Destined for Victory

Paul Sheppard: Don't let anything or anyone move us from the truth. And there are a lot of voices that are competing for your ear, and there are a lot of people who are trying to tell you something that contradicts the word. Thus, we have to learn to discern.

Guest (Male): Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. That's Proverbs 30:5, and this is Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Well, the very next verse in Proverbs 30 says this: "Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar."

Despite this and other warnings in scripture, many false teachers have emerged who distort the gospel of Jesus Christ and alter God's word in general. Some do it out of ignorance, others do it with the intent to deceive. Today, we'll help you understand how to recognize both.

Remember to visit us at pastorpaul.net, where you can hear any recent Destined for Victory message on demand, including today's. That's pastorpaul.net. Now, let's listen closely to Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message, "Learn to Discern."

Paul Sheppard: We who are saved need to remember the condition we were in when Jesus came and get rid of any notion to desert that one and only message that could save us. And I'm here to call people back to the word of God. I want to call us back to the book. We've tried all this other nonsense. We can see it's not working. It's time to go back to the book.

These are days when people have bought into things and espoused ideas that are not in keeping with the word of God. Some of them are very popular. Some of them are very widely exposed, but they're still lies. Some of them get on major talk shows, get promoted by the most famous people in the country, but they're still lies.

When it's all said and done, there's only one gospel, one gospel that will save us. No other philosophy can help us. No other religion can help us. It took God wrapping Himself up in flesh, coming down to redeem us. And I'm here today to tell you that we've got to take a stand and proclaim that anything that contradicts the gospel is spiritually deadly, and it must be rejected out of hand. Must be rejected.

So what Paul is suggesting here in this passage as he opens this book is he said, "I can't believe you all who are saved by grace because that was the only way you could be saved. You can't save yourself. What makes you think now that God saved you, somebody can come along and give you some rules that you follow, and your rules plus God equals salvation?"

So he says, "I'm astonished." And I think it's a clear opportunity for those of us in 21st century America to say, listen, we gotta make sure that we stick with the simplicity of the pure gospel. Don't let anything or anyone move us from the truth. And there are a lot of voices that are competing for your ear, and there are a lot of people who are trying to tell you something that contradicts the word.

Thus, we have to learn to discern. I want to ask you to, like never before, make the decision that you will discern everything that tries to seep into your mind and into your heart and into your consciousness. You will discern it according to the truth that you've been taught in the word of God. You'll discern whether it's true or whether it is error, and you gotta compare it to the word of God. I don't care who says it, I don't care who espouses it. Check it out by the word.

I don't care. Oprah is a nice talk show host, has a wonderful show, gives away lots of gifts, all of that. But when she brings these folk on with their newfangled ideas and she sits up there and talks about, "You know, that's very interesting, that's very liberating," you have to check it out by the book and say according to the book, that's wrong. And you turn the channel.

Dr. Phil, cool dude. But when he brings on somebody who wrote some book, has some philosophy, and you check it out by the book and say, "No, that's not according to the scripture," you discern that's error and you don't take it in. Check out all the doctors by the book. Dr. Phil, Dr. Laura, all of them. Check them out by the book.

Paul said not only the teachers, not only the Judaizers, he said if anybody. That means when you come to church, check it out by the book. "Well, that's Pastor Paul, I know it's true because Pastor Paul said it." Make sure you know it's true. Make sure that it's in the pages of scripture.

If you ever hear me up here espousing something, if I ever get up here talking about everybody's saved, you don't have to repent, like a preacher friend of mine turned to. And now he's preaching what they call the gospel of inclusion, meaning everybody is already saved, you don't have to repent. When Jesus died on the cross, He saved everybody whether they want to be saved or not. And an intelligent preacher left the gospel and is around the country preaching that.

If you ever hear me say something stupid like that, I don't care how much you like Pastor Paul. "He used to be so down, that's my boy." When you hear something stupid like that, you say, "All right, he has officially lost his mind," and you get up and you walk out.

Because truth is at a premium. We gotta check our philosophies by the book. Check out these books. Everything on the bestseller list isn't true. In fact, I dare say most of it isn't true. And so you gotta check it out by the book.

