:29,230 --> 00:33:32,110 And so what we need to see here in this case is that when true 741 00:33:32,110 --> 00:33:35,990 biblical preaching comes, whether you like it or not, it's 742 00:33:35,990 --> 00:33:36,710 there to help you. 743 00:33:37,190 --> 00:33:39,630 And that's what this passage of Scripture is speaking to. 744 00:33:39,630 --> 00:33:41,430 Like, we can discern the spirit of truth. 745 00:33:42,050 --> 00:33:47,570 And so understanding this allows us to get to a place where 746 00:33:47,570 --> 00:33:50,370 we can identify the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 747 00:33:50,770 --> 00:33:53,730 And so we want the spirit of truth in our lives. 748 00:33:53,730 --> 00:33:56,130 The way that we can discern the spirit of truth in our lives 749 00:33:56,130 --> 00:33:59,410 is to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and to cling and hold on 750 00:33:59,410 --> 00:34:00,890 to the relationship that we have with God. 751 00:34:00,890 --> 00:34:04,010 It goes all the way back to what we see in First John, chapter 752 00:34:04,010 --> 00:34:07,250 two, where Jesus is talking about abiding in me. 753 00:34:08,230 --> 00:34:11,590 If you go back to First John chapter 2, verse 24, he says, Let 754 00:34:11,590 --> 00:34:14,390 that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning. 755 00:34:14,390 --> 00:34:17,110 If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in 756 00:34:17,110 --> 00:34:19,990 you, she also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. 757 00:34:20,150 --> 00:34:23,349 And he talks about this idea of abiding in the Lord and he in 758 00:34:23,349 --> 00:34:23,670 us. 759 00:34:23,750 --> 00:34:26,790 If you want to know more about that beautiful picture, you can go 760 00:34:26,790 --> 00:34:30,030 to John 15 and look at that passage of scripture talking about 761 00:34:30,030 --> 00:34:31,710 Jesus being the vine and we the branches. 762 00:34:31,710 --> 00:34:34,710 We have to abide in him, who without him we can do nothing. 763 00:34:34,950 --> 00:34:37,590 And so that's what this passage is all about, about teaching 764 00:34:37,590 --> 00:34:42,150 us to be be able to identify false teaching around us. 765 00:34:42,470 --> 00:34:48,070 Because I. I have been around certain situations in my life that, 766 00:34:48,150 --> 00:34:50,550 you know, people have said, well, this must be from God, because 767 00:34:50,550 --> 00:34:51,910 this was an amazing experience. 768 00:34:53,110 --> 00:34:55,350 Well, not every experience is from God. 769 00:34:56,310 --> 00:34:56,750 That's. 770 00:34:56,750 --> 00:34:57,430 That's what first. 771 00:34:57,430 --> 00:35:01,050 First John 4:1 says, Test the spirits, whether they are of God. 772 00:35:02,170 --> 00:35:07,170 Not every person who stands behind a pulpit or a podium or is 773 00:35:07,170 --> 00:35:08,970 on a video is from God. 774 00:35:08,970 --> 00:35:10,490 And we have to be careful about that. 775 00:35:10,490 --> 00:35:15,089 And, and so what happens is the temptation is to look at the 776 00:35:15,089 --> 00:35:16,890 way the preacher is preaching. 777 00:35:17,690 --> 00:35:19,170 So a lot of times put. 778 00:35:19,170 --> 00:35:23,850 People put a huge premium on confidence. 779 00:35:24,410 --> 00:35:28,380 If someone gets up and they're just super confident, they have all 780 00:35:28,380 --> 00:35:30,500 the, they have statistics to throw out at you. 781 00:35:30,500 --> 00:35:34,020 They, they have stories to tell, they have experiences in their 782 00:35:34,020 --> 00:35:34,380 own life. 783 00:35:34,380 --> 00:35:37,420 They go, by the way, I have this degree and this degree and this 784 00:35:37,420 --> 00:35:37,700 degree. 