Key To End Time Survival: Guard Your Heart

And I said at that time, we had three statements from the Bible to help us survive and to grow during the end time, so that when Jesus Christ returns, we're ready. We're ready for His return. The time is not when we see it very, very, very imminent. The time is now to be working on those things. So last week we talked about stirring up the Spirit, fanning the flames of the Spirit.

It's something we have to do no matter how long we've been in the church, no matter how solid we might think, no matter how established we might think we're in the church, it's something that we need to do all the time. And we talked about Revelation 2 and the message of the Church of Ephesus, where God said, hey, you've been doing a lot of the things, but you know what?

You need to go back to your first love. You need to be doing things, and you need to have the zeal that you had when you first came into the church, when you first started following Me. And if we're honest with ourselves, all of us, that applies to every single one of us, no matter how little or how long we've been in the church, we need to stir that up and fan those flames. You'll remember, too, that we talked about a couple of above all else verses last week. And one of those was, above all else, you know, the love of the brethren.

Peter told us that in 1 Peter 4, I believe it was. Yeah, 1 Peter 4, 8. Above all else, love the brethren. You know, this is what we're working toward. When God says, above all else, or put this first, He doesn't mean forget the commandments. He doesn't mean forget the way of life you've been taught. That's necessary. But you know what? We need to be growing into those things. So we talked about that verse as one of the 12 points that we looked in.

How, what could we do to stir up the spirit, to fan the flames, and the things that we need to be working toward. Because as we're fanning those flames, we will become more and more the congregations that God wants us to become. We just have to kind of do the things that He said. We also looked at a verse in James, in James 5, 12, where He said, above all else, and He's talking about, you're like your SBS and your no-be-no, but practice the things you know.

Make yourself do the things that you need to do. It takes discipline. God will open our minds to it, but we have to be doers of the Word and not hearers. He'll help us hear. And we hear when we're at services and listening to sermons and whatever we do, but we have to have the discipline to do it. So we talked about a couple of above all else verses last week. And this week, as we go into the second point, of things we need to be aware of, we've got another above all else verse we want to turn to.

So let's turn to Proverbs 4 and read a series of verses here in Proverbs 4. The last seven or eight of them here in Proverbs 4. Proverbs 4, verse 20. I was just going to read the one verse I was going to turn to, but this morning I thought, you know what, it's always good for us to read the context and any words we read in the Bible, the instructions that were given to put them into our minds. In verse 20, Proverbs 4 says, My son, give attention to my words.

Incline your ear to my sayings. Don't let them depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart. You can see what Solomon is saying. These are words God is saying to you and me. For they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh.

Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Put away a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you. Keep your eyes on the kingdom. Keep looking forward. Don't go to the left.

Don't go to the right. Keep your eyes forward. Don't turn to the right or to the left and remove your foot from evil. Words that we should be reminding ourselves of as we go through life and some difficult times that we're going through now.

Maybe not so much difficult physically, but certainly spiritually this has been a trying time for God's people and a time when we should be establishing ourselves and looking to God and getting to know ourselves better and where we stand with God as we look at it through His eyes. So the verse I want to look at, and I want to end it on this morning, is verse 23. And there in the King James it says, Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.

When you look at the Hebrew words that are translated there the way they are, that really means, above all else. Put this first. Let me read to you what some of the newer translations, how they put that verse. 23.

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Above all else, guard your heart. There's a lot packed into that verse. I could probably spend the next hour just talking about that verse alone and all the implications of it because it's something that defines us. What is our heart? Now, let me give you a definition from the Bible dictionary on the heart in the Old Testament. It says it's used, this word, Hebrew 3820, in the Strongs, is used figuratively, very widely for the feelings, the will, and the intellect. Likewise, it is the center of anything.

Our heart. It is who we are. It's at the core of who we are.

And that's what God is interested in.

He's interested in our words, but our words better match our heart. He's interested in our actions, but our actions better match what's in our heart.

He's interested in what we think. What we think should be reflective of what our heart is.

Above all else, guard your heart.

Guard it. Keep it. Protect it. Because God has given us a very, the most valuable thing He could give us. Let's look at the New Testament, Philippians 4.

Last week we ended on Philippians 4, verses 6 and 7. So let's go right back there as we continue today in verse 4, in Philippians 4.

And verse 6, it says, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, always be grateful for what God has done in our lives. There's always things to be grateful for. By prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. Saying, don't worry about things. The same thing as Jesus Christ said in Matthew 6, right? Don't worry about these things. Be anxious for nothing. Give it to God. He knows our needs before we do. Trust in Him. Cast your cares and concerns on Him.

And ask Him in prayer with thanksgiving. And verse 7, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Keep close to Him. Pray to Him.

As you yield to Him, as He grows His Spirit in you, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, the peace that you can't even understand until you feel it, until you have God's Holy Spirit, it'll guard your hearts.

It'll guard your hearts. You know, the New Testament, when the word that's translated, hearts there, is even more detailed than the Old Testament. When you look at the Greek word translated, heart there, it's pretty long. It says, it's the center and seat of spiritual life. The heart is the soul or mind, as it is the fountain and seat of thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, and endeavors. It is the seat of understanding, and the faculty and seat of intelligence, it is the seat of will and character.

It's everything. It's who we are. It defines us. So when God says, love me with all your heart and all your soul, He's not saying something that we should take lightly.

Our heart is our essence.

And He is very concerned about our hearts, and He looks at our hearts.

You know, when before we were baptized, before God called us, we had a heart that was evil, right?

Jeremiah 17. Listen back to Jeremiah 17. To kind of just get a picture of ourselves, every single human being, not just some of us, but all of us.

