False Christs

Please turn your Bible to Luke chapter 21 Luke chapter 21

Preaching text today will be on verses 7 and 8 I'll read all 5 through 9 in preparation for the proclamation of the

Word of God. Please stand when you have that For the reading of the word and while some were speaking of the temple how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings

He said as for these things that you see the days will come When there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down and they asked him teacher

When will these things be and what will be the sign that these things are about to take place?

And he said see that you are not led astray For many will come in my name saying I am he and the time is at hand

Do not go after them and when you hear of wars and tumults do not be terrified for these things must take place

Must first take place, but the end will not be at once Amen You may be seated

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that Christ has called us friend we are not like the

Servant who does not know what his master is doing But Christ has told us what he is doing and he has given us some indications about what is to take place

We pray that we would be able to understand these truths these difficult truths Take them to heart.

We pray that for these upcoming weeks as we will go through this passage but we pray right now, especially for this passage here that we would understand how to Not be led astray in Jesus name

Amen Many people want to know about the end times this is something that stirs a lot of people up and makes them very excited and And their

Sensibilities are attracted to all kinds of different things that people would tell them about the end times

Now while on one hand it is good to have such desires desire Christ to return to know things about the end times

What that means is that we are also particularly prone to deception in this area we're prone to deception by those who claim to come in the name of Christ and give special revelation about such things and so Christ as he prepares his disciples and Answering their question about what is to take place?

Begins by telling them that they need to make sure that they are not deceived in this area He does not immediately go into an answer but prepares them that many will come trying to deceive them of this

So today we would do well to be prepared as well to be in Order that we as we go through the remainder of this chapter that we do so with the foundation that Christ's return would not be so immediate that we should listen to any kind of False teacher who comes along and claims to have special revelation about these things, but that we would guard ourselves

Against wolves who come in sheep's clothing Verse 7 says and they asked him teacher.

When will these things be and what would be the sign? When these things are about to take place First of all, you may note that is the disciples who asked these questions

Mark informs us in particular that it is James Andrew John and Peter who asked about these things

So it is for disciples in particular who are asking him this question When will these things take place these things in particular being the destruction of the temple?

Jesus has spoken of the destruction of the temple as they walk by it. Everyone is observing the magnificent stones

He says it will all be destroyed one day. They want to know when will this take place? In Matthew, it says when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming is?

Important to notice That the disciples in asking this question have a flattened idea of what is to take place they imagine the destruction of the temple is

One in one with Christ's return In fact, it was going to be helpful for us repeatedly to as we go through this whole chapter to compare

Luke to Matthew and Mark All three of these Gospels known as the synoptic

Gospels because they give different views of the same thing a lot of times people will be misguided because they look at each gospel in isolation not comparing them to see the full picture of What they should be observing and so in Matthew we see that the disciples

Ask about Christ's return along with asking about the destruction of the temple

So sometimes as Jesus is answering he's speaking particularly of the destruction of the temple sometimes as he's answering he speaks particularly of his return and Sometimes he makes statements that apply to both of them

And so it is important to at every point be able to distinguish what he is saying

It is not so simple. You can just say oh well in this part He says this and this part he says that Sometimes it goes back and forth a little and It requires some discernment.

And so we will as we go through this whole chapter be making note of that But this what he says here is something that can apply to both the destruction of the

Of the temple and both his return that neither of these things are things that happen

Immediately as he speaks to them, but are things that will take place after time with plenty of opportunities for deception in the meantime

Josephus who I mentioned last week who records of this era of history that era where the temple is destroyed in his book called the war called the

Jewish Wars in That book he records several

Messianic movements that existed at this time. And so Just as Jesus is prophesying.

There will be several deceivers who come and call the people away But of course as we await

Christ's second coming There are many false deceivers as well who come they say

I am he or the time is at hand Many will come in my name.

