Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #16219 - Use Discernment Always - 1 John 4:1-3

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#16219 - Use Discernment Always - 1 John 4:1-3 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to the study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
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  Taylor, recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co.
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  To learn more about the many resources available through
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  Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services,
• 0:18
  visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free
• 0:24
  Calvary Church app. Now.
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  Here's Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
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  Amen. Amen.
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  First John chapter 4. If you'd open your Bibles there
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  first John chapter 4. We start a new chapter today
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  that I've entitled. Use discernment often, or even
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  you could say use discernment always.
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  It's important that we're able to tell the difference between
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  right and wrong, that we can tell and make the distinction
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  between what is good and what is evil.
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  And just like there are a lot of fakes and phonies in the world
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  in general, a lot of scammers, those that would want to take
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  advantage of you and take advantage of me.
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  There are also a lot of fakes and phonies in the spiritual
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  world. Among believers in churches,
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  there are false believers. The Bible teaches there are
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  false teachers. The Bible teaches there are
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  false prophets. There are wolves that come in
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  sheep's clothing, a lot of fakes and phonies.
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  And with the proliferation of technology or the increase of
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  technology, many of these false teachers and teachings are
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  already in your back pocket. They're already on your screens.
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  They're already on that column to the right side of your
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  YouTube page. They're all there.
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  No doubt you have met some of them and heard them even though
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  you never wanted to. An algorithm found you long
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  before you found them. And if it wasn't your own
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  algorithm, you've got a friend with an algorithm that forwarded
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  it to you and said, check this out, you've got to see this,
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  hear this. I've never heard it before.
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  Listen, this is important, write the Scripture down in Second
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  Corinthians Chapter 11, verse 14, Paul who writes to the
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  church and he says, but I am not surprised even Satan disguises
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  himself as an Angel of light. And what does that mean in plain
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  language? Satan specializes in lying.
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  He makes himself even an Angel of light to fool and deceive
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  billions upon billions, and through deception spreads false
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  doctrine undercover. And false teaching always
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  manipulates you. False teaching always fools you
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  and leads you to the simple conclusion.
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  It really isn't that complicated.
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  This is why it's so important to read your Bible and prayer every
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  day, because it's not as complicated as it sounds.
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  I don't know and I'm not sure. And you don't need to worry
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  about all the false teachers and false believers any don't worry
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  about them. Just spend your time getting to
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  know the truth. Because if you know the truth,
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  then any falsehood, it doesn't matter what got created, how
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  novel their explanation is. When you know the truth, it's
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  much easier to see the lies because this is the the
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  direction of every falsehood. It's to get you to believe a
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  lie. If you believe a lie, you'll
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  live a lie. And if you live a lie, you'll
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  suffer greatly until you come back to the truth.
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  Today there's a deeper need for us to know the truth like never
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  before. And I'm certain pastor in every
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  generation, I am certain they would assess their generation,
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  look at whatever new technology was out there, and share with
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  the churches the same exact thing in each successive
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  generation. But I'm not responsible for
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  previous generations. I'm teaching in this 1 and in
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  this one. If your eyes are not open to see
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  the reality of falsehood increasing today, then you just
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  got to open your eyes. Today more than ever, there is a
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  deeper need for discernment for us first and then for our
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  children. Your children and your
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  grandchildren need discernment. They need to be taught right
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  from wrong to be equipped to know right from wrong.
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  And even as we expand upon our children's ministry, our youth
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  ministries, the focus on junior high and high school, on our
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  college age young people, on the kiddos, even in the nursery,
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  being told the truth of God's love being held in someone's
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  arms. Our kids need the word of God in
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  this world to be able to make you.
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  The Bible says in Second Timothy 3:15 that the Word is able to
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  make you wise for salvation, to make you wise for salvation
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  through faith. Your kids need the Word at home.
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  Your kids need the Word when they're asking questions, which
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  is going to require a little bit extra on your part.
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  It's going to require a little bit extra on your part to be
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  able to answer the questions from your kids to speak into
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  their lives in the world in which they live from, you know,
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  the age before they can speak to those moms then and dads that
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  are homeschooling to those that have kids in the public school
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  in a hybrid system, doesn't matter.
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  The world is all around us and the reality of deception is
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  real. And yet the truth is more real.
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  Now notice with me in verse 1, John continues and he says in
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  verse 1 of chapter 4, first John, beloved, do not believe
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  every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God
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  because many false prophets has gone out into the world.
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  Sounds familiar, doesn't it? I literally just shared that
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  many false prophets have gone. This is the truth of God's Word.
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  This is a command. Beloved, do not believe every
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  spirit. This is a command.
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  It's not an option, not a suggestion.
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  It's important for us all. Literally, you could write next
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  to it if you like to write in your Bibles.
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  Literally you could say stop believing everyone who claims to
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  say that they are coming from God.
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  Stop believing everyone that says they come from God, but
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  instead test them. When you receive a teaching,
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  when you receive a video, a link, an idea, a book, when you
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  receive a a meme or a TikTok video or a reel.
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  However you receive your information.
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  Do not believe every spirit. Don't believe them.
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  It's essential that we test the spirits.
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  And here's the problem, Whether we're conditioned this way or
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  not, we have a tendency to believe 1st and never test, just
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  to take it in. And maybe if we test, we'll test
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  later. But we'll process it and we'll
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  take it in and we'll think about it, and we'll talk to a friend
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  about it. And then we'll write down an
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  idea. And then we'll like maybe later
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  in the day. Yeah, I think I remember hearing
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  that once. And before you know it, you're
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  so convinced that you don't even choose to test anymore because
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  now when you test, if you don't test right away, when you test
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  later on, you're so convinced of it that now you have like,
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  personal ownership in it. And remember, somebody, it was
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  just a falsehood, but now you have personal ownership and it
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  becomes a pride issue where now if I test this and I'm wrong,
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  then I'm really wrong. When in reality you just didn't
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  do what the Bible said. Don't believe everybody and test
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  all things. It's that simple.
