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you you you you Well good evening everyone welcome to Mountain Baptist Church take your psalm books and turn to song 162 Song 162 in your psalm books will sing to God be the glory And if you would stand We'll sing song 162 To God be the glory great things he hath done He the world that he gave us his son who Yielded his life and atonement for sin and Open the life gain that all may go in praise the Lord praise the Lord Hear his voice. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the people Rejoice oh come to the Father through Jesus the son and Give him the glory great things he hath done Oh Perfect redemption the purchase of blood to every believer the promise of God The Vileless offender who truly? believes that moment from Jesus apart and receives praise the Lord Praise the Lord Let the earth hear his voice Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the people Rejoice Oh Come to the Father through Jesus And give him the glory great things he hath done Great things he hath taught us great things. He hath done and great are rejoicing through Jesus the Son but pure And higher and greater will be our wonder our transport when Jesus we see Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord Let the earth hear his voice Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the people Rejoice Oh Come to the Father through Jesus The son and give him the glory great things he hath done Let's pray Heavenly Father Lord again, we just want to thank you God for just another opportunity We get to hear your word preached I pray Lord now that you just be with our pastor a film with your power and spirit We love you for it's in Jesus name ask all of it. Amen. All right may be seated and Take your mountain Baptist Psalms hymns and spiritual song books a Mountain Baptist songs books and turn to page number six Page number six in your mountain Baptist song of us will sing Psalm 96. That's on page number six Oh sing on to the Lord a new Song sing on to the Lord all the earth sing on to the Lord bless his name show forth his salvation from day to day Declare his glory among the heathen his wonders among all people For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised He is to be feared above all God's give Unto the Lord. Oh ye kindreds of the people give unto the Lord glory and strength Oh sing unto the Lord New song sing on to the Lord all the earth sing on to the Lord bless his name show forth his salvation from day to day For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens Honor and majesty are before him Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary Give unto the Lord's all ye kindreds of the people give unto the Lord glory and strength Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name bring an offering and come into his courts Oh worship the Lord and the beauty of holiness fear before all the earth Say among the heathen that the Lord Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth the world also shall be established That it shall not be moving He shall judge the people Righteously Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad let the sea Roar and the fullness thereof let the field be Joyful and all that's there and then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice Before the Lord for he cometh For he cometh to judge the earth He shall judge the world with righteous consciousness and the people with his truth Oh sing unto the Lord a new song sing unto the Lord all the earth sing unto the Lord Bless his name show forth his salvation from day to day Amen Well welcome back to Mountain Baptist Church on this Sunday afternoon evening And I get the I get the soul any numbers this will be tapping off the year here So this is actually easy last year is a little harder as far as like starting the new year when it comes to the numbers But today's last day of the year, so what do we have during the week as far as salvation's On Wednesday four and then one One Saturday so six during the week and then today what we have today One three so four is there any others today What's that Yeah, yeah, you got his so is that so we had six during the week Right and then so that's ten there any others Okay Good job with the soul winning that would put us at 679 as far as the total for this year so last year we had 708 so we're just just a little under that but We also had some like missions that were very fruitful last year, so I honestly we've been talking about it our our Local soul winning is up so as far as like the numbers for the local soul winning is definitely up so That being said I'm not going to Greece next year. We're not going we're We find if we're going on a mission trip It's gonna be somewhere very very fruitful or at least somewhere where we know that it's gonna be fruitful so But But good job with the soul winning this year Just so just say I don't think anybody's discouraged, but that we didn't beat last year's number of 708 We're very close to it, but the year before that I don't think we broke 400 I think we were like 300 some the year before that and then it was 708 so to give you a little context They're kind of jumped up quite a bit You know the first two years. I think we we hadn't breaking 200, and then we broke 200 and then Yeah, and then last year we had that was an astronomical number there So to be right up there with it really shows you that that wasn't just a fluke that wasn't just like some accident or it was Anything like that so staying consistent with that? But just keep up the good work with the soul winning and just the amount of soul winning that's been going on this year has Been really good as far as the regional throughout the week I don't think we had a week where we didn't have soul saved I think there was like a Sunday where we maybe didn't have some, but we still had some during the week and so I Could just look at the thing that I'm staring at right now where I have all the numbers on here And there isn't there isn't one week that we didn't have somebody saved actually most of the weeks. They're in double digits, so You know that's That's just some some great work there so I'm very pleased with the soul winning efforts and just keep up the good work as we go into the new year and And then as far as announcements go obviously we have We have this list here for the reading. Oh Yeah, so they're over there on the on the piano So if you want to list it's just a mark off list obviously you can you can do it However, you want to do it, but this will kind of keep you on track And I'll say this when it comes to if you want to If you want to win the prize, and it's like it's February 1st, and you had to finish You'll get the prize okay, so barring. It's not like in May and you're like hey. I finally finished it We'll be very lenient on like how much time we give there okay, so shoot for the end of the month But listen if you miss a day Don't get bent out of shape. Just start where you're at and just mark it off and keep going You know this should this is this actually gives you some leeway because this is 29 days There's 31 days in the month, so you do have a couple days of kind of grace period there But even if it were to go into February. We're not that cutthroat Okay, so You know The idea is to get it done and don't get bogged down because you missed three days or something like that And you're like there's no way I can catch up It's just like just start where you're at and do that that reading and just keep moving forward so And As far as you know the events or the the church services this week everything should be normal Lord willing we'll have our Wednesday night Study going through first Samuel We do have obviously regional sowing times, but then also the Lord's Supper is gonna be after the service so after the service We always obviously shut everything down We're not live-streaming anything, and then we'll do the Lord's Supper So if you want to stick around for that if you have to go obviously we understand and all that so And then the Bible memory for the month going into January is Genesis chapter 1 so I think that'd be a good one especially Kids is to be a good one for you to memorize because you can memorize all the creation and what days everything was created and so And it's very simple language Genesis 1 is very simple language, it's not like memorizing some crazy words or something like that and so this would be a good one for the month and Then first Timothy 4 13 is our memory verse for the week till I come give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine and then on the pregnancy list there be in prayer for Alyssa Anastasia and tabby and So we can pray there and be in prayer for those that aren't feeling well Whatever is circulating through my family just it'd be nice if it stopped, but you know how that stuff goes But and then just be in prayer for others that are dealing with sicknesses as well That's about what I have for announcements We're going to be continuing our kind of series through spiritual gifts Tonight I think brother Joseph you're reading tonight, so first Corinthians chapter 12 after we do one more song You All right take your song books and turn to song 109 All Right we'll see Savior like a shepherd Lita song 109 Oh Savior like a shepherd lead us much. We need thy tender care And I pleasant pastures