People came to me when one of the books, "The Secret," first came out. And some folk came to me and said, "Pastor, do you know about 'The Secret'?" I said, "What secret?" And they came and they said, and one lady said, "Oh, I'm just so inspired by this and I'm just hoping you'll share it with the church."

So I went to the internet just real quick. I hadn't heard anything about any secret. And so I said, let me find what the secret is. And I went to "The Secret," and it took me about 30 seconds. I said, "There's a Greek word for that: baloney." I went back and told that sister, "That's no secret. You spent your money on that? I am astonished."

We gotta stick with the book. Let me challenge you, let me remind you of what it means to stick with the book. Let me just use the four basic principles of math and give you four points that I want you to keep in your mind as you go through life saying, God, I thank You that You set me free from everything that cannot save me, and I will not take myself back into bondage by selling truth for error.

Four ways that'll help you do that. Let me use the four basic principles of math: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Addition: if it adds to the word of God or contradicts its teachings, reject it. If it adds to the word of God or contradicts its teachings, reject it.

I don't care what it is, I don't care who said it, whether they're preacher, priest, whoever it is, if it adds to the word or contradicts the clear teachings of the word, reject it out of hand. That would include such things as I just mentioned, the gospel of inclusion. That would include teachers and authors who declare that there are many ways to God.

Anybody telling you there's many ways to God, you gotta reject that out of hand because Jesus said, "I am the way." You say, "Well, how does He get to say He's the way?" Well, He's God. Granted, if any old body, Jimmy somebody, said they were the only way, now we got a problem. But if God who loved me in my sins wraps Himself up in flesh, comes down and saves me by His own death on the cross, and He says, "If you want to be saved, I'm your guy," He knows what He's talking about.

And so if somebody says there are many ways to God, there are lots of truths, there's truth in every religion, you gotta reject it out of hand. If it adds to the word of God or if it contradicts its teachings. That's how you know these philosophies and these religions. You can know truth from error because if it adds to the word.

God has inspired the word. You have a Bible, 66 books inspired by God. No other book like it on the planet. Written by over 40 authors, so it's human in penmanship, but it's divine in origin. Over 40 different authors writing over a period of 1500 years on three different continents in three different languages write a book that tells one story. How is that? Because it's God-breathed. It's God-inspired.

It's a book that tells you about the God who loved you and who redeemed you by His grace, who you don't have to be good enough for Him to accept you. He loves you like you are. You come just as you are, needing grace, needing forgiveness, needing help, needing hope, and you come saying, "Lord, I need You," and He rescues you by His grace.

There is no other way, and it's foolish to sit around and suggest that there are other ways when God Himself has declared, "I have made a way for you." And you've heard me say many different times, there's no point in you arguing whether Jesus is the way, you better take the way.

You don't stand in a burning house, can't find your way out, fumes are beginning to get into your lungs, you'll be passed out any second now, or the fire will get to you and begin to burn you alive. And suddenly the fireman breaks through and says, "We have prepared a way, we prepared a path, there's only one way out of this house, it's about to come down, you're going to die, come with me." You don't stand there and say, "Now how are you the only way? I resent you talking about you the only way. This is your first time in this house, I know this house." Shut up and get your happy hips out of the house! If it adds to the word of God or contradicts its teaching, reject it.

Guest (Male): Don't go away. We have more of today's Destined for Victory message featuring Pastor Paul Sheppard coming up next. We want to thank all of you who support Destined for Victory with your prayers and financial support, gifts that help us keep this media ministry going.

If you'd like to join us in our mission to preach timeless truth for a victorious life, please consider making a safe and secure donation at our website, pastorpaul.net, or give us a call at 855-339-5500. That's 855-339-5500. Now, for more on how to recognize false teaching, let's get you back to the second half of today's Destined for Victory message, "Learn to Discern."

