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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. In Shady Green Pastures on the first. Dear Children On the second. Water On the second But all through the blood Some through great sorrow But God gives a song In the night season And all the day long On the last Away from the mire Away from the clay God leads his dear children along Away up in glory Eternity's day God leads his dear children along Some through the water Some through the flood Some through the fire But all through the blood Some through great sorrow But God gives a song In the night season And all the day long All right. At this time, we will have the announcements. All right. Well, good morning. Welcome to Shield of Faith Baptist Church. Let's see here. We'll go through these announcements here real quick. Weekly church service time, Sunday mornings are at 1030. Sunday evenings at 6. Wednesdays are at 7 p.m. Underneath that is a list of soul winning times. What's different about this month is that soul winning is every day. So if you want to go, just let me know. Yeah, it's simple. 208-391-5323 is the number to call. Next page under announcements tonight will be in 2 Kings, chapter number 10. And then, let's see here, already talked about March Madness. Brother Corbin Russell from Faithful Word Tucson. He will be here preaching for us March 26th. That'll be a Sunday, so I'm looking forward to that. Let's see here, birthdays and anniversaries for March. It's just kindling. You definitely get something. You're definitely getting a beating. Let's see here, verse of the week. Matthew 16, 4, which says, A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. Then there shall no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them and departed. Of course, we're going to talk about that this morning. We are a family integrated church. And so what that means is we don't separate children from their parents for any reason. If you need privacy, we have a mother baby room, which is right across the hallway, all set up, ready to go. Dads, you can use this room over here or the break room. Let's see here, don't forget to turn your phones off or place them on silent so they're not a distraction. And after the service, we have food in here. It might be a few minutes after the service, but everybody's welcome to have some. And with that being said, we're going to have one more song and then we will do the Bible reading. All right, everyone. If you kept your place in your hymnals, it's just the very next song over. We'll be singing song number 97. I need thee every hour. Song number 97. On the first. I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord. No tender voice like thine can peace afford. I need thee, oh, I need thee every hour. I need thee, oh, bless me now, my Savior. I come to thee. On the second. I need thee every hour. Stay thou nearby. Temptations lose their power when thou art nigh. I need thee, oh, I need thee every hour. I need thee, oh, bless me now, my Savior. I come to thee. On the third. I need thee every hour. Enjoy your pain. Come quickly and abide. For life is vain. I need thee, oh, I need thee every hour. I need thee, oh, bless me now, my Savior. I come to thee. On the fourth. I need thee every hour, most holy one. Oh, make me thine indeed, thou blessed Son. I need thee, oh, I need thee every hour. I need thee, oh, bless me now, my Savior. I come to thee. Good morning, everybody. Turn to Matthew chapter 16, Matthew 16, Matthew 16, verse 1. The Pharisees also of the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say it will be fair weather, for the sky is red, and in the morning it will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, but ye cannot discern the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them and departed. And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread, which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up, neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? How is it that ye do not understand, that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how he bade them, not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiahs, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples, that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, thus shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence unto me, for thou savours not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is the man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Brother Denver, you want to pray for us? Lord, I thank you so much for this day. I pray that you bless the message today and every year. I pray that you keep us strong in our memory. Amen. All right, amen. We are in Matthew chapter number 16. I've been to the book of Matthew for quite some time, probably since last June. The whole reason that we started was because of the guy that's out here with his little sign and flag, the homeless looking guy who challenged us to go through the Sermon on the Mountain. That's how this all started. It was interesting because he accused our church of not following anything on the Sermon on the Mountain. We proved him wrong a thousand times. It's been a great study and I've been looking forward to it every single week. With today's sermon, we're going to be going through the first four verses of Matthew chapter number 16. The title is this, The Spirit of Truth vs. The Spirit of Air. I wanted to spend some time with you. That's a big point in this chapter. Really, through the last chapter as well. What's going on here is Jesus is going around the Sea of Galilee to different spots. You'll notice that every time they land in a certain area, like if you were to look at the last verse of chapter 15, they're now in a place called Magdala. Why is that significant? Well, because every time he goes around the Sea of Galilee, who shows up? The Pharisees and the Sadducees with a new challenge, a new way to try to stump them. Then he just completely demolishes them and we get tons of applications. It's exciting. But why talk about discernment? Why is that so important today? A lot of people say, we've got so much available to us on the internet, we can just look it up and tell whether or not something's true. That's definitely not the case. According to Forbes magazine, there's 2.5 quintillion bytes of information created every day. Whatever that means, it's a lot. We have more information available to us today than any generation in the past. What that means for us is we have our work cut