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  As followers of Jesus, we have a tendency to be very trusting,
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  very hopeful, and we look for good in people.
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  That's a great characteristic actually, to really give people
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  a second chance to hope all things, believe all things.
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  First Corinthians chapter 13. But it's a 2 edged sword.
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  You know, it cuts one way and it really extends grace and mercy
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  and love to those that are in our lives, but can also cut the
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  other way where you're taking advantage of because you're not
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  walking in discernment. Discernment is so important and
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  that's why, because your desire to love people and give people
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  second chances, that's why churches are a target.
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  That's why believers are a target, because of your desire
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  to live out Christian virtues and to live out the fruit of the
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  Spirit. And yet there are those
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  manipulators and liars that would love to take advantage of
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  you. False teachers and false
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  teachings are all over the place.
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  This is not merely what John taught.
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  It's not merely what Jesus taught.
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  Paul said the same thing in First Thessalonians chapter 5
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  and verse 21. He says test all things, hold
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  fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil.
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  Then he says don't believe every verse one, but test the spirits,
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  whether they're of God, because many false prophets have gone
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  out into the world. You don't even have to go
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  looking for them. They come to you.
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  If I taught this study 15 years ago, 20 years ago, I probably
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  would have said something like, you don't need to go looking for
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  false teachers. They'll come right to your door
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  and they'll knock on your door and they'll put their bikes on
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  your lawn and they'll just come up and they'll have two by two
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  trying to lie to you at your door.
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  You don't see all that all that often.
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  It hasn't completely gone away, but it's gone digital.
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  False teaching is almost completely gone digital.
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  There are those that will walk the mall trying to trip you up
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  or find you, you know, in the the clothing section at Walmart
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  or something just started starting a conversation with you
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  and trying to trip you up. But it's really gone digital.
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  And how careful we need to be because most, most hours are
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  spent on digital platforms on really not.
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  I mean, you didn't go you. I mean, I know you didn't go on
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  YouTube or on your Instagram or on TikTok looking for you or
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  wanted to see hamburgers or you wanted to see some whatever
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  you're into. You didn't.
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  You wouldn't say, hey, algorithm, give me every false
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  teaching there is in the world. But it's not like that.
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  The enemy knows and understands our proclivity to believe things
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  and to be open to things when we're not close to the Lord in
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  that place that's safe. This happened in the early
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  church. It's not anything new.
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  The early church was infiltrated with false teaching, false
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  teachers. The first big judgment in the
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  early church was a judgment of lying and hypocrisy.
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  Ananias and Sapphira right there on display because they sold
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  some land and gave a big portion of money and they were behind
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  the ministry and wanting to see may be influenced by Barnabas
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  and what he sold, but there they are.
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  The only problem was as they lied, they lied right in the
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  beginning of the purity of the early church, just about as pure
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  as it is close to Jesus as you could possibly be, and right in
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  the middle of the enemy was already bringing falsehood.
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  Now, of course, the falsehood wasn't in doctrine through their
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  lives, but it was through practice.
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  A husband and a wife that said they believed in the Lord and
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  they were following him and yet living a life of hypocrisy and
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  lies. And when the church was growing,
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  falsehood was growing. Later on in the book of Acts and
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  Acts chapter 20, Paul's calling the elders of the church turn
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  over to Acts 20 with me, would you?
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  Let's look at it together. Acts chapter 20, he calls the
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  elders of the Church of Ephesus to himself.
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  And in Acts chapter 20, when you get there, jump to verse 29, you
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  might want to mark this. It's a passage that can be
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  easily forgotten, just part of a dialogue.
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  In Acts chapter 20, verse 29, Paul with tears in his eyes, a
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  time of great emotion. We'll never see them again.
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  He's heading off from this time to never see them or be a part
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  of their ministry again. He says this in verse 29.
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  For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves and
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  what does your Bible say Will come in among you, will come in
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  among you, not sparing the flock.
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  I was just talking to a brother before service.
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  We were talking about ministry and some of the things that will
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  help us really succeed in ministry.
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  And besides a love for God and a surrendered life to God and a
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  life committed to Christ, one of the things that will really help
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  you survive in a church or survive when you're hurt by
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  someone or you're offended by something in any church is a
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  genuine love for the flock of God.
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  You know, a lot of times we take things personally and we forget
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  we're a part of the flock of God.
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  We, we take things and let it hit so close to us, but we're a
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  part of the flock of God. Do we love God's church more
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  than we love ourselves? Are we able to work things out?
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  Because when things do happen in the church, as they always will,
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  they always happen. When you get people together,
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  you get large amount of people together and they're rubbing
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  elbows together and there there's always going to be
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  friction. And wherever there's friction,
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  there's going to be a fence. But Jesus said in Matthew 18, if
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  your brother send against you, go to him.
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  Work it out. 99% of the time you can work things out, but the
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  only reason why you would step in is because you love that
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  brother and you love that sister more than your own personal
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  offense. Why?
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  Because you love the Church of Jesus.
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  Why? Because the Church of Jesus is
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  his bride. You belong to the Lord.
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  You just think like, well, I can always go to another church.
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  They're the bride of Christ too. And so now you're taking all
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  your wounds and your hurts and you're going to go mess another
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  church up and another church up and speak.