785 00:35:37,700 --> 00:35:41,060 And this is what you should believe immediately in our human 786 00:35:41,060 --> 00:35:41,460 nature. 787 00:35:41,460 --> 00:35:43,019 Sometimes it's like, well, maybe they're right. 788 00:35:43,019 --> 00:35:44,620 Like, okay, they're confident. 789 00:35:45,020 --> 00:35:47,820 But, but I want you to understand that confidence does not 790 00:35:47,820 --> 00:35:50,700 always equal competence in the teaching of the word of God. 791 00:35:51,340 --> 00:35:54,060 Now, should a person be confident in preaching the word of 792 00:35:54,060 --> 00:35:54,260 God? 793 00:35:54,260 --> 00:35:54,700 Of course. 794 00:35:55,060 --> 00:35:57,580 But at the same time, just because someone is confident in what 795 00:35:57,580 --> 00:35:59,540 they're teaching, it doesn't mean that it's the truth. 796 00:35:59,940 --> 00:36:01,740 They could just be confident in their lie. 797 00:36:01,740 --> 00:36:03,460 They could be confident in their delusion. 798 00:36:03,620 --> 00:36:06,580 And so what I would encourage you to do is not just look at someone 799 00:36:06,580 --> 00:36:09,860 who's a powerful preacher and go, they must be speaking truth. 800 00:36:10,420 --> 00:36:13,420 I mean, I grew up with, with different types of preachers coming 801 00:36:13,420 --> 00:36:15,180 into our Christian school, okay? 802 00:36:15,180 --> 00:36:18,260 So we would have chapel on Tuesdays and Thursdays every week. 803 00:36:18,340 --> 00:36:22,350 I did that from kindergarten to 12th grade. 804 00:36:22,910 --> 00:36:25,670 So you can imagine how many preachers that I've heard in my life 805 00:36:25,670 --> 00:36:26,070 preach. 806 00:36:26,070 --> 00:36:27,470 All different types of preachers. 807 00:36:27,790 --> 00:36:30,750 We had preachers that would stand behind the pulpit and just 808 00:36:30,750 --> 00:36:33,790 read, never look up, keep monotone voice. 809 00:36:34,270 --> 00:36:38,190 We had preachers that would get up and yell and scream and spit 810 00:36:38,190 --> 00:36:41,350 and run up and down the aisles, get in the pew, jump over 811 00:36:41,350 --> 00:36:43,390 the pew, all that kind of stuff. 812 00:36:44,030 --> 00:36:46,990 We had guys who literally told jokes the whole sermon. 813 00:36:47,420 --> 00:36:48,700 Like it was just a whole joke. 814 00:36:48,700 --> 00:36:51,820 So it was like a 30 minute set of Christian comedy. 815 00:36:52,540 --> 00:36:55,900 And you know, through that you, if you ask the kids, like, who's 816 00:36:55,900 --> 00:36:56,940 your favorite preacher? 817 00:36:57,180 --> 00:37:01,460 It was always the guy who was yelling and screaming and the guy 818 00:37:01,460 --> 00:37:02,460 who told jokes. 819 00:37:02,700 --> 00:37:03,059 Why? 820 00:37:03,059 --> 00:37:04,020 Because it kept their attention. 821 00:37:04,020 --> 00:37:05,580 They were like, oh man, that was so great. 822 00:37:05,820 --> 00:37:07,140 He was the best preacher. 823 00:37:07,140 --> 00:37:09,540 He had all these awesome stories and it's like, what did he, 824 00:37:09,540 --> 00:37:10,260 what did he preach? 825 00:37:10,260 --> 00:37:12,220 I, I couldn't tell you what he preached. 826 00:37:13,430 --> 00:37:20,230 And so the idea is we have to be very cautious with equating entertainment 827 00:37:20,230 --> 00:37:21,670 with true teaching. 828 00:37:22,550 --> 00:37:24,790 Like, I'm not saying a preacher should get up or a Teacher 829 00:37:24,790 --> 00:37:27,750 should get up and be monotone and not tell stories. 830 00:37:27,830 --> 00:37:32,470 Jesus told stories and Jesus connected and gave symbols and analogies 831 00:37:32,470 --> 00:37:33,150 and parables. 