back to index2018-10-21 Be Sober in the Gospel
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Turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 16 verse 17 to 20. 00:00:12.000 |
Shawn, Shawn, can you do me a favor and close that door? 00:00:20.200 |
Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances 00:00:24.160 |
contrary to the teaching which you learn, and turn away from them. 00:00:28.140 |
For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, but of their own appetites, and by their smooth 00:00:33.320 |
and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. 00:00:36.840 |
For the report of your obedience has reached to all, therefore I am rejoicing over you. 00:00:41.680 |
But I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. 00:00:45.500 |
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. 00:00:53.040 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this morning. 00:00:56.440 |
We thank you for the blessings in our lives that we are aware of and the things that we 00:01:03.200 |
I pray, Father, that you would search our hearts. 00:01:06.680 |
If it is callous, please, Lord, make it soft. 00:01:12.000 |
If our minds are wandering, help us, Lord, God, to be focused on your word. 00:01:18.760 |
If we are discouraged, I pray that your presence and your word would encourage us. 00:01:24.560 |
Equip your church with your word, Lord God, that we may be thoroughly equipped for every 00:01:35.760 |
Let me ask you, start off the sermon with a question. 00:01:38.960 |
Is there something that you can name in your life that you are willing to give your life 00:01:46.800 |
Is there something that you can think of in your life that you are willing to give your 00:01:51.480 |
One of my favorite quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement, 00:01:56.520 |
he said, "If a man does not have anything to die for, he really has nothing to live 00:02:00.880 |
Again, he was obviously talking about the Civil Rights Movement and he was willing to 00:02:06.800 |
give his life with all the different threats that were coming in and that this cause was 00:02:11.180 |
bigger than him and he was willing to give his life for it. 00:02:14.560 |
In that quote, and obviously I'm not necessarily talking about civil rights, but that quote, 00:02:19.680 |
to believe in something that is so precious that it is beyond even our own lives. 00:02:25.920 |
I think if you're parents, you would automatically think that of your children, that without 00:02:32.040 |
a doubt you would give your life in order to save your kids. 00:02:36.360 |
And at some point, those of you who are raising small children, at some point your kids are 00:02:40.240 |
going to be old enough where you're going to ask yourself, are they old enough for me 00:02:47.440 |
When they're young, they're attached to you at the hip and at some point, maybe 13, 14, 00:02:51.520 |
15, I don't know, where you're going to start thinking, is it okay for me to leave them? 00:02:56.760 |
So 15 years of being attached to the hip and then at some point you're going to make that 00:03:02.160 |
When you make that decision, you'll go through all kinds of thoughts and precaution. 00:03:07.520 |
You'll tell your kids, when I leave, somebody knocks on the door, don't open it. 00:03:12.200 |
Here's all the food, if there's an emergency, here's the thing, you're going to talk to 00:03:15.320 |
your neighbors and you want to make sure that your kids are taken care of. 00:03:18.880 |
And eventually, obviously, they're going to grow up and you don't need to worry about 00:03:23.280 |
But every parent goes through that transition because they are so precious to you. 00:03:27.720 |
The text that we're looking at this morning, Apostle Paul, as he is writing the final conclusion 00:03:32.440 |
of the 16 chapters of the gospel, he's writing a letter of concern that after he is done, 00:03:42.320 |
that the wolves are going to come in and they're going to come to devour. 00:03:46.160 |
So he's giving them precautions to make sure that you watch, make sure that you take care 00:03:50.560 |
of these things because there are people who are going to come in and they're going to 00:03:57.560 |
Apostle Paul guarded the gospel with his own life. 00:04:02.240 |
We know that from church history, we know that from the writing, that even as in the 00:04:06.400 |
context of being beaten, he was spreading the gospel. 00:04:08.880 |
In fact, that's exactly what he tells Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 620. 00:04:12.520 |
So Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter 00:04:17.880 |
and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge. 00:04:21.080 |
Again, in 2 Timothy 1, 13 and 14, retain the standard of sound words, which you have heard 00:04:26.320 |
from me in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 00:04:29.960 |
Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to 00:04:35.360 |
So as Apostle Paul is transitioning from his ministry and giving the baton to Timothy, 00:04:40.360 |
the primary thing that he's concerned with Timothy is make sure you guard this gospel 00:04:49.440 |
And we know that that's exactly what happened. 00:04:51.120 |
Apostle Paul gave his life guarding this gospel. 00:04:53.920 |
Timothy, according to church history, went back to the church of Ephesus and served as 00:04:58.960 |
the pastor of that church for many, many years. 00:05:02.080 |
But at the end of his life, the heretics began to come in and idolatry began to come into 00:05:08.240 |
And he was, according to church tradition, stood up against it and he was stoned and 00:05:14.120 |
He guarded the gospel in the church of Ephesus with his life. 00:05:18.600 |
We know that the men and women that are listed in chapter 16 were probably the first martyrs 00:05:27.560 |
Under Nero, persecution comes out full force by the Roman government. 00:05:31.880 |
