It's good to see all of you out tonight. I hope you got something to write with. We are going to be getting into the Scriptures somewhat tonight. We'll start, there's about 20 passages of Scripture in the New Testament concerning trying the spirits, false prophets, false teachers, and so forth like that. And so we'll be getting into those. But I want us to read again that passage of Scripture where it says, Beloved, believe not every spirit. I want you to get that down in your heart. I want you to make that part of your Christian experience. I want you to get that down your soul. Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out in the world. Verse number 6, we are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. I want to review just a little bit what we did this morning. As we said, there believe not every spirit, first of all. Secondly, try the spirits. And we'll just try the confession of the spirit. And we said that a confession of the spirit is different than a mouth or so forth like that. And we said that John chapter 6 and verse 63, how do you try spirit? You try it by spirit. That's how you try spirit, is by the spirit. And so you measure it against it. John 6, 63 says, Jesus said, my words are spirit. So that tells us how we're to try the spirits. We're to test them against the Word of God. It is not complicated. It's not mysterious. You just check it against the Bible. But you can't check it unless you know it. I had a call from a man from Australia this afternoon. This is about the third or fourth time he's called me. The man has a lot of problems, but found out what his problem was, that he's listening to preachers, but he does not read the Bible. And I asked him, I said, he kept pouring out his problems and all, and he's got all kinds of problems about the devil and demons and blah, blah, blah and stuff. And I said, something just told me to stop. I said, let me ask you a question. How much Bible do you read? Well, not much. I said, how much is not much? Well, not much. I said, how much is not much? Do you read it at all? Well, not much. And I said, I'm going to tell you what your problem is. And then he said, well, I listen to a lot of preaching. I said, that's your problem. You're getting confused by listening to all these different voices. I said, you need to get in the Bible. And I said, I'm going to give you a prescription. You leave five chapters a day, starting with Genesis, going through the Old Testament, and also five chapters in the New Testament per day. That's only 10 chapters per day. And I said, if you'll do that, you won't need to be calling me. I said, I don't want you to call me again for a month. And if you don't do what I ask you to do, don't even call me at all, because you're not really wanting any help. God will help you. I really can't help you, but God can help you. And if you'll just ask him to speak to you through his word, he'll clear up and he'll give you the strength that you need to take that spirit of worry and fear out of you. So I want you now to go to first Corinthians chapter two. We're going to look at something again to see this. Why? I really I want to say, first of all, how I appreciate all of you being out tonight. What a wonderful Sunday night group. And I appreciate your hunger for the word of God. And I want to leave this world just knowing that I kept pointing people to the Bible, kept pointing people to the Bible. That's how I want to go home to glory. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, the church at Corinth was a very carnal, very messed up church. They had all kinds of problems. Every chapter in the book of Corinthians nearly deals with an error, watch this now, an error that was in the church. They were messed up on the resurrection. They were messed up on church discipline. They were messed up on the communion. I mean, Brother Messick, am I telling the truth or not? Every chapter in Corinthians deals with something. They had a spirit of error in them. And Paul was writing to correct the errors that was going on in that church, okay? People were pumping this stuff in and coming up with their own ideas and so forth. And he was dealing with it. Now, he's going to tell people in the second chapter... By the way, Gilgal, bless your heart, you doing okay? You took a bad fall, I understand. But you're doing good. Amen. Good to be hard-headed, isn't it? Amen. Pays out, don't it, Gilgal? Well, I want to tell you, I'm glad you didn't get hurt any worse. And I do appreciate everybody praying for her. And I want to tell you something else, Gilgal. I appreciate you being out helping your family make a living. That's what you was doing when you fell. You wasn't out tinkerbelling around. And maybe you was tinkering around. I don't know. But you was trying to help your family make a living. And God bless you. And I want to encourage you tonight, OK? But in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul gives the secret now to discerning the spirit of error from the spirit of truth and how to do it. Now, first of all, let me say this again to you. You've got to be reading your Bible. You have to be listening to truth. You have to be reading your Bible. You're not going to be able to tell the spirit of error from the spirit of truth when it comes to an issue or something coming down the pike in your Christian experience. Now let's start in at verse number 12. The Bible said, now we have received, watch this now. Now what did he say to do in 1 John 4? He said, believe not every spirit. And he said, try the spirit. Now watch what he says here in verse 12. Now we have received not the what? Spirit of the world. So that tells you something. What does it tell you? There is a spirit of the world. The world has a spirit. Okay? And he said, we haven't received that, but the Spirit which is of God. He said, if you're saved, you have received the Spirit of God, that what? We might what? Know the what? Things that are freely given to us of God. He says, the Spirit of God is going to enable you to know. Now watch this. Which things also we speak, not in words, which man's wisdom teacheth." That is very, very important to underline that phrase. Not in words, which man's wisdom teacheth. Remember this morning I talked about how that false prophets will work on your intellect to lift your pride up about your knowledge and so forth. And they'll work on your intellect and pump your pride up above the Word of God. This is what I've had to deal with continually down through the years is people that will put their intellect above the Word of God. If they can't understand it, then they push the Word of God down and say, well, if I can't understand it, I'm not going to believe it, or so forth, and so on, like that. Now, it says, which man is with the people. But, watch this, which the Holy Ghost teaches. Who wrote the Bible? The Holy Spirit of God wrote the Bible. Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth." Now here it is, this is one of the greatest statements in the Bible. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Comparing spiritual things, what does that mean? That means that you check it against the Word of God, and not only, now watch this, Satan quoted scripture at Jesus Christ in the Temptation. But he did what the Apostle Peter said, he wrested, W-R-E-S-T-E-D, which we get the word wrestling, which means to twist. They wrested to their own destruction. They take scriptures and they twist them out of context and they'll take isolated scriptures and build a doctrine on them and neglect. I've said this for 30 years in the church, it's not what a man preaches that you want to listen for. It's what he will not preach. It's not what a man preaches or teaches that you want to pay attention to. You want to pay attention to what he jumps and avoids. And that'll tell you as much as anything, if you're reading your Bible. Now, if you're reading your Bible, see, that's what it'll tell you. Now, he said, comparing spiritual things to spiritual. Now, watch this, verse 14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. That's exactly what the Apostle John said in 1 John chapter 4. He said, they don't hear us, they don't know us, they don't get it. Okay? For they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are what? Spiritually discerned. Now, what is spiritual discernment? That is knowing what the Bible says about anything. Spiritual discernment is not some kind of mysticism. Oh, I've got this here and I know this here. Spiritual discernment is what does the Bible say about that subject? Does everybody get this? This is not mysticism. This is not some kind of intellectual game playing. This is not intellectualism. I'm smarter than you are. This is what the Bible says about that. I want to remind you of something tonight. Jesus picked out some apostles. Do you know what the world said about those apostles? They're ignorant and unlearned men. And let me tell you what Jesus said. He said, except you become as little children, you shall in no time rise into the kingdom of heaven. It takes childlike faith in the Word of God To be great in the eyes of God and to be used of God for His glory. Now he said, the natural man receiveth not the things of God, he said, that cannot know because, he said, neither can he know because they're spiritually discerned. Now watch verse 15. But he that is what? Spiritual. Who is a spiritual person? It's a person that's in the Bible, obeying the Bible, walking in the Word of God, submitted to the authority of the Word of God, and who wants to walk with God, and who lets the Bible be the authority of their life. You say, I want to be spiritual. Let the Bible run your life. Isn't that profound? Just do what it says and agree with it. Real simple. What we're wanting is some kind of an experience, see, an emotional experience, and we want to call ourselves spiritual, when spiritual is just doing what you ought to do. When the Bible says it, I do it. I read it. I do it. And by the way, God will give you the light you need for the next step. My car does not have lights to shine from here to Springfield. But if I'll just follow the light that it gives me, I can go all the way to Springfield. God gives you the light that you need day by day. Don't worry about all the stuff that you don't know or don't understand. If you won't walk in the light that He gives you, He will not give you any more light. And you'll have to have His light to understand the Bible, but He'll give it to you gladly, rejoicingly, if you'll just have the right attitude toward it. Now, having said that, I brought with me tonight a little thing here, a little object lesson, and I want to show you about how to study the Bible and how to discern truth from error tonight, okay? Now, I've got up here spoons and forks. You can see that much, okay? Now, what we're going to do tonight, I'm going to say this is all religious doctrine. This is all religious doctrine, okay? But I'm going to say that this spoon right here represents the truth. And this is the standard by which we will measure everything. And if it doesn't measure up to this spoon right here, we're going to reject it. Understand? This spoon here represents biblical doctrinal truth. So we've got all these religious spoons out here and forks and knives and so forth, and what we want, we want something that matches. I've been dealing with a guy who's a carpenter. And he's going, I believe he's a saved man, I really do, and I appreciate him and I enjoy his company and so forth, but he's been given some things that are, have been taught some things and exposed some things that's kind of got him messed up. And he kind of throwed a, he has been, had the King James Bible debased to him and degraded to him. And he said to me, he said, well, that old thing was written by old King James or somebody over there. And I said, good land of living, who told you that? I said, King James did not write the King James Bible. He was the king when that Bible was written. He said, really? Anyway, what I'm saying is that you've got, and by the way, folks, you know where he got that at? He got that at his church. That's where he got it. He got that at his church. So now we're going to say, and so the way I have dealt with this man is this. He's a carpenter. He wears a tape on his belt all the time. So one day I went out there and I said, tell you what we're going to do. I said, I want to and he is a good carpenter, but I mean, he's good. I said, I want apprenticeship under you. You're going to be the teacher and I'm going to be the student. I want you to teach me how to carpenter. But I've already got my own measuring tape. Now, I want you to understand