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Visit AwakeAmerica.com today. Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for Leading the Way, where you will always hear him passionately proclaim uncompromising truth, standing firm on his commitment to God's Word, knowing that it speaks into all life issues that you will ever face. Join me now in listening to Dr. Michael Youssef as he encourages you toward actively exercising your spiritual gifts to reach the lost, to guide brothers and sisters toward a more mature walk of faith on today's Leading the Way. A friend of mine was a headmaster of one of those traditional Christian schools who had a tradition of hiring chaplains who are ordained in the mainline denomination. He told me this story.
In fact, I was sitting in his office and I'll never forget it till the day I die. He was pouring his heart out to me of how he had interviewed 23 candidates for an office of a chaplain, 23 candidates. Each of them is a seminary trained, each of them served in a church, each of them ordained.
In fact, he himself is seminary trained and ordained man. And he explained to me that he would ask every one of the 23 people that have come through, he would ask only two questions, very simple questions. Question number one, was the baby in the manger God of very God? Yes or no? Question number two, did Jesus get out of the grave on the third day and rose again? And he would ask him, please tell me yes or no? Not one of them would answer yes or no, not one.
They would try to draw him into a discussion. Well, really depends what you mean by God and don't we all have the touch of the divine in us and it all depends on what you mean rose from the dead, don't we all rise from the dead and that is why those to whom the gift of discernment is given must exercise it diligently, urgently to those whom the gift of discernment is given must be serious about it today more than any other time in our lifetime. To be sure we must exercise it lovingly and respectfully but we must exercise it forcefully nonetheless.
Probably more than any other time in our lifetime today. Why is discernment so important particularly in our time? Because the scripture particularly in the New Testament is constantly warning us against false teaching and false teachers but why?
Paul tells us why in second Corinthians chapter 11 verse 13. He gives us a clear answer because Satan disguises himself as an angel of light therefore his servants will disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. If Satan cannot stop people from believing he will send his deceivers to keep them from being growing believers in Jesus Christ. In fact the entire New Testament is a contrast Christ the Antichrist, true prophets false prophets, true apostles false apostles, wheat tears sheep, wolves in sheep's clothing, the Holy Spirit evil spirits, the holy angels and demons. And the most important question of our time is how can we discern especially those who are so good lookalike those who are so almost right but not right and you ask but where does discernment start? Listen carefully discernment begins by believing that the Word of God is God's self-revelation. Discernment begins by believing that we are in a state of warfare with lying spirits and Paul tells us in Ephesians that our war is not with flesh and blood is not with human beings but our war is with principalities and powers.
So what does that mean? Listen carefully here's what it means that we must understand that Satan does not oppose God directly that Satan does not come out and say I'm against God and I'm against his people he's not that much of a fool. Satan seldom openly fights believers in believing churches he joined those churches and then he takes it from the inside. Listen we've seen with our own eyes even in our short lifetime how his servants take over Christian schools and seminaries and whole Christian institutions and a whole denominations from within not from outside. He does not stand outside these Christian institutions with horns and a pitchfork and a megaphone and say I am fighting you people. No no his servants become ordained in the churches his servant become headmasters of Christian schools his servants become leaders in churches his servants speak smooth and soothing words from puppets and the non-discerning people walk outside of these churches and say wasn't reverend smell fungus sermon sweet?
It's so sweet that makes you sick. Listen to what John said in 1st John 4 one. Beloved believe not every spirit but test all spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world and like all the gifts of the Holy Spirit those of you have been following the series we have seen that there is general application of each one of those gifts for every believer and then there are some people in the body who are given an extra measure of a certain gift and discernment is one of those. Discernment is a quality that all believers must cultivate but again the Word of God tells us that the Holy Spirit comes in and he gives some in the body an extra measure of that gift. See the person with the gift of discernment is able to quickly and speedily distinguish between truth and error. Even if the error is dressed up and covered up and all the veneer of truth around it those with the gifts of discernment unable to immediately unmask Satan and his trickery. Those who have the gift of discernment are able to spot a phony teacher before others see that phoniness but also that person with the gift of discernment does not operate on the basis of emotions, sentimentality or love for symbols. Every time I made a decision based on emotions I blew it but every time I made a decision based on the principle of the Word of God, God blessed it.
I'm testifying to you. The person who has the gift of discernment is able to hear a sermon and immediately detect a subtle error. That person is able to read a book and right away can see the deficiency of the truth in that book. But the question is how do you exercise the gift of discernment? By comparing what the teacher preacher says with the Word of God.
By comparing a book that you just read with the scripture. If it is contrary to the Word of God, if it is inconsistent with the Word of God, it's false. It is not good in parts. It's false. Toss it out because good in parts leads to compromise. And one of the things that I've learned after many years of making mistakes is that many false brethren and sisters practice what the Bible calls the sin of flattery.