feed us for our thy folks prepare Blessed Jesus blessed Jesus Thou has bought us thine we are Blessed Jesus blessed Jesus Thou has bought us thine we are We are thine do thou befriend us be the guardian of our way Keep thy flock from sin defend And When we go astray Blessed Jesus Blessed Jesus Here oh hear us when we pray Blessed Jesus Blessed Jesus Here oh hear us when we pray Thou Has promised to receive us poor and sinful though we be Thou has mercy to relieve us grace to cleanse and power to free Blessed Jesus Blessed Jesus Early let us turn to thee Blessed Jesus Blessed Jesus Early let us turn to thee Early let us seek thy favor Early let us do thy will Blessed Lord and only Savior When I love our bosoms fail Blessed Jesus Blessed Jesus Thou has loved us love us still Blessed Jesus Blessed Jesus Thou has loved us love us still All right, take your Bibles and turn to the book of 1st Corinthians chapter number 12 1st Corinthians chapter number 12 No, yeah, okay my brother Joseph read that for us 1st Corinthians chapter 12 And I've found your place there you'll say amen Now concerning spiritual gifts brethren, I would not have you ignorant You know that you were Gentiles carried away under these dumb idols, even as you were led Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God called Jesus accursed That no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost Now there are diverse Diversities of gifts but the same spirit there are differences of ministrations, but the same Lord There are diversities of operations, but is the same God which worketh all in all but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all For to one is given by the Spirit the Word of Wisdom to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit To another faith by the same spirit to another gifts of healing by the same spirit to another the working of miracles to another prophecy To another discerning of spirits to other diverse kinds of tongues to other the interpretation of tongues But all these worketh that one and the self same spirit dividing to every man severally as he will For as the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that that one body Being many are one body. So also is Christ for by one spirit Are we all baptized into one body wherewith we be Jews or Gentiles? Whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one spirit for the body is not Not one member, but many if the foot shall say because I am NOT the hand I am NOT the of the body is there therefore not of the body and If the ears shall say because I am NOT the eye I am NOT of the body Is it therefore not of the body if the whole body were not were an eye? Where were the hearing if the whole were hearing where were the smelling? But now hath God said Set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him and if there were all If if they were all one member where were in the body, but now are Are they men many members but yet one body and I cannot say unto the hand I have no need of thee nor again the head to the feet. I have no need of you Nay much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary Those members of the body which we think to be less honorable upon these we bestow more abundant honor And our uncomly parts have more abundant and comeliness For our comely parts have no need but God hath tempered the body together having given more abundant honor to that part which lacketh Lacked and There should be no no schism in the body But that the members should have the same care one for another And whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it or if one member be honored all the members rejoice with it Now now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular and God hath said some in the church first apostles secondarily prophets Thirdly teachers after that miracles and gifts of healings Helps governments diversities of tongues are all apostles are all prophets are all teachers Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing do all speak with tongues do all interpret But covet earnestly the best gifts and yet show I unto you a more excellent way. Let's pray Lord father, thank you for this time. We're able to gather this last time this year in 2023 Lord, we thank you for your pure and holy word you're given to us or to ask you be a pastor Robinson edifies this evening Jesus name. Amen We took a little bit of a break in this series if you will for Christmas the different type of sermon last Sunday, but jumping back into this dealing with spiritual gifts is that again, when we're dealing with spiritual gifts is that there's many different types of gifts and Really? It tells you what we're dealing with here when we're talking about spiritual gifts Is that the whole purpose of spiritual gifts is the prophet with all to? Basically to do some kind of service in the church and verse 5 there It says and there are differences of a minister different differences of administrations, but the same Lord there are diversities of operations but it's the same God which worketh all in all but But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all and so when we're talking about all of these gifts, we're talking about profiting we're talking about being you know again kind of with the sermon this morning is that we're dealing with being a profitable Christian and being profitable in the church and We've gone through kind of just down the line. I've just been kind of just using 1st Corinthians 12 as The order that I'm doing this and obviously there if you go down later in the chapter It'll kind of prioritize the gifts, but we ended on in verse 10 there. We did the gift of Prophecy Last time but now we're to to another discerning of spirits So this one is dealing with we're gonna be getting into discerning of spirits And you know, what are we talking about? What you know what when it comes to spirits? Well, you obviously have the Spirit of God And that's what this whole chapter is dealing with as far as the idea of being filled the spirit and having spiritual gifts of the Spirit verse 3 there we even see that talking about the fact that It says in verse 3 wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God Call it Jesus accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost and obviously the Spirit of God and the Holy Ghost same person but we're dealing with the fact of You obviously have the Spirit of God that's truth and light and all that but there's other spirits that are in the world and First John go to first John chapter 4 So if I was gonna sum up what we're talking about here when we're talking about discerning of spirits It's going to be specifically dealing with discerning false prophets Okay false prophets and I'm going to show you this passage here in first John chapter 4 and the idea of some people really have and you can think about this discernment in general is That there's people that have discernment. There's people that have more discernment than others and You can think about this when you're out soul winning and just discerning whether someone's interested, right? They just sound a simple manner. You can kind of discern someone's demeanor. You can discern whether they're giving you lip service and You know based off body language based off what they say how they say it all those different things Some people are really gifted at being able to discern and some people it goes way over their head When you're like that person was not interested at all Why'd you waste your time and the other person thought they were still they were fine. There's nothing wrong there, right? And so the sermon is something to think about but specifically discerning spirits. Okay now Obviously you can think about the spirits of devils and all of that, but when you're dealing with false prophets Notice what it says here in verse 1. So first John chapter 4 verse 1 It says beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God So trying them or proving them You're dealing with the same thing when you're talking about discerning You're basically in your mind kind of discerning whether this is a good spirit or a bad spirit, right? And sometimes spirit is just it could be just dealing with that person in general spirit doesn't always mean like a specter You know like as far as like or even the the spirit of yourself, right? Because we're made up of soul body and spirit right but sometimes spirit could be like the spirit of You know the spirit of this Of the season, you know, I mean like you think of like Christmas spirit, okay We're not talking about Charles Dickens and the three spirits that visited, you know, Ebenezer Scrooge, right? we're talking about just the atmosphere the You know, I guess the feeling or you know that type of thing So spirits sometimes can be dealing with that but specifically we're gonna be dealing with spirits of false prophets, okay The Bible calls say people the spirits of just men made perfect, right? So you can deal with the idea of say people dealing with the fact that they're called spirits but So just know that that sometimes spirit can be just talking about You have a bad spirit, you know, you have a good spirit about this and it's not talking about necessarily Your being okay or some like Casper the friendly goes type of thing. So But in first John chapter 4 verse 1 it says believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God