I invite you to take your copy of God's Word and turn to John's first letter, 1 John 4, as we continue in this series, the test of saving faith. 1 John 4, I'm going to read verses 1 through 6. 1 John 4, beginning with verse 1. Reading through verse six, this is the word of the living and true God. Let's give attention to it. First John chapter four, beginning with verse one, reading through verse six, this is the word of the Lord. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world, therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pause and ask for his help as we consider the preaching of this portion of his word. Let's pray. Father, as we turn our attention To this, the life-giving word, we would pray for your spirit to help and teach us. He wrote it, you have promised him to us as we consider it, and so help us, teach us, open our eyes to it. We pray and ask for Christ's sake, amen. When we are talking about the subject of discernment, we are describing, quote, the sound judgment which makes possible the subject or makes possible the distinguishing of good from evil. That is to say, the recognition of God's right ways for his people. It is necessary for the understanding of spiritual realities and, on a practical level, for right government and the avoidance of life's pitfalls. That is simply to say, discernment is absolutely fundamental, isn't it, if we are to know right doctrine, right theology, right understanding of the Bible, right teaching, because there are right and wrong things being said, being preached, being propagated, being promoted, both from pulpits, on TV stations, on the airwaves and radio, streamed across the internet. Day unto day, night unto night, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can hardly get away from it. It's everywhere. And how is one to know what's right and wrong? And how are you to discern? And who is to say what's right and what's wrong? Would you describe yourself, friends, as one who is spiritually discerning? Can you say you are such a person who is able to discern truth from error? If so, how do you know the difference? What is it that makes you so sure that you have not been so deceived. If I were to go into a place that I am convinced absolutely without discussion is in fact promoting error, and ask those sitting in that room if they are spiritually discerned, and have not been deceived, they would say absolutely they are. And they have been so attuned to the truth. And I would know for a fact that they're completely confused. A place like the place where Mr. Olsteen spends most of his time. You and I live. in a world not unlike the world of the Apostle John, full of deception. People pray on this, day on today. We are coming into a season in which this world of deception is going to increase. The season of which we are entering as scam artists are going to seize this season and seek to deceive many people out of their money through email phishing attempts and phone calls to try to bilk old women out of their bank accounts. And old men, too. You people aren't immune. False teaching and false doctrines are everywhere. All of them are dangerous. They are poison to the soul and to the mind. That's why it's so important, friends, to be discerning. It's not just given to the pastors, and in fact, pastors are some of the most deceptive people in churches. Yes, I said it. Men who shouldn't be are. This is why it is so important For you, you see John is the one teaching, he's writing not to pastors by the way, he's writing to the people in the pews about this issue. This is why it is so important for you to be discerning. Because this is a soul destructive issue. It is important to be discerning, to know the truth, to know the word of God. The only defense you have against the poison, the rot of your soul in the false teaching and false doctrine that will destroy you is to know your Bible. To hear it faithfully preached, notice the qualifier. Not just preached, Kenneth Copeland preaches. He doesn't preach it faithfully. Joelstein preaches, he doesn't preach it faithfully. There's some Southern Baptist preachers that preach it. They don't preach it faithfully. How he's still in the Southern Baptist Convention, I'll never understand. Everybody knows who I'm talking about. His name is Furtick. Yes, I'm gonna name names in this sermon, by the way, and I do it without apology. You need to know who these people are. The only weapon you have is to be a faithful student of the Bible. You didn't know who they are. By the way, Paul named names. That's a problem? Live with it. John is warning his readers against false teaching, false prophets. He's warning them because it's so destructive. It's a cancer. It was a cancer in the first century. It was a cancer in the second century. It was a cancer in the third century. And you get the idea. It's a cancer in the 21st century. And it's going to be a cancer in the 22nd century if the Lord tarries. And it'll be a cancer until the Lord tarries, until the Lord returns. It's going to be a cancer. There's always someone out there who wants to bilk the sheep. Always someone out there who wants to take advantage of religion, make money off it. And John is there here in these six verses, warning God's people about this subject. So I wanna show you this morning the reality of false prophets, false