Did you get that? Flattery is a sin. Don't practice it don't fall for others who practice it toward you. There's a great deal of difference when a genuine brother or sister in Christ give you a word of encouragement. In my experience those who came and flattered me like you wouldn't believe are the very people who took offense immediately I preached something that they didn't like. When they found that I'm unbending when it comes to the truth of the Word of God, they took off. I think of an incident in the scripture that you cannot help but think about discernment when every time I read it in the scripture and it's in Acts 16. If you have your Bible you can turn to it because Satan was doing exactly that.
Using somebody with the sin of flattery when it came to the Apostle Paul. Here it is. Paul and his team were heading for a prayer meeting.
Did you get that? Prayer meeting. Now I promise you the one thing the devil does not want you to go to is a prayer meeting because he knows the power of God that works in corporate prayer and so they were on their way to a prayer meeting. There was a slave girl who followed the disciples Paul and the others and here's what she said. Listen carefully to what she said. These men are born servants of the most high God who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.
I mean what's wrong with that? He said man this is amazing. This is wonderful. She's telling the truth. Testifying. I mean listen if you get the devil on the platform and testify to the evangelist I mean man who turned that down? The marketing department and Paul Evangelistic Association probably have thought man we need this girl. We need to take her everywhere we go. The devil is testifying to her.
I mean he can't get better than that. Man this kind of praise and publicity and endorsement is amazing. Put on the platform. I mean she's saying these are the men of God. They are proclaiming the way of God to you but beloved let me tell you something. Here's something about the devil.
Give him enough time he overtips his hand. Here he does because this demon-possessed woman kept on saying these are the men of God. They're preaching the truth to you. They're preaching salvation and she kept on saying this over and over and over to the point where she's interrupting the meeting. Question. Was she saying the truth?
Yes. But she kept on saying it for the purpose of disrupting the meeting and hindering people from hearing the word of God. That's what she was doing. There is one thing you must know about Satan.
He always takes a grain of truth and he wraps it up in a big taco of falsehood and serves it on a silver platter. And Paul's discerning spirit rose up within him. Paul's discerning spirit saw this person's flattery was designed to hinder the preaching of the word of God. Paul's discerning spirit saw that she was being used by Satan. His discerning spirit recognized the source of that flattery and he turned around to the evil spirit within her and he said, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ come out of her.
And the evil spirit left her. The writer to the Hebrews urges us. In fact, he commands us to grow up into discernment and you cannot grow up into discernment without spending time with the word of God. And Hebrews 5, 12, 13 and 14, it commands us not to stay drinking milk that we need to grow up and start eating solid food. We're watching how our precious grandchildren go from milk to a little bit of solids and gone to sitting at the table and eating normal food. Imagine a five year old still drinking milk only will not be nourished. And it's the same thing spiritually. And when people sitting there drinking milk, drinking milk, drinking milk, they will never be able to distinguish between truth and falsehood.
Listen to me, beloved. Those who make counterfeit money, they're very clever people. Just like the counterfeit preachers and teachers. They're very clever. You never find them going out and using yellow construction paper and they sort of cut the paper into triangles and have the lone ranger stamped in the middle of it. And then the number three on the corners.
No, no, no, no, no, no. That deceives no one. That misleads no one.
That tricks no one. Deception comes in a very convincing fashion. Deception wears the garb of authenticity. Deception dresses up in a church clothes. Deception is supported by church credentials.
Whether these credentials are of intelligence or popularity or acceptability or church leadership. Oh, that is why the Lord Jesus himself in Revelation 2, 2 speaks to the church of Ephesus and he commends them for their discernment. In Acts 17, 11, the Bible commends the Bereans for spending time and comparing what they have been hearing with the word of God. And the apostle Paul himself to the Galatians, he said, if we or anybody else ever preached to you another gospel, let them be cursed. Second John 10 said that if they come to your house bringing false doctrine, shut the door on their faces. That's not very tolerant, is it?
Oh gosh, that goes against the gospel of tolerance of our culture, doesn't it? So the next question is how do we discern? Two ways. Two ways by which we discern. Either their teaching is false or their lives are in shambles.
Two ways. And discernment must operate on those two levels. You see, in Acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira, they were adherent to the teaching of the apostles. They did not disagree with them doctrinally, but their life was a mess. Their motives were impure. They wanted instant and synthetic sainthood.
They wanted notoriety and praise at a bargain price. We talk about integrity and people talk about integrity. What is integrity? Integrity is this, he's what you believe, he's how you live, and they have to be integrated.
If they're out of whack, something's wrong. Something drastically wrong and repentance must take place. Listen to 1 John 4, 2, and 3. This is how you recognize the Spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.
This is the spirit of the antichrist which you have heard is coming and now he's already in the world. What is John saying? He is saying that it doesn't matter how many times a person say, yeah, Jesus is my savior. If he does not believe that he's the only savior of the world, then he's not really a believer in Jesus the Christ.
