Identifying False Teachers

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the

Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. Mike Abendroth sitting next to the one, the only, the

Sheriff of Los Angeles County, Steve Cooley. Well, you know, I used to be the District Attorney of Los Angeles.

Steve Cooley and I are sitting here in West Boylston, Massachusetts, and we are glad to be on No Compromise Radio.

Don�t forget, at the Church, Bethlehem Bible Church, Women�s Conference 2011, we want to invite you, if you�re a lady or if you have a young daughter, you�re also welcome to attend.

May 20th and 21st, 2011, that�s Friday night and Saturday, Reflections of a

True Heart by Donna Shannon, and she is an excellent example of godliness in a lady, and she�s going to be teaching our ladies here,

Donna Shannon. Actually, that weekend, Phil Johnson will be preaching at Bethlehem Bible Church in the morning,

Sunday school and Sunday evening. So it�s going to be a Grace Church week, and then I think the next week we have the

Master�s Chorale coming. It�s crazy. It�s like Grace Church East. When I first got here, people used that against me.

�You�re trying to make this Grace Church of the East ,� and I said, �No, we�ve succeeded.�

Yes. Yeah, that�s right. And first of all, I�m not John MacArthur, so that would kind of not work out so well, but if those people had been to Grace Church and they had seen the commitment to excellence and the exaltation of Christ Jesus and expository preaching,

I think they wouldn�t have thought it was a bad thing. No, not at all. Why would they hire somebody from Grace Church of the

West if they didn�t want me to influence these people here? They were hoping you�re going to be more

Willow Creek. Well, I think I was for about five seconds, and then

I repented. Today on No Compromise Radio, I think Steve and I should not compromise.

You know, the other day I was driving down the street, Route 2 on the way to the Alewife tea station, and I saw the huge Mormon tabernacle with Moroni on top.

How did they get that past zoning laws in Boston? With great engineering. And it made me think about false teachers promoting false

Gospels, promoting false Christs, and promoting false gods. And so today I said to Steve, �Why don�t we talk a little bit about false teachers?

Let�s talk generally about false teachers and specifically, and by the way, is it even loving to talk about them

Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to be false And so, you know, I think we should be known for what we�re for, not what we�re against, and now you�re against false teachers? Well, I�m against them. Heaven forbid.

Heaven is for real. That�s amazing. I�m against them because, you know what? The Bible is against them.

Paul wrote Timothy in 1 Timothy, and the first thing he told them was to basically stop the mouths of false teachers.

Listen, chapter 1, verse 3 of 1 Timothy, he says, �As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus ,� listen, �so that you may charge certain persons not not to teach any different doctrine.

That's a charge or that was just kind of a suggestion? No, it was a charge. It was a command. Nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than stewardship from God, which is, or that is by faith.

And I mean, he says, and not only that, and he goes on to talk about things that are contrary to sound doctrine, but he actually winds up, you know, naming names and you just go, what is going on?

How could he do that? There's a lot of names named in the Bible. Yeah, I mean, Hymenaeus and Alexander.

And he says, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme in verse 20.

You know, the bad news is we live in a world that is populated with false teachers galore and they are multiplying like proverbial rabbits in springtime and they're everywhere you go.

And when one dies, there's a new one, a new hybrid. It's almost like these viruses that come back more deadly than the first time.

And so they're just false teachers everywhere. But the good news is we have the scriptures and we have the spirit of God to combat these things and we need to be standing at our post.

How about if you're not a pastor though, Steve? What about, what can a layman do? Should the layman ever think about false teachers? How can they see them?

How do they identify them? Should they confront them? What's a layman's perspective? Well, I mean, you have to be discerning.

When you go into a Christian bookstore and I don't care whether it's the

CBD warehouse Uh -oh. Or wherever it is. Morningstar. You are going to be assaulted by false teachers.

Why? Because you know what? If they can sell their book, you know, six million copies or whatever, well, that's at a dollar per or whatever, you know, you famous authors get.

It fattens their bank accounts and that's what they're ultimately after. And so they're, and it's easier to get nonsense published.

And we spent a couple of weeks talking about that book and about heaven. It's easier to get nonsense published than it is to get good, sound doctrine published.

Well, it appeals to the flesh. And that's something that I noticed that if I preach a sermon that appeals to the spirits working in the people and is an exaltation of Christ through verse by verse preaching and the seeker sensitive person is sitting here, they say,

I didn't get anything out of the sermon. And what they mean by that is my flesh was not fed. My flesh was not stroked.

And so we here at No Compromise Radio, we want what's best for you. We don't want what you necessarily,

I guess I could ask it this way, Steve. Why does God give leaders in a New Testament church and they should be leading you into the healthy pastures, into green pastures?

And so today we want to warn you that false teachers need to be identified as false and need to be turned from.

