A Daily Walk

Transcribed by the Digital Media Team at Calvary South OC.

Guest (Male): Pastor John Randall shares these thoughts about obedience to Christ.

John Randall: Our intention, our goal is not to be defiant to the government. That's not that we want to be obedient to Christ. That's the goal. We want to be obedient to what the Bible says. That's why we're doing what we're doing, guys. And you understand that we're not here to be rebels; we're here to be Christians. We're to be in fellowship because the Lord says in His Word, commands it. He says, "You need to be in fellowship. Don't neglect the gathering of yourselves together, especially when you see the day approaching."

Guest (Male): Well, wouldn't it be nice if every time you scrolled through your news feed on social media or you turned on the TV or radio, you heard nothing but the truth? Well, sadly, that's not our reality. Many deceivers are in the world, and we need to be aware and on guard.

Today on A Daily Walk, Pastor John Randall encourages us to know our Bible so we're not deceived. As we sharpen our discerning skills, we'll be better prepared to recognize these false teachers as we encounter them. Here is Pastor John in Second John.

John Randall: As Paul said in Second Corinthians chapter five, verse ten, he said, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he's done, whether good or bad."

Did you know that one day we're going to stand before the Lord in the judgment seat? We're going to see Him face to face, and we're going to be rewarded. What a blessing. I always marvel at that, that God equips us to do what He's called us to do, and then He rewards us for what He equipped us to do. I'm just amazed. It's like a great deal for us.

Paul also said in Second Timothy chapter four, verse eight, "Finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not to me only, but also to all those who have loved His appearing." You're going to receive a crown of glory if you've loved His appearing. This is your reward.

The writer of Hebrews declares in chapter ten, he says, "Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise." John is exhorting this church, these believers. Listen, God has done such a great work. There's a reward laid up for you.

Don't ever set the reward aside and be deceived by these people. Don't let anything get in the way of what God's doing, especially something that is Antichrist. Don't jump on that bandwagon. Don't get involved in that. Stay clear of that because that's going to hinder the work that God wants to continue to do. You might lose opportunity, not lose salvation, but lose opportunity because of this. So don't do it. Don't mess with it.

Now in verse nine, John declares, "Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him. For he who greets him shares in his evil deeds."

John referred to the false teachers as Antichrist. Meaning when John calls these false teachers Antichrist, he means that they are guilty of outright heresies that deny the core doctrines of the Christian faith and fully embrace a lifestyle of sin contrary to God's commands. That's what he's talking about here. These guys are heretics. They're false teachers purposely leading people astray from Jesus Christ.

So in light of that, John warns if they come into your presence, they show up at the door, and you discover they transgress, he says here, "the doctrine of Christ." That is the teaching concerning Jesus, that He has come in the flesh, that He is God, that He's the Savior, that He died, and that He rose again.

If they deny that and they're teaching something contrary to the doctrine of Christ, don't even let them in your house, let alone give them a platform in the pulpit and say, "Please share with us your false teaching." Don't let them do it. Don't even. "Sorry, guys, door's closed. Can't come into the house. We don't have any... You can go down the street. There's a Chick-fil-A."

I mean, just go. We don't want you here at our house. And maybe if they go to Chick-fil-A, they get saved. But what I'm saying is when they show up bringing this false doctrine, don't be impressed. Don't give them a platform. Don't give them a place. Why was John so stern? Wow. Why so intense, John? Not even give them any food? John says, "No way." Why? Because they were preaching a false gospel.

They said that Jesus wasn't the Jesus of scripture. It wasn't the doctrine of Christ; it was the doctrine of Antichrist. Don't allow them to have that platform. Don't give them that place. You know, folks, here's the thing about false teachers: they use the very same Bible, for the most part, that we use.

But they twist the scripture to say what they want it to say. They add to it. They even take away from it. No false teacher ever shows up and says, "Hey, everybody, glad you could be here tonight. I am a heretic and welcome. Prepare to be deceived and led astray from the faith once delivered through the work of Jesus Christ." No, they don't show up and say that because you'd say, "Man, I'm out."

No, it's very subtle. It's like leaven. You have to know the Word so that you're able to recognize it. Now John refers to it, we saw it more than once, the doctrine of Christ. The doctrine. The doctrine of Christ. What kind of doctrine are we talking about? What kind of teaching do we need to understand? Some of the essential things of the Christian faith that are non-negotiable?

