TPW 83 Seven Characteristics of False Teachers from Thomas Brooks

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Welcome to the
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Prowess of Witness, this is Pastor Patrick Hines here at Bridwell Heights Presbyterian Church on Tuesday morning,
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July the 9th, and today I'd like to post the sermon I preached this past Sunday morning. At the tail end of Thomas Brooks' great book,
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Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, there's a section on seven characteristics of false teachers, and I don't think
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I've ever read anything that is more applicable to the day and age that we live in, and to the
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PCA today. And so I wanted to go through those seven things, as I think all seven of them were demonstrated at the
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General Assembly a couple weeks ago, and I think that this is a very important point.
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It's often not preached on, it's not talked about very much, and it needs to be, because the
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Scriptures have a lot of information in them, a lot of information in them on the issue of false teachers and how to spot them, their tactics, and the way they operate.
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And so I really hope that people will listen very carefully to this, that they will look up the passages in their
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Bibles. This is an important topic, it's something I feel very strongly about, this is going to make or break the future generations.
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This is going to determine whether or not there are going to be any Bible -believing churches left in this country for our kids and our grandkids to go to.
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And the way things are going right now, I really have deep concerns about whether or not there will be any churches left for our kids and our grandkids to attend, as everything is being swallowed up by the seeker -sensitive silliness, by entertainment, by the shallow pragmatic approach to preaching, and by the sexual revolution.
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It's really interesting, the United Methodist Church upholds the sanctity of biblical marriage, and you wouldn't expect them to do that, given how liberal the
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United Methodists are. And yet, it wasn't because of the Americans, it was because of the United Methodist Church overseas that they took the stand that they did, but it's pretty amazing.
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There is a war going on in the PCA, and it's going to be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of years, but what the discerning among us need to do is go to the
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Word of God and look at these key passages, and look at this topic of false teachers and how to recognize them.
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The fact is, the scriptures tell us exactly how to recognize them. We know who they are.
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We know exactly who they are, and we know how they operate, because the Bible tells us.
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God warns us how they operate. So I hope that you will take your Bible, and that you will listen closely, and that this will be edifying to your soul.
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Let's pray together for God's blessing on our time at his Word, please. Our Father in Heaven, we are so thankful to you that you have breathed forth to us in the words of Holy Scripture, eternal life, and that faith comes from hearing and hearing by the
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Word of God. And we pray, Lord, that you would help us during this time to receive the truth of your
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Word with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practice it in our lives. We humbly ask in Jesus' name, amen.
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Please take your Bibles and turn to Lamentations chapter 2, verse 14.
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Lamentations is right after the long book of Jeremiah. Lamentations is just five chapters long after the book of Jeremiah.
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After Jeremiah's ministry ended, and nobody had listened to him, he lamented what he saw left of Jerusalem, and the charred ruins and the smoke rising from it.
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Lamentations chapter 2, our Scripture reading would just be verse 14, but we're going to look at many passages of Scripture this morning.
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They're all cited for you in your thoughts for Sabbath meditation. I would encourage you strongly to go through those as families this afternoon.
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Lamentations 2, verse 14. This is God's Word. Your prophets have seen for you false and foolish visions, and they have not exposed your iniquity so as to restore you from captivity.
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But they have seen for you false and misleading oracles.
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May God bless the reading of his infallible Word. The greatest danger facing the church and our sinful world, beginning from the moment that Satan spoke to Eve through the serpent in the
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Garden of Eden, is deception. Eve was deceived. Consider the following example of how grave danger can come to us if we are deceived.
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If we are deceived. When I was 16 years old, my father taught me how to drive, and one of the things that he said to me constantly, constantly, was, quote, son, parking lights are for parking.
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Never use your parking lights as headlights at dusk or dawn. And I would ask him, why?
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And he said, because when people have their parking lights on instead of their headlights, it looks like they're farther away than they actually are when they're driving towards you.
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End quote. And like most 16 -year -olds, I would nod and then forget that he told me that a dozen times.
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When I was about 19 years old, I can remember this as plain as the noonday sun in my mind,
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I pulled into an intersection at a green light, waiting for a large enough gap in the oncoming traffic to make my left turn.
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And I saw a car that looked like it was way off in the distance and believed I had plenty of time, plenty of room to make my left turn.
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And as I started to make that left turn, I suddenly realized that car was much, much closer than it looked to be.
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Also, it was traveling much, much faster than it appeared to be. And I slammed the accelerator to the floor, and the oncoming car slammed his brakes and laid into his horn.
