False and True

We will start in II Corinthians. Corinth was a city in Greece. Paul wrote two letters to them, this being the second one, and he is talking to them about the very thing we have talked about in these meetings - discernment or revelation. We need revelation and we need spiritual discernment. It is a gift that comes by way of the Holy Spirit, but if you don’t know you need it and if you don’t seek it, you probably won’t receive it.

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Luke 11:9. Ask, seek, and knock - each one of those verbs is imperfect meaning it is continuous action. Ask, and keep on asking; seek, and keep on seeking; knock; and keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you. The Lord loves that. Mothers may not like it when the babies keep yelling out for them, but God loves it. He loves for us to just keep on keeping on. Over in the Old Testament, God says, “Demand of Me to know the signs, the promises.” He likes it when you give Him a hard time.

Now, let’s start in II Corinthians 11.

II Corinthians 11:13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

This is a problem they had back then in the early church. There were some false apostles and deceitful workers that transformed themselves into apostles of Christ. Do you think maybe the church could have those things today? They certainly do.

II Corinthians 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

When Satan comes, he does not come in a red suit with a pitchfork. He doesn’t look like a Satan. Paul is telling the Corinthians church about the false apostles and deceitful workers. They won’t look false. What will they look like? True apostles of Christ. That’s how they will look. Satan and his angels are very good at deception and disguises.

II Corinthians 11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

So, who is it that Satan wants to deceive? He wants to deceive Christians. He won’t bother people who aren’t believing anything, who are rejecting Christ already. That is where he wants them. But he will bother the people who are wanting to walk with God, wanting to know Him more. Those are the ones who will get hit. Jesus said that the deception would be so great that even the elect might be deceived (Matthew 24:24).

What does that tell you? Does that enlighten your hearts to know what you’re up against? Do you have any hunger to walk with God? Guess who Satan will be after. Surely God wouldn’t do that. Ask Job about it.

“You mean I have to go out into the world after becoming a Christian and be tempted like Jesus was?”

Yes, that is how you learn to overcome. You don’t become an overcomer without overcoming something. Now, let’s go to Romans 2. We’ve looked at the church in Corinth and now we will look at the church in Rome.

False apostles coming on the scene looking like true apostles. I don’t know if you have noticed it or not, but if you check the Old Testament, for example, there were times when there were prophets on the scene and then for years there seems nothing was happening. But whenever the prophets came on the scene, there was also a time of great rebellion, when the people were falling into idolatry. God would raise up some real prophets to speak the word of the Lord, to try to get them back on course where they should be.

Do you see what is happening in our country today? Do you suppose there will be some real prophets and apostles to say, “Come on Christians, let’s get back on course. Let’s don’t just get turned on to religion; let’s get turned on to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s get to the place that we know Him, not just know things about Him, but to really know Him because you are experiencing Him.” That is important. I think these scriptures I am giving you are very much in order for the time that we are living in. Now, let’s look at Romans 2.

Romans 2:28-29 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh:
29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Paul says, “There is a true Jew and a false Jew.” Ordinarily, we think that anyone who is born of Jewish parents, anyone that is of Israel, is a Jew. No, Paul says that’s not the case at all. A true Jew, a real Jew, is one who is a Jew inwardly, inwardly in the sense that Jesus Christ is a Jew. Do you understand what Paul is saying? When the Pharisees came and John the Baptist was baptizing in the river Jordan, he said, “Don’t tell me that you have Abraham as your father. Repent.” Just being born in the right nation is not enough to make you a man or woman of God.

There are a lot of people who claim to be Christians because they are a member of some church, and there are a lot of church members who aren’t really Christians. In fact, there are some apostles who aren’t really apostles because Paul just told us that. Satan is an angel of light. He comes looking good! I doubt seriously if there is any Christian on the face of the earth who hasn’t been deceived at one time or another by an angel of light, by someone who wasn’t a Christian, but they thought they were.

Romans 9:6 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel…

Just because they are Israelites, that doesn’t make them Israelites. Paul is trying to tell us something here. Jesus is sometimes referred to as an Israelite. The church is the true Israel.

Romans 9:7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall your seed be called.

The seed was in Isaac because he was the promised seed.

Romans 9:8 That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

When we were in Alabama, the brother there told us about a group that is sold on Jewish rituals. They believe that all the Jewish sacrifices will be restored. What an confront against the Lord Jesus Christ! The Israelites, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

Romans 9:9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.

Now let’s go to Hosea. Hosea is one of the twelve disciples of the Old Testament. I find that very interesting that you open up to the New Testament and find Jesus picking out twelve men to be twelve disciples, and in the Old Testament the last twelve books are twelve prophets, who are called the Minor Prophets.

Hosea 11:1 When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt.

Historically speaking, this verse is talking about the children of Israel being brought of Egypt. When Israel was a child - they were not a full-fledged nation yet.

Now to Matthew 2. This is speaking of the time when Jesus was born.

Matthew 2:13-15 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and His mother, and flee into Egypt, and be there until I bring you word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy Him.
14 When he arose, he took the young child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt.
15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called My son.