teaching, if you will, and the solution to it or to them. I'm gonna warn you, I'm gonna show you the reality, the false prophets and the solution to it or to them. Pick whatever way you wanna word that. The reality, the false teaching, false prophets and the solution to it or to them, matters not, the subject's the same. Two points as we consider these six verses together. this morning. First, we'll consider the reality of false prophets or false teaching, and then second, the solution to false prophets or false teaching. The reality of false prophets, the solution to false prophets, the outlines in your bulletin for those of you who are visiting. Just so you know, I don't do that every week. Sometimes it's just a blank two pages. Just depends on what kind of week I have. So this week was a little easier. I was able to do it, but some weeks I don't. So I usually warn people, don't get used to it. Sometimes I do it, sometimes I don't. This week I did. But anyway, there it is. The reality of false prophets, the solution to false prophets as we look at these six verses. Let's first consider the reality the false prophets. John starts with a warning. He warns. There in the first verse, he tells the people, beloved, it's a pastoral warning. Begins with that first word. It's in the first position in the original, which means it gets significant importance When I say it's in the first position, that means in the Greek. It's in the first position means it has, because of the way Greek is constructed, it has no punctuation. There's really only three punctuation marks in Greek. Because there's no punctuation, there's no exclamation point. The ordering of the word gives its importance. And here he is pastorally giving some emphasis. That means he's trying to give warmth. There's a pastoral tone, a heart that says, I want to warn, I want to show something, and I got to get this in front of you. Beloved, I have a heart to you, a heart for you. Beloved, don't believe every spirit. Now he's not talking about Casper the ghost here, children. All right, this is not Casper the Ghost he's talking about. He's talking about people. Don't believe every spirit that comes along. Don't believe every person that comes along. He's warning the visible church. He speaks in a pastoral tone to the people of God, the visible church of God. He tells them of the danger of false teachers and the need for discernment in a fallen world. We live in a sin-wrecked world. You and I do not live in a perfect church. You are not members. You are not visiting a perfect church. You will never be a perfect church. You will never have perfect elders. You will never have a perfect pastor. You will never hear a perfect sermon. You will never hear a perfect Sunday school lesson. You need to listen. You need to assess. You need to test. You need to listen carefully. You need to test things. What did I just tell you to do? Don't assume. And everything that comes out of Pastor Hill's mouth in every sermon is infallible. Wow. I don't think they taught me to say that in seminary. They probably did. I probably wasn't paying attention that day. Who knows? I don't believe everything that's said. It's because someone has an endive wanders into the church, or has been ordained as a ruling elder and is teaching a Sunday school class, doesn't mean it's right. Just because they got a pedigree, a family name, doesn't mean they're right. I believe everything that gets said. But see and look, is it from God? Is it true? test what they have to say. In other words, what he is telling the church to do is to what? Be discerning. Be discerning. Now, where do these people come from? Well, presumably two sources. They could come, what, from the world? They could be from outside of us. They could reside around us. That is to say, they might not be within the church proper. That is to say, they might not be within the confines of providence. like the elders of this church or the pastor of this church and God forbid something happens to me and I go on my trip to New Jersey this week and my in-laws beat me up and throw me in the Hudson River and I don't come back, which is always possible. That was a joke. Maybe, I don't know, ask my wife. And then you get a new pastor. Or maybe it's from outside. Or it's from within. But in either case, if it's from within, they are from us. They could be those that have the same name. They profess the name of Christ. They sing the same hymns. They profess the same faith. They seem to use the same language, but they're counterfeits. A lot of people in the church like that. They're on your Roku. You're streaming TV. They're on your phone and your apps. They have Christian-type names. TV stations and Christian broadcasting network. See, Christian, it's in there. Sounds good, must be a good thing. It's got the name, must be okay. You ever listen to it? Are you discerning? Funny story, my wife will remember this. When I was younger, I used to listen to it. I used to listen to some of these guys for fun. Many of you know I read a lot. I used to read a lot. I read a lot now. I read a lot more now than I did then. I read a lot. I was reading a lot then. Cutting my teeth in the Puritans and boy, I was listening to these guys and health and wealth gospel stuff, and I was laughing. I rolled around the floor. I was laughing at the