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And I can still hear the sound of skidding in that horn as he barely missed me going through that intersection, waving his fist in his window at me.
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And then it hit me. He had his parking lights on instead of his headlights. I remember driving.
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I remember driving down that road, and my hands were just shaking, and I was shaking because it was so close.
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I'd never come that close to being hit by a car doing about 60 miles an hour. I knew in theory that one ought never to drive with their parking lights as headlights.
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Why is this? Because the parking lights are usually on the outside of the headlights.
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And when a car is driving towards you with its parking lights on instead of its headlights, if the lighting outside is not very good at dusk or dawn, because the parking lights are farther apart than the headlights normally are, it looks like the car is farther away than it is.
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Lo and behold, like many other things, my father was right about that. At dawn and dusk, if my life depends on how big of a gap there is between the turn and the oncoming car,
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I always look very carefully to make sure that those are headlights and not parking lights coming toward me.
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The deception, the deception in distance caused by using parking lights as headlights nearly caused me a very serious auto accident.
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I was deceived by the car's parking lights. What I believed was true about how much time
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I had to make that turn was, in fact, wrong. I was deceived. There's nothing more dangerous than believing what is false.
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And if that's true driving cars, how much more true is it when it comes to spiritual matters of eternal significance?
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How much divine revelation in scripture is focused upon detecting false teachers and detecting false teachings?
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There's a lot. There's a lot in the Bible about this subject. At the end of his marvelous book,
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Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, Thomas Brooks, the Puritan writer who died in 1680, lists seven characteristics of false teachers.
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And I have to tell you, after watching the speeches on the floor of the General Assembly of the PCA, I remember watching those speeches again.
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And I had read this a long time ago, many years ago, Brooks' Seven Characteristics of False Teachers. It's a very short section of his book.
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And I remember thinking, I think I just saw all seven of these. I think I just saw all seven of them.
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And so I pulled up my copy of Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices and read that section of the book.
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And it just made whatever hairs left on my head stand up. It's sad to say, but our denomination has false teachers in it now.
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Ravenous wolves, actually. It's not surprising in the least, really. But it is surprising that so few seem to have taken any serious notice of it.
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Have we forgotten the almost constant warnings about such things in God's word? What are false teachers like?
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What are their characteristic traits? What devices and strategies does Satan use to get people to believe that the oncoming car coming at them that's actually doing 70 is only going about 20?
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What does Satan do to make us think that we've got plenty of room to make that left turn? If we would be as innocent as doves, but also as wise as serpents, we must understand the enemy.
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We must understand his servants. We must understand the way they come across and the devices that they use.
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I remember Donald Gray Barnhouse, who was the pastor of 10th Presbyterian Church before James Montgomery Boyce was there.
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Someone asked him once, what would a town look like if Satan took it over? And Barnhouse said there would be no divorce.
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There would be no spousal abuse. Every brothel and every casino and every bar would close down and all husbands would love their wives.
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All wives would be faithful to their husbands. Everyone would love their kids and everyone would live in little houses with white picket fences.
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And they would all go to church twice every Sunday where the gospel is not preached so that they'll all go to hell.
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You see, Satan rarely engages in frontal assaults. He's a lot more subtle than that.
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If we know the scriptures on this matter, spotting false teachers, it's actually really easy to do. Make no mistake about it, dear congregation,
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Satan's most effective servants are always vulnerable, sincere sounding, self -deprecating, falsely humble, charming and amicable people who will literally murder your soul with kindness and the utmost graciousness.
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And they masquerade as ministers of righteousness and pastors in the Christian church. Paul said about them in 2
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Corinthians 11, 13, for such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.
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And no wonder for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness whose end will be according to their works.
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Thomas Brooks said this, quote, Satan labors might and main by false teachers, which are his emissaries to deceive, delude and forever undo the precious souls of men.
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I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied in Baal and caused my people to err.
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The prophets make my people err, Micah 3, 5. They seduce them and carry them out of the right way into bypass and blind thickets of error, blasphemy and wickedness, where they are lost forever.
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Jesus taught us, beware of false prophets, for they come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves, says
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Brooks. These lick and suck the blood of souls. Beware of dogs, said the apostle
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Paul. Beware of evil workers, Thomas Brooks said. These kiss and kill. They cry, peace, peace, until souls fall into everlasting flames.
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Now the best way to deliver poor souls from being deluded and destroyed by these messengers of Satan is to discover them in their colors.
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That so being known, listen, poor souls may shun them and fly from them as from hell itself, end quote.
