In this sermon, the speaker warns about the presence of false teachers and the need to be vigilant against their deceptive tactics. Jesus himself emphasized the importance of not being deceived and warned about false prophets. The speaker also references Matthew 24, where Jesus lists various signs of his return, but highlights the repeated warning to not be misled. The sermon emphasizes the need to carefully examine everything and be discerning, using a humorous anecdote about three women applying for a detective job to illustrate the importance of observation and discernment. The speaker also mentions the presence of compromise or ignorance in churches and highlights the persuasive nature of false teachers who use smooth and flattering speech. The sermon encourages listeners to be on guard and seek the truth.

The following Women of Steel presentation is by Jane Gendron and is entitled, God's Recipe for Living Well. For a free catalog of all of our tapes and books, call Compass at 1-800-977-2177 or on the web at compass.org. Well, let's bow in a word of prayer. Holy Father, what a blessing to be here and open the Word with like-minded believers. I pray that I would honor you in all that I say. So we give you all the glory this evening, Father. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, several years ago, my husband surprised me with a bread maker. He knows I never met a loaf of bread I didn't love. I was so excited about it, I called my friend. She was one of my tennis partners and she would always bring slices of fresh bread to our matches. And so when I got my bread maker, I wanted my favorite recipe. And you should have seen me shopping at Whole Foods grocery store. The whole grain flours, the gluten, I wanted it to be the best. Well, when I got home, I measured all these ingredients so precisely. And after a couple of hours, the timer went off. It was the moment I had been waiting for. And in anticipation of this golden brown loaf of bread, I opened the lid. But I was startled to see this shriveled up little glob of grayish white matter. What could have gone wrong? I was so meticulous. I tried so hard. I expended so much energy getting it right. Well, I called up my friend and I told her about it. And after I described the little blob to her, she said, oh, no, it sounds like your mixing blade didn't work. And I said, what mixing blade? Well, in my anxious anticipation, in my confidence of my own cooking ability, in my excitement of buying all the quality ingredients, in my way of charging forward and asking questions later, I didn't know anything about a mixing blade. It was only after, until after my failure, that I looked at the manufacturer's handbook and read it. And it was very simple instructions and it would have made my first loaf a success. Well, have you ever noticed that when you buy an appliance, you get a handbook? It's obvious why. The manufacturer created your appliance. And so who better to inform you of the best way to operate your appliance? And you even get a warranty with it. It's a limited warranty. You buy a bread maker, you get a handbook. In fact, think of all the appliances and the electronics that you've purchased over the years. They always come with a handbook. Well, I couldn't help but make the comparison that the Bible is our handbook for living. God created us and he knows what's best for us. He's given us his word so that we can follow it and be more successful in our living. And God's warranty isn't limited. It's unconditional. It's a lifetime warranty and it's guaranteed by his promises and his power. Well, tragically, so many of us put more emphasis in our own way rather than God's way. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Proverbs 14, 12. Well, what is discernment? As Christians, we really need to discern what is right and wrong, what is truth and error, what is liberty and legalism. It is so important to be discerning. But if we don't know what the Bible says, it won't happen just because we want it to. So taking a look at the Greek word, it means to separate, to distinguish, to make a judgment. The biblical call for discernment is a call to separate truth from error. Well, deception abounds because Satan is the god of this world. Why does the church need discernment today? All of us believers make up the church. Well, Satan's lies are becoming more prevalent as false teachers continue to deceive people and in the name of Christ. Christians must be equipped to know the difference. We must learn to discern truth from error. It takes a lot of effort to be able to do this. And of course, we have to be in the word. Well, the nature of deception and deception, what have they done to my notes here? Oh, the truth has been compromised. I'm sorry. More and more, we are seeing that there is a tolerance of all beliefs and opinions have replaced absolute truth. Tolerance has provided an open door for false teachers and deception to enter the church. Now, keep in mind that tolerance is really a positive thing. We have to be tolerant. We have to give grace and patience toward one another. In fact, I always say the hardest thing God gave us to do was to like one another and be patient. Well, we can't tolerate opposition to the written word. That's different. And deception has a nature. For deception to be effective, it must appear to be true. Truth mixed with a little error is no longer truth. And the deadliest counterfeit is the one that most closely resembles truth. And those who are being deceived may never know it unless they're confronted with the truth. Well, why is deception so widespread today? Think about this. In the first century, false teachers had to enter homes through the front door. But today they can enter through technology. The mass media gives people more access to more false teachers than ever before. There's radio and TV programs, videos and audio tapes, direct mail and the Internet. We are being bombarded with bold and subliminal messages. We are to be aware of false teachers. In fact, Jesus warns us, he said, Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. And in Matthew 24, the disciples were talking to Jesus and they said, What will be the signs of your return? And Jesus said, There will be wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes. We're all familiar with this. But there was one warning that he repeated three times. He said, See to it that no one deceives