Discerning False Teachers

But the only way to know whether we are blind is to let the scriptures bear witness and understand what is blindness and who are blind. Well, today is maybe a message that I would, if I were asked to preach one message to the church today all over the world, I would probably take the subject that we're going to address today and address that to the church because of the whole concept of blindness. And I, you know, I'm open to the idea that there are people here who are blind and don't see clearly.

Maybe some of you have been touched. I remember preaching a message down in Florida, actually at Laura's church there in Dade City, Laura and Conrad. And a number of years ago I was down there doing some preaching on campuses in Florida and they asked me to share and I was pondering or meditating upon the blind man who came to Jesus and wanted to be healed.

And the Lord touched him and asked him if he can see. And he said, well, you know, it's better than it was because before I couldn't see anything, but now I can see. But the problem is I see men as trees walking or trees as men.

I forget what it was, but it was, he couldn't see clearly. And so the Lord touched him a second time. He said, whoa, I got 20-20 now.

And so sometimes that second touch is needful. We get born again and we can see, but it's just not real clear. And we need some clarity.

And so we may not be blind, but we may have a difficulty in seeing all that God has for us. So let's open our hearts this morning and consider the word of the Lord here. Second Corinthians chapter 11 is where we're at.

And I would like to look at verse 13 down through verse number 28 verses. I want to feed the sheep. We want to eat manna.

We want to eat some manna that comes down from heaven. The ladies here, God bless them, have prepared manna in a physical sense. We'll have a wonderful meal, but let's also have some manna that comes down from heaven.

So we've been talking about the apostle Paul and his need to defend his apostleship from those who questioned him. And there was many reasons that we talked about why they would question Paul. But I thought about this this week, and I think we don't take some of these things upon to them.

But here Paul is, and if you'd have been with him, and journeyed with him, and ministered with him, you know, we think of it maybe of a glory thing. And wow, this is Paul. But back then they didn't think he was even an apostle, some of them.

And so he is in many ways an outcast. Even here at the church, maybe he would come here and ah, we don't know that he's an apostle. And so it wouldn't be a glory thing.

We look back on it now as something that would have been kind of glorious to travel with Paul. But you'd be traveling with him, so you're not an apostle, you're a false apostle. And there'd be a lot of dispute about whether he even was an apostle of the Lord Jesus.

And that was what was going on here in the church at Corinth. So Paul is having to defend his apostleship. Last week, I talked about the way in which he began.

There's two issues he brings up with regards to his apostleship. And we didn't, you know, we talked about the fact he didn't bring up his miracles, or his great sermons, or his books that he had written, or all the things that many people esteem highly. But the first thing he brings up is the fact that he lived a self-abased, a self-denying life before then.

If you look in chapter 11 and verse 7, he says this, have I committed an offense in abasing myself that you might be exalted because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely. And we talked about this last week, how that the testimony of the spirit of God and his apostleship was first and foremost that he lived a life of self-denial. And all around you today, if you look out at the prophets, and the teachers, and the pastors, and those who claim to be apostles, one of the easiest ways to determine the truth from the false is this idea of self-abasement, or self-denial.

And Jesus, who himself lived in heaven with all that a person could ever want, God himself, he came way down to the earth. And he walked amongst human beings, that's way down the line. And not only did he become a human, but he suffered.

He became a servant and he suffered the death of the cross. And so his example is an example of self-abasement. And then he looks at us and says, follow me.

And so if anyone is truly a follower of Jesus, the spirit of God in them is going to work in them a life of self-abasement, a life of self-denial. And Paul shows that here. And we talked about that some last week.

But there's another thing, a second thing he's going to bring up. And that'll be next week's if I'm going to share next week. But next week, we're going to talk about the suffering that he went through.

His sufferings in verse 23, all the way down to verse number 30, he talks about the sufferings. And I'm not going to read that. We'll address that next week.

Suffering. So when you say, Paul, are you truly an apostle? Paul says, here's the two things that I want to bring out that show you I'm a true apostle. My self-abasement and my suffering.

Now, here's something that's interesting as I thought about that. Jesus is walking along. There's a great multitude of people following him.

And he turns to them. He says, if any man come after me, let him deny himself and take up a cross or his cross and follow me. It's the essence of what Christianity is.

If you want to be a follower of me, you must first deal with this issue of denying yourself and taking up the cross. That is self-abasement and suffering. And you can then follow me.