Jeremiah 17, verse 9, tells us who we were, right? Verse 9, the heart is deceitful above all things.

Deceitful above all things. That's the heart that we had before God called us.

That's the heart that has to be weeded out and has to be transformed to a new heart that God gives us. Doesn't happen overnight. God gives us the beginnings of it, and we have to work at it. We have to make the choices. It's built our hearts by the choices that we make, the things that we do, the self-denial that we enact in our lives. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Now, deceitful means it fools us. We might think that we're really good people. Before we came in church, you know, I did this. Look, I helped my neighbors out. I was willing to give whatever. God says it's deceitful. Look at the things that you do compared to what my will is for you. It's desperately wicked. We were all resistant. You know, there's people who still have an attitude of resistance. They hear something and say, I don't want to do that. Or that doesn't apply to me. And I'm special.

You know, maybe all of us thought that at some point in time, even when we're in the church. And I think my circumstances are different than everyone else's God understands. Now, you know what we were told in the Old Testament, when God was bringing Israel out of Egypt, it's the same law for the stranger and the native-born Israelite. You know what? It's the same law for everyone, regardless of your circumstances.

The heart is deceitful and can deceive us into thinking, we're doing okay. God's okay. I've got an exemption on that one.

Or that's a little sin that, you know, isn't that important? It's not affecting anyone. No. God's looking for a transformation of the heart. Who can know it? Well, God can know it. Verse 10, he says, I, I the eternal, search the heart. I test the mind, even to give every man, according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

You know, our heart, our heart will be revealed. And God will give us what we, what we sow in this life. But we have to go into this and recognize, at our core, in all our lives, whether we grew up in the church or whether we came in, you know, at whatever age it was, in our core in our lives, our hearts are wicked. Our hearts are deceitful. Our hearts will mislead us. That's the natural man. That's the carnal man. That's the same thing Paul said in Romans 8-7, when he says, the carnal mind is enmity against God and cannot be subject to him.

Right? We all felt that. Maybe at times when we hear things, we think, not me. I don't know if I want to go there, and we have to kind of ask God, help me to yield, soften my heart, let me understand that, and begin to apply what you want in my life. But God searches our hearts. He wants our hearts to become what he wants them to become. He wants us to be in his kingdom. He wants to give us eternal life. He wants to give us everything he has planned for us, that it tells us in 1 Corinthians, we can't even imagine. It hasn't even entered into our hearts what that is. But that's what God wants for us, but we have to show him we want it, too.

By doing the things, right? It's up to us. He'll give it. He makes it possible.

But we have to do the things, and sometimes it's very difficult to do the things and see ourselves and tell ourselves, no, we can't do that anymore.

Let's turn back to Psalm. You know, we see King David talking about the heart, and he's very eloquent in his words. And when we understand how important it is, and we can see King David, God said, here's a man after my own heart.

Over the course of his life, he made mistakes. His heart deceived him.

But then when he followed God, God said, here's a man after my own heart. In Psalm 139, verse 23, look what David says.

These are words that he really means. They're not just words that he wrote down because they sound good. Well, if we say, God wants to see that we really mean what we're saying. If we are to say the same thing that David said in 139, verse 23, Search me, O God, and know my heart.

You know my heart. I want you to know what's in me. Try me and know my anxieties. And see if there is any wicked way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting.

You see what David was saying? It's like, I know there's still this heart. There's still parts of me that are resistant to you, that aren't obeying you, that aren't yielding to you, or whatever it is, there's parts of me that are there. Search my heart. Let me know. Because he was willing, I'll change anything. I'll work on it. It may not be easy, but I'm willing to sacrifice me to be the way you want me to be. Because he had his eyes straight forward. He had his eyes on the promises of God the same way you and I do. And if we're going to survive the end times, we need to be aware of our heart. We need to be working on it now. We need to be building it now. At the same time, we need to be guarding it so that we aren't being counterproductive in what we're doing. Let's go back to Hebrews 4, too. The New Testament.

The author of Hebrews.

It has a very insightful verse here when it talks about our heart and how we can kind of measure it. What's the measuring stick for our hearts? Well, we have to be honest with ourselves. We have to kind of like take the blinders off and not deceive ourselves into thinking, it's okay, I hear these things, but it's not me, it's not that important.

Verse 12 of Hebrews 4 says, for the Word of God. That's the word you've got sitting there in your Bible. That's the word you hear at Sabbath services and Bible studies and other times that you might hear the Word of God. The Word of God is living. It's powerful. It's sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit.

See how deep it gets?

Even to the division of soul and spirit, right down into our bones, right down into our being, everything that we are, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, everything, the very core of who we are. And it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

We want to know whether our thoughts, our intents, our the heart that God wants. You can just pick up the Bible.

Don't sugarcoat it. Read it.

You know? And as we talked about last week, if you see something, repent.

Return to God.

Return to His way.

That's what He's called us to do.

So when we're baptized, you know, God tells us to get a new heart. Let's go back to 1 Samuel. I always like this verse back here, because even in the New Testament, when God gave the select few that He did His Holy Spirit for the purposes that He wanted them to have at that time, it kind of gives us a picture of what He does with us.

You know, we know that when we're baptized, we should have repented. We recognize our faults. We're turning to God and we're saying, I'm going to do things your way from now on. I reject myself. I reject the way things I used to do. I have to be taught. So we're like babies we talk about. That we have to relearn, not relearn. We have to learn God's way. And we have to learn the way to do things. Well, here's Samuel, you know, in 1 Samuel, but there's Saul. He's selected as the first king of Israel, and God gives him his Holy Spirit. And in verse 9 of 1 Samuel 10 says this, it says, so was when he had turned his back to go from Samuel that God gave him another heart.