notice Why because many false prophets are going out into the world? so there's many false prophets that are in the world and These are a certain type of spirit that you need to be looking out for and and notice what it says here Here's how you know Hereby know ye the Spirit of God Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God and this is that spirit of Antichrist Whereof ye have heard that it should come into the world and even now It should I'm sorry wherever you have heard that it should come and even now already is it in the world? Ye are of God little children have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world They are of the world therefore speak they of the world in the world here at them we are of God he that heareth he that knoweth God here with us and he that He that is not of God here with not us hereby know ye the spirit of truth and spirit of error so what we're dealing with here is that the discerning of spirits is really can be summed up to the discerning of Truth and error right the spirit of truth and spirit of error and it's gonna be dealing with a good prophet and a bad prophet and So this is really dealing with that when you when you hear someone preach you have to discern Is that a good prophet right there? Is that a good preacher? Is that someone that believes right? Is that someone that or is that a wolf in sheep's clothing and that's really what you're dealing with here and why discernment is Is a gift is because sometimes it's really hard to tell if that person is a false prophet or not Because what you're gonna get in what you get into is the fact that they are going to seem like one of us You know the Pope isn't a wolf in sheep's clothing Okay, maybe to the world that would be the case right but to believers is the Pope I Mean I'm talking about people that believe right on salvation people that are actually saved that believe that Salvation is by grace through faith not by works is the Pope really like I'm not sure if the Pope saved Like obviously there's people that get saved that are just naive and ignorant on the subject, right? But most believers know the Pope is not saved not even close, right? So he's not really like a wolf in sheep's clothing Judas was a wolf in sheep's clothing Where they didn't even when when he said that there's someone that betrayed him. They didn't all say it's Judas Right. We know it's Judas No, everybody's just like isn't me isn't me even when he said the person that's that's gonna take this up out of my hand He's the one who's gonna betray him That's gonna betray him and he take Judas takes it and leaves and they're just like he must be giving something to the poor Like even at that point there's just still not putting two and two together And I don't think that the disciples were idiots. I think that Judas was just that well cloaked That he was so cloaked that obviously Jesus knew but the disciples were all deceived by Judas Even the top ones even John James and John I mean James and John said who is it or John said who is it? He didn't say it was Judas So what you're dealing with here when it comes to false prophets is you're dealing with people that Seem to be one of us now go back to 1st John chapter 2 1st John chapter 2 just to kind of show you What we're dealing with here. We're dealing with the spirit of Antichrist and Who is an Antichrist, but he that denied the Jesus of the Christ? And it's specifically here denying that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh There's so much to that doctrine as far as we talked about, you know, God was manifesting the flesh and Jesus in Jesus being the Word of God and that doctrine of Jesus in the flesh, right and in First John 2 18 here says little children. It is the last time and as you have heard that Antichrist shall come So here's the one place in the Bible where it uses the term Antichrist to talk about the Beast Well, you know Revelation says the Beast but the Antichrist there will be the Antichrist. It's gonna come on the scene and It's basically saying we know that Antichrist shall come meaning like the Antichrist is going to come but notice this It says even now are there many Antichrists Whereby we know that it is the last time very similar to what's said in chapter 4 because this is the spirit of Antichrist Where have you have heard that it should come? Even I was already in the world, right? It's like we know that the Antichrist is gonna come and we know the spirit of Antichrist is gonna come But already the spirit of Antichrist is here and already there's already Antichrists, right and What are you dealing with? You're dealing with the false prophet and the Beast, right? The Beast is the Antichrist the false prophet is that spirit of Antichrist that's gonna come in the future But the whole point is that we have Antichrists and false prophets today To deal with so even if we're not gonna be in the end times we still have to deal with this It says notice in this this is the context of this next verse because this is where people like well you get out of church You're not saved Get the context talking about Antichrists The Antichrist and then Antichrist like many Antichrists They went out from us who? Went out from us all you know Ethel She left us and she just didn't want to come back anymore No Antichrists went out from us right now the idea here is that here's a way to kind of spot You know whether someone was of the truth or not. Okay is No, so it says they went out from us, but they were not of us So does it sound like all they were saved they lost their salvation. No, they went out from us For they were not of us Right Judas went out he wasn't of them He claimed to be of them but he was never one of them and Jesus said from the very beginning he knew who would not believe and That from the beginning he knew that Judas never believed he was never You know a child of God and these went out from us, but they were not of us For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us Meaning this is that when they went out it was manifest Meaning this is that they rejected that Jesus was the Christ when they went out, you know It's kind of like these people like well, I was a born-again Christian, right? There's that make that guy that leads up the skeptic magazine Shermer I think is his name and he claimed I was a born-again Christian and then I you know, basically Stop that. No you went out from us, but you were not of us And when you went out is manifest that you were not of us you were never a believer and that's what you know There's gonna be plenty of people that are gonna claim. Oh, I was that I believe that I was a born-again Christian I was a believer at one time. No, you weren't You proved that you weren't Now this isn't talking about church attendance here. We're talking about departing from the doctrine of Christ and 2nd John hits on that and I'm gonna show you that as well The idea here is that we're not talking about like whether you you're faithful at church You know, it's like well, you know, there was a family that came here, but they went out from us where they were not of us You know, it's like that's not what we're talking about now there obviously can be people that claim to be believers and they can't they would come to church and then they leave and Listen, if someone leaves our church and joins the Catholic Church, they were not of us Just Facts Because you did not believe you know, you don't go from believing the truth to believing that okay, and Or becoming an atheist or becoming a Mormon or becoming a Jehovah Witness. It's like you went up on us because you were not of us Okay, so we're talking about holistically going out from what the doctrine of Christ in those what it says here it says But you have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things I have not written unto you because you know not the truth because you know it and that no lies of the truth Who is a liar, but he did deny it that Jesus is the Christ. He is Antichrist that denied the Father and the Son So when we're talking about these Antichrists here What? Was manifest about them that they did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God that he was the Christ, right? They denied that Jesus is the Christ That's what's being made manifest And so if someone was claiming to believe that Jesus is the Christ and then they go out and be like Jesus isn't the Christ I'm a Muslim now You weren't of us You were never of us If you don't abide in a doctrine of Christ then you don't have God and you never had God He that believes on the Son is not condemned but he that believeth not the Son Is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God They never believed If you're condemned you never believe now Go to 2nd John 2nd John We'll see another place where says and where it's talking about Antichrist and that's what we're really dealing with here is the spirit of Antichrist the spirit of truth the spirit of error and discerning false prophets Specifically I believe that's what we're dealing with here is discerning whether someone's a good prophet or a bad prophet a good tree or corrupt tree And I'm getting into ways that you can discern that but this is something that I think some Will kind of perceive maybe before others and see telltale signs and all of that But just dealing with discernment in general is a