The Spirit Of Antichrist In The Church

Let's pray. Lord, we're just grateful for your word. We're thankful for your Son, Jesus, and we pray that the Holy Spirit would come and quicken us in our spirits to the truth that you have for us, and we'd be able to apply what we hear and not be forgetful hearers in Jesus' name. I was with a brother last night, and we were talking about our heritage, and we are a Mennonite background, some of us. We have all different backgrounds here, but myself, we come from a group called the Mennonites, and in my early years after I got born again, I wanted to find some information about who the Mennonites were. I knew where they came from. My parents, my dad was born in Russia and emigrated to Germany and then eventually to Canada, and I was born here, but I wanted to know about my faith, where my roots are in, and why am I a preacher today? Why am I serving Christ today? How did that come about? And if we look back in our line, we can find that God says in his word that there's a blessing to a thousand generations to those who love me and keep my word, but the curse of disobedience from Deuteronomy 28 or even from Exodus 20 is to the third and fourth generation to those who hate me, and it says that the haters of the Lord would pretend obedience to him, but their punishment would be forever. So we can say we love the Lord and honor him with our lips, but our hearts can be far from him, and our worship towards him can be in vain. And I wanted to find out, there must have been some descendants of mine who feared God, who loved the Lord with all their heart, and who had a dedicated disciplined life to seek the Lord, and there must be some preachers. And I look back and I found that there were some preachers, some pastors, some men of God in my family, both on my mom's side and my dad's side, and I see that the Lord is faithful, that he's faithful to his word and to his promise, and even though we can make a mess of it and botch it all up, God is able to draw us unto himself. He's able to take a heart like Pharaoh, and he's able to harden it, and he's able to take your heart and my heart, and he's able to break it and make it soft. And I'm thankful that he had mercy on me. His mercy endures forever. I was thinking of this man, Mano Simons, and I started to look into his writings and research some of the things, and he was a Catholic priest, I find. And then the Holy Spirit enlightened him. He got convicted about some things the way that him and the priests were doing things, and he started to search the scriptures, and the Lord started to open his understanding to the truth of the scriptures and realized that they were hypocrites, that they were blasphemers of the truth, yet they were the guides for the church at that time. In those days, the common man didn't have the scriptures. They would unveil the scriptures to the common man. And you know what? He was five years with this light that the Holy Spirit was giving him, and he still remained a priest in that Catholic church, in that system, until finally boldness and courage rose up, and he came out from among them, and he was separate. And he wasn't the leader of the Anabaptist movement, but he replaced the guy that went back to his own life. And he began to battle with these guys, but I began to read some of his teachings, and I came to understand some things at that time in my life about the spirit of Antichrist and the harlot church, and what that all represents in Revelation 18, in 1 John, in chapter 2. And I began to realize that five, six hundred years ago, our forefathers who brought us their teachings, believed exactly the same things that I was getting revealed by the spirit, that I wasn't being taught it by men, because I've been taught all kinds of things by men, but that the Holy Spirit was bringing revelation to me, and was confirming it to me by this man O'Simons, who's writing almost 500 years ago by the spirit, because there's no time with God. And it says the spirit will reveal all things, and will teach you all things, and will lead you, and guide you into all truth. And the scripture says, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And at that time in my life, I've been a bondage, enslaved to sin, and that Jesus set me free. I got born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed, through the living Christ. And then I got into the scriptures, and I said, I need to figure out what this word says, because I was taught from this high up in church, but I just learned some stories. I never knew Christ. And all of a sudden, the words are just jumping off the page, and I'm just feeding on Christ. The scripture says, the one who feeds on me shall live. It says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And the spirit was opening up scriptures to me, and I was just, man, no one ever taught me this. No one ever showed me this. How come they've only been giving me pieces and parts of this? They're not declaring the whole counsel of God to me. They're just telling us the things we want to hear, and I was going to hell, sitting in the church. Then I came to realize that these ministers are liars. If someone shares you only one side of truth, and hides from you the full counsel of God, he's a deceiver and an antichrist. I know we all see in part, but when you know something to be true, and you don't tell someone the truth, and they take decisions that cost them their souls, and they end up finding themselves practicing sin, and you don't declare the whole counsel of God to them, and give them both sides of the gospel and of the good news, we're in trouble. God spoke to the one brother there in the Old Testament, and he