Up to this point, in fact, Apostle Paul was protected by the Roman government. 00:05:36.640 |
But because of Nero, Nero decides in AD 64 that he's going to blame the Christians for 00:05:41.320 |
what happens to the buildings burning down and a mass persecution of Christians happened. 00:05:47.240 |
So the first group of Christians that were martyred are probably on this list. 00:05:53.320 |
So it kind of makes me think, you know, when men and women go to war and they come back 00:05:58.040 |
and they lose a lot of their friends and you go to the war monuments and you have the list 00:06:02.520 |
of all these names and every Memorial Day they will read off the names of these people 00:06:13.040 |
This is the list of men and women who gave their lives so that you and I could have the 00:06:20.600 |
I gave you 16 chapters of exposition of this precious gift that God has given us. 00:06:26.140 |
But these wolves are going to come in and you need to protect this. 00:06:30.440 |
So the text that we're looking at this morning, chapter 17, verse 17 through 20, there's three 00:06:37.080 |
One is to be watchful, to look carefully, to be sober. 00:06:41.040 |
Secondly, he tells them once you recognize these wolves to separate from them. 00:06:50.840 |
And then the third, which is mentioned in verse 19 to discern, discern between good 00:06:57.800 |
When I started preparation for this sermon at the beginning of the week and in the latter 00:07:02.580 |
part of last week, I thought I'm going to cover all of it this week. 00:07:05.640 |
And then, you know, after preparation, by the time I came to Thursday night and Friday, 00:07:10.640 |
I said, well, you know, I think I'm only going to be able to cover two of them. 00:07:13.720 |
And then last night I decided I'm only going to cover one. 00:07:17.320 |
So partially because I'm not ready to move on from Romans, partially. 00:07:21.440 |
And the other part of it is I think this is important enough for us to take time and really 00:07:27.280 |
discern and to be sober in what Paul is saying. 00:07:31.260 |
So anytime you read somebody's letter and the last part of it, you know it's important. 00:07:36.800 |
But considering the impact of the book of Romans that it had on not only us, but Christianity 00:07:42.960 |
itself, and that he is concluding this letter, that it's not random things that are in here. 00:07:48.960 |
These are things that we need to pay very close attention to. 00:07:54.900 |
What he says here is repeated in almost every letter. 00:07:58.980 |
So I want to take some time, as Paul warns them, he says, once I leave, these wolves 00:08:10.520 |
And our responsibility to guard this gospel, the first thing that we need to do is to watch. 00:08:15.760 |
In verse 17 he says, now I urge you, brethren, to keep your eye on those who cause dissensions 00:08:23.000 |
Again, he uses the word urge for the purpose of, to sense the importance of what Paul is 00:08:32.040 |
And the word itself, to keep watch, is scopaeo. 00:08:36.520 |
Where you can already hear the English word in that, to scope out something. 00:08:40.160 |
So if you're on a trip for reconnaissance and you're scoping out where your enemies 00:08:46.680 |
may be, that's the word scope, to take aim at something, to hone in something. 00:08:51.560 |
So this is not a word where you're just kind of going to the beach and just watching the 00:08:55.720 |
It means, like a watchman, like in the book of Ezekiel, that you've been planted to watch 00:09:03.440 |
And so he's telling the church of Rome that once this is done, the enemies, these wolves 00:09:11.400 |
are going to come and they're coming deliberately to divide, to confuse, and destroy. 00:09:19.720 |
Do you remember where this letter was being written? 00:09:23.880 |
It's a rhetorical question, so you don't need to say anything. 00:09:28.800 |
If you remember in the beginning of the study of the book of Romans, Paul was writing this 00:09:36.400 |
So you know, if you've read or studied 1 and 2 Corinth, the Corinthian church was a mess. 00:09:42.300 |
It was a divided church, and because they were divided, they had all kinds of immorality 00:09:55.080 |
Everybody wanted to show off their spiritual gifts. 00:09:57.760 |
A lot of that came in because they weren't paying attention to the right doctrines. 00:10:01.240 |
The Judaizers were coming in, and they were beginning to implant false gospel into the 00:10:06.080 |
church, and then they were beginning to divide. 00:10:14.640 |
And as a result of that, the church was being destroyed. 00:10:18.400 |
So you can imagine why, as Apostle Paul is concluding this letter, he's giving them precautions 00:10:24.520 |
so that this doesn't happen to you in Rome, that this church in Corinth that he loved, 00:10:31.680 |
he risked his life to get the gospel into, as he is writing this, he's probably looking 00:10:36.820 |
at all the chaos that's coming into this church, saying, "Don't let this happen to you." 00:10:41.760 |
This is not unique to the church of Corinth, and this is not unique to the church in Rome. 00:10:45.680 |
Paul says this in almost every letter he writes. 00:10:49.680 |
If you look at Acts 20, 28-32, at the end of Apostle Paul's third missionary journey, 00:10:56.720 |
he is about to go to Jerusalem, and a prophet has already told him that if you go there, 00:11:03.960 |
Paul says, "I'm ready to even give my life, if that's the case, to get the gospel out." 00:11:09.600 |
So he spends his last night, he calls the elders of the church of Ephesus, which he 00:11:15.440 |
spent more time at that church than any other church in his missionary journey, and he spends 00:11:19.560 |
the last night, before he heads to Jerusalem, warning them the same thing that he's warning 00:11:34.400 |
"Watch for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, 00:11:40.280 |
to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. 00:11:44.400 |
