Turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 16 verse 17 to 20. Romans chapter 16 verse 17. Shawn, Shawn, can you do me a favor and close that door? I'm going to be reading verse 17 to 20. Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learn, and turn away from them.

For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, but of their own appetites, and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. For the report of your obedience has reached to all, therefore I am rejoicing over you. But I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this morning. We thank you for the blessings in our lives that we are aware of and the things that we are not aware of.

I pray, Father, that you would search our hearts. If it is callous, please, Lord, make it soft. If our minds are wandering, help us, Lord, God, to be focused on your word. If we are discouraged, I pray that your presence and your word would encourage us. Equip your church with your word, Lord God, that we may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let me ask you, start off the sermon with a question. Is there something that you can name in your life that you are willing to give your life to guard? Is there something that you can think of in your life that you are willing to give your life to guard?

One of my favorite quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement, he said, "If a man does not have anything to die for, he really has nothing to live for." Again, he was obviously talking about the Civil Rights Movement and he was willing to give his life with all the different threats that were coming in and that this cause was bigger than him and he was willing to give his life for it.

In that quote, and obviously I'm not necessarily talking about civil rights, but that quote, to believe in something that is so precious that it is beyond even our own lives. I think if you're parents, you would automatically think that of your children, that without a doubt you would give your life in order to save your kids.

And at some point, those of you who are raising small children, at some point your kids are going to be old enough where you're going to ask yourself, are they old enough for me to leave behind? When they're young, they're attached to you at the hip and at some point, maybe 13, 14, 15, I don't know, where you're going to start thinking, is it okay for me to leave them?

So 15 years of being attached to the hip and then at some point you're going to make that decision. When you make that decision, you'll go through all kinds of thoughts and precaution. You'll tell your kids, when I leave, somebody knocks on the door, don't open it. Here's all the food, if there's an emergency, here's the thing, you're going to talk to your neighbors and you want to make sure that your kids are taken care of.

And eventually, obviously, they're going to grow up and you don't need to worry about that. But every parent goes through that transition because they are so precious to you. The text that we're looking at this morning, Apostle Paul, as he is writing the final conclusion of the 16 chapters of the gospel, he's writing a letter of concern that after he is done, that the wolves are going to come in and they're going to come to devour.

So he's giving them precautions to make sure that you watch, make sure that you take care of these things because there are people who are going to come in and they're going to try to disrupt you. Apostle Paul guarded the gospel with his own life. We know that from church history, we know that from the writing, that even as in the context of being beaten, he was spreading the gospel.

In fact, that's exactly what he tells Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 620. So Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge. Again, in 2 Timothy 1, 13 and 14, retain the standard of sound words, which you have heard from me in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you. So as Apostle Paul is transitioning from his ministry and giving the baton to Timothy, the primary thing that he's concerned with Timothy is make sure you guard this gospel and guard it with your life.

And we know that that's exactly what happened. Apostle Paul gave his life guarding this gospel. Timothy, according to church history, went back to the church of Ephesus and served as the pastor of that church for many, many years. But at the end of his life, the heretics began to come in and idolatry began to come into the church.

And he was, according to church tradition, stood up against it and he was stoned and beaten to death. He guarded the gospel in the church of Ephesus with his life. We know that the men and women that are listed in chapter 16 were probably the first martyrs of the Roman church.

Under Nero, persecution comes out full force by the Roman government. Up to this point, in fact, Apostle Paul was protected by the Roman government. But because of Nero, Nero decides in AD 64 that he's going to blame the Christians for what happens to the buildings burning down and a mass persecution of Christians happened.

So the first group of Christians that were martyred are probably on this list. So it kind of makes me think, you know, when men and women go to war and they come back and they lose a lot of their friends and you go to the war monuments and you have the list of all these names and every Memorial Day they will read off the names of these people gave their life to protect this country.

Well that's this list. This is the list of men and women who gave their lives so that you and I could have the gospel. Paul is telling this church. I gave you 16 chapters of exposition of this precious gift that God has given us. But these wolves are going to come in and you need to protect this.

So the text that we're looking at this morning, chapter 17, verse 17 through 20, there's three things that he commands them to do. One is to be watchful, to look carefully, to be sober. Secondly, he tells them once you recognize these wolves to separate from them. Don't play this game.

Right? And then the third, which is mentioned in verse 19 to discern, discern between good and bad. When I started preparation for this sermon at the beginning of the week and in the latter part of last week, I thought I'm going to cover all of it this week. And then, you know, after preparation, by the time I came to Thursday night and Friday, I said, well, you know, I think I'm only going to be able to cover two of them.

