Dealing with False Teachers – Part 1

SPEAKER 01 : 0:01

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, April 7th. The strength of your faith depends on the foundation it’s built upon, which is why sound teaching is crucial. Deepen your trust in God by learning how to recognize and deal with false teachers.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:19

Do you feel adequate to identify false teaching when you hear it? What about your children? Do you think they are able to distinguish between what is true and what is erroneous? There are lots of people around who are propagating ideas that are absolutely untrue. It’s deception. And the rise of this kind of group is increasing all around us. And I think oftentimes things sort of creep up on us. But erroneous doctrine is increasing everywhere. If you don’t believe that it is, you might just look around at the construction that’s going on. And recognize that people are building places of worship that you know they absolutely do not believe what we believe as followers of Jesus Christ. And so naturally they’re going to propagate their ideas. As erroneous and as unbiblical as they are, that’s what they’re going to do. Are you equipped to defend yourself? Do you know what you believe and can you look in the Word of God and say, here’s what God says and this is what I believe? Or do you find yourself at the mercy of somebody who wants to argue with you? God’s people need to know what we believe, why we believe it, and to be able to defend it. And oftentimes we take it for granted until all of a sudden we’re confronted with it. Now when Paul wrote to the Colossian church, he wrote to combat a heresy that was going on. And while it had many tenets in the heresy, one of the things that they were having to deal with is the fact that they were being told that Jesus Christ was not deity, He was not God. That He was not the Redeemer of mankind. He was not the ruler of the world, and that just knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Savior was not sufficient. So he wrote the Colossian epistle in order to defend the truth of the gospel. And I want you to turn, if you will, to the second chapter, because this is one of many verses of Scripture in the Bible that deal with the whole issue of dealing with false teachers. And today we must do that. There are many people, for example, who go to church and listen and never question what they hear, or they turn on the television or the radio, never question what they hear. Is this true or is it not true? And so I want us to look at this second chapter of Colossians, and let’s read a few verses here beginning in this second chapter, verse 1. So Paul writes, for I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea. And for all those who have not personally seen my face, he had not been to Colossae, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from a full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself. So he wanted to be sure they understood exactly who Christ was. “…in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” I say this so that no one will delude you, deceive you, lead you astray with persuasive arguments. He says, that’s the reason I’m writing this. For even though I’m absent in body, nevertheless I’m with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. That is, because you’ve trusted Him as your Savior, follow Him now. having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed and overflown with gratitude. He said, live it out. You’ve learned the truth. You know the truth. Now watch this. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He’s the head over all things. Rule and authority, and on he goes. Now, what does that bring us to? Simply this. And that is his whole issue of false teachers, because they’re out there. And when you think about the presence of false teachers, I think about what Paul said in 2 Corinthians, for example, and as he was also challenging them to be aware of what was going on. Think about this for a moment. What would be the primary approach of a false teacher? One thing, defeat by deception. False teachers, listen, false teachers are deceivers. And to be deceived means to be led astray. It means to be led into error. That is, if someone deceives you, they have lied to you. And so, let’s think about it because it’s all around us. And you think about people, for example, who may be your friends, and maybe there’s something going on between you. And if a person deceives you, they intend for you to believe something that is not true or to do something that is not right. And when they tell you it’s all right and it’s okay, and I think about how many people have been hooked on drugs because they’ve been deceived by someone who was selling them or sharing them. And so, people are deceiving people all the time. And deception is a sin. And in Second Corinthians, when Paul was speaking to the Corinthian church, here’s what he said. He said, I wish that you would bear with me, and a little foolishness, but indeed you are bearing with me. For I’m jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you unto one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. He’s talking about his love and devotion to Him. Then here’s what he says. But I’m afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and the purity of devotion to Christ.” He could see that they were being deceived, that they were being led astray by people who deliberately were in the process of deceiving them and leading them astray. And I want you to go back, if you will, and I want to take you through some verses because this was a major problem in the New Testament days. It’s a major problem now. It’s going to be a major problem and even more so. Well, look, if you will, in 2 Peter, and we can go through many verses, but look in 2 Peter for a moment, and I want you to notice here the warning that is given. Look at this passage. He says in the third chapter and the seventeenth verse, Because the same thing was going on. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but rather grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to Him be the glory forever and ever and for all eternity. Listen to this. He says… Be careful that you’re not carried away by the error of unprincipled man. Now, what’s an unprincipled man? An unprincipled man is one who does not live by principle. You say, well, that’s simple enough. Well, what do you mean by that? Well, you live by two things. You either live your life by principle or by preference. If I live by principle, I am guided in every circumstance of life of what I will and will not do. Because the principles of my life are based on the Word of God, they will guide me in every single decision. I’m going to be honest, going to be truthful, what’s best, and so forth. Right attitude. Unprincipled men operate on the basis of what do I want now? What do I need now? What pleases me now? What satisfies me now? And many people operate on the basis of preference. It is not the way for godly people to operate. And so, as all kind of deception that goes on. And so what He’s doing here, He’s warning us throughout the Scripture. Then turn all over to I John, which is almost at the end of your Bible, if you’re not too familiar with that. Look in I John. And look, if you will, in the fourth chapter, because the same situation was going on. Listen to what he says. He’s in verse one of chapter four of I John, now watch. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, don’t believe everything you hear, but test the spirits to see whether they’re from God. because many false prophets have gone out into the world. But this you know, the Spirit of God, that is the Holy Spirit, every spirit that confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh is from God. Now watch this. When you hear a message, some proclamation, and they deny that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, they deny that He is deity, then you are listening to false information. You are listening to something that is deceptive. You are listening to a lie. Someone is in the process of misleading you about your attitude about who Jesus is. And so he says, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist. of which you have heard, that is, it’s coming, and there already is in the world. It always has been. He says, for example, they are from the world, therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. That is the unbeliever. We are from God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. So all through the Scriptures and many other verses, in Galatians, for example, and Romans and all the rest, that Paul warns against false teachers and warns against false doctrine. And so I ask you in the very beginning, do you feel like that you are equipped able to identify in your life when you hear error and when you hear truth? And are you in the process of equipping your children to be able to discern truth from error? They sit in classrooms and listen to teachers from all kinds of backgrounds and all kinds of religions. And you see, oftentimes people are very deceptive about the way they teach, whatever they may be, and whoever they may be representing. Your children and mine and our grandchildren and the children of people all across our nation need to understand this is a day in which discernment of truth, being able to recognize truth from error is very, very important. Because not to do so will lead to some very, very painful circumstances and situations in a person’s life. Now, what about the presence of these false teachers around us? Well, let me just say, first of all, that false teachers build cults. A cult is a group of people that have assembled themselves together for the purpose of observing certain rituals or certain rules and regulations. And usually they are there having been persuaded by the abilities and talents and very skillful way in which some charismatic leader has led them. And so there are people out there, notice this, for example, when you find a cult, you’ll find a leader whose ultimate goal is control. He or she wants to control people for whatever reason it may be. And oftentimes they are a sort of charismatic individuals and Sometimes they are far more successful at it than we can imagine. But the reason people fall for that, listen carefully, there are many people who feel very weak. There are many people who want to be ruled. They want somebody to tell them what to do. It’s easier for them. They don’t have to make decisions. Whether the decision’s right or wrong, somebody else is making it. I remember once when I was in Russia and our guide in Moscow for a few days there, I was talking to her about now that she’s free and so forth, and I said, isn’t this wonderful that you’re free? You know what she said? No. I said, what do you mean? You’re a free woman. What do you mean you don’t feel good about it? Well, now