“Mishandling The Word of God” (Sermon Against False Teachers)

Good evening, if you would please turn in your Bibles to the book of 2nd Peter, 2nd Peter chapter 3, and as you're turning there, the Apostles of Jesus Christ in Acts chapter 6, they made the comment how they had given themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.

So prayer, that's another sermon for another day. But the ministry of the Word is so vitally important to the life and to the health of the Church of God. What did Jesus say? That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

The problem, however, is when God's Word is mishandled, when God's Word is twisted. So that's the title of the message, Mishandling the Word of God. 2nd Peter chapter 3, starting in verse 14, the Apostle writes,.

Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, without spot and blameless. And consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand.

Have you ever read the words of the Apostle Paul and say, this is hard to understand? Peter says, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

You, therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware, lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

To him be the glory, both now and forever. Amen. You may be seated. So I'm going to break this message down into two parts. Part number one is when people mishandle the Word of God, or when they twist the Scriptures, it leads people astray.

And we're going to look at a few biblical examples of this happening, and then part two will cover some modern examples of mishandling God's Word and what I believe to be perhaps the biggest issue today of how some people read and interpret or misinterpret the Bible.

Sometimes I think the temptation is that you make the Bible fit what you want it to say, not what it says, but what you want it to say. Or people will take the culture and use the culture as something like a lens to filter and just view everything through the lens of the culture.

So to handle the Bible correctly, it takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of time, a lot of study, a lot of work. Just two quick verses to consider. James 3, verse 1. James 3, verse 1 says, My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.

And then 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 15. Paul writes, Be diligent to present yourself approved unto God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing or rightly handling the Word of truth.

Unfortunately, though, in modern evangelical Christianity, it's kind of like the Wild West. Everybody has their own private interpretation. We've all been to Bible studies and some of us have probably said this, you go around and, well, here's what this verse means to me.

Well, you know, I think here's what this verse means to me. What matters is what does it mean? That's what really counts. So the Word of God must be handled correctly by men who have studied to show themselves approved.

1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 23. If you take notes, you can just make a note of this and I would recommend that you take notes for no other reason. It helps you to pay attention and stay awake. So if you have a pen and a piece of paper, open your Bible, take notes.

1 Peter 1 .23 says, Having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. The scripture also says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

So the Word of God, we need to get the Word of God out there. We need to preach the Word of God. Otherwise, people will not learn God's ways. People will not be saved. But here's the problem. While the Word of God may be incorruptible seed, there are a lot of people sowing seed that is corrupted.

For they twist the scripture. They distort God's Word. What do you call people who twist the Word of God? Okay, well, there's a few things we could say, I guess. Well, the term I'm looking for is a false teacher.

A false teacher. Let's just spend a moment and talk about false teachers. This just seems to be a topic that some people shy away from, but we really can't avoid this topic and be faithful to the scripture.

It is a major theme throughout the entire Bible, talking about false teachers. For example, Moses in the law laid out how to identify and how to handle false teachers and false prophets. Jeremiah preached against the pastors in Israel who were leading the people astray.

Jesus in the Gospels rebuked the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees. Paul rebuked the Judaizers. John called the false teachers antichrists. Jude, he wrote a whole book about it. James, again, gives this warning, let not many of you become teachers.

Peter is addressing it here. And then there's the final book of the Bible, Revelation, which talks about what? The beast and the false prophet. And I could go on. Just about every New Testament epistle is written, at least to some degree, in response to false teaching.

So point number one, when false teachers twist the word of God, it leads people astray. And there's a lot of people being led astray today. How so? Well, let's look at some biblical examples. Turn to 2 Timothy.

2 Timothy chapter 2. And this is a good example because Peter was talking about Paul. That's the text we started with. Peter was talking about Paul, and he said, some of Paul's writings are just really hard to understand.

And I always wondered what Peter had in mind. You know, what teachings was Peter thinking about? I wonder, is he talking about Paul's teaching on predestination, or what is he talking about? Well, I think we actually see an example in 2 Timothy chapter 2.

