Discerning False Teaching: A Call to Biblical Discernment

today we have a

01:08:12 really cheerful subject false teachers okay I thought about saying you know what before I get going you know God told me someone here has $50,000 they’re going to put it right in my bank account kind of need to pay towards that new uh the new uh SUV you know but then that’s not really um maybe it’s not that funny but false teachers have have false motives right they they just want selfish gain they don’t actually care about God okay so um now that we’ve had a little joke maybe we can uh get into

01:08:43 this subject um I really appreciate everybody today and um just engaging with God and going with the flow Jordan you actually sounded like God was speaking through you that I was like that woke me up when you started speaking speaking um and it’s exactly what God wants to say today is he’s saying whose voice are we listening to are we listening to the voice of the shepherd are we listening to the voice of the wolf okay because this world’s full of lies not everyone who believes lies is a deceiver a purposeful dece

01:09:14 deceiver however there are purposeful deceivers and that’s what the Bible says over and over again and that’s what we’re going to read about in Revelation 2 um I really want to encourage everyone right now now uh to open up your Bible to Revelation 2 uh we’re going to start in verse 12 and I’m going to read uh two letters that Jesus himself sent to the angels the representatives of two churches in the ancient near East uh if you don’t have your Bible get a Bible on your phone or steal somebody else’s

01:09:43 phone um and look at the Bible on their phone because if you don’t have the scripture in front of you how are you going to discern false teaching if I’m up here speaking I also debated not just to do the joke about the the you know um giving me money but also to do a joke about um maybe just teach you guys a false teaching and see if anybody noticed you know maybe you know maybe nobody would because everyone is talking to someone or maybe um they’re on Facebook or social media and it’ll just blow on to you and I’m not I’m not like

01:10:17 without sin in that so I’m not here to just you know cast stones but when we have the word in front of us and we’re we’re willing to discern and we come to it um the way Jesus does we’re not going to be deceived he’s given us his holy spirit he’s given us his holy scriptures and if we receive the word through that filter we’re not going to be deceived but do you understand that that’s an intentional posture that we take that we’re aware that we could be in the presence of a deceiver right now I could be deceiving

01:10:48 you you I mean I got that great introduction from Pastor Jonathan and it made you think oh everything that David says is probably right or maybe he has no ulterior motives but only the day of judgment will ever say that only God knows what my heart is you don’t know that you don’t know you can see you can see my face and you can hear my words but if they don’t line up with the scriptures and with with Jesus his character you should reject them you should reject me okay we can disagree over false doctrines but we dismiss over

01:11:22 a false Jesus we dismiss and disfellowship ship over a false gospel because deception will steal from you deception will steal from you what God wants to give which is his true self his true love his true kindness his freedom his rest his grace his forgiveness his kingdom his direction for your life his calling his friends that he has for you his community that he has for you if you believe deception you’re not going to get any of it you’ll be alone alienated from God in your sin alienated from

01:11:54 others feeling like nobody cares about you and even alienated from yourself I know I used to live in that I still do some days when I’m not focused on Jesus when I let the lies come when I believe something like oh you’re stuck you’re not going to amount to anything nobody loves you maybe God’s not real whatever the deception is oh you could live however you want it doesn’t matter God’s maybe not as good as you thought he was maybe you need to do more for him maybe you’re not qualified to do the things

01:12:26 that God said that you’re called to do those are all lies okay and there’s lies because there’s a liar there’s a slanderer there’s a deceiver there’s a whole Kingdom of deceivers Satan the kingdom of darkness okay and we are called in this series to overcome to be a church to be an assembly of people that overcomes the kingdom of darkness and the way the kingdom of darkness has power is through lies and deception that was how the kingdom of darkness gave gained power mankind had dominion over the Earth and through a

01:12:59 lie we surrendered it to the Lord of death Satan but Revelation one says that now Jesus is the new Lord of death because Jesus broke death and he rose again all right but for a while for a while Satan had a monopoly on that okay and so the kingdom of darkness is a kingdom of Lies if you believe a lie it’s going to defeat you it’s going to depress you and you will not overcome the truth will put heart into you the truth will set you free the truth always frees you from bondage from the LIE the truth says God

01:13:33 is pure love Jesus really did something yes you were lost but Jesus did something to make you free and whom the son sets free is free indeed and he’s poured out his holy spirit to live in you to empower you you’re not a victim you can overcome you can’t do it alone you need to depend on him and depend on others and depend on the scripture and the Holy Spirit but you have hope you’re going to make it in Christ you will overcome here me say it and and test me okay don’t just hear me hear hear the scriptures all right so

01:14:10 we’re going to see uh a few things today we’re going to see uh how Jesus deals with false teachers what is a false teacher uh we’re going to see how do we judge false teachers today the Bible actually calls us to judge them I thought we’re not supposed to judge well okay test that by the scripture and then lastly we’ll see Jesus is the truth he’s the real deal he’s the plum line he’s the one by which you can tell the counterfeit if you know Jesus you’re going to know a false Jesus right so in the end it’s pretty simple

01:14:43 so and we we’ll get to the Simplicity but first we have to start with the complexity did you know there’s a lot of lies there’s a lot of things you can hold on to and believe that will lead you right into destruction ruction they’ll lead you into defeat they’ll lead you into one sin to the next one mistake to the next one broken relationship to the next one addiction to the next one false hope to the next one God to the next one mystery to the next Mystery One adventure to the next adventure one you know destination