And then last night I decided I'm only going to cover one. Right? So partially because I'm not ready to move on from Romans, partially. And the other part of it is I think this is important enough for us to take time and really discern and to be sober in what Paul is saying.

So anytime you read somebody's letter and the last part of it, you know it's important. But considering the impact of the book of Romans that it had on not only us, but Christianity itself, and that he is concluding this letter, that it's not random things that are in here.

These are things that we need to pay very close attention to. And especially because it is repeated. What he says here is repeated in almost every letter. So I want to take some time, as Paul warns them, he says, once I leave, these wolves are going to come. So to pay attention.

So the first one, he says to be watchful. And our responsibility to guard this gospel, the first thing that we need to do is to watch. In verse 17 he says, now I urge you, brethren, to keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances. Again, he uses the word urge for the purpose of, to sense the importance of what Paul is about to say.

And the word itself, to keep watch, is scopaeo. Where you can already hear the English word in that, to scope out something. So if you're on a trip for reconnaissance and you're scoping out where your enemies may be, that's the word scope, to take aim at something, to hone in something.

So this is not a word where you're just kind of going to the beach and just watching the sunset. It means, like a watchman, like in the book of Ezekiel, that you've been planted to watch for danger that is coming. And so he's telling the church of Rome that once this is done, the enemies, these wolves are going to come and they're coming deliberately to divide, to confuse, and destroy.

So look out for them. Do you remember where this letter was being written? It's a rhetorical question, so you don't need to say anything. If you remember in the beginning of the study of the book of Romans, Paul was writing this in the city of Corinth. So you know, if you've read or studied 1 and 2 Corinth, the Corinthian church was a mess.

It was a divided church, and because they were divided, they had all kinds of immorality come in, and they had false doctrine. Even their communion table was corrupted. Their worship was utter chaos. Everybody wanted to show off their spiritual gifts. A lot of that came in because they weren't paying attention to the right doctrines.

The Judaizers were coming in, and they were beginning to implant false gospel into the church, and then they were beginning to divide. Well, who should we pay attention to? Who's going to correct us? Is it going to be Paul? Is it going to be Apollos? And as a result of that, the church was being destroyed.

So you can imagine why, as Apostle Paul is concluding this letter, he's giving them precautions so that this doesn't happen to you in Rome, that this church in Corinth that he loved, he risked his life to get the gospel into, as he is writing this, he's probably looking at all the chaos that's coming into this church, saying, "Don't let this happen to you." This is not unique to the church of Corinth, and this is not unique to the church in Rome.

Paul says this in almost every letter he writes. If you look at Acts 20, 28-32, at the end of Apostle Paul's third missionary journey, he is about to go to Jerusalem, and a prophet has already told him that if you go there, you're going to be bound and beaten.

Paul says, "I'm ready to even give my life, if that's the case, to get the gospel out." So he spends his last night, he calls the elders of the church of Ephesus, which he spent more time at that church than any other church in his missionary journey, and he spends the last night, before he heads to Jerusalem, warning them the same thing that he's warning the church here in Rome.

In Acts 20, 28-32, it says, "Be on guard." In other words, be sober. "Watch for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come." You notice here, he doesn't just say, "Here's some people who are going to come with some difference of opinions that you may not agree with." He calls them "savage wolves." And the intent of a savage wolf is not simply to come and bite you and to annoy you.

The intent of a wolf is to come and completely destroy you. So Paul uses this language to tell them, "Danger is coming." He's not saying danger might come, that there's going to be danger roaming around over there. He says, "Danger is going to come to you. It's coming." But look where it says, "Where this danger is going to come.

Savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves men will arise." Where did he say the savage wolves are going to be? Not on the outside of the gate. He says it's going to be in you, in the congregation, in the church.

So he's not saying to go off to the horizon and watch for these false prophets that are coming. He said, "No, there's going to be men and maybe women who are going to be influenced by false teaching, by their own appetites and desire, and there are going to be men and women of influence who's going to destroy the church." He says, "Watch for them inside the church, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.

Their whole goal is self-glory." And Paul's going to talk about that later on, and I'll talk about that next week. That their whole motivation isn't for the truth, but for themselves. He says, "Be on the alert, remembering night and day for a period of three years, I did not cease to admonish each one with tears, and now I commend you to God and to the words of His grace." He said, "Be on the alert because these wolves are going to come, and they're going to be in your midst.

Be sober because they're going to come to destroy." And then he says, "How do you keep watch? Keep yourself in the Word of God." He's not simply saying, "Go look in the horizon and see who's doing weird things." He says, "No, if you want to be watchful, watch what the Word of God says.