told him that if you don't declare my words and speak my words, the blood's going to be on your hands. And you know what? There's going to be a lot of ministers who share this lukewarm, seeker-friendly gospel, or one-sided gospel showing only one side of the fullness of God and the Godhead, that they're going to have some answers to give. We want to speak the truth in love. I was at a fellowship one time, and I love that brother. I met this brother. He was a wonderful brother, and I said, well, he says, why don't you come to our church? I said, those days we were having home group. I said, praise God, I'm coming. You know, he had a lot of love, went to his meeting there, and he was preaching from John 15. And he started in John 15, and he started sharing, and I am the vine, and you're the branches. And then he skipped verse 2, and then he started again in verse 3. You know, why don't we read it? And my blood began to boil, because here's this guy who was so full of love, and he just seemingly loved Christ. He seemingly had all the good fruit. He was a good man, a good reputation, and I said, I want to be part of this guy's church. And so I went to his church, and he started in John 15, verse 1, and his message, the vine and the branches, the true vine, and he said, I am the vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Then he read verse 3, and he said, you are already clean because of the word that I've spoken to you. And he says, abide in me, and I in you, as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither are you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, and you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. Then he goes to verse 7, and he says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit, and so you be my disciples. And I wanted to come right out of my chair. I couldn't wait to get to his office. He had Mondays off. I went there Tuesday morning, first thing fresh. I went into his office. I said, you know what, I'm a nobody, and I'm a nothing, but you know what, it's because of guys like you that I ended up the way that I was, because I took choices, because I felt comfortable practicing sin, because I felt secure. I felt secure in my sin. Now last week some of you listened to me, and you heard me share a little bit about election, but there's a scripture that says, make your call on election sure, because you know what, we have to take a decision to heed what God's word says, otherwise we deceive our own hearts. And then what can happen is we become at peace in our sin, and then it says in Deuteronomy 29 that there's a man who is a drunkard, and he hears all the words of the curse that are written in that book, and he blesses himself, and he says, I shall have peace even though I follow the dictates of my own heart, as though the drunk man and the sober man can agree. But the scripture clearly says, how can two walk together unless they're agreed? So I said to this brother, I said, brother now, why did you not read verse 2 and verse 6 from the scriptures? Why did you skip them? And he said to me, he says, well after going back and forth and debating and different things, and you know those things are not always profitable, but I says, you know what, I perceive you to be a good brother. And I says, why did you not read verse 2 and verse 6 to the congregation? And he said to me, well the Bible school that I went to didn't teach that you could lose salvation, and I don't believe that. And I said, but read the scriptures, and let the Holy Spirit bring conviction. If you don't understand it, don't teach it. Don't teach on it if you don't understand it, but it's written. So read the scriptures, and allow the Holy Spirit to do His work. Verse 2 says, every branch in me, in Christ, that does not bear fruit, He takes it away. And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes, that it might bear more fruit. When I go to prune a tree, and a branch is not bearing fruit, it's a sucker, and I take it away, I don't lift it up, I cut it off. You go to a tree, any pruner knows, you go to a tree, they're suckers. They're taking the life from the tree, and they're not producing fruit, and they're wild. And in order for that tree to produce fruit, because the tree stops producing fruit, you have to take away those suckers. You have to prune it off. And we take them, and we go to the back with them, and we read verse 6, and it says, everyone who does not abide in me is cast out as a branch, and is withered, and they gather them together, and they burn them in the fire, and they're burned. We take them, and we gather them together, and they go to a place where they destroy them, they burn them, or compost them. And then next Sunday, I'd go to the next fellowship gathering, and we'd be in Colossians, and he'd skip verses again. And then I'd go there Tuesday morning again, we'd go at it. And then the next Sunday, he'd go somewhere else, he'd be in Hebrews, and then he'd start skipping verses again. And I'd go back there, and I'd faithfully go there, and I'd say, why aren't you reading them scriptures? This went on for about five, six weeks. And one day, it came to the point where there was such a kerfuffle in the gathering there, because he'd bought some photocopier, and the elders weren't happy, and they were going to oust him. And he had his paper laid out before God, and he would go Friday, and he would go pray to God, and put his petition in. God was just disciplining, and hemming in, and he's a sincere brother. And the Holy Spirit let us meet another brother. We went there Friday morning, and there he was, he would play guitar, and he'd worship the Lord. And he had his petition to God, and he