The Marks of a Spiritual Counterfeit (5 of 9)
Series: Jude - Keeping Up Your Guard
James Merritt
Jude 12-13
Introduction
1. Few people know that the secret service has not only far more to do than to protect the president. That is not even their primary job. Working under the treasury department, one of their major jobs is to try to catch counterfeiters. Therefore they have to learn how to recognize counterfeit money.
2. The surprising thing is, the way they are trained to do this is not by studying counterfeit money, but by studying real currency. The better they get to know the real thing, the easier it is to spot the phony.
3. Jude knew the real thing. He was the real thing. He could spot a spiritual counterfeit in a church fifty pews away. He is telling us here how to spot counterfeit Christians; apostates who may look like Christians on the outside, but are definitely not Christian on the inside.
4. One of my favorite authors, R. C. Sproul, made this extremely pungent observation:
We must not assume that because someone is a theological scholar that he is a Christian. We may not assume that because someone is an ordained minister he is necessarily a Christian. Sadly, there are many people who enter the ministry for the wrong reasons. Some make theological skepticism a profession. There are those who are motivated to study Christian theology out of a burning desire to disprove, neutralize, or change Christianity. Natural man has enough enmity toward God to make a lifelong crusade against him. There is an enemy within the church.1
5. Satan is not just fighting churches today, he is joining them! He has placed within churches, colleges, and universities, spiritual counterfeits. Every counterfeit has marks which distinguish it from the real thing.
6. Jude goes to the world of nature and looks at the sky above, the earth around, and the sea below, to give us certain marks of spiritual counterfeits.
7. How do you spot counterfe ...
Series: Jude - Keeping Up Your Guard
James Merritt
Jude 12-13
Introduction
1. Few people know that the secret service has not only far more to do than to protect the president. That is not even their primary job. Working under the treasury department, one of their major jobs is to try to catch counterfeiters. Therefore they have to learn how to recognize counterfeit money.
2. The surprising thing is, the way they are trained to do this is not by studying counterfeit money, but by studying real currency. The better they get to know the real thing, the easier it is to spot the phony.
3. Jude knew the real thing. He was the real thing. He could spot a spiritual counterfeit in a church fifty pews away. He is telling us here how to spot counterfeit Christians; apostates who may look like Christians on the outside, but are definitely not Christian on the inside.
4. One of my favorite authors, R. C. Sproul, made this extremely pungent observation:
We must not assume that because someone is a theological scholar that he is a Christian. We may not assume that because someone is an ordained minister he is necessarily a Christian. Sadly, there are many people who enter the ministry for the wrong reasons. Some make theological skepticism a profession. There are those who are motivated to study Christian theology out of a burning desire to disprove, neutralize, or change Christianity. Natural man has enough enmity toward God to make a lifelong crusade against him. There is an enemy within the church.1
5. Satan is not just fighting churches today, he is joining them! He has placed within churches, colleges, and universities, spiritual counterfeits. Every counterfeit has marks which distinguish it from the real thing.
6. Jude goes to the world of nature and looks at the sky above, the earth around, and the sea below, to give us certain marks of spiritual counterfeits.
7. How do you spot counterfe ...
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