If we look there at verse 1, the Bible says, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try
the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the
world.
The title of my sermon tonight is Try the Spirits.
It's a phrase found here in verse 1, I think it's an interesting phrase, and it's something
that's very important as the believer, as the Christian, as you sitting in this room
today, this is a command for you to try the spirits.
This isn't for somebody else, this isn't for just the pastor or just the deacon or some
scholar or some theologian, this is for you, this is a command to you to try the spirits.
So we're going to take a look at this phrase tonight and see what does that mean.
What does it mean to try the spirits?
How can I try the spirits?
I looked up in the dictionary the word try, and the dictionary said the word try means
to subject someone to trial, and that sounds pretty serious, I mean, you're really putting
this guy to task, putting somebody to trial, that's very serious in America, I mean, if
you put somebody on trial, today there was a very famous trial, a guy by the name of
James Comey, he's being interviewed about a lot of weird stuff that goes in our government,
they're trying this guy, they're trying the testimony of his mouth.
There's nothing wrong about this, they're reversing this, there's nothing that the Bible
says is wrong to try things or to try people, but sometimes people today, they get so nervous,
they think, well, we're not supposed to test anybody or try anybody, they usually go to
the guys of judge not, judge not, but you know, the word try, he used the word trial
there, I looked up the word trial in the dictionary too, it says a formal examination of evidence
before a judge, so there's a person that's actually giving judgment, he's called a judge,
we have them all across this country, judges, they look at the evidence, they make a conclusion,
I even looked up the word judge, because I think even that word sometimes eludes people's
minds, the dictionary says a judge is to form an opinion or a conclusion about something,
to make a decision, how foolish would it be to say, we're never supposed to make decisions,
we're never supposed to make any conclusions, we're never supposed to decide anything, how
many opinions, I mean, to say you're not supposed to judge doesn't even make any sense, just
even make that statement, you made a judgment, you made a conclusion, you decided something,
so it's self-contradictory to say you can't even judge, but look to, go to Ecclesiastes
chapter 12 if you would, I saw another definition of the word judge is to form an opinion about
through careful weighing of evidence and testing of premises, so now in all these definitions
it's kind of saying like, we should take this seriously, we should look at evidence, not
opinion, not something that's subjective, not what do I think, what do I do, no, facts,
the evidence, what is the reality, look at Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 13, the Bible
says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter, fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man, so we have a conclusion, God gives us a judgment, look,
the one thing you got to do is to fear God and to keep his commandments, that's what
we're supposed to do, go to Judges chapter 2, now interesting, these people that don't
like judgment, they think that we're not supposed to judge at all, I mean what do they think
about the book called judges, I mean we got a whole book of people that are called judges
and the Bible makes it clear that God rolls up the judges to deliver the people, they
weren't something negative, they weren't something bad, they were a deliverer, they were something
to help the people, look at Judges 2 verse, look at verse 16, the Bible says, nevertheless
the Lord raised up judges which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled
them, judgment is a good thing, righteous judgment is something that will deliver people
from evil, deliver people from the bad, from the wicked, from the murderers, from the whoremongers,
from the sorcerers, from those that want to hurt you and corrupt you, the pedophiles,
the indulters, I mean all these people that are trying to hurt people today, judgment
is what keeps people safe, it's not having no laws, it's not being an anarchist, no,
we need righteous judgments to keep us safe from wicked people.
Look at verse 19, go down a few verses, it says that when it came to pass when the judge
was dead that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their fathers and following
other gods to serve them and to bow down unto them, they ceased not from their own doings
nor from their stubborn way.
We see when the judge goes, when the judge is dead, wickedness abounds, I mean they just
go wholehearted in sin, you say why is America going into sin, because there's not enough
judges in this country, there's not enough people getting up and getting mad and screaming
about sin and giving the judgment from God and judging righteous judgment and that's
why sin abounds, that's why adultery abounds, that's why drinking abounds, that's why all
these kind of wicked sins abound in our country because they don't have judgment, because
nobody's doing any kind of judging, but we see judgment is not a bad thing, go to John
chapter 7 if you would, go to the New Testament, I'll read for you the score of scriptures
real quick, Psalms 148, 11, the Bible says, kings of the earth and all people, princes
and all judges of the earth, there's a group of people on the earth that are supposed to
judge, they're called judges, they're the rulers, Proverbs 8 16 says, by me princes
rule and nobles even all the judges of the earth, he's saying look, all the judges that
are in place, they're ruling by my power, by me allowing them to even judge in the first
place, that's not a bad thing, the Bible says in Proverbs 31 9, this is talking about Solomon,
it's talking to him, saying open thy mouth, judge righteously and plead the cause of the
poor and needy, we need people on authority to actually judge righteously for our country
to be good, for the poor to not be afflicted and to not go without, we need righteous judgment,
that's why in John chapter 7, look at verse 24, this is Jesus speaking, he said judge
not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment, now this doesn't say judge
not period, it says judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment,
judgment in itself is not wicked, it's not bad, it's not something in the New Testament
that Jesus repealed or changed, no, but there are certain judgments that we shouldn't do,
we shouldn't just look at a person the way they're dressed or their skin color or their
gender or their ethnicity or something and make a judgment based on that, no we should
judge righteous judgment, we should judge based on evidence and facts of the Bible,
we should judge it based on what does the Bible say, what kind of judgment should I
make, righteous judgments, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, but you know a lot of people go
to Matthew 7 where it says judge not with a comma, doesn't say period, it says judge
not that you be not judged, the Bible makes it clear that we shouldn't be a hypocritical
judge, if I'm going out and drinking all the time and I drink a bunch of liquor, I shouldn't
just judge everybody else that drinks a bunch of liquor, that would be hypocritical or even
if let's say I'm not in the exact same sin, but let's say I'm you know drinking and I'm
doing all this insidiousness, I shouldn't just be judging someone for an fornication
or somebody that's doing some other sin, I need to get the beam out of my own eye before
I judge the moat in my brothers what the Bible says, so we're not supposed to just judge
people willy-nilly, we should be careful in how we judge, we should make sure that we're
judging righteous judgment what the Bible says and we should make sure that we're not
hypocritical, but look at 1 Corinthians 2, look at verse 11, the Bible says for what
man knoweth the things of man say the spirit of man which is in it, even so the things
of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak not
in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness under, neither can he know them because they are spiritually
discerned.