These are false teachers Those who claim to be sent by Christ either directly sent by him or sent by Implication as they read the word and believe themselves to be faithful with it and some of them may go so far as to say

I am he the Greek phrase used here simply Ego, Amy, which you may be familiar

Elsewhere Christ uses when he makes claims of deity. He says before Abraham was

I am Or when the When the Roman cohort comes to him in the garden

Cohort being a very large number of people Possibly as many as 800 people not many people imagine the scene that way as they've seen it depicted

But it is many disciple or many soldiers Approached him on the night when he was in the garden and he says ego,

Amy and they all Fall backward when he makes that claim in John they're saying not just I am he but particularly making a claim to deity in the passage that we will be looking at in the evening service in Isaiah 43 verse 10

Last week we looked at the first half of that verse it says That you should know that I am he

Speaking of God being the one who has accomplished great salvation And in the second half of the verse that we will be looking at says that there were no gods formed before him

No gods after him to claim to be Christ is effectively the same thing is claiming deity for oneself even if people

Don't spell out those implications. This is what is happening when someone claims some messy

Status as they are claiming a divine status the status of God making themselves equal with him

They will say the time is at hand. They will speak with a certain kind of urgency that will press people's hand

It'll appeal to their sensibilities to know such things, but it'll also press them to make decisions just to follow them and Then Jesus says do not go after them do not be deceived these things will happen

He lets his disciples know they will happen. Do not be deceived by false teachers This is a perpetual danger for Christians to be led astray

You not should not be led astray We all have tendencies towards superstitions

We imagine ourselves to be very rational objective people who weigh out all the matters, but the reality is

That we think by proxy very often where we rely on authorities or gut feelings and all kinds of impressions that we receive from things or the pleasantness of truth rather than the actual quality of the truth itself and so mankind has a particular proclivity toward Superstition This true from all kinds of simple things like someone finding a penny heads up and then

Attributing that to some kind of omen that shows the rest of their day will be well so the typical things you see among Christians where every kind of Positive Event everything where something goes well is taken as blessing from God and everything that goes negatively is taken as a curse

If someone is engaged in some kind of sin that God would not endorse and it seems to be going well they're imagine they're blessed just like Micah and his

Levitical priest Everything seems to be going well for him and imagines himself to be very blessed by that.

This is blessed by the Lord People imagine when anything is difficult What comes to their mind is usually not that oh this might be a trial from the

Lord in which he's calling me to persevere But simply oh that God has cursed us and he doesn't want me to go this way

Scripture tells us frequently to not Judge things in such way in 2nd

Corinthians Paul observes that he had a door open for him by the

Spirit and yet he says that he chose not to go through it There are even there are even times where God is blessing things, but it does not mean that Our decisions are to be made by every measure of providence that seems positive

Sometimes God is calling us to faithfulness in another area. So we should not be

We should not be led astray by any kind of false teacher There's a framework

That Jesus is giving us here. It's the framework that is different than you might see

Primarily elsewhere in Scripture elsewhere in Scripture. There's often a emphasis on Someone not anticipating the return of Christ being caught unaware that he would return here.

There's a The primary concern is on over anticipating Thinking that he is coming so urgently that they would be deceived by others elsewhere

Jesus says that he does not tell them the day or the hour that they are not To know the specifics in order that they might always be ready.

But here Few specifics are given in order that people not over anticipate just like when you have a

Child that's in the car and he asked how long before we get there even if you're close sometimes you don't tell them because then they will

Think that it's time already and then they will start acting as though it's already time and we should already be there because you said 15 minutes and it feels like it's been 15 minutes

You should not Over anticipate the return of Christ such that you would be deceived by false teachers now there are several kinds of People who would come in Jesus's name that are worth considering here.

He says there are some that say I am he There are many that come in his name

Saying the time is at hand Now this is all Blended together as one statement for many will come in my name saying

I am he and the time is at hand But it seems evident enough that this takes various shapes that some people most directly say that I am he some people say very directly that they come in the name of Christ and some say

Very directly that time is at hand. These would be False Christ's false apostles and then just false teachers more generally

False Christ's are one who say more specifically I am he these are the more aggressive forms of cults ones that come to mind for me are

Some of the more modern ones a lot of them come out of Asian countries like New Heavens New Earth or the

Unification Church these various As various groups that have some messianic figure now you will note with each of these that they all have some

Plausible deniability Some excuse for how they are not doing precisely what this verse is describing

Because none of these people claim to be Jesus himself in the fullest measure

They will claim the status of the Son of God They will claim the status of being some anointed

But they will acknowledge something along the lines of that. Jesus is actually a different person, etc Now if you allow those excuses to be sufficient

What you will have to end up concluding is that when Christ prepares his disciples to worry about false

Christ That he's preparing them for something that doesn't exist But the reality is that Christ knows what to prepare his disciples for and what he is describing is not something infrequent but something frequent to illustrate

This manner of interpretation Consider the words of 1st John 4 2 through 3 by this you shall know the

Spirit of God Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God and every spirit that does not confess

Jesus is not from God This is the spirit of the Antichrist which you heard was coming and now is in the world already

When we interpret scripture too narrowly we end up at wild conclusions that make no sense consider this

Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come from the flesh is of God.