01:15:16 you’re going to to the Final Destination that’s not a movie you should probably watch but um you know it’s included in that um but there’s things out there that’s so comp licated it creates this not and you just think how could you ever I think how could you ever know enough to understand what’s right and what’s not there’s so many doctrines out there there’s doctrines of baptism communion Providence sovereignty salvation God himself the Holy Spirit gifts of the holy spirit for today uh the inspiration of the scripture who’s

01:15:50 Jesus what is uh what is the blood of Jesus demonology angelology I’m blah blah blah blah blah how are you ever going to know enough so that you can tell when somebody’s got something off or not people I like it people are responding I can’t hear you but you I’m just going to pretend like I heard you right so you’re saying good stuff out there all right so did you ever hear about this guy Alexander the Great he was pretty famous all right so he went to this town and there was this thing called the gordian knot and there was

01:16:20 this prophecy that whoever could untie the gordian knot would rule right and it was this horrible knot it was like worse than this microphone cord when I tried to put it on it took me like it took me like five minutes to untie this cuz Ken was looking at me the whole time and I was I was stressed out and I I couldn’t do it um but you know how Alexander the Great untied the knot he took a sword and he just cut it all right so this is what God what God wants us to do is take the sword of the spirit which is the word of God the

01:16:52 person of Jesus and slice every Doctrine with it okay if it rings true it’s true if it slices it’s it’s not okay and Jesus actually brings the sword to these churches right if we want to look to Revelation 2:2 uh he has a sword coming out of his mouth which is not a literal sword I hope that would be strange um maybe it is okay but it’s it’s the rest of the Bible says that’s the word of God it’s even the gospel that divides soul from Spirit um flesh from Spirit truth from lie right and so I’m going to read these

01:17:27 these letters that he writes to uh two churches pergamum and thyra and we’ll unpack these um I want you to notice the areas in this where Jesus refers to the false teachers but holy spirit before we start I ask God that you will illuminate your word that you will expose lies in our lives I pray this wouldn’t just be an academic Bible study but I pray that you will illuminate where we have been deceived father reveal r that you don’t want to reveal it just to shame us but to set us free to give us

01:18:01 your grace Lord I pray that you’d bring your truth today and that it would free people and it would bring the rest that Levi was talking about it would bring the rest and the refreshment and the drink and the peace that your gospel brings in Jesus name amen you know one of the worst false teachers is the one that just drives you with a whip they don’t have Grace they don’t have peace PE there’s no rest I’ll just that’s that’s an aside okay all right um let me go into this Jesus says this to the angel of the church in

01:18:36 pergamum right the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword so he says I’m bringing the sword to you guys I know where you dwell where Satan’s Throne is what does that mean I’m just going to unpack this as we go okay so in that City there was a temple to Zeus that it could be referring to where there was a huge Throne it could also be referring to um pergamum as the seat of Emperor worship and that was Satan it was an adversary that’s the meaning of Satan is an adversary or an accuser okay so he’s saying you guys

01:19:09 live in the heart of darkness you guys live in a place that has no knowledge of the Living God he says this yet you hold fast my name and you do not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness who was killed among you where Satan dwells there’s a true teacher Antipas was true he bore witness he said this is who Jesus is even at cost of his life that’s how much love he had for God how much love he had for the church that he said Jesus is all I got I’m willing to die because he’s I still

01:19:41 have him that’s a true teacher cares about the word of God Bears witness even unto death okay however he says this verse 14 but I have a few things against you now that youu is singular he’s talking to the church to or to the angel of the church he’s talking to the representative of the church he’s talking to the front row here and the guy on the stage the people that are responsible for the doctrine in that house he says I have this against you which is a a sobering thought okay the responsibility to uh protect the flock

01:20:18 okay I have a few things against you you have some there who hold the teaching of balum who taught baac to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality everybody understood that right okay so that’s that’s a little bit deep okay so in the Book of Revelation there’s not a single there’s not almost not a single line that doesn’t have five or six layered Old Testament references so you’ll understand if you can Master the Old Testament you’ll be

01:20:50 able to to master Revelation but luckily again the simple message of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus all right so it’s just supposed to show you Jesus it’s going to slice that knot but the more you know about the Old Testament you might be able to pick away at the knot a little bit okay all right so in the Old Testament in the Book of Numbers there was this man balum you go to numbers 21 if you want to look at that more later um and a king baac who’s mentioned here said hey I want you true

01:21:19 Prophet balam’s words came true he prophesied about Jesus he was accurate yet he was a false prophet Saidi want you to curse the people of Israel for me and he said no he tried multiple times and God wouldn’t let him do it so then he said hey Bayo here’s how you’re going to get him uh in numbers 31 he says just bring some women to seduce them and bring them uh into Idol feasts to B peor which was their God right and that was how he lured them into idolatry and away from their Unity with God and they were

01:21:53 vulnerable then to attack because they strayed away from the true God to worship false gods and they didn’t just do that because they thought oh I like this Bale peor God no they were actually being drawn on there was there was a pull from their sexuality from having feasts having a party that was pulling on them that was leading them towards uh this false worship okay so what Jesus says is there’s some people in your church that follow that same belief that’s not a good thing you know that you want Jesus to to say he’s like