I’m not too sure about my retirement. I said, wait a minute, you’re concerned about a little bit of money versus your freedom? Well, it’s better when somebody else makes those decisions. I’m telling you, there are lots and lots of people who are just set up right emotionally to fall into some cult. If you think this is something for the Old Testament, New Testament, we’re talking about right here today, people trying to persuade people and lead them into error. It is as satanic as it can be. False doctrine, false teachers, there’s a whole bunch of them out there. More, I think, than any of us would like to acknowledge, but it’s there. And what you’ll realize is this. Those people have not been trained in the Word of God. Otherwise, they’d say, you are not the Messiah. You’re an imposter. You’re a liar, buddy. But they believe it. And listen, they’re not just in this country, they’re all over the world. Jesus said people will come and claim to be the Messiah. They’ll claim that they are the Christ. You’d think that anybody in their right mind wouldn’t accept it. That’s the problem. They are not in their right mind. They’ve surrendered their mind to a corrupt mind, to a wicked mind, to an evil mind, to a diabolical mind. False teachers. Well, all false teachers do not necessarily create cults, but let’s look at it this way. There are false teachers in churches. Big churches, small churches, false teachers. Men who do not fully believe the Word of God. They believe portions of it, and they preach portions of it, and they forget the rest. They’re false teachers. And it’s easy for this to happen to a church. For example, I remember on one occasion when a church was looking at me and they came to see me. And it was real interesting what happened because they came one Sunday. I didn’t know anything about it. And I never knew they were there. They came back a year later to the same Sunday. They said, we have something we need to tell you. We were here a year earlier. We liked what we saw and what we heard. But then when you gave the invitation, you got out on your knees to lead somebody to Christ. And we all agreed our church could never accept that. So we just walked away. I said, why’d you come back? They said, well, we’ve been to 51 other churches looking for a pastor. And somehow we don’t have any peace about it. I said, well, I’m really not interested. They said, well, would you help us find one? I said, well, like, well, they said, well, if you’ll go to lunch with us and just help us. I said, okay, I’ll help you. So, I went to lunch and I said, what kind of pastor are you looking for? Well, he’s got to be a Southern Baptist. I said, fine, well, what else? Well, He’s a nice guy and can preach and so forth. I said, well, what about what he believes? Well, he’s a Baptist. I said, well, you know that just because you’re a Baptist or a Methodist or anything else, just because you are a one doesn’t mean you are one that fits your fellowship. And you see, it’s pulpit committees like that or boards and so forth that are looking for people. And do not ask the vital question, what do you believe about so-and-so? What’s your conviction about this? First of all, tell me what you believe about the Word of God. Don’t tell me something about what’s in it. Tell me what you think about the Bible itself. Does it have errors or is it inerrant? Do you believe it’s the infallible Word of God spoken by God through His Spirit to individual men over a period of time and without error? And that there’s one single theme all the way through the Bible, and that’s God’s redemptive plan for sinful mankind from the Garden of Eden all the way to the Revelation. What do you believe about the Bible? What do you believe about salvation? And the first evidence that somebody talks about works, count them out. And what do you believe about the resurrection of Jesus Christ? When it gets into the Word of God and a person begins to deceive, in essence, what they’re doing is confessing their own unbelief in the Word of God. Well, do you believe that everybody’s going to heaven? Do you believe in universal salvation? That means that everybody, one of these days, when Jesus died, He died for all men. Therefore, one of these days, I know that we’re sinful and we’re not perfect, but one of these days, somehow we’re all going to get there. Let me tell you something. There are many people, and some of you who may be listening, there’s many, many people who believe in their mind and heart because the Bible says that God is a God of love, that somehow, in some way, one of these days, everybody who’s ever been born is going to end up in heaven and nothing could be further from the truth. There’s not a single verse in the Bible to prove that. Anyway, this church, after we got through that conversation, They wanted to call me as the pastor. Well, I went, only because God sent me. I stayed 15 months and came to Atlanta. What I want you to see is this. Do you realize how vulnerable people are in church and people on committees and boards? And listen, if a guy’s charismatic and he looks pretty good and he can speak pretty good and he’s eloquent and he gets along with everybody, he’s just going to be wonderful. You’d better ask, first of all, what do you believe? And tell me about your personal relationship to Jesus Christ personally.

SPEAKER 01 : 18:26

Thank you for listening to Dealing with False Teachers. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.