The Lord called a dear, dear
brother home this morning, Dale Simpson. And I tell you, I've
been thanking the Lord for him all day, him and Jackie. I don't
know of a man anywhere that left a better testimony than Dale. I've known a lot of people over
the years. He's just an unusual man. It's
an unusual man. Just sweet, good preacher. House full of young'uns and grand
young'uns and great grand young'uns that loved him. Sons are converted,
daughters converted, granddaughters converted. Oh my, what a testimony. How faithful he was over the
years. I mean, he wasn't just faithful to the gospel, but he
is faithful to the brethren. He is faithful to preachers and
to men in churches. And I'm happy for him. He now possesses within the veil
the life of joy and peace. Envious of him, poor Jackie and
them kids got to stay here. They have to stay here. All right,
I'm going to start reading in verse 24 of chapter 3 and read
down through verse 6 of chapter 4. And he that keepeth his commandments
dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth
in us by the Spirit which he hath given us. Beloved, believe
not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of
God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses
that Jesus is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that
confesses not that Jesus Christ has come into flesh is not of
God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have
heard that it should come already, and even now already is it in
the world. Ye are of God, little children,
and ye have overcome them, because greater is he in you than he
that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore
speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 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. All right. It says here in verse
1, chapter 4, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the
spirits. And that's the title of my message
this evening, Try the Spirits, whether they be of God, because
many false prophets are going out into the world. John had
already dealt with the fact that there were many antichrists already
in the world. Here he calls it the spirit of
antichrist. He said in verse 18, I believe
it's of chapter two. Yes, that little children, as
it is the last time as you have heard that antichrist shall come.
even now there are many antichrists whereby we know it is the last
time so he's talking about the antichrist and this verse here
verse 1 continuing from verse 24 we know that the spirit abideth
in us we know that he abides in us we know that we abide in
him because the spirit that abides in us and this here when he talks
about the spirit abiding in us this is subjective this is a
subjective experience You know, I don't know if the Spirit of
God abides in you or not, and a lot of people, they say, well,
He don't abide in you if you don't speak in tongues, if you
don't have this strange experience, if you don't have this wondrous,
can't do these great gifts and great miracles and that kind
of thing. But there's only one person and we have to do this
individually. How do we know that the Spirit
of God dwells in us? How do we know that the Spirit
of God dwells in us and that we abide in Christ and Christ
by His Spirit abides in us? And that's a subjective experience.
It's something that's not outside ourselves in this sense. And
that's what John's saying here. We know that the Spirit of God
abides in us. And then he comes up and says,
Now, beloved, believe not every spirit. Try the spirits. Don't believe every spirit. Believe
not every spirit. A lot of different spirits in
this world. A lot of different spirits in
this world. And that's what he's talking about. How do we know
that the Spirit is in us and confessing us as His, belonging
to Him? And that's what he said here.
How do we know that the Spirit of God is in us and confessing
to us that we're His child? Confessing to us that we know
Christ. Confessing to us that we are
a child of God. teaching us, and convert and
saving us, and keeping us, and teaching us, and instructing
us. And here in verse 1, He gives us the answer. He tells us very
plainly as we go down through here how we can know God's Spirits
in us. But the first thing He does,
He warns us against evil seducing spirits, and He said examine
and try the Spirit. that's the first thing he says,
Beloved now YAH said you know that the Spirit of God dwells
in you and you abide in Christ and Christ abides in you by His
Spirit but Beloved he said Beloved believe not every spirit try
the spirits try the spirits how in the world can you try the
spirits huh how do you do that try the spirit whether they are
of God or not There's different spirits. He says, you see if
it's God's spirit or not. And that's what he says here.