something before we get started. My measuring tape isn't the same as your measuring tape. He said, what is bigger or smaller? No, it doesn't. My inches are about a 16th longer than yours. So when you tell me to measure, just understand I'm going to be measuring by my inches, not your inches." He says, you can't do that. That won't work. I said, and about that time, about that time it hit him. He said, you sorry rascal. I said, you always remember that. You're going to get anything built, and it's going to be square and right and stand and have a foundation. You're going to have to have one. There's got to be a standard somewhere of measurement. And the authorized version is the standard, and that's when I hit him with the deal. I said, do you know, because they pumped the NIV at him, and he thinks that's the real deal. I said, did you know that the one time Lucifer is in the Bible has been taken out of the NIV and replaced with one of the titles of Jesus Christ? He said, no, I didn't know that. I said, you need to read it. You like that NIV? You better check it out against the standard, because you'll find out the inches are different. OK, now we're going to get some help here. I want this young gentleman right here. He's always such a good. You shouldn't sit on the edge, man. Too handy. All right. But we're going to do this. So I want you to pick up here. He's going to be he's going to be the wind of doctrine. That's what his type will be, right? He's going to be when the doctrine blowing through. So I want you to pick up something and we're going to find out we're going to compare. Now, what did the Bible say while ago? Comparing spiritual things to spiritual things. OK, here we go. All right. Here it is. I'm going to hold it up to you, and I've got a reason for doing this. Some of you say, well, I would have sat closer if I'd known. But tell me tonight, this is the standard. What is this? What can I do with it? This is a doctrine that's been thrown at me. Does it match? Can you folks in the back, can you tell? But you know what? That's a spoon. They're pretty close. But it's not a match. So what do I do with this? See, what I'm comparing, I look at them and I compare spiritual things with spiritual things. Let me tell you a little bit about people who have made great wealth in life. People who have made great wealth in life understand the doctrine of sorting. When it says comparing spiritual things with spiritual things, it simply means you sort them out. You sort out the junk and the bad. Jesus talks about the tares and the wheat, the chaff and the wheat, OK? What we're not doing is looking closely. Let me tell you about, I've done auctions for 37, 38 years. And I'll tell you something I learned from people. There are people out there that are very, very sharp, and they know how to sort. Cattle buyers, there are cattle buyers in the United States that make big, big money, but only to the degree that they know how to sort. You see, the packers want... McDonald's, when it buys its meat, wants absolute consistency. They have a standard, and if the meat doesn't meet that standard, it's rejected. So that means that the packers who are supplying that meat has to meet the standards. So if the packers are going to meet the standards, they've got to have a feedlot that's meeting the standard. And if the feedlot's going to meet the standard, they've got to have a cattle that meets the standard with a buyer who's buying the right kind of cattle. And a sharp, One who examines it goes, see I can hold these up and everybody says, they're just spoons. Two head of calves walks in the ring and you think they're just calves, but not to a packing plant, they're not. One may dress 60% and the other dress out 38%. There's the difference between going broke and making it there. And the people that do not have a discerning eye. And I want to ask you, how does a cattle buyer How does a cattle buyer ever get to where he can tell one that will dress out 38% as opposed to one who dresses out 60%? by being there day after day after day. And by the way, he goes to the packing houses and he takes tours and they tell him what to look for. And he does an intense study of it. He doesn't just think, well, I know it all. Nobody can tell me nothing or that'll work. He doesn't do that. So we're going to throw this one out. This is a window doctrine. It does not match the standard. OK, the Bible. I just lay that on the seat over there and grab another one right here. Real just anyone. I'm real quick. We're going to try to run. All right. What about this right here? Easy to tell, easy to tell. Don't even come close, does it? All right, another one. All right, now watch this, okay? What about the standard here? Wait a minute, it has the same pattern down here. Different though, isn't it? You see, they'll throw something in the handle. Yeah, but it's the same. But it's not the same. All right, another one. Let's keep rolling here, all right? All right, here we go. Y'all afraid to say anything, aren't you? It's a match. You know what? I learned something. Somebody said something. I check it against the Bible. I got a match. I can receive that into my life, into my heart, my mind. It's a match. Matches scripture. OK, next one. OK, no problem. I ain't even close. That's the devil's fork. Amen. All right. Go ahead. All right. Right here we go. It's longer. It's not a match. Very, very, very close, except a little bit longer. Not the match. Okay. What we're doing, so every time a wind of doctrine comes your way, you check it against what? The only way, I'm going to ask you all something. How in the world can I know that this does not match? Tell me, how can I know this does not match? I have to bring it up, and I have to compare it. And if you do not take the doctrines or the things that you're hearing or being exposed to and compare it to the Word of God, you will get fooled. I promise you. You and I are not smart enough. And if we trust our own minds, we will get fooled. And that's how come people are being fooled. They're not checking it against the standard of the Word of God. All right, another one right here. Easy right here. We know it doesn't match, right? May have similarities, but it does not match. Keep it rolling right here. This is, how about this one? This is modern America right here, amen? It's all plastic. Throw