Look at 1 John 3, verse 17.
Let me show you this hypocritical doctrine even more.
It says in verse 17,
but whoso hath this world's good,
and seeeth his brother have need,
and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him,
how dwelleth the love of God in him?
My little children, let us not love in word,
neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
And hereby we know that we are of the truth,
and shall assure our hearts before him.
Now let me say something.
If someone asks you to tell them that,
prove to me that you love me,
it should never be by words.
Notice what the Bible says,
let us not love in word, neither in tongue,
but in deed and truth.
So if you want to measure someone's love,
it's never based on what they say,
it's based on what they do.
That's how you can actually check
and see if this person truly loves you.
And let me tell you this,
wicked people will tell you that they love you all day long.
The Pope will tell you that he loves you.
Every false prophet, they'll get up
and tell you how much they love you.
The celebrities, they'll tell you how much they love you.
The Democrats, they'll tell you how much they love you.
Notice a theme though, talk is cheap.
They'll all get up and look, every bad person, all of them,
you know what they always, love wins.
Hashtag love wins.
I'm so loving, you know,
Gandhi is so much more loving than Jesus
and every false prophet is just so loving.
When someone has to get up and constantly remind you
how loving they are and how much they love you,
it's because they don't.
Because they're insecure,
so they have to project the fact that they love you so much.
Someone that really loves you,
well, obviously, I'm not talking about your spouse, okay?
Tell your spouse you love them all the time.
But at the end of the day,
if you don't exhibit that through your action,
talk is gonna be cheap.
And talk is cheap today.
And those that truly love you,
they will actually show it in their deeds
and in their actions.
But there's a lot of people today,
they'll tell you that they love you
while they're twisting the knife in your back.
While they're stabbing you in the back,
they'll tell you how much they love you.
They'll claim that they love you.
Think about the false prophet today.
They get up and they talk about how much they love,
yet they preach a false gospel.
How is that loving?
You're literally hating your congregation
by preaching to them lies.
They'll flatter the congregation
and tell them how wonderful they are
and how special they are.
You know what?
They just wanna lie to you, flatter you, and use you today.
The Pope says that he loves God,
but in works, he denies him.
Donald Trump says that he loves God,
but in works, he denies him.
The sodomite pastor at the United Methodist Church
says that he loves God.
You know what?
He's a hypocrite.
They're all hypocrites.
And this is one way that you can identify
the spirit of error in these people
is that they're always hypocrites, okay?
Look at verse 24, chapter three, verse 24.
And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him
and he in him.
And hereby we know that he abideth in us
by the spirit which he hath given us.
So notice if you keep his commandments,
he's dwelling in you.
And this is how we even know that he abides in us.
And notice how we know by the spirit.
Now, what is that spirit?
It's the spirit of truth that dwells inside of us.
That's how we know that we are of God.
He's given it to us.
Look back at chapter four and look at verse number eight.
He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.
Now, here's the thing you have to understand.
They will tell you how much they love all day long,
but the reality is they don't actually love anyone.
They love no one.
They don't even have real love.
They have a fake love.
They just do things to be seen of men and they're hypocrites.
They can generically give lip service to the right things,
but they don't exhibit those attributes in their life.
That's what makes them a hypocrite.
And the Pharisees were hypocrites.
Look, let me just give you a quote.
Go to Romans 12.
Let me give you a quote that Jesus said about the Pharisees.
He said this,
All therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe,
that observe and do, but do not ye after their works,
for they say and do not.
Now that's an incredible statement.
Jesus Christ is saying the Pharisees will actually get up and say the right thing.
He says, hey, what they tell you to do, observe.
Do that.
He says they say don't steal, but you know what they do?
They steal.
They'll get up and say don't commit adultery.
But you know what they do?
They commit adultery.
They'll tell you to love God.
But you know what?
They don't love God.
You actually do need to love God.
And so our false prophets, our false teachers, and this spirit of error
don't get the wrong idea and think, well, they said the right thing, though.
They all say the right thing.
They all can give lip service to the right ideas.
They all say, oh, love Jesus, love God.
You know, do right.
Love your neighbor.
They can all repeat that generically.
But do they actually exhibit it?
That's another statement.
That's another question.
Now, when we are trying to identify this person that has the spirit of error, okay,
they can give you the right answers about what to do.
But when you check them, they dissimulate their actions
and never follow through with their own advice.
Look what the Bible says in Romans 12, verse 9.
Let love be without dissimulation.
Abhor that which is evil.
Cleave to that which is good.
Now, what you have to understand is when we're trying to identify this spirit of error,
it's in the context of a false prophet.
That's how 1 John chapter 4, verse 1 even starts out.
You know, beloved, believe not every spirit.
What you have to understand is not every single person
is going around pontificating about how holy and righteous and godly they are
and telling you how much they love God and giving up.
That's a special breed of person, right?
That's your Catholic priest.
That's these other pastors.
But someone that gets up and is just constantly pontificating about how much they love God
and trying to ooze out all this godliness and can give you all the right answers.
When you notice that person's a hypocrite,
it's because they have the spirit of error and they're not of God.