And so Jesus showed us this example. He always shows us before he teaches us and expects us to do it. He abased himself.

He went to the cross and he suffered and laid down his life and then raised from the dead, turns and says, follow me, follow me, and we can go into glory together. And so this is the trajectory of a true apostle. And this is the argument that Paul is making.

All these other men, they're glorying in their wealth. They're glorying in their Rolex watches. They're glorying in their buildings.

They're glorying in their budgets. They're glorying in all these material things. And they're appealing to the Corinthians and they're appealing to people today, the material world.

And but Paul says, no, here is what where the truth is. It's in the idea of self-denial and suffering. Now, this is not this.

This is just not for apostles. It's not just for prophets and teachers and pastors like someone like myself. But it's also for believers.

It's a it's a concept for Christianity. And certainly Paul is an example to the believers as an apostle. And he's laying out this example.

What's interesting and I think we should throw this out for all of us here this morning and make it personal. But in chapter 13 in verse number five, and we'll get to this in a month or so, but he says this to them who are living a fleshly carnal. He lists some of the things they're involved with.

He says in verse five of chapter 13, examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know you not that Jesus Christ is in you.

And so it's not just examining me, whether or not I'm an apostle. Let's examine you. Let's examine whether your Christianity is real.

Let's examine whether the spirit of God that is in you is actually moving you to withstand a suffering. Now, you know, many of you sit here and think and and we ponder this idea of who would want to live a life of self-denial and suffering? Who is interested in that? Like I was in the dentist a few weeks ago. Who is interested in going to the dentist and having two teeth pulled? I mean, it's not something that people are all excited about and are interested in.

So when we talk about this idea of self-denial, and I appreciate the brothers who have shared already because it's kind of leading us right down this course, but who's interested in that? I mean, some of you young people. I've got my life in front of me, and I've got all these things I want to do. You're up there telling me I'm supposed to deny myself and take up a cross and suffer? I mean, what kind of a appeal is that going to be to the average human or the average American? Yeah, that's true.

Who's going to do that? Well, I'll tell you who's going to do that. Only those who have faith in God's word. That's who's going to do it, and you know why that is? Because those who believe the testimony of God's word, those who believe in eternity, those who believe what God has said, they see eternity, and they see a reward in self-denial and suffering.

They are looking, as we read here, as Anthony read in Hebrews chapter 11, they are looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. Their world is not here. They only view this life as a stepping stone into a greater experience and eternal life that is to come, and that's the basis of what faith is.

I believe the record that God gave in his word, and so they will lose what they can see here. They'll lose that to gain what they cannot see. Amen.

That's faith. That's what faith promotes, losing what you can see and gaining what you cannot see, and so Anthony read here this morning, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hope for and not seen.

That's what faith is, the very substance of faith, so that if you come to church and you go to church on a regular basis, but you live life for what you can see in this present evil world, you have no faith. Amen. And so you get this list of people, and he mentioned Noah here, but Noah, just think about Noah.

Here's a man who probably was a very talented man, and maybe he had well-doing, he had money, and yet he said, I'm going to take my life, and I'm going to lay it aside, and I'm going to use my life for the purposes of eternity in the future. I am going to prepare a boat, and maybe he had a lot of plans, maybe he had a lot of hobbies, maybe a lot of things he wanted to do, but I'm going to prepare a boat, and I'm going to sacrifice my life to do it, because I see something that God tells me that's not actually happened before, but I believe it. And so he, by faith, he builds a boat and prepares his house.

One of the best examples of this is is Moses. I'm just laying an introduction here this morning, but Moses is a classic example. He's a beautiful picture of Christ.

It says in Hebrews 11, Moses chose a rabbit to suffer affliction with the people of God. Now think about that. Then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches and the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect under the recompense of the reward.

By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured at seeing him who is invisible. He saw the invisible. But think about this for a second.

You have the king's power. You're in line for authority in all the blunders of Egypt, and you choose to go down and to live a slave, and become a servant, and even get beaten by the whips of the Egyptians, and then have to flee that. That's an amazing choice.

Stop and think about that. And he's an example of faith. You know, his heart is, this world doesn't matter to me, and I got all this good stuff here.

I got riches. I got position. People will bow down to me.

I got all this stuff, but it matters not to me, because I believe God has an eternity out there ahead of me, and so I want to choose to go down into into the slavery there, and with the people of God, and suffer. Seems like it's a crazy thing to do. Like if you don't have faith, someone would look at you like, what are you doing? You who are up there, you've got every nice thing in the world that you need.