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There's seven things that are listed in your bulletin. I would encourage you, please follow along with these. And I would encourage you, please remember these things.
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Remember all seven of these. Let's go over them real quick. False teachers, first and foremost, are men pleasers.
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Secondly, false teachers are notable in casting dirt, scorn, and reproach upon the person's names and credits of Christ's most faithful ambassadors.
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Remember, folks, this was written in 1680, 1680. Number three, false teachers are venters of the devices and visions of their own heads and hearts.
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Four, false teachers easily pass over the great and weighty things, both of law and gospel, and stand most upon those things that are of least importance and concern to the souls of men.
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Fifth, false teachers cover and color their dangerous principles and soul deceptions with very fair speeches and plausible pretenses with high notions and golden expressions.
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Sixth, false teachers strive more to win over men to their opinions than to better them in their lives.
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And seventhly, false teachers make merchandise of their followers. Okay, so let's go through each one of these.
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Number one, false teachers are men pleasers. In God's providence, the last verse we just looked at in Luke chapter six was
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Luke 626. Remember what it says? Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
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False teachers always ride the waves of popular culture, and they ride the winds of change that are already blowing.
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In the name of being winsome and loving, in the name of ministerial effectiveness, in Christ likeness, they find ways to conform their beliefs and the church's practices to culture shifts and what is popular today.
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For false teachers, there really is only one great commandment that burns inside of and rules their hearts.
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Ready for it? Thou shalt not offend anyone ever with the truth. That is the singular law they live by.
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We looked last Sunday at Paul's strongest of denunciations and condemnations that he pronounces upon himself, other apostles, and even angels from heaven, should they dare to preach a gospel other than that justification is by faith alone and not by works at all.
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Paul twice pronounces the sentence of eternal damnation in Galatians 1, 6 through 9, upon all such that would do that.
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He says in verse 8, but even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed, let him be damned.
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As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be anathema, let him be damned.
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And then Paul follows it with an all important verse, which always ought to be included in any citation of this passage,
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Galatians 1 .10. For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? What's Paul's implied statement there?
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You can't seek both. It's impossible. You can't seek both. The greatest fear of false teachers is that men would not approve of them.
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Their greatest fear is that men might think that they're narrow, or mean, or offensive, that they have angst.
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The true teachers care nothing for the approval of God, or the true teachers care nothing for nothing but the approval of God.
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Do you want to know who the false teachers are? Do you want to know whose side they will always be on? It's easy to know.
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Just keep your nose to the wind to find out. Where's culture blowing? They'll be right over there.
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Where are all of the weeds and seeds that are blowing off of the weed plants? Where are most of them gathered? The false teachers will be standing right in the middle of them.
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Right there, where the winds of doctrine are blowing, where the revolutionaries are going, wherever the winds are blowing people, just like the puffy seeds on the weeds.
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What direction are the vast number of those seeds going? The false teachers will be right there. False teachers will do everything they can think of to make it appear that they're seeking only
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God's approval, but what rules their heart and the things that they lust for and long for most is simply the approval of men.
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They want followers. They want their egos to be satiated with men's praises. And the disciples of false teachers, remember this too, the disciples of false teachers love their false teachers, precisely because they tell them lies.
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Isn't that a weird thing to think about? It's a strange thing to consider. It is the biblical truth of the matter, however.
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Jeremiah lamented this terrible characteristic of what he simply calls rebellious people. Not only do they love and desire lies to confirm them in their sin, they demand lies.
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Listen, listen to Isaiah 30 verse 9. For this is a rebellious people, false sons, sons who refuse to listen to the instruction of the
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Lord, who say to the seers, listen, you must not see visions.
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And to the prophets, you must not prophesy to us what is right. You hear that?
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They're demanding lies. You're not gonna tell us the truth. If you tell us the truth, we're gonna kill you.
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You will lie to us and you will not tell us what is right. Listen to that again. The rebellious people, the false sons, the followers of false teachers, they say to their leaders, you must not see visions.
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You must not prophesy to us what is right. Speak to us pleasant words and prophesy illusions.
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They demand it of their teachers. What do rebellious people demand? They require that they not prophesy what is right.
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They demand pleasant words. They demand illusions. They demand tear -jerking anecdotes and stories.
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And as long as they're praised for it, false teachers will give them the pleasant words and the illusions that they demand.
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As long as the rebellious people will praise them for their pretended godliness, for their love, quote unquote, for their biblical faithfulness and for their sensitivity, those false teachers will give them exactly what they demand.