gift that I believe the spirit helps you with there If 2nd John 1 and verse 7 For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh This is a deceiver and an Antichrist so the same language that's used in 1st John 4 the fact that Know you the Spirit of God every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God and by the way the Jews Don't have the father because who so ever denied the son the same hath not the father But he that acknowledges the son had the father also so If you want to know the biggest Antichrist religion, it's gonna be Judaism And you know that gets everybody banned on YouTube if you speak about the Jews, but you know what? I want the Jews to get saved I want them to believe on Christ and right now they are in the biggest Antichrist religion and they need to know that You know, I was just going through Ezekiel and it talks about the Watchmen warning Those are the dangers that come you know who loves the person that's about to get destroyed the one that warns them about it Or the one that just keeps silent says you're good And so people can say well you're anti-semitic you're against the Jews no, actually I want them to get saved but the first step for them getting saved is realizing the religion they're in is wicked and the religion they're in is Antichrist and That they're not going to heaven in the religion that they're in. They're actually gonna split hell wide open That's not hateful. That's actually loving to actually tell them the truth And so, you know Christians need to get on board with actually speaking the truth and what the Bible actually teaches on that But the idea here is that obviously we know that Judaism is a false religion We know that Catholicism is a false religion. We know that you know Orthodoxy is false religions when it comes to Christianity and all that Again what we're dealing with here is the fact that there's going to be people that are independent fundamental Baptists That are going to be wolves in sheep's clothing. Let's just put it on the bottom shelf there There's gonna be people that are gonna claim to be What we claim to be right and that's that's where the discernment really comes in I think that I mean if you looked at I Guess some of the some of these these even big-name people they're so vague Right that yeah, maybe they can fool some people right because they just don't tell you anything that they believe right? They're just so they're like Jesus saves It's like well, do you think you can lose your salvation nothing on that nothing on how you get saved nothing, you know I mean, it's just like and you know what when when when preachers are that vague. I assume that they're a false prophet You're like wow, you know They'd be like you you're assuming that they're a false prophet Listen, if you're that well-known in a preacher and you can't be clear on salvation Then you must be a false prophet to be that famous Because that is deceitful you're leading you're leading people down a broad path With what you're not saying but here's thing those people always end up being a false teacher They're always that that big like don't want to specifically say what you believe the reason for that is because they want to get as many followers because they're greedy a filthy looper and that they want the position for power and That's where discernment comes in where you can look at and be like, hey that person right there watch out for that guy Like well, I don't see they haven't say anything wrong So yeah, because they don't say anything with any substance But yet they have this big following and I'll be getting into it because then you can also tell by their fruit You can see what they produce What's their ministry produce? You know, so there's ways to tell but the first step to understand to Discern the spirits of like a false prophet is to understand that they exist Okay, and first John states that they exist but also go to second Peter chapter 2 second Peter chapter 2. I I Think what I think a lot of times Christians Don't take this seriously because they don't realize that it actually exists. Okay, and think about this It's hard for people to wrap their mind around psychopaths for example And the reason it's hard for you to wrap your mind around is because you don't have a defiled mind Right your your conscience hasn't been seared So you really can't comprehend it right when you think about people that Literally can't sleep unless they cause someone to fall Like a normal person you're like I can't Comprehend that I can't I can't rationalize that so what people do is because they can't rationalize that they say it must not exist Right. It's like that can't be right. That can't be real If I can't imagine that then that must not be real listen There's a lot of crazy stuff that happens out in the world that I can't even fathom like how that's possible But yet it's real And when it comes to false prophets you say well, why would someone you know? knowingly basically to see people and be in a position like that and claim to be something that they're not and Be this wolf in chief clothing. Why would anybody do that? But yet they exist okay, so that's the first step is realizing that you don't really have to rationalize Why someone would do that you just have to realize that they do? Okay, so go to second Peter chapter 2 verse 1 2nd Peter chapter 2 and verse 1 and I think there are a lot of Christians that just They don't want to think that that's a real thing They don't want to think that there's a Judas that there's infiltrators that there's wolves in sheep's clothing, right? And I get that right you just want to think that everybody is a good person that's just trying to do right and that these people don't exist, but they do exist and It's something that you have to discern In 2nd Peter chapter 2 and verse 1 it says but there were false prophets also among the people Notice this even as there shall be false teachers among you That's the key there there were false prophets Among the people but there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies Even denying the Lord the bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction That's really what you're dealing with in 1st John 2 right is the fact that they they went out from us You know that means that they were saying That they accepted the Lord Right they were claiming that Jesus was the Christ But then they went out from them and they denied that And that's why he's saying they went out from us because they were not of us Because if they were of us they would no doubt have continued with us You know what that means is that no believer is going to deny That Jesus is the Lord now can someone recant Christ because they're afraid of dying of course That doesn't mean they actually believe that But if someone is just like I truly believe that Jesus is not the Christ then you were never saved Now It says here even as there were false Teachers among you who privilege shall bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction And many shall follow follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of Think about this is not eternal security evil spoken of today by most people that claim to be Christians Like all that once saved always saved you give a license to sin You know you're just out there, you know just do whatever you want Constantly Constantly evil evil speaking of the truth Which is that you're saved by grace through faith? And that's not of yourselves as the gift of God not of works as any measure both That's constantly being evil spoken of by false prophets, and there's tons of people online that are constantly Just spewing out their hate for eternal security spewing out their hate for the fact that you're once saved always safe and just speaking evil of it constantly and They're Bringing upon themselves swift destruction. That's for sure but many follow them these people have a lot of followers These false prophets especially online nowadays. They have tons of followers that are that are following them down into the pits of hell It says in verse 3 it says in through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you listen They're all trying to make money off of it Think about all these TV preachers Joel Steen John Hagee in defense of Israel Last time I disappointed everybody because I didn't do it But all these TV preachers that are out there they They're all they're in it for the money They're making merchandise of these people put your hand on the screen and I'll give you a blessing right send in $100 check the more You give the more you'll be blessed That type of garbage that's going on the Benny hands the Kenneth Copeland's you know all these these wicked false prophets that are out there and they speak evil the truth and And So in through covetousness they shall make with feigned words make merchandise of you whose judgment now of a long time linger if not in their damnation Slumber if not go to Jude Jude in verse 3 Jude in verse 3 No, this is that they exist and they will be among True believers But they'll try to creep in unawares, okay, this is where discerning of spirits really comes into where you have to really They're trying to creep in the churches They're trying to creep in in the reason that they want to do is they want to separate people They want to separate people they don't have the spirit but trying to separate