God gave him another heart, and all those signs came to pass that day. And then he was out there prophesying with the people who were preaching God's word and everything. He gave him a new heart. That's what God does to us. He gives us a new heart.

When we're baptized.

But that heart has to be exercised. That heart has to be developed.

Where it grows and how it grows is what we choose to do every day of our life. Do we keep doing things the way we used to do it? Do we keep doing things, maybe change for a while, and then go back to the way we did before? Like Paul is talking about, or Revelation is talking about, to the Church of Ephesus.

It's something that we have to be cognizant every day and think, oh no, that's the way I used to do it. It's so easy to fall back into the way we used to do things. The way we used to think. The way we used to communicate.

Excuse me.

But we can't do that. You can write down Ezekiel 1831, where God tells Israel, get yourself a new heart. Get yourself a new spirit. Do it! Because why would you die, O Israel? God has given us life. He's given us the words of life. That's what His promise is.

He says, get a new heart.

Get a new spirit.

He's already given those to us, but it's up to us.

It's up to us to develop them.

2 Thessalonians.

2 Thessalonians 3 and verse 5.

2 Thessalonians 3 and verse 5.

Now, a prayer that we can pray for each other. And a prayer that we can pray for ourselves, too. Paul writes to the Thessalonians here. He says in verse 5, Now may the Lord direct your hearts, may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.

May God direct your hearts. You know, we can help each other. We can pray for each other. May God direct our hearts into the love of God. And later, we'll read the verse in 2 John that says, The love of God is keeping His commandments. It's yielded to Him. It's being obedient to Him. It's doing the things that He wants us to do.

But there's that word, patience, that we read in the context of guarding our hearts in Philippians 4, 6, and 7.

Now, through the patience that God gives us, we will guard our hearts.

And we'll talk a little bit about guarding our hearts. But what do we need to guard our hearts against?

You know, we could talk a whole sermon or two on developing our hearts. And in fact, just about every sermon you hear is going to talk about how to develop your hearts. You just have to be thinking and listening. And not just having the words go in one ear and out the other, but taking them to heart and looking and saying, Do I do what I'm hearing?

Have I grown dull of hearing? Are there words that I keep hearing, but are they just kind of bounce off of me anymore because I've heard them so many times?

And sometimes we just need to kind of look at those words and change them up a little bit. Like stirring up the spirit, fanning the flames of the spirit.

You know, guarding our hearts is keeping our hearts secure, keeping it under lock and key. If we have something that's really valuable, if you've got a pot of gold in your house, you're probably going to keep it under lock and key, right? You're going to guard that pretty closely. You're going to make sure no one gets to that, that shouldn't get to it.

And when we look at our hearts and we're guarding our hearts, that's the same thing God wants us to do. You keep those under lock and key. You keep those secure.

You don't allow anyone to just come in and change the heart or have access to it. You guard it. You guard it.

And we've heard some of the things that we guard it with. The Word of God.

Making sure that we understand it. Doing the things that God said. Understanding what our old heart is and what our natural tendencies are.

You know, as we look at what we have to guard our hearts against.

I've got number one listed here. Us. Ourselves, right? Because there is a way of thinking that we used to have. It's so easy to fall back into that.

Hebrews 12, verse 1 says, The sin that does so easily beset us. That before we even know what we're doing, we're doing things the way we used to do it and have to catch ourselves. Or there's a way of thinking or habits that we have that, you know, something happens and all of a sudden we find ourselves doing something and we think, wait, no, no, that's not me anymore. That was supposed to be put aside. That was the old me. That's not the new heart that God wants me to have. So we have to guard ourselves against ourselves. And remember, the heart is desperately wicked. The heart is deceitful. It will mislead us. If we only look to ourselves, if we're just kind of processing everything through our thoughts and our minds, that's a problem.

That's a problem. We have to guard ourselves against our own thinking, our old way of thinking.

I've got number two, our own understanding.

We can do physical things wrong. We can have sins beset us. We can have our... We can kind of look at some things in the Bible. And all of a sudden, our own understanding, the way we want to interpret those verses, the way we want to hear those things, it's like, oh, I think that makes sense. In Proverbs 3, verse 5, it says, don't lean to your own understanding. Don't lean on it.

Lean on God.

And I said Hebrews 12, one, our own old sins and our old habits that can come back into us. Even our old means of communicating.

We all have to learn, as we learn in the book of James, our mouth, our mouth, and Christ said, what comes out of your mouth is indicative of your heart.

So we have to kind of work on what comes out of our mouth, but it starts in working on our hearts.

I got number four, the influence of friends.

And family.

The influence of friends and family. You know, they can have an effect on us.

First Corinthians 15, 33 says, evil company corrupts good habits.

No one's saying we shouldn't have contact with people or have relationships with our old friends that see things differently.

But watch the influence. Watch what's going on. Don't let them get into your mind. Don't let them think, this is okay. You know, we live in a time now that's so easy for that to happen, right? When you look at what's going on in the world around us, you've got all these things and all these influences everywhere.

Everywhere. Everyone's trying to tell us what we should think. Everyone wants to tell us what's wrong. What's wrong with our thinking? What's wrong with the way we live?

And certainly there's things to take to heart and examine ourselves with.

But you know what?

The litmus test is God.

That's where we go. Don't let people influence the way you think.

Let God influence the way you think. Let His Holy Spirit influence the way you think. Don't compromise. Don't get lax. Don't become apathetic. Don't go back to your old way of how it was before. And if you see yourself doing it, or if you see your friends or spouse doing it, correct them. Pull them back.