832 00:37:33,150 --> 00:37:37,750 Like, so I'm not saying a bad teacher, like a bad skilled teacher 833 00:37:37,750 --> 00:37:38,560 is a good preacher. 834 00:37:38,630 --> 00:37:38,950 Preacher. 835 00:37:38,950 --> 00:37:39,990 But what I'm saying is this. 836 00:37:40,390 --> 00:37:44,150 We can't just look at somebody who is a polished public speaker, 837 00:37:44,310 --> 00:37:47,350 someone who has a great following, someone who has good videos 838 00:37:47,350 --> 00:37:51,030 on YouTube and has clear pictures and has great analogies 839 00:37:51,190 --> 00:37:53,670 as saying, okay, everything they say must be true. 840 00:37:53,750 --> 00:37:54,869 So what is the test? 841 00:37:54,869 --> 00:37:58,070 If the test isn't, hey, they sound good. 842 00:37:58,150 --> 00:37:58,870 What is the test? 843 00:37:58,870 --> 00:38:00,150 The test is the word of God. 844 00:38:01,190 --> 00:38:03,030 What did the Book of Acts say? 845 00:38:03,030 --> 00:38:03,990 Be like a berean. 846 00:38:04,160 --> 00:38:04,560 Okay? 847 00:38:04,720 --> 00:38:06,560 Check what's being preached. 848 00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:08,560 Double check it. 849 00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:10,400 Match it up to scripture. 850 00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:13,280 If it doesn't sound right to you, it might not be right. 851 00:38:13,600 --> 00:38:14,560 So double check. 852 00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:17,040 If you have access to talk to the person. 853 00:38:17,360 --> 00:38:21,080 If you have a confusion about what was said, go up and ask them 854 00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:21,520 a question. 855 00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:27,640 Any preacher or teacher who is having the right motivations will 856 00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:29,520 be willing to say, like, let's talk about that. 857 00:38:29,930 --> 00:38:30,850 Maybe I misspoke. 858 00:38:30,850 --> 00:38:32,290 Maybe I didn't wait. 859 00:38:32,290 --> 00:38:33,290 Maybe I wasn't as clear. 860 00:38:33,370 --> 00:38:35,650 Trust me, that's happened a ton of times with me. 861 00:38:35,650 --> 00:38:37,970 I said something and someone came up later and goes, did you mean 862 00:38:37,970 --> 00:38:38,170 this? 863 00:38:38,170 --> 00:38:39,530 I'm like, no, I did not mean that. 864 00:38:39,530 --> 00:38:40,410 Let me clarify. 865 00:38:40,570 --> 00:38:42,690 But, but at the end of the day, what we need to see is that 866 00:38:42,690 --> 00:38:45,770 the true test is not the skill of the orator. 867 00:38:45,850 --> 00:38:48,250 The true test is the message. 868 00:38:48,570 --> 00:38:50,810 And, and so I've been really thinking about these three words 869 00:38:50,810 --> 00:38:51,370 here recently. 870 00:38:51,770 --> 00:38:55,610 All right, so, so, so you have, you have the idea of motive. 871 00:38:55,610 --> 00:38:59,450 What's the person's motive in bringing forth a lesson or a teaching 872 00:38:59,450 --> 00:39:01,070 or a video or, or whatever. 873 00:39:01,070 --> 00:39:02,110 What is their motive? 874 00:39:02,190 --> 00:39:06,310 If at the end of all of their sessions they say, okay, now just 875 00:39:06,310 --> 00:39:10,230 for the simple price of xyz, you can buy my Prague program and 876 00:39:10,230 --> 00:39:11,230 now you can have more information. 877 00:39:12,430 --> 00:39:15,310 I'm not saying it's wrong for people to sell content, but what 878 00:39:15,310 --> 00:39:17,750 I am saying is that their highest motivation is trying to make 879 00:39:17,750 --> 00:39:18,350 the dollar. 