Look at this, but he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no
man, for who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him, but we have the
mind of Christ.
So there's a few things here, we were talking about at the beginning, trying the spirits,
look at verse 12, it says not the spirit of the world, so there's another spirit out there,
there's other spirits there of the world, we shouldn't have anything to do with them,
we should have to do with the spirit which is of God, there's multiple spirits out there
we need to discern what's the spirit of God versus the spirit of the world.
And look at verse 15, verse 15 says, but he that is spiritual judgeth all things.
Look, the Bible's not saying not to judge, never judge, never make any decisions, never
make any opinions, no, it's just saying look, if you're spiritual you would judge, but you
would judge it according to this book, you're not going to judge it based off yourself.
He says, look at verse 16, for who hath known the mind of the Lord.
If you're judging righteous judgment, that means you're judging what the Bible says,
you're saying look, it's a sin to commit fornication.
That's not my opinion, that's the mind of the Lord, so it's not me judging you, it's
Christ judging you.
If I'm just preaching you what the Bible says, it's not me, and we can't say who hath known
the mind of the Lord, are you going to really reprove the Lord on his judgments?
No, his judgments are right, so if you're using God's judgments, if you're using spiritual
judgments, it's going to be right because you're using God, you have the mind of Christ,
but we have the mind of Christ.
Go to Isaiah chapter 65 if you would.
I'm kind of trying to lay down a foundation because it's important if we know that we're
supposed to try, that it's not wrong to judge.
It's not wrong to make a judgment, it's not wrong to try or trial people or put somebody
on trial or make some judgments about them.
I'm trying to lay down a foundation and make it clear that the Bible says, look, there
are places to judge, there is a time to make a judgment, there is a time to make an opinion,
but we need to make it based on the Bible, we need to make a righteous judgment.
Look at Isaiah 65 verse 1, I have sought of them that asked not for me, I have found of
them that sought me not.
I said, behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.
I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way
that was not good after their own thoughts, of people that provoked me to anger continually
in my face, that sacrificeth in gardens and burneth incense upon alders of brick, which
remain among the graves and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh and broth of abominable
things as in their vessels, which say, stand by myself, come not near to me, for I am holier
than thou.
These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day."
Now of course, when you talk about judging somebody or you say somebody's wrong or you
call somebody a false prophet or you say somebody's wicked, they're like, well you're just holier
than thou, aren't you?
You just think you're so great and you're so self-righteous.
Well they actually get that phrase from the Bible, it says there in verse 5, for I am
holier than thou.
But if we get the context, he's talking about the Jews that would look at a Gentile and
just because the fact that he's a Gentile, he thinks he's holier than them.
Or it gives us a list of all these wicked sins that he's into and yet he still thinks
he's holy.
It makes us think of the Pharisees, which said they were willing to justify themselves.
Now we should be humble, we shouldn't esteem ourselves better than others, we shouldn't
look down on others because they're in some kind of sin, but the Bible doesn't say here,
don't judge.
It doesn't say, oh you're holier because you're making a judgment.
Why were they holier?
Because they were just contradicting what they believe.
They have all this sin, they're doing all these wicked abominations, they're worshiping
idols and golden images and they're like, I'm holier than you.
I mean they're forsaking the clear commands of God right to his face and they're saying,
but I'm still holier than you.
I mean that's just obvious to anybody.
When somebody's just in wicked sin and then they think they're so much better than you,
they're going to be like, I can't even hear your judgment.
That's why it's important to take the beam out of your own eye.
If you've got an obvious beam in your own eye, nobody's going to harken to you.
Imagine me covered in filth, covered in mud, covered in the mire.
I just rolled around in the pig pen and you've got a little bit of mud on your shoulder and
I'm going over here, I've got my hands are filthy, hey brother, let me get that off your
shirt.
No, no, I got it.
I'll get that off.
I mean you're all somebody filthy to try and help you, but that's what it's like when these
Pharisee type people or these priests that are doing all these wicked abominations are
like, well I'm way more holier than you are, but that's not saying don't judge.
That's not saying, you know, never make a judgment.
It's self-righteous to make a judgment.
They were doing it because of race or blind self-righteousness.