So Steve, how would we identify false teachers? This is just kind of a general 101 on false teachers.

How do I identify a false teacher if I see one? Well, they're going to distort the

Bible. We would read that in the end of 2 Peter chapter three where he talks about some of these men distort, they twist scripture,

Paul's writings, which are scripture. And why do they do that? Well, they have to do that to kind of give approval to their own lifestyles because they are marked by licentiousness.

That is, they don't want to be holy. They have no desire for holiness. They live profligate lives.

They give into their own desires, their own lusts. And basically, I mean, the things that mark false teachers are power, greed, and lust.

That's exactly right. And when it comes to the scriptures, many false teachers, if they don't reinterpret it, they'll add something to the scriptures or they'll take away things from the scriptures.

And they have a very bad view of scripture, a low bibliology. So if you want to prevent yourself from being duped by a false teacher, the first thing you could do is you could go to Bethlehem Bible Church or online anyplace else and take a good bibliology class because you don't want to be tricked by a false teacher with a pompous view of scripture, perverting or dislocating the truth or as Paul says to the church of Corinth, adulterating the word of God.

You know, it's interesting that you use that word dislocating because in 2 Peter 3, when he says distort, it is dislocating and it was often used in the ancient world of torture.

In other words, they were actually torturing the word of God. I remember when I'd pick up my brother when he was younger, he's big now, but when he was four or five and his arm had not developed into his socket very well and I'd pick him up and his arm would go out of the socket and then

I'd have to say, don't tell dad, don't tell dad, don't tell dad, but his arm's just drooping down practically to the floor like a simian monkey or something and he had to tell dad because dad had to twist his elbow just right and put it back.

A simian monkey. Okay, moving right along. Well, there's only one thing worse than sitting here laughing at your own stupidity on No Compromise Radio.

It's having Steve laugh at it. Sometimes I just sit in here and laugh to myself but at least I have

Steve, faithful number one, laughing with me. I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing with you. Today we're talking about false teachers.

Wow, that was a rumble in the jumble right there. Jungle. False teachers can be identified by their view of scripture and so they add things like subjective mysticism, they subtract things, this isn't for today, they do a lot of things like that and here's how

Peter describes them in 2 Peter 2. They're like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant.

They don't understand the grace of God, they haven't experienced it. They're worse off than bad angels because they're humans and they could be experiencing this great transforming power of Christ Jesus through faith but they have rejected that and they're using the scriptures for personal gain, power, sex, money, whatever they're doing but they entice, the text says, unsteady souls, hearts trained in greed.

Can you imagine if you lift weights? I still lift weights a few times a week and you think, okay, my bench is up to X amount and it's not to where it used to be but my bench isn't that bad and lat pull downs and stuff.

These people are trained in greed. And we see that. I mean, turn on your

TV and watch it but I mean, you watch these people and you don't see plain sets and you don't see, when you read about them, you don't read about the lifestyles of the plain and ordinary, you read, they dress super nice.

It's Versace and Vertucci and whatever. They've got all the designer labels, they've got the designer cars.

When you wear a Vertucci suit, it really smells good. It's like oven -baked pizza. You get the pasta, baby.

Benny Hinn just said in the Orlando Sentinel in Christianity Today that he admitted to an improper relationship with another

Christian minister. Yeah, Paula White. And so imagine, I mean, it wasn't so long ago, he was absolutely mystified why his wife would want to divorce him.

Well, now we have a little bit better idea. That's right. Go ahead, keep going. False teachers. Scripture is clear.

Again, 1 Timothy 1, listen. Verse six, certain persons by swerving from these, those things that are right, principles that are right, have wandered into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

That describes, again, false teachers. You watch these people and they will, they say the

Lord just told me, the Spirit informed me, and then they just prattle on about things that are so unbiblical.

I mean, the classic example that I can think of is when Benny Hinn is on TBN and tells

Paul that, he says - The apostle Paul? No, Paul Crouch. He says, you know where demons come from?

And then he says, and he's just very matter of fact about it. It's not like, you know, I think they might come.

He says, they were the beings that were here before mankind was created and dispossessed them of the earth.

In other words, we took the earth away from them, and that's why they're so against us. And I'm like, where would you find that?

And he just says it like it is an absolute rock solid, take it to the bank fact, and it's nowhere in the

Bible. He made it up out of whole cloth. Well, if you're listening today and you're wondering about false teachers, may

I even appeal to you through improper means? WWJD, let's say that's your slogan and that's your life direction and that's what you try to do and that's how you live your

Christian life. Certainly Jesus was an example for many things, but that's not the best paradigm. But let's just say for today, you use

WWJD. How did Jesus treat false teachers? Did he talk to them? Did he address them?

Did he applaud them? Did he affirm them? Did he celebrate them? Did he ignore them? I think Jesus took them to the proverbial woodshed.