Be so saturated in God's Word that you can smell a heretic. You can automatically imagine." I don't think my God would say that. I don't think my God would do that. That you would be so saturated and renewed by your mind that you can begin to even smell the difference between the world and God.

See satanic work typically comes through people. When he says, "Keep an eye out," he doesn't say, "Keep an eye out for false doctrine." Look what he says in verse 17. "Keep an eye out on who? On those, on people, on those who cause dissensions and hindrances." You and I know that God has chosen to use men and women like you and I to do God's work.

God can easily open up the sky and say, "Listen to me. Do what I tell you to do." But the normal way that God uses, God uses the foolishness of preaching. God uses the foolishness of men's commitment. God uses us. In the same way, Satan mimics the work of God seeking his own glory.

And the scripture says that. It says in 1 Timothy 4, 1 and 2. But the Spirit explicitly says. Now remember, he could just say the Spirit says. And that in and of itself will come with authority. God says. I mean, you don't have to say the Almighty God says.

You can say God says. I mean, that's all included. But the fact that the Holy Spirit goes out of its way to say he explicitly says, he's emphasizing that this was not just something that was passed on from apostle to apostle. This was kind of well-known in the church.

It means there was a special utterance by the Holy Spirit. We don't know if it was audible. We don't know if it was through a vision. But it was something that was emphasized. And that's why he says he explicitly says. In other words, pay attention because this is really important.

That in later times, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines and demons by means of hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron. Again, in 2 Corinthians 11, 14. No wonder for even Satan disguises himself as angel of light.

And therefore, it is not surprising if his servant also disguises himself as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. Satan does not come dressed as Satan. If Satan was easy to point out, no one would be deceived. He comes deceiving. And when you are deceived, you are not aware that you are deceived.

That's why he's so good at what he's doing. He said he comes in as an angel of light. In other words, as a servant of Christ, preaching the word in godly attire. And that's why he says to be watchful, to be careful. So much destruction of the church, it did not come from the outside attack.

It came from pulpits. It comes from Bible studies. It comes from small groups. It comes from discipleship. Because it is within the church. And he's not telling them that these guys may come. They're all out there. If you knew that there was a thief who's been robbing everyone's house, now they're targeting your street.

That's very different than saying, you know what, there's a lot of thieves in this area, so watch out. Versus, that thief is targeting your house. You're not going to go to sleep nonchalantly that night. Right? You're going to make sure the doors are locked, heavily locked. Right? You're going to have your piece with you, if you have one.

If you're against that, you got a bat or a hammer or whatever it is that you may own to protect yourselves. And you're going to make sure that you're prepared. You're going to have your family run a drill. If something happens, make sure you go through the back, you call.

You're going to have your phone near you. You're going to be prepared. There's a huge difference between saying, there's thieves in this area, versus that thief is targeting you. That's exactly how the Bible describes our enemy. A roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Who do you think that someone is?

If he is seeking God's glory, and he is against the things of Christ, and he's called anti-Christ, anyone who is a follower of this Christ, he's going to be against. His very name says that. He's not just targeting people. He says he's targeting you. How does that cause us to be sober?

How does that cause us to view our lives when you recognize there is satanic work to bring you down, to confuse the church, to confuse your life, and then to destroy you? Revelation chapter 13, some of you guys who remember that far when we were studying, if you remember, Satan mimics everything that God does.

We have God the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Satan has the dragon, the anti-Christ, and the false prophet. If you remember in chapter 13, the false prophet, again, he mimics being crushed in the head, and then he comes back to life. Everybody is amazed. It says everybody begins to follow this false prophet, and the false prophet basically turns over his followers to the dragon.

Remember that study? A couple of you. How Satan mimics everything that God does for the purpose of his own glory. So you know what that teaches us? It teaches us that the primary enemies of the cross are coming within the church. Look at church history. The primary thing that hurt the church were not the crusades with Muslims.

You know, as much as we say it's the secularists and it's ISIS, that's not where the greatest damage to the church is coming from. It's coming from within the church. Now you can say, "Well, satanic influence, we would think that we would be able to recognize satanic influence, and I don't think it's that easy." As detrimental and as serious as this is, there's a difference between someone being satanically possessed versus someone who is being hindered.

Now if you remember, the distinction between Judas and Peter, they were both hindered by Satan, but Judas, the Satan actually enters into him and takes over, and he begins to do things. He sells Christ for a few bucks, and then he ends up hanging himself out of guilt. Now we would think that we're sophisticated enough to recognize if somebody who is possessed by the devil, that we would be able to recognize.