We should be willing to be tried.
Go to Psalms 139.
There's nothing wrong with actually desiring to be tried or to be proved or to be tested
or to have someone cast a judgment according to the Bible.
That's a good thing actually.
We see in Jeremiah 6, I'll read through a few scriptures, it says in Jeremiah 6, 27,
I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people that thou mayest know and
try their way.
Jeremiah 17, 10, the Bible says, I the Lord search the heart.
I try the rains even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of
his doings.
God's actually constantly trying us.
He's wanting to prove us.
He's wanting to test us to see, you know, how much can I push this guy?
How much does this guy really love me?
How much does this guy really want to serve me?
He's constantly trying the rains, meaning your, your, your mind, your heart and your
mind.
He's constantly trying.
He's trying to search you.
It says in Lamentations 340, let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord.
When we get tried, we can see imperfections in our life and know how to serve God more
or to love Him more.
I mean, we don't want to be blinded to the fact that, hey, I'm doing something wrong
or I'm not really serving God the way I want to.
When we're tried, when someone tells us we're doing something wrong, if you're a wise man
and you'll harken on that, you'll enjoy that, you'll be glad, hey, now I'm going to do
something better.
Now I'm going to love God even more.
Look at Psalms 139 verse 23, search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my
thoughts.
It's a biblical thing to want God to try you, to want Him to prove you.
I mean, you want God to think you're worthy enough to be tried or to be proven.
You don't want Him to look at this guy, I'm not going to try that guy.
I mean, we look at Job, he said he was the most perfect man on the earth and God still
tried him.
Why?
Because he was perfect.
He wasn't looking for some half-hearted guy.
He already knew that guy was going to forsake him.
That guy was going to stumble in the ditch.
Let's try the most perfect guy.
Let's see how he does under the fire.
Let's see how he does when his whole world crashes down.
Is he still going to love the Lord God with all his heart?
And that's something we should desire.
Why would we say, oh, judgment's wrong?
No, we should want God to judge us.
We should want God to try to prove us.
Now, not in regards to salvation.
I mean, I don't deserve heaven, I don't deserve anything good.
I deserve hell.
But when we come to the Christian life, when we talk about sanctification after being saved,
we want to be pure.
We want to be clean before God's eyes so we can receive the prize and the high calling
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Go to 1 Peter chapter 4, if you would.
1 Peter 4.
In 1 Corinthians 3, I'll read for you another verse, it says in verse 13,
Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall
be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
Whether you like it or not, you will be judged at some point.
There's going to be a point when all of your works and your whole life are going to be
cast in the fire, and that which is for eternal will last.
The gold, silver, and precious stone, but the wood, hay, and stubble is just going to
burn.
So why wouldn't you now, on this life, want God to try you and say, hey, am I on the right
path?
I mean, I think it's just natural.
A lot of times, when you have a big work project and you go to your manager and you've maybe
completed 50% of the work, you just wanted to take a glance at it and say, hey, does
this look right?
Am I on the right path?
You don't want to get to the end of the project and be like, you did it all wrong.
I mean, you didn't use the right wood, you didn't use the right screws, you didn't do
anything according to the measurements.
I mean, you just did it all wrong.
You want somebody to say, hey, look, you got to use these screws, you got to do the studs
like 12 inches apart, not 40 inches apart, that's terrible construction.
I mean, I'm not a person that does framing or anything, but of course, we should want
to be examined every once in a while.
We should want God to try us.
We don't want to get to the end and realize it was all for naught.
We were doing everything wrong.
Look at 1 Peter 4 verse 12, it says, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery
trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you.
But rejoice in as much as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory
shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy.
So it's not something strange that God would try us or try to prove us or try to make us
better.
He's just trying to make us better people.
He just wants better things for us.
He wants us to have more rewards.
So I'm just trying to lay a little bit of a foundation, but I have five points of how
you can try the spirits.
So you see, it's not wrong to try.
It's not wrong to judge.
It's not wrong to make a conclusion or make a decision.
In fact, we should desire that.
We should desire that from righteous brothers and sisters in Christ.
We should desire that from God.
We should want to be better people.
But we should also be warned that there's a lot of false prophets out there.
And you say, well, how do I know that they're a false prophet?
How do I stay away from these people?
If he's telling me to try the spirits, he probably wants me to know how to do that.
And I wish, you know, even a few years ago or my whole life I had been taught this.
I had been taught these simple, basic principles.
How should I try somebody?
Well, go to 1 John chapter 4 where we read the first place.
I think the most obvious thing, the most important thing that we should do to try the
spirits is in relation to the gospel, is in relation to salvation.
And as I was thinking about my sermon, I was thinking of a carnal example to kind of try
and help us.
But I was thinking about buying a car.
Now when someone buys a car, it's usually not just a spur of the moment quick decision.
I mean I just pull up and in five minutes I'm out with a new car.
I mean usually, even if you decide just spur of the moment, it takes a few hours, it takes
a little bit of deliberation.
Some people may take months, but it's not a decision that most people take lightly.
And if, you know, I was thinking about what's the most important thing when it comes to
buying a car?
I was thinking the price.
I mean if the price isn't right, does anything else matter about the car?
I mean if you can, if the car is a million bucks, I mean does it matter that it's great
and amazing and it has a V12 engine and it'll fly, you know, 120 miles an hour in three
seconds.