And when there are blessings for those and who are poor in spirit and blessed are those who mourn, blessed the poor in spirit, but there are woes, woes, woes, woes, woes.

Let's say I'm supposed to do eight because I think there's eight woes in Matthew 23. Eight woes, cursings for people who are misleading the created people of God.

Obviously, I mean, is there a greater judgment awaiting anyone than those who would misrepresent

God, misrepresent scripture and really have as their motive to exploit some actual

Christians to take their money, to have power over them and everything else? I don't think there's any greater judgment.

Sadly, a lot of people that send their money to these people, they're not Christians either or they're immature Christians and they want to get by giving.

So if I give my money, it's just like the lotto, Benny Hinn and Word Faith and send in your money is just like the lottery, how to get money from people through greed.

We are to stand up for the truth and if you stand up for the truth, it means you stand against error and those who speak error, even if they're nice people.

Maybe Rob Bell's nice. Maybe he is. But I mean, just talking about the giving to get, they act as if it's an immutable principle, a principle foundational to the universe that if you give something to God, God not only delights in giving you something, but he is obligated.

And so they'll do things like they will pray the hundredfold return. Now, if you've read the parable of the soils, you know that the hundredfold doesn't have to do with you giving to get a hundredfold in return.

It has to do with the way that God can use you to get a return on his investment, not on your investment.

It's just so backward that I guess if you tell a big enough lie, then people will believe it. So let's just start with the real doozies.

You can identify false teachers by number one so far, seeing what they say about the

Bible, subtract, minimize, add, et cetera. They're perverting it for their own ends.

And number two, what do they do with the gospel? What do they do with Christ Jesus and his death that's a substitutionary death?

They pervert that, don't they? They talk that. Well, absolutely. I mean, here's one thing you're not gonna see.

You're gonna see if you, or hear, if you listen to a false teacher, you read their books, you watch them on TV, they might mention sin, but they're not gonna go into the specifics.

And they're certainly not gonna talk about what? The holiness of God. You are never going to hear them proclaim the

Isaiah 6 kind of mind -blowing experience, holy, holy, holy, where Isaiah just watches and just goes,

I'm undone. You're not gonna hear that from them. Well, they don't wanna be undone because they want to use the gospel instead of being under the gospel.

To me, it's all that, Steve. It's I'm either over the gospel or I'm under the gospel. And as sinful human beings, we ought to be glad we are under the gospel.

Galatians 1, Paul said, I am astounded that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. And how could this be written so many years ago before Mormonism?

It seems like the Bible's almost prophetic. Yeah. But even if we are an angel from heaven and should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

Well, that's pretty strong language there, accursed. Well, you know, he was having a bad day. It was an apostolic bad day.

And, you know, there are two extremes here of false teachers. One would be like what you were just referring to in Galatians, where they add on.

And then the other ones would, you know, add on to the gospel. You know, in order to be saved, you have to not only do this, but you also have to do that.

You have to obey the law. You have to, you know, only eat fish on Fridays, whatever.

But on the other end of the spectrum, give up chocolate for Lent. On the other end of the spectrum - I gave up fish on Fridays for Lent.

And on the other end of the spectrum, you have the other sorts of people who appeal to the greed.

And they both appeal to your flesh because we instinctively, sinfully as human beings, we want to believe that there's something we can contribute to our own salvation

So if it's a series of rules, we like that. And if on the other hand, God can be somehow some kind of cosmic, give me everything genie, we sort of like that too.

So on either end, people are trying to pull you away from the truth, either towards legalism or towards a kind of laissez -faire, easy, you know,

God is just, God just wants to shower things on you. Well, Steve, I'm very, very glad as we talk about false teachers today that God is powerful and sovereign, even over false teachers because left to the universe without the spirit of God and the power of God, the spirit of Christ, how would we ever combat all these false teachers?

The church would be dust, yet Jesus is building his church and nothing can stop that. And so even though I hate false teaching,

I hate false teachers, imprecatory Psalms upon the salt teachers, false teachers,

I'm glad that Jesus is building the church and we don't have to worry, stand up against false teachers, yes, but worry not because thy kingdom will come.

Well, I was just reading about, you know, Huss this week and when you just think about throughout the centuries, the godly men who stood up for the gospel and false teachers, false religious systems, persecuted them, burned them at the stake and yet Christ continued to build his church.

He told us that nothing would stand against it, ultimately would prevail against it. And he was right.

Steve, this is gonna get us in trouble, but I'll let you take the blame. Okay, Steve at nocompromise .com.

I see a lot of false teaching done by people who call themselves Christian today in local churches, specifically seeker sensitive churches where they give the people not the real gospel.

I guess they assume the gospel and they just give people a bunch of lists of things to do. It is moralism, it is

Mormonism disguised in evangelical garb that they are just to do, do, do, do. Without the gospel.