Don't mince words. Bring them back to where they need to be. Don't let them let go of what it is that God has called them to and offered to us.

And of course, the influence of the world we could talk about, too. In fact, let's talk about that. Let's turn to a couple verses on the influence of the world. Luke 21.

You know, as we look ahead between now and then, it's not going to get easier, if I can use that term. It's not going to go back to the way it was before. There's going to be increasing challenges to everything that we hold dear. Increasing challenges to everything that we stand for.

And it's going to be ramped up. God is merciful in that little things happen that we build our steps, we build our character, we build our determination to not fall.

And then the next trial comes, and we're able to withstand that. And God builds those things in us as we're conscious of what we're doing and making those decisions. In verse 34, Christ, in His words, Luke 21, says, Take heed to yourselves, pay attention to yourself, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the cares of this life.

So easy to go back to the way it was before. You don't have to come. You don't have to come to weekly Sabbath services anymore, right? I mean, now we can just do it at home until this thing passes and we have our halls open up or we can have them 100% attendance again.

Very easy to sleep back into that and have the Sabbath day become just another day of the week. God says, Don't do that. Jesus Christ says, Take heed! Be aware! When He says, Take heed, He means this is a warning. This is what's going to happen.

Your heart is going to deceive you into this and you're going to think, This is okay, this is okay, and whatever. But be aware what your heart will do if it's not guarded with the truth that God has given you. Take heed! Don't let the cares of this life weigh you down. And that day, come on you unexpectedly.

It's going to be a very sorrow, sorry day for some people.

When that day comes and they realize, I wasted all that time, I didn't do what I knew to do.

Over in 1 John 3, verse 15, He says, Don't love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Doesn't mean we shouldn't live in the world. Doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy the physical things of life. Doesn't mean that we don't work. Doesn't mean that it's wrong to have material possessions and enjoy them.

Don't make that your priority. Don't be that where your heart is. Your heart needs to be where God is. He's the one who put us in this world. He's the one who says, Make your way in here and grow in character by the resistance and the self-denial that we practice every day. Don't love the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that's in the world, you know, there's that little word, all again. When God says all, He doesn't mean, well, most. Like we might. He says all. All that is in the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. It's not of God. It's of the world.

What can you learn from the world?

The things not to do.

Anything in the world that you learn, any of the opinions, any of that stuff that's going on, you know, be aware of what it is.

And the world is passing away, and we see that happening before our eyes and our lifetimes.

Well, our lifetimes is whatever God determines the time is. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it. But He who does the will of God abides forever.

He who builds the heart.

He who asks God to search my heart. Let me know my intents and motives. And let me take the effort and make the effort to change those with your Holy Spirit, because that's the only way our hearts can ever change.

So giving in to lawlessness, listening to the things that are going on, and the arguments that are out there, and everything that's just seems, in some cases, so senseless.

You know, it's not a better way.

It's not a better way than God's way. It's the world's way, and it won't work. The world is passing away.

Don't be influenced by it. Be influenced by God.

So we could talk about all those things. And there's probably more you could add to that as well. But there is one major thing in the Bible that God warns us about as we approach the end times.

That we need to be aware of. And He mentions it many, many, many times. Let's go back to Matthew 24 and see it in Christ's own words. He brings it up two or three times in the Olivet prophecy.

And it's throughout the New Testament, over and over and over again.

Matthew 24.

And down at the end, near the end of the... Well, no, let's begin in verse 5, actually. Matthew 24, verse 5.

He says, For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and they'll deceive many.

There were people who were living, you know, in the Apostle John's time. We read, you know, 2 and 3 John. People who left the church, they were deceived, and some of them were deceivers. Because they weren't guarding their heart, they kind of were leaning to their own understanding and doing things the way that they wanted to.

Excuse me again.

He says, So many will come in my name, and they will deceive many. In verse 11, He goes through the four horsemen, basically. In verse 11, then many false prophets will rise up, they will deceive many.

Just for those of us in the church, how many do we know that have been deceived over the years and have thrown away the truth of God for some deception?

Because they didn't love the truth and because it didn't become part of their heart that they were guarding.

Down in verse 23. In verse 22, He says, For the elect's sake those days will be shortened, and if anyone says to you, Look, here's Christ, or there, don't believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

Even the elect! It's going to be so, so impressive. It's going to be so hard to resist that even the elect Christ says, it's not going to be simply, You don't have to keep the Sabbath anymore. That's an easy one to resist. You don't have to keep the Holy Days anymore. That's an easy one to resist and say, No, that's not true.

Boy, whatever happens between now and the return of Jesus Christ, even the elect, even the elect could be deceived. That means we better know the truth. It must be in our heart.

And we better use the time now to be doing that.

And it says in verse 25, Look, I've told you this beforehand. I don't want you to be taken by surprise. This is a warning.

Be prepared.

Know what's going on. Know what you believe.

Put it in your heart and keep it there and keep it under lock and key. Don't let someone come in and take it away. Therefore, verse 26, if they say to you, Look, he's in the desert. Or don't go out or, or, Look, he's in the inner rooms. Don't believe it. It's going to seem really plausible. It's going to seem really, really true. But he says, Don't believe that. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Now he tells us how he will be coming to earth.

He's not going to be hidden in an inner room someplace, so we have to go and find him.

The whole world will see him, as we talked about here on Wednesday. Every eye will see him. So don't be deceived. No! Know what the Bible says. Lock it in your hearts. And keep it there.