I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come." 00:11:50.440 |
You notice here, he doesn't just say, "Here's some people who are going to come with some 00:11:54.240 |
difference of opinions that you may not agree with." 00:12:01.920 |
And the intent of a savage wolf is not simply to come and bite you and to annoy you. 00:12:07.240 |
The intent of a wolf is to come and completely destroy you. 00:12:10.320 |
So Paul uses this language to tell them, "Danger is coming." 00:12:16.520 |
He's not saying danger might come, that there's going to be danger roaming around over there. 00:12:27.480 |
But look where it says, "Where this danger is going to come. 00:12:30.640 |
Savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own 00:12:38.520 |
Where did he say the savage wolves are going to be? 00:12:43.000 |
He says it's going to be in you, in the congregation, in the church. 00:12:48.840 |
So he's not saying to go off to the horizon and watch for these false prophets that are 00:12:54.480 |
He said, "No, there's going to be men and maybe women who are going to be influenced 00:12:59.760 |
by false teaching, by their own appetites and desire, and there are going to be men 00:13:04.520 |
and women of influence who's going to destroy the church." 00:13:06.880 |
He says, "Watch for them inside the church, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples 00:13:18.720 |
And Paul's going to talk about that later on, and I'll talk about that next week. 00:13:22.340 |
That their whole motivation isn't for the truth, but for themselves. 00:13:28.760 |
He says, "Be on the alert, remembering night and day for a period of three years, I did 00:13:34.040 |
not cease to admonish each one with tears, and now I commend you to God and to the words 00:13:40.280 |
He said, "Be on the alert because these wolves are going to come, and they're going to be 00:13:47.800 |
Be sober because they're going to come to destroy." 00:13:57.440 |
He's not simply saying, "Go look in the horizon and see who's doing weird things." 00:14:01.480 |
He says, "No, if you want to be watchful, watch what the Word of God says. 00:14:07.280 |
Be so saturated in God's Word that you can smell a heretic. 00:14:21.520 |
That you would be so saturated and renewed by your mind that you can begin to even smell 00:14:31.520 |
See satanic work typically comes through people. 00:14:36.160 |
When he says, "Keep an eye out," he doesn't say, "Keep an eye out for false doctrine." 00:14:43.240 |
On those, on people, on those who cause dissensions and hindrances." 00:14:53.300 |
You and I know that God has chosen to use men and women like you and I to do God's work. 00:15:03.160 |
God can easily open up the sky and say, "Listen to me. 00:15:09.520 |
But the normal way that God uses, God uses the foolishness of preaching. 00:15:14.140 |
God uses the foolishness of men's commitment. 00:15:20.920 |
In the same way, Satan mimics the work of God seeking his own glory. 00:15:33.720 |
Now remember, he could just say the Spirit says. 00:15:39.120 |
And that in and of itself will come with authority. 00:15:43.800 |
I mean, you don't have to say the Almighty God says. 00:15:49.120 |
But the fact that the Holy Spirit goes out of its way to say he explicitly says, he's 00:15:57.360 |
emphasizing that this was not just something that was passed on from apostle to apostle. 00:16:06.960 |
It means there was a special utterance by the Holy Spirit. 00:16:17.520 |
In other words, pay attention because this is really important. 00:16:21.640 |
That in later times, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits 00:16:26.600 |
and doctrines and demons by means of hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as 00:16:36.600 |
No wonder for even Satan disguises himself as angel of light. 00:16:41.400 |
And therefore, it is not surprising if his servant also disguises himself as servants 00:16:46.800 |
of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. 00:16:56.860 |
If Satan was easy to point out, no one would be deceived. 00:17:04.120 |
And when you are deceived, you are not aware that you are deceived. 00:17:11.520 |
In other words, as a servant of Christ, preaching the word in godly attire. 00:17:20.240 |
And that's why he says to be watchful, to be careful. 00:17:24.360 |
So much destruction of the church, it did not come from the outside attack. 00:17:39.540 |
And he's not telling them that these guys may come. 00:17:45.920 |
If you knew that there was a thief who's been robbing everyone's house, now they're 00:17:54.640 |
That's very different than saying, you know what, there's a lot of thieves in this area, 00:18:04.360 |
You're not going to go to sleep nonchalantly that night. 00:18:07.320 |
You're going to make sure the doors are locked, heavily locked. 00:18:11.160 |
You're going to have your piece with you, if you have one. 00:18:15.760 |
If you're against that, you got a bat or a hammer or whatever it is that you may own 00:18:22.080 |
And you're going to make sure that you're prepared. 00:18:25.440 |
You're going to have your family run a drill. 00:18:26.840 |
If something happens, make sure you go through the back, you call. 00:18:32.640 |
There's a huge difference between saying, there's thieves in this area, versus that 00:18:40.640 |
That's exactly how the Bible describes our enemy. 00:18:48.780 |
If he is seeking God's glory, and he is against the things of Christ, and he's called anti-Christ, 00:18:54.360 |
anyone who is a follower of this Christ, he's going to be against. 00:19:10.480 |
How does that cause us to view our lives when you recognize there is satanic work to bring 00:19:16.200 |
you down, to confuse the church, to confuse your life, and then to destroy you? 00:19:22.880 |
Revelation chapter 13, some of you guys who remember that far when we were studying, if 00:19:27.200 |
you remember, Satan mimics everything that God does. 00:19:31.400 |
We have God the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:19:33.360 |
