For the past two Wednesday evenings, we have looked at the subject of unity in the church. And such unity, as I said, can never come at the expense of truth. Gordon Clark, he wrote, since God is truth, a contempt for the truth is equally a contempt for God. He's right. An attack on the truth is an attack on God. Clark's statement does not suggest that unity is. Or love is unimportant. We must be loving, we must seek unity, we must reflect the long suffering of God, the meekness of our Savior, but all must be built on the foundation of non-negotiable truth. I've been following a story this week regarding the reaction by the Muslim community to a statement that the pope made regarding the Jihad, Jihad means holy war. As I've been reading various news articles, it struck me that opposing views are not tolerated by Muslims. They can disagree with your conviction, but you cannot disagree with theirs. When I turned on my computer this morning, again, there's just so much stuff here. And this came out of Cairo, Egypt, the head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, he made a statement. I thought it was very interesting. He said he didn't hear Benedict's exact words and that the way it goes, someone doesn't hear your exact words, but they have a comment. It's just like the movie The Path to 9-1-1. All the people that were crying out against it never saw the movie. They were going by what other people said about the movie. Well, he makes this statement, he says, any remarks which offend Islam and Muslims are against the teachings of Christ. So if I offend a Muslim by what I believe from the Bible, that's against the teachings of Christ? If I disagree with a Muslim, let's just broaden that, not just Muslims, let's say anyone that does not affirm the truthfulness of this Word right here. If I offend them, that means I am not holding to the teachings of Christ? This right here marks our culture. You can say just about anything as long as it's not spiritual, moral or ethical. Yet what you hear in the media, it's either against Republicans, President Bush or Christians. Not against Muslims. Muslims are dominating the media. Do you notice that? When I think about this problem, immediately I think about the church, because the greatest problem facing the church today is its lack of discernment. It lacks the ability to discern between what is right and what is wrong. John MacArthur in his book, Reckless Faith, he illustrates this. He says that one of the reasons for a low level of discernment in the church today is the reluctance to take in a definitive stand on any issue. Those with any convictions at all are supposed to hold those beliefs with as much slack as possible. Dogmatism is not permitted. To pronounce anything true and call it antithesis error is to challenge society's only remaining dogma. Refuse to equivocate on any point of principle or doctrine and you will be labeled too narrow. Zeal for the truth has become politically incorrect. In the secular world, he writes, it's often thought uncouth to voice any opinion at all on spiritual, moral or ethical matters. A plethora of Phil Donahue style talk shows exist to remind us of this fact. And they do so by parading in front of us the most bizarre and extreme advocates of every radical alternative lifestyle imaginable. We're not supposed to condemn these people. The whole point is to broaden our minds and raise our level of tolerance. Anyone who responds negatively is viewed with the same contempt that used to be reserved for bigots and religious hypocrites. He says the other day, one of these program broadcast a show that featured bearded lesbian. He says a petite woman was seated on the stage sporting a thick black beard and full mustache, all her other physical attributes, her voice, her clothing were fully feminine. She declared that she was proud of the beard and really didn't care what anyone else thought of it. Besides, her lesbian lover found facial hair attractive. She said she was actually taking hormones to make her beard grow even thicker. A teenage girl in the audience timidly stated that she thought it was unfortunate that the bearded woman was purposely alienated herself from mainstream society. She suggested that the woman might really be happier if she stopped the hormone treatments and underwent electrolysis instead. At that, the studio audience turned disagreeable. Several people booed the teenage girl. Another woman from the audience, her voice choked with emotion, scolded the teenager. How dare you criticize this beautiful creature? Who are you to tell her how she should look? Society shouldn't impose arbitrary standards on people. Everyone should be free to be whatever they want to be. And the audience responded with sustained applause, the bearded woman grinned triumphantly and the teenage girl sat down in shame. The culture around us has declared a war on all standards and the church is unwittingly following suit. It has become quite popular among Christians to assert that almost nothing is really black and white. Virtually all issues of right and wrong, true and false, good and bad are painted in shades of gray. Many Christians assume this is the proper way of understanding truth. You hear any problems with that? The church cannot afford to lose its discernment, but it has in so many ways. And this has become the greatest problem, I believe, that faces the church. Problem is not money. Problem is really not the amount of people. Folks, I would rather have a house full in here of few people on fire for the Lord than a whole church load of people not or lost. Or if they were in here lost in a full house and we just preach the gospel to them, right? See, it's obvious, as he says, not every issue is cast in black and white. There are many questions to which Scripture does not explicitly speak. For example, should a Christian watch television? Nothing in Scripture forbids it. But clearly, television poses certain dangers for the Christian. There are principles in Scripture that can help us to discern what kind of things that we should watch and how we should interact with what we see. But there's no express rule as given to govern