What Is Heresy & How To Handle It (Titus 3:10)

Defining Heresy as Serious False Teaching

Today's topic, what is heresy and how do we handle heretics? So heresy, let me just give a definition. Heresy, the way this word is used, sometimes people use the word heresy to describe any wrong teaching.

But really, the word heresy, I think, should be reserved for very serious error. The type of error that could cut a person off from salvation. So most people know, most Christians know that heresy is bad and they know that the Bible speaks against false teaching.

But what do you do if a heretic actually shows up at your church? What do you do? Like literally, what do you do? So that's part of what we're going to be looking at this morning. If a person sees this happening in a church, yeah, how do you respond?

And sometimes, even if church leaders do the right thing, respond the right way, sometimes people don't like that because it can be confrontational and that's really something that you can't avoid. If somebody wants to bring a heresy into this church, what they're trying to do is split the church.

And we're not going to let anyone split the church. And again, like I said before we started, there's nothing like that going on here. There's no danger here, but based on recent events and somebody showing up here a couple weeks ago, I decided to do this lesson.

So let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. So this is an important subject just to give you an idea of how important, if not urgent, this subject is. I feel like I can honestly say that many, if not most, evangelical churches in this area either don't know what the Bible teaches about how to handle heretics.

Either they don't know or they don't care because people are defending heresy. People are defending heretics. It happened years ago in a church in the Greenfield area and now it's happening again and the consistent response that I'm seeing is people are just defending it and making excuses for it.

I actually heard about this, that some church leaders, they want to take the approach to welcome the heretic into the church. Even allow them maybe to take communion. Allow them to sit under the teaching and their attitude is, well, let's just hope for the best.

Let's just hope it has an impact on them. You realize what that's like? It's like saying to a farmer, hey, just let the fox into the hen house. Let's just hope for the best. Let the fox be there. Don't be mean to the fox.

And I know that some people, upon hearing this phrase, heresy, I know some people would think, oh, please. This is the 21st century. Heresy, this is what people used to talk about in the dark ages. Get with it, pastor.

But really, as long as truth exists, heresy will exist because there's always going to be people who want to oppose the doctrine of Christ and the teachings of the Bible. Okay, you're in 1 Corinthians 11.

Heresies in the Corinthian Church

1 Corinthians 11, verse 19, I'm reading out of the King James Version because it's the older version that actually uses the word heresy. The apostle Paul writes, for there must be also heresies among you.

Okay, so he says, for there must also be heresies among you. The verse before that, verse 18, mentions how there were divisions among the people, and that's what a heresy is. It's something that causes division.

So we typically use the New King James Version. So instead of heresy, it translates that word what? Factions. So in the Corinthian church, if there was ever a church that was doing things the wrong way, it was the Corinthian church.

They had factions. They had divisions. They had rivaling factions within the church. And they even allowed false teachers into the church, and they were listening to them. And Paul, in 2 Corinthians, he called those false teachers ministers of Satan.

But they were allowing them in. The Corinthian church, just a few examples of the heresies that they allowed. Some people in the Corinthian church did not believe in the resurrection of Christ. You read that in 1 Corinthians 15.

There were some people in the church who baptized for the dead. That's something the Mormon church does today, but there were people doing that in the Corinthian church. And what was Paul's response to this?

What's 1 Corinthians? It's like one big, massive rebuke against the church. So a heretic is someone who teaches what? False doctrine. Yeah. Well, I would say a heretic is someone who teaches heresy. But yes, it's false doctrine, but it's not just something that's false.

It's something that's very, very serious. So serious, it would put someone outside of the Christian faith. It's not just some little error. Because everyone's probably wrong about something. But these are very serious false teachings.

So a heretic, this is a person who causes division in the church by going against the established teachings of Christianity. For example, a few examples of heresy would be denying the virgin birth, denying the atonement of Christ on the cross, or saying that it's unnecessary, denying the resurrection, denying that Christ is coming again, denying the authority of Scripture, and then maybe some modern issues, celebrating gay marriage would be a heresy.

Defending the idea of putting children through transgender surgeries. This stuff is divisive. It's divisive. It's unbiblical. And when you bring that type of teaching into a church, it will split a church.

And it all directly opposes what the Christian churches have believed and taught for the past 2 ,000 years. So the church, like I said, this happened in a church in the Greenfield area years ago. And the pastor that I'm not going to mention in my name, many of you already know who he is, but the pastor started teaching some of these things.

Celebrating gay marriage was one of them. And it resulted in a church split. And as a pastor, we need to care about people. So what happens is when a church splits, people are damaged by that. When people have a bad church experience, it can really hinder their walk with Christ.