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It is an infernal partnership that exists between false teachers and their flocks of goats, their fields of tares and their servants of Satan, whose itching ears can never fully be scratched and satisfied with more evil doctrines and heresies.
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Does this sound too harsh? False teachers are men -pleasers, folks. They are culture -pleasers.
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They are tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, and they go wherever the evil doctrines and the culture shifts take them.
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Listen to God's word again, Jeremiah 23, 16. Thus says the Lord of hosts, do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.
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They make you worthless. They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the
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Lord. They continually say to those who despise me, the Lord has said, you shall have peace.
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And everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, no evil shall come upon you.
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They lie, because their goats and their tares and their servants of Satan want to be lied to.
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So false teachers first and foremost are men -pleasers. Secondly, here's a key one. False teachers are notable in casting dirt, scorn, and reproach upon the persons, names, and credits of Christ's most faithful ambassadors.
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They will never miss an opportunity to publicly berate good and godly teachers.
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They hate and despise good men. Little do they know how they are improving the resurrection of such faithful men by their hatred of them.
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Little do they know how much more wrath they are accumulating for themselves by their contempt for faithful ministers.
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The more faithful men are, the greater their hatred of them will burn. Remember the narrative about Jehoshaphat of Judah and Ahab of Israel?
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Remember they wanted to get together and fight against Assyria? And there was only one prophet left in Israel who told the truth, and his name was
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Micaiah, and Ahab said about him, yeah, there's one. There's one prophet of the Lord who could give us the word of the
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Lord, but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. Notice that for Ahab, whether or not what
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Micaiah said was true was irrelevant. It didn't matter to him. This holds true for many in our time, your congregation.
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They don't care about what's true. They don't care about what's true. They lust for spiritual experiences.
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They long for beautiful music. They can sing to alongside of anyone who also wants to sing with them, whether they're
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Roman Catholics, liberals, unrepentant homosexuals, or whatever. When the federal vision heresy began at the
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Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church in Monroe, Louisiana, one of the proponents said against their critics, but we have such beautiful music and singing at our conferences.
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If you could be there, you'd feel it. Many didn't realize that that building they were gathered in had been a
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Christian science cult building. And the Christian science cult purposely built their sanctuaries in such a way as to magnify the acoustics and make them beautiful.
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Okay, so you have beautiful music that you were singing on your way to hell. Does it really matter? I have no doubt the singing was beautiful and the instruments and voices blended well, but the gospel they were gathered around was a false gospel.
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As long as people have their celebration, their religious goosebumps and are confirmed in their sin, and their spiritual lusts are satiated temporarily, all is well.
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The question, was any of it true? Was any of it biblical? Was the true exposition of God's word and the doctrines of scripture, were those preached there?
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Who cares? It made us feel good. I even got teary -eyed while we were singing. Ahab ought to have been concerned about the word of the
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Lord coming from Micaiah because it was true. But Ahab represents perfectly what so many are all about in our day.
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They do not want what is true. In fact, the more true it is, the more they will despise it.
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Furthermore, the more faithful men are who call the false teachings out for what they are, the more the false teachers will despise and berate those faithful men.
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Even Paul's enemies heaped insults, personal attacks upon him. They said about him in 2
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Corinthians 10 .10, his letters are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible.
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Jesus was ruthlessly treated by his opponents because he not only said what was true, he was the very embodiment of the truth, being the incarnate son of God.
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Jesus was accused of being a liar, of being possessed by the devil. He was accused of being a deceiver, a
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Sabbath breaker, a drunk, and a friend of tax collectors, prostitutes, and other undesirables of society.
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Christ's enemies cast dirt, scorn, and reproach upon him without mercy.
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Thomas Brooks said this, quote, the dirt, the filth, the scorn that is thrown upon those of whom the world is not worthy.
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I suppose false teachers mind not that saying of Augustine, he who willingly takes from my good name, unwillingly adds to my reward.
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The greater their contempt, the nastier their comments, the uglier they are in denouncing the good guys.
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They only show their wicked cards even more fully, and they make Christ's faithful ones exceedingly glad and filled with rejoicing at the increase that they bring to their reward.
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False teachers are notable in casting dirt, scorn, and reproach upon the person's names and credits of Christ's most faithful ambassadors.
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We saw that at General Assembly, didn't we? Thirdly, false teachers are venters of the devices and visions of their own heads and hearts.
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Their opinions and thoughts are what they want to preach and teach the loudest. Careful analysis of the biblical text, careful exegesis of scripture, and faithfulness to it are only a pretense to them to push their own wicked agendas.
