← Cornerstone Chapel - Audio Podcast
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We are in First John, First John, chapter four. So if you would turn to First John, if you go all the way to Revelation, you can just go backwards a little bit. John is the apostle who wrote the Gospel of John. He wrote three letters called First, Second and Third John and he wrote Revelation as well. And we're going to, we're going to park it here in First John chapter four. The Lord kind of put this on my heart and I'm going to let the word of God speak for itself and then I'll kind of talk about what we're going to be discussing and diving into God's word and we're going to, he has for us for today. But first John, chapter four. I'm going to start in verse one. Says, beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world by this, you know, the spirit of God, capital S. 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. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Amen. They are of the world, therefore they speak as of the world and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us. He who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. NLT says the spirit of deception. I've entitled my teaching for today and we're going to talk about this hot topic that has been going on for quite some time now and it's only just ramping up. But I've entitled my discussion today. Disclosure, Deception and discernment. I'm gonna dive deep a little bit into this whole UFO alien disclosure. Yang. So this is a trendy. It's like really, we came to church to talk about aliens? Really? Well, let me tell you right now, I don't believe we're talking about aliens. I believe we're talking about fallen angels or demonic spirits. And it's happening right now and it's not going away. And we have even congressional hearings talking about this stuff. This is not fringe sci fi stuff anymore. This is real in our face. But I've entitled today we're going to look at disclosure, we're going to look at real deception and we're going to look at biblical discernment. What does it mean to have discernment and to know right from wrong, truth from a lie, fact from fiction. And we are in a spiritual battle, everybody. And I just feel heavy in my heart to equip us, equip the saints and help us realize we need to be on guard and we need to have a biblical lens. Especially the Gen Z and Gen Alpha generation that I have a heavy heart for. They're going to be, you know, enthwarded with this. It's no longer a, you know, 1940s, 50s, boomer generation. This is real and this, this is not going away. And what does the Bible have to say about this stuff? And first John chapter four, the Lord just kind of gave me that chapter where this, this is perfect, this is timely right now. What is happening? And he says quote unquote right here in verse one, Beloved, which is the Christian church, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God. We actually have a right and responsibility and the authority to test spirits as humans. Now the Bible makes it clear that we as humanity are a little bit lower than the angelic realm. But there will be a day that we will be above the angels and we will be co reigners and co workers with Christ in the millennial kingdom. Judging angels, I can't really wrap my mind around that. I don't know how that's going to look. But it's different right now, but it's going to be different in the future. And there is a lot of deception, lies and media that's out there screaming at us, here's what this is, here's what this is. But what does the Bible actually have to say again? First John 4:3 says, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. That's how you know we've had angels appear to people in the Bible, good angels, we've had bad angels appear to people in the Bible. We've had good angels appear to people in our modern era. We've had bad angels, fallen angels appear to people. And that's where you get false religions and doctrines from fallen angels. Paul clearly says In Galatians chapter 5 or I'm sorry, Galatians 1, verse 5, he says, even if we meaning human or an angel were to come with you with a different gospel, let them be internally condemned. He mentions a human or an angel. Whatever agent you you can think of, no matter what it is, we need to know if they're preaching a different gospel. We're going to have nothing to do with them. And I'm going to tell you right now, a lot of the stuff with the alien UFO phenomena has a lot to do with the occult and the New Age movement. It is very steep in that. Now, I did a teaching on this about two years ago on a Wednesday night, and it kind of just took off. And it was just. It's. That was two years ago. So much has happened since. Two years now. So much just in two years. What's the next two to four years gonna look like now? And I'm gonna. We're gonna look at this, but I want us to understand. John tells us we're not to trust every spirit. And we can test them. You can test them by the word of God. And if they confess that Jesus is Lord and that he came in the flesh, that he was a real person, you know, that's a good spirit. But if they say, no, no, no, that's something, we're something else, or that was different. No, Jesus is not who you think he is, you can dismiss that spirit. We have the authority and the responsibility to do that. And second Thessalonians 2. 