You can eat, you're abundant, you can have all the pleasures of this life, and you go down to the slaves, and it's elevated here as great faith. And so when you think of faith, at the very essence of faith, we're talking about the apostle here, but it's for all of us. Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith.

Is that what the spirit of God is doing in you? Causing you to say, you know, I'm going to keep laying my life down, denying myself, and choosing instead of living for me, to live for eternal purposes. And you know what will happen when you do that? You'll suffer. As soon as Noah started building that boat, all the heat started to come.

You fool, Noah. And the mockery and the ridicule, what are you doing? Well, Jesus summed up faith in John chapter 12 when he said this, he that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hated his life in this world shall keep it until life eternal. Meaning that those who have faith, they're not looking for anything here.

They're looking for something past this life. Boy, you talk about a revival. You get everyone part here.

Really, you buy into this, that it's not about this life at all. It's about the life to come. And I'm just going to lay it all down here.

I'm going to lay it all down, and I'm going to to prepare myself for eternity. I'm going to live from the from today on for that unseen world that God has promised here in the Word of God. And you talk about a church that'll be well known.

You talk about a revival. That would be a revival. All of a sudden, priorities would shift.

You know, people talk about this. Well, aren't we king kids, you know? And shouldn't we enjoy life? And we're the children of the king. Yes, you are a child of the king, but that kingship and that enjoying life is for the future.

You know, the greatest king's kid was the only begotten son of the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is our elder brother, and he came and showed us the way. Here's what the king's kids do. They go down.

They deny themselves. They take up a cross, and they follow the older son, the older brother, and they walk in accordance to that principle. So Paul says, now, how am I going to defend my apostleship? Well, these false prophets, we're going to talk about them in a minute, one thing, they're not even on the right realm.

Let's talk about it. I'm an apostle. You've seen me deny myself and not even take a penny from you and live and labor and try to pour myself out.

He says here in a little bit, I will therefore gladly spend and be spent for you. The more I love you, the less I be loved. And also I want to show you how much I'm suffering.

And that separates for me from all these false apostles. So in the midst of these two self-denial and suffering, we find this passage on false apostles. Let's look at that here in 2 Corinthians.

And by the way, you can see the false apostles very clearly today. And it doesn't take a lot to pick them out. They don't want anything to do with self-denial, and they don't want anything to do with suffering.

They want to fly around in Learjets, they want to live in mansions, they want to drive the finest vehicles, they want to wear the Roloxes, and they want to be, they want to enjoy this life. Just mark them off. So let's start reading here in verse 13.

I want to talk about these false apostles here. Verse 13 says, for such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. We're going to look at that word transform here in a minute.

It's mentioned three times here. Verse 14, and no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.

And so you have these false apostles. And I think I shared with you the last time that whenever you do something true, there will always be the false coming right in behind it. It's always the case, if the true apostle comes, false apostles will come behind it.

If a true prophet comes, the false will come right behind it. Teachers, Christians, brethren, false brethren crept in, unawares, Paul talks about even false brethren. Just like we memorized in the wheat and the tares, the sower goes forth to sow, he sows good seed in his kingdom, then comes the devil and he sows tares amongst the wheat.

I have no doubt the devil tries to sow tares here. Whenever there is truth, there's always going to be tares. And we need to be mindful of that.

Just people trying to rise up and try to direct things away from the truth. And so false will always follow the truth. Matthew 13, 19, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and understands it's not, then comes the wicked one.

He's right there behind the truth and catches away that which is sown in the heart. And so there's false apostles and Paul is addressing them. Now look back here at verse number 12.

Before he gets into that, he's talking about glory again in verse 12. But what I do that I will not, that I will do that I may cut off occasion from them, which desire occasion that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. There are boasters, there are those who glory and they glory not in like Paul is going to tell us, not in their abasement or their self-denial or their suffering, but they glory in the things that pertain unto this life.

They glory in wealth, they glory in position, they glory in prestige, they glory. Look at verse 18, seeing that many glory after the flesh. He's talking about these who are false apostles.

I will glory also. Self-exaltation, not self-abasement. Now, I've told you this in the last time that Paul wants to boast.