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When they quote and read and preach from scripture, the text is merely a springboard for what they really want to make known.
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And what do they want to make known more than God's word? The devices and visions of their own heads and hearts.
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Jeremiah 14 verse 14, and the Lord said to me, the prophets prophesy lies in my name.
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I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them. They prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.
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Their messages are filled with vain hopes. The lies they speak and teach will destroy eternally those who listen and heed them.
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Jeremiah 23, 16, thus says the Lord of hosts, do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.
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They make you worthless. They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the
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Lord. It is a perfect fulfillment of what God warns us about in scripture, to see the multitudes, even in what's left of conservative
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Christianity, flocking to heretics and false teachers today, especially concerning the sexual revolution.
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Hear God's warnings. Matthew 24, four, Jesus answers and said to them, take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name saying,
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I am the Christ, and will deceive many. Titus 110, there are many insubordinate, idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision.
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Romans 16, 18, for those who are such, do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ. You need to hear that, because they'll claim to serve the
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Lord Jesus Christ. They'll tell you that they serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul says they don't serve
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Christ, but their own belly. And by smooth and flattering words, deceive the hearts of the simple.
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What are false teachers ruled by? What are they ruled by? The devices and visions of their own heads and their own hearts.
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Their lusts control them. Their desires blind them. They are slaves of iniquity and they detest the light.
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What did God say through Jeremiah to all of us and to everyone through all the ages of time? The prophets prophesy lies in my name.
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I have not commanded them nor spoken to them. They prophesy to you a false vision, a divination, a worthless thing.
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And the deceit of their heart. You know what's utterly amazing about that passage I just read to you?
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It was quoted by Dr. Nate Collins at the Revoice Conference. And he applied it to anyone who would ever tell a homosexual to repent of being a homosexual.
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Dr. Collins' use of this passage to condemn faithful men of God as false prophets, as deceivers, who prophesy false visions and divinations, worthless things and the deceits of their own hearts.
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So now the pastor who tells the unrepentant homosexual, repent and put your faith in Christ, we are now being labeled as the false prophets in a
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PCA church. Further, Dr. Collins also quoted the following passages against anyone who would ever dare to tell him to repent.
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Jeremiah 23 one, woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture.
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You know what Dr. Collins is saying? Those of us who tell them to repent, we're destroying the sheep of his pasture, says the
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Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people, you have scattered my flock, driven them away and not attended to them.
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Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings. He said, citing this against ministers who still think it's a sin to be homosexual.
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Verse three of Jeremiah 23, but I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their folds and they shall be fruitful and increase.
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And his voice was cracking when he was saying that we got to bring all these unrepentant people back into the church and they'll be all be part of the church again.
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And you evil, wicked, horrible shepherds who have destroyed my people, God will attend to you for the evil of your doings.
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That's how the word of God was used in a PCA church. And all you hear is crickets chirping.
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How can that not offend people? How can that not offend teaching elders and ruling elders? I don't understand it.
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Yes, indeed, faithful ministers and Christians who do not accept the false teachings of the sexual revolutionaries of our day are likened in a
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PCA church and from a PCA pulpit to the false prophets of Israel. Even the imprecations of destruction from God's mouth and scripture are pronounced upon faithful men and faithful Christians who stand their ground for biblical righteousness.
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It was predictable, but also disgusting to hear these people quote the very passages in which
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God is directly addressing them and the deceptions that they are teaching and applying them to the good guys.
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The Revoice Conference and those who are allies of this movement in our denomination engage in regular gratuitous twisting of God's word in some of the most offensive ways
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I have ever heard. When someone can read Jeremiah's laments and try to apply those laments, which
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Jeremiah was lamenting because the people he prophesied to would not repent of their sins.
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They would not stop sinning and turn back to the Lord. When people can quote those and say, he's lamenting something like the way that the
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LGBT community has been mistreated by the church and we need to lament over that.
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That is a misuse of God's word. When someone can read Jeremiah's denunciation of the lies and the false visions of false prophets and apply those denunciations to faithful ministers of the gospel who denounce as sin what
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God's word says is sin and call people to repent of it, that is scripture twisting. They do exactly what
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Peter warned about in 2 Peter 3, 16. These are untaught and unstable people who twist scripture to their own destruction.
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Fourthly, false teachers, listen to this one. False teachers easily pass over the great and weighty things both of law and gospel and stand most upon those things that are of the least importance and concern to the souls of men.
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First Timothy 1, 5 -7 says, now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and from sincere faith from which some having strayed have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.
