Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the urgent need for believers to contend for the true faith amidst the rising influence of false doctrines and teachings that distort the essence of Jesus, the gospel, and the Holy Spirit. He warns that many are being seduced into embracing a different Jesus and a false grace that condones ungodliness and lawlessness, which ultimately leads to spiritual danger. The preacher calls for a deep self-examination and a commitment to uphold the true teachings of Christ, urging men, especially husbands, to take a stand for their families and resist the temptations of a self-centered faith. The sermon highlights the importance of being vigilant against stealthy deceptions that can infiltrate the church and encourages believers to seek the Holy Spirit's guidance in living a life that reflects the true nature of Christ. Ultimately, Beach Jr. calls for a radical, Spirit-filled life that glorifies God and stands firm against the pressures of the world.

Rest, our hearts are challenged, and we are tempted to just remain in that posture, but we must give place to God's Word. Before we do, I just want to give our sister or brother an opportunity to share, Sherry please, what's ever upon your heart, whatever's upon your heart, and praise the Lord. Father, we're amazed at your love, we're amazed at your infinite mercy and grace that you have so freely bestowed upon us. And it certainly was not free to you, Lord. It cost you your son. It cost you the shame, the horror, the pain, and then something we could never understand. It cost you, ultimately, to be rejected by your own Father. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Lord, we could never understand the terror that struck your soul, as in that moment's time when your soul became an offering for sin. Your Father had to turn His face from you. We can't understand it. But we know, Lord, that it should have been us that you turned your face from, because your precious Son never did any wrong. We should have suffered that judgment of being forever forsaken by a holy God because of our sins. But the amazing truth of the gospel, Lord, is that you suffered for us, so that we can be forgiven and brought back to you. Help us today, Lord, as we ponder your word, to receive your word in our hearts, and to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit to live above ourselves, above our own self-interests, in union with you, that your glory might be seen in and through our lives. We pray, Father, in Jesus' mighty name, Amen. We have been speaking for some time about the danger that is lurking in our society today regarding the temptation to embrace another Jesus, another gospel, another spirit. We learned that Paul mentioned that the Corinthians, who he loved very much, were being beguiled by the devil to embrace another Jesus, another gospel, another spirit. The Holy Spirit is now lovingly warning us all to be guarded about the danger of embracing another Jesus, another spirit, and another gospel. And I'm asking that God will challenge each and every one of us this morning at the hearing of the Word of God. Be challenged today and ask God to challenge your heart, to challenge your spirit, to challenge your mind, so that you may be confident that it is not another Jesus that you're embracing, another gospel that you're embracing, or another spirit that you're embracing, but in fact it is the true Jesus, the true gospel, and the true Spirit. We've looked for several weeks and we've learned the different characteristics that are present when we are embracing a different Jesus, a different gospel, or a different spirit. Before we begin this week and subsequent weeks in looking at what it really looks like when we do embrace Jesus, when we do embrace the gospel according to Paul, when we do embrace the Holy Spirit and are filled with it, there's a record in the Scriptures that shows us what it looks like, what our life looks like when we embrace the true. Before we touch on that, I want to just touch on a few points we made last week. If you would please turn your Bible to Jude. Jude is right after 3 John. It's right before the book of Revelation. We learned that it was Jude's desire to write to the Christians in order to encourage them in the common salvation that they were partakers of. But as we read in verse 3 of Jude 1, Beloved, my whole concern was to write you in regard to our common salvation, but I found it necessary. When we look at the phrase there, but I found it necessary, we find that there is within that phrase the idea of though I was intending to write to you about something, I was compelled. I was compelled to discuss another issue. And this so perfectly and so adequately describes the heart of our Lord, the heart of the Word of God, the burden of the Holy Spirit. Though He so desires to reveal to us and make known to us the mysteries and the beauties and the majesty of Jesus Christ in the Word of God and unveil to our hearts a continual unveiling of the beauty of Jesus, yet He is compelled, oftentimes, to speak to us, as it says here, but I found it necessary and was impelled to write you and urgently appeal to and exhort you to contend for the faith which was once and for all handed down to the saints. And so the Holy Spirit takes Jude from the desire to simply talk about the common salvation to writing that there would be a spirit that would arise