Good morning and welcome to the Berean Break.  My name is George Sinkie and I am so glad that you have joined us this morning.  This program is designed to examine God’s word and to check out all doctrines by that word, so that we may know and follow the truth.  As we begin this morning let’s go to God in prayer,

Great God in heaven, Creator of the heavens and the earth and all that are in them.  Lover of the souls of mankind.  We thank You for this day.  Help each of us to use our time wisely by serving You.  Help each of us to check out the things that we are taught and to accept only those things that are truth.  We thank You for Jesus and the salvation that we can have through Him and its in His name we pray,  AMEN !!

     The power of the public speaker is enormous.  Consider the words of Churchill and Lincoln as they spoke in times of great crisis.  Religiously consider Jim Jones, David Karesh, and Marshal Applewhite as they lead their followers to death.  Truly the power of the public speaker is enormous.
     That is why James warned of being a teacher in James 3:1

   1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment.

     Paul cautioned Timothy that the time would come when certain teachers would fashion a message that appealed to the desires of their audiences rather than preaching the sound doctrine in 2 Timothy 4:1-4

   1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:
   2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.
   3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine;  but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires;
   4 and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.

     Such dangerous “guides” were condemned by Jude in Jude 11

   11 Woe to them!  For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.

     We are not too surprised then, to find even the “apostle of love” instructing his readers to be on guard for false teachers as we read in 1 John 4:1

   1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God;  because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

     But how is one to know whether a spiritual guide is a false teacher or a teacher of truth?  John gives two simple tests for determining the legitimacy of a teacher.

     John’s First Test is found in 1 John 4:2-3

   2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
   3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God;  and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

     The first test is simple:  any spirit (or person) who denies the facts revealed in the New Testament regarding the life of Christ is under satanic influence and is antichrist.  This would include those who deny the details of his birth to the virgin Mary;  his miraculous ministry;  his innocence;  his death, burial, and bodily resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of God.  John was dealing with a group of false teachers that were called gnostics.  This comes from the Greek word “knowledge”, but their knowledge was earthly, human knowledge … not inspired knowledge.  There are many religions that have this basic same attitude, they deny Jesus being the Son of God.  They deny Jesus being God.  They deny God being the Creator and on and on.
     This first test is so simple and so fundamental, that any person with a basic understanding of the four Gospel accounts already has a false-teacher detector.

     John’s Second Test is broader in scope and must be used as well.  John was dealing with a particular problem that was developing, gnostisism.  As already indicated, there were those who denied that Jesus came in the flesh.  But the Holy Spirit, being omniscient, looked across the centuries and saw the myriads of false and novel doctrines that would develop from the wicked hearts of men.  And so, he moved John to pen an additional test.  It was a simple one that encompassed the entire sphere of religious instruction.
     Read 1 John 4:6 with me,

   6 We are from God;  he who knows God listens to us;  he who is not from God does not listen to us.  By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

     Here is the second test.  John says that “we” – the inspired men who recorded the very thoughts of the Holy Spirit – “are of God.”  Those who “know God” are those who demonstrate through their words and deeds that they are receiving their information from the only source of divine truth – the Bible.  Those who don’t know God are those who don’t listen to Christ’s apostles and inspired teachers.

     Could it be any simpler?  First, does your spiritual teacher deny any of the information recorded in the historical biographies of Jesus Christ?  If the answer is “yes,” you need to NOT follow him (or her) any longer.
     Second, every time you hear someone expound upon matters religious, you need to critically examine what he says, searching the Scriptures as the noble Bereans did, seeing whether the message is true – or false.  This is the basis of this program and comes from Acts 17:11

   11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so.

     Now we have two very good and reliable tests, but they are no good if we don’t put them into practice.  Now that we have a sure-fire method of ferreting out false teachers and verifying true teachers, let’s put these skills into practice.

     On a radio program called Open Forum with Harold Camping the following exchange occurred.  Open Forum is a call-in type program where listeners can ask their questions live and the host Harold Camping responds to them.  Consider what this listener asked and how it was answered.  The caller asked:

     “I’ve been listening to Family Radio for seven years, and I know that I’m not saved, but I keep, keep crying out to God, you know, just having that hope, asking God to give me that hope.  I get very discouraged a lot in the things that I do.  What is some good advice?”

     The host replied:

     “The good advice I can give you is wait upon the Lord.  Remember, if God wants to save you, and I have no idea whether he will save you, God has to do it.  But the environment in which he saves is the word of God, and I would encourage you read the Bible, read the Bible, and try to become as acquainted as you can with the word of God.  If you’re in an environment, if God plans to save you, he will apply that word to your heart.
     “At the same time, for your own encouragement, you can beseech the Lord, and God wants us to do this.  You can beseech him and beg him, ‘Oh, God, have mercy, have mercy.’  It doesn’t mean you’re gonna get saved, but at least you know that you can get the message to the eternal God that you truly wish to have that salvation.  And that’s a luxury that God gives us.
     “But we don’t dictate to God.  We would like to get saved right now, right this minute.  We have to wait upon the Lord.  I know men and women who have waited almost a lifetime before God saved them.
     “But the glorious and glamorous thing is that today is the day of salvation.  God is saving all over the world.  So, the situation is not hopeless at all.”

     That is the answer this teacher gave to this desperate student.  Now, briefly compare this man’s instructions with what Christ’s inspired apostles taught.
     On the day of Pentecost, men and women in the audience were grief stricken with the realization that they had just crucified the promised Messiah.  Then they in Acts 2:37

   37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?”

     Did Peter instruct these hurting people, “Just wait on the Lord, I don’t know if he’s going to save you or not.  Pray if it makes you feel better, not that it’s going to do you any good.  Whenever God gets around to it, he’ll save you — if he wants to.”
     Of course he didn’t.  He said, Acts 2:38

   38 And Peter said to them, “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;  and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

     When Candace’s treasurer asked Philip, in Acts 8:36

   36 And as they went along the road they came to some water;  and the eunuch said, “Look!  Water!  What prevents me from being baptized?”

did Philip respond, “Well, just wait on the Lord, say a little prayer, and maybe in a lifetime, you might get saved.  But don’t worry, today is the day of salvation, and people all over Jerusalem are being saved, so it’s not completely hopeless for you.”
     No, that’s absurd.  The truth is stated in Acts 8:37-39

   37 And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.”  And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
   38 And he ordered the chariot to stop;  and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch;  and he baptized him.
   39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away;  and the eunuch saw him no more, but went on his way rejoicing.

     It is obvious that this instructor in the Bible miserably fails John’s second test.
     The Lord is anxiously awaiting every person to come with a contrite heart of obedience in their own free will.  Any person “that will” may take of the water of life in simple humble obedience.
     If I were the devil, and I wanted to discourage this man from obeying Christ, I couldn’t think of a better way.  “I know you are ready, I know you want to be saved, but just wait, it could happen some day.”
     Testing this teacher on the radio, as with testing any teacher, is simple.  Just lay his words down next to the words of the inspired men of the New Testament.  It is clear that he is not listening to God’s will, therefore, he does not know God, and we should not listen to him.