away, throw away plastic. That's what it is. I mean, you know what, we're on a rabbit trail this week and another rabbit trail this week. All right, what we got right here? Now here's the deal. The reason I wanted to do this, this is small enough, those of you in the back, You may not be able to tell. And you know what you would have to do to really tell? Get a closer look. That means you have to really dig sometimes in Scripture to find out some things that are so... Man, that really seems to be spiritual. Now this is a match right here. So we can put it down here. We can receive this doctrine. We can receive this because it matches the standard. It fits the standard. Alright, here we go, another one. Doesn't match. It does not match. So what do we do with it? We don't put it down here. Now, how many of you kids have ever had your mama tell you to get the silverware out of the dishwasher or out of the sink and put it up? How many of you kids know better than to throw the spoons and the forks and the stuff together? None of you? Well, I got some back there. I want to tell you something. One of the first things you do with your children is teach them to sort. I mean, you sort socks. I mean, you know, if you didn't sort socks, you'd come to church with one blue and one orange or something like that. Sorting, sorting is done by matching and matching is done by comparing. And you can have socks that are pretty close. I've wore the wrong socks to church before. Amen. I put the wrong ones on. But you know why I did? Because I did not look closely at what I was putting on. OK, let's do another one right here. All right. We've got a what? We've got a we've got a what? we've got a match. So we're adding now watch this. Now I have three things I've added to my standard. Okay, I'm not added to it. I'm just they fit. They go along with these are things that I can receive into my life. Okay, all right. Here we go again. No match. We what we do, we put it we send it away. And then finally, right here, I've got a match. This is called, in an illustrative way, now what I have is a body of truth. These things all fit the standard. There are doctrinal things in Scripture, and that's how you get them. That's how you build your faith. You become who you are and how you can know what you believe. And then you've got something you can do something with. OK, so it's just a simple illustration there. Now, we're going to hit these scriptures. And again, I want to encourage you to to the whole idea. Now, let's hit one other thing here, because I want to roll this up one more time before we take off and we'll just quit when we need to quit. Understand this, that God, when you got saved, birthed You became born again in your spirit. Jesus said, except a man be born again of the spirit. All right. He cannot enter into heaven. The Holy Spirit entered into your body and regenerated or created a new creature, a spiritual person. When you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, when you believed on him. Now I want to tell you something. It's by faith. And you might have wept and you might have cried. But that was not the basis of your salvation. I want to give you an old song of the faith. Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. It says this. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no languor know? These for sin cannot atone. Thou must save and thou alone. My tears never have saved me, nor do my tears sanctify me. Feeling sorry, feeling emotional does not save me nor keep me saved. I can be zealous as a Muslim and die and go to hell. You may have zeal, that does not save you, nor does it keep you saved. Now listen, we're talking about discerning the Spirit because there are people who live on emotion. They'll say, man, I just don't feel God. Well, I understand. You know, I like to feel the presence of the Lord, too, and I understand about that. And I believe anything big as God moves in you, you'll feel something once in a while. But I don't live by that. I've got one standard that God gave me to live by, and it's this book right here. And whether I'm feeling good, feeling bad, crying, or arguing, My salvation is all based on the book. OK, that's how you transfer it. So watch this now. So we're born again, the spirit of God. Now what God says to do is you check everything that's coming into your life or that your life gets exposed to. You check it against the word of God. For instance, how many of you have ever turned on the TV and you saw something that your spirit said? No, I mean, they've done it. Now, what happened at that point in time was your spirit was doing what it was trying the spirit. But if you didn't yield to it at that point, what you did is overrode that warning that the Holy Spirit went ahead and did it. What happens to people is this, as you override, as you override the warnings of the Holy Ghost, You will become desensitized to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. You will eventually get to where you don't pay any attention, you go right ahead and do that because you've overrode it. You've grieved the Holy Spirit of God and quenched the Holy Spirit of God until you can't even tell anymore. Now, that's why you never want to expose yourself. Let me tell you why is it that the queers want to have something on the news all the time. Can anybody tell me? They're desensitizing you. They're getting you to where you're used to it, that which is a shock and an abomination. They want you to where it's nothing, it's old news, no big deal. And so what God is saying here is you try everything that's coming your way by the Spirit. Now watch this. Your spirit can only operate With the spirit of truth, with the book of truth, thy word is truth. The spirit of truth is that book right there. Can I say something to you now? You just hang on. The Holy Ghost is the third part of the triune God. It is just as much God as Jesus Christ or God the Father. They're equal in power and glory. But Jesus said something. These words are spirit. Let me tell you something. This book has power. It is not the Holy Spirit, but it is a spirit book. It is understood through the Spirit. It is what is called the sword of the Spirit, the Holy Ghost. And if you're going to do battles spiritually, you're going to try the spirits to see whether they be of God. You're going to have to