You know, today one of the words that, or I guess one of the phrases that has been coined, is fake news. Right? Everyone's heard of fake news.

And I guess one way you can couch what's going to happen in the future is fake prophets and fake gospels. Right? So fake news. We all know what fake news is.

And you know, that's...

And we have a lot of it in the world today. Every once in a while, you know, I'll listen to world news, and I'll hear things, and I'll find my mind going in one way. And every once in a while, I'll go and look at another channel and see what that channel has to say. And it's like, oh, I didn't know that.

So it's not maybe totally fake news, but it's selective news. What I, as broadcaster, want you to think and what you to know.

So it's very dangerous to just be listening to one channel all the time. And I've talked to some people who have, and it's caused them some depression and whatever. Don't believe everything you hear on TV.

Don't believe every opinion that you hear on TV. Check it out. Sometimes listen to other sides so you get the whole story on what's going on, because more so than any time that I've been alive, news is more, this is what we want you to believe, and we will take everything and give it to you in that so that we can influence your mind, influence your heart, get you angry, do whatever it is.

Listen, but pay attention and just don't fall prey to it. Fake gospel, fake teachers, fake prophets are even more dangerous. And increasingly, I mean, ever since Jesus Christ was here, you can read about it, you know, down through the ages of the New Testament church. Paul, back in the early, in the church in Ephesus, he was talking about fake teachers, fake people who were going to come in and take them away as he was leaving that church in Ephesus. In Acts 20, he said, I don't want to leave because I know that after I leave, there's going to be fake teachers come in. He said, false prophets, fake teachers come in.

What are they going to do? They're going to try to take you away. They just kind of want to build their own congregation. They want you to just see things the way they do. And he said, you know what?

Even in your own congregation, even from in, there's going to be people who have new ideas that are going to take you away if they can. They're fake. They're fake preachers.

They're fake apostles. It's important for us to know the Bible so that you can choose, that you can see what the truth is versus the fake teaching or the false teaching. You know, 1 Corinthians, that book was written to a church in Corinth that was going off track a little bit.

They were losing what the track of what the meaning of the laws were. And so Paul, as he finds out about these things, has to correct them. You have to do this. This is the way you do things. You know, the Apostle John in 2nd and 3rd John, he says, do the things you were taught from the beginning. Don't water them down. Don't salt them. Don't flavor them in a different way. Don't think that's not important anymore. We're in the 21st century. We don't do things.

And listen, everything I hear in the world and everything I hear on the news and everything my friends are saying, yeah, it does kind of seem like we might be out of step with things. Don't believe that. That's fake. That's not truth. That's fake news. That's fake gospel. That's fake preachers. Ours is in the Word of God, no matter how out of date in the world's eyes it is, because the world's heart is not God's heart, and our heart has to be what God has.

You know, in Galatians, Paul said to the people there who were called into the church, they believed they were given a new heart. They were baptized. And what did he say? I marvel at how soon you've departed from the gospel. What happened to those people? They were influenced by others. They kind of listened. They didn't have it under lock and key, and it began to affect what they thought, what they did. And he had to come in and say, you're departing. You're losing it. You're believing the fake gospel. You know, Ephesians 4, we talk about the church many times, how God sets it up, and that's the body through which he grows us and develops us, and that he wants us to be.

Individually, where he works with us, and as a body as well, that we work together to become the house and the temple that he wants us to become. And what he says there in Ephesians 4 is that we are taught that we are no longer people who are carried away by every wind of doctrine. You know, there's all sorts of winds of doctrine in the world today. There is going to be even more compelling winds of doctrine between now and the return of Jesus Christ.

If we aren't situated, if our heart isn't established, if we don't know the truth, if we have doubts and we're allowing those things to come in, I would say, you know, call me. Call someone in the church. Talk. Get to know what the Bible is and start doing what the Bible says, because it's all going to happen. Find the truth and hold on to it.

You know, in all three of his epistles, the Apostle John, that were written near the end of his life, he talks about false gospels, fake gospels, fake preachers. If you look, two whole books, as we approach the book of Revelation, are dedicated to false teachers and false prophets. That's just how compelling the influence is going to be as we approach the end time.

Jesus Christ said, many, many will be deceived. And it's going to be so compelling that even the elect could be deceived. And it's interesting, as we head toward the book of Revelation, the way the Bible is laid out today, that we have two chapters that are totally dedicated to this fake gospel, fake preachers, and fake teachers. Let's look. Let's look at a couple of those, because God is warning us, and he's giving us time to see who we are and to make sure we are guarding our hearts. So, this is the 2nd Peter. The 2nd Peter and the other book that's totally dedicated to that is the little book of Jude, one chapter. But here we are in 2nd Peter. Let's begin it in chapter 1 and verse 13. You can see what Peter is saying here. He kind of even says some words that, as I was looking at these verses this week, kind of sounded like some of the stuff we've been talking about. In verse 13, he says, yes. You know, he goes through the first verses, and he kind of talks about the traits that we as Christians need to develop. In verse 13, he says, yes, I think it's right. As long as I'm in this tent, as long as I'm in this physical body, to stir you up by reminding you. You know, we, as people, need to be reminded. We have to kind of stir it up. We have to kind of remember who we are and encourage each other, too, as it says in Hebrews 10. I think it's right, as long as I'm in this temporary body here, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my disease. And he did, right? Here's a letter. Here's an epistle. It's there that even we're reading it, more than just the people that are there today. And you know, as we talk about these things that occurred to me, we have a record of these things that are said in church. I mean, today we may not have epistles that are being bound into the Bible, but there are sermons on the web from the church that teaches the truth, the whole truth from the Bible. There are booklets that you can read. There's the Bible that you can read that's right there in front of you. We have those reminders of the things that maybe once in a while we look for those things and then not just choose something that we find titillating, but something that might be corrective and instructive and and and peek our heart a little bit of what we need to do.

