I have a question for every single one of you here today. If I were to give you a $20 bill that was counterfeit, that was fake, do you think you would know? I would argue that for many of us, we wouldn't. We would take that bill, spend it, share it, pass it on, never realizing the entire time that we had been given a forgery.

Today we are starting a brand-new series called Cults and Counterfeits. And here's why: I believe this is more important than anything we can study. As we come into the summer, so often people take a step back from church. They take a step back from the things of God. At Spirit, we reject the idea that summer needs to be a time we step back. Summer is a time we step forward into the things of God. We're not going shallow. We're going deep into the things of God, and we're doing that in this series.

I think there is no more important conversation we can have. The Bible actually warns us about this. In 1 Timothy 4, Paul says the Holy Spirit tells us that in the last days some will turn away from the faith and follow what deceiving spirits teach. And God has actually put it on pastors to train. Ephesians 4 says that God has given pastors and teachers to equip His people for works of service. And I want to show you what happens when you are trained well. Ephesians 4:14: "Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching," which is so often happening in our culture today, "and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming."

He's saying, "I want you to be so solid in what you believe that you're able to speak the truth in love." It's not enough just to know the Word of God. We need to know it well enough that we can speak it in love. We're not doing this series so you can win an argument at the dinner table. "Well, let me tell you what I think about that. That's a cult." That's not why we're doing this. We're doing this so you can speak the truth in love, and we can grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ.

So we are jumping in today. This series is going to be deep. It's going to feel like a fire hydrant, especially today. Y'all, I've got about 60 scriptures to share with you. Pray for me. Welcome to Spirit Church. If you like the Bible, we like the Bible too.

I know that's a lot to take notes on, so we created a new experience for you during this series that will be available from here on out. If you take out your phone and tap the circle disc right in front of you, it's going to take you to a new app, and there's an area at the bottom where you can take notes. Every single thing I'm going to share on the screen is right there in the app. You can take your own notes, and at the end of the service you can email them to yourself and save them. Because if you're going to try to keep up, let me just say, you ain't going to keep up. We're going to be moving today. If that doesn't work, you can also go to app.spiritchurch.co.

What is a counterfeit gospel?

Here's the uncomfortable truth for so many of us: counterfeits don't work by looking obviously fake. Counterfeits work because they look real, but they're not. And so often when it comes to the gospel, in everything we see on Instagram, you'll see things that appear to be the gospel, but they're actually not. That's the most deceptive and dangerous thing of all.

Paul actually writes about this to the Galatian church, because that's what was happening to them. Galatians 1:6: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ." What is that? The fact that you can be saved, forgiven, and healed just by putting your faith in Jesus. He says you are abandoning that "and are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God's curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God's curse!"

Let me give you some context. Paul went to the Galatian church, and they received the gospel of Christ. But then some teachers came and said, "Well, that's not really the gospel, because you also need to be circumcised." And a bunch of people were like, "Whoa, hold up. Can we talk about this? I don't know if I want to go through with that." And Paul is saying, "No, you don't have to be circumcised to believe the gospel. You can believe it as it is. But you're turning to something different."

And I want you to notice this: Paul is not frustrated that they're abandoning the faith and turning to something evil. He's frustrated that they're turning to something that looks like the gospel but is not. I think most of the time the danger isn't that we turn from the good things of God to something evil. Most of the time, we settle for something almost true. And when it comes to the gospel, if it's almost true, it's completely fake.

How do you spot a fake? Study the real

So the question becomes, how do you spot a fake? I was doing some research this week, and I learned that the Secret Service was formed in 1865 for one reason: to stop counterfeit money. At the end of the Civil War, one-third of all the currency in the United States was counterfeit. They've done a great job. Right now it's about $100 million in circulation. But they were formed to spot fake currency.

I want to show you a $20 bill. I'm showing you this because it's the most counterfeited bill there is. Why? It's large enough to make a difference, but small enough not to raise any suspicion. You can just pass a $20. So they had to learn how to spot a counterfeit. And you would think the way to spot a counterfeit would be to learn all the ways fakes can be created. Take every forgery, put it in a stack, and study it. No. The way they learned to spot a fake was not by studying the fake. It was by studying the real. If you know the real well enough, the second you're handed a fake, you can spot it.