He wants to boast, but he knows he shouldn't boast about himself. And so he says, I'm speaking like a fool now, but I've got to say this. I've got to boast and my boast is not in fleshly glory or in my welfare and all the things these false apostles, I'm boasting in my infirmities, my weakness, my self-abasement.

Look at verse 30 of chapter 11. If I must need glory, I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities, the things that I am suffering. So if you want to boast, anybody here, if you're a Christian, you want to boast, don't boast in your nice car, your nice house.

And what God is putting you through regarding your work and your ministry of how you have to endure. Better yet, don't boast at all. Amen.

But if you do boast, you can do it like Paul and say, I'm going to speak like a fool in boasting. So the church, the church at large is heading in two different directions. And you see this in the world and you know, it's all setting up for the great falling away in the end.

And I just want to give you a little heads up here. And it's heading in the direction of self-denial and suffering, or it's going in the direction of self-exaltation and ease and comfort and prosperity. Those are the two ways things are heading.

Self-denial and suffering or self-exaltation, ease, comfort, and prosperity. So let me ask you this. What direction are you heading in your own personal life? Because someday things are going to get tough, difficult, and there's going to be false prophets and messages coming out.

We can make it better. We got riches and prosperity. We got comfort.

We got peace. All the things that you want in this present world. And many people are going to say, yes, we're going that direction.

But there will still be the message, take up the cross, deny yourself, follow me. And there will be coming here a great falling away. I want you to turn with me, if you could, to second Timothy.

Paul addresses this when he talks to Timothy here. And I think it's an appropriate time to address that here. In second Timothy, chapter three, starting in verse number one, he says this, this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come.

Now we're living in some of these days, perilous times. Some of you don't even know it's happening, but it's perilous right now. Perilous times shall come in the last days, not because of wars and famines and earthquakes and all the things in the natural world.

But he says, here's why it's perilous. For men shall be lovers of their own selves. Sound like self-denial to you? Sound like self-abasement? This is talking about those who profess Christianity.

Lovers of their own selves. Talk about, does that, does that ring a bell? Like, oh, this is a life of self-denial. Boasters.

Oh, we've seen that before. Boasters. Proud.

Blasphemers. Disobedient to parents. Unthankful.

Unholy. It goes down through this list. Verse four, traitors, heady, high-minded.

Lovers of pleasure, the pleasures of life, more than lovers of God, take up a cross and deny yourself. And then verse five says, having a form or an appearance of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away. Now here's the peril that we live in right now.

It's a peril of the last days. Well, every other mother and sister has all these wonderful things and they seem to enjoy life and live for the pleasures of this present world and nobody seems to be taking up a cross and denying themselves and following Jesus. I mean, it's confusing.

And the tendency is, because we're blasphemers, the tendency is to follow the crowd that's going on that broad road. You know, it's easy because we're fleshly to just backslide. And so it's a perilous time.

And so I think it's just a good time to remind ourselves, although we do talk about this a lot, but the road that is truly the narrow road that Jesus wants us to walk on that will guarantee our, will work out our salvation and make our calling and election sure is one that is down the road of self-denial and the road of suffering. And I can encourage you in that because the Bible says as Jesus suffered and laid his life down and became a servant of all men, the Lord exalted him to the highest place. You see, if you're going to go down, you got good, good hope because the Bible says, if you humble yourself, God doesn't stop you.

You better go down and be willing to say, I'm going to suffer. I'll take a beating. I want, I want, I'm living for the world to come.

And so it becomes perilous. People look around, everybody else is doing it in the church. I mean, everybody else is living that way.

Why? I guess it's the way you're supposed to do it. Well, just to, just to ring out here this morning to remind us, this is not the way you go. Well, Paul is going to do the same thing that he does in Corinth here.

He's going to, he's going to talk about himself in verse number eight. He talks about Janice and Jambres and then down in verse 10, but thou has fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose and faith, long suffering and charity and patience and persecutions and afflictions, which came unto thee at Antioch and Iconium and Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord deliver me. And this verse we've talked about before, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

In other words, that's one of the marks of the fact that you're on the right road. It's not something that we're waiting for. We're not waiting for self-denial.

We're not waiting to live a life of self-denial. Neither are we waiting for suffering. It's there.

Just you have to walk the road. And then verse 13 is interesting. It says, but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Some of these people, some of these people, these false teachers, false apostles, false Christians, false evidence, they are punished as they know it. They are concocting and they are working and they know what they're doing and they know why they're there to disrupt and they purposely are trying to to disrupt the truth. Many others are deceived.