I don't think we will. I don't think it's that simple, because the disciples didn't. When Jesus said that one of you are going to betray me, nobody knew. They looked at each other, it's like, "Could it be me? Could it be me?" And when Jesus pointed them out, they were surprised because nobody knew.

As sophisticated as they were, they were with Christ for three years, and they couldn't tell when somebody was satanically possessed. But the real danger for genuine Christian is not possession, because we can't be possessed because the Holy Spirit isn't dwelling in us. But Peter, a leader among the apostles, who was a believer, comes to Jesus and he says, he begins to rebuke him and tell him, "You can't go to the cross.

How can you go to the cross?" Remember what Jesus says, "Get behind me, Satan." Jesus recognized immediately that this was satanic influence. It wasn't satanic possession, but it was satanic influence. The reason why he was susceptible to this satanic influence was because he was obsessed with his own ambition.

Remember when Jesus was heading to the cross? He was telling them, "I'm going to go and they're going to beat me. They're going to crucify me and I'm going to be raised." And he keeps telling them that, and every time he tells them that, the disciples are arguing with each other, "Well, afterwards when the kingdom is set up, who's going to be the greatest?

Is it going to be James? Is it going to be me?" And it was almost like they didn't hear him. "Okay, okay, you do what you got to do, but when you establish the kingdom, who's going to be the greatest?" And there's a reason why on the last day at the communion table, he humbles himself and he says, "You do the same," because he knew what they were wrestling with.

If you really want to be great in the kingdom of God, you do what I do now, humble yourself. See, that was the problem with Apostle Peter, a great man, the leader among the disciples, but he was self-ambitious. And as a result of that, he's telling, he's rebuking Jesus and saying, "You can't let this happen." He said, "No, you're going to fail me." He said, "Even if they all fail you, I won't fail you." Satanic influence in our lives is dangerous, and that's why Paul says to pay very close attention.

Paul tells Timothy, 2 Timothy 2, 4, "Watch your life and doctrine carefully. Watch your life and your doctrine carefully, because you can be deceived by doctrine, you can be deceived in your life." Thinking that we are pursuing Christ all the while, seeking the glory, just like Apostle Peter and the others.

We want God to be glorified, because when he gets glorified, I will get glorified with him. And as a result of that, he was satanically influenced to prevent him to go to the cross. We are commanded to test every spirit. We are commanded to test every spirit. First John 4, 1, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirit to see whether they are from God." Well, what is he talking about testing the spirit?

Are there some ghosts, you know what I mean, supernatural ghosts going around and saying, "Oh, that's not from God. He's black." Right? "Oh, this must be from God, because he's white." Right? Well, what does he mean to test the spirit? He's talking about people. He's talking about people who are coming in and saying that they're speaking for God.

He's talking about people who are teaching, who are influencing people. He said, "Test to see if they are really from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." Now, we don't have a count of how many false prophets there are. All we know is the Bible keeps repeating over and over again that many have gone out, many have gone out.

So we don't know how many false prophets there are versus true prophets, but we can guess by looking at the Old Testament. Because in the Old Testament, the predominant number of people who are saying that they were speaking for God were false prophets. We know how many true prophets we had, because they wrote books.

God speaks about them. Their names are mentioned. We don't know how many false prophets there were, but we know that they outnumbered the true prophets. We don't know by how many, by hundreds, by thousands, but we know that they were the majority. Because every time a true prophet would speak and say, "Repent from your sins," a false prophet would rise up and say, "Don't listen to that guy." Why would God be angry with us?

And every single prophet in the Old Testament, there is a false prophet nullifying his message. And people are willing or wanting to easily go and follow them because they are giving the message that they want to hear. And I think it is the same today. Based upon what we know of the Old Testament, there are more false prophets today than there are right prophets.

Revelation chapter 2.2. Again, this is all over Scripture. This is not just in Romans. This is not just in Corinthians. This is not just in Ephesus. It's not just in the New Testament. All over Scripture. This letter that is written to the church of Ephesus, that they're concerned because they become lukewarm, but he says there's one thing that he does commend.

"I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance and that you cannot tolerate even men and you put to test those who call themselves apostles and they are not and you found them to be false." He commends them. Before he rebukes them, he said, "This is one thing you're doing right.

You're not just accepting it because you just like this guy or he's charismatic." I mean, why would he be telling false teachings? He said he tested them. Acts 17.11. This is where our church name is based on, Bereans. Pastor Paul comes from this church of Thessalonica, which he calls in his letter a model church.

And yet he says this Berean that's only mentioned in passing, he said, "They were more noble minded," verse 11, "than those Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so." They didn't just accept it because Apostle Paul said it.