needed God to do something there for him, and he was really searching the Lord. And then I was this thorn in his side also. And all of a sudden, he had this song on, this is the air that I breathe, your holy presence living in me. And I'm telling you, there was a wind that came into that building, into that little church, and the Spirit of God come on us. I began to prophesy, my brother began to speak in tongues, and this pastor dropped his one den. He absolutely collapsed and hit on the floor. There's a dent in the register there to this day, unless they've changed it since I was there. And he began to tremble, and the secretary came in and was wondering what was going on. It was the Spirit of God had descended on the place, and the power of God. And we, I went, my brother and I went to go see the secretary, she was running down the road, she was going home. And because for fear of what was going on there, because in the Mennonite churches, the gifts of the Spirit and the power of the Spirit are not accepted generally. They won't deny them specifically, but they don't understand them, they're fearful of them, and so we just kind of avoid those things. And God visited us there. You know, and that pastor was on the floor there for some time, and he crawled to the washroom, and we came back, and we hugged. And I said to my brother, I says, Sunday, I want to see what's going to happen. I'm going to tell you what happened in that little church in Arnold, in Arnold, British Columbia. On that day, that pastor got up in the front of the church there, and he repented to his congregation, and he said, you know what, I'm sorry that I haven't understood everything, and none of us do. But this Sunday, I want to apologize, and I want to read all them scriptures that I skipped over the last five, six Sundays. I want to read them. My message is going to be reading all them scriptures, and he started. My recollection is he started in John 15, verse 2 and verse 6, and he went from there. And I tell you what happened at the end of that meeting. There was divisions between all kinds of people, a lot of strife, and a lot of dysfunction, like many churches today. And at the end of it, I respected the man, because he always opened up the altar for prayer, for people to come, to be born again for people. Our altars are not open anymore. We need to open up our altars for people to come and bow before the Lord and get right with the Lord. And literally, you could, the whole place, you could hear cries coming from the whole place, people weeping, and people diving, small church diving, to the altar to get right with the Lord. People who had grudges and lawsuits in the church between elders and other brother-in-laws and things diving to repent. And I looked at my brother that was with me, and I said, this is revival. This is what it looks like when people get right with one another and with God. I'm sad to say that not too many weeks after, the pastor had to resign because they were forcing him out, and he left that church. But it was that day, was a day of hesitation from God. It was a crossroads. Many of us have had different experiences in our life, and it's a crossroads for us. Do we want to go through with God? You see, you can be blamed for all kinds of things. Accusations were flying and all kinds of things were said about me specifically. But you know what? That's okay. What matters is what God's word says. Let God be true and every man a liar. Let's fulfill the purpose and call of God for our life. Let's allow the Holy Spirit to work. I want to read a passage in Hebrews in chapter 4. Hebrews in chapter 4 says this in verse 12. It says, For the word of God is living and powerful, and it is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even between the division of soul and spirit and joints and marrow. And the word of God is a discerner of the thoughts or motives and intents of the heart. And there's no creature hidden from the sight of him, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. We all have to give an account for the things that we've done in this lifetime, whether good or evil. You know what? The standard is not what I say the standard is. The standard is not what Dan says the standard is. The standard isn't what your pastor or your elders or your Sunday school teacher taught you when you're growing up. The standard is what God says. We have to take heed, the more earnest heed, to the things that we've heard from what God's word says, lest we drift away. And the scripture says many things to us. And the most important thing as a parent when you have children is that they obey. Life becomes very simple when children obey. And you know what? Things become very simple in your walk with Christ when you just simply obey what God says. Now there's some things we debate and some things we try to understand and we don't understand all things. But the things that we do understand, we need to put into practice. Take heed to the things that you have heard. Because if we don't put into practice the things that we've heard, then we're going to become deceived. I remember times in my life when I got conviction and then I would deal with those things in my life. Areas of sin, areas of compromise, areas of idolatry, idols. We don't know what idols are anymore today. And we would deal with these things that take first rank in our life before the Lord Jesus Christ. And then later on we would say oh well you know I was a I went a little too far or I was you know I was a little overboard at that time but you know now I have more wisdom. Now I'm more mature. Well perhaps maybe we've become compromisers. Perhaps we've become deceived. Perhaps we