They sit in conspiracy and they think they're connected. They're seduced. And so many are deceiving.

Others are being deceived. So the Lord says that he wants us to follow him. And again, just to remind you, there's great reward out there in the future.

There's great reward. Blessed are you with men sure of value and persecute you for great is your reward in heaven. The Lord reminds us it's about the city who's builder and maker's God out there.

If you don't believe there's a city out there and your reward is out there, then live, eat, drink and be married here. Right? Might as well. There's nothing out there.

But if you believe it's out there, then it's, it's a short period of time, just 60, 70 years. I've lived 66 and 40. Some of those have been a Christian.

Just choosing, choosing self-denial and suffering. Well, this word here, and let's go back here to 2 Corinthians. I just want to mention this word in 2 Corinthians chapter number 11, transformed, transformed.

Now I'm one who likes to study the Greek. And there's a lot of things that you can learn. Languages have broad word content and some languages are a little narrower.

They don't express as well as other languages. And so the New Testament here written in Greek, there's a number of examples I could give you. You remember when, when Jesus told Peter there in John 21, lovest thou me more than these? And Peter says, yeah, you know, I love you.

And you know that all back and forth three times. So the word love is in the English, love, love, love. But in the Greek, there's a different word there.

There's different words. And it's a little different meaning behind the scenes there that, that you pick up by looking at a Greek word. And here's an interesting example here.

This word transformed. These false apostles are transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. No marvel for Satan himself can be transformed into an angel of light.

Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed. I thought about Romans 12, 1 and 2, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And that's a good word.

And yet here, this word is used in a, in a negative way. So I decided I'd look these two words up. And lo and behold, it's a different word than, than the passage in Romans chapter 12, because the passage in Romans chapter 12, and that's interesting because as you look up the word, this word here for these false apostles who are transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ, it means this.

It's a scheme. It's an outward condition. It's a, a figure or it's a fashion.

Just like the Lord says, outwardly, they appear righteous unto men. The devil has the ability to make someone outwardly look good. He has that ability and he uses that oftentimes to make someone outwardly look good.

The Antichrist in the book of Revelation says he looks like a lamb, has the appearance of a lamb, but speaks as a devil. In Matthew chapter 7, speaking of false prophets, he, the Lord says, they come to you in sheep's clothing. They look good outwardly.

And that's why Jesus said, you're not to judge anyone according to the appearance. But here's something, this word here in Romans chapter 12, be transformed. Morpho means to change your nature, to morph.

You children know what it's like to morph into another nature, morph into something else, a new creation. So when you look at these words transform, sometimes it's just an outward scheme or an outward changing of the figure. At other times, it's a word that deals with your nature, to change the nature.

So false apostles, so the nature. You see, I believe if you're a child of God here this morning, you have a new nature. You're born to the Spirit and that Spirit that is in you is the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

And the Spirit of Christ is in you. He's in you like Paul says, examine yourself whether you be in the faith. Is Jesus Christ in you? If you think he's been trying to erase himself and come and erase life now, then that Spirit ought to be motivating you in the very same way.

Would you agree with me on that? Especially if you're filled with the Spirit. And so when we get down to chapter 13, he's going to ask these folks, you know, I just don't know. I don't see that post-denial and desire.

I just see you living for the present world, fornicating, thriving, biting, backbiting each other. It just doesn't resonate with the Spirit of God. So I think it's a good time, and we'll get to this in chapter 13, just to ask ourselves, what Spirit is in us? What Spirit? Well, let's read down through here.

I want to comment on a few things here in verse 16. I say again, let no man think me a fool, if otherwise yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly.

Boy, that's amazing it's in the Word of God here. He says, I'm not speaking after the Lord. I'm speaking like a fool would speak in this confidence of boasting.

So make sure you understand this. Paul says, I'm boasting in confidence, but my boast is in self-abasement and in suffering. That's, I hate, I mean, I can just hear it.

I hate to boast. You know how it is. I hate to lift myself up.

But my oh my, these false prophets are lifting themselves up in the flesh, in the things of this present world. I'm going to just speak as a fool and have at it. I'm going to boast myself also, and I'm going to speak like a fool, but my boasting is going to be in self-denial and suffering.

Verse 18, seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. They glory in their wealth. And by the way, a lot of people like that.