That's what we're doing in this sermon. I want to give you the real gospel before we look at the fakes in the weeks to come. I want you to feel what the real feels like, so you know the weight of it, and the second you're handed something else, you're like, "Wait, this feels off." They studied the weight and the feel and what it's supposed to look like so well that the second they were handed something else, they knew, "This isn't right."

But it wasn't only a feel. There are also objective ways to tell whether a bill is fake. If you rub your hand on the bill, you'll find that certain parts are raised, because the ink has been built up there. Most printers can't do that. It takes a very advanced printer. If you tilt the $20, you'll see it shift from copper to a kind of green. That's color-shifting ink, another security measure. Another is the watermark. Hold it up to the light, and you'll see a watermark that isn't printed. It's embedded in the paper. A fourth is the security strip. Under UV light it glows, and different bills glow different colors. The $20 glows green.

The reason I show you that is it wasn't enough for them to have a feel. They needed objective measures. So in this sermon, I'm going to show you what the real is. I want you to feel, "Oh, this is what the gospel is." And then I'm going to give you some things you can use to spot fakes. Not eight things. Three questions. If you just ask these three questions, you'll spot a fake in a second.

Why does the true gospel matter?

Why does this matter? Because if you accept money, it becomes your responsibility. If you take a fake bill to a teller and they realize it's fake, they'll confiscate it, and you're left with nothing. If it's $20, you'll survive. But imagine spending your entire life working, saving, building up for retirement, and then you take those savings to a teller and everything gets confiscated, because you realize your entire life you were working for something fake.

That's what we're talking about. There is no more important series we can do, in summer or at any point, because we're not talking about money at all. We're talking about how sinners can stand before a righteous God and get to spend eternity with Him forever. Do you know how long forever is? Forever and ever and ever. We're talking about how people go to heaven and how people go to hell. There is no more important understanding we can have as a church.

And it matters because right now counterfeits are being handed out. Turn on the news. Turn on culture. Turn on Instagram. You'll see it all the time. People say, "I kind of like that part of the Bible. I'm going to take that. But I don't like that part, so I'm not going to take it." They're collecting things based on their own preferences, and they think what they're doing is new, but it's exactly what the Bible predicted the entire time.

2 Timothy 4:3: "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine." That's happening right now. "Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers." On Instagram, you can gather a great number of teachers. It's easier than ever before. "To say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." That is happening in our lifetime more than ever. And I want us to be a church so theologically grounded that it can't happen to us.

Paul essentially asks the Galatians, "What gospel do you believe?" And my question for you today is this: what gospel do you have? And not only what gospel do you have, but what gospel do you share? Do you know you're sharing the real thing, or are you sharing a counterfeit?

What is the true gospel?

So let's study the real thing. Let's hold the gospel up to the light, look at the watermark, and see everything the gospel actually is. First question: what is the real gospel? Instead of just explaining it, I'm going to read it from Scripture. One of the best scriptures that explains the gospel is Ephesians 2:1. Here's the gospel as the Bible defines it.

"As for you, you were dead." Well, that's great news. "Welcome to Spirit Church. Let me just tell you something: you're dead." "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air," that's Satan, "the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us," say "all of us," "also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath."

There is no way we can stand before a holy, perfect God. He can't be in relationship with us because of our sin. That is bad news. But here's the good news: "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace," say "grace," "you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves." There ain't nothing you can do to earn this. "It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Can y'all put your hands together for the gospel? It's good news. People ask, "What does 'gospel' mean?" By definition, it means good news. Good news that is proclaimed. And if you're looking for a simple definition, it's right there in your app: the gospel is the good news that a holy God looked on hopeless sinners and sent His own Son, Jesus, God in the flesh, to live a sinless life and die a sinner's death in our place. He rose from the grave so that everyone who turns and trusts in Him is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and is reconciled to God for eternity.

That is the gospel. We were separated, but God sent Jesus. There are five things in there I want us to pay attention to so we can get a real feel for the gospel: God, sin, Jesus, salvation, and eternity. So now's the time. I'm about to throw some scripture on you, so you'd better have that app open. We're about to fly.

