"Let God Be True" Part 1, Jan 21, 2018 AM

Thoughts help us to Speak your words We pray these things for Christ's sake

Amen Well, we're going to be looking at Jeremiah chapter 14 this morning and We have been talking about in chapter 13 about the dangers of pride and The dangers of spiritual presumption and the resulting droughts that occurred not only on the physical level but also in the spiritual sense as the people depended upon themselves

Self -reliant Cut themselves off from God and received no more grace

No more good from God the physical drought They found themselves in was an expression truly of the spiritual drought

They were in because of their pride because of their presumption with these dangers fresh in our minds from Chapter 14 and the end of chapter 13.

We need to look again at this passage in verse 13

It says and if you will please stand with me I'm going to be reading from verses 13 through the end of the chapter verses 13 through 22

And this is the word of the Lord But off Lord God I said look the prophets are telling them

You will not see the sword nor will you have famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place

Then the Lord said to me the prophets who are prophesying falsehood in my name I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them.

They are prophesying to you a false vision divination

Futility and the deception of their own minds Therefore thus says the

Lord concerning the prophets who are prophesying in my name Although it was not I who sent them yet They keep saying there will be no sword or famine in this land

By sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end the people also to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword and There will be no one to bury them neither them nor their wives nor their sons nor their daughters for I will pour out

Their own wickedness on them. You will say this word to them But my eyes flow down with tears night and day and let them not cease

For the virgin daughter of my people has been crushed with a mighty blow with a sorely infected wound

If I go out to the country behold those slain with the sword or if I enter the city behold

Diseases of famine for both prophet and priest have gone roving about in the land that they do not know

Have you completely rejected Judah or have you loathed a Zion?

Why have you stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We waited for peace, but nothing good came and for a time of healing but behold terror

We know our wickedness. Oh Lord the iniquity of our fathers for we have sinned against you

Do not despise us for your own names sake do not disgrace the throne of your glory

Remember and do not annul your covenant with us Are there any among the idols of the nations who keep you give rain or can the heavens grant showers?

Is it not you Oh Lord our God? Therefore we hope in you for you are the one who was done all these things

Maybe see Rather interesting.

My wife has had a couple of encounters with Mormons lately And I sense something of a

Mormon reboot in progress There are many

YouTube channels that you know strive to show good family good good family economics good households sensibilities and there's a whole network of Mormons putting these

YouTube videos out and And there's some general wisdom that apply to whoever you are no matter what you believe

But of course they begin to espouse their Mormon beliefs Additionally a couple of Mormon missionaries came up to speak with my wife while she was at the park with the children and The common denominator between two of these encounters was their insistence that there be no

Argument that there be no Judgment that there'd be nothing said against one another throughout the entirety of the conversation so that nobody would call each other

False that no one would say anything against each other. I Was something like we're not going to judge you and we're not going to be critical of you meaning

You may not judge us or be critical of us Right that it would be Best if we don't say anything negative about one another while we're having this conversation

I think the promises in the the YouTube video ran along the lines of when you come visit a

Mormon Worship place that you're not going to have any judgmental

Attitudes would be no criticism of you However, you want to make progress in in in towards.

God is totally up to you Everyone's kind of going their own speed or there's so there's no criticism and there's no judgment whatsoever and Then about you know, two minutes later.

They were saying Just to be clear. We don't practice polygamy and those who do are not allowed in the church.

Oh I thought you said it was a judgment -free zone It's not very consistent, but the whole point of it is we're going to believe what we believe

And we're not going to say anything negative about you. So you can't say anything negative about us.

I Got to thinking about that a little bit and I think a lot of Christians are that same place.