I remember watching the TV show of Kenneth Copeland way back when I was a young Christian. He walked his, I don't know, a few thousand people, he walked back and forth, he said, that's a good man. And he said, you can have the blessing of God too.

You know, he would appeal to their fleshly desires, their covetous desires. And I'd sit there and think, even as a young Christian, yeah, kind of sounds right. You know, God wants to bless us.

You know, God does want to bless us. Do you know that? Here's the way God blesses us. You come to Him, and you pray, and you see one thing, and you take it, and you get it.

You come back, and you get another one, and you take that, and you go out, and you get it. You take a strong hand of holiness. Blessed master.

So, yes, God wants to bless you, but He wants to bless you so that you can be a channel, not a, a what? A cesspool. A cesspool. You know, the foolish man, he had a great year, and it cost him so much pride, and so much pain, and so much bond.

I got a big mansion I'm building for you up here, and every time you build lesser and lesser, and you self-abase your life, your mansion up here gets bigger and bigger. So, many people are going to leave these big things, and they're going to go to some real small places. Anyway, Paul was a channel.

Give, and it shall be given unto you. And so, that's the will of God for you to be blessed, that you might be a blessing unto others. In Galatians chapter 6, verse 14, Paul writes this, but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

I like that. I glory not in my wealth, or my position, or all the things that many false teachers are glorying in. I glory in the cross.

The world has been crucified to me. I'm not living for it anymore. It's done, and I to the world.

Boy, that's how you turn the world upside down with about 12 people like that. I don't care anymore. It doesn't matter.

Doesn't matter if I die. Doesn't matter if I take a beating. As a matter of fact, I'm going to rejoice, because every time they lash me, I get rewarded in heaven.

My reward. In verse 19, for you suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. Who are these fools that they're suffering? Those that will glory in the flesh.

These false apostles. You know, one of the things the Bible teaches us is that oftentimes God's children, they love that message. They love the prosperity.

They love to hear. I thought about Jeremiah 5 31, the prophets prophesied falsely, and the priests bear rule by their own means, and my people love it so. They love it.

Oh preacher, tell me that we're God's kids, and that we can live, and have everything we want, and that God wants to give us riches, and all the things, and show the world that since we're God's children, we can do better than Jacob. He had a place to bury him when he died, but my people love to have it so. That's why people run to hear these prophecies.

They love. You know, you really have to be led of the spirit, have a heart for God, and have a heart of faith to hear the message. Deny yourself.

Take up a call, and follow me, but as we find in the Bible, that point of the sword is going to divide people, and I trust that we have enough warning here to let us know that our narrow road is to deny yourself, and take up the cross. Well, let's keep reading here. I want to look at verse 20.

For you suffer, for you suffer in the wrong way. If a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. Now, you see this all over.

These professing Christians follow these false prophets, and these television evangelists, and many others. They don't have to be on TV, and they follow them, and yet they get brought into bondage. Yet, they get devoured.

They devour Jesus' widows' houses. They take from even widows. You know, ask them for a seed.

You know, give us your money as a seed, and God will give you three or four times back, and they devour widows' houses. If a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. Yeah, you like it.

I don't know why. It's perverse human nature, but I read here, and some of you weren't here last week, and I'd like to read it also again in 1st Samuel. Samuel wanted the people, the Israelites, to follow the Lord, and let God be their king, and rule in their life, and that's the heart of God.

By the way, that's the heart of God now, too. He wants to be your head. He wants to rule in your life, and me, or any other person, any pope, or rabbi, or any body of elders, are not to take that place, and to bring people into bondage.

He likes that place of being your king, and that you seek him, but here in 1st Samuel, Samuel's trying to appeal to the Israelites to to follow the Lord, and the Israelites say, no, no, we don't want to follow the Lord. We want to have a king like the nations have a king. We want you to give us a king, and so they argue back and forth, and finally, God says to Samuel, give them what they want.

Give them what they want, and a lot of times that happens. Give them what they want. Samuel says, okay, I'll tell them, so he comes and tells them.

He says, you know, this thing you've been asking is displeasing to the Lord, but he says, go ahead and give you a king, but I want to tell you something, Samuel says, that when this king you get, I want you to know what's going to happen to you, and here's what he says, and Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people who asked of a king, and he said, this will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you. He will take your sons, and your daughters, and appoint them for himself. He will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.

He will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive gardens, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your seed. He will take your men servants.

He will take the tenth of your sheep. He's a taker, but people love it. Give me more of that money.

