Discerning if SHE is a False Teacher: Does She Have Discernment?

If you know much about the ministry of the Apostle Paul, then you know that he was lashed by the

Jews five times with 39 lashes. He suffered shipwrecks. He was hunted and hated by his brethren, the

Jews and the Gentiles. He was hounded from house to house, from church to church, city to city.

He was stoned and left for dead. He has threats from the moment of his conversion till the day that his head left his body.

He was constantly haunted by the specter of death because people wanted him dead.

He was falsely accused. He was falsely prosecuted. He was falsely imprisoned and falsely accused by Jews and by Gentiles.

And you'll never read anywhere in Scripture where the Apostle Paul says that any of those things caused him tears. You know what caused him tears?

False doctrine. Greatest threat, to use that term, to the church is not from Buddhism or Islam.

It doesn't come from people outside of the church. It comes from people who profess to be within.

Jesus himself warned us in the Sermon on the Mount that there would be wolves in the church, dressed up as sheep's clothing, and you can know them by their fruit, and the fruit really is their doctrine.

And then, you know, and then we're told about people who are false Christs, false prophets.

This is how Satan operates. He doesn't want people to hear the truth of the gospel. He wants people to have their faith distracted away from anything other than Jesus.

As long as you're not focusing on Jesus, you want to focus on on politics, whether it's politics right or left.

It doesn't matter. We can get you thinking that you're gonna go change the world or find your purpose or chasing after the latest so -called winds of the

Spirit. Anything to keep your eyes off of Jesus. You know, there's a thousand and one different ways to counterfeit

Christianity, but there's really only one genuine. Would to God that all the people of God had such a heart.

Do to us what you want. Imprison us, persecute us, whatever the affliction, that will not cause me tears, but that somebody might be led astray by error from the truth, and whose soul might be poisoned, and whose effectiveness might be sidelined, and whose family might be destroyed by error, that should cause us to grieve.

I know firsthand just how devastating deception is. How dangerous it is, and how easy it is to get caught up in it.

When, you know, when we got caught up in that, it wasn't like we were consciously making a decision to be deceived.

It's that we turned off our brains. We let our feelings get into the driver's seat, and we put the

Bible aside, and we put our trust in something other than the Word of God.

Somebody other than the Word of God, and it's a very dangerous situation.

So we know firsthand what that's like, and so my heart is for people that I know are being deceived.

Paul says to the Philippians in chapter 3 verse 18, For many walk of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose

God is their appetite, and whose glory is their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. To warn somebody of false doctrine is an act of love.

A hireling does not care about false doctrine. A hireling just does his job, goes through the motions, does his ministry, is part of the church, but is never concerned about false teaching.

He doesn't worry about that, because as Jesus said in John chapter 10, the wolf comes, or the threat comes, the danger comes, and the the hireling just sits back and lets it happen.

He doesn't want to confront the false teaching. He's a weak man, a cowardly man, so he doesn't confront the false teaching and deal with that, and take whatever slings or arrows might come his way for the sake of the flock.

Instead, he steps out of the way and lets the danger, false doctrine or false teacher, just devour the sheep right in front of him, and goes on to grab another sheep, and I can replace that guy, come on into the flock.

That's how hirelings do it. But a real shepherd would weep over the danger that is posed to the flock, and would do everything he can to reprove that, and to confront that, and to try and warn people of the reality of that danger.

So notice his emphasis on watchfulness, and then warnings, and then third, I want you to notice the emphasis on the

Word. Paul emphasized the Word. Acts chapter 20 verses 31 to 32, Therefore be on the alert, remembering the night and day for a period of three years,

I didn't cease to admonish each one of you with tears. Verse 32, Now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

That is his emphasis on the Word. Why were the Bereans considered more noble than those in Thessaloniki?

The Bereans were considered more noble because they studied the law. They were students of God's Word.

Dear friends, we must be good students of the Word of God. God has revealed

Himself to us in His Son, Jesus Christ, and we have a perfect, inerrant, infallible, all -sufficient record of that in His Word, and we cannot know

God apart from knowing His Word. We don't listen to false teachers with charity.