out for us. Because now people are exposed to so much disinformation, it literally makes our jobs 10 times harder. So you literally have to learn the Bible, you have to understand what's going on, and you have to have the drive and the desire to want to build spiritual discernment so that you can tell when something is not right, when you're dealing with the spirit of error. That's why we're reading this and that's why this is such a big deal and I wanted to spend this morning's sermon dealing with that. So look down, if you would. We're going to start at verse number 1, Matthew chapter 16. Look what it says. It says, The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven. So again, last verse in chapter 15, they land on the coast of Magdala, which people say is where Mary Magdalene's from. That's not important. The fact is, he can't go anywhere without being challenged, without somebody coming to him with something. And what's the challenge this morning? Well, show us a sign from heaven. Now they clearly know who he is. They know what he's done, they've heard about him, and they've probably met people who have seen the miracles, so on and so forth. They don't say show us a miracle from you, they say show us a sign from heaven. You know what that sounds like to me? It sounds like this growing movement today, which you all heard about, you all know, and that is the Bible's not necessarily important, but it's God in heaven, or it's Jesus, okay? The world today wants to separate, and the religious leaders today, they want to separate the word of God, they want to separate Jesus from heaven, they want to diminish him, and they'll do it in any way that they can. That's exactly what you have going on here. Like, we don't want to necessarily see something directly from you. We don't care about the seven loaves and the little fishes. We don't care about the fact that you raised the dead. We don't care about that. We want to see something come down from heaven, not you. So what they're doing is they're trying to test him. They're trying to tempt him, is what the Bible's saying. And literally, I mean, that's what's going on today. You know, I got a message not too long ago from somebody based off of what Pastor Shelley preached last week, and they're like, you know, you guys would be a lot better off if you could just learn to separate the fact that the Bible has errors. Okay, the Bible has mistranslations, okay? We don't get our truth from the word of God. We don't get our truth from the Bible. It's the best that we have, but we just believe by faith in Christ because of whatever. You know, you could give a good reason. And I'm not quoting him exactly, but it's the same story and it's the same thing that we hear all the time, especially out zoning, and it should anger every single person in here, okay? Why do you call yourself a Christian if you don't believe the Bible? What book in the world speaks about Christ? The Bible, you know? I mean, it should be that simple. If God could create the heavens and earth, which we know he did, why couldn't he preserve his word, okay? And so that's the battle today, and it's just going to get more and more intense as time progresses. Nothing new under the sun. So they want to see a sign from heaven. Let's look at the response. Jesus actually does show them a sign from heaven. It's just not the heaven that they're talking about. Look at verse two. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, but can ye not discern the signs of the times? So he says, you know, you guys look for a sign. You see signs in heaven every day. You can tell what the weather's going to be based on, the condition of the sky. But what he says at the end of verse three, there's what we're going to focus on today. He says, But ye cannot, but can ye not discern the signs of the times? So what is he implying there? Well, he's basically, you know, implying this question, which is how do we discern the sign of the times? What do we go to? Where do we get that discernment from? And it's obviously the Word of God, which they questioned and they doubted. Okay, we all know that the Sadducees questioned angels. They questioned the resurrection. They didn't like that sort of stuff. Jesus had mentioned prior to this several times that the Pharisees don't teach salvation right. The scribes don't teach salvation right. Keep your place there, but go to 1 John chapter number four. So essentially what he's saying is these people here, they are experts in physical discernment, but in experts in spiritual discernment. Okay, again, nothing new under the sun today. It is our job to identify people that fall into this category. And obviously if we can help them, we want to help them. But if we can't, then we need to separate. We need to walk away and be done with that. So again, what is spiritual discernment? Well, it's the ability to evaluate your surroundings and basically the circumstances and make correct decisions. You know, is this a person I should listen to? Is this a person I should trust? It's the ability to separate truth from error, okay, which we desperately need in today's day and age because of the abundance of information that is out there and available to people. Let's see here. 1 John chapter number four. Look at verse number one. So the Bible says this. This is what John is saying, the epistle of 1 John. 1 John chapter four. Did I have you go to the Gospel of John or 1 John? Did I say 1 John? 1 John, okay. So it's, yeah, it's one of those days. So 1 John chapter number four. Look at verse number one. So John says this. So John says this. Now, if you were to be able to take yourself back in this time when this was written, when this was being taught, you know, back in the early church days, they, you know, John's saying, hey, there are many false prophets. I mean, in the beginning of the church cycle, you know, when the New Testament was starting, he's saying, hey, there are many false prophets. How many more are there today? I mean, we have access to all of them, okay? And so what does he say here? He says, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits. Now, the question is, what is he talking about here? What are these spirits? And this is where a lot of Pentecostals will come in and say, well, he's talking about the spirit of Nintendo or the spirit of Sega Genesis or the spirit of, you know, Albertsons or whatever it is, okay? Everything physical has a spirit, okay? And they'll push that type of ideology or whatever. That is not what