people they're sensual They have not the spirit and there's different attributes that you can see from the Bible that are telltale signs That you have an infiltrator I mean we kicked I kicked someone out from our church a few years back And some would say you don't need much discernment for that When when the guy's talking about rebuking a bird and that God told him to do that I mean at that point do you really need that much as a sermon, but you know, there's weird people out there and all of that But there was nothing like He'd ever said like Jesus isn't the Christ. He didn't say like salvation isn't by grace Right, he didn't say anything that would make you think that his doctrine on salvation was wrong But there were other things That the Bible would lay out as far as like separating himself from people talking to children all the time away from their parents and Saying weird stuff talking about sensual stuff with other like other men in the church like that type of Weird type of stuff where you're just like this isn't really doctrine, but this is strange right like why is this person person? You know talking about adultery and like all this other stuff Well, guess what I don't I believe that guy was an infiltrator and he's not in our church and You know someone say well you didn't have the right to cast him and no one in here said that You know no one in our church, you know, there's people online are like you didn't have a right to kick him out Listen, I can kick out whoever I want to kick out because I am the pastor of the church But either way I was the only reason the guy was even still there Okay, meaning that I was given this guy a little bit of benefit of the doubt it was always funny when people say that I'm just like No one was against me on that. I never you know, not that I was taking a vote But I if anything everybody's just like why didn't it happen sooner? but Notice what it says here in Jude in verse 3 Behold when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation It was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith Which was once delivered unto the Saints for there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation Ungodly men turning the grace of our God into the lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God in our Lord Jesus Christ This is something where they're gonna creep in and they're gonna try to get in false doctrine And this is where you get into the repent of sins stuff and it's always a muddying of the gospel This is why Jude is saying we need to earnestly contend for the faith We need this is something that needs to be contended for and what what the common salvation? salvation and what salvation is and how you get saved and they were turning the grace of God into Lasciviousness because if and if by grace then is it no more of works? otherwise grace is no more grace and if you add any works in there like circumcision Right because in Galatians what happened there were certain men that crept in unawares There were trying to say that you must be circumcised to be saved Well today is it really any different when people come in and say you must repent of your sins to be saved Is there much difference between that? I mean, it's just you know Pick pick your poison right turn from I mean, which I think circumcision is probably well I wouldn't say it's easier, but it's like a you know one-time thing, I guess but really Repenting of your sins is a lot more work So there's people out there that are costing and try to bring that in this is why Obviously the church needs to know doctrine But in any church There should be different Christians at different levels. Okay? You say well everybody in the church should be mature. It's like listen in a growing church You're going to have babes in Christ. You're gonna have people at a different level. You're gonna have people that are mature in Christ That's just the way it is. That's the way it should be It shouldn't be just like hey, we're all a bunch of like dr Fat-bottom scholars here and we know every bit of doctrine and we're not letting anybody in that doesn't know as much as we do No, there's always going to be people that are learning that are babes in Christ Therefore this is always something that we should be looking out for because these people will look for the ones that are weak They'll look for the ones that don't have an answer to certain things. So they'll ask questions. They'll basically say hey What do you think about this doctrine? What do you think about this and then they'll start like trying to tear it apart maybe Beware of that. Beware if someone is trying to come in and trying to tear down doctrine that your church believes That your pastor preaches Right? Because those type of people do that now don't get me wrong here. Don't don't be on a witch hunt You're like well so-and-so was talking about this doctrine over here, you know, and they they started like Saying well, I you know, maybe it's this, you know, listen We're all gonna have little bits of every information that we're gonna disagree on Okay, as far as when it comes to doctrine or how you explain a passage, right? I'm talking about like major things Like like pastor, you know teaches this about water baptism, but this is what I say about it. It's like What in the world? Like what are you what are you trying to do? Like what's someone doing there? If they start going astray from just the fact that water baptism is a picture of You know the death, burial, and resurrection, I mean like where are you going with this? so that's the type of stuff that whereas listen if someone you know be like someone coming up to Use brother Dave as an example someone came up to brother Dave and there's a visitor coming in You know, I'm not really concerned about like some like infiltrator coming in and like turning my deacon against me. Okay? Now wherefore let him to think if he's saying take heed lest he fall I mean if Elon Musk came in here, that might be possible But you know what I'm saying though is that there's obviously people that are different levels So we always got to be on the lookout for this type of stuff those that can discern those spirits need to be able to Point that type of stuff out and there's times where listen with with Jesse for example He didn't say a lot most of that stuff to me Okay, he knew better to bring it to me personally and say he never told me about the bird story He never told me about this other stuff. You know who he told it to the men in the church But guess what the men in the church told me and That's how I got to hear about it That's how I was here, but you know why because they're separating from the leadership They're separating people see who will bite on it who they can pull apart This is why this is not just for the pastor Obviously the pastor needs to be have a certain amount of discernment when it comes to false prophets, right? But this is why it's good that there's other people in the church Because you may say well, this is just a pastoral thing. No, no You need to have that as a father You need to have that as a mother Discerning of spirits. I mean think about it I mean You know when my my daughters get married I needed to discern whether that guy is a good guy or not Right, there needs to be some discernment there on what's what's right and wrong. What's true and what's what's error, right? So don't don't just say well the pastor's job like no sometimes you're that we're gonna be the one only person that hears it and They're not gonna bring it to me. That's just the nature of the beast I mean people that are false prophets despise government They despise authority so they're constantly trying to overthrow it So they're not going to go up to the leadership You know and try to overthrow it just straight up to his face so but going on from that go to Matthew chapter 7 Matthew chapter 7 and How do you know how do you spot a false prophet? Well Jude talks about some different things you can see in that, you know But no this is that it's just very clear that there's spots to feast the charity when they feast with you The idea is first of all you realize that they exist they realize that they're out there But you also realize that there's a potential for them to come into a church And I personally believe that we've had people other people that have probably visited our church but once they realize that they Couldn't infiltrate it like they they wanted to they left And you say well, who is it? Well one thing I'm gonna be getting into is that there's some time No, this is that I'm watching When people are here Okay, I don't always say something about it Because a lot of times if you say something about be like hey, I'm watching you, you know what they're gonna do They're gonna hide it even more So what I do is I you know, it's kind of like the idea of like All the pastors not paying attention that's what they think okay, I Am paying attention I am watching and There are certain things that will get nipped in the bud or the way that people will speak like the way that you say things to people will get them to be like Happening here. I Think that and listen not to say like hey, we got it all on Under control no, this is that like I said, wherefore let him and think is he stand take lead He lest he fall meaning this is that we need to always be on guard on that type of stuff