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  Why? You wait a minute, pastor, What
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  do you mean? Well, if you don't, Matthew 18,
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  you don't resolve things biblically, then you're going to
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  bring pain in another church. You're going to bring
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  difficulty. You see, Paul, he loved the
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  church. He loved Jesus, yes, and he
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  loved people individually for sure.
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  But notice he says that the savage wolves will come in.
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  They're not going to spare the flock.
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  They don't care about you. They just don't care.
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  It happens on a small scale. Somebody will get upset in the
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  church, they'll get a little group and they'll take off.
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  Do you really think that they care for you?
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  Do you really believe that? You know, obviously you're here
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  right now so it doesn't apply, but you're listening on the
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  radio or you're online right now.
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  He's like, do you really care that?
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  Does that really reflect the heart of Jesus to take you out
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  and just kind of isolate you to yourself?
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  Doesn't that, isn't that a red flag?
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  Shouldn't the Holy Spirit alarm be going Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding,
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  Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding and you're just trying to mute it?
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  Kind of like your snooze alarm in the morning.
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  How many of you set 5 alarms so you can wake up at the right
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  time? Snooze, snooze, snooze, snooze,
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  snooze. A lot of you do that with the
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  Spirit, the Holy Spirit alarm, and you're snoozing it and
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  snoozing it. Before you know it, you're
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  following someone that doesn't care about you, that will not
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  spare you, and doesn't care about the Church of Christ.
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  Yeah, but, Pastor, they have a lot of good to say, OK?
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  I mean, even Eve talked to the devil.
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  Even the snake gave some kind of indication that some false
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  indication that he cared about Eve, but he just wanted to
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  destroy her. And ultimately, it destroyed all
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  of humanity through sin. He says not only will some come
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  in, we're still there in verse 30.
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  Now not only will some come in, but notice what he says also
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  from among yourselves. Men will rise up, and what will
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  they do? It says speaking twisted.
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  That's what perverse means. Twisted things, twisted
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  doctrine, false doctrine, weird stuff like stuff that shouldn't
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  be even aligned with the scriptures.
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  Why? To draw away the disciples after
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  who? Themselves?
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  It's just a red flag. Now the Lord has put into your
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  life somebody drawing you. Where are they drawing you after
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  themselves and what are they trying to get you away from the
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  flock of God? That's just how it works and it
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  works over and over and over again because church we need to
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  use discernment always, always walking in discernment.
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  So his his admonition in verse 31 is therefore watch and
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  remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone
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  night and day with tears. We shouldn't be surprised by
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  false teachers. We should just be ready.
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  Can I get an Amen on that? Don't be surprised, just be
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  ready. Verse 2.
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  Now we find the what or excuse me, the why of why we should
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  test because many false teachers.
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  Now let's look at the how. How should we test verse 2.
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  By this you'll know the Spirit of God.
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  Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the
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  flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess
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  that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.
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  And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard
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  was coming and is now already in the world.
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  So this is now you know, the Spirit of God in that day, just
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  like today, so many people propose to have special insight,
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  something never learned before, something never heard before, a
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  special visitation, special twist on the scriptures.
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  But few if any ever do. And he gives us three things to
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  check if you're taking notes, 3 things to consider.
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  Number one, you need to check out what they say, their words
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  #2 you need to check out their ways, what they do.
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  And then finally, you need to check out their world, who
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  they're surrounded with. So their words, their ways, and
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  their world, First you check their, let's start with their
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  words there in verse 2. By this, you know, the Spirit of
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  God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh
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  is of God. And every spirit that does not
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  confess that Jesus Christ has come into the flesh, this is the
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  spirit of Antichrist. That's a pretty heavy thing to
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  say. You got the spirit of
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  Antichrist. You are not giving me the real
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  Jesus. There's two parts to this.
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  First of all, there is the identity of Jesus, the identity
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  of Jesus. Every false teaching, every cult
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  of all their beliefs and all their books, all their
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  teachings, all their buildings, everything that they have, they
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  singularly have one thing wrong. That's enough.
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  You don't need to know all their doctrine.
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  Take all their classes. They have one thing singularly
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  wrong, and that is who Jesus is. They have the wrong Jesus.
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  With the wrong Jesus, they'll be wrong about everything else.
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  With the wrong Jesus, they'll be wrong about everything else.
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  Just imagine. I know it's dumb, but walk with
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  me on this. If you got your address wrong by
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  1 digit, 1 digit, but you know how our houses are in our
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  neighborhoods? They all look the same.
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  They're all built the same. You know they all look the same,
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  but you got your address wrong with 1 digit.
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  Everything else you do when you walk in that house is wrong.
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  Nothing is right. The kitchen's not yours, the
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  milk's not yours, the bedroom's not yours if you go with just
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  one digit wrong. When I was growing up, we had so
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  many houses on our lot. We had halves and quarters on
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  our addresses. So if you had just one quarter
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  off, you'd be in the wrong house.
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  And if you went into the wrong house, everything's wrong.
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  But most of the numbers are right.
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  I mean, out of the numbers, you know you got 3 out of 75% was
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  right. Or if, like my addresses, if you
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  had 4 digits and A and just 1/4 or 1/2, then you had 4 digits
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  and just one quarter was off. Everything else that follows
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  would be wrong. You couldn't make anything right
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  except to get out of the wrong house and get into the new one.
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  Does that explain it simple enough?
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  You can't get the digit wrong on your house.