Because many false prophets are going out into the world. And
we know that God doesn't use a false prophet. We know the
spirit of God's not with a false prophet. We know that the spirit
of God never blesses a false prophet. He's never sent anyone
to lie on him, misrepresent him in any way. and so he says beloved
and he says the spirit here that he's talking about try the spirits
signifies and talks about the men who claim to speak for God. to be endowed with the, endued
with the Spirit of God to perform the office of prophet or a preacher
or a teacher. They say, I've got the Spirit,
the Spirit of God's in me and Spirit of God's using me. And
we do know this, that God's Word is received from the mouth of
men. God uses men. It pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. God's
Word is received from the mouth of men, but some who claim to
speak for God, are false preachers false preachers sent by satan
himself to deceive and disturb the church and that's what he
says here because many false prophets are going out into the
world so see whether a man's speaking for god or not see if
you want to know that the spirits of god are not and as they look
over here in second peter just turn back to your left and look
in second peter chapter two there was teachers among israel false
teachers among israel false prophets among Israel. And there's always
going to be a false prophet. Always are going to be. That's
just the way it's been since the first two brothers come into
this world and started fighting one another. Been a false prophet
ever since. And he started out with Satan,
telling a lie. But there were false prophets
also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers
among you, among you saints, among you dispersed. who privately,
they ain't gonna come right out and they ain't gonna get up and
start preaching the lie right in front of everybody else, but
you know, unless you've got a whole group of them doing it, privately
shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought
them. How did they deny the Lord that
bought them? They denied the power of the blood. They deny
the worth of the blood. They deny the right of God to
save whom He will by that blood, and bring upon themselves swift
destruction. And listen to this, And many
shall follow their pernicious, lascivious, deadly ways. And here's what happens, By reason
of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. They'll get
out there and start preaching, and somebody over here preaching
the truth, and they'll say, boy, them folks over there are evil.
This guy's the one that's telling the truth. And through covetousness,
oh my, that's why Paul said, I covered no man's silver or
gold or apparel. I didn't want anything anybody
had. through covetousness shall they with feigned hypocritical
put-on words make merchandise of you." You're just a piece
of merchandise, something to get money from, something to
get recognition from, somebody to brag on, whose judgment now
of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbers
not. I mean, it's coming. and listen let me show you over
here in second corinthians chapter 11 about even in the apostles
day there were false prophets even among the apostles day look
over here in second corinthians chapter 11 you know there was
false teachers in the apostles day look here in second corinthians
11 verse 13 there's false preachers and false teachers today we know
it But how can you tell? How can you tell? How can you
tell whether a man's of God or not? How can you tell the spirit
of God? But look what the apostle said here in verse 13 of 2 Corinthians
11. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ, claiming to be an apostle of Christ, transforming
themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel. We shouldn't marvel at this.
This shouldn't be something marvelous to us. For Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light. Therefore, it's no great thing
if his ministers, Satan's ministers, also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness. Now, what righteousness are they
talking about? Whose end shall be according
to the works. So they're not really preaching righteousness.
They're preaching works because that's what they do. back over
here in our text, let this be fixed in our minds. God help
us fix this in our minds. From the time the gospel began
to be preached, from the first time, false prophets immediately
appeared. You know, at the straight gate,
when our Lord Jesus said over there in Matthew 17, He said,
Enter in at the straight gate, For broad is the way that leadeth
unto destruction, but inner is the straight gate. For straight
is the gate, narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, leads
to Christ. And beware of false prophets, who shall come unto
you in sheep's clothing. And where are they at? They're
at the gate. They hang around the gate. And
when somebody's trying to get in the gate, the false prophet's
hanging right there. He's a wolf in sheep's clothing.
And he's waiting right there to lay hold on somebody and say,
no, no, no, that way there's too narrow. That's too narrow. You know the Lord don't mean
for you to come through there. He's gotta be broader than that. It can't be narrowed down to
God's sovereignty and election. It can't be narrowed down to
just all of grace, no righteousness of your own, no works of your
own, no power of your own. Oh, listen. Listen, you know
you're a good fellow and you know you got a little righteousness.
You know you got some good works. So this is the gate you need
to come in over here. It's just a little broader. but
it's going to get you to the same place. But this straight
gate, ain't nothing can go through there but a naked sinner. That's all go through there.