he's talking about. For context, go back one chapter. Go back to 1 John chapter number three. And let's see what he means here. 1 John chapter number three, look at verse number 23. Okay, he says this. And this is his commandment. Okay, this is talking about Christ. He says, and this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandments. He's talking about us, talking about people. Verse 24, he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him. Now, let's stop right there. Does he say he that keepeth the 10 commandments, he that keepeth all of the commandments and follow them perfectly is saved? No. What is the commandment? Well, that we would see Jesus, believe on him, and be saved. Okay? And obviously, we should love one another. We'll get into that another time. But he says, verse 24, and he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him, and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us. So obviously, when we are saved, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But context-wise, by spirit, what John is saying is to try people. Okay, that's what he's talking about. He's not talking about some necromancy. He's not talking about going down to your local psychic and trying to talk to spirits, you know? Like the Pentecostals do, where they have this special time in their church service where people like flip out or whatever, and they're like, be gone, demon. You know, that's not what John is talking about here. And I bring that up because I've seen it with my own eyes several times, and that movement, by the way, is making a huge comeback, and you'll see why towards the end of the sermon. So go back to 1 John, chapter number 4. We'll talk about what this means here. So again, look at verse number 1. Beloved, believe not every spirit. You know what that implies? Conversation. We're told here that we shouldn't just believe every person, every spirit, but try the spirits. I had a guy one time call me up real angry, this was about two years ago, because his wife and his daughter, I guess, had come to visit the church, and one of our church members had approached him, and said, you know, are you 100% sure you're saved and on your way to heaven? And she took offense to that because she had been going to church her whole life, so she went home, told her husband, and he's like, you know, that's a real jerk move that you do there. You drive people away with that. You know, what I said is the Bible gives us permission to try the spirits, you know? Furthermore, I mean, we're commanded to get people saved. I mean, what's the two-fold mission of the church? To edify and to evangelize. I mean, literally, you can find that in chapter 3. I mean, that's verse 23 right there. That's what we are called to do, and I tried to explain that to him. He's like, but you could do it in a nicer way. Well, maybe, okay? Maybe, but don't tell me that we don't have that permission, that we don't have that right, because we certainly do. You know, and furthermore, people are always coming after us, you know? You shouldn't say that about those people, just because they're in a different denomination or they have different beliefs on salvation. Who are you to judge? Well, I'm a born-again, Bible-believing Christian filled with the Holy Spirit. I've got the Word of God, and I've got permission here from this epistle that I can try the spirits, okay? And so can you. So he says, verse 1, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because, and here is why, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Very simple. This is what we are supposed to do as a local New Testament church. You know, for example, a lot of times people will come in here and they'll say like, oh, you know, do you listen to, I don't know, Stephen Furtick, or do you listen to John MacArthur? You know, and we try not to, you know, you don't want to just attack that person. You know, bam, a guy's a false prophet. We want to try to take them where they're at and first get them saved, you know, and if they are saved, we want to explain to them properly, hey, this is what these people teach, here's what the Word of God says, and let them make up their own mind, okay? That's the right way that we like to do business. Look at verse number 2. He says, So again, he is talking about people. Okay, so what does he say here? Verse 2. Verse 3. This is that spirit of antichrist whereof ye have heard that it should come and even now already is in the world. Sounds easy, right? The problem is a lot of false prophets on the internet and on TV confess that Jesus Christ comes in the flesh. I've heard Joel Osteen say that, I've heard John MacArthur say that, I've heard John Piper say that, I've heard John Heggy say that, I mean, I could stand up here all morning and list off for you the amount of people who have said that. So what is he really saying here? What does this mean? Keep your place there, but go to Mark chapter number 1. Now bringing this up because back, I'll never forget it. You know, I used to go to a church and I've told you guys this story before. This was in New Orleans, Louisiana. Look at this community church and it was called like Faith Christian Fellowship or something like that, right? And they would always tell me, well, we're not Pentecostal. But they were Pentecostal, you know? They practiced that speaking in tongues stuff and that was naive and, you know, just trying to figure out what's going on, what is truth, but the people were super nice. Like, we're still friends with some of those people, even to this day, you know? Like, it's just weird. Which, by the way, little side note, you know, when you're like really nice and you have that good type of culture, you know, people want to come to church, but again, that's the danger of that, you know, why we ought to have discernment is because a lot of people flock to these other churches because their people are so nice, the pastor's so nice and so sweet. He's got such a sweet, soft spirit. You know, like that Jones guy is just a jerk and he's always angry. And there's a lot of truth to that, but, you know, at least I'm right, okay? At least we are right. You know, at the end of the day, I'm going to tell you what's up, but it's going to be right, okay? Most of the time. Most of the time. So, back in those days, you know, we just finally, I finally figured out the truth. Left and I was hanging out with this guy that was thinking about leaving as well and we're talking about the doctrine of speaking in tongues. And, you