They're reluctant to get involved with another church. It can really have a negative impact. And that's understandable, because this type of thing should not be happening, and yet it does. So let's turn to Matthew chapter 7.

False Prophets as Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

Jesus himself referred to heretics or false teachers. He refers to them as wolves in sheep's clothing. And when they bring in the heresies into the church, it splits the church. And that's what the Bible means by devouring a flock.

So when this happens, people... Yeah, it can really affect people in a negative way. Okay. So how... This is the question that we're looking at. How should the church handle heretics? We'll cover this verse on the screen in a moment.

Because it's one thing to know what the Bible says. It's another thing to believe what the Bible says. But it's another thing to actually do it. It's another thing to actually apply the teachings of Scripture.

A lot of people... Most people know what the Bible says. They're just not willing to do anything about it. Because none of this is in the abstract. It's happening right now in real-life situations. And I've just noticed, again, even among pastors, there's really sometimes an unwillingness to deal with it.

So before we get into exactly what to do, let's look at what Jesus said. Matthew 7. Jesus is referring to Christians as sheep. Right? A pastor is a shepherd, but Jesus is the good shepherd. And he calls the divisive men.

He calls them wolves in sheep's clothing. Matthew 7, starting in verse 15. Jesus says, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.

Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you shall know them. So Jesus uses this term specifically, false prophet. So they show up. They claim to be Christians, right?

They're in sheep's clothing. So they claim to be Christians. They even appear at first to be Christians. So they'll say many of the right things to get people's trust, to get into churches. But their intention of being in the church is to eventually devour the flock.

They're sort of waiting for their opportunity to cause division. Split the church. Create doubts in people's mind. So you can identify them by what they produce. And again, that's kind of the division in the church split.

Part of that, what they produce, they create disunity in the body of Christ. Can everyone see this verse? So you say, well, is this term heresy or heretic even biblical? Well, if you have a modern translation of the Bible, this is kind of an older word.

But if you have a King James version of the Bible, you see that Titus chapter 3, verse 10. It says a man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition reject. And the Greek word is translated heretic.

It refers to a follower or a teacher of false doctrine. And again, that's not just the difference between, hey, this church is post-trib. This church is pre-trib. Or this church has a different view of end times or the spiritual gifts or the mode of baptism.

That is not at the level of heresy. But denying the resurrection would be saying that the death of Jesus Christ was completely unnecessary. You don't even need to believe in Jesus. Everyone's going to heaven.

I mean, that that's just a denial of the gospel. So that would rise to that level of heresy. OK, turn to Romans 16. Any comments or questions?

Yes, Marcus. This person is so blatant that his Spotify podcast is entitled Heretic House. Yes.

Yeah. So if somebody say, well, you're wrong. Because typically in the past, when I brought this up, which isn't very often, but people usually defend the person. But this individual, it's happened recently.

Yeah. He actually refers to himself as a heretic. But it's a big joke. And his former pastor who put him into the ministry wants to, I guess, allow him to be part of the fellowship. And even when he openly identifies as a heretic.

I mean, I've never seen anything like this before. It's so we're not being unfair. He calls himself that. OK. But like I said, I think he's doing it like it's just a big joking matter. Yes.

Most of my comments will not be pleasant. OK. You're talking about jokes. This other church. And correct me, or you probably are more familiar with his statement. Something about an April Fool's joke.

Does this ring a bell?

Right. Yeah. Yeah. There is the article in the paper that's sort of associated with this new heretic house, home church, the gathering, whatever it's called. Yeah. There's associations with the former Faith Baptist Church where the current pastor said that Jesus was a joker savior.

That April Fool's was, what did he say? Easter was the original April Fool's prank. Jesus was a joker savior. Yeah. It's just, it's reached a whole other level.

So, yeah. Another Bible verse, be angry and sin not.

Yeah. Well, and I think when people see someone and they're upset, like oftentimes the reaction is, well, that guy's angry. He must be the bad guy. Well, no. There is such a thing as a righteous indignation.

You can quibble with how people approach this and their tone of voice and everything else. But the reality is if somebody blasphemes Christ or denies the gospel and wants to bring that into churches, I mean, if you as a Christian, if you're not upset by somebody blaspheming the name of Christ, I mean, what would it take to get you upset?

I mean, if there's anything worth being upset about, it's this, but I'm trying to take a a measured response and here's what the scripture says. Here's why. Cause I think a lot of people just don't know.