stuff that these people would say. I'm thinking to myself, where are these people getting this stuff from? Christians, name in the name of Christ. And I'm thinking, and I'm watching the audience, Christians, and they're using all the language. Christian. And the audience, their heads are bobbing, yes, yes, oh, amen, they're saying amen. I'm thinking, what are they listening to? It's all garbage. I'm thinking, what Bible are they reading? They're all naming, they're all using the same language, naming the name of same stuff, same everything, not discerning, being duped, hoodwinked. not testing the spirits, not listening, I thought, oh, wow. Their souls are being poisoned to death. They come from everywhere is the point. John is telling them they come from all sources, all places. They might look like us. They might sound like us. It wouldn't make much sense if they looked really awful and evil and they had signs over their head that said so. If they had evil painted over their heads, don't listen to me, don't trust me. Who would listen then? No one, of course not. I mean, counterfeit doesn't do much good, does it? I mean, imagine the store clerk, if he walked in with a $20 bill that said right on it, I'm counterfeit. I mean, the store clerk's not going to accept it, is it? The store clerk might not be that intelligent, but it's not going to look at a counterfeit $20 bill and say, OK, I think I'll take it. Nah. No, no. A counterfeiter is going to do everything he can to make that $20 counterfeit $20 look as much like a $20 bill as it possibly can, even though it's fake. Well, that's what false teaching tries to do. That's why, brothers and sisters, it's so vitally important that you're discerning. You have to pay attention. John wants his readers to pay attention. He wants his listeners to pay attention. I, I'm your pastor, I love you, I want you to pay attention. I want you to pay attention to me. I want you to pay attention to your elders. I want you to pay attention to what you listen to in between the Sundays, whether it's me or your elders. I'll be listening to just anybody. A lot of guys out there you can listen to. If you're not sure, ask me. If you're not sure. A lot of guys you can listen to. Okay. No problem. A lot of guys, don't bother. All right. Moving on. The teaching. What are some things that John wants them to be suspect about? Well, he gives one here, but he doesn't give a catalog, does he? Imagine how long this letter would be if he told us everything that he's warning them about. Because he says here as much, he says, by this, notice, he's gonna tell us, by this you know the spirit of God. He says to test, test the spirits, and then he's gonna tell them exactly what it is about them that you'll know that they don't have the spirit of God. He's going to specifically highlight one thing. Imagine if he were to go on and give you all the things. How long do you think this letter would be? It's only five chapters. I can only imagine how long it would be. He would beat out Paul in the lengths, in the length. It's only five chapters. It'd probably be more like 550 chapters. So he doesn't do that. He only gives us one thing. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to let you off the hook that easily. I'm going to give you more than one, but I'm going to give you his, at least. That's being faithful, I'm gonna tell you his. So contextually, John gives you the one. Here's what he says, verse two, by this you know the spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh is from God. Now what's his point? What's he saying? Well, his whole letter, remember, going all the way back to chapter one, one of the arguments that John set out to prove in this letter was that Jesus came as what? A man. One of the heresies in John's day was what? Gnosticism. Remember, there was a movement afoot in John's day that said, hey, Jesus didn't really come as a man. He only came and appeared as a man. He didn't really come as a man. He wasn't really a man. He only appeared to be a man. Remember that? That was a long time ago, I realize. Well, here in chapter four, he comes back to this very heresy, and it is a heresy. And he says, hey, if there's people running around, you people in the churches, and if they're teaching you that, hey, you know, Jesus was a really good, he was God, yes. And he came as a man, but not really a man. He only appeared to be a man. He's really not teaching the truth. He's a false teacher. He's to be rejected. Okay? That's the contextual issue that John is talking about. You with me? Got it? That's the issue. That's what John highlights here because that's his purpose. That's what he focuses on. That's front and center for John. That's his real purpose. It's really important to him. And it's important. But because the Bible is so relevant for every era, every century, every minute of every day, it isn't unimportant for the 21st century. Isn't it amazing? Because this heresy still exists. Today, even today. Do you know there are people who still think this? That Jesus, and it's got its twists and turns. It's not quite the same, but there are people that think that Jesus was a good man, but he wasn't God, you know, so twists and turns. That Jesus was created, that Jesus was, you know, brothers with the devil, or anything to diminish Jesus in some way, shape, or