I Think a lot of Christians have drunk the Kool -Aid along with the rest of the pop culture and it decided to be a non judgment zone and I'm not saying

I'm not saying we have a free license to be critical and rude and Unloving I'm saying that Jesus says judge with a righteous judgment and I'm saying that if something is false, it's false if something is wrong is wrong and we should issue any kind of approach to life that Says We're not going to be controversial at all costs the greatest heresy of our day is saying that something is heresy

That's what the world in which we live. I Think as we read the scriptures, however

We are constantly coming up against patriarchs and prophets and apostles and Jesus Christ himself who say things like You are liars and Are from the father of lies

This woe to you Prophets like Jeremiah who say what you are saying is not the truth

And I wonder how ready we are to follow suit

When I when I say the phrase let God be true, you know, it comes next right? Romans chapter 3 let

God be true and every man a liar Meaning truth is with God not with every man truth is with God and not the majority

Let God be true Even if every man is a liar this morning as I want to talk about Jeremiah chapter 14 verses 13 through 22 as I studied this passage

I Sum it all up by saying this that we must meet the forces of deception as soldiers of confession we must meet the forces of deception as soldiers of confession meaning

We say what God says that we are in agreement with him about who we are who he is and what is going on in?

this world That we're in agreement with God. And as I looked at that as I looked at the passage

I Became concerned that perhaps we would be moving past a very important point and it's this

That we do not Hate false teaching We might have a slight indigestion

There may be a mild allergy But we are by no means in the state of mind in the condition of our heart to do war against false teaching

To set ourselves in opposition to false teaching and to hold fast to Christ and for the right reasons and in the right way

Oppose false teaching. I don't know if we're there. I think we drink the Kool -Aid too much I think that we're part of this pop culture where we are judgment -free

I'm not gonna say anything bad or negative I'm always going to equivocate and and soften and condition everything

I say And I think we got to be careful about that. I think we ought to be loving I think we ought to be kind.

I think we ought to be patient I think we should have all the virtues of Christ in our lives active

But also is telling the truth. I Teaching verses 13 and 14

I want to look at the character of false teaching if we can get to know the character of false teaching if we see it for what it really is

I trust that the Spirit will work his will in our hearts and will vitalize our

Opposition to false teaching for the right reasons in the right way verses 13 and 14

Jeremiah says but Lord God Oh Lord God. I said look at the prophets

Look, the prophets are telling them you will not see the sword nor will you have famine

But I will give you lasting peace in this place In the Lord said to me the prophets are prophesying falsehood in my name

I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them

They are prophesying to you a false vision divination Futility and the deception of their own minds

Let's come at it this way parents. You know that when your children lie to you They put themselves in danger

They put themselves out of the reach of your help out of the sphere of the safety

That you're trying to provide for them as soon as they lie to you They hide parts of their lives from you and they put themselves and they expose themselves to danger

And therefore you hate lying you hate lying in your children because of the danger It puts them in and you know that more than they do

Doesn't it make sense that God would also hate false teaching. He would hate lies being told to his people

He would hate when his when when people would begin to lie and say things that are untrue in his name

God hates deception. He says so many many times in his word He vigorously warns his children about false teaching and I wonder if we amen our

Heavenly Father Is that so is that truth of the text a true? sentiment of our own heart

That we are opposed to false teaching Sometimes however,

I think for parents we want to believe the lies of our children We want to believe that they are indeed that thoughtful that responsible

That indeed it was a true mistake and it was not something devious at all And we truly want to believe the lies of our children because that makes us feel better My child is just a little unfortunate in the incidence of his or her life

Surely not devious in any way Sure, they're not systematically rebellious anyway

No No I can't believe that and we would rather believe the lies that children sometimes tell us than believe the truth and very often very often

False teaching is in that same category We would rather believe this because it makes us feel better than the truth and very often our hearts are an ally

To false teaching because we like what it how it sounds instead of what the truth is I don't want us to be nonchalant toward heresy

Toward cults towards false religions to wrong teaching and just plain bad doctrine We need to understand this character

Notice, first of all, it denies God's will it denies God's will why should you be against false teaching because it denies

God's will verse 12 Jeremiah 14 when they fast I am

NOT going to listen to their cry when they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings I'm not going to accept them why we've already covered that because they were also offering burnt offerings and grain offerings to To the bales and to the molex and to the and to the

Queen of Heaven They were worshiping many many gods whichever God will give us get us off the hook We'll be good to go and God says

I'm not gonna accept these offerings Rather look at the verse in the verse 12 rather. I am going to make an end of them by the sword famine and pestilence