I'm not saying when a visitor comes be like, you know nuts to this person, you know, this person's an infiltrator It's just the idea that you just keep your eyes open. Keep your ears open notice things And some people it's like very clear. This is just a normal this seems like a normal person There's you know, there's nothing nefarious about this person, you know They just came in one of the visit or whatever. There's other people though. You're just like When they don't give you a straight answer You're like why you know, how'd you hear about us and they don't give you a straight answer. You're just like why? Wouldn't you just like tell me why you came here, right? Well, how'd you hear about us? What do you do? Yeah, it's almost like what are you doing here? You know, I mean like and There are certain things where you can discern like hey something ain't right here Okay, something's not right something's out of place and And then there's other people where where it's just like you just kind of know off the bat Like this is just a normal person all that not saying that Especially when you're dealing with visitors that you should just blow it off But at the same time there's there's certain telltale signs that you can kind of discern whether Something's out of place. Some people are just strange. Some people lack like social skills. I get that. Okay? But at the same time there's certain things we're just like that doesn't seem right that doesn't that seems off like why would why would this be the case and things aren't adding up right and Matthew chapter 7 verse 15 It says beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves The whole point here is that they're in sheep's clothing. It's not like the cartoon You know, like when you watch the cartoon and you're like that's clearly a wolf right but the sheep are dumb and they don't realize it right It's like clearly this makeshift sheep outfit that's on there. Right, but you can see like it's fangs coming out, right? So obviously they're gonna look like an actual sheep. It takes spiritual discernment to see the fangs okay, and There's certain things that you can see to notice, okay, there's fangs here. This isn't a normal. This isn't a sheep Okay, so in Matthew 7 verse 16, it says ye shall know them by their fruits Now this is where people like well I'm gonna know them if they come to church if they you know, if they're doing right and they get out of sin It's like well go to a you know, go to an alcohols anonymous, I guess, you know talk about some fruit there Because they gave up alcohol Like this isn't talking about a reformed life here we're talking about a tree bringing forth After itself, it says every tree I'm sorry, you shall know them by the fruits do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles notice the stark contrast here We're talking about good fruit and then we're talking about thorns and thistles. I Hate thorns and thistles just so you know like every time I get poked by one I just got I just got jabbed by one the other day and just hate them, you know, they're everywhere. It's curse. Okay Listen if anybody tells you they don't hate thorns they're lying to you And you know people I don't hate anything do you hate thorns tell me you don't tell me you love thorns Anyway so that It says in verse 17 it says even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit and 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 shewn down and cast into fire wherefore by their fruits Ye shall know them now if this is talking about doing good works, then how can This make sense Do you still sin? Then you bring then if this is talking about committing sin then you're bringing forth evil fruit as a good tree You know unsaved people Do good things and by the way reprobates will do good things now Here's the thing every good work is reprobate to them because they're always doing it for advantage They're always doing it for some reason they may hold the door open, but they're doing it to deceive you They're doing it to get in your good graces, right? You know, there's sociopaths that will literally tell you that they'll do good things for people because they want to get something from them Okay So you can't use that as a marker Not to mention there that you'd have all kinds of people doing both of those This is talking about bringing forth fruit meaning the fruit of the righteousness of the tree of life and he that when his souls is Wise the fruit of a Christian is another Christian so That you know what this means Judas didn't get anybody saved There I said it. I mean he's a corrupt tree. He didn't get anybody say Show me chapter and verse on somebody. He got saved like all Jews got someone say it's like Just tell me that you don't know the Bible or that you're just parroting something you've heard then Because a Corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit now what we're dealing with here is we're dealing with a dichotomy of good prophets and false prophets and So the false prophet is that which bear thorns and briars and the Bible says in Hebrews that The earth go to Hebrews chapter 6 Hebrews chapter 6 And notice is that the Bible says this about false prophets says behold I send you in Matthew 10 you're going to Hebrew 6 Matthew 10 16 says behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves be you therefore wise as Serpents and harmless as doves the idea here is that we need discernment and Discernment is wisdom isn't it because you're dealing with the fact that you know those who by reason of use Talking about the Word of God and a strong meat those who by reason of use have their senses Exercised to discern both good and evil is That this is a skill that is is is brought out of use out of experience Listen this is why children you should listen to your parents because they have a lot more discernment than you do Facts you know why because they've had to use it more than you have they're older than you and there is that amount of discernment that you don't have because you haven't been alive long enough to establish that much discernment and Whether we had to get that discernment through mistakes. It doesn't really matter. We got it. I don't know if that's good grammar or not you Know when you're a teenager you think you know everything you think you know how to handle every situation Until you get older and you realize I had to I went through a lot to figure out Okay, I have this information, but what do I do with it right? There is a lot to be said about you know gaining that discernment and that discernment is gained through use it's using the knowledge that you have and Applying it that you're gonna get that discernment seeing things There's like I know this to be true because I've seen that happen Right I know what's gonna happen in this situation because I've already seen it happen so many times Younger people can't say that Now can you look at the Bible and say well the Bible says this is true, and this is gonna happen exactly yeah Yeah, you can take it by faith and say hey, that's commandment listen We are too okay in a lot of cases where I haven't experienced certain things you know what I take it by faith And I and I believe it's true and right, but there are certain things that I've seen happen, and I know from this you know from experience It's kind of like Romans 1 you're like. I take it by faith. That's true, and then you see it, and you're like Yeah, that's right Because you just see it coming to fruition. You're just like yeah, that is the Romans 1 right there You're just seeing it come to life But listen you should always just take it by faith begin with even if you don't see it yet Now in Hebrew chapter 6 verse 7 it says for the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh off upon it bringeth forth Herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed received blessing from God so herbs obviously are a good thing right I? Mean herbs that you cook with I mean you know dealing with with basil and all of that that fun stuff And in verse 8 it says But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh on the cursing whose end is to be burned So who's who's bearing thorns and briars in Matthew 7? The false prophets the false prophets are corrupt trees that bring forth corrupt fruit What's their fruit thorns briars thistles? But what's the fruit of a good tree grapes pigs Like things you can actually eat things that are good So when it comes to the fruit you can see by You can see by the converts you can see what does it produce? What are they producing because you think of fruit? What is fruit? It's the product of a plant or a tree, right? So what does it produce you think of a produce stand right? What's the produce stand is the the product of what you grew out in the field right so? What's the product of you know Joel Steen's church? What's the product of Joel Steen? what's the product of you know like you can look at that as as a marker to say hey, this is their fruit and Look at that and say hey, that's gonna determine so Sometimes you're like how do you know this person's saved? Well, you know I can only know a hundred percent sure that I'm saved but when I see someone win someone else to Christ and Then that person gets saved and then I see that person gets someone else saved I'm pretty point-positive that person's saved Does that make sense