7, Paul would even emphasize this as well. He says, for this lawlessness, there's a. Lawlessness is already at work. Secretly, the Antichrist is not on the world scene yet. And he won't be, I believe, until the church is gone. He will not come on the world scene. He could be alive today, we don't know, but he's definitely not in a power. But the secret of lawlessness has been at work for the past 2000 years. It's here and it's behind the scenes. And Paul says the secret of lawlessness is already at work. And it will remain secret until the one who is holding it back steps out of the way. And I believe that's a reference to the Holy Spirit. But before we go any further, I just want to pause and pray and ask the Lord just to minister to our hearts and to understand what the Bible has to say about deception and how to use biblical discernment in the right way. Father God, I pray that you would just go before us. Bless this teaching. Now, there's not. Not my words. They are your words. And I pray, Lord, that we would be equipped as saints for those of us that don't know you, that we would come to know you in a personal way and understand we don't need to hear media, movies, books that are out there. We need to only hear one person That's Jesus Christ through the word of God. So God, I pray that you would just open our minds, open our hearts, help us to guard our minds in Christ Jesus and to know fact from fiction. We have your word, Lord. That's enough. We pray all these things in Jesus name. Everybody said, amen. This topic of UFOs or UAPs, I like to still say UFO, old school UAP, just kind of a new thing. But this topic of UFOs, UAPs, alien abductions and the like continue to emerge in the news and are gaining even more popularity in the entertainment media. Movies, shows, documentaries, books, games. I could go on. It's even now gone after our children in the form of books and media. A friend of mine texted me actually yesterday with a picture of a children's book about Old MacDonald and the title of the book is Old MacDonald and had a farm EI UFO. I said, I'm gonna use that for my sermon, thank you very much. How timely is that? It's even going after our children now. It's very subtle and it's very fun, but I think there's a nefarious, deep deception that's going on, conditioning the minds of our generation and the younger generations. It's happening and we can't shy away from this. It's like, well, this is not really biblical topic. It is a biblical topic because I'm not going to talk about aliens. We're. We're talking about fallen angels and demons. That's what's happening. And they will clothe themselves in a way that we are from another dimension or reality and we're here to rescue you. We've heard the different narratives and all that. And I believe that this is Satan's tactic because he knows that Jesus is coming back soon and he wants as much people to be deceived and to get pulled into this topic. Because I actually, my theory is that this might be the one world religion in the end times, when the church is gone and the tribulation is happening. This alien religion might be because it's linked with New Age. The New Age movement is real and it's part of the occult and it's wicked. And if any of you are into that New Age occult stuff, witchcraft, you need to get out of that. The Christians should have no part in that. We need to get out of that. And it's embarking on the minds of our kids, our teenagers and young adults. And there's something fascinating about it. But this topic is not going away. Here's some hot topics that just in the past two years that we've been seeing on the news or social media. By the way, I have a lot to say about social media. If you get all your information for social media and not from God's word, there's something wrong there. We have got to have discernment. That's going to be my final topic about how to use proper biblical discernment in deciphering truth from a lie because we have so many screaming voices. But here's the, here's just the past two years. The degree of government cover up since the 1940s. Everyone's talking about this and I do believe that there is something going on since the 1940s. Ever since Roswell, there's been something going on. Now I don't know what it is. I think there a lot of it could be just high government tech, but I think a lot of it is supernatural. But because people are just questioning. People have been questioning this since the 1940s, like what is happening? Why is that happening? Whistleblowers talking about non human biologics and craft in congressional meetings. Now scientists, have you been hearing about this? Who have either gone missing or found dead that are linked to this stuff. No one's talking about this stuff. There's missing scientists that are linked with all this UFO phenomena and they're gone, missing or dead. Very interesting, Hollywood with the recent movie Disclosure Day by Steven Spielberg. I'm going to talk about a little bit about that. There's a recent