Ain't that right? Nothing else will fit through
there. I mean your works won't fit through there, your righteousness
won't fit through, nothing will fit through there. And oh my,
These false prophets appeared immediately and let God help
us never be dazzled by anyone who claims to come and be holy
I remember years ago even among the great churches. There were
some men that arose and they started preaching the holiness
and went so far as to say, you know, we've got to live holy
lives. We've got to separate ourselves and start living these
holy lives. And they would get started talking to people about,
boy, you're not living holy and you're not living holy and the
preacher's not preaching against the doctrine. He's not preaching
against this sin and that sin. And the next thing you know,
a whole bunch of folks was led astray by that. And then some
of those fellas ended up quitting preaching, quitting teaching,
went up denying the blood redemption of Christ, the love of God. They
said it now for everybody. When you start down a road of
error, You cannot, if you refuse the gospel of the free grace
of God and make anything dependent upon you, your acceptance with
God, you're gone, Jesse. It's a false prophet telling
you that. I'm telling you, if a false prophet comes to you
and tells you that, yes, you got, if somebody comes to say,
yes, you got to live this certain way and that God will bless you
and God will honor that, he's lying to you. The only person
God honored as his blessed son and the only people he received
is those who come to his son just like they are. And oh, I
tell you, and oh, they claim to speak for God and they claim
to work wonders and to be ministers of righteousness. We've got to
try the spirits. Got to try the spirits. I was
invited to come to a place to preach, oh, about a year or so
ago, a little over a year. And they began to ask me questions. And I'd preach there lots of
times, but they began to ask me questions. What I thought
about the new birth, what I thought about righteousness, how did
man become righteous and all that. And I'd preach there, and
I don't know how many meetings over the years. And they started
questioning me. I asked, you know, it's the way I believed
it. And then they called Brother Todd and asked him the same questions.
I wanted him to come up. So they called me back and asked
me to come. I said, I guess you're going to have Todd up too, ain't
you? They said, oh, no, no, no, no, no, we're not going to have
Todd. I said, why ain't you going to have Todd? We just didn't agree with him
about some things. I said, if Todd don't go, I ain't going.
We're on the same page. Now that's right. When you go
to someplace to preach for years and then all of a sudden they
start questioning what you believe, they're the ones got the problem,
not you. You've been preaching the same
gospel for years and years and years, so they're the ones that's
got a problem, start having all their T's crossed and all their
A's and I's dotted and all their ducks in a row, which I've never
had all my ducks in a row. But you know we're not called
to put ducks in rows, we're called to preach the gospel. And he
said, well, I'm sorry that it's that way. But I said, dude, if
you won't have him come up and preach, you surely don't want
me to preach. We both are on the same page.
We believe the same thing. They want to know if we believed
in the new birth. Now, that just goes to show you
how far off folks can get. Now, they're not as bad that
now. Things have changed a little bit, and I'm very grateful, and
things are going in the right direction. But here he says,
look what he says now here in verse two. So, oh listen, try
the spirits whether they are of God or not. Many false prophets
have gone out. Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God. Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God. How do we know it's the Spirit
of God? Every spirit, that's your spirit now. See how that's
in small letters? Every spirit in you that confesses,
your spirit confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is of God. That's how you know. That's how
you know. And oh, let every preacher, let all religious leaders be
tried by the word of God first. Let's see what God's word, let
them be tried by what God said. Thus saith the Lord. If they
speak not according to the law of this testimony, he said, it's
because there's no light in them. And now you keep this and look
with me in Acts 17 11. This is, this is, this is where,
where, uh, fellows need to come down on. This is talking about
Acts 17 11 No, let everybody be judged by the scriptures Let
them be judged by the truth and he said here in Acts 17 11 These
were more noble than those in talking about Bereans and These
were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received
the word of God with all readiness of mind. Now watch this, and
search the scriptures daily. whether those things were so. They looked and see. He said
this, and you know the only scriptures they had to look at was the Old
Testament. So they'd go over to the Old Testament and they'd
read what Paul preached. And they could find it. They
could say, well, he'd use something about Christ. And they'd go over
there and look and see where it's at. And they'd check to
see if this is true or not. And I'll tell you what, if you
look to the scriptures, you can't go wrong believing the scriptures.
you just can't do it and oh you know we're not this is what our
lord said he said you say you believe in me he said search
the scriptures search the scriptures for they are those they which
testify of me and then he told a bunch of pharisees one day
you do earn neither knowing the scriptures nor the power of god
you do earn that's that'll get a man in trouble And this will
expose most of them for they don't preach the word of truth
at all. Their messages are full of free will, human righteousness,
life by law. If anybody ever asked you, I
tell you, if you're ever out talking to somebody and they
say to you, what do y'all do about disciplined folks in your
church? You found your legalist. You found your legalist. Discipline's not left up to us.
It's left up to Christ. Wouldn't it be a sight to discipline
one another? What would we do to one another
to discipline one another? What would we do? Because if
I start on you, then you're going to turn around and start on me.
Next thing you know, everybody's pointing fingers at this one,
that one. Because there's not one of us that you can turn the
fingers, your hands over for the difference in any one of
us at any given time. And if I get on you for something,
I'm just as guilty. And how self-righteous must a
man be who thinks that he has got the power and the right and
the knowledge and the wisdom to discipline somebody in a church?