We call them out on their error. If there is one way we can be charitable, it's by calling them to repentance from their sinful deception and calling them to follow the real

Jesus and preach the real gospel. That's the ultimate charity that we offer. Welcome to the

Thoroughly Equipped Podcast, where we compare the teachings from popular women's ministry, books, conferences,

Bible studies, etc., to Scripture. Our focus is 2 Timothy 3, 16 -17, that all

Scripture is God -breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so the man or woman of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I'm your host, Melba Toast. May this episode bless you and bring glory to God.

Ladies, welcome to Thoroughly Equipped. So we are going to dive into the final question to ask ourselves about female teachers and how to discern them.

And so I'm excited to kind of get this series finished up and move on to some of the other things

I want to present to you guys on this channel and work through. But this one has been a fun, this episode, working up to it, has been kind of fun.

I got to dive into Scripture about what good doctrine is, look at false doctrine, and solidify for myself why

I'm doing what I'm doing, you know, going into this and just realizing the richness that Scripture has about discernment.

And so I'm really excited to present this episode to you. In the previous episode,

I talked about what biblical spiritual discernment is and compared it to what the typical popular teachings are regarding spiritual discernment for the purpose of being able to understand what we are called to do when the

Bible instructs us to test the spirits so that we can put it into practice when we learn from female teachers.

We are called to test the spirits, spirits being beings, messages, ideas, philosophies, etc.

We can know whether the spirit of truth, which is the Holy Spirit, or the spirit of error is being presented by a person or teacher by testing what is being said to Scripture.

For every spirit within the person that is of God or comes from God will be aligned with God's word.

Today, I want to present to you, like I said, the last question I ask when

I am discerning a female Christian teacher, and that is, is she a discerning teacher?

And then I'll get into also why this is a very important question to ask, which

I think surprised me in all the research that I was doing in the study in Scripture on discernment.

It was something that really solidified that this was a very, very important question to ask.

So, there are three questions within this main question that we can use to discern if she's a discerning teacher.

And that is, does she focus on teaching good doctrine? Does she discern false doctrine and sin and help women reject it?

And does she yoke herself with false teachers? So, a little preview or re -preview, rehash of what what is doctrine.

And doctrine is a set of beliefs held and taught by a church or even a political party or any other group, really.

Doctrine is not just reserved for religion. In essence, doctrine is just a set of beliefs that will develop a system that informs the individual on how to live.

Even an atheist has a set of doctrines by which they make decisions and walk in those beliefs.

The doctrines one takes in and believes inform our worldview. They are what we base our religious affiliations on.

They are what we base our political ideas and affiliations on. They will inform and guide our passions.

They guide our ideologies, philosophies, morals, ethics, choices, etc, etc.

Doctrine informs everything. This is why when a person states that doctrine doesn't matter, they are showing their ignorance on what doctrine does.

It's like saying what you believe doesn't matter. So, for a pastor or a teacher to say, especially a

Christian pastor to state this, is like saying that God doesn't care what you believe, when true

Christianity is all about what you believe. It's all about faith.

Do we believe that God has spoken or do we not? Abraham was counted righteous because he believed the spoken word or promise given by God and because he truly believed in it, he walked in that word and promise.

So, doctrine does matter because when we are taught good doctrine and believe it, we develop a worldview on that doctrine and walk in it.

For the Christian woman, all the doctrine that surrounds the gospel will drive us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice.

Romans 12, 1 -2. Holy and pleasing to God because our faith in God's word and especially the gospel is what delights

God. As Titus 2 states in regards to older women teaching that which is good, it encourages us to do the good works that God calls his women to do.

So, here's where we look at the practicality of women's ministry and why an older woman should bring the good doctrine into focus regarding our roles as women.

What happens to a Christian woman when she studies the scriptures to equip her for every good work? How does holding to these good doctrines taught to us in scripture affect our roles, marriages, parenting, homes, friendships, some ministry to the church and any ministry we do out in the world?

A good female teacher will know how to rightly handle God's word and teach it to encourage women onto good works in these areas.

Why? Because she will believe scripture is not only authoritative and sufficient, but also efficacious.

Efficacious means successful in producing a desired or intended result effective.

The woman who trusts in God's word, the woman who approaches it as sufficient to equip her to know, love, and worship her savior will effectually be changed and guided by it.

This is the power of God's word. This is the major way the Holy Spirit, who authored the scriptures, how he works in us.