Now let me make a distinction here between essential and non-essential doctrines of the Christian faith. Essential doctrines versus non-essential. There are certain things in the church today that we would classify as non-essential doctrines. And then there are other things that are essential. We can disagree agreeably.

Someone wrote me a message recently asking me do I line up with this particular person and what makes me different from that particular pastor. And I didn't respond, but I knew the answer. Certain things, how we see the work of the Holy Spirit, differs. We both believe that there is a Holy Spirit, that He's the third person of the Trinity, but we differ on the gifts of the Spirit being for today, and we also differ on how the Holy Spirit baptizes a believer.

So there's a difference. Non-essential to me. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is essential for my life, but we don't need to... If you that's fine. You believe a little bit differently about it, that's fine. You think the gifts aren't for today? Okay, that's all right. That's between you and Jesus. I'm going to operate in the gifts because I need them and Jesus gave them. And I can't find a passage of scripture that says they're not for today until we're with Him.

So anyways, I don't want to debate that. But you understand, disagree agreeably, non-essential. We're still brothers. We're still brother and sister in the faith. We don't need to get crazy. We're still going to be in heaven together. And that's a blessing.

But let me talk about some of the fundamentals that are non-negotiable. The inspiration and the inerrancy of scripture. Non-negotiable. God breathed the Word of God without error. Not simply containing the Word of God, but is the Word of God. Inerrant, inspired. Non-negotiable. But the Bible is under attack, I'll tell you that.

In fact, some people are burning them. Why burn the Bible? Why not burn some other book? There's plenty of books when I was growing up I would have been happy to burn. They were my textbooks, you know. And at the end of the year, we'd go to a fire pit and... Parents were like, "We could have resold those!" Let them burn. I hate algebra.

The inspiration and inerrancy of scripture, non-negotiable. Open the schools. Anyways, okay. Secondly, the triunity of God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Creator of all things. The triunity of God, essential, non-negotiable. Explain the Trinity. I can't. It's just in the Bible.

God the Father is spoken of as God. God the Son is referred to as God. God the Holy Spirit is referred to as God. All of the attributes that are found in God are found in all three. They're one. It's non-negotiable. It's what the Bible says, and I believe it.

Third, the fallen condition of humanity and the need for God's grace. We are fallen. "No, man has a seed of goodness within him, and every day and in every way he's getting better." Look around. Man is depraved and evil and wicked. And only the grace of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ and the transformed work of salvation can save him. End of story.

The virgin birth, the full deity and full humanity and a sinless life of Jesus Christ. Non-negotiable. He is fully God, fully man, and sinless. If He wasn't, again, we would not be saved. This meeting tonight is pointless. But because He is who He says He is, we are saved and we are redeemed.

The substitutionary death of Christ for our sins and His miraculous bodily resurrection from the dead. Non-negotiable. That is an essential doctrine of the Christian faith. You've got to know that. The ascension of Christ, His present ministry to the believer through the Holy Spirit right now. It's essential.

The literal future return of Jesus Christ to the earth. These are the essentials, some of them, that are non-negotiable. And this is the teaching, guys, that we must abide in. Abiding in the teaching, the doctrine of Christ, knowing your Bible, you will not be deceived by something strange, aberrant, and unbiblical. Because you know the truth. The truth set you free. You're going to recognize what is false. So know your Bible. Read your Bible. Know the essential doctrines. Know the scriptures.

Now John says as he closes this letter, now he's going to wrap it up, little personal note, going to end this particular letter. He says in verse 12, and I love this, "Having many things to write to you, I do not wish to do so with paper and ink. But I hope to come to you and speak to you face to face, that our joy may be full."

You say, "Why are you humming and saying it that way?" Let me explain. I really like this verse. John had a lot more that he could have written, but he would much rather see them face to face. Why? John, just write letters. Just Zoom. Just FaceTime, bro. You don't need to see them face to face. You can still fellowship through screen and whatnot. Just do it. It's not a problem.

John said, "No. No, there's only so much I can communicate to you through pen and paper. I need to see you face to face. I need to be because why? That's fellowship. That's how I'm able to interact with you. I have to be in fellowship with God's people." John says, "Forget the pen and ink. I want to come see you. How about that?" "Yes, come see us! That would be wonderful!"