880 00:39:18,350 --> 00:39:21,310 That might be a caution to be careful about what they are preaching. 881 00:39:22,190 --> 00:39:24,830 But then you go to, okay, what's their method? 882 00:39:25,390 --> 00:39:27,190 What's their method of preaching and teaching? 883 00:39:27,190 --> 00:39:31,460 Well, if it's a method of, well, speaking of knowing a lot of 884 00:39:31,460 --> 00:39:36,060 preachers, they would read one verse, they say, close your Bibles 885 00:39:36,060 --> 00:39:38,540 and look up here at me and you're going to hear that. 886 00:39:38,540 --> 00:39:41,980 It's like, well, that method might not be the best method. 887 00:39:42,380 --> 00:39:44,180 Or, or let me just be honest with you. 888 00:39:44,180 --> 00:39:48,020 The method I have heard one time was someone quoted a verse and 889 00:39:48,020 --> 00:39:50,420 it wasn't anything about what that verse was talking about, but 890 00:39:50,420 --> 00:39:53,220 they took one word out of that verse and preached a whole sermon 891 00:39:53,220 --> 00:39:53,900 around that one word. 892 00:39:53,900 --> 00:39:55,340 I'm like, that's not what that verse is saying. 893 00:39:56,830 --> 00:40:01,510 So, so I'm not saying that certain types of preaching are right 894 00:40:01,510 --> 00:40:01,830 and wrong. 895 00:40:01,830 --> 00:40:04,230 What I'm saying is, is if their method is not the biblical 896 00:40:04,230 --> 00:40:07,430 method of looking at it from a contextual picture and saying this 897 00:40:07,430 --> 00:40:10,510 is what God wants us to know and live by in this, it's probably 898 00:40:10,510 --> 00:40:11,390 the wrong method. 899 00:40:12,030 --> 00:40:15,430 If the method is me getting up and telling you jokes for 30 minutes 900 00:40:15,430 --> 00:40:18,270 and at the last five minutes, I tell you, okay, and just love God, 901 00:40:18,830 --> 00:40:21,310 that's probably not the best method to bring forth the Word of 902 00:40:21,310 --> 00:40:21,470 God. 903 00:40:21,470 --> 00:40:22,550 That's not the way Paul preached. 904 00:40:22,550 --> 00:40:24,370 It's not the way anyone preached back in the word of God. 905 00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:24,840 Okay? 906 00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:26,840 I'm not saying a pastor that tells jokes is wrong. 907 00:40:26,840 --> 00:40:31,120 I'm just saying if that's his focus, okay, then we get lastly the 908 00:40:31,120 --> 00:40:31,840 message itself. 909 00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:33,800 And I think this is the core of all of this. 910 00:40:34,200 --> 00:40:40,760 If the message that is being conveyed either through a 30 to 40 911 00:40:40,760 --> 00:40:44,360 minute sermon or a five minute devotional, if the message does not 912 00:40:44,360 --> 00:40:47,720 align with the word, reject it. 913 00:40:47,880 --> 00:40:51,120 You know, you don't have to say, well, it's coming from a good 914 00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:52,280 publisher, it must be good. 915 00:40:52,570 --> 00:40:55,330 No, if it's something that throws up those, those radar, the, 916 00:40:55,330 --> 00:40:57,370 the red flag and say, no, that doesn't sound right. 917 00:40:57,450 --> 00:40:58,490 Look it up, test it. 918 00:40:58,490 --> 00:40:59,970 And then I would say cast it out. 919 00:40:59,970 --> 00:41:01,050 Don't, don't believe it. 920 00:41:01,930 --> 00:41:05,290 And, and so it's so important to believe the right things because 921 00:41:05,450 --> 00:41:09,930 we go back to what we believe is where we'll trust. 