Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Good morning, Ville Church.
[00:00:07] Good morning. My name is Michael Fueling. If I have not had the joy to meet you, the senior lead pastor here and senior pastor, they both work. I would truly, though, love to meet you after the service. If I've never met you before, please come up afterwards. I hang out here for a few minutes, and if there's somebody talking to me, just push them out of the way and then you and I can have a conversation. All right, so on the front end of this message, I want to clear up what is actually pretty common confusion for Christians as they read the Bible. And the confusion is between two different words, the words apostle and the word disciple. Okay, so first, like, what is a disciple? In its most literal sense, a disciple is a follower or an apprentice. So in the Bible, in the New Testament, it can refer to kind of one of three things. First, it can refer to this fickle crowd that follows Jesus for a while. They're maybe loyal to him for a bit, and then maybe he says something too difficult or he demands too much of them, and then they go on their merry way and they stop following Jesus. The same Greek word is also used to describe people who give their lives to Jesus. They are followers. They're apprentices of Jesus. They learn how he thinks, how he acts. They want to be like him. They worship him as God. They believe in him. And then there's a third way it's used, which is to refer to a group of people called the 12 disciples. And these are going to be very simply men who are following Jesus everywhere he goes. It's an official, actual relationship between Jesus, the Rabbi and the disciples. And they are literally imitating every aspect of his life so that they can go have disciples of their own one day. Here's an interesting fact about the word disciple.
[00:01:49] When you get out of the Gospels, in Acts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts, the word in Hebrew and Greek never shows up again in the entire New Testament. Like, it goes away. It doesn't go away because it's unimportant. It goes away because the vast majority people that the New Testament is written to are not Jewish. And the word disciple is kind of like inherently Jewish term. So it's replaced with saints and brothers and believers in the church. There are all these different Greek terms used, but that term kind of gets retired, if you will, in the Book of Acts. And then the. The non Jewish churches use some different words. So here's a good summary. All apostles are disciples, but not all disciples are apostles. And so let's talk about Apostles. What is an actual apostle? Literally, it means one who is sent out. It comes from a Greek word, apostolos.
[00:02:39] Average people, you and me can be small a apostles. If somebody sends you out with a message or a purpose, you'd be considered what the Bible would call an apostle. But Jesus took this word and what he did is he made an actual official position in the church out of it. It's called an office. And whenever we refer to the office of apostle, we call as a capital A apostle. It's an official position. Now we don't have capital A apostles any longer because it is impossible for somebody to meet the actual prerequisites that it would take to become an apostle. But if you lived in the first century, if you were in the Corinthian Church or any first century church, how would I, how would you be able to discern if somebody is actually a true apostle? Like, anybody can claim anything, but like, how do I know? If you come to me and you say, oh, I'm an apostle, capital A apostle, part of the apostle, official position of the church, I'm a representative of Jesus here to exercise authority in this church. How do you actually know if somebody is an actual capital A apostles? And there, there are six ways that true apostles are discerned. Number one, they had a personal calling by Jesus himself, not like a generic calling, but Jesus would actually show up to them and have a calling and he would tell them, you are going to be an apostle. Number two, they were witnesses of the resurrected Jesus. And this is why we don't have. One of the reasons we don't have modern capital A apostles today, because Jesus has ascended to heaven and he sits at the right hand of God the Father. Number three, they preach a pure gospel. If somebody comes to you and says, I am an apostle. Oh, let's just pull back. If somebody comes to you and says, I'm a Christian and they don't preach to you a pure gospel, are they actually a Christian? The answer is, well, no. You have to actually believe in the actual gospel. Number four, there was public confirmation and affirmation by the other apostles. So when the Apostle Paul was approached by Jesus, he didn't just go into ministry right away, he went into training and there was actually confirmation by the other apostles. Yes, Paul is a real apostle. Number five, they had the ability, this is so awesome, to do signs, wonders and miracles. And so one of the things the Apostle Paul tells the Corinthian church, he's like, well, how do you know if I'm A real apostle, or these people are fake apostles, tell them to do a sign, wonder, or miracle, because if they're a real apostle, they actually have the supernatural ability by God to do these things as a validator of their true apostleship. And then number six, least glorious of all of them, is that apostles suffer for Jesus. And so, like, you may want the authority of an apostle, but here's the deal. If you are like, I, I think I'd be a really good apostle. Here's what it came with. It came with a job description of immense suffering and then your inevitable martyrdom. Okay, so here we go. Anybody excited about that? And so it's like, this isn't just like a, yay, I get to be an apostle. It's like, no, if you are going to be a representative of Jesus in the capital, a office of apostle, it means you are going to suffer. So all church offices in Scripture are sacred. You have elders, you have deacons, but especially uniquely the capital A apostles. And because the office of apostle is sacred and because they were the final authority in local churches, it was often impersonated by people who had ulterior motives. So don't get me wrong, the devil hates all Christians, but the devil really, really hated the apostles. And I want to try to give you maybe an understanding of why the devil hated the capital, a office of apostles so much. So if you go back in time into the first century, at the very beginning of the church, while the church was being established, while the Scriptures are being written, people are coming to faith in Jesus in droves. And it was primarily at the hands of the preaching of the apostles.