They know it's bad, but they don't know how to identify it. And then what do you do about it? And that's what I'm trying to do. So Roman 16, are you in Roman 16? This is what the apostle Paul says. Roman 16, 17 through 19.

He said, now I urge you brother. So he's, he feels very strongly about this. He urges the church to note those or mark them who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine, which you have learned and do what avoid them for those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly.

So they're in it for themselves. And by smooth words and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the simple. So this is how to handle heretics. It's very simple. Mark them and avoid them in this verse.

They are to be what rejected Titus chapter three, verse 10. They are to be rejected. Paul says, Mark them and avoid them. That is not what pastor Grant says. That is not what Marcus says. That's not what, well, we do say it, but why do we say it?

Because, because the Bible says so. So Paul says, Mark them and avoid them. Why? Because they're dangerous. They lie. You can't, you can't take them at their word. They speak out of both sides of their mouth and they use flattery and they seem really nice to try to get into your good graces.

Yes.

Cast the immoral brother out. They'll say the Amish do the shunning. Yeah. They won't even like eat or interact with them because this is the point of sending them out so that they can find the truth and come back and be forgiven.

Right?

Yeah. And we're going to get into the difference between, you know, a church member who maybe gets into something they shouldn't. That's to be, there's a process for that. And the purpose is always restoration.

We're not looking to just, you know, roast people. We want people to, we want to help people. We want people to be restored. And even for, it can be argued that once somebody crosses a line into heresy, being a false teacher, once they've known the truth of the gospel and then they go into heresy, some would argue that people could never come back from that.

They've sort of crossed. I'm not saying that. I think it's possible. It's highly unlikely. But how you approach heretics and people already in the church that you view as brethren, there's two different approaches.

We're going to get into that. And let me just say one thing about the Amish, because part of what Paul is saying, Mark and avoid them, reject them. You say, well, that sounds like shunning. Well, right.

That is what Paul is saying. But the Amish, the Amish, Amish will shun people for all sorts of different things. You know, the Amish will shun people because if they find out you have a cell phone, you'll get shunned.

So they're at a whole other level. We do not recommend shunning in the way the Amish do it. But there are certain things like teaching heresy, trying to split the church. Yet you just have to like, you can't welcome that person in as a brother and just let them be in the church and take communion and all the rest.

So it needs to be rejected in that sense. But the prayer is always that they would turn from this. So we're not against anybody. Even the individual that we're referencing, we're for him. Ultimately, we want to see repentance from this.

Yes.

Galatians 6 .1. I'll try to stay as scriptural as I can. If anyone be overtaken in a fall, you who are spiritual, restore such a one. Can anybody finish that?

I don't have my Bible. Galatians 6 .1. Only in my head. Lest yourselves also be tempted. I mean, the idea is. Well, is there something?

In the spirit of meekness. Yeah. Is it in the spirit of meekness? I think so. All right. Well, meekness is not weakness. I'll just say that much. In fact, meekness is probably controlled strength. Yeah.

Yep. But you who are spiritual. So we need to be spiritual, don't we? Yeah. This is why I turned it over to the deacons and pastors as best I could. Yeah.

Yep. So, but a lot of people, they say, well, he seems like a nice guy or this false teacher. They they speak really softly and they seem nice. And sometimes that's enough for people to kind of buy in to what they're saying.

Consider this in the book of Revelation, chapter 13. John talks about the false prophet, right? The false prophet of the end times. John says that he appears as a lamb. But he speaks like a dragon. So false teachers often appear very nice and kind.

And yeah, they look like a lamb. They look like they're one of us and there seem like such a nice person. But what they're saying is straight from the pits of hell. And Paul, and I think I already alluded to this, but he called the false teachers ministers of Satan.

And he said that even Satan himself appears as what an angel of light. So a false teacher never comes in and announces their true intentions. Never once has a false teacher said, hi, I'm Joe. I'm the false teacher.

Nice to meet you. Like that'll never happen. They don't do that. Instead, they will tickle people's ears and tell people what they want to hear. And kind of buy into the popular views of the culture and the times to win people over.

Yeah.

Yes. And just same with false teaching. And the same with a lie. There's some truth in it. Just like the way Satan, you know, he deceived Eve. And he deceives people. A little bit of truth, you'll take the scripture, twist it just a little.

And then. Right. So it's not a complete lie. But it's. Right. Not completely true. Right. And so the heretic will do that exact same thing. Quoting scripture. Although they don't believe it.

To draw you in. Yeah. And often the scripture is there for them to reference when it serves them. But they're not really going by scripture. Right. But they will use scripture because if they're not talking about Jesus and they're not talking about scripture, sometimes they're not going to get a Christian audience.