how much or how little television we should watch. That is a gray area. But many of the issues being compromised among Christians today are not questionable, they are not gray areas, there is no room for compromise. You know, Scripture speaks very clearly about homosexuality. The Christian position on adultery is not at all vague. The question of whether a believer ought to marry or marry an unbeliever, that's certainly spelled out with perfect clarity. Scripture quite plainly forbids any Christian to take another Christian to court. Selfishness, pride, these are identified explicitly in Scripture as sin. Yet those areas are treated as gray areas on Christian radio, Christian TV and in churches. People want to say such matters like this are to be negotiable. Too many Christian leaders, therefore, are willingly wanting to abide. The line of distinction between truth and error, wisdom and foolishness, the church in the world is being obliterated, the truth is that far more things are black and white issues. That most people realize. Jay Adams, he calls this principle of antithesis, he points out that it is fundamental to genuine discernment, listen to what he writes. In the Bible, where antithesis is so important, discernment, the ability to distinguish God's thoughts and God's ways from all others is essential. Indeed, God says that the wise in heart will be called discerning. Proverbs 16, 21. For the Garden of Eden, with its two trees, one allowed, one forbidden to the eternal destiny of the human being in heaven or in hell, the Bible sets forth to in only two ways. God's way. and all others. Accordingly, people are said to be saved or lost. They belong to God's people or the world. There was garrison, the Mount of Blessing and evil, the Mount of Cursing. There is the narrow way and the wide way leading either to eternal life or to destruction. There are those who are against and those who are with us. those within and those without. There is life and death, truth and falsehood, good and bad, light and darkness, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, love and hatred, spiritual wisdom and the wisdom of the world. Christ is said to be the way, the truth and the life, and no one may come to the Father but by Him. His is the only name under the sky by which one may be saved." See, all truth sets itself against error. Where Scripture speaks, it speaks with authority. It speaks definitively. It speaks decisively. It calls for absolute conviction. It demands that we submit to God and that we resist the devil, it urges us to discern between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. It commands us to turn away from evil and do good. It causes us to reject the broad way that seems right to the human mind and follow the narrow way prescribed by God. It tells us that our ways are not God's ways, nor are our thoughts his thoughts. It orders us. to protect the truth, reject lies. It declares that no lie is of the truth. It guarantees that the righteous will be blessed and the wicked will perish. And it reminds us that friendship with the world is hostility toward God. Discernment demands that where Scripture speaks with clarity, a hard line must be drawn. Christ is against human philosophy. He's against empty deception. He's against human tradition. He's against the elementary principles of the world. And those things cannot be integrated with true Christian belief. They must be repudiated. They must be steadfastly resisted. See, Scripture demands that we make a definitive choice. It says in First Kings 1821. How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. If Baal, follow him. Joshua said it this way, Choose for yourself today whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. This morning I want to talk about this issue. that faces the church, this lack of discernment. And I want to do that by having you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians 5. This morning, we're going to look at verses 21 and 22. And it's here in this passage where Paul calls the Thessalonians to test all things. Notice what he says. Test all things. Hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil. J.C. Ryle, he says every individual, every individual Christian has the right to judge for himself by the word of God, whether that which is put before him is religious truth, is God's truth or it's not. He does not say whatever. So apostles, whatever. So evangelists, whatever. So pastors and teachers, whatever. So you bishops, whatever. So you ministers tell you it's truth that you are to believe. No, he says, prove all things. He does not say whatsoever. The universal church pronounces true that you're to hold. No, he says, prove all things. Now, what he says right here, test all things. All things, not some things, not a few things, all things. It goes on the right. The principle laid down is this. Prove all things by the Word of God. All ministers, all teaching, all preaching, all doctrines, all sermons, all writings, all opinions, all practices prove by the Word of God. Measure all by the measure of the Bible. Compare all with the standard of the Bible. Weigh all in the balances of the Bible. Examine all by the light of the Bible. Test all in the crucible of the Bible. That which can abide the fire of the Bible, receive, hold, believe and obey. That which cannot abide the fire of the Bible, reject, refuse, repudiate and cast away. Amen. Everything by the Bible. But you know what my fear is? Most in the church today, they've been sitting there for many years, don't even know what they believe about the Bible. They allow doubt and questions to be raised to the Bible in such a way to cast superstition on it. This isn't really the word of God, is it? I find it very interesting in the day in which we live that how we have to get more and more specific. This is what we mean, and I spent about an hour yesterday on our website adding some things to it to be very specific. I took every one of our every one of the statements on our doctrinal page and I put a link to where we taught on this. And there's a good half a dozen, maybe a dozen or more links on every one of those statements. This