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  Don't do it. It won't end well, it is not
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  safe, it is not safe. Same is true for the truth of
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  God. Would you turn over to
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  Deuteronomy now with me way back into the Old Testament again, I
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  want you to see the scripture in your own Bibles where you can
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  mark it on your tablet if you like.
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  Deuteronomy chapter 13. In the law of God, the children
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  of Israel were given a way to distinguish between the words of
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  a true prophet and a false prophet.
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  They were given direction. We find it here, Deuteronomy
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  chapter 13, verse one. I just want you to mark it,
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  circle it, underline it. But here is the truth about
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  false teachers. If there arises among you a
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  prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a
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  wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass of which he
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  spoke to you, saying, Let us go after other gods which you have
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  not known, and let us serve them.
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  You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that
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  dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing
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  you to know whether you love the Lord God with all your heart and
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  with all of your soul. You shall walk after the Lord.
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  Verse 4 After the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his
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  commandments, and obey his voice, you shall serve him and
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  hold fast to him. But that prophet or that dreamer
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  of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order
• 22:08
  to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of
• 22:11
  the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the House of bondage,
• 22:15
  to entice you away in the way in which the Lord your God
• 22:19
  commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil
• 22:22
  from your midst. John says there Antichrist God
• 22:25
  says there evil and if a somebody comes and says they're
• 22:28
  a prophet or a teacher or they had a dream and that prophet or
• 22:33
  dream or that thing that's being spoken in the name of the God,
• 22:35
  in the name of God is wrong. I mean the penalty in the Old
• 22:39
  Testament, Thank God for the grace of God today or a lot of
• 22:42
  people be wiped out right away. Boom boom.
• 22:44
  YouTube wouldn't have any pages on it man.
• 22:45
  They'd be gone because they were wiped out.
• 22:48
  But by the grace of God, the instruction today is test them,
• 22:52
  resist them. You got to pay attention to what
• 22:54
  they say. Words are important.
• 22:57
  Words are important. Not only are words are
• 22:59
  important, but those of you learning how to read the Bible,
• 23:01
  study the Bible, you understand the definition of a word and the
• 23:05
  context of the word is very important because you can use
• 23:08
  the same words but mean two different things.
• 23:11
  And we use words to communicate essential thoughts and feelings
• 23:15
  to others. And the key is it's essential to
• 23:18
  know the definitions behind the words.
• 23:21
  So you have a false teacher talking about Jesus.
• 23:23
  The big question is, which Jesus are you talking about?
• 23:26
  The Jesus of the Bible or the one you made-up?
• 23:29
  Are you talking about how God revealed himself?
• 23:32
  How do we know God revealed himself?
• 23:34
  Because Genesis 11 says in the beginning, God, that's how he
• 23:38
  opens the Bible. He wants us to know anyone
• 23:41
  that's going to read the Bible. He wants you to know when you
• 23:43
  open this book, it's going to tell you about me.
• 23:46
  Not a secondary book, not a third, not a fourth.
• 23:49
  This book will be what God, we later learn is the faith wants
• 23:53
  and for all delivered to the Saints.
• 23:55
  Don't add to it or take away from it that this represents the
• 23:58
  revelation of who God is. It's not a full revelation
• 24:01
  because none of us can fully understand God.
• 24:04
  So it's not like everything that could possibly could be known
• 24:07
  about God or even Jesus, because you remember in John's gospel,
• 24:11
  John says, hey, he did a lot more.
• 24:13
  He did so much more than I wrote about, but there's not enough
• 24:16
  books in the world to write what all that Jesus did.
• 24:19
  So it's not a complete revelation.
• 24:20
  Like we can know everything there is to know, but it is a
• 24:23
  complete revelation and we know everything God wants us to know.
• 24:29
  This is it. There is no question that you
• 24:32
  could be asked that can't be answered by God's word because
• 24:36
  He's given us the full revelation of Him according to
• 24:39
  his desire for all that we need for life.
• 24:42
  And godliness is found in Christ.
• 24:43
  Peter said everything that we need.
• 24:46
  So words are important and the words that we need to get down
• 24:49
  to is what do you say about Jesus?
• 24:54
  What do you say? Do you believe that Jesus is God
• 24:57
  in human flesh, the eternal Son of God, the second person of the
• 25:01
  Trinity, the the permanence of his coming in the flesh?
• 25:05
  We often refer to this as the doctrine of the incarnation God.
• 25:10
  Jesus is the Word and the Word was the beginning and the Word
• 25:13
  became flesh and dwelt among us. John chapter one.
• 25:18
  What do they say about Jesus? Of course, this particular
• 25:21
  definition coming back with with me to 1st John coming back
• 25:25
  there. This particular definition is
• 25:27
  extremely relevant to the false teachers of the time, the
• 25:30
  Gnostics, who did not teach that Jesus came in the flesh.
• 25:34
  They did not teach in the incarnation.
• 25:38
  The Gnostics denied the incarnation of Jesus.
• 25:41
  They denied that Jesus was the God, man, God in human flesh.
• 25:46
  And because of that, John says reject them, reject them.
• 25:50
  They are not sent from God. Now it's important for you and I
• 25:55
  to know who Jesus is because this is the unconditional test
• 26:01
  of Christianity, the definition of Jesus.
• 26:04
  This is so important. I just got the newest edit of
• 26:08
  our First Steps packet that's been completely redesigned.
• 26:12
  This is so important. We have so much information in
• 26:14
  here, books to give, dictionaries, recommendations,
• 26:17
  Bible studies, like anybody that wants to follow Christ.
• 26:20
  This is the book. It's completely free.
• 26:22
  It's available after every service, it's online PDF.
• 26:26
  This we put 25 plus years of work into this little book.