Not the first time God said so God made it very clear Famine sword and pestilence is a threefold cord that expresses all the curses from Deuteronomy 28 verses 15 through 68

All those curses for Israel should they disobey God's law can be summed up by famine pestilence in the sword

It was clearly God's will he had said it he had said in detail He had said it again and again and the false prophets the false teachers are coming out and saying no this isn't so Why should you be opposed to false teaching because it denies

God's will False teaching takes what is clear in God's Word and makes it cloudy

Takes the clearly expressed will of God and makes it opaque

Hard to see hard to understand make something clear and simple very complicated

Why why would false teachers do that one motive not the only motive but one motive is materialism

Materialism Micah had the same problem in his day in Micah 3 5 he says thus says the

Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people Astray when they have something to bite with their teeth they cry peace shalom

But against him who puts nothing in their mouths they declare holy war

It is the character of false prophets to to false preachers and false teachers

To say peace and shalom to those who will buy their books and pay for their conferences

But for those who say no you are lying. I will not support you against such people they declare

Holy war as in Micah's day, so it is today He clarifies in verse 11 of Micah 3 her leaders pronounced judgment for a bribe her priests instruct for a

Price and her prophets divine for money yet They lean on the Lord saying is not the

Lord in our midst calamity will not come upon us Do you hear the motive one motive for false teaching one motive for denying the clear revelation of God's will is

Materialism the second reason why we should hate false teaching and be against it while we should oppose it is

It dissimulates God's Word It simulates God's Word, but it is not

God's Word. It is against God's Word Therefore it dissimulates God's Word they speak for God They speak for God notice at the end of verse 13 where the prophets say and Jeremiah is quoting them

I will give you lasting peace in this place. That's what the prophets are saying God says

The false prophets are coming to the people and saying God says I will give you lasting peace in this place

But notice the Lord said to Jeremiah these prophets are prophesying falsehood in my name

I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them. They are prophesying to you a false

Vision he says it again in verse 15. I haven't sent them These are not my words we should be against false teaching because false teaching dissimulates

God's Word and False teachers will say this is what God says and he never actually said it

This can be exposed in a couple of different ways Sometimes false teachers speak the echoes of their own mind as the

Word of God I had a thought it popped into my head. It bounced around for a while. I figure it's

God. Here's what God says And it wasn't really God at all

Sometimes they as in Paul's terminology they wrangle words in the scripture they cut and paste they cherry -pick the

Bible using a conglomeration of passages out of their context to deceive and Speak a message of man as if it were the

Word of God Why should we be against false teachers? Not only do they deny

God's will which is clear, but they also dissimulate God's Word why why would false teachers do such a thing?

What are they what are they really about? Well, let's back up a little bit and let's go over to Ezekiel and this is something that Came about in my scripture reading the last week as I was reading through the

Bible I came across this passage as I was studying for this passage and lo and behold the word agrees

Ezekiel chapter 13 and beginning in verse 1 Then the word of the

Lord came to me saying son of man prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy and say to those who prophesy from their own

Inspiration you hear that Those who prophesy from their own Inspiration is that possible that even today there are false teachers who are teaching and preaching from their own personal inspiration

Yes Listen to the word of the Lord. There's the cure.

There's the cure Listen to the word of the Lord thus says the Lord God woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own

Spirit and have seen nothing meaning the seers are blind

Oh Israel your prophets have been like foxes among ruins You have not gone up to the beach

Into the breeches nor did you build the wall around the house of Israel to stand on the battle on the day of the Lord? They see falsehood and lying divination who are saying the

Lord declares when the Lord has not Sent them if they hope for the fulfillment of their word

Did you not see a false vision and speak a lying divination when you said the Lord declares But it is not

I who have spoken Therefore thus says the Lord God because you have spoken falsehood and seen a lie

Therefore behold I am against you declares the Lord God. Let me ask you. Are you against false teachers?

The Lord is God is are are we? Are we against false teachers?

Oh, we can take him or leave him It's not that bad of a deal, you know, maybe they're in error, but you know, it's it's not doing anybody any real harm

Lord says I'm against them their motive I believe for why they do that is easily seen not only in terms of materialism, but also in terms of man -pleasing

It's materialism and it's man -pleasing in Jeremiah chapter 5 in verse 30 says appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land

The prophets prophesied falsely and the priests ruled by their own authority and my people love to have it.