Send it in. God is wanting me to have a new Learjet, and he'll bless you too. Give and shall be given unto you, but the whole motive of it is covetousness.

Not only am I covetous as the apostle, but you're covetous because you want money too, so they take advantage of it. The Bible says there in second Peter, they make merchandise of you, takers. Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, nay, but we will have a king.

That's the way it is today. Now I would rather have one of these people that take. It's perverse.

So can Paul convince these people here in Corinth of what a true apostle is, and how to distinguish between him and these false apostles? You know, I don't know how, which direction the church went. This is the last letter that we got, 2nd Corinthians, but look over with me one more verse here to 2nd Corinthians chapter number 12 and verse 15, and I'll close here. 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verse 15, he says this, I will very gladly spend.

By the way, what's the opposite of being a taker? It's a spender. I will very gladly spend and be spent for you. That's the heart of an apostle right there.

Is that the heart of the Lord Jesus? I lay down my life. The good shepherd gives his life. I will therefore gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.

Well, that is the heart of a true apostle, the heart of a true evangelist, a true prophet, a true teacher, and may I say a heart of a true child of God. So in chapter 13, after going through all this, he's going to ask them, examine yourself, whether you be in the faith. You know, the worst deception you can have in life is self-deception.

Don't deceive yourself. That's awful. I just want to think of another person who deceives you, but for you to deceive yourself.

So I would encourage all of us, myself included, just to look down inside there and just see, is Jesus Christ in me? And if he is, is he promoting self-denial and suffering and taking up that cross and following him? Oh no, I want all the things and pleasures of this life. I got plans. Well, that's real too, but Moses chose rather to suffer affliction of the people of God.

Why don't we all just kind of come down and choose that low road, suffer affliction for the people of God. You know, this two weeks ago, I think I was telling Brother Chad last week after his message, I had a couple of beefs pulled, one loose and loose back here and another one, and I spent about seven days kind of just in soreness, and it was a real challenge in those seven days to be happy, to not grumble, to not be short, and not be upset, you know, and just to try to have joy. I know some of you, I thought of some of you here who have physical infirmities.

Paul's going to glory in infirmity, but have those physical infirmities, and I thought, well, what a weakling I am that these little things take my whole experience like down a notch or two, you know. Why can't I live above all that? And we ought to. You know, we read these, we're going to read how Paul is beaten five times, how he's going through.

Do you realize how much suffering that was? Not just in the beating, but do you realize how many weeks it took him to heal? And he didn't have, like, great physicians there, but he spent a lot of time broken bones under a pile of rocks, and how can a guy with his feet fastened to stock sing praises to God in the day, in the inner dimension? He must have a little joy in his heart, even in the midst of his affliction. I know some of you are going through some affliction now, but it's one of the ways that we can prepare ourselves, just learning how to have joy in the midst of difficulty, going down. I want to encourage us all, you know, Jesus left heaven.

He came down to a sinful people. That's a perverse world, and we're encouraged to go down, too, to a perverse people. I was blessed by what Thomas was sharing yesterday about down here in Zanesville.

He met some people down there. They're out there in the worst of the places in Zanesville trying to minister. That's where the Lord would be.

We can be there, so let's not only be true apostles and prophets and teachers and pastors, but try to be true Christians. Amen? And take up a cross. Deny yourself.

Follow him, and let's know, let's understand very clearly where false teaching is, where it's the other spirit. Oh, you can have whatever you want. God wants to bless you.

Yeah, he does, but to be a channel. You know, the Dead Sea only, it can only fill up to certain levels and take so much blessing, but it dies because it has no outlet, and blessing will rot in your heart unless it comes in one hand and goes out the next. That keeps the stream clear and fresh.

So we're going to talk about the sufferings next time that he endured, and he said, here's why I'm a true apostle, and these people are not. All right, let's close. We'll open up here.

Let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for the word of God. I do pray that you could work in each one of us that heart that Moses had and Noah had, that they saw out in eternity.

They saw out in the life to come. It was real to them, Lord, a city whose builder and maker is God. They lived for that city.

Lord, may our hearts be more in tune with eternity. As life quickly passes, I pray for our young people that they can make wise choices in their youth to prepare for the eternal reward that is awaiting them in this life. Lord, bless us as a congregation.

May we take upon ourselves that spirit of denial. May you fill us with the Holy Ghost. Give us grace, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.