• 26:29
  Every year we make it better. It's on a new revision and this
• 26:33
  topic of Jesus is so much that there is a section that says who
• 26:37
  is Jesus? There isn't anyone that has ever
• 26:43
  been touched or ministered to by this ministry here in Aurora, Co
• 26:48
  that not only has been warned and taught well, but also has
• 26:51
  all the information you ever need to know from the Bible of
• 26:55
  who Jesus is. Nobody in this church should
• 26:58
  ever be ripped off by someone that teaches a false Jesus
• 27:01
  because it's all. I mean this isn't even, this is
• 27:03
  just a few pages, but it's enough.
• 27:05
  For example, Jesus claimed to be God, God the father called Jesus
• 27:09
  God, the apostle John called him God, Apostle Paul called him
• 27:13
  God, the apostle Thomas called him God.
• 27:15
  He was worshipped as God, Was Jesus God?
• 27:19
  Yes, that's just one section of who Jesus is.
• 27:25
  It's probably one of the most important parts of this whole
• 27:28
  booklet is to know who Jesus is. And that's if John was here,
• 27:32
  that's what he would say. He would say that you need to
• 27:35
  pay attention to what they say about Jesus and be quick to
• 27:38
  reject and resist someone who has a false teaching related to
• 27:44
  Jesus. Throughout the Bible, this
• 27:47
  phrase Son of God is used to indicate the absolute deity of
• 27:51
  Jesus. Jesus in her time being fully
• 27:55
  God took on a human body, lived a sinless life, died a sinless
• 28:00
  death, rose again the third day to provide forgiveness of sin,
• 28:03
  the salvation of your souls. Go back to first John chapter 3.
• 28:07
  Now go back to first John chapter 3.
• 28:10
  We studied this in a previous study, verse 5.
• 28:15
  First, John 35 And you know that He was manifested to take away
• 28:18
  our sins, and in Him there is no sin.
• 28:22
  Whoever abides in him does not sin.
• 28:24
  Whoever sins hasn't seen him, nor known him.
• 28:27
  Little children, let no one deceive you.
• 28:30
  He who practices lawless or he who practices righteousness is
• 28:35
  righteous, just as He is righteous.
• 28:37
  He who sins is of the devil, the devil sent from the beginning
• 28:42
  and for this purpose the Son of God.
• 28:44
  This is used multiple times. Absolute deity, the Son of God
• 28:48
  was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil.
• 28:55
  Jesus most important want knowledge.
• 28:58
  To know is to know him personally.
• 28:59
  Not theologically, merely not to know the Scriptures and the
• 29:03
  verses, although that's important, but to know him
• 29:06
  personally. He is not Jesus is not a
• 29:10
  theology. He's a person who draws you and
• 29:13
  me into relationship. And the way a relationship grows
• 29:18
  is through time and testing. Lots of time, lots of
• 29:23
  communication, time testing, and I guess you could say
• 29:25
  communication. So time and testing is life
• 29:28
  lived out in the word of God over time.
• 29:32
  And the communication piece would be what?
• 29:34
  Prayer, the word of God in prayer.
• 29:37
  You never waste your time reading the Bible.
• 29:40
  Did you know that? It's never a waste of time.
• 29:43
  Yeah, but Pastor, I read Leviticus that I don't get it at
• 29:45
  all. Well, one of the things you
• 29:47
  learn right now is God is a lot bigger than your brain.
• 29:51
  That's a good thing to learn. And you have a lot more to
• 29:54
  learn. So it draws you back to, hey, I
• 29:56
  need to know more, Lord, I want to understand Leviticus.
• 30:00
  What is it all about? The blood?
• 30:01
  It's all over. Leviticus is such a bloody book.
• 30:05
  Yeah, that's a great observation, isn't it?
• 30:07
  Because the cross, the cross is very bloody.
• 30:11
  Life is in the blood. Your life is in the blood.
• 30:15
  Spiritual life is everything to do with the blood of Christ.
• 30:20
  You'd be amazed what you learn, what the Holy Spirit will teach
• 30:22
  you if you just read the Bible. Just read it.
• 30:25
  Get to know the Lord. I mean, somebody you care about
• 30:28
  deeply, somebody that you love very much, and you found out
• 30:31
  they wrote a book or wrote a letter to you.
• 30:34
  I'm pretty sure you'd want to read it.
• 30:36
  You'd want to know what are they thinking?
• 30:38
  What did I miss? What did I get right and you
• 30:42
  would just learn and grow reading your Bible and praying
• 30:45
  every day you get to know Jesus personally.
• 30:48
  The second thing that we that we learn is the reality not only of
• 30:54
  their words, but their ways, their ways.
• 30:58
  Notice come back to first John 41 in verse 4.
• 31:03
  It says you are of God, little children, and have overcome them
• 31:09
  because he who is in you is greater than he who is of the
• 31:14
  world. We'll get into this more next
• 31:15
  time, but verse 5, they are of the world.
• 31:20
  Now that's an interesting phrase, isn't it?
• 31:22
  That tells us that there's a distinction between the life of
• 31:26
  the believer and the way of the world.
• 31:29
  Again, the way of the world, better phrase to describe the
• 31:34
  way of the world would be the culture of the world, the ways
• 31:40
  of the world, how the world, what the world is into.
• 31:44
  And you don't need to answer these questions, but consider if
• 31:47
  we ask the question is the world into Jesus?
• 31:52
  The answer is, of course, not a very small portion of the world
• 31:56
  today and even past generations cares about the things of God.
• 32:00
  But if we were to ask the question, is the world into
• 32:03
  things spiritual? Oh, yeah.