Satan has the dragon, the anti-Christ, and the false prophet. 00:19:39.000 |
If you remember in chapter 13, the false prophet, again, he mimics being crushed in the head, 00:19:50.240 |
It says everybody begins to follow this false prophet, and the false prophet basically turns 00:20:03.320 |
How Satan mimics everything that God does for the purpose of his own glory. 00:20:10.640 |
It teaches us that the primary enemies of the cross are coming within the church. 00:20:23.120 |
The primary thing that hurt the church were not the crusades with Muslims. 00:20:29.680 |
You know, as much as we say it's the secularists and it's ISIS, that's not where the greatest 00:20:40.360 |
Now you can say, "Well, satanic influence, we would think that we would be able to recognize 00:20:45.280 |
satanic influence, and I don't think it's that easy." 00:20:50.360 |
As detrimental and as serious as this is, there's a difference between someone being 00:20:56.560 |
satanically possessed versus someone who is being hindered. 00:21:01.800 |
Now if you remember, the distinction between Judas and Peter, they were both hindered by 00:21:09.400 |
Satan, but Judas, the Satan actually enters into him and takes over, and he begins to 00:21:16.040 |
He sells Christ for a few bucks, and then he ends up hanging himself out of guilt. 00:21:21.840 |
Now we would think that we're sophisticated enough to recognize if somebody who is possessed 00:21:26.920 |
by the devil, that we would be able to recognize. 00:21:32.360 |
I don't think it's that simple, because the disciples didn't. 00:21:35.880 |
When Jesus said that one of you are going to betray me, nobody knew. 00:21:42.160 |
They looked at each other, it's like, "Could it be me? 00:21:45.580 |
And when Jesus pointed them out, they were surprised because nobody knew. 00:21:49.560 |
As sophisticated as they were, they were with Christ for three years, and they couldn't 00:21:53.320 |
tell when somebody was satanically possessed. 00:21:58.180 |
But the real danger for genuine Christian is not possession, because we can't be possessed 00:22:05.000 |
because the Holy Spirit isn't dwelling in us. 00:22:08.760 |
But Peter, a leader among the apostles, who was a believer, comes to Jesus and he says, 00:22:18.900 |
he begins to rebuke him and tell him, "You can't go to the cross. 00:22:22.860 |
Remember what Jesus says, "Get behind me, Satan." 00:22:26.660 |
Jesus recognized immediately that this was satanic influence. 00:22:29.860 |
It wasn't satanic possession, but it was satanic influence. 00:22:33.140 |
The reason why he was susceptible to this satanic influence was because he was obsessed 00:22:41.980 |
Remember when Jesus was heading to the cross? 00:22:44.620 |
He was telling them, "I'm going to go and they're going to beat me. 00:22:47.580 |
They're going to crucify me and I'm going to be raised." 00:22:49.620 |
And he keeps telling them that, and every time he tells them that, the disciples are 00:22:52.920 |
arguing with each other, "Well, afterwards when the kingdom is set up, who's going to 00:23:04.360 |
"Okay, okay, you do what you got to do, but when you establish the kingdom, who's going 00:23:09.700 |
And there's a reason why on the last day at the communion table, he humbles himself and 00:23:17.380 |
he says, "You do the same," because he knew what they were wrestling with. 00:23:22.180 |
If you really want to be great in the kingdom of God, you do what I do now, humble yourself. 00:23:27.220 |
See, that was the problem with Apostle Peter, a great man, the leader among the disciples, 00:23:36.700 |
And as a result of that, he's telling, he's rebuking Jesus and saying, "You can't let 00:23:42.580 |
He said, "Even if they all fail you, I won't fail you." 00:23:48.140 |
Satanic influence in our lives is dangerous, and that's why Paul says to pay very close 00:23:54.980 |
Paul tells Timothy, 2 Timothy 2, 4, "Watch your life and doctrine carefully. 00:24:00.580 |
Watch your life and your doctrine carefully, because you can be deceived by doctrine, you 00:24:09.700 |
Thinking that we are pursuing Christ all the while, seeking the glory, just like Apostle 00:24:17.540 |
We want God to be glorified, because when he gets glorified, I will get glorified with 00:24:22.500 |
And as a result of that, he was satanically influenced to prevent him to go to the cross. 00:24:34.340 |
First John 4, 1, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirit to see whether 00:24:41.340 |
Well, what is he talking about testing the spirit? 00:24:43.540 |
Are there some ghosts, you know what I mean, supernatural ghosts going around and saying, 00:24:52.140 |
"Oh, this must be from God, because he's white." 00:25:01.300 |
He's talking about people who are coming in and saying that they're speaking for God. 00:25:06.340 |
He's talking about people who are teaching, who are influencing people. 00:25:10.660 |
He said, "Test to see if they are really from God, because many false prophets have gone 00:25:19.860 |
Now, we don't have a count of how many false prophets there are. 00:25:25.060 |
All we know is the Bible keeps repeating over and over again that many have gone out, many 00:25:32.220 |
So we don't know how many false prophets there are versus true prophets, but we can guess 00:25:41.780 |
Because in the Old Testament, the predominant number of people who are saying that they 00:25:49.860 |
We know how many true prophets we had, because they wrote books. 00:25:55.020 |
We don't know how many false prophets there were, but we know that they outnumbered the 00:26:01.440 |
We don't know by how many, by hundreds, by thousands, but we know that they were the 00:26:06.500 |
Because every time a true prophet would speak and say, "Repent from your sins," a false 00:26:12.340 |
prophet would rise up and say, "Don't listen to that guy." 00:26:19.380 |
And every single prophet in the Old Testament, there is a false prophet nullifying his message. 00:26:26.540 |