They said they put the word of God above him and they were testing him to see if this was a man of God or not. He was testing the spirit. Now none of these things are new to you. We know it to be true. Maybe that's the reason why you chose to come to Berean.

You came to Berean because you wanted to come to a church that's going to take the word of God seriously. You wanted to study Leviticus, which a lot of your friends are probably thinking, "You're weird. You're not a Leviticus. You study Revelation and Isaiah?" But maybe you came here because you wanted to know.

But let me ask you, how did you come to the conclusion of the doctrine of Trinity? How many of you can defend the doctrine of Trinity with the word of God? And yet we are adamant that I will never go to a church that does not teach anything but the right doctrine of Trinity.

How did you come to that conclusion? Did you come to that conclusion because you were convicted and you searched the word of God to see if this is what it was taught? Or the community that you belong to told you that you can't believe in modalism, you can't believe in tritheism, that the correct doctrine is the Trinity.

How did you come to that conclusion and why are you so convinced that that's the right view? Why not the Jehovah Witnesses, where they believe in tritheism, that Christ is just a God, not the God? Why not modalism, where they're just one person called three separate names? How did you come to the conclusion and why are you so convinced that that's the right doctrine?

How about justification by faith and faith alone? Why not works? Because humanly speaking, it makes sense that you earn some part of your salvation, but yet the Bible says it's justification by faith alone and you add works to that is no longer the gospel. We all know that, but how did you come to that conclusion?

Who did you trust? Which leader are you deferring to? What church did you refer, defer your walk with God? If they said it, it must be true. It is not enough to attend a Bible teaching church because I could be wrong. How do you know if I'm not teaching false doctrine?

Whether we know it or not, we all of us suddenly have confidence in things that we shouldn't have confidence in. Maybe there's a pastor that you like and if he says it, it has a lot more weight. Maybe it's a denomination that you're loyal to. Well, we're Presbyterian so we believe this or we're Baptist so we believe this and this is what I was taught.

This is what my parents said. And so we have all of these things, but we kind of loosely hold on to them. So our confidence is in people and not in God's word, not in God himself. So when you fall into trouble, when you have problems, you have a tendency, well, I can't trust this guy, so who do I trust?

And then you're looking for someone else to trust. Maybe you shouldn't have trusted that person to begin with. Maybe our confidence shouldn't be in man to begin with. He says many false prophets have gone, many of them, and they're in our midst within the Christian circles who have the Bible open, maybe even expositing the scripture, and maybe they're not wrong all the time, but they are not God.

Part of the reason why there is superficial application of the gospel message is because there's superficial conviction of the gospel. If you live in your Christian bubble, you have no idea what kind of holes you have in your theology. You have no idea what makes sense and doesn't make sense because we kind of sit in our Christian bubble and we affirm each other.

Yes, the Trinity. Yes, Bible exposition. Yes, community. Yes, missions. And we kind of like bounce off ideas with each other, but as soon as you sit with an antagonist and he said, "Well, how do you know the Bible is God's word?" I just do. So much of our testimony, and again, in and of itself, it's not false, but so many of our testimony is, you know, I wasn't taking my faith seriously, and then I went to school, and then this guy, you know, who was really friendly to me, and I met him on campus, and then he invited me to CCM or KCM or wherever campus, and I really enjoyed the small group.

They really helped me to really take my faith seriously, and then that led me to Berean, and then eventually I became a Christian. And that's how I know that this is true. You know how many Buddhists I've talked to who give me that same story? I had this guy who was a Buddhist when I was young in my life, and he was really invested in my life, and he took me to the temple, and I really loved these people.

They really were generous people, were honest, and I just wanted to be in this community, you know? And then eventually that's how I became a Buddhist. Well, how did you become a Mormon? You know, when I was young, I met these guys at school, and they seemed to be really serious about their faith, and it was unlike other Christians that I've seen.

And so they invited me to their church, and we were having fellowship, and we were sharing meals, and man, they really were moral, upright people. And so I knew that that was true. The problem with that testimony is that you can repeat that in any religion. Like, I've experienced it.

These people were great, so I gave myself in there. I started trusting what they had to say, and so therefore this is what I believe. But the problem with that is that that will never lead to utter transformation. Where Apostle Paul was willing to die for this message, that testimony will kind of lead you to the church, because what attracted you was these good people.

So you will never move beyond these good people. But the gospel calls us beyond that. Apostle Paul gave his life. Every one of those apostles were so convicted, they left everything that they knew, and they followed Christ. Everything that they knew became rubbish in light of this conviction that this was real.