And so understanding the role scripture plays in teaching the good doctrine, a good women's ministry or female teacher speaker will want that to be her focus.

I want to give a very short example of how doctrine, when held to and laid as a foundation to our worldview, how it will sanctify a woman.

So let's look at just a few scriptural doctrines and how they will affect and guide the life and actions of women and their homes.

I'm just going to look at certain aspects of the persons of the Trinity to bring to light how right doctrine taught on the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit can have a huge impact on driving us to good works.

Believe me, these are just a few observations as there are numerous implications that can be gleaned from good theology and its impact on our lives.

First and most importantly, the gospel should be the foremost in our learning. The proclamation that God sent his son to die on the cross for our sins first humbles us and then reveals the great love that God has for us.

It teaches us about his holiness, his justice, his wrath, our sinful nature, what we deserve,

God's grace, mercy, forgiveness, and his great, great love for us. The gospel drives us to love and forgive others as Christ loves and forgives us.

Colossians 3, 12 to 14. This, as a Christian woman, is applied to everyone, but especially to our husbands and children as we learn that which is good, the gospel, will draw us to be

Titus 2 and Proverbs 31 women. So, learning and trusting in the truths of scripture about God the

Father will bring faith without fear, leading to true submission and love without fear.

The scriptures teach us about God that he is triune in nature, that in the

Godhead there is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament, the law, and the prophets are the testimonies of God and his work in history.

The New Testament is composed of eyewitness accounts of the Son come in flesh and the recordings of what he taught as the

Holy Spirit brought to remembrance these teachings and directed the authors of the epistles to write them down.

Basically, the scriptures teach us all about God. When we learn about God and come to actually know him, we begin to trust him more and more.

What we know about him can be seen through our actions. I believe one of the most revealing ways to see where a woman's trust lies is in her submission.

Now, God willing, I hope to do a full episode on this, looking in depth at 1 Peter on submission.

But for a quick explanation, what I mean here is that foremost, it was especially true for me, my battle with submitting to the headship of my husband came from a lack of trust in the sovereignty of God.

That was until I studied 1 Peter and especially focused on what it meant to be a daughter of Sarah.

As Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord, and we are her children if we do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

1 Peter 3, 6. When a Christian woman has not come to understand that God has a hand in everything, even working in the lives of husbands who may be disobedient to his word, we can feel it's our duty to direct our husband's morality, his spiritual growth, and household leaning.

This is because we fear that our husband's decisions will hurt and affect us negatively. A right doctrine on the sovereignty of God also instructs our love for our children and our friends in the same way.

It brings us to love without fear. So when we are confronted with our children's sins or our husband's sins or the sins of other family members and friends, there's no fear in whatever the circumstance because God is our

Father. While sinful, disobedient choices do hurt us, a sovereign

God is at work even in these decisions, working out all things for our good.

Even with the suffering and hurts that come from sin, God is so good and so sovereign.

He works it out to grow all of his children in sanctification. So this is a way that theology informs our faith and when we put our trust in that good doctrine, the doctrine of God's sovereignty and love and care and headship as a father over us, we trust it and then we walk in that knowledge and put that knowledge into practice.

We will do things that will be a result of the trust that we have in God. All right, another one, learning and trusting the truths found in scripture about the son and his work will bring joy and assurance leading to peace.

The more we discern right doctrine about the second person of the trinity, the son, and meditate on who he is and what he has done, the more we will have joy.

Romans 15, 13 states, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the

Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Notice where Paul states where he prays.

It's a greeting here, but he's praying also that all our joy and peace be in believing.

This believing, of course, is in that which is good and true. We discern that which is true and right and believe in it and by it comes our joy and peace.

This simply stated prayer teaches us what Paul desired for those who read the epistle. That we be filled with all joy and peace and believing what he had taught.

In Romans specifically, but we can say in all of scripture as well, so that by the filling of this joy and peace in believing, we may by the power of the

Holy Spirit abound in hope. In practicality, when we come to know Christ and his accomplishments, especially that he reconciled us to the

Father, that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come.

All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting our trespasses against us.

And for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

And when we come to know these things, we have joy, peace, and a great hope that comes from this doctrine of this reconciliation.