up within these believers that they would resist and fight and battle by the power of the Holy Spirit against the seductive powers that were working in order to turn them aside from the one true faith that was once and for all delivered. Brothers and sisters, our Lord stands in our midst today. He stands through the Word of God and the Holy Spirit and He is saying the same thing to you and I today. He wants us to be alerted to the need that each one of us face, not only individually, but every single husband here faces the need to earnestly contend for the faith that was once and for all delivered in your family. Husbands, the devil wants to take you and use you to lead your family astray. And he will if there is not born in your spirit a desire to contend for the faith. You can't be passive as a man in your house. You can't be passive. You can't have the attitude of, well, everything will work out. You've got to contend for the faith. Every husband, every man here should be challenged by the Holy Spirit and brought to a crisis where you recognize your utter need to take a stand. And if you're not a married man, if you're a single man, then you have the responsibility of walking as a single man before the Lord contending for the faith and resisting the temptations and the snares that the enemy would want to bring to you. And when we neglect this all-important spiritual discipline, we put at risk not only our own lives, but the lives of our family. Husbands, you are setting the pace for your family. You are setting it. And most likely, the thing that you are overcome with, your family will be overcome with. The besetting sin that you refuse to deal with your family will ultimately become entangled in. And it's a life and death situation. And this is the spirit of Jude here. And now we learned over the past several weeks that we are commanded by God's Word to contend for the faith. And here's why. Verse 4, For certain men have crept in stealthily. The word is stealthily. And we learned last week that stealthily means unaware, without being noticed. When we embrace by deception, by being beguiled by the serpent, another Jesus, another gospel, and another spirit, it's never a covert thing. It's never an obvious thing. But the enemy comes in a stealth manner. Unawares. The idea here is that certain men have crept in stealthily, and with those men come false doctrines about Christ, about the gospel, and about the Holy Spirit. There is currently right now in this country a whole host of men who have crept in unawares into the body of Christ, who are influencing the body of Christ, and they have introduced stealthily, in a very, very deceitful manner, all manner of false ideas and false doctrines that are infiltrating all the ranks of Christendom. Now listen. They've crept in stealthily, gaining entrance secretly by a side door. By a side door. Sneaking in. And we learned that the characteristics, the results... Brothers and sisters, please hear the Spirit of God. Any time we embrace a Jesus, or we seem to be worshiping Jesus, or embrace a gospel and seem to be believing the gospel, or embrace a spirit, and seem to believe that we're being led by and filled by the Holy Spirit, any time these things are present, but there are certain characteristics that characterize our life, we are in danger of having embraced something that's not true. And we learned last week, verse 4, that the features of these stealthily brought in false doctrines, false teachings that mention the name of Jesus, that mention the gospel, that speak about a spirit or even the Spirit, but the fruits, the works, the characteristics that follow such an embracing of false doctrine includes, number 1, ungodliness. Ungodliness. Verse number 4. Number 2. Persons who pervert the grace of God. So there is the presence of ungodliness. Ungodliness is that which is not godly. Godliness is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Godliness is found in the moral perfections of Jesus Christ. A gospel that we embrace that allows our conscience and allows our mind and allows our heart to condone and approve of ungodliness is a false gospel. A Jesus that we embrace that doesn't have a problem with ungodliness is a false Jesus. And a spirit that we embrace that doesn't seem to convict us or doesn't seem to trouble us and doesn't seem to stir us over ungodliness is a false spirit. Number 2. Perversion of the grace of God. The grace of God, according to Titus, has appeared to all men, teaching us to what? Deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. The true grace of God is a teaching grace. Any heart, listen please, brothers and sisters, any heart that claims to be a partaker of the grace of God that has come in the person of Jesus Christ is taught by the Holy Spirit to say no to ungodliness, to say no to worldliness, to say no to that which is contrary to the likeness and image of God Himself. These false doctrines have been brought in stealthily, unaware, over a period of time. There's been a slow seduction where it is no longer something that we embrace. The hatred for ungodliness should grow daily in our life. Did you know that? That if you hang around Jesus, I mean the one that was born of the virgin, the one who was raised from the dead, the one who was set down at the right hand of God Almighty. If you hang around with Jesus, your soul will learn to abhor and hate all that is sinful. You