is what we believe. Here's how we prove what we believe. We teach this. We affirm this. And then I put a little note on the page that said, listen, read carefully every one of these pages. And then after you've done that, then come. And then when you come, stay a while because you can't truly evaluate just by coming one time. It might be an off day. Half the people might not be here that serve you. You know, like today where I've You've been wearing three hats. It's all a blur right now to me. But you see, we've got to have discernment. And as I've just pointed out, the Bible is specific. There are so many things that are specific in Scripture as to what it teaches, and yet Christians are still vacillating. You know, to say that the divorce rate among Christians is high, it should be low to nonexistent. I mean, the only way it should happen is if you have an unfaithful partner, an unbeliever that leaves. But unfortunately, that's not the case. And yet many other issues that are here, you know, the Bible is so specific and so clear about salvation and how one may come to faith in Christ. And yet there are so many things that are coming and attacking that. As people come in and say it's faith plus something else for the Roman Catholics is faith plus the Roman Catholic Church, the church becomes the surrogate Christ. You know, or it's baptism, we talked about that in Sunday school this morning, Church of Christ at baptism to a condition of salvation, they say you can be saved as long as you're baptized to. And the problem with that is, is that it goes against the clear teaching of Scripture. It goes against clear teaching in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. By grace through faith are you saved. That not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. If it says only by grace through faith, it's not by grace through faith plus baptism. It's not by grace through faith plus the Catholic Church. It's not by grace through faith plus circumcision or any other human work. And yet the church. In many cases is not discerning, not willing to stand on black and white issues, and some of the reason is simply the way these people are reacting right here. Because if you say something, the antithesis of truth is error, and if you say something against what someone believes is truth and you're pointing out to them that is error, that it goes against the one way, the one word, the Bible. And they react with hostility. They react with with war. You know, as I was looking at this stuff on the Internet, it was amazing. They just the pictures told the story. I mean, if you just looked at the pictures and you read no print, you could immediately think what they were doing. I mean, they were literally hostile, they were calling for the death of the pope. So that tells me anyone that speaks against what Muslims believe, they're calling for your death. Now, listen, they're already calling for your death. They're already doing that. We are to prove all things by the Bible, this is the only thing we have, this is the only authority right here, I'm not the authority, you're not the authority. Chip, Matt, they're not the authority. The Bible is the authority. We operate by the Bible. Everything we do, the reason why we do it is because the Bible specifically says to do this. To me, that's the best way to operate. He says here to test all things. And he tells us how to do this. We're to test it thoroughly. And we get the idea of testing it thoroughly because the word test, which was a common New Testament word, it often refers to testing something for its authenticity. See, it entails distinguishing between true and false, right and wrong, good or bad. When you're testing all things, you're seeking to distinguish between is this true or is this false? Is this right or is this wrong? Is this good or is this bad? See, sometimes the word denotes the process of distinguishing what is pleasing to the Lord and see for a Christian in that what we're doing. Well, what I do here, if this is an area that would fall into the category of gray, not specifically black and white, like this issue of TV, I mentioned we would want to know the principles of the word of God so that we can live our lives pleasing to the Lord. Right. On issues that are black and white that are extremely clear, extremely specific. It's a matter of obedience, isn't it? We are to test all things thoroughly, we are to be like the Bereans where they were testing what was taught. You know, when Paul went into Thessalonica, he was chased out of that city after preaching the gospel, and he went down to Berea. And while he was in Berea, it says of the Bereans that they were more noble minded than the Thessalonians in that they searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. They weren't just taking Paul with what he said. They were testing Paul's words against the Bible. And the Bible at that time was the Old Testament. That's all they had. And that was enough, believe me. God specifically gave his word how to test those who are teachers, those who are prophets. And so they were testing the content, they were taking the content of what he was saying and they were lining that up with what the Bible taught. That's what you ought to be doing every time that we meet together, every time you hear somebody teach, whether it's on the radio, whether it's on a CD somebody hands to you or whether it's on the Internet, you ought to be testing that. You have to be examining that thoroughly, examining the content. We want you to examine the content. We want that. John MacArthur talked about one time he preached why the Antichrist will be a Gentile. And after he preached that, someone came up to him, showed him some verses and said, you know, you're wrong. It's going to be a Jew. The next week he got up and preached why the Antichrist will be a Jew. And that right there was just illustrating, one, his teachable-ness. Two, the fact that the person who pointed that out to him was being discerning. Beloved, we need to be discerning. Test all things thoroughly. Test what is taught. Test who is teaching. This is looking at the character of the man. 1 Timothy chapter 3 gives qualifications of elders in the church. It gives qualifications of those who are to lead the church, you ought to be looking at those qualifications and you ought to be measuring the men who serve in this church by those qualifications. Titus chapter one does the same thing. See, this command is universal, it's universal for every believer, but you know what? When I say it's universal for every believer, first, it starts with you. It has to start personal. Before you look outward and start examining everything outward, first you need to examine yourself. And 2 Corinthians 13, 5 says, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you are disqualified. See, first test yourself and then it branches out toward others. 