It's from God Now think about that Every spirit that confesses

Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God How many deny that Jesus has come in the flesh there are very few there what are known as docetus and That is largely a

Hypothesis given the book of 1st John that there were many at John's time who specifically denied that Jesus was

That Jesus came in the flesh and say that Jesus just appeared to be flesh. It was actually only spirit

It's not even historically clear that that was a very frequent belief if John is really trying to prepare the disciples and he is as an apostle of Christ for what would come

You cannot narrowly understand this to really mean that any spirit that claims that Christ has come in the flesh is from God so narrowly

Roman Catholics believe that Jesus came in the flesh Even atheists believe that Jesus came in the flesh what has to be understood here is the surrounding context and understanding of who

Jesus is That he is one who is sent by the father and he is one who was sent with a particular mission

To save his people by a grace That is sufficient

These are things That Rome denies and all other false teachers deny but if it is only enough that he is sent by the father well you can find all sorts of false groups that would say he's sent by the father and that he came in the flesh and then you end up Either having to say that John was wrong or you have to say that all these groups are actually true churches

And so you cannot interpret things so narrowly Likewise when it says in every spirit that does not confess

Jesus is not from God This is the spirit of the Antichrist. There would basically be very few

Yeah, this would basically leave you only with atheists really not much more You must understand these things more broadly where the

Apostles Describe something that will be a frequent where Jesus and the

Apostles describe something that will be a frequent feature You must interpret it in a way such that you see it as a frequent feature

If you interpret in a way where it's something that rarely ever happens, then you are not interpreting it properly

If John says this describes all false teachers, it really needs to describe all false teachers If Jesus says this is going to be something that happens frequently.

It needs to be something that happens frequently So do not interpret this so narrowly This has to imply to all who claim the status of Christ in all the various measures that that can be understood

The word Christ means anointed there are some who claim themselves to be special anointed people of Christ There are some who claim to be heads of the church overall and as such

Claim exclusivity such that anyone who does not follow them or at least anyone who?

Anyone who does not follow them is not of God or Similarly, they would say anyone who rejects them is not of God These are the kinds of things that Jesus is talking about.

Not just those who would make a very explicit claim Saying I am the

Christ or I am Jesus something like that or I am God It has to be a frequent thing.

This is this is all kinds of places there are all kinds of people who would set themselves up as head of the church and this can even happen in Ostensibly true churches

Many have interpreted the character diatrophies from 3rd John and by character,

I'm not trying to describe him as fiction. I'm just saying that the the personality with which he is exposed by the

Apostle John being one who Rejects the Apostles because he does not like them having any prominence and once prominence for himself

That is one who is setting himself up as over the church Many throughout church history.

I have interpreted in him as being a precursor to the Antichrist. And so he seems to be This is what you should be looking for with false

Christ one who would reject Christ authority wanting prominence for himself

Then beyond false Christ There are false Apostles those who claim in a very direct manner having been sent by Christ Apostle refers to one who is sent

Oppo means from Apostle is a sent one Those who are

Apostles of Christ are sent by Christ And so here in Luke 21 in verse 7 and verse 8

He says for many will come in my name some very directly So saying I have been sent by Christ these come in various categories some claim apostolic authority by descent in a more specific way in a more exclusive way than the true church does of course we would claim likewise to have

Apostolic authority and that the Apostles have written scripture and we operate by the authority of Scripture but some claim to have apostolic authority in the sense of having a

Lineage from the Apostles such that they likewise may be counted apostolic a

Very direct lineage that cannot be had simply by following the truth. It must be had by a sacerdotal passing on of of grace

Sacerdotal referring to by means of the sacraments by the means of laying on its lawn of hands, etc

Passing on something Supernaturally such as it just by the very act it passes on and anyone without that Cannot have the grace of Christ Some imagine it sacerdotally like Rome Rome claims to have apostolic authority in that way

Roman Catholicism You also have groups that claim a particular apostolic structure without that direct descent like Mormonism Mormonism there are still

Apostles or they claim to have Apostles a particular set of Apostles That are in particular way having been sent by Christ.