That's awful to even think about, ain't it? Oh, but they preach
life by law. They preach life by works. Oh, you've got to live it now.
I tell you what, you've got to live it. And oh my, and then
they come along and they brag on Mary, advocate Mary, set Mary
up to be a redemptrix. Jesus is just an add-on to Mary. What makes her so special? She's
Jesus' mother. But you know what God said about
her? He said, you found grace in the eyes of the Lord. You
found favor in God's sight. And our Lord Jesus Christ never
even called her mother, called her woman. They stood without
one time and says, your mother and brothers are out here wanting
to talk to you. They got something to say to you. He was in there
preaching and he said, who is my mother? Who is my brother?
And he reached out his hands to all those people and said,
he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven. That's
my mother. That's my brother. That's my
people. That's what he said about them.
And oh my, they They advocate the saints, oh listen, the saints
have so much grace that they can give you some of it if you
fail. And oh my, they talk about God's weaknesses and God's inability. Talk about Sabbath keeping, keeping
the Sabbath. Oh my, there's a lot of them
left around, you know. And the Sabbath, you gotta keep
it. Can't go nowhere and do anything. They have rituals they got to
go through, burn candles, put on their robes, put on their
purple things around them. They have Holy Days. I remember
a preacher years ago, he's dead now, but he used to talk about,
you know, Holy Week's coming up next week. And he's supposed
to have been a great preacher, said, Holy Week's coming up next
week. Got a whole week of Holy Week. I guess that's the week
of Easter or something like that. The week before, the week of
Easter, call it Holy Week. What makes one week holier than
another week in the year? Ain't every day God's day? Ain't
every day the Lord's day? And don't every day belong to
God? And infant salvation, this is
where there's a lot of Calvinists, a lot of Calvinists. They take
babies and they sprinkle them, take them a little water, sprinkle,
hold them down, sprinkle, and say, now they're in the covenant.
They're in the covenant, and they're going to be all right.
And then, you know, and then the Catholics, they sprinkle
them, and that's the way you get into church. But that's not
how you get into Christ. You can sprinkle all the infants
you want. You can sprinkle an 84-year-old man or a 92-year-old
man. You can sprinkle them all they
want, and that won't make them acceptable to God, much less
a baby. Ain't that right? Oh, all kinds of traditions and
errors men hold to. But John lays down a special
mark, a special mark to easily distinguish between the true
and the false, between true and false prophets. And that's what
he says right here. He says, now here's how we know
the Spirit of God. And if the Spirit of God's in
us, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in
the flesh is of God. The Lord Jesus is the object
of true faith. The whole foundation of our acceptance
with God is the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is where religious men
stumble. They stumble on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I tell you, when you confess
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that's the Spirit
of God. What does it mean that he came
in the flesh? If he came, that meant he existed
before he ever come. He couldn't come unless he'd
been somewhere before. he come in the flesh so that
means there was a time that he wasn't in the flesh so he was
God with God in eternity and he was before he came he was
God before he came into this world under us a child is given
under us a son is born and he came in the flesh came through
the virgin's womb he came and assumed human nature took under
him a body flesh flesh that could bleed flesh that could feel flesh
that could hurt flesh that got hungry flesh that got tired that
had to sleep had to eat had to wash had to do everything that
flesh has to do the difference being is he was sinless flesh
holy flesh perfect flesh and he's the only one who ever came
in the flesh perfect perfect and he came in the flesh And
this is what we confess, He came in the flesh to identify with
us, to become one with us, that we might become one with Him.
He identified with us so that we could identify with Him. and
we know he came because the father sent him and he sent him for
something to do he gave him a work he gave him a a a task to do
when he came into this world and he's told him what that task
was when he was a baby joseph this is what you're going to
name him you're going to name him jesus jehovah savior for
he This infant, this baby that's going to be born of Mary, he
shall save his people from their sins. Huh? It said that God sent
him forth, made of a woman, made under the law. What for? To take
and save us out from under that law and the curse of it. And
oh, he said, oh, listen, he came, we were like sheep going astray
and he came. and was numbered with the transgressors,
was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. It
pleased the Lord to make His soul an offering for sin. He
saw the travail of His soul and God said, I'm satisfied. Christ
said, I'm satisfied. And the church says, I'm satisfied. Oh, He came to bear our curse
by becoming a curse for us. He came to buy us unto Himself. and redeem us out from under
the law, out from under any rule, any regulation. I was listening
to Gabe Starnaker today and he's preaching about what the law
could not do and Moses, God took him up on top of Mount Pisgah.