form. That's all this is doing here in the first century. Some way to diminish the Son of God in some capacity, which is what this heresy in the first century is doing. To diminish what the Bible plainly says about the Son of God, John chapter one, and all of the ministry of Christ. Anybody who says that is not to be listened to or believed, like the Jehovah's Witnesses, like the Mormons, for instance. Just to pick two. Someone comes along and starts teaching that kind of junk, well, no, you're not to be listened to. I'm not listening to that nonsense. Forget about it. No. You're a false teacher. You're a false prophet, but, but, If John were to go on and talk about other things, we might have a much fuller list, because there are many false teachings in the world today. We have to be careful here, and in the age of social media, There are a lot of what I have described as Machen's warrior children running around, a lot of self-professed theologians on social media, none of them have sat in one classroom, have never done any serious theological study, and all of them are found on Facebook. They are. It's remarkable. Many of you know my principle, my Facebook principle. Maybe you don't, but I'll tell you. I do not debate on Facebook, nor will I ever. I'll have discussions of silly nature on Facebook, because I don't care. It doesn't mean anything. Medium controls the message, so I don't do theological debate on Facebook. It's pointless. But everybody's an expert. But here's the thing, not every disagreement theologically is false teaching. Except in the 21st century. For instance, let me give you some examples. Baptism. Now look, I baptize infants. We're Presbyterian after all, it's not a secret. but I have Baptist brothers who don't. And because they don't baptize children does not make them false teachers. Okay? I just disagree with them. That doesn't make them false teachers. They still believe in baptism. They believe in baptism. We just happen to disagree about when. You're with me? I'm a post-millennialist. I have friends who are amillennialists. That doesn't make them a false teacher. We just happen to disagree about the timing. You with me? In other words, we need not be so pedantic or petty about what is described as false teaching. However, this would be a false teaching. Hyper-preterism, to say that Christ is already bodily returned, versus preterism, which is to say that Christ is already returned in judgment in 70 AD. One is not false teaching, the other one is, you see. So we need to be sure we're actually describing what is false and not false when we're talking about false teaching. Now, with that said, there are clearly false teachings in our context. For instance, any denial of the deity of Christ is false teaching. Any denial. That is to say that Jesus is less than God in any respect. For instance, there is a view that when Paul was penning Philippians chapter 2, that he set aside a portion of his deity. That is known as the Canonic Theory. I'm getting technical. I recognize. And if you don't remember it, don't worry about it. It is known as the Canonic Theory. That is heresy. At no time did Jesus Christ set aside any portion of his deity. If he did, he is no longer God. And if he's no longer God, he is not a Redeemer. And if he's not the Redeemer, we're still waiting for one. That is heresy. That is false teaching. Anybody who teaches that is a false teacher. Good? Any Trinitarian heresy, such as modalism, that is a heresy. That is false teaching. otherwise known as civilianism. That is a false teaching. Adoptionism, false teaching. I'm not going to describe all of these, okay? Ask me later. Look them up. Write it down. Look them up. Eternal subordination of the son, a relatively new thing. Heresy, false teaching. Denial of the inerrancy and sufficiency of the word of God. That's a false teaching. Again, I could go on and on. My point is this. We have to be careful that we don't ascribe false teaching to a difference of opinion. You may have a very strong opinion about something that is not false teaching, okay? Let's be careful. Some things you hold a strong opinion about that falls within orthodoxy. If it's heterodox or orthodox, it's false teaching. That's to say, if I can find it within the orthodox creeds of the church, it's probably not false teaching. All right? But for John's argument, the main issue was Gnosticism. Let's be careful. Jesus came as a man, fully a man, and really a man. Also, John not only describes their teaching, he also describes here their fruit. Their fruit. He describes them as antichrist. Now I'm convinced that he's not just here hinting at their teaching. The Bible typically refers to the antichrist as more than just what they say. but also what they do. There's an active element to an antichrist as to their behavior, more than just what they talk about. Clearly, what they say is opposed to Christ, but also what they do. And when he mentions that there in, In verse, sorry, I lost my spot. Verse three, this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming. I'm convinced he's talking about their lives. That is to say, they're one of those people that, like my dad used to say to me all the time, Do as I say, not as I do. Okay, my dad was a great man, don't get me wrong, but he would sometimes say that and always made me scratch my head, you know, and I think sometimes I use that phrase too, you know, kind of do what you're taught kind of thing. Dads don't do that, don't be like that, but I'm more or less convinced this is what John is getting at here. And I got to thinking about what Jesus said in Matthew 7. And if you backed up there, unless you know this passage by heart or you trust me, kind of thinking about what I just said a few minutes ago, you can trust me if you want to. I've been here five years. But anyway, Matthew 7, beginning at verse 15, Jesus says, beware of false prophets. This is the theme, this is the idea that John is getting at. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruits, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits. So these people really have two whammy, two indictments against them. Not only do they teach bad things, putting it mildly, bad things, wrong things. Their lives don't reflect Christ either. They'll do a lot of things that avoid detection, but eventually it will show up. Now that's just the faithfulness of the good shepherd of the sheep. Now he's gonna protect his sheep against these clowns. Eventually he's gonna out them. They may get away with it for a while, but eventually he's going to protect his church. He's going to out them. When and how is his business, but he will. And how many examples throughout history has that occurred? Where he eventually hangs those false teachers by their own doing. And I'm more or less convinced that this is what John is getting at here, that these Antichrists that have gone out in the world, he is describing their fruit. Now, what do we do about these people? He warns them. He doesn't hesitate to warn his readers about the reality of these people. They exist. They will deceive and lead others astray. That's their whole mission in life. The people need discernment about these people. What is the solution? Well, first, You need to acknowledge that there's a real need for it. You need to acknowledge that. Don't just move through your life coasting along, pretending like it doesn't exist. If John went out of his way in the middle of a letter about the test of saving faith to warn the church about this issue, then the need is real. And you can, in some sense, see why he included this in a test for saving faith, because if you don't see this need, you can see how easily this could lead those astray who have no sense of discernment, because in fact, if you're really not a Christian, you're just gonna get hoodwinked anyway and led right down the primrose path into hell. Because really only those who know Christ and have the Spirit of Christ are going to have real spiritual discernment. And so you need to have an understanding of the need. Satan is deceptive. And he wants to deceive you. And he's going to do whatever is necessary to do it. So you need to see the need. The need to have discernment. And the need is real because there's a ton of false doctrine and teaching in the world today. The need for that discernment is as important today as it was in John's day. So just acknowledge it. Face facts. It exists. We don't want to admit it. No one does. We don't want to admit that our hearts are desperately wicked. We are prone to deception. We don't want to admit it. We don't want to think that it could happen to us. Nobody does. We don't want to think it. We want to say, I went to seminary for four years, that I read a lot, that it's not possible, that I'm too sharp of a mind, that I have too strong of a mind for that to ever happen. I would never, ever be deceived. Let he who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. I never thought it could happen to me. Not theological deception. One of my ruling elders probably knows what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about? Could never happen to me. And then it did. What a lesson. It can happen. So just acknowledge it. John says, test the spirits. By this you know the spirit of God. Everyone who is of the spirit. This is not about how smart you are. This is a work of the spirit of God. It's not a work of the intellect of the mind. and our ingenuity and how brilliant we are. Third, understand that there's a real danger. Satan prowls around like a roaring lion. You ever met a lion, children? Except in the zoo. Not much danger there, is there? You ever been to the zoo? Children, you ever been to the zoo? I love my left leg. You ever been to the zoo? I've been to the zoo. I've seen a lion. Didn't scare me one bit. You know why? Big bars between me and it. Didn't care. I didn't feel bad at all. Didn't even start sweating. When I was a little boy, though, I met a bear. No bars, no nothing. It was far enough away, though, that I'd get away. But it scared me. And it was a long way off. And it still scared me. Why? Because a bear can outrun me. But I was far enough away. I had a big enough head start. But a big old lion behind bars, that don't scare me. But you know, Satan don't have bars. And it prowls around. and looking for who it might deceive or devour. Deception is a real thing, and he wants to do it, and aside from the sovereign power of God, he will. I've told my congregation, I've told you all many times, The story of my professor in seminary who shocked me right down to my socks one day when he said that Satan would kill us where we stood if God let