know that book and compare spoons against spoons. Now, I'm going to ask you a question. Why did I bring spoons up here tonight and not axes and pitchforks? If I said, we're going to have a standard here tonight, and it's a spoon, I said, tell me whether it matches or not, and I'll bring in a pitchfork. You're going to go, Reggie, how stupid are you? I brought spoons with me. I brought eating utensils with me, because I brought something fairly close. Satan's always going to bring stuff that's fairly close. And that's why God's just trying. And the farther you are from it, the closer you may need to look at it to determine whether it is, because appearance, again, can fool you. Oh my, we've got to go. Okay. Let's just hit it. We're going to start hitting these passages. Matthew chapter 7, when Jesus took off on the Sermon on the Mount, the very first thing in the Bible. Surely to goodness, there they are. And I'll tell you, Dad always said if I didn't have my head hinged to my shoulders, I'd have lost it long ago. And he's right. This is going to be your first one. I said now there's about 20. of these passages of scripture in the New Testament. So we're going to take off. Paul, what time is it? Yes, brother. OK. Yeah, you do go to sleep every once in a while. That's OK. I put you to sleep. I put you to sleep sometimes. No, I'm just kidding you. I'll tell you something. This is worth grabbing hold of twice. Now, I'm going to say this to you. I don't think anybody knows a lot about the soul outside what the Bible says about it. I think you need to be careful in describing the soul, although we do know we have a soul. As I understand the scripture about the soul, there's three things, aspects of the soul that are what I call practical aspects. Mind, will, and emotion is in the soul. That's a function of your soul, not your spirit. The soul is this realm between your body and the spirit. What happens is, false teachers and false prophets and even the world, there's a battle in the soul. Our spirit is trying to say, that's right or that's wrong, accept it or reject it. And the world and the flesh and the devil is trying to tell us, this is okay, it's all right. You're having this battle. The big deal is this. is that the mind is that aspect of the soul, and it's there where Satan plays on our pride. Because if he can make us believe that we came up with this idea and that it's our smarts and our intellect, and make us play on pride. And again, think about this. Again, who did Jesus pick for his disciples and apostles? Unlearned and ignorant men. Why did he say, don't be called and take these titles to yourself? Let me throw something at you, and I'm not blanketing everybody like this, but why would a person want to be, I've had people say, you address me as doctor. And why do they always want, why when somebody gets a doctor, do they always want to put that doctor behind their name? They want everybody to know I'm a doctor. And why is it when they're introduced, and you go to these churches, and they want Dr. So-and-so, and they've got this little phrase called, setting on the platform. Come up and set on the platform with me. And then they're going to have this guy to speak, and they'll give you about five minutes worth of introduction about all the places he graduated from, the degrees that he has, this is Dr. What are they doing? First of all, they're feeding his pride of his intellect. Second of all, they're setting him up in authority over you that he knows it and you don't. So listen to this guy. That in the Bible is called something very critical. The doctrine of the Nicolaitans. It comes from two Greek words. Niko, which means to conquer. It's your Nike tennis shoes. It comes from the Nike temple, which means to conquer. That's why they named the tennis shoes Nike. Because they said you can conquer with our tennis shoes. That's an old Greek god, okay? Laity means the laity of the people in the pew. So it means that the theologians conquer the laity. This is what the Roman Catholic Church did long, long ago. You don't read the Bible. You can't understand the Bible. We know what the Bible says. We determine what's truth is. Burn the Bibles. Don't let people read the Bibles. Then we can bring you into bondage and you will be our little spiritual slaves. and your whole generations will be lost and die and go to hell. So when you're playing, so this is why, again, I don't know whether I'm getting to it, and if I'm not, you say, hey, Ranger, that wasn't what I was asking. But again, there's this battle in the soul about our will. I'm telling you something right now. If my will is not conquered by my spirit, I will make the wrong decision every time. Not some of the time, every time. My emotions, if I let my emotions run myself, I will be discouraged. You may not believe this, but I'm a very easily influenced person. And if I'm around someone, or around events, and if I don't have the Word of God to lift me and to give me faith, you say, well, Reggie, you got it made. Man, you're a pastor at church, and you've got a family, and God's blessed you. Yes, He has. But did you know I get to feeling sorry for myself, too? I am blessed. I'm telling you, I am blessed. But you know something? If I'm not careful, brother, all I'll think about is all the bad stuff going, the problems that I've got in life, and poor me. And what's happening is my emotions are running me, not my spirit. And God wants us to run by our spirit, not by our emotions. Any person, you guys know this, any person who runs on their emotions is, it's a mess. Why do we have all the psych wards and all the strengths and all the pills we got? Because people are running on their emotions, their soul, not their spirit. That's why the Bible says about John the Baptist, he was strong in spirit. Go ahead. Yep. Your spirit. Yeah. He's dead spiritually. He's dead. He's dead spiritually. He doesn't have the Spirit of God in him, and God describes him as dead in trespasses and in sins. That's why Jesus said you must be born again, a new creature in Christ. So when you're saved, when you're born again, literally God the Holy Ghost comes in, creates a new creature in Jesus Christ. That's called the new man. as opposed to the old man. That's also why, that's also what made me understand eternal life. I can never understand eternal life as long as I, if I didn't understand the new birth, and I hate to say this, I did not understand the new birth for a long time because I didn't understand the new birth, I couldn't understand how salvation could be forever. He's born of God. By the way, and I'm not getting very far in my message tonight, but it's okay. But by the way, think about this. The new man, the new creature, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Now, I've said he's not an overhaul job. He's not. It's a new man in the old suit. It's not a new suit on the old man. It's a new man inside, OK? New creature of Christ. Now, I want to ask you a question. He's conceived of who? The Holy Ghost. Think about this for a second. Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit. There's a picture in that of what God does in the life of believers. Now I'm going to ask you another question. Who has it conceived you? The Holy Spirit of God. Did you know what the Bible calls Him? The Eternal Spirit. I'm going to throw something at you. If you're born of the Spirit of God, you're born of a God that's existed from eternity and has eternal life literally exist in eternity. That's why Jesus could say, with authority, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Because it's a new person, created of the Holy Spirit, born of God. By the way, the Bible talks about in 1 John that he that begot loveth him that is begotten. The word begotten is a very, very important word in Scripture. Because it speaks of the new birth. When it talks about begotten in the New Testament, it's talking about being born again. This deal about being born again is no light matter. Don't ever, ever take the new birth lightly, because Jesus Christ spent considerable time with Nicodemus and laid it out in one of the foremost places of Scripture, and especially did it with a religious person. A person who was a ruler of the Jews. I mean, I'm talking, this guy was the top run. And Jesus said, you must be born again. I appreciate your question, and I hope I didn't muddle it up and make it more confusing than when I started. What I'm saying is that the battle is at the soul, and you can get messed up with your mind, your will, and your emotion. If your will is set against the Bible, I'm just going to obey the parts of the Bible I want, you're going to have a lot of trouble. Okay, here's what I'm saying. I don't believe that I understand the whole fullness of what the soul is, and I've never read or heard anybody say, if somebody's got anything in here this evening that you think is scripturally sound, I'm open to it. All I know is that we do have a soul. I will go further and say this. When the rich man died and went to hell, his body was buried, the Bible says, but in hell he lifted up his eyes. Your soul is far more than you think it is. Yes. Living soul. Yeah, that was in Genesis there. And the soul is a mystery. It's a mystery. And when I talk about your mind, will, and emotions, I'm talking about the aspects of your soul. I'm not talking about, I don't claim to know the essence of the soul. All I know is I have one. And you have one. Your spirit, soul, and body. By the way, when the Bible talks about it, it never says body, soul, spirit. God always says spirit, soul, body. Because God looks at you, who you are in your spirit, Brother Messick. Exactly. None of this. Yep. Yep. Yes. That's the thing. That's why the spirit of truth is so valuable to you. That's why the Bible is so valuable. And that's what I'm trying to drive home is that we've got to take the Bible, which is His words of spirit, and they are truth. That has to be the basis of all belief. And it has to be compared. And so you compare spiritual things with spiritual things. Oh, that doesn't match what the Bible teaches. And by the way, the Bible told Paul told Timothy, right, that the Bible were true. Let me throw something at you, what he brought up, and we'll go with this a little bit. In the book of Genesis, God told Adam and Eve, the day they ate thereof, thou shalt surely die. You're skeptical, so I think he didn't die that day. God lied. That's not true. He died spiritually the instant he ate. He was dead spiritually with God. What does the word death mean? It means separation from God. He was separated from God. He was dead spiritually. When God sacrificed those, and I believe it was a lamb, and clothed them back with skins, He imparted that life back to Adam, His life back to Adam. And so, but He did go ahead and die, the natural death, but His spiritual death occurred first. He died in that day. He died spiritually. And by the way, spiritual death is far more horrible than physical death. Okay? I appreciate that, I really do. And let me just say to you all tonight, when it gets into the realm of what the soul is, you know, I'm just dumb as an ex-guy. And I think where God is silent, I don't have much business talking about it. But I do know that that is where the battle comes, is between your spirit and the world coming through the eye gates, the ear gates and so forth, and your soul is where that battle is. And that's why we need to have a submitted yielded, obedient spirit to God. I'm telling you, there's not a soul in this church house can tell the difference between someone whose heart and soul is submitted to God and those who are resisting. And the big issue that I deal with and you deal with, especially as a pastor that I deal with, you see, it's hard to do anything or make any headway with somebody whose soul is in an attitude of rebellion against truth. If they've got an attitude against truth and they're rebellious heart about them, I mean, you can't do much with them. And by the way, only the Holy Spirit can change that. Okay, let's jump, and if you had another question, I'd be glad to try to bruise through it. And again, we're just going to quit. How close am I, Paul? 10 to late. Okay, Matthew 7 15. Let's look at it. And we'll just again, this may take three weeks. I don't know. Now, by the way, Wednesday night, I'm doing a deal on Bible types. And we're going through it when it's really a lot of fun, just a blessing. And we'll we'll do that Wednesday night, Matthew chapter seven, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, watch what he says, beware. Now I want to say that if you drive up to anybody's house, and it says beware. I've always said this