And people are willing or wanting to easily go and follow them because they are giving 00:26:39.620 |
Based upon what we know of the Old Testament, there are more false prophets today than there 00:27:01.700 |
This letter that is written to the church of Ephesus, that they're concerned because 00:27:07.660 |
they become lukewarm, but he says there's one thing that he does commend. 00:27:12.300 |
"I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance and that you cannot tolerate even men and 00:27:16.620 |
you put to test those who call themselves apostles and they are not and you found them 00:27:23.460 |
Before he rebukes them, he said, "This is one thing you're doing right. 00:27:26.900 |
You're not just accepting it because you just like this guy or he's charismatic." 00:27:31.420 |
I mean, why would he be telling false teachings? 00:27:38.340 |
This is where our church name is based on, Bereans. 00:27:41.900 |
Pastor Paul comes from this church of Thessalonica, which he calls in his letter a model church. 00:27:49.060 |
And yet he says this Berean that's only mentioned in passing, he said, "They were more noble 00:27:54.940 |
minded," verse 11, "than those Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, 00:28:00.540 |
examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so." 00:28:04.860 |
They didn't just accept it because Apostle Paul said it. 00:28:07.340 |
They said they put the word of God above him and they were testing him to see if this was 00:28:22.680 |
Maybe that's the reason why you chose to come to Berean. 00:28:26.380 |
You came to Berean because you wanted to come to a church that's going to take the word 00:28:30.420 |
You wanted to study Leviticus, which a lot of your friends are probably thinking, "You're 00:28:40.240 |
But maybe you came here because you wanted to know. 00:28:44.380 |
But let me ask you, how did you come to the conclusion of the doctrine of Trinity? 00:28:55.960 |
How many of you can defend the doctrine of Trinity with the word of God? 00:29:04.880 |
And yet we are adamant that I will never go to a church that does not teach anything but 00:29:15.480 |
Did you come to that conclusion because you were convicted and you searched the word of 00:29:20.240 |
Or the community that you belong to told you that you can't believe in modalism, you can't 00:29:26.440 |
believe in tritheism, that the correct doctrine is the Trinity. 00:29:33.860 |
How did you come to that conclusion and why are you so convinced that that's the right 00:29:38.780 |
Why not the Jehovah Witnesses, where they believe in tritheism, that Christ is just 00:29:46.580 |
Why not modalism, where they're just one person called three separate names? 00:29:50.860 |
How did you come to the conclusion and why are you so convinced that that's the right 00:29:56.080 |
How about justification by faith and faith alone? 00:30:00.500 |
Because humanly speaking, it makes sense that you earn some part of your salvation, but 00:30:05.200 |
yet the Bible says it's justification by faith alone and you add works to that is no longer 00:30:12.420 |
We all know that, but how did you come to that conclusion? 00:30:21.820 |
What church did you refer, defer your walk with God? 00:30:29.660 |
It is not enough to attend a Bible teaching church because I could be wrong. 00:30:37.980 |
How do you know if I'm not teaching false doctrine? 00:30:42.740 |
Whether we know it or not, we all of us suddenly have confidence in things that we shouldn't 00:30:49.140 |
Maybe there's a pastor that you like and if he says it, it has a lot more weight. 00:30:54.700 |
Maybe it's a denomination that you're loyal to. 00:30:57.540 |
Well, we're Presbyterian so we believe this or we're Baptist so we believe this and this 00:31:04.380 |
And so we have all of these things, but we kind of loosely hold on to them. 00:31:09.940 |
So our confidence is in people and not in God's word, not in God himself. 00:31:17.380 |
So when you fall into trouble, when you have problems, you have a tendency, well, I can't 00:31:23.740 |
And then you're looking for someone else to trust. 00:31:26.220 |
Maybe you shouldn't have trusted that person to begin with. 00:31:30.300 |
Maybe our confidence shouldn't be in man to begin with. 00:31:34.400 |
He says many false prophets have gone, many of them, and they're in our midst within the 00:31:41.240 |
Christian circles who have the Bible open, maybe even expositing the scripture, and maybe 00:31:47.620 |
they're not wrong all the time, but they are not God. 00:31:55.800 |
Part of the reason why there is superficial application of the gospel message is because 00:32:04.740 |
there's superficial conviction of the gospel. 00:32:09.420 |
If you live in your Christian bubble, you have no idea what kind of holes you have in 00:32:17.060 |
You have no idea what makes sense and doesn't make sense because we kind of sit in our Christian 00:32:29.620 |
And we kind of like bounce off ideas with each other, but as soon as you sit with an 00:32:34.220 |
antagonist and he said, "Well, how do you know the Bible is God's word?" 00:32:44.180 |
So much of our testimony, and again, in and of itself, it's not false, but so many of 00:32:47.560 |
our testimony is, you know, I wasn't taking my faith seriously, and then I went to school, 00:32:52.620 |
and then this guy, you know, who was really friendly to me, and I met him on campus, and 00:32:57.580 |
then he invited me to CCM or KCM or wherever campus, and I really enjoyed the small group. 00:33:04.500 |
They really helped me to really take my faith seriously, and then that led me to Berean, 00:33:14.940 |
You know how many Buddhists I've talked to who give me that same story? 00:33:19.540 |
I had this guy who was a Buddhist when I was young in my life, and he was really invested 00:33:24.460 |
in my life, and he took me to the temple, and I really loved these people. 00:33:29.340 |