When the prophet spoke in Hosea, it was talking about the nation of Israel being brought out of Egypt. But the Holy Spirit reaches back and takes that verse of scripture, that prophecy, and says, “This is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ coming out of Egypt.”

Every time that Israel is spoken of in the Old Testament, it’s not necessarily speaking of the nation of Israel. Many times, it is speaking of Jesus Christ because He is called Israel. Also, anything that is spoken of for Jesus, it is true for the Body of Christ, for the Church. The Church is also spiritual Israel.

Egypt represents a bondage, a slavery. Just as the Israelites were brought out of Egypt and just as we see Jesus here was brought of Egypt, God has to bring us out of the things of this world that captivate us. It is the workings of those false apostles and deceitful workers that bring the people of God into a slavery.

Satan is very deceptive and cunning. Why did God give the Ten Commandments and all the sacrifices of the Old Testament? He told the Israelites to do this. What happened because later God told them, “I hate your feast days and your new moons, festivals, all your sacrifices. I hate those things.” Why is that? Because Satan got involved and misdirected it so that it wasn’t a worship unto God anymore. Paul says in Galatians that the Law was to bring the people to Christ (Galatians 3:24). What did it really do? It took people away from Christ. When the Lord Jesus Christ came, the Israelites did not recognize Him. They had misused and abused the Jewish religion to the point that it couldn’t do what it was supposed to do - bring them to Christ. That is why God hated it.

The same thing can happen to Christianity. In fact, let’s look at Revelation 11. What we have seen so far is that there are false apostles and there are true apostles, a true Jew and a false Jew, a true Israel and a false Israel.

Revelation 11:8 And their dead bodies… the two witnesses …shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

Where was Jesus crucified? At Golgotha in Jerusalem. He was crucified in Jerusalem, the religious capital. But what does God say? Spiritually, Jerusalem is Sodom and Egypt. You know what Sodom is. So, Jerusalem, the literal historical Jerusalem with its religion, is spiritually Sodom and Egypt.

Revelation 21:1-3 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.

This holy city is New Jerusalem, and we can find that again in Hebrews 12.

Hebrews 12:18,22-23 For you are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
22 But you are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.

There is a false Jew and there is true Jew. There is a false Israel and a true Israel. The false Jew is the one who thinks as long as he was born of a Jewish family, he is God’s elect. Not true. There is also a true Jerusalem and a false Jerusalem. You find this same principle all the way through the Scriptures. Where there is a true, there is a false. Where there is a false, there is a true. There is a false prophet and there is the true prophet, the false ministries and the true ministries. Here is the kicker - there is a true Christianity and there is a false Christianity, and the false not only looks like the true but sometimes the false looks better than the true. The majority of the people are drawn into the false thing because it looks so good.

One last scripture in Matthew 7.

Matthew 7:13 Enter in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.

There are two gates. One is a strait gate, like a strait jacket. It’s tight. A strait gate is a narrow gate. There is a narrow way and then there is the broad way. Jesus says the broad way leads to destruction.

Matthew 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it.

That is not saying that only a few people become Christians, but only a few Christians choose the narrow way and enters into the strait gate that leads to life. This is similar to the eye of the needle that Jesus talks about in another parable. The camel couldn’t go through the eye of the needle in the city gate. It had to get down on its knees and crawl through. If it had a pack on its back, that had to come off before it could get through the opening. In other words, you can’t take any baggage along when you choose the narrow way. In fact, you will be dumping things - things of self, self-centeredness, selfishness, and all the things of self that will get in the way of your walking with God.

All these things are in your flesh nature. Satan comes along and all he has to do is push the right button. How many times has some little thing happened, you got angry and popped off? Later, you think, “I shouldn’t have done that. Why did I do that?” Well, Satan pushed the right button. You have all those buttons in your flesh nature - self-centeredness, anger, jealousy, you name it’s there. Passivity, when you know you should be in the Word and seeking God, but you don’t feel like it. What do you do? You usually don’t do anything. You give in to that feeling.

All these feelings. Satan can cause you to have so many kinds of negative feelings. If you are not aware of who is pushing the buttons, most people just give in to those feelings over and over and over again.

Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

This is Jesus talking, and if Jesus says to beware of false prophets, you better be aware of them. You must have the revelation and discernment we’ve been talking about in order to know them. Can you discern the real thing? Can you discern what is really Christ rather than something that appears to be like Him? Many years ago, I went to a meeting that was a monthly meeting of denominations. During that meeting they had some worship with a young man playing his guitar and singing some songs. As we were leaving after the service, a guy walking along with me said, “Man, wasn’t that guitar playing anointed?” No, it wasn’t anointed at all, but this man thought it was. Every once in a while, I have someone send me an email asking if something is really of God. Is the Lord in it? Lots of time it’s not.

We need to know. We need to have discernment. It is a free gift. God will enable you to learn and to know. It just isn’t going to happen in a skinny minute. Growth comes gradually. I bless your hearts.