[00:06:49] So if you go back to the first century, and this is kind of a weird whatever, but imagine you're the devil for a moment, okay?
[00:06:56] And there was a shocking and unexpected turn of events in the first century for the devil. So imagine you're orchestrating the death of Jesus, the murder of Jesus, and then it happens, and you think maybe, possibly you've won. And then there is a series of very unexpected things that happen. We're starting with number one. He rose from the dead. He didn't see that one coming. Nobody saw that one coming. Okay, number two, the entire Old Covenant, all the 613 laws are retired. And then there's a new covenant that gets inaugurated. He's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're alive. The Old Covenant's gone. Now there's an entire set of new laws called the New Covenant. And not, not only this, but every single person who believes in the apostles. Gospel is Filled with the very presence of God. The moment they trust in Christ, they are filled with the Holy Spirit. And so, like, the devil's just coming to grips with all of this, right? As are like, everybody else in the first century. And all of a sudden, everything has changed. All the rules have changed, and every single person who believes in the gospel is filled with the Holy Spirit. So before Jesus, death and resurrection, average people could be easily misled and duped because they didn't have the presence of the Holy Spirit inside of them. But after they believed and they were filled with God's presence, they were uniquely protected. And there were, like, all these rules around them. Like, he could no longer do the things that he used to be able to do to people. Before the death and resurrection of Jesus, there was only a small handful of people throughout history who had the presence of the Holy Spirit indwelling in them. And they were uniquely. And now he's like, every single person who believes in Jesus are all protected. They're all filled with the Holy Spirit. And so he's got to, like, learn a whole new game here. So what do you do when the enemy changes the rules of the game? You get strategic. So Satan and the demonic. You see this in scripture. They send imposters into every local church, into every city, everywhere around the world. Imposters acting like apostles, imposters acting like elders, imposters acting like deacons, impostors acting like just regular Christians. Fakers who infiltrate to destroy, extort, or exploit, sometimes all of the above.
[00:09:26] So the job of the real apostles, of the real elders, of the real deacons, of the real church members is to be so faithful and so diligent so that when the imposters show up, like, they're like, there's not much I can really do here.
[00:09:44] Okay, so if I was the demonic spirit tasked with taking out village church or any other local church, how do I know who to send in?
[00:09:57] Like, how do I know who the real Christians are and who the fake Christians are? So let me just kind of expand your horizon here a little bit. Flesh sees flesh. I'm a physical matter. I can see you. Spirit sees spirit and appears flesh as well. And so angelic spirits and demonic spirits can see the Holy Spirit and they know who is filled with the Holy Spirit and who is not because they have access to that realm. And so what we find is that they look for people, usually often who are in churches. We would call these fake Christians. Sometimes they say they're a Christian, but they're really not. Sometimes they're in church and they say they're not a Christian and they're not. And they're pretty honest about who they are.
[00:10:46] But they know who to look for because they know who the people are who are fake Christians and they know who the people are who are real Christians. And so what happens is sometimes it's not everybody. The vast majority of fake Christians never get kind of wielded by demonic influence. But every once in a while, sometimes somebody can be manipulated. And here's the irony. They have no idea that they're being manipulated by darker forces.
[00:11:12] Listen to the Apostle Paul. He warns the Ephesian elders. In Acts 20, verse 29, he says this. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, and they're not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves, from their own elders will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. This is very much like identity theft. It's one person, it's an imposter with an ulterior motive dressed up as somebody else. And here's the deal. Like the vast majority of you in this room, right, have been a victim to some degree of identity theft. And you probably don't even know the degree to which your identity is being used around the globe right now. It's a scary thought, isn't it?