And some other Jesus, not Jesus the Christ. And that is why Paul warns Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, 1, he said, in the latter days, some shall abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. See, he's what most Christians are not getting. James said the devil believes. Actually, it's more than that, because a lot of people in the churches believe. He's more than a lot of churchgoers.
You know why? Because he trembles. He trembles. I mean, he's not only a believer, but he's in awe of God. A lot of Christians lost their awe for God, not the devil.
He believes and he trembles. Not long ago, I read a story about the chef in Miami, Florida who really wanted to put her talent to the test. So she hosted a party in her house and she served dog food. Yeah, you heard me right, dog food.
Oh, but listen, listen. She served that food on a delicate little cracker with a wedge of imported cheese, bacon chips, and an olive, and a sliver of pimento on top. And she served it all on a beautiful silver platter.
She called it hors d'oeuvres a la Alpo. I mean, her guests couldn't get enough of the stuff. And she proved her point.
She proved her point. Counterfeiters serve their falsehood in a very attractive manner. They really do. Oh, they are so relevant to the culture. I mean, they want to meet people where they are. They want to meet people's needs. They appear to be very sympathetic and they decorate their falsehood with sweet deception, persuasion, and they give an impressive appearance.
And listen, listen. They camouflage their false teaching with logical sounding phrases and they are all so positive. None of this negative stuff about sin and repentance and that's too negative. That turns people off. And God forbid if they ever mention the word here. No siree. We're giving people heaven and millions of people lap the stuff up.
Hors d'oeuvres a la Alpo. I want to tell you this as I conclude. This true story. It happened on the morning, Monday morning, April 25, 1907. The residents of London were going to work in the morning and they saw their beautiful city temple desecrated with graffiti on it. They were horrified. I mean, they were really shocked to see the house of God being desecrated like this and, and the graffiti on that city temple spelled this word. ICH in big letter capital letters.
ICHABOD. The evening newspapers had front page pictures of that graffiti on that beautiful building. So the police went out in search who did such a horrible thing and a house painter gave himself up. He said, I am the one who did this.
And the judge asked him, he said, young man, why, why did you do such a desecration? And the man said, well, Dr. Parker told me so. He told me to do it. Dr. Joseph Parker was the founder of city temple. Great Bible preacher, but he has been dead for a few years. He said, how could he tell you to do this when he's been dead for a while?
The simple painter, house painter began to explain in a very simple words. He said, your honor, I became a Christian under the ministry of Dr. Joseph Parker and I came to church on a regular basis. I heard him preach again and again. And during the days he preached, Dr. Joseph Parker said the following and it's repeated more than once in his sermons. He said, if ever false gospel of liberalism was preached in this place, Ichabod, which is a Hebrew word for the glory has departed ought to be written on the top of the building. You see your honor, I did just what Dr. Parker has asked me to do. Painter perhaps was a little rash in his action, but he was right in his discernment. Afterward, many people came to the court to testify to the fact that Dr. Parker had indeed said these words many times from his pulpit and how his successor is belittling the gospel and Bible believing as childish.
And there's something ought to be put away. This man who succeeded Joseph Parker described the forgiveness of sin through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross as a slaughterhouse religion. Beloved, just because a group has a building called the church does not mean that they're preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
To distinguish between the spurious and from the genuine, we need discernment. Thank you for joining listeners worldwide for Leading the Way with pastor and international Bible teacher, Dr. Michael Youssef. Want to hear more content from Dr. Youssef? Well, you can stream online at ltw.org. You can listen and watch through the Leading the Way app.
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That website again to connect to get more details is ltw.org. Well, you know that you are blessed to live in a part of the world where following Christ is accepted. But we have to remember that many of the Leading the Way teams who work and minister in places around the world are in places where people experience hardship simply for being a Christian. For example, Sabre recently contacted Leading the Way after hearing one of Dr. Youssef's messages in Algeria. The team shared Christ with him and he immediately responded to accept Jesus. He was so excited about what he learned that he went home and he began telling his family.
But because of being vocal for his new faith and for abandoning Islam, his family threatened to throw him out of the home. The Leading the Way team is communicating with Sabre. They're helping him grow in his new faith.
They're teaching him ways to share the truth with his family and his community. Friends, if you haven't already, please consider standing with Dr. Youssef in prayer and with your generous gifts. Right now, through the Open Door campaign, Sabre is expanding in several key areas, including reaching the unreached and the unengaged in the West, taking the message of Jesus to Muslims worldwide, and bringing the Gospel to remote villages. Your gift makes it possible for our teams to reach people like Sabre and many others.
So get the details when you call us at 866-626-4356. Or visit ltw.org to experience stories of lives changed. Be part of touching many more through the Open Door campaign at ltw.org. Well that's it for today. Please do join Dr. Michael Youssef for more Leading the Way. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.