1 John 4, 1 tells us to test the spirit. And notice there in 1 John 4, 1, when it says test the spirits, it gives you the criteria by which you're to do that. First it says, do not believe every spirit. Then it says, test the spirits. Third, it says whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you will know the Spirit of God. Verse 2 is telling you how you're going to know which is coming from the Spirit of God or which is coming from the devil. He says every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. So you have the criteria by which you can test what you hear. You have the criteria by which you can test who is teaching. You have the Holy Spirit of God. Verse four, he says, you are of God, little children. You've overcome them because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. He talks about later the anointing which you have received. The anointing is the Holy Spirit. You have a resident truth teacher. You have God in you. I didn't say you were God. I said he's in you. The world today says you are a God. New Age thinking. Churches bought into that new age thinking that's much of what is taught on TV. And that's why I just highly warn people about that station. That's why I call it the totally bogus network. There's not an ounce of truth of hardly anything coming across those airwaves. And see, this is what draws a line of confusion, because when you do have something on there that is preaching truth, It's hard to really see that this is truth and this is here. You got to learn how to draw the distinctions, the way the masters on there. But you notice programs like that are much later at night, usually like 11, 12, one o'clock in the morning. But it's the other stuff that's on earlier. And the things that they're teaching is just totally bogus, according to Scripture, that's where I get my totally bogus network. See, we have to test the spirits. In the early church, the church at Corinth, the church that was seeking after all the gifts, they were even told in first Corinthians 14, 29, let two or three prophets speak and let the others judge. There had to be discernment. And you see, it's clear that this was the duty of every. Of the early believers, by what Jesus said to the church at Ephesus, Revelation two, verse two says, I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And notice this. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not and have found them liars. See, they were testing those who were running around and saying that they were apostles, you know, to me, that would have been an easy test because there were only 12. One fell away, Matthias replaced Judas. And then you have Paul, so you can say there were 13. Official apostles in the New Testament, that's all there were. And if you got somebody running around saying, I'm an apostle, well, that's easy to test, isn't it? Maybe it wasn't easy during that time because revelation was still being given. But to our day and age, it's an easy thing to test. We have a closed canon right here and somebody's running around saying, I'm an apostle so and so, I'm a prophet so and so. I'd say, no, you're not. Is your name Paul? Is your name Peter? Andrew? Bartholomew? I just hope it's not one of their names. You know, even the Proverbs give us instruction about this. Proverbs 14, 15 says the simple believes every word, but the prudent considers, well, his steps. You need to be prudent. You need to be wise. You need to be those who test thoroughly all things. Matthew Henry, he says it is folly to be credulous that is easily convinced. To heed every flying report, to give ear to every man's story, though ever so improbable, to take things upon trust from common fame, to depend upon every man's profession of friendship and to give credit to everyone that will promise payment. Those are simple who thus believe every word, forgetting that all men in some sense are liars in comparison with God, all whose words we are to believe with an implicit faith, for he cannot lie. It is wisdom to be cautious, the prudent man will try before he trust will weigh both the credibility of the witness and the probability of the testimony and then give judgment as the thing appears or suspend his judgment till it appears. Not everything is known immediately at first. Let me show you this. Go to first Timothy, chapter five. When it talks about the laying on of hands. On elders. It says in verse 22, do not lay hands on anyone hastily nor share in other people's sins. Keep yourself pure. Go down to verse 24. Some men are clearly evident, proceeding them to judgment, but those of some men follow when? Later. That's why you don't want to be quick. Lay your hands on somebody, identify with them, saying they're truly of God. This is truly their ministry. Let's appoint them here. Let's put them in this place. There has to be a testing. Because some sins are clearly seen immediately, some aren't seen till later. That's discernment. So in your thorough testing of all things, you are to include everything. This permits no exceptions. It includes every issue and idea that might confront believers. J. Bernard McGee says, don't be taken in. To put it crudely, don't be a sucker. Don't be misled into supporting a project just because somebody sends you a picture of pathetic looking orphans. Don't contribute to things you know nothing about. Don't fall for some job promotion. Investigate, investigate anything to which you give