[00:11:55] And here's the reality. You will rarely if ever meet someone who is, who steals identities. You probably have once or twice in your entire life, right? Like they're a very small group of people, but they do an incredible amount of damage and they create a ton of chaos. And so while the vast majority of people who are fake Christians, they're in every church all over the world, they always happen. That's just kind of the nature of the game, right?
[00:12:19] The vast majority will never become imposters. But when there is an imposter, we have to have eyes that are open to see that. And that's really what is happening in the book of Second Corinthians. So open up to Second Corinthians chapter six. And this is going to be the chapter we're in for the rest of the time. We're going to go through verse 10 and it is a striking chapter. Here's what's happening. We're going to pick up where we left off last week. Paul has written this letter in defense of his ministry against a group of fake imposter self proclaimed apostles, fake Christians who are trying to take over the church and discredit Paul so that they can Take the church's money. Okay, so Paul, because he's a good pastor, is going to warn the church about these shysters and he also is going to do something else. He's not just going to warn them. He's going to take every opportunity to give these fake super apostles is what they called themselves, the opportunity to trust in Jesus and experience not a fake conversion, but a real conversion, a transformation of the heart. And so to the fake Christians, he says, actually in chapter five, verse 20, he says, we implore you be reconciled to God. And then we go to chapter six, verse one. Paul says, working with him. I'm just going to pause here for a moment. I don't want to move too quickly. Who is him? Who is Paul working with?
[00:13:45] It's church, guys. The answer is always one of two things. The Bible or Jesus. There we go.
[00:13:51] This is bold. Listen, like fake imposter, super apostle Christian seeking to exploit and destroy the precious church that Jesus dearly loves. The real Jesus and I, we're a team working together.
[00:14:03] And despite what you have done to this precious Corinthian church, he is offering you grace right now.
[00:14:13] He is giving you, who have done so much damage to extort and exploit people for money. He's giving you the opportunity of a lifetime, a pardon for all offenses done to him and to his precious people.
[00:14:28] He is offering you a real invitation, not just to be a wolf in sheep's clothing, but to become a real follower of Jesus, a real Christian. And not just that. He's giving you the opportunity. Go back to chapter five for reconciliation, not just with himself, but with the people you have hurt.
[00:14:49] Grace. So he goes down to verse one. He says, working together with him, that's Jesus and I. Then we, Jesus and I, appeal to you not to receive the grace of God, this free gift of pardon in vain.
[00:15:06] Paul is a blunt dude and he just tells the super apostles the truth. Your faith, quote, unquote, it's vain. It's useless. It's a cover story because you only, quote, unquote, believed in Jesus so that you could get more. More power, more money, more influence.
[00:15:32] So listen, like, if the primary reason you believe in Jesus was to get more worldly stuff, let me incarnate Paul's bluntness for a moment. If that is the only reason you came to Christ, you are a fake Christian.
[00:15:48] And for some of you, that might be a new thought. I don't say that to be mean or to be judgmental. I say that so that you can learn that lesson. Now, while there's still time to come to Jesus rather than on the day of judgment when Jesus might look at you and say, get away from me, you evildoer. I never, I never knew you.
[00:16:09] The most effective way to expose fake Christians, by the way, three things. Number one, you give them a little bit of time. Number two, they don't get what they want. And number three, you subject them to a bit of difficulty. These three things converge in someone's life and inevitably you start to see people starting with doubt of God, which all true Christians have some doubt, that's normal. But then it just keeps going, it gets worse, and ultimately there's a turning against God and then there is a hatred of God. Fake Christians can rarely endure time not getting what they want and hardship.
[00:16:40] Let's go back to verse two. He's still preaching Paul as the gospel to these fake impostor super apostles. And then he says in verse 2, for he Jesus says, in a favorable time, I listened to you and in a day of salvation, I have helped you. End quote. And now Paul starts talking. He says, behold to the fake super apostle Christians. He says, behold, now, right now, not tomorrow, not when you go get lunch today. Now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Like you might hear me say this all the time. I stole this from Paul, who stole it from Jesus. Today is the absolute greatest day to give your life to Jesus and Jesus is looking at you and saying, today my hand is extended. I want to help you, I want to forgive you, I want to reconcile with you. I want to give you my holy Spirit. I want to adopt you as my son or daughter. And I love that. Paul's like, listen, Jesus and I are partners in this. I am his ambassador. I am here to tell you on behalf of him, his hand is extended and he wants relationship with you.