We could be together. Why is that so important? Because that's where fellowship happens, guys. That's why we're doing what we're doing tonight. Our intention, our goal is not to be defiant to the government. That's not that we want to be obedient to Christ. That's the goal. We want to be obedient to what the Bible says. That's why we're doing what we're doing, guys.

And you understand that we're not here to be rebels; we're here to be Christians. We're to be in fellowship because the Lord says in His Word, commands it. He says, "You need to be in fellowship. Don't neglect the gathering of yourselves together, especially when you see the day approaching." So it's really important that you're together when you can see the signs of the day approaching.

Guys, that's why we fellowship. We, we need this, don't we? This is what this is about. We need fellowship. My favorite day of the week, it's Wednesday and Sunday. Those are my two favorite days of the week now. But the point is it's like the Lord, as crazy as this time is, it's lit a fire in the church.

Suddenly our distractions that were so quick to run to and so easily distracted by, they're not accessible. And suddenly what could be potentially taken from us is now precious, and we see the need for it. And I feel as though as difficult as this is for the country and so forth and the state, it's been a good thing for the church.

The virus is not a good thing. Don't misunderstand. What I'm saying is some of what's happened as a result has caused us to pray more, to worship, to read, to be in fellowship. Things that just we could easily take for granted suddenly are now essential and important and in one sense like a means to our survival. I mean, mentally, spiritually.

It's something so precious now. And you know, yes, I want the virus to end. I want the schools to open. I want people to go back to work. I want all of that. I'm not saying that I'm sitting, "Yeah, just keep it this way." No, I understand. I don't want it to remain this way. I want the masks to be gone. I want all of that to stop.

But what I don't want to stop is this. And so there's sometimes when I'm like, "God, don't let it stop, Lord. Don't let the fire that's within me go out." You know, it says that the priest every day, morning and evening, they would keep the fire going. The fire had to be constantly going, but they had to constantly feed it.

And I feel like the Lord has lit the fire and now we're feeding it. Wednesday nights, we're feeding that fire. And Sunday mornings and Sunday nights, it's like we're feeding that fire and God is working. And I want to tell you something else that I shared with our staff this week, and I want to share it with you guys.

This last Sunday as we were meeting outside, you know we do the Sunday morning, it's now it's like an outreach for churches. I see people coming from every direction, every place where maybe they're not comfortable yet opening the doors and God's bringing them to that place. So people are coming from everywhere. It's really been... I don't think we set out for it to be that way; we just wanted a place to meet.

But now the parking lot that we prayed for, which still isn't ours but we get to use it, it's like people are coming from everywhere. It's funny how the Lord answers your prayers. You pray for a parking lot and He gives you one to use and people come from everywhere to the parking lot. Like maybe I should have prayed for a building too; that would have been good. But You knew my heart on that.

So people come from everywhere, but this is what I shared with our staff this week. You know, in the Old Testament, in the book of Genesis, you know the story of Joseph and what happened to him. And how that there's a phrase repeated there, "God was with Joseph" and "The Lord was with Joseph" and everything he went through when he was in the pit, when he was in the prison, and even when he was elevated to the palace. It says the Lord was with Joseph.

But there came that moment when the Pharaoh had that crazy dream. Fat cows, skinny cows. Skinny cows ate the fat cows. You're like, "That's in the Bible." Read it. It's a really good story. If you haven't read the story of Joseph in Genesis, please, do yourself a solid. Read it. It's utterly awesome.

So these cows, terrible, terrible. Really bad. The skinny cows eat the fat cows. And he sees this dream repeated and it's happening, and then this wheat kills that wheat. Anyways, Joseph gets called up because he can interpret dreams. And the Pharaoh says, "Hey, I heard you can interpret dreams." And Joseph said, "God will give the Pharaoh interpretation to his dream."

And so he tells Joseph the dream, and Joseph tells the Pharaoh what the dream means. Said there's seven years of plenty, but then there's seven years of famine coming. He interprets the dream, but he doesn't just interpret the dream; he actually gives him instruction on what he should do in light of the dream he just interpreted.

He said, "If I was you, in those good years, in those plenty years, I would be storing up grain, storing up grain, storing up grain. So when the lean years come, when the famine comes, you'll have something to live off of and provide." And the Pharaoh was like, "Wow. This guy is good. Let's make him the second most powerful ruler in the world."