people pay more attention dog yard yard signs than they do the Bible. Man, I'm going to tell you, I'd drive up to your house and say, beware of bad dog. I'm going to beware, hey man, I ain't going to be... But they read beware in the Bible, it's like, oh, it don't mean anything. Yes, it does. Beware of what? Okay, now, what we're going to learn tonight is what false prophets do. Now, boy, I'm telling you, we've got about 20 passages of Scripture. There is so much stuff that God's going to tell you, and by the time you get done, you're going to be able to identify by your spirit someone who's... And can I say something to you? Just because somebody is off on a subject does not mean they're lost. And it does not mean you ought to have an attitude against them. You say, Reggie, why do you say that? Because I've been wrong before. And I'm glad people didn't throw me around. In fact, I've had people have to walk up to me and say, Reggie, you might want to check that against the Bible. And here's a verse you might want to check, and here's another verse you might want to check. So I go home and check it out and found that you know what? I was wrong. And you get that about four or five times while you're preaching. You'll try to make sure you're right before you get up next time. Amen? So I try to be right. Beware of false prophets which come to you in what? Baaaaa. Baaaaa. Can you imagine? Now, God says that they're not going to come to you with their teeth bared and their ears all laid back. They're going to come to you in sheep's clothing. But inwardly, this is where it counts. And this is where you can't see. This is why you have to know their spirit. If you're just looking on the outward, you will not be able to discern. They're ravening what? Wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree... Again, isn't this simple? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruit... Now, who was cast into the fire? the one that the ravening was. Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them." Now, we're just, and by the way, look at verse 21. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. What is the will of God? That you, this, that tells you to bear an axe, and in 2 Peter chapter 3, that he's willing that all repent and come, not willing that any perish, but that all come to repentance. That's God's will. God's will for you to be saved. His will for you to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Many were saying to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name? Look at this. Now, what are you going to learn from this? That they have tremendous powers. Cast out devils. You know what? It'd be kind of hard for me, Brother Phil. I was at a meeting somewhere, dealing with somebody somewhere, and somebody said, man, they just cast three devils out of a guy. I think that guy had God on him. Not what the Bible says. The Bible says that's not evidence a man's true with the Lord. Cast out devils, and in thy name have done what? Many wonderful works. I mean, we're feeding the kids in Africa, and we're doing this, and we're sending money here. Nathan, don't get off on that. It just now hit me. I bet he thinks I'm throwing it in. That's a wonderful thing to do, to feed the kids in Africa. But it does not mean somebody is of God. If so-and-so gets on television and he starts showing you all these slides of flies bloating on these kids' faces and saying, for $75 a month or $25 a month you can feed this child, you better check that guy out. Now, by the way, when I say check him out, what do I mean check him out? Check him out that you say, I don't want to be mean, because I appreciate John Hickey, but the truth about it is, I'm glad for anybody that preaches anything that's against sin and all that kind of stuff, and try to exalt Christ. But the truth about it is, if you want to check the Spirit out, check their private life out. Check their private life out. I want to ask y'all a question. If I was to get killed this week or die, and y'all was going to get another pastor, can you tell me what would be your criteria for selecting a new pastor? How would you try the Spirit? Can I tell you the first thing you need to do? You need to take a really good, hard look at his wife. Then the second thing you need to do is take a really, really close, close look at his children. Because I'm going to tell you something. If he doesn't have his first flock down, how shall he rule the house of God? If a man lets his children disobey him, and be rebellious and cut and run and do all kinds of stupid stuff and he doesn't even make his own and he doesn't he doesn't love his wife and put her I'm gonna tell you you know what I would ask a man the first time I'd say I'm gonna ask you who's most important the church or your wife if he told me the church is most important I'd say we don't need you I appreciate you but we don't need you you better have a man who loves his wife first He loved God first, then his wife, then his children, then the church, because he ain't never going to be no good to the church if he don't have his home life straightened up. If his home life's messed up, this church will be messed up all the time. He won't be able to minister to people. If I can't keep my own marriage right, what business have I got ever talking to you folks? If I can't keep my own children right, what business have I got preaching? You know what I'm saying? Here's what happens with it. Yeah, he can preach it, but he's destroyed his authority. And they'll say, well, look at his kids. Look what he does. Look at the other. That doesn't mean you can get by without disobeying it. It just destroys the authority and the ability for the Holy Spirit to work the truth in the hearts and lives of people. But you know what most churches will do? Where'd you go to school at? That's where they want them. And by the way, you know what I'd ask a guy? I'd say, if there were seven or eight of you elder, by the way, something did happen to me, I want seven or eight of you elder men. I'm talking about you elders. I'm talking about you past 55. Okay? And one of the things I'd ask him, I'd say, you look us in the eye. You don't have to answer us, but if you do answer us, will you promise before God Almighty to tell us the truth? You don't have to answer this question, but if you do answer it, will you