I mean does it matter?
No.
If the price is wrong, you're just going to walk away every single time.
That's why we should view the gospel.
Look, if the gospel's wrong, if this guy doesn't believe salvation, walk away.
There's no point in even going anywhere further.
That should just be a done deal.
I'm not going to listen.
That's why we see in 1 John 4, look at verse 2, he's going to explain to us how we can
know.
It says, Hereby know ye the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of antichrist.
Where have you heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world?
Go to Galatians chapter 1.
We see here he says, look, if this guy is just not on Jesus Christ's plan, if he's denying
the Messiah, if he's saying Jesus Christ isn't his Messiah, if he's just saying he's not
the Christ, it's not the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, this guy's not
of God, he's the spirit of antichrist.
There's a spirit that we should avoid, antichrist, trying to replace Jesus, saying it's somebody
else.
Obviously, you should just walk away.
I don't need to hear anything else about this preacher, about this prophet, about this guy.
If he's wrong on this point, it's done.
I'm going to walk away.
First Corinthians 16, the Bible says in verse 22, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ,
let him be an anathema, maranatha.
It says, look, if they don't want to be on Jesus's program, you should have nothing to do with this guy.
But, you know, there's some people, they'll say they're on Jesus's program, but they perverted
the program.
They twisted it a little bit.
Look at verse 8, Galatians 1, but though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other
gospel unto you, then that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
As we have said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you,
then that ye have received, let him be accursed.
So we thought, well, let's go check this guy out again.
Let's go listen to more of his preaching.
Let's get a CD.
Let's get notes.
Let him be accursed.
Have nothing to do with this guy.
Let him be, you know, an anathema, maranatha.
We should have nothing to do with someone if they're going to pervert the gospel of
Christ.
Teaching an extra thing, like you have to also, you know, be baptized to be saved.
Oh, you have to be circumcised in the flesh.
Oh, you have to turn away from your sins.
Oh, you have to give your life to Christ.
Look, salvation's not a gift exchange.
No, there's one person giving a gift and we're receiving it.
I'm not giving my life.
It's not like he gives me eternal life and I give him my life.
No, it's not a gift exchange.
It's just a one-way gift from the Lord Jesus Christ.
We receive eternal life by faith.
One way.
But, you know, I've looked at all these pastors and all these preachers.
There's so many people online today and they say this is their gospel, this is their salvation,
and it's like a two-minute clip.
I mean, what a joke.
I mean, I know some of the best soul winners in the world that go to our church.
They can't give the gospel in two minutes.
I mean, that's just, that's insane.
I mean, they could maybe give a real brief, like, high level, they could kind of go through it.
But to say this is how you get saved in two minutes,
I mean, I think even if Pastor Anderson was going to give it two minutes, it would be really good.
But these guys, they're two minutes, it doesn't even make any sense.
And they're always talking about giving your life to Christ or turning away from your sins.
I found some random guy.
Here's his prayer at the end of his two-minute gospel.
He says,
I mean, it's just like, I'm sorry, I want to live better, thanks.
I mean, that's not the gospel.
That's not the death, the burial, the resurrection, what it says in 1 Corinthians 15 what the gospel is.
How can you label that the gospel?
That has nothing to do with the gospel.
I mean, he did mention the death, I guess, barely.
But it's just like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm going to do better.
It's like, that's how they were raised by their parents.
They're just, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'll do better.
It's not the gospel.
And we should say, hey, I'm going to have nothing to do with this guy.
If he's wrong in the gospel, step one, walk away.
Let's look at another place.
Go to Matthew chapter 7.
We're going to look at the second point.
The second way that we should try the Spirit, that we can know this guy is a false prophet,
something we should just walk away from.
Look at Matthew 7 verse 15.
It says,
Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil
fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.
Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
So here we have another clear example of how you could actually test somebody is by their
fruit, meaning their disciples, meaning the people that they've won to Christ.
You could go and talk to these people, the main supporters and disciples of that pastor
or preacher or man of God.
If you talk to them and they're all wrong in the gospel, it doesn't really matter what
that guy was saying.
He could with fain words say the right things about the gospel, but if every single one
of his disciples is unsaved, is giving you the wrong answers, you can know them by their
fruit.
So hey, this guy's not really right in the gospel.
There's something off about this guy because a good tree can't bring forth bad fruit.
I mean an apple tree can't bring forth bananas.
It can't bring forth a porcupine.
I mean it can't bring something strange.
It can only bring forth apples.
The same way a good tree, someone that actually believes on the Lord Jesus Christ believes
the gospel, he's not going to teach somebody the wrong salvation.
He's not going to oops, repent of your sins.
No, you got to live a good life.
Oops, you can lose your salvation.
The same way as with the unsaved guy.
He's not going to accidentally preach salvation by faith.
He's not going to accidentally get the guy saved.
So we can know by their fruits, and I was thinking about our car example.
This would be like if you really liked a certain car or a truck and you know a couple people
that own it, just talking to those people saying, hey, is this a good car?
And when every single one of them is like, it's terrible, it's awful, don't buy this
car.
Are you going to believe the advertisement on the television?
Are you going to believe the televangelist that says, oh, it's just by faith, even though
every single testimony of these people is unsaved?