[00:17:45] I am not talking about people who struggle when hardship comes. If you are a true believer, will you struggle when hardship comes? The answer is yeah. Will you sometimes go, why God? What are you up to? For sure. Will you even have a season where you're just frustrated with God? Yes, but the Holy Spirit over time overcomes, helps you overcome and kind of lands you on solid ground. I'm talking about those who maybe hate God because your life got difficult and he took something away from you that you really loved and you're done with him because he didn't give you what you wanted. I'm talking to maybe somebody who has rejected the gospel and you know that like you're here and you may even on the surface tell people you're a Christian, but, like, you have rejected either the whole gospel or an essential part of it.
[00:18:38] Maybe just get a little more personal. Maybe the only reason you call yourself a Christian and you know this is because you're trying to get the boy, the girl, et cetera, the job.
[00:18:49] Maybe the only reason you call yourself a Christian and you're here is to convince the person that you're engaged to that you're a Christian so you can get married because you really love them and want them and know this is the only way they're going to marry. That, by the way, happens more frequently than we like to admit.
[00:19:02] Paul is calling out the fake Christians. He's calling out the super apostles. And he's not just being a jerk. He's looking at them and saying, God loves you. Salvation is extended to you. Jesus has died for you, and you don't have to play the game any longer. You actually can leave, whether you're being an imposter and you're a nefarious or whether you're just a fake Christian, because there's a difference.
[00:19:28] Whatever your circumstances, you actually can experience salvation. In verse three, he says to them, we talking about himself, the apostles, Jesus. We put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry. Like translation, Listen, if we stood between you and coming to Jesus, we couldn't live with ourselves.
[00:19:54] So we will not put any obstacles between you who are kind of realizing you're a fake Christian and trusting in Jesus.
[00:20:04] If you repent of your sins, these people will accept you and forgive you.
[00:20:11] If you repent of your sins, Jesus will accept you and forgive you. And imagine the Apostle Paul. Remember, they're like trying to ruin his life and kill him, right? Or at least support the people who are. And so Paul himself can look at them and say, if you repent and come to Christ, I will forgive you. And there's an offer for vertical reconciliation and horizontal reconciliation. I mean, imagine like a group of people that you did this to your fake Christian, trying to extort them for money. You come into the church trying to get rich off of them, and they look at you and say, we see you for who you are, and we're offering you the opportunity to become a part of us. I mean, this is a beautiful picture of truth and grace all sitting in this chapter, chapters of First Corinthians 5 and 6.
[00:20:59] So the next section of verses, verses 4 to 9, Paul's doing two things simultaneously.
[00:21:07] One, he is still preaching the gospel and inviting the fake Christians and the imposter Christians to believe in Jesus.
[00:21:15] He is also trying to help the true Christians who are doubting and trying to figure out who do we trust? Do we trust the super apostles or do we trust the original apostles? Which ones are really from God? And so in these next verses, like, kind of both things are happening here. And he's kind of answering a question here. And the question I'm pulling from this is, so, like, what are the indicators of a genuine ministry? Because the super apostles have a ministry and the OG apostles have a ministry. And so how do you know, like, which one of these ministries is genuine? And three things. Number one is endurance that reveals supernatural power. So in verse four, Paul says, but as servants of God, in other words, we're the real ones.
[00:22:03] We commit ourselves in every way. So what is our commendation? Like, what do we do that validates that we're really from God? And he says this by great endurance in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger.
[00:22:20] Leaders who are motivated by power or money or status, they give up when things are a little bit too difficult. But, like, they've been saying this from the beginning. One of the ways that you know a real apostle is whether or not they suffer, because this was a part of the job description. And so when you look at somebody and you're like, wait a minute, they're not suffering. And they're like, we're real apostles because we don't suffer. And he's like, that's the whole point. Real apostles suffer. There's things real apostles have to go through that they signed up for when they became apostles. And he's basically saying this. It's not just that we're suffering, it's that we're suffering and we are enduring. There are three kinds of endurance. Quick endurance. People motivated by superficial things usually give up when things are difficult. You know this, you try to learn an instrument, you try to learn a new hobby. Ah, I'm not really motivated.