So The false teachers are simply doing what pleases the people So two motives that we can see not the only two motives but two motives for false teaching

Materialism and man -pleasing and false teaching denies God's will and it dissimulates

God's Word I want us to think about that for a little bit

This should not be surprising to us. It should not be a new concept for us But Paul says the time will come

In the last days the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine But wanting to have their ears tickled they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires

They will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with her own desires

Do you remember King Ahab? When you think of King Ahab, do you think holy man or unholy man?

Ahab and Jezebel Do you know that Ahab had on his payroll 400

Prophets of the Lord. What a holy man. He had 400 prophets of the

Lord and When he told them to prophesy, you know what they would tell the king

Who was in charge and who paid their paid their paycheck? They told him what he wanted to hear 400 prophets the king of Judah came up to the king of Israel and said

Maybe we should go into battle together maybe we should join forces and go take care of this great threat against both our nations and The the king of Judah said but first I want to ask of the

Lord to see if this is okay And they have said sure I've got 400 prophets who will tell you something from the Lord and of course all 400 prophets said go up you will be victorious and The king of Judah smelled a rat.

He said don't you have anybody who's a real prophet around here? Here comes

Micaiah Micaiah comes on the scene and Micaiah says don't go up death awaits

Do you know Micaiah was right even though he was one man?

versus 400 Do you realize that? If you put your

Bible on a shelf with 400 heretical works 400

Awful books that get the scriptures wrong and get Christ wrong Do you realize the 400 books are wrong and the

Bible is still true? You can surround yourself with 400 different authors and speakers who all seem to be saying the same thing and guess what they're all wrong if they disagree with the

Scriptures if they deny God's will if they dissimulate God's Word Not surround ourselves with falsehood like Ahab false teaching also defiles

God's worship God has not sent them God has not sent them

God has not sent these false teachers. Well, who did? Who did send them from where did they get their commission?

What motive do they have we've seen their motives But they're giving false visions divinations

Something called futility futility and then deceptions of their own heart.

Well, God has not sent them. So who has Where do false visions come from?

Ever thought about that? Where do false visions come from? I Woke up one night and Jesus was standing at the foot of my bed.

He was glowing and He told me to do this and do that and now I'm a billionaire Where do false teachings come from false visions come from?

From the father of lies You know 2nd

Corinthians 11 13 through 15 tells us that even Lucifer shows up as an angel of light and his ministers

Also look to be ministers of righteousness False visions didn't come from God Didn't come from God false visions are like Non -native invasive species ever heard of silver carp

It's flooding the Mississippi River Basin These things that jump out of the water so high that they hit people on on boats

Get tangled up in the in the engines of the of the shipping They weren't native to here, but here they are and they're invasive and they're taking over false visions are like that.

They're invasive Divinations divination involves the use of the occult the modeling of pagan spirituality

How many times in the last 50 years have I read a book published in the last 50 years?

Have I seen something attributed to some pagan Methodist spirituality? Well, what you have to do is you have to empty your mind?

Empty your mind and when there's nothing there then God will speak. That's not biblical

That's Eastern pantheistic monism. It's Buddhism. It's Hinduism Scripture says fill your mind fill your mind with the scriptures meditate on the word day and night

That you know what God desires and who God is who Christ is Divinations false visions and this thing called and the

King James is a better job of this a thing of not a thing of not Because in the

Hebrew, it's a little it's God with the diminutive ending meaning. It's little gods little nothings little nothings

Meaning that they're consulting little nothings to get their information The same thing is found in Zechariah 10 2 through 3 so it's for the tariff theme

Which is the same idea of little gods the tariff him speak iniquity and the diviners see lying visions and tell false

Dreams they comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep

They are afflicted because there is no shepherd What does

God say my anger is kindled against the shepherds and I will punish the male goats God is against those who lead people astray

By defiling the worship of God and bringing to bear in the so -called preaching of the

Word of God and teaching of the Word of God things like false visions which come from the devil and Divinations which come from paganism and little gods note this behind all false teaching lies some form of idolatry

Making up a god of our own imaginations Are we against false teaching

It denies God's will it dissimulates God's Word it defiles God's worship and it divorces

God's wisdom Think of this when someone denies God's will replacing the message of God's Word with their own

Reaping insights from devils and spouting the deceptions of your own mind What does that person done but deceive themselves and divorce themselves from God's wisdom?

