Matthew 7:15 “15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” How do you know if someone is a false teacher? How do you know if a pastor, evangelist or even a layperson is teaching heresy? I’ll bet someone came to your mind as soon as I read that verse. Someone that you know for sure is a false teacher. Again, how do you know? Have you pre-judged someone based on what you have heard about them? How do you know if what you heard is true? Who did it come from? Did they have a motive to disparage this person? Was the quote you were told, or the video clip you saw, edited and taken out of context? You know, if you followed what the Pharisees said about Jesus, you would have believed that He was a false teacher. If someone teaches something that you don’t believe, does that make them a false teacher? Are they really a wolf in sheep’s clothing who has snuck into the sheep pen to kill the sheep...or could it be that they are just incorrect based on what you believe about a non-essential doctrine? How are we supposed to distinguish between the two? One of those is not something to break fellowship over and the other is absolutely something to confront and put out of the church. But again, without knowing the intent of a persons heart, how do you know if they are intentionally leading people astray? You have to look at their fruit. What is the result of their teaching? What is growing from the seed they are sowing? Matthew 7:16-20 “16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the
diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” How do you recognize counterfeit fruit? You can use the same method that treasury agents use to recognize counterfeit money. They don’t study all the different kinds of counterfeit money. They study real currency so much, and know it so well, that a counterfeit bill stands out like a sore thumb. It’s just obvious to them because they know what a real one looks like and feels like. If you study the word of God and get to know what it says, it will be easier to spot someone who is a false teacher. Today we will begin to examine what makes someone a false teacher versus just someone I disagree with doctrinally. This is a big question we have to deal with when it comes to unity in the body of Christ. Unity is what the U stands for in our name. FUEL stands for faith in unity engaged in love. If we are to love our brothers, we must be in unity with them. Notice I said brothers, not just everyone. We are called to love everyone... even the heretic, but we are not to be in unity with them. This will probably take a couple of weeks to cover, so let’s get started. I’d like to begin by looking at the difference between someone who is intentionally misleading people and someone who is just making a mistake. In Galatians, Paul shows two examples that illustrate both of these behaviors. Galatians 1:6-9 “6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should
preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” Here in these verses Paul is talking about actual false teachers. They are defined as those who are preaching a different gospel... one that has been distorted. They were causing trouble because they were preaching a message other than the one they had received from Paul earlier. He said twice that anyone doing that should be accursed. I’ve had people come in here who wanted to preach a different gospel. One guy came in and hung out for a while. He wanted to be a pastor and asked me to help him get started. He was genuinely excited to be going into ministry. He said he would come back and we could meet to begin working together. He came back a week or so later all excited to tell me about a new revelation he had gotten about Jesus. He then proceeded to tell me how Jesus was actually just a regular guy and didn’t become the Christ until He was baptized. He was a sinner just like us until the Holy Spirit descended on Him. When I didn’t join in with his excitement and actually questioned what passage of scripture he studied to come up with this idea, he said “God told me.” Well, I’m sure he was hearing from a spirit, but I can assure you it was not the Holy Spirit, because that idea completely contradicts the bible. He left angry because every time he tried to justify his belief, I just answered: “show me the verse.” That is an example of a false teacher. He denied the deity of Jesus. But here is an example in scripture of someone who was not a false teacher, it was just a disagreement between brothers.
Galatians 2:11-14 “11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” Paul had a problem with Peter, but not because he thought he was a false teacher. It was because he disagreed with the way Peter was living in front of certain people. Here we see Paul not being afraid to confront Peter about his behavior, but also not escalating it to the point of saying Peter should be put out of the church as a heretic. Unity was the guiding principle, even though a tough conversation was required. 100% Agreement on every point of scripture is not required for unity in the body of Christ. They agreed on the fundamental principles of the gospel of Christ, but they may have disagreed on what it looks like to live them out. This is not the heresy of a false teacher. There are several doctrinal topics that can cause division between brothers. This happens because they have escalated their opinion of what a scripture means above their love for their brother. This should not be happening between brothers, but our prideful desire to be right, overrides and clouds our judgment. We allow satan a foothold to divide us by using religious pride. Before we move into the actual realm of false teaching, I want to deal with a couple of doctrinal differences that cause issues for