[00:23:05] Medium endurance. People motivated by greed or anger, they can last a whole lot longer than those motivated by superficial things.
[00:23:14] But people who are motivated by greed or anger, they become so corrupted by these things that they break.
[00:23:22] They end up giving up out of total brokenness. Now, long endurance, These are the people motivated by love, and they are empowered supernaturally.
[00:23:33] And Paul's like, listen, we're enduring great affliction, which is shocking. It's a sign we're enduring it. The only people who can go through this and keep going to the level that these men have suffered are people who are supernaturally empowered by God and motivated by true love. If they were motivated by greed or they were motivated by anger or some other nefarious emotion, they would have given up. Because look at this list again. I mean, this is a shocking list. Afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger. The super Apostles, they never had to go through any of this, because if they did, guess what they'd be doing? They'd be going away because it's not worth the juice, ain't worth the squeeze for them.
[00:24:22] Let's be clear. Did Paul probably want to give up at a whole bunch of different points in his ministry? I'm guessing he did.
[00:24:30] Everybody wants to give up in anything they do. That's worth it.
[00:24:34] But what happens with Paul, he looks and he says, the fact that I am still going, given what I've gone through, is supernatural empowerment. It is literal proof that there is something divine motivating this ministry, not something superficial.
[00:24:52] Verse 8, he says, through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, he says this. We the real apostles, he says, we're treated as imposters, and yet we're the true ones. I mean, Paul is seriously annoyed. And can you, by the way, be seriously annoyed at somebody and be motivated by love? Yeah. Talk to every single mother and father who's ever existed. You can.
[00:25:19] Paul and the Corinthians, we said this last week. I just need you to get this. They had a wonderful relationship until the super apostles walked in the door, and then it's four letters later and tons of conflict, and nobody knows who they can trust.
[00:25:35] And he's like, how did these obvious impostors, they can't do miracles. They're not suffering. They weren't personally called by Jesus. They weren't affirmed by the other apostles. How are these super apostles, fake apostles, tricking you? Like, how did you get here? And the answer is simple. Some of the people who went to the Corinthian Church weren't real Christians, and they were easily duped. Most of them were spiritually young and immature and had never had to deal with this before. And so this is kind of their first foray into impostors coming into the church. Verse nine, Paul goes on. He says, we are unknown and yet we're well known. You're treating us like you don't even know us, like you've known us. We've been with you the whole time, for years. We've been with you. And he says, but you're acting like you don't know us. We're dying. And yet, behold, we live punished and yet not killed. And despite all this, he says in verse 10, sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, yet possessing everything. And the only people who can endure the hardships that they went through and come out more godly and holy on the other end are people who are supernaturally empowered by the Holy Spirit. And we just kind of pull back. And this is, I think, an encouragement for everyone.
[00:26:50] Those who go through hardship and become more like Jesus can have great confidence in their genuine faith.
[00:26:58] Those who go through hardship and become more like Jesus can have great confidence in their genuine faith. Now, I have to give a caveat, because there's going to be somebody who's experienced this. You can also go through hardship and have great difficulty. That does happen.
[00:27:14] But the more you go through hardship, the easier hardship gets. And you start to realize the more you go through it, you're actually becoming more and more like Jesus. And if you go through immense hardship and even come out just a bit more like Christ, that is great encouragement for your soul.
[00:27:33] This brings us to the second indicator of genuine ministry. It's not just the empowerment, the ability to endure, but it's the fruit of the Holy Spirit and difficulty. He says in verse six, by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love.
[00:27:52] We said this earlier, but if greed and anger motivate you, they will corrupt you and leave you broken.
[00:28:00] But if love motivates you, it will transform you.
[00:28:05] And when God sees someone motivated by love, because apparently God loves love, and God is love. When he sees somebody motivated by love, he is pumped to jump in and help and accelerate that transformation inside of you. Because he loves when his people are motivated by pure, genuine love. As it says in verse six, it is rare to find a person who sincerely loves their persecutors, who sincerely love. I mean, just imagine Paul's love for his enemies is still on even as they are trying to divide his church. And this is fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is easy to love your family most of the time. And it's easy to love your friends. Usually it is not easy to love your enemies. And this kind of genuine love for your enemies is a beautiful sign of the Holy Spirit. And Paul's like, listen, not only am I enduring, not only am I enduring the hardship that are, by the way, the signs of what impossible is to go through, but even as I go through it, if you want evidence of the Holy Spirit, my love is not turned off to these people, but my love is turned on. And that is the result, the work of the Holy spirit. Lastly, the third indicator of genuine ministry, consistent integrity.