can think that oh we're rich, increased in goods and in need of nothing because we're so blessed of God. And we don't know our true state. So that's why it's good. The Lord searches through the scriptures and through the power of the Spirit and through the living word the motives and intents of your heart. The thoughts and intents. Why did you say that to that brother, that sister? Why did you do that? What was your motive in that? We don't even know our own motive sometimes or the intents of our heart. But God does. And David says search me and try me and see if there be any unclean way in me. And what does Paul say? Paul says I know nothing against myself but I'm not justified by this because God searches me. We can be blameless in our own eyes but yet God is still trying to reveal something to us of our blind spots. We see in part brother, sisters. We see as through a glass dimly and the Lord wants to give us a revelation. Wonderful book, revelation. You know what it's called? The revelation of Jesus Christ. You know what a lot of people do? They naturalize it. You know what Jesus says? My words are spirit and they're spiritually understood. First the natural one, Corinthians 15 says, then the spiritual. The natural first, then the spiritual. First is that natural man, Adam, who was earthly. Then the second Adam, the spiritual man, Jesus Christ. The first man was a living being. The second Adam, Jesus, he was a life-giving spirit. And it says as we bore the image of the first Adam, the first man, the old man, the fallen Adam, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Adam, Jesus Christ. He says, I speak to you in a mystery. When Jesus spoke without a parable, it says he never spoke and he used natural examples to speak of spiritual truths. He gave us a natural tabernacle that people want to set up in Israel. When he gave us a spiritual tabernacle who has a spiritual priest who is seated in the heavens and that priesthood is unchangeable. And we're saying, come Lord Jesus. The spirit and the bride are saying, come Lord Jesus. We're busy trying to get people together so we can build a natural temple. When the scripture clearly says, you no longer will worship me in temples made with hands. But somehow our forefathers had didn't have light, taught us certain things and we're holding on to traditions. We're holding on to things and we need to have an understanding of what the spirit says to the church. It's going to be a heresy, but I'm going to share what God says. It's going to be a heresy, but I'm going to share what God says. You are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them. I will walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. You say, well, that's a mental truth. But the real truth is there's a temple over there and that's where we got to go year by year. When Jesus comes and sets his feet there on the Mount of Olives. And somehow we get stuck in the natural because we see in part. And Jesus said, my words are spirit and they're spiritually understood. Jesus said, the one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood is the one who has life in him. And these people thought he was crazy. Who are these people? Were they just some kind of people? No, it says these were his disciples. It says that many of his disciples said this, this guy has hard sayings. And they walked with him no more. They followed Jesus no more. Who's this man who gives us his flesh to eat? Who gives us his blood to drink? And he said, oh, well, he was speaking spiritually. Why? Because we have it revealed to us in the scriptures. The one who feeds on Jesus. The question is, are you feeding on Jesus? Are you junking out on stuff on your phone? Are we junking out on all that cable and all the sports and everything? Are we just junking out on all that's in the world? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. Are we junking out on all that and we're adding Jesus to the package? Because you know where we find ourselves in Revelation 18, the harlot that rides the beast. It's a harlot church. Oh, well, it's a Catholic church. It's not the Catholic church. It's much more than that. Romans 7 talks about it. You're reading Romans 7 if we have time. You are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them. I'll walk among them. I'll be their God. They should be my people. He says also in 1 Corinthians 3, if any man defiles the temple, God will destroy him which temple you are. He also says in Ephesians that you are being built up into a spiritual tabernacle in the Lord. And he says in Hebrews 12 at the end, he says, you have come to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem. The one that we're waiting for that comes from heaven where men reign with Christ for a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. Some of us are literally waiting for the dragon to get a chain on them. I don't think Trump and all of his steel and all of his people can build a chain strong enough to hold that dragon down in the abyss. My words are spirit and they're spiritually understood. Bound from deceiving the nations. Praise God, we as Gentiles have had an opportunity and a window to have the revelation of Jesus as the Christ. Pray that the Jewish people in the nation would come to understand that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, that it would be revealed unto them. In Romans 7, he says, or do you not know brethren? Who's he speaking to? Brethren, he's speaking to us. I speak to those who know the law, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. God gave us an Old Testament Levitical priesthood and a law that was to be obeyed until when? Until the covenant changed, until the