922 00:41:09,930 --> 00:41:13,290 And where we trust is ultimately what we're staking everything 923 00:41:13,290 --> 00:41:13,690 on. 924 00:41:14,250 --> 00:41:17,290 And if I'm putting my trust in something that is not part of scripture, 925 00:41:17,290 --> 00:41:20,260 that is not where I want to be, because that's, that's not surefooting. 926 00:41:20,420 --> 00:41:22,260 The sure footing is found in the Word of God. 927 00:41:22,260 --> 00:41:23,380 So wanted to stop there. 928 00:41:23,380 --> 00:41:24,820 We could talk a lot more about that. 929 00:41:24,820 --> 00:41:25,780 If you have any questions. 930 00:41:25,780 --> 00:41:27,460 I, I have a lot of people telling me this. 931 00:41:27,460 --> 00:41:27,940 Okay. 932 00:41:29,380 --> 00:41:31,620 Do you think that so, and so is a good preacher? 933 00:41:32,100 --> 00:41:34,380 And I'm, I, I love to you come to me. 934 00:41:34,380 --> 00:41:36,500 I would love to give you my $0.02 about the preachers. 935 00:41:36,500 --> 00:41:40,780 I might not know that person, but what I will say is that you have 936 00:41:40,780 --> 00:41:46,270 been given every tool every, as a believer, to discern whether 937 00:41:46,270 --> 00:41:48,910 or not someone's from God or someone is not from God. 938 00:41:49,150 --> 00:41:51,670 Okay, God has given you the same spirit, the same spirit that 939 00:41:51,670 --> 00:41:52,350 lives within me. 940 00:41:52,430 --> 00:41:54,030 It's the same spirit lives within you. 941 00:41:54,910 --> 00:41:57,870 You got the opportunity, you've got the guidance of the spirit 942 00:41:57,950 --> 00:41:58,990 to lead you to a place. 943 00:41:58,990 --> 00:42:03,430 If you have doubts, I would say trust that the Holy Spirit's 944 00:42:03,430 --> 00:42:04,430 giving you that conviction. 945 00:42:04,510 --> 00:42:07,230 Just say, no, that's not a person that I want to listen to. 946 00:42:08,430 --> 00:42:09,630 But what I would say is this. 947 00:42:09,630 --> 00:42:11,990 If you do want to talk about that you want to talk more about, 948 00:42:11,990 --> 00:42:12,550 hey, what. 949 00:42:12,620 --> 00:42:12,980 What is this? 950 00:42:12,980 --> 00:42:13,980 I heard a preacher say this. 951 00:42:13,980 --> 00:42:14,940 I would love to talk to you. 952 00:42:14,940 --> 00:42:17,780 I know many other people would love to talk to you, but don't get 953 00:42:17,780 --> 00:42:20,220 the fleece pulled over your eyes, because the Bible does say 954 00:42:20,540 --> 00:42:23,500 that there are what we would call wolves in sheep's clothing. 955 00:42:23,820 --> 00:42:27,020 They will look good on the outside, but you got to test them. 956 00:42:27,260 --> 00:42:30,300 Test those spirits, whether they be of God or somewhere else. 957 00:42:31,580 --> 00:42:34,220 Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church 958 00:42:34,220 --> 00:42:34,860 podcast. 959 00:42:35,020 --> 00:42:37,420 I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you. 960 00:42:38,270 --> 00:42:40,390 If you would like to find out more information about our church 961 00:42:40,390 --> 00:42:43,870 or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org 962 00:42:44,110 --> 00:42:46,750 or find us on Facebook or YouTube. 963 00:42:47,390 --> 00:42:51,910 You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch 964 00:42:51,910 --> 00:42:54,510 dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast. 965 00:42:54,750 --> 00:42:59,150 Please subscribe and follow along for future podcasts and updates. 966 00:42:59,790 --> 00:43:00,750 Thank you so much. 967 00:43:00,990 --> 00:43:01,710 God bless. 968 00:43:01,870 --> 00:43:03,230 Have a wonderful day.