The scripture reading this morning is 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 Corinthians chapter 11, and we'll read the first. People here today, I wanted to kind of talk to you for a minute. So it's easy to grow up in a Christian home and think that you're Christians. That's what happened to me, anyway. Although, as it turns out, the Christian home that I grew up in wasn't really Christian. There wasn't anybody in our family that was born. Again, we went to Sunday school and church on Sunday with semi-regularly or something like that. But, and I professed faith in Christ at age eight and was baptized and so forth. But looking back now, I can see that I still wasn't born again. And that, I can't tell you, some people can really pin it down, you know, right there, that's when I was born again. But I can't do that. I can tell you that kind of like, I'm kind of like C.S. Lewis was, you know. When I drove out to that place, I wasn't a Christian. And when I was driving back, I was. And he couldn't explain it any more than that. But for me, it was over a period of time when probably even just even into my early 20s that church and reading my Bible and so forth stopped being a pain in the neck. you know, something that you better do or God's going to be mad at you, and something that was springing from within me and that I wanted to read my Bible. And I made my first visit on my own into a Christian bookstore. I'd never been in a place like that, you know. And so Slowly but surely, over time, then, the lights went on. And somewhere there, that's the Lord showing me mercy. And I'm the only one in my family. My three sisters and my parents, none of them. My dad never talked to me once about the Lord. I never saw him pray. I never saw him read his Bible. He, if you really backed him into a corner and asked him if he was a Christian, then maybe he would say that he was, but he wasn't. There was no fruit there. But lo and behold, out of that whole family, the Lord chose to save me, not because of anything in myself. Verla is the same way. No other Christians in her family, all of her family deceased now as well. But they happened to, it was kind of a farming community little country church. It was a friend's church, a Quaker church. And so she'd go there. That's what was kind of the community thing to do among the farmers. And so she would go there more than her parents. But it was on a maybe, what was it, a midweek? Where'd Verla go? It was some kind of a midweek thing that Verla went to or something like that. And it was supposed to be over. Her mom had dropped her off at the church building. And then it was supposed to be over at a particular time. But during that meeting, Verla made a profession of faith in Christ. And so they were talking to her afterwards, and her mom's sitting out there waiting for her and just seething because she's late. So here's a foolish woman sitting out there. Her daughter is inside being born again, right? The Lord working on her. And she's mad because it's such an inconvenience to her. It comes out. And I think she ended up, when they got home, slapping Verla in the face and so on. And maybe that was Verla's first experience of being persecuted for being a Christian. She thought maybe Verla was being a little bit smart-mouthed to her mom, too. But nevertheless, I just say all of that to all of you, especially as young people, that It is the Lord that saves us. And it isn't the things that we do. And he has to turn on the lights. He has to say, your name, come forth. Like he said, Lazarus, come forth from the dead. And you must be born again, you see. And so you must be born again. And when the Lord does turn on the lights and save you and give you life, you'll know it. You'll know something has changed in your life. And when you're saved, knowing your parents, I don't think any of them are going to slap you in the face, right? And that's not going to happen to you. Well, here we go then with God's Word, the first 15 verses of 2 Corinthians 11. I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me. He's being sarcastic there, because these guys were really prideful. For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I'm afraid. that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaim, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you receive, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, You put up with it readily enough. Indeed, I consider that I'm not in the least inferior to these super apostles, even if I am unskilled in speaking. I'm not so in knowledge. Indeed, in every way, we've made this plain to you in all things. Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. And why? because I do not love you, God knows I do. And what I do, I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it's no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. And there is the certain and true word of God, and we are to receive it as such. Well, let's ask the Lord to bless us as we come to the ministry of his word then. Father, we thank you for your word. It is powerful, empowered by your spirit. You speak, and it is done. You speak, and that which was not comes into being. And Father, we pray then that you would speak to us now through your word as we hear it through your servant John, and that you would use your word to sanctify your people, to show those who might still be dead in sin their true condition, show them their need of Christ, and we pray this all in Christ's name, amen. I wanted to talk to you this morning about from 1 John chapter 4, which coincides with the message that we heard from Lloyd-Jones about our enemy earlier this morning. And I think everyone listening online should have received the link to that message that I sent out. If anyone didn't, you can email me and ask for it. You don't want to miss that one. Be certain to listen to it then. Listen to Revelation 20. By the way, I put the Apostles' Creed, and I'll continue to do that for a while at the head of the message here on your printout, just as a reminder, and we'll try to remember to include it, the recitation of it in our service on occasion. Listen to Revelation chapter 20, which concerns the binding of Satan. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer. until the 1,000 years were ended. After that, he must be released for a little while. If you've been following the Revelation study, you know that the 1,000 years is the church age from the time of Christ until now and until Christ comes again. And that the devil's binding is not entire, but it concerns the fact that he no longer can deceive the nations, all right? Romans 16. Also, for such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. And by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive. Ephesians 5, 6, let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 2 Thessalonians 2, let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. 1 John 2, I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. And 1 John 3, little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. Apparently, those are just some of the verses we find in scripture about deception, warning against deception. Apparently, this business of deception is something that we really need to be aware of. And that's what we want to talk about this morning. As we read through Pilgrim's Progress, you recall, he's traveling to this celestial city. And numbers of times, he came across enemy agents who were at work to try to get him off the right path, to destroy him, to kill him, body and soul. And he and his friend, on one occasion, hopeful, ended up in the dungeon, remember, of giant despair and his wicked wife. They lied to them. and tried to persuade them to commit suicide. He's miserable here in this dungeon. You're never going to get out. Make him absolutely hopeless, but hopeful, encouraged Christian, and he realized He had the key to the door all the time with him. And that key was faith in God's promise. So Bunyan there gives us a very accurate picture of our lives as Christians in this fallen and evil world. We are following Christ then to glory. We're pilgrims. And we meet then, we meet deceivers along the way, lots of them. who work tirelessly to lead us away from the Lord Jesus. That's what they always do. They always lead us away from Christ and make shipwreck, then, of our faith. These examples are all around us here. I've got a couple here. One of them I've shown you before, but it's a good illustration. Kevin, we've got to build a pulpit. Things are just falling apart here. But now just check this out, OK? Now, when you do these things, I guarantee you, you're going to get accused by fellow Christians, so-called Christians, of being so judgmental and so forth. But here you've got this Christian book CBD distributor catalog. Been around for a long time. This thing's got massive, massive, massive numbers of books. A few of them are good. Most of them then are not. But on the front cover, so the front cover, they highlight things. So one of the things they really want to highlight, boy, here it is. And good old Max Lucado. If you have any books by Max Lucado in your library, confess your sin and throw them in the garbage can. But look at the title. God Never Gives Up On You. See, that's the stuff that makes the megachurches. God Never Gives Up On You. You know what, Pharaoh? God never gives up on you. They're like that kind of an evil thing. That's a lie. And what we're going to see from 1 John 4, there's a spirit behind that teaching by anybody. There's a spirit behind Lucado. And how many people are just scarfing that kind of stuff up? And that kind of thing is being preached from the pulpits. I showed you this one before, this special volume of Time magazine on heaven. Heaven's the topic. You want to know about heaven? Read this, right? Well, what it is is just a compilation of everybody's opinion. on heaven, and it's got a whole section in here of people who have died on the operating table or something. And they saw this vision of heaven and angels, and they come back and say, I'm telling you, it's just OK. That's a lie. And these are people that don't even profess to be Christians at all. And so as we're going to see, there is a spirit behind every kind of thing that particularly claims to represent God and the things of God. And we are obligated, we are commanded by the Lord to sort these things out. And he's given us the tools then to do that. Satan is always working to send his so-called sons of righteousness, which they're not. They're in disguise. They're his evil minions to deceive us with his lies. And while he might send his deceiving spirits, they speak to us through people, people who are animated by and influenced by, not necessarily what you think of a possession, But the spirit is speaking, working in their mind and in their thinking, and then very deceptively. And then these are the kind of people that we find coming to us and saying, you know, God never gives up on you. He never gives up on you. God's word, by the way, says that there is a sin unto death. and that there comes a point like Esau, right? Repentance was, God gave up on Esau. He handed him over then to judgment. You see, that's the word of God. If God doesn't ever give up on us, why don't we just go out and eat, drink, and be merry, because everything is okay. Who needs a savior then, you see? Well, listen to John tell it then, the first six verses of 1 John chapter four. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirit to see whether they're 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 Christ 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 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. I can imagine Lloyd-Jones preaching about 20 sermons on this passage, and you could easily do so. There's a lot there. We're going to look at pretty much the first part of it already, but we still won't have a real grasp. Those are verses that you should all think about and consider more. Let's think very carefully about this statement. every spirit. Here's the context. I'll back up into chapter three. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God's greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. Whatever we ask, we receive from him. because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him. And by this, we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. So this book of 1 John, is one of the most important in the whole Bible, if you can say that. I suppose you could say that about every one of the books of the Bible. It's vital for us to know thoroughly. I did a series of Bible studies through 1 John, and they're on YouTube. It's all available there. 1 John is a tool. And it's given to us by the Lord for at least two purposes. First, for assurance. If we are a Christian, do you know sometimes we need assurance? Sometimes our heart condemns us. And that's one of the ways Satan operates. Oh, are you sure you're saved? Are you sure about this? And so forth. So this is a book of tests that we can apply to ourselves and that we might know that we are children of God, that we really are saved and really know Him. But secondly, it is a tool that we are to use to sift truth from lies, to discern truth from lies. This little letter of 1 John in itself, in fact, you could pick just a couple of verses from it, here and there, in itself exposes many, many, many Christians, professing Christians, to be false, to be counterfeits, you see. The tests that it gives are very plain and very black and white. So it's like, well, Verla and I sometimes watch this gal's little program on YouTube. She goes out, travels around the world, you know, little diving equipment with her, and her metal detector, and she goes around and sees what she can find underwater. And with some frequency, she'll find rings. And sometimes they'll have a stone on them that appears to be a diamond. Well, she has this little tool that she can hold up against the diamond or whatever it looks like and push a button. And it will tell her whether the gem is authentic or whether it is fake. That's what First John is. It's a tool that we can hold up against some statement. like we just did here with that Lucado book. God never gives up on you. Oh, well, let's take the word of God and hold it up to that statement. Let's examine it. You see, it's like I heard Lloyd-Jones say recently in one of his sermons. He's saying, you know, well, let's back up to the example. tool that that gal has says, this is not a diamond. But she says, I don't care. I think it is. It is a diamond. There it is. Well, how much success is she going to have if she takes that into a jewelry shop and says, give me $1,000 for this? It's not going to work. But that's what so many people do. with God's word, with, you might say, Christianity. That's their religion. They say, for instance, well, what Lloyd-Jones says, he said, you can imagine him standing up before his congregation there in Westminster Chapel, and he's telling them, Christianity is not what you say it is, or what I say it is. Christianity is what God says it is. So Mac was just telling me earlier about a relative that he had that goes to St. Paul's Church, St. Paul's Church. But he and that church, they don't believe anything that Paul says. They don't believe it. And Mac asked him, well, how do you discern what is true? What is God's word? And he said, oh, by my own logic. Well, by his own logic, he's going to hell. That's where that's going to take him, you see. Christianity is not. And when you're reading your Bible, the scripture is not what you want it to say. The scripture says what God says. And that's how we have to read, then, you see, God's word. It's this book. is a test tool. We apply it to anyone that's speaking and what they're claiming, what they're teaching, what they're even, you know, they'll be making a statement. Renee was telling me she has a friend that sometime back, you know, was made, just made the statement. And lots of us have done this, right? And hopefully in earlier years before you knew better. but make the statement, well, you know, God loves everybody. And at that point, Renee said to her, does he? And eventually, she and her friend, they started a Bible study together. And now, you see, but that's the point. We hear these things. We're taught these traditions that aren't the word of God. And we just, we think, well, that guy's a pastor. He must know what he's talking about. No. We have to apply the word of God to whatever that teaching is, whatever that statement is. For example, 1 John 3, no one who abides in him keeps on sinning, walking in sin so that that's who they're defined by and so on. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Let no one deceive you. Plenty of people want to try to deceive you. Don't let it happen. Here's the truth. Here's the test. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous, as Christ is. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. So don't believe every spirit. Stop just buying it, being lazy and buying it, you see. Don't be naive. Test the spirits to see if they are from God. Now, why does John use this language? I bet you've wondered about that. How come he doesn't say, test that preacher, or test that person's statements that they say that they're a Christian? Why does he put it this way? Test the spirits. Well, I think we can see why in the very first verse. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirit to see whether they're from God for many. And you would think spirits, false spirits, but he says many false prophets have gone out into the world, many of them, many false prophets. So what he's doing here is he's equating spirits with prophets. We have to test the spirits because many false prophets have gone out. And so what he's saying is, we can put it like this. Anyone who is claiming to speak for the Lord, claiming to be a teacher of God's truth, claiming thereby to be a prophet, is necessarily speaking by a spirit. And that spirit is either the Holy Spirit or it's a spirit of Antichrist. It's one of the two. You know, I think it would be correct for all of us to say, to confess, and to admit, you know, there's been times where I, you, We've spoken by the spirit of Antichrist, even as Christian, because if you're deceived by a lie, one of his lies, then indirectly at least, you are speaking by it. Now, of course, in a Christian, the Holy Spirit is present to correct us, and eventually, he might do it quickly, it might take a little bit more time, but he's going then to Listen again to verses two and three. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ 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 heard was coming and now is in the world already. So the Antichrist Spirit, which ultimately, it's Satan and his servants. The Antichrist spirit is already operative in the world. It's operating. That's why we say, you see, Satan is bound in regard to his ability to spread his darkness around the world and deceive all the nations, as it was in the Old Testament. And only Israel was given some light then from God. He can't do that right now in the church age. The gospel is going out into all the world, and missions, and preaching of the gospel, and so forth. But he's bound in the sense that he can't stop that right now. But that doesn't mean he's totally inactive. The spirit of the Antichrist is now in the world, and it is busily operating. And it's operating through Satan's serpents. Yeah, call them serpents if you want to. Servants. So let's apply this now. That just the nicest guy, that pastor, our pastor is just the nicest guy. I hope you don't say that about me. Don't say that about me, right? I don't want to be that nice, because the nice guy really isn't. The nice guy is the one who doesn't tell you the truth when you need to be told the truth, right? That's the nicest guy. So people have this. Here's just the nicest fellow. He stands in the pulpit each Sunday. Or there's the nicest, this guy, this guy's a pillar of our church, this church member, and he's the nicest man that you would ever meet, and so on. Or that lady who leads the women's ministry in the church, and she's so faithful, and she did all this stuff. Every single one of them is impelled by a spirit. And that spirit is either the Holy Spirit, or it is an evil spirit. It is the spirit, then, of the Antichrist. We just heard it this morning, Ephesians 6.12, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. And so we can't be looking at the externals We can't say, well, you know, his personality, he's got a really nice personality and so forth and does this and does that for people and so on, knows all kinds of Bible verses. Satan is very capable of wearing those kinds of disguises. He can appear as an angel of light. His servants can appear as Christians, as sons of God. Righteousness. So you see the tests. Here's another one, 1 John 2. Whoever says he's in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there's no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he's going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. So what have we got here? We've got somebody who says he's in the light. He says he's a Christian. He says that. But in practice, you see, he hates his brother. And I think that John primarily means by brother there, a brother in the Lord, another Christian, primarily. And we can talk about that more later, but I think that's what he means. I'm a Christian. You know, yep, I'm a Christian. Well, all right, you say you're a Christian. And there was lots of people like that in this church 30 years ago, lots of them, the vast majority of them, right? There were a few of you, a few of you were here back in those days. When I first came here, virtually immediately. This was interesting. It wasn't fun, but it was interesting. Virtually immediately. Kind of like Paul says about the twins. Before he had done anything good or bad, I was hated. I mean, there was no period of warm reception. But as I understand it now, It wasn't me. It was the darkness that hated the light, that hated the Word of God. There was a prevailing spirit in this place that controlled it, and it was not the Holy Spirit. It was the spirit of the Antichrist. I can remember the One of the worst ones was these kind of people, they always work their way into leadership and power and convince everybody what wonderful people they are and how godly they are. But I can