your support. Christians ought not to be gullible. We are to prove all things. This also means that we are not to be taken in by flattery. There are many deceivers in the world. The reason why TBN and this one before it, PTL, are able even to stay in business is because They're sending out for these donations and people are not investigating. You know, you have the scandal, the PTL movement, and you would think that alone would be enough, but then once one person falls, another one rises up to take over the people are discerning. And we used to see this all the time, people, you know, that are preying on older people. For their money. talking them into doing things or supporting things without investigating them. See, A.T. Robinson, he says, even the gift of prophecy has to be tested to avoid error. See, when you're when you're hearing and experiencing the gift of prophecy and the gift of prophecy is basically proclaiming the truth, you are to test that. Can I ever stand up here and say something that's not true? Sure, I can. It takes hard work to make sure I don't. It takes hard work to make sure that I don't veer off into areas I know nothing about or I know little about. That's where you get into trouble. So you need to be careful. Be discerning. You even need to be careful about accepting free Bible studies that are You know, given over the Internet, you know, the Internet has become a really good resource. I use it things I look for. I was looking at some things yesterday and. But you have to even compare what you're reading because you just can't accept everything that you read, that that's the authority on it, you know, as we're going through school, this new school year and we're reading these books and things, and I'm thinking we have to test these things. And we're sitting there and we're talking about it. Sometimes flags come up and say, well, listen, I don't know if that's right. That doesn't sound right. Here's why. Here's what the Bible says. That's what it means to be discerning. That's what it means to test all things and to test everything and to do it thoroughly. We have to be cautious about the world, but you know what's happening? We're going to have to also be cautious about. The church. Because the church is bought into what the world is offering. Satan wants to invade your family. He will not be partial to any particular means. He'll do that through what is taught in schools, what is taught in daycares, what is taught through restrictions on your freedoms, what is taught in the news media. He's going to do it through any available means. You need to realize that. He's out to attack you and attack your home. He wants to destroy your home. He wants your home to end in divorce. He wants to utterly frustrate you, utterly discourage you. He wants you to give up. He wants you to deny Christ. I was thinking about that riding over. Because what should be permeating our media is about those who have literally lost their heads in this war. That stuff's being kept back from us. Why is it that we could spend a whole week talking about Hurricane Katrina and spend one day talking about 9-11? Explain that one to me. 9-11 killed over 3,000 people, and we're still talking about Katrina. Did you notice that? Right when we entered into the hurricane season, it was every day. I was so sick of reading the news. It was everywhere. And then we lead up to 9-11. And mostly the only thing that got a lot of promotion was the movie and the promotion of the movie was simply this. The Democrats didn't want it to be aired. And Clinton and all of his lawyers and his former aides writing the president, I think, of CBS and trying to get him, first of all, to edit it, and then they started saying, no, cut it all together. You know, it's that kind of stuff that dominates. So I said, you know, things that you hear is usually attacks against Republicans, the president or Christians. That's the kind of stuff you read. I read the news every day. I see this stuff all the time. I go from one Web site to another Web site. I even have the print paper coming to my doorstep. And it's the same thing. Over and over and over. But, you know, one thing I could say. You can read that you can look at what's going on and you can glorify God. Because you see in the stuff that you're reading that his return has to be so near. Study the times, study the seasons. You're hearing today that Islam is a peaceful, loving religion. That is a lie. But it's told to you so much that you'll forget that it's a lie and you will embrace it. It's breaking down your standard. It's breaking down your discernment. You need to investigate their writings, and we've sought to accommodate you on that. We had a former Muslim come and speak. And all the material that he shared is on our website. You can print it, read it. The books that they brought that day are in our library. One book by Mark Gabriel is a book called Islam and Terrorism. It's a book I recommend you reading. It highlights so many things. Who is Mark Gabriel? Well, he was a former Muslim. Mark Gabriel is his new name. That was not his Muslim name. When he converted to Christ, he put off even the vestiges of his name and chose a new name. He was a former Muslim. He was able to quote the entire Koran by the time he was 12 years old. He was raised in Egypt in the midst of a breeding ground of Islamic terrorists. He spent his formative years deep inside the confines of Muslim influence. He was disowned by his family after he converted to Christianity. They tried to kill him several times, causing him to escape from his homeland to the United States. This is where he resides now. Listen to what he writes in his book, Islam and Terrorist. Jihad is carried out in order to achieve the ultimate goal of Islam, to establish Islamic authority over the whole world. That's why it's so much in the media. They're seeking to gain authority over the whole world. When the president made a statement that was against Islam, they did the same thing they're doing to the Pope. Same thing. He further states, Muslims will lie and say things they do not believe at any moment, as long as they are doing so would help Islam. Their