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They don't care about the weighty things. They want to go talk about all the little other details of things that are of little consequence.
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Jesus said the same thing about the Pharisees in Matthew 23, 23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.
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You pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith.
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These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. Instead of focusing upon the heart of the controversial issues facing our denomination today, false teachers will always focus instead on the tone of your denunciations.
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Sorry, I can't help but be passionate. When the Lord of glory's name is being drugged through a sewer, we point out a false teaching, we document it fully, we demonstrate it's falsehood from scripture as clearly as the noonday sun and all we get in response is, there's too much angst communicated in your report.
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We get, I don't like the tone you're using. Do we get biblical answers? No. Do we get biblical responses?
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No. Only gratuitous scripture twisting. It was said at the general assembly after Romans 8 one was quoted, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
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That what that means is, there is therefore now no shame for being gay in Christ Jesus. The Greek word for condemnation there is katakrima.
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It means judicial pronouncement upon a guilty person. You know why there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus?
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Because Jesus died for our sins. He has taken the legal punishment away and we have his righteousness upon our legal account.
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No charges, no legal charges can ever be brought against me again. Praise God, what a great verse.
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But we will always, always feel ashamed of our sin. Don't you thank
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God every day that you feel ashamed of your sin? The shame and the filth of our sin, that's what keeps us clinging to Jesus.
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The day that we're not ashamed of ourselves is the day we don't think we need a savior. The idea that condemnation there means no shame is utterly false and utterly without foundation in that text.
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Because we've been justified judicially by the blood and righteousness of Christ through faith in him alone, there is therefore now no judicial condemnation for us no matter how greatly we may struggle with sin, but shame over sin is a blessing from God.
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Without feeling that sense of embarrassment, of shame and filthiness of what we are, we would never see how much we need
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Christ. That is indeed a weighty matter concerning the law and the gospel.
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And what the false teachers wanna focus on instead is, you guys aren't nice enough. We don't like your tone, you're shaming people, you're communicating angst.
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I just would point out to you, ever read this book called the Bible? There's a lot of angst in here, a lot.
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Remember Paul's God -breathed shot the heretics who were denying the gospel by adding things to faith in Christ as the means of getting into heaven.
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He says in Galatians 3, verse 1, oh foolish Galatians. You know what that Greek word translated foolish?
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Anatoi, you know what that means? It means stupid. You look it up in Bauer, Donker, Arden, Gingrich, Lou and Ida, Fridberg, Thayers, all the standard lexicography, the word means stupid.
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You know why the translators don't put it that way? Because you can't sell as many English Bibles with that word in there. It means literally stupid and unwillingness to use one's mental faculties to understand.
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And Paul's saying, you stupid Galatians. And then he says, who has bewitched you?
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You know what that verb is there? It's the verb boschino. It's used only one place in the entire New Testament. You know what it means?
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To practice magic, to place under a spell. He quotes a verb that refers to magic and says, what is wrong with, how can you guys be like this?
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I preach the true gospel to you, you get to heaven on the basis of the blood and righteousness of Christ all alone.
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You stupid Galatians. Who has cast a spell on you? What is wrong with you? Paul, you've got too much angst, man.
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You need to go get some therapy or something. Paul, we don't like your town.
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You're not nice enough. Why is Paul so hot here? Why is he so upset? Why is it that when you read through Galatians, you can picture the guy that wrote it riding through gnash teeth only because of the eternal salvation of every human being on earth at stake.
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Can anything be more important than that? The glory of the perfection of the work of Christ. And people want to fuss with us because we're passionate for the gospel.
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We're passionate for the salvation of all mankind. That's called straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.
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Plain and simple. Paul said in Galatians 5 .12, I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off.
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There's another not nice expression. You know what that Greek verb apokopto means? It means, quote, make a eunuch out of.
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As I've said to you before, I think Paul would be virtually unemployable today. He wouldn't get a call anywhere.
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They'd be like, get that guy out of here. He's too mad. He's too angry. He's got too much angst. We don't like his tone. Some things are worth upping the angst a little bit over, folks.
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Number five, false teachers cover and color their dangerous principles and soul deceptions. Listen to this, with very fair speeches and plausible pretenses, with high notions and golden expressions.
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I'll never forget the first time I ever heard Joel Osteen speak. It was a video of one of his messages on TV.
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He is one of the most captivating and effective communicators I've ever heard. Most false teachers are like that.
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They're charming. They speak in a humble and self -deprecating ways. They use lots of Bible verses, lots of Bible expressions.