A doctrine so rarely taught in most evangelical churches today. For most churches, the teachings revolve around either being better, or actions one displays as a quote -unquote

Christian, or they revolve around the declarations, or our position, or identity we have as Christians.

I want to talk about how you can know who you really are and live the life you've been created to live.

Reminding you that you're awesome and that God thinks you're so special. A person that's goofy enough to believe that can change the world.

Man, you're awesome. I wish you knew how awesome you are. And he truly loves you. He has this great plan for your life.

Instead, we should be focusing on the truth that this gospel, this plan of God's redemption, of this eternal life that was promised before the ages,

Titus 1 -2, is secured for us in Christ, by which nothing can thwart his work.

God's elect. Is it God who justifies? Who is to condemn?

No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our

Lord. Romans 8, 31 -39. And will result in acts of love.

Learning and trusting in the truths found in Scripture that revolve around the

Holy Spirit, expose and produce the work of the Holy Spirit. When we can differentiate between truth and lies and teachings of the person of the

Holy Spirit, and believe that which is true regarding him, we will produce that which he will work in us, the fruits of the

Spirit. The persons of the Trinity are one and so interconnected that when we learn about the

Father and his work, and the Son and his work, we will produce the work of the Holy Spirit. His work in convicting us of our sin,

John 16, 7 -11, comparing ourselves to a holy and righteous God, brings humbleness and a reliance on God's grace and mercy, draws us more and more to Christ and his work more and more.

His work in bringing us to know truth as he is truth, John 14, 15 -17, causes us to go to Scripture for all life and godliness, 2

Peter 1, 3. His work in our regeneration, our spiritual birth, John 3, 6 -8, brings us to faith in Christ to trust in his work and call him

Lord. The Spirit living in us, 1 Corinthians 6, 19, produced fruit in us,

Galatians 5, 22 -23, helps us in our weakness and intercedes for us, Romans 8, 26, drawing us to go to God in prayer and effectually working

God's will by them. And his work helps us to be a witness to the work of Christ and the gospel,

Acts 1, 8, in our own lives. So, discernment is important because doctrine is important.

Good doctrine is important because it tells us who and what we put our faith in.

The emphasis should really be on the who. There is a difference between a female teacher who wants you to become self -aware and one who wants to become

God -aware. Maybe that's not the right word to use, actually.

I don't know if I like what comes from the term aware. I don't mean like being aware of your surroundings.

What I mean to say is there's a difference between a teacher who wants you to have self -knowledge and one who wants you to have

Christ -knowledge. It's the difference between what God says about you and what God says about himself.

Those that teach the former will boost the ego and confidence in the self, while the latter will humble the self and build confidence in Christ.

So, it is the Holy Spirit's work in pointing us to God the Father and Christ his

Son and faith in those that lead one to maturity and wisdom.

When you think of maturity and wisdom, what comes to mind? When you think of maturity, do you think of a woman who avoids sin, exhibits self -control, has peace and joy, and dedicates their life's purpose to serving others?

Well, what might produce that maturity in them? Here's a couple clips I took from a really great sermon from Jim Osmond.

The sermon was titled, Marks of Maturity, and it's from his Hebrew studies, because he goes verse by verse through books.

So, you guys need to definitely be checking out the Hebrew studies. Here's just a couple clips that I thought would bless you.

When you walked in here today, if I had asked you, what do you think the mark of spiritual maturity is? Don't answer, but would any of you have said, discernment?

Probably most of us would not. Most of us, if asked that question, probably not given a chance to really think about it or read scripture and study it out, most of us probably would have said, well,

I think that spiritual maturity is really probably, I don't know, maybe a proficiency in using my spiritual gift. If I'm a teacher or a preacher or my job is to communicate the truth in some way, if I'm really proficient at that and have a big crowd and a big church and a big

Bible study and a big group that meets in my home, that's the mark of spiritual maturity. And the smaller it is, the less mature you are, the bigger things are, the more maturity is.

Some people would think that. Some people might think that the mark of spiritual maturity is the amount of time that you spend reading your Bible every day.

I used to read only two chapters a day, and now I read four chapters a day. I hope that I would reach spiritual maturity sometime when I'm reading 12 or 14, 15, maybe even 20, maybe a book a day.