covenant of grace was ushered in. Now the question for you, and this might sound like a heresy, is are you still under law or are you under grace? Because a lot of people today still bound by law, still living according to rules, still saying don't taste, don't touch, don't handle, and are not been born again of incorruptible seed. And some perhaps who have received Christ have gone back as the foolish Galatians, going back to observe days and months and seasons and years, and you recognize people and places and you're running to and fro looking for the moving of the spirit when Jesus said, I will be with you and will be in you. So wherever you are, that's where Jesus is. You have to come to know that in yourself, that where you are, that's where Christ is. You can have revival right in your own home. We can have it right here in our church. We don't have to go halfway around the world to find it. If you abide in me and my words, abide in you, you can ask what you wish, it shall be done. Say, Lord, we want a revival. We want an outpouring of your spirit. We want to see the power of God manifested in our children, in our lives. It shall, it shall, it shall be done. Three times Jesus said things, and it was the fullness. When he would declare judgment on a city or a nation, he would say, whoa, whoa, whoa. And when he said on the sixth day, he created man. And when he says in Revelation 13, that the number of the man shall be six, six, six. It's full depravity of man manifested as God, sitting as God in the temple of God, showing himself. You know what? I'm going to do what I want. I'm going to be boss here. I'm going to be God here. And John says in first John in chapter 218, it says, even now the antichrist or the spirit of antichrist is coming. Even now many antichrists have come who sits as God, who takes his seat. He sets himself up and he makes great boasts. This false prophet who looks like a lamb, but he speaks like a dragon. And out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. I can sit with a guy for half an hour or 10 minutes or two minutes, and I can find out who his God is. Not what church he goes to, not who he says his God is, who his God is by what's coming out of his mouth. Oh, have you seen my hot rod? Have you seen the tires I got in? Have you seen the upholstery I put in? Have you seen the chrome that I got on it? That's his God. They set up idols in their hearts. We have to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And we need to say, Lord Jesus, show me the motives and intents of my heart. Are you Lord? Or if I just call you Lord, we need to make him Lord, to love the Lord with all our heart. If we love the Lord with all our heart, then out of the abundance of the heart, there's going to be a song there, there's going to be the joy of the Lord there, there's going to be love there, there's going to be peace there. Jesus is there. He used the example of marriage, verse 2, Romans 7, 2, for the woman who has a husband is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, using a natural example to speak of spiritual truths. A natural example. A woman is bound by law to her husband as long as her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, there can only be a change of the covenant of marriage, and there can only be a change between the law and grace if someone dies. And what does he say in Ephesians 2? You were dead in your trespasses and sins, but he made us alive together with Christ. That's when you died and your life now becomes hidden with Christ and God. From 1 John 3. But if the husband dies, she's released from that law of her husband. Let me say this. Who is that first husband? That's the flesh. That's the old man. That's the sin nature. That's the one that we were born with from Adam. We're all born in Adam. But now we are to bear the image of the second Adam, Jesus Christ. So that if while her husband lives, let's call him the flesh. Let's call him Antichrist in the temple. Let's call him what he is. The one who wants to be God. And if while the husband lives, this woman who's supposed to be the bride of Christ, marries another man, she will be called an adulteress. She'll be called a harlot. But who did she marry? Did she marry a harlot? No. Who did she marry? But if the husband dies, she's free to be free from that law. So she's no adulteress, though she's married another man. Who is this another man? Verse 4. Therefore, my brethren, you have become dead to the law. He's talking about a covenant of marriage. He's referring to the law and grace being born again, not of corruptible seed under the law, but incorruptible seed through Jesus Christ, through the living word of God. Therefore, my brethren, speaking to brethren, you've become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to him, the second man, Jesus Christ, the one who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, there he tells you who the old man was, that first husband. It's the flesh. When we were in the flesh, we were bearing fruit unto death. It says in Romans 6, we were practicing sin. We were slaves of sin. But now the law was telling us you're a sinner, and we couldn't get free from it. And so we died to what we were held by, and we were joined with Christ. We're a new creation. Old things have passed away. All things have become new. And our aspiration is to be part of the bride of Jesus Christ. But if while the husband lives, in other words, while the flesh is alive, and then we join ourselves to Christ, you're going to be called a harlot. You'll be called an adulteress. What does it say in James 4.4? You adulterers and adulteresses, friendship with the world is hatred toward God. And