because I've seen their fruit? Now listen if someone is saved, but then they never win someone to Christ that doesn't mean they're not saved It just means I can't I don't have that information To know it right To like you know there's some information. That's just not there for me to figure that out But it doesn't negate it right. It's like there's an apple tree out there, but doesn't have any apples therefore It's not an apple tree. It's like no. It's still an apple tree. It's just not fruitful, right? You know that bramble bush out there. I don't see any thorns on it. Good luck But that's not a bramble bush, it's like yes it is And so the thing with false product the thing is with these with these corrupt plants out there You're hard-pressed to not find fruit on that right Find that bramble bush that doesn't have thorns and thistles on it find that you know that cursed You know tree out there that doesn't have corrupt fruit on it But here's another way that you can figure it out too, okay? Matthew chapter 12 Matthew chapter 12 Obviously by their fruit For example if there's a false prophet out there and all And you're like well, you know maybe he's a little vague on this, but then all his little proselytes are preaching a false gospel I Mean the tree is known by its fruit I mean listen if our church was if everybody is Being sent out to go salt winning was preaching a false gospel wouldn't you look at me and be like what's going on here? You know that that should be a telltale sign But if everybody that's coming out of here is is preaching you know most everybody's coming out here preaching the right gospel Preaching is by grace through faith, then you're trying to be like that's a good tree there that church is a good tree, right? That's a producing good fruit They have the right gospel You know that it's it's a way to really hone that in now. There's another way that you can Figure this out too is by what they say Now this one isn't as the like kind of hardcore definitive, right? It's kind of like if I had a baby you realize I'm not a rhinoceros, right I Mean I know that's silly But it's kind of like I produced a human. I am a human right. That's very easy to point out and see The same thing here when it comes to what you say though. This is where it's gonna take more discernment Notice what it says in verse 33 Either make the tree good and his fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt for the tree is known by His fruit so we get the same thing that's said in Matthew chapter 7 old generation of vipers how can ye being evil speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speak it a Good man out of the good treasure of his hearts bringeth forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his Heart, I'm sorry evil treasure bringeth forth evil things But I say to you that every idle word that a man shall speak They shall give account thereof in the day of judgment for by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words Thou shalt be condemned. Here's where it gets tricky when you're dealing with what they say One Conversation that you'd have with a false prophet. They'll say everything right and then another conversation will say it completely wrong This happens a lot John MacArthur is one of these examples where you'll listen to one thing You're like am I wrong about this guy? You're like listening to him. You're like everything. He said is right. It's like on point You may he may be like, ah, you know, I wouldn't say exactly like that But you would give a norm if you didn't know who that person was and you're just looking at that person as just any You know guy that's out there. You'd be like, yeah, I mean he seems right seems like he's got it And then you listen to over here It's like no you must repent of your sins And if you don't if you're not willing to get out of your to kick that girlfriend out of your house Then you can't be safe. You're like, whoa What is that a fork tongue Now, I don't know if you know this but serpents have a fork tongue. What does he call them here a generation of vipers? So they speak out of both sides of their mouth you probably heard that term But the idea is that in one end of that slithery tongue They're saying something right at the other side. They're saying something false and This is where it gets tricky because then you're okay when I was doing a sermon on John Wesley I Read one document. I'm like am I wrong about this guy Literally, I'm like I Mean it seems I mean nothing here seems out of out of sorts then I read another of his dissertations and sermons completely against what he said before and you're just like What in the world so you can understand why some people would look at John Wesley and be like he's a brother in Christ If they just read that one article you'd be like I understand why you think that but here's out of the abundance Of the heart the mouth speaketh and what you have to do with false prophets is you have to take it all of what they? say And compare it Okay, not some snippet over here. It's some snippet over here and Take it all together Because they're speaking to both crowds Why because they want advantage they want to make merchandise of people they want the people that believe right on? Salvation and they're wanting to deceive those people, but they're also wanting all the masses of people that believe wrong on salvation and So this one's a little harder because of that because they speak out of both sides of their mouth But it doesn't mean that you can't figure it out Because ultimately how do we know whether someone's saved or not? Show me your fruit. I'm a fruit inspector, but you know show me your fruit You know like good luck trying to figure that out The reason the way that we can know whether someone's saved is asking them what they believe And you know this as well as I do that when you're out soul winning sometimes Someone will tell you something and it's kind of vague And you keep pressing them on it and you press them on it and press them on it and they're like, you know You know, you know, it's just Jesus. It's just Jesus. It's just Jesus and then you keep pressing them I'm like, well, can you lose it? Can you do this, you know, like, you know, could you ever go to hell? And they're just like, you know, it's just Jesus and then and then you keep pressing them on it They're just like well, you can't you do whatever you want You're just like whoa, buddy It's just like they snap, right? It's just like out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and eventually it's gonna come out what they believe and so Sometimes you have to step back sometimes with these false prophets. Just let them talk Let them keep talking and see what comes out see if that fork tongue company see if you can see that fork tongue and That's where discernment comes in one to even know that you need to be looking for that Now always keeping the ear, you know the ear open to it, right I mean I would hope that you would be listening to me and be like if I started saying well You know, you got to repent your sins a little bit Everybody's gonna be like, what did you say? Go to Matthew chapter 16, Matthew chapter 16 And verse 12 Or verse verse 11 there Jesus talked about to be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Specifically he was talking about doctrine. I want you to see that here now. They were obviously confused They thought he was talking about bread like physical bread because they forgot to bring bread in verse 11 It says how is it that you do you do not understand that? I spake it not to you concerning bread that you should be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees Then understood they how that he bathe them not be aware of the leaven of bread But of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees So really when you're dealing with is what you're what you're looking for with what they're saying is what's their doctrine? What did what did they actually believe? What are they teaching? You know when you're talking about? What are they teaching people and You have to really take that as a whole in order to get that information and that takes discernment go to Go to 2nd John 2nd John of verse 7, and I know we hit on verse 7 here, but this also goes into the fact that I Just want to show you this verse I know we kind of already talked about it, but the idea of like if someone doesn't continue in the doctrine of Christ Then they were not of us right and what we're talking about specifically is what's the doctrine of Christ that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? That Jesus is the Christ That he is the Son of God that That doctrine that God came to the earth and became one of us right that that's the doctrine that's by the way Only Christianity believes that Only the Bible teaches that All these other religions reject that okay? Now in verse verse 7 says for many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh This is a deceiver in an Antichrist Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought But that we receive a full reward whosoever transgressive and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ Hath not God he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son now does this not sound familiar to 1st John and the idea of he that he that acknowledges the Son hath the Father also right We're talking