believers. As we begin, I want you to understand this: there are well meaning, biblically knowledgeable, God fearing, true Christians on both sides of each of these difficult to understand topics. These are not things we should break fellowship over and make heresy claims about. Let’s start with one that has created a massive divide among Christians: Predestination vs Free Will. Before you plant your flag on either side of this theological issue, be aware you may be sitting beside someone who planted their flag on the other side. So we will let love and unity be our guiding principle. This is by no means going to be an exhaustive study using every proof text for both sides. This is just a broad stroke overview of each position, so you can have a basic understanding of them. Let’s see what people who believe in these two two seemingly opposite theological ideas have in common. Do they both accept that believing in the gospel of Jesus is the only means of salvation? Yes, they do. Do they both believe that Jesus was God in the flesh? Yes, they do. Do they both believe in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit? Yes, they do. Well, what seems to be the problem then? The the main issue is the question of who decides who gets to be a Christian. Predestination says that God alone makes all the decisions. Some people He chooses to be saved and some people He chooses for hell. This is for sure an oversimplification, but that’s the basic idea. It’s called Calvinisim...because a guy named John Calvin preached the idea. Free Will, on the other hand, basically says that each individual person is responsible to choose for themselves, whether or not they want to accept Jesus as their Savior. This is called
Arminianism...because a guy named Jacob Arminius preached the idea. Here’s the problem. Both of these theological ideas have scriptural backing conceptually, with verses that seem to support each position...but can they both be true? And if they are not both true, is not one of those sides teaching a false gospel and thus heretical? The answer is no. because they both agree on the essentials of the faith. They disagree only on the question of who’s in control of the decision. God’s choice or man’s choice? The calvinist position says that if God has chosen a person for salvation, it is impossible for that person to refuse God’s choice. It’s called irresistible grace. It’s the idea that if God chose you, you have no option but to be saved. And also, if God has not chosen you, you cannot be saved...and are destined for hell. That is why calvinism is difficult, because it says that because God is sovereign, He chooses for you. He has already made every decision. How could God hold you responsible for a decision that He didn’t allow you to make? I’ve had several people come in here and almost immediately start telling me how anyone who doesn’t agree with calvinism is obviously, just uneducated on the scripture. The arrogance I’ve seen put on display is overwhelming. And that’s the problem. They are so vested in their way of interpreting the verses that talk about this subject, that they can’t afford to be wrong. So they dig in and become argumentative and divisive. The arminian position says that once a person is convicted of their sin by the Holy Spirit, they have a free will choice to surrender their life to Jesus or refuse His offer of salvation. You get to decide...and you are held responsible for your decision.
Here is the thing that most people who believe in the arminian view don’t really think about. The arminian belief is that God is the initial catalyst for salvation. Without the conviction of sin from the Holy Spirit, no one would ever want to accept Jesus as their Lord. This is also what calvinists believe. 1 point for calvinism. Because for sure God has made the first choice. After all, doesn’t God know everything? Past, present and future? He knows if someone will reject His offer of salvation... and yet He created them anyway, how does that work? Does that mean that God created them for hell? This is where the calvinist position starts to breakdown. Ask yourself this...Did God create Cain as a murderer? Was he to be born, just so that he could murder his brother Able? Or was that Cain’s decision? If it was God’s decision, then God has endorsed murder. Does that line up with scripture? No, it does not. It was Cain’s decision to murder his brother. One that God actually warned him about. Genesis 4:6-7 “6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” It seems that God told Cain he would have to choose. It was up to him. But, was God surprised that Cain let his anger get out of control and murdered his brother? No, God was not surprised or taken off guard. Has it ever occurred to you, that nothing has ever occurred to God? Again, He knows everything. The past, the present and the future. God was aware of what was in Cain’s heart, but that does not mean that God put it there.
You see, just because God has foreknowledge of someone’s decision to reject Him, does not mean that He has intentionally, before the foundation of the world, caused them to make that decision. God has offered everyone salvation and it is His will that everyone would be saved. How do we know this? Because if God has predetermined some people for hell, it would contradict these verses in 1 Timothy and 2 Peter. 1 Timothy 2:3-4 “3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 2 Peter 3:9 “9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” Ok, we can see that it’s God’s will that everyone would be saved. Well then, it looks like everyone gets to go to heaven, if that’s God’s will, right? No. Obviously everyone does not get saved. Why is that? It’s because of man’s free will to choose for himself. Let me put it like this. If I sent out a public invitation for a party here at the church, It would be because I want everyone to come. My true desire is that everyone show up to enjoy the event. But at the same time, I know for sure 100% that not everyone will come to the party. My foreknowledge that some people will choose not to attend does not change my desire for them to be here. Nor does it mean that I really never wanted them there. I initiated the invitation, just like God does with salvation...but I did not force people to attend. I allowed them to choose....just
like I believe God does. There are two parables that illustrate this very point. One is in Matthew 22 and the other is in Luke 14. If you haven’t figured out my position on calvinism yet, this should make it clear. I’m not a calvinist. But I’m not at all upset with you if you are. We are both saved by the blood of Jesus, we just have different opinions about the way that happened. We can discuss how it actually happened while we hang out in heaven for eternity. It bothers me that so many christians dedicate so much time to understand “how” they were saved, but spend no time on “why.” The question of why we are saved, should be the thing we focus on as disciples of Jesus. We have been saved to do His will on earth. Are you focused on that, or on arguing theology?
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