He said, Moses, you can look, but you can't go. You can see
all inheritance, but you can't go over there. The law can't
take people into the promised land. And you know what happened
to him? God said, God buried him that
day. He had the same strength, the
same vigor, and everything, but God buried him in the valley
of Moab. But the law was buried that day,
and the law, and Joshua was the one, same word as Jesus in the
New Testament, he took him over into the promised land, and Christ
fulfill the law for us, is the end of the law for us, and he
can all go, only one that can take us into the promised land.
The law can't do it. God wouldn't let, he just let
him look. This is what everybody's gonna get, but you can't give
it to him. You don't have the power to give
it to him. All you can do is just stand over him with a big
stick. Oh my, how do we know he come
in the flesh? by the Spirit confessing it.
So I'm going to give you three Scriptures and I'm going to wind
this up here if I can. Look with me in John 16. John
16. I want you to look at three verses
of Scripture with me. John 16 and verse 13. This is
how we know and this is how we can tell whether a man's of God
or not. There were some fellas, there's
some people over at Tansy and I go over there to work out And
they put it on these religious stations, this man's wife. They
always put it on a religious station. It may be John Hagee.
It may be a converted Jew. And it may be Oral Robertson,
that Robertson fella, CBN or whatever. And they left it all
on one channel. And this man and woman came in.
And that guy got on the treadmill and started walking. He started
listening to that guy. And I ain't gonna tell you what he said,
but it was awful what he said. He said, oh, that's awful. That don't even make sense, he
said, because the guy was telling them what all they had to do
and how powerful he was and how much money he needed. And he
said some things that just, and listen, I thank him, I just didn't
say them. I felt the same way. John 16,
13. Our Lord speaking now, howbeit
when he, The Spirit of Truth has come. You notice that Spirit
of Truth confessing Jesus is the Christ. When He has come,
He will guide you into all truth. And He's still guiding us into
truth. For He shall not speak of Himself. He'll not brag on
Himself. He'll not tell about the works
that He does. No, no. But whatsoever He shall
hear from me and the Father, that's what He's saying, that
He shall speak and He'll show you things to come. And here's
how we know. whether the Spirit's in us or
not, He shall glorify me. Does He glorify Him in our hearts,
and in our minds, and in our souls, and before our eyes, before
our faith? For He shall receive of mine
what belongs to me, and He'll show it unto you. And all things
that are mine, all things that the Father hath are mine, therefore
said I that He shall take of mine, and show it unto you."
Oh, that's how we know. Let me go show you another in
1 Thessalonians 1. 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 5. Here's one that talks about this
right here. You know, false prophets, they deny the person of Christ.
And how do we know they deny the person of Christ? Because
they deny his work. If you deny his work, you deny
his person. Because the works, that's why
I say we're not trusting. We are trusting Christ, and if
you get him, you get everything you did. But look what he said
here in verse 5 of 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. For our gospel came
not unto you just in word only, though it did come in word. We
preach the gospel. That's why it's called the gospel.
But it also came in power. Power, the Spirit of God, the
power of God came down. And it came in the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost blessed it. The
Holy Ghost sent it. The Holy Ghost taught it to us.
And it came with much assurance that what you was hearing come
from God, come from power of God, come through the Holy Ghost
of God. And you know what manner of men
we were among you preaching that gospel. and that's what happens
when we hear the gospel this gospel of our salvation it comes
in such power and the holy ghost himself gives us assurance that
what we're hearing is true huh but all false prophets deny his
person that's what he says back over here in verse three look
at this and every spirit that confesses not that jesus has
come in the flesh is not of god and this is that spirit of antichrist
wherever you heard that it should come and even now already is
it in the world You see, false prophets deny His person because
they deny His work, and they deny what His work accomplished.