1. God: A holy God made us for Himself

We need to know who God is. The Bible says God is holy. We just sang that song. Isaiah 6:3 says the seraphim, the angels, are calling, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." He can't be in relationship with things that are imperfect, because He is so holy.

Not only is He holy, God is just, which means He doesn't call evil good and good evil. That's bad news for us, because by nature we are evil. So how will we ever have a relationship with Him? Because He's not only holy and just. He is also gracious. Titus 2:11: "For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people."

And not only is He holy and just and gracious, He created us for Himself, by His will, in His image, for His glory. Isaiah 43:7: "Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory." If you're like, "I don't know what my purpose is. I've been trying to figure it out," here's your purpose: bring God glory. Congratulations. You just found your purpose in life.

2. Sin: We rebelled and can't undo it

The problem is sin. That's the second thing. Sin enters the picture. We rebelled, and we can't undo it.

What was the crime? We rebelled. Isaiah 53:6: "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way." Romans 3:12: "All have turned away... there is no one who does good, not even one." Romans 3:23: "For all," say "all," "have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Not a single one of us is safe.

In Genesis, God creates Adam and Eve and says, "Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." They eat from it, and at that moment sin enters and gets passed down. But the beautiful thing is that Jesus comes, and in the same way sin entered through one man, we are saved through one man. That is the gospel.

What are the effects? Guilt, shame, fear. You see it when Adam and Eve start hiding from God. What is the verdict? We're guilty. James 2:10: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." If you've ever had a bad thought, if you've ever done a bad thing, if you've ever been selfish, if you broke it once, it's saying you broke everything.

And the result of that sin is separation from God. Isaiah 59:2: "But your iniquities have separated you from your God." And because of that separation, the sentence is death. Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death." Ephesians 2:1: "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins." I looked up the Greek for that word "dead." Do you know what it means? Dead. Like dead dead. Super dead. If you're dead, you can't breathe. You can't think a thought. What they're trying to say is there is nothing you can do, because you are dead. Dead people can't bring themselves back to life.

Who will help us? The spotless Lamb. Because the only way this can be paid for is through blood, and we can't afford the price. It has to be perfect blood, and our blood isn't perfect. Hebrews 9:22: "Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins."

It always required a spotless lamb. But even that was temporary. God wasn't up there going, "Jesus, You'd better hope this whole bull-and-goat thing works out, because if it doesn't, You're going to have to take one for the team." Jesus was always the plan. What the law showed is that we are unable, by ourselves, to ever bring ourselves back to God. There is nothing you can do. Hebrews 10:4: "It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins."

3. Jesus: Only Jesus can rescue us

Which leads to number three: Jesus. Only He can rescue us. Now, a lot of religions are going to disagree with everything I'm about to say, so pay attention.

We believe Jesus is God in the flesh. He is God. John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." But not only is He God, He is God in the flesh. John 1:14: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."

He lived the life we could not live. Hebrews 4:15 says He was "tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he did not sin." He is the spotless Lamb. As perfect man, He is our perfect substitute. But as perfect God, He is the only one who can pay the price, because it took something divine to pay it.

He died the death we deserve, and He gave His blood. Romans 3:25: "For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood." 2 Corinthians 5:21: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

You need to get this. The nature of sin is that we substitute ourselves for God. My way. I want to do this my way. The nature of salvation is that God substitutes Himself for us. It's called the great exchange. And I don't understand it. I have no idea why He would do that, apart from His great love for us.

He is God in the flesh. He lived the life we couldn't. He died the death we deserve. And contrary to what Islam, Judaism, and Jehovah's Witnesses believe, we believe He rose. He rose from the dead, and He was victorious over sin. Revelation 1:18: "I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades."

He rose again, and that means He is Lord. Acts 2:36: "God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah." The question is not, "Is He Lord?" I'll answer that question: He is Lord. The Bible says every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. Our decision is not whether He is Lord. Our decision is whether we bow the knee now or when it's too late. Is He Lord over everything in your life? Because He already is. We just have to submit to that.

And there is no other name. Say "no other name." Acts 4:12: "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved." John 14:6: Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." No one. Not your effort, not some other religion. No one comes to the Father except through Him. 1 Timothy 2:5: "For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus."

4. Salvation: Received by grace, through faith, not works

So what do we do? Salvation. We receive salvation by grace, through faith, not by works. Salvation is a gift. Ephesians 2:8: "God saved you by his grace when you believed." Period. "And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God." Period. "Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it."

We receive it by faith, and faith alone. Galatians 2:16: "Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law." And then he doubles down: "And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law." He's like, "If you didn't get it the first time, I'm going to hit you again." And then he says it a third time: "For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law." We are saved by faith in Jesus, and faith in Jesus alone.

Are we saved by faith or by good works?

We are not saved by our good works, but we are saved to do good works. Good works don't save you, but they do show that you're saved. In other words, an apple tree needs to produce apples. Christians need to look like Christians. Real faith will always bear fruit.

People say, "I said the sinner's prayer. I did the thing." The prayer doesn't mean anything if you just say the words but you're not actually making Jesus Lord and saying, "I'm following You with everything. If You say get baptized, I'm getting baptized. If You say do this, I'm going to do it."

Ephesians 2:10: "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." I love the NLT. It says, "For we are God's masterpiece." Say "masterpiece." You might as well wear a cape and walk around. People are like, "Why are you wearing a cape?" "You didn't hear? I'm a masterpiece, created in Christ to do the good things He planned for me long ago. Hi, everyone, my name is Brad, and I'm a masterpiece, says God." That's what it says.

James 2:17: "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, 'You have faith; I have deeds.' Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds." Salvation through Jesus, by grace alone, through faith alone.

5. Eternity: Our response determines our destination

Which leads to eternity. Our response today determines our destination. You need to know that this is urgent, and there are no second chances. Hebrews 9:27: "Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment." I don't know if you know this, but death is kind of a perfect statistic. It happens to all of us. I pray it happens many, many years from now. But unless Jesus comes back, that moment is going to be real for every single one of us.

And here's the good news. John 3:18: "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already." Which leads to two destinations. Those who reject God face despair, forever separated from Him. 2 Thessalonians 1:9: "They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might."

But those who trust will have hope, forever with God. Revelation 21:3 describes the end of this present age: "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes.'" I don't know what hardship you're facing, but the good news is this: as we persevere, there will come a time when God wipes every tear from our eyes. "There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

So now we have a choice. Moses says this in Deuteronomy 30:19: "This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live."

That is the gospel. The gospel is the good news that a holy God looked on hopeless sinners and sent His own Son, Jesus, God in the flesh, to live a sinless life and die a sinner's death in our place. He rose from the grave so that everyone who turns and trusts in Him is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and is reconciled to God for eternity.

How are we feeling? I know it's baptism Sunday, but y'all just got baptized in Scripture. Praise God. That's what the real feels like: God, sin, Jesus, salvation, eternity. Write that on the tablet of your heart, so that whenever you're handed something that seems fake, you immediately know.

How do you know if a teaching is false?

In the remainder of our time, I also want to give you those security measures. You should know what the real feels like, but I'm also going to give you a few questions that will help you know the truth anytime you're in a conversation. I pray the truth becomes so obvious to you. Super obvious.

The other day I walked into my son Saint's room, and he had found a red block with paint on it and scrubbed it all over the wall. I don't know if he was cleaning. I walked up and said, "Hey, buddy, what is this? Did you do this?" And he goes, "Huh?" If you were here a couple of weeks ago, you'd know. Side note: after that sermon we realized where he got it from. Me. I say "huh" all the time. I did not even realize. Forgive me, I repent. Apparently I'm the problem. So I'm like, "Hey, buddy, who did this?" "Huh?" "Who did this?" And he just turned three, so I'm like, "Do you understand my question, or are you lying?" And I got to the place where I said, "I know it's not your mom. It's not me. It's not your sister. She's one. It has to be you."

That's my prayer: that the truth is so obvious to you that when you hear a lie, you say, "I know that's a lie. I can spot it, because I know what's true."