All their testimony about this car is just like, don't buy this car.
I mean, it's just an obvious thing that we can tell by the fruit of something whether
it's good or bad.
So those are, that kind of just follows right in line with the gospel.
So if they say the wrong gospel, avoid it.
But even if they're kind of saying the right things or they're real vague about what they
believe, if you test their fruit and the fruit's all bad, then that guy's not preaching
the right gospel, right?
Go to 1 Timothy chapter three.
So we see two points.
Now, I think there's still a lot of guys that, it would be really difficult because they're
real vague in how they give their gospel or they say things out of both sides of their
mouth.
And there's not really any people that you can just like track down and grab and say,
hey, is this guy?
Because there's so many people that put their sermons online and there's so many people
that, you know, just have a public figure.
How do I go test this guy's fruit that lives in Malaysia?
You know, I mean, how do I know if this guy, you know, is really preaching the right gospel
or not?
Well, look at 1 Timothy three verse one.
The Bible says, this is a true saying.
If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior,
given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy
lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that rule as well his own house having
his children in subjection with all gravity.
For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how so he take care of the church of
God, not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the
devil.
He must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the
snare of the devil.
So my third point would be qualifications.
Now I think this is a point that most people, even most Baptist churches just avoid.
They don't look at, they don't really consider, they take it really liberal, they don't really
look at what the Bible clearly says, and then we can see that there's all these false teachers
and false prophets who still don't even meet these qualifications.
Nevertheless when they started their ministry, nevertheless when they became a pastor, and
I can't tell you how many of these false prophets and these false teachers that when I just
looked up, hey when did this guy start his ministry?
Like what was his life, how did he become a pastor?
They never ever ever meet these qualifications.
Now it might happen on a rare occasion, but I'm talking about people like David Platt.
This guy, he started becoming a pastor of a thousand person church and he had no children.
How can you read this verse and become a pastor of a thousand people, the main bishop with
no children?
So you know what he did?
He adopted a kid like the same day they became a pastor, just so he could have like one.
It still says children, but then shortly after his wife got pregnant, so then a few years
later, I guess you could say, well now he's meeting the qualifications.
But guess what?
When you get that bad start, there's something about it that it's just, I would have nothing
to do with that guy.
And you know if a guy still isn't meeting the qualifications, I mean I just think, why
have anything to do with this guy?
We should look at 1 Timothy 3, I believe it's, let me flip there real quick.
Look at chapter 5, look down at verse 22, the Bible says, lay hands suddenly on no man,
neither be partaker of other men's sins, keep thyself pure.
I was reading this today and I was thinking about that.
If a guy isn't still meeting the qualifications of a pastor, I don't want to have anything
to do with this guy.
I don't want to be a partaker of his sin because it's a sin for some guy to get up and be a
pastor when he doesn't meet the clear qualifications of the Bible.
I mean, what authority are you going on?
You're just going on man's authority or your own authority.
There's all these guys, hey, they just want to start a church and they just declare themselves
a pastor.
I mean, they just get a camera and they just get a YouTube account.
I'm a pastor now, doesn't matter that I don't meet any of these qualifications.
It doesn't matter that I still drink wine and that I'm an alcoholic and I don't have
any children.
I'm not even married.
Well, actually I was divorced three times.
I mean, it's out there.
There's all these freak shows out there trying to be pastor these days and they're like,
well, it's God's grace.
No, that's how you should know it's a false prophet.
There's many false prophets.
There's many of these guys that are out there.
They don't take the Bible seriously and look, if he's not going to take the Bible seriously
on the qualifications on what he should do, how is he going to take it seriously for you?
How is he going to take the Bible seriously and edify you and teach you and instruct you?
The Bible says he's supposed to be an overseer and wash over your souls to take, you know,
to be careful.
If he's not even doing it for himself, he's not going to be doing it for you.
I mean, we need to find guys that actually care what the Bible says, care to meet God's
qualifications, have the fear of God.
I mean, do these guys not fear God?
I mean, they're just spitting and blasting his name by just going against what the Bible
says, and this should just be an obvious thing.
Go back to our car example.
What if you opened up the hood of the car and it had, you know, duct tape and glue?
I mean, it's just, it's got like a paperclip holding things together.
I mean, you're going to be like, I don't want to use this.
I need the right parts.
I need things that meet the qualifications.
You know, there's got to be some kind of guidelines for what kind of, you know, things you can
use for a pair of vehicle or what kind of parts can be used.
I don't want this.
It looks like a joke.
And you know, these pastors that don't meet these qualifications, they're a joke and they're
ministries of joke and they're not doing things of God.
We shouldn't have anything to do with them.
We should try the spirits.
They're not of God.
It's not, God didn't send that guy.
God only sends the guy that meets these qualifications.
If a guy doesn't meet these qualifications, he's not sent of God.
So he's got nothing.
Oh, he's just a really nice guy.
And I like the way he teaches the Bible.
He's even right on the gospel.
It doesn't matter.
He could be right on the gospel.
He could get people saved, but I'm not going to listen to him if he's not meeting the qualifications.
We should try the spirits and I'm not going to lay my hands on that guy or have anything
to do with him.
I'm going to keep myself pure is what the Bible says.
Life's too short.
God, you know, fearing God is way too important.
