Did God Really Say … ?

Extrabiblical Verses

• "God helps those who help themselves."
• "This, too, shall pass."
• “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”
• "Pride goes before a fall."
• "Money is the root of all evil."
• "God works in mysterious ways."
• "God never gives you more than you can bear."
• Seven Deadly Sins -- Pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, sloth
• Others - Three wise men, Jonah & the whale, Eve & the apple 

Extrabiblical Verses Revisited

• "God helps those who help themselves." (Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. - Philippians 2:4; If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? - 1 John 3:17)
• "This, too, shall pass." (But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment. Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live…  2 Peter 3:10-11)
• “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” (For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.  He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. - Ephesians 5:25-27)
• Seven Deadly Sins -- Pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, sloth (There are six things the Lord hates— no, seven things he detests: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family. - Proverbs 6:19)
• "Pride goes before a fall." (Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. - Proverbs 16:18)
• "Money is the root of all evil." (For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  - 1 Timothy 6:10)
• "God works in mysterious ways." (“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.  “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." - Isaiah 55:8-9)
• "God never gives you more than you can bear." (And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. - 1 Corinthians 10:13)

Two Scriptural Examples

• Matthew 4:5-7 Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect you.  And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’”  Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’”Psalm 91:9 If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you;  no plague will come near your home.  For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go.  They will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.

• Genesis 2:15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.  But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” Genesis 3:1-4 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied.  “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’” “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman.  “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

Warnings

• 1 Corinthians 11:3-4,13-15 But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent.  You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed.  …  These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ.  But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.  So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve.

• Galatians 1:6-9 I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ.  You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.  Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you.  I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.

Test the Spirits

• 1 John 4:1-6 Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.  This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.   But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.   Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them.   But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.

Be A Berean

Acts 17:10-11 That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. When they arrived there, they went to the Jewish synagogue.  And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.

1. Be open-minded - Be teachable.  This may mean letting go of preconceived notions.  Prepare the soil of your heart in order to produce the most fruit in your life (Parable of the Sower - Luke 8).
2. Listen eagerly - The Gospel is "good news that will bring great joy to all people" (Luke 2:10).  Remember -- "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right (2 Timothy 3:16)." 
3. Be in the Scriptures daily to determine truth - As we pray, "give us today our daily bread," so we should daily seek to be fed and nurtured through the Word.  Jesus said that we "do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4)."  The Holy Spirit will lead us into truth as we read with an eager, open mind.  Don't take anyone's word as Gospel, but search the Scriptures to weigh what you hear against God's established Word.  Examine verses in the context of the passages in which they are situated.  

Final Thoughts

• Counterfeit Currency - the more familiar one is with the legitimate, the more discerning they are of the counterfeit
• John 10:1-5,27 "I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber!  But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.  The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice.  They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice. …  My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me."
• John 14:26,15:26,16:13-15 “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative--that is, the Holy Spirit--he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. … But I will send you the Advocate—the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me. …  When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.  He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.  All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’"
• The best defense against the counterfeit is knowledge of the truth and discernment of the difference