This was not just a theory. This wasn't just going to make your marriage better. All that we know is under the condemnation because of sin. And as a result of that, he says he's going to come and redeem us. We're going to have eternity with him, and everybody who does not confess and wash in the blood of Christ is going to be condemned.

That's the gospel message. How can that gospel message only lead us to be good people in the church? That's why the Bible keeps telling us to be sober and watchful, and why he's so harsh on lukewarmness, because lukewarm Christian is somebody who's not watching. He's like, "You know, there's a thief that's going to come into your house, and you kind of like leave the door open.

You sleep like any other day." And he didn't say he might come. He says he's coming. See, people will look at the church and say, "Well, how do we trust him?" So if you attend a large conference or if you go to meetings where people are introduced, they'll say, "Well, he wrote so many books, and he's so influential.

He's a pastor of this large church over here. Look at all these experiences. He's a very successful businessman, and he's a man who is respected in the community, and so therefore you need to listen to him." But the problem with all of that is all of that can be mimicked.

All of that can be satanic. You don't think Satan can help somebody to have a successful business? You don't think there are charismatic people who are very articulate that is being used by Satan? Look at the credential the Apostle Paul gives them. In 2 Corinthians 11, 23 to 27, he is wrestling with his church because they're questioning his apostleship because they didn't like what he had to say.

But the credential he gives is very different than the credential we give in our generation. Are they servants of Christ? I speak as if insane. I more so in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes.

Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger in the sea, danger among the false brethren.

I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food and cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is a daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. This is his credential. He doesn't talk about his great learning.

He didn't talk about how he was a direct disciple of Gamaliel. He doesn't talk about how he was a former member of the Sanhedrin. He doesn't talk about his great heritage of a Roman citizenship. He talks about his beating, his suffering. Why does he do that? Because unless a man is so deeply convicted that this is the truth, he won't give his life.

If he's seeking his glory, what benefit is there in the beating? If he's doing it for selfish motive, what benefit is there for being shipwrecked? What benefit is there with the whipping? What benefit is there for going hungry? What benefit is there for leaving everything and then ultimately getting beheaded?

So what Apostle Paul is pointing to is his faith. Because I believe. And that's why what James says in James chapter 1, "Consider pure joy when you encounter trials of many kinds, because the testing of your faith produces endurance." And when endurance has its perfect result, it causes you to be perfect and complete, not lacking anything.

And all of it for the purpose of what? Testing of your faith. Do you believe this? How did you come to the conclusion, the things that you profess to believe? Is it just a group think tank? It's because you were born in a Christian home? You were surrounded by Christians who told you?

And because you like them, you said, "I want to believe what they want to believe." Not necessarily because you are convicted of it as being true. If your faith is a group faith that you've adhered to because you like these people, you will never move beyond the people that you are around.

So if they are lukewarm, you will be lukewarm. If they are disobedient, you will be disobedient. You will never move beyond where the crowd is. Because that's how you came to faith. You wanted to be part of that group. But when God calls you and He wants to challenge you, He wants to use you, what does God always do with His people?

He takes them away and sends them out to the desert. He makes them by themselves alone with God. And they have this communion with God that they didn't have in the group. God always does that. He will isolate you so that you can see how much of your faith is real and how much of it is you're just going along with the crowd.

You just happen to be at Berean, so you're going on with the Bible crowd. You just happen to be at a church that does missions, so you're going along with that crowd. That's why He says to stay sober. He wants us to judge, to come to our own conclusion that Jesus died for me, but am I willing to die for Him?

Is this something that I am convicted? Is this precious? He says even in Epaphroditus in Philippians chapter 229, "Receive Him then in the Lord with all joy and hold men like Him in high regard because He came close to death." He said that's His credential. It's not the many books that He's read.

It's not the books that He's written. It's not the large church that He has. He said He almost died because He was so convicted. In Deuteronomy chapter 13, 1 through 4, it gives instructions on how to determine if a prophet is truly from God or not. It's two criteria.

One, does it come true? If they prophesize something, it doesn't come true. Immediately it's not from God. He doesn't say, "Well, if it doesn't come to fruition the first time, give it a second time. Try three or four times and maybe one of those times will stick." He said, "No." If He says it and it doesn't happen, I didn't send Him because that's not how God works.

God doesn't send people and say, "Oh, he got it wrong four or five times. Maybe the fifth time if he tries it, keep trying it and you'll get it right." He says, "No." That's why He tells Moses, "Oh, you're sending the wrong guy. I'm not good." He doesn't say, "You humble servant of mine." He said, "You're arrogant.