We already read that.
To fear God and keep his commandments is the whole duty of man.
It's not my duty to yoke up with every young puppy that wants to just decide to become
a pastor.
That's still a novice, that is not blameless, is not the husband of one wife.
You know, if I ever failed to meet one of these qualifications or stumbled or didn't
do it, I don't want to be a pastor.
I don't want someone to let me be a pastor.
I don't want to go against God's word.
I want to do it the right way.
Why?
Because then I can be sent by God.
Then I can have God's blessing.
Then when somebody tries the spirits and somebody actually has a Bible in their hand and knows
what it says, they would say, hey, this guy is doing what the Bible says.
He can't just, I wouldn't be blameless if there was just something obvious he could
point out that I was doing wrong.
You know what?
I think it's just too important to make sure that we're not doing that.
In Titus chapter 1 it gives the same things.
Go to Isaiah 28 if you would.
Titus 1 says, if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not
accused of riot or unruly.
Well, how does this qualify a lot of pastors today?
Children having riot and unruly.
All these pastors and kids are just completely uncontrollable.
They're dressed effeminate or they're dressed like a freak or they become a sodomite.
I mean, good night.
I mean, I can't even count how many weirdos these pastors have.
Look at Isaiah 28.
It says in verse 7, but they also have erred through wine and through strong drink are
out of the way.
The priests and the prophet have erred through strong drink.
They are swallowed up of wine.
They are out of the way through strong drink.
They err in vision.
They stumble in judgment.
For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness so that there is no place clean.
Who shall they teach knowledge?
And whom shall they make to understand doctrine?
Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast.
For precept must be upon precept and precept upon precept.
Line upon line, line upon line.
Here a little and there a little.
It's a great verse.
You know, America's going to hell in a hand bath because of the prophets.
They're erring through wine today.
There's so many pastors today that'll get up and say, you know, drinking wine is not a sin.
I drink wine all the time.
I have a few beers.
And we got Perry Noble got fired from his mega church for being drunk.
Why?
Because they're not preaching the Bible.
They're not sinning from God.
If we would try the spirits and look at these guys' lives and realize this guy's not qualified,
this guy's not preaching the right gospel and have nothing to do with them,
we wouldn't be in the shape we are.
But it's because the person in the pew, the person, the regular Joe church member is not trying the spirits
is the reason why we're in the problem.
Because they're giving itching ears to these false prophets.
They want to hear these untruths.
They don't want to try them.
They don't want the judgment.
It's your responsibility for the preachers that you raise up.
I mean, Pastor Anderson's a great preacher, but what if nobody came to his church ever?
I mean, nothing's going to happen other than him going out saluting by himself.
He's not going to get thousands and thousands of people saved every year like the church is doing.
We need good people to raise up the right preachers.
We need the person in the pew.
We need the average Joe church member to lift up the man of God and to call out these false prophets.
But we see all these weak, watered down, unsaved, liberal Christians lifting up all these false prophets.
And they're at fault. They're the ones to blame.
And then these false prophets, of course, it's just the blind lady and the blind both ways.
But he can't teach anybody because he's just drunk.
Go to Acts 17.
So we see if they're not preaching the right gospel, if they don't have the right fruit, if they don't meet the qualifications,
these are three great ways to try the spirits.
Let's look at another one.
Acts 17, verse 10, the Bible says,
And the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas by night in a Berea, who coming thither went in the synagogue of the Jews.
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica,
and that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
So is it wrong to judge people? No.
Actually, God says you're more noble.
You're more noble if you're judging righteous judgment, if you're trying the spirits,
if you're looking at the guy that's preaching and saying, hey, let's see if this guy's preaching the right thing.
So my fourth point is you can look at the preaching.
The man of God, the guy that's the spirit of God, his preaching is going to be on par with his Bible.
I'm not saying he's perfect. He's never going to make a mistake.
I mean, even just a slip of the tongue.
There's been times when I said some really weird stuff just in one sentence because of a slip of the tongue.
But that's not what I'm trying to teach.
You can tell clearly it was just a mistake.
Even if I were to teach something a little, one time I mixed up Ramon with Jeroboam in the Bible.
You know, but that was just an honest mistake.
I would clearly say that I was wrong in what I said.
You know, we shouldn't look at the guy and say he has to be perfect.
But if just all his doctrine's wrong, if he's just not preaching what the Bible clearly says,
if he's just constantly going against Scripture, if he's not saying anything right, just walk away from the guy.
And I think of this with our car example.
I mean, aren't you going to test drive the car?
Aren't you going to get behind the wheel one time and drive it around the block?
I mean, if it's making all kinds of humming sounds, it's like,
you're driving it or you hit the brakes and nothing really happens.
I mean, we should listen to the guy's preaching.
If there's all these warning signs, if bells and whistles are going off,
if the steering wheel falls off while you're driving it, I mean, you better walk away.
If the guy's saying, hey, let's get the bags in here and, hey, you know,
we don't really need the King James Bible anymore, and he just starts saying some weird stuff,
you're like, whoa, buddy, I don't want to drive in this car anymore.
I mean, we need the King James Bible.
What if somebody was riding the gospel, they had people saved, they met the qualifications,
but now all of a sudden they're saying, let's go to the NIV.
Nobody. Hey, I'm going to stick with the Bible.