[00:29:41] Verse 7. He says by truthful speech. Paul's like, listen, nobody's ever caught me in a lie. Like, I'm not saying one thing and doing another. And here's the worst of what the super apostles were able to say about Paul. Paul's not handsome. Paul's broke. Paul's sermons lacked gusto. Paul's life is hard. We think Paul's just a little bit crazy. Name call, name call, name call. You can call anybody a name, fine. But Paul's like, listen, I've told you the truth the whole time and no one's proven me otherwise. Verse 7. Paul describes the difference between himself and the super apostles. And this is a really interesting way of wording it. He says this with the weapons of righteousness, not just for the right hand, for the right hand and for the left. So here's the idea. I'm not doing one thing over here and a different thing over here. In fact, the ministry, Paul says, my ministry has integrity. And so I don't use godly weapons with one hand and then evil worldly weapons with the other hand. I don't preach scripture with one hand and then twist scripture with my other hand to make it fit my agenda. I don't pray with one hand and then curse with the other hand. I don't preach the gospel with one hand and then lie with the other hand. He's like, my left hand and my right hand. My private life and my public life, they're kind of all the same. And you've seen them all. And so here we go. Like, this is one of the ways that you can identify a legitimate, genuine ministry. And so this conflict between Paul and the super apostles, like, it got really dirty to the point where the pastor has to call the whole church into the room and say, I'm going to read you a letter from Paul knowing, probably having Pre read the letter, that he's going to call out a bunch of people as fake Christians and imposters inside the church. And like, like, this is. This is. This is not easy. And so they're fighting dirty, but this is what Paul does. Paul's like, I love you and no matter what you do, the grace of Jesus, I'm still going to keep my hand out to you because I'm not going to let anything get in the way. Of you and coming to true, sincere faith in Jesus. And if you needed more evidence of the genuineness of Paul's ministry than endurance, fruit of the Holy Spirit, genuine love, integrity, and this offer of grace and salvation to his enemies, I'm like, give me Paul any day. Over the people trying to extort and exploit the Corinthian church for money.
[00:31:55] I have two simple. So what's number one?
[00:31:58] Discerning imposters begins with intentional training. I want you to look at 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 3 to 5 with me.
[00:32:09] Paul says to the true Christians, now, I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led away from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Like, what does Paul want for them? He wants them to have a sincere and pure devotion to Jesus. He doesn't want them to be led astray, to be misled in any way. In verse four, Paul identifies three indicators that someone's an imposter. And so this is kind of his training. He says, number one, verse four. If someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, the first imposter indicator is that they take scripture and they remake Jesus in their own image. You see this probably like most visibly in culture. And by the time you get done listening to somebody in a cult talk about their Jesus, you're like, your Jesus and my Jesus, like, we're not worshiping the same Jesus. Or if you go to the woke or progressive Jesus, their Jesus is always nice, tolerates everything and everybody. There's no hell, there's no judgment, of course, except for anybody who disagrees with them. The deepest, darkest pits of hell are reserved for them. But other than that, it's just everyone's kind and everybody's. And you realize, I think you and me, like, we might be maybe even reading the same book and maybe using the same letters. J, E, S, U, S. Right? But like, you and me don't. I don't think we have the same Jesus. He gives the second imposter indicator. In verse four, he says, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received.
[00:33:43] This is most often seen when somebody probably articulates a pure gospel, but then they behave in unbiblical ways. And then here's what they'll say, I'm being led by the Holy Spirit.
[00:33:57] Imposter spirits sometimes aren't discerned by the words people say, but by the things that they do. And so you can have these people who say, no, I believe in a pure gospel. But then they advocate for explicitly sinful behavior. So many illustrations are going through my mind, but we don't have the time, so they'll do another time. He gives the third imposter indicator at the end of verse four, and he says, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. And so the easiest way to spot an imposter is if they are preaching a false gospel. And then in verse five, because the apostle Paul does not want to leave any confusion in the room, here's what he says about who the real imposters are in the Corinthian Church. He says, indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to who these super apostles. And so Paul's like, listen, they're the imposters.
[00:34:58] I'm part of this group of the real Christians with Jesus, the real apostles, fake Christians, come to Jesus.