him. What? I mean, that shocked me. But it's true. That's how much he hates us. Deceive? That's a lot farther away from kill. It's a real danger. It has the potential to lead us astray and destroy our souls. It happens more often than we often want to admit. Think about the Church of Galatia. And Paul asked, who bewitched you? Who deceived you? On what? The gospel itself. The rudimentary principles of Christ alone and faith alone. The simplicities of the gospel. Who did that? And they were bewitched. Deceived. Look at John 4, the text we're in, in verse 5. They are from the world. Where does it come from? The world itself. The world, what, listens to them. This is where it all emanates. The world wants to do this. People listen to them. People are gullible. Christians ought not be gullible. Don't be gullible. Be aware, be vigilant. Put up the security systems. I'm gonna give you the security systems in a minute. People will listen to anything. What was that? Who was it, the guy that said it, that a sucker is born any minute, every minute? Who was it? I forgot. P.T. Barnum, was that him? Whoever says I know everything, take it back, because I don't. See? I don't even know who said that. That was a joke. People will listen to anything that comes along that sounds good and appears good. The health and wealth gospel, Kenneth Copeland, Frederick Price, Joyce Meyer. I could go on and on. It sounds great. I wish it were true. I'd be driving a Mercedes. It's not true. Sounds good, though. I wouldn't have a bum leg. Sounds good, though. It's not true. Job wouldn't have had what happened to him, either. Sounds good. It's not true. The Bible defeats it. It's deception. So, what to do? First, you have to have the Spirit of God. You need to be a Christian. Verse 5. You must have the Spirit of God. You can't fight the Spirit of the world without the Spirit of the other world. You can't. It's impossible. If you're already of the Spirit of the world, then there's nothing to fight with. You're already in the wrong world. You're already deceived by the spirit of the world. You have to be a Christian. Maybe you're not. Maybe you've already been deceived. Now the solution for you is you have to turn to Christ. You have to shake off the bonds of that evil world and look to Jesus. That's the greatest deception. That Jesus is just a myth and there's no real hope there and the Bible is just fantasy and there's nothing after this life and live today because tomorrow you might die and after that there's nothing and that's all a myth and doesn't mean, no, no, that's the realest thing. No, no, this is the nothing. The most important story of life is that this is nothing. Life begins at death. And so you have to look to Jesus. But for you who have, well, you must be strongly acquainted with the truth. What truth? The truth that is given by the Word of God. The Bible itself. The 66 books of the Word of God. From Genesis to Revelation. You might say, well, Joel Osteen does. No, he doesn't. The only time you see the Bible in his sermons is when he starts it with he holds it up and says what he says and I forgot and I'm glad I have. He holds it up and says something about it and then he puts it down and you never see it again. I'd say go watch it sometime and see if I'm telling you a lie but actually I don't want to encourage it so don't. I want to laugh, but it's really not funny. See, I have 30,000 people sitting there or whatever, and they're all being hoodwinked. It's really sad. Look, I'm not trying to denigrate the man as a person. I actually feel sorry for him. But I actually feel more sorry for people sitting out in the room. No, no, you need to know this book. This is what you need to know. You need to listen to the preaching of his word. Paul told Timothy to preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. Why? Because it's the primary means of grace for the people of God. And when a man will not preach from the word of God, then don't listen to it. That includes my sermons. Listen to the faithful teaching of the word of God. Alistair Begg is an example. He's a Baptist too, by the way. Faithful preaching. I listen to him. I'm a Presbyterian. I listen to him. He's one of my diets. Why? He preaches the word. That's why. He applies the word. That's why. It nourishes my soul, that's why. R.C. Sproul preaches the word. It nourishes my soul. I need that. I usually am on this side of the pulpit. And I can only listen to my voice so long. Meditate on the word. Do family worship. Men, you need to teach your children so they're not deceived by the world. because you're training them with the word that they might not be deceived by whatever comes along. And well, they will be if you're not. Somebody's catechizing your children. It's either the world or you. But somebody is. It's either the spirit of the age or you. God willing, it's you. False prophets exist. They will as long as the Lord Jesus tarries. And we remain in this sin-wrecked world. So don't be deceived by them. Dear friends, your soul matters. So be diligent to watch, be on guard, be faithful to the truth, and be a faithful student of it, amen. Father, we thank you for your word, the warnings of it, because you are Savior, you love our souls. We pray that we would love our souls too. Make us faithful to your word, we pray for Christ's sake, amen.