What's a word for something that's hard to understand? It begins with an M. It's a New Testament word. Mysterious? Yeah, a mystery, right? A mystery is something that's hard to understand, hard to comprehend.

One of the definitions of the word mystery is something that people in time past didn't know, but then in the New Testament, it is revealed. Before we read from 2 Timothy 2, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, 51 and 52, he said, Behold, I tell you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

So Paul is speaking about the resurrection of the dead, which happens at Christ's return. A parallel passage is 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, where Paul says, The dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

Now, have some people twisted this scripture? Well, I'll give you the answer. The answer is yes. Some people have twisted this scripture. Here's a biblical example of it. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 2, starting in verse 16.

Paul writing to his protege in the faith, Timothy, says, But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness, and their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past, and they overthrow the faith of some.

So notice that these men are talking about biblical things. They're talking about scriptural things, the resurrection. But they're totally wrong in what they taught the people, because they said that the resurrection, hey, the resurrection already happened.

It's in the past. Jesus apparently already came back. And their false doctrine, Paul says, spreads like gangrene. It spreads like cancer. And what was the result? It caused many people to stumble. It caused many people, some to even fall away from the faith.

So this is point number one. When false teachers teach false doctrine, when they mishandle the word of God, they lead other people astray. And it certainly appears to have caused people to lose their faith, because they thought they missed out.

There's nothing else to look forward to. Jesus already returned. The resurrection has already happened. What is there left for me? So you see how damaging it can be. The same thing happened to the church at Thessalonica in 2 Thessalonians 2.

Paul tries to comfort the church to not be shaken in mind or troubled, because apparently someone sent a letter to the church, a false teacher sent a letter to the church, claiming to be from Paul or Timothy or Silas.

And what did they tell the people? Sorry, you missed the return of Christ. This caused great distress among the church members. And you can see how it would cause someone to lose hope. What are they trying to do?

They're trying to rob people of their blessed hope. Don't you know there are people who hate the church of Jesus Christ? There are people who hate Christ. They hate his body. They hate us. They hate the fact that we're meeting.

And some people actually get into religion in order to corrupt the church from within. This actually takes place. You know, there are churches out there that deny the resurrection, right? You say, I just can't imagine a church or church members denying the resurrection.

Well, actually, if you read 1 Corinthians, there were some people in the church at Corinth who denied the resurrection. So there's nothing new under the sun. That's why we need to talk about it. That's why you need to preach on it once in a while, because this is happening and it can be devastating.

The church in my hometown, some of the people there, whether it was taught from the pulpit, it was a belief that heaven and hell, there is no heaven and hell. Heaven and hell is what you make of your life.

If you have a good life, that's heaven. If you have a bad life, that's hell. Is that true? No. You know, you really have to mangle the Bible in order to get that out of this book. So these two men, Hymenaeus and Philetus, they strayed concerning the truth and they were teaching people that the resurrection already happened.

Why would somebody do that? Well, because this is what false teachers do. And really, it's a spiritual thing. It's a spiritual thing. They are wolves in sheep's clothing, and it is their mission in life to devour the flock of God.

If they think they can benefit from it, they have no issue teaching heresy, which can then lead to maybe even a church split. It's kind of hard for us. You know, if you're saved this evening, it's hard for us to really imagine this, that someone would do such a thing.

Because you're a good person. You know, I mean, theologically, there's none good at all, right? We know that. But you would never do that. But there are people who would, and we have to be aware. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 11, he called false teachers, he called them ministers of Satan.

Whoa. Ministers of Satan. And they attack the church from the outside. They could do that. But when they creep in, they do a lot more damage when they're on the inside. So they pretend to be Bible teachers and they creep in unawares, as Jude says.

So they might say and do everything right at first to kind of gain people's trust and to have an audience, and once their reputation and position is secure, then they start chipping away at the unity of the church.

They start chipping away, teaching false doctrine, people get upset, people leave, they get converts on their side, and it's devastating. They teach as doctrine the commandments of men. Who else did that?