remember, she said, when I started preaching and I said I'm going to preach to begin, I preached through the book of Ephesians. And she said, I heard her say, sitting in the front pew, not Ephesians again. You know, right? Knowing what I know now would be, well, huh, how about that? You must know Ephesians quite well. Perhaps you could stand and talk us through the argument in Ephesians chapter by chapter, you see, that kind of a thing. But she despised the word of God. It's the spirit of the Antichrist. Now look, here's where you've got, as Lloyd-Jones was telling us this morning, You've got to get this in your head, all right? This has to be your mindset. We're not battling in these kinds of things against flesh and blood. Now, the way that people will generally, and so many professing Christians do this too, well, here's a problem. There's this problem between these people and the church, you know, or whatever. The problem, it's just personality conflicts. That's what's wrong here. We're just having a personality conflict at all between these people and so on. It's not a personality conflict. It is a spiritual warfare, a spiritual battle. There was a spirit behind that lady, and it's a spirit of the Antichrist trying to shut down the preaching of the gospel, and the ministry then of God's Word. And this church would have come to nothing. It'd be gone. I don't know what this building would be now if it weren't. But as Martin Luther put it, you know, remember the words out of his hymn, if the right man had not been on our side, the battle we would be losing, would you ask who that man might be? Christ Jesus. It is he. He's the one who protects his people and preserves his church so that the gates of hell will not prevail then against it, you see. Unless we see and believe these things, that we wrestle against principalities and powers, we're never going to get what is really going on. Even in seminary, these things that I went to, these things were not taught. It was more an emphasis upon, well, let's teach you how to get along with difficult people. What's a difficult person? What is that? That's an excuse. That's an excuse made to justify letting a person who is difficult, who's mean, who's walking in sin, believe that they're a Christian. And when, in fact, they're not, and they're on their way then to hell. So we are to test the spirits to see if they're from God. John tells us, you say, well, how serious is the problem? Remember what Lloyd-Jones was telling us earlier today? He's telling, he's getting in the face of some of his people. He knows they're sitting out there. And he's telling them, some of you guys are thinking, what are we talking about the devil for? This is irrelevant. Let's talk about pertinent things that are happening in the world, and how we can solve these kinds of things, and so on. And so he's getting on them. And so there's this tendency, you see, among people to minimize the problem. John doesn't do that. Test the spirit to see whether they're from God. Because you know, once in a while, once in a while, you just might come across one of these things. No, what he's saying is they're all around you. Many, many false prophets have gone out, and they're energized by the spirit of Antichrist, by Satan. And as a result then, because of this willful blindness and naivety, most local churches are Deceived, I used to say, many are most. I would say even oftentimes, I think, in scripture, when the word many is used, the implication is most. All right? That's it. They've been convinced that they're Christians without doubt, that they know the Lord, and that he knows them, you see. I just finished reading Anne Rule's crime book about the Green River Killer. He was operative in King County in the Seattle area in the mid-1980s and into the early 1990s. It was probably the hardest murder case to solve that probably any police agency, law enforcement agency has ever tried to solve, took 20 years, almost 20 years. He was Gary Ridgefield, was that his name, I guess? Right, Gary Ridgefield? They call him the GRK, the Green River Killer, because he dumped some of the bodies in the Green River up there. But he, one of the FBI agents who was an expert investigator He was assigned to the task force and was given, he was on it for a couple of years or whatever. And they began to wind down. People were getting frustrated because everything's leading to a dead end. And that FBI agent went to his superior and said, I am humbled. Couldn't solve it. Couldn't solve it. This was before they had DNA as they have now and so forth. But he was operative. When they finally caught this guy, he was a master deceiver. They should have caught him much earlier except for the deception, right? For instance, he was primarily killing 15, 16, 17-year-old prostitutes on Old Highway 99. You know, pick them up up there and so on. And one of them, one of those girls, one of his victims, got in his pickup with him. They started to drive away. And her boyfriend was watching, and he decided to follow to see if everything was going to be OK. But he happened to lose it at a stoplight. He lost them. And so he and the girl's father went looking for that pickup. And they found it a little bit later, parked in the driveway of a house not far away. He called the sheriff's office. The police came. And they told him what the deal was. And they're afraid that she was going to be harmed or killed. So the police officer went up to the door and knocked on the door. And the Green River killer answered. And he was so deceptive, so it's like nothing's wrong. It's like the police officer was just convinced