you. See to it that no one misleads you. Well, we have been warned. I know that after my departure and this is Paul speaking, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves, men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Well, how do we identify these false teachers? We have to see how their words line up with scripture. Another warning, a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth. We see it in our culture. We are seduced by positive thinking, self-esteem. I'm not to blame. I'm OK. You're OK. Name it and claim it. Or as my husband likes to call it, blab it and grab it. Well, the fruit of false teachers is dangerous. It's dangerous because they cause people to believers to fall from their steadfastness and their pure devotion to Christ. We see this in second Peter as well as second Corinthians. They disagree with the words of Jesus and bring constant friction. First Timothy six, four through five, and they give rise to speculation and fruitless discussion, which hinders the purposes of God. And false teachers can be known by their fruit. And I'm going to give some descriptions of the fruit of false teachers. They are deceptive. They are persuasive and they're greedy. They are arrogant. They're divisive and they are wicked. Now, keep in mind that this describes the fruit. This doesn't really describe the false teachers, because if false teachers look like this, we wouldn't be deceived. We would know how ugly they are. But false teachers actually appear to be attractive. Well, let's focus on what the Bible says about bad fruit. First, they are deceptive. A couple of well, they disguise themselves in sheep's clothing to appear as apostles of Christ and servants of righteousness. They engage in trickery, craftiness and deceitful scheming. Ephesians four, 14. They exploit people with their false words. Second Peter two, three, and they secretly introduce destructive heresy. Second Peter two, one. A couple of months ago, we were made aware of a men's Bible study that was going to take place at one of the largest Southern Baptist churches in Dallas, Texas. And this is going to be a man's Bible study. And it was a kickoff breakfast. Well, the senior pastor invited a Catholic Monsignor in to be the first speaker at this Bible study. And so immediately my husband shot an email to the senior pastor thinking maybe he doesn't know that Rome teaches a gospel of sacraments and works. And we still haven't heard back from him. But anyway, we decided that we needed to go and do something about it. So we got up at five o'clock in the morning and we went to this church and we started handing out our publication. Is a Roman Catholic, a Christian, an oxymoron? Because we wanted these people to be warmed. Here they were going in to hear this wolf in sheep's clothing. Well, we hadn't even been at the church five minutes handing these out and a pastor came out and they asked us to leave. You have to ask yourself, what is wrong with this picture? And there's more details to it. And we have a website, there's an article on it that kind of details everything that happens. And so if you would like to know the whole article, it's at www.pro-gospel.org. But more and more, we're seeing compromise in the churches or maybe it's ignorance. Well, false teachers are persuasive. They deceive people with smooth and flattering speech, Romans 16, 18. They delude people with persuasive arguments and they captivate weak women, second Timothy 3, 6. They entice unstable souls. Shouldn't we follow the model of the Bereans that search the scriptures to see if what the apostle Paul was teaching was accurate? We need to be good Bereans. We need to examine all the teachings that we're getting. False teachers are greedy. They have their hearts trained in greed, second Peter 2, 14. They love wages of unrighteousness. They look at godliness as a means of gain and they exploit people because of greed. They teach false doctrine for the sake of sordid gain. They teach lies so they can get rich. False teachers are arrogant. They reject God's authority, we see in Jude 8. They speak arrogantly. They exalt themselves. I don't know how many of you really pay attention, but even the secular media will refer to the Pope as Holy Father. And did you know that there's only one reference in the Bible to Holy Father and that is in John 17 where Jesus is addressing his father as Holy Father? Well, false teachers seek their own glory. They are conceited and yet understanding nothing. They are bold and audacious. False teachers are wicked. They are ungodly, we see in Jude 4. They produce bad fruit and practice lawlessness. They are hypocrites and they are perverted and have depraved and defiled minds. We see this in 1 Timothy 6, 5 and Titus 1, 15 and 3 to 11. They indulge in corrupt desires. And perhaps the example would be this new bishop that is in the Episcopal Church. He was just made bishop and he's a homosexual. Well, we can follow a recipe for discernment. First, we need to have the Spirit of God to appraise all things. We have an ongoing battle between the flesh and the Spirit that indwells us. The Word of God is what we need to gain knowledge of the truth and the Word of God to abide in and be free of deceptive teaching. We need the Word of God to gain maturity, practice and training and discerning good and evil. Without it, we really can't distinguish God's will and purpose from our own. I can remember clearly the day that Bill was talking about. I can remember the day my husband came home and said, I'm going to become a full-time student at Dallas Theological Seminary. And he had been earning a six-figure income. So me being the godly woman that I was, I said, well, who's going to keep me in the fashion to which I have become accustomed? But fortunately, I was willing to change. And I always tell the Lord, I'm always willing for you to make me willing. And I think that's what God asks from us. And he made me willing. He changed my heart. Well, may we all be like the apostles. First, how can we obtain discernment? If you cry for discernment, then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. For the Lord God gives wisdom. From his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2, 3 through 9. Don't you love the Proverbs? They're so full of wisdom. The spirit of God illuminating the word of God will enable you to know the will of God. May we all be like the apostles. And as I describe them, why don't you ask yourself, would somebody say this about me if were describing my walk with the Lord? The apostles were strong, bold, fearless, dogmatic, unaccommodating of error, courageous, intolerant of sin, inflexible concerning the gospel. They were controversial and they were fully devoted to Christ. Clearly, the apostles wanted the approval of God and they clearly were politically incorrect. Well, we have some applications for Christians. We are to examine everything carefully. We are to hold fast to that which is good and abstain from evil. Paul prayed that your love may abound still more and more in the real knowledge and all discernment. Through scripture, we will learn discernment. Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Well, we have some words of wisdom. Be on guard, lest being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness. Examine everything carefully. We are to just examine everything carefully. This reminds me of the three women that were applying for a job as detective. And the interviewer who was also a detective, he said to them, you know, this job really requires that you have, you are skilled in discernment and observation. So in this interview, I'm going to show you a photograph and I want you to observe the photograph and then tell me what your observation is. So he holds up the first photograph and he only holds it up for five seconds, takes it away, asks the first woman, what did you observe? And she said, well, this is easy. We can catch this guy. He only has one eye. And the detective said, well, it's a profile shot. So he talks to the second woman, same thing, shows her the picture for five seconds, takes it away and says, what did you observe? And she says, ah, only one ear. So he talks to the third person. The third woman shows her the picture for five seconds, takes it away. And he says, what did you observe? And she says, well, this guy wears contact lenses. And he said, really? That's amazing. And she said, yeah, contact lenses. And he says, well, I'm going to go check the file. So he goes, checks the file, comes back and he said, I am so impressed. This guy wears contact lenses. How could you know that? And she said, well, with only one eye and one ear, how could he wear glasses? So we are to examine everything carefully. We are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. Discernment is the ability to apply biblical principles to life's experiences. Discernment is the ability to distinguish between constructive and destructive criticism. And I know that's so important as mothers with our children. And discernment is the ability to examine ourselves before we judge others righteously. Well, why don't you stop wondering what's wrong with the world and read the manual? It is so true that we have got to get back to the handbook. We have got to get back to the Bible. The Bible is how we're going to learn what is right and wrong, what is truth and what is error. And, you know, I've talked a lot about discernment and discernment is so important because this day of compromise that we're living in, we see it even in churches. But the Bible doesn't only talk to us about discernment. We are regenerated by the word. We are sanctified by the word. We are edified by the word. We are built up, made wise, learned discernment. We become skilled at all levels of living. Reading the Bible will enable us to discern who the true Jesus is because there are many counterfeits on the scene today. And that's just another whole lesson. But we can know the Jesus of the scriptures. If we look to the Bible, may we faithfully study it, live it, love it, obey it, honor it, contend for it, because Jesus is the word. Jesus is the almighty and awesome advocate, a base to atone for aliens, adulterers, and alcoholics. He is the blessed bread of life, bludgeoned, bruised, and bloodied between burglars. Jesus is creator and Christ crucified on a cross for those chosen before the creation. He is divine deity who descended and died to deliver dirty, depraved, degenerates from death. Jesus is exalted, eternal Emmanuel who endured enmity to enrich his elect. He is faithful and fair form of the father who freely forfeited his life to forgive failures. He is our glorious God goaded and gashed to get the gospel of grace to the guilty. Jesus is holy and heavenly head who humbled himself to heal the helpless and the hopeless. He is the incomparable I am, the incarnation of innocence insulted for idolaters. Jesus is judge and justifier of the unjust. He is king of kings before which every knee shall kneel. He is the lion and the lamb, lord and life, light and love, lowered to lay down his life for the least of the lost. Jesus is majestic maker, master, and messiah murdered to mediate mercy to mankind. He is the name above every name, nailed naked for the nasty and the naughty, only omnipotent, omniscient one who overcame the offenses for outcasts. Jesus is perfect and pure prince of peace, pierced and persecuted to pardon prodigals, prisoners, and prostitutes. He is the quintessence of quality quashed for quarreling quacks. Jesus was resurrected righteous ruler and redeemer who resigned his royal residence to ransom and reconcile ruthless rebels. He is supreme and sufficient savior, savagely sacrificed to sovereignly secure salvation for spiritually dead sinners. He is the testifier of truth, tortured for thieves, trespassers, and transgressors. He is unchanging and uniquely unblemished, yet upended for the unworthy and the unrighteous. Jesus is the venerated vine that verily, verily voiced victory over our vices. He is wonderful word in the only way worthy to be worshiped, yet wounded for the worst of the wicked. He is exalted example executed to excuse the excluded. He is Yahweh saying yes and yielding to yahoos. Jesus is Zenith, zealously zapped for zeros like me. Satan could not seduce him. Death could not destroy him and the grave could not hold him. He is our awesome God and our all sufficient savior. Amen. Well, Holy Father, we are so grateful for the Lord Jesus who reconciled us to you. Father, thank you for your word that is a revelation to us. Draw us near so we may love you and strive to live in the knowledge and obedience of your word. May those around us witness your light shining through us. We pray this in Jesus name for his glory and his power. Amen. 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