I'm not going to stick with some wicked commentary.
That's all the NIV is a commentary. It's not the Bible.
There's only one Bible, the King James Bible, in English.
But we see that the prophets and these pastors,
I'm not going to go to all these verses for the sake of time.
Go to a mic or two and look at one other.
The Bible says in John 10, 27, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow them.
Look, if you're saved, when God's words preach, you're going to hear it.
You can tell the difference between the fraud and the real thing.
The Bible says my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge because that was rejected knowledge.
Why are the people not having the good preachers?
Because they just rejected it. Because they just walked away from it.
Because they don't want it.
It's your responsibility to try the spirits.
It's a command of God for you to try the pastors, to try the evangelists, to try the deacons.
It's your responsibility as a person in the pew.
It's not just a spectator sport.
Everything is controlled by the viewer.
Even sports today.
As powerful as you may think football or basketball,
if everybody stops watching, they're going to change the rules.
They're going to change the game.
They're going to make something different because the viewer has the power.
The person in the pew has the power to affect the preacher in a positive way or a negative way.
We need to try the spirits to make sure that we have good preachers, good pastors.
Look at Micah 2 verse 11.
If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying,
All prophesy of thee of wine and of strong drink,
he shall even be the prophet of this people.
Look, we have a lot of prophets in America that will preach positive on alcohol.
They're the prophet of the people.
It's what the people want.
It's the problem that the people are asking for it.
They're desiring it.
In Jeremiah 29, I didn't have you turn there.
Go to Matthew 6, if you will.
Jeremiah 29, the Bible says in verse 8,
For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
Let not your prophets and your diviners that be in the midst of you deceive you,
neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.
For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name.
I have not sent them, saith the Lord.
God gives warning, Hey, you shouldn't be deceived by the false prophets, by the false teachers.
It's your responsibility to know what the Bible says.
He wants you to read the Bible.
And in the New Testament, we're kings and priests.
We're supposed to read the Bible.
We're supposed to know the Bible.
And if we just hate knowledge, if we reject knowledge,
we're going to get a bunch of false preachers coming out.
They're just going to tickle our ears and tell us things that we think we like and want to know.
And then before we know, we're all drunk and there's all filthiness and vomit.
It's disgusting.
Go to Matthew 6, verse 1.
Look at my last point.
So we have four really good ways to try the spirits.
Let's look at one other one.
Look at verse 1.
Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them.
Otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before them,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in their streets,
that they may have glory of men.
Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
Skip down to verse 5.
And when thou prayest, thou should not be as the hypocrites are,
for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets,
that they may be seen of men.
Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
So the Bible's saying, look, another way you can look at somebody
and tell their false prophet is just by their lifestyle.
It's by how they're actually following out what they say.
Are they practicing what they preach?
Are they just doing things to be seen of men?
Are they really following God's commandments?
He said beware of the Pharisees that walk in long robes,
they go into long clothing.
Why?
You can look in the sky and say, hey,
he's telling me not to drink alcohol, but I saw him with a Budweiser down at the bar.
I mean, this guy must be a false prophet.
This guy's a hypocrite.
When we see the Pharisees, that's what they're like.
I mean, everything they did, they were just full of hypocrisy.
They were constantly contradicting themselves.
You could just look at their lifestyle.
You could look at the outside and know this guy's pretty wicked.
This guy's not following the commands of God.
Now kind of follow them in what orders of importance and kind of where you should follow.
Obviously we shouldn't just look at someone's clothing and immediately just discard them.
We should start with the gospel.
We should start to see, hey, are they even preaching the right gospel?
We should look at their fruit.
We should look at their qualifications.
Then we could hear their preaching, and then we should look at their life.
Hey, is that matching up?
Is that matching up?
And if they're following all those things, I mean, I think you pretty much hit a jackpot.
I mean, if you honestly take the men of God and take the people that preach as a day
and you line up with those five points and they get through all of that,
you're going to find very few people.
And you know what?
They're going to be the guys that you should follow.
You should look to the guy that's gone through those tests.
And you say, hey, I can eliminate like thousands of people at the gospel and at the fruit even more.
And then the qualifications, wow, it's getting narrow.
At the preaching, man, it's basically nothing.
And then you get to the lifestyle, it's like, there's just a few people going soul winning.
I mean, there's just a few people that actually practice what they preach,
that are actually doing the right things, that are dressed right.
I mean, it just should be something that we really consider.
Because you say, oh, it's so hard.
There's all these pastors.
There's all these prophets.
How do I know the right ones?
It's actually really easy when you follow God's rules and you do what he said.
It's just immediately up.
I wish I had known this because I had all these false prophets that I was looking at.
I was like, I don't really know.
I'm not really sure he says some good things.
If I just applied these five rules, I would have eliminated the guy like that.
I would have just known, hey, this is what we should.
And we should want to be proved.
The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5, prove all things.
Hold fast to that which is good.
And even in the car example with the lifestyle, we should put eyes on the car.
I mean, I think a lot of people get weary of buying something on the Internet
that they never saw a picture of, that they never really looked at, they never really put.
I mean, one of them is just like the default icon from the dealership, but it's not the actual car.
I mean, you're putting a lot of trust.
I mean, why don't you just put some eyes on it?