That would be real spiritual maturity. The real godly ones are ones that read whole books of the Bible in one sitting every morning, right before 4 a .m.,

and their family gets up and they make breakfast for everybody. That's real spiritual maturity. Or maybe spiritual maturity would be marked by the amount of time

I spend in prayer or the things I pray for, the number of people I pray for, the length of my prayer list. That's real spiritual maturity. We might put into place all of those benchmarks.

All those things are good, but none of them are the thing that Scripture says is the mark of spiritual maturity. What does

Scripture say is the mark of spiritual maturity? Discernment. It's the ability to judge between right and wrong.

And so important is this, that Paul said this is what he was praying for the Philippians. Listen to Philippians 1, verses 9 to 10.

And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.

Do you hear that? I pray that your knowledge and your discernment may abound more and more. Why? So that you may approve the things that are excellent.

Judge the difference between good and evil. That's the mark of maturity. I want you to grow up to the point where you know the difference between what's good and what's bad.

That's why Paul said to the Thessalonians, examine everything carefully and hold fast to that which is good. But what is good? What is that standard of goodness?

What is the author describing when he talks about knowing the difference between good and evil? Is it just things which are morally good and morally evil?

I think there's an element to that, but that's certainly not all of it. Because you could go down to any restaurant after you leave this building and sit next to somebody there and go over to the table next to them and run and encounter a complete pagan.

Somebody who hasn't darkened the door of a church in 40 years. You can walk up to them and ask them what they think good and evil is. And they would probably give you maybe a list of things that you would, for the most part, agree with.

They would say that these things are evil and these things are good. They have some objective standard and there's probably some overlap between what you would say is good and what they would say is good and what you would say is evil and what they would say is evil.

Any pagan can tell you because the law of God is written on their hearts and their conscience bears witness with them. Any pagan could tell you that there are good things and bad things.

And a lot of what a pagan would assess as being good and bad would agree with probably most of what most of you would think is good and bad.

So if we're talking about spiritual maturity, it can't just be, well, murder is bad and rape is bad. And yeah, we can agree with the whole world on that.

And then these things are good. Love is good and giving is good and charity is good. And these things are good. It has to go deeper than that.

Because any pagan can discern the difference between good and evil in that sense because they have the law of God written on their hearts. But there's a level at which they cannot discern what is good and evil.

Do you think your average run -of -the -mill garden variety pagan, having lunch this afternoon in a restaurant next to you, do you think that they would be able to tell you the difference between a good sermon and a bad sermon?

A sermon that preaches Christ and exalts him and his word, do you think that they would have the ability to discern between solid food and milk?

Pagans don't have that ability. To them, it's just a sermon. And you give them two of them, a good one and an evil one, and both of them talked about Jesus.

That was good. Yeah, they both quoted the Bible. That was good. They have no ability to see through it and discern good and evil.

Even in the midst of that, Charles Spurgeon said that discernment is not just the ability to know what is right and what is wrong, but to know the difference between what is right and what is almost right.

That's discernment. It's not just right and wrong in the clear things that all of us agree on because the law of God is written on our hearts.

It's the ability to walk into an environment and say, this is good and this is evil. Do you think that your average garden variety pagan, eating lunch this afternoon, would be able to tell you the difference between a false teacher and a true teacher?

Do you think they can discern that? They can't discern that. They can't discern the difference between a good sermon and a bad sermon, a good sermon and an evil sermon.

They can't tell the difference between a good church and an evil church. They can't tell the difference between a good philosophy of ministry and an evil philosophy of ministry, a good, accurate biblical presentation of the gospel and one that completely mifts it and is man -centered and man -exalting and that gets the response to the gospel entirely wrong.

They can't tell the difference between those two things. Rank pagans have no ability to discern the difference between good and evil in any of those things.

And yet that is the very mark of spiritual maturity. The ability to walk into an environment and say, I know I heard this.

There is something wrong with this and I can tell you what it is. This is man -centered or this is God -centered. This is biblical and this is unbiblical.

That's maturity. Now a side note I just want to think here. Is maturity accomplished by discerning when

God speaks or when God moves or where God's presence is? In hyper -charismatic and NER spheres, the mature woman is seen in this light and when they talk about being led by the spirit, they mean sensing the quote presence.

Maturity is related to discerning the atmosphere or inner impressions as the voice of God and then obeying that inner voice.