You think I chose you because I needed you? I made your mouth. When I tell you to open it, just open it. When I tell you to shut it, just shut it." He didn't say, "You are humble for refusing Him." He said, "Arrogant. You're just a tool." If He says something, it doesn't come true.

He's not from God. But secondly, if He says it and it comes true and yet He doesn't lead you to God, He's not from me. In other words, the miracles can be mimicked by Satan and we see that even in the 10 plagues. Every time God performs a miracle, there's another miracle that matches.

Well, we can do this. Well, you can do that. We can do this and back and forth until finally God does something that they can't mimic. But this false prophet happened to mimic and yet He does not lead you to God. He's not from God. But let me conclude with this.

Because the greatest problem in our generation is not necessarily blatant heresy. Satan does not come dressed as Satan. Satan comes scheming, putting thoughts in your head while you're not paying attention, your own dissensions, your own desires that are frustrated and Satan gives you a way to have him and the world at the same time, which will never happen because the Bible says you can't have the world and God at the same time and yet because you filled your heart with the things of this world, you end up gravitating toward doctrines and teaching that will allow you to have both, which ultimately isn't from God.

Our problem today isn't necessarily blatant heresy because we can recognize that. We're not fighting against people who are saying, "I don't believe in God." It's like, "Well, are there people there?" Of course. Jesus was not resurrected from the dead. Of course there are people who are like that. But what destroys the church is not that.

What destroys the church is gradual erosion of a church that does not believe in the sufficiency of God's Word. We believe in inerrancy but not sufficiency. What I mean by that is we use the Word of God almost like a decoration. We have it, we memorize scripture, we read books about it, but when we're really in trouble, we look for counselors.

There's nothing wrong with counseling. But the first solution to any problem that we have is look to other people. Before we come to His Word, before we come to prayer, you are in danger and you don't even know it. If we have more confidence in leadership than the Word of God, you are in more danger than you think you are.

If you are more comforted by the people that surround you and says encouraging things to you, than the words of God Himself, you are in danger much more than you think you are. Because you are open to deception. You have no way of testing if this is really from God.

You want it to be from God. There's been a lot of studies about how Diet Coke is not good for you. And some of you guys are never going to drink Diet Coke. And I've read the studies myself, I've heard it, and many of you have told me that.

But I don't believe it. I don't believe it. And the reason why I don't believe it is because I don't want to believe it. Because it's good. Especially when you're eating like spicy food or actually pretty much any food. I can't refute the study. I don't know why. I just don't want to believe it.

Because I don't want to give it up. So don't confront me. I'm trying to drink less of it. But automatically my natural instinct is like, "Who did this study?" It's got to be Pepsi. Pepsi must have done this study. She said, "So good. Why would it be bad for you?

I've been drinking it for years. I'm fine." How much of our doctrines do we embrace because it is convenient? How much of the doctrines do we have a knee-jerk reaction against because it is inconvenient? When we are lukewarm and we are not sober, you set yourself up for deception.

That's why the Bible says, "Test," Proverbs 3, 5, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil." Don't trust your own intellect.

Don't trust the people around you. That's going to be our main point today. Don't trust anybody. After the first sermon, somebody came up to me. He's like, "Thank you for the sermon. I'm not going to trust anybody." I was like, "Yeah, high five." I was like, "Huh, maybe I should speak to her." I'm not saying don't be skeptical.

It's like, "Who are you?" Make sure that our confidence is coming from the truth, not because of charismatic personalities, not because of credentials, not because of your experience, not because, "Well, that man is so venerated by so many people. He can't be wrong." You don't know how many times I've had discussions with people about doctrine and say, "Well, it's like this." They say, "Well, where did you find that in Scripture?" And I say, "Well, he said this in this article and this denomination, but where did you find it in Scripture?" And they can't defend it.

So, how did you come to that conclusion? I said, "Well, even they didn't realize that they were just deferring to whoever that they honored. It is not safe." Whether that is John Piper or John MacArthur or, again, all the Johns, right? It is not safe. Let me conclude with one more passage.

In Luke chapter 5, Jesus is calling his disciples. He spends a good chunk of time teaching the multitude, and then he sees the disciples coming from a long night of fishing, unsuccessful. In verse 4, "When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, 'Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.' Simon answered and said, 'Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing.'" So, stop right there.

These are professional fishermen who caught nothing. They spent all night at the prime time of fishing. They caught nothing, and here is this carpenter, and he said, "Oh, you didn't catch anything? Try it one more time." Right? Now, I am just reading in between the line, and I am thinking, humanly speaking, and again, I don't think Peter was just an average fisherman.