They really were generous people, were honest, and I just wanted to be in this community, 00:33:36.460 |
And then eventually that's how I became a Buddhist. 00:33:42.420 |
You know, when I was young, I met these guys at school, and they seemed to be really serious 00:33:46.580 |
about their faith, and it was unlike other Christians that I've seen. 00:33:50.020 |
And so they invited me to their church, and we were having fellowship, and we were sharing 00:33:56.380 |
meals, and man, they really were moral, upright people. 00:34:07.980 |
The problem with that testimony is that you can repeat that in any religion. 00:34:14.340 |
These people were great, so I gave myself in there. 00:34:16.060 |
I started trusting what they had to say, and so therefore this is what I believe. 00:34:19.700 |
But the problem with that is that that will never lead to utter transformation. 00:34:25.260 |
Where Apostle Paul was willing to die for this message, that testimony will kind of 00:34:30.260 |
lead you to the church, because what attracted you was these good people. 00:34:35.660 |
So you will never move beyond these good people. 00:34:46.800 |
Every one of those apostles were so convicted, they left everything that they knew, and they 00:34:53.260 |
Everything that they knew became rubbish in light of this conviction that this was real. 00:35:02.220 |
This wasn't just going to make your marriage better. 00:35:06.020 |
All that we know is under the condemnation because of sin. 00:35:11.100 |
And as a result of that, he says he's going to come and redeem us. 00:35:15.340 |
We're going to have eternity with him, and everybody who does not confess and wash in 00:35:18.900 |
the blood of Christ is going to be condemned. 00:35:25.660 |
How can that gospel message only lead us to be good people in the church? 00:35:32.660 |
That's why the Bible keeps telling us to be sober and watchful, and why he's so harsh 00:35:38.020 |
on lukewarmness, because lukewarm Christian is somebody who's not watching. 00:35:42.740 |
He's like, "You know, there's a thief that's going to come into your house, and you kind 00:35:59.100 |
See, people will look at the church and say, "Well, how do we trust him?" 00:36:04.340 |
So if you attend a large conference or if you go to meetings where people are introduced, 00:36:08.540 |
they'll say, "Well, he wrote so many books, and he's so influential. 00:36:13.140 |
He's a pastor of this large church over here. 00:36:19.700 |
He's a very successful businessman, and he's a man who is respected in the community, and 00:36:26.700 |
But the problem with all of that is all of that can be mimicked. 00:36:32.700 |
You don't think Satan can help somebody to have a successful business? 00:36:37.560 |
You don't think there are charismatic people who are very articulate that is being used 00:36:43.700 |
Look at the credential the Apostle Paul gives them. 00:36:50.020 |
In 2 Corinthians 11, 23 to 27, he is wrestling with his church because they're questioning 00:36:56.200 |
his apostleship because they didn't like what he had to say. 00:37:00.500 |
But the credential he gives is very different than the credential we give in our generation. 00:37:08.940 |
I more so in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, 00:37:16.060 |
Five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes. 00:37:22.460 |
Three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 00:37:27.140 |
I have been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers 00:37:31.020 |
from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, 00:37:35.900 |
danger in the sea, danger among the false brethren. 00:37:37.700 |
I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, 00:37:44.580 |
Apart from such external things, there is a daily pressure on me of concern for all 00:37:54.080 |
He didn't talk about how he was a direct disciple of Gamaliel. 00:37:57.600 |
He doesn't talk about how he was a former member of the Sanhedrin. 00:38:01.140 |
He doesn't talk about his great heritage of a Roman citizenship. 00:38:15.140 |
Because unless a man is so deeply convicted that this is the truth, he won't give his 00:38:26.260 |
If he's seeking his glory, what benefit is there in the beating? 00:38:30.140 |
If he's doing it for selfish motive, what benefit is there for being shipwrecked? 00:38:42.460 |
What benefit is there for leaving everything and then ultimately getting beheaded? 00:38:47.040 |
So what Apostle Paul is pointing to is his faith. 00:38:53.180 |
And that's why what James says in James chapter 1, "Consider pure joy when you encounter 00:38:57.460 |
trials of many kinds, because the testing of your faith produces endurance." 00:39:04.020 |
And when endurance has its perfect result, it causes you to be perfect and complete, 00:39:18.400 |
How did you come to the conclusion, the things that you profess to believe? 00:39:25.500 |
It's because you were born in a Christian home? 00:39:28.020 |
You were surrounded by Christians who told you? 00:39:30.220 |
And because you like them, you said, "I want to believe what they want to believe." 00:39:34.460 |
Not necessarily because you are convicted of it as being true. 00:39:38.020 |
If your faith is a group faith that you've adhered to because you like these people, 00:39:43.760 |
you will never move beyond the people that you are around. 00:39:47.260 |
So if they are lukewarm, you will be lukewarm. 00:39:50.220 |
If they are disobedient, you will be disobedient. 00:39:53.960 |
You will never move beyond where the crowd is. 00:40:04.420 |
But when God calls you and He wants to challenge you, He wants to use you, what does God always 00:40:13.020 |
He takes them away and sends them out to the desert. 00:40:20.040 |
And they have this communion with God that they didn't have in the group. 00:40:27.780 |
He will isolate you so that you can see how much of your faith is real and how much of 00:40:34.900 |
it is you're just going along with the crowd. 00:40:38.580 |