So they claim an authority that is beyond the authority of any other and then there are also

What you see in new apostolic Reformation churches or hyper charismatic churches

Maybe you have seen this in your own background at a charismatic church where people claim to be

Apostles They either claim that in a very formal sense where they are setting themselves up as heads of the church or they claim it in less formal sense where they just throw that language around to Give themselves a little oomph to their authority of the message that they are claiming at any given time

This is something that has no Grounds it has no plausibility for someone to claim

Apostolic authority like this. What is an Apostle as I've already said an

Apostle one who is sent by Christ That is not meant in a loose way where someone can be sent in all kinds of Informal ways scripture itself gives us the

Great Commission. Jesus has given his church the Great Commission This is something that didn't just apply to the original Apostles And so we could in a sense call ourselves sent ones but the kind of Apostleship that people claim in a special kind of way other above others in the church is

Not one that still exists 2nd Peter 1 16 says for we are not like so many

For we are not those who would follow cleverly devised myths But we have made known the power and coming of our

Lord Jesus Christ because we are I were eyewitnesses of his majesty So having been eyewitnesses of Jesus They are guaranteeing that they are not following cleverly devised myths anyone who claims to Be an

Apostle of Jesus Christ in a way beyond the way every Christian is sent But has not seen

Christ is actually following cleverly devised myths according to 2nd Peter 1 16

Now beyond this it's not just that they have seen Christ Because many of these

Apostles will claim that they've seen Christ They've claimed that claimed that Jesus appeared to them once and he sent them

That is not enough They actually have to have been taught by him if they are sent by him to proclaim his message

It has to be a message. It's actually been taught to them most of these people Do not have a message that lasts for just a couple of sentences usually they have a message that they elaborate on and are able to speak for speak on for hours at length if Christ just appeared to them in a moment and gave them some small message and did not disciple them for a significant period of time

Where are all these extra words coming from they're coming from themselves? Paul says in Galatians 1 17 through 18, but before I speak of that notice that all the all the

Apostles and I'll explain Paul in a second. All the Apostles were discipled by Jesus Christ for three years.

Okay under his earthly ministry They're discipled by him for three years when they choose one to replace

Judas It had to be one who had been following Christ for that time It couldn't just be anyone who had seen

Christ It was necessary that it be someone who had actually been taught by him for those three years they had to have really

Imbibed his message by having sat under his discipleship for an extended period of time This is not something most

Apostles today are claiming. I Don't know. Maybe there are some I'll give you a counter -argument for that too in a minute

Should that exist but now how do you account for Paul? Well, didn't he see Jesus later on after his earthly ministry?

How do you account for that? He explains in Galatians 1 17 through 18 when he is defending his apostleship and that he did not get it from man

But he got it from Jesus Christ. He explains that he did not go to Jerusalem immediately But rather after Christ having appeared to him, but rather went away to Arabia for how long did he go away to Arabia in?

Galatians 1 17 through 18 three years Why would Paul go away for three years to Arabia if?

If he had just been if Christ had just appeared to him and sent him God only permitted

Ezekiel To sit in the heat of his anger for 14 days and not give the message that he had given him

How long did Jonah go away in the ship before God said? No, I gave you a message go It is unthinkable that Paul would get away for three years trying to avoid giving the message that Christ had given him

No, that's not what how it was happening. He was not avoiding the Commission that he had been given He was preparing for the

Commission that Christ had given him by being discipled by Christ for three years in Arabia There's really no other explanation for this

Now, let's say someone says well that is what happened to me Christ discipled me for a very long time.