01:22:26 there’s people there that are teaching you don’t have to have unswerving loyalty to Yahweh to Jesus you can go um worship false gods you can go into aphrodites Temple you can go into Zeus’s Temple you can go into Dion isis’s Temple and you can eat the food and you can have sex with the temple prostitutes I’m just saying this is how it was people understood this in the time period And so through a sexual Union you’re bonding with someone and by eating with someone you’re bonding with that person Jesus ate with tax

01:22:56 collectors and sinners Saidi accept you in your unworthiness I love you okay that’s a beautiful contrast okay but when these people went and they ate food sacrificed to Idols a lot of times it was in the context of a trade Guild they had to do that to keep their business they had to do a social function maybe they had to worship the Emperor or they had to eat a meal in an Idol’s Temple and that showed they were part of society and it would have cost them everything to say no Jesus is my God Antipas did that he was killed right so

01:23:29 he’s saying there’s some people there that would you’d be more than willing to compromise you’d be more than willing to commit sexual immorality now in the Old Testament sexual immorality uh in Greek it’s poro porn okay just leave that there okay um sexual immorality wasn’t just a physical thing or or emotional thing it was uh worshiping a false god and that’s not a neutral Pursuit when you have pornography you actually have a digital Herm or a digital brothel and you’re doing that and you’re not

01:23:59 just joining you’re joining with the spirits behind that okay that’s that’s the true teaching so um he says don’t do that I’m bringing a sword to cut through to set someone free right that’s what Jesus is doing so that’s what happened he said that’s the danger of this it’s leading you away from my faith to the faith of false gods whether that’s the god of wine dionis the God of Sex Aphrodite the god of whatever whatever it is whatever your of choice is it’s not less it’s not less bad okay anything

01:24:31 that’s drawing you away from God even if it’s fantasy football is not that good okay so just putting that out there okay some of you hold to the doctrine of uh Dion Sanders no okay I don’t know but basically what he’s doing he’s not it’s this concept of what’s drawing you away from from God okay next one verse 15 so also you have some who hold the teaching of the nicians therefore so the nians if you look in the patristic scholars the church fathers they were considered uh what’s called an antinomian sect it means

01:25:05 anti-law you could think of it as license James Bond license to kill you could do whatever you want okay cuz they were gnostics they believe that what I do in my flesh makes no difference to who I am in my spirit it has no bearing on on who I am in my spirit if I believe the right things about God and I say the right things about God I’m a spiritual person even though I might in my flesh steal cheat lie slander verbally abuse what whatever it may be it’s okay because in my spirit I’m good and Jesus has given

01:25:41 me enough Grace that I can do that that’s a false teaching and Nicholas people don’t know if it was the the Deacon Nicholas or it was someone using his name but he started this sect of people that they perverted the grace of God so there’s three ways that that you can look at Grace legalism license love okay the legalist says this Grace plus my Works equals salvation right the the licensed person says Grace instead of works not Grace plus Works Grace instead of works I can do whatever I want Jesus already did everything he

01:26:24 doesn’t change my Approach at all it’s nice that he did that thanks you know um but true gospel says the grace of God produces works it’s not Grace plus works or Grace instead of works it’s Grace produces Works CU God has loved me so much he’s freed me from everything I want to live for him it’s not a burden I I actually want to love others as as he loved me that’s Grace okay but you can misunderstand that and the false teachers in these Revelation Revelation passages there’s always two categories

01:27:00 there’s the legalist and the license that you’re going to there might be a third one I haven’t really encountered it too much maybe just total Egghead stuff like that’s more of the license the gnostics were more Egghead they’re like we just believe we’re so deep in the mystery um that actually is another false teaching he said there’s some later it’ll say sorry I’m babbling later it says there’s some who are in the Deep things of Satan the mystery of Satan okay uh we we’ll get into that so but for the most part what he’s dealing with

01:27:31 in pergamum are people that are into license okay they’re just saying grace instead of works and that’s not understanding uh true Grace he says therefore repent if not I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth so that’s what Jesus says I’m coming again it’s not the second coming but it’s a coming it’s a judgment coming I’m coming with the sword right and there’s times and Seasons where Jesus will come and expose false teachers and he will prune them off the body of Christ if you haven’t noticed

01:28:05 this is a season of that I just won’t say anything else about that okay um he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches to the one who conquers who overcomes I will give some of the Hidden mana and I will give him a white stone and a new name written on him that no one knows except the one who receives it beautiful man I just want to unpack that a little bit more but he’s basically saying I’ll give you such a revelation the hidden Mana the Mana that was inside the Ark of the Covenant in the Old

01:28:35 Testament he says I’ll open up the Ark of the Covenant you’ll see what’s inside that hidden Mana will be bread to you it will be eternal life to you I’ll let you have that Revelation that shows you who you truly are cuz I’ll give you a white stone and it has a name on it that only I know it’s between me and you I know you so deeply i s i see every work that everyone else didn’t see and that’s he will reward that that’s the the beauty of who he is okay so yeah he’s bringing a sword but he ends with some some beautiful stuff he

01:29:06 says turn from those lies and know who I really am that I want the best for you I’m not against you I’m for you this is the god that’s speaking that The God Who has holes in his wrists and his feet from dying for us this is the one that’s correcting us okay let’s move on here um we we’ll go on to verse 18 and to the angel of the church in thyra write this the words of the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze both of those metaphors are for judgment