• 32:07
  Oh, yeah. They're very much into the
• 32:08
  spiritual. And there's a big difference
• 32:10
  between the two because if the world, the system, the culture
• 32:13
  was into the ways of Jesus, we would be yielded to Jesus and
• 32:17
  following him. But because of the world into
• 32:20
  things spiritual, they get to define it for themselves.
• 32:24
  That's why there's so much chaos and confusion.
• 32:26
  I'm very spiritual, Yeah. But I mean, there's really no
• 32:29
  morality in your life. You're just making it up as you
• 32:31
  go, taking advantage. Like just because someone's
• 32:34
  spiritual doesn't mean they're following Jesus.
• 32:37
  It doesn't mean they're confessing Jesus.
• 32:40
  John says that they have they're following the Antichrist.
• 32:45
  They're they're a part of. Not only that, as we learned,
• 32:49
  Antichrist, that prefix anti means in place of and also along
• 32:54
  or in place of and then against. So 2 two things you see in an
• 33:00
  Antichrist culture, a replacement of Jesus and a life
• 33:04
  against him, and how important it is that we confess Christ not
• 33:11
  only in our words but also in our ways.
• 33:13
  That phrase overcame them. That's a plural.
• 33:19
  There's a group together. There are groups actively trying
• 33:23
  to overturn the faith of the church, openly opposing the
• 33:27
  truth. That's why you hear so much
• 33:31
  about division and discord and how dangerous it is.
• 33:35
  We get that from the lips of Jesus himself.
• 33:37
  A house divided will not stand, cannot stand.
• 33:44
  It's just a universal truth. It applies to our homes.
• 33:48
  It applies to any church. We'll learn later on in our
• 33:51
  studies in Ephesians how important it is that we strive
• 33:55
  to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
• 33:58
  It's already ours in the spirit, but we have to fight for it.
• 34:02
  And instead the enemy's got the church fighting all kinds of
• 34:04
  wars that are not from God. They're fighting on all kinds of
• 34:08
  fronts, wasting all kinds of energy.
• 34:11
  But the reality is, is we need to fight for unity in the truth.
• 34:17
  And we'll see that in more later.
• 34:18
  Let me show you know the Scripture turn over to Proverbs
• 34:22
  and just in your own heart today.
• 34:24
  Maybe you're divided between against the Lord or you're
• 34:28
  divided against another brother or sister and and you're just
• 34:31
  gossiping. I know there I hope it's few,
• 34:34
  but nonetheless, gossip is is wicked sin.
• 34:39
  It's a wicked, destructive sin. Did you know gossip has two
• 34:43
  parts, the mouth and the ear. You can't gossip if you don't
• 34:49
  have anybody to listen to you. I mean, I guess you could speak
• 34:52
  it into the air. But if if you're, that's not how
• 34:54
  gossip works. Gossip is person to person,
• 34:56
  mouth to ear. Did you know both are guilty?
• 35:00
  Both are guilty. It's not just the one that says
• 35:02
  it. And by the way, can I just lay
• 35:05
  out here, this is not a Bible study about gossip.
• 35:07
  We'll get into that when we're in Philippians.
• 35:08
  We'll spend a whole week on it. But enough for now.
• 35:12
  You find yourself in the midst of gossip.
• 35:14
  You find yourself. Yeah.
• 35:15
  But pastor, they're always just. They just come to me.
• 35:17
  They just tell me. They just call me.
• 35:19
  They just e-mail me. Would you just stop, go to your
• 35:22
  prayer closet and ask the Lord why so many gossips come to you?
• 35:26
  And I'll tell you why. Because you're a gossip and
• 35:32
  you're into all the cheese. Me.
• 35:34
  That's what you're into. You just want to know it all.
• 35:38
  Just give me. You want your ears tickled.
• 35:41
  It is not a good thing that everybody's coming to you with
• 35:43
  their gossip eventually. You just like, hey, I don't want
• 35:46
  to hear this. Hey, you know the person you're
• 35:48
  talking about, I got their phone number.
• 35:49
  Let's call them right now. Let's put them on speaker.
• 35:51
  No. Oh, no, I'm going to do it now.
• 35:55
  And even if you walk out the door, I'm going to FaceTime you
• 35:57
  as you're walking out because I'm not, I don't want, I'm not a
• 36:01
  garbage. I'm not a garbage pill for all
• 36:03
  your junk. You should go fix it so you can
• 36:05
  walk with the Lord. Anyway, side note, we'll get
• 36:07
  into that later. Just tuck that one away.
• 36:10
  Where did I say Proverbs 6? Right.
• 36:12
  OK, Proverbs 6, verse 16. I want you to see how important
• 36:16
  this is. You overcome them.
• 36:19
  There's a group, there are those that oppose.
• 36:23
  They divide. They sow discord in a church.
• 36:26
  Notice verse 16. These six things the Lord hates,
• 36:31
  yes, seven are abomination to him.
• 36:33
  A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
• 36:38
  a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift to
• 36:41
  running evil. And now he changes.
• 36:44
  I just want you to notice Proud look, lying tongue, hands, verse
• 36:49
  18, heart, feet, and now he changes.
• 36:53
  Verse 19, a false witness who speaks lies, and the last one,
• 37:00
  one who sows discord among the brethren, lest we forgot the
• 37:06
  first verse in this section. Verse 16, one who sows discord
• 37:11
  among brethren. The Lord hates and some of you
• 37:17
  hate gossip because it hurt you. People talking about you,
• 37:22
  accusing you, causing discord around you.