They leave the final redemption of men's souls to their own free
will, to their works, or else a cooperative effort. If you
cooperate with God when you get your chance, then you can be
saved. So they deny the person of Christ
to preach that. And this attack on the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ and the work of Christ, whatever
way it may take by whoever it is, it's of Satan. It robs Christ
of his merit that he was God in the flesh, that he was holy
and harmless and undefiled and separate from sinners. And it
robs Christ of his glory. And this is the spirit that motivated
Cain. Same spirit, spirit of Antichrist. we're not confessed that Christ
coming it was going to come in the flesh that motivated Cain
to reject blood atonement that's the same spirit it's the same
spirit that taught called that made the Galatians start preaching
circumcision for salvation you can accept Jesus but unless you're
circumcised you can't be saved it's wonderful oh yes we believe
in Jesus but this got to do this too and Paul said, oh, how he
took them to task over that. And this, the same spirit, the
spirit of Antichrist, that make the Catholics in throne Mary,
that make the fundamentalists say, God's done all he can do,
now it's all left up to you. Instead of saying, for whom God
did foreknow, them he also did call. And whom he called, he
justified. Whom he justified, he glorified.
What shall we say then to these things if God be for us? Who
can be against us? Who's going to lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
than risen again. Who's going to separate us from
the love of God that's in Christ Jesus? Will tribulation do it?
Will peril do it? Anything go, nakedness, peril,
sword? Things present, things to come?
No! God made us more than conquerors
in our Lord Jesus Christ. And let me tell you something
about this spirit, this spirit of Antichrist. It's already here,
it's even in the world. This spirit's not anti-religion.
It's not anti-religion. It's not anti-morality. It's
not even anti-good work. You know what it is? It's Antichrist. Antichrist. and then let me give
you this and then I'll be done. He said there in verse four,
you are of God, little children, and you've overcome them. Overcome
who? The Antichrist, them false prophets, them false teachers.
You've overcome them. You overcome their error. You
overcome their lie. You're not like them. He said,
you're of God, little children. You're born of God. You have
the spirit of God in you. You identify with Christ and
Christ identifies with you. you've overcome the antichrist
you've overcome this this this uh false teachings and then he
goes on to say because greater is in you he that in you that
he's just in the world and that's antichrist what he's saying even
now is already is is in the world and that's what he's talking
about the antichrist is in the world You keep it where it's
at now. He said greater is He in you.
God, Christ in you, the Spirit of God in you is greater than
the Spirit of Antichrist that's out there in the world right
now. The Spirit of Antichrist that's out there in the world.
And I tell you what, there's plenty of them out there. There's
plenty of them out there. Anybody, any of you that's, every
one of you know how many Antichrists there are out there in the world.
There's a bunch of them. Antichrists everywhere now. Antichrist. People rejoice in it now. But
anybody, people say, boy, that's too harsh. But anybody, I don't
care who it is, if it's my mother, my brother, my sister, me or
anybody in this congregation ever, brings any other doctrine
other than the doctrine of Christ. The doctrine that salvation's
wholly, completely of Christ and Christ alone. Christ paid
the price. Christ gave us a righteousness.
Christ put away our sin. Christ makes us acceptable to
God. Christ is our all and in our all, and we're not going
to add nothing to Him, and we're not going to take nothing away
from Him. He's enough, and He's all I got, and that makes Him
enough. I'm not looking for anything else, and we don't want to hear
about anything else, do we? No, no, we don't. No, that's
like I found a priest up years ago, Tim James. He said, boy, anybody got any
guns? Somebody said, has anybody got a gun? Because he thought
it was a shit belt. But he was preaching. He was
talking about walking a tightrope, this guy was. And he says, you
know, we're walking a tightrope between the righteousness of
Christ and our righteousness of ours. And he said, if you
go too much over on the righteousness of Christ, you'll lean too far
over this way and you might fall off. And then if you go too much
to your righteousness and just harp on all your righteousness,
he said, you got to keep the balance between your righteousness
and the righteousness of Christ. Would you believe how upset Don
Fortner got to get up and preach behind that fella? So you can
imagine what Don was like. Oh my goodness. I wouldn't have
been in that fella's shoes for nothing when Don got through.
I mean, Don took him to task in front of that whole place.
Oh my. But that's what people are preaching.
That's what people are preaching. And he was a Baptist preacher
and then went and joined the Presbyterians. That's what he
did. Oh my goodness. And ain't nothing
wrong with Presbyterians. as long as they'd quit baptizing
babies. Our Father, O our Father, in
the blessed name of Christ our Lord, thank you for being gracious
to us. Thank you for allowing us to have your blessed word.
Thank you for the truth as it is in Christ. Amen. Amen. Well, God willing, I'll see you
all Sunday morning.