01:29:37 the flame of fire the fire of judgment the fire that refines that burns away all the chaff that leaves only the good behind Okay the fire that we are going to have to walk through according to 1 Corinthians 3 and if there’s anything in our life that doesn’t line up with love it’s going to burn away it’s going to profit us nothing cross reference okay that’s the flame of fire and then the feet of bronze the bronze hearkens back to the altar where the sacrifices were made it’s a place of judgment okay so he’s coming with eyes

01:30:05 of fire and feet of bronze to crush the deception and to refine the people does this make sense right so he’s coming with that attitude and he says this by the way we can right now we can pause and sayl I invite you to refine my life I invite you to stomp on the enemy in my life with the feet of bronze and that the enemy might be some of my favorite lies that I believe oh sorry sorry I thought you were like I thought you really had a question there I’m sorry yeah I’m being I was like oh I’m used to being in the spirit class

01:30:42 where I’m like oh I have to let somebody I have to let someone talk I don’t have to let any of you talk right now I’m just preaching that’s good that’s why I like preaching no just kid anybody that really wants to say something go you know go ahead um no but we can invite him sorry about that we need a little okay balum nians pora okay we need a little bit of a laugh sometimes all right good but we can invite him Lord refine my life show me who I am right now you know the Judgment of God Is Not

01:31:12 a Bad Thing Jesus is the judge and he’s also the Savior so in the Judgment God reveals who I am when he judges me God reveals who I am I am when God Saves me he reveals who he is okay so the Judgment look at this the cross is the Judgment of God and the salvation of God the cross reveals how how much we need a savior when God appeared among us we nailed him to a cross that’s not too nice that’s not a good creature it’s not a good species okay but it shows who we really are in our selfishness but it shows who he is

01:31:55 it shows his humility his sacrifice his Beauty he said father forgive them they don’t know what they do they’re not free yet they they haven’t received the truth don’t charge the sin against them they’re not even free to see do you see who God is we can just trust him we can just trust him in our life okay I know your Works your love and your faith and your service and patient endurance and that your latter Works exceed the first you’re doing great but I have this against you again singular pastors Elders Bishops okay I

01:32:39 have this against you that you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a propheus and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and eat food sacrificed to Idols we’ve heard this before I gave her time to repent but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality behold I will throw her onto a sick bed and Those who commit adultery with her I will throw into Great Tribulation unless they repent of her works and I will strike her children dead and all the churches will know that

01:33:10 I am he who searches mind and heart and I will give to each of you according to your works this is a reaping and sewing principle he’s saying for a long time I stopped the consequences from coming on this woman who’s teaching false Doctrine and the people that are following it and now the time is up they’re going to reap what they sewed they’re going to go on that bed that they chose to sleep in it doesn’t say sick bed in the original it says bed it’s the bed that they chose that it becomes a sick bed

01:33:43 the bed that you sleep in in sin becomes a sick bed because sin is death sin is not a nice thing sin looks and is pleasurable for a season but its end is death its end is alienation separation corruption rottenness death that’s what sin is he says now you’re going to reap what you sow cuz that’s the only thing now that can get through to you I’ve tried to call you I’ve tried to give you time to repent now the consequence is going to be what wakes you up I’ve been there have you he’s not done with this Jezebel

01:34:21 Jezebel spirit she’s a jezebel okay that’s a that’s not what he’s saying okay who knows this could even be a man Jezebel because he’s speaking as an Old Testament image it could be a jeze you never know okay um but a male can be Jezebel did you know that some real real jezzy jezzy males out there okay um I don’t know that was uh it’s true it’s true you know it’s good preaching when people people know it’s true okay um what he’s saying is there there’s this lady who here has heard of Jezebel before okay you might not know where

01:34:57 she’s actually from she’s uh in First Kings if you go read read in First Kings she was the enemy of Elijah she was the wife of Ahab who really hated white whales no it’s a different different Ahab no she was his wife okay um and she intimidated her husband she intimidated the prophets of God she rejected Authority she brought Baal worship another Baal into Israel you know she was introducing idolatry with all of its sexual practices that we talked about with these other gods Satan doesn’t make up new stuff because it works on us he’s

01:35:33 like why am I changing the script here it’s these people fall for it you know David Falls for it every time let’s use that okay let’s make it personal okay um so she brought that in so she’s a symbol of somebody um that brings idolatry and intimidation fear okay did you know false teaching brings fear it brings intimidation you better do this or God’s going to curse you he’s going to get you now is God a judge yes but is that’s not how God motivates you God may say like Jesus did I’ll give you over to

01:36:08 your choices for a time but it’s so that you repent okay God’s a father God wants you back he might give you your inheritance and let you go to the far country but he’s going to be looking over the horizon for you to return the whole time I’m preaching good news to you because there’s a lot of people that want to intimidate you into following Christ and when they do that you get behavior modification you don’t get renewal or transformation or Freedom so Jesus says I don’t tolerate that and I don’t want you to tolerate it

01:36:42 so what Jesus is intolerant yeah of things that will kill his kids he’s intolerant okay so As we judge false teachers we need to be intolerant of the doctrines he said he hated the Deeds of the nians he didn’t say I hate the nicians he said I hate the Deeds of the nicians he also said there’s people that are doing works because of this teaching all through the Bible did you know he calls false teachers evildoers false teaching isn’t about what Creed you say although that is important it’s about your life that you