I mean, put some eyes on the pastor, on the preacher, on the man of God.
Hey, is this somebody I should be following?
But I was thinking about a case example.
What if you actually took somebody and applied it to this principle?
What if we took Sam Giff and applied him to these five rules?
What about the Gospel?
I mean, the guy says that Jesus Christ is not his Messiah.
We already read in 1 John chapter 4.
Should have been strike one, you're done.
That's not a three strikes and you're out.
That's one strike and buy.
I'm going to have nothing to do with it.
But there's so many Baptist churches, they let them go through the first base.
They let them go through the Gospel.
They let them attack Jesus Christ as being the Messiah.
What about his fruit?
What fruit? That's a better question.
What does this guy... I mean, he has no disciples.
Where's the guy that he can point to that he's one to Christ?
You can't find him.
I guess maybe we can say, well, give him a pass.
Even though to me, if you have no fruit and you're a constant preacher, that's a bad sign.
That's not a guy. I mean, I'm going to be really nervous about that guy.
What about the qualifications?
I mean, what if they just looked at the qualifications?
Now, what's interesting about this guy, I tried to find.
Like, let's look at this guy's history.
Where did this guy come from? What's going on?
He has this ministry called a friend of church's ministry.
And you go on the about section, it says that he's been a pastor and that he's been an evangelist.
And now he just has this ministry. He's just traveling.
It's real vague.
And I was like, okay, surely I've got to find some more history.
I mean, I must have gone to a dozen websites, all kinds of places, constantly looking, nothing.
So I was like, okay, let's get a picture of this guy's family.
There's no indication this guy has any children at all.
I mean, I looked at thousands of websites, looked at all kinds of images.
I mean, how does this guy have no children and he was a pastor?
And maybe he does and I'm just ignorant of the fact,
but I'm pretty sure if you had a family and you've been a pastor
and there's just absolutely no pictures of you with your family anywhere,
no description of you saying you have any children, nothing.
There's probably a logic of collusion.
I'm going to make the judgment he has no children.
This guy's not meeting the qualifications of a pastor.
He's not meeting the qualifications of a deacon.
He calls himself an evangelist, but he doesn't go out and preach the gospel.
He goes and travels around to churches.
That's not an evangelist.
He's not going to some foreign country and bringing the gospel.
He's not following.
I mean, here's the thing.
If it's not in the Bible as an office of God, it's not an office of God.
It's real clear.
It's just like there's this big ministry called Acts 29.
Look, that's not in the Bible.
And guess what?
Their whole ministry is unbiblical.
It's as biblical as Acts 29.
It's not in the Bible.
And this guy, what he does, it's not in the Bible.
He has no gospel.
He has no fruit.
He's not meeting any qualifications of any office that the Bible even describes.
He might call himself an evangelist.
What about his preaching?
I mean, just listen to any of this guy's preaching and you're immediately like,
this is junk.
This is trash.
He's teaching all kinds of hyper-dispensationalism.
He's teaching all kinds of weird junk.
He's teaching that Jesus Christ was waiting for Mary to give birth to who knows what it was.
I mean, what was in her womb if Jesus Christ wasn't there?
It was just some inanimate tissue that apparently he like walked into immediately when he gave birth.
What a weird, twisted, blasphemous doctrine.
It doesn't make any sense.
What about this guy's lifestyle?
I mean, it doesn't make any sense.
He's just traveling around as a circus buffoon.
I mean, the guy falls, he fails every five points.
But why is he still preaching?
Because the people in the pew are not trying the spirits.
It's their fault.
It's their fault that they're not saying, why is this guy preaching?
There's nothing biblical about this guy preaching.
He fails the gospel test.
He fails the fruit test.
He fails the qualifications test.
He fails every test.
The preaching test.
I mean, if the guy gets up there and blasts Jesus Christ, I mean, it would never happen in a million years.
Imagine somebody blasting Jesus Christ behind Pastor Anderson's pulpit and he somehow didn't say something.
Are the people in the pew going to be like, let's invite the guy back.
Let's let him come back.
Of course not.
But it would be our fault if we did.
It would be on us.
This guy's lifestyle is just a joke.
I mean, everything about the guy is a joke.
We should use these five principles.
If you use these five principles, I guarantee you're not going to be following some weirdo.
You're not going to be following some guy that's really far off.
He might not be perfect.
He might not have everything.
And there could be other places where you might still want to try and get a little bit better of a guy.
I mean, I think, why not just follow the best pastor there is?
Why not follow the best man of God there possibly could be?
Why not?
But if you use these five principles, you're going to weed out all the garbage.
You're going to weed out all the junk.
And it's our responsibility as believers, as Christians, to just test these guys, to test the man of God, to test the guy that's preaching you.
Hey, is this even making sense?
Is this lining up with what Scripture says?
Because it's a command of God for you to try the spirits.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, God, so much for giving us clear guidelines and clear instruction that we cannot be deceived by false prophets.
That we can avoid the false prophets.
I pray that it would always be settled in our heart and in our mind to serve you first and to be noble like those in Berea that search the Scriptures daily.
They didn't just blindly follow anybody, but they took your word seriously.
And they weren't destroyed for lack of knowledge.
They wanted knowledge.
They wanted to be proved.
They wanted to be tried.
And they were going to try the man of God.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.