Paul Sheppard: Subtraction: if it subtracts from the deity and supremacy of Christ, reject it. Any religion, any philosophy that teaches you that Christ is something other than God. There are religions that teach you that Christ is a good man, nice prophet, okay cat, but he wasn't God. Reject it. Because Jesus couldn't be just a prophet. Not with the stuff he said. Jesus is either God or he's crazy. It would insult the prophets to call him one of them if he's not God.

Because the prophets wouldn't have said anything like what Jesus said. Jesus said, he said to the Pharisees one day, "Before Abraham was, I am." Excuse me? You know how many centuries before this time, first century AD, Abraham lived? And they looked at him and said, "You're about 30 years old. What you talking about, you were before Abraham?" That's because he wasn't just a man. Anything that subtracts from his deity, reject it.

That's why the Jehovah's Witnesses—pray for them, pray for them, love them. When you get an opportunity, share the gospel with them. But reject the message out of hand. May be sincere people. They say, "But they're very sincere. The Mormons are very sincere. Various groups are very sincere." Sincerity is not a test of truth. Yes, they're sincere. Jehovah's Witnesses are very sincere and they're out there being very devout, but they are deceived and must be led to the simplicity of the gospel.

I'll never forget years ago when I was associate pastor in Philadelphia. One of our members came to me one day and said, "Pastor, you know, I'm starting to have Bible study with a lady, and I'm not quite sure if it's accurate. And so I want to know if it'd be possible for you to come meet the lady the next time we're going to get together and just kind of hear some of this."

And I said, "Really? So you're having this?" She said, "Yeah, we get together every couple of days and she's just walking me through some things." And she said, "Some of it sounds good, but some of it I'm not quite sure." And I said, "All right, well, where are y'all meeting?" She said, "We meet at Burger King," and she told me where this Burger King was, a mile or so from the church. And I said, "All right, what day you meet?" "Wednesday afternoon we'll be in there at 1:00." I said, "All right, I'll run up there."

And I went up there, and there she was sitting with a lady. I introduced myself to the lady. I said, "I'm her associate pastor, and she had some concerns about some of the teachings. What are the specific concerns you have?" She said, "Well, in the last lesson we looked at, it said that Jesus is not God. He is the Son of God, but not God the Son." I said, "Oh, really?" So I said, "Let me can I see the literature?" And the lady said, "Well, I'll just explain it to you myself."

I said, "All right. So you're telling her that Jesus is not God the Son, but somehow He is the Son of God?" She said, "Yes, that's exactly the truth." I said, "And where are you getting that? What's your reference point?" She said, "Right here in my Bible." I said, "I'm very interested in seeing what kind of Bible you have." And it turned out to be the New World Translation.

So of course, I knew right away, well, this is a text that isn't true to the Greek at all. It was created by the leaders of that particular religious group who themselves are not Greek or Hebrew scholars and didn't write it based on the original text, but wrote it based on a theology they had already created.

And so I explained to my member, I said, "Well, see, you gotta understand you're trying to discern truth, but you're discerning it from a product that is full of error." I said, "The Greek says here in John chapter 1"—that's where they were—"Saint John chapter 1." I said, "Let me tell you that the Greek would be properly, accurately translated into our language exactly what you'll find in NIV or King James or any of those."

I said, "Let me quote it to you in King James: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was with God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were created by Him, without Him was not anything created that—'" and I just went on and explained. I said, "Now stop right here. It says, 'In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.'"

I said to my member, "So that means the word equals God. So you understand that?" "Yeah, I see that clearly." I said, "All right, now go down several verses and it says, 'And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.'" I said, "Now in the same text, same context, word equals God. So if you move down and it says, 'Word became flesh,' you can substitute 'word' for 'God' because word equals God. That means God became flesh."

I said, "You see that?" She said, "Oh yes, that's clear." And the lady said, "No, no, no, that's not true." I said, "It's in the Bible." She said, "No, no, no, it's not in my Bible." I said, "That's your problem!"

I said, "Do you know when yours was created? Do you know who the scholars are that created that translation?" I said, "That's not a historic Bible. That's a text that tells you what your religion teaches you. It's not according to historic truth." So I said to my member, "So you get it now? Jesus is not only the Son of God, they've demoted Him. He is God the Son." "So you get that?" She said, "I got it."