there's nothing wrong here, nothing to see here. And they found her body some years later than you see. But this is the deception. But here's my point. When they caught him, then they finally told him that if you agree to plead guilty, he ultimately pled guilty to 48 murders. And they figure he probably killed 70. And some of them they haven't even found yet probably. But on and on and on his cycle of killing went. And nobody, nobody would have ever guessed that this is the guy. He's hardly even on their radar. But once they caught They told him that if he would plead guilty, own up to this, and also help them find the bodies for the sake of the victims, that he would have life without possibility of parole, but not the death sentence. And so he started cooperating. And what he said was, he said, well, back up a little bit, He went through a period of time, while he's killing these people, he went through a period of time when he was a zealous preacher. He would take his Bible to work with him, and he would preach to the people that he worked with, and this kind of a thing that's going on. And anyway, he made the statement then, after he had been caught, he said, I know that if I just tell the truth now, and help recover the bodies of the victims. And if I pray, I will go to heaven." Now, here's my real point. Many, many, many professing Christians and preachers and churches would say, amen. Isn't God's grace great? Even the Green River killer can be saved, you see, right? Let me tell you with confidence and based on the word of God, the Green River Killer is not saved. He's still in prison now. He's not saved. I'll go further. The Green River Killer cannot be saved. He cannot be saved. He knew the gospel. He had read his Bible. He had it. And all the while he's doing that, he's out here killing and killing and killing. And he's never repented, and he never will. But this is how great the deception is. Here is this psychopath, this deceiver, this manipulator who obviously has some demonic spirit operative behind him. He showed no emotion. He's just, he is a killing machine. Absolutely no emotion. And yet, and yet, the spirit of the Antichrist and many false prophets have gone out and will say, even he, even he can be saved, you see. What was it, James Dobson that met with Ted Bundy before he was executed and so forth? I can't remember what Dobson said about him, but this is Satan that we're dealing with. In that case, these terrible serial killers. But the more so-called mundane, the kind we run into all the time, are people that Well, what is the field of operation going to be for the false prophet? What is their target going to be? It's obviously the church. That's where you're going to find them. 1 John 3, verse 10, by this it's evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Now look, look at this. Let that sink in. Let's stop thinking what we think it ought to say, or what does it say? It says it's evident who a Christian is, and it's evident who the children of the devil are. You just have to apply these tests. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. There were people in this church that were members of this church all those 30 years ago. They were just convinced they were Christians. They're being told that they're Christians. But they have the reputation in the community, having the foulest mouth, the terrible temper. I've told you before, I can remember Max saying when he came to Christ and first came to this church, he's like shaking his head. I know these people out there in the community. What are they doing here? You see, that kind of a thing. Look, they're not Christians. They're not Christians. It's not that they're difficult people and the load's on me to be patient with them. It's that they're not saved at all. And it's evident. It's obvious. How is it obvious? Well, if you say you're a Christian, but you're normal walk and practice in life of who you are is of unrighteousness, of sin, you're not a Christian. Don't blow it off by saying, well, we're all sinners. No, no. The children of God practice righteousness. For this is the message you've heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain. was of the evil one and murdered his brother. Why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. So this is what it means to test the spirits. Apply these scriptures to this person that's speaking to you about Christianity, about Christ, or preaching to you. Don't just look at the person themselves. The Pharisees were whitewashed. That means they looked good. They looked holy. You have to apply the Word of God, the test of the Word of God, to what the person is saying. And while you're doing it, let's apply these tests to ourselves, you see. Listen to Matthew 7. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. but the one who does the will of my father who's in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name? And then I will declare them to you. I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. There's that word again, many. This is not a rare problem. Many will say to him, let's put it like this. These many people, these professing Christians, are people who are absolutely confident that they're saved and they're heaven bound. That's who these people are. And I think Jesus means us to understand the many as most. Most people in the world today who profess to be Christians aren't. They're not, you see. But think of this. These people, I mean, they'll take great offense if you were to question their Christianity. Are you sure you're saved? Are you sure of that? How dare you ask me that question? Of