know, and I was bringing up Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn because they were really, you know, really powerful back in those days, like even more popular than they are today. And he goes, you know, and he brought up these verses here in 1 John 4. And he says, hey, they confess that Jesus come in the flesh. They are brothers. He's like, you can't speak against them. You just can't. And at the time, I hadn't read the Bible from front to back. I wasn't really studying. I was reading books about the Bible. I was listening to like AM Christian radio, you know, just trying to get truth at that time. And I could, I didn't have an answer for him. I didn't have a good comeback for him, but I do now, obviously. And so I want to share that with you and what I would have told him, you know, or what I would have tell him if I could talk to him now. But let's slow down and let's back up here. Okay, Mark chapter 1, verse 23. Okay, we're going to make sense of what John's talking about here, but I want to show you something. Mark chapter 1, look at verse number 23. Go to Mark chapter 1, look at verse 23. So he says this, the Bible says this, and there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, verse 24, saying, let us alone. What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee. Who thou art, the Holy One of God? Here you have an example, Mark chapter 1, of a guy in a synagogue, and he's possessed with an unclean spirit. And that unclean spirit says about Christ, I know thee, who thou art, the Holy One of God. Now who here thinks that John's saying that you should listen to this guy? That this spirit is approved? You know, it might be unclean, but he spoke truth. You've got to be kind and peaceful and loving. Okay, now go to Mark chapter number 3. Let's look at another one. I'm not going to develop the context around these. I just want you to see these quick verses here. Mark chapter 3, look at verse 11. And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him and cried, saying, thou art, the Son of God. So here's another example of a spirit saying the truth. Okay, Mark chapter 5. Last one I'm going to show you. Go to Mark chapter number 5. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshiped him, verse 7, and cried with a loud voice and said, what have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son, and here it is again, of the Most High God? I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not. Verse 8, for he said unto him, come out of the man thou unclean spirit. So there's three examples of unclean spirits confessing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he is God come in the flesh. What do we do with this? Okay, go to Romans chapter 10. Obviously what John is talking about is really trying the spirits. He's giving us, just starting at the most basic, fundamental truth. Is the person saved? You take their answers from there on and then what you have to do, whether it's at the door or somebody through the process of time or somebody who maybe you're listening to on the internet, and you have to basically audit what they say. What is their salvation story? Do they say things like this? Yeah, I believe that salvation is by faith alone. A lot of people around here will tell you that. There was a period in our church where a lot of people were coming back and saying, man, we're running to save people all the time. They're just saying, yeah, it's by faith, you can't lose it, blah, blah, blah. But when you dig deeper and you really learn how to try those people, you'll hear things like this. For example, I started asking this question. So we're saved by faith alone, right? Does that mean being faithful and following the Bible and doing good? Oh, yeah, of course. Ah, there it is. And they start saying that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's what I mean by being faithful. Being faithful and faith are two different things. You're not saved by being faithful to church, by being faithful and turning from sins. You're saved by faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We are saved by understanding we cannot save ourselves. We place our faith and trust on Christ. He's the one that did all the work. He's the one that saves us. After that, we should be faithful in things. But those are two different areas of study. Those are two different concepts, two different things. So when you start trying these people, when you start trying their pastors, you start trying to worship pastor of the sixth hour of the day on Sunday at some of these churches. Some of these churches have like 20 pastors. And they'll tell you, oh, it's all by faith. Can't lose it. What do you mean by you can't lose it? You know what they often mean by that? Well, I wouldn't do anything to lose it. Some of them will say this. Well, what I mean by it's eternal is that if you're really saved, if you're really faithful, then Christ gives you the power to live the perfect Christian life and to get all the sin out of your life. You see what I mean here? We don't just stop always with the basic question. Now, we're talking about discernment this morning. At the door, we want to gracefully, tactfully, as much as possible, try people. It's usually very easy. It's usually very few questions we can tell right away where someone's at. But when it comes to teachers, when it comes to people creeping in and saying, hey, I have a doctrine or hey, I would like to be in this position, we have to try the spirits. We have to try them. What is it that you believe? We have to learn to dig deep. And that's what you're going to see. But Romans chapter number 10, I just want to go over this because this definitely applies to what we're talking about here. Understanding the fundamentals here, the absolute basics is what's going to help you and I really try the spirits and understand whether or not somebody is saved, somebody is speaking truth. Romans chapter 10, look at verse number 8. So Paul says, but what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thine mouth and in thine heart, that is the word of faith which we preach. Now, why do you think I'm bringing that up? This is part of my hobby horse. What is the one thing that is constantly being pulled down? It's the word of God. It is the Bible. What is the Bible telling us here? The word of faith which we preach. What was it that Paul and the apostles and the Christians back then, what was it that they preached? It was the word of God. What is being preached today? It's the word of faith. Look at verse 9. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. There's so much wisdom in there and I know we use these verses all the time and we're all familiar with them, but sometimes when you just slow down, you read them, you think about them and you break them down, there's just always nuggets of wisdom to pull out of here. For example, you can read this to a Bible and they'll tell you, well, I believe that. Ask them, okay, so what happens after you hear the word of God? And they'll say, well, you give your life to Christ. Okay, and then what? Well, and then, you know, you die and hopefully you go to heaven. That's a lot of times what they'll tell you. But that's not what this says. Then, what is the last part of the verse there? Those last four words, thou shalt be saved. He doesn't say thou shalt eventually be saved. Thou shalt be saved. You know, do you really understand that? Can you communicate that to a person at the door? Can you try somebody who is in spiritual leadership with that question? Do they believe that? Do they believe that as soon as a person hears the word of God and believes it, that they're instantly saved? Okay, or not? Because, you know, there's a lot of people running around with the title Baptist and they'll either tolerate or they'll toy with or they'll say things like this. You know, well, again, you know, it's all by faith, but I get nervous. Every time somebody just shows up and preaches the Bible and someone prays a prayer and says they believe it and they're saved and then you never see them at church. You know, I have a hard time believing those people actually got saved. I had an independent, fundamental Baptist pastor tell me that. He even said, you know, I used to go to this, it's not an old IFP church, it's a modern IFP church, I gotta stop calling them that. But, you know, I would always talk about soul winning and they had door knocking time, you know, and I would grab whoever was available and we'd go out and we'd knock doors, we'd be, you know, soul winning and he brought this up in a sermon and he just had this burning desire to preach against me. He was like, brother Joe, I know that you go out there and you, you know, you speak to people, he's like, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just staying here and I'm just, I'm just standing here and I'm just standing here. You, you know, you speak to people, he's like, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just telling you, I get nervous when people hear the gospel for the first time and say they're saved that they actually got saved. You know, what is he really trying to say? This guy's a graduate of West Coast Baptist college down in California. And what is he trying to say? Well, most of the time you can't ever pin him down. So what does that tell us? That tells us it's a person, you know, I can't discern whether or not you're saved, I'm not saying you are, I'm not saying you aren't, but I don't like that answer, I'm out. I have to leave, I have to separate because it's not clear because the Bible says that if a person confesses with their mouth and believes in their heart, they're saved. Okay, just because you see them, you know, walking out of the alcohol section at the store the next day, it doesn't necessarily mean they didn't believe you. It doesn't mean that they didn't get saved just because they don't fall down and start crying. It doesn't mean they didn't get saved. Just because they don't come walking through this door doesn't mean they didn't get saved. You know, last week, perfect example, myself and James, who was visiting from Texas, we got this couple saved. Right, you all saw it, they came in here, they sat over there, you know, they believed everything. Okay, Pastor Shelley started preaching, it was like five minutes. You know, didn't say anything offensive and they were offended, okay? And I think the story's funny. I mean, they walked out, you know, and they're just pacing back and forth and I'm texting Jess, what's going on with them? She goes and talks to them, tries to calm them down, they're upset, they want to leave. So I have no problem. I walk out there and I go out there, I'm like, hey, what's going on? And they're just like, you know, the yelling and the intensity is just not godly and, you know, we just never want to come back here again. Okay, so I got them a car and sent them home. Well, they sent a text message to James later on and said, we really appreciate that you guys came and saved us, but we just can't be at that church. You know, that, hey, I mean, that's okay. I mean, things like that happen. The important thing is they got saved. Okay? It is what it is. But you know what your modern IFB preacher's gonna say? Well, you know, they probably didn't really believe it. They probably didn't get saved because there's no acts of repentance. You know, they're just wishy-washy. They'll say things like that. There's no acts of repentance. Not to say you got a term for your sins to be saved, but, okay, we need to learn discernment and you get that by understanding the fundamentals. That's what I'm trying to say. Look at verse 10. Romans 10, 10. He says, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession has made him salvation. That's it. Okay? And so initially when somebody, you know, has that right doctrine and they come here, okay, cool. You know, if later on they're having secret pizza meetings and talking all this trash and, you know, weird things start coming up, I might begin to question. I have that right. You have that right. How do you come to a church for four years or five years and then neglect the most basic fundamental doctrines in the Bible like love one another, how to treat a pastor? How does that happen? You got to ask yourself those questions. You need to understand the word of God. Verse 11, for the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. It doesn't say, for whosoever believeth on him and shows up to every church services and passes all these tests shall be saved. That's not what it says. Now go back to 1 John chapter number 4. So again, verse number 1, 1 John chapter number 4, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. And we've had different levels come through here. We had a guy come in here and said that there's something wrong with him. We had a guy come in here and said that there's 18,000 foot tall Nephilims. And that's basically what we're walking on. And he wanted me to believe that. He wanted me to change my mind