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They do everything they can think of to make their so -called Christian testimony seem as authentic as it possibly could be made to sound.
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On the floor of the General Assembly, Greg Johnson spoke of purchasing and memorizing every book and video presentation
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R .C. Sproul has ever done. That is exactly what
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Brooks is talking about here. When he says, plausible pretenses with high notions and golden expressions.
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That statement about Sproul, that great man of God, that's only a plausible pretense to hide his bias and his prejudice.
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Don't be deceived by it. Brooks said this, quote, listen to this quote.
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As prostitutes paint their faces and deck and perfume their beds, the better to allure and deceive simple souls, so false teachers will put a great deal of pain and garnish upon their most dangerous principles and blasphemies that they may the better deceive and delude poor ignorant souls.
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They know sugared poison goes down sweetly.
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They wrap up their pernicious soul -killing pills in gold, end quote.
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Plausible pretenses, high notions and golden expressions.
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Watch out for it, watch out for it. Galatians 6, 12, Paul said about those
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Galatian heretics, as many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, you hear that?
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What are they all about? Putting on a show. Let me bedazzle you with my testimony. Let me bedazzle you with my testimony, how
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I came to Jesus. Let me tell you all about it. Let me tell you how Jesus saved me and changed my life.
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Let me put on a good show for you and then I will give you that poison pill. Always listen, folks, for the truth of what people are saying.
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You always take what they say to the word of God. Romans 16, 17, Paul said to that church in Rome, I urge you brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them.
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For those are such who do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.
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People will lie. They will lie and pad their resumes to disarm their critics.
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Always remember this, please remember this. Satan and his followers and his false teachers, they follow no rules and they have no standards.
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They will lie through their teeth at you. I didn't plan that. Their God is their lustful appetites and their glory is in their shame, the scripture says.
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Jesus said, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing. A lot of time that sheep costume is seamless.
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I mean, it's just as close to their skin as it could be. They look just like a sheep, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
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The most dangerous people nearly always look like they're not dangerous. The most dangerous people nearly always look like they're not dangerous.
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Sixthly, false teachers strive more to win over men to their opinions than to better them in their lives.
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Matthew 23, 15, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you travel land and sea to win one proselyte and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
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Jesus had an angst problem too, just FYI. True and faithful teachers are about people being set free from sin.
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We don't want followers, I don't need followers. All I want is for you to go to heaven and I want you to walk with Christ and know the glorious liberty of the children of God.
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But these Pharisees would travel land and sea just to get one follower for themselves. That was enough to puff up their ego and satisfy them.
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False teachers only want followers. That's what Paul told the elders of the church at Ephesus in Acts 20, 28.
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He said to these elders, he said, guys, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the
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Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. For I know this, after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
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Also from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves.
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Why do these guys do this? Why do people stand up and say false things and say perverse things?
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They want followers. They want followers. Really, it's just pride and ego? Yeah, it's just pride and ego. They want followers.
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False teachers cover and color their dangerous principles and soul deceptions with very fair speeches and plausible pretentious, with high notions and golden expressions because they want people to believe them and follow them.
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Seventhly and finally, false teachers make merchandise of their followers. Jeremiah 6, 13, because from the least of them, even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness.
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And from the prophet, even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. Covetousness has always been an issue for false teachers.
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Second Peter 2, 3, by covetousness, the false teachers will exploit you. They will exploit you.
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That term is a term of business, emporiumi, to engage with someone in a business transaction.
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By covetousness, the false teachers will exploit you. They will make merchandise out of you and exploit you and make a business transaction out of you with deceptive words.
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For a long time, their judgment has not been idle and their destruction does not slumber, the scripture says. These people will make merchandise of their followers.
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They will make a business transaction out of people, buy and sell people and trade in people. So listen again to all seven of those characteristics.
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False teachers are men pleasers, first and foremost. Secondly, they are notable in casting dirt, scorn and reproach upon the person's names and credits of Christ's most faithful ambassadors.
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Folks, please listen for the people that attack the good guys the loudest and the most often.
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What Thomas Brooks said here in 1680, before that, before he died, is exactly the case.
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They are notable in attacking the good guys, casting scorn upon them, making it known to the world that they hate them.
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Thirdly, false teachers are venters of the devices and visions of their own heads and hearts and folks, the only reason they ever quote or cite scripture is as a pretext to make known their own visions and their own ideas.
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Fourthly, false teachers easily pass over the great and weighty things both of law and gospel and stand most upon those things that are of least importance and concern to the souls of men.