I don't think he was an electrician, and then at the age of 30, decided, "Ah, it's not working for me. I am going to be a fisherman." According to Scripture, it says that he owned his own boat, so he wasn't just an average fisherman. He was a guy who was able to hire other people to fish for him.

And you know, when that paralytic was being lowered down when Jesus was preaching, many people believed that that was his mother's house. And so, this was not a small house. This was a pretty big house to have a gathering there of that size. So Peter was a middle to upper middle class fisherman.

So these were pretty wealthy guys. And so, which means that he was probably a fisherman by trade, by generation. My guess is his great-grandfather was a fisherman, grandfather was a fisherman, father was a fisherman, and he is the fisherman, maybe third, fourth, fifth generation fisherman. He knows what he is doing.

Everything he knew, he knew from an infant. And all the other guys on the boat are in the same boat, basically. Where is Dean? Dean would appreciate that. They were on the same boat. So when Jesus says, "After all night of fishing, throw the net out," I could read between the line and he is thinking, "If I need a chair to be fixed, I will call you, Jesus." If the walls need to be painted or shelves need to be put up, I will call you.

I am the professional fisherman. "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but," it's a big but. There is a lot of big buts in the Bible. "But I will do as you say and let down the net." I don't think Peter would have listened to anybody else but Jesus because he is the expert in this.

If Matthew said to the tax collector, "Hey, you caught all night, try one more time," I think his response would have been, "Jump out of the boat and start choking him." Like all night he is frustrated, they didn't catch anything. These are professional fishermen who couldn't catch anything and just flipping it.

"Hey, just try one more time. You are a tax collector. If I want to rip off people, I will call you, okay? Don't tell me what to do." But he says, "Because you say it. Because you say it, I will do it." When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish and their nets began to break.

Now these are professional fishermen. I don't think that they bought their nets from the 99 cent store, that this was some weak net. And so the first time they get a large catch that it starts breaking. That's how much fish that they caught. And my guess is they never caught something this big.

And they were having a hard time even bringing it up. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sink. I don't think they probably ever experienced this.

I don't think they did this and then look back and say, "Yeah, this happens every other week." We are professional fishermen, did it all night, couldn't catch anything, but because you say so, we'll do it. And as a result of that, their nets break and boats begin to sink, filled with fish.

This is not by accident. Jesus isn't showing off. He's trying to teach his disciples, "Do not turn from my word to the left or to the right." If you want to have success, do not rely upon your intellect. Do not rely upon your experience. Do not rely upon your gifting.

Do not rely upon people. Do not rely upon leadership. Don't rely upon your church. If you want to bear fruit, abide in me, me. Do not turn from it to the left or to the right. This is the same warning that God gave to the Israelites. Your power is not within you, it's me.

So when I tell you to open your mouth, open it. When I tell you to shut it, shut it. When I tell you to walk, you walk. When I tell you to stop, you stop. And he says the same thing in the New Testament. When I tell you to watch, watch.

Be sober because they're coming. And their intent is to destroy you. And when you are deceived and you are destroyed, you don't even know it. That's what deception is. There might be satanic influence in your life and you just think like, "Ah, I'm not taking my faith seriously." You might not realize there's satanic work happening in your life because you're not taking it seriously.

This is why lukewarmness is so, so, so, so, so dangerous. We're not on a picnic. We're not sightseeing. The Bible says we are in the spiritual warfare to be nonchalant in the context of bullets flying at us is a very dangerous place for us to be. That's why he says watch.

Watch, keep an eye out for those who are coming in to hinder and to destroy. It's not a might. He says it is. Let me, as I invite our praise team to come, let me ask you, encourage you, examine your faith. And my goal here this morning is not to shake you up and question your faith ultimately, but it really is to strengthen you.

Because so much of Christianity that you and I have become accustomed to is cultural and is not truth. We're okay as long as we fit in with whatever Christian community that I've adapted myself into. Our standard of righteousness cannot be the church. It must be the word of God.

And I'm going to go a step further than that. If you follow Christ out of genuine conviction of this truth, there will be times when God will separate you from this group. He will send you abroad. He will send you some other places, and maybe even within the church to force you to take a look at your faith, to see where you stand.

Because until our faith is fortified and strengthened, we are vulnerable. Let's take some time to pray, come before God, examining our own selves, praying, "Lord, we pray. See if there's any hurtful ways in me. See if there's things that I've just kind of assumed in my life and never really questioned.

Do I really believe this? And if I really believe this, where do I stand? Is my confidence coming from my tradition? Is my confidence coming from the church or certain people that I've deferred my faith to or is it coming from you knowing who God is?" Be confident that strays from Christ and His Word, we are in danger.

So let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.