and my position on Genesis 6. He said, not doing it. He got offended. I'm like, good. You can leave. We've had other people come in here and leave later on and start to say some really weird things. We preach a false gospel. And that we need to repent. We need to spend more time on making sure people are actually saved and stuff like that, because we need to do this audit and make sure that they're giving up certain things in their lives. We've had people like that. We've had all levels of that in this church. I mean, think about it. The devil's got most of these churches under wraps. They're just on maintenance. Who do you think they're going to mess with? Who do you think the unseen world is going to mess with? They're going to mess with a church like ours that has the right gospel and draws the line in the sand. So again, verse one, we have permission to try the spirits. And by spirits, what is he saying? People. All right. Let's see here. Look at verse number four. So he says, year of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. What does that mean? What is he talking about? Who have we overcome? We've overcome these false prophets, meaning we do not have to allow them to devour us. We do not have to allow them to come in here and destroy the church, because that happened in Galatia. That happened to the churches in Corinth. That happens a lot. Just because you're saved doesn't mean you're automatically guaranteed any of this stuff, any of this protection. It goes back to verse one, try the spirits. How do you do that? How do you do that? You do that by learning the word of God, understanding it in your heart, and being able to look at your surroundings, understand your circumstances. And God will help you with that. But the most integral part, the paramount thing here is the Bible. It is the word of God, which is, again, which is why you see so many people today go to church, but they have a higher IQ in the world and then things of the world than they do of the Bibles, just like the Pharisees and Sadducees in Matthew chapter 16, verse 1, 1 through 4. Look at verse 5. He says, they are of the world. Therefore, speak they of the world and the world here with them. So now we're getting another little clue here on how to try the spirits, on how to test them. Number one, obviously, if they give you the right answers and you understand how to try that, that's good. But number two here, he says in verse 5, he says, they, meaning these false prophets, these people who we have overcome because we're in Christ, he says, they are of the world. Therefore, speak they of the world and the world here with them. So again, I mean, what does this look like? And again, this is not always so easy. A lot of times this is subtle. You know, and again, this always goes back to, you know, anytime somebody elevates something in the world above the word of God, you have a problem. You have a problem. I'm telling you that right now. Anytime a preacher gets up and he has more respect, more admiration for the Greek, which he cannot read, than he does for the Bible that we have today, the King James Bible, you have a problem. I used to have a pastor and he was a King James guy and, you know, a very smart guy. You'd never be able to win a debate with him, even when he was clearly wrong. He was just that good at speaking. And he would always say this. He would always say, and this was way back in the day, but he would always say, the Bible has no errors. He'd say the King James Bible has no errors, but it has mistranslations. Okay? You know what he's saying? You have to come to me for truth. You need me to tell you truth. What does the Catholic Church tell you? You need the Catholic Church for truth. What do the Jehovah Witnesses tell you? Well, you need the Watchtower for truth. What does the Mormon Church tell you? Well, you need the Quorum of Twelve Apostles for truth in the Seventh-day Adventist. What do they tell you? Well, you need the Seventh-day Adventist headquarters and whatever their, you know, binding central command is. You need their organization. It always goes back to man. Okay? That's what is always apparent, what is always what you're going to find when you're just trying to discern truth. Okay? I mean, does that make sense? Look at verse five again. He says, they are of the world. Therefore, speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. So that's another test that we can kind of gauge a church or gauge a preacher on, you know, is are they attracting a lot of worldly people? Are they okay there? Okay? That's, you know, that's definitely a problem. You know, this Oasis Church down here, you know, it used to be Create Church. They changed their name to Oasis. I saw another one yesterday on the freeway just right off the freeway is a new church called Awake. You know, there's another one opening in Star, you know, with a similar type of name, these new evangelical churches. They just spring up and instantly have, like, two or three hundred people. We spring up and we're nowhere close. You know, we get to 40, 50 people, bam, back down to 20. 40, 50 people, bam, back down to 20. It's all good. I don't care. Okay? It's fine. We're still pushing. We're still getting people saved. We're still doing great things for God. We're not backing down from anybody. It's great. Okay? What is that? Because there's an element of worldliness. Because of what this is saying here. Their preachers are often of the world. Therefore, the world hears them and the world feels safe there, you know? And you say, yeah, but they still talk about Christ and he came in the flesh. They do, but it's false. They're still speaking falsely. People can say all sorts of things. Okay? I can't tell you guys, and many of you already know this, how many people have come in here and sounded like their new independent fundamental Baptist? You know how people could come in here and do that? Because they have the internet and they could just listen to sermons and memorize these things. Okay? There was a guy who went to Faithful Word for like, I don't know, 10 years or something like that. You know? He was a worker in the church. Turned out to be a oneness heretic. How does that happen? Because people could memorize things and just say those things to you. And if they keep the right amount of distance, it's very difficult to figure out. Okay? That's the secret. That is what they do. But at the end of the day, you need to remember this. They are of the world. Therefore, speak they of the world and the world heareth them. That's a good test. Okay? It's not always super obvious, though, is what I'm trying to say. You know, you just need to know this and really think and sit back like, does that church, does that, you know, that place that I'm recommending I send my friend who lives in North Carolina, you know, does that church there display any of these symptoms? Because if it does, that's a red flag and it warrants further investigation. Okay? Look at verse number six. He says, we are of God. Wow. What a judgmental statement. Okay? No judgment. Well, here's your judgment. We are of God. Meaning they aren't. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of air. Okay? Those words right there are enough to offend some people today. Who are you to say that something's false? You know, we can, if we could all just get along, things would be so much better. That is not what the word of God teaches. That is not what the Bible says here. John says we are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us hereby we know or know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of air. What does this mean? Who's this we here? Because I thought this was John and, you know, just talking to the Christians here. Who's this we? Go to 1 John chapter one and let's find out. Because when you understand who this we is here, it's really going to open up this verse to you. And it's going to give you another tool on how to try the spirits. What is he really trying to say there? This is very interesting here when you figure this out. But first let's talk about this. Who is the we? Why is he like we are of God? You know, is he just saying John and them? Or like what's going on here? God heareth us? Well, again, you always want to read these things from front to back. Read the whole letters, the whole books, and try to follow the context. Okay? 1 John chapter one, verse number one. Look how this epistle opens up. John says this. That which was from the beginning. And here it is. Which we have heard. Which we have seen with our eyes. Which we have looked upon. And our hands have handled the word of life. This isn't just from John. This is from the apostles. Okay? And these apostles obviously represent the word of life. Okay? And these apostles obviously represent something. Verse two. For the life was manifested. And here it is. We have seen it. And bear witness and show unto you that eternal life. Which was with the father. And was manifested unto us. Okay? Again, who's the us? The apostles. Verse three. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. And truly our fellowship is with the father. And with his son. Jesus Christ. Verse four. And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. So this epistle is not just John going on a rampage. Oh, this is just like my diary here. This is how I feel. And I just figure, oh, this will just be a blessing. No. He's telling you this is straight from God. All the apostles agree. This is the word of God that I am writing unto you. This is not like some ordinary letter. This isn't just like, oh, me, between me and some friends. Okay? No. This is scripture which you are reading here. That is the importance here. That is what he is saying. Go to Ephesians chapter number two. And what I'm trying to show you here is that oftentimes in the Bible, the apostles collectively are just, you'll see that word used or you'll see phrases like this to just denote Bible. Okay? That's very important. Look at Ephesians chapter two, verse 19. So Paul tells the Ephesians this. He says, now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, verse 20, he says, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself, being the chief cornerstone. The apostles and prophets, that's just a way to sum up the Bible, the word of God. Okay? That is what he's saying. And these three represent the word of God. The apostles and prophets got their words from the Bible. They got their word from the Bible. They got their word from the Bible. They got their word from the Bible. The apostles and prophets got their words from who? From Christ. Okay? Go back to 1 John chapter number four. And look at verse six. So he says, we, 1 John 4, 6, we are of God. Now, obviously, you can include those who believe this in here that he wrote to initially. There's no problem with that. But he says, we, meaning the same we that opened up the epistle, the apostles, we are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. What are we talking about here today? We're talking about trying the spirits, about testing whether or not somebody is of God. How do you do that? Well, do they speak of the world? Do they put the world over the Bible? Do they put the world over God? That's one test that we talked about that you could do. But here's the second one. Can they hear the word of God? Can they hear the word of God? Can they hear the word of God? Can they hear the word of God? Here's the second one. Can they hear the scripture? Can they understand it? Does it make sense? Or do they just pay it lip service? We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. So people that are not of God, they will not hear certain parts of the Bible. For example, I've heard this a few times in my life where I talk to somebody and say, I believe in Jesus. I believe in going to church. I'm a Sunday school teacher. Then you ask them things and they start saying, I don't believe every single thing. I don't believe that Joan was literally swallowed by a whale. I don't believe that God prepared a great fish for him. You know what that person is telling you? I'm not saved. That's what he's saying. I'm not saved. He's saying it without saying it. That's what he's implying. He has no idea. But because you hear the word of God and you know you have permission to try the spirits and because you know the tests, you can use these to gauge whether or not a person is saved. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. You cannot discern the spirit of truth from the spirit of error if you neglect the word of God. If you neglect the Bible. It is impossible. Anybody who knocks the word of God and says God didn't preserve it in any way, shape or form, that is a person you should not put your trust in. We're getting close to being done. Go back to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16. So again in verse 1, the Pharisees also with the Sadducees came tempting, desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven. What does Jesus think about this? Because people do this all the time. You know, Christians do this. This is increasing. But the world does this as well. Show us a sign. If I could just see this. You know, maybe do a miracle. If I could just see him for a split second, then I'd believe. I've even had people say, if Jesus is real, then why doesn't he manifest himself and show himself to us? Because then we would be able to see and believe, and then we could be saved and born again. Not happening. What does Jesus believe? He believes in Jesus. He believes in Jesus. He believes in Jesus. He believes in Jesus. He believes in Jesus. Not happening. What does Jesus say about that type of question? Well, look at verse 2. He answered and said unto them, when it's evening, you say it will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites. Jesus calls those types of people hypocrites. He doesn't say, you know what, I'm going to love you to pieces. I'm going to love you into salvation. He doesn't say that. He's like, you're a hypocrite is what you are. You can discern the face of the sky, but can ye not discern the sign of the times? Look at verse 4. A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas, and he left them and departed. That's the Jesus of the Bible. That's the Jesus that saves us. That's the Jesus that we preach to people. So when you get these soft-soaked preachers out and they're like, yeah, that guy's pretty rude over there in Boise, pretty angry. I'm just trying to follow the Savior. You know, sometimes when people, you know, and we're in discussion with them or whatever, they come down here and they want a challenge, and they start acting like this, get out of here. Shut your mouth. That's how I act. You're a hypocrite. You're a fool. You claim to be a teacher. You claim to be a teacher, and this is your attitude? You want to knock the Bible down in front of me? Get out of my face. I don't have time for that. Oh, but you can't act. Who's going to stop me? Certainly not you. But what does he say? A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. What does that mean? Before we figure all of that out, I want to show you something here very interesting. I know you guys have seen this, but go to Revelation chapter 13. So again, we'll be done here shortly. We'll be done here in just a few minutes. Revelation chapter number 13. So Jesus is saying, hey, the world, do you know what you're going to be left with for a sign until I come back? The Bible, because that's the sign of the prophet Jonas, the word of God, the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is what Jonas' life pictures as a whole. That's what you're going to be left with. You're not going to be left with snake handling and calling fire down from heaven and all these crazy miracles. No, you're not going to be left with any of that. You will be left with the gospel. You will be left with the word of God. And so what that does is it creates a void. It creates a void. And so the world is still looking to fill that void. And what do they do? They do the same thing the Pharisees and Sadducees do. Show us a sign from heaven. Well, you know what? There's coming a person who is actually going to do that. And his name is the false prophet. Look at Revelation 13 in verse number 13. And about this false prophet. It says, and he doeth great wonders so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on earth and the sight of men. And look at the result of that. Look at the impact of that. Verse 14. And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by sword and did live. Okay? There is coming a guy who will fulfill the need of the Pharisees and Sadducees, those types of people, which are growing in number today. Okay? Again, this all goes back to the fact that preachers today by and large are not standing up for the hard truths in the word of God. The pulpits are going silent, and the result is you're getting more and more wickedness to take over. More wicked people are rising up, and you basically have a wicked and adulterous generation running around town. They're in office. They're in politics. They're at your work. They're everywhere. They're in your family, and you know what? What's their attitude? Show us a sign. Okay? Because the devil knows he has to get people in this void, in this state of mind, looking for a sign. How do you do that? By subtly downplaying the word of God. Right? By elevating the spirit of error, and we're not going to let that happen, are we? We're going to stay with the word of God, understand the word of God, and we're going to be aware of people that are experts in physical discernment but in experts in spiritual discernment. Okay? So hopefully that's a help to you. Hopefully that makes sense, and we can move on to the rest of the chapter next week. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, again for your words and for preserving them for us and for everybody in our church. I just pray that you bless the soul winning today and the fellowship afterwards. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right, everyone. For our final song of this morning, we will be turning to song number 116. Song number 116, He Leadeth Me. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. On the first. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. His faithful follower I would be for by his hands he leadeth me. Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom when Eden's powers bloom. By water still o'er troubled sea still tis his hand that leadeth me. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. By his own hand he leadeth me. His faithful follower I would be for by his hand he leadeth me. On the third. Lord I would clasp thy hand in mine content whatever lot I see. Since his my God that leadeth me. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. By his own hand he leadeth me. His faithful follower I would be for by his hand he leadeth me. On the last. And when my task on earth is done when by thy grace the victories won. In death's old wave I will not flee. Since God through Jordan leadeth me. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. By his own hand he leadeth me. His faithful follower I would be for by his hand he leadeth me. All right, let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, thank you for this time we had to hear your word be preached. I ask that you please help us to remember these things and that you'd bless everyone's afternoons and the evening service to come. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.