These ideas about discernment are, like I mentioned in the last episode, centered on discerning the

Holy Spirit through personal intuitions. They don't actually connect discernment with doctrine, which is an objective truth, but instead connect discernment with subjective inner impressions or experiences or subjective ideas of truth and authority.

I talk about what biblical discernment is in the last episode, so if you want to check that out, the link is above or description below.

But spiritually, maturity is Christ -likeness. It is rejecting the fleshly desires, sin, and worldly thoughts that are the old man and walking in the faith and knowledge of Christ that springs forth from the new man.

The mature Christian woman is not led by her senses or emotions. She observes them, but then she judges them with scripture, with good doctrine.

Discernment is the beginning of how one develops maturity. It is the gift given by the spirit that points to Christ and all the good doctrine that comes from believing in what is good and true about him, his work, his teachings, his words, and his promises.

And a mature female teacher will be able to discern between good and bad, true and false doctrine.

Ephesians 4, 12 -16 states this, And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the

Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way unto him who is the head unto

Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow, so that it builds itself up in love.

Discernment is a sign of spiritual maturity in a woman because discernment is part of attaining the unity of the faith and knowledge of the

Son of God. It leads to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. It not only leads to it, but is a sign of maturity as those who eat solid food, trust good doctrine, have had their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Hebrews 5 .14 and as Jim Osman stated in those clips you heard. There is so much more we can say about scriptural doctrines and the blessings they bring when exercised.

But now that we know some of why learning right doctrine is important, we can make a case for why cultivating discernment is so very important to the

Christian life. When we understand that learning and trusting in all the words given by God in the scriptures will cause us to walk and become more like Christ, we will become like David, declaring that through his precepts we get understanding.

Therefore, we love his commandments above gold, above fine gold. Therefore, we consider all his precepts to be right.

We hate every false way. Psalm 119 .104 .128

This is the heart or motivation behind discernment. It is a reverence and a love for God's word and a hatred for that which distracts from or contradicts it.

And this is the next way to discern if she's discerning. Does she call out false teaching?

So we looked at does she bring and present good doctrine? And now we want to look at does she call out false teaching?

Why is this important? In Jude, we have a whole epistle written to the church urging them to contend for the faith.

Jude, who was eager to write about the common salvation to those who are called out, beloved in God, the

Father, and kept for Jesus Christ, instead felt that it was necessary to appeal to them to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Jude 1 to 3. It was because certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were destined for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our

God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ. In both epistles and other passages which warn of false teachers, we are instructed to draw a line between true and false doctrine and to reject the false.

This is discernment in action. But scripture takes it further. Not only do we exercise discernment and hold fast to that which is true, we are called to contend for the faith.

Contend means to scru - Scruggle? What's the matter with you? Contend means to struggle, to surmount, to overcome, to assert something as a position in an argument.

Discernment in a female teacher protects the female disciples from false teaching and being led astray.

We discern so that we may not sin and advise and guide those we love into the truth of God's words so they may not sin.

Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves, because whatever is not of faith is sin.

Romans 14, 22 to 23. While this verse is in the context of choosing what to eat, when among the weaker brother, the principle here is that good doctrine builds faith, leading one to approve what is good, being free of the judgment of the law.

But out of love for the weaker brother, we do whatever it takes to build them up in the faith, in good doctrine, ultimately to always point them to Christ.

This will cause them to grow in faith and walk away from sin.

To believe wrongly about God is sin, and that leads to other sin.

It's what caused Adam and Eve to sin. They believed a lie about God. Whether you realize it or not, the teachings we accept as true, we will give.

False teachers speak that which is irreverent babble, as it leads people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene, swerving from the truth, upsetting the faith of some.

2nd Timothy 2, 16 -18. False teaching spreads from one person to the next.

Jesus warned his disciples of leading people astray in Mark 9, 42 -50. He says,

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell.

To the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It's better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die and fire is not quenched.

For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?

Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. False teaching causes people to not walk in God's statutes, causes them to sin.

Part of the calling out false teaching will be also to call out sin, to connect how the false teaching takes trust away from good doctrine and then oftentimes leads to sin.

Whatever is not of faith is sin. So calling out sin is one part of calling out false teaching.