The Pharisees, the scribes, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Or they preach their opinion as though it were the word of God. They refuse to accept admonition. Nobody can tell them they're wrong.

If somebody tells them they're wrong, they sometimes fly off the handle. These are the marks of a false teacher who twists the scriptures. Do you remember Diotrephes? Many of you have read 3 John, a man named Diotrephes.

He wanted to excommunicate the apostle John. Unbelievable. But moving on to point number 2, let's address some modern examples of twisting the scripture. Turn to 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. Who is our teacher?

Well, Jesus is our rabbi, Jesus is our teacher, the Holy Spirit is our teacher. You want to know the truth? Look to Christ. What did Jesus teach? Interpret everything in light of what Jesus Christ said and His Holy Spirit.

Well, how do I know what the Holy Spirit teaches? Well, we have a book written by the Holy Spirit. If it's not in this book, it's not part of the Christian faith. So I believe there are two primary ways the word of God today is being distorted or twisted.

The first way is to so overemphasize what the Bible says about the love of God, you overemphasize that to the expense of everything else. 1 John chapter 4 is where you get that statement. What's the statement?

God is what? God is love. That's where you find it, 1 John chapter 4. But, you know, that can actually be twisted. I mean, that's a great statement. Do you love that? God is love. Do you love that statement?

Do you believe that statement? Say amen if you do. Some of you are not saying amen. So just an example, I saw a church that had a sign out front, and I mean this with all due respect because I love people and I think people need to know the truth, but I saw a sign out front of a church and it said God is love.

Normally I would say amen to that. But it said something a little different. It said God is love, period, in all capital letters. Well, that's twisting the scripture, I think, a little bit. Why? Because is God love?

Yes. Is he only love? No. God actually has wrath. God actually has wrath. Let's read some of these verses. 1 John chapter 4, starting in verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. And again, we say amen. Verse 9. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

And this is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. And again, this is such a great passage.

God so loved. And because God loved us, we should love others. But there's a word in this passage that would be really easy to just kind of read over it and skip over it and not think much of it. I'm pretty sure a lot of people don't even know what the word means.

It's kind of a big word. It's one of those 50 cent words. Is that what they say? That never made any sense to me. $50 word, maybe. How about that? What's the word? Propitiation. What does the word propitiation mean?

Well, the Greek word is hilosmos, and it means to appease. To appease. To appease what? To appease who? So here's how people twist the Bible. They only give one side. They only give one side of the story.

And then they skip over and ignore all the parts that they don't like or they think people don't like. What is this called? The narrative, right? We hear a lot of this these days that you've got to uphold the narrative.

God is love. If you talk about wrath, it kind of upsets the narrative that God is love and he's cool no matter what you're doing. God's love and he would never say anything about your sins. So what is this?

It's tickling ears. People teach things that they ought not for the sake of filthy lucre or dishonest gain. In other words, there are false teachers who tell people what they want to hear for your money.

That's what they want. They want your money. So yes, God is love. Amen. We believe that. But in that same passage, it also says that God sent Jesus into the world to be the propitiation for our sins. To put it plainly, Jesus died to satisfy the wrath of Almighty God.

God is holy and just. Man is sinful and unjust. Because God is holy and just, he must punish sin. But out of his great mercy and love, he provided a way for men, for us, to be forgiven of our sin. So he sent his only begotten son into the world to die on a cruel cross to satisfy the wrath of God so that when you stand before God, there is no more wrath because Jesus satisfied that wrath.

When you talk about the wrath of God, the love of God is sweet. When you talk about the propitiation and wrath, I mean, that doesn't sound as sweet, but actually it does if you're saved. If you're saved, it does sound sweet because we know that's what Jesus did for us.

This cross behind me, it reminds us this is what Jesus did for us. He satisfied God's wrath against sin and against sinners. You know, Jesus, or the Lord, he doesn't just cast the sin into hell, he casts sinners into hell.