So here are three questions I want you to be able to ask, and I pray you embed them on your heart. John talks about this in 1 John 4:1: "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God." That's what we want you to be able to do. We want you to be a Berean. Acts 17:11: "Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." Please be a Berean. Don't think something is true just because I said it. I'm going to make so many mistakes. Check the Bible. Read the Bible for yourself. Three questions, three detectors.

1. What is your final authority?

The first is this: what is your final authority? Let me give you the answer: the Bible alone, with nothing added. Cults and counterfeits will always add a secondary source to Scripture. It's going to be a tradition. It's going to be other scripture. It's going to be a prophet. It's going to be a feeling. They are always going to add something else to the Bible.

Countless times people have come up to me and asked, "What's your opinion on various social issues? What's your opinion on LGBTQ? What's your opinion on gender ideology?" I've talked about all of that in our church before. But my response is simply this: "I believe what the Bible says." And they're like, "What does the Bible say?" And I'm like, "I'm glad you asked." And then we're in a conversation.

Sometimes, if I know they don't even believe the Bible, I won't answer. I'll say, "What do you believe about the Bible? Do you believe it's the authority of God? Because if you don't believe the Bible has authority, then our conversation isn't actually about the issue. It's about whether you submit to the same source of truth. Let's start there. Once we know this is truth, we can talk about the issue, but I'm not going to talk about that until we talk about this."

We feel so pressured to answer questions. Be like Jesus. I wrote this down, because it's fascinating. Jesus was asked 183 questions. Do you know how many He answered? Three. And He asked 307. People are like, "What do You believe?" And He's like, "Well, what do you believe? What do you think about that?" Every single time, for me, the Bible is what I stand on.

It is complete. 2 Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." It has everything we need. Deuteronomy 4:2 is a warning: "Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it." Do not add another source of scripture to Scripture.

Revelation 22:18 is a cute little promise: "I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the words of prophecy written in this book: If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book. And if anyone removes any of the words from this book of prophecy, God will remove that person's share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book." Y'all, we have to be so careful with the way we handle the Word of God. We do not add anything to it, and we do not subtract anything from it. What is your final authority? The Bible.

2. Who do you say Jesus is?

The second question: who do you say Jesus is? Is He just some dude? A prophet? A good guy? Here's the answer: Jesus is fully God and fully man, one of three persons of the one true God, uncreated, not a second God, crucified in our place.

We believe Jesus is fully God and fully man. I talked about that earlier, so I won't hit it again. But we also believe He is one of three persons, and I want you to clock in, because that's a conversation about the Trinity. As Christians, we believe in the Trinity, and a lot of counterfeits reject it. Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism: all reject the Trinity.

What is the Trinity?

So I want to quickly talk about what the Trinity is in about one minute. Lord, help me. It is really hard to talk about the Trinity. People say, "It's kind of like an egg." Really? The Trinity is like an egg? "Yeah, you've got the yolk and the white, so God is the yolk, Jesus is the white, and the Spirit is the eggshell." Y'all, can we please not reduce God to an egg? That would be awesome.

Or they say, "It's kind of like water. You know how H2O can be solid, liquid, or gas? God is the same thing." Or, "My name is Brad, and I'm an uncle, a son, and a brother. God is Father, Son, and Spirit." One God in three forms or functions. That's called modalism, and that is not what we believe. We believe in one God in three persons.

Here's how the Bible describes it. One God. Deuteronomy 6:4: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." He is one. And He is three distinct persons. Genesis 1:26: "Then God said, 'Let us make mankind in our image.'" When Jesus is baptized and comes up out of the water, God the Father says, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased," and the Spirit descends on Him like a dove. How does that happen if it's just one person? Jesus isn't talking to Himself while He Himself is the dove landing on Himself. Y'all explain that to me. In that one picture, you see all three persons of God.

Jesus is distinguished from the Father. John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The Spirit is distinguished from the Son. John 14:26, Jesus speaking: "But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name." Can you see all three represented right there? The Father is distinguished from the Spirit. Romans 8:26–27: "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness... because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God." Again, they're distinguished.