will despise pride. And when you are guilty of pride, the Holy Spirit of God will convict you and you will feel miserable and you will feel like, oh my God, what have I done? And you will be moved by God to make it right. That's what the grace of God does. The true grace. But stealthily, unaware, secretly, there has been brought into the realm of Christendom a grace claiming to be from God but is not teaching men and women to deny self, to deny ungodliness. And therefore we must, we must, being true to the Word of God, we must expose this grace for what it is. A false grace. God does not call us to walk in sin. He calls us to be delivered out from the power of sin. Now mind you, when the Jesus we embrace, when the Gospel that we embrace, and when the Spirit that we embrace condones these things, then we must be alerted to question whether or not, like the Corinthians, our minds have somehow been deceived. Number three, not only does this false Jesus and false Gospel and false Spirit promote and condone ungodliness. Now, let me just say this. How many here will agree that ungodliness is pursuing after material things? That's ungodliness. But did you know there's a whole generation of Christians that believe it's Jesus inspiring them to pursue after worldly things? They believe it's the Holy Spirit empowering them to set their heart on things below. Ungodliness. How many know that Jesus said in Matthew you cannot serve God and mammon? The word mammon, I did a search on this recently, the word mammon actually is a derivative from another word, I believe it was a Latin word. I'm not sure about that, but it came from a word that meant the sum total, listen carefully, you cannot serve God and mammon, the sum total of the material world resulting in deriving security from. So mammon is embracing that which is material, that which is materialistic in order to derive security in it. If our heart embraces something that it derives security in other than God himself, then we are serving mammon. And Jesus said you cannot serve two masters. When we embrace Jesus, brothers and sisters, he walks in our midst. When we embrace the Holy Spirit, he walks in our midst. When we embrace the gospel that Paul preached, and he got it from Jesus, Jesus walks in our life, and listen, he is continuously, relentlessly trying and testing the heart in order that the heart might be in conformity to the Word of God. Thirdly, lawlessness. Turning the grace of God into lawlessness. Lawlessness is simply the absence of law. Now, not legalism, the law here is referring to the moral law of God. The moral law of God. How many realizes that we're not saved by keeping the commandments? But how many realize that once we're saved, we're saved to keep them? Hello? I'm not saved by saying, well, I don't commit adultery, I don't lie, I don't steal, so therefore one day God's going to say, I'm going to save you because you've been such a good person. No, there's no one who has ever kept the law. No one. We're all guilty. And so when we recognize our guilt, and we say, Lord, I know I'm a sinner. I know I'm guilty. God has mercy on that soul, and He saves that soul because of what Jesus did. But once that soul is saved, He's not saved to live a lawless life. He's not saved to do what He wants. He is saved in order that He might be given the Holy Spirit who empowers that soul to what? Fulfill the demands of the law. The demands of the law, not the religious ceremonial law, but the moral law of God. A saved soul is saved to keep the moral law of God. John said, He that doeth righteousness is what? Righteous. See, we're saved to do what is right. And so when Jude here is talking about these false teachers that have come in and have introduced a different Jesus and a different gospel and a different spirit, he's saying this. It results in an attitude of lawlessness where the life, the heart, is not seeking to obey God's Word. It's not okay to lie. It's not okay to cheat. It's not okay to look at dirty pictures. It's not okay to covet. It's not okay to be greedy. It's not okay. It's never okay. It's not okay to curse God's name. It's not okay. It's not okay to commit adultery. It's not. It doesn't matter if everyone else is doing it. It's not okay to become an internet porn addict. It's not okay. It's wrong. It grieves the heart of God. It grieves the Spirit of God, but it doesn't grieve the false spirit. It doesn't grieve the false Jesus. And it doesn't grieve the false gospel. If you embrace the true Jesus and you are a recipient of the true Holy Spirit, you will be troubled and convicted like David was when you fall into sin. Lawlessness, wantonness, immorality. These are the characteristics of what has stealthily, in an unaware manner, been introduced into the realm of Christendom. And dear ones, as followers of Christ, we must earnestly contend for the faith and not allow any of these things to infiltrate our life. Any. At all. Now let me ask a question, alright? Have you found in your life ungodliness, a perversion of grace, lawlessness, wantonness, which is always being dissatisfied. Wantonness is never being satisfied. You go from one thing to another. One thing to another. Immorality. Have you found the practice, not the occasional temptation and then the subsequent deliverance from the Lord. It's normal for Christians or humans to be tempted and at times possibly even be overcome. But it's not