But that has been satisfied, and we praise God for that. So here's the irony, that same passage that says that God is love, right there in that same passage you see the concept of an angry, wrathful God who needs to be appeased.

His wrath needs to be satisfied. Now some people don't like this, and because of that, in the middle of the 20th century here in the United States, the historic mainline denominations, many of them told their ministers, stop preaching the cross.

The New Testament says something about the offense of the cross, right? So they told their ministers, don't preach the cross. Preach a Jesus who's interested in social justice. They demanded that the hymnals be altered and songs about the blood removed.

Some people today, they've gone as far as to say that a God that needs to be satisfied, or his wrath needs to be satisfied, a God like that is more like Zeus than the God of the Bible. I guess people who think that never read Isaiah 53 10, which says, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

He has put him to grief when you make his soul an offering for sin. What's the title of the message? Mishandling the Word of God. John 3 16. Who knows John 3 16? And all these little kids, I'm sure many of them have memorized.

Hey kids, have you memorized John 3 16? Raise your hand if you've memorized. I see a few hands. I know one of these little girls, she has the whole chapter of Hebrews 11 memorized. I thought, wow. Amen.

Praise God. But a lot of you, you've memorized John 3 16. Say it. Well, you probably memorized in the King James version. If you didn't, just say it. Let's say it. Now, how many of you have memorized John 3?

Same chapter. How many of you have memorized John 3 36? Do it. Okay. We get the idea. The wrath of God abideth on him. Same chapter. John 3 16 is a lot more popular though. I wonder why. Both are true.

Both need to be preached because Jesus in the gospel, it's all about what? Salvation. Salvation from what? People say, well, salvation from sin or salvation from death. You know, everybody dies. You ever noticed that?

Every human being dies. It's not just salvation from death. It's salvation from God's wrath. It's salvation from hell. And when you appreciate that, it makes you love God that much more. That's what he saved you from.

Now, this passage I read from Isaiah 53. It pleased the father to bruise him or it pleased the father to send his son to die. He made his soul an offering for sin. That's challenging. I admit that. Dr. R .C. Sproul once told a story.

And by the way, I've been called a dispensationalist, but my favorite Bible teacher is a Presbyterian. Dr. R .C. Sproul. I know he didn't have much use for dispensationalism, but I still love the man.

And here's one of the reasons why. Dr. R .C. Sproul once told of a meeting he attended and he preached the gospel and he preached that Jesus died to satisfy the wrath of God. And a man stood up in the back of the meeting and he yelled out and he said, that is primitive and obscene.

You know how Dr. Sproul responded? He said, you're right. Not only is this primitive, he said, if there was ever an obscenity that violates contemporary community standards, it was Jesus on the cross.

After he became the scapegoat and the father had imputed to him every sin of every one of his people, the most intense, dense concentration of evil ever experienced on this planet was exhibited. Jesus was the ultimate obscenity.

This is perhaps the greatest theologian of the 20th century. Jesus was on the cross, the ultimate obscenity. So what happened? God is too holy to look at sin, still quoting Dr. Sproul. He could not bear to look at the concentrated monumental condensation of evil.

So he, the father, averted his eyes from his son. The light of his countenance was turned off. All blessedness was removed from his son whom he loved. And in its place was the full measure of the divine curse.

That's what the cross is all about. That's what the gospel is all about. Jesus died to satisfy the wrath of God. God is love? That's how. That's how. I have a lot more to say at 726. I'll end here because you can't get better than that.

You can't get better than the gospel. You know how much God loves you? God loves you so much he sent his only son to go through that. Jesus loves you so much he did that for you. What are we going to do for him?

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for your word. I thank you so much for the gospel that a man, woman, even a child can be saved if they would confess with their mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in their heart that God has raised him from the dead.

Lord, if there's anyone here tonight or listening online who has never accepted the free gift of salvation, I pray that they would do it now, that we would all one day be together in heaven glorifying you, worshiping you forever and ever.

In Christ's name I pray. Amen.