For we did not follow, verse 16. We didn't follow cunningly devised fables. We didn't believe fake news when we were preaching this gospel to you. We didn't follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And you remember in Matthew 17, He said, Hear Him. Hear Him. Listen to Him. And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed. God has opened your mind to truth.

You look at this Bible and you know what it says. God's given us the same spirit that when we read these words, we know what they mean. And some, we progress into and we talk about it and we dig into it to know what God says. And Peter is saying, Listen, we've got the prophetic words from the Old Testament confirmed. I saw it. That's what I'm preaching to you. I haven't departed to the right or left. Which you do well to heed, that's a warning, as a light that shines in a dark place. The truth of God is a light that shines in a dark, dark, dark world.

God's led you to that light. Don't ever wander from it. Don't wander back into darkness. That is a huge message that God would have us be aware of. You would do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Keep going. Keep moving on. Keep your hearts. Keep your eyes on God. Knowing this first, the newer translation says in verse 20, above all else, know that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. Boy, there's a lot of prophets out there, aren't there? I can go on the internet and I can look at everything in Revelation and find every imaginable thing that everyone has every thought.

This is what this means and this is what that means and on and on and on. No prophecy is ever by private interpretation. You know, there's a danger, as I mentioned, as we go into the book of Revelation, that we've all kind of speculated at some of the things because God gives us the outline of what's going to happen.

We might speculate on what it is that's going to happen and those things can kind of become doctrine in our minds after a while if we let them stick up there, if we let them be in there too long. And it's fine to speculate. It's fun to speculate and say what it is, but always remember it's going to be God's will. And he does things far different than we as humans would do and that we hold to what the prophecies say and let God interpret the Bible.

The Bible interprets itself and God will open our minds to the interpretation of is as it is here. Listen to the truth and don't go searching for other truth that titillates your own personal interests. Fine to do that if you're that but be guarding your heart that that doesn't sink in because Satan uses any tool he can, any tool he can to take us away from the truth.

For some it's one thing, for another it's something else. For some it's, well, this is prophecy. I'm going to listen to this and I'm going to listen to this guy and I want to believe this and boy that's that appeals to me. And all of a sudden we find people who are off doing their own thing. Verse 21 he says, for prophecy never came by the will of man.

Prophecy never came by the will of man. But holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. And then he goes into chapter 2.

In verse 1 he says, there were also false prophets. There were fake prophets among the people, even as there will be fake teachers among you who will secretly bring into such destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them and bring on themselves swift destruction. Secretly. Deceptive, right? Kind of just introduce something a little bit. Here's my idea on that. I'll whisper it to this person and this person. Yeah, we'll all agree on that. Yeah, that sounds really good. That must be what the idea is. And all of a sudden you've got a problem on your hands, everyone. And many will follow their destructive ways because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. Go back to our old way, listening to man rather than listening to the Bible.

Listening to our own hearts, our own understanding, rather than listening to the Bible. Listening to the truth, looking at the Bible, keeping ourselves close, understanding what's going on, and doing the truth. Because in verse 3 we have what the key to all these things is by covetousness. They will exploit you with deceptive words. What do they want? They want their own way.

They want you to have their opinion. And those who are deceptive will give you what they want you to hear, but you can't do that. You can't listen to that. You can't lend yourself to your own understanding. They're looking to win you. Covetousness. You're the prize. By covetousness, they will exploit you with deceptive words for a long time. Their judgment hasn't been idle, their judgment hasn't been idle, and their destruction doesn't slumber.

Let's drop down to verse 7 here. There's another sermon in 4, 5, and 6, but let's look at the first two words here, verse 3 of verse 4, and pick it up in verse 7. If God, verse 7, delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked, Lot lived in a time like us, right?

He was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked. He saw it all around him in Sodom and Gomorrah. We see it on TV. We hear it in broadcasts. We hear it among our friends. We hear it, you know, touted as this and that and whatever. We live in the same time Lot did, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked for that righteous man dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds.

That's us. We hear and see lawless deeds every day. Whenever we flick on a TV program anymore, likely it's going to have some lawless deeds that are going on in it. And yet, you know, Lot would see it playing out in real life. We see it on a tube. We hear it on the internet. We might hear it someplace else. And notice what it says? His soul was tormented. Tormented as he saw those things.

Are our souls tormented when we see those things, or have we become callous to them? Are they just everyday life now? That's kind of the way life is. Not a big deal.

Because we just keep hearing it over and over and over again, even to the point we might think, well, they have a point. They don't have a point. They don't have a point. It's what the Bible says is right. Not what man or the world says is right.

And it goes on to verse 9. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. And then, beginning in verse 10, he kind of gives some of the traits of these people that we can be on the lookout for. When we see false prophets or someone coming to us with a different gospel, or we're turning on the internet or turning on TV, and find ourselves being lured, or our friends saying this and that and whatever, he says, especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and they despise authority, they're presumptuous. They're going to take things into their own hands. They're going to just put themselves up where they shouldn't be. They are presumptuous. They are self-willed. You're not going to change their mind. They're going to do and keep marching forward with exactly the way they're going to do things. No one's going to tell them any different. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They're not evil, or they're not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries. And it talks about, you know, angels don't even do that. They don't bring a reviling accusation against us before God or them against God. You know, they would have every right to say, you know what, look what this person did over here. No, they don't even do that. So maybe if we've got these reviling accusations that we are giving to each other, or we see us in any of those things, we might be looking at our heart and thinking, oh, that wicked, deceitful heart is coming through again. But these, like natural, brute beats made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they don't understand. And that's a word for today, too, when you look at fake news. You may not even understand. I mean on all sides, right? Not just one or the other. Does anyone really understand the whole thing? And they will utterly perish in their own corruption and receive the wages of unrighteousness as those who counted pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots. They are blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you.

That's some tough words. Those are words that, you know, we need to be aware of and pay attention to as we head toward the time. Because there are people, what they want to do in their covetousness is they want to win you. You're the prize, right? God wants us, and he wants us to yield to him, but Satan wants us to, not for good. He just simply wants us to not follow God. He wants to win us, so death is our lot, so that we don't have the opportunity that God has given us.

You know, we talk about our hearts and we talk about our treasures, and we keep them under lock and key. Why would we do that? Why do we have locks on our doors? Why do we keep valuables and saves? Why do we have safe deposit boxes at banks? Why do we do those things? We want to keep them safe, and we want to keep them from the thieves, right? The thieves who would come in and take away those valuable things. Remember what John said back in John 10? Actually, what Christ said that John wrote in John 10?

As Christ is talking about, he's the only way in. He's the only way into the flock, and that his sheep would know his sheep. In verse 10, well, we're in verse 9 of John 10, But the thief, verse 10, that the one who wants to steal the sheep, the thief doesn't come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I've come that they might have life, and they might have it more abundantly.

So we have Christ who's here to give life, but we have the thief, and we see that continuing through Scripture that is here to steal from us. The thief, Satan, his influence in people, us, as we might allow things to happen in our lives and in our thoughts, that could help, that would make in our covetous, to think, I know more. I don't have to do that. And the fact that I'm hearing that I might have to do that, I have to have people to support me, so I'm going to get my little posse together, and we're going to form our own group that says we don't have to do that. We'll pat each other on the back. There's a thief that works in so many ways. There's a thief that has been at work from the time that Jesus Christ started the church, down through the New Testament, and that will increase down until the time Jesus Christ returns, but it will become more and more difficult to resist as the time comes. We have to be aware. We have to be preparing ourselves. We have to be doing the things that God called us to do and not allow the thief to come in and steal our treasure, our hearts, the most valuable thing that we have. Let's go back to the book of Jude. Let's read a few verses in the book of Jude, leading into the way the Bible is arranged today, into the book of Revelation. Let's just read a few of the verses in here and see that he pretty much parallels what Peter said, pretty much parallels what the apostle John said, who was alive, you know, longer than the rest of the apostles up into the 90s and to whom was given the book of Revelation to record. Jude 3 says, Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you, to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. You know, this is what I'm doing. Contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Contend earnestly for that.

Work at it. Make it part of your priorities every day. And then he says, why? Why we need that? We can't just rest on our laurels. We can't just say, I believe in God and no one's ever going to change my mind. Oh, I think we would all say that. I think everyone who has ever left the church said that at some point in their life. I would never leave the church. I would never leave the truth. I know the truth. I would never leave God. And yet how many over the years have left? Because they didn't guard their hearts. They weren't prepared. They allowed themselves to go back to their old hearts.

And he says in verse 4, Do this for certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation on godly men who turned the grace of our God. Never discount the grace that God has called us into. The undeserved favor that we all live under. The way that he works with our lives, that everything is does is designed to bring us to his kingdom and to develop us into who he wants us to be. It's an all-encompassing thing in our lives. They turned the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. How do you deny the Lord God? It isn't just saying I reject Jesus Christ. You deny him by not doing the things that he says. Right? That's what Christ said. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things I say? When you don't do the things I say, you've rejected me. You've denied me. And there are people who are like, well, you know what? I'm not going to do that anymore. I don't care how God said it. I want to do it my way. I'm not going to follow what God said because I'm better than that. I know more than that.

But I want to remind you, verse 5, though you once knew this, I want to remind you though you once knew this that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who didn't believe. So he's saying, you know, I've called you. I've given you life. You've got to do something with it. You've got to be working. You've got to be guarding your heart. You've got to be building your heart. You've got to be doing the things that God called us to do. Let's drop down to verse 8. Again, he begins to talk about these people that come in, that can lure us away, that can cause a problem. What are some of the traits that we can look at? These dreamers defile the flesh. They reject authority. They speak evil of dignitaries.

Yet Michael, we'll read in verse 9 here, the archangel in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, didn't there bring against him a reviling accusation?

But simply said, the Lord rebuke you. But these speak evil of whatever they don't know.

It's the same thing Peter said. You know, we ought to get the whole story sometimes. Sometimes we find ourselves in this trap all the time. Someone tells you something, and you think, I know what they're doing wrong. I've already made my mind up about what they're doing.

And then you hear the other side of the story and think, oh man, it's not at all what it seems like. I've just gotten part of the story, just like watching fake news. And sometimes fake gospels and fake teachers do the same thing. I'll just tell you what you need to hear to lead you to my opinion. They speak evil of whatever they don't know. Whatever they know naturally, boy, when we read the word naturally, that's us, right? Carnal mind, natural human mind. Whatever they know naturally, like root beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them! They've gone the way of Cain, have run greedily in the air of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. Oh, a rebellious nature, a resistant nature, an attitude of, that doesn't apply to me.

Who are you to tell me what to do? Those are all natural things. From time to time, you run into them. You know, God is the one who tells us what to do. Verse 12, these are spots in your love feasts. While they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves, all about them.