He appeared to me. He appeared to me every night in a dream for three years What do you say to that? Well, Paul says in 1st

Corinthians 15 8 the passage just before the passage we read in the scripture reading today

That Christ appeared to him last of all as one untimely born Last of all there is not going to be another

Paul acknowledges that there is something special about himself That cannot be said about the other

Apostles This is not something that will happen again And let me tell you that might mean something right now you might be agreeing with everything

I'm saying But maybe you're holding on to something here that you're not aware that this contradicts and that is the very frequent idea of Jesus appearing to people in dreams a lot of people claim that Christ has appeared to them in dreams now first of all,

I want to tell you that I am NOT what some people have called a Hypersensationalist right a hypersensationalist cessationist is one who

Basically, you could go really far down that spectrum and reject all kinds of miraculous things most people

You know in order and good churches, there's no one like that But then there's a step closer where people will acknowledge the occasional miracle

But they would reject any kind of way that God would providentially lead through something that feels a little more

Supernatural like a dream I would I would not reject that the Holy Spirit may use dreams to bring particular truths the mind

You read through the Puritans and they are full of stories like this What I would reject that God gives verbal revelation in dreams such that words that he give may be

Spoken as words that are directly from God. We have the completed verbal revelation of God Secondly, I would deny that Christ himself appears in any kind of visible way to people in dreams so What is it that is going on with the frequent stories that you have especially from Islamic countries of?

Jesus appearing to them in dreams and people have all kinds of stories about Well, there is a missionary in this area and some

Muslim had a dream that Jesus was telling them to go talk to this missionary and then he did well

Like I said, perhaps some of these dreams if they don't involve verbal revelation if they don't involve Jesus may

God may use those to direct people to the truth, but many of these things are simply

Are simply Fabricated and think about it. There is a lot of motion behind motive behind the fabrication of such things

First of all Christians really want to hear these things. They really want to hear that these things are true

Secondly missionaries have a lot to gain from these stories being true thirdly

Those who would convert or ostensibly convert Either do or at least think they do have a lot to gain from such things some even think it will help them immigrate to the

United States if they say such things because they imagine that America is a Christian country. And so if I say something that I think would sound very

Christian, it will help me in that whole process Anyway, do not be do not be deceived by such things

Christ appeared to Paul as one who was untimely born. Okay. This is this is not something that is going to happen again and You might say but I but I know of some really prominent examples

I think Nabeel Qureshi even had a story like this and Yes, there may be very true

Christians who will claim such things God can use all kinds of false ideas.

You probably know true Christians who claim to Speak in tongues as well. Okay, so None of that none of that proves anything knowing a true

Christian who makes wild claims like this. All right now think about the other implications of this if there are if there are no more

Apostles in that more formal sense Ephesians 4 talks about the

Apostles being a gift to the church along with prophets and teachers and evangelists and shepherds now not all of those offices have ceased but Notice that if the off if the office of Apostle has ceased then it is possible at least possible the office of prophet has ceased and indeed

Ephesians 2 20 says that the church is founded on the Founded on those pillars on the prophets and the

Apostles and so if the point of the Apostles is to reinforce apostolic revelation

With additional revelation and the Apostles have ceased no longer is there a point in the prophets and then moreover the point of the signs of The sign gifts were to confirm that word as it says in Hebrews 2 4

So those who claim various sign gifts are Imagining things and some of these people are very sincere, but What they are calling sign gifts really aren't

I've mentioned this a number of times before most of the people who claim to have the gift Of healing all they mean by that is that God answers their prayer for healing a little more than the next person

I don't have a problem with that. There are real prayer warriors This is not the gift of healing that Bible describes

Bible describes people Commanding the sickness leaves someone body someone's body and it is done.

That is the gift of healing not Not it is not the equivalent of being a prayer warrior

So beyond false Apostles, there are just more generally false teachers

These are ones who bring a false message and And typically that false message

Includes a statement that the time is at hand. You can think of all sorts of groups Mormons Jehovah's Witnesses Seventh -day

Adventists the Campbellites some of those might surprise you almost all these groups were founded at an era where they were claiming the the imminent return of Christ or at least an imminent golden age or change of some kind it is

It just seems to be the case with all of these and it is by that message that the time is at hand they press people's hand to Urgently follow them and likewise.

They And likewise they appeal to sensibilities people have to want to see

Christ people want that golden age to come They want to be a part of something special. And so this this appeals to Sensibilities Why is this?