loyalty is to Islam, not to the nation where they are living. You know, and it's clear from that movie, The Path to 9-1-1, that Islam hates all non-Muslims and wants them all dead or to convert to the Muslim religion. Friday night, I was standing in the kitchen, we had the TV on, and Inside Edition was on, and there was an American woman named Angie who converted from Christianity to Islam. Did anybody see that? It was very interesting watching that. In fact, it was very sickening. And we even asked the question, did anybody tell her what would happen if she tries to convert from Muslim to Christian? They'll kill her. They will do that. You can convert to Muslim, but you cannot convert from. That's what Gabriel points out in his book. She basically made a statement that her religion is hijacked by extremists. Those that flew the planes into the World Trade Center to the Pentagon there in Pennsylvania trying to get toward the White House, she says they were extremists and her religion was hijacked. No, those men were carrying out what the Koran said. Gabriel says, Jihad is a command to all Muslims enforced by the Koran. The focus of Jihad is to overcome people who do not accept Islam, end quote. Here's what the Koran says. This is in Surah 489. Those who reject Islam must be killed. If they turn back from Islam, take hold of them and kill them wherever you find them. Surah 47, four says, So when you meet those who disbelieve, smite their necks till you have killed and wounded many of them, then bind a bond firmly on them, that is, take them as captives. Now, what's been going on? What's been going on? Does that sound like a peaceful religion? Does this compare to the teachings of the Bible? Even though Catholics do not practice this today, they were no different in their history. In their history, they killed everyone that opposed their beliefs. Did you know that? During Queen Mary's reign of four years from 1553 to 1557, two hundred and eighty four people, men and women, old and young, were put to death. Prior to this time, the New Fox's Book of Martyrs says up to about the 12th century, most of the persecutions against true believers in Christ came from the pagan world. But now the church in Rome discarded the truth of scripture, the commandments of love, and took up the sword against all who oppose the false doctrines and traditions that had increasingly become part of it since the time of Constantine for several centuries. The papal church regarded a rage throughout the world like a hungry beast, slaughtering thousands of true believers in Christ and torturing and mutilating thousands more. We all know on October 31st, 1517, a young monk by the name of Martin Luther, he nailed his ninety five thesis to the door of the Castle Chapel, Wittenberg, Germany, against the Catholic practices of selling indulgences. This sparked the Protestant Reformation. He was declared a heretic and he was excommunicated in 1521. They wanted to kill him. I read stuff like that and it comes up with this question, what links would you go through? In defending the Bible. See, because these men gave their lives for the Bible, William Tyndall. Gave his life so that you could have an English Bible in your hand. He was betrayed by a friend. All these people. Gave their lives. To defend the Bible. See, that's truly testing all things. That's having conviction. You know, I've told you this before, how in two churches in my experience of pastoring, I was kicked out of. And here's why. Because I had conviction. And I wouldn't deviate from my conviction. Even if it meant that I wouldn't preach there anymore. Seems true everywhere I go. Seems true here. I have convictions. You have convictions. Are you willing to die on those convictions? I tell people all the time, you need to choose what hills you die on. We talked about that last week, didn't we? And sometimes we die on hills we shouldn't die on, but then that's how we learn. I shouldn't have died on that hill. That hill wasn't worth it. But when it's explicitly clear in Scripture, you die on that hill. You know what I mean? Well, we have to test all things thoroughly. We have to test everything in its entirety and we have to hold fast what is good. See, once believers examine everything, they must then hold fast to what is good. And the word hold fast, it means to embrace wholeheartedly. It means to take possession of. You take possession of what is good, the word kalos, it denotes what is inherently genuine, what is true, what is noble, what is right. Not just what might be beautiful in appearance. When believers find what is good, they must embrace it. They must make it their own. This becomes your conviction. You want to stand on your convictions. This is where we have the problem. No conviction. I can easily find out where you are by a few statements. If I stood up here and said some erroneous things about the Bible, what would you do? I hope you would stand up and protest. If I insisted on those erroneous things, I would hope that you would usher me out of this pulpit. You know, you notice we don't have a whole lot of people speak from here. And it's not that, you know, There's people out there not worthy to speak here. It's not that at all. One of the things is, is that we're committed to be the teachers in this pulpit, to be here to teach you. I mean, ask my family, the commitments that I make to you to be here. It's hard for them to get me to take a week off. It's hard for me to take a week off. Because of the commitment that I have to this pulpit, this is my life. And you've heard me say many times, pray for me to have balance in my life. The balance I'm talking about is that right there, that I balance that with my family and their needs. When we find what is good, we are to embrace it, we're to make it our own. Paul told the believers at Rome to cling to what is good. He said in Romans 12, nine, let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. Good here is defined as the opposite of evil. You need to cling to the truth. In Romans 16, 19, Paul concluded his letter by telling them to be wise in what is good and simple concerning evil. His desire was that they