documentary that came on Amazon Prime, Age of Disclosure. People are talking about this now. There was supposedly a secret pastoral meeting where they came together saying that this is going to be the narrative coming out and us pastors need to be ready that that that happened. President Trump is releasing UFO files since over the past 80 years. He's the only president to really do this and he's releasing it because he knows the public is interested in this. But I just think it's very timely whether he's doing it unto the Lord or he's just saying like, you know, this is just for the public. It's very timely and this is going to condition our minds for the tribulation. So President Trump releasing these files, the Iran US peace deal, I actually think that might be connected to this because it's talking about peace and security. You can read 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. It's exactly what it talks about. And then it says the big question that the news media has been talking about saying is the headline is are we alone? Are we alone? Well, for the Christian, that should be pretty simple. No, we're not alone. Okay? Yes, we have God the Father, and we're with him if we. If we're believers. But we're not alone in the terms of we have angelic entities that have been here longer than we have job. Job 38 actually tells us that the morning stars, the sons of God, which is a term for angels, sang for joy at the creation of the heavens and the earth. So God created angels before he created humans. So they know a lot more than we do, but they are created. Satan cannot create a new thing. He can only manipulate what God has already created. Satan is tactful. He's masterful at manipulation and deception, but he can't create. God's the creator. And God created Satan before he was a fallen angel. He was an angel of light. So before he became evil, there was a part of him. He was actually on the good side. But angels have been around for a long time, longer than we have. So, no, we're not alone when it comes to fallen angels, demons, archangels, cherubim, seraphim, we're not alone. The Bible talks about this stuff all the time. So this stuff has been happening not just since the forties. Deception's been around for a long, long time. But now it's only kicking into gear. It's a very, very hot topic right now because I think we're getting close. I'm excited as a believer. I'm excited because I think we're very close to the coming of Jesus. For the non believer, it could be pretty frightening. They want answers. They want hope. Gen Z and Gen Alpha, right now, they're wanting answers. They want truth. My generation with millennials pray for us. Millennials just need Jesus really bad. But Gen Z and Gen Alpha, I applaud you because you're actually saying, I don't want that stuff. I want truth. And I think there is such thing as absolute truth. And they're searching, they're seeking, and there's revival happening. But we need to honestly be on guard. I personally think the documentary that came out on Prime Age of Disclosure, I think it's a very fascinating documentary. Now, it's not a biblical viewpoint. They're not. These. Aren't Christians really talking about this? If they are Christians, they're not saying they are. But if you have a biblical mindset and biblical perspective, you can watch it and then make decisions on your own. But I thought it was a very fascinating documentary. And what they're talking about now has been going on for Quite some time. But what they mention does make me wonder what's been going on for the past 80 years in America. What has been going on? The movie Disclosure Day that has just recently come out, I did go see it. Not just because it's like, oh, I want to know what's going on. Because I am a sci fi, you know, fan and I've been loving, I love Spielberg's movies. I'm just going to say that. But this one, this one hit pretty heavy. This one definitely had the narrative. Now I'm not going to spoil it. You want to go see it, have the biblical lens on and go see it for yourself. I'm not going to spoil it. But there's clearly a narrative that is anti God in that movie. Now Spielberg came out and said, he said, I think this movie is actually gonna shake a lot of Christians faith. Really? No, not shaking my faith, Spielberg. Sorry, not shaking my faith. But we need to have strong, mature believers that are grounded and rooted in the faith of Jesus Christ who can see that movie and say, this is not good. And we need to expose the truth and we need to expose what darkness really is. There's a narrative, people, that is happening and we need to wake up and understand what, what the enemy is doing. If you don't know the enemy, you can't fight him. But if you know the enemy and his tactics and understand scripture, we can combat him. With the help of God's word and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can understand what deception is. Now, I personally would rather see Michael the movie Michael 100 times more than Disclosure Day. That's just me. I thought the Michael Jackson movie was awesome, but hey, that's just me. Anyway, I've got his song stuck in my head. So a great article that came out. If