Why is this so frequent? I'd like to step back and point out that there seem to be several categories of false churches now

Let me walk through these I'm gonna give you four categories First one are just true churches that have fallen into so much error that it can no longer be considered true churches

Okay, these happen all the time Okay, that's just that's one category of a false church another category it's liberal churches

All right. So that that first category of churches that have fallen into error They usually don't have some narrative about Christ returning because that's not how they fell into error

That's they aren't they didn't come about in order to deceive people. They have been deceived They're liberal churches.

Okay, and by liberal I just mean those that are not very Insistent on being led by the word and they are largely being led by social reasons or whatever the case may be

These usually don't have a particular narrative around Christ's return because that's not the point of their movement

They're the point of their movement is more political or social than it is theological

Third there are those false churches that claim to have ancient roots and have descended from those roots

So these are very few but you could imagine Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy and there are a few others these because they claim to have always existed and I Would contend with that Characterization, I would not grant them that truth

Even if they ostensibly have a claim to have always existed These are really relatively recent inventions that just claim to look like something older they have

They don't have a narrative around an immediate return because that's not how they came about But new movements that fourth category new movements almost always

If not always have some narrative around Christ immediate return whether it be the final return whether it be the

Golden Age whether it be some kind of heavenly change that Restructures reality in some way

They almost all have that and in fact if you can think of one that doesn't I would be

I would be interested in hearing about it, but every single one of a Movement that is new

I that I can think of functions in that way the seventh -day Adventists they came around in the 1800s after a failed doomsday prediction had happened and Jesus Christ hadn't returned and after what is known as the

Great Disappointment They Decided that oh, it was not that Christ was returning

It was at that time that he entered the heavenly holy of holies And now he is doing what is known as the investigative judgment and he is he is judging each person

Depending on which brand of seventh -day Adventism He's judging them in order to From Adam onward to see whether or not they will make it and once he gets to the last name that's when the end will come and so there was actually a change and the

The end is more immediate in a very special way because of their movement even even ones that are

Ostensibly fairly tame like the Campbellites those are the ones if you ever see a church that says

Church of Christ or Disciples of Christ or Yeah Christian churches, right?

There's I know that it's very they are intentionally very vague, right? but if you see a church that just says

Christian Church of Sunnyvale or Church of Christ of Sunnyvale or Disciples of Christ of Sunnyvale, those are those are

Campbellite churches originally that movement came about by in in that milieu of a lot of people claiming doomsday things of claiming

Christ's immediate return and even Alexander Campbell having made some particular claims of his own though.

He avoided some of the more stark claims that others were making Jehovah's Witnesses Same thing.

They have had several failed prediction of Christ's return at this point. They no longer make those predictions

This is just the case for all of these new movements. Is that this is how they operate. They all operate by saying

We are something new and the time is at hand If that is not if If a movement is truly new and is not connected to the church as it has existed before That is necessary.

You have to claim to be the advent of a new age

There's really no other way to make it work and because they are offering something different a different kind of Savior They're necessarily going to offer a different kind of gospel.

And so every single one of these groups Essentially has a works righteousness form of the gospel because only the true gospel is one that is by grace through faith

They all have some other gospel. Why is it that Paul in Galatians 1? Warned people that even if an angel from heaven comes with a different gospel.

He is to be a curse It's because he knew that Different gospels were going to come with a sense of divine authority that this is a new age that this is a new message

Whether it be Moroni the angel and Mormonism or simply

The spirits of persons who claim that they are specially sent in some way or they have discovered

Something that people have not discovered before now. God is building up the church. We are to The the church has been given

New insights but not new revelation new insights into that which has already been revealed but not new things being revealed the

Yeah, this is this is important to recognize that the gospel is threatened by every single one of these other movements and that they operate by claiming

Some special urgency some special newness a couple of things that you should watch out for that would affect other groups

Groups that are more true. Okay. There are these groups that are restorationist, right?

They are Restorationist in that they claim that the church fell away a long time ago and then we are the new thing and the time is

At hand. Okay, that's restorationism. There's what I refer to as restorationism light, which is basically

People who are either part of the true church or ostensibly part of the true church, but function in the same way where they

Dismiss all that has come before claiming to Claiming to figure out stuff fresh from the

Bible Just one example of this. There are a lot of people who have

Decided that you know the way that we're doing church is wrong. And so we just have to figure out from scratch and Just start our own way of doing it that the house church movement is like this

I'm not saying every every church that operates out of a house has a problem There's a particular movement called the house church movement that essentially came out of these huge megachurches where they realized

Okay, the big megachurch thing is a problem. Let's do things differently and just start over from scratch. What is that doing?