promise to tell the truth? If he says, I promise to tell the truth, say, look us in the eye. Do you have a problem with pornography? That's one of the first things I'd ask any preacher. That's taking more preachers down in America than any other issue in America, taking them down. If you don't have a man that conquered pornography, conquered his own, that kind of junk, you will have a bomb go off. I'm just telling you. We're talking about trying the spirits. I don't know how we got where we did, but anyway. When you go and say, well, by their fruit, what kind are we talking about? The fruit of their life. Do they have a life that's typified by greed, by immorality? What's the fruit of their ministry? Does their ministry produce repentance and faith in the Word of God? And faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? What does the ministry produce? That's what you ought to find out. You know what? Another question. Let me ask you this. They never ask these guys this. Ask a man, are you a soul winner? Who's the last person you've led to Christ? If he's not leading people to Christ before he walked in your pulpit, he will not lead people to Christ after he's in the pulpit. If he's not already have a burden for souls, what makes you think he's going to have on when he gets in the pulpit? His home life, his burden for souls, and another thing, and by the way, I'm just going to tell you, you know, I was out of here for about two years one time. And I get, when I left to go on evangelism, I gave some of the church a whole list of questions to ask God, and they asked him. And you know what he did? He told them what they wanted to hear, and he knew what they wanted to hear before he got here, and he told them. And they asked him about the Bible. And he said, oh, but they know how to answer it. They know how to be like Bill Clinton. They know how to use words. And they'll turn around and say, but I didn't say that. But I said this. That same man later told me that this, he told me right back here in this room one time, he told me, he said, he had an authorized version of the Bible on the table. He said, that is not the Word of God. I like to fell over. But you told those men it was. He turned around and pulled the Greek and Hebrew Bible off his bookcase and laid that on test and said, that's the Word of God. That's not. I said, why don't you be honest enough to tell the church that? From the pulpit. Let me tell you actually what was happening. I've never told this. I've never told even my wife this. I've never told anybody this. What was really going on, it was just, I mean, it's of the Lord, but I didn't even... What he was trying to do was break me down. and really find out where I was at, and he thought if I could break through a ridge, I could start breaking the church down on the Bible. That's what went on. And I'm just going to tell you, that's why years ago I wrote letters to missionaries. What do you believe? You know, what do you believe? And by the way, you don't ask them if they believe the Bible is the Word of God, they'll all say that. You ask them if they believe in the preservation of Scripture. Reckon the Lord's going to take me home in a few days? I'm telling you people all the time. But you test the fruit of their life. You test the fruit of their ministry. You check their attitude towards sinful conduct. I'll tell you what a preacher needs. He needs the balance between judgment and mercy. Mercy rejoices against judgment. I have trouble keeping this balance. How many knows that? Eight o'clock. Thank you. We just got one cover tonight. Next Sunday morning, we'll take off through the book of Matthew, and we'll jump, and there's some really, really interesting passages of Scripture that have great detail. I mean, precise detail of what to watch out for in false teaching and false doctrine. Y'all got your bucket full tonight? You don't need any more to take home with you, do you? And I'm sorry, hey, I want to apologize to you. You know why I want to apologize to you tonight? Because you know what I don't like? I don't like me talking a lot and not giving a lot of scripture. Because what my goal has been to show you how many times in the Bible and what I want to do. And I thought tonight I'd get to at least 10 of the 20, and I didn't make it but to one. But if you'll study just the one I read you, it'll shock you, the evidences and what you need to watch for. OK, well, anybody got any more questions I can't answer before we Get out of here. I love you all, appreciate you, and try the spirits. Don't leave everything coming down the pike. Now, teach your kids this. You teach your kids that. Let me tell you one other thing before we get out of here tonight. And this was said to me this morning. Brother Jeremy Hopper said this to me, and he's so true. He said, Reggie, so many times he said, I've had stuff thrown at me and in my spirit I knew it was wrong, but I could not really grab the Scripture just to articulate why I knew it was wrong. Now listen to me. There ain't a man walking that I know of that can just pull every verse out of the Bible every time he needs it. But what you need to do is get so acquainted with it that at least the Holy Spirit can bear witness with your spirit that there's something wrong here. And I want to tell you something. When the Holy Spirit starts flashing those warning lights in your spirit and your soul, you pay attention to those. There's nothing wrong with backing up and saying, you know what, I'm going to check this out for a few days. You don't just because you can't and just because you can't pull a scripture out does not mean that it's OK. You may not just you may not know it, but your spirit saying, I, Jim. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very, very, very offensive. I mean, it's just like this guy I'm telling you all about. I mean, he's just offensive about it. I mean, just confrontational. You know, you're just degrading the authorized virgin. But here's the thing. They know it's two different standards. They know it. So one has to come down. Somebody has to rule. No man can serve two masters. So let's, anyway. All right, let's stand together tonight and have a word of prayer with the person next to you. We'll just pick this up next Sunday morning, Lord willing, okay? So just pray with each other and we'll go home.