And I just heard another sermon down the street from a church that it's just a big moralistic challenge and they have neutered the gospel.

Yeah, if the so -called gospel is presented to you as a choice and it's really just kind of a choice that sort of improves your life where you can go home and go, gee,

I was glad he said that cause I need to improve in those areas and that's gonna save me, you know, and somehow

I'm going to accrue favor with God or gee, I'm glad I didn't waste my time today because he gave me a list of things that will really set me straight.

That's just not the Bible. I mean, should scripture beat you up? Absolutely, why? Because when you are presented with a holy

God and you are challenged to, you know, be conformed into the image of his son, it's going to be, there are gonna be

Sundays where you're just gonna go, okay, I am dust. And that's right. And ought there to be ways where you just think, you know,

I need to adapt, yes. And I need to change, yes. But to just go in and just kind of have the gospel, the so -called gospel presented to you as a series of hurdles for you to get over, that's just wrong and blasphemous.

And for those listening today who would say, it's the job of the elders and my pastor and the leaders of the church to guard against false teachers so I don't have to do anything.

You're half right. You're right that it's the responsibility of the leaders to do that. And that's found clearly in Titus chapter one and in first Timothy.

But how about Jude? Writing to those who are called and beloved by God the

Father. And if you're called by God the Father and beloved by God the Father, if you're born again, here's what he says.

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation. Basically, he was gonna sit down in his mind, he was thinking about writing another

Romans, book of Romans. But what happened? I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Why? Because certain people have crept in unnoticed who were long ago designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our

God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. So you, if you're listening today on No Compromise Radio, and you work in the nursery, you are to contend for the faith of God.

You're to be known for what you're for. That means you're gonna have to be against something. That's just Christianity. That's Jesus, Paul, Stephen, James, all the way down through Calvin and Luther and Huss and everybody else.

You have to stand against the false teaching. And you know, some people out there saying, well, this,

I don't know if this sounds very loving. Maybe Paul, maybe Peter, maybe Jude, not so loving. Listen to the Lord himself.

Matthew chapter seven, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing. I mean, this is almost exactly what

Jude, the half brother of Jesus was talking about, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits, by their works.

And he goes on and just discusses that. And then he says, verse 19, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. And he goes on to talk about it more, but it cannot be more clear.

Jesus talked about it. It's all through the New Testament. There will be false teachers. We need to be on guard and we need to watch what they do.

Steve, I think it was told to me once in seminary. I don't know the exact number, but out of the 27 New Testament books, something like 22 of them address false teachers.

I believe that. Because where the truth is, error is certainly there. Well, I mean, Satan doesn't leave the truth alone.

He wants to challenge it. He wants to bury it. He wants to burn it at the stake, hang it, crucify it, whatever he can do to squash it.

How about the parable of the soils where some people receive the word with joy, but what does Satan do? He likes to snatch it away.

That's very, very clear. I'm looking at Jude and it goes on to say, Steve, in verse 18, they said to you in the last time there will be scoffers following after their ungodly passions.

It is these who cause divisions, worldly people devoid of the Holy Spirit. They do that.

That's their MO. You can tell. It doesn't take very long to notice a false teacher because you watch and you listen.

Well, and you know, they creep in unawares and what are they immediately set about doing? If you have somebody with this mindset at your church, they're going to start kind of recruiting people and sort of,

I mean, it's almost satanically, it reminds me of Genesis, you know, Satan telling

Eve, did God really say? And that's how it kind of starts. People go, you know, does this really mean that?

And it just sort of spreads. It is really, as Paul described it, gangrene. When you were talking about that, it reminded me of the whole

Rob Belk controversy in his Love Wins book and his view of universalism and do people go to hell, et cetera, et cetera.

And it made me think of, Steve, back to the very first promise, a very first doctrine of God that Satan attacked.

And that was the judgment of God. There's no real judgment of God. It's not as bad as you think. He's not as holy as you think.

And we see that today. No wonder it happens. You'll surely not die. You're not going to really die.

He didn't really mean that. Didn't mean it. God's such a kidder. Friends, the best thing you can do for yourself if you struggle with false teachers is to arm yourself with the truth.

You, like Jude, build yourself up in the most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit. And then you'll understand quickly how false these teachers actually are.

I mean, when you compare some of these teachings with just scripture, I mean, if you were to just watch them or listen to them or read them and you compare them with the

Bible, you will not walk. You will run for the exits. And you'll go to a church where the pulpit is used to protect the flock and edify the flock.

And if it's only just to encourage, then you're in the wrong church. And they need to exhort in sound doctrine or refute those who contradict sound doctrine.

That's what Titus 1 -9 says. And it is a privilege to do that underneath the banner of Christ Jesus. And that's why we're No Compromise Radio.

Have a great day. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE its staff or management.