01:37:16 live these people were living lives that derailed people so he calls them evildoers what you believe will always impact what you do do if you walk in fear you probably have a fear belief driving you if you walk in shame you probably have a shame belief driving you if you walk in insecurity it’s probably because you’re not secure that the father really loves you he’d never leave you or forsake you okay get it get your Doctrine right get your theology right I don’t want to screw up my doctrine of God to get other

01:37:47 doctrines right to get a doctrine of of judgment or sovereignty or whatever right I don’t want to screw up who Jesus is because it’s going to screw up everything what’s off in the teacher will become what’s off in the teaching will become what’s off in the people that hear it does this make sense it’s a powerful responsibility to be a teacher that’s why it says let not many of you be teachers in James 3 and he’s not saying because many of you can’t memorize the statement of faith no he’s saying how you live is how you teach

01:38:21 that’s what scares me about that I’m not a perfect man there’s there’s things in my life that are not Sanctified fully yet and I’m just like I’m still preaching in faith because I you know the Lord has brought me somewhere I believe in this I know Jesus has rescued me I know he’s he’s ironed a lot of things out of my life but my life is what’s going to speak to you way more than anything I’m ever going to say you’re going to forget this sermon even though I think some of it was pretty funny you know I don’t know like

01:38:50 you’ll probably you’ll probably forget it but you know if you see see a model of me trying to be an evangelist and a peacemaker and a father and you know I’m I’m trying my best that’s all I can say you know if you see that maybe you say okay maybe I can try maybe I can try again and and that’s going to speak so much it’s why I love our pastoral team they’ve been so faithful for so long and their life is upright right so whatever you quibble about doctrines look at the life of a person to determine if if

01:39:21 they’re false or not I want to make just I know I’m taking a big rabbit Trail here but it also is points I was going to make later so it’s not like you’re going to have to you know listen to it again but um there’s a big difference between a false teacher and a false Doctrine did you know that if I get a Doctrine wrong does it make me a false teacher well it depends which one there’s certain ones that you really can’t get wrong the Creed of the faith okay like the Apostles Creed I believe in God the Father Almighty I believe in

01:39:50 Jesus born of a virgin crucified under ponus pilot Rose the third day he descended into Hades he’ll come again to judge the living and the dead I believe in the Holy Spirit the Catholic Church the communion of the Saints the Forgiveness of sins uh you know the life Everlasting you you can’t get those wrong now what what do each of them mean specifically what is Hades okay well that you know people have different views of that what’s the Catholic church people have different views of that it means universal church all right

01:40:23 so it’s just or we could just call ourselves Catholics Word of Life Catholic Church Fellowship would be would be pretty good you know then nobody could disagree with us because our our interpretation would be infallible of everything um but yeah so but if you affirm this about Jesus the core of who God is the core of what Jesus did that’s a Christian that’s an Orthodox Christian there’s many people that have a lot of doctrines they preach that I think are false but they’re not false teachers okay cuz they preach

01:40:56 Jesus they preach the gospel they they have the Bible as their Authority right I’m like okay people are going to get stuff out of that I might think they’re off on certain areas it doesn’t make them a heretic you know what the word heretic means in the Bible it says in uh second second Peter 2 that many will come and bring destructive heresies and it means a sect a party a division a heretic is somebody that splits the church over a minor issue it’s not somebody that disagrees over the issue and stays in loyalty and

01:41:30 stays in Fellowship a false teacher isn’t somebody that you just disagree with on non Central elements a false teacher isn’t somebody that makes you think about New Perspectives Jesus was executed as a false teacher he went against a lot of their current understanding that’s why he was executed for leading people astray there is a document from the Babylonian talmid where they’re like we want to find this guy Jesus of Nazareth he’s a black magician who leads people astray from God that was what people of Jesus’s time

01:42:03 thought about him they weren’t saying he wasn’t doing Miracles his Doctrine had power can I make another Rabbit Trail from the Rabbit Trail yeah so Miracles don’t mean that your Doctrine is true if I have a bunch of Miracles it doesn’t mean what I’m saying is right if I have a bunch of spiritual dreams or I have prophecies that come true or I can heal someone it doesn’t mean that I’m speaking the true Jesus it has to line up with his character as revealed by the holy scriptures through the Holy

01:42:37 Spirit okay however Jesus when he preached people said what is this a teaching with authority even the unclean spirits obey him Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:20 the kingdom of God is not talk but Power okay so we preach the true Jesus and you know what the true Jesus Does He casts out demons he heals the body he heals the mind he heals the family he sets you free from generational curses he gives you the ability to suffer through things that you’re called to do he gives you perseverance he’ll never leave you he

01:43:16 comforts you he really does things he makes you a new person so that people from your past life will not even recognize you anymore his Doctrine has power if the doctrine you’re hearing doesn’t set you free it’s probably false it’s not the doctrine of Christ it could be a counterfeit judge it by the fruit that it has in your life okay if it brings you into peace and love and power and Holiness it’s good you’re eating something good when your body gets healthy when your body’s getting less healthy you’re probably eating Jack in

