The following MacArthur sermon focuses on false Christian ideologies; how to discern them, and encouragement to confront them with biblical truth.
This is a battle fought in the mind; but it is worthy of fighting, as those stuck in the prison houses of false ideations will soon be eternally entombed by them.
Before the video, there is a list of sermon highlights:
- 2Cor 10:5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
- We are to crush these ideologies with biblical truth; we are called in both testaments to be faithful to the truth
- During the great awakening of 1730-1740 Jonathan Edwards assessed the conversion experiences of many: those who remained and those who fell away; he used tests given by the Holy Spirit in the epistle of 1 John
- When the Holy Spirit is working in a convert, the effects can be seen
- How do you know if you’re a true believer? By the effects of the Holy Spirit in your life: your longings, loves, hates…not your perfections, but your direction
- The Holy Spirit produces: repentance; hatred of sin; seeking of salvation; belief in the gospel; love of Christ; desire to obey; delight in the word…
- The Holy Spirit works in you whether you like it or not, if you are a true convert
- Believers who have discernment ministries are frequently seen by false teachers, as dividers of the body of Christ, and as transgressing against Christ
- Do not believe every spirit: a true work of the Holy Spirit exalts the Lord Jesus Christ
- John 14, 15, 16 state that the Holy Spirit will point believers to Christ and exalt Christ; many false ministries exalt the Holy Spirit
- When one seeks the Holy Spirit, that person has actually rejected the true work of the Holy Spirit; Christ has been obscured and the scriptures denigrated
- Much of the Charismatic movement is therefore, antiChrist
- Specific lies and false beliefs of Charismatic preachers: inspired by the AntiChrist
- Reasons why false gospels can be held by hundreds of millions, specific examples cited and explained
- Many counterfeit converts seek ecstatic experiences; feelings; health; prosperity; liberation; music…
- Worldly teachers, speaking to worldly people about worldly things…
- The Holy Spirit works humility, brokenness and repentance into true converts; His fruit (Gal. 5) is borne
- When Christ spoke of the widow and her giving the last two mites she had, He was not praising her, He was saying that she wrongly believed in a religion of works and it had failed her; furthermore, that such systems would be torn down by Him
- A true work of the Holy Spirit moves converts to read the Word of God
- Examples of false teachers that claim that Satan is responsible for making believers think that scripture is sufficient; those teachers believe in extra biblical revelation; a few teachers identified and their heresies explained by scripture
- Another test: fellowship, loving one another via the love that the Holy Spirit works in you; self-sacrificing love, agape love
- Charismatics, e.g., are about self: gifts are for me; to edify me; prayers for me; feelings for me; experiences for me = the way of selfishness
Christ told people numerous times in the gospel accounts, pick up your cross, deny yourself and follow Me, that is in line with the whole of scripture: God’s way.
This one point alone is sufficient to tell anyone searching for truth that the prosperity gospel movement is a false system.
For another post in this blog on 1 John Truth Tests, click the following link; the following post is narrative only, about a 5 minute read, but very important to those seeking to learn discernment: