Sermon Notes 11-30-08 Is Jesus the Only Way to God? I Timothy 4:1-2 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; ? Depart indicates that you were once where you belong. You can walk away from the faith. You can stop believing if you choose to by progressively neglecting things. You used to pray. You used to read your Bible. Some go so far that they don?t want to come back. If you believe that it can?t happen then you are deceived. If you are not concerned you should be! Respect God. ? The word spirit is used twice and has 2 different meanings. The 1st time with a capital Spirit refers to the Holy Spirit. The 2nd with the small case spirit refers to demonic activity. _ seducing spirits and doctrines of devils=demons teaching the body of Christ how to leave the church. II Timothy 4:2-4 Preach the word; be instant in season out of season; reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. ? There is an element of correction here. Yes we need to be encouraged edified AND corrected. No correction is a mistake. God is trying to perfect you not hurt you. VS3 refers to the attitude ?if you don?t say what I want to hear then it doesn?t apply to me and I won?t listen?. Our own personal interpretation violates the Word. The gospel is out of balance if there is no correction. ?In our Christian society today there is too much motivational speaking and not enough cross teaching!? We do need to change our lives for the better but we shouldn?t believe in fables. FABLE=the truth with a twist=doctrines of devils. ? Example: Would a loving God really send you to hell? He loves everybody and He?s not willing for anyone to perish. He will reconcile you back to Himself. Beware of this mindset. Jesus said ?I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but by Me. John 14:6 ? Pastor?s attention was brought to a poll taken in USA Today. The question was ?Can a good person not of your religious beliefs go to Heaven?? Out of 1000 evangelical Christians 68% said yes. Nationwide 75% of people said yes and 91% of Catholics said yes. ? The correct answer is NO! If you have to think about it it proves that you are influenced by doctrines of devils. You should NEVER hesitate when approached with that question. Why are Christians afraid to make a simple stance? You don?t have to be rude just truthful. Speak the truth in love. Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay I had not known sin but by the law: for I had not known lust except the law had said Thou shalt not covet. ? Here the apostle Paul states that he didn?t know what sin was until he searched the scriptures. Are we arrogant enough to think that we know all and that we don?t need to judge ourselves according to the scriptures? How we do or don?t feel about an issue is irrelevant. What the Bible says about the issue is how we are to judge whether a matter is sinful or not. Once we learn from the scripture what we are doing wrong then we have to deal with it. If we don?t judge ourselves by the Word of God then we are guilty of all of it. *HOW DID WE GET HERE?* I Corinthians 12:1-2 Now concerning spiritual gifts brethren I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles carried away unto these dumb idols even as ye were led. ? We allow ourselves to be led to these conclusions. Hollywood the news media and the higher educational culture has an Anti-God mindset. ? When a popular pastor that is known world-wide