At a minimum, false teaching hinders the growth of a Christian. And at its worst, false teaching produces ungodliness, turning people away from the

God of Scripture to follow a god of their own devising. This causes them to sin and shipwreck their faith, leading some to apostatize.

These teachers claim to have heard from God, prophesying out of their own imaginations, following their own spirit, yet really have seen and heard nothing.

Ezekiel 13 3 Their teachings draw people away from the faith to follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

1 Timothy 4 1 To which they transgress the first and the third commandment to have no other gods before him and to not misuse or misrepresent the name of the

Lord. We must be careful that we do not hinder our loved one's spiritual growth by bringing false teaching to them.

And yes, ladies, in some form or other, we all teach each other by word or by deed.

If you have children or husbands, you understand this. Even those of you who are not married or do not have kids, know that your words and actions teach your friends, co -workers, et cetera, and et cetera.

What you say and what you do will teach and inform others of who you are and what you believe.

Especially if you claim to be a Christian, your walk and talk will reveal who your

Lord is. Part of contending for the faith is exercising discernment regarding teachers.

We put ourselves under women who teach good doctrine because they understand the effects and growth that come from good doctrine and the dangers that false doctrine poses to women.

So these teachers will not promote known false teachers. It will be a priority to know what is taught by those they promote out of love and protection of the women they hope to encourage and disciple.

Most women in a local congregation's women's ministry make very light of discernment.

They rely on parachurch ministries such as the If -Gathering, Living Proof Ministries, Proverbs 31

Ministries to supply their women with biblical teachings through their series, conferences, and books.

We blindly accept them because they outwardly appear to teach biblical truths. But as one dives into their teachings, you find that they readily undermine

Sola Scriptura and yoke with other teachers that add other philosophies to God's word.

The reason I love If -Gathering is because it's brought me some of my very best friends. Because Ann Voskamp's been standing beside me since the very beginning, year one, saying, you can do it.

Let's go do it. Now the third question would be, does she yoke herself with false teachers?

What does it mean to be yoked? GotQuestions .org, answering the question of what the

Bible means by being yoked, explains that there are two ways this word is used. One, that the

Bible uses the word to relay a metaphor describing a weight or a burden on people.

The other way is important to our discussion here, and that is that the word is used to relay a binding of two people in a relationship.

Quote, a yoke is a wooden cross piece fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to a plow or cart.

A yoke allows two animals to share a load and pull together. Yokes were used in Bible times primarily with bulls or oxen to plow fields and pull wagons.

The animals yoked together needed to be close in size and weight for the cart or plow to pull evenly.

Scripture uses the imagery of a yoke to discourage Christians from entering into intimate dealings with unbelievers.

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers, for what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

What harmony is there between Christ and Belal? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God, 2

Corinthians 6, 14 to 16. To be yoked together is to be in a binding relationship.

The warning in this passage is that a Christian should not enter a compromising personal or professional arrangement with a non -Christian.

Two animals unequally yoked would end up fighting each other and they yoke. When the

Israelites chased after idols, they were said to be yoking themselves to Baal. Psalm 106, 28,

Numbers 25, 5. New Testament believers should be separated from the world. While the call to not be unequally yoked is often in reference to marriage, it also applies to ministry.

2 John 5 to 11 states this, And now I ask you, dear lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but one that we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.

And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.

Such a one is a deceiver and the Antichrist. Watch yourself, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the

Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting.

For whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. All of God's people should work toward the edification of all believers.

But what is edification? Is it me flattering you and encouraging you? Is it pumping you up to accomplish your passions and purpose?

That's worldly edification, and the world has their life coaches for that. The word used for edification in the

New Testament, I'm going to butcher this, oikodome, I believe that's how it's pronounced, which translates literally as the building of a house.

According to Vine's expository dictionary of Old and New Testament words, the word indicates the promotion of spiritual growth and development of character of believers by teaching or by example, suggesting such spiritual progress as a result of patient labor.

This suggests more than encouragement, but conveys an activity that develops Christlikeness in a believer.

That is the goal, or it should be the goal of every ministry in God's church, even for female teachers.

Female teachers who yoke with those who teach false doctrines and teachings can bring confusion to people who follow them.

It is unedifying and possibly even dangerous because false teaching spreads like gangrene, which we saw earlier in Second Timothy.