Proverbs 18 1 through 2 says he who separates himself seeks his own desire.

He quarrels against all sound Wisdom a fool does not delight in understanding but only in revealing his own mind

Just in verses 13 and 14 We discover the character of false teaching

What it is what is and Think about it just a little bit more. What is this false teaching?

accomplishing What is it doing is doing the exact same thing Satan did in the Garden of Eden? When you deny

God's authority and deny God's truth and deny God's holiness and deny God's wisdom What are you doing, but choking off all the goodness of God that's supposed to be in your life

We're made in the image of God so that so mediating his goodness We would manifest his glory but false teaching chokes off the goodness of God no more of his authority

No more of his truth. No more of his holiness. No more of his wisdom You should be against false teaching because it dehumanizes us

We should be against it because it cuts us off from God I want us to be

Against false teaching to hate false teaching in the right way for the right reasons. That's hard to control

That's hard to aim rightly Paul says in 1st

Thessalonians 1 He talks about being among the people there in a gentle way

Like a nursing mother and he didn't he didn't come as a with anything but as a pretext for greed

He didn't come to win men's praise He didn't come with a with a false word, but he came with the gospel and he was gentle among them and Leading them out of idolatry to Christ So we know we got to be gentle about this, but we also have to be firm about that In fact

If we're going to oppose false teaching we should do so for the right reasons and in the right way And we've already talked about the reasons a little bit

But I just want to clarify the right reasons is because our renewal in Christ depends on true teaching

True teaching is there anybody who gets sanctified made more holy renewed in Christ by believing and following lies?

Anyone Doesn't work that way does it? We should be against false teaching because it does not renew us unto

Christ. In fact, it leads us astray We should be against false teaching because we desire the health of one another in Christ We want one another to be truly renewed in Christ.

So we should be against false teaching for that reason Also, we should be against false teaching for the reason that it cuts people off from Christ.

I Am NOT happy and okay with the Jehovah's Witnesses Having more missionaries in Mongolia than Christians To cite one particular example, that's not a good thing

We're not aiming at the same objective We don't have the same message.

That's not good. That's bad. Here's what

Jesus says To the teachers of His day the teachers who took up even the

Old Testament Scriptures and knew them frontwards and backwards had much of it memorized

Those who would teach and encourage people to go to the temple These kinds of folks.

This is what he says to them because they had Missed the point and we're teaching a twisted form of Judaism He says to them woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites

Because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people You shut off the kingdom of heaven from people for you do not enter in yourselves

Nor do you allow those who are entering to go in? Do you hear Jesus? He's against false teaching because it cuts people off from the kingdom of God And I know we live in a day and an age where really it is all about Not saying anything critical about one another and obviously we don't want to become a hyper critical angry

Unkind people always looking for fault. That is not at all what we should be But we should model

Christ and we should have the mind of God on this matter false teaching Does matter it does harm?

We're just looking at the character of false teaching this morning, but I want our motivation to be right I want our focus to be right because next week when we look at the rest of the passage

We're going to learn more about the consequences of false teaching And we're going to talk about the proper response to it according to the scriptures

Let's pray together father. I come before you this morning and I confess that There is so much to say on this matter.

But what I pray that you would help us to have the right Mindset that we would look at the gospel of Jesus Christ And we would see him

Whom you have given to us for our salvation That we would recognize

That false teaching leads us and others away from Christ always distracting from the superiority and the sufficiency of Christ and that this cannot

This cannot be agreed with this cannot be ignored Lord, I pray that you would give us a

True spirit led Sensitivity to false teaching that we would be bold enough and loving enough and Gracious enough to speak the truth and not allow these opportunities these conversations these

Comments along the way to go past but that we would take full advantage What I pray that she would help us to love