about what believing who is a liar, but he that denied that Jesus is the Christ He is Antichrist who is an Antichrist someone that denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh That's the doctrine of Christ. We're talking about here in context right because people would be like well. What's the doctrine of Christ? What was just stating about Christ right that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? That's the doctrine if someone doesn't abide in it. They don't have God Okay It just gets into the idea that and I was just talking to somebody out soul winning about this about the fact that believers cannot become unbelievers There are things that are impossible listen if you believe on Christ You're going to abide in the doctrine of Christ you have the Holy Spirit of God Indwelling you you're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise It's impossible for you not to abide in the doctrine of Christ It's impossible for you to literally believe that Jesus Christ has not come in the flesh and so When someone does that? When they were in the doctrine you know so-called in the doctrine of Christ, and then they don't abide in it You know that's telling you they didn't have God They weren't actually believers. They were not of us Now it goes on to say If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine who these Antichrists, right? These Antichrists that are bringing this doctrine that Jesus Christ has not come in the flesh If any come unto you and bring not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed But he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds So and the last thing I want to state here go to Acts chapter 20 Acts chapter 20 And we'll be done is the idea that obviously I believe we should all try to strive to have a discernment of spirits in the idea of discerning between the spirit of truth the spirit of error the discerning of a good prophet and a false prophet and But this is something that a pastor needs to have to some extent You know I'm not saying the pastor has to be like ultimately gifted in this area, but listen if you're a pastor you're an overseer You're a bishop. Which is an overseer You're a shepherd of the flock You're a pastor which means that you are to protect the flock and notice what it says here in Acts chapter 20 verse 28 It says take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers To feed the church of God which is which he had purchased with his own blood For I know this that after my departing shall grieve grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing flock Also of your own selves shall men arise Speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn every one night and day with tears This is where you know Paul's talking about beware of dogs beware of evil workers be aware of the concision, right? Mark them which walk so as you have us for an example. There's many ways that you can figure out You can compare a good you someone that you know like this is a good prophet This is someone that this is someone that's doing right This is someone that but then you compare that other person to that and say hey, you know they're the example Here's the counterfeit right when you think about how do you figure out a counterfeit bill you compare it to the truth? And obviously the Bible is the ultimate Rule there right, but as many as walk according to this rule, right? It's kind of like if Follow me as I follow Christ, but if I'm following the rule and I'm going down the line with what the Bible says then hey You know Mark them which walk so as you have us for an example, you know that the idea is that there's ways to figure this out but also the overseers are the ones that are to be watching looking for that and Again, I kind of mentioned this before But just because I'm not saying something immediately about something doesn't mean I'm not watching You may think well our pastor is kind of aloof on that, you know, or maybe he's not really looking at that The Bible says in Proverbs 18 13 it says he that answered the matter before he hears it is falling in shame unto him It also says in Proverbs 29 11 a full uttereth all is mine, but a wise man keepeth in until afterwards When you're dealing with these situations, I do think that sometimes you kind of have to wait To gather the information, right? gather the information and Then make that that assessment, right? And I do think that they're these people are tricky these people are creeping in unaware these people are trying to deceive And if you put out like the red light, you know, this person looks weird to me this person, you know They get that that notion, you know what they're gonna do You know, they're gonna basically be like I need a I need to tone it down You know, I need to tone down trying to talk to people about this. I need to tone down doing this or that but sometimes You just sit back and watch see what happens Now I'll say this What I'm talking about right now is doctrine If I believe that someone is like a predator That's gonna be dealt with swiftly Okay That is not something where I'm just like, let's see what happens, you know with our kids. So don't get me wrong there It's not like I'm saying that if someone comes in here and I think that they're inappropriately Dealing with children or anything like that I will approach them and they will be out that door, you know before maybe the door even opens So when it comes to like that type of stuff where someone's like Inappropriate with you know children or you that type of stuff's going on that will be dealt with swiftly Okay, and so don't get me wrong on that What I'm talking about here is doctrine and people trying to pull you away with like doctrines of devils and you know different things like that Right. I'm gonna maybe like say okay. Is that person just Eccentric or is that person an infiltrator is that person trying to sow discord is that person trying to pull people apart? And separate people right? So when it comes to discerning of spirits that is a gift and I do believe Listen with all these that we have the ability in all of these, right? the question is how gifted are you in those and Let's say you're not the pastor, right? But you're really gifted in discerning spirits. Well that could be a great asset Because you know what can happen is someone could try to creep in and then they go up to you and they just made a big mistake right How many times have you gone out soul-winning and they're just like hey, I don't want to hear from you I want to hear from this guy and the guy that's next to you is like a fantastic soul winner, right? I Remember that happened with brother Stuckey one time There was someone that was with him that was like dressed in a suit and Stuckey was wearing like cargo shorts and a t-shirt and The guy's like I don't want to hear from you. That's in the suit. I want to hear from this guy and Brother Stuckey was actually training that guy to go soul-winning Yeah, he was like newly you know trying to get into soul-winning and all that stuff And it's like you don't know what you just realized you pulled out there right you pulled out the big guns And So it's funny though, but people don't know that right these people are creeping in underwears but if there's if there's other people in the church that have that type of discernment then it nipped in the butt even quicker and so That's something that I think is very important and again. This is all profitable for the church. These are all things that will help Protect the church. We're all in this together obviously. I'm here to protect you I'm here to oversee everything But the more that you guys are on your guard the more that you guys knows these things the more that you guys know this type of stuff Makes my job easier. No, but it does make actually it a lot safer Okay, same thing when it comes to children our children the more you watch your children and watch out and guard from these type of things The safer our church is gonna be and especially as our church gets bigger Okay, so it just gets bigger that's gonna be harder and harder for one person to see everything that's going on Okay, and so let's say what the word of prayer to Heavenly Father we think of it today Thank you for your word and thank you for this passage. I do pray that you'd help us to be to have discernment specifically with with the spirit of truth and the spirit of error with the With the spirit of a good prophet compared to a false prophet and will just help us Always be on the guard for anybody that's trying to creep in unawares and try to pull people away from the truth And we're just pray that you'd be with us the rest of this week But also be with us as we as we remember your death and with the Lord's Supper and would help us to be honoring to you and that and when we just thank you for dying on the cross for our Sins and just praise you for that. We love you and pray also Jesus Christ name. Amen so we'll sing one more song and then I'm gonna If I could have maybe some men that are gonna help out with the drinks and the bread and everything You All right, take your song books and turn to song 270 Song 270 we'll sing just as I am if you would stand we'll sing song 270 Just As I am with one plea but thy blood was shed for me and Thou bits me come to thee O Lamb of God I come I come Just as I am and waiting not to