a practice. It can't be a practice. It can't be a practice. A way of life. And if your way of life is becoming comfortable while these things are present, then you must accept the truth that somehow along the way the enemy has stealthily, in an unaware manner, seduced your mind and your heart. You must accept that truth. That's where the deliverance comes. Accept that truth that you might be free. A sure sign of the absence of the Holy Spirit working in our life is a continual preoccupation with ourselves. Now, I had read these quite a while ago. We're going to close on this because our time is running out. Five minutes or so. But listen, I had read this months and months and months ago. This is laying the foundation and it's introducing us to, well, I hope that we've been asking ourselves. I even heard last night at the fellowship one of the brothers was asking a few of the other brothers, how is God going to raise up a testimony in this world? How is God going to do it? It's so evil and so corrupt. And if you take a stand for Jesus, everybody mocks you and thinks you're crazy. And so the question is, how is God going to do this? Well, the Word of God shows us exactly how. And that's where we're heading. But before we go there, the most subtle deception that the enemy is introducing into Christendom is a preoccupation with man-centeredness. A preoccupation with this. What's good for me? That is one of the most successful doctrines that's born in hell. What's good for me? Me. And when we receive that Spirit, which by the way is not of God, then we start viewing life from those lenses. What's good for me? We view our brothers and sisters. Well, is there anything in it for me? Should I get involved in this brother's life? Well, is there anything in it for me? Man-centeredness. Now listen to this. I wrote down quite a while ago sayings that I found on signs and in restaurants. There may be a place for these sayings in the business world, but there is no place for these sayings in the Christian life. And so listen carefully and see how all of these sayings are just oozing with self. Man. Man as the center. Number one. One saying I wrote down in a restaurant. We guarantee your complete satisfaction or your money back. No questions asked. Number two. We labor day and night to please your appetite. Number three. We aim to please our customers at any cost. Number four. Our business is your business. We want you happy, satisfied, and coming back. Next. You, as our customers, are the most important part of our business. We want you to be fully satisfied. If you do not fully enjoy your dining experience, please let us know. Next. You are our valued customer, and our purpose is to satisfy you. Now what's common in all of these sayings? Self-satisfaction. And brothers and sisters, may God give us ears to hear. May God give us eyes to see that when we come to the things of God and we come to the word of God and we come to the glory of Jesus Christ and our eyes see the king of glory and we are under the influence of the true gospel and the true Holy Spirit sent from heaven is in our life and working in our life. We are taught not to consider what is good for us. We are taught not to ask, how is it going to benefit me? But we are taught to throw ourselves down at the feet of a worthy Savior and say, Lord, not my will but Thy will be done. We are taught that we've been created not for ourselves to do with what we want, but we've been created for God, for His glory and His honor. That lays the foundation into which, God willing, we will be led into discovery of what it looks like when men and women embrace the true Jesus, the true gospel, and the true Spirit. It is nothing less than radical, supernatural, Holy Spirit-filled living that emancipates a company of people from the slavery that the world is engaged in to where they can be corporate vessels in whom and through whom the beauty of Jesus Christ is seen in a world. They don't have the same interests, they don't have the same passions, they don't have the same treasure. And we have a picture of what that looks like right in the New Testament, and that's what we're going to look at as time comes on. But before we do that, let's bow our hearts before the Lord. Father, we are amazed at Your love, and we pray, God, that You will help us, that You will help us to see, Lord, our need to come to You and be strengthened to fight the good fight of faith, to lay hold of eternal life, and to guard the deposit that has been given to us through the Holy Spirit. Father, I pray for every father, husband, and man in this place today that You will help him to be strengthened to make a new commitment to contend for the faith in his home and in his family, setting the pace and the atmosphere. Lord, I pray that You will search our hearts and our minds and our homes with the searchlight of Your Holy Spirit and Word, and that You will reveal any area of our life that has embraced a false Jesus, a gospel, and a spirit, and deliver us so that we can truly, like Paul said, be blameless and harmless, without fault, sons and daughters of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation in whom we shine as bright shining lights holding forth the Word of Truth. Father, please perform these things through Your power. Amen and Amen. Thank You, Lord. Let's just sing that chorus. Jesus, be the Lord of all the kingdoms of my heart. As we close.