Essentially, it's it's essentially saying that you know What's true the way church is supposed to be done has been lost for many ages and we need to we need to restore it

They just completely disregard the way that Christ has been building up his church for all the ages And so this is something that's not even happening in false churches because I would hate for you to leave with The idea that I am just equipping you or Christ is just equipping you for the craziest things that you probably already wouldn't go after but it's even these more narrow things where people have this mindset of Of the church having fallen away in a lesser sense where you know, maybe it still existed but we're just doing it all wrong and we just need to start over from the from the very beginning without even

Consulting the way that Christ has built up his church in every age These things must be consulted

There must be an understanding of how he has been building things up and why there would be a need to restore and how far back

But if the claim is that people have just always gotten this wrong and it's in this now era that now the church can operate as it's supposed to operate and it just never did before since the first century then

Then you're essentially doing what I would call restorationism light you must anticipate

False teachers they will come many people do not anticipate these things they

Fail to recognize what Christ is saying, but Wolves come and they come in sheep's clothing wolves that come in sheep's clothing do not look like wolves

They look like sheep and you have to be ready for that and watching for that Just like with any kind of valuable thing that there will be imitations

Valuable brands you go to the streets of New York and you can buy knockoffs Any kind of valuable thing will have its imitations and the kingdom of Christ is the most valuable thing on earth

It will have its imitations. You must be watching out for them and you must train your sensibilities to know the truth going to the

Word of God so that Your sensibilities would be stimulated enough with the Word of God that you would not find yourself

So hungry when someone comes with something Sensational about the return of Christ that you would so eagerly go after that and not be able to discern the truth

Have your sensibilities trained to know the truth and be able to recognize it Moreover you need to know

Christ So that if someone would come Replacing him in either any manner whether directly claiming to be

Christ or indirectly Subverting his role as head over the church that you would recognize that You have to know him personally through going to his word

He's made known through his word through spending time with him in prayer in Order that you would be familiar enough with him that you would notice any kind of Any kind of deception?

This is not something that you can do just in an evening Hearing someone teach about Jesus.

Okay. This is something where you have to personally develop your

Bond with Christ you must abide in the vine as Christ commanded abide in the vine

There's only through that that you would know him. You know, there's sometimes and this is Embarrassing as a pastor

But there's sometimes where people will come in from one week and they had and someone else had come in the previous week

Who had some of the same physical characteristics, right? maybe the same color of skin or was bald like the person who came in last week and I might think that this was the

Same person who came in last week and called them by the name that they gave me last week or or speak to them as Though they had been here last week

Because I did not familiarize with myself with that person enough to know them So that I wouldn't be deceived when someone else who looks kind of similar comes in the next week

Okay, this is what happens if you do not know Christ Well, if you do not know him personally someone else comes in kind of looking like him kind of subverting his roles and You'll be quickly deceived do not think that This is just about the craziest wildest kinds of cults

This affects even Some of the ways that the church operates on a regular basis that Christ's role as head as the anointed one should not be subverted

And you should anticipate the return of Christ with eagerness But not with such an overzealousness such an appetite

That is not Moderated by the fact that these things would not be immediate

But that there would be several deceptions that are to take place Anticipate the return of Christ be eager for that but do not be so Anticipating that anything that comes along and seems to herald

Christ would necessarily Capture your attention be ready for him the way that we are to be ready you

He will give signs there are signs to be given even the Apostles will give more signs We have spoken recently of some of the particular signs that have been fulfilled even in the past millennia these are things that are important, but they should not cause us to disregard the warning that Christ gives

That many will come in my name saying I am he the time to sit at hand do not go after them Do not go after them because the true

Christ is far more precious than all these false Christ He gives a true gospel gospel

That comes by grace through faith in him the only Savior Amen Dear Heavenly Father we thank you for the word that you have given

We ask that you would protect us from false Christ from false Apostles from false teachers that you would

Give us your truth in great measure that our sensibilities would be stimulated by your word and that we would know him as we ought