• 37:26
  It's painful. You know how when we were
• 37:28
  growing up we were taught sticks and stones will break our bones,
• 37:32
  but words will never hurt us? What a lie.
• 37:37
  Sticks and stones. I've never had sticks or stones
• 37:40
  ever break my bones. But words have hurt.
• 37:46
  My words have hurt people. I've watched that on more than
• 37:50
  one occasion. If I watched my mouth, you know,
• 37:53
  everything goes into slow motion as your words are coming out and
• 37:56
  everything changes and, and you're like, I, I, your mind's
• 37:59
  like I shouldn't say that I shouldn't, but I've already said
• 38:02
  it like you're all caught and you want to catch them, but you
• 38:04
  can't catch them. And you're back in real time and
• 38:06
  you can see it on the face of the person that you wounded them
• 38:10
  and you hurt them and not the converse is true as well, where
• 38:17
  so many of us, if not all of us have been hurt by someone else's
• 38:19
  words. Of course words hurt.
• 38:22
  God hates the divisive sister and the divisive brother,
• 38:27
  especially the divisive false teacher and the divisive false
• 38:33
  prophet. There were so many false
• 38:35
  teachers in the 1st century that around 100 AD the early church
• 38:40
  found it necessary to write a document and circulated among
• 38:44
  all the churches outside of the Bible.
• 38:46
  They wrote a document and instruction to the churches
• 38:49
  outlining details on how to distinguish truth from error.
• 38:53
  They called it the DDK DIDACHE. This document had this
• 39:00
  instruction. Quote.
• 39:02
  Not everyone who speaks in a spirit is a prophet.
• 39:05
  He is only a prophet if he walks in the ways of the Lord.
• 39:10
  And so not only do does a person have to have the doctrine of who
• 39:15
  Jesus is, but also it's important to ask the Lord for
• 39:19
  discernment when you have that hesitancy and you just think
• 39:23
  this doesn't sound like Jesus. Not not that I'm an authority on
• 39:28
  what Jesus sounds like or that your authority on what Jesus
• 39:31
  sounds like. But the longer you learn and
• 39:34
  live with someone, the more you have a sense of who they are.
• 39:39
  If you came to me and said, hey, Marie said such and such, I'd be
• 39:42
  able to say, you know, that doesn't sound like Marie.
• 39:44
  I'll talk to her about it, but that doesn't sound like her.
• 39:47
  I'm going to believe Marie, who's not here before.
• 39:49
  I believe you because it just doesn't sound like her or you do
• 39:52
  say so. Marie said such and says I know
• 39:54
  I blew it because I know the situation.
• 39:58
  That's how it is with the things of the Lord.
• 39:59
  You know, you, you may be off a little bit.
• 40:01
  They might be just one degree off.
• 40:03
  You know that quarter on your address, but then you're looking
• 40:06
  at them and listening to go. That doesn't sound like Jesus.
• 40:10
  I'm not going to accept it. I need to test it right?
• 40:12
  Don't believe it. I need to test it.
• 40:15
  And as you're walking in the truth, it's not just what they
• 40:19
  say, but it's how they live. Jesus said this Matthew 7 verse
• 40:23
  17. We don't need to dedicate.
• 40:26
  We have the words of Jesus where it says Even so, Matthew 717
• 40:30
  every good tree that bears fruit.
• 40:33
  Excuse me, Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad
• 40:37
  tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad
• 40:42
  fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
• 40:45
  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down, thrown
• 40:49
  into the fire and the most important part in verse 20 is
• 40:53
  therefore by their fruits you will know them.
• 40:58
  There are words and there are ways and then finally their
• 41:03
  worlds again back in verse 4. Notice he says you're of God,
• 41:09
  little children, and have overcome them because he who is
• 41:13
  in you is greater than he who is in the world.
• 41:16
  John contrast the false teachers with the true believers by
• 41:20
  comparing their worlds. They speak as if the world, they
• 41:24
  speak like the world and are heard by the world.
• 41:27
  This is why when Christians and when the church is so muddied
• 41:34
  with false teaching and false beliefs or so caught up in
• 41:38
  whatever new thing is going on in the world and the church
• 41:41
  sounds like the world. Like even on a small scale where
• 41:44
  you just like, you know, you're uncomfortable.
• 41:46
  You might have the fear of man and you're at work and you don't
• 41:50
  really want to say you're a believer and you're kind of
• 41:52
  embarrassed where it just weakens the opportunity for the
• 41:55
  church to really be the salt and light.
• 41:58
  And so there you are a believer sounding like the world, talking
• 42:01
  like the world that ought not be.
• 42:03
  So we're different. The world has its own vocabulary
• 42:08
  and it's different from Jesus. The world always draws larger
• 42:11
  crowds than Jesus. False doctrines are embraced by
• 42:16
  millions upon millions. Some of the most popular false
• 42:20
  doctrines, even under the banner of Christianity, have a an
• 42:24
  ability to tap into the greed that's in.
• 42:27
  I mean, I think of the prosperity, fake prosperity
• 42:30
  gospel that's neither prosperous or the gospel except for the
• 42:33
  false teachers. They get all the money and why
• 42:36
  do people give to them? Why do people believe that
• 42:38
  stuff? Why?
• 42:39
  Why would you ever give a dollar to a guy that says, oh, I'm at
• 42:42
  the piano here and I just want you to know I was reading the
• 42:45
  Scriptures and there's a new I don't know why I changed
• 42:47
  everything in my speaking. Let me call him, you're the
• 42:50
  guy's at the piano and he says, sorry about that.