you don't know Olive Tree Ministries, you need to look them up. Olive Tree Ministries, Prophecy watchers, these are really good resources for the Christian to look into. Have your Bible out and then look into these good podcasts and resources. But Olive Tree Ministries with Jan Markell, she came out with a great article just a few weeks ago and it was entitled we are Not Alone. And I agree with 100% what she says. She is spot on what she's been saying. And you need to read this article. She mentions the new movie Disclosure Day. And in Disclosure Day, she mentions here quote, prophecy News Watch writes this. Steven Spielberg's highly anticipated film Disclosure Day, open in theaters, introducing millions of moviegoers to questions surrounding alien life, government secrecy and humanity's place in the universe. Combined with the steady stream of UFO documentaries, streaming services, podcasts and social media discussions, the topic of non human intelligence has never been more prominent in the public consciousness. That's very true. We're coming to this point now where, okay, this is not fringe sci fi stuff anymore. This is real stuff. And I'm here to tell you it's not gonna go away. It's not gonna go away. Even reliable people like representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee. Anybody hear what he said? He came out with a quote. He's a devout believer. He's a Christian. Tim Burchett said, quote, if the general public saw what I have seen, they would not sleep at night. I don't know what that means. I don't know what he's seen, but he's a reliable source. In my mind, he's a devout Christian. He's saying, hey, there's stuff that I have seen that if the public saw it, it'd be kind of terrifying. Well, now what is that? What is going on then? I'm not sure what that means. Something's happening, though. Something's happening. And this strong delusion of second Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 11 and is happening. But guess who actually sends this strong delusion? It's God. Read Second Thessalonians, chapter two. I can't emphasize Second Thessalonians enough. Read chapter two in its totality. But verse 11 says something that's very interesting. It says that God will give them over strong delusion so that they will believe the lies. Now why does God do that? I thought it was the Antichrist who did all that. It's actually God. Why does God do that? He's been doing it for a long time. For those that don't want anything to do with God and truth and have hardened hearts, God says, you want that? I'll give you over to what you want. And God will send a strong deception or delusion and they will believe the lie. This deception that's happening, God is allowing it. But God wants us to be clear. We can know and test spirits and we can have the Holy Spirit inside of us and know right from wrong. We don't have to go to social media or the news media or Hollywood for goodness sake to figure out answers. But, but people are doing it. People are doing it. They're hungry for truth. So from a biblical perspective, how are we to understand what's this, what's going on with this deception delusion? And I think it's. I think it's cultivating I think it's happening slowly and subtly where it's, it's going to be everywhere. It's going to be the norm. It's going to be the norm when it tells us in the Bible that Satan masquerades as an angel of light. That Greek word masquerade. You know that Greek word? That Greek word only found one time in the Bible. The Greek word masquerade actually means to shape shift or to change figure. And that's what Satan does. And it says he masquerades as an angel of light. Is Satan an angel of light? No, he's not. He used to be, but now he can shapeshift and come across as an angel of light. And I believe what we're seeing now with this alien phenomena is just fallen angels doing the same thing, taking on the form of something that is alluring and spiritual. Very tied in again to the New age movement. And we have to be Christians standing on God's word, knowing fact from fiction, and can say without a shadow of doubt, I know this is false and I'm not going to follow this. I'm not going to get into this. You notice when, when Satan is in the garden as the serpent, who does he tempt first? Eve. Now who was created first? Adam. Why did he never go to Adam? We don't have any record that he went to Adam to deceive him. I think because Adam had a strong relationship with the Lord. Not that Eve didn't, but he saw Eve as I'm going after her, this is my way in. The weaker vessel that Paul writes about, a primary sign before Christ returns, you can write this down, is deception. Deception is going to take place and it's happening right now, I think underneath our noses. Whether we like it or not, whether we know it or not, a sign before Christ's return is deception. And we have to be Bible believing people who stand on God's word and knows fact from fiction. Again, just these verses on deception that I'm going to read to you. I got ahead of myself. But Genesis 3:13, the first time of deception was the serpent Satan deceiving Eve in the garden. Now you can write this New Testament verse down. 1st