But they are all God, and counterfeits will reject that. God the Father is God. 1 Corinthians 8:6: "Yet for us there is but one God, the Father." God the Son is God. Titus 2:13: "While we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ." John 1:1 says the Word was God. And God the Spirit is God. People forget that. They think the Spirit is some kind of form or function. No, He is a person of the Godhead. Acts 5:3: "Then Peter said, 'Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit... You have not lied just to human beings but to God.'"

Jesus is fully God and fully man, one of three persons of the one true God, uncreated, not a second God, crucified in our place.

3. How are you saved?

So the final question is this: how are we saved? I've already given you the answer. By grace, through faith in Christ, not by works.

If you take those three questions, every cult and counterfeit becomes so easy to spot, and I'm going to help you do that over the next couple of weeks. People have asked me, "Brad, can I bring my Mormon friend to this series?" Yes. We're going to be kind. We're going to be loving. We have to do it in love. That's what the Bible commands. But we're going to be truthful. Throughout this series we're going to answer those three questions, and I'm going to show you how the various counterfeits fail on them. That's the detector we have to use.

Who needs the real gospel?

So who needs the real thing? Everybody. If you walk around Phoenix, I think a lot of people won't realize this, but 27% of Phoenix belongs to Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Catholicism.

Now let me say something about Catholics, because I've met some Catholics. There are Christians, and there are different kinds of Christians. There are Catholics, and there are different kinds of Catholics. I've met Catholics who believe that Jesus Christ alone, not works, is the Savior of the world and the one who gives them salvation. I think a lot of times they don't even realize what Catholics believe. So we have to be so careful. It's not about how you define yourself, but about what you actually believe. We're going to talk about all of that. I encourage you to bring friends.

27% of Phoenix holds a counterfeit. 8% holds a different currency altogether: Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism. We're not going to talk about those in this series, because they're not even trying to pretend to be Christian. They're just different. Maybe one day we'll do a series on that. And finally, there are those who are empty-handed, about a third of Phoenix, who are agnostic or atheist. So when you're walking around the grocery store and you count one, two, three, statistically the first two people don't have the one true gospel. They have a counterfeit, or they have nothing in their hands.

Believe, guard, and spread the gospel

So here's the choice we have, and then I'll pray for us. What do we do?

We believe the gospel. I pray that you believe the gospel. John 3:16 says whoever believes in Him shall not perish. I pray that you repent. Acts 3:19: "Repent, then, and turn to God." And I pray that you submit, that you just do what Jesus tells us to do. Romans 10:9: "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord.'" Luke 9:23: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." Matthew 7:21: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." It's not good enough to say a prayer and forget about it: "I said the prayer, I'm good, I'm going to keep living my life the way I used to." No. You make Him Lord.

Believe the gospel, and then guard the gospel. 2 Timothy 2:15: "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth."

And then spread the gospel. 1 Peter 3:15: "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." My prayer is that throughout this series, whenever someone asks you, "Why do you believe what you believe?" you can give them a reason for the hope that you have.

Next week we'll talk about Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses, the people who come to your door. The week after that, we'll talk about Catholicism and works-based salvation, and I think for a lot of us that hits home, because we have family members in that space. We'll talk about the prosperity gospel. We'll talk about theological liberalism. It's going to be great. Praise God. Welcome to summer at Spirit. We're different.

Can I pray for you? God, I want to pray for every single person here under my voice. God, I want to thank You for the deep desire we have to know Your Word. Lord, I want to thank You for the army of believers You are raising up. Lord, we don't want to just sit in church and be entertained. God, we want to drink from Your Scripture. We want to know Your Word. We want to know Your Bible. God, there is nothing we would love to know more. And I thank You, God, for this incredible church. I pray for such a blessing on every single one of them. Give us the wisdom to know how to reach the person who is far from God but close to us.

While you're still praying, I want to take a moment and recognize that there are people here who maybe don't know this Jesus. You've gone to church, you've checked the boxes, but you have not put your faith in Him. If that's you, and you know you're far from God and you want to come back to Him, or you want to start a relationship with Him for the first time, pray this prayer: "Jesus, I believe that You're the Son of God and the Savior of the world. I believe You came to this earth, You died on a cross, and You were raised so that I can have life. I make You my Lord. I make You my Savior. In Jesus' name."