It can upset people's faith. The love of good doctrine necessitates the calling out rejection of false doctrine.

So when one yokes themselves with teachers who teach falsely, teach doctrines of demons, they reveal that they don't actually revere

God's precepts, but rather love men and the notoriety or even the honor that comes from being in connection with popular false teachers.

And because of the, really, the deep love one has for the self, it reveals the lack of love for those who need good doctrine.

Through his precepts, we get understanding. Therefore, we love his commandments above gold, above fine gold.

Therefore, we consider all his precepts to be right. We hate every false way.

Psalm 119, 104, 128. A woman who has discernment knows good doctrine, loves enough to call out false doctrine, exalts

God to urge women to submit to the authority and sufficiency of God's written word, and uses discernment to walk in wisdom, displaying the good works of a godly woman as instructed in Titus 2, and is therefore mature to teach others to do the same.

So what is the ultimate goal of discernment? First Thessalonians 5, 19 and 22 tells us to not quench the spirit, to not despise prophecies, but test everything, hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil.

The purpose of Christian discernment is to learn that which is good and hold fast to it. The act of discerning the good from the bad, truth from lie, good from evil, is useless if we do not hold fast to that which is good, for it will cause us, as Paul relays, to abstain from every form of evil.

So not only do older women who teach the younger need discernment, but so do we. The teaching of God's doctrine, the exercising of discernment, the holding fast to Christ's teaching, and the contending for the faith will ultimately lead to glorifying

God in all we do. This is what a mature woman will look like. She will discern right from wrong, truth from lies, and truth from mostly true, holding fast to the truth and walking by faith in that truth, glorifying

God in all she does. That is the type of woman who should teach the younger. These are the types of women we should be looking to emulate.

Christ directs us to pray and ask that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6, 9 to 10.

This starts with us. Through Christ's work in the gospel, in God's sovereignty, and by the

Holy Spirit working in the individuals of his chosen people, God's will is being done. The answer to this prayer is being worked out when

God's people discern that which is true from that which is false. It's being done when we have discerned the truth by the

Holy Spirit through the scriptures to obey Christ's commands. God's will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And it starts with you, dear sister, and it starts with me. Starts with our discerning the good to live it out in our daily lives, serving those in our home and those out into the world.

Praise God. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seats of scoffers, but his delight is on the law of the

Lord, and on his law he will meditate day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not weather.

In all he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregations of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Psalm 1.

May God be glorified in all of it. So ladies, discerning if she has discernment is the final way we can identify a false teacher.

If she believes scripture is authoritative, she will obey it. If she believes that it is clear, powerful, and sufficient, she will teach from it.

If she believes the gospel is the power unto salvation, she will want to continually proclaim

Christ and him crucified for your sins. And if she believes the teaching that springs forth from it is good and actually does something that glorifies

God and matures God's female disciples, a .k .a. sanctifies them, then she will want to teach the good doctrine and call out the false doctrine and call out sin.

The good teacher will take the good doctrine and use it to encourage you to love your husband and children, explaining how knowing

Christ brings self -control, purity, and kindness, exalts the good work that women do in their home, and it's

God glorifying blessings for the family. In doing all of this, the female teacher will be encouraging and training the younger to cherish and exemplify

God's word. That is what we should desire for the female teachers within the church. This is how we discern female teachers.

And these are the type of women it will take to reform women's ministry. Ladies, if you are convicted, as I have been, of past instances where you may have believed false teachings and or spread false teachings, repent, trust in Christ for those sins, know that you are clothed in his perfect righteousness when you do this, as if you taught and walked like him, teaching people like he did, loving people like he did.

We on this side of eternity in this sinful flesh will not get everything right nor walk perfectly, but thanks be to God that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8, 23. And now God in his sovereignty has brought you to repentance and will by the

Holy Spirit guide you and sanctify you in his word as it is truth. John 17, 17.

Until next time, I pray you are meditating day and night on scripture, being firmly planted and holding fast to Christ and his word.

May you with all knowledge and discernment contend for the faith, loving your husband, children, friends, family, through encouraging them to go to Christ in the scriptures, fighting the good fight so that you may hear, well done, good and faithful servant.

I pray you are in his word. I pray the

God of all grace grants you more and more knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ as the

Holy Spirit thoroughly equips you through his written word for every good work.