Timothy 2:14. Paul actually gives us a little more insight into of the Genesis account. In First Timothy 2:14, Paul actually tells us that Adam was not deceived, Eve was. Oh, that's interesting. We don't get that part in Genesis. Paul says it was not Adam who was deceived, it was Eve who took of the fruit and then gave it to him. Now Satan goes after Eve because he knows what he's doing. He's very tactful, he's very cunning and we have to understand who the enemy is. But he had all the time to go after Adam, but he chose not to. He goes after Eve and it looked good. The fruit looked for good as pleasure, gaining wisdom, gaining knowledge of the heavens. Sounds good to me. None of us can really say, man, I would never have done what Eve did. Really. Just look yourself in the mirror. I think you would have. All of us, I think would have fallen into that trap. And Adam, it says, was not deceived, meaning he knew the truth, he was not manipulated, but yet he still took part of it. Now that's a whole different sermon I'm not going to go down into. I have an interesting theory that I think Adam being a type of Christ that Paul talks about in Romans chapter 8. I think what Adam did was he was not deceived, but he gave in because he did not want to be separated from his wife. And he's a picture of Christ to the church. So that's a whole different sermon. We're not going to go down that road. But it's very interesting of why Adam did what he did. He knew what he was doing. Eve did not know what she was doing. But the serpent was very cunning in the garden. Daniel 8:25. You can write this verse down. Daniel 8 and 9 have a lot to say about the Antichrist. A lot to say about him. Daniel 8, 25 says the antichrist will be masterful in deception. The Antichrist will be a master at it. He'll be so cunning that you will not tell what is right and wrong. Now I don't believe we'll be here for the Antichrist. I believe the church is gone. We believe in a pre tribulation rapture and the church will be out of here. But those that are of this world, a lot of people are going to believe the lies of the Antichrist. Not all. It does say that a remnant survives and believes in Jesus Christ. There's going to be a revival I think. But the Antichrist is going to be cunning. He'll be a master at this second. Thessalonians 2, 9, 10. The Antichrist will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction. Did you catch that part? Every kind of evil deception to fool those. Gonna be a lot of trickery and foolishness going on that the Antichrist is going to have and he's going to use it towards Those that are on their way to destruction. The non believer. This is going to happen. The false prophet. Revelation 13:14. False prophet is going to be a master at deceit as well. The false prophet is a very interesting character. You have to remember there's not going to be just one Antichrist, there's actually going to be two. Now we have the Antichrist, the beast, but there's the beast of the sea, which is him, and the beast of the earth, which is the false prophet. But they're going to work together and it says the false prophet will do signs and wonders and miracles, even calling down fire from heaven to amaze everybody that lives on planet earth that are not believers. Signs, wonders. See again, Satan can't create, but he can manipulate even signs and wonders. To think that, oh, this is amazing, this is awesome. The false prophet actually is actually going to do this as well. He's going to have the people make an image of the Antichrist, breathe this false life into it and command everybody to worship it. I mean, you've got AI now converging with this whole disclosure day subject. Everything's coming to a point. Everything. How many robotic commercials do we have now? Especially during the super bowl time. So many commercials about robots. AI now. ChatGPT this is not coincidence. This is all coming. And I think that Satan is going to use it and he'll use it tactfully. But the false prophet is going to do a lot of deception and people are going to buy it, they're going to fall for it. But Jesus even said before the tribulation, Matthew 24, 5, 11. Jesus even said many false Christs and false prophets will deceive in the last days. We've had many false Christs come and go this past 2000 years. In the church age, we've had many false prophets come and go. Many people pick dates on when Jesus coming back. Don't be a date setter, please. We do not know when Jesus is coming back. We can know the signs of the times. We do not know the date. Okay, we've got a lot of books that are just wasting people's time talking about when Jesus is coming back. We don't know. We don't know when he's coming back to take us home. But Jesus said, be ready for many false Christs will come in my name to deceive even the elect. If that were possible, there might be even some Christians that are going to be swayed to be like, okay, that actually sounds convincing. We have to know for sure of what God's Word says about this topic. What is deception and what are we supposed to do about it? I actually like what Acts 13:10 says. You can write it down. Acts 13:10. Paul was really annoyed with this