You just happen to be at Berean, so you're going on with the Bible crowd. 00:40:45.100 |
You just happen to be at a church that does missions, so you're going along with that 00:40:53.860 |
He wants us to judge, to come to our own conclusion that Jesus died for me, but am I willing to 00:41:10.900 |
He says even in Epaphroditus in Philippians chapter 229, "Receive Him then in the Lord 00:41:15.660 |
with all joy and hold men like Him in high regard because He came close to death." 00:41:31.340 |
He said He almost died because He was so convicted. 00:41:36.820 |
In Deuteronomy chapter 13, 1 through 4, it gives instructions on how to determine if 00:41:49.100 |
If they prophesize something, it doesn't come true. 00:41:53.140 |
He doesn't say, "Well, if it doesn't come to fruition the first time, give it a second 00:41:59.100 |
Try three or four times and maybe one of those times will stick." 00:42:02.300 |
If He says it and it doesn't happen, I didn't send Him because that's not how God works. 00:42:08.340 |
God doesn't send people and say, "Oh, he got it wrong four or five times. 00:42:11.220 |
Maybe the fifth time if he tries it, keep trying it and you'll get it right." 00:42:16.340 |
That's why He tells Moses, "Oh, you're sending the wrong guy. 00:42:19.980 |
He doesn't say, "You humble servant of mine." 00:42:34.620 |
He didn't say, "You are humble for refusing Him." 00:42:44.500 |
But secondly, if He says it and it comes true and yet He doesn't lead you to God, He's not 00:42:54.180 |
In other words, the miracles can be mimicked by Satan and we see that even in the 10 plagues. 00:43:01.980 |
Every time God performs a miracle, there's another miracle that matches. 00:43:07.500 |
We can do this and back and forth until finally God does something that they can't mimic. 00:43:13.780 |
But this false prophet happened to mimic and yet He does not lead you to God. 00:43:23.180 |
Because the greatest problem in our generation is not necessarily blatant heresy. 00:43:32.820 |
Satan comes scheming, putting thoughts in your head while you're not paying attention, 00:43:40.620 |
your own dissensions, your own desires that are frustrated and Satan gives you a way to 00:43:46.140 |
have him and the world at the same time, which will never happen because the Bible says you 00:43:50.820 |
can't have the world and God at the same time and yet because you filled your heart with 00:43:55.180 |
the things of this world, you end up gravitating toward doctrines and teaching that will allow 00:43:59.620 |
you to have both, which ultimately isn't from God. 00:44:06.260 |
Our problem today isn't necessarily blatant heresy because we can recognize that. 00:44:13.180 |
We're not fighting against people who are saying, "I don't believe in God." 00:44:20.380 |
Of course there are people who are like that. 00:44:27.360 |
What destroys the church is gradual erosion of a church that does not believe in the sufficiency 00:44:39.180 |
What I mean by that is we use the Word of God almost like a decoration. 00:44:45.500 |
We have it, we memorize scripture, we read books about it, but when we're really in trouble, 00:44:56.980 |
But the first solution to any problem that we have is look to other people. 00:45:02.820 |
Before we come to His Word, before we come to prayer, you are in danger and you don't 00:45:12.760 |
If we have more confidence in leadership than the Word of God, you are in more danger than 00:45:22.860 |
If you are more comforted by the people that surround you and says encouraging things to 00:45:28.220 |
you, than the words of God Himself, you are in danger much more than you think you are. 00:45:45.740 |
You have no way of testing if this is really from God. 00:45:51.900 |
There's been a lot of studies about how Diet Coke is not good for you. 00:45:55.180 |
And some of you guys are never going to drink Diet Coke. 00:46:00.700 |
And I've read the studies myself, I've heard it, and many of you have told me that. 00:46:11.260 |
And the reason why I don't believe it is because I don't want to believe it. 00:46:19.140 |
Especially when you're eating like spicy food or actually pretty much any food. 00:46:41.420 |
But automatically my natural instinct is like, "Who did this study?" 00:47:00.740 |
How much of our doctrines do we embrace because it is convenient? 00:47:07.020 |
How much of the doctrines do we have a knee-jerk reaction against because it is inconvenient? 00:47:13.540 |
When we are lukewarm and we are not sober, you set yourself up for deception. 00:47:23.340 |
That's why the Bible says, "Test," Proverbs 3, 5, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart 00:47:33.340 |
In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight. 00:47:51.380 |
After the first sermon, somebody came up to me. 00:48:01.100 |
I was like, "Huh, maybe I should speak to her." 00:48:12.740 |
Make sure that our confidence is coming from the truth, not because of charismatic personalities, 00:48:19.740 |
not because of credentials, not because of your experience, not because, "Well, that 00:48:28.020 |
You don't know how many times I've had discussions with people about doctrine and say, "Well, 00:48:34.180 |
They say, "Well, where did you find that in Scripture?" 00:48:35.540 |
And I say, "Well, he said this in this article and this denomination, but where did you find 00:48:46.580 |
I said, "Well, even they didn't realize that they were just deferring to whoever that they 00:48:59.300 |
Whether that is John Piper or John MacArthur or, again, all the Johns, right? 00:49:11.060 |
In Luke chapter 5, Jesus is calling his disciples. 00:49:16.200 |
He spends a good chunk of time teaching the multitude, and then he sees the disciples 00:49:20.280 |
coming from a long night of fishing, unsuccessful. 00:49:24.300 |
In verse 4, "When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, 'Put out into the deep 00:49:31.940 |
Simon answered and said, 'Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing.'" 00:49:38.660 |