he says in 1 John 2, in verse 13, 14, somewhere near, do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. The love of the Father is manifested through Jesus Christ in you, the hope of glory. If we love the world, how could Jesus be on the throne? We'd be called a harlot, a harlot that rides the beast, that looks like a lamb, that speaks like a dragon. It says this harlot, as my understanding, is one of those heads, the false prophet, and this one head which is raised up. And I don't have all understanding on these things, but one thing I know is this head, come on now, the body of Christ does not have many heads, has one head, and that head is Christ. That head is Christ. And this head, that's one of the seven heads on the beast, received a deadly wound, and it was wounded by the sword and lived. It was wounded by the sword and lived. And this head, we could take it in a spiritual sense, that they got conviction, there was some kind of remorse, there was some kind of word that cut them, and they were supposed to, the head was supposed to be cut off. The head was supposed to die, but what happened was, it healed itself. What a miracle! You can be a Christian, and you can live like the devil, and you can become like those mighty men of renown. Those mighty men of renown in Noah's day, and those mighty men of renown that rose up against Moses, and said, we hear from God too. Those men from Jude, who despise authority, and speak evil of dignitaries, and they're like brute beasts, who are marked out for this condemnation. Lord, let us not become like that. These are grumblers and complainers. Now we've got to start looking inward. They feast with you without fear. They come to your love feast. Where were these Antichrists John was talking about in 1 John 2.15? I think it's further than that one. Where are these Antichrists? He said, they were among us. They're in our churches. They're in our fellowship gatherings. They're in our Bible studies. But they were not of us, for had they been of us, they would have continued with us. Their progress would have become evident, because they would have been putting off the old man, and putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. They would be dying to what they were held by, and they would be embracing the Spirit of Christ. They'd be walking in the Spirit, and bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. They would be reckoning themselves dead to sin. They would allow the Word of God, not only to give them a mortal wound, but to kill the flesh. To reckon ourselves dead to sin, that we could confess, you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is our life, appears, we also shall appear with him. It says, because we shall see him as he is. And what does the scripture say? Everyone in 1 John 2.6 desires to come after Jesus, must also walk just as he walked. That is our mirror, Brother Dan. Jesus is our mirror. And so if we're married with Christ, what is the husband supposed to do? Lead his wife. And what is Jesus doing? He's leading us to follow him by the Spirit. He's given us his scriptures. He's given us his Word. Are we going to be part of the harlot church in these end times? Because if you're part of the harlot church, then you are going to miss the truth of what is really going on these days. Are you part of the true church of Jesus Christ? Will you hate sin? Will you say, Lord, search me, and try me, and see if there be any unclean way in me? Will you pray and sing, have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way? The flesh is crafty, wants to come out of that box, and wants to rule and reign in the body. And this is the battle we have. Satan is working. If we allow provision to obey the flesh and its lusts, but we're to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. If we follow Christ, we have nothing to fear. Fear God, you don't need to fear man. You know, I was reading in the writings of Menno Simons, I talked about him. And you know what he wrote in his writings? He quoted that scripture that Jesus quoted. And he said it this way, fear the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. If we have a healthy fear of God, we're going to be obedient to what he says. I know we're not supposed to be motivated by fear. But you know what? The fear of the Lord is to keep us from going back and following after the flesh. We need both. We need to know the love of God, which surpasses knowledge. We need to know the kindness of the Lord, which leads us to repentance. In other words, he should have killed me. He should have wiped me out because of my crimes that I've committed against him. But he had mercy and compassion on me. And because that, I fear him. A lot of things have been shared. I pray that the Holy Spirit would quicken your understanding to say, Lord, I don't want to be a compromiser. I don't want to be a lukewarmer. I don't want to be part of the harlot church that rides the beast. One that's just like the world, but Christian in name only. But 95% of my activities are ungodly. I'm fascinated with the people of the world. I'm just totally taken back by all that's in the world. I mean, I just, I just love the flesh. I just, I just love pride. And I just, I just make great boasts. Now, these are things that we've renounced. Since we've announced the hidden things of shame, we need to recognize them. And we need discernment to be able to discern between good and evil again, between what is right and what is wrong, what is bitter and what is sweet. May God help us to increase our discernment so that we can stand in this hour in which we live so that when he comes, he's going to find faith in the earth. In Jesus name. Amen.