should be quite unknowing and unpracticed in the ways of sin. John MacArthur says to be innocent in what evil is, not to be ignorant of it or to disregard it. We cannot abhor evil unless we have some idea of what it is. But to use a popular analogy, the only reliable way to recognize a counterfeit bill is to be completely familiar with the genuine bill. The only reliable way to recognize evil is to be thoroughly familiar with the good. And the only reliable way to learn what is good is to learn God's word. You know, sink yourself in the Bible. In fact, if I could say anything about the TV, I'd say simply that. Watch less of it. Get in the Bible. I mean, I like to sit down and do that, too, but I don't want to just sit there and let my mind become a battleground by putting stuff in my mind that I'm going to fight later. I would rather control that time. So if I'm going to sit down and watch something, I'm going to watch a DVD. I want to watch something I know something about, I'm going to watch something that that has some credibility to it, something that's going to be good for the mind, not just sit there and assault my mind. You know, you've heard that commercial, mine's a terrible thing to waste, but mine's a terrible thing to assault. And you assault it with false teaching, you assault it with with the dirt and the trash of the world. See, you've got to be. To the place to where, you know, the authentic and that's how you can attest errors, I don't need to go and study what other people believe. All I need to do is study the truth, because when I know the truth, then I'll know what error is when it comes against the truth. That's why we're sitting there reading some of these books for school. And, you know, you got your little light bulbs going off, a little discernment. Chip describes it as a, you know, I don't do that. But I understand what he's saying. That's that little radar going off and saying, listen, enemy in the camp, enemy in the camp is right there on the radar. Your conscience has been taught by the word. It's been exercised to discern between good and evil. And the only way it's going to be that is by being in the word. And when I say being in the word, I'm not just saying sit here and read and then you walk away not understanding what you read. Where's the profit there? How can you apply something you don't understand? You can't. Where's the fruit? You read something to me, I don't understand what it means or what it says, I'm just going to walk away and that means nothing to me. has no bearing on my life, has no effect on me. I don't know what that means. But yet, if you explain it to me, then that's a different story. That's why we take the time to explain the Bible, not to just sit up here and rant and rave and spit and holler. You know, there is a goal here. Philippians 4.8, Paul said to think or to meditate on that which is good. He said, finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there's any virtue, if there's anything praiseworthy, he says, think on these things. Meditate on these things. This is the stuff that should be occupying our mind. Do what we used to do. Put Philippians 4.8 right in front of your TV set. If you're having trouble with the TV and watching garbage, put that verse in front of your set. Have it written out, so that when you go to watch your TV, you've got to see that verse first before you remove it from the screen. Ask God, guard your mind as you sit down with that. Train your kids to do that. Let them walk out of the room if they hear something that's inappropriate. You know? Sit there with that changer. Click it off. I did something. The Bible is very narrow on what it teaches. We're to embrace it fully. We're to reject everything that opposes it. You know what? That's exactly what Muslims are doing. They're embracing fully what they believe. They're opposing anything that comes against it. Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, every other cult and ism is doing the same thing. They're embracing what they believe. They're opposing anything that comes against it. But what they are embracing is lies from the devil, who is the father of lies. As we examine and test everything, we test it against what the Bible says, not by what we think it to be true. There's only one truth, one way. All others are false. God's Word is true. Jesus said, Your Word is true. John 17, 17. God is true. He can never lie. Titus 1, 2 says God can never lie. He is the only way to heaven. John 14, 6. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me." Remember what J.C. Rouse said? Prove all things by the Word of God. All ministers, all teaching, all preaching, all doctrines, all sermons, all writings, all opinions, all practices, prove all by the Word of God. Measure all by the measure of the Bible. Compare all with the standard of the Bible. Weigh all in the balances of the Bible. Examine all by the light of the Bible. Test all in the crucible of the Bible. That which can abide the fire of the Bible, receive, hold, believe, and obey. That which cannot abide the fire of the Bible, reject, refuse, repudiate and cast away. I love that that's right on. So what God calls evil, we must abstain from what God calls good, we must embrace what God calls truth, we must stand on with conviction. We must oppose all false teaching. We must be able to discern between what is true and what is false. In other words, we must test all things, hold fast that which is good and abstain from every form of evil. You see the pattern. If you're discerning. If you're discerning, then you can hold fast what is good, if you're discerning, you can abstain from every form of evil. You know, if I'm somewhere and I have a glass and it's the same kind of glass that beer or something served in, I really don't want to use that. It's only because I don't want people to think for a second that I'm drinking something I shouldn't drink. You know what I mean? Bottled water works fine for me. It's very clearly identified. Dasani, you know, or whatever these names are. Zephyr Hills. We have to abstain from every form, every appearance. This means that believers are to hold themselves away from