[00:35:07] Everyone else. You need to be trained to discern imposters from the real deal.
[00:35:16] It's very simple. Five simple ways that we train for imposters. Number one, we repeatedly preach the gospel every week, over and over and over again. Why? Because it's the most attacked part of the enemy's game and scheme. Why? Because it is the power of God for salvation. If a church doesn't proclaim the gospel, people can't come to Christ because you come to Christ when you hear the gospel and you believe it. Number two, we train discernment by teaching all of God's word. We don't just cherry pick the different things we want to do.
[00:35:50] If it's a hard subject, we teach on. That's why we preach through books of the Bible. And we're like, you know, this is what came up this week in the book. So this is what we're teaching on, and we're going to do a different book later. So you kind of just teach through it and you're kind of forced to teach in all the different aspects of what the Scriptures talk about, about. But if there's a hard subject, we don't avo it, avoid it. Number three, we train discernment by calling out historical and current deceptions creeping into the church. We're not afraid to call out progressive Christianity, perversion, liberalism. That's why we do series on gender and different things and sexuality. And we call out these things because we're not afraid of them. We are more afraid of Jesus than we are them. And our job is to make sure that we train on the historical and the, the modern deceptions, because guess what? Most of the historical ones, they come in cycles, and so we teach on them and the modern ones. Number four, we train discernment by handling sinful behavior biblically with grace and truth, according to biblical protocols. And there are different protocols for different kinds of things in Scripture. And number five, we train discernment by practicing godliness and holiness. One of the most effective and efficient ways to become a high discernment, discerning person is to pursue living a life where you intentionally don't sin. And when you do sin, because we all struggle with it, you confess that sin so that you can pursue what the Scriptures call holiness or Christ likeness.
[00:37:15] A discerning church isn't a church that hasn't just been trained. A discerning church is one that is constantly being trained. And so we talk about all different things, but you hear that there's regularly an addressing of some of the big cultural things going on because the training cannot ever stop.
[00:37:36] So at number two, as Jesus ambassadors, we implore you to be reconciled to God.
[00:37:46] I want to take a minute and talk to those of you who already know, like, maybe something came up in this message in the series, like, you already know that you're not a real Christian.
[00:38:00] And hopefully you know by now my goal is not to offend you with that. My goal is to shine light for you so that you can make right with God now as opposed to dying and having to face judgment unreconciled to God. And so maybe you are here and you're like, I think I'm pretty sure. In fact, I know I'm a faith, a fake Christian.
[00:38:25] Jesus and Paul together implore you to be reconciled to God. There's like a desperation in that. And then they appeal to you. And I love this. He's like, no, this let me appeal to you. On the other side of repenting of your sins and trusting in Christ is total forgiveness. It is a pardon for all of your sin. It is being filled with the Holy Spirit. It's protection for the demonic realm. It is a certainty of your salvation. It's a reconciled relationship with God. It's access to God at all times. It's when you close your eyes for the last time, you know that, you know that, you know that you are going to be with God forever. It is a commitment for God to transform you from this day until the day of your death more and more into the image of Jesus. There is the appeal and the imploring is, and if you don't, you will go to hell. So I can implore you or I can appeal to you. Either way, it's all a win for every person who comes to faith in Jesus.
[00:39:20] And so the best thing I could tell you is be reconciled to God. I implore you and I appeal to you, believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on your behalf and you shall be saved. If that is a decision you want to make today, come tell one of us or come tell somebody you came with. Because we would love nothing more than to celebrate with you. If God gets to celebrate with you, the scriptures say the angels get to celebrate with you. We want to celebrate with you as well. Amen. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for again, your word and, yeah, just the clarity of the Apostle Paul. I know I probably say that every week. I'm just so appreciative of his clarity. I'm also appreciative of his love for his church and I'm also appreciative of his love for his enemies.
[00:40:04] God, I pray that you would continually give us endurance in our personal lives, that our love, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, would be turned on, not turned off, towards those in our life, no matter what the circumstances.
[00:40:20] And God, I pray, Lord, if there is anyone listening, if there's anybody who is a fake Christian, if they don't know, would you show it to them? God, if there are real Christians here who aren't sure, would you show that to them also? That they are a true, genuine Christian filled with the Holy Spirit? But God, we want nothing more than for each and every person to know you, to be reconciled to you, not by being good, but through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. We love you. We pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