So they have to say positive things about Jesus, but they'll deny fundamental truth. So it's. They're very skilled in knowing the things to say to kind of throw people off. Marcus.

A brand new thing to me is that this particular heretic. He will mention the word truth often. He will say things. And these are things that I heard. And I'm a. I solemnly swear that the testimony that I shall give in the matter now at hearing will be the truth.

The whole truth. And nothing but the truth. So help me, God. Yeah. He has. He uses the word truth. He claims that he has Christ in dwelling him. When I asked him why. You can stop me. Just say stop. OK.

Yeah. All right. OK. Why are you here? He said to come and enjoy Christian fellowship with other Christians. The Holy Spirit in me once wishes to have fellowship. I said, and I'm saying to myself, this is worse than Satan's lies to Jesus in the desert.

OK.

So we want unity in a local church. We want. We want unity. But how do we have unity? It can't just be a superficial unity where we all smile at each other and we all like. I mean, that's good. You should do that.

You should be friendly. But we have unity. What really binds us together is we have unity in Christ. We have unity in the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is not some subjective thing where the Holy Spirit is telling me one thing and he's telling you the opposite.

The Holy Spirit is the author of Scripture. So we have our unity in Christ, in the Holy Spirit, and it's based on the teachings of Scripture. So that's where our unity is. If I say something that you think is wrong or or somebody behaves in a way that you think we go back to what is the deciding factor?

It can't be people's opinions because everyone has a different opinion about things. It has to be Scripture. OK, so let's look at Matthew 18. Let's turn there. And I think this is one of the reasons why this church is not in any time recently had all sorts of division and factions and false doctrine is because we we teach this so people know.

But if if 20 years went by where these subjects were not brought up at all, then I think you're opening yourself up to a lot of problems. So, Matthew 18, we're going to talk about the difference between dealing with a heretic in dealing with a church member who we recognize as a brother and sister in Christ, because we've already seen how to handle heretics, reject them, mark them, avoid them.

But that is not how you deal with a brother in Christ. And by the way, most of the heretics and most of the false teachers in Bible times, they were itinerant preachers. They were not part of a local church.

And that's often the way it is. A false teacher will not actually be part of a local church. They kind of go from here to here to here, because if they are part of a local church, the local church would have dealt with it or they should have dealt with it.

So a lot of times these people are not connected to a church. But when somebody is a church member and they have a testimony and we recognize them as a brother, they get a certain amount of, you know, give them the benefit of the doubt, give them protection.

There's a process for this. So we would deal with it a little differently. Yes, Marcus.

You said avoid. There's another one that says do not greet them. Right. There's another one that says do not allow them in to your house. This is our house. Yeah.

Yep. Yeah. And we're going to cover that verse. It's in 2 John. And even those who greet them and welcome them in. Yeah, he's a brother and let's take communion. The person who would do that is, well, we'll read 2 John in a second.

Yes.

Is there one more that says do not eat with them?

Well, 1 Corinthians 5 says, do not even eat with such a one. We're going to cover that. There's some clear instructions. Right. Yeah. We're going to cover that in one moment. So Matthew 18, 15 through 17.

So this is a brother in Christ. Okay. Jesus says, this is the words of Jesus. Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained a brother, but if he will not hear you take with you one or two more that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established.

And if he refuses to hear them, so this is getting to a level where somebody is, they're really sinning and they refuse to fix it. They refuse to correct their behavior and it's starting to cause real issues amongst the brethren.

Jesus says, if you refuse, refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. And then if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. And back then in that society, the Jews, Jesus and his audience would have understood this.

How did they treat heathens and tax collectors? They didn't have them over to their house for dinner. That's one thing that, yeah, it's, it's like Paul is saying reject. You know, they are, they're not one of us.

They need to keep that distance. Now, the purpose of this again is restoration. Galatians six, one brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted.

So when you talk, let's say there's an issue between you and another church member, you need to treat them with respect, treat them with gentleness. The heretic who comes in off the street with his heresies, he doesn't exactly get that same treatment because Paul says admonish them and reject them.

But the brother in Christ, we need, again, the goal is to fix whatever problem there is because we're for them. Amen. So I think there's a difference in how you should approach it. Does somebody have a hand up?

Well, I know you can. No, I, I love this guy. Yeah. I knew him when he was first saved in 1998. And I said, boy, there's a young guy that I'd like to get beside because he was on fire for the Lord. Yeah.