• 42:53
  I got into it. I didn't mean to, but the guy's
• 42:56
  there and I just saw him. That's why he's fresh on my mind
• 42:58
  and he's there with his beard. He's looking at you in the in
• 43:01
  the camera and he's like, you know, I was just reading the
• 43:03
  Bible and there's a special 3458.
• 43:06
  I don't even know. I flipped him.
• 43:08
  I didn't, I turned his turned it off.
• 43:12
  I flipped the channel, I turned him off.
• 43:15
  But why would anyone ever call that number except to say if I
• 43:18
  give them a dollar, I'll get 500 back?
• 43:21
  That's greed. And it's tapping in probably to
• 43:25
  a real need. You have to bill to pay
• 43:27
  difficulty in your life. And do they care about you?
• 43:31
  They don't care about you. Do they care about the flock of
• 43:33
  God? They don't care about the flock.
• 43:35
  I don't care what they say. Their ways tell me that.
• 43:38
  How can you say that, pastor? It was just a couple seconds
• 43:40
  before you turn the channel. That's all I need.
• 43:44
  Don't believe test and all I need is a couple of seconds.
• 43:47
  The guy's a liar and he's made millions upon that lie, but he
• 43:53
  would never be able to make millions upon that lie if the
• 43:56
  church would test. Not believe in test and trust
• 44:01
  the Lord. You don't have to be fearful
• 44:05
  about what's happening financially or be in such a
• 44:08
  vulnerable state that you think you get some kind of
• 44:10
  multiplication back from some dudes ministry.
• 44:14
  I mean if it worked why doesn't he just do it himself?
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  Or would you take a dollar and keep giving it to himself?
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  Does not make sense. And then you can just stop like
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  I'm a gajillionaire how'd that happen?
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  I just kept giving myself dollars.
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  I was like so dumb. It doesn't make sense.
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  But if you and I would just trust the Lord with all our
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  heart and lean not on our own understanding, but acknowledge
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  Him in all our ways, He'll direct our paths.
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  Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 and 6.
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  We have to take ownership for our own choices too.
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  The false teachers are out there.
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  Savage wolves come in from among you.
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  They'll be around you, but you and I don't believe, resist,
• 44:57
  trust in the Lord. And what else?
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  Hey, understand that in God you've overcome them.
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  They're of the world. Verse 5 They speak like the
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  world and the world hears them and as the longer we grow in
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  Christ, the more we understand the ways of the world and we can
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  reject it. And you, you look to them and
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  perhaps they said one thing right or they read a scripture
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  accurately. You go wait a minute pastor,
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  What if they say is what if what they say is true?
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  We learned in Deuteronomy 13 you could say a lot of true things,
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  but when you say something wrong in the name of the Lord and
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  claim to be speaking on behalf of God, they're to be rejected
• 45:44
  because false doctrine. Why?
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  Why the death penalty in the Old Testament?
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  Because false doctrine is deadly.
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  It's more deadly than physical death because it will lead a
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  person to eternal damnation. If I had, I don't have a prop up
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  here today, but if I did have a clean glass of water and I'll
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  over here, I had a fake bottle of poison just for the sake of
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  illustration and just say how many drops of poison would you
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  like in your clean water? Just one little one.
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  I mean, 30 ounces of water, just one little drop of arsenic.
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  Is that how many would you want? I mean, all of us would yell out
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  nothing, nothing, get rid of that, arrest them.
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  But spiritually we're just guzzling it down.
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  So many in the body of Christ today and the Bible says you've
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  overcome them. We've overcome them in relation
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  to discernment. We've seen John's emphasis and
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  examining all teachers, which would by the way, include
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  everything you hear from this pulpit, everything you hear on
• 46:44
  our radio station or see on TV or YouTube or any of your social
• 46:49
  media outlets. It was a pattern that was set
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  early on in the early church. Remember in Acts chapter 17,
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  verse 13, and when the Jews from Thessalonica learn that the word
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  of God was preached by Paul, Berea, they came there also.
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  They stirred up and those in Berea, it says in Acts 17, they
• 47:06
  tested what Paul said they tested.
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  And you don't need to study every weird thing out or chase
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  every weird thing down. The Bible never encourages us to
• 47:17
  do that. We're to know the truth.
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  We're to know him and know his word and don't camp on all the
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  things that are hard to understand.
• 47:24
  But if you buy a, you go to a simple website
• 47:27
  likeblueletterbible.org, you don't have to buy any resources.
• 47:30
  There's enough resources on blueletterbible.org to keep you
• 47:35
  busy the rest of your life. You can look up words there,
• 47:37
  there's dictionaries there, there's trusted commentaries
• 47:40
  there. There's enough you would ever
• 47:42
  know the rest of your life for free just on one website.
• 47:46
  And of course, there are other resources, different
• 47:48
  dictionaries and things that would help you to understand the
• 47:51
  Bible more and then be able to step in with confidence.
• 47:55
  Your diligent study will help bring balance and clarity to the
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  work of discernment by the Holy Spirit in your life.
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  Don't just accept everything you hear, but test it by the truth.
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  Amen. Amen.
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  Lord, thank you for your Word today.
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  And we receive it as it is given to us.
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  We desire to walk in discernment.
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  We need discernment. And we ask you, God, to to
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  sharpen that part of our lives in Jesus name, Amen.
• 48:22
  We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study
• 48:24
  delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church for
• 48:28
  prayer. Call us at 87730 grace that's
• 48:32
  877-304-7223. To listen to this message in its
• 48:38
  integrity or to join us for our live stream services, visit us
• 48:43
  online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
• 48:48
  Church app. Be blessed as you worship Jesus
• 48:50
  this week.