course I'm saved. Of course I am. I am on my way to heaven. Well, that's these many. That's exactly the kind of people that Jesus is talking about. I never knew you. Then depart from me. Don't any one of you be those kind of people? Examine yourself. Apply the test to yourself, then you see. These people aren't born again. They come before the Lord, and immediately they start to argue their case, right? Well, Lord, look at all we've done. I mean, we've done all these things. Some of them even appears by His Spirit and so forth. But they're not born again. Someone had taught them, and they believed a false gospel. And as a result, they end up trusting in themselves. They boasted confidently of their own works. And they stand before the Lord, and they're boasting still. And they are absolutely awestruck and dumbfounded and shocked when he tells them, I don't know you. I never knew you. Depart from me. You are wicked. They didn't test themselves. They didn't examine themselves. When a person stands before the Lord and says to him, Lord, Lord, the right thing to say is, thank you, Lord, for sending Jesus, your son. I was dead in my sin. I was headed for hell. That's what I deserve. And for nothing in me at all, you set your love upon me and showed me you being rich in mercy. And you saved me. Thank you. That's the right answer. But these people are boasting then in themselves, you see. I have a reputation then. These people are operative in the church. And many local churches are overrun with these wolves in wool because the pastor and the leaders and the people in the church have not been diligent to apply, then, these tests, you see. And so as a result, many churches are like the example Jesus gives here in Luke 11. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light. But when it's bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore, be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be entirely bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light." I think what he's saying there, as you apply that to the local church, if If the Christians in your church, particularly if the pastor and the leaders in your church, are seeing clearly, they're healthy, they're walking in the light, then the whole place is going to be in the light. But if the pastor and the elders of the church and faithful members of the church, if they're blind, the lights are gonna go out on everybody, and that is so typical then today. When I was in seminary, I took a course on 1 Corinthians. The name of the course was something like this, Solving Problems in the Church as Seen in 1 Corinthians. That is not the real subject of 1 Corinthians. The real subject is this, and we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they're folly to him, and he's not able to understand them because they're spiritually discerned. What that course taught us was, well, let's see, how did Paul address this problem, and how did How did he tell the people to work this out and this problem? But it never got down to the real problem. It didn't get down to it. What was the real problem? A bunch of you guys aren't born again. Some of you are natural men. And the things of God are foolishness to you. That's really what's at the root of the difficult Christian, right? Well, we know that that guy's really difficult. hard to deal with and so on, but we're just going to be patient with him because after all, we're all Christians here. No. No. Then you see, that's not the case. What's going to happen is that as the word of God is preached and taught, understood, what's going to happen is division. not among God's true people, but it's going to sort out the wheat, then, from the tares, you see. So here's the test. By this you know that the Spirit of God, by this you know the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. Now, don't be simplistic here. Don't say, well, he says he believes Jesus is the Son of God. He believes in the Incarnation. He believes in the virgin birth and so on. There's the test, says so right there in 1 John. But then John goes on to say in the chapter, he says, look it, talking to Christians now, you are born again. You're Christians. Therefore, you listen to us. That means the apostolic teaching, all of it. these troublemakers, and so on, they're from the world. And they're going to listen to the false teachers of the world, you see. That's how we're going to know. A Christian, in other words, this test is, not only does he believe that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and is from God, but he also recognizes then that everything Jesus said, everything Jesus is, and everything Jesus taught, and everything that Jesus commanded his apostles to teach is the Word of God. They accept the whole thing, then, you see. That's the test. There's not this balking, this, well, you know, that's just Paul's opinion, and then that kind of thing. Well, there it is, then. We are obligated and we're commanded. This is part of putting on the armor of the Lord, to test the spirits, to see whether they're from God or not. Because there's arrows and darts being shot at us in the form of lies and heresies and so on all the time. But we can stand against them if we will use the tests and the armor that the Lord has given to us. Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you for your truth, that we have it right here. We ask your forgiveness for the times when we've been perhaps lazy about knowing the test, about knowing your truth, and lazy about applying your truth, or reluctant to do so. But we pray that we'd be faithful soldiers in your army and diligent to stand.