I love this guy. This is why I'm so angry. Yeah. Sometimes you have to spank your children too. Yeah. And I did tell him that. I said, I won't, I won't use his name. Okay. I said, I am worried for your soul.

Yeah. How on earth he can say the things he's saying about my Lord and about the word of God. And he's, and have, and be saved. I am concerned about his soul. And so I told him as lovingly as I could that I was concerned about his soul.

Yeah. And perhaps the tone and volume of my voice didn't sound gentle.

Rejecting Heresy and Avoiding False Teachers

Okay. But here's one thing I've recognized over the years as a pastor, when you refuse to deal with things, it almost never gets better. No. If you just ignore it, sweep it under the rug, let's just hope it kind of resolves itself.

It's almost certainly going to get worse. Second, John nine through 11. Here's why. Here's why it's very serious. Second, John nine through 11. Again, I'm reading from the King James version because I think it is the most clear.

Sometimes the King James is not the most clear, but in this passage, I think it is. The apostle John writes, whoever transgresses and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ.

He hath both the father and the son. So here's the serious thing that we need to at least consider. If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed for he that bid him God speed, or you might say, Hey, God bless you.

It becomes a partaker of his evil deeds. So typically the way people have understood this is you don't allow Jehovah's Witness to come into your house, tell you all about their religion, and you give them a glass of cold water and on his way out.

Hey, God bless you guys. No, because they're going from door to door trying to deceive people. You don't say God bless you and welcome them in and back in Bible times. Again, the false prophets were usually itinerant preachers.

So John is really saying, don't put them up for the night. Don't give them money. Don't aid and assist them in trying to deceive others because you become a partaker of their evil deeds. But here's where it's dangerous when it's not someone who's an evangelical Christian.

Let's say they are part of a church that 20 years ago was a solid church. But over the past five years, they've abandoned their beliefs. They've deconstructed. They still have the name Christian. Now, what do you do?

I get it. It's hard. But if you clearly see that they are teaching things or believing things, but especially teaching things that are not biblical and they're trying to convince other people. The Apostle John says, if you welcome them in and if you bid them God speed, you become a partaker of their evil deeds.

So if you let a heretic into your church, allow him to be there, allow him to take communion. Well, he's a brother. Let's just welcome. You are becoming a partaker of their evil deeds. Now, I get it. That might not be popular, but that's what the Bible says.

So that that's why it's that's why it's serious. One thing I will say for people who go to these churches that no longer really teach the Bible. Here's the thing. I have run across this and I can't really make sense out of it.

But sometimes there are saved people in churches where you just wonder, why are they there? Like they are saved, but they're in a church where like the pastors for all practical purposes, a false teacher, sometimes because of family connections or just they've always gone there.

It's hard for them to leave. So they might leave a year from now, but sometimes you'll you'll experience that. So you need to find out what the person believes. But yeah, if a brother in Christ comes in and denies the gospel, everyone's going to heaven.

Doesn't matter. There is no hell. Gay marriage is great. Let's put kids through transgender surgery. Let's celebrate all this. I think the clear admonition is there to be rejected. If somebody doesn't like that, someone could get upset with me.

I'm sure somebody probably probably will. But just know that I, I care about you enough to tell you the truth. There's one thing that I hope everyone knows about me, whether you have a high opinion of me or a low opinion, I'm not just going to tell you what you want to hear to get you off my back.

Let's just, just try to get people to like me so that my life is easier. I feel like I have to say some of the things that are a little more difficult just so everyone knows so that hopefully we don't have this problem.

Yes.

Church Discipline, Restoration, and the Difference Between Heretics and Brothers

We're out of time. Last comment. I know. Would you prefer that I don't go any further? Because for this reason, some are sick. For this reason, some sleep. And there is a passage in scripture where some people get turned over for the destruction of the flesh.

Contending Earnestly for the Faith

And sometimes God does take people home. Okay.

Jude's Call to Contend for the Faith

One last comment. The book of Jude, Jude, this is how I sort of feel. Like, I want to talk to you about the gospel and good other things, but you know, there comes a time and a place. Jude says, beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you concerning right to exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints for certain men have crept in unnoticed who long ago were marked out for this condemnation.

So Jude is like, I wanted to write you a positive epistle talking about our common faith. But the way things are going, what's happening, I felt it was necessary to urge you. And I, that's what I'm doing to you.

I'm, I'm urging you to earnestly contend for the faith. Morris quarter church is not going to embrace heresy or sweep heresy under the rug as long as I'm the pastor here. So in Jesus name, amen. Okay.

You're dismissed.