sorcerer on his missionary journey and he's being patient, but this sorcerer is just being so annoying, speaking against Paul. And Paul's like, I've had enough. And he, he says, you son of the devil. He calls him out. He's so annoyed with him that he says, you're going to be mute for some time now. The guy goes mute. The governor gets saved because of it. The governor's like, I want to believe in Jesus now. I don't know what just happened there. Governor gets saved, but this guy goes mute. But interesting. Paul says, deception perverts the true ways of the Lord. You're the son of the devil and all you're doing is deception. That's perverting the true ways of the Lord. Deception perverts the ways of the Lord. Proverbs 8, 7. You can write that down. Proverbs 8, 7. Wisdom speaks the truth and detests every kind of deception. We have a lot of people that have knowledge, but not wisdom. Wisdom speaks truth and detests every kind of deception. Not just this alien UFO stuff. Every kind of deception. But exactly, you know, I. I want to talk about, to be honest, standing against deception. How do we stand against it and what can we do to. In terms of understanding that we're living in deception days, that we're living in deceitful times. Here's two things I want you to write down about standing against deception. Two biblical verses that I'm going to put on the screen. One of them we already read in First John. But here's what I want us to write down. Number one, you need to know whom you belong to to stand against deception. You and I have to know whom we belong to. And we belong either to God or we belong to the world. There's those two options. That's it. And first, John 4, 5, and 6 spells that out clearly. John says, they are of the world, the false prophets and the non believers. Therefore they speak as of the world and the world hears them. You've got the world talking with the world. They all get along. The world talks to each other, but we are not of the world. And it's interesting, I heard one pastor say this and I loved it, that we get. Christians get so uptight. A lot of Christian Karens get so uptight about, you know, I can't believe they said that on Disney I can't believe that happened or whatever. Hello. They're of the world. The world speaks like the world. And that just spoke to me. I was like, you're right. Yeah. Why am I getting so upset with the world? They're lost. The world belongs to the world. And they speak worldly things. But you have to know whom you belong to. And John says it clearly. He says, but we are of God. The Christian is of the Lord. And John's like, I know who I belong to. But do you? Do you know whom you belong to? Because the world wants this next generation. The world wants it so bad. And it's going to do everything it can in its power to bring this next generation down. And we, as the previous generations, need to be equipped and ready to speak the truth. But we all have have to apply this to our lives. I have to know whom I belong to and if I belong to God. I'm going to speak the way God speaks. I'm going to think the way God thinks, and I'm going to do my best to follow him. We are of God. He who knows God hears us. He was not of God, does not hear us. Number two, how do you stand up against deception? Know your responsibility. I love this verse. Know your responsibility. Write down Hebrews 3:13. We have to know our responsibility, which is to Encourage others. Hebrews 3:13. The writer would say this. He would say, you must warn or encourage. The Greek word is actually encourage. You must warn and encourage each other every day while it is still today, so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. All of us have a responsibility to warn and encourage others. Hey, you can't be going down this rabbit hole. You can't be getting all your information from social media. You can't be getting all your information from news media and Hollywood. You have got to know truth from fiction. You have got to know right from wrong. And it's only from God's word. And we have to be the ones to encourage. It says every day while it was called today, so that no one will be deceived. And then here's where deception leads, it says, and then hardened against God. Now you're against God. Deception has its way to pull us away from the Lord and to have a hardened heart. So standing against deception. But how do I stand now? With discernment. Discernment is linked with wisdom. Discernment is actually a spiritual gift that Paul talks about. But all of us can attain discernment. Some of us just have that spiritual Gift where we just have this gut feeling that, hey, this is not right. Or. Or I think we need to do this. There's that spiritual gift, but everyone can attain discernment. Everyone can ask for wisdom. The Bible mentions that. But there's two things I want us to know of how to face deception. Every believer needs to have a firm grasp of discernment from the Lord. And that only comes, spoiler alert, from God's Word. You will not know discernment if you do not know God's word. We have too many biblical illiterate people that do not read God's Word. I'm not talking about five minutes in. Okay, Esther sounds good. That's a good one. Maybe Job. Well, that was kind of depressing. Leviticus is not bad. Well, actually, not Leviticus. Lamentations. I've never even heard of that book. That's interesting. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about reading it. Know your Bibles. Know your Bibles. The first thing I want us to understand here, Romans 10:17. You can write that down. Faith comes from hearing. That is hearing the good news about Christ. What did I just say? That the Antichrist and the false prophet are going to do signs, wonders, and miracles. That is not where we put our faith in. I don't put my faith in signs, wonders and miracles. Jesus even said that to the Pharisees. If you read the Gospels, the Pharisees, like, show us a sign, give us a miracle, and then we'll believe you. He says, all you want are miracles. All you want is a sign. That's all you want. But my words are what matter. Do you listen to what I say? No, we just want a miracle. Show us something. He's like, no, that is. That is not what saves you. Because the Antichrist and the false prophet and whatever this phenomena is going on, they're crafty at making signs, wonders, and miracles. Satan can do it. There's counterfeit miracles. And we have to understand, our faith comes from hearing the word of God. Faith does not come by sight, signs, wonders and miracles. Faith comes by hearing the precious word of God. That's it. So real quick, because I know time is ticking, but we need to hear this. What is discernment? The Greek word is anacreno, and it means to distinguish or to separate out by diligent search. To distinguish or separate out by diligent search. I Love what Hosea14:9 says. You can write this down. Let those who are wise understand these things. Let those with discernment listen carefully. The Paths of the Lord are true and right, and righteous people live by walking in them. But in those paths, sinners stumble and fall. You want to go down the godly path, you need to practice discernment and wisdom. Two things I want us to look at real quick. Number one, how do I have discernment? I need to know the fear of the Lord. We do not have a healthy fear of the Lord in these days. I. I'm not looking for the Antichrist, people. I'm not really looking for him. I'm looking for Jesus Christ. And I want to fear his name. I want to fear who he is. And this is not just some respect for his name. It is a holy, deep, reverent fear that he is God and I'm not, and that he knows what's best and I don't. And. And that he can do anything he wants. That's the fear of the Lord. But look, I Love what Job 28:28 says, and this is what he says to all humanity. The fear of the Lord is true wisdom. You want wisdom? Understand what the fear of the Lord is. Fear of the Lord is true wisdom. To forsake evil is real discernment. I'm going to forsake evil, and I'm going to go down the path of wisdom, and that's going to lead to a healthy fear of the Lord. Number two, and final thing that we're going to look at. I can't emphasize this enough. You want to stand with discernment, you need to know God's Word. You have got to know God's word. Don't put aside devotionals. Sometimes I get kind of sick and tired of little devotionals that people just, you know, have a new devotional. 365 Days with Jesus. Okay, how about this? It's just called the Bible, and I'm just going to read that. Nothing against devotionals, but I kind of just kind of get bugged with that where I just want to read God's Word. I'm going to have my own quiet time with the Lord. I'm going to get to know him, he's going to get to know me. Know God's word. 2nd Timothy 3:15. You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. Paul writes that to young Timothy, you've been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they the Scriptures have given you wisdom. Know God's Word. I'm going to close with this. When banks train their employees in the money industry to recognize counterfeit bills. They do not have them study counterfeit money. They have them study real dollar bills so that when they get to know the real thing, they know what the counterfeit stuff is. The same as with you and me. Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we thank you so much for this time. I do pray, Lord, for discerning hearts and minds that comes from a relationship with you. Lord, to know you, to know whom we belong to. We belong to the Lord to know our Bibles, to know what it means to stand firm in our faith. We have too many biblical illiterate people, Lord. We need to just dive into your word and let it just soak into our hearts. Lord, in this age now with disclosure happening and all this deception and what's true and what's not, we don't know all the answers, Lord, but you do. And we just want to have a right relationship with you and understand if we're walking wholehearted, wholeheartedly with you, the fear of the Lord that is going to just be all that we need. Give us wisdom for today, Lord. Help us not to worry about the future. We trust in you. You have us in your hands. We look to you, we love you. We thank you for this time we've had together. We thank you that you are here in Jesus name and everybody said amen.