She started packing up her stuff. She packing up her stuff. The other lady was trying to, "No, no, please, we're not finished with the lesson." She said, "No, I'm through, I'm through." I said, "Yeah, sis, I appreciate you checking this out. That's what you gotta do and what have you." And I said, "God bless you, we're praying for you." And the lady was protesting, but my member was packing up, she was out of there. And I went on and got me a Whopper and I left, too.

Multiplication, let me hurry up through this. Multiplication: if it multiplies the conditions of salvation, reject it. If it multiplies the conditions of salvation, reject it. Out of hand, reject it. If it tells you salvation equals faith in Christ plus something else. Faith in Christ plus obeying the law. Reject it. Because faith in Christ is enough to please God.

Because He gives us His spirit. His spirit walks with us and teaches us to walk according to the precepts and principles of the new covenant. And the new covenant is not going to cause you to disobey anything of significance in the old covenant. Which means I don't have to try to be a Christian Jew. If I walk by the law of loving God and the law of loving my neighbor.

Paul taught throughout his epistles that I will in fact experience fulfillment of all of God's plan and purpose for my life. We are to walk in obedience to the word as believers, but the difference is we're not trying to earn our salvation by obeying law. I'm saved first, then I'm taught to live in obedience. I don't try to live in obedience so I can be saved. So if it multiplies the conditions of salvation, reject it out of hand.

Finally, if it divides the body of Christ over non-essentials, reject it. There are groups that will tell you we're the only right church. If you don't worship with us in our denomination, our group, you're lost. I've had some members of our church come to me in a panic. "Pastor, I just found out from some folk that they said our church is not a true church." I said, "Let me guess." And I tell them the name of some cultic group. "Yeah, how did you know?"

I said, "They're famous for that. They decided they're the only church. You can't just fellowship with believers, you have to fellowship with their believers. You can't just be baptized, you gotta be baptized in their church." And I said that's well known, but of course they are not teaching anything according to the word of God. I said tell them to show you in the Bible the name of their church and the statement that says, "Whosoever goeth to this church shall be saved."

If it divides the body of Christ. We got another man on the radio now telling folk, "Leave your churches. God's no longer in the churches. He's only meeting with individual believers. You can meet with a few folk in your house, that's okay, but don't meet with an organized church." A man who purports himself to be a Christian scholar and going around teaching this on the radio all over the country.

And we've had a few folk leave this church because he told them God isn't in the churches. They see folk get saved every week, lives being changed, God moving by His spirit, but he told them God wasn't in the church. And they're sitting home with a Bible trying to be saved without fellowship and trying to discern truth without a pastor called and anointed of God to teach it. And he says you gotta stay home, and by the way, "Buy my tapes and CDs and stuff."

And that's the way you can be saved. This is the same man who twice said he had the date when Jesus was returning. Both of them are past dates, and people are still listening. The voices of error can be strong, but folks, let us contend for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. For it is truth that will set us free.

Guest (Male): You know, when government employees are trained to recognize counterfeit money, they don't study phony bills. They get to know the real money so well that they can easily spot any false version of it. If you want to truly learn the truth of God, immerse yourself in His word. Study it, meditate on it, memorize it. That's how you learn to discern the truth of God from the fallacy of man.

Well, I'm sure there's someone in your life—a friend, a coworker, a family member—with whom you want to share the gospel, but you've never quite had the right words to say. If so, you're going to love this month's Destined for Victory resource, "You Are So Loved." This booklet is a short readable gospel presentation that doesn't feel like a tract, and it just might open a door you've been praying to have open for years.

That's "You Are So Loved," our thank-you gift today for your generous donation to Destined for Victory. You can give by phone by calling 855-339-5500. That's 855-339-5500. Or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Paul Sheppard: And so all of us need to understand what it means to be what I want to talk about as a God-pleaser. Because there are some things that please God and move God, and there are some things that offend God. You and I want to be in the category of folk whose hearts move Him and whose hearts He's pleased with, as opposed to the people who offend God. That's next time in our message, "Anatomy of a God-Pleaser." Until then, remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.