01:43:53 the Box talk what I mean it’s um that’s really what false Doctrine is you know sound Doctrine it says in the Bible it’s it’s the word for healthy Doctrine healthy like you’re eating veggies kale Shake in the morning you know it’s going good this false Doctrine you get it in there you’re like oh man uh why did I eat seven servings of Apple Jacks today I’m not two years old anymore I can’t do that okay all right not that we give our two-year-olds seven servings of love that all right let me finish the

01:44:26 the scriptures out here okay so we talked about the jezal and Jezebels okay verse 24 but to the rest of you in thyra who do not hold this teaching who have not learned what some call the Deep things of Satan to you I say I do not lay on you any other burden only hold fast what you have until I come all right so this is an interesting idea of the Mysteries or the Deep things of Satan these are people that are learning things about God they’re studying things they they maybe have their Bible open

01:45:00 but maybe they’re getting no context or maybe they’re you know the Bible’s being Twisted um and they’re like man I’ve really learned some deep stuff that other Christians don’t know maybe I’ve learned the Deep things of Satan I know that when someone’s a glutton that’s bagore the spirit you know it’s like that’s not in the Bible that’s weird strange you know but they might know these deep things things that they learned that other Christians don’t learn and that allows them to accuse deep things of Satan the accuser

01:45:31 I know all about baptism it’s not just a symbol boom boom boom sorry okay I know all about um how God sovereignly has predestined the elect right sorry I’m just I’m I’m poking a few buttons here okay but these are things that can puff you up they’re Mysteries they’re things that’s like belong to our current stream of Christianity but if that’s if Jesus isn’t more important than that if that’s a byproduct if that’s the main thing not a byproduct oh man you’re you become the accuser you’re the heretic you’re the one that’s dividing

01:46:10 the body okay even if you’re believing something true you’re dividing the body there’s people out there that have YouTube channels you know let me name all the Heretics does that bring Unity to the body of Christ that divides the body of Christ that picks somebody that has a false Doctrine and paints them as a false teacher now it takes the fruit of the person’s life to show that they’re a false teacher because they’re an evildoer right so I’m just saying it’s it’s important that we not learn the

01:46:41 Deep things of Satan that we not think oh our Doctrine is pure you know I I don’t know there’s been times I should stand up here and be like hi my name is David and I’m a false teacher and you should be like David you know because in the past I’ve taught a lot of things that I now believe are false doctrines that’s why you should have your Bible open uh when I’m preaching okay because I used to believe that only me only men can lead in the church I used to believe uh yeah sorry we got a few a few uh people in my own

01:47:16 family that believe that apparently um it make things easier sorry but no anyway um it wouldn’t it would make things a lot worse um I also used to believe the gifts of the holy spirit were not for today including prophecy and tongues and healing I don’t really believe that anymore because I’m a a pastor at Word of Life Fellowship okay um I used to believe in hyper Calvinism that there’s not one Maverick molecule in the universe you don’t have free will that’s an illusion you know that’s what I used to think so I don’t think that’s

01:47:53 right you know if I’m wrong about that it doesn’t threaten Jesus or the gospel or anything like that but I it was a false Doctrine I think if you can show me from the scriptures I’ve been studying that for a long time um I’m willing to talk with you but there there’s been a lot of things I’ve believed that I no longer believe that could happen again oh no you guys are worried you know you know because guess what a false teacher is not uh teaching you to think at all a FAL false teacher is telling

01:48:24 you what to think and they’re teaching you what to think out of context here’s this one scripture look at this oh my gosh don’t spare the rod okay is that in the context of the whole Bible no all right so there there’s a lot of false teaching that’s from out of context and they’re not teaching you to think biblically to think in the gospel to look at what other denominations and streams of thought in the past to test it by the scripture to test it by the person of Jesus Christ and come to a conclusion all right so the things that

01:49:03 are not going to change are who God is who Jesus is what Jesus has done and who we are because of it oh and how we know it which is the Bible that that’s not going to change at all okay um does this make sense that we have Unity on these core elements I call them closh handed issues of Faith there’s things that you cannot compromise anything on including the outcome of the Gospel like you can’t just take Jesus and say oh cool I’m forgiven I’m going to go uh defy every commandment in the Bible like that’s not

01:49:39 something that you can do okay so you can’t contravene the authority of the Bible but outside that if you make a byproduct or a side Doctrine equivalent to the doctrine of Christ it’s going to create division it’s going to create Pride or it’s going to create legalism or it’s going to create license and Jesus is warning us of that in our our text and he wants to refine that stuff out okay um we should be sure that what we are teaching is true but we should always be open to be like is there more do I not see this do other

01:50:14 people have something to teach me a false teacher is a teacher they’re not a learner the true teacher is a learner a true teacher is a disciple a a true teacher is going to be like man I’m studying this like it’s it’s active it’s Dynamic it’s fresh bread um I I can be corrected if you have something that I’ve said today which I’ve said a lot of things that you could probably take issue with please you know please come talk to me but please do it with the Bible open and with some love because uh you know maybe

01:50:47 I haven’t had enough coffee today so you know just maybe maybe come come say it nice you know um but yeah job in job 11:3 um job’s friend says should your empty talk make men hold their peace when you mock should no one rebuke you for you said my Doctrine is pure and I am clean in your eyes he’s like hey I don’t have anything wrong my doctrine’s perfect you know the I have affirmed the Southern Baptist Association statement of faith my doctrine’s pure I have affirmed the Westminster catechism my