Put a necklace on him, give him a wife, get him a chariot, change his name. This guy is great. And suddenly Joseph is now the second most powerful ruler in the world, and he's storing up all the grain. But then the famine came. A difficulty that hit the entire world. People in foreign lands, foreign countries, suddenly they had no other alternative but to run to Joseph.

Even Jacob's sons got to the place where like, "If we don't go, we're going to die. We can't continue like this. We can't survive off of nothing. We need bread, and we heard that there's bread in Egypt. So we're going to go and we're going to get bread." And when they went to Joseph, the Bible says that he opened the storehouses and he gave them bread.

Folks, I feel like for the past 13 years, which by the way, my anniversary, happy anniversary tomorrow, church, 13 years tomorrow. I feel like for 13 years of my life we have been filling it with grain. I've taught you through the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. The entire Bible. I haven't shunned to declare to you the whole counsel.

And now we're starting over; we're doing it again. But I feel like we have stored up the grain and stored up the grain, and now there are people coming from places, "We can't continue like this. We need something." And you know what we have the privilege of doing on those Sundays?

We get to open up the storehouses and we get to give them the greater than Joseph, Jesus, and we get to give the bread of the Word of God because man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We have this privilege, and we just open up the storehouse and say, "Here you go. Here's the word because they're hungry for fellowship."

And I can't tell you every week people will come for the first time because somebody told them, "You should go to check this thing out and there's something out there." And so they come, and then they come and introduce themselves and they just they just break. And it kind of takes you back, but now I get it. You know what it is? They just haven't had this.

And they didn't realize how hungry they were, how malnourished, how dry. And they came in and the storehouse was open and the greater than Joseph, Jesus, was ministering to them through the Word of God and they were like, "Oh my goodness." And so let's keep praying. I don't know how long this season is going to last.

I'm just going to run with it until the Lord says do something else. But right now God is on the move, God is working, the Spirit of God is moving in our community in South County and beyond. I'm just asking, Lord, keep keep doing it and do more. Do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could even ask or think, Lord, whatever whatever You want to do just keep doing it and we're just going to keep opening up the storehouse, keep giving people the word. Amen?

Heavenly Father, thank You so much for Your Word. Thank You that, Lord, there is a storehouse and our greater than Joseph has made provision for us. And Your Word is alive and it nourishes the the starving soul. Lord, we pray for those who have been coming recently, maybe even be here tonight. Lord, that they would be nourished and well-fed.

Lord, in light of what we read tonight, help us to be discerning and yet loving and to know, Lord, what we believe and why we believe it and to share that good news with others. Lord, bless us as we go our separate ways tonight. Keep us safe. Lord, I pray that You would do a great work this week and, Lord, this Sunday. I'm already excited, Lord, about seeing people face to face again. And so we just thank You, Lord, and we give You all the praise. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.

Guest (Male): You're listening to A Daily Walk and our final study in Second John. If you missed the first half of this message from Pastor John Randall that we aired last time, just go online to adailywalk.org. It's called Guarding Against False Teachers.

Did you join us late or maybe you want to share this message with a loved one? You can hear the program again at adailywalk.org and then share the content with friends and family. You can also hear John's messages through our free app. This is a great way to listen to current and past teachings from Pastor John. Just search for Calvary South OC.

Here's a question for you: has this ministry blessed and encouraged you in your daily walk? If so, we'd like to know. You can email us at adailywalk@gmail.com. That's adailywalk@gmail.com. Let us know the station you're listening to as well.

Here in the month of May, we've picked out a resource we think moms will benefit a great deal from. It's A Mom After God's Own Heart: 10 Ways to Love Your Children, authored by Elizabeth George. She writes, "God has put you in a unique situation where you have tremendous influence in the lives of others. Be a mom after God's heart. Help your children, no matter what their ages, experience God's love, God's blessing, and God's provision."

We're making it available for the cost of $12. Ordering is really easy online at adailywalk.org or just call 877-242-0828. Please remember us in your prayers and your giving to the Lord. We want to help as many people as possible in their daily walk through the teaching of God's Word, and you can help to make that possible through either a one-time gift or ongoing monthly support.

Donations can be made online rather easily at adailywalk.org or call 877-242-0828. And now that we've made it through First and Second John, on we go to Third John tomorrow on A Daily Walk with Pastor John Randall. This program is made possible through your generosity and brought to you by Calvary South OC.