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They strain out gnats and swallow camels. Five, false teachers cover and color their dangerous principles and soul deceptions with very fair speeches and plausible pretenses.
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Okay, stop there. They will bedazzle you with their stories, with their testimonies, with their alleged hunger for Christ, et cetera, and so on and so forth.
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And with high notions and golden expressions, Thomas Brooks points out that device of Satan a lot.
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He always hides the hook under a golden bait to get us to take it. Sixth, false teachers strive more to win over men to their opinions than to better them in their lives.
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They're more interested in followers than they are in the truth. And seventhly, false teachers make merchandise of their followers.
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At the end of the day, they don't even love their followers. They hate them. They're simply a means to an end, a means to line their own pockets or to disquiet their own conscience.
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If I can surround my people that agree with me in my lusts and my desires, then I won't feel as condemned as when faithful teachers stand up and speak.
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In closing, as Jeremiah surveyed the charred and smoking ruins of Jerusalem and the temple,
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Jeremiah wrote his five chapters of Lamentation and tucked away in those five wonderful chapters of God's word is the verse that we read for our scripture reading.
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Listen to it again. Lamentations 2 .14. Your prophets have seen for you false and foolish visions and they have not exposed your iniquity.
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You hear that? What's the biggest problem with false prophets? They don't uncover people's sin. The false prophets don't wanna tell people that they're sinning.
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Why do they not wanna tell people that? Because people won't like them then. People won't follow them then.
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You've not uncovered my people's iniquity to restore them from captivity. But these false prophets have seen for you false and misleading oracles.
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The not exposing your iniquity is perhaps the greatest giveaway of a false teacher. They don't wanna tell people that they're evil, that they're sinful, that they need to change.
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They need to repent. They need to let go of their beloved sins. The point of antithesis with unbelievers is always found right here.
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Our denouncing as evil, the sin that they love and serve the most, that is when their teeth will begin to gnash at us.
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This is what causes the angst, the violence and the hatred of unbelievers to surface.
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Because false teachers care nothing for people's eternal souls. This is what they avoid at all costs.
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But to faithful teachers and to faithful Christians, this is where we must take our stand for the eternal salvation of people's souls and our stand against the winds of doctrine that are beating upon us from our culture.
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I just wanna remind people of something. And I would ask, can a person who identifies themselves as a homosexual, as a gay
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Christian, could they exposit this passage I'm about to read to you? Could they walk verse by verse through it and explain how it applies to them?
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Listen, 1 Corinthians 6, 9. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
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Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
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And such were some of you, but you were washed.
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You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our
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God. Could such a person walk through that passage and explain? Yeah, I used to be a homosexual, but I was washed.
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I was sanctified. I was justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of my
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God. I submit to you, they can't. You know why? Because they don't believe this.
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And at the end of the day, they really have no idea what this passage is even talking about. We are
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Christ's disciples and his followers. And I just want to warn everyone. I want to exhort you.
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Whatever breaks through the gates upon us, if it denies God's word, we will stand our ground.
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With the help of Christ, we will stand our ground. For the glory of God, we will stand our ground. For the salvation of the lost, we will stand our ground.
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For the glory of Jesus Christ, all sufficient, saving cross work and his righteousness, we will stand our ground.
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Against the current rise and infiltration of false teachers and servants of Satan, we will stand our ground.
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Let's pray. Our father in heaven, we bless and praise your holy name for the clarity and sufficiency of your holy word.
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And we thank you for the life -changing and life -giving gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we bless and praise you that your holy spirit uncovers all of our sin and exposes it to us into our hearts and minds and convicts us of it and shows us the filthiness and the vileness of what we are in our sin.
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And then you give us Christ. You show us that you've met all the requirements of your law.
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You have met its penalty. You have met the righteousness that it requires in Christ alone.
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And it's only in Jesus that we have everything that we need to stand before you, perfectly free from condemnation and guilt.
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But Lord, as Christians, we are always ashamed of our sin. And we are thankful to you that you've given us that sense of shame.
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And may Satan never deceive us as to remove that shame from us.
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We ask in Jesus' name, amen. This is
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Pastor Patrick Hines of Bridwell Heights Presbyterian Church, located at 108 Bridwell Heights Road in Kingsport, Tennessee.
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And you've been listening to the Protestant Witness Podcast. Please feel free to join us for worship any Sunday morning at 11 a .m.
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sharp, where we open the word of God together, sing his praises, and rejoice in the gospel of our risen Lord.
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You can find us on the web at www .bridwellheightspca .org. And may the
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Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his counselments upon you and give you peace.