01:51:19 doctrine’s pure no the pure Doctrine is the Living Word of God Jesus Christ okay so all these false teachings are leading you away from God to a false god they might be leading you to a pursuit of money power health wealth yourself that rhymed somehow that was cool um you know it it’s really like even if you think even if it’s legalism you’re you’re worshiping yourself and your ability to control God through your obedience okay so all these false doctrines lead you away from just saying Jesus is enough for me his work is

01:52:02 finished I’m good with God I’m free if you get that it’ll transform your life you will not excuse sin and you won’t be condemned when you do sin you move forward that that’s the true grace of God so just to recap some of this stuff uh let me quote someone John MacArthur maybe you think I don’t agree with some of the doctrines that John MacArthur preaches and he couldn’t care less about that fact just so you know nor should he okay um but I don’t think he’s a false teacher he has the authority of the Bible he loves Jesus he

01:52:39 preaches Jesus and he said this deception distracts you from the object of your faith and focuses you on the byproducts of your faith that’s true and what is the object of the faith Jesus right so at the end it gets kind of simple there’s a Simplicity in Jesus Christ if you’re like man this is kind of a lot a lot to take in how am I supposed to know what’s right the Bible gives you a few tests by which you can test the spirits like what what do you mean test the spirits um I think we can put that

01:53:14 one up there 1 John 4 a spirit is what a teacher it’s it’s a spirit that a spirit is the words that a teacher breathes into you that animate you the words a teacher breathes into you that affect you a spirit is a breath in Hebrew right so it’s it’s the breath that gets breathed into you and John the same person that wrote Revelation said beloved do not believe every Spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God for many false prophets have gone out into the World by this you know

01:53:46 the spirit of God every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God so that’s kind of simple but you’re like well what does that mean that means you got to get Jesus right if you get him wrong you get everything else wrong you get the father wrong you get the cross wrong you get human beings wrong you get salvation wrong you get the Judgment wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong okay but if you get him right well he by his spirit will

01:54:21 lead you into how much truth all truth takes some of us longer than others but we’ll get there okay he’ll lead us into all truth and what does it mean that Jesus Christ came in the flesh it means that God became a man Jesus is fully God and fully man he United god with Mankind and will never be separated again on the cross he took down the old Humanity all the sin all the death all the curse all the suffering all the addiction he buried it and he rose the new man out in the resurrection and whoever believes in him enters into

01:55:02 that that’s Jesus he came in the flesh he’s not an idea he’s not locked up in heaven he’s not distant he cares so much that he took on flesh for you and he laid down his life to reunite God and man because we were we were broken apart we walked away from God we everyone in this room has chosen hey I don’t really want to listen to God I want to I want to do my thing I want the life I deserve okay we’ve all said that I’ve said that and Jesus came for us a teacher that says no you know Jesus he’s he’s more of a man he’s he’s not really

01:55:40 God or you say yeah he’s God you know that’s uh you know maybe someday you’ll you’ll be able to see him he doesn’t really relate to you that much it’s like well no Jesus Christ came in the flesh you get him right you get a lot of other things right now how do we even know that through the scripture so a false teacher has a false Authority I want to mention a few things here I think we have this list maybe I’ll just end with this you guys can go back and and read it on if you go on Youtube it’ll probably

01:56:12 be on there but um wherever we record these um do we have that list of the false false teacher points just so you can have a little little recap here okay so uh I I’ll say this uh they have I might read these out of order on my notes but uh they have a false face their life doesn’t match their teaching but they pretend it does okay Jesus called them Hypocrites the false teachers because they said yes a man must not commit adultery and meanwhile they’re committing adultery but they’re pretending that they don’t

01:56:48 it’s not a person that says you know you should never struggle with YZ and then and then says I do the Lord is helping me that that’s not a false teacher that’s a humble person okay that’s somebody like you who’s trying to to point you to the ultimate teacher Jesus Jesus even said don’t call any person teacher you have one teacher my only job as a teacher is to point you to the rabbi that you would follow him that you would learn of him if I messed that up that’s I messed up my whole job okay i’ one job you had

01:57:23 one job didn’t do it okay so a false teacher also has false motives we mentioned that um maybe they’re a wolf that wants to eat the Sheep fleece the Sheep okay it’s it’s all about self maybe that’s you know I want to teach so I can get a platform so I can get Glory something like that okay they have a false motive okay want to get rich start a church all right cool all right false Authority so they say the things that they teach come from dreams Visions prophecies experiences knowledge eloquence training

01:57:57 that’s the authority what should the authority really be the Bible and Jesus that it reveals the written word and the Living Word it’s pretty simple are you guys understanding this line it up don’t sit back and go oh David said it it must be right you know I’ve said wrong stuff before sorry I’m just I’m being trying to be accountable here all right because you have the responsibility to not be deceived you know when when you are tempted you know about it when you’re deceived you don’t know that’s the real danger of deception

01:58:39 you think that you are right Satan doesn’t think he’s wrong the first person he ever deceived was himself right so we have the responsibility by abiding in Christ and feasting on the scriptures every day to train our powers of discernment to discern good from Evil that’s Hebrews 5 okay that’s I I cannot do that for you even though the pastors have the responsibility to watch out for false teaching we’re watching out for the pulpit someone might come up and grab me here in a few minutes um you know we’re trying to keep weirdos off