evil. See, the word abstain here at Pecco, it's a strong word that means to hold oneself away from the emphasis is on the believers, complete avoidance of any evil teaching or any evil behavior. You're holding yourself away from this. It's the same word that's used in 1 Thessalonians 4.3 when it says, abstain from sexual immorality. You're going to hold yourself completely away from sexual immorality. It's the same word that's used in 1 Peter 2.11 when it says, abstain from the passions of the flesh. So you want to hold yourself completely away from the passions of the flesh. See, it calls for a radical separation from every form of evil. It includes every evil behavior, of course, but in this context, the primary reference seems to be toward evil teaching, false teaching, false doctrine. You want to stay away from that, you want to examine everything in the light of God's word when you identify something that does not measure up something that is evil, something that's untrue, something that is erroneous, something that is contrary to sound doctrine. You are to shun it. See nowhere in Scripture. Does it permit believers to expose themselves to the influences of what is false or evil? Instead, they are to abstain from such things and even flee from them. First, in the six eleven says, but you will, man of God, all talking to Timothy. Flee these things. What are these things? Well, if you go back to verse five, it's useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth. If you go over to verse 10, it's those who love money. So he says you are to flee from these things and you are to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience and gentleness. He told him in 2 Timothy 2, 22, the flea also youthful lust that pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. I mean, even the Proverbs has a word on this, Proverbs 8, 13, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate. So you want to hold yourself away from evil, you want to shun that which is evil, that which is identified as error. See why you need discernment. See why you need to to know when there is something that's gray, when there is something that is clearly black and white by scripture, you need discernment. We had a couple that used to come here. About two years ago. And part of school was to go and visit a Buddhist temple. And asked me what I thought about that, and I said, you know what? The scriptures, I believe, tell us that we should stay away from that. You know, I think you ought to go back to your teacher and tell him, listen, I can't do that. I can't go and sit under that false teaching. You know, that's against the Bible. You know, people sometimes won't even say that. They'll come back and they'll say, well, listen, that's against my religion. I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in this. Is it against the Bible? Because your so-called religion might even contradict the Bible, right? We are not given the privilege to sit under false teachers. Praise the Lord for that. This word evil, it refers to something that is actively harmful. Or malignant. See, such evil, it includes lies and distortions of truth as well as moral perversions. And it appears in many forms, Matthew 511, it appears as reviling persecution, saying all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Matthew 15, 19, it refers to evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, deaths, false witness, blasphemies, Colossians 3, 5 refers to fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness. And see, Paul warns the Thessalonians to shun every form of evil. This is a general call to discern truth from error, good from evil, righteousness from sin, and it's a command to shun any of the negative teachings, influences or behaviors that would displease God. We're going to be discerning. We have to return to the commitment that compromise is unacceptable. It's unacceptable. We have to affirm that testing of all things is biblical. That's what we have to affirm. Discerning between truth and error is loving. It's loving. Where's your discernment? Are you testing all things? Are you holding fast that which is good? Are you abstaining from every form of evil? If so, then you're being discerning. If not, then you're compromising biblical truth. How can we correct the greatest problem that's facing the church? Apply what we talked about today. That's how we can correct it. I can't I can't. Worry about churches outside of here, I can worry about is this church, this is enough to worry about. The cares of this church are enormous, and my care for you is that you be discerning. My desire for you is that you test all things thoroughly, biblically, everything, prove everything by the word of God. Don't just affirm everything you hear, test it, find out whether it's true. Well, that's our desire. We're here to help you. We're here to help you to understand biblical truth. If you're struggling with compromise, I'd like to pray with you about that. So. I would also like to say, if you're in need of Christ, you're in need of forgiveness of sin. I certainly would love to pray with you about that as well and show you how you can come to Christ. Well, I pray that your heart is in tune with this as well and that you desire with all your heart to be discerning. Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for your word. Thank you for the things that you pointed out to us today, Father, I pray that we will understand what we've heard. I pray that it will challenge us, Lord God, of how important it is for us to be discerning when we look and see the things that are going on in our world and how the church is reacting to it, Lord. And Lord, to see the importance on standing for the truth, standing on your word, not deviating in any way to the left or the right, not compromising, but standing wholeheartedly on it. Regardless of what kind of consequences that will come for it. Lord, we read of those in history that did stand on the truth and they paid for it with their lives that may happen to us. Most important thing is we don't deny the truth. So Lord, I just pray and press that on each heart today. We pray that in your name. Amen.