These are professional fishermen who caught nothing. 00:49:42.220 |
They spent all night at the prime time of fishing. 00:49:45.560 |
They caught nothing, and here is this carpenter, and he said, "Oh, you didn't catch anything? 00:49:51.540 |
Now, I am just reading in between the line, and I am thinking, humanly speaking, and again, 00:49:57.860 |
I don't think Peter was just an average fisherman. 00:49:59.900 |
I don't think he was an electrician, and then at the age of 30, decided, "Ah, it's not working 00:50:07.220 |
According to Scripture, it says that he owned his own boat, so he wasn't just an average 00:50:13.380 |
He was a guy who was able to hire other people to fish for him. 00:50:16.380 |
And you know, when that paralytic was being lowered down when Jesus was preaching, many 00:50:21.620 |
people believed that that was his mother's house. 00:50:25.820 |
This was a pretty big house to have a gathering there of that size. 00:50:29.020 |
So Peter was a middle to upper middle class fisherman. 00:50:35.620 |
And so, which means that he was probably a fisherman by trade, by generation. 00:50:41.700 |
My guess is his great-grandfather was a fisherman, grandfather was a fisherman, father was a 00:50:46.060 |
fisherman, and he is the fisherman, maybe third, fourth, fifth generation fisherman. 00:50:55.300 |
And all the other guys on the boat are in the same boat, basically. 00:51:09.180 |
So when Jesus says, "After all night of fishing, throw the net out," I could read between 00:51:14.220 |
the line and he is thinking, "If I need a chair to be fixed, I will call you, Jesus." 00:51:23.260 |
If the walls need to be painted or shelves need to be put up, I will call you. 00:51:31.820 |
"Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but," it's a big but. 00:51:42.980 |
"But I will do as you say and let down the net." 00:51:48.140 |
I don't think Peter would have listened to anybody else but Jesus because he is the expert 00:51:54.860 |
If Matthew said to the tax collector, "Hey, you caught all night, try one more time," 00:52:00.180 |
I think his response would have been, "Jump out of the boat and start choking him." 00:52:05.620 |
Like all night he is frustrated, they didn't catch anything. 00:52:07.860 |
These are professional fishermen who couldn't catch anything and just flipping it. 00:52:17.300 |
If I want to rip off people, I will call you, okay? 00:52:29.420 |
When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish and their nets began to break. 00:52:38.380 |
I don't think that they bought their nets from the 99 cent store, that this was some 00:52:44.100 |
And so the first time they get a large catch that it starts breaking. 00:52:49.460 |
And my guess is they never caught something this big. 00:52:53.220 |
And they were having a hard time even bringing it up. 00:52:54.860 |
So they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. 00:52:59.660 |
And they came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sink. 00:53:04.280 |
I don't think they probably ever experienced this. 00:53:06.260 |
I don't think they did this and then look back and say, "Yeah, this happens every other 00:53:10.100 |
We are professional fishermen, did it all night, couldn't catch anything, but because 00:53:17.860 |
And as a result of that, their nets break and boats begin to sink, filled with fish. 00:53:28.140 |
He's trying to teach his disciples, "Do not turn from my word to the left or to the right." 00:53:35.580 |
If you want to have success, do not rely upon your intellect. 00:54:01.560 |
Do not turn from it to the left or to the right. 00:54:07.900 |
This is the same warning that God gave to the Israelites. 00:54:18.340 |
So when I tell you to open your mouth, open it. 00:54:30.100 |
And he says the same thing in the New Testament. 00:54:46.620 |
And when you are deceived and you are destroyed, you don't even know it. 00:54:58.260 |
There might be satanic influence in your life and you just think like, "Ah, I'm not taking 00:55:05.980 |
You might not realize there's satanic work happening in your life because you're not 00:55:15.060 |
This is why lukewarmness is so, so, so, so, so dangerous. 00:55:28.900 |
The Bible says we are in the spiritual warfare to be nonchalant in the context of bullets 00:55:34.740 |
flying at us is a very dangerous place for us to be. 00:55:43.940 |
Watch, keep an eye out for those who are coming in to hinder and to destroy. 00:55:56.180 |
Let me, as I invite our praise team to come, let me ask you, encourage you, examine your 00:56:07.060 |
And my goal here this morning is not to shake you up and question your faith ultimately, 00:56:15.060 |
Because so much of Christianity that you and I have become accustomed to is cultural and 00:56:23.180 |
We're okay as long as we fit in with whatever Christian community that I've adapted myself 00:56:29.740 |
Our standard of righteousness cannot be the church. 00:56:37.780 |
And I'm going to go a step further than that. 00:56:42.240 |
If you follow Christ out of genuine conviction of this truth, there will be times when God 00:56:56.700 |
He will send you some other places, and maybe even within the church to force you to take 00:57:05.100 |
a look at your faith, to see where you stand. 00:57:09.540 |
Because until our faith is fortified and strengthened, we are vulnerable. 00:57:20.540 |
Let's take some time to pray, come before God, examining our own selves, praying, "Lord, 00:57:28.820 |
See if there's things that I've just kind of assumed in my life and never really questioned. 00:57:34.220 |
And if I really believe this, where do I stand? 00:57:40.580 |
Is my confidence coming from the church or certain people that I've deferred my faith 00:57:43.940 |
to or is it coming from you knowing who God is?" 00:57:49.300 |
Be confident that strays from Christ and His Word, we are in danger. 00:57:57.860 |
So let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.