01:59:18 this Pulpit okay but we can’t keep weirdos off your YouTube channel we can’t keep weirdos out of your workplace they’re going to be there a lot of them right um maybe you’re number one weirdo okay um that’s how I I identify right um nerd Master 5,000 that’s my title okay um but yeah so only you can really discern the false from the true that’s that’s our responsibility okay and God gave you a Bible to help you do it and if you don’t know how to use that Bible ask for help Okay so they also have a false platform

01:59:54 okay so usually a false teacher is very isolated they might not be under covering they might be solo itinerant speaker um this was in second third John they’re like don’t just entertain every every traveling speaker does he say Jesus came in the flesh does he bring the true gospel discern him okay or her all right um they usually have a false platform in that they’re like the man of God the one person we’re going to believe whatever pastor says what whatever Apostle says whatever Minister says okay we’re g to believe that

02:00:29 without checking it okay and that’s very unhealthy it doesn’t mean there can’t be one person preaching all the time but there has to be a real Church Authority there has to be biblical accounts or checks and balances all right cool next one false context this is very important so someone could be speaking right out of this Bible and could be speaking stuff that’s 180° wrong who did that in the scripture Satan okay he’s he told Jesus hey jump off the top of the temple he’s going to God’s going to give his angels

02:01:05 charge over you they’re going to save your life he had that out of context and Jesus said oh guess what here’s some context you shall not tempt the Lord your God Paul said I labored I wept in Acts chapter 20 he said for years I went door too and I wept and I I shared with you the whole counsil of God I didn’t just share my favorite scripture I didn’t just share my favorite proverb or my favorite Psalm I didn’t just tell you testimonies of all the great things that I did I didn’t tell you dreams that I had I gave you

02:01:39 the whole counsel for him that was the Old Testament scriptures I gave you everything God said plus the Gospel of Jesus so you can discern now I didn’t give it to you out of context that’s why I read those two letters in their fullness okay I’m not just cherry-picking out the little scriptures okay always have somebody teaching to you in context from the scriptures themselves so that you can discern somebody’s throwing out experiences and stuff out of context that’s dangerous you don’t have to be

02:02:10 like oh man they’re a false teacher but you know just open your Bible and be like you know was that in context let me let me think about it before I just swallow the thing cuz you might be swallowing Jack and Box tacos okay which are really good they they’re really salty they’re good you know it’s like the false teachers can tickle the ears they can they can give you the Jack in the Box you know what I mean but it’s but you’re going to pay in a couple hours you know what I mean it’s going to be real bad okay just a couple more and

02:02:38 we’ll be done okay um they have a false Center like I said false teacher generally wants to talk about um their pet Doctrine instead of Jesus if you listen to them it’s all going to be one thing I’m about evangelism I’m about mirac Miracles I’m about Financial Health I’m about if that’s your job that’s one thing okay but if you’re actually preaching the whole counsil of God and you only have a few hobby horses your Center is not Jesus why is he not everything why is he not glorious why is not every message

02:03:08 about him who connects us to the father who came and died for us who gives us hope Even in our weakness and our sin okay so a true teacher should be absolutely mesmerized with Jesus Christ okay false they have a false gospel we went we went through that already um and you’re going to see false fruit in their followers okay um Matthew 23:15 says wo to you scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for you travel across sea and land to make a single convert and when he becomes a convert you make him twice as

02:03:42 much a son of hell as yourselves now Jesus said that not me okay if we walk with Jesus in his word in Fellowship in the body of Christ we’re not going to be deceived God has built in a lot of checks and balances when we allow the roaring lion to split us off and alienate us from God’s word from relationship with Jesus and from the people of God it’s open season you’re like man I just David give me one more scripture I’m glad you asked okay here’s here’s one more scripture I think we’ll have it up on the screen but

02:04:22 it’s John 7:16 I just this is a mind-blowing scripture Jesus said to them my teaching is not mine but his who sent me anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own Jesus said I’m not up here making stuff up I’m giving you the father’s Revelation and if you want to do what the father says you’ll understand I’m speaking the truth so father we want to do what you are saying we ask Lord that you would build into us a character that is thirsting

02:05:02 after you wanting to be like you wanting to receive your love wanting to give your love to other people help us to be just hungry students at the foot of your scriptures WR with the Holy Spirit next to us that we would learn and be led into all truth father just iron out and remove every deception that would intimidate us that would seduce us that would condemn us that would give us false Indulgence just root out those deceptions and bring us back to to a true Faith a pure faith in the Son of God whose eyes are like flames of

02:05:42 fire Jesus we worship you today we ask Lord that we would not only know the truth but we would be set free and we would set others is free in Jesus name amen amen yeah come on give it up for Pastor David that was such a great word amen I hope that some people were inspired today to open their Bible kids in the foyer open your Bible know what God is saying and if you guys are here for your first time hearing this enjoying what you’re hearing uh do understand that we want to be in relationship with you uh a way we do

02:06:31 relationship is we go across the parking lot to a a fellowship hall and we eat food together and so if you would like to uh ask more questions get to know some of the the the people in this church come across the way and join us we have some food available for you and so we love uh doing life together so you everybody I hope you had a good day I hope God is moving let’s go eat [Applause]