They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds, laid out on trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots. Raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame, wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Verse 16, they are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts. They want what they want. They're not yet to the point where they'll deny self to do what God wants. I want to do what I want. It always comes down to that. Walking according to their own lusts, and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. You know the type we've run into them. That's the way of the world.

But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how He told you there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. Oh, that'll be people who would say, really? Do you really believe? Look, everything goes back to the way it was before. You really want to believe that? You've been waiting for all of your life for this Jesus Christ to return? Do you really think that's going to happen? That's going to be people that say that. Mock it. Make you feel like you're a fool to believe that. Don't fall prey to it. Know what you know. It's locked in your heart, and keep it in your heart. These are sensual persons. They're all about themselves, what can please them, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.

I think Peter and Jude give us some pretty good ideas of what to look for when we see these things happening, and even more so, and even when we see the beast power and revelation when he's up there espousing his great things. What is it about? He's all about himself.

Beware. Understand. Keep it in your mind. Lock it in your hearts that you aren't deceived by any of these things. Well, it'll be more interesting as we approach the end time.

But we're warned, as Christ said, see, I've told you beforehand, I've told you beforehand what to do. So what do we do? What do we do? How do we guard our hearts?

Let me summarize here a little bit. We can look at the first point here in Jude 20. He talks about all these things and the deception that's going to go on. He says, But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, build your heart, build your faith, build your understanding, take the opportunity that God has given us. And he's opened up things recently that are a benefit to all of us, every single one of us. Sabbath services have always been a benefit. The weekly Bible studies are a benefit as we do things differently in the Bible study than we do in Sabbath services.

They're there to build us up, that we understand these things, that we can discuss these things, and that we can build them into our lives. Build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. We talked about praying last week. Praying in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God. You know, John tells us in a couple books back in the second pistol of John, verse 6, he says, this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. What you were taught, keep doing. Don't change it. Don't modify it. Don't eliminate it. Don't think it's past time. Do it the way you were taught from the beginning. Do the things and go back to the first love. Go back to the Bible. Do those things.

Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Keep your eyes on the goal. Don't forsake the things that God has given us the opportunity to do, as if you think it's unnecessary for any of us.

Okay, let's go back to another point. Matthew 24. Kind of recapping here. Matthew 24.

Christ's words here. Matthew 24.

Verse 42. 24-42. Watch. Okay, keep our eyes open. Don't get lulled to sleep, thinking that everything is going to be okay. Things are going to return to normal. Everything will go on just as it always has, right? The mockers who say, it's going to get back to normal. We just need to wait to time. Don't have to worry about anything. Watch, therefore, for you don't know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come in, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.

Be aware the thief is ready to break in any time you give him the opportunity.

The thief is always at the door, waiting for the opportunity for you to leave the door open so he can come in and he can take away everything. Don't let that happen. Watch and know the time is near, and keep your heart under lock and key. You know, I'll turn back there in a minute. Let me finish verse 44. Therefore, he says, you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming, and an hour you don't expect. We don't know. Could be years from now, could be very quickly. We don't know, but you know what? Our job is be ready. Keep our hearts under lock and key. Guard them. Build them. Develop them. Know that you know. Get close to God. Fan the flames and be ready. Let's turn back to 2 John again.

2 John 10. One of the ways to guard our hearts, right? It says, don't let the thief in. 2 John 10 and 11 tells us in this area of false prophets. We've got influence. We've got TV. You know, you can actually maybe go home this afternoon and read the first part of Ephesians too that talks about, you know, Satan is the prince of the power of the air. He's the influencer. And what we watch and what we see on there, it's of his influence. Read through the first six or seven verses there and get a picture of what's going on in the world, and don't forget it. Verse 10 of 2 John 10. It says, if anyone comes to you and doesn't bring this doctrine, don't receive him into your house nor greet him, for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. You know what John is saying there to the people he's saying, keep what you do in the beginning? He's saying guard your heart. Don't even let these people in. If they're bringing a different gospel than you know that you've been taught, that you believed in, that you accepted, that you were baptized into, don't even listen to them because their only purpose for being is that they will take you away. Now that doesn't mean that if someone comes knocking at your door, don't let them in and sit down and have a conversation with them. Don't have them on the internet. Don't turn on their TV programs and think what's going on. I'm going to listen to them. Listen to God's word.

Don't let them in because when you let them in, you are letting the thief in, and you are in danger.

Don't ever forget it. And how many have let the thieves in, and they have had everything that God has called them to stolen away from them. Don't let it be any one of us. If you have questions, you come and ask someone. You go back to the Bible and you look at it. You be following the truth, and only the truth. And the third point in guarding our heart, James 5. We often go back to the book of James anymore, but here in James 5 verse 7, he says, Therefore, be patient, brethren. Remember Philippians 4 and 6? The patience of God, the peace of God, will be there. Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Wait for him. Don't think he's not coming. Don't think just because it's not when you thought or someone else thought that he's not coming. Therefore, be patient until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. And he says, while you're being patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. For the coming of the Lord is at hand. It is closer today. Of course, it has been in our time, any time in our lives, but events show much closer than we might have thought back in February.

Perhaps. So, let's guard our hearts. Let me close in Psalm 84. Psalm 84.

Verse 5, It says, Remember we're on a pilgrimage here to the Kingdom of God, to the return of Jesus Christ, to His millennium. We live in this world. We work in this world. We abide by God's law in this world. God blesses us in this world. It's His intent that